AN: Happy early Veterans Day everyone! Ah a day to celebrate and remember the brave men and women who made the courageous choice to serve their country. A moment of silence for them please...

[Blaster fire goes off]

AN: DAH! What the spark man!

Megatron: Last I checked, the people who serve in your armies are shown respect by a show of arms.

AN: That's...you...ugh! Forget it, just give a moment of silence next time like I said. Oh and by the way, welcome our special guest for this chapter, the lord and leader of the Decepticons, Megatron.

[audience boos]

Megatron: What is the meaning of this?!

AN: What? The remote's broken. [mouths a not]

Megatron: I should have you disintegrated by my fusion cannon.

AN: Yeah you do know I have the power to basically kill you off in the next chapter if I wanted to right?

Megatron: You would not dare.

AN: Wouldn't I?

Megatron: ...[softly chuckles]. I like your style human.

AN: uh...thank you?

Megatron: Well let's see how this story progresses with this chapter. May I?

AN: Uh sure.

Megatron: lyokoMARVELanime does not own any of thing from Gundam or Transformers.

Chapter 10: Island Encounters

Gibraltar, the main Z.A.F.T. Earth base, was abuzz with activity as everyone on the base was preparing for Operation: Spitbreak especially with space drops on a nearly daily basis, and since the drops were always in Z.A.F.T. airspace, there was nothing the soldiers at the Earth Forces Alaska base JOSH-A could do about it. The latest of the arrivals from space being the machines Aegis and Blitz, along with their respective pilots Athrun Zala and Nicol Amalfi, and the Decepticon warrior Dreadwing. After Athrun and Nicol left their machines they headed for one of the Gibraltar base's briefing rooms to meet with the rest of the Le Creuset team with Dreadwing heading to where his fellow Decepticons were as they were meeting both with the Le Creuset team over a holo-communication device and Megatron himself.

Just barely halfway there, Athrun and Nicol could already tell what they should expect when they arrived there as they could already here Yzak yelling. As soon as they reached the door, Athrun announced their arrival before he and Nicol entered, but when they did both boys gasped in shock at what they saw. "Yzak…that scar," Athrun exclaimed.

Athrun was of course referring to the scar that Yzak still had not removed and would no doubt not ever remove until the Strike was defeated at last, a fact that Le Creuset made clear to both Athrun and Nicol. After receiving a friendly greeting from Dearka, Le Creuset then introduced everyone to the Decepticons that most of the four pilots were not familiar with. "Gentlemen, I would like to start by introducing you to the Decepticon leader himself, Lord Megatron," Le Creuset calmly stated with his usual smile.

"A pleasure to meet some of Z.A.F.T.'s finest soldiers at last, and the fact that you are each so young is also very impressive," Megatron stated.

"Thank you sir," Yzak replied as he, Dearka, Nicol, and Athrun saluted. Megatron then took note of the last of the four.

"Ah Athrun Zala, a pleasure to see you again," the Cybertronian war lord said.

"Likewise Lord Megatron," Athrun answered hesitantly, feeling just as nervous as he did when he first spoke with Megatron.

"Now then, if I may introduce the rest of the Decepticon team that will be working with you," Le Creuset stated, continuing from where he left off. "Yzak and Dearka have already met most of them, but for those of you who haven't, this is Thundercracker, Skywarp, Slipstream, Breakdown, Knockout, and finally Dreadwing the first Decepticon Z.A.F.T. had encountered on that fateful day."

"Hey how's it going," Thundercracker asked.

"Yeah yeah hi," Skywarp waved.

"Great more humans," Slipstream muttered.

"A pleasure to work with such fine warriors, who happen to pilot quite the impressive machines," Knockout stated in an over exaggerated manner.

"Hmph," Breakdown huffed.

"It is a pleasure young mobile suit pilots," Dreadwing greeted, being the only one to have any true respect in his greeting.

"Yzak Joule, pilot of the Duel," Yzak introduced, followed shortly by his fellow pilots.

"Dearka Elsman, pilot of the Buster."

"Nicol Amalfi, pilot of Blitz."

"Athrun Zala, pilot of Aegis."

"Now that we have that out of the way," Knockout stated. "I must say I actually agree with what scar boy here was saying. We must pursue the Autobots and the Legged Ship as soon as possible."

"I agree with the good doctor Lord Megatron," Slipstream stated, not even bothering to acknowledge that Le Creuset had a say in their actions as well. "Aside from Dreadwing, my brothers and I are closest to their last known position along with these two land based Cons. While bringing in Starscream is now a high priority for the Seeker siblings, since we do not know where he even is at the moment this is clearly our best course of action right now."

"Silence Slipstream," Megatron commanded in a barely restrained tone of voice that hid a promise of pain if she were to argue. "Lest you wish to suffer the same fate that your traitorous brother shall when he is finally captured."

Seeing that Slipstream had been effectively shut up, Le Creuset continued with what he was saying. "They do have a point though Lord Megatron. The Earth Forces Legged Ship must be stopped from getting to Alaska with the data its acquired; however, I'm afraid this mission has already been assigned to the Carpentaria Base."

"But Commander, that's our job! This is unfinished business for us," Yzak argued.

"I feel the same way Commander," Dearka proclaimed.

"And we feel the same way as well Lord Megatron," Thundercracker stated.

"We've all been humiliated by those guys as well," Dearka finished.

Megatron smirked at this as Le Creuset stated, "Needless to say I feel the same, and I believe that Lord Megatron does as well. Am I wrong?"

