Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.


Starscream: I don't like the looks of this.

Authoress: *confused* Why don't you like the looks of this? I figured that would be Lizzie more than you since she is the one that I normally torture.

Starscream: *nods* That's exactly why I don't like this. Lizzie is my responsibility along with Soundwave's and so I am responsible for her care. Primus forbid that she is left alone with Lord Megatron. That will be the end of her and, once Soundwave get's his servos around my neck, the end for me too.

Authoress: *facepalms* So you're pretty much worried for your own chassis.

Starscream: *frowns and puts servos on his hips* And what is so wrong with that human?

Lizzie: *walks in* *sees title* Oh...that doesn't look good at all. *cries*

Starscream: *panics* Scrap! Authoress how do I get her to stop?!

Authoress: *nonchalantly shrugs shoulders*


Ch. 6: A Game of Risk

Lizzie's 1st P.O.V.

My nerves felt like they were going to get the best of me as the four of us worked. We had to be very careful to pull this off or we were going to get caught and that would not be a good thing. I was trying to stay alive on the ship as long as I possibly could and, if I got caught aiding in this plot, then I could end up in some serious hot water. I mean it would almost be boiling hot water. That would make most wonder why I would even consider doing anything like what I was doing. Well, the simple answer was…it was going to be fun as long as I wasn't caught.

Thankfully, besides doing a few odds and ends things, my real job was to act as a 'strategist' for this plot. The four of us had gathered around earlier and I had devised a way to accomplish this plot in the most effective way that would not get us caught and would create the most damage. Everything was calculated for the most part but there was one uncertainty that kept throwing my equations.

"Skywarp, hurry up and get that panel replaced." Frenzy commented from where he was. "Remember the part of the plan where we weren't sure when your brothers were going to get back? Well they might get back before we get out of here if you don't hurry up with that thing."

I turned to look at the twins and saw that, like me, they had just got done with their parts in this master plot of mine. Skywarp, however, seemed to be having trouble getting the panel of the air vent shut. That was where we had him set up the video camera so we could have this entire incident on film. It would be so much fun to look back on later.

Of course, we wanted memories of ourselves doing this so Rumble had a video recorder strapped to his helm that was recording everything. It even rotated around his helm so it was recording everyone at one point. It was kinda cool and it reminded me of home videos that my mom used to take of me. She, at one point, was in the business of owning rental houses and, to show proof of what the house was like, she would take video of it. Of course, she also took video of me during those videos and they served as a good portion of our home videos.

Back to the situation at hand, however. "I'm trying to but this screw doesn't want to go back in like the others and it's making the cover look crooked. It's blocking the camera's view of the room and it will tell 'Scream and 'Cracker that somebot's been messing around in here."

There had to be something that he was forgetting to do so I looked at the screws. While they were pretty far away, I could see what he was talking about and knew that there had to be something that was off. Maybe he was forgetting…That was it! "Skywarp did you put the washer back on the screw?" I asked the seeker?

His red optics stared at me in confusion for a second before they widened and he started to look around. After a few seconds, he bent down and picked up said washer and attached it to the screw before he put the screw back in place. I'm pretty sure that we all felt relief when the screw went on without a hitch and the cover didn't look like it had been messed with.

"Okay, now that we have that settled let's get out of here. That meeting that they had with Lord Megatron and the others is going to get done at any minute…if it hasn't finished already." I was worried about getting caught doing this and I really didn't want to get Megatron any more mad at me than he already was.

…And about the 'Lord' bit…well, it was honestly a habit now. This day marked five days since we had saved Skyquake from being killed and I got my little history lesson from Knockout. Ever since that day, I had been listening to everyone on the ship when they would talk with Lord Megatron, since the monitors in Soundwave's room had speakers to listen in, and they would all call him 'Lord'. Even Starscream called him that more now than in the show. So, after all the film I watched, I guess it kinda just latched onto me. Hopefully next time Paul got in contact with me I wouldn't slip and use it. Who knew what he would try then?

