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

Paul: Seriously, why do you get to my parts when the chapter title is creepy as my brother is.

Authoress: Wow, grudge there much?

Paul: *defensive* No.

Miko: *laughs* I bet there is! *laughs harder*

Chapter 17: There will be Dark Times

Lizzie's 1st P.O.V.

Whelp, this wasn't what I was expecting. When I pictured the twins getting me back, I thought that it was going to be a very elaborate scheme like they did against Skywarp. Multiple steps that get worse at every turn. But, that wasn't what happened exactly. The only thing that was really the same was that they had to have gotten Soundwave's help with doing this because they would have woken me up otherwise. I had to give the twins one thing though…I was not expecting them to do this at all.

"Zhis is so much fun!" Random cackled as we sat in the med bay waiting for one of the medics to get to us.

I shook my head at that but smiled. "I can't say that you are wrong Random, I would just like to get on my feet here soon. I think I lost feeling in my feet awhile ago. Can't remember. Was having too much fun." Hey, just because it was a prank didn't mean that I was upset by it.

A shifting sound was heard before Icy spoke. "Jou are correct. It was interesting to speak about jou and how jou came to be here." He was talking about how I became a Decepticon…since none of the Decepticons knew the little details that I still wasn't sure I could tell them. It was all delicate information and there was no way that I could prove that what I was saying was true. Humans couldn't have cortical psychic patches performed on them and that was the only way that I could prove that what I was saying was true.

"And I liked hearing about how you joined the Decepticons." I answered back to him.

And, it really was. Blitzwing had been an Autobot, with his Icy personality the only one he had, until he was told to report to the science division for a physical. It seemed normal to him so he had gone. But, the Kaon native bot wasn't prepared to be knocked out and being experimented on. He couldn't remember what bots were responsible for experimenting on him, but when he had tried to report what happened to other bots, he was court-marshalled and sent to be exiled.

And that was when Starscream of all bots had come across him and convinced the triple changer to at least give the Decepticons a chance. Blitzwing said that it was hard for him to assimilate to being a Decepticon at first but, with Starscream's and a bot named Dreadwing's help he was able to become a fluent working piece in the Decepticon war machine. I had to pretend that I didn't know Dreadwing because, even though Skyquake and I were almost best friends at this point, he hadn't mentioned his brother yet.

Then, another click brought me out of that thought as Blitzwing changed personalities again. "What is taking the medics so long to get to us?" And that was Hothead finally bringing in his view on our wait time.

"Knockout and Hook said it was going to be a while. The team going to get the relic from Siberia suffered some casualties." I responded. I had been worried about the casualties. I hadn't planned on the Autobots showing up in time to do much of anything but Knockout took that worry out when he said that Astrotrain, the idiot, caused an avalanche and a good number of the drones, and the idiot himself, got trapped and damaged.

"Zhat idiot Astrotrain. I should have gone on zhat mission." Hothead complained.

While I tended to usually agree with Blitzwing, I had to shake my head this time. "I don't think you really would have. They were in the snow on top of a mountain digging through ice to get to the cylinder. Then, they had to be careful and not take off the carbon infused ice that was surrounding the container that this relic was in. Would you have really wanted to do that?"

A shift in Blitzwing's faceplate told me that the answer was probably going to be, "Jou are correct Lizzie. Freezing my circuits off vould be best avoidable." Yep. That.

Of course, I was avoiding about what our situation was in the first place and how Soundwave had to have helped them. Well, to get used to my armor, I had taken to sleeping in it for the past four days since the MECH incident. Well, the twins knew this and got Soundwave to help carry me to Blitzwing's room. There, they put fast action cement-like glue on the back of my armor and right now I was currently being carried around stuck to Blitzwing's chestplate. To make matters funnier, they tied a metal string around my waist and around Blitzwing's neck, so I was his 'necklace' of sorts. When Blitzwing woke up, it took me a second to explain what the twins had done and he had played along with it at first.

But then Astrotrain happened.

Blitzwing had been heading to the washracks in hope that a rinse-off would clear me of the cement-glue and unstick me from him...for no doubt the twins had video and pictures of this to spare by now, when the not-so-nice triple changer then entered and made things worse. Without getting into all the details, things were said and the two triple changers started going at it...with me still stuck to Blitzwing. Thankfully, I had that armor on still, including the helmet, because a number of Astrotrain's hits just happened to hit me. So, even though the suit protected me from going splat, I was still sore from taking the hits.

I had not told Knockout about that yet.

When it came to issues of Astrotrain almost every other bot on the ship acted like fragging mother-hens. Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker had an excuse because they had the seeker mother-hen programing. Skyquake was more of a warrior style jet and he even said that he did not have the programing that those three had in defensive reactions around 'younglings'. True, I was an adult technically but to all of them I was a youngling.

Anyways, whenever Astrotrain is around, I noticed that the others aside from Megatron shift themselves to either face me or stand slightly between Astrotrain and me. In this situation, though, it was difficult for Blitzwing to get between all of Astrotrain's blows. That had been a couple hours ago so I was hoping beyond all hopes that there weren't any bruises forming. That would be not a fun time to my day.

"Well, let's get to work on you two." I turned at Hook's voice and watched as he and Knockout walked up to the two of us, Knockout holding a bucket of something. Once they were in front of us, Hook studied the cement-glue and even took a scan of it before saying, "Well, the twins didn't spare any effort on this. Even with the solution we worked on, it's going to take five clicks at least to get you detached from each other. Lizzie, you will have to soak your armor in the bucket for an additional five clicks to get the remnants off. Blitzwing, you'll have to go and take a wash in the racks for a few clicks with the solution coming through to get the rest off." Well crap. Hopefully my current good-streak of luck would hold enough to not let me have any bruises. But, we would see in five minutes.

