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

Wheeljack: *nervous* I'm only meeting with you for a temporary truce on this.

Starscream: *narrows optics* What kind of truce?

Wheeljack: I've heard that you are looking for Authoress for some answers. I want some answers as well.

Starscream: *smirks slowly* And with our two sides working together, we will find her that much faster.

Wheeljack: *nods* Exactly. So, do we have a truce?

Starscream: *nods* Truce.

Chapter 51: Changing Fates

Optimus' 1st P.O.V.

I could see that Megatron was tense as he exited his ground bridge. He must suspect something from this talk. Could he know that this had to do with Pandimala? While a part of me believed that couldn't be the case, I also thought back to how Pandimala had acted whenever the Decepticons were mentioned in the base. That was especially when her time with them was mentioned. She was always quick to defend them, and she insisted that her loss of humanity was not a result of the Decepticons. I had not believed this and still didn't to an extent. Perhaps it was an accident and Pandimala hadn't wanted to blame the Decepticons for that.

However, this was Megatron. I had known him long enough to know that he had multiple reasons and plans going through his processor at any given point. While he might think this talk could be about Pandimala, he would not discount that I called this meeting to discuss something else. And there were other reasons I would have preferred to call the leader of the Decepticons for. Peace between our factions was the furthest away of anything I could see Megatron agreeing to. But, I would prefer that to what I was about to tell him.

"This meeting is highly unlike you Optimus. So tell me, what has prompted you to meet with me so suddenly?" Megatron asked as his gound bridge closed behind him.

I took a step toward him before responded. "I've come to talk to you about Pandimala."

Megatron immediately stopped moving at that and I was surprised to see the tension in his chassis start to rise. So, he had suspected that this talk would be about Pandimala. But why? While I understood why Pandimala seemed so attached to the Decepticons since they were all she knew about us before she was brought to us, why would Megatron care about the previous human? At the very least, care enough about what this talk was going to be about to physically tense at my mention of her?

"Why do you bring up the femme?" This was becoming more unusual the longer we talked. The restraint in his vocals showed that he was more involved with Pandimala during her time there than simply her being another bot on his ship. He must have been a part of her training. A personal project of his.

How would he handle what I was about to say? "During the early cycles of this solar, due to whatever the Decepticons did to cause her to lose her humanity, her processor fried itself. She had no processor signal. Our medics give her twenty-four cycles top before her spark snuffs itself."

I had to quickly withdraw my blade as Megatron charged forward with a snarl. "We did nothing to her Prime! Whatever caused this had to be the fault of your Autobots," His blade then met mine as we traded blows. After a few trades back and forth, we separated and paused. "Return her to us Prime," I was surprised when he demanded that.

But, I would not give them her chassis to do with as they pleased. We had just gotten her back after helping Paul search for her for so long. The Decepticons would not get her in her offlining as well. "No, she is safe from whatever you would do to her Megatron,"

A snarl ripped through his vocals as he charged at me again. This time, when our blades met, I flinched at the ferocity behind it. "That was not a question Prime! I want Pandimala returned to us! I will bring the full force of my Decepticons down on your Autobots until she is returned to us. She is one of us and she belongs with us!"

I finally found the ground beneath my pedes and held Megatron back. "Not a chance Megatron. You manipulated her into accepting your twisted views. I will not allow you to hurt her in her offlining, as you did when she was offline."

"She is mine Prime!"

He then pushed back even harder and a shower of blows being traded rained down on me. I could barely keep up with his blows, let alone argue with what he just said. The way he said that...it sounded more than if she was just one of his Decepticons. I would not allow him to take her...not again. Paul had been desperate to find her, and once we realized who she was, he tried everything in his power to get back into her confidence.

But, whatever Megatron had done to her, had caused Pandimala to not trust her old friend. She refused him at every turn. The one time she agreed to talk to him, she came out even more against him than before. I had thought it was due to their time apart and maybe she felt like he had betrayed her by not finding her. However, with the words that Megatron had just spoken, I realized that it was more than likely that Megatron had turned Pandimala against everything that she used to know.

