Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Playback: Where are you at Authoress? I don't recognize this place.

Authoress: I'm in college Playback! Just finished my last class of today and I am relaxing for a bit.

Chala: This is relaxing?

Toxica: Better then being in class...I hope.

Ch. 24: Acceptance of Rebellion

Playback sighed as he sat in his work area in the rebel hideout. There was so much unsorted paper that Playback felt like he was going to be swamped in it. Why couldn't Slipknot had been created with a sense of organization? That would make this so much easier. Of course, if Slipknot had a better memory, then Playback wouldn't be searching through all of these papers in the first place.

While the rebels had not done well under Slipknot's lead, they had accomplished some things. One of those things that greatly interested Playback was the news that the rebels had kept track of patrols around Polyhex. Playback was aiming for said city to be their next target. That would take care of two of Kaon's borders. Of course, eventually, they would have to go after Iacon. But, Tyger Pax was going to be before that, hopefully. Iacon would have to wait until they had the city surrounded on three sides.

It was unfortunate because Playback greatly wanted to go there immediately and rip Sentinel's helm off and destroy the Virons by cutting off its helms, no matter how many it spawned. It would bring him no greater joy. But, he had to play it smart. He had to take out Viron forces in the already mentioned cities before he could think of challenging Iacon.

"Frag it where did you put those notes Slipknot?" Playback growled to himself. All of this searching was giving him a major need for some high grade. Maybe, when he actually found the notes, he would ask Chala, Toxica, Caliber, Flintlock, Malice, and Pandemonium to come and get a high grade with him at Slapjack's and Stutterstep's.

But first, he had to find those blasted notes. They would have to be checked out, of course, but they would help taking Polyhex if they had a very good idea of when the Virons would patrol what areas.

"Find them yet?" Toxica's voice asked over the comm.

Playback barely held back a growl. "Not yet Toxica. Why don't you come down here and help me search?"

"Nah, I wouldn't want to mess up your search system. Plus, I'm doing some training with Caliber and Flintlock." Toxica responded with, what Playback could just tell was, a smile in her voice. She was enjoying his obvious torture.

"Maybe I should take a break and come see how well you have trained? I win and you have to look for the notes. You win, and I let you three set up a prank on Ultra Magnus or Megatron." Playback stated. He knew he couldn't use the prank as a part of the deal, because they might just do it anyways, but he was hoping that they didn't know that so they would take the deal.

Lady luck was not with him. "Sorry Playback, but you would smoke us. Plus, we already have something...Have to go. Sunblast showed up to help us train some more. Bye!"

Playback was about to say more when Toxica cut the line. That femme was learning too fast. Playback sighed and glanced at the desk and sighed. The notes were right there. Great, he had just pretty much begged Toxica to look for something that was right under his visor. He felt so brilliant...not.

Chala sighed. After Praxus had returned to Alliance servos, many bots had joined the rebels, though not anywhere near a fourth of them. But, it was just enough for her brothers to join with Miltersaw and Shadow Fall. They had decided that it was worth the risk to join up and the first thing that her brothers had done was ask her how the fight for Praxus was.

Honestly, it scared her. She had never imagined that fighting could be so brutal so quickly. She should have expected it, but she hadn't. Plus, add to that Toxica pretty much melting Setback's helm off didn't help the situation any. Was war really that brutal? She had been sparked after the major fighting had stopped and she had never had to see any of the energon that was spilled. Actually, Nylia and Blacklight had been the only two who had seen the fighting, and they had only been sparklings at the time. Maybe this was why they were always so serious? She now feared that she was going to end up like them.

"Chala, are you ok?"

Chala turned and was surprised to see Toxica. She thought that the femme was training with Sunblast and her other friends. Looking away and nodding, Chala said, "Yeah, I'm fine." She didn't want to tell the femme that she was still shocked at what happened during the raid of Praxus.