It was weird. I knew that, as the solution was poured between Blitzwing and me, where the cement glue was, the solution had to be at least boiling point. The steam was drifting from the liquid like no other and I could hear the solution bubbling and sizzle as it made contact with the substance connecting Blitzwing and me. But, I couldn't feel the heat. This suit really was incredible and I was discovering new things about it each day that I wore it. Even today, with the confrontation with Astrotrain, taught me something. It taught me that I could even take being smashed between Astrotrain's fist and Blitzwing's chassis multiple times without losing structure and without making me go splat.

I was in my thoughts for a while because, suddenly, I feel lighter than air as I fell from being against Blitzwing's chassis. Thankfully, I wasn't falling long as Hook reached out and caught me. I noticed he was using a cloth to pick up the wet cement glue so it wouldn't get on his chassis. Smart move. After a click though, he finished and I wanted to delay the probable inevitability that was coming.

"Come on Lizzie. Get that suit off. I don't want to deal with that thing as much as possible." Knockout hurried me along as he placed the bucket down next to me on the table. Well, I tried to delay the inevitable. I took off my helmet first, figuring that there would be a less likely chance of bruising on my face due to how it was built. Since Knockout, Hook, and Blitzwing weren't freaking out yet there were no bruises on my face. But, since I started wearing the armor, I wore a tanktop and shorts underneath since the armor didn't chafe and fit nicely.

But, that was now going to be a problem because since I was wearing a tank and shorts, if I had bruises they were more likely to be seen. Did not think that one through. However, I couldn't complain much. It would be more of a help than a hindrance. Just not in this case.

I couldn't delay any longer and so I took off the armor and held it out to Hook. I was using the armor to hide my body for now. Once Hook took the armor out of my hands though, I knew that I was offline due to the widening, and narrowing, of optics toward me. Since none of these bots hated me, I had a feeling that they were staring at me because of what was probably forming on my body.

"Lizzie Xantara Val where in the Pit did you get those?" Hook demanded as he motioned to the big bruises that I had showing. One was on my arm...and took up my arm, and one took up my left calf. Yeah...those hurt. Plus, I flinched when Hook used my full name. They knew that they were supposed to use it only in exceptionally few circumstances...and this fell into one of those.

"Well…" I started, dragging it out to avoid saying what happened. Didn't need the medics going off on Astrotrain. Would give him something else to be mad at me for.

Unfortunately, Blitzwing decided to answer for me. "Zhat creation of a glitch attacked me when ve vere in zhe washracks trying to get Lizzie unstuck." Blitzwing then glared down at me in a parental you-are-in-trouble sort of way. "However, I zhought zhat I had blocked all of his shots aimed at my chestplate."

All three were staring at me now and I knew that I had to get them off my back. "Oh come on. The suit stopped most of the major damage and I can walk on it just fine. It should be better in a day or two." What? I didn't say that it was one of my better defenses.

"What it should be is non-existent." Knockout started to rant first. Figured as much. Just as long as they didn't tell Starscream or his brothers then we would be fine. "You are a fragging Decepticon and Astrotrain knows better than to start fights and get others involved. That is especially since you had no way of getting out of the way of his hits." He then took a scan of my bruises, and my body in general, before he walked up to the monitor. Blitzwing took that time to go to the washrack connected to the med bay to get the rest of the cement-glue off of him.

"Right. Like he would pass up a chance to get at me." I responded sarcastically. I was pretty sure that Astrotrain was aiming for me more than he was at Blitzwing. But, I wasn't telling them that. I was a Decepticon and the Pit be fragged I was not going to have a babysitter!

Hook did not react kindly to my response. "Lizzie, you need to act more careful around Astrotrain. I know you are not as familiar with him as we are, but triple-changers, in general, are a powerful lot. They hit hard, and they are not the type of bots you want on your bad side. You are just lucky that Blitzwing likes you or you would be having more trouble with Astrotrain than you already have. The rest of us, besides Lord Megatron and Soundwave, can only do so much. But, you can't stay with them all the time. You have assignments that are away from them a lot. Try to stay out of reach again."

There were so many things that I wanted to say in return of that. "Yeah, and I'll warn the twins not to stick me to anything like that anymore. There are better ways of pranking." Well, I was actually going to be talking about a ceasefire with them and Skywarp on the pranking front, since we had all been pranked. But, they didn't need to know that bit. To my answer, that seemed like the best idea considering what I could have said. I didn't like having to change my ways because somebot had a problem with me...even if they were a triple changer.

Just as Blitzwing was coming out of the washrack, and Knockout was taking my armor out of the solution, the doors to the medbay burst open and Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker were all there walking in. Scrap.

When Starscream's optics landed on me, they widened before he finally spoke...well screeched. "What the frag happened to you?"

Yeah...this was going to be a long solar.

Paul's 1st P.O.V.

Whelp. This wasn't what I was expecting.

This was supposed to be the time that Arcee should be with Jack when he gets the message that his mother has been taken by MECH. Instead, Miko, Chromia, Arcee, and I were with Jack as he dropped the communicator out of the package. I was a little nervous about what this change was going to say about the future. But, as long as the Autobots got Cybertron, I didn't care about how this went down one way or another. Sure, I would try and keep things as close to possible as I could, but that was my main goal.

