Hey, JaAm here! Most people know that my favorite thing to do is make people laugh, but this plot bunny got me and wouldn't let go. Sorry to all of my AMAZING readers who are waiting for me to update When the Mechs Get Bored, but I will update that next week. This story is Bayformers, right after the first movie. It's a little late... Please enjoy!
Jazz had always been there for me, even as a youngling. I remember one time in the barracks, back on Cybertron, the warriors, scouts, front-liners, everybot had drifted into the make-shift rec-room. Crates full of weapons and medical supplies alike were scattered throughout and everyone was just floating around, not saying much. The war had beaten us all down to shells of our former selves.
Well, all of us except Jazz. Jazz had leaped onto one of the crates and started singing- singing! It was an old song everyone knew, about "what's gonna happen when it's over and done". At first, many a bot had just stared at him, not quite registering the sight before them. Then one mech- I remember his name being along the lines of Streetsmart or something -joined in on the song. Some of his buddies started singing along too, and pretty soon even the most war-hardened mechs were laughing and singing the old tune, slapping each other on the backs and proclaiming they would see the end of the war. Jazz was still the loudest voice though, but he subtly began to lower his smooth baritone. He discreetly stepped down off of the crate and snaked his way through the swaying bots, actually managing not to bump into any of them. He plopped down next to me, smiling like a fool. He tipped his seat back and put his pedes up on a crate and watched his comrades. Slowly his grin seemed to fade, and he stared out through the crowd. I took a quick break from the song to take a sip from my energon and was about to start back up again when I noticed Jazz's solemn face. He continued to stare, but started talking to me.
"These mechs man, they need stuff like this, don't they? So they don't forget."
"Forget what, Jazz?" I had questioned him, but he didn't appear to be listening.
"That's what you an' me are here for though, huh Bumblebee? To remind 'em."
"Jazz, could you please just tell me what you're talking about?"
"We have to remind them that war ain't all there is. There's something else out there besides jus' survivin'." He looked pointedly at me. "Know what it is?"
"Umm..." I stammered, glancing around.
Jazz's visor glinted. "Fun." Then he snatched up my energon cube and ran away, cackling. I jumped up and scrambled after him, laughing and yelling half-thought-out curses at him. I chased him all around the hanger that night.
"Prime... we couldn't save him."
Those words. Those terrible words. I felt like the world was crashing down on my shoulders. Both worlds actually, Cybertron and Earth. I whipped my helm around to Ironhide, holding the remains of my closest teammate.
"Oh, Jazz... We lost a great comrade..." But I couldn't hear him anymore. I don't think I could hear anything. I felt hollow, like I couldn't properly cycle air through my vents. Jazz couldn't be dead. He always came back, no matter what. Jazz was life itself, even in the most dire situations, like death or injuries had no physical or mental power over him. He couldn't be offline. It wasn't like him to leave me in the dark like this.
Jazz... Jazz... Jazz... His named played through my processor like a bad line of code. Optimus was standing, holding Jazz's two halves in his arms protectively, though nothing could harm or help him now. I knew he was trying to hold his emotions down, though only someone who knew him as well as we Autobots did could tell. He didn't want to burden the humans with our loss, though I wanted to scream to the heavens for taking away the light we so desperately needed in our dark, war-filled world. Jazz was the beacon of this fight, not me, the last youngling, like so many bots thought. He was what we had needed to get through this war. He had made it his self-appointed mission to never let anybody forget why we were fighting so hard. And now he's gone. I don't know what to do. As far as I know, we are the only Transformers, as the humans call us, left. Meaning I am the youngest, with a now large gap between myself and the next youngest, who happens to be my leader. Jazz was the reason I didn't lose my processor like many other bots driven mad by the constant war. He always kept my spirits up, reminding me why I was fighting. Now what would happen to me? I might just fall apart, lose myself to the fight and forget everything Jazz ever taught me. I wouldn't be able to go on with the team with Jazz's absence. Even though we had only lost one member, it seemed as if we had lost a whole battalion. I did the only thing I could think of. I strained my vocalizer, pain coursing through my throat like lasers, but I struggled to form words.
"Permission to speak, sir?" I looked pleadingly at my leader. Sam said something to me, but I'm not sure what it was.
"Permission granted, old friend." Optimus answered. I hated to do this to him, but I felt as though I could cave at any minute. I needed to find someplace quiet for a while, and I knew where.
"I wish to stay with the boy."
Optimus answered me, and I'm pretty sure he said yes because I'm here in Sam's garage now. I asked Sam for a few days to myself, and he seemed to understand. A loss like this isn't something a bot just gets over.
Optimus just contacted me. He said that Sideswipe just landed somewhere in an area of land called Utah. I think this is just a gift from Jazz. It seems like something he would do to send the one bot that could help me back to my former self and annoy the slag out of everyone else at the same time.
So, thanks Jazz. For everything.
This is my reasoning for why all the Autobots seemed to just shrug off Jazz's death like it was nothing. That part of the movie bugged me. R&R please!