Pretender Chronicles

A War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron/Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Chapter 2: End of the Innocence

(Takes place after Foxbear's Deja Vu)

(8 PM Mountain Time, Jasper Nevada)

Mae was sitting in a small eatery in Jasper when Mrs. Ravenclaw walked in and sat at the counter next to her; the older looking Paiute woman seemed troubled and Mae wondered what would have caused the normally unflappable school librarian to feel that way. Mae was about to ask when Mrs. Ravenclaw spoke. "Hello Elder Mae; I have a bit of a dilemma that maybe you can help me with."

~* Which of the young ones is giving you grey hairs now, child? *~ Mae asked solemnly in Paiute as she shifted in her seat to look at her companion.

Mrs. Ravenclaw smiled at the comment from Mae, who was subtly indicating her status, then replied in the same language ~* Jackson Darby, of all people. He actually got physically violent with Vince at school today, though Vince was tormenting Darby's young friend Rafael, so in a way it's kind of understandable. I don't think I've ever seen the boy do anything like that before, so it's quite disconcerting to encounter. *~

Mae sighed and said, ~* That indeed would be a shock to someone who is not expecting it; Jackson didn't hurt Vince too badly, no matter how much he may have deserved it, I suspect. You need not concern yourself about a repeat of the incident; I will speak to Jackson the next time I see him and remind him that he has a good reputation to uphold and further fighting with Vince will tarnish it. *~

Mrs. Ravenclaw smiled and said ~* Thank you Elder Mae. I will watch the boy, for my own peace of mind, but trust that whatever you say to him will bring pleasant results for all parties, including those that don't precisely deserve them. *~

As Mae stood to leave and reached for her bill, Mrs. Ravenclaw spoke and place her own hand on it. ~* Go Elder Mae; I will pay for your meal, as a means of repayment for your advice to me. You no doubt have much to think on this night. *~ Mae smiled as she walked out to where Teal was patiently waiting for her.

/* Jack is still with Optimus, Mae, */ she heard as they drove toward the Darby residence; Mae grimaced, but continued on so she could talk to June. After the events of the preceding few days, Mae had come to trust June and felt that it was time someone other than the Autobots knew the secret she and Butch shared, but was uncertain how to explain it to the woman. /* Mae, June will figure it out sooner or later, you know. The hardest part is going to be convincing her not to say anything to Jackson, as you and I both know he has a gift that the Clan should train, but it's best he doesn't know that you and Butch are what you are, */ Teal said softly.

/* I know Teal; I'm just remembering the shock of when Ma first saw me transform, and all the questions she asked, some of which were downright embarrassing. */ Mae replied through their link, all the while steeling herself for a similar barrage of question from June.

(Darby Residence, 11:30 PM Mountain Time)

"I knew it," June said after Mae had spoken at length. "Believe it or not, I did suspect something when you came out of nowhere to rescue me from that horrible situation. I didn't say anything to Jack about it, as I wasn't one hundred percent certain, but I did wonder how you could have stayed under the radar, so to speak. Does Agent Fowler know?"

"No, but he may find out at some point," Mae said. "My boss knows where I am, but he doesn't know all the details, nor does he want to, since he deals with things that most folks aren't supposed to know about, but not the sort of things that Fowler deals with. I wouldn't put it past him to mention it to Fowler at some point and say not to mention it to anyone." Mae stretched her arms upward and noticed June admiring her form. "Similar, yet different, right?"

June blushed a bit, but said in response, "Yes, and it's amazing how readily you adapted to the look of a human; I would have to say that if you were fully clothed with a hood up in your natural form, not many people would notice the difference unless you stopped and spoke to someone."

(Omega One, two days later, after school)

Jack rode into Omega One with Raf, as his balance still wasn't supposed to be good enough after his "accident" to ride Arcee; he knew Bumblebee didn't mind the extra passenger, but he still felt awkward about it, since it was supposed to be personal time for Bee and Raf.

As they came to a stop inside the base, Jack noticed that neither Arcee or Teal were present, but since Mae was there, in one of her various semi non-traditional Native American outfits, he knew that her guardian couldn't be too far away. Jack and Raf got out of Bumblebee and he transformed; as Jack walked past, Mae reached out and touched him gently on the shoulder. "Teal is up topside waiting for you," she said, "though I'm not sure what she wanted; she wouldn't tell me."

