Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Astrotrain: *confused* So, there is one solar a stellar where humans flock to shopping centers and act like rabid cyber-foxes to get good deals on different products?

Pandimala: *nods* Yeah, and some stores even use it to make a whole month of sales to build up to that event.

Airachnid: *frowns* I get that, but shouldn't she be happy about the deals? Why is she crying in a corner?

Authoress: *curled up in corner crying*

Pandimala: *vents* Because she isn't shopping. She has to work at one of the places doing the month-long sales.

Astrotrain: *understanding* Oh.

Airachnid: *agrees* Definitely oh.

Chapter 5: Unexpected Arrival

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

My helm was killing me. What happened? I remembered talking to Airachnid about her counterpart that I was familiar with but after that….nothing. Something had to have happened though. As I looked around, I realized that I was in the med bay again. Scrap. Did I fall or something? I needed to work on my stability if that was the case. Fragging pits my helm hurt. I must have hit it pretty hard. I would have to find out from Sccuttlebug just what had happened. I wasn't going to be left alone for the next few solars after this incident. Well, at least I was going to be able to get some extra training in from whoever was going to be the one following me around. Though I doubted that it was going to be physical training. Information gathering was a good type of training too.

"So, you're finally awake?" I turned my helm toward the door to see Tarantulas standing there. What was bothering me was that he had a nervous look on his faceplate. Maybe I didn't just fall over like I was hoping I did. Just what the frag happened to make him nervous around me? "Scuttle will be back here soon to explain everything that we know happened. Air wanted to be here when you woke up but she had some business to take care of with the exploration team from Cybertron. Seems like they caused a group of shrike-bats to go crazy and Air is the best with those creatures."

He was trying to distract me. "Tarantulas, what happened? Why am I in med bay?"

If I was hoping for an answer, I would have been disappointed when Tarantulas simply shook his helm. "Nope. Scuttlebug specifically ordered that you were to be kept in the dark if you didn't already know until he arrived here. I've already been pushing him too far lately, and I need to back off of him for a little."

Well, that was great. What that did tell me was that whatever caused me to end up here in med bay was much more serious that a simple fall. Why couldn't I remember what had happened? I was starting to get nervous about this. I didn't remember any other bots around except for me and Airachnid but I knew that Airachnid wouldn't attack me.

Even thinking that caused me to mentally shake my helm. Slag it was weird thinking that Airachnid wouldn't offline me. But, I knew that this Airachnid wouldn't do that to me. I knew that. So, whatever happened had to be caused by me. But, why couldn't I fragging remember what happened? It didn't make any sense that I was just missing some of my memories. There weren't many things that I was familiar with that would cause a bot to lose their memories from my past information.

One theory was that if a cortical psychic patch went bad then a bot might suffer from some memory loss. But, since that was not shown in the shows or any of the media that I had read then that was off the table. Plus, I was sure that they didn't have the technology to do that. I would have to ask them about the existence of the patches after this was done. First, though, I had to figure out what happened and why I was missing a part of my memory.

The sound of pedesteps coming from the hall had me focusing as Scuttlebug walked in. I felt nervous as I noticed his hesitant glance at me. So, it was probably something I did. But, what did I do? I hated that I couldn't remember this. "Hey, doc, what happened?"

He looked surprised at my question. "You don't remember what happened?"

Obviously not. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place. "No." And since I knew what he was going to ask, I figured that I would jump the gun. "The last thing that I remember was that Airachnid and I were arguing about her other self. Then, everything is blank until I woke up here."

"We figured something triggered you, but that helps us narrow it down." Triggered me? Just what the frag did Tarantulas mean by 'triggered'? "And it seems like you have no fragging idea what I am talking about?"

Before I could say anything in my defense, Scuttlebug moved with lightning speed to connect his servo with the back of Tarantulas' helm. "She has only had a chassis for a short amount of time, and from what she has told us about her previous species she did not have much to compare to losing control as she did."

