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

Authoress: Wow, that was a great weekend.

Lizzie: I bet it was for you. You got to go around dressed as a medeival member of royalty and got to be in charge.

Authoress: Yep!

Lizzie: And yet some wonder why you are a Decepticon fan. *stares knowingly*

Chapter 19: Danger Keep Out

Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

I found myself sitting on my throne with quite a few thoughts going through my head. Normally at this time, I would be making the rounds and observing my soldiers in person. However, this solar was different. I was not blind to the tensions in my troops that had started with the arrival of Astrotrain. He and the second newest Decepticon on the ship, Lizzie, were known to have tension and I had personally witnessed this tension. It wasn't healthy but I held off on dealing with it to see how the human Decepticon dealt with the pressure.

At first, she seemed indifferent if only slightly affected. Then, she snapped and I had to have Shockwave step in and make sure that she did not waste time on this tension. Lizzie had surprised me when she had fixed it for herself that very solar. From that point, the two had returned to the tension they were at before, though I was sure that Lizzie would not lose her cool again because of Astrotrain. She seemed to learn from her mistakes the first time and that was a good quality for a Decepticon to have.

However, with the addition of the newest Decepticon on the ship, I now had an even larger problem than I had before. Lizzie and Airachnid had hit off their interactions with each other on the wrong pede and Lizzie had come out on top during that bantering. While I personally was impressed by that, since Airachnid was known for having a smooth glossa and a quick wit, I knew that Airachnid did not take so well to Lizzie's bettering of her. Airachnid was bordering on being hostile toward the human.

And that could not stand. We Decepticons stood our best chance against the Autobots if we worked together, even if that is begrudgingly like Lizzie and Astrotrain had been doing up to this point. With this new hostile force in the midst of the rest of my Decepticons, I knew that the time would eventually come when a fight would break out. A fight that would not only cause injuries, but would also waste time and that was not something I could allow to happen if I could fix it now.

But, the question now would be how to deal with them. Both Airachnid and Astrotrain were skilled fighters and I had to be careful how I approached them. Also, a public humiliation and reprimandation would do no good for those two. It would just cause more divisions to start to form in my army. I had to take them somewhere where I could control the interaction. Also, I would need to bring another officer so they could tell the other officers about the warning I would be giving to Astrotrain and Airachnid as well as be a second set of optics while I tested their loyalty to myself and the Decepticon cause.

To figure out where this would take place, I pulled up past reports about our abandoned mines and, after searching through a few of them, I found a mine that would put us underground and the delicate flooring of the mine would prevent Airachnid, who should notice this upon our arrival, from drilling into the floor without bringing the entire mine down upon herself as well as Astrotrain and me.

Since this test would be underground, however, that took out many of my officers. While claustrophobia luckily did not affect me, the same could not be said for most of my officers with a flight mode and, in the case of the only officer with a flight mode that this did not affect, Blitzwing, or the one who was affected by it the least, Soundwave, both would cause the situation to be tenser than needed.

Blitzwing could possibly have problems with his other personalities and that would cause the talks to possibly go off track...something that I did not want to happen. In Soundwave's case, I needed him to be on the ship due to Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker off on an energon scouting mission in the Sahara Desert.

The other officers with a flight mode were too affected by claustrophobia to be taken on this mission. That left Knockout, Breakdown, Vox, Shockwave, and Hook. Vox was getting some vital training with Soundwave and so that was out, Knockout would be too annoying to bring with because he would complain about his finish. Plus, in a fight, he would not be much assistance.

Breakdown would be useful except he was currently escorting Rumble and Frenzy to a location on Earth known as Rome. Lizzie had suggested that the twins take a trip there to increase their knowledge on 'ancient' human culture and the 'Roman Empire' according to Lizzie, was a key focal point in understanding the development of humanity.

Then there was Hook. He was currently in mine RB-7549 taking in stock plus staying guard against the possibility of an Autobot attack. With the Autobots having the addition of the energon harvester in their arsenal, they had taken to attacking more of the mines on a semi-regular basis. It wasn't much of a struggle yet but I knew that something had to be done soon with this situation. Either we needed a way to supplement our energon so our need was not large and we could destroy the energon that the Autobots were after, or we would have to shift focus to guarding our mines more fiercely and that would cause our other projects to suffer. Some of those projects were vital to our future war effort and this division of power would not be good.

But, I realized that I was allowing my thoughts to fade from the current situation. Dealing with the budding insubordination from Airachnid and Astrotrain. The only remaining Decepticon that would be ideal to go with me would be Shockwave. While I knew that he was working on his projects, many of which were important, I knew that Shockwave had the capacity to recover from this time that would be lost. Plus, Shockwave was battle proficient enough to help deal with Astrotrain and Airachnid should they give problems during this test.

