Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.
Pandimala: Hey, we are back in business.
Chaom: Yep, and you get to talk to the council.
Pandimala: Don't remind me.
Ch. 24: Politics
When Pandimala entered the council room, she was surprised to see that the set up was similar to the council room on Cybertron. Her group walked to the usual defendant area and stood at attention. As they waited for the council to start talking, Pandimala took the chance to take in the familiar face plates.
She recognized Alpha Trion and Botanica before she came to a couple of new members. One was a blue and black heavy truck mech and the other was a periwinkle car mech. Then, Pandimala had to hold back a shiver as her gaze settled on the red and brown car mech known as Dragstrip. She remembered how he was the one who called her a traitor. She quickly took her optics of him and on to four other bots she recognized who had voted against her.
There was the red motorcycle mech known as Ransack and the green car mech called Crumplezone. Then there was the brown jeep mech known as burnout and, finally, there was the green cameo sports car femme known as Setback.
Pandimala then had her gaze fall on the last three new members. Sitting next to, but as far away as possible, Setback was a light blue car femme. The last two were a blue heavy duty vehicle mech and a red sports car mech.
The look on the known council members' faceplates would be one that Pandimala would remember forever. Botanica and Alpha Trion looked glad that she was still alive but the other five looked a mix between outrage and surprise.
"Why is this traitor here?" Dragstrip almost shrieked.
Ultra Magnus stood from his seat and stated, "Members of the council, these bots before you are among the highest ranking members of the faction known as the Dragon Scouters."
"Why do they wish an audience with us?" Botanica questioned.
"They wish to form an alliance with the Autobot faction." Ultra Magnus answered.
"If we are going to discuss an alliance," Alpha Trion started, "we must have introductions."
Pandimala nodded and said, "Agreed."
"Since we Autobots are hosting this meeting, we will begin. I am Alpha Trion." Alpha Trion stated.
"I am called Botanica." Botanica stated with a nod toward the Scouters.
Dragstrip huffed before stating, "The name is Dragstrip."
"I'm Ransack." Ransack stated, boredom heavy on his voice.
"And I'm Crumplezone." Crumplezone proclaimed.
"I am Burnout." Burnout stated.
"I am Setback." Setback said.
The periwinkle car mech than stated, "I'm Backburner."
The blue and black truck mech then said, "I am Roadkill."
The blue swat truck, who Pandimala noticed had a patch over one of his optics, stated, "My name's Breakdown."
The light blue car femme then stated cordially, "I'm Chromia."
Finally, the red car mech stated, "The name's Knockout."
Pandimala nodded and stated, "The silver femme with black stars is Tana, member of the Guardians. The black mech next to her is Blackbit, member of the guardians. The gold helicopter mech is Switchblade, head of security and surveillance. The black and sky blue triple changer next to me is Chaom, SIC to the Dragon Scouters. Finally, I am Pandimala,"
"What are you? Messenger for the Dragon Scouters?" Dragstrip interrupted.
Pandimala narrowed her optics to glare at Dragstrip before she finished, "Leader of the Dragon Scouters."
That caused all of the bots on the council to betray a look of utter shock before composing themselves. Alpha Trion then stated, "Well, with this alliance, what are your terms?"
Chaom took this question and answered, "Us Dragon Scouters will join you in battle against the Decepticons. But we will not be under you jurisdictional control and we only take orders from other Scouters. If we make another ally, you must respect that alliance and we will do the same to your ally. If a crime is committed against a scouter by an Autobot, or an ally of the Autobots, they will be tried and punished by us and the same would go the other way around. We will need access to Cybertron so the banishment that you placed on the previous Autobots, or our future allies, will be revoked." He then paused before asking, "What do you Autobots wish for in return?"
The council deliberated for a few clicks before Alpha Trion stated, "We ask that you limit the number of Scouters on Cybertron, except for at times of fighting on Cybertron, to three at a time."
"I am sorry to interrupt Alpha Trion but many of the bots on our team are bonded and I would ask the Autobot council to increase the number to four." Pandimala interrupted.
The council talked again before Alpha Trion stated, "Very well, four Scouters at a time may be present on Cybertron. Also, we ask for an open book policy on intelligence. Whatever you find must be told to us as soon as you can." Alpha Trion stopped and let the terms of the alliance sink in.