I…I lost control? Was anybot hurt? I knew I wasn't the smallest frame in the bunch and I could cause a lot of damage without meaning to. Combine that with my memory loss and I was terrified that I had hurt somebot. "Is everybot alright?" I asked, cutting off the banter that had started between the two.

Scuttle looked between Tarantulas and me before he shook his helm. "Thankfully, it seems that your snaps seem to be more self-centered for the most part. According to the report from the incident, the only violence you showed was slamming your fist against objects. No bot was physically hurt outside of yourself when you fell. Not many of us are prepared to catch your weight and so we could only guide your fall."

I felt relieved when I heard his answer. Nobot was hurt. Though that did explain the pain that I was feeling on my backplates now that he mentioned it. "That's good." But, now that we had that taken care of, I needed to figure out what exactly happened. 'So, what caused me to lose control like that?"

"Your programming," Tarantulas started as Scuttlebug started to study the monitors…most likely my scans. "While we told you before that you might snap given that most large-framed bots do, we haven't mentioned what that entails in general."

Now that he was saying that, I did remember them mentioning it before. "You said that it was different for each bot, and some weren't too bad while others could see a complete personality shift if it wasn't controlled."

"Precisely," Scuttlebug agreed with my recall as he continued to type away at the controls in front of him. "While we were prepared for some form of snap from you, there were underlying factors that we just found during your most recent deep scan that caused yours to come sooner than we were guessing."

"What did you find?"

"Wings." My optics widened slightly when Tarantulas dropped that bomb of information on me. Wings. That meant that…despite what I thought before, I was a triple changer. And, in being a triple-changer, I was going to have to watch whatever triggered my snap…when the others got around to telling me just what caused it.

"That means that you are going to have to learn to restrain yourself from overreacting to…certain conversation topics from what we could find," Scuttlebug added onto that. "From what I walked into and what Airachnid had to report about your conversation, it seems like your worry about the future is your trigger and the more you think on that the worse your,"

He was talking but I couldn't focus. The future. How was I supposed to deal with that if I couldn't even deal with this programming that my chassis was forcing me to go through? Why couldn't this be as easy as my human body was? At least with that, I knew when something was wrong and the basic steps that it took to fix those things. In this chassis…the fact that I was referring to my body as a chassis alone told of how bad this would be. How the frag was I supposed to do this? I,

THWACK!

"Fragging creation of a glitch that hurt!" I yelled as the back of my helm erupted in pain. Glaring at the triple changer who caused it, I frowned. "Why did you hit me?"

"You were starting to snap again," Astrotrain spoke. Wait…when did he even get in the room? "And don't start thinking about that again for now femme. I've called Blitzwing from where he is staying on Vestium Major and he said he could sneak here for about eight solars to help us focus your energies back to where they should be."

Whatever thoughts I wanted to think about before were completely wiped away with the mention of Blitzwing of all bots coming to Regulon IV. "Blitzwing is coming here?" I asked in excitement. My top favorite Cybertronian period, Blitzwing was an idol of mine since I first watched him in Transformers Animated. I was going to get lessons from Blitzwing. I couldn't wait for the mech to show up.

"Well, that's a new reaction," My optics refocused on the room where the three mechs were all standing at the foot of my berth. Um…slag. I forgot that they were in here. That was embarrassing. Tarantulas, who had spoken, continued with a smirk on his faceplate. "I am assuming by the honestly terrifying grin on your faceplate that you have at least heard of a Blitzwing from your memories?"

"Of course I have!" I answered back, with no hesitation about the chance to talk about my favorite Cybertronian. And that was what I did. I delved into every single aspect of Blitzwing that I had researched, even the G1 version though I didn't like that one nearly as much as I did the Animated version. "It was his introduction to me in one of those mediums that caused me to look closer at both sides of the war, and not just assume that one side was correct simply because the shows said that they were right. Getting a chance to meet him, even if he is different from what I know, is going to be amazing."

