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


Authoress: *squeals* We have a birthday request!

Pandimala: I was wondering why we were finally getting updated.

Authoress: *frowns* Funny. *smiles* But let's sing now!

All: *sing* Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Lykaious! Happy birthday to you!

Frenzy: So what are the odds she is going to update us anytime soon?

Authoress: *frowns*


Chapter 32: A Long Road

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

"So, what are you two doing again?" I asked the twins as I sat in my room with them. After all the stress of the other solar, I had finally received my room, and the twins seemed to like to spend whatever time that they could get with me. If I was in the training room with the drones, working with them like I swore I would, they were with me either giving advice that we were missing or just cheering everybot on. Medical checkup with Knockout? They were there just to give Knockout a hard time and to simplify some of the responses that Knockout would give me on my questions.

Frag, even at night, the twins were falling into recharge on my chestplates. I think they missed our cuddle times back when...well, back then. To be honest, I did too. The first night that I was Pandimala, it felt so strange not having the familiar feeling of the twins on either side of me. I didn't even question it when they were asleep on my chestplates when I woke up after the second night. It was just a relief to have that back as a part of my normal recharge routine.

However, back to the answer I needed from them. "Boss bot asked us to make sure you didn't leave your room until he was ready for you. Said something about Lord Megatron permitting him to give you a basic lesson in accessing external systems," Rumble thankfully answered.

Accessing external systems? Wait...so if I wasn't going to be looking into the systems of the Decepticons...that meant that I was going to be able to surf the internet! And, from how they were talking, I wouldn't need to be connected to a console to do this either. This was going to be so much fun! This way, when I was training, I could get some music playing in my helm to enjoy the workouts that I had by myself.

"And there he is now," Frenzy said with a laugh. "Let's get to our room so boss bot can show you all the fun stuff we get to work with."

Making sure the twins got on my servo, I stood from my berth before exiting the room. As I walked down the halls toward Soundwave's room, I found myself sensing the area around me. It was a trick that Starscream had worked with me on. According to him, this ability of mine would improve ten-fold once my wings popped. Most flyers had this ability, whether they be pure flyers like Starscream and his trine or triple changers like Blitzwing and myself. Sensing air currents, feeling different changes in pressure, judging how different temperatures around me would affect me, and sensing the movement of those around me. All of the changes that were caused by movements around me would one solar be mine to interpret.

Without my wings popped, I could still practice this. Already, my chassis was equipped to interpret these different behaviors, just to a lesser degree without my wings. And, to my surprise, each time I sensed the surroundings of the Nemesis, I felt comforted. The cold chill that I had experienced as a human was now a comforting warmth. I was well and truly home here. When I was human, I knew how to tell if somewhere was safe...instinct I suppose. However, that instinct was now transferred to this sense. I was aware of my surroundings and could read them.

As I turned a corner, my thoughts went to that fragging mission. The mission Thrust organized. I could feel in the air, the danger that he presented. The disinterest in the lives of the drones, fellow Decepticons, that he sent out to offline. After the mission, I sensed the fear of the drones. It choked the air around me. At the time, they didn't know which officer was responsible for the plan. It only made sense that, give my liking to have them be a part of my plans, that they would assume it was me.

The very bots who I saw as family had sneered at me, glared, and had shied away from me. It had hurt. I could feel a coldness in the air, a coldness of fear. It caused a sadness within me that made me feel just as cold as that fear. I needed it to stop. So, to fix it, I had gone to a training room where I knew the drones frequented and sat, waiting. I honestly just hoped to speak to one who would listen to me.

I hadn't expected that the first set of drones to give me the chance would be the triplets along with the four only survivors of the mission. I had felt pain, and I had sensed the guilt that was coming off of the four survivors with this new ability of mine. But, I was the only one who should have been feeling guilty. I was arrogant in my thinking. Thinking I could want changes to be made and yet put forth so little effort on my own. It didn't matter what they said.

"Are you in there Pandimala?"

I flinched as Rumble suddenly spoke, causing me to jump out of my thoughts. "Sorry bots. Just...thinking."

