If you made it this far, then you should be aware of the warnings.

Ch. 15

Ironhide walked into the kitchen where Jazz was trying to reach for a box of diamond dust, but it was just out of reach. He walked behind him and pulled it down for him. "Here." Jazz took it with a frown. "How's the arm?"

"Thanks. And useless." He looked at the offline arm that just hung there. Jazz poured in a couple scoops of the dust into a boiling pot of melted rust sticks. A knock on the door got both of their attention, but it was Ironhide that went to answer it.

Ironhide opened it and was handed a sealed data card. He flipped it over and saw Jazz's name on it, and the return address was from Praxus. The mech went over to the Polyhexian with the letter held out in front of him. "For you."

Me? Prowl? He really did it. He kept his promise to me. Jazz was quick to open the seal, inside was a data chip and a short letter. He sat the data chip on the counter as he read the letter.

Dear Jazz,

I had gotten word that this data chip was recovered, and I was quick to get it before anyone else did. You won't recognize all of the songs, but the one song that I played for you when you were in the med bay during the war. I'm sorry for the short letter, I am not very good with this or expressing myself as you may remember. Your health and recovery is more important than my poor excuse of a letter.

Prowl.

The Polyhexian started smiling and even gave a small giggle. Ironhide felt how bouncy the field around the Polyhexian was as he reread the letter before forcing himself to focus on what he was previously was doing. The red mech smiled subtly when he saw his friend shining through. Keep this up Prowl, you're the only one who can get him through this. "Well I'm going to work out for a bit before heading to Newgate."

After refueling, cleaning, and working out with Ironhide, Jazz was laying in his berth with the data chip going into his wrist. He started the playlist before deactivating his visors, the darkness was instantly filled by bright colors. He closed his optics while the music played softly in his receptors. Jazz sat up quickly, activating his visors, and went to the window. The Polyhexian lifted the window open before flipping onto the roof.

Jazz ran for the next roof, leaping for the roofs until he made it to the large bridge that led to the Towers. He rose slowly onto his peds before sending the signal. It wasn't long before two figures landed on either side of him. "Co, Skids yer gonna get caught and our plan isn't goin' tah go through. Ah know ya want our family back together, but Raj and dah others don't trust yer intentions."

It's just the failsafe. Skids sighed sadly before nodding in agreement. "I'm sorry, it was my fault. I just want you back Ca… Jazz. I had to lie to Prowl about my Sire, and mister cocky here keeps going out in public to antagonize the Council."

"Oh, I'm cocky? What about you Skids? You've got all of the old Ops team on your aft!" Ricochet pointed a digit at him.

"Enough ya two. Just cool it with yer visits. Now dat Prowler is back in my life, all we need is time. Do somethin' tah convince dah Council dat yer on our side. And then everythin' will be right again." Jazz said before hugging them both. "Stay safe."

"You too." They all went their way; as soon as Jazz's helm hit the pillow, Ironhide did his routine night check on Jazz. He cracked the door open and saw the Polyhexian rolling over with a whine. The red mech went to close the door before he heard Jazz mumble something.

"Sparked…Europe…Data." With each word Jazz tossed and turned with stressed whimpers. His field flared with stress and he started digging his digits into the berth. Ironhide went into his room and sat on the berth with his field trying to soothe the recharging mech.

Just outside Kaon, Drift was with Hot Rod, Mirage, and Bumblebee. He didn't want to return to his home city, but if it was to help his future mate and his friends, then he would do it. "You guys need to give me your left arms." The swordsmech instructed as he changed the color of his optics back to red.

"Why?" Bumblebee asked as they all lifted out their arms. Drift started chipping paint until his old name's glyphs appeared.

"You three won't be bothered if they see that you're owned. Trust me it's a lot safer for Iaconians." Drift said before looking around nervously. "And Rod for the love of fragging Primus do not speak out. That can only protect you so much."

