Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.

Pandimala: *concerned* Are you alright, Authoress?

Authoress: *shrugs* Not sure. I think I'm stressing about more than I should be. We have Early Black Friday deals starting at work soon, and It seems like everyone has projects that need to be finished.

Pandimala: Then relax. Don't worry about updating so much.

Authoress: Don't worry, I won't. But working on updating is actually relaxing for me.

Chapter 13: A Battle on Two Fronts

Knockout's 1st P.O.V.

Slagging mech better hope that his attitude changed when I returned to base. Right before we left, Romanus was throwing a fit about the fact that they were being guarded while we hunted down MECH bases. To be fair to him, Lunarblaze had been the one to start complaining. But, she had listened to reason when Soundwave explained that they were not ready for combat like we were. Since Lunarblaze, who was, as far as I was aware, the most advanced in their training, stood down, that should have been a hint to Romanus to stand down as well.

Instead, he started a rant about how they should be allowed to take revenge against MECH for what was done to them.

If we had time to train them more, I might agree to let them out. But, if we wanted MECH truly annihilated, we needed to attack them now. Plus, while they had the worst of it, those five weren't the only ones that MECH had hurt. A part of my spark still hurt when I thought about Breakdown. He was one of my best friends; I could have told him anything, and they had torn him apart without a second thought. Each time MECH got their grimy hands on him, they hurt him. The first time, he lost an optic, and then that wretched spider offered his offline chassis to the organization for them to desecrate.

I took a click to calm down. He was my best friend, and thinking of him like that always worked me up. There were plenty of nights, still, where the image of that monster inhabiting Breakdown's chassis overtook my thoughts. Luckily, I had Pandimala there, who understood the horror of what I went through better than most. She helped me through each restless night that I had thinking about him.

"You okay there, mech?"

I focused as Jazz's vocals cut through my thoughts. "Yeah, just ghosts of the past visiting." To hopefully get off of that subject, I slowed down. "We should probably go on pede for a while." Before they could say anything else, I transformed and moved toward the section we were surveying.

I didn't want to hear anything from them. Nothing that they said would change what happened. MECH was an organization of monsters, and any being who willingly joined such a group deserved everything we would do. Everything that was rained down on them would be justified. Added to the fact that we were working with this Earth government, we could do almost anything as long as we kept it to the MECH bases involved. I would enjoy my sweet revenge.

'Careful sweetspark, you are brooding, and you get distracted when you brood.'

It was hard not to roll my optics when Pandimala's voice came over our bond. As much as I teased her about broadcasting her thoughts, I seemed to share the same flaw. 'Sorry 'Mala…it's just…thinking about MECH and what they did gets my thoughts going.' I knew that she was stressed with the operations we were planning, and having to deal with my thoughts as well probably wasn't helping her.

I could feel a calm flow over our bond before her voice followed. 'Knockout, we are bonded. My stresses are yours to bear, and yours are mine. We swore on our sparks to be there for each other, through better or worse.'

A flash of mischievousness suddenly rushed to my helm, which I gladly sent over to her before I allowed myself a smirk. 'You did a completely different kind of swearing later that evening.' My smirk grew as I felt the tidal wave of emotions come through her side.

"Why do you look like that?" Jazz asked as he and Ironhide caught up to me.

While it was tempting to see how the mech would react to my current conversation with my bondmate, for the sake of the mission, I decided that it wouldn't be wise for my continued focus. "Just getting some needed focus. Now, let's see what we can track down." I then followed Ironhide as he led us forward.

"From what Vox was able to pick up," Ironhide reminded us as we moved. "There has been a lot of electrical activity around this area. Of course, it could be one of the government's agencies running tests like last time."

That had been a mess and a half to clean up.

A few solars ago, Nemo, Scavenger, and Hot Shot had been trying to find a MECH base and thought they happened on one. Instead, it was a CIA training facility. A secret one. We definitely got fired at, and Nemo, who was ready to return fire, definitely disabled some of their equipment. Thankfully, both sides were able to leave that dispute with only minor injuries.

Of course, General Bryce did not enjoy the CIA director having to come to base to make sure this didn't happen again. That man was going to be a full-fledged alcoholic before the stellar was over.

Jazz thankfully brought me out of those thoughts as he answered Ironhide. "I don't think so, mech. Order from this nation's president. All agencies were to give a list of bases and government organizations that they had within five hundred miles of our base. Since we are about three hundred from the base, this shouldn't be one."

"Unless they lied," I pointed out. But of course, no being would lie about secret bases.

To my surprise, the Autobot shrugged. "Then I guess we'll have a shootout again and let General Bryce deal with it."

