Title: The Importance of Personal Agendas

Summary: Major Lennox has an idea of how to eliminate the threat the Decepticons pose. However, the Autobots' reaction is quite… unexpected.

Characters: Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Jolt (mentioned); Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave (all only mentioned); William Lennox, Robert Epps.

Universe: life-action movies

Point in Time: 2009, after Return of the Fallen

Genre: General

Rating: PG, K+

Warnings: none

Notes: This story arose from a theory I suddenly had one evening while working on another story.

Will lounged on the couch in the rec room, his feet propped onto the small table in front of him. He usually wouldn't accept anyone putting their feet up, but he was off duty and didn't care right now about impressions. Besides, he was alone.

That changed when his long-time comrade and friend Master Tech Sergeant Robert Epps entered. An eyebrow rose quizzically. "What about the no-feet-on-tables-rule?" the dark-skinned man asked, sauntering over. He handed his superior officer a bottle of beer.

The answer was a shrug. "No one here to see it. And thanks, man." Will skillfully capped the bottle and took a sip, not bothering about getting a glass.

Epps sat down next to him, sighing blissfully when he stretched out his legs and relaxed into the comfortable furniture. "You never know who's watching. Jolt could have hacked the security system again."

Will snorted, remembering very well the incident they had had when the electric blue Autobot first arrived at the base. "After the fritz Ratchet had? I doubt that. He'll think twice before doing it again, even if he wanted to use it as a prank."

"True," Epps conceded.

Both men lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. The TV was only running as background noise. Will had chosen the movie with the intention of watching it to relax, but quickly enough, his concentration had waned, making place for fatigue. He knew that he would fall asleep quickly if he were to go to bed right now, but he couldn't bring himself to get up; he was sitting very comfortably and was too lazy to move.

Epps laughed suddenly and Will's attention focused on his comrade. "What?" he asked.

The other nodded toward the TV. "Gotta love such dumbasses," he said. When Will continued looking confused, Epps explained, "The commander of the ship could have it so much easier if his first lieutenant wouldn't be so much focused on his own agenda. And the weirdest thing, the commander doesn't just get rid of the lieutenant." He snickered.

Will turned toward the TV, watching the next scenes with interest. "Because he needs him if he's indisposed to command the crew," he replied, remembering. He had seen the movie a couple of times already, but never thought too much about it. It was designed for entertainment only. However, today, some voice in the back of his mind told him the situation was familiar. He just couldn't place it.

Epps continued snickering over the next couple of minutes, and eventually, Will was tired enough to fall asleep sitting. Time to hit the sack, he thought and dragged himself up. "See you tomorrow," he said, slowly making his way over to the door. "'Night."

"Goodnight."

However, despite being extremely tired and worn out, Will didn't fall asleep immediately. He lay awake, staring at the dark ceiling. His mind was pondering over the movie he had watched, still trying to figure out where from it was familiar to him. But for the love of God, he couldn't remember. Eventually, his thoughts running in circles, he drifted off to sleep.

...

"Good morning, sir," Will was immediately greeted the next day when he entered the main hangar.

Nodding toward the saluting soldier, he said, "At ease, Peters." The soldier slightly relaxed, nonetheless remaining standing at attention. "Anything to report?" Will inquired.

"No, sir," the young man answered smartly. "Graveyard watch was literally dead."

Will nodded again. "So no 'con sightings," he concluded.

"No, sir."

"Thanks." He continued on toward his office while the soldier snapped to another salute.

A pile of reports and requests towered on his desk. Will grimaced, not really in the mood to tackle the paper work, but seeing that there was nothing more important to take care off right now, he had to work off the pile, whether he liked it or not. He plopped into his chair with a sigh.

Half an hour later, the pile had lost height considerably. Most of the work consisted of just signing off material requests, and seeing that the orders came from Ratchet who always filled out the forms with proper care for details, Will doubted he needed to revise them too thoroughly before approving them. That lightened his work immensely, and he was once again grateful for the Autobots' CMO being a stickler for accuracy.

His thoughts drifted over to the weapons specialist of the Autobots, Ironhide. Granted, the mech was more often than not grumpy, but if push came to shove, one could always count on him. He was extremely loyal – not only to the cause but to his friends as well. And Will had witnessed several times how reliable Ironhide was. Not only was he one of the heaviest hitters in a battle, he also took care of all matters related to weaponry and training.

"Prime is lucky to have such great officers," he mumbled to himself while signing off another request.

But the very next moment, he halted when a thought struck. For several moments, he stared at his desk without seeing it, then shot out of his chair and sprinted down the corridor toward the main room in the hangar.

Luck had it that Optimus, Ironhide and Ratchet were all present when Will arrived. They all looked up in surprise at his sudden appearance. "Major Lennox, did something happen?" Optimus asked, clearly concerned.

Will shook his head and took a deep breath. "Thanks, I'm fine, don't worry," he quickly reassured them. "I just had an epiphany and needed to share it with you, that's why I ran." All three bots perked up at that, so Will said, "From what we learned so far, despite groveling at Megatron's feet when needed, Starscream appears to have his own agenda." He paused to let that sink in. He received nods in response, which indicated that they understood what he was saying. Will therefore continued, "The jackpot question therefore is: Why doesn't Megatron simply get rid of him?" It was a question, but he did not wait for a reply before continuing, "So I thought that we could eliminate Starscream. The 'cons would have one leader less and Megatron would be severely weakened."

