Update! Update! Hey, I am happy with all the reviews I am getting, so yeah... UPDATE! And hey, has any one experience getting reviews and not seeing them on the review section of the story? I get the mail but there was nothing on ff.

Eunice: Mearing just needs Simmons... that would be better? What do you think? *snickers* And I'll be spoiling you if I confirm if the battle is coming up or whatever is going to happen beyond this. It's a roller coaster ride!

TF is Hasbro's!

Chapter 36: Depression

It was a little later… A total of 3 hours, and it was lunch break by the time the girl in the med bay decided to come into the conscious world. Her head felt like Brawl had just done a great job of overrunning her as it throbbed painfully hard. It hurts a lot, and if others would have to ask how much, she would have raised her dirty finger at them to frag off for the time being. To mention such a thing…! She couldn't even think straight with it.

Her hands cradled her head as she tried to drown out the light that seeped into her eyelids. Her mind was foggy but started to clear when thoughts begin to pop up in her mind. How in the name of Primus had she gotten this kind of a headache? Was she drowned in liquor again? She groused as she began to feel a nagging anger building within her. The Cons should have known better to give her something like that. Spiking her drink is a dangerous move on her scale that could lead to severe consequences for both parties. But the question still sat… What was she doing the last time she was awake?

Another throb hit her as she groaned. Too much thinking was straining her at the moment so she had to wait for it to tone down before using her brain again. She decided that letting her eyes slowly open was the first step to this so she did so, slowly. Meeting the nice uninviting light, her eyes squinted as she tried to lose focus on the bright bulb before it burns her eyes off.

She turned to her side to slowly, rubbing them softly for comfort while her mind begun spinning again. Where was she? She asked herself as she made her other senses do their thing. There was a plus side on having such keen senses than before… And as to say that she wasn't shock about this revelation was an understatement. The girl knew that this was odd for her to have. Now that she thought about it… everything was odd.

Her eyes met silver to white walls that was the opposite of Hook's Med Bay. How was she sure that this was a med bay was because of the scent of anesthetic, fuel and solders. But even though this wasn't the Constructicon's working place, the room made her think back with a nagging feeling that she had been here already in the past.

Her eyes spun to look at the tools cluttering the area with quite a satisfactory working desk and two berths. This place was small compared to Hook's but it was doable, she presumed. When she tried to investigate more from her position, she caught faint vibrations that made the dormant steel beneath her shiver ever so silently.

These vibrations caused her alarm because she knew all too well what was coming towards her. Pedes… there were pedes moving and here she was, not knowing what to do or think at the moment. When the door opened with a hiss, her heart thumped in shock and followed her instincts of going back to a sleeping position. Sadly, the other was a medic and that medic had known that she was awake when he had scanned her frame to be out of the unconscious state she was left in earlier.

"Youngling… I know that you are awake…" The deep voice of the other said as something nudged her side. It was not welcome but she ignored it to play possum… She just needed to lessen the speed of her heart and try to go into a light sleep.

"Youngling…" The tone changed as she fell still and tense. There goes her act of playing possum as she slowly opened her eyes and got a straight view of blue optics staring down at her.

Her mind went into panic then and there as she was slowly sat up. 'Blue optics…' she mentally muttered in her frozen form. 'Oh, dear… I'm at enemy base!'

Ratchet had picked out the immediate rise in heart rate as she stared at him in shock or surprise, her eyes held wonder and panic, which made his optics squint in confusion.

Internally, the girl's mind was a raging war as it spun and process how to handle her situation. The only thing she could conclude right now was something had happened and that something had led her to fall into the enemy's servos. The panic she was having made her a little small in her situation as her eyes soon fell on the fabric sheet that pooled down at her feet.

That thing was the only object that could help her right now in her situation, it seems, so she had grabbed for it in one fell swoop as she immediately covered and wrapped her frame out of the other's view. The Lord had told her specifically not to make contact with the other faction which he had simply specified as mechs with blue optics. She knew that it was such a vague description along with a vague reason but she accepted it… Now, she was faced with the fact has to break that deal because this was inevitable.

The mech that she had seen has blue optics… and then, she was in a Med Bay –apparently, this would be his working station-… It would not be coincidence that she was at their base, right? But she was supposed to be at the Nemesis. What in the pit and back, happened?

