Convergence
Chapter 3
Jodi drifted awake as if dragged in on an incoming tide, slow, groggy and cold. There was a throb in her temple and a numbness to her limbs and there was one wild moment where she wondered if she had somehow landed herself in Medbay. Her head rolled to the side, neck stiff and uncomfortable, leaving her wondering why they let her fall asleep sitting up.
A very human whimper and soft sobbing snapped her rudely into awareness, the sound driving her to move, to react. A pained gasp burst from her lungs as her sudden lurch forward strained her shoulders, forcing her to pause to take stock.
She was sitting up because someone had dragged her against a wall and pinned her arms up and over her head. Her wrists were wrapped snugly with something rough and scratchy, pinning her where she could rotate her hands and clasp her fingers together, but not much else. She was cold because she was sitting on a bare dirt floor and some asshole had taken her jacket, the loose material of her overshirt doing little to make up for its loss. Her back was pressed against a solid wall, the chill of the stone seeping like ice through her clothes. Her feet were free and a small roll of her ankle confirmed that her pocket knife was still stashed in her boot.
Okay.
Jodi forced herself to breathe, deep, slow, and deliberate, to keep her growing panic at bay. She dropped her chin just to feel the bite of the chain still around her neck, the alloy tags clinking softly with the motion.
'Cade will come, she told herself with conviction, the tightness in her chest easing just a fraction.
She wasn't completely helpless, and Barricade would use the tracking device imbedded in her dog tags hunt her down, if he wasn't already.
That was something at least, but she would prefer not waiting around to be saved. That rarely worked out for the best.
"Oh god I don't want to die here, please-" the voice choked itself off with more sobs, reminding Jodi she wasn't alone.
The light was dim, but Jodi could see the the form of a woman trussed up just like Jodi, not even five feet away. Her knees were tucked up as high as they could go and her face was smothered against her shoulder, attempting to muffle her noise.
Jodi swallowed around the lump in her throat to whisper a soft, "Hey."
The woman flinched, whole body shaking, but her head lifted. Silvery streaks glinted in the dim light, and her eyes were watery.
The words 'are you okay' seemed a stupid thing to ask, so she didn't. "Where are we?"
"Doesn't even matter." She gave a sniffle, and Jodi pegged her as someone closer to Riley's age than her own. "It's too far for anyone to come. You can scream, and scream and no one hears."
That was so not comforting.
As her mind whirled to further analyze their situation, Jodi tested her bonds and grimaced when the rope held firm.
There was no telling how long she had been out, but it couldn't have been that long, given she still had full feeling in all her fingers. Maybe not even long enough for Barricade to realize she was missing, and she really, really needed get out of here before that happened if that was the case. He wouldn't wait around for the Autobots to give him the go ahead and, probation or not, he wouldn't be concerned by any resulting collateral if push came to shove.
She needed to find a way out before that happened or they were back to square one.
There was a loud thump overhead and the woman next to buried her face back into her arm with a muffled wail. Across the room a shaft of light illuminated a dusty wooden stairwell, telling Jodi they were in some sort of basement. Or a cellar. A handful of bare light bulbs flickered on, bathing the room in sickly yellow light.
By the time there were actual steps on the stairs, the woman was reduced to straight up sobbing.
Jodi swallowed hard and clung to her courage, desperately ignoring that cold tendril of fear that was rising, normally buried deep her heart. She had conquered her fear before, pushing through conditioned reactions and her terror to survive in tight situations. She had faced Decepticons on two separate occasions with no training, and little to nothing by way of weapons. Granted, she barely survived by the skin of her teeth on both of those occasions, but she had survived.
A couple of homicidal humans weren't half as scary as Soundwave leveling a plasma cannon at her face.
She could handle this. She could.
She had to.
Deep breath in. Hold. Deep breath out.
Legs slowly came into view, stepping backwards and dragging the limp form of a body.
That tendril of fear gave a painful squeeze, the throb in her temple increasing as her pulse quickened.
Jodi forced herself to take in the details, to commit them to memory. She could hear Riley's voice in the back of her mind telling her to repeat what she saw to herself, to help the details stick. If, when, she got free, she wanted this bastard to go down. She wanted to provide as much accurate info as she could.
The guy doing the dragging looked normal enough, if slightly unkempt. Brown hair, possibly dark blonde, the lighting made it hard to tell. It was cut short but a bit scruffy and there was stubble that clearly hadn't seen a razor in a couple of days. Prominent nose that had an arch to it that suggested a break at some point of his life. Shorter than Barricade's holoform, but easily taller than Riley. The heavy clothes were worn in places but of good quality. Dark jeans, thermal, heavy hunting jacket.
When he hit the landing the body was dropped unceremoniously on the floor and Jodi's heart leapt into her throat when the head rolled to the side, revealing a bloodied face.