"You will never have her back, Megatron," I was finally able to respond to my opponent.

The look of fury that came into Megatron's optics was one that I had not seen since Cybertron. "I know where your base is Prime. I will order all of my soldiers to launch a full-scale assault on that old missile silo you are hold up in and pull her out myself if need be. This is me giving you a chance to save your troops. Return Pandimala to me!"

He knew where our base was. How long had he known and just sat on that knowledge? I had felt like the Autobots were finally pulling ahead of the Decepticons in this long fight, when in reality, Megatron could have launched a surprise attack against us whenever he wanted and the Decepticons would have crushed us. Yet, he held back to reveal he had this information until now. He waited until it was just me and him, in the heat of battle so I could not warn my Autobots. Thankfully, though, I had prepared for this kind of threat. I just didn't think I needed to use it so soon. "She isn't there Megatron. I moved her out of the base so she could offline in peace and only I know the coordinates she is at. And I will offline before I tell you where they are at."

Megatron snarled at that and pushed against our deadlock. I faltered as he pushed even harder against me. "Then Prime, I will keep fighting you until I can drag you to the Nemesis and rip those coordinates from your processor!"

The two of us then picked back up on our fight. I would not allow him to get those coordinates. I would make sure that I was victorious in this fight. He had done enough damage to the femme, who was living her final cycles in peace. I would not allow him to use her for whatever sick and twisted schemes he wished. I would stop him. As I went in for a strike, I was able to scrape the side of his helm. That should have knocked out his communication to his ship for now. Now, I just had to tire him out to get him to fall back using his private comm.

However, as the fight continued, I started to worry. Instead of tiring, Megatron's blows just kept growing in intensity and I was having to stay on my guard fully to make sure that I was not injured. If I became too injured, then I did not doubt that Megatron would carry out his word and take me captive. Then, he would be able to take me to the Nemesis and learn of Pandimala's coordinates. I couldn't allow that to happen. I had to stay sharp.

If there was another break in the fighting, I was going to have to call in a ground bridge. That was the only way I saw me getting away from here without falling to Megatron. I had not seen him this determined in a fight in a long time. He looked ready to fight until his spark stopped beating to get those coordinates. What was Pandimala to the Decepticons that Megatron would use so much of his time and effort to get her offlining chassis from us? This did not align with the Megatron I knew at all. During her regular checkups, neither of the medics had found anything particularly unique about the femme outside of the fact that she had no weapons built into her chassis outside of her shoulder cannons. So, it wasn't something they specifically did to her that he wanted.

So, what was it?

Before I could try and question Megatron again, I heard a strange electrical sound come from behind him. Suddenly Megatron was yelling in pain as electricity seemed to envelop him. I tried to look toward where the shot came from but soon felt something pierce my chest plate and I yelled out in pain as electricity wreaked havoc through my systems. As I fell to the ground from the pain, I watched as another shot slammed into Megatron before he also went down. The last thing I saw as my vision faded were vehicles moving toward us.

Zarron's 1st P.O.V.

Something wasn't right. It had been cycles now since Optimus had left to tell Megatron about what had happened to Pandimala. He should have been back by now. But, we were under base arrest. And we had to wait for Prime to call us to take any action. I didn't like all of this waiting around. Sparring with Wheeljack for the first cycle he had been gone had helped, but it wasn't enough. With Pandimala offline, and now Optimus being late, I had a feeling that things were about to get battle heavy very quickly.

Standing here in the main hub wasn't helping my situation either. I wasn't the only bot who seemed to be on edge and ready for the Prime to return...or at the very least send a message. I swear, everybot outside of Pitch, Sentinel, and Flamewar was in here right now and it was making the space a little tight. Twenty Autobots in this small of an area was a tight fight. Thankfully, we smaller bots were able to sit on...not recommended place, to make room for everybot. That included me, Arcee, Prowl, Eject, Rewind, and, surprisingly, Jazz. I didn't know how Jazz was able to sit comfortably on that machine without breaking it, but the mech seemed as relaxed as any of us could be right now.

