Starcrossed

by Gatekat

G1 AU, Jazz/Prowl, Jazz/Vortex Jazz is the second creation of a Noble House that's fallen on hard times. He's promised as the subordinate mate to a wealthy commoner in exchange for a great deal of credits. It's only when he meets his future mate that things get bad.

30. Hunting Angry

Starcrossed 30: Hunting Angry
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It took three more orns of constant searching, but finally, Prowl and Jazz received a comm they had been waiting for.

::Saxo, we have a positive identification to one of those mecha,:: came the commissioner's message. Jazz patched Prowl in immediately.

::Which one?::

The commissioner sent the image file over. ::He was found attempting to leave the city borders, carrying concealed, unlicensed weapons.::

::Has he said anything?:: Jazz asked.

::No, nothing.::

::Good,:: Jazz said. ::No one talks to him but me. Just make sure he doesn't get away and I'll arrange the details.:: He cut the line to the commissioner. ::Pantera?::

::This would be easiest if we interrogate him in one of your rooms, though I'm sure we can make due with an improvisational location. There are wide stretches of this city that no one listens to screaming.::

::A room is more secure,:: Jazz said. ::I'm not leaving any part of this up to chance, I have to control the environment completely for that. Whiplash has access to one beneath Polyhex, I'll have to go through him. How often would you like updates? I can't comm out once I'm in.::

::I want to be there, if it's not too much trouble,:: Prowl's voice was calm and polite, but Jazz could hear the sub harmonics of deep, building rage that was about to turn bitingly cold and very dangerous.

::I don't think it would be,:: Jazz hummed. ::You'd be tagged while you're underground, monitored constantly, and you cannot leave my side, but...I think that would be okay. That's mild compared to the rest of it,:: he added, wincing slightly.

Prowl paused, taking in everything said, unsaid and tone. ::I can hack him,:: he offered quietly.

::Absolutely not,:: Jazz said. ::I know you don't want to, and I do want to lay into someone. Meet me at this precinct,:: he said and pinged the location, already transformed and heading in that direction. Once Prowl had accepted and affirmed, Jazz closed the line, cycled his vents once, and pinged his trainer and commander. ::Whiplash?::

::You've been quite full of yourself since I turned you loose.:: Whiplash's reply was an annoyed rumble, but it didn't contain nearly the venom Jazz had been expecting. ::Let me guess, you want access to the Polyhex facility.::

::Yes, please?:: Jazz said, adding a repentant but hopeful trill to his voice. ::They found a mech who was with the ones that took Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.::

There was a pause, one much longer than needed, and Jazz knew it.

::Granted.:: Whiplash told him when Jazz was half way to the precinct. ::I will see you there.::

Jazz felt a jump of nervous anticipation in his spark. He hadn't gotten the lashing he'd expected, so...hopefully his trainer was in a benevolent mood. ::Aaand...let's say you were to see Pantera there as well, how would that go?::

There was dead silence of the stunned variety for a lingering moment. ::Have you completely lost your tenuous grip on sanity? You want that stuck in the mud, rule-locked Praxian Enforcer to watch a kill interrogation?::

::He is not-!:: Jazz started to protest, then stopped, reconsidered. ::Those are only sides of him. There's another side, a darker side, if he's angered enough, and I promise you, he's angered enough.::

Whiplash gave it a long consideration, making Jazz squirm on the road a bit. ::You know I'll force you to make him go away if he can't take it.::

Jazz steeled his resolve up for a moment. ::I know. But you know what he's lived through and you should know he can handle this.::

::I know what he's survived.:: Whiplash acknowledged slowly. ::I'd rather you didn't lose him.::

::I have no intention of losing him,:: Jazz rumbled back, certainty and pride clear in his voice. ::He can handle this.::

Whiplash's hum was less certain but he didn't argue before closing the line.

Prowl was waiting for him outside and Jazz transformed to greet him, pulling his mate into a tight embrace, the first time he'd seen him in almost two orns. "You're sure you want to watch?" he asked, touching their helms together. Prowl's field meshed with his, fierceness mixed with calm in a combination that made Jazz want to snuggle in closer to that sensation that was only Prowl.

"Yes, I do," Prowl said, and his field backed him up. "I do not wish for you to separate such a large part of your existence from me, and ... I want to hurt him as much as you do."

Jazz stroked his helm. "I'm not worried about you seeing what I do so much as...remembering me do it. I don't want to do that to you."

"I will be fine," Prowl promised, his field backing up how certain he was of this. "Let's get our subject," he rumbled dangerously.

Jazz nodded once and they entered, creating a back-strut straightening tension in the entire room. Every Enforcer in Polyhex had heard about the Imperial agent whose creations had been taken, and none of them wanted to stand in his way. "All I need is the prisoner and a transport," he said, focusing in on the commissioner.

The mech nodded calmly. "Where are we taking him?" he asked, though he looked like he had a good idea.

Jazz grinned and databurst him the location. He took one moment to glance at it, then nodded, having confirmed his suspicions that this prisoner would not be reemerging. When Jazz's kind took one with them, the few times it had happened, they never came back.

"We will accompany," Jazz said. "No other escort is required."

"If you'll follow me, there is a transport out back," the commissioner said, and led them into the building.

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Their prisoner strung up the way Jazz preferred them in the interrogation room, Prowl properly scanned and tagged to be with him, and the Polyhex facility set to forward any developments through to them, Jazz and Prowl stood in the small antechamber, watching the video screen showing what was on the other side of the wall.

"Don't show anything once we're in there, even with your doorwings, as much as you can. I doubt he can read wing language, but it's better to be safe. Stand far enough away that he can't teek you," Jazz said.

Prowl nodded, not contesting the instruction. "What are you attempting to avoid him learning from me?"

"It isn't so much what I want to avoid him learning, so much as you accidentally strengthening any resolve he might have. If he sees too much anger, he might realize he's going to die no matter what." Jazz's optics glittered strangely. "That can strengthen resolve not to talk more than anything. He needs to have hope that he's getting out alive. Seeing pleasure can do the same thing, too much too fast and they'll get bitter on you. And no matter what, do not show any discomfort. That's for your own safety."

Jazz felt understanding click as the interrogation rules Prowl had been taught as an Enforcer and those that applied here fell into place.

"I will keep my distance, and show no distress," Prowl promised as he quietly locked his frame and field down. These were protocols that were intended to allow him to defuse domestics and other high-emotion situations without seeming to take a side, but they worked well in any situation where he did not wish to give away his true feelings.

"Then let's go," Jazz purred, truly looking forward to lay hands on someone who had attacked the estate with his mate's creations inside.

The door slid open to his mental command and they walked in, Prowl moving to be against the wall and Jazz approaching the strung-up gangster.

"I have to congratulate you," he said, amiably, as he started his initial stroll. "For being stupid enough to get caught, you were at least bright enough to pick a group with a good action plan, or maybe that was just dumb luck?"

The mech looked a bit confused, glancing between the obvious authority figure that was Prowl to the seeming civilian in charge that was Jazz, then again when it sank in that they were both Praxian and not locals.

"Yes, hello," Jazz said, coming around front again and seeing realization dawn. "You're not with Enforcers, you've stumbled your way into something much, much worse. I'll give you fair warning, I don't have to follow any rules." He watched while that sank in for a moment. "You are, unfortunately, the closest thing I can find linking back to my missing creations. Do you know what kind of mood that puts me in?"

As strange as it was for a gangster, the mech gave a frantic look towards Prowl, optics bright with shock and pleading for the rule-enforcer to enforce some rules.

"They're my creations as well," Prowl answered the obvious question. "This isn't my jurisdiction. It's his."

Horror flickered across the mech's field before he growled, gathered himself and glared at Jazz. "Weren't no Prax littles."

"They didn't look Praxian, took after my frame and I'm all cosmetics," Jazz said. "You weren't in the group that made it down to where they were and took them, which is fairly lucky for you, but you were with the ones who did. I want designations."

"I du know who went down," the mech said. "Don't know who went where."

