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

Starscream: *sitting* So, we just sit and wait now?

Authoress: *who has been set free and is sitting* Basically. Welcome to my life.

Wheeljack: *fiddling with an explosive* Well, at least we didn't have to offline you.

Authoress: *looks at the explosive nervously* Yeah...and I would like to stay alive thank you.

Chapter 55: Flashpoint

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

The air at this lake was tense. Out on the water, we could see Rumble and Frenzy bound and being held. Simple for any of us with flying modes, and Thunderblast with her boat mode, to retrieve. However, even though the twins were sure that the explosives attached to the device they were tied to were duds, we couldn't take that chance. Not with Sentinel, Pitch, and Flamewar with the Autobots. Taking stock of all of the Autobots that were in front of us, I realized that there were some new faceplates in the mix.

One was the mech known as Landmine. I had been in conflicts with him a few times. Could move faster than his chassis suggested, but usually got too focused on one enemy without paying attention to his surroundings. Then, there was Side Burn. Knockout had identified him when we came through and made sure to point out that the mech had a strange obsession with red vehicle alt modes. One bot I was worried about was Warpath. The Autobot was highly known for his battle obsession and whoever might have to face him would be in trouble.

If there was one new bot that worried me more than any Autobot here, it was Ultra Magnus. He was second to Optimus while the Autobots were on Cybertron and the mech had earned his place. The mech was logical and a power-house of a mech to deal with on the battlefield. At one point, he had even been moved to lead the Wreckers. His leadership had focused the brutes and made them a formidable match whenever they were deployed against us. There were many times that I had to be quick on my pedes because of his leadership.

Of course, with that thought, his being here might be a good thing for us as well. He was a logical mech and should realize that we did not have their leader. And every click we wasted here, was a click that their leader might be moving further away from them. Hopefully, he would realize this before the fight I feared would come did. But, given the angered and tense looks on about half of these bots, then I had a feeling that a fight was inevitable.

I paid attention as Prowl stepped forward. Guess he was chosen as their mediator during these 'negotiations'. "I will not assume you know why we are using your mechs as hostages. We wish for the return of Optimus Prime. If he is not returned, then those mechs will not survive these negotiations."

While I wanted to immediately focus on the mech, I knew good negotiation tactics told me to observe their entire side. So, I did and I was not disappointed. When he mentioned that they would basically 'offline' the hostages if we did not return their leader, the other half of their troops looked upset at that.

Strange. Now that I was looking, I didn't see Blaster. I figured that Autobot would be here to make sure that the symbiots were being treated fairly. Most host bots understood the bond that other hosts had with their symbiot and would move mountains to make sure those symbiots were safe. Did the Autobots leave him at their base to prevent him from interfering with their bluff? I'll be honest if I didn't know that this was a bluff I would have panicked when he threatened their sparks so bluntly.

"Their lives should not be on the line. We cannot fulfill your request, Autobots, because we do not have your leader. We told you this during your raid of our ship when you took the twins." I spoke calmly back to the mech. Staying calm during these kinds of situations was half of the battle.

I tensed when the twins suddenly started to be lowered into the water. While I knew that they would be alright, because we didn't need to breathe air like the locals did, it was still worrying that they were being removed from our sight. "From what we have found from the last location of our leader, the only logical location he could be is in your captivity."

It was difficult to not shake my helm at the hyper-focus the Autobots had on us. While they had been suspect for a few clicks in the disappearance of our leader, given the evidence at the same scene. I had looked further, for more clues, and I had not been disappointed. I was almost positive that it was the human organization known as MECH who had taken our leader, and probably theirs as well. However, there could be other human organizations running about so I was holding off on the accusation.

Which is something that the Autobots seemed to not have the talent to do, apparently.

"Well, then you need to recheck your logic, and possibly re-look at the scene." I hinted. I normally wouldn't help the Autobots like this, but it may allow us to have the twins returned to us so we could work on locating our leader. "We do not have your leader, despite what your logic dictates. For the twins, we are prepared to offer one of the,"

"Why did we even bother with this?" Sentinel yelled. "We knew the Decepticons weren't going to give him up without a fight! Well, I say we give them one."

I had to quickly dodge to the side as his blaster shot barely skimmed by me. And like that, the entire area was a mass of bots fighting each other. While Sentinel had been the one to fire at me, I ended up in combat with Wheeljack, of all mechs. Thankfully, the twins had confirmed that Wheeljack had not been a part of whatever attack had been launched against Pandimala. So, this fight wouldn't be as difficult as I was sure it might have been before.

"This is a pointless battle," Wheeljack growled as we lightly traded blows. "You all would have given Optimus up in a click to get those two back. That's especially with Soundwave in the middle of this. That is one mech I would not want to get on the bad side of."

And I agreed with him. "I agree with you. How many other Autobots seem to have the same logic you do?"

He shook his helm as we continued to dance around each other. "Not many. Confirmed is just the group of us that have been watching the twins. But, Zarron and Balm seem to think that Ultra Magnus might think the same way...and maybe Smokescreen. But six of us who think you all don't have Optimus isn't exactly the majority."

Great. Autobot bureaucracy at its finest. We were dealing with a faction of emotional morons who would not hesitate to have one idea and stick with it. While my own 'fight' was going to mean I could keep an optic on the battlefield, I know most of the others weren't going to be so lucky. That was especially as I noticed that poor Knockout was currently fighting Side Burn.

But, since I was fighting the only Autobot I could have a conversation with, I decided to make sure of a point that had me worried. "Wheeljack, are the explosives surrounding the twins duds?"

When he hesitated, I grew even more worried. Wheeljack was known for explosives and his hesitating about my question wasn't a good sign. "They are supposed to be. But, while I provided the explosive duds, I wasn't a part of the team that attached them. Ironhide, Pitch, Flamewar, and Landmine were. While I'm pretty sure Ironhide and Landmine wouldn't mess with them, I don't trust Pitch and Flamewar any further than I could throw your ship. I'd be careful."

Slag it! Now we had an extra worry to deal with. If those two Autobots had changed the duds to real explosives, then Frenzy and Rumble were in danger. We couldn't allow them to be injured in this. They weren't even supposed to be involved in combat situations. The closest they had ever been to that was when they had planted the fake relic back when Pandimala used to be Lizzie and she was taking her test to be a Decepticon. And Soundwave had been very hesitant about agreeing to that request.

