XD Yay! Chapter 10! We have now reached double digits! Hooray ;D And I love this chapter! Specially the first part. And you will soon see why. Vivian Hale did you read my mind earlier, or is Jazz just that predictable? ;) Of course great big thanks go out to my reviewers, whom I will actually answer later today...*sheepish expression* Oh, and thank you also to everyone who said they liked the second half of the last chapter, the one I was unsure of. Your thoughts encouraged me greatly. So thank you! ::heart!::
Oh, and if my Wheeljack-speak sounds suspiciously like something I cobbled together from Wikipedia and half remembered scraps from high school science class, well...it probably...is. ^-.-^ (*someone should've listened better in class* thinks Mrs. Mittens)
Magical Moon - Thank you! It means a lot to hear you say that. Especially since sometimes it feels to me like the story's just standing still. I know it's probably my perspective, but still, thank you bunches!
Autobot-Bre - n_n Nah, it wasn't obvious. Or at least, it shouldn't have been since I may have, possibly, intentionally, left some pretty big gaps in what's going on... ^,,^ And thank you! I'm really glad you like it!
...
The Long Road Home
10 – Withdrawal Symptoms – 10
Fighting a war in the long term was not what Optimus Prime had expected it to be. When he was small he had always thought of wars as fairly short, with a handful of skirmishes followed by one big, decisive battle between good versus evil. Of course, good always triumphed, evil was always vanquished, and soon after, things got better.
Now, after being too long at war, Optimus saw the naiveté of his former way of thinking. War was long and gruesome and often just one little misstep was enough to throw hundreds of lives away.
That threat of just one little misstep was always hanging over Optimus' head now, like a sword poised above his neck. Many times had he wished to lay aside his title as Prime so that the sword would go hover over somebody else, but he knew he couldn't. It had chosen him and he could not abandon his post.
But he could secure it. He could ensure that there would be no backlash against those he cared about if the sword fell. He could do everything in his power to protect them from its shadow, and he did.
"The 'cons made another go at the Kalis-Iacon power conductor, but the Wrecker's and Rollbar's team were able to beat them off. Seems like they're gonna give up their siege attempts and just aim at cutting off our power source again."
Optimus dragged his attention from where it was wandering and made himself look over at Jazz. They were the only two in the room that had once been just another reading room in the Hall of Records before Optimus had commandeered it as his briefing room. He felt more comfortable here then in an actual office.
"I see," Optimus muttered as he thought over what Jazz had just said. The other mech waited from where he stood on one side of the table, forgoing one of the chairs. It was a peculiarity of his. Jazz never stood at attention. He hardly ever saluted, at least not without some light mockery mixed into the motion. When Optimus had asked why once a long time ago, he had winked cheekily and said it was to keep their new Prime from getting a big head.
But at the same time, Optimus had noticed that whenever he was on duty, whenever he was giving his reports on the newest twists in the war, Jazz never sat, even when no one else was around.
"So what should we do Prime? More patrols to keep an optic on 'em or go for some smash-and-dashes." Jazz grinned, showing which option he liked better. "We could just watch 'em through our spy-eyes and lash 'em whenever they get too close." He suggested.
Optimus thought about it. After a silent moment he slowly shook his head thoughtfully. "No, Wheeljack's spy-eyes aren't all that reliable that close to the power conductor. It messes with their circuitry. Let's just increase the patrols. Two five-bot teams patrolling every orbit so that someone's always got their optics on the conduit. I want you and Hound to coordinate which bots are on which team, along with their patrol schedules."
Jazz nodded curtly. "On it man."
Optimus opened his mouth to turn to other business when he caught sight of a figure standing in the doorway. He paused, mouth slightly open as he stared at her.
"Hey there Aria," Jazz waved at her with a grin when he turned to see who Optimus was staring at, "how ya doin' this fine evenin'?" He asked in his usual upbeat way.
Aria looked over at Jazz, some of her anxiety evaporating as she smiled slightly at him. "Fine, but you do know it's morning already, right Jazz?" She asked him.
Jazz blinked as he checked his internal chronometer. "Huh," he muttered, "this would explain why I feel like a freakin' insomniac." He observed.
Aria smiled at him, a little wider then before, but it still wasn't much more then a muscle twitch at the corner of her mouth.
"Is there something I can do for you Ariah?" Optimus asked her matter of factly.
Aria looked over at him again, but her blue optics quickly flashed away as she fiddled with a strand of her long brown hair. "Well, uh, I-" she stuttered nervously, not looking up at Optimus again, "I was just making sure you were alright. You seemed like you were under a lot of stress the last time I saw you in the sub-levels." She was almost mumbling near the end.
