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

Authoress: Wow...this looks like so much fun!

Lizzie: I don't think so. You're completely insane!

Authoress: *smirks* Come on Lizzie. While that may be true, you get to have a lot of fun in this chapter!

Lizzie: *thinks* *smirks* True. I guess I can't complain.

Authoress: *mutters* Unlike a certain god.

Paul: *somewhere in the distance* What was that!?

Ch. 5: A Lesson in Servitude

Knockout's 1st P.O.V.

I shook my helm as I organized this 'med-bay'. I mean, when was the last time that there was another medic on this ship? Tools were scattered all over the place, energon was splattered all over the floor from what I assumed were operations, drugs were in short supply which meant that I had to get some sedatives ordered quickly if the final battlefront that Megatron has envisioned will be on this planet. While I felt that this was a strange planet to employ as our final stand, I didn't dare question our leader.

…Though there was another decision that our Lord had made recently that I was confused about. Lord Megatron did not like having a being on the ship that did not pull their weight, so to speak, and that made me curious as to why he allowed the organic…human was what the files said it was called, to live on this ship? True, Soundwave seemed to have the little thing pretty trained but I was sure that it had its own personality. Why would it even want to be on a ship with giant metallic beings like ourselves? When Skywarp had suddenly vanished from the bridge, I thought that he was just going to cause trouble. But, then he returned with the human femme…I was almost sure that the records showed that they called that gender 'female', I thought that he had gone planetside and snagged one up. But, then I studied her and saw that she just looked surprised…and not afraid.

And then Starscream asked if Skywarp had an offlining wish and that told me that her presence was already known on the ship. Made me wonder where Skywarp had found her. Fear had only shown in the half out of recharge femme's fleshy face when Lord Megatron had spoken of his knowing of her presence here.

So, that meant that our leader knew that the human was here and hadn't killed her yet. That human had to be pretty lucky to have been allowed to live this long. But, with more of us on the ship, I had a feeling that human was going to have to show that she had a place here soon or our leader would not find any more use for her. While that really wouldn't affect me one way or the other, the human probably wouldn't like being,

A glint of something on the med berth caused me to frown. "Fragging idiotic glitches from the Pit! Don't the last bot to use this place know proper cleaning procedures!" I grumbled as I saw a piece of scrap metal just lying on the berth. The last medic had to be a pretty poor one if this was how they left their med bay.

The sound of metal clanging caused me to glance up and I raised an optic ridge in surprise when I saw said human in a now exposed air vent and she was looking down at me with a strangely curious look. "Sorry about that. Didn't realize that the cover was so loose." She apologized before shimming her way down to the floor, though that itself was impressive, and she walked over to the counter that I already cleaned and climbed up before sitting on it. "Do you mind if I sit in here for a while? Everyone else is at some sort of meeting."

That was right. While I was in here cleaning up after whatever bot was my predecessor, everybot else was on the bridge working on locating any of our troops that could come to us. So far, there was zilch. The other team that had been on Cybertron got held up by a group of Autobots and couldn't get through. So, they said that they would find other means to get to Earth quickly.

For the meantime, though, I guess I had to play the sparkling-sitter to the femme fleshling until Soundwave could come and retrieve her…or send those twins to. "Don't get in the way." I responded to her as I moved to clean up the med berth. While I did, though, I could just feel her staring at me. While I knew that I was an amazing specimen of my species, her staring was slightly annoying and I wished that it would stop.

Thankfully, after a few clicks, it did and I found myself forgetting the little femme as I tidied the med berth. Once it was done, I straightened up and turned to rinse out my rag in the sink. However, I had to stop myself when, to my surprise, I saw the little human using a scrap of cloth…that looked like a towel when compared to her, and was wiping up the energon mess that was on the counter. She actually looked like she was making progress on the stain…

…Well, progress for someone her size.

I stared at her for a few clicks more before she must have realized I stopped working and turned to me. Her face turned slightly red with what looked like embarrassment before saying, "Sorry. I just don't like to sit around doing nothing. But, if you want me to stop I can."

This femme…was helping? I still couldn't believe that some being aboard this ship would help, even if it was the organic human…I think Soundwave said that her name was Lizzie in the file that he gave all of us.

To make sure I answered her, I walked over to the sink and started to rinse out my rag before saying, "Whatever you want human. I don't mind the help. Just don't do something that will send Soundwave after me. I try to stay on that bot's good side." I then wrung out my towel before continuing. "You should always watch out for the quiet ones." Well, a little advice would only help the human while she was alive here on the ship. Plus, this was repayment for her helping me clean here.

The human and I continued to work for another two cycles before the room was done and, for her size, she didn't do too bad. She was able to get the old energon on the counter cleaned up and she was able to get most of the rust off of some of the extra tools. I only had to assist her at the end with the drips because she couldn't reach all of the rusted metal. For a human…this little femme was proving to be more useful than I thought. Maybe she would continue to earn her spot on the Nemesis?

