Chapter 4 of 6

Ten years later to the day

There was a Valentine's Day party, but the mood was muffled. Yesterday's battle had been heavy and some of the crew were still in the medbay. Jazz wasn't feeling like partying. Bumblebee and Hound from his team were still under Ratchet's tender loving care. Mirage was wounded, but Ratchet had let him go so he could get room for more critically wounded patients. Jazz himself had gotten off with only a few minor dents. Prowl was in the worst shape. Of the others only Tracks and Cliffjumper were in the medbay anymore.

The party died down early in the evening and Jazz found himself in his quarters looking around. He tried to find a single datapad. There was nothing on his berth. Every year before he had found a datapad on it. The night was over. Had his secret admirer quit? For so many years Jazz had found a love poem in his room and now when he didn't get one, he felt abandoned. Strange. He didn't even know his admirer. Why did he feel this way?

Jazz put some music on and fell on his berth looking at the ceiling. So. He felt somewhat gloomy. He never got to know his admirer. Someone in the Ark liked him, but never had had courage to tell him. As years had gone by he had more or less observed everybody, but nobody had acted suspiciously. After the first years surprise he had started to like the poems. They were beautiful and made him feel unique.

Suddenly Jazz stood up fast. What if he hadn't got a poem because his admirer was still in the medbay. Jazz's CPU started processing fast. Yes. It had to be so. In a instant Jazz was up and out of the door. He would take the initiative and look for the poem. He would search everybody's room who still was in the medbay and finally he would find what he was looking for.

The corridors were quiet. The bots were already recharging. Jazz evaded the cameras. He didn't want to get caught. Not now when he was so close. His first target was Bumblebee. The yellow spy would know how to break into his quarters. Bumblebee was also young and maybe unsure in his love life. Yes. It could be Bumblebee.

There was a lot of videogames in Bumblebee's quarters, but not a single poem. Jazz didn't give up. Next would be Hound, but Jazz decided to leave him out. First, Hound was in a relationship with Mirage. Second, Mirage was in their quarters now. So the next suspect. Tracks or Cliffjumper? Jazz was quite sure that neither of them could break into his quarters, but he needed to be sure. Jazz decided to look around in Tracks quarters first. Tracks had a collection of classical Cybertronian literature, but no poetry. Close, but not close enough. Lastly that left only Cliffjumper. Jazz couldn't quite picture the warrior and love poems in same sentence, but he decided to look into his quarters anyway. Sometimes bots had secret hobbies. Maybe Cliffjumper was ashamed of his poems. It was worth looking into. Cliffjumper had a respectable collection of weaponry, but not a single datapad. So that was it. No luck for him today.

Jazz was almost back in his quarters when he realized he had forgot one bot in the medbay. Prowl. He couldn't imagine Prowl and poems in same sentence, but same had been true with Cliffjumper and he did search the warrior's quarters anyway. And Prowl could override any lock in the Ark. The second in command could also alter security feeds, but could the tactician do it without leaving any traces. Jazz realized he didn't know enough about Prowl to judge that. Time to fix things. Prowl's quarters were next to his so he didn't have to change his course.

Breaking in to the second in command's quarters was quite a serious offense, but Jazz didn't care. He wanted answers and this was the only place left. Besides he didn't plan on getting caught.

Jazz hacked his way into Prowl's quarters and looked around curiously. He had never been in the second in command's quarters. The place was abnormally clean. One wall was covered by shelfs. And those were full of datapads and chips. Finally he had something to work with.

Music. A lot of music. Jazz was entranced by Prowl's music collection. He would have never believed that the second in command listened to music, but the evidence indicated otherwise. It was one of the best classical cybertronian music collections that Jazz had ever seen. There were also a lot of old praxian ballads. Jazz was surprised to also find Earth music. Classical, jazz, blues and rock were heavily represented.

After a while Jazz remembered why he was here and he reluctantly detached himself from Prowl's music collection. He gave his attention to the datapads, of which there were many. History, politics, philosophy, and bingo, poetry. Jazz felt how he tensed up. Yes. Mooncrystal. Several datapads of Mooncrystal's works. Jazz took first one and glanced through it. Then he took next one. It seemed that Prowl had the whole of Mooncrystal's works. It didn't meant anything yet. He needed to find poems that Mooncrystal had written while on Earth and he wouldn't find those on open shelfs.

Jazz turned his attention to Prowl's desk. It only took a few steps and he was standing next to it. There were a few datapads in a neat pile on the desk. A quick glance revealed those to be work related. Jazz sat behind the desk and tried the drawers. Those were locked. It was only a small hindrance. After a few minutes Jazz got the first drawer open and found more work related datapads. Why wasn't he surprised. The second and third drawers were the same.

There was only one drawer left. Jazz felt a little tingle when he opened it. What would he find and what would he do if he found what he wanted. No, Jazz shook his helm. The drawer would be full of work related datapads as the previous ones had been and after that he would be back where he started.

Jazz looked at the drawer's contents. Datapads. Last chance. Jazz took the first one and onlined it. Bingo. Poems. Jazz eagerly glanced through the datapad. There was no name in those, but it seemed to be Mooncrystal's style as far he could tell. Slowly he started to browse through the datapads. Occasionally he stopped and read some of the poems. He found a moving poem about the Ark's bots. It was clear that the poems were recent. The poet had described everybody's features and traits accurately. There was no doubt that the poet did know all of them very well. It had never entered Jazz's mind that Prowl would know everyone of them so well. The bot had a good optic for details.

After reading a poem about Praxus's destruction Jazz couldn't associate the poem's writer with the same Prowl who had worked tirelessly and without showing any emotions after the destruction of his hometown. Grief and deprivation was so obvious that Jazz had to stop for a while. Not a single one of them would have believed this. He remembered all the comments about Prowl and his emotional detachment. He had been guilty of that too. How wrong they all had been.

Poems gave a new image of Prowl. A bot who felt deeply and cared for everyone of them. Jazz felt a stab in his spark when he read a poem about loneliness. Nobody knew this side of Prowl. Vulnerable. Sensitive. Lonely. They only knew the strict-laced second in command.

In the next datapad Jazz found what he had been looking for. A love poem with his name on it. The poem was new. Jazz read it carefully. This time he knew who had written it. Now he had to think about what he would do with that knowledge.