Now, they were in more danger than any of us were right now. Possibly live explosives surrounded them and they wouldn't be able to escape. Soundwave had tried to open a bridge under the device they were being held to but nothing would work. There must be a signal jammer attached to the device. While clever in any other situation, right now it was making this battle one step closer to Soundwave letting loose and tearing all Autobots to shreds. "What about the device that controls the explosives. Who has that?'

But, I was disappointed when the Autobot shook his helm. "I don't know. Prowl decided to keep it a secret. I only know that none of us or Prowl have it. But, outside of that small group, any of the Autobots on the field right now could have it." He then took a glance around which I let him before we started to spar again. "The fights are starting to spread out. I can't see half of them anymore."

I took a look now and growled when I realized that he was right. While part of this area was open, making it easier to see the battles around us, some paths took a number of the fights out of sight. This wasn't good. Not knowing where some of the Autobots were, especially since I didn't know who had the device that might be holding the lives of the twins. With how intense the other fights seemed to be growing, that I could see, I wouldn't be getting any reports either. Slag this all!

"Slag it all, that's not good," I grumbled out loud as we both continued to move around each other.

After a few more clicks of us fighting, the Wrecker spoke up again and asked the question that I was surprised their negotiator didn't ask. "So, where is your leader at? As big as this confrontation is, I figured he would be here front and center."

"What I'm about to say doesn't leave the two of us Autobot, is that understood?" It felt wrong telling this Autobot that we were also lacking our leader, but it also might make him understand our frustration at this entire situation.

The Wrecker seemed to study me for a couple of clicks, probably being hesitant about promising anything before he nodded. "Yeah. Just between us. I can do that."

It still took me a couple of clicks to get the words to come out of my vocals. "Your leader isn't the only one who has been missing since their fight."

"You mean Megatron is missing too?" He seemed to ask to make sure he heard right. At least I was hoping he was asking for that reason. Otherwise, we were going to talk about his Autobot thought process.

I nodded. "Yes. But, unlike your fellow Autobots, I searched the scene farther away than my ground bridge."

"You know we sent Jetfire to look?"

Well, I didn't know that bit of information, but it didn't surprise me. When I knew the mech, he never seemed to be one to look at details. "Noticed his pede-prints just off to themselves a ways away from the damage our leaders did to the land. But, they didn't go close to the actual fight. That's why we know your lot didn't have Lord Megatron." I then dodged a swing he made at my faceplate. "But, we aren't sure who took him. We were going to start looking into the options when your lot raided our ship and bot-napped Rumble and Frenzy."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Wheeljack apologized as he dodged a swipe I made at his helm.

Not much we could do about that now. Almost every command bot in each faction, that wasn't missing, was here at this battle. We weren't going to be getting away with just pulling back right away. Maybe if Sentinel hadn't fired at me. But, he had started this cascade of madness. My fight with Wheeljack, from the fights I could see, were the only ones that were calm and could pass as a skirmish.

Soundwave's fight with Flamewar was violent. I couldn't tell which of them had more marks on their chassis. But, they were going after each other like their sparks were depending on it. Of course, for Soundwave, a part of his did depend on it. If Flamewar or any of the others in charge of the set-up had changed the duds to live explosives, then the twins, and with them, a part of Soundwave's spark, would offline if those explosives went off. Now, I wasn't so surprised by how Soundwave was fighting.

Looking from that fight, I saw that Ransack was fighting Arcee just as fiercely. What had one of them done to the other that would cause that sort of fighting? Or was Ransack taking revenge on Arcee for what happened to Pandimala? The mech had finally been warming up to the femme when she had been taken, and I know he had never been able to apologize for how he treated her when he first met her. Now with her offline, he never would. The mech probably needed to get some frustration out.

Now that I thought about it, though, all of the bots here who knew Pandimala would be taking their frustrations out on their opponents. I was the only one who was paired with a bot who was in the know, and so we were fighting for the same cause, just on different teams.

"Slag it, Starscream she had the button!" Wheeljack's yell caused me to turn to look at the other battles again

Who was it that had the button? At first, I couldn't tell. But, then I looked back to Soundwave's fight and saw a victorious smirk on the femme's faceplate, her digit pressing one of the buttons on the remote. The way that Soundwave was tensed told me that he was panicking as well.

Immediately, I turned to the lake and felt dread as the area where the twins had been suddenly started to raise. Nanos later, the water imploded as the explosives, which must have been changed to live, caused the water to burst forward. No! Not after Pandimala! I couldn't take it!

Looking at Soundwave, I was expecting the mech to start losing control. But, instead, he went strangely calm. This seemed to throw the femme off too because she started to lash out at him with thoughtless strikes. However, Soundwave simply blocked them with his wide arms. Why was he so calm? His symbiots had just been blown up! How was he so calm now, when he was in a panic when I had last glanced at their battle?

All of the fights near the lake paused as the water exploded in two more places. I couldn't stop my jaw plate from dropping at what I saw. How...how was this possible?

Rumble's 1st P.O.V.

It was hard not to panic as my helm went under the water. But, Wheeljack had warned us that this would probably happen. When we didn't give the Autobots their leader, who we didn't have, then whoever had the remote was supposed to have us get moved under the surface of the water to cause the other Decepticons to panic...especially Soundwave. They were hoping for Soundwave to go against a possible order and release the Prime to them to make sure we were alright. But, the Decepticons didn't have their Prime. So, now I couldn't watch the fight or even talk to the boss. I wasn't sure which Autobot provided it, but they had a jammer that was jamming our comms from sending messages more than the distance of the lake. We had tried to open a comm with Soundwave but it hadn't worked. Plus, we didn't want to worry him with a message over the bond unless it was important. Frenzy and I were alright for now, so I wouldn't make Soundwave worry.

"Rumble, are we going to be okay?" Frenzy asked me over our bond.

Honestly, I wasn't sure. "I don't know, and you heard what Wheeljack said. Pitch and Flamewar were part of setting this up. I'm not sure how okay we are." I wasn't going to lie to my twin.

And I was worried. While Wheeljack had only given them duds, there were ways of making duds turn explosive. Shockwave had explained it to us once. Soundwave had sent us to him after we had used a dud in one of our pranks on Starscream, Pandimala had been in lessons at the time. Maybe she would have talked us out of using the dud? But anyways, we were sent to Shockwave and he explained to us how easy it was to make a dud active. Just insert a little extra ammo from your weapons into the dud, and suddenly you had live explosives. Plus, not all bots who made duds made them right. Sometimes, live explosive material could be left in the dud and cause a smaller explosive.

