Revelations of A Different Future

by Shadow Katakura

Sequel to Freedom Fighters. Shadowstalker and Pandimala are back, and are ready for another journey. Now Cybertronians, they have to watch the world they thought they knew transform before their eyes. Friendships are tested, true purposes come to light, and near spark attacks happen as they try to unite the two factions and hopefully end the war. Co-Written with DragonScouter.

12. Flying Mind

Disclaimer: *Massages hand* Ow...how do you even hurt your hand playing golf? *glances around and sees audience* *coughs* Oh, hi everyone! Dragon here with another update to Revelations of a Different Future. Shadow and I are both excited to get the ball rolling on this story again and it seems like we are off to a pretty good start. Now, I just have to buckle down and get this chapter moving so you all can see what 'Mala has been. Oh...and we don't own anything but our OCs. So...without further interruptions...

Shadow and I: *turn off lights and get snacks*

I flinched as Soundwave's attack struck my arm. I would say that I was improving by leaps and bounds since that solar that I had...betrayed the Autobots. No matter how I looked at it, that was what I had done. The only bit of gratefulness that I had was that Shadow knew the true reason behind my betrayal. Even if I never returned to the Autobots, I was sure that I would now at least heal thanks to Shadow's forgiveness.

A yelp escaped me as Soundwave's tentacle glanced off the side of my helm. While it was nice to think of Shadow now, I had to focus on the present and the future. My betrayal of the Autobots would have been for nothing if I could not completely gain the trust and audios of the Decepticons. I had to become one of them to ensure that they would listen to me and take into consideration what I had to say.

And that meant that I could not fail at this training and I had to focus.

So, I grabbed the tentacle that Soundwave was pulling back toward himself. From past bouts with him, I knew that I had very little time to use the tentacle to my advantage before Soundwave simply disconnected it and used the fact that my servos were now occupied with his tentacle to launch an even faster attack against me. So, I pulled at the tentacle and, as the third in command stumbled forward and began to detach it, I released his tentacle from my grasp before I launched forward with one broadsword in my right servo before striking out at the mech.

He could not raise his broad arms completely and I felt a small feeling of accomplishment as my blade glanced against his right shoulder. But, I knew that now was not the time to celebrate. As before, Soundwave used his left arm to push my blade away from him and immediately struck out with his right servo.

I barely raised my left servo in time to deflect his strike against me. However, I was not prepared for him to immediately attack with his left arm. When his clenched servo clashed against the side of my helm, I felt panic take over my systems and, without conscious thought on what I was doing, I turned with his strike while tightening my grip on my sword in my right servo before lashing out in front of me.

A scream came from my own vocals as the tentacle that I did not even realize was against my side shocked me with quite the dosage of electricity. As I hit the floor of the training room and my vision started to fade, I realized that my strike had barely missed Laserbeak and that Soundwave was leaking energon right below where she was attached.

I wasn't sure how long I was in the embrace of the darkness, but when I finally felt my systems come online and my optics start to brighten, I sat up from where I was laying with a deep gasp. What had I almost done? While I still wasn't sure what Soundwave's opinion of me was yet, I did know that I did not

want to hurt Laserbeak. From all that I could tell with how Soundwave interacted with her, she seemed like a very young youngling, though definitely older than a sparkling. I...I had almost…

"Well, you are finally awake." I jumped and turned to see Knockout standing by one of his sinks washing off some energon. He seemed extremely calm and that threw me.

But, my own confusion was not important right now. I had a feeling that Soundwave had already been in here. "Where's Soundwave? Is Laserbeak alright? No bot was hurt too badly were they?" I was almost in a full blown panic trying to get this information from Knockout. I needed to know if they were alright.

Knockout looked slightly surprised at my outburst for a click before he let out a tired sigh and walked up to me. Once he was next to me, he smiled and placed a servo on my shoulder before speaking. "Calm down Pandimala. Both Laserbeak and Soundwave are just fine. To be honest, the shock that Soundwave put on your systems did more damage than your blade did to him." He then leaned closer to my audio before saying, "Honestly, this was the first time in a long time that I have seen Soundwave in here for a training injury. You must have really taken him by surprise if you were able to do that."

