Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Authoress: *holds up drink* We need some snacks. Maid! Snacks for my companions!

Pandimala: *looks around the corner* I know you didn't just call me a maid.

Authoress: *smirks* You heard me right, maid. Since you refused to join our band of brothers, you must be the maid of the tavern.

Pandimala: *raises optic ridge* Even if I were to play along with this, wouldn't it be your band of brethren?

Iussa: *had one too many high grades* Don't ruin the vibe, maid!

Pandimala: *glares at Iussa*

Iussa: *coughs nervously* Please?

Chapter 15: The Whole Truth

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

It was terrifying and liberating to tell all of these beings my story. But they had earned it. They were my allies, and they were ready to fight for me. Since I had a portion of the god of Order as my enemy, they needed to know everything. "While I gained my spot as a full-fledged Decepticon, not everyone was happy for me. One of those in particular was Paul. For a while, we had been in contact with each other through my dreams, him using his power to make the meetings possible. Our goal, or what he told me it was anyway, was to make peace between the Autobots and Decepticons while avoiding any more energon shed than was necessary. But he showed his true goal when we met after that mission. He didn't want peace. He wanted the Autobots to win and come out of our war the clear victors. No matter what it cost him."

"What do you mean by that, Pandimala?" Lord Dawnbreaker asked me. From his tone, he was sorry for what he had said before and was trying to make up for it by hearing me out. Thank the Allspark.

To his question, though, "When I met with him, he noticed that I had cut my hair and had a bandage on my neck. It was from a tattoo I got to show my allegiance to the Decepticons. Instead of asking me why I looked different, he immediately assumed the Decepticons were responsible. Instead of letting me explain what they were, he didn't believe me. He insisted that I was being blinded by my past support of the Decepticons back in my dimension and said that I was letting them use me as a ragdoll to practice their soliforms. And before you ask, we got the information we needed to improve our soliforms from the relic we got on that mission and had yet to implement that information. He was grasping at straws. Paul wanted whatever reason he could use to blame them."

"Sounds like I need to visit Cybertron to put a god in his place," I smiled as Flarebell, whom I was pleased to meet as Lord Dawnbreaker's carrier, grumbled. She was quickly becoming my newest friend.

"Given the Autobots' appreciation for him, that may not be smart right now," As much as I would love to see Paul get the same treatment that I just watched Lord Dawnbreaker get, the Autobots would be much more defensive of Paul than receptive of her words. "I appreciate the thought, though."

"Yes, and you let me know when I can follow through on that action," Flarebell reiterated with a smile.

"Thanks," I did appreciate the thought behind it. "Anyways, more words were said, and I officially cut ties with Paul after that, though he didn't believe me. After some time with the Decepticons, we come to the first answer that you all are looking for." I then motioned to my chassis. "How I was turned into Pandimala. It wasn't on purpose, on both the side of my attacker and on the side of those who were trying to save me. I had been collecting a relic using an armor the Decepticons made specifically for me to use in the field. A ground bridge opened behind me as I freed the relic, and the bot from the other side shot at me. Given later investigations led by Soundwave and Lord Megatron, it was determined that none of the Decepticons, even those who were not my biggest fans, were responsible. That shot infused my body with energon, slowly eating me from the inside."

"How did the Decepticons save you?" Physis asked. I was sure he wanted to know what medical breakthrough the Decepticons might have made to save me from the energon.

However, with everything that I was involved with, it wasn't that simple. "That's where things get complicated. Before my enemies made their moves, all the Decepticons had been able to do was stop the spread of energon by cycling the infected blood out of my body, filtering out the energon, and then putting the clean blood back into my body. But that just stopped further progression. As I mentioned, I had enemies, and two of those at the time were in the Decepticon fold. Airachnid and Astrotrain. Airachnid, somehow, found the one substance built to fight energon and thought adding it into my blood would finally do me in. This act caused her to be removed from the Decepticons. However, while damage to my body increased in spots where the two substances met, Knockout told me later that the areas where the clashes weren't happening were recovering."

It didn't surprise me that Sandstorm was the one who noticed my gloss-over of the 'substance'. "And what did Airachnid put in your body to cause this?"

