Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Dawnbreaker: *glances around* Where is Pandimala?

Authoress: *smiles* Oh, come now, she'll be alright.

Sandstorm: *rolls optics* Oh yes. We have seen that so much during her time here.

Authoress: *sighs* You have a point. She is just resting for a bit. I have Seabreaker and Grinchain watching her.

Chapter 8: Triple Changer Training

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

It was time to get off of my aft and move my recovery along. While a few of my joints were still stiff from the healing they were doing, I was finally ready to join the training here. I would be one step closer to returning to my Lord. It had been over three weeks since I had arrived here, and those were three weeks that I should have been moving to Pyrovar. If none of this had happened, I would have made it to Pyrovar and reunited with my Lord. I could have fulfilled my promise to return to him.

But there was no use in thinking about what could have been. Not when I had training to get started. So, I made sure that my swords were in my subspace before I moved to the door. On the other side, Seabreaker was waiting for me. "Ready to go?" Thank the Allspark that he had relaxed some since our last excursion together. It was already easy to see just how relaxed he was around me. Well, more comfortable. He wasn't quite at the point Grinchain was, but that was fine. Grinchain seemed to surpass my expectations in more ways than one.

"Ready," I responded before following the mech down the familiar halls. While I still gathered stares as I walked by bots, there weren't nearly as many as there were before. For better or worse, I became a regular part of their solars. At least that would keep the stares down to a minimum.

As we walked, and Seabreaker spoke about some things he was excited to see at the Fair, I let my optics wander at the sights around me. There were more bots than there were before my trial at the Eternia Embassy. This Advancement Fair was more popular than I thought it would be. I'd have to see what sort of information I could learn. Everything I learned here would benefit my Lord once I returned to him. Plus, I could have some fun as well. I'm sure that would help my recovery, getting me closer to returning home and getting Physis off my backplates.

"Of course, with Wern participating, this stellar everybot is on edge," I snapped back my focus to Seabreaker as I heard him mention one of the other members of the Galactic Alliance.

"Why would that put everybot on edge?" While I had read that there were tensions between Alliance members, I couldn't find out which members had problems with which.

As we continued to move, Seabreaker answered. "Well, let me start with this: Who are the main member planets?"

That was easy. It was one of the first things I researched. "They are Vestium Major, New Quintessa, Antiga Prime, Hydrus IV, Dendron Beta, Pova, and Wern."

"Correct. And their subordinate planets?"

I felt like I was in class right now. But this got me the answer I wanted, so I continued. "Ethos and Eternia are under Vestium Major. Rotan, Tixlara, Vrol and Zull are under New Quintessa. Pangar, Gor, Soror, and Druida are under Antiga Prime. Eskabar, Airlandia, Jabbio, Koratus, Ganzvort, and Telezart fall under Hydrus IV. Energoa, Ork, Hyneria, New Avalon, and Giedi Prime fall under Dendron Beta. Thundera, Mongo, Leida, Tasmos, and Bedlam fall under Pova. Finally, Thra, Majipoor, Stoggos, Fara, and Ploor fall under Wern." It had taken me a while to memorize all those planets, but I didn't want to upset the wrong world if I could help it.

"Perfect," He then continued. "Majipoor, about thirty solars ago, claimed that Ethos sent in a black-ops unit and destroyed a large shipment of energon they needed. Of course, Ethos didn't, but the real culprits were never caught. That has put Wern on edge with us for a while now. With that, Wern has been gathering allies among the member planets in case this situation worsens."

Well, at least I was learning about this before it became a problem. Being ahead of the situation would be better than every other problem I had during my stay. And that would help with talks I knew I would be dragged to. But, I needed to know which planets were allied with which during this trouble so I could make sure I spoke to the correct bots correctly if I wanted to get this alliance with Vestium Major that I wanted.

"So, who is allied with who in this situation right now?" I asked.