"Hello, Jack." Silas' voice came across the communicator that dropped out of the package.

"Silas." All of us humans growled. Great. Just who I wanted to deal with. The only good thing was, and this was a very shallow look at things, that this part of the timeline seems to be going fine...unfortunately. Why couldn't this change like every other fragging thing around me was!?

"What is it? What's going on?" Chromia asked us. That's right. It was hard, with all of these bots showing up, I forgot that she was one of the ones that came post MECH showing up and making a mess of things. Well, she was about to get a front-row seat to all of this...and then some.

"MECH." I answered her, barely containing a growl myself. Only my brother's chassis could chaotically and unknowingly create a species that could spawn so many evil organizations...one being MECH. True, I had a few bad sparks from what I created, but compared to my brother's there was nothing in comparison.

"They know where I live?" Jack asked in a panicked voice.

Of course, that was when Silas decided to jump back into this conversation. "We know things about your family that you don't know." I felt like breaking the communicator in anger in response to Silas' smug tone. But, I had to hold off. There were lives on the line at this moment and I had to be careful. Both Miko and I knew what was at stake during this. True, she wasn't thrilled that 'helicopter' mom was going to be joining us but she understood that it had to happen. The alternative was not pretty. "For example...do you know where your mother is?"

"What did you," Jack started, in an angry tone that I had not heard from the teen yet. Lizzie may not like him and may think that they had nothing in common, but I could see that both Jack and Lizzie were fiercely protective of those they cared about. Fiercely.

However, Silas interrupted Jack. "Understand Jack, we have no intention of hurting her. In fact, we'd like you, Chromia, Arcee, Miko, and Mr. Muskogee to follow the GPS coordinates programmed into this communicator. They'll lead you to a temporary facility I've set up."

This was just getting worse. Silas knew that everything was changing. He singled out Miko, Chromia, Arcee, and me being here. He knew that there were more of us here and that made me nervous. But, it also made me feel slightly better that I was at the base. Not completely thrilled, with me having to deal with Pitch and Flamewar, but better. He couldn't ambush me at my house because I lived in a secret Autobot base that they didn't know the location of.

"Ratchet?" Arcee whispered, trying to get on her comm link. But, she started to yell out in pain as Silas probably scrambled her communication...with a little-added pain.

"Arcee?" Chromia asked in a panic as she went up to her sister.

"Did I not mention our communicator scrambles the signal and your brains?" No, you didn't you fragging sadistic monster. "Any break in the communication or attempt to reach the other Autobots and miss Darby...Well...I wouldn't want to feel responsible for the outcome." His side then went silent and, while I was sure the communication was still up, I knew that this was not going to end well.

Not a word was said as Arcee and Chromia transformed before Jack got on Arcee. Figuring that Jack would want to be alone with Arcee during this, I motioned to Miko before I got on Chromia and Miko got on behind me. Once we were on, and helmets secured, both sisters revved their engines before racing out of the garage and we started to follow the GPS coordinates that MECH programmed for us.

Even though we were driving next to Arcee and Jack, I couldn't hear a word that was said as we drove at high speeds toward the destination. We had to race to make sure that we got to the warehouse facility in decent time.

"Paul...is everything going to be alright?" Miko asked me as Chromia made a turn to follow her sister.

While I wanted to tell the girl that everything was going to be alright, I wasn't going to lie to her. This was a very delicate situation. "Honestly Miko, I'm not sure. But, we just have to have faith that everything is going to turn out fine."

Thankfully, Chromia seemed to understand what I was getting at. "Paul's right, Miko. We just need to be prepared for whatever this MECH group and Silas person can throw at us." Right, like how they were in league with a certain spider-bot. But, Miko and I already knew that so we had to keep focused on the goals ahead.

Soon, we all pulled into the factory and, once we stopped and engines turned off, dozens of red laser lights aimed at Miko, Jack, and myself. Just staying calm was the best thing I could do right now. While it was tempting to reveal myself to get us all out of this, I knew that I had to keep faith that, in the end, everything would turn out alright.

"So...what's the plan?" Chromia whispered to her sister. I could tell that she was battle tense. Well, since Ironhide was her bondmate...that made some sense.

"The usual." Arcee growled softly before she suddenly revved her engine, Chromia following, and both Miko and I had to hold on for dear life as she suddenly went up on her back tire for a split second. Then, both she and Arcee raced ahead and around MECH, who were definitely shooting at us, before we came into some open doors of a warehouse on the grounds.

Once we were all stopped inside, I knew that the party was just about to begin...and it would not be a fun party. "Mom?" Jack yelled out for his mom. Of course, in the back of the ambient noise I was hearing, I could hear Airachnid's pointy spider-esque attachments clicking against the metal of the warehouse.

Then, once all of us humans were off of our respective bots, she spoke. "Looking for June?" All of us humans turned to her voice. "She's hanging around here somewhere."

The two sisters then transformed "Airachnid!" Both growled at the same time before Airachnid wrapped them up with webbing, binding their arms to their chassis.

"What's she doing here?" Miko asked, even though both she and I knew why. Guess she wanted to say something here...since we were in this mess anyways.

Once MECH walked in next to Airachnid, Chromia looked toward Silas and took Arcee's line. "Help them, please! They're human...like you! You can't let Airachnid," She sounded really desperate and, even though I technically wasn't human, I appreciated the sentiment.

