Combustion

Wow… Seriously people – Wow. The response to chapter 10 was just amazing. I'm beginning to suspect you're all just little dominatrix's at heart ;) who would have thought adding an element to their relationship like that would cause everyone to perk up :D

And don't get your hopes up – Barricade will not be joining in a 3some with them :P that was just a funny option I threw in there. He can't come back remember – the allspark was destroyed. I'm afraid that would stretch even my reasoning to its limit (not really, I already thought of 3 different ways to do it), so it won't be happening.

Everyone seems keen on that 'grouping' and I have to say I don't get it – I much prefer the pureness and commitment of Bee and Sam together (1 on 1), and while I respect your right to want the 3 of them to go at it, that's more porn than literature :D I'm not a big fan of 3somes – I always picture 1 person getting left out :P

Anyway - thanks to everyone who reviewed :) you're all inspirations to me, and I have to say I actually just spun the story arc into a sequel lol :P But don't worry – this one will wrap everything up so that if no one wants one it won't be necessary.

eg. It won't end with "Sam placed his hands in the charred cavity that had once been Megatron's chest, feeling the chill of the deep ocean warming as the spark energy radiated from his palms. Behind him he could hear Bumblebee talking to him, guiding him in what he was supposed to be doing, but he couldn't quite make him out. His consciousness was slipping away from his grasp, just as the power he had harboured for too long slipped from his fingers into the inactive machine in front of him. His vision was growing dim at the edges, a sunset that only he could see, and he tried to tell B that something was wrong. His voice failed him however, and all he could do was sit there as everything around him slowly went black, feeling as he lost control of his body, tilting forward until he was lying across the cold metallic form. He wanted to turn so he could see one last glimpse of the autobot that had become his life, perhaps let him know with his eyes how much what they'd shared had meant to him, but his muscles were no longer his to control. He was a passenger only, as he felt the last of his life sinking away, his final moment bringing him only the slow whirring and movement of the being beneath him coming back to life."

Note that I said it WON'T end that way. This is not a teaser lol

Anyway.

Chapter 11

"Wake up Sam." The voice was soft, gentle, a caress of sounds that swept through his exhaustion and stirred his mind from its dreamless sleep. His world was dark, safe, undisturbed by nightmares or visions, a black nothingness that kept him safe from thought and memory. He didn't want to wake up and remember, to face whatever was waiting for him again.

"Sam?" His mind stirred a little more as recognition seeped into him, then memory began to return as warm metallic fingers delicately pressed against his side. Light pierced his inky cocoon, bringing with it the knowledge of itself and the being it belonged to. He sighed and turned into the caress, feeling the hand move down his side before sliding up along his spine and resting across his shoulders.

"Sam. Wake up." It was not a peaceful request anymore, it was a command, and his eyes shot open as though he had been stabbed with a hot poker. His heart rate and metabolism rapidly increased as his mind and body strived to satisfy the demand as quickly as possible. In bare seconds he felt as though he had been awake for hours, his vision clear and focused as he discerned the individual blades of grass directly in front of him and the still bright sunshine and overbearing heat and humidity. He didn't even remember what the urge to return to his slumber had felt like anymore, gone as though it had never existed, except for the knowledge that the feeling had been there, and he shivered even as he sweat. Being told that this would slowly happen more and more was one thing, experiencing it first hand was quite another. The worst part was he understood and could see what was happening to him, but found himself without the ability or desire to resist it, part of him telling him it was wrong, another telling him it was most definitely right.

"I'm sorry my bonded." There was genuine remorse in B's voice as his hand apologetically clutched his shoulders, the shivering fading away at the soothing touch.

"But you have been asleep for a few hours now and Starscream is approaching our position. I did not think it wise for you to meet him without being prepared." Sam nodded as the hand withdrew, feeling the sharp green blades scrape against his cheek. He pressed his hands to the ground and slowly lifted himself into a sitting position, looking up at the yellow form that hovered above him, feeling the nervousness that infused the spark of his partner as he could feel the dappled sunlight across his skin.

"It's ok B. It's alright. I understand." He briefly wondered whether he actually did understand or whether he now simply performed like a puppet for the autobot beside him. He thought he understood it, thought that was the reason he didn't feel upset about what had been done to him with simple words, but how could one tell when it was your own mind you were fighting?

