Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformers, I just like to write about them.
Author's note: As usual my heartfelt thanks go out to the wonderful Daebereth for all her help and for putting up with me. Enjoy.
The Price We Pay
Chapter 1
Despite mobilising as soon as the reports of the latest Decepticon attack had come in, the Autobots had been too late. Praxus, a city once famed for it's beauty, had been reduced to smouldering ruins and all they could do to search for survivors.
The twins and Bluestreak had been dispatched to check one set of life-signs that Hound had picked up, while other teams searched out others. Sunstreaker was in the lead, his faceplates a grim mask of barely restrained revulsion. He'd seen cities fall before, his own included, but there was no excuse for such waste.
To his processor, this was the worst kind of destruction. Praxus hadn't been a military base, it had posed no threat, but the Decepticons had shown it no mercy and thousands of lives had been lost.
He understood that the only reason the city had lasted as long as it had was because of its proximity to Iacon. But that knowledge only made him feel worse, as he didn't want to be able to think like that. Once, even trying to comprehend what his optics were seeing would have left him purging his tanks and screaming for his creators like a sparkling, but he had ceased to be that weak long before he had even met the young mech he had fallen in love with.
Sunstreaker's foot touched the ground as he took one last step before the blast knocked him forward, separating him from Bluestreak and his brother and burying him under the remains of what had once been a building, "Run!" he ordered them, "Get out of here."
"Not without you," the youngest of the three of them snapped, as Sideswipe began tearing at the debris to get to him.
For an instant the yellow warrior wondered why Bluestreak wasn't helping, but when he looked closer through the flames and wreckage he understood - the young gunner had been right behind him when he had triggered the explosion, and his torso was smeared with what could only have been his own energon.
To make matters worse he could hear the unmistakable drone of Seeker engines heading in their direction. Forcing down his pride, Sunstreaker activated his comm-link, "Prowl, we need help now," he roared. There was no doubt in his processor that if his lover wasn't injured the three of them could deal with the Decepticons, but he wasn't willing to bet the younger mech's life that he could keep him safe. "We've got incoming and Blue's hurt."
"Copy that," Prowl responded immediately.
"Blue find some cover, you're in no condition to fight, Sides get this slag off me."
As the first shots sounded above them, the twins broke through the last of the rubble and Sunstreaker hauled himself upright, too angry to even check to see if he was hurt before he launched himself at the first Decepticon that came close enough.
His rage fuelled him until the second unit arrived and when the Seekers saw they were outnumbered, they quickly retreated.
"Sunny, you alright?" his brother asked him once they were safe.
"Where's Blue?" the yellow twin demanded instead of answering his brother's question.
"He went that way," Sideswipe said pointing at a small, burnt out building.
Sunstreaker didn't wait to see if his twin followed him or not before he started running, calling out for his lover as he entered the structure. There wasn't much left but Bluestreak had chosen the best possible place to hide before his strength had run out.
"Blue," he whispered softly as he bent over the young mech, "It's okay, I've got you," he added as he pulled his partner into his arms.
"I know," the gunner murmured, "Get me out of here Sunny."
"How is he?" Sideswipe asked from the entrance.
"Not good, I'm taking him straight to Ratchet."
"I'll join you as soon as I can, Hound just told me that Jazz has found some survivors and he needs all the help he can get digging them out of their bunker."
"Well at least this mission wasn't a total waste then," Sunstreaker snapped before he marched away.
The shuttle Ratchet had brought and was using as a temporary med-bay was packed with the wounded but Sunstreaker didn't spare them a glance as he made his way through them to the C.M.O., who didn't even look up as he approached.
"Help him," he demanded, holding Bluestreak out to the medic.
"As soon as I can Sunny," Ratchet answered, "I'm up to my optics right now."
"But…"
"He's not dying Sunstreaker, some of these 'bots will be lucky if they live to see Iacon, so don't start," he warned, "Here take this and do the best you can for him."
With a low growl, the yellow warrior snatched up the medi-kit Ratchet offered and stormed off to find enough room for him to tend to his partner. There wasn't much to spare but Sunstreaker was more than aware that few 'bots would get in his way.
Half a cycle later, Iacon's med-bay was finally starting to settle down. The casualties that could be saved were stabilised, although repairing them all would keep Ratchet busy for cycles, but at least there would be no more deactivations.
"Take a few breems and drink this," Sideswipe urged him as he pushed a cup of energon into his hands.
Ratchet glared at him but his energy levels were too low to say no. "Thanks Sides," he said grudgingly. "How's Blue?" the young gunner had taken a lot of damage to his right arm and there had been no other choice but to remove it so that it could be rebuilt.
