"Necessity never made a good bargain."

~Benjamin Franklin

>>•<<

As Jack stumbled into the Nemesis once more, he briefly took in his surroundings. He was a good several feet from where they had last Groundbridge, making him realize how dangerous it had been for him to take such action. He could have ended in a wall, amidst some deadly equipment, or worse, off the ship entirely. And since he didn't know how to radio for help, well, that wouldn't end nicely for him.

Once he got his bearings he began to run, feet click-cracking against the metal floor. It was weird, how it both felt natural and unnatural. The action was natural to him, but the feeling of each piston and bolt moving was foreign. He was used to the smooth flow of muscles, tendons, and bones. Not machinery.

Focus, Jack. One foot in front of the other.

He didn't really want to find anyone, he just wanted to be found. It made sense that any Vehicon or Decepticon that caught sight of him would immediately escort him to their leader, regardless if he said anything or not. He had something-

"Oof!" His feet suddenly rebelled, sweeping out from under him and causing him to crash into the ground face-first, leaving him in a brief moment of pain. When he looked back, he saw the blank mask of Soundwave staring down at him.

"I didn't come back to fight." Jack sits up, his face- which was still a shock for him to see -reflecting off of Soundwave's visor. "Take me to where Arcee and Bumblebee are, and Megatron."

Soundwave paused, as if processing this information, before silently walking past the boy at his slow pace. Jack scrambled back to his feet to follow, staying in the wake of the Communications Officer. He wasn't stupid; he couldn't beat Soundwave even if he knew all the tips and tricks of a Cybertronian.

The Decepticon stops at a door, which opens automatically for him only after a slight pause, and Jack falls in line behind him.

Megatron straightened from his bent position, his face just having been next to Arcee, a slightly annoyed expression on his face which soon turned into an angry snarl.

"Soundwave, I see you have retrieved one of our experiments." His dehumanization of Jack did not go unnoticed by anyone.

"Soundwave didn't retrieve anyone." Jack stood tall despite his urge to cower or run. Seeing Arcee being held immobile by Knock Out reinstated his purpose for his absolutely reckless decision. "I came here myself."

"Did you now? You're even more idiotic than I first believed." Megatron stalked closer, his arms at his side's, signaling that if he was give an excuse, any at all, he would use his fists to cause severe dents in Jack's dull grey plating.

Arcee was staring at the new Cybertronian, her optics wide with shock and disbelief. Even if the original body had been a generic form, when Jack inhabited the Cybertronian mind his body morphed into the mold of his previous human form, to an extent. He wasn't some scrawny kid like his human form had led them to believe. The armor plating that surrounded his chest, arms, and legs filled him out, with the more typical boxy design that usually came along with the males of the Cybertronian species. The voice, too, confirmed that he was undeniably Jackson Darby in the Cybertronian form. His mind had forced the body to match what it knew to be him.

Innocently blue optics settled on his guardian, keeping optic contact as he spoke to Megatron. "I came back in order to bargain with you." They refocused on the warlord. "Release Arcee and Bumblebee, and I will remain here. I can't fight you for them, and I will not let you have Miko and Rafael. So this is my only offer."

Megatron laughed. "Can't fight me? If I recall, you had no qualms fighting when you came to the rescue of Optimus Prime!" His hand suddenly came up with rage, outstretched palm slamming into the side of Jack's face and toppling him onto his side.

"No!" Arcee screamed, struggling against her restraints. "Megatron, you leave him alone!"

Bumblebee started beeping and struggling as well, inciting a snarl from the Decepticon leader.

"Quiet, the both of you! Or I will rip out that scout's voice box a second time!" His attention turned to Jack as he struggled to get up. "Not used to a little slapping around, Jackson? Well, I will have to remedy that." He kicked the new Cybertronian in the gut for good measure, to keep him down, while he turned to Knock Out and Shockwave, both of which kept the two Autobots at bay while Starscream gleefully watched the show. "Release these two Auotbots into a Groundbridge. I really don't care where."