Seabreaker seemed to think for a nano before he answered. "I'll just tell you the member planets' alliances in this because any subordinate planet is going to take the side of their leading planet." He then let out a vent. "For now, Hydrus IV is trying to stay out of this conflict, which I don't blame them for. If we weren't in the middle of this, I would want to stay out of it too. Pova and Anitga Prime have allied with us, while New Quintessa and Dendron Beta are allying with Wern."

From all my information, I knew that New Quintessa would be an enemy of ours regardless of how we approached them. It was no secret that they felt all Cybertronians were theirs to rule over by right. They would try to garner that 'right' whenever they thought they might get away with it. Honestly, though, I doubted they would show up here for this directly. As far as I knew, no bot knew just how high up the chain of command I technically was because of my courting status with Lord Megatron. Also, given my presence on Earth during the negotiations, I was automatically ranked higher than most other Decepticons, outside of a select few who weren't on Earth.

No, something told me that I was part of why we were seeing Wern's presence here soon. New Quintessa wanted to gauge my receptiveness to being placed under them without risking their political movements. That left me wondering how they had convinced Wern to do so.

From what I had read of the member states, mechano-centric planets had the slight majority of the seven being Vestium Major, New Quintessa, Pova, and Wern. Hydrus IV, Anitga Prime, and Dendron Beta are organic-based worlds. Of course, almost none of those worlds were exclusively one or the other outside of New Quintessa due to its harsher atmosphere and environment. However, most species that were the majority species were usually the ruling party. From what I researched with Grinchain, that was how it was.

There was something that Seabreaker just said, though, that made me curious. "What do you mean by 'for now'? Do you expect the alliances to change?"

He shook his helm. "No. Just…be careful in there. One of the bots undergoing triple-changer training is Sharpstreak, heir to the Pova throne. And if you think that Firebrand is bad, you haven't seen anything yet. Sharpstreak is damaged wiring bundled up in a metal casing. I've told Firebrand about how Sharpstreak sneaks around and talks to…less favorable beings than he thinks. But, Firebrand has been stressing so much about all of this, including your situation, believe it or not, that his helm is up his aft."

He was right. I didn't believe him about Firebrand. Not one bit. But I had heard similar things from Grinchain and Lightbeam, so I would wait and see. But, it would take a significant change in attitude for me to change my processor on him. However, miracles happen every solar, so this could be one of them.

Once the training center came into view, I looked back at Seabreaker. "Thanks for getting me here. When are you picking me up again?"

The mech paused for a nano before he spoke. "You're supposed to take it lightly, so I'd say you should be done in five cycles. That will put us at three cycles past mid-solar, giving you time to go and meet with Lord Oryax as you all scheduled. Do you want me in that meeting with you?"

Since Oryax was an ally of Vestium Major, I felt like I could be alone for this. "I should be alright. If that meeting goes well, we can take some time and check out the lake. I'm always up for a nice swim."

I laughed at the dumbfounded look on the mech's faceplate before he shook his helm. "Alright. I'll check on the preparations for the Fair. Don't give Sandstorm too much trouble. Alright?"

"Me? Trouble? I don't know the meaning…" I drifted off at the knowing look that came from Seabreaker as I tried to tease him. Yeah, I guess with all of the trouble I had been in here so far, he wouldn't let me even try that. "You know, you aren't fun when you don't let me finish the sentence."

"Neither is the panic you put every being in with your trouble. I talked to Caigal, the other solar, about your antics while you were in soliform. She had some interesting things to say." His servos were on his hips, and an optic ridge raised as he spoke. "How can you shuffle so many platings and still be standing?"

"Luck?"

He let out a laugh at that. "You? Lucky?"

I held up my servos at that. "Hey, I didn't say it was good luck. Just luck in general."

Seabreaker looked to be thinking about that before he shrugged. "Fair enough," He then made a shooing motion. "Now get inside. Sandstorm has been unbearable waiting for you. Guess you impressed him the other solar during the situation with Grinchain."

