Chapter 14: Queen

There's a taste of metal in my mouth. That's the first thing I notice when I regain consciousness. My vision is blurs and there's a throbbing pain in my left temple. My wrists are bound behind me and I can't feel my hands. From my knees down I'm numb and I'm laid sideways. There's a faint ringing in my ear. The helmet is gone and so is my Bushmaster. What the hell happened?

"So the girl is awake." Megatron's voice invades my ear, making the ringing stop. My vision clears and focus' in on him. His red optics are clear as day and I glare at him. "I'm very joyous that my scouts did not kill you. I wanted to speak to you before I kill you myself."

"Lovely," I say. I clear my throat before, struggling up in a sitting position. "Well, now you have me, don't hold anything back; you'll never get another chance like this."

I can only guess that I'm in Megatron's throne room. It's shaped as a large oval. At one end of the room, there's two, large, heavy-looking doors. Across is Megatron's throne where the Decepticon leader himself is perched. The throne is weaved of metal wires and at the top are three large spires. Outlining the large room are sharp metal beams. In between each beam is a large rectangular window. I sit directly in the middle of the room.

Only Megatron and I are in here, giving me his full attention. How wonderful.

"That I shall." He gets up and slowly circles me. I notice that he's gotten a bit bigger than last time, upgrade I see. He also has a dark cape flowing behind him with the Decepticon symbol on the back. "You, Annie Catalano, are the reason why it took me so long to dominate Earth and restore my beloved Cybertron, putting me in charge this time. You are no regular human; wise beyond your own species. You are able to deceive the many and gain the trust of the few. These qualities are the qualities of a leader. Remember my first proposition for you, my dear?"

I do.

"As a mechanic?" I ask. He's enjoying this, a little too much for my taste. But what can I do?

"Yes, but you have proved yourself beyond that rank. I cannot let a creature like yourself slip away from me so easily." Megatron stops to my right. He uses a singly claw to trace the left side of my face, before forcing me to turn and stare into his evil red optics. I keep a blank stare. "Which is why I offer you to be my Queen."

My eyes widen to the size of monster truck tires. Did he just say q-queen?

"Don't you already have another human helper?" I ask. Megatron laughs loudly, making me flinch away. His claw keeps me still.

"Your cousin is only a pet to me. You however, mean much, much more." Megatron continues. "Do you think that puny fool could ever match up to you? You make me laugh. He is a complete fool for siding with the Decepticons, betraying his own family; a disgrace he is to you humans."

"Then won't I be a disgrace as well if I join you?" I ask.

"It is a difference between you and him. He was just a toy to get to you. He is just a mere human, like all the others. He betrayed his own kind out of revenge of the Autobots; that is weak. He is weak. You on the other hand would be doing yourself a favor by joining us. You would be perfect as a Decepticon, as my Queen."

"You and I will rule Cybertron and Earth together, expanding the Decepticon rule to other lifeforms in the galaxy. With our combined forces, nothing can stop us from taking over the entire universe. The Decepticons could also teach you more of our species. A knowledge like your's should not be wasted with only what you've learned from humans or the Autobots. From my knowledge, they have a rule against telling you their knowledge. After all this time, they still don't completely trust you. You could achieve so much with your potential. What do these humans and Autobots mean to you? Nothing, they are the lower species, they are weak and spineless which is why they lost the war in the beginning. So what do you say young one? Are you ready to side with the Decepticons now?"

I harden my stare on Megatron.

"You are correct when you say I am not like my cousin because I would rather die groveling at your feet than ever rule by your side," I hiss.

"If that is what you wish." I feel something cold and sharp being placed under my chin. "Either way, I will have it my way. I will have enjoyment killing you slowly and painfully." The object is moved away and Megatron steps away from me, taking his place back on the throne. "However, first I will break that damned determined spirit of yours."

