Wanderer's Home arch 1 is http://www. fanfiction. net /s/5785903/1/Wanderers_Home_arc_1
Fandom: Transformers G1 season 1 + The Ultimate Guide
Timing: Pre-"War of the Dinobots"
Pairing: Skywarp/Ezara, Perceptor/Caurun, Perceptor/Acid Burn
Rating: PG
Codes: Slash, Het
Summary: Skywarp risks it all to save Ezara, including risking loosing her for good.
Wanderer's Home 14: Love and Loyalty
"Don't shoot," Skywarp said as he appeared just outside the entrance to the Ark with his arms raised, startling Huffer and Gears where they were standing guard duty. "I need to talk to Jazz."
"And if we don't want you to?" Huffer challenged him.
"I warp inside and grab him," the Seeker said in irritation, openly impatient and on edge. "Just go get him."
"You..." Huffer was cut off by the arrival of the Autobot's head of intelligence.
"Y'a wan'a talk, talk," Jazz told him as he shifted to base form.
"You want Ezara. I'll give her to you, if you give me your word as an Autobot to repair her," Skywarp said simply as Optimus Prime and Caurun joined them. "Keep her, protect her ... just make sure she stays away from Starscream until she remembers who she was, and can kill him for good."
"I can do that," Caurun said, earning him a deadly look from Skywarp.
"If you do so much as touch her, I will rip you apart," the Seeker snarled.
"Calm down," Optimus Prime stepped between them, grateful that Caurun stepped back and didn't challenge the Decepticon. "Why are you doing this?"
"And behind Megatron's back, I'd wager," Jazz added, sure of his guess.
"Megatron thinks she's been destroyed. So does Starscream," Skywarp said, getting even more edgy at the reminders of what he was doing. "She doesn't have much time," he focused on Jazz. "Your word, Autobot."
"You have my word," Jazz said.
"And mine," Optimus Prime added even as Skywarp grabbed Jazz by the arm and disappeared.
"If he's not in love with her, he's faking it well," Caurun observed.
"You are to stay away from her," Optimus Prime turned to face Caurun, his voice even. "Preferably out of sight. She is under Autobot protection now."
"I will," Caurun agreed, though he wasn't all that happy about it.
"Wow," Jazz caught himself when he appeared inside a cave with Skywarp. He didn't have much time to assess the trip or destination, though. Ezara, or what was left of her, was on the floor against the wall.
"What happened?" Jazz couldn't help but gasp at her state, and the fact that she was still functional on any level.
"Starscream set a trap for her," Skywarp said in the darkness behind the lights they both focused on Ezara. "Several enhanced energon warheads and no warning. I thought she was deactivated too, until I touched her. Look, she hates Ratchet. Really hates him. He's the only one that can keep her alive. Just be ready. Anybody who's hurt her she's probably going to try and kill. Soundwave did a number on her."
"Why me?" Jazz glanced over his shoulder at Skywarp as he picked up Ezara's broken remains, staining his arms with lubricant, energon and bits of her body.
"She likes you," he said stiffly and put his hands on Jazz's shoulders, keeping Ezara between them. "She might listen to you long enough to stay alive," he said before teleporting again, to just outside the Ark's entrance.
"By Primus!" Ratchet gasped at his first look at his newest patient. "Get her on the repair table. NOW." He ordered sharply, more than half surprised when Skywarp grabbed Jazz again and disappeared.
"Optimus, I can help," Caurun turned to the bot who had ordered him to stay clear. "She needs more than you know how to do."
"Then tell us how to do it," Optimus told him firmly. "At least until we've got things sorted out," he added as Jazz sent him a communication. "We'll have a hard enough time keeping her from killing Ratchet when she comes around, let alone what she'll do if she sees you and assumes that we're just going to turn her over."
