Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.
Grinchain: *lazing in his cell* This is so boring.
Authoress: *pops in* Hiya Grinchain!
Grinchain: *yelps in surprise* What the frag? How did you get in here?
Authoress: *shrugs* I have my ways. Everbot else is hunting me, though, and I thought this would be a great place to crash. Gotta love over-reactive creators.
Chapter 13: Digging Deeper
Seabreaker's 1st P.O.V.
This was a cluster-slag of a solar. I didn't get much time to relax these solars, but I thought I would be alright with this one. Look around at a couple of the displays and pick up a few odds and ends for sale. And, at first, that was how my solar went. Ever since Pandimala had come, it was the closest solar I had experienced to normal in a while.
And then the message from Grinchain came through.
From the little he sent, some information came out about Pandimala, and sire reacted less than gracefully. Grinchain had said a lot worse, but I needed to keep a calm processor. Otherwise, I would be in a holding cell next to my brother. From the end of Grinchain's message, Pandimala was temporarily moving out of the palace and in with Iussa until sire saw reason.
Honestly, I knew sire. And I knew that it might take too long for that to happen. So, it was time to take things into our own servos. And the best way to start was for me to meet with Lightbeam and strategize with her. While I was the more rational sibling not in trouble right now, Lightbeam had connections. Through her network, we could accomplish much more than working with just our family. That was a lesson that I had learned from Pandimala. Despite whatever information was known about her, she more than proved her capabilities.
"Breaker, sorry it took me so long," I turned as Lightbeam approached me. "I was getting more information from Grin about what happened between Pandimala and sire. From what he found out, she is a newspark."
It took me a few nanos to remember what a newspark was. In recorded galactic history, there had only been one other newspark. That was back during the age of the original thirteen primes of Cybertron. "Really?" While I didn't think Lightbeam was lying, it seemed so incredible that I had to question it.
She nodded as we started to walk away from the crowds. "Really. She is twenty stellars old, and sire is treating her as if she is a sparkling."
"No wonder Grinchain went off on sire," I commented before I shook my helm. "We need to keep an audio on the others who were in that room. See what they are thinking?"
Lightbeam smiled. "That's what I was thinking too. So, I have the others outside of Glein," She motioned to her side, and I saw that Glein was following us at a distance where we could still talk privately. Pandimala had been wise to get carrier and sire to agree to have Lightbeam's friends be her guards. They were more effective than the guards they assigned to us. "Following the bots Grinchain told me were a part of that meeting. Caigal and Emperor Thav aren't happy with how sire is handling this, so I sent Filan to act as an intermediate to keep communication open. Coyode will see how Lord Oryax is taking the news while Giro is keeping an optic on the Wern embassy to see if he picks up anything from the scientists that were in the room."
Frag. Interacting with Panidmala had turned Lightbeam from a delinquent to an information-gathering special ops leader with her friends as her team. "That's good. But that doesn't help us try and get sire to see reason." Since she had been in contact with Grin more than I had been, she might be able to fill in some gaps for me. "Was it just her age that caused sire to brush Pandimala off as a sparkling?"
Lightbeam shook her helm. "No, Grinchain mentioned that Physis and sire both tried to get the location of Pandimala's last deployment from her. But she said she couldn't tell them that. It was that refusal that pushed sire over the edge."
Where she was last stationed? I guess, with her age, that would tell sire what might have happened to cause Pandimala to turn into a newspark. "And sire didn't seem like he was going to budge?"
"No. Grin made that very clear. And the fact that sire was refusing to answer my comm to him tells me he probably won't listen to any of us close to Pandimala."
"Then I see two points that we need to work on." We turned to head toward the rail station as I continued to speak. "I need you and your friends to look into any information about the Decepticon activity in the past twenty stellars. We don't know when Pandimala was changed, so we need to search for her entire life span. And check any planet that has human settlements on it. Grin said she couldn't have been on Earth, but we'll check there eventually. With sire in this state, we need to keep our options open. If we can figure out where Pandimala was stationed,"
"That might show sire why Pandimala couldn't tell him where she was deployed. Just because she can't tell it doesn't mean we can't look." Lightbeam finished before she motioned to me. "But, what's the second point? I'm guessing that's what you are going to be doing?"