Seeing as how we arrived at the door to Soundwave's room, I opened the door before either of them could respond. "Pandimala, you have arrived," Soundwave spoke to me in clips.

I nodded once. "I heard you were going to be giving me lessons. Plus, I couldn't miss seeing you again." I then walked inside and waited as the door shut behind me.

Soundwave shook his helm. "You are being distractive femme. We will discuss this later." I flinched, as he called me out, as I had no doubt the twins were telling him how distracted I was coming here. It was going to be a long few cycles of training to come.

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

Pandimala was in pain. It was obvious to all of us who were close to her. Frag, from what I had observed of Lord Megatron, he could see it too. He had been testing her, that much was painfully obvious to me. Her, along with Thrust and Shockwave, were tested due to the tension that we all saw from them upon Thrust's arrival on the Nemesis.

This was worse than when we had both Airachnid and Astrotrain aboard the ship. With them, the attack was straightforward against the femme. It was simple to create a plan against them. Keeping an optic on them served us well. However, with Thrust as the enemy, this would be very difficult.

I had dealt with the mech in the past. His cunning was incredible, as was his determination to rise through whatever means possible. He would stop at nothing to remove anything that stood in his way, of destroying anything that threatened to stop him from achieving his goals. Pandimala was one of those, along with seemingly Shockwave. I didn't know how Shockwave knew of the mech, but I was intimately familiar with the mech.

I came out of my thoughts as, when I approached my room, I saw two similar-looking bots standing on either side of the door to my room. Immediately, my optics narrowed slightly in confusion. "Skyquake, Dreadwing, to what do I owe the pleasure of a visit?" I glanced between the two flyers in front of me.

"I believe inside your room would be the best place to talk, given the circumstances," Skyquake spoke. I regarded him thoughtfully. He and I had agreed sometime before this, back when Pandimala was still human, to make sure we watched out for her and ensure that she was safe. We hadn't had much time to talk since she became Pandimala, and for a nano, I felt hesitation about his motives.

However, my room was monitored and so I knew that should Skyquake and Dreadwing be planning something against me, that Soundwave would be witness to it, given how watched I used to be...and still am. "Very well." I then opened my door. To my surprise, my brothers were both in there as well. Well, at least if this was an attempted assassination, one of them could warn our Lord.

I entered the room, followed by Dreadwing and Skyquake, and I noticed my brother's tense. I did not doubt that they sensed my unease about whatever this situation was. With Thrust on the ship, who knew which bots he might blackmail to his side. While Dreadwing and Skyquake were both known for the loyalty that they showed to Megatron, that very loyalty could be leverage if they, at any point, did something against said loyalty and Thrust heard about it.

"What's going on?" Thundercracker asked once the door was closed.

Standing by my brothers, I waited for one of the two in front of us to speak. Thankfully, Skyquake seemed quick on the uptake now that we were inside my room. "There are two subjects we wished to talk to you about, Starscream, and away from a certain pair of audio receptors."

"And who would that be?" I asked him cautiously. Skyquake knew that my room was especially bugged so anything said here was immediately sent to him and then, most likely, to Lord Megatron. However, when most bots would talk about 'a certain pair of audio receptors', they usually meant Soundwave.

Dreadwing, to my surprise, took the initiative on that answer. "Thrust. From my travels with him here, along with the few things I have heard of him from others who knew him, it is best to keep information, and certain questions, away from him."

So he at least knew something of Thrust...and he didn't trust the mech. Those were very good positives in my processor. However, I still wanted to know what they were wanting to ask. "So, what did you all need my brother for?" Skywarp jumped in and asked what I was about to.

"The first thing I wish to know is about Pandimala." Immediately, I tensed at Dreadwing's question. It now made sense why they wanted me in my room before asking anything about her. "From the few files I have accessed while on the Nemesis, she was previously a human known as Lizzie who, somehow, was able to circumnavigate all of the shieldings on this ship and Soundwave's detections to arrive here. Despite research done into the issue, none know how she was able to come aboard the Nemesis while it was in flight. Has there been further research since her change into Pandimala that could answer these questions?"

