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

Authoress: *smirks* Thank Primus they haven't thought to look in here.

Wheeljack: *determined* We are going to find her. There aren't many more places around here that she could hide in.

Starscream: *thinking* Yes, and there are some that we might have missed.

Wheeljack: *confused* And what are those? *Starscream whispers* Oh, I didn't even think to look there.

Authoress: *worried* Slag, what did he just whisper? I don't trust that mech.

Chapter 53: Lightning Strikes Twice

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

Pain was the first thing I registered as my consciousness started to come back to me. What had happened? Everything had been going so good the other solar. Why did I feel like I had been knocked out? I pushed my slowly onlining processor to try and remember. I remembered leaving the bar with Wheeljack, excited for the new development we had made. We were that much closer to peace. After he and I had talked alone for a bit, so he could vent his frustration at not being told in advance about the meeting, we had returned to the base. He walked me to my room and made sure that my door was locked before I had returned to my chassis for recharge.

...Wait...recharge. I was pulled out of it. That was right! Sentinel, Pitch, and Flamewar tried to use a cortical psychic patch to get information out of my processor. But, then the lightning started in my helm! Paul! I was going to offline him for putting that up without asking me. But, in retrospect to what happened, I was only slightly glad he did. He, however, was going to pay for not at least informing me that he did that. I could have been a little more prepared.

And what would have happened if I had been connected to one of my fellow Decepticons when that slag happened? ...Wait...That was probably what he was trying to prevent. Slagger! Enough about Paul though. I would deal with him later.

As more of my systems seemed to be coming online, I was now registering that it was cold. Very cold where I was. Did the Autobots have some walk-in freezer that I didn't know about? Was I back on the Nemesis? Given that my spark rate had no doubt spiked during the attack, Lord Megatron might have led the Decepticons on a raid against their base to retrieve me. And I had been so close to getting peace moving too. Slag it all.

As my systems told me I could online my optics, I figured I had better get the yelling from the medics over with, whichever ones they were.

When an iced-over ceiling was the first thing my optics registered, I realized I was not on the Nemesis or with the Autobots. Where was I? My chassis felt too weak to move, so I was limited to what my optics could see. There was a lot of ice. However, I also noticed a working monitor across from me. Wherever I was, I wasn't alone and the bots seemed to have helped fix me up. But, there were a lot of places on Earth that had this much ice. Figuring out where I was would be one of the first things I did.

"Oh good, you're awake," My chassis figuratively froze as I heard that voice. I knew that voice, but not from my time in this dimension. Turning my helm, slightly painfully due to the still receding pain in my processor, I confirmed that it was Predaking that I was staring at. However, I was surprised to see him in his bot form and not his beast form. "If I meant you harm, femme, I wouldn't have humored Talon when I made sure you recovered." He then walked closer to me. He didn't seem like the newspark brute that he had been in the show, so I wasn't going to think of him as a threat for now. "Can you sit up?"

Well, I guess there was only one way to find out. It took longer than I wanted, but I was able to move to a sitting position. "Looks like it,"

"And you can speak. We can skip that question." Okay, this was weird. Was Predaking...medically trained? That was fragging awesome if that was true, which it looked like it was. I could see that he should still be a powerhouse like he had been in the show. Add that to these medical skills and I was ecstatic.

"Where am I?" I asked.

Before the Predacon could answer me, another voice hit my audios. "You're awake!" I turned to the doorway and barely avoided a look of shock coming onto my faceplate. That was Arctic Talon. Another of my OCs, albeit an underused OC. I did not expect her to be here with Predaking. Most times, her attitude wouldn't allow her to deal with the Predacon. But, thinking of my interactions with him so far, that seemed to explain how they could be together on the same team.

A vent coming from Predaking caused me to look at him. "Talon, I told you to wait until I finished assessing the femme's health before coming in here."

"Oh, you knew I wouldn't listen anyway," Arctic Talon responded to the mech with a wave of her servo as she walked closer to the berth. This, of course, drew another vent from the mech. Okay, they had to be closer than allies to be talking like this. That I was sure of.

Predaking shook his helm before returning his gaze to me. "Now, are you feeling any pain?"

As curious as I was about Arctic Talon, I figured I had better keep answering Predaking. "A little in my helm, and my joints feel pretty stiff. But, that's about all doc." And it was the stiffness in my joints that stopped me from covering my mouth with my servos. Did I just call fragging Predaking 'doc'? Oh, I was so offline!

Laughter came out of Arctic Talon at that. "Okay, you know I couldn't have told her to call you that!" She then continued to laugh.

Apologies! Now vocals! "I...I'm sorry. It just kinda slipped out."

To my surprise, Predaking just let out a vent, though it did sound kinda annoyed to me. "You are fine for now femme. Just try to not make a habit out of it. My bondmate over there enjoys taunting me about my medical skills by calling me that quite often. You couldn't have known how annoying it is for me to hear that." I did notice that he was slightly glaring at Arctic Talon when he said…

Wait...they were bondmates! No way! But, as Arctic Talon made no move to correct him, that meant that it was true. Slag. I never would have guessed that. But, I guess anything was possible. So, I would just move with the flow.

"Femme, you have just become my new best friend for that," Arctic Talon let out as she started to calm down.