I hesitated for a nano, knowing the taboo behind dark energon, before I said it. "Dark energon,"

The room seemed to freeze at my admission. "Dark energon was on Earth?" Iussa spoke up.

Since I was giving them all of my history, they had better know this, too. "Is. Earth isn't your average planet. Just as Cybertron is Primus' chassis, Earth was formed around the defeated chassis of Unicron. His essence can be found all over the planet, and as beings created on the planet, it can be found in the structural DNA of humans in small quantities. We believe it is that fact that eventually caused what happened."

The room seemed to need a nano to process everything I told them. However, after a few clicks, Seabreeze spoke. "Continue when you are ready, Pandimala. We'll listen."

While they were simple words, I felt relief when he said that. "Thank you," I thought he should know I was grateful before I continued. "As Knockout sent his assistant to get more fluids to keep me stable, my second enemy among the Decepticons chose that moment to attack. Astrotrain, however, was more direct than Airachnid. He ensured that Knockout could not interfere before he started to move to me. But, at that point, the energon and dark energon in my body reacted in a final force that caused an explosion. When everything cleared, I was like this."

"So there is no way to stop energon poisoning?" Physis asked.

I shook my helm. "Not yet. Astrotrain fled the scene when backup arrived, and after that, he was removed from the Decepticons. While we had to adjust to my new species, the Decepticons moved forward while keeping an optic on my condition. Things were looking up until a group of Autobots and Decepticons arrived on Earth. One Decepticon, in particular, was the cause of more trouble for me. You may know him. Thrust."

"Scum," I was surprised to hear Lord Dawnbreaker speak up at the mention of his designation. "He made a ploy here during the beginning of the Cybertronian Civil War to replace me with a puppet leader. It didn't work, but the mech got very close."

It sounded like the scum I knew. "He tried the same with Lord Megatron, and he tried to use me to do it."

"Your first snap," Sandstorm put the puzzle pieces together.

I nodded. "Yes, though I didn't realize what it was then. But his effort did get him a small victory. As I was coming out of the induced stasis the others had to force me into, I started to ramble about Primus and the mission he gave me. At that same time, Lord Megatron walked into my room to check on me. He demanded an immediate cortical psychic patch to determine my loyalty to him. I didn't want Thrust to see the information in my helm, and I asked Lord Megatron that he not be shown anything from my processor unless my Lord thought I over-reacted after my viewing. In return, I offered not to fight any punishment that should come my way, even if that was torture. Lord Megatron agreed and led me to a room where Knockout had two berths ready. Lord Megatron entered my processor as the other officers outside Thrust examined my memories."

"I'm assuming Thrust didn't leave quietly," Lord Oryax said. "I was here during the mech's attempt on Vestium Major, and he left quite the mess behind for Lord Dawnbreaker to clean up."

So, the mech was a menace everywhere. "While the patch was happening, Thrust realized he was going to be made, so he reached out to a contact he had in the Autobots. We think he gave them a one-time access pass through the Nemesis' defenses. Not long after my patch, I was put into forced recharge to recover from the strain. In that time, though, the Autobots used that pass to attack the Nemesis."

"Why would the Autobots risk an attack?" Grinchain asked. He was devouring every word I was saying. Of course, this had to be a treasure trove of information for him—a first-servo account of what changed on Earth.

"Because they thought that someone on the Nemesis needed saving," I answered the mech.

"You," Iussa pointed out.

I nodded. "Me. Since we were using my unknown status among the Decepticons to keep the Autobots on edge, they believed I was a hostage and saw this as the best opportunity to save me. Pitch, Flamewar, and Sentinel Major stumbled upon the room I was in, and after they offlined the guards, they took me prisoner. To this solar, I'm not sure why they didn't just offline me, given their want to after they got me to the Autobot base, but I'm not complaining."

"This is where your wings popped," Emperor Thav interrupted this time.

Well, he was close. But it wasn't quite yet. "Not yet, though we aren't far from that. I wasn't the most cooperative prisoner at first, and many Autobots made it known that they didn't like my presence with them, Paul included. However, there were a few Autobots who got to know me. Wheeljack was the first one, and I saw him as a friend. However, after a bad mission, the three Autobots who brought me to their base came to my cell as Wheeljack told me he had gotten permission for one of their medics to look at my backplates since they were bothering me."