"Okay, okay," he had to pause to think, to translate things he simply did into something the Autobots could use. "You'll need a container large enough for her when she's whole. Fill with energon, put her in it. Keep it full; she'll consume it fast in her state. With any byte of luck, she's got enough repair programming on-line that she won't wake up in it. I'll get a measure of repair nanites and the material she'll need from my ship."
"How will an energon bath help?" Prowl asked him as the earth rumbled with the passage of Caurun's ship to the surface.
"Tezita don't need mechanics to repair us. We need material and power," Caurun explained. "With enough energy, she could convert the air around her to the missing material."
"We'll see what we can do," Optimus told him. "Retrieve your sample and leave it with Perceptor, he'll deliver it to the infirmary."
"Will do," Caurun flicked his chin to the right and waited for his ship while the others returned to the Ark and their duties.
Optimus turned, going in to the repair bay to watch Ratchet as he worked on the worst of her injuries.
"Wheeljack - what would you say her odds are?" He asked, wanting to leave Ratchet to focus.
"If it wasn't for Caurun's opinion that she's still viable, I'd say less than those of Megatron's defecting tomorrow," he shook his head. "How she's keeping her processors powered is beyond me."
"Sheer will to live ... probably wanting to survive to get back at Starscream. And maybe a little bit more," Optimus admitted. "When Perceptor comes in, I want him to run a comprehensive scan of her once she's stable."
"I'll make sure he knows," Wheeljack nodded. "It could be a while, even if this trick of Caurun's works."
"I brought the supplies," Perceptor said as he hurried in. "He said to inject the nanites into her torso, put her in the energon and place the metal touching her. Keep the energon level covering her and the metal touching as it's used, and wait."
"No offense, but I want to patch these leaks first," Ratchet called out from the operating room. "Get the container ready, and somebody get me some fresh gaskets. Besides, you'll need the time to get the tank filled."
"Understood," Perceptor agreed, going to prepare the setup that Caurun had described with imagery as much as words in a touch.
"I'll take a look at those before we put them in," Wheeljack offered, taking the sample of the nanites. "It's not that I don't trust him, but -"
"But you don't particularly trust him - I understand," Optimus Prime nodded. "Better to be safe than sorry, and it shouldn't take long."
"What do you think of Skywarp's arrival? Do you think this might be some sort of plot?" Wheeljack asked as he considered the nanites with his sensors, running what he could pick up through his technical databanks for comparison. By all appearances they were what they should be. A form of medical nanite, intended to build and repair, but nothing else. The only thing he was absolutely sure of was that they weren't any tech he'd seen before.
"It is always possible," Optimus Prime said. "But if it is, I have doubts they would have damaged her this badly."
"If it's a ploy, it's one they thought up after she was blown to bits," Ratchet commented without looking up.
"Besides, if it was a ploy, why insist on my word, not yours?" Jazz asked as he joined them. "It's got all the markings of something Skywarp thought up, and as well-planned as anything he does. He told me a lot more than he should have, after all. He really did feel panicked."
"Did he give you anything useful?" Optimus asked Jazz, glancing over at him.
"Nothing we couldn't have guessed, except for the source of her damage," Jazz admitted. "But he really did try to drive home the point that she really, really hates Ratchet and she's only likely to attack those who hurt her already. He's acting like someone who's trying to give us the best chance we can of having this work. Skywarp is a terrible actor," he added. "There are much better choices for how to set this up."
"Do you think he's going to try 'rescuing' her after we can finish repairs?" Optimus asked him. "It could be very difficult to stop him if he thought to."
Jazz shook his head. "Not likely, Boss Bot. He wants us to protect her 'til she remembers who she was and can fry Starscream. I doubt he'll come for her until he thinks she's safe with the Decepticons again."
"We'll just have to hope that she's ready to stay here by then. This could actually give us an advantage dealing with Caurun, though I'm sure he won't like it."
"I'm sure," Jazz agreed, watching as Ratchet moved her shattered remains into the energon bath with the metal. "Oh wow," he murmured as the energon level began to drop rapidly, soaked up by a body trying to repair itself from anything it was in contact with. "He wasn't exaggerating."
