Chapter 17 – monster

Numb
By Linkin Park

And every second I waste
Is more than I can take.

I've become so numb,
I can't feel you there,
I've become so tight,
So much more aware.
I'm becoming this,
All I want to do,
Is be more like me,
And be less like you.

No-one's POV

The creature, a monster which belonged in the deepest pit of Hell, was locked in a cell. It was huge enough for it, as it stood at four storeys high, made of military grade steel. The only entrance, a doorway without the door, was blocked by lasers. The monster wouldn't be able to fit through there anyway.

It paced its prison. It was impossible for it to sleep. It had a collar around its neck which injected a solution designed just for it every single hour or whenever its captor pushed a button... although where, the monster didn't know. The solution had the same effect as adrenaline and rage, making the creature nearly uncontrollable.

There was only one person it had encountered who could control it: Meltdown.

The monster could be described as some sort of cyborg dragon, with robotic legs and the wings of a Nighthawk, but the rest of its body being organic. When Meltdown touched it, he melted its armour plating on its robotic half.

There were sirens echoing faintly down the hallway, which the creature's sensitive ears picked up easily. The wall to the left of the doorway opened up and the monster walked out of the dimness into bright sunlight. It knew what this meant: intruders on the island. And if it didn't get rid of them, it would be tortured further.

It exhaled, hating this feeling of being used, walking into the forest, careful to not knock anything over. It headed to the shore, where the intruders would most likely be.

It didn't take long for it to reach the edge of the forest. It saw that the intruder was just a small sailing boat, nothing that could do any harm. And it was probably just a few humans out to have some fun. The collar injected a dose of the solution via a needle, but the monster tried to control itself. It had had a long time to get self control over itself. The beast was injected three more times before it reached overload and was forced to act.

It plunged into the water with an ear-shattering roar. The people on the vessel looked up at it in fear, turning their boat around and sailing away as fast as it could.

The thing had a heart and didn't want to hurt these people with every fibre of its being. It stopped in its tracks just before it broke the ship in half with its massive jaws. It had to be injected four more times before it moved, and another three so it would actually destroy the craft and everyone onboard.

By then, not even its captor could control it.

Even the creature itself did not know what it was doing. All it could remember was running as fast as it could to a source of great violence and hate, the two things that attracted it more than anything, and it hated more than anything it had ever known.

The next thing it knew, it was standing on the rim of a dead volcano, looking down to a dozen giant (but half the size of it) robots. There was an enormous machine of some kind, glowing with pure energy.

The robots stood dead still, staring up at it in horror. It growled menacingly, showing only one of its three rows of human-sized, razor sharp teeth. It was a warning, saying to all who heard it, 'don't mess with me.'

Although, some silver idiot didn't get the message, firing at the beast with a fusion cannon mounted on its right arm.

The shot didn't even scratch it, but it was pissed off that they wouldn't listen, and attacked.

Prowl's POV

There was a roar like it came from a creature from the depths of the Pit itself. Everyone stopped fighting, frozen in fear, and looked up.

There, standing on the rim of the hole Starscream and his clone army had created, stood the biggest organic I had ever seen. Well, half organic. It looked like some sort of dragon... a cyborg dragon, shaking visibly. Instead of the typical 'bat' wings, it had black Nighthawk wings and tail fins. It had four mechanical legs, very powerful looking ones, with nasty claws. It had gleaming purple scales. It had three rows of spikes along its neck, the centre row was blood red, while the outer two rows were black. It had the nastiest looking harpoon-head tail blade I had seen in a long time. It had the most stunning silver eyes I had ever seen, the right pupil was slit, while the left was round.

While being the image of terror, I couldn't help myself but find it beautiful at the same time. The rich, almost glowing colours, the way it moved with unreal grace, the way it seemed to have been sculpted by a master... there was no one word to sum it all up in.