"One of the main signs that wings are about to pop," Seabreaker pointed out. "That and enhanced awareness are early signs that wings will pop soon."

"Given the lack of fliers among the Autobots, they didn't know that," I interjected, more to defend Wheeljack and my other allies in the Autobots instead of the Autobots as a whole. "They threatened to torture me to see if I knew anything about the Decepticon goals, which I wouldn't have told them. Wheeljack caught on and tried to deter them by saying they would go against intergalactic law and turn the Galactic Alliance against the Autobots before they could hide."

"And they would have," Duskmorrow stepped in. "As soon as word reached us that the Autobots had employed torture on a bot they had taken as prisoner, the Alliance would have been on them. On both sides of your war, many instances almost invoked Alliance involvement. However, the circumstances around those incidents were not involving actual prisoners. They were either battlefield fights that went too far or, in the case of the DJD," I had a feeling the Galactic Alliance was watching them given the methods they tended to use, "They were tracking bots on their side who betrayed them. Dealing with bots in their ranks differs from using those same tactics against enemies who didn't swear to those same ideals."

That made sense. I hadn't thought about it before, but it was strange that the Galactic Alliance never intervened in the cases where the DJD tortured traitors. "That makes sense." I agreed. However, it was time to tell them what happened when my wings popped. "In response to that, Sentinel Major attacked Wheeljack while saying it wouldn't happen if the only witness against them lost his spark as I tried to make a violent escape."

"They were going to offline you, and the Autobot Wheeljack protected you," Sandstorm summed up.

I nodded. "Yeah. I was scared for Wheeljack and panicked while trying to get them away from him. I broke out of my cell and attacked them. I wanted to protect Wheeljack. So, I threw Sentinel into the other two with enough force to cause them to tumble into the main room. Of course, the other Autobots didn't know what was happening and just saw a Decepticon prisoner escaping and attacking their own. When I walked into their view, it happened…my wings popped."

"The first emotions you would have felt would have been from the Autobots, who saw you as an enemy," Physis supplied for me. It wasn't easy to talk about this, but given everything that happened during my time here, they needed to know this now.

So, I continued. "Yeah. One threw something into my side to get me away from their allies. My sensors couldn't comprehend everything, and I was trapped in my emotions and the emotions of every being in the room." I had to pause for a nano as I felt myself panicking again. "Thankfully, Wheeljack woke up while the Autobots tried to figure out what to do with me. He took everything I accidentally told him during our talks and figured out that I used to be Lizzie Val, the human they had been trying to 'save' since I was seen on the Nemsis not long after my arrival in this dimension."

"That situation could have gone very differently. The Autobots were lucky that he could bring you back to your senses." Lord Dawnbreaker shook his helm. "It sounds like they were closer to breaking intergalactic law more times than we thought."

"That, and more times," I agreed. "After that incident, my stay with the Autobots improved, though I wouldn't say it got to be good. But I was somewhat trusted, and after a while, I convinced Wheeljack to help us get the Autobots ready for peace. I had made it my goal to see the war end and, given the work I did with the Autobots while I was their captive, Lord Megatron made it the mission of the Decepticons, in general, to work toward peace."

"So you were the reason things changed on Earth," Grinchain suddenly said with a smile on his faceplate. "It's why you acted so strange when I brought it up during our first guide session. You told me you just knew some bots that were there."

"And I did," I pointed out to the mech.

He laughed at that. "That's tricky, Pandimala, but I get it now. This wouldn't have been easy to talk about with me back then."

"It isn't easy to talk about now," I pointed out to the mech. The next point we had to discuss was what Lord Oryax and Emperor Thav already knew, as did whoever else was researching with them. "Different issues came up after that, which led to me being attacked by those three, this time successfully. They had some help from Paul, though I don't think it was intentional that time from the god."

"Why would Primus help those three wastes?" Iussa asked. Hopefully, she saw why I was against Primus when we first met.

"Like I said," I started to reiterate. "It wasn't intentional from him this time." I saw the question I was expecting start to form on the goddess' lips, so I shook my helm. "I'll get to that later. For now, this wasn't his goal. His actual reason for doing this made me even angrier at him. To protect the information about my past and who he was, he put a block on my memories that would stop them from being reviewed by patches. Past, present, and future."

