A Captured Beast Within a Human Skin

By Uniasus

Chapter 15 – An Unwilling Weapon

It was getting hard, really hard to be aware of what was going on around him. Sam was never too sure what was real and what wasn't, and took to thinking that it wasn't most of the time. He was constantly hungry, even though he was always eating. He was constantly tired too, but when ever he laid down and shut his eyes they seemed to open on their own accord. Sleep was something he desperately wanted, but his body kept saying no, kept finding reasons to stay awake. And he was constantly cold to the point of tremors, sometimes found himself short of breath, and was still having seizures.

Sam couldn't tell if Sally was taking over or not, his boundary line between what was going on in his head and what was going on out of it was thin and foggy at best. It's not like she stayed in his head anyway, frolicking around the sparklings and cuddling up to Grammy Jonnie, no Beachbreak, that was his name. He talked to Sally, tried to keep her busy with problems to solve and by answering her curious questions about human life and the planet Earth. But he couldn't keep it up all the time, figuring out reality was his first priority and there were times she had full rein. Sam had no idea what she did during those times, if anything. Maybe she was passive, maybe she walked his body from place A to place B. He didn't know, and was slightly past caring at this point. The creation of new sparklings, now that was something that wouldn't escape his notice. And he hadn't noticed it, so he figured Sally was behaving herself.

For the most part.

And like all children, eventually Sally too stopped being good.

There was a new line, connection, bond as Sally liked to call them, and Sam found himself putting all his effort into figuring out what was really going on. The dorm room he thought he was in faded away to reveal tall skyscrapers and lots of signs covered in Asian writing. Right, Barricade had said he was in Japan, but other than that he had nothing to go on. What Japanese city he was in was a mystery.

Another mystery was how Starscream got there, found him, but like the other one it wasn't begging to be solved. It didn't matter, not really. But he was still pissed at the Seeker for cutting his arm off. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his stump. Beachbreak had done a good job taking care of him, but the scar was extensive. He also found himself feeling morose at the idea of not being able to work on Ed. You know, if Ed hadn't been scrapped already or was being kept under lock and key in some Air Force base. It angered Sam a little, how he didn't know what had set Starscream off. He was guessing Sally did something, she wasn't answering his questions about it. And there was no way he was asking Beachbreak or Barricade. His tentative hold on reality didn't seem to be something to advertise, even to his current allies. You never knew.

He pulled his wispy thoughts back to the new bond he felt, now two new bonds, and noticed all the people running away from him in all directions. Sam frowned, sure he hadn't showered in awhile, but it wasn't that bad! The clanking of metal behind him made him realize it was probably Starscream they were really running from. Usually, Sam would be doing the same thing actually.

Why do you no like the seeker? Sally asked. Because he cut off my arm, tried to kill me a bunch of times, and has been involved in a couple of plots to destroy my planet. Sally crossed her arms and leaned against Starscream's far foot. But he's mine, and so yours too. Can't you feel it? She placed a hand on her chest, and then disappeared to pop back into existence right in front of him and placed her other hand on his chest.

Sam covered it with his own hand, closed his eyes, and felt along his bonds. No, he shook his head, I don't feel it, only the new sparklings. Starscream isn't mine. Plus, at some point you have to let children go Sally. They grow up, and it's not uncommon for a child to become disowned. Sally frowned and then forcefully shook her head; her blue pigtails thumped against his chest. No! Mine! Forever mine.

A third new bond formed, and he found his thought process clear up, become less ADD. He needed to know where he was, what was going on. He was in Japan, in a city, and there was Starscream, and running people. And three new sparklings. Dang it Sally! The All Spark hunched in on herself and disappeared from view.

They were walking in front of him, two transformed small cars and one laptop. They were looking wildly around, couched ready to run, but couldn't find a suitable place to do so; people in three direction and Starscream in the fourth, with Barricade, Scorponok, and Beachbreak behind him. It was noisy, scary, and they wanted out! But Sam could tell something was holding them back from bolting through a building like they were capable of.

