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

Pandimala: Soooooo...how late is it for you?

Authoress: Depends on your point of view...

Pandimala: So you haven't gone to sleep yet.

Authoress: *enthusiastic* Yep!

Chapter 39: Sound of Silence

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

"Anybot home in there?"

A groan escaped my vocals as those words echoed in my helm. Slag it all I just wanted to sleep. I spent more time than I thought I would at the bar last night. After my talk with Lord Megatron, the others came to the bar in their soliforms. At that point, I lost my chance to return to my chassis when I wanted to. I spent four fragging cycles spending time with my fellow Decepticons. It was touching how much the others missed me...even Ransack who was still hesitant around me. But, that led to me getting back late and I was not ready to get up.

"I'm trying to recharge. Go away." I mumbled as I shifted my position.

A laugh followed that. "Well, if I wasn't supposed to be asking you some more questions, then I'd let you recharge for my shift." Onlining my optics, I glanced to my left and saw that Wheeljack was outside of my cell, leaning against the opposite wall. "It's morning still, just in case you wanted to know."

So, in other words, way too fragging early. "Thanks," I mumbled before moving toward a sitting position. Seeing a fresh energon on the table by the cell door, I realized Wheeljack must have brought it. "And thanks for this," I said before I took a drink. Slag, it was still weird drinking energon. But, I couldn't show the Autobots that.

Not yet at least.

"No problem," Wheeljack shrugged before motioning to me. "Since you are having your energon and are awake, we should probably get the questions, that you won't answer, out of the way,"

Yeah, odds were in favor of that. I couldn't trust them. Not after everything...not after what happened. I still remembered how I was turned into Pandimala. I glanced at my servo as the memory of that solar showed in my processor.

The ground bridge behind me. It hadn't been the Decepticon one. That one had opened up under me. My one nano of false belief. I thought Soundwave had made a mistake. That one nano. It was an Autobot who attacked me. For all they knew, I was some random human in some custom motorcycle gear. They attacked me knowing I was human. There was nothing else I could reasonably be. Their bridge appeared first. They had no way of knowing my connection to the Decepticons. I couldn't trust them...I couldn't…!

"So you haven't been nervous around other people that you don't know?"

I froze as Michael's words echoed in my helm. Was I not giving Wheeljack a chance? I hadn't interacted with him at all...with barely any of the Autobots as it was in reality. And the only Autobots I had interacted with were Cliffjumper, for a few moments when I first arrived in this dimension, and then the unknown Autobot with their ground bridge. I needed to give these other Autobots a chance. A chance to give me their personalities by which to form my opinions...I needed to do this.

"Try me," I challenged the Autobot with a, hopefully, determined look.

I could almost feel the surge of hope in the Autobot as he stared at me in momentarily shock. "You would give up information on the Decepticons? I thought you were loyal to them?"

Shaking my helm, I corrected the Autobot. "I am loyal. While I won't give you anything that would impede my fellow Decepticons, there is information that I could give you. But, what sort of Decepticon would I be if I didn't make you work for it?"

That surprised look soon turned into a smirk. "There hasn't been a single fight with a 'Con that I couldn't hold my own in." I could feel the determination rolling off of him. "Bring it."

A slow smirk slowly spread across my face. "I hope you are ready for it."

"Fine then. Were you with the Decepticons here on Earth during our recent battle in the mine?"

He must be talking about the battle that happened while I was fighting the energon, and later dark energon, that turned me into Pandimala. I had to tread carefully during this. "I was, though I was confined to the ship. An accident happened that caused me to be restricted to the med bay."

"Why haven't we seen you in any battles yet then?" He was fishing along a line that he thought I would answer.

But, I couldn't answer that. It would raise too many questions that I would not be able to answer. "Nope, next question."

He looked slightly upset at the denial, though at the same time excited for the challenge. "Here's an easy one then; where are you from?"

Slag! While that question should be a simple one...it wasn't. I couldn't tell him Earth, because then that would raise a lot of questions. But, I couldn't just pick a random city-state for a couple of reasons. One, I didn't want to lie to Wheeljack so bluntly if I didn't have to. It was always better to give a truth than to lie. Secondly, though, was the problem of my knowledge of the city-states. While I had studied a basic knowledge of them, I might get tripped up if he knew somewhere that a local should know and I had no idea.

But, how was I going to answer this? I needed to answer this or Wheeljack might stop being as cooperative as he was. Maybe a roundabout answer? Since the Earth that I was originally from wasn't this Earth...yeah, that could work! "I'm not sure. I've moved around so much that I don't remember where I am from."

