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

Paul: *sighs* I'm not coming in on this for a point of view...am I?

Authoress: *shakes her head* No, but neither is Lizzie so that's good.

Paul: *curious* Why isn't Lizzie coming in?

Authoress: *shrugs* How should I know? You're a god and you don't know.

Chapter 24: Enemy Within

Zarron's 1st P.O.V.

I was such an idiot. I was a scout. It was my job to analyze situations around me and make sure that we weren't falling behind in what we needed to do. When we arrived, I knew that our numbers were growing larger then what could be balanced out between the bots here. I should have seen much earlier that Ratchet was the only true medic that we had to take care of injuries that we may sustain. But, I allowed the mission I was on to cloud my view of what was right in front of me. We were in trouble now and I allowed my blindness to put us here.

This battle, here in the mine, it was going on longer than I thought it would. In past times, the 'Cons had simply left the mine after a few shots were fired. Of course, those mines that they left were almost drained. From the little I had seen during my scouring of the mines so far, this mine was still running in full production. But, that didn't fully explain the Decepticon push to fight right now. It was almost as if…

I raised my swords and barely blocked the attack that came at me. Once I finally got my bearings to get a good look at the bot who attacked me, I saw that it was Vox. While that Decepticon was not a part of my larger mission, I was asked to look into his case by a friend and I felt like now was another time to try and get information out of the previous Autobot. "Vox, we meet again." Best to start out the banter simple so I wouldn't scare him off from answering.

Vox, in turn, looked guarded as we continued to strike at each other. "Zarron. It seems you Autobots aren't firing on all cylinders as usual."

I could tell that he was trying to bait me. Trying to get me angry and make me falter. Give him an opening to hit me. But, I wasn't an idiot, and I certainly didn't come online the other solar. So, instead of getting angry, I decided to try and throw him off his game. "You were once one of us." I started. Immediately, I noticed Vox tense slightly and his optics narrowed.

"One of the worst mistakes in my existence, I assure you." Vox shot at me verbally before he struck out at me with his fist. I winced when the shot, though deflected, graved against my shoulder. I had to be careful.

"Why was that Vox? What happened that caused you to switch sides?" I pressed the mech, feeling like now was the right time.

Instead of getting an answer though, Vox merely growled at me before launching forward. It was hard to keep up with his blows, both verbal and non-verbal. The mech was giving me nothing. While this was only a side mission that I was doing, I wanted to find out this answer. I never knew Vox personally, but the bot that I was trying to find the answers for knew him very well, and his betrayal shook him to his spark.

Flashback:

"Zar, wait."

I turned and watched as the brown and orange truck mech walked toward me. He wasn't large for a truck mech, but many always thought that my friend was a warrior. Remcy was anything but a warrior. While he could fight, Remcy was a top intelligence agent. Before the war broke out, he worked for the CIA and did plenty of work for them. Once the war started, and we joined the Autobots, he immediately used his skills to train mechs and femmes that could learn and help our fight against the Decepticons.

"What is it Rem?" I could see that my friend was worried about something, and he wasn't one to worry unless he was sitting in front of his monitor screens.

My friend closed the distance between us and motioned for me to sit. Seeing that there were a few cargo pallets that were still unloaded on one of the cargo ships, I sat on one of those and he sat next to me. "I heard that you are going to be leaving on a mission soon. Heading to Cybertron and maybe other places right?"

I nodded. It wasn't a secret here that I was going to be doing one of my jobs as a sort of internal affairs officer for the Autobots to check on the status of bots on Cybertron currently and those that, if I was able to access them, on Earth. My mission was going to take time, and I had no doubt that it would be dangerous. These were the Decepticons I was going to be dealing with along with possible traitors to our cause. "Yeah, I leave at the beginning of tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

Remcy looked around nervously, which wasn't like him in the slightest before he let out a vent. "I need you to do me a favor if you can."

"Sure Rem, what is it?" I knew that Remcy wouldn't ask me to do something crazy and so I felt that, if given the opportunity to help my friend, then I could.

