Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Airachnid: I can't believe you would do this! How long as it been since an update? Four months! Do you know how much we have been through in less time?

Authoress: Yes, and I do apologize. However, work has been a little bit of a strain lately. One stressful bit at a time, thank you very much!

Orbweaver: She didn't mean it like that Authoress. It is rather difficult given everything that is happening to be on hold for so long.

Authoress: *sighs* I know. Hopefully, that wil change soon. But, we will see.

Chapter 9: Consequences

Airachnid's 1st P.O.V.

She was gone.

Even as we waited for my sister and Sandstorm to return from seeing Thrust and the research team off, it hurt to think she was going away. All of that time we spent with her, and our friendships built up with her…that I had built up with her…and she was on her way to that fragging scrapheap of a planet. Nothing about this was fair. Yes, it was what she wanted…but it made my energon churn. She couldn't know what she was getting into. No matter how much information she thought she was bringing with her, it wouldn't help her nearly as much as I had a feeling she was hoping it would.

Somebot needed to go with her. She needed support. Having one of us there would help her, despite what she argued before. Why did I let her convince us to listen to her? Maybe I could make my way out of here without anybot,

"Don't even think about it," I flinched and turned to see Tarantulas giving me a knowing look. The others in the room glanced up at his word.

Maybe he didn't know what I was thinking. He could be trying to scare me into giving myself up. "Think about what?" I shot back at the mech.

"You want to follow after her." Scrap, he figured me out. "And we've all agreed that we aren't going to be interfering with her during this. She made a logical argument to ensure that none of us went with her. If we were with her, she might lean too much into us without making her connections."

A growl escaped my vocals as I rounded on him. "And if she doesn't live long enough to make those connections? Primus, it would be a fragging miracle if she makes it to Cybertron without offlining, let alone get as far as she needs to. I mean, getting out of the Pits? That has only happened once, and you can be sure that if she fights even half as well as her training was showing at the end they won't let her out of those Pits! Or did those 'great' plans that she was making not mention that possibility?!"

"Enough!" I turned with a glare at my sister's voice as she reentered the room with Sandstorm. They were all just letting this happen without a single fragging thought!

"Not enough!" I growled right back. "We have so many more stellars of experience than Pandimala, and yet we allowed her to convince us that her way was correct. We know how Cybertron and its fragged-up rules can make scrap out of bots who think they can beat it! We know how they are going to try their fragging best to make sure that she won't make it far. And we are just going to be here…doing nothing…" My spark felt like it was closing in on me as I thought about all of the challenges that Pandimala would have to go through. It wasn't fair at all! It wasn't!

"Get ahold of yourself femme!" I flinched as I felt servos grab at my shoulders. Instinctively, I used my appendages to lash out at whoever was holding me. I flinched when the servos lifted me into the air and gave me a sharp shake. That shake caused me to glance down to see Sandstorm holding my arms and giving me a reprimanding look. "You trust her, and you fragging trust us even though you don't want to admit it. Now you calm your aft down or I will drop you faster than you can process."

My processor felt like it was moving too fast for me as I tried to calm down. I didn't feel like I was being unreasonable, but as I glanced around and looked at the other faceplates around me…the worry on them, I realized that I needed to calm down. Maybe I wasn't thinking this through? I mean, I was just one bot…and we had talked this out before…before she was gone.

"Put me down." I hissed out slowly. Just because I was confused right now, that didn't mean that he needed to hold me like I was some lunatic.

I would give the mech one thing, he didn't flinch as he stared at me for a few more nanos before he slowly set me down. "Feel better?"

"No," I glared back at him. "But, I'm more rational right now." I felt even more hesitation when I noticed the frustrated looks that everybot was sending me. I mean, even Makeshift was looking at me like I was some misbehaving sparkling. "Right?" I regretted asking it when almost every fragging optic ridge raised at my question.

I should have snuck out when I had the chance.

