AN: Once again we end up with a super long chapter to end with. I really need to plan out these things better but oh well enjoy! Questions, suggestions or just commentaries? Leave a REVIEW.
Edit: I will be rushing a bit "Convoy" because I just could not make myself as interested in the episode and tbh writing a chapter where there´s always something happening with no breaks isn´t easy for me, action scenes kill me.
"So, there we were. No communications, low on energon, surrounded by Cons, so, what does Wheeljack do?" Bulkhead laughed before continuing. "He chucks his only grenade smack into the primary heat exchanger."
"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Wheeljack shrugged.
After a few more rounds of lobbing the three bots finally decided to call it quits and settled for sharing wartime stories, or at least Bulkhead had. Silverbot had remained in the same position while Mayhem joined at his side on top of a crate and plopped Radical into her lap. The three younger bots listened to stories of a war they knew barely nothing about, wanting to know how Cybertron had changed in their absence.
"The joint went supernova." The green Autobot threw his arms up.
Mayhem leaned forward with wide optics and the biggest smile she could muster. "Awesome!"
"Please, don't give her any ideas." Silverbot pleaded. It was bad enough Doomsday liked to build hand-sized explosives when she got a hold of the right materials but if his sister managed to convince Radical to get her one of those they could lose a mountain or two.
"I'm still picking shrapnel out of my backside."
"I'm not surprised, given the size of your backside." Arcee chose that moment to poke some fun at her friend and Bumblebee greed with her with beeps of laughter.
"There it is, Jackie's signature. One grenade, one shot." Bulkhead turned to his friend and noticed something was missing. Wheeljack never missed an opportunity to show off and retell stories of past missions but he was being uncharacteristically quiet. "Hey, you alright?"
"What?" Wheeljack looked like he was coming out of a deep though, as if he´d drifted off into his mind.
"You don't seem like yourself."
"Wat do you mean." He stood up and faced Bulkhead, looking awfully defensive about what he´d been doing.
"I don't know, you seem… quiet." The green wrecker was worried about his friend, he´d never seen him acting so reserved.
"I've been stuck in a can too long. I should go topside before I go stir-crazy."
"I have patrol in the morning, you can come with."
"Let's go now." Wheeljack insisted. He´d wanted go to go outside for some time now but the war stories had filled in the time wasting away at his own.
"And break up the party? Come on, the gang's loving you! You gotta tell them about the battle of Darkmount Pass."
Wheeljack was getting impatient. Couldn´t the mech accept he did not want to tell any stories? "You tell them. You're better at it."
Airachnid, who´d been biding her time, showed up at the wrecker´s side and put her servos on his arm while looking up at him with the sweetest look she could muster. "How's about I show you the rest of the base? You look like you're getting a bit overwhelmed here with all the optics on you?"
"That ok with you?"
Bulkhead paused, caught by surprise. He didn´t want to say no to his friend but there was something not adding up and he needed to find out what. "Well, yes. Sure thing, Jackie, go ahead."
The two bots went deeper into the base, with the spider-femme looking back to wave and wink before attempting to make some sort of small-talk with the mech. She needed his attention for what she was going to do and hoped Doomsday would get the information she needed.
Radical shrugged but got up from the heavy-duty seeker´s lap anyway. He went over to look at his Carrier and Ratchet's work, hoping that maybe the medbot would finally allow him to handle the equipment beyond fixing bugs. He could handle himself just fine, his Carrier was a Forger that had taught him exactly what never to touch when handling all sorts of equipment. Weapons too, but when would he get the chance to handle something of that caliber?
"Aww, things were just getting good." Mayhem pouted and crossed her arms. She´d do a lot of crazy things but getting between Airachnid and a ´meal´ was not something she, or anyone for that matter, was willing to risk their neck for.
Arcee saw Bulkhead watch his friend and Airachnid leave with a sad expression. "You alright?"
"Yeah. Just… outta sorts, I guess." He turned to the two-wheeler. When Wheeljack had contacted them he´d felt like a part of him had come back, a part of his previous days before the war had split him from his original team and thrown them to Primus knows where across the galaxies.
"Don't tell me you're jealous." She crossed her arms and smirked. There was a good guess of what it was, in fact.
"Of what?"
"That Mayhem has another bot to roughhouse with."
"Sainted Solus, I do, don't I?!" Said femme lit up at the words. Maybe there would be at least a one-on-one fight. Just for her to get a feeling of what his fighting skills were, of course, not to like, only for her to have fun and stuff.
