Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.


Authoress: Well, I can say that I haven't scrapped this story yet.

Fable: *taps pede* Authoress, you put us on hold. I don't like that.

Trecke: *cries* Authoress my love! Why did you abandon us!?

Authoress: *sighs* Look, I'm updating you now! See! It's been hard to focus on this story lately.


Chapter 5: Meeting the Apocalypse

Fable's 1st P.O.V.

I smirked as I let the water run over me in the washrack. The previous night cycle, I had not expected the yellow bug to be the one, out of the remaining bots on Team Orion who hadn't signed my form, to be the first one here who did so. It was honestly quite refreshing that I had been taken so off guard. With how the bug had acted when we had first arrived on this planet, and my subsequent 'attack' on the mech, I had figured he would take the longest out of the remaining bots to sign. But, sometimes life threw in an unexpected surprise or two and I was not going to complain about that.

Plus, the little bug had thrown in another unexpected surprise when he had asked us to train him. I had been a little upset with the bug at that, since at first, he had asked to train with us, but then the bug had surprised me again and had rephrased the question so he asked for us to train him. I was sure that Trecke had seen the almost immediate reaction of our dear leader and, while that would normally tell me to refuse to train the bug when we were asked separately, something felt different about this.

So, I had tested the bug in my own way. My form was highly important to me and, having the bug go through it and ask me questions he had about it, that allowed me to see what sort of character this bug had. And, from the way that the bug answered the questions, he truly did want to learn whatever we could teach him. It would just be a matter of getting him the experience. The way that the bug asked his questions and reacted to my answers was the main reason that I had agreed to train him.

Plus, what better way for me to mess with the little bug and take a few of his appendages off then to have him training here at base under us three.

Once I felt like I was washed off enough, I turned off the water and grabbed a dry towel before returning to my room. Once I was there, however, I allowed my mind to move to a different, but even more exciting topic then the one I had been thinking on before.

This was the solar that I would be introducing Lizzie to the rest of my team. I had texted Lizzie in the early hours of this morning to make sure that we were good to hang out with her and she had responded pretty quickly that she would meet us this morning when we were ready. I was sure that even Trecke would enjoy Lizzie's company and that just made me even more excited for our excursion. But, first, we were going to have to go through our morning training session. It was the way that we kept up with how we worked together and told us what improvements we needed to make. But, after that was done, we were going to be going out in our soliforms and meeting up with my human friend.

I walked out of my room and made my way to the training room that we were all in the other solar before the Decepticon attack. We had our morning training exercises to go through before we could go out and see Lizzie and that meant that I had to get there. Once I walked into the main rec room, I saw that both my leader and Trecke were there. Perfect. That meant that, once I got my cube of energon, then we would be ready to attack the training program.

"Good morning my leader, Trecke," I greeted both as I filled my cube of energon.

Trecke, like normal, sent me an annoyed look while Sentinel simply nodded before saying, "Good morning Fable. How was your recharge?"

Thankfully, I coud give a positive report to my leader. "All was well. I had the most wonderous dream about all of our enemies restrained to my dissection tables." I then took a drink of my energon.

My response was not taken kindly by Trecke. "Of course that would be a good dream for you." He then sighed and dramatically pointed to himself while saying, "My own dreams were filled with my loves surrounding me in loving embraces." I shook my helm as he let out a lusty sigh at his own imaginings. Something still seemed off to me about our tactician and I would one solar figure him out. But, until we were in less stressfull environments, I would hold back my curiosity and trust him as our leader trusted him.

Our Prime seemed to study the two of us before he sighed and said, "Calm down you two. We should get our training in for the morning if we are to meet up with Fable's new human friend."

I quickly finished my cube before nodding and following our leader to the training room. Once we were inside, our leader started the program and soon we were surrounded by two squads of Decepticon enemies. Perfect for our warmup. I took out my blades and spun them experimentally in my servos before I launched at the nearest enemy to me. This was an easy exercise for us and so, while we were fighting, I decided to bring up a topic that would concern us tomorrow. "Precious leader, how are we planning to train the yellow bug tomorrow?" I dodged a swipe from a Decepticon blade and took out that troop.