However, it was now time for Silas to drop the bomb on her vague hope. "A few human lives are a small price to pay for miracles of science like yourselves." Silas then motioned to two of his goons and they nodded before bringing up their blasters and stunning both Arcee and Chromia, making them unconscious on the ground.

"Arcee!"

"Chromia!"

Jack called out to Arcee at the same time that Miko and I called out to Chromia, all of us running up to the respective bots that we called out for in worry. Thankfully, I could tell that they really were just stunned and knocked out. But, I had to keep a close eye out and make sure that nothing went out of order here. I need Arcee to be kept alive and, even though Chromia was not a part of the original timeline, it would break Arcee to lose her sister here...especially to Airachnid.

"I'll have a private session with you two later. Promise." Airachnid spoke to the two unconscious bots.

"Gentlemen," Silas started, bringing himself back to the forefront of the confrontation. That was obviously some untold signal because five of the henchmen for MECH then came forward and took the communicator and Jack's phone away from him and took Miko's phone along with my own away from me. Thankfully, if things went to the worst, I still had the phone that I was planning on giving Lizzie before all of this started hidden in a special compartment in my shoe. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to use it.

"Now," Airachnid started, causing all of us to look up at her. "I'm still learning about humankind, but one thing is clear to me, Jack. You people care deeply about family." At first, when this started, I was curious about why Airachnid would still focus on Jack instead of Miko and myself. But, then I realized that Jack was Arcee's partner and it wouldn't be hard...with MECH's intel, to figure that out for her. So, the best way to get to Arcee; get to Jack.

"Paul," Miko whispered. But, I shook my head to silence her. We needed to stay on guard and let this unfold correctly.

"Therefore, the sweetest revenge I could possibly devise would be to make you watch as I take your family apart." Airachnid continued to taunt.

"If you hurt my mother, I'll" Jack started to threaten the hunter. That was right. He wasn't there when we first met the bug so he didn't realize how deadly she really was.

"You might have heard about how much I enjoy sport, Jack." Airachnid started with a slight word change from the original. Not bad all things considered. "So, I'll give you the opportunity to save your mother. I've stashed her close by. If you can rescue her before the stroke of twelve, I will let both of you go unharmed" Of course, that was only seven minutes away. Plus, that didn't say anything about what MECH might do to them. "Deal?"

"And if I can't?" Jack asked back. While normally a smart question, his tone made it dangerous. Plus, he was wasting time.

With a smirk, Airachnid simply responded to him with an evil tone in her voice. "What do you think?"

Then, Jack ran up to Silas. "Please, don't let her do this! You can let us go. We won't tell anyone." Speak for yourself, Jack. I know that I would talk as soon as I could. This was a ruse, but I planned on telling whoever I could no matter what the outcome...of course I wanted June to come out of this alive and everyone alright with all I could.

"Enough!" Silas demanded, a slight tone of frustration in his voice before he shoved Jack away from him and onto the ground. With a discreet glance, I saw that Jack took the communicator from Silas. Perfect. At least I was getting some relaxing from this part of the timeline. But, I couldn't stop now.

I snapped back to attention as Airachnid spoke up. "Yes, Jack. Man up already. You only have six minutes to go." And with that, Jack ran out of the building…Airachnid following behind him.

Once both were well gone, Silas walked up to the monitors, his men still pointing their guns at Miko and me, before he spoke. "Now...I know we promised the spider-bot first crack at you…" He then turned and I had a feeling that things were changing. "And normally I would be worried that she would turn this crisscross into a double cross...but we have this identical and whole specimen to work with. Men," He started.

But, I was not going to let him touch either bot and so I stood defensively in front of the two while I motioned Miko back. Thankfully, she listened and moved to stand against the walls. Weapons were still trained on both of us but she was at least slightly farther away from harm now. With this change, it looked like I was going to have to fight to keep things in one piece.

"If you want to even come close to these bots, you will have to beat me first." I challenged the man. I remembered from the Nemesis Prime part of the timeline that Silas had a bit of pride in his fighting background. Well, I had been fighting since before his entire planet came into existence...and won against his planet. I was good for now. So, I decided to add a little icing to the battle cake. "Of course, if the leader of MECH, such a technologically-advanced organization, can't beat a corporate man like me in one on one combat, then you have issues." I then held up my fists in challenge.

And, like I thought, the man rose to the bait. "Special tactics training against a man who sits behind a desk all day? Should be amusing." I then had to raise my arms up and blocked as the man threw a punch.

With that punch out of the way, I quickly retaliated with a kick to his knee before I backed up. Better to debilitate your enemy before they got the upper hand. "This 'man who sits behind a desk all day' may have more to him than you thought." I taunted the man before I attacked him.

The two of us traded blows with blocks for about five minutes, meanwhile, I could hear MECH's men cutting away at the webbing on Chromia and Arcee. This was...alright so far. As long as Chromia and Arcee woke up before they tried to take out their sparks, then everything would work out fine. With another glance, I saw Miko on edge, ready to move once she wasn't being aimed at.

After blocking what would have been a nasty blow from the human, the two of us stepped back slightly and studied each other. "You seem to be more trouble than I thought. Why would you need such heavy training?"

I smirked at that as we started to circle each other. "Because I have to deal with maniacs like yourself coming after me and my company. Need to be prepared for any situation."

The two of us were then about to make a break for it when a commotion on the screens caught our attention. It was of Fowler and his group showing up with three helicopters. "But how…?" Silas started to question in surprise until he reached down and saw that his walkie was missing. Yeah...usually nice to keep a hold of your stuff. Never knew who might take it.