Predaking shook his helm. "We'll see Talon." He then turned to me. "Now, last medical question: What is your designation?"

Last medical question? That means that they had more questions for me after I introduced myself. "My designation is Pandimala. May I have your designations?"

Predaking nodded. "My designation is Predaking, and the femme over there,"

"Hi! I'm Arctic Talon, but you can just call me Talon. My full designation is kinda a mouthful." Arctic Tal...Talon introduced herself.

I tensed slightly as he turned off the datapad he was holding and put it in his subspace. "Now that you seem to be basically alright, outside of the pain that should subside in the next cycle or two, we have some questions that you, as a Decepticon, can answer."

Uh...let's hope I could. "I'll answer the best I can." I was going to answer them honestly because, honestly, I didn't want Predaking after me if he found out that I lied to him later on. That was not something on my bucket list. He even gave Lord Megatron a fight for his credits in the original timeline and he was just like me, a newspark, back then.

"Very well, then let us begin." I felt an intensity behind Predaking's gaze that made me want to squirm back to put some distance between us. They must have some serious questions for me. "My first question. When Talon found you, your processor was only at fifty percent functionality. However, when I examined your chassis for anything that could have caused that, the only injury I found was a burn on the back of your neck cables. Can you tell us what happened to you?"

Thank the Allspark that was an easy one. So, I delved into what had happened, explaining Paul's influence. That took a lot of convincing, that Paul was Primus, but once I told them about my pre-knowledge of Predaking from the other timeline and proved it by saying what I had realized. That both of them were a part of the Predacons that had been sent here millions of stellars ago to protect the energon. "The internal electrical defense that Paul set up must have caused the patch to disconnect from my helm, explaining the burn you found."

Predaking nodded. "Alright. This should be an even more interesting questioning now. Do you know how you ended up here?"

"Not officially, but I have a theory," Yeah, and I didn't like it. If it was true, I was going to rip the Prime a new one when I saw him next. "The Autobots must have wanted to make sure the Decepticons couldn't get me back while keeping me 'safe' while they thought I was offlining. So, I am guessing that they dumped my chassis here so it would offline undisturbed." I then nodded to both of them. "Thank you for ruining that plan if it is true before I forget."

"You're welcome!" Talon said with a smile in return.

"Yes, you are welcome." Predaking also responded before he continued. "Now, for one of the questions that you may or may not be able to answer. With your knowledge, though, you might be able to at least give me a theory." He then paused and I realized that this was a deep question for him. "Why were we Predacons left on this world to offline?"

Wait...they weren't left to offline. "You weren't left to offline," I had a talk with Shockwave at the bar about his Predacon project. He said that he had every intention to come and make sure that the Predacons had what they needed to survive. However, before that could come to pass, he was made to believe that they all had perished without a trace. "Answer me this. During any time in your existence, did you perhaps find a small device embedded in you during your medical checkups?"

Both of their optics went owlish for a nano at my question before Predaking nodded. "Yes. We thought it was a parasite we must have picked up here on this planet. So, I removed both of ours and destroyed them. As we found the other Predacons offline, I destroyed theirs as well so the parasite wouldn't duplicate and possibly grow stronger."

Well, that explained it. "Those weren't parasites. Those were tracking chips that your creator, Shockwave, and planted in each of you to keep track of you and make sure you were online. When they all went out, Shockwave believed that you all went offline." Of course. Shockwave was foiled by his creations gaining sentience and thinking his microchips were parasites.

They both stared at each other at that before Talon shook her helm. "Well, isn't that just peachy?" She then let out a laugh. "Though that explains why no help ever came. They thought we offlined so quickly that it wouldn't have made sense to send anybot after us."

"So, we weren't just forgotten about? Tossed to the side?" Predaking insisted on asking. I could see a flicker of desperation in his optics, though he tried to hide it.

"No, you weren't forgotten. They didn't want any more of your kind to be made just to meet the same fate they thought all of you had faced." I responded.

I could see relief physically settle on the two of them at my answer. This was going a lot better than I thought it was going to. I wasn't getting torn apart by angry Predacons and they seemed to be more accepting of me than they were before. And that said a lot because Talon had looked like she wanted to keep me as some sort of puppy ever since she got into the room.

"Last question," Talon started to ask this time.

"Wait, we don't have any more questions," Predaking interrupted her with a confused look on his faceplate.

What was going on? This must mean that either Predaking forgot whatever question this was, or Talon was going off script from what they had planned. Either way, I wasn't sure how this was going to affect me. But, all I could do at this point was listen to whatever question Talon had.

Talon sat on the edge of my berth, setting her servos down after she did before she asked her question. "Would the Decepticons be willing to accept us into their ranks?"

"Talon, we agreed not to stress her with that question. Plus, being new, she probably won't be able to answer that for us." Predaking immediately said to his bondmate...which I was starting to now find adorable that they were bonded. That was especially with the way that they seemed to act with each other.

Talon waved one of her servos toward Predaking, which I was starting to translate as her blowing him off, before she focused back on me. "So, do you think that they would?"

