Sitting on the berth Jazz watched on in interest, pointedly ignoring Ratchet's grumbling about 'stupid younglings who don't listen to their medical officers', as the medic fixed up his recently broken shoulder joint. He was at least slightly relieved that Ratchet had been kind enough to dull his pain receptors, a kindness Skids and Mudflap hadn't experienced if their whining was anything to go by. Turning away from the irate medic Jazz turned his attention to Wheeljack who was sitting in a chair opposite, watching him with a murderous expression on his face.
"I'm beginning to question why we thought it was a good idea to bring you back." Ratchet huffed as he set his tools aside, taking a step back and crossing his arms over his chassis.
"We'd appreciate it if you could at least respect the work we put into repairing you, rather than trying to get yourself killed on a semi-constant basis." Wheeljack added as he stood and moved to stand beside Ratchet.
"If nothing else just…lay off the dangerous stunts for a while." Ratchet said softly, reaching out to place a hand on Jazz's shoulder. "You're not running at full capacity yet, despite what you may think." Jazz nodded, releasing a heavy intake and looking away from the pair.
"We're only looking out for your wellbeing Jazz." Wheeljack sighed before retreating to the other side of the Med bay, distracting himself with a device that Jazz was almost certain would explode before the end of the day.
"This isn't like you," Ratchet added once the other mech was out of range "What's wrong?"
Chuckling humourlessly Jazz shook his head "What isn't wrong Ratchet? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that Optimus was willing to use the Allspark shard on me but…" Another intake as he tapped his chest-plates "It's not the same without Prowl. We've been together for several millennia not having him in my spark, it's strange. I feel…I guess I just feel empty."
"I can't say I understand the feeling because I don't, but just because Prowl's gone it doesn't mean you have to give up on life. Despite the less than stellar attitudes of the human governments, we have a home now, something we haven't had in a long time."
"For how long Ratch?" Jazz sighed "You and I both know that Lennox and the others can't protect us forever. The second their governments decide that they don't want us around they're going to either kill us or force us off-world. And when that does happen, we'll be back to square one, floating around in space trying to find a way to survive. So what's the point?"
"The point is that we don't give up Jazz. We can't afford to give up, otherwise every Cybertronian who died before us will have done so in vain. Their sacrifices will mean nothing if we just roll over and let Megatron kill us." He said firmly, tucking a hand beneath Jazz's chin and encouraging him to look up and meet his optics. "Can you honestly tell me that this is what Prowl would have wanted you to do? That he would want you to give up on living? Because I sure as Pit don't believe it. And if you think for one moment that Wheeljack and I are just going to let you kill yourself again, you've got another thing coming."
Ratchet had barely finished speaking before Ironhide appeared in the doorway, his presence immediately gaining the attention of the three mechs "We've got Decepticon signals somewhere in Nevada. Prime's mobilising us while the humans try to get a fix on their locations."
"Am I included in that?" Wheeljack questioned, leaning against his work surface, it wasn't often that his presence was requested for a simple neutralisation mission. Ironhide simply nodded before retreating into the hallway, Wheeljack following moments later with a bounce in his step.
"If you're going to try and get yourself shot, do me a favour, stay behind and take a few hours to think things through. I'll explain things to Optimus."
"I'm fine Ratch." Jazz huffed as he slid to his feet "Can't rightly avenge my mate's murder when I'm dead can I?" He shot the medic a wiry and entirely false grin as he followed the other two.
"I'll take that." Ratchet sighed, ensuring everything was in its place and ready for use when they returned, after all, someone would inevitably be stupid enough to put themselves in the line of fire.
"You stupid fragger! Like Pit am I letting you take a Autobot's spawn back with us!" Frenzy hissed darting around Barricade's larger form attempting to get another glimpse of the tiny thing. Ever since the little slagger had lost most of his processor to the humans and subsequently been rebuilt by Soundwave, he'd become far too much like Rumble for Barricade's liking. Turning to the minicon he glared and held his brother's creation a little tighter, taking great care not to cause any unnecessary harm to the newly sparked creature. "Where the frag did you even find it? Ain't no Autobots around here."
"Perhaps if you listened to me you would know what I said. She was behind a rock. I don't know where her creators are but I'm not going to leave a sparklet to die." Barricade reasoned
"Do you really think ol'Megs is going to just let you stroll back with a sparkling in your arms? I'm pretty sure he was the one who ordered the destruction of the sparkling centres."
