Chapter 15 - "Zombie (In Your Head)"
by The Cranberries/Bad Wolves
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The past week had been crazy. Seeing Optimus like that, unable to move and on the brink of death, had shaken me. And all because of some ancient disease that had ended up here on Earth. It was so easy to forget that they weren't invincible. Thankfully, after a stressful few hours of trying to get the cure from Megatron's brain while he was in stasis on the fricking Nemesis, Ratchet had put the formula together and Optimus began his recovery. Things seemed to be getting better but every now and then whenever I was at base, I noticed that Bumblebee would have these... moments where he seemed spaced out. Raf had definitely noticed them, but it wasn't until he almost knocked Bulkhead's head off his shoulders with a lobbing ball that it really seemed to register for me. It got brushed off but when I got a call from Raf the next morning right as class was about to start, I was convinced that something had to have been wrong.
"What do you mean he never showed?"
"He never came to pick me up. I've been standing outside for a while now, just in case he was late but normally he calls to let me know." The poor kid sounded really worried. "I want to go check on him but..." I lifted my gaze from my desk and looked out the window at the student car park next to us. I bit my lip.
"Look, just- just stay put for a minute, okay? I'm gonna ask my teacher if I can come get you, then I'll take you to base and you can grill Bumblebee as much as you want." He started to protest, not wanting me to miss out on important work - a sweet sentiment but it was art and we were just working on our practical assignments so I wouldn't be missing much - and after getting the okay from Mrs Fern (bless her heart) I raced outside and went to pick him up.
"Thanks, Carmen. It really means a lot."
"Hey, anytime. I know I don't get to hang out at base as much but you guys are still my friends. Plus, I'm worried for Bee too, this isn't like him." Raf grinned shyly in response and I let him have control of the stereo as we drove out of town.
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"Bumblebee's complaining of intermittent visions - waking nightmares, if you will." I anxiously crossed my arms at Ratchet's words, shooting a concerned look at the yellow 'bot standing in the chamber next to us: eyes dark and body limp.
"But you said Bee was fine when you checked him over!"
Ratchet gestured at him to ease up. "Physically, yes, but the experience he endured seems to be having a temporary effect on his psyche. This induced power-down should force Bumblebee's mind to rest and recover."
With a glance at my phone, I sighed. "I hate to go but I have to get back to class. Mrs Fern is a trusting lady and a sweetheart and I'd rather stay on her good-side." I put a hand on Raf's shoulder. "You gonna be alright?"
"I'll be fine, I have Bee and Ratchet and the other Autobots too." He nodded then looked up at me gratefully. "Thanks again. Are you gonna come back after school?"
"I work until 9 tonight but I'll swing by afterwards to come check on Bee and take you home if you want - if you're still here then, that is."
"Sounds like a plan."
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A lazy smile rested on my lips as I listened to Raf excitedly talk to his unconscious guardian, readjusting myself against the side of the chamber with my eyes closed. Ratchet's voice was actually quite gentle as he called out to the young boy. "Rafael, I'm afraid Bumblebee can't hear you in power-down mode. It's getting late. Why don't you and Carmen go home to your families?"
"Because I told Bee I'd stay. He's family, too."
The Autobot scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. You're not even the same species."
"That's being related. It's not the same thing. I'll show you." I heard him open his phone and the faint clicking of buttons before I assumed he turned it around so that Ratchet could see. "This is my family."
There was the hissing of hydraulics, probably Ratchet bending over to look at the tiny picture before standing back up with a non-committal "Mm-hmm. Very nice." I opened an eye and if he'd actually been looking in our direction and paying attention, he'd have seen my grimace telling him to 'Stop being a grouch and listen'.
Ignorant to both Ratchet's brusqueness and my frowning, the boy continued. "Very large. Sometimes I can shout and no one hears me!"
"Yes, yes, yes."
"But Bumblebee always listens." The orange and white bot paused and his face tilted in our direction. "And I can understand him. I'm not sure why, but I do." There. On his face. My eyes widened a little and a soft look of awe overtook me at what I saw. He was smiling. It was small, but it was a smile! His bright optics ventured from Raf to the mech in question before they slowly landed on me. Nothing was said but he was obviously thinking hard about something. Like a switch, the gentle, pensive look on his face was gone and he walked away back to his workstation. Didn't matter though, 'cause I still couldn't get the grin off my face.