This was going to be one of the easier questions I had to answer for them. "I don't see why not as long as you pledge your loyalty to Lord Megatron and make sure you are useful on the ship. Those are the basic requirements. And honestly, you technical are already Decepticons since Shockwave created you. We just need to reconnect with the Decepticons first." Talon then stood up and hugged her mate.

While they were celebrating, I started to think about my future. It was obvious to me that I would not be able to return to the Autobots. If I did go back and show that I had recovered, I would have Sentinel, Pitch, and Flamewar gunning after me. Plus, even if Prime opened up an investigation, I knew he wouldn't permit the use of a cortical psychic patch to prove my story...even if I couldn't personally use it anymore. He could at least use it on one of the previously mentioned bots to see what they did to me. However, the patch was a super-banned item among the Autobots, and having one could get you in some serious trouble.

So, it was, unfortunately, more logical to leave the Autobots and return to the Decepticons. However, I was going to have to contact them and explain everything. That wasn't even including the fact that I had no idea what the status of the Decepticon army was and if I just called I could cause some serious trouble for everybot. "How did you two get me into this ship?" I asked as I slowly stood up. My joints still felt stiff, but not nearly as stiff as before. My internal heating was finally doing something about that.

They finally separated from each other before Predaking responded. "Our portal. We can only use it two times every fifty stellars. However, it seems that using it to bring you to our ship quickly was worth one of the uses." Portal?

"Must be a prototype ground bridge," I realized as I moved toward their console. Even though this was an ancient Decepticon console, it should still connect to the Decepticon network. If there were any major changes here on Earth, this console should give me that information. "Can this console be used to communicate with others?"

Unfortunately, they shook their helms. Oh well, no talking with the Nemesis. Bummer. "The transmitter was damaged when the ship originally crashed. We can't even call our commlinks from here." Talon answered as she stepped next to me. Predaking was not long to follow her to stand on her other side. "But, we can receive messages and we do get updates that are posted on the Decepticon network."

Wait, this was an ancient Decepticon ship. From my previous knowledge, unless you took steps to block the signal, everybot with a scanner on this planet should have detected that this ship was active. Well, that was unless… "Is there a lot of carbon in the ice surrounding the ship?"

Predaking took that answer. "Yes, and it prevents our ship from being detected. We have had to double-check our coordinates many times to make sure we were returning to the ship and not getting lost."

Yep. Carbon my old frenemy. Oh well. I would just have to work around that. Plus, it did make sure that the Autobots weren't coming down on this place. That was something I did not want to deal with. Not at all. Well, maybe Wheeljack. Since he was in the know about my hopes for peace, he might be alright. But not anybot else. Nope. Not ready to deal with that mess yet.

"What are you doing?" Talon asked me as I entered my access code and started to read through the announcements that I had missed.

"Making sure I haven't missed anything big before I try and contact the Decepticons to pick us up," I responded as I scanned through the messages. "And don't worry, it'll take at least a cycle outside to remove the carbon from my chassis before I can send a message out. If you need to pack you'll have…" I froze as I read a message that had just been posted.

And it was posted by Starscream.

He wouldn't play around like this. If he posted this, then it had happened. I was going to burn the Autobots to crips for this. How dare they?! It was one thing to take me from the ship. But to do this? I was seeing energon flowing in my vision.

"Pandimala, what's wrong?" Predaking asked me. "What happened?"

I turned to the two bots. "I need your help, please."

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

Finally. After two cycles of fighting the fragging Autobots, we were finally able to get them to retreat. But, it was strange. The four Autobots I ran into, which to my surprise included Jetfire, all kept repeating the same fragging thing. That we needed to return their leader to them. What the frag had they been talking about? We didn't have their Prime. We didn't even have our leader right now! Why would we have theirs?

As I started to receive reports from everybot about their status, I was finding myself to be relieved. While it was upsetting that we had lost fifteen of the drones in this attack, all of the officers seemed to have got through this with minimal injuries. Given the suddenness that this attack had happened, that was much better than I could have hoped for. From what I had just received from Ransack, the drone that helped Knockout, Joe, was even able to hold his own against the Autobot known as Smokescreen. Quite well done for the drone.

But, there was something that wasn't adding up. As each bot sent me their reports about the areas of the ship that they were checking, nothing had been taken this time. The last time that the Autobots had attacked the ship, they were able to get away with a few of our relics and weapons along with Pandimala as their prisoner. But, even with more bots and surprise on their side. Nothing was being reported as being missing.

Either the Autobots had planned for this raid poorly, or we hadn't discovered what they had taken yet. Of course, given that each report that I was receiving also mentioned the Autobots that were fought demanding the return of their leader, then they might have been here for a recovery mission. Of course, it was a recovery mission that they couldn't possibly succeed in. We didn't have their leader. Plain and simple.

Why were the Autobots full of idiots?

"Starscream, you don't look any worse for wear," Lockdown spoke as he was the second of the officers to return, outside of Soundwave.

I turned to him and nodded. "You're not so bad yourself. Any serious injury?"

"Nothing new," The mech shot back as he put his servo over his hook. "Though those Autobots I was fighting sure tried. The first one, Flamewar, I think she was aiming to get my hook." He then smirked. "She learned her lesson from that." He then frowned. "But, the mech I fought next seemed strange. I feel like I should know him, but I don't remember where from. He seemed to be studying me through the entire fight. He did ask me about the leader, but he didn't just assume that we had the Prime. When I told him that we didn't have their leader, he seemed to accept that. Of course, we still fought for a few clicks. Mech is lighter than he looks though, that's for sure. Must have been one of those rare sparklings to be sparked with the mutated armor syndrome."