::I wouldn't mind knowing who was in the kitchen either,:: Prowl commed privately. ::That is very much secondary, however. Nothing will bring him back.::

"Didn't ask who went where, did I," Jazz said. "You're not telling me you didn't know the designations of who went in with you. Where did you go, if you didn't go down?"

"Not giving up everybody cause a couple tweaked your gears," he snapped, pulling at the chains. "What good are littles anyway? No' even you kept them!"

Prowl's engine growled angrily, and Jazz was sure that if this had been a different setting his mate would have assaulted the mech for those words. Behind his back, Jazz gestured for silence, and calm, eying their prisoner as he did. Prowl complied, though Jazz knew it was completely external. Internally, Prowl would still be molten, but so long as he didn't show it everything was fine. "Then tell me who your buyer was. Someone was ready to buy younglings before the raid even started. Who?"

"I don't know. That's not my gig." The prisoner growled in frustration, but his optics, his fear, were firmly locked on Prowl. "I'm just a guard."

Jazz let him keep that fear on Prowl for a few more moments, before patting the mech's cheek with a dagger pulled smoothly from his subspace. As soon as he had the startled, alarmed attention directed back at him, he shrugged. "Well, it was worth a shot," he said, tracing the edge along the jawline. "At least you know what I want. Designations, ranks, everything you know about your companions, and anything about your buyer. Got that?"

"You expect me to give up my entire gang so you can destroy them all trying to find one or two that might know what happened," he growled, though it wasn't a very intimidating sound. "No."

"Understood. D'you know who was in the kitchen?" Jazz asked, almost off-handedly, pleased to note than Prowl really had calmed down. His ability to display self-control was admirable, but Jazz knew him well enough to know when he was holding too much in.

The thug had to work to follow the shifting topic and even more to work out the glyphs he'd never heard before.

::Love, I'm not sure he would know a kitchen if he was in it. But they'd be the group that had the most confections, candies and prepared energon. Those that came back with just cubes were probably in storage.::

"Oooobviously not," Jazz drawled, smirking, acknowledging his mate with a ping. "I'll make it simpler. Who came back with the ritziest fuel? Confections, cakes, candies, flavored energon?"

"Babble..." he snapped his mouth shut against the want for more of that incredible stuff and the realization he'd already given up a designation.

"That's a start," Jazz said brightly. "Let me know if you think of more. Shall we get started, then?"

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As he followed Whiplash into the observation area, Radiance had to stop and take a moment to collect himself when he saw what was inside. He knew what interrogators did, he even had a few on his own team who worked on Enforcer prisoners. He knew what Saxo was, and did.

But it was something else to see it in full, living color, live, right in front of him.

Jazz was casually picking through an energon-coated mess that had once been the neck of the mech that was hanging from the ceiling. When the vocalizer was uncovered, he straightened and stepped back, head tilted almost curiously.

"I think I've gotten everything I can out of him," he commented, and turned to grin at his mate. "Which means now I can stop pretending and have some real fun."

"Pantera is in there?" Radiance gasped, seeing the Enforcer for the first time from where he was leaning, perfectly still, against the wall.

"He wants to be there," Whiplash didn't hide the grumble, or how his harmonics shifted as he took in that the frame wasn't still out of numbness or shock, but because he was relaxed. "First time too." He cocked his helm and studied the Enforcer. "Whatever Pit he came from hardened him more than I expected."

The victim gave a strangled sounding moan that made Jazz hum before he walked to Prowl and drew him into a tender kiss that quickly drew heated as Jazz was pulled against his mate. "Which means you can stop pretending, too, love," he murmured when Prowl finally let him go. "For you, because he helped the ones who took your creations."

Prowl's engine roared to life and he stalked forward, every inch the commanding figure and reveling in the vindictive fire consuming him as he walked around the mangled form, then looked at his mate. "You know, of all the times I've seen this from your perspective, I've never actually been here when you killed." Prowl rumbled and drew Jazz into another hungry kiss. "Make him hurt, love. Get yourself so worked up you're burning, then show me how good it is for you to end it the way you like."

Whiplash raised an optic ridge and considered the scene even more seriously. "Pantera is more a match for Saxo than he lets on."

"I did try to snag him for you," Radiance said, still teeking uneasy by what he was watching, but gradually less and less so. In the next moment the mech was screaming so loud that anything Radiance might have added would have been drowned out, before the volume lowered suddenly, no doubt by the matte black mech next to him. "There was nothing to hook him with."

"He's an odd one," Whiplash acknowledged. "Doesn't want money, power, not even to stretch his capabilities. He has a hook, and it has him good, but it's not a hook that's of much use to reel him in quickly. Why does a mech like that want to be a beat cop?"

Radiance's smile when he turned his gaze to Prowl was warm. "Because he wants to be." He glanced at Whiplash, smirked. "Not even you have something to offer someone who just wants to be an honest, working, helpful part of society."

"True," Whiplash huffed, watching as his agent began to play with his toy, destroying it a bit at a time, but really watching his agent's mate and how the Enforcer responded to the screams, energon and thrashing that turned Jazz on so effectively. "My world exists outside theirs. He's got the ball bearings for this, though. How much have they told you?"

"Little," Radiance said carefully. "They know each other's stories, they've been hurt, and they're hiding, and there is little truth to their official records. But as for what is true..." He glanced at the Ops mech. "I learned something, once, Pantera said too much, he asked me to delete it."

"And you did," Whiplash quirked his mouth up in a knowing grin. "You big softie. I'll keep their real designations out of your range then."

Radiance huffed. "Of course I did. Just because you lack the capacity for something like love or compassion doesn't mean everyone else does."

"I have the protocols for both," Whiplash chuckled. "They're just of lower priority than other things, like intel. Any hint of this in their berth?" he nodded towards the viewscreen where Jazz's spike was rubbing against the half dead mech and Prowl was rubbing his spike cover, watching with hungry optics.

"Not much," Radiance said, but he tilted his head back and gestured with his hand at his neck. "Saxo gets me by the neck when he's in a mood. Not anything else. But... they pretty much just need to look at each other to overload, this doesn't surprise me. Saxo comes off these pretty hot and Pantera likes whatever turns Saxo on." He winced at the location of Jazz's claws.

Whiplash laughed, bright with good humor. "They are hot on each other. If I'm ever that bad about someone, you have permission to shoot me." He grinned at Radiance, his visor actually flashing slightly despite the matte finish. "You're almost as bad on them, I think. Just waiting your time out until you can admit it?"

"I already have the courting forms completed," Radiance said, shaking his head, almost not believing what he was telling this mech. He gave a self-deprecating groan. "So yeah, I guess I am."

"More than forty vorns in advance?" Whiplash didn't hide his surprise. "Well, you do have it bad. I have to admit, I thought all that fluffiness when you were playing creator and following Pantera around like a turbo-puppy while you were out here was rather cute."

"Oh, for Primus-you know what, no, I am not surprised you were watching that," Radiance said. "And I was not following him around like a turbo-puppy."

"True, some of the time you were doing a good game of fetch or guard," Whiplash teased him. "It was adorable, Radiance. Made you very believable as their creator with him."

Radiance huffed again and rolled his optics. "Why am I here?"

"Honestly?" Whiplash glanced sideways at him. "I was more than half expecting Pantera to need someone to pull him back together. Better to have you here than joors away if a break happens. You know as well as I do how unstable Saxo is without him."

Radiance's visor flickered, then he grinned. "Look at you with the spark! I honestly had my doubts," he turned back towards the viewscreen with a smug smirk on his lips.

"Has nothing to do with a spark. It's protecting my assets," Whiplash huffed, but the grin he had took all the fight out of the words as they fell silent and watched Jazz rip the victim's chest plates the rest of the way off, only stopping when Prowl stepped up behind him and caressed the primary interface port with a kiss to Jazz's neck.

Jazz ground up against his lover, purring, tilting his head back as the port spiraled open. "You wanna feel this? This is what I'll do to him."