It was Agent Townsend.
The man, their captor, swore under his breath before leaning to shout back up the stairwell. "Are you going to come help me with the big one or not?"
The woman next to her was now muttering to herself whenever she had the breath. All Jodi could hear was "no no no no" and "stay away, please no".
A second figure shuffled down the stairs and for a long moment Jodi wondered if her implant was glitching.
Logically, she knew that the thing coming down into the basement could be human. There were two arms, two legs, hands, fingers and bare toes, and a face with all the basic features. There were articles all over the internet filled with people who were born with mutations and genetic defects. But with this, the way everything was put together was strewn with a deep sense of wrong. The limbs were elongated to the point of looking like soft clay that had been stretched a tad too far, the calves, and forearms disproportionate to the rest of the body. The face had that same sense of wrongness, the eyes too large and too luminous in the dim light, the rest of the features were both too sharp and too thin.
Jodi realized that this must have been what had attacked her back in the hotel room.
It could have been human. It dressed like a human, it wore a baggy shirt and pants, but Jodi knew, down to her very foundations, that this thing wasn't natural.
It was a frightening thing when she realized that every Autobot she had ever met with a Holoform could pull off a more convincing human.
It, he, it looked male, scowled a bit at the man even as he began grabbing Agent Townsend's legs. "If you hadn't been greedy about grabbing a second donor, we wouldn't have to worry about him waking in the first place."
He huffed in response as he hooked his hands under the armpits, team lifting the massive amounts of deadweight. "This close to completing father's work, I didn't think we could afford to let anything pass us by. Excuse me for being thorough."
They carried Agent Townsend against the support beam closest to Jodi, one of them propping him up while the other secured his hands. If he struggled too much it would be easy for him to pop his shoulder right out of it's socket. At least she could tell he was actually breathing now that he was closer.
Handy work finished, the creature snatched a handful of floppy hair and lifted his face for inspection. Jodi's gut twisted as it sniffed him, as casual as a dog sniffing a tree. "This one smells sharp I'll give you that, but then again so did the first one. I don't know how helpful you expect him to be." He let the man's head flop back onto his chest.
"What about the girl?"
Two pairs of eyes turned to Jodi.
Her lungs stopped working, her whole body paralyzed under weight of their combined stare.
"Thought you drugged her."
"I did."
The creature scoffed as he stepped closer. "Obviously not nearly enough."
"I gave her the same dose as the big guy. I'm telling you she should still be out, unless she has some sort of freaky metabolism."
A low hum was his only response to that.
Long limbs brought him right into Jodi's space, and it was all she could do to shrink back against the wall, knowing there wasn't anywhere for her to actually hide. Her heart thundered behind her ribs, and her chest heaved, her lungs demanding more air than she was giving it. She grit her teeth against a whimper as spindly fingers grabbed the dark mess of her ponytail and pulled, wrenching her head up and back, exposing her throat.
Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.
Air moved against her neck and she knew it was breathing in her scent.
That twisting sensation in her gut turned into a full nauseous roiling.
"She smells different than the others. Almost like ozone." Jodi tried to yank her head away as he traced the scar over her right eye, the pad of his fingers prodding the skin, in response the grip tightened, forcing her in place. He held her eyelid open wider. "And she's partially blind. No matter. Vision has no effect on the quality of the blood."
The other man clapped his hands together, dusting them off. "Well, now that we have the newbies settled, shall we go prep the workshop? We have a lot of work to do before we test the samples."
"Of course."
Jodi swallowed hard when she was released, the pounding of her heart deafening to her own ears. The woman next to her cried a little harder as her bonds were checked, but was otherwise left alone.
They left together, feet making the old wood of the stairs creak and groan under protest. There were a few more muffled thumps once they were out of sight and then nothing as they moved out of earshot.
The woman slowly quieted herself, once more reduced to silent tears.
Jodi wondered how long the poor woman had been down here, wondered how long they had kept the other two before they were dumped in the river, bloodless and carved up. Oh, god. Jodi prayed that she wouldn't meet the same fate when this was all said and done.
Of course then her mind drifted to Lia, and the condition Barricade and the Autobots had found her in, broken, bloody, and hysterical. Small miracle that she didn't remember anything.
But she had been alive.
Quite frankly, neither outcome was appealing.
Jodi really, really needed to get out of here.
Several long minutes dragged by and Jodi was just getting her breathing back under control when a soft groan signaled Agent Townsend's return to consciousness.
"Welcome to the party."
Clearly still groggy, he blinked in her direction, then promptly screwed his eyes shut as he winced. "Oh god, what the hell did I get hit with?"
