Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Only the plot and OCs.
O-O
The response to the last chapter . . . . You guys, I'm honestly overwhelmed. I've never had a response like that before. Ever! Do you know how many of you reviewed!? Like holy freaking slag. I bounced so much.
Thank you.
Truly, thank you.
I'm so happy you all liked it. How many of you were shocked, how many of you saw it coming, how many of you just wanted to yell at me. It was all amazing and I love you all. You are the best readers ever.
So now, have the next chapter in which you will once again most likely be screaming at me for many different reasons. Lets see what you all think shall we?
Chapter 54
Tricksters, Traitors, and Thieves
There were two moments of fragile, cracking, brittle stillness in which none of the four mechs could move. An unnerving, breathless stalemate of time and truth in which a secret spilled out like energon all over the floor around them.
But not silence.
No.
Not silence.
For Nebulous was cackling in madness that seemed to feed the shadows of the dim room and drive a knife deep into each of them while the sobbing that tore through Jynx's chest echoed in their audios with the ringing horror of a alt mode crash.
They were held there. Unmoving. Shocked into stillness. For two moments.
Two breaths.
Two nanos.
It shouldn't have been enough to rattle their very world to its struts, but it was.
For it was two moments too long.
Two moments that would cost them everything.
Because she ran.
Sideswipe choked on a breath that wouldn't come out of his vents. Optics wider then they might have ever been.
Sunstreaker wasn't much better. For the golden twin had never been one for gapping, but his jaw was dropped open with optics that matched Sides' blown ones.
The both of them staring not a Nebulous, or Prowl, or even Jynx as she turned and bolted—though they should have—the dark blue orbs were locked on Jazz.
Jazz and his bright blue optics.
Jazz that stood there in the middle of that room with his own optics blown wide and a creeping horror, the likes of which neither brother had ever seen on him, washing over his face. But he didn't move. He didn't even breathe.
He just stood there.
Stalled.
Staring at the place Jynx had been a moment before. His optics hadn't—couldn't—even track her as she disappeared out the door—
The twins froze up.
The shock rushing out of them like a sucker punch to the gut as they both spun in one hurried, horrified motion to the place she wasn't and then the place she'd gone through in a sprint.
Jynx.
Gone.
She ran.
She was running.
The thoughts were almost detached. As if they weren't really having them but they were all the same. They were thinking too slow.
Shocked stall.
The answer provided itself to them with little more than a dull pulse.
They were slipping into a stall. Their processors not able to keep up with the information they'd just taken in. It wasn't quite glitching, but it might as well have been.
Somehow in that moment something clicked though. Through the fog of their confused processors something deeper and more powerful snapped them from the stall. For they finally realized their split spark was screaming. Wailing in a way it never had. Feeling as if it was beating itself in its two pieces against each spark chamber with the desperation of a caged hawk.
Because what it wanted was fleeing.
Fleeing . . . and somehow it knew she wasn't going to stop.
Dread, fear, and panic slammed in with another stumbling breath and they took off at a dead run like they never had before. The sound that came out of both of them a butchered mimic that might have been her name but was too filled with panic to be anything other than sound.
They raced after her, calling, desperate but she didn't stop.
Jazz couldn't move and Jynx couldn't stop.
Hurt.
A burning, twisting, cold, break down in the very core of what she was.
Hurt.
Hurt like nothing she had ever felt before.
That was all there was.
Some distant part of her realized she was running. Realized there were tears streaming down her cheeks. Realized the broken sound coming out of her chest was bouncing around the halls as she ran. Realized she could hardly breathe enough to keep up with the sounds echoing out of her, but to put it all rather plainly.
She didn't give much of a damn.
The world around her was blurred and breaking. The force of words smashing around in her processor leaving a hole behind where her spark had once been.
She'd thought she'd been hurt before, but this . . . this . . . .
Suddenly crashing into a wall was the only thing that kept her from falling to her knees and screaming. The jarring force of missing the turn resonating over the pain in her chest enough that some thoughts were knocked lose.
Not very coherent thoughts, but thoughts all the same.
Two.
Just two.
Two thoughts resonating and damning.
Jazz.
It was Jazz!
Another sob tore though her, her fangs slamming into her bottom lip to keep the aching scream from making its way out.
And then.
Run!
Gladly.
Trembling as she scrambled for purchase against the wall, not knowing she was leaving tear marks behind she bolted forward again. Only one destination in mind. Through the blur of her surrounds she could get there. She could get there and she could get out. She could get away.
Sprinting forward through the haze she ignored the sound of her name sounding from the hallway behind her. Ignored the desperation and the fear in the sound of that matched but not quite the same tone voices.
Because she couldn't.
She just couldn't.
Spark quivering in her chest she . . . she couldn't . . . it was . . . its was him!
It was all him!
Six halls, three doors, and a stair case, before she ran without any other thought then that before she crashed headlong into a bright yellow chest. With a yelp she and Bumblebee crashed into the floor in a rolling scatter of datapads. Pain arched through her as she landed hard on her chest. The reminder of the surgery making itself known with vengeance. Not to mention that she managed to tear a pretty nasty hole in her bottom lip from how she'd had bit it.
Tasting energon she bit back another whimpering sob. Shaking her helm, ignoring the splatter of energon that went with it, her optics glancing around through a sudden clear in her mind with the abrupt stop only to find Bumblebee shoving himself up onto his elbows beside her.
Those big blue optics widening as they landed on her. Not seeming to care at all about the armful of datapads she'd just caused him to shatter all over the floor, or even the nasty looking dent on the back of his helm from the hard crash into said floor.
No, those bright optics were set only on her. The emotion filled pools swimming with sudden worry and confusion.
"Jynx?" He asked, trying to shove himself upright only to yelp again and his hand flew to the back of his helm with a winch. Those optics stayed on her though as he rubbed at the dent. "What's the matter—slag you're leaking!"
"JYNX STOP!"
The twins' voices very nearly vibrated the hallway sending a flash of fear through her before she was up and running off through a cross section of halls. Leaving Bee's voice echoing behind her.
"Jynx!?"
Her claw marks slashed the wall at the end of the hall out of the brig. A skid of paint against the dull wall's surface making both halves of the twins' spark race. Sprinting through the halls and doors they hardly saw in front of them. Hearing a crash echo before them catching their attention through the swirling mess of panic. The sound of a familiar yelp stalling both of them for half a nano in which dark, panicked optics caught and held before they both took off again with a shout.
"JYNX STOP!"
Because she had to stop, or they had to stop her.
They had to catch her.
Because if they didn't . . . .
Their spark gave a hard, burning, plea through them setting them on faster as they heard Bee shout.
"Jynx!?"
