Chapter 4

Autobot Base 3rd

It had been a full week since the teens had gain control of their forms, and they had been using that time to get better acquainted to them. Even though there beast forms tended to be the most interesting, they also proved to be the most cumbersome, so they tried to keep to their smaller forms.

Miko spent most of her time in beast form though, training and exploring with her guardian in the rough country that made up most of Nevada. She loved to wrestle with the bulky form of the green Autobot, even though she lost most of the time. She may be strong, but she still needed to learn control over that new found strength so as not to accidentally break things (she was getting better).

Raf tended to stay in human form so he could help around base. He may have been bigger in his beast form, but without opposable thumbs, it wouldn't help him much. That and his long ears and tail tended to cause a bit of havoc. He stuck pretty close to 'Bee and Ratchet and did what he did best, worked with improving the human based technology to make life on earth more tolerable for the irate medic who practically lived in his work space.

Jack greatly preferred his mid-form. It had everything he needed to go about his normal day, plus his wings gave him a feeling of readiness that he simply didn't have in his human form and was easier to maneuver than his beast form. As with his peers, the ebon haired teen took on qualities that were every distinguishable from the animals that they represented. Explaining the motives for why Jack was where he was now; prowling through a thick bit of deciduous forest that he had come upon during an energon scouting mission with Arcee and Optimus. Since it was a very low risk outing, they put up little to no disapproval when he had requested to go. So, promising not to go too far out, the boy had donned his mid-form and set out to satisfy his instinctual cravings for roaming a territory. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply, absorbing all the scents, trying to distinguish the differences in them all, picking up the scent of a large pray animal, he set off in its direction.

His feet made almost no sound as he trotted toward the animals that he identified as dear, and came upon a clearing with about a dozen or so does and a huge eight point buck. It was the rearing season, so at least half of the does had young. He sat and observed, analyzing the whole situation, picking out which one would be appropriate to take. After selecting a small, young doe without any young of her own, he quickly and silently stripped his clothes and transformed into his beast form.

He crouched and crept as close to the edge of the clearing as he could without alerting the pray to his presence, then judged how much speed he would need, the possible escape routes that that she may take, and focused wholly on her. Than with an adjusting sway of his hips he launched himself into the clearing strait at his intended target.

They all bolted away from the shadowy figure that instantly closed the distance between him and his intended pray, swiftly overtaking her and taking her fragile neck into his massive maw and snapping it in one prompt move, eliminating any pain or suffering for the creature.

Jack stared down at his first large kill, and thought of his first kill, which had been a small rabbit. He had mourned for it, watched as the bright light that made up its soul slowly left the tiny body. Each of the threadlike wisps seeped into the ground and on impulse took a mouthful of its meat, and felt as well as saw the wisps that were still in the warm flesh twirl and fuse with his own. It had been amazing, and as he took the first bite if the small dear he had caught, he watched as its life wisps merge and empower his own. It didn't take long to finish his meal, and bury the bones that he couldn't use.

The blasting sounds that had been emanating from the energon mine that his companions had been working at had ceased, informing him that his hunting time was over. So he reverted to his human form, reapplied his clothes, and morphed into his mid-form. He took one last deep breath, enjoying the scents of deep woods before spreading his wings and taking off in their direction.

He didn't want to leave, and with this being his fifth outing to this location, he had gotten quite used to the area. Instead of high-tailing back to his friends, he inclined and settled on a high current, and slowly glided to the blasting site. He felt just as much at home in the air as he did on the ground. Where his feline instinct helped him adjust to the different terrains of the earth bellow, his avian makeup allowed him to enjoy his time in the air as much as he did hunting among the trees.

He was pulled from his musings by the distant hum if engines; engines that were emanating from above/behind him, and in an effort to delay the imminent discovery of his comrade's location, he dove down low, zipping right above to tree line and transforming to his beast form for more power. He beat his wings furiously, gaining as much speed as he could muster, and just as the jets were about to pass over, he re-angled his trajectory and shot like an arrow at the leading jet. Said jet was Starscream, and was not expecting the mass of flight-capable, organic muscle that was at least half his weight, slam into his nose.

With his course severely altered and the massive claws and fangs of the pitch-black figure ripping at his belly, the SIC of the Decepticons preformed a corkscrew maneuver and threw him. As the airborne panther righted himself, he made to latch onto the silvery-blue jet again. In the confusion of the surprise attack, the following two seekers had righted themselves, and as the black form moved closer to their leader, they opened fire.