"That's why you were hesitant about giving your memories during the incident with Lightbeam," Seabreaker pointed out.

Nodding, I motioned to my helm. "Yes, and if it weren't for a friend I already made, though I didn't realize what he was, I wouldn't have been able to do that. He'll come up in a little bit, though." Yeah, Michael was a whole other issue. "Anyways, when those three attacked me, they tried to force me through a patch. However, Paul's block inadvertently stopped them. Of course, it also caused feedback, which caused me to go processor offline for over a solar. When the Autobots discovered my chassis the solar after the incident, they thought I went processor offline from what the Decepticons did while I was in their possession. Of course, I had told them before that the Decepticons didn't cause my transformation, but they wouldn't believe me." I gave a pointed look at Lord Dawnbreaker at that.

He, in turn, held up his servos. "I already apologized for that!" It didn't help that his carrier glared at him when I said that, too.

So, I smiled. "I know, and I'm glad you saw reason. The Autobots weren't quite that smart. They took it a step further. Optimus decided the best course of action at this point was to hide what he thought was my offlining chassis on one of the coldest and isolate parts of the planet so the Decepticons couldn't find my offline chassis before he went to go tell Megatron that it was his fault that I offlined."

There were a few facepalms at that. Emperor Thav's was the worst. "By Murav, if I ever do something that thoughtless, I am to be deposed immediately. Why didn't he investigate what happened first?"

I shook my helm. "I honestly don't know for sure. I think he was in denial that his Autobots could do that to their prisoner. Of course, the peace talks took that hope away from him." Thankfully, they didn't ask me to elaborate on that since I was pretty sure almost all of them had seen the footage of the attack, though only Emperor Thav and Lord Oryax knew how connected that was to me right now. "However, a third enemy operating on Earth captured both leaders during their fight. Given that their leader disappeared when going to confront mine, most of the Autobots jumped to the conclusion that we had Optimus as our prisoner. Before the other Decepticons could investigate who took our leader since come to find out later, we investigated the scene better than they did; the Autobots found a way back on the Nemesis and captured two symbiots."

Since they knew Soundwave was on Earth, it didn't take long for them to connect the dots. "The Autobots captured Soundwave's symbiots? Did they have an offlining wish?" Grinchain asked. "That's one mech I never want to cross."

"They were desperate for their leader and were sure the Decepticons had him. I was found by Decepticon scouts who were sent to Earth millions of stellars before but lost contact with the Decepticons. They nursed me back to health and helped me reach the lake, where both sides met to discuss the twins' return. The two scouts went ahead of me since I had other business to take care of at their old ship, and I am grateful they did. The Autobots edged the line of breaking intergalactic law again with the stunt they pulled." I couldn't help but growl at the end of that. We were too close to losing Rumble and Frenzy during that.

My growl caused Sandstorm to ask me the question. "What did they do?"

"Not all of the Autobots were in on this, obviously, but they didn't keep track of what their allies did to the restraints the prisoners were on. The Autobots thought to help encourage the Decepticons to give their leader back, they would strap dud explosives to the twins and keep them on a nearby lake to force them to give Optimus Prime back to them. But the Decepticons didn't have him. And, at least one of the Autobots decided that duds weren't enough. Thankfully, the scouts I met rescued the twins right before the explosives went off. I finally arrived on the scene a little after that excitement, and thanks to the time I spent with the Autobots, I got them to stand down and realize that we didn't have Optimus. I think the shock of seeing me online surprised them into agreeing more than my words did. But it worked regardless. With that distraction out of the way and the twins safe, we could focus on finding Lord Megatron and, by extension, Optimus Prime."

"So, who was the enemy that had them? Did Thrust join up with Astrotrain and Airachnid?" Grinchain asked.

Shaking my helm, I answered him. "No, it was an enemy that made both factions their enemy on Earth. A human organization known as MECH had clashed with both sides before, and we Decepticons had a task force made within our ranks specifically to watch their movements. However, they had gone dark a few solars before Lord Megatron and Optimus were taken, so we didn't have concrete evidence against them until we had some time to do some more digging. I was sent in since my chassis design and my being a femme would interest the terrorists. They captured me as we planned, and once I was in their base, I was able to rescue both Lord Megatron and Optimus. Lord Megatron and I made our plans for peace known to him at this point. I also let Optimus know the trouble his faction was causing in his absence to get him away from the terrorist base. Lord Megatron and I took revenge on them for the pain they caused us."