"That would have been Zarron," Vox added to Lockdown's tale. "I fought him for a bit too, and he asked me the same thing. Not where their leader was, but if we had him." He then shook his helm. "But, I fought Zarron first. Then, I got stuck with Sentinel and oh frag was that mech ready to take off a helm. He didn't seem angry though. Just excited to be in battle." Vox then visibly shuddered at that. "I would rather fight Unicron than be in a fight with him again."

And, after Vox, the rest of the officers came in, giving verbal statements that were similar to their reports. The Autobots, for the most part, demanding their leader be returned and fighting them back into retreat. As they did this, though, I was keeping a mental tally of who had been accounted for and, while it would be wise for the Autobots to keep some of their numbers back at their base. There were still not enough names being said. One in particular I was surprised hadn't been mentioned yet. And it worried me.

Ironhide was one of the forefront fighters for the Autobots. If there was a confrontation that they had planned, he would almost always be a part of it if he was available. And, since we hadn't had any serious confrontations with the Autobots before this, then I was sure that the mech was physically able to have been at the fight. But, as Blitzwing, who was the second-to-last of the officers to arrive, finished his report, no bot had mentioned seeing the mech.

Of course, the only officer we were waiting for was my youngest trinemate. Skywarp was insistent that he pick up the twins from the nap that they had been taking before he came to the meeting. Unfortunately, he had also reported that his warp drive had been damaged so he had to walk the regular way. That meant that it was going to be at least another fifteen clicks before he made his presence known. While his initial report didn't mention the mech, maybe he had seen Ironhide and just hadn't mentioned it yet. Skywarp did love to tell a story and running into the Autobot weapon specialist would be an incredible story.

"While we wait for my brother, we need to find out how the Autobots were able to track the Nemesis." I started.

Scavenger then stepped forward. "I have a theory." He then turned to Lockdown. When you sent your message to the Nemesis, did you fully block it?"

Lockdown nodded. "Of course."

While I figured that would be the end of it, Scavenger seemed to figure something out. "I figured. There have been sniffers popping up around the cosmos that search for the defenses that we use to track messages instead of the messages themselves. I think one of the Autobots must have used this sniffer and tracked the blocks you had on your message to the Nemesis. It's simple to block against. I just didn't realize that these sniffers had made it to Earth."

Immediately, Soundwave turned to a console and started to get to work. He never seemed to need an order. As soon he heard there was a problem that he could fix, then he was going to fix it. Thank the Allspark we had somebot has calm-helmed and reliable as Soundwave around to keep us afloat while Lord Megatron was missing. Once we received my brother's report, then we would refocus our efforts on locating Lord Megatron. There was probably satellite footage that we could hack into to see what happened at the fight. Then, from there, we could trace the ones who took our leader and make them pay.

"Starscream...we might have a problem.~Skywarp." Why was he sending this as a private message? Skywarp was random, but he wouldn't waste time with a private message if there was an issue unless he felt like it needed to be used.

As the bots around me started to converse with themselves, I sent a message back to my brother about whatever this problem was. "And just what is wrong?~Starscream."

"The twins aren't in Soundwave's room, and the door was unlocked when I got here.~Skywarp" My spark fell as I read his words. A feeling of dread was slowly starting to creep into my circuits as a sense of deja vu started to come over me.

The twins were not where they should be. I was sure that, if Soundwave was aware of their location change, he would have had them come to the bridge with the rest of us. Please, whatever deity was out there that would hear this, don't let what I think happened have happened. Please!

However, just in case my fears were proven correct, I decided to get ready. I knew what Soundwave's reaction would be if it did come to pass and I couldn't have him going after the Autobots right now. We would need to plan. When it came to the twins, Soundwave lost all reason. He would transport himself to their base and offline trying to get them back before we could stop him...if they had been taken like I was beginning to think they were.

So I sent the same message to both Hook and Knockout. "Medics, I need you to be ready to put Soundwave in emergency stasis. Also, after you do, block his access to any of the bridges. I just received a report from Skywarp that may upset him once I start to ask him about it.~Starscream."

Thankfully, Soundwave was still facing away from the rest of us as both Knockout and Hook nodded to me. Knockout even sent a message back as the two of them started to move closer to Soundwave. "It has to do with the twins. They are the only thing that would cause Soundwave to crack.~Knockout"

Since it wasn't a question, I didn't see the need to respond right now. I need to open this scraplet nest as soon as I could to get it over with. This was not going to go well. Thankfully, Soundwave seemed to finish the new defense at that point. Well, time to get this started. "Soundwave, Skywarp just sent me a message that is concerning. Have the twins left your room yet?"

I immediately noticed Soundwave's chassis tense. He stayed quiet for a nano before his visor started to display the security footage from in front of his door. Everybot in the room had gone quiet as the footage played.

