"Don't trust what you see, even salt looks like sugar."

"Life sucks, but sometimes we just have to deal with it." This was the thought running through Pan's head when she regained consciousness.

Pan coughed into her fist, expelling some of the dust that lingered in her lungs.

She grunted in pain as she tried to move her left leg, only to find it stuck. Her eyes blinking furiously as she tried to see through the darkness.

A red light blinked on and Pan immediately shut her eyes as it blinded her for a second.

"The medic's human," a voice said, an amused tint in the voice.

Pan's eyes flew open in shock.

Lying under more rocks, lay the warmonger himself, "Stuck with me?" A dark chuckle left the mech's derma and Pan flinched before gritting her teeth as pain shot up her leg.

"Oh, this'll be fun."

🛠

(Four hours earlier)

"We're supposed to be at a rock concert, but all I see is rock." Miko complained as she, Jack, and Pan sat outside a cave. Jack was lying against some rocks as tapped Morse code on her lap boredly.

"Relax, Miko," Jack sighed at her"The show doesn't start for two hours."

"Do you know how long I've waited to see slash monkey?" Miko asked rhetorically making both Pan and Jack roll their eyes, "Uh forever! And it's their only U.S. date!" the Japanese girl huffed.

"There's a shock." Jack muttered, "I mean, who doesn't love obscure Bulgarian shriek metal?" he asked Miko sarcastically making Pan let out a quiet laugh.

The three humans looked up when Arcee and Bulkhead came walking back out the cave.

"By all appearances, the mine's been stripped." Arcee said, a small sigh present in her voice.

"But I'm getting a signal. It's faint, but it's definitely Energon." Bulkhead told Arcee as he glanced at the device in his servos.

"Whoa!" Miko gasped quietly to Jack who rolled his eyes at her as Pan sighed, knowing what was going to happen.

"Doesn't make sense. This operation has been abandoned four, maybe five years. And Decepticons never leave Energon behind." Arcee shook her head.

Uh, guys?" Jack said making the bots look at him, and he motioned towards the cave where they could see Miko running deeper into the cave.

"Cool!" Miko cheered. And Pan facepalmed.

"She went in. Unbelievable." Arcee said in disbelief.

"Really? Have you met her?" Jack asked sassily making Pan chuckle as she grabbed her bag.

"Miko, get back here!" Bulkhead called after her, before chasing after his charge.

"It would be kind of interesting to see," Jack shrugged before noticing his guardian's expression, "- You know, if it were Safe?" he added on weakly making Pan cough an amused smirk into her arm.

"A stripped mine can be structurally unstable, Jack." Arcee frowned down at him, though slight amusement shone in her optics.

"I promise to step lightly." Jack smiled innocently up at her.

"Just don't tell your mom." Arcee sighed, agreeing as the three walked in after the other two.

Unknowingly to the five, two decepticons transformed just outside of the cave.

🛠

"Bulkhead? Bulkhead, do you read?" Arcee said, holding her servo to her com.

The two humans looked up at her in concern, "Scrap. The mineral composition down here is causing interference." Arcee cursed making Pan and Jack share a glance with each other.

The three carried on, their bodies tensed up slightly as they worried for the other two inside the cave.

🛠️

"You have ceased to be of use to me, Starscream," Jack and Pan froze at the voice, their eyes wide as they watched the scene between the two decepticons, "So you shall simply cease to be."

Starscream's optics suddenly widened as he looked past his master, seeing two of the Autobots humans.

Megatron' optic ridges furrowed slightly as he turned to look where the seek

The four stayed frozen until

"Stay down!" Arcee shouted to Jack and Pan, the two ducking behind a rock column each, Pan unfortunately closer to the battle than Jack.

Pan's eyes widened as she watched Starscream flee from the battle that Megatron and Arcee were having.

"Starscream, you dare abandon me?!" Megatron roared, aiming his blaster at the mech and firing, only to be hit by Arcee's shot, sending the warlord's shot into the wall, causing the cave to start collapsing.

"Scrap!" Arcee cursed as she attempted to take cover, only to fall into the hole with Jack and Pan following after her, and millions of rocks falling on top of them.

🛠️

(Now)

Pan raised an eyebrow at that. How was both of them being stuck under rocks together(not like that!) going to be "fun"?

Pan somehow managed to find her phone, the light making her shut her eyes immediately gaining a dark chuckle from the warlord to which she narrowed her eyes at when she opened them again.

"What do you mean by that?" Pan's phone asked. Her green eyes' twinkling with barely hidden curiosity.

The silver mech chuckled, his amusement filling the small space that Pan lay/sat in.

"Ever so curious, your race is," Megatron mused, his ruby red optics shining stark against the darkness.

Pan shrugged, "We can be at times, but there are always some who aren't," She typed quickly.

Megatron's derma's turked up slightly at the corners at her quick response, "That seems to be the case."

Pan's head tilted slightly, "What do you mean by that?" She accidentally repeated her first question.