"S-somewhere safe . . ." Jack got another hit from the warlord.

"You do not command my men! I do!" Megatron gestured to the door, along with Soundwave. "Take them out of my sight!"

"Yes, my liege." Knock Out forces Arcee to walk, the femme bot looking towards where her partner knelt. He gave her a small smile from the corner of his mouth, one she hoped meant that he had a plan, before they were escorted out of the lab and the doors closed.

"My lord, is it really worth it letting the Autobots go? Surely we could have used them as some sort of means to make this . . . Experiment obey." Starscream inquired, servos moving in timid gestures as he stood above Jack next to his master.

"I'm sure, despite his recent display of disregard for my authority, that Jack will prove to be obedient without any other means." Megatron replies, gazing down hatefully at Darby. "Because if he doesn't, well-" another unprovoked kick sent Jack flying into the door, a huge metal crash resounding as he slid down to the floor and gasped in pain, venting hard to try and relieve some of it.

Starscream chuckled with glee. "Taming him shouldn't be as hard as taming that beast, now should it?"

"I wouldn't know. It's not my job to take care of the Predacon." Megatron growled. "Speaking of which, you should be seeing to its well being, and training my beast! Quit dabbling now, and get to it!"

"Y-yes my lord, right away!" Starscream hurried to the door, stepping over Jack on the way out as he scurried away.

Megatron glared at the boy on the floor. "Get up! There is still much you need to know about discipline."

Jack returned the glare, still struggling to get up as the door closed behind him again, leaving him trapped inside with the warlord.

>>•<<

"So it's true?" Arcee asked quietly as she looked up at the two other bots. "Megatron and Shockwave have turned you kids into Cybertronians?"

Both Miko and Rafael nod, with the former speaking. "Yeah. Like, just this morning. Or yesterday. But we don't know what they did to our human bodies . . ." Her lower lip trembled. "We think they . . . destroyed them."

The base was silent for a long, long moment. June had retreated to the couch to cry at this time, burying her face in her hands while Fowler looked at the bots grimly. It had not escaped their minds that Shockwave had more than likely experimented on the kids, but to do this had been unfathomable to them.

"I've got a question." Bulkhead interrupts the silence. "How come Miko is all colorful, but Jack and Raf are both grey?"

"Yeah." Miko twisted and turned to look at herself. "Why do I have the paint job?"

"Typically, when a Cybertronian acquires an alternate mode, their body changes to match the paint job of that alternate mode." Ratchet put a servo on his chin. "Did you scan a vehicle at any point in time, Miko?"

"No." She gestured to her body, cocking her hips in a very Miko-like fashion. "Like I said, we just got these. I don't even know how to transform yet!"

"Hmm . . ." Ratchet looked at her with interest. "Have you run a systems check before?"

Th girl looked puzzled. "Uh, I think so?"

The medic shakes his head. "No, a full systems check. You have to manually scan yourself in order to see all of your available functions and possible upgrades."

"Can't I just ask my transformer doohickey?" She asks. "You know, that one thing Bumblebee had missing once?"

"A T-cog?" Rafael quipped helpfully.

"Yeah, that thing!"

Ratchet shrugged. "Perhaps, if you know how to do it."

Miko paused for a second, sorting through the jumbled mess that seemed to be her neural cluster. There were so many things going on at once that it was hard to keep track of everything. It made sense that she could ignore some things, but that proved difficult. When she was given an update on her weapons systems she latched onto it, sorting until she got to the transformative part of the message. There she tracked it to the source, a T-cog, and opened up the status update on that particular function. She was already aware of the different weapons she had, but the alternate form . . .

"Uh, what is this?" She didn't know how she did it, but she managed to beam an image of her vehicular form from her optics. The Cybertronian's leaned in, quite stunned.

"Isn't that a Cybertronian Seeker model?" Wheeljack asked aloud. "One of those new jet-types that had just been produced before the end of the war on Cybertron?"