Immediately, I shook my helm. "No, that part of Pandimala's past is still a mystery to us all." Of course, his question made me realize something. Since Pandimala was now one of us, it would only be a matter of time before the cortical psychic patch was used on her. While none of us had mentioned this device to her yet, and from Soundwave we knew that she had not accessed information about it yet, I knew that said devise would hold the key to the secret behind her past. But, what would we find? With Thrust now on the ship, that thought worried me. "And until Lord Megatron brings it up to the femme, we should keep information about the patch away from other audios. Her transformation is still new and her processor is not yet ready to take on the stress of the patch. From what I heard, Shockwave is monitoring the scans from Knockout during his and Hook's sessions with the femme and he will tell Lord Megatron when the femme's processor is stable enough for the patch."

Both of the large flyers in front of me relaxed at that, though tension was still obvious in their frames. Whatever their second question was must still be bothering them. And, with previous mentions about Thrust, I had a feeling that this question might be geared more towards him. "What is the second question you had?" I asked him hesitantly.

Dreadwing seemed to study me intently with a gaze that hinted at mistrust before he spoke. "I know from past information that you were once a student under Thrust before you became second-in-command. Skyquake, though, has informed me of an agreement between himself and you to keep an optic on the femme, back when she was human. Do you still hold any loyalties toward your teacher, or will you honor your word to my brother and watch out for the femme? From the information that Skyquake has given me on the femme, she has more than earned her position among us and has a loyalty to our leader that rivals that of my brother's and mine. I need to know if you will be a danger to her."

My optics narrowed as I immediately felt anger at the larger flyer. How dare he question my loyalty to my word to his brother? However, instead of lashing out with my glossa right away, I thought about the point that he made. Yes, Thrust had been my teacher after I had joined the ranks of the Decepticons. I worked closely with the mech. It was through his 'tutelage' that I made my plan to take the leadership of the Decepticons from our Lord. Thrust played the long-game, and that was why I was so cautious around him now. Thrust was a patient mech and, if he had a plan, he would wait for many stellars to play it out if he needed it to.

However, I knew Pandimala, and she had ways of forcing plans to fall apart if not acted on quickly. My plan to dethrone Lord Megatron had been perfect. His drive to defeat the Autobots had made him lose touch with his processor, and while I hadn't been sure how to use that to my advantage, I knew that his return from deep space would probably give me the best opportunity to do just that. Then, Lizzie had appeared and, with her influence in my existence, she caused my well thought out plan, that I had planned for hundreds of stellars, to crumble into nothingness in a few cycles.

Now, Thrust was in her sights and, if he had a plan, he would need to enact it quickly. So, Dreadwing's questioning of my loyalty now was a smart move, even if he didn't understand that yet. "Thrust lost all of my loyalty when I realized the direction that he was molding me towards. Pandimala will continue to have my support, no matter what he thinks he can use against me. Our Lord knows everything that I have ever planned against him, so he will have no leverage over me."

At my response, Dreadwing and Skyquake seemed to relax. "As I told him," Skyquake spoke.

"Starscream's history spoke against the one promise that he made to you, my brother," Dreadwing glared at his twin.

"That was before the influence of Pandimala came aboard the ship. You have already felt the effects and you haven't even been here seven solars yet. We have had many more solars to be influenced by the work that Pandimala can do on the ship." Skyquake seemed to tease his brother.

"A strange phenomenon indeed," Dreadwing stated in response, "especially if she was able to cause you to speak without tripping over yourself."

"Low blow brother," Skyquake growled.

"But true," Dreadwing ended.

I rolled my optics at their antics. Despite both being loyal to a fault and extremely strict in their disciplinary actions, the two still acted like twins, just like Rumble and Frenzy. Theirs was just slightly calmed down compared to Soundwave's twins.

"Speaking about information, there is something I think you can answer for us Dreadwing," T.C. suddenly stated, causing me to raise an optic ridge at him. Dreadwing and Skyquake both turned to him before my brother continued. "I know about you, and I know about Thrust through my brother here. However, my information on Crumplezone and Ransack is lacking. Since you just traveled with them for some time, can you shed some information about them for us?"