I was temporarily drawn out of my thoughts when Skywarp picked me up in his right servo, while the twins were in his left, before he teleported out of the room. Instantly my insides felt like they were being torn apart and I knew that it was going to take me a long time to get used to this warping. Hopefully, ground bridging would be far less painful on my insides. That would be, of course, if they ever even let me off the ship. I had a feeling that it would be some time before they would let me off the ship but I could hope. Some fresh air that wasn't from the flight deck would be awesome. Maybe a sandy beach with the twins sipping on a margarita. That sounded very nice.

"So how long do you think it's going to take for those to activate?" Rumble asked, pulling me out of my beach fantasy.

We all looked up at Skywarp, since he would have the best idea, before the seeker laughed and said, "It'll be soon. 'Screamer sent me a private message to me a click ago and said that the meeting just got over with. So, I would say about five more clicks." He then walked into a vacant room…my guess was that it was normally for storage, before he put his hand by a table with a monitor and he let the three of us down. Once we were down, he pulled up a chair and sat as the twins worked on syncing the camera in the vent to this monitor.

Since I wasn't a fan of silence, I figured that I would ask them something. "So, Lizzie…" Except Rumble beat me to it. "You've been asking everybot questions about what they like and don't like lately…" Yeah, I was trying to make sure that I wasn't killed because I did something that a bot doesn't like. I hadn't asked Megatron personally but Soundwave was able to give me some basic do and do not suggestions.

"Yeah…" I urged him on since he got distracted by the screen.

Rumble, in return, nodded before finally asking his question. "So tell us what you like and don't like." Well, somewhat of a question that sounded more like a demand.

"Yeah!" Frenzy jumped in as the two of them continued typing. "We want to know more about you too!"

Honestly, I had been trying to avoid giving out information about myself. I was afraid that, given how close I was getting with the Decepticons, that I might spill something about how I got here. While I had been honest in saying that I didn't know how I got on the Nemesis…and from Paul's face the other day he didn't know how I got here either, I did know about them before I got here and I knew the force that had started my trip to this dimension…even though again I wasn't sure how exactly I ended up here on the Nemesis.

So, with all that in mind, I answered them. "Well, I'll start with what I don't like. I don't like bugs but I'll tolerate them if they aren't messing with me…within five hundred feet. I also really don't like the color pink."

"…Really a color?" Skywarp asked me confused.

What was so wrong with not liking a color. "Pink has just always bothered me. Everyone always attaches it with girls and expects them to at least tolerate it. Not me! I don't like it one bit. Plus it's way to…cheery. It's almost a smothering color of cheeriness." I then shuddered as a memory of one of my Uncles getting me a pink dress came to mind and I had to wear it. Horrible memory. "Anyways…I don't like bullies. If you have that low of self-esteem that you have to pick on others then you need to get over it and not take it out on others." I then shuddered as the final point on this part came to my head. Flashes of yellow and white skin with red eyes haunted me whenever I thought of the creature. "But…most of all…I really hate snakes." A cold chill ran down my spine when I said that.

They all looked confused. "Snakes? What's so wrong with them?"

While I didn't want to get into the story, I knew that I now had to. "When I was seven, mom took me to a zoo and they were having a reptile exhibition. One that they were showing was an Albino Burmese Python. I was in front of the crowd and watching it. But, no one noticed that it got out of the trainer's hands until it came after me. I…accidentally tripped while trying to get away and knocked myself out but I still remember the look of the snake as it came at me." I shivered as another cold chill clawed its way up my spine. I really hated snakes.

Thankfully, they all changed the subject pretty quickly. "So what do you like…besides us?" Frenzy asked me. I knew that he was talking about me liking the Decepticons when he was talking about 'us'. Of course I liked 'us'. The Decepticons were awesome! If it wasn't for Megatron scaring the crap out of me and making me question my continued existence every time he and I were in sight of each other then I would say that I liked all the Decepticons on the ship right now.