Prowl plugged in with an intense rush of arousal that left them both dizzy to feel how worked up the other was. ~I want ... I want to feel this.~ He offered an image, something snagged from Vortex's archive, of one of their parties where a mech had a spike thrust into his spark, overload after overload, until he expired. ~Feel your spike in a living spark just before it leaves its frame.~

Jazz groaned, lowering the barely-living mech down with a thought, gripping the spark chamber in powerful combat claws and cracking it open. ~He would have had me do this to you,~ he said. ~Instead we'll do this to him. Just like this,~ he gasped, pushing forward, the intense surge of energy rushing up through his spike and into their joined frames.

Prowl moaned and shuddered hard against Jazz's back, his lust soaring at the words. ~Oh yes. Just like this. His last act to give us pleasure. Oh Primus that feels amazing.~

~It's a rush,~ Jazz agreed, panting and shaking in Prowl's hold as he rocked, both against his lover and into the swirling, flaring spark. ~This one's weak, he never had a strong will, it won't take long,~ he managed, hands coming up to grip Prowl's helm, head thrown back onto his lover's shoulder.

~Neither will we,~ Prowl gasped, his spike trapped between them as he rubbed along Jazz's back while they rocked into the fading spark. ~Oh, Jazz, feels so good, being with you for what works you up so much.~

~Prowl,~ Jazz moaned. ~Love that you can still love me like this. That shiver, the way the spark turns-it'll-it'll-~ The rest of the description was lost as the light spiraled inward on itself, collapsing from the center, before the full energy rushed out in a sudden, intense escape from the broken frame, leaving both of them screaming as Jazz overloaded into the brilliantly bright center and Prowl against his mate's back.

~Jazz, my beautiful Jazz,~ Prowl moaned as they struggled to keep from collapsing on the graying and cooling frame. ~Love all of you. Always have. Always will. Just want to be part of everything you let me.~

Jazz swayed, managed a step back for both of them, and turned, grabbing his mate in a kiss. ~You are my everything,~ he said, as they stumbled towards the wall, shaking and holding each other.

In the observation room, Radiance was frozen and staring. "He just..."

"Got off by spiking a guttering spark," Whiplash said. "I have to admit, it's an extremely rare kink, and I've never seen it used by a pair like that. Whoever taught him that is a really, really sick mecha."

Radiance was still frozen in shock when the door opened for Jazz to walk out of the interrogation room with Prowl behind them, each one of them focusing in on one of their observers. Prowl immediately looked to the one he didn't know that presented the greater threat, Jazz to the one he never expected to see this deep in a base, much less in an observation room. No one missed how Prowl subtly shifted to place himself between the unknown and his stunned mate despite his lack of status in this world and lifted his doorwings in a general warning display.

"You do give an amazing show together," Whiplash was the first to find his voice, greeting the energon smeared pair cheerfully, then focused on Prowl. "I'm Whiplash, his mentor in Ops."

A brush of fields to confirm this with Jazz and Prowl settled his wings, but still kept himself between Jazz and the potential threat.

"You've got a loyal one, Saxo," Whiplash chuckled, but the sub harmonics were of approval and even being impressed. "I'd tell you to reward, indulge and protect him, but I know you do."

Jazz finally found his voice and the rest of his frame, and took his optics off Radiance to shoot an accusing look at his trainer as he stepped forward enough to put his hands on Prowl, wanting the steady, calm strength that was his mate. "You didn't...warn me you were bringing him."

"It shouldn't have made a difference," Whiplash shrugged with a ripple of matte black armor. "He was here in case Pantera needed to be pulled together."

"I'm stronger than that," Prowl said flatly.

"Stronger, and far more twisted," Whiplash grinned with blatant approval. "Do the Enforcers know what they have in their ranks?"

Radiance found himself, last of the four, and shifted to be in front of Prowl. "They have a strong, devoted, fair-minded mech who would do anything for someone he loves," he said, then glanced back at Prowl with a faint smile. "By the way, hello."

A flicker of warmth and greeting came from Prowl's field, the tight-focused touch of one who was running on domestic conflict protocols. The mech's attention was locked on Whiplash, however.

"Relax, it's not like anything that happens on these levels even exists," Whiplash gave a smile to the triad, and this was a triad, recorded, honed or otherwise. "But I don't think you'll be joining your mate in any more interrogations once this little event is dealt with."

Prowl simply nodded. It wasn't like he wanted to be here regularly no matter how hot it made Jazz run. He wasn't comfortable with it, with the rules that governed this place. They weren't his.

"Radiance, Pantera, go with Fairsong to the washrack and clean up," Whiplash ordered with a motion towards the door that opened to reveal a pastel blue, white and yellow femme. "I'll send Saxo along when we finish talking."

Radiance nodded, well-used to being escorted anywhere when he was below ground, and turned to leave, then paused when he was next to Jazz, leaning in to take a brief kiss. "And hello to you too," he said, smiling at him.

Jazz didn't hide his startled flicker, or the relief that came after it. Radiance brushed his field warmly, then slipped his hand into Prowl's and gestured with his head towards the door. Prowl made no effort to resist, far too accustomed to obeying orders. His field began to relax as protocols stood down and he followed Radiance and their guide and watcher.

As soon as the door closed after their exit, Jazz faced his trainer, wings lowered, properly contrite before the only mech who had any kind of control over him beyond his mate.

"You are making my orn difficult, Jazz," Whiplash said flatly, flaring at his most junior agent. "Even I have to answer to the Prime if enough noise is made about my missions. You're under the radar for now, but the questions are going to come about why this is worthy of Imperial resources and there is no valid answer for it."

"The only Imperial resources I've used are myself, the room, and the cleanup it takes for one frame," Jazz said, steady. "If those are too much to find younglings taken into an illegal market-"

"You miss the point, agent," Whiplash shook his helm. "You are making a very public display of this mission. Something we take some pains not to do for many reasons, but primarily one in a botnapping case. You've dramatically increased the odds of your creations' demise by increasing how easy it is for them to find out just what is on their trail. You have also used far more recourses than you think. Enforcers were pulled from other cases, called in to work extra shifts for your net, and while I doubt any of them would object to it given the younglings involved, the city is less pleased. It sees younglings go missing every decaorn. These two are no more valuable to it, or anyone important to the public than the last two."

Jazz winced through his field, but his frame held steady. "They are more valuable to Prowl, and their best chance is to have their sire as involved as possible with all available information open to him. What I did also increases their chances of being found alive, as well as being killed, and both are preferable to the kind of market I suspect they will land in otherwise. I would have preferred keeping my own profile invisible, but they weren't going to let Prowl in otherwise." He paused, and bowed his head. "I'm sorry what I did created complications for you. I'm not sorry I acted to help my mate."

A deeply frustrated vent escaped Whiplash. "So I heard." He regarded his agent steadily. "If he'd been extended the professional courtesy he was no doubt expecting, you would have kept quiet?"

Jazz nodded once. "I was quiet until another Enforcer told him he wasn't allowed to help search for his own creations, dead or alive."

Whiplash shook his helm. "And there's no way you can miss that mech being an Enforcer. If this hunt lasts long, I'm going to insist on an actual field agent being involved to smooth over the rookie mistakes. You weren't trained for this work."

"I'll back out from public view, except for interrogating anyone else they find. They respect Prowl enough now to let him in, now that they've seen him working," Jazz said, a faint, proud smile on his face. "And I'll stop scaring the locals."

"Do that," Whiplash huffed, privately annoyed at how easily Jazz could defuse anger directed at him. "Go clean up and take your mates somewhere else. I expect Radiance is going to need some contact after this."

Jazz nodded, started to leave, then paused. "You really brought him just in case Prowl needed him?"

"Mostly," Whiplash shrugged. "Wanted to make sure he could handle your function too, before you're any more triad than you already are."

"Thought so," Jazz said with a roll of his optics. "You couldn't have picked anything a bit milder? Eased him in?"

"He has interrogators on his team," Whiplash said. "He knows what you do. Well, maybe not the whole spark-spike overload bit, but it's not like I was expecting him to see anything that surprising. Prowl was the real surprise, not you."

