Author's Notes: Out of all of my current fics, this isn't the hardest one to write, but I will say it's been the most neglected. That wasn't intentional, but life gets in the way (not to mention having 14 fics to work on). A lovely review from Cashagon reminded me of this story, and as silly as it sounds just hearing someone say they thought this story was good was enough to make me want to work on it again. So, I've finally got Chapter 3 up, and hopefully I can make more time for the rest of this fic. Please enjoy this chapter of The Sixth Component :)

Chapter 3

Prisoner

Long Haul had to carry Huffer over the ocean. Long Haul had the anti-gravity installed that was typical of all Decepticons, but Huffer was just a heavy minibot that couldn't fly. Very heavy, Long Haul was figuring out.

Huffer became more despondent with each passing moment. He knew he could still kill Long Haul, but the chances of that were getting slimmer with every moment spent with the dump truck-former. He knew he was probably going to die. To be fair, he had felt that way ever since they landed on earth. Some of the humans were okay, but the planet itself was a dump. Hm, a dump...a fitting place to be killed by a dump truck.

The purple spire of the Nemesis rose from the ocean with a splash of water glistening off of the hull in the bright sunlight. It shouldn't be beautiful, Huffer thought to himself. Doom shouldn't be beautiful. Not even for a moment. Yet it looked so much like Cybertronian tech that Huffer couldn't help but admire its minimalist beauty.

Long Haul comm'ed that he was back and that he brought a prisoner. Reflector, the mech in charge of the door at that moment, couldn't believe it. Long Haul was just the loader. He never did anything important beyond combining into Devastator! Reflector had to see this for himself.

Long Haul came through the door, and Reflector called his two brothers to see the newest arrival. They were surprised to find that it wasn't a prank; that Long Haul actually had an Autobot in his clutches. To be fair, it wasn't a great Autobot, but it was still something. Kind of like catching a snapping turtle when you were searching for a bass. Unexpected, unwanted, but still difficult.

"Reflector, get me some stasis cuffs for the prisoner," Long Haul ordered as soon as he got close enough, "We want our guest to look presentable for Megatron."

Huffer groaned at the smug tone Long Haul used. This was so humiliating! He was defeated and captured by an overgrown speedo!

One of the Reflectors came back with handcuffs for the Autobot, and Long Haul relished putting them on Huffer. He couldn't put them behind Huffer's back because of that orange hardtop that took up way too much room, but it still had the desired effect of demoralizing the enemy. Long Haul had never actually caught anyone before today. He'd also never personally killed an Autobot before, but nobody needed to know that. As long as he was part of Devastator, his kill record was in the thousands. Just because he didn't do any of that alone meant nothing...at least that was what he told himself.

Long Haul pushed Huffer hard toward the hallway with his gun trained on the whiny Autobot, and Huffer reluctantly started walking in front of Long Haul. The halls in this part of the ship were dark. Electricity went out long ago, and they didn't have the means to fix it since Megatron gave the lights such a low priority in comparison to the life support system and the weapons. No matter the reason, Huffer found it spooky. Like he was inside a living tomb.

Several minutes (and a few lit hallways later) Long Haul and Huffer made it to the command center. Megatron was sitting on his throne waiting for Long Haul, Frenzy was mopping up purple energon stains, Soundwave was monitoring the ship as usual, and Starscream was holding his injured arm (the source of the stains). Long Haul could tell that Megatron had just beaten Starscream. Well, it was the seeker's own fault for trying so hard to be noticed. Nobody noticed Long Haul, and nobody beat him up. Sometimes it was good to be invisible.

"Ah, I see the communications chatter is true," Megatron said with a pleased look on his face plate, "You have actually captured an Autobot."

Huffer could see the feral and eager looks he was getting from the Decepticons. They wanted to kill him right then and there. His life wasn't worth slag at the moment, but if he died he would never complete his mission. No matter what, he had to stop that monster Devastator from hurting anyone ever again. He had to buy more time so he could do what he set out to do!

"What should we do with him, Lord Megatron?" Long Haul asked his leader.

Megatron stood up to pronounce his sentence on the Autobot, but before he could Huffer said something that left the entire room stunned.

"I wanna join the Decepticons!" Huffer shouted quickly before Megatron could speak.

"... ... ...What?" Megatron finally said after a long moment of deafening silence on the bridge.

"I wanna join your side, Megatron," Huffer repeated eagerly; though inwardly it left a bad taste in his glossa, "I'm sick of Optimus Prime! He's too soft, and he, uh, plays favorites! Yeah, he hates me because I'm not nice to his precious humans! I couldn't take it anymore, so I ran away, but, uh, Bluestreak found me and was tryin' to take me back to base! I'm actually glad you guys found me so I can join your side. So, can I be a Decepticon? I promise to work hard and obey your orders."

Huffer hoped his acting was good enough to convince the Decepticon warlord to spare him. He didn't need to live through this experience. He just needed to live long enough to find a powerful weapon and shoot Long Haul. Once he did that they could do whatever they wanted with him.