Before another word could be said, both Arcee and Chromia sprang up and, while Arcee bolted out the door to help Jack and deal with Airachnid, Chromia shot some non-lethal rounds at Silas' goons before going to get Miko. "Seems like you underestimated your opponent." I taunted the man in front of me.

"Not a mistake I'll make again." Silas growled.

But, while he looked like he wanted to attack me, he couldn't as Chromia ran toward me, Miko in one servo, and he had to dodge out of the way as Chromia picked me up and started to run outside. As we ran toward the coordinates, I knew that something had to change because I could see June still alive and trapped with Jack at the controls. He wouldn't have been in that position without Arcee before so something had to change to put him in it now.

When a green beam of light suddenly shot into the sky, I knew that Airachnid was scanning Fowler's copter. This was not good. Airachnid was loose on Earth's skies and it would only make the situation on Earth that much more tense. Even though she was supposed to be here, things were obviously changed and her having aerial mobility could endanger more than just my plans. As I looked at Jack and his mom talking to Arcee, I realized that many lives could now be at stake.

Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

I stared down at the training room in curiosity. Lizzie, in her suit, was training against Skyquake's soliform with an intensity that I had yet to see from the human. Not to say that she never showed increasing effort, the human seemed to constantly work on improving and Shockwave reported on his last update that the human was still asking logical questions about the work she was doing with them. However, Lizzie now seemed to be showing an almost ferocious side to her. If I had to narrow down two factors that could have caused this change, I believed that I could.

The first was getting Lizzie out on the battlefield during the recovery of Breakdown and Vox. It was one thing to analyze battles from the safety of a monitor, no worry about what was going on around you. However, she had been placed with her human pedes on the ground and, from the reports I received about how the mission had gone, including Lizzie's own report, she had been confronted with a number of the enemy on her route to release Breakdown and Vox. Having to use the training that she had been receiving would have snapped Lizzie to think about how efficient she was in battle.

However, I had a feeling that it was the most recent incident that really pushed our human Decepticon to this ferocity. I had been informed by Starscream and Hook of an incident that involved Lizzie, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain. Due to her being stuck on Blitzwing's chestplate, Lizzie had been stuck in the middle of a scuffle between the two triple-changers. Injuries were not serious and, since that scuffle seemed to diffuse tensions I let it slide for now. However, Hook and Starscream told of Lizzie being bruised so she had been caught by some of Astrotrain's hits.

I was no idiot, and I made sure that those around me knew that. It was obvious that Astrotrain and Lizzie did not get along well, and that Astrotrain would not hesitate in taking out the human given the chance. Being physically attacked by a triple-changer would have a psychological effect on any being...especially one of Lizzie's size. Add that to the obvious dislike between Lizzie and Astrotrain and that is more than enough motivation to increase ferocity on the battlefield.

"My Lord," I glanced at Shockwave as he walked up to me. "the relic has been secured in the vault."

Yes. It was upsetting that none that were currently under my command here on Earth could use the relic in question but at least it was out of Autobot servos. Not much was known about the weapon but, from what little we did know, we knew that it would only work for a being that it wanted to. The weapon wasn't sentient but it had not worked for any that tried to force the weapon to work for them.

"Very good." I responded to Shockwave's report.

I then turned my glance down to the human and, as I studied her train the way she was, the ferocity and reckless care she was taking, it reminded me of when I first started to fight in the gladiator Pits in Kaon. I thought I was the best of the best and that no one could beat me. I was angry and wanted to fight back against those around me. I didn't think about what my next steps were going to be.

I saw that in the human as she trained now. She was motivated to fight and she had been victorious against the human enemies she had faced. But, then she had to turn around and was unable to defend herself as Astrotrain's attack had impacted her body. From the ferocity that the human was showing, she wasn't thinking about why she was fighting, why she was training. She was just thrashing out at Skyquake's soliform and it was a waste of time. I did not like time wasted. It didn't matter if she was wasting my time or her own, the human would not be allowed to continue wasting time like this.

"Lizzie's attack patterns seem chaotic and poorly thought out." Shockwave observed, looking at the training room scenario as well.

Nodding at that, I straightened before addressing the intelligence officer. "Shockwave, go put a stop to that. Inform her that I do not appreciate wasted time, and that farce she is putting on is wasting it greatly."

"Yes, my Lord." Shockwave acknowledged my order before going off, most likely to put his chassis somewhere to go into soliform.

As he did, I glanced down at the, for right now, only human Decepticon. While Shockwave's intervention was going to temporarily delay this time-wasting behavior of Lizzie's, something needed to be done to ensure that this did not happen again in the future. However, that posed a problem as well. I knew how to read a Cybertronian with relative ease. Humans, however, had different idiosyncrasies that were making my true analysis of our human Decepticon difficult.

So, even though I could threaten Lizzie to get her to stop, that might detract from her effectiveness in being a strategist. So far, I was sure that I had been lucky in using my fear factor on Lizzie up until this point. But, with this strange turn in her attitude, I needed to put the right amount of fear in her, using the right medium as well. Shockwave, until I figured out more about reading humans better, would serve as a perfect medium. I knew by now that Lizzie understood that Shockwave approached everything he did in a logical manner and she wouldn't be able to build up the argument against him even if she wanted to.

This was a bump in our human's path and she needed to overcome it so she wouldn't be wasting time. In this war against the Autobots, time was something that was very precious and wasting it was just as bad as allowing energon to fall into enemy servos. It would not be permitted to stand. If she didn't get herself out of this cycle, then I would have to step in, and if that happened I would not waste any time in doing what needed to be done.