While I trusted that Wheeljack gave them actual duds, I didn't trust either of those two Autobots to not add their ammo to make the duds live. I was honestly worried that we weren't going to live through this. Even a smaller explosion from these kinds of duds would do the job on chassis as small as ours were.

But, I guess we would be with Pandimala if we did offline. Well, that was if we went to the Well. According to the Autobots, all Decepticons were Pit-bound. But Pandimala had to go to the Well. It didn't matter that she was one of us. She was too nice...too caring to go anywhere else. Maybe we had a chance to go there too?

Movement from below me had me looking. I knew that there were a lot of different organics that lived in the water, but that looked big. Bigger than something that came from Earth. "You're Rumble, right? A friend of yours sent us to help you and told us to send you this picture to know that we were friendly. My bondmate is sending a similar message to your brother.~Arctic Talon."

Who the frag was Arctic Talon? And how the frag did they get my comm frequency? Not a lot of bots had it. Whoever their friend was better have sent some pretty convincing evidence to prove that they should have my frequency. When I opened the attachment, I felt my spark skip a beat. It was the picture we took of Pandimala, back when she was Lizzie when we successfully got her back for pranking us. Seeing her hanging from Blitzwing like an accessory had been hilarious at the time.

Even now, it was hard to not think about her. Pandimala had been our partner in crime, our third half...our sister. And she wasn't here anymore. Seeing her from before, it hurt to look at. But, this was more than enough proof that they were sent here by one of the other Decepticons. Only bots who were on the Nemesis at the time were given that picture. Maybe one of the drones had met them during their human hobbies here on Earth. There was that one mech who had a farm. He traveled at times. Maybe he ran into them?

"Okay, you're here to help. But where are you? I don't see you near me. And yes, I'm Rumble.~Rumble." I responded to this mysterious bot.

It took a few clicks before the bot responded to me. "I'm right below you. But, you need to not panic when you see me and my bondmate. We can be very intimidating for bots who aren't prepared to see us. From what my bondmate told me, your friend was intimidated by him when they first woke up.~Arctic Talon"

Wait...just what sort of bot were they? I figured that they might just be your regular Decepticons. But, from what this bot was suggesting, they were nowhere near a normal bot. I was a Decepticon though, and Decepticons didn't scare easily...unless you were Pandimala. She had been terrified of snakes, and Frenzy and I found out she was still afraid of them when one got through the bridge after some vehicons had returned from scouting some woods.

Pandimala had screamed so loud that we thought we were being attacked. But, she had just crawled on a console and pointed at the snake until one of the vehicons saw it and returned it through the ground bridge. But, that had been hilarious…

No, I had to stop thinking about her. I needed to focus on the situation right now, and the fact that I could be blown to bits at any nano. And I needed to focus on the bot that was about to appear in front of me, and supposedly be…

I gulped and felt my optics widen when a fragging dragon suddenly appeared in front of me! The mechanoid dragon had ice blue plating with white ridges on its back. Burgundy optics stared at me as its helm tilted to the side. Wait...was this Arctic Talon? "Are you the dragon in front of me right now?~Rumble"

Right now, I was hoping that the bot I was talking to confirmed that. Otherwise, I was going to be in a lot of trouble right now, and it wouldn't have been caused by the Autobots for once. But, if this was our ally, and if her bondmate was similar to her, then the Autobots weren't going to know what hit them!

"Yes, I am the dragon. Though my bondmate and are called Predacons. Now, let me work on getting you untied.~Arctic Talon"

Wait...Predacons? That sounded familiar. Was it from Shockwave? As I thought more about it, and as Arctic Talon worked on the restraint holding us, I remembered where I heard that word before. It had been one of Shockwave's projects. But, it had been a really old project from back when we were on Cybertron. Lord Megatron had wanted warriors to send with the energon stores we were sending off-world so Shockwave was able to revive a bunch of ancient Predacons. He loaded them on a ship, with tracking devices implanted in them, and sent them after the energon with orders to guard it. But, after only a short time, all of the tracking devices went out. Everybot in on the project thought that they had offlined.

Good thing for us right now that not all of them offlined as we thought.

It didn't take the bot too much longer to snap the restraint and, once I was free, they steadied me with their claw before swimming down to the bottom. While we were moving away from the device that had been holding us, I took a chance to glance over at the bot that had freed Frenzy. When I saw the Preadcon, my optics went even wider. If I thought that Arctic Talon looked scary, then their bondmate looked terrifying. Thank the Allspark that I got this one. Frenzy still looked like he was coming down from a panic attack.

"You doing alright over there?" I asked him over the bond.

He glanced over at me and immediately frowned. "Of course you got the less-scary-looking one. I get the super scary one. His name is Predaking by the way. What's your's name?"

"Arctic Talon. Not sure if they are a mech or a femme though. Haven't asked yet." I answered him back. Now that I thought about it, that would be something useful to know. "Hey Arctic Talon, are you a mech or a femme?~Rumble"

I felt their chassis rumble through their claw, probably as they read my message. Guess they found me asking their gender funny. "Sorry Rumble. I forget how difficult it is to tell from my beast mode. I am a femme. Is that going to be a problem?~Arctic Talon"

"No, not at all. Just curious.~Rumble." I responded to her before I contacted Frenzy. "She's a femme. I'm not sure if I just offended her with that question though. If I offline here, at least it was a dragon that got me and not an Autobot."

Thankfully, Arctic Talon's message back told me that I was not about to offline. "Good. Oh, and you can just call me Talon. I know my designation is kind of a mouthful.~Arctic Talon"

Phew! I didn't offend her. I was even able to call her a nickname. Well, since I was on nickname terms with her, might as well try and figure out who her friend is. "So, who is the bot that gave you that picture? None of the officers knew about you or they would have gotten a message to us.~Rumble."

"Sorry Rumble, but they swore my bondmate and me to secrecy until all of us Decepticons leave this battlefield. So, you aren't getting any answers yet.~Arctic Talon"

I didn't like this feeling. I trusted the femme, but it was annoying that we weren't going to get to know who had sent them. I was going to give that bot the biggest hug when I found out who it was. A soft beeping sound made me look up to see that the device seemed to be activating, and that wasn't good. "The explosives are live!" Frenzy sent over the bond.