But, it seemed like the femme in question had other plans. "No you aren't. I can see it in you visor." Toxica then sat down next to her. "Was that your first fight?"

Chala hesitated for a few nano-clicks before nodding. "Yeah."

Toxica nodded her helm in understanding. "That was my first real battle too. But, well, you saw what I did. I have always had to fend for myself against bots who wanted to use me as weapons and treated me like I was just a drone, a weapon to be disposed of. I'm sorry if I scared you."

The femme hit it right on the head. Toxica did scare her. An ability like that was lethal and could hurt somebot greatly. But, of course, Chala was also, somewhat, afraid of Playback. The mech was so powerful and he seemed to know more about the Alliance then someone from the outside should. So, while Chala was afraid of the femme, she was glad that Toxica was on their side and not on the Viron side.

"I'll live with it." Chala stated in a response. "Just going to take some time to get used to, that's all."

Toxica looked like she wanted to say something in response to that but, before she could, they heard some commotion in the main room.

"What do you think is going on?" Toxica asked.

Chala shrugged her shoulders and stood up. "I don't know, but I think that I am going to find out very soon." She then walked back toward the main room and, judging by the pedesteps behind her, Toxica was following. When Chala got to the main room though, all she could do was stare in total and utter shock.

Balm sighed as she sat in her room. There was so much to think about that she couldn't get her thoughts straight. Just the previous solar cycle, Praxus had been returned to Alliance servos, just like that. And it was because of the rebels. Thanks to Playback's leadership, they had taken the city without telling anybot in the rest of the Alliance about it.

She had been with Ultra Magnus and Megatron, giving them their checkups with Razor, when to their surprise, Chaom had called. He said that they needed to come to Praxus stat. Well, they were all surprised because they hadn't even known that Chaom had left his room, never mind Kaon itself. But, they had gone out immediately, thinking that Chaom was in trouble. But, what they got instead was a warm welcome from the rebels and Chaom and, even better, the fog machine in the city had been destroyed and they were finally seeing the night sky for the first time in quite some time. It was beautiful. And, that was what was causing her processor so much turmoil at that very click.

"Balm sweetspark, I'm home." She heard Stormfire yell as he walked in. But, when he got into the room, she watched as his faceplate went from happy to worried. "What's wrong Balm?"

Balm sighed. "I'm just thinking. Have we been doing the right thing, you know, not being more active in getting Cybertron back?"

Stormfire sighed and sat down next to her. "Balm, what are you saying? You know that riddles have never been my strong suit."

Balm smiled at that before saying, "I haven't talked in riddle in a long time. What I'm saying is that I think that we should start fighting back. Pandimala would be horrified that the Virons have Cybertron. Even more so that none of us who were close to her have done scrap to get it back. Bots who barely knew her, scrap even bots who didn't know her have taken up the call to fight before we did. Malice and Pandemonium just joined not long before Praxus fell. Just thinking that her parents had joined sooner then us, and they had felt her loss pretty hard. I just feel like I have been failing her."

She was waiting for him to say something. Saying that she was wrong to think like that. But, all he gave her was silence. That worried her. After a click or two of silence, he finally said something. "What do you plan to do dear? Are we going to continue to stay out of the rebels?"

It was then that Balm realized that Stormfire had always wanted to help out but he had refused to go against her. That, was the most wonderful thing that he could do. He was not willing to go against her, no matter what and she couldn't help but feel admiration for her mate. "What are we going to do? Well, I think it is high time that we took care of Sentinel and his mindless followers once and for all."

"You have no idea how long that I have waited for you to say that Balm." Stormfire stated with a smile before putting a small kiss on her lips.

Balm smiled and gave him a quick peck back before saying, "Well, then what are you waiting for? Let's get what we need and head on over to the hideout."

Now Stormfire looked confused. "How are we going to find it?"