Most of the shots fired missed, and harmlessly swung wide of their mark, but as they neared the energon mine, one managed to hit its mark, scorching and puncturing the skin between his right shoulder blade and the connection to his wing joint, and sent the winged panther careening into the ground. Jack landed a good fifty feet from the mine while creating a deep rut in the earth, within clear view of his friends, and was able to hear their distressed exclamations over the sounds of dirt being overturned. The pain from the plasma wound was excruciating as it was coated with grit, and his legs and wings had to at least have been bruised if not utterly broken, numbing his reception to any and all outside activities, though he was still fairly aware.

All of his instincts said to run, to hide, but he couldn't leave his friends to fight alone, so with an immense effort, he forced down his pain and ran at one of the two seekers that were mobbing Arcee. He pounced on its back and ripped at its wings and head, severing energon lines and nerve sensors in any seams in its armor that his sharp claws could hook onto. It latched on to his scruff and ripped the boy turned panther off, tossing him away like a rag doll. He collided with a tree, sending waves of pain and agony through his frame, before he fell to the ground. He levered himself up, getting unsteadily to his paws, very much favoring his left side. The seeker sauntered closer, leveling his blaster to Jacks head, and powering it up.

With a burst of desperation, he surged forward, sprinting right up to the seeker and climbing it like a living ladder. Then, before it could react, Jack took its neck in his massive jaws, and snapped it in half with a deafening 'crack!' severing the helm from its body completely, and watched with slight horror as the tall body fell backwards. Its spark flickering and finally going out as a major part of its anatomy was removed from the whole. He could taste its life blood in his mouth, and feel the crackle of electricity slow, and then finally stop under his paws.

This kill was nothing like the kills that he had done before. This kill was not natural, didn't have true purpose, and it sickened him. Its life force would fade to nothing with no real need to. The pain from his wound was utterly forgotten in his overwhelming grief for the death that he had caused, though it was slowly bleeding out, creating a large pool beneath the two forms, mixing with the energon spilled from the lifeless corps.

He never noticed Starscream flee, but he did feel the servo that touched his more heavily injured wing, and leapt back with a yelp of surprise and pain from the sudden contact.

"Calm yourself, Jack. Well will not harm you." Optimus's reassuring tones cut through the fog of his grief, and in an effort to not seem weak; he straitened his expression and calmly turned to help gather the energon to bring back to base, but the servo never left his wing. He had managed to mask his pain up until then, but as he tried to step away, he heard a distinct snap in his right foreleg. He collapsed into a crumpled heap, just barely muffling his anguished cry into a pitiful, pained grunt.

He could no longer stop his body from shaking, nor could he keep back the whimpers that leaked out with every breath. His vision was slowly being lined in a wave of black, and the sharp pains that pulsed with his heart beats were slowly numbing into a dull throb that echoed back on itself in an endless loop. He only barely heard Optimus com Ratchet for an emergency ground-bridge and to prep the human med bay and Arcee tell him over and over to hold on. The sound of heavy ped falls echoing through a ground-bridge portal was the last thing he processed before he knew no more.

Autobot Base

Arcee was pacing back and forth restlessly; worried out of her mind for her young partner who had gone into shock not long after the battle had ended. The look on his face when Optimus had tried to guide him off the 'con he had decapitated was seared into her memory banks. He looked so ashamed and scared before he obviously tried to hide it, and the snap she had heard as he tried to take a step had continued to replay continuously in her processors.

Ratchet came out of the med bay to the anxiously waiting bots in the rec. area. "What's the verdict, doc? Is he gonna be OK?" Arcee asked, slightly surprised and very grateful her vocal processors didn't crack.

"He has a large fracture in his right leg, several hairline fractures in his lower ribs, and both wings and skull, a number of lacerations and contusions littering his torso and dorsal structure, and a vast array of internal damages plus massive blood loss; but from what I have observed of his natural healing processes, and the pace that the nanites are restoring an most of his injuries; as far as I can tell, he should come out of this with a few scars, but whole.

That was music to the cycle-bot's audio receptors. Her partner was going to be OK, but the back of her CPU was still bothering her. She had seen the look on Jack's face before with several new recruits. She supposed that only time would tell if he would be able to pull through and face the truth of war, or if he would shatter like fractured glass as she had seen happen to too many in the past.

