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

Authoress: *evil chuckle in secret dimension* Things are cumulating. I am so ready for this arc to reach its pinnacle. *evil laughter*

Skywarp: *growls* So this is where you have been.

Authoress: *eyes wide* Eep! *runs*

Skywarp: *snarls* You can't run from me Authoress! I can warp! *warps*

Chapter 27: The Last Resort

Astrotrain's 1st P.O.V

This was why I didn't work with others. All Airachnid had to do was take out one human. Should have been easy for the hunter. She had a reputation of being able to take out the most fierce of Cybertronians with ease. Yet the human was still alive and Airachnid had been discovered.

I liked being a member of the Decepticons. The thrill of battle in being a Decepticon was an experience that could not be matched. The ability to let loose on the enemy while watching them try and get away from you...all the while I know that they will inevitably offline, was something that being a Decepticon afforded me.

However, I knew that I risked that when accepting Airachnid's plan. There was a virus that had attached itself to the Decepticons on the Nemesis that took the form of that pathetic worm. Lizzie Val. I knew from the first nano I met her that she did not deserve to be online, let alone given the chance to become a Decepticon. After that happened, everything that I valued in being a Decepticon was put into jeopardy. She became my target. However, before the arrival of Airachnid, I was alone in my goal to eradicate the weak creature that had been allowed to enter our ranks. This virus of a creature had infected the entire crew to support her.

I had thought that our esteemed leader, the ruthless and merciless commander of the Decepticons, would be above the scheming of the worm. He, who was champion of the Pits of Kaon and could claim hundreds of victories, both in the Pits and on the battlefield, should have seen the useless human for what it was and eradicated it without hesitation.

However, while his infection wasn't as severe as the other pions on this planet, it did not take me long to figure out that our leader seemed to favor the human. Her ideas were given weight. That was the only reason I could see that Lord Megatron would have even considered retrieving Breakdown and Vox after they were humiliating captured by humans.

Now, with Airachnid's failure, I had to set things straight within our cause. I might be banished from the Decepticons for offlining 'one of our own', but it would be worth the sacrifice to get rid of Lizzie.

With thoughts of Airachnid's failure in my helm, I realized that I needed to make sure that there were none on the ship who could stop me.

One of the mechs, outside of Lord Megatron, that I felt would give me the most trouble was Soundwave. Not only did his recent stopping of Airachnid during this plan cause me to worry, but Soundwave had a reputation that could not be taken lightly. He too was a fierce gladiator that was well known. Add that into his mysterious field that he seemed to exude and the calm way he approached even the most severe of emergencies made him a credible threat. I could not allow him to interfere with this plan of ours.

Another mech that I found myself worried about was Shockwave. I knew that he suspected me of something. I did not miss the way that his sole optic would follow me around a room. He studied me. His intellect was not one that most could compete with and that alone would make him a foe to keep an optic on. However, his intelligence was not the only factor that had to be taken in on his account. Like any Decepticon worth their metal, Shockwave was a serious warrior as well. Even though I would have the advantage of being a triple changer, a confrontation with Shockwave during this would not be favorable for me.

Finally, outside of Lord Megatron, the mech that I found myself the most worried about was the only other triple changer currently on the Decepticon side on Earth. Blitzwing could match me in strength and, with his multiple personalities, he was one of the most unpredictable Cybertronians that I have ever been in contact with. Outside of Lord Megatron, that mech concerned me the most. Oh, I felt like I could take him in a fair fight. However, with three personalities in that helm of his, was any fight with him truly fair?

So, getting onto the comm, I sent a ping toward Soundwave asking the locations of the troops. I received a rather timely injury from the closest counterpart the Autobots could scrounge up for me called Springer. I would not be returning to the battlefield so soon after returning to the ship, but I sent in the ping that I wished to know how the battle was going and how each of our Decepticons were doing. To him, it would seem like I was asking to see where I would be sent when I was recovered enough from my injury to assist again.