Questions had filled her mind as the girl started to forget her predicament. She hadn't notice the sheet was tugged off her in one fell swoop as her body fell gently from a roll in the air to the berth. That caught her in surprise but she was even more a wreck as she realized that there were more mechs in the room with them.

She immediately felt claustrophobic from all of this. Where was Barricade when she needed him? Where was Frenzy? They should have rescued her before this could happen. Were they alright? She hopes so or pit will they pay for the damage that couldn't be undone. Her eyes had flashed red a minute before it turned back to a green shade.

Eyes falling in disappointment and guilt, she knew that the Lord will hate her for this. The only thing she could do now was avoid them as far as possible as she backed away from them. She didn't really see the edge of the berth coming so in one miss push on her right side, she was immediately plunging down.

By the pit, she cursed herself for her stupidity… here she was, going to die an idiotic death while the enemy of her faction watch her. How undignified was her death but it was better to die like this before they could ask her questions and torture her for them…Not like she would give them any slag.

She was all ready for the impact as her eyes shut off the world around her. The darkness was welcomed with open arms but the plunged didn't really continue when she felt soft and careful pads caught her fall. Before she could really go splat, she was caught by a servo of a large mech with a likable paint job of blue with red flames. She couldn't help thought and pout at why their Lord couldn't have something as flashy as that…Anything would look good on the Lord if he could just fragging change his Cybertronian alt mode… But then, the military style paint would be better… More so, the Lord was better looking in silver with less dents and a shiny looking armor.

Shein looked up to meet the optics she felt was piercing her like their Lord's but this one showed a large amount of concern and fear as the servos cupped her gently with the hint of she-might-get-squished worry.

Those optics bothered her. Is this how the other faction should look at her? Does she not know who she is? Do they not know that she was a Decepticon even though she was a human? Raging questions kept her in a daze but she felt the prickles that always come to her after a scan of her frame.

"Good, you hadn't open any of your stitches and the cast seemed to hold splendidly your foot. Be thankful that Optimus had managed to catch you, youngling… Primus was merciful enough to not let you gain another injury from what you've have already gotten." The same mech that she had first gazed upon said. Now that she thinks of it, there was really a cast on her left foot. How did she not notice that?

The tone that the mech used also had reminded her that there was a hint of familiarity between them. The other faction… knew her? Now, this was Gold… and they think that she was a friend…Has the world come to a long revolution and she had just woken up in a future where both factions co-exist? That thought made her happy for a minute before it was crushed when the black mech onlined his cannons and muttered slagging Decepticons for what they did to her.

What? What did they do? …And if this was not the future… How in the frag do they know her?!

Shein clutched her head in pain as her eyes closed with her vision swirling. There was a loud clang at the side and a groan before she was scooped out of the servo she was in.

"What did the Cons do to you, youngling…?" The medic soothed her pain by petting her head. It eased her a little but still, her brain was fried. The question was also unforeseen… why were they this concerned for her? What did her faction do to her?

She blinked once, twice then trice at the mech. Her focus slowly coming back as words spilled out of her mouth.

"What do you mean? Did I gain trouble again with the Lord?" Those words that she always used whenever she was in a pinch left her without being processed. It naturally rolls off her lips at times like this but to use such a thing, she was signing herself to being their prisoner. But to her delight, her mistake was taken for something different as she saw emotions flare to something akin to fury.

They looked at her like she was the most fragile thing in the universe, and that made her stomach churn in disgust. She never like pity eyes directed at her. She was strong on her own even if Barricade was in a mission without her. Her skills may not be that as of a professional but it was doable.

"Ratchet… I think they have reprogrammed Oen…" A mech she knew she should have known said with great grief. The paint of light blue and white glimmered as those optics look at her in mixed shame, guilt and blame… emotions that made Shein feel like she was the Slagging Fragger that deserves to be thrown into a metal heap to be processed over and over.

She was so confused right now… why does she feel so contradicted with herself all of the sudden? But this cannot continue… They shouldn't be friendly with her when they don't even know her. They had no idea who she is and they have no idea they were blaming the wrong fragger…Who was there to reprogram her memories?

"What are you fraggers talking about?! I was not reprogrammed! Release me this instant!" She screamed as she got up on her two feet even though she was still injured. "I do not know any of you! So release me this instant!" She made her point when she attempted to jump off the medic's servo, only to be caught by another that was owned by none other than the mech that had said she was reprogrammed.

