The next morning, Alexis woke just before the sun began to rise. She knew that Rad's mother would soon come out and wake everyone for school. While she waited, she continued laying in the sleeping bag and thought about her new life. She had already gotten used to her new body and had as much training as she could get before Unicron arrived. But she still felt out of place. Maybe it was that fact that she was a human and wasn't born an Autobot. What if she never was infected by the Mars rock? Would Starscream have told her about his feelings?
Alexis was so rapped in her thoughts she didn't realize, Rad and woken up. He had slept beside her. To make sure, Rad's mother didn't find her there, Alexis slept in the far back with the boys in front of her.
A hand on her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts. She quickly turned.
"Is something the matter?" Rad whispered.
Alexis cast her eyes down before looking back at her friend. "If I didn't keep that rock, I wouldn't have known about Kiaudica," she whispered back.
"We can't change what has happened." In recent months, Rad was like Alexis's confidant when she wasn't balanced.
"Maybe when this is all over, I will convince the Autobots to become human for a day and see the world."
"That would be fun. There's only one more week of school and then we're out for the holidays."
"It's been that long," Alexis gasped. "I didn't think school was almost out. It was almost out when we met the Transformers."
"Well it's now been a year since we met the Autobots."
"What's been a year?" Fred asked. He tried to stifle a yawn but couldn't hold it.
"It's been a year since Alexis, Carlos and I met the Transformers."
"Boys," a woman's voice called from the house. "It's time to get up."
"All right Mom," Rad said out loud.
"Ah, man," Carlos whined. "It's morning already."
"Just think, Carlos. There's only one more week of school left," Rad answered as he got up and started to roll his sleeping bag.
"Yeah, I know. But why can't it be over now so we can help the Autobots."
"You can't," Alexis said. "You guys better get up. I'll make a mad dash out."
"I got a better idea. I'll ask Mom to make some eggs for breakfast for everyone. That will keep her busy while you can sneak out."
"I hate this sneaking around," Alexis huffed out.
Everyone stopped cleaning up their mess and turned to her. Just a moment ago she said she would make a mad dash out and now she's upset about sneaking around.
"Alexis do you want to talk about it?" Rad asked.
"No," she snapped. "Sorry. Rad you better go and tell your Mom and then afterwards come back out and I'll leave."
-
Alexis carefully made her way to the Autobot base. She had stayed out for most of the day, walking around town, avoiding busy streets where she would have been recognized. When she had little time left, she left for the base.
When she arrived, she got Sureshock to scout on ahead. When the close was clear, she made her way down the corridor and into her quarters. When she was safely inside, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank god. I made it. Now to let Starscream know I'm here." She went over to the computer console and jumped up. Just as she was about to push the button to contact Starscream, something grabbed a hold of her.
She gasped in surprise. She looked at what grabbed her and was about to scream.
"You scream," her capture said. "And I'll make sure Starscream is put in the line of fire when we battle Unicron."
"What do you want?" Her voice trembled with fear. The hand that held her turned her so he could see her at his optic level.
"Not so brave now are you? You know exactly what I want and I will get my answers. My question is how is you are human right now and not an Autobot?" he quickly squeezed her to put more fear into her. "You will answer."
"What will you do, if I don't?" Alexis tried to get a hold of the situation. "You have agreed to help Optimus."
"Ah, yes. But when Unicron is defeated, we will be enemies once again. Now if you value your life and wish to live longer, you will tell me what I what to know."
"You could be dead before Unicron is destroyed," Alexis said with a soft voice.
Megatron gasped at her tone. The fear was still evident in her eyes and face but her voice didn't tremble as bad. He heard her use that voice before when she attacked him outside of the Autobot base. He wondered where he saw that look of defiance before.
There was only one female that ever defied him she was dead…well not dead… "I see," he whispered. Megatron clued in. The female Autobot he killed long ago was alive in Alexis. She must have the power to control her body. Megatron smirked.
"What are you smirking about?" Alexis asked.
"I'm not speaking to Alexis, now am I?" he challenged. "No. I'm speaking with Kiaudica. The female Autobot who had a relationship with Starscream all those years ago."
Alexis gasped involuntary but quickly regained her composure. "How did you figure it out?" her voiced trembled.
"Two minds, one body," Megatron was now amused. He just watched the girl go from nervous to defiant back to nervous again. "You are worth more alive than anything. I already know most what I needed to know."
