This story is going to be short. Maybe three chapters or so. It focuses on Ultra Magnus and my jackass of a Vehicon OC, AA-00. (pronounced "double A zero")
It took a lot of discussion amongst the Autobots to decide what to do with the Vehicons. A lot of ideas were tossed around. Everything from making them Autobots to trying them for war crimes came up. Of course, in the end, the only real Autobot thing for them to do was to talk to the 'Cons. Hopefully, they could be convinced to aid in the rebuilding of New Kaon. (as it had been dubbed.)
Once that decision had been made, Ultra Magnus had firmly insisted that he be the one to address the Vehicons. Being an authority figure with experience in coordinating large groups, he reasoned his skills would be best suited for handling them.
The Vehicons were being held in small groups in the rooms of the Nemesis until they could be spoken to face to face. Since they'd gotten back, Ultra Magnus had been going from group to group trying to convince them to aid the Autobots in the rebuilding effort. Some of them had agreed. Some of them had told him to go eat slag.
It was not a 50-50 split...
That all changed, however, when Magnus came upon a group of silver eradicons. The moment Magnus entered the room, one eradicon stormed up to the Autobot commander, pointed a sharp digit right in his chassis and started screaming into his face!
It was about time that bumbling Autobot commander showed up to talk! And Magnus ought to have known if he wanted to utilize the Vehicons for any purpose, he would have to go through AA-00 first! And anything Magnus did trying to organize the Vehicons on his own was just going to 'muck everything up!'
Magnus had stumbled out of the room in shock. He had barely gotten a word in. That was... unusual.
Once he'd regained himself, Magnus had a word around about this 'Con. This was AA-00, he learned. They were in charge of the Vehicons. And very protective of them too. Also, they used 'they' as a pronoun. Something to do with human pronouns being stupid. Anyway, that wasn't important. What was important was they knew the Vehicons and they knew how to coordinate them on a mass scale. And since he had now found someone who was proficient at handling these Decepticons, Ultra Magnus saw fit to relinquish the duty.
It had all worked out very much in their favor, actually. With another Vehicon leading them, the transition to work had gone much smoother than it might have with an Autobot giving the orders. Apparently none of them dared to tell AA-00 to "eat slag."
And plus, the Vehicons were efficient. Within just a decacycle they had a landing dock for future arrivals, a new base of operations, and a barracks built. Scouting patrols were regularly being sent out to scope the landscape and record changes or new threats. The seekers were finding new energon veins and the miners were sent out to dig it up. Engineers were working in the labs. Nurses in the medical bay. Everything seemed to be coming together...
Except... The Autobots themselves were having a hard time of... participating.
The Vehicons outnumbered the 'Bots almost a thousand to one, so obviously they were going to get more accomplished. Although, it did begin to bother Ultra Magnus that AA-00 was not asking the Autobots for assistance with... well. Anything.
Soon enough, the Autobots ran out of projects to work on by themselves. They had to start coordinating with the Vehicons to get things done. This would have to be brought up with AA-00. And so Ultra Magnus called a council meeting to discuss it.
He arrived just as their meeting was scheduled to begin and took a seat at the table. Magnus looked around. Arcee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Bumblebee, Knockout... Ah, and Wheeljack had just arrived. Now they were just waiting on AA-00.
After a few minutes had passed, Arcee finally spoke up. "Maybe someone should go find them?" she offered with a short shrug.
"Don't bother; they're always late." Knockout grumbled, picking at his claws. "They'll be here soon enough."
Magnus let out a frustrated huff of air. Knockout wasn't interested in this meeting, obviously. He had four Vehicon nurses working with him in the medbay already. AA-00's exclusion seemed to be entirely motivated by faction. Which was only one more reason why it disturbed Ultra Magnus so much.
A minute or so later, the door slid open and AA-00 hurried in, their helm lowered as they typed fervently on their datapad.
"What kept you, soldier?" Magnus spoke up immediately. Tardiness was probably Ultra Magnus' biggest pet peeve. Anyone else and he might have been writing them up for disciplinary action... but no. This needed to be handled gently.
"I'm not a soldier." AA-00 said quickly as they took their seat, still not taking their optics off the datapad. "And I'm incredibly busy here, so let's make this quick."
"What's that you're busy with?" Smokescreen had his pedes up on the table and was leaning back in his seat. Ultra Magnus bent sideways a bit and with a quick swipe of his arm, Smokescreen's legs were swept off the table. He would have to give the 'Bot a formal reprimanding later for interrupting the formal nature of the meeting.
AA-00 didn't even look up. "Does it matter?" they continued pressing away at the pad.
"As a matter of fact, it does." Ultra Magnus said. He interlaced his fingers, leaning over the table just slightly, trying to look as stern as possible without being threatening. The not threatening part was important. "This meeting is because of you, AA-00."
AA-00 finally stopped and looked up. "Because of me?" they repeated, obviously displeased. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Before Ultra Magnus could assure AA-00 that he had not meant to be confrontational, Bumblebee shouted, "You're hogging all the work!" Bee threw his arms up in an angry gesture. "Seriously! You're organizing everything so we're not even working with the Vehicons. How are we supposed to get anything done?"
"I'd say there's a lot getting done just fine!" AA-00 retorted, pointing a sharp digit at the scout. "A lot more than if you numb nodes were in charge of my Vehicons."
