Chapter 11
My eyes lazily opened and I became aware of a breathing respirator sound. I heard the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor and I realized that I was either in a med bay or in a hospital. My eyes closed again and I let the sounds bring me back to sleep.
I woke up again, but this time it was to the sound of a chair scrapping against the floor. I realized that the respirator had been removed from my throat and I was breathing by myself once again. I looked to my left and saw Agent Fowler sitting on a chair holding his hands in between his legs as he leaned forward. "Where am I?" I whispered hoarsely.
"You're in the med bay at Hanger E," Agent Fowler answered. "You're up earlier than you should be."
"How long have I been out?" I asked.
"A couple of days," Agent Fowler said still not looking at me.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Why won't you look at me?"
"We lost him, Beau."
Confusion ran through me at that statement. Lost who? I thought. "Who did we lose?" I asked.
"Silas, he managed to slip away when you collapsed," Fowler answered bitterly. "Some of his agents slipped into the room that everyone was in and spirited him away."
My eyes closed in frustration and I silently cursed inside my head. "That raid was for nothing?" I asked.
"We almost had him, Beau," Agent Fowler said.
"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!" I snapped.
Agent Fowler sighed and leaned back into the chair and finally looked at me. "You actually died on us, Beau," he said.
"I can't believe…" I started to snap again and then those words sunk in. "Wait, what?"
"You were dead, Beau," Agent Fowler repeated. "You died on route back to the base here. The doctors were able to revive you after three minutes of trying."
I was stunned, absolutely floored. I had died! "How long…how long was I dead for?" I managed to ask.
"Roughly six minutes," Fowler answered.
I shook my head and I tried moving my right prosthetic, only to realize that there was nothing there. "Where's my prosthetic?" I asked.
"Getting an upgrade."
"What sort of upgrade?"
"We're taking one of the knives out and making the prosthetic the same density and weight as a human forearm would be. We're also making it so that there will be a plasma cutter in there if you need it. Instead of a panel that you need to open, you'll be able to control it with a control board on your other forearm," Fowler answered.
I sighed and closed my eyes again. I opened them after a couple of seconds and asked, "When can I get out of here?"
"Today."
"Good."
Two hours later…
I was out of the hospital gown and in jeans standing shirtless in the room's bathroom. There was a cut on my abdomen and I knew that was going to make a nasty scar, no thanks to my adoptive father. I still couldn't believe that he had done that. I slipped on a shirt and winced as the stiches sealing the cut stretched. I had my prosthetic back on and firmly reattached and I still didn't know about this control board that Agent Fowler kept telling me about. IF I wanted the control board I would want it on the prosthetic like it had been. I decided that I would switch it out myself later on and exited the bathroom.
Agent Fowler was standing there waiting for me and he asked, "Are you ready to leave?"
"Ready as I'll ever be at the moment," I answered.
Agent Fowler led me out of the room and down a hallway. We walked out of the hospital area and towards a helicopter waiting for us on the pad. "The doctors told me that your stiches will dissolve into your body," Fowler said.
"Okay," I said as we stopped in front of the helicopter. "Am I going home or to the Autobot base?"
"Depends on where you want to go."
I sighed and ran the prosthetic through my hair and thought it over. "The base," I said.
"I was hoping that you'd say that," Agent Fowler said with a smile. He walked away from the helicopter and I frowned. I followed him behind Hangar E and there waiting for us was a ground bridge.
I shook my head and smiled at the special agent. "You sly son of a bitch," I said good-naturedly. "You had this all planned out, didn't you?"
"Just a little bit," Agent Fowler replied chuckling. "Come on, kid, lets get through before the 'bots get worried that you didn't want to see them."
"Well, I wouldn't want that to happen," I said chuckling slightly.
Agent Fowler motioned for an "After you" type thing and I only nodded. I approached the swirling greenish vortex and walked through it. I was soon in the familiar surroundings of the Autobot base and all of the Autobots were there, along with their charges and June Darby.
"Hey, guys," I greeted stopping.
"Beau!" Raf called running up to me. He embraced me and I grunted in pain. Raf looked up at me and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Not really, but it's fine," I said patting Raf's head.
Everyone and every bot, I suppose, approached me and surrounded me. I only now realized that Agent Fowler did not follow me through the ground bridge. That man is going to get a giant hug from me whether he wants it or not! I thought.
"So what happened?" Miko asked.
My face fell and I shook my head once. Miko got the message and I excused myself from the group and headed towards the elevator. I entered it and went topside. I sat down and placed my feet over the ledge of the rock. I closed my eyes and let myself just sit in the silence.
"Are you okay?"
I turned my head and saw Flare standing behind me apprehensively and I nodded. "I'm fine, why?" I lied.
"Beau," Flare warned.
"Fine, I'm not all right, okay? I'm pissed, scared, sad, and hurt," I said. "Happy now?"
Flare sighed and came towards me and sat down next to me. "What happened?"
"Fowler didn't tell you?" I asked.
"No, he didn't," Flare answered.
"It's a long story," I said.
"We have all day," Flare said as she walked to where I was sitting and sat down next to me.
I sighed and looked back at the horizon. "To give you the short summary, Silas almost killed me," I said.
"What!" Flare exclaimed.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly and evenly. I now oddly felt at peace, and I did not know why. I turned my head to where my guardian sat and opened my eyes. I told her everything that had happened while we attacked the base that MECH had been occupying. I told her how I was sent in to infiltrate it by myself and find my adoptive father by myself. I told her of how I had found him and fought him. I finished by telling her that as we had him cornered, he threw the blade back at me and got me in the gut. "Everyone tried to tell me, Flare," I said. "I didn't believe you until that moment. Silas has lost all of his humanity and morals in his quest for power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, I guess."
