Last and Alone – Secret
Title: Part 8
Rating: T
Characters: Jazz, Perceptor, Slider, the Monolith Team, Monolith
Warnings: Mech x Mech hinted at/mentioned occasionally
Universe: G1-ish/ Monolith AU
Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape, or form, own the Transformers© franchise or the characters it contains. They belong to Has/Tak, No infringement intended. Any OC's to my knowledge are solely mine.
Summary: Perceptor was once part of a gestalt, but the others were destroyed. Since he should never have survived the deaths of his teammates, it's a secret he has kept for thousands of vorns. Now Jazz is tracking it down.

A/N - The first 2/3rds or so is just a mess, but no matter what I did, what route I took, it just would not get any better - however I'm pretty pleased with the ending.

FYI - :Speaking in a bond:

Part 8

Jazz moved on through Perceptor's memories skimming with the skill of a bot who knew how to find pertinent information buried amongst less useful information.

Perceptor met with Gestalt Industries. Perceptor and Slider both signed onto the study. A study on the CPU supposedly. Ways to make it more efficient and secure. In Perceptor's mind that had explained the extremely decent amount of credits each was paid. CPU's weren't supposed to be messed with unless a problem arose. And if that happened, it was probably to late anyway.

For Perceptor, easy honest credits were a big draw for the untagged former thief. He believed that his computer hacking roommate, who regularly relieved his wealthy creator of credits on an as needed basis, saw the job as merely a lark. So he could claim a 'real' job. A few cycles every orn the two reported to the lab where they off lined for the Scientists and Lab Technicians to tinker with their CPU's. Neither saw any noticeable changes. Jazz found the mundane routine memory files dull in some ways yet fascinating in others; as they showed a Cybertron he had never known.

For a time, life continued as usual for Perceptor and his roommate with classes, avoiding creators who wanted creations back, guiding trips to the wastelands, numerous everyday discussions between the roommates and most prominently, visiting energon bars and getting cratered. It was a life that Jazz would never have believed of Perceptor except that he was getting these memories directly from Perceptor's files. The memories were so normal that Jazz was beginning to wonder if he was in the correct files at all when several meta-cycles from where he had started, he came across a flagged file. It was of the visit to the lab just after Slider had remembered his plan to hack Gestalt Industries systems sometime when he was bored and though he hadn't found much, it had triggered something apparently.

/\/\/\

Perceptor on-lined not to the pale blue ceiling of the lab, but to a dark grey one. It got his attention. A quick panicked look around and he confirmed Slider's presence. The blue and black bot was still off line, though the hum of his systems as Perceptor stepped over to him indicated he was re-booting. The panic tried to resurface as he scanned the room but Perceptor ruthlessly squashed it down again. It would do 

him and Slider no good. He needed to think. Except for the two recharge berths, and one table the room was bare. The one door in – or out depending on how one viewed it – was locked.

Slider sat up abruptly and Perceptor moved down the side of the berth. "Hey, you ok?"

"Ugh, I feel like I'm coming off an energon binge. Where are we?"

Perceptor arched an optic and a small tight smile crossed his lips before being replaced by a frown. "I don't know. Last thing I remember was off lining in the lab."

"Ugh. Yeah that's my last memory also." Agreed Slider.

/\/\/\

Jazz skimmed over the following deca-cycle as the two spent the entire time in the grey room with only themselves for company. Energon was supplied regularly from a panel in the door. But other than each other, they saw and heard no one. Then a garishly colored purple, red and yellow mech came in with four guards and quickly, succinctly, no questions asked or allowed explained the way of things. Perceptor and Slider learned they were officially dead. No one would miss the two bots as they were the only casualties in their living complex when a power generator mysteriously exploded taking out several floors. They were now a part of the CCC. A highly secret part. And when the mech was done speaking the two were escorted out and to a waiting shuttle.

Jazz skimmed the next few cycles until he found himself in a barracks style room as Perceptor and Slider met their soon to be gestalt mates.