Again that took me a little time before I had what I wanted to say. With this I also had to be careful because, normally, the top of my list would be anything to do with Cybertronians but…well…given the situation at hand that may not be best to say. "Well, my favorite ice cream is English Toffee…and no it does not taste like coffee. I also like dogs. They are smart and so much fun to play with." I smiled as a memory from when I was little came to my head when our then aging German Shepherd, Micky, had to herd me because mom would sometimes have to take care of something and I was pretty adventurous.

"Dogs?" Rumble asked a little confused. "Don't humans keep them as pets at times? Why would they be something that you like?"

I smiled as I remembered Micky again before I spoke. "Growing up I had a German Shepherd that was trained to watch out for me and make sure that I stayed out of trouble." I then continued with my list. "My favorite color is green…and yes I know it is a color but I like it. It's bright but not obnoxiously so." I then had to think again before I decided on the last thing to tell them. "Finally, I really like to play strategy games. Risk is a personal favorite but any strategy game is fun. Mom and I used to play it all the time when we got some free time." Course, I beat mom more than she beat me but it was always suspenseful and we both would try and throw in surprise moves to throw each other off our games. When it came to strategy games, I couldn't be beat and it allowed me to be pretty good at strategies in real life. Like today with the prank. I was the mastermind behind the execution of the prank and I knew that it was,

"Hey the camera activated." Skywarp drew me out of my thoughts.

The four of us looked at the monitor as Starscream and Thundercracker walked into their room and I smirked as they tripped the fishing line by their pedes. While that normally would be too thick to use as an activator, it's near invisibility at times and the fact that we were using it on Cybertronians made it perfect. I doubted that they would even notice that they tripped something.

I was proven mentally correct as a giant net was shot from a cannon above the doorway and grabbed the two seekers before the momentum from the cannon shot threw the entrapped seekers across the room and toward the wall…which we had coated with a special adhesive that we found in the med bay.

…Knockout and Joe wouldn't mind I hoped.

While the two seekers were trapped on the wall, like bugs on flypaper, panels on the floor activated and threw black and pink paint at both of Skywarp's brothers. Glitter of course followed that and then, finally, from above, a fan with silly string activators starts and sprays the two seekers while the air from the fan starts to dry the seekers.

The four of us smiled at each other as the final part of the plan finished. "Mechs…it has been an honor to work with you and I hope to work with you again in the future."

"Lizzie, we need to work with you more often. You knew how to set up the prank and your strategy about how to have the traps activate, and how to set them up, so Starscream and Thundercracker wouldn't know was perfect!" Skywarp congratulated me.

Frenzy nodded with a smile. "Yeah, you're really good at coming up with strategies. It's a good thing that you like that one game."

I went to respond to them when they all straightened and I had a feeling that it wasn't from Thundercracker and Starscream. If it was from the two of them then I was sure that my three partners in crime wouldn't have bothered answering. But, since they did answer, then I had a feeling that our fun was over. Drat. I was hoping to try and prank Vox and Breakdown next.

Once the three of them relaxed again, it didn't take Skywarp long to answer as he put his servo down next to the three of us. "Sorry Lizzie, but we can't have any more fun for the solar cycle. That was Soundwave and he called and said to take you to the throne room. The three of us have to go on patrol with Soundwave and Knockout and Joe are busy in the med bay."

My names for the drones had started to catch on with everybot else on the ship and I was naming more drones as the days went on. Plus, I was finding that it was easier to tell the drones apart than I thought that it would be.

…But back to the major problem I saw in that order. "The throne room? Isn't that a high traffic place for Lord Megatron? I don't need to be squished just because I don't have a babysitter. You can stick me in Soundwave's room and it would be easier."

Skywarp nodded but argued back with me as he continued to walk. "According to Soundwave, Lord Megatron just left there for a quick power down. That means that you have a good cycle before you have to worry about Lord Megatron finding you. Plus, Soundwave asked Knockout to come and get you once the crowd in med bay calms down enough for Joe to handle things. According to Knockout that shouldn't take more the thirty clicks." He then grinned widely as he entered said throne room. "Don't worry Lizzie you'll be fine and Lord Megatron won't even know that you were here."