While I was relieved that both Soundwave and Laserbeak were okay, I felt more embarrassment at Knockout's praise. "I think I just got lucky K.O. I...honestly I'm not even sure if I was reacting consciously when I did that to him. He struck my helm and suddenly I was a passenger in my own chassis as my arm swung at Soundwave." Then, the rest of what he said about my own condition finally hit me. "Wait...what do you mean that I was more damaged? Just what did that jolt from Soundwave do to me?"

Knockout raised an optic ridge. "You just now caught that?" He then shook his helm before he pulled up a datapad that I assumed had the information that I was asking for. "A few of your combat and flight systems were slightly damaged due to the electricity that Soundwave pumped into you. So, for the solar, you are on medical rest from training. You need to recover before you go at it again."

A sigh of disappointment escaped my lips at that. Honestly, despite the fact that I usually didn't even get this far with the training...and I was usually the only one that had to go to medbay once training was finished, I really enjoyed learning to fight. These were skills that I needed to move forward and, as much as I missed the Autobots and didn't want to fight them, I had to admit that the Decepticons were in a better place to train a triple changer like me and to train me quickly to boot. They had the resources that the Autobots severely lacked.

But, as much as I wanted to continue training, I knew better than to argue with my medic. "Very well." I let out a sigh before a rampant thought suddenly came to my processor and I had to ask about it. "Knockout," The red medic stopped picking dirt from under his digits and focused on me. "you wouldn't happen to know,"

"Pandimala, report to the bridge immediately." I flinched slightly as Lord Megatron's vocals seemed louder in my helm than they normally did.

Knockout looked curious about my question, but I put it on the backburner as I stood up. While I was still slightly sore from that training run with Soundwave, I knew better than to delay in responding to Lord Megatron's summons. "Right away my Lord." I responded to him before I let the comm connection fall and glanced at Knockout. "Put that question on hold red. Our Lord has requested that I report to the bridge and I know it wouldn't be wise to keep him waiting."

At my response, Knockout looked to understand and so I started to make my way to the door. Once the door opened and I started to leave out of it, however, Knockout spoke up. "'Mala, I'll expect you to ask me that question later. You haven't asked me anything in a while and I'm beginning to worry that you've found a new gossip bot."

In return, I shook my head and let out a light chuckle before the door shut and I made my way to the bridge. I could never find a replacement for Knockout as my gossip bot. He had all the juicy details about so many little and probably useless pieces of information that I would randomly ask about. Like how I now knew that Breakdown preferred to mix a little rust from Earth in with his energon when he could. So, if I needed to try and bribe the mech, I could just get a nice supply of Earth rust and wrap it up in a pretty bow.

I let those random thoughts slip to the back of my processor as I arrived on the bridge. I was now in the presence of Lord Megatron and I had to make sure that I was completely focused on him and what he might say to me. I saw Megatron standing at the helm of the bridge and so I moved so I was almost next to him. Not completely next to him, but just enough behind for him to see me. "Lord Megatron, how may I be of service?"

He took a glance at me out of the corner of his optics and I suddenly felt self aware as he silently studied me for a click before he responded to me. "Pandimala, I have reports from Soundwave that say that you have progressed far in your training. I would expect nothing less from one of my Decepticons." He then turned to look at me. "While I understand that Knockout has requested that you have medical leave for the solar, and you shall have it, I wished to inform you that Soundwave will no longer be proctoring your instructions."

Wait...what? From the lore that I knew about the Decepticons of this timeline...and that was quit a lot, Soundwave was supposed to be one of the best fighters on the ship, second to Lord Megatron if the information I had was to be believed. Of course, information from my past dimension might not hold up fully with information in this one. I had to be cautious as to how I approached this. "My Lord, if I may ask?" He gave one short nod, his red optics not leaving me for a nano, before I asked my question. "Who would then take over my instruction?" I could not give any suggestions just in case I slipped on something. For now, it was best that the Decepticons not be completely aware of my origins like the Autobots had been.

It did not take Lord Megatron long to answer me. "For the foreseeable future, I will be seeing to your combat training. You will start reporting to Dreadwing for additional flight training. He will contact you with further information in the near future."