I sat on one of the clean med berths, and she sat on the edge of the counter, and I took a drink of energon that I had stored for such an occasion. It was always nice to relax after hard work was done. Plus, I could celebrate that I didn't scuff up my paint job during this entire experience. Not bad for a solar cycle of cleaning my new med bay.

"Knockout…could I ask you something?"

Turning to the human, I saw that she seemed to be thinking about something deeply and it was a strange look on one so small. Even Rumble and Frenzy didn't get that deep into thought…at least for the time that I knew them. Unless something major happened, I doubted that changed.

Since the human did just help me clean up the med bay, including places that I couldn't reach, I nodded. "I might not answer but sure. What's on your little fleshy processor?"

She seemed to look hesitant, though I just told her that it was alright to ask me whatever question it was that she had, before she finally spoke. "What was life for you like on Cybertron?"

Well, that definitely wasn't the question that I expected the human to ask. There was something strange about this human but, for now, I had to think. While my life on Cybertron wasn't the greatest it could have been, this might help the young human understand why we fight those idiot Autobots. From how she was acting in here, and how even Megatron thought she was temporarily useful, she might just earn herself a place on this ship…which would be pretty impressive for an organic. She would need to know why she was helping us and it would be better to hear it from me than a redacted version that the Autobots would tell.

So, I stood up and walked over to her. She looked slightly nervous but I noted that she didn't make an attempt to move from my servo as I set it down next to her. "Come here. I'm not going to be yelling this to you from across med bay. But, don't you dare scuff my finish."

"Yeah that sounds fair." Was her response to me. Surprising given how I had already researched how humans normally interacted with their vehicles. Usually, they treated their vehicles as storage and would let small scratches go unattended. It was barbaric!

Once the human was settled in my servo, I walked her over to the med berth before I sat down and placed her on an elevated tray in front of me. This wasn't going to be a quick story and so I knew that we both had to be somewhat comfortable while I told it. Otherwise she would get distracted and I would get irritated. Not a good combination to have while talking.

"So, I guess I will start off with my background." I started. "I was raised in the city-state of Tarn after I came from the Well. Wasn't the worst life out there, but I knew that there were many who had more hope in existence than I could. On my first trip to Iacon…I was amazed. A place could look so clean and have so many bots who weren't stuck in slums like I was. They looked pristine and the finish on every bot I met seemed to shine. But, I was eventually 'caught' and I didn't understand what I'd done wrong. Then, I found out that there wasn't supposed to be cross travel between the citizens of the city-states of Kaon and Tarn. That was the solar cycle I realized exactly what sort of planet I lived on. The caste system stopped any bot of 'lower class' from bettering their own lives. The leaders of Kaon and Tarn, as I found out later, were just place-holders from the other city-states to make it look like our system of government was fair. To visitors of our planet, the citizens of Kaon and Tarn were just rusted pieces of scrap with no hope."

"That…sounds terrible." The human interrupted and I could see that, at the very least, my past seemed to be impacting the girl.

So, I continued. "Eventually, I was able to become a medic through an 'outreach' program that the Council had to implement to appease a planet that they wanted to join in an alliance with. I trained with a few medics before I was shipped off to Kaon. There, I had to work in the gladiator pits and it was terrible. I never had enough supplies to heal the gladiators that came through and, for the seriously injured bots that I could not heal, I had to give them the gift of a quick offlining. It was like this for hundreds of stellar cycles until…one fateful solar cycle I heard one of Lord Megatron's speeches. After I heard it…I felt so much hope. I had worked on Lord Megatron before that point, though he was called Megatronus when he was a gladiator, but I never talked to him before. Soundwave, who was also a gladiator that I worked on, eventually recruited me for a cause that would rid Cybertron of the caste system. I couldn't say no to that so joined immediately."

As I paused, memories coming back to me of that day, the human asked another question. "What happened…when the war started?"

Well…I was going to have to talk about this anyways. "Honestly human, I was excited." She looked surprised and, since I was telling her this so she could understand what the Decepticons were about, I explained. "This war starting told me that Lord Megatron posed a very real threat to the caste system on Cybertron and it told me that Lord Megatron would fight this fight with everything he had. I had personally seen him fight in the Kaon Gladiator pits and so I knew just how fiercely he would fight to rid Cybertron of the caste system. I bet that Lord Megatron would have led us to victory quickly if it wasn't for the Council pulling a fast one."

"What was that?" The human asked me. I could see that she was becoming engrossed in my story and taking in every word that I said.

Of course, I was enjoying it. I loved being in the center of attention. "They convinced Lord Megatron's greatest ally and friend, Orion Pax, to become the next leader of the planet, which we call the Prime. So, Optimus Prime now fought for the Council and against his friend. Lord Megatron was furious at the betrayal from his friend and that's when the fighting turned dark. While we all were worried about how Lord Megatron was fighting and how close to crossing the line he came, and sometimes went over, us Decepticons knew that we could never stop fighting for the Decepticons because they fought against the caste system that had torn our planet apart for as long as I could remember."

