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FOR WANT OF A NAIL.
Bumblebee was the first, leaving with the human, Samuel, he reminded himself; the Scout increasingly finding reasons to spend time away from base unless called upon. He remained steadfast, respectful and ever brave, but there was an unspoken coolness to his field now, a formality that hadn't existed before.
Perhaps it was that which had driven him to fight so hard to protect the human when the attack came.
Their words told him they didn't blame him for destroying the Allspark, for condemning their race to eventual extinction. But their actions, and the vague sense of unease manifesting as quiet static in their fields, told another story.
Ironhide's abandonment hurt the most, the grizzled veteran left after a particularly vicious argument about Megatron and never came back, only fighting when called upon by Lennox.
Ratchet had remained, but immersed himself in studying their new allies, Optimus Prime rarely saw him outside the occasional training session or mission, always formal, giving their Prime the respect his rank demanded but nothing more, an act which in it's self only served to highlight how much had changed between them.
They were falling apart, the tightly knit group that had existed for eons destroyed by one glaring space in their ranks.
Jazz was gone.
Jazz who would have loved this planet, this species; with their quick minds and wild imaginations, their stubborn refusal to accept the boundaries imposed by their frail and limited frames. Jazz who would have immersed himself in the languages and music they created.
Jazz who could have fixed this.
The isolation, the loneliness, was almost intolerable, and a tangible sense of fatalism seeped into him gradually. Their species was doomed, what did it matter if he spared lives, they would die out soon enough. Better to hurry them along; save them from the drawn out death throes of a race that had been old before this planet had produced so much as a single celled organism.
As his lifeless frame was dropped at the feet of his troops the lack of reaction spoke volumes, two Earth years ago every mech there would have laid down their lives for their Prime, mourning until the air was filled with a keening frequency of grief utterly alien to this planet.
In truth they had already mourned - it was only now they had a body.
As usual all comments/crit are very welcome :)