So, I connected my monitor to the one in Shockwave's lab. When the one-optic mech answered, I could see that he was alone and he must have been in the middle of one of his projects, for I could see the cylinder from Rudulf Island in the back on the table. "My Lord, how may I be of service?" Shockwave asked me.

So, I answered him. "You will accompany me on an excursion with Airachnid and Astrotrain to mine IC-2223. They are testing the limits of my orders and they must be put in their place."

Shockwave gave a bow of his helm. "Yes, my Lord." He then paused before saying, "My Lord, when we return from this excursion, may I request the assistance of Lizzie? I know she will probably have training with Starscream during that time. However, her intimate knowledge of humanity will help me in catching up to where I am currently in my work."

While I knew Starscream seemed to anticipate his training with our human Decepticon, I knew that Shockwave's work was paramount. So, I sent the change in orders to Starscream before I responded to Shockwave. "It shall be done. Meet me on the bridge for departure immediately."

"Thank you, my Lord. I shall meet you right away." Shockwave responded before I ended the call.

I then stood and sent a message to Airachnid and Astrotrain to meet me on the bridge, before I made my way there. I was not going to take insubordination on my ship any longer and Airachnid and AStrotrain had better learn that this solar. Otherwise, I would not hesitate to get rid of them. I would rather have them offline then against me.

Miko's 1st P.O.V.

What happened? I was on a scouting mission with Bulk, Wheeljack, Arcee, Flamewar, Jack, and Paul and we had found an abandoned Decepticon mining cave. The bots had been hesitant to go in and so I had complained about this taking so long. I had a concert to get to tonight. Slash Monkey was playing their only US date and I did not want to miss it!

So, to help move everything along, I had taken the initiative and crept into the cave. It was awesome to look at and, even though the mine was stripped, I felt like there was more that I could find.

Anyway, the others had started to catch up to me as I moved toward an opening that had a lot of light coming through. I would have waited for them but, right when I was about to stop, I heard voices up ahead. Curious, since I had been the first one of our group to go into the cave, I had walked ahead until I could see into the opening. Of course, it had been at that point that I remembered the information that Paul had given me about what was supposed to happen now.

Seeing Megatron, Shockwave, Astrotrain, and Airachnid standing there, Airachnid and Astrotrain looking nervous, was not what I had been ready to see.

It was also at that time that the rest of the group that was with me caught up and I remembered Flamewar started to chastise me about going ahead...which sounded condescending, before they all finally saw what I saw.

Blaster fire had then started, and I remembered hearing Megatron yelling at someone...I think Airachnid, before the floor had started to cave in. I knew that this was going to happen and tried to get near Paul. But, before I got to him, the ground under me had given out.

I winced as I started to stand up and look around. That fall hurt and I just hoped that something wasn't seriously hurt. Or someone. "Paul? Jack?" I called out for the two other 'humans' on this trip. When silence followed, I tried for someone else. "Wheeljack? Bulkhead?" Still no answer.

So, I moved away from where I fell and started to walk. I had to find one of the others...except maybe Flamewar if I was still alone. She creeped me out and I knew that Paul was nervous around her when she was alone or with Pitch and Sentinel. If the god of the Cybertronians was nervous around those three, that told me that I probably should be too.

After about ten minutes of walking, I turned and was about to call out again when I noticed a purple glow coming from a human-sized hole to my left. What was that about? I didn't remember anything from the information Paul had shown me about there being something that glowed purple here. So, I decided to investigate. As I moved closer to the glowing purple light, however, I felt a weight in my chest. What was that about? It felt oppressive and it almost made me want to turn around. But, I wanted to see what this was even more.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking down the small path, I came to an open chamber and I felt my eyes immediately widen in shock.

No. Way.

I couldn't be seeing what I thought I was seeing. But, after a few blinks and shakes of my head, i really couldn't say that I wasn't seeing what I was seeing. Covering the far wall and ceiling of the cavern I had found were hundreds of crystals of dark energon. This was the stuff that Paul had been worried about since he got here. It hadn't made an appearance yet and here it was, just hanging out here where, according to the stuff Paul showed me, wasn't supposed to be.

But, I bet that this information was going to make Paul ecstatic! Seriously, Paul's mood was horrible recently since things weren't going the way that he wanted them to. Plus, with Lizzie and some other human, who was a Decepticon, still on the Nemesis and Lizzie still in danger, I knew Paul needed some good news. While it was weird that the substance of pure evil was going to make the god of good for the cybertronians happy, well, it was.