His companion relaxed slightly at his words, he could feel the tension leave the machine with a barely audible buzz of components, and he sighed while he looked around. The beach was as perfect and brightly lit as it had been when he'd dozed off, just as hot and just as tropical, but the shadows were now stretching in the other direction. Where the tide had been high when he had last seen it, now a broad expanse of sand and shells added another hundred feet of width to the beach, the ocean driven into retreat by the never-ending pull of the moon, until eventually it turned once again. He could see the steep drop off past the breakers, which marked the edge of the plateau that composed the island, turning the water from a sparkling blue green into a dark and bottomless midnight blue. It would be from there that the Decepticon would emerge, pulling with him the body of their fallen leader, simultaneously both Sam's salvation and his doom.

"What will happen B? To me?" He looked up to where Bumblebee was now standing above him.

"To us?" There was a frantic whirring of parts as the yellow head swivelled toward him, those eyes that he had come to know so well burning into him with a fierceness that almost took his breath away. Almost. Behind them he could see a faint glimmer of fear that shook him more than it should have.

"No matter what happens, we are bonded now Sam. Nothing can ever destroy that. You are imprinted into my very spark, nothing can ever remove or replace that." He felt moisture building in his eyes and he hurriedly looked back out at the beach, letting the distant waves sooth him for a minute before trusting himself to speak, his voice still carrying hints of the turmoil he was feeling inside.

"I won't have a spark anymore though B. How can we still be bound to each other?" A synthesised sigh preceded the robot as he settled to the grass covered sand beside him, arms resting across his upright knees in a very human gesture. The dimness of his optics seemed all the more noticeable in the bright dappled sunlight that played across his silver and yellow frame.

"You will not be Sam. You will be released from your bond." He looked up at his autobot with surprise, hearing the clink of metal as B's left arm lifted up from his knee and slowly lowered to almost touch his face, hovering, but not quite connecting.

"Without the spark there to influence your body, you will lose the compulsion you feel toward me, the urge to obey, the sensation when we touch. What you feel for me deep down will not change, the spark did nothing but breathe life and give voice to those, but the imperative, the need that caused you to act on them will go. You will be free to live your entire life as you wished, just as you said you wanted to, dating, family, mating, offspring. Death. They will all be yours again once this is over." The large hand withdrew, and the blue stare returned to the ocean. There was such a forlorn aura around the machine that Sam hesitated to ask his next question, not sure he actually wanted to know the answer lest it weaken his will.

"And you?" They were a loud whisper in the sticky air, hanging like bubbles before them, until even the wind itself seemed to die down, and the surf flatten in order to hear Bumblebee's response.

"The bonding is not dependent on some sort of connection between us Sam. Just as it is still within us when we are not touching, it will remain within me after your spark is gone. The bond once formed is to the personality, the being who is given life by the spark. The fact that without it we cease to exist is immaterial. The spark sustains and nourishes what you would term a soul, what we do with that soul defines us, and it is to that, which we bond, not the spark itself. Unlike us however, your life is separate from the spark, it will not end with its loss, but your obligation, your binding, will. This is something that cannot happen with us, so we have no capacity to undo the bond. The joining has changed me, imprinted you within me, down to the tiniest lines of code in my processors; nothing has been unaffected. I will remain bonded to you for the rest of my existence, whether you have a spark within you or not." It took precious seconds for what he had just been told to seep into him, the understanding hitting him like a physical thing, his stomach churning as a wave of nausea crested over him. He was almost violently ill, but swallowed with difficulty, drawing in a shuddering breath.

"The rest…" He didn't think his mind could comprehend exactly how much time the rest of B's existence encompassed. Just as it was an impossible task to grasp the true concept of a million years, the number, the impact, was simply too large for the human mind to understand. And he was sick then, scrambling up and away from the bot before dropping to all fours and revisiting the small hospital meal against a tree trunk. He shuddered and coughed as dry heaves ran through him, the foul bitterness in his mouth matched by what he felt in his heart. He could remember the things he'd said barely 2 nights ago, as he had compared B's thoughts for him to a one night stand, to a casual thing that would be over in the blink of an eye and then forgotten.

He wiped his face on the front of his shirt; desperately wanting some water to wash out his mouth but not even sure if there was any on this small piece of land. He staggered upright before tottering over and falling back to the ground beside the autobot and leaning his head up against what equated to a hip bone beside him, tears on his cheeks yet again.

"I'm… God, B I'm so… I didn't know." It all seemed insufficient, as though anything Sam said would be too little too late.