I observed our leader push back the squad leader of this group before he started to speak. "I'm not sure. From what little you reported on the other solar, and just from the way that Team Orion acts, then I feel like there are many options that we are going to be able to explore to help train the young mech."

"Another thing that we can work on," Trecke started as he took off the arm of one of his enemies, "is learning more about the mech's training past. That is an example of extremely poor training and I would like to know what pompous idiot of a bot decided that our love bug was trained enough to get out of bootcamp."

I had to agree with that. If I had been the trainer for that young mech's boot camp, I would not have allowed the mech to be graduated with such poor performance. There was only one thing that I could say that the young mech excelled at and it was his speed. However, from what I had observed the other solar before I had interjected in the fight with the Decepticons, the yellow bug relied too heavily on his speed. It was all he seemed to think that he needed. Of course, once we figured out who the blundering idiot was that passed Bumblebee from boot camp, then that might explain the fixation on his speed. "While his only saving grace is the fact that he has an extremely enhanced speed, he might be one of the fastest bots who wasn't born with a mod to have him be so. But, he relies too much on it."

Our leader nodded and took down the last enemy we were facing and, as we regrouped for the second squad wave of Decepticons, he responded. "You're right. If Optimus and Elita would bother to take the time to train with their troops, then that young bot could be a very skilled fighter."

"Many of their team could excel in what they are supposed to if they would train even half as much as we do." Trecke stated as the second squad appeared and we attacked them. "The one called Bulkhead would make an extremely capable fighter from what I found in his records, and a diverse one since he seems to have a smart processor hidden behind that thick block." He then struck out at one of the seekers that we were fighting.

My enemy tried to sweep my pedes out from under me so I jumped and kicked his helm before adding, "Yes, and even the techno-organic has shown signs of being either a tactician or a medic." I then dodged another blow before adding. "She may even be able to become a tactical medic with training. Add in her young age and she could be a master to rival the best."

Our leader took out two seekers that were near him before he even added his bit. "Even Optimus and Elita could improve with their leadership and fighting skills if they would only take the time to practice." He then blocked a blow from a tank mech before adding, "You don't need training room equipment like this to become better. But, Optimus and Elita just keep letting that team of theirs do whatever they want." He then offlined the last of the enemy before he paused. "Of course, that might be a good thing for Bumblebee since he has decided to use that freedom to garner our help."

He then shut down the program and motioned us to the washracks attached. Once we were in and the water started, Trecke decided to pick up the conversation. "My love, remember back when you first recruited me and we could almost never get into the training rooms?"

While our leader nodded at that, I was not so privileged with this information. I was new to the team, technically, and while I had learned much about before I joined, this was something new. "What do you mean Trecke?"

The intelligence mech looked at me with a studying look like usual, though the water going down his chassis was making the effect he wanted to happen not happen so much, before he answered me, "Well Fable," And as sharp when addressing me as ever too. "when we first started this team, my love was still being shunned for disobeying orders, though we know that wasn't his fault." The Archa 7 incident. "So, many of the practice centers always seemed to be full when we wanted to sign up and train. While I was upset with this at the time, our glorious leader just moved on and, thanks to a barkeeper he met in boot camp called Slapjack, we were able to use a practice ring that the lovely Slapjack kept not far from his bar. It was a good bit of one versus one training during that time. Eventually, though, the Guardians, who are friends of Slapjack's, offered to let us use their training rooms to get more experience working together. We were very grateful to the Guardians and, with that and training at Slapjack's ring still, we were able to impress other training centers and they finally let us in. But, we usually worked with the Guardians' one or at Slapjack's field."

This was interesting. I had no idea that our team had connections with the Guardians. Plus, Slapjack's place was almost up there in fame with Maccadams...and better for your reputation to go to. Maccadams was alright but too much shady dealings to go there often. When we ever returned to Cybertron, I hoped that our leader and Trecke would introduce me to the contacts that they had made for our team. "That's very interesting." I commented with an impressed tone as I dried off.