It was now that I realized I needed to make sure Soundwave knew that we were going to be alright. "Soundwave, no matter what is about to happen, Frenzy and I are alright. We made some friends and they got us off of that device the Autobots had us attached to."

"I understand."

Soundwave's message barely got through before the machine started to explode. Immediately, Talon covered me with her chassis so I couldn't see what was happening. While my spark was beating faster than the speed of sound, nothing hit me. After the explosions stopped, I was immediately worried for the bot who saved me. "Talon, are you alright?~Rumble"

It took a click for the femme's message to reach me as she started to move her chassis so I could see my surroundings again. "Not a scratch. Predacons are harder to damage than that, Rumble. Your brother is fine as well. Now, swim onto my back and hold on tight. You are about to show you are free in style.~Arctic Talon."

Wait...I was going to ride a dragon into battle? That was so awesome! While we wouldn't probably be doing any fighting, it was still cool that we were about to get out of this mess riding on a dragon-like Predacon. Both of us from how Frenzy was already starting to move to Predaking's back. Instead of answering over the private message system, I nodded so she could see before I followed my brother's example.

Once I was holding tightly onto her back, I figured it would be funny to lightly tap her side with my pede to let her know I was ready. The vibration that I felt go through her was hopefully a laugh at that. In the next nano, I had to hold on as she flapped her wings and started to move upwards at a breakneck pace. Slag, she was fast!

I felt shocked as we broke the surface of the water. Once the liquid cleared away from my optics, I looked at the battlefield and saw that everybot by the beach was staring at us in awe. It was even better when both Talon and Predaking let out roars as they stopped climbing and hovered in the air, their wings keeping them airborne.

"Yeah, frag you Autobots!" Frenzy yelled from Predaking's back.

Not one to be left out, I yelled, "Yeah, and you all can kiss my aft!"

The two Predacons then turned and flew to the barren island that was settled in the middle of the lake. Made sense. They were supposed to make sure we stayed safe. Keeping us away from all the fights seemed like a good idea. Once Talon landed, she held up her front claw to me. I guess she realized that I might need help down off of her back. I took the offered claw and, once she set me down, I ran over to Frenzy. "Mech that was awesome!" I yelled as we met.

"Yeah, I don't think much could beat that!" He yelled back to me with a smile on his faceplate.

The sound of transformation sequences caused both of us to look at the Predacons who helped us. My optics widened as they changed from their dragon forms to bot forms. I mean, Talon had mentioned that she was in her beast form, but I didn't think they were like us!

"Now Rumble, why do you look so surprised?" Talon asked me with a smile. She then sat down. However, Predaking didn't follow her lead. That was weird. Talon must have noticed my look. "My bondmate is going to stay standing to make sure that none of the Autobots try to come over here to take you back."

"Ah, makes sense. So he's going to be standing like that the whole time? Looks uncomfortable." I responded.

Said Predacon looked down at me. "Less uncomfortable than the situation we found you in. While I am standing here, though, you two can explain to us why the Autobots had you captive."

Wait, that didn't make sense. They said that a friend of sent them. Didn't that mean they should know what was going on? "Wait, how can you not know what was going on?"

Talon let out a laugh at that. "Our mutual friend only knew you were in trouble from the Decepticon network. They didn't know why the Autobots had captured you, only that you had been captured." Wait...but all the officers were on the Nemesis, for the most part, when we were captured. The only one missing was Lord Megatron. Did they know Lord Megatron? Or where he was at? I was going to ask them but then I remembered that Talon said she wouldn't answer who our mutual friend was until the Decepticons were going to pull back.

And given the state of fighting out there, we were going to be sitting here for a while.

Thunderblast's 1st P.O.V.

When the Autobot distress beacon had popped up on the far side of the battlefield, I didn't hesitate to make my way toward it. It was pretty isolated from the fight. Maybe one of the Autobots had tried to sneak around us and had gotten trapped in the rubble? It didn't matter. While this wouldn't repay the debt I owed to that one femme, it would at least bring me one step closer. But, I had sworn a sparkdebt to said Autobot femme. I wasn't even sure if she was here. The odds were slim, but she could be. But, my entire family owed her, even if my two brothers didn't realize it.

That femme had saved Shockblast, and that was a debt I would never allow myself to forget. Unlike myself and Shockwave, Shockbast wanted to remain neutral in our fight. He had been firm about it. It was strange, as the youngest, I thought he would have been more radical. Instead, Shockblast insisted on remaining neutral. Even moved to a neutral only encampment to solidify his point.

But, it was the attack on that encampment that changed my existence forever...and why I owed that sparkdebt.

I shook my helm to get it out of the past. It had been so long ago and I need to focus on finding this signal. If it was an Autobot baiting a trap, then I needed to be ready to fight. None of the Decepticons had said they were going to use this ploy to pull some of the Autobots from the fight. So, this was either a legitimate signal or an Autobot trap to try and catch us off guard. They had done it during the fighting on Cybertron numerous times. Set one of their beacons to lure us into thinking we had an easy target to capture for information. Then, when we got there, we would be ambushed and annihilated.

It had never happened to me, but a friend of mine had been offlined from that tactic. He had been a funny mech, and honestly had a spark too big for the war. He was like the femme that saved Shockblast. It didn't matter which side of the conflict you were on, he was always ready to help a bot in need. He had gone to the Autobot distress signal to see if he could help fix up the bot and had taken a couple of bots with him. Laskal and his group were slaughtered in the trap.

But, despite how he offlined, some of Laskal's personality rubbed off on me. It's probably why I didn't offline the femme when I had seen her and the bot she was with moving toward Shockblast's position back then.

And it was probably the reason I was heading toward this beacon now, despite how desperate the situation here was. Hopefully, this wasn't an ambush trap. Just in case, I pulled my missile launcher out of my subspace and attached it to my arm. It was cumbersome in one-on-one bot fights. But, in an ambush situation, it would be the best defense that I could have.

I paused in my walking when I heard an explosion from near the lake. Hopefully, that was one of the bots fighting on the beach giving the Autobots what they deserved. We didn't fragging have their leader yet they were going through all this useless slag because they were sure that we were lying. Ugh, if I didn't know some level-helmed Autobots, I would think that they were all morons!

After a few steps again, I paused as I heard roars fill the air. Slag, something was going down at the lake! Movement in the sky had me looking up to see...Predacons! I thought they were extinct? But, since no blaster shots were being fired at them, and Starscream wasn't calling us back to the beach, then I kept moving toward the beacon. I had to get there quickly though. It seemed like I was missing a lot of the fight.

