"I'm a prisoner to my addiction,
I'm addicted to a life that's so empty and so cold,
I'm a prisoner to my decisions,"

»«

Ratchet threw the relic's empty container in rage, whirling on Chromia.

"They took her, and not one of you thought to pursue?!"

"I was busy not getting blown up at the time," Chromia snapped back, thrusting a digit at the stabilizing and unconscious Megatron. "He saved my life, Ratchet, and in the process, gave up his chance to get Dana back. If I could have had it any other way, then I would have told him to go after her. But he made his decision. Now, we need to figure out a way to track them down and find her."

The medic's digits curled into fists. She was right, but it was driving him crazy, not knowing what those monsters intended to do with his charge. If they found out about the Cybertronian technology beneath her skin . . . He shuddered to think about who Lockdown would sell her to if he mistook her for a real techno-organic creature.

Soundwave projected a map of the world, highlighting where the relic had been found - Germany - and the fastest route to it from the United States, if that was even where MECH was located. Megatron had made extraordinary time at the cost of copious amounts of energon, and Lockdown's party arrived before he had. Surely, they were stationed somewhere closer.

Agent Fowler gazed at the map. "What I can't wrap my head around is how quickly MECH got to the site. Yes, they have military grade jets and helicopters, but to get from the States to Europe is easily an eight-hour flight, cut in half by fighter jets. They were there in minutes."

"Then maybe they are not in this country," Chromia suggested, gesturing to the world map. "They could be stationed somewhere else. Is MECH central only to America?"

"Well . . . I assumed that was the case, since their leader Silas was here. But maybe not?" The agent shrugged. "Maybe I can get Jack, Miko, and Rafael on that."

"We don't have time to put Dana's fate in the hands of children." Ratchet was becoming more perturbed by the minute. "We have to locate them now-"

Soundwave pointed to the relic, his screen fluttering to life. "Why not just - snatch - the relic?" A flurry of different voices asked.

"Or take the Apex Armor?" Chromia saw what he was saying. "You think they took her as some sort of ransom? Or bait?"

"Precisely."

Agent Fowler frowned. "So we wait for a ransom call."

"That's just a theory, and it could be wrong!" Ratchet pointed out. "They could be torturing her, experimenting on her, killing her! And you want to wait?"

The femme's blue optics focused on him, hard as steel. "I doubt they are going to do the latter part, or even experiment on her. As long as they believe she's human, she's more than likely safe. Besides, Lockdown is Cybertronian; he would recognize our technology. So why grab her, and not the relics? It makes sense that they are going to use her for something."

Ratchet put his helm in his servos. "I can't just sit around here and do nothing."

"Then let's figure out what this relic does," Chromia picked it up, the device easily larger than her servo. "Megatron, Dana, and I almost all collectively died to get it. Let's see if it's worth our efforts."

»«

Dana woke with a jolt, her eyes flaring open to a grey ceiling, head pounding as the after effects of the drug kicked in, her throat parched. Confusion settled in at first, until she remembered what had happened - the relic, Lockdown, MECH.

Sitting up, she found herself in a room, at least ten pairs of human eyes looking at her, and one set of blood red optics.

"Allspark -!" She jolted back, almost falling off the edge of the slab, grimacing as the motion caused her head to throb. Her terrified eyes gazed at each of the MECH scientists, a thousand thoughts running through her head as she tried to understand what was going on. The scientists each had white lab coats and clipboards where they were jotting some things down, one of them leaving her field of vision in a bit of a hurry.

Her next few words caught in her throat, trying to understand yet fear leaving her paralyzed. "What . . . what do you want from me?"

"Oh, good, she's awake," a woman with unnaturally pale features strode towards her, flanked by two people in full MECH gear. Sunglasses hid her eyes, lips bright red, though Dana internally snickered at the small smudge at the corner of her lip. Whoops.

"We did not notice any increase processing of the drug. You would think more advanced systems would be able to metabolize it with increased efficiency." One of the scientists told her, gazing at Dana with uncomfortable intensity.

"What are you talking about? What is going on?" She flinched away from the woman when she reached a hand out, the apparent leader of MECH (or at the very least the lab-coated individuals) pausing when she moved. Dana's eyes flickered over to her, surprised. She was hesitant with her.

"We know who you are - or, more specifically, what you are," the woman leaned in closer, despite one of her flanking members giving her a warning squeak. "What did you call her, Lockdown?"

"A techno-organism." The bounty hunter rumbled, his optics narrowing. "Creatures of myth and legend. An impossible creation."

The woman sneered. "Yet here is one sitting before us. Intriguing, isn't it?"

Dana stilled, her heart seeming to stop. Her hand automatically circled around her body and touched the warm hub of her back strut, which she noticed now was thrumming with life. It must have revitalized itself when she was unconscious. As she touched it the MECH woman grinned like a shark, Lockdown gazing at her with more intensity.