He looked doubtful for a nano before he seemed to realize something. "You were working-class, huh?"

Shit! I had to be extra careful with this. "I guess? Never really had time to notice before. I just did what I was supposed to do, and tried to make sure my carrier was happy." Again not lies. Just Cybertronian words for what my life was like. After dad died...it was hard. I started with a little lemonade stand...mom thought it was cute and a good way for me to cope. After that, I moved to mowing the neighbors' lawns, and then, once I got my license, I was paid by the older neighbors to do their grocery shopping for them. I had only recently stopped that when I got the email from Primus.

"No sire?"

Pain shot through my spark at the question. My father...I couldn't answer...but there was no reason for me to hide it. He was my family though...I needed to protect his memory from the Autobots! I had to! They couldn't use him against me. I wasn't sure I would be able to…

Michael's words rang through my helm again and so I let out a vent. It wouldn't hurt to answer it, as long as I stayed vague. "He was killed. A building that had poor construction came down on top of him." Even though I was vague in answering him, I could still feel pain in my spark.

"Sorry," I glanced up quickly when Wheeljack said that and I could see that he seemed upset that he asked me.

"It's fine. You didn't know." I then shook my helm and decided to keep Wheeljack moving. "So, are there any more questions in that helm of yours?"

He took the offered way out of the situation. "Yeah. I still got some time to crack into that processor of yours."

Shockwave's 1st P.O.V.

The atmosphere on the Nemesis, in the most accurate descriptive terms, was tense. Now that Pandimala was gone, it was painfully obvious to see how much our ship seemed to function differently without Pandimala. While I did agree that having her with the Autobots would be more beneficial than a rescue mission, the space that the femme left behind her here was immense.

Soundwave rarely left his quarters, diving into all of his surveillance work with Laserbeak. Rumble and Frenzy seemed to be taking over for Pandimala in working with the drones on their projects on the ship and planetside. Currently, they were with DIGS compiling all of the new information about MECH that we retrieved from Pandimala. It was a lot of information and the drones seemed grateful for their help.

Both of our medics seemed to grow agitated with the slightest problems now, though Knockout was far worse than Hook. The surgeon had almost torn Ransack's servo off when the mech came in with an injury. He had apologized, of course, but it was obvious how the mech was handling things.

Dreadwing and Skyquake never seemed to leave the training rooms and, when they did, they would snap at anyone who seemed to be not doing their work. Lord Megatron had to step in a few times when they would jump in and the bots in question would be doing something they were ordered to. The two of them were on edge.

Crumplezone and Ransack, they were interesting cases. While Crumplezone was acting just calmly, a rarity on the ship these solars, it was surprisingly Ransack who seemed out of his processor. He seemed lost in himself. He walked about with almost no purpose and barely responded to Crumplezone when he spoke. I recognized what was happening to the mech, though. He was lost in his thoughts, and he was having many of them. I often found myself in the same processor-state when on a complicated project. However, the timing of this coinciding with Pandimala being taken was too much of a coincidence.

"You seem deep in your processor Shockwave? Anything you care to spill?" I glanced up to see Vox standing in the doorway of my lab, looking worried.

I studied the intelligence mech. He seemed torn apart, as he had since Pandimala was taken. I knew he was suffering from the countless guilt that he always felt when he couldn't help Pandimala. She had saved him. Yet, he had been unable to help her in times that she needed help. The bar, her being shot by the unknown Autobot, her being captured; all of these events piled up for the mech. But, I was curious about what he was doing here right now. Normally, he couldn't be torn away from the monitors. I had even found him recharging standing at the monitor.

"What are you talking about Vox?"

"You know fragging well what I am talking about! The ship feels like everybot is going to split at the seams. Frag it, Starscream and Skywarp are at Thundercracker's throat every other cycle, Breakdown hasn't been seen outside of Knockout's med bay or training, and Blitzwing...let's not even get into that with what happened the other solar."

We had tracked down Thrust and we had been moving in to capture him. He had been hiding out in an abandoned mine. Lord Megatron, myself, Vox, Starscream, Blitzwing, Dreadwing, and Breakdown had gone down to take in the mech. Our leader was not holding back in his assault on Thrust. He wanted the traitor offline, hence our large team. Everything went according to plan at first. We were able to corner the seeker in a large cavern we had dug that lead outside. There was nowhere for him to run.