The two of us sat in silence and I let her small fleshy brain process what I had just told her. This would probably be a lot for her to take in. I had pretty much just summarized a millennium stellar cycle's long war in a matter of clicks.

…I was just that good.

However, I had a feeling that I was going to have to explain more when the human's face suddenly looked confused. "Knockout…if the Decepticons fight against the caste system…why do you call Megatron 'Lord Megatron'?"

Well, this femme certainly knew how to ask a question. But, I was confused on how to answer it for her to understand. Of course…I knew why we called him 'Lord Megatron'. All Decepticons did even if Starscream liked to slack off on it at times. Well, he was from Vos and they didn't have the same experience with the Council like those of us from Tarn and Kaon did. So, he was slightly excused for his once in a while mistakes.

But…how to answer this human femme…I glanced at the light bit of information I had already looked up on humans and saw something that I might be able to use to explain the reason. "Let me ask you a question first. You humans have words you can place in front of your names like 'Mister' and 'Master' and "Misses' and 'Miss'. Why do you put them there when they are not necessary and at times can be degrading of placement?"

She looked like she was confused by that but answered. "Well, it's not so much that we think that they are above us…not at all. It's out of respect. When we put those titles in front of a person's name, we are saying that we respect them."

I nodded and followed her line of thought. "Exactly. That's exactly why we call Lord Megatron 'Lord'. It's not because we think of him as a Lord to rule over us but it's because we Decepticons respect our leader and gave him the title ourselves. We are not like the Autobots, who have the title of Prime put on their leader and that is shown as a status. Optimus Prime didn't have to earn the respect of his troops when he was given his title but us Decepticons respect Lord Megatron so much that we call him Lord."

Relief flooded my systems when the femme's face showed realization. That was easier than I thought it would be to explain to her. Now, maybe she would understand our cause more and put more effort into our cause. I had to admit that, as I spent more time with the human…Lizzie, the more comfortable I was with the idea of her being here on the ship. She didn't waste space and Lizzie seemed to want to know about our cause. Those were two good points in her direction from me.

"Thanks for clearing that up for me Knockout." Lizzie thanked me slowly before saying, "If there's anything I can do for you just let me know."

Actually, now that I thought about it, there might be something that she can do. I knew that times would be coming up where both Breakdown and myself would be needed out in the field and that meant that I was going to need somebot to cover in med-bay. Maybe she could…The med bay doors opening caused both myself and Lizzie to look up and I was surprised to see Breakdown walk in with Rumble and Frenzy. "Wow. Surprised you have the human Knockout." Breakdown greeted me before setting the twins down by said human. "I had orders to check on you before taking Rumble and Frenzy to the human so they could show her something. Glad I didn't have to go far for both."

Lizzie moved to the edge of the table, where Breakdown picked her up. Once he lifted his servo by the vent, and the three started to walk through, I called after her. "Hey human," She turned to me with a curious look on her face. "about that favor you said you owed me. If you ever find someone who can cover med bay I'd consider us even. Breakdown and I will probably have times we both need to be out in the field and I'll need somebot in here just in case somebot gets hurt."

Lizzie's 1st P.O.V.

As the twins led me down the vents away from med bay and toward Soundwave's room…I felt myself fall into shock. I had just asked Knockout those question so it wouldn't be so awkward in the med bay with him and to maybe find out a little about his past. While I did accomplish both of those goals…I got more than I had bargained for. Megatron wasn't the maniacal warlord that the show showed him as.

If Knockout was to be believed, and he didn't look like he was hiding anything when he was answering me, then Optimus was really the one who had his title without the respect of his troops…well, at first anyways. While I had no doubt that Optimus' troops respected him now…something told me that he had to earn that respect during the war. Megatron's troops…they respected him so much that they gave him a title before the war broke out. They gave him a title even though they suffered under a caste system. My own respect for Megatron just shot through the roof after hearing that from Knockout. Maybe I would start…

"Cybertron to Lizzie! You there?" Frenzy asked me and it was only then that I realized that they had stopped me in front of the vent to Soundwave's room.

Shaking my head, I nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that guys. I…Knockout and I just talked about a lot of stuff that has my head spinning." Then, I decided to get us off this topic before I zoned out again. "So, what did you want to show me?"

They both smirked and I had a bad feeling. "Don't worry you'll like it!" Rumble tried to encourage me while taking out a blindfold. Well…it was really a scrap of cloth that they were using as a blindfold but I didn't mind.