"What about you, Carmen?"
"Hmm?"
"What's your family like?"
"My family?" I looked up at the ceiling as I let out a slow exhale through my nose. The corner of my mouth twitched up bitter-sweetly. "We're pretty close knit. Lily was only 6 when we lost our mom and I guess we've just always had a strong bond ever since... She's my little sister, y'know? Sure, she gets on my nerves sometimes, but I love spending time with her." A genuine smile slipped on to my lips. From the corner of my eyes, I could see that Ratchet's attention had been taken by our conversation again. One of his optic-ridges was quirked but I focused on finishing my answer. "I let her play with my hair, she tells me about her friends and any secrets she 'just has to tell someone'." I laughed with a shake of my head before pushing a loose strand of hair back behind my hand reached up to cover my mouth as I yawned. "Sorry...umm, uh yeah, and then there's my Dad- well, he's a bit of a goofball at times, honestly, but he takes good care of us. He's always been there for me." There was sadness on Raf's face and my expression turned empathetic. "That's not to say we're perfect though." I paused for a moment. "I… I've had to kind of take on Mom's role for a lot of things. I had to help raise my sister and just… I don't know, grow up a bit quicker I guess. Sometimes I act more like the adult than my Dad does." I remarked ruefully. "...Every family has its flaws, Raf." I nudged him with my knee before drawing it back up to my chest. "And hey, if Bee's ever busy or you need some time away from your family doing human things, just let me know." The boy-genius thanked me with a smile.
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Everything happened so quickly. Ratchet had gone off to check something in the supply vault and in those short minutes Bumblebee had somehow awoken from his shut-down, gone through the ground-bridge and came back with a shard of Dark Energon in hand. "Ratchet!" I yelled as he was flung to the side. Bumblebee stalked closer to us and I cowered, holding an arm in front of Raf to try and push him behind me.
"Bee, what are you doing?" His large hand reached out to us.
"Stay back- oof!" My left side ached as it was slammed into the computer terminals and I grappled with the wheely chair to try and stay upright.
"Bumblebee, please! I know you're in there! You have to fight whatever's making you do this!" Raf's pleas were getting further away and through my dizzied vision, I saw the yellow bot place him down on the rim of one of the massive vents before opening up a new ground-bridge. I winced and screwed my eyes shut.
"Carmen, Ratchet, are you guys okay?"
There was a rumbling groan from below the command centre platform before I saw Ratchet slowly push himself up. His optics flicked over me and I gave him a weak nod as I went to get up myself. "We're fine. More importantly, is Bumblebee? I fear the time spent in Megatron's mind is causing him to think like a Decepticon."
Raf shook his head. "Bee's not a 'con!" he protested as Ratchet moved to save him from the ledge.
"Agreed. But we need to find out exactly what Bumblebee intends to do with that shard. The only one who knew of the Dark Energon... was Megatron."
"Wait, then how did he know about it?" I asked.
"Bumblebee has Megatron's memories?"
Ratchet grimaced. "Worse. Megatron is occupying Bumblebee's mind."
"What?!" the two of us exclaimed. My mouth was agape as I watched Ratchet stride towards me.
"How could I have been such a fool? The cortical psychic patch acts as a two-way conduit." I helped Raf down from my guardian's palm in a daze, still shocked from the theory he was proposing. "When Bumblebee returned to his own mind, Megatron followed. And now Bumblebee - Megatron - has bridged to nearly the same coordinates Optimus used." The Arctic. The Arctic where the Decepticon Warship was. The Warship housing Megatron's conscious-less husk.
The ground-bridge whirled to life. "Stay here."
"No."
Ratchet spun around, eyes ablaze. "What do you mean, no?"
Bolstering the flare of confidence that had sparked within me, I put my hands on my hips, chin raised and face tight. "If you think I'm gonna let you storm the Decepticon Warship on your own then you're crazy." I jabbed a finger at him. "I'm going."
"Me too."
The orange and white Autobot sputtered for a moment. He was being ganged up on by two human children.
We were determined though. Raf for his guardian and me for mine. It was dangerous, I knew, but I just couldn't let him do this on his own. The final nail was put in the coffin when Raf added: "Bumblebee needs me."