Then they were skidding around a corner, Sideswipe's brace wheels squealing through a rubber burn against the slick floor as he tried to make the corner alongside his brother that bi-ped forms really weren't built to accomplish.
The sound caught Bumblebee half to his peds in the shattered remains of datapads all around him. However, it wasn't that that had the two of them locking up in place, staring at what lay in front of them. It was the four section of cross hall that stood before them that did that.
Their spark skidded.
Before now it had been the straight path out of the sublevel of the brig. There hadn't been any option but up, but here were three different paths.
They didn't know which way she went.
"What the frag is going on!?" Bee shouted, shoving himself to his peds with a frantic look at the split spark brothers.
The two of them spun on him.
His armor was tight, his optics were wide, and his sensor panels were pinned. Confusion and growing fear radiating off of him in waves. It accrued to them that they probably didn't look any better. If anything, they probably looked worse.
Only a half a nano later they saw the tiny splatters of energon painted against his front.
Their optics widened slightly at the sight. Processors caught for a nano between the protective flare for their little brother and the femme they wanted, but before it could become much more than a sight it registered. It wasn't Bee's energon. He wasn't cut.
That meant it had to be Jynx's.
Their spark back another wailing twist almost putting them both on their knees with a gasp.
"Bee, which way!?" Sides pinned him in a frantic look leaving the mechling reeling at the sheer desperation of the sound.
"BEE!?" Sunstreaker snapped, making the young mech jerk back several steps. "Which way did she go!?"
Throwing a hand out Bee pointed down the hard right and before he could even blinked the twins were off leaving him standing there staring at their backs only to take off after them with another shout.
"Mechs, what the pit is going on!?"
They ignored him in favor of screaming out her name again.
Megatron surged through the doorway the moment the twins were out it. The two klick stall of the words out in the hallway leaving him dizzy and reeling. But not just for the reason that had his brother racing in next to him.
It wasn't what had Jazz standing there in the middle of the room with his jaw hanging open, his optics blown wide, and a mate just about shaking him where he stood. It was that chilling, mad cackle of the massive grey mech chained to the table.
It was what he said before that.
It was who he was.
It was the fact that Megatron hadn't recognized him.
It was why he tore the cackling bastard out of the chair and off the table that chained him. Relishing in the cackling turning into an agony filled scream as Megatron didn't bother with unchaining him.
Oh no.
It was far too pleasing to hear, see, and feel as he tore the mech up from his seat. Ripping his left arm from it's socket, relishing far too much in a gushing splatter of energon and wires. It was no easy tear either. It was sheer power and fury that tore limb from frame without even pausing as the chain pulled tight on its hold on the table while Megatron kept moving.
He was aware through the scream of the energon that all but exploded all down the side and front of him. The ruptured tubes and veins spraying all they held in a hot, sticky, shower of glittering blue. The suddenly panicking systems going into shock and not instinctively shutting off the flow to the limb that was supposed to be there but no longer was. Especially when the claws Megatron didn't have locked around the glitch's neck dove dagger like straight into the open, gushing, nasty gap of a missing limbs. Latching hold of slick tubing and cabling giving a vicious yank.
It tore another scream out of the mech's mouth. A mouth now bubbling with energon. Slipping down his lips and chin in a sticky mess. But as the scream broke off with Megatron's tightening hand it turned into another mad laugh.
Drawing a roaring snarl from Megatron's chest as he pinned his lips back and glared.
Nebulous grinned back at him. Sharp teeth stained with energon as even more leaked down his chin and gushed from the missing limb that Megatron's twisting fingers wouldn't allow to block themselves off to stop the frame from leaking out.
"What's the matter, my Lord?" He chuckled. "Did I strike a nerve?"
Megatron ripped his buried claws out of the socket of the limb taking with him another handful of internals and another wave of splattering energon.
It tore another pained gasp from the mech he had pinned to the wall, but it didn't stop him from cackling.
"I would think Meister would have more of a fit then you. After all, at least he can claim he didn't know what he left behind in Vael. You on the other hand—"
"SHUT UP!" Megatron roared, his claws tightening around the neck to the point he was crushing the glitch's neck to the point that energon splattered and the main strut cracked tearing another scream lose while his other claws sank back into the wound with a sick sound plunge only for strong arms to catch him. Wrapping around his chest and pulling him away in a kicking, screaming, struggling mass of sharp grey frame.
Nebulous crashed to the ground against the wall once he was let go. A deep pool of energon already forming around him. The gushing down his side not able to slow because of the damage Megatron had done now added to the cracked weakness of his neck. That didn't stop the old glitch from laughing though. Helm leaned back against the wall so he could see the thrashing form of Megatron being drug away by his younger brother. Now that his neck couldn't support itself and his frame was already half to the point of leaking out he wasn't moving, but quite frankly he was enjoying this all too much to care.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Megatron screamed, twisting and fighting in Optimus' strong arms as his brother tried to haul him away.
"CALM DOWN!" Optimus roared back at him. "You can't kill him! We have to have answers!"
"FRAGGING WATCH ME!"
"MEGATRON!" Optimus roared again voice taking on a tone he hadn't used since a forest on a little mud ball planet on the other side of the universe. Struggling with the larger frame for all he was worth. "STOP IT!"
"I'LL KILL HIM!"
Nebulous went on with his chuckling though now it had turned into more of a wheeze.
Somewhere in the middle of all that Jazz moved. At this point Optimus couldn't tell if he'd moved from the stall on his own or if Prowl had drug him from the room. However, at this point he couldn't care. He was too busy trying to hold onto his brother to keep him from ripping the Captain apart.
No matter how much Optimus' mind was spinning and how much he'd rather like to see the glitch slowly leak to death now they couldn't. They had to have answers.
Which was why Optimus start calling into his comms for help.
Jazz couldn't think.
That . . . that was the only way to describe what was happening to him right now.
There was . . . nothing.
Nothing but echoes bouncing around in his audios that he couldn't quite process.
Shock.
A shocked stall.
Somehow that answer came to him as a definition of what was happening to him. That in itself was a bit surprising because by all likelihood he probably should be passed out cold on the ground from a glitch by now.
Only he wasn't.
However, he was yet to be sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.
The thought came along that that shouldn't be what he was worried about at the moment. There was something else that was more important. Something he should be doing.
That he desperately needed to be doing.
What that was though he had no idea. Because he couldn't think.
He was pretty sure he wasn't even seeing.
As weird as that was. For his optics were open and he could tell Prowl was standing in front of him. Could tell that his sparkmate was shaking him. Could tell by the way that those lips he knew so well were moving that Prowl was saying something. Rather loudly if the shaking was anything to go by.
Only he couldn't hear him.