After about two clicks of fast-forwarding the fight, the mech that I had been worried about the entire time showed up on the screen. Ironhide appeared on the footage and seemed to study Soundwave's door. The Autobot probably thought that it was an armory, or maybe he thought we were holding their Prime in there. He started to rapidly try and guess the numbers on the door, guess he didn't want to get our attention that he was there. To my surprise, the screen eventually turned green. Soundwave was going to be updating his security on his room after this. My spark continued to fall in dread as the mech went inside.

Oh no. Please no. Please, to everything that was to be don't let happen what I was sure was going to happen. Of course, life had to hate me. Because after a couple of clicks, the Autobot ground bridge appeared outside of Soundwave's room and we were able to see Ironhide taking a bound Rumble and Frenzy from the room and through the bridge.

I knew I had to act fast. "Knockout, Hook; now!"

And good thing I did. Right when the two medics grabbed the third-in-command, a ground bridge had started to form in front of him. However, both medics put their sedatives into Soundwave at the same time and the burgeoning bridge immediately died out as the mech slumped in their servos.

"Why did you stop him? The Autobots have Rumble and Frenzy!" Dunce surprisingly spoke up. "After what happened to that femme, Pandimala, we can't trust the Autobots with them." He then held himself and shivered.

While I was curious about his action, I had to set the record straight, and quickly. "Yes, the Autobots have the twins. And don't worry, we will retrieve them as soon as it is logical. Right now, the Autobots will be on a high defense. They won't hesitate to possibly offline the twins if we go after them right now. With what happened to Pandimala, we know that the Autobots won't hurt them right away. They fear retaliation for breaking intergalactic law. Plus, as we all know, the Autobots think we have their Prime."

"But we don't," Skyquake brought up.

"Yes, but almost all of the Autobots didn't believe us. I believe that they took Rumble and Frenzy as bargaining chips to get their leader back from us. So, they will arrange for talks. Instead of charging in like mindless Autobots, we need to make sure that we are ready. And that means we need to get the word out over the Decepticon network that any Decepticon on the planet needs to avoid conflict with the Autobots due to their capture of Rumble and Frenzy. I will do that. Everybot else, make sure that you are ready for a confrontation should one happen during these talks. It will most likely happen given the fact that we don't have their leader. Now, leave. And Hook, Knockout; make sure you explain this to Soundwave once he wakes up." I then hesitated as I looked at that mech. "And for your safety, I would make sure that he is strapped down before he wakes up."

While the others looked reluctant, almost everybot left the room. Not to my surprise, Scavenger stayed and walked to stand next to me as I started to send the message. "Are you sure about this Starscream? I agree with your assessment about attacking them at this click, but waiting for them to make the first move is risky."

Once I finished sending the message, I let out a vent. "Honestly, I'm not sure. However, while Lord Megatron is unable to be found, I need to take control and make these decisions. Whatever happens, the responsibility falls on my helm. And waiting for the Autobots to make the first move seems like the best way to ensure that everybot comes out of this online this time."

There was silence between the two of us for a few clicks before Scavenger finally responded. "You have changed Starscream. You would have never admitted to not being sure of one of your plans in the past. I'll support you in this."

Honestly, that was more of a relief than he would ever know. "Thank you," Speaking of support though, I realized that we still had at least one more ally out there. The original scan that had picked up Lockdown's ship had picked up another that was one solar behind him. So, while I wasn't as fast as the intelligence bots at tracing a ship, I could make quick work of it if I needed to.

"What are you doing?" Scavenger asked as I traced where the ship had entered the atmosphere.

As I finally traced where the ship had landed not four clicks ago, I smiled, "Getting us at least one more ally for this fight."

To my surprise, Scavenger leaned closer and studied the energy signal from the crashed ship. "I know that ship signature." He then typed a few more commands into the console. "The mech's going to be alone. He never travels with anybot else. But, he will be a welcome help to our fight here. Though he doesn't look it, he can throw a mean left hook. I've been on the receiving side before." He then hit one last button.

After a few clicks of silence, the comm came to life with a voice that I hadn't heard in thousands of stellars. "Scavenger old buddy old friend, what causes you to call me? I just crashed on the planet Earth so it might take me some time to get to you."

When Scavenger motioned to a different monitor, I realized what he wanted me to do. So, I went to open a ground bridge for the mech onto the bridge as Scavenger answered him. "You won't have to take too long if you go through the ground bridge that is about to pop up. We could use your help here on the Nemesis."

"You're here on Earth? Why didn't you start with that? I'll be up there faster than a Velocitronian aiming for the top." The mech responded before shutting down the comm.

And thankfully, I got the bridge to open up here. In no time, the tan vehicle mech was walking through the bridge. The cannon attached to his arm reminded me that this mech, while not appearing to be a fighter, was more than ready for combat if needed. Any timid appearance that the mech would give off was just that, an act. He used it to judge the bots that he would encounter. As deceptive as they came, I also knew that this mech could be trusted. When I had last seen him, he had been retreating to the far side of Cybertron's galaxy because he was worried about where the Decepticons were headed. His appearance here told me that he was ready to fight loyally under Lord Megatron once more...once he was found.

"Starscream, long time no see. I was sure your aft would have been torched by this point," The mech said with a laugh.

I rolled my optics at his antic. "Swindle, it certainly has been a while. Things have changed around here."