"Not only that," I jumped slightly as a new voice joined us. Turning, I saw Sandstorm standing in the doorway with a studying look on his faceplate. "But for anybot to last that long in the Eternia challenge, especially a triple-changer, is more than impressive."

I let out a laugh at that. "Careful there, Sandstorm or you will stoke my ego."

"Trust me; it won't be that way for long. As you heal, your training will push you more and more," Sandstorm looked to Seabreaker. "I'll take her from here. This solar should be short, so be back in about four cycles. We will do some basics to see where she is at."

Seabreaker nodded and left. When I turned to focus on Sandstorm, though, he looked concerned. "There's more, isn't there?"

He nodded as we walked inside. "I asked you here to start during everybot else's two-cycle break to go over some…unusual things with you." Unusual? That made me worried. I knew there were holes in the front I was giving everybot here. I wasn't lying per-say, but I was not being as informative as possible, even to Physis. Something told me that, sooner or later, that might come back to haunt me.

However, back to the mech who would be my trainer, "What sort of 'things'?" I pushed as we moved through the halls.

"I spoke to Physis about what I should expect in training you, and he mentioned that you had never even heard of snaps before. I know a few Decepticons went through the training with varying results. Word should have reached you if you were near anybot who knew one. While they had training before the war, it isn't some hidden subject."

Oof, right to the details of it. Well, time to spin this the best I can without outright lying. "I am fairly new to the Decepticons, and before that, I was sheltered…I didn't know much about anything, for a fact, until I ventured out and found the Decepticons." It wasn't a lie, but it didn't tell the whole fragging story.

But, while I was starting to trust the beings here on Vestium Major, I wasn't ready to spill all my secrets to them. I wasn't sure how they would take everything. Or even how they would treat me. Right now, I held their respect. But some of the information about me might change that. It had undoubtedly terrified Iussa at first when I went off on her. Femme quickly changed her plans for controlling me when I fought against her power.

"I see," From the hesitation in his vocals, he didn't sound like he completely believed me. But I had a feeling he wouldn't question it for now.

Guess I should fill in a little to keep the suspicion away from me. "If it helps, once Physis told me about 'snaps', I researched them, and I think there might have been one time when I snapped. But, it wasn't quite like the books described them."

Sandstorm opened a door and led us into a large arena. Thankfully, the room was empty, so I could continue speaking openly. I didn't need everybot and their creators to know what caused my only snap to date. "That's good to hear. Every triple-changer should snap at least once. If they come to my training before that happens or are unsure of what caused it, I push them until we cause one to figure that out. Ninety-five percent of the time, those snaps stem from pride. As triple-changers, we tend to see all the ways we are 'superior' to others, which gets into our helms. When that 'superiority' is challenged, we lash out. My snaps, of which I haven't had any in millions of stellars, were caused by this. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane, who at one point were or are fellow Decepticons of yours, had this same sort of trigger."

"So, they all went through this too?" I wasn't surprised that Blitzwing had passed this, even with his multiple personalities. Nor was I surprised that Astrotrain hadn't. And while I hadn't met Octane personally, I had heard about what he put Ransack and Crumplezone through and was not impressed with the mech.

"Blitzwing did. Astrotrain and Octane…we had issues. They were here at the same time as Blitzwing, and there was an…incident." If I couldn't get the story during my stay here, I would have to ask Blitzwing when I made it to Pyrovar. He was the only one of those three still among the ranks of the Decepticons and would answer me if I asked him. "But enough about that. You said you think you know what caused your snap?" We had reached the center of the field at this point and stopped.

I made a so-so motion with my servo at that. "I know what happened that time. The underlying issue that situation presented not so much." I then hesitated. Some of this information I was keeping away from Vestium Major for now. If they discovered I was on Earth, they might connect me to events I didn't want them to know about yet. "Given the nature of that specific situation, I can't give you names or a location where it happened, but you shouldn't need that."

He studied me again before he shook his helm. "Most likely, no. I've only had one case as a trainer where an individual instead of a situation caused a snap. If it sounds similar, I will need more information to work with you."