Knowing better than to touch the dark stuff, I moved back the way I came and, once I was back in the main tunnel, I moved to keep looking for the others. I knew that Airachnid, Astrotrain, Shockwave, and Megatron were probably still around here and I didn't want to even risk meeting up with any of them right now.

Paul couldn't lose another of his helpers to the Decepticons.

Chromia's 1st P.O.V

I frowned as I leaned against the wall in the main room. It had been about an hour since the group of explorers had returned from the disaster in the abandoned mine. The humans were slightly shaken and the one had been returned, Arcee's partner Jack. The other two, Miko and Paul, were still being looked over. At the same time, Flamewar, 'Cee, Wheeljack, and Bulkhead were being checked over as well. That sort of luck wasn't something that one wanted to have during a war. Running into Megatron and Shockwave as the leader of our enemy was doing some internal cleanup. Add that to one of those being cleaned up being Airachnid and 'Cee had been in a lot of danger.

But, secretly, I felt like she was in more danger than that brought by the Decepticons. Flamewar still caused me to hesitate and, even here at base I found myself watching myself around her, Pitch, and Sentinel. They were on the fringes of Autobot support and I trust them as much less than I trust other Autobots. They didn't help my opinion of them by how they trained with Paul in their soliforms. The human would come out of those pretty beat up and the only reasons I wasn't trying to stop it were because Paul wanted this training...for some reason, and he had some allies.

While Cliffjumper would be with him as much as he could, but that honestly wasn't often, the one bot that surprisingly made me begrudgingly okay with this whole thing was Zarron. As shifty as he seemed to act most of the time, I found myself able to relax with him around. At least compared to the other three.

"You look too deep in thought." I turned at my sparkmate's voice and smiled as he and Ratchet walked into the main room from the med bay. Ironhide walked next to me and I gave him a quick kiss, to ease him.

But, since I knew that they just came from the med bay, I wanted to get some information. "How are the others doing?" I was worried about the team that had been in the mine.

Thankfully, Ratchet seemed to be relaxed about my question. "They're doing alright. A little banged up but they just need some rest before they will be back to full capacity."

Ironhide nodded. "Even the humans are alright. Jack had to get home since he has work tomorrow but Miko is staying here with Paul so he can help tutor her in her subjects for school."

"Plus, Miko and Paul were hit harder from the fall and I want them here for observation just in case." Ratchet added. "Of course, Paul is unfortunately used to that kind of damage though so I'm not as worried about him as I am about Miko."

"Well I am." Both Ratchet and I turned to Ironhide as he said that. I could feel the anger and irritation coming from him from our bond. "Paul is a stubborn human and shouldn't be taking that kind of damage."

Ratchet shook his helm at that. "While I agree with you, Paul is an adult in human terms and would tell us if the injuries he was taking were too much."

I found myself in agreement with Ratchet on this. "While I don't like what is happening in the training session, this is Paul's choice. But, I have to say that I feel better that Zarron seems to be taking an active role in making sure Paul isn't as hurt during those sessions." Both mechs nodded but I noticed a deep thinking look on Ironhide. That wasn't a safe look. "Careful there dear or you'll blow a fuse."

Ironhide shot me a look at that before he spoke. "I just wish I knew what Zarron's endgame was. With how he acts around all of us, beings like him, it's weird that he seems so protective of humans...especially Paul, even though he has just started interacting with humans."

And that was exactly the issue I had with Zarron. He seemed to almost look forward to going into his soliform when he was near most of us and, when he wasn't in soliform, he stayed away from casual conversation and mostly kept to himself. "Why don't we look up his service record?" I suggested to the mechs. "All Autobots have a basic record and it might give us a clue about why Zarron acts the way he does." At their hesitating looks, I decided to give them a little more encouragement. "It's not illegal to look up another bot's basic information on the system and Zarron is out right now. We wouldn't have another chance like this for a while."

Finally, I saw both mechs waver before Ratchet sighed and moved to the monitor, Ironhide and me following behind. "Fine, but let's be quick about it." Wow. I thought Ironhide would break first. But, I guess Ratchet was just as hesitant about Zarron as the rest of us seemed to be. So, he pulled up the database on registered Autobots and he started to search Zarron's name.

When the file came up, however, I found myself staring in confusion at the information in front of us. Well...not the information yet per say, but the lack of it. Most Autobots, for basic information, had three pages that would give information on service records of battles participated in, basic informational text, and an odd bit of information that the intelligence officers found important.