Then, of course, Skywarp placed me on one of the arm rests on the throne. Really? I felt nervous just standing on here and I knew that it was not going to end nicely for me if I got caught. I mean…technically I was sitting on the Decepticon throne and I knew I would be blown to bits if Lord Megatron found me.

Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, Frenzy noticed that I looked uncomfortable on the arm rest because he jumped the short distance next to me before he typed a few things into said arm rest. To my surprise, a 3D version of Risk suddenly appeared in the air in front of me and I had a computer opponent. "Here Lizzie, something to keep you occupied until Knockout gets here. Since the game is pulled up, just use voice command and the game will respond to you."

I didn't even watch Skywarp as he picked Frenzy back up and the three of them left the room. I was a sucker for playing Risk and I was not going to be losing to computer generated opponents. I felt myself start to shove everything around me to the background as my mind started to strategize what I was going to do.

…My color was so going to be green.

Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

I was surprised. Surprised that the human…Lizzie I think Soundwave reported her name to be, had not caused any issues while on board the ship. While I had allowed her to live, merely for studying the human species that seemed to have the Autobots in an uneasy alliance, I had not expected her to stay out from under-pede, or from getting in trouble, for this length of time. It was almost impressive. This told me that I had to observe her more closely than I had been so I did.

And she continued to impress me…which wasn't easy. She made sure to stay out of the way when she needed to but, at the same time, she stayed just close enough to offer her weak human help when she could. I could tell that she was trying to find her place on my ship but there didn't seem to be anything, from what I observed, that she could do that would be of any use to my ship. While her suggestion on using the satellite array had been useful, as had her naming the drones, both of those were one time experiences. She needed to find a continuous way to be useful before too long. Otherwise, she would be a waste of space on my ship and need to be terminated.

Currently, I was on my way back to my throne room. I had been planning to power down for a good three cycles but, with the stress of Optimus' new Autobots here on Earth, I found that I could only power down for about thirty clicks. I was worried about one new Autobot in particular that Starscream reported about.

That was Pitch. Starscream reported to me about his past with the Autobot, and I knew that his report was correct. According to Starscream, before he came to be my second in command, he was sent to a planet known as Dragonia with a detachment of Decepticons to study how the organic systems of the planet and the non-organic systems were co-existing with each other. We would need to know if the planet would be suitable for being a base of operations for our troops.

It seemed that the Autobots had thought the same thing of the planet and had sent a detachment of their troops to the planet as well. Starscream and his detachment were ambushed by the Autobots and Starscream reported to me that this Pitch was responsible for slaughtering the prisoners there on planet. Starscream himself, according to his report, was only able to escape due to outwitting the Autobot. The report of the tortures Pitch placed upon the prisoners caused me to wonder if Optimus knew what sort of bot was currently at their secret base around those humans that he cared so much for.

We would keep an optic on Pitch. For now, however, I had to find a way to make contact with more of my Decepticons. With the knowledge that Optimus has just increased his troops fresh in my processor, I knew that we would need even more of our troops here. There were a few options that I knew of but I had to get to the throne room to contact them.

When I finally arrived at the doors to the throne room, and they opened, I took about three steps inside before my optics locked onto something out of place. There, sitting on my arm rest, was said human that had been plaguing my thoughts. What was she doing here?! This was the final straw for the human. I went to charge my arm cannon when my optics caught sight of movement in front of the human. So, I lowered my cannon and studied the human. She seemed to be playing some sort of military strategy game.

The layout of the game was a map of this planet and I assumed that the pieces represented a division of troops that were at her 'disposal'. From what I knew of Earth geography, the only continent that she had left to take was North America and she was going in from the south. She seemed to be playing the invasion of North America very wisely. While she could have gone for an all-out attack, she seemed to realize that would leave her other positions weakened and, if the enemy tried to launch a counter attack, she might lose ground. In this case, it was best to go slow and steady.

It took the human a couple of clicks to finally take over Earth and, once she was done, she let out a sigh of relief and said her back against the arm of my chair. While the human seemed to be uninformed of my presence, and finished with her 'game', I decided to make her aware of my presence here.