Of course, so was the Autobot that I had sent flying. Fragging mech! I think his designation was Smokescreen. Had the nerve to call me a fragging pleasure-bot! Well, he didn't say I was a pleasure-bot directly, but his tone made it sound like he thought I should be one! Well, he was now knocked out for a bit and hanging from a very high ledge. Fragger

Autobots. I swear they didn't have a filter.

I noticed I was getting close to where the signal was. To my surprise, when I cleared the trees I had to walk through, I saw my brother walking toward a bot that I couldn't make out. "Autobot, your try at a sneak attack is abysmal. You didn't even try to hide."

"I swear, I didn't set it! I came out here because I thought there was an Autobot in trouble!"

Slag I knew that voice. Shockwave could not touch that femme. So, I started to move toward my brother quietly. Frag it he was not going to ruin the sparkdebt that we owed that femme. I might not have been able to tell him about it yet, but I had to make sure that our family kept our honor. Slag, Shockblast, last I heard, was even staying on the same planet that this femme was from the last report of her I was able to get. I liked to keep track of her every so often just in case I could help her.

But, this wasn't going to count. It wasn't me repaying her kindness. It was me stopping my idiotic brother from making our family oath-breakers and cursing our sparks to Unicron.

"I would believe you femme," Wait, was he going to back down? "If there was an injured Autobot here that you could be taking care of. However, given the circumstances of this battle, I highly doubt that."

No you idiot, she of all Autobots was probably telling the truth. I was almost positive that the femme didn't have a lying circuit in her chassis. "No, I swear. I wasn't trying to cause any more problems for you all. I swear on my spark that it's the truth!" The femme's vocals were shaking. She was scared, and my brother didn't look to be stopping his movement toward her.

"Regardless of whether you are telling the truth or not. Your capture would give us leverage to use to have your Autobots return Rumble and Frenzy to us." My brother responded to the scared femme.

Oh no! His words just hit me and he was not going to be taking that femme hostage! He was not going to make our family oath-breakers because he thought he knew the best strategy! So, since I was close enough, I didn't hesitate in slamming my servo into the back of his neck-cables. Like it always did, the hit knocked my brother out instantly. That had bought me about fifteen clicks. Plenty of time for the femme to get away from here.

"Why...why did you stop him?" The femme asked as she looked at me.

In return, I let out a laugh. "Femme, you know my family owes you a sparkdebt, and this doesn't count since I had to stop my family from hurting you."

She seemed torn. But, what about? "But, won't you get in trouble for attacking a fellow Decepticon?"

Well…

Yeah, I would. But it would be easy to clear up with a patch once we got back to the Nemesis and we retrieved Lord Megatron from wherever he was. "Not as much as when you helped Shockblast. Plus, it'll just take a patch to show why I did it and I'll be in the clear. For now, you need to get out of here before my little brother here wakes up, alright?"

The femme stared at me for a nano before nodding. "I know you said this doesn't count as you repaying the debt, but thank you anyways Thunderblast."

I smiled at the femme who risked so much for Shockblast. "You're welcome Balm."

As the femme moved out of sight, I sat down next to my unconscious brother and thought about that solar that I met Balm, and she saved my brother.

Flashback.

I felt my spark racing as I ran toward where the neutral encampment my brother was staying at was. I had just gotten word that one of the missiles that had been a part of the barrage that both sides were sending at each other a cycle before had hit right next to the encampment, causing damages. I had to make sure that he was safe. He was an active mech, always had been. And him walking around wherever he lived was not an odd sight to see.

When he and Shockwave were still sparklings, he would drag his brother all over the house to look at something he had discovered. When we grew older, that hadn't changed much though instead of the house, it was everywhere the mech explored. Before the war broke out, I was sure that the mech was going to end up being a deep-space explorer.

But, as we had grown older, and war looked more likely to come, the mech seemed to focus on learning about star travel. Now that he was neutral, that study made more sense. He had been planning on leaving Cybertron before the fighting got bad. However, once the fighting had started, it got worse faster than any of us Decepticons had expected. One solar, the cities of Cybertron were still shining in all of their beauty, and not seven solars later, many of them were empty shells of what they once were. All interspace travel was cut off quickly, and Shockblast had not been able to get off of the planet.

So, he did the next best thing and became neutral. It was strange. Shockwave and I were Decepticons from the start, but Shockblast didn't want any part in the fighting. He just wanted to live his existence in peace until the war was over. There were plans on both sides, from what our spies had uncovered, to start evacuating Neutrals off the planet so they wouldn't get caught up in our battles.

But, for my brother's settlement, that plan came too late.

Finally reaching the settlement, I felt my spark stutter in fear when I saw the destruction that had happened, while the missile had technically hit outside of the camp, the resulting explosion had caused damage to much of the camp. There were injured bots all over the street. Neutral medics could be seen moving from injured bot to injured bot. Trying to fix them the best that they could. I knew that medics had a no-fighting code so both sides could send medics here to help. From last I heard, the Decepticons were starting to mobilize a group of medics, with a guard, to come here and help these medics.

But, I didn't care about that now. I needed to find out where Shockblast was. Seeing a bot that looked similar to one Shockblast wrote about in one of his private messages to me, I ran up to him. "Excuse me, are you Parrian? I'm Shockblast's sister. Have you seen him?"

The mech turned to me and, at first, he looked suspicious when I said his designation. But, once my brother's designation, his look changed. But, it didn't change to a positive one. "Last I saw him, some big black Autobot mech was dragging him away from the settlement. I would have followed, but I'm not a fight. Shockblast looked bad though."

I was going to tear that Autobot apart if hurt my brother any more than he already was. I had to get to him. I couldn't lose my brother. I just couldn't! If he was offlined...I wasn't sure what I would do. He was always the pacifist between the three of us. And for him to be offlined because of the war, then I would never forgive myself.

"Thank you," I said to the mech before I ran in the direction that Parrian pointed. I needed to find Shockblast. I needed to!

As I followed the direction that I was led in, I felt my spark beat increase when I noticed spilled energon slowly building as I moved across the ground. It wasn't looking good. Even if that Autobot didn't do anything to Shockblast, he might just offline due to energon loss.

"What are you doing Pitch?" I heard a femme voice suddenly from behind a few pillars of metal that probably once held a checkpoint building.