Jack's POV

I was in my mid-form. The pain from my many injuries that had plagued me during the battle was gone as I wandered through the tranquil grotto that my inner subconscious had formed for me when I found I could condense my emotions and save them. I paced around the shallow pool in the center that I pooled my calm thoughts into, and sat on the rounded boulder that rested half in, half out if the crystal clear water of my calm reserve. I couldn't stop thinking about the drone I had murdered. I had murdered it! Snapped its neck and severed its helm from its shoulders in cold blood… err, energon… Whatever. Point was I had done it, and there was no good excuse for my actions. I never saw any of the bots actually kill any other bots, only wound them. I had held nothing back and killed it without a second thought.

"But you're mourning its loss now, and you did have a good reason to kill it." A voice rumbled from behind me.

I felt my heart try to jump out of my chest as I whirled around to face who had spoken. I didn't see him at first, but I saw the faint wisps of his life force drift down from the high edge that formed my little basin. I followed them to their source, who was… A panther?

At my confused expression, it released a light hearted chuckle.

"How..?" I asked. There had never been anyone other than me in my grotto. How did it get here, and is it real?

"Your subconscious decided that you needed someone to discuss your emotions and experiences with. It sensed that you had more than your usual turmoil, and new that you would need someone who could truly understand you and who you wouldn't be able to hide anything from. So it created me, and this is 'real', in a sense. About as real as this grotto we're standing in right now. I guess you could call it a coping device. Oh, and I would rather you not call me an 'it'."

I stared dumfounded at it, and did it just read my thoughts?

"Yes I did. And didn't I just ask you not to call me an 'it'?"

"Sorry, just… Wow." This was definitely the strangest thing I had ever been through, and this was coming from someone who was dragged into an alien war between giant, futuristic, living robots.

"Yeah, your mind is quite a piece of work."

"Did I hit my head? Get a concussion? Or have I just gone insane?"

"Well, you did hit your head, fractured it actually, and no, I wouldn't call you insane. Just… Very in tune with your own needs. Yeah, that sounds right."

"And it chose to give you the form of a panther?"

"I guess so, seeing as that's what I am."

"Ah"

"So down to why I'm here instead of the how. Why do you think that you had no reason to kill that drone?"

I felt a knot build up in pit of my gut, "Well, it was only doing what it was told, and I ruthlessly slaughtered it…"

"Really? And what exactly was it doing before you first attacked it?"

I blinked a few times, trying to think back to what had happened, "It was fighting Arcee."

"Wouldn't she be able to defend herself from a drone?"

"But, there were two of them! She was out numbered. I had to do something!"

"Ah! So you had motive! Then what did you do?"

I recalled needing to help my friends even though it hurt to move, "I tried to distract it. Hit as many weak spots as I could to take its attention off of Arcee."

"And what did it do?"

I felt my face contort into an offended scowl, "It grabbed my scruff and tossed me at a tree. That really hurt!" I winced internally at the memory.

"And then?"

"And then it aimed its blaster at my head, and then I…" I really didn't want to go on.

"And then you..?" He prodded.

"And then I killed it. Snapped its head off, and watched as its life drained to nothing… It didn't need to die, and I killed it." I felt the knot tighten slightly at the words.

"It didn't need to try and kill you, but that didn't stop it from trying to anyway."

"But… It was a drone, a drone of the enemy. This is war. It was only doing what it was supposed to. That was no reason to kill it."

"Yes, you didn't need to kill it, but you also didn't mean to. You didn't intentionally think about doing so, and you followed your impulse. Therefore, going on that logic, you didn't slaughter it. You didn't do what was more than necessary to prevent it from doing more damage. You executed a tactful, painless, and merciful end to what would have been a long and excruciating death, because you know that if you hurt them, and leave them anything more than knocked out, they are left to fend for themselves, and you know that you could have done worse…"

The grotto was silent for a long moment. It was true. I could have done worse… but that was no excuse.

"You won't do so next time. You know you won't. And the next time you go into a battle, you will remember this, and show more restraint. You're still learning and it will take a while to hone your instincts in battle. There are more paths that come far more quickly when in the heat of violence, and eventually you will be able to read, analyze, and chose the best paths when confronted with them, but you can't shy away from it and collapse in on yourself over one mistake. You are capable of so much, and you will get nowhere fast if you beat yourself up at every rough patch."