Tonic was a medical student. He'd been a couple meta cycles shy of earning his full surgeons crosses. Still, as far as Perceptor was concerned he had an impressive resume already having specialties in Molecular and Analytical Chemistry. In addition to the specialties, he was a fully trained and qualified Medical Technician before deciding being a Medical Surgeon was what he wanted. Tonic quickly pointed out that compared to regular scientists; he was merely average having only two specialties. The med tech stuff didn't count in the science world. To which Perceptor had responded that to the average Cybertronian, Tonic would seem as smart as Primus. His roommate through it all had been Foist.

Foist was also a highly intelligent bot. He was almost a certified engineer in a three different fields and almost a design architect as well. Problem was he wanted to be a professional student so he always switched tracks a meta-cycle shy of completion. Thus Tonic had been an excellent roommate. When asked about his name, "because it sorta makes you sound lazy and you don't seem interested in completing anything," Slider had suggested, Foist had laughed, saying it used to be Hoist, but the academy had misspelled it in a slip, and he'd gone with it ever since, enjoying the joke. He was a fun easy personality to be around and the group quickly learned he was anything but lazy, getting near to the top marks in almost anything he chose to do. Along with Tonic, he had 'died' when a CPU damaged mech went on a rampage at the medical center where Tonic was working. They had been the only two 'hostage victims' of the damaged mech when he finally blew himself up.

Gazer was a transport pilot and hobby astronomer. He' d been a pilot for some time having been created for that task. He was a quiet reserved mech and though the entire team was still young by Cybertronian standards -a mere twenty-three vorns was all that separated the youngest from the oldest- Gazer was the oldest of the group, beating Perceptor for the dubious title by several vorns. Joining the study had been a way to earn extra credits to get upgrades for his astronomy interests. Unlike Tonic and Foist he was of very average intelligence. He'd 'died' when the shuttle he was piloting had booster failure causing the whole thing to explode. His only comment regarding the whole entire situation the six found themselves in was "At least they made sure we weren't at fault for our own deactivations."

The final mech, Cavalier was the only one of them who came from the Martial Academy. Though a Standard Class mech he was sub-classed as a battle model. With above average intelligence he had been studying Battlefield Fortifications and Military Strategy. He'd been destined for the Cybertron Security Forces. He was the youngest of the group and had 'died' in a battle simulation gone wrong.

Jazz moved on watching as the future gestalt adjusted to their new lives. He sped through Perceptor's memory as the files contained orns and orns of training as Perceptor learned how to be a recon scout and general warrior as well as finishing off his Organic Studies specialty with a scientist mentor of the CCC. The other team members also finished off their own specialties under CCC mentors in the base as well as picking up new skills as warriors.

Foist, much to his own annoyance was forced to finish out his specialties as well. He'd complained on more than one occasion to Perceptor and the rest of the team that if he'd wanted to actually be a specialist in any of his chosen fields of study, he'd have finished them off long ago and garnered the honors that came with being amongst the top 10 of your class.

Then, quite by chance, the team discovered something Foist, no matter how much he practiced, could not achieve high marks in. Foist was a horrible shot when it came to weaponry. He finally managed, after many attempts, to qualify with each of the basic weapons as was required of each team member, but he'd met the exact minimum mark required to do so. And yet, while his shooting left much to be desired, he excelled at the maintenance part of weapons. He could strip down, clean and reassemble any of the basic weapons as well as any of the more advanced and complicated grade weaponry faster and more efficiently than Perceptor, Gazer or Cavalier -who would actually carry and use the advanced weapons. He was also more proficient in the diagnosing of problems and repair of any and all weapons, even beating out the CCC's own Senior Weapons Supervisor in that skill. Thus it was to Foist that the job of Weapon's Supervisor for the team fell.

In between all the training and studying Perceptor along with the rest of the team underwent surgery as their frames were modified and re-modified for the gestalt process. And in the case of Perceptor and Gazer, new alt modes as well.

Over the time, the team learned to move as one and think as one, helped along by the surgical spark bonding process they'd also been subjected to. And that has indeed been a surprise; and another freedom lost was the general thought at the time.