"But… But I… Dr-… Hmph." Every time Hot Rod tried to speak Drift put a digit to his lips. He didn't like not speaking his mind, but he crossed his arms and looked away to pout. Drift kissed his helm before looking for the sign that they needed to find the mechs.

The three Autobots followed behind Drift, they kept the chatter to a minimal while they walked. They were passing a large group of mechs before Drift's shoulder clipped one of the other mech's. Both groups stopped in their steps and they slowly turned their helms to glare at each other. "Ya wanna apologize tiny?" The other mech sized Drift up with a growl.

"Me? Do ya wanna apologize for being a blumbering idiot? Now move along before I have to fight nasty." Drift growled back with his swords falling into his servos. The other mech stepped back before huffing and walked on. He sheathed his blades, quickly pushing the other three mechs along. "Thank Primus that worked."

"Is that common? To threaten to fight?" Bumblebee asked Drift quietly. He noticed that any other Kaonions heading in their direction saw Drift with them, they started whispering before backing off. "What are they saying? My Kaonion is rusty."

"They think I own a club. And you have to look intimidating or you'll get pushed around. Oh, hold on." Drift went over to a couple of younglings and held out a few credits in front of their faces. "Can ya tell me where I can find a Meister, or a slave named Skids?"

The oldest of the younglings looked at her young friend before they turned their backs to them whispering. She turned back to Drift and held up five digits. "We'll show ya for five credits."

"Five credits!? Ya can get shelter at the youth center for a credit." Drift stood up and crossed his arms. "Two credits."

"We ain't going to the center here idiot. Meister is taking us into the tunnels!" The young mech said excitedly. "Five credits or ya ain't going."

Drift groaned before pulling out three more credits and dropped them into the femme's servos. "Slagging scraplets. Take us to him now or I'll send your afts to the youth center."

Hot Rod looked at Mirage and Bumblebee quizzically. The noble shrugged as Bumblebee was catching a few words. "I think Drift got gypped out of credits?"

The younglings ran ahead of the bigger mechs, stopping occasionally when they got ahead of them. The white and red mech was scowling. "They remind me so much of… me. Living on the streets we would do anything to survive, literally anything to get credits. The mech said something about Meister sending them into tunnels."

"Tunnels? I don't recall any during the war." Mirage said with Bumblebee nodding along with him. "That can explain how bots are getting into Iacon without anyone knowing, but where are the entrances at?"

"Drift, do I seriously have to be quiet the entire trip? This city gives me the creeps, no offense." The future Prime quickly said to his future bonded.

"You don't have to be quiet Hot Rod, just… don't be snarky. And don't be fooled by poor looking bots, they will jump you." The mech spoke softly as they were led to where the older Autobots were familiar. "The black market? Hey what are you twerps trying to play at!?"

The younglings quickly took off before two large Kaonions popped up from a hidden balcony above the door. Drift gasped and hid the Autobots behind him with a glare, "it can't be. Tarn, Vos you're both online? But how?! I thought Megatron had you all extinguished?"

Vos looked at the other mech and started speaking in a language none of them understood, but a few words were able to be translated. "…. Drone… tell… boss." Tarn groaned as he pulled his blaster away with a roll of his optics before talking into his wrist while keeping an optic on the four mechs.

::Hey, they're here like he said.::

::Bring them in. Data will escort them from there.:: Skids said as he tried to contain his excitement.

"The kid said let 'em through. Hey idiot ya might want to hide those marks, unless ya want yer helm mounted on his mantle!" Tarn said before the large door spiraled open and they disappeared from view

Hot Rod looked at Drift with a frown. "Who are those mechs?"

"Tarn and Vos, members of the Decepticon Justice Division. Tarn leads them and Vos is their scientist, there are four others Helex, Kaon, Tesarus, and Nickel. I've never met them, but I'll be glad if they don't find out who I am." Drift explained softly as they walked inside.