We all dried off in silence and once we were done, made our way to the main rec room. That was where we were going to leave our chassis to go and meet with Lizzie. Since the park wasn't that far of a walk from our base, then we were planning to just enjoy a walk. "Hey Raum, this is Lizzie. I'll be at the park in about five minutes. Let me know when you are here. ~Lizzie"

Oh good! Lizzie was already almost there and we should be there soon. But first, I had to inform Sentinel of Lizzie's message. "Precious leader," He and Trecke turned to me as I continued. "I just received a text from Lizzie. She is almost at the park. How long should I tell her we will take?"

We all transformed at that point and we all activated our soliforms. I had seen Trecke's the other solar and I knew what mine was like since I designed it, but I now took this opportunity to study our leader's soliform. His soliform was lightly tanned with eyes that were just a few shades darker than my own, stood just taller than I did, and had dark blue hair with dark orange bangs that seemed to be styled liked the rest of his hair so they were off his forehead...yes I think that was what Lizzie said humans called that part of their bodies. For his clothing, he wore white jeans that fit just right, a blue hooded shirt with an orange undershirt and a black jacket, and black tennis shoes.

In other words, he looked just casual enough to not stand out in public as a human and yet still held an air that told others that he is our leader and he should not be underestimated. "You look ravishing my love of my spark." Micha addressed our leader.

He, in turn, sighed before saying, "Well, in this soliform, I am known as Michael Lincoln." We all then walked out of the base and, once we were sure the doors were closed, we made our way to the park. As we walked, however, it seemed like our leader had more questions for me. "Raum, what more can you tell us about this Lizzie human?"

Lizzie? Well, let's see here… "She is a human woman of about twenty-two stellars old. In human terms, she has just started her adult time of existence. She actually works for the hospital she volunteers at as a receptionist. But, when she is off and she has time, she volunteers to visit the patients who don't have many visitors. She likes watching something called 'anime' though I need to do more research to find out what that is, dark chocolate candies, dogs, and she likes helping others however she can. She doesn't like mint, reality television, mice, insects, snakes, bullies, and people who do nothing to contribute to society. The last bit was quoted directly from Lizzie."

"Seems like an interesting human." Trecke smiled and seemed to become thoughtful.

Just to make him upset with me, I decided to add in some of the information that I dissected from studying Lizzie with my optics. "She is five foot nine inches tall, one hundred and sixty pounds, twenty-seven inch waistline, and a sixty centimeter bust,"

I couldn't dodge the fist that Micha threw at me before it hit the top of my head. "That's not something you should be saying about a lady, Raum!" Micha yelled at me.

A smirk grew widely on my face as I stuck my tongue out at Micha and ran ahead into the park. "Only if you catch me!" I taunted Micha before running away from my soliform teammate.

As we ran, I could hear Micha yelling at me as he chased me around the trees. This was a lot of fun! These human bodies allow more flexibility than even I was used to. I let out a laugh as I jumped against a tree to dodge Micha's grab and then used that to vault me forward. "Raum you stop right now! Michael is coming and we need to prepare to meet your human friend!"

Again, I stuck out my tongue at Micha and went to continue running. But, before I could, I felt a similarly sized mass as myself, though proportioned differently, seemingly tackle me from the side and I landed on the ground, the mass that tackled me above me. Once I looked up, I smiled widely at who was above me. "Hey Raum, saw you all having fun and I had to join in." Lizzie laughed with a smile before getting off of me and helping me up.

Once we were both on our feet, I turned and saw that Michael and Micha were standing there and waiting for me to introduce Lizzie here. So, I motioned to Micha and Michael before saying, "My friend, these are my teammates, Michael Lincoln," I of course started with our leader. He seemed to study Lizzie as he waved to her. "And Micha Forfax." I motioned to Trecke's soliform second and then I motioned to the woman next to me. "Michael, Micha; this is the friend I was telling you about; Lizzie Val!"

Lizzie looked between the two of them before stopping and staring at Michael before smiling widely and saying, "It's nice to meet the both of you!"

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

"Watch where you move that!" I yelled at Lugnut as he moved one of the final monitors into the command center of this base. Finally, we were just about complete with it and could start operations to enter stage one fully. Hopefully, the rest of stage one would go as smoothly as this set-up had been.