While I was in shock at what I just heard, I knew that I needed to express my gratitude to my...leader. "I am honored my Lord. Thank you for taking the time to train with me." Well, I certainly answered that a lot more calmly than I thought that I would have. Even though the ship was now grounded, due to Bulkhead destroying the engine, I felt like I was flying without any control of what the destination would be. There was a silence between Lord Megatron and myself before Megatron turned to face one of the monitors, causing me to follow his lead, and he addressed Dreadwing. "Dreadwing, damage report." I knew that it had taken a large number of cycles to get the ship into enough working order so that we could assess the damage that was taken. It seemed now was the time that the report was ready...or at least when Lord Megatron was ready for the report, whether it was ready or not.

Thankfully for Dreadwing, it seemed to be so… "We have suffered critical damage of all major systems, Lord Megatron." Well...I didn't say that it was going to be a positive report. "It will be some time before we can get the ship airborne."

I stole a quick glance at our leader after that and was bracing myself for his anger. Instead, Megatron kept one of the best poker faceplates that I had ever seen before he turned to Soundwave...who thanks to Knockout's work didn't look like he had a scratch on him. "Soundwave." It seemed like just Lord Megatron saying Soundwave's designation was enough explanation for the mech for he turned on his screen and we all got to see Bulkhead jump into the air before he brought his wrecking ball down on the engine. Thanks a lot Bulk. "So it was an Autobot who crippled my vessel." My focus was immediately back on the leader as he continued to speak. "They will move quickly to exploit any perceived weakness."

While I wanted to disagree, because that wouldn't sound like the Autobot way of doing things most of the times. I knew that quite a few things that had occurred during recent times against the Autobots...one being my own betrayal, had caused said Autobots to start and act slightly out of character. While it was somewhat difficult to really see, it seemed like Lord Megatron knew his enemy very well.

"Surely they're not foolish enough to launch a direct assault, my liege." I almost jumped when I heard Knockout's vocals from near the doors and I saw that he was at one of the monitors looking at things. When did he get in here?

I shook myself out of that as Megatron responded. "Optimus has grown decidedly more ruthless since our last encounter." Yeah, that would be when he was regaining his memories and the time before that when both were trying to offline each other, and Optimus was not holding back punches that time. I shivered as a look suddenly came into Lord Megatron's optics and I had a feeling that I was not going to like the outcome of whatever he was thinking. "Our last encounter…" Lord Megatron mumbled aloud so even I barely heard him, and he was right next to me, before he suddenly straightened and turned his gaze toward Knockout. "Knockout, with me to the power core."

Knockout looked as nervous as I felt about this entire situation but he followed Lord Megatron out of the room. Once the doors were closed, I felt awkward. Now I was standing pretty much at the helm. But, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.

Thankfully, my knight in shining armor came to my rescue in the form of Dreadwing motioning me to him. So, I did so and, once I was standing next to the new second in command, he started to speak to me. "Pandimala, Lord Megatron has ordered me to start training you in aerial movements meant for combat situations. Of course, he has explained that his lessons in combat with you shall supersede my own lessons with you. May I have your private comm line so I may contact you on when your lessons with me will be?"

He...he was asking me for my private comm? Of course, this was Dreadwing so I knew that he would not just order me to give it to him, though he had every right to as the second in command of the Decepticon forces. But, that brought on a click of hesitation. First off, I wasn't completely sure how to exchange private comm lines. So, I started to investigate the subroutines in my helm to figure out how to do so.

As that was happening, however, the other troublesome bit about this request from him came to processor. I wasn't completely sure how private comms worked. I knew the basis of them, and that they were supposed to act like a cellphone's texting capabilities...but without group chat. Only one on one communication. But, would that mean that no one could get at private messages...or was there a way to get into them? I mean, Cybertronians had the technology to go into another bot's helm and search out their memories for the information that they needed. Surely accessing the private comm system would be possible? Of course, I would have to agree with Dreadwing for now and give it to him. But, I would have to ask Knockout about this later.

If the private comm system couldn't be hacked into, then that might be a way for me to communicate with Shadow and we could keep tabs on each other!

But, I first had to answer Dreadwing and, thankfully, the know-how as to exchanging private comm numbers came through just as I thought that. So, I nodded toward Dreadwing with a neutral look on my faceplate. "That makes sense. It would make knowing about my lessons run much smoother and it will help me to avoid having issues with them crossing into Lord Megatron's lessons with me."