I hadn't thought about the duo since their arrival with Dreadwing and Thrust. My concern over Thrust was my main focal point. I knew the danger that he could present. However, I also knew Thrust and, if he saw an advantage he could use with the two, then that would be a risk to Pandimala. After all the femme had done for the Decepticons and me, then I would work with my full capabilities to make sure that she was safe.

Dreadwing raised an optic ridge at my brother's question. "Those two? Well, they are certainly interesting. Here is what I know."

Crumplezone's 1st P.O.V.

"Glad we finally get to get some training in little buddy," I commented to Ransack as I continued to dodge his hits.

"Well, it doesn't help that all the officers have been working with that femme, Pandimala," Ransack grumbled as he moved around me.

I frowned at my buddy as I blocked another of his hits. Pandimala had been a point of argument between the two of us since we met her. While we were both going to give her a chance, Ransack was hesitant around her. His last meeting with a bot her size didn't go well when I wasn't there and he was vulnerable to attacks from large bots...especially sneak attacks from large bots. He wasn't quite ready to trust her, even though she answered his questions nicely.

Pandimala seemed like a nice femme to me, rare as they were. Most femmes I had met seemed to have a superiority complex that caused them to act like real glitches. Only a couple of femmes outside of Pandimala I had met didn't act like that.

"Come on little buddy, Pandimala seems different. Why can't you seem to trust her enough to give her a chance?" I asked him as I blocked another of his strikes.

"Octane."

So, it wasn't about her being a femme. Usually, when we met new femmes, that was Ransack's drawback. I knew what he meant by saying that simple name. Octane had been close to Ransack and me before the war, and their friendship was almost as old as mine was with my little buddy. We were inseparable. But, it turned out that he was just trying to use us. When we found out and confronted the triple changer about it, he tried to offline us. The two of us barely got out of there with our sparks, but we had been heavily damaged. However, the physical damage that he caused us was easier to fix than the mental damage he did to Ransack.

So, when Knockout told us that this new femme was, in reality, a new triple changer, Ransack immediately didn't trust her again. To him, triple changers were nothing but trouble. It didn't help that another Decepticon triple changer we met, Astrotrain, was an aft who would beat bots into submission when they didn't agree with him. It took Ransack hundreds of stellars to trust Blitzwing as he did.

"Pandimala isn't Octane," I argued with Ransack as I blocked another of his hits. "I've been talking to a lot of the drones here, and they say that she has helped them a lot. She's been helping them get better treatment since she first got some freedoms on the ship from what they told me."

"When she was a fleshy, sure," Ransack hissed in disgust, though disgust at what I wasn't sure, "But she needed help whenever she could get it then. Being a triple changer now gives her a lot more power than being fleshy ever did. She doesn't need them anymore. She'll probably toss them aside as soon as she gets the,"

Ransack stopped talking, and the two of us separated, as the doors to the training room opened. To my surprise, the femme we were just talking about walked in and, once she looked up at her surroundings, she seemed surprised to see us. "Oh, sorry bots. I didn't realize that you bots were in here."

"What are you doing down here anyway?" Ransack asked her. I frowned at the bite my little buddy had in his tone with her. She wasn't Octane, and I knew that she would able to prove that. From almost everybot on the ship that I had asked, I had only heard good things about her.

Pandimala, surprisingly, didn't react to his tone and simply smiled before she answered him. "Dreadwing and Skyquake messaged me to meet them here in a few clicks to get some training in. Thought fighting against two bots who have been training for so long together would be good for me and they agreed. But, I don't think they realized that you two already had this room occupied." She then looked nervous, "I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll just call them and ask them to meet me in another room."

Wait, this could work out for my little buddy's mistrust in the femme, "Why don't you train against us?"

"What?" Ransack practically screeched at me.

Pandimala seemed to jump at Ransack's reaction and, for a flash, I saw sadness flash across her optics. "There's no need for that. I don't want to interrupt what you all were doing."

Before either of them could talk their way out of this, I shook my helm. "It'll be a nice break. Plus, my little buddy and I were practically raised together. We'll be just as much of a challenge as split-spark twins will be. Plus, we haven't had a chance to fight a bot of your size for a while now. It would be good practice."