Not a word of it.
Right along with the fact that he wasn't really seeing him either.
He could look at him, but he was seeing him. Because it wasn't getting through fog in his mind. The stall made everything else mute and dull.
That was what made it so much worse than a glitch.
For a glitch took one completely out of the world. Into a black nothingness and a forced restart. It was an excuse for an absent mind. A stall was not that. A stall was just a bot standing there like an aft unable to think or move.
Jazz didn't stall.
He never stalled.
He hated stalling.
It was a weakness of the processor that would get you killed.
Spies didn't stall.
They couldn't afford to. Yet here he was. Stuck in a stall staring, but not seeing. Listening, but not hearing. Knowing, but not thinking. Spark doing some kind of weird, cold, aching break inside his chest.
He realized then that something was wrong.
Obviously. His spark hissed at him.
He shook his helm.
His spark rolled a hurt note of desperation. Screaming at him. Only he didn't know why.
What was the matter? What was he missing?
Why was Prowl standing in a hall shaking him and yelling into his face?
Why did he stall in the first place?
What was going on?
Jynx! His spark screamed at him and suddenly it clicked into place.
The words that old glitch had laughed at him. The truth his spark had been trying to tell him for cycles finally making sense.
Cold settled into his veins while his spark twisting in anger, confusion, and pain inside him. The memory of those wide silver optics staring at him in horror while tears pooled there and their owner backed away from him like he as Unicron himself.
Oh Primus.
Jazz fell back in a stumble. Shaking his helm hard back and forth while his spark went right on screaming at him and a tremble took him over. His bright blue optics finally managed to focus before him and he found himself staring up into Prowl's wide cool ones.
Then he was being shaken again.
"Jazz!" Prowl was yelling. "Snap out of it!"
He blinked.
However, that kind of seemed like a rather lack luster reaction to all of this.
Catching sight of Rodimus and Ultra Magnus rushing down the hallway behind Prowl and into the room where he was suddenly aware Megatron was screaming in and Nebulous was still laughing for some reason had some importance but not as much as this.
Then suddenly it seemed to slam in all over again and he tore out of Prowl's grip with a startled gasp.
"Jynx." He breathed, stepping away with a shake of his helm before he threw his gaze up and met the wide, scared, cool optics staring back at him. "Oh Primus . . . ."
His voice shook with what sounded far too close to a sob for his liking.
Then he was running.
Flying past Prowl taking off down the hallway at a sprint as fast as he could. Mind spinning, spark clenching, and fear pounding through his whole frame but he didn't stop. Not when he realized Prowl had swung and was racing after him. Not when they left a roaring Megatron to be contended with by Optimus, Rodimus, and Magnus along with the laughing bastard he was going to kill.
After he caught Jynx.
If he could catch Jynx.
She skidded around another corner, down another hall, and down another set of stairs before she slid to a stop before a huge grey door that with a gasping breath she practically threw herself through. Rushing through only to spin as she she flung herself to the side and latched hold of the control panel for the door.
Through the watery vision of tear filled optics and visor she buried her claws into the panel and ripped back with all her might. It came loose with a spray of sparks and hissing wires. The door she had just thrown herself through giving a groan of protest before the power feeding it faded with the loose of connection to the entire control panel.
With a stuttered step she let the huge panel clatter to the floor staring at the thick slab of metal now locked in place. It wouldn't buy her much time, but it would buy just enough.
Spinning around Jynx whipped her arm across her faceplate trying to clear the tears she couldn't get too through the visor. Optics flying around the quiet room, empty apart from the several ships docked around the massive hanger bay.
Her spark—still whimpering inside her—gave a hard roll before her optics narrowed at the sight of them all. Then she was bolting forward again. Toward the 'borrowed' ship Jazz had taken from Fritzron and Ragtime.
Running for it she slid up and palmed open the ramp before sprinting over to the control panel off to the side of the middle of the room that was the manual controls for the massive doors across the room. The doors that stood before her and her way out.
Skidding to a stop before it Jynx tried to thick through the aching spark in her chest and see through the coolant pooled in her visor. She didn't know what half of it said let alone did but with a snarl she lunged for the buttons.
She didn't have time for this.
Smashing and pressing and hitting she managed to find the release for the huge bay doors to open in the mist of turning on and off a whole lot of other things. But when the loud groan of sliding metal and hissing hydraulics boomed around the room she spun back for the ship with a watery smile. Dashing back toward the ship with more stumbling and gasped breaths then she paid attention to.
She was up the ramp and hitting the retract for it as a crash sounded over the sound of opening hanger doors. Spinning in the belly of the ship she looked back with just enough time to see over the rising, closing ramp to see the entrance door to the hanger rattle on its hinges as heavy weight slammed into it.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.
Through the aching inside her, the tight ball of pain her spark had worked itself into, something pinged. A pull. A quiet whisper.
For they were safe.
Her spark whispered that back, but it was buried too far under the aching betrayal for her to lean on the thought.
As her name was screamed through the door that rattled hard again and again with weight slamming into it. She turned away as the ramp shut with a whirl of sealing locks and trapped pressurized air. Then she was spinning toward the little cockpit and throwing things on.
She fell into the captain's chair, firing up the engines, charging the drives, and throwing open all the systems she needed to get the little piece of slag airborne. Through her rattling breath and coolant filled open she watched the door rattle on its hinges as both the big mechs fought to get the door open.
But she couldn't let herself care.
Instead she focused on speeding the thrusters and forcing the ship into the air. The whole thing gave a long, pained whine as she stressed the systems and forced them into use. The little ship giving a hard surge and tilt but she got it hovering.
Latching hold of the joystick like steering and yanking it backward to pull higher.
She was one damn awful pilot—always had been—but right now she didn't care. All the lurching and swaying made her have to focus hard on what she was doing and not the aching inside her chest. She managed to get the ship level before spinning it around toward the other ships docked along the room.
They couldn't follow her.
She couldn't take it.
Flipping the locked button on the top of the controls she took a rattling breath before pushing it down hard. The hanger lit up with the glow of plasma bolts slamming into ships as she flew backward toward the massive doors just as one bolt caught an engine cell and a boom shook the very foundation of the compound.
They raced through the halls, following the splatter trail of blue Jynx was leaking, sparks in their throat as turning another hall they realized where she was heading.
"Why is she going to the docking hanger?" Bee yelled as he ran just a pace behind them.
Neither Sides or Sunny could answer through.
All they could do was run a little harder. Engines and vents straining when the panic rushing through them settled low in their tanks and left acid burning at the back of their tongues.
She wasn't just running.
She was leaving.
And they had to fraggin' stop her! They couldn't lose her!
