Last Edited: June 19, 2019 

Hope

I could feel nothing but darkness.

The gag in my mouth was uncomfortable, and with all of my crying and running nose, it was hard to breathe. My arms and legs were bound tightly with chains that were attached to the wall. Panic began to rise in me as I gasped for breath.

Where am I?

Locked away in this little room, I've been sitting for what has felt like hours. No means of escape. No sign of another living creature. Where was Wheeljack? And why was he being a complete jerk to me before? I sighed into my gag and leaned against the wall. My wings had been tightly bound together, which meant no flying. Tears brimmed in my eyes again, suddenly feeling the panic fill my entire being.

Where am I?

Suddenly, a door I hadn't noticed before creaked open slowly. I jerked my head up, scooting back against the wall. What do they want from me? Why am I here? Why does it always happen to me? What did I ever do wrong?

I wanted to spit the questions out at lightning speed, but my gag muffled them, so I slid away from the man who was now approaching me. The light made me wince, and tears formed, wanting desperately to stop the burning sensation the light was causing.

The man stopped right in front of me, his head cocked to one side. A scar sat on top of his nose; as did one in a small spot across his forehead. The grim expression he gave me gave me the chills. I could practically feel his eyes burning holes into me.

Without a word, he smiled and grabbed my chin, yanking my head up when I had begun to stare at my legs. I didn't like the way he looked at me. It scared me to no end.

"You've grown, Hope." he stated. His practically black eyes stared into my own. "That is what you call yourself now, correct?"

I nodded, and he rolled his eyes, releasing my chin. "We should have made a grab for you earlier; before you began shown any sign of independence." he scoffed. "It would have been so much easier when you were younger to control you."

Control me? Anger boiled up inside of me. I didn't like the sound of that. "Do you know why you are here? Or who I am?" the man asked, bending down to my eye level. I slowly shook my head twice, answering both of his questions. He sighed.

"Thought so. My name is Silas, Hope. And the reason you are here is because you are my property. You belong to me. You might not remember, due to your amnesia, but you ran from me and my organization when you were five."

Despite the headache that was beginning to pound in my head, I tried to concentrate. Five years old? Despite my best efforts, I couldn't remember anything before then. Just that I had a brother and no home. I shook my head quickly, not wanting to believe him. What right did he have, claiming me as his own without a second thought of what I had to say? I was not an item, let alone his property.

My eyes found his cold, dark ones and I shivered.

Try telling him that you coward.

Silas knew what I was thinking, apparently, because he smiled, not-so-sweetly adding, "You belong to me because nobody loves you enough to keep you. I took care of you, I made you this way. So you will appreciate me and everything I have blessed you with."

He took the gag out of my mouth, and I yanked away from the cloth, wanting nothing more to do with it. My tears had stopped. Now I just stared at him, confusion covering my facial features and questions running amuck through my mind.

"W-what are you going to d-do with me?" I whispered, forcing myself to look up at him. He said he made me this way, yet I thought I was born like this. He couldn't be telling me the truth, could he?

"We are going to continue where we started, Hope," he stated, standing. "And I don't expect you to do anything about it. Not unless you want to be injured. You don't wish for us to hurt you, now do you? I'm not sure how much a fragile girl like you could handle one of my best interrogators."

I gulped, scooting away from him and shaking my head violently. Silas gave a thin smile.

"Pathetic. Much different from the little girl I once knew. Macen was right. He really did break you, didn't he?" he said, amusement laced in his voice.

Without answering, I bit my lip and looked away. Silas laughed and turned, leaving me alone yet again. Darkness consumed me once more, and I let out a small cry. What did he want from me?

Stay strong, Hope. I thought to myself. You have got to be strong. Don't be such a blubbering weakling. Sighing, I took in a deep breath through my mouth, happy to have the gag out. My chains rattled as I moved my arms to wipe my tears away.

It felt like an eternity later when that door opened again. I didn't look up, knowing Silas was entering. I didn't want to see him. I didn't want anything to do with him. My thoughts traveled to the Autobots. They would come to rescue us, right? They had to come to save Wheeljack and me. Unless they never really cared. Wheeljack sure had changed within the blink of an eye. Why had he been so mean to me before?

"Sparkling." The voice made me snap my head up. It wasn't Silas who was standing in front of me, but a teenager. A familiar one. He stared down at me with no hint of emotion in his eyes and a cruel snarl on his lips.

"W-what do you want?" I ask, staring up at him.

"Silas wants to see you," he said simply, grabbing my chains and easily ripping them in half. I shakily stood, gawking all the way.

"H-how-"

"Oh, please, I'm sure you have figured it out by now." he scoffed, grabbing my arm and making his way to the door. The bright light made me wince, and I tripped a couple of times after I closed my eyes.

"Y-your a Decepticon?" A grunt was the only reply I received.

"What is your name?" I asked him as we entered a dimly lit metal hallway. A few guards stood in front of random doors, not even looking in our direction as we passed them.

"Lockdown." he said simply, turning the corner with me hot on his tail.

"Why were you following me before? Why are you helping humans? I thought Decepticons didn't like humans." I rambled.

"I'm a bounty hunter. It doesn't matter who I work for, as long as I get a reward. Now silence, sparkling." he snarled. I bit my lip nervously. Why did Silas want to talk to me? Where was Wheeljack? Where are they going to hurt him?

"In here." Lockdown shoved me inside a plain looking room. A table sat directly in the center with a single light hanging directly above it. Silas sat on one side of the table, and he motioned for me to sit on the other. About twenty guards with strange uniforms and masks with goggles stared at me as I nervously sat.