"No, not right." I rolled my optics when Astrotrain spoke up. "I know you trust her, and now you need to understand that she is going to get through this. You need to have more faith in her and your friendship with her. Now, sit down and relax."

When the others stared at me, I realized that they were not going to sit down until I did. Paranoid bots. But, I let out a vent and sat down. As the others followed suit, my sister decided to get this conversation rolling. "And no matter how angry you feel, it won't do you any good now." I felt like getting up right away and it was only the tense way every other chassis moved that caused me to sit back down.

"What do you mean?" I growled out.

Tarantulas raised an unimpressed optic ridge at me. "What our monarch means sister dear, is that Thrust and the research team, along with Pandimala, left about five clicks ago."

My chassis felt numb as those words hit my audios. She was already gone. And at the rate that those deep spaceships traveled out, they were too far away for me to try and catch them. And these fraggers knew that they just had to distract me long enough for that ship to leave. They had played me. Those afts! But, as I calmed down a little, I knew that they were right. However, that didn't make the pain of her leaving like this hurt even worse. She was going to hurt so much for all of our sakes, and she didn't have to. And that was if she made it.

…No, she had to make it. She wouldn't let anything stop her from getting that far. Pandimala had to reach Cybertron and I knew that, despite the facts that I knew, I also knew that Pandimala could overcome the odds. The others were right. I needed to focus on the positive outcomes that could come from this, instead of the negative. She would make it to Cybertron and, given her ability to make allies, then I knew that she would make allies there. Frag, she probably already had allies among the crew of Thrust's ship or the research team. Yeah, she would be alright. Strength in numbers was instinct no matter what the species and she had shown that by trusting us.

Trusting me, even though in her processor she had every reason not to. Knowing everything that I knew about that other me, I still didn't know how she did it. How she could trust the same image that she only knew of as a monster, a vicious killer that wouldn't have hesitated in ripping her spark out? Yet, she had. So, with that knowledge, I knew that she could look past any rumors or misgivings that she knew and heard about anybot and work with them if they were even the slightest bit willing.

Glancing at the group, I realized that they were seemingly waiting for me to respond. "You all are slaggers, don't think otherwise. However…you're right. Going after Pandimala would only hurt her in the long run." When they all relaxed, I made sure to throw them one glare. "Still you could have told me that she was leaving. I would have liked to see her off."

"Combkeeper should be bringing a cortical psychic patch with her during this inaugural delegation meeting," Sandstorm spoke up. Combkeeper must be the representative from Vestium Major. "I'm sure that she would allow us to use it so you can see her off from our memories. Shame we don't have the technology to record memories with it yet."

"Who knows, maybe one solar somebot will figure it out?" I encouraged the mech. "Until then though, thank you." He didn't have to offer that, and I was glad that I would at least be able to see her off in one fashion…even if it wasn't in the way that I wanted to. "Speaking of figuring things out, I know we told Pandimala that we weren't going to use her memories to prepare for her possible future, but given what those memories were about…"

For the first time during this talk, my sister nodded her helm in agreement. "We need to prepare our citizens for a war that will change everything that we know. The hardcased have already started training in greater numbers, the dipteram are increasing their scouting ranges, the hymenarchs are making sure to improve their proficiency with their abilities, and the first of the eggs are ready to take my energon for the next generation. Once they hatch, we will need to prepare them. Whether we like it or not, war is on the horizon and the hive will not fall to it."

"And I'll make sure that Vestium Major is ready without betraying Pandimala's trust in us," Sandstorm added. "We are going to need all of the help that we can get in the coming stellars and I would rather be the best prepared that we can. And a stronger Vestium Major means that Regulon IV will be even more protected. I noticed that Pandimala never mentioned even knowing about them and yet we know they are one of the most powerful political forces, even when viewed outside of their role in the Galactic Alliance. Either they just happened to be missing in all of her tellings,"

"Or they were decimated so bad during the war she knew of, that they weren't even mentioned," Makeshift finished off before standing. "I'm not sure about all of you, but it has been a long solar for me and I think I could use a good power down."