"I'm not . . . actually techno-organic," she had to make them believe, or else they would experiment on her, she was certain. The only way, she felt, was by telling them the truth. "My back was broken in an accident. A Decepticon named Shockwave used me as one of his experiments to see if molding human and Cybertronian parts could work. And it did."

"You were paralyzed, but now can walk?" One of the scientists asked incredulously.

"Yes," she answered carefully, hoping that all they would do was ask questions. "Lumbar four and five, I think. Or three and four. It's been a while. But I was paralyzed from the hips down."

They all eagerly scratched their pencils against paper, Lockdown glaring skeptically.

The Decepticon leaned closer to her, making her extremely uncomfortable. "So, you are artificially techno-organic, then?"

"Y-Yeah . . ." She scooted away from him. It was not like when Megatron invaded her personal space, doing it for domineering purposes. Lockdown was different; he was much more unpredictable, and as such incredibly dangerous. "If you could even call it that - I only have one part that is Cybertronian - and it does not affect my other systems."

"Who is this 'Shockwave?'" The woman asked Lockdown.

"A Decepticon scientist, better known for his dappling in Primus' creations," the bounty hunter looked at Dana distastefully. "He's rather adept at creating monsters."

The term hit her harder than she expected, gazing at him with a gaping mouth. Monster?

Was that what Ratchet and the others thought when they looked at her? A freak of nature?

She pushed the thought out of her head, but the damage had been established. Her heart hurt a little at the thought that perhaps her Cybertronian companions were not as friendly as they initially let on. Were they nice because they pitied her, like some deformed puppy on the street?

Stop it, Dana. Stop it.

"So, she's nothing more than one of his walking and talking experiments?" The woman waved a hand. "You all can stop bothering with her, then. If she had been real, I would have allowed this to continue. But, since we can apparently replicate the process with a few scrap parts, don't bother. We have better things to move on to."

Gamma cringed, watching as hurt flickered across their prisoner's face, her stunned expression revealing more than she probably intended it to. She clearly thought herself as normal, and perhaps she was. But from a scientific perspective, she was most certainly abnormal, however a disappointment. Artificially created beings are not as impressive as those created "naturally."

The scientists slowly dissipated, Lockdown standing as well, leaving to polish his weapons. Since the human had proved useless in the scientific aspect, they were moving on to the true reason she was here: to lure Megatron and his medic into a trap.

"Now," Alpha gripped the girl's chin, fingers sinking into her jaw like a steel trap, ignoring her attempts to yank her away by grabbing her wrist with her hands, amazingly strong. "I was told you have an interestingly close relationship with the one they call Megatron, is that correct?"

Dana's eyes flared, gripping her wrist and trying to wriggle free - but she was only human. "Not really," she lied through bunched up cheeks. "He's the one who broke me, after all."

Alpha tilted her head, looking at her with newfound interest. "Oh, really? Interesting, considering my third in command reported that he protected you from our fire. Why protect a lowly human when he had more important things to guard, like whatever technology you had been using to counter Lockdown's attacks?"

The young woman tried to push her away, resulting in Alpha letting her go, but she snapped her fingers at the two MECH individuals standing behind her. "Have our men try the old Autobot frequencies Branch One had used to communicate with them. If you get a response, let me know immediately. We need to send out an invitation to see if he truly cares about her. If not, well, maybe I'll let our scientists pick her apart after all."

Her gut twisted into terrified knots, arms wrapping around herself as if it would somehow protect her. "Don't," she whispered, but Alpha ignored her, barking orders to another group of goons, having them set up a camera on the off chance she would be able to have a visual as well as verbal demonstration of the consequences that would befall Megatron's human.

"I wonder what I should do first," Alpha circled her like a shark, Dana wanting to find a way to escape, or talk her way out, but she was not stupid. They would shoot her dead before she made it off the platform she was on - some kind of medical berth - or tape her mouth shut to get her to stop talking. "I want to make a statement, but not do anything too . . . drastic." She paused behind Dana, gripping the back of her head and shoving her forward. "Perhaps somehow utilize this?"

"Let go of me!" Dana finally snapped when she touched her back strut, writhing in her grip. Alpha slammed her face into the table, eliciting a cry from her.

"Don't resist," she warned, fingers gripping her hair at the base, ignoring the fact that the prisoner's current sitting position made it extremely painful to lean forward so far. "Or I may just have to do something drastic."

"We have a frequency," Beta interrupted, showing her a tablet. "Video feed is enabled."

"Excellent." Alpha gestured for him to position it so she could see the Cybertronian recipients, signaling for the other MECH goons to activate their own camera. The tablet lit up with two pairs of blue optics glaring at her, another, extremely slim and faceless Cybertronian in the corner. Megatron was nowhere to be found.