Fair enough. But, hopefully, that wouldn't be necessary. While Thurst had caused my snap last time, I was sure it wasn't just because of him that I snapped. That much I was sure of. "Very well. I was on a ship with other Decepticons, not all of them as honest as one would like. One, in particular, sought me out as I was training and in a bad mood. He thought I would be swayed into helping him with a plot that would go against what the Decepticons believed. When he tried to pressure me into being his pawn in this plan…I think that was when I snapped. I lost awareness of everything and did not stop trying to remove him as a threat, even when ordered to stand down." That part still stung a bit. I had been oblivious to Lord Megatron's orders when they should have been my driving force. Instead, I had to be put into forced recharge like some rabid beast. "I had to be held by a big bot while I was sedated. When I woke up, I was unsure what had happened until I was told what I did."

Surprisingly, he didn't look upset at that. Instead, he looked thoughtful. "And what did you do?"

I felt pride I knew I probably shouldn't when I thought about the mess that I left Thrust in. "I tried to offline him. That consisted of throwing him around and trying to remove his helm by sanding it down against the wall."

That got a reaction out of him. "That seems a little extreme. But that does tell me you will need to be watched during training. I'm not sure if it was because you were challenged or because something you believed was challenged that you snapped. We will start that during our next session." He then took out a blade, prompting me to take out one of my own. "For now, let's see just what training you have picked up."

I smiled quickly before I charged forward.

Caigal's 1st P.O.V.

It was relatively quiet. Of course, father had yet to replace his war council, so this war meeting was just between us. While there were a few candidates here at the Embassy that father wanted to look at, I knew more of his choices for the new war council were back on Eternia. While I knew the war council was flawed, I was surprised they made their move so quickly and on the soliform of everything. It wasn't a high-priority mission, and they had to know that if word got back to the soliform, they might turn themselves in. And that was what happened. If they knew it would happen, it probably happened faster than they planned.

Of course, I hadn't realized how close she was until she told me.

Pandimala had blended flawlessly into our society, even as a species rare away from Earth, humanity's home planet. Once Pandimala had gone, I traveled to the archive and pulled up all the information I could on the planet. While the species seemed frail, the challenges they overcame daily to survive were incredible. Perhaps in the next fifty or so years, we could start introducing the planet to the galactic scale of the universe. Pandimala had shown they could blend in among other species.

Even though there had been a few moments where I might have suspected she could be the soliform, they weren't as evident as I made it sound to the instigators the other day. After my research, that became even less so. Most of the things I saw that would have been questioned were what regular humans did.

And thoughts like that caused me to call my father for a war council meeting. This would be an official meeting until one of us said otherwise. There were things about Pandimala that weren't adding up. And while I still considered her my friend, as a member of my father's war council, they were points that needed to be addressed.

"Caigal, your message said that you were concerned about Pandimala. In what way?" My father asked as he sat down across from me.

I let out a breath before I motioned to the report that was filed on her soliform challenge. "It was her soliform."

"It was quite incredible. We weren't even aware that soliforms could be made to do that." He sounded just as impressed as when we were working on this report.

Nodding, I continued. "Yes, but the advancements aren't what have me worried. How she acted is causing me to suspect more is at work."

His eyes narrowed slightly in thought, and he sat up straighter. "What do you mean, Caigal?"

I pulled out some more files on soliforms we had witnessed in the past before setting them in front of him. "While they only lasted a few cycles, some of these soliforms acted decently, trying to be organic. They sometimes stepped away to relieve themselves and acted like they were eating. Of course, the food is found later, and someone following them to where they disappeared usually gave it away. But Pandimala never seemed to act unusual. She knew that most organics don't have set times to do either of those options. And then there was the incident at the training falls."

At my mention of the incident, father seemed to tense. Strange. What was that about? "That reminds me, I need to speak to you about that Caigal."