"Why's that?" Mirage asked as they went down a dimly lit hallway. It started opening up into Halifax's market, except it was bigger the last time that Mirage had seen it. There were actual doors leading to possible areas. "This place expanded a lot last time I've been here."

"As a Decepticon, we never feared Autobots but the DJD we knew we were in deep slag if we appeared on their list. And my betrayal to Megatron and betraying the cause may be enough to appear on their hit list. I agree with you Mirage; last time I saw Halifax it was to trade in a bounty for some sword polish. The mech was a quack, lost his trine and his ability to fly all in one solar cycle." Drift looked around and saw a medical drone kneeling down in front of a swarm of younglings and sparklings.

Bumblebee started secretly recording everything the moment they walked into the large room. The drone saw them enter and ushered the young Cybertronians to a door behind the counter that had a variety of items on and in it. Tarn and Vos exited the door on the left, they were almost comically taller than the drone. "Ya look familiar, have we met?" Tarn asked as he walked in front of them.

"Hey how can I understand you now?" Hot Rod asked when he realized he could understand all of the mechs and femmes in the room.

"Translator. Vos and I built it." Skids had popped up from behind the counter with a greasy towel in his servos. He smiled before walking over to Tarn and Vos with an even bigger smile on his face. "Welcome to the rebellion. I'm Skids, second of this group, and our stubborn leader is currently busy. Tarn be nice, the war is over." His wings moved excitedly as he pulled the large mech out of the others' space.

Vos nodded before going to the door that the younglings went through. "I will escort… sparklings… Praxus."

"Alright, I'll notify the team. Come on, we've got a lot to do and my brother won't be happy if I'm chatting away like Blurr." He laughed lightly before taking to the door on the right. Drift noticed how close Tarn followed Skids, which was odd. "We are working on clearing out the illegal sparklings that Kaonions had with their slaves. And we're getting some slaves to retreat to the other cities to houses that my brother bought."

"Wait so you're not trying to rebel against the Council? And what about your master, how would he like knowing that his slave is freeing others?" Hot Rod blurted out curiously.

Skids looked over his shoulder as he laughed with a shake of his helm. "My 'master' is my brother, and it's just for show like you all, Councilor Hot Rod. We're rebelling against the Kaon and Tarn leaders, trying to free slaves and safely hide any sparklings that they had with their masters."

"Where is the rest of the division at Tarn?" Drift asked wearily, fearful for his own life.

"Dead, Vos and I are the only ones that survived. They found us, and now we work for them. Skids, the urchins got wind of a pleasure bot that is carrying. We'll have to have her here before the owners find out." Tarn explained softly.

"I'll go, but don't tell Rico. He'd flip his slagging helm if he found out that I went downtown without him." His wings flexed as he folded his arms behind his back with a hum.

Mirage elbowed Bumblebee's side when he noticed something that he swore came from Jazz's music collection from during the war. "Didn't Jazz have this album?" The scout shrugged, focused on the Praxian with his field expanding to get a read on him.

"Doesn't he seem familiar? Like the way he walks, talks, slag even his field seems almost familiar." Bumblebee knew for a fact that the party was the first time he saw him, but he felt like he's seen this type of confidence from someone before.

The walls were lined with music albums from before the war, crystal lights lit the halls, and there were framed glyph stones that had names with dates under them. Drift kept a close optic on Tarn, not trusting him, but when he saw how close he followed the smaller Praxian it reminded him of how he would do the same thing back when he was Deadlock. He would stand extremely close to Hot Rod when they first started courting, because he was fearful of something else in his life going wrong if he didn't hold onto it for dear life. It can't be. He wasn't going to believe that Tarn, leader of the DJD, had the ability to love.

"You know he'll make me go with you. Still think you two are idiots for bringing Autobots into this, they won't accept the orphans." Tarn shook his helm as he grumbled.

