there's a million&one ways
A/N: terribly sorry for the late update, but school, family, and studying for the ACT is slowly consuming me life. And this chapter will probably be the shortest chapter in this whole story.
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Pairings: Annabelle Lennox w/ Starscream vs. Annabelle Lennox w/ Ironhide
Disclaimer: I do not own transformers © Hasbro.
"What the hell is going on, Galloway?" Epps shouted as Galloway walked out of the room. "Do you purposely try to break up important moments between a family or is it simply because she was receiving more attention than you?" The director walked passed the technical sergeant as if he were only a bad thought crossing his mind. "Hey!" Robert Epps grabbed Galloway by the shoulders, knocking off his scarlet beret in the process. "I demand an answer from you."
The frail man stopped in his tracks, but didn't even try to look the sergeant in the eye. Instead, he looked bluntly through Jolt, as if what he had heard was just part of a very bad dream. "That brat's boyfriend is coming to destroy the base," he spoke weakly, choking on the last words.
"Ironhide?" Robert Epps answered for himself. "But he's an autobot. He would never be that stupid to do that all because of a little break up."
"No," Director Galloway dismissed. "Starscream."
Only in extreme moments of confusion or excitement had Epps ever seen the autobots express emotion so clearly, but today he could add another one to the list: shock. Jolt's blue, now green with a teaspoon of yellow thrown in, optics expanded passed the proper barriers of his optical cavity and barely glowed. The alien's mouth parted three inches as he shook his head back and fourth. 'That's impossible,' he tried to say, but his vocal processors were unresponsive. 'He's a – a '
"You're pulling my leg, Galloway," Epps snorted angrily. His callous fingers twisted the silver doorknob and yanked the door open. Anna turned her red eyes to Epps, looking as if all her energy had been sucked away by a leech. "Anna, why the hell is Galloway saying that Starscream is your boyfriend, and that he is coming here?"
"What did he say to you?" she asked desperately, peeping around Epps's body to see Galloway. Galloway uncomfortably craned his head to give Annabelle a glare that could rival Medusa's. She felt her whole body go still with fear. Suddenly, the human knew that the true killers were in front of her, ready for the order to execute her. The enemy was not the decepticons; they had never been the enemy. It was the humans and the autobots who so pitifully squirmed underneath fleshy orders that were the true enemy. She told herself to breath, but her lungs refused to inflate. It was like her insides were turning to stone.
"'We are all going to die,'" he hissed venomously. Galloway slithered his way towards Annabelle. Her heart jumped in rhythm with the clinking of his ebony shoes against the unforgiving, cold floor. Anna was half expecting his wrinkled skin to expand into a cobra's hood. "And if we do, then it will you be your fault, Miss Lennox. Any lives that are lost will be on your slate for the rest of your life." He breathed his tuna fish sandwich breath onto her face. "You will be the reason why innocent men die in vain today."
"They don't have to die," Anna argued. "He doesn't want to kill them. The only one he wants dead is me, asshole. Now, if you don't tell my parents, I'm sure I'd be able to bargain my life for all these pathetic lives here. Granted, he will want some higher form of payment – the last Allspark fragment to be specific."
"Anna!" Epps cried out in protest.
Galloway leaned towards Annabelle. "How do you know this?" he demanded.
Anna raised her injured left hand to show him the scab on her palm. "I'm not at liberty to disclose that information," she said neutrally, trying frantically to hold her own ground. "But I can assure you that he will agree to those terms. If you don't negotiate with him, then he'll just barge in here, kill many men, and take what he wants. If you don't negotiate, then you will be the one with all those deaths on your conscious for the rest of your life and beyond, Galloway." She snorted and took a brave step forward. "It's bad enough that the media knows of your sexual affair with a young woman. You don't want to add this little stunt to your list of sins do you, Galloway. Just think of how bad that would look in the mainstream media."
"You're nothing but a slim ball like your father," Galloway retorted.
"Really?" she asked mockingly. "Some would call what I'm doing heroic. After all, I'm sacrificing my life to save yours." She pressed her index finger sharply into his chest. "You should be on your knees, thanking me, but again, you're nothing but a selfish, lonely old man who abuses his power. You're so insecure and weak that there is no word to describe your patheticness." Galloway backed away, reassessing the problem child in front of him. "I don't understand how you could live in a world were you think of only yourself. Well, let me tell you. My world is bigger than your goddamn problems, and it's a lot bigger than me." She stared at him, growling with her eyes. Anna's shoulders bristled and raised her head smugly. She had no pity for the old man. "But you'll never understand what it means to give yourself up to a higher cause or to care for something that is more important than you."