Balm knew why he asked that. Even after Praxus was returned to Alliance servos, the rebels refused to give out the location of their base so they could continue. To get in, you had to know a rebel or had to be lucky enough to find the base on your own. Luckily for her, the first of the two choices was what she had. "That, my dear, is all in thanks of our daughter."

"Zinnia joined the rebels?" Stormfire asked in shock.

Balm had been shocked when she heard too. When they had arrived at Praxus, Balm had caught a quick glance of her daughter walking off with known rebels. She couldn't assume, though, and so she had asked her son Miltersaw to find out. She hadn't heard back from him so she assumed that he had joined as well. Luckily, she figured that he might so, while he was recharging before he went off to find his sister, she planted a tracker under his armor. "Yes, and I believe that Miltersaw has too, recently. So, that is why I put a tracker under his armor. And since he is most likely with the rebels, then we soon will be as well."

Stormfire laughed at that and Balm smiled an innocent smile. "Balm my dear, you have grown very sneaky over the stellar cycles. I think that you have always kept a part of Pandimala with you, even if you didn't show it." He then stood up and offered her his servo. "Now, my dear, let's go join our kids."

Balm smirked. "Of course darling. We can't let them have all of the fun."

Stormfire nodded and the two walked outside before Stormfire flew through the air while carrying Balm. Balm laughed out as they flew just outside of the city borders. "Stormfire, I don't remember the last time that we did this. It is so amazing."

"It is dear." Stormfire told her. "But, where am I going?"

Balm took out her tracking device and turned it on before finding Miltersaw's location. "Says here that they are at the Alpha-Phi warehouse. Not a bad place to set up shop. But, it's our turn to crash their party."

Stormfire nodded and started to fly off in that direction. Balm couldn't hold in the excitement that was building up inside of her systems. She hadn't been this excited for anything since Pandimala had been around. Maybe this mech, Playback, was doing a lot of good. He seemed to be acting just like Pandimala would. As she thought about it, it was kind of scary how alike Playback and Pandimala were. It was almost like they were the same bot, but it was impossible. Pandimala was offline.

When they landed in front of the warehouse, Balm was surprised at the amount of security that the warehouse had. They were fully prepared for a battle if it were to come to them. With a nod, Balm told Stormfire to let her go. When she landed, the four bots up front jumped at her sudden landing. The jumped even more when Stormfire landed next to her. Out of the bots there, Balm recognized one right away.

"Well Balm. This certainly is a surprise." Malice stated while she and three others walked up to them.

Balm smiled. "Well, Storm and I,"

"Ahem?" Stormfire coughed out.

Balm sighed. "Ok, I finally decided to come and join you all. Stormfire has been wanting to for some time. But he wasn't going to join until I said to."

"Took you long enough too." Stormfire muttered.

Balm narrowed her optics at him but said, "Ok, so, where do we sign up?"

Malice smiled. "Just inside here. I'm sure you are going to be a big surprise to them all." She then turned to the others with her. "I'll be out in a few clicks bots. I am just going to take Balm and Stormfire in to see Playback." She then smirked. "Don't have any fun without me." She then motioned for the two of them to follow.

Balm nodded and followed one of her most dearest friends inside. It was strange, following Malice to Playback. One of the few mechs that none of them knew much about and seemed to be the most mysterious of the three that were new. Also, he happened to be one of the few that she didn't trust as much as the others in the Alliance. But, they had brought their hopes up so Balm would put aside her mistrust...for now.

Once they were inside, Balm located Playback and stared straight at him. He seemed so calm and, yet, her training as a medic told her that something seemed to be conflicting inside of him.

"Balm, Stormfire; I am very glad that you have joined us." Playback stated formally.

Balm was taken aback at such kindness and nodded before saying, "It was high time that we joined up Playback."

"Carrier? Sire?"

Balm turned immediately when she heard her creations' voices and smiled when she saw Zinnia and Miltersaw standing next to each other. They both had the same shocked expressions on their face plates and Balm realized that they probably didn't think that she would ever join.