That was strange. When I reported to him about the incident fully, he said he would speak to the psiar about what he did. When I hadn't heard anything from my father, I thought it was finished. But, from how he was speaking, there was more at play. "In such a panic-inducing situation as she was in, most soliforms don't know what to do. The one that fell down the slope didn't react to it. Pandimala reacted just like I would expect an organic to. When I saw her, she was just breaching the water's surface, and I heard her gasp for breath. That's not a reaction you can train yourself to have. And then, she knew how to swim in the water to shore. Like she had trained to do so before."

"Both not regular teaching topics," Father agreed with a concerned look. "While mechano-beings interact with us, and well in many situations, they don't grasp those concepts. They do not need to breathe. Why would she instinctively try to when she breached the water? And few planets have currents powerful enough to cause someone her size to struggle against the currents." He then picked up the profile we had on Pandimala and stared at it. "There is something more to her than she is telling us. I'll have intelligence try to find out more about her." He then motioned to me. "Discreetly, of course."

I appreciated that. While she was hiding something about herself, I still considered her my friend, and I wasn't sure how she would react if she knew that we were looking into her. "Thank you, father." I was about to get up and leave when I remembered that he had more to say about the training falls incident. "What did you wish to speak about on the training falls incident, father?"

Father leaned back against his seat before he spoke. "That is something we need to speak on off the record for now." I was surprised when he put the room in dark mode. No signals would leave or come into this room while we talked. What had father so worried about this incident that he didn't want to leave us? He had been free to speak about Pandimala with the recordings going. And that seemed like a serious conversation. Just what had been started back then?

"Father?" I questioned him to get him to start talking.

It seemed like father physically aged twenty years in the span of a few seconds before he answered me. "I went and spoke to Prophus the solar Pandimala left us. He found it amusing that I disbanded my war council when I needed them the most. I asked him what he meant about that, and he laughed. The psiar laughed for a few moments before he answered me. He admitted that he was hired to cause trouble for Eternia with other powers. He saw the human, a rarity away from their home planet, as the perfect opportunity to start. Followed her around and felt the training area was the perfect place to strike."

"And it would have been," I agreed with him. "With so many of us around her, and if she would have been human, her death could have had repercussions for us. Many repercussions."

"If it were only that, I wouldn't be concerned. He let slip that whoever hired him wasn't finished yet and that Eternia was just a piece of the plan." I felt my blood go cold when I heard those words. This was the start of a major attack, and we had no idea who could be behind it. "I have a meeting with Lord Dawnbreaker and Lord Oryax later this evening to discuss this. They will keep their audios open and try to learn more about what this mysterious being is planning."

"What would you wish for me to do in the meantime?" I wanted to help. I needed to. If this attack was as broad as father believed it would be, I needed to be ready at a moment's notice.

"For now, keep your eyes open for trouble. That is both here and away from the embassy. See if Pandimala will spend some more time with you. Right now, she has access to more areas than most. Use that access if you can to look for anything unusual." Father commanded before he turned off the dark mode. "For now, you should take a break. Spend some time with that new friend of yours. Murav knows you don't make friends often."

He was making it seem like we went dark to talk about family things. My father was wise. Though, at times, he failed to show it. Like with his choice of topic. "I have friends, father."

A laugh came from him at that. "I can count on one hand how many you have…and I don't take up my four digits to do so either. That includes this new friend of yours. No, I won't let you lose this friendship easily. So, I am making it an order. Spend some time and relax. I know Pandimala has a meeting with Lord Oryax after her training. Send her a message and see if you can spend time with her later this evening." He then stood up and let out a sigh. "And while you are gone, I get to start the interviews for the positions on my war council.

Interviews. More like trials by combat. I swear he got a sense of joy by using that wording instead of just saying it straight out. Sometimes, I wondered how I was related to him. "Very well, father." I then smiled as a thought came to my mind. "Perhaps we could do some more training?" As I went to leave, I held back a laugh as father let out a frustrated yell at that.

