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


Lord Megatron: How long have you had this finished Authoress?

Authoress: *shrugs* Maybe a week or two. Was honestly avoiding updating it because I didn't want to leave people on a cliffhanger like I am. But, the next chapter is going slower than I thought it would, and stress at work isn't helping.

Decepticons: *shocked at blunt answer*

Starscream: Somebot hit me. I think we are all dreaming.

Megatron: *punches Starscream through a wall* *smirks*

Starscream: *yells from other room* What the frag, Megatron? *looks around the room* And what the frag is all this sanitizer doing here?


Chapter 41: Revelation

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

I didn't know what to do.

It wasn't a state that I liked to be in, yet here I was. Glancing at the cause of the current chaos on my ship, I felt torn. Should I count the mission as a failure and pull her out, or hold off and make sure that this isn't what the medics believe it is? For there, showing erratically on the monitor was Pandimala's spark beat. It was the most erratic that it had ever been recorded, and that included when she was human.

Skywarp, unfortunately, had been the one to discover the first uptick in the femme's spark beat and had immediately panicked, calling his brothers. They in turn immediately came to me and demanded we retrieve the femme while Skywarp spread what was going on around like it was his onlining mission.

So, I had gathered a meeting of my officers and that was currently what I was standing in the middle of. Shockwave had just pointed out that, given the timing of the uptick, it was more than likely that the femme had just popped her wings, and her processor was trying to sort out what it was doing to her in return.

Of course, that didn't calm the fliers. Starscream especially was offensive in his want to go retrieve Pandimala...especially after Shockwave said that. I understood where he was coming from. Popping wings could be a traumatic experience that could harm the femme if not handled carefully. With how the Autobots had been acting as of late, I did understand his concern in leaving her with the enemy at a time like this.

However, Dreadwing, while being a flier, was the first to point out that the femme would be angered if we pulled her out of the mission when she wasn't compromised. She was in a prime position to gather intelligence about our enemy. If we pulled her out, then that could hinder our drive forward.

"Her spark beat hasn't lowered in the five clicks since we started to observe it." Even my medics were split on what to do. Hook was with Dreadwing's opinion while Knockout… "With that amount of time passing since she first popped her wings, it is obvious that the Autobots are not helping her through this." He then motioned toward another spike as it happened. "From those spikes, I would even guess that they were making it worse for her."

"You and I both know that her reactions are based on what her wings are having her focus on. It could only be one or two of the Autobots against her that her wings are focusing on. They would register as dangerous to her systems. The other Autobots could be working to calm her down. If we act too soon, then we could ruin everything." Hook was on a roll as he motioned to the same readout. "And we all know that Pandimala would never forgive us if we did that."

"That's only if they don't break her processor first!" Skywarp snarled at the medic.

I had to step in, and quickly if I didn't want the unity our Decepticons were currently having to be torn apart. "Enough!" Every bot in the room glanced at me, waiting for me to weigh in. I had yet to speak to give my troops a chance to make their cases.

I had hoped that their arguments would sway me toward one plan of action over the other. However, instead, I found myself more indecisive. It had been too soon since her spark beat went erratic to make a decision. "It is too soon for us to react based on Pandimala's spark beat. So, we shall wait." Starscream looked like he was going to argue and so I silenced him with a glare. "There will be no argument on this. After one cycle, if the spark beat has not begun to lessen, then we will retrieve Pandimala. Any who try to go against this will suffer the consequences."

While Starscream still looked to be against my plan, he did step back a pace. So, he would wait. However, if that spark beat changed for the worse, then I had little doubt that Starscream would disobey my order. While there was a part of me that would want him to do so, I knew that I had to keep order. Pandimala had one cycle. If she did not want to be retrieved, then she would have to calm herself.

It would not be an easy task. As most Decepticons knew, newly popped wings were not easy to control. Even those of us who did not have seeker wings, like me, wings coming out caused massive feedback. Pandimala's wings, from what the medical scans had shown, would be seeker wings. Not usual for triple changers. They normally had a sturdier wing. Blitzwing was the only one before her that I knew that had seeker wings.

