Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Pandimala: *glances at title* I'm going on a limb and saying that this isn't going to go well.

Authoress: *nods* Yep. But it will get better.

Swindle: Good; I would hate to offline you if it stayed bad.

Authoress: *to herself* At least they all understand bad things must happen now.

Chapter 19: Bad Timing

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

The sounds of the crowd could be heard from here. Of course, this was the largest fight that had been fought since the previous Challenge was undertaken. And we were upping the ante. Three of the top gladiators in the Pits that Kaon…no, that Cybertron had to offer against the unknown. Mindwipe and Rodimus had heard every rumor out there and got the messages to us. Anybot who was anybot was going to be in the stands this solar.

And that thought made me both nervous and excited.

While I knew that our enemies would be watching us, waiting for any mistake to be our last, there would also be influential bots in the higher echelons that might try to reach out to us if we won this solar. No, not if. When we won this solar, and we were going to win, and nothing would stand in our way. Nothing. I couldn't afford it to. Once we got past this hurdle, the only thing I would have to worry about would be the politics of Cybertron. Well, the only thing to worry about before the war started. However, at that point, my past knowledge would be of more use to me. Plus, my placement in the inner circle of the Decepticons would make that even easier.

Of course, I knew that they suspected I was holding back. Megatron and Soundwave were too smart not to realize I was more nervous than I should be. My wings had yet to appear, though the increased tightness I felt from my backplates worried me. However, since they were not appearing on the medical scans yet, I should be fine. I couldn't let anybot figure out what I was until after I got out of the Pits. If they found out too soon, they would remove me from Megatron and Soundwave, meaning I would lose that connection. I needed that connection. They were my best chance at getting through the war.

True, there were the Autobots. However, the command structure was too unstable. I couldn't risk my interference causing even more conflict that could set me back. The Decepticons were my only hope. But, the lying I was doing was going to cause issues. I couldn't avoid that. The lack of trust I was showing them would put me back. Hopefully, they would understand as well as I hoped they would. They would hopefully realize the political mess I was avoiding by keeping this to myself. While I had entertained the thought of obliviousness when I first thought about them discovering my status, I realized that would no longer work. Soundwave would have seen my nervousness during my medical checkups, and I would bet every credit to my designation that he had informed Megatron about my nervousness.

"Hey, it's going to be alright, Pandimala." I glanced to my side and smiled at Rumble. One of the bad things about this fight, we found out the other solar, was that the organizers demanded that the symbiotes be in the fight, or they would not be free. While we tried to argue that would mean we would have more allies against the Challenge, it was not good. Something told me that whoever was pulling their strings hoped their involvement would distract Soundwave. As their intrusion in my fight against Pondar had shown, Soundwave would know if they were in danger.

But, they would be alright. I would not let them come to harm should they deviate from whatever plan we would make. All of us would make it through this, no matter what. For now, though, I needed to respond to Rumble. "I know it will. We've all been preparing for this click for solars now." Glancing at my internal clock, I saw we had about thirty clicks before we were to go on the field. "You here to wrangle me in?" I had stepped away from the others to collect my thoughts. Standing with them waiting had been messing with my programming. I started to go down the thoughts that usually preceded my snaps. And that was the last thing I needed to happen right now. While some larger frames that had snaps weren't triple changers, they were too far between to take suspicion away from me.

He nodded and motioned for me to pick him up. So, I set my servo next to him before he spoke. "Yeah, boss bot and Megatron want to review the plan again before the fight starts." He then shook his helm. "Though the odds are that will be useless once the fight starts and we know what we are fighting."

"True, but at least having a plan will keep us focused," I agreed with him as I returned to the main holding area.

Once we arrived, I noticed that the other symbiotes were attached to Soundwave, which rarely happened. This fight was not going to be easy, and the organizers were making sure that we struggled as much as we could. Megatron looked composed, holding an air about him that I noticed he would have in the shows when he was about to enter a major fight.

"Are you ready?" Megatron asked as Rumble attached to Soundwave's left shoulder.

I nodded. "I am. Thank you." I then motioned to myself. "So, am I still going to act as a scout and gather information from whatever creature they are having us fight?"

Soundwave nodded. "I'll be assisting you and relaying information to Megatron."