"Logical, given the circumstances," Flarebell agreed, but she looked confused. "Pandimala, you mentioned that a force caused you to be diverted from Paul's original destination for you. But you haven't mentioned what that force was."

A smile spread on my faceplate at that. "You're right. That's because it wasn't until after the events that I described that the force made themselves known. It turns out that Primus isn't the only pinnacle god that can have autonomous and self-sustaining subforms created by himself. It turns out that a friend I had made when I was still human and kept contact with after that turned out to be a subform of Unicron. He revealed what he was after we recovered from the incident with the terrorists and made a compelling argument as to why he did."

"And what did the god of Chaos say?" Iussa asked with a hesitant tone in her voice.

I shook my helm at her nervousness. "When he admitted to being the one to interfere with my transport here, Shockwave asked him why he did so. Unicron then proceeded to explain his reasoning. He pointed out that none of us found it odd or surprising that Paul had pulled me from my dimension, one of his children since humans were made on his chassis, without asking him. Or even telling him. He pointed out that we saw Paul as the savior of the universe for interfering with Unicron's children on his world. Then, he pointed out that if it were the other way around, if he had pulled a Cybertronian or a human from another dimension to solve either planet's problems, he would been seen as the bad bot. After that, he pointed out that chaos was not synonymous with evil. It was then that I realized that he seemed to be Paul's balance. He truly wanted to save everything. He even told us this. And I knew he was telling me the truth. After the meeting, he put a block on Paul's memory block in my processor so any memory from that nano onward could be seen."

"What is his name? I'm assuming he has one since Paul is Primus' detachment." Iussa asked me.

While this topic was serious, I smiled at the femme with a knowing look. "What fun would that be if I ruined it? If you all ever meet him, he would be mad at me if I didn't let him have some fun in making you all guess." I then realized it was time to get to the part of the story that started this retelling. "Past that, the Decepticons prepared for peace while we heard from our allies in the Autobots that they were trying to do the same. Optimus seemed to be cracking down on bots stepping out of line more, and eventually, the time came. The Autobots called, and after some debating, we set up a time and place for the meeting."

"Where were you during the meeting?" I felt my spark twinge when Grinchain asked that. I was honestly surprised and relieved that he hadn't connected the dots yet to my identity.

"In a click," I avoided answering his question right away. "It was decided that while Shockwave, Soundwave, and Lord Megatron went to the talks, most Decepticons would stay on one of our holdings on Earth. However, that left two ships that we needed to man." I shook my helm. "We reformatted the Harbinger to read as the Nemesis and placed it in space where the Autobots could track it, though they did not have access to it. Or, they shouldn't have anyway. Plus, we had to have the actual Nemesis have guards on it. Skyquake and Predaking, one of the scouts that saved me, were to be on the Nemesis, given they would have links to bots on the farm without using conventional comms. Predaking's bondmate was the other scout that helped me, and of course, Skyquake had his twin bond with his brother."

"And the femme on the ship?" Lord Oryax and Emperor Thav winced when Lord Dawnbreaker asked about that.

"There was a tracking chip that Soundwave could monitor remotely to ensure nothing was wrong." This was harder than any other part of the story I told. "Remember when I said Paul didn't mean to help those three the time with the patch?" Every being in the room nodded at that. "He meant to this time. We think he was spiraling and desperately found whatever ally would help him stop the peace talks. He wasn't in control of the negotiations, and they went against his envisioned order. So, he used his powers to help them get onto the ship without our scanners picking them up. Worse yet, we are sure he manipulated the chip Soundwave was monitoring so the readings wouldn't change despite the danger."

"Pandimala, you didn't answer Grinchain's question. Where were you?" While Seabreeze asked his question gently, I still winced at it. It was still fresh in my processor, and it wasn't easy to focus enough to say what I wanted.

"I've got this, Pandimala," I glanced at Emperor Thav as he pulled out a datapad. That must be the recording of the talks. More importantly, it would show them where I was. As a projection came from the datapad, I realized that this would be the first time I saw even a part of what happened at the actual talks while…while I was being attacked.

