BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER YOU SHOULD KNOW that there is another chapter that fits chronologically before this one but it involves the Rescue Bots so I posted it separately because I didn't want to spoil the show for anyone. So if you want to read that's fine.

Warning: This is the chapter I raised the rating for awhile back. Liliy kills humans. It's not totally graphic but it's there. Decapitations and dismemberment ahead. Read at your own risk.

Optimus rolled to a stop once he reached the main room of the base. Liliy hopped off his back, cradling an energon crystal.

"Thanks for taking me along, Optimus. I really had fun…" She trailed off as she noticed the other Autobots gathering and, for some reason, on guard. "...Is something wrong?" she asked them.

"Liliy, has Optimus been with you all evening?" Arcee asked. She was sporting a few more paint scratches than usual.

Optimus transformed and shared a confused look with Liliy.

"Yeah. We've been together all weekend." Liliy lifted the crystal slightly. "We were energon scouting in Maine. We just got back."

"In Maine? Oh, you went there," Ratchet said.

"Yeah." Liliy looked over at Agent Fowler and noticed that he too was on guard. "Are you guys gonna tell us what happened? Why are you so suspicious of Optimus?"

"Because I was attacked out on the open highway tonight. By a big rig that bore a striking resemblance to you." Fowler locked eyes with Optimus.

"And whoever it was ran me over too," added Arcee.

"Ran you over?" repeated Liliy.

"That's what it feels like anyway." Her servo brushed over one of the new scratches on her other arm. "Have you ever been hit by a truck?"

"No, but I can only assume it might feel similar to getting punted across the room by a mech the size of Megatron." At their surprised looks, she added, "It was an accident that was entirely my fault but the said mech has been very cautious around me ever since."

"That sounds like a story I would love to hear," commented Ratchet.

"I'm sure you would. Some other time though. I need to go home for a bit. Let me know if you find anything about the mysterious attacker, alright?" And she disappeared into the portal that had opened next to her.

The vehicle coming toward Julian looked oddly familiar. As it drew closer, she recognized the color scheme and make of the oncoming vehicle, though the colors were darker than she remembered and the paint job was faded and covered in scratches. But with the presence of the Autobot insignia on the truck's grill, she was fairly certain that it was Optimus Prime's alt, so she scanned for a spark.

There wasn't one.

She scanned for a human driver.

...None.

She scanned for an energy signature.

Energon.

Julian slammed on her brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. The big rig passed by the charcoal pickup truck, undeterred. She watched the truck go down the road a little ways and then slow down to turn onto another road. According to the highway sign at the intersection, the road led to a military base.

Something wasn't right. How could it run on energon and not have a spark? Unless it was an undead…? But undead ran on dark energon as far as she knew. And can't transform into vehicle mode. Her scans registered regular energon. And as far as she knew, no Cybertronian could hide their spark signal from the SDS. Not even the Madam who could mask herself to appear human on medical scans. So that meant it had to be sparkless. Leech and the Leecher armor were sparkless but even Leech gave off a separate signal and the armor couldn't move without a pilot. So the truck being sparkless made no sense, unless…

Her large tires spun in the dirt as she slammed the accelerator to the floor. She pulled a U-turn as she got back onto the road and went after the semi-truck.

...Unless it wasn't Cybertronian to begin with.

Julian wanted to confirm her suspicions before she called for backup. The gate of the base was busted in like the truck had plowed right through it. But the humans had not abandoned it. In fact, there were more guards there now. She stopped well away from the gate. What to do? She needed to get closer but she didn't want to scare the humans. She backtracked a bit and went off road to circle around the base. Transforming, she jumped the fence and hid behind one of the large hangars. She peeked around it to assess the situation.

The humans had the truck surrounded. They demanded the driver exit the vehicle or they would open fire. Two of the humans ran up the driver's door and opened it, pointing their guns inside. They found no one inside and after a second, the door slammed shut on its own.

