Combustion

Ok, well Chapter 9 was a disaster due to simultaneous failures of both and so my Karma is well and truly biting me in the ass… First sick, now unable to post. You all need to think positive thoughts to disperse it LOL.

To those couple of people who did manage to post a review – thank you very much. Thanks to Dania for sending an email through to let me know she'd read it even though she couldn't review :)

It was a short chapter anyway so I'm sure it probably wouldn't have got that many responses – most people would probably have held out for 10.

I liked it though – I like the interaction I can have between Keller and Maggie – they're 2 interesting characters that don't have a lot of real time in the movie (I mean they sort of appear and disappear as plot demands – like my story lol). But they're 2 people who I could see totally staying in touch afterwards, I mean Keller is obviously a smart and talented politician and she's a great computer software/hacker/decryption expert – why on earth would a smart man just say to her "thanks – seeya!" I'd be keeping her around, even if just so that you had someone in the section who would tell you the truth rather than hold off and wait for things to fall down. Plus she already knows all about the autobots/decepticons etc.

Also, piercing through the 4th wall, it gives me a chance to write a little bit of 3rd person rather than focussing specifically on one character's thoughts/feelings etc. It gives the story a bit of a wider scope.

Anyway :) number 10!

Chapter 10

The hot sun scorched the pale sand like a grill around him, heat ripples rising from it and turning the world into a wavy curtain of uncertain stability. The blue green ocean crashed and broke upon the untouched shoreline, throwing sparkling drops into the air and attempting to claw its way up the beach, each fan of white capped water trying to drag the dry land back into the liquid from whence it had come, like the talons of some sea monster trying to pull a lonely sailor into the depths below. In the distance, the horizon seemed an eternity away, unbroken, a flat blue line that blurred the line between earth and sky into an indistinct whole.

It seemed odd to be sitting on the beach with the sun not even halfway through its travels above him. The bright and tropical setting conflicted with his body, as it reminded him that only a couple of short hours ago it hadn't even been past midnight. His watch still told him that sunrise should be a few hours off. It had been late night when they left, but now it was midmorning, the vagaries of a round globe and international time playing havoc with a mind not used to travelling so far and so fast. He was tired, his brain telling him it needed to sleep, but it was too hot, and he was more than just a little uncomfortable. B had politely told him it was thirty nine degrees Celsius, or one hundred and two Fahrenheit, a temperature that would have had everyone scrambling for the air conditioning usually, and that was in the shade. Out here where he was sitting on the sand was a lot hotter. It made him wonder if it was how a chicken felt as it was slowly being grilled. He'd been sitting there for about thirty minutes, he was sure his flesh must be about ready to sizzle. His shirt was stuck to him with a film of sweat, clinging to him like lycra, while the sand adhered to it just as fiercely.

Behind him the beach extended for another sixty feet of shimmering whiteness, smooth and unbroken, like it had been gently laid by some giant's hand. Beyond that it hit the tree line, the perfect flatness rudely interrupted by the abrupt and sudden appearance of the twisted trunks of some tropical plants, the sand slowly becoming soil the further on it went until eventually again returning to the beach and finally, the ocean. The island was utterly unremarkable. It was uninhabited, at least that was what B had told him as they'd hit the beach after dropping the last ten feet from the bottom of the jet. He didn't think he'd ever been wrapped up in so many belts and braces in his life. He was sure the impact had been hard, but he had barely felt a bump, less than a plane touching down on the tarmac. The gouge B had dug in the sand with his front spoiler could still be seen a ways down the beach, the damp sand thrown to the surface, already almost dried in the suffocating heat.

Most would have said it was a tropical paradise, almost untouched by man, no one around for possibly hundreds of miles. But the only feeling it stirred in Sam was uncertainty. He and B had not spoken for the three or so hours they'd been in the air, the Decepticon streaking across the sky faster than any human jet could have managed. It had been uncomfortable, the knowledge of what had just happened, what they had done. They had fled the country, contacted a known criminal and someone who meant death for humanity, betrayed the autobots, and abandoned his family. It was a chilling vision. What was more, he couldn't take it back, and wouldn't have, even if he'd been able to. He didn't necessarily agree with the course, but B had chosen it for them and he was determined to walk it together.

He didn't think their bond would let him do otherwise.

