BEFORE YOU READ:
WARNING: This story is set to be extremely dark. This story will deal with depression, violence, agony, language, suicide, and gore. If any of these topics is a trigger for you DO NOT proceed on.
I repeat if you have reservations about any of the warning topics listed DO NOT proceed on.
You have been warned. Proceed under your own discretion.
There are times in life when we are tried. Sometimes the trials are easy, we go through them without really any affect. Then there are times when we are hurt, broken, and have rebuild ourselves from a trial, a traumatic experience that leaves us for ever changed.
When these times occur, we either learn from them, move forward, and rebuild our lives into something more beautiful then it was before. Or. We die. We succumb to the darkness until it consumes us. Dropping us into a vast chasm with no way out.
It's a fine line we walk between depression and acceptation. Between falling and flying. Between hurt and healing.
…
Jack was your normal teenage boy. School, work, a crush… all that change about two years ago when he met Arcee. A Cybertronian from another planet, an alien. In the past two years he had grown quite close to Arcee and the other Autobots. They were like family to him.
He watched them go through the struggles of war, seeing them injured, defeated, but also victorious. They never seemed worse for ware, almost as if all the battles and injuries meant nothing. If anything, it seemed to drive them further, harder.
Jack, along with Miko and Raph, had been involved in a few of the fights. Even at times finding themselves in dangerous situations. But no matter, when or where, their partners always showed up to save them.
Perhaps Jack had let his guard down, perhaps he had just gotten secure in the feeling that Arcee would always be there to save him. Whatever it was, it was a mistake. A mistake that would change his life forever.
Jack was working on his bike. The two wheeled peddle bike had rusted slightly over the past few months of not being used. The chain had seized, and the hand brakes were slow to respond. He hummed to himself while he worked. Arcee had dropped him off at home, and he was taking the few minutes to himself. His mom would be home shortly, and he enjoyed the quiet moments in between the fast-paced life with the Autobots, school, and work.
...
Airachnid growled, hissing as acid dripped from her mouth. She stared at the Darby's house. She had spent the last few months tracking down Jacks movements. She had followed him home a few times. She had been careful and calculating. She couldn't let Arcee see her, not that she wouldn't jump at the chance to take Arcee down, painfully of course, but right now she had another plan.
She crouched down a little lower on her extra legs. She narrowed her eyes. She could sense Jack inside the garage, his heat signature emitting like a fire on an artic island. She slowly crept toward the house. Arcee had been gone for over an hour now and she could only assume she wasn't coming back, based on her observations of the past few days.
...
Jack shuddered. "Whoa. Odd."
He walked over to the garage thermostat. It was set to a warm 70F. With the spring weather outside being a cooler 40F. He tapped the thermostat. His mom had a rule of nothing over 70F, but something was sending a chill through Jacks body. He went to press the button to up the temperature when a noise outside caught his attention. He quickly drew his hand away.
"Mom? Your home…"
Jack pressed the button to open the garage door. He froze as a metal hand reached under the opening garage door. Jack backed away slowly. The hand didn't look like Arcee's.
"Well hello my Jack."
Jack's heart stopped; he felt a cold shiver run from his toes to his head.
"Airachnid?"
He whispered. He looked around him for anything, any weapon. The garage door screeched and crunched as Airachnid pulled it upward. It dented from her grasp and grinding from the bent gears.
Airachnid chortled when the door had finally opened fully. Jack had backed himself into a corner, there was no where to go. Nothing to fight back with. He glanced at the door to the house. He reached down to his pocket. His cellphone? It was on his nightstand.
"You are coming with me Jack. I have plans for you. To bad your mother and Arcee aren't here to save you."
Jack narrowed his eyes, clenching his fists he made a run for the door. Airachnid let him almost reach the door before she spat out acid in his direction. Jack yelped when the acid hit the concrete step and splashed on his leg.
"Now Jack, you aren't going to make this hard on me, are you?"