The Autobot sighed. He held out his hand. "Of course he does." The breath I was holding rushed out in relief. He lowered his palm for us to get on and lifted us up to his wide shoulders: Raf taking right while I went left. "You stay with me at all times, understand?"
"Got it." I chimed, placing a hand against the side of his neck guard to steady myself as he moved.
"And if I tell you to run, you run. You do exactly as I say-"
"Ratchet," I interrupted and he turned his head ever so slightly to peer at me from the corner of his optics. I inclined my head with a lopsided smile. "We'll be fine." His face was neutral but his optics swirled with reluctance. I gave his shoulder a pat. "Let's go save our friend." He nodded and walked us through the ground-bridge from one base to another.
I held on tight as we landed, Ratchet's hands hovering close in case the fall jarred us off. It was significantly darker on the Nemesis but the gored bodies of Decepticon troopers were still obvious. Wires were exposed and energon leaked below them. Oh my god… "Do you think- do you think Bumblebee did this?" I whispered uneasily as we stopped before them.
"I fear Megatron's mind is dominant and clearly he came here for one purpose: to use the Dark Energon to resurrect his own body."
"No!" Raf denied. "Bumblebee won't let him, like he didn't let Megatron hurt me back at the base."
"I hope you're right." Ratchet and I shared a look as he let the two of us down. He gestured for us to wait back and tiptoed over to peek through a doorway. Not liking being so out in the open, I edged closer with Raf right on my tail. It must have been Bee. In a flash, Ratchet charged into the room. Raf and I ran up to the doorway with Raf calling out to not hurt his guardian.
Bumblebee - Megatron - easily dodged Ratchet's punches and threw him to the side.
"No!" I lurched forward, twisting around and shouting "stay here!" to Raf before dashing across the expansive room. I slid on my knees as I fell to the ground and placed my hands on his helmet. "Ratchet! Ratchet, are you okay?" I tried to shake his head for good measure though I didn't move it much. "Come on, get up. Ratchet, get up!" My head snapped around to stare in horror when I heard Raf trying to talk to the possessed bot. What is he thinking?! He's gonna get himself killed! I felt movement under my hand and I laughed in relief at being washed in familiar blue light. "Oh thank god," I breathed out and Ratchet started to push himself up when I asked, "How do you feel?"
He grunted. "As you humans would say, I'm 'peachy'."
I grinned toothily but at the sound of pained whirs and buzzes, we both looked to the centre of the room where Raf was still standing firm in front of his friend. The boy's words seemed to get through to Bumblebee but unfortunately his control didn't last and I cried out as Raf was swatted across the floor. Before I knew it, Ratchet was up and pulling cables out of Megatron's chest only to be smacked away again, and a pit enveloped me while watching it all go down.
It was like I wasn't there- that it wasn't real.
Raf was clinging to the cortical psychic patch for dear life. Vibrations from the struggles ricocheted across my skin, hairs on end, and all I could feel was a burrowing hopelessness. Useless. Everything was moving so fast yet so slow all at the same time. Except for me. I couldn't move. I need to move. Do something.
With a violent twist, Raf was suddenly in the air.
DO SOMETHING!
Kickstarted into gear, I ran ahead of him with my arms out. We collided with a yelp as my knees buckled, throwing us on the hard floor with him half over me. Raf rolled off and fixed the glasses on his face. "Good catch." He stated shakily.
"Thanks." I puffed, "No-...problem." I slowly pulled myself up, pushing Raf up and behind me at the very big problem that was getting taller and taller as it rose off of the metal slab.
Megatron.
He truly was more terrifying than I ever could have imagined. Spikes on his shoulders, claws sharpened to a deadly point, and a scowl so fierce it was no wonder why he was so feared.
"Decepticons!" His deep, menacing voice bellowed throughout the room. "Your rightful lord and master has returned." His footsteps were like thunder as he stalked past us. Cold fear filled me when he ordered the troops now standing at the door to "finish these pests" with only a sparing glance before leaving.
I was grabbed up and covered my head as we tried to escape, dodging blaster fire left and right. Hallways blurred together, all of them looking the same as we took corner after corner.
"This way!"
A few more turns and then an opening of blinding sunlight greeted us. We finally came to a stop at the edge of the ship, and although there was a slight chill to the air, I was surprised at how warm it was considering all I could see was ice. Ice that, I realised with unease, was either formed into large cliffs or very, very far down below us. "How the hell are we gonna get down?!"
