Well…I finally finished this story, which became something completely and utterly different than what I envisioned…Geez, like a year and a half ago, when it first bonked me in the head. But I've really finished it. Including picking at it.

Soooooo…I figure I'm just gonna go ahead and post the rest of it now. Because if I don't, I'll just keep picking at it. Endlessly. So, enjoy the final six chapters of this story, if you've read this far…but you might want to grab a snack first and visit the bathroom. 'Cuz some of these puppies is long…

But then again, this story's not really done, in the end. Because, as it turns out, I've discovered there are many other stories in this universe to be told and many different characters – and even a few different time periods – to play with. You're all thrilled, I'm sure. :) But in the meantime...

16: Into the Fire

Swoop awoke to the sound of a fierce wind howling somewhere in the distance. The small and dimly-lit room to which she awoke was bitingly cold, and she could feel even colder drafts playing over her body with every renewed howl of the wind outside. The floor on which she was lying consisted of frigid plates of sickeningly familiar purple-grey metal. Wherever she was, the walls were thin, and it was very cold outside.

She was already so cold that thinking was difficult, and she knew that moving would be a chore, but it was a necessary one. Still, for a while, an almost pleasant while, she couldn't remember quite what had happened…until it all came back to her with all the crashing insistence of a tidal wave, and she jerked upright in alarm.

Or at least she tried to jerk upright in alarm.

She was chained rather securely, lying awkwardly on her side; one of her wings had been wrenched forcefully and painfully backward in order to allow the position. Whoever had put her there hadn't bothered to try to figure out how the wing folded, and it was aching insistently at her. Her hands were secured behind her back, her forearms shackled together. That set of shackles was connected by a very short chain to similar shackles that secured her ankles. This forced her knees into a deep bend and her back into an uncomfortable arch, and her entire half-frozen body was stiff and vehemently protested movement, which told her that she'd been trussed up in that position and left in this frigid little room for quite some time. When she tried to move, the tight shackles bit painfully into her limbs, but she appeared to be unhurt otherwise. It wasn't surprising since she knew that Megatron wanted her unharmed. Otherwise, she never would have woken up at all…

As if on cue, as if thinking about him had summoned him, the door to the room creaked open, and both Soundwave and Megatron entered. Megatron moved to stand in front of Swoop, glaring down at her with his arms folded over his chest. Soundwave moved around behind her and pulled at her until she was sitting uncomfortably half-upright, her back still arched and all of her weight resting on the side of her dully aching hip. She tried to think of something witty, something taunting, to say, but nothing came to her. She was afraid, truly, deeply afraid, and the fear was, for the moment, blocking her wit. So it was Megatron who spoke first.

"Well," he said, almost mildly. "Welcome back."

Swoop didn't answer for a long moment. She just stared up at him with an expression that she hoped spoke of defiance and not of the fear that was shamefully roiling its way through her. Finally, she asked, somehow managing to keep her voice level, "Why have you brought me here?"

At that, Megatron laughed. It was a genuinely amused laugh, but there was a dark and nasty edge to it, one that Swoop knew did not bode well for her.

"Oh, I just thought that we should have a little talk, my queen," he answered, the honorific decidedly sarcastic. "Besides that which we had on that 'lovely' beach, of course. Something a little more…private."

"A talk," Swoop echoed dully.

"Yes," Megatron answered agreeably.

"About how you've come to your senses and now wish to humbly devote your life to my service?" she asked, sarcasm apparently rising to the surface despite herself.

Megatron's eyes narrowed and glowed at her dangerously in response, and he crouched down so that, suddenly, they were more or less eye-to-eye.

"Don't flatter yourself, you primitive, half-animal filth," Megatron snarled into her face.

"Oh! So you brought me here to listen to insults that I've heard a billion times already?" Swoop asked impudently, resisting the urge to jerk fearfully away from him. Her tone earned her a sharp backhand against her cheek that was forceful enough to make her see stars.

"Insolent child," Megatron snarled distastefully as she fell sideways. "It will be a distinct pleasure to teach you to respect your betters."