"Human."

The simple word from my vocals caused the human to sit upright quickly and I saw her organic optics…eyes they were called, widen in fear at my 'sudden' appearance. That was another positive that the human had. From the interactions that my troops had with the human allies of the Autobots, I had determined that humans were stubborn beings who were much like Autobots in organic coverings; preaching about equality for all while, at the same time, keeping themselves blind to the problems of their own governing system and their leaders 'evil' habits. While I would admit that in the recent million stellar cycles, I had started to fall off of the path that I had set for my Decepticons and our cause, I was now returning to our fight of freedom for all bots, and not just 'freedom' for the bots of the higher castes…and pretty much no Cybertronians from Kaon and Tarn like the Autobots fought for. While Optimus was an honorable opponent, and I believe that we could one solar cycle be friends again, it would take time.

Back to the seemingly petrified human, she seemed to be open to new ways of experiencing her short life-span and she had picked up on how to behave on this ship extremely quickly as well. From reports on the human's status that I received from Soundwave, the human had been continuously studying the recordings of the ships and learning from them. Almost immediately she had learned to respect me…and now in retrospect I realized that it was partially due to her respectful stance toward me at our first meeting that I had permitted her to live…and my brief studies of her in the past few solars has shown me that she seemed to be growing even more respect in not just myself…though my own of her hadn't increased much, but in the sparks of my soldiers as well. I had heard overwhelming praise from Knockout about how useful the human femme had been in cleaning his med bay and finding him an assistant from among the drones to help him and Breakdown in the med bay. Soundwave had also reported to me how, even with the modifications to his room that he had to make for her being a drawback in her staying here, she had proved helpful in keeping Rumble and Frenzy in line without causing too much trouble.

…Though it seemed like Starscream and Thundercracker would disagree with how they were covered in black and pink paint and an assortment of other pranking essentials. From what I had been told, they had just finished cleaning themselves so they could go on patrol looking for energon deposits.

"L…Lord Megatron…" The human addressed me hesitantly. That was something else I was surprised about. In the solars since our rescue of Skyquake, this human had started to address me as Lord Megatron. It was unexpected but yet another positive for her in my opinion. "Would you…well…would you like to join me? Knockout was supposed to come and pick me up from here but…well…he hasn't shown up yet. I'm playing a human game called Risk."

She…Lizzie was asking me to play with her when she knew that I could probably kill her if I wanted to on a whim. Something was definitely interesting about this human and the only way that I could study her more now was to indulge her. So, I moved to my throne and sat at it, making sure to face the holographic board that I slightly enlarged so I could participate more easily in this 'game'. I noticed that Lizzie was watching me hesitantly and I was glad she was. From how she was acting, I could tell that she nervous about being around me and unsure as to what exactly do. I suppose her asking me to join her would be the best thing her organic mind could come up with.

I motioned to the display and changed the program to only have one computer controlled army before I addressed the human. "Since you are waiting for somebot to pick you up, then I shall indulge you femme. We shall play this game until I say otherwise." She nodded quickly and waited…I'm guessing for me to pick my army color. "I shall be the purple army."

The human nodded at that and immediately chose the green one while the computer randomly selected the red army. This would be a very interesting game and I knew that, by playing this game, I was going to learn enough about the human to decide whether I was going to keep her alive. While the human showed that she observed her primitive reactions to those stronger and more powerful than she was…which many of her species seemed to forget so easily, I needed to know that she could mentally keep up with the rigors of being on the Decepticon ship to fully assist our cause and if she had a sharp mind to assist in plans like she had with the satellites.

"You're move Lord Megatron." She motioned to the holographic board.

Smirking, I started to set up my pieces in strategic locations on the board. I was not going to make this easy for the human in front of me and I hoped for a challenge from what I had caught her playing like. "Very well."

Paul's 1st P.O.V.

My disguise's heart was hammering my insides like it needed to. Of course, I couldn't blame it. I was just coming down from my terrified high. As of only a few minutes ago, we had been able to get the base cleared of the terrifying creatures that were known as scraplets and get Optimus, Arcee, Blurr, and Cliffjumper back from the Arctic before they froze.