And, unusually, the only human not currently here was Agent Fowler. Even June Darby was making one of her rare appearances here at the base. Lately, she rarely showed up anymore. She seemed to be content with just getting the events of the solar told to her by her son or Arcee, or both. However, this solar, she had come in with Jack and Arcee. Maybe the femme told June about what happened to Pandimala, and she came to help comfort the kids? I didn't know and, at this click, I didn't care.

Speaking on Pandimala, though, that situation was not being handled correctly. I was going to have to report to the bots who hired me. If a bot went from perfectly healthy to the processor-offline state that Pandimala was found in earlier this solar, then the commander on that planet should have immediately started an investigation of all bots under his command. He should have searched every Autobot for contraband that could have been used to hurt her. Only after said commander cleared those procedures should Prime had worried about trying to find out information from the Decepticons.

But no. Prime, in all of his wisdom, decided to leave the investigation to the side, if he was even going to do it and went off without informing any Autobot of his coordinates to try and interrogate Megatron on his own. To make matters worse, the Prime had made sure the coordinates he went to, like the coordinates he had sent Pandimala to, were untraceable.

A part of me understood why he did that specific action. He was hoping to just talk to Megatron. Some of us here might get it into their helms to sneak along and to some speaking to the leader of the Decepticons with our weapons. That could cause any hope of a peaceful talk between the leaders to break down instantly.

However, it was also foolish of the Prime to do that. Now, we had no idea where he was without having one of the tech experts we had here at the base dig out the coordinates he used. And that would take a lot of time. Time that the Prime might not be able to afford if he was in trouble and needed our assistance.

This was not going to look good for my investigation here. I knew that a stressor could set off the strange peace that we had been experiencing. The Autobots had been growing closer as a faction in recent solars and I was hoping to send a positive report to the bots who hired me soon. However, with Pandimala's sudden turn for the worse possibility, then tensions were starting to return.

I would admit, the human that Pandimala seemed to connect to was trying to help. Raf seemed to be helping a servo-full of bots keep their helms right now. That was good. However, it wasn't nearly enough to keep the entire force here on Earth together. If something happened to the Prime, then I feared that we were going to start to fracture apart. Even with Elita-1 here, Optimus' bondmate, I didn't see the situation holding together without the bot himself here.

A ping suddenly coming from the main monitor caused every single helm and head to snap to said monitor. Was this Optimus? Did the talk with Megatron go so well that they talked for cycles without any communication to us? Or had it gone to the Pit and he was only now able to call in for a bridge? The air felt heavy with the silence that the room held as Ratchet walked up to the console. After a few clicks, he answered whoever was calling.

"Is Prime there?" I could hear the sounds of disappointment come from everyone when Agent Fowler's voice came through the comm.

"No, he is not Agent Fowler. We are waiting on his call, so unless this is important, please disconnect." Ratchet responded, sounding just as annoyed as he looked to be.

To my surprise, Agent Fowler stayed on. "No can do Ratchet. I need you to whip up one of your ground bridges. This mech with me says he's with you all. Came in one of those escape pods and landed in the ocean. Thankfully, we were able to convince him that we knew you bots before he flew off." Flew? Not many Autobots were capable of flight, and we already had one of them in the base with us. Just who was this?

"Wow, sounds like a fun time there," My optic ridges shot up as I recognized the vocals. While I didn't know the mech well, I had been on the battlefield with him a few times... enough to recognize the mech's vocals at least.

A laugh suddenly came from Seaspray as he seemed to recognize the mech as well. "Well, I'll be, Jetfire! How are you doing lad?"

"Seaspray? Is your old aft still online?" Jetfire answered from the other side.

"You bet your thrusters I am you, little ingrate. We'll have you here as quickly as we can." Seaspray laughed before turning to Ratchet. "Hey medic, get that bridge open for them. We could use all the advantages we can get and Jetfire is hard to beat in that department,"

Ratchet nodded, probably hoping for more help in the situation that seemed to be rising, before opening the bridge. Not long after, the flier walked through, carrying the human agent. Once Jetfire located where to place the human, he did just that before turning to the rest of us. "Frag, it's more crowded here than I thought it would be." He then looked from side to side before a confused look came on his faceplate. "But, where's Optimus? I figured he would be here."

