Transformers belongs to Hasbro/ Takara

The Dark Horizon

Chapter 13: Shared Pain Is Doubled

I glared up darkly at the tall mech as he leaned against the solid bars lazily, his grin arrogant as ever. I'd hoped I wouldn't have to see him again this soon but he'd obviously not intended to leave me alone for long. It was not without some satisfaction that I noticed some deep scratches on his left lower arm; even though I knew it was anything but a serious injury, considering he hadn't even bothered to consult Ratchet before he paid me a visit.

"... still, it seems you have somewhat calmed. It's exhausting to always be the hunted one, don't you think my dear?" he said in a mocking, gentle tone while lacing his fingers in front of the bars. I shifted in my armchair uncomfortably and pulled my drawn up legs closer to my chest. Not that I wanted him anywhere nearby but I was actually grateful for the barrier the bars posed, no matter how they would absolutely not be able to stop the Prime if he really wanted to get to me.

"Whatever." I murmured indifferently. What did that big oaf even want? Optimus had just sauntered in maybe ten minutes ago only to start this pointless conversation, well, more like a monologue really, designedly only to annoy me.

I hadn't dared snap at him though since I didn't want to ruin his apparently so good mood; I knew he'd make me suffer again if I did. Still, the silent rage kept building up inside me by the second as he blabbered on about what seemed to be one of his favorite subjects: how unreasonable I was always being and how everything would be so much easier if I would just comply. I let him talk his mouth fuzzy, intending to follow my initial plan of simply ignoring him. What he said next however sent cold shivers down my spine.

"Hm, you're such an impolite youngling but we'll change that. Soon, my dear Alpha, very soon you'll be mine. I'm honestly looking forward to it." That did it.

"Fuck off!" His grin disappeared. I slapped my hand down on my mouth- oh why couldn't I ever shut up! As soon as he moved to open my cell door, I jumped up and shoved the armchair to the cabinet's side so I could hide atop it. Of course it would be to no avail in the end but, well. The Prime slammed the door shut behind himself and marched over to me, optics glowing nearly white and mouth drawn into a thin, tense line.

"Fuck off, huh?" He growled as he plucked me from the cabinet with little to no effort and pinned me down on my bed. "You should know better than to insult your leader, at least by now." He was bent over me, restricting me to the bed's surface with his massive chest, breathing down my neck quite literally. I tried to punch him in the face but my fists were caught midair and secured in his iron grip. I probably wouldn't even have dented his chin anyways.

With a sizable amount of disdain, I noticed how for the first time I could in fact smell him- with his body so close to mine, my olfactory sensors easily picked up the scent of a strong, healthy, male Cybertronian. Certainly my senses were slowly being altered, maturing to the fine calibrations of a grown bot. I didn't like that realization one bit.

"You're not my leader." Instead of replying straight away, he first pressed a brutal kiss to my firmly closed lips and I keened into his mouth while trying to squirm away from beneath him, but he wouldn't have any of that. Words couldn't describe how glad I was when our lips disconnected again.

"Oh, am I not? I bet your programming tells otherwise..." I screamed and fought with renewed vigor when a large hand was pressed between my legs forcefully.

"No! Please- don't!" His palm rubbed up against my groin firmly while he nipped on the cables of my neck; it felt just plain horrible and my inability to move just added to my panic, no, mortal fear. I just couldn't stop him! I wailed and screeched in distress, loud enough to be heard all the way down the hallway for certain but I knew no one would come to help me; no one would dare attack the Prime.

"Don't worry. This will only be a small taste of what is to come in a few weeks." And just in that moment when he attempted prying away the sensitive plates covering my port, the door opened and Prowl stumbled in.

"Sir!" The black and silver mech seemed uncharacteristically hectic, vents working furiously. Prime sighed in an annoyed manner.

"What! Can't you see I'm busy!" the higher ranked mech barked angrily at the intruder.

"Sir, we've got an incoming communication from the Decepticons. We need you in the command center right now!"

"Is it really that important?"

"Sir... it's Megatron himself. He's requesting to speak to you personally." Blue optics narrowed in a dark glare as that name was mentioned before Prime released me to meet his enemy's request.

I scrambled away from the offending bot quickly, pressed my back against the wall behind the bed, shivering. The red and blue Autobot looked back at me briefly, leaving together with his SIC.

My shoulders sagged after they left and I buried my face in my hands, sobbing. I simply ignored it when the guard, who had been waiting outside, slipped back into the room and took a seat in the corner again.