Megatron then motioned to himself. "And I will be taking the brunt of the attack. If we play our credits right, we can adapt this plan to whatever creature they have us fight. While I doubt that they will have us fighting a planet shaker, given that they did not move us to their off-planet arena, they will pull out any and all stops to stop us. If they so happen to pick a creature more inclined to speed than strength, Pandimala will take the brunt of its attacks, given her agility. Soundwave, you will take over Pandimala's job and scout out any weaknesses. I'll assist you with that and relay the information to Pandimala."

"And if the creature is sentient, we will all have to keep a private message active between us to keep ahead of it," I added. Though sentient creatures were rarely seen in the fights, it would not surprise me if they did. Sentient creatures were usually prisoners that they captured for breaking their 'laws' similar to how Thrust came into possession of me.

"Hopefully, that will not happen," Megatron put in but nodded. "However, it will be best if we are also prepared for that situation."

As time ticked away, the three of us continued to speak on different strategies we may have to employ. Eventually, the one-click warning went off, causing all conversation between us to cease. It was almost here. This fight would be the one to determine if I would return to Paul. I had to. There was no way that I would allow us to lose. Not when we were this close!

I couldn't stop the flinch that traveled through my chassis as the starting alarm sounded, which prompted the gate in front of us to rise. As I had done many times before, I walked out onto the field. Immediately, the roar of the crowds hit my audios. Hearing their voices jumbling and yelling as we prepared to fight for our sparks was jarring. No matter what happened next, I would make sure we succeeded.

Finaqua's 1st P.O.V.

Those fraggers were going to burn in the Pit for this. While we had prepared ourselves for many different fights that they would be fighting, this was even further than we thought they would take it. Multiple creatures was an option we had taken into account, but two of those? I was worried about our odds of victory. While they weren't great, we had a chance before this came to light. Now? Now, all Swindle and I could do was sit back and watch the fight. Perhaps a prayer to Primus would be best about now? Because the creatures they were fighting were an apex species among apex species.

Razorhowlers.

Armor-plated creatures with large spines protruding from a large percentage of their bodies, Razorhowlers were difficult enough to land hits on. That didn't even include the multiple horns each had on their heads to attack with. And that wasn't even the worst of it. No, razorhowlers were a semi-sentient species that worked as a hive-minded fighting force. And the two that were down there now were most definitely alphas. My only hope was that the two alphas would turn on each other, and then our three fighters would only have to take on one of them.

However, I had doubts we would be that lucky.

No, what was probably the case, given how much the organizers wanted our gladiators to lose, was that these two were twins and thus linked to each other. If the three of them got out of this, it would only be through the blessing of Primus.

"They really spared no expense," Swindle muttered, repeating what the announcer had said a cycle ago to the crowds before the two creatures had come out.

"None." I agreed with him. "But, all we can do now is hope things turn out alright."

Swindle nodded at that. "True, and given all high-ranking spectators watching the match, they can't risk any obvious interference." With that, he motioned toward one of the boxes in front of us.

It took my optics a few nanos to adjust to that distance, but once they did, I realized what he was saying. The Vosnian Ambassador to the Council was in attendance. Rassic was not a seeker one took lightly. Rumors said his grace in the skies was matched by the eloquence in his words and the ferocity behind his blades. Rassic would not allow egregious mistreatment of fliers to stand, and while Pandimala was a grounder, Megatron and Soundwave were fliers. My optics moved to the figure next to him, and I about felt my spark go out at the sight. Lady Firecracker, Lord Skyscream's bondmate, was personally in attendance. The Council could not risk anybot interfering too much in the match.

But it was a surprise that she was in attendance. Vosnians as a whole usually found the practice of the gladiatorial pits to be detestable at best, and the femme had expressed such sentiments vehemently in the past. Ambassador Rassic would have been able to see justice done for the two fliers in question…so why was she here?

"Any idea as to why Lady Firecracker is in attendance?" I asked.

Swindle shook his helm. "I can't think of why the femme would be here. However, I won't complain. Her presence will keep the fight much more fair than we thought it would be."

A cheer from the crowd caused me to glance down at our fighters. When I locked onto my gladiator, I felt relieved that he had not been seriously harmed so far. The fluid on the mech was clearly from the creature and not Megatron. But what caused them to react? Looking at Soundwave, I saw he was in the same position as Megatron. So, that could only mean that the injury had to come from Pandimala.