Speaking of the triple changer...and currently, the only one left on the ship here on Earth, Blitzwing had been the only one to not say anything about whether we should retrieve Pandimala or not. "Blitzwing, remain here for a few clicks. The rest of you, return to your duties." None of them should have anything to work on here, and the ones that might would realize that I wanted to speak to the triple changer alone.

Once the room was clear of the others, Blitzwing glanced toward me. "Vhat did you need to speak to me about my Lord?"

"Out of all of my troops who were present, you were the only one to not give an opinion about whether or not we should retrieve Pandimala. What are your thoughts?"

His optic darkened slightly before he turned to glance at her spark beat. "I'm not sure how much zhe others vill know about triple-changers popping zheir vings, but it isn't quite zhe same as a regular flier. It is even vorse for us who have inherited seeker vings."

"How so?" This was new information for me. Of course, most triple changers I had met already had their wings popped, and the ones that hadn't popped them yet had not been near me when they did pop. Even Blitzwing had his popped when I met him, and he had been quite young when we first met.

The triple changer narrowed his optics at the spark beat before he let out a vent. "Remember my Lord, zhat ve have a chassis that emulates aspects from being both a grounder and a flier. Our vings cycle the information that we gather from, not only our vings but from vhat ve experience vhile traveling over zhe ground. A triple changer needs time to not only sort out vhat zhe air around us is telling us, but also what ve are picking up from zhe ground as ve walk. It von't be easy for Pandimala to sort zhat out for herself at zhe click."

"What would need to happen at the Autobot base to let that happen?" I needed to make sure that the circumstances could happen while Pandimala was at the Autobot base. If they couldn't, then we would need to retrieve her.

Blitzwing then switched personalities. "Vhat ve need to do is get her out of zhere!" He then let out a vent. "However, zhis has most likely sent Pandimala into processor-shock. She vill see everyzhing happening around her but she vill be immobile. Also, her zhoughts vill only focus on zhe readings she is receiving."

His faceplate then returned to his Icy personality. "Most likely, since she is at zhe Autobot base, zhen she vill be feeling different amounts of fear. Vhat zhey vould have to do is interrupt her zhoughts vithout physical contact."

"Zhat vould send her down zhe rabbit hole and she vould go all sharky on zhem!" Random added in.

Icy then returned. "Yes, physical contact vould add onto vhat she vas already processing from before. Zhey vould have to say somezhing to Pandimala to interrupt her processor from cycling zhrough zhe data she is receiving."

"I see. You are dismissed Blitzwing."

Once Blitzwing left, I glanced at the monitor that was showing her spark beat. The Autobots had less than one hour to snap Pandimala out of her shock. If they did not, then we would use every resource at our disposal to go and retrieve her. Knowing where their base was, the attack would be swift. Pandimala had brought the Decepticons so far with her influence and information. Plus, her loyalty was second to no bot. Even some of my longest-standing supporters would not have readily offered themselves up for torture if I didn't like what I found. Pandimala hadn't hesitated.

I now saw that the femme had become a fulcrum between all of the Decepticons here on Earth. Each of them could connect more efficiently through the femme. She trained with the warriors, did her job as a strategist with my other intelligence officers, and even helped my troops relax through her interactions with Soundwave's twins and Skywarp. Even her respect toward me and the position I held allowed her to connect me to those on the ship.

And now her safety was in the servos of the Autobots. It sat uneasily within my spark that I did not send out a force to retrieve her immediately when her spark signal had spiked. However, I needed to have hope that my strategist could survive this challenge. She worked her way through every single challenge that has been presented to her thus far.

Of course, her opposition was not one to take lightly. There were, at the very least, a servo-full of Autobots who would not make this easy for my strategist. From what I had seen, most Autobots acted like a moth to a flame, and the flame happened to be the bot in the room who seemed to make the most sense at the time. Whoever was able to sway the Autobots on the point of my strategist would be victorious. This would not be so bad if they worked solely on logic and evidence before casting their votes.

