Author's Note: Happy Birthday America! I had cake to celebrate mah country's B-day. Patriotic cake. Then I watched Doctor Who. I'm such a terrible American, watching a British show on Independence Day (the cake was also my breakfast XD). But... Doctor Who is amazing.

I'm such a geek.

Disclaimer: Even though my geekyness would probably be sated by owning Transformers, I don't, so I watch British shows on Independence Day instead.

Jazz had enjoying recharging very much. It cleared his head, helped him think about the situation. As soon as he woke, he went down to Wheeljack's lab and enlisted him to find a way to fix the situation. He also commed Ratchet down to help. The saboteur then left the pair in an uneasy silence.

The TIC then went to his office to find many more data pads there than he was used to. For a split second he was confused as to why there was nearly triple the amount of paperwork he was used to was on his desk but then he remembered: he was doing the paperwork that Prime and Prowl normally did, and the stuff that Ironhide couldn't do, which was a lot of it. Slag, this day was going to be wonderful.

After five hours, he had barely made a dent in the mountain sitting on his desk, he got a comm. The Twins strike again.

As it turns out, with an accomplice.

Ratchet was less amused than he normally was when he got pranked. In fact, he was chasing Bumblebee through the entire Ark for pouring bright green paint over him, half the lab, Wheeljack and Preceptor.

Jazz sent Wheeljack and Preceptor to the wash racks, but had to enlist Optimus and Prowl to catch Ratchet and Bumblebee. Taking all four to his office he confined Bumblebee to quarters, sent Ratchet to the wash racks as well, and had Prowl bring in the Twins. He then thoroughly grilled the Twins for messing with the lab when important experiments were going on and sent the Twins to the Brig.

Collapsing back into his seat, Jazz sighed. He didn't know how Prowl dealt with it all without going crazy. Or Optimus for that matter.

Speaking of which... There was a hesitant knocking at his door.

There was Optimus, peeking his head in the door. The Prime looked more unsure than Jazz had ever seen him. But then again, this wasn't the Optimus that Jazz had known for millions of years.

"Hey Optimus. Yah need anythin'?" Jazz spoke with a weary voice.

"I-I can come back, if you're busy. It wasn't important anyway..." The Prime turned to leave.

"No, no, I need a break from this all anyway." The TIC gestured at his still littered with data pads desk (Did it grow when he wasn't there? They're spawning! Primus, noooooo...!).

Still Optimus seemed hesitant, so Jazz gestured at a comfortable chair by his desk and smiled kindly.

The big mech tentatively sat down, wincing when the chair groaned under his weight.

"What cha need, Optimus?" Jazz asked with the same small, kind smile.

"I... You know, it was stupid. Never mind." He got up to leave, but was stopped by a hand on his arm.

"Optimus, sit down, talk. It won't go past this room." Again they sat. The Prime fidgeted for a while, still not saying anything. "Talk." Jazz insisted.

"It's about what you said yesterday. About Prime being a name that made bots turn their heads. You never got to answer why." Optimus was staring at the desk while he spoke.

Jazz mulled it over for a few seconds. "Ah... What does Prime mean where you come from?"

Optimus answered immediately. "It's like the rank of 'Captain' in the human US army."

Jazz blinked in surprise. Not what he expected at all. So low a rank? "Prime here... It's a lot more than that. Before the war, Primes were... Spiritual leaders. Important spiritual leaders..."

Optimus blinked this time. "So... Like human priests?"

"No... More like the human Pope." Optimus reared back in surprise slightly. "There is only one Prime at a time, because... Of the Matrix of Leadership. Its in your chest, right now." He stared at his chest in shock. "The Matrix, according to legend, is a piece of Primus' Spark, given to the first Prime, Prima. It was passed down after each Prime's death to the next Prime. It's even said that the Matrix choses the next Prime, though I can't say how.

"My Optimus was chosen after the last Prime's death at the start if the War. Sentinel Prime died at the hands of Megatron, when he tried to reason with him." The Prime's optics widened comically at the name. "Optimus gained the title shortly after. That was about... eh, nine million years ago." Again the Prime's optics widened, even further than before.

"I'm-he's nine million years old?" Optimus nearly shouted.

"Actually more, 'cause Optimus lived before he became Prime." Jazz sated matter of factly. Optimus sat completely still for a second, before pitching forward. Jazz leaned over his desk and all the data pads on it to see his mind switched leader crashed on his office floor. "Wow, that must have been more a shocker than I realized."

... I don't like this chapter...

And in my mind, TF:A Optimus is only about, eh, thirty thousand years old. So finding out that his counter part is millions of years older than him is a huge shock. Yeah...

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