Astrotrain let out a laugh. "And he will enjoy your reaction to him, I'm sure. Most bots steer clear of us triple changers for a few reasons. One is because of our snaps and how bad they can be. Blitzwing's…was pretty bad. This caused his processor to split his thinking into three distinct personalities. He stays on Vestium Major, where most of us go if our snaps are bad because he still has issues at times. But, he should be well enough to help you out. That is especially given your predisposed favor of him." He then laughed. "If the mech left Vestium Major as soon as he wanted, he should be here by the time night falls."

"But until then you can't have any more snaps. So, you are being restricted to med bay and your lessons with Entom will be streamed over the monitor." Scuttlebug stepped in. "This way, we reduce any negative physical reactions before they start. Once Blitzwing arrives, you can resume your physical training with him and those he chooses." He then sent me a stern look. "Is that understood?"

What? I wasn't going to directly disobey a medic. I knew better. "Understood doc."

"Good," Scuttlebug then motioned to the others. "We'll leave you to get some rest. Your next lesson with Entom will pick back up in a cycle. Get some rest until then." The three of them then left.

Once they were gone, I laid my helm back and started to think. And it wasn't what I thought I would be thinking about. Instead, I found my thoughts drifting to triple changers in general. There weren't many known to me and I knew quite a few. Off the top of my helm, there were Astrotrain, Octane, Blitzwing, and technically Scorponok, though a lot of people didn't count him, for the Decepticons. Autobots were harder for me but I knew that there was Springer at least. I knew that there were more Autobot ones than him but I couldn't think of any at the click. Now, I was one of them. Pandimala, the triple changer.

…Slag! I forgot to ask Scuttlebug about my wings and where they were. Were they stuck or were they not ready to come out? I needed to know these answers…preferably before Blitzwing showed up. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of him. I couldn't. I would never live it down. Ever.

Well, it would probably be best if I listened to Scuttle and got some rest. I would need it between my lessons with Entom and my physical training that was going to be picking back up once Blitzwing arrived. A smile snuck its way onto my faceplate as my systems started to shut down for my nap. While I was at a bump in my path moving forward, this was a nice change.

Airachnid's 1st P.O.V.

"They weren't happy," Orb spoke as we sat in the rec room waiting for Tarantulas to return from visiting Pandimala.

I let out a scoff at that. "When are those stuck-up blowhards ever happy about what we do on our own planet?"

Orbweaver gave me a knowing look. "Airy,"

"What?" I shot back. "Just last week, that fragging two-wheeler Creck tried to hit on me." I then gagged a little at the thought. "Like I would want to be anywhere near the mech if I had a choice…let alone that." I then let out another gag.

"Dramatics aside," Orb started, "I do agree with you that this is our planet, and that is what I told them. I made sure to remind them that this is our planet and my informing them of our upcoming guest is just a formality." She then, to my surprise, let out a huff. "They then had the gall to demand that our guest be gone by the time that fragger Thrust shows up on the planet. The nerve of them."

They were starting to get too big for their gears. Thank Primus that Pandimala had shown up when she did. Something told me that, even if that attack on Orb and Makeshift hadn't happened, then they would have tried to push more of their authority on us. I knew that, without that incident, I probably wouldn't have agreed with Orb taking over the mantle of our new monarch. Thanks to all of what happened, I could see the bigger picture and put away my reservation.

"I hope you put them in their place for that," I turned to see Tarantulas standing at the door, a focused look on his faceplate. "If we give them even a little when it comes to an attitude like that, then we might not be able to stay sovereign from Cybertron for long."

Orbweaver nodded. "That is what I am afraid of. And don't worry, I immediately responded to them that our guest would be more than welcome to stay as long as they wanted, even if that crossed over into when Thrust would be here. I also reminded them that they were only here due to our acceptance of them studying here. It would not take much for us to get them off the planet. I think they took my words to spark." She then smirked. "Oh, and I might have forgotten to mention where our guest is coming from. I'm sure that seeing the colors of Vestium Major on Blitzwing's ship will be quite a shock to them."