He looked at me directly before he spoke. "It's Vox. That report made when he supposedly defected...it never added up to me. Vox wasn't the kind of bot to just attack somebot. With the rumors I've been grabbing from our intercepted communications saying that he is still alive, I find that I need answers…answers that I can't find here." He looked torn about this.

And I knew why. Vox had been one of Remcy's top students and we thought that he was as steadfast an Autobot that there could be. Remcy gave him special training that he never even thought about giving to any of his other students. Vox was Remcy's right servo. When we read the report from the Autobot Flamewar that Vox had tried to offline her while they were scouting Praxus after the attack...it seemed to destroy Remcy. He couldn't believe that Vox could do that. Honestly, from what Remcy told me of Vox, I found that I never could either. But, subsequent reports that showed him fighting for the Decepticons seemed to validate her report.

However, Remcy was an intelligence agent. He wanted to know why something happened as well as the how. "What do you need me to do Remcy?" I wanted Remcy to ask me fully, even though I had an idea of what he needed.

My friend's optics held mine. "Zarron. If you run into Vox during this mission of yours, could you try to find out...find out why?" His voice told me about the confusion that Remcy still felt at Vox's betrayal.

Smiling, I put a servo on my friend's shoulder. "Hey now, we're friends...even if you are from Iacon." He laughed and nudged me at that. Usually, he was the one teasing me that I was the one from Tarn. "If I run into Vox, I'll try as many times as needed to get his side of things." We then grasped servos. "I promise."

End of flashback.

I let out a grunt as Vox forced me back away from him. This was not good. I needed to get that answer from him, and I was sure that Rem didn't want me to cut open his previous protege to do that. However, the mech was being stubborn about this. I needed the information about his betrayal. Vox didn't know it, I hope, but his betrayal of the Autobots hit Remcy more than he would want anybot to know about. He hadn't taken a protege since and didn't socialize with anybot that either he or his close friends didn't know.

I needed those answers!

Hook's 1st P.O.V.

There was little that I found more frustrating than the situation I was in. Here I was, worried about Lizzie and her current condition due to the energon poisoning, and the only bot who could probably help Knockout find a cure was the enemy that I was facing. Ratchet, though getting on slightly in his stellars, was a miracle worker. All of our reports about his prowess in his field, from before and during the war, showed this countless times.

But, as I traded blows with the medic, I knew that he was not an option. Allowing the Autobot medic to work on her would risk revealing too much information on her that we were trying to keep away from them. The fact that Lizzie, who the Autobots thought was our prisoner, was really a full Decepticon now, was just one of those pieces of information.

No matter how I looked at it, I realized that Primus had to be a cruel mech to allow this. Lizzie was everything that the ancient texts used to say that Primus looked for in exceptional beings. Long Haul was always looking into those. Anyways, those attributes were that the being had to be caring, wise, humorous, and loyal to their beliefs. Even after such a short time of knowing the human, it was easy for me to see that Lizzie had these traits. With these traits, though, how did Primus find it acceptable to make that human suffer like she was? It never would make sense to me.

"Would you answer a question; medic to medic?" I looked at the enemy in front of me, curious about where his processor was taking him. I was his enemy and he expected me to answer a question?

However, this might work to our advantage. I would have to run it by Soundwave, but if Ratchet was willing to ask a question, he might be able to answer one about energon poisoning. I was sure that Knockout would not mind any advice at this point since he had yet to report in that Lizzie was stable. As I sent my idea to the third in command, I nodded toward Ratchet. "It depends on the question." I carefully answered him. While I waited for the medic to respond, Soundwave sent me a negative to ask my question. It might risk giving the Autobots insight into what was happening with Lizzie on the Nemesis.

I had to be careful to not slip up. There were factors about happenings in our ranks, and mainly with Lizzie, that we were keeping away from the Autobots specifically to cause them to lose focus during a fight.

The Autobot medic hesitated slightly before he spoke. "What is the condition of the humans on the Nemesis? Are they still online?"

Well looks like I wasn't going to be able to answer the Autobot truthfully. "There is no way to really tell." Well, maybe not as much of a lie as I thought it was.

Plus, as the Autobot went away, and in a direction that I was allowed to let him go, I thought. There was something else that the Autobot said when he asked that question that had me confused. He spoke as if we had more than one human on the Nemesis. However, Lizzie was the only one that we had. What was he getting at?

