Chapter Eight: Energon is Thicker than Blood

Jack sighed as he walked into class the next day. His mind raced with possibilities as he walked around the halls to his locker. He hadn't seen any sign of Sierra since he arrived which was fine. More that fine if he was honest. Every time he thought of her l, his chest would seize in pain to the point hex almost blacked out. A thought of his Mom and Arcee lessened the most recent and strongest surge of pain. I think knowing my Mom was in a relationship similar to mine with Arcee broke her. A stray part of him hoped she didn't have a mental breakdown after Optimus made the final decision not to add her to the group. Jack had a sneaking suspicion his Mom and Arcee's as well as his own reactions to the cheerleader helped inform Optimus' decision. I hope she doesn't go looking for trouble.

As Jack gathered his books and turned, a milder stab of pain made him stumble as he felt another stab. While he was distracted by the pain, Jack met Miko and almost knocked her down.

"I think the General blew Sierra's mind."

For a moment, Jack cringed as his mind flashed back to Sierra's look of shock and fear when she first saw the Prime. "Yeah, I think your SpecOps friend didn't do her sanity too many favors either."

Miko noticed the moment of distress on Jack's face but chose nit to comment. Instead, the Japanese girl smirked. "I'm surprised."

Jack looked at her. "Why? You thought Sadie would flatten her before she could meet the unit?"

Miko nodded with a laugh. "From what she said to Bulk and what he told me, Sadie might have if you weren't there." Miko looked at Jack, expecting him to grimace. Instead, the elder teen didn't even flinch. "What's going on with you two, Jackrabbit?"

Jack sighed and looked at her. "Sorry, Miko." He told her. "That's privileged information."

The Japanese girl wanted to press and get Jack to tell her why he looked pained every time Sierra came into the conversation. Instead, the rocker sighed. So it's true? Miko then noticed the bags and dark circles under under his eyes. "Are you feeling ok, Jack?" She asked as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't sleep well last night."

Miko looked at him. "The Spider…?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I rarely have nightmares about her anymore." It was true, strangely enough. Jack had few nightmares since this started and most of them didn't center on Airachnid. Jack couldn't really explain it, but Airachnid seemed less threatening now. He knew that wasn't the case, but he felt more confident about handling himself now that he had faced the sadist and wounded her. "It's bizarre chest pain that seems to come in waves, pulsing strongly for a few minutes before calming back down." Jack explained. "I'm going to have Ratchet take a look after school."

Miko nodded as the look of worry already on her face set itself deeper into her face. "I just hope your Mom doesn't freak out."

Jack shrugged. "I don't know how she would react." Miko nodded as they parted ways. "Be careful until you see Ratchet."

"Yes, Mom." Jack said with a smile as he shook his head while Miko stood at the door of her first class of the day.

"See you at lunch, Miko."

The rocker smiled and nodded. Once away from Jack, the smile vanished however as Milo took her usual seat near the back of the room. To say she was worried about Jack would be a slight understatement. Even though his body gradually accepted the changes, from what she could get out of Raf, Jack had no natural spark chamber. As a result, the Spark inside would eventually burn its way out of Jack's body and go to the Well unless something was done to help Jack

Soundwave watched the world display with intrigue. During the previous rotation, around 1800 hours ship time, she thought she spotted a neutral Spark signature, but this Spark seemed to fade in and out of detection which was more than strange. Laserbeak, Operation: Investigate. Objective: Unknown.

With those orders, the bird-like Minicon left his mistress and went scouting. Meanwhile, Soundwave shunted this data to a hidden drive server in her chassis, determined to keep what she and Laserbeak found about this signal away from Megatron.

Meanwhile, back at school, the raven-haired boy sighed as he felt the presence of someone behind him. "Sierra?"

The girl smiled and sat by him. "You have many a secret, Jack."

The boy opened his mouth to speak, but a searing pain rolled through the raven-haired techno-organic and sent him to his knees. "Primus…" he whispered before he collapsed and succumbed to the agony.

"Jack!"

Soundwave looked at the massive spike in the unknown neutral signal and acted quickly. She sent out a high frequency signal on a wavelength she knew the Autobot medic would intercept. Urgent: Go to Raf's school NOW! He may need medical attention.

For a moment, Ratchet stared in disbelief at the source of the message. Then, the old medbot transformed and scorched tires as raced toward the high school with sirens blaring.