Shadow fell across him, making him blink as his eyes adjusted to sudden shade, taking in the outline as it stretched towards the surf before him.

"B." His voice sounded as heavy as the moisture filled air around him, the weight of his thoughts pulling it down as the heat pulled at his shoulders.

"Sam. Are you… ok? You have not moved since you sat down here, and my scanners indicate that the ultraviolet radiation levels are high enough to be dangerous for humans to remain in." The simulated voice was hesitant, the sound of whirring that marked B's movement announcing as the bot lowered himself to the sand beside him, kneeling on one knee. In the back of his mind the thought that he should be angry, should be upset at what had happened simmered, but he could not act on it. He felt no anger towards his autobot at all, as though the ability to feel that had been sapped out of him, leaving him able only to love and adore. The bond that was still new between them sang at their proximity, wiping any thought of resistance from his mind. But he was still able to feel the sadness.

"I'll be ok. I just want to stay out here a while longer. It's peaceful." He dropped a sweaty hand to the sand, picking it up and sifting it slowly through his fingers, leaving a grainy coating behind as it adhered to his skin.

"I don't want to think too much right now." There was no response from his companion, but he could feel Bumblebee's understanding and acceptance like a living thing inside him, the sense of compassion and comprehension so deep that it seemed his bot could now read him as easily as he could read the UV levels he'd spoken of. A gentle metallic finger carefully lifted and caressed his back, gently running up and down his spine leaving pleasurable sparks of sensation in their wake. He arched his back slightly, allowing those soft touches to move around his shoulders and up his throat, sliding refreshingly cool alloy across his flushed cheeks and lips. He let out something between a sigh and a moan of pleasure, feeling the fingertips tremble very slightly against his flesh and watching as B's optics flared with internal flame. It still amazed him that he could spark such a reaction, the energy surging between them like water behind a dam, waiting for the spillway to open.

But he couldn't let it.

With a great deal of effort, both mental and physical, he pressed his hand against the finger now resting against his chin, moving it away from him and then letting go. The growing charge that seemed to build between them slowly faded, never going completely, but slipping once again into the background. He could feel B's puzzlement as he had felt his understanding, an undercurrent of emotion that seemed to come part from his mind and part from his heart.

"It could kill me B." He didn't say it to hurt, but the sting echoed in his mind like he had slapped the large autobot, matching up with the sudden flinching movement that jerked the delicate hand away. Instinctively he saw the metal body crowd closer to him, leaning protectively above him as a defensive living shield, as though he could be protected from his own wants and desires.

"There's no hospital here. If we did… that… again, there'd be no way to get me anywhere to help me." He gently raised his hand to the centre of B's chest, brought within reach by the crouching position he had adopted and stroked along the various seams and joins of machinery beyond anything mankind had ever built. The pulse of the alien spark throbbed through his hand as he caressed the cold material, flashes of the brilliant white light passing before his eyes, beckoning him to feel it again, to give in and let them join. Like an oasis in the desert it called to him, a siren's song that promised him bliss and pleasure if he just surrendered to it, and he shuddered right along with the towering form above him.

"I want to B." His voice was thin sounding, stretched, as though pulled tight across his throat. And he did want to, more than anything, bound or not, he could still feel the emotions that drew him to his guardian.

"Just, not now. Ok?" There was a moment of silence, as though his partner was assessing whether his statement was truth or comforting rejection, before he settled back again onto the sand, still leaving him in the shade but giving him the room he required.

"I understand Sam. It is neither the time, nor the place, as you human's put it." Sam nodded without looking up, picking up another handful of sand before sifting it on top of the little pile of sand that was accumulating beside him.

"Where are we anyway?" The island had looked small from the air, little more than a dot at the end of a chain of other dots, he didn't imagine it could be more than a couple of miles long, and didn't seem to be anywhere important.

"We are on a small island called Aguijan. It is an uninhabited island at the southern end of the Mariana Island chain, approximately 100 miles north of Guam." Sam looked up at the glowing eyes above him, a small smile on his face for what felt like the first time, in forever.

"How do you know all this stuff?" B shifted position, dropping a hand into the sand beside him, far enough away not to touch, close enough that he could if he wanted to.