As I thought more and more on a solution, I realized that the Autobots must have gotten footage from Lizzie in her suit when she led the recovery mission at the MECH base to recover Breakdown and Vox. We knew that sending her on that mission would risk her getting caught on the cameras, and that was why she had the suit. It was to disguise her so she wouldn't be recognized. However, making the Autobots think that we had two humans would push our advantage. They would be even less likely to try any thoughtless attacks against us with two humans supposedly in our custody.

"Soundwave, I'm sending you a clip from my conversation with the Autobot medic." I communicated the TIC before sending him the bit of my conversation with Ratchet where he made it known that the Autobots thought we had more than one human on board.

It wasn't long before Soundwave got back to me through private message. "Understood. The message will be relayed to Lord Megatron for further analysis. Retreat back to lower levels to help hold back the Autobot attack.-Soundwave."

Well, the sooner we got this fight over, the faster that we were going to be able to focus on Lizzie. She was on the Nemesis, fighting for her survival, and our great thinkers were down here fighting. I understood why, since this was a large mine that still had a lot of energon that could be taken from it. If we could save this mine, then we needed all forces able to do so. If we couldn't, though, we would still need all of our able forces to cause enough of a distraction to set up our alternate plan. The best that we could do was decide which strategy would be needed, and use it against the Autobots, before we could get back to the ship.

Knockout was worthy of his title of chief medical officer, there was no doubt of that in my processor. He may act a fool at times, but he received training from some of the greatest bots that Iacon ever produced during the end of the golden age. Ratchet was even one of those teachers. He was more than equipped to take the role. However, he was only just learning about human medical practices and, complicating that with energon would push even the greatest to their limit. Once he received the help of the likes of Shockwave, Soundwave, and Vox, the cure that we needed for Lizzie would be even closer than it was now.

As I moved through the caverns toward the lower levels, I started to focus back on the fight. If I wanted us to get our human Decepticon the help we needed, then we needed to focus on this battle. Before I let my thoughts go completely back to the fight I was about to walk into, I sent a quick hope to whatever being was willing to help her give Lizzie the strength to pull through this. Right now, she was weak and very vulnerable and, for her, that was dangerous.

Joe's 1st P.O.V.

This was taking too long.

The cycling of Lizzie's blood to try and draw the energon out was not going as fast as we were hoping it was. The amount of energon that we were drawing out of her system was being replaced with twice as much of it inside of her body. This wasn't what we were hoping. There had to be something that we could do to increase the output of the energon from this blood cycling that we were doing. Knockout's scans were showing that Lizzie's body was fighting the energon that was working on diseasing her body. If she was fighting, then fate owed her the chance to survive. It needed to give her an advantage, to let her win against the energon.

But, so far, the energon was winning. Knockout was suggesting that, if something wasn't done to stabilize Lizzie within the next four cycles, then she would be offline before night fell. Looking at the human that I was checking on, I couldn't believe that. I couldn't imagine her offline. If it wasn't for this human, then I wouldn't even be here now. She had taken an initiative to put me in Knockout's sight and now, the mech was training me. While I wasn't thrilled about being put on the spot like Lizzie had put me in, I now realized how lucky I was that Lizzie did that for me.

Checking her fluids, I shook my head. This wasn't fair. This wasn't a fight that any of us were prepared to fight and Lizzie, the weakest of us, was on the frontline of the frontline. We just had to get the energon out of her. Lizzie had to take the fight to the energon itself.

"Joe, are you alright?" I looked at Knockout and he was studying me. From his look, I was guessing that he was worried that I was losing focus on Lizzie. That, of course, wasn't true in the slightest.

So, I nodded and motioned to Lizzie, "It's not fair. I feel completely useless right now. We keep working to help her, and nothing we are doing seems to be actively advancing her recovery. My systems feel like they are going to crash from this stress."

What I wasn't expecting Knockout to do was let out a sharp laugh. "You think you're stressed?" I then thought that he was going to start talking about the stress he was facing since he was the CMO of the Decepticon army. But, to my surprise, he motioned over to Lizzie. "Can you imagine what these past solars since she came on the Nemesis have been for her?"