"No you are not Commander Le Creuset," Megatron stated. "After all we cannot forget that the Legged Ship is being aided by the Autobots and that means that Carpentaria is gravely outmatched."

"Agreed." Le Creuset then turned to address everyone in the meeting. "Lord Megatron and I have to prepare for Operation: Spitbreak so we must remain here or aboard the Nemesis, but if you feel that strongly about it why don't you all go try it yourselves?"

"Yes sir," Yzak agreed excitedly.

"Then we shall form a joint Decepticon-Z.A.F.T. team," Megatron stated. "The Z.A.F.T. team shall consist of Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, Athrun Zala, and Nicol Amalfi while the Decepticon forces shall be Slipstream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Knockout, Breakdown, and Dreadwing."

"Excellent suggestion Lord Megatron," Le Creuset agreed. "And each of your respective commanders will be…," Le Creuset paused for a moment before he made his decision and turned to face the one to lead the Z.A.F.T. team. "Athrun, I'm putting you in charge of the Z.A.F.T. team. Lord Megatron, might I suggest that Dreadwing be the one to lead the Decepticons?"

"I could not agree more on either decision," Megatron stated. Both Athrun and Dreadwing were surprised at this sudden assignment, though Dreadwing was more contained in his shock than Athrun.

"I shall have you assigned to a submarine carrier in Carpentaria," Le Creuset told Athrun. "You should prepare to leave immediately."

"Dreadwing, I am granting you and your new team usage of a special drop ship which will be awaiting you in Carpentaria as well. You should also prepare to leave for there at once," Megatron informed Dreadwing. "Slipstream, I suggest that you make certain that the craft is fully functional for this mission."

"Yes Lord Megatron," both Decepticons replied.

"Are you sure Commander," Athrun asked Le Creuset.

The masked man simply put a reassuring hand on Athrun's shoulder as he told him, "That ship and its new allies have now become a real thorn in our sides, so it will not be easy Athrun. I'm counting on you. Good luck."

With that, Le Creuset left the room with a simple nod to Megatron, who dismissed himself a moment later. "So now we're the Zala team? Oh this should be good," Yzak stated sarcastically, clearly indicating he felt he should have been put in charge of the Z.A.F.T. team.

Dreadwing turned to face the Z.A.F.T. pilots. "I shall be taking off for Carpentaria as soon as I have made sure each of you has left without any problems. Decepticons, I shall see you when I arrive at Carpentaria," Dreadwing stated.

"Understood…sir," Slipstream replied with a hesitant salute before she ended the communication.

A short time later, Nicol, Dearka, and Yzak departed for Carpentaria with Athrun and Dreadwing following shortly after due to a delay in the launch for Athrun's transport. Dreadwing was now more than certain that both the Legged Ship and the Autobots would so face there doom, while Athrun was doing all he could to calm his nerves before his mission as team leader began and so that he would be ready to face his friend, Kira, once again.

Around that same time, the Archangel and Omega II had left the desert at last, and had begun their voyages across the sea, with the former seeing the addition of both Cagalli and Kisaka to their crew and the later now absolutely sure that the ship was ready for anything in battle. After getting reassurance from Sahib that the Desert Dawn will continue to fight for their land against Z.A.F.T., and that they would call the Autobots if they ever needed their assistance again should the Decepticons return, they were all able to leave with clear consciences.

Some time after they had left, both the ships' crews had taken some time to venture above deck for some fresh, salty sea air. It was a wonderful feeling for many of the members of the human vessel, while the Autobots were simply amazed with the beautiful sight of the vast ocean that now lay around them. Though this peaceful break soon came to an end when they came under attack by a Z.A.F.T. submarine carrier.

The Autobots did not participate in the first battle that they face at sea beyond having Omega II defend itself with the main shield and weapon systems, but in the battle that followed, they noticed that the attacking Z.A.F.T. forces now had Decepticon flyers with them so they could not stand by and do nothing.

Kira was especially grateful for their assistance as the Strike was not capable of atmospheric flight and could not swim, at least not all that well, but as usual Kira was able to adapt and make sure he could handle his situation. As for the Autobots, who had never had to battle out at any sea other than the Sea of Rust back on Cybertron, they made do by moving out to fire at enemies from on the deck of their ship while at least two of them used jet packs that were designed and calibrated as best as possible by Elita and Hound. The two in this case being Arcee and Bumblebee, who had worked together very often in the past, and were now handling so well this time that to some of the humans in their group it almost seemed that the two were dancing in mid-air. This did not do anything to divert the problem that soon arose for them.

Sometime during the battle, Cagalli's plane was hit and her navigation was taken out, forcing her to retreat, but unfortunately she soon lost all her bearings and got lost, prompting Arcee to fly off to help her. Sadly, before the two could return to either of their respective ships, they came across a Z.A.F.T. transport.

"What are they doing out here," Arcee wondered aloud. "Think they might be enemy reinforcements?"

"If they are, then we've got to take them out," Cagalli replied. Before Arcee could stop her, the blonde haired girl had already brought her plane around to attack, to which the transport responded by opening fire before Cagalli could fire off one shot.

Arcee quickly maneuvered herself on her jetpack to swoop in and help out, but she was not fast enough to save Cagalli's plane from being hit. Thankfully, Cagalli was able to successfully land a single shot that seemed to disable the enemy plane, causing it to release the cargo it was carrying and retreat. Arcee did not bother to get a good look at what had been ejected from the large carrier as she had already moved to try and catch Cagalli's Sky Grasper. Just when she was within arm's reach though, Arcee was fired upon as well, with her jetpack suffering damage. The blue femme turned to see what she knew immediately to be a Decepticon in its alt mode, and responded by firing a single shot of her own from the Plasma Cannon she had brought out into battle, rendering the Con unable to continue flying for much longer.

