Starcrossed 43: Joint Mission
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Prowl and Jazz exchanged a subtle glance while Whiplash's back was turned on his way to his desk. Neither knew why they were here, and neither liked not knowing.
"Well," Whiplash said, and handed each a datapad. "We've found ourselves with a unique opportunity to capture some intel that could stop Soundwave's undercovers in their tracks, and if we do it right, even take some of them alive. They've taken three key posts in the last vorn, and each one has lost us territory, and they're going to keep chipping away until they're at our gates unless we do something about it." He fixed them both with a hard look. "If I didn't have you two and your tech, this wouldn't be possible and I would never attempt it. It's a one-time opportunity, and it won't be easy. But there is one major problem."
"Which is?" Prowl prompted quietly, his processors already devouring and analyzing the mission parameters.
"That it requires both of you to work," Whiplash said.
Confusion flashed through their fields, both of them looking up at him.
Whiplash looked back steadily. "There is a reason mated pairs do not work in the same units," he said. "The risk of putting the safety of a mate over the good of a mission is high, but you two..." He glanced between them. "You two don't operate quite like most mecha, and I think there is a chance I could trust you not to compromise a mission of this importance, even if it meant the other was lost. But I need your assurance before any of this goes through."
"Of course we wouldn't," Jazz said.
"That's nice to hear, but I need to know, and for that, I need you two to know. You're off duty for the next three orns. Talk about it, know, and then let me know."
Prowl nodded, grasping the full tactical importance of what was being asked, and some of the emotional importance. He put a hand on his mate's arm. "We will discuss this, and the mission, and give you an honest answer within three orns."
"Thank you," Whiplash said, nodding back as they stood. "And please don't let the possible benefits of this pressure you into a forced decision in any way, that only sets up for failure at the worst moment."
"We understand, we won't," Jazz said, hand on Prowl's back, before they left together.
They walked in silence to their quarters, locking the door once they were in, going to their berth. Prowl immediately drew Jazz close and brushed his fingers over the hardline port they hadn't needed to use for safety in the hundred and thirty-nine vorns since they joined the Autobots, but it still gave them the strongest sense of security and intimacy.
Jazz x-vented heavily. ~So could I let ya die for the sake of this intel.~
~Or worse, could you allow me to be captured, or leave not knowing my fate, if you had the data?~ Prowl rested their forehelms together, calm, centered, but not yet sure of his answer.
~For something like this,~ Jazz mused. ~For knowing how much this would hurt Megatron ... I don't know if I could do it for you, I know I would want you to do it for me. Even not knowing. Even if it meant going to him.~
Prowl quivered. ~We cannot accept this mission unless we are both absolutely positive that we could leave the other behind, dead, prisoner or unknown, if we had the data. I am not ready to say I would. I'm not ready to commit this much to a mission I have not fully processed the odds for.~
Jazz nodded and pulled him into a kiss. ~We have time.~
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"Mmm," Jazz hummed, running his hands down his frame and settling them suggestively between his thighs as he tilted his head back over the edge of the berth, looking upside down at his mate who was leaning against the wall, head cocked and watching him with an almost amused smile. "How long was I offline?"
"Four and a half kliks," Prowl told him, and as fond as the look was, it also spoke that his mate was fully with him again. For more than two orns while they recharged, talked and interfaced, Prowl thought. He was finally done thinking and he was all there, all for Jazz.
Jazz grinned. "Not too bad." He sat up and turned, back resting against the wall their berth was against, and crooked a finger for Prowl to join him, first kissing him and then snuggling against his side. "We should actually talk about this now, I think."
"I believe it is worth it at an 81.9% probability of success," Prowl murmured as he drew his mate close. "I could, and would, leave you behind, deactivated, captured or unknown, if it means getting the data to Whiplash." He leaned down to kiss Jazz's chevron tattoo. "Then I would return for you, if I was not sure you were deactivated."
"But if it was less than that," Jazz said. "If stopping to help me meant certainty of losing the data, and continuing only had the slightest chance of success..." He reached up, hand pressed warmly against his lover's face. "Prowl, I want you to always put the good of what we're doing over mine. Doesn't matter about chances."
"I know, love." Prowl x-vented deeply. "The mission comes first. The odds, however, will always matter. If stopping to help you improves the odds of success, I will follow my tactical coding."
"Well, since havin' me around always improves the odds of success, shouldn't be a problem," Jazz grinned, nuzzling him, then sighed. "Leavin' you behind, though, that's something else entirely."
"Love, the same rules must apply to me," Prowl said firmly.