And it would. It was no secret to anybot that Cybertron had been trying for hundreds of stellars to get on the good side of the Galactic Alliance. It was almost to the point of desperation by this point. So, to see their surprised reactions at Blitzwing's arrival on a Vestium Major ship would be a perfect storm…at least for us. The exploration team would be a little more cautious in dealing with us in a negative way. That would be especially since we would be on friendly terms with Blitzwing. Seeing us on friendly terms with a 'representative' of Vestium Major would make them think that acting friendly with us might be a way into their good graces.

"Very good indeed," Tarantulas agreed. "This might help things settle down from before." He then had a thoughtful look cross his faceplate…and not one that I liked to see. This meant that he was worried about something. "Though, I am curious,"

"About what brother?" I asked, trying to prompt him to keep talking.

He shook his helm. "Why haven't we heard of an inquiry yet?"

An inquiry? About what? "What do you mean Tar? What sort of inquiry should we be expecting?"

Our brother glanced between the two of us for a nano before he frowned. "About the femme from the attack. While she was clearly in the wrong, there should have been an inquiry about her whereabouts by now. And yet the exploration team from Cybertron hasn't said a word about her being missing, let alone that they were worried about her. The fact that they haven't done so is causing me to wonder if they knew about what the femme was planning and are waiting for her to say something to them."

My spark constricted slightly with worry when he mentioned that. I hadn't thought about the femme much since the attack. Why hadn't they asked about her condition? Were they trying to cover their tracks since the assassination and kidnapping attempt failed? There were pieces that weren't adding up and now I had reason to be worried. Perhaps we could do some investigating while Blitzwing was here to give Pandimala her lessons. While I didn't like to be near the team from Cybertron, I could move around without them knowing I was doing so. Plus, with Orb doing the actual talking with Tar, we could figure this out quickly…hopefully.

We needed to figure out why the femme hasn't been asked for before Thrust arrives. While we still had time, I didn't want the mech to use this to attack our sovereignty. I knew that was what they were wanting, and this incident, while not our fault, would be their perfect excuse to do just that. "We need to be careful but we need to investigate this quickly" I summarized my thoughts to them. "If we don't move quickly, then Thrust may use this to our disadvantage."

They both nodded before Orb spoke up. "I agree." She then stood up. "I do have a meeting with them in twenty clicks so I had better get going." My sister paused at the door and looked between the two of us. "Make sure you two are on your best behavior with the research team until we figure this out. If we get them too angry at us, then they might not listen to any reason when this all does come to light."

"They listen to reason?" Orb shot Tarantulas a look at that. Just because I had the worse relationship with the research team, didn't mean that I was the only one with a bad relationship with them. More than once Carrier and Sire, when they were online, had to soothe relations with different visitors when Tar would get upset with them. While that had settled a little since their offlinings, Tar could still get riled up in the right circumstances.

"Seriously you two, I mean it. Keep your digits out of trouble for now. We need to make sure that everything goes right when the investigation does come up. I do not want to be blindsided by anything and you two getting into 'disagreements' with our guests would be a major blindside." She then shook her helm and, as the door shut, I heard her mutter something about being the more mature one out of the three of us.

Tarantulas let out a laugh once the door was shut. "She does remember that just a few solars ago, she was the one that was sneaking out and causing us all problems?"

"I'm pretty sure our sister has short-term memory," I responded before I remembered where he had been. "How is Pandimala?"

"Understanding, I think. She was worried that she had hurt somebot when she snapped. We let her know that everybot was alright outside of her. And that it was only because we hadn't reacted fast enough to catch her when she fell." He then laughed. "Even better, she reacted really well to hearing that we were having a special trainer coming in to teach her."

"Really? From how she has been acting, I thought she would think she was causing trouble for us." I was surprised that she wasn't upset. But, I guess she could be worried about how her snaps could affect us and so realized that the training would help solve problems before they started. But, it seemed like I was wrong about that.

"That's how we all thought she was going to react too," He agreed before he continued. "However, once she found out who we asked to come in, she was excited to meet one of her past idols."