Though they had stopped their current opponents, it did nothing to prevent both women, human and Autobot, from crash landing on an island in the middle of the ocean. Arcee was the first to regain consciousness and quickly tried to radio Omega II for help. Unfortunately, the only response Arcee received was static, so she opted to check on Cagalli and see if the young girl would have any better luck.

"Cagalli," Arcee called out once she reached the Sky Grasper. "Cagalli can you hear me?"

Cagalli soon woke up and looked to see Arcee just above the canopy of her plane. "Arcee," Cagalli called out in surprise. She then looked herself over to see if she suffered any injuries before looking back to Arcee and stating, "I'm okay. Guess we made it."

"We're not out of the woods yet kid, or I guess I should say off the island yet," Arcee joked. She then got serious and said, "Can you contact the Archangel?"

"Hang on," Cagalli said, turning on her radio while bringing up her plane's onboard keyboard. "Archangel come in. This is Cagalli, and I'm with Arcee. Can you hear me? Archangel, come in," Cagalli called out.

As soon as she looked to Arcee and shook her head no, Arcee knew they would not have much luck calling for help. Then Cagalli thought of something else. "Hey Arcee. You still have your jetpack right? Maybe you can fly us back."

"I wouldn't be able to get the Sky Grasper back, and you know we can't leave it here and risk the enemy getting their hands on it. Besides, even if I wanted to fly us back at all, I couldn't" Arcee replied as she pulled off the jetpack and tossed onto the ground nearby. Cagalli looked at the large piece of equipment and saw that it too was damaged as well. "I can send out an Autobot distress signal and hope that Omega II can receive it, but then we'd reveal our location to the enemy as well."

"So then I guess we're stranded," Cagalli asked.

"Not necessarily," Arcee replied. "Omega II can track my spark signature so they should still be able to find us as long as nothing happens to seriously damage me enough."

Cagalli just nodded before grabbing her emergency supplies and climbing out of the plane, with help from Arcee as a way to ensure that her supplies were not washed away by the tide. The two then decided to see how much of the island there was and that it would make sense to not be near the Sky Grasper in case Z.A.F.T. or the Decepticons suddenly showed up and moved a little ways inland after bringing the white and blue plane to a more stable point on the shore. They did not end up walking for long though, as they soon found themselves on the beach at the other end of the island.

"Wow this is a tiny island," Cagalli commented. "I wonder if its inhabited."

"Hard to say," Arcee said. "Given the fact that we did not even see it was here till we landed, I'd say it's too small to appear on most radars or maps."

Cagalli then gasped and softly called out, "Arcee look! There's a mobile suit here!"

Arcee turned to where Cagalli had indicated and sure enough, there was a grey mobile suit sitting on the shore, and given what she had heard from Bumblebee, she recognized it as the Aegis. Then Arcee noticed something that Cagalli had missed. "That's Dreadwing," Arcee gasped.

Cagalli then saw the well known red color of a Z.A.F.T. pilot's uniform and moved to pull out her gun before Arcee stopped her, telling her to get down and take cover. Unfortunately for the two, the dislodged some rocks when they moved for cover, and caught the attention of both the Z.A.F.T. pilot and Dreadwing.

"Scrap," the two women said in unison seeing that their cover was blown. Cagalli then pulled her gun out and opened fire on the Z.A.F.T. pilot, getting in a lucky shot that scratched his arm as he ran for cover. Arcee then brought out her Plasma Cannon and opened fire on Dreadwing who also headed for cover.

The two women slid down the small hill that they were previously on and moved cautiously towards where their respective enemies were, and where said enemies had dropped their guns. Slowly but surely, Cagalli made her way towards the Z.A.F.T. pilot while Arcee carefully moved towards Dreadwing. When the two each noticed that their enemies had each dropped their guns, they both aimed their respective weapons at where they knew their opponents were and moved towards the dropped fire arms.

Once she was near the enemy's gun, Cagalli got a better look at the Z.A.F.T. pilot and had to contain her surprise at the sight of him as he crouched down and drew a trench knife from his boot. The pilot was a young man who seemed to be the same age as her and Kira, and had blue hair and green eyes. The Z.A.F.T. pilot was not the only one to draw a close range weapon, as Dreadwing also quickly pulled his sword from where he held it on his back and moved to a ready defensive position. Each of the pairs paused for a moment to stare down at one and other, or rather glare down at one and other, before Cagalli and Arcee each looked down for a moment before kicking away their enemies' guns. That turned out to be just what the two blade wielders were waiting for.

At that instance, the Z.A.F.T. pilot and Dreadwing both leaped away, vaulting over the rocky hill top as they avoided the shots being fired by said girls until they were out of sight. Cagalli and Arcee then took a moment to reload before Cagalli ran over to the Z.A.F.T. pilot's gun and picked it up. As soon as she did though, the blue haired boy then leapt right at her from where he was hiding and kicked the retrieved weapon away. Arcee looked over to her human companion when she heard Cagalli gasp in shock at the pilot's actions, a momentary distraction Dreadwing took advantage of as he leapt towards Arcee and used his sword to knock Arcee's Plasma Cannon out of her grasp as well. Arcee was not about to let that stop her though.

