Trickster 20

Home

A Transformers Prime Fanfiction

"Arcee," Optimus began. "We have good news."

The slim blue Autobot tensed; optics suddenly brightening in hope.

"Jack?" she demanded.

The Prime inclined his helm to the medical bay and stepped out of the way as she darted past him. He followed the scout a bit more slowly and arrived just in time to see her drop to her knees beside the hospital bed. He forestalled the protest he could see growing in Ratchet's faceplates by dropping a hand on the medic's broad shoulder guards.

*Come away old friend,* he gently sent over a private comm. *Let us leave the young ones together.*

The medic looked like he was about to protest but in the end he only nodded and followed Optimus out of the room. June was already ushering Miko and Raf away from their friend as well, leaving Arcee alone with the raven haired youth. For some time she just knelt looking down at the human with an inscrutable expression on her faceplates. The warrior then tenderly reached out a single servo and caressed his cheek. The youth turned softly into the touch and gave a contented sigh. Something seemed to snap in the stoic warrior then. She let slip a low visceral noise; not a human sound, metallic and musical, and her helm dropped until it was touching his forehead lightly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered raggedly letting the heat from his fever soak into her mesh, a tangible reminder that he was alive, that his body was fighting. "I should have found you days ago. I should have started looking the moment you didn't show up. I should have gone out and kept driving until I found you."

She continued to murmur to the unconscious human but her voice began to grow calmer. The warmth from his forehead seemed to spread through her infusing her very spark. Calmness seemed to overtake her slowly like the incoming tide. Each beat of his heart was a wave that washed soothingly over her and receded only to come again; a stable double rhythm that for the moment was her entire world.

A memory file was triggered by the sensation and the femme allowed it to activate. She had been in pain, in darkness, the cold of space had seeped into her frame, into her spark, and this same warmth had called her back from the brink, had supplied the strength, the reason, she had needed to fight through the cold. Her hand twitched at the remembered touch. She had woken fully to find Bumblebee holding her. The realization had hit her that they had all survived the space bridge explosion and the warmth flowing in to her had been forgotten in the rush of joy and relief. With the utmost care she wrapped her servos around the hand that was free of the intravenous drip letting the youth's palm settle where it had the day of the battle.

Arcee mulled over the sensations as she stared down at her partner's flushed face. She was no medic but there were data layers to the warmth that went beyond mere temperature differences when she examined them closely. Curiously she scanned her recent memory files; the ones that had accrued since she had met the human. The sensation was somehow as distinct as it was comforting and should have been easy to isolate and for the first few days it was. Every time Jack had touched her there had been that slow healing warmth spreading into her systems. However after about a week the intensity of the sensations had begun to fade. Perhaps whatever had caused it had faded, more likely she had just grown accustomed to it. It had still been pleasant when he touched her. The faint electromagnetic fields that pulsed through his skin were different from a Cybertronian energy field but similar enough to be every bit as welcome as Bulkhead's or Bumblebee's. Two weeks without any contact at all had apparently refreshed her ability to sense the alien energy.

The raven haired youth gave a sigh and shifted slightly, pulling away from her helm and breaking the femme's train of thought. She smiled tiredly down at him and considered her options. Carefully she let herself down on her side not releasing his hand. She snagged a nearby crate and propped her helm up so she could keep an optic on him. A frown creased her faceplates as a series of coughs wracked his body and she reluctantly let go of his hand as his shifting pulled it away but she left her servos beside him on the bed. Arcee powered down all of her nonessential programs and set her selfrepair protocols to work, the closest a Cybertronian came to sleep. She would have to return to duty but by the Allspark she was going to wait until Optimus ordered her to and not a micro-klick sooner. She settled in to wait and soon the warmth filled her again as Jack's hand found hers. It hurt a little that she could do no more for her partner but she could only hope that her presence was as comforting to him as his was to her.

The sound of light human footsteps distracted her for a moment as Raf rounded the corner of the medical bay carrying a bundle of clothes. He glanced over the scene and a bright smile suddenly lit up his face. The boy darted out to the main silo and the blue scout's sharp audio sensors caught the words slumber party mixed in a protracted begging session and June's reluctant surrender. Within a few minutes Miko and Raf tramped in making a great show of being very quiet and spread out their sleeping bags so they were in neither Ratchet's or June's way before climbing in and preparing for sleep.

When the medic came in to check on the patient he fought back a groan at the sight of all the intruders in his territory. He stepped carefully to Jack's side and examined the human's readouts. He was fighting off the infections well and all his vitals were within optimal limits. The medic frowned. The raven haired youth's metabolism was functioning at the upper end of normal. Even fighting off the multiple infections should not have required that much energy while in a sleep state and yet the carbon bonds were being broken and reformed at a rapid rate in his body.

The Autobot had sent Nurse Darby to bed with a firm admonition to rest and conserve her strength for her shift at the hospital the next day and felt reluctant to bring something so minor to her attention. It was within parameters. So with servos that were becoming increasingly deft at manipulating tiny objects he carefully adjusted the intravenous drip to supply more nutrients to the patient. Arcee sent him a curious glyph and he replied with one for annoyance and a very small data packet detailing the change. After that he lowered the lighting and left the four to rest resolving to discuss the oddities with June in the morning.