"I know," Jazz murmured, helms together and visor dimmed. "If ... five kliks from now, we were attacked, and you were killed ... if this ..." He pressed a soft kiss, easy and familiar and chaste, "Was the last time we touched ... could you accept that?"
"Yes. I have no fear of what comes next. Whether it is Radiance or oblivion, I look forward to it," Prowl murmured before kissing him in reply. "Can you?"
"Yes," Jazz said easily. "I have no regrets about the choices I've made, I ... I would welcome an end. If you felt the same ... I could leave you. I would leave you."
"If I am gone, I am gone," Prowl tipped his lover's face up to look him in the visor. "I accepted my end in the grotto, my love. While I treasure every moment with you, I have no attachment left for my frame."
Jazz nodded once, looking back. "I would miss you," he whispered. "And I'm not even saying I would be all right ... but I could keep fighting. Knowing there will be an end to all of it, if I just wait long enough." His vents hitched slightly. "We're already on so much borrowed time. If there had been a break, when Radiance died, I wouldn't have fought it. I'd have gone with him."
"We both would have, and been grateful to go," Prowl agreed. "That was not to be our fate. So we continue until our time is finally up."
"Love you," Jazz murmured, slipping into another kiss. "No matter how or when this all ends, or how much it hurts first, we've known ecstasy, and it's enough."
"Agreed," Prowl smiled faintly as the kiss parted. He gently pressed his mate down on the berth and covered him, his field warm with the gentle arousal of being calm and settled and together.
"Should we go talk to Whiplash?" Jazz asked, nuzzling.
"We still have time," Prowl said, and kissed him.
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They'd gotten in, gotten out with the data, had enough energon in their subspace for two more cosmetic shifts or one more full frame shift each, but on the way out they'd heard a report of an unknown transport unit being shot down just outside the city limits.
Their transport.
They crouched together in the shadows on the outskirts of the city, watching for signs that the stolen data had been discovered.
~We can still make it to the rendezvous, see if the pilot survived,~ Jazz said. ~If not, shift to flight frames and try to get back, or if he did, make our way to the closest unit and shelter with them.~
Prowl shook his helm. ~Trying to reach the rendezvous or crash sight now decreases our probability of success by 23.1%. The Cons will be looking for us both places. Any mission worth promising to leave you behind is not worth risking over a pilot.~
Jazz nodded and then peered over the scrap pile they were crouching behind for a moment before ducking back down. He pulled up their most recent maps marking the distribution of Autobot forces around Cybertron, skimming over it to find the unit that would likely be closest to them now, out on the front lines near what had once been Tyger Pax. ~There-we can make it to that one. Just gotta avoid scavengers and Cons along the way.~
~We're good at both,~ Prowl gave his love an encouraging nudge and they unplugged to start moving.
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The territory between the Autobot and Decepticon front lines was barren and hazardous. Endless hics that had once been smooth roads were bombed, torn up, everything around them devastated to make traversing the land by pede as difficult as possible, and there was no talk of trying to drive, not over this.
Scavengers had laid waste to any resources left, making the land as dry as it was desolate. They were both operating on the highest efficiency mode possible for their frame types, which robbed overall strength, but would keep them walking longer. Much, much longer.
Of course, as a pair, they had always been ruthlessly determined to survive, and something like a long walk with no available energon wasn't going to stop them. Not when they could coax the energon to come to them instead. One of them feigning injury and waiting long enough always brought a scavenger around, and those were easily killed with a blaster shot through the processor. Most had barely any fuel in their lines, but it was enough for them to conserve their own resources in case of emergency.
They'd made it to what should have been the Autobot front lines, but it was as barren as anything else they'd seen so far, with no sign of a unit.
"I keep thinking we'll just stumble across a cache of jet fuel and be able to fly out of here," Jazz muttered, crouched down and trying to figure out if the unit had been killed or simply moved on. Sending out a comm from out here was too dangerous, there was no way to tell who would pick it up, so all they could do was listen for chatter to work out who was where. For the most part even that was quiet.
"That would be nice," Prowl agreed as he stood and began moving again. "Based on unit movements, they are most likely this way."
Jazz nodded in agreement and followed his mate as they made their way along roads that were still in better repair but still not safe enough to drive over. They moved quieter now than they had in the wastelands; Decepticon troops were just as likely to be out here as Autobots, looking for weaknesses in the perimeter and ways to get large numbers of troops in and fast-tracked to Iacon.
"I'm bored," Jazz whispered a joor later.
"Unfortunately here is not the time or place to cure that," Prowl gave him a light chuckle.