"I have sensors and scanners that allow me to calculate my position on any planet using the magnetic field or celestial objects as points of reference. It is accurate to within one hundredth of an inch." He stopped and peered up for a minute as Sam watched, small gears and components spinning and moving.

"Plus I am connected to google earth." He did laugh then, the sound echoing up the empty beach, the image of this enormous alien machine playing around with google earth too much to contain. Bumblebee was silent above him, letting him ride the amusement out.

It was refreshing, a chance to laugh about something and forget the seriousness of the situation. For a minute he could almost pretend that they were here on a holiday together, the two of them, alone. But that image faded as his laughter dried up, and he slipped slowly back into his silence.

"So you can really access the internet? Even from here?" His partner nodded in a human affirmative.

"It is actually somewhat comforting to me, and probably to the others as well. It is, uncomfortable, being surrounded by so much biological life." It still amazed him that there was so much he didn't know about his autobot. For starters he must have been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or millions of years old. There was no way he could ever know everything about Bumblebee, even if he lived to be a hundred. It was a depressing thought to know that by the time of his death, whether that be a matter of days or even years, B would know everything there was to know about Sam Witwicky, but he would barely have scratched the surface of the complex machine above him.

"Why's that?" He slumped into the sand on his back, his hand sliding across the grains until it barely grazed the metal fingers B was resting on.

"Your planet is full of organic noise and smell, life and death, yet no matter where we go there is always a satellite, a wireless transmission, something mechanical to reassure us. It permeates your existence in a way that was unexpected to us in our experience with biological life. Our planet was an enormous hub of signals; billions upon billions calling out to each other, sending, receiving. No matter where you went you were connected to the grid. Earth feels like a simpler version of that. Even here, far from your civilisation, I am within reach of another machine. It reminds us what we have lost." Sam ran his palm across B's hand, acknowledging his statement and conveying his understanding.

"But why are we here? Are we hiding? You haven't told me anything about your plan or why Starscream was helping us." Disquiet seemed to shiver through the yellow bot, and his blue optics dimmed a little.

"He is helping us because I promised him something in return." He turned away, looking up toward the trees above them.

"Let us move back into the shade Sam. You are already no doubt quite burnt from your exposure. We don't need to save you only to have you die from radiation related injuries." A whirr announced Bumblebee's movement back to a standing position, waiting for Sam to brush himself off before heading up the beach to the relative shade of the plants filling the island interior. It was a diversionary tactic, or at the very least a delaying one. Sam could feel it, whether through their bond or just through getting to know B, and he had no intention of falling for it. He waited patiently as the large robot settled himself, knees raised in front of him, resting his back against a tree, then scrambled up over the alien hip, climbing up over B's stomach until he was pressed against his chest, their faces now only inches apart. The touch and closeness sent shivers through both of them, electricity seeming to energise his nervous system until he thought he could feel every molecule of air as it brushed against his skin. He closed his eyes as the blue fires in front of him blazed to new heights, firmly ignoring the not quite pants that were somehow leaving his mouth, and his partner's own small hum.

"What is the deal B? What did you promise him?" Pressed against each other he could almost hear his autobot's thoughts as they flew through his head, the emotions coming across like colours, lightly tinting the normally white light that filled his mind. There could be no deception or evasion like this.

"Megatron." His voice came out as strangled, gasping, and Sam could feel the tensing of the form underneath him.

"We can attempt to drain the spark energy out of you and put it into Megatron." His eyes flew open, staring directly into blazing blue fire, noticing the straining of the metallic arms and the frantic clicking and spinning of parts. His spark could sense what B wanted and it desperately wanted to give it to him, give anything to him.

"He wants to resurrect Megatron?" Bumblebee shook from head to toe.

"I do not know Sam." Machine synthesised moans broke through his voice.

"Possibly." He groaned and shook harder, voice escalating with desperation.

"I only promised him the spark energy, what he does with it was up to him." A slight squeal cracked out of him, as though a small overload had sparked his vocal processor and his blue eyes scorched across every part of Sam's body, causing his own shivers to intensify. He needed to end this now before it got out of hand.

"I want you Sam." The voice boiled into him, and all thought of escape evaporated. He almost screamed at what that statement did to him, electricity shooting through him until all he could do was grant the request.