Optimus remembered the sub-levels well. He felt ashamed of himself for losing his temper like that, but he didn't see what he could do at this point. He refused to treat Aria any different then the other mechs under his command. Maybe then she wouldn't get into so much trouble if she was ever caught.
So Optimus gave her a slow, stately nod. "Yes, I'm fine, but thank you for your concern Ariah." He told her.
Aria's shoulder slumped slightly as she stared hard at the floor to her left. "Oh," she said in a small voice. He sounded like he was reading something off of a prompt card.
Jazz, stuck in between the two, subtly turned toward the door. "Maybe I should just leave you two alone a sec." He said, taking a step towards the open door.
"No," Aria said suddenly, looking up at Jazz, "it's fine, really. I just wanted to make sure Optimus is fine, and he is, so I'll just," her fingers started shaking lightly as her self-confidence deserted her again, "I'll just go." She said softly. "Later Jazz, Optimus," she said softly before stepping back out into the main room outside.
"Ariah, wait-" Optimus suddenly called out as some internal urgency abruptly gripped his spark.
Aria stopped, and turned back around to face him. He recognized that look on her face as she began to hope that maybe things between them could be straightened out, that their friendship could be fixed.
"I-" Optimus stumbled. He didn't want to just leave things like this, really he didn't, but looking at her, his spark seized, and he suddenly couldn't think of one thing he wanted to say to her.
"I just wanted to tell you," he said slowly, as he locked his sudden shame away, "that Wheeljack's been asking for your help in his lab. And since Alpha Trion continues to insist that Nathanial poses no threat to us, I find no problem with you helping Wheeljack and Ratchet like you did before."
The change in Aria's face as her hope fled was subtle, but profound. "Oh," she mumbled, her eyes drifting once again to the floor, "alright then. I'll go talk to him. And you," she said, some of her usual fire coming back as she looked up at him once last time, "you take care of yourself Optimus."
She waved bye to Jazz again before leaving the room, her small frame somewhat slumped as she withdrew in on herself. Optimus and Jazz saw it, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
Jazz turned towards Optimus when she was gone, a disappointed look on his face.
"Ah O.P., you didn't." Was all he said.
"What?" Optimus asked somewhat sharply.
"What did you say to her before? She couldn't've looked more upset if ya'd kicked her." Jazz told him.
Optimus stubbornly looked down at his data pad. "We had a misunderstanding. It was nothing." He insisted.
Jazz narrowed his optics at him. "That sure didn't look like nuthin'." He muttered.
"Well it is." Optimus stated more forcefully then he had intended.
Jazz watched his old friend a moment in silence. "Y'know," he muttered meaningfully a moment later, his optics never leaving Prime's unmoving frame, "Prowler told me the other orbit that he thought the stress might be really comin' down hard on ya. And then when I asked him why he thought that, he said that you had actually yelled at Aria over something that wasn' worth yellin' over."
Optimus didn't say anything.
"Of course the first thing I thought was, 'Nah, Optimus wouldn't do somethin' like that. Not to Aria.'" Jazz fixed Optimus with level optics.
Optimus did not look up from his desk, even when he felt the optics of his friend start to bore into him.
"Was I wrong?"
Optimus shuttered his optics, trying to keep a level head. "She doesn't listen." He finally said.
Jazz shrugged, but Optimus could see that Jazz was disappointed in him. "So? She's never listened. How d'ya think she ended up leaping out of a twelfth story window with nuthin' under her but a techno-organic that doesn't like her much?" He asked.
Optimus' head snapped up at that. "She what?" He demanded loudly. This was the first he'd heard of this. "How can she be that reckless?" He asked worriedly. "She could have been killed!"
Jazz fixed him with a cool stare. "Oh, so you do care about her then?"
Optimus was instantly brought up short. "That was a low blow." He muttered grimly. Jazz was the only one who would dare point out his shortcomings that coldly. He was also the only one Optimus didn't discipline for it because he knew Jazz didn't mean it as a way to undermine him. His were always private words.
"I didn't intend to yell at her." Optimus said, trying to defend himself. "I just didn't have time to argue with her over something so small."
Jazz's optics didn't turn away. "That doesn't excuse what you did."
"She needs to remember how to take orders. Whether either of us like it, I am her superior officer."
"Yeah, but that's no all you are O.P." Jazz said, softer than before. "You're her friend."
But then some of the hardness came back into the smaller mechs optics. It was so strong that Optimus could see it even through Jazz's visor. "Or at least I thought you were."
Optimus didn't answer him. Just turned back to his desk that was overflowing with reports and requests.
