Disclaimer: Not own them. Not making money.
Warnings: the usual plus my inability to write a souther accent so just imagine he's speaking with the accent.
"talking"
"comm"
line-change of place
Crash
"GET A MEDIC DOWN TO THE RAILROAD CROSSING NOW!" – Mirage's panicked transmission reverberated throughout the Control Room.
"Mirage, it's Ironhide. What happened?" – The old mech asked, already contacting Ratchet.
"It's Jazz…" – The Ligier began, but was cut off by the sound of scraping metal. – "Oh, Primus! Jazz, don't! Stop!" – Mirage's voice continued and Ironhide realized the racer's radio was still on.
"Mirage, Ratchet can't leave until Jazz tells him what's wrong and how he got it. Prime's orders." – Ironhide informed the panicked mech on the other line. Ironhide found the order illogical and unusual and swore he would have a nice chat with Prime once his shift was over.
"But… he can't… Oh, hell! Screw Prime and his orders!" – Mirage cried before the transmission was cut. Ironhide stared at the radio. In any other moment he would've found Mirage's sudden use of human expressions hilarious, but not with Ratchet having a fit on another line and an injured mech with only a panicked spy as company. The red mech got up from his seat. He still had a few hours of duty, but he didn't care about that right now. He needed to get help.
Mirage had seen everything. Like Prime had ordered, he had been following Jazz as he'd been doing for the past weeks. So far, he had found nothing suspicious. Unless Megatron had been bored enough to create some sort of code used by his spies with break dancing moves, but Mirage was quite sure the Decepticon leader didn't even knew what break dancing was.
Today had been as unsuspicious as always until Bumblebee's human pet, Pike or something like that, arrived and mentioned how peaceful the night was. Jazz had stopped his conversation with Prowl, thanked Spike for telling him that and proceeded to tell everyone he had things to do in the city. Mirage quickly vanished after him. The Ligier didn't need to look at Prowl to know that Jazz's actions had been considered suspicious.
He followed Jazz as closely as he dared to. Sometimes he thought the Autobots forgot that invisibility didn't quite mean undetectable. Thankfully, Jazz was either distracted or humoring him and Mirage continued trailing behind him.
Mirage noticed they were nearing a railroad crossing and he tried to make sense of Jazz's unusual route. In all the days he had followed after the Porsche, he had never passed near a train. The Ligier saw the lights flashing and heard the human alarms that said a train was coming. He could see, not one, but two of the transportation vehicles coming through. None of them resembled Astrotrain, and he was sure going to tell Prime that detail. The trains were coming closer, Jazz should be slowing down. The problem was that the Porsche didn't even try to brake.
Mirage watched in horror as Jazz made it to the middle of the tracks before being slammed by the first train. The sound of metal hitting metal. The screeching sound of it bending and breaking. The sound of glass shattering in tiny pieces and falling on the floor. The sight of the Porsche being dragged by the train and slamming into the second one. The second train crashed into the battered Porsche and Mirage saw how everything repeated itself.
The crash itself hadn't lasted more than a couple of breems, but Mirage had seen everything through a slow haze. As soon as the vehicles stopped, he rushed towards the saboteur. Jazz's collision had scattered the wagons all over the place. The Formula-1 didn't even stop the see if the humans were okay.
Jazz was unrecognizable. He was still in car form and Mirage doubted he could transform back to his robot form. All of his windows were broken and Mirage was reminded of the human accordion. There was mech fluid all over the place
The Ligier felt the half-processed energon coming up and he fought it back down. This was no time to panic. He radioed back to the Ark demanding a medic, mentally cursing himself for sounding so out of control. Ironhide answered back asking for details and Mirage tried to calm himself down long enough to explain, but he stopped. Jazz had somehow regained consciousness and was trying to transform.
"Oh, Primus! Jazz, don't! Stop!" – Mirage cried horrified, the sounds of metal trying to move and transform as horrible as the sounds of the crash. He placed a hand gently on the car's bent roof, trying to calm the Bot.
Jazz pain filled moan answered back. Mirage now saw the rather large pool of energon that was joining the mech fluid already on the floor. His optics widened and brightened at the implication. If a medic didn't get here soon, Jazz would, and here he would borrow a human term, 'bleed to death' if he didn't enter system failure first. He didn't believe Jazz's back-up charge was functional after the damage sustained.
"Mirage, Ratchet can't leave until Jazz tells him what's wrong and how he got it. Prime's orders." – He heard Ironhide's thick accented voice over the radio. Mirage realized then no one was leaving the Ark for Jazz. There was no help coming. Mirage's panic grew until all logic failed him. Slag Prime and his investigation. Jazz had always been a loyal Bot who strongly believed in the cause, unlike the Ligier, and Prime was abandoning him due to his suspicions.
"But… he can't… Oh, hell! Screw Prime and his orders" – He cried angrily before cutting off the transmission.
"…irage… there?" – Jazz struggled to say. His vocalizer had suffered damage as well. The saboteur's voice kept fading in and out.
"Jazz, try to shut down all but the most important systems. You have a big leak and I don't know how to fix this." – The Formua-1 told the injured Bot who responded with a dry humorless chuckle.
"…ied ... can't… not… make it." – The Porsche replied, his voice kept fading in and out and Mirage had to decipher what he tried to say. The Ligier wasn't sure, but since Jazz's systems were still online, he thought the mech wasn't able to shut them down.
"You will make it, Jazz. Even if I have to lower myself to act like our CMO and order you to not die." – Mirage said while trying to think how to help the Bot. He needed someone now. Jazz had lost consciousness and there was not much time left.
"Sunstreaker, this is Mirage."
"What do ya want?"
"Get First Aid down to the railroad crossing. Bribe him, threaten him, kidnap him, I don't care."
"If it's so bad why not call whoever's on duty and get Ratchet down there. He's a hell of a lot better than First Aid."
"I did. Prime ordered him to not go without a good explanation and short of suicide I don't have one. He should've seen them coming, Sunstreaker, but he didn't. . . or I think he didn't. . . Jazz is dying and I don't know what to do. . ."
"Calm down, I'll get Sides to help me bag the medic and we'll be there in a few."
"Thanks."
"Don't let him die."
Mirage looked at the mangled form of the Porsche and the pool of fluids on the floor. They would not get here in time. Without thinking it twice, Mirage quickly made the necessary connections and began a crude energy transfusion to keep the injured mech going for a while.
By the time Ironhide appeared with the twins and First Aid, Mirage was unconscious and almost without energy. It took many hours, a rare outburst from First Aid and many energy transfusions but Jazz would live. Prime had been mortified and had apologized for his behavior after having dealt with the situation of the human casualties. Ratchet was seen over-energizing and later confessed to Wheeljack that everything was his fault. Jazz's last injury at Soundwave's hands wasn't only a knee joint. The saboteur had an imbedded chip on his knee that had slowly turned off all of his sensors. Jazz never registered the trains.
Up in the air vents of the Repair Bay a shadow watched over the prone body of his master's partner. Soundwave had ordered him to guard the Autobot and Ravage would obey. That didn't mean he hadn't taken a side trip to Prime's office. Wouldn't his master be pleased when he knows his Bot would survive and that the investigation had been cancelled.