Another hall, another turn, and then the big grey door to the docking hanger. Catching a breath between them before they threw themselves forward. Skidding to a stop before it, Sideswipe slammed a hand into the control pad.
It didn't even chime.
For a nano the two of them froze. The answer to why it wouldn't open out of reach of their scattered processors then Sunstreaker snarled.
"No!" He slapped a hand hard into the door watching it jar on its track but nothing more. "No, no, no, no!"
Sideswipe slammed his shoulder hard into it next to him. Then they were both doing nothing but that. Knocking the door in its track and hinges trying to get it open as they yelled.
"Jynx!" The name tripping Sideswipe's tongue when the clanging of the hanger doors opening could be heard soon followed by the charging whirl of ship engines through the thick metal separating them from her. "NO!"
Bumblebee was tugging frantically at the control panel beside them crashing repeatedly into the door. Trying to find an override to get it open. He couldn't make it work though and in a shaking breath he flung open a comm line and called out.
"Soundwave!" The sound of his inner voice echoing over the open channel air way that all the inner circle of their family shared between them. The one that all of them could hear without having to actually answer. "Soundwave! Red Alert! Close the docking hanger doors!"
The sound of his shouting through the air ways had both the twins throwing their dark gaze to him even as their shoulders slammed into the door again denting it inward.
"What?" Soundwave's voice echoed down the channel. He actually sound out of breath. Like he was running somewhere, but that was because he was. Down to the brig to try and stop his best friend from killing one of his brothers for getting in his way and starting a war all over again.
"THE DOORS!" The twins joined voice snarled into the channel as they hit the door again. "The docking bay doors! Close them! And get the slaggin' staff entrance open!"
"I'm not in the—" Soundwave was cut off by Red frantic voice.
"What's going on!?" The other security director shouted.
"JUST DO IT!" The three of them yelled back at him, the twins hitting the door again as Bee flung his gaze from the control panel trying to think only to look up in time to see Prowl and Jazz coming around the hallway behind them at a dead run.
Then the ringing of ship blaster shots had him spinning back to the wall and door before them. The huge baby blue orbs widening with the sound that drew the other four to sudden stop as well. Every spark stilling in dread with what each knew was coming but were powerless to stop.
Then an explosion that rocked the very building around them threw them all back in the burst of the boom knocking them all into darkness.
It wasn't Rodimus, or Optimus, or even Magnus wrestling with Megatron to force him back out of the brig cell and into the hallway that stopped him. It wasn't the laughter being cut off by Roddy slamming the door to the cell closed to cut off the sound. It wasn't even Optimus and Magnus together forcing him into a wall and holding him there.
It was the explosion that rocked through the building nearly knocked them all flat on their afts.
Stumbling, all four of them threw their optics down the hallway listening to the resonating vibrations shake through the compound.
"What the frag was that!?" Roddy yelped, optics flying back to his brothers and his mate as Megatron shoved himself off the wall. Breathing hard with rolling emotions that were doing a better job at controlling him then he was of them. "Are we under attack?"
The second question jerked those deep red optics over to the littlest Prime just before the comms came a live with voices.
"WE'RE BEING BOMBED!" Red Alert hollered in panic over the lines only to have Bumblebee cough through the lines.
"No we're not!"
"Bee!?" Ironhide's more than a little panicked voice joined in.
"It was Jynx!"
There were too many voices at once. So much talking over each other and yelling that most of it turned to dull noise. Megatron couldn't pick apart what they were saying. His processor was too rattled with the anger burning in his chest.
He surged off the wall intent to go back to murdering a traitorous bastard only to have Magnus catch him by his shoulders and shove him back to the wall.
In all honesty Magnus was bigger than Optimus, as big as Megatron more or less, but Optimus was the stronger one. If for no other reason than he and Megatron had been fighting long enough to know every move the other would make. But that wasn't to say Magnus was strong enough to keep Megatron in place if he truly put his mind to it.
That and Megatron's anger was draining him as fear surged up from the bottom of his tanks to mix with it.
Then Magnus was stepping away, the yelling was still going on through the comms, but all he could pay any attention to was the sudden fact that Soundwave was in front of him. Holding him to the wall with no effort what so ever. Long, slim fingers simply splayed over his huge shoulders to keep him where he was.
His breaths hard and labored as he gazed down into those deep red optics trying to find some point of center but missing for the most part. Instead he tried to focus only on those hands pinning his shoulders back against the wall with no effort at all.
Grounding.
Because Soundwave had long ago mastered the art of bringing Megatron back down out of the blurred rage that boiled in his veins. At least to a point. There had come a point in time where not even his closest and most trusted friend could have reached him anymore. But those orns had ended in the middle of a living space cloud on the edge of space when everything came crashing back to reality inside him.
That wasn't what was important at the moment though.
He blinked once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then he let out a hard breath.
Soundwave wasn't saying anything. Just standing there before him his optics gazing back into his own. Then Megatron looked away. Taking in what was happening around him.
Roddy was gone.
Having raced back upstairs to try and make sense of the chaos going on in the comms. Magnus was speaking with Optimus—no.
No they were on their comms as well. However, Optimus' gaze kept darting back to him. Checking to make sure Soundwave had him under control.
It was a silly thing to doubt.
Soundwave was Soundwave after all.
The noise in his helm was turned off, but he hadn't done it. It only took a moment longer of real thought to realize Soundwave was doing it. He was blocking the radio waves and letting Megatron fall into quiet.
Swallowing hard, realizing his engines were still turning over an angry sound he couldn't make stop he let his fire colored optics dart to the door that separated him from the mech he wanted to flay.
"It's him." He ground out.
Soundwave backed away a step. His hands falling down from his shoulders leaving the shorter mech to tilt his helm slightly before glancing back over his shoulder then settling those deep, calculating optics to his friend again.
"I know."
Megatron jerked. "You know?"
"Now. Yes." Soundwave nodded. "But not for more than ten klicks. You're forgetting, I wasn't the one that did business with him. You kept me out of those deals and back then I was still respecting your wishes."
It wasn't meant to be a jab, but it stung like one all the same.
Soundwave didn't even bat an optic at the flinch that rolled through Megatron. Mainly because the bigger mech deserved it.
"Besides," He went on. "At the moment we have another problem."
Megatron's optics slid back to him with an arched optic ridge.
"Jynx is gone."
Kicking out hard Sunstreaker sent a slab of cracked and burnt metal flying off of him. Snarling he shoved himself upright as Sideswipe hauled himself up beside him. Then they were staring.
Because while the reinforced walls of the hanger were built with the idea of expecting unexpected explosions in mind and they kept any real structural damage from happening to the building around it that didn't mean the shock wave and the buckling paneling of the wall hadn't hurt like pit.