Jack turned his attention to her. The acid was slowly eating away at the cement step and into the floor.
"What do you want?"
He growled through gritted teeth. His right leg was burning from the acid splash, small welts were already forming and visible through the acid eaten holes in his jeans.
"Why you Jack. Afterall you destroyed my ship and have interfered to many times with my goals. This time you are my goal. I want something from you."
She lowered herself into her bi-pedal form. Crouching under the garage door. Jack was wide eyed. Why had he left his cellphone inside? That was stupid! He desperately looked around the garage. Airachnid inched closer. Her hands held up.
"Arcee won't save you this time."
Airachnid's hand glowed as the web shot from them. Jack held up his hands over his face as the webbing covered him. He felt this body lifted up and carried for a few feet before the sound of helicopter blade hit his ears. This wasn't good.
...
Jack had no idea how long he was in the air; he couldn't move in the sticky web. His arm had fallen asleep from the position it was stuck in. The air seeping into the webbing made his leg burn more. His mind was a whirlwind. How was he supposed to call for help? He hoped his mother would arrive home soon and see the acid eaten steps…that is if she even went into the garage. His only hope was that she would see the light on and go to check for Jack.
His thinking was brought to an abrupt stop when he heard something snap. All the oxygen left him. He was falling. His body smacked off the ground with a sickening thud. He groaned loudly. Luckily it would seem the webbing had prevented any bones from breaking, but the bruising was sure to be real.
Jack blinked, there appeared to be a dim light he could just vaguely see through the web.
"We're here."
He heard Airachnid's voice. He saw her shadow lean down and remove the web from around him. He blinked looking around. He didn't have time to react to anything as Airachnid picked him up and webbed him in a Y. Both his arms hung at a vertical, his legs tied to the ground. His heart rate was speeding up, he could hear it in his ears.
"What the hell do you want form me?"
Jack shouted at her. Airachnid seemed unphased by him.
"Information. I want to know where Arcee is. I want to know where they all are."
Jack shook his head. "I will never tell you anything."
Airachnid laughed. "Oh, you will. I have tortured Cybertronian warriors, much tougher then you who spilled everything to me, right before I killed them."
Jack blinked quickly, his shoulders heaving. "You will have to kill me before I give you Arcee's location."
Airachnid turned to him. "Oh, I want to know where they all are. I want to kill each one of them slowly, and painfully. Let Arcee hear them scream then when they are all dead, kill her."
Jack shook his head. "You're insane."
Airachnid hissed. She approached Jack. She smiled evilly. Taking her one finger and running it across her lips. Jack felt his hands shaking. Acid. Her finger had the yellow-green acid on its tip. She pointed her finger toward Jack.
Jack shook his head quickly. He refused to beg for mercy. He refused to plead for her to stop. Airachnid placed her acid tipped finger on Jacks head, scrapping it down across his face. Jack cringed; he gritted his teeth together. He stopped breathing. He couldn't scream, he couldn't give her that satisfaction.
Airachnid swiped her finger slowly, the acid burning the humans skin from the corner of his head to the opposite corner of his cheek. She felt Jack jolting and twitching as her finger passed over his eye. His skin bubbled and curled. The smell of his burning flesh was nauseating but sweet at the same time. She smiled as his skin sizzled. Her finger left his face. Jack was breathing heavily now.
His face felt like someone had set it on fire. He kept both his eyes closed. His whole body shook. He could smell his skin burning, feel it bubbling, small trickles of warm blood ran down his face.
"That is just a taste Jack. If you don't cooperate. It will become more and more painful."
Jack cringed, he tried to open his eyes. His right eye seemed to be welded shut. He was too painful to open.
"Bring it." He winced. Though he didn't mean it by any means. Right now, he was tempted to talk but he couldn't, he couldn't tell them. If Optimus were to be killed the Decepticons would win and take over earth. He dropped his head. His gut twisting at the smell and pain. How much of this would he endure? Where was Arcee?