AUTHORS NOTE:
"Guess what!"
"What?" A grumpy crowd replies-
"I have an update!"
"Bullshit!" Eager responses.
Yeap sorry guys, this has been extremely delayed but I got hit with writers block for this one. I had a plan of where I wanted this story to go, and finally, I have it in words.
WARNING: I had to add a whole section to Chapter 20- Mercury rising for me to have this chapter go where I wanted it to. A new conversation takes place on the airplane to Australia between Sam and Wheeljack. I have left it in bold for my long time readers. My apologies, it was poor planning on my part.
But please quickly go back, have a read then return (sorry if it spoils the flow). And as always please R & R (makes me glee like a school girl!)
Chapter 25: Inception
"No!" Bumblebee snapped, "I will not leave him!"
"I didn't say to leave him. I said we need to get moving." Hound responded with a harsh tone.
"No, we have to help Sam!" Bumblebee replied, still holding a comatose human boy within his quivering arms.
"Bee his only hope is for us to reach the Ark. We have the equipment and medical staff there that can help him. He will die if we try to pull that thing out ourselves. It's his only hope." Wheeljack attempting to reason calmly to his comrade.
Bumblebee's logic processors were not operating correctly. There was no logic to his sudden distressed state of mind. He initiated a full diagnostics scan of his systems in search of an error. Systems scans revealed all systems were operating as per normal, the robot absolutely confounded at the results of the scan. Initiating the scan again- results reconfirmed 'no errors found.' He looked down at the boy lying unconscious in his arms, a vile parasitic Decepticon attached to his skull. Bumblebee calculated the most rational reason for his clouded state of logic- panic pursuant to potential loss of a loved one. Primarily an organic emotional response, but Bumblebee's logics determined this explanation had an 89.2% accuracy considering a full systems scan revealed no errors in his processors.
Bumblebee relented. His current state dictated he was in no position to question Wheeljack's and Hounds plan.
"Affirmative." He said uttered in discomfited.
If purgatory was real, it would definitely be like this. Infinite oblivion, no concept of time or space. Just nothingness. A blank void where you would lose yourself in the insanity of loneliness.
Sam spun in a complete 360 searching desperately for Optimus. For anyone.
"Where are you!" He screamed in pleading.
"On board the Ark." A faint voice responded echoing around the unending space.
"Are you alright?" Sam answered calmly staring out into the void- in any other situation, he would have been worried that he was talking to himself.
"I am functional." Then as if Sam had completely forgotten his current hostage condition at the claws of a Decepticon, he took the opportunity to start venting all the feelings he had been bottling since he last spoke to Optimus.
"Optimus I am so sorry! I didn't mean what I said back at base. I didn't mean to run away. It was childish and stupid. You were right I need you guys and I don't know what I would do with my life if I was left alone." His eyes swelled in tears but he held them back, his horse voice revealing his emotional anguish.
Silence through the haze, "Optimus?"
"Sam…" A soft echo of his name. Sam could swear he heard Optimus speak once more, but his words were so faint he could hardly recognise them. But he was sure he heard, "Don't believe- - -" But the words appeared to be abruptly cut off.
Silence. The nothingness returning once more, "Optimus!" He yelled. No answer this time. Don't believe what? His mind screamed inside its hollow walls. The infinite brightness began to swell throbbing around him, the light jerking like a pulsating light bulb hurting his eyes to watch. A forceful push and Sam found himself heaved backwards and lying horizontal, the rough impact surprisingly not followed by any reaction of pain. It was like sinking in water but you weren't drowning because you didn't need to breathe.
Abnormal considering how terrified he was- but Sam now felt extremely fatigued. His body was shutting down, like all the juice had been drained from his veins. His eye felt sore and eyelids heavy. He needed to close them, he had to, just for a moment… not too long, just give them momentary relief. Close your eyes strange words whispered in his ears.
There was no time. There was no existence. Drifting like vapour. Sudden realisation. I do exist! I am alive!
Rapid flash of light singeing his eyes as they opened. Sam recoiled from the light turning his head to the side. The soft feel of a pillow beneath his face. Distressed surge and his heart began to pick up its pace.
Sam sat himself up cautiously looking around. He was in an empty room. Well, mostly empty. A few beds surrounded him but they were bare. A heart rate monitor beeping to his side. A hospital room? His intuitions told him.
Confused heavy breathing constricting his lungs. Where am I? What happened? Quickly moving his hand to the base of his skull. Nothing- no parasitic Decepticon. "Was it all over?" Sam whispered to himself.
"Yes Sam." A soft familiar voice spoke to him from the door frame across the room. Sam's heart pounded roughly inside his chest, his neck swiftly turning towards the girl standing before him. Suddenly, Sam could not breathe.
"It's ok Sam." She said walking slowly over to him.
"M—Mikaela?" The name almost burnt through his tongue like acid. Such a painful name to be calling someone who was dead.