"Why? Why would you do it?" The same hand that had not quite touched his face dropped to encircle him, the limb so large it seemed impossible that B could use it to so delicately caress him, the millions of parts spinning and moving inside.

"Because I wished to. Because since I came online I have never felt for anyone what I felt for you. Because after this, anyone I met would have felt like a betrayal of those feelings. Now I can never forget, I can never betray, and I will have the memory of what we experienced, that moment of connection, of joining. It is a gift I will treasure until the day I go offline." The metallic fingers gently caressed across his chest and shoulders, a comforting touch that seemed to say that everything was alright.

"Perhaps it is better this way. As you pointed out, it would have been your whole life without another human mate. Perhaps this way we both get what we want. We both have the memory." The hand stopped for a minute, just resting around him, B obviously holding most of the weight to stop it crushing him.

"I will have to leave you though. We will have to arrange for someone else to be your guardian." Fresh tears coursed across his face, joining the other salty tracks still there from earlier. He knew it, somehow, had been dreading that admission.

"You will be free, but I will still be bound. I will not be able to see you with someone else." The spark lashed out within him at even the thought of another apart from B, and the pain was almost welcome as he fought it, seeming like some sort of justice to what he had now inflicted on his bonded.

"As soon as you are fully recovered I will depart. I do not want for you to hold back out of guilt or obligation." The large fingers resumed their halted stroking.

"I wish for you to live and be happy Sam. That is the most anyone can want for the one they love." He wanted to scream. He wanted to kick and hit and bite to expunge the feelings within him. It felt like an unbearable pressure inside his ribs, as though his heart wanted to explode outwards. He turned into Bumblebee and subbed, wrapping his arms around as much of the autobot as he could reach, feeling the other metal hand join the first as they gently encased him, the closest they could get to an actual hug. He no longer wanted to go through with what they were here to do, in spite of what Bumblebee had said, and he tried to think of a way to talk the robot out of it. Before he could come up with anything however, B stiffened and gradually pulled away, and their time was up.

"Starscream is almost here. We need to get ready." His autobot made no move to stand however, continuing to hold and support him until eventually he found his own feet and stood up, Bumblebee coming to his feet beside him. Machine optics and human eyes were both fixated as out beyond the island shelf the water surged and bubbled, frothing like the ocean itself was trying to expunge something from its depths. First as a faint shadow, then a more distinct shape something began to rise from the blue, becoming silver as it approached the surface, before erupting from the water into the shallows brought by low tide.

Starscream seemed to tower above everything there, even Bumblebee's gaze turned slightly upwards. He was dwarfed however by the mass draped across his shoulders. It was eerie to see such a huge shape of metal hanging by its arms from the Decepticon, like a child attempting to give an adult a piggyback, the former leader's feet dragging through the water and sand as Starscream staggered towards the beach. In a surprising gesture, B left the shade of the trees, jogging wetly through the salt water to the larger bot's side and trying to relieve him of some of the burden. For his efforts he got only a hiss and a shove from the Decepticon that landed him up to his neck in the ocean.

"This is mine to carry Autobot. Go tend to your human." Sam felt pinned by the sinister glare directed at him, trying to huddle in on himself for protection. Surprisingly Bumblebee made no move to defend him, only slowly standing up and walking slightly ahead of their unwilling ally up onto dry land, where Starscream laid his burden carefully into the sand.

Sam stepped out from the tree line with the hesitance of a cockroach emerging from underneath the fridge. A metaphor that, considering how the Decepticon towered above him, was not entirely unwarranted. The sand was slightly cooler under his feet than it had been during the middle of the day, but it was still enough to be uncomfortable, the open expanse cooked like an oven and left no cover between himself and Starscream but the body of the fallen leader. Bumblebee was standing off to one side as the two of them looked over each other, the larger bot emitting a squealing trill that might have been a laugh.

"Look at it. It trembles in fear, afraid that I will step on it as they do to the insects on this world." His glowing optics held none of the warmth or beauty of B's, only a cold, angry fury that seemed directed at everything and everyone.

"You willingly bound yourself to this, thing? You Autobots are worse off than I thought." Sam swallowed uncomfortably, eyes swinging back and forth between his guardian and the shining silver machine next to him.

"Perhaps Starscream. But at least I have a bonded." The shriek that came from the larger bot quickly answered Sam's question about where he had obtained his name, and he scrambled backwards through the sand, as with almost unimaginable speed, an enormous hand closed around Bumblebee's throat. The metal fingers made a clinking sound against B's armour, the sound a sinister staccato of construction, in the otherwise natural surroundings. His bonded made no attempt to fend off the attack, standing there impassively in the face of the apparent anger.