And it also didn't mean that they weren't left standing there in the middle of a hole where a wall use to be staring at the scorched black and still burning mess that was the docking bay.
Bumblebee was coughing behind them.
The comms were screaming in their audios and it was without real thought they shut them off together at the same time. They didn't give a damn about the panicked yelling.
It was far less important.
Their optics scanned the room around them as the two big mechs slowly stepped forward. Walking into the scorched room toward the huge open doors of the bay. Staring out at the expanse of the scrambling city around them. Then to the sky out before them.
The vast, empty sky.
Gone.
She was gone.
The two of them stood there in the middle of flickering flames, bent metal, and black burn marks hardly breathing. Their spark a clenched ball of cold breaking in between their chests.
They were shaking, but it didn't register with them.
They just stood there with it not fully processing.
Because she was gone.
Then a sound had then turning back to find Jazz slowly stepping into the burning hanger.
Something inside them snapped.
Pain turned to rage.
Sunstreaker was across the room in less than a blink. A snarl that rattled the armor flaring out on his frame shaking through him. Then he had Jazz by the neck and they crashed back into the wall behind him with a hard enough hit that it knocked the air out of Jazz's vents and left him gasping in Sunstreaker's hold.
Only for the golden twin to slam him repeatedly into the wall over and over again as he yelled into this faceplate. Into those bright blue optics behind the curve of a visor. Those optics that also belonged to somebot else. Optics that had damned her.
"You fraggin' lying bastard!"
Another several hard hits as he shook him.
Jazz gasped, claws latching hold of Sunstreaker's wrist and digging deep into his armor aiming for veins, but Sunstreaker was too far gone to care about the hot flare of pain through his arm. Jazz's optics widened behind his visor, somehow focusing through the jarring hits to the wall and all the shaking. He watched those dark blue optics narrowed down at him in slits of rage start to bleed red.
A flash of panic surged down in his gut.
"Sunstreaker!" Jazz coughed around the punishing grip to his neck, failing and grasping all at the same time in what might have been rather funny at another time in place. It was not fully now though. Not as he choked around the hold to his neck staring up into the slipping of mech into monster.
A monster that Jazz had had the horror of facing before.
A monster that lived inside both the twins. One that even the spy master of the Autobots feared, and rightfully so.
Because the empty fire red that took the place of Sunstreaker's dark blue optics was not the gaze or the mind of the mech he knew. It was the fury of a beast that would attack his own brother, kill his own family, and not care. Because he wouldn't know them.
"EXPLAIN!" Sunstreaker roared smashing the smaller mech back into the wall again. Hard enough that the wall buckled slightly around them. Hard enough that it tore a cry of pain through Jazz. Hard enough that plating buckled and snapped, protofrom bruising on the inside and out.
Jazz choked on the tried for words in his throat as Sunstreaker's grip tightened.
"Sunstreaker!" Prowl's yelled. "Stop!"
The white and black mech rushed over the crumbled wall to where Sunstreaker was slamming Jazz again and again, but Sideswipe caught the Praxian by the doorwing before he reached them. A tight, crumpling grip that yanked a cry of pain from him as Sides pulled him from his peds and threw him back the way he had come. Sending him crashing to the ground in a roll of squealing plating against the floor.
A snarl that was more animal than anything else vibrating through him and as Prowl's optics rose they met the crimson mech that placed himself between him and what was going on behind. But it wasn't the sound that froze Prowl.
It was the empty glow of red optics staring back at him where dark blue was suppose to be.
Their berserker coding had triggered.
They slipped. Out of sanity and out of memory. Leaving the minds and sparks that called Prowl, Jazz, and all the rest of them family behind. In its place was a pit raised beast lost in energon-lust and anger.
Teeth bared in a snarl Sideswipe bit out. "She's! Gone!"
Slowly, optics still darting to where Jazz was fighting with Sunstreaker's grip as the mech went about strangling him, Prowl lifted his palms. Trembling in pain and fear that both belonged and didn't to him he tried to keep his voice level.
They were still speaking which in itself counted from something, but it was hard to tell just how much. Not enough to rely on that was for sure.
Fear was the last thing that he could show right now. It would just pull the two of them deeper into the energon-lust that came with the coding.
"Sideswipe,"
The mech answered Prowl in a roar of his engine.
"Sides, you have to calm down. You have to think."
"SHE'S GONE!" Was the scream of an answer that was returned to him that left him stumbling back a step and then another as the crimson frontliner advanced on him in a stalk. Prowl took another step back. Doorwings pinning down despite himself as Sideswipe's dueling blades clicked down into use from their locks hidden away in his arms.
The long, shard swords glittering dangerously in the flickering fire light.
Prowl swallowed hard and opened a comm under all the yelling still going on through the air ways.
"Ratchet." He was sure his voice was anything but level. "Ratchet, they've slipped."
He didn't get a real answer. Instead there was just a string of curses before Ratchet hung up on him. He could only hope the medic would get here fast because neither Prowl or Jazz had a prayer in the world of talking either mech down from their berserker coding.
The only bots that had ever done that were Arcee, Ratchet, and Bumblebee.
"SHE'S GONE AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Sunstreaker's voice boomed around the room as he crashed Jazz into the wall one last time pulling one arm back and releasing one of his blades. The sharp sword glittering in the light just like Sides' but this one was plunging toward Jazz's chest.
"JAZZ!" Prowl cried out.
A blur of yellow shot across the room before the last bit of Jazz's name left his mouth Bumblebee had thrown himself across the hanger. Crashing into Sunstreaker's middle and though he was too little to move the mech much it was enough of a jar to the clouded mind that he released Jazz to fall in a lump to the floor.
Then he latched hold of the golden mech's middle. Wrapping his arms as far around him as Bee was able. Pressing himself up onto his toes to try and press as much of himself as he could to the twin practically spilling rage off of him in waves.
His sword still glittering dangerously over the little mech's helm as those oh so wrong red optics locked down at him while he snarled. Jazz coughed from the ground. Hands raised to hold onto his neck as he shook with trying to get breaths back into his frame through wheezing vents. His whole frame shaking while he tried to make it rise.
Optics locked on the little yellow and black mech locked around the snarling mass of murderous rage that couldn't think enough to recognize any family like this.
"Bee," Jazz wheezed.
The young mech ignored him.
"Sunny," He called. Arms tightening around the towering warrior as he buried his faceplate into the plating and strong muscles cabling under it of the frontliner's abdomen. "Sunny, stop."
The golden mech snarled. The sound shaking the two of them, but Bee refused to let go. Even as the sword held over him trembled with the mech's scattered emotions.