"Isn't it human custom to introduce oneself before having a conversation?" Megatron smirked.

Pan raised her eyebrow at him again, "Really? You know that I know who you are, and I'm pretty sure you got Soundwave to look up who each of us kids were. Especially since we seem to accidentally get involved with many missions often."

"You're much smarter than one would think," Megatron's mood dropped slightly, only his optics showing the slight startelement her felt at her response.

Pan shrugged, "It's only logic mostly, besides the fact that if I led something called Decepticons I would find different ways to "deceive" the other faction."

A thoughtful look crossed Megatron's face plates and Pan shifted awkwardly under his gaze, her fingers hovering over her phone as if she was going to type something else out.

"Besides the inevitable fact that you're human, you would've welcomed in our cause," Megatron mused, mostly to himself.

Pan blinked in surprise at the statement, her fingers freezing as her brain tried to process what the warlord had said.

"What?" Pan managed to type out, gaining an amused look from those ruby optics that were so different compared to the girl's guardian's calm blue optics.

Megatron had just opened his dermas to response, only to pause as both he and the human heard the sound of drilling.

A small hole appeared a short distance from Pan which soon grew bigger as it revealed one of the decepticons drilling machines.

"Pan?"

The aforementioned girl's eyes lit up at the sound of her friends' voice, "Jack!" She typed quickly as she attempted to stand up only to fall back down as her leg collapsed underneath her.

Jack moved to help the girl up when he froze, spotting the red optics.

Jack hesitated before helping Pan up, and letting her rest her weight on him as she limped back to the drill.

"I suppose helping those less fortunate would be completely out of the question," Megatron's voice said, making the pair turn back to him "If it is the case, you might as well use your drill to finish me. I guarantee you will never have a better opportunity than right now."

"Well? What are you waiting for?"

"C'mon Jack," Pan sensed her friend's wariness of the situation, "He'll get out in some shape or form later."

Megatron's smirk grew bigger as he spotted the torn look on the boy's face, "Think of the glory. Seize the day," he said, "Optimus would."

If the Decepticon leader thought that would work, he was very much mistaken as Jack shook his head without even having to look at his injured friend who used him as a crutch.

"No, he wouldn't," Jack told the mech, "Not like this."

And with that final statement Jack finally helped Pan onto the drill and climbed up himself, reversing the drill away from Megatron.

"I will be sure to share the details of our little conversation with Optimus The day I rip out his spark!" Megatron called after the two.

Pan managed to type a response to Jack before the pain from her, and the pervious air loss from being trapped under all of the rocks, "Thanks Jack."

Unaware to the Hammer girl who had fallen unconscious, the mind of the Darby boy was filled with doubt over his actions.

🛠

"We could finish them here and now," Bulkhead suggested to Arcee, the thought appearing in his processor for a second or two, "Shame we didn't bring any grenades."

Jack looked over to where he had placed the sleeping Pan then glanced back at the cave, "Would Optimus finish them?" He asked, doubt still racking his mind.

The faceplates of the two Cybertronians fell at the mention of their leader, "No," Arcee shook her helm, "He probably wouldn't. Not like this."

"But Optimus wouldn't rescue them, either, right?" Jack asked hestianly.

There was no answer, and Jack was unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Let's go home," Arcee said finally.

"Hey," Bulkhead started, "Where's Pan?"

Jack's eyes widened as he raced back over to the not-actually-sleeping-because-she-was-unconscious girl, "Uh, oh," Bulkhead gulped when he noticed the wrench throwing medic's charge's injuries.

"We're scrapped," Arcee muttered as she moved over to her charge and Pan, picking them both up as Bulkhead did the same with Miko, and walking through the ground bridge nervously.

The ground bridge was left open for a few seconds longer than normal.

"WHAT THE FRAG HAPPENED-!"

Well, let's just say that Miko ended up calling Thalia to say that Pan was sleeping over at her house when the girl was actually under careful observation by the cybertronian medic as she slept through the night, healing.

Here's Chapter Thirty Seven.

Gods, damn it. I had to make a new doc because of all the chapters I've written becoming too much(it kept lagging out). Which officially makes this book the book with the most amount of chapters on my account.
(I'm not going to say words because Music's Guardian undoubtedly holds that record)

I spent all of yesterday out of school(again) but this time for Baborshop! Eeeek! Females and Males choruses are going to Nationals(in Christchurch, NZ) as well as two of our (one female and one male) quartets! My chorus(females) got second! Yay!
(And my eardumbs have been deafened by the screams of joy everyone else screamed).

And: I just want to wish krazygirlo900 a happy birthday. She's a great person(I love her HTTYD books) and she's been so supportive of this book. And a massive thanks to her!

I think that's all......

AlphaoftheMoonRealm; cuz ur awesome and deserve a tag after I "hushed" you.

Hope you enjoyed(Pan's near death and surprising revelations about her way of thinking!)!

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