Darkness of the Soul

Captured

The first thing Jack felt was pain. It coursed through his body in agonizing waves, from his head to his toes. His head pounded, the migraine so intense that his ears rung. His right leg throbbed and burned.

Then the teen felt the cold. It penetrated his long sleeves and prickled his skin, making his hair stand on end. The boy's eyes fluttered. He tried to keep them open, but they would close on their own accord. Black shapes passed over his vision, but they were too blurry for him to identify. Everything was so dark. Strange sounds reached his ears, oddly distorted and muffled, but still clear.

It took almost a full minute for Jack to recognize the sounds. A series of high-pitched whirrs and beeps, somehow coming together to form words—words that no human could ever hope to replicate.

Cybertronian.

The teenager was confused. The Autobots rarely spoke their native language—at least, while the kids were around. When the humans were in earshot, they made an effort to speak in English, even to each other. However, Jack had noticed a few times the extra-terrestrials slipped back into Cybertronian whenever they conversed off to the side. But if they knew he was here, why weren't they speaking English?

Jack opened his eyes, squinting at his dark surroundings. More confusion. The Autobots always left the fluorescent lights of the military base on. They did not require them to see, but they had no reason to turn them off, either. In the darkness, the walls looked—

Jack's heart stopped.

Black.

With a start, the human attempted to jump into a sitting position. He was only rewarded with a shock of white, hot pain up his spine, and he merely flailed. Jack grinded his teeth together. His limbs were heavy with soreness. He instinctively slipped an arm underneath his stomach to hold him up, but it trembled with effort. What... what happened to him?

The boy quickly looked around, trying to see in all directions at once. He was surrounded by dark walls, made up of a material the human could not name, that were poorly lit in an alien light. Walls that he had seen before, and wished he would never see again. Immediately his heart quickened, and his breath shortened. The teenager looked around again, trying to find an assurance, a flaw in his surroundings, that told him that all of this wasn't real. That this was just a bad dream.

Jack was only rewarded with tall metal tables, filled with deadly-looking tools, their function obscure. Like he was in some kind of—

Laboratory.

On the Nemesis, the Decepticon warship.

Panic rushed up from his chest so fast that Jack's head spun. He swayed with a moan, almost falling back down. His head hung loosely.

Loud slams reached Jack's ears, each one sounding like two dump trucks crashing into each other. Before the teenager could figure out what it was, a high-pitched, deafening screech assaulted his hearing, coming from all around him. The awful sound sent unnerving shivers down his spine as the boy let out a startled yell.

"Wakey, wakey, fleshy," a taunting drawl greeted. It was strangely muffled, coming from somewhere above him, but Jack still recognized that voice.

"Knock Out," the human spat, like a curse.

He glanced up to see crimson Decepticon standing above him, a self-satisfied look on his silvery-white faceplates as he pulled his claws away. It was then Jack realized something was wrong. He could see Knock Out clearly, yet the Decepticon's features were distorted—faded and skewed, as if he was looking through—

Glass.

Translucent, solid walls surrounded Jack. Apparently the 'Cons decided to put him a cell, or rather, a glass pod just big enough to contain a single human.