Also, the blindfold kinda said that this wasn't the first surprise that they had presented to me today. The first was when I had woke up. The two of them had blindfolded me…with Soundwave watching, before they led me to what I later found out were Soundwave's personal washracks. Inside, there was an isolate little human-sized room built into the washracks and I had gone in to see that it had its own shower head and some necessary hygiene items that I needed. Those were toothpaste, a toothbrush, mouthwash, a hairbrush, shampoo and soap inside that would last me for at least two months. Of course, the washracks also had chassis cleaning items so I realized that Rumble and Frenzy would be using it as well.

Then, I was blindfolded again…after I got to shower and wrapped myself in a towel, and the twins led me to a part of Soundwave's room that had been blocked by a sheet. Soundwave moved the sheet and then the twins removed the blindfold to reveal a drawer of clothes that I would need along with a hi-powered washer and dryer so I could clean my clothes. Plus, there was a little sanctioned off area in a corner that I was allowed to use to get changed after I picked out my clothes. It felt amazing to get into a new outfit and out of my clothes that I had on since I got to this dimension.

But…with all that they had revealed this morning what more could I be surprised by? I really had no idea but there was really only one way to find out. "Well…" I started nervously as I was blindly led by Rumble and Frenzy out of the vent and down to Soundwave's room. "guess we should see what it is."

The two of them sniggered at that and that worried me. If this was prank then I was so going to be getting them back for whatever happened. While they hadn't played a prank since I got here…as far as I knew, I knew that they were infamous in the fan community back in my home dimension for being expert pranksters. They were said to be up there with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe…and they were legends.

After quite a long time of disoriented guided walking by the twins, they brought me to a stop and I waited. They let me stand there for a few minutes and, during that time, I was tempted to take off the blindfold myself. But, they seemed excited by whatever it was that they were going to show me so I didn't want to ruin that surprise.

"You can thank Boss Bot and the two of us for this Lizzie." Rumble said.

Frenzy then took over. "Alright Lizzie. You can take off the blindfold now!"

Finally! I didn't waste any time in tearing off the blindfold. If this was a prank, then I wanted to get this over with quickly. However, when I finally got the blindfold off, I thought was I was going crazy. I mean like really crazy. It didn't make sense…what I was seeing that is.

However, just because it didn't make sense, that didn't mean that I didn't have tears of joy come to my eyes.

"This…this is…" I tried to voice my thanks as I walked closer to my surprise.

…A king-sized bed.

Yes…a bed. A very human king-sized bed with a nice mattress, sheets, pillows, and blankets. It was honestly one of the most beautiful sights that I had seen all day. No more would I be getting up with a sore back. I was finally going to have a comfortable sleep.

I hopped on the bed and smiled. This was heaven. Strangely, Rumble and Frenzy joined me. "Like I said, you can thank Boss Bot and us two, Lizzie." Rumble told me and, when I looked up, they were both smiling.

I smiled right back and hugged both of them. "Thank you both so much! I'll have to thank Bo…Soundwave when I see him next." Wow. I was really getting comfortable here. I was already almost calling Soundwave 'Boss Bot'. I had a feeling that, before too long, I was going to be calling Soundwave 'Boss Bot' on a regular basis.

"But…there is a catch." Frenzy added.

That had me worried. What kind of catch would there be to be able to keep this beautiful thing called a bed? "What is it?" I asked the both of them.

For some reason, their smiles made me feel a lot better. "To convince Boss Bot to get the bed for in here, we had to agree to give up our berths as well as yours. So, we get to be your sleeping buddies since there is only one berth for us now and it's your new soft berth." He then bounced on it a little. "It is pretty comfy though."

The three of us looked at each other and stared before speaking at the same time. "Nap."

Yep, definitely could use a nap. After the cleaning that I just did with Knockout that would be nice. I would wash the sheets tomorrow morning after we woke up from our actual sleep. While it would be a little tiring to do those chores around here they were so going to be worth it. I had a soft bed and that meant that I would not be getting up tomorrow morning with a cracking back!

After the three of us got settled, I laid my head onto one of the pillows and, I must have been more tired than I thought because I was soon out cold.

When I woke up next, I saw that I was alone and the twins were gone. I had a feeling that Soundwave must have come by and picked them up for some sort of mission. Wait…what was going on today? Was anything going on today? While I knew what episode should be next in the scheme of things, I had no idea how much time actually passed between the last episode…that had been royally screwed up, and the next one.

"Well…better do some exploring." I muttered to myself before getting up and crawling to the vent. Once I was inside, I started to make my way toward the lower levels of the ship. While the twins had given me a basic tour after I first met them, I wanted to see the backbone of the ship. The biggest thing I was curious about was whether the drones here were just that, drones, or if they had personalities and different strengths that they could use.

It took me about thirty minutes to get to the lower levels of the ship and, once I felt like I had made a good trip, I turned to one of the vents and opened it before crawling out of it. Perfect! I was in some sort of training room.