Moving quickly, Arcee readied her Arm blades and met Dreadwing's sword as he swung it downwards to try and slice her in half. The two pushed their blades against the others, glaring as they did so, in an attempt to overpower the other when they both suddenly heard Cagalli scream in fear. The two looked to see that Cagalli was pinned down under the Z.A.F.T. pilot as he had raised his knife to strike at her.

When Cagalli looked to see why the boy had not tried to stab her yet she saw that the boy had gained a look of shock as he stared at her, until finally he found his voice and simply said, "…A girl!"

Cagalli was breathing heavily at that, whether it was from exhaustion or her brief panic attack none of them knew, but she instantly got angry as she shouted, "That's right I'm a girl! What is it with you men?!"

The young pilot started moving off of her a little ways, but not enough to let her up, and that's when Dreadwing noticed Arcee's attention was still on the two humans. Taking advantage of the Autobot's moment of distraction, Dreadwing pushed Arcee away with his sword causing her to stumble long enough for Dreadwing to tackle her to the ground and move to lock her in a pair of stasis cuffs he had brought along with him just in case.

"Arcee," Cagalli shouted, trying to move towards the downed Autobot, but suddenly she found herself still being held down by the Z.A.F.T. pilot and realized there was nothing either one of them could do right then.

Sometime later, Cagalli and Arcee found themselves unable to do anything other than watch as both Cagalli's gun and Arcee's Plasma Cannon were thrown into the water by Dreadwing and the Z.A.F.T. boy. Arcee was now locked in stasis cuffs while Cagalli had her hands and feet tied up by rope as both lay in the sand on the beach. Arcee then looked in Dreadwing's direction and snarled, "Well look who's not on his leash. What happened Dreadwing did Megatron decide to let you taste a bit of freedom for once or did you get locked out of the house?"

Dreadwing just gave Arcee a small look before turning away to ignore her, prompting Arcee to continue. "Awe what's wrong? Did Megatron say not to talk to any strange Autobots or are you just being shy in the presence of two ladies?"

"I would watch my mouth if I were you Arcee," Dreadwing responded without looking at her.

"Or what," Arcee snarled. "You'll silence me like your master did Bumblebee?!"

Dreadwing was about to spin around and drive a sword through Arcee's throat when he saw the Z.A.F.T. pilot shake his head no and immediately stood down. Seeing this Arcee continued saying, "Oh I see now. Megatron has decided to dump you on someone else hasn't he?"

"On the contrary," Dreadwing said as he moved towards Arcee until he was standing over her, "this human is actually my new Z.A.F.T. partner."

"Didn't think Cons were the type to work with life forms that they thought were beneath them." Arcee gave herself a metaphorical pat on the back, seeing as she could not do so literally at the moment, before turning towards the green eyed boy as he spoke to Cagalli.

"Tell me are you really with the Earth Forces," he asked as he pulled out his first aid kit to treat the injury he suffered when Cagalli shot him. "You're not carrying any identification, and besides, I've never heard a soldier scream like that."

Cagalli could not help but blush at that comment while Arcee thought I was kind of hoping he would have forgotten about that, but I guess that was wishful thinking.

"Sorry about that," Cagalli replied.

"You guys are the ones who tried to shoot down our transport aren't you?" Both girls started wondering what led him to that conclusion when the boy explained, "I saw your downed aircraft on the other beach."

"You guys tried to shoot me down," Cagalli argued.

"She is right you know," Arcee put in, getting the human boy's attention. "You did fire on her first, and then I tried to save her before your gold faced friend here decided to take a cheap shot at me."

"In the battlefield one should never let their guard down for anything," Dreadwing calmly stated.

"Oh I'm sorry, I guess letting your guard down must mean something different for Cons, considering that last I checked it didn't mean the same thing as trying to help a friend or comrade."

Dreadwing snarled at Arcee and whipped out his sword before the boy shouted, "Dreadwing no! She's just trying to rile you up."

Dreadwing nodded and put his sword away before moving to sit a short ways off and reaching for his communicator. "Don't bother," Arcee called, getting Dreadwing's attention once again. "The other Autobots are closer to us and I couldn't get a signal through to them, so what makes you think you'll have any better luck calling your friends?"

Dreadwing just lowered his hand looked away for a moment before turning back after hearing the Z.A.F.T. pilot ask Cagalli, "Tell me something pilot, what group do you belong to and why are you alone?"

What am I, one of their spare mobile suits, Arcee thought to herself. "I am NOT a soldier," Cagalli half shouted. "And I don't belong to a group, and I don't want to be here!" Cagalli ended up with her face in the sand when she said that last part after she tried to rise, which led to both the pilot smiling a bit in amusement while Dreadwing just thought, Earth females are just as strange if not stranger than those of Cybertron.

The pilot then stood up as he zipped his suit back up, having finished bandaging his injury and moved to walk towards his mobile suit before Arcee called out, "Wait." Seeing she had the boy's attention, Arcee asked. "In all seriousness, I know that Dreadwing has only been reported to have been seen with two Z.A.F.T. pilots and only one of them pilots a machine that fits the description of that one there."

"And where did you get a description of my machine," the pilot asked.

"From my friend and comrade Bumblebee," Arcee admitted, seeing no harm in saying so around Dreadwing as he knew that only Bumblebee could have given any Autobots a description of the G-Weapon. "That being said, I have to ask, are you Athrun Zala?"

The pilot paused for a moment before answering, "Yeah that's right. I'm Athrun Zala of the Le Creuset team, and if I heard Dreadwing right, your name's Arcee isn't it?"