Maybe this wasn't going to be such a bad… "I think we found it," I spoke my thoughts out loud as we broke coverage. Down below us, nestled against the walls of the canyon, was clearly a militaristic base. And, while at first, this seemed like it could be a military operation, the suits that the soldiers were wearing were standard issue MECH equipment.

Ironhide, who had just stopped next to me, nodded. "Yeah, you couldn't see this place from the air. Even if you had all of the equipment this planet could offer, the natural landscape here would make any sort of visual from craft nearly impossible."

"This might even be their headquarters." Jazz looked conflicted for a few nanos before he continued. "We need to get back to base quickly. The faster we can get everyone else ready for a strike, the faster we can take this place down. If this is their headquarters, then we can possibly take MECH down for good."

Prometheus' 1st P.O.V.

So much for them being smart machines.

Like we didn't see those three scoping out our new base. Almost all the pieces were in place, and I could feel the victory before me. My new soldiers were far superior to those relics. They had the flexibility and creativity of humanity mixed in with these aliens' strength, durability, and stealth—perfection at its finest. Put what Silas did in the past to shame by far. That mangled husk could never compete with the future I had laid out—three perfect beings, for now. Once we had this nuisance squashed once and for all, more of us would rise and conquer the worlds that stood against us. They would fall, and MECH would rise to dominate all. And at the pinnacle of that domination, I would stand, a god among insects.

And Paul would suffer the longest. I would make him scream, beg me as he drug himself across the ground before my feet. And I would laugh. I would laugh at the god, who would be reduced to such a state. For all that he was, he would be nothing to me: nothing but the sad remainder of an old world order.

I was so close to his secret it was practically within my grasp. Soon, I would find out where he hid Ms. Val away at, and once I did, I would drag her out and make sure he watched as I changed her. I would mold her into my perfect little pawn. Even the strongest minds broke, and once we were sure that our control chips would work against the enemy, I knew she would be nothing. Perhaps I would make her attack him.

Yes, that would be perfect. Force the bastard to choose between himself and his vaunted employee. Oh, I could just imagine the tortured look on his face. The prideful being wouldn't know how to handle himself. To make things even sweeter, I would name her something that would truly cut him to his soul. A name that he held precious, from what my spies were able to tell me.

According to the history they learned, in his fight against his opposite force, Unicron, Primus created Thirteen Primes to help him defeat his brother. Each he held close to his spark, the first of his children. The first among them born was Prima. While in the tale, Prima was a male Cybertronian, the designation would suit the instrument of Primus' downfall. First, there was Prima, and at the end of Primus, there would be my Prima Melia. Yes, regardless of how she formed, she would be my superior weapon against the god.

"Sir,"

A growl slipped through my throat when my thoughts were interrupted. "What is it?" I demanded, furious that I was brought out of my thoughts.

The faceless pion hesitated for a moment before he spoke. "The plan is moving along as planned. Three of their number were seen watching the location of our new base, and they have seemingly left to report the location."

This had better not be all he had to report. I could obviously see that much myself. "You had better have more to add to this report, or you will soon be free of the burden of existence."

The panic in his voice was easy to hear. "No, sir. We also received the newest intelligence report from one of our spies. The strain between the subject, newly self-named Romanus, and the rest of that base seems to be growing even worse. Our source says that, with the right motivation, we could even get him to attack their side without the control program so long as we are not directly involved."

Interesting. This reminded me of files that I had compiled of the subjects comparing their previous mental state to what we witnessed after their transformation. From the files we had on those test subjects from their previous interactions with us, that one was who seemed to be a burgeoning leader. According to Silas's reports, he was a self-sacrificing hero who would try to save those around him. Of course, those reports had been incomplete when we took them in. From what I knew of the human mind, that behavior could be present in a few different forms. While the young man might have presented as a person of discipline and devotion, ready to act to serve those he cared for, in his interactions with MECH before, the actions we saw from our spies combined with that brought about a clearer picture of him. For the most part, Romanus seemed to focus on his desires and wants. His emotional drive to give himself what he enjoys and desires, despite the lack of logic behind it, could now be seen when he didn't have the classical 'enemy' to fight as he did in our other interactions with him. In this form, the young man seemed obsessed with those desires.

His refusal to train with those who could teach him, despite their change and knowledge, was logically a hindrance that his processor simply glossed over. It was quite fascinating to see that development. That was especially in comparison to the other test subjects. From Silas's reports, the one I saw in his state before was the one with the new name Lunarblaze. While she did not have many interactions with us, the reports we retrieved from Unit E's files showed that she seemed to jump into battle with no thought to what was around her. However, with her evolution and my own experience with her among us during her transformation, the subject clearly held the action and devotion that Romanus seemed to lack now. From the reports my spies sent in, she accepted the training offered her, despite the pasts of those around her, and was dedicated to those she seemed to hold in confidence.