However, with the Autobots, the presenter's emotion was arguably the most weighted point in an argument. How they felt about what they were speaking about was considered most. This allowed them to ignore facts and push forward with what they believed, instead of what the facts said. That might cause my strategist trouble.

Given her history with the Autobots in this dimension, and not from her past history, she would not have made many connections with them in the short amount of time that had transpired since she was taken. Outside of her brief interaction with the Autobot Cliffjumper, back when she was first discovered on our ship by Starscream, Pandimala had not interacted with any of the Autobots personally. Without that personal connection, the odds favored the Autobots moving against her.

With the likes of Pitch, Flamewar, and Sentinel Major currently with the Autobots on Earth, her case would be made harder. They would be the three most-likely Autobots to push for her offlining. All it would take is the slightest misstep from Pandimala to give them the excuse to ask for her spark. As evidence from the histories of the three Autobots interacting with my troops, they may even manufacture a situation to sway their fellow Autobots to offline her.

Anger pulsed through my chassis at the thought of those Autobots attacking Pandimala. I had personally overseen her rise into my ranks, working with her in her early strategist training as well as some physical combat. I had seen a glimmer of what she could become that solar in my throne room. A sharp processor that could greatly shift the course of the war. Combining that with the compassion she showed her allies, along with her understanding of situations around her and her undying loyalty, and I had my key to victory.

There would be retribution if they harmed my strategist. She had sworn herself to me, and only I would decide her fate. The wrath of the Decepticons would annihilate the Autobots if they stole that from me, above all else. No weapon or formula compared to the value the femme had to me.

As I continued to watch the spark beat on the screen, I felt my spark pull slightly. I wasn't sure what that was so I pushed my curiosity aside. I had my Decepticons to lead, and if that spark beat did not return to normal, then I would soon have one that I would retrieve...no matter the cost.

Wheeljack's 1st P.O.V.

The sound of arguing was what my processor first recognized as I slowly came back online. I wasn't sure who it was, but once I got myself organized, I was going to be getting Pitch, Sentinel, and Flamewar back for jumping me. Slaggers the lot of them. Couldn't fight me fairly so they had to get me when nobot else was around to help. Just what I would expect from those fraggers.

"Wheeljack, are you alright?"

Onlining my optics, I glanced at where I was sure the voice came from. Zarron was sitting on the med berth next to me with a concerned look in his optics. So, somebot had found me. Hopefully, they got what happened from Pandimala and had those three on lockdown. "Yeah, but my helm is offlining me."

"I can see why," I looked to my other side and saw that Balm was standing there with Ratchet, a datapad that I was sure had the rundown of my injuries. Ratchet, who had spoken, continued. "Being attacked by a triple changer like you were, I'm surprised there aren't more injuries."

What?

"Wait...you all think Springer attacked me?" He was the only bot that I knew was a triple changer here at the base. But, he wasn't the type to attack me...and he wasn't even there! Of course, getting jumped by those three slaggers might seem like it to everybot else.

The three bots in the room glanced at me with confusion. "What are you talking about? Springer was on patrol when Pandimala attacked you."

Wait...Pandimala? "Pandimala's a triple changer?" I didn't realize that, though given the pain she was feeling on her back plates lately might explain that. Her wings must have been damaged. Then, the rest of what they said caught up to me before they could answer that. "Wait! Pandimala didn't attack me! Who the frag told you that?" I flinched when I felt a spike of pain go through my helm at that.

Balm motioned toward the doors before she answered. "Bulkhead was in the control room when Pitch and the others were thrown out by Pandimala. Said he heard some angry yelling before that and then Pandimala threw them out before coming out as well. Said she looked ready to rip out their sparks."

"That's assuming they have sparks, to begin with," I grumbled.