Raf heard the soft unique sound of Laserbeak and was about to leave to meet his friend, but a commotion in the hall drew the boy's attention. As he walked toward the crowd, Raf heard Laserbeak chirp out something that normal humans wouldn't understand as speech. "She called Ratchet?" He wondered aloud. Then, the young genius by Human standards slipped into the crowd and felt his Spark drop. Raf nodded slightly as his eyes confirmed what he suspected. "Sierra, get back!"

Sierra startled at the strong voice and looked up just in time for Raf to push her back. "What?"

Raf sighed. I don't have time for you to act like a… Raf trailed off in his mind. Jack was more important than insulting a cheerleader right now. "I said, 'Get away from him.' You're part of the reason he's in so much pain right now!" Raf internally cursed as he knelt by Jack. If I had medical mods like Ratchet, I'd be more help. As it was though, Raf put his hand over Jack's chest and felt the Spark underneath vibrating chaotically. Out of sync… Raf surmised as an old doctor with scrubs and a lab frock with a stethoscope about his neck knelt by the boy and started listening to Jack. "Doctor, he's…"

"I know, Rafael. Your mother informed me." Ratchet said through his holoform. "Get Miko." He told the boy. "I need both of you to help me get Jack to an ambulance!"

Raf nodded and hurried off to find Miko. Luckily for him, Laserbeak had already found her and started communicating such to the boy. I'm on my way. Raf mentally told the creature. Don't lose her.

A moment or two later, Raf ran into Miko, grabbed her hand, and started running back toward Jack. "Ratchet needs our help getting Jack into the medic's ambulance alternate mode."

Miko quickened her pace a little when she heard that. "What's wrong with Jack?"

"Sierra…" Raf growled as his feet began to move even quicker while Miko struggled slightly and began to skip unintentionally as Raf pulled her along. "Since Jack hasn't Bonded to Arcee yet, the glitch's flirting throws his brand new Spark into a form of arrhythmia every time she gets close to him."

Miko looked at Raf. "So Jack really does have a heart attack around the girl?"

Raf shook his head. "Arrhythmia can lead to a heart attack, but they aren't the same. An attack happens when the heart is starved of nutrients. The other condition means the heart doesn't beat normally and can starve or flood the body with blood at wrong times due to lack of rhythm."

Miko nodded but looked mildly bored with the explanation. "You've been spending too much time with Mrs. Darby and Hatchet."

Raf ignored the CMO's nickname. "I learn what I can when I can."

Miko sensed a hint of dread as she and Raf made to back to Ratchet and Jack. "That's not all. Is it?"

Raf just shook his head slowly before the trio of the docbot, Raf, and Miko gently laid Jack on a gurney supplied by June who looked at Jack in worry as she was brought in the back of the ambulance.

"What's the situation, doctor?"

Ratchet moved his center rear view to look at the mother before his voice cane from the Autobot symbol on his steering wheel. "Jack has developed a Spark of his own. If I cannot calm it back into its natural pattern, Jack will not survive because the Spark will burn his body away."

June blinked, looked at her son, and stroked his black hair in fear for her son's life, silently whispering a prayer to Primus for Jack's sake. "He should have a Spark Chamber to isolate the Cybertronian and organic."

Ratchet would have nodded had he been able. "Jack does, but the shielding around his Spark is currently underdeveloped." Ratchet thought for a moment for an appropriate analogy June would understand, bring versed in Human anatomy and not Cybertronian. "He effectively has weak heart walls that can't handle the current stress he is under due to the irregular rhythm and abnormal strength of his Spark."

"Course of treatment, doctor?"

"Back at the silo, I have ample supply of the nanobots needed to properly reinforce his Spark Chamber." A large infuser detached itself from the wall. "These will hold until we get to base. I'll-" The medbot felt a slight pop and a pinprick like a momentary needle stick as the infuser became free from its arm.

"I'll tend to my son, Ratchet." June assured him. "Concentrate on driving."

June quickly took the canister of nanites from the infuser and expertly produced an intravenous drip from her medical bag to begin feeding the nano-machines into Jack's body. Maybe it was mother's intuition or forgotten memory surfacing, but June suddenly realized a critical piece of treatment needed to make sure Jack would recover fully. I hope Arcee isn't away on patrol when we get back to Base.