Glancing inside, I saw my brother, laying on the ground in obvious pain. Next to him was the mech that his friend had mentioned seeing. However, there was a third bot here. A yellow-green plated medic femme. She was glaring at the other Autobot.

The other Autobot sneered down at my brother. "Found this bot skulking around here. Must be a spy. I incapacitated him before bringing him here to question. Well, I was going to question him before you interrupted me." He did not find my brother around here! He was seen taking him from the camp.

"You didn't do that to him," Frag, how could that femme tell? I knew because I knew where Shockblast was thanks to his friend. But, this femme couldn't know my brother was in the settlement. "From how the injury is presenting, he was most likely near the stray missile at the Neutral settlement nearby. You're breaking Autobot code doing this. I need to work on him."

Frag, this had to be a pretty skilled medic to tell all of that from glancing at my brother's wound. I knew a lot of medics, and most of them couldn't hope to do that kind of analysis so quickly. But, this femme didn't even hesitate.

The mech, I think she called him Pitch, growled slightly at that. "Of course, you could tell that. The great prodigy medic Balm." He then muttered something that I couldn't hear.

"It doesn't matter if I am a prodigy or not. If you touch him you will be breaking more than Autobot code. You will be breaking intergalactic law." She shot at him.

Now the mech growled louder before glaring at the femme. "And if you try and stop me, femme, you will be breaking Autobot code by attacking a fellow Autobot. Not only that, but you will be breaking your oath as a medic to heal your allies, and not injure them." He then motioned behind him. "Now, get your aft back to base while I take care of this scum."

Balm glared at the mech, but I was surprised when she turned and started to walk past him. I needed to act, and now! However, before I could move, the femme suddenly turned on her pedes and slammed a syringe into the mech's neck cables. The needle drained into the mech's neck quickly and, before the mech could say a word, he collapsed at her pedes unconscious. "Then I guess I'll take that chance." She said shakily before she ran up to my brother and started working.

I didn't want to startle the femme and possibly cause her to mess up while repairing my brother, so I stayed back and watched her work. As I watched her work, I realized that she was a prodigy. The way she was able to use her field kit to patch up my brother's injuries was amazing to watch. I had seen Decepticon medics with more at their disposal unable to accomplish as much.

After a cycle of working, the femme sat back with a relieved vent. Well, now seemed like the best time to show myself to the femme. As I walked toward her though, the femme immediately sat up and grew tense. We had all heard stories about medics being attacked after they worked by rogues...or by scum like the mech she had knocked out. To ease her worry, I held up my servos. "I'm not going to hurt you. I heard my brother was hurt in the attack at the neutral camp and came to find him. That's my brother."

She relaxed at my explanation and pulled out a datapad, which probably held her scans from my brother. "He should fully recover. Make sure he drinks only low-grade for five solars so his internals can continue to heal. I'd say he should be back to full strength in about seven solars as long as he drinks that low grade and takes any work easy so he doesn't reopen those welds."

I knelt in front of the femme. "Thank you for saving him. I...I saw everything with that Autobot."

Balm, I think that was what that piece of scum called Pitch called her, tensed again when I mentioned him. "He shouldn't wake up for another five cycles. You should have enough time to get your brother away from here. I'll wait for another cycle before calling in a pickup unless we are discovered by a scouting party."

But, I knew there was more to it. "Are you going to be alright? You broke Autobot code to save my brother. You could get in big trouble for that."

She flinched at my reminder. "I don't think that will be a problem. He won't be able to report me without admitting what he was doing. I'll just have to watch my step around the mech." She then shook her helm. "But, I'd do it again to save a bot in trouble."

I owed this femme. I owed her so much for saving my youngest brother's spark, and at the risk of so much to herself. "My designation is Thunderblast, and my little brother you saved is Shockblast."

She smiled. "I'm Balm. It's nice to meet you."

Nodding, I responded. "It's nice to meet you too Balm. My family is in sparkdebt to you for this."

Her optics widened at my response. "No, I was just doing my job. There is no need for a debt."

"You and I both know that you did more than your job calls for. You risked so much to heal my brother. We owe you a sparkdebt. And there are no takebacks!" I insisted while crossing my arms. I would not budge on this point. We owed this femme so much, for how much she had risked for Shockblast a sparkdebt was the least I could offer.

Balm studied me before she let out a vent. "Fine, but you need to get him out of here. Support him on the side I repaired when you leave. I don't want you to get caught by an Autobot scouting party. While they should treat your brother alright, you would be a prisoner of war. Not so much fun."

I nodded and grabbed my brother before slowly making my way away from the femme. But, I swore to myself that I would repay that sparkdebt one solar, no matter when or where. She had saved my brother...my family, and I would make sure I showed her my gratitude for everything she risked to do that.

End of flashback.

And now my idiot brother here had almost screwed that up. The reason I wasn't able to tell him about the sparkdebt before was that, right after I made sure Shockblast was recovering alright, and I told him what happened, I was reassigned to the Praxus front, which was on the opposite side of the planet of my brother. After that solar, I didn't see Shockwave until I arrived here. And given everything going on with the Decepticons here when I got here, there wasn't an appropriate time to tell him about it.

"Thunderblast,"

I gulped as I heard the sound of my brother's voice, along with his cannon pointed at my helm charged. "Yes, Shockwave?"

"After this fight, I am placing you on lockdown for attacking a fellow Decepticon in combat. Once we locate Lord Megatron, I will demand a patch to determine your true reasoning." He stated in his ever-neutral voice. Slag maybe he was the one who should have gone neutral?

Oh well, I wasn't worried about this. I knew it would be alright in the end. "Fine, but until then, you shouldn't be seen aiming your cannon at me. We don't need the other Autobots knowing that I broke a rule."

It took him a nano, but he did power down his cannon. "We shall return to the beach and help with the fight there. You are not to leave the beach until we are returning to the Nemesis. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly," I answered him before following him to said beach.

Like I told Balm, I wasn't worried. I would be able to prove the reason behind what I did that would excuse me of any wrongdoings. It wasn't like her situation. She had broken her code to go against her rogue ally. Now, both she and that bot were on this planet. I had to be careful not to say anything until my patch. If the Autobots found out she broke code, she could be court marshaled and possibly executed for attacking one of her fellow Autobots. Depending on the judge she might have, if it got out, he might even order her to be exiled or offlined because of the oaths she had to break to help Shockblast back then.

Me, it was just a patch and I was cleared since I was protecting a sparkdebt. So, in comparison, I wasn't too worried.