Jazz gave a dramatic sigh as they made their way over the hill formed out of a collapsed building, now following clear markers of where other mecha had climbed before then, and once over the top, immediately ducked back down, an automatic reaction to seeing movement.
After a few kliks, they cautiously lifted their helms back up and over, looking down at a battle taking place between clearly marked Autobot and Decepticon troops.
"Small troop, stealth mission," Jazz murmured, pointing to the dozen or so Cons, then focused on the Autobots. "...They look like they're doing fine without our help."
"Then we let them continue to do fine unless they need us sniping," Prowl said simply. "Put your insignia back on. We'll be contacting that unit when this is settled."
Jazz nodded and sorcelled out the single chest plate along with Prowl and settled in, leaning against Prowl and watching the battle unfold. Two in particular stood out, a brightly colored pair that moved flawlessly together, clearly warriors to the spark.
"Wouldn't like go up against them," Jazz said. "Poor 'Cons."
"Glad they're Autobots. Most sparked warriors went Con," Prowl mused, following the action and absently predicting what various mecha would do. "The last government was not kind to them."
Jazz hummed, still focused primarily on the single pair that seemed to be doing more than half the work for their team. "They fight like Gladiators," he murmured several kliks later as the last Decepticon went down, a short but vicious skirmish. They rose slowly, trying to keep their movements smooth, but a nanoklik later they were the target of several dozen long-ranged blasters.
They stood the rest of the way, hands in the air, and were gestured to walk down, the weapons never lifting.
"Lt. Steamroller," Prowl spoke when they were in audio range once he confirmed the visual identity against his records. "We are Autobots. We need to return to Iacon ASAP."
The unit's commander frowned, still targeting them. "Well we'd all like to return to Iacon, wouldn't we. We're not due to rotate back for a couple vorns, but you could probably hitch a ride with the next supply caravan, due to come through next metacycle. Assuming you check out. Unit and designations?"
"I'm Jazz, he's Prowl," Jazz said, keeping his hands up. "Special Operations. We got stranded in Kaon."
Steamroller grunted. "I'll see if I can get in contact with command to verify, could take a few breems, signal gets a bit fuzzy over the hardlines. Until then you can stay here. Sunstreaker!" he snapped. "Stop gawking and watch 'em 'til I'm back."
Prowl's gaze snapped to the mech, one of two that wore the same stunned expression, and he knew his own wasn't much less shocked. "Sideswipe?" He asked, hesitatingly, of the pair that came forward. They were the brightly colored warriors, one red, one yellow, that had stolen their attention so effectively in the battle.
Sideswipe nodded, gaze flickering to Jazz for a moment before fixing back on Prowl. "You're ... alive," he finally said.
"As are you," Prowl couldn't help the joy the briefly flickered up from his slagged creator protocols. "Such fine warriors."
"You four know each other?" Steamroller glared at the group.
"I wouldn't really call it that," Sunstreaker growled, shifting his weight to be in front of his twin, before getting a sharp elbow in his side. "Hey!"
Sideswipe glared at him in silence for a few moments before they turned back in unison. "Yeah, kinda," he said. "Long time ago."
Steamroller just looked between the two pairs. "...Right. Just make sure they don't try anything before I get back."
"No problem," Sunstreaker rumbled, and no one doubted that he meant it. Steamroller nodded and stalked off.
Prowl watched his go before turning his full attention towards the pair. "How did you join the Autobots?"
"Someone made a good pitch for it," Sideswipe said, frowning. "Seemed like a better gig than where we were at, anyway."
"Where was that?" Jazz asked quietly. "We looked for you."
"Oh that's comforting to know," Sunstreaker said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry," Prowl said softly.
Sunstreaker snorted and looked away, and the flinch in Prowl's frame was visible. Jazz slid an arm onto his mate's back, glaring at the yellow mech.
Sideswipe looked uneasily between twin and creators, then offered Prowl a bit of a smile. "Well ... we're all here now, right? Small planet, and all? If you hitch back with the caravan you'll be here a few orns, we could, er, talk?"
"I'd like that," Prowl managed a smile even as his processors worked furiously for a way that Whiplash didn't know that his creations were alive and Autobots.
Sideswipe's own smile brightened hopefully as Steamroller came back. He looked at Jazz and Prowl, then nodded.
"Your pings match the serials they sent over, so that clears you. They're going to send a transport unit as soon as possible for you two, guess you've been missing or something."
"Or something," Jazz agreed.
"Camp's pretty slapdash out here," Steamroller said. "Recharge wherever you can find, rations are given out at the start of each orn, though if you have your own that'd be even better."