And then he turned to tides. He taunted Blitzwing about Pandimala, telling him...and us by extension, his plans to take Pandimala out. He spilled how he had been responsible for the raid against the ship. How she was now perfectly in place for his contacts inside the Autobots to annihilate. Taunted the mech about how she would scream and cry out as the Autobots tore her to shreds. How he asked them to make sure to send Blitzwing her optic to replace the one on his left.

It was at that when Blitzwing went berserk. He fired without thought and, with no thought, also fired at us. He was in true berserker mode and it was obvious that was Thrust's plan. The seeker ended up escaping and we all returned with injuries while restraining Blitzwing.

Tensions had shot up that solar and it seemed like the only aspect that seemed to be helping us focus and not tear each other apart was the fact that Pandimala could visit us at the bar. While I had only seen the femme on the first visit personally, seeing her had calmed many of the officers.

"While I know of the trouble aboard the ship, I do not understand what that has to do with my thoughts. Would you explain that to me?" I responded to his outburst.

"If you noticed how the rest of us have been acting, then I hope you have noticed how you never leave the lab anymore and contact between you and the rest of us has gone down to almost nothing." Vox looked upset by this.

"And why is this such a concern?" I did not see why my presence in speaking to the others in the bot was necessary when I could just as easily send out reports about my progress in general. Saving myself time that I can devote to the projects I was currently working on which included the Iaconian and Praxian databases.

Vox let out a vent. "You and Soundwave are the calmest and logical given most situations, no bot can deny that. Yet, not having you interact with the rest of us shows the ship that there might be something to worry about with Pandimala being held by the Autobots and that it may be the wrong choice to have her stay there." He then motioned to me. "While we are all responsible for hiding ourselves away, much of the ship looks to you and Soundwave for stability during times like these."

He...was correct. As I thought about his words, I realized that having a calm and logical presence such as mine would help the current tensions on the ship...especially if I was seen more. However, now I was curious about another aspect of this conversation. "Why did you choose to approach me about this development? In your argument, I along with Soundwave can create this atmosphere. Why come to me and not go to him?"

I was not expecting an immediate response, yet it happened. "That's easy. If I went to Soundwave instead, you wouldn't be listening in. Soundwave hasn't left his room much since Pandimala was taken by the Autobots. I don't have a doubt in my processor that he is listening in right now. I hope he gets my message through his helm and spends more time out of his room." He then glanced around. "It's about time for the last energon ration before recharge. Want to join me in the rec room for a cube?"

If it wasn't so sparkling-esque, I would shake my helm at the thin attempt at already bringing me out of my lab. He knew that I carried all of my rations for the solar with me if I planned on staying in my lab for an extended time. However, given the current circumstances, I decided to indulge in this attempt. "Very well."

"Hopefully, we will see Soundwave there as well. We could all relax every once in a while."

Since Vox was in front of me, I decided to indulge in a helm-shake. While the optimism was slightly forced, the mech had his spark in the right place. Since Pandimala wasn't here with her support for all of us, then Vox was trying to do some of the work she used to do.

Given the current state of the ship, I would allow it.

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

This wasn't right. I still did not agree that Pandimala should be with the Autobots. She should be here, with us. Her comrades….her fellow Decepticons. Instead, more of us seemed drawn to the idea that Pandimala was in the right place among the Autobots. That they wouldn't hurt her.

I was not so hopeful.

Many of the Autobots in their base were simple-processor like. A bot presented to them as an enemy remained an enemy. So, our Decepticon strategist was going to be viewed as an enemy. They wouldn't know what her origins were, what she was to them...though they did not know. They wouldn't see what she could be, only what she currently was.

The Autobots Wheeljack and Sentinel Major were among the ones I was most worried about this information. Wreckers were notorious for acting first and asking questions too late and, while there were two more Wreckers at their base that we knew of, Wheelljack was notorious for following this Wrecker habit.

Then, there was Sentinel Major. A symbol of everything we started this fight against, with none of the tact that would help him. He was smart, just never knew when to take advantage of his situation or the knowledge he obtained. His vocals moved faster than his processor, and his fists even faster than both of those combined.

Of course, it was not only the reactions of the Autobots that I was worried about. Pandimala was also a cause for concern, but it was not her loyalty that I was concerned with. No, the femme had proved that without a shadow of a doubt. No, but there was something else with the femme to be concerned about.

"Careful brother or your thoughts will cause you to crash." I glared at Thundercracker when he said that. "Unless you already have."

"Put a slagging thruster down your throat," Was my response to him.

"I thought I already showed you how Pandimala will be fine. Why do you keep dragging this doubt back,"

"I said quiet!"

"Not until you get your processor out of your afterburners!"