I wasn't following what he was saying. "What do you mean?"

Knockout looked between me and Lizzie before he sighed. "Have I trained you in nothing besides medical work?" What the frag was he talking about? "Put yourself in Lizzie's position. A being as fragile as she is suddenly appears on a ship full of our kind with no memory of how she arrived. Then, from the click she wakes up, she has to learn how to interact with us, all the while finding her place among us while avoiding dying. Of course, the last bit can happen to her pretty quickly if she isn't careful. Her every weakness seems to have been exposed lately and, just when she is recovering, this happens." He let out a harsh laugh at that. "So, you say that you are stressed. Just think about everything Lizzie's been through. No matter how upset or 'stressed' you think you are, remember that it is nothing compared to what has been going on in that fleshy processor of hers."

A shiver went through my systems at that. Not only was the look that Knockout was giving me intense, but the facts that he brought up were hitting home as well. Lizzie had been fighting so much for her right to live lately, and I was stressed only now about her fight? Fighting for her life was something that Lizzie had been doing even before I met her here on the Nemesis. Yet, I was only just now thinking about it. I really needed to get my priorities straight on that account. Lizzie had been fighting all along and, yet, it was only now that she was physically hurt that I was worried about her.

So, instead, I turned my attention to her readings. What I saw, though, caused my optics to widen. "Knockout,"

"If this is about how stressed you are then I'm not interested." Knockout waved me off as he continued to sift through data-pads that were nearby.

"Knockout!" I said more forcefully to get his attention.

"What?" He asked. I pointed to the readings that the monitor was showing what her condition was. His optics widened as he looked at the readouts that I was looking at. "You didn't mess anything up did you? Because if I report this and it is just because you touched something..."

I shot him a look at that. "I've been freaking out too much to try touching anything. We haven't been able to do anything about this and you think I'm going to touch things without your say?" He had to be crazy. It was really quick and easy math to figure out. I'm a drone that is definitely replaceable and he is the chief medical officer on the ship. Let's see, who is most likely to be offlined for something like this? Oh, I know...ME!

His look relaxed at my response and he took one more scan of Lizzie. "Then I'll contact Soundwave and Lord Megatron. They need to be kept up on this situation." He then started to speak to the two in question.

As he did though, I felt the first bit of relief that I have felt since this entire mess began. While this wasn't the best thing that we could have hoped for, it was definitely a start in the right direction. Lizzie's vitals were, finally, stable. It must have just taken time for the separation of the energon from her blood to take effect. I wasn't sure what sort of deity we had to thank, but I was grateful. Lizzie was finally stable.

Airachnid's 1st P.O.V.

"Come now Arcee, is that the best you can handle?" I taunted the femme in front of me. The two-wheeler that was my favorite Autobot target glared at me. Oh, she was so easy to taunt. "Of course, this might explain the way that you failed to save that partner of yours on Cybertron. What was his name again?"

The femme in front of me flinched at that before her eyes narrowed. Oh, that was a look that I thrived in. Arcee was so easy to manipulate. "I'll offline you Airachnid!" Arcee growled at me before launching forward. Oh, the ability to drive another being to blind rage, to manipulate them into doing exactly what you wanted without having to tell them to do so, it was what I lived on. And, Arcee was one of my favorite, and admittedly easiest, targets. Nothing could beat the high that I got from manipulating others.

But lately, since my arrival on the Nemesis, I wasn't able to do anything about it. Finally, I had a new femme in the form of the human Lizzie, but she wasn't easy to bait. I found that out that first solar I was on the Nemesis. That human had the nerve to talk back to me like she was so superior. And she seemed to have almost every other bot on the Nemesis wrapped around her fleshy digits. You would think that she was the queen of the ship with how she acted. Ha! If our leader wasn't protecting the human, then I would have already torn her apart, both mentally and physically, by now.

As I dodged Arcee's attacks, though, that thought took over. Lord Megatron seemed to have an unusual attachment to the human that was on board our ship. I did not have the background as to why that was, but he seemed to be on her side for much of what she did. There was nothing special about Lizzie, and yet Lord Megatron seemed to have made a place in the top ranks of the Decepticons for the pathetic human. Why our great Lord and Master would do such a thing seemed to be foolish.