XXXXXXXXXX

My left side was turned away from Ironhide (he had returned to guard me several hours ago) so he couldn't see that my wrist cable was plugged into the datapad in my lap. As soon as I had established the physical connection, a precise tutorial had appeared on the screen on how to transfer data; it appeared Ratchet knew I wasn't actually fluent with all that robo- brain stuff yet. Alright. So I was supposed to relax and try not to think about anything for a moment because my thoughts were most likely preventing me from accessing my processor in the required way... damn it all!

How was I supposed to silence my thoughts with all the turmoil going on in my head? I didn't have time, nor was I in the mood for that crap! But I had to at least try. I took a deep breath (figuratively) and tried to concentrate, but... my brain felt just as always, there didn't seem to be a computer of any kind! I frowned in anger when I didn't accomplish anything after about an hour of trying and only my wish to not draw unnecessary attention kept me from growling.

But there... the datapad seemed to react to my agitation- the screen blurred the moment my fury hit its peak. I tried to do it again but the sudden ray of hope didn't really let me get angry like before.

Wait... don't think of anything at all for a moment... my optics unfocused and after a while I imagined sinking deep into my consciousness, so deep I blanked out everything around me and then it felt like I was somehow... outside of my own mind. That was when I realized it didn't work like handling an ordinary computer, the structure was not all that different but the access... was deep down in my subconscious. The cybertronian words for "protocols initiated" came to my mind and I was back in my cell again; the datapad's screen had changed.

A small glyph was blinking at the top. I had managed the first step. Now to write... I knew I had to think of the words actively (whatever that was supposed to mean) to make them appear on the screen, although I thought it would have been rather unwise to write anything important straight away in case that damned thing didn't work and the message was intercepted...

Does this work *send* I twitched. I hadn't even meant to do this right now...

Yes it does Ratchet replied immediately. This was... oh.

Ratchet... *send* Fuck, I was thinking of sending the messages way too quickly...

Yes? I concentrated. First write, then send. Okay.

I need to get away from here. I took care not to think about sending before I had finished composing the sentence but it was a tad difficult so the words didn't come quickly.

I know. I'm planning something.

Please hurry... I'm really scared of Prime... but you must not let them trace it back to you, I need to do this on my own.

What do you mean, on your own?

If they know you're involved, they'll hurt you again. I wrote slowly as my spark got just a tad heavier. I was practically hindering Ratchet in helping me for his own sake- I must have been insane.

Don't worry about me; they need both of us, they will not hurt me too badly even if they find out. There was a pause before he wrote again. Besides, the plan should work out.

Just like the last one? I asked, but regretted it almost instantly. It hadn't been Ratchet's fault I had been captured again. Sorry.

Don't apologize. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I frowned.

Why? he didn't answer to that.

You should check the datapad regularly, I'll send you a message on what to do soon. I looked up. The door had opened, it was probably the end of Ironhide's shift. The sight of Bumblebee entering however made me tense up.

I had reasons to believe there was something odd about how he interacted with everyone else, considering the strange occurrences I had witnessed the past days. I was in fact starting to believe he hadn't always been this quiet and hostile, maybe he had indeed been a bubbly and friendly young mech at some point... from the corner of my optic, I watched Ironhide get up, walk up to the still open door and stand in front of the much younger mech.

Bumblebee tilted his head a little and looked down, muttering a quiet request for Ironhide to clear the path. I was kind of shocked when black hands grasped a yellow aft and the scout was pulled against the weapons specialist none too gently.

"In my quarters. When your shift ends." The intimidating black mech growled into his victim's audio huskily, Bumblebee nodded stiffly.

"Y- yes, sir." The yellow bot was shivering like mad after he had been released and Ironhide was gone, the door slammed shut. I stared at the young mech. Had that really just happened? I yelped in shock as Bumblebee's fist suddenly connected to the door with a loud bang before he stomped over to the chair to flop down there. He refused to even look into my general direction. I shifted uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do.

On the one hand, I knew this bot had more often than not played a vital role in capturing me again and again, that Nwym probably had died by his hands, but on the other hand... he seemed to be one of the Autobot society's victims, something we had in common. I somehow felt sorry for him and I wanted to comfort him, maybe it were my motherly instincts kicking in (if Cybertronians had something akin to that), maybe it was because he looked smaller and younger than most mechs here, but I didn't have a clue on how to approach him...

I didn't even know how I would have liked to be approached in that situation, though I had the ill feeling that I would soon find out...

So for a long time, we both just sat there mutely with me watching the yellow bot who wouldn't regard me with so much as a short glance, his arms crossed over his chest. Well, maybe I had jumped to conclusions- but no, it couldn't be.