"Friendship is not conducive to war." He finally spoke.
He felt more then saw Jazz's glare. "Yeah, but it's necessary for living. Otherwise what are you fighting for but just another empty orbit of pain and misery?" He asked coldly.
Optimus did not move. In the back of his processor he vaguely reflected that he probably should have felt something in response to those words – shame, understanding, maybe even the feeling that Jazz had just kicked him in the gut – but he didn't. All he felt was tired and resigned to another day of battling Megatron, trying to save something that was so scarred that it could never be whole again.
Jazz turned around when Optimus didn't say anything. "I gotta go run patrols along the conduit. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." He often said that before he left the city for whatever reason, as a friendly joke usually, but now there was some real reprimand in his words.
Optimus didn't move until he heard Jazz's footsteps leave the room and the muffled shuff of the door as it closed behind him. When he knew he was alone, he vented a deep sigh and shuttered his optics in a pained look.
He was doing this for their own protection. Why couldn't they see that?
...
Even though he hadn't known her very long, Nathanial knew something important had happened to Aria in the last few hours. Someone had hurt her again. She was quiet and withdrawn, staring straight ahead of her, refusing to look at anyone as they passed her by in the hallway.
"So," Nathanial said when they'd been walking for awhile, "where are we going again?" He asked, hoping to get Aria to say something.
Aria blinked as if she had to drag herself out of some dark place. "Hm? Oh, we're going to Wheeljack's lab. Since," she stumbled over a word, but changed it to another before Nathanial could figure out what it was, "since management has decided that you're not a threat to us, I get to go back to work." She sounded as if she both loved and hated that statement.
"Ah," Nathanial said as he sped up a little to keep up with Aria, "and what does this have to do with me?"
Aria stopped so fast that Nathanial had gone on a few more paces before realizing she was now behind him. He looked over to see that she looked surprised.
"Well," she said haltingly as she tried to think through something, "nothing, really, I guess. If they trust you now then I guess you could go do whatever you want as long as it doesn't involve any of the off limit areas like the command center, but," she paused uncertainly, "but I sorta thought you'd like to come with me." She admitted so sheepishly that Nathanial realized she hadn't even considered the possibility that he would prefer to be somewhere else.
Seeing her sudden nervousness at the realization, Nathanial smiled a little and shook his head at her. "Well what else have I got to do? If I brush Peg anymore, she'll bite me for giving her a rash."
"Alright," he told Aria, "I suppose there's not much to do around here for someone like me."
Aria smiled at him, but she quickly hid it to appear stern and commanding. "Good." She said simply before walking on. "It's this way."
They walked on. Before long, Nathanial noticed that they had been walking long enough to have circled the Hall of Records three times over. "Just how far away is this lab?" He asked when they passed the first scorch mark on the wall.
"Oh, not much farther now." Aria said as Nathanial eyed the scorch mark uncertainly, "It's actually connected to the med bay directly, but we're taking the long way around since Ratchet's still got his hands full from the mechs that got hurt in that last firefight."
"And because if we even step one foot in the door he'll throw something at us correct?" Nathanial added.
Aria grinned and gave a cheery little nod. "You're learning."
They came across the main door to Wheeljack's lab a few minutes later. It was small compared to the rest of the doors in the city, but still large enough for someone - say, Ratchet - to carry a body - say, an unconscious and smoke covered Wheeljack - out if need be. Nathanial noticed with some uncertainty that one door was hanging at a slight angle since one hinge had been, eh, misplaced. They were also covered in soot and the old marks of violent explosions.
"Say," Nathanial said when they walked up to a special, human sized door Wheeljack had installed next to the main ones so Aria could get in, and more importantly out, on her own. "Are you sure this is a good idea? There isn't, um, something else we can do?"
Aria rolled her eyes at the man as she lifted the latch on the door. "Don't be such a scaredy-cat. I know where all the emergency exits are." She told him before expertly throwing her shoulder against the door that was almost always stuck.
The door popped open and immediately a dark cloud of thick smoke rolled out. Both humans jumped back, coughing and hacking as the smoke enveloped them. Nathanial waved an arm to try and dispel the choking smoke and stepped back to a safer distance. Aria, however, ran forward, ignoring what Nathanial thought to be several self-preservation instincts.
"Wheeljack!" Aria yelled as she dashed forward.
"Aria-cough-wait!" Nathanial yelled after her. "At least wait for the smoke to clear!" He managed to say between bouts of lung wrenching coughs.
She didn't of course, and instead ducked through the little door and shouted for Wheeljack again.
With a groan, Nathanial followed her, covering his nose and mouth with a handkerchief to try and keep from killing himself before he was even in the room.