Once the doors were closed behind me, though, I felt worried. Between Pandimala's new secret and this trouble with an attack coming, I doubted I would be relaxing much. I was going to have to be alert wherever I went. Just because they had attacked Pandimala's soliform didn't mean they wouldn't go after a higher-value target if this attacker saw the opportunity. And there weren't many positions higher than the daughter of the Emperor of Eternia.

Dawnbreaker's 1st P.O.V.

"So, how did this first solar of training go for her?" I asked Sandstorm as I sat down. While this meeting was regular, I wanted it to be as informal as possible.

"Surprising," Sandstorm admitted as he picked up an energon cube. "She doesn't move like most triple changers should."

"Is that a bad thing?" I wanted to know if we had done something to her during the incident that caused this strangeness as soon as possible.

Thankfully, the mech was already shaking his helm. "I thought that as well. However, Pandimala assured me she was trained this way before her first encounter with us. It wasn't something that we expected from her. Frag, it sure scared Leopel when they were sparring, and she started her fight quickly. He thought she would have the same opening attack that most larger bots, including himself, would have."

Leopel was a native of Ethos who was here for the training. With his alt modes being a large aerial hauler and a construction alt for his land-based mode, we thought he would give Pandimala a good working. So, I had requested this of Lord Oryax, and he had been more than willing. That was especially true since Leopel was almost finished with his training and could work with Pandimala should she have a snap.

Speaking of the snap. "Did you find out what might cause her snaps?"

"We have a theory," Sandstorm started. "The femme and I were talking when she first arrived, and she spoke about an incident which was a snap, though she hadn't realized it at the time. It is a pride-based snap, but it isn't a self-centered pride. And Leopel tried that angle a few times with her to try and get her to snap. However, her snaps seem more about her pride in something. If I am going off of the incident she spoke of, it is pride in her loyalty to the Decepticons. I'm not sure how far a bot will have to go to get her to snap. The incident she mentioned had a bot trying to persuade her to do something against what the Decepticons believed."

"Did you not test this?" It was strange. If Sandstorm knew something about the femme's snaps, why didn't he push that point to get to the answer immediately?

When the triple-changer shook his helm, I realized that the mech must have more information causing him to delay that part of her training. "It was what she told me about that incident that is causing me to take it slower with her. She said that when she snapped, she lost all awareness around her. Her only focus was taking out the threat in front of her. From what she said, she literally ground the mech's faceplate against a wall to some degree before the others around them pulled her off of him and sedated Pandimala. When she came to, she said she didn't know what happened and that the others had to inform her of what happened."

A dangerous snap. Thankfully, it didn't seem easy to trigger these snaps of hers. We just had to ensure we watched what was said to her. To lose consciousness and attack purely on instinct was a dangerous way for her programming to react. She couldn't be held responsible for anything that happened during her snaps. "Then you should keep on her recovery training for now. Do you have a plan for her snaps, though?"

"Yes. I spoke to Lord Oryax after he met with Pandimala and asked if I could use Leopel during this training for her. We will work later in the evening and have at least two medics on servo to sedate her until she can get a servo on this. Leopel can take a hit and has agreed to do this. He says it will be a challenge to ensure he has his snaps to the point he wants them to. Given that the mech hasn't had a snap in three stellars, I'd say that's a good idea. We don't need another repeat of the last time we had Cybertronians in the program."

Yes. Those three. The incident between those three almost shut down the program. Though, to say that it was the fault of all three wouldn't be fair. Blitzwing had been placed in the same situation Leopel was volunteering to be in. He was almost done with his training and had been asked to work with his fellow Cybertronians. We had been hoping that a familiar faceplate would help them work together. And, when it was just Blitzwing and Astrotrain, it had been. Slowly, but the progress had been noticeable.