"Talking," Sideswipe smiled, as that was always a good sign with Bluestreak and Ratchet felt himself relax slightly. "I think he's more worried about Sunny than anything else, seeing Blue hurt always bothers him more than he'll admit."
Ratchet nodded, Sunstreaker was the reason why Sideswipe was in the med-bay at all. The yellow twin had been close to frantic with worry by the time they had arrived back in Iacon and Ratchet had been forced to call his brother in to calm him.
"How is he now?" the C.M.O. asked cautiously.
"Better than he was but he won't settle 'til Blue's out of here. Don't worry, it's nothing new and we know how to handle him," Sideswipe explained, before he pulled his lover into his arms with a disarming smile, "Relax."
"In a while," Ratchet answered as he nodded towards the door that Jazz and Prowl had just walked through. The saboteur headed straight to Bluestreak's side while Prowl approached the medic purposefully.
"It must be nice to be able to split things like that," Sideswipe mused before he wandered off, he knew all too well that the imminent conversation with Prowl would be all business and he had no wish to get in the way.
Sunstreaker stood up wordlessly as the older mechs entered, and made room for Jazz at the side of Bluestreak's berth.
"How's it goin' Blue?" Jazz asked affectionately.
"I'm okay," the young mech answered as they embraced, "Or at least, I will be once Ratch gets me fixed up but he says that could take a few cycles. Your debriefing took a long time."
"There was a lot to talk about," the saboteur answered sombrely, "The short version is that Praxus was a diversion and it worked, all of our forces were concentrated on that city, while Megatron activated his energy drainer…"
"Oh, Primus," Bluestreak interrupted. "I thought you stopped that."
"I slowed it down, destroyed part of it, but then the Decepticons hit Nova Cronum and Prowl called me back. Our intelligence told us that Megatron had given up the idea, but they were wrong."
"So what's next?"
"I'm taking a team in to shut it down."
"Who?" Bluestreak asked.
"Wheeljack, Mirage and the twins."
"I'm not leaving Blue," Sunstreaker snapped as Jazz said his last word.
"I know you don't want to Sunny, I don't blame you, he had us all worried…"
"Then why did it take you half a cycle to get down here?" the yellow twin demanded.
The saboteur's usually calm attitude vanished in less than a micron, his lip components formed a tight scowl and every movement became more deliberate, "If this thing isn't stopped we've got cycles before it starts affecting us. Our choices are act now or die, we're out of time Sunstreaker. Whether we like it or not, how we feel is just gonna have to wait."
"So this is happening because you failed your mission?" Sunstreaker snarled accusingly.
"Sunstreaker!" Prowl yelled from across the med-bay.
"Stay out of this Prowl," the warrior barked, "This is a private conversation."
"One that is taking place in my med-bay," Ratchet put in, "And I swear Sunny, if you start a fight in here then you'll wish it was The Unmaker himself reformatting you and not me."
"Ratch please…" Sideswipe began.
"That's enough," Jazz ordered, his calm voice silenced everyone and they turned to look at him. "Sunny needs an answer, so I'll give him one."
"You don't have to Jazz," Prowl stated.
"No, I don't, as far as my missions go I don't report to anyone but Prime," the saboteur said pointedly. "But just this once I'll make an exception. I was in Decepticon territory for almost half a vorn. With help from our spies I infiltrated one of the teams building the energy drainer, spent most of my time with mechs who would have turned me over to Megatron in a spark-pulse if they'd even suspected that I wasn't who I said I was, killed and lied my way into the unit that were moving it to its assembly point, then planted a bomb and waited as it counted down so that no one would suspect that there was anything wrong…"
"Jazz…" Prowl warned.
"Then I ran," Jazz continued with out missing a beat, "barely made it to Nova Cronum before they caught up with me, and nearly got slagged waiting for Ultra Magnus to even up the odds. So tell me, Sunstreaker do you think you could have done any better? 'Cause if you can, I'll put you through Special Ops training myself and you can have my job, but while you're thinking about that, I'll be waiting for you on the shuttle. Don't take too long," he finished curtly before he turned on his heel and stormed out of the med-bay.
Sideswipe let out a long blast on his cooling vents and looked at his twin, "Way to go Sunny," he muttered. "I've never seen Jazz that fragged at anything and now we've got to get on a shuttle with him," he said with mock cheerfulness as he followed the other mech out.
Sunstreaker watched his twin leave before he looked down at his partner, then glanced at Prowl and Ratchet. All three mechs met his optics with a level gaze and not one of them looked happy. Lesser mechs would have backed down, but Sunstreaker wasn't about to do that.
