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

PAN (Pre Authoress Note): Please check out my poll on my profile! It would help me out a lot if you made a choice on it! =)

Vox: You are planning something Authoress.

Authoress: What makes you think that?

Tana: *shakes helm* Maybe because you have an evil smirk on your face.

Authoress: *evil smirk* Well, that is explained in the chapter...*evil laughter**devious planning smirk*

Chapter 15: Stronger

Vox's 1st P.O.V.

I knew that tonight was going to be very interesting. Tonight, we were all going to the concert that Pandimala and Honeywhip got tickets for from Marge Johannson in Egypt. Seemed like it should be a good time and, despite what happened with Balm and Pandimala at the club, the test was a success and we felt ready for tonight. Right now, we were all just relaxing in our own ways before we would have to get ready to go to the concert. I was heading to the bridge of Estia where Remcy and Zarron where, Honeywhip and Balm were doing a check of med-bay, and Scorpi was watching Pandimala and Tana do some training.

Of course, saying that 'Mala was training would be a very positive spin on the situation.

Ever since we got back from Jaxon's, Pandimala had been in a bad mood about Nathan. His accusing her of instigating the fight with Chrissa did not help her frustration right now. I had walked by the training room just a few clicks ago and I could hear that, at the very least, 'Mala was going all out.

When I arrived on the bridge, Zarron and Remcy turned toward me before the former one spoke. "Did you pass the training room on your way here?"

I gave a nod. "Yeah, it sounds like at least one bot is tearing it up in there."

"My bet's on 'Mala." Remcy laughed. "She was not happy last night with that Nathan guy."

"She is not going to be happy that we are going to be seeing him tonight," Zarron added with a sigh.

I furrowed my optic ridges at that. "You bots haven't told her yet, have you?" I figured it would be best if we waited until the two saw each other to let 'Mala know that Nathan was one of the hosts of this concert series.

Both of them shook their helms. "Nah, didn't seem like the healthiest thing to do with how 'Mala is acting right now," Remcy spoke.

Zarron nodded. "Yeah, and you remember how she was like when we were growing up. If she found out she was going to have to see somebot she didn't like, she was in a bad mood for the whole time before."

And he was right. I remembered one solar in particular that had happened. About four stellars after Pandimala had come to live at housing with us, two other housing hosts, called Spindle and Loka, had to work double shifts at their jobs and needed Joint and Blockade to watch the four younglings they had until they could pick them up. I found out that the four bots who we were getting. Two were new bots, femmes called Glesnia and Stitch. However, we had already met the other two, who were mechs, before that. Astrolight and Retrostrike. When I told Pandimala and the others that Astrolight was going to be staying at our place, she acted like she was now and when the four of them got there, she glared at Astrolight and watched him as if her spark depended on it. It made the other three nervous until Tana, Zarron, and I reassured them a few times that 'Mala was only mad at Astrolight.

"So we are all in agreement to not tell 'Mala about Nathan?" I asked them just to make sure.

Both mechs nodded once. Okay, so we were decided.

And not a nano too soon as the doors opened behind me and the others, including 'Mala, walked in. "Alright bots, we are going to have to leave early since we have those special VIP pass tickets thanks to Marge." Pandimala started as she stood at the helm. "However, before we leave, we need to make sure that we all understand the rules for tonight."

"First of all," Balm started, "No getting into fights. We are there to enjoy the concert and we would be kicked out if we got into any trouble." It was hard not to shake my helm at that one. Once Pandimala saw Nathan Knight, then I was sure that we were going to have to hold the femme back from breaking that rule.

"Second," Pandimala took over. "Each of us has chosen a buddy to go with them while we are at the concert. No separating from that buddy unless you change buddies with somebot else. I don't want a repeat of what happened at the club. You all remember who your buddies are?"

"I'm with Balm," Scorpi spoke up.

"I'll be with Zarron." And that was Honeywhip.

I then motioned over to Remcy. "I'm with Remcy."

"And of course I'm going to be with you 'Mala," Tana added at the end and, even though Pandimala had her back to Tana, the rest of us could see the dread that the femme showed on her faceplate. I was pretty sure that all of us except for Pandimala knew that Nathan Knight was going to be there tonight. Tana probably already knew she was going to be the one responsible for pulling Pandimala off of the man.