"Come on, really? No, something's just not right about Wheeljack."
"Bulkhead, really?" The two-wheeler came closer. "He's traveler galaxies, you haven't seen him for centuries. He could just be rocket-lagged or… well, bots do change, you know?" She´d seen plenty of those in the battlefield, coming back almost unrecognizable from their former selves.
"Not Jackie."
Airachnid stretched her back as she walked in front of Wheeljack, sashaying her hips every step of the way. When Doomsday had told her the theory she wanted to prove involved seduction the spider-femme accepted with no conditions since she´d get to go back to one of her favorite hobbies but, so far, nothing had happened.
"This is pretty much where we store the flammables. Energon stockpile, power generator, armory. Keep your grenades under lock and key because if one ends up here we'll all be out on the streets. Needless to say Mayhem and Doomsday can only come in here escorted." It was the end of their improvised tour and it was hard not to turn back and ask what his major malfunction was for not showing any sort of reaction.
Wheeljack took a look around and decided on a question. "Where is this bunker located exactly?"
"If I told you I'd have to rip out your sparkchamber." Airachnid gave a manic grin to the taller mech but not even then did he react. She slumped over and sighed. "Really? Not even a flinch? I need to go out more often, I'm losing my edge here. Anyway, somewhere around Jasper, Nevada. Not that it'll mean much to you."
"Can't say it does. So, anyway outside of here besides bridging?" He sounded a little desperate but maybe the femme was merely imagining things from both letdowns.
"Planning on leaving so soon? Good luck, Mayhem will be hounding you for a goodbye fight and you better say yes least she jump on your ship when you go. I think this is pretty much the end, let's head back then."
"Almost there." Ratchet murmured in deep concentration while pressing a number of keys next to the groundbridge lever.
"This is not a mass-destruction weapon and yet I helped you fix it. I don´t like saying I told you so but-" Doomsday stopped her gloating when Airachnid returned still accompanied by Wheeljack. "But I will not say it today. Excuse me." She left the exasperated medbot alone and went to pull the spider-femme aside to a more isolated corner of the room.
"I hate to tell you but I got nothing. No reaction at all. Are you sure that, you know, with my frame, he´d be…" Airachnid had been unsure if her unusual appearance would be in the way of their plan but Doomsday hadn´t bothered to address that issue.
The Forger snorted and sported a nostalgic smile for a moment before getting serious once more. "You´re not picky and neither was he. You made sure to-"
"Arch my back and display it like I desperately needed shanix to pay for my hypothetical sparkling's surgery, yes."
"Then I am confident that whoever that is, Wheeljack is not their designation."
Both looked with squinted optics at the white wrecker, their processors running a thousand scenarios. Who could impersonate a bot almost to perfection down to their mannerisms and know about their past? Had he messed with the wrong bot? Could it be merely processor damage after one too many fights and she was just reading too much into it?
"That's not Wheeljack?"
"What the-!"
"Hi." Radical waved from his lower point of view at his Carrier´s pedes. "So, who is he?"
While the two femmes exchanged looks of doubt on how Radical had managed to overhear them and about who could their guest really be someone else was attempting to unravel the second point.
Bulkhead was getting on edge about his ´friend´. There may have been times when Wheeljack had been more serious and not so much as the risk-taking mech he was known to be but nothing could compare to what was happening. It was as if he was a different bot all together… Wait. A different bot? Could it be that Wheeljack was not himself as in someone else impersonating him? There was a way to prove it and Bulkhead prayed to Primus he wasn't right.
"Hey, Jackie, I was just telling the guys about you and me. At the battle of Darkmount pass." He called ´Wheeljack´ over to their group.
"That's a heck of a story." The white mech smiled and nodded. Were they still going on about past battles?
"Yup. Tell it." Now was the time to see if his theory lined up.
"I'm not sure I-"
"Tell it." Bulkhead cut off Wheeljack and pressed on. His friend wouldn´t pass up an opportunity to tell one of their greatest battle stories, not if he was who he claimed to be.
The smaller group of two femmes and sparkling began paying closer attention to the white wrecker´s reactions. They saw what looked like panic flash for a brief moment in his optics before it was replaced once again with cool calm. The femmes had dealt with enough mechs hiding secrets back in the Maker district to know when something was up and there were alarms going off in their processors at the sight of the bot´s micro-reaction.
"Look, he's caught on to something too." Airachnid pointed out to what was happening not far from them.
