Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Authoress: *sighs* I am so sorry for a lack of updates lately. However, there were some things going on with life for me and I had to get things straightened out. I have now done that. So, without further ado, it is time to wish someone a happy birthday!

Everyone: *sings* Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Teggen Zalud! Happy birthday to you!

Authoress: I hope you enjoy the chapter and I knew that updates will be coming faster for the foreseeable future.=)

Paul: *frowns* Authoress, do not start the smiles again.

Authoress: *smirks* XP

Chapter 26: Race to the Top

Soundwave's 1st P.O.V.

It was a foolish miscalculation on my part. I knew that I was in confined quarters dealing with a decent fighter in Pitch. I knew everything on his file and I was prepared to keep him occupied as Lord Megatron ordered me to. We needed to Autobots distracted until the drones could get the explosives situated in their places. Once they were ready, then we would be able to evacuate the mine and then blow it, and possibly some Autobots, away for good.

Holding the mine while this was happening was a risk, but it was one that would have far better rewards than simply allowing the Autobots to possess the mine in the first place. If this worked, then we would be able to keep the Autobots from acquiring any more mines. With their possession of the energon harvester, the Autobots would be able to utilize the energon in this mine for their use, and quickly.

Of course, holding back Pitch was what I had been focused on before I made a miscalculation. I assumed that this Autobot was alone in this sector of the mine and thus easily manageable. The sudden appearance of Sentinel Major in my field of vision caused my pose in the battle to falter. That one opening was what Sentinel needed to pass through my defenses and hit the hilt of his weapon against my faceplate screen. The cracking that followed after impaired my vision to a point where I had to request leave back to the Nemesis.

Lord Megatron allowed that, and now, I was waiting for Knockout to finish the repairs to my visor. However, that did not remove the sting of shame that I felt in allowing myself to be open to such an attack. It was a foolish mistake to assume that the Autobot in front of me was the only one that was fighting me.

My thoughts moved to Lizzie's condition and I relented slightly. This was one click of exposition as opposed to every nanoclick that Lizzie was aboard our ship. One wrong misstep on her part before her armor, and even with her armor, and she was offlined. She had to be completely aware of her movements and the movements of everyone around her. Just the one slip up in assuming that our groundbridge had been behind her, and now Lizzie was fighting for her very survival. It was a much more serious consequence than simply having to stay out of the battle while my visor was repaired.

"There you go." I turned to Knockout as he held out my visor. As I replaced the visor, the red medic continued. "Good as new, if I do say so myself." Once I had my visor firmly secured, I ran a basic startup to get the repaired visor in-sync with my protocols. After a click, my system showed that everything should be in working order.

To make sure, though, I decided to get some information out of Knockout. "Inquiry; status of Lizzie?"

Knockout paused and set down the files he was looking at before he motioned to the door that led to Lizzie's treatment room. "She's fighting. For now, the energon has stopped spreading and her systems have not shown any more decay. Her mental scans show that her processor is fighting as much as it is able to send the needed commands to fight the energon. With the spreading of the energon stopped, those odds become more and more in her favor."

I could tell when Knockout was keeping information back, and this was one of those clicks. "There is more." I used clips this time to make sure that I got my point across better.

The chief medical officer flinched slightly, I was assuming at me catching him in his delay tactic before he let out a vent. "Her chassis is not showing any signs of improvement in fighting the energon. It is taking almost constant adjustments to her treatment to make sure that she stays in this stable state. If she is not able to combat this, and quickly, I fear that basic human needs will offline her chassis before the energon is able to. I am researching for any information that might assist me with this. However, that's not coming along like I want it to."

So, Lizzie was stable, but not improving. While the fact that she was stable was an impressive feat for the human, I knew that Knockout was correct in assuming that she needed to start improving if she wished to remain online.

An alarm going off in my helm pulled me from that line of thought. It was an alarm that I had attached to Lizzie's microchip. It was what allowed me to evaluate her heart rate, even if I was not nearby, and would tell me if it had increased in a way that was dangerous to the human. She was my responsibility and this was how I was making sure that I did my job as effectively and well as I could.

So, as I stood and moved toward the door that connected the med bay with Lizzie's room, I connected my visor to the security camera that should be focused in that room. What I saw, caused my spark to constrict and my anger to boil.