After all, if I added up everything leading to that assumption they were doing what I thought they were to Bumblebee and that were quite a bunch of incidents by now... oh my god. Still, maybe if I acted cleverly now, I'd win him over as an ally and that would certainly not be so bad...

"Hey, um, Bumblebee?"

"What!" He snapped aggressively. I thought it was a good idea to just remain calm nevertheless; I didn't want to fight him after all.

"I... uh... I've seen how everyone has been treating you lately and... um... I don't think it's right." The centers if his optics narrowed as he turned to stare at me.

"Just shut up. It's none of your business." I shifted into a more upright position in my seat, kneading my knuckles awkwardly.

"I just... thought I could-"

"SHUT UP OKAY!?" He looked away again, mouth quivering bitterly. I sighed. This was going to be one hard piece of work, if I managed to somehow break through to him at all that was. Luckily, he was on guard duty frequently during the next days (though it didn't look like he was actually fond of that) so I had enough opportunities to watch him further.

Still, he just wouldn't talk to me. I decided to keep an optic on him, trying to talk to him every now and then, which used to end with him either shouting at me or ignoring me altogether.

Sometimes, when I would be taken to the rec room by one of the other guards, I would see him scurry out of the room as soon as he spotted me. Then there was this mech, I think he was called Tokeion, who, after watching me for quite a while, kept asking quite audibly where "the bee" was until someone else told him Bumblebee would be out on patrol for the next five hours which resulted in Tokeion displaying his disapproval of this information by kicking the table he was seated at and leaving the room, muttering cybertronian curses. Others kept shooting him ambiguous glances.

Bumblebee himself seemed somewhat depressed, or rather caught in an increasing spiral of boiling distress. It was one evening (no, I didn't really know what time of day it really was) when he was staring at the door mutely with his back turned to me after he had been molested by Ironhide once again that I finally succeeded in making him talk to me.

"Bumblebee?" I spoke to him softly, putting my datapad aside and standing up soundlessly. His fists at his sides tightened hard enough to look painful. "I... I'm sorry. Really. I know what it must be like for you and-"

"You know nothing at all. Nothing." He said quietly, bitterly, still not moving from his spot in front of the door. I frowned while stepping closer to him.

"Bumblebee... I know what they're doing to you. You should know what I'll probably have to endure sooner rather than-"

"SHUT UP!" He suddenly yelled, whirling around and smashing his fists into the metal bars between us. I jumped at his violent reaction, but didn't retreat. "It's your fault!" He hissed at me from behind the bars. "It's your fault it's gotten worse. That they're getting ideas!"

"... ideas?" After a long and awkward pause, a raspy, sarcastic laugh escaped his vocalizer as he looked me up and down rudely.

"Primus, you really are a sparkling. Can't you imagine what a bunch of mechs who haven't seen a living femme up close for centuries might think of when they see you?" I looked up at him silently, catching a little spark of... something flickering across his baby blue optics. "They see you walking along the corridors, wriggling that little aft of yours- who do you think they're taking it out on?! What do you think!?"

"But why? Why you? There are so many other bots here..." Bumblebee looked like he was going to explode for a moment, but then his shoulders sagged and he moved to stand with his back against the wall, the one opposite to the chair, looking incredibly tired all of a sudden.

"I don't want to talk about it, fe- Alpha. Just leave me alone..." I moved closer to him carefully.

"Bumblebee... I can see how tormented you are. I admit I... don't know you very well but I know that no matter how bad it gets, it's even worse if you don't have anyone to talk to." I paused. "I'm here. I'm listening, Bumblebee." He shook his head slowly. I bet he really didn't have anyone who would listen and understand...

"Come on... tell me. I won't judge you, I promise. Please tell me why." He hesitated and I already thought the conversation had ended with his silence when he spoke up weakly.

"...because I've got a modification... one which no one else here has. You see... mechs cannot interface with each other like a mech and a femme can. They're not built for it." He whispered quietly. His now dim optics closed, he lowered his head.

"Then why did you get this... modification... in the first place?"

"There was... a mech... I loved him. And I thought he loved me. It was before all the femmes disappeared and it wasn't that uncommon for a mech to get the mods and... he said he'd love me even more if we could... could..." He buried his face in his hands which were rough from battle and hard work as his frame started shivering with his sobs. He looked absolutely miserable.

