Chapter 18 – ashen shell

I'm Not Ok
By My Chemical Romance

I'm ok,
I'm ok,
I'm ok now
I'm ok now.
What you really used to mean,
Cuz I tell you the truth,
I mean it,
I'm ok!
Trust me.
I'm not ok.

Bumblebee's POV

When we got out of the 'Con base, which was collapsing in on itself, we rolled to a stop on a nearby cliff, transformed and Optimus asked if everyone was alright. We said 'yeah', but I didn't buy Prowl. He looked deep in thought and sad at the same time.

Was he sad about that monster sacrificing itself? Who cares? It's just a monster, it killed Omega Supreme and tried to kill us. It deserved to die. And I myself was glad it was gone forever.

But Prowl evidently thought differently. It was probably because it was a living thing, and he hates it when anything living dies. Primus, he should just get over it.

"That monster is probably still out there... somewhere," Optimus mused.

"It's part organic," Ratchet stated, "if it was dumped in the middle of space, which it most likely would be, it would be dead by now. And if it landed on another planet, it would probably starve to death. We shouldn't see it ever again... or its Primus forsaken corpse."

Prowl's face was expressionless. He just looked at the ground, unmoving.

"I told you my dad wouldn't work for the Decepticons," Sari said, "Now I'm just glad that this is all over." She seemed to notice something and looked down to her left elbow.

We all stared in shock to see crackling circuitry beneath her skin. She clutched the elbow and took a few steps away from her father. She was confused and terrified, it was written all over her face.

"Sari, we have to talk," Sumdac said. Understatement of the stellar cycle!

"S-stay away from me!" she stuttered, running behind my leg for protection. I took a fighting stance. Father or not, this guy would NOT hurt Sari.

oOo

That was then, now it's two days later. Sumdac had taken Sari away so they could talk and she had come back an hour later. She's different now, like she's haunted by some terrible secret, and she won't tell us what it is. Sumdac explained it to us when we demanded to know.

"Sari..." he began, either intimidated by us being fragged off or just plain nervous, "Sari is not actually my daughter."

"We kinda figured that out when we found there's no data on her," I snarled, "we can't even prove she exists!"

He was even nervier now. "She was a recent experiment," he explained, "I built her eight years ago, to see if I could create a human with the capabilities of a robot – a cyborg."

I shot a massive death glare at him, utterly disgusted. My best friend was some sort of sick experiment?!

"It worked," he went on, "... sort of. The behaviour chips were all wrong, so she sometimes malfunctioned. I didn't send her to school because she might get a glitch and people would freak out... blah, blah, blah..."

I didn't hear anything after that. I was just in too much shock. How could anyone do this? Bring something to life and then coop them up for their entire existence? No wonder Sari didn't have any human friends, she was never allowed to have them in the first place!

There was a tired groan from behind me, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned around and saw something that made me scream. And scream and scream and scream.

The others turned around and all of our screams filled the entire base, echoing down the street.

A/N: very short, I know, please don't be angry at me. The next chapter will be longer, I promise! 7 pages to be exact :)