"Blah, blah, blah"-Normal Speech

"Blah, blah, blah"- Thoughts

["Blah, blah, blah"]-Bumblebee Speech

In the Nemesis:

The corridors of the great Decepticon warship were silent. Whoever didn't know would think that silence was normal. But it was not. Not that way.

There were few who knew about Megatron's grim situation. But even without knowing the details, the troops knew there was something wrong with their leader.

Since the Dark Energon had begun to affect him, Megatron was more unstable and aggressive than normal. Often he had violent fits of rage, leaving anything or anyone in his way, to pieces. When this happened, it wasn't just his optics that turned purple; all the veins in his body glowed in an abnormal way. Generally, these bouts happened when Megatron was agitated or stressed.

Unfortunately, for Bulkhead that was being interrogated in that moment, he was both now.

"Say it at once, Autobot! Where's the Autobot Base!" Megatron snarled.

"Go to the Pit and stay there, old scrap!" The Wrecker replied bravely. In response, the leader Decepticon used his claws to cut Bulkhead's face, forming four thick lines that began to drip energon.

Bulkhead had been interrogated many times. He had several scars to prove that. But he couldn't remember dreading being interrogated so much. Something was very wrong with Megatron.

It was almost like the Decepticon leader was not so interested in finding out the secrets of the Autobots, but turning him into a pile of scrap metal. But at the same time, Megatron was controlling himself not to do that.

By then he had so many scratches on his armor that his painting was turning blue with the energon. He could not open his left optic, because of a punch given on the spot. The main lines of his legs had been cut off, making the task of moving them, something so painful that it was impossible. There was no chance of Bulkhead escaping on his own now. He tried not to show his fear and pain but it was becoming harder and harder, the loss of energon was making him too weak.

"I... I'm tired of this Autobot! Take him back to prison! I'll take care of him later!" Megatron ordered to the Velhicons, who were in the corner of the room, terrified.

Knockout and Starscream (that had return to the Decepticons), who were also in the room, were silent without the courage to make any comment. They notice that their leader left, looking exhausted. When the Velhicons dragged the wrecker, they also left.

"Slag! I actually feel sorry for the Autobot!" Starscream commented with a shudder. "I am grateful that I came back before Dark Energon began to affect our Lord; otherwise, I feel that not by a miracle I would survive."

"Still, you could tell that Megatron was controlling himself in order not to lose control. Otherwise we would have a dead body now, not a prisoner." Knockout noted.

"Speaking of it... I once put a piece of Dark Energon in my spark chamber. Is there any chance he might affect me as well?" He asked worriedly.

"Oh! So the rumors were true! The shard is still there?"

"No. I didn't want Megatron to suspect anything, so I took him out to avoid trouble."

"So I don't think you need to worry. Since the fragment is no more in contact with your spark, you are fine." He soothed him. Starscream sighed in relief. But another doubt arose in the seeker's head;

"Knockout, I was thinking; if our Lord needs to love someone, why he didn't try to love one of us? I'm sure Soundwave wouldn't mind being courted by Megatron." He asked the doctor with honest curiosity.

"Actually, Scream... he tried."

"Huh? When that happened? I would have remembered!" He asked, so surprised that ignored the fact that the doctor had called him "Scream".

"It's because just a few actually knew. But Megatron tried to woo Soundwave. But for some reason he could not. As he told me, whenever he tried to do that, the voices in his head became stronger and felt he was losing control of his body. That's why he had to give up."

"Any theory about why this happened?"

"It's not obvious? Megatron needs to learn to love and be loved back. What he wanted with Soundwave wasn't love, it was interest. It would not work, even with him and Soundwave being so close." He explained. "Apparently, Lord Megatron's only way to be back to normal will be falling in love with someone he would never, ever think of loving."

"Ugh! That certainly will not be easy." He sighed and Knockout had to agree with him.

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Miko's POV

"ARGH! I just wanted some air! Is that too much to ask?!" I yelled at nothing. I had decided to get out to the top of the base, wanting to stay a bit away from the uncomfortable atmosphere that was the place. Unfortunately, this way my phone got signal to receive other calls. And those calls were all from Vince, who probably wanted to keep flirting with me.

"This guy doesn't learn?! Me?! Girlfriend of that idiot, bigheaded?!" I started to say to myself. "Miko Nakadai, Vince Raider's* sweetheart. ARGH!" Just thinking, make me want to vomit. "No sir! Not me! I guarantee that! I want to live adventures, explore the world, meet more people... I want more than I can tell..." said the phrase, slowly becoming a whisper. "And I would also like... to have someone to understand me... there are so many things I want to do..." I finished with a sigh, sitting on the edge of the silo. I know I usually acted like I didn't have the slightest interest in love and romance, but that wasn't true. I would like to have someone who was always by my side, supporting me (or reprimanding me when necessary), understanding me, being with me all the time. Of course, I have Bulkhead, but Bulk is like a second father to me. And he has Wheeljack.

So who do I have? Jack? Nah ... very mind-closed, and spoils pleasures. Raf? Hell no! He's like my little brother! Ratchet? Yeah, right. Optimus? No, he can be worse than Jack (these two need to loosen up a bit). Arcee? I'm not interested in girls. Smokescreen? Hum no. The way he acts like Optimus' fanboy is kind of annoying. Sighing in defeat, I decided to enter the base again. "Cheer up Miko. It's not like you're always going to be alone. Maybe one day you'll meet someone." I thought, trying to cheer myself up. "I hope."