"... and then he ditched you." I finished quietly, he nodded and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, a bright yellow, feeble heap. I sat down at the other side of the bars. It was no surprise how he acted around everyone then and although we had never been on good terms in the past, I now felt great sympathy for the young mech. To be honest, I even felt bad for treating him like I had, even if I had done it just to save myself from further harm. "Can't it be reversed? Couldn't Ratchet do something about it?"

"He's not allowed to. Prime said… he said it was good for the troops' morale. That I was to keep it. He said that sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good."

"That's so typical for that motherfucker." Bumblebee looked up at me, alarmed.

"You shouldn't talk about him like that. I- if anyone hears it..."

"You're afraid of him." I stated, half surprised. Bumblebee might have acted haunted and angry around the others, but the outright fear lacing his voice when he spoke of his leader now seemed like an increase to that.

"You're not?" I fell silent at that. Yes, I did fear the Prime, but that didn't mean I would stop fighting him. The yellow mech beside me sighed as he straightened his legs on the floor in front of him. "Nearly everyone is. His power is greater than you can imagine. But he's..." The next part was only whispered and I almost had to press my head against the bars to hear it at all. "...he's a tyrant."

"Why didn't you join the Decepticons, then?"

"Are you insane?" He hissed. I twitched visibly at his sudden change of volume. "The Decepticons are even worse! They're absolutely mad, all of them! For them, it's not enough just to kill you, nooo, they'll torture you, rip you apart circuit for circuit just to hear you scream in agony! They open up their victim's fuel lines and drink their energon for pleasure! They're disgusting, uncivilized beasts!"

To me, his description of the Decepticons sounded a lot like the Autobots, but I didn't make any witty remarks for I didn't want to upset the scout. I was pretty sure he was exaggerating anyway, I couldn't imagine the Decepticons being so much worse than the Autobots after all.

We both fell silent after his little rant about the opposite faction. I was pretty sure he was one of the youngest bots on earth (well, he was much older than me but still) and yet whenever he talked I could hear such coldness in his voice, such resignation... he must have endured terrible, terrible things in his life.

He leaned back against the wall nervelessly like he had just returned from a day of real hard work. After a short internal battle I thought it was save enough to reach between the bars (thankfully there weren't any energy barriers like in the brig) and put my hand on his bigger one, which was now resting on his thigh. To my relief, he didn't bat me away, turning his hand over instead to grasp mine lightly.

"Can you help me, Bumblebee?" I asked softly. "Can you get me out of here?" Our optics met and I knew his answer before he even uttered it.

"No. No one can help you."

XXXXXXXXXX

I felt quite nervous today, but I tried not to show it. Last night, I had received a long and detailed description of Ratchet's plan via my modified datapad. Very soon, I would be able to make another escape attempt, one that would hopefully be successful. I walked behind B.R. like so often, we were on our way to the rec room, thankfully without paying a visit to the usually so crowded wash racks first.

In just a few minutes, when we would be sitting at a table at our destination, there was going to be an outage. In the resulting brief confusion I would free myself by ripping off the chain on my wrist shackles (which Ratchet had hopefully manipulated so it would break as easily as he'd told me). Then, I would run out of the room, turn left twice, then right once and follow the corridor until I reached the storage room C-33.

There, I would find a large crate beneath a big pipe which was part of the ventilation system. I would use the crate to climb up to and through the pipe's opening. If I followed it, I would sooner or later reach the main hangar, where a steel cable would be located for me to use to get down to the floor.

There would be smaller ships parked alongside the mothership (Ratchet had been thoughtful enough to send me a picture of the particular ship in question), which were frequently used for long- range patrols. One of them was called "Astoria". I would open a certain flap at its right side and hide in the small space between the inbuilt rocket launchers and the fuel tank, where a parachute would be hidden, plus a bag of 'things that would come in handy' (whatever that was supposed to mean). The Astoria was scheduled to go on patrol shortly after the appointed outage and I would just take the parachute and jump once it gained an acceptable distance to the base. Sounded crazy and I was already feeling my tanks churn sluggishly at the prospect of jumping out of a flying aircraft, but it could work. Maybe.

Time crept by incredibly slowly, but the diminishing distance between us and the rec room granted me confidence. A passing by mech wolf whistled when he saw me, but other than that I wasn't being molested for once. Not so much. I could practically hear my own spark beating despite the rec room being occupied by a bunch of loudly talking mechs, the usual reactions to my presence wouldn't be missed, of course.

I felt strangely at ease all of a sudden. The lights were dimmed a little, the other bots weren't paying me that much attention and I could have some fuel (I was allowed to drink 'adult energon' by now, definitely a sign to find a way out of here as soon as possible), sitting at one of the tables with B.R. beside me.

