"...then, Bulk told me how Wheeljack stood his ground against the con!" Miko cried, jumping up and down in front of the small tv. Pride exuded from her. "That's what being wreckers is all about. Leave no one behind!" Her pound to the chest emphasized that point.
Jack chuckled at her antics. It was good to have some semblance of a normal back. Looking to the side, he watches Raf smiling just as big as Miko, eyes sparkling at her retelling. If there was something Miko was good at, it was storytelling. Her whole personality went into each tale, bringing them to life.
Leaning back, Jack reminisced about that day; it was yesterday.
Jack had seen the bots in action countless times, but living on base brought everything into a new perspective. The bots didn't do much except patrol and recharge while the kids were away. It was almost sad, but he understood why. They couldn't have freedom since they hid from both the native species and the cons. Now, Jack has joined them in boredom. The only problem is he can't even go on missions like them.
Which led him to reorganize his room, the med bay his frame currently occupies, with the few items he left on base, which included his school bag, books, and a spare uniform for work, so it wasn't much of an unpacking.
As soon as word got out that Miko and Raf were coming, he eagerly awaited as Ratchet took scans to ensure his hard work paid off.
It was better than joining Ratchet in his projects out of sheer boredom. Jack felt confused about everything. Seeing Cybertronian equations was only increasing the dissociation. Jack wasn't sure how far it would go. That was the terrifying part.
Jack knew this couldn't last.
"So...how was your day Jack?" Miko drawled, a huge smile splitting her face as she leaned closer than he wished her to.
He smiled, pushing his depressing mood to a little box in his mind.
"Yeah, the same thing, just less action overall." He shrugged, leaning more into the couch. That wasn't the correct answer based on Miko's incredulous glare.
"Oh, come on! You have been saying that for a week! How can it be so boring?" Miko whined, stomping her foot while gesturing to the room.
Jack just rolled his eyes, Raf snickering next to him.
"It's so not fair!" Miko huffs, flopping back on the worn armchair in defeat. Her limbs were strewn out like a spider, and Jack just shook his head while smiling.
There was silence for a minute. A relaxing sort of paused as they all collected their thoughts.
"Why you?" Whispered Miko. Jack tensed at the question.
They hadn't talked about anything significant besides what Ratchet and his mom told.
It was nice. Having nothing changes for a bit made Jack honestly believe it hadn't happened.
But it had, and his friends...
His friends had to deal with all of it.
His kidnapping.
His funeral.
School.
The town.
The bots.
The list could go on.
And just like his mom, who he's pointedly ignored for this past week, he was being a coward.
His friends had welcomed him back with no questions, which from Miko was a lot.
But now the clock runs down, and he has to face the music. Life didn't just pause at the perfect moment. It continues down and up despite everything.
Jack took a deep breath, shoulders relaxing as he exhaled.
"It's blurry."
Jack could feel their eyes on him. The intense curiosity on him almost made him run. But he stayed.
"Crossroads...I was running to somewhere or from someone, I think?" Jack leaned down, rubbing his head despite it doing nothing to ease the dissociating feeling the memory brought up. It wasn't him in those memories, but at the same time, it was.
"The pod, I got in..." He paused as the image became more precise.
"Shots were fired at me as I made it to the pod. The coordinates were already in. I didn't worry about leaving. They were getting closer and outnumbered me. No escape." His voice got quieter as he spoke. Reverent to the memories he was gaining back.
"Then I felt pain, sharp and stinging between my spinal struts and shoulder plating. I was closing in on the pod." Jack stared blankly at his hands, seeing metallic servos overlay them.
"The pod shut, sealing off the attack. I had no time to stop the autopilot with my injury. I was in stasis before leaving Cybertrons orbit." He could feel the pain. Energon slipped down his plating from the rupture lines. Not the worst he had.
Sadness hung over the memory. A type of sadness Jack was familiar with thanks to this week. But he was drawing a blank on why he was morning. What had happened before? Why was he in a fight?
Who was he?
Jack abruptly drew back from his slouched position and greeted the worried faces of both his younger friends. Far more youthful than he ever realized when compared to him.
Pursing his lips, Jack forced his static projection of a body off the sofa.
"I'll see you later." He mumbled to them in ways of both an apology and promise.
Shuffling, he moved past them and down the stairs, mind in a fog of memories he wasn't fully ready to accept.
Battles, bots, and death followed him as he shuffled to the med bay, his designated room.
If he still breathed, Jack would have been hyperventilating.
He didn't even notice the question hurtled at him from Ratchet. Instead, he mumbled something and went to his bed and old gurney.
Memories were still flowing in pieces as he lay down on the coarse fabric.
They left more questions as more randomly popped in.
Jack knew how to stop this. So he gave in. Like Ratchet told him, fighting the memories will only do more harm, and Jack didn't feel like an 'I told you so' from his doctor, especially when he lives in his shop.
Ratchet glanced at Jackson, projected from resting a few paces from him. The medical gurney was the best they could do for the time. He pushed up in a corner, his few items stacked in a cardboard box he found lying around.
He had yet to move in the three hours since he barged in, dazed.
Ratchet knew the problem. It had happened since he first materialized, and it won't stop until Crossroads fully wakes.
Looking at the Mechling, he shook his helm in disbelief.
When repairing Wheeljack after his wrecker revenge excursion, he learned a few things about their newest occupant at the base.
Crossroads was known. He was one of the few couriers during the beginning of the war, Allied to no one side for the longest time.
It threw him for a loop. Jack never seemed like he would have a hard time picking sides. Wheeljack had to point out the blurred line that appeared to divide the sides back then. It wasn't the stone wall of today.
He tried to get Wheeljack to spill everything, but he had as much clue how Crossroads ended up as a bot. That was the part that worried him.
Jack was a fascinating human before he found out about his past. His personality leaned towards a protector above all else. He would do anything to help, and Ratchet had an aching feeling that was what happened during that missing time.
Ratchet feared that missing time. Because one thing he learned from Optimus was Megatron let them take Crossroads, no fight needed. The warlord claimed the youngling. The warlord knew Crossroads was never good. That unknown past made this whole situation dangerous.
Crossroads leaned back against the grass. He had yet to move or feel the urge to since Jack left.
He felt his jealousy rise as he thought of Jack seeing the outside first. It was stupid, utterly stupid, to be jealous of himself. So instead of focusing on that, he pouted and thought. Slowly new memory files were being unlocked. They all revealed a life he never thought possible. Peace and love filled all the memories. Jack had a beautiful life; he had a peaceful life.
Though, he noticed something strange as more memories showed up.
All Jack's choices were what he would have chosen. It was a huge relief to him, finding himself still the same. And slowly, those new memories became his, building on his own.
Closing his optics, he thought of all the points in his life he wished for a better start. Primus must have been looking out for him. These memories were true gifts.
Which would make Crossroads memories a mix of curses for Jack; war wasn't pretty.
Crossroads wasn't perfect. No one was, but he had done things many would deem traitorous from the Autobot's side.
Crossroads had accepted this long ago; he only hoped Jack would be able to so they could move on.
He had things to do before disaster struck. Work never stopped even as he lays there hoping for more time.
