25.
"Not you too." Red muttered under his breath. "Let me tell you this once organic, I will never be jealous; and do you know why?" he asked rhetorically before speaking up again. "You're mine; you always have been ever since that day you died."
Jack narrowed his eyes; it sounded more like Knock Out was being possessive rather than jealous at the moment. And that wasn't good either because he felt the grip around him tighten a bit. But he wouldn't kill him because they would both likely die from the backlash. "So this has nothing to do with Arcee then does it?" he asked dryly.
Red scowled at him, any remaining haze in his optics gone at the mention of the femme. "You really know how to kill a mood." He hissed and Jack smirked behind his mask, which faded when he felt a digit go back to stroking his side. "And you owe me for making me chase you out into this desert and getting my paintjob all mucked up."
Jack peered up and down the mech, seeing the dust and scrapes from the upheaved rocks and dirt. "Be lucky that's all that happened." He said shortly. "For you chasing me down, I could have done a lot worse to you; you and your horrible attempt at mating."
"Hey, I got you in the end didn't I?" Knock Out shot back smugly.
"Only because you brought up a good point." Jack admitted grudgingly. "Are all of you 'Cons so romantic?" he asked rolling his eyes.
"'Us'," Knock Out said patronizingly and Jack glared up at him, "your completion of our bond means you'll always show up as one of us instead of just when you're angry."
Jack's eyes widened. "What?" he questioned, the metallic edge in his panicked voice more pronounced. "But I don't wanna be a 'Con."
"Too bad, you're demonic heritage made sure of that." Red retorted unsympathetically.
"Well I'm not going with you anywhere if that crosses your processor." Jack said angrily.
"I'll admit that it…has." Knock Out said. "But I know for a fact that even though you are a Decepticon, Lord Megatron would be less than welcoming of the fact you are an organic, and therefore weak and useless."
"So he doesn't know about me then?" Jack managed to keep his voice neutral while more panic began to set in.
"I'm going to go with 'no' because I highly doubt Lord Megatron would not let this go unaccounted for." Knock Out explained. "And there's also the fact you're still on this mudball."
"You really think he doesn't know?" Jack questioned again while trying to reassure himself that maybe the 'Con leader didn't know. "Not about your strangely quick self-repairs? In one of your memories I saw Starscream slash your face to see if you really did have my healing ability."
"No one's noticed." Red replied evenly before they lapsed into silence about what to do next.
"I think," Jack began, "it's time for us to part ways."
"Remember though, I can find you out here now too." Red replied before setting Jack down and started walking away while speaking into his and soon enough a ground bridge appeared.
Jack watched the 'Con leave, but not before looking back at the teen and smirking and Jack felt the smug satisfaction move along the bond to him. The teen was tempted to flip him off but knew he wouldn't even know what the gesture meant, so he didn't bother as the red mech walked into the green portal.
The dark-haired teen grabbed his shirt and pulled it on before sitting against the cliff wall and out of the sun before he let his demon form disappear, feeling the fatigue that went with changing along with it and closed his eyes to rest for a little bit before heading home.
"Yo, Nero! You home?" Dante shouted rapping on the door.
"Must you be so loud?" Vergil hissed in annoyance and Dante glared at him before looking back at the opening door, only it wasn't Nero who answered.
"Oh, hey Kyrie, Nero here?" Dante questioned.
Kyrie raised a brow. "I heard you yelling all the way inside, you don't need to repeat yourself." She said in a polite deadpan way.
Dante grinned and scratched the back of his head. "So is he?"
Kyrie sighed in a long-suffering kind of way. "Yes, hold on." She said disappearing back inside.
A few second later, a white-haired male appeared at the door. "What do you want old man?" he asked staring at Dante.
Dante scowled at him. "Listen kid-"
"Where is Yamato?"
Nero jerked back in surprise as he looked over at Vergil, whose voice had just gotten colder. "What? There are two of you now?"
"Right to the chase, aren't you?" Dante muttered glancing at his brother. "This is Vergil, my brother, and uh, you kinda gave his sword."
"But-but you said I could keep it!" Nero retorted.
"You said what?" Vergil glared at Dante. "You could have given it to Jack if you were so inclined to keep it in the family."
"What?" Both Nero and Dante asked, but for vastly different reasons. "Who's Jack?"/ "What do you mean by 'in the family?'"
Vergil looked annoyed at both of them before answering in the same rapid precision. "Jack is my son, and this boy is a part of our family."
Dante and Nero stared at each other before the younger man grimaced. "What do you mean we're related?"
Dante scowled. "What's that supposed to mean, kid?" he looked over at his twin. "And you, how can you tell by looking?"
Vergil glanced disdainfully at Nero before levelling the same look at Dane. "Because…" he paused and Dante rolled his eyes at the try at the dramatic effect, but his eyes nearly popped out with what was said next, "before Jack there was another."
Jack had smelled them just as he was at the edge of consciousness and his body moved on its own and avoided the scythe that had come down on the spot he'd previously been sleeping in. Jack felt his limbs move on their own and it didn't take much of a stretch for him to realize that his demon had had taken over as he woke up.