O

O

Jack grew steadily stronger over the next few days but did not seem inclined to wake up. June diagnosed extreme exhaustion and advised simply letting him wake in his own time. Optimus arranged Arcee's scouting schedule around the nurse's work shifts so that one of them was with Jack at all times. This served to calm both femmes knowing that the youth was under constant watch and also keep them slightly separated. As much as the warrior and the healer had come to care for each other, when Jack was concerned they could both still get a bit territorial.

The Nemesis vanished from human sensors after a few days but was last seen still drifting and well away from the planet. Slowly the main systems in the base came back online. Ratchet declared the ground bridge operational but the test runs destroyed two of Rafael's remote controlled cars and Optimus decided to keep his warriors closer to the base. It was on the day that the first successful ground bridge test that Jack woke up.

Arcee had been assigned to clean the storage units by Ratchet, more to keep her busy than anything else, and was arm deep in one when something caught her attention. She paused and turned quickly towards the medical bed just in time to see Jack calmly and efficiently pulling the IV drip out of his arm. She stepped forward fully intending to snap at him to lay back down but the words caught in her vocalizer and before she knew it his arms were wrapped around her neck and she was holding him tightly to her chest plates. Alarms started blaring as the equipment realized that there was no longer a human attached to the sensors and Ratchet came barreling around the corner with a look of controlled panic.

"What in the name of the Allspark is going on here?" he demanded taking in the scene, but as much as he tried to hide it his spark was not made of steel after all and the sight of the blue warrior cradling her partner to her stilled any further protests he might have made.

A bright yellow helm peeked around the corner and the medical bay was filled with joyous beeping as Bumblebee called Bulkhead and Smokescreen over. Jack gave a rough cry of joy and willingly held out his arms to be snatched up by the three. Arcee surrendered her hold with an annoyed huff but watched with a smile as her partner assured them he was fine.

"All right, that is enough!" Ratchet finally interjected nearly snatching the youth up. "Jack is still weakened from his ordeal and needs rest."

"Actually I need to speak to Optimus," the youth interjected jumping out of the medic's grasp and landing on the bed a bit shakily, "privately."

"I don't think so," the Autobot snapped.

"Ratchet," the deep voice silenced the room as the great Prime somehow moved noiselessly into the silo. "Give me a moment with Jack."

"You have ten minutes," the medic grunted but nodded curtly and left the room in a huff, but not before the youth managed to lean forward and gave the red and white mech a quick hug to Ratchet's surprise. Arcee shooed the other three out of the medical bay shooting a warm smile at Jack over her shoulder guards as she went.

"You needed to speak to me?" Optimus asked.

"Is everyone okay?" the human demanded intently.

"We have been greatly worried about you but otherwise we are indeed all well."

"Is Airachnid still in her pod?"

"She was at the time of the last security sweep but it would be easy to check again."

"No, that's good," Jack sighed and slumped down on the bed.

He glanced up nervously at the Cybertronian; knowing that there were things that needed to be said but unsure where to begin. The human could feel the bond now that he was aware of it, but he could also feel that there was some kind of barrier between them. The matter had to be addressed but there were other things as well and Jack felt a bit nervous. If Optimus wasn't aware of it in the healed timeline how was he supposed to claim the Prime as Guardian and father? It seemed so presumptuous. He shoved the thought aside for the moment. There was time for that later.

"So I guess you want to know what happened," the human started. "Apparently several weeks ago Airachnid found a," Jack hesitated and frowned as he tried to describe the tablet and the being who claimed it was a door, "device," he continued uncertainly, "that allowed her to alter the past."

"What was the origin of this device?"

The youth glanced down in shame at the floor. Optimus gave a small rumble of understanding and reached out to rest a comforting servo on the human's back.

"Continue."

Jack nodded and launched into the story. Carefully editing out certain details but telling the Prime everything that he could. By the time he was finished the Autobot was staring at him intently the human sighed and slumped a little but gave Optimus a tired smile.

"You told me in the other timeline that this was impossible according to all the known science of Cybertron."

"May I ask how you convinced me of your veracity in that timeline?"

Jack hesitated. Now was the time but he was still unsure how to broach the subject. He closed his eyes and reached out for the bond. It was not completely blocked. There were faint sensations coming across it but it was still nearly impossible to sense unless he was looking for it and after several minutes of futile attempts to open the bond Jack gave a grunt of frustration. Optimus laid a servo on his back in wordless sympathy. The youth felt the compassion seeping through the bond and for the moment simply accepted the welcoming presence. The light of the ancient being's spark seemed to fill him until he was about to over flow. Instead of fighting the sensation Jack let it happen. He wasn't quite sure what happened next but it felt as if the love that was spilling out of the Prime overwhelmed him and washed back over the bond bursting the strange block.