"Sunny," He begged. "Please, you have to stop. Please. Please stop!"
The snarl slowly trailed off.
Sunstreaker's breath rattling through him in heaving gasps while those red optics stared hard down the little mech's back. Not really registering he was there, but his voice slowly working through the fog of the berserker coding.
"Please," Bee went on. Shifting so that his cheek was pressed against the larger's middle while those baby blue optics flickered over finding Sideswipe across the room. His ridged posture and dangerous blades. His helm was tilted to the side. His audio horns tilted toward the sound of Bumblebee's voice.
Listening.
"Please wake up." Bee's voice was shaking now, his grip around Sunstreaker tightening all the more. "Come back."
Both twins were breathing hard. Breaths rattling through their massive frames, but slowly something shifted. The growls trailing off until they were just panting hard. Then Sideswipe was shaking his helm.
Slow at first, but then a little harder as he stumbled a step with a shift of his weight out of a stalk. Sunstreaker was doing the same. Bee's optics shot up as his helm tilted back to stare up while Sunstreaker shook his helm back and forth. His breath labored and taxing. Optics squeezing shut with another hard shake before they slowly opened in one long breath.
The cold shade of red slowly retreating from his optics leaving behind the deep blue that was supposed to be there. Sunstreaker blinked hard a few times and then he sagged. Hard enough that he nearly knocked Bumblebee off his peds. Only a hard brace of a backward step of one leg keeping the both of them upright and the frontliner from not crushing him to the floor.
It was then that the golden mech seemed to realize Bumblebee was actually standing there in front of him. Arms wrapped around his middle plastered against his front. Realized that his dueling blade was poised over the back of the youngling's neck.
Sunstreaker gasped.
The blade slipping back into his lock with a loud click before he fell to his knees before the smaller mech. Trembling slightly he dropped his arms though made no move to try and get the little mech to let him go.
Sideswipe staggered where he was. Nearly falling as well as he looked up and realized he had stalked Prowl into a corner. Stepping backward with a shake of his helm he turned toward his brother that Bee still had his arms wrapped around.
Then Arcee and Ratchet came rushing into the hanger with Inferno and Trailbreaker behind them to put out the fires around the room.
Arms wrapped tightly around—as much as she could—both the twins all but shivering in front of her in the hallway just outside the mess of the hanger Inferno and Trailbreaker were trying to put the fires out in the pink femme looked hard at Jazz quivering on the floor in front of Ratchet while the mech stopped the leaking in his neck.
Prowl was pressed up against his side not looking much better than his mate.
That did little to stop the growl in both of them. Bee was hovering worriedly between them all unsure what to do with himself, but Arcee couldn't give him her attention just as Ratchet couldn't. She was too busy trying to keep the twins some kind of calm while they had their faceplate's buried in her chest and their arms tight around her on their knees in the hall shaking in their armor. Just as Ratchet was trying to fix Jazz and keep him some kind of sane as he shook.
With a low voice the yellow and red mech ground out.
"Jazz," The silver mech flinched, his optics still fixed on the sky visible through the hole Jynx had blown through the hanger in her desperate flee away from him. Trying to assure they couldn't chase her.
He knew had no right to let that hurt as much as it was right now but he couldn't stop it.
"Jazz you have to start explaining."
Prowl's grip tightened around his mate, but he was a frantic to know what was happening as Ratchet and the others were. He couldn't make it out through the maze that was currently Jazz's emotions.
"Jazz," Ratchet pressed with a growl that rumbled low in his chest. His tone doing nothing to hide the anger surging around inside him. Jazz was one of his oldest friends, and he was family, but there was a hanger burning and the femme they'd been trying to care for, that his adopted sons were now tied to, was gone. Gone because some glitch in the basement called him her sire.
"I didn't know." It came out in a shaking breath. Jazz's bright optics still fixed on the sky Jynx had disappeared through. Ratchet had commed Thundercracker after he and Arcee got a hold of the quivering twins. Had called him to the air to try and catch her, but the seeker hadn't been able to get airborne fast enough to track her.
She was gone.
They'd need video feed to figure out the direction she went and right now there was too much going on.
"I didn't know." Jazz repeated his whole frame shaking as he tore away from Ratchet's hold and hid his face in Prow's chest. Ratchet leaned back on his heels to let the silver mech all but crawl up into Prowl's lap. The black and white mech wrapping his arms around him and pulling him closer. Hiding his own face away in Jazz's shoulder as his mate cried through his spark and optics.
"I didn't know!" Breaking into sobs he clutched at Prowl the emotions and pain rolling through him drawing tears to Prowl's optics as well when the reality of it all slammed into him.
A sparkling.
Jazz had a sparkling.
Jazz had sired a sparkling he didn't even know about.
And it was Jynx.
Jynx!
By all that was powerful in this Primus forsaken world how had he not seen it!?
That bastard in the basement was right. It was all there! Down to the angles and curves of them they were the same!
She looked just fraggin' like him. She had the same volatile, but bright spark.
Everything about her screamed Jazz. They were cut for the same mold. Even the slaggin' visor!
How had they not seen it!?
He clutched all the harder at his mate as a broken sound cracked through Jazz, spark shivering in his chest. Calling and reaching for the reassurance of the one that had joined with it, but there was no comfort here Prowl could offer. Not truthfully.
"I'm sorry." Jazz's cried. "I didn't know!"
"How," Sunstreaker spit out, still clinging to Arcee, but looking up to glare across the hall at Jazz. "Did you not know!?"
Jazz tensed in Prowl's hold and the two tone mech glared coldly back at the golden twin, but it was hard to be angry about anything when there was this much agony rolling through his chest. Especially when the twins were as damaged right now as Jazz was. For both the same reason and a different.
"Wicker." Jazz quietly whispered, leaning away from Prowl enough that he sucked in a deep breath trying to get a hold of himself. "Vael. Do you remember that mission to Vael?"
They all—apart from Bumblebee who stood there still staring down at them with huge optics—went tense.
Because they did.
The last mission Jazz had ever taken like that, before everything really went to pit, Optimus had allowed Jazz to take. The ones where Meister still existence.
The true explanation of Meister was not an easy thing to tell. For he was both Jazz but at the same time not. A shadow and a ghost all wrapped up into one. For Meister had been the side of Jazz that lived under Megatron's control. That haunted the ranks of the Decepticons early in the war sparking fear in the sparks of all on either of the warring factions that heard his name.
The loose cannon not even Megatron himself could control.
An angry, vengeful, more than happy to watch the whole universe burn said of Jazz that rose out of the ashes of Kaon and Tyger Pax burning. The mech that killed because he could and because he enjoyed it. That tortured because he liked it.
That cackled at energon rolling down his claws.