…Why was this never shown in the show? I had always wondered if the Decepticon had a training room like the Autobots did. I vaguely remembered seeing one at the Autobot base during the episode where Ratchet took the synth-en. But, I had never seen one on the Nemesis and it had never made sense to me. The Decepticons seemed the more war-oriented faction and yet they never showed a training room? Now I was glad that I knew that they had at least one.

Clang!

Plus, as luck would have it, there were two drones training with some of the others watching. I didn't even realize that they trained. From watching the show, I had always thought that they were mass-produced drones that were made just to be cannon fodder and not shoot straight. But, it seemed like they actually did some training.

"You need to bring up your guard faster!" The vehicon drone that had a few scars on his chassis instructed the eradicon in front of him. The vehicon had just landed a strong hit to the eradicon's shoulder and it looked like it hurt.

However, instead of getting mad, I was surprised when the eradicon simply nodded before it launched at the vehicon again and, this time, the eradicon was able to block the vehicon's return strike before landing a hit of his own on the eradicon's side. Now that I looked at it, both of them looked pretty dented. "Got you!" The eradicon exclaimed with a smile

The fighting lasted for another ten clicks before the vehicon nodded his helm and said, "That's enough training for this solar cycle. The rest of you need to go and get back to work. When the bosses get back they are going to want this ship still running."

When the bosses got back? I figured that he was talking about the upper command when he said the bosses but I was curious as to where the upper command was. There weren't many times when the upper command went out in the beginning of the show and just overhearing that told me that we were probably on the episode where Skyquake showed up. I was sad that we originally lost Skyquake but, then my mind caught up with recent events and I realized that this episode could change now that we had so many Decepticons.

…Of course, there was also Paul's reported change in the Autobot's numbers as well.

Movement from the drones showed me that just the eradicon and vehicon that were training together were left and the vehicon was sitting in front of the eradicon. "Come on and let me fix you up." The eradicon told the vehicon.

The vehicon looked at the eradicon nervously before saying, "You sure you know what you're doing? I've survived a long time and I don't want that being taken out by you messing with my chassis when you didn't know what you were doing."

While I was curious as to how long the vehicon had been around, I was more curious about the eradicon that was working on fixing the vehicon. I thought that they were just used for fighting! Where did that bot learn to fix up another bot? I was curious and tried to lean closer to get a better look.

Of course…the grate I was leaning against decided to move. Somebot must oil up the hinges a little too well if a human like me could move the grate that easily. The sound of the gate moving, and my subsequent yelp at almost falling to ground level and going splat, caused the two drones to look up at me. Dang it! I wanted to watch them some more.

"Huh, didn't think the human would venture down here." The vehicon stated with a curious look to me.

Um…hello I was hanging from this grate and almost falling to my death! Hopefully one of them would see that so I could enjoy my new bed for at least one night of sleeping! "Um…could I get some help?" I asked them as I hung there.

The two drones glanced at each other, like they actually had to think about it, before the vehicon motioned up to me. "Better get her down J-03. Soundwave's looking out for her and I don't think it would be good if she was killed when we could have stopped it." Well, guess I was seeing how it was a good thing to be watched by Soundwave.

The eradicon nodded and stood up before walking up to the grate and holding his servo out to me. Thankfully, he held it pretty close so I was able to let go and drop into his waiting servo. "Thanks for that. I owe you one." I thanked my savior…this J-03. Once he brought me to the vehicon, who was now standing, I introduced myself. "Hi, the name's Lizzie. What are your names?"

What I didn't expect was for the vehicon to laugh while J-03 looked confused. "Names?" J-03 asked.

Finally, the vehicon stopped laughing enough to talk. "Oh, you have a lot to learn about being up here h…Lizzie. The only thing we drones have are our serial codes. You already know that is J-03 and I am C4-R1."

…I wasn't going to remember all those numbers and letters! I barely remembered names as it was and I knew that I wanted to get to know the drones on the ship. They offered a point of view on the war that many didn't get. In essence, they would be sparklings except they were in older bodies. They were learning as they went along and I was curious as to where their loyalties really lied.

"That's not going to do at all." I muttered as I sat crosslegged on J-03's servo and started to think. There had to be a better way to identify these drones and I wanted to figure it out before I had to go anywhere else. This way, I would know what to do if I ran into another drone.

However, the two drones that I was currently with looked confused. "What do you mean that they aren't going to do? Those are our serial codes and we can't just change them to whatever we want." J-03 asked me in while holding me up to visor level.

Wait…they could change them! Well…sort of. "That's it! Hah! It was so simple. Why didn't I think about this earlier?" I asked myself as the idea started to stick in my head.

"What are you going on about?" C4-R1 asked me as he seemed to study me.

I turned and looked at them both before smiling. "The answer to my problem is simple. There would be no way that I would remember all the serial codes for all of you that I meet, and I hope to meet more than you two, but I need something to call you that can be both unique to you and that you will remember. I figure that I can just substitute your numbers in your serial codes for letters and combine them into a name for each of you. Since none of you have the same serial number exactly this will work out great!"