It was true, the Decepticon cause had suffered a number of setbacks that would always remain with us. I was not as proud as I once was and understood that I was a major factor to the downfall of our cause before. How could I not take a large amount of responsibility? I was the second in command to a leader who had, at one point and once again, fought for the equality of all Cybertronians, no matter where they came from or who they knew. A leader who would stop the caste system that all of us before could only watch and wonder when it would be over. Lord Megatron brought change.

But at the first action of a falter, at a point where we were at our lowest as a faction, I failed as second in command. Where I should have stayed steadfast to our goals and reminded Lord Megatron of them, I instead rebelled against him and, eventually, constantly sought him out to take the leadership of the Decepticons from him. There had been nothing I wasn't willing to do to take that leadership from him. I had even created clones of myself from the blank soliforms that we desperately needed to further this goal of mine, though they had been offlined by the Autobots.

In a sense, even though they now seem like a poorly constructed team, we Decepticons owed our current revival to Team Orion. It was their capture of us high command and our leader that awoke each of us to the fact that we had fallen far from our goals. Once we felt like we as Decepticons regrouped enough to work alongside each other once again like we had before, it was a simple matter to escape from the cells of Trypticon Prison.

I would say, though, that it is strange that they converted Trypticon into a prison, when it was meant for so much more. It was a creation of the city-states of Vos, Tarn, and Kaon before the golden age. When the Great War hit, however, it was forgotten by both sides until the Autobots turned it into a prison.

Of course, I digressed. A habit that I hoped to get rid of.

Back on my mental track, once we escaped, we returned here to Earth. Phase one was supposed to be simple. With our fighting returned to how we were before we fell, then Team Orion shouldn't have stood a chance. We tested this with the confrontation at the docks. Like we expected, this Team that had defeated us when we were divided, was pitiful when we were united. Each of us could take on multiple Autobots and keep an optic on each other. And we were even still shaky at working together.

But then, we were caught by surprise with the arrival of Sentinel Prime's team.

"You seem to be thinking deeply." I turned to see Lockdown walking up to me. Once the bounty hunter was close, he studied me for a nano before continuing. "Would any of those deep thoughts concern any new information on Team Chaar?"

I shook my helm in answer to his question before I responded. "No. We have not had any word from them since the past solar. We are expecting a call from them either tonight or tomorrow." It was now my turn to study the bounty hunter for a nano before I asked him a question that tied in with my own thoughts and where they had been going. "Lockdown," he seemed to focus more on me as I leaned against the stone walls of the base. "what do you think about our current situation on Earth with the Autobots at present?" Since he was a bounty hunter during the dark times of the Decepticons, I had a feeling he might have a better view on this situation than we would.

He joined me in leaning against the wall before he looked up and seemed to think. "The situation with the Autobots huh?" He then moved his gaze to stare at the floor and he seemed to deeply think before saying, "Before the reveal of the other Prime's team, I would have said that the only two bots separately we would definitely need to pay attention to would be Prowl and their new intelligence officer; Arcee. Optimus Prime and Elita-One Prime have a small chance to cause issues so they would need to be observed, but not much." Lockdown then shook his helm. "As a team, though, their teamwork is almost laughable. Before the previous solar, I would have said that phase one wouldn't take us nearly as long as we were projecting for the fighting end."

I could hear the proverbial 'but' in his vocals and so I decided to encourage this conversation. "But now?"

Lockdown looked at me from the corner of his optic as he said, "This team is different. From the files that Lord Megatron provided, they haven't been together long as three, though two of them have been for a number of stellars. However, all three of them seemed to predict each other on the battlefield and acted as a team with millions of stellar of experience instead of just a servo-full of solars like this team. Then I would be worried about what they will become with more time. They will cause us problems."

"That's what I was afraid of." I commented to Lockdown. I had seen the bots in action myself, but I was hoping that it was my remnant cautionary reactions that were having me think that they were a large threat. But, with Lockdown agreeing with my fears, then I could not deny that they were going to make phase one much more difficult.

When Lockdown pushed himself off the wall, I paid attention as he started to talk as he walked out of the room. "I have a few contacts that I think might be able to give me some more information on this new team here on Earth. I'll present my findings to Lord Megatron when I find out more." He then walked out.