"Get away from me!" She banged her fist on the servo, creating a dent that made the mech wince but he didn't let go.

"Mirage! Don't let her go!" Ratchet ordered as the others stood in shock at what they had witnessed.

"Hurry up, Ratch! My pain receptors are going to overload my motor control on my servos!" Mirage pleaded in panic, trying to coo the femme into calming down and stop hitting him. The Decepticons had definitely done something.

One more bang that was harder than the last, she soon was free!

"Lock the doors!" The medic ordered in surprise as the femme dropped to her feet and landed gracefully even with the cast being shattered into thousands of pieces on the floor. She was now running perfectly fine without any support, trying to escape those servos that tried to catch her.

Shein was shocked with all of this but she needed to focus and escape first. She then, needs to get back to the Nemesis and… Her thoughts paused as her brain started to flash her with images she had forgotten.

The femme's motion came to a halt as she fell on her knees and slump to a sitting position with her head down, eyes wide and mouth open. Memories were flooding her mind… the Lord's words… Her unnecessary existence to them… Her pain… How she was abandoned…

The Decepticons had abandoned her. That thought repeated in her mind like a broken tape recorder. She had been dumped here and now, the Autobots took pity on her so they took her in. The mech that had taken her here…

Pedes stood in front of her, Wheeljack let the girl notice him. When she looked up at him, her eyes glistened with tears that the humans do to let out emotions that are too much for them to handle.

"You should have left me to offline…" Her voice was hoarse, soft and in pain. Alarms blared in all of the mechs' helms as the two present humans stared in shock at her fragile form looking up at the new mech.

Mirage wanted to protest; Sideswipe wanted to protest; Optimus, Ratchet and even Ironhide wanted to protest. All of the present being there wanted to but the scientist commed them to shut up and let them be for the while…

"Why?" Wheeljack asked in their native language as he sat down across the distressed little sparkling before his optics.

Ratchet wanted to throw a wrench at him for asking like that but again, they were shocked to hear the girl mutter a reply.

"I don't need to live…" The words came clear and without a misconception to any Cybertronian that would hear her.

"Why?" The scientist asked again brushing the tears that still pooled down those little cheek plates of hers.

"I don't want to…" She answered, growing stoic at each word.

"Why?" The other repeated as he continued petting the little one.

"I lost my family…" Shein answered truthfully but that gained another misconception.

"Why?" Wheeljack repeated again before he decided to pick up the girl by her shirt and raise her to stare at each other's optics.

"Maybe… Because I'm different from them… and I'll never like them… I'm an oddball of the lot, a black sheep… I-I'm nothing compared to them… I'm useless..." The girl continued to mutter as soon, Wheeljack stood, stroking her back as she fall asleep blissfully on his warm chassis.

"Ratchet?" Wheeljack called softly to the medic that stayed there with brilliant optics shining with conclusion.

"Her family unit must have denied her presence after finding out her condition… They abandoned her after she had just escaped the Cons… Those slaggers… experimented on her biology… trying to turn her into one of us… That was what I had been trying to confirm but hearing it come out like that… She has become emotionally unstable." Ratchet could conclude as his voice soft and emphatic of what the femme was dealing with.

Sam's jaw was clenched. How could Oen's parent do it… He understood the conversation and it smite him back on how lucky he was with a guardian like Bee and parents that pushed him to where he is. Oen… She lost the wall that supported her so she was crumbling down. She was abandoned for being different… foreign, alien, odd… Which could also identify him in his current state…

The brown-headed young man looked exasperated but soon, they all agreed that she needs time to recover. Ratchet did not allow her to leave the Med Bay as Wheeljack was told to stay for the while till she trusts them again. Mearing was kept away as far as possible as the girl was kept confined.

She was paling fast for whatever reason that cause this but Ratchet remedied it with monitoring the girl and forcing her to do exercises, eating whatever food he gives, and lastly, having long talks may it be only Ratchet's chatter or any other bot that wanted to share something to her.

Sam made it his mission to help the girl in any way he could and make her believe that she wasn't alone in this as she thought she was. Every time he visits her, he felt something brewing inside of him and he couldn't really pinpoint if it was because of his concern or from the foreign energy residing within him.

Depression... So freaking hurts but you don't know what hurts... One is left in a standstill of pain like everything is crashing.

To Be Continued!