Arcee just gave a small nod in reply, to which Athrun gave a small smile as he turned to Cagalli and asked, "And that just leaves you, so would you mind if I asked what your name is?"

"Yes I do mind," Cagalli snapped.

"Well too bad cause I'm asking anyway."

Cagalli huffed at that before answering, "Fine. The name's Cagalli."

"A pleasure," Athrun stated, though whether or not he was joking or serious it was actually hard to tell.

"So are you one of the guys who attacked Heliopolis," Cagalli then asked. Seeing Athrun's surprised look when he turned to face her again, Cagalli continued by saying, "I was there when it happened. I was at Heliopolis when you guys destroyed it."

Athrun paused for a minute before answering. "Yeah I was there as well."

With that, Athrun walked away to the Aegis to try his own attempts at calling for help, leaving Cagalli and Arcee lying in the sand with Dreadwing watching over them.

It was sunset when Athrun finally reported on his progress to Dreadwing who was simply staring out at the horizon as he stood watch over the two prisoners. "Sorry Dreadwing, but I'm not getting anything through. There's too much damn interference."

Athrun saw Dreadwing nod in response and then the two turned at the sound of thunder, only to see that storm clouds were rolling in, but Dreadwing did not know that. "Are we under attack," the Decepticon commander asked.

"No just relax Dreadwing," Athrun replied. "It's just thunder. Of course that means that a storm's starting to roll in."

Dreadwing nodded in understanding before relaxing; having gotten tensed up by thinking he was hearing enemy fire. The two then saw a flash of Lightning which lead Athrun to ask, "Hey are you going to be okay if you get struck by a lightning bolt?"

"While your planet's elements can cause harm to me Athrun Zala, it would need to be in much greater amounts than what a small electrical storm can produce to cause me harm."

Athrun nodded in reply then had the Aegis launch a small distress beacon out into the water so that their allies would know where to look for them. Of course Dreadwing had told Athrun that the Decepticons could find them by tracking his spark signal, but Athrun felt it was better safe than sorry. Dreadwing then caught Athrun's attention when he said, "It would seem that the young human female that is currently in your custody is having some trouble at the moment."

Athrun looked and saw that Cagalli was currently lying in a small stream, just barely keeping her head above the water. He moved the Aegis so that its shield was over her to shield her from the rain before leaving the cockpit to go down and talk to her. "Hey there," Athrun called out getting her attention. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Isn't that fairly obvious," Cagalli retorted. When all she got from Athrun was a small grunt she then stated, "I can't move." Athrun still just looked at her with a half bored expression, which was starting to get on Cagalli's nerves. "Don't just stand there! Hurry up and help me!"

"I don't think you're in any position to tell me what to do," Athrun chuckled.

"Hey pretty boy," Arcee called out from where she was, having now moved just enough to have crawled over to where the two humans and Dreadwing were. "You can either shut up and give the girl a hand, or I can snap these cuffs apart and blast you into the next universe. Your choice."

Finally, Athrun moved to help Cagalli out of her small predicament, but only partially because Athrun did want to take the chance that Arcee could break free and do as she said. As soon as he helped her to sit up straight Athrun asked Cagalli if she was okay. A moment later, a small crab crawled out Cagalli's hair and down Athrun's arm before falling into the small stream beneath them. The two stared at each other, with Arcee and Dreadwing staring at the both of them, until Athrun started to softly laugh. "What's so funny about a little crab," Cagalli demanded.

"Sorry," Athrun replied. "It's just that I've never experienced this sort of thing before coming to Earth."

"You talk like this is your first time on your own planet," Arcee stated.

"Actually it is for him," Dreadwing confirmed.

Arcee just looked at both Dreadwing and Athrun incredulously, not hearing Cagalli's sarcastic question to Athrun as she stood to let the rain wash the sand off of her. How can someone not have ever been to there species own home world for nearly their whole life, Arcee wondered. The next thing she knew, she was released from the stasis cuffs. When she looked to where Cagalli was standing, she saw that Athrun had also released the blonde girl from her ropes as well.

"You two can fight all you want, but with no weapons you're not much of a threat to me," Athrun told Cagalli.

"And as for you Arcee," Dreadwing stated. "While you are a threat to me under normal circumstances, these are not normal circumstances so until we receive help, we shall simply have to call a brief truce."

"What do you mean by that," Arcee demanded, getting an angry glare sent towards Dreadwing from Cagalli as well. "You can just fly out of here on your own."

"Normally you would be correct, but I have been assigned to work with Athrun Zala and, unlike most Decepticons, I do not intend to disobey an order from Lord Megatron such as that. That being said even if I wanted to leave I could not. When you shot me down, it rendered my flight capabilities damaged."

Arcee nodded at that then extended her hand for a handshake, which Dreadwing accepted as she stated, "Fine. Truce, for now."

Athrun smiled at the sight of two enemies agreeing to put their differences aside for a moment before he turned to Cagalli and said, "By the way Cagalli, you seem to have another stowaway."

Cagalli instantly searched herself until she realized that she did indeed have another crab in her shirt and shook it out. Realizing she had lifted her shirt up for a moment, she glanced at Athrun who simply turned away before purposely falling into the water himself.

"Men," Arcee muttered, casting a glance in Dreadwing's direction.

"What...What?!"

A short while later, night had fallen, and Cagalli had effectively washed all the sand off of her, and sat across from Athrun by a campfire while she held a blanket around herself as her clothes dried. Arcee and Dreadwing sat at the opening of the cave the two had set up a temporary camp in for the night realizing that they would be there overnight. A fact Athrun had confirmed when he told Cagalli that the air waves were jammed.

