Part 20

Just out of caution and the possibility that some Autobot might shoot their prisoner, Jazz had the entire entrance and main hall of the Ark cleared as they landed. Optimus and Ironhide waited at the door, both of them standing aside as Skyfire came forward with Starscream nestled deep in his arms. His wounded shoulder and pede had been field patched, numbed and sealed, and the jet drowsed with unfocused optics, his cortex fogged and blissfully unaware.

"Primus bless the porn," Ironhide vented, shaking his helm in wonder. "Two Decepticons with nary a shot fired."

"A couple shots," Jazz said, waving in Skyfire as his mechs circled around them in a loose perimeter. Until they and their prisoner were safely esconced inside, none of them would relax. "But nothing that connected."

"That sounds about right for Starscream," Optimus nodded, turning and walking with them. "Good job taking him in one piece. It doesn't look like Ratchet'll have to patch him up too much."

"Wish we could take the credit for that," Jazz said. "But that was all Skyfire. He got that pile of rust to surrender."

"'Surrender'?" Optimus echoed, staring at Skyfire in impressed appreciation. All of them knew what the jet was like in a fight. Lording his presence high overhead, flying faster than they could follow and then attacking with the most reckless tactics imaginable, if he wasn't turning on Megatron at the same time. "You managed to get him to surrender?"

"Well, after Starscream shot at him," Bumblebee mumbled.

"It was to be expected," Skyfire said when they all looked at him. "Starscream was never the most stable mech."

"Must've kept things interesting—" Ironhide started, then stumbled as Optimus lightly popped the back of his helm.

"So, the real question is..." Jazz paused at the elevator, punching in the button sequence to take them to lower levels. "Did you guys decide which brig to stick him in?"

"It's a weird problem to suddenly have," Ironhide said. "We haven't had to use more'n just the one in so long."

Skyfire went into the lift first, standing at the very back, while Optimus, Ironhide and Jazz squeezed in. Before the doors closed, Jazz reached out and dragged Bumblebee in with them, stuffing him into the space between Skyfire and the wall. As the doors closed again, they glimpsed Smokescreen turning to stand guard over the lift while Mirage headed for the stairs.

"Prowl said there was no choice," Optimus said, scanning Starscream's injuries. "When you said he was wounded, we cleared out a cell past Soundwave's."

"Really?" Jazz shook his head. "I would'a thunk he'd clear out another brig."

"The third brig used to be Wheeljack's lab," Ironhide shrugged. "I think there's still scorch marks on the ceiling."

"More importantly," Optimus said, "the cell doors don't lock and the bars melted out."

Jazz whistled in appreciation. Yup. That sounded like Wheeljack.

The doors to the lift opened, and Jazz gratefully stepped out into the open space, stretching as the rest of them followed. Bumblebee groaned and stumbled from behind Skyfire, catching his balance before he could act as guard again.

In the main brig, Soundwave lay quietly on his berth, still clamped in magnetic locks. The Decepticon tilted his head enough to see them come in, his optics widening when he saw Starscream. He tensed, holding in a vent. Would they kill the air commander? They had let Soundwave live, let his casseticons live, but Starscream was the Decepticon second, a violent threat even when imprisoned.

A medical berth lay in the center of the brig's open space, the same one Soundwave had been repaired on. With surprising gentleness, Skyfire set Starscream on the slab, arranging his wounded pede out for repair and then checking the stasis cuffs. It was how Skyfire touched the commander's helm, how the commander turned into that touch, that Soundwave realized he wasn't going to witness a force download and execution.

Which reassured him about his own chances as well.

Mirage appeared at the stairs, followed closely by Ratchet. With a nod from Jazz, both Spec Ops bots took their positions at the door, guarding the entrance.

As the medical bot came closer, Ironhide had to come next to Skyfire and nudge him back, leaving Starscream prone. Only half awake, Starscream moaned, barely audible, and found Skyfire with half-shut optics.

"I'm right here," Skyfire assured him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"What..." Starscream slurred whatever else he meant to say.

"Don't move," Ratchet said, initiating the berth's locks before anything else. "Just gonna get the download started, and then I can get to patching him up."

"'Down...load'?" Starscream looked back at Skyfire, closing his eyes for so long that for a moment they all thought he'd gone into recharge. When he opened them again, he could no longer focus, staring first at Skyfire and then at the empty space past the larger bot. "Forced...?"

Ratchet was already popping the plating of the Decepticon's helm, but he paused despite himself. No matter how necessary, a force download disgusted him. But the demands of war meant that he'd had to crack the cortex of enemies in the past, and after a klik, Ratchet continued unsealing Starscream's cranial access panel.

"It won't hurt," Skyfire said, putting out his hand toward Starscream before Ironhide stopped him from accidentally touching the berth's magnets. "Don't fight it. You're mine, remember? Don't fight it and it won't hurt."

Again, Starscream closed his optics, venting slowly as he hovered at the edge of recharge. Ratchet plugged in the interface cords, connecting the Decepticon to the mainframe and monitor by the berth. Numbers flashed on the screen, the program booting up while accessing Starscream's firewalls.

