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

Lord Megatron: *frowns* I have the entire chapter to myself. This is highly unusual of you, Authoress.

Authoress: I felt like it was for the best.

Lord Megatron: We shall see femme. We shall see.

Authoress: *wonders if she is going to die*

Chapter 34: Trust Fall

Lord Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

I could feel that the stability of my forces was unraveling in front of my optics. Pandimala, the femme who had been so loyal to me since before her induction into the Decepticon forces, had refused to listen to my order to stop attacking a fellow Decepticon. Thrust, the only one conscious between the two who had been fighting, gave me his version of events. Knowing Thrust's background as I did and the video footage that Soundwave had retrieved from the room, I did not give it any credibility.

While the audio recording device on the camera in that room failed to give us an audio confirmation on what happened, the visual footage was enough to show that Thrust was seemingly trying to antagonize the femme. Each move that they made, I could see the femme's faceplate grow in hesitation about the mech. Though, I was not just watching her reaction to the mech's words. It was obvious that despite the restriction on the femme's training the rest of my soldiers felt she needed, the femme had improved in her fighting. I had to refrain from allowing memories of my fights in the Pits of Kaon to return to my thoughts at that point as I watched the fight.

The instant the atmosphere in the room changed, I could tell. The femme's faceplate had taken a shocked expression while Thrust had looked smug. He must have thought he convinced her to agree to whatever plot he was making. However, in the next nano-clicks, the femme made known her stance in whatever Thrust had suggested. Her faceplate was rage incarnate as she had thrown Thrust around the room. Whatever Thrust had insinuated at that point had caused the femme to react in such a negative way. It was almost like watching a massacre as the enraged femme threw the mech around the room.

That had been a cycle ago and now I was heading to the medbay to retrieve Knockout. I had given the femme plenty of time to rest. Now, it was time for her to tell us her story. Or rather, show us her story. I had spoken to Shockwave after Blitzwing had gone to place Pandimala in her room. He agreed that the femme was of stable enough processor now to allow for a cortical psychic patch. Now we would finally discover the femme's past and what secrets her helm held. I did not doubt that she was loyal to me, but she had secrets that I needed to be aware of.

When I opened the medbay doors, I saw that Knockout was in the middle of giving a lesson to some of the drones. The one called Joe was assisting Knockout in his teaching. "Knockout."

All of the Decepticons in the room turned to me and knelt. "Lord Megatron, how may I be of service?" Knockout asked me with a bow.

"The femme has had a long enough rest from her ordeal. It is time for us to have answers." I responded to the mech before motioning to the door.

"Joe, you can take over from here." Knockout spoke to the drone before he followed me out of the room. Once the door was closed, the two of us started to make our way down the hall. "So, we are going to be finding out what caused Pandimala to demolish Thrust, my Lord?"

"That, and so much more," I responded to my medic as we continued the walk toward Pandimala's room.

I could see Knockout's optics widen in shock at my response. It seemed like my medic had trouble for a few clicks in putting his reaction into words. "The patch my Lord? Is she mentally prepared for that route?"

"Shockwave has confirmed as such before I came to retrieve you. Now if there are no more questions?" The medic flinched at my challenge to his questioning me. If I said the femme was ready, then she was ready.

However, if I could give Knockout one thing, it was that he was quick in recovery. "My apologies, Lord Megatron, for the error in questioning you. Would you like me to go and set up a room that will make the patch viewable for all of us?"

Well, I supposed the rest of my officers could see what was inside her processor as well. It would save me from having to explain even part of it later to them. "I expect the room to be ready when I call the officers to gather." The red mech then moved down a hallway to get ready.

With him focused on that, I continued to the femme's room. Finally, after so long of waiting, the femme would stop being the mystery that she was. Everything would be revealed to us, and we could use the knowledge we gained of her arrival on the ship to further our advances against the Autobots.

Finally arriving at the femme's door, I punched in the access code and allowed the door to slide open. When it did, however, I could see that the femme currently unconscious on the berth was seemingly having a bad recharge. She was turning in her recharge and her faceplate seemed distressed.

"Stop...no…" Something was happening that she didn't want to happen in her recharge. "Can't...Primus can't…" How did she know about Primus? As far as I was aware, the femme hadn't accessed any information about our gods. How could she know about the creator in such a way to be able to name him in a nightmare? "Mission...Autobots...Decepticons...choice...mine...fight…" A mission. Was the femme who I believed to be loyal truly as loyal as I believed? Did I allow myself to be blinded by this femme?! I growled and aimed my cannon at her as she jolted up out of her berth. "No!"