And then, we placed Octane in the mix. Astrotrain and Octane were at each other constantly, and it had taken a sharp optic to keep them from attacking each other. The one time we slipped on that watch, they hadn't wasted the opportunity. The violence that they showed that solar was immense. Energon could be found on every surface of that training room, and the two mechs mainly in the fight had been unconscious for fourteen solars before they came to. And while Blitzwing had suffered physically, the mental damage hit him the hardest. His personalities, which had been mild before that to the point where it was almost a choice which one he went to, to the point where he had battled for dominance with himself for stellars before we could work with all three personalities in a cooperative state. The mental damage all of his personalities went through caused him to be a semi-permanent resident for hundreds of stellars, right up before their war started before he was released.

As for the other two, that was a different problem entirely. We had gone into the investigation thinking they had both snapped and we would have to work with them away from the rest of the trainees. However, our investigations made it clear that neither had snapped and had done that much damage out of want and not because of their programming. Both Astrotrain and Octane were sent back to Cybertron with a ban from entering Alliance space ever again.

Thinking about that situation, I worried about how this training with Pandimala would go. While she seemed like a level-helmed femme, she had also shown how powerful she could be. Iussa still refused to say what happened during their meeting. And all Grinchain would say was that he was never going to cross Pandimala if he could help it. When I tried to have Grinchain tell me more, he informed me that Iussa ordered him to give only that information should he be asked.

With the situation we were in now, I had to hope that Pandimala proved to be better than those two. "Perhaps we should have another assigned to her as well," I suggested with those previous thoughts in my helm. While I knew Leopel could care for himself, Pandimala seemed another type of bot entirely.

Sandstorm, thankfully, nodded. "I'll see if Perfican will join them. The Eskabaran should enjoy that. And if this all turns out well, it might show Hydrus IV that we can be trusted and are telling the truth about the Majipoor incident. Ethos wouldn't have attacked them, especially not their energon. While energon is easier to get these stellars, it still isn't easy yet."

And that yet was important. Rumors were coming that Pyrovar, the new Decepticon homeworld, was developing a growable energon source. Like organic beings could cultivate their substance, they hoped to do the same with their energon. If they succeeded, that would change everything. Outside of it being the right thing to do, we allowed Pandimala so much freedom during her stay here because of these rumors. She could be our way of smoothly creating an alliance with the Decepticons before the likes of New Quintessa got their tentacles into them.

I had to let go of those thoughts before they affected me further.

"Let's go to the Eskabar embassy and make the request. The sooner we have more guards on the femme while she is training, the better we will be for it."

Caigal: I believe this has become a free-for-all in here. Whether that is a good thing or not is yet to be seen.

Emperor Thav: It should all come together.

Authoress: *glances at everyone in space* How did all these beings get in here? You aren't supposed to be in here yet. *eyes narrow* What are you all planning?

Lord Oryax: *laughs* I believe it is fate. Certainly not any nefarious plan against you, Authoress.

Authoress: *relaxes* Good.

AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you have all enjoyed this chapter. Lots of things are being hinted at. And first of those that Pandimala's snaps have her concerned, and that concern may eventually come to play. Hopefully, the bots on Vestium Major will help her train out of this. And then there is the other political matter that seems to be raising its helm. This trouble with Majipoor and, thus, Wern will play a role in upcoming chapters. After that, of course, we look in on Caigal and her father. Caigal has suspicions of Pandimala, while Thav has started investigating a plot to uproot the Galactic Alliance, beginning with Vestium Major and its allies. Finally, we look in on Dawnbreaker and Sandstorm with their worries about Pandimala's training. They are looking to take every precaution that they can. Hopefully, that will be enough. Especially in their plan to show Hydrus IV that Ethos did not attack Majipoor.

Well, that's enough about that for now. Here are the next chapter titles for you all.

Chapter 9: Snaps

Chapter 10: Questions

Chapter 11:...(find out next time!)

And that's all for now! Again, thank you to all who have read this and my other stories. If you would like, drop a review, even if it says hi, and it will be greatly appreciated. Until next time though, TTYL! *watching murder mysteries for inspiration*