Jazz smiled, optics brightening just at hear his mate's designation spoken out loud. "Didn't think he had that in him, did you," he said, pleased to have been able to surprise his mentor.

"No, I didn't," Whiplash admitted with a scowl. "Now shoo, you. Your mates are expecting you."

Jazz grinned at his trainer and commander, gave a mock-salute, and bowed his way out, heading straight for the tracker that had been fixed to Prowl for the duration of his time underground, finding him with Radiance in a washrack three levels up. He greeted his mate with a warm kiss. "Your comms will work from this level, have you forwarded those designations to the commissioner?"

"Just did," Prowl rumbled and pulled Jazz closer, then stepped back under the spray to begin rinsing him off with another kiss. "He obviously wasn't too angry with you."

Jazz nuzzled him, then reached out to Radiance and pulled the dark Enforcer in for his own greeting before turning back to Prowl. "He wasn't exactly pleased, either, but I do a great forgive-me grin. I'm pulling out except for further interrogation, though."

"Pantera's caught me up on what you know and it sounds like my arrival was at the right time," Radiance welcomed the settling influence of the pair's fields when they were together and went to work getting Jazz cleaned off. "It's been a while, but until I get the notice that I'm no longer on special assignment I'm here and I have had investigative training and experience. And I'm much more accustomed to working with other precincts and cities as."

Jazz hummed, leaning into Radiance's hands. "Good, because I'm starting to think they got out of Polyhex before we even got here. That glitch insisted he didn't see any of his fellows after they split inside the estate and I believe him. They're all going on a planetwide wanted list, but it'll have to be Enforcer level." He sighed, tilting his head back against Radiance's shoulder. "I'm sorry you saw that without knowing more about us. I would have preferred it the other way around."

Radiance was quiet for a moment. "Whiplash said someone must have taught you that. You mentioned a 'him.' Sideswipe's spark sire?" he guessed, watching Prowl carefully.

"Yes," Prowl answered, tense but not in the dangerous way. His focus was on Jazz.

Jazz smiled reassuringly at his mate for a moment, before flaring his field to mix with Radiance's while Prowl held him, a strong, steady, reassuring presence that had long been the one constant in Jazz's existence. "That was his favorite way to finish a toy. After his newspark took...he told me he wanted to do the same to it. I..." He hesitated, and Radiance nuzzled against his neck. "I learned how to enjoy what he enjoyed. I'm glad you can still touch me after seeing that," he admitted quietly.

"I admit I could have gone my entire existence without seeing that," Radiance murmured, slowly stroking his hands along Jazz's frame. "But I know you both well enough to be confident that you won't bring the illegal kinks out of this place. That's all I expect."

"Until we have him, he's the exception," Jazz said.

"I can look the other way for him," Radiance assured them both. Any mecha that took enough enjoyment in snuff to be so creative about it and teach a mechling to do the same was a mecha that was well worth looking the other way for to ensure he never saw the inside of a courtroom. He might not like that truth, but he understood politics enough to believe it was a necessary evil in a broken world.

Jazz nodded with that assurance, then wrapped his arms around Prowl and drew their frames tight. "I'm so sorry, love, I hoped that one would know more."

"We do our best with what we have," Prowl said gently, holding Jazz to comfort him while Radiance continued to stroke Jazz's frame, then moved on to soothing touches to his doorwings.

Jazz hummed in gratitude. "We are nowhere near done with this," he promised his mate, as Radiance rumbled his agreement behind them.

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Jazz shook the mess of energon, wires, and fiber-optics from his hand after pulling his fingers from the holes where the graying mech's optics had once been, and pulled his other hand, gripping an energon dagger, from the now-empty spark chamber. He stepped back, rolled his head, and tried to stretch some of the tension from his frame as he walked, heading up the several levels needed in order to comm his mate without routing through the facility comm network.

He was in the Kalis facility, one of the gangsters being located there after an ID ping on a speeder turned up a matching designation. This one had been among the group that had taken the younglings from the estate and had witnessed the killing of the third.

::Pantera,:: he commed, lifting his arms over his head to stretch his shoulders, getting sideways looks from the few mecha he passed by, not for the mess he was covered in but for being an unfamiliar face in their part of this realm.

::Anything useful?:: Prowl couldn't hold back the hope that was bordering on desperate. Eight orns they'd been on the hunt and there were already some polite calls about getting back to their jobs. And more concerned, private ones from many of the same mecha asking if there was anything but time they could offer.

::Location of the buyer as of six orns ago. Simfur. Did a blind swap with them for the credits, never saw his face or knew a designation. He would have been happy to give more if he had it, too, they tried to double the price for the temperament and quality and got less than the original price for their trouble.:: Jazz turned the washrack on. ::I'll be above as soon as I'm decent and we'll get to Simfur.::

::Meet up at the hotel, whoever's there first packs up?:: Prowl suggested. ::Windcrest can meet us in the shuttle bay.::

Jazz nodded and sent an affirmative ping. ::Is Radiance with you?::

::I'll comm him,:: Prowl promised. ::Clean up, and we'll see you soon.::

Jazz agreed and washed as quickly as he could, but he it still took him longer than he liked to get the grime off his frame, and he didn't even fully detail between the plating. He only did enough to be presentable in public and not get pulled over as a potential murderer. When he was finally back to the hotel, Prowl and Radiance were already there, everything packed and ready, just waiting until they could go meet their shuttle.

His lovers were sitting together on the berth, talking softly, though the moment Jazz walked in Prowl stood to greet him. Jazz quickly pulled Prowl into a kiss that was returned fiercely with a strong embrace, then touched their helms together. "How are you?"

"Well enough," Prowl murmured. "There's time to settle you and get you cleaned up before he gets here. It's a long flight from Iacon."

"I'm fine," Jazz said, though the lingering arousal in his field was clear enough. "If you're working on something we should keep doing that."

"Just reviewing things we already know," Prowl assured him, guiding Jazz towards the washrack in the room. "Just me, or both?" he asked softly enough that only Jazz heard him.

Jazz's gaze flickered over his mate's shoulder towards Radiance, who was watching from his seat on the berth, waiting with an anxious tilt to his doorwings to be invited before he joined the pair. He lifted his hand, gesturing him over, knowing the peace his mate took in the three of them being together. "Both of you," he murmured, nuzzling.

Prowl purred and flicked a doorwing in invitation before he got Jazz in the washrack. "So, what do you think of actually playing out that scene we talked through on our first break?"

Jazz's engines gave a hard rev. "I don't think we have the time or myself the patience be teased up, but if you wanna skip that part, I'd be agreeable," Jazz said as he was backed up into the solvent.

Radiance appeared behind Prowl, pressing against his back and nipping at his neck while running hands down to his hips, then around front. "You want to take him with me?"

"Or for both of you to take me," Prowl's entire frame shivered at the prospect. "Yes. Maybe not the teasing, but to feel your spike rub against mine inside him," he could only moan at the intensity of the mental image it conjured.

Radiance's engines rumbled deeply and he met Jazz's optics over Prowl's shoulder, exchanging a smile of agreement with him before he dipped his head back down to nip up along their lover's neck, jaw, and then to his audial. "When we take him together, we're going to take our time, and he's going to be begging for us. We're going to tease him until he explodes. But you..." He and Jazz pressed hips flush against Prowl. "We'll fill you, make you forget everything while we hold you."

"Please," Prowl moaned, leaning into Radiance with the mixture of excitement and passive acceptance that rarely came to those who didn't have a submissive spark.

Jazz hummed and leaned in for a deep kiss, his hands sliding down to join Radiance's on Prowl's pelvis, teasing and stroking around his spike cover while the black fingers dipped down to his valve. "I'm going to swallow you first," he murmured against Prowl's mouth. "I know how much you like my lips around your spike, looking down and seeing me on my knees for you."

Prowl nearly choked, both panels snapping open. One arm reached back, over his shoulder, to grip at Radiance's back. The other found Jazz's neck and held the kiss until they were all trembling from the raw, unfiltered lust pouring off Prowl.