But I couldn't find her. Did she get eaten? I didn't think she would be that careless, but, in that same thought, she did have a wild side about her at times. If that overtook her reason, she could have most certainly been devoured. A screech from the creature closest to us caused me to focus there. It took me a nano, but under its foot, I saw a black blade protruding from it. She was still online. The crowd must have thought her crushed.

But I had studied the femme's armor during her time with us, and she could take a lot more damage than she looked like she could. But she wouldn't be able to do that often. Even the strongest armor cracked under enough pressure. If Pandimala wasn't more careful, she would be overrun.

After a few nanos, the creature moved its foot up, allowing Pandimala to roll out from underneath. And just in time as the creature tried to slam its foot right back down on the femme. From the smug look I could see on the femme's faceplate, she had wanted that to happen, but why?

The answer came as a harrowing cry left the creature. It was backing away from Pandimala and almost in a frenzy. What the frag did she do to the creature to cause it to do that? Neither Megatron nor Soundwave had been able to cause that sort of reaction from the creatures. While the flailing creature was not out of the fight, it would be easier to deal with in the state it was in.

"What the frag was that?" It took my processor a nano to realize I had asked the question. Even as I did register that fact, however, I couldn't come up with an answer. There was no reason for the creature to act like that.

"She's injured," I glanced at Onslaught as he spoke up.

Since I was sure he knew she had injuries before being crushed, something told me that he was saying so now for a reason. So, I studied the femme as she moved on to the second razorhowler as Soundwave and Megatron moved in on the weakened one. At first, nothing seemed out of sorts. However, a closer look at her servo showed that one of her lines was exposed and slowly leaking energon. "Pandimala got energon in the creature's systems," I realized out loud as I continued to watch Pandimala move.

While her injury could cause problems if left for too long, her sacrifice against the first creature would allow the three of them to take the number of razorhowlers down to one. Already, the crowds were starting to realize that the odds of their victory were much better than they were at the outset. Somebot had gotten their information wrong, that was for sure.

Unknown 1st P.O.V.

"You lied to me!" A snarl escaped my vocals as I threw the pathetic mech in front of me against the arena's wall. I had only pushed for the organizers to allow this fragging fight because this mech assured me those three had no hopes of winning. None! And now, I stood to lose everything!

If they defeated the razorhowlers, they would be elevated to the upper-middle class. Given the guests this solar, Sentinel Prime would have no choice but to follow through with the promise to raise their ranks. However, somebot would pay for this. And since I had voiced my support of their fight, I would be in his trigger sights.

Slag it!

"How was I supposed to guess they could take down a razorhowler?" The mech in front of me wailed as he struggled in my grip.

A growl formed in my vocals as I answered him. "You swore you had inside knowledge on all three of them! Promised me that the intelligence used by two razorhowlers would cause them to crumble. You said Pandimala especially would fall to them. Yet her strike against the beast caused it to weaken enough to offline."

"But we don't even know if they'll beat the other 'howler."

A strangled gasp escaped his vocals as my grip tightened. I was done with his games. Due to this cretin's information, I had underestimated the three gladiators. This time, I would make sure this was done right! "No, you listen to me. Your dismissal of their capabilities is what put us in this mess to begin with. Don't tell me what they can or can't do. I need a weakness I can exploit before the match ends. And if you can't give me that, you will be useless to me."

"You need me."

I almost laughed at the mech's pitiful attempt at blackmail. "Yes, I need you." The mech in front of me grew a satisfied smirk at that. Better not let him enjoy what he thought was a victory. "Whether that be online or offline is yet to be determined." That smirk immediately vanished from his faceplate at my words. "So either you tell me of a weakness we can use now, or you will lose your spark faster than you can intake."

The mech in my servos squirmed a bit. In his optics, I could see he was trying to think of anything to save himself—any thought, any hope that would protect that pathetic spark of his. After a few nanos, his optics suddenly brightened. "The femme. She's been acting strange; my sources say it's a glitch in her programming. She even had to go see her medics about it."

A glitch in her programming? As the mech struggled in my grasp, I thought about that. Glitches could be devastating to a bot in normal circumstances. That was especially true when they were in a heated engagement. Whether interfacing or fighting for their sparks in these pits, a glitch coming through their systems could spell catastrophe. As bad at fighting as this mech had shown he was, given that he was sold from the gladiator compound he was in, it was found that he had a very solid shot.