Of course, then there was the youngest. The newly named Arzen seemed to be unimpressive. My spies spoke of seeing little training from the mech. That matched both Silas's old reports and what I had seen. Not worth more of my time. The same could be said for the mother of Romanus, now Morphia, and the previous Special Agent William Fowler, who now held the name Freelancer. Bland representations, truly. If I had to focus on two of them to retrieve as I searched for Ms. Val, they would be my chosen ones—the two who seemed to show their inner selves after this transformation. I had to know what factor of our processes in their weak minds.

"Keep an ear open for more information on our test subjects," I ordered the moron still standing there, waiting for an order with seemingly no ability to discern my wishes for himself. "Now leave. I do not wish to miss a moment of my triumph."

As the idiot scurried away, I focused on the files before me. I was so close. The information on Ms. Val was just within reach, and I would retrieve it before that 'god' could do anything to stop me.

Prowl's 1st P.O.V.

We had done it.

After solars of searching, we finally found the most probable location of MECH's new headquarters. It was isolated, secure, easily defendable, and close enough to the base here to launch their attack. With this new information, it was imperative that we strike at MECH before they could retaliate. I knew better than to underestimate my opponents, and I had to assume that MECH knew that Knockout, Jazz, and Ironhide had scouted out their headquarters. However, they would think it would take us time to act on that information. Instead, we would be ready to attack them within the cycle.

Now, I was just waiting for the bots on base here, outside of the five and a guard for each of them, to gather so we could devise a plan of attack before we moved against them. While I was confident in our abilities, MECH was also aware of at least some of our capabilities, and rushing in helm first without a sound plan would doom the operation before we even started.

"So, this is it?" I glanced up, drawn out of my thoughts, as Barricade was the first to arrive, Cliffjumper not far behind him. "The sooner we can take care of this situation, the sooner we can focus on more important things. That fragger was trying to start slag because I was watching over Freelancer. I thought the younger beings of his previous species were supposed to be more tolerable?"

While I knew that bots here at the base were becoming more irritated with Romanus, a few Decepticons and neutrals had brought up using some more…drastic measures to try and get the young me to settle. And, while I was hesitant to use violence against him yet, some of their points had merits. The mech was behaving too big for his plating, and while Red Alert confirmed that the mech did not have the programming to induce a snap, the mech might need more help than we could give. However, outside help was hard to find these solars, even from planets that used to offer such training. During the time after Pandimala went into the Well, I immersed myself in information that was outside of our war. For Cybertron to thrive, as I hoped it would, we needed to see what sort of alliances and trade agreements could be made to help us move forward healthily.

And while that had not happened, the information I found showed me that our war had a bigger impact on the civilizations around us than even I realized. The Galactic Alliance, which had once been a pinnacle of economic stability and cultural growth, was on the edge of collapse. While I knew we should be worried about their involvement with the situation regarding Paul, I also knew that the Alliance was not the stronghold it once was.

So, asking them to help with training the mech was not possible.

"Unfortunately, the opposite side of that statement is also true." I glanced up and saw Pandimala walk in, joined by Blitzwing and Domino. "While younger humans tend to be more accepting of what might be scandalous to the older generations, they can also be the most stubborn and unforgiving beings you can meet." She then smirked. "It's honestly a flip of the coin to decide which one you get. Honestly, we were pretty lucky in how accepting the others have been of everything."

A groan came from Thundercracker as he walked in with Hound and Springer. "Tell that to my ringing audios. Three guesses as to who isn't happy I'm one of his carrier's guards."

I felt the beginnings of a helmache coming on. However, this was not the time for that. As the rest of the bots and the few humans assembled, I realized that we needed to focus on the important issue at the click. "We can deal with that once we return. A cycle ago, Knockout, Jazz, and Ironhide discovered a nearby base that we believe to be MECH's headquarters." The room went silent, and I could see in each of their optics and eyes that they understood the gravity of this situation. "The sooner we can leave, the less likely MECH will be to have a counterstrike prepared."

"We can't assume they didn't see us observing them," Vox added. "I've been going through every iota of information I have been able to get my servos on, and that information shows that MECH will have had surveillance that far out. We need to assume that they are making plans as we speak."

"Which means we cannot waste time," Soundwave added, flashing the stills Jazz had taken of their base on his screen as he did. "We have to send the correct bots in to attack, and we have to make sure that we take out as many of their resources as we can. While us mechano-based beings will be leading this assault, the US government will be sending in reinforcements once we secure their passage."