Galloway's chest rose and fell as he began to laugh. How stupid did the girl think he was? He'd fought all his life get to this position just to be bullied by some brat. With his hand, he combed through his thin, white hair. "Oh girl, you must really be delusional if you think I'll hand you and one of the most valuable energy sources over to the enemy," he chuckled. "If anything, your determination makes me wonder why you would want to hand yourself over to him? Is it because he's gonna spare you from what you deserve?" He circled around, allowing his side to brush her shoulder. Anna's head fell submissively and closed her eyes to shield the truth. "So, I take that as a yes?" he asked with a smirk.
'How can I be this easy to read?' she asked herself frustratingly.
"Well," he spoke calmly, business-like. He ran his boney fingers along the bottom of her jaw, seizing her chin. Anna shuddered at his touch. She felt violated as he forcefully raised her head and drew her eyes to his face. "Since you don't consider yourself human, then I will have no problem sending you to Hell on Earth to extract that information." She could see his sinister smile behind his eyes. Galloway was enjoying this power more than he should. "I'm sure they'd love to have you there."
"I have human rights," she growled. "You can't torture me or else you'll have all the human rights activists wanting to hang you."
He tightened his grip. "You can't play for both sides, girl," Galloway informed bitterly. "You're either human or not, so which is it?"
"Anna!" Epps shouted. "Don't listen to this asshole. You don't have to go along with his games because he's going to be fired for violating protocol." He walked around her back, protectively placing both his hands on her shoulders. He narrowed his dark chocolate eyes on Galloway, silently daring the director to just try and separate her from him. "He's just delusional and out to get you because he's jealous of your father. He's just messing with your mind."
Anna turned her head to glimpse at "Uncle" Epps. She placed her uninjured hand on top of his. "I appreciate what you're doing for me, Epps," she spoke in a calm voice. He looked down at her, smiling. "But the truth is, Galloway sees the truth. He's not fooling himself like you guys have fooled yourself. You shouldn't be mad at him, because he's doing what's right for this country and world. He's trying to protect you from me." She could no longer look at Epps's grave and confused face. Anna gently lifted his strong hand off her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, the human could look at Galloway without feeling fear in her heart. It felt good to be telling the truth for once. "And I am good, Epps. I realize this now; however, what I have to do in order to be "good" will make me seem "bad." Please, know we aren't on opposite sides. I don't want to be your enemy.
"In order for both of us to be good, Epps, we'll have to be enemies. Your duty is to protect this country, but my duty is to ensure my species will not die. Unfortunately, this world harbors what we need to save our species." A nervous smile seeped onto her face. "It's ironic really how two heroes are forced to be enemies. Sad too. Heroes shouldn't be forced to kill other heroes, but I guess that's life in a nutshell: heroes kill other heroes to do what's right according to them." She stepped away from Epps's protective hands and from a fake world that she had tried so hard to blend into. Anna held out her wrists for Galloway.
If this, what she was feeling – uneasiness, fear of the future, and surrounded on all sides by predators – was the real world, then she was glad she had been brave enough to break away from the humans' blissfully ignorant world. 'At least,' she told herself. 'I know what the world looks like.' Anna narrowed her eyes on Galloway. He was such a tiny shrimp who probably couldn't survive a good punch. 'How pathetic that the autobots allow themselves to be controlled by him,' she thought pitifully. Annabelle, confident she could take care of herself against Galloway, gave him the same, hated looked he had given her so many times.
"You want to know what happened, Galloway?" she hissed. "I found something more valuable than this world, and he showed me what I never wanted to feel, see, and hear. I fought him, defending this miserable existence that humanity has created. I fought and defended you guys!" She pointed to Jolt and then Galloway. "I did everything I possibly could to ignore what he was saying. I fought him because I didn't want him to be right. I wanted to be right. I wanted to believe that he was delusional. I really wanted too. But now, I can see what he wanted me to see, hear, and feel. I've opened my eyes for the first time, and all I see are the lies that bind her together. Well, I won't be bounded by your lies anymore! I refuse to live in a world like this!" She took another step forward, clenching her fists. "I may die, but at least I'll die with my eyes open to the truth." She held her head proudly for the first time. Adrenaline pumped through her body as she realized the words she had spoken came from her soul. With a sleazy smirk, she put both of her hands on her hips. "Director Galloway, I am proud to say that I am a decepticon."