Elita then took over at that. "There was an incident. Pandimala, a femme we were taking care of after we rescued her from the Decepticons," That was stretching it. Pandimala didn't seem 'rescued' when we first brought her back to the base. "Had electrical feedback short her processor, offlining her. Optimus went to inform Megatron of this to try and get any information about what they did to her from him."

"Pandimala's dead?" Fowler asked. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"We only found her this morning," Wheeljack answered the human tersely. It was still a touchy subject for the mech. "We haven't had time to make sure every being not at the base knew." Yeah, a very touchy subject for Wheeljack.

"Anyways," Ratchet turned to conversation away from that. "Optimus has ordered all Autobots to remain at the base until his return."

"And how long has he been gone?" The white jet mech with yellow optics asked the one question that was the cause of tension in everybot at the base.

Since everybot else seemed to be unable to answer him, given the silence, I figured I would break it to him. "About five cycles now without any communication," I answered him.

He jumped when I spoke and turned to face me. "Optimus has been gone that long and nobot has gone out to look for him?"

Well, I did know the protocol and so I figured I would use it now. "You know the rules. Autobots can't go against this kind of order unless fifteen cycles have passed without any communication from the commanding officer."

"Yeah, but the ones who made the rule didn't take into account that our leader would go and face Megatron alone." Jetfire shot back before he turned to Ratchet. "We need to check on Optimus. He wouldn't keep radio silence this long. Not when meeting with Megatron. Retrieve his coordinates and I'll go. I wasn't here when Optimus gave his order so, technically, I don't fall under it. Unless anybot has a problem?" He looked right at me at that.

But, he found the loophole he needed. And I was worried about how long the Prime had been gone. So, I shook my helm and held up my servos, hopefully showing him that I was not going to go against him on this. I noticed that, as soon as I showed I wasn't going to resist his movements, Ratchet started to immediately mess with the ground bridge control panel. Guess we were all worried about Prime. Well, all of us in the room that is. It didn't escape my notice that neither Pitch, Flamewar, nor Sentinel had come out yet, even though the ground bridge activating was hard to miss.

I focused as the bridge powered up. This was it. As Jetfire walked through, we were going to find out what the frag was taking Prime so long. I was surprised, however, when Jetfire came back not three clicks later...and alone. The look on his faceplate did not bode well for whatever was going on. "What happened?" Prowl asked from where he was sitting as Jetfire close the bridge behind himself.

"We have a problem," Jetfire spoke. "There were obvious signs of a fight...but there was no bot there."

We all froze as the implication of that sentence hit us. No bot was there. But, there were signs of a struggle. Since Optimus had gone to meet with Megatron, that implied one situation strongly; Megatron was able to overpower Optimus in the struggle that must have ensued from their talk and was able to capture Optimus.

If this theory was right, the Decepticons had Optimus.

Joe's 1st P.O.V.

"Is there a reason you are down here Joe?" Berg asked me as he and his crew, DIGS, seemed to be focused on their screens.

I nodded. "All of higher command is on edge. No bot is leaving the Nemesis, and both med bays are tense. Ever since the communication was lost with Lord Megatron, everybot up there has been on edge. Your lot seems like the calmest bots to be around right now. Even the other drones working on the repairs around the ship are tense. Nemo about took my helm off when I tried to ask him if I could help him any."

"And why haven't we gotten the same offer?" Berg asked as the information on his screen seemed to fly by.

Shrugging my shoulders, I gave the most logical answer I could. "Because monitor work and I don't get along too well. Knockout and Hook won't even let me near the ones in the med bays anymore after the one imploded and we had to get Vox down there to fix it."

"Fair enough," He responded immediately while typing away. "Of course, you know that they are stressed about more than the lack of communication from Lord Megatron."

Of course, I did. I worked in the med bays. Gossip central when they were active. The biggest stressor from the early cycles of this solar had been Pandimala and the spike in her spark rate. Between no word from her and no word from our leader, the ship was one word away from invading the Autobots and demolishing their base...and as many of them as we could.

