So I'm back on my feet at last! I'm trying to get back in the saddle when it comes to writing. Thank you all for being so patient with me as I recover.

The new episodes of TF Prime have been HIGHLY entertaining, and unfortunately they are making my stories so AU it hurts! XD Such is the risk you take when you start writing before a season (or series) comes to an end.


*.*.*.*.*

Chapter 11

*.*.*.*.*

"Optimus?" Ratched asked in incredulity, "We're getting a transmission from the Decepticon warship. It … it's Shiftlock."

This caused an immediate stir on the base. Shiftlock had only been gone for a single "day", as the Human species marked time on their planet, and already she was making contact? Team Prime, as well as the recent group of Ark survivors and Wreckers that had rejoined their Autobot cohorts, gathered close to the communications panel. Agent Fowler, Captain Fairborne, June and the three children, on a mezzanine above the central command pit the Autobots occupied, also drew in closer, expectant but nervous.

"Open the channel," Prime commanded.

"Greetings Prime!" Shiftlock responded. "This is temporary captain Shiftlock of the Nemesis, and my first mate Dave, head of the Vehicon Revolutionary Forces. We'd like to re-enter hostage negotiations with the Decepticons and yourselves."

"Shiftlock!" Jazz exclaimed, pressing forward to the screen, his spark pounding in his torso, "Are you all right? Are the kids okay?!"

"We're all fine, baby," she grinned. "Although the kids might be a little traumatized, Megatron had them convinced he's their father and the Autobots are evil – I see that look on your face, relax, it'll be fine. Nothing happened to them other than a little miseducation and some purple paint. You'll notice they did the same to me. It comes off."

"You said something about 'Vehicon Revolutionary Forces'?" Prime asked, sounding a little confused.

"Yeaaah, about that," Shiftlock said, bringing the red-painted car-frame Vehicon over into view of the camera. "You think we can house a thousand or so Vehicons that are tired of being oppressed, low-caste drones under the Decepticon whip?"

Ultra Magnus, Prime, Prowl and Ironhide looked amongst each other, just as confused and unsettled as before. A faint smirk pulled at Ironhide's lips and there was a hopeful sparkle in Prime's optics.

"Well, we've got the room," Fowler pointed out. "The expansions should be able to take them in."

"The biggest problem is going to be getting the energon they need," Captain Fairborne pointed out thoughtfully. "We don't have a large supply.

"We're the ones working the Decepticon energon mines," Dave suggested. "If you can help us defend a couple, we'll have all we need. You too."

"That would be a significant advantage," Prowl mused, rubbing his chin, processing the information. "That is, if the Vehicons can be trusted."

"Indeed," Ultra Magnus added. "How did this little insurrection of yours come to be, Lieutentant Shiftlock?"

"Well, I'd like to say it's all due to my amazing, awesome skills as a Wrecker, but I'd be lying, Sir," Shiftlock answered with a helpless smile, remembering her military protocol around the straight-laced Autobot Second-in-Command. "Things just sort of went, well, crazy as soon as I came on. Ratchet, you're gonna need some kind of EMF quarantine room for my sparklings and myself. Keep us well away from the other females on base - apparently sparked females and new mothers have some pretty strong effects on other members of the species."

Ratchet blinked. It had been so long since he dealt with the generation of a new Cybertronian that he'd almost forgotten about the cascade effect it could have on other females and carriers. He began to laugh.

"Doctor?" Ultra Magnus asked, sounding confused.

"Oh no," Ratchet chuckled, hand over his optics, trying to hide the ever-widening smile across his facial mesh. "Don't tell me that the female Decepticons onboard started getting aggressive about generation," he asked, knowing full well the answer Shiftlock would give him.

"Ohhhh yeah. Drag Strip and Shockwave are mates now, apparently. Successful generation I might add. Some of the other Vehicons informed me that Megatron and Airachnid were also a bit, ah, 'indisposed'," Shiftlock reported.

Reactions to that bit of news ranged from laughter to disbelief to groans of disgust.

Optimus Prime, however, seemed to be deep in thought over the whole matter. Sparkbonds and generation among the Decepticon ranks after so long - what sort of effect would it have on all of them? The Vehicons as a collective frame-type were rebelling in a sort of cosmic irony against the very rebels who had started the Great War so many millions of years ago.

He wished Alpha Trion were here. He could certainly use some sage advice, because the situation was beginning to sound like a means of finally establishing a peace so elusive it had all but become mythological.

"The carriers are all laid up too," Shiftlock continued after the conversation bot-side had died down. "Soundwave, Blackout and Barricade are all locked down in medical generating protoforms."

"Fantastic!" Ratchet exclaimed. "For once we have the upper hand!"

"And we'll need to act swiftly if we're going to use it," Ultra Magnus said.

"Agreed," Optimus Prime added. "Shiftlock, are you and the Vehicons able to land the Nemesis?"