"So, are we agreed?" Pandimala asked.
Alpha Trion turned to the council and asked, "Members of the council, would you please submit your vote on the kiosk in front of you."
The Dragon Scouters than a waited patiently for the council to finish voting. After about three minutes, the voting was done and a giant screen lit up. The words 'yes' and 'no' appeared on the screen and each vote registered. In the end, the 'yes' column outnumbered the 'no' column seven to five.
Alpha Trion then turned to the Scouters and stated, "The Autobots officially accept your terms."
Pandimala nodded and stated, "Then the Dragon Scouters officially accept your terms." Pandimala then walked up to Ultra Magnus and shook his servo.
"This session of the Autobot council is dismissed." Botanica stated.
All of the bots present than left the room and returned to the main hallway. Pandimala, Chaom, Tana, Blackbit, Switchblade, and Ultra Magnus were standing in a group when Alpha Trion, Botanica, Knockout, Breakdown, and Chromia came and joined them.
"So, how is Remcy holding up?" Alpha Trion asked of his former student.
Chaom answer that by saying smugly, "Remcy is holding up just fine, just fine indeed."
"Now, when you all mentioned that most of you are bonded, is Remcy one of those?"
Pandimala nodded and stated with a smile, "Yes, he is bonded to a wonderful seeker femme named Whirlwind."
Knockout then held out a servo to Pandimala before saying, "It is nice to meet you Pandimala. Alpha Trion and Botanica have told me so much about you."
Pandimala shook his servo and said, "It is nice to meet you too. Maybe you all can come by our secondary base before you leave."
Pandimala went to say more but Chaom interrupted and said, "I'm truly sorry for cutting this short but we were in the middle of a crisis before you all showed up."
"What happened?" Botanica asked in worry.
"Two of our troops were captured in a fight between our two factions and the Decepticons. We were mounting a search team when you all showed up. We knew that we needed this alliance so we had to hold off until we were done."
Alpha Trion then put his servo to his chin in a thinking way before saying, "I see. Since we are allies, I would like to offer the help of the council in your search for them."
"Alpha Trion, we couldn't,"
"Yes you can Chaom. I will come to your base to help you locate them along with any of the council members that wish to join me." Alpha Trion stated.
"I'll go with. We are allies after all." Botanica stated.
"Breakdown and I will too." Knockout stated with a determined look.
"So will I." Chromia stated confidently.
"I am coming as well Pandimala." Ultra Magnus stated since he knew that it was because of the Scouters helping the Autobots that Balm and Stormfire were captured.
Pandimala nodded and opened a comm. link connection with Zarron, who was on monitor duty, and said, "Hey Zarron, I need a teleport for eleven."
It took a minute before Zarron stated, "Pandimala, I will get you here ASAP. Something has happened."
Pandimala heard the confusion in his voice and asked, "What happened Zarron? Did you find them?"
"Well, it is hard to describe over the comm. link. I'll port you bots in now. Eleven right?"
"Yes eleven."
The link then went dead.
"What's wrong Pandimala?" Chromia asked.
Pandimala turned back to them all and said, "I don't know but I will find out soon. Everyone hold servos. We need to all be touching to port."
The group of eleven bots grasped servos. While they were waiting, all that Pandimala could think about was the mystery back at the Cavern. Did someone get injured? Are they O.K.? Those questions were turning through Pandimala's processor as the group was teleported.
"What happened Elita?" Balm asked.
Elita flinched and stated, "My name is Blackarachnia now Balm. And the story isn't very pretty."
Balm and Stormfire were sitting on a berth across from another berth where Balm's long lost friend was sitting. The bots that had discovered Balm and Stormfire, who Balm found out were called the Dinobots, were in a corner resting.
"You can tell me El…Blackarachnia. I am a medic after all. We have confidentiality."
Blackarachnia motioned toward Stormfire and asked, "But what about him?"
Balm let out a chuckle before stating, "Stormfire knows to keep his mouth closed."
Stormfire laughed and stated, "Yep, Balm would kick me off the berth if I ever even whispered about patient information to myself."
Blackarachnia then grew a confused look before asking, "What hold do you have on him Balm?"
Balm smiled and said, "Stormfire's my bondmate."
Blackarachnia seemed to calm down at that before she told them her story. After she was finished, balm asked, "So, you have been trying to turn yourself back to your former self as Elita-1. What would you do if you got changed back?"