I nodded before motioning to the rail station we had stopped by. "If we can't find the information we need to snap sire out of this lunacy he is in, then we need the help of the only bots who can."
"You don't mean?"
"Yes," I interrupted her before she said their designations out loud. Or before she said what they were to sire. "Outside of carrier, who doesn't seem to be having any luck with sire given that Grin is in a holding cell right now, they are the only ones that sire might listen to. Honestly, I don't even think Iussa could scare sire out of this." Though, to be fair, Iussa seemed less grandiose after she met with Pandimala.
My sister nodded her helm before she stuck out her servo. "Good luck, brother."
Smiling, I took her servo in mine. "You too." I then went into the rail station and paid my fare before getting on the train. This was going to be dicey at best. The bots I was going to see were not going to be happy to hear what sire had done. But, given how stubborn sire could be, they were our only option.
The ride to Quenin took about forty clicks, with three stops I had to wait at. Quenin was a small settlement far enough away from Tocania where bots weren't as affected by the political atmosphere the city could have. I was supposed to take Pandimala here during our next guide session. The two bots I was going to visit would adore Pandimala. The one, especially since she wasn't a native of Vestium Major.
It was about a ten-click walk from the station to the humble home of the bots I was coming to see. I stared at the blue door for a few nanos before I let out a vent and knocked. From inside, I could hear the sounds of bots moving about. Of course, they weren't expecting me this solar. They must not have been ready for company. "Coming!" I heard a mech yell from the inside. After a few more nano clicks, the door finally opened to a seeker who was my height. His black and gray plating shimmered in the sun as the mech stared at me with orange optics. Our optics stayed locked for a few more nanos before he beamed. "Seabreaker! We weren't expecting you until next solar. Where is this friend you wanted to introduce us to?"
"She's why I'm here this solar," I answered the mech.
The smile on his faceplate slowly waned before he motioned me inside. Nodding in thanks, I walked in and sat down on the couch. "What happened?" The femme of the house asked as she walked in with a tray of energon.
Taking one of the cubes, I waited for them both to sit down before I started to speak. This would be a long story, and I knew they wouldn't be happy with sire once I was done speaking.
Lightbeam's 1st P.O.V.
"Anything on your end?" I asked Glein as we sat in the study room. We needed to find something about where Pandimala was stationed before she started to travel to Pyrovar. But Grinchain wasn't kidding about the lack of information about Pandimala. So far, we had checked three out of the five planets that had humans as a registered species on the planet. We had every single record that we could get our servos on at our disposal, and so far, not a single trace of Pandimala anywhere on their rosters. It was getting frustrating.
"Nothing," Glein answered me as he leafed through the reports on his end of the table. The only good thing about doing this research was that Grinchain had a permanent room with this stuff in it. Granted, there weren't many bots who looked for the information, but the point was there. "So far, I haven't seen anything about humans working with the Decepticons on these planets, let alone joining them." He then held up another large file that Saboal had brought about thirty clicks ago. "I even had Saboal bring me missing person reports from those planets, and no being matching her soliform's description has been reported. If the Decepticons did this, which, given what we've seen from Panidmala, I doubted, they didn't take a human from these planets so far. Saboal will bring me the reports from Epsilon Delta and Earth."
Hopefully, there were some answers in those. As I was looking through the reports from Epsilon Delta, I was starting to think that Earth might be the place that held our answers, despite Grinchain's insistence to the contrary. It was a recent hub of Cybertronian activity in the past stellars, and it was a planet ruled and run by humans. The odds of a human interacting with the Decepticons seemed reasonably high. However, given Grinchain's insistence, I was holding off on that until last.