"Both of you shut it! A bot can't enjoy his energon with you two bickering." Skywarp growled as he stared at his energon.

I turned my glare to my other brother. "Pandimala is in a place as dangerous as the Pits and all you two can do is cower in a corner doing nothing!"

"That's enough from all of you." I jumped and turned, as did my brothers, to see Shockwave, Soundwave, and Vox standing in the doorway. "The situation on the nemesis has devolved worse than I realized."

"What are you about Shockwave?" What situation on the ship? I didn't see anything wrong, except for the fact that Pandimala was not here! "The only situation that the Nemesis has is that Pandimala is not here, where she belongs!"

"And what will she say when she does eventually return?" A shiver traveled down my backplates at Shockwave's cold response. "Pandimala spent most of her time here, when not performing her duties or helping the drones, working tirelessly on bringing us Decepticons closer as a faction. Imprinted upon us the necessity of communication and support within the faction. Loyalty in each other, as well as our leader and cause."

"Rebounding trust and the power that comes from a loyal person." I shivered again as Soundwave used Pandimala's voice, from when we viewed her memories, to drive their point across. The fact that he didn't speak, when he was comfortable enough with all of us to do just that, made me realize that the mech used the recording on purpose. He wanted to drive home Shockwave's point about how Pandimala would react seeing me like this while she was making use of the situation she was in for the betterment of the Decepticons.

"Yet all any of us have been doing is ruining what she started." Vox jumped in finally as the three of them sat with us. "We're all guilty of it, besides Lord Megatron, and we need to focus. Pandimala can cover her aft and knows when to call in for backup. We know this."

Everybot looked ashamed about what was being pointed out. While I was upset, especially since I seemed to be getting upset about Pandimala the most, there was one point that I wanted to bring to their attention. "I understand that. However, there is something that we need to be concerned about, and talk about with her when we can."

"What would that be?" Shockwave asked.

I glanced at all five of them before motioning toward my wings. "Pandimala's wings. From what Knockout said of his scan after the patch, they should be popping within the next seven to fourteen solar cycles. Normally, a flier pops their wings at a very young age, and are surrounded by very few bots. Plus, those few bots are normally very close emotionally to the youngling. The rush of information that newly popped wings bring in can be overwhelming in the best of circumstances and the bots charged with watching the young flyer."

My brother then caught on to what I was worried about and I saw that he seemed just as worried now. "They are young enough to recover quickly from the onslaught of readings. Pandimala is a different case. She is a fully-grown triple changer and will be overrun with the readings her wings would give. Even if she was with us."

"However," Shockwave caught on. "With Pandimala being held by the enemy, the reaction her chassis and processor would have if her wings popped there will put a large amount of pressure on systems. That is not including if they pop when she might be facing the Autobots while they are in a foul temper."

"We will talk to her this night cycle," We all turned to see Lord Megatron standing in the doorway. "Pandimala will need to know the dangers her wings popping will place her in."

We all stood and bowed toward our leader. "Lord Megatron," I started, "Pandimala has contacted you?"

"Yes. She sent a private message to ask to meet with me." His gaze then focused on me. "Starscream, you need to stop wasting time with these constant worries. You fought for Pandimala, while she was in her previous form, to have the chance to prove herself as a Decepticon. Giving up on your belief in her is disrespectful toward your fellow Decepticon."

I flinched at his harsh words but I knew that he was right. Not believing in Pandimala during this time was the same as saying that I didn't think she was a valuable member of the Decepticons. I needed to believe in our strategist. That meant even despite the danger she was currently in. She had been at their base for three solars now. Hopefully, our strategist would continue to remain safe.

She had to.

Wheeljack's 1st P.O.V.

"So, how was your shift?"

I turned toward Zarron and Balm as Zarron asked that. "Interesting. Started with trying to get some information out of her, but I mainly ended up telling her about some of my missions as a Wrecker. She seemed to enjoy them."

"Didn't think you would be so relaxed with a Decepticon?" Zarron poked at me with a smirk.

I threw a light punch at him, which he annoyingly dodged. "Pandimala doesn't seem like a Decepticon, despite the facts. Nothing with how she acts says 'I'm a Decepticon'. From the little she has told me, she is kind, caring, loyal, and sympathetic. She doesn't have to give us anything, yet she answers what she can." I then sat on the edge of the med berth.

"Not everybot in the base shares your views on her though," Balm pointed out as she cleaned some of her supplies, which was what she was doing with Zarron's help when I came in. "I've heard from Ratchet that some of the others say that the femme is just another piece of Decepticon scrap. Don't treat her nearly as nice as you do."