"Not at all - let's just hope it's enough," Optimus Prime nodded as she made visible progress in just the first few minutes. "Alert me when she's stabilized, or when Perceptor has the scan results, whichever comes first. I want him to be on the alert for any hollows or obvious energy nodes."
"Understood," Ratchet nodded. "I did get the warning to clear out when her vitals stabilize enough that she might come around," he added. "Until then, I'll be here."
"Jazz," Caurun caught the head of intelligence outside the repair bay three days after Ezara had been put in the energon bath. "How's she doing?"
"Physically, sh' seems ta' be largely whole again," he said, still trying to get used to watching a body form. "She's still consuming energy at 'n incredible rate."
"Within the parameters I gave?" he asked, honestly very curious.
"At t'a high end, but yeah. Y'want somethin' more 'n an update," Jazz told him.
"I heard that Skywarp came to you because he believes that she trusts you, at least a little. She should be conscious enough to support a contact link," Caurun explained a little uneasily. "You'd have a couple weeks to work on her before she's mobile if you start now, maybe longer. Just think about it," he added at Jazz's skeptical look. "I'm sure Ratchet or Perceptor can tell you when it's safe for her."
"I'll consider it," Jazz agreed, watching as Caurun left before opening the door to the repair bay. "Ratchet, gotta question fr'u. Think she's up for'a link?"
"If you are damn careful," he glared at the Autobot head of intelligence. "She's not some Diceptigoon for you to crack open. She's a deep trauma survivor that's been through Soundwave hell and Primus knows what else."
"Ratchet, I know," Jazz spoke with unusual seriousness. "I've b'n in 'er head before, remember? I'll be careful."
The medic regarded him for a long moment, and the gages hooked up to record his patient's status.
"Might be good for her, to have a friend she knows when she wakes up," Ratchet reluctantly agreed. "No going into her processors alone," he insisted. "Always have someone out here, to pull you away if she crashes."
"Agreed," Jazz nodded and turned to kneel next to the tank. He dangled one hand into the energon she was just barely floating in, touched her forehead and cautiously extended his awareness into her mindspace.
As he half expected, she's wasn't awake, but she didn't reject his presence either, for all her shielding kept him out of anywhere deeper than the surface.
"I'll come back in six cycles," he called out to her before backing out.
"How is she?" Ratchet asked as soon as Jazz moved to stand.
"Asleep, dream'n some. I told her I'd be back in six cycles. Hopefully she'll be awake enough then to greet me," Jake explained as he licked the liquid energon from his hand.
"All right," Ratchet nodded and returned to monitoring her and watching in wonder as energy and metal blocks were converted into a new body by nothing more than nanites and inherent repair programming.
"Hello, Ezara," Jazz spoke softly as he skirted the outside of her mind, waiting for an invitation to go further in, or at least an indication she was coherent enough to understand he was there.
"Jazz," she murmured. "You're Jazz," she said more clearly as her mind came up and she began to form a mindscape for them to interact in. "I'm not supposed to talk to you."
"It's gonna be all right," he tried to sooth her, keeping his bot body to match that she was in hers as a world-city rose around them. "You're safe."
"Where am I?" she asked warily, trying to access her physical sensors with little success.
"In an energon bath on board the Ark," he explained and approached her close enough to touch. "You've been in it for almost four decacycles, and you'll be in it for many more."
That seemed to jog her memory, and the fiery maelstrom that erupted in the sky above them spoke volumes of her native temperament.
"Starscream," she growled darkly. "How did I end up here?" she demanded.
"Skywarp brought you here," Jazz told her, watching in fascination as the storm cooled almost as quickly as it had erupted.
"Sky," she murmured, dropping into a chair as the view changed to her quarters and the storm raged outside. "He went back...."
"Yes," Jazz said as he nudged her mind to change her chair to a short couch. He sat down next to her and drew her against him, hoping that he was reading her right. "He wants ya' safe."