As if on cue, the doors at the other end open. I turn and see a dozen guards walk in, each armed with a blaster. They each have bulky armor on and are in a box formation, guarding something inside. I hear complaints coming from the formation. The guards move away to stand in a straight line, keeping a wall between the doors. I gasp.

The Autobots, all of them, banged up and tied. The guards force them on their knees in front of Megatron. I'm close to tears, but refuse to cry. The twins try to get up, but a guard just pushes them down to the ground.

"Kill them all, slowly," Megatron commands. "And make sure she watches." One of the guards, roughly pushes me up to my knees, turns me around, and puts a finger under my chin to force me to look.

"Begin the execution," Megatron says. The first guard puts his blaster up to Ironhide. "Any last words? Maybe begging your life for mercy like the other Autobot?" I almost snap, thinking about Que again.

"If I die, I die with honor as an Autobot. Not begging for your mercy," Ironhide grumbles to Megatron. Then he looks at me and I bid a silent farewell to my friend. I hear the charging of the blaster. With each second, I feel my heart beat faster and faster. The throne room is silent, waiting for the shot to be fired. Ironhide has his optics closed, waiting. A tear slips from my right eye.

"Hold your fire," Megatron says suddenly. The blaster is moved away from him and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. "Bring in, the humans. Kill them first." Four of the guards leave and shortly return with humans in tow. The tears are dry. I can't cry, not in front of everyone. I still have dignity left, and if that's all I have left to cling on to, then so be it.

The first one is Lennox. God, he looks like he went through hell and back, which he did. He has a limp on his right ankle and his left arm is twisted in a funny way. There's bruises and cuts all over the showing skin on his body and a black eye. He looks at me with a sad smile, besides having a beat up lip. I don't have the strength to return it. I'm sorry Lennox, I couldn't do it, I couldn't save you.

The next ones are the rest of my team. They all look horrible, with slight bruises and cuts. I look down in shame, not able to meet their eyes; not being able to see the disappointment in them. I built their hopes up way too much.

Epps is next. He just smiles like everything is okay. No it isn't Epps, nothing's okay. Nothing will ever be okay again. I've failed you all.

Then my family. Mom, Dad, Fiona, and Lucas. Fiona looks as if she's been crying badly, and Lucas looks like he hasn't showered for days. Mom tries to look dignified, but fails miserably. Dad keeps his stare on me that says goodbye. I silently apologize to them, for mixing them into this war.

Finally, Simmons. He's the only one who doesn't look to be sorry for what happened. He doesn't looked pissed either that we lost. Nor disappointed in me for failing. He has a cold stare on me, eyes boring into mine, going into my soul. I can't break eye contact no matter how much I want to. He glances from behind me, Megatron, to me, to Megatron, to back at me again, before drawing his gaze to the ground. I replay it over again, not noticing that another human has walked in the room, but not in chains and completely healthy.

"Well my dear cousin, it's a pleasure seeing you again," Justin remarks. I glare at him, not saying a word. He doesn't deserve anything I have to say to him. "I must say Annie, I thought you would put up a greater fight than this."

"Justin, I have one question for you," I say, not wavering my gaze at all. "How did you know about the plans? You weren't even in on them."

"Oh, Annie, I thought you would know by now." Justin presses a button on his watch and I immediately feel as if my head is about to explode. I cry out in pain and gasp for breath as I feel something moving around my head. The pain moves steadily towards my right ear and pops out. I gasp, seeing a small spider, crawling towards Justin. "Computer tracker. I planted it in you after you were in your full body cast."

Justin goes to stand at Megatron's side. Unbeknownst to him that Megatron was just talking trash about him. That's one of the only things Megatron and I will agree on; Justin is a weak and disgraceful human. "The spider allows us to know exactly what you were thinking. You never had PTSD; it was the spider messing with your mind. Are you happy now?"

Yes; yes and no. Yes that I finally find relief that I'm not sick and it was just a damn Decepticon bug messing around inside my head. No because I realize how stupid of me it was to not realize this sooner.