Even though my disguise was an organic human, I still found myself deathly afraid of the scraplets. Thankfully, I was able to pull off the excuse that they reminded me of piranhas and I had to make up some story about how my company had a trip to the Amazon and I almost got attacked by a school of the creepy fish. So, now that our scare here was over, my heart was trying to calm itself from the fear of being devoured by scraplets. They were on my actual body now and I knew that they were slowly eating me alive. Hopefully, if we were able to restore my spark, I could convince some of the bots to go through my body and exterminate the parasites.

"Paul, make sure to keep an eye on Blurr's core temperature. It can't fluctuate or it could cause major damage to his systems." Ratchet reminded me, which caused me to focus back on what was going on around us.

Nodding, I motioned to the monitor that was keeping track of Blurr's status. "Got it covered Ratchet. You all need to relax though."

Sentinel, who was showing marks from the scraplets, growled at that. "Great, we get attacked by scraplets and we have to let the humans start on our repairs. There had better not be anything wrong with my systems after this human or I will come after you personally." That was, of course, directed at me. With the increased number of bots around us we all had to split up the bots into groups so us humans could keep an eye on them. Raf had Bumblebee, Blaster, and Eject and, since they had all been at base, he was to make sure that they weren't still leaking energon from their wounds. Miko was looking after Bulkhead, Ratchet, and Cliffjumper and they were all being looked at for energon leakage due to the scraplets attacking. Jack was lucky and only had two bots to look after…though while Arcee was fine I was worried for Jack looking after Pitch as well.

Anyways…I was looking after Blurr, Sentinel, and Optimus and they were a mix of freezing damage and energon leaking. Blurr and Optimus had been great patients but I was getting ready to offline Sentinel with his constant complaining. If it wasn't for the current height difference between the two of us…and the fact that I didn't want any of them knowing that I was their god, I would have put Sentinel Major in his place. The mech was seriously annoying and I was very much regretting staying here at the base.

"Sentinel you need to just chill out." Cliffjumper commented from his berth. "We should be happy that Paul and the kids were here today."

Ratchet, reminding me that there used to be a timeline to this show, stayed on beat with what he was supposed to say. "Yes. We're just fortunate that this infestation happened…on a Saturday."

Optimus nodded and motioned to the four of us working. "Our human friends may be small, but they are strong."

It felt nice to be complimented. Unfortunately, I knew that it wasn't meant to last. While everything seemed to be going fine, I knew that this would be messed with in three…two…one…

"AH!" Miko suddenly screamed out, causing Raf and Jack to jump in front of her.

"Scraplet?" Jack asked with worry. But, I knew that it wasn't going to be that. So far, Miko hadn't screamed for the scraplets and now wasn't any different.

This was proven correct when Miko continued yelling. "Spider!" She then started to jump around looking for the spider while everyone gave her looks of disbelief. "Is it on me?" She then went screaming and jumping away from her monitor.

Everyone just stared after her with looks of disbelief, including myself, before Bulkhead spoke. "Did she just scream like a little girl?"

I could do nothing but facepalm. It made me wonder, however, if Lizzie was dealing with this kind of drama on the Nemesis…if the Decepticons still had her alive.

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

This solar had been going on for so long and I could only hope that everything was running smoothly. I had been scouting for energon deposits all solar, except for getting stuck in that prank, and I knew that almost everybot else was being kept busy by Lord Megatron. He was almost desperate to find more troops to come to Earth to fight. Logistically, we were outnumbered and I knew that would make the coming battles more difficult against the Autobots. True, we had the drones, and they were slowly getting better at fighting, but they would not be near trained enough for the battles that were coming ahead. A lone Autobot could take out fifteen to twenty of the drones during the opening course of a single battle and that was not even including all the injuries that the other drones would take.