And I was right there with them. Pandimala had done so much for me, as well as for all the drones on the ship, that I was ready to take on the Prime myself if they hurt her in any way. She was a beacon of hope for us drones. She had raised us from the cannon-fodder position that we had been in when she arrived, to us being valued components of the Decepticons. Just look at Berg and his group. A group of drones specially made to keep an optic on the human organization that knew of our existence; MECH.

Speaking of the group, "Off subject, anything of interest with MECH?"

Berg turned his chair so he was facing me. "No, and that's the weird part. Usually, MECH is constantly working on different projects or moving around. But, for the past solar, they have been strangely quiet. I've been working on checking all of our sniffers in their network but, so far, nothing out of the ordinary." He then let out a vent. "It honestly has me worried. MECH is never this quiet. In all of the solars that we have been studying them, this is the first time they have gone silent like this."

I understood that. I was now worried too. If this was the first time that they had been quiet, given the tension going through the ship right now, then I would be worried too. "What was the last thing that they were doing before they went silent?" I asked Berg.

A look of thinking came to his faceplate before he turned to Bob. "Bob, what was that last communication you picked up from MECH again?"

Bob paused in what he was doing and typed something into his console before he spoke, "It was a communication from one of their bases saying that they were prepped to receive any size shipment that Silas might need them to hold."

So nothing. That was just them reporting their readiness to their leader if they needed. Joy. "So nothing that could be of any use."

Berg nodded. "Exactly. After that, their communications shut down and we've been trying our best to find anything else that could be used. But, they are disciplined when it comes to their communication shutdowns." He then smirked. "Nice thought though. If you weren't so bad around consoles in general, I would ask to get you transferred to my team."

I shook my helm at that. "No thanks. I prefer my work in the med bays."

"Your loss,"

"I don't think so," I said with a smirk back at him.

He let out a laugh. "Can't blame a mech for trying. Tried to get Carl in here too. Turned me down just as quickly. Said he was quite content with guarding the energon storage. Said it was simple for an old frame like himself."

A snort escaped me at that before I could stop it. "Old frame my aft. He may be the oldest of us drones, but the mech is thousands of stellars younger than all of the command bots, and I would love to see him try to call them old. I know Knockout would not hesitate to turn the mech into a buffer at that."

"A buffer?"

"Functionality and revenge, just Knockout's style," I answered. Now that he had mentioned Carl, though, maybe the mech might know what was going on. "I'll let you get back to your work now."

"What work?" Berg asked with a grumble as I walked to the door.

I laughed as the door closed behind me. It was true though. Everything seemed to be at a standstill on the ship. I didn't even expect DIGS to be at a standstill, but they were. Hopefully, this would pass soon and the ship would return to normal. Well, as normal as it was while Pandimala was with those Autobots.

After about ten clicks of walking, I arrived at the energon storage room and was surprised to see that Carl was the only bot on watch. Usually, two drones watched the energon storage room. Seeing Carl here alone was cause for concern. "Where's your partner?" I asked him, motioning toward the space next to the mech.

"Offlined during that last key mission the other solar. Command hasn't had time to rearrange the shifts." Okay, that was weird. Carl usually wasn't that blunt in responding. Looking at his faceplate more, I realized that he seemed to be very upset about something. And not angry upset either. It was a pained sort of upset that I saw in his expression.

"Carl, what's wrong?" I asked him.

The mech looked up at me and seemed to study my spark as he focused on my visor. Finally, after a few clicks, he spoke. "You have to swear to me, on your very spark, that this doesn't leave you, me, and the command. You would have found out eventually given that you work in the med bay, and Knockout especially tells you everything."

"Carl, you're scaring me. What's going on?" This was not normal behavior for Carl. He was normally very laid back and just accepting of what happened around us. What the frag happened?

But, instead of answering me, he reached out and gripped my shoulder with his servo. "Swear it, Joe!"

