I own nothing. I know it's been forever since I last updated, but in my defense, my dog, Totoro, whom I've had since I was 2-years-old, died. Thusly, there will be a darker undertone to these next few chapters. I hope people remember to review, because I guarantee you that the more reviews per fave/alert I receive, the faster these updates will appear. Currently, my story stats are as follows:

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Alice paced furiously back and forth as she waited for a vision, a call, anything to let her know about Bella. Jasper sent soft waves of calming energy to his erratic wife in an attempt to sate her frazzled nerves. Getting uppity would do no one any good. Rosalie sat on a stone beside Emmet, letting him run powerful fingers through her flawless hair, the motion soothing to her, and she knew that he kept calm easiest by helping her.

They continued like that for nearly ten minutes before Alice threw her arms in the air and shouted in frustration, "I can't take this! Rosalie, could you call Carlisle and at least let us know if Bella's alive?"

Rosalie, staying calm, replied, "And what if they're trying to sneak her out? If his cellphone goes off, that plan won't work very well."

"I don't care! I want my sister back! I want Edward to stop moping! I want Jasper to talk to me! I want Emmet to be funny again! I want things to go back to normal!" she cried out in turn.

Rosalie looked like she was going to respond when a loud 'FWA-AAW!" sliced through the air and a black and purple F-15 Eagle appeared from a swirling cobalt, violet, rose, and ivory vortex in the air. The jet shot straight up in to the sky above, then dove down toward the lake, the four vampires standing to watch the entire structure break apart and shift.

In a matter of seconds, the cockpit and nose of the jet folded over, allowing out an onyx helm framing a silvery-white face with two piercing red optics gazing menacingly out at the teenage seniors. Two wings jutted from its back, shimmering black with a purple stripe on each, and a single, meticulously centered purple face on either wing, simplistic, elegant design evident even from afar. The being's build was vaguely human-like, in that its form was bipedal, legs about two-thirds of its height, torso and helm the other third. Arms that formed from various components in its jet mode pointed two deadly blasters at the group, and its perfect bi-symmetry led them to believe it was not of Earth.

It smirked, revealing two flat-toothed gears laying horizontally atop each other, and as it spoke, they twirled in opposite directions, its 'lips' moving in time with the words, and they noted two smaller, sharp-toothed belts met to form hard consonants, the gears allowing soft sounds, and so it seemed almost as though it was the victim of the bad dubbing of a Japanese T.V. show gone English.

"Ah, you must be the Infected. Megatron will be so pleased to see you. Heh, the feeling may not be reciprocated immediately, but I'm sure, in time, you'll learn to appreciate it. Or not," it announced nonchalantly, approaching the group, its voice rough, bits and parts in its 'mouth' clicking and whirring and hissing as it ventilated and verbalized its sentences, as if it were not made for speaking Earthen languages.

The four shared looks of uncertainty before Jasper called out, "What do you want?"

The creature laughed, a horrendous sound like oil as it boiled and metal grinding against itself, and replied, "Only to serve my Lord Megatron."

"What does that have to do with us?" inquired Alice, trying to stall it for long enough that the rest of her family could get out of that ship.

It glowered down at them and growled, "That is for me to know, as I will be the one asking the questions, fleshling!"

Firing two shots aimed to set the trees behind them ablaze, the creature swooped down to scoop them up when a blast of blue light suddenly hit its side and, with an utterly inhuman, primal howl of rage, it took off, disappearing back through the portal it came through.

A Lamborghini screeched to a halt before them, its two doors flinging themselves open as he proclaimed, "If you want to see the others, get in."

Alice was in the car before he had finished the sentence, Jasper not far behind as they pressed together in the back seat. Rosalie looked dubious when Emmet tried to lead them to the passenger and driver seats. The male looked at her, holding her hands in his, and asked, "Rose, this thing just saved our lives. If it says it can take us to our family, I'm gonna trust it. Besides, fifty years from now, when you're looking back at this, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"

"Don't touch anything," it ordered as Rosalie closed the driver's side door, Emmet seated to her right. "I'm going to drive into the water. Don't mess with my braking system."

The four remained silent, nodding as the Lamborghini sped into the lake's cool waters, effortlessly making its way to the ship below.

Upon reaching the metallic behemoth, a set of doors slid open, allowing them to glide smoothly to the floor of a grey room. The doors of the ship closed and the water raced from the room around them before another set of doors parted, permitting the sports car to zip through them and head down one straight hallway after another, making its way to a destination unknown to its occupants.

Arriving at a final set of doors, they entered what could only have been a medical bay.

"Get out," ordered the voice of the vehicle, the vampires swiftly complying.