"That much is obvious if Scavenger here is listening to you. He never would have listened to you before." Swindle added with a smirk.

Before I could get into an argument with the mech Scavenger took over. "Enough Swindle. You and I both know that the Decepticons have been changing for the better. Otherwise, you wouldn't even be in this galaxy. Unfortunately, we have a few problems that have developed in the past twenty-four cycles that could use your insight."

I shivered as a dark smile came on the mech's faceplate. "Well then, why don't you two catch me up to speed so we can get some action going."

Rumble's 1st P.O.V.

Soundwave was never going to let us out of his sight again after this. A cycle ago, Frenzy and I got to wake up in the middle of the Autobot base, both bound to a cylinder that they must have found. Slaggers. When I got out of this, I was going to beat them all to a pulp.

They must have been able to raid the ship again. That had to be the only way that they were able to get us. When we woke up, the Autobots had been arguing about taking us in the first place. Blaster seemed mad because, according to him, symbiots shouldn't be used as hostages. It hurt us and our host. While that was true, we were going to be sending private messages to boss bot so it would keep the bond from hurting him. He had to be crazy worried right now.

Then, we had one of the three bots that Pandimala was always worried about speak up. Flamewar had said that he should have just offlined us and reminded him about what happened to the last prisoner that they had taken. That almost made me yell at them for that. They had offlined Pandimala and yet they were acting like it was nothing! But, I held back. I remembered hearing from boss bot that Pandimala said the Autobots were very emotional when they were arguing. It was best not to turn that on us now. We needed to get back to boss bot online.

But, then it got weird when Ironhide, who must have taken us, defended what he did by saying that we could be used as leverage to make the other Decepticons give back their leader. But, that didn't make sense. We didn't have Prime. Lord Megatron was even missing for frag's sake. Why would we waste time in taking their leader when we needed to find our own? Autobots were pretty stupid.

They had then moved us to the brig we were currently being held in. And of course, we were still stuck to the cylinder we had woken up tied to.

"Rumble, who do you think they are going to have come to watch us now?" Frenzy asked me over our symbiote link.

"I don't know. That Balm femme seemed nice if a little nervous, though. I'm glad that she helped me get that kink out of my neck cables." The medic femme had been sitting in the cell with us, since we were tied up anyways according to her, when my neck cables had gotten pinched. She didn't even hesitate to help me work it out when I mentioned it. I had been so shocked by that at the time that I didn't even filter my answers to her when she asked some questions.

Thankfully, they had been general questions like how long I had been a Decepticon, how being on the Nemesis was, and other questions like that. One question that she asked that I wasn't sure I should have answered was how I had gotten along with Pandimala. My filter was still out at that point and I had told the femme that she was my friend.

Right now, the femme had stepped out to end her shift in watching us. I wasn't sure if there was an Autobot that I wanted in here watching us, but there was a servo-full that I didn't want near us. If we were going to get out of this online, then those bots could not be allowed to have a watch over us. Thankfully, there were so many Autobots here now that we could avoid that.

"She did seem nice. Though her doing that loosened your glossa a bit." I rolled my optics at his response. He didn't have to call me out like that.

"I didn't give her anything big and you know it. Now shush, the door to the holding area just opened." I responded to him as I heard pede-steps make their way closer to us. From how the steps sounded, it was a medium-sized bot that was making their way toward us right now. That only took out one bot that I didn't want to see come down that hallway.

While I didn't feel relief, the bot that ended up in front of our cell wasn't one that I thought would offline us. But we weren't sure what happened to Pandimala here so until we got some answers, I was wary about the mech. To my surprise, Wheeljack didn't even hesitate in opening the cell and sitting next to us. "Are you two alright? No damage?"

Why was he so worried about us? "And why do you care?" Frenzy shot at him.

He raised an optic ridge at that. "I mean, I am in on the big peace secret. I'm pretty sure that if either of you got hurt, Soundwave would find a way to blow me up with my grenade."

Wait...from how he was acting...I needed to ask him a question. "That didn't stop you from helping with whatever offline Pandimala."

"What are you talking about?" Wheeljack asked. "I didn't do anything to her. I even made sure her room was locked when we got back from the bar that night cycle. And, I was the one who found her the next solar. Do you know how much it hurt to see her like that? I don't know what caused Pandimala's processor to short like that, but I had nothing to do with it. I'd rather Megatron run me through than do anything to her. She was my friend."

I was in shock as I heard the Autobot's response. He sounded hurt that she was gone and he couldn't do anything to help her, to save her. I didn't even think about the chance that he was just surprised at what happened.

"Calm down Autobot, we were just testing you. We can't be too careful, given the circumstances." Frenzy spoke up I guess he was having the same thoughts that I was. "But what did happen as far as you know?"

He then went into what happened, and what he was able to get out of Balm about the operation they had tried to do to save her. From the sound of it, someone had tried to do a cortical psychic patch on her, but something went wrong. Balm had told Wheeljack that her vocals had shown signs of tampering but, since that wasn't linked to the processor failure, it was only put into the report as a sidenote.

"Sounds like a failed patch," I spoke my thoughts to the mech.