"I should have killed that damn Seeker when I had the chance," she grumbled and slumped forward to curl her arms around her knees. "Starscream ... I never thought he'd go that far, not while Megatron was around."
"Do you remember what happened?" Jazz asked gently, a hand on her back to remind her he was there without trying to become too intimate.
"Most, at least," she nodded, then flicked her chin to the right. "Starscream challenged me in the hallway. I beat the rivets out of him three out of four times we've fought, I expected to again. He fought, retreated, fought again. Got me in position. I was in a star. Burned, hurt so much. I heard him laugh. Then nothing. Felt Sky and tried to touch him. Nothing again. Then you."
"He brought you here right after that," Jazz explained. "Nobody else was nearby when he attacked?"
"Don't think so," she flicked her chin up. "Maybe Thundercracker. I was paying more attention to Starscream."
"Then it's possible that the Decepticons think you were destroyed, possibly vaporized in the attack," he told her. "Except for Skywarp. Are you willing to listen to our side of events, compare it to the one Megatron gave you?"
"He didn't talk about it much," she said and leaned back, the couch morphing to accommodate her nearly laying down. "None of them did. I didn't really ask. Go ahead."
"Given what I picked up about you, I'm not surprised," he told her. "There was a time when the Autobots ruled over Cybertron. We held that position for over five mitracycles before the Decepticons rebelled and began a series of surprise attacks that started a civil war that's lasted nearly ten mitracycles back and forth. Eventually they managed to gain the upper hand, with some outside help, which led more or less to what brought us both here to Earth."
Even as she thought about that, Jazz became aware of another mind, one as strong as any he'd encountered, but not anyone he knew, had become active in her mindspace and was listening in.
"What has kept you from destroying them?" she asked, mulling it over.
"Mostly the fact that they had established a strong foothold before we were able to muster our defense," he told her, keenly aware of the other mind, gauging its response. "Most of the non-combatants basically surrendered, not wanting to get involved - it's very difficult to fight a war without the support."
"You must have a very different world," she murmured. "Civvies don't do much of anything for us, except get in the way of where we fight. We built the generators, designed improved bodies, drive the science. All they do is provide the occasional recruit."
"Cybertron's military and its civilian population, historically, have been closely intertwined," Jazz explained, working around the truth that the conversation with Caurun had suggested would be less effective, stifling his reaction to the idea that civilians just got in the way of battlefields. "The military has always had its infrastructure, but the civilian population has done a lot to support it. Another factor is that we'd been watching for outside aggressors, rather than internal ones. Cybertron's golden age followed a long period under the rule of outsiders; we'd never had a civil war of that sort before, so we weren't watching for something like that to happen. Weapons meant to shoot down star cruisers aren't very good for firing into cities."
"No," she chuckled at the half formed mental image of that problem. "We've had very different histories then. Lydrom has never seen an alien, at least not by my time, much less been conquered by them. We just had ourselves to contend with. What do you think you'd need to take your world back?"
"The defeat of Megatron, Shockwave and Starscream would be the biggest parts," Jazz told her. "Those three, particularly Megatron, are the linchpins of their faction. Without them, the Decepticons would fracture and cease to be a viable threat. Defeating them ... a way to keep them from retreating when we had the upper hand, and enough firepower to take them down."
"Escape being the greatest difficulty, since they are far faster than you," she guessed.
"Speed, and the fact that Megatron is willing to endanger far more lives to get away than we are willing to sacrifice to capture him. You weren't there to see it, but in escaping Three Mile Island, he used a tactic that could have poisoned or killed millions of humans if we hadn't stopped it."
"Why do you care?" she looked at him, honestly at a loss. "They aren't even good eating."
"They're still people, and intelligent ones," Jazz pointed out. "Living people have value, mechanical or organic. Would you go slaughtering the Lydrom without a thought, for no particular reason besides they were in your way?"