Jack said to her, "Thanks for letting me know; I'll go see what she wants right away. Mae turned and walked over to where Raf was as Jack turned and walked over to the elevator to go up to the mesa; while there was a staircase up to the top as well, Jack was still sore from the fighting he had done in the Organic Pit in Iacon, so he chose the less stressful way up.

Walking out onto the plateau on top of the mesa, Jack noticed the teal colored three-wheeler sitting a few feet from the stone cairn that he knew was the memorial for Cliffjumper; he walked over to her and stood there until she spoke. "I don't think 'Cee would mind if you sat on me, nor would Mae," Teal said softly, turning her front end toward him, much like Arcee would do. Jack carefully swung a leg over her seat and put his hands on her handlebars.

"Mae said you wanted to talk to me," he said. "What's up?"

Teal was silent for a moment, then revved her engine a bit and said, "I have to say I'm proud of you for how you tried to protect Raf in a potentially hostile environment like the Organic Pit. I can only imagine what it was like to be forced to do something because someone else's life was in danger if you didn't, but you managed to survive despite the odds stacked against you."

Jack nodded and said, "Like I told Optimus, I didn't want to kill anything; I didn't even want to be there, but like you said, I had to do those things or they would have hurt Raf. I couldn't let that happen; I kept looking for Orion, whom we called Hunter, hoping to see him come through the door and rescue us."

"Which he did; he and Jazz did everything they could to find you, as you know," she said. "Orion was hurt by the deceit that was used to acquire the two of you; I had never seen him act that way before and it surprised me."

Jack looked down at her and said, "Jazz; he must be the one that we called Cool, mainly because we couldn't translate his name. But how did you know Orion? I don't recall seeing you there, although the time period just before I awakened in the base afterwards is fuzzy."

Teal said, " Climb off a minute; I think you'll remember me." Jack got off and stepped back as she transformed and knelt in front of him. She set her servo on the ground and he stepped onto it as she stood to her full height. She brought him up to her chest and held him next to her spark and his eyes grew wide.

"It was you, wasn't it? You were the one that cared for me while they were trying to find where the lab we had arrived on Cybertron was," he said as he rested his head against her chest and felt her spark pulsating. "So different from Arcee in so many ways, yet so like her that I didn't have any reason to be uncomfortable about you holding me."

"Yes, it was me, and at the time I couldn't understand anything you were saying. Orion, Jazz, and Ratchet helped too, of course, but I was the one most focused on your care after we found the lab," Teal said. "As for how I knew him we both worked in the Hall of Records, though I was often out looking for artifacts of our ancestors; it's purely by chance that I was in Iacon at the time you were there."

Jack thought for a minute and then said, "So you had stopped in to see someone the day we showed up, I suppose. And you were no doubt fascinated by us when you saw us."

"Yes, on both counts. I was reporting to Alpha Trion on the progress of the retrieval of some ancient data storage units when I first saw you sitting on Orion's kiosk. You actually must have been in recharge at the time because neither you nor Raf stirred when I spoke to Orion, but he assured me that the two of you were in fact online," Teal said.

"We probably were sleeping, as the Cybertronian day is longer than that of Earth . And I like your updated alt-mode. It's a Can-Am Spyder, isn't it?" Jack asked.

"Yes, it is; Mae and Butch helped Turq and myself pick out more appropriate alt-modes when they found us; I won't go into detail on how we met beyond that, so if you want to know, you'll have to ask her," Teal said as she carefully placed him on the ground then transformed back into her alt-mode.

Jack shook his head and said, "It still bothers me to think about what I did to that innocent machine, but I'm sure you understand after fighting in a war like you did. And I imagine that's part of the reason you stay out of the fighting and help Ratchet so much; you, like Optimus, don't really like fighting, but know that the Decepticon forces need contained somewhere."

A voice piped up from behind Jack, "That's part of it, Jack, but the truth is that we're often away from the base for days working for our FBI boss, and can't get too involved in the fighting." Jack turned to see Mae, clad in a bone vest, loincloth and moccasins, with a necklace consisting of turquoise stones and silver disks arranged around a single long tooth. As he watched her approach, he heard Teal idle away and head back into the base through the lift platform. "Jackson Eagle's Wing Darby, please have a seat so we can talk," Mae continued as she spread out a blanket in the shadow of Cliffjumper's memorial.

"Eagle's Wing?" he asked, as puzzled by the formality of her speech as the apparent grant of a name of some kind of importance, though he did take a seat as she had asked and looked up at her.