The room went silent as the projection started, with Optimus demanding to know why the Decepticons were breaking the ceasefire. My spark felt a pull of yearning for my Lord when I heard the pain in his vocals as he rebuked Optimus since it was his Autobots breaking the ceasefire. Every being in the universe saw my Lord's pain as I was being attacked. The room's temperature felt as if it dropped when the recording showed the final moments of the attack. They knew. I had to shut my optics as the recording of Pitch stabbed me. My servo drifted over my chest plate as I felt a ghosting of the pain that I felt at that nano.

"Pandimala…you…I'm sorry," Grinchain stuttered out. I could see that the mech was shaking from where he sat. I knew how difficult it was to watch this. I had lived it. "How are you still online?"

There was the next hard question. And, unlike the previous one, no one in this room outside of Iussa could answer this. While it would be easier for me to let Iussa answer it, I knew it would be better if I did. "Remember when I told you that Earth formed around Unicron's defeated chassis?" They all nodded. "I offlined that solar. I offlined, and my chassis fell to the planet. It fell into the deepest part of the ocean the ship was flying over, and I sank to the depths. Down there, I was close enough to Unicron's source where he was able to take over my chassis and use me as his puppet."

"I'm sorry for how our first meeting went, Pandimala," Iussa apologized again. Given that she tried to control me, I saw why she was apologizing now.

"I already forgave you for that, Iussa," I responded to the goddess. "When he took over my chassis, his antispark interacted with the dark energon and energon that had inhabited my lines and reanimated me. With that reanimation, however, I also regained myself. But, I was trapped as Unicron attacked Cybertron through me. Given my memories, this was a situation the Decepticons knew might happen, so my Lord was on Cybertron to help free me from Unicron's control. At the same time, the Decepticons on Pyrovar were able, with the help of our piece of Unicron, our ally, to siphon dark energon from Unicron's influence during the fight to recover me. However, Unicron planned his attack for a reason. During the fight, Optimus Prime and those who traveled with him returned to Cybertron with the Allspark. My Lord, realizing that Unicron had access to my memories, took the Allspark into himself to prevent Unicron from taking it."

"How did you defeat Unicron if he knew what would happen?" Iussa asked. Outside of Grinchain, she seemed the most invested in this story. Of course, that made sense, given her connection to Unicron and Primus.

"My Lord ordered me to, so I knew I couldn't fail," I answered honestly. "Since I arrived here, gods had used me, and I was done. I had already been fighting against Paul, and Unicron was no different. So, I used my strength and fought his hold on my chassis. However, I knew it was going to offline me since Unicron's dark energon was keeping me online. I forced control of my chassis away from Unicron long enough to open the empty vessel and force his antispark from me to there. However, fate decided to allow me to stay online. My Lord returned the Allspark to the core, with a promise from the Allspark to return him to Pyrovar, given it was not his time to offline, and my Lord ordered me to return to him."

The room was quiet for a few nanos before Flarebell spoke up. "But how did that lead you to Vestium Major space?"

"And more importantly," Physis jumped in, as I figured he would by now, "Why the frag didn't I detect any dark energon in your scans?"

I motioned to Physis first. "Honestly, Physis, I don't know. To start with your question, at the same time, Flarebell, I ended up having to stop on Antilla to refuel and rest. They seemed rather nice and even had a medic who looked me over. This was my first check-up since leaving Cybertron, and I worried they would detect the dark energon. But they didn't. I don't know why it doesn't appear on scans, but I think it has been helping me recover here." I then shook my helm. "Anyways, the bots on Antilla warned me that a bad solar storm popped up on the direct route to Pyrovar and pointed me onto this route."

To my surprise, Lord Oryax shook his helm. "Pandimala, there haven't been any solar storms this side of Cybertron in a stellar."

My faceplate deadpanned when he said that. Great. I got tricked into coming this way by those Autobots. Frag them. "They probably thought that with the trouble you all have been having, throwing me into the mix would make things even worse."

"And they were almost right," Seabreaker agreed. "When you came up on our radar, our patrol was on high alert with the trouble we have been having. While I know it isn't an excuse for what happened, it was a stress factor contributing to me overlooking the general comm line as communication."

I noticed that Grinchain was staring at me with a strange look on his faceplate. "What is it, Grin?"