Julian knew for sure now that the truck was no Cybertronian. The transformation sequence was all wrong. It even sounded wrong. But sure enough, the transformed bot looked like Optimus Prime, albeit with a darker, undead look about him and glowing, yellow optics.

"I am Optimus Prime," it said in an exact copy of Prime's voice. "Leader of the Autobots. And bring you this message." It transformed a servo into blaster and pointed it at the humans. The biolights glowed yellow as the blaster charged.

Julian didn't even stop to think as she activated her own blaster. A single shot knocked the pseudo-Prime's blaster aside and its shot missed the humans. It looked up in time to see her plow into it. The humans scattered as it easily shook her off and she fell over onto one of the jeeps.

"Autobot reinforcements already?" it asked still with Prime's voice.

"I'm not an Autobot," she growled as she got to her peds.

"A Decepticon then?" It took a fighting stance.

"Not anymore." She charged forward again.

"Fowler," Agent Fowler answered his cell phone after it rang. He turned and paced away as he listened to the caller. "What?! That's not possible! I can tell you sure as there are fifty stars on my star-spangled shorts," he turned back to look at Optimus, "it isn't him!" He paused as the caller said something else. "Understood." He hung up the phone. "Alden Military Base is under attack," Fowler informed everyone in the room. "By Optimus Prime."

"The truck?" Jack asked.

"The bot!" Fowler answered. "And apparently there is another bot there already fighting him."

Julian silently thanked Liliy for teaching her about human fighting techniques and how to fight bots bigger than her or else she would have already lost. Pseudo-Prime was not moving how a Cybertronian normally would. It was bigger and stronger than her but she was faster. Even then, it was not going well for her as she was flung into a helicopter that sat nearby. As she struggled to get up, the helicopter beside it exploded.

Pseudo-Prime didn't even wait to see if she survived before it turned to attack the humans again. Julian stumbled away from the wreckage and fell to her knees, spots of her charcoal armor blackened and smoldering. Warnings flashed across her HUD about injuries from shrapnel and burns.

"It's going to take more than that to stop me," she grimaced as she got to her peds.

Julian rammed into the bot knocking it over. It rolled over and pinned her to the ground. She tried to shoot it but its right servo changed into a blade and stabbed her right through the t-cog before the transformation was complete. Her servo was a useless, half transformed mess but her main concern was the blade still piercing her chassis.

"Not an Autobot. Not a Decepticon," it mused still with Prime's voice. "Tell me more about yourself."

"Get fragged!" she snarled behind her mask.

"You know this chassis is an exact copy of the original. All the same in size, strength, and speed. But you know the best part? It doesn't feel pain!" It twisted the blade in the wound.

Julian's pained scream turned to static when it jerked the blade free from her chassis, causing even more damage. Pseudo-Prime got back to its peds and swung its blade sharply to rid it of energon before it switched to a blaster.

"I'll deal with you after I finish off this base."

Julian didn't respond. All she had the strength to do was send an emergency request back to base before she slipped into stasis.

Both ground bridges opened at the same time. Fortunately, they were far enough apart that they didn't disrupt each other. However when pseudo-Prime saw the new arrivals, it immediately transformed back to vehicle mode and fled. The CRC mechs simply picked up Julian and disappeared back into their ground bridge, while the Autobots had to retreat due to military reinforcements arriving to attack them.

Liliy was actually still in the receiving room talking to Alfa and Leecher when the Critical Alarm went off for Julian. Alfa wasted no time bringing up her coordinates and opening a bridge. He and Leecher ran through to get her. Foxtrot arrived in the receiving room just as they were bringing her back.

"What happened? What did you see?" Liliy asked Alfa after he transferred Julian into Foxtrot's care.

"It was a human military base that looked like it was under attack. The Autobots were there too but, for some reason, there were two Optimus Primes."

"Two Primes?" Liliy happened to glance out into the main hall and saw Starscream with the twins. "Echo is on Comm duty today, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She zipped up to his shoulder. "Let's go to the Comm center."

Having given orders to locate MECH, Liliy returned to Omega One to find out the situation there. Fowler was on the phone with his superior when she arrived.