"Good," Pandimala then motioned to all of us. "Lastly," Wait, what was she going to say? She had covered everything that we needed to know with the first two. Stay with our buddies and no fighting, the last of which we were all sure Pandimala was going to break. "Remember that we are at a concert bots, and have some fun. We are going to enjoy ourselves at this." Ah, that made sense.

"Well, if that is all," Honeywhip started before he motioned to the back of the ship. "Then we have a ground bridge to take to the concert."

On the Estia, we had found that there was an experimental device that was supposed to be a moveable, scaled-down version of a space bridge that would allow bots to space bridge from on a ship. Before we had crashed, I had looked at it with Zarron and Remcy and, while the device never worked for space transportation, we were able to get the device working for transportation on a planet-scale. There were still some bugs with it if we used the newly-named ground bridge too often, and it had to have a ten click cooling period before it could be used again, but we were hoping to fix those bugs.

Once Pandimala nodded, Remcy typed in the coordinates we had decided to bridge Honeywhip and Scorpi's alt modes to before they transformed. Once the bridge was open, the rest of us activated our soliforms and got inside their alt modes. It wasn't long before they were driving through.

I was sitting in Honeywhip's passenger seat, with Ryan and Ashland in the back seat and Horus driving. The femmes were all in Scorpi right now. "So," Horus started as we drove down some dirt roads toward the venue, "want to start the betting pool? I think that she is going to be mad at all of us for keeping the fact that Nathan is going to be here from her."

Beam's 1st P.O.V.

I sighed in relief as I took out the VIP list. The concert was going even better than we had hoped and, given what happened last night, then I was glad for it. Frag had Chaom wanted to tear into Stormfire for dragging him out of the bar. I wasn't sure what the situation was about, but getting into a fight with Lizzie didn't seem like the best way for Chaom to have handled that. Of course, Stormfire seemed oblivious to Chaom when he had said goodbye to the family of adopted siblings. I had hoped for more time to talk with Ashland but, with the tension between Chaom and Lizzie, it was for the better that we left.

That was especially, once we got Chaom into my alt mode and we left, that Stormfire laid out exactly what happened between Chrissa and her groupies and Lizzie and Alice. I don't think I have ever seen the mech, in soliform or not, go from angry to remorseful so fast. And Stormfire hadn't been nice about laying it out for Chaom. I could tell that Stormfire was close to Alice already and Chaom and Lizzie fighting had upset her so, of course, he had been upset that she was upset.

Well, that was yesterday and I had work to do. So, I glanced down the list while checking the names. However, near the bottom of the list, I hesitated. Next to Marge's name, there was a note about a group of eight coming in her place. When I saw the names of the people coming, though, I smirked. I wondered why Stormfire had said that he hoped to see Alice soon when he had been dragging Nathan out of there. Now, I was sure I knew why. Instead of Marge coming, Alice, Ashland, and their family were coming in her place.

And I would bet every credit that I had that Stormfire hadn't told Chaom yet.

Oh, this was going to be a long day. But, at least I was going to be able to talk with Ashland some more. I enjoyed talking to him last night, and I hadn't been kidding about his looks. He was slagging fine and, unlike many males of many species that I had met, he had a brain that was even better than his looks. One of the topics we were able to talk about last night had been the legality of listening in on private devices. The guy debated with me like he was simply breathing.

Also, if I saw him tonight, maybe I could ask him why he laughed when I suggested that he could be a ninja with his looks. I wasn't even trying to be funny when I said that, but the guy had laughed like I had made the golden joke of jokes. I would have asked him about it last night but he had, at that point, been dragged away by his brother Horus because of what ended up being the attack against their sister Alice.

"Ms. Nicols," The voice of Steven Jones, our head of security for this event, came over my headset.

"I'm here," I responded to him immediately.

"I'm at the front gate right now and that group of eight who are here instead of Marge are here." Ah, so they had arrived. That was oddly good timing. But, it was a good thing that they were early. Now, we would be able to get all the crap between Lizzie and Chaom into the air and enjoy the rest of the night. I did not want to be cleaning up any fights between those two when I could be talking with Ashland some more.