That startled a shaky laugh out of Jodi. "Nice to know I'm not the only one with a throbbing skull." She took one more slow breath to even out her voice further. "It was a brick, by the way. And then our hosts apparently drugged us with . . . something."
"Great. That would probably explain the nausea." He visibly swallowed before tentatively opening his eyes again. "Or I have a concussion. How many are there?"
"Just two. No, wait." Jodi twisted towards the woman, gaining her attention. "Hey, creepy guy mentioned something about their father. Have you actually seen the guy?"
Her eyes widened like a frightened deer, but she vehemently shook her head. Okay . . .
"We'll assume that it's just the two of them for now." He twisted a bit, testing his bonds like Jodi had not even thirty minutes ago. He sighed when they wouldn't budge before getting a good look at their roommate. His expression softened a bit, becoming reassuring. Jodi had seen Riley do the same thing with a traumatized victim on the rare occasion she had seen him and Prowl working. "I'm Sam. What's your name?"
Jodi noted the lack of the FBI title but said nothing.
"Renee." Her voice was as shaky as it had been earlier, weak and trembling, but she seemed a little more focused. "Renee Hawthorne."
"I'm going to get you out of here, Renee. Okay?"
Her attention flicked between the two of them, watery eyes clearly unconvinced. "One of the others said that too. Andrew. But they took him upstairs and never brought him back. We heard him screaming and screaming. And then he stopped. The others screamed when they were taken away too." Those eyes came to rest on Jodi, fully taking her in for the first time. "I didn't know they took children too."
Irritation flared, red hot, and Jodi clung to the embers to help drown out the remaining fear. "I'm seventeen."
Sam gave her an evaluating look but didn't comment about her age.
Renee's lips twitched in an almost-smile. "You sound like me at your age. And who are you?"
"Jodi."
"I'm sure you're parents are worried sick."
"Hard for them to do that when they're dead," Jodi ground out. Shit, she didn't mean to say that. Renee couldn't have known, and there was no point getting pissed off when she was just trying to be nice. Her head thunked back against the wall as she reigned in her temper. "Sorry. You didn't know. But I do have people looking for me, if they're not already."
"Are they the ones who taught you to fight?"
Jodi turned to Sam. "What?"
"At the motel. That wasn't basic self defense."
"Um, yeah." That's right. She had spotted him with gun in hand during her scuffle. She had never been so grateful for 'Cade and Prowl's sparring sessions as she had in that moment, her automatic response drilled into her by two teachers who were both bigger, faster and stronger than her. She remembered breaking free of a hold and darting out of the way to give him a clean line of fire. she remembered shots going off and then the memory got hazy. Wait . . . "You saw it right? What attacked me?"
"I did."
"What the fuck is it? I know you shot it, but it sure as hell ain't acting like it. Either you're a shitty shot or its immune to bullets."
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it before." There's that evaluating look again. "You're awfully calm, all things considered."
Jodi didn't feel calm. Her head still throbbed, and her she felt about as mentally stable as a cracked vase, one good shove away from shattering. She snorted. "I told you I had a broad definition of strange. I take it this is just another day in the office for you."
He gave tilted his head from side to side, almost like a considering shrug. "Something like that."
"So whats the grand plan to get us out?"
"I'm working on it. Give me a minute."
Well screw that.
Hoping she was flexible enough for what she had in mind, Jodi twisted her legs, scraping the outside of her right boot against the toe of the other. She repeted the motion over and over until she felt her pocket knife loosen from it's hiding spot.
Renee's eyes were huge. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to het us the hell outta here," Jodi grunted, squirming around until her fingers found solid purchase on the ropes that bound her wrist together. She adjusted her grip and pulled up enough to get her left leg under her, weight balanced on the ball of her foot. Jodi took a long, deep breath kicked off and heaved, folding her body and lifting her leg up and over her head and tapping her boot against the wall until there was a shift against her ankle. She let go with one hand, palm up and spread her fingers wide.
She grinned when the familiar grip of her little folded knife dropped right into her waiting hand.
Yes!
Jodi plopped her but back down on the floor and gave a little laugh.
"What were you . . ." Renee's voice trailed off and ended with a fearful gasp when there was the soft thump thump thump of approaching footsteps. "Oh god, no, no, no . . ."
Jodi's elation withered and died. Knowing she didn't have time to cut herself free, much less the others, she tried to hide the knife as best she could, tucking it in the hollow of her palm, and closing her fingers tightly over it.
Renee's eyes were wild when their captors came back, sending her scrambling back as much as she possibly could. Sam's face grew grim upon seeing Renee's mounting panic. He turned as much as he was able, trying to get a glimpse of them, there was worry there, but he was staying calm.
Jodi wondered how calm he would be if he saw the wicked looking dagger one of them was carrying.
"You mind testing the newbies while I prep the other one for harvest?"