"No, General Bryce. Optimus Prime did not attack our boys. … Because I was with Prime when I received the alert. … Yes, sir. The Autobots were at your base, but only in response to the initial attack. … But, sir, I- … Yes, sir. I understand." Fowler hung up his phone and pocketed it.

"So what's the damage?" asked Jack.

"All military personnel are under strict orders to destroy any and all bots on sight," Fowler informed them.

"Are you kidding?" gasped Jack.

"But they're innocent," exclaimed Raf.

"Optimus was framed," insisted Miko.

"Though unfortunate, the military order changes nothing," said Optimus. "Our imposter poses a grave threat to humanity."

"A 30 foot tall, transforming imposter," corrected Fowler.

"Not just humanity. You know one of mine was there too, right?" Liliy asked.

"We heard. And we saw your ground bridge and your mechs retreating. What happened?" Optimus wanted to know.

"Julian tried to protect the humans from your imposter," Liliy answered, "which I can only assume is MECH created, and nearly got herself killed."

"So they've actually done it," said Ratchet. "Those butchers managed to crack the code."

"It seems they have," replied Optimus.

"MECH abducted Breakdown and by all indications deconstructed him from cranial chamber to heel strut," Ratchet explained to everyone.

"He was in a rather sorry state," Liliy added, "but they managed to not spill any of his energon."

"We also know that more recently they obtained Starscream's t-cog," said Optimus.

"Hey, it's his own damn fault for allying with them in the first place. But beside that, whose fault is it that they were even able obtain scans of you, Optimus?" asked Liliy.

"If it hadn't been Optimus, it would've been one of your mechs that they copied," replied Ratchet.

"You're just jealous because they copied Optimus since he is such a powerful mech," commented Miko.

"Actually we should be glad they never got to see Kilo," said Liliy.

"Why? How big is Kilo?" asked Raf.

"Well, you see how tall Arcee is compared to Optimus?" Liliy gestured to the blue femme who was only half the height of the Prime. Raf nodded. "Yeah, that's about how Optimus compares to Kilo."

The children stared at her in shock.

Arcee made a noise like she was clearing her throat. "So anyway, MECH took Starscream's t-cog and installed it in a knockoff of Optimus…?"

"Which in turn scanned an appropriate vehicle form," said Ratchet.

"Fill the tank with energon," added Jack.

"And say hello to Nemesis Prime!" exclaimed Miko.

"I guess that's a little better than pseudo-Prime," muttered Liliy.

"So where do we start?" asked Fowler. "MECH's base could be anywhere."

"Not necessarily," answered Optimus. "While they may have learned much of our biology-"

"They haven't necessarily absorbed our technology," finished Ratchet. "Without access to a ground bridge, Nemesis Prime would rely solely on its vehicle-mode for transportation."

"Chances are the MECH base is within driving distance of both incidents," said Arcee.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get out there and mash MECH's little science project." Fowler smashed his fist into his palm.

"Agent Fowler, I do not think it advisable to put yourself in harm's way of MECH's robot again," said Optimus.

"Well, I'm not sure it's advisable for Bots to be running recon with the military out there gunning for you," Fowler retorted, crossing his arms and glaring at Prime.

"There's no need to worry, Agent Fowler," Liliy interrupted, looking up from reading a message on her phone. "Neither you, nor the Autobots need to leave the base. The CRC'll handle this."

"But, Liliy-"

"Don't even start, Optimus," Liliy snapped. "MECH is going to pay for what they did to Julian! For what they did to Bumblebee!" She pointed at the Autobot scout. "And for what they did to Breakdown! And if you Autobots or any affiliated humans," she glanced at Fowler, "get in our way, we cannot guarantee your safety!"

"You intend to kill Silas?" asked Optimus. His tone was hard as his glare.

"I told you not to start, Optimus. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind," Liliy insisted as a ground bridge opened behind her. "Agent Fowler, I'll contact you when it's done, so you can get someone for clean up."

Fowler sighed. "Very well. But try not to make a very big mess, alright?"