Us. Sally was crouched down and stroking the back of the laptop. We made them, they serve us. They won't leave us in danger.

But Starscream would, and Sam could tell the seeker was simmering about something as they were walking down the street, an action his feet had simply been taking automatically. At the moment, the jet was cooling his thrusters by blasting into the panicked and fleeing crowd. Sam winced as people went down and almost gaged as his sense of smell returned to him; burnt flesh was not the most pleasant of scents. Sam tripped into a pothole and fell, without two arms it was hard to balance. One of the new car sparklings made to pick him up, but at some cue from Starscream Sam couldn't see, stopped. He pushed himself slowly to his feet, brushing his hand off on his pants, and noticed Dagger and the laptop had moved to pace him on each side to act as buffers.

"Thanks guys," he said, reaching down to scratch the laptop, who was on his left.

"Always Creator," Dagger answered, and the laptop chirruped in agreement.

"This isn't going to work." Starscream stopped shooting and came to a stand still. "It's taking too long. My soldiers," he looked back at Barricade, Beachbreak, Fizz, and Dundee, "lack any aim and you new recruits don't even know how to fire a gun."

"We do," the laptop whispered to Sam, too soft for Starscream to hear over himself, "but will only do what Creator says, not the jet."

Sam gave a smile and patted the sparkling's back.

"What I need, is more soldiers. Even if they can't shoot with precision, lots of fire will cause enough damage for my take over of this country. Which means," Starscream reached down to pick Sam up via the back of his ruined coat and deposited him in the jet's waiting palm, "that you have to be quicker at animating Earth's technology."

"It takes a long time to create a spark! And I'm not letting you use sparklings for warfare. I'm not awaking anything else!" Sam bunched his hand into a fist, digging his nails painfully into his palm.

"I'm not giving you a choice, meatbag!" Starscream hissed. "I don't think you have any control over what you're doing, so all I have to do is hold you against something and I'll get what I want. As for a spark, I don't need those. I don't want sparklings I have to take care of, I want drones. And I think you can give those to me."

Sally was standing on a platform of air in front of Starscream, pleading with him to stop, not do anything, because war was BAD and life was GOOD and one shouldn't be used for the other.

Idealistic and naive, Sam thought, but at least she was on his side completely now.

Not that having her stuck inside his head and running around as a projection of his mind did much for his side.

Starscream shot out a hand and wrapped it around his middle before Sam could even so much as duck. He squirmed, noticed out of the corner of his eyes how all the other transformers tensed, and prayed they didn't do anything stupid. The seeker also seemed reluctant to have them attack and loosened his grip slightly, but there was still no chance at escape. Not that Sam wanted a lose hold on himself when he was over ten feet up in the air with a fall guaranteed to land on tough concrete. If he was lucky. Starscream could take off and hang from the side of building, thereby dramatically decreasing Sam's chance of surviving a drop.

The jet took off with a long stride, cutting through the sparklings who then followed Beachbreak and Barricade along with Dundee and Fizz. Dagger and the laptop rode on Beachbreak, who had an easier time matching Starscream's steps in his quad bike alt form than his bi-pedal mode. Ah, the problems of being short.

There was a used car lot up ahead and Starscream stopped next to it to crouch down. "This will work, human. Now, activate my army."

"I said no!" Sam screamed, trying to get his single hand access to a wire in the seeker's hand.

Fizz decided at that point to take things into his own hands. He brought up his two cannons and emptied his ammunition into Starscream's lower back. The seeker stumbled, but quickly righted himself and pointed his null ray at the vending machine. He fired once, twice, three times in quick succession, all near Fizz's spark chamber. The sparkling wobbled, then fell.

Beachbreak quickly transformed, Dagger and the laptop on his heals. The short mech shook his head, informing the other transformers that the gray tinge to Fizz's armor would continue to spread, that he was gone. But Sam hadn't needed a visual confirmation, because he had felt the bond pull piano string tight and then snap, the violence of the death giving him and Sally mental whiplash.