Now that the mech mentioned it, I could feel the exhaustion in my joints. So much happened this solar and I knew that we needed to recover from that before we moved forward with any plans. And it seemed like the others agreed with this for we all parted ways to return to our quarters. As I walked toward mine, however, I sent a silent plea to whichever deity would listen that Pandimala would be alright. I wasn't one to rely on faith much, though learning that Primus and Unicron truly existed made me realize that I might need to at least try a little harder on that end, I felt like any assistance that the femme could get would be better than nothing.

It was a god that started Pandimala's journey here, and something that had at least similar power to Primus had to have diverted her from her original path. Having a god on her side through all of this seemed like it could only help her. I didn't envy Pandimala in the slightest. I knew that there were outside forces that affected my solar by solar existence all of the time. However, having gods personally change your whole existence so rapidly was something I never wanted to experience.

Once I arrived home, I grabbed myself a cube of low grade to help relax my chassis for recharge, though I really would prefer some high grade after everything that happened this solar. It didn't take me long to finish it and, after a quick rinse in my washrack, I laid down on my berth. She would be fine. I knew she would be.

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

"You know femme, bots would think you would learn to keep your words to yourself after the first interrogation that the others put you through." I rolled my optics when Filch lectured me…again.

It had been two solars since we left Regulon IV and, not to my surprise, I couldn't help but taunt Thrust at every fragging opportunity. Not enough to give him an excuse to offline me, but enough to where he did not like me. At first, it was purely by accident that I kept pushing his buttons. However, after making friends with Filch and the others that we trusted, I learned that Thrust had a vengeance streak that would put most others to shame.

And that was what I was now banking on.

I know it sounded crazy, and that was why I didn't tell the others here yet. However, I needed to make sure that Thrust did not change his thoughts about my punishment, or try and bribe me like he had after we took off. Right now, I was destined to fight in the Pits of Kaon, and that was one of the best places for me to be. There were so many key events that happened in those Pits during the dawn of the war, from what I could remember. My best shot of making it through all of this, given how I was getting to Cybertron unquestioned, was to enter through the Pits. And Kaon had the worst of the worst from what the others told me and from the information I had before coming to this dimension.

Back to Filch, however… "Aw come on, where would the fun be if I made it easy?"

That caused an optic roll to come from the four of them. Yeesh, in-sync optic rolling. It only took two solars for the four of them to get that close. "You could make it a little easier on me you know," Filch shot back as she worked on welding me back up. Had to hand it to Thrust's little minions; they knew how to hit a bot just right to make it hurt.

Of course, I was trained by triple changers and hardcased insecticons. I think those thugs that worked for Thrust were starting to learn that I was a little more durable than they thought. And, while I couldn't hit them back or risk giving Thrust an excuse to offline me, it was funny to confuse them. They weren't the brightest processors around and I made good use of that. They had already spilled to me that Thrust was already trying to contact some of the 'handlers' that he knew in the Pits to see if he could have my sale done before we even arrived.

And while those morons didn't realize it, that actually made me feel better. If he did get me sold soon, then I turned from a nuisance to valuable goods. And you didn't mess with valuable goods while you had them. That meant that those afts could have their little venting sessions with me anymore. That was a win in my case.

"Right. Fun. I don't get your sense of humor." Hound spoke up as I moved to give Filch more access. It was a surprise to see the mech, given that he never showed up in the Prime universe during the show, and so seeing him after those bruisers had dragged me to my cell was amazing. Filch, who was friends with Tarantulas, had sent him to check on me on Tarantulas' behalf. We hit it off alright and he was turning into a solid ally to have.