But, Zarron's information only showed a page of information...and the page wasn't even full. It listed his designation, his position which was a scout...which was surprising, a few battles that he has participated in, and a few other small bits of useless information. However, what was interesting was at the end. There weren't many bots who were listed who had served with him...and the ones that were weren't even scouts like he was.

The first listed was an intelligence officer called Remcy. I had heard about him before and he was high in the rankings of Autobot intelligence officers. But, after the attack on Praxus, he retreated to the far reaches of space and barely anybot had heard from him since. Well, that did match Zarron's personality so that wasn't surprising.

It was probably the next name that had Ironhide humming thoughtfully from next to me. Tana. She was a warrior who was decently well known in the Autobot ranks. While part of that was for her skill, it was mainly due to the group of warriors she belonged to; The Guardians. While the Wreckers were one of the top warrior groups that the Autobots had, they were challenged for the top spot by this group. The Guardians, while definitely not made up with as many members as the Wreckers, were highly skilled and exclusive. Also, gaining membership to the Guardians was no small feat.

Ironhide said that, when he first joined the Autobot cause, he had slightly hoped he would be asked to join. But, that faded as the war started. Still, he held them in high regard.

Seeing her name on a list of bots that Zarron had served with was impressive, and even more so since the rest of the Guardians were not on there. That meant that Zarron had served with Tana before the Guardians had picked her up.

But, is was the final line that caused me to be even more curious about the mech. Obviously, there was supposed to be something on that line. But, to my surprise, the line was marked out. It was like somebot had gone into the records and tried to remove the name altogether but couldn't so resorted to blocking it out. I was curious but knew that our time looking at this would be limited. With how many bots were here at base, somebot would be coming in soon.

So, Ratchet turned off the monitor...and seemingly right on time as the sound of a motorcycle was heard from the front entrance and, after a few clicks, the black motorcycle with blue flames appeared. Once Zarron transformed, he looked around and seemed to study the three of us for a few clicks. I didn't flinch and studied him right back. There was too little information on him and that made me suspicious. I wasn't sure how Wheeljack trusted the mech...or even Cliffjumper the little he did. But, as far as I am concerned, I would be watching the mech closely for any slip-up.

Thundercracker's 1st P.O.V.

For the first time in a few solars, I was relieved. Recently, with the addition of Airachnid on the ship, everybot was on the tips of their pedes...or toes in Lizzie's case. Not only had Airachnid been causing problems for Lizzie, but Astrotrain had seen Airachnid's vendetta against Lizzie as a challenge and had started to increase his own harassment of the human. Honestly, I had been worried about how to make sure Lizzie stayed in one piece. I wasn't the only bot that was worried. Starscream and Soundwave had both coordinated to keep optics and cameras on Lizzie and the other Decepticons, besides Lord Megatron, had done their part before this solar.

Of course, the human herself wasn't much help. She wouldn't keep her head down around either Astrotrain or Airachnid and that made her an even easier target. She probably felt like this was a challenge for herself as a Decepticon and, with her pride as high as ever, she didn't back down...even if common sense said not to anger a hunter and a triple changer.

Thankfully, Lord Megatron had stepped in and went to test the loyalties of both Airachnid and Astrotrain. Our leader had made it quite clear when Airachnid first showed up that Lizzie was not to be attacked and these harassment attacks on Lizzie were just that; attacks.

I wasn't sure how that had gone and I was currently headed toward the room I shared with Starscream and Skywarp. Starscream said he was there and he would know how everything went. Well...he was the only one who knew who would tell me.

However, I felt relief about all of this because, with being confronted by Lord Megatron, Airachnid and Astrotrain would back off of Lizzie. That meant that the rest of us could take a break. As prideful as Lizzie could be, she wouldn't be the instigator in a confrontation between either Airachnid or Astrotrain. No, she was better at lashing out in retaliation then starting a fight.

The sound of laughter caused me to pause and look next to me, which happened to be the room that served as Shockwave's lab here, and I stopped and stared with a smile. Lizzie was standing next to shockwave's soliform, working with him by the computers. Of course, they weren't typing. Lizzie was using one hand to hold her side while the other was covering her mouth. I was guessing trying to stop herself from laughter. Though, since it stopped me she wasn't doing a good job.

Taking a glance at Shockwave, he was staring at his soliform's finger with interest and a little pain in his eyes. From the tip of one of the fingers was blood coming out. "This is unusual. Why is there so much pain originating from this point? It is simply a small cut from a piece of human writing surface." While our soliform's didn't feel pain, I had a feeling that Shockwave was studying how a human body would react to different pain and using his pain sensors to determine how the pain would translate to us. While he probably wasn't feeling the pain that his soliform should be experiencing, the readings were probably unexpected.