"I don't want to intrude,"

"You would be helping us a lot," I interrupted her with a shake of my helm. I wasn't usually this demanding of bots I was asking to train with us but I wanted to show my little buddy what I already saw in the femme. When I still saw hesitance from the femme, I decided to push the femme with something I was sure would get her to agree. "Unless you don't want to help us?"

The argument went away from the femme's faceplate the instant I said those words and it was replaced by a cold determination. "Then what are we waiting for?" The femme asked before she moved over to the other side of the arena than we were. "Rules?"

Since we weren't trying to hurt her or wanting her to hurt us, I figured we should keep it simple. "No weapons. It'll be me and Ransack against you. First to either tap or stay down for more than ten nanos loses. We move on the sound of the buzzer."

She smirked. 'Sounds like a plan."

I could feel how tense Ransack was from next to me as the femme readied herself. I was sure I was going to get an audio-full after this was all over with. But, if this worked out the way I wanted it too, then it was going to be worth it. As the counter started to get closer to the buzzer sounding, I took in the femme's stance. While I saw a bit of Blitzwing's stance in her's, I was genuinely surprised to see much of how Starscream acted mixed in with something that must be all her. From what I heard from the others, she didn't train with bots like Starscream much since her transformation. Breakdown and Blitzwing where her main teachers along with Shockwave. All three of them were large bots and had similar styles. Unlike Starscream, who was a lithe bot who fought more like my little buddy.

When the buzzer finally sounded, I didn't hesitate and move forward towards the femme. To my surprise, she was able to move quickly from her stance...much faster than most triple changers I had met were able to. She met my fist with the side of her arm and deflected my attack before blocking Ransack, who had tried coming in from her side to hit her in a weak-point. She had seemed so focused on my attack that it was strange that she was able to work well in balancing both of us. "Not bad so far," I complimented her as I moved to make another strike.

When we met in blows, she shrugged. "I've been training with Starscream, Skyquake, and Blitzwing since before I became Pandimala. It's not so difficult to transfer that over to this chassis." While her response was relaxed, I could see the excitement in her optics.

Despite my little buddy's fierce attacks, she seemed to be enjoying the fighting right now. Dodging our strikes, and trying to corner the two of us, she seemed to be enjoying the challenge. But, she didn't seem to be prideful about this. It was almost like watching a sparkling get a new toy. She seemed ecstatic about it.

Finally, after a few clicks, I figured it was time to end this. So, with a nod toward my buddy, we moved in to do our special move. Most bots expected me to act the buffer for Ransack's attacks. However, with this move, we purposefully would switch roles so I could land the final hit on our target. And, to my surprise, it worked on the femme. She hit the ground hard and wasn't moving. Ten nano-clicks later, she still hadn't moved so the match was ours.

But, I could now see that my little buddy was nervous. Despite our win, he seemed to be studying Pandimala's unmoving chassis as if it would suddenly start spewing fire at us. Triple changers always seemed to get touchy when they lost. Even Blitzwing, who Ransack trusted, would be a little huffy after losing in a spar against us...when that happened.

Laughter suddenly coming from the femme caused Ransack and me to jump.

Stepping closer to the femme, I saw now that she was conscious and was staring up at the ceiling. No anger was in her optics but, instead, she looked happy and excited. "Thank you both so much!"

That...wasn't what we were expecting. Ransack looked hesitantly at her. "What the frag you talking about? We just handed your aft to you and you're acting like you just hit premium energon!"

Slowly, the femme moved to a sitting position. I didn't miss the winces from her due to the damage we did to her chassis. "Ever since my transformation, everybot who has been working with me have been treating me like I'm going to fragging break every time they spar with me. It's been driving me nuts! But, you didn't hold back at all and, as you said," She looked pointedly at Ransack at that, "you 'just handed me my aft'. I haven't had a spar that real since before I became Pandimala." She then shakily stood up before she looked pointedly at both of us. "So, thank you both so much for not holding back. If you ever need anything, let me know and I'll see if I can't help you out."

"No problem femme." Ransack let out at her. She, in turn, smiled and nodded before walking out of the room...slightly limping of course.