Skyquake's 1st P.O.V.

I flinched as Lizzie landed another hit against my arms. She was venting. That much was obvious. Couldn't really blame her but this was not helping her training. She wasn't working on correcting her flaws. She was attacking wildly and that wasn't very good. I had to snap her out of this but I wasn't sure how. While I knew a bit about human nature from hanging out with Lizzie, I didn't know what could possibly be going through her head.

"Lizzie, you are throwing your punches too widely. Bring them in tighter." I informed her.

"Right." She responded, but she didn't seem to really hear me. How did I know that? Well, that was because she kept throwing punches too widely. I had to get her to calm down and snap her out of this. She was smarter and more analytical than this. Usually, when we told her something, or if we were telling someone else something, she would pick up that lesson and apply it to herself.

When the door opened behind me, I turned and felt tense when I saw a soliform that I didn't recognize. I had seen most of the soliforms of the higher command here on the ship, and the drones seemed to have all the same look for the most part...with little differences to tell them apart. The only ones that I hadn't seen yet were Lord Megatron, Knockout, Astrotrain, and Shockwave. I was pretty sure the soliform was not Knockout or Lord Megatron. It looked too serious for Knockout but it looked too calm for Lord Megatron. But, between Astrotrain and Shockwave, I wasn't quite sure who it was.

Whoever it was walked right past me and reached a hand out to grab Lizzie's flying fist and, in a few movements, threw her to the ground and held her there. Her breaths came out in short, erratic bursts but I could tell that she was slowly calming down. "Lizzie, Lord Megatron does not like you wasting time with this meaningless thrashing and told me to inform you that this farce that you are showing is wasting time that could be used in other ways." So it was Shockwave. That was a relief. I didn't want Astrotrain to confront Lizzie now.

It was weird though. Lizzie had been fine earlier this solar. Maybe it was being confronted with an opportunity to fight that pushed her? I needed to get better at reading humans.

After a few clicks of Shockwave pinning Lizzie to the floor, she finally seemed calmed down so Shockwave let up and Lizzie stood before turning to the strategist. "My apologies for the waste, Shockwave, and please extend my apologies to Lord Megatron for me." She then glanced at me and smiled. "Sorry about that Sky. Can we pick up again tomorrow?"

I didn't like seeing Lizzie upset so I immediately found myself nodding. "Sure. You should probably hit the washracks." We had just finished setting up a human-sized section of the washracks attached to this training room for her use since she would be training in here more often, aside from her strategist work.

In turn, she nodded before walking toward the entrance to said washracks. Once she was gone, I turned to ask Shockwave something only to find that he was gone. Where did he go?

It didn't matter. I needed to talk with somebot about this and I knew that Starscream would probably be best for that. So, once I returned to my actual chassis, I walked toward medbay while getting on my comm. "Skyquake to Starscream, where are you at?"

It didn't take long for Starscream to respond to me. "Med bay with Thundercracker and Hook. We were out scouting when T.C. hit the side of the canyon we were flying through due to a surprise wind gust and reopened some of the welds that Hook did after the incident in Siberia. Why?"

"I'm worried about Lizzie. Need to talk to you about it." I responded as I turned into the hall that housed medbay.

As I approached the door to medbay, Starscream's response was immediate. "What's wrong with Lizzie?" I could hear the worry in his tone of voice and I knew that he was the right person to come to talk about this with.

Instead of answering Starscream on the comm, though, I opened the door to med bay and walked in to him, along with Hook and Thundercracker, looking toward me before I answered him. "She's lashing out. I think that her recent experience with Astrotrain is responsible."

Hook nodded at that and leaned against the medberth that Thundercracker was sitting up from. "I noticed she seemed a little...jumpy when we were scanning her bruises. Plus, she had seemed ashamed that we had seen the bruises. That might cause her to panic since she has only just recently joined our ranks."

Starscream nodded but he was looking at me like he couldn't figure something out. "That much is obvious to anybot Skyquake, but what brought you down here?"

Knowing that I just had to get the information out there, I did just that. "This situation is now worse because Lord Megatron knows that Lizzie is having this panic."

"How? Lizzie hasn't shown much of it since then," Thundercracker started before he stared at me with a hard look. "Or has she?"

I could only nod at his inquiry before explaining what happened earlier in more detail. "I was in the training room working with Lizzie in my soliform. She was attacking in an instinctual way and wasn't listening to what I was teaching her. She was just lashing out, probably due to this panic. I didn't realize that Lord Megatron had been watching until Shockwave came into the room in his soliform and took Lizzie to the floor on orders from Lord Megatron for her to stop wasting time."

Their looks grew solemn as I told them that information and they now seemed to understand what sort of predicament I was having with Lizzie. "This is a problem." Starscream commented in a not very helpful way.

"I want to help her," Hook started. "But human mentality, while similar to our own, has some different quirks about it that I have noticed with Lizzie and her interactions around us. I wouldn't know how to address her in a way that would help her calm down."

That was a big problem that we had. While Lizzie had seemed to become used to being around us and picked up on how to talk to us rather quickly, we did not have the same knowledge boost when speaking about how to talk with her...especially in these situations. "Just as long as she doesn't do anything crazy before she can get her head back on straight then we should be alright."

As soon as I finished that thought, though, I jumped when a pop suddenly sounded in the air as Skywarp appeared in the room with the twins hanging onto his shoulders. While Skywarp appearing in a room with the twins wasn't something that was out of the usual, normally, the fact that they all looked panicked was not helping my feeling about whatever they were about to drop on us.

