Chapter 210 – The Cristofori Principle

(JaPOV)

Jazz lounged comfortably near one of the security consoles, replaying one of the multitude of songs he'd taken a liking to from Earth. He didn't much care for the planet itself, it was damp and salty, and he'd died there… but the music of the of people was frankly spectacular. Jazz idly inspected his claws before glancing around.

It was nearing the end of the second lunar phase, what bots that had been out and about were back in hiding now.

Waiting.

A handful of Wrecker 'Decepticons' were posted at the locked gates.

Watching.

Jazz rose from his seat and stretched, jigging a little to the song Flare had played while declaring him her intended before meandering toward the sexy ass stereo system that Soundwave had folded into to catch a bit of recharge.

Not that Jazz could blame the bot, the sheer amount of effort the thin mech had exerted getting them to this point had been fairly staggering. Soundwave hadn't stopped during everybot else's recharges. He'd kept going, taken damage and carried on. But Soundwave wasn't recharging. Softly, so low that he could only now hear it, a Cybertronian lullaby was playing over his speakers.

"Sandie, yo' should be rechargin'," Jazz murmured quietly.

"Soundwave: is."

"Then how ah ya responding to me?" Jazz asked in a softly amused tone, sliding down the wall and resting an arm across the stereo.

"Soundwave: was-"

"Playin' music?" Jazz grinned. "What's the song?"

Soundwave transformed beside him, curled up against the wall. Jazz switched his arm's position from the suddenly high shoulder to the comfortably positioned knee beside him.

"Composition: Nightsong's spark. Composer: Nightsong."

"Ya recorded the femme's sparksong?" Jazz asked incredulously.

"Negative. Composer: Nightsong. Composition: performed by Nightsong on luthre."

Jazz nodded and leaned somewhat against the mech beside him.

"The slaggin's didn't take it?"

"Soundwave: stored composition in numerous locations to be certain."

Jazz vented a sigh and patted Soundwave's leg.

"Ah'm sorry."

"Define."

"For all the instances that me'n Hahd an' all the rest of us swore ta offline ya on sight, an' send ya straight to the pit," Jazz stated sincerely. "Nobot knew yo' were already there."

"Nobot comes to the aid of an empath. Such as it was, such it will always be," Soundwave stated simply. "Autobot Jazz: has nothing to apologize for. Had auto-bot cause offlined Soundwave prior to naming of Lady High Protector: Auto-bot cause doing Soundwave a favour."

Jazz looked up at the mech for a long moment before venting another sigh. There was no way in the pit that he would have been that accepting, or forgiving of his fate.

"Well what about that time yo' databanks went down?"

"Which occasion?" Soundwave asked in an amused tone.

"The one with the phase shifts and the plasma flares slagging everything else up as I went," Jazz grinned. He couldn't help it.

"Auto-bot Jazz sabotage result: I didn't have to go kowtow to Megatronix, begging forgiveness for the database scrap ups," Soundwave chuckled softly. "Megatronix: deeply slagged off."

"Ya know I was wonderin' about that!" Jazz laughed. "I couldn't believe it had your signature, it looked barely functional to begin with."

"Reason: database built with maximum of inefficiency allowed by loyalty circuits. Autobot Jazz: Destroyed evidence to be used against Soundwave."

"Slag," Jazz grinned, mockingly snapping his digits in disappointment. Soundwave chuckled beside him, shifting slightly as he did. "How's that leg holding up?" he asked curiously.

"Soundwave repairs: adequate."

"Yo' should go back to earth instead of me," Jazz stated seriously.

"Soundwave: not assigned to return to Earth for personal leave."

Jazz shrugged.

"That doesn't matter, Prime won't mind," he commented patiently.

Soundwave shrugged.

"You wanna play that song again?" Jazz asked curiously. He smiled to note the little smile that showed on Soundwave's faceplates as the lullaby began again.