That would be very helpful. As I pushed myself off the wall and made my way down the tunnels toward the main communication room we set up, I allowed myself to go into my thoughts again. We needed supplies for our plans here on Earth. Oil, building materials for repairs and other projects, and that meant that we were going to have to confront the Autobots again. Sentinel Prime's team was causing me the most worry when it came to this project.

Three Autobots who, on the outside, seemed to not have the right fittings to make a team, but managed to work off of each other and excel.

From the little action we saw of this team at the docks, the most dangerous of the trio seemed to be, surprisingly, the one that was a medic; Fable. His warped sense of his surroundings combined with his seemingly steadfast loyalty in his Prime made him dangerous. All of this added to the combat strength he seemed to possess, to keep Blitzwing of all mechs at bay by himself, was extremely worryingly. If he were to move his focus from Blitzwing, outside of Lord Megatron and maybe Lugnut, this battle medic could keep two of our troops occupied at once and, given our sparsity of troops for the click, that was a scenario that we could not allow to happen.

However, just because he was not as dangerous, that did not mean that their tactician should be taken lightly. Trecke. While this mech seemed to be trying to hide something in his past, his team seemed to not mind this and this allowed Trecke to come up with plans that his team seemed to implement flawlessly and quickly. This was shown with his reading of Megatron and creating a battle plan within a few clicks of arriving to the battle. A dangerous mech in his own right.

Finally, there was the leader himself; Sentinel Prime. While his first couple of interactions with us left little to be desired, those times he was here with the Elite Guard, he seemed a completely different mech when he was with his team. He seemed focused and followed the battle meticulously like a team leader should. At the same time, though, he was not afraid to get into the battle and follow the advice that his tactician gave him. This attitude was completely different from the almost mis-trusting mech I had seen when the Prime had been here with the Elite Guard. The addition of his other team members might account for that now.

"Starscream," I looked up and realized that I had already made my way to the communication's room. Megatron, who had spoke to me, continued from behind the table he was standing by. "we must go over a raid plan for supplies. We cannot afford to take any risks in obtaining these materials if we want phase one to be successful."

I nodded at that and moved next to Megatron before I studied the plan in front of him. While I did, though, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. "If this was just Team Orion we were dealing with, there wouldn't be a real need to be this worried about planning." I then shook my helm. "This team of three is causing this to be more difficult then we planned for."

Our leader studied me for a nano before nodding. "While that might be true, their presence here along with the Autobots that Team Chaar are luring in will help our second phase run much smoother than we had originally anticipated. We just have to persevere until then." He then went to look over the plans for the raid before he paused.

Fearing that he had become lost in his own thoughts, I decided to coax whatever had caused Megatron to pause out of him. "My Lord? Are you alright?"

He turned his gaze back to me before nodding slowly. "Yes. I just recieved a small data-packet that I was waiting for from our spies on Cybertron. They have uncovered the name of Sentinel Prime's team. It is quite the unusual team name, especially for Autobots...but then again that seems to be this team's specialty."

Really? I was curious as well. Most Autobot teams had a noble sort of background to their name but, if this team's name followed their unusual nature as Megatron suggested, then it should be an unusual name. "What?" I asked him.

A smirk seemed to come to Megatron's faceplate before he turned to me and said, "Their team name is Team Apocalypse."

Sentinel's 1st P.O.V.

"Come on guys, two on one isn't fair!" Lizzie yelled out with a laugh as Micha and Raum chased her. I let a smile slip onto my face as I watched the three of them run around this barely lit room for a game Lizzie said was called 'laser tag'. I had already been killed off, thanks to Raum and Lizzie tag teaming me, and so I was watching the three of them go after each other. Plus, this was a good way to train. While I had already fallen, the other two would get valuable training against someone who wasn't a computer program or the actual enemy. They weren't used to training with lizzie and so this game seemed to be a nice addition to our regular routine. Maybe we would come back and train as a team against other teams. Lizzie had said that was an option that we could look at if we wanted to come back here anytime.

Raum seemed to have made a very good connection with this human. She took what we were in stride and that didn't seem to intimidate her in the slightest as she chased around Raum and Micha. It wasn't something that I normally saw from the humans when it came to us. From the reports from Team Orion, and from my own experiences when I was here with the Elite Guard, there were normally two different ways that humans tended to look at us up until now.