The Lord Megatron that emerged during the war, energon-craving and ruthless, that was a leader to aspire towards. Cutting down all in his path. If that processor driven leader was here, then I would have been able to disembowel that fragging human long ago, and none of those mechs she had behind her would be able to stop me.

But, something killed that ferocious spark in Lord Megatron and I would bet every credit in my name and every beautiful helm in my collection that we had that fragging human to blame. So much power and ruthless drive, killed by a pathetic human fleshbag. Oh, when the time came for her offlining, and I knew that it was going to come, I would enjoy digging out her fleshy insides bit by bit. Oh, the look of terror on her face...I could just imagine it.

Movement from my right caused me to snarl as I barely dodged a glade that was aimed for my spark. When I looked, I saw the fragging femme known as Flamewar in front of me. Fragging piece of scrap. Her reputation was known even to me and I knew that I had to be careful with this Autobot. While she wasn't quite on the same level that I was, I knew that she was pretty talented in her own right. How she was even an Autobot, I would never understand.

"I have her handled Flamewar." Arcee seemed to growl at her teammate. Oh? Was this tension that I was feeling between the two of them. Strange, and I thought that they would get along so well?

Flamewar seemed to smirk at her fellow Autobot before she turned her attention back to me. "Right, and letting the hunter here back you in a corner was your plan? You're either brash or stupid." Oh, tension among the Autobots was happening.

Interesting.

While a part of me was excited and wanted to delve into that to really mess with the Autobots, I was even more angry at the fact that my alone time with Arcee was interrupted. "I think you need to step out Autobot. Arcee and I were having a very deep conversation when you blundered in." While the tension with the Autobots was definitely interesting, I liked my personal time with my favorite targets. This Autobot was in my way.

However, instead of backing off, this new Autobot had the nerve to smirk at me. "Oh, I don't blunder. I arrive exactly how I wish to."

While I wanted to rip the faceplate off of this annoying femme, I had to remind myself to stay calm. There was a plan in place between Astrotrain and myself and I could not allow my emotions to get the better of me. I couldn't afford to let the enemies goad me before the time was right. Everything had to go as smoothly as we could make it.

Of course, this plan was going to end with my ejection from the Decepticon cause. But, I wasn't much of a fan of being a team player as it was and I would have Astrotrain to feed me information. It would be very beneficial to work out this situation the way we planned. That human was going to fall, and I would enjoy every nano of pain that she would experience. I had the perfect weapon to really make our human Decepticon feel pain, even in the state that she was it.

"Informational update: Lizzie's condition is stable.-Soundwave" I smirked when that news bulletin came in. Perfect. This was the moment I was waiting for. Soon, that human scum that had infested our ship would cease to exist, and in a way that would not be traced back to me until it was too late.

Starscream: *growls* I will find the Authoress. When I do, there will be blood.

Shockwave: While I do not disagree with you, we must remember that we need the Authoress to make this right as well.

Thundercracker: *reluctantly* You're right. But, she will pay for what she did. It was hard enough watching Lizzie without the Authoress' interference.

AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this! The fight for the mine continues on and we seem to be moving quickly. Confrontations are happening and those will continue to happen in the upcoming chapters.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the change in Lizzie's condition. She is finally stable! But, the road to fully fighting against the energon may be a long one. Of course, that also depends on what Airachnid is planning with Astrotrain. Why is Lizzie becoming stable a good thing for the femme?

Well, that's all for now. Next chapter is going to be the last chapter of season 1 and it is going to be a doozie! What sort of fun can I pull out of it? *disappears in head* *comes out* Regardless, here is the name of the next chapter (Since I'm not revealing the names of the season 2 chapters until I post its first chapter).

Chapter 25: All Fall Down

Chapter 26:... (Beginning of season 2)

Chapter 27:... (still in season 2 so you have to wait!)

Well, that's all for now! I hope you all have enjoyed. Don't forget to leave a review, even to say hi! (But please do one of these two if you review ;) ) So, until next time, TTYL! *learning about the crusades*