Lizzie seemed to calm down a little before saying, "The tips of fingers are one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. Just be happy you can't feel that." She then shuddered, though the smile stayed on her face. "Hurts like nothing you could imagine."

"I...will concede to your knowledge." Shockwave answered, still staring at the tip of his fingers in surprise. Wow. These cuts to the fingers must be painful for Shockwave to concede like that.

Our human Decepticon nodded at that before she turned to the screen and said, "Okay, then we had better move on. Why don't we look at trying to figure out the problem with the conversion rate of energy from human food to energy you all can use?" Lizzie suggested to Shockwave. He stared at her for a second before nodding and the two turned to the monitor.

Since they were moving to a different subject, I figured it would be best for me to leave before either of them noticed me. They seemed to be into their work and I needed to get some answers from Starscream. So, I continued on my journey to my room.

Once I arrived there, I opened the door and discovered that, not only were 'Warp and 'Scream in here, but Vox and Hook were visiting as well. I was curious about what was going on and hopefully one of these mechs would fill me in.

"Hey T.C., what have you been up to?" Skywarp asked me as he sat next to Starscream on our middle brother's berth. Hook and Vox were on Skywarp's berth and that left me to sit on mine.

Once I was seated, I motioned to the door. "Well, I was looking for Starscream when I noticed Lizzie and Shockwave working on the soliform project. Stopped and watched them for a bit."

I noticed a knowing smile on Vox's faceplate for a click before he spoke. "Yeah, Lizzie's been pushing herself more than usual to interact with most of us more. Just the other solar she spent five cycles with me talking about random things and working with me on decoding more of the Praxus database. I probably told her more about me than she told me about her. But, it was a lot of fun."

"But why were you looking for me Thundercracker?" Starscream asked me with a concerned look on his faceplate.

Taking a glance behind me to make sure that the door was closed, I turned back to the others and spoke. "I'm worried. While Airachnid and Astrotrain will back off of Lizzie for a while, they will probably go after her with a vengeance after they get over the hesitation Lord Megatron put in them this solar." I then noticed that Starscream seemed tense and so I prodded him. "What is it Starscream? That's never a good look." I knew my brother, even if we had spent some time apart, and that look meant that he was worried about something I said.

Starscream looked between the four of us before he spoke. "While that might hold true for Astrotrain for a while, Airachnid might be another matter. She did not pass the test in the cave as well as Lord Megatron had wished and so he will be setting up another test for her. One of us may have to accompany Airachnid on another test."

Well, that wasn't good. Airachnid gave me the creeps and I knew that Lizzie worried about her being near me. Being near any of us actually. I know that Lizzie didn't fear her but she did take caution around the femme, which made me feel better. But, we would all have to be on guard with Airachnid having suffered in her standing during her test. She would be ready to lash out and use any one of us to do just that.

Thundercracker: I'm getting a bad feeling about all of this. Things are becoming tense and this tension won't last long. Lord Megatron will find this as a waste of time.

Starscream: *nods* And when that happens I'm not sure who is going to come out. We'll have to keep a closer eye on Lizzie...*looks around* Where is Lizzie?

*all look around*

Skywarp: *points* *frowns* Found her.

Lizzie: *looks up from eating turkey leg* Hey. Authoress brought me back one from the Renaissance Fair she just went to. Not my fault you can't eat human food. *takes a big bite out of it*

AN: And here is the next chapter! Looks like there is a lot of drama that is being built up and I can only wonder when it will come to a head? Just kidding. Of course I know. Unlike other stories I should definitely be trying to work on I have this story moderately mapped out to near the end of the first season. It is going to turn out to be a very interesting season. One piece of advise that I can give is to look at the little details.

Back to the chapter you all just read, seems like Airachnid and Astrotrain are under some serious scrutiny. While Astrotrain got rid of some of his, Airachnid seems to be in even deeper crap than before. Another test is on the horizon and I wonder who is going to draw the short stick and have to go with her on her next test?

Well, that's all for this chapter. Next chapter will have some stuff that will cause questioning to be done about changes and it might just show a glimpse of what is to come. Maybe some cute fun as well. Haven't quite decided on little details yet.

So, as expected, here are the names of the next chapters with their original names in italics to help with those who are trying to compare changes with the original.

Chapter 20: Mistrust Partners

Chapter 21: K.I.S.S. TMI

Chapter 22: ...(next time of course)

Alright, so that's all for now. A review is nice to read, even if it is saying hi. I'll try to update soon but with me...who really knows? *crickets sound* *coughs* Anyways, I guess that's all for now. Until next time, TTYL! *listens to bagpipes*