"I'm back with those files you requested," Glein and I both turned as Saboal spoke up. However, once I looked at the doorway, I jumped to my pedes when I saw Filan and Coyode walk in with Lord Oryax, Ambassador Credax, Emperor Thav, and Caigal. We all stared at each other as Saboal put the files on the table. He glanced between all of us before he shook his helm. "I don't want to know. Just try not to destroy the room. Grinchain will have my aft if something gets damaged." The mech then made a hasty retreat.
The room was silent for a nano before Coyode spoke up. "I'm not sure about Filan, but Lord Oryax asked what was being done to help Pandimala and Grinchain, so I told him about your message. Once he found out you were looking up any history you could on Pandimala, he demanded that he come and help."
Filan nodded and motioned to the two labac. "The same. I tried to hail your comm to let you know. But, given the communication blocks in the private rooms, my attempts didn't go through."
Before I could say anything about what was happening, the others sat in the chairs surrounding the table. "No use wasting time. While Pandimala should be fine for a while, I heard enough about what happened during her first meeting with Iussa to know that the femme may drive the goddess insane if we don't get Lord Dawnbreaker to see reason." Lord Oryax spoke.
"Speaking of reason," Caigal interrupted as everyone started to look into the files. "Where is Seabreaker? I was led to assume he was a part of this."
Since they were helping and the rooms were secured, I didn't think it would hurt to let them in. "He is working on a contingency plan. If we can't find information to sway sire from his thinking, he's gone down to Quenin to get the only bots sire might listen to right now."
Lord Oryax and Emperor Thav both seemed startled at my revelation. I guess they knew the reputations of the bots in question enough to know that we weren't pulling any stops on this one. Sire needed to see reason. And if we couldn't get him to, they were our only hope. "A bit extreme, but you may be right," Lord Oryax agreed. "They may be the only ones to make Lord Dawnbreaker see sense. Hopefully, Sandstorm can help avoid that extreme. He went to try and talk with your sire, though I told him not to hold his intakes." Well, good luck to Sandstorm. He was going to need it.
After that, we all fell into our research. However, I was worried. Why weren't we finding anything about Pandimala? She was new to the Decepticons. However, given her confidence and how she dealt with the leaders she had met, there must be something here. Something that we could look back on and show sire that, despite her age, Pandimala wasn't a sparkling.
To be fair to sire, no bot in living memory had ever interacted with a newspark before. None of us were sure we were taking the right path. What we could go off of, however, was how Pandimala had acted since she got here. And despite my reluctance to attend that first meeting she had to discuss Seabreaker's and Firebrand's punishment, that meeting was our most unbiased view of Pandimala. At that point, the only thing we knew about her was that my two brothers had shot her down.
In that meeting, she had been poised and level-helmed. She allowed Firebrand to speak even though he was being an aft about it. But, she wasn't oppressive about how she acted during that. Pandimala could have demanded anything from my brothers for what they did to her, and sire would have had to allow it. But, she was thoughtful in her punishments, though I didn't even see it entirely at the time. She was forcing them to grow up. While Firebrand still didn't get that, Seabreaker more than realized it.
The one time I questioned her on her choices, the guide program specifically, she answered me with logic instead of the emotion one would see from a bot with the processor of a sparkling. And even when Grinchain jumped on the chance to spend time with her, much to my annoyance at the time, Pandimala had been open to it. Though, now that I looked back on it, she did seem nervous about him. It was probably his overexcitement about it all.
Shaking my helm out of that meeting, I picked up the closest datapad and started reading the files. This was strange. It was about the Decepticon fight on Earth. From what I could see, we didn't have much on the subject. And the fighting there was done already. Both sides had pulled away from the planet from one of our newest reports. The Autobots went to Cybertron to revitalize it, while the Decepticons traveled to Pyrovar to start the construction of their new home. So, if Pandimala was on Earth during this campaign, why didn't we have a record of it? Moreover, how did she end up traveling from the direction of Cybertron instead of using the Decepticon space bridge technology to travel with the others?
Shaking my helm, I continued to surf through the reports until I paused. This was a new name, though it wasn't one that I associated with Pandimala. This might be our first step in getting sire to see his error if this was her. "This might be something," I said, causing the others to look at me. "There is a report here from the fighting on the planet Earth,"
"I thought Grinchain said she couldn't have been on Earth?" Glein asked.
