They ran into Briley quite by accident. Somewhere they had taken a wrong turn and they saw the narrow beam of a flashlight heading towards them. Lace opened her mouth to call out and both Callie and Devi scrambled to cover her mouth. They watched in nervous silence as the figure came nearer. Finally Callie and Devi knew without a doubt who it was. "Briley!" Devi called and Callie waved, both of them taking their hands off Lace's mouth.
"I was going to say that," Lace complained.
"But we didn't know who it was," Callie hissed.
"Come on," Lace said, rolling her eyes. "It couldn't have possibly been a Decepticon."
"Actually it could have been," Briley corrected the girl. "Holoforms, remember?"
"Oh," Lace said, looking suitably ashamed.
"Are you three hurt?" Briley asked and the girls shook their heads.
"What happened?" Callie asked and both her friends instantly glanced at Briley with anxious eyes.
"I'm not sure really," Briley replied. "Lexi flew me over before Jazz because Optimus needed to talk to him about some last minute stuff. Chris was going to bring Jazz over when they were done. We were about ten minutes from the airfield when they radioed saying Chris had just taken off. Ten minutes later they sent an emergency shout-out about the attack and I gave Lexi permission to return to base. I haven't heard anything since."
"What about Jazz?" Devi asked anxiously. "What about my father?"
"I just don't know," Briley said, shaking her head.
"But if what they say is true why wouldn't you know?"Lace demanded.
"And what do they say?" Briley asked mildly.
"That you and Jazz...well that," Callie stammered, trying to find the right words.
"That you and Jazz are linked," Lace said flat out, rolling her eyes at Callie.
"Sparkmates is the correct term," Briley said.
"So it is true?" Lace asked and the older woman nodded in confirmation. "But wouldn't you know if they're okay then?"
"The strength of the bond is controlled by how long it has existed and distance between the two partners," Briley explained. "I haven't felt anything from the bond but I don't know enough about the bond to understand what it means. Chances are I would know if Jazz died so most likely they're still alive." She smiled kindly at Devi who let out a soft sigh of relief.
Jazz came out of forced recharge agonizingly slowly. The plane had crashed. He remembered that. Shot down and they had hurtled down on a stretch of rock that could barely be qualified as an island. "Stay where you're at," a voice ordered. Jazz stared at the figure in front of him. The massive Seeker had scratched paint and several seeping wounds that would have made Ratchet irate. The Decepticon sigil was conspicuous only by the patch of missing paint.
"Never thought Ah'd see ya again," Jazz drawled. "Specially not savin' my life." Thundercracker shrugged, looking almost like a giant mechanical bird instead of the Seeker he was. "How's the human?"
"I'm not sure," Thundercracker replied. Jazz glanced at the wreckage of the plane and winced.
"Help meh up," he ordered. Thundercracker let out a disapproving sigh but a moment later he was hauling Jazz upright. The scan came back with a devastating response. There was no heartbeat, no breathing, nothing. Chris Holland had probably died the instant the plane struck land. "Ah'm sorry," Jazz whispered, shaking his head slightly as he glanced at the corpse. Thundercracker said nothing but he did bow his head slightly. There was another long pause before Jazz spoke again. "So why are ya here?"
"I was speaking to someone," Thundercracker said stiffly after a moment. It took a second for Jazz to process the information.
"Summer," he said finally. A stiff nod confirmed his guess. "Where is she?"
There was a blaze on anger as red optics met blue. "They took her." There was no need to specify who. Thundercracker's trine brothers.
"Well then," Jazz said after a moment. "How are we gonna get 'er back?"
Author's Note: So from this point on the story is going to move around to different points of view. I'll try not to give you all whiplash ;D! Thanks to MissShelz (If it's one thing the Decepticons are good at it's creating messes) and Riptide2 (It's only logical that somebody make a plane to combat the Seekers. After all they can't always win in the air!) for reviewing the last chapter. I own nothing but my OCs