Blackarachnia seemed to think about that before saying, "If you would have asked me that before I met with Optimus here on Earth, I would say I would leave the 'Cons and join you Scouters. But, since I did meet Optimus again, well I…"
"You love him so you would rejoin the Autobots to be with him. I completely understand. Balm stated.
Stormfire decided to add his two cents and said, "Yeah, I mean, if the eight of us who used to be neutrals had never met balm and her friends, we would be in the Autobot ranks right now and we would have never met Balm."
"Really?" Blackarachnia asked.
Stormfire nodded and said, "And boy am I glad that we did meet them. After meeting Sentinel I don't know how long I would have lasted before I would have strangled him."
Blackarachnia laughed at that and stated, "I know the feeling." She then turned to Balm and asked, "But why do you ask Balm?"
Balm smiled and said, "I know how to change you back."
Blackarachnia's optics went wide and she asked, "How? I've tried many ways and I haven't been able to figure out how."
Balm motioned to Blackarachnia's testing equipment and stated, "By the look of your equipment, you have gotten extremely close. To answer your question though, while I was training under Ratchet I took to studying medical records from during and even before the war. I remember this subject clearly because the file was filed under above top secret."
"Then how do you know it?" Blackarachnia asked.
It helps when one of my best friends is one of the best hackers in the universe. I got Remcy to crack the encryption protecting it and I made a copy and put it in my memory banks. It's a very simple process and the only tricky part is getting the right amount of energy, knowing how to concentrate it, and how much to release at a time."
"Why was this information hidden so deeply away?" Stormfire asked.
"I would be my bottom credit that the reason was because the Cybertronian misconstrued fear of organics. According to the same record as your cure, there actually used to be a regular traffic of organics that would travel to and from Cybertron." Balm stated.
"I wonder what changed." Blackarachnia asked.
Balm shrugged and stated, "Don't know. It wasn't there. But I'm not worried about that right now. What I want to know right now is your answer Blackarachnia. Do you want me to return you to Elita-1?"
Blackarachnia wasted no time in nodding her helm and stating, "Yes, I want you to return me to my former self." She then fun whispered, "And just between you and me, I can't wait to see Optimus' and Sentinel's reactions to me being back."
Balm nodded before opening up a comm. link connection to the Estia and asking, "Hello? Who is on monitor duty at the moment?"
"Balm!" Four voices yelled.
"Hey Scale, Foresight, Hindsight and Tune. Why are you four on monitor duty on the Estia? I thought that it was Tana and Blackbit's turn?" Balm asked.
"Where are you at Balm? We will come rescue you from the 'Cons as soon as you give us coordinates." Scale asked.
"Bots, Stormfire and I already escaped. I need a teleport for three to the ship. Now answer my question. Why aren't Tana and Blackbit on duty?"
"The Autobot council showed up and they went with Pandimala, Chaom, and Switchblade to represent us. Why do you need a port for three?" Hindsight asked.
"We ran into an old friend who needs our help. Port us in and don't tell anyone that you found us. We want our return to be quiet until we help this friend."
"Fine, teleport for three coming up." Foresight stated before shutting up the link.
Balm then gripped both Blackarachnia's and Stormfire's servos and waited for the port. A minute later, Balm felt the tingling feeling that came with a port and soon the cave they were in flashed before her optics. A second later, the three of them were standing on the platform on the Estia.
"Balm, why don't you want us to tell the others that you are alright?" Tune asked as soon as the three of them got off the platform.
Balm sighed and said, "First introductions. Blackarachnia, you already know Hindsight and Foresight. But, this is Hindsight's bondmate Tune and Foresight's bondmate Scale."
"We don't know this bot." Foresight stated.
"Yes you do. This is Blackarachnia, formerly and hopefully soon to be Elita-1." Balm stated.
The two mechs who knew her stared in shock and asked, "But she's a 'Con! How can she be Elita?"
Blackarachnia sighed at their disbelief and stated, "Yeah, it wasn't one of my most wise decisions."
By the look on the twins' faceplate, they now believed that this was indeed Elita. They turned toward Balm and asked, "What do you need?"
"I am going to need a stasis chamber prepped but take out the stasis capabilities and hook it up to the energy outlet source." Balm stated.
"We're on it Balm." Foresight stated. Then he and Hindsight went to get it ready.
