Side note, last chapter I did in fact wish to call them the Dires, as in dire wolves. I know the three in DoTM are the Dreads, I don't want them dead quite yet. Yet. Ironhide called dibbs. I didn't want to argue with the cannons. Let's see... Oh! Song for this chapter is 'Song for the Mira' by Celtic Thunder, and once again, anything that you recognize I do not own. I wish I did, but I don't.
Chapter 138 – The Saboteur
(MPOV)
I sat down in the med-bay and stood up again. Ratchet looked at me curiously.
"Scoot," I smirked at him.
"What?"
"You're thinking about Arcee again, you have a 25.2 percent chance of regaining your focus if you remain here, and a 90 percent chance if you give up and go interface her already! For Primus sake." I snorted.
Ratchet grinned and rose, striding from the med-bay. I strode into the newly established intensive care unit and checked on Jazz's condition.
Fully healed.
I smiled and set the unit in motion to slowly shut down, therefore allowing Jazz to wake up of his own accord.
Kinder that way.
I strode back into the med-bay proper and sat at my workbench.
Two hours and a tired, pale looking Bumblebee wandered toward me, I offered him a gentle smile and extended an arm toward him.
"=Hey little-brother,=" I murmured gently as he wound himself around me. "=Can't sleep again?="
Bee nodded and cuddled into me.
"=You want to talk about it?=" I asked gently.
"=I was watching you die again=" he whimpered softly. "=You just collapsed Big-sister, you looked so healthy and then you just collapsed.="
My little-brother began crying softly, I wound my arms around him and rocked, gentling him. I listened to his spark and began singing softly, as I always had.
"Out on the Mira, on warm afternoons, old men go fishing with black line and spoons. And if they catch nothing, they'll never complain, I wish I was with them again. As boys in the boats call to girls on the shore, teasing the ones that they dearly adore. And into the evening, the courting begins, I wish I was with them again."
I smiled as Bee cuddled into me a bit more.
"Can you imagine a piece of the universe more fit for princes and kings. I'll trade you ten of your cities for Marion Bridge and the pleasure it brings.
"Out on the Mira, the people are kind, they'll treat you to home brew, and help you unwind, and if you come broken they'll see that you mend, I wish I was with them again. Now I'll conclude with a wish you go well, sweet be your dreams and your happiness well, I'll bring you here, for our journey begins. We're going to be with them again."
Bee was deep in his recharge, propped against my side with a small smile on his face.
I smiled and kept an arm around him, idly working on schematics as I sat in the med-bay, waiting. I lightly touched the frequencies, checking on our unit. Jazz was slowly waking, Ratchet deep in recharge with Arcee, most of the bots at headquarters were asleep. My Optimus was in communications, calm, idly scanning the frequencies as Jolt slept.
Jetfire was lazily coasting on the thermal updrafts over Africa, all but invisible and chatting with Gouge. Prowl was parked in his favourite spot, watching the goings on.
I turned my attention back to the schematics, smiling as my little-brother snuffled in his sleep somewhat, cuddling closer to me. I shifted slightly and he wound up tucked comfortably against my side. He shifted and stilled, sound asleep.
Another three hours.
"Wheah am ah?" Jazz's voice demanded quietly.
"Jazz," I acknowledged him with a small smile. "You are at the Auto-bot headquarters, Milky way Galaxy, system Sol, third planet from the sun, designation Earth."
"You know meh, but ah don't know yeh," he frowned at me.
"You do not know my body," I smiled. "Designation Archangel Prime. Call me Kae. Welcome back to the dimension of the living, Jazz. You have a million questions running through your processors, sit, ask, what I know I will tell you. I'd offer my arm but I don't want to wake Bee."
"Just as well, ah don't know ta trust yeh yet," Jazz stated calmly, settling down in front of me, he looked at Bumblebee as he mumbled in his recharge for a second before shifting slightly, an arm crept up to wrap around my waist as his face buried it's way into my side. In moments, he was out cold again.