Inside Jack's mind, something a bit odd unfolded as Jack lay unconscious in the back of Ratchet's ambulance. Jack looked over at a gleaming city of metal and blue light that softly pulsed through the buildings. Jack looked over and was suddenly rocketed toward a tavern. Inside, he spotted a familiar blue femme, but she seemed different from the Arcee he knew. She played a drinking game of sorts with a few mechs as they watched gladiators fight on a holographic screen over the bar.

Across the room, Jack registered a bot cheering on a gladiatrix. "Give it to him, Black Widow!"

Arcee suddenly flinched and grimaced as a grinding crash sounded from both screens. Only the "Black Widow" made her prey beg to be offlined before she fulfilled his wish.

Back with Arcee, a bot was being thrown around the arena like a rag doll. Normally, combat wouldn't faze Arcee. She was a local peacekeeping officer after all, and fights were basically hard-coded into the job. However, the current gladiator who was winning made her want to purge.

"That hurt him." One of her fellow officers, a mech with a natural knack for combat, smiled as the victim was run threw with the massive silver mech's large arm blade. "That D-16 guy is brutal!"

Arcee looked up just as the camera drone panned to the gladiator's face. Something in that mech's optics horrified her to the point that she ran outside and purged her tank. He had the optics of a serial killer and something in Arcee HATED that faceplate the moment she saw it.

"Arcee…" Jack whispered as he willed himself closer to her.

Before he could try to comfort her, Tailgate walked out of the bar and put a servo on her shoulder. "You seem like you've had enough High Grade for one rotation." He looked at her. "What's your name?"

"Arcee…" she managed a smile as her systems began to baseline again.

The mech nodded, "Tailgate."

Jack woke up from the memory/dream and looked around in slight confusion. "What the Pit was that?"

Ratchet turned from the massive console he worked from at Jack's question. "Glad to see you're awake." Ratchet said with a genuine smile that came from a brief frown at the Cybertronian swear. "How are you feeling?"

Jack groaned as he sat up and felt his head pound in pain. "Did someone give me High Grade last night?"

Ratchet nodded, though his face took on a look of confusion. "I gave you some to supercharge the nanites in your body to be able to build up the strength of your Spark Chamber quickly." The medic walked over to the medical berth on which Jack lay and looked at the boy. "How do you know about High Grade?"

Jack sighed. "I don't know if you'll believe me, but while I was unconscious, I think I shared Arcee's memory of how she met Tailgate."

June and Ratchet looked at each other knowingly. Ratchet then nodded. "It would seem that your Bond with Arcee is getting stronger."

Jack blushed. "W-What do you mean?"

June shook her head with a light laugh at the look on Jack's face. "It's not exactly what you're thinking." She told him. "Bonds are not exclusively romantic. There are Bonds of familial and friendship nature, too."

Jack sighed in relief, but there was also a hint of disappointment in his optics. "So, where am I with Arcee?"

It was June's turn to blush. "You'll have to iron that out with Arcee at some point."

Jack looked around the room and felt a small sensation of discomfort in his chest when he didn't see Arcee. Before the teen could ask where Arcee was, however, Raf and Miko walked you to the berth. Raf still had his backpack slung over his shoulder while Miko carried her prized guitar.

Miko smiled. "You look better, Jack."

"Yeah," Raf added. "I'm glad you're ok."

Jack nodded and swung his legs over the edge of the berth before he slid down to the floor. "Raf, did I miss anything?"

The spike-haired genius dug in his backpack for a moment and handed Jack a folder. "Here's everything from the time you left to your last class."

Jack nodded and reached for the folder but stumbled as he did.

"Easy, Jack." June said softly. "What's wrong?"

Jack's optics widened for a moment as a phantom pain in his leg that started when he reached for the folder continued to wail at the back of the young man's mind. "I don't know." He looked at Ratchet. "Where did Arcee say she was going?"

Ratchet turned to the youth. "Arcee went to patrol like she always does when she has a lot on her processor."

Jack felt worry until it ebbed a few minutes later when he heard Arcee's unique engine rumble up the ramp into the base proper. When she transformed, Jack noticed a sizable dent in Arcee's left outer thigh plate right where Jack's muscle had seized up in a painful charley horse about fifteen minutes prior. "Arcee, we need to talk."

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