At that moment, I noticed that the battery of my cell phone was almost over. "Damn, thank you very much, Vince!" I growled. "Hey, Raf! Can I borrow your charger?" I asked when I saw him.

"Sure, Miko. Here", he said, handing me the cell phone charger. I plugged in and... and what? Jack had not yet come from work, Bulkhead was still on patrol, and the mood at the base remained strange. What could I do?

"We... find Bulk..." I heard bits of Arcee's voice coming from the bottom of the base. Were they talking about Bulkhead? What did she mean by "finding"? Was Bulkhead lost? I cannot see this happening. "It could be..." I thought of a terrible possibility. I had to check!

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Normal POV:

"Any sign, Ratchet?"

"I already said, Optimus! No, I did not find anything! The other times, I was just lucky to find the warship! You cannot expect me to be lucky again!"

"Well, we'll have to make it happen! We cannot leave Bulkhead there!" Arcee shouted.

"Bulkhead is with the Decepticons?!"

The bots looked down and saw Miko, looking at them shocked.

"So the story you told, that he was on patrol... was a lie?" That explained the unpleasant mood at the base. "Why did you lie?"

"We did not want to make you worried, Miko." Optimus explained, but even he knew it was a weak excuse.

"And then you decided to lie to me! How long did they think the lie would last?!" she asked, her voice showing all her anger.

"We had a little hope that, until we saved Bulkhead," Arcee admitted.

Miko felt very angry. She wanted to yell at them, call them whatever it was to curse, hit someone... but her brain was so messed up she could not think. He tried to say something, but it end up choking the words.

"Miko, stay with Rafael while we look for Bulkhead." Optimus spoke, trying to calm the girl.

"No! I want to stay! I-!"

"When we find him, we will let you know, I promise."

"How do I know you're not lying again?" The girl asked snarling. Optimus felt miserable with Miko's mistrust, but that would be expected. "Please stay with Raf," he said, almost begging. Miko did as he said, but only because she didn't want to look at them anymore. "If they don't find Bulkhead fast, I'll make them curse the day they met me!" She promised herself.

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When Jack came from the work, he found Miko sitting on the couch, arms and legs crossed, an angry expression on her face, staring at Ratchet, who was on the computers, so intensely it looked like she was trying to pierce him with her eyes.

"Uh... what's going on?" He asked to Raf.

"Bulkhead was captured by the Decepticons. It was decided we were not going to tell Miko, but she ended up finding out anyway." Miko was also giving him a cold shoulder because she had discovered that the boy knew about what had happened to Bulkhead and had not told her.

"Oh! Big mistake."

Miko did not even hear Jack speak. She was very focused on thinking of ways to get revenge on the Bots for lying to her. "When Bulkhead comes back, I will not come to base anymore and I will not talk to them for a long time. No! This way I will not be able to see Bulk either! But I liked the idea of not talking to them. When they ask me something, I'll ask the Bulk to speak through me. It's good to begin with. Maybe after that, I'll wait for them to sleep to paint them all in bright-pink!"

Hours passed, all the Autobots were astonished to note that Miko had not once moved from where she was. Several times, she would clench her fists or swing her legs tightly. Ratchet noticed that at various times, the girl's heart was racing, to calm down slowly. He didn't want to know what was going on in her mind.

Suddenly…

"OPTIMUS! I FOUND! I FOUND THE DECEPTICON SHIP!" Ratchet began to scream with satisfaction at his success. All the Autobots raced to the main hangar, while Miko smiled at the news, her heart feeling much lighter.

["How did you do that?"] Bumblebee asked.

"Lucky shot, I guess."

"Stop talking and go! Bulkhead has spent too much time in that piece of hell!" Miko shouted.

"I have to agree with her. We'd better move." Arcee commented.

"Ratchet, you are coming with us. Bumblebee, take care of the Bridge," Optimus ordered. The Ground Bridge was activate, to the coordinates "Autobots, roll out!"

The three of them passed the green portal, only the scout and the three humans remained in the base. "Umm... Miko, how about some games?" Jack asked, wanting to distract her.

"Don't want to," moaned. She had no head for games. She just wanted to know if Bulkhead would return well.

Suddenly, the Asian girl came with a decision; she could not just stand waiting the Bots return! And ignoring any good sense she had... jumped from the platform and ran right to the ground bridge!

(*)Since they never gave Vince's last name, I use Vince's voice actor last name, Brad Raider.

The most difficult part of this chapter, was the interrogation between Megatron and Bulkhead. I wanted to try to show how much the Dark Energon was affecting Megatron. But I didn't want to make something gory. I hope it looks convincing enough. And Miko's monologue was hard too. I couldn't stop thinking that sounded to forced.

Curiosity: In the beginning, the song "Be our Guest" was mean to be singed to Belle's father. but the producers thought it was a to good song for a secondary character. Plus, Chip would have only one phrase and Belle's friend would be a little music box, that speak with little expressive sounds. The music box have a little appearance in the movie, right next to Lumiere when the castle is attacked.