While that got a smirk from Zarron, Balm shook her helm. "Not up for debate right now Wheeljack. Pandimala popped out her wings right before Bulkhead stopped her from offlining them. The rest of us then arrived and Sentinel told us you needed medical attention because she attacked you. Ratchet and I grabbed you and brought you in here."

"Is Pandimala alright?" The femme must have stopped Sentinel from bashing my helm in with his shield and now she was in trouble. I needed to tell the rest of the Autobots what happened before they did something that they might regret.

Ratchet shook his helm. "If she wasn't an adult, I would think her wings had just popped. From the little I saw while getting you in here, she looked to be in processor-shock. I don't doubt that her spark beat is erratic and she wasn't moving from against the wall where she landed. Just seemed to move her optics between all of us. I was going to check on her but Optimus and the others insisted that both of us make sure you were alright." He then paused and studied me. "So, Pandimala didn't attack you?"

Frowning, I shook my helm. "Nah sunshine, she wouldn't do that. Honestly, as reserved as she is, Pandimala acts more like a youngling than…"

Letting my sentence fall, my processor suddenly started comparing Pandimala to a youngling, or a fresh adult frame. Sometimes, when I caught her off-guard when I started my shifts, she stumbled like she wasn't used to her chassis. When she took her energon, I noticed hesitation before she drank it. That hesitation was usually after she scanned it to make sure it was safe. It was almost like she felt uncertain about how to intake it.

Then, her interactions with the humans came to processor. Miko was the obvious one and, instead of acting negatively toward Miko, Pandimala seemed to almost enjoy Miko coming to see her, even when she was threatening the femme. Plus, while Miko was the one who got caught the most sneaking into the cells to spy on Pandimala, there was the one time a few solars ago when Bumblebee's charge, surprisingly, slipped by me. I had heard Pandimala start talking and listened in to the conversation between the youngest human under our watch and the Decepticon.

Flashback

Making sure I wasn't seen, I looked toward where Pandimala's cell was, ready to see Miko yelling at the poor femme again. However, my optics widened when I saw that, instead of Miko, Raf was the human staring up at the femme from the outside of the cell. He didn't seem like the kind to confront somebot like this. I must have missed something because I heard Pandimala's voice speak, and she sounded happy as she spoke. "Well, now that we have that out of the way, how about we introduce ourselves? I'm Pandimala."

The young human looked nervous as he spoke. "I'm Raf."

"Nice to meet you, Raf," Pandimala responded. There was quiet for a few nanos before Pandimala spoke again. "So, besides to make sure I wasn't planning to offline the Autobots in a secret attack, what brought you down here to visit?" I could see the hesitation on Raf's face and so I doubted that Pandimala would have missed it. "Is that the only reason you came to see me?"

That was weird. She sounded like she was...pouting? Didn't seem like the kind of tone that a Decepticon should take. Was she playing the kid or was this a show into what she was actually like? "Um...well…" Raf seemed even more nervous now.

I heard a vent come from Pandimala before she spoke. "I guess I can't blame you. No one wants to come and see me to just see me. Your friend Miko seems to have made it her sole goal to yell and threaten me every time she sneaks in here, most of the Autobots flat out ignore me, and while Wheeljack has been great, he is only one bot and he can't be here twenty-four seven." She then paused. "Oh well. Guess that's just how it is here."

There was quiet between the two of them before Raf looked back up at her. "I'm sorry," I heard a slight movement from Pandimala before the kid continued. "I guess since you are a Decepticon, I thought you were just a monster. That's how most of the bots describe you all."

"I'm pretty sure both sides have their monsters. But, the Decepticons have less than you think Raf." Pandimala then seemed to pause again.

Instead of her picking back up, Raf looked to mutter something that I couldn't hear before he shook his head. "So, do you mind if I ask some questions?"

Pandimala let out a laugh at that. "Sure. Hit me, Raf."

"What's your favorite color? Mine's yellow."

"Mine's green."

"Kinda obvious isn't it? Since you have green on your plating."

"Oi! And what about you? If I remember correctly Bumblebee is pretty yellow. Him being your guardian and being that color can't be a coincidence."