Gagging caused me to glare at the mech as he struggled against my grip. How dare he interrupt my thoughts. "Listen close because I will only say this once. You will do exactly what I say if you want to redeem yourself. Take this," I took out a casing that I kept on me in case of emergencies and placed it in his servo. "And wait for the right moment. Wait for the femme to be in a position where it won't look strange if she reacts to being shot. This specific casing is set with a program to send a bot's systems in overdrive. If you haven't lied to me, that would more than release the glitch in her program."

"I haven't. I swear I,"

"I'll find out later if you lied. And if it turns out that you have deceived me here, you will wish I had offlined you here." I cut him off before throwing him away from me. "Now go get set. You won't have many opportunities to take your shot with one creature down. You better make sure it counts."

A sneer pulled onto my faceplate as the lump of metal scurried away. The lower castes were truly disgusting bots. It was difficult to believe that they held their origins in the original thirteen as those of us of higher creation did.

"Sir, do you wish for me to take care of him?"

I glanced to my side and smirked. "Not yet. I need him to take the shot, regardless of his success. Since he is one of Nitro Circuit's new pets, the blame will fall on their house should something unforeseen happen. However, should everything go according to plan, I will need you to eliminate him. Make sure to keep suspicion off of my house."

"Of course, sir," The assassin responded to me before he continued his rounds.

A cheer coming from the crowd reminded me that I had to return to my box. It would do no good for that fool to shoot the femme and not have an alibi for the incident. All suspicion had to be away from my house if my plans of advancement were to be realized. Sentinel Prime was not getting any younger, and it was high time for a new Prime to be chosen. While I was the same age as the Prime, my son would be a perfect candidate. As long as we could overtake Sentinel Prime's son, whom he brazenly named after himself, the way to being Prime would be simple for Nexion to present himself for consideration.

I had groomed my son from his sparkling years to take this position. I taught him to make the right alliances and keep close connections to make this possible. If all went according to plan, few could stand in his way.

Soundwave's 1st P.O.V.

We defeated one. When the creatures were brought out, I had doubts that we could take on two razorhowlers. Even between the three of us. While they weren't the most mobile creatures, the spines that adorned their bodies more than made up for the issue of speed and agility. And at first, we had been struggling. Keeping both creatures at bay had been too much for Megatron to handle alone, and Pandimala could not search for weaknesses as we had hoped. So, we decided to treat this fight as if it were against fully sentient creatures.

And that plan had thankfully worked in our favor.

When Pandimala said she would try to get energon into the creature's bloodstream, I had my doubts. While rumors said that energon and organic life were incompatible, there wasn't enough research being done to support the claim. However, she had been confident that it would work. So, Megatron gave clearance for her to try and do so. We were low on options, and any chance to take out one of the creatures would be worth the gamble.

As we had observed earlier, getting close to the creatures without taking damage was a challenge. But Pandimala wanted to try. What we hadn't expected her to do was purposefully position herself so that the creature would try and crush her. How she wasn't crushed, I wasn't sure. I knew her armor was sturdy, but to resist being crushed by the razorhowler had been a shock. When the razorhowler started shrieking and moved its appendage away from Pandimala, I realized what had happened. She must have been able to slice into the bottom of the foot when she had tried to take it down earlier. Pandimala had been able to cut into the creature's foot deep enough that she had gone into the appendage slightly. Not only had that saved her from being crushed, but that had allowed her to place energon into the creature's systems directly.

The link between the two creatures had distracted the other enough to keep it out of the way. Megatron had used that distraction to move in on the injured creature while I extracted Pandimala from the fight and ended its existence. The sudden removal of that link caused the second razorhowler to retreat further back against the stadium, giving me time to work on Pandimala's more critical injuries. That included the gash she made in her left servo for that stunt.

"Are you trying to offline?" I asked her as I finished patching up the injury. With only one razorhowler left, we could afford to do this.

Once I finished closing the injury, Pandimala shook her helm. "No, but I wanted to improve the odds. There was no guarantee that the minimal energon on my chassis would have affected a creature that big fast enough to give us an advantage. Better to make sure my energon was flowing into the creature. Better odds of a quick reaction, which we got." Her optics then widened. "Move!"

Immediately, I moved away from where we were standing as she did the same. Nanos later, the second razorhowler, went barreling through where we were standing. It seemed the offlining of its fellow creature caused it to go into a berserk-like state. We would have to stay on the tips of our pedes to get through this.

Speaking of that, however, "Status check."