"Please B." His need pulsed between them like a tangible object, as though they could both reach out and touch it, Bumblebee's matching his with a ferocity human's couldn't imagine a machine could feel. His words caused his autobot to jerk beneath him, as though the simple acceptance of his request were an erotic caress.

"Sam…" B's synthesiser turned his name into a long drawn out sound, somewhere between a moan and a sob, his head dropping back to rest against the tree trunk, breaking their gaze. With a click a metal plate in front of him began to shift, the others responding in different ways as part of B seemed to transform his chest, machinery and circuits moving aside to open a path for his eyes to see. There was a brief moment of nothing and then light, actual light, blinded him with its intensity.

Bumblebee's spark lay exposed within him, only a small distance away, and the energy radiating off it assaulted his senses, sending them into overload. He could feel the unnatural sensation of the spark energy in his own body responding, throbbing and moving like a snake beneath his skin. The two energies seemed to meet and duel briefly before B's surged over his. Lightning flew where their bodies contacted each other and he tentatively reached into the exposed opening, nervous yet eager fingers stretched towards the glowing form, desperate to fulfil his mate's request.

It seemed at once too big and too small for its purpose, too big to carry around in one's chest and too small to contain the soul of a creature as magical and complex as B. The glow beckoned him on though, and his fingers were only mere fractions of an inch away when he felt the first pain. A stabbing sensation that filled his abdomen like someone had stuck him with a blade, and then twisted it.

His hand froze, caught in the tide like forces surrounding the spark. Energy arced and shimmered like coruscating solar flares across the surface, connecting with his hand, each jolt like a burst of pleasure within his mind, another demand to obey and complete what he had started. His heartbeat was erratic, beating faster, then slower, in an ever changing rhythm that only it could hear. He needed to stop, needed to separate them, but his body wouldn't respond to his commands, only hearing the need and want that filled each mechanical sound that came from B's vocal processor. His autobot wanted him, and that was all that seemed to matter to the spark energy inside him.

"B." His voice was weak, barely audible above the sounds both of them were making, but it must have registered on the bot's sensitive hearing as his optics focused again on Sam. He couldn't speak anymore but he tried to convey with his eyes what was wrong, that he knew what would happen if they finished this, but at the same time his body refused to disobey B's request.

"Sam. Stop." It didn't sound panicked, didn't sound upset, it was like a command. It blasted through him like a scolding from his parents once had, and like a disobedient child his spark energy withdrew, pulling his hand away from imminent contact with B's and allowing him to scramble down off his autobot's chest as fast as he could, the pain still knifing into him throughout his body.

When his unsteady feet impacted the earth he dropped to his knees, trying to breathe calmly and slow his racing heart. Behind him B was moving, evidently leaning over him as a source of comfort, ensuring they didn't touch. He could feel the scans the bot was running on him without needing to be told, able to sense Bumblebee's need for reassurance as clearly as he had felt his need for other things moments ago.

"You will be ok my bonded." It was a soothing, calming voice, probably created from recordings of psychiatrists and doctors around the world, but still uniquely his B.

"I believe we stopped in time. The symptoms will recede." He nodded and gulped air, already beginning to feel the pain fade, his breathing slowing down.

"Will this plan," he paused to draw a shaky breath, "will it work? Will it get rid of the spark?" Surprisingly it was sadness rather than hope that filled his companion's voice when he replied.

"It is our best chance." He looked over his shoulder, one hand pressed to his heart, the other to the ground, face flushing a little even in his current situation, as his mind registered the vaguely sexual position they were both in, him crouched almost on all fours, Bumblebee looming over him, knees spread to each side of him when he had moved.

"You are upset that it will be removed?" Inside his chest the spark thrummed with a faint sense of dread, anticipating B's rejection, and he wondered when he had become so dependent on the autobot to get by.

"No Sam. I am upset because we will lose this." Sam felt it as B's spark surged, hidden once again behind its armoured protection. His own vibrated with need at the sensation and he cried out, tears carving their way through the sand on his cheeks. He didn't want to lose this, it was the most incredible feeling he'd ever experienced, his mind and the spark within, both cried out for it not to end and he spoke with a choking sob.

"Tell me what you want B? If you want me to keep it I will." His eyes were red and filled with liquid as he met the blue gaze several feet over him.

