Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine. I just like to write about them.

And alone.

Chapter 1

In the shadow of what he suspected had once been a repair bay Jazz crouched and waited, his newly fine-tuned audios and scanners missing nothing not even the gentle hum of his new friend Hounds holographic generator that was currently hiding them for any unfriendly optics.

There were five of them, himself, Wheeljack the brilliant if slightly obsessive engineer, Hound the quiet but determined former security service recruit, Cliffjumper who Jazz knew was already eager to get to the more active part of their plan and Smokescreen who was still rather a mystery to Jazz. The mech seemed nice enough but his guarded nature made it difficult to tell what he was thinking or what he was going to do next.

"How's it looking out there?" Wheeljack whispered in his audio.

"There's one more patrol mech headed this way but once he's passed we should have a clear run. Is everybody ready?"

"You bet." Smokescreen answered. "Let's get this done."

The patrol went by as Jazz had predicted and the five Autobots left their hiding place, Hound and Cliffjumper going one way, Smokescreen another and Jazz and Wheeljack a third. Wheeljack kept just behind him leaving it to Jazz to lead him through the maze of passages that led to the Decepticon command centre. "Through that door." Jazz pointed out a few breems later. "There are three of them in there."

Wheeljack nodded and unspaced one of his gadgets. "Stay well back or it'll knock you off-line too." He warned.

Jazz stayed where he was as Wheeljack moved forward and slid the disk-shaped device under the door. A moment later a small explosion followed by the sound of three bodies hitting the floor told Jazz that everything had worked perfectly. As the door slid open Jazz was glad that he couldn't really see the still forms even if they were Decepticons but his scanners showed faint life signs in all of them so he pushed the thoughts from his processor and moved to one of the consoles.

"Still glad you met me?" Wheeljack asked as they both went to work.

"Very." Jazz grinned. It had only been a few cycles since Wheeljack had been thrown into his cell at another Decepticon base but he already considered him a good friend. "Okay I've got the hub cracked. How are you doing?" He reported shortly after.

"Nearly there. Here you set these while I finish up." He casually tossed Jazz a handful of small explosives and continued. Jazz started distributing the bombs around the main computer terminals before his scanners picked up movement headed toward them.

"We're about to have company, are you done yet?"

"Almost. I've got the plans for the invasion of Antihex, Oh Primus, Jazz there are preliminary ideas and reports about moving on Iacon. We can't let that happen."

"I can make sure they get into the right hands once we're out of here." Jazz told him.

"Done." Wheeljack said cheerfully.

"Let's hope the others are too. We're out of time."

The two of them ran out of the room and with Jazz in the lead once again sprinted down several corridors before Jazz pulled up short. "The exit's just ahead but there's a seeker in the way and he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to be anywhere else."

"We'll have to drop him." Wheeljack said grimly. "You ready for this?"

"Do I get a choice?" Jazz snapped back. "He's got some damage to his right chest-plate shouldn't take much to knock him off-line."

"Just tell me when." Wheeljack responded.

Jazz waited for a moment to give Wheeljack the best chance of a clear shot before he nodded to his friend. Wheeljack stepped around the corner silently but something else caught the Decepticons attention at exactly the wrong moment and the shot went wide. "Slag." Wheeljack cursed as the seeker charged at him.

Seeing no other alternative Jazz sprang out and slammed his fist into the mechs already wounded panel. The Decepticon went down instantly sparks fizzling weakly from the hole Jazz had punched in him.

"Oh Primus forgive me." Jazz whispered as he stood over the body.

Wheeljacks hand gripped his shoulder. "You did the right thing." He said comfortingly. "He would have scrapped the pair of us if you hadn't. Now let's get out of here." He gave Jazz a gentle push to get him moving and they left the building.

"Hound and Cliffjumper are on their way." Jazz reported although his vocaliser was still shaking slightly. "And Smokescreen is already waiting for us. Everyone's clear."