As the door opened, my optics saw what the camera feed had been showing me. There standing next to Lizzie, with a now empty syringe of dark energon having just emptied its contents emptied into Lizzie's lines, was Airachnid. The fragging hunter looked shocked at having been discovered as she was right now. That happened all in an instant.

In the next, I lunged at the femme, determined to make sure that she did not escape. As I chased the fleeing femme out of the room, I could hear Knockout calling Joe to report to him. Knockout had been behind me when I had opened the door, so it was not hard to figure out what Airachnid had done.

However, the femme soon led me to the top deck of the ship, where she was already escaping. After sending in a report to Lord Megatron, I waited for his response as to what I should do. I could pursue the femme, but that would remove me from the battle in the mine. After a couple of clicks, my leader told me to report back to the mine while spreading out the word about what Airachnid had done as well as her removal from the Decepticon cause. She would be our enemy, but we had to focus on the present battles before us before we moved toward the femme.

It did not escape my notice that my Lord had implied that more than one battle was being fought. The only other battle that was currently in motion, outside of the one in the mine, was the one that Lizzie had been fighting against the energon. Now, she was fighting both energon and dark energon. The fight against Lizzie just had the odds stacked against her. Like my own confrontation with Pitch and Sentinel Major in the mine, however, Lizzie was going to have to pull out of this on her own, and soon.

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

This fragging femme was going to offline, and if it was by my servo so much the better. Airachnid had been injured fighting this femme, Arcee, and another femme who went to fight Skywarp so I had to cover her slack. This femme though, she was really starting to irritate me. Between her attacks and jabs at how we were caring for Lizzie, I wanted to offline Arcee right here and now.

Of course, one of the things that was stopping me from concentrating on that goal was thoughts on Lizzie herself. So far, the femme was stable. But, that would only be able to last so long. Before Lizzie had come onto the ship, I hadn't really thought much about the beings that inhabited this planet currently. They were, to me, annoyances at the best of times and obstacles other times. If they were all to be destroyed by our conquest of this planet, so much the better. They didn't show much promise in their abilities as a species and their lack of understanding discouraged me from learning about them.

Then, it had happened. During the time when Lord Megatron had been searching for troops in deep space, I had been left in charge of the Nemesis. It was not that hard of a task for me to undertake. I was more than qualified to undertake such a task. I was the second in command, after all, and so I was used to taking over for Megatron when he was off on his little trips. This time, however, I was not prepared for what was going to happen.

Flashback:

This was just what I did not need right now. Megatron was bound to return to the ship any solar now, and I had to deal with the capture of an Autobot. Honestly, Cliffjumper was really a warrior and would hardly have any information that we would need, outside of the location of their base. However, if he wasn't talking in the condition that he was in now, then there was little doubt in my processor that he would continue to stay silent on that subject.

However, we had spent the time to capture the mech and, if there was one subject that Lord Megatron stressed, it was that he did not like wasted time. Something had to come out of this capture if it was to make the capture worth using in the first place. Offlining the Autobot outright seemed like the only option that was left. It would lessen the Autobot numbers here on Earth and would put a psychological strain on their remaining forces that would continue for a long time.

However, it didn't seem right. Before our leader started to lose his way, he would have made sure that prisoners were kept online unless they presented us with no other choice. However, this was a different time, and our leader was changed to the point where, unless the prisoner had use, then they were to be offlined without a second thought. It was too harsh, but since Megatron was the leader, then his word was law.

Turning a corner on the way toward the bridge, where the drones were holding the Autobot currently, I felt myself stop in surprise. I couldn't be seeing what I was seeing...was I? There, sitting in the middle of the hallway, was a human. It seemed impossible.

"A human? Here?" When the human turned to me, I realized two things. One was the fact that this human femme really was here on the ship. Frag that wasn't good at all. The second point, and one that was becoming more obvious as I continued to watch the human was that she was afraid of me. Her instant reaction to me was fear.

"Uh…" The human seemed to try and get out.

This was getting us nowhere fast. This human was slowly taking away what little patience I had left to give her. So, tapping my pede impatiently while placing my servos on my hips, I spoke to her directly. "How did you get on this ship human?"

The femme in front of me seemed extremely tense and nervous as she answered. "Um...I don't know. I just woke up here."

From stellars of having to identify when bots were lying to me, and of lying to bots myself, I could see that the human was telling the truth. Great, just what I needed this solar. "Like we needed pests on this ship." I then quickly reached down and picked up the human.

