A/N: so... It's been like three years... And in that time, I have finished my second year of college, and applied and was accepted by a school in Japan where I will be studying for a year. Because it is summer, I will have time to update a few chapters or so of each fic that I choose. Refer to my profile to see which ones I'll hopefully be updating. I will also be updating them one by one to fit my writing style as it is now. I'll let you all know by posting a little Author's note chapter!

It's great to be back and hopefully I'll update often!

*With Cyclonus and Tailgate*

They found a room with two berths and had settled in. Unfortunately, just as Cyclonus was about to leave again, the doors automatically locked and they were forced to talk to each other. Tailgate just finished telling Cyclonus how he ended up on the Lost Light.

"So yeah, six million years later, here I am trying to work out what I missed." Tailgate concluded.

"You missed an entire war, between the Autobots and the Decepticons." Cyclonus replied.

"The who and the who?"

"I missed it too."

"Wait, wait, wait." Tailgate said. "A war that lasted six million years?"

"More or less." Cyclonus shrugged.

"Who won?"

"It depends on who you ask." Cyclonus replied. "As I understand it, both sides wanted change, they just disagreed over the nature, scale, and purpose. One side rose up against a corrupt senate and sought to emancipate the people. The other side, while superficially opposed to the ruling elite, were terrified of revolution. They wanted an orderly transition from one system of government to another, provided they remained in control, of course.

"One side swept across the planet, liberating province after province. The inhabitants were expected to help their liberators overthrow the Old Order. The other side saw this as an act of coercion and vowed to kill the uprising. The senate fell. But the war continued. The Autobots and the Decepticons.

"I wonder, Tailgate... If you had been there at the time, if you'd heard the call to arms and watched the recruitment rallies and seen the training camps and the branding ceremonies... If you had been there at the time, on which side would you have fought?"

*Rung's POV*

"Paian, come and get your dinner!" I called out from our berth room.

"Okay!" Paian called back, jumping up from where he was watching TV. He zoomed into the berth room and took one of the two cubes of Energon I held.

"Do you like it here so far, Paian?" I asked.

"Yeah!" He shouted happily. "I can see everything from the window! And all my uncles are here too!"

"That's great, sweetspark. I'm glad you-" I cut myself off and looked up at the ceiling.

"Daddy?" he asked, but I shushed him and put a finger up to my lips.

That's when I heard loud footsteps coming closer and closer and faster and faster.

I picked Paian up and dragged him to the farthest corner of the room.

The door burst off the wall and we both screamed. A monster with a giant mouth and glowing balls in its stomach roared and came closer to us.

Then, a vent in the ceiling popped out and a mech I have never seen before quickly swept both of us up into the vents. He was blue and red, with Praxian style doorwings and a small gun in his right hand. "Come here Eyebrows! And bring your kid with you!"

"Go go go!" The new mech shouted. Paian scrambled ahead of me and the new mech.

"Thank you for saving us. How did you know we were in trouble?" I asked.

"The terrified scream kinda gave it away. And I don't wanna panic you or your sparkling further, but that thing is right behind us."

My comm link went off. "Wait, I've got an incoming message."

Rodimus's face lit up in the screen. "Hey there, Rung. Ultra Magnus said that you might have a sparkeater on your tail, in which case, I'm sorry. We thought everybody would be safe in their rooms, but it seems the hab suite doors are a lot thinner than the ones down here in the engine room, which have reinforced walls. We think the Neutrals managed to trap the sparkeater and feed it turbo foxes to keep it docile."

I looked up to make sure Paian was still in front of us and focused back to crawling quickly through the vents.

"Listen, I need you to do something for me."

"Of course, sir. What is it?"

"I need you to come down to the engine rooms, and bring the sparkeater with you. I'll be waiting. Don't worry, I've got a plan, and it's a cracker!" Rodimus gave a thumbs up.

"What about Paian? I'm not going to bring him with me." I insisted.

"Of course not! Red Alert will be down here to take care of him!" Rodimus reassured me. "I'll be down here. Rodimus out."

"Congratulations! How does it feel to be used as bait?" The new mech asked me, holding a thumbs up.

He moved ahead of me and grabbed Paian by the back of the neck and tossed him back to me. "The fastest way to the engine rooms is down this elevator shaft."

He transformed his left hand into a grappling hook and shot it out into the elevator shaft.

"Why do you get a grappling hook for a hand and I only have a thumb with a microphone in it?" I absentmindedly asked, as Paian scrambled onto my back while I grabbed hold of this new mech's back.

"A thumb with a-? Wow, no wonder our friend-" He pointed to the monster behind us. "-Is so interested in you."

The monster roared as it got even closer. "Speaking of which..."

I tightened my gripped on his back as he jumped out into the elevator shaft. "It's time we made our move!"