"I'm on my way to you now," I responded to him before heading to the gate.

As I walked, I felt excited. This was going to be a fun night and, as long as Chaom and Lizzie didn't get into a fight, then I knew that I was going to enjoy it. However, as I walked into view of the family of eight, I saw a look of suspicion in Lizzie's eyes that meant that she did not know that we were going to be here. Great. That meant another fight. But, I wouldn't tell her now that he was here. It would be best if they both found out at the same time.

"Hey Jazmine, I didn't know you would be here," Ashland spoke in surprise when I got up to them. Well, almost a surprise. While his face said surprise, his eyes were saying that he knew that I was going to be there. Yep, he at least was keeping the fact that Chaom was here from Lizzie.

I smiled at them. "Yeah, I work for the company involved with organizing festivals like Metal Aliens. Usually, I coordinate our VIPs and help make sure that the different performances are running smoothly. Of course, that's why I get to come and greet you all. Now, if you'll all take these," I handed Ashland their backstage passes and, as he passed them to his other family members, I continued. "And follow me to the backstage area. There are a couple of people you need to meet before you can go off. They'll be who you go to if there are any problems that you find yourself facing."

They all nodded at that and so I led them toward one of the backstage areas and the area that Stormfire and Chaom were right now. It was best to get this over with now than drag it out with a tour of the place. Plus, I was pretty sure that Stormfire would have my helm if I didn't let him take Alice on the tour.

It seemed like no time at all went by as I found myself leading the group up to Stormfire and Chaom, the latter who had his back to us. Oh joy, this was going to be fun. "Oh, hi Jaz. Are these the VIPs?" Oh, Storm couldn't fool me. I could tell that he knew that they were going to be VIPs today. He practically looked giddy when he looked toward my right, which was where Alice currently was.

But, I could answer him anyways. "Yeah, they are the ones that Marge sent in her place." I had stepped to the side at this point to let them see each other better.

That immediately got Chaom's soliform to turn. Once it did though, I saw both him and Lizzie tense as they took in each other. Chaom looked surprised. Of course, that was an understatement. However, Lizzie looked surprised and on the edge of tearing out someone's throat. He did hit a nerve of hers last night. Well, this was going to be entertaining.

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

Slagger. Oh wait, let me correct that. Slaggers. Every single bot behind me and the three humans in front of me. From the tense way that Jazmine looked when she had stepped aside and the knowing look on Matt's face, they had known that we were going to be the ones showing up. And, our of the corner of my soliform's eyes, I could see that every single soliform that came with me knew that those three...and especially he was going to be here.

Then, there was the actual fragging glitch himself. Primus, I wanted to tear into him. Just accusing me of attacking those other girls, without being provoked, and not hearing my side of the story was stupid of him. I mean, who did that? One of the first lessons we learned after boot camp was that one should never jump to conclusions about anything. When you first came into a situation, you never assumed that your first sources had all the information.

Yet, this idiot in front of me did just that. Then, he had the gall to try and force me to go back and apologize to that fragging glitch of a human girl. I wouldn't stand for that kind of behavior. I knew that Matt was a good guy, seeing as he helped Balm and I out and got the idiot in front of me away from us, and from how Zarron had talked about Jazmine, then she seemed to be a girl with her head on right. However, the behavior of two people did not make up for the rash and irresponsible way that Nathan had acted.

"Ah...hi...hi Lizzie." Nathan got out with a surprised look still on his face. His continued surprise was probably the only reason that I hadn't started lashing out at the idiot yet. Depending on how he reacted to what I was about to say, then we would see how I would tear him apart.

"Nathan." That was all I said as I gave one nod in his direction. I was still not happy with him and I wanted him to know that.

I was expecting many different reactions from the human. However, one that I was not ready for was the immense look of guilt that suddenly came across his face. What the frag was that about? I wasn't prepared for him to look like that. Maybe on the defense, disgusted, and a few other negative reactions were on my list of how he was going to react. However, I didn't see any of those in the eyes of the human, or in his behavior for that matter.