His hands grabbed the sword in the guitar case and his body cut into the first Scarecrow in the surrounding area, the body freezing over and shattering in place as he surveyed the area. There surprisingly weren't many Scarecrows, but he knew better than to underestimate anything these days.
Jack felt control be given back to him by the slight waver in his legs and the Scarecrows took this as the sign to attack, Jack dodging their scythe for hands and cutting into ones he could get at and dodging the rest, intending to take the rest out at a distance once he could take out enough.
The teen feinted to the side to avoid one of the jabs, striking back with a jab of his own, but grimaced in pain as a sudden slash cut him across the side. His eyes started to burn red and stuck his sword into the Scarecrow's chest, pulling it out and didn't even watch as it shattered, only went back to cutting the demons down.
He knew Red most likely felt the pain in the bond, but he really had other things on his mind at the moment.
'Shit!' Jack scolded himself as he felt another slash into his back. He really had to stop thinking. He twisted the sword in his hand and sent it back into the chest of the Scarecrow behind him before dodging a swing from another. He knew injuries were part of the job, but they still hurt and they were going to hurt even more once the adrenaline wore off.
The teen used his enhanced agility to move around the other Scarecrows before jumping onto the ledge on the cliff and whispered the transformation words, the sword turning into a bow. Jack pulled back the taut string and fired, shot after shot. His aim wasn't the greatest in the word, and a lot of the shots hit the demons in the arms or legs, but a few lucky ones hit the chest and he just kept firing until they were all gone.
Jack let out deep breaths as the rush of bloodlust wore off and his eye turned back to blue. He gritted his teeth at the stinging in his back and side, knowing he had to get it cleaned of whatever sand or what not might have gotten into it. He jumped down to the spot his things were at and found his cell phone in the sand, checking the time and seeing that it was around the time his mother got done her shift at the hospital. She tried to get home early on weekends so she could spend some time with him before going back for her late shift.
And Jack appreciated the gesture, but he just couldn't go home at this time, because with Vergil out who knows where she was probably worried sick about him and Jack didn't want her to get even more worried. He saw the guilt in her eyes when she had to patch him up before and just couldn't put her through that again.
Jack gathered up his things and took off for the Autobot silo, because there was still human supplies he could use to clean out the wounds. He grimaced as he felt the blood come away from the wound on his side; yeah, Arcee was probably gonna freak out about this one. Especially after how he said nothing would be wrong with leaving him alone for the day.
The teen didn't pay attention to the stinging in his side and back, nor did he pay any attention to the annoyance and frustration coming across the bond. He was probably gonna get it in the soul plane later, and unlike out here there would be no hiding. Jack averted his eyes as he saw how close he was getting to the silo in the mountain and used his hearing to tell how far the distance was before stopping and only opening his eyes once he was sure he was inside. Or hopefully inside anyway.
He peered through his lashes at the dark cavern leading into the base and continued on walking. Jack didn't stop until he found the storage area and concentrated on bringing out Alto. He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced over to meet red eyes and let her lead him in and he sat down on a crate as he watched her use her nose to bring the disinfectant over.
Jack knew it wouldn't take long for the others to find them, so he took his shirt off and let Alto get to work. He felt her surprisingly gentle and professional hand wipe the blood off his side and from the actual wound. The applying of the disinfectant stung, but he gritted his teeth and tried to ignore it. The bandage to prevent further bleeding came next.
"Thank you," he said softly, "I know you being around my blood must not be easy."
"It's not." Alto agreed looking down at the bloodied swabs. "But I've had many, many years to control myself. I can always inhale your shirt anyway." She said shrugging.
"Hey, I found Jack! He's in here with some green lady!"
Jack rolled his eyes and Alto snorted. The teen looked up at Miko. "Miko, this is Alto's real form." He said and the girl's eyes widened.
"No way, you look even cooler than before!" Miko gushed and Alto grinned, though it was somewhat dimmed by what she was currently tasked with.
"Look away, girl. What I'm about to do next ain't pretty." Alto said and Jack furrowed his brow.
"What are talking about-ahhh!" Jack exclaimed as he felt something sharp stick into him. "What?!"
"You've got some shrapnel in your wound, and since there aren't any tweezers on hand, I'm using my finely sharped claws, er, nails." Alto said with a strain in her voice.
Jack glanced up from the corner of his eye as he heard the whine of a canon and saw Arcee aiming at Alto. "Don't Arcee, she has to do this. If she doesn't get everything out it'll get stuck there." He explained and gritted his teeth. Though Alto was lot less gentle than Vergil had been. Then again, the man had been using his claws and not nails to dig the shards out.
Either that or the shards were further in this time.
"I'm almost done, hold your horse femme." Alto snapped as she plucked the last shard out and started to disinfect.
"How did he get like this?" Arcee demanded.
Alto snorted. "Things got a little rough out in the desert. It happened after they bonded."
"Knock Out did this?!" Arcee questioned in outrage and Miko stared at Jack, mouth agape.
"You hung out with a 'Con?" she asked, torn between awe and disbelief. "Is it because you are one?"
"No, and no." Jack replied. "We didn't hang out, and I got into a fight with some Scarecrows." He replied reluctantly and didn't need to look at his guardians gaze to know what she was thinking.
He was wrong; he didn't need to be told so.