Jazz smiled at me.
(JaPOV)
Jazz was floating, resting, and frankly? Bored. It took him a moment to realize that he was becoming conscious again, but the second that realization crossed his processors?
No then, then he onlined quickly, triggering a re-boot code to bull past the degrading stasis firewalls.
Subtly though, he most certainly did not want whomever had placed that firewall to know he was pushing past them. It took a moment, but his systems rapidly came online, he daren't leave one offline.
Wherever he was, he wanted to be damn sure that if he had to fight his way out, he'd do so at the top of his game. That thought was immediately followed by a rapid systems diagnostic, which caused him to pause for a moment. He was in damned good shape. Better than he had been in for a long while. So he had been repaired, and left in stasis to regenerate.
That was promising.
But hope would not get in the way of him being battle ready!
Next step was to access his logs, last memory file, his frame had been heated, he'd landed on a strange planet along with the Prime, Weapons Master and first Medical Officer to rendezvous with Bumblebee. Details were becoming sketchy after that...
His internal chronometer stated that the difference in time was 115.189 orn between now and that last memory. Scrap.
Jazz synced his processors, somewhat, he was still groggy. Systems diagnostics showed a lot of damages having been repaired.
He was also completely devoid of his armour.
Scrap.
Cautiously, he onlined an optic.
Nobody in the immediate area. The second optic onlined quickly.
He needed to know what was going on. He was repaired from whatever damage he had sustained, a final diagnostic showed every sign of a good repair job. Tops.
Cautiously, he strode toward the closest signals.
Bumblebee. And a stranger... sort of?
His spark remembered another, one that had brought him back.
Who knew the way back from wherever he had been.
He glanced back, as was a habit, and froze.
His stasis pod... had been a casket? No...
Death was one thing, he could sense Optimus' spark close by, the fool had kept him!? That was a liability. He immediately did a deep scan on his processors. None of them were missing. Nothing had been erased. Oh. Prime was gonna get a new access port for that! But first things came first.
Frowning, Jazz strode toward Bumblebee and the stranger's signals. Doors slid open in front of him, recognizing him.
No sense hiding, it would seem they were expecting him.
But that didn't mean they needed to know that he was expecting them expecting him.
He quickly took stock of the area, and did a double take, because that, was exactly how Ratchet insisted his store rooms be organized!
Still, he quickly called up a few schematics, building weapons. A saboteur needed his tools, after all. The whole time he was doing this, the majority of his sensors were locked on a closed door near his hiding spot. The two energonic signatures were on the other side.
Bumblebee's was faint.
Either sleeping, which meant he trusted his surroundings, or dying. Which meant that bots needed to die.
He approached the final door and strode through, there was only one other signature, but he had the weaponry to take them out now.
Or not.
Holy scrap.
There were two things, three things... the count of apparently obvious traits in the bot began to rack up in his processors.
One. His prospective opponent was almost as big as Optimus.
Two. She was a femme! A gorgeous one at that.
Three. His lieutenant Bumblebee was deep in his recharge, propped against her side as she worked on schematics over a holo-table.
Four. Her weapons weren't online, but that minor signature? That was Ironhide.
Ironhide had provided her with weaponry.
"Wheah am ah?" Jazz demanded quietly.
"Jazz," the femme acknowledged him with a small smile. "You are at the Auto-bot headquarters, Milky way Galaxy, system Sol, third planet from the sun, designation Earth."
Well. That was efficient.
"Yeh know meh, but ah don' know yeh," Jazz frowned at the femme.
"You do not know my body," she smiled. "Designation Archangel Prime. Call me Kae. Welcome back to the dimension of the living, Jazz. You have a million questions running through your processors, sit, ask, what I know I will tell you. I'd offer my arm but I don't want to wake Bee."
Jazz liked this femme.