The smoke was so black that Nathanial could barely see a foot in front of him. And then when his eyes started to water that shortened into a mere few inches. But Aria was still shouting, so he managed to follow her by her loud calls as she looked for the inventor.
A second later there was a loud clang as something metal hit another something metal.
"Fraggit!" Wheeljack's loud voice cut through the smoke, along with some overly loud hacking as he tried to clear his vents. "Of all the confounding, blasted, slaggin'-"
It went on like this for a few minutes. By the end Nathanial was more than a little impressed at the inventor's vocabulary.
"Wheeljack!" Aria's loud voice cut through the smoke and curses, "turn on the air vents already!" She hollered at him from somewhere in the cloud.
Nathanial automatically threw himself to the ground when, after a loud click, a sudden 'vroom!' appeared, swallowing up every other noise around, and a vacuum appeared and started to suck Nathanial forward.
It took him a moment to realize he was about to be sucked into an industrial powered air vent and spit out only God knew where.
"Turn it off!" He tried to yell above the noise. "Turn it off!"
Miraculously, Wheeljack heard him and shut the air vent down. When he spoke next his voice was a lot closer then Nathanial had anticipated. "First you say turn it on, they you want it off. Would you make up your mind already Aria?" He grumbled.
The smoke had cleared enough now that only a smudgy, gray haze still lingered. "That wasn't me," Aria said from where she now stood on the counter that was reserved for her. From up here she could see almost everything in the lab from the storage bins that held Wheeljack's impromptu supplies, to the sturdy table he had had moved here from his original lab in the med sector where he had originally conducted all of his experiments. The inventor himself stood, covered in smoke, in the middle of the room.
Wheeljack narrowed curious optics at her. "Then who…?"
Down near his feet, Nathanial managed to lift his head off of the ground to see what was going on. "That would be me." He said, and then coughed as the dust started to settle down around him.
Up on the counter, Aria bit back a laugh. Nathanial was coated in soot from Wheeljack's latest disaster, but he didn't notice it until he tried to stand up. He looked down at himself in disbelief before giving a resigned sigh and starting to try and brush the ash off of his arms. Little black clouds puffed up wherever he patted, only to resettle on his clothes.
"You look one of the dogs from the end of 101 Dalmatians!" Aria shouted down at him, grinning widely.
Nathanial gave up trying to dust himself off and turned to look at her. "What's a Dalmatian?" He asked.
Aria shook her head. "I guess some things are still different between us." She thought before yelling down. "Nothing, O Spotted One. Now are you coming up here or what?"
Nathanial looked around, but didn't see the stairs welded to the counter's side until she pointed it out.
"How did you even find your way up here in all that smoke?" He asked as he joined her.
Aria shrugged. "Let's just say I have a lot of experience with finding my way around here in smoke clouds, and leave it at that." She grinned slightly.
Nathanial gave a small chuckle, but it quickly turned into more asthmatic coughing. "You must be braver than I. After smoke cloud number one I'd be tempted to leave and never come back." He whispered so only she could hear him.
"Nah," Aria whispered back, "you would just learn to duck better."
Their little conversation was cut off as Wheeljack finally noticed there were two humans standing on his counter. Frowning slightly, he came over and leaned down to get a closer look.
"Aria," the inventor said slowly as he peered intently at Nathanial, "did that explosion knock my processor harder then I thought, or are there really two of you up here?" He asked as he leaned close enough that his optics cast a ten foot shadow out behind the two organics. "And why does other you look...flatter?" He asked sounding very confused as he leaned towards Nathanial.
Nathanial leaned back ever so slightly, not liking this new intrusion into his personal space.
Aria, however, didn't appear to care that Wheeljack's face was only two feet from theirs. "No, you're not seeing things again Wheeljack. This is Nathanial, another human like me, albeit a mech instead. Nathanial, this is our resident inventor, Wheeljack." She quickly introduced them.
Wheeljack didn't speak as he looked the other organic up and down, his cheerful face becoming sterner. "Oh yes, Bumblebee mentioned another organic now that I think about it."
Nathanial suddenly found himself breaking into a cold sweat. "I, erm, I hope he had good things to say." Even though he highly doubted it.
Wheeljack eyed the organic male and rumbled darkly as he leaned away.
Nathanial looked down. "No, I thought not." He muttered as he tried to look at anything but the aggravated inventor.
"Sooo…" Aria said slowly as she looked nervously between Nathanial and Wheeljack, "what're you doing down here Wheeljack? Anything interesting?"
Wheeljack eyed the new human sharply a moment longer before turning back to his smoking worktable with a disgusted sigh.