"No," she admitted, still trying to wrap her processors around the idea that such small creatures could be intelligent enough to be classified as people. "But they're so small. How can something that small be smart enough to be a person?"
"They've got pretty big brains for their size," Jazz told her. "Would animals build the sort of technology they use? They invented the lot of it, from the tankers you've been raiding to the jets the Decepticons are modeled after. The ship you helped free was an anomaly."
Ezara turned her head to look at him, sharp optics piecing right threw him.
"You're serious," she finally said, her tone somewhere between shock and amazement. "You really believe they built all that."
"Once you're awake, you can watch them do it," Jazz told her. "Wheeljack and Sparkplug work pretty closely with each other these days. The whole planet's pretty small, when you look at its scale compared to us - larger would have problems surviving as bipeds. Something the size of your Lydrom would probably collapse under their own weight with the build they have, and Earth's gravity."
Ezara looked at him quizzically. "It's still hard to believe anything with a brain that size can be that smart," she said. "But if you want me to call them people, I can."
"Well, you'll find fairly soon that that's what they are," he pointed out. "It might be hard to believe, but it's the simple fact of the matter. For what it's worth, some of them tend to think the way you do - that they only could have developed with somebody else pushing them along. But there's no real evidence of it yet."
She nodded, still mulling it over.
"What will Optimus Prime want?" she asked eventually.
"For the help we've given you already? That's only what we'd do for anybody who needed help," Jazz said honestly. "Really, if you'll agree to not rip Ratchet or Prowl apart, and maybe help us against the Decepticons, we're willing to help you as much as we can. Do you want our help against the one who's hunting you?"
Jazz couldn't help but be privately surprised that she didn't seem to have a problem believing him.
"Yes," she answered him, though she wasn't completely easy with it. "Starscream is mine though."
"You're the only one of us with a real grudge against him," Jazz told her. "When you come around, you'll have to ask Prime for asylum. He'll have to hear about what you can remember about the situation that led to your being on the run... have you recovered any of it?"
"Yes," she admitted, even more uneasy with the statement.
He could feel the shame she was trying to keep in check wash over her, though not the actual source of it yet.
"Most of it, I believe," she added quietly as she curled her knees to her chest and began to close her mind. "I remember what I was. What I did to be here."
"You don't have to be ashamed," he told her, fighting to maintain the link as she tried closing it off. "We're willing to hear your side of it. I'm willing to see it myself, go into your memories and see what happened that you can show me. Prime knows what war is like," he promised. "Probably better than you do."
He could feel how torn she was as the pressure to leave lessened some. She wanted to stop this conversation, to push the pain away and burry it again. At the same time, she wanted, desperately wanted, to have someone tell her that what she'd done wasn't as horrible as she thought it was.
He knew a moment before she spoke what the answer was.
"Later," she murmured before making a conscious effort to close the link. A move that gave him a choice between leaving, or forcing himself on her.
With a prisoner, he'd have no qualms. He was fairly sure he could keep her security interlocks open if he tried. But she wasn't a prisoner, so he backed off.
"How'd it go?" Ratchet asked when Jazz began to move again.
"She won't kill you, and Caurun might have a willing prisoner," Jazz explained briefly. "She's torn up about whatever it is she remembers now. She needs to have somebody go in there and look at it, but I wasn't going to force her."
"That's a plus. Did she give an indication on who should look?" he asked, mulling it over. "Or what happened?"
"Whatever it was, she feels horrible about it now that she remembers," he told Ratchet. "I'd say either me, or Prime, at this point. She trusts me, and he can tell her how much of it was acceptable from a war standpoint. This doesn't end our little problem about what to do with her, but at least she knows it herself, now."
"That's an improvement," Ratchet nodded. "Go spend some time with Mirage. Looks like you could use it."
"Not like Blaster's," Jazz said softly as he left.
"I know, old friend," Ratchet put a hand on Jazz's shoulder. "Most of us left who we need most behind."