"As you wish," she replied before she and the portal disappeared.

"Is it really alright, Agent Fowler?" asked Optimus.

"To tell you the truth, I was told that there were some casualties from the attack on the base. Because of that, I would love to take down Silas myself. No one attacks our boys and gets away with it. If the Pentagon knew that it was MECH behind the attack, they would be hunting them down too. Letting Liliy do it saves us some trouble."

"But didn't you just recently accuse Liliy of working with MECH?" Bulkhead pointed out.

"I think Liliy's 'outburst' at that accusation would have been enough to convince Megatron," said Arcee.

"Besides, the CRC saved me and Arcee from MECH," added Jack.

"Aside from forgetting Starscream, the CRC has always been saving us and the Cons from MECH," beeped Bumblebee. "We should let Liliy finish this."

"Are you sure this is the place?" Leecher asked as they drove through the gate of the abandoned industrial plant.

{Affirmative. I have confirmed it myself with a flyover.} answered Echo. {There is a human presence there and it is within driving distance of both incidents.}

"Is Kilo ready to go?"

{Ready and waiting, commander.}

"Then let's get this over with." Leecher transformed and moved deeper into the plant on ped.

It wasn't long before Leecher detected another energon signature close by. Nemesis Prime attempted to attack them from behind but they dodged out of the way and spun to face it.

"So you have finally come out, Nemesis Prime. Or should we just call you Silas?"

"I'm honored that you remembered my name," it replied, this time with Silas' voice rather than Prime's. "Won't you give me yours that I know what to call your replica when I build it?"

"Show that organic face of yours and we might."

"Tell you what. If you can beat my robot chassis, I will personally come out there and greet you."

"Regardless of whether we beat your toy or not, we will greet you. Besides, we won't be fighting you. That's what he is for."

Kilo appeared behind Leecher. His visor flicked from red to orange as he gazed down at Nemesis Prime who stared up at him.

"Some of you are capable of moving at hyper speed? I must have that tech."

"Have a bout with this big guy and we might consider it," Leecher said as they stepped out of the way.

Silas could only sit in his command chair and watch helplessly as a myriad of errors popped up across the monitor before him while the giant mech outside tore his robot limb from limb. The video went blank when the mech's servo closed over the robot's helm, probably crushing it.

"Sir, what should we do?" asked one of his men.

"So the big guy's finished already, huh?" Leecher's voice echoed in the tunnel that led to the outside. The matte black El Camino rolled into the room and stopped.

"You really did come to greet me," Silas said, standing from the chair and facing them.

Several MECH agents gathered, most of them were carrying guns and aiming at Leecher. Silas signaled for them to hold fire.

"We came to get revenge on you for nearly killing one of our subordinates," replied Leecher.

"You mean that gray robot from earlier? An excellent fighter, that one."

"They all are. We trained them ourself."

"And who exactly are you? You seem to be different from the others."

"Would you like to see our true form?"

The driver door opened and Liliy stepped out in her human form. She wore Leech's preferred outfit of a fitted tee, cargo pants, and combat boots, all black. But most importantly, she had both arms.

"A human?" gasped one of the men.

Even though he did not speak, there was recognition in Silas' expression. He obviously remembered her from the attack on the warehouse.

"Only when we wish to be seen as such," she answered.

"We?" repeated Silas.

Liliy transformed and brought out her staff as well. Leech hung off her left shoulder, tails writhing like snakes.

"We." Liliy and Leech spoke in sync.

"You're one of them?!"

"But of course. And we are tired of you trying to plunder our tech."

"Even if you stop me. Stop MECH. There will be others."

One of the men off to the side got one of their specialized guns that fired electro-charges. He aimed at Liliy and was slowly squeezing the trigger.

"Oh, we know." There was a slight shift in her stance. "And we'll deal with them when the time comes."

They never saw her move but Leech was suddenly holding that big gun with the man's gloved hand still on the trigger. The end of the severed arm was burned black as if cut by something very hot, like a laser. The rest of the man lay on the floor where he had been standing but he was in two pieces.