"You need to get to the training room now!" Skywarp got out in a panicked voice.

Starscream ran up to his brother and put a servo on his helm to calm him down since the twins were on Skywarp's shoulders. "Calm down for a click 'Warp. Why do we need to get to the training room?"

It was Frenzy, though, who answered the question...and made my spark stop at the same time. "Lizzie is fighting Astrotrain's soliform!"

...Slag! I don't know how that happened since Lizzie was supposed to be washing up after our training session, but we needed to get to that room quickly. Something we all seemed to agree on was that Astrotrain seemed to be one of the major stressors that were causing this breakdown in Lizzie's focus. Who knew what sort of damage would be done with this confrontation between the two of them?

But, we couldn't just activate our soliforms to the room. As we ran to the viewing area, where most of us would leave our chassis when entering the room with Lizzie, I thought on why that was. The soliform program worked the best when activated as close to the chassis as possible. While we all wanted to get to the room now and stop the fight, we needed our soliforms to be the most functional to stop the fight. If we would have activated our soliforms in medbay, they would only be as useful as holograms against Astrotrain and Lizzie.

When we all finally entered the viewing area, however, we all stopped when we saw that, along with Skywarp and the twins since they had warped back to the room, was Soundwave, Shockwave, and Lord Megatron. What...what was going on? They were obviously aware that Lizzie and Astrotrain were fighting but they were just watching?

"My Lord…?" Starscream started cautiously. I couldn't blame the seeker. This wasn't the average situation. This normally wouldn't be a good idea but if that was the case now then either Shockwave or Soundwave would have stopped this a while ago by explaining the logic behind keeping Lizzie out of Astrotrain's reach...even his soliform's reach.

"You wish to know why I would allow two of my troops to fight each other in such a way?" Lord Megatron finished Starscream's question with a look at him.

That look alone seemed to make Starscream even more nervous but he gave a nod in response. "Yes, my Lord. It seems counter-productive."

"At first, it does seem that way." Lord Megatron started as he glanced down at the training field, where Astrotrain and Lizzie were going at it. As I watched them behind the glass, I realized that Lizzie was a lot more focused than she was during our training session. "However, I am sure that you all have noticed the change in Lizzie's attitude due to a few recent events. What better way to bring her mind back into focus than to have her have the chance to face off against one of the factors of her problem?"

At first, I wanted to argue that. Astrotrain would not hesitate in killing Lizzie given the opportunity and this was a large opportunity for him to do so and not get into trouble. Human bodies had a number of key locations where, hit just right, could kill them. Most of us knew not to hit there and made sure that our training did not get intense enough to cause us to accidentally hit them. But, Astrotrain was not a fan of Lizzie and, as I watched, he seemed to be, at times, even aiming at those spots.

But, what caused me to hesitate was Lizzie herself. She seemed extremely focused on the battle in front of her and, while she obviously would get hit from time to time, did not hesitate in returning blows that he was giving to her back to him. This was a highly aggressive form of battle that none of us had seen in her training before.

"Enough!" We all flinched, even the two fighting below, when Lord Megatron finally interrupted the two fighters after both had landed particularly hard blows against each other. Both looked up to Lord Megatron, though Astrotrain looked upset that he was being interrupted in what he probably saw as a once in an existence opportunity. "I think both of you have made your point. Astrotrain, you are to go on patrol immediately." He then turned his gaze toward Lizzie. "And you Lizzie, you are to get cleaned up and report to Hook. There are medical files that you are to familiarize yourself with that he will show you." He then turned and we all stayed quiet as he walked away, followed by Soundwave and Shockwave.

Once he was out of the room, I didn't waste a nano in leaving my body as I activated my soliform down on the fighting floor. It was a good thing I did too, and that I was not alone as, when Starscream, Thundercracker, Hook, Skywarp, and the twins appeared in soliform by Lizzie as Astrotrain's soliform had started to lunge at Lizzie. Astrotrain's soliform was a darker tone than Lizzie's and he brought over his red eyes from his actual form. He wore silver pants with a purple shirt and a black and purple long coat. On his human feet, he wore black heavy-grade boots. Guess he didn't get the memo about humans heating up after exercise...burning up something called 'calories'...I think.

Lizzie, in opposition, was wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt with tennis shoes. When we had first started our training together, I had asked her why she wore something that fit so close to her body and little protection from blows. She said that wearing what she did allowed for more free movement and the tighter shirt made it harder for her opponent to get a hold of it to use against her.

At our sudden appearance, Astrotrain hesitated and took in the field around him. True, we didn't have Blitzwing's soliforms to help out but, with five of us average sized Decepticons standing between him and Lizzie, and the twins acting as the last line, we were enough to cause the bot to hesitate. Ture, in his normal chassis he would have had the advantage on us. But, being human put us on different terms. The only Decepticon in here that had any sort of advantage, ironically enough, was Lizzie herself. Being the Decepticon with the most experience in being human was something that she could use well.

"Heh, need all of these glitches to protect yourself, little human?" Astrotrain taunted Lizzie as the two continued to glare at each other.

"Not my fault that bots actually like me Astrotrain. Maybe you could work on that loose glossa of yours and bots wouldn't want to pound your faceplate in." Lizzie shot right back at the triple changer who was currently in human form.