Not having any hands free to break her fall, Swoop fell on her wing instead. Already damaged and wrenched, it strongly protested having to bear the brunt of her fall, pain singing along its entire width, but she clenched her jaw so as not to make a sound. She was determined that she would not give Megatron the satisfaction of any kind of reaction to whatever he did to her. And then, before she could think further, she was hauled roughly upright again, and Megatron's glowering face was suddenly in hers again. His eyes flared menacingly as he lowered his voice to a disturbingly greasy level.

"I think you know exactly why I brought you here, my dear," he oozed, the sarcasm practically dripping from the endearment. "You require a successor, do you not? We can't have the royal line dying out, after all."

Glancing down at her body, he traced the deep curve of her waist to her hip, exaggerated as it was due to her position,with one finger. Clenching her jaw again so as to remain silent, Swoop fought not to jerk away from Megatron's touch, since she was fairly certain that that was what he wanted her to do.

"And at least the Autobots seem to have made you a bit less hideous for the occasion," he taunted.

She snorted at that and glowered at him. Emboldened, leaning toward him so that their faces were even closer than they had been, she spat at him venomously, "I would rather die, Megatron."

Megatron chuckledin obvious amusement, not moving in the slightest otherwise.

"Under normal circumstances, little queen, I would say that that could quite happily be arranged," he said. He raised a hand then to stroke her cheek with the backs of his fingers, the gesture all mocking gentleness, as he added, "But we both know that's not an option here, do we not?"

Swoop growled wordlessly in response, resisting a strong urge to turn her head and tear into his hand with her teeth. Megatron ignored her, was still busy listening to the sound of his own voice.

"Rather," he was musing, lowering his voice even more, as he leisurely moved his hand so that his fingertips trailed lightly along Swoop's jaw line and then down the length of her throat, "we simply need to make you a bit more…amenable to reason."

And before she could respond to that, Megatron was suddenly straightening from his crouch, towering over her again. "If you please, Soundwave," he said mildly, but his gaze was still menacing, and it was still entirely and venomously focused on Swoop as she stared up in confusion at him.

Soundwave's hands were suddenly on her then, meaning that the one he'd been using to hold her up was no longer supporting her. The distribution of her weight was such that she was forced to lean back heavily against Soundwave or otherwise collapse onto her painfully-damaged wing again. She was certain that this was intentional on Soundwave's part. His probing was impersonal and not at all sensuous; he was merely searching for something. And there was only one thing, Swoop realized, that he could be searching for: An interface port.

Terror slammed full-force into her then. She was very aware of Soundwave's legendary talents at hacking. She tried her best not to show any sign of fear, staring mutely but angrily up at Megatron instead, doing her best to ignore Soundwave's touch, helpless as she was to prevent it.

"You know, if your little pet was here," Megatron spat scathingly as he impassively watched Soundwave poke parts of her body that he had no business poking, "I would simply have him nullify you. But since he isn't here because you made him – and Thundercracker – go insane, I'm afraid that I've decided to use a somewhat more…creative approach. So remember that you have only yourself and your pet to blame for everything that is going to happen to you here, dear Swoop."

And that was when Soundwave found the port that he wanted, the primary one that allowed access to all of her core programming. It was situated high on her chest, dangerously near to her spark chamber. Soundwave unceremoniously wrenched off the small, thick armor plate that protected it, forcing Swoop to bite down on her lip to prevent a pained and shamefully terrified cry from escaping. A mass of snaky cables extended from his wrist, and Soundwave unceremoniously jacked into Swoop. She shuddered, knowing that he would be making an attempt to access her core programming and also knowing that, despite the layers of security measures that protected that level of her being, he would succeed. And given Soundwave's talents, it likely wouldn't take him long at all to accomplish whatever he was seeking to accomplish.

Megatron saw the shudder that ran through Swoop, and he smiled down at her, sarcastically benevolent in his triumph.