The obvious fear that filled the room made Liliy smile.

"You know, one of the most interesting things I learned about your culture is that the scythe is often used to represent death." A low hum filled the air when she activated her blade. "And Scythe just happens to be my designation." Liliy swung her scythe and decapitated the nearest human. Then she vanished.

Silas could only stand there and watch as his men fell. And they fell at random. One in front. In the back. In the middle on the other side of the room. They tried to run. They really did. But they never made it very far. He just stood there until the floor was covered in dismembered corpses and the air reeked of burnt flesh.

"How did it come to this?" he asked.

Liliy stopped in front of him, her blade inactive. "Your first mistake was trying to steal the DNGS from Agent Fowler. Things just escalated from there."

He smiled suddenly. "You and I are not much different, you know. Killing without hesitation to get what we want."

"We are killing MECH to protect our fellow Cybertronians and the rest of mankind from your warmongering!"

"You keep telling yourself that, but in reality-"

"Oh, shut up." She swung her staff, the blade reactivating.

Silas' head hit the floor with a thud, but his body remained upright for a moment before it toppled over.

"You and I are nothing alike," she told the corpse. "If anything, you were a Decepticon in human skin."

"What should we do, Lil'?" asked Leech. "There might be more MECH agents out there. The organization could come back."

"We'll keep an audial to the ground this time. If they show up again, we'll deal with them. But for now, the biggest threat was Silas." She accessed her comm and dialed Agent Fowler.

{Fowler.}

"It's done."

{Silas is dead?}

"Along with all the MECH agents that were here with him."

{I have a feeling my superiors are not going to happy about this.}

"Sending you the coordinates. Please take care of the rest."

{Sure…} There was a pause. {Liliy?}

"Hm?"

{Are you alright?}

"I've been worse."

{That doesn't answer my question.}

"See you when you get here." And hung up on him.

When Agent Fowler arrived with the cleanup crew, Liliy was waiting for him at the front gate. However, he had no idea it was her. She appeared to be a man in his late forties, maybe with some Asian descent. Dressed in a black suit and tie typical of some government agents, she had black hair and dark rimmed glasses. And her eyes… while the right one was her usual reddish brown, the left was more orange in color.

"Special Agent Fowler?" she asked in Leech's voice as she pushed off the matte black El Camino to greet him. "Special Agent Lin Lee." She flashed a badge at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Miss Scythe called and said you might need some help. She already informed me of the situation."

"Is she here still?"

She stepped closer and lowered her voice. "Not as you normally perceive her but yes."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Aliases don't have to be just names, Agent Fowler."

Fowler's brows furrowed. "Impersonating a government officer is a crime you know."

"I'm not impersonating anything. Lin Lee is a legit agent. He's just been around a lot longer than humanly possible."

He glared at her for a moment longer before relenting. "Fine. But stay out of trouble."

"I'll do my best."

Agent Fowler had been a soldier and had seen a lot already, so he thought he was prepared for anything his current job could throw at him. Unfortunately, that was not the case when he entered the building and saw the carnage Liliy left behind. She, as Agent Lee, had elected to stay outside and oversee the collection of Silas' robot.

That had been a bit disturbing as well. Seeing a robot that looked like Optimus, laying in a bunch of pieces with energon leaking everywhere. That was a state he never wanted to see any of the Bots in. Especially the way the helm looked like it had been crushed like a tin can.

Seeing firsthand how dangerous the Cybertronian Rebel Corps could be, he had to remind himself that they weren't Autobots. From what he had heard, all of them were former Decepticons, with the exception of Liliy and her SIC. However, looking around at the corpses that littered the floor, he realized that factions didn't mean much if all Cybertronians wanted to hurt humans. Even Prime and his little team could make a giant mess if they really wanted to. But he was glad that they did not. And that Liliy, for the most part, did not. He would have to talk to her about her team though.

Sighing, he pushed aside that thought for later as he watched the cleanup crew bag Silas' headless body. Right now there was a lot of work to do.

To be continued...