"Do you see all the people you have failed? All that work, those lives that have been taken, all the blood, all for nothing."

Megatron's doing really good at breaking me. I hate admitting that it's working. I keep myself strong though, keeping myself planted. Looking over at Simmons, he doesn't meet my eyes. What is he trying to tell me?

"Continue, please. Start with the girl this time." My eyes widen as they take Fiona out of the group.

"No!" I shout, trying to move forward, but the Decepticon behind me holds me back. Lucas tries to grab at her, but they pull him back, too. Putting the blaster to her head, she looks at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. I stare into her eyes with sadness. She shouldn't have to die this way, not at a Decepticon's blaster. Not at a young age. I'm suppose to protect my sister. It wasn't suppose to turn out this way.

The blaster charges. Fiona mouthes to me "Goodbye" before it fires. My mother screams and they have to hold my family back from going to her limp body that's on the ground. I keep my ground. Don't cry Annie, don't cry. You have to keep strong, don't let Megatron break you so easily.

The Decepticons drag my sister's body away, pushing my brother next on top of the puddle of blood where Fiona's body was. Lucas kneels on his twin sister's blood and I can't look at him. I turn my head and look at Justin.

"How can you just stand there and watch your family get killed right before you? Especially Fiona, she didn't want this as much as you do! She didn't do anything to you Justin! How could you let this happen!" I hiss. Justin doesn't seemed fazed by this, but I can see it in his eyes. He didn't expect this, nor did he want this. I turn back around, not bothering to hear an excuse. He's betrayed me in a way that will never be forgiven.

"How does it feel Annie? To be the cause of your sister's cruel death-" I block out anything else Megatron has to say. My eyes dart around the room. Come on...there has to be just one...

Letting my instincts take over, I let my mind whirr. My eyes lock with Optimus' and a spark passes through us. I close my eyes, letting the tingly sensation settle before snapping them open. Megatron's still in the middle of his rant.

I look at Simmons who has an intense gaze set on me. Simmons suddenly gets up, he pulls something from a secret pocket in the cuffs of his dress shirt; Boom Bomb. He swings his chained hands at the Decepticon, successfully breaking them off. The Decepticon grabs at Simmons, but he already has the key out and throws the Boom Bomb at it.

As it makes contact, the Decepticon's face explodes, allowing Simmons to make a break for it.

"Get him, you fools!" Megatron commands.

"Annie," Simmons shouts. He has another one in his hand and I duck as he chucks it at the Decepticon behind me. I hear the explosion. A second later Simmons is helping me on my feet and we're running towards Optimus while having the Decepticons shooting at us.

"Back pocket," I say. He reaches in and I thank God the Decepticons didn't find the small gun I had. He shoots the chains off my wrists before tossing me the weapon.

A Decepticon stands in our way. I look at him and nod. Simmons veers off to the right while I keep charging. Sliding on the floor in between the Decepticon's legs, I aim for Optimus' bounds, shooting them clean off with a few shots. He gets up and launches his flight gear. Tackling down a Decepticon from behind me, he aims his blaster at it's head, shooting it off.

"Autobots, attack!" Optimus shouts. Sideswipe gets up, slamming himself backwards into the wall. I hear a loud shatter before seeing Sideswipe's cannons, blasting at every Decepticon he sees.

"Decepticons, kill them all!" Megatron growls before looking straight at me. I send him a wink before aiming and firing. Megatron cries out in pain, clutching his left optic. My smirk fades when I feel a claw grab and lift me in the air.

Then I'm being hurled across the room, directly at Megatron's throne. I clutch my body in pain. My vision is blurred and the throbbing that had subsided, grows again. I clutch at my ribs, feeling something sticky. Examining my hand, I see that it's covered in thick red blood. The ringing is back in my ear, much louder than before. I can't concentrate on anything except for the never ending pain.