We then exchanged numbers and, once that was finished, Dreadwing gave a nod toward me. Before anything more could be said, I felt a shiver travel through my chassis as the ship started to vibrate. I knew what that meant. It meant that Lord Megatron had placed the dark energon inside of the ship. My spark started to sink in my chestplates as the fluorescent white-like lights above us suddenly shifted to a sickly purple color. A small portion of fear then gripped me as the blue monitors around the room suddenly turned a ruby red in color. I knew that this was going to happen...but I didn't like it still.

Confusion seemed to grip the drones that were on the bridge and they started to look around. Confused and scared mutterings could be heard from them at this sudden change. Even though they weren't high up on the food chain in the Decepticon ranks, they did know when something wasn't right...and this wasn't right.

However, it was the return of a known fear to the drones...and myself, that suddenly caused everybot in the room to return to their posts. Lord Megatron entered the bridge, motioning me to his side along with Dreadwing. Once we were there, Soundwave on Lord Megatron's other side, I glanced out of the window of the now airborne Nemesis and saw that what looked like the Autobots below us.

That was confirmed as Soundwave's visor suddenly showed Lord Megatron...and by proxy Dreadwing and me, the visual of the Autobots, minus Ratchet, in front and below us. Wait...Shadow was here…

A smirk almost fell onto my faceplate at the implication of what that meant. From Soundwave's visual of the 'Bots, I could see the dread and annoyance at what was bound to come on her faceplate.

"Optimus," I focused on Lord Megatron as he spoke. "you never disappoint." He then made a motion to the drones...seriously was I the only one who needed words in the commands given them?

...Anyways, I then watched as the ship suddenly deployed its regular blasters and started to fire on the Autobots. It was strange. Were the drones really that poor at aiming that they couldn't hit any of the bots? I mean, there were now seven Autobots down below, with the inclusion of Cliffjumper, Shadowstalker, and Jazz. Could they seriously not hit even one of them?

When Bumblebee suddenly transformed and ran toward us, spark extractor in servo, I felt my spark go cold. I knew that...to most of them, I was the enemy. But, if something went wrong here and the extractor was able to activate...I realized that our plan with Alpha Trion could very well be going up into smoke...along with my spark!

Thankfully, the ship brought out the stasis beam generator like in the show and, once it was aimed, it fired a shot that hit Bumblebee. I then watched as the extractor went from Arcee, to Jazz. When Jazz was hit and fell into a position that made him look like he was swinging from a vine, Knockout, who had been watching the up close and personal view from a monitor, turned to Lord Megatron. "I didn't realize this ship was equipped with a stasis beam."

Yeah… that might be due to the ship having upgraded itself on the dark energon that was currently powering it. But, it was probably best just to keep my lips sealed. A quick glance at Lord Megatron told me that he seemed slightly...disturbed at this new development...like he wasn't in control like he thought he was.

I couldn't help but slightly shake my helm as Bulkhead tried to get the extractor into position. The poor lug got about two or three steps before the beam hit him and he was down. Cliffjumper then ran forward while Shadow seemed to be yelling at the mech about something, probably about running out into fire against the stasis beam, and he grabbed the device from Bulkhead. He at least made it a decent distance toward the ship before he was struck right before he was about to jump and so he landed faceplate first into the ground.

To my surprise, Optimus was the next one to grab the spark extractor. I had been sure that it would have been Shadow next. But, I really didn't care. As long as that thing did not activate then I would probably be happy with however this episode ended up. Like in the show, however, he dodged a few blasts but was eventually felled in the air by the beam. So, Shadow ran up and took the extractor from him. Since I knew that Fowler was watching her, Shadow had to at least make an effort to get the extractor close enough to activate.

A quick view out of the corner of my optics told me that she was not the only one being observed. From the little I saw out of the corner of my optic, Lord Megatron seemed to be waiting for me to react to Shadow's eventual fall...at least in his optics. Thankfully, this was probably going to turn out pretty funny and so I knew that this would be an easy test for me to pass.