The grotto started to disintegrate and fade from my view, and the panther's last words to me before all was gone were, "Live and learn and let life flow."

Autobot base 3rd POV

Bulkhead rolled into base, music blasting through open windows, and bouncing heavily on his shocks to the near undistinguishable beat of screech metal. Miko threw the door open and launched herself out onto the concrete, landing on her knees strumming an air guitar. "Woo! I love this song!" She jumped back up to her feet and slammed one last strum onto her imaginary instrument, causing the plastic bag on her arm to swing widely, "Dude, I gotta find Jack! I got a few things for him that I think he may like." She saw Arcee leaning against the wall, and quickly made her way over. Hay, 'Cee, you seen Jack?"

The cycle-bot nodded with an impassive expression, "He's recuperating in the med bay. He was hurt in a skirmish at the mine we've been working at. Lost a lot of blood and broke his leg. Ratchet says he'll be fine, though. I don't know if he's up yet, but I wouldn't disturb him for a while." She didn't let it show how much it was hurting her it have to wait for permission to see him. She knew Jack was strong, and that he would more than likely heal up quickly, but that didn't stop her from worrying.

"Oh… We'll, I guess this can be a good 'get well' present for him." Miko stated with a worried tone.

"What is it anyway?" Arcee asked curiously and a bit apprehensively.

"Cat toys!" the human girl exclaimed.

The blue bot looked at her with more than a hint of confusion, "What?"

"Dude, answer me this. What is Jack mixed with?" the raven haired girl asked with her arms crossed and a 'you've-gotta-be-joking' look.

"… Uh, a panther and a bird… What does that have to do with anything?"

"A panther is just a very BIG cat, explaining why he was chasing that little light yesterday. So, I thought that since I have two house cats, and a scrap-ton of entertainment for them, courtesy of my parents, I would pick out some that I think he would like to try!" Miko explained as she took out a type of flash light. When she turned it on, it projected a crude version of the Decepticon insignia in a bright red light.

Arcee smirked, "What else you got in that bag?" she bent down to better see the various trinkets composed of bright streamers, colorful feathers, and jingling bells.

"And now, the crème a la crème!" the Japanese girl stated as she pulled the last item from her bag. She held a nondescript opaque plastic bag that was as big as her hand.

"Alright, I give. What is it?" Arcee inquired as she put down the small, feathered toy on a stick she had been messing with.

"This, my two wheeled friend, is high grade of the feline variety. Nepeta cataria, or the more common name… Catnip!" the raven haired girl declared with a satisfied smirk.

Arcee looked at her with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. "If this is like high grade, will he get overcharged?"

"Well, if my understanding of your terminology is correct, than your asking if he is going to start acting loopy? I honestly couldn't tell you. Every cat is different, and some cats get VERY intoxicated, while others, they get nothin'. It all depends on the cat."

"Ah. So, how does it work?" the blue femme asked as she looked at the bag.

"I used to just let my cats eat it. It can be pretty good for their systems, relieving stress and providing a treat for them when they were patient and didn't destroy the house while we were out. I don't think Jack would willingly eat a hunk of grass, though I think that if we were to put it in a pastry of some sort or possibly make it tea, he would be more willing to at least try it."

Arcee perked up at the mention of 'stress relief' and a hopeful thought entered her processors. "Miko, how much do you think that you would need for cookies and that tea you mentioned?"

Miko's face lit up with a wide grin. She practically just got permission to get her friend high, but heck, after what he has been through (as she has heard) he may need something like this. "I think I can make the stuff if you give it to him. He would trust you more."

Arcee chuckled as she nodded her head. This was going to be interesting.

Two days later

It took Jack around a day and a half to wake up from his injuries, and another six or so hours of strict bed rest before he was allowed visitors by the irate medic. In that time, Miko had baked a full platter of chocolate chip cookies that were mixed with the feline drug, and brewed a thermos of catnip tea. Presenting her confections to the blue cycle-bot, she waited pseudo-patiently to hear of the results of her endeavors.

Arcee walked into the med bay, faceplates graced with a confident smile and pep in her step. She held her borrowed gifts slightly behind her, keeping them just barely in sight. The black ball of fur that was situated on a medical berth uncurled into the beast form of her partner, the dark smoky blue eyes that scanned the room for what had broken the silence of the med bay, and settling on the blue frame of his partner. His ears perked and head tilted inquisitively as she made her way over.