"How?" Alexis tried to struggle again. If she could squirm her body around, she'd be able to get out of Megatron's grasp and hide. Before her transformation started, Optimus demanded her to do a training exercise in case Megatron was able to get a hold of her. She had Jetfire train with her.
He would hold her as if he was Megatron holding her captive and she would maneuver her body out and hide.
Megatron's gripped tightened. "Don't make me break your little bones." Alexis halted. She started to feel her ribs trying to crack under the pressure. "And to answer your little question, Thrust is a loyal soldier when he's not flapping at the mouth."
Alexis gasped. Thrust used his invisibility to eavesdrop on the Autobots.
"Now you will fill in the missing pieces to the little puzzle before I have Thrust do an assault on your mother."
"No!" she squealed. She lowered her head in defeat as a few tears trickled down her face. How she wished Starscream were in the room. "What do you want to know?" she asked quietly.
"Good. Start from the beginning."
"It was after the Mini-Con hunt in the pyramid. I was badly injured after the roof collapsed on Starscream and myself. Red Alert operated on my legs since they broke and fused them with alloy. Shortly there afterwards I learned of Kiaudica. Red Alert found a spark living within my body.
"We quickly learned that her spark and my heart are connected as one. If one tries to remove the spark, both of us will die.
"What about this certain rock?"
"Starscream found a huge piece of rock on Mars. He brought it back and gave it to us. After learning of Kiaudica, I started to change. It wasn't until after I attacked you that the rock was infecting me.
"All to soon, we learned the rock was originally part of Cybertron as it was once an organic planet. Some of the infected pieces left the planet and ended up landing in our solar system. The rock doesn't seem to affect the boys as it did me. Kiaudica's spark reactivated the infection and it turned and spread onto me, instead of the rock."
"How is you are human right now?"
"In a secret location, a sample from another planet was brought down here so I could turn into a human."
"Where is this location?"
Alexis turned her head and was silent. With another quick squeeze, made her cry out.
"Where is it?" he demanded.
"Under…the base."
Megatron gasped as he started to see her grow larger. He quickly put her down and watched in fascination as her transformation took place. He watched in awe as her body grew to transformer height. Her skin quickly changed color and replaced as metal. Two wings spread out from her back and when they were to its full span, folded in.
When her transformation was complete, Megatron got over his surprise and before she had a chance to bolt to the door, he swiftly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.
"You will not utter a word to this to that traitor, Prime or any other Autobot. Or you'll be attending a funeral." He quickly released her and walked towards her door. Before exiting he turned back her. "This conversation isn't over. And before I help save this miserable excuse for a planet, I want to see this location."
When he was gone, Alexis released an unsteady sigh of relief but then dropped to the floor. She covered her faced and cried. What was she to do now? She couldn't say anything to anyone about her run in with Megatron or her mother…she didn't want to think about that.
After a few minutes she calmed her tears and stood back up, and contacted Starscream. Before too long, he entered her quarters.
"I didn't even know you were back," he said as his arms circled her from behind.
His arms safe and sure around her brought back her tears. She quickly turned to him and cried against his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he asked in concern.
"Everything," she cried. "I lose my mother, my humanity and now the planet is threatened." As much as that was truth, she couldn't tell him the real reason for her tears. "I wish I could see Mom."
Starscream held her close to him as she cried.
-
Megatron walked onto the bridge of the Autobot ship with great satisfaction.
"Did I miss something?" Thrust asked as he seen his leader smiling.
"Only that I got great satisfaction today." Megatron said.
"What could be more important than having to work with the Autobots?" Cyclonus asked.
Megatron quickly turned to the soldier and growled. "That is no concern of yours."
"Sir," Demolisher came fourth. "Where will our men be positioned?"
"They will be coming from behind Unicron as well as the Autobots."
"Unicron, won't know how many forces we have assembled," Thrust said. "A wise strategy, sir."
"You can thank Prime for it," Megatron growled. "Rest up men. We only have two days left before the real battle begins. Many lives will probably be lost."
"Yes, sir!" They said at once.
-
Sideways was working hard at trying to penetrate the Mini-Con shield. Sideflare was not too far watching him. It was unnerving with her over his shoulder. As the scanners were working in overdrive, he started to notice a tiny crack developing from underneath the ship. The hole was too small for even a Mini-Con. But just maybe it was big enough for his scans. He quickly maneuvered the scans to make its way to the crack and scan the ship.
