A Light in the Shadows

Playing God

Warning! This chapter contains: Very very controversial subject matter, Language.

R&R please, let me know if it's a little over the top. I wrote this chapter @ 3 or 4 am and it sounded good at the time lol. Also why it's kinda short. Then again all of my chappies are ;P

Enjoy!
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Seymour Simmons was, for once, speechless.

He had been enjoying a lazy Saturday morning. Lounging in the common area, drinking what passed for coffee, and just watching the usual buzz of morning activity.

That was before Lennox dropped a 'Whatthefuck?!' bomb on the whole thing.

The Major dropped into a chair next to him and thrust a stack of papers into his lap. "I need to know what you know about this girl. Says she's former Seven."

Simmons' eyes widened as he read the name on the top sheet. "Oh no. No, no, no, no. You do NOT want to get involved with this kid. There is bad shit waiting in THAT attic."

Major Lennox quirked an eyebrow at the former agent's strange response. "What's that supposed to mean? I find someone crazier than you?"

"Something like that. Looks like you have her records from S7 here. You find anything prior to that?"

The young officer shook his head, "No. I couldn't find anything prior to her service. No school records, no medical records, nothing. Like she didn't exist before she joined."

Seymour nodded, flipping to the last page in the stack before letting the entire collection flop back to his lap. "Yeah, that's the way the agency wanted it. Untraceable. Better that way. Better still if you forget you met her and send her back to whatever rock she crawled out from under."

Will growled under his breath, "Get to the point please..."

"Alright. You want to know why, for all purposes, she doesn't exist? Because she shouldn't. Some things just shouldn't be, and she's one of them."

Lennox was taken aback at the outright revulsion in the former agent's voice. "That's uncalled for-"

"No," Simmons leaned forward in his chair, his eyes locking with the young Major's. "You don't understand Will. She. Should. Not. BE. Back in the eighties the Transhumanistic movement caught the eye of some of our scientists. Got it into their heads that they could play God. Started researching genetic enhancement, using the All Spark as a catalyst."

"Wait a sec, what? Was that kind of technology even around in the eighties?"

Simmons grinned and leaned back in his chair, "Bet your ass it was. Remember, all of our tech is reverse engineered from that Megatron guy. Sector Seven was responsible for nearly every scientific breakthrough in American history. Our scientists had their hands in everything, but back to the subject at hand."

Taking a sip from his now cold coffee, he continued. "Six of our lady scientists donated egg cells to be used in the research, chosen for how frequently they had been exposed to radiation from the cube. They fertilized each ovum with donated sperm and exposed the embryos to cube radiation one by one. Problem was, they kept dying without anything to buffer the radiation."

Will leaned forward, anxious to hear more. "And? Obviously something changed. What was it?"

"I'm getting there! Keep your pants on. Anyway, they decided to take things to the next level. We already knew exposing electronics to the cube's energy caused them to transform into robots, so they decided to create one of these little monstrosities, extract it's core energy source, and apply it to an embryo. When exposed to the cube radiation with the core in place as a buffer, the core was destroyed, but the embryo survived."

Will stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, unable to believe what he'd just heard. "Wait a second. You guys were experimenting on babies?! What the fuck man, that's just...wrong! So, what? You're telling me she's the one who survived right?"

Seymour held up his hands. "I never said I agreed with it! Remember, I'm the one who said she shouldn't exist. Returning to your last question though, no. They were able to replicate their results at least five more times. However, the majority didn't develop correctly. Four of them had severe deformities, causing them to die within minutes of birth."

"Simmons."

"I told you, I'm getting there! The fifth embryo was carried by it's donor scientist against the wishes of the agency. They were concerned that continued exposure to cube radiation could have an adverse effect on the fetus. Janet was always stubborn. Apparently she knew what she was doing. The fetus developed normally, born healthy. They figured because of Janet's frequent exposure to the cube, her body was better able to support a modified fetus than one of the surrogates. Kid grew up healthy, has a nasty temper and a stubborn streak, but then again so did her mom."

The young officer leaned back in his seat, quiet as he tried to absorb everything he'd just heard. "So, what did all of this genetic manipulation or whatever do to her?"

The former agent smirked as he chuckled softly. "This is where things get weird. She's got, let's call it an affinity, for electronics. Just touch 'em and make it work. Like she can communicate with 'em or something. The little 'bots we made at the dam? She was able to calm them down so we could study them.'S why she was assigned to my group to help track down your yellow buddy."

"Damn." Will scrubbed his fingers through his hair, trying to make sense out of something that sounded like it was too wild to be real. Then again, he worked shoulder to shoulder with giant robots. Well, shoulder to knee anyway.

"I hope that satisfies your curiosity Major?" Simmons asked as he stood.

Will nodded, thumbing through the stack of papers on the other chair. "So, can we trust her? I'd like to get her on the team so we can make use of her abilities, but I need to know if I can trust her first."

He snorted as he walked away, calling over his shoulder as he walked, "About as much as you can trust any woman." He said with a smirk.

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Lexi woke to the sound of Major Lennox and his little entourage entering the corner of the hanger that made up the medical area.

He smiled at her as she sat up to greet him. "Well, you're clear to stay here if you want. I won't force you, but I want you to know that we could really use someone with your unique skillset."

Her face darkened at the mention of the Lingua Tacitus "How do you know about that?"

"I went to our resident former agent for your background check. He told me everything. The testing, the applications, the, um, sentiments of your fellow agents."

She held her gaze steady as her fists tightened on the bedsheets. "Who would that be?"

'Ah, there's the temper Simmons mentioned earlier.' Will mused as he folded his arms. "Seymour Simmons. He joined up shortly before the incident in Egypt."

Her posture relaxed instantly at the mention of her online friend. He didn't know who she really was. He could never know. Once they knew, well, things changed. So she hid behind the online handle of Cyber*genesis, keeping in contact with Robo Warrior via message boards and friendly chat sessions.

"So, what do you say? Interested?"

She frowned as she considered the offer. They wanted her for what she could do. Not surprising considering who and what they worked with. She shook her head at that thought and tried to focus on the positives. A) It was safe, she wouldn't have to worry about anti-robot assholes, and B) She'd have a chance to patch things up with Bumblebee. He really was a sweet 'bot, and she owed him big for coming back for her.

Finally she looked up at the young Major and smiled. "Sure. I can't really go back to my old job anyway."

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'This could be interesting.' She thought as she was introduced to the members of NEST and the Autobots.



A/N: btw Lingua Tacitus is latin for "Silent language" or "Silent tongue"

I in no way condone embryonic or fetal experimentation. As a mother, I feel that ALL life is precious, no matter what stage of development. All flames will be deleted.