A/N: I got the inspiration for this from BrightSideoftheMoon and after tossing it around I decided to take shot at it. Also a belated thank you to NeutralGuise for giving me the idea behind 'Mate.'

Diverges from Chapter 16.

Awareness came back slowly, Jack's head swimming as he knitted his optic ridges together. He saw the ceiling right over him, indicating he was on his back, and somehow the ceiling seemed...different, but the pressing matter right now was trying to recall what happened to him.

Jack squeezed his optics shut, gritting his denta as it resurfaced in his mind. Shockwave...his stomach being torn open- Shockwave, that sick bastard and his grating voice. He could still hear him saying with that infuriatingly even tone how Jack was going to be a baby factory for Predaking and the 'Cons.

Jack glared at the ceiling. I'm no one's bitch, he thought, and tried to move-only for his arm to be pulled taut.

His optics trailed past one shoulder, and his breath hitched as he found an energon rope around his wrist. It trailed from his servo over the edge of the -slab? table?- slab above his head. His other wrist was in the same position.

Jack's pulse quickened, and he looked down his frame past the faint scarring on his stomach to his pedes. They were restrained as well, but the rope hung more loosely, allowing minimal movement for his pedes. It was not a comfort, and he still felt exposed tied up like this.

His lips pulled into a frown as he shifted what little he could on the slab. It was different from the one he'd been strapped too before. This one was completely horizontal, and much larger with his pedes being several feet away from the bottom. Where was he this time? Jack couldn't recall anything clearly beyond Shockwave leaving and coming back.

The bastard had been silent, which was nothing new, but the stare had creeped him out. He stared at Jack's stomach for an uncomfortably long time, a chill going down his spinal strut until Shockwave injected him with a sedative.

Then it was nothing but a blur of faint lights and numbness.

It left him unsure of where he'd been put. Jack scoped out the rest of the room to the best of his ability. The area was spacious, but surprisingly sparse- though that may have had to do with spending his time locked in cramp, cluttered spaces. Aside from the slab he was on, a nook within the wall was just within reach-if could move that was- while across the room a desk sat in the corner and a console next to it.

This gave him the layout, but frustratingly did not tell him where he was. It was too empty to be a lab, but what did he know about the ship beside the few places he'd gone? Jack growled low in his throat, shifting so his tail could lie along the edge of slab. A scent permiated throughout the room, concentrated on the slab, and it nearly drove him mad trying to place it.

His helm fins twitched, optics drawn in the direction of the door as heavy steps sounded just outside, a faint humming accompanying it. Jack wasn't sure if it was just one person or two, but his spark all but leapt into his throat when the door opened.

A large silver mech stepped in, tall and imposing. Megatron caught Jack's stare, and his lips curled into a grin, revealing his shark-like teeth. "You've finally awakened." he gestured to the room around them. "How do you like your new quarters?" Something dark and sinister appeared in his optics.

"Not-impressed." Jack grounded out, anger overwhelming the fear. "Where-am-I?"

Megatron let out a low, mocking chuckle. "Has it not crossed your puny mind yet?"

Jack glared at him, but taking another whiff it still escaped him, and that just made him angrier. "What-" he stopped, frame seizing as white hot rage coursed through him, optics burning green. He locked gazes with Shockwave, who pushed in a trolley filled with items Jack didn't care to name at the moment. He was too busy trying to burn a hole through the scientist. "You-what-you-doin'-heere?"

"You are my test subject, is it only logical I be here to prepare you." Shockwave said as he stopped at Jack's side. Megatron stood to sidelines, a smirk on his faceplate.

Jack didn't like this, and he warily eyed the things on the trolley. One was a cannister filled with blue energon, another a flaccid tube lined with small bulbs along the sides, a string of smaller containers piled together with a dark gray liquid inside, and a syringe. "What-you- doing?"

Shockwave didn't answer. He filled the syringe with the energon, and Jack growled as the mech began to prod around his chest plate. "The Synth-En has been stablelized, and during such time a personal request was made to have exclusive rights to your emergence chamber."

Jack scowled, anger coursing through him again. "Knock-Out." he spat.

"No." Shockwave said bluntly. "He has no such clout."

"Then-" Jack screeched as the needle was jammed into a seam along his chest. Everything around him exploded in a rush of pain and anger, his own audios aching from the force of his scream and his voicebox threatened to short out.

When the pain began to dull, Jack whimpered as his optics shut, his body heavy and sore. He hissed as his joints ached, and his head spun dizzily as he looked around the room. His optics focused on the hazy figure of Shockwave preparing something else and the silver form of Megatron walking over.

The two spoke, but the words were lost on Jack as his audios rebooted, the sounds pratically gibberish and their forms little more than globs of color. Jack narrowed his optics when Shockwave looked at him, his single red optic startling clear despite the blur. The scientist held his gaze for a moment, before he began to walk away, his footsteps echoing as Jack's audio's cleared, the sound of the door shutting finalizing it.

Jack stiffened when Megatron looked down at him, an unreadable expression on his faceplate. This was not the first thing he wanted to see when the haze lifted. "Get...away." he muttered, voice raspy and cables constricting.

Megatron ignored him as he leaned in closer, optics narrowed. "Tell me, pest; has Shockwave informed you of your role?"

Jack growled, but inside he felt...less. He was angry, but there was no blinding fury as before. "He-told- you." he grounded out. "Why-ask-me?"

"Because I wish to see the full impact of what I'm about to tell you." Megatron grinned, sharp as a knife. "I've amended Shockwave's plans for you. Perhaps when I allow it, Predaking may have his way with you." Jack glared at him, and Megatron scoffed. "Do not look so disbelieving; Predaking obeys me, and my word is law-he knows this."

"What-you-saying?" Jack rasped out, annoyed and anxious. He was still spread uncomfortably, and he had no idea who was going to 'use' him. Well, he wasn't going to make it easy for them.

Megatron sneered at him, as though he heard Jack's thoughts. "Truly you haven't figured it out yet?"

Quick as a flash, Jack's chin was grabbed painfully tight as Megatron leaned in even closer. Jack's optics were wide as his jaw ached, held too tight to even speak.

The silver mech tilted his head towards his audio, the sharp edge of his helmet knicking Jack's cheek as a thin bead of energon appeared.

"You," hot air wafted over Jack's audio, the renewed scent finally putting the pieces in place, "are-"

Jack's optics widened, terror flooding through him, griping his spark tight. This room-no, no, this room is Megatron's! Which-which meant that-

"-mine."

-Megatron was collecting on his promised revenge after all.