Internal gates slammed shut reflexively, Starscream's defenses sealing any route that Ratchet might use. At seeing the Decepticon lock them out, Skyfire vented in sharply, startled that it had actually happened.

"This could take awhile," Ratchet warned them. "He's got some pretty complex passwords I'll have to decode."

"Not surprising," Optimus said. "I can't blame him for not wanting to be downloaded."

Skyfire lowered his helm. No one else noticed, but Jazz put his hand on the larger mech's arm.

"Don't get too down," Jazz said. "He gave up 'cause of you. No one expected more'n one miracle outta ya."

"I did," Skyfire vented. "I just thought...I really thought..."

"He's a stubborn mech," Jazz said. "There's no way he'd—"

The program rang, a clear sharp note that signalled the decoding process complete. They all stared at the monitor, then at Starscream, who murmured something unintelligible and closed his eyes again.

"Huh." Ratchet poked a few buttons, glancing at their prisoner again. "I'm in. Looks like he gave me full access."

Ignoring how the magnetic locks tugged at his own hand, Skyfire lightly touched Starscream's good shoulder and smiled.

Closing off the download feed, Ratchet sat up straight and stretched. The lights had gone off earlier, leaving him in the blueish glow of his monitors. Long joor had passed while he analyzed line after line of Starscream's code. His job included sifting out viruses, attack protocols and intentional gibberish that could glitch an analyst, especially Prowl, who was vulnerable simply because he was so meticulous. Ratchet had no doubt their Second in Command would find volumes of useful information in Starscream's code, but first he had to examine every bit and byte.

"So...is he clean?"

Across the room, lying on the floor with his legs up against the wall, Jazz tapped his datapad, sending a rainbow cat tumbling through space gathering strawberries and cakes. His visor reflected the sparkly graphics of the game, coloring his face red and white and pink.0

Ratchet slumped back in his chair. "He's a mess. An official mess."

"Well, we knew that," Jazz chuckled, coming upright. The datapad clicked off and disappeared into his subspace. "Starscream is the very model of a modern mech malfunction."

"Don't say it too loud." Ratchet couldn't help glancing at Skyfire, slumped against the berth in recharge. "His boyfriend'll hear ya."

"Now now, that's s'posed to be classified," Jazz said, waving his hand idly and standing by the larger mech, resting his hand on Skyfire's shoulder. "Even if it is painfully obvious."

"I guess it makes a sick kinda sense." Ratchet motioned at the monitor filled with Starscream's code. "He's got viruses on top of viruses designed to keep us out. And all those viruses kinda sat back and watched me work. Spooky, but that's not the bad part."

"What's the bad part?" Jazz asked. "More o'them lousy Polyhex Manuals in his head?'

"He's...he ain't right," Ratchet said, ignoring his comment and pointing out lines of code. "Look. All of us added on weaponry and all of us came out a little different, right? Transform the code and you transform the mech."

"Yeah," Jazz nodded. "Bunch'a civilians adding on guns and missiles...it's no wonder some of us didn't come out quite right afterward."

"Well, multiply that a couple dozen times over for our patient here." Ratchet heaved a long vent. "He's got missile programs and defense protocols latched into his basic functions. I don't know who did his installations, but it was a real hatchet job. I mean, frag, his base declarative programming's been cross-wired with imperative weapons commands!"

"Say what?" Jazz asked, not even bothering to look at the monitor.

"They strapped guns on a scientist," Ratchet said. "It just don't work. You've seen Perceptor, Beachcomber. Science mechs do not great warriors make."

"Huh." Jazz stared at Starscream again, taking in the various armaments draped on his frame. "And according to Skyfire, this guy was a team lead scientist in the Planetary Science Corps."

They paused for several kliks, staring at Starscream as if an easy answer would appear. The steel of his blown joint had been patched and the slashed energon couplings in his shoulder had been sealed, but they hadn't roused him out of recharge and he hadn't moved during the download. Ratchet sighed again.

"Well, we were gonna have to strip out all his weaponry anyway, and I deactivated everything down to his thrusters. I'll just have to edit the code later." He sent the raw code to Prowl's office and closed down the monitor, turning off most of the berth's machinery. "Help me move him to his cell, huh? I don't wanna wake On_Ice down there."

Jazz shook his head once. "I'm kinda scared how you know. Tell me I'm not that bad at my job."

Uncoupling the berth from the floor, Ratchet took one end while Jazz pushed the other, maneuvering Starscream around Skyfire's sizable frame and toward a cell on the farthest end of the brig. Starscream and Soundwave wouldn't be able to see each other, and though they would be able to talk, at least their conversations would be monitored.

"Nah," Ratchet said as they eased the berth through the cell door. "First Aid again. The little rust bucket lurks on all those story forums. Apparently there's a forum devoted to the 'magnificent sky prince' here, chronicling all his responses to the stories with him in a starring role."

"I guess when you know who you're looking for, the names do kinda stand out," Jazz nodded. "But why him? They just copy what he writes?"