"Ratchet," Dana whimpered, Alpha's fingers tightened against her scalp when the odd name left her lips. She had expected the girl to ask for Megatron, who oddly enough was not present. Which one of them was Ratchet?

The orange and white Cybertronian shifted. "Dana," it was clearly a male, his mouth plates twisting into an aggressive curl. "What have you done to her?"

"Nothing, yet." Alpha did not let her surprise show. So, it was these two who had a "special" relationship. No matter, she would get what she wanted regardless. "But we have a few demands that, if not met, will result in her mistreatment."

"And that is?" The smallest, an aggressive female, snapped.

"First, Lockdown needs Megatron. Alive, or dead, it does not matter to us. Though he would prefer him alive so that he can make the killing blow himself." Alpha stared straight at the camera, her eyes unwavering behind her sunglasses. "Secondly, we need your medic. He can, apparently, build us a Groundbridge, as well as educate us in regards to your bio-technology, such as your Transformation Cognition."

Dana watched as Chromia's digits curled into fists. She did not like those demands.

"We need him," the femme said stubbornly. "In case one of us becomes injured. You can't just take him."

"Chromia - " Ratchet began, his voice interrupted by a sickening slam.

Dana screamed in pain as blood rushed from her nose, choking her, her mouth filled with the thick and metal taste, coughing and choking. Alpha shoved her forward so that her head hanged over the edge of the table, blood staining the young woman's clothes and dripping down her face onto the floor. She then tugged her shirt up to reveal the metal hub on her back, fingernails tracing it.

"We know what one of the Decepticon's did to her," the leader said over Ratchet shouting Dana's name and spewing threats at the MECH leader, which immediately ceased when he saw what she was doing. "And my scientists are very interested to see what all is hidden beneath her skin. I can beat her to a bloody pulp all I want, but I doubt you will really see the consequences of your actions unless I show you what I am capable of. So, I've already punished her for your initial refusal; I dare you to refuse me again."

Ratchet looked at his charge, panicked as blood dripped down her face. He wanted to reach through the screen and grab her, put her next to his spark and never let her go again.

"Megatron is unconscious," he said slowly. "And I do not have it in me to kill him. None of us do. If you are willing to wait . . . let me heal him. Let me get him back to full strength, so he and Lockdown can have their final battle. Then I will help you in exchange for Dana."

"And how long will that take?" Alpha dug her nails into Dana's skin, the girl starting to cry as she did so.

"A day. Maybe two if he's particularly stubborn," Ratchet begged. "Please, that's all I ask."

Alpha considered it, looking at Lockdown, who had slunk behind the cameras to listen in on the conversation. The bounty hunter shook his head. No - he wanted to take every opportunity he had to defeat Megatron. Even if it was through something has "dishonorable" as doing it while he was unconscious.

"No." Alpha relayed the answer, Dana screaming as the sadist dug in deeper, leaving claw marks along the edge of her warped skin.

"Stop! Stop!" Ratchet slammed the table top, creating a huge dent.

Soundwave stepped forward then, flashing schematics of a Groundbridge on his screen, as well as various other blueprints. He was the one with the information. He was the one they wanted.

He was going to tear them apart for hurting Megatron's femme.

Alpha raised an eyebrow. "You have all of the plans we need?"

The silent mech nodded, Ratchet translating.

"He . . . does not speak," the medic was unsure how else to put it. "But he is incredibly intelligent and does communicate effectively. More help than I would be."

Alpha looked very interested in that. "And you will give them to us?"

"In exchange for Dana? Of course." Ratchet snapped, not sure why Soundwave was interested in going instead, but at the same time, it made sense. He was more capable at escaping than Ratchet, and had the highest chances of survival in MECH's hands. Soundwave had also not talked to them before volunteering, and quite frankly, as long as Dana was back in his servos Ratchet could care less about it.

Alpha glanced at Lockdown, but she had already made her decision. This was better than she had anticipated, and they had what they needed to subdue this odd Cybertronian if he ended up trying to double-cross her. She nodded, gazing at Ratchet.

"Fine, we will take him in exchange for you." She agreed. "We will be sending you a rendezvous point to meet us, in order to keep our whereabouts . . . confidential. Meet us there in sixteen hours."

Ratchet took a deep vent. "Don't hurt her."

"We will see." Alpha just grinned, cutting the feed.

The medic glared at Soundwave, anger coursing his energon veins. "You better have a plan."

The third in command nodded.

"Are you going to share?"

He shook his head.

"Great," Chromia muttered. "You better know what you're doing, Soundwave." They looked at the unconscious Megatron. "For his sake and Dana's."

»«

Edit: I have updated "Burned and Healed" things with TWO Christmas gifts for you guys; BUT it's for a more mature audience (18+ plz). Thank you all for supporting me through everything, and have a great Christmas and Happy New Year! 😁