"It's me Sam." She said, her long black hair resting against her shoulders. A gorgeous white dress flowing over her long slender body. The image of beauty and Sam could barely contain his emotions as she moved towards his bed. Her body moved with such grace, almost like she wasn't even there and for a moment he doubted his sanity as he looked upon his lost love once more.
She reached his bed sitting ever so gently and resting her soft hand against his. She was real. Her touch was real. Her smile was real. Sam could no longer contain his tears- they burst like a water main gushing down his face as he held her in his arms, holding her close in an embrace that said 'I'll never let you go.'
"But how…" Sobbing words through the tears. She continued to hold him close as she spoke to him. "During the fight at base, I watched as the rocket hit the car where your parents were hiding. I am sorry Sam I couldn't save them- but I tried. And then I was taken by a Decepticon that was hiding in the shadows- kept prisoner to be used as leverage against the Autobots if the time came."
Sam's mind cheered inside itself. I knew she was alive- I never gave up hope… thank you! Thank you God for returning her to me. His heart and soul feeling whole as he held her so close, so tenderly. Her soft skin like ecstasy as he rested his face against hers, eyes wide shut but tears rushing down. Slowly releasing her and looking deeply into her eyes, both hands holding her shoulders.
"I missed you so much Mikaela." He couldn't care less about any more details of how she escaped, how she returned to him. She was here and everything was the way it should be.
"I missed you too." Her hand grasping his. An intense kiss. Her lips so warm and perfect resting against his. The slight disappointment as the kiss ended and they pulled back from each other returning to their lovers gaze. But to Sam's bewilderment her warm smile changed- disappearing in seconds.
"Sam." She spoke seriously. "It isn't over."
"What are you talking about?" She leaned in closer.
"I don't know how to tell you this Sam…" Her eyes filled with remorseful apprehension, "But Bumblebee, Hound and Wheeljack have been killed."
"What!" Sam burst.
"It happened as they were fighting off the Decepticons defending the Ark. That was three days ago."
Sam lowered his gaze to the bed letting the devastating news sink in. No, Bee.
"Sam." She continued grasping his hand tighter redirecting his gaze to hers.
"After we rescued you from the desert and removed that thing from your head the Decepticons fled and we have been defending the Ark constantly from their attacks. We can't get inside the Ark, and no one has been trying to get out." Mikaela's words starting to sound like a soldier's briefing, "The Ark is protected by some sort of force field. We can't keep this up much longer Sam and we don't know what to do."
Sam sat puzzled looking at her pleading face, "What do you want me to do?"
She ran her hand up his arm, "You were the last to speak with the Autobots. Do you know anything that can help us get into the Ark? So we can get to Optimus and the other inside. There is still hope that they are just in some sort of temporary shutdown or something, we could turn them back on." Her grip on Sam tightening.
Sam thought deeply. What could he possibly know? A lightning bolt of realisation. "Wheeljack!"
She looked at him in disorientation, "The engineer?"
"Yes! He told me that Autobots have circuits inside their chest plates that act like a beeper to shut down the shields and - -" suspicious apprehension coupled with Mikaela basking a menacing smirk.
"How did you know Wheeljack was an engineer?" He asked with hesitant fear of the answer.
"What?"
Sam pulled away from her arms- scrambling to create distance.
"You said you were taken during the fight at the base. You never met Wheeljack." Mikaela began to laugh so wickedly it was like she was possessed. Her eyes lit up in a laser red making Sam flinch in horror as they flashed towards him.
"You insects. So easily manipulated." The walls around him seeping away like water, washing back into bright nothingness. The bed, the sheet, the pillows, all disappearing into vapour. Sam turned back towards Mikaela, no longer Mikaela, a dark shadow hovering over him.
"And now, we have all we need to destroy the Autobots thanks to you Sam!"
"No!" He screamed to the shadow as it dissipated into nothing before him. He reached out to grab it, black air trickling through his fingers like cold steam.
Sam's whole system went into panic, his heart feeling like it was about to rip out his ribcage. No! No! Oh god what have I done!
Sand dunes bursting into the air sending particles wisping in every direction, and out of the dust an army jeep emerges lifting off and for a split moment before gravity hits has all four wheels mid air. The jeep darting around the clutter of rocks and holes of the deserts plains, the last to arrive on scene. It circles around halting to let out its four soldiers. Two seated in the front, two with assault rifles in hand standing in the back.
Major Lennox and Epps took point at the back of the jeep, the last to arrive on scene. Their guns held cautiously preparing for an imminent attack. The fact that not one Decepticon was in sight was unsettling.
"I don't like this boss." Epps remarked as he side jumped from the jeep.
"Yeah, they should have gotten here way before we did. It doesn't make any sense." Lennox responded eyeing the Ark with a scouring gaze. His soldiers took point at the forefront of the smoking space ship, a faint blue glow surrounding the wreckage.
"What are they waiting for?" A rhetorical question that made Lennox glare snapping up his radio. "This is Major Lennox. ETA on reinforcements ,over."