"Yeah, we should be able to do that," she nodded. "Sir? I believe there's something you need to take into consideration in all this. I know it's not my place to give tactical advice or anything, but I don't think my conscience would let me rest if I didn't point out that we're not just dealing with enemy prisoners right now. We're dealing with families. Shockwave seems to have recovered some emotional capacity - sir, he was defending Drag Strip and begging us to spare her life."

Silence fell on the Autobot side of the line.

Reactions to this information were mixed, though the bots kept their thoughts to themselves for the most part. Some thought it a trick. Others didn't want to accept the fact that Shockwave might be redeemable; they'd fought him for so long, been subject to his experimentation and horrors for so long that forgiveness had been extinguished from their sparks. Old wounds and grudges nursed into ripe old age were not likely to die quickly or easily.

No one knew this more than Prime. If this was truly the first step towards peace, then the real battle - reconciliation and restoration - was about to begin.

"Shiftlock, I would like to speak with Megatron, if possible," he said, at last breaching the uneasy silence.

"Can do," Shiftlock replied.

...

"It's no good," Airachnid said from the ventilation shaft's opening in the ceiling. "I can't get the door override to work."

Megatron vented in frustration. "You tried. That's good enough." Trapped in his own quarters, held hostage by his own minions. This was not how he thought it would end.

"What now, then?" Airachnid asked. "I suppose I could try to make my way to the ship's control room-"

"No," Megatron sharply ordered. "Stay here."

Airachnid raised an optic ridge, uncertain how to respond to both the order and the tone in which it was given. Wouldn't Megatron normally have no issue with ordering his subordinates to do whatever it took to get him back in control?

Her pause told him everything he needed to know about what might be on her mind. "Sending you to the control room would be a fool's errand," he explained. "Even if you managed to get control of the ship it would come at a cost, and at too great a risk. You are a canny hunter, Airachnid, but even you cannot survive against overwhelming numbers. The tables are turned. Now it is we who are outnumbered a thousand to one."

"Are you saying you don't want me to risk myself against the Vehicons?" Airachnid asked, trying to make certain she understood what she thought she just heard.

Megatron looked back up at her, those newly blue optics still snatching a pulse of her spark every time they caught hers. "I don't want you to risk yourself, period," he explained.

Gingerly Airachnid lowered herself out of the vent, slipping easily out, her extra limbs holding onto the interior of the vent, lowering her as if she were on a multi-cable harness. She dropped to the floor, legs tucking down against her back. "I - I've never known you to be concerned for the wellfare of anyone other than what is strategically advantageous to you," she said with uncertainty in her body language.

Megatron smirked. "Would you prefer me to say that I did not wish to risk damage to myself through our sparkbond?"

Airachnid rested a hand on her right hip and smirked, barking a short laugh. "It would be easier to believe."

"I would not have chased after you if I had not thought the potential repercussions of our liaison to be unacceptable," the silver mech casually commented. Airachnid's limbs twitched, flustered - he apparently had known exactly what he was doing, where as she was running on vorns of repressed code function.

Prime's voice ruined the moment. *Megatron, this is Optimus Prime. It has been brought to our attention that your warship has usurped by an uprising among your crew. I would like to discuss the possibility of negotiating a peaceful end to this situation.*

The leader of the Decepticons looked up towards the origin of the transmission, a holographic display beamed from an optic sensor above the door. His hand went to Airachnid's shoulder. "It would seem you have me at your disposal, Prime. State your terms."

There was a flicker of surprise in Prime's optics before he spoke once more. *Let the Vehicons, Shiftlock and her children leave the Nemesis peacefully, and they will return control of the ship to you and the other Decepticons.*

"You are asking me to divest myself of over half my army, along with nearly every scrap of Decepticon intelligence, with no guarantees that you will not simply turn around and destroy me at your leisure," Megatron countered. "You should have asked for my unconditional surrender instead. It would be far more prudent of me to agree to your terms just long enough to begin executing every last Decepticon officer before turning my fusion cannon on myself. I will not permit us to be humiliated, imprisoned or tortured by you and your kind, Prime."

Optimus' mouth tightened. *Would you really terminate your followers, even when some are now in generation?*

Now it was Megatron's turn to look shocked. "What?"

Ratchet's image formed next to Optimus' on the holographic video display. *We've been informed by Drag Strip that she is sparked, and if the information we've been given about you and Airachnid's involvement is correct I would suggest she be tested for generation as well.* The old medic made his suggestion with all the grace and delicacy of a drunken elephant getting off a carnival ride. Airachnid's optics widened and her engine hitched; he could very well be right. Her gaze snapped up to Megatron, whose only reaction was the nonplussed twitch of his right optic as he considered his options.