"What do you have there, 'Cee?" Jack asked as he carefully stretched his limbs.

"Oh, this is a special treat that I got for you." The femme answered as she set down the plate of cookies and thermos of warm tea.

Jack sniffed at the plate, "Really? Who helped you make them, and what's in them? I don't recognize the other sent under the chocolate chips."

"Miko helped me. She got you some stuff that she thought you might like, and came up with something that might help you relax and put it in the tea and cookies. I thought it was a good idea, and I did my research on it to double check. It shouldn't do any harm. Not with such a small amount."

The boy turned panther took one of the cookies and chewed carefully before swallowing. His eyes dilated a bit "This tastes pretty good, though I don't think I've ever tasted anything like this. It's sweet and goes well with the chocolate. You say that Miko helped you with this? Did she tell you what it was called?"

"Yeah, it's Nepeta cataria."

"… Sounds Latin. Does it have an English name?" He asked as he started staring at a spot on the floor with fascination.

Noticing his lack of focus, she let out a small giggle before replying "Catnip."

Jack's eyes snapped from a point on the ceiling to his partner, and stared at her like her helm was gone. He was quiet for a moment and moved his gaze loosely from the plate to the thermos and back to her. "Huh. And… I forgot what I was gonna say…"

His expression changed as he continued to stare at her, going from disbelief to a more dazed, blank gaze. He wasn't looking at her any more. He was looking through her. "Why does your spark sing so sharply when you seem to be so… I don't know… You seem like you should be so much softer. You seem so indifferent and playful." Arcee looked at her you partner with a look not unlike the one Jack had not a moment ago only with much more perplexity.

"You are so soft and kind on the inside! Why do you let your past make you so cold that it changes your soul? OH! That's what it is! You had a softer tune at one point! I can hear the under colors in the chords if I focus hard enough. It's just what has happened… What happened that hurt you so much? Why do you hurt?" Jack asked as he tried get to his paws, but couldn't seem to find his balance. So he just sat on his rump.

"Well?" he demanded with as stern a frown he could manage while trying to hold back near uncontrollable giggles.

It was obvious that the young boy was 'high' (as the websites she visited suggested) and was not processing as he usually would. She didn't know if she should be angry at his calling her soft and asking about painful topics, or amused with his lack of coordination and tact. So she just settled with taking the remnants of the cookies and the unopened thermos of tea, and made one last comment before she left him to sober up a bit. "I think I'll just leave you to think about it. If you're so smart to see it, you should be more than qualified to figure it out yourself." Her face lit up with an amused smirk as she left the med bay, turning to see him with a look of deep thought on his face.

She passed Optimus on his way to see the winged panther himself. He flashed a curious half smile at her as a silent question, and she answered with a smirk, "Miko brought up a plate of cookies and tea for Jack that had catnip in it. Be forewarned, he's a bit strange right now." She continued down the hallway to the rec. area, the Autobot leader staring after her with a look of puzzlement before shaking his helm at the femme and young girl's antics, and headed into the med bay.

What he was greeted with was the mid from of the boy with a look of pain on his face. "Jack, what is wrong?" he asked in concern as he approached the med berth.

Jack forced a half smile for the Autobot leader. "Heh, well he didn't say I couldn't change form, but I don't think I will again, at least until I heal a bit more; that kind of hurt."

Optimus chuckled lightly as he went to crouch by the berth. "No, I don't suppose that would be a wise decision. So, besides your painful discovery, how are you feeling?"

"'Uh, well, I can't seem to keep my thoughts in one place. That catnip really messed with my head. I think I know why it's called being 'high' now, my head feels light and fuzzy, and my reflexes are a bit sluggish, kind of like I'm floating. Do you guys have something like that?" the dazed boy asked as he swayed lightly from side to side, eye lids half closed.

"Well… I think the closest we have to your 'high' would be post overload. I don't think that we have any substances that cause the sensation though." stated Optimus with a hint of mirth.

"Overload… Overload… Where have I heard that term before…?" A look of deep concentration crossed the winged boy's face, "Ratchet said it was very similar to something we humans do… but wait… I'm not exactly human any more am I? Though since I still have a human side, so I guess it still counts, huh?" he huffed in irritation as ha continued to rack his brain." OK, I can't seem to pull up anything right now. What was overload very similar to? Do you know? It's OK if you don't."