"It's been long enough for him to hopefully realise how dire our situation is. It shouldn't matter who her creators are, there are so few Cybertronians left now that we cannot afford to let a sparkling die."
Frenzy groaned and threw his arms in the air "You're going to get us both killed. We're going to show our faces and get shot or torn apart. Do you really want to die for something an Autobot created?" Venting Barricade knelt, manoeuvring his arms into a position that kept Rythm secure but visible at the same time.
"Look into her optics and tell me honestly that you could either kill her or leave her here." He kept his attention firmly on the minicon as he crept closer, flinching backwards when one tiny arm waved around.
"She's kinda…cute? But I ain't dying for an Autobot's spawn Cade."
"And I'm not asking you to-" Barricade snapped his mouth shut as a familiar and large form appeared from around an outcrop behind Frenzy.
"Barricade." Optimus rumbled, moving towards them as several more Autobots appeared behind him, including the Primus-damned weapons specialist of theirs. Frenzy darted behind him, using his body as a shield. He didn't fail to notice the way the Prime's optics immediately fell upon Rythm, and despite knowing the larger mech would never harm a sparkling, Barricade couldn't help but try to hide her from view once more.
"Frenzy, go." Barricade muttered to the minicon, knowing that there was no possible way that he could just hand the sparklet over and say what he needed to say with Frenzy skittering around him.
"Just leave the scraplet and let's go!" Frenzy protested "They ain't gonna care if we leave it behind, might even buy us some time." And while it was his goal to hand Rythm over to the Autobots, he did still want to inform them of her heritage and of Prowl's continued survival.
"Hurt that bitlet and I will tear you apart Con." Ironhide growled, canons charged and aimed towards the ground, though Barricade knew how quickly that could change, having seen him blow many a mech's heads off.
"Barricade, c'mon!" Venting Barricade pushed Frenzy aside, pointedly ignoring the slew of curses thrown in his direction as a result. What he wasn't expecting was for the minicon to throw himself at Rythm, claws outstretched. Reacting on instinct alone the larger Con lashed out with his one free hand, hitting Frenzy seconds before he touched the sparkling, watching in satisfaction as the piece of scrap collided with the ground. "Frag you!" He hissed after righting himself "I ain't dying for some Bot spawn, see you in the Pit slagger." With that he was scampering off down the canyon, pointedly positioning himself in such a way that the Autobots would have to shoot Barricade if they wanted to capture him, smart.
"Barricade," The sound of the Prime's voice had his head snapping back around "Place the sparkling gently on the ground and step back."
"I'm afraid I can't do that Prime." Barricade replied.
"That's not your sparklet, unless you've suddenly developed the ability to alter your optic colours at will." The medic added, completing the already intimidating line of mechs.
"She is the only thing keeping you from killing me." Was his response, shifting Rythm into a more secure position over his spark.
"Using a sparkling as a living shield is below you Barricade." Optimus said once more, lowering his gun. "You have my word that so long as the sparkling remains unharmed, so will you." Venting heavily Barricade met the tiny blue optics staring up at him. Rejecting the Prime's offer would only increase their suspicions and ire, something he could ill afford, not when his brother was relying on him. With no other options he lent forward and ever so gently laid Rythm on the ground prior to forcing himself to move away and ignore her mournful whines.
Reclining on the berth, if one could even call the simple slab of metal that, Prowl vented heavily, being careful not to place any pressure upon his remaining doorwing. Most of the pain receptors were almost completely dead, unfortunately there were still several working that if touched could quite literally cripple him. It was however a relief to know that his daughter was safely in his brother's arms and hopefully on her way to the rest of the Autobots. To his mate who had once again defied all odds and survived being torn in half. Prowl was snapped out of his thoughts the bars to his cell deactivated granting entry to both Thundercracker and Skywarp, the latter of whom was giving him a familiar look that usually preceded a great deal of pain.
Closing his optics he turned away from them in an act of defiance. They would have to try harder if they wanted to intimidate him, although their claws digging into his armour were certainly a good intimidation tactic.
It was during an intense, or at least intense in Barricade's opinion, stare down between himself and the Autobots that Rythm started screaming. One moment the little femme was silent, bar the occasional coo as she observed her surroundings, and the next she was attempting to summon Unicron's minions with her screams. Scrambling to his pedes and disregarding the warnings of the Autobots, he closed the distance between them and cautiously scooped her up into his arms and pressing her against his chassis. After trying to calm her for what felt like forever, he eventually gave in and turned to the Autobots with a pleading expression.