"Cover you're audios." Wheeljack warned. As they took shelter behind a nearby wall Wheeljack activated the detonators and the base exploded.

"Well done mechs." Wheeljack congratulated his friends. "Move out."

Much later that cycle Jazz stood alone in one of the more rarely used rooms of the one time warehouse that the others had taken over for their own sometime before Jazz had joined them. His optics stared blindly at the night sky high above him. Several vorns earlier before he had lost his sight he had found the stars calming and although he hardly ever used the habit anymore he had decided that it was worth a try as nothing else was working.

The guilt of what he had done still made him shudder occasionally but he was slowly reconciling his actions and the half drunk glass of high-grade close to his hand had helped to numb his senses a little.

His new friends had decided that it was time to leave Perihex before he had met Wheeljack as it was becoming far too dangerous and would have already gone their own ways if what they had achieved earlier hadn't been so important. The question Jazz needed to answer was where he was headed but he needed to be calm to discover that.

He drew one last, long cycle of air in through his vents and let it out slowly. "It's now or never." He told himself. A long time ago he had discovered that he could hide from the bond that would always be a part of him, it wasn't easy and left him feeling almost more alone than he could stand but he'd had a lot of practice over the vorns and he'd become so good at it that he was sure Prowl never noticed the times he hadn't been able to feel Jazz.

Draining the last of the energon Jazz slowly activated the circuits that surrounded the bond. He wasn't really sure what he was expecting but the waves of hate, hurt and pure rage that flooded into his spark caught him by surprise. He let out a yelp and sealed off the bond again before he sank to his knees. "Oh Prowl. What have I done?" he whimpered.

"Jazz are you alright?" Wheeljack asked as he burst into the room. "No you're not." He answered himself "What happened?"

"I… I…" Jazz sobbed unable to gather himself together well enough to talk.

"Take it slowly." Wheeljack advised. "Get your intakes under control before you try to do anything else." His friend sat down next to him and put an arm across his shoulders before he spoke again. "That's better." He said encouragingly. "Take your time."

"I'm sorry I scared you." Jazz managed to get out eventually.

"Don't you worry about that." Wheeljack said dismissively. "I'd like to know what's going on though."

"I was trying to find my bond-mate."

"Wait slow down." Wheeljack exclaimed. "You're bonded. Never would have picked you as the type…

"To settle down? I wasn't. Until I met him."

"Him?"

"I've had my fair share of femmes but Prowl was nothing like them." Jazz hesitated as he fought down the emotions that were still threatening to overwhelm him. "Anyway I looked into the bond and…" Jazz' shoulders shook at the memory.

"Easy now." Wheeljack reminded him.

"I didn't tell him anything before I left, there wasn't time and now he hates me."

"I'm sure if you explained things…" Wheeljack began.

"He wouldn't listen. Not while he's like this and I don't have the strength to fight with him anymore. We weren't exactly the perfect couple before. Oh Primus what am I gonna do? I can't stay here and nothing to go back to so where am I supposed to go?"

"Well I'm headed off to Nova Cronum to join up with the Special Ops division there in the next couple of cycles. It'll be safe at least. Why don't you come with me? Just until you figure things out."

Jazz looked up at his friend in shock. "Special Ops? 'Jack what would they want with me? I'd be useless."

"The pit you would." Wheeljack snapped. "If you don't mind me saying it you've got skills, I've seen them and with training you could be slagging good."

"I don't know…"

"You think I'm going to leave you here alone?"

"Alright." Jazz relented. "I'll come but I'm making no promises as to how long I stay."

"Did I ask you to make any?" Wheeljack asked. "Now let's go and get some recharge. I'd like to leave early. Okay?"

Jazz nodded and still feeling rather dazed by all that he'd been through he made his way to his berth. Recharge was a long time coming though; his mind flittered between the possibilities joining up presented and thoughts of Prowl. He couldn't stop hoping that eventually he would be able to return to his lover but in the meantime he was determined that he would carry on in anyway he could.