Okay, listening to Technologic , Momma Sed, If Everyone Cared, Who We Are, and other assorted songs. And I'm sorry, I had to.

Iren: *Pops up* Really? But why?

Me:*Makes annoyed face*Read the story… 'Sides, it's my favorite pairing.

Crossing the River

Family and Persona's

Training went off without a hitch. My meeting with the politicians of the world was daunting yet amiable, and they were only put off for the first five minutes of 'Wait! She's fifteen?!' that happened. Then my day got strange, Optimus wanted me in his office, which I am currently walking towards.

What could the big guy possibly want? I thought, knocking on the giant door that led to his office.

"Come in!" Optimus shouted in his immediately recognize able timber through the door.

"I need you to open it for me, sir," I said. Entering the office when the door slid open with a SNICK!

Optimus's office was large, obviously, with a giant desk littered with data pads and a monitor to one side. Walking up the stairs that led to the top of the desk, it was not the room that caught my attention, but the mechs within it. Optimus was sitting at the desk, and behind him stood Ironhide and Ratchet. All three bore identical expressions of mild concern.

"You asked for my presence, sir?" I said, assuming my usual stance that I had when talking to superiors. Feet shoulder width apart, standing strait, but without locking my knees, shoulders squared, chin up, hands folded behind my back, eyes making contact with Optimus's optics.

"Yes, I did. And please, there are no needs for formalities in here, just call me Optimus if that is fine with you Whisper?" Optimus said.

"Alright, now what's with the triad of concerned faces?" I asked.

"It's Jazz, he is not acting like himself," Ratchet said.

"Jazz? What do you mean? He was acting normal this morning," I said.

"The second you left he started to act mopey and depressed," Ironhide said.

"Hmmm… and this worried you, so you called me to talk to him?" I asked, not missing a beat.

"Yes, and he resisted both Ironhide and I's attempts to discover the source of the problem," Ratchet said.

"Alright, I'll find out what's up. Where is he?" I asked.

"He drove off towards the far side of the island when I tried to talk to him," Ratchet said.

"Alright, I'll take one of the Hummers," I said, sliding down the railing and running out the door. I ran towards the main hanger. I grabbed a Hummer and raced off to one of the trails through the jungle. I stopped about a mile away from where I estimated Jazz to be and continued on foot, running silently through the jungle. When I reached the edge of the jungle I stopped, looking around a tree and looked for Jazz. About fifty meters away was Jazz. He was on his hands and knees in the sand, and silent tremors wracked his frame. I held back a gasp as I was hit by a flashback.

Iren watched from behind a tree as her brother sunk to his hands and knees, pounding his fists into the forest floor as he screamed. Eventually he stopped thrashing and just cried silently as tremors wracked his body.

Blinking as the vision of my older brother faded away, I silently walked out from behind the tree and approached the shaking bot.

"Jazz?" I said, stopping about ten feet away from him. His helm snapped up and his optics met mine. He struggled to get up as I walked around so we were facing each other dead on.

"Wh-Whisp'? What are you doing here?" Jazz asked.

"The others got worried and called me to Optimus's office to tell me you weren't acting like yourself. What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Jazz said, managing to get onto his knees.

"Like hell ya are," I said, my backwoods accent coming back in full force.

"It's not something you can fix, Whisper," Jazz said.

"True, But at th' very least ah can help ya. What's wrong Jazz?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain,"

"Try meh,"

"I miss someone very dear to me, and I don't know if he's still alive,"

"What's 'is name?"

"Prowl,"

"An' ya care about 'im a lot?"

"I love him,"

"So y'all were datein'"

"We're spark mates,"

"Ah, so 'e's ya husband?"

"Yes,"

"An' 'e's galaxies away from ya right now,"

"Yes,"

"That's gotta hurt,"

"Yes,"

"Well until e' gets back, ya know ahm 'ear for ya, right?" I asked.

"Thank you Whisper,"

"…-"

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I-I, I can't tell if I am Whisper anymore,"

"What do you mean?"

"You know how I switched personas when I went through the BattleBridge doors?"

"Yes,"

"Well, I was going between The Whisper and Iren Flames. 'Whisper' is an in between persona that was created when I walked through the wall. 'Whisper' is my go between at this point. She's the Meeting point between past, present, old, and new. When I was born I was Iren Firestone. When Dad died, Mom abandoned me to the foster system. I took my father's maiden name as a way of adopting a new persona and shedding the hurt of what mom did. By then I already had Shadow Shot as my spec ops persona. Honestly, Whisper and Shadow Shot aren't that different. Shadow Shot's quieter, nearly silent, and Whisper's more… jaded, but the thought process is the same,"

"You are possibly the most complex person I've ever met,"

"Yeah, but Mix is A LOT worse than me. But…"

"What?"

"He can tell them apart. I'm having difficulty telling if I've started to change personas or developing a new one. But when the politicians asked who I was, I told them I was Iren Fires. I might just be giving Whisper a civilian identity that is less damaged and more accepting of what mom did, due to the presence of Mix and Airstrike, and the support of you and the rest of the Autobots. Not to mention that I am no longer in the foster system, no longer being abused, and am in a military environment with a solid place that I am confident in. Or I could be reverting back to Iren Firestone and just wanted to avoid any connection to mom,"

"What do you want it to be?"

"A new persona,"

"Then make it a new persona,"

"How do you make these things so simple?"

"I'm the leader of spec ops for a reason,"

"That is becoming clearer the more I get to know you,"

"It should,"

"Alright, now could you give me a ride to the Hummer? I can run but I'd rather not,"

"Hop in," Jazz said, transforming into the Solstice. I hopped in the front seat and sat quietly until we got to the Hummer.

"Thanks Jazz. Hopefully I can make it on time to lunch, see ya then," I said, hopping onto the Hummer.

"You're welcome," he said, then drove off. Starting up the hummer I followed him, thinking about what he had said. Whisper did need a semi-civilian identity, even if it held a diplomatic position of importance. And it would be extremely helpful. Yep, Iren Fires was a definite advantage if I made her a persona. Guess that decides it, I thought.

Well, that was interesting. Jazz X Prowl is my favorite ship of all time. And to clear up the whole 'I could be reverting back to Iren Firestone and just wanted to avoid any connection to mom' bit. Iren's Dad's maiden name was Flames; her Mom's maiden name was Coldstone. When her parents got married they combined their last names to form Firestone. So basically Iren just cut out the 'stone' bit so she wouldn't have any connection to her mom. Make sense?