"I wonder who he is." Radical whispered. He remembered his Carrier telling him berthtime stories about a particular type of Cybertronians, a type that could change their frames to match someone else´s.
"Let's see how this ends for him." Doomsday crossed her arms and craned her neck upwards to get a better look of the events.
The tension was rising. Bulkhead hadn´t let anyone else get a word in while waiting for his supposed best friend to tell the story he should show like the back of his servo and the green wrecker would keep insisting until he was either proven right or wrong. He hoped he was wrong.
"Fine, you wanna live in the past, Bulkhead? The wreckers were caught between a Decepticon patrol and a smelting pit. The Cons were vicious, bearing down on us with everything they had. Me and Bulkhead engaged the enemy, left them for scrap. Then I made us a way out using their backsides as stepping stones to cross the molten metal. Isn't that how it happened?" W
"Yeah, that's exactly how it happened. Except for one little thing." At Bulkhead´s words the smirk sported by Wheeljack dropped and his optics widened in surprise.
Radical came closer to the scene and it was his turn to smirk. "Busted."
"I wasn't there." Everyone stared at what was happening, even Ratchet let go of his work to pay attention to the scene. "I'd already left the wrecker to join up with Optimus. But you wouldn't know that if all you did was access Wheeljack's public service record."
Makeshift panicked. He´d never been discovered before and was heavily outnumbered, either he came up with a plan fast or would end up as no more than a stain on the floor where he stood. With a quick dash he made a grab for the sparkling, trapping him against his chest, dodging the bots attempting to catch him and ran for the groundbridge. He made sure to keep the sparkling's arms bound for the ordeal, not wanting him to pull the same trick he'd pulled on Soundwave. The spy didn't care if Starscream wanted to play house with the little runt but the Autobots didn't know he needed him alive.
"Radical!" Doomsday pulled her whip and cracked it against the floor, leaving a wide gash where it had struck.
"Stay back, or I'll squeeze him into pulp." Makeshift threatened, adding a bit more strength into his grip, making the sparkling yelp.
Ratchet attempted to make a surprise grab for the bot they´d assumed to be Wheeljack but was quickly deterred by one look. He´d seen it plenty of times in the battlefield during hostage situations, the captor willing to do anything to avoid an enemy attack by holding the hostage´s life on the line. If they moved Radical would suffer the consequences and it didn´t take much to break a sparkling´s frame.
The green wrecker wanted nothing more than to deploy his wrecking ball and beat the scrap out of the bot that had impersonated one of his best friends but with Radical´s life on the line there wasn´t much he could do. "Decepticon coward. Let the sparkling go and face me."
"Don't fret, plenty of fighting to come." Makeshift reversed to his real voice with a demented smile.
"He's a Shifter!" Yelled Radical before getting another warning squeeze and wincing at the pain.
"A what?" Bulkhead had no idea what he was talking about.
"Legendary breed of Cybertronian." Airachnid´s extra arms were twitching, aching for the first opportunity to strike the opponent down and rip out his sparkchamber. "Forgers came from Solus, Shifters came from Amalgamous, the Prime that gave Cybertronians the ability to transform."
Silverbot straightened up, attempting to make himself as imposing as possible. Even if he couldn't attack he could intimidate. "Is there even a real Wheeljack?" He asked with a cold glare.
"Oh, indeed, and I expect Lord Starscream is making sport of him." Makeshift heard the bridge beep and noticed it was operational. If it hadn't been for the Forger´s help he´d have been at an impasse for a lot longer. "About time!" He inserted the coordinates to the Nemesis and opened a portal, backing into it slowly, making sure everyone could still see the threat he presented to the sparkling that kept trying to free himself, struggling at every moment. "Will you keep still?!"
"Let him go, you half-clocked Con!" Doomsday had her whip firmly clenched in her servo. "You're not going anywhere with my son."
When it looked like everything seemed lost a light of hope came through, or rather, the real Wheeljack jumped in from the other side of the portal. The wrecker banged the hilt of his sword against the impostor's helm, making him fall down and release Radical. The Decepticon was thrown against a wall hard enough to make him falter and unable to get up for a few seconds, if he hadn´t been used to the gladiator fights for the old days he´d have went into stasis.
Doomsday´s optics widened as Radical practically flew through the air and lassoed the sparkling out of pure instinct with light speed and hugged him to her chassis, her hold on him almost like the one the Decepticon had on him previously. She felt the energon tears flow to her optics before shaking her helm to repress the urge to cry. Emotions were for later, maybe when the bootleg that had hurt her son was offlined. "Solus be praised, you're alright!"