The first was that we were a danger and a menace at times when we had to fight. Our size difference was great and so they had every right to worry. One wrong step from one of us could end one of their lives.

Secondly, however, they seemed to look at us in an almost 'god' like status. Did humans really need another religion based around beings who knew that they were not really gods and had told them that? We weren't gods? Gods were beings that rarely made a mistake and were almost always in the right when it came to a decision. Cybertronians were not that. We were just another species that had our own forms of worship, that had our own problems, and who shared many things about our psychological characteristics with the humans who tried to almost worship us.

But, Lizzie seemed to be showing that there were definitely more than those two categories. While it was obvious that she did not hate us, since she was friends with Raum of all soliforms, she also seemed to understand that we were just as fallible as humans were.

A yell of despair coming from Raum had me turning to see Lizzie standing in front of him with a smirk, her laser gun pointed toward him. "I have been defeated!" Raum declared rather dramatically as I shook my head. Seriously, he would attract that much attention just because he was out.

Lizzie let out a laugh at him as she rest her gun against her shoulder before saying, "Don't worry Raum, maybe next time you," She then froze as a buzzer went off from her armor. A shot had been placed against her head, meaning she had taken a kill shot.

"Lizzie my love," Micha started as he walked from where he had been positioned toward us all. "you must watch your own back when it is a free-for-all." He then rested his gun against his own shoulder as he approached with a smile. "If you would have taken cover and had observed your own surroundings after your defeat of Raum, then you would have maybe seen me and had a chance to take me out."

She, in turn, laughed before nodding her head. "Thanks Micha, I'll remember that for next time we are here." Then, she motioned to our armor that we had loaned before saying, "We should probably return these."

That was probably a wise move. So, the three of us followed Lizzie back to the front desk and, once we returned everything that we used, the four of us made our way outside and headed back to the park. We had agreed to go there after this to relax before going to our next objective. I believe Lizzie and Raum had mentioned something about a 'roller rink' that they were planning on taking Micha and me to.

It was strange, stepping outside after being in the darker surroundings that we had been in before. It took a couple of nanos for my soliform's eyes to adjust to the change in light before I followed Lizzie down the stairs. Now that we were outside, though, I found that now was probably the best time to ask her about how she was acting around us. "Lizzie, I have a question for you and I hope that I am not going to sound blunt when I ask it." the other three paused and looked to me as I asked my question. "Why are you so calm around us? Yes, we are your size now but you know that reality is not so. How can you act like we are just three more people that interact with you?"

Lizzie's eyes widened slightly at that before she looked down. "I was wondering when you were going to ask that. I figured that it might be strange for you. Other people have even asked me that when I've met them." She then let out a light chuckle before she continued. "In answer to your question, it is simply that life is too short fo us humans for me to get hung up over differences like that. So what you are a giant metal robotic species from another planet that lives for thousands upon thousands of years? It doesn't matter what we are made of on the outside, it's how we use what is in our very souls, our very beings, to improve the world around us that is important to me." She then smiled a little bit before saying, "Where I work at, if I started to look at the world negatively, then my work would be hindered. I have to give hope to people around me there who might be hopeless. I bring that attitude with me wherever I go. That even includes Cybertronians in disguise as humans." She had her full smile back at the end of that.

She really felt like that. I could tell from the way that she answered my question and she didn't seem to hesitate in any of her resolves. Raum really did find a great human to help us learn more about Earth. I was now looking forward to the next time we got time to see Lizzie and spend time with her.

"Lizzie," Micha started to my surprise, "what do you do for your work? Raum mentioned that you volunteer for a hospital but where do you actually work at?"

That was right. Lizzie just mentioned that she couldn't' afford negativity in her job but she didn't mention what kind of job that she did. I paid more attention as she started to answer Micha. "Oh, I actually work as a receptionist at the hospital I volunteer at. Many of the patients come by and want to talk and so I can't afford to be negative when some of the ones I talk to are fighting for their lives."

Her response seemed to pique Raum's interest as he smirked before saying, "So, you work with medics huh?" She nodded before he continued. "I'd like to see human medical practices at work in person. There isn't any way you could arrange to have me visit would you?"