He was serious about this. Well, there was nothing to lose by doing this. "I swear to you, Carl, on my spark, that whatever you are about to tell me won't leave you, me, and command."

Even after that, he stared at me for a few more clicks before he let out a vent while still holding onto my shoulder. "Joe, there was something that command didn't pass on to everybot about the comm link with Lord Megatron. I just happened to pass by when I heard it. The reason that the Prime asked to meet with our Lord was to inform him that Pandimala offlined early this solar. She's offline Joe." He then pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me.

She...no…no she couldn't be! But, as I stood there, arms having automatically wrapped around Carl, I knew he wouldn't just say something like that. She...Pandimala was truly gone. After all the work she had done for us. After everything that she had gone through. Just for those Autobots...They offlined her! "When command calls the strike, I'm going to be on those front lines. I'll make sure that those Autobots pay for what they have done."

"I'll be right there next to you," Carl responded as we stood there.

We didn't move for several clicks after that. I wasn't sure about Carl, but I needed his familiar presence right now. Pandimala...she was gone. My processor flashed memories to me of the time I had spent with her. Times she was worried, times she was sad, and times she was smiling. They all flashed through my processor as we stood there.

Finally, I stepped back and we let go of each other. "Want some company watching the energon?"

He let out a laugh and nodded. "Sure, until we get that call I could use a friend next to me."

So I moved until I was standing on the other side of the door. Until command gave us that choice to go and annihilate the Autobots, I would stay with Carl and keep him company. Being the only two drones outside of command who knew about Pandimala's status, we would need each other between now and the click we were allowed to shove our blades threw some Autobot sparks.

Arctic Talon's 1st P.O.V.

Slagging mech had to have cheated. I never lost our game of rock-paper-scissors. Now, for the first time in millions of stellars, he got a lucky draw. And we were, of course, at our cave here in fragging Antarctica. That meant that I had to walk out in the fragging snow and ice to see what the signal was that the systems from our ancient ship detected. I was honestly surprised it was able to pick up anything. The cave that we were living in had formed around the ship that had brought us Predacons to this planet those millions of stellars ago. While most of our kind didn't make it past the first one hundred stellars, the mech that was currently back at the base and I were able to meet back up, and, together we figured out how to survive.

We moved between caves every fifty stellars when the energon in the area would get lower than we wanted. We had just returned to this location, our original location, about two stellars ago so there was still plenty of energon here for us to consume to stay online. Of course, finding out that we needed energon to survive had taken me finally accessing this ship's fragging systems, which was a pain in itself, and discovering what exactly we were and what our purpose was. Once we found out we were to guard the energon on this planet, the two of us took to the job naturally. After all, why wouldn't we protect our source of survival from others who might want to take it? However, after the first million stellars and no contact from the Decepticons, who the systems said created us, we relaxed our guard and just kept watch of the supplies that were near our current home at the time.

Of course, we had our interaction with the locals, both in soliform and in our Predacon forms. But, after the idiotic mech with me decided it was a good idea to burn a town to the ground after its leaders angered him, we decided that interactions with the now-called 'humans' were to be avoided if at all possible. I swear that mech got offended at the smallest things. He was much better these solars than he was back then, but the problem was still there.

"You're thinking about me, aren't you sweet spark?" Speaking of the said idiot.

I accepted the comm request. "Only about how much of a moron you are."

"A moron who beat you in our little challenge finally." He shot back at me. I could hear the smugness in his vocals.

Rolling my optics as I moved forward, I responded to him. "I still think you cheated during that. I've never lost to you before."

He laughed through the comm line at that. "As the humans say, even a broken clock is right twice a day."

"And you're as broken as they come," I shot back at the mech. Before he could get upset with me at that, I smiled and continued. "And that was just one of the many reasons I agreed to bond with you when you asked."

"You mean outside of my unnaturally good looks and charm." He added with a fun tone in his vocals.

I let out a laugh this time. "Sure, we'll call it that." I then spotted a black spot in the snow up ahead. "Hang on a click. I see something in the snow."