"Since you are here, I don't want to dottle on my work. But the question is, will you do this the easy way or will I have to force you?"

I swallowed nervously. "That depends on what your work is." I whispered, looking at my hands.

Silas grimaced. "I don't think you have a choice on whether or not you do it. My question is, will you do it willingly?"

Desperate to change the subject, I blurted out, "Is Wheeljack okay? Is he here too?" That caught Silas by surprise, and he raised an eyebrow before leaning back in his chair.

"Your alien friend won't be around for long, don't worry. But you will be too changed to care."

"C-changed?" I whispered, looking up at him. The older man nearly grinned at me.

"If you would ever so kindly follow me, so we can begin." he smiled.

And there was nothing happy about it.

Optimus

"This is where Wheeljack's energon signal was last located," Ratchet muttered under his breath, kicking at the dirt. To my right sat Wheeljack's ship, all busted up and destroyed. There were pools of energon everywhere, all, I assumed, to be from our wrecker. Bulkhead pounded his fists together.

"Stinking cons!" he seethed, his optics narrowing. "They will pay if that wrecker is-"

"Revenge is not the way, my friend." I stated firmly. Wheeljack was most likely aboard the Nemesis. That was the only logical explanation on why his energon signal could not be tracked. Hope was most likely with him.

I found no signs of human blood, to my relief, but sighed at the fact that two of my friends are gone. Ratchet dug a digit into a pool of energon and hummed to himself as he examined the fluid on his digit. "Interesting..."

"What is it, old friend?" I walked alongside him as the others spread out, looking for any signs of a con or one of our friends.

Ratchet vented, taking a small tube from his chamber and wiping the energon off inside. When the tube was securely sealed, he did the same with yet another pile of energon. "Just a hunch, Optimus, just a hunch. But I have a feeling that this isn't all Wheeljack's." he stated clearly as he finished wiping the energon off his digit and placed the two tubes back in his chest chamber.

I watched him do so and then cocked my helm, perplexed. "And who might the other belong to? We could tell the difference from the different energon signals if this wasn't all his." Our energon signals could be made out easily by taking a scan of the liquid, and the energon no doubt belonged to Wheeljack.

So why was Ratchet doubting? I watched him work with curiosity as he scanned another puddle of energon. "Let's go. I need to analyze the energon back at the base."

Arcee came beside me, a servo on her hip. "So we just let the cons take them away?" she asked angrily. I shook my helm.

"We shall find them soon. You and Bumblebee search this area for any signs of them. Meanwhile, I will be waiting with Bulkhead and Ratchet at the base. If Megatron has our soldier and human friend, there is no doubt he will contact us for some kind of demand."

At least, I hoped he would. It wasn't easy to forget the fact that Megatron wanted Hope for some strange reason. He might not give her up if he had her. Which, I was sure he did. Venting sadly, I slowly entered the groundbridge Raphael had sent for us.

No matter what, I would get my friends home safely.

Hope

Embarrassment was mostly all I felt at this moment. Struggling, I forced myself not to cry. I was in nothing more than my bra and underwear, strapped to a freezing cold metal surface. The straps around my wrists and ankles were rubbing uncomfortably into my skin, making me wince.

The table was particularly wide, and my wings were strapped outstretched to my sides. Silas was talking to a few scary guards with goggles that stood at some controls in a room up above. The glass revealed them clearly.

Silas looked out the glass with a sick smile on his face as he examined me from high above. I felt disgusting, lying basically naked around a group of intimidating men I didn't know.

Silas' voice boomed from some kind of speaker around me, and I winced at the volume. "All we require for now is a scan." he explained loudly. I gulped. A silver pen-like object came from the ceiling right before my feet and flashed red, moving with soft hums and whirs as it moved up towards my head.

I couldn't help but squirm as another light came from nowhere and flashed in my eye, making me blink.

"Retina scan complete." someone from behind the glass up above me muttered through the speaker. "X-ray complete."

I let out a sigh of relief when the laser pen object disappeared back into the ceiling. Silas' voice came back on.

"See? That wasn't so hard was it?" he teased. "Now let's move to the next part." A tiny blade about as thick as my fingernail and as long as my finger came out of nowhere.

"Now all we require is your DNA structure." Silas spoke into the loudspeaker.

"What?" I squeaked as the razor lowered down towards my leg. "Just cut out some hair or something! That has DNA!" I whimpered, desperately trying to squirm away.

"You are correct," Silas chuckled, "but this is far more entertaining."

I let out a scream of pain as the razor cut into my flesh. It made one slice into my thigh about half an inch deep. Screams mixed with loud sobs left my lips as it lifted up slowly, blood dripping off one of its blades, then lowered at a new angle, making another cut.

I bit my lip in pain and let out a few whimpers as it continued to lift, then go back down. About two minutes later, a triangularly shaped slice of my flesh was slipping down my leg, blood letting it slide off of me like a leaf in water.

I felt bile rise up in my throat and I swallowed it back as I looked away desperately. A small hand like machine came from the ceiling and plucked the chunk of my flesh up before disappearing. "Not so bad." Silas taunted.

"Let me go!" I screamed In terror and pain, attempting to jerk out of my restraints. "Pl-please let me go! I want to go home!" I screamed bloody murder, lying half-naked on the cold table, as Silas and the others above and beyond the glass stood silently and walked away.

My sobbing increased as I lay there, watching the blood fall down my leg. "Someone help me!" I silently hoped Wheeljack was somewhere nearby. But Silas said he would take my guardian apart. As if he was some worthless machine. I closed my eyes, nausea coming over me, followed by a strong dizziness from the loss of blood.

Happily, I let myself go into a painless sleep, hoping I would never wake up again.