It growled, chilling the energon in my pipes. It revealed huge, threatening fangs which looked like they could bite through anything. It had a clear message: don't mess with me. But that idiot, Megatron, didn't seem to understand. He fired at the creature.

It had no effect on its armour-like scales, not even scratching it. But it was fragged off at the fact it had been attacked. It leapt down and roared, shaking the very Earth and fire spewing from its mouth.

Everyone leapt into action, attack it with everything we had. I tried to find its weak spot, but it appeared there was none. I slashed the metallic collar around its neck and it fell to the ground. It stared, opened mouthed at the broken device at its feet. My optics widened when I saw a ring of raw, fresh injuries around its neck, blood beginning to slide down and drip off the thing's chest, which the collar had been, as if it had been stabbed repeatedly very recently and never got any treatment.

The attack halted for a moment. Everyone was unsure what to do now. The creature turned and looked me directly in the optics, freezing me where I stood. For a moment, relief and gratefulness flashed across its eyes. It shook violently and roared again, but this time it was hollow, like its heart wasn't in it anymore, like someone or something else was acting through it.

The fight started anew. Everyone, 'Bots and 'Cons working side by side, tried to take it down with everything they had, but I... I just couldn't attack it, not after the way it looked at me.

It was obvious that the collar had done something bad to the half organic, something that caused that ring of injuries around its neck. Now that it was off, the creature didn't seem to want to hurt anyone anymore, as if the collar had somehow made it do that.

"Prowl!" Optimus yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts, he was trying to hack the thing's foot to pieces, but wasn't going so well, "come on! Help us out here!"

"I... I can't." I stuttered, "I saw something in it, something that doesn't want to hurt us. You have to stop fighting it or it'll get angrier and angrier until it destroys us all!"

"Are you crazy?!" Bulkhead demanded, "That monster will squish us like nanobots if we don't take it down!"

"It didn't attack us until Megatron attacked it," I realized out loud, "Listen to me! It won't fight if it isn't provoked! It'll stop if you do first!"

Bumblebee and Ratchet hadn't heard us arguing. They generated an EMP and tried to shut it down.

As the golden orb enveloped it, its robotic parts went stiff. It tried to move, to get away, but instead there was a terrible cracking noise and its legs twisted horribly. The beast screamed. It was worse than its roar, a cross between a human screaming in fear, and a cougar screaming in pain. It must be made of flesh and metal so closely that it could move even when it shouldn't be able to, only to tear its robotic half.

"NO!!" I shouted, "Stop it! STOP IT!!"

"We're trying to immobilize it, not kill it," Ratchet snapped, "Why do you care about it so much anyway?"

I didn't reply, as I was too horrified by what happened next. The beast's scream trailed off, echoing around the entire underground mine, dwindling to a sad whine. It crumpled to the ground, as if in slow motion, and sprawled on its side. Blood began gushing like a river from its mouth, eyes, ears and nose. It tried to inhale, but it choked instead. It couldn't breathe.

It kept on choking and coughing as it continued trying to breathe. Obviously it could stop breathing as easily as we could stop our sparks from pulsing. As it coughed, it sprayed blood like a fountain, only to choke on it worse as it tried to inhale instantly. It looked at me with the most heartbroken eyes I had seen; it knew that only I would help it, and I was letting it drown in its own blood.

I tackled Ratchet and Bumblebee to the ground, effectively stopping the EMP. I promptly got off them and looked back at the being. The blood flow was slowing down, becoming steadier and slower. I cautiously walked towards it, despite my comrades shouting at me, saying it wasn't safe. I ignored them, kneeling down beside the creature in a pool of its own blood. Its silver, melancholy eyes followed my every move.

"It's alright," I whispered to it, stroking its face gently, "no-one's going to hurt you anymore. I won't let them touch you, I promise."

It closed its eyes, heaving a sigh, like it understood every word I said. Maybe it did. It relaxed its whole body, all the anger and adrenaline simply vanishing from it. My air intakes hitched when I saw it grow completely still, it chest wasn't rising and falling. It wasn't breathing. Only then did I realize that it hadn't been breathing in the first place. The bloodflow had stopped completely by now.