Well, at least that was explained. If it was a bot that Pandimala was familiar with from before, then she would be more receptive to what we were going to be doing. That was even more true given that she was happy with all of the versions of whoever it was that she knew about.

…The fact that I could even think about other 'versions' of bots without hesitating really said how much the femme had changed things.

"So, who is it that she is so excited about?" There were a few guesses that I had, namely Springer and Monsanai, but I couldn't be sure until he answered me.

The smirk that suddenly came to Tarantulas' faceplate told me that I might have been wrong about who it might be. "You would never guess," He then paused, probably to annoy me…which was working, before he relented and finished. "Astrotrain was able to convince Blitzwing to sneak away from Vestium Major for a few solars and give the femme a servo in training and keeping her snaps in control. Once we said his designation, though, it was like a completely different femme was in front of us. She must have been a major fan of his from those other realities. I just hope that she isn't disappointed in the mech that she meets."

That was a reason to hesitate. While the femme had been fairly decent with her interactions with the rest of us, she was thrown for a loop a few times. That was mostly in my own case. While I was sure that we considered each other friends by this point, there were still times that she jumped around me, or hesitated. It was because of that past me that she was familiar with.

As Tarantulas filled me in on what she had told him about what she knew of Blitzwing, there were a few things that the femme hadn't mentioned that I knew, from Astrotrain's stories of the mech, that the femme did not know about. He wasn't as scatterhelmed as she knew from the one iteration, but he did have moments when his emotions got away from him. Plus, he was still pretty sensitive to bots judging him. Could cause him to lash out and she was not ready to deal with an angry triple changer. She had never seen anything like that during her time here. From what Orbweaver, Makeshift, and Kickback reported from the attack, Flamewar had been calculating and calm, nothing like a raging triple-changer.

"What time is he supposed to arrive?" I interrupted Tarantulas' lesson as these thoughts continued to worry me.

He hesitated, staring at me before he answered. "According to Astrotrain, Blitzwing said he was going to try and get their high-speed cruiser. If he was able to do that, he should be here within the cycle. However, if he wasn't able to get one of the speed cruisers, then we are probably going to have about five cycles before he touches down."

I nodded. "So, we need to be ready. I'll go check on Pandimala if you could go and let Orb know. The sooner he gets here the better Pandimala is going to be. She needs this." And we owed her. Anything we could do to help the femme in her mission, I was going to make sure I did what I could. She had saved my sister. I would give her a sparkdebt for that if I knew it would mean anything to the new femme. However, now was not the time to be going into that with Pandimala. Before she left for Cybertron, yes. That way she wouldn't be roped into anything that she didn't deserve to be in. Sparkdebts were serious business and to take one up unknowingly could have serious consequences for the femme.

But, first, we needed to get her through this in one piece. Thankfully, we would have Astrotrain helping Blitzwing, who he seemed to trust, to help Pandimala through this. It was slightly upsetting that I couldn't do more, but the differences between hunter class and triple changer were too great. I would hurt her more than help.

No, we would have to wait. As much as that was going to be my offlining.

Astrotrain's 1st P.O.V.

He was here.

He was two cycles later than we were hoping he would arrive, but sooner than if he had to use a regular cruiser to get here. But, the insane mech that I had gone through training with, and who was still in training technically, had arrived. His presence here would help us prepare Pandimala. Blitzwing would be the perfect mech, to not only teach the femme about being a triple changer and controlling her snaps but to also prepare her for interacting with the many different bots that called Cybertron home.

She would end up on the planet, we knew that much. However, none of us could prepare for what might happen to her once she left Regulon IV. He seemed like the best chance to get her used to what she might experience while she was there. That was especially once she registered herself as a triple changer in their systems. In part thanks to the legacy of Bermuda, triple changers were revered among flying alt bots on Cybertron. As were newsparks, given their rarity. It would not be hard to realize that Pandimala was both and that should give her an easier time. Not the easiest, but something easier to talk to highly influential bots that would help her move her plans along.

