Chapter 2: From the darkness...
Twenty minutes later...
The first thing that Starscream noticed when they stepped into the deserted ship was the cold. Deep, piercing, it was making him shiver and penetrated to his very core. The walls, ceiling and floors were all covered in a fine layer of frosty ice. Behind him, he felt Blitzwing stop and heard his light sight, sign that he, too, was a little worried and confused about all this. Lugnut didn't let anything of what he was feeling show on his attitude and his features were as unreadable as ever...
"Ok, let's do this! We have one cycle! Then we come back to the Nemesis!" The SIC finally said breaking the spell that was on them. "Let's find the bridge..."
Slowly they started walking through a dark hallway, only lighted by red security lamps. It was casting long shadows on the floor, the walls and the ceiling and Starscream could swear that he saw some of those move... He shook his head and rebooted his optics, must have been a optical illusion, or a glitch. After a few hundred meters they reached an intersection and the main hallway, larger and darker, was crossing the smaller one they had been walking through since their arrival here. Starscream looked right and left, and then forwards towartds the direction they had already been following. He stayed silent for a oment and then said.
"Ok, we will split so we can cover more ground! Blitzwing, you contiue ahaed, Lugnut,m to the left, I will take the right! Stay linked to me through the comm. links! I want a report every five breems."
The two other bots shared a look and the triple changer frowned some. Since they had came across that ship, and ever since, he had been in his cold persona, the one Starscream sees as the dominant, and this was a little odd. Usually he would switch from personalities depending on his mood... But the cold one had stayed dominant for more than 5 hours now. He spoke in a controlle, calm tune.
"Are jou sure it iz a good idea? If ve get lost, or vone of us iz in dire danger, the others vill be too far to help." He tilted his head, his red optic shining a little strangely when a shadows crossed his face, hiding it appart for the optic. "Ze vise solution vill be to stay together, even if it means more time spent here."
Starscream narrowed his optics, he was right of course, they would be safer if they stayed grouped, but he wanted to be out of here as soon as possible. And if they didn't split, exploring the ship would take cycles... He replied sharply.
"Point taken, Blitzwing, but my orders remains. We are to split and stay in contact with each other via comlink at all times! I understands how you feel..." He looked around, catching some more movements from the corners of his optics, and added. "This place is giving me the creeps too. That is why I want to be done as soon as possible. But if anything happens..." He gulped, that sounded almost like a curde... "If anything happens, we can be there in five breems top."
Blitzwing looked down for a moment, and his optics focused on a spot behind Starscream for a second as if seeing something, but he looked back at the seeker quickly. He nodded and sighed. It wasn't for his liking, apparently, but he'll comply. This place had a very bad aura...
"Alright, Commander! As you command!"
Starscream had a sharp nod for him and his optics moved to Lugnut. The big oaf was standing silently behind Blitzwing and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. His red optic was slightly dimmed. Starscream snapped his digits in front of his face to catch his attention.
"HEY! Cybertron to Lugnut! I gave you an order!"
Lugnut blinked a few times before looking at Starscream and replied sharply.
"Understood Sir."
Starscream narrowed his optics and shrugged it all, the mech had always been weird.
"Good. Now go! COntact in five breems!"
Starscream took to the right, Lugnut to the left and Blitzwing continues on the way thy were already following. And silence soon shrouded then all, apart from the bip-bip-bip of the active comlink every five clicks. None of them saw a shadow, particularly deep and dense, seems to take more density, more shape, and two others, at each side of it, took for at the intersection. after a moment three sets of red flammes lighted where the things 'heads' would be and a cold, terrifying hiss came from where their mouth should've been...
oOo
It had begun...
IT was watvching the three invaders closely. IT was ready to deal with them. But a part of IT was focussed on the two still on the other ship. The female one was interesting... A combination of organic and mechanic parts. But the other one... The darkness of that spark was drawing IT closer to this one.
It could taste it.
Feel it.
And IT would be a real treat to devour!
oOo
Starscream had reached another intersection and he stopped. Great, just great... Which way now? There was a panel on the wall, with Cybertronian writings on it. Old Cybertronian... But he could read it.
Section 6-D to 6-G →
← Elevator
↑ Engineering, secondary Bridge
Haaaa, this was interesting! Maybe he could find some interesting things on that secondary Bridge, and the engineering was a place to go visit too. He was about to call the others when he heard hurried footsteps and a whisper behind him. He spinned around and waved his flashlight around to see what was there. He saw nothing, but heard another faint whispers and something that sounded a lot like sparkling laugh, light and almost indiscernible.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" He shouted, hearing more hurried, light footsteps, like those of a sparkling.
He frowned. Was there any survivors in here? It was impossible... How did they'll have survived without exterior support for 300 thousand Vorns? It was crazy... He saw a slight movement from a nearby door and casted his light there quickly, just in time to see a small leg disappear, running into the room. What the hell?...