They were one and the same. Jazz and Meister. Different sides of the same coin.
For Jazz's real name, the name he'd been sparked with—the one his creators had given him so very long ago among the swirling red sands—was Jazzmeister.
The mech that as far as most of the world outside of Megatron, Soundwave, Optimus Prime, Prowl, Ratchet, Elita, Arcee, Ironhide, and Chromia thought for a long time died outside Tyger Pax one hundred vorns into the war when Prowl lifted a blaster and held it to his helm.
The world outside a select few thought Prowl pulled the trigger that orn and the leaking, damaged, mistrusting, mech he hauled back to Iacon by the name of Jazz was somebot he saved from Meister's torture chambers.
Those rumors were not true.
Even if most of the world still didn't know that.
For Jazz was Meister. The mech that was ordered to kill Prowl only to end up staring death in the optics because of it. The mech that grinned through a broken visor and energon stained teeth taunting Prowl to be done with it. For Meister had hated life for all it was. He hadn't wanted to be a part of any of it.
Prowl made a different call.
And from that fake blaster shot another mech came to be.
Jazz had changed with the chance at life he was given when he really hadn't deserved it, but he was still capable of all the things Meister had been. It hadn't taken long for the Autobots to learn they were going to need it too. However, the choice to let Jazz loose on the darker aspects of the war to try and bring an end to it never happened often and Meister had only come back into play a few times.
The last time being Vael.
Half a vorn undercover in the darkness of a underbelly of the world that Megatron kept hidden from even Soundwave. The home of a mech that was more monster then mech. A betrayer to his own race. A bot trafficker.
Meister had for that mission come back from the dead so to speak. Strutted into that nasty place in search of answers for the Autobots as to what Megatron was doing with a known sparkling thief. The mech that ran the second biggest crime power under the Gladiator Rings. The one that sold things and gained from places no bot really knew.
No bot knew his off world ties or where he sent the bots, younglings, and sparklings he took a way in the shadows of the night. All they had known was that Megatron had been using him for resources and that he was getting some seriously dangerous slag from him.
The Autobots had been desperate to stop it. Desperate enough for Optimus to let Meister come back to life.
So the shadow, the ghost, of Jazz went. Went in search of answers and did unspeakable things to get them. Things that to this orn left him jolting from recharge screaming, shivering, and crying. Things that only Prowl knew because only Prowl had the truth of it all. For there were no secrets between sparkbonds.
Even if they were things that Prowl honestly wished he didn't know.
The mission had gone south right when Jazz had been on the brink of finding out who Nebulous' off world client was. He'd been found out though to this orn he didn't know how. Trapped in the deep underbelly of that prison like privately owned city underground he'd done what he now told his spies never to do.
He'd offered a frag in a play for time.
Nebulous' daughter—Wicker—had been trailing after the silver—at the time painted black—mech since he strutted his way in. The femme as sick as her sire wanted to know what the horror of the Decepticons risen from the dead was like.
Jazz had seen his way out.
And he took it.
He gave her want she wanted. A night with Meister.
He left her recharging and he never looked back.
Never thought of the femme he'd interfaced and merged with in an attempt to get close enough to a way out to take it.
He'd never thought it would come back to haunt him. Not after all the other things he'd seen and done there.
And that was what he told them all now. Shivering there in that hall in his mate's lap staring out at the sky that that sparkling he had left behind in that pit hole of a place with a monster to raise her disappeared through.
Because he hadn't known.
He hadn't known about his own creation.
The door to the brig cell slid open to revel the narrowed blue optics of the Prime finding the dulling grey form of the Underground Captain leaning against the far wall with a pool of energon puddle around him. His life's fluid still dripping out rather quickly down his side as well as down his chin and the cracking along his throat.
Megatron stalked in after him, but stayed half a pace behind his brother with Jazz beside him. Soundwave on his other side as Prowl was beside Jazz. Ratchet walked in last with a stiff back and cold optics as the door slid shut, locking them all in. The twins were upstairs with Arcee. The femme trying to keep them calm after Bee had talked them back down out of the berserker coding and Jazz had whispered his way through the truth. At least all of it that he could figure out on his own.
It had only been ten klicks. Ten horrible, life alerting klicks and their whole world had changed. Leaving them all spinning in both the same and different ways, but locked on one all the same. For it didn't take long for a mech to leak to death.
And they needed answers. For far more than they once thought.
No matter what came to pass Optimus was still against torture.
No matter that his docking bay was in ruins. Jynx was gone. Jazz was just this side of losing his mind and Megatron was fit to rip struts from protoform just to see the imprints left behind in the skin.
The gleeful smile that lit the eldest brother's lips as he saw the sheer amount of energon pooled around Nebulous made Optimus a little sick to his tanks. However, that was nothing compared to the hauntingly happy look on the dying mech's faceplate.
Steeling himself with one side long look at both Jazz and Megatron that were holding still only out of will Optimus walked forward trying not to notice the dull, lifeless grey limb still dangling from the cuffs off the table leaking a drip down the floor.
Optics focusing down on the twisted smile of the slowly dying mech sprawled out against the wall before him he watched him for a long moment. Looking for something even he wasn't sure of. Then with a hard breath he began.
"No one here will help you." He said evenly. "That isn't what the medic is here for."
Nebulous smiled even wider. Teeth glittered with energon.
"But you are still going to answer the questions I ask you."
Nebulous barked a cold laugh sending a splatter of energon out to spray Optimus' knees. "You're pretty bad as this whole negotiation thing aren't you? We both know I'm dying and you've got no plans to stop it. Don't blame you. You don't show off my frame soon Blackice is going raze your city. Well, pit, he's gonna do that anyway so really I don't seen the point. You're so far behind all this you don't even know where to begin."
"You're still going to answer." Optimus told him coldly.
Nebulous spit at him. "Why should I do that?"
"Because if you don't I'm going to walk back out that door and my brother and my friend will begin by gutting you like a bell fish and when they are done Soundwave will hack into your still probably somewhat living processor and dig out every dirty secret you know. All under Ratchet's protected medical firewalls that will make it damn near impossible for any safety procedures that might be in your helm to harm him. But that will all be after Jazz destroys you and Megatron helps."
"I should think Megatron has more than enough reason to want to do more than help."
The massive grey mech snarled, only staying put because Soundwave caught his elbow.
Optimus gaze narrowed.
Nebulous just chuckled quietly around the pained wheezing of his breathing.
"After all, I'm the one helped Shockwave talk him into destroying the youth sectors."
Optimus optics widened, Jazz and Prowl shot the Protector a look, Ratchet growled, Soundwave just sighed, all while Megatron snarled.