I wake up in the desert. The Primes are nowhere to be seen. I feel a presence behind me and turn. I'm spooked by a big white glowing ball just floating in mid air. It's made entirely of smoke and wisps. It gives me a tightening in the pit of my stomach.

"Hello." The voice is neither male nor female. I put a hand up to shield my eyes from the brightness. I can feel the power radiating from the thing, whatever it is.

"H-Hello," I stutter. "Who are you?"

"That is not of importance, young one," the glowing smoke ball answers. "You are a remarkable human, Annie."

"So I've been told," I mutter.

"But do you understand why?"

"I defeated Megatron and his army," I say, a bit bored with this conversation. How many times have I been asked this? Where is it suppose to be going?

"No." I raise an eyebrow. "The stone." I look down, seeing the stone has glowed brighter than ever before. It feels burning hot against my skin, yet comforting at the same time.

"My great grandfather gave it to me. It helped me save Earth," I say.

"No. You helped the stone, me. You were destined to receive me and help save Earth; it's written in the stars." What? "I am the one who lives inside your stone, your guardian."

"Guardian? But Mirage is suppose to be my guardian," I point out.

"He is your guardian on Earth, to guide you through troubles and protect you. I am the guardian that lives within that stone, that speaks to you through your mind."

"So like a conscience?"

"Exactly." This glowing ball thing is starting to freak me out. Where are the Primes when you need them?

"You said written in the stars. This was all destined to happen? Then why did the Primes try to lure me away?" I ask.

"It was a test, child. To see weather you would do what your mind told you to do, or what your heart told you to do," it says wisely. "I brought you here to thank you and bid you farewell."

"Farewell?" I question.

"Yes. We do not need each other anymore after this battle."

"What do you mean?"

"I am saying, that I will help you throughout the rest of this battle. After, I will no longer be living in the stone. I will be gone, and up here with the rest of the deceased Cybertonians," the ball says. I give it a questioning look.

"What if something else happens? What if the Decepticons attack again? I need you to help me," I say.

"Annie. I did not help you; you helped me. You saved your planet, I just gave you the bit of a push that you needed to fully take on the Decepticons. You have done such a remarkable job," the white ball says. "As for the Decepticons, they will sadly strike again, but by that time, another will take over your spot. You will no longer be the one destined to save Earth."

I have to admit, it does disappoint me that one day all of this will be over. I love the Autobots, with all my heart. They are a part of me that I felt like I've been missing in my early ages of life. I can't bear myself to let go of them.

"The Autobots will not leave you." Can it read my mind? "Of course, I am part of you. The Autobots will be there with you until the day you no longer cease to exist in this world. They will be by your side through everything that has to come through your life. Don't think they will leave you anytime soon."

That gives me a bit of reassurance. I'm just not sure I can handle what else the world has to throw at me. I mean, look at me? Talking to a white ghost ball in alien heaven. How else can this be weird?

"You are a strong one, you will survive. I didn't say you would go through the challenges alone, did I?" I shake my head. "Now, go back to Earth. For everyone is awaiting your return to help defeat Megatron."

I feel my eyes get heavy and everything spin around. The white ball comes closer and hits me in the chest, hitting the necklace. It feels cool, like thick mist of salt water just hits you. It relaxes me as I fall down on to the sand.

Gasping, I sit up. It's as if a jolt of electricity just awoke me from the dead. Which technically, I did come back from the dead. Standing, I realize no one else is in the throne room with me. Getting off Megatron's throne, I look around, seeing a big gaping hole in the wall. Running towards it, I take a delicate step outside, before find myself being shot at.

I see Starscream, pouncing at me. Rolling to the side, I run away from him. However, he lands right in front of me, making me fall on my back.

"You're mine now!" Just as he's about to grab me, a claw grabs him back. Megatron.

