"A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born."

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

>>•<<

The world was dark.

Has it always been so black?

He couldn't remember a time before this, couldn't even remember his own name. A part of him knew that he was something- alive -but it didn't feel that way.

What does death feel like? This?

No . . . In death there is no . . . Pain.

It lit up every nerve in his being, burning him like an untamed wildfire. A voice- his, perhaps -screamed and begged for it to end. It radiated from his chest, flaring outwards in one continuous wave, mercilessly tearing into the inside of his body.

"Please . . ." He screamed again, another voice mingling with his before too long. His eyes, he realized, were shut, but he didn't want to open them just yet. The pain was already reaching unbearable levels, and something was preventing him from ripping open his chest and extracting the pain.

"Just make it stop!" Someone else screamed, a higher pitched voice ringing in his ears. "Make it stop!"

Another scream echoed around them, crying and sobbing soon following. They sounded very much like a child, and a put formed in his gut. A child was being hurt . . . Tortured, it seemed like.

"Please." The high-pitched voice spoke for him. "End it. Please."

>>•<<

Megatron was on his knees, one servo clutching the keypad of a monitor, crushing it, while the other barely supported his upper body from crashing into the ground.

By the pits of Kaon . . .

It hurt. Primus, it hurt. His spark felt that it was being ripped in two, his body feeling only a fraction of what Jack Darby had to endure. Soundwave had also crumpled to the ground the moment Shockwave had deemed the transfer complete, and Megatron could only assume that Knock Out had felt the same.

What does this mean? Was the experiment successful? Did I give a piece of my spark for nothing?!

As fast as it had come, though, the pain receded, but his spark still throbbed. The warlord stood and, allowing him this one bit of weakness for once, leaned against the console and took several vents.

"My lord-"

"Not now, Soundwave." He growls. "We wait for Shockwave's update on the status of the three humans. If he feels there is any trouble, we will go to the medical bay."

Soundwave just stood there for a moment before turning back to his monitor, his only acknowledgement that he heard and understood Megatron's order.

The Decepticon leader looked at the broken keypad with disdain, still panting heavily. A warning would have been nice, so that he had time to prepare for the onslaught of pain that would come, but he supposed he couldn't blame the scientist. This entire thing was experimental, after all.

"Lord Megatron." Shockwave spoke over the com-link. "The transference has been a success. The subjects are waking up completely, now."

"Excellent." Megatron straightened, turning and gesturing to Soundwave to follow. "Are there any complications we should be aware of?"

"No, my liege. Everything has gone smoothly, much better than anticipated."

Megatron grinned, despite the ache in his chest. "Soundwave and I will be there shortly."

"Understood, my lord." Shockwave cut the transmission, the only Decepticon brave enough to do such a thing. Besides Starscream, but he did it more often out of foolishness than bravery.

As Megatron neared the secluded laboratory, more and more input came in from his spark. Confusion, worry, panic. It seemed that Jack was not nearly as cool and composed as the warlord was first lead to believe.

The input concerned him as well, however. What was he sending to Jack?

>>•<<

My name is Jack Darby. I am human. My friend Arcee is an Autobot. I was kidnapped by Decepticons. My mom's name is June. She must be so worried.

Memories trickled into his head as he laid there in the darkness, eyes still closed.

Miko. Miko Nakadai. My family lives in Japan, I am a transfer student from there. I went to boring Jasper, Nevada, where I found my best friend, an Autobot. Bulkhead.

Her head pounded, and when she tried to move, she couldn't. The pain that had left her vocal cords raw had finally receded, and to her dismay she could barely move. Everything felt . . . Weird, wrong. And she didn't like it. The discomfort kept her from opening her eyes.

Mi nombre es Rafeal Esquivel. My friends call me Raf. Bumblebee calls me that too. He can't speak, but I can understand him. I know Cybertronian, somehow.

He had wept with gratitude when the pain had faded, leaving him feeling almost numb. His chest, too, seemed that way. He felt a vibration there, like a phone that was left to constantly buzz. It was almost discomforting.

When he opened his eyes and groaned slightly, he could immediately focus on his surroundings. That wasn't odd, except-

I can see all 180 degrees.

There was no glasses frame in his way, and no blurriness beyond that. His vision was crystal-clear, and as he focused on certain aspects of the room he was in, he could even zoom his vision, and focus.

What did Shockwave do?

Fear sliced through his body, leaving him gasping. Shockwave had experimented on them. He could now remember Knock Out coming in, taunting them, and picking them up one by one in a not-so-gentle grip, carrying them to the other side of the ship and . . . And . . . Into a lab.

Rafael remembered his horror clearly. There were three bodies, designed specifically to look exactly like the three human kids, to some degree anyways. Shockwave had mentioned a neuron refractor, and how it could beam someone's consciousness and unconsciousness into another body, and was compatible with humans and Cybertronian's alike . . .

Swallowing, Rafael turned his head and looked at the surgical tables next to him, his mind suddenly blanking as shock settled in, and he could only scream one word.

"No!!"

>>•<<

Shovel watched as Ratchet finished the last of the welding on Ultra Magnus, the mech's spinal cables finally realigned and back in place. The medic, however, was unsure if he would ever be able to walk again. And if he did, it would be with extreme difficulty.