"Well they'll have to deal, cause if they send all of them back to Kaon, they're as good as dead. And my creators would throw huge fits if that happened, and the populous would have something else to hate about the Council other than freeing a falsely accused mech." Skids flared his wings with his arms crossed, and he marched up ahead.

As soon as the young mech was up ahead, Tarn's helm started tilting to the side as his engines purred. "Love it when he's all riled up." He stopped chuckling when they stopped in front of double doors. The Praxian opened them wide before flipping on some lights, and the four mechs all gasped while the other winged mech groaned with annoyance. There was a mech laying back in a stationary chair with cables that came from the ceiling and connected to various places on his helm, and his digits were moving rapidly.

"I told you we were having guests! Get off the fragging grid ya aft!" He went over to the mech and leaned over him. The mech started stirring before he sat up with a groan but didn't say anything while him and Skids started removing the cables. "Oh, be quiet Rico. I did tell you; Vos and Data were there while they were clearing your intakes! I don't like worrying about whether or not you're going to be okay!"

The mech put his servos on his hips. "Well I didn't ask you to worry about me Skids. That bastard deserved everything I did to him. Now they all know what he went through since he was barely our age! I'd do it all over again if it means they all pay for they did to our family." He shoved a digit into Skids's chest with a huff of his engines.

"I don't want to lose my brother for his own stupidity! We've lost our Carrier and our Sires; I don't want to lose you." He returned the gesture with his wings moving radically behind him.

Sires? What is going on? Bumblebee looked at the scene with confusion. The other three mechs were just as confused by the scene that they just walked in on. These two are about as bad as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe when they argued.

Ricochet chose to not respond to the thought, "you're not going to lose me Skids. I'll make sure of that. Now can we forgive each other and focus on the task at hand?" He put a servo in the air between them, and Skids clasped his servo in the other with a smile on his face. I'm sorry for worrying you Skids, I just wanted to make them pay. The Polyhexian slowly turned to face the others with his face expressionless. "We are the Rebellion, and I am Ricochet. And our first priority is waking our Carrier up followed by finishing what you all started."

"You're a Kaonion. What do you mean wake up your Carrier?" Hot Rod asked Ricochet with a frown and his arms crossed. The brothers nodded while Tarn moved to the other side of the room. Vos had soon arrived with grime covering his frame, he went over to Ricochet and touched the center of his forehelm with a single digit before speaking with almost a similar tone that Preceptor or Shockwave did.

"They have been successfully transported to Velocity's shelter. We will set up for tonight's hunt. Finest energon all spiked with the usual?" Vos kept his digit on the young mech's helm. "Find peace in your spark Ricochet. The hunt will soon be over."

Skids snickered at the two before his brother took a deep, relaxing ex-vent. "Thanks Vos. Okay, back to business. We are trying to abolish slavery in Kaon, Vos, and Tarn just like the slavery laws and sparkling killing laws were abolished. We have several classified locations where we send a few of our followers to meet either fleeing Carriers with sparklings or just sparklings and younglings. The adults are given jobs to contribute and soon afford for their families. Some of the Carriers keep their creations under our care to get a bit of a head start in getting housing, and everything that the youth need."

"But we need the voice of a Prime and the original first slave to be free of his Kaonion master." Skids said before activating a large terminal, almost as large as Telatraan I. He typed away until several red lights appeared. "We have a major outpost in every major city, if we can get as many slaves and creations out of Tarn and Kaon then we can heavily dent the slave market."

"Skids, Ricochet I know you have good intentions, but this has been done before. And everyone involved had been publicly deactivated. How can you be so sure the results won't be the same?" Drift gestured at the young mechs with a frown of concern.

"They didn't have an Iaconian, a Kaonion, or two loyal followers of the Decepticons on the inside." Tarn huffed with his arms crossed over his chest with optics narrowed in Drift's direction. "Unlike you, Deadlock, I would never let my mistakes be covered up by a simple frame change."