Zinnia couldn't believe that her carrier would ever join the rebels. Her sire's joining didn't surprise her too much. She had known that he always had a yearning to join them, but her carrier joining just went over her helm. It wasn't a secret that she had inherited her nervousness from her carrier, and Balm was always condemning the rebels at home. Zinnia wondered why she was joining now.

"Carrier, how did you find this place?" Miltersaw asked.

That was a pretty good question. She had written the location down anywhere and she always checked herself for tracking devices. There was no way that they could have followed her. Zinnia was honestly very curious about the answer.

Balm chuckled before walking up to Miltersaw. "Why, when I sent Miltersaw here to find out what you were doing out at all times, I placed this tracker," Balm then pulled a small tracer from underneath his armor before saying, "under his armor so I could know where you would both be. I figured that it wouldn't be long until he joined. I already knew that you had joined after the reclamation of Praxus."

That shocked Zinnia. How had her carrier found out? "How? We were so careful."

Balm could hear the disappointed sound in her daughter's voice. "Don't worry dear. The only reason that I knew was because I caught a small glimpse of you with some known rebel members when we all went to Praxus. Then, when I sent your brother and he didn't get back to me, it was obvious."

Zinnia was so happy that she hadn't ruined it. They had all been trying so hard not to let too many of their family members know. Chala had been the only one out of the three of them that had told their creators. Of course, now her's knew and that meant that only Sunblast's were left...well, Sunblast's and now Shadow Fall's.

Zinnia snapped out of her thoughts when her sire addressed Playback. "So, Playback, what is your next big move? I figure that you must have one already."

She was almost positive that Playback was smiling behind his visor. Zinnia could feel it. The mech seemed to emit a feeling of mischievousness mixed in with something else that Zinnia couldn't identify.

"Well, while I don't plan on taking another city next, the next step will be just as big." Playback started. "Actually, I am overjoyed that you two have joined now because you will help immensely on this next project."

"What's that?" Chala asked as she walked in the room with Toxica.

Playback looked at her before turning back to her creators. "Well, I plan for our next attack to be focused on eliminating the higher command of bots on the Viron side. The one I am aiming for in particular should make you very happy Balm. Even I have heard your past with this bot from where I am from."

Now Zinnia was very curious. Her carrier had made quite a few enemies on the Viron side and she wondered which one Playback planned on going after. It probably wasn't going to be Sentinel, but still, the list was sort of long.

Balm, on her part, raised an optic ridge. "Oh, and who might that be?"

Playback brought an image onto his visor and, very suddenly, the room went deathly silent. Zinnia could only stare at the image in shock. They were going after HIM? Playback was really stepping up in taking down the Virons. He was a key interrogator for the Virons and would be a critical loss to them.

Her carrier, though, was grinning like a sparkling about to get its first energon goodie. "We are going after him?" Her carrier's voice was full of excitement and hope.

Playback nodded. "Yes, and I wish for you and your mate to do the honor of taking him offline. Do you accept? You will have backup."

Zinnia stared at her carrier in shock as a smirk came on her face plate. She hadn't seen that kind of smirk except for in memory clips, when Pandimala was still online. Things were changing for the Alliance.

Balm nodded. "Oh, we will be honored to tear him apart. Just stand by for cleanup. It will be messy."

Chala: Who do you think is going to offline him? Stormfire or Balm?

Sunblast: Are you starting a betting pool?

Chala: Of course I am. This is one of the best things we have had to bet on in quite some time.

Authoress: That is true, but I can't bet because I already know how it is going to play out.

Toxica: Can I know?

Authoress: No.

AN: Well, I officially started college today so updates might be slower then they were before. My plan, for right now, is to finish this story and then working on completing some of the others that I have here before starting any new ones. Of course, I'll also be updating Freedom Fighters, the story that I am co-authoring with Shadow Katakura, while I do this but those will be the only pauses that I will have in this story. Until next we meet, please drop a review!