And so it came. Shadow looked like she was about to leap into the air, with one leg bent while the other was sticking out straight, and the beam got her just like that. My optics narrowed slightly and a dark smirk came on my faceplate. Oh, that was so saved in my memory banks and there was no force that was going to take that image out of them. That was hilariously precious.

And two for one, Lord Megatron seemed somewhat pleased at my reaction since he returned full focus on the new situation we now had presented to us. Of course, while it looked like we were about to get the spark extractor and the Autobots as prisoners, I knew better. This ship was about to start its mutiny.

"The spark extractor!" Lord Megatron suddenly started, causing me to jump. "Guide us closer so that I may collect what belongs to me and destroy the Autobots."

Oh slag.

If things changed, then this would not be good. Shadow could be in serious danger but, thanks to me still being on somewhat thin ice with Lord Megatron, I might not be able to stop it until it was too late.

Thankfully, before the drones could steer the ship to do so, the now sentient ship decoded the coordinates for the relic located in New York and took over control of the ship to start flying in that direction. Well, I guess that was a good thing now.

"Uh-oh." I heard Knockout whisper...of course out of script that I knew but I didn't care. It summed up the situation perfectly.

"What?! Where are you going?!" I flinched as Lord Megatron started to yell that from next to me. Made me scared for my spark and I wasn't even the one that he was yelling at. "I said closer!"

The drone that spoke had to have guts since he responded to Lord Megatron calmly and without hesitation. "Lord Megatron, the ship seems to be navigating itself." Yep. That drone had some ball-bearings. I needed to figure out who that drone was.

In the meantime however… "Override." Megatron sounded like he was close to a breaking point and that caused me to worry even more. I was right next to Lord Megatron...practically, and it didn't take my memory long to find a bad connection to standing next to Lord Megatron when he was at a breaking point.

….Though at least I could fly.

The drone then furiously started to type on the controls to try and regain control. But, the ship was having none of that as an alarm went off and the ship continued on its new course. The growl that came out of Lord Megatron as the ship did that caused me to want to go and hide.

So I had no idea how the drone even started to respond to Lord Megatron calmly. Again, that drone had some ball bearings. "The systems are bypassing manual contr." I then flinched as the system suddenly shocked the drone and, after a few seconds, he fell backwards unconscious.

The four of us, that is Lord Megatron, Dreadwing, Knockout, and myself, stared down at the drone before we looked back up and Knockout said what was on my processor at the very least. "It appears the ship now possesses a will of its own."

However, Lord Megatron wasn't quite ready to believe that yet. "Impossible! Trace the problem to its source and fix it!"

"Do not tamper with my systems!" All five of us, yes even the usually all-knowing Soundwave looked up as the ship suddenly addressed us. "This will be your only warning!"

Oh scrap this wasn't going good...for us right now. Timeline wise we were fine but I felt like panicking right now. The ship just tried to order Lord Megatron around. One would think that, since the ship used to be Trypticon, it would know that trying to order Lord Megatron around was not a wise way to go about things.

"Warning!?" Lord Megatron demanded of the ship.

"My mission assumes priority. Any Cybertronian who interferes will be neutralized." Well, creepy ship at least had a creepy voice to match its tone.

But... "My own vessel dares to address me in threatening tones!?" Yeah, Lord Megatron was not happy about that last little bit. I was now standing behind Dreadwing somewhat and felt glad that I was out of reach of our leader right now. Seriously. I was very glad at that prospect.

A beeping noise drew our attentions as Soundwave pointed to a monitor that had coordinates flashing on them. "It also seems to be doing a better job of decoding the project Iacon database than we were." The medic then pointed to the coordinates. "It has already deciphered a new set of coordinates."

Soundwave's visor then pinged and both Dreadwing and I looked to see that Soundwave had the estimated course of the ship heading straight for those coordinates...and New York City as well. "And judging by our current course," Dreadwing started. "that is precisely where the ship is headed."

Lord Megatron then grew a smug look at that news. "As I desire." He then turned back to face forward before saying, "You see, this warship is nothing more than an extension of my very will."

Yeah right. I could see that this was Lord Megatron's attempt at trying to assure the others that the ship was back under his control.

"Your will is nothing." Of course this ship was having none of that. "The Iacon artifact will belong to me."