"Yes Jack; I feel your actions while you were gone were worthy of such an honor, even if you may question whether or not some of the things you were forced into doing make you worthy," she said as she sat across from him. He shook his head and laughed and she smiled.

"Mae, you're right; I do question it, because I was forced to choose between Raf and an innocent machine. Are such choices always this hard?" he asked, looking down at his hands where the rested on his knees.

Mae reached out to placed a hand on one of his, and sighed. "Jack, you're not the first person I've worked with after something like this, and that question is almost always one of the first asked by a person that was put in that situation. I've also had to work with innocent children that were caught in the crossfire of a shootout, and they wonder similar things about their specific situation. Nobody sane gains enjoyment from ending a life, not even your guardian Arcee; I don't even think she would if the one that she sent back to their Well was Airachnid, but don't tell her I said that." Mae gave Jack a cheeky grin as she said that, and Jack had to smile despite his personal anxiety about his own actions.

"So, what does the name signify? I'm sure it must have some kind of meaning," he said, filing away what she had said about Arcee and Airachnid and continuing on from there.

"It means you do your best to protect those you care about, in much the same way as an eagle seeks to shelter its young under its wings, which is true. Even before we first met, I saw this; Butch and I were some distance away when you and Raf were running from the Decepticons that Arcee was fighting and I saw you trying then to protect him. And when Miko ran through the ground bridge to follow Bulkhead, I knew you would want to do the same for her, as did Teal, so we let you go and sent Turq and Butch as observers," Mae explained.

"I remember the latter well, but I don't remember seeing you at the time Raf and I headed for the drainage tunnel," Jack commented, thinking about the events of that day.

"No, you wouldn't have seen us; Teal wanted to stay out of sight but still be able to observe and give what assistance she could without actually getting directly involved in the combat," Mae pointed out. "She has some interesting special abilities that she used to use back on Cybertron, or so she's told me, that only work on her own kind and only on allies to boot. You may want to ask the Autobots about the Battle Singers some time; they are a fascinating bunch."

"I think I have heard Arcee talk about a Bot named Blaster and his habit of playing inspiring music during a battle," Jack mused as he considered her words. He also recalled the sensation of being observed from a distance, as well as feeling an undefinable "something" as he watched Arcee make her initial attack on the Vehicons that day. He shook it off; it wasn't worth mentioning to Mae, he decided, since it could easily have been nerves from the shock of finding out humanity wasn't the only intelligent life in the universe and having been told not to reveal their existence. Mae observed how his body shifted as he recalled something and decided that she would let him decide if it was important, though she suspected she already knew what it was.

Mae smiled, "Teal has mentioned him to me on several occasions as well, and told me about how he trained her to do something similar when he noticed how her presence could reinforce his music. Speaking of which, what song was it that you shared with Optimus that day after he returned from his unexpected adventure? He was quite impressed with it, but wouldn't tell Teal or myself what it was; he said to ask you when we asked."

Jack smiled and pulled out his mp3 player from where he kept it. He held out the earbuds and said, "I'll let you listen to it and perhaps you'll see why he was impressed." Mae carefully put them into her ears and listened as he hit the play button on it. As Mae listened, she saw in her mind those closest to her; her brother Zechariah and Sal, rolling down the highway together. As the song progressed, she shuddered, thinking of how it could easily happen that a truck driver could get stuck in snow and have to somehow find shelter until he could be helped in weather such as was being described. As the song ended, with the truck driver having been found safe and making contact with his wife to tell her he was safe, she smiled at Jack.

"A very moving song, young man," she said finally. "It holds special meaning to you, since you look up to Optimus, and when he came up missing, it was like a part of your family was suddenly gone and you didn't know what had happened to him. And I think I understand why it impressed him; he's never really thought of himself as anything but a leader of the Cybertronian people, according to Teal, and to have someone compare him to what they used to refer to as a Guardian was something unexpected."

Jack flushed and said, "I didn't specifically mean it that way, though I suppose from what he told me just before I shared it with him it probably was a surprise to him that we all seemed to feel that way. It does fit, though, doesn't it?"

"Yes, and I did hear from Ratchet some of the same things Optimus no doubt mentioned, since as you know we were elsewhere at the time; I honestly don't think Teal would have wanted to be in the silo at the same time Megatron was, you know," Mae said, handing the earbuds back to Jack so he could put his mp3 player away again. "Now do you see why I granted you that name, Jack? Not only for how you handled yourself to protect Raf, but actually holding the team together when their leader was missing. He chose well when he gave you that artifact of Cybertron."