"Finally," Sideways said. "The shield has been penetrated."
"That took a bit. I bet he isn't even on that ship and would have wasted precious time for nothing."
Sideways ignored her and continued. "There are eight Autobots and one Decepticon. And Thrust isn't one of them."
"See what did I tell you," she said sarcastically. "Well since he's down on the planet, go shut him up," she snapped.
Before Sideways decided to anger Unicron, his body went static and disappeared. He floated out through Unicron and made his way to Earth. As he hit the atmosphere, he had to adjust himself as not to become visible.
He quickly scanned the area and found himself in Japan. Knowing where the Autobots were, he quickly traveled the distanced needed to reach their base. Once getting to the base, it didn't take long to approach the mountain and pass through.
Once inside, Sideways traveled around until Thrust was located. Once finding him, in the main control room with a couple of Autobots, he had to figure a good plan to get rid of the Decepticon. He knew he couldn't with all the Transformers around.
After a few minutes, the Autobots left, leaving Thrust was alone, Sideways decided to take his chance. "Hello, Thrust."
Thrust whipped around to be faced to faced with Sideways.
"What the heck is going on? The plan was to attack after I was off the ship."
"Unicron decided you were expendable."
"Expendable!" Thrust burst.
"You have been very reliable until now. Now we have no use for you. You must parish." Sideways aimed his guns towards Thrust, ready to fire."
Thrust jumped back in fear. Unicron had no use for him anymore. As he backed away from Sideways, he realized that he was backing towards the main computer. Thrust continued to back into the computer as a planned formed. If he could get to the computer, he could call for aid.
"Oh no you don't," Sideways said. He quickly moved to be in front of the computer, making Thrust turn around. "You aren't calling for help."
"Why would I call for help," Thrust lied. "I don't need help in working out my problems."
"Are you sure on that," Sideways laughed then fired a shot.
Thrust easily dodged by jumping out of the way. I need help. But why get me out of the way?
"You are probably wondering why I'm here, attacking you. Well it's simple, you have something that Unicron wants destroyed and the only way to do that is by getting rid of you."
Thrust dodged another blast just as Megatron came in the room. Sideways saw his approach. I won't need to get rid of him. Megatron can do it himself, which will give more fuel for Unicron. "Unicron has no need for you. You came to me, wanting to get rid of Megatron to rule the Decepticons and Unicron took this opportunity to use that to his advantaged."
"What?" Megatron blurted.
Thrust turned at the sound and gasped. "Sir," he stuttered. "We…"
"You've been working for Unicron all this time." The anger in his voice was clearly visible but he was acting on it as he normally would.
"Sir, I can explain."
"I think I've heard about enough. You are just as traitorous as Starscream and Sideways. Even Alexis has started to notice your quick defense."
"Not to mention he already knew about the ambush when I sustained the sword, shield and gun," Sideways bragged. He was enjoying this.
Megatron aimed his gun towards Thrust. "So you knew Sideways stole the weapons and didn't do anything about it. You also knew he had the sword and shield and tried to make me believe that Prime was about to attack me."
"It started out that way," Thrust rushed. "But as you can see I have no use for them, they want to get rid of me."
Megatron was surprised as to why Unicron would want to get rid of Thrust. With his gun still aimed at Thrust, he slammed his other fist into the wall. An alarm sounded off, going throughout the whole base. "Now we're going to get some answers."
Thrust noticed Megatron's gun was about to fire. Knowing Sideways was directly behind him, another plan came to mind. Just in the last moment as the blast came towards him, he jumped out of the way and the blast streamed by.
Sideways didn't have enough time to dodge before he was hit. He collapsed to the floor just as Optimus and Jetfire rushed in.
"What's going on?" Optimus demanded.
"It appears we have a spy amongst our ranks," Megatron growled as he grabbed Thrust by his neck and slammed him against the wall. He wasn't about to let him go. "And Sideways decided to come and eliminate him."
"Thrust?" Jetfire questioned.
"Correct," Megatron agreed. "Thrust knew about Unicron and knew Sideways was going to steal the three Mini-Con weapons."
"Then why would Sideways be down here to destroy him?" Optimus asked.
"Why don't we ask Sideways before he gains enough strength to escape?" Jetfire suggested.
"He won't be going anywhere. He's unconscious. I knew Thrust would dodge my attack."
"What's all the commotion?" Demolisher asked as he and the rest of the Transformers rushed in.