Matt suddenly nudged Nathan's shoulder, causing the human to move closer to me. Nathan, in turn, shot Matta a look before he turned back to me. "Um…Lizzie. I...well...I want to apologize for how I behaved last night. I shouldn't have just taken Chrissa's word about what happened without getting your side fo things. And then trying to force you to go and apologize was wrong. I am so sorry."

My soliform's eyes were wide when I heard the apology come out of Nathan's mouth. I did not expect the human to apologize to me this soon after the incident happened. It threw me off of how I should be reacting. I had been mad at him for what happened last night.

But, as I looked into his eyes and saw how sincere he looked, I let go of the anger. He was apologizing and that meant that I should give him the benefit of a second chance. "Apology accepted." I then walked up to him and held out my hand to him. "Friends?"

The relief that passed across his face was immediate when he nodded and took my hand. "Definitely." The two of us then shook hands, to what I could see was the relief of the others, before we let go of each other's hands. "So, you met Marge. How did that happen?"

Smiling, I motioned to Horus. "Horus and I were on a trip to Egypt not too long ago and ended up buying some items from her stand. When we told her about returning to this part of the world, she offered her tickets to us and I couldn't convince her otherwise."

"Well, Marge is my friend and all, but I'm glad you got to come instead," Nathan responded with a smile. ...Was it getting hot here, or was it just the soliform acting up? My face felt extremely hot all of a sudden and I noticed that the others from my group were smirking. Looking back to Nathan, I saw his face turn slightly red. "I...I mean I'm glad all of you were able to attend tonight. Really. Thank you all so much for coming tonight."

Thankfully for him, someone from the production group came up to him and whispered something in his ear. Nathan nodded and so the guy went away. "Time to start?" Matt asked him, standing next to Alice already.

Nathan nodded at Matt. "Yeah," He then hesitated before looking at me. "Hey Lizzie, I usually have someone out there with me when I kick the concert off and I usually let them sing a song with me. Would you like to come out?"

"She sure will."

I glanced at Vox's soliform, who had a smirk on his face before said soliform nudged me up toward Nathan. Well, no turning back now. I was going to murder every single one of my friends here when we got back to the ship.

Stormfire's 1st P.O.V.

Well, frag, that worked out a lot better it would.

I figured that keeping Lizzie's arrival from Chaom would make sure that the mech couldn't find an excuse to avoid Lizzie while he thought of a proper apology. Since I had been his friend since we were both sparklings, I knew that was what the mech would do. It was what he was raised to react like. But, I knew that most regular beings, especially humans, didn't like to hear something that was rehearsed. That was especially in the case of apologies.

From how Lizzie reacted when she first caught sight of Chaom, her family had kept his appearance tonight from her as well. Of course, she had looked like the Pit hath no fury when she did see him. In that click, I had truly felt worried about Chaom's soliform living through the night.

From their strained greetings to each other, I could tell that Chaom needed a true wingman and so I had nudged him forward and he finally got that blasted apology out of his mouth. Of course, the surprised look on Lizzie's face as a surprise but a good one. It was really funny to see the girl look so flustered. From what I saw last night, she could handle herself in a situation and seeing her falter there had been great.

I was even more relieved that the two had decided to start over and put the trouble that last night had caused behind them. Of course, it was easy to see that Chaom had already fallen helm over pedes for the human female. I was pretty sure that he had fallen for Lizzie last night, love at first sight and all.

But, as I watched the two of them sing from backstage, I suddenly had a great feeling that I was witnessing the beginning of something truly amazing between the two of them. Lizzie and Chaom, they seemed to already have a dynamic between the two fo them which, like the song they were singing said, would make them stronger than they were before. Each of them had their strengths, I had seen that much from Lizzie and I knew Chaom. However, joining forces together, the two of them were going to take the world by the helm and not turn back.

"I'm glad that those two were able to make up." A smile beamed onto my face when Alice stood next to me while saying that. "They...they look amazing up there."

"They aren't the only ones." I immediately flirted with Alice. I felt warmth in my cheeks when she blushed at that.

"W...well you do look amazing Matt." That warmth from before? Now a full-blown heatwave.