Soon, the ping that I sent Soundwave, which I had no doubt he spread to the other Decepticons, started to bring responses from the other Decepticons on the battlefield. Shockwave currently fought Ironhide, Lord Megatron continued his fight against Optimus Prime, and Soundwave was in a fight with the femme Chromia and the mech Blurr. Those were three of the four that I was worried about. I paid no mind to the others.

However, I was worried when no response came from Blitzwing. He worried me. When I sent a secondary ping about the location of Blitzwing, none of the other Decepticons could give me his location. This was troublesome. Without knowledge of his location behind me, then my plan could be interfered with. I could not allow myself to fail!

Of course, I also knew that I could not wait long for his location. I would be expected to return to the battlefield before too long, and receiving another injury to return would cause me to be under guard. No, I couldn't allow that to happen. I had to take that worm out before I was asked to return. I had to make a quick getaway.

After three more clicks of not receiving a response from Blitzwing, I turned off my comms and started my walk toward the other side of the ship. There, I would eventually arrive at my target location; medbay. I would take out any who stood between me and my taking out of the human vermin Lizzie Val once and for all!

Bulkhead's 1st P.O.V.

"Come on Bulkhead, has so many Autobots coming here to Earth made you soft?" Breakdown taunted as he tried to hit me with his hammer.

I blocked the strike and continued to throw my punches at the Decepticon. This battle was starting to put a strain on my systems and I knew that it had to be affecting the Decepticons as well. Honestly, I was surprised that they hadn't ditched this mine yet. But, here I was fighting Breakdown and he didn't seem like he was backing down at all. There were a few times in the fight that he seemed to falter. However, after those times, Breakdown just seemed to hit back harder and with more energy than before.

This entire fight felt off, and I didn't like that. From the reports that I would glance at from the other Autobots, all of the Decepticons were acting strangely. Distracted from their battles at times, only to focus with more energy than they had before. Nothing that had gone on in the battle should have let them react like this. But, here we fragging were. Stuck in a fragging endless battle and no idea what was driving the enemy.

My time with the Wreckers didn't give me this confusing of a fight. Back then, a fight was simple. You hit somebot, they hit back, repeat this for a bit, and then you went your separate ways if there wasn't a winner quickly. Not these fragging fights that lasted cycles on cycles.

"And what about you Decepticon? I feel like I'm getting hit by a sparkling more than a warrior." I taunted the Decepticon back as I blocked another of his punches.

And my taunt took me to more thoughts about this fight. The 'Cons were on edge. Earlier, when I was fighting Breakdown by Thundercracker, I noticed that he would lash out at really random times against Flamewar. Not that the femme didn't deserve for it how she was talking, but I had fought against Thundercracker before and he was a mech who could normally keep himself in check when fighting. Made it a slagging bad time fighting him.

But, one word from Flamewar, and she said she couldn't even remember what that word was, and he went at her like he was possessed.

Speaking on strange happenings, since Breakdown seemed to be so chatty, there was something I wanted to be cleared up. "Breakdown, what happened to you in Russia? How did you get away from MECH?"

The mech seemed to hesitate at my questions mentally, though he kept up his fighting decently enough. After a few nanos of the two of us trading blows, the mech finally spoke. "Why, need some pointers from humans trash like that now?" He then knocked me back a few paces with his hammer. "All you need to focus on, Bulkhead, is that I am not there and instead in here kicking your aft."

He was what!? "We'll see about that 'Con," I growled at him before I struck out at him. Frag it seemed that all the 'Cons were capable of were vague answers. First, they wouldn't answer any questions about Lizzie, even the small ones. Honestly, by this point, I doubted that she was still alive. But, I was not going to be the one to tell Paul that. Now, they wouldn't even brag about themselves. In the past, Breakdown would not have hesitated to tell me about how humans would have suffered. But, now it was almost impossible to get anything.

"Aw, don't have your little human femme here to protect you this time? Miko? I was just messing with you in Russia about visiting her but, after this, maybe that's what I'll do?"