"Stay with me, now," I called softly to it, but it didn't respond. I checked for a pulse. There wasn't one.

The base was suddenly rocked by heavy fire from outside. The creature was hit several times, it would've been lethal for anything but it, but of course, it wasn't harmed. Everyone looked up and saw Teletraan-1, functional and flying, trying to shoot down the Decepticons, and maybe the monster as well.

A chilling growl erupted from the creature, its eyes flying open, filled with murderous hate and rage so much that it was almost glowing with an inner fire. It still wasn't breathing! Its ruined legs repaired themselves and in moments, the ruined limbs looked brand new. It stood up, roaring at the repair ship, standing over me protectively.

Megatron gave the order for his flyers to attack the ship and the beast acted as well, crouching and leaping up to the rim with tremendous strength.

The monster's POV

I was pissed off now. I was almost always pissed off. But I guess that acting on that anger was all I was good for in this world.

That black and gold mech had calmed me so much I nearly fell asleep. If I fell asleep, I would die, and I couldn't wait for death. I would be free at last. I wouldn't hurt anyone anymore.

That ship was under heavy attack from the flyers, and was already smoking and falling out of the sky. I couldn't fly (I was glad, being Earth-bound meant I was an easier target and had a better chance of dying) so I followed it as it fell, shooting fire balls at it.

It didn't crash though. Instead, it began shifting, folding, transforming. In moments, before us stood a mountainous robot. They started firing at its legs, and I started to tear them to shreds.

It fell to its knees. I backed off, trying to tame the animal I had become. If I was going to finish this guy off, I at least wanted to have some good sport doing it.

Strange, it began to get up, its legs repairing themselves slightly. I held myself back, waiting for it to rid itself of the flyers (which it did promptly) and focus on the real threat here.

I growled again. It tensed up, then rained down on me with laser fire. It didn't hurt, just stung slightly, scratching my scales minutely. I felled it with one stab in the gut with my harpoon-like tail blade.

Two tiny creatures emerged from its foot: a small human and a red and white robot, which ran in the direction of the mountain. I didn't bother killing them, just roaring right in their faces and making their ears bleed.

I waited for the robot to get up, circling it cautiously, watching it closely. It struggled to its feet and fired a couple dozen missiles at me. They did nothing. I slashed it from its right shoulder to its left hip.

It was down again. I was getting no fun out of this guy. Was this the best they had? I decided to end its suffering.

I walked casually up to its head, placed one claw on its chest, then grabbed its neck in my jaws. It screamed. I clamped down and ripped the head right off its shoulders.

There was commotion coming from the base. I was concerned for that dark guy. I owed him. I ran to the rim and looked in. The gigantic device was glowing brighter than ever now, sucking everything around it. That could not be a good thing.

I knew what I had to do. I had to absorb its energy, causing it to break, saving everyone, even that silver idiot, especially the dark guy.

I leapt down, standing side on to the source of the light – a huge, glowing orb of pure energy – and prevented myself from falling in by leaning on the two towering pillars beside the orb. That was basically the structure of the machine.

I could feel the overload of energy overriding my very being, making me shake violently. Stay calm, man, do NOT go mental, this is NOT the time. I saw the dark one looking at me, and I knew he knew we both knew that we would most likely never see each other again. I smiled at him, knowing that my dept was repaid by giving my life for him and his comrades. He was dragged away by a larger green one. He almost looked heartbroken. He shouldn't be. I deserved to die and I had wished for it for a long time.

The power was increasing. Blinding light exploded from the machine. I felt it fold in on itself. The sharp tip of one of the pillars slashed my neck as I was dragged into it. I died almost instantly.

oOo

No-one's POV

At the 'Bot base, Armageddon's optics flickered on-line.

A/N: ooooooh, cliffy! What do you think the deal with that is? Review and tell me! :D