Balm then turned to Scale and stated, "I need you two to man the communication area. I don't want any of the bots to know what is going on here until I am done. If they ask if you have heard from us, just say no."
"No problem Balm." Scale stated before the two of them went back to the monitor.
Balm then turned to Blackarachnia and Stormfire and said, "Follow me. I hope the twins are done by now." The two nodded and followed Balm to the med bay. As they were walking, Balm stated, "I'm surprised that Tune and Scale are here and doing work."
"Why?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Because they are still recovering from the injuries that they sustained before the 'Bots knew about us. Sentinel captured them both and stabbed Scale in the arm."
"I noticed the weld. It looks pretty new."
"Yeah, it was only a few days ago. And Tune got an overcharge to her systems after she got stabbed due to the bars on the cells dividing them. She was upset because they are twins and she felt her pain."
"Oh, I guess that Sentinel hasn't changed much." Blackarachnia stated.
"Unless you mean that he has gotten worse. How in the world did he make it to Prime?" Balm stated.
"I heard that he made deals with the council members that voted you off of Cybertron." Blackarachnia stated.
"Wouldn't surprise me. I have always suspected that Sentinel has been sabotaging 'Mala since he met her."
"He probably was." Blackarachnia stated.
All talking then ceased as they got to the med bay. Balm was relieved that the chamber was pretty much ready. All that she would have to do was control the flow of energy. The twins walked up to them and Hindsight said, "The chamber is all set up. I hope this works. Good luck." The two of them then left the room, probably to go back to their bondmates.
Balm then turned to Blackarachnia and stated, "Are you ready?"
Blackarachnia nodded and stated, "I have been waiting for stellar cycles to be back to my old self. I am as ready as ever."
Balm nodded and stated, "Ok then, get in the chamber and we can begin." Blackarachnia walked in and Balm went to close it. Before she shut it though, she stated, "This might be a little painful. If it becomes too much, there is a kill switch on the ceiling of the chamber. Place your servo on it and press on it and the process will stop immediately." Blackarachnia nodded and Balm shut the door.
Balm then went to the control panel and stated, "Starting the reverting process now." She then pulled on the lever and watched as the chamber began to glow with the power being put into it. After about two minutes, Balm heard a scream and she knew that it had come from Blackarachnia. Balm turned to Stormfire and yelled, for the machine was now making a loud whine noise, "Make sure she is ok!"
Stormfire nodded and ran to the front of the machine. He peered inside and yelled, "You ok in there?"
It took a minute but finally Blackarachnia's strained voice yelled, "Don't stop!"
Stormfire then went back over to Balm and said in a loud voice, "She says to keep going."
Balm nodded and allowed the power to continue flowing for the last of the ten minutes. During that entire time, Balm was tempted to turn it off due to Blackarachnia's screams. Once the ten minutes were up, Balm shut it off and ran to the chamber. She threw the door open and watched as the smoke from the excess power flowed out.
"It worked!" Balm heard Blackarachnia yell out in glee.
Blackarachnia stepped out of the chamber and saw that her old time roommate was back to her normal self. Balm smiled and said, "Welcome back to the good side Elita."
Elita smiled and said, "It is great to be back." As Elita went to examine herself, Balm noticed something different.
"Hey Elita, did you get you plating on the tip of your digits dyed?" Balm asked.
Elita shook her helm in confusion and said, "No, why?"
"They're purple."
Elita looked at her fingers and jumped when she saw that they were indeed purple. She glanced at Balm and asked, "Why are they purple?"
"They must be residual from your time as Blackarachnia. Can you still use your mod? You know, to copy other mods." Balm asked.
Elita answered by touching Balm and sighed in relief when a power saw replaced her servo. She then dissipated the saw and returned back to her normal servo.
"Well, did you have any abilities while you were Blackarachnia?" Stormfire asked.
Elita nodded and stated, "I could administer a poison to other bots that would slowly put their systems in stasis. Why?"
Balm now saw where her bondmate was going and said, "I think I know where he is getting. When the machine repaired you, it must have thought that you would need an extra mod and placed that poison in your fingertips so you could to administer it."
"But how?" Elita asked.
"I don't know." Stormfire stated. They all thought about that before Stormfire stated, "Scratch my arm."
"What?" Elita asked confused.