I let out a roar before taking more swings at him. How dare he mention Miko? Of course, as I pushed him further back, my thoughts returned to Miko. She had been spending a lot of time with Paul lately and at first, I thought that was a good thing. As an adult, he would help keep her out of trouble. But, ever since the two of them were retrieved from the shadow zone, Miko had started getting into more and more trouble, and Paul was usually right there with her. But, at least she was having someone who was at least a little more responsible with her. If I tried to do much against their actions, then Miko might try to go out on her own and that would be even worse.

Glancing at the mech in front of me, I decided to see how he liked having their human under fire. "Well, at least we keep better care of our humans than you do Breakdown. She's offline, isn't she? That's why you 'Cons won't say anything about Lizzie. Won't admit that there's something you Con's can't do that,"

"Slag you Bulkhead!" I couldn't react as Breakdown suddenly came at me with a fury that I had never seen in the mech. I wasn't sure what it was I said, but the mech was not after me ready to make my energon pour out. I could see it in his optics. It wasn't long before the two of us were in the main area of the mine on the ground floor. As I blocked as many of Breakdown's now beserk hits that I could, I saw that all the other Autobots seemed to have their fights in here as well, though on different levels.

Was something finally going to happen here? Honestly, I was ready for this fight to end. The 'Cons were acting too strange to keep tabs on and I was going to need a lot of repairs after this was done.

Cliffjumper's 1st P.O.V.

Frag, the 'Cons were fighting forever. I liked the odds against me, but having a fight go on for this long was ridiculous. My gears were starting to feel the length of the battle and that wasn't good. Not only that but the 'Cons seemed to be gathering here in the central hub of the mine. I looked down and could see Bulkhead fighting Breakdown below me while Zarron was above me fighting Vox. I had been fighting Hook when the Decepticon medic had retreated in this direction. But, I had lost track of the mech.

Since Bulkhead looked like he was holding his own against Breakdown, I glanced up at Zarron as he battled the traitor Vox. I had noticed that the two-wheeler seemed to have grown distant from me and, besides when I was able to help with Paul's training against Flamewar, Sentinel, and Pitch, he wouldn't go near me. It was strange. I had thought that we were getting closer after I agreed to let him help me keep an optic on Paul when I couldn't. But, something must have happened because now the mech kept me at arm's length.

Of course, what else was weird was that the two-wheeler and Wheeljack seemed to have become fast friends. The one mech who seemed to like being alone almost as much as Zarron and now, the two were almost inseparable. It was almost strange not seeing them together right now. Of course, they were both now training with Paul so I couldn't be too mad. Heard that Wheeljack had even helped Paul avoid a really bad training injury.

My battle senses kicking in caused me to block with my blade as Skywarp suddenly warped in front of me. "Keep your processor on the fight Autobot. You never know who might...pop in."

"Really? Was that the best line you had?" I taunted the seeker as the two of us started to fight. For being the youngest of Starscream's trine, the mech was surprisingly able to fight. I wouldn't have even expected this sort of fight from Starscream. Thundercracker yeah, the seeker was known to be able to battle.

And that was another thing that was weird about this battle. Most of the higher-ranked Decepticons here had flight alt modes, and that meant that at least most of those should have issues with claustrophobia. I had depended on that fact among fliers many times when fighting on Cybertron. At this point in the battle, most of Megatron's lackeys should have been panicking their processors out, not able to fight. Yet, here I was, fighting Skywarp and he was keeping me at bay.

"You seem distracted Autobot." Skywarp taunted as his blade slightly cut into me.

Of course, I was able to retaliate quick enough to send him back away from me. "You aren't exactly the picture of focus Skywarp." Of course, I had to admit that the usually even more flighty seeker seemed more...grounded right now. Whatever had his attention, it was causing him to focus.

Maybe that was why the rest of the 'Cons were acting weird. I had been paying attention to the battle reports and they all, at one point or another, spoke about the 'Cons being seemingly driven by something, which would increase at different points in the battle. Starscream especially seemed to bee lashing out in a focused way at strange times. Since Skywarp was 'Screamer's brother, then maybe they were sharing whatever thing had them so focused. I was about to ask the Seeker something about that when, as I pushed him away from another charge, I noticed that he had some paint on him. And not his colors either. Chips of light blue, lime green, and hot pink could be seen on the seekers normally black with purple markings chassis. What the frag? Did the 'Cons have some sort of pre-battle rave party or something?