"That's what it looks like. But I'm no expert on vehicles." Ratchet straightened as Miko blinked and the image shut down. "But it looks like you have the ability to fly, Miko."

"Whoa, really?!" Her blue optics shine for a moment before dimming in confusion, and she twists to look at her back. "But I don't have any wings."

"Cybertronian models don't require the use of wings to fly about, considering that most Cybertronians can produce enough thrust on their own to get off the ground. You've seen Megatron, have you not?" The tone of voice Ratchet used was slightly condescending, as if he couldn't believe Miko asked such a dumb question.

"Oh." Was her only answer.

"So, does that mean I need to scan a car in order to have my own alternate mode?" Rafael asks.

"I can find something, if you'd like." Agent Fowler offers. "Do you have any particular model in mind?"

"You need to be mindful of your size, Rafael." Ratchet adds.

"Yeah, I couldn't turn into a truck even if I wanted to." Arcee tells the boy, still having to look up to meet his face. Even Miko, the only other femme now, was taller than her! "You need to make sure your body can accommodate the size of the vehicle. I'd go for a smaller car or a sports model. A motorcycle might be too small for you."

Rafael nodded in understanding.

"And kid, don't worry about guessing the wrong size." Wheeljack puts a hand on his shoulder. "Your T-cog is smart; it'll know if you've scanned something incompatible."

"That's good." Rafael smiled a little.

"This brings me to another question." Ratchet narrows his eyes a little. He wasn't glaring at the kids, but rather studying their new bodies intently. "How did Shockwave manage to build all these complicated parts?"

Both Miko and Rafael looked at one another, shrugging. "Not sure." Miko replies.

"Shockwave never told us anything about what he was doing . . . Well, except for how he got our sparks to start." His voice trailed off slightly. It worried him, to have a piece of the Decepticon communications officer inside him.

"What do you mean?" Optimus Prime furrowed his optic ridges.

"Sparks are a part of our very essence, our souls." Ratchet looked bewildered. "It would make sense if your sparks are synthetic, or started using some kind of catalyst, but your optic colors are normal. They would be different if your spark consisted of something else entirely instead of natural materials."

"We're not sure how he built 'em, but Shockwave couldn't make them work without having to use something to bring them to life." Miko chewed her bottom lip slightly. "And, I don't really know how else to say this, but he used other Decepticon sparks to start us."

The base was silent for a long time, Smokescreen reluctantly asking.

"What do you mean by that?"

Rafael looked at the ground in shame. "It means I have a piece of Soundwave in my spark, and Miko has Knock Out."

All of the Autobots recoiled slightly, not out of fear but of shock and slight disgust. The kids were no cause of that; in fact it was Shockwave that the Autobots felt inclined to be repulsed by. It was obvious the scientist was sick and twisted, but like this-

"Then, who does Jack have?" Arcee felt like she knew the answer, but didn't want to believe it until confirmation. It seemed everyone knew, but no one wanted to answer.

Optimus Prime voiced it out loud. "Megatron."

Agent Fowler whirled as he heard a door slam, Nurse Darby vacant from the couch, a cup of steaming coffee and a half-eaten doughnut left on the table.

June collapsed against the side of Hanger E, her arms wrapping around her knees. Despicable, the Decepticons were absolutely despicable creatures! She hardly felt this emotion before, and though she wallowed in sadness it was easy to identify the hatred she had for Megatron and all his lackeys.

You couldn't just take my son, could you? You had to stake some twisted claim on him, you monster!

Resisting the urge to scream at nothingness she cried, digging out the shattered remains of her phone out of her pocket and staring at them angrily. She wanted to call him, badly, to scream and cry and rage at him for all he has done to make her life a miserable mess.

She had vowed a long time ago that she wouldn't let anything take Jack away from her, even if her ex tried to come back and pry him away from her. Yet against these giant alien robots from space, she had been useless.

Is there anything I can do now?

Sighing, she shook her head. No, there was nothing she could do. Not anymore.