Optimus chuckled lightly, "An overload is similar to a human orgasm, Jack."

"Oh yeah! I remember now. You guys can have 'sex' too. Though that's not what you call it. You call it centerface, right?" the inebriated boy asked.

"Close, it is not centerface, but interface. Though we do not reproduce that way, we do find much pleasure in the act."

After a brief pause to absorb the information, Jack burst out laughing for seemingly no reason. The Autobot leader looked at the boy in front of him with curious enjoyment," May I ask what you find so entertaining?"

Jack tried and failed to stifle his boisterous laughter," I just had an interesting image of Megatron interfacing with a vehicon. Oh, that poor 'con… Did I really just think of that?" he trailed off as his gaze shifted to stare into space.

After about four or five minutes with no response from the raven haired teen, Optimus tried to get the young boy's attention. He was quite enjoying the free range conversation he was having with the teen. He was more tolerant of the subjects when in this state, though he was being rather unresponsive at the moment, "Jack…?"

"All of you guy's sparks are really pretty, did you know that?" the young boy asked suddenly.

Startled by the sudden topic change, the large bot tilted his helm in confusion before replacing it with a look of amusement, "What makes you say that, jack?"

"Well, each soul, or spark, from a distance, is one uniform color, but the closer I get, the better I see the other shades and hues that paint your very being. Most people I see have that one color and most of the time just a few faint flashes of color that entangle with their main color… I look at one of you guy's sparks… and I see thick bands of color, at sometimes I can't even tell what your original hues were. I saw Arcee's spark, and it was laced with such dense ribbons of iced blue that I thought… I don't know what I thought, but the light periwinkle of her orb was nearly undistinguishable against the sharp tint from the blue, she almost seems to hide, but yours… Your spark hue is easily apparent, even among the many tendrils of colors that entwine it" Jack explained.

"Do you know what each color means? Does each color have a different meaning?" the blue and red bot asked curiously.

"Well, meaning isn't just based on color. It's the color paired with the emotions I feel and the songs that each sings. They portray who they are; how much they have been shaped. Most souls have simple tunes and single colors, but… There are others. Like yours specifically; it has a myriad of colors that flow into one another flawlessly like Aurora Borealis and a song as complex as an expansive orchestra that is perfectly balanced and tuned to each other. Ratchet and Arcee, though to a much lesser extent do much the same, they entwine with experience and a greater understanding than those I have met before. Do you understand? I think I'm finally starting to." The boy's eyes held an intense fascination as his gaze shifted from the large bot's chassis to his awe filled optics, the inebriated state he had been in almost completely gone now.

"It is certainly an amazing gift you have, Jack. When did you obtain it?"

"I started seeing the wisps about a year and a half ago. They were very faint, and for the longest time I thought they were just a part of my imagination. But when the wisps became more noticeable, I started seeing where they came from. It wasn't until very recently that I have been able to tell so much more about them so well. I think my transformation intensified them a lot." Jack berth with droopy eyes and stretched with a wide yawn. "OH, I'm sorry! I don't know where all my energy went."

The red and blue bot smiled endearingly at the young boy before him, "It is fine, Jack. You have had an exhausting few days, and you are still recovering. Ratchet informed me that due to your infusion with the nanites, he was able to program them to act as they would for a cybertronian, and speed you healing process exponentially. Your bones will take the longest to heal, and should be fully mended within a few weeks at most. In fact, aside from your casts, there is nearly no evidence left that you were ever injured at all."

The boy nodded with a tired smile and curled his tail up around his feet and began to clean and straiten the feathers on his unbroken wing. Optimus sat and watched curiosity as the boy ran his fingers through the dense plumage and noticed a slight shudder run through his frame. It then occurred to him that the boy was fully exposed without his normal clothing, and that he most likely didn't realize his nudity. "Jack, would you care for a covering of some sort? You are shivering."

The boy stopped and looked himself over, and his hands immediately flew to his groin, "Oh my gosh! I am so sorry Optimus! I-I… Uh, y-yes, I would love something to cover up with, thank you." A bright blush had worked its way all the way down his neck and was trying his hardest to cover himself with his uninjured wing.

"There is no need to be uncomfortable, Jack. As we have told you before, we do not view our coverings in a modesty preserving manner. It was refreshing to have you so open and at ease. I think that you should know that your thoughts are interesting to listen to, and you are very insightful." Optimus stated calmly as he went to a table nearby to fetch a blanket. "I will leave you to rest."