The chain was, as always, fastened to the table. It was almost... nice, had there not been the certainty of the very much hated Prime and a lot of his idiotic and perverted lackeys hanging around somewhere in this underground building. Maybe in another reality where more femmes still existed and the Cybertronians were no endangered species, where I would be treated as an equal and not as some kind of slave it would have been possible for me to cope with the Autobots. But not like this.

If it was to be like this, if I was supposed to be a victim of the Prime's arbitrariness, if I was expected to fulfill his disgusting wishes of fornication then I wouldn't remain here a single moment longer than necessary, then I would fight until the end to gain my freedom.

And then, just like that, the lights were out. Since I had only be waiting for this to happen, I was quick to react, yanking the chain hard and hearing it snap with a sharp ping. The satisfaction I felt due to my sudden (relative) freedom was quickly replaced with the rush of having to move immediately before the emergency lights were on. Some of the confused bots I left behind in the rec room had already had the brilliant idea of using the headlights of their vehicle modes, but all they could spot of me anymore was a set of swinging doors.

The mechs out in the corridors didn't even know what had just rushed past them as I ran and dodged to get to the storage room before I was discovered. My agility was probably the only advantage I had over the much bigger males and I planned to use it to its full extent. The emergency lighting had reacted by now, illuminating the corridors with a faint, reddish glow; it kinda made the atmosphere resemble a horror movie. Or a brothel.

Brushing that ridiculous, immature thought aside, I turned left and ducked to skid through between a large bot's massive legs before stumbling to my almost insane speed again. I didn't have time to admire the unusual light show, I needed to get out. I turned left again. Thankfully, there was no one ahead. Good. The sounds of my metallic feet pounding the floor almost blurred due to the rapid frequency and with my limbs working so furiously, with all systems on full power, my spark beating in a frenzy, I felt so very alive, so good. I skidded around the last corner - BLAM!

I couldn't help but groan in irritation and pain after the impact had sent both me and the mech I had collided with crashing to the floor. I sat up and shook my head firmly to make my surroundings stop spinning. Ugh. Why was I here again...? Oh shit.

I had run into Prowl, of all bots. He was sitting on his aft like me, staring, certainly confused but not nearly as shaken. I got back to my now wobbly feet quickly and escaped in the opposite direction, even though I knew the storage room was probably my only hope of escaping right now. I heard Prowl chase after me.

"Stop! Stop at once! That's an ORDER!" I had no idea where I was going, other than away from the fuming second in command that was. I cursed myself for not just running past him, but that wouldn't be changed now, would it. And now that. There seemed to be a dead end ahead. Doors, but no continuing corridor. Shit.

Well, desperate times called for desperate measures and the group of soldiers with flashlights just had had bad luck. One of them, at least. The man yelped and struggled when I grabbed him (rather delicately though, I didn't really want to hurt anyone after all), the others looked horrified, raising their guns at once, yelling at me. Prowl slowed down and eventually stood when he saw I had taken a human hostage. He raised his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"Calm down and let the human go." I clutched the man to my chest with one arm tightly enough to make him wheeze in discomfort but not enough to actually cause any damage while my free hand was loosely wrapped around his neck.

"Please, I've got a wife and two children..." He pleaded. I ignored him, my attention belonged to Prowl. However, I admit I was kind of concerned with not hurting him unintentionally.

"He'll live if you let me pass. MOVE IT!" To my surprise, Prowl actually started backing away to make room for me.

"Easy, youngling." I stalked back into the direction of my original destination, storage room C-33, careful not to let Prowl or any of the human soldiers get out of sight. When I was past the black and white armored mech, I started walking backwards to keep an optic on him. The human felt uncomfortably warm against my frame and- had he just wet himself?!

I shuddered with disgust, but still I continued on. I would not let my path to freedom be blocked by a pathetic display of cowardice such as this. I could smell his sweat and urine, could feel how his organic heart was racing and how he was hyperventilating and no matter how hard I tried to not think of humans as disgusting little critters, those thoughts just kept nagging at my processor.

Other mechs had already noticed the drama I was causing, they were standing in the corridor but not daring to move in fear I would crush the helpless human. Clearly, they couldn't risk being on bad terms with Earth's governments.

Almost there... I would release the human as soon as I reached the door, shove him towards Prowl and the others and run for it. The other bots would undoubtedly be too big to follow me through the ventilation system and I guessed I would be able to handle the humans... hopefully.

"NOW!" Prowl shouted. Before I could even comprehend who he was even talking to, something hard and unforgiving collided with the back of my head and everything went black as I tumbled to the floor.