The Lamborghini stood, glancing around the bay until his frighteningly blue optics settled on another giant, this one red, white, and boxy. He approached the mech and simply stated, "Skywarp. I'm going to take a stasis nap. Don't wake me."

The golden mech exited and the red and white one wrote furiously on a clipboard like object. Several minutes passed, and finally Emmet queried, "What's going on? He said our family's here. Where are they?"

The latter question was answered almost instantly as Carlisle peeked over the edge of a tabletop. Motioning for the children to join him, they leapt onto the surface as the mechanical leviathan murmured, "Fascinating,"

Approaching the group that stood, huddled about the sleeping human, Ratchet introduced himself and began to explain as the Earthlings listened in rapt attention, nodding and making observations and asking questions that were patiently and thoroughly answered.

Noting how interested they all were in the explanations his bond mate gave, Wheeljack deemed it a good idea to simply stand back and watch. After all, it wasn't every day he saw Ratchet happy. Especially without Sideswipe...

--

[Somewhere at the Bottom of the Atlantic, Six Days Earlier]

The room was simple and tasteful, sparsely furnished save for an elegant, classical recharging berth, a large desk with carved, iron-like shelves, and a grey chair whose third wheel was notoriously misaligned just enough to toss whomever happened to attempt to swiftly turn the chair forward in a most undignified manner.

That was not out of the ordinary, but the beings upon the berth most certainly were.

Purple and Silver, Silver and Purple, they writhed in an impassioned mockery of a kiss, for Purple lacked a mouth to kiss with, rather possessing a single, brilliant amber bulb in the center of a black rectangle, elongated horizontally out of all Earthly proportions. Silver seemed to care very little for this fact, instead taking the bulb between devastatingly deadly rows of razors, carefully wrapping it in a long, tapered glossa to taste the warmth it radiated.

"Megatron," groaned Purple in a language older than Earth, archaic syllables heard and seen on a spectrum outside any the inhabitants of the planet they were currently stranded on had even thought of, his vision going black as the inside of his master's mouth was all that he could see.

"Shockwave, by Primus, you are lovely," replied Megatron, echoing the language, his tone displaying of all his knowledge of his omnipotence and omniscience. His body was utterly alien, sharp angles crafting a face seen only in the nightmares of children of war. The shadows that ran along his form twisted and bent, light seeping into crevices and splaying across wires and technology perfectly crafted.

Shockwave admired his master's beauty, for that was, undeniably, what it was. Beauty and perfection and wrath and lust. His master, the dark god, the cruel harbinger of death to immortals, and, so often, his lover. Shockwave, though by no means ugly, could never begin to be as spark-wrenchingly beautiful as his master.

Megatron released Shockwave's bulb from between his teeth - ('Those teeth,' thought Shockwave. 'They could kill me in an instant, and instead, they bestow pleasure. By Primus, he is terrifyingly wonderous.') - and sought to trail his glossa down his counterpart's neck when -

Beep!

Megatron froze. Swiftly removing himself from where Shockwave lay on his berth, Megatron pressed a button on the wall and ground out, "What is so important as to merit ignoring my command that I. Am. Not. To. Be. Bothered?"

The voice on the other end was high in pitch and scarred his already sensitive audios as it replied mockingly, "We have a prisoner. An Autobot. I thought you might like to have a word with him, oh Mighty Megatron."

Tossing Shockwave an apathetic look ('It's over for now. Duty always comes first. Damn that Starscream and his timing,' groused Shockwave), Megatron answered, "Put him in the brig. Then, return to patrol. I will see to him, myself, Starscream."

Megatron beckoned Shockwave to follow him, the purple mech following his master down to the brig of their base.

Reaching the containment cells, Megatron was pleased to note the lack of any other mech. Approaching the first cell, he found a red mech chained, spread eagle, to both the ceiling and the floor in the middle of the barren room, mouth gagged, blindfolded, and, apparently, unconscious.

"Well, Shockwave, perhaps we should welcome the Autobot to his new home. After all, he'll be staying here for a long, long time."

Shockwave nodded and they entered the cell.

--

The first thing Sideswipe was aware of was the fact that he couldn't see. That bothered him enough, but then he noted he also was unable to speak, to do more than scream, around the gag in his mouth.

Next, he noticed the coolness of the air around him and, as he ran diagnoses, deduced that this was from his lack of armor, leaving only sensitive alloys and wires exposed.

Finally, he realized that he couldn't move. He was chained in such a vulnerable position, he shivered involuntarily.

"Looks like our prisoner is waking," announced a voice to his right. It continued, "If you bother to check, you'll see that both your weapons systems and your communications abilities are disabled. You cannot move. You cannot speak. You cannot even see. There is no escape, Sideswipe. Welcome to hell."