"Jus' as well, ah don' know tah trust yeh yet," Jazz stated calmly, settling down in front of the femme, he looked at Bumblebee as he mumbled in his recharge for a second before shifting slightly and burying his face into her side, in moments, Bee was out cold again.
Impressive.
Jazz smiled at the femme. If there had been anything he'd learned from Bee, it was whom to trust.
"Mah armah?" Jazz asked calmly.
"Is fully repaired and waiting for you, along with your weapons, Ironhide took care of them personally."
So the old Weapons Master had survived just fine. Not that it was a surprise, more of a comfort. If Ironhide died, then, then you knew the scrap was in the pit.
"An' Optimus?" Jazz smiled.
"Is in Communications Central, currently thinking of you, actually, his ear finials must be burning." the femme informed him cheerfully.
Jazz laughed softly.
"Ah come back from the dead and ain't nobody' here ta greet meh," Jazz stated with a mocking pout.
"Because they don't currently know that you're back online. I apologize that I know your mind more-so than you know mine, I thought you'd like to sneak up on him." Archangel stated with a small smile. "And quit calling me Archangel, I'm Kae."
"Ah haven't called yeh anythin' yet," Jazz teased her, he couldn't help it. He liked this femme, he liked the way she thought.
"Precisely, don't start," she smiled at him.
"If ah'm gonna sneak up on him, ah'm gonna need mah armah, wha'da'yeh think Kae, should we wake up Bumblebee?" Jazz grinned.
Kae winked at him and leaned over slightly.
"Bumblebee, wake up =little-brother.=" she whispered. The fact that she spoke scout to him was brilliant. It meant he'd be waking up without giving off his signal.
Bee's optics onlined. He stared at him for a long moment.
"Whah!? No fifteh questions today lieutenant?" Jazz stated cheerfully.
The next minute he was off the ground, in Bee's arms as he chirped in scout.
"=Jazz you're back you're alive you've missed a ton of stuff Primus' hands I can't believe you're back! You gotta tell me where you went and what you saw Jazz!="
Jazz laughed, hugging the scout. He couldn't believe that he'd missed the bot's enthusiasm, but he'd missed Bumblebee's non-stop talking.
Kae rose with a smile and strode over to a cabinet, opening it and retrieving his armour, she levitated it toward him and calmly set it down on a med-berth. Bumblebee finally released him and he summoned his armour, shrugging into it with one pit of a lot of relief.
"Have I the repairs properly done?" Kae asked calmly, scanning him with a healer's optics. Jazz stretched and shrugged in his armour, testing it himself.
Pit, they'd even fixed the stuff he'd been putting up with.
"Nice build," Jazz nodded with a smirk. "Now, wheah th' pit is Optimus?"
"This way," Kae laughed.
"Lieutenant?" Jazz looked at Bee.
"That's Kae, my big sister and Optimus' bonded mate," Bumblebee reeled off his usual reports cheerfully. His vocal processors were repaired, Jazz grinned and followed the gorgeous femme, out another door.
Wait. Bonded mate!?
"Protocol fahve," Jazz muttered, grinning at Bee.
Bumblebee promptly scampered to walk right behind the femme, Jazz tight against him, using the marginally larger and far flashier bot as cover.
They saw Bee, not Jazz's optics and cannons.
Through another portal.
"Kae?" Optimus' voice rumbled calmly.
"I've got a problem, Optimus," she stated calmly. Optimus looked at her worriedly, Jazz took that opportunity to sneak into the shadows.
"You see I seem to have developed a yellow tail," Kae stated cheerfully, turning to reveal Bumblebee all but magnetized to her aft. It took a great deal of his training to not laugh at that spectacle. Optimus was chuckling, which meant that Jazz had missed a lot.
But at the moment he was distracted by Bee and Kae.
Jazz practically strolled up behind Optimus, considered for a nano-Click and balled up a fist, whacking him in the aft.
"What have ah told yeh about lettin' femmes and scouts distract yeh?" Jazz demanded flatly. "Now what would'a happened if ah were bent on shootin' yeh?"