"You guys are the ones responsible for making a mess of the airwaves," Cagalli retorted at that.

"Here we go again," Arcee commented aloud.

"You may find this hard to believe, but I agree with you Autobot," Dreadwing stated.

"We only did that because of the Earth Forces' nuclear attack," Athrun argued. He then turned to see that the rations he had handed Cagalli were still untouched. "They may have been prepared by a Z.A.F.T. pilot but those are still your rations you know."

Cagalli wanted to ignore him, but her stomach decided that it would have none of that as it grumbled loudly. Seeing that Cagalli had finally seen reason and helped herself to the food, Athrun smiled a bit before he turned to sit down against the cave wall again. "Hey shouldn't I still be tied up," Cagalli then asked. Athrun just quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "I could wait 'til you let your guard down then take your gun, then the tables would be turned."

Athrun just laughed at that. "Why are you laughing," Cagalli demanded.

"Cause of you," Athrun replied. "You just won't give it up, will ya?" Athrun then sighed as he calmly stated, "If you go for my gun I'll have no choice but to kill you, so don't even think about it. Besides, it's like Dreadwing said, we might as well call a temporary truce anyway until we're rescued because there would be no point in doing anything else."

Cagalli just huffed in response before admitting, "I never thought a Z.A.F.T. soldier would worry about my life. Besides why would you want to work with these Decepticons anyways? Don't you know what they did to their own planet?"

"Leave my kind and I out of this please," Dreadwing told her, with a not so subtle hidden threat in his voice.

"Funny the way I heard it their planet was destroyed because of the war," Athrun stated. No one tried to argue the matter on that any further, so Athrun just stated softly, "You know…we never dreamed that would happen to Heliopolis. It wasn't supposed to go down that way at all. Our only mission was to take the mobile suits Morgenroete developed. Nothing else was supposed to happen."

"But it did happen," Cagalli reminded him. "The fact is that you guys attacked and destroyed that colony."

Now Athrun was starting to get a little irritated with the blonde haired girl, though one really must wonder why he was not more upset by this point considering she did try to shoot him a few hours earlier. "It's also a fact that Orb had declared itself neutral and then built those things at Heliopolis," he argued. "We're only fighting to protect the PLANTs, our homes, so we can't just look away when they're building those machines."

"It's the same thing for us. We're only fighting because you guys came and brutally attacked the Earth." After that statement, Cagalli and Athrun had another stare down that allowed Arcee and Dreadwing both the chance to see just how much fire was in each of their eyes when it came to their respective beliefs on these matters, a fact that was shown more well by the reflection of the campfire's flames in their eyes.

Finally Athrun turned away with a downcast expression as he admitted, "It's just that…my mother was on Junius Seven." That caused both Cagalli and Arcee to gasp in shock, the later having heard about the PLANT colony that was destroyed in a nuclear attack from Bumblebee along with the other Autobots. "It was only an agricultural PLANT, and yet innocent people were obliterated in an instant, even children! Did you expect that we'd do nothing?"

Cagalli felt sorry for Athrun, but still had to argue, "A lot of my friends died too, all because of your attacks!"

The two then resumed their glaring contest until finally Dreadwing cut in saying, "Oh for Primus's sake will you both give it a rest?! It doesn't matter how much you two argue, it won't change a thing about how the other feels at the moment or what had happened."

"That's pretty ironic coming from you," Arcee sneered.

"You care to repeat that?"

"You heard me. You, a Con who fights as a way to avenge his brother, would try to stop an argument like this?"

Dreadwing just barely contained himself from charging up and strangling Arcee. "I would advise you not to talk to me about Skyquake. Especially when it's you of all Bots."

Arcee froze for a moment as she adopted a neutral expression. "What do you mean by that," she asked.

"I've heard all about you Arcee," Dreadwing answered calmly. "The sole surviving member of the Autobot unit known as the Omnicons, and I also heard how you simply let your newest partner and old friend, Cliffjumper, just race off right to his doom."

Dreadwing would have continued, but he suddenly found himself slammed against the rock wall by a very pissed off Arcee. Athrun and Cagalli would have moved to stop the two, but one look at Arcee showed them that it was not a good idea to get in her way right then. Arcee then ran up and snarled at Dreadwing, "Don't you dare talk about any of them like that! You should be thankful that you weren't forced to watch as your partner was tortured and killed right before your optics! You seriously think you have suffered Dreadwing, well then think again, because the suffering this war has brought you is nothing compared to what I've had to endure! One of my closest friends can never even hear the sound of his own voice because of your lord and master, my unit was wiped out and tortured for information we did not have by a Con that is lower than scum, another of my closest friends was killed by another of your fellow Cons, but worst of all, IT'S BECAUSE OF YOUR KIND THAT I LOST THE ONLY FAMILY I HAD LEFT!"

That last bit caused Dreadwing to truly be shocked to his core, along with Athrun and Cagalli. Finally, Dreadwing gathered what courage he could and asked, "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

Arcee finally moved off of Dreadwing before she walked a little ways away from him and sat down, holding her knees against her chest as she tried to stop herself from crying while she replied. "Have you heard of the Autobot ship, Xanthium?"

Dreadwing nodded stating, "It was the ship that was led off into space by Sentinel Prime."

Arcee then continued, barely holding it in at that point. "One of the Bots on that ship was my older sister."