"Hold on tight."
I followed his eye-line down to a towering mass of ice just out from under the ship. I gawked at him. "Woah, wait, Ratchet, no no n-aaahhhh!" I screamed as we began to free-fall. My ponytail was up above my head and I could have sworn my stomach was up there too. There was a loud crack as the two Autobots landed and my teeth clacked together at the sudden stop. I had Ratchet's fingers in a death-grip as I desperately took in gulps of air. "Holy shit. Hooooooly shit!"
"Language." Ratchet chided with a gentle jostle of his hand and I groaned in protest.
"Oh don't- no, no don't- ugh, I'm gonna be sick if you keep shaking me like- like that. Ugh."
"Are you okay, Carmen?" Raf called out and I gave him the best deadpan I could manage at that moment: not a very good one but it got my point across. His glasses were crooked on his face and I marveled at how they hadn't gone flying off with how fast we were falling.
I let my head clang against the cool metal of Ratchet's fingers. "Never doing that again."
"We still have to get down, you know." His tone was smug but before I could do anything I was being moved to his shoulder and we started scaling down the icy cliff-face.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I accused, eyes screwed shut so I couldn't see the expansive drop below us. And although Ratchet didn't say anything, I just knew he would have been smirking to himself.
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Thwack!
I wiped the snow from my face with amused shock and let out a laugh.
"Oh, you're in for it now, Raf!" I grinned before bending down and scooping up a handful of snow. Well, it was more like crushed ice that the Autobots had made by walking around but it made a nice substitute for our snowballs. I chucked it and he dodged easily and soon we were having a mini snowball fight while waiting for Agent Fowler to get to base so he could bridge us home. One of mine managed to get him on his back as he was distracted by Bumblebee saying something.
"Hey, no fair!" he laughed and I laughed along with him.
"All is fair in snow and war!"
The boy just shook his head. He had the biggest smile on his face as he explained to his concerned guardian why we were 'attacking' each other with clumps of ice. "They're snowballs. I've never been to the snow before and it's just as fun as tv and movies make it out to be."
Packing another ball together, I closed one eye, lined it up and threw it. Not only did it go wide because I was honestly a terrible shot but it smacked against Bumblebee's foot. I covered my mouth at the surprised noise he made and the confused look on his face as he stared down at the slushy remains. "Aww." Coughs peppered my laugh but not for long. My eyes went wide as the yellow bot reached down, hefted up a Cybertronian handful of crushed ice and then dumped it on top of me. My startled cry was muffled as it covered me and I fell flat on my butt. I stuck my head out and shivered. "Hoo, that's cold."
"Alright, that's enough."
Metal fingers were soon in front of me and I held on to them to help get out of the snow pile. Bumblebee trilled in worry. "I'm fine, Bee, Ratchet's just overreacting."
"'Overreacting'? Puh!" He huffed and as soon as I was free, he put one hand on his hip and gestured with the other. "Go on then, continue being buried in ice. But when you catch a 'cold', as you humans call it, don't say I didn't warn you."
Another shiver racked my body. Not only was the ice cold but without the telescope lens heating things up anymore, the Arctic was gradually going back to its normal, frigid temperature. I could feel every icy breath stretch across my lungs. I peeked up at Ratchet in bashful admittance. "Good call."
He 'hmf'ed as if to say 'Yes, it is a good call, glad you came to your senses'. I shook my head with a smile and looked out over the expanse of frozen wasteland around us. How many people can say they've been to the Arctic? As I let my thoughts wander, they started to focus on the creeping tightness in my chest and how I would need to grab my inhaler as soon as we got back. How much longer would Agent Fowler take to get to base? How much longer until I could get back indoors where it was warm-
A loud sigh and then the familiar sound of transformation brought me back to reality. I twisted my torso to look at the ambulance now parked next to me with the door swinging open. I just stared at it for a moment, not quite understanding what Ratchet was doing. "Well? Are you getting in or not?" he snarked, and with a brief glance at the others who were chatting amongst themselves, I shuffled over and hopped inside. The heaters switched on as the door shut behind me and I slumped against the seat in relief.
"That's much better. Thank you."
Ratchet grumbled. "...Don't mention it."
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"Achoo!"
There was a clang from Ratchet's lab.
"I told you!"