"Why couldn't she?" Lord Oryax asked. Since the four of them weren't privy to what I knew from Grinchain, it made sense that he was asking.
I motioned to the datapad and answered Lord Oryax first. "Grinchain made that assumption based on the fact that Pandimala had come from the wrong direction and that the Decepticons on Earth used one of their space bridges to go directly from Earth to Pyrovar." I then looked at Glein. "But we are running out of options. We've gone through every file from three of the five planets that have humans registered as a species on the planet. You all got the files for Epsilon Delta, so I figured I would start on the files from Earth."
Emperor Thav shook his head. "So what did you find?"
I sent the file in question to each of them as I read it. "There is a report here about a mission the Decepticons had launched. Apparently, they were looking for relics sent to Earth millions of stellars ago. The report we got on the mission mentions an operative called 'Coordinator'. Planned out the mission, and that mission, from this report, was a success. This being isn't mentioned much in it, but it's the only instance I have seen where we have a being mentioned that we don't have files on." This might be something. Maybe I was just grasping for hope, but I would take what I could get at this point.
"I think we should focus on the files on Earth. It's the only real lead we have right now," Ambassador Credax voiced his agreement.
There seemed to be a consensus around the room, so files on Earth were distributed to everybot. Somewhere in these datapads was the answer we were looking for. The connection that would let us show sire that he was wrong in his assumptions about Pandimala. This had to work. With everything that Pandimala had done for us, for me, she deserved our best. And by Iussa, I was going to give it to her.
Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.
"Thanks for taking me in on such short notice," I thanked the goddess again as we sat down in her throne room. Thankfully, we were alone.
When I arrived, I caused a little bit of a stir. I wasn't asked to come, and given how my first meeting with the goddess went, her guards were still a little nervous about me. So, my walking straight in without stopping at the outside guard threw them off. However, Iussa had changed since that first meeting with her, and she let me say the reasoning behind my abrupt arrival.
To say that she wasn't happy with Lord Dawnbreaker was an understatement.
Thankfully, she said I could stay with her until things got settled. Out of every being on this planet, she was the only one who knew the truth behind me. Of course, that was partly because of what happened at that first meeting. I had lost partial control of myself, and she sensed the dark energon in my lines. It was what initially scared her. I knew I had a lot in my chassis. Dark energon, that is. How couldn't I? I was born from a species begotten from his very chassis, had the substance injected into me when I was still human, and when I offlined, I fell to that same chassis, which allowed the god to fill my empty lines solely with dark energon to revive me, and thus himself. Dark energon, as much as it scared me at times, was a part of my being that I had to accept.
After speaking with Iussa during her little stunt, I saw confusion and hope in her optics. I still wasn't sure what she had to be hopeful for, but the confusion was what I needed to talk to the goddess about. Once we were alone, I told her. With the promise that she would keep this information to herself, swearing to Primus to keep that promise, I told her what happened. It was a time in my existence that I was still getting over. In all accounts, I offlined. I had been in that dark, cold, and unforgiving state that followed offlining.
And then Unicron took over my chassis. Even though I was offline, I could still feel the pain as the dark energon coursed through my chassis. The chaos smothered my very being with actions and thoughts that weren't mine. I was trapped, and I couldn't fight back. Being ripped from the dark and cold I was experiencing to the pain was too much for my processor to comprehend at the nano. And then everything that happened on Cybertron happened. I had fought Unicron's control, and I took back my chassis. I should have offlined since I had never taken the dark energon as a bot before. Yet here I was, online and pissed off at a fragging leader who thought he knew better.
Fragger.
What would I tell him? 'Oh yes, I was a human who was attacked by an unknown Autobot, and then by two Decepticons who aren't Decepticons anymore, and after all that, I offlined at the servos of Autobots just to be brought back to life by the fragging god of Chaos? Because that was so believable. So, since that wasn't believable, despite being the whole truth, I said that I couldn't tell him.