"This is important Sunny," Bluestreak said quietly, "You'd better go. Ratch and Prowl will take good care of me, but Jazz needs you."
The yellow warrior glanced at the medic and the tactician. "They'd better," he hissed.
The two officers nodded their agreement and Sunstreaker returned his attention to his lover. "Be careful Sunny," Bluestreak warned him, "I want you back in one piece."
"Love you Blue," he whispered before he strode away.
From his seat in the main cabin of the shuttle Wheeljack looked up as Jazz stomped in and threw himself into the opposite chair. "Problem?" he asked worriedly.
"A big, yellow one," the saboteur snapped. "I told Prime that taking the twins was a bad plan, especially with Blue in the med-bay, but would he listen to me? No. And why? Because Prowl thinks I need a body-guard."
"You can't be angry at him for worrying about you."
"He's never been this bad before."
"D'you think that it might be because he understands the danger you put yourself in when you're on a mission now?" Wheeljack asked.
Jazz sagged visibly, his anger gone, replaced by realisation and sorrow, "I should have known," he whispered, "I thought it was Praxus that had him rattled, not that. My attention was on the hub, not him. Frag it 'Jack, I tried so hard to protect him, all of them but I always end up letting them down when they need me."
"You're one mech Jazz, you can't fight this war for them." The engineer said soothingly.
"They are the reason I fight," Jazz snapped, his voice was cold again, the part of his face that could be seen was tight, and unreadable, "I got involved in the hope that it would all be over by the time Blue was old enough to hold a rifle, took combat training so that I could defend him and Prowl, killed to give the twins a chance, and for what? Blue's missing an arm in the med-bay, Sunny's a push away from losing it, Prowl's probably not far behind him and Sides'…"
"Is alive thanks to you," the red twin interrupted.
Jazz spun around to face the mech standing in the doorway, "How long have you been there?" he demanded.
"I came in on 'Frag it 'Jack' but I figured that you needed to get the rest of it out of your system," Sideswipe said with a disarming smile.
"Oh Primus," the visored mech cursed, rising from his chair and pacing the room in a sudden fit of restlessness, "You were never meant to hear that."
"Maybe it's a good thing I did though, 'cause I can set you straight on a few things. I've never forgotten what you did for me in Perihex, neither has Sunny. You're one of a handful of mechs he trusts and you shouldn't let him rile you. He's got rights to be worried about Blue, but he shouldn't have spoken to you like that. I'll talk to him when he gets here."
"He's coming then?"
Sideswipe nodded, "He's calming down too, but I think you better leave him to me for a while."
"I've got things to do anyway," Jazz said calmly, and without further comment, he started pulling weapons and supplies out his sub-space and a few specially designed cavities in his armour, and laying them on a nearby table ready to be inspected.
Sideswipe looked at Wheeljack, "I thought this was an in and out mission," he muttered.
"It is, but Jazz has been caught out before and he doesn't take chances now," the engineer answered, "And I don't think that's all he's doing, knowing him he's probably sorting a few things out with Prowl too. Your brother isn't his only problem at the moment."
Mirage and Trailbreaker entered the cabin at that moment, chatting cheerfully and grinning. "Is something wrong?" Mirage asked as he looked over the mechs that were already there.
"Sunny's fragged 'cause he doesn't want to leave Blue, and Jazz isn't too happy about it either," Sideswipe answered quickly, "And speaking of my brother…" he smirked as Sunstreaker stepped through the hatch.
"What?" his twin demanded.
"Nothing," Sideswipe teased lightly.
"Be like that then," Sunstreaker muttered, his optics rested on Jazz who was efficiently cleaning his sidearm and seemed to be completely ignoring everyone.
"C'mon Sunny," Sideswipe said gesturing to the aft cabin, "Let's go settle in."
Breems passed by slowly and the med-bay was still too busy for Bluestreak to recharge in. It seemed that every time he started to power-down his systems, Ratchet started yelling, the young gunner shifted again hoping that this time he would find a comfortable position, failed and gave up.
"Ratch?" he called quietly, knowing that just because he couldn't shutdown there was no need to disturb anyone else.
"What is it Blue?" the medic asked without looking up from his current patient.
"Can I get out of here for a while? I mean apart from not having an arm there's nothing wrong with me and it isn't exactly relaxing in here."
Ratchet set down a tool carefully and looked at the younger mech, studying him for a moment before he spoke again, "Any problems you come straight back here," he ordered.
"Yes Sir," Bluestreak replied before he pushed himself off the berth with his good arm and left quickly so that the older mech wouldn't have time to change his mind.