"Oh come now, big mech. Don't act all hurt about it. We all know it was the best option. Though if you remember right you were suppose to let me have some. You broke our deal when you just killed them all. Not that it matters. I got ya back in the end. Even if you seem to have forgotten."
Megatron yanked himself out of Soundwave's hold. Marching forward only to get caught by Optimus' thrown out arm. Not because Optimus wished to save the glitch but because he needed to know what he would say.
"What are you talking about?"
"Were you really that lost in The Fallen's madness back then? Slag. I knew that mech's mind control was strong but I was hoping there might have been a little bit of the fallen prince still in there by that time. I guess there wasn't though. You really were nothing more than a puppet on strings, I suppose. Pity. I kind of hopped you'd actually known what you were doing when you dropped him off on my doorstep for me to do with what I pleased."
Megatron went still.
They all did.
A cold dread swirling up inside them again.
"Come on now. You can't tell me you don't know too!? Primus! How stupid can the lot of you mechs be? I mean Meister has an excuse, he left just a frag. He couldn't have known the stupid bitch of a daughter of mine would kindle. You though. You handed over the actual sparkling for me to get rid of for you."
Nebulous' cackled at the slip of emotion on Megatron's face as anger passed to horror left him a wheezing choking mess as Optimus slowly turned to look at his brother. Nebulous was once again far from done though. He was having far too much fun taking these stupid glitches' worlds and breaking them to little pieces.
"You can't tell me Jynx never told you. Primus, you have to know about Gambit and Arsine. Slag, those two stupid mechlings were the only reason she lived long enough for me to sell. You should be proud of your son, you fool. He never did bow out to my beatings. He was defiant the whole time. Though Gambit always was the strongest of those three scrap rats. Took after you, I suppose. It's a shame too. He had such potential. Wasted on a lab experiment really—"
The words were cut off by a blur of silver.
One moment Jazz was standing behind and the next he had his claws buried in Nebulous' throat. A splattered gush of energon spraying all over his front as the huge mech's words cut off in a gurgled choke. Energon bubbling into his mouth. Pouring from ruptured veins and tubing while Jazz's claws dug in curling around the three vital clusters of parts in the middle of a bot's neck as he snarled down into his faceplate.
"Stop. Talkin'. Ya. Sick. Bastard."
Around the chocking, gurgle of energon Nebulous smiled that cold grin one last time. "Oh . . . I'm . . . the sick one?"
Jazz ripped back. Taking with him vocal processor, the main jugular, and the comm cluster relays. Ending it in a messy splatter of what was left of the mech's energon all over him, Jazz, and the floor.
Quivering in rage Jazz glared down at the last struggling chokes before life finally faded out of Nebulous' optics leaving a slumped, slowly graying frame still leaking energon on the floor.
Then, slowly, Jazz turned around stared.
Megatron hit the ground. There was no other way to describe it then that. That massive frame just buckled. He hit his knees in a tilt of limbs and weight. Only Optimus and Soundwave surging forward stopping him from crashing to his faceplate.
"Megs," Optimus snapped in shock, trying to get a grip on his bigger brother's frame at the awkward bend of an angle and the thoughts rolling around in his helm. But Megatron didn't hear him. Didn't even see him. Let alone Soundwave who crouched to his knees beside him to help hold is weight as Megatron stared through wide unblinking optics.
"Skydancer." He gasped out making Soundwave lean back in shock. "Oh Primus. Skydancer! I-I-I . . . ."
Soundwave squeezed his optics shut remembering right along with Megatron.
All that energon. That endless energon that he couldn't get to stop. That screaming. The sound that echoed in Soundwave's audios for vornsafter it was over.
It wasn't often carrier's died in labor, but it did happen. Especially when there was no medic and no supplies to help them. Soundwave was smart but he was not a doctor. He never had been.
There had nothing he had been able to do to save the femme that night. No matter how bad he wanted too. No matter how much he had prayed that this might be the one last thing that could save his friend where he had failed.
That if there was anything that might bring Megatron out of the madness that had taken him over it might be that brave flier. The one that caught Megatron's attention in the middle of all that madness enough to want to court her. To want to keep her.
But a plasma round to the spark chamber and trauma induced labor on the middle of a dying battle field had ended all that before it had ever truly began. Skydancer had died that night and Soundwave had thought her sparkling died with her.
That bundle of black hanging limply from a crying Megatron's arms as the acid rain came down around them was not a memory Soundwave would ever forget.
The mech had fled taking with him what Soundwave thought was a dead sparkling to grieve by himself. When he returned without it Soundwave had assumed it was gone as well, along with every hope he had of stopping this madness.
Apparently, he had been wrong.
However, Megatron didn't seemed to know it any more than he did.
"Oh Primus!" Megatron curled forward with a shattered sound, shaking and gasping. Soundwave wrapped his arms around him resting his chin against his helm as his deep red optics lifted to find the wide blue ones of Optimus Prime.
It seemed Jazz wasn't the only mech that left something behind in that living pit and didn't know it.
Suddenly the door burst open to Bumblebee snapping attention to him of all but Megatron and the yellow mech panted. Those bright optics of his taking in the room. Catching a moment to widen at Megatron on his knees, but with a hard shake of his helm he fixed is gaze on the others.
"Preceptor caught the video trail! She's headed toward Caterwaul! The twins, Arcee and I can't stop 'em. They're won't listening. They're leaving. They're going after her."
"Damn it!" Jazz snarled, spinning round toward the door.
"Nook." Prowl hissed cold blue optics widening as he spun with his mate and headed from the room while Jazz rushed past Bee. "She's going to Nook."
They should have known that too.
You didn't really think it was only Jazz and Jynx that were going to have their worlds turned upside down did you?
Oh no. Megatron's right in there with them on the past coming back to bite.
Did any of you see that one coming? *slightly evil grin* I did say Megatron had more part to play in this story then you might have thought. Even if he didn't know it either.
Poor mech. He's in so much trouble. Him and Jazz both. Also, to those of you that have read GG. How many of you freaked a little at the chapter title? That actually wasn't on purpose. It just kind of happened, but I liked it so it stayed.
And you guys were worried about her leaving Nook in Caterwaul. I promised we weren't done with him didn't I?
Anyway, there you have it. I'm so looking forward to what you all thought of this one as well. One twist followed right on the heels of another, that's a new record for me. There are a lot of ties starting to come together, I'm interested in seeing how many of you are catching them. So begin with the yelling and shouting if you wish. Because the ride is starting.
Jynx is running, the twins, Prowl, and Jazz are after her, and Megatron is screwed. What could possibly go wrong?
Thank you all once again for reading and for reviewing. I love you all and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you did the others.
See ya soon.
-Jaycee