"No sudden movements femme." Pandimala turned to me with wide optics staring down the barrel of my cannon. "A mission including the Autobots and Decepticons, and something that Primus can't do? You have some explaining to do femme, and I am not a patient mech."

I almost shot the femme as she slid off of her berth and her knees hit the floor. I thought I said no sudden movements? It was only the fact that her movement ended in a submissive position that I did not take her movement as an attack. "Lord Megatron, I can explain everything. A cortical psychic patch will show you everything, including my loyalty."

My optics widened in surprise. As far as my information gathered, the femme should not have any information about the cortical psychic patch, let alone what it was used for. How did she know then? "You know about the patch?"

"It will explain everything, my Lord." She had an insistent tone behind her vocals.

Not moving my cannon, I decided that the femme was right, even though she should not know what the patch was. "Very well femme. I will escort you to Knockout, where myself and the other officers will gather so we all may see what is in your processor."

The first sign of hesitation appeared on the femme's faceplate and I thought she might run for it. I had her, in theory, trapped and even though that might be her instinct, I would be able to cut her down before she could leave. "My Lord, I realize I am in no position to ask any sort of favor of you."

"You are correct in that aspect femme."

"However, I beg of you. For the loyalty and service that I have shown you since becoming a Decepticon, I only ask that Thrust not be present for any part of my patch. What you do with me after the patch is your will. Tear me to pieces, place me under excruciating torture; whatever you wish I will not fight you. Keeping Thrust away from this information while I deliver it to you is all I wish for. If you feel like I have acted unwisely in this wish after the patch, then show him. But not while I deliver it to you. Please my Lord."

It took practice to not react to the surprise I was feeling as the femme before me asked that. She didn't ask me to spare her life, and said that she would willingly submit herself to torture after the patch should I wish it. Whatever I wished to do with her after I found out the information I would see in her helm, she would not hesitate in submitting to my whims. All she wished was for Thrust, the mech she had almost torn apart earlier, to not be included in the viewing.

Given that we were looking into details about that part of her past as well, then that was a simple request that I would give the femme. The only request. "Very well." I then motioned to her rise. She did so slowly, to not make any sudden movement. Even as I led her down the halls with my cannon aimed at her, she seemed relaxed since the moment I agreed to keep Thrust away from this viewing of her memories. Before the patch began, I would ask my other officers if they gave Pandimala information about the patch. It made no sense that she knew about it without one of my officers informing her of it. Of course, the patch would inform me of this but I wanted to see if they would tell me regardless.

Once we arrived in the room where Knockout was, I could see his optics widen in surprise at the position I had the femme. "My Lord, why,"

"Not now Knockout." I motioned to the femme. "Give her a diluted sedative. Enough to force the femme to be unaware of what we discuss around her, but conscious enough to undergo the patch."

While I could see the questioning look on the medic's faceplate, he was wise not to question my authority and, after the femme laid on the berth, he gave her the sedative. Once the femme seemed to be in the state of unawareness I needed her to be in, I opened a comm line with Thrust. It would serve me best to make sure he was away from the ship before I contacted the other officers to my location.

"Yes, my Lord?" Thrust asked me.

"There is a mission that I need you to undertake at the click that you would be most suited for, and would help you gain a better understanding of Earth and its makeup." I started. "I need you to personally go and inspect each of our mines on this continent and record their status."

"My Lord? Such a menial job would be best left for the drones would it not?" Thrust responded with a stutter in his vocals.

Resisting the urge to growl at his unwillingness to accept the mission, I drove my point even more. "Given the result of your last planned mission, Thrust, I believe that partaking in this mission would allow you to gain an understanding of the situation on this planet."

"Of course my Lord, but sure there are others,"

Enough of this questioning of me! "Are you refusing an order Thrust?" The femme currently under suspicion right now was more accepting of my orders than Thrust was.

That seemed to get the mech to realize what he was saying. "No, my Lord! I live only to serve your great name." I resisted the urge to roll my optics at his groveling.

"Then you shall go." I then added Soundwave into the call. "Soundwave, bridge Thrust to his first location. He shall use his own means of travel for the rest of his mission. Inform me of when he departs." I then shut down the line to both mechs.

As I waited for Soundwave's confirmation, I allowed myself to study the femme on the berth. Even in the drug-induced state she was currently in, I could tell that she was surprisingly relaxed. It was as if she was not worried about the patch and, possibly, even relieved. Had she been waiting for this moment to happen, and just hadn't found time to bring it forward herself? It seemed impossible since she should not know about the patch.

However, as I had found out about the femme over the time of her stay here, she most certainly seemed to attract the impossible to her. Now, with the patch about to begin, we would hopefully discover a reason behind these impossible situations. One of the most pressing mysteries behind the femme was how she had ever arrived on our ship in the first place. She had always claimed that she never knew how. We would see just how true that was.