"First Aid showed me some of it," Ratchet said, chuckling as he slid the berth into place and clamped it down again. "I'll get him to send you the link. Let's just say Starscream's a bigger diva than anyone knew."

"Send Prowl the link," Jazz warned him. "I want nothing to do with it. I got enough of this fragger on the battlefield."

Performing a final check, Ratchet took one more scan of Starscream's functions, then ensured that the mech was firmly locked in magnetic restraints. The stasis cuffs had been removed, leaving their prisoner in a normal recharge, but he showed no signs of waking.

"I'll come down myself later on," Ratchet said as they both left the cell, shutting the door with a soft click. "Just to check on his self-repairs, see how it's coming along. Like I said before, the shots weren't as bad as they could've been."

He turned, motioning toward the door. "You coming?"

Jazz stayed at the bars, looking into the cell. "In a klik. I'ma get Skyfire up and outta here. Don't wait up."

With an easy nod, Ratchet headed out of the brig, waving at Mirage and Bumblebee still at their posts. Neither of them would change until Jazz said so, which often offended the Ark's usual guards. But Jazz wanted no one but his own bots, not when he had two of the Decepticon's highest ranking officers in his custody.

It was so strange, looking down on the mech that had often been high up in the sky, nearly unreachable, laughing maniacally at the Autobots and often at Megatron. The Autobots were almost universally grounders. The Decepticons had the armada, who only rarely came down in a fight, and a jet on its back like this was a prime target. Jazz had to keep rerouting an internal query as to whether he should shoot Starscream and get it over with.

"Starscream, to be executed?"

Jazz half-smiled, more out of exhaustion than humor. Soundwave had been silent for the entire duration of the download, sometimes staring, sometimes drifting back into recharge. So far the carrier had been a model prisoner. Jazz had the feeling that was less than from Soundwave's earnest feelings about respecting Autobots and more out of fear of being shot when no longer useful.

"Who knows?" Jazz shrugged even though Soundwave couldn't see him. "It really depends on Starscream. I'll never trust him farther than I could shoot him, but hell, if Skyfire can keep him on a leash...and if Prime says so..."

While Soundwave paused, thinking that over, Jazz walked over to his cell. Though still locked down, albeit more for his own good than for security's sake, Soundwave seemed less fragile. His helm and cortex had been patched, and his voice no longer wavered, and his optics didn't swim in and out of consciousness anymore.

"Optimus...not like other Primes," Soundwave said softly.

"Finally cluing in, huh?" Jazz rapped his fist on the bars. "Come on, you been fighting him for how many vorns and you didn't know what he was like?"

Soundwave didn't answer for several kliks. In the darkness, the glow of his gold optics spread over his face, first gazing askance at the wall, then sweeping across toward Jazz. A long blink, slow vents, and Jazz realized that if he deactivated the locks, Soundwave would still be too exhausted to move.

"Optimus, only seen from across the battlefield. Rarely up close." He winced as something in his cortex clicked into place, prodded there by his self-repair. "Zeta Prime, destroyed Nyon and Vos. Sentinel Prime, curtailed liberties, sent Decepticon sympathizers to reeducation centers. Primes, were Autobots."

"...yeah," Jazz said slowly. "I get what you mean."

Optimus had been Orion then, and Jazz only knew some of those early politics tangentially, but the Autobots he knew and fought for had broken away from a much darker, corrupt faction. An honorable Autobot from the early days might seem as unlikely as a defecting Decepticon.

"Finding out what those two Primes were really like..." Jazz mused. He shrugged with a broad grin. "Well, I guess it'd be a bit like finding out your boss ain't got Cybertron's best interests at heart. Know what I mean?"

A pause. And then Soundwave laughed. Once, low in tone, more of a vibration in his engine than a true laugh, but the acknowledgement was there.

"Yes. I know."

"Good night, mech." Jazz tapped the bars one more time. "I'll see you in the morning."

Soundwave lay still for a long time, listening to Jazz rouse a bleary Skyfire and let him take another look at Starscream, then the both of them walking past his cell and leaving their prisoners alone to rest. The soft steps outside told him that he still had a pair of guards standing just by the door, and no doubt there were listening devices throughout the room. But for now, this was as private as the brig would be.

"Starscream, awake?"

"...that you, Soundwave?" Starscream's voice slurred, echoing strangely in the darkness.

"Affirmative. Starscream, query."

"...I am in pain, tired, and captured by Autobots," Starscream mumbled. "And don't think I don't know who's responsible somehow. Stuff your 'query'."

Soundwave could almost hear the air commander trying to sneer at him.

"'Starscream, Starburst'...you desire it to continue?""

A groan answered him. "Oh, for the love of Primus...you were the one writing it?"

"Affirmative."

Long breem passed. Soundwave assumed that Starscream had slipped back into recharge, and he closed his optics, listening to the faint electric hums and muted voices from the floor above.

"Keep writing it," Starscream suddenly said, sounding more aware than he had when surrounded by the Autobot officers. "I want to see how this ends."

TBC...