Ratchet had to admit, Shovel made a good surgical assistant. He was always ready to help, and a quick learner. The Vehicon never got to think for himself before, and now that he finally did, he showed intelligence that Ratchet hadn't thought the foot soldiers were capable of.

Sure, he was annoying at times, as he liked to talk, and would sometimes wander off somewhere he wasn't supposed to, but he was tolerable. Ratchet even appreciated that he wasn't a smart-aft like the other Autobots.

"Is he gonna wake up some time soon?"

"Yes, he'll be fine." Ratchet replied, taking out the IV of energon that had been mixed with a home-made sedative. It scared him to think that he had been forced to such extremes- making a drug without testing its effects -but he had done it. And so far, no negative side effects could be noted.

As long as Ultra Magnus woke up, he would consider it a success.

"How was the operation?" Optimus asks softly once Ratchet had cleaned up the area.

"Fine." The medic replied. "Not good, not bad. Just fine. He'll live, at least."

"How long will it take for him to recover?" Arcee posits.

Ratchet sighed, shaking his helm. "I don't . . . I don't know. I don't even known if he'll be able to walk."

"You did your best, old friend." Optimus put a hand on his shoulder. "That is all we can ever ask of you."

Venting again, the medic walked past them and to the monitors, muttering. "I'm going to look for the Nemesis."

The Autobots were silent, Ratchet's dreary mood hanging over all of them. Optimus wanted to help his friend, but he wasn't sure how. Comfort did not come easily to him, and even the right words escaped his processor at this time.

June watched as Ratchet continued typing away at the computer, his optics looking dimmer than usual. He was tired, she noted. Exhausted, really. Everything was piling up on his shoulders, responsibilities that he took upon himself. Like her, it seemed, rest did not come easily to him.

Her phone vibrated, making her jump. Looking at the caller I.D, a shiver ran down her spine.

Don't answer it. Just let it go to voicemail-

But her legs seemed to move on their own accord, getting up silently and walking out of the base, flipping open the phone and putting it to her ear.

DON'T ANSWER IT.

Too late, she answered. "Yes?"

"Ms. Darby, I presume?" Came the purr.

Purr. He was purring. The lord of Decepticons wasn't a cute fluffy kitty, but if the two were correlated, then that sound meant only one thing. He was happy, for some psychotic reason she was sure.

"Of course." She wanted to snap, but her voice was weary. "What do you want, Megatron?"

"I want to know where you are, Ms. Darby." He knew how to cut to the chase. "I know that the Autobots are not dead. Tell me where they are, and I will give you the advantage of knowing when I intend to destroy them."

Her throat went dry. "Wh-what are you talking about? Their base- it was-"

"I know it was not, in fact, destroyed." His sweet voice turned into a growl. "Optimus Prime still lives, and he has not even bothered to call and promise vengeance on his fallen comrades. Therefore, I can only assume that the others are alive as well. Now, tell me where they are."

"I won't!" She clutches the phone in her hand. "You will never get the base's location from me!"

"And here I thought we had become allies." June could almost see his bitter expression. "Soundwave will find your location, Ms. Darby. And when he does, I will annihilate everything within a five-mile radius, unless you tell me. Now."

"I can't . . ." June gasps, her throat closing up. "I can't . . . I can't betray them . . ."

"Yes. You can." Megatron goads. "If you tell me where they are, I will let you speak to Jack again."

Speak . . . To Jack . . .

"But doesn't . . . Doesn't Soundwave already have my location?"

"Not yet, not until I give the order."

June wanted to cry, to sob into the phone, but she had to keep control; which was crumbling with every second she wasted. Her mind was not clear when she made the decision, she was so preoccupied that she didn't realize what she had said to the warmonger before she took action.

"Tell Jack I love him."

And then she snapped her phone in half.

>>•<<

Megatron screamed in rage when the connection was broken, and Soundwave couldn't trace the signal. He thought he had her, right there in his clawed servos! And the human female had evaded him.

He wanted to scream again, wanted to curse.

However, the three bots strapped to the surgical beds called for his attention. Three sets of bright blue optics shone back at him, showing the uncorrupted sparks that now thrummed within their bodies, despite the corrupted shards that had kick-started theirs to begin with.

They look absolutely terrified at his sudden break in composure, but he stopped caring. The experiment's onslaught of pain had put him in a bad mood, and he didn't care who knew. Better they were aware, actually; the fear would keep them in line.

She hung up on me. How dare that . . . That human think she can simply cut communication with ME.

The warlord couldn't help the smirk that eventually spread across his faceplates whilst he looked at the three children. June Darby may have outwitted him this time, but he had her son. And not just possessed him, Shockwave had turned the boy exactly into what he wanted. And he intended to use him for his own twisted devices.

He could be patient now, and wait for them to rehabilitate and get used to their new, Cybertronian bodies.

Shockwave didn't know what they remembered or knew, if they even remembered anything at all. Megatron would have liked for them to have not retained any memory whatsoever; unfortunately that was out of their control.

The kids, however, were not.

And oh, how he would enjoy controlling them, now that they were at a much more manageable size. Now he could break them without worrying about killing them.

This was going to be enjoyable indeed.