(MPOV)

I onlined my optics dimly in the semi-darkness, listening to the soft, musical hum of my mate's spark as he lay reposed in his recharge. I glanced at my chronometer and vented a low sigh, 03:00 Thursday. My Optimus was deep in his recharge, a tiny smile bending his faceplates as he dreamed of Cybertron. I smiled through the small pang of melancholy that crossed my spark. A little pang that I habitually shielded from my Optimus, because without a doubt, out of guilt, he would attempt to postpone our return to give me more time on my own home planet.

I pursed my lip plates slightly and looked up at my mate with wry amusement, idly wondering what would happen if I rebutted his next attempt by informing him that he was taking his nobility to annoying levels. Inwardly shrugging, I nuzzled my face against his chest again, bringing my holoform online in my somewhat denuded living quarters. Not that I minded. Apparently, Symphony adored my hammock, and had taken to sleeping in it nightly. I shrugged and lightly dipped into my first stance, closing my eyes and breathing slowly.

Ten months. The final stretch of Sentinel's 'community service' was drawing nearer, I idly added the deconstruction of the lecture-hall central to my to-do list, and as an afterthought added the resulting metals to my packing list.

My packing list.

My spark sank somewhat, I took a deep breath and worked to centre myself.

"Move slowly, Cricket, widen your stance and press your feet into the ground, let the energy of the Earth grow up through your feet, up your legs to the very crown of your head. Let it make you strong..." Uncle Sho's voice whispered in my mind, but I was leaving the earth, now...

"We can stay longer," my Optimus murmured softly, earnestly. I squeaked somewhat and returned my focus from the holo to my own optics, looking at those of my mate's as he looked down at me with gentle concern.

"The sooner we reach Cybertron, the better," I reminded him quietly.

"But a few orn more wouldn't hurt anyone," he murmured gently. "Time-"

"Is not on our side, my mate," I interrupted him patiently. "Even if it is a few orn for you, or a few months for me bots are still suffering, and it does not behoove us to leave them longer for the sake of nostalgia. Go back to your recharge, my beloved," I murmured softly, smiling and gently touching his cheek. "Sleep and dream of beautiful things."

My Optimus vented a sigh and tucked me a little bit more closely into his chest, his spark caressing my own across our bond; gently ascertaining my mood, my thoughts. He hummed gently, nuzzling my helm with his own before the larger hands of his holoform caught mine. I returned my focus to that of the holo's and started somewhat.

My mate was evidently intent on showing off his holoform skills this night: I was surrounded by our shop again, men, holoforms and soldiers milled around the tables laden with pizza, hot-wings and my Banes Flambé. I turned and watched as my father caught my mate's optics, the pair of them sitting in the corner as a duplicate of the human I'd been served the pie, and argued with Old Wolf.

"You love my girl," my father stated quietly. My Optimus glanced at my father and nodded.

"With everything that I am," he rumbled quietly, looking first at the holo recording of me before his optics caught mine. "And with that being said, I would ask permission to court your daughter."

"Really? 'Cause the way you're lookin' at my girl I thought you'd be asking for her hand by now," my father stated comfortably. I couldn't help the choked laugh at that, nothing had ever got past my dad. "Tell you the problem with that though, son."

I raised an eyebrow as my mate's human avatar turned to watch the holo patiently, my father had had misgivings about my mate after all?

"That you felt the need to ask for my permission for anything concerning that girl, shit, that's a move that could get us both killed," Dad grinned. I laughed, I couldn't help it. "She's changed again," my father stated calmly, turning to look back at my replica. "When I got out of the jail there, I found my baby girl had grown into her mind. Closed her heart from the world. You're pulling her through unknown territory son, an' I don't mean all the stuff with you being from another planet. She's taught you how to read a hand, which means that she trusts you enough that you know she's bin keepin' secrets."

"You were right, dad, I did, and I still do," I murmured softly as Optimus' holo eyes locked on mine.

"Some of them I have learned," my mate murmured quietly, and in an instant I knew that he was repeating his words for my benefit. "On occasion her dreams rise on the currents of energon that flow through her system now. I will not betray them."

"You never have," I whispered.

"Well then," my father said just as softly, he reached out and grasped Optimus' forearm. "Don't you ever let her push you away, when the day comes that she tells you that she got no more secrets to hide from you, and you can still love her, you hold onto my baby girl and tell her that her father knew when his day was ending."