"I'm trying to find a way to hook up the new power cell we found in Crystal City to the shield generator, but it's not working." He groused.
"What's wrong with it?" Aria asked curiously.
Wheeljack shot the malformed lump on his table another frustrated look. "It's a Superion class A cell model and I'm trying to plug it into an industrial Zed model generator. That's what's wrong with it!" He shouted in frustration as he glared at the new power cell, which, amazingly enough, still sat shiny and new off to the side. At least his insulation to prevent any backlash against their new power source had held.
"And that's…" Aria stared up at him, "…bad?"
"It's impossible is what it is!" Wheeljack yelled.
Aria was too lost in the technical jargon to even remind Wheeljack that impossible just didn't exist for him.
"Have you tried adding a voltage regulator to stabilize the power coming out of the cell?" Nathanial suddenly asked.
"Yes, of course," Wheeljack said, hardly even noticing that it was the new human speaking now, "but the cell has just got so much energy that the regulator just causes a build up in the cell that will damage it if it goes on to long."
Nathanial shrugged one shoulder. "Then plug something else into the cell. Another generator, maybe."
But Wheeljack just shook his head. "No, then if one generator goes, they both go. It'd be easier just to hand over our shield codes to the Decepticons." He grumbled.
"What about another battery. A dead one. That way, you have your shield generators on separate circuits, and you have an extra battery when this one runs out." He pointed at the shining power cell that had once been used in the scientific breakthroughs that Crystal City had once been known for.
Wheeljack paused. "That could work…" he muttered as he stared at the power cell, and then over at Nathanial standing amiably on the counter, "Why didn't I think of that before?" He asked himself before setting back to work.
Aria blinked at Nathanial. She had only understood the very basic gist of what had just happened. "How do you know all that?" She asked in a mild state of awe.
Nathanial looked at her as if it should be obvious. "Peg."
"Peg told you all this?" Aria asked. She supposed that could make sense since Peg was hooked up to one of the Thirteen's memory collectors.
"No," Nathanial said with an understanding smile. "Peg needs all of this. It's required for the 'techno' in the 'techno-organic'. Everybody who joins the cavalry has to know this, along with high level mathematics and such."
"Oh," Aria murmured, "I had a hard time just with high school algebra." She confessed.
Before Nathanial could answer her, a set of plans lying behind them caught his eye, distracting him. He turned to get a better look. They were blueprints, he realized, and very intriguing ones at that.
"What's this?" The human asked as he stepped closer to stare at the mech sized plans at his feet.
"That?" Wheeljack asked, turning to see what he was talking about. "That is an idea I had for a ground based matter transporter. I call it a Ground Bridge. You know, like the Space Bridge, only it's on the ground." He explained. "I think it has great potential, only with this stupid power cell giving me trouble I haven't had time to work on it." He complained somewhat sourly.
"It's brilliant…" Nathanial mumbled as he read over the schematics.
"What're you going to use it for?" Aria asked, looking up at Wheeljack.
The inventor had to think about that. "Oh, I dunno. I hadn't really gotten that far." He admitted sheepishly. "I'll send stuff, I guess…"
"Me."
Both Aria and Wheeljack looked over at Nathanial. "What?" Aria asked, sounding concerned.
Nathanial straightened up, a new, determined, gleam in his brown eyes. "You'll send me. If these schematics are correct, and I think they are, then you can send solid matter practically anywhere in the universe, correct?"
Wheeljack nodded, but still looked unsure. "Well, yeah, that's the idea-"
"Then with a few modifications, you can use it to transport me and Peg back to Aracia."
Aria felt her face fall. "W-what?" She stammered. He actually wanted to leave?
In two quick strides, Nathanial stood right in front of Aria and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Don't you see?" He asked excitedly. "If this works, then it can send Peg and me home."
Aria felt her mouth open, but no sound came out. She stared at him, complete and total shock overriding her brain.
Some of the excitement evaporated from Nathanial's eyes. "Aria?" He asked carefully.
Aria moved her mouth soundlessly a second more. "That's," she finally remembered how to speak, "that's great."
Nathanial gave her sudden smile a critical look, but was too excited himself to realize she had only dredged it up from some forgotten corner of her mind.
"It's more than great; it's wonderful!" He shouted as he suddenly hugged Aria. He quickly let go, not even noticing that Aria hadn't even had the presence of mind to hug him back, and turned back to Wheeljack, asking questions about the mechanics of the theoretical Ground Bridge.
Aria stood there, still in shock. She just couldn't wrap her mind around the thought that Nathanial still wanted to leave.