"How did your chassis take the hits from the defense system? I was talking to my trainer about it, and she mentioned that they were meant to take out large battleships, yet you were fine…relatively speaking."

Relatively speaking, my aft. But I got his point. "When Unicron took over my chassis, he upgraded it. I can take a lot of damage now, as you all saw first servo." I then shook my helm. "And that's the story that got me here." The room was uncomfortably silent after that, making me nervous. Why the frag wasn't anybot saying anything?

I flinched as Lord Dawnbreaker stood and walked down toward me. I noticed that everybot was tensed as the leader approached me. Given that this whole meeting started because he jumped to conclusions, I was nervous about what he would say now that he knew the entire story. Well, almost all of it. There were a few personal details that they did not need to know—namely, my courting status with Lord Megatron.

My optics stayed on Lord Dawnbreaker as he stopped where I was still sitting. He stared down at me for a few nanos before he moved. Now, my optics widened as the leader knelt before me. What the frag was going on? "Pandimala, I can't say it enough, but I am sorry for what I said before. I didn't know your history, and that didn't give me the right to judge you based on what I assumed to be the correct answer. You are among the strongest and most competent beings I have ever met. Thank you for having patience with me, though I haven't deserved any of it."

I stared at the leader in shock for a few nanos before I shook my helm. "I already forgave you, Lord Dawnbreaker. Now, please stand up. Your kneeling is making me nervous." It didn't feel right to be knelt toward. In my processor, I shouldn't be knelt to. The only kneeling that should be done near me was my kneeling to Lord Megatron once I returned to him.

Thankfully, the mech stood back up, which prompted the rest of us to stand from where we were sitting. The room stayed silent for a nano before Iussa stepped forward. "So, not that this isn't a great learning experience for every being here," She then looked at me. "But, are you still staying at my place? Because I'm pretty sure Calral, Bajuit, and Halew will go crazy if they spend another cycle avoiding your prank traps."

I smiled widely at that. "Yeah, I've got everything I need in my subspace," I then let my smile form into a smirk. "That doesn't mean I didn't leave them parting pranks with love."

Iussa's faceplate fell before she let out a vent. "I better get back before they find them," The goddess didn't wait for a farewell before she walked out. Of course, she had a lot to think about. Her views on the pinnacle gods just got a major overhaul with my story.

But, the future needed to be looked at as well. Problems here on Vestium Major still needed to be addressed, and something told me those troubles were on the horizon.

Firebrand's 1st P.O.V.

I shook my helm as I sat by the lake. While I missed my time in the skies, it had given me time to think. Even though I hated the mess I was in, I knew it was my fault. I knew that even when I told the femme it was nothing. I just didn't want to admit it. Plus, with encouragement from Sharpstreak, I felt even more in the right. I felt like she would force her way into our lives and try to control us.

But it never came. How she spoke when she delved out our punishments made me think she would hound me until I fell under her sway. Decepticons were known to be forceful with their plans if a bot got in the way. I wasn't going to be bullied by the femme. And I thought Sharpstreak was helping me. Things started to change, though, when the femme did precisely the opposite. She hadn't tried to talk to me since that solar we got our punishments. Was there plenty going on with her? Of course. I wasn't a moron. However, until the incident at the Eternia Embassy, I thought she was just trying to get attention.

And then she took the challenge. The first solar she was there, I thought it was luck. She knew a few tricks to stay under the radar, but that wouldn't last her much longer. But, then, the second solar passed. And still, the labac were nowhere near finding out where her soliform was. After that, the third solar came, and even when that rogue psiar attacked her, they hadn't found out about her. The only reason we knew she was even attacked was that, at the start of what would have been her eighth solar, she turned herself over to stop Emperor Thav's previous war council, outside of Caigal, from staging a coup. At that point, I was starting to see the femme as more than just some Decepticon scum that was here to cause problems.

It was the incident with Sharpstreak, however, that caused me to sit here right now. I had heard she snapped from some other bots. No surprise there, or so I had thought. She was a triple changer with the pride most triple changers had when they snapped. But then I talked to Valar and Lopel about what happened. They were there, and what they told me caused me to think about some things.

Namely, my friendship with Sharpstreak.