"Lord Megatron, Thrust has left the ship."

At Soundwave's words, I immediately added the officers remaining on the ship, outside of Knockout since he was already in this room, into the call. "All officers, report to my location immediately." I then closed the line.

I then moved back so I was standing next to the empty berth that I would soon occupy. Very soon, I would be going into the femme's processor and finally getting an understanding of her. Not only that, but I would finally be able to see if her loyalty was true to myself and the Decepticons, or if she had ulterior motives to this solar.

If the femme was not able to prove herself with this patch I would not hesitate in ending her myself. So much time had been spent with the femme that it would be an insult to that used time for another to take care of her. The femme had much of my ship in favor of her, and removing her would cause issues with our moving forward. If the femme was not loyal, however, it would be better to remove her now instead of later, when she might be able to gain more support.

However, if this viewing of her memories proved the loyalty that the femme had shown since her initiation into the Decepticons, and even before that, then it might just change everything. The femme, given that we would be seeing everything inside of her helm, would be even more open to working with the rest of the troops since they would be able to relate with whatever we saw. In effect, if she passed the patch, then the femme could deepen the bonds she had made on the ship and that would allow her work as a strategist to be even more beneficial to our cause.

It was not long before my officers started to arrive. Not surprisingly, each seemed startled at the drugged condition that Pandimala was currently in. However, they seemed to have enough of a processor on them to realize that I would speak about this once they would all arrive. Yet, I did not miss those worried looks that they cast her. If the femme failed this patch, my work would be cut out for me in reestablishing order on the ship.

The first to arrive was, not so surprisingly, Soundwave. Given that he used to be the femme's guardian while she was human, his worry for her was great, though he did not show it. Soundwave's loyalty to the Decepticons was not in question and I knew that the mech would not allow anything to get in the way of that. With him were the twins, Rumble and Frenzy. They seemed to be torn between staying with Soundwave or going over to the femme.

Then, Starscream and his brothers had arrived. All three looked worried for the femme and hesitant at the atmosphere in the room. I did not miss the studying glance that Starscream threw toward me. I knew that my second cared for the femme. He was, of course, the one that had allowed her to stay on the Nemesis when she first arrived.

Then, came Vox and Breakdown. I knew that those two owed a life-debt to the femme, given that it was her plan that allowed them to be retrieved from MECH. However, I noticed that they looked toward me and seemed to realize that I had a reason for having the femme in the state that she was in. However, that did not stop the worry they were feeling from showing in their optics.

The next ones to arrive were Skyquake and Dreadwing. I knew that both mechs viewed the femme in high regard due to the loyalty she showed the Decepticons. Of course, Skyquake also ha experience in taking battlefield orders from the femme. He had a trust in her that went even further than Dreadwing's would. His worry for the femme would, of course, affect Dreadwing due to their bond so I could tell that both mechs looked uneasy at the situation that was unknown to them.

After them came Ransack and Crumplezone. I knew that Ransack did not trust Pandimala as much as most of the others did, though I had received recent information telling me that the mech was starting to improve his view of the femme. He did not seem to be in the same state of worry that the rest of my officers found themselves. However, I did note hesitation and concern in his optics. Crumplezone looked worried. Of course, the warrior was not very adept at keeping his emotions off of his faceplate so he was easy to read.

Hook and Shockwave soon followed them and the two were highly skilled at keeping any look of worry off of their chassis. Hook only glanced at the femme for a nano-click and he glanced at Knockout with a studying look before he returned his attention to me. The mech had kept this reserved air about him since the loss of Scrapper. That was especially if he was in an unknown situation like this. Pandimala had started to take that block off of the medic but, depending on how this turned out, those blocks may just return fully to the mech. Shockwave, of course, did not show any physical signs of his worry for the femme. It was only due to the information that I knew regarding the mech and the femme that I knew he held any sort of worry for her.

The last of my officers to enter the room was Blitzwing. When his optic caught a glance at Pandimala and the state she was in, I knew he was upset. However, given that the rest of the officers were in the room, he seemed able to control himself. However, with the fact that Icy looked angered, I knew that I would need to explain the situation to my officers, and quickly.

"Lord Megatron, vhy is Pandimala in that condition?" Icy asked me. I could hear the restraint that the mech was using in his vocals. He must be having difficulty holding his other sides back.

I knew that being quick and honest about the situation would allow us to move on. "The femme's loyalty has been called into question and I did not wish her coherent while we discussed this. She does know that I will be entering her processor to perform a cortical psychic patch. Shockwave, you will help Knockout in keeping watch over our vitals. The femme should still be mentally capable of going through the patch even with the sedative Knockout provided." I then looked at my officers. "However, before that begins, there is a question that needs to be answered. Did any of you inform Pandimala about the existence of the patch in any way?"