Skids's wings twitched and his optics narrowed at the large mech. "Tarn the war is over, you don't need to answer everything with violence. I swear you and my brother are so much alike it angers me." He huffs with his optics rolling before quickly typing away before a red alert appeared on the screen. "Aw scrap, not again Data. Come on Vos, D came back with someone."

"Stay here, I don't trust you yet." Ricochet ordered before leaning against the terminal with a groan. "Ugh new sparks. I'm going to smack Data for bringing new sparks here."

A telepath? Bumblebee stared at Ricochet with his EM field expanding momentarily. "Who did you say your Sire was again?" He reached for behind his back with mental blocks going up.

"Never gave a name." Ricochet glared back as he reached for his blaster on his hip just as slowly. The two Polyhexians quickly drew their blasters, but Ricochet shot behind the minibot.

"Your aim is terrible." Hot Rod said shortly before a large beam swung from behind the mechs, and they all were sent face first with the beam trapping them underneath. "Or you're a really good shot. Ow."

"I never miss my target Councilor, remember that." Ricochet walked over to the four mechs as the struggled to get the heavy beam off of them. He tilted his helm before point his digits at them like a blaster before making soft sound as if he shot an actual blaster. "Only reason I am letting you see our base and know where we are located is because I led you all here. No one knows the Rebellion exist but those that want to see a change, I threw in that little clue in mine and Skids's files so you all would get curious."

Tarn walked over and lifted the beam off of them. "Their Carrier wasn't the only one to be subjugated by compliance chips. My entire team was a part of Shockwave's experiments, and when we found out we ripped them out of each before hightailing it out of Cybertron. Then we found out the hard way that Megatron had explosives implanted in us if we stepped out of line. When it was just Vos and I, Ricochet's drone found us and brought us to them."

"First Kaonions I met that didn't want to shoot me. Ironic in my opinion, seeing as the only thing Tarn Native about me are my optics." Ricochet stood back up and looked at the rising mechs. "Come to Twisted Spark, see how we work. And don't worry no one dies, well not unless they touch what they can't have."

Skids came back with his arms splattered with energon. "She wants her triplets taken to an uncle in Vos. Seeker sparkings are unnecessarily messy, ugh. I told her I'd take them there once their winglets hardened a bit for the travel."

"Alright, I'll scout of Vos for this uncle. Did she give a name?" Ricochet asked, forgetting about the Autobots. He tossed his younger brother a cleaning cloth.

"Yeah, and you're not going to believe it. It's Powerglide." Skids wiped off the results of after sparking.

"Really? Huh. Alright I'll go find him. What about the Carrier?" Ricochet looked at his brother with confusion.

He looked over his shoulder at the other mechs in the room before answering silently. She wants to stay with him. She thinks that she can change him. The Polyhexian sighed heavily and nodded briefly before shaking his helm. "I didn't tell her, but I had Data put a block in her gestational chamber. She'll still have heat cycles, but nothing will come of it."

"Good, we already have enough of a hard time hiding Praxians in Praxus. They have one of the dumbest family pyramids and courting laws. Do the sparklings look like Seekers at least? They'll be-"

"They'll be more accepted into the city if they look like Seekers. Yeah, yeah, I know. And we do not have dumb laws like Polyhexians do. I mean really a helm batting matching? Who wants to be repeatedly bashed in the helm to prove they're stronger?" Skids waved his now clean servo in the air.

Ricochet lifted his servo in the air and choking the air in frustration. "You are so annoying sometimes."

"Hey, what are you going to do about the Carrier? And you're not really planning on just dumping sparklings on Powerglide are you?" Bumblebee looked at the brothers and then Tarn with concern and anger.

"It's what their Carrier wished, just as it is to remain here. Tarn, please escort our guests to the border of Iacon. I have a lot of work to do, come on Skids we have some Lords to frag over." Ricochet picked up Blacklight's mask and placed it over his face, and his frame colors changed into Meister's coloring. And when he spoke, his voice was the same deep voice as Meister. "The hunt is on."