Cagalli and Dreadwing both gasped in shock at this new revelation, the former because she had no idea that the tough Autobot femme had a sister and the later because of the revelation that he and this fierce Autobot warrior actually had something in common with each other. At that point, Arcee had finally broken down and started to softly sob in her arms at the memory that she had just revealed.

Seeing all this, Athrun and Cagalli silently agreed to drop what they were arguing about as the former opted to lie down in order to get some rest. Cagalli then noticed that the rock that her friend Ahmed's mother gave her had fallen out of her pants pocket, and quickly picked it up before walking over to Arcee, and placing a hand on the female Autobot's leg in an attempt to calm her down. Arcee looked down at Cagalli's touch, and gave the girl a small, tearful smile in thanks before she noticed the blue, luminescent rock in Cagalli's hand.

"Where did you get that," Arcee whispered in shock.

Cagalli quirked an eyebrow in confusion before she realized what Arcee was talking about and replied, "It was something my friend Ahmed was going to carve and give to me. His mother gave it to me before our last battle in the desert. Commander La Flaga said it looked like a huge chunk of Malecite."

"Cagalli, that's not Malecite," Arcee whispered in shock. "That's…that's…"

"What? What is it Arcee?"

"That's a piece of pure, raw energon." This answer was something that shocked Cagalli so much, that she could not even begin to believe it. Before she could ask anything more, Cagalli heard a soft moan, and turned to see that Athrun seemed to be dozing off.

"Hey you," Cagalli softly scolded a bit, startling Athrun awake. "You can't fall asleep."

"I…I…I'm not," Athrun stuttered. "I just…I transferred from the uh…and descended into the…," Athrun's muttering was soon silenced as he ended up falling asleep anyways.

Seeing that her supposed captor had fallen asleep, Cagalli could not help but wonder what was with that guy as she placed another piece of wood on the fire to keep the flame going.

Seeing as Athrun had fallen asleep, and things had seemed to have calmed down for the moment, Dreadwing decided that it would be best to leave the two humans alone for a moment, and moved off to give both them and Arcee some space, but Arcee was not about to let him go off on his own. The next thing the two of them knew, they were actually moving a little ways inland again away from their human companions.

"Quite the interesting human Megatron has partnered you with," Arcee commented after what felt like hours of awkward silence.

Dreadwing just nodded in reply before deciding to break the tension. "I…apologize for what I said earlier."

Arcee looked at him in surprise, not quite believing that she had just heard a Decepticon apologize for something. She then remembered that Dreadwing was not like most of the Decepticons and figured that it should not be too much of a stretch for him to apologize for something, even if it was to an Autobot. After taking another moment to let all that sink in, Arcee simply shook her head and told him not to worry about it. Before either of them could continue any sort of conversation, they heard a loud crack from close by. The two looked at and then nodded at each other as they both moved to investigate. What they found though was not what they were expecting.

There, digging up fresh, raw energon from a cave on the small island, was none other than Starscream. Dreadwing was ready to charge at the treacherous seeker, but was stopped when Arcee approached him. "How the mighty hath fallen, wouldn't you say Scream," she stated casually.

Starscream screamed in surprise but then relaxed when he saw who it was. "Ah if it isn't Arcee, the mighty Autobot warrior. What brings you to this small island?"

"I was actually just about to ask you the same question. Quite the impressive load of energon you've got there. Mind telling me how you came upon it?"

"Well…I suppose that there's no harm in it," Starscream mused. "You see before I left the Nemesis, I discovered something that I'm sure that even Megatron's ever efficient eyes and ears, Soundwave, had missed. The entire planet has vast amounts of energon buried beneath it."

So that's how Cagalli's friend happened upon a piece of energon, Arcee thought. He must have accidentally stumbled upon one of those reservoirs. "And I'm guessing you didn't report this to Megatron."

"Peh, even if I didn't he probably knows by now. Not that it really matters now seeing as I seem to be your prisoner, all I ask is for one simple thing."

"And what would that be," Arcee queried, now getting on guard.

"Asylum," Starscream replied. "I simply wish for the Autobots to keep me safe from Megatron's wrath in exchange for what inside information I had acquired before I had…resigned."

"Is that what you call murdering an ally and then taking off with your tailpipe between your legs?"

"I sense you do not trust me."

"That would be putting it mildly," Arcee stated flatly. "I've got more than enough scores to settle with Decepticons like you, especially when it comes to a certain bug I'd like to squash."

"Ah yes," Starscream moaned. "I remember her all too well."

"Well I'm pretty sure I'd remember her better than you Scream, seeing as she killed my partner."

"WHAT," Starscream shouted. "How could she have even heard about that, let alone take credit for something I did?!"

Arcee looked at him in confusion at that. "I was talking about my partner Tailgate."

"W-what? Who's Tailgate," Starscream stuttered, praying that he did not just reveal to Arcee what he thought he did.

Sadly, he did, and realization had dawned on Arcee. "It was you," she snarled. "You're the one who killed Cliffjumper!"

Now Starscream was panicking, and with good reason as Arcee had armed her blades and charged at him in blind fury. The Seeker did all he could to avoid Arcee's blows, but it was no use as for every blow he avoided, he found himself hit with another two or three. In no short order at all, Starscream was on the ground with Arcee over him, one blade arm raised to strike. "This is for Cliff," she snarled.

Before Arcee could strike him though, someone grabbed her arm. Turning to see who was stopping her, and saw, to her surprise, that it was Dreadwing. "He's not worth it. Not right now Arcee," Dreadwing stated.