"I'm alright," Laserbeak answered immediately. She had taken a nick from one of the horns when one of the creatures had gotten too close, but the injury was minimal.

"The cut I got stings a little, but I'll be alright," Ravage reported.

"I haven't been touched," Ratbat sent in as well. I had been trying to avoid injuries, period. However, given how my symbiots were set on my chassis, I knew some attacks got through.

Frenzy was the next to answer me. "I'm a little dented from that fall we had earlier, but it'll pull out once we win."

"And I'm good too, boss," Rumble ended the reports. "A little scraped up from one of those spikes grazing me, but nothing dangerous." I then felt a pulse of worry from him. "But boss, Pandimala looks distracted."

I glanced over at the femme as she dodged the razorhowler. At first, she looked as focused as the rest of us were. As Megatron moved to join her, I saw what Rumble was talking about. Pandimala looked as if she was trying to avoid the creature without looking like she was. To the spectators, it would look like the femme was trying to stay out of reach. However, we had run enough practice sessions with the femme to know that wasn't the case. Pandimala didn't react so nervously when she had to pull back.

Something was wrong, and it was time to bring Megatron in. "Megatron, something is bothering Pandimala.~Soundwave." Since we were on an open comm with Pandimala, to keep communication open even if we were on opposite sides of the arena, this was the only way we could speak without Pandimala hearing.

"I've noticed. However, we are too close to victory to worry about what might be concerning her. Once we defeat this razorhowler, we will confront her. After this, we have earned answers from her.~Megatron." From the look on his faceplate, Megatron looked torn about the decision.

However, I had to agree with his decision. We couldn't get too distracted this close to victory. We had to get this last creature to expose one of their few weak points, and then we would have our freedom. More than that, we would have the rank to enact the changes we wished to make for the future. We were so close that I could see it.

"I have to fall back," Pandimala suddenly said over the comm.

Looking back at her, I felt worried at the large dent on her side. The creature had gotten past Megatron and must have taken her by surprise. This was the most extensive injury any of us had taken during this, and she needed time to assess it.

"Very well, we will cover you," Megatron answered back.

With that order, I surged forward, putting myself between the creature and Pandimala. With the amount of sentience the razorhowler had, it would recognize that Pandimala was weakened and purposefully seek her out. So, we had to act as a distraction while she took stock of her damage. With only one of the creatures left, that was easy for us to accomplish. Once I was upon the creature, I shot its eyes to cause it to focus on me. A pulse of satisfaction went through me as one of my shots grazed the eye and caused the beast to rear back in shock.

BANG!

Immediately, I turned from the creature at the sound. The shot sounded like it came from behind us…where Pandimala was!

As I turned to look at her, her chassis suddenly lurched forward, being impacted by something behind her. Any bot with working optics could see the ion trace that the perpetrator left behind with their shot. In almost frozen time, Pandimala's optics briefly flashed white before a wave of panic seemed to travel from her. Why was she panicking?

My spark was almost thrumming in my audios as the answer made itself known. From Pandimala's backplates, wings suddenly popped out. Sleek wings that were reminiscent of many seeker-class bots. This was what she was hiding. She knew about them. It was why she was worried about a deep scan. It would have revealed the presence of wings not yet popped.

It would have revealed that Pandimala was a triple-changer!

"Soundwave, get to Pandimala now!"

As Megatron's words hit my audios, I felt my pedes move automatically. Pandimala was our comrade; despite her secret, we would get her through this with us.

No matter the cost.

Pandimala: Can't I have one fragging dimension where my wings don't come out at a bad time? Even the first timeline had me change with them out and in a panic.

Authoress: Maybe one day. But, for now, you have to get through this.

Soundwave: We will do everything in our power to help you, Pandimala.

Pandimala: *relieved* Thank you, Soundwave. That means more than you know.

AN: And here is the next chapter! The fight is underway, and it seems some of their enemies have realized that they must be stopped. Though, I wonder if you know who the informant was. Regardless, our gladiators are already being dragged into high-caste politics, and they haven't even gotten out of the Pits yet. Hopefully, Soundwave can pull Pandimala out of the panic she is in. This is the worst wing-pop that any Pandimala has gone through, even worse than Resolve's Pandimala.

Here is the title of the next chapter, which should be out very soon.

Chapter 20: Miracles

Arc 2:...(Find out next chapter!)

That's all for now! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy my works. Until next we meet, TTYL! *listening to Dear Growing Up by John Michael Howell*