His optics widened at my words. "But, if that's the case, then she was attacked. But, something didn't go as planned." He then paused and stared at us for a nano. Now, what was it? He looked hesitant and it wasn't a good look for the Autobot. "I just want to ask you both this to make sure we are right about this."

"Who is the 'we' you are talking about?" Frenzy asked the mech.

"The few Autobots around here who are left with a processor," Wheeljack answered sarcastically before he answered the question. "It's a group of us made of myself, Balm, Ratchet, and Zarron for now. We seem to be the most level-helmed bots left in this base. Though, with Ultra Magnus here that might change. Depends. Right now, he seems like a stickler for the rules. Of course, given everything that has happened, that might be a good thing." He then shook his helm. "Anyways, I want to ask you this once. Do the Decepticons have Optimus held prisoner?"

Say what? "No way mech," I answered. "Last we knew, your Prime was fighting with Lord Megatron."

"You heard the fight?" He asked us, surprised. Guess the Prime didn't let his troops listen in.

"Well, Soundwave did, and he sent us what we got recorded before Lord Megatron's transmitter got damaged. It's how we found out about Pandimala being offline. Did Optimus not let you all listen in?" It was weird that their leader wouldn't let them listen in, just in case he needed a quick retreat. We at least got to listen until the transmitter was damaged.

Wheeljack shaking his helm confirmed that. "No, Prime decided it was best if we were all kept in the dark about that meeting." He then changed the subject. "Between Balm, Zarron, and myself, you all shouldn't have to deal with any of the idiots in base watching you. We all volunteered to keep an optic on you. Blaster looked upset, but he's upset about you both having been taken in the first place. Wouldn't surprise me if he had Eject and Rewind sneak in here at some point to keep you all company when you do get left alone. Just as a helm's-up there."

"Appreciated," Frenzy responded to that part.

"I don't know what they have planned, but we will try our hardest to make sure you two are eventually returned to the Decepticons safely. This whole situation has the base on edge. Of course, Prime was the one keeping everything together. Add in all the new bots, and we are starting to have one Pit of a mess waiting to happen. The base seems split down the middle about what to do with you both." Wheeljack continued.

Oh, joy. "That's just great to hear," I muttered at that.

But, it seemed like the Wrecker heard me. "Hey, count yourself lucky that you have half the base on your side right away. When Pandimala first got here, all she had was a servo-full of us on her side. Everybot else did not like the fact that she was here. In varying degrees of course, but still. At least you have about half the base that likes you."

"Frag," I muttered. Pandimala had it rough when she first got here.

Before I could stop myself, my helm dipped as a bout of fatigue washed over my systems. Frag it I was already tired. Guess we weren't used to not hooking up to boss bot all the time. "Why don't you two get some recharge. I'll stay in here until Zarron comes in to replace me. So, I'll make sure that no bot tries anything with you."

While I didn't want to fall into recharge, I knew that we were going to need our rest. So, after sending Soundwave a message over our symbiot bond that we were alright, as safe as we could be for now, and that we were going to recharge, I let my consciousness leave me.

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

I swear this mech was going to be the offlining of me. "And why shouldn't we? She needs every option she can to rescue those two Decepticons that the Autobots took. Pandimala looked devastated that they were in danger. From how she was acting, they are close friends of hers. That would help her if she can grab it."

Predaking growled as he paced from side to side. "That's only if she can grab it. Remember what it did to you. You didn't come out of the stasis it put you in for seven solars! And as Predacons, we are made sturdier than other types of bots. Who knows what it would do to her? That's especially after she suffered the mental attack that she did. No!"

"Predaking, you're being insufferable. That sort of power might be just what she needs to save her friends. They are fellow Decepticons, like us. We need to inform her of any advantage that she could have!"

My bondmate and I had been having this argument for the past cycle since we had discovered what had happened to her friends. Pandimala had gone off to one of the other, more powerful, consoles on this ship to try and see if she could figure out what they might have planned for her friends. While she did that, I had remembered the weapon that was currently stored in the back of the ship in the container we had found it in.

When we had first found it, we had been staying in one of our caves in the area known as the United States of America. More specifically, it was somewhere in the state of Nevada. I had found a new cave that branched from ours and, after a tight squeeze, I had found the weapon. We were at the end of our stay there before we moved to this location so I had opened the container as Predaking had then appeared behind me. He had been impressed with the weapon, and I had tried to grab it.

That was when black energy had lashed out from the weapon and my vision had gone dark. When I woke up seven solars later at this location, Predaking had told me that the weapon had attacked me with dark energy and immediately put me in stasis. He had reclosed the container surrounding the weapon and had brought both myself and the weapon to this location two solars early. He had placed the weapon on the middle of the bridge of the ship, where we wouldn't accidentally open the container.

Thankfully, we knew Pandimala wasn't there now because the strongest console in this ship was actually in the old energon storage area. I think the original engineers designed it as a safe room just in case the rest of the ship was overrun. That way, the strongest console could be accessed if the ship was attacked. It was a good plan and, even better for right now, Pandimala couldn't wander and accidentally find the weapon we were currently arguing about.

Well, she couldn't touch it until I convinced the block-helm in front of me to let her.