"JAZZ!" Optimus bellowed!? The next moment he was in the Prime's arms.
Optimus was giving hugs out.
"How thah scrap have yeh sof'nd up this much in three of this planet's cycles?" Jazz demanded, grinning. "Yeh're givin' out Prime hugs again!?"
"I told you you missed out on a lot of stuff!" Bumblebee chirped gleefully.
"And what's this about a bondehd mate?" Jazz grinned, turning to Kae. The femme shrugged casually.
"Optimus has bizarre taste in femmes, he's always insisting I'm his other half," she stated, glancing at the Prime with gentle humour in her optics.
Still in the Prime's arms, Jazz looked in shock as his spark chamber emerged, turning to show Optimus' mark completely interwoven with the femme's.
"You are," Optimus rumbled with a small smile.
Optimus had a bonded mate, not just a bonded mate, they were fully bonded.
Jazz beamed at Optimus and gently stroked the combined mark.
"She looks good on yeh," he told the Prime with a smile.
"You should see her without the armour," Optimus rumbled with a smirk.
"Oh I intend tah," Jazz smirked at him. He smirked even more as Optimus' spark began humming a very soft resonation of jealousy. "It's nice ta hear yeh haven't changed tha' much," he smirked at the larger bot.
It was one of his favourite pastimes, after all, teasing the Prime.
"Be nice, he's barely had Kae for a half annum," Bumblebee chirped out with a laugh.
"Snagged her just befoah ah woke up huh?" Jazz promptly shot at Optimus. "Good thing teh, I'd ha' given yeh a run foh yah rells."
Bumblebee snorted softly, then burst out laughing.
Mikaela looked at him in amusement.
"Not even close Jazz," Bumblebee chirped gleefully.
"Ah beg yah pahdon?" Jazz shot at the scout with mocking indignation.
"They were tied together before she was even a bot," Bee grinned. "Zero doubt, you would've been whacking Optimus around, trying to get him to summon up his boundless courage to ask her out."
Jazz snorted.
"Well yeh've got her now, good, gives meh the chance teh steal hah," Jazz smirked.
Like clockwork, Optimus' spark began humming a bit of worry.
"Optimus," Kae murmured calmly.
Perfect chance to see their dynamic.
"Kae?" Optimus rumbled quietly.
"Quit worrying about losing me," she stated in an amused tone. "No matter what happens, I will be waiting for you."
Jazz couldn't have stopped beaming at the femme if he'd wanted to. Still dangling in the Prime's arms, he was front row centre to hear and watch as Optimus became himself again. Calm, happy, and without a single doubt, completely and desperately in love with the femme soothing his worries.
"Mirage has been waiting for you to online, Jazz," Optimus rumbled quietly the next moment.
"Mah brothah's heah!" Jazz shouted. "Heah! ALIVE!?"
"Here, alive and quite well," Optimus rumbled to him in amusement.
(OPOV)
Optimus couldn't stop smiling as he sent out a gentle all-call, aimed primarily at Mirage. The bot had taken a great interest in catching up on the recharge he had missed out in the past three vorns, his ability to cloak himself making him invaluable when it came to stealing energon from the Decepticons as the Xantium had slowly made her crippled way through the stars.
He guided his friend to the central, and wound his arms around his Kae as the entire unit stampeded to the central to celebrate the return of one of their own.
Mirage had Jazz in his arms, well above the ground as the two pounded each other's armour. Noble sentiments and calm demeanours be damned, the brothers had returned to each other.
Prowl strode in ten minutes later.
"It is pleasant to see you among the living once more," the bot stated calmly, nodding to Jazz.
"Ah'm not alive Prowl, Ah'm a ghost," Jazz promptly grinned at the enforcer. "Ah came back to tell yah that ah squared the circle, thought yeh'd wanna know."
Prowl promptly glitched. Optimus reached up and covered his faceplates tiredly, because some things never changed.