It seemed extreme to jump to that end, but what he did was also extreme. It was one thing to mess with a bot. Trying to get a bot to snap on purpose was another thing entirely. That was especially a bot with a violent snap as Pandimala had. I had heard the rumors. She had to have special training away from everybot else because she lost all conscious thought when she used to snap. By the time Sharpstreak messed with her, she had already trained her snaps to the point where, while she still couldn't remember what happened, she could stop herself from trying to offline bots.

But Sharpstreak pushed her. He was honestly lucky that the femme didn't offline him. Her entire time here, and the only time I had heard of Pandimala acting anywhere near the rumors said Decepticons acted was when Sharpstreak pushed her to. Was she confident? Yes. Given the stories about how she was training, I would expect that. But was she flaunting it and making others feel worse about being weaker than she was? No. Not by a long shot. She even got Grinchain, the data nerd he was, to get back into regular training.

"Firebrand, I thought I would find you out here," I held back a growl as I turned to see Sharpstreak walking up to me. Now that I looked at him, many of the signs I had been looking for in Pandimala were easy to see in Sharpstreak. He was overconfident when he didn't have a reason to be, acting like he was the highest power in the universe and making others feel less when they couldn't do everything that he could. "You look like you have half of your processor rotting away," He commented as he stopped. I guess he noticed that I wasn't exactly happy to see him.

"More like it is finally starting to work after rotting for so long," I shot back at him.

The mech had the gall to let out an annoyed vent. "Are your thrusters still in a bunch about that thing with the Decepticon? She's a rotten Decepticon that needed to be brought down a peg. I just did what nobot else was willing to do."

"No," I shook my helm. "What you did was cause problems where there wasn't any to begin with. I see that now." I then looked at him nervously. "What did you want from me?"

His optics narrowed at me. "I wanted to see if you heard about the Decepticon's newest stunt. She made a fuss during Wern's presentation, and your sire finally did something about it. Now, she's hiding out with your goddess. But I guess you didn't need to know that."

Instead of feeling guilty, I narrowed my optics right back at him. While something must have happened during the presentation, something told me that there was more to it, and either he didn't know or he was purposefully misleading me. I was done with him. If there was anything that could have been salvaged from our friendship, it disappeared with that. Now that I was suspicious of him, I could see his toxic behavior for what it was…and how it affected me as my sire's heir.

I would have to give one long apology to sire after this.

"I think I'll do my own investigation about what happened," I shot back at him.

That didn't go over well with Sharpstreak at all. "What? My information not good enough for you anymore, Firebrand?"

"No, it isn't." I was honest with the mech.

"You're letting that weak and malleable family of yours manipulate you as that Decepticon has them," He growled back at me.

"I have barely seen my family since Pandimala arrived," I shot back at him. "And outside of arguing with them, I haven't said more than hi to them. Frag, I haven't even seen or heard from the femme since she gave out the punishments for Seabreaker and myself." I then pointedly took a step toward him. "The only bot who has been manipulating me is you, Sharpstreak. I'm done."

"What do you mean you're done?" He hissed at me.

I started to walk away from him as I answered him. "I do not know you anymore. Don't look for welcome as a friend from me. Pova and Vestium Major are allies, but you and me, we are finished."

Dawnbreaker: *shocked* By Prim...

Pandimala: *glares*

Dawnbreaker: *coughs* By Iussa, what you went through...It explains so much about you.

Pandimala: *nods* I know. And it is why I want to go home. And if fixing things here is my best way to do that, then so be it. *walks away*

AN: And here is the next chapter! And, as this is part two of the recap chapter, the end of this recap bit. It was refreshing to get this out. And, of course, she didn't tell them everything *glances at her relationship status*. That should be a lot of fun when it comes out...though that might take some time. Of course, then we got to the ending there. Firebrand didn't need Pandimala's direct intervention to change his spark. Sometimes, it's better to be servos off in a situation. Of course, this is going to have consequences moving forward. That is especially true with the names of the upcoming chapters.

Speaking of those, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 16: And Then There Was Wern

Chapter 17: Meetings of Chaos

Chapter 18:...(Find out next time!)

And there you have it! Thanks to everyone who interacts with my stories! You all are amazing people! Until next time, though, TTYL! *listening to Down in the Woods by Whosoever South*