A reply from man with a distinctive Australian accent, "Copy that - you have flyers and ground troops converging on your position. Estimated time of arrival ten minutes, over. "
A soft whisper as he returned his radio to his belt, "Something tells me we don't have ten minutes." A hot breeze rushing passed his face, the eerie silence clawing anxiously at the small army of soldiers camping on point near the Ark. The ship was too immense to encircle, so they had to settle with a high ground position and continue scanning their surroundings for an attack. Waiting in fretful anticipation. The quiet before the storm.
Not too far away two cars raced towards the Ark, an escort of police far behind them- barely able to keep pace with the camero and jeep. In the back seat of the camero a lifeless boy lying against the leather upholstery. Bumblebee synced his scanners to the heartbeat of his charge, the fragile organ racing away inside its fleshy casings. It made Bumblebee cringe to hear Sam fret inside his own skin. Too busy concentrating on Sam's vitals and his driving Bumblebee neglected to detect the tiny satellite emerge from the parasitic Decepticon's back, its long tentacle still stabbed deep into Sam's brain. A faint signal radiating from its body – a secure encrypted Decepticon message.
"Starscream!" Megatron wailed as he soared across the sky, circling high above a fair distance away from the smoking pillar rising in the foreground. The fighter jet acknowledged the call emerging from high above to fly next to his commander.
"Yes Lord Megatron."
"Prepare the troops for our final assault. It is time to end this." The loud crackle of thrusters bursting into the sky.
Sam screamed a murderous rage at the maximum volume his lungs could maintain. Even though he knew nothing that surrounded him was real, his lungs still chocked and clenched as he yelled, pain of the outburst surging inside his chest. A faint evil cackle at his turmoil.
He stopped, his body shaking in defeat. Trapped in his own head, helpless, pathetic. Sam wasn't prone to giving up, but he didn't know what to do.
"Fight it." A soft voice radiated around him. He turned his eyes around, nothing but that white void.
"How?" He whispered back, slightly suspicious that this was another manipulation by the wretched bastard holding him prisoner.
"Feel your body. Your body. Your mind." The words quietly echoing in his ear. Sam stood still letting the words sink in. My body.
A harsh voice bellowed slightly startling his sensors, a complete contrast to the soft voice's tender reminiscence. "No! My body! My mind!" It screeched. But Sam didn't let it claw back at him. He closed his eyes, steadied his breathing until he wasn't breathing at all. He just listened quietly. The soft thudding of a heart beat.
"No!" The voice wailed. Sam didn't open his eyes but he could feel the environment around him wisping, taking shapes, just like before. But he kept them closed. The feel of hot breath against his neck. No! Keep your eyes closed. He was warm, his whole body was warm. Soft movements of his body against warm material. He was moving, but not moving. A car?
"No!" The voice screeched in fretful desolation but Sam could no longer hear it. He was being pulled away like a giant hand now held him and was dragging him from within himself.
Gasping Sam sat himself up in a fury. "Sam!" Bumblebee yelled almost slamming his brakes in shock before remembering Sam would be hurtled through the windshield. Sam quickly moved his hands to the back of his neck grasping the metal parasite attached at his shoulders. He pulled with all his strength, the metal claws sliding across his shoulders, back and face scratched bloody indents as they went. Sam screamed as the metal needle slid from inside his neck. He was free.
Bumblebee rapidly opened his back door, Sam acknowledging the gesture and as the Decepticon flailed about trying desperately to latch onto Sam, he flung the robot outside. Bumblebee's back tires drifted left meeting with the Decepticon as it skid across the grounds, little pieces flinging everywhere as it was crushed to death under the force.
Bumblebee closed his back door as Sam flung himself into the front seat, the camero hardly able to focus on the road, his joy and bewilderment overwhelming. "Thank Primus Sam! You are alright. You have no idea- - " his words interrupted as Sam bellowed at him, "Watch out!" Bumblebee quickly turned his wheel, narrowly avoiding a collision with Hound at his side.
"Sorry." Bumblebee murmured before returning to the main topic at hand- Sam's remarkable return. Never before has he seen someone as young as Sam break free from the hold of a Insecticon. Even Optimus would find it a challenge.
"Sam, your neck!" Sam moved his hand to the back of his neck, the wet feel of blood leaking onto his fingers. He could feel a small hole, nothing that would cause death by blood loss- but still something that needed immediate attention. He peered down at Bumblebee's dash eyeing the cigarette lighter. Before Bumblebee could protest he snapped up the hot piece of metal.
"Sam no!" But too late, Sam moved his hand around to the back of his neck pressing the hot coils against his skin. He screamed in agony as the metal singed against the hole.
Sam composed himself, still quivering from the pain.
"What the fuck Sam!" Bumblebee blared. "We don't have time to waste." Words finally escaping his lips. Sam feathered over the sore section of his neck, the hot skin still tender, but no blood wet his fingers.
"That wasn't necessary." Bumblebee remarked.
"Yes it is." A somber reply. "I fucked up bee."