"Well," Lizzie started. "I think you can all stop by tomorrow if you want. But, you won't be able to stay long if you do. We can get pretty busy at times and having extra healthy bodies around would cause delays...and delays in hospitals are not a good thing."

"Sentinel, are you there?" Optimus suddenly called in over my comm line.

I held a servo to my comm and opened it with Optimus before saying, "Is something wrong?"

The other Prime seemed to hesitate, which was never a good sign with Optimus, before he resonded to that. "No, but can you meet me at the warehouse? I think we need to talk about the current atmostphere between our two teams."

Great, so he was wanting us to get along perfectly. I was not looking forward to this talk, no matter how it went. "We can be there in ten clicks Optimus." I then hung up the comm line and sighed. Something told me that this talk with Optimus about our teams was not going to go well.

"You have to go don't you?" Lizzie asked me with a knowing look.

Nodding, I motioned to the general area where the warehouse base was. "The other team leader here on Earth wants to discuss something with me about our two teams. It would probably be best if all three of us are there."

In return, the human nodded and said, "That's alright. Short notice calls happen all the time at the hospital so I'm used to it." To my surprise, she gave each of us a hug while saying, "Well, this is goodbye for now." She then stepped back before smiling and saying, "Hopefully I'll see you all tomorrow."

"I hope so as well." I responded to her with a nod and a small smile to reciprocate her own. Once she started to move off, I motioned to the others before turning off my soliform program. It felt strange, leaving the level of the humans and returning to my chassis. But, once I returned, I started my engine, as I heard the others follow my lead, before I led my team out of the base and made my way to the warehouse. While I could have let the others of my team stay with Lizzie, something about the tone in Optimus' voice told me that it might be better if I had my team as backup there.

Hopefully, they wouldn't be needed.

Optimus' 1st P.O.V.

I felt nervous as I waited for Sentinel to arrive. Ever since the Archa 7 incident, he had kept true to his word and had cut all ties with Elita and me. I didn't think that Sentinel had felt so strongly about some random stranger being offlined in an accident, but he had taken the triple changer's offlining hard. While I wasn't sure if he had told his own team about what happened on Archa 7, I knew that his team seemed to hold a grudge against ours. That wouldn't do any good if we were to fight the Decepticons here on Earth as efficiently as we could. These were Megatron and his top elites that we were fighting. The Autobot faction could not afford the division between Sentinel's team and our own during a time like this.

No, I hadn't told my own team about the Archa 7 incident. Elita and I had agreed that it would just cause confusion and it was pointless information to share with them. A stranger had offlined that solar and there was nothing that we could do otherwise. True, the femme had helped us, but it was her choice to help us. I shouldn't feel guilty because of that.

The sound of engines caused me to look and I saw that Sentinel and his team had arrived, which caused most of my team to tense. It was strange that Bumblebee didn't tense much, but I didn't think much on that as I locked optics with Sentinel before motioning him over to the corner that I had isolated for the two of us to talk. The others shouldn't hear us if we kept our vocals to a whisper.

Once Sentinel was over to me, I saw that he looked tense and hesitant. He was already on guard about what I wanted to talk about. Hopefully, this wouldn't deter from making progress in this issue. "What do you think we need to talk about?" Sentinel asked as he seemed to study me.

To start my answer, I motioned to the area where both of our teams where. All of our bots had a clear dividing line between them, besides Bumblebee, who seemed to be hesitant talking to Trecke about something while Fable had his optics on me. I would talk with Bumblebee later about what he was talking to Trecke about. "Just look at them Sentinel. Our teams avoid each other for the most part and that is going to cause some tension on the battlefield that the Decepticons are sure to pick up on and use against us."

"So," Sentinel started to respond immediately, "you are saying that I should order my troops to interact positively with your team, whether they wish to or not?" He then shook his helm at that, which caused me to feel slightly upset with Sentinel, before he continued. "Optimus, I'm not going to order my troops to feel a certain way about your team or force them to interact with your team socially. We will b there to fight the Decepticons, but I will not force them to do something that they have no wish to do themselves."