"Balm, do you know who seems to be against the femme?" Zarron pressed. "This is the sort of situation that'll tell me a lot about the other Decepticons. Of course, they are allowed to believe something, but it will narrow down the number of bots I have to watch for right now."

He was right. Seeing how the others reacted to Pandimala, her being a Decepticon prisoner. It had been three solars since she had been brought to the base during the raid. I knew of a couple of obvious bots that wanted the femme to be put under more pressure and restrictions than she currently was. But, Balm heard much more being a medic, and Ratchet told her even more.

The femme sat before she spoke. "Well, as I'm sure you all could guess, Flamewar, Pitch, and Sentinel are against the femme in the worst way. The others I'm about to say aren't nearly as bad as those three, but they don't seem to like the femme much. Seaspray mentioned to me that he didn't like the femme being given so many rations, though he doesn't seem to mind everything else. Ironhide has mentioned a few times, as has Bulkhead, that Flamewar, Pitch, and Sentinel should have just offline the femme instead of bringing her back as a prisoner. Lastly, Ratchet mentioned to me that Arcee doesn't like the fact that there shouldn't be Decepticons in the base period. It's too dangerous and the femme could escape."

"So for the most part, they are worried because she is a Decepticon. Not that she is displaying their traits or antagonizing the others." Zarron muttered, more to himself than to us. "Speaking about antagonizing others, I can't be the only bot who has noticed that Astrotrain and Airachnid have been absent from a number of the recent fights."

"Pandimala mentioned something about that the other solar when we were talking." I jumped in. We were having a laid back discussion when the question about how bucket-helm kept his troops in line came to my processor. "While she didn't mention any designations, she did say that the Decepticons made sure to keep their bots in check. Even more so lately than they have in the past according to her. From the lack of those two in battles, then they might have been removed from the Decepticons."

"If that is the case," Zarron jumped in, "then we need to find trouble in our faction and root it out. With the loss of three of their bots, we are assuming two of those, then this would be our time to hit back at them. But, we have to gather the evidence that we need." He then paused. "Speaking about that, Balm tell…"

...

There was now emptiness where Balm was standing before.

"Slag she moves quietly." Really. I needed lessons from her and Zarron about how they were able to move around as they did.

A groan escaped from Zarron before he placed his servo against his helm. "That femme seems to always know when I am going to bring that up. If she would just tell me what happened, we would have Pitch offline-to-rights and could get him tried."

Whatever this situation was, I knew that it was something that the femme was very nervous about. We could still see the tension between Pitch and Balm. It was crazy. From how Pandimala spoke, old Megatron seemed to be cleaning his ranks while ours was going to the smelting pits faster than a scraplet after fresh energon. "She'll let you know one solar."

"I know that," Zarron emphasized. "But, whether it would be before it was too late or not is a completely different situation though. She could get herself or us in trouble if she keeps this to herself for too long."

Balm being reluctant to share about whatever situation she was in with Pitch caused me to think. The femme was loyal to Zarron, and for her to avoid telling him told me that whatever happened was big. Every time the two seemed to interact, glares were sent in plenty but it was obvious that Balm was almost scared of the mech as well. She even refused to treat him in private, having him be worked on by Ratchet.

Ratchet… "Maybe we could get something out of Ratchet. He was her mentor from what you have said. She might have told him what happened between them."

Zarron looked hopeful at that idea. "That might work. Plus, he's alone right now working on the monitor...unless Balm joined him. Let's go see if we can get anything out of the medic. You seem to know him better than me, though, so you can do the talking."

Zarron: Has anyone seen the high grade?

Wheeljack: *shakes helm* Nope. I saw it on the counter when I left the room earlier. Somebot must have taken it though.

Balm: *optics narrow at the sign of small footprints made of energon* Or someone.

AN: And here is the next chapter! Had a lot of fun with this, despite the filler-esque feeling to it. I've touched on a few story points I've made before plus hinted at some other things as well. Like I said before, I am going to keep this short and to the point. The next chapter is going to bring some excitement so stay tuned!

So, without further adieu, here are the next chapters!

Chapter 40: Being a Friend Toxicity

Chapter 41: Revelation Hurt

Chapter 42: ...(Next time!... Though with the title of 41 I bet you are curious XD )

Well, that's all for now! Please make sure to vote on the poll on my profile if you haven't already. There is a tie as of right now and, while you have time to make your choice count, make it count! Well, until next time, please review, or say hi in a review. So, until next time! *singing some Creedance Clearwater Revival*