However, helping Pandimala was not the only reason that I had chosen Blitzwing to come instead of our instructor. Even before Pandimala's revelation that she was familiar with other iterations of him, and especially one that had multiple personalities like Blitzwing did, I could tell that she had the temperament to help the mech with his own problems. His insecurities about his multiple personalities along with the hesitance we needed to show as triple changers hit him harder than most of us that had gone through the program.

While his pride wasn't nearly as bad as my own, he didn't like feeling like he was failing in what he was doing. Funnily enough, he shared that with our extra-dimensional friend. Hopefully, the two would help each other realize that falling behind wasn't a bad thing, just as long as you kept moving in a positive direction. Yes, this was a slight risk, having them work on the same problem at the same time, but I was counting on them pointing this flaw out in each other. I was sure that this plan of mine was going to work. If it didn't, well…I could go a few rounds with the two of them to knock them back to their senses.

As the ship in front of me finished its landing procedures, I couldn't help but smirk at the reaction of the investigation team. They hadn't exactly been pleased that the Hive was inviting a guest here, and one so soon before Thrust was scheduled to arrive to check up on how they were doing. When the ship had descended, clearly showing the emblem of Vestium Major, they had been seemingly immobilized in that effect. They had to know that the Hive would inform our visitors about how they had reacted to the news of guests arriving that the Hive had invited. That would not put Cybertron in a positive light. This was definitely something that we could use to our advantage later.

But, for now, I needed to greet my friend after his long trip. Pandimala had been quite put out when we told her that she was not going to be allowed to come and greet him. It had taken some convincing from Scuttlebug and some not-so-subtle threats of berth arrest for the next solar from the same mech to convince the femme that she needed to rest for the remainder of this solar so that she would be ready to greet him tomorrow when their training started.

The release of the pressure lock caused me to focus as the gangplank lowered. What I saw caused me to widen my optics slightly. While I could see Blitzwing, for the mech was not hard to miss, he was not alone. What was he thinking? I told him that this was a delicate situation and that I needed him to come alone to help. All of the difficulties surrounding Pandimala made it difficult to trust bots to help her. Blitzwing, I trusted. But, I couldn't see who was with him due to the lights coming from the inside of the ship.

"Not exactly a warm welcome mech. I thought I taught you better than that,"

My lines froze when the unknown mech spoke. Well, not so unknown anymore. I knew those vocals. I would recognize those vocals anywhere. They were the same ones that I heard for my entire time on Vestium Major when I had my snap. Those vocals had always been in my audios as I fought back against what he was trying to teach me. Frag. I didn't think he would have picked up on what Blitzwing was doing.

"He caught me trying to get to the ship," Blitzwing muttered with a frown as they walked toward me.

Our teacher threw a glare at the mech. "You should have informed me of this in the first place, instead of trying to sneak off. You are not done with your training," He then turned to me. "And you! You should have known better than this. I thought I taught you better. Perhaps you could use some extra lessons." Sandstorm growled at me as he kept himself back.

As a fellow triple changer, Sandstorm was a no-nonsense mech who could hold out with the most rebellious of us. I should know. He had beat my pride out of me faster than I could shutter an optic. "There are extenuating circumstances in this situation, Sandstorm. Blitzwing was the one that I felt would help out the best. We are compartmentalizing everything about this." I growled back at the mech. While I understood why the mech was upset, this was about more than just my ego. I felt nervous even saying what I just said where the investigation team might hear.

Thankfully, Sandstorm seemed to at least get the message that I couldn't talk about the issue out here. So, he nodded. "I also thought I taught you some better manners. The two of us just came in from a long flight and you have yet to offer us some energon and a place to sit. Perhaps you do need some more lessons."

I shook my helm before motioning for the two to follow me. "This way most valued visitors," I made sure to add extra sarcasm in my vocals so he knew I wasn't impressed with what he was trying to do. I was not going to be joining in with these lessons. If Orbweaver and the others agreed to allow Sandstorm in on this training as well, he would have his servos full with Pandimala and Blitzwing. Speaking of them, I sent them each a quick private message about our unexpected arrival and where we were heading.