"Hey! HEY YOU! Little one! I saw you! Come here, I won't hurt you!" He said hurriedly and ran towards where he saw the small thing disappear. He felt like the cold was more intense here... The door was half opened and behind all he could see were deep, very deep darkness. Like the void itself was awaiting him behind that door... A blow of cold air washed over him from the slight opening and he shivered. He should go back and forget this... But he heard something new. A sound that made his metal skin crawl and his frame tense in dread.
Someone was signing a sparkling lullaby in a very low tune, a tiny, clear sparkling voice...
He took a step back from that door, now it seemed like a terrible mistake to ever put a single pede in that accursed ship. That innocent doorframe, and the slight crack in it, were looking like the mouth to the Inferno, and Starscream was no fool. He turned around, wanting nothing more than to flee this place as soon as possible, and frag Megatron and his orders to the pit, but stopped dead in his track.
Behind him was standing a sparkling.
Probably not more then 2 or 3 Vorns old, and not ever as high as his knee joint. The little one was standing there, not smiling, not moving, not even looking alive for Primus's sake. And he was just staring at him with red optics. Optic that were shining like living flames. Starscream was frozen on the pot, enthralled by those hypnotizing optics. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, could just stare back, fear gripping his spark.
Suddenly, the sparkling opened his mouth, wider, wider, impossibly wide, and... The most painfully lound, dreadfully terrifying screeching sound came out of it, finally wrenching Starscream out of his trance.
And Starscream ran, ran on the opposite direction as fast as he could, and opened his comm. link in a panic.
"Blitzwing! Lugnut! Reports back to the main Intersection ASAP! We are LEAVING! NOW!"
From his commlink, all he got was more of those horrid screech and he wrenched it away from his audio, throwing it on the wall, his spark beating like mad. He ran and ran and ran but he wasn't reaching the intersection yet. He was running straight ahead and wasn't reaching anything! Like that damn hallways was going on and on and on forever! After a while he stoppe, trying to cool his overheating systems down, and looked around. Nothing... Only that darkness, more closed doors and the endless hallway in front of him.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HEEEEERE!"
No one answered...
oOo
Blitzwing knew from the start that it was a bad idea.
The triple changer had been walking for at least ten breems and hadn't found any other intersection yet. He was about to turn back when finally he reached the end of the hallway. He looked down at the dark, empty space where an elevator probably was but now it was crashed on the bottom of the conduit apparently. He could see it if he casted his light downward.
Well, dead end.
Blitzwing turned back and was about to walk back the way he came when he heard faint whispers from down the empty shaft. Like someone talking a few decks below him. Prudently he walked closer and held on the elevator's frame to try and listen better. A few decks below he could see light coming from another hallway. He was intrigued now and he leaned a bit lower, holding tight on the frame.
The whisperes seemed to get louder and closer, and he called down the shaft.
"Iz there anybody here? Show yourzelf!"
For a split second the whipers seemed to stop but then, they resumed, and Blitzwing could see a shadow casted on the back wall of the conduit from the lighted hallway. He frowned and then spotted the emergency ladder on the wall next to the door. He pondered it for a moment. Should he go down and see what was there, or should he just turn back and walk back from where he came?...
He didn't had time to ponder much longer because a loud crashing sound resonated from behind him and he spines around... Only to freeze in horror, his face briefly switched to it's crazy self at the impossibility of what he was seeing.
A large mass of shadow, as wide and high as the hallway, was coming towards him at a tremendous speed! He could discern movements on that mass... And what looks like optics, but only briefly. He managed to push his crazy self back and return to his cold self. He needed his head to think now... And fast! The crashing and crunching sounds were coming very close and very quickly, and he heard another sound coming from that mass... Screams. Pained, tortured and terrified screams. Like the screams of the Damned from the pits...
"Ho my Primus..."
He jumped and grabbed the ladder just as the mass crashed through the elevator's door and into the wall only a inch from where his head had been a moment earlier. The mass of writting shadows then started to go downwards, towards him, and he didn't thought further, sliding down the ladder until he reached the hallway he spotted earlier and jumped inside just in time to avoid being crunched to death. Now the entire elevator's shaft was filled with this... mass... he would never dare to try and return from where he came.
He had to find another way...
He stood and looked at the hallway opening in front of him, only to stare in awe. The pace was... lively and lighted like a functional ship. He could see mech and femmes walking and some laugher, and a sparkling cry from a nearby room. Turning around, there was no writing mass of shadows anymore. Only a blank elevator door. He frowned deeply, feeling his crazy self threaten to take control again, and had to fight not to let him. If they were to survive he had to stay in control...
He started slowly walking down that hallway, feeling out of place. Everything in here looked archaic, before the Great War's design. No one was paying attention to him, until he saw a femme standing in the middle of the hallway and she was staring right at him. ANd smilling sensually... He felt his core temperature rise a few degrees and when she had a wink and a slight movement to invite him to follow her, he looked around to be sure he was the one she was making those gestures for. He didn't even thought to use his commlink to call the others...