Now Lord Megatron was back to being not very happy with the ship. "I am Lord Megatron! I command you to cease operations!" Well, I guess if the big bot wasn't getting his way he would try and shut the ship down.

Again, however, the ship was not having any of that. "You are no longer in command." While none of the rest of us were affected by what happened next, I assumed that the dark energon that connected the two was now being used as a weapon against our leader as he suddenly went down to one knee with a yell of pain.

Knockout ran up to our leader, since he was his doctor and all, before Lord Megatron stood back up. "Regain control of this vessel by any means necessary." I shivered at the angry but dark tone of my leader's voice. He was done playing this ship's game and he wanted to end this now.

Ever the loyal Decepticon, Soundwave wasted no time in hooking up his tentacles to a nearby control panel. But, that didn't last long as the systems sent electric energy through them and into Soundwave's chassis. He was knocked out quickly it seemed.

I did not like those odds. "Scrap." I muttered quietly in slight fear.

Lord Megatron realized the seriousness of the situation and started to move toward the exit of the bridge. "All servos, cut power to the mainframe and disconnect data relays now!"

Well, I knew that the best way to get the power reset was to dump whatever energon was in the power core out so I followed behind Lord Megatron. Plus, I had to make sure that a Decepticon was frozen holding the switch so the kids could finish activating it and free us from the online stasis we were all about to be under here on the ship.

When Lord Megatron sent me a curious look, I had a feeling I knew what he was asking. "Lord Megatron. You ordered that we cut power to the mainframe. From what I have been studying about the Nemesis, the best way to do that is by dumping the energon that is currently in the power core."

I was met with what looked like...well, I wasn't sure what kind of look it was but the two of us continued in silence, at one point us running past a paralyzed Dreadwing, until we reached the room with the power core. Since we hadn't received a comm from Knockout, I was guessing that we were slightly deviated from the show in that sense. Oh well. Now that we were in the power core chamber, Lord Megatron just needed to…

When the stasis beam suddenly hit Lord Megatron...before he could get a servo on the lever, I knew that I had to take his place. So, I rushed forward and felt a surge of victory as my servo clasped around the handle. "This mutiny ends now!" I snarled. Yeah, I was only able to take Lord Megatron's line. But, I guess it was worth it. However, as I was pulling back, I felt a paralyzing surge course through my chassis and I realized, with dread, that I was now frozen. Great. Now I had to wait for the kids to get in here.

The only positive I saw in this situation was that I couldn't feel anything on my chassis so standing in one position for too long shouldn't hurt.

"Megatron." And there was Ratchet as punctual with timing as ever. I never really noticed in the show just how in sync the events happening with the Autobots and the events on the Nemesis had actually taken place.

Back to the important thing at servo though. "Megatron has been relieved of his command." The Nemesis answered Ratchet back.

"Who is this?" Ratchet immediately asked the ship.

Of course, from personal frozen experience, I knew that the ship did not like to be questioned. "Who is this?!" Yep, and the ship sounded just as touchy as when we were trying to get it under control.

"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?" Ratchet asked. While the question would be normal enough on a regular sort of day, nothing was regular when dealing with Dark Energon.

And the ship was quick to inform Ratchet of who he really was. "I am the vessel." He then went on to give them the warning that he gave us. "Any Cybertronian who interferes with my mission will be neutralized."

Well, at least it was giving them more of a conversation then it gave us. To be fair, though, Lord Megatron was not a happy bot during most of that talk. "What mission?" Well, Ratchet was certainly going for the information.

But, I think that I was more surprised that the ship actually answered him. "Priority one decrypt Iacon database and recover Decepticon technology." That was pretty straightforward. Guess he wasn't worried about being interfered with.

"For what purpose?" Ratchet tried to press the ship. But, I heard the tell-tale sound of the ship cutting off the communication right there. Well. That was rude.

It felt like I was standing in that same position for cycles, though it was probably only thirty at tops, before I suddenly jumped...or well, I would have jumped, when the ship suddenly spoke...and not in a very happy voice. "System access detected. Interference will not be tolerated." I could tell that it was starting to get irritated that it could not find the humans. Serves the blasted ship right for paralyzing me. Fragger. "Reveal yourself."