He growled at her but, after he glanced around the room again, he simply shook his head before he disappeared. After a few nanos, I heard the sound of heavy pedesteps and the far door of the washracks open. Once I heard the sound of them close again, I turned to look at Lizzie.

It seemed all of us soliforms had the same idea as we were all looking at Lizzie.

Lizzie, on her part, seemed almost amused at how we were looking at her. "What's with the looks bots?"

Starscream did not hesitate to answer that. "What's with these looks is that Astrotrain could have offlined you and you are acting more relaxed than you've been all solar!"

"Yeah, why did you agree to fight Astrotrain? Even in soliform, triple changers are dangerous." Skywarp added onto that.

What none of us were expecting was for Lizzie to laugh at that before she shook her head and started to make her way to the washracks. "First off, of course, Astrotrain could have offlined me. When you are human, you accept that you aren't going to be living for a long time... by your standards, and are more willing to accept death when it approaches. I'm not going to shirk away from Astrotrain just because he has a problem with me." She then paused at the washrack doors before she turned to look back at us. "Second, who said that I was told to fight him?"

We all stared at her in confusion at that one before Thundercracker spoke. "What the frag do you mean by that Lizzie?"

The human Decepticon gave a smirk at that which, to my offlining solar looked way too conniving for her, before she answered me. "Astrotrain wasn't the one to challenge me, and Lord Megatron didn't order me to spar with him." She then paused and that smirk grew wider. "I don't like having problems with how I go about things. So, when Astrotrain showed up here after you left, Skyquake, with permission from Lord Megatron I challenged him." The human then walked into the washracks and closed the door behind her.

There was silence among the seven of us as we stared at the door that Lizzie just walked through. She...she challenged a triple changer to a battle...That…that was complete,

I flinched as Starscream's soliform walked up to the door and hit it. "Lizzie Val you can't just challenge a triple changer like that!"

Starscream: *glares at Lizzie* You idiot. You would think that you would know better than to mess with Astrotrain.

Lizzie: *drying off wet hair* What? the inability to defend myself was causing me to start to break down mentally at the insecurity and that was a problem that I could fix. It was easy enough to convince the idiot to fight with me. I was surprised that Lord Megatron gave his permission for the fight so quickly. But, I'm not going to complain. I feel better and I feel like I'm ready to take on any challenge that tries to kill me. *laughs*

Authoress: *snorts knowingly* Right. You haven't seen next chapter yet.

Lizzie: ...Huh?

Authoress: *evil laughter*

Starscream: *annoyed* You need to stop doing that!

AN: And here is the next exciting chapter of this story! I hope you all enjoyed that! I had a lot of fun writing this, even with the changes, and I hope you enjoyed reading it! However, I feel like I do need to explain what happened in this chapter. I explained it sporadically in the chapter but Lizzie, having been completely victorious last chapter against MECH and, now, completely helpless against Astrotrain here at the beginning of this chapter, caused Lizzie to feel like she had to push herself harder and faster, without really thinking about what she was improving. Both the victory from last chapter and the loss from this one caused Lizzie to have a sort of panic attack, though her's was vented out physically. So, she needed a way to overcome this panic and she realized, when Astrotrain entered the washracks while she was there, that fighting him while he was in his soliform, and she was not in her armor, would be the best way for her to get around that little roadblock.

...Yes, it was filler but I did through in some small hints about what is to come.

Anyways, now that I have explained myself, time for my overview of the chapter. With Paul, despite a few things changing, his luck seems to have gone up for this chapter, though he is suspicious of it. Is this new luck a sign of things to come? Plus, he seems worried about Airachnid. how big of a part is she going to play in the future of this story?

Back to Lizzie, first we got to see the twins exact their revenge on her, in making her a necklace for the resident insane triple changer. Luckily, this allowed Lizzie to learn about Blitzwings induction into the Decepticon and Blitzwing got to learn some stuff about Lizzie. But, I bet those bruises aren't going to be as easy to ignore as Lizzie thinks. Then, we got to see Lizzie kick aft against Astrotrain and that seemed to get her some credit back with M...Lord Megatron after her little slip up earlier in the chapter.

Of course, Lizzie used her strategist training to self-diagnose herself and was able to logically come up with a 'treatment' for this panic. Probably earned her some more credit with Soundwave and Shockwave.

Plus, some things were revealed during Lord Megatron's point of view that are important...like a certain relic that I "failed" to identify for you all. XD

...and then we have over-protective 'Scream *ducks to avoid narrow object as said seeker yells that is not his designation* yelling at Lizzie there at the end. I wanted to end this chapter on a light note.

So, that's all for this chapter. Next chapter, which was originally Metal Attraction, is going to have a little more insight into the bots and maybe we will get some more insight about Zarron? Not sure but we will definitely see some of him in the next chapter. Plus, Lizzie might just have gotten over one obstacle to...well...we shall see next chapter! So, you'll have to tune in next time to find out.

Now, that's all of the recap of what has passed and the sneak peek into what is to come. here are the names of the next chapters. In italics, I have put the name of the episode that the chapters are following...or in this case just glancing at and laughing at. Of course, these names might not tell you diddly-squat about what will be in them. So, make sure you strap yourselves in for continuing this ride!

Chapter 18: The Itsy Bitsy Spider Metal Attraction

Chapter 19: Danger Keep Out Rock Bottom

Chapter 20:...(Silly readers, you'll have to just find this out next time.)

Well, that's all for now. Please review, say hi, send mon...love. I totally was going to say love...right?...*shakes head*Anyways, until next time, TTYL! *listening to Oklahoma!*