Dunce's 1st P.O.V.

I was barely keeping myself from shaking in my plating. Out of every Autobot that was at this battle, I just had to fight Sentinel?

Back on Kinmoku, I didn't have to worry about fighting outside of my lessons. Of course, I was neutral back then with my master. He let me live with him and trained me in return for me helping with his work on his projects. Gearstar had lost a leg during an attack on a neutral settlement back on Cybertron so he had fled here to Kinmoku. I hadn't come here until after the mech, and I had been looking for somewhere to stay. Gearstar had happened to be in town when I arrived and, after we talked for a while, offered to let me live with him.

It had been amazing, for the time I was there. Gearstar was not only an expert in combat, before the loss of his leg, but he had even been a weaponsmith. Forged me a weapon after I passed each stage of his training. And I worked hard. While I never wanted to be in an actual combat situation, I did like learning to fight with Gearstar. And then, late in the night cycle, we would sit under the stars as he told me stories about his past.

But, that couldn't last.

It happened on a regular solar. The silver and gold seeker mech that I had come to view as a mentor had been in town, thankfully, doing some shopping and reconnecting with friends there. I was out in one of the clearings practicing my movements when he appeared. Before I could even ask his name, the mech I now knew as Sentinel took me by surprise and I was knocked out.

When I next woke up, I was in a cell. I didn't know what happened. At first, I thought it was a case of mistaken identity. It had to be. I hadn't done anything against the law in my existence. But, when I tried to tell this to the mech who captured me when he appeared in front of my cell, he had laughed at me. Said he knew that I was truly a Decepticon and he would find a way to make me talk.

And he tried many ways to make me talk. As I dodged the current mech's sword strikes, I remembered all of the tortures he put me through. The burning metal, the whips with broken blades attacked, the acid, and more were used to make me admit that I was a Decepticon. But, back then, I hadn't been. But, he couldn't accept that I was neutral.

"Looks like you aren't much of a fighter, mech," Sentinel taunted me as we now started to trade blows. The path we were on was making it difficult for me to keep dodging the mech as I had been. So, I had to pull my blade out and fight him.

"Why do you single me out?" I finally asked him. It was something that I had been wondering since that solar he had taken me from Gearstar and to that planet to torture me. "Why me out of all the neutrals on Kinmoku?"

The mech let out a scoff at that as he continued his attack. Of course, I continued to deflect him. "Because I trust me instincts scum. I could tell that you were a Decepticon, and I was right." He then pressed a little harder, causing me to get a little more creative in my counters. "The only thing impressive about you is that you took everything I did to you without giving it up."

For the first time in a very long time, I felt anger pulse through me. I hadn't just taken it! I lived with the memories of that nightmare every waking nano. Even walking on the Nemesis, I could barely keep myself from panicking when a bot would surprise me. All because of what that mech did. Honestly, I even jumped at my own shadow once because, instinctually, I thought it was this monster coming for me.

"I was not a Decepticon then!" I yelled, pushing against the mech. It was strangely satisfying to see his optics widen as I went on the offensive. "I was just living my existence happily as a neutral. Never did I cause trouble for anybot. Back then, I was happy. Until you came with your grand ideas and couldn't accept that you were wrong!" Our fight stayed with me having the advantage for a few nanos before Sentinel seemed to find his footing.

Then, the mech pushed back against me. I felt a shiver of fear travel down my backplates at the sadistic look on his faceplate. "Back with those tales are we? I am never wrong when it comes to a Decepticon scum that needs to be eliminated." I felt frozen, barely able to keep up with his strikes, as he continued. For a nano, I felt like I was back in that holding cell, unable to do anything to help myself. "First it was that femme. I knew she was trouble. Luckily her processor took her out. And now, I get to finally make you admit that you were wrong all along before I take you out of this fight permanently!"

Now, I was on a defensive fight for my spark as Sentinel continued to strike out with his sword. It took every iota of training that I had received from Gearstar to make sure that his blade didn't end up in my spark, or in my helm. He was aiming for both with scary accuracy. This must be the difference between practice and experience. In practice, Gearstar said that I would be able to hold my own in battle.

But now? In an actual fight? I felt like I was nanos away from losing my spark. One wrong misstep and I would be on a one-way transit to the Well. However, even though it got me into this predicament I was in now, I would never regret accepting Scavenger's offer. When I had first woke up on his ship, I had been terrified that Sentinel was moving me somewhere even worse.

However, Scavenger helped me calm down and, after a few cycles of talking, convinced me that he wasn't with Sentinel. That he was a Decepticon. He never pressured me to talk about what happened on Cyteen, where Scavenger said he found me, and I was grateful for that. It would have been too much. After about twenty solars with the mech, he offered me a spot in the Decepticons, even without knowing much about my past. And, with everything that the mech had done for me in my helm, I had accepted his offer. One solar, I would repay him for the kindness that he showed me.

But, as I took a step back, I felt like I would never get that chance. Sentinel seemed to be on the path to offline me with everything he had. I...I wasn't sure I was going to live through this. While we weren't too far away from the beach, where the main fight was still going on, I knew that any backup I might need wouldn't get here in time. If I made one mistake, I was as good as offline. Even those Predacons wouldn't be able to get to me in time.

"I won't let you offline me," I growled at the mech as I tried to fight back.

However, as soon as I said that, the ground beneath my pedes gave way, thankfully I blocked the particularly heavy blow Sentinel tried to land, and I was thrown back towards the lake. I tried to sit up quickly, but I must have taken more damage than I thought. I was barely able to sit up as Sentinel started to move toward me, a dark smirk on his faceplate. "Oh, I think I will be offlining you scum, and make sure you give my regards to that femme when you get to the Pit with her." He then started to raise his blade.

The sound of a jet engine distracted both of us as we both turned to look in the direction that the sound was coming. However, I didn't see much until a black mass with some green markings started to shift next to Sentinel. In the next instant, Sentinel was flying across the beach at a speed I could barely keep up with. As he tumbled through the different fights on the beach, causing them to stop, the mass that I could see was a bot now...and more specifically a femme skidded to a stop from the momentum she picked from her flight.

All of the fights on the beach slowly stopped as the femme stopped moving, about halfway between me and the fights on the beach. To my surprise, the femme immediately walked back over to me. Her smile was so nice, that if hadn't just seen her kick Sentinel across the battlefield, then I wouldn't have believed she did that.