"You will not harm her! If anyone is getting revenge on the girl, it shall be me, and me alone!" Megatron commands, throwing Starscream to the ground. In their dispute, I feel myself being picked up. Looking back, I see a rectangular panel in the sky and see Mearing's blond hair falling out of it's bun. She holds my hand tightly and drags me inside the invisible helicopter.

"How?" I ask.

"I told you, we're your back-up," she said. Smirking, I nod.

"Keep taking down as many Decepticons as you can," I say.

Looking down, I see Megatron has left and Starscream is alone, looking this way and that, no doubt for me. I get a crazy idea.

"I'll be taking care of business," I say. Opening the helicopter door, I jump back down.

"Annie!" Mearing shouts. "You idiot!" I keep falling until I land on Starscream's back successfully. Using my bare hands, I rip open the back and start messing around with the wires inside like a child playing around with their toy. And right now, it feels like Christmas to me.

"What are you doing! Stop!" I pull out a few wires and sparks fly, stinging my arms and cheeks. Starscream jerks around violently. "Release me!"

"Give me a good reason why," I growl, gripping a thick red wire. Now why do I have a feeling this is very important? I put my gun to it, ready to fire.

"Megatron has rewired a bomb that used to be in his throne room, but now at the moment is sending the bomb to Earth, putting it on maximum overload. He then plans to send Earth through the Space Bridge to another galaxy where not only your planet, but surrounding planets as well will explode into nothing, but dust. Spare me, and I will help spare your planet," Starscream begs.

It's a crazy idea, and I don't expect less from Megatron other than crazy ideas. However, believing Starscream is also a crazy idea.

"And if you are lying right now?" I ask, teasingly pulling on the wire. A few more sparks fly out and his arms jerk about. Starscream falls to his knees gasping for breath.

"I swear by Primus, these are no lies and I will assist you!" he gasps.

"Let him go." I turn, seeing Mirage walking up to us. "A swear on Primus is the ultimate swear no bot ever dares break. Not even a Decepticon like Megatron would do such a thing."

I hesitantly roll off Starscream's back after placing the wire back in it's rightful place where I found it and closing him up. Starscream turns to me, still kneeling. He bows his head.

"I am at your service, Annie Catalano," he says. Starscream gets up slowly, aiming his blaster at Mirage. My eyes widen and I'm relieved when Mirage ducks out of the blast.

"Breaking the swear already?" I ask, ready to slowly rip that thick wire out from Starscream.

"If either of you were paying attention." Starscream walks right past Mirage, who's on high guard now. Starscream picks something up which looks like a Decepticon cougar, with a hole through it's chest. The hole is steaming, meaning the blast has just been made. "I was aiming for this. It was about to pounce."

"Oh," Mirage says and nothing more.

"Let's go," I say. The three of us head back to the main battle.

Optimus rips off the head off a Decepticon when we see him. He's shocked to see Starscream by our side and immediately slams him into the nearest building. Starscream struggles under Optimus' weight, clearly overpowered. Optimus has his blazing sword against Starscream's neck and the other is a blaster, right up against his head. He seems to be contemplating which to use to kill the Decepticon. Starscream, meanwhile is trying to remove the sword from him with no avail.

"Stop!" I shout. "We've made a truce." Optimus' optics flicker my way before releasing Starscream completely.

"You betray the promise made, and I will kill you off just as quick as this war ever started." The funny this is, I didn't even have to say anything about the promise.

There's something different between Optimus and I. It's like whatever I was thinking, Optimus knows and vice versa. I can predict Optimus' movements before he does and sense him being on high alert as we fend off Decepticons coming at us this way and that. With each Decepticon down, I feel the adrenaline running through him grow. In return, the adrenaline pours into me. I can feel the power in Optimus' body grow with each second.

The biggest thing though, I can feel his Spark pulsing in sync with my thumping heart. No doubt tells me that we're connected in some way.

Optimus flips over a fallen over ship, putting one hand down to push himself off the ship and flips straight up to mid air. He lands on a very large Decepticon's back, pressing his blaster to it's back before firing, exploding the Spark and Spark Chamber.