/\/\/\

Perceptor looked at Slider, then the rest of the team. A few paces off, the labbies were set up to monitor and record the event. Perceptor's thoughts wandered. Labbies was the term Slider had coined in reference for the CCC's scientists and lab technicians. And since that elitist group had seemed to take 

offense to it, the rest of the team had adopted it as well. It was a small rebellion in the very controlled world the team currently lived in. Perceptor's thoughts moved on as he glanced over to where CCC command observed the goings on. Of course most all of the High Command was present. While no one knew what to expect out of this cycles exercise, no one who was in the know, wanted to miss it either.

Perceptor's frown faded away to a blank expression as he turned his attention to Cavalier as Cavalier watched his team. Over the past meta-cycle, since the last of the surgeries, they had worked and trained even harder. Orns spent laboring through obstacles and challenges that required each team member to give 100 percent. And just as Foist had become the Weapons Supervisor by default, so to speak, Cav became their leader. He might be the youngest of them, but he had had martial training previously. He was a battlefield model from the beginning. He would have been an officer for the Cybertron Security Force. The rest of them were just civilians – well they had been. Thus they had flocked around Cav, as the only one of them to understand all this training they were receiving. And Perceptor thought Cav had excelled in the position with the added responsibilities. He had molded them into a competent team that any commander would be proud to command. And Cav was that commander.

They were all jittery today Perceptor noted with a strange twisted relief. Sure it had been explained to them. In fact, for half of them, and Perceptor included himself with that half, it had been over explained. For Foist, Tonic and Cavalier, there was no such thing as to much information. Himself, Slider and Gazer would have been happy with less, but again it was deemed necessary that all of them fully understand the Gestalt process. Well as much as anybody new at the moment.

So here the team was, just a breem or two from performing their first merge. A breem or two away from proving this was a worthy endeavor. A breem or two from possibly killing themselves. It was all theoretical at this point Perceptor reminded himself. Granted it was theory with several vorns of study behind it, but still…

Perceptor cycled his air systems. It was suppose to be just like transforming he reminded himself. You just did it. Think too much about it and you wouldn't be able to transform. He'd handled the redesigned alt mode transformation sequence alright. This should be similar he told himself.

Then Coderunner, a senior labbie was summoning them to the center of the field. "Now you remember everything right?"

Nervous nods all around.

"Good, Good. When you're ready then." And he hurried back to the observation post where the scientists, Lab Technicians and the CCC High Command were.

Perceptor cycled his air system again. "Well Cav, shall we get this over with?"

Cavalier nodded, "Yeeeaahh" he slowly drawled. "Now remember that it's just like transforming."

Again nods all around.

Then Cavalier stepped back "Gestalt team, transform and merge."

Perceptor off lined his optics, grimaced and initiated his transformation sequence. Yes it was very similar to transforming, if he could get past the sensation of his body folding, twisting and most surprisingly, expanding in ways never felt before. And then the bonds activated.

:Oh Primus, where am I?:

:What is this?:

:Below Foist, remember?:

:Where are we?:

:What? No.:

:Where are you?:

:This is amazing.:

:Oh yes, this feels wonderful.:

:No, it's seductive, dangerous.:

:No, wonderful. Relax.:

:Who am I?:

:Comfortable:

:Wholeness.:

:This is wrong, we need out. I need out!:

:No, relax.:

:Yes, relax.:

:Easy. Take it easy.:

: relax.:

:Float.:

:Release.:

:Let go.:

:Wonderful, see how wonderful? Let go of everything.:

:No!.:

:Yes, just go with the flow.:

:Who am I?:

:This place is amazing.:

:Safe:

:Wrong.:

:Secure, whole.:

:Stop, easy, don't fight this.:

:Go with the flow.:

:Safe, secure.:

:Come in.:

:Yes come in, join us.:

:please.:

:Yes, join me. Join us.:

:Join us.:

:Join us.:

:Join us.:

:Who am I?:

:Who am I?:

:Who am I?:

:Who am I?:

:Who am I?:

:Who am I?:

:I…am…I…I am…:

"I. am. Monolith!"

/\/\/\

Truth of Barricade, acer-sigma, Elariel - Thank you so very much for the great reviews on chapter 7. Comments like those are always helpful.