The Autobots were silent for a moment, then Ratchet huffed and said, "From your point of perception, this sounds like a good tactic. But in reality, strategically, this would be an absolute mayhem."

"The worst there is," Ironhide agreed.

Will blinked, surprised. He had expected everything but that. "What? Why?" he asked, completely perplexed.

Optimus knelt down and offered him his hand, to be lifted up to a more eye-level height with the three Autobots. "We have considered eliminating Starscream in the past, but needed to dismiss such plans again – for several reasons. For one, as you pointed out, Starscream indeed has his own agenda and tries to see it to the end even with Megatron around."

Frowning in confusion, Will had to admit, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"What Optimus is saying," Ratchet pitched in, "is that Starscream's personal agenda is what keeps Megatron's attention from really focusing on what damage he could deal if he were truly into it."

Will stared at the CMO for a few moments with a blank expression, his thoughts racing. In just the moment that Ratchet opened his mouth to elaborate further, he realized, incredulous, "He has to supervise him."

"In a manner of speaking," Optimus offered. "With Starscream around, Megatron has to watch his back to not be disempowered."

"So… his attention is thus divided and not fully focused on fighting us," Will concluded.

"Exactly."

"Also, if Starscream were no more, Megatron's current third-in-command would take the position as first lieutenant," Ratchet brought forward.

Will pondered whether this wouldn't actually be a positive development for him and his team when he realized he didn't know the name of the 'con in question. "And who's the third-in-command?" he therefore inquired.

"Soundwave," Ironhide grumbled, his engine growling menacingly.

That sort of threw Will. "Huh? I thought he's their communications officer." At least, that's what Jolt had told him.

Ratchet nodded and shook his head at the same time. "He is, but he's also one of the best warriors the 'cons have. Jazz himself has fought him one on one on several occasions – and lost half the time."

His eyebrows shot skywards, and Will whistled. "Really?" He hadn't really had the chance to get to know Optimus's former first lieutenant but the Autobots had regaled him and his team more than once with stories of Jazz, both reverently in regard to the saboteur's intelligence and fighting style as well as with humor to his more… jolly side.

Optimus's voice rang with sadness when he next spoke, even though it was only one word. "Indeed." It proved more than words could ever do that he was still grieving the death of his long-time comrade and friend.

Hoping to pull Prime out of his sorrow, Will drew the Autobots' attentions back to Soundwave. "Hard to believe that he should be that good. I've never before seen him on a battlefield. To me that means he's more of a 'pulling the strings behind defense lines' kind of bot."

"Megatron indeed prefers using Soundwave for surveillance and communications," Ratchet confirmed. "And that alone makes him a formidable opponent. But he mustn't be underestimated on an actual battlefield, no matter what. Always be on the watch when there's an inkling that Soundwave's involved," he warned.

"You should issue that warning to your team too," Optimus suggested.

"Will do."

"Good." Optimus sent him a smile which Will returned. "Was that all or did you have any other epiphanies?"

Chuckling, Will shook his head. "Nope, that was it – unless there was a good reason why killing Starscream would be the better option than keeping him around."

"I am afraid there is none," Optimus replied, "and we had centuries to carefully consider the subject."

Will sighed. It had felt like such a good idea at first, but after this talk, he could see the Autobots' point that taking Starscream out of the equation would cause only bigger problems.

Optimus offered him his hand again and set him back down on the floor. Will said his thanks and goodbyes and turned to leave. He was already at the door when something occurred to him. Turning back to look at the three Autobots, he asked with warily narrowed optics, "What were the three of you doing anyway when I barged in?"

If he hadn't seen it just then, he would never have believed it – but Autobots apparently could obtain an expression that put 'deer caught in the headlights' to shame.

Now truly suspicious, Will crossed his arms in front of his chest. Optimus no longer would meet his eyes then and Ironhide even shuffled his feet in embarrassment.

Only Ratchet seemed unperturbed at having been caught red-handed. "If you need to know," he began, "we were having a discussion."

"About?"

"Nothing that would concern you," the medic shot back, never at a loss for words.

"I see…" Will said, deliberately leaving that sentence hanging ominously over their heads. He threw them another look before deciding to heed back to his office.

He had just sat down at his desk when he received a message. It was from Prime. 'We were discussing the probabilities of you being promoted at the next meeting with General Morshower and what we could do to advocate you.'

"What the…" he muttered to himself before typing a return message. 'And why would my promotion matter to you?'

The response was immediate. 'You know us personally. We fought side by side. The higher ranked you are, the more influence you can use to support our case.' A moment later, a second message came in. 'Call it survival strategy.'

He couldn't help it; he laughed. Long and hard. Until tears ran down his cheeks. "Oh my God…" he eventually gasped after calming down a little. Apparently, not only Starscream has a personal agenda, he thought before returning to his pile of paperwork – that had grown again during his absence from the office.