And deep down, a part of me was afraid to tell anyone about what happened. It was too fresh, and it was too personal. Offlining wasn't something bots came back from every solar, and having him understand what I went through on Earth was simply impossible. That was especially true with how he was taking this. I wouldn't give him the answer, so he assumed the worst-case scenario was the best one. If he went through with his threat, I would ensure I went through with mine.
"Given the circumstances," Iussa responded as she sat beside me, an energon cube in each servo. "I don't mind. Dawnbreaker is a lot more like Firebrand than he thinks he is. If shown that he is wrong about something before figuring it out, he will do whatever he can to keep that thought. Convincing him to stand down on his threat won't be easy." She then handed me the extra cube she had before she let out a vent. "I'm not even sure I could convince him to step back."
"Great." If the goddess that he was so fearful of wouldn't be able to snap him out of this, then making Vestium Major my enemy might be the only path forward. And frag it; I worked so hard to prepare them for an alliance with the Decepticons! "So I wasted my time trying to ally with him." Frag it. I hated wasting time. Instead of all the work I had been doing to further this future alliance, I could have met with other leaders who weren't so frustratingly stubborn.
"I wouldn't say that you wasted your time," I glanced at Iussa as she sipped her energon. "I've seen the work that you have done, and I know that it has made an effect." I must have looked confused because when the goddess looked back at me, she let out a frustrated vent. "For a being upset at how blind Dawnbreaker is, you aren't seeing the bigger picture yourself." She then motioned toward the doors that led outside. "You've made close bonds with several beings on this planet. I've seen changes in them that I never thought I would see. That is especially true with Dawnbreaker's creations."
"Three of them, maybe," I agreed as I started to see what Iussa was saying. But, it wasn't with all of his creations, though. Firebrand seemed to be just as much of an aft as he was the first solar I met him.
"All of them," I raised an optic ridge at the goddess as she said this. All of them? "You haven't seen it because you don't spend time with Firebrand, for obvious reasons. However, that may have worked in your favor. My sources say that he isn't quite as close as he was with his friend Sharpstreak. It seems the stunt Alaran's creation pulled with you during your snap training is the cause of his new hesitation."
Wait, who the frag was Alaran? "Alaran?"
"The god of Pova," Iussa clarified for me. "He's order-centric like I am, though he has more chaos influencing him than I do." Thank the Allspark Iussa picked up on the fact that I liked shot explanations if I could. "Anyways, it seems like Firebrand asked the mech about what he did to you, which didn't go over well. You may want to try speaking with Firebrand once this blows over. Once the young heir hears about what is happening to you and why, he may be more open to speaking politely with you."
Everybot I talked to about Firebrand seemed to say he was a good bot at spark. With Iussa vouching for him, I would meet with him. But it wouldn't be right away. This cluster-slag of a storm my involuntary flashback caused needed to settle first. Then, I would see if Firebrand was changed enough to be added to this guide program. It was later than I hoped, but it would still be better than nothing if it worked out.
"We'll see," I wasn't going to give her a definite answer yet. I needed to see how this all played out. "For now, I will agree with you about the other three. I've seen the change in them."
"From what I heard after you got here, that change is even more apparent. Before your arrival, I'm sure that there would have been nothing that would have caused Grinchain to defy his sire as he did to defend you." I turned to Iussa quickly when she brought that up. What the frag happened to Grinchain after I left?
"Is he okay?" I needed to know if he was alright. The wildcard of everything here on Vestium Major, and he had turned himself into a good friend. Great even.
Iussa gave a so-so motion with her servo. "He's fine, but he has been put in a holding cell for his defense of you. Of course, from what I heard, said defense included calling his sire a fool."
My optics widened at that piece of information. Slag, I didn't see Grinchain going that far. But his sire was acting like a fool, so I also respected it. Even if that earned him time locked up, I'd make sure that whatever negotiations I had to enter with Lord Dawnbreaker included his immediate release. "So he's okay," I said more to respond to Iussa than anything.