He soon discovered that the rec room was deserted, so he filled two cups with energon and was heading towards Prowl's office when he heard noises from one of the training rooms. Curiously, he peeked in and was surprised to discover that the mech using the room was none other than the tactician he was looking for.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the med-bay?" Prowl asked, without looking around, as soon as the younger mech was through the door.
"Ratchet let me out for some energon," he explained quickly, "I thought you could use some too, I was gonna bring it to your office but you're here. You don't come here often, are you alright?"
"No," Prowl snapped, "That's why I'm kicking the slag out of a sparring drone, Prime doesn't like it when his officers start trying to rip each other to pieces."
"What?" Bluestreak exclaimed in confusion, "I mean… sorry… but you're usually the calm one and you were fine earlier."
The older mechs chuckle was humourless and a little unnerving, "That was because I had to be, never mind the fact that I was about to send the mech I love more than anything off on yet another suicide mission, or that you were missing an arm, or that the city I was sparked in had just become a smoking ruin," every few words of the tactician's tirade was punctuated by a dull clang as his fist made contact with the drone, "None of that matters, it can't," on the last word Prowl hit the drone so hard it flew backwards off the mat, landed in a heap and didn't move again.
"Err… Prowl…" Bluestreak began hesitantly, "Maybe you should take a break," he suggested.
"No," Prowl snarled, "Next!" he yelled and another drone trundled out of the store room, "As it happens," he continued as he started to fight again, "I was handling things. Jazz and I didn't get much time to talk before he left, but we've made time since, I've managed to get through all the reports and made my recommendations, I even found a chance to explain my ideas to Prime."
"So… what… caused this?" the younger mech dared to ask.
"That over zealous, blundering, insensitive excuse for a mech Prime calls a unit commander, you may know him as Ironhide."
On Prowl's last word Bluestreak almost choked on his own vocaliser, as too many questions he didn't have the courage to ask flew through his processor. The tactician glanced at him then returned his attention to the already badly dented drone.
"He says that my plans are a waste of time, that I'd be more useful if I paid attention to the here and now, not the might be and some time. He says that bringing the 'bots from Nova Cronum here to boost our numbers is pretty much surrendering. He can't see that one stronghold is easier to defend than two, or that…" the black and white broke off suddenly and looked guiltily at his friend.
"I'm listening," Bluestreak prompted him, "Or do you think I won't understand?"
"It's not that," the tactician disagreed, "I just wish you didn't have to. We're losing this war a city at a time Blue. Kaon, Vos, Tarn, Uraya, the Hexes, Crystal City and now Praxus. Assuming that Jazz' mission is successful, Nova Cronum will be next and then Iacon, but if he fails…"
"We're done for," Bluestreak finished for him, "I was listening in the med-bay," he said fiercely, "But Jazz doesn't know how to quit, he'd walk into the smelting pit before he let us down."
"Where do you think he's gone?" Prowl snapped, "I sent him there, on another slagging mission that could easily get him killed. I should have seen this coming, Praxus was an easy target, the perfect diversion, and my attention was there when it should have been working out why they attacked it in the first place." The second drone landed beside the first and didn't get up, "Next!"
Bluestreak decided that maybe the best thing he could do was just let his friend do what he needed to and be there when he was done. The third drone didn't last long compared to the other two and when it was broken Prowl sank to his knees.
"I'm sorry Blue," Prowl said quietly after a few moments, his vents were still whirring with the effort of keeping his systems cool but his tone was much calmer, "Praxus was my home before I came to Iacon and seeing it fall…"
Cautiously the younger mech moved closer and managed to get his arm around Prowl, "Are you done?" he asked, Prowl nodded and Bluestreak continued soothingly, "You taught me that trying to protect the 'bots we love is the most important thing we can do, and the hardest. You, Jazz and Sunny have spent your lives doing that for me and now I think it's my turn, I'm here."
"Thanks Blue," Prowl whispered, "I needed someone to listen to me for a while."
"And something to punch the slag out of," the younger mech added.
"Yeah, that too," Prowl agreed with just a trace of a true smile on his lip components, "I'd best be getting back."
"Do you want a hand?" Bluestreak offered.
The tactician nodded. "That'd be good," he rose a little stiffly, retrieved the cup of energon Bluestreak had left on a bench for him, drank it and looked the gunner in the optics, "We're gonna get through this," he said confidently.
Bluestreak smiled, "Yep and all over-zealous, blundering mechs can go to the pit."
"That's your unit commander you're talking about," Prowl scolded him good-humouredly.
"Yeah, but you ain't gonna tell him,"
Prowl chuckled and threw an arm over Bluestreaks shoulders, "I think you've been spending far too much time with Jazz. Come on, we've got work to do."