"From the looks of things," Alexis answered. "There's another traitor. I had wondered why Thrust was always trying to tell Megatron what to do."
"You stay out of this former human," Thrust tried to yell out.
"She doesn't have to," Megatron answered. "Like I already said, she has noticed your evasive jabber. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't get rid of you."
"Red Alert," Optimus said. "Get Sideways to the Medical Bay and see what you can do with trying to stop him from escaping after he's conscious."
"Yes, sir." Red Alert walked over to Sideways and started to help him up. Scavenger quickly came over and helped.
"Perhaps there's a reason to keep him around. Why would Sideways try to kill him if he doesn't have something important to say," Alexis said.
"Sir," Thrust tried to reason. "Sideways did say that I have something that Unicron wants destroyed. Maybe we can find out what that is. And I'm the only one here that can teleport."
"He does have a point," Optimus reasoned. "We can place him in protective custody until we learn more information on Sideways' mission."
Megatron smiled, a smile that Thrust didn't like. "I believe you're right. Right now he's more use to us." While his hand held onto Thrust's neck, the other came up and grabbed his arm. He swung around and threw Thrust to the floor. "Do whatever you like, but I don't want to have to look at this traitor."
Thrust sighed in relief; his life had been spared, for now. He quickly got over his fear. "Analyze my data see if there's anything in there was planted and I don't know about it."
"That's a good idea. If Thrust has something Unicron wants destroyed," Starscream said. "It could be used to our advantaged to destroy Unicron."
"Alright," Optimus agreed. "Starscream. You and Sideswipe work on that. I'm going to see what we can find with Sideways."
Without so much as a word, the Decepticons quickly left the room. They didn't like being around the Autobots. Megatron was too angered to leave the room. He had been played for a fool twice by Sideways and now Thrust.
Once he was calm he noticed the other Autobots were leaving as well. Alexis was the last to leave and before she had a chance to get out the door, Megatron grabbed her arm and pulled her against him.
"Now is as good as time as any," he whispered in her audio receptors. "To show me this location."
Alexis nodded in fear as she knew what would happen if she defied him. She would lose her mother and Megatron would make sure Starscream would lose his life.
-
"An underground lake," Megatron marveled. "Where does the water come from?"
"About five miles from here from a waterfall that leads into a cave."
"Where Thrust countered Starscream."
Alexis lowered her head and answered quietly. "Yes."
Megatron smiled. He would have the girl in the end. After Unicron was defeated, he would use the girl's mother as leverage for her work for him.
"I've often wondered what Optimus and Starscream see in you and now I know. You have a lot of knowledge and is good to work with."
"We…we better head up before Optimus discovers that you are blackmailing me."
Megatron walked up to her and grabbed both of her arms. "As I said. This is our little secret. No one will know. Not even my men." He roughly let her go and turned.
When she was alone. She fell to her knees and cried once again. She never noticed someone come up behind her until his arms were securely wrapped around her.
"What's wrong?" he whispered.
She slightly jumped from the contact. "I thought…you were…with Thrust."
"I was. He is in total cooperation and Sideswipe is deciphering the codes. Don't need two bots to do that."
She turned to look into the concern face of her friend. "What am I to do?"
"What do you mean?" Starscream asked.
"I…" she knew she couldn't keep it bottle up inside. If she did, everyone would figure it out. She decided to let him know the partial truth. "I…can't say what exactly. But I'm being blackmailed."
"By who?" he wrapped his arms around her and she cried against his shoulder. "Is it by Megatron?"
Her body started to tremble in fear at his name. Starscream's optics widened in surprise, he guessed correctly. "What did he do?" he softly demanded.
"I…I…can't say." She pushed herself up to look into his face. "If I tell anyone, he'll attack my mother after this battle is over and he'll make sure you're on the front lines during the battle."
"That bastard!" he barked out.
Alexis gasped. It was the first time she ever heard a Transformer curse out like that. Sure she knew that have cursed, using foul human language, but never had her ears-audio receptors heard it.
He stared into his face and his look softened. She quickly noticed this. "Hold me," she whispered. "And never let go."
Starscream pushed her back against him and held her tight. As much as it angered him to know that she was being used, at least he knew why she was so upset. He vowed to himself that he wouldn't let anything happen to her or her mother and therefore, decided to not let anyone know about Megatron.
"Don't worry. We'll get rid of Megatron before he has any chance to use your mother more of leverage after Unicron is gone. I promise."