"Th-thanks Optimus." The boy replied as he took the blanket and watched the leader leave the med bay.

Autobot Base a week and a half later 3rd POV

Jack was board out of his mind. With his injuries still healing and his mother's and Arcee's paranoia levels in the stratosphere, there wasn't an offal lot to do. So with flying and hunting out of the question due to his broken leg and wing, he was left to sprawl out in his beast form on top of the rocky mesa that concealed and housed the silo base, soaking up sun as it approached its peak. He almost wasn't even able to do this, because of his mom's statement that 'he could get heat stroke!' His only defense was that his animal halves were more suited to warmer climates and would be more content out there anyway.

The heat felt wonderful and there was a faint breeze brushing over his fur, but that wasn't enough to pull him out of his gloom. He was fine not hunting for a while. He could play gently with Raf to satisfy that, but he desperately wanted to fly again. He itched to feel the thermals under his wings and hear the roar of the wind in his ears. It was getting harder to for him not to snap at everything, and his reactions were starting to become more violent.

He had been reclining right where he was now several days back, doing the same thing he was doing now, when Arcee came to check on him. He didn't even register that she was there until she touched his shoulder, because he was so lost in his longing (though he wouldn't tell her that). He had nearly her servo off, and was still apologizing to her for it.

A week. He had been out of the med bay for a week, and he was slowly losing his mind. Hauxer (as his mental panther friend had dubbed himself) had commented that he needed to get out and at least around the outside of the base, flex his senses and stretch his limits a bit. But when he tried to get anywhere outside the base besides the top, the medic or his mother was there to foil his plans. He had begged and pleaded to go out, even if it meant that someone was out there with him he didn't care, he just needed out. His leg had healed to the point that he could walk on it (albeit with a cast), and had taken up passing the length of the main room when he wasn't on top of the base or sleeping/napping, taking on the role of the caged animal that he was.

He would have escaped to the open desert by jumping to the ground from the top, but with his wing still weak and tender, as was his leg, they would fracture even further. So, he was basically trapped until his limbs were finished healing, and the longer he brooded over it, the worse the need became.

Deciding that he had had enough of sitting on top of the base, Jack went back inside with a firm scowl on his face, and as much of a stomping gait he could manage with his cumbersome cast. Optimus, Bulkhead, and Arcee were out on an energon collecting mission at the mine that he had been injured at; Miko and Raf were both with 'Bee at the local skate park, and his mom was at work, leaving the base empty save for Ratchet. The irate medic was, for once, not working in the lab, and was instead monitoring his team mates as they harvested the vital ore. At the sound of Jack's low, almost subconscious growl (which he had been continuously resonating for the last few days), the red and white bot glanced at the black form as he entered the main room. "Jack, are you alright?" he asked with a near undetectable hint of concern. The medic always tried to hide his emotions behind the gruff and grouchy attitude, but his worry shown through none the less.

Jack looked at the red and white bot, his face a firm scowl. His growl intensified slightly as he turned his head back and continued in the direction he had been heading.

Slightly affronted be the onyx feline, he made to intercept him, stepping into the winged panther's path, "Jack, answer me. What is wrong?"

The growl intensified further and seeped into his voice, "Nothing is wrong Ratchet, now move."

"Jack, there is something wrong. Now you can either tell me, or I can find out my own way." The medic threatened.

"I need to go out. Now move!" the panther growled, taking a step forward.

"You know you can't do that, Jack. You can go back out when you are healed. Not before. You'll only make your injuries worse."

The panther's growl reached ground trembling decibels and began to trot to the exit of the base.

"Jack, please! Listen to me!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the uninjured wing to hold back the fuming feline only to pull it back as Jack whirled around and crunched his massive maw onto the offending servo. "Jack!" he yelled in shock as the enormous form lunged at his chassis and bowled him over, claws digging into transformation seams, tearing at delicate wires. The colossal jaw clamped thick neck supports and attempted to sever the 'offender's' helm clean off. That is until Ratchet, in an act of pure desperation threw the pitch form from his own, sending Jack across the room, slamming into a wall with a pitiful, pained whimper.

In a last bit of wild desperation, the panther bolted as fast as he possibly could by the downed mech, and out into the dessert, leaving a confused and worried Ratchet in his wake.