As he spoke, I glanced around the room to see how everybot was reacting to what we were saying. While most seemed ready for this fight, I was surprised to see Pandimala, Frost, and Jazz with concerned expressions on their faceplates as they whispered. After a nano, Jazz nodded at the two of them before he spoke up. "Hey, what if this is a diversion MECH is using to get at the five or Paul? While Paul is at his headquarters with Hotshot and Nemo, the others aren't nearly as protected."

"We need to make sure that we aren't leaving our afts exposed during this mission," Frost spoke up. "MECH has shown, in the past, to take any advantage that they can, and we already know they have agents working here at Unit E. Given their range, it wouldn't take long for a counterstrike to be called from one of their auxiliary locations that could be nearby as well. We haven't found all of them yet, though most have been eliminated."

The room went silent as we processed this new problem. They were right. I had become so wrapped up in being wary of MECH's reaction to our attack that I didn't pause to think this might be their plan. Or, even if this wasn't their plan right now, I didn't consider the possibility they might manipulate our attack and use it as a distraction to gain exactly what they have been after. While I considered myself reasonably proficient in planning strategies, situations like this reminded me of the positives in group planning.

So, with that in processor, I mentally moved a few bots around in our attack plans before I spoke again. "We had not taken that into account. With that in processor, this is what we will do. Hotshot and Nemo will remain with Paul to serve as a line of defense in case this is a ploy for Prometheus to go after him again. Scattershot, Springer, Soundwave, Knockout, Landimine, Red Alert, Wheeljack,"

"Frag yeah, time to teach MECH a lesson they won't soon forget," Wheeljack yelled excitedly.

I shook my helm before continuing. "Brawn, Vox, Cohrada, and Frost will be striking at the headquarters with me." I then turned to the remaining bots. "Joe, Jazz, Hound, and Domino will be on patrol here at the base, ready to back up the guards remaining in case of an attack." I then glanced toward the humans at the meeting. "I have Eject, Rewind, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Ratbat keeping an optic on the Esquivels and Joneses. We moved them to an emergency bunker once we realized this could be our final strike against MECH."

"So that means us current guards are to stay in place." Cliffjumper looked upset at this. "Slag it, and I was hoping to get a few swings at MECH." He then glanced over at Wheeljack. "Hey, Wheeljack, give them slag for me, would ya?"

The Wrecker smirked at that. "Already plannin' on it."

While Cliffjumper pointed out the remaining assignment, I decided to clarify who was on guard duty. "Yes. Inferno and Barricade will look out for Freelancer, Steve and Thundercracker will continue to watch Morphia, Warpath at Cliffjumper will stand watch over Romanus, Blitzwing and Skywarp will keep an optic on Lunarblaze, and Pandimala and Scavenger will watch Arzen. In the event of an attack against any of those five, plans are already in place for the evacuation and safety." One of those plans included sending Springer to Pandimala and Arzen by bridge. It was a difficult choice to make, but we needed Springer's diversity on the battlefield, given the surveillance photos that were taken. That would place Pandimala and Arzen at risk, but only slightly. Springer would immediately be sent to their retreat coordinates if the evacuation protocol was activated.

While I knew this was not my most sound plan, it was the best we had time to deliberate on. MECH would not wait for us to make a more thorough plan while they were exposed to us. From past information, MECH preferred to work in the shadows. If this was indeed their headquarters we had discovered, we needed to strike at them before they could recover from this gap in security. We were taking risks, but they were risks that all those gathered had already sworn to take. This was our time to take the fight directly to MECH, and they would finally pay for all the pain they caused.

Pandimala: I'm concerned about this undertaking. There are too many open ends where MECH could strike back. And while we have a fair amount of medics, losing even one could spell disaster.

Authoress: It's the best you all can do right now, short of bombing everything within a few thousand miles. And that would not put you all in a good light to the public if you all are ever revealed to them.

Pandimala: *wings twitch* I know, but that doesn't stop my bad feeling.

Knockout: *smirks* I might know something that can help.

AN: And here is the next update! I do apologize to everyone waiting for this update. However, I struggled with what to add to this chapter and what to save for the next chapter. We are on the precipice of a large strike against MECH, but the plan may not be as easy as it seems. Prometheus seems to have planned for this, but will he be able to counter the force about to be set against him?

Just some questions to keep your thoughts churning until the next chapter. Until then, though, here are the next chapter names.

Chapter 14: Monster in the Machine

Chapter 15: Processor over Programming

Chapter 16:...(Of course, you will find out next time!)

That's all from me for now. I'll be working on the next chapter immediately and I hope to have it to you all sooner than this one was, but no promises. Until next time, though, TTYL! *Vibing to Best of Our Lives by The Tenors*