"Scratch me. If it goes into me, I hope that either you or my mate will have the antidote." Stormfire stated.
Elita hesitated before scratching Stormfire's arm with her nails. When he didn't fall over due to poison, he said, "Ok, so you can't activate them on accident. Now, I want you to scratch me again. But this time I want you to think about your poison going into me."
"Why?" Elita asked again.
"Because I think that your mod is like Zarron's. You have to think about using it for it to work." Stormfire answered.
Elita nodded and went to scratch him. She got close to his arm but pulled away at the last second and stated, "I can't do it."
Stormfire stared at her with an annoyed look and said, "I will never say this again but I want you to not think of me as Stormfire."
Now Elita and Balm were confused. "Who am I to think you of then?" Elita asked.
Stormfire flinched in disgust before stating, "Think that I am Sentinel."
Stormfire barely got the word Sentinel out before Elita scratched his arm. When Stormfire still didn't fall over, Balm stated, "Hmm, I guess we will figure it out later. Right Stormfire?"
When Stormfire didn't answer, Balm waved her servo in front of Stormfire and said, "Hello, Balm to Stormfire."
Elita put two and two together and said, "I think he is paralyzed."
Balm burst out into laughing and stated, "He would! Now, what antidote did you normally use?"
Elita searched her subspace and pulled out the shot before she stated, "Here it is. Do you think that it will work?"
Balm took the shot from Elita and said, "It should. Since this ability is based on your old poison ability as Blackarachnia." She then administered the shot and a few minutes later, Stormfire blinked his optics and said, "Yikes, I almost feel sorry for Sentinel."
The three of them laughed at that but they were soon interrupted by Scale coming in. Scale smiled and said, "Nice to see you Elita. I guess Balm is as good of a medic as we have always known. But that isn't the reason I came in here."
"Why did you come in here?" Balm asked.
"Zarron called and the mechs slipped to him about everything and now he wants us all back at the Cavern." Scale stated.
"I am going to have Tana shoot them when she gets back." Balm stated.
They all then went to the teleport and all seven of them got on. The teleport then activated and they were soon all at the second base.
"Where are we?" Elita asked.
"This is the Dragon Scouter secondary base. Also known as the Cavern." Stormfire answered.
"Yeah, and it is also where you two should have checked in right away."
The seven of them turned and watched as Zarron, Remcy, and their mates walked up to them. Balm stepped forward and said, "Well, we had to help Elita out."
Zarron and Remcy must have noticed Elita then because Remcy asked, "What are you doing on Earth Elita?"
Elita then told them her story and after she was done, Zarron stated, "It is nice that you are on the good side again. I would like to introduce you to mine and Remcy's bondmates." He then pulled beam forward and said, "This is my mate Beam and this is Remcy's mate Whirlwind."
They all shook servos and then they all jumped when the rest of the Scouters came into the room.
"What are you all doing in here?" Stormfire yelled.
"We have our ways of knowing that you and Balm were ok and we heard that you had brought a guest." Hinge stated.
Balm turned to the twins and gave them a look that promised payback later. The stories were then told and after they were done, the monitor blinked and Zarron answered it.
"Hey Zarron, I need a teleport for eleven." Pandimala stated.
Zarron glanced around at all the bots present before answering wit confusion in his voice, "Pandimala, I will get you here ASAP. Something has happened."
Pandimala must have heard the confusion in his voice because she asked, "What happened Zarron? Did you find them?"
Pandimala didn't know how right she was. But, instead of answering her directly, he said, "Well, it is hard to describe over the comm. link. I'll port you bots in now. Eleven right?"
It didn't take long for Pandimala to answer, "Yes eleven."
Zarron then turned off the link and said, "I think that 'Mala is bringing some of the council with her as well as everyone else. You ok Elita?"
Elita nodded and said, "Better to get this part done now."
Zarron nodded and activated the teleport. Everybot then turned to the platform and waited for the bots to arrive.
Pandimala: That was the worst experience ever.
Chaom: No kidding. I now know what you were talking about with your hate of the council.
Tana: We have been trying you fresh bots that for how long. But of course, no one believed us.
Blackbit: I believed you.
Tana: You are not a fresh bot.
AN: Hey here is a new chapter. I hope you all liked this, cause I know I did. And the next chapter is going to be interesting. But, until then though please read and review. But no flames.