Once the door was closed, I turned to look at my little buddy with a raise optic ridge, " 'No problem' Ransack? I thought you didn't trust her?"

He looked caught for a few nanos before he frowned. "Ah, put a piece of slag in it you overgrown motherboard."

I just laughed at him.

Lord Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

I needed to find out more. Earlier in the solar, Vox had been able to track down the two traitors Astrotrain and Airachnid, down to a location on the continent the humans called South America. Once I had the exact coordinates, I had taken Blitzwing with me to deal with the two once and for all. They would learn what happened when somebot betrayed my Decepticons.

However, the reveal of the coordinates had been a trap. They had planned for me bringing only one bot as backup and, while Bltizwing was a surprise for them, they were able to challenge the two of us in a cavern that was more to Airachnid's benefit than any of ours. From how the hunter was fighting me, that seemed to be their plan.

While I had been prepared for the femme's scheming nature and her distracting talk, I still allowed it to get the better of me, thus allowing both herself and Astrotrain to escape. However, I would admit that the topic that the femme chose to distract me with was one that was on my processor before this fight. The femme just brought it to the forefront.

Pandimala had gained much power on the Nemesis since her arrival, that much was obvious. However, she didn't use that power to her advantage, much to my continued surprise, and seemed to only serve me even more with that power that she had. Since her arrival, I had seen unity in most of my troops that she, given her influence, could have turned against me at any nano.

However, Airachnid made one point that I had not processed before. She insinuated that I was just letting the femme, who had so little known about her history, make large changes aboard the Nemesis. Before, when she was a human, this hadn't been much of an issue. She didn't hold the physical power to cause me much worry. However, with her transformation, I realized from Airachnid's jab that Pandimala could become a very real threat depending on what her history was.

In a couple of solars, I would ask Shockwave his opinion on the femme's mental stability and, if he said that she was prepared for a cortical psychic patch, then we would finally discover the one gray area that still came from our strategist's background.

Plus, I was no fool. I knew Thrust had more than simply Decepticon interests in his processor. He played for himself, that much was obvious. If from what I gathered from his reactions to the femme the other solar were correct, he would see the femme as somebot he would want to manipulate, so he could use her for whatever his plans were while here on Earth. It wouldn't be easy for him, from what I knew of Pandimala, but I also knew Thrust. If anybot would be able to manipulate the femme, it would be him.

I would not allow my Decepticons to fall into disorder again. I knew how close Starscream had been to rising aginst me before Pandimala came onto the scene. I had almost had my Decepticons fall into chaos. Never again would I allow my Decepticons to be at risk, no matter who I had to take out.

Pandimala's past was something that only she knew about, and I had a feeling that once I discovered what that past was, I would finally be able to gain a firm grasp


Starscream: *frowns* You are building up to something fleshy. I don't like it.

Authoress: *shrugs* Maybe I am. The next few chapters are pretty connected and that should be fun. Well, with the Decepticons that is.

Thundercracker: I don't trust you, Authoress.

Authoress: *smirks* Then you have a processor.


AN: And here is the next chapter of this story! Again, happy birthday Lykaious! I hope it is a good one. I am sorry for a lack of updates lately everyone but with COVID-19, work has been killer. But, I have a few days off coming up here and, unless someone has a request for another story to get updated, I am going to try and get more of these chapters up.

Speaking of this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. Pandimala seems to be having difficulty taking things slow. Thankfully, Ransack and Crumplezone were able to give her a good training run for once (hope the other Decepticons don't hurt them for going all out on her). Plus, add in some Megatron there at the end, who knows that Thrust is up to something, and tensions are returning to the Decepticons.

I know there has been a lack of Autobot action lately. I haven't forgotten them. They just aren't having as many issues as Pandimala. Plus, there WILL be some Autobot action next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 33: Learning How to Trust Nemesis Prime

Chapter 34: Trust Fall Grill

Chapter 35:... (find out next time!)

And that is all for now! Please leave a review, or just say hi in one, and I will greatly appreciate it! Until next time, TTYL! *wonders if there is such a thing as too much sanitizer*