"I didn't pick yellow because 'Bee is yellow."

"Well, I didn't pick green because it is on my chassis."

There was silence between the two of them for a nano and, for that nano, I thought that they had argued. But, in the next, the two of them started laughing at the same time. After a few clicks of Raf asking her questions like that and Pandimala asking them back after answering, Pandimala suggested to Raf that he should probably sneak out before I got back so he wouldn't get in trouble.

End of Flashback.

The way that Pandimala had reacted to talking with the kid. She had acted like a youngling even more during that. She just didn't seem to act like a Decepticon at all, or even a bot who had been online for a very long time.

Thinking of that memory, something else seemed strange. Saying 'twenty-four-seven' was an Earth phrase and not one that should be coming out of Pandimala's vocals so easy. With that thought, I realized that there were some other times that Pandimala had used human phrases when we talked. When I had accidentally brought up her offlined sire, she said that he had been 'killed'. Normally bots like us would say 'offlined'. Even before that, she had wished me to have a "Goodnight" when we would normally say have a nice recharge. That had bothered me the first solar she was here.

And that hadn't been the only thing to bother me about that solar.

"Wheeljack, are you alright?" I wanted to answer Zarron, but I felt like my processor was moving a million bits per nano as I remembered Pandimala's response when I had asked her about Lizzie.

'I can assure you that, just before your raid, Lizzie was alive and well on the ship.'

Her wording didn't seem strange at the time. But, combining her answer with everything else that I was thinking about, something started to come to me. I didn't want to connect those points. But, as my processor thought about everything strange that I had noticed about Pandimala since she got here, and added that to the way Ratchet described how Pandimala was acting as though her wings had just popped, I realized that there was only one connection that could be made.

"Slag," I whispered as I glanced at the doors. I needed to stop the other Autobots before they made this any worse than it already was.

I had to shutter my optics when Zarron suddenly stepped in front of me and put his servos on my shoulders. "Wheeljack frag it what is going on?"

Locking optics with the mech, I spoke to him, and Balm and Ratchet as well. "Not enough time to explain. I need you to trust what I'm about to do, no matter how crazy it may look."

As soon as I had his nod, I bolted off my berth, my energon pulsing through my chassis as I ran toward the control room. I had to stop the others before they hurt the femme more than they already had. As soon as I caught a glance into the room, I saw that I had to act quickly. Flamewar was moving toward Pandimala and, unlike last time, none of the others seemed like they were stopping her...even Optimus. Slag it all! I pushed my chassis to move faster and, right as Flamewar was about to reach down toward the terrified femme, I blocked Flamewar's path to Pandimala with my swords out.

Flamewar's optics widened as I pointed one of my blades at her. "Wheeljack," Said femme hissed at me.

"Stand down, all of you," I growled at them all. Flamewar narrowed her optics and looked like she was about to draw a weapon.

However, Zarron's blade soon joined my own. "I wouldn't femme. You all just need to hit the brakes for a nano." Balm and Ratchet were standing next to him.

Our leader then took this nano to speak. "Wheeljack, Flamewar was about to return Pandimala to her cell while we discuss how to handle her attacking you."

"Is that what they told you? Pandimala didn't attack me." I then motioned to Flamewar, Pitch, and Sentinel. "The three of them showed up while Pandimala and I were talking and we had a disagreement that got...physical. Pandimala got scared when I got knocked out and reacted." I didn't have time to get into everything. This would work for now as an explanation.

"Why would a fragging Decepticon piece of scrap get scared at you being knocked out? You all need to move so we can put that trash back in her cell." Sentinel scoffed before he and Pitch moved forward toward us.

Like I would move.

I moved my second blade to point at Sentinel, stopping his movement, and Zarron moved his toward Pitch, before I continued. "You have done enough damage," I then looked at all of the Autobots that hadn't been in the med bay when I came out of recharge. "All of you have. Now, I need to help Pandimala. Once I get her better, then we can try to talk like civil bots." I then narrowed my optics at the three in front of us. "Unless you aren't able to do that?"