We had to find more troops, and that also meant we needed more energon. While we had our mines, I knew that, with Lord Megatron's plan, that we would soon be stretching even our own reserves thin and that would cause problems among our own ranks. With the increased number of Autobots…especially with Pitch with them…then we were going to need fully cooperative, loyal, and steadfast troops who would listen to orders. I knew that, with Pitch here, that I could not question Lord Megatron like I normally would and I would have to be fully disclosing with any information that could possibly interfere with our effort against the Autobots.

But, for now, I was heading toward the med bay to check on Lizzie. I knew that Soundwave had asked the medic to pick her up from the throne room to watch while the rest of us were out scouting for either energon or troops. However, I knew that there had been that accident in mine YC-235 and so med bay had been busy almost all solar. Hopefully, the human was able to stay out of Knockout's way as he, Breakdown, and Joe worked. I had a feeling that she had exhausted her little organic body and was tired. Since I had no idea where Soundwave was I was going to have to make sure she was alright.

Finally, I arrived at the med bay and, once I opened the door, I walked inside. To my surprise, however, med bay was full of bots and they were all in normal condition. It seemed that everybot who was not a drone was here...besides Lord Megatron. The others turned to me when I walked in before Knockout motioned me over. "Let me check you over 'Scream. It'll be a good lesson for Joe here in how to care for a seeker."

I nodded and walked over to the med berth before sitting on it. While Joe and Knockout started to check me over, however, I noticed something was off. "Knockout…where's Lizzie."

The room seemed to go intensely quiet at that and Knockout looked to Breakdown before saying, "I asked Breakdown to go and retrieve her before coming to help me."

In return, the blue lug motioned to Skyquake before saying, "I ran into Skyquake bringing in more injured drones from the mine and asked him to get her since I know how you run your med bay Knockout."

We all then turned to Skyquake before he shook his helm and motioned to Vox. "I asked Vox to get her because I was late for a patrol in the Arctic." He then shivered. "That place is too cold."

My spark started to sink as Vox shook his helm. "Lord Megatron asked me to check on the status of mine RQY-574 immediately and so I sent a message to Thundercracker to pick her up while I went and checked on the mine."

I was almost frozen as Thundercracker shook his helm and motioned to me…which was not a good sign in the slightest. "I couldn't because I had to go meet up with Skywarp and Soundwave on their patrol. Starscream…" Here it came. "I sent you a message to get Lizzie from the throne room cycles ago."

"I never got your message." The words were coming out of my mouth before I could stop them. This wasn't good in the slightest. If none of us had ever went to the throne room to retrieve Lizzie...

"You mean that Lizzie's been in that throne room for eight cycles?" Frenzy pointed out really slowly.

All of us were frozen in the circle we had created as Frenzy's words echoed in our helms. Eight cycles. Lizzie had been in the throne room for eight cycles. That could only mean one thing…and it wasn't good.

"SLAG!"

We all yelled out, besides Soundwave, before we all ran out of the med bay, leaving Joe in charge of it for now. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. Lord Megatron was already on edge with Lizzie being here and if had found her alone in his throne room…possibly on his throne, then she would be offlined. This wasn't good at all. She was both my responsibility and Soundwave's. She hadn't wanted to be on the warship, that much we all knew about her, and now she was either offline or slowly offlining at the servos of Lord Megatron. I could only hope that we could arrive in time to rescue her from Lord Megatron.

It wasn't long before we all arrived at the doors to the throne room and I didn't hesitate to open the doors and run a couple steps inside. I had to stop Lord Megatron and I knew that it was going to be a very difficult fight. Hopefully, I would be able to convince Lord Megatron to…

My chassis froze and my optics widened at the sight that was before them. From behind me, I could hear most of the others still their intakes at the scene in front of us. None of us could have possibly pictured the scene that now was laid before us. It seemed highly impossible and I knew that something was happening that none of us quite understood.

There, sitting on the arm of Lord Megatron's throne, was Lizzie staring up at a projected representation of one of our previous battles on Cybertron. From the looks of it, the battle was the battle of Polyhex. She seemed to be motioning to certain areas of the map and the 'troops' that were there would respond to her motions. Sitting on the throne watching her intently was Lord Megatron. What was going on? He seemed to be questioning her in her strategy for moving the troops in the way she did and then would have the simulation activate to see what would have happened if she was the one in charge of strategy for that battle.