They both looked surprised by my sudden outburst. "So…in a sense you are going to name us?" J-03 asked me.

I nodded and got to work on the ones that I had now. C4-R1. If I changed the numbers into letters that would make sense…I got Carl! "You're going to be Carl to me."

I pointed to the said vehicon. He seemed to muse over it before he shrugged. "Not the worst thing I've been called and it is easier than saying my serial number. So, why not? I guess I'm Carl."

Huh. He took that pretty well. Guess he was used to going with the flow. Now, however, it was time for the eradicon's name. J-03. Thankfully, not many names that I knew of started with the letter J and so, with only having to work with two other letters, I was able to come up with a simple yet nice name for him. "And you are going to be Joe."

Joe seemed so excited to have his name and flashed a smile before saying, "I like it. It's a lot easier to say than my serial number. Plus, we are going to be the first drones to have names!" Joe seemed pretty excited about the new name in comparison to his serial number. Yeah!

I went to say something else when they both seemed to go stiff. From experience with the twins, I had a feeling that they were getting some sort of message. I hope they weren't going to have to go and fight. I had just given them names and I didn't want them to get killed already. After a few minutes, they both relaxed before Carl nudged Joe. "You're going to have to take her."

Um…take me where?

"Why don't you?" Joe argued at Carl.

…Wow. I just named them and now they were fighting over who had to come with me. Really feeling the love bots. Seriously. If it wasn't for the fact that Joe was still holding me up high in the air, I would have just hopped down and told them that I would go to wherever I needed to be myself. But, glancing down, I realized that was just a tad bit too high for my taste.

Carl answered Joe with a motion toward the door. "I wouldn't mind taking her except for the fact that it's time for my guard shift in front of the energon storage room. So, that means that you are the only one left to take her." Carl then turned to leave the room. When he got to the door though, he paused before turning to Joe. "Oh, and don't worry. I gave your serial number to Knockout so he will know that you are supposed to have her. Don't want any unnecessary repairs now."

Joe and I stared at the now empty space in the doorway where Carl had been standing. Frag…that was one scary drone. Remind me to not get on Carl's bad side. Like…at all. "Um…he's scary." I said out loud to Joe.

He, in turn nodded. "Yeah, he's the oldest drone on the ship. He knows how to stay alive and he gets along decently with Soundwave so that means he gets some sway with the other bots in the chain of command. There aren't any drones psychotic enough to try and do anything to him." He then walked out of the training room and started to move toward the upper levels of the ship.

Okay…so was I supposed to remain clueless about what was going on? I think not. "Hey Joe…what's going on?"

He glanced down at me before looking back ahead. "Soundwave sent out an alert to all drones that, once you were found, that you be brought to med bay. It seems like he, Lord Megatron, and Starscream and some of the others have located a location here on Earth that houses one of the Decepticons' top fighters. From what I know, his designation is Skyquake."

Ah…so that's where we were. I was pretty sure we were here but I didn't want to assume anything. When watching the show back in my home dimension, I knew that it was easy to look over the fact that time passed by between the episodes sometimes and this could have been an example. But, I guess that it made sense for Skyquake's awakening to happen the day after the space bridge exploded. In the original, Starscream would have been frantic to get another bot on his side to solidify his authority on the ship.

But, since I was with somebot else right now, I realized it would be rude to not keep talking to him. Even though we were almost to med-bay, there was still one question that I wanted to ask Joe. "So Joe, where did you learn to repair bots?"

He froze for a second before speaking. "Well, I've always been curious about the medical field and so, one solar cycle during my break, I started to get information on healing. It wasn't easy to get into the files but, with no medic on board at the time, I wanted to be able to help heal the other drones so I kept looking. I'm not great yet but I can do simple repairs no problem. But, the harder procedures are under more strict blocks and I can't get to them."

When we arrived at med-bay, he stopped talking but I had a wide grin spread on my face. I didn't like having debts to other beings and Joe just helped me get rid of one of my debts quick and easy. The door to med-bay swung open and Joe walked the two of us inside. I saw that Knockout and Breakdown were still here and both were turned toward us.

"Ah," Knockout started with a nod. "J-03, good job in getting Lizzie up here. Soundwave would have had my finish if she wasn't here when he got back."

Joe seemed embarrassed by the attention. "Um…th…thank you sir." Guess with 'Scream and Megatron on board…along with Soundwave, Joe wasn't used to getting praised for doing a good job.

I felt bad for Joe for being embarrassed but, when Knockout looked to me, I knew that I was going to make it worse…but it would be worth it in the end. "Hey Knockout! Guess what? I just brought you a medic!"

Paul's 1st P.O.V.

