It takes me so long to update fics nowadays, I figured I'd cut off what was going to be a very long final chapter into two bits so you could get this now. Enjoy~

After leaving the med bay, Ultra Magnus sent a message through his comm to all of the Autobots informing them of what was to be a private meeting in Wheeljack's workshop. It was the only place large enough to accommodate all of them where there was no chance of any Vehicons stumbling upon them. He might have called them to the conference room where they held council, but he didn't intend to invite AA-00 or Knockout, so he decided to keep it informal. The last thing they needed was for AA-00 to hear there was a council meeting they hadn't been invited to.

Once the other Autobots were all there and Smokescreen had been properly scolded for trying to toy with one of Wheeljack's inventions, Ultra Magnus explained about the encounter he'd had with both AA-00 and WY-01 and the information he'd gathered from them. Once he had finished speaking, he looked around to survey their faces. Mostly they appeared mildly shocked, just as Magnus had been, but he noticed Arcee looked somewhat offended.

"Okay, hang on," she said, raising a single digit pointedly. "Are you telling me that AA-00 thinks we're going to kill the Vehicons they assign to us? That's ridiculous!"

"Perhaps it's not as extreme as that." Magnus offered, "WY-01 said that AA-00 would not assign Vehicons to anyone they thought would treat the troops badly. Perhaps they only think we would... misuse our power."

"Oh right, we're not going to murder the 'Cons, we're just going to abuse them." Arcee made a show of throwing her servos into the air in exasperation. "I can't believe we have to prove that we're not psychotic killers!"

"I dunno... I kinda see where they're coming from."

Every optic in the room flew over to Smokescreen who was leaning up against one of Wheeljack's workbenches. He shrank back a bit from all the stares, but then just shrugged his shoulder plating and continued, "I don't mean that we are, obviously. I just mean I get why AA-00's so touchy about it." Smokescreen turned his gaze down to his pedes as he gave a light kick at the air. "Besides, the Vehicons must've had it bad under Megatron. I see why they'd wanna stay in charge to keep 'em all safe."

"But we're not like Megatron!" Bulkhead spoke up, "Not even close! We'd treat the Vehicons right. And we have, so far. Haven't we?"

"That was another thing that concerned me." Ultra Magnus said, "When I asked WY-01 about this, it was his opinion that we have not."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wheeljack was fiddling with a laser welder as he spoke, the annoyance clear in his tone. "We've definitely been nice to 'em! It's not like we've got 'em locked up or anything..." he paused to consider, then added, "Well, I mean not anymore..."

Before the other Autobots could add to the protestations, Magnus raised a servo to quiet them all. "Please, we must not dismiss or try to justify the concerns these Vehicons have." he said firmly, "It's been made clear to me today that their impression of us is vastly different than what we thought it was. It appears they believe we look on them as less important than ourselves."

"Probably because they've always been treated as less important." Smokescreen spoke up again. "Remember when I jumped off their ship with the Omega Keys? Well I think Megatron threw one of the grounders after me by accident. Way up in the air like that and he threw a ground Vehicon after me! Didn't seem like he even cared about it either... Just let the poor fragger fall..."

Silence descended on the room again. After that revelation it seemed no one had anything else to add. After what felt like ages, Smokescreen finally broke the silence.

"Did you guys know they're wearing masks?" This was met with a few raised optical ridges and tilted helms, but Smokescreen nodded and continued, "Yeah. I saw a few of 'em with energon cubes earlier so they'd taken 'em off to drink 'em. They had faces underneath. Two optics and a mouth." he shrugged, "I didn't get a really good look, though. When they saw me they ran off."

"Hmm. I guess we don't really know much about the Vehicons, do we?" Bulkhead said.

"And they know very little about us." Ultra Magnus added, "The only interaction we've had before coming back to Cybertron was in battle. From their perspective, it doesn't seem farfetched for one of us to cause them harm."

There was another minute of silence as each of the Autobots thought about this.

"I suppose we did... kind of kill a lot of Vehicons back on Earth." Arcee finally admitted.