…Was he training her to be a strategist? I didn't think it would be possible…slag I didn't even realize that Lizzie could strategize on a level that would make Lord Megatron use his time in training her. But, here was the evidence in front of us all. While I would still berate myself for not making sure that Lizzie had been picked up, as I had no doubt Soundwave would be, it seemed like this was for the best. That, however, didn't mean that I wasn't in shock. My processor still couldn't compute the fact that Lord Megatron was training with the human in strategy. The two of them seemed to be very into their battle simulation and I doubted that they even realized that we were here.

"Lord Megatron," Lizzie suddenly spoke. That caused all of us to look at the human as she motioned some more troops into position for the third wave of the battle. "far be it for me to question the running of the Nemesis, but I was curious as to why most of your higher command and other soldiers have time to stand in the doorway and gawk at us. Could they be without a project of some sorts to accomplish?"

The smallest of smirks appeared on Lord Megatron's faceplate before he cast a sharp look at all of us. "If that is indeed the situation here, then I assure you Lizzie that it would not take long for me to assign them more tasks to complete. This ship is far from optimal running condition."

That was all we needed to hear and all of us, besides Soundwave who must have already left…sneaky slagger, turned tailpipe and quickly left the throne room to return to the med bay. Once the doors to the throne room were closed, however, I found myself shaking my helm. My chassis felt like I was laying on a cloudburst and I honestly didn't know what to think.

I stayed like that for our entire trip back to the med bay. Once we were all inside, where Soundwave was with his symbiots, we all gathered in a circle and stared at each other in shock for a click. Well, that was before Vox put what was on my thoughts into words.

"What the frag?"


Lord Megatron: *smirks* Lizzie I think you may have a chance of earning your spot here.

Lizzie: *exictied* Really? I'm not going to die soon? *happy dance*

Lord Megatron: *crosses arms* Just avoid me finding you on my throne again. I will have you brought to me for our lessons.

Lizzie: *gulps but glares at Soundwave, Skywarp, and the twins* Yeah...that will never happen again. *chuckles nervously*

Lord Megatron: *leaves*

Lizzie: *glances at Authoress* I can still die at any minute...can't I?

Authoress: *nods slowly* You still have to prove that you are of value to the Decepticons alive. Now, you've just shown that you can be either valuable alive or dead. They wouldn't want the Autobots getting a strategist like you at all.

Lizzie: *cries* This isn't fair!

Paul: *walks in and shakes head* I don't know what is going on right now, but count yourself lucky Lizzie. I'm pretty sure that being here with the Autobots is worse than anything that you are experiencing.

Lizzie: *glares daggers at Paul* Bull...*Authoress covers her mouth*


AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it and I know that there is only going to be more fun ahead. It seems like there is a ray of hope for Lizzie's continued existence on the Nemesis. But, she hasn't quite earned the spot yet. She is going to, eventually, have to prove that she can use the training that she is now receiving from Megatron (though who knows who will take over later) in a way that will be beneficial to the Decepticons on a continual basis...What? I'm not going to make this easy for her. Of course, we also got to peek in on Paul and his panic with the Scraplets. Yeah that wasn't very fun and he is going to have to be more careful. Eventually, somebot may just figure out that he is hiding something.

Next chapter isn't going to be during an actual episode. I figure that there was about a day or two before Con Job and so I'm going to do a filler (of sorts) to make the chapters line up with the actual episode numbers. There isn't any Paul parts planned for it (though I may change my mind) because it is mainly a Decepticon centered chapter that will include Lizzie's first trip off of the ship. I won't spoil anything for you but it is going to be a lot of fun!

Well, that's all I have for now. Please leave a review, even to say hi, so I know that you all are out there and that I actually make your days slightly better... Until next time then, TTYL! *tries to make sure Lizzie doesn't tear Paul apart*