I felt tears welling in my eyes as I watched the recording of my father, a hand automatically reaching to cup my throat, even though the constriction was nothing more than the memory of a sensation.

"It ain't today, and it probably ain't tomorrow. But either my enemies will be coming after me, or her fight will spread to my doorstep."

"Cal-" Optimus started.

"No," my father stated calmly. "I ain't gonna run. A Banes don't run, and I'd imagine you've seen our Kae say the same damn thing."

"A habit I have yet to break in you," my Optimus whispered in my audio in a softly amused tone as the holo nodded.

"Good luck," I whispered back.

"Do me a favour," my father stated after a long moment. "Keep her heart safe. She's a surviver, her head is in the fight, but her heart ain't. Of all the things I regret in this life, having to raise that girl to be able to kill is the top of the list. She shouldn't'a had to learn how to survive when her age-mates were learning their ABC's."

"She is an extraordinary person none-the-less," Optimus rumbled firmly, grasping my father's shoulder. "She is still our Kae. For all that she locked her heart away from the world, her soul still smells of this pie as it burns."

"How what now?" my father asked with the same shock as my own.

"Kae's body began producing energon," Optimus rumbled calmly. "She is slowly becoming one of us, to the point that we may have to upload her into a new body-"

"Oh she'd love that," my father chuckled, the holo seeming to look directly at me. I glanced up at the massive form of my mate and smiled.

I did.

"For now, we have been trying to keep her energon levels as low as possible, she's not capable of using it herself yet," my mate rumbled calmly. "She more often than not shares it among us. Recharging and repairing all of us. It smells, and tastes like this." Optimus held up the pie I'd pressed gently into his holo's hand that night.

"You never told me that," I murmured softly.

"You didn't ask," my mate replied with a minute shrug.

"So she's kept that part of her after all," my father smiled, his entire body relaxing beside my mate's holoform. "Good." he glanced at Optimus with a smile. "So what does that smell like to you, anyway?"

"Kae smells of heat, of apples, oranges, woodsmoke, cinnamon and the sweet, musky smell of hot sugar," my Optimus replied quietly. My spark flared beside his, his tone sounded as though he were in a dream as he looked directly into my holo's eyes. "When she walks by, when she touches even the dead metals of my armour, she sounds, smells and feels of of life."

"You've got it bad," daddy laughed, clapping a hand on his arm, I laughed with him, even as tears wound their way down my cheeks. "C'mon, you have my blessing, let's go watch the Archangel sing."

"He knew my name," I whispered as my mate's holo rose and wound me deeply into his embrace.

"Nothing got past your sire, just as nothing gets past you, my mate," my Optimus rumbled gently in my ear as the music began around us. "And the memory of the men who reared you will live for an eternity in both your spark and my own."

I reached with my new body and gently cupped the faceplates of my mate.

"Thank you," I whispered, delicately running a digit along the etchings that defined him. Optimus' optics sharpened somewhat as he switched from his holo's view to his own, looking curiously at me.

"What for?" he asked softly, delicately collecting my hand with his own to press a kiss to my fingers.

"For reminding me why I shouldn't feel guilty for leaving the ashes of my father and uncles behind," I murmured, tucking my helm against his chest. My Optimus hummed gently, reaching to lightly stroke the invisible tears from my cheek before the servo pillowing my helm curled around to hold me a bit closer.

"Did you wish to attend your sequential training stances with your own body this night?" Optimus asked me softly, pressing a gentle kiss to my temple.

"No," I murmured with a small smile, wriggling a bit to press my frame that little bit more tightly against his and shutting my optics off. "No I think I'd rather cuddle against my beloved mate and listen to your spark for a while before I go back to my recharge."

(SyPOV)

Gentle warmth touched her face, caressed her hands and swirled through her clothing, rousing her with the same kindness the sun had. It was morning, marked by the muted sound of soldier's feet marching in time to each other, and the stronger, resonant hum of the sparks of Lugnut's creations. Symphony didn't need to see to hear the distant, forlorn hum of Wingnut's spark. Longbolt was close beside his sister, his own spark thrumming it's sympathy. Symphony understood, to an extent. Bit by bit, Wingnut had opened up to her about the horrors she'd witnessed on the mission she'd brashly volunteered for.