Bullets hailed over-head and the sparks of swords clashing could be seen from my current location but, surprisingly, I was happy. True, I probably shouldn't have snuck with the Autobots to intercept the energon signal that had appeared in a canyon. Yeah, Cliffjumper was probably going to have my hide when we got back and he discovered me. But, I had to make sure. This was the episode that Skyquake was supposed to rise and, eventually, be offlined by Bumblebee. While the timeline was off from what was preset, I had a feeling that the Autobots were going to be able to win this battle and at least offline Skyquake like he was supposed to.

"This is so awesome Paul! Thanks for helping me sneak out." Miko whispered next to me as she took picture upon picture of the battle going on in the canyon.

…What? I wanted to make sure that I had some sort of backup and, since Lizzie was not going to be able to help me like I intended, then Miko was the next best option. She wasn't afraid to come out into the battles with me and I had a feeling that, if I told her to do something during this, that she would without much hesitation…if any at all.

Out of the three kids, she was the one that was most like Lizzie and so I had a feeling I could direct her correctly.

When we had arrived in the canyon, I was surprised to see Megatron and Soundwave next to Starscream and Skyquake. While I knew that he had survived the explosion, I didn't expect him to bring Soundwave along with him, Starscream, and a group of drones to resurrect Skyquake.

Of course, it wasn't just Optimus and Bumblebee this time around for the Autobots either. Sentinel Major, Pitch, Blurr, and Bulkhead were here as well. While Optimus fought with Megatron, and Sentinel and Blurr were working on a group of the drones, Pitch was going after Starscream and I couldn't help but notice a strange look in both of their optics. They had met before. That much was obvious to me, but I had little luck digging up any information on this Pitch character. What I was able to find, to my surprise, was that he was actually a native of Iacon. He was an instructor at a boot camp during the early stages of the war but, after that, he seemed to fall off the grid.

Now, he was back and I didn't like being so ill-informed on a bot. Lizzie knew who he was and I was now even more upset that I could only communicate with her in her sleep, and even that wasn't a sure thing. This Pitch…I needed to figure out exactly how she knew him. From the look I saw flash across her eyes when she had said that…she had felt fear toward Pitch. Something about this Pitch character scared her like no other. But, until I could talk with her, I wanted to study Pitch for myself. From what I had seen so far, there was nothing really wrong with him except that he fought a little more aggressively than most other Autobots. But, that wasn't exactly something to fault him on.

The sound of a jet flying overhead caused both Miko and me to look up and I watched as Bumblebee jumped from the side of the cliff and onto Skyquake's back. I let out a sigh of relief when that happened. The show was going as planned and that meant that Skyquake would, unfortunately, end up offlining. If it didn't affect the series so much, then he could have had a chance. But, his offlining was what drew Dreadwing to Earth, which brought back Wheeljack, and which eventually allowed the Autobots to create a spacebridge with the Forge of Solus Prime that Dreadwing would give to Optimus.

"Wow. I'm kinda jealous of 'Bee right now." Miko stated as she came to stand next to me with her phone raised taking a picture. "It would be so awesome to fly like that! He's like a metal cowboy right now."

I laughed at her comparison and nodded. "Yeah, that certainly seems the case. But, now he's got to bring down what he's wrangled."

I felt anticipation tighten in my body as Skyquake flew the two even higher. Soon Skyquake would start his descent and that would be when Bumblebee would take him out and keep the show somewhat on track. While I knew most of it was out of the picture now since more Autobots were here and there was the absence of dark energon…which I had Lizzie to 'thank' for, this bit of the time line still had a chance to pull through and, with how things were looking, that chance was very real and close to happening. That would give me some relief with how messed up the timeline already was. Frag it all this had better go right! While it felt bad to cheer against the survival of one of my children, I knew that this had to happen.

My anticipation tightened even more as Skyquake moved into a slight dive and Bumblebee rose his fist up. This was it. As soon as that fist slammed down into Skyquake's circuits…his fate would be sealed and the show could continue on. By Creation let it please continue on like it was supposed to. As Bumblebee's fist reached its pinnacle, I felt my nerves reach their peak. I noticed that the other fights had stopped and we were all watching this. Megatron looked angered that this was about to happen and the Autobots looked excited that they were about to make a blow against the Decepticons. But, it was the look on Starscream's faceplate that had me worried. He didn't look angry. But, instead he looked calculating and, when Bumblebee's fist was at its highest…he smirked. Was he really that cruel that he would smirk that Skyquake was going to offline?

A sudden pop in the air had me looking back toward Skyquake. My eyes, though, widened in shock at what I saw. Skyquake looked just like he did before Bumblebee got on him and Bumblebee had vanished from Skyquake's backplates! Where was he? This wasn't right! Couldn't I just have one thing go right for me? Please!