*I am not interested in seeing you or any of the other Decepticons dead, Megatron,* Prime argued. *You know that Autobots keep their word when it's given. We are willing to offer a ceasefire in exchange for the safe exit of our comrades and the freedom of the Vehicons.*

"Oh I am certain you would keep your word, Prime. Perhaps you would even be able to keep your allies from indulging long-awaited revenge," Megatron stated calmly. "But by virtue of numbers alone you would have shifted the course of the war. No matter what option of yours I choose, I am still choosing defeat, either now or at some point further down the line."

The silver mech clasped his hands behind his back, glaring unflinchingly into the camera, into where he imagined Prime was looking at him from the other side of the communication lines. "The real question is whether or not I am willing to suffer an existence under your victory - or whether my fellow Decepticons would allow me to surrender and live."

He could hear the Autobots murmuring on the other end of the line; had they never considered such an outcome? They had known of the many times his own ranks had attempted to oust him to try to pry leadership from his cold, sparkless servos, but had they never thought that the Decepticons were so individually avaricious that they would see his surrender as weakness and carry on the war with or without him? Did they not realize that he was the dam holding back and channeling the destructive power of the dark side of the Cybertronian heart?

...

"He has a point," Ratchet said, turning away from the monitor to the others. "With what we know of how the Decepticon ranks operate, there is the very real possibility that if Megatron surrendered, some other Decepticon would simply carry on in his stead - whether or not they decided to snuff out his spark."

"So even if he wanted to surrender, he's trapped by his own army," Smokescreen mused, grasping the situation in its entirety.

"We'd always operated under the assumption that the Decepticons were a cult of personality," Prowl said. "Everything was centered around Megatron's power and influence over others. Starscream and Shockwave were always likely candidates to continue the Decepticon cause if Megatron fell, but it never seemed as if either of them had the charisma to hold the Decepticon army together in Megatron's absence."

*No offense, Prowl, but that's because you've never been a Decepticon,* Shiftlock said over the Autobot frequencies. *There are plenty of 'Cons that are there because they're just glitched psychopaths, but the movement started for viable reasons - reasons that even Optimus agreed with at one point. The Autobots always seemed like enforcers of the status quo. We saw you as 'Corrupt Senate 2.0'.*

"Then what hope do we have of ever ending this war?" Smokescreen asked, frustrated. "If Megatron gives up and the other Decepticons just keep fighting down to the last mech, that's not a victory, it's just and endless series of executions!"

"It's still victory, even if it's under unpleasant terms," Prowl rebuffed flatly. "And frankly Shiftlock, the fact that you were a Decepticon gives your input on this matter a bias that is not necessarily helpful to making sound decisions. Your sympathies towards the Decepticons even during the thick of the war were questionable at best."

*That's because I kept in mind that they were Cybertronians, not pieces of data in battlefield calculations, you Praxian gearstick!* Shiftlock snapped angrily.

"Are we really gonna start arguin' in the middle of hostage negotiations?" Jazz asked, flabbergasted. "Because it seems like kind of a bad time to be doin' that, especially when we got Megatron on the other end of the line."

"That's enough," Prime asserted firmly, loudly, putting his proverbial foot down. The other Autobots went silent; Optimus rarely had to take a commanding tone, but by the sound of his voice and the weight of his EMF, it wasn't hard to tell that he was in serious business mode now.

"Shiftlock, open communications for all Decepticons aboard the Nemesis," Prime requested.

*Uh, sure, just a moment,* Shiftlock replied, still a bit cowed. *Dave, could you do that?*

*S-sure,* the Vehicon answered, a bit overwhelmed by Optimus' presence as well.

Slowly cycling heat and tenseness out of his internal mechanisms, Optimus Prime steeled himself for the task ahead. What he was about to say would end an era, and turn the pages of Cybertronian history. He was not given to prayer, but silently he wished with all his spark that if Primus was not beyond the reach of his children, that some small divine act of mercy would be shown to all of them on this day.

"To all who call themselves Decepticons: This is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. As of the date and time of this transmission, I am declaring the war between our two sides over."

"On my authority as the last of the Primes, I am granting asylum to all Decepticons - to all Cybertronians - who wish to end this conflict here and now. The war has cost us our homeworld, our friends, our families. It has nearly caused our very extinction."

"It is time for us put aside our differences and rebuild, if we wish to have any hope of our species' survival. Decepticons, you have no options left to you but surrender. We do not desire to be your masters, and we never have; the days of the oppression of the senate and the caste system are long over. The freedom you sought from tyranny has arrived; victory is here for both Autobot and Decepticon alike, if we are willing to cease this now pointless, destructive war, and face the greater struggle of finding a way to restore our home."

"Those Decepticons who choose to end the conflict will be granted unconditional pardon if they are willing to lay aside revenge and violence to work alongside us in peace. Any who continue to try to carry on the war will no longer be granted mercy of any kind. If you wish to keep fighting, you will have to do it alone, and against far superior numbers."

"Whether Autobot or Decepticon, a choice now lies before us all: Peace as Cybertronians, or extinction as warring armies. Choose wisely."


AND SO IT ENDS.

... Or is the real story just beginning?