I stared at her servo when she offered it down to me. "Are you alright?"

It took me a few nanos, but I nodded before taking her offered servo. I didn't know who this Decepticon was, because I could at least see her insignia, but she had saved me. One solar, I was going to repay her for that. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Perfect. Stay here with them. We'll be going back to the Nemesis soon," She spoke before walking back toward the beach. At this point, the other Autobots and Decepticons had returned to the beach, and both sides seemed to have split back into the factions.

"Okay," I said to her before all of what she said hit me. Them? Who were…I flinched in turned around when two large bots landed behind me. It was the Predacons from earlier. Guess she had seen them coming over. Once they were back in their bot forms, I turned to pay attention to this femme. I wasn't sure why, but something told me that I needed to hear what she said.

The femme stopped at the halfway point again and, even from there, I could feel the anger that started to radiate from her chassis. "You Autobots need to get your helms out of your aft! Do you think that the Decepticons would have risked the twins if we had your precious leader? I will say this once, and only once. We did not take Optimus! There is always more than one option for what might have happened to him! Use those processors that I know at least some of you possess and analyze the situation!"

"Pandimala...you're online." The Autobot known as Springer said with a surprised look in his optics.

"Yes, I am online, no thanks to you Autobots! If it wasn't for Predaking and Arctic Talon, then I would have offlined!" She continued to rip into the Autobots. Wait...Pandimala...that was the designation of the femme that they were supposed to have offlined. "Now, you Autobots need to regroup! None of this plan was acceptable! You dove helms-fist into one theory when you didn't even explore other options! Now, before I decide to just join the other Decepticons here in ripping out your sparks, return to your base! And, at the risk of sounding repetitive, let me say this again; the Decepticons do not have your leader held captive!"

I was waiting for the Autobots to launch into another fight at that. And some of the Autobots looked like they wanted to. I bet Sentinel would have if Pandimala hadn't knocked him out with that kick of hers. Already, I was starting to see what the officers who had been here longer meant about Pandimala. She...her just being here seemed to make everything a little better.

"Pandimala...we're sorry," Elita spoke to the femme before their ground bridge opened up.

Once all of the Autobots were gone, Pandimala turned to the Decepticons. "Before we talk, we need to return to the Nemesis. Now."

Instead of looking upset at the femme's order, Starscream nodded before turning to Soundwave. He didn't even have to say anything as Soundwave opened a ground bridge for us. The group with me made our way toward it, as the other Decepticons started to move toward it. As the Predacons passed Pandimala, I noticed the twins jump from them to Pandimala's shoulders, holding onto her shoulder cannons. They must have missed her. As I moved past the femme, I noticed that she now had a soft smile on her faceplate as she looked between the two mechs. The feeling must have been neutral.

Once I was through the bridge, I noticed that most of the command looked anxious as they stared at the bridge. Frag I didn't realize how close all of them were to the femme. Though, as I looked around, I noticed that Thunderblast had a set of cuffs on her wrists and Shockwave was holding said cuffs. What happened there?

I let that thought go to the back of my helm as the femme came through, the twins still clinging to her cannons.

"Pandimala...you're online," Starscream started to say.

Pandimala nodded before she interrupted him. "Yes, but before we celebrate that, we have some business to take care of. First order of business, somebot had better tell me I didn't just lie to the Autobots about us having their leader."

Well, that was an easy bit of business to cover. Vox was the first one able to answer. "Pandimala, we do not have the Prime at all. The last time we knew of his location, he was in battle with Lord Megatron."

The femme nodded. But, if possible, her faceplate took on an even more serious look. "And that brings me to the second, and most important order of business that we have." I shivered at the focused look on her faceplate. How did one femme show so many emotions so sincerely? "Where is Lord Megatron?"

Unknown 1st P.O.V.

I studied the recently vacant battlefield from my vantage point on the ledge above where it happened. This was getting more chaotic by the second. If all it took for the Autobots to lose their cool was for their leader to vanish, then everything that I had set into motion was going to fall apart around me. While I didn't have much influence, I did have enough to make sure that things took an unexpected turn. Wasted time was something that I could not afford. And that was exactly what this was.

At least my influence seemed to have the Decepticons in a stable processor setting by this point. Even without their leader, and the stress of two of their own being captured, they were able to work as an efficient unit and rectify this problem. Very good.

Maybe it was time that I became more involved? I had been using my influence every once in a while, but perhaps I needed to become actively involved?

A smile came to me as I thought about that. Yes, it was time to stop working from the sidelines and come into the light, as the saying went. Plus, I needed to balance out an advantage that the Autobots currently had, though they might not know it. The Decepticons needed the same advantage that I would bring them. And who knew? Maybe my influence would help the Decepticons...and one femme, in particular, accomplish their goals?

Pandimala: *sighs* It is good to be back.

Rumble: *still hugging Pandimala's cannon* And we aren't letting you go again.

Pandimala: *smiles* I'm sorry for worrying you like that everybot.

Starscream: *tries to glare but too relieved to* Femme, you are going to be the offlining for me.

Pandimala: *serious* I hope not. We are going to see this through to the end.

Authoress: *in another room listening* That was adorable. I'm glad that they are back together...and I'm not skinned alive.

AN: And there is the explosive big battle! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. So much information was given out about some of our more mysterious bots. We learn a bit about Dunce's past and why he is so nervous around bots. Poor mech. I want to hug him! And the biggest reveal to all of you is the mysterious secret that Balm has been keeping from Zarron. Now you can hopefully see why she hasn't been able to tell the mech about what happened. While it would be enough to put Pitch on trial and probably exiled (maybe executed...one can hope) it would also put her in some serious trouble for breaking her oaths at the time and attacking a fellow Autobots. While she has retaken her oath since then (and made some necessary changes) she still has that shadow hanging over her. And of course, we have that point of view at the end. I wonder just who it was?

Well, while you all stew over that, here are the next chapters!

Chapter 56: MECH

Chapter 57: Reprieve

Chapter 58:...(next time of course, but I will say that when you all find out the name of this chapter, some of you will be very excited about it...though it might surprise you when it comes out)

And that's all for now folks! Please leave a review, or leave one just to say hi. I take both, and I appreciate them all. This was a very long chapter, so I am going to just leave you all with the hope that, from now on, chapters should not be anywhere near this long...at least until much later if it happens. But, until then, chapters should be easier to get through than these past few. Well, that's all for now, until next time. *excited that her new COVID test came back negative!*