Immediately, I watched their reactions. It was this observance that informed me that unless one of my officers was trying their hardest to hide the fact from me, that none of them told the femme about the cortical psychic patch. So, how did she know about it? "Lord Megatron, it never even occurred to me to speak with her about the patch. When she was human it was irrelevant since the patch would never work on her then." Knockout started. "Since she has become Pandimala, there has been no time to inform her of the possibility."

I then turned to Soundwave. "Has she accessed any information regarding the patch?"

My third in command was silent for a few clicks before he shook his helm. So, that was a no on both accounts. If my officers didn't give the femme the information on the patch and she didn't look up the information on her own, then how did she know what the patch was? Glancing at the femme, I realized that there was only one thing for me to do now.

"Shockwave, Knockout; is the patch ready?" I questioned the two as I laid on the berth that was next to Pandimala's.

"Affirmative Lord Megatron," Shockwave responded before moving behind the femme and inserting the patch. Once that was connected, I waited for the mech to connect the other side to me. As I heard the sound of Shockwave attaching the device behind me, I glanced at the femme occupying the berth next to mine. This was it.

Soon, my vision went dark.

When my optics onlined again, I found myself standing in a small room which reminded me of the Nemesis. Low violet lights showed the room had many doorways. Each door was designed differently then the doors around them were. Key moments in Pandimala's existence. Interesting. It was even more curious to note that there was one door that held the symbol of the Autobots, yet two held the Decepticon insignia. Strange.

Movement from next to me caused me to turn to see Pandimala appearing in her meeting room. Immediately, the femme turned to me before she knelt before me. "Lord Megatron, wherever you need me to take you, I will do so. I will not hesitate to show you anything and everything you wish to know."

"You would have done that regardless of whether you wished to cooperate or not." I reminded the femme. I then motioned for her to rise to her pedes. We would get nowhere with this patch if the femme was on her knees. "Know this femme, you cannot manipulate what is seen in the patch. The memories that we will see are exactly as they happened. You are to be judged based on these memories. If you shall fail, then your spark shall cease to exist."

Instead of looking nervous are afraid at what I said, the femme simply nodded. "Yes, my Lord. I would expect no lesser punishment. However, I do ask that you remember what you have said about the patch as I bring you all through my memories. You are about to see things that are going to seem impossible to believe. Once you see my memories though, you will understand why I have waited until now to bring up the patch."

I raised an optic ridge at the femme as I felt a small pull from my spark I couldn't place. "We shall see, Pandimala." The femme seemed ready to accept me into her mind. Just what sort of memories did the femme have that would warrant a reminder from her on what I just spoke on?

"Shall we start at the beginning?" She asked me as she motioned to a small door with a human infant on it.

There was no need for us to start there. It would not bear any relevance to the current situation that the femme was in. "No. I will ask you a question, and we will see whatever memories are necessary to answer that question fully."

"Yes, Lord Megatron." I felt that same pull on my spark as the femme spoke my name so reverently, even though she was being interrogated on her loyalty.

I focused on the femme's optics to distract myself from that feeling.

"Now, let's begin."

Lord Megatron: *angry* Authoress! You better not have made me waste all of my time training a traitor!

Authoress: *gulps* We...We will just have to find out together?

Starscream: *glares* I hope, for your sake Authoress, that he is not disappointed.

Authoress: *cries* I am so slagged.

AN: And here is the next chapter! Pandimala has been made! Yes, writing this entire chapter in Megatron's point of view was difficult, and thus the chapter isn't as long as I would like. However, I felt like adding another point of view to this chapter would detract from the build-up I was working with.

So, we have Pandimala found out and Megatron is surprised that the only thing she asks for is that Thrust not be included. She would rather be tortured than have him watch this. He seems curious as to why that is. Then, we see the different officers react to Pandimala's current state when they arrive for their meeting with Megatron. Lastly, we have the beginnings of the patch and this will be very interesting, to say the least. I wonder if anyone realizes why there is an Autobot marked door? Or more importantly why there are two Decepticon doors?

Also, before I forget, please look at the poll on my profile and make your voice heard! Once I finish this story (we are at about the halfway point now), that poll will close.

Well, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 35: Complete Disclosure Armada

Chapter 36: A Change in Venue Flying Mind

Chapter 37: ...(Find out next time!)

And that is all for now! I hope you all did enjoy this chapter. Please leave a review, say hi, or send me some cookies. I especially like the first one and the last one together. Until next time, TTYL! *really craving chocolate*