"Lover, oh lover," Radiance moaned, shuddering, spike extended and pressed against Prowl's aft. He teased at Prowl's valve, swirling his fingers through the platelets, while Jazz rubbed the spike that had pressurized into his fingers. "Suck him," he commanded Jazz, voice hoarse. "He wants you so badly."

"I can feel it," Jazz purred, and slid down to his knees, running a long, hot lick up the underside of his lover's spike, flicking his glossa off the tip. "He's always wanted me, haven't you, my love."

"Yes," Prowl keened at the physical sensations and spread his legs further apart, leaning forward a bit to cant his hips and give Radiance better access. As amazing as it felt, it was really the way being between two lovers made his spark swell that made this so good for him. He could feel it pouring off Radiance as well, the rightness of a triad forming, the way the three of them moved so easily together, no one giving more than they got. Every indulgence given to one member was matched with an indulgence to the others. "Knew as soon as I saw you I was in trouble, that I'd do anything for you."

Jazz hummed with honest joy at those memories, circling his lips around the head and pushing down, using the sound to vibrate into Prowl through the sensor-laden metal. He slid one hand up the inside of Prowl's thigh and met Radiance's fingers with his own, slipping them into the slick opening while the dark mech clicked the magnet systems in his palm to life, rubbing over quivering platelets as his own fingers pushed in alongside Jazz's.

"A taste, lover," Radiance purred to him. "Both of us in you, but we'll give you so much more than this."

Prowl could only arch back, his entire frame already quivering and mouth open against the bliss. His valve spasmed, cycling tightly around the fingers inside him with the entirety of his internal systems trying to assist the motion, even though they weren't part of his valve structure. It was like this every time one of them was between the other two, each time the intensity increased for Prowl as his triad protocols etched themselves further into his norm.

He wanted.

Prowl wanted to be lost in this bliss of being in the middle of a triad more than he could have imagined. The explicit approval of his love for the lover they'd brought in made his spark soar. Oh, to be filled with them both, to be touched and pleasured by them both at once, it was so much more than Prowl ever imagined interfacing to be.

He adored and reveled in them both for this gift of being triad.

Radiance felt it, felt all of it through Prowl's field and in the mirrored song in his own spark and the ancient coding bliss in his processors that was working just as hard as Prowl's were to form this union for all of them. Coding that he was realizing had picked these two for him even before he'd realized it, pushing him towards them over and over until he'd looked up one orn and found himself completely captivated and owned. He wanted as much as Prowl, as much as he dared to hope Jazz did, wanted to pleasure and be pleasured.

"Good, this is perfect, sink into it, into us," he managed. "The bliss of triad." His voice shook on the last word, one he hadn't dared to hope for for so long. He looked down at Jazz over Prowl's shoulder, the slow bobbing of his head along Prowl's valve while he crooked his fingers deeper. "Look at him, look at the joy he takes out of pleasuring you with me."

"He loves to," Prowl shuddered, completely lost to the intensity as his frame, processors and spark all agreed that this was perfect. "I can feel how much he loves it, just as much as I love pleasuring him. Sooo goood..." he keened and trembled, trying not to overload, trying to draw this perfection out. He wanted them inside him, fully and completely inside him, frame, spark and all, so badly it ached.

He could feel Jazz's full-framed rumble of arousal and the sound of his lover's spike cover sliding away. The warmth around his own spike tightened for a moment and then moved away while Jazz twined his fingers around Radiance's, pushing together. "Ready?" he purred, head tilted up, and behind him Radiance hummed in deep, eager excitement. Without another word exchanged Prowl not only relaxed into Radiance's steady, strong grip, but moved with Jazz when his love stood and brought one of Prowl's legs up with him. The other set more firmly, angled for balance, then slid back to twine with Radiance's leg when Prowl was lifted and positioned so both his lovers could penetrate him.

"Yes," Prowl whispered, even more awed at how right this felt than how good it felt already.

Jazz pressed a searing kiss to his mouth. "I love you," he moaned, lining his spike up and pushing in, then held there as Radiance rubbed the tip of his own against their joined frames and ran his magnetized palm over Prowl's aft.

"Relax," Radiance breathed. "Relax and open and feel." He dipped and lifted his hips, pushing in alongside Jazz, moving slowly into the impossibly tight channel. "Oh," he gasped, shuddering.

Prowl simply keened, his limbs gripping his lovers blindly. It hurt, that much stretch. Nothing prepared a mech for it but experience, and Prowl simply didn't have that. But he relaxed, he trusted his lovers to bear his weight and gave himself over to feeling what it meant to truly be between two lovers at once, to be the focus of his triad. The stretch hurt as he adjusted, but it also felt amazingly good.

This was what his spark had always called for, what was coded into him from before his sparkline was grounded, and there was nothing that could make it be anything other than pure bliss.

Jazz moaned as Radiance finally seated himself and they held together, trembling, letting Prowl's frame learn to accommodate, until he couldn't stand the stillness anymore and pulled out, barely a fraction of the entire length, and all three of them gasped together. Radiance shifted his hips out in response, and they found a slow, uneven rhythm of pushing and pulling, sliding alongside each other, their arms around Prowl, holding, supporting, caressing every span of his frame that they could reach.

The pure rightness of this thrumming through Prowl and Radiance enveloped Jazz, fueling his pleasure. He knew this perfection, this fulfillment of being true to your very core coding, and he was willing to do anything to give this to Prowl. He couldn't begin to count his blessings that what his love wanted so much was something, someone, that felt so good to him as well. Someone who had seen him at almost his darkest, and still greeted him with a kiss. Someone Jazz was sure he had learned how to love in that moment.

A sudden keening shudder and wordless garble were all the warning Prowl could offer beyond his field and the riot of energy dancing through his frame before he found himself right on the edge of overload. One more thrust by Jazz and he toppled over, screaming in bliss and seizing between his lovers. His valve tightened, molding to every bit of those wonderful spikes inside him, fluttering and undulating as the charge was fed to them though the lubricant and contact.

Radiance cried out and lost the hold he had on his control, as overcome as Prowl was by this bliss and the overwhelming joy of being accepted and wanted-desired-by this pair he'd all but stumbled over, never expecting what he'd been about to fall into, and when he felt Jazz's overload triggered by his own and the feel of another's transfluid mixing with his own, slicking their spikes, he sobbed.

"Pantera," Jazz cried, face against Prowl's shoulder, biting as he shuddered, fingers digging into his frame. "Radiance!"

Radiance shook, shouting as the running charge of three frames washed back through to him in a moment of white-out ecstasy before it fed back into Prowl from both sides and drove him to a second peak almost as intense as the first.

Eventually the trembling mecha sank to their knees, two still supporting the third, until they leaned inward, using Prowl's frame to brace their exhausted ones.

"Saxo, Radiance," Prowl slurred, only partially coherent and oblivious to everything but the utter, perfect, contentment that was being with his triad. "Love you both." Forbidden words, too-soon words, but the right words. "So perfect. So very perfect."

Radiance actually gasped at the force those words had on his spark, his grip around Prowl tightening almost painfully as he looked with some shock into Jazz's optics. The younger mech looked warmly back, then shifted his gaze to Prowl briefly, instructing.

Radiance took Prowl's helm in his hands and leaned forward, tilting around to take Prowl's mouth in a desperate kiss. "I love you too," he managed. "I've-I've loved you, both of you, I know it's fast and I shouldn't even say so yet, but..."

A soft, brushing kiss from Jazz caused him to trail off and turn his head, only to be pulled into a deeper one. "We love you too," Jazz said, touching helm to helm. "We have. Once this is all over and settled, we'll do this better, properly."

"Explain it all?" Prowl looked at his mate blearily, only slowly regaining his full awareness as their spikes slid from his valve and he settled more on his own forelegs. "Legal ... not for vorns, but he can be ours?" The last bit came out as more plea than question.

"I think he has been ours, my love," Jazz murmured, drawing Prowl in, pressing their mouths together. "I know he wants to be, and I know you want him, and..." Optics flickered over to the golden visor set in the dark face. His voice lowered, his engines purred. "I want him too."

Prowl's couldn't have overstated how much that that mattered to him as he claimed another kiss, his frame trembling and doorwings all but vibrating when he turned to claim the same kiss from Radiance. "Soon, we are triad. In our home," he glanced at Jazz, who nodded. "In our home it will be our home."

Jazz nipped at Prowl's neck as Radiance drew into another searing embrace. "You bought it for three," he murmured. "To make a home for three."

Prowl simply nodded. "It was on hope."

Jazz smiled and looked to Radiance, hesitated, then put a finger under the dark mech's chin and drew him in. "Thank you, for everything you've done for him. Don't think I don't see the way he is when he comes home from Polyhex, don't think I didn't see the change when you went with him. How could I not love someone who can lift so much from him?"

"I do all I can for those I love," Radiance answered the only way he could, but warmed at the way Prowl leaned into him and wrapped his field around them in an embrace. "It is what triads do. We support each other in any way we can."

"We wanted to tell you everything before it got this far," Prowl murmured, nuzzling into Jazz. "We will soon," he promised. "We should get clean, though. Windcrest will be here soon."

Jazz nodded, and sighed as the bliss faded away in the wake of the reality they were dealing with. "Come on," he said, and he and Radiance helped pull their mate to his pedes. "Hope that helped, it might be the last for a while, this could get worse from here out."

"Thank you," Prowl kissed Jazz, then turned to kiss Radiance. "Both of you."

It was the last word spoken as the three got down to the business of cleaning up, all with an efficiency they had learned in different ways, but methods that meshed well and created an easy, smooth flow between them.

SxSxSxSxSxSxSxSx S===================S SxSxSxSxSxSxSxS

It only took Jazz three orns to realize that their quarry had already escaped them, and without leaving a trail. Simfur was a neutral location for a buyer who was already good enough to not give his hunters a designation or ever let him see his frame. It was a dummy location, one that could be safely given up without threatening him.

When consulted privately, Radiance agreed. Which left them with the unpleasant task of breaking the news to Prowl, who was not anywhere near ready to admit defeat.

"How do we tell him?" Jazz asked, hand to his forehelm, leaning against the outside wall of their hotel.

"Coax him somewhere reasonably safe, probably the room," Radiance glanced up towards their room here in Simfur. "Relax him." He hesitated here. "Not to challenge your ways, but 'facing might not be the best way this time. Hardline? Let him see for himself why we're saying the active hunt is over."

Jazz held both hands up over his face and slid down. "'Face him before telling him his creations are lost into a market that will probably destroy them," he muttered, shaking his head. "No." His vents shuddered at the thought of how much pain he was going to have to cause his mate. "Hardline is best. Hardline is...it's safety, for us. Anywhere with a locked door. Primus," he whispered, then looked up at his lover, silently pleading for answer that Radiance didn't have.

Instead of words, Radiance gave the only thing he could. He stepped over, knelt, and gathered Jazz into his arms. He made no attempt to tell him everything would be alright, no attempt to make the situation look any better than it was. He just held, and soothed, and gently stroked doorwings with one hand while offering his field and his frame for Jazz to take comfort from.

They sat there huddled in silence for a while, and slowly a thought crossed Radiance's processor and he nuzzled Jazz's chevron. "You said hardline is safety. We can go to the room, hardline. If it could help you settle ... and, well, there are protocols, reflexive, basic things that come with being Praxian. How to talk to a third when two agree and they won't. Ways to stand, to talk, to present it that will make him more likely to accept without fighting. I can show you, even transfer some of those protocols if you want them."

"Protocols he has," Jazz said, and sighed, then nodded. "Anything that's going to make this easier. He doesn't give up. He probably won't give up, not completely, even once we're home." He pulled Radiance tight for a moment, then they rose together. "It won't hurt anything to give him a few more joors of hope."

"I'm going giving up either," Radiance said firmly. "Not until we've found them." He rested his forehelm against Jazz's gently. "No, a few more joors won't hurt, but tonight. We must tell him tonight no matter how much it hurts." He paused, stroking Jazz's doorwings in a soothing way. "In the meantime, it won't hurt to focus on helping you accept and begin to recover."

Jazz's gaze flickered. "I'm not...going to grieve for them," he said, as blunt as he could manage in front of someone that he knew would. "I've never missed them."

"But you are already grieving for the pain this is going to cause Pantera," Radiance said gently, guiding Jazz inside.

"I grieve for anything that causes him pain," Jazz murmured, doing nothing to resist. "Everything he's survived...he doesn't deserve this, it's not-" He cut himself off quickly. They all knew their world wasn't fair, saying it did nothing. "He should have had better than this."

"So should you," Radiance said too firmly to argue with as they entered the lift to the floor their room was on.

Jazz tossed him a wry smile. "I got what I was created for, he didn't. Though...I sometimes wonder if my creators had known..." He shook his head, glanced at the progress of the lift, and ran his fingers up Radiance's arm, over his shoulder, and traced up his neck. "Come here."

Radiance gave a small, sad smile and leaned in, pressing their mouths together, willing to offer whatever comfort his love needed.

Jazz shivered and pulled him flush. "'S getting harder not to give things away to you," he murmured, smiling faintly. The lift stopped on their level and the door opened for them to exit together, making the short walk down to their room.

"I think that means I'm doing it right," Radiance smiled, sneaking another kiss as the door opened for them. "It should be difficult to keep secrets from your mates."

Jazz hummed, backing towards the single berth and bringing Radiance with him. "Since I find myself not wanting to keep secrets from you, definitely." His legs hit the berth and he pulled the dark mech against him, pressing a soft kiss. "All I ask is that if you can't...reconcile, with what we tell you, you give us time to get away and you don't come looking."

"I have difficulty imagining that situation," Radiance murmured between kisses, easily shifting into the more amorous mood his mate was displaying. "You have my word, for what little it would matter from a dead mech."

Jazz gave him a knowing smile, sitting, and then laying back on the berth, pulling Radiance with. "I would try to convince him not to kill you, but I don't know how successful I'd be. Better for everyone if that never happens."

"Agreed," Radiance continued to kiss him, his hands playing the familiar frame expertly, matching the desires of the field against his. "Anything worse than the snuff I've already seen?"

Jazz caught his hands, stopping them, until Radiance lifted his head to look down at his lover, whose field had gone from warm and inviting to cold and serious in a single sparkpulse. "Yes," Jazz said, looking right into his visor. "Do you want to know what?"

"If you are willing to tell me now, yes," Radiance was just as serious just as fast. "I understand the risks of doing so if I am wrong. Pantera will need the support right now, not another loss."

"Willing to tell you, not willing to risk what Pantera needs," Jazz said, and let go of the wrists, field relaxing again. "He'll need someone who can grieve them with him. He loves them, he wanted them so badly, I-I wanted them, it all just..."

"You're a good mate," Radiance kissed him gently. "As hard as it is for you to imagine, you are not the first to be unable to bond to your creation because of the conditions of kindling. It is a terrible thing, it rips families apart, but you are not the first and you will not be the last." He kissed Jazz again, gentle and chaste. "Remember that I am here for you, too. You were the one that first caught my attention. I would help you grieve what is hurting you as well."

Jazz dimmed his optics, pulling the kiss deeper for a long klik. "Forever ago," he murmured. "When you helped me recharge, when you didn't take advantage... Radiance," he moaned as the knowing fingers dipped and stroked.

"I don't take advantage, lovely," Radiance said quietly, kissing his way down Jazz's neck. "It broke my spark that one as young as you would feel the need to ask a friend not to. I wasn't going to abandon you after that."

"Glad you didn't," Jazz said, gasping when the teasing mouth ghosted over his chest, not a request, but an erotic suggestion of more later to come. "Needed that more than I realized."

"I'm glad I could be there for you," Radiance murmured as his mouth trailed along a hip joint towards Jazz's interface covers. "I'm glad you accepted my offer."