"Power should not come at the cost of injury femme!" Whoa, he wasn't even using my name anymore. I was 'femme' now. He was serious about this

I was not going to be put down that easy this time. Pandimala needed our help and she had given us purpose again. I was going to give her every chance I could give her. "Now that we know what it can do, we can prepare for the attack. Frag, we could tie a rope around her waist and pull her away as soon as it attacks her...if it attacks her." I then decided to take a jab at the mech. "Unless you are saying that you aren't strong enough to pull her away from it."

He let out a frustrated growl at that. "My ability to pull her away from the fragging thing isn't up for debate right now Talon." Well, at least we were back to my name now. "Of course, I could pull her away from it. But it is too much of a risk for the femme to take."

"What's too much of a risk?"

We both froze and turned to see Pandimala. She was leaning against the doorway, arms crossed and an amused look on her faceplate. "How long have you been standing there?" My bondmate asked her with a deadpan tone.

She smirked but didn't move from where she was standing. "Oh, I think about the time when Talon said that I looked devastated when I found out about the Autobots bot-napping Rumble and Frenzy, which was a pretty accurate description." Well, at least we could cut out some of the explanation.

"So, you have figured out what they have planned for our fellow Decepticons?" Predaking asked her. Oh, like he wasn't being obvious with that ploy. He was trying to distract her. Fragger.

"Yes, they are going to use them to do something to the rest of the Decepticons at a place called Cave Lake there in Nevada. I think we can disrupt whatever plans the Autobots may have if we get there before they can get set up." Wait, was she falling for my bondmate's ploy? "But you didn't answer my question Predaking. What's too much of a risk?" Nevermind. That femme's processor was scary. If I didn't know the damage to it was an accident, I would understand why her enemies would want to take it out.

My bondmate squirmed after she asked that. I knew that he didn't want to answer her, but he had hopefully figured out that if he didn't answer her, that I would if he waited too long. When he looked to me, and I simply raised my optic ridge at him, I think that point finally set in. So, he let out a vent. "Fine. A few hundred stellars back, we discovered a weapon in the area that is now that Nevada place you were just talking about. We were in the final solars of one of our stays there when Talon found it. It was a black scythe, with a flame design on the blade, just sitting there in a sealed container. Nothing seemed threatening from it so Talon tried to pick it up. The black energy it shot out at her immediately put her into stasis for seven solars. I brought both Talon and the weapon that I reclosed into the container to this location." He then motioned to me. "My bondmate believes that you should try and grab the weapon so we can have another advantage in this fight. But, it's too dangerous. That is especially given the healing state your processor is still in."

There was silence between the three of us as Pandimala seemed to process this information. She seemed to do about all of the big decisions. That reminded me, I never did ask her what role she worked on for the Decepticons. "What kind of weapon is it?" That's all she wanted to know?

"It's a scythe, probably stands about three-quarters of your height," I answered her. "Before it knocked me out, it seemed angry that I was near it. Like it had a mind of its own."

"You never told me this!" My now not-so-happy bondmate yelled at me.

"Because I knew you would overreact," I answered his statement.

"What I would have done was make sure that put chains around the thing before dropping it in the middle of the ocean!" He growled at me.

Did he just not make my point? "See, overreacting!"

Before my mate could say anything in response to that, Pandimala suddenly spoke up. "I want to try."

Really? That was great! However, my bondmate didn't seem too happy with that. "Pandimala, you heard what Talon just said. Not only is it dangerous, but it might be possessed. It will most like lash out at you."

"Oh, probably. But, I think I can convince it that we have a lot in common."

That caused my bondmate to immediately go from his angry slash protective mode to confused. "What do you mean Pandimala?"

"We both have been manipulated and used by those who didn't listen to what we wanted as well, just how someone else wanted to use us." She answered him before staring right at him, a determined look in her optics. "Now, show me where this scythe is."

Authoress: *lost sight of the two mechs* Oh slag where are they? They wouldn't think to look in Starscream's room...would they? Nah, I'm fine.

*door opens to Wheeljack and Starscream standing there*

Starscream: Oh Authoress, we have been looking for you.

Wheeljack: *holding chains* Yes Authoress, we need to talk.

Authoress: *faints*

AN: And I was able to get this chapter done today *sees clock says that it is past 11 at night* barely. I hope you all enjoyed this long-aft chapter! Honestly, the upcoming chapters are going to be long and one of them might even be longer than this one ended up being. I haven't typed this much for a chapter in forever. Hope it didn't scare anyone away. There was a lot of stuff that happened here but only one I will comment on. The Autobots have taken Rumble and Frenzy hostage! Soundwave is pissed. I feel sorry for any Autobot that he meets on the battlefield when he gets the chance to get out.

Now, so I don't give anything away, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 54: Neutral Fyre

Chapter 55: Flashpoint

Chapter 56:...(find out next time everyone!)

So, that's all for now. Leave a review, or say hi in a review if you can't think of a review to type, please. I appreciate seeing them pop up in my emails! Also, as a reminder, don't forget to vote on the poll on my page if you haven't already! This story is moving very fast and it won't be too terribly long until it will close its curtains. Less than 15 chapters left now that this one has been posted! So if you want any say in what the poll is asking, go and get your votes in. Well, that's all for now. Until next time (which will hopefully be tomorrow if I can keep this motivation going) TTYL! *getting focused with Viking music*