From his tone, and from the interactions that his team had with my own, and the looks that Elita and I received from Fable and Trecke, I realized something. "You told them about what happened on Archa 7, didn't you?" I couldn't believe that Sentinel would have just told bots about what happened back then with how he reacted to it.

I flinched slightly when his look hardened against me. "Of course I did. They are my team and I trust them. Just because you and Elita haven't bothered to inform your own team, that doesn't mean that my team needs to be kept from the truth."

"I trust my team Sentinel!" I harshly whispered to Sentinel. "I'm just not a mech who hangs the past over my helm! It's your team's fault that we aren't working together the best that we can! If you would just forget the past then we could,"

"No!" I heard Sentinel yell before Sentinel's fist met my faceplate. I flinched and staggered back as he threw another one and I barely blocked it. "How dare you ask me to forget the past after all you two did!" At that point, both of our teams were holding us back, though I didn't miss the glares that Fable and Trecke were sending me. "I will never forgive you for what you have done!" Sentinel was rapidly taking intakes and I felt tense to prepare myself for Sentinel coming at me again.

But, at that point, Trecke leaned in and whispered something into Sentinel's audio. After a few clicks, Sentinel nodded and so Trecke moved away before whispering, "I'm sorry Caeser." Why was he sorry?

However, while I wanted to ask that, I was destined to find out as Sentinel looked up. "We will fight the Decepticons with you, Team Orion." He then focused his glare on Elita and me before continuing. "But, I will never let the past be forgotten." His team then led him to the entrance of the base before the three of them transformed and drove off.

Once they were gone, Bumblebee looked between where they had been and me before he stared at me and asked. "Boss bot, what was that about?"

No, they wouldn't understand. But, I wasn't sure how I was going to dissuade them to not ask more questions. Thankfully for me, Elita was here to back me up. "Sentinel can't let go of the past and is being an aft about working with us. We should be fine when we fight the Decepticons though. You should all go and get some recharge." While the others looked accepting of that, though begrudgingly in a couple of cases, I was surprised to see doubt in Bumblebee's optics before he seemed to shake his helm and walk toward his room.

Once they were all gone, I let out a sigh and sat on the couch before speaking. "Sorry Elita. I thought he might listen to me this time. We need to work with his team better to fight the Decepticons but he wouldn't budge."

Elita gave me a knowing look as she sat next to me. "I know Optimus, but we can't help Sentinel. He is being stubborn. The past is in the past and we have to let it go to move on. Yes, we made mistakes back then, but nothing we do now will change that and Sentinel just can't seem to grasp that."

While most of me agreed with her, she didn't see the look in Sentinel's optics a few clicks ago. They were furious. That wasn't the kind of look one normally saw from a bot who had lost a bot they had barely known. There was something that Sentinel knew that we didn't and, with that recent confrontation behind us, I wasn't betting on getting anything out of Sentinel anytime soon.


Sentinel: Well, Lizzie seems like a very interesting human. I am curious about what her involvement is going to be in all of this?

Authoress: *smirks* Well, time should tell.

Trecke: *confused* Is that all you have to say, my lovely Authoress?

Authoress: *nods* All I can say without ruining points for later.


AN: And here is the next chapter! *crickets* Yes, I know I am extremely late in updating this, but hopefully, that will change. *darkness sends disbelieving stares* Yes I know that might not happen but I'm going to try! Anyways, this chapter was a little difficult for me to write but it brought up some points that I hope you call caught.

Plus, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that we finally saw Sentinel take a figurative swing at Optimus. He is not happy about how Optimus just wants to forget about what happened to Pandimala on Archa 7. But, we also get reminded that even Elita and Optimus don't know the whole story about how hard the Archa 7 incident really hit Sentinel.

Next chapter is going to have Team Apocalypse (Sentinel's team) visiting Lizzie at her job and maybe meeting a couple more humans who may be important to the story. Plus, we get to peek in at Bumblebee and how he is dealing with this tension between the two teams. Should be an interesting chapter!

Well, I guess now is the time for the next chapter titles!

Chapter 6: Frailty of Life

Chapter 7: Decepticon Peculiarities

Chapter 8: ...(Find out next time!)

Now, you all know the drill. Drop a review if you want, even to say hi! Until next we meet TTYL! *Thinking about movies I am going to watch tonight*