Frag, this wasn't good.

Now, not only did I have to deal with the Autobot currently on the bridge, now I had to deal with this human femme being here as well. While the Autobot, I could probably argue the logic behind keeping online, this annoying human was going to be of no worth. Of course, once we determined how she arrived on the ship, I would have no issue in snuffing out her human spark. Humans were all the same. If something didn't follow the way that they wanted it, then they were going to fight against it, no matter how trivial the situation was.

"Where are we going?"

Seriously, was this human going to annoy me now? I looked at her to answer when I stopped myself in surprise, though I didn't let that surprise show on my faceplate. She looked submissive at this point, and her chassis language told me that she was trying to gauge the situation around her. Strange for a human to do.

So, I decided that answering the femme would prove to be interesting. "To the bridge." After I answered her, though, I was surprised as she remained quiet for the rest of our trip to the bridge. The fear was still on her face, but the human was observing what was happening around her. Maybe this human could have some worth? My thoughts on the human in my servo left me as I observed the energon field or lack of it, that was now showing on the ship's screens. "The energon...it's worthless to me now," I growled as I looked toward the Autobot. Fragging Autobot.

"'Scream," I growled as the Autobot started to speak to me using a ridiculous nickname. "it's been a while…" His optics then widened as he stared at me, though I wasn't sure why. "A human?!"

Ah, yes, the human that I had just found. I stared down at her, as did Soundwave and the Autobot. As I looked at the human, however, a thought came to me as to how to solve my earlier predicament. There was a way to get this useless Autobot off of this ship with a legitimate excuse. "Yes, a human. I assumed you Autobots knew what they looked like, seeing as you are in contact with human governments."

In return, the Autobot growled at me. "Let the girl go you coward. She has no part in this!"

I was going to yell at the Autobot for daring to call me a coward when I felt the human tense in my servo. With a discreet glance down at her, I saw that the fear that had been in her optics when I had first come up to her was back. It was also at this point that I realized that this human was still a youngling. While my pride demanded that I offline the Autobot for daring to call my courage into question, I knew that exposing a youngling, even an organic one, to offlining this first servo would be detrimental to her growing health.

"I would watch myself Autobot," I spoke as I moved around the injured mech. I made sure that the human was in view to him as I did. "Before I ran into this human youngling, I had every plan on coming in here and snuffing your pathetic Autobot spark from existence." As I spoke, I could feel the human continue to tense. She seemed to be trying to prepare herself for me to offline this mech. However, as I studied this human closer, I realized that swaying her to our side could be beneficial. "However," The human seemed to flinch slightly at that, most likely in surprise if I was gauging her response correctly. "I do not believe that it would be right to expose one so young, even an organic, to death this first servo. So, you will be released and, next time we meet, you won't be so lucky."

As the drones led the Autobot out of the room, I took a glance at the human in my servo. She seemed shocked, and I had a feeling that I had already made the first step in the right direction in gaining her trust. Not killing the Autobot might cause some problems later, but something told me that establishing her trust would be the most beneficial option.

End of Flashback.

As I dodged the Autobot femme's attack, I smirked. I never realized just how curious Lizzie had made me back then. It was more than just using her. She was a genuinely unique being and I had wanted to see how that would develop here on the ship. Placing Soundwave as her guardian was a few protections. One was that very few bots would dare attack Soundwave, and there were even fewer who could actually get close to defeating him. Another reason was that Soundwave could keep an optic on Lizzie, even when he might not be in the room with her or even be near her. Lastly, though, was that he had those Pit-bound twins of his that, even though I wasn't sure why I thought this at the time, I thought would click into a friendship with the human and make her even less likely to leave if the Autobots were able to get on the ship.

Now, though, that very human was fighting to keep herself stable. I had placed this on her, but not sending her away with the Autobot back then, and now she might not live to see the next solar. We had to blow this mine, and quickly, so we could focus our processors on making sure our strategist pulled through this.

I paused as a news update from Soundwave flashed through my helm. As I read each Pit-wrenching word, I felt my anger rise. That...that traitorous glitch! Yes, it was understandable that one Decepticon might not like another one...despise them even. But to attempt to offline another one of us deliberately was crossing the line, even for our system with the Decepticons. However, while every circuit of my being wanted to chase after the femme, that would take away from what we needed to do to help Lizzie. The sooner we could leave the mine, the faster we could center our focus on helping Lizzie fight the energon, and now dark energon that was attacking our human Decepticon.