Ultra Magnus nodded in agreement, recalling what WY-01 had said to him. A thousand Vehicons... The number was still staggering.

"Our task now is to find a way to convince AA-00, and in fact, all of the Vehicons that we mean them no harm." He said.

"How are we supposed to do that? They won't even come near us." Bulkhead groaned.

"There has got to be some way we can show them that the Autobots aren't going to use excessive violence. If we could just make them understand what makes us different from the 'Cons. Like... show them how we operate...?" Arcee glanced around at the other Autobots, unable to think of any specific ways to go about this.

It took another minute after she said this for Ultra Magnus to realize: he had the exact means to do that right in his subspace! He quickly reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out the datapad he'd used for his notes. Of course, the notes weren't the only thing he had stored on it.

"This is how we will convince AA-00." he stated this firmly, holding the pad out for the others to see. "I will provide them with a copy of the Autobot Code."

It didn't elicit the excited reaction he had been hoping for. Rather, the other 'Bots looked somewhat unsure.

"Well... Not that it's a bad idea," Bumblebee shrugged his shoulder plating. "But I don't know if just a document will be enough to show them anything definite."

Bulkhead nodded. "Yeah. What's that Earth saying? 'Actions speak louder than words.'"

"I disagree." Ultra Magnus replied, giving the datapad a small shake to indicate it. "Documentation can be a powerful tool in the right servos, and I believe AA-00 knows that as well. This should serve as adequate proof that we Autobots abide by a certain standard of ethics."

After waiting a moment for a reply and receiving none, Magnus continued. "Seeing as there are no other suggestions, and if there are no further objections to mine, I will proceed with delivering the Code to AA-00 immediately."

There was a bit of unconvinced murmuring, but no one spoke up to object.

"Very well. This unofficial meeting is adjourned."

Ultra Magnus didn't wait around for the others to leave. He quickly headed out the door and towards his office to make a new copy of the Autobot Code. He barely made it halfway down the hall when he was stopped by a voice from behind.

"Magnus!"

Glancing back around, the enforcer realized Smokescreen had followed him down the hall. He stopped and turned about to face him.

"Is there something you wish to share, soldier?" He began wondering what sort of objection Smokescreen might have and why he hadn't shared it when asked in front of the others. Those fears were quelled once he spoke up again, though.

"I want to come with you." he said. "I mean, to go talk with AA-00... I figure you could use a little backup, right?"

Ultra Magnus visibly hesitated in replying, and only managed to stammer out, "You... I-I'm not... sure if..."

"No wait hear me out!" Smokescreen held up a single digit to interrupt. "We'd make a great team on this. See, you're good with the rules, and I'm good with uh... y'know... talking. Social stuff." he shrugged, looking just a little embarrassed. "Not to be rude but, well you could use some help in that area, is all and I figured-"

Magnus lifted a servo to stop him. "I understand." he said flatly. Though he was clearly not thrilled about it, he nodded his assent and turned to continue down the hall. "Come along."

"Great!" Smokescreen excitedly hopped into stride alongside his commander. "So, uh... are we gonna head straight over to Zero? Where are they this time of day, anyways?"

"We will have to visit my office to make a new copy of the Code first." Magnus replied, then glanced down at the datapad still in his servo. "As for AA-00... the schedule has their next appointment with a construction team in sector V."

Smokescreen only spouted a slew of excited words like cool! and great! at this and then fell silent. Ultra Magnus glanced down at the 'Bot as they continued down the hall. While he hadn't necessarily appreciated why Smokescreen had thought he should help, he had to admit there might be some merit to having him along. Of all the other Autobots, he appeared to be the only one to express some understanding of the Vehicons' perspective. It had taken a stern talking to from not one but two Vehicons to get some semblance of that through his own processor. Clearly Smokescreen had a deeper sense of empathy for the 'Cons than he did. And considering the poor way in which Magnus' last encounter with AA-00 had ended, he might very well need someone with the empathy of Smokescreen to be there to do the talking.