To quickly back out of that losing battle for me, I decided that I wanted to get to know even more about Alice. "So, when you aren't getting into fights at clubs, what do you like to do?"

She let out a light laugh at that. "W...well, I like to just take w...walks outside, see what the world wants to sh...show me. I also like watching live shows. Operas are some of my f...favorites to watch." She then sighed. "But I h...haven't done anything l...like that for a while."

While I wasn't sure why that was for her, I knew that before we got to Earth that was the same for me. "I know what you mean Alice. I have times when I feel like I'm always keeping an eye out on what's behind me."

"W...why's that?"

A sigh escaped me at that. While wanting to stay neutral in the fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons was the main reason we had told Chaom's creators to let them let us leave Sigma Six...it wasn't the only reason. Beam, Chaom, and I knew that, eventually, Chaom's creators were going to come after him, and he wasn't going to be going without a fight. I was always ready to fight off whoever the decided to send.

But, to make the answer easier on Alice, I decided to give a basic version. "Well, Nathan has trouble in his past that will most likely track him down one day. The three of us are always tensed for that situation."

While the girl looked slightly surprised at that, I was surprised to see a look of understanding cross her face. "G...guess Lizzie and Nathan have something in common in that." What?! "Lizzie...she was forced to leave our home b...because of something she couldn't control. The rest of us...we followed her to support her. But, we know that those people who kicked her out...they'll come after her one day. We're just t...trying to live the best we c...can until then." She seemed shaken about thinking about whatever Lizzie was getting away from.

"Have you walked the Prarie Sunset Trail yet?" I asked her, to help her get off of the subject. I had walked the trail partly when we had first arrived here on Earth and it opened my optics to the beauty that organic worlds could truly offer. I had never seen an organic world before coming here to Earth but I had heard all the same gruesome stories that Chaom had from his creators. Stories of acidic monsters ready and waiting to hunt all of us non-organics until there was nothing left. From what I grew up with, they were supposed to be even worse than scraplets.

Which was why the three of us had ultimately decided that Earth was to be our home. Because an organic world was going to be the last place that Chaom's creators were going to come looking for us. However, I would admit that my first few excursions had been terrifying. Then, I had met an old man on that very trail who wheeled next to me as I walked the path. While he laughed at the many times I had been freaked out by bugs coming toward me, and even when he would make moves toward me, he was patient with me and, by the end of our three-mile walk of the fifteen-mile path, I had decided to give humans a chance.

And now, looking at Alice, I realized that I wanted to keep moving in my relationship with humans...and with her.

"No, I haven't. Is it a good path?" Alice seemed excited as she asked that.

Smiling, I motioned to her. "Well, if you would like, we can meet at the trailhead in Garden Plain Monday morning and you can find out."

Alice's face was cherry red now, and I could practically feel the nervousness in my soliform as I waited for her to respond. "Matt a...are y...you asking m...me on a d...date?" Not trusting my vocals, I nodded toward her. She beamed a wide smile at that. "Matt I'd love to!" She yelled before she jumped at me, hugging me.

Honestly, I was the luckiest mech in the universe right now.

Authoress: *evil smirk* Oh, love is in the air. So much fun to be had!

Balm: *nervous* I...I don't like it when you do that Authoress.

Pandimala: *glares at Authoress* None of us do. I'm watching you Authoress.

Authoress: *smirks* Sure.

AN: And here is the next exciting chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this lovely snipped of this story. Nathan and Pandimala seem to be back on the track to something big, and Matt has taken a big step by asking Balm on a date...and she said yes! Plus, Stormfire learns that Lizzie has a past that is going to follow her one day and you the audience learns that Nathan/Chaom is in a similar situation, though how similar remains to be seen.

Next chapter...I don't even want to say a summary on it because it is going to be full of surprises and reveals and one very upset bot. Until then, though, here are the next chapter titles!

Chapter 16: Finding Secrets

Chapter 17: An Unexpected Inheritance

Chapter 18:...(Find out next time!)(And this is going to be a VERY fun chapter when I get to it! *evil laughter*)

Well, that's all for now. Please leave a review, or just say hi in a review so I know you are there, and I will greatly appreciate it! Until next time, TTYL! *listening to music while debating what to type*