Shaking my helm out of that thought, though not away from the 'Cons, I realized that this might be the perfect time to ask about Lizzie. Paul, though he hadn't asked much about her, was still worried about his employee and, the more time she spent with the 'Cons, the more worried I became for her. I was a hopeful mech by nature, and I still had hope that she was still online, but the odds weren't that good now. Months had gone by since we knew she was up there, let alone the actual amount of time she had been with the fragging 'Cons.

So, since the 'Cons seemed to be acting weirdly right now, maybe Skywarp would slip up and give me some information. "So, you've probably heard this before, but what's the condition of the human on the Nemesis? Lizzie is her name just in case you don't know it. I know you 'Cons might not care much about her, but her boss really would like some information about how she is doing." I then decided to add something that might make him answer. "Of course, unless you all already offlined her."

What I wasn't expecting was for the seeker to visibly flinch at the first part of my question. What the frag was that about? When I added that second part though, I was the one who was flinching when Skywarp seemed to glare at me to the point where he probably could have bored holes right through my chassis. "You have no idea what you are talking about Autobot so why don't you just keep your glossa quiet!" His wings were visibly twitching as he swiped at me. "Every single word out of your Autobot glossas is slag and I…" The seeker seemed to interrupt himself with a flinch and he looked worried.

Um...what the frag was that? "You okay there?" Not sure if I should be asking the enemy that, but he was acting weird...even for him.

After a few nanos, the mech seemed to calm down. "Catch you later Autobot." He then warped out of my vision and reappeared on the main level. Fragging 'Con. What the frag just happened?

Knockout's 1st P.O.V.

"Knockout the transfusions aren't working anymore!"

I let out a growl of frustration as Joe gave me that report. That fragging glitch Airachnid had attacked Lizzie, who was already struggling as it was with energon poisoning, with an injection of dark energon into her systems. From the scan data that I was taking of Lizzie every five clicks, the inclusion of dark energon into the mix was causing the energon to start moving toward the energon. At spots in her body where the two different energon types would meet, increased damage and pressure would occur and those spots were keeping Joe and me on our pedes. Those were the times when we would almost lose Lizzie.

If there was anything good about this change in the battle between Lizzie and what is inside her, it would be that only those spots of conflict were now areas being damaged. Where the energon and dark energon weren't meeting, there was no further damage to those areas. However, the stress that we were having to deal with those areas where the two energies would meet was driving me to scratch my finish to keep myself in control.

This wasn't fragging fair! If Primus did keep an optic on us, then he was doing a slagging horrible job at it. Lizzie was a factor in the fight between us and the Autobots and he was just letting both the energon and dark energon do this to her! Of course, I had known since before the war that something of Primus had to be a sparkless bastard to let all of the torture and agony of millions of bots from Kaon and Tarn. Now, it seemed, that same portion of Primus was here, just watching as Lizzie suffered.

I flinched as I scratched my arm. I hated to ruin my finish but I needed to keep myself focused on Lizzie and helping her combat the energon inside of her. My anger could be set to the side for now. Glancing at Joe, I saw that he was not doing so good in keeping himself focused.

"I can see that Joe," I growled in response to his earlier panicked notion. Glancing to my side and seeing that our supplies were low, I knew how to get Joe out of here to calm down. "Joe, go get planetside. We need more fluids if we are going to keep Lizzie alive through this."

"But, Knockout,"

"That wasn't a request Joe. Now!" I interrupted the drone. He flinched back slightly but nodded before running out of the room.

Once the doors to the med bay were shut, I let a sigh escape me. I had seen the look in Joe's visor. He felt helpless at not being able to help Lizzie. The drone had been, as far as I knew, one of the first that Lizzie had interacted with socially. If I remembered correctly, he was also the second drone to receive a name from her coming right after Carl had. Ever since then, Lizzie seemed to be a positive in the drone's existence. It was due to her that I was introduced to the mech and he started to work for me. If not for her then he might even have been offlined by now.