There was silence between us, the sounds of Pandimala's panicking venting the only sound heard before Optimus spoke up. "Sentinel, Pitch, Flamewar; stand down." He then looked at me. "You will have much to explain Wheeljack." If I was right, then I doubted that. But, I had to get the femme calmed down before she burst her spark in the panic these buckets of bolts put her into.

I slowly walked up to the femme, careful to not move too quickly as to spook her. While her chassis didn't move, Pandimala's optics were focused on me. Sunshine had been right. She was in processor-shock. If Flamewar had touched the femme to try and move her, who knew what damage we would have caused the femme.

Once I was in front of the femme, I knelt to hopefully make her feel a little safer. Slag, if I was right about this...and I was sure I was, the femme was going to have issues trusting almost everybot in the base.

"Pandimala, I need you to snap out of this. Please."

Nothing.

"I promise, I'll make sure you are safe, but you need to calm down first."

Still nothing.

"Please femme, I need you to focus. I'll make sure nobot hurts you,"

No response.

"I know that everything you're processing is powerful right now, but I can help you with that if you calm down."

Still no response.

Slag it. If she didn't respond soon…

"Pandimala, please don't make me tell them like this. Not like this."

However, as much as I wanted the femme to respond, there was still no change. Behind me, I could hear the other Autobots shuffling their pedes. I wasn't sure if it was out of nervousness or impatience.

While I didn't want to do this, something told me Optimus would only humor me doing this for so long before he tried to move her again. So, I guess there was only one option left to snap her out of her processor-shock.

"I'm sorry femme," I whispered to her before I steeled myself for what I was about to do.

"Snap out of it Lizzie!"

Immediately, her chassis flinched and, as I heard the engines of the bots behind me still, and gasps from the humans, Pandimala moved her helm to stare at me better. Her optics locked on mine, wide with what looked like fear before coolant started to leak from them. The femme started to cry, her chassis shaking slightly as she did.


Authoress: Well, that's one way to start the New Year.

Wheeljack: *growls* That's all you have to say for yourself?

Authoress: *shrugs* Well, I did warn that I had avoided updating so I wouldn't leave everyone like this.

Zarron: *glares* We need to have a chat Authoress.

Authoress: *gulps*


AN: And here is the next chapter! Apologies for not updating in a few months, but work really has me beat right now. As it is, I really should be in bed but felt like all of you deserved a chapter for the New Year (even if it does leave you off as it does). And I was serious about that. I was hoping to have the next chapter done as well so you all wouldn't be left like this. However, I'm trying to settle on how to start the next chapter and I can't settle on an idea. So, I hope you all can forgive me for holding out for so long.

Anyways, enough excuses from me. I hope you all enjoyed this. The next chapter will be having some tense moments in them, along with Pandimala reporting to the Decepticons (and definitely at least one mother hen scene). Season 2 is well on its way and things are getting...juicy.

So, here are the names of the next chapters. (I am forgoing mentioning the name of the episode that originally was in this place on the timeline. It might be confusing people and I try not to do that. If you want me to bring that back, let me know in a PM.)

Chapter 42: Recovery

Chapter 43: A House Divided

Chapter 44: (find out next time!)

And that is all for now! Again, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and are enjoying the story as a whole. Don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile if you haven't already. Two of the choices are pretty close and a couple of votes could change everything! (one of them only has one vote but I do appreciate that one vote. (*cough*totally the one I was leaning towards before the vote began*cough*)) You do have some time though to decide. I won't close that poll until I finish this story. Just make sure you get your votes in!

Until next time though (and hopefully that will be within a week or two instead of a few months *guilty wince*), please drop a review in, either to review or say hi. Of course, soul contracts are tempting. Maybe if I...*getting glares from fates* never mind. But, the review, or hello, would be nice. Until then, everyone have a Happy New Year. *prays that everything is better this year than last year*