The long-limbed thing accepted the offered dagger, a sharp edged grin creeping across his face. "My pleasure."
Something curdled within her at the word "harvest".
The words sent Renee into a wild fit. She thrashed wildly, uncaring of the damage she was doing to already raw skin, screams of "no no, please don't do this, no" rising higher and higher in pitch as she kicked out as the man approached. He loosened her bonds enough to free her from the wall, dragging her towards the stair.
Her face was on fire as she was dragged into the bathroom by her hair, Uncle David's eyes cold as he smothered her screams.
Jodi was frozen in dread and horror, memories of the past ratcheting up that horror to a whole new level.
Small bits of movement caught her attention, and Jodi tried to distract herself with it. Sam was shifting and twisting as much as he could, teeth clenched and eyes spitting fire, as if he could kill with a glance. It was far from the same, but that laser focused anger reminded her of Barricade, and the comparison did a little to calm her even as she ached for his presence.
Renee was dragged upstairs and out of sight, leaving them with her piercing screams and their less-than-human host.
Who was still grinning with too-sharp teeth, the polished steel glinting in his hand.
Long stringy legs carried him over to the wall to Jodi's left, where a shockingly clean shelf and work table lay tucked partly out of sight. There were brackets of vials neatly separated, full over here, and empty over there. Tools arranged and organized with a surgeons precision was oddly matched with the old and distressed leather journal lying next to them.
Spindly fingers plucked an empty vial from it's bracket. "Now let's see if you two will be of any actual use."
Sam twisted, trying to look, but the whole setup was behind him. "What is he going to do to her?"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Odds are you'll both meet the same end."He stepped up behind Sam, grabbing an arm. Sam winced as the knife was dragged across his skin, the vial quickly placed to collect some of the spilled blood. "Finding someone with potent blood is harder than it looks. But waste not, as father would say. Even you average Joe has some power to their blood. My brother and I are excellent student. We've learned to make do."
Breathe, Jodi told herself, just breathe. In. Out.
Don't panic, and don't let go of the knife.
Breathe.
"Brother?" Sam asked, voice a bit strained.
The vial was swiftly carried over to the work table, half the contents poured into a shallow basin before being corked and placed in an empty bracket. "Who better to carry on such fine work with me? You see, our Father is a genius, and I am one of his greatest creations." Bottles filled with unknown liquids and powders were pulled from the shelf, small measurements of their contents were added to the blood. The mixture was blended together with a metal stick and then left to sit.
Like this was some grotesque cooking show.
The knife was cleaned and another empty vial was fetched.
It was Jodi's turn.
Don't panic, and don't let go of the knife.
Jodi felt her fingers shake as her whole body began to break out in fine tremors, fighting back terror new and old.
Her arm was twisted until something popped, giving under pressure, making her cry out in pain.
"Hold still and keep quiet. We don't want to bother the neighbors now, do we?"
Footsteps and the glint of the freshly cleaned knife cut through the memory, reminding her to be more concerned of the living, equally terrifying, but far more pressing.
She worked to control her breathing and clutched the pocket knife tight, with Barricade's words floating up from her memory.
Don't sit there and cower like a frightened glitchmouse. Get angry.
Anger was good. Anger cut through the fear and let her act. Anger had kept her alive, despite a psychopathic uncle and ruthlessly violent aliens.
Jodi poured all the fury she could muster and leveled an icy glare right at the monster in front of her, making sure those overly large eyes met hers, willing him to see the truth in her next words, her voice hard and flat. "The last time a knife was pulled on me someone found their guts outside their body."
A head tilt and an unimpressed snort was her only response, and then her space was crowded, the left sleeve of her overshirt being yanked down past her elbow, exposing skin.
And he paused.
"Now, what is this?"
Ice lodged her throat.
He was looking at the burn scar on her arm, the energon burn she had gotten from repairing Barricade, one that was still pink and shiny after all this time. Her first energon burn, but not her only one.
The lanky form crowded close like he had earlier and took a sniff. He hummed. "Ozone. Electricity. But concentrated here. Now that is interesting."
And then the knife was on her skin, creating a short shallow line that paralleled the scar.
She couldn't breathe.
Cold glass was pressed against her arm and then swiftly removed. She was vaguely aware of movement by the worktable, their captor no doubt giving her blood the same treatment as Sam's.
But she couldn't breathe.
Panic swallowed her whole.
Author's Note: Sweet Jeepers. This was the chapter that wouldn't end! Then again Jodi insisted on fighting me (which is unusual, that's usually Barricade's job), so eventually I just went "fuck it" and went where she took me. The original layout I had planned had a Barricade segment as well, but then this would have been an easy 1200 words longer than it already is. Hope this was worth the wait! Stay tuned and as always Happy Reading! -Shadow