She was fighting an even more difficult fight than any of us could fathom at this click. Energon was dangerous to humans and that, along with its dark counterpart, was now in her systems. Now, more than ever, did we have to finish this operation and return to the Nemesis. However, as I struck back against the femme in front of me, I knew that our fight here, while not as unfamiliar to us as Lizzie's fight was to her, would take more steps to complete.

Zarron's 1st P.O.V.

I didn't like being this unsure about the path of a battle. I liked to know how we were faring in a battle. While they weren't favorable results, I liked to know if the enemy was gaining the advantage in the fight. But, in this mine, I had no idea about what could be going on with either my own faction or the Decepticons at the click. For all I knew, I could be the last Autobot standing and the rest of the Decepticons were coming to finish me off. Of course, as I looked at the Decepticon in front of me, I also realized that the opposite could be true. Vox could be the only remaining Decepticon left in the fight and the other Autobots could be moving to my location. Of course, until I knew for sure one way or another, I was going to assume the worst case scenario. That meant that I had to focus, take out Vox while I worked on getting information from him.

I knew that, as an Autobot, I should hate Vox with every fiber of my being. He betrayed the cause that he seemed so dedicated to, according to Remcy. But, it was because of Remcy that I couldn't find myself hating the traitor I was fighting. From the stories that Remcy would ramble on about when he was in his denial phase of what Vox had done, He would tell me about all the good times that he had with Vox, and how close he was to the mech.

As I traded blows with the mech in front of me, I realized that, against what would normally be my better judgment, I was starting to find myself agreeing with Remcy. The evidence wasn't there to support that kind of thinking, which was what I normally needed to believe something like this. Remcy's consistent defense of the mech and belief that betraying the Autobots was not something Vox would have done lightly or even unless the mech felt he had no other choice, was a large part of this unusual belief of mine.

"You should keep focus Autobot." I heard before I felt a blade scrape against the side of my faceplate. A few reactions moved through me simultaneously as I felt the sting of the blade. Fear was the first and most powerful reaction I felt. I allowed my thoughts to cloud my focus and it could have cost me. The second reaction was anger at myself. This battle was going on too long and I knew that, the longer it went, the more likely it would be that I might misstep worse.

However, it was the reaction I had just micro-nanos after those first reactions that really sent me reeling in thoughts. For just an instant, when our optics locked, I saw a flash of regret go across his faceplate. What the frag was that about? Every single time I had locked blades with the mech, he only showed anger at the Autobots and at me. Even during this battle here, at the beginning of our fight, I had only seen anger at the Autobots in his optics. This was something different. Was it something that I did or was there an unknown element that I didn't know.

I let out a grunt as Vox forced me away from him before he turned and started to run back toward the central hub. What was going on with that mech? I needed answers from him and all he was giving me was more fragging questions to work with. I don't know why everyone else has issues with traitors, but I just found my own reason to hate them.

...They made everything a lot more complicated.

Skywarp: *growls* Where is the Authoress? We had her where we wanted her during the singing, but she disappeared.

Starscream: *optics narrowed* *nods* Yes, but don't worry. We will find her. Something tells me that events will be coming to a point where the Authoress has to show herself. We just have to be patient.

Thundercracker: *nods* Right. While I agree with you Starscream, I have to say that the sooner I get my servos on Authoress for what she is doing to Lizzie, the happier I will be.

Authoress: *hiding in pocket dimension* Well scrap.

AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Again, happy birthday to Teggen Zalud! I hope you have a great day! We got a lot of action in with Airachnid and getting part of her plan revealed. Oh, and welcome to season 2!

The next chapter will have the second part of the plan coming to our view and we will start to close the mine battle arc come to a close. It should be a lot of fun for everyone!

Well, here are the names of the next chapters that you all have been waiting for.

Chapter 27: The Last Resort

Chapter 28: Let's Hit Reset

Chapter 29: ...(You will find out next time)

So, that is all I have for now. Don't forget to leave a review if you so wish. If you have nothing to review about the story, you can say hello and that would be great! This way I know that you are there. Until next time, TTYL! *quickly typing toward the next chapter*