"Oh for spark's sake." The medic huffed, shoving the Prime and Weapons Specialist aside as he strode towards them. "Give it here." Ratchet sighed, gently nudging his arms aside and stealing the sparkling from his grasp "You're okay little one." He soothed moving to hold her over his own spark "Primus you're young, aren't you?"
"Six cycles at most." Barricade muttered barely loud enough for Ratchet to hear. The medic turned to look at him with wide optics.
"Repeat that."
"I lost track of time" He sighed "but she's somewhere around six cycles old."
"A femme then." Ratchet hummed, returning his attention back to the sparkling in his arms who was starting to finally calm. "I'm going to presume that considering your lack of empathy towards her and the colour of your optics, you aren't one of her creators."
"No," Was the somewhat distant response as Barricade's optics landed on the significantly smaller mech who'd moved to stand beside the Prime. "But we are family." He added.
"Not possible." Ironhide interjected "We'd have known if Blue'd been sparked."
Barricade's attention fell on him "I wasn't talking about Bluestreak." He shot back only to be pinned to the nearest rockface seconds later by Jazz.
"Prowl's dead." He snarled "Dead because the mech he trusted, the mech he grew up with, turned him over to Megatron at his own sire's funeral!" Flinching Barricade clenched his fists but otherwise remained motionless. There was nothing he could say. He'd spent enough vorns lamenting his decision and just as long trying to find a way to free Prowl from the prison he'd put him in.
Handing Prowl over had been easy enough. He'd held a deep resentment for both his older and younger brothers, believing them to have turned their backs on him and their people, choosing to fight for the Council who had subjugated the Praxian people for so long. It seemed only fair that he should hand over a traitor to face justice. Which was why two days before his sire's funeral, the mech having fallen victim to a seemingly random attack, Barricade had casually mentioned to Megatron that Prowl would also be in attendance. The service had become a slaughter. Megatron indiscriminately killing all those who got in his way, who attempted to protect Prowl and Bluestreak. Barricade all the while had stayed silent, watching on emotionless as one of Prowl's doorwings was ripped off and Bluestreak fled with tears in his optics.
"Don't you think I know how much I fragged up?" Barricade hissed, though there was no real venom behind his words "I'm the slagger who's got to live with the knowledge that I'm the reason Prowl's been tortured! That he's been put through Primus knows what at Shockwave's hands! I know I messed up, but I'm trying to fix it! For once in my damned life I'm trying to do some good."
"By bringing up my dead mate?!" Jazz roared, digging his claws into the other mech's plating.
"He's not dead!" The grip on his shoulders loosened instantly as Jazz sank back on his haunches, mouth agape. "Prowl's alive," He repeated "He's alive and she's yours." Jazz gave no verbal response, instead he dropped his arms completely and took a step backwards, looking between Barricade and the sparkling in Ratchet's arms.
"Explain." Barricade had almost forgotten about the presence of the other Autobots as the Prime started to close the distance between them.
"Prowl's alive and on Earth." He elaborated, head bowed and doorwings held high. "Megatron had Shockwave bring him here. Turns out he was carrying when…when Megatron…captured him. I don't know how but the bitlet survived. She survived and as far as I know no one realised Prowl was carrying. Getting him out was impossible but a sparkling? A sparkling's easy enough to hide." Barricade flicked a doorwing as he watched Jazz walk over to Ratchet "Her name's Rythm by the way."
"My carrier's name." Jazz muttered softly as he peered over Ratchet's arms, reaching a hand out to brush one of his fingers over her faceplates. Rythm responded immediately, one tiny hand swinging out to grab hold of his finger which was shortly followed by a series of chirps.
Barricade flinched, shrinking in on himself as one large hand settled on his left shoulder. While he doubted the Prime would go so far as to torture him by damaging his doorwings, he'd seen Prowl suffer enough to know that letting a mech thrice your size get close to them was a silly and likely painful decision.
"I believe it is time we had a talk." Optimus said firmly, leaving no room for protest "Don't you?" Whining almost inaudibly Barricade nodded. "Good. Ratchet, Ironhide escort Jazz and the sparkling back to the transports, Barricade and I will join you shortly."