Now that Lizzie was the one in trouble, though, Joe probably felt like he could do nothing.

As I took another scan of Lizzie, I felt nervous. While both kinds of energon seemed to be fighting each other, I could not isolate the energon into a specific point of her body. If I could do that, then I could just suction the energon out of her from that spot. But, as it was I was constantly moving to keep her online.

A beep coming from the scanner in my servos caused me to glance down at the results. Energon had stopped spreading through her chassis, but her organic organs were starting to waver. Her liver was at fifty percent functionality according to this scan. One of her kidneys had already failed and the second was struggling in functionality and even bleeding, and her large intestine was starting to fill with liquid and that would start to cause her body to fail even faster if something wasn't done.

I heard the doors behind me open and I felt that it was Joe. While I doubted that he had already made the trip to Earth, he probably forgot something. That drone, while efficient, could have his absent-processor moments. I swear I was going to start burning his instructions into his arm. "Joe I already...GAH!"

I wasn't prepared to be struck in the back by my neck cables and go flying across the med bay. While I thankfully didn't crash into Lizzie's berth, I did slam against the wall across from it. Honestly, it was a miracle that I was still conscious. I knew that I had to see what was going on. Did an Autobot get up here or was it…

As my vision started to clear up, I felt my optics widen when I saw that Astrotrain was the one who attacked me and he was staring toward Lizzie, seemingly ignoring me. "Knockout to Soundwave come in." I tried to contact the third in command. All I received back was static. As I tried the other lines, I realized that Astrotrain must have damaged my comm abilities with his hit. Frag!

"Human, you have infected the Decepticons long enough with your existence. This was to be my last resort to rid us of you, and you have pushed me to this," Astrotrain spoke to the unconscious human as I started to stand. "I shall destroy you with my own two servos."

No! I couldn't let him attack Lizzie. "Not in my med bay!" I growled as I took out my saw before striking at the triple changer, hitting him in the back. As he struck out against me, and I dodged, I knew that this was dangerous. Astrotrain was strong enough to crush me with one servo and I was still disoriented from his hit. I wouldn't be able to keep this up long. But, I was leading him away from Lizzie's berth and that would buy time. Time that maybe the twins, who were currently on the other side of the ship, would see what was going on in here and contact,

"I was going to let you live Knockout, but I won't let anybot interfere with me taking out that human scum!" Astrotrain growled as his fist barely missed me. That was too close. I had to be careful or,

I flinched as a bright light suddenly enveloped my vision for a nano before I was thrown back by a force of an explosion. My backplates slammed into the wall and I knew no more.

Authoress: *squirms in Skywarp's servo* Fragging warping. Not fair at all.

Skywarp: *grins evilly*

Authoress: *gulps*

Skywarp: Oh Authoress. You are going to come with me. There is something you need to explain.

Authoress: *thinks*...Can I haz cookie?... Please?

AN: And here is the next chapter! I have been wanting to update this for a while, but I always believe in fate. So, I put all of the stories that I wanted to work on in a randomizer (Random. org is a beautiful site for this (take out the space between . and org)) and I shuffled it 7 times (because that is the number I trust) and this one ended up bottom of the list. I know you all have been waiting for a while and now, here is the chapter! I am so happy to get to post this!

So, to the chapter. A lot of interesting things were mentioned and said and I won't get into them all. However, Skywarp got close to spilling something to Cliffjumper there. I wonder who called him back? Also, where is Blitzwing? Astrotrain seemed worried about his intervention but moved forward anyway.

And moved forward he did! A fight in the lab with the odds stacked against Knockout, Lizzie failing internally, and explosions! I love explosions! The next chapter will finally see the end of this arc and the progression into the rest of the season!

So, here are the next chapters for you all!

Chapter 28: Let's Hit Reset

Chapter 29: Baby Steps

Chapter 30: ...(next time my fellow Cybertronians!)

Okay, that is all I have to say. Please review, or say hi if you can't think of anything to say for this chapter. Until next we meet though, TTYL! *eating sugar crystal that I grew and getting a very good sugar high*