Inevitable (Megatron x FEM/OC)

Chapter 48 - Metanoia

Three.

The number directly after two, after one; three. An odd number left out. The numeral rang out hauntingly in her head like a ghost come to steal her soul.

Three days.

She only had three more days with him.

Three more days until the life she'd grown accustomed to would end, putting her back at the start line. The world felt as if it'd come to a screeching halt and, if she hadn't known any better, would've assume the sky was going to fall down and the planet cave in beneath her feet to swallow her whole.

It hadn't truly registered yet, the shock or the sadness, though the former was beginning it's quiet rampage within, destroying her from the very inside out like an all consuming disease.

She'd almost forgotten how to breathe and nearly choked as the moisture was sapped from her mouth hearing Lennox speak and his words- his voice made her mad. Indescribably angry.

Was that really her frustration, though? Lauren could hardly distinguish her own emotions from Megatron's anymore, not that it mattered much and it most certainly did not matter in that moment. Nothing did.

It was easier to sink herself into that ugly emotion, easy to give in and allow for the fury to numb her hurt even if it was a temporary solution. She wanted to scream, wail to the heavens, fall to her knees and beg, but she refrained knowing no such thing would come of her pleas.

Heaven. Her mind immediately banished that bitter word when her chest seemed to overfill with conflicting emotions. God...

God.

Her brows pinched, creasing her forehead in a manner that was sure to give her wrinkles, expression hard and unreadable as her mind worked. The cogs of her internal thought process never seemed to allow the young woman a moment of peace.

God.

That word lashed out her once more and she dare hiss that there was no God. At least, not for her it seemed.

Sapphire eyes remained unblinking in her disassociation, seeing but not truly registering anything, all the noise around her muffled into nothing as Lennox's words played on repeat, an endless loop of personal torture that she desperately tried to rationalize.

It all had been going well, good even. Everyone was alive and well, they were all gathered in celebration of the ship's completion and she'd only just returned with Megatron in tow. Lauren could still feel the heat that rolled off her conjunx, warming her skin. Could still feel the slight chill that rode the breeze as it kissed her flesh, tussling her cropped hair. The stark glow of the fire coupled with the glow of both red and blue optics alike lit the night. She could still hear the lighthearted banter that occupied the space and the faint shimmer of energon.

It had been going so well.

"Don't tell me he was a one and done kinda man." Nitrozeus had quipped, chortling boisterousness as he elicited a few more laughs from the others. He swigged his energon with vigor before proposing a toast to which Hound readily accepted.

Megatron had growled, but otherwise allowed the comment to escape his ire after noticing the soft chuckle it'd drawn from Lauren as Cade quickly waved off the raunchy remark, rambling something about not talking like that in front of his daughter.

"Do you ever shut your trap?" Barricade grumbled in irritation, no real malice behind his words.

"Here, here! I can drink to that!" Crosshairs threw back his own drink jovially.