"We are here to settle this amicably." Ultra Magnus said firmly, shooting a glare at Bumblebee. The scout shrugged and turned his optics away. Magnus looked back to AA-00. "And we do not intend to take charge of the Vehicons away from you. We only think the Autobots need to be assigned to the appropriate teams and eventually, help to manage them. It would certainly lessen the amount of work that you-"
"I can do my job just fine, thank you." AA-00 interrupted Magnus. "I don't need any extra help."
"Well we could sure use some extra help." Wheeljack grumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chassis. "I've got projects I need a team to work on. And I knowyou've got engineers in your ranks."
"Plus, Bumblebee and I can't keep going on scouting missions by ourselves." Arcee added, "It can be dangerous to go with just two of us. We could use the support of one or more of the Vehicon squads."
"And I could help with construction." Bulkhead raised a servo meekly. "I mean, I've got the experience and rebuilding the city is a pretty huge project..."
"Yeah! And I..." Smokescreen began, then hesitated. "Uhh... could... do something I'm sure. Y'know. Leadership-ish...?"
"Yeah, see? We all just want to help!" Bumblebee spoke up again. "Come on, Zero. I don't see why you won't let us work with the Vehicons."
AA-00's wings gave an irritated twitch. "First of all, if you call me Zero again I'll leap across this table and punch you in the face!" This earned a small chuckle from Knockout, which in turn, earned him an elbow in the side from Bee. "And second..." AA-00 continued but then paused. After a short glance around at the Autobots they stuttered, "I'm not about to... I think... This... th-this conversation is over." Suddenly AA-00 stood and headed for the door. "I'm way to busy for this scrap, anyway!"
"AA-00! This meeting is not-" Before Ultra Magnus could finish his sentence the door slid shut behind the Vehicon and they were gone.
"Well that went well." Wheeljack grumbled, leaning back in his chair.
Knockout stood and headed for the door as well. "If you're all finished, I'll be headed back to the medical bay now. Unlike the rest of you, I do have a team to manage." The hint of arrogance in his tone was frustrating, but Ultra Magnus said nothing as the medic left the room. Now was not the time. The Autobots all stayed behind, waiting to see if anyone else had something to say.
"What are we going to do?" Arcee finally spoke up, looking directly at Ultra Magnus. "This is a really critical period. It's supposed to be about healing and coming together! We can't just let AA-00 keep us separated from the Decepticons like this. It could start up another conflict."
"Huh. Yeah, when you put it like that..." Bulkhead rumbled, scratching his helm. "I mean, Cybertron's had enough conflict, I think. "
"We can all agree on that." Magnus sighed, pressing his digits to the side of his helm. He shuddered his optics for a moment to think. "The only reasonable course of action is to continue trying to persuade AA-00 peacefully."
"You guys don't really think this could come to like... real battles or something , do you?" Smokescreen said, "I mean, the Vehicons pretty much do what AA-00 tells 'em. And they wouldn't have the 'Cons do something like that... would they?"
"The sway AA-00 holds over the Vehicons is precisely what has me worried." Magnus said, "The Vehiconsoutnumber us greatly, so we must find a way to desegregate the factions while ensuring that AA-00 does not feel threatened. Otherwise, such a conflict could very well arise."
A quick glance around the table showed that his words had the appropriate impact. The other Autobots were taking this seriously. Just as they should.
"I will attempt to speak to AA-00 again later." Magnus stood as he continued. "Hopefully, at a time when they are not working so they cannot use that as an excuse to hurry off. If I am unsuccessful then... well, we will have to start thinking of alternative methods of action... Meeting adjourned."
The Autobots grumbled quietly in acknowledgement then slowly got up and headed out. To where didn't really matter. They didn't have much to do.
Once the other 'Bots had cleared out, Ultra Magnus followed suit and headed towards his office. On his way there he passed two Vehicons in the hall. As they spotted him, they quickly cut off their conversation and shrank back against the wall until he passed, all the while keeping their optics trained fiercely on him.
It seemed awfully suspicious to Magnus; especially since a potential conflict was at the forefront of his processor. He had to speak with AA-00 as soon as possible! The faster the Vehicons could integrate with the Autobots the more likely they would have a peaceful future together... at least assuming that was what AA-00 wanted...
Anyway, the first step was to find out when AA-00 would be off duty. Fortunately, they kept up a schedule, and one of the few conditions Magnus had in relinquishing his duty over the Vehicons was that he received a copy of that schedule every few cycles. He had wanted to know when and where to find the mech at all times. Thank Primus he had thought ahead.
Magnus entered his office and approached his desk. All his datapads were arranged on the shelf behind the desk, neatly and in order with their labels facing out, so he quickly found an empty one. Reaching into one of the desk drawers, Magnus pulled out the small datastick AA-00 had given to him with their most recent schedule on it. He plugged it into the datapad and it quickly loaded the file. What he found was somewhat surprising.
He had checked over AA-00's schedules before, but now that he was searching specifically for it, he noticed that the mech never seemed to take a break. Every meeting, every check-up was scheduled right up to the next. Every single moment, it seemed, was occupied.
Finally, Ultra Magnus spotted it. There was a three and a half sub-cycle time period labeled "recharge" later that cycle.
Hmm. Only three and a half sub-cycles? That was hardly a proper amount to fully recharge oneself. Well, regardless of AA-00's unhealthy recharge habits, that was when Magnus would have to speak with them again.
Putting away the datapad, Ultra Magnus commenced with a few practice conversations... this was a delicate matter, after all. He had to be as prepared as he possibly could be. In fact, best to get out some reference material to go over. There certainly had to be something about this kind of diplomatic situation in the Autobot code. Or maybe even the Tyrest Accord. Yes, he would just have to go though both of them again to see if it helped...