He followed her, enthralled, almost against his own will. His logical mind was screaming for him to run, to run as far and as fast as he could, but he couldn't resist... It was like he was possessed by an outside force making him do as it pleased. Lowering his optics he saw pieces of light blue armor on the floor, and he gulped, follwing the trail towards a door. The femme, naked and beautiful, was laying on the doorframe and looking at him invitingly.
...Come... Come to me...
He fought against himself, feeling that this was all wrong, this was going to end very badly. But he took the last step forward and the femme wrapped her thin arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. He almost gagged... The feeling was cold as ice and disgusting! He culdn't help but kiss back, his mind screaming at him to stop.
And he should've listen... When she pulled back he screamed and scrambled backward, she had no face anymore! Only a black hole with two twin red flames in the middle, and a cold hiss left that oval of darkness. Blitzwing fell on his aft and screamed again.
"BY PRIMUS! GET AWAY FROM ME VITCH!"
He ran.
He ran as fast as he could, the ship now as empty and dark as it had been when they got in. The lively hallway had vanished and returned to it's frightening, cold self... Appart from the horrifying screech filling the air! It was coming from behind him, where he left the femme. But soon it was all around him, filling his audio and making his spark beat so fast he thought it would jump out of his chest. He tried his commlink, but only more screech came from it.
They should've NEVER come here!
But it was too late...
They had awoken an evil as old and great as Unicron Himself!
oOo
Lugnut was going mad.
There was no other explanations!
He had started to heard that voice in his head only a few while after they encountered that ship and it had not left him until then. It was whispering things to him... He had always been a little... weird, that was true, even Megatron couldn't stand him sometimes, but now... He was going downright crazy. He just knew it... Why would he be hearing voices otherwise? ANd it had worsens since they came into that ship...
He had followed the right hallway almost mechanically, and after a while, he found a angle that was going left. The voice told him to go this way. He tried not to obey, but his pedes did without his conscious decision. This hallway was o different then the previous one, except that it was colder... And a large door was at the end. As he walked closer, the large bot could reed what was written on the door in Old Cybertronian.
INGENEERING
He frowned. Why would that... whoever it was that as talking to him, would want him to go to the Engineering? He was no engineer... He had skills, basics, but nothing more. When he walked close enough the door opened on its own and he saw a dark, wide room behind the double doors. sounds were coming from there, humming and hissing sounds of machines working and... something else.
SOmething darker and more frightening.
A deep, loud thumping sound, like a heart, but that was resonating through the walls, the ceiling, the floor, and through him. And with every pulse a dark red light bathed the room from somewhere in the middle of the large room. Lugnut wanted to run away, and never come back here. He tried to do just that but his own servos wont obey his will, and he continued his journey towards the heart of the ship... And the evilness that he had been feeling ever since they went across that floating wreckage.
This wasn't good... He wanted to flew, he was no cowards but this... was far worst then anything they ever encountered. Even Megatron's wrath seemed like a gentle caress in comparison. This was pure Evil with no boundaries and no restrictions. This was of the scale of Unicron Himself... And even Megatron shouldn't mess with something like that.
"Please, let me go..." He whispered and heard a cold, dark laugher in his head in reply. He whimpered and was forced to walk further, closer to the source. He didn't wanted to see... To know... It would destroy his mind! "Please, have mercy!'
It was fruitless, of course. Such a creature didn't know the meaning of mercy. It only laughed more and Lugnut closed his single optic, his spark freezing.
...You are so easy to manipulate, lesser being...
Lugnut whimpered again at the loud voice the filled both his audio and his mind. He didn't dare online his optic. He had forgotten about the commlink, and anyway, he wouldn't been permitted to use it. He felt something... huge, dark, and as cold as the depth of space towering over him. He kept his optic shut, and for some reason, the thing left him that last once of free will. Maybe it was amusing IT. That was what it felt like...
...So fragile... So pathetically weak... You mind and body are so easy to break, lesser being!...
Lugnut didn't knew if he was expected to answer, nor did he knew the reason that creature chose him amongst all the crew, but he lowered his head and answered in a terrified voice.
"If we are so weak and pathetic, let us go, whoever you are... We are nothing to you!"
He couldn't even recognize the terrified whisper that was his voice now. He felt something brush his side and jumped instinctively, the feeling was disgusting! Wet, cold and the smell... Like a thousand decaying corpses! He shrunk and tried to move away, but he couldn't. Soon four of those appendages were wrapped around his limbs and holding him firmly in place. Struggling now would be in vain... But the creature seemed to think amusing to give him back his motor functions for now.
Lugnut did trash wildly and keened in fear. He kept his optic closed and refused to open them. Seeing this thing would make him mad for sure... The creature talked again.
...Your mind, your body are mine... But you are not the one I want. You will be the vessel of his downfall though...
A cold thing stuck in his head then and another over his spark, and suddenly there is nothing else then pain. Pain! Like his spark his wrenched in two and his mind peeled like an onion. He felt naked, exposed and in pure agony. In the middle of the wave of darkness, he heard the voice one last time.
...You should be honored, lesser creature...
-TBC-