"We must hurry, Megatron is almost to the Space Bridge," Starscream says. I keep shooting at the Decepticons with my gun until it runs out of bullets. I reload it, one of the bullets notching into the armor.

"Where is Sentinel?" I ask.

"He is nowhere to be seen," Starscream says.

"They just keep coming," Sideswipe says, appearing next to us. "We'll never be able to get to Megatron at this rate." He smashes a Decepticon's head to the ground.

Nodding, I motion for Starscream, Optimus, and Jolt, who happened to be close to us, to follow my lead.

"Hold them off Sides," I say. "And you know I would've won in that race of ours." I add in with a wink and a smirk. Sideswipe returns the smirk.

"Well, go take on Megatron and we'll see who's gonna be talking," he says. Jumping on Starscream's shoulder, we try to get back to the tower as fast as we can, taking down as many Decepticons along the way as we can.

"Annie, go with Optimus. Starscream and I will make it up on our own. It's vital you two get to Megatron and stop him," Jolt says. I nod, switching to Optimus' shoulder. "And Annie." I turn to Jolt. "I'm deeply sorry for doubting you, I was wrong at first." I just smile at him with a nod.

"Hold on." I grip Optimus' shoulder plates tightly as we spiral up to the tower.

"One last time Optimus? Take down Megatron once and for all?" I say as we get closer to the top.

"Once and for all," he quotes me. "Mearing said this belongs rightfully to you." He hands me a case that had been cleverly hidden in his wrist plates. I open it, revealing the most magnificent shotgun I've ever laid my eyes on. On the barrel is an engraving. On closer examination, it says "Rick M. Catalano." Tears brim my eyes.

We found my Uncle Rick's body in Illinois after an accident with the Decepticons years ago. I lured them there by accident, I was there. The diagnostics was that the house caved down on him. Complete lie; however at the time the real explanation would've got me sent to the looney house in a blink of an eye. I have no idea how Mearing got her hands on this, or even how Uncle Rick had it, but I'll discuss those matters with her after. If there really is a later to speak of.

"Let's kick Megatron's aft."

So today I'll just answer the questions. I won't do anything really personal today:

What is your favorite desert?
Well the desert in Egypt is intriguing to me lol JK. thats a hard question: chocolate

Do you like the Harry Potter series? If so, who's your favorite character?

nope, i don't like Harry Potter, haha sorry xx

What's your favourite food?

another hard one. um.. pasta x3

Favourite color?

Purple

What's your dream car? Colour, model, brand etc.

Definitely a volkswagen beetle 2012 model-color blue. Or a 9 11 porsche in black (but that'd never happen haha)

If you only had one more day to live, what would you do?

Go skydiving. Go to Toronto and do the edge walk off CN Tower. if you don't know what that is look it up :) basically LWWY YOLO.

What is your favorite Autobot and Decepticon?

Autobot: Bumblebee-he's adorable yet killer. Decepticon: wheelie. i just think michael bay could've made him more useful than annoying. i see more potential in Wheelie than just an annoying toy monster truck.

Who is your favourite character in the Transformers series and why?

I only watch the movies. Probably Bumblebee and i already answered why up there :)

Are you still interested in anything that is considered childish?

nerf guns. i hated them when i was little and now I'm addicted to them. that and maybe spongebob? but you're never too old for spongebob :)

Okay thats all the questions. I actually have a story for you guys this week:

So we had an essay due monday and got it back thursday in history. I was one of the only people that got an A out of all his students. I didn't even try that hard and apparently i was the only one who didn't know the teacher grades strict. people kept asking me how i got it and i just smiled and said idk. truthfully it was all the skill and vocabulary i've developed since i was on Fanfiction.

Anyways, today has been a very productive day. so i'm gonna go take a nap. bye love you!

~HAHE~