Arcee growled for a bit before she pulled her arm free and got off of Starscream. "Go. Leave now before I change my mind."

Starscream did not need to be told twice, as he scrambled to run away from both the angry, vengeful Autobot, and Dreadwing. The two watched as Starscream flew away, his energon stash completely forgotten, until they heard a gunshot from Athrun and Cagalli's camp site. The two decided to leave it for another day and raced back to the camp to make sure the two humans were all right.

The following morning, Athrun had been woken up at early sunrise by the sound of the radio on the Aegis going off along with its proximity alert. The former was due to him receiving a call from Nicol, the later was because he picked up another vessel approaching by sea.

As soon as he had every bit of information he needed, he gathered his supplies and went up to Cagalli to tell her the news. "The Z.A.F.T. rescue is on its way, and it should be here soon," he told Cagalli. "And there's another vessel coming by sea. Its heading in the direction of your aircraft."

Cagalli gasped in surprise at that, but she had a feeling she knew who was coming. Arcee looked at Dreadwing and asked, "Are you going to be okay?"

Dreadwing gave Arcee a neutral look before nodding and saying, "My self-repair systems have been able to repair most of the damage to my alt mode's flight capabilities so I should be able to fly myself to the nearby Z.A.F.T. base where I'm sure that my allies are waiting."

Arcee nodded as Athrun told Cagalli he was going to hide his machine so that the island would not become a battle field. "Well I guess Arcee and I should get back to my aircraft," Cagalli told Athrun with a smile.

"Right," Athrun said with a sad smile. Cagalli then gave Athrun one more smile before she began to make her way back to the Sky Grasper. Before she got too far away, Athrun called out, "Hey Cagalli, are you sure you're not with the Earth Forces?"

"Nope I'm not," Cagalli replied. Athrun looked down in thought, as he thought about how much alike Cagalli was in comparison to Kira, but was quickly brought out of his thoughts when he heard Cagalli call out, "Hey Athrun. Despite what or how it happened, it really was nice to meet you."

Athrun smiled at this and replied, "Same here." He then turned to Arcee and said, "And the same goes for you Arcee. I'm glad I got to meet at least one of the Autobots formally."

Arcee nodded to Athrun with a smile, an action that was copied by Cagalli as the two then turned and ran back to the Sky Grasper. Athrun and Dreadwing watched the two for a moment before they both turned away and went to hide the Aegis, the former with a ghost of a smile on his face.

As the two girls headed back to the Sky Grasper on the other side of the island, Cagalli looked to Arcee and asked, "Hey Arcee, I know you probably don't like to talk about it, but can I ask what your older sister's name was?"

Arcee looked down with a sad smile and replied, "Chromia. Her name was Chromia, and she was the best older sister I could've asked for."

Cagalli then smiled at Cagalli as they finally reached the beach, when they heard something come up from the water. The two turned and saw the familiar white, yellow horned head of the Strike and quickly ran out towards the water as she called out to Kira. Arcee watched her go as she knew that as soon as she saw Optimus she had to tell him of what she had learned from Starscream, as the fact that there was energon buried on Earth was something that would make a major difference in the war between Autobots and Decepticons.

AN: Few, I think this is one of my longest chapters yet.

Megatron: Why is it that spineless fool Starscream has had more appearance time in this story than I have?

AN: That's what you're wondering about? Whatever. Well anyways, I had to have the two sides learn that energon was on Earth somehow and this seemed like the best way.

Megatron: Hmph. Whatever you say.

AN: Also I just want to say that I wanted Arcee to have a bit more to deal with in her past than she did in Transformers Prime. I thought that she would be more vulnerable if I set it up so that she had an older sister, plus I wanted a way for Dreadwing to be able to relate at least one of the Autobots. In case it isn't obvious at this point, I am setting things up so that Dreadwing will eventually switch sides.

Megatron: WHAT?!

AN: Hey it happened in Transformers Prime, sort of, and I always did like the Cons that ended up questioning their decision to side with Megatron or just ended up working with the Autobots like Starscream in Transformers Armada or Scourge in Transformers Cybertron. I've just always felt like Dreadwing's betrayal of the Decepticons could have gotten more out of it.

Megatron: ...well I suppose I can see some appeal to that. But while we're here, can I ask you something?

AN: Depends on what you mean by ask.

Megatron: If you ever try to bring me back as Galvatron, do NOT make me face Rodimus Prime.

AN: You don't have to worry about that. I don't have any plans for Rodimus to show up in this story or the sequel, but whether or not he appears in the third story...eh its still up debate. Onto the preview...

Next time, the Zala team has cornered the Archangel, with Dreadwing's forces holding Omega II at bay, and both teams are ready to destroy the two ships. When things seem their bleakest, Cagalli reveals her secret, which grants both ships a brief asylum in the nation of Orb. What is the reason for Orb granting the two ships this asylum, and what surprises await the Autobots in the neutral nation. Next time, Chapter 11: Welcome to the Land of Peace. Dash across the ocean and reunite with old friends Gundam and Autobots!

AN: Oh and one more thing, the poll for the teams of the Orb Missions arc is now up. Vote now for which team you want to see first, and vote soon because there is only one chapter left before that begins as you've probably noticed. So vote for the teams you want to see the most first, and whichever team has the most votes by the time I have to post the chapter will be removed from the poll after that chapter is voted, leaving which ever teams are remaining to be voted for as the next team in the chapter that follows, and so on.

Read and Review, and see you next time. Once again, Happy early Veterans Day.