Hopefully the kids knew not to do that at all if they could help it. I would like to become unfrozen and the faster that they got in here and did so, the faster that I would be unparalyzed. Who knew what sort of damage this might actually be doing to my systems and I would only have this solar to recover before my lessons with Lord Megatron began.

It wasn't long before the sound of three gasps told me that the kids had finally arrived. "Megatron had the same idea." Jack started off. Of course, they might not see me quite yet.

Of course, it didn't take the kids long to see that I was there as well. "And so did Pandimala." Miko growled. I could feel her anger at me about what I did but, while a small part of me wished that it didn't happen, the rest of me knew that it had to and this was the consequence of doing so.

Thankfully, Raf saw the positive in the situation instead of the negative. "If they both thought of this, then we're on the right track."

And then, of course, Ratchet just had to be the spoiler for the kids. Thankfully, he was on some open comm unit so I could hear as well. "The Energon injection valve can only be operated manually."

"Manually?!" The three of them yelled out together. Yeah, kinda the reason that this would have worked. If it wasn't manual, then the ship could just stop our progress and wouldn't have had to resort to putting the entire Decepticon army into stasis.

"Give me a boost." And that was Jack taking over the leadership like role like he normally did. Even though I didn't hate humans as a Decepticon, I really never could stand Jack...even back in my own dimension. I was never one hundred percent sure why that was but that dislike seemed to still be around.

I internally flinched when I felt Jack's small hands start to crawl up my chassis. Even though I knew humans weren't really comparable to insects, the feeling of Jack crawling up my chassis gave me that exact feeling of unease. I didn't like it and the only reason that I didn't react was because I was still paralyzed. It felt like Jack was taking forever in crawling up my chassis but, once he finally got on the console, I felt relief. It felt so weird, him crawling up me, that I did not want to experience that anytime soon.

Of course, after a few times of Jack trying...and failing, to move the lever that my servo was gripping, the ship finally wisened up and started to scan for carbon based life forms. "I am infested with alien life-forms!" Took you long enough to figure that out you stupid ship. One would think that the warship, since it knew it was on a carbon based world, would have started scans for creatures of that kind of makeup sooner.

"Uh-Oh." Miko started as I could only assume they looked up at the camera claw thing. "We just got made."

I could hear the sound of Miko and Raf running around the floor, and away from the claw while Jack continued to fail to push my servo. I mean really Jack? Do you think that you alone could move my servo? "All parasites will be eradicated!" Um...I hope he was just talking about the kids. As much as I didn't want to see them get hurt, I also didn't want to become toast before the mission from Alpha Trion could continue.

Somehow, Jack must have moved to the floor while I was distracted by my thoughts because I suddenly heard him yell out from my right side. "Hey! Over here!" From the sound of the claw moving, it was already after Jack.

" Jack, no!" And that was Raf being just as worried as he usually was about others.

"Run for it!" And that was Miko, saying the common sense thing for a rare moment. Of course, if you didn't have that kind of common sense, then there was probably something wrong with you.

I focused my attention back to the situation as I heard Jack taunt the ship from behind me. "Too slow!" From the immediate gasps afterwards, I had a feeling that the claw had gotten in front of Jack Stupid Jack. You don't taunt…

Oh scrap. My processor just got caught up with why somebot had to be pulling the lever when the kids got here. Now, I had debated with other Decepticon fans multiple times about where the claw had slammed into Megatron. Some said that it was in his thigh. I personally agreed with the argument that it hit him in his aft, though I would sometimes concede that it might have hit both his thigh and his aft.

However, from the pain coming from my aft when the claw hit me, I could saw with one hundred percent certainty that the claw had definitely hit my aft.

Thankfully, the pain was somewhat worth it as I suddenly felt aware of myself falling backwards, pulling the handle with me. Once my chassis pulled the handle completely, my digits uncurled from the lever and I felt myself start to fall backwards. I mentally flinched in pain as my backplates and wings slammed against the floor of the Nemesis. Ow.

"Critical power drain." I heard the ship growl in an almost angry tone before I heard it say it's final words. "I...am in...command. Prepare to be...neutralized." Sorry ship, but there was only room for one master on the Nemesis and that was Lord Megatron.

