Once at the now familiar base the jet triplets fully transformed. Bee was harshly dropped to the ground. Once he stood he couldn't even dust himself off before Thundercracker shoved his gun to Bee's back and pushed him forward. Starscream carried me by one leg. I dangled helplessly while we went down the maze of hallways. Bee looked at me sympathetically. We passed by a few Decepticons who only gave us glances and went back to their duties.
We finally reached the command room right when I thought my leg would fall off. Starscream flipped me so I was on his palm. I was passed to Megatron as the blood rushed away from my head. "Hey there Megs." I said, still woozy from too much blood in my brain. Upon hearing his hated nickname he dropped me, I guess as a punishment of sorts. (Said punishment was a great way to break my spine.) Bee quickly lunged forward and caught me. He quickly stepped back in his place in front of Thundercracker's gun. The Decepticons laughed at him.
He cradled me to his chassis and covered most of me with his hand. I was grateful for the feeling of security it provided, even if it was false. I curled up in a ball under Bee's protective hand and leaned my head over where his spark chamber was. I could hear the whirring of his internal systems and the quick, scared pulses of his spark.
Why was I so scared? It's not like any of this was new to me. Then it clicked. I'd never been with anyone else and I'd always called Optimus. I felt responsible that Bee was here. I needed to take my mind off that so I tried to focus on the noise of Bee's internal systems trying to repair the hole from the hook. In fact the blasted thing was still there. It had slipped below the level of the hole and was neatly closed. I made a mental note of that. Who knows when a grappling hook will come in handy?
"Take the Autobot to the brig. The flesh creature too. Put her in her special cage. And make sure to watch them closely." Megatron ordered. Thundercracker shoved his gun into Bee's back again and forced him to follow Soundwave.
Once at the brig (in the lowest level of the Annihilation) Bee was shoved into the cell. Thundercracker kept him at gunpoint while Soundwave pried me out of Bee's grasp. I tried to hang on in vain. Soundwave pulled me off easily. What did I expect? He dropped me into a box made of an unknown clear material. He shut it. I could stand, but when I did my head was an inch from the ceiling. It looked like I could lie down, but barely. I guess I'd find out tonight. I noticed there was no air holes. "What about breathing?" I called. Breathing was good. "Sufficient oxygen for a few hours." was Soundwave's emotionless reply. "And after that?" I called to his retreating form. He ignored me. Perfect.
As soon as the Decepticons left, Bee stepped up to my cage. "I'm so sorry I-" he started but I cut him off "What else could you have done? I couldn't ask any more of you. I should be the one apologizing. It's me they want." "I'm the least physically threatening. If Optimus would've been taking you home we wouldn't be here." "You were ambushed. Stop beating yourself up about it."
Conversation continued for 2 hours. We tried to cheer each other up fruitlessly. "It's getting hard to breathe..." I said. The lack of fresh air was getting to me. 2 minutes later Soundwave walked in. He hit a few buttons on the cell's control panel and my box opened. I jumped out before he could shut it again. "Human's need to breathe primitive. But Lord Megatron wants you alive." Soundwave explained seeing my confused but relieved expression. "How did you know I was-" Soundwave cut me off "Human believes we weren't watching? Foolish."
Soundwave sat in a chair across the hall and stared at a data pad in his hand, glancing at me and Bee frequently. Now that we were together they didn't trust us to not mess with the cameras. I was tired. I had no idea what time it was but Bee looked like he needed recharge too. It had been a hectic day. Bee offered his hand. I climbed on and he walked over to the berth in the cell. He lay down and set me next to him. It was cold. Bee saw I was freezing (Since the 'Cons liked the place freezing for whatever reason). He rolled onto his side and put his hand over me. I was now much warmer. "Why is it that Autobots are so warm?" I said smiling at Bee. I glanced at Soundwave. I could imagine him rolling his eyes but I couldn't tell because of his visor. He put on some headphones and plugged the jack into his shoulder. I'd seen him do this when I was Rumble.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Bee. "Well your hand is warm but when I was on Starscream and Megatron's palms they were cold as you'd expect metal to be." "We're just built different. 'Cons eyes are red; ours are blue. 'Cons fly; unfortunately we don't. Hey you know how our sparks are blue right?" "Yeah." A picture of Optimus' spark came to mind. It was a shimmering blue pulsing orb. "And you know that they are constantly pulsing right? Just like a human heartbeat?" "Yeah. Where are you going with this?" "'Cons sparks don't pulse. They're just blue orbs of energy." "They don't shimmer either do they?" "Nope. So we have a few small differences." "Not to mention the fact that 'Cons wanna kill me. You on the other hand?" I patted Bee's hand that was still over me to prove my point. We laughed briefly and fell asleep shortly afterward.
(Now I know what you're thinking, curled up in front on your computer at home. We're not all lovey-dovey here. Fear just has a way of making you cling ever the more strongly onto friendship and even the thinnest strands of hope.)