"Fine, but you are not allowed to bring another animal home as a 'pet'. I'm still pulling fur out of my gears where that polar bear thought it would be a good idea to ambush me from behind and impaled itself on my tail while I slept. You wouldn't stop crying over it until we gave it a proper burial." He made sure to say before he went radio silent.

Of course, he would bring that up. How was I supposed to know that the polar bear wouldn't like him and try to fight him for dominance? I had been really sad though, to find Lancelot impaled on my bondmate's tail. I liked that bear. Luckily, my bondmate had humored me and buried the bear's corpse, despite the ice he had to dig through.

But, enough about Lancelot. As I moved closer to the figure, I realized it was farther away than I thought it was...and it was a lot larger than I thought it was too. I transformed to my bi-pedal mode as I moved even closer. It was obvious that whatever it was, it was made out of metal. The sun was reflecting off of it so much that it had to be metal. It was too early in the morning for this. As I moved closer, however, I was starting to realize that my bondmate and I were very out of touch on what was going on in the world. There, in the snow, was a bot. And, given the insignia I could see, she was a Decepticon. What was she doing out here and unconscious? Was she abandoned here?

When I got next to her, I performed some basic scans that I could do. My bondmate was better with our health scans than I was. But, I could do basic ones like the light processor and spark scans. So, I did just that. Her spark showed that it was slowing, probably due to being out here in the snow. When I scanned her processor, though, it showed about half productivity. I needed to get her back inside, and quickly. "I need a bridge here now, and prep the medical bay."

"Talon, I swear that if this some injured animal again, you are going to be put on restrictions," My bondmate spoke over the comm. "We only have enough energon to use that portal two times, and we'll need it to leave here when we do leave eventually."

"I found a Decepticon here, and she is in a bad way from her processor scan. If we help her, she can tell us why it has taken so long for them to find us. Please Predaking?" I argued, using my bondmate's designation.

The other side of the line was silent before a portal opened next to me. "Bring her through Talon. Once we get her better, we may finally get our answers."

Authoress: *nervous about the quiet* What is going on? *peeks on cameras*

Starscream: We've searched the energon storage areas again. Where should we look next?

Wheeljack: *comes into view* Should probably check the rec rooms. She might not think we would check there since they are normally high-traffic areas for bots.

Authoress: * full-blown panicking* What are they doing? They aren't supposed to be in the same set together! And they're working together to hunt me! Slag this isn't good.

AN: And here is the next exciting chapter. So much going down in this chapter that I'm not going to dare get into all of it. But, I will forewarn you all. The last of the new Autobots and Decepticons to come will come in the next two chapters. After that, no more new bots will be in the fray. It's because the big fight that they are going to be a part of is coming up soon, and I wanted to add some last-minute players (I have had them planned to come in since the beginning so they truly aren't last minute by planning means, just for the story means) into the arena. Also, I need to admit that, out of these last chapters, I legitimately cried during the part with Carl and Joe. I didn't even think that part would get me, but I cried.

Also, one more explanation is needed. Arctic Talon and Predaking's 'portal' is a beta ground bridge that the Decepticons had been developing at the time. It wasn't fully operational when they sent the Predacons in the ship to guard the energon. Talon and Predaking were able to get it to work to a point, but it takes a lot of energon that takes a while to replenish from the surpluses they have it hooked up to. That is why Predaking is worried about them using it.

Well, since I can't reveal any new chapters (since the next chapter starts season 3), then I will mention one more thing. I loved the part with Predaking and Talon bickering with each other. They are such a fun couple for me to work with. And yes, before I forget to mention it, I did make Predaking one of the original Predacons instead of a new creation. That's because Project Predacon isn't active right now in this timeline, since they have a lot of other things to deal with. So, to get him in the story, he has survived with Arctic Talon, his bondmate, through the millions of years they have been around. (Oh, and just between us, Predaking so cheated in that game. I can't say how, but he did).

So, that is all for now. Hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. And, as always, please leave a review or just say hello. I appreciate knowing you all are there and I do try to respond to you all, even if it is just a hello back to those who say hello to me. Well, until the next chapter, TTYL! *grooving to a pretty chill version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow*