I know this chapter is later than what I said it would be, to those of you who commented on the last chapter. There's a reason why the gap happened, but for now let's just launch right into the story!

One thing you need to know is that the majority of this chapter is Smokescreen recapping how he met Blacksmoke, so the recap is entirely from Smokescreen's point of view.

Eight decaorns prior to the Ark's crash landing on Earth…

Smokescreen stood quietly, waiting for his brother to show some form of sorrow as Prowl gazed ahead at the dark, deteting temple. "I suppose this will not be as formal as the other Praxian funerals?" Prowl asked in a rather monotone voice.

'Damn.' Smokescreen muttered off some form of agreement without paying much attention. Normally Smokescreen was not one for funerals even when they were held for his close comrades. Of course he was used to seeing deactivated comrades and friends on the battlefield, but that didn't mean he wanted to gaze at their lifeless optics longer than necessary. Usually when he was looking at someone's optics it was to gauge their hand during games. Looking at the same pair of optics when they no longer held any life behind them always sent shivers down his servos.

Smokescreen had no personal interest in this funeral but Prowl did, whether he would admit it or not. Ever since being aware of the funeral himself he'd watched for signs of remorse from Prowl, but none ever came. It always bothered him to no end seeing his brother being so reserved but he knew that was just his brother's way. Most called it being 'emotionally-dead' but he knew differently.

Still, Smokescreen wanted someone to be there for Prowl. No one really understood his brother so Smokescreen had decided to break his rule and join Prowl. Primus knew Bluestreak wasn't up to it. After seeing their creators' damaged and deactivated forms at the mass Praxian funeral on top of everything else nearly broke Bluestreak. Smokescreen was secretly worried what would happen to his brother if he saw another broken body of someonehe held dear. Unfortunately, these orns it was nearly impossible to shield his brother from almost that since it seemed like their remaining numbers couldn't die out fast enough.

The funeral they were attending now was a sobering reminder of that. This funeral was to mourn the loss of a Praxian by the designation of Snapshot, Prowl's berthmate. Snapshot's body had finally been found with the others after countless orns of searching through the rubble from a battle they had lost. Smokescreen wasn't any different than most mechs in the sense that he knew very little about Prowl's berthmate. However, he differed from those around him when it came to understanding Prowl. Even though he accepted that part of Prowl he wasn't found of, the others seemed rather keen on expecting Prowl to mourn in some typical way. Despite their wishes, Smokescreen knew not even a shutter would ever be heard in Prowl's voice. Prowl just was not a "typical" mech. Granted, Smokescreen, Bluestreak, and a handful of Prime's other officers had adapted that part of Prowl, but that brought little to accepted the matter. Unfortunately, Smokescreen knew explaining the black and white mech's behavior to the ignorant masses would either be lost on them or anger Prowl.

Smokescreen was so focused on his thoughts that he barely caught Prowl's response. Something about checking out if there was any seating arrangement like typical Praxian fashion and for him to stay put. 'Whatever', Smokescreen mentally grumbled. He didn't appreciate being told to stay in one spot.

A few breems past before Smokescreen felt a presence by his side again. Smokescreen shifted to comment to Prowl about the low turnout only to face a black Praxian mech. From the mech's dingy appearance and slightly hunched posture, Smokescreen could gather that he clearly didn't care about the finer things in life like a regular polish. Smokescreen was about to turn away when he caught the mech staring oddly at Prowl. "Please don't tell me you're the kind to try for picking up the berthmates of the fallen," Smokescreen muttered.

Apparently the scruffy old mech caught some part of that. "Excuse me?" The mech sounded rather indignant, which only served to amuse Smokescreen. It wasn't his orn and if messing with some old mech what all the fun he'd get this orn then he was going for it.

"You're staring at the berthmate of the deactivated," Smokescreen gestured towards Prowl, letting the mech know he was caught. "Prowl doesn't play well with others. I hear he bites those who pursue him. I don't think he'd like your dirty flavor."

"What kind of messed-up upbringing did you have to say that about your own brother? Personally I'd rinse my audio receptors with acid and delete that file," the mech quickly returned.

"Funny, with the markings carved into your armor completed with the ragged look, I'd have thought that was your style," Smokscreen said just as quickly, trying hard not to think how he used his brother in one of his old jabs.

"I suppose being the Prime's second's second whenever he needs someone to distract the enemy makes you an expert on reading mechs. Or could it be Prowl figured no one could be such a distracting nuisance as his little brother?"

"More like I'm one of the few who know how to confuse Prime's left-hand mech and can actually accomplish something too, unlike simple soldiers like you, who can only confuse themselves. That jar you rubbed on your armor was ash, not wax, by the way." No longer interested in continuing the conversation, Smokescreen asked point blankly, "Why were you staring at my brother?"

"I wasn't expecting him to be here – that's all."

"What? Why?" Smokescreen wondered who this mech was that he would not expect the departed's berthmate to attend. Praxian society demanded that Prowl be here and many of the surviving Praxians clung to their traditions for comfort.

"I never knew he and Snapshot had any sort of relationship. I guess it has been a while since I've seen either of them."

"You and Prowl know each other?"

"Sort of. I knew Prowl when Prowl hardly knew me."

"Riiight. Okay, oh-cryptic-one. In other words it's been a while since you've seen Prowl." With his irritation from their previous word exchange rapidly dying, Smokescreen was losing what little interest he had to begin with.

"Well, in person. It's hard to miss the Prime's tactician during the video-broadcasted speeches." The strange mech said those last few words in a tone Smokescreen couldn't readily identify. He sounded almost wistful?

Still, despite his confusion, Smokescreen's curiosity was peaked. "So you've known Prowl throughout the vorns?"

"More or less."

"How come I haven't ever seen you then, like when we were sparklings?"

"Well, Prowl hasn't known me throughout the vorns."

'Oh awesome, looks like Prowl's got himself a stalker. A filthy one to boot.' Displeased at the idea Prowl's stalker appearing at a funeral for a still undisclosed reason, Smokescreen didn't hesitate any longer in confronting the mech. "Look, whatever you want with Prowl, pick another orn. They just found the mech's berthmate's body. I'd think even a degenerate like you can back off for a handful of breems for a damn funeral."

The mech's optics turned bright with a sudden fury intensely burning behind them. "I'm tired of this. How dare you talk to me like that and show me such disrespect. I suppose it makes sense though since only your carrier could be so infuriating!" the mech snarled before continuing, "I'm not here for Prowl. I wanted to see Juniper."

"Excuse me old mech? What makes you think you know my carrier? Who's Juniper? You mean the deactivated's sparker? He's been offline for a long time now." The conversation had lost all its fun as it suddenly turned towards dangerous territory. Charger and Flashfire were never much of a part of the war effort, and neither Prowl's nor his family lineage had been disclosed to any Autobot who didn't need to know. Some of the possible ideas now running through his head of why a mech would make such a comment were unsettling to consider.

"What? What do you mean? When?" The mech demanded an answer of Smokescreen. The diversionary planner could easily detect the shock and denial from the darkly-colored mech.

Still, Smokescreen decided to play along and see if the questionable mech would reveal anything, now that his little messed up world would had been shook. "I don't really remember when it happened, but it was one of the last times I was in Praxus to see my creators."

"You didn't know him – how would you know he'd deactivated?"

Smokescreen glanced sideways at the upset mech. Clearly this mech didn't want the news to be even the slightest bit true. If pushing the unwanted truth of Juniper's death upon his brother's stalker had to be done, then he'd just 'grin' and bear it. "I know he's deactivated because a message was delivered to my creator when I was visiting, letting her know Juniper was deactivated."

"Why would someone tell Charger?"

"Guess they were old friends or something – hey! I don't recall telling you my carrier's name. Who in the Pit are you?" Smokescreen straightened his posture, trying to be as imposing as possible. Throughout their conversation Smokescreen had analyzed him carefully and noted this was more of a 'brute's' kind of mech. He would respond to nothing less than intimidation, and Smokescreen needed answers now.

"Sparkling, don't even try it. I was killing Decepticons before your spark was merged with your body."

"Yeah, and you must be really good at it since you have the markings of a high ranking officer. Oh wait, that's just dirt. Looks like you're nobody. That's pretty impressive since you'd think someone your age could get a promotion or two."

The black mech's face was in Smokescreen's immediately, barely a nanometer away from his face. The mech's posture changed and immediately Smokescreen could see this mech was taller and better built than he first realized. At this close of proximity Smokescreen was able to better identify the armor. The material was one he could identify because it used to be highly coveted until its mine was destroyed in a violent clash. Only the Autobots who had been at the site when the Decepticons attacked had the armor. Even then, only those who had participated in an operation so dark that it's execution was denied still to this orn had a sufficient amount of it. Markings were also present on his armor, indicating that he was part of a nasty division under the Head of Special Ops, Jazz. That explained the armor. In short, this mech had done things in his lifetime that would strike fear even into Soundwave. Whoever this mech, he wasn't some crusty old-timer.

"You want to say that again, Sparkling?"

"Yeah, go interface yourself and stop stalking Prowl." Smokescreen still had his pride. He wasn't going to back down after going this far.

A black streak whizzed by and hit Smokescreen in the head before he could react. Smokescreen fell, grasping his head. 'Since when do dirty old mechs move that fast?' Smokescreen looked up and his vision cleared just as a second black fist was coming down on his head.

Suddenly a white and black blur grabbed the black fist. Smokescreen craned his neck further up to see his brother standing between him and the black mech, Prowl holding the mysterious Autobot's arm. "I should call in the guards to arrest you for assaulting a superior officer. However, I will not defile Snapshot's funeral anymore than you already have. Be gone or I will escort you to the guards."

The black mech stared at Prowl as the tactician spoke. The moments stretched until Smokescreen thought he was going to snap from the intensity. The intensity only seemed to grow as the mech struggled to find the words for his decision. Finally the nameless mech stepped back and with a nod he left without a single word.

"You're seriously going to let that mech go?" Smokescreen grumbled, irritated as his brother pulled him up.

"You want me to report that you were being beaten at a funeral?"

"No, but that mech needs to be arrested!" Smokescreen snapped back.

"Other than for assaulting you, we don't have anything to arrest him for."

"Fine!"

"Then it's settled. I was coming over here to tell you the funeral will be starting soon. We need to find our seats."

Smokescreen nodded, but the matter was far from over. Whoever the black mech was, he definitely presented being a risk. From the bits and pieces Smokscreen gathered, this all-too-knowing mech must have been stalking Prowl for a long time. No soldier or officer knew their carrier's name unless they attended the academy with one of the brothers. Even when their creators died in the attack on Praxus it was kept secret from the army.

'Still, he didn't know about Prowl and Snapshot. That's usually something stalkers obsess over.' He would have to take this up with Jazz. With the mech's behavior and strange traits, there was a good chance Jazz was already aware of this particular soldier and could shed some light on the matter.

The funeral was overall quiet else wise. Despite being with Prowl, Snapshot wasn't particularly high ranking, nor did he die heroically. Smokescreen secretly suspected Prowl was only involved with the mech for his lack of involvement in hardly anything, thereby complementing Prowl's private behavior. The funeral was held in a beautiful temple, albeit dated and under kept, on the outskirts of Iacon as part of the Autobot's way of honoring the Praxians and their sacrifices. Although their intentions were kind, Smokescreen found it to be a rather morbid reminder of their dying race.

Personally, if the Autobots were dead set on honoring them in death, Smokescreen would have preferred another temple. This temple was built when the original primitive Cybertrians discovered a "magical" material buried in the ground. The founders wanted Primus to bless the material for their protection so they built this temple by the old mine. Although the mine was long since abandoned after the materials were harvested, it still smelled like they were in production. The smell of sulfuric acid mixed with Barium always burned his olfactory senses for joors.

Besides dreading the awful smell he would soon be greeted by upon exiting the temple, Smokescreen was worried about the possibility of one of the few mechs closer to Snapshot taking Prowl's detached demeanor the wrong way. Since most of those attending were Praxian soldiers clinging to Praxian traditions for comfort, it was unlikely any upset mechs would be understanding.

As they left the halls and stepped out towards the empty city streets, Smokescreen began to relax when no one approached them. As if on cue, an orange Praxian mech swung out from one of the column along the pathway, blocking Prowl's path. "I'm sorry we didn't get to hear you share some words about our friend," came the Praxian warrior's heated greeting.

Whatever Prowl had planned to respond with was cut off by thecry of a wall guard and the shrieking sound of one of Iacon's nearby walls being struck by an energy blast. Everyone immediately sprang into action and rushed towards the far wall of the abandoned mine.

::Smokescreen! Run an analysis on the Autobots we have available by profession. Give me the results immediately.:: Smokescreen nodded as his brother ran towards one of the temples towers. Smokescreen scanned all the Autobots within view responding to the Decepticon attack while accessing the Autobot servers for their battle information. This wasn't a particularly busy area so they were limited to those at the funeral and the barrier guards. Of the guards he counted 22 drones and 14 remaining guard mechs. The funeral attendants he separated by profession code from the server data he received for each mech. Eighteen warriors, two scientists, and one Ops mech. Smokescreen immediately searched for the scoundrel's physical location and detected the Ops mech off to his left, running to the wall like everyone else. Even though he was part of the masses climbing up the wall to return fire at the Decepticons, the black Autobot stood out to him like a black hole devouring the sun rays of what would've been a nice orn. The server data, now available to him, informed him that the black smudge in the colorful mass was designated as Blacksmoke. 'How cute,' Smokescreen mentally sneered.

::Prowl, we have 22 guard drones, 14 guard mechs, 18 warriors, 2 scientists, and 1 Ops mech.::

::Affirmative. Take command at the wall while I contact Base.::

::How short on mechs are we?:: Smokescreen looked to h is left at the temple tower as he neared the wall and found his brother hiding at the top to better assess the Decepticons. He knew full well their numbers did not match the prepared Decepticons'.

::Jazz tells me there are times to keep information to myself. I believe this is one of those times.::

::You know what? I don't like you when you're trying to be funny.::

::Regardless, you need to keep the forces moving and prevent anyone from grouping. They have several gestalts and a large cannon.::

'Frag!' As Smokescreen climbed over the top of the wall he could see the closest combiner team. Luckily, the Constructicons hadn't formed Devastator yet, but Smokescreen knew they had a reason to hold off.

The battle raged for several breems while Prowl fed Smokescreen information for the diversionary tactician to use with their limited numbers. Prowl's vantage point was proving vital since he was able to give them ample alarm before a strike. Despite the Decepticons' preparation and obvious advantages, the Autobots were able to hold the wall. Smokescreen suspected their success was in part due to the lack of energon on their side, judging from their uncoordinated movements.

::The backups will arrive in approximately 1.2 breems with Optimus Prime.:: Prowl suddenly relayed back to Smokescreen.

::Affirmative. I still have no sightings of Megatron or any of his lead generals. Do you?::

::Negative.::

::Then why are they attacking Iacon! And why this spot?::

::There is a high probability these mechs are desperate with the lack of energon and materials available that they're hoping the mine still contains something of use.::

::Everyone knows the mine is out of production.:: The mine had been nearly depleted before the Autobots were able to prevent all Decepticon-sympathizers from escaping. Surely word had passed on to Megatron.

::Everyone still within this city. I doubt Megatron planned this attack himself. He is aware of our on supplies shortage and would conclude our resources – such as this one – are dried up. I suspect this attack was generated by one of his lesser, more desperate generals.::

::Megatron's generals are stupid.::

Jets screamed overhead, alerting Smokescreen to the arrival of Seekers. Looking up, Smokescreen's wary optics were greeted by a red and white Seeker.

::Starscream's here! I didn't think he was stupid enough for this.:: Smokescreen alerted his brother.

::He's not. He arrived with the reinforcements. Starscream's land reinforcements will have to cross the narrow pathway at Sector 3Delta-13. Have the guards divert power to the right torrent to strike at them when they're halfway across. The Decpeticons are starting to penetrate the wall 3 clicks away from the left torrent. Find the Ops mech and have him plant a small nitro-bomb. Assess whether he will be quick enough to move the old mining equipment to prevent further penetration through our walls after the blast is triggered. If not, then divert one of the warrior speedsters to move the equipment.::

::Affirmative.:: Smokescreen couldn't quite keep the grudge out of his voice to his brother. Quickly, he opened a new hail to the Ops mech. ::Blacksmoke! Run interference alone the wall at the weakened area by the left turret. Plant a small nitro-bomb for the Decepticon's to hit on their next attack, and use the nearby abandoned mining equipment to block any follow up attacks.::

::But the wall at - ::

::Just do it or I'll have you arrested after this battle! You're still on my slag list!::

Although Blacksmoke had a problem showing Smokescreen any respect earlier, the mech clearly understood the importance of staying professional when it mattered. Blacksmoke quickly began his descent down the wall to stop the attack at the weakened wall's base. Although Smokescreen wouldn't admit it to the difficult mech, he understood Blacksmoke's reluctance. A portion of the wall to his right was suffering more surface damages than the other areas and held a higher risk of the wall crumbling beneath their feet.

While diverting another warrior to Blacksmoke's former position, Smokescreen watched Blacksmoke move to plant one of his typical Ops explosives. The bomb in particular would critically wound any striking Decepticon with minimal damage to the wall.

Out of the other corner of his optic Smokescreen saw the Constructicons, now formed together as Devastator, strike the right turret. Besides containing the Autobot's own energy cannons, the turrets also housed the force field generators. With Devestator using all of his strength as he struck the right torrent, where the Autobots had diverted most of the power, the generator's power supply was disrupted.

"Ha! You stupid Autobots can't even keep a couple of generator running!" Starscream cried out from above as he passed through the disrupted field and flew towards the temple. "Say goodbye, Prowl!"

Two missiles were launched from Starscream and both tore through the air until they struck the tower Prowl was hiding on. Immediately the tower began to crumble without giving Prowl any chance to escape.

Smokescreen yelped at the terrifying sight and jumped on the nearest ladder, climbing down as he hailed to an experienced warrior to continue driving their forces. As he ran he could see the backup Autobot forces arrive.

::To the wall!:: he commanded them. Although his brother was falling from a serious height Smokescreen still had a job to do. As he rushed to aid his brother he saw Blacksmoke shoot out from the wall and ran to the falling tower faster than Smokescreen. 'Damn, that really is one fast old mech.'

Despite either mech's attempt to save Prowl from the fall they failed. Still, Prowl wouldn't be the Autobot's head tactician if he couldn't improvise. Unfortunately, even with Prowl's tricks, Smokescreen saw his brother smash into one of the larger pieces shoulder-first.

"Ha, you stupid fool! Looks like your right arm won't be of any use!" Starscream gloated as his jets screeched as he transformed to land in front of the barely-online Prowl. Starscream pulled Prowl up by his neck and placed his nullray next to Prowl's face. "Good bye, my inferior."

"Good bye, my inferior." The same black fist that struck Smokescreen earlier slammed into Starscream's face. Starscream immediately dropped Prowl and the injured tactician's head cracked on the broken slabs, rendering him completely unconscious. Blacksmoke pushed Starscream back and they fell backward as they fought. "How dare you interfere with my victory," screeched the indignant Starscream.

"Who says it's your victory, Starscream?" Skywarp called out as he appeared above Prowl.

"Well, it's not yours!" Smokescreen yelled as he leaped from a jagged piece and tackled the surprised Skywarp in mid-air. 'Wait until Sideswipe hears this,' Smokescreen couldn't help but think as he pulled off his own jet-judo.

Unfortunately, Smokescreen's jet-judo attack hit Skywarp too low and neither could control their rapid descent. Starscream saw the pair as they fell towards him and twisted his opponent around so Blacksmoke was blindly hit by the red mass crashing into him. To his merit, Blacksmoke didn't cry out when he was unexpectedly knocked down. Smokescreen didn't either, but he was too stunned from taking the brunt of the impact after Skywarp teleported in the nick of time.

"Now, as I was saying… goodbye my inferior," Starscream said as he pulled himself up and aimed at Prowl's limp body.

"Nuuuh!" Smokescreen cried as he slowly tried standing up despite the jumped input his CPU was receiving from the fall.

Starscream's null ray began to power up just as Blacksmoke swiftly moved in front of the gun to block the Starscream could react to Blacksmoke's move, the arm-mounted gun fired and struck the coveted armor over the Ops mech's spark chamber. The short distance between the armor and the gun caused the blast to backfire and rip through the Seeker's arm before the red jet could get away. Starscream cried out in pain as he fell backwards towards the re-appearing purple Seeker. Skywarp caught Starscream and aimed at the fallen black Autobot.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Skywarp!" Smokescreen called out, his CPU finally clear. "In case you hadn't noticed, there's 20 Autobots aiming at your head right now! "Smokescreen gestured to the Autobot backups who'd broken away from the wall to protect their Chief's Second-in-Command.

Immediately the two Seekers disappeared and Smokescreen stumbled to his still-offline brother's side. After the single responding medic assessed that Prowl's injuries were not life-threatening, the red Autobot moved towards the fallen Ops mech and found him coughing up energon. The armor used to stop Starscream's attack was not as legendary as told, based on the energon now pouring from the destroyed armor. Smokescreen couldn't help but gap at the size of the wound. There was no mistaking the severity of the damage – there would be no coming back from this kind of wound for Blacksmoke. The medic could see it just as well as him. There wouldn't even be enough time or energon flow for the medic's drugs to ease his suffering. The medic muttered quietly about needing to attend Prowl's wounds before they did become serious. Smokescreen nodded his dismissal before returning his gaze back to Blacksmoke.

"Despite the rumors, the armor has realist limits. No transformer armor can stand up to the full force of an energy blast at point black," came the surprisingly dry response from Blacksmoke.

"Then why'd you do it?"

"What else can a mech do for his fallen superior with so little of time to act?"

"Not that I really know you, but given that earlier you did punch a superior, you don't seem like the kind that'd throw down his life for one…"

"Yes, I suppose it would seem like that." Blacksmoke coughed as his intake valves choked on energon, trying to expel the excess energon through his mouth, "I guess part of it would be the ill luck of being just the right the height for his gun to hit just the right spot, but – " Blacksmoke suddenly coughed again and his optics flickered, a telling sign that the energon loss was beginning to serious affect his CPU. Still, he tried to continue on, even though he sounded somewhat dazed. ".. but I still would've done anyways. He's not just my superior."

'Oh good Primus, he's either delusional and about to spout the dying patriotic wishes of an Autobot, or admit his creepy feelings towards Prowl.' "Oh?" Smokescreen asked anyways, figuring he'd humor the dying mech. The medic attending to his brother had pulled the unconscious mech away towards flatter ground, leaving the two of them alone. With Prime here, Smokescreen was no longer urgently needed. Besides that, this was his brother's savior and Smokescreen would honor the mech, even if he was a tad scary.

"I always regretted cutting my time short with him after I finally did get to see him again. It's funny – you don't realize what you've missed and why it matters it's just outside of your grasp."

'Huh?' Smokescreen's mind was clouded by confusion at the odd choice of words.

"And yet if I had stayed then he never would've had the success he's had now." Blacksmoke's once fiery optics dimmed, his systems no longer capable of providing the full amount of power to his basic systems. "Tell me," the dying mech asked, his dim optics focused completely on Smokescreen, "is he happy? Does he enjoy being a tactician? Especially the Prime's tactician?"

"What? Well in all the time I've known him…" Smokescreen hesitated as he looked into the dying mech's optics, trying to find an answer. "He's had his ups and downs, but he's happier now than he was before the Academy."

"Good, that's something at least." Blacksmoke's already-dimmed optics flickered as he turned his head towards the unconscious Prowl. It seemed as if sheer willpower was the only thing keeping him alive. Perhaps the mech was too stubborn to die so quickly or maybe it was his son finally being within his grasp, only to have lost his opportunity to ever speak to him again. Maybe that was why Blacksmoke was telling Smokescreen. "At least I didn't fail him with what I've done. I didn't fail him."

The nearly offline mech tried to reach out toward Prowl but the movement only served to pull at his damaged cables and more energon spilled. Blacksmoke's optics abruptly completely powered off. Unable to see anymore, Blacksmoke groaned and dropped his head. The stunned Smokescreen managed to come out of his stupor in time to catch the dying mech's mead before hitting the rubble. Unable to find a place without sharp objects jutting up from the ground, Smokescreen rested Blacksmoke's head on his leg.

The motionless mech began to mumble and Smokescreen had to strain his audio receptors to hear the ragged and static-filled voice. "I didn't fail my son…" The dying mech kept repeating the words as if they comforted him in death until Smokescreen could no longer detect Blacksmoke's energy signature. Suddenly everything seemed so silent to Smokescreen, save for the battle in the far distance and Blacksmoke's last words echoing in his audio receptors: "I didn't fail my son…"

/-/

Smokescreen looked up from where his optics had drifted off as he retold the story and found Jazz staring at him, slack jawed.

"What the frag is that kind of shit?"

"It's apparently true – the part about his son, it was true," Smokescreen belatedly clarified. "I went digging through all of our creator's stuff we still had and Prowl's stuff while he was recovering and pieced it together that orn."

The Third-in-Command raised an optic ridge. "You went through Prowl's stuff?"

"Hey! I didn't want to burden him if it wasn't true. It was for my brother's own good."

"But you haven't told him," Jazz pointed out. "It's not for someone else's good if you don't tell them once you know the truth."

"I know," Smokescreen groaned as he grabbed his head. "Believe me, I know. I didn't want to tell him right after he woke up, but then it seemed like the next thing I knew we were boarding the Ark. With so much work on his plate that comes from landing on an alien planet, with Megatron no less, I didn't want to overload him on bad news. When do you tell your brother you know the family secret and by the way, his sparker died practically right on top of him? Jeez, I don't want two messed up brothers."

"Mech, your family is kind of messed up anyways. That's not an excuse."

"Shuddap," Smokescreen joked as he lightly punched Jazz. "So tell me, did you know the mech?"

Jazz instantly sobered up. "Cybertron is a small planet when you consider how much of it is no longer usable anymore and that its civilization is divided up into three very separate groups," Jazz said quietly.

"So you did know of him."

"Yes."

"Did you ever talk to him?"

"No," Jazz lied.

"So then you probably don't know much about him," Smokescreen said disappointed.

"Why don't you try looking for his records or ask those he reported to?" Jazz suggested.

"I tried, believe it or not. Strangely, I can't find any of his files in the archives or databases," Smokescreen said, his optics pointed at Jazz. "Know anything about that?"

"Since when did I strike you as an archive tech?"

"So you don't know why all the files are missing?" Smokescreen frowned when Jazz shook his head. "Damn. Even though he really slagged me off when we met, I was actually looking forward to seeing what his career was like. I never dealt much with Ops mechs before Earth, but I recognized a few of the marking on his armor. The guy was involved in some very dark operations. I wonder if Prowl ever planned any of the missions Blacksmoke was on."

"Nah, I doubt it." Although lying came effortlessly to Jazz, he was not fond of doing so. "So what are you going to do now?"

Smokescreen sighed and looked at some of the images of his family that remained after the crash. "I spend so much time talking to mechs about their problems when they already know what their problems already are. But telling them that it's quite possibly worse than they realize? I'm not sure what to do. It's my own brother for Primus' sake – how am I supposed to do that to him?"

"Don't," Jazz assured him after a moment of silence. "I've gotten used to giving mechs unexpected bad news. Comes with the territory, after all. Let me figure it out."

"Seriously?" The distressed look on Smokescreen's face immediately evaporated and he was relieved. "Good, because it sucked giving Blue the news about our deactivated creators, even with Prowl there. It's not an experience I'd like to repeat twice."

"Of course. You've got enough burdens right now. Let me deal with Prowl."

"Thanks, Jazz. Maybe sometime I'll help you with your odds in a bet or two."

Jazz laughed, almost effortlessly hiding his unease from all his vorns of practice. Honestly he wasn't doing it for Smokescreen. Between what he did know about Blacksmoke and with what he'd seen in the cave and in medbay, Jazz was worried about his friend. Even though his friend had hurt him, Jazz wasn't one to easily be pushed away. He knew his friend was in a lot of pain and if the rumors he heard were true during his early decaorns at the Academy, Prowl's breaking point wouldn't end well for anyone.

If you hadn't noticed it earlier, I underlined "met" in the opening A/N because it's not the final piece of Blacksmoke (assuming didn't remove the underline). There's more to Blacksmoke to be revealed than what's here, it's just that poor Smokescreen doesn't get to know :p So if you're wondering what's the deal with Blacksmoke, why Jazz wasn't around during most of Prowl's time in the academy, and what both Jazz and Prowl are hiding, fear not – you shall soon have your answer! Erm, I hope.

I was planning to finish this up and post it the first week in January, but I walked into work the first Monday of 2011 and they basically said: "Oh good, you're here! Now we can go over all your new areas of responsibility! Instead of one area you now have seven, several mandatory 3-day meetings, and a high-visibility, high-impact project that we need done before the end of January. Have fun!" Basically, what this amounts to is that I will do my best to post the next chapter within a few weeks, but with surprises like that I'm not making any more promises, but I know that I won't go any slower than what I'm already doing! (Haha)

BTW, if you hadn't noticed, I killed off all of my OCs. There's something fun about killing off all your own creations. No, I don't have any children and I didn't start out with any.

I also "stole" one of Jazz's lines right out of AHM, although it's not the same word-for-word and Jazz isn't saying it in my fic. Points to anyone (besides Evil Ratchet) who caught it.