"So am I, so are we," Jazz said, relaxing fully. "Something about you-" His hips pushed into the warm touch that was heating his entire frame with barely any effort. "Suddenly can't imagine not having you. Want you," he moaned, legs spreading.

Radiance purred. "My spike, my mouth, my valve...?"

"Everything," Jazz laughed breathlessly, then pushed himself up on an elbow and reached down with the other hand to stroke over Radiance's helm. "Your spike," he murmured. "Right now...your spike and your cable."

Radiance smiled and shifted to kiss Jazz, gently but thoroughly. "Anything you desire, my love." He shivered. "You have no idea how good it feels to be allowed to say that, even if only in private." He slid his spike cover back and unspooled a thick interfacing cable. "I'm all yours."

Jazz shivered, valve and dataport both open in the next moment. He drew an intake, settled himself, and pulled his knees back, lifting his hips. "Please," he whispered. "Don't be gentle. Make me forget what I'm about to do."

There was a fraction of a hesitation before Radiance nodded and plugged in. ~Just try to shield me from it.~

With a shiver, Radiance centered himself and drove his spike into the willing form in a single, hard thrust. He braced himself over his lover with one hand and allowed the other to caress over Jazz's frame as he began to drive, deep and hard. Far rougher than he ever was with Prowl, or any other lover.

~Any ... what works best?~ he asked a bit uneasily

Jazz caressed him over the hardline, calming from the rough use alone. He tilted his head back, offered an image of his throat with fingers closed around it. ~Not gonna make you draw energon, love,~ he moaned. ~Unless you feel like it. Just need to feel pinned and used.~

Radiance nodded and leaned in to kiss him. As he pulled back he put more of his weight on their hips in order to free his hands, one of them catching Jazz's wrists and moving quickly to bind him with a pair of cuffs. That done, he levered much of his forward mass onto a hand that closed around Jazz's throat.

Jazz could feel through the hardline that this did nothing for Radiance, and that his lover was carefully monitoring his status, but with the next brutally hard drive of Radiance's hips against the lock of the hand pinning him down, a wave of peace washed through him.

~Thank you,~ he gasped, ~For letting me be selfish, for doing this, I know you don't, you don't...~ His valve tightened, quivered, he moaned, pushing back into the thrusts, arms stretched up, fingers clenching around nothing. ~I promise when I'm stronger than tonight, I swear-nnh, won't make you.~

~Part of being triad is giving what is needed,~ Radiance groaned at the pleasure from his spike and what was flowing through the hardline. ~I do things for you. You do things for me. We do things for Pantera. He does things for us.~ He punctuated each statement with a hard, driving thrust that shook Jazz's entire frame. ~Tell me, what does this, the pain, the use, give you?~

~Calm,~ Jazz managed. ~Peace. Grounding.~ He tried, as best as he could, to show the way the abuse of his frame could sooth the shattered feeling in his spark, endless layers of guilt for things he knew he wasn't to blame for, but he couldn't stop himself from feeling.

His glitch that he wasn't strong enough to stop.

Not being able to grieve with Prowl.

Older, deeper sins that were still shielded, but ones that hurt to remember.

A carrier's frame, a designation, Skywatch.

Giving up. Leaving the younglings to their fates. Telling Prowl it was time to stop.

~They stop hurting,~ Jazz whispered, frame slack and unresisting. ~When I give up, when I stop fighting the logic and just let them hurt, I can let myself pay, and it stops.~

Radiance shuddered at the hints he was getting, shocked to his core that a mech so very young could have so much guilt built up already. ~I'll give you what I can,~ he promised. His free hand came between them and felt around Jazz's undercarriage before finding what he was looking for and pressed a single finger, pinching a cable against a support bar.

Pain ripped through Jazz, enough to leave him dizzy and unfocused, followed swiftly by an overwhelming explosion of bliss and the subsequent emotional ecstasy that he pushed through the hardline while simultaneously blocking the pain, trying to reward Radiance for the action as much as he was able.

~Thank you!~ he cried, head thrown back, mouth open in a silent, agonized scream.

Skilled fingers moved to another pinch point that created a riot of sensory-scrambling pain as Radiance went through incapacitation strikes designed to disable without damaging. The flood of pleasure from Jazz was intoxicating, crashing through him when he wasn't expecting it and driving his charge to the brink of overload, and it took all his strength to hold out, to wait for as long as he could, or until Jazz had what he needed.

He was starting to doubt his own capacity to keep going, with the bursts of ecstasy that were coming over to him with every strike, when something in Jazz's field shifted, settled, clicked, and his lover arched his back, bringing his cuffed hands forward to wrap around Radiance's neck, tugging, pulling him up into a heated, desperate kiss. ~Stop hurting,~ he moaned, everything about him joyful, and his next shout was nothing but pleasure from the hard slide of the spike in him.

Radiance gratefully let go and slid his now free hand down Jazz's frame to stroke and please while the hand that had been on Jazz's neck shifted to supporting him. He couldn't even form warning words when his next thrust was an explosion of sensation that threw his helm back with a roar of pure ecstasy.

Jazz seized beneath him almost instantly, hips lifting from the berth as his voice joined his lover's, drowning out everything else as they shook together before the charge dissipated into the air around them with a final loud crack of static.

They slumped in unison, panting and strutless, and Jazz gave a hard shiver, cuffed arms wrapped around Radiance and holding him tightly. ~Love you, thank you, love you,~ he murmured, dazed.

~Love you, glad to help,~ Radiance said honestly, nuzzling Jazz. ~Hands?~

Blearily, Jazz brought them up and around to where Radiance could reach them, and settled them on his lover's helm once they were free.

Peace, calm, certainty that what they were doing was the right thing, and the strength to do it. Jazz pushed all of that across the hardline, the faint charge that came with any data transfer over the interfacing connection making Radiance shiver.

~That's what it does for me,~ he said.

~Thank you for sharing that, my love, my lovely Saxo,~ Radiance murmured, awed and slightly bewildered at how pain could settle a mech like that, but without a single trace of doubt that it did work for Saxo. ~Thank you for trusting me with this, with helping you.~ He murmured and kissed Jazz softly. ~Dataline?~

Jazz nodded, somewhat regretfully, but they were here for a reason. He helped Radiance make the cable exchange, tucking Radiance's gently back into his chest before hooking up the hard dataline, carefully lowering firewalls for the dark mech. ~You said there are protocols that can help.~

~Yes. Unlike Seekers who are driven to form trines or risk destabilizing, it's only something Praxians like. I know you felt it in the shower, how Pantera and I responded to it,~ he murmured, offering a rather sizable datapack to Jazz. ~We're going to be one of those triads that confuses everyone, because we so smoothly shift who's dominant.~

~That isn't normally the case?~ Jazz questioned as he skimmed through the files as they downloaded. It would take a sizable installation and reboot that they didn't have time for in order to integrate them all before they needed to go talk to Prowl, so he looked to the ones that Radiance had tagged as priority. ~Most have more set roles?~

~Trines always do. No functional trine does not have an Order to lead and hunt, a Vision to think and carry, and an Action to guard them both.~ Radiance transmitted glyphs nearly as old as Seeker kind, every one of them entwined with a respect that was beyond conscious thought. This was simply part of the Truth that allowed society to continue. ~Praxians, and Seeker-kin Aerials to a lesser extent, have inherited the desire to trine, but less of the need to have specific roles for each member.~

Jazz smiled faintly. ~Pantera could be all three of those,~ he said. He watched the scrolling lines of code go by on his HUD, reading protocols that would install properly as soon as he did a hard reboot. The most important protocol, how to address a third without making him feel ganged up on, pressured, or patronized, looked to be a complex mix of position, wing language, tone, even the length of time each member was allowed to spend talking. Even some words and glyphs had notes about usage, both to avoid or to use.

From the view of his noble upbringing and coding, he recognized it in another way. A social ritual, much like how an energon sampling was served. There were signals that broadcast a lack of threat, some that offered comfort, others that reminded everyone of the ties that bound them. It could be intensely stressful to perform such an intimate social dance, but Jazz had also literally been created to do just that. These were different rules, but it was something that spoke to his spark.