Once the three of us arrived at the rec room that only the hive had access to, I motioned for the two of them to sit while I sat across from them. "You better have a good explanation for this Astrotrain. Blitzwing refused to say anything to me about what you asked him here to do."

"Good," I replied immediately, much to his seeming annoyance. "We are having trouble enough with the situation we are in and we can't risk any word about what is going on here getting out."

"Do jou zhink zhat vhatever happened vould cause such a negative reaction from Cybertron?" Blitzwing asked, thankfully keeping what that was from Sandstorm still. I wanted the others in here if we agreed to bring Sandstorm in on this.

"Of course, zhey are alvays meanies!" His more excitable personality spun its faceplate in, taking control momentarily before his rational side returned.

To answer him though, "With what happened, we aren't just worried about how Cybertron would react. Depending on how everything goes, this could affect every being in existence. Present and future."

Sandstorm's optics dilated as he seemed to take in my words. And they were accurate. While we were worried about Cybertron and its reaction should they find out too much about Pandimala, her knowledge could overturn everything that was known to us all. It didn't help that, despite some confusion about other versions of each of us, she was a very open bot in getting to know others. She was a ticking bomb that we had to handle with care while making sure that the explosion that she eventually set off was as muted as we could.

Training her was key and, while I knew Blitzwing would be able to help her, I was worried about Sandstorm. He was effective. True. However, Pandimala wasn't the typical triple changer and if he pushed her like he did the rest of us, she might just crack and lose herself. It was rare, for a large framed bot to lose themselves from a snap, but it had happened. Most recently was a mech called Octane. I didn't know him well, but he had been unable to get through the training on Vestium Major and had actually been booted off of the planet for endangering the sparks and lives of every being that resided there. No bot knew where he had ended up.

But, if he was able to work with her, then his help would be invaluable. We would just have to wait and see just what would come. Hopefully, everything turned out how we needed it to. Not only us, but Pandimala needed this to go well. Given the triggers for her snaps, there was no other option for us. This had to work.

Authoress: *on her third can of Monster* I'll be alright. I just have to fake it until I make it.

Pandimala: *motions to can* Or get yourself hyped on energy enough to survive this first time through.

Authoress: *shrugs* Different things, same ending.

Pandimala: Not that I am enjoying this happier version of you from earlier, but where did you get the drinks?

Astrotrain: It was depressing seeing her like that, so I contacted a few friends and they were able to get me that.

Pandimala: *confused* How the hell did you get a drink from the future?

Astrotrain: *smirks* Secret.

Pandimala: You're mean.

Astrotrain: Yes, but Authoress won't forget this later on.

Pandimala: *knowingly* So, you're bribing her?

Astrotrain: *raises optic ridge* Wouldn't you?

Pandimala:...Touche.

AN: And here is the next chapter. Thank you so much for waiting. I know it has been sporadic with updating as opposed to what I was hoping with that updating schedule on my profile, but work has been a whirlwind. I'll try and update when I can, but with these Black Friday sales at work all month long, and working in electronics, I am going to be mentally drained most nights. But, I won't give up on these stories. It might take some time, but they will move forward.

And speaking of moving forward, that seems to be Pandimala's future after her first snap. Between Blitzwing arriving with the unexpected company of Sandstorm, she will have one Pit of a time working toward learning all she can before she ends up on Cybertron. Hopefully, everything is going to be easier with two more bots helping her learn. But, we won't find out about that until the next chapter. Hopefully, that will be soon but I can't make any promises right now.

Until then, though, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 6: Triple Changers

Chapter 7: Simple Errands

Chapter 8:...(of course, find out next time!)

For now, that is all! Again, I do apologize for the gaps in updating but I am hoping to get better at it. Until next we meet, enjoy the story, and maybe drop a review to review or say hi if you have the time. I do appreciate all you do just by giving my stories a look. If I survive this lovely month of sales, you all will see me again. TTYL! *think I should definitely be getting some sleep while listening to The Greatest Show*