I felt relief as the color of the ship started to return to normal. Thank Primus that the dark energon was out of the ship's systems. Now we could return to the daily solars that were normally around us. Unfortunately, when the stasis effect wore off, I started to feel dizzy as I heard Jack say in a worried voice. "Run."

But, I really didn't care about the humans running away. My systems felt like there were oozing and it was hard to focus. I had to get to Knockout, and quickly, so he could take care of my problem. This was probably due to the electrical injuries I sustained during training earlier before all of this happened.

My walk down the halls of the Nemesis took longer than normal, due to the dizziness, and I was surprised that I turned a corner to come across Lord Megatron and Knockout, and from what I heard I had just missed the Autobot ground bridge closing.

"Lord Megatron," Knockout started, "I,"

However, Lord Megatron did not seem like he was in the mood for excuses. "You let them escape," Our leader then glanced up at the monitor that showed the four coordinates and his tone of voice grew even angrier. "with vital intelligence!"

I knew that I had to step in and help Knockout. He was my medic and my gossip bot and I wanted him as happy as possible….also not offline would help too. So, I slightly exaggerated my dizziness and stumbled into the wall near the two of them and kept a very disoriented look on my faceplate. I knew better then to say anything, so I stayed quiet and decided to let Knockout take over. "My Lord, Pandimala seems to be suffering adverse effects due to the combination of the electrical damage to her systems from earlier and from being under the stasis beam for so long. Permission to see to her injuries?"

Lord Megatron looked between the two of us, though I really couldn't tell what sort of look he was giving due to me slightly over exaggerating my dizziness, before I could barely make him out giving one short nod before saying, "Very well. Pandimala preformed as a Decepticon should this solar. Something you could learn from Knockout." He then turned and I could make out him walking away.

"Come on femme, stay conscious for me alright." Knockout muttered as he worked to move my chassis to his medbay. I let him move me most of the distance to med bay before I suddenly 'found' my footing and moved along with him. "Pandimala?" Knockout seemed confused at my sudden slight recovery from my major dizzy spell.

So, I leaned on him for a click, without damaging his finish, before whispering in his audio. "I can't lose my gossip bot doc. I don't think the next bot they get for the job is going to be as fun to talk to."

I could see surprise show in his red optics at that for a click before he smirked. "You are learning to become a Decepticon very quickly Pandimala...I approve." Once we were in the medbay, he helped set me down on the med berth and I found that my vision was completely normal again, though my helm was throbbing like Starscream was doing a tap dance in there with his heeled pedes. "Frag it I left the medicine I'll need for your dizziness back in my room. Ever since those humans took out Breakdown's optic, he has needed a good bit of them. Wait here for me femme."

Nodding, I let the information that he let slip about Breakdown getting his medicine from his room slip as Knockout left the med bay to go and get the medicine. Well, I guess there was nothing else to do now but,

My wings perked up in alert as the sound of a clang came from the vent above me. What the frag was that? Was this some aftershock from the ship having taken over? We never heard of anything from that but we didn't get to see much from the Decepticons afterwards anyways.

I jumped as the vent above me suddenly broke and, when I saw two human-sized shapes dropping in front of me, I reacted instantly and reached out my servos to stop their fall. What in the name of Primus was going on…

"Frag it Frenzy I told you that the vent wasn't going to hold us both at the same time." The red and black mini-bot in my right servo yelled at the blue one in my left.

In return, the blue one looked at the one in my right. "Well I wanted to see the new femme again and you were hogging all the view."

Well, this was getting nowhere. So, I figured that I would get their attention. "Excuse me, but who are you two?" Better start off smart and not 'know' who they are.

Both minibots froze in my servos and slowly turned to look at me, weirdly in sync, before both gulped and stared at me with wide optics. "Oops."

Wow. I type too much… XD Well, here is the end of this very interesting chapter that took many...unexpected turns. *laughs about Pandimala getting spanked by the ship* Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading this all. Please remember that, while we want you all to enjoy our work as soon as we can get it too you, that we are human too….I think, *glances at Shadow then at self* Well, maybe. Either way, we are sentient beings and so we do sometimes have other things that get in the way. So, I hope you all enjoyed! Next chapter starts the relic hunt episodes with Tunnel Vision with Shadow. Wonder what sort of fun will happen?

Shadow and I: Until we meet again! *look for more snacks*