"You!" Sam hissed, puffing up as much as possible and glaring daggers at Starscream. He meant to go on, but the seeker roughly pushed him against the hood of a nearby SUV.

Sally, weeping and disparaging over the lost bond, changed moods almost automatically, like a child upset by the loss of one toy is pacified by the appearance of another one. Here was a chance to make a new connection, to if not repair the broken bond, at least cover up the stinging hurt of losing Fizz. Because it was a bad feeling, and she didn't like feeling bad.

It won't work! Sam pleaded with her, knowing that awaking a sparkling wasn't going to make the pain go away, wasn't going to erase the memory or the horrific fantasy of Bumblebee or one of the other sparklings being the next victim. It won't work! He shouted at her, even as the faint stirrings of a connection started to form and Sally's assurance that it would and his own small similar hope bubbled up.

But as soon as it came it was gone and all that was underneath him was more dead metal. So Sally tried again, and again, and again, each time feeling that faint hint of a bond that would make her, and thus Sam's feelings, soar only to have a bullet blow through their wings. It wasn't working, and Sam was feeling sick from how Starscream was rubbing him on the cars as if he were a cleaning cloth.

After awhile the shaking stopped and Sam found the world spinning, but there was still the constricting fingers of Starscream's hand around his middle. And in front of him was something he dearly wished was one of his hallucinations and not reality. The entire lot of cars was standing, looking about and the few moving were doing so stiffly.

Sally was crying, running from one to another, reaching out and trying to find an active bond and failing. None of the sparklings responded to her efforts, and the pain stung deeply. Sam squirmed in Starscream's grasp, not caring about the tears running down his face, because he was searching for bonds too and failing. "Sally, Sally, Sally," he sobbed, trying to calm her down unsuccessfully because what she felt, he felt, and she felt again in return.

The sparklings, the sparkless sparklings worse off than Fizz (don't think of him now), Dundee, and Dagger had been, were looking for direction and before he could speak and give it to them Starscream spoke instead.

"Your orders are to take control of the city."

And they moved, having the instinctual violent tendencies the sparklings created by Sector Seven had. They leveled guns at buildings, mowed down running people, and steadily moved down streets. Mechanical. Robotic. Empty.

Suddenly, Sam felt the same way. Empty and drained. He felt himself fall, felt some other mech who wasn't Starscream catch him, and finally, after who knows how long fell asleep when he eyes closed as the salt of his tears crusted on his check, Sally still wailing in the background of his mind.

Beachbreak bent his knees as he caught Samuel before he hit the ground. Starscream had simply tossed the human over his shoulder after barking out commands, as if he was a toy who no longer held his interest. Cade came up behind him to check on the human, the sparklings also gathering around as Beachbreak gently brushed Samuel's hair out of his face.

The human was still, asleep, but alive. Unharmed. And while he knew Starscream was marching on the city of Tokyo, was destroying lives, all he could think of was how grateful what was left of his family had slipped the seeker's mind and was allowed to fade away into the background.

Cade stepped away and scooped up Fizz's body, Dundee rushing to help. Beachbreak watched them do it, cupping Samuel closer to his chest. Things were getting out of hand. He hoped Bumblebee finally arrive, he had backup.

A/N: Heads up, I'll be doing NaNo this year again, and for the first time will not be doing a TF fanfic. I'm going for something original ^_~ That being said, even while my update schedule is super erratic, don't expect anything during November. (Unless my mind decides it needs a original fic break and spits out a oneshot.) You can however, expect me to finish uploading this story before the end of the month. This was my NaNo novel from two years ago, and as such really should have all been up ages ago. I do apologize for that. But there's only 17 chapters, so we're almost done!

You're welcome to follow me on the NaNoWriMo site! I'm using the same username over there.

And now, those brownies in the oven are calling me. As is my PS3. Ah, I'll have a good night tonight ^_^