The mech next to him nudged the green jeep mech before laughing. "Lighten up a bit mech. I've never saw Citron get so angry at a bot faster than when Pandimala's first words to the mech were that he seemed to be trying to compensate for something. Made my entire stellar, despite the beatdown it cost her." Cliffjumper seemed just as relaxed as he had been in the show, the few clicks he had been in it anyways. Surprised the frag out of me to see him as a part of Thrust's security detail. But, this was pre-war era and I wouldn't judge the mech on the job he might have had to take. So far, I had been glad to find out that the mech was as good to know as he seemed.

A huff coming out of my fourt and, so far, final ally caused me to glance over to said mech. Motormaster was an intimidating mech and it did not surprise me that somebot had him as a part of their security detail before the war broke out. That also meant that the theory that the stunticons were created during the war was debunked in this dimension. While he usually kept more to himself, I did meet him later last solar when he stopped Tartle from ripping my vocals out.

…What? Comparing the brown hauler to a pile of organic waste was too easy, especially since the top of his helm did look like one of those emojis.

"You really don't have a filter though, do you femme?" he asked as Filch seemed to be finishing up with me.

"I have a filter," I shot back as she pulled the welder away from my shoulder. Once I realized that she had finished patching me up, well enough so that I was fixed and Thrust wouldn't get his thrusters in a bind, I stood up and turned to the mech. "Insults are just the fastest way to get information out of bots like that. And while you all have been great, I'm sure that Thrust is going to realize that you all don't mind being around me. So, I need to know how to find out information from those other bots. Tartle was really easy to get stuff out of. Like how Thrust is cutting some corners in this return trip to arrive on Cybertron two solars earlier than planned. Something about a big council meeting happening soon. Guess he wants to grease some gears and tell his friends what he learned on Regulon IV."

A pang of pain traveled though my chassis at the thought of Regulon IV. I had a feeling that it would be hundreds of stellars, at the least, before I was going to see most of them again. Funnily enough, I was going to miss 'Nid the most. She kept things real for me even when I had convinced the others. I had no doubt that she was giving the others a hard time about keeping our departure from her. But, that's exactly why we did. She would have tried to sneak along if she had the chance and I couldn't have that. When I got to Cybertron, I needed to be open to making whatever allies I might have, despite my past knowledge of them, and having her there would split that focus since I would worry about her safety and feelings on different situations.

Situations that I knew would eventually arise.

"Whatever," Motormaster shook his helm. "Are you ready? If we are having our travel time cut, then that means that we will be on Cybertron in a few solars."

"As ready as I can be," And that was the honest truth. "I'm sure Thrust will try to get me with the sleaziest bot he can find so I'm prepared to make the most of it if I need to."

"Just grab em by the horns," Cliff encouraged with a nod. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

"That's because you're a moron," Filch admonished him with a light glare. "Just remember to keep your helm down at first. I knew a bot who fought in the Pits, though he fought in Tarn's and not Kaon's. Bot's will turn on you in an instant if they think they can move ahead faster doing so."

Hound, at this point, seemed to be feeling left out for he jumped in. "So make sure you know everything you can. Information can be a lot more powerful than a fist ever can be. Don't let bots know too much about you, but find out what you can about everybot else."

That wasn't bad advice, to be honest. There was a reason that, in the show, Knockout made a note to watch out for the quiet ones. Soundwave had become one of the most feared and respected bots that I had seen during the show, and the reading I had done after that added into that. And, at least during the show, he only spoke a servo-full of words. Yet, he knew what was happening before most even knew something was wrong, let alone what that something was. As long as he was reasonable enough to deal with, and not changed for the worse, than I wanted to have him as an ally.

"We had better get going," Motormaster spoke up. "If we are all around Pandimala too much, Thrust might think something is up and keep a closer optic on her." He then looked to me. "Take care femme."

"You too," I shot back at him.