"Not if you squeeze out my insides." Radical´s words came out muffled and she lessened her hold to allow him to look up at her. "Thanks, I thought I was a goner."
The bot that had just come through the bridge sheathed his words and looked at Bulkhead. "I'd shut that hole before the stink comes through." They did not want to deal with the horde of Decepticons hat was on the other side coming through and revealing their base´s location.
Ratchet snapped out of his thoughts and offlined the bridge. He sighed in relief. He wondered what would have happened if their equipment hadn't malfunctioned or if he hadn't asked Doomsday for help in fixing it.
"Now, let's take care of business." The real wrecker motioned to the Shifter that had managed to get himself back on his pedes and drawn his blades. Wheeljack drew his as well once again as well, motioning for the others to form a circle around them and keep out their path. The identical bots circled each other, daring the other to make the first move, and when Bulkhead attempted to get in on the action Wheeljack stopped him. "Ugly's mine."
They launched themselves at each other at the same time and a clash of swords took place, filling the air with the sounds of sharp metal attempting to cut into the other. They were evenly matched, one a wrecker the other an ex-gladiator, fighting for their lives in what could be the last fight of one of them.
"Which one's the real Wheeljack?" Radical yelled at Mayhem from his mother´s arms, trying to make himself heard though the clashing metal noises.
The femme pointed at no certain mech with a panicked grimace before throwing her servos up. "I don't know, I lost track!"
Unfortunately for the impostor it had been too long since he´d seen a proper battlefield, too used to make his way in and out swiftly though enemy ranks without confrontation, and he lost both swords. Afterwards it was only a matter of receiving a rather painful kick to the chest enough to daze him and knock him to the ground to be defeated and rendered defenseless by the Autobot.
Bulkhead smiled to the rest of the team. "That's my Jackie."
Wheeljack poked his enemy's neck cables with his swords for good measure before sheathing them. He had a better idea to do with the coward who´d tried to fool his friend, there was a supposed Decepticon Lord who needed repayment for his hospitality. "You, hit the switch." He said to Ratchet and then turned to Bulkhead. "And now it's time to take out the trash. All yours, buddy."
"Aww, I wanted to offline him." Complained Airachnid. Anyone who dared to try and hurt a bot belonging to her last ties to the Makers deserved nothing but the worst.
Bulkhead picked up Makeshift and walked towards the bridge, lifting the Shifter above his helm with a proud display of strength. They´d return the scum to where he came from along with a little gift, wrecker style.
Solarflare came from the hallway, clearly not amused having been interrupted by the amount of noise while going over some of Ratchet's medical documents she'd borrowed. "What in Solus' grace is going-" She saw the scene and could not make heads or tails of what was happening. "On."
Makeshift looked at the seeker from his standpoint and remembered where he´d seen her before. It was no wonder Megatron had been eager to get things up and running with the spacebridge.
A green vortex opened once again on the Nemesis' airstrip and all the Vehicons took a step back in fear. The wrecker had escaped and, right when they were preparing to storm the Autobots' base, he'd shown up and beat the scrap out of everyone, including the self-proclaimed Lord.
Starscream shook in anger and looked at his troops- "What are you waiting for?! GO!" The seeker bellowed, energon still leaking from his faceplates. He´d show them who was best, who was the real winner in their war. The wall of the Autobot´s base would be painted with their insides and he would laugh in glee atop of their lifeless frames.
The Vehicons troops hurried in only to come back running to the ship when their spy was tossed through, barreling into many, few managing to evade him, but, in the end, Makeshift landed right on top of a very surprised Starscream, the bridge closing immediately after. They had failed once again.
Starscream pushed the offending spy away and got up, trying his best. "Please, tell me that you at least learned the location of their base." Annoyed did not even begin to cover how he felt. Again and again he tried to one-up his enemies only for the house of cards to come tumbling down, always on top of him.
"Indeed, Lord Starscream. But that's not all, I saw her. Megatron-"
"Whoa! Back, back!" Starscream had heard a beeping noise, like a countdown to something, and when his gaze had landed on the grenade stuck to Makeshift´s side he did what he did best. The seeker ran away, pushing Vehicons out of his path, and took flight.
Makeshift could only look down and away his doom. "Oh no…"
A blue explosion lit up the dark skies.