However, the goddess nodded all the same. "Yes, and he isn't the only one helping you. The allies that you have made are working together to make plans. I'm sure Dawnbreaker will see reason." As she continued speaking, I noticed a worried look cross the goddess' faceplate. "One of their plans involves getting bots involved who will not take Dawnbreaker's actions lightly." Before I could ask Iussa who they were, she shook her helm. "But, it's better if I didn't mention them until I am sure they will get involved."
Given that the last time I saw that look on her was when I confronted her, I had a feeling that whoever these bots were, they would make a significant impact. "Let me guess, they had to bring you out of your pride too?"
To my surprise, the goddess shivered and took another drink of energon before she nodded. "While yours is the most terrifying rebuttal to me in all of my time in existence," Glad to know I could scare a goddess if needed, "I would not cross those two lightly. Either one of them could cause me trouble should the situation be extreme enough."
Just who were these bots? "Care to share about them?"
Even more surprising, the goddess shook her helm. "No, we try not to bring them up if it can be helped. They seem to know when their designations are spoken, and I do not need all three of you in my home at once." I couldn't stop a pout from forming on my faceplate at that. Iussa must have noticed it because she let out a vent. "Given how long it has been since your interaction with Dawnbreaker, and since we have not received word of a summons so he can apologize to you, then the odds of them being called upon for this situation are high. You will most likely meet them. And if by chance you don't, I'm sure one of your guides will take you to meet them if you wish."
She had a point. So, for now, I would let this go.
And since I was staying here as a guest, it seemed right that we should enjoy ourselves. It wasn't every solar that I got to have a sleepover with a goddess. "So, do you have any good movies around here?"
Iussa looked startled at my change of subject before she smiled. "I think I have a few in storage that I could get projected. Why don't you prepare movie goodies while I see if Bealac and Accium can help me find the necessary equipment."
I realized I had forgotten about Iussa's guards until she said that. "Invite them and your other guards, too. The more the merrier in this case." The two of us stood up at that point before I started to walk toward the kitchen. She only used it when hosting organic gods and storing her special energon. "And send whoever you think can help me find your goodies to the kitchen to help me," I called to her as I walked out the door.
Walking down the hall, I reviewed everything Iussa and I just talked about. At least there was hope that I hadn't just wasted solars of my time. I wanted to believe that, too. But Lord Dawnbreaker's reaction to finding out about me shook me. It shook me more than I wanted to admit. The mech had spoken to me on such a level field before that information came out that I had honestly thought about telling him about it. Not everything about me, but I would tell him a little bit more about me.
But that thought had been demolished by what happened.
Hopefully, I was as wrong about this as much as everybot kept telling me I was wrong about Firebrand. We would wait and see.
Pandimala: *sits in front of the screen* I love a good movie. *starts eating goodies*
Iussa: *nervously joins her* I agree. They can be a good distraction.
Pandimala: *smirks* That is especially true when it comes with in-house entertainment.
*yells come from hall*
Iussa: *vents* What did you do?
Pandimala: *smiles* Just gave them the best greeting I could.
*Bealac and Accium walk in with green goo with pink sparkles covering their chassis.*
AN: And here is the next chapter! We are getting closer to the big reveal as Pandimala's allies work in her favor. And just who are the bots that Seabreaker went to visit? It must be somebot important if he hopes they can help set his sire straight! And then we get a scene with Pandimala and Iussa having a spark to spark. Everybot Pandimala talks to says that Firebrand doesn't usually act as he did toward her. We'll have to wait and see, though.
While I normally try not to do this, I want to give some forewarning about the next two chapters. They will act as the episode Grill did in Transformers Prime. (Basically, it will recap what has happened up to this point.) However, there will be other parts to each of the chapters that are important for the story as a whole. So, even if you are tempted to gloss over them, I highly recommend against such an action.
Without further delay, here are the next chapters!
Chapter 14: Reconciliation
Chapter 15: The Whole Truth
Chapter 16:...(find out next time!)
With that, I wish to thank everyone who has supported my writing. I do appreciate every one of you. Until next we meet, TTYL! *listening to Skull and Bones by Home Free*