Ritual was a good thing, for both him and Prowl, even if they had been designed to perform in different worlds.

He nodded as the last of the script scrolled by. ~This will integrate well with my coding,~ he said, pleased by the finesse and social structure he was seeing. ~The framework that remains of my function is well suited to it.~

~Good,~ Radiance gave a relieved x-vent. ~Nothing there is critical, it's not like a trine where stepping out of place will cause a problem or result in violence. For us, it's more a comfort most don't even recognize consciously, but we do feel it.~ He stroked Jazz's face gently, kissing him between touches. ~You are an amazing mate, Saxo. Truly amazing. I will guard you as you reboot,~ he promised.

~Action,~ Jazz said, enjoying the sound of the new glyph as applied to the dark mech that was draped over him. He took one last kiss, then dropped offline in a final act to make what had to happen as easy on Prowl as they could.

SxSxSxSxSxSxSxSx S===================S SxSxSxSxSxSxSxS

Radiance paused outside the door to the Simfur Enforcer's central datanet and looked at the Praxian mech next to him. Jazz might not have been created Praxian, but he had the frame and some of the coding now, along with the legal citizenship. As far as anyone would ever be concerned, that made him fully so. Radiance couldn't deny that it felt amazingly good to have two Praxians in his potential triad.

"Ready?" he asked, settling his armor and his spark. This wasn't the first time he'd given news that a creation was gone, but it was the closest he'd even been to the mecha receiving the news.

Jazz nodded once and palmed the door open, using the temporary codes that Simfur's commissioner had given them instead of the Imperial override codes that would get Whiplash on his back. They entered together, finding Prowl sitting perfectly still, optics dimmed, the majority of his attention and energy focused on the single task of crawling the surveillance systems and everything else he could monitor to look for the mech who had taken his younglings, or any hint of the youngling fighting pit players that were known.

"Pantera," Jazz trilled quietly to pull him from his monitoring, while Radiance went to him, settling hands on his shoulders, rubbing. They both noticed how Prowl pressed into the touch with a low sound of pleasure even before his optics brightened or his field did more than recognize them.

"Come take a break with us," Radiance said. "We miss you."

Prowl shivered and pressed himself more firmly into Radiance touch as he reached out for Jazz, drawing him into his lap. The next brush of Prowl's field told them he knew what they were really here for, and he was grateful for the effort to comfort him before forcing him to admit what he couldn't stand to think.

Jazz brushed their helms together, hands framing Prowl's face as he and Radiance reached out with their fields, twining all three together, familiar and reassuring that they were here, they would always be here.

"When was the last time you fueled or stretched?" Jazz asked, fighting down the reflexive arousal at the position and warmth of Prowl's arms around him.

"Fuel, six joors. Moved, not since you were here." Prowl murmured, relaxing into the contact for a moment, willing to simply be with his mates and relish the closeness.

"Then come stretch your frame and get a snack," Radiance nuzzled him, fingers easily finding the tensest cables and rubbing them to relax Prowl a bit. "You aren't built for this. Not anymore."

Prowl couldn't even muster the care that Radiance had mentioned his rebuild. It wasn't a secret anymore, not really. Not even that it had happened twice.

They led him out of the precinct and the short drive away to a small cafe, one not very far away at all from the apartment Jazz and Prowl had lived in for their short stay in Simfur that Jazz remembered, but had never been to.

Small, minimally decorated, designed to appeal to working class mecha with low prices and simple, efficient fuels on offer, with enough room to comfortably seat three without brushing fields with anyone else if you were careful. They ordered a plate of simple treats that barely had enough energy in them to be called fuel, but none of them needed the energon, and they all knew this was part of a careful process. From the sympathetic look the server gave them, he understood too, at least that they were trying to cheer up.

"Being here makes me appreciate Praxus all the more," Jazz said, smiling faintly as they found a table in the corner and snuggled Prowl between them. "This is the city where I danced for weapons dealers," he added for Radiance. They didn't have to be so careful now, when Radiance would know everything before they returned to work.

"It wasn't a bad time," Prowl murmured between nibbles of a confection with a nearly painfully acidic center that was far more favored here than in Praxus. "But it's difficult not to find anywhere not bad when you can find work you like. I'm still glad we left. Praxus gave us so much more than I ever imagined possible," he smiled weakly and leaned into Radiance a bit.

Radiance wrapped an arm around him and kissed the top of his helm. "I'm glad you left, too." He grinned at Jazz. "Any of them make an unwanted pass at you that I can arrest them for?"

Jazz cocked his head and grinned back. "Nah, having a growly mate around dissuaded them," he said, trying to keep conversation light for now. He slipped his fingers around Prowl's. "Praxus is better. Praxus brought us so much more. And got you a sexy paint job."

Prowl actually chuckled and turned his helm to kiss Jazz, soft and chaste, but it still gave Jazz a hint of the acid that his mate enjoyed so much in his 'sweets'. "It got you a very sexy new look too," he purred with a low rumble. "You always look good, but I do love the doorwings."

Jazz grinned, shifting close enough so their legs were pressed flush together and lifted one of the treats to Prowl's mouth while Radiance moved his hand to the back of Prowl's neck, rubbing. "I love his doorwings, too," Radiance agreed, as Jazz slipped his mate a gentle kiss as soon as the treat was gone. "And yours. But I'm obviously biased towards Praxian form," he chuckled.

Jazz hummed in agreement. "The first mech I ever wanted was Praxian," he said. "After my mechling upgrades, I couldn't figure out what the big deal about the interfacing protocols was until I turned a corner and he was standing there." He grinned at Radiance. "Turned everything on."

"Love at first sight," Radiance smiled warmly even as he had to devote a significant portion of his energy in that moment to shutting off the connection-making protocols and keeping them off.

"Quite mutual love at first sight," Prowl admitted, his engine actually beginning to purr at the public attention that was still nearly four decades away from being at all acceptable in Praxus, and at this level would need to wait for at least another couple centuries. "I was lost long before he had a clue what it meant."

Jazz nuzzled his mate and fed him another treat, shifting his gaze to Radiance for the few moments Prowl was focused entirely on that. That single statement, while still not giving much away, suggested enough to easily give away a huge part of their public lie.

Radiance, out of Prowl's line of sight, nodded once. He wasn't chasing down the obvious conclusions to be taken from that, but some came too quickly. They couldn't have met in a single carrier's group. They had known each other much, much longer. The trauma they both referenced at times, each separately, might have been the same. It was nothing he didn't already suspect, at least in part, in the back of his processor. He cared about them far too much not to pay attention to every detail even if he carefully didn't follow the trail to complex conclusions.

Just that was more than enough to have once set Prowl into a desperate panic to hide and erase the truth, but he was relaxed, if not calm. Jazz had said once the search was over they would bring Radiance into their union properly. Prowl had agreed and promised to tell him everything at that time.

More than knowing what they were here to tell him, Prowl knew the search was over.

Jazz made a joke about how typical it was for Prowl to fall for someone who needed a lot of work and patience, Radiance chuckled, and they relaxed together until the plate was empty.

Radiance gave Jazz another nod, and the youngest of their triad focused on Prowl. "Come back to the hotel with us?" he offered.

"Or ... just go home?" Prowl said hesitantly, glancing between his lovers. "I'm not sure I'll want to move once this begins."

Jazz nodded and kissed him softly. "We would like to be home with you," he murmured, gaze flickering up to Radiance. "Our home."

"Should we catch a transport?" Radiance asked. "If we don't call Windcharger, there is plausible deniability about our location."

Prowl chuckled and nuzzled him and singled them all to stand. "I do like how you think."

Radiance smiled and turned Prowl's face towards him with a single finger, brushing their lips together. "I'll get everything from the room and settle the account, and meet you two at the station."

"And then home," Jazz murmured.

There was a short silence.

"And then home," Prowl said, in a voice that all but broke his mates' sparks.