Another pop sounded through the air, though this one was definitely louder, and my optics widened when a purple blur suddenly slammed Bumblebee to the ground before another pop sounded and the blur disappeared. What was going on? Who the frag was that? Why did fate want to mess with this timeline? Really?! I wasn't even sure how Lizzie ended up on the Nemesis and I didn't want to have to pay for something that I didn't know the reason for! "Whoa. Didn't see that one coming." Miko muttered by me and I noticed that she was still taking pictures. Glad at least one of us was enjoying their time out here.

Shaking my head, I looked up as another pop sounded, this time by Starscream, and I had to drop my jaw in surprise at what I saw. It was another Starscream! But…this one was purple. Starscream didn't clone himself until much later in the show! What was a clone…

…Oh wait. That wasn't a clone. Frag my life.

"That wasn't very nice Autobots." The new bot said from next to Starscream while sticking his glossa out at us all.

Starscream shook his helm and placed his servo against his faceplate. Guess we weren't the only ones who were going to be suffering by this bot's appearance. "Autobots eng," Optimus started to order when a large sonic boom interrupted his train of thought and, before anyone could say anything else, a blue jet that looked similar to Starscream's alt mode flew low and fast through the canyon behind the Decepticons. It was a mere second later that the jet flew over the Decepticons and, once it was over us, it let out a large sonic shockwave that caused both Miko and I to be thrown back…along with the Autobots.

Once I was aware of my surroundings again, I stood up and made my way over to Miko. "Hey, you alright Miko?"

She smiled and nodded before standing up and saying, "All good Paul." She then looked behind me and frowned slightly. "But, the Autobots don't look happy."

I turned slowly and saw that Blurr and Bulkhead were staring at the two of us with a look that meant trouble. More specifically, that we would be getting in trouble. Great. The Decepticons had more troops on their side, Skyquake was still online, and now I was going to be lectured with Miko once we were back at base. I then flinched when I realized that I would also be lectured by Cliffjumper. Joy. That was exactly not what I needed.

Looking back at the Decepticons, I saw that Starscream, the purple seeker who I now knew was Skywarp, and the blue seeker who had just delivered that attack against us that I knew was Thundercracker, were standing together and Skyquake was standing next to Megatron. "While a confrontation with you Autobots would be interesting, that's not what we came out here to do and I don't like wasting my time." He then turned to Soundwave. There must have been some sort of unspoken command because Soundwave suddenly nodded and, instantly, a groundbridge was opened up behind them and the Decepticons started to file through. Skywarp, to my surprise, was the last one through and he stuck out his glossa at us again before he ran through.

Now I knew what Lizzie wanted to tell me. That night, when I had finally gotten into contact with her, she was trying to tell me that the Decepticons did not fail at the space bridge like we all thought they did. They had two of their own soldiers come through. And they weren't just any soldiers. They were Starscream's two brothers who also made up his trine. The Decepticon side just got a lot more powerful and I knew that wasn't a good thing. Not at all.

A shadow being cast over me caused me to look up and I saw that Miko and I were now surrounded by the Autobots and Optimus especially looked like he was in a lecturing mood.

…Frag!

Authoress: Yeah! Now we can have Joe and Carl in here!

Lizzie: What about everyone else that we have introduced?

Joe: *nods* While I'm glad to be in here, because that usually means that I'm not going to die right away, there are other bots that should be in here.

Authoress: *smirks* Who Joe? Like the bot that Lizzie just told that she found a medic?

Joe: *glares at Lizzie* Speaking on that...why did you tell Knockout that? I'm going to be murdered!

Lizzie: *shrugs* Gut feeling.

Joe: *sweat drops* Oh, I'm suddenly not feeling so good.

Knockout: *walks in* Did somebot just call a doctor?

Joe and Lizzie: *yelp at sudden appearance*

AN: And here is the next chapter! To ladybug02, no it's not bad that you're not sorry. I'm the one that does all this to them and I just sit back and laugh at them all! XD

Anyways, so I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Looks like things are still changing (and Paul is still unhappy)! Skyquake is alive and Paul now knows that there are at least two more Decepticons on Earth! He will find out about the others the next time he gets in contact with Lizzie. Speaking on Lizzie, she certainly got a lot of information out of Knockout about the state of Cybertron before the war and even got some more information than she was looking for. Also, she got to meet Joe and Carl and she gets to pay back her debt to Knockout! Aren't I nice?

And yes, since Lizzie is on the Nemesis and unable to help Paul how he wanted, he will be taking Miko with him so she will get a lot more action than what she saw in the show (or in the original of this story, The Power of One). She should be excited about that! Next chapter is not going to have much with the Autobots (of course we will check in with some of the mayhem via Paul panicking) but we will have a pretty interesting development with the relationship between Lizzie and Megatron (which as it stands right now is begrudingly allowing Lizzie to continue living for now on Megatron's part).

Well, that's all for now. Please drop a review, even to say hi, so Lizzie knows that she's not going to have to go through everything I put her through without a reason.

*in background* Lizzie: What!?

Until next time my readers! TTYL! *starts singing a polka* XD