"Really, though, you should be thankful," Megatron said to Swoop scathingly as a strange heat begin to radiate from the port to which Soundwave was linked, spreading quickly across her chest, up into her shoulders, and down into the rest of her torso. She felt the pulsing of her spark increase in speed. Whether this was out of fear or because of whatever it was that Soundwave was doing to her she didn't know. The heat might have been pleasant, given her otherwise frigid surroundings, if she hadn't known that it was likely a harbinger of very bad things to come.

"I could simply force you, take you right now in this lovely little room and just as you are, all charmingly full of fight and fear," Megatron was continuing meanwhile. He smirked mockingly at the murderous look that Swoop gave him. "It would be…utterly delicious. But," he added with an airy, mock-regretful sigh, "I daresay that this way might be even more delicious."

Then, suddenly, he was crouching down again, in Swoop's face again, one hand coming up to grab her chin roughly and then using the grip to wrench her head backward. This time, she couldn't hold back the little grunt of discomfort that emerged from her.

"You will beg for me to take you, pathetic little queen," Megatron savagely promised her. "You will scream for me."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" she snarled back at him. "So not going to happen," she promised him.

He didn't respond, instead exchanging an amused look with Soundwave behind her. Whatever Soundwave silently communicated to him, it made Megatron nod and then smirk with satisfaction.

"Well," he said, almost cheerfully, giving Swoop a terrifying smile, "we'll see if you've changed your tune in about…oh…two hours or so."

A deep and powerful dread overcame Swoop, particularly when Soundwave disengaged himself from her. His mission was apparently accomplished, which was very bad news for her. The realization of this must have shown on her face, for all that she had been trying to hide her fear.

"There, there," Megatron soothed her mockingly, caressing her face with obscene gentleness. "There's no need for fear, little one. You might even enjoy this." He leaned closer to her then, whispered in tones that were at once menacing and lascivious, "I know you're going to want it, at least."

And then, because he could, bound and tightly sandwiched as she was between him and Soundwave, Megatron leaned into her and kissed her. There was nothing gentle in the gesture. No passion, even. There was only dominance. Possessiveness. Victory. Swoop stiffened, involuntarily pressing herself back against Soundwave, not knowing what to do for a long and terrible moment…and then she finally took the opportunity to bite him, teeth grabbing and then ripping savagely into Megatron's lower lip.

Megatron didn't make a sound, but he did pull back from her in order to slap her again, hard. He was smiling, though, as he dabbed at his chin with the back of one hand.

"I can only hope," he said to her with obvious amusement as she worked her aching jaw, "that you'll still be this feisty a little later on."

He wanted her to fight him, Swoop then realized. He wanted this encounter that he was gleefully planning to be brutal, rough, and he apparently wanted her to want him, enough so to go to the trouble of having Soundwave manipulate her core programming in order to make that happen. This left Swoop in an odd position. She wanted to fight Megatron, but at the same time, she didn't want to give him anything that he wanted. And he wanted her to fight, so that left…not fighting. It left submitting meekly to him, doing everything that he didn't want her to do, in order to frustrate his desire for a fight. It was unthinkable. Her position was untenable.

But there was nothing that she could do about it. She could already feel the initial effects of whatever it was that Soundwave had done to her. Her senses were rapidly distorting. Insistent fire was licking its way through her body, heat building up such that she was already feeling a need to pant. She restrained the impulse as well as she could, but she knew what it meant. She'd experienced it twice before, already. Whatever Soundwave had done to her, it was fast becoming apparent that its purpose was to bring about a similar kind of situation. Only this time her energies would apparently be focused on Megatron. Things were looking bad. Very bad.

"Until then," Megatron was saying cheerfully, meanwhile, "enjoy your luxurious accommodations, my queen."

And then he was standing up and heading for the door. Soundwave rose, too, to follow him, leaving Swoop to fall back on the floor, damaged wing bending and scraping and screeching against the floor's cold plates of metal, sending her insistent pain signals that she hardly felt. The room's door creaked and clanged shut and then locked behind the two Decepticons with ominous and ringing finality, leaving Swoop to burn in frigid solitude.

Next time: Starscream senses a disturbance in The Force. Plotting ensues.