We got to the bottom of the shaft in record time and he poked him head into he first vent he saw.

"Engine room!"

"What's going on?" Oh no, this was Brainstorm's lab? "It's Skids, right? We all thought you were de-"

"Just take us to the damn engine room!" He shoved Paian and I through the vent and towards the door. The roof burst open as the monster jumped down into the room.

"GO! GO!" Skids shouted, shoving Paian and I out the door, Paian screaming in my audial the entire time.

"But Brainstorm is trapped!"

"Then I'm sorry, he's already dead!" Skids said, dragging us along towards the engine rooms. Red Alert was at the entrance of the engine room and held out his arms for Paian. I grabbed Paian from my back and threw him to Red Alert as we ran passed.

"Uncle Red! Daddy and that new mech and me were being chased by a boogieman!" I heard Paian screech to Red Alert, but I couldn't pay them any more attention as Drift had popped out of nowhere and stopped Skids while pushing me further into the engine rooms.

"Rung, over here!" Rodimus called, from next to the quantum generators. I made my way over to him. "I'm sorry, what I'm about to do won't be very pleasant."

He grabbed ahold of both of my arms and held me up in a cross shape. "Rodimus, please! I must protest!" He merely tightened his grip. "You're hurting me!"

"Can you hear me Perceptor?" Rodimus said, completely ignoring my struggling.

"Yes, the intercom's picking you up loud and clear. I've shielded the thrusters like you asked, but this plan of yours-I want to place on record my severe reservations." Perceptor responded.

"Duly noted and ignored. Now get ready!" Rodimus shouted and turned back to the approaching sparkeater. "Hurry up, ugly. Your dinner's getting cold feet."

I trembled in Rodimus's grip. Was he really about to sacrifice me to this horrible creature? Just as the sparkeater charged at us, I was pushed to the side and Rodimus began grappling with the sparkeater. He maneuvered the monster towards the quantum generators and shouted into the commlink, "Now, Perceptor! NOW!"

"Initiating quantum jump!"

The familiar sensation of a jump washed over us as we made the second quantum jump of the day. A strange light flooded the engine room and as we pulled out of the quantum jump, the light faded. As it did, Rodimus was revealed next to the engine, with the sparkeater merged with it, as well as Rodimus's arms.

"Wow. That was just... Wow." Drift said, completely astonished. "And I thought I was the risk taker..."

"First rule of interstellar travel: never stand next to a quantum generator when it's about to flout the laws of nature." Rodimus recited. "Now can someone get me out of here?"

*Paian's POV*

"Uncle Red! Did you see that? Uncle Rodimus just totally killed that weird monster!" I shouted, squirming in Uncle Red's arms. "Lemme go! Lemme go!"

"Paian! Stay over there, for now!" Daddy yelled at me. I stopped struggling, and pouted. "I'm alright, sweetspark. Let's just wait until Uncle Ratchet gets here, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy. If you say so..." I sighed, settling back into Uncle Red's arms.

Ratchet arrived not too long after and began sending Daddy, Skids, and me to the medibay. He came into the medibay with Uncle Rodimus in tow. He checked on Daddy and I first. I only had a couple scratches, but Daddy's arms were a little hurt, so I stayed with him until Uncle Ratchet repaired him and let us both go.

*3rd POV*

"How are the arms?" Ultra Magnus asked Rodimus.

"Good as new. Actually, they are new. Ratchet rebuilt them from scratch." He responded, holding up the arms that looked more like skeletons.

Now that he got that out of the way, Ultra Magnus began to lecture him "Rodimus, what did you-"

"Hey, don't mention it. You know what they say: no guts no glory."

"-Was completely unacceptable. If you want to put your own life at risk, go ahead. But using Rung like that... And with Paian with him as well!"

"Are you lecturing me? Is this a lecture?" Accused Rodimus.

"No, this is me telling you something that no one else will. Certainly not Drift. He looks at you in awe, as if you're some kind of... I don't know."

"Remember who you're talking to. While you're on this ship, you answer to me, not the other way around, are we clear about that?" Rodimus said, darkly. "Not the other way around."

"Yes, sir." Ultra Magnus relented. "But if you ever willingly put Paian in danger again, it won't be me you're going to answer to, but Red Alert, Whirl, Chromedome, and Rung."

Rodimus looked down at his new hands. "Alright, I got it."

Meanwhile, Ratchet was helping to fix Tailgate's legs. "There we go. Some scrap metal had found its way into your transformation cog. Dunno how I missed it the first time."

"Doc...?" Tailgate said, hesitantly.

"Hmm?" Ratchet hummed, distractedly.

"I know the war is over and all, but I've been hearing about what happened. About how people took sides, and how, even now-even when it shouldn't-your allegiance matters."

"Uh-huh..."

"And I've made a decision." He said. "I want to be a Decepticon."