The others did the same and, soon, I was alone in this cell. Since I was alone, I allowed my thoughts to return back to thoughts on what may come. Since I was going to be in the Pits of Kaon, as long as this stuff that Thrust was working out turned out like he hoped, then I knew that I would eventually cross paths with D13 aka Megatronus aka Megatron. I had already decided that the original timeline was worthless to me now and I wasn't going to be keeping to it. That would be putting more pressure on myself than was necessary. However, that meant that I needed to decide which side I was going to be on. And just from the information I researched on Regulon IV and from my past life, I knew that I would be following the ideals that the Decepticons originally set as their goals.

Freedom for every being. Freedom to pursue their dreams without hindering those of others. Freedom to deicde their own fates. Those simple ideas were not available to the general public as a whole. Even those from the better city-states had to watch what they said and who they said it to. With enough negativity from the wrong direction, then a bot could find themselves in a lower caste before they could shutter an optic.

Funnily enough, the one class of bots that seemed immune to this thought, outside of the Prime of course, were triple-changers. They were looked upon as gifts from Primus and no bot went against them. Of course, I had a feeling that the Prime would if he thought he could get enough support. However, that would be a risky move for the bot. That was especially with the constituents from Vos. They would tear the Prime apart if he attacked a triple-changer.

That also told me that Thrust most likely did not know that I was one. If he did, he wouldn't let his bruisers near me, or anybot else but a medic and himself. He also would have gifted me to Vos, probably spinning some slag of a story about saving me from Flamewar's vicious attack or something along those lines, and collecting favor with the Vosnian court or a lot of credits, or both.

While being in Vos wouldn't have been a bad place to end up, I knew that I would make more of the connections I would need to make through the Pits of Kaon than through the Vosnian Court.

Thinking back on the Pits, I was concerned about one thing. My wings. They were set to pop within this stellar and, while that was not a bad thing inherintly, it could turn into a bad situation depending on where I was when they popped. The bots on Regulon IV made sure to drive home just how rattling it would be for my systems when they did pop. I didn't want to be in battle when they did so. Outside of that worry, however, I was also concerned that they would pop before I could make the connections that I might need. If that were to happen, then I would be shipped away to somewhere 'important' and I would lose all of the connections I may be building at the time.

But, I couldn't worry myself about that right now. I couldn't work myself into a snap here. For now, I just had to worry about getting to Cybertron in one piece. From there, I would either work with or against my 'owner' until I was free from the Pits…or the war started. Either which way, I just had to take things one pede at a time. Then I would return to Paul. It would take time. But, for now, that was my long-term goal. Stay online long enough to meet with Paul again. And I would try my best to make sure that happened.

When the sound of grumbling hit my audios, I smirked. It seemed like it was time to get some more information out of the idiots under Thrust's employ. I wonder who it would be this cycle?

Pandimala: Oh, this is interesting. So, I basically have free reign until I get to Cybertron. This is going to be juicy!

Authoress: Just remember that enemies you make will be enemies you keep.

Pandimala: *shakes helm* Right. But allies I make stay allies.

Authoress: *silence*

Pandimala: *worried* Right?

Authoress: *silence*

Pandimala: Right?!

AN: And here is the next chapter! I do apologize for the lateness but this chapter was a combination of work stress and me being stuck on how to write it. But, it finally came through so here it is! I hope you have all enjoyed this so far. I know that this chapter was kinda lackluster when it came to scenes but I needed to have some travel time and some allies made for Pandimala that she could use since her time with the Hive is over. Also, just in case I forget to mention it, this will most likely be the last you see of any of the Hive. Astrotrain and Blitzwing may come back later, but for now everybot that was her ally on that planet is gone for the foreseeable future. Next chapter will give us our first look into Cybertron and I hope I can get it to you all faster than I did here.

Well, until next time, here are the next chapters!

Chapter 10: Arrival

Chapter 11: First Fight

Chapter 12: ...(find out next time!)

Well, that's all for now! Keep up the good spirits everyone and stay safe out there! If you want to drop a review, or say hi in a review, I'm always open for that. Until next time, TTYL! *listening to pirate music again*