"I don't trust you, Autobot," Megatron replied; his optics narrowed on the minibot, "You would say anything to save your own spark. However, I haven't decided what form of punishment would be most appropriate. Until I have decided what to do with you, you will be locked in the brig. Long Haul, since you caught him, you get the honor of guarding our prisoner. Take him away!"

"Aw, I gotta get stuck on guard duty?" Long Haul whined, "That's so boring! It's worse than carrying stuff around all day!"

"I can put you in the cell with him..." Megatron pointed out with a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Never mind! Guard duty's fine!" Long Haul quickly rescinded his previous statement, "Come on, Autobot! Let's go find you a cold dark cell."

Huffer was pushed again and nearly fell over at Megatron feet. The silver gun-former smirked wickedly at the minibot's humiliation. Huffer scowled in return at Megatron even though he knew it would ruin his chances at convincing him to let him out. It was too late for that anyway. He had already failed.

Huffer stewed in the prison cell; sitting on the hard berth and scowling at Long Haul, who was ignoring him by reading a data pad. Huffer's hands were still cuffed, and his spirits were as low as they had been in a while; which was saying something considering it was Huffer.

"Your ship stinks!" Huffer groused, "Your tech is abysmal, and the design of the ship is far too basic. It looks like a tinker toy!"

"What's a tinker toy?" Long Haul finally asked when Huffer's whining became impossible to ignore.

"It's a human thing," Huffer shrugged.

"You know, my gestalt and I weren't around when this ship was built," Long Haul pointed out, "If we were it would've looked way better! Of course, anything looks good compared to Blitzwing."

"Blitzwing?" Huffer asked in confusion, "What does he have to do with anything?"

"You don't know how we got here, do you?" Long Haul asked with a wry smile, "Well you see, my brothers and I stayed behind on Cybertron when Megatron took off after you Autobots, and for 4 million years we helped Shockwave keep everything exactly the same as it was the way Megatron told him to. I tell you what, that purple Cyclops has a real obsessive compulsion issue. Not to mention how often he talks about Megatron. Seriously, you'd think he was the president of Megatron's fan club! I remember one time-"

Huffer just gave Long Haul a flat stare, and the Constructicon could almost feel Huffer screaming 'get to the point!'.

"Ahem, anyway, when we got the call 4 million years later to join Megatron's forces, the space bridge was down so we couldn't just transport to where we needed to go. Shockwave, in his infinite wisdom, decided we should ride inside a triple changer. Now, Astrotrain was already gone, so we got stuck riding in Blitzwing's cargo hold! Blitzwing! Do you know how small he is on the inside!?"

"Not really," Huffer replied.

"There are six of us!" Long Haul shouted in frustration, "Shockwave actually had to take us apart just so we could all fit! Then when we got here because there was no medic it was up to Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave to put us back together! Hook and Scrapper were lucky to get Megatron to repair them, and Mixmaster and Bonecrusher were lucky to get Soundwave to repair them, but Scavenger and I got stuck with Starscream!"

"So? Ain't he the only one that has any actual scientific expertise?" Huffer asked uncomprehendingly.

"You don't get it," Long Haul replied as the painful memory resurfaced, "Soundwave has built 6 minicons, so he's an old pro at how to build and maintain a Cybertronian body. Megatron is used to self-repairs due to his previous jobs as miner and gladiator, so he knows how to turn off pain receptors. Starscream, on the other hand, had no practical experience with building or maintaining, and he couldn't give a slag if Scavenger and I were comfortable or not! It was torture, and we were still conscious! He actually put my helm on backwards the first time!"

"Ouch!" Huffer exclaimed sympathetically, "Sounds like a real piece of work."

"Yeah, and let's not forget Omega Supreme was still on our afterburners!" Long Haul groused, "I hate that guy so much! Oh, and he's another one that doesn't know slag about surgery! Don't ask me how I know that..."

"Yeah, well I've been on earth since the beginnin'," Huffer told Long Haul, "I thought it was just a minor stop until we got a new ship built, but we haven't even had time to try to build a new ship! We're stuck here, and more and more Autobots are comin' every day! I get the feelin' we're movin' here, permanently. I just wanna go home. I hate this planet. It's keepin' me from Cybertron, and I miss it more than anythin'."

"Oh yeah? What do you have left to go back to that's got you so fired up?" Long Haul asked curiously.

"Nothin', but it's home," Huffer replied simply, "No matter what earth offers me, it ain't home."

"Too true," Long Haul shook his helm even though he agreed with Huffer's statement, "Listen, I'm not supposed to feed you, but if you really want some energon I might be able to get you something," Long Haul offered.

"Nah, that's okay. No sense gettin' in trouble just because of me," Huffer replied; his voice filled with melancholy, "I'm not worth it."

Long Haul didn't know what else to say to the despondent minibot, so he went back to reading what was on his data pad; a downloaded issue of Popular Mechanics. He knew human automobiles and aircraft were mundane and inferior, but seeing some of those vehicles without their hoods was Long Haul's current guilty pleasure. Of course if anyone asked him he would just turn off the device and say he was reading it for the articles.