"I will die for you B if you ask it." He didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but he swore the glowing optics dilated in shock at his statement. It almost seemed like understanding arrived abruptly in the autobot, and with a sudden movement, he stood up to his full sixteen foot height and stepped away.

"That is not what I want Sam. I want you to live." The force seeped out of his voice.

"I am, sorry, for what just happened to you." His sorrow was palpable, not only through their bond but in his voice as well, a remarkable copy.

"I should have predicted this possibility in my calculations." Sam was able to stop clutching his chest as the last of the pain faded away, still panting like he had run a marathon, but able to sit up from his crouching position, feeling markedly less exposed.

"Predicted what?" B refused to look at him, leaning against a tree in such a human like fashion that, ignoring his size and appearance, Sam kept waiting for him to adjust his cap and put his hands in his pockets.

"It is rare, but it has happened in the past. A situation where two sparks are not equal, where their status makes one weaker than their bond mate. Inevitably one submits to the other." Sam felt his throat tighten with fear, and his heart quicken with anticipation.

"What?" He managed to keep his voice even somehow and he felt the autobot's optics flick briefly to him and away again.

"We are machines Sam. Machine's require order and logic above all else. We cannot function in chaos. If one machine is weaker than another the weaker one must submit. It is the logical decision. Both feel the intense need and completion of the bond in the same way, but when a decision is made it is the stronger that makes it." B's hands were tight at his side, metallic equivalent of tendons tightening with a slight whining noise. His voice dropped in volume, the robot equivalent of subdued as he seemed to talk as much to himself as to Sam.

"That is why you always ended up doing what I wanted. Why you would choose not to be with Mikaela whenever I suggested something, why you would drop everything to be with me. And the effect is obviously getting stronger as our bond grows. You no longer refuse as often as you used to." He could see it himself as he looked back; see the small subtle ways in which B had influenced his life. He'd thought it was simply friendship, and then later, love. Now it seemed more sinister, like something had slithered under his skin and was manipulating him from the inside.

"Eventually you will not refuse at all." The soft voice hit him like a fist to the gut.

"Does it affect my feelings? Is everything I've felt a lie?" As quickly as Bumblebee had left him he returned, metallic fingers gently cupping his side as the enormous head delicately pressed against his own.

"Never Sam, do not think that. It can only affect someone when they are becoming bound, when two sparks have recognised each other and are slowly connecting. If we did not already feel what we did our sparks would never have bonded." His doubts disappeared like the wind, sucked away the moment Bumblebee told him not to have them, but it didn't stop him fearing his very lack of fear over it.

"Then, if this doesn't work, if the spark stays inside of me, eventually I will be like your slave?" The hand resting against his side tightened briefly at his not quite accusation.

"Not as you are implying. You will still be yourself. It cannot affect your feelings Sam." The hand released again, resuming its gentle touch.

"You will simply be unable to refuse me when I request something." Both of them fell silent after that, Sam desperately trying to deal with the clash between his head and the alien spark. One cried out to resist with everything he had while the other screamed at him to submit.

"How long will Starscream take?" It was emotionless and flat, a simple question to allow his mind to digest the information it had.

"Estimates ran anywhere from an hour to six. He has almost been gone a full hour now so he could be back soon." Sam nodded against the metal, feeling his sweat smear against the polished surface.

"Will this work?" He'd already asked, but he needed to hear it again.

"My estimates put the odds of success at 17.3." The low odds didn't scare him as he thought they should. When one choice is certain death it makes whatever the alternative is look fairly rosy.

"Do you trust Starscream?" B seemed to freeze at his question, not a single sound or movement came from him, like an enormous statue, until the cool fingers wrapped around his waist and his head pulled back so he could see both burning optics.

"No Sam, I do not. But it would seem our other options are limited."

Fin

Well I think this chapter has a little bit of everything for everyone :) Let me know what you think. No doubt it's heading in directions that some people won't be happy with, but I'm not writing a choose your own adventure here people ;)

BTW – how cool were those choose your own adventure books:)

"If you want Sam to give in and make their relationship physical as well as mental, turn to page 67. If you'd like Starscream to return and reveal he's in love with Megatron, turn to page 92. If you'd like Barricade to somehow turn up while Sam and Bee are getting physical and decide to join in, turn to page 666"

LOL :)