Flare looked me in the eyes and asked, "Are you certain that you're alright?"
"No," I said honestly. "But the more that I have been able to think about this, the more that I believe down in my heart that the only way to stop him will be to kill him."
"That might be the only way," Flare agreed. "But do not lose hope, Beau, because if you lose that then you have nothing."
I nodded my agreement with that and asked, "Flare, why hasn't Optimus killed Megatron yet?"
"That I cannot answer," Flare answered. "I think that it is mainly because deep inside of his spark, Optimus still believes that Megatron can be reasoned with."
"So he still holds onto hope that Megatron still has some good in him?" I asked.
"Something like that."
"Okay," I said. "I guess that means that there might be a thing to hold onto, right?"
Flare only shook her head, "No, Beau, there isn't when it comes to Megatron."
"Oh."
"Let's get you back down to your welcome back party," Flare said standing up.
I followed suit and followed Flare back inside the base.
Throughout the party I was able to feign a smile and happiness, but on the inside all I felt was darkness and self-loathing. When the party was being brought to an end, Jack, Raf, and Miko approached me with an oddly shaped gift that was about three and a half feet to four feet long. I cocked my head to the side and the trio stopped in front of me.
"We got this for you," Jack said holding the gift forward.
"We think that you'll enjoy it," Raf piped in.
"Yeah, it's totally rad!" Miko said making her rock sign.
I accepted the gift and felt the lightness of the gift for the size of it. I opened it from the top and saw six tuning pegs staring back at me. They were an ivory color too and it said Gibson in bold, golden letters on the red headstock. "You bought me a Gibson guitar?" I asked in bewilderment.
"A Les Paul, actually," Jack said rubbing the back of his head.
I looked up at the trio in shock. I pulled the rest of the wrapping off and saw that the neck of the guitar was all black and so was the body. The bridge was red and so were the three pickups. The four knobs, two volume and two tuning, were clear and the selector switch was red as well. The whammy bar was black and I was floored. "How were you able to afford this?" I demanded.
"Fowler actually helped us pay for it," Miko answered.
"Really?" I asked in shock.
"Really," Raf said nodding.
"BRB," Miko said running off.
"Where is she running off to?" I asked looking at the two boys.
"Who knows?" Jack asked.
Miko came back within a couple of minutes with a small amp and a cord for me to plug the Les Paul in. "Come on, Beau, give er a whirl!" Miko said enthusiastically.
"I'm not su…" I started.
"Please…." Miko begged.
I sighed and looked Miko in the eyes. "Fine," I relented.
"Sweet!" Miko exclaimed doing a little fist pump.
I plugged the guitar in and did a couple of test strums. I loved the sound of the guitar and could see why guitar legends, like Slash, Eric Clapton, Alex Liefson, Randy Rhoades, and Jimmy Page. I started strumming randomly and that soon turned into me playing "Seven Nation Army," by the White Stripes. I got to the solo and absolutely nailed it! I finished the song and looked at my audience.
"Ah, come on," Miko complained. "You're not going to sing?"
I chuckled and shook my head in amusement. "I'm not sure that you want to hear me sing."
"We've heard you sing before," Flare pointed out.
I smiled and shook my head, "That was when I thought I had gotten away from you people."
"You still sang very well," Flare said.
"Touché," I said.
"Please, just one song," Miko said. "If you don't like it then stop. IF you like it then please keep going."
"Fine," I said another smile tugging at my lips. "You've convinced me."
I changed the tuning of one of the strings on the Les Paul and started playing the intro to "Sound of Madness," by Shinedown. When I got to the appropriate place I started to sing: Yeah, I get it,
You're an outcast./Always under attack. Always coming in last,/Bringing up the past. No one owes you anything. Think you need a shotgun blast, a kick in the ass,/So paranoid. . .Watch your back!Oh my, here we go...Another loose cannon gone bi-polar/Slipped down, couldn't get much lower. Quicksand's got no sense of humor./I'm still laughing like hell./You think that by crying to me Looking so sorry that I'm gonna believe,/You've been infected by a social disease./Well, then take your medicine./I created the Sound of Madness./Wrote the book on pain./Somehow I'm still here, To explain, that the darkest hour never comes in the night. You can sleep with a gun./When you gonna wake up and fight... for yourself?/I'm so sick of this tombstone mentality,/If there's an afterlife, then it'll set you free./But I'm not gonna part the seas you're a self-fulfilling prophecy./You think that crying to me, looking so sorry that I'm gonna believe,/You've been infected by a social disease./Well, then take your medicine./I created the Sound of Madness./Wrote the book on pain./Somehow I'm still here,/To explain that the darkest hour never comes in the night/You can sleep with a gun./When you gonna wake up.../When you gonna wake up and fight.../When you gonna wake up and fight... for yourself?/When you gonna wake up and fight…for yourself?/When you gonna wake up and fight…for yourself?/When you gonna wake up and fight…for yourself? I played the outro and finished the song. Everyone clapped for me and I just dipped my head in appreciation. People have told me that my singing voice is a mix of Ivan Moody and Brent Smith. I agreed with them when I heard myself sing, but that was seldom to never. I only sang for special occasions or when I felt like I needed the release. Apparently this was both of those situations. "That's all I've got for you today," I said. Miko opened her mouth and I raised my prosthetic to keep her quiet. "I don't feel like singing any more and I would actually like to go home."
"About that," Flare started.
"What?" I asked.
"You can't go back home, MECH now knows where you live."