Wingnut didn't regret going, she'd accomplished something important; had saved several femmes from a fate worse than death. But Symphony knew - without a doubt - that that sense of accomplishment did nothing to stay the little femme's chargefrights. Quietly, Symphony rose from her napping spot in the hammock beneath her sunlamp and padded to her piano, settling behind the familiar keys on the bench she had long ago grown to love.

Softly, she began to play the Prelude in E minor, opus twenty-eight, number four. The pensive undertone broken by the brief climax seemed appropriate to Wingnut's mood. Symphony couldn't join the resonance of her spark with those of the bots, but she could play. Wingnut's spark-hum seemed to perk up slightly as she moved directly to the song without words in F sharp minor, the song of the gondolier.

The soft whirrs of actuators, the doppler increase of spark song denoted Wingnut coming to sit behind her as she usually did, and the light creak of her bench spoke of the little femme's elbow leaning perched beside her.

"Will you play me the happy song again?" Wingnut asked softly. Symphony smiled and reached out, gently stroking the helm of the young femme that had slowly come to rest lightly against her shoulder before happily winding her way through Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. Beside her, as it always did when she played the song, Wingnut's spark began to take on soft tones of happiness.

According to Longbolt: somehow, the song simply resonated the right way for the little femme.

The doors opened and another spark song entered the room, Symphony grinned and greeted the bot with the song she happily maintained was his.

The Tale of the Saltan, the frantic, cheerful, tinkling notes somehow appropriate both to Bumblebee and his namesake; Flight of the Bumblebee. Symphony chuckled, she could hear Bumblebee's actuators whirring away as he bobbled about to the beat. Beside her – helm no doubt perched on the servo resting on her bench – Wingnut was giggling as Bumblebee began jigging about, the steps of the larger bot sending minute vibrations through the floor.

"How do you always know which one to play?" Longbolt asked curiously.

"Because your sparks are as much a melody as the vibrations of my strings," Symphony stated with a smile, leaning over slightly to touch her temple to Wing's helm. "As deeply individual as each note written by the composer. Good morning Bumblebee."

"Morning Sim! Have you eaten yet?" Bumblebee asked cheerfully, his holoform striding toward her; courteously announcing it's presence with it's footsteps.

"She's only just roused, but good luck gettin' 'er out from behind that piano now she's settled," Longbolt commented with a snort of amusement.

Symphony laughed softly, delicately relocating her keys and resting her fingers once more, waiting to see which song would spring to mind next. The doors hissed and Bluestreak strode in, Symphony grinned and greeted the bot with his song: the finale of the William Tell Overture.

Bumblebee was laughing, the hum of Blue's spark speaking of his confusion.

"It's Symphony's song for you, Blue," Bumblebee chirped gleefully.

"That's my song!?" Bluestreak demanded incredulously. "I didn't know I had a song! How many songs have been written since we got here anyway? I bet it's a lot 'cause there's tons of humans getting born every day and if they all have their own songs too then there's gotta be overlaps in the songs 'cause there's only so many note combinations that'd still sound good right? Or do they have different note combinations that don't always sound good 'cause that's about the only way you could have a song for everybody-"

"The William Tell Overture was written by Gioachino Rossini, and first played in 1829," Symphony interrupted Bluestreak with a little laugh. "And then Franz Liszt transcribed it for the piano in 1838. Not everyone has their own song, but every song lends itself to someone."

"So what song lends itself to Soundwave?" Longbolt asked in an amused tone. Symphony smiled and relocated her keys, playing a soft, sweet lullaby. The song that had time and again presented itself to her in her dreams and somehow picked up it's tones directly from Ace's spark.

"What's that one called?" Wingnut asked softly, her helm touching Symphony's shoulder once more.

"I don't know yet," Symphony murmured through her smile. "It's Soundwave's song."