"You would be wise not to anger me Autobot. Your precious Optimus Prime is not here to save you, and your usefulness to me is rapidly approaching its end." Machine wills seemed to battle in the air in front of him until he almost thought he could see sparks literally flying between them. It seemed to drag on forever, both of them as unmoving as the body before them, until eventually the silver claws loosened their grip and released Bumblebee's neck, their owner crouching over the form on the beach and performing some sort of scan.

Bumblebee left the Decepticon to his work and came closer to Sam, crouching down and brushing his fingertips over his face and neck. He didn't want to think about the fact that it could be the last time he ever felt the sensation that action caused. B's voice was urgent but soft as he spoke, but Sam couldn't take his eyes off Starscream and what he was doing.

"It is almost time now. Remember this, you don't need to do anything, the spark will want to leave you, it will feel the call of the shard it was originally meant for and it will wish to leave of its own accord." The fingers stopped stroking and gently turned his head so their eyes could meet.

"Do not fight it Sam. Do not try and hold onto it out of some wish to keep what we have, you must let it go. It is the only way to save you." Sam nodded slowly, the spark energy making him unable to disobey, the command as bittersweet as one lover asking another to cut his head off.

"I promise." The fingers released him and his eyes fell to the churned sand surrounding them, the previous perfection of the beach ruined by their presence. Further down toward the ocean Sam heard their present companion mutter something derogatory about humans and Autobots, and his eyes flicked back up to the silver forms near the waterline. Those darkly glowing optics met his gaze again and he shivered under their stare, his voice strident and angry in an attempt to bolster his confidence.

"If you hate this so much, why did you agree to help? Surely you could have taken me by force once Bumblebee told you what had happened." Afterwards he couldn't believe he'd actually said anything to a creature who so clearly hated him. He clamped his mouth shut on the angry words, feeling each giant step vibrate up through the ground until he fell onto his back and the huge head leaned over him, the Decepticon crouched like a spider above him, anger filled optics bare inches from his body.

"I am alone human. You were surrounded by autobots. You also obviously know nothing about bonding if you think your pet here would ever let me near you without his consent." The sinister glow slid to the side, seeming to drag his own vision with it, until they rested on Bumblebee, standing perfectly still, gun barrels pressed gently against the side of Starscream's head.

"Why do you even want him back anyway?" He wanted to kick himself for letting his mouth run away with him again, but now that he'd started he couldn't seem to turn it off.

"From what I saw and heard he doesn't exactly care about you or any of the other Decepticons, why go out of your way to bring back someone who's only going to abuse you for your trouble?" The optics seemed to flash briefly with, something, before they turned as hard and cold as ice. It seemed he had a knack for putting himself underneath a robot intent on harming him, the position vaguely like that Megatron had been in.

"Not all bondings can be as blessedly reciprocated as yours, human." The head slowly pulled away, though the gaze stayed unwaveringly locked with his.

"Sometimes a spark feels it has no partner worthy of bonding with it." That flash flew across Starscream's optics again, something that briefly interrupted the overwhelming anger that poured from them.

"No matter how much another may try to prove it." There was a second, after that statement, as the truth of what the Decepticon was saying soaked in, that Sam felt sadness for his plight. After what he had just learnt from Bumblebee, about what would happen to the bot after they completed what they were here to do, he could imagine what it must have been like.

An eternity spent living with the knowledge that you had found what you were seeking, and an eternity knowing you could never have it. Worse still, feeling compelled for that eternity to try and prove yourself worthy of it. At least B would have the comfort of his memories as some small consolation. Starscream would have only abuse and rejection.

"I'm sorry." That shrill squealing laugh came again as the Decepticon righted himself, Bumblebee's cannons folding away with a soft buzz as the threat disappeared.

"I require nothing from you except the spark you are harbouring boy. Keep your sympathy and understanding for those who need them." With a thud the steps returned to the even larger bot lying near the waves, head turning to them again briefly.

"We need to hurry and complete this. We don't have much time. Your friends draw closer with every moment."

Fin

Dun dun DUN!

Or maybe the better sound would be that drum sound after a bad joke "baddump PSSH".

Not really happy with this one, but oh well. Getting closer people! Not long and then it will all be over and you can thank god you don't have to put up with my writing anymore :D