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"I would rather die than let you use my research! Space bridge technology isn't meant to wage war!"
Straxus dismissed Spanner's protests entirely. A wave of his hand was enough for his Decepticons underlings to grab Spanner and strap him to a machine, whose purpose he still didn't know.
"Get comfortable, Spanner," Straxus grinned viciously. "You're about to make a great contribution to the Decepticon cause."
"I refuse! You cannot force me to-!"
Pain shot through his entire body.
Whatever Straxus had planned, it was a long and agonizing process for Spanner. There was something burning in his lines, something crawling along his cables.
His limbs, pushed and pulled into new positions.
Hands holding him in place. New components, injected into his frame.
New data forcibly installed into his processor, and then his processor was blown into countless minuscule pieces. And yet, he was still aware.
He knew nothing but all-consuming pain anymore. And yet, he could feel.
New data flowed into his mind, erasing, reorganizing, giving new purposes to an old frame and to new limbs.
He could recognize his own equations among the chaos of his mind and body. This didn't bring any comfort.
Spanner's mind slowly awoke.
His entire world was still only agony. His mind barely felt like his own. His body didn't feel at all like his own.
And yet, he was aware.
He couldn't see, and yet he still knew bots were around him.
He didn't know where he was, and yet he could feel a great vastness surrounding him.
He couldn't hear, and yet he knew Straxus was gloating in front of him.
He could feel. He could feel his body, forced into an unnatural form, subjected to abnormal forces. He could feel his lines, inside which a different kind of fuel was flowing. He could feel his cables, taunt in monstrous positions. He could feel his wires, carrying information of familiar content but strange weight.
He couldn't see, but he couldn't look.
Somewhere in front of him, Straxus was so small. But Straxus had towered over him, so how…?
Then the pain, the terrible constant pain he had started to get used to, came back, more intense than ever.
He had to fight himself to even formulate any word.
"What… What have you done to me?"
For a fleeting instant, Straxus looked surprised to hear him. Then the Decepticon laughed. He laughed, turned away, and didn't answer.
He left Spanner to his agony.
"The pain…"
There was no one, and yet he found himself unable to stop begging.
"I cannot bear it, please…"
Many bots came next, Decepticons, and all died right on him. In him. Boundaries and limitations had stopped making as much sense as they had before meeting Straxus.
He couldn't even bring himself to feel much about those deaths, neither grief nor satisfaction. He could only envy them. At least their suffering was over.
An Autobot came next.
This one tried to kill him, to destroy his new form. Explosive charges were being put on him. But Spanner knew the data, he knew his specifications, how the bridge had been built and how much force would be necessary to destroy it. The Autobot's bombs wouldn't be enough to render him inoperative. Not unless…
Spanner opened himself up, showed the Autobot where to put their explosives. Through the fog of his relentless agony, he could barely maintain a robot form long enough to talk to the Autobot. To beg them to kill him, to end his torture.
But the opportunity was lost.
Spanner wished he could stop counting time. But most of the space bridge's systems were automatic, including the chronometer. His mind, however, found it ever more taxing to consult those systems.
After that encounter, no one else had tried to destroy the bridge. Bots had fought on it, had damaged it, but no one had tried to end Spanner's suffering.
His body maimed and deformed, his mind failing, he was barely aware anymore. His thoughts were few, but all were consumed by either of two concepts: all-encompassing agony, and the end of thereof.
Sometimes, when his strength came back for a moment, he found himself with enough hope to beg again, as loud as he could. But he couldn't hear himself anymore.
"Please… Kill me…"
No one ever heard.