The next day everything had went back to normal. Well, almost everything. Ratchet and Doomsday had spent the night up fixing Wheeljack´s ship, the medbot not willing to pick a fight with the Forger so soon after she´d almost seen her sparkling and in Decepticon claws. Everyone else had stayed up pretty late before retiring for some recharge, listening to wartime stories from the real Wheeljack who was more than glad to share them.
Mayhem and Radical were playing on the home-made console and she, having won after six virtual battles in a row, was cheering with her arms raised up high and jumping up and down. Arcee, Silverbot and Bumblebee were cheering her on, rising their servos for a round of high-fives with the victorious seeker.
"I still can't believe you found Makers on this planet." Wheeljack took in the moment shared by the bots of both factions with a smile. It had been a long time since he´d seen something like that happen but it gave him a little hope for the future.
Ratchet lifted his optics from the equipment he was fixing and promptly went back to his task. "It's like a recurring nightmare." Oh, how he missed those quiet mornings, working in the machinery in peace, maybe having a cube of energon.
The white wrecker turned to Doomsday and smirked. "And I still can't believe you had one of those." He pointed at the sparkling being lifted up in a hug by an ecstatic Mayhem.
Doomsday merely shrugged. "What can I say? It was love at first sight." She then leaned in against him, just like she used to do when she caught him wandering the Maker district, and winked. "So, what do you say? I'll throw in a freebie for old time's sake."
Airachnid draped herself against his other side. "Room for one more?"
Solarflare sighed. It was as if she was the only responsible fully grown adult among her team. She grabbed Doomsday by her dreadlocks and Airachnid by one of her 'horns' to pry them off the wrecker that showed signs of accepting the proposition and drag them away further into the base. "Time-out, ladies! This is war, not an orgy."
"Ignoring that last bit, now that you're part of team Prime, we need to pick out a vehicle mode for you." Bulkhead nudged Wheeljack. "I have some ideas."
"Erm… about that, Bulk." It was going to be awkward but he couldn´t be tied to a place for long, it just wasn´t in his nature. "Now that my ship's repaired I'm itching to know what else I might find out there."
"Wait, you're leaving? Why?" Mayhem had overhead the wrecker and had come running in, still holding onto Radical. "What about all the fighting we could do together?"
That had drawn the attention of the other bots as well. They all came closer and looked with sad optics at Wheeljack, disappointed to see him go so soon after less than a day with him.
"Because some bots never change." Bulkhead smiled. It would be hard saying goodbye to his friend once again but he knew he´d come back. True friends always stuck by each other, no matter what.
Optimus sported a sad smile. "Wheeljack, know that you'll always have a haven here." They were so few and when he´d appeared it gave them a glimmer of hope, just like when they´d found the Makers. Cybertronians were resilient by nature, there were bound to be more of them out there amongst the stars and, if Primus allowed it, they´d help them fight for Cybertron and Earth as well.
The green wrecked patted his friend on the back with a sad smile as well. "Jackie never stays, but he always comes back." He lifted up a servo and they fist bumped. Wreckers for life.
"There's room for two on my ship, even with a backside like yours. Who knows who we might find out there? Some of the old crew?"
Bulkhead looked around to all the bots, some of whom he´d fought alongside with on many battles, other whom he´d only know for a short while. Mayhem was looking away, downcast, but didn´t wasn't to say anything. It was his call if he wanted to leave, she didn´t want to influence hos decision by asking him to stay. He knew what he had to do. "Sounds like fun, Jackie, but my ties are here now. With them. With her."
Mayhem laughed and launched herself at Bulkhead in a hug. "I knew I was your friend!"
Wheeljack smiled. It wasn´t often you got true friends like those. "If anything happens to my favorite wrecker I'm coming after you."
The seeker stuck out her glossa and nodded at Silverbot. "Have you seen the size of my brother? I could total kick your aft. But don't worry, I'll take good care of him. Now…" She let go of the green wrecker and took a few steps back with her holopad already out. "You two, smile for the camera, I wanna save this moment."
They smiled. They would meet again. Soon.
Extra:
"Doomsday, you got a grease stain on you. Right there on your… ahem."
"Look closer."
"Is that writing? ´Wheeljack was here´. Wait, what? You were up all night with Ratchet fixing the ship. How did you…"
"A Maker never reveals her secrets."
"SOLUS DAMMIT, DOOMSDAY!"
AN: How did you like this last tidbit? I though it up but couldn´t work it in so I figured you should see something of what I cut out. Who was asking and who screamed? Use your imagination ;)
"This is war, not an orgy." Taken from Swinging Seekers by Spoon888 on AO3