"Thank you. We're well-accustomed to recharging where we can, when we can. For energon, we have a few sips between us. Enough for the rest of the orn, but not much past that," Prowl said honestly. The truth was it was enough, if they pushed it, for several orns. Very hungry orns, low on energy and looking for a scavenger to drain, but they'd survived on that much before.
Steamroller nodded. It was what he expected, to be honest. If they'd been stranded in Kaon, it was to their credit that they weren't on fumes enough for a special draw. "Since you seem to know the twins, stick with them. Sideswipe's the friendly one, if you hadn't already worked that out."
Prowl nodded his understanding and they fell in with their creations on the short trek back to a camp that was barely discernible from the environment.
"Are skirmishes like that normal?" Jazz asked after a little ways, and then a startled flicker went through his field when after a few moments, neither one of them answered him.
"This is our spot," Sideswipe said abruptly as they stopped, and he kicked at a pounded-out piece of sheet metal. "We all rotate through watch and if someone spots anything they send a signal and everyone goes. Got patrol up and down for about ten hics, we're spread thin, but it's enough to get anywhere needed."
"Does Steamroller want us to patrol with you?" Prowl asked.
"Doubt he cares," Sunstreaker grunted as he sat down, eying the pair. "Stay here, follow us, frag off, whatever."
"Sunny," Sideswipe said with forced cheerfulness. "Remember that 'polite' thing they taught us about in rehab?"
"Don't call me Sunny!" the yellow warrior snarled at his twin.
Prowl risked stepping closer and reached out to put a hand on Sideswipe's shoulder, every movement carefully telegraphed to not startle. Sideswipe tensed visibly and even flinched a little, but didn't move more than that as plating came in contact and Prowl's field slid against his, expressing the Praxian's joy at finding them, grief that it took so long and spark-deep apology that he hadn't found them himself.
"You both have enough reason to be angry," Prowl said quietly. "My best was not enough."
"Whatever," Sunstreaker muttered. "Far as I'm concerned you're just two more mechs to sparkling sit, don't really care what you think beyond that so long as you don't get us killed."
Sideswipe huffed, giving his twin a hard look before giving Prowl the same small smile as before. "Wasn't your fault," he offered. "What happened to us."
"Thank you," Prowl murmured, honestly grateful for the words even though he could teek that Sideswipe was still struggling with feeling it. "Will you tell me about your lives?"
"Ha," Sunstreaker said and leaned back. "You mean the part where we lived in a cage except when we were fighting for our lives, or the part where we lived in a cage except when we were being whored out and fighting for our lives?"
"Sunny," Sideswipe hissed.
"Both," Prowl said honestly, regretting that it was the truth. He still wanted to know what his creations had gone through. All five he now knew had either deactivated young and without a creation or had been brutalized by existence as badly as he had been.
His answer surprised both twins and they looked at him, startled, before glancing at each other, not bothering to hide that they were discussing how much they felt like recounting.
"Yeah all right," Sideswipe finally said, settling down next to Sunstreaker. "Grab whatever you can find to sit on-or don't, doesn't really matter."
They watched silently while their creators joined them on the ground, Sunstreaker's gaze never leaving Jazz. "You want to hear all this too?" he asked abruptly. "Since it actually is your fault?"
Jazz stiffened, field going abruptly flat and drawing in tight, making it nearly impossible to teek. "I'll go somewhere else if it makes you more comfortable," he said, voice empty. Prowl's hand went to Jazz's leg, trying to sooth but well aware that he couldn't.
"Would you have preferred to deactivate with Praxus, and Radiance?" Prowl asked the twins quietly, calmly, a genuine question. He didn't know if the pair knew enough to hear what Radiance had become in the designation, but he gave it anyway.
"He deactivated?" Sideswipe asked. "I'm sorry. I remember him ... I loved when he visited. When both of you visited," he added for Prowl, who flickered his field in thanks for the grief and knowledge that his appearances were desired.
"He was a good mech," Prowl smiled sadly.
Sunstreaker looked at Jazz. "Don't care if you stay or not. And no saying we wouldn't have survived," he added. "We're good at that."
"I can see that," Prowl agreed, torn between proud and grieving that it was something they even knew. He squeezed his hand on Jazz's leg and quietly offered a hardline from his wrist. "Your next older brother survived as well."
Jazz accepted the hardline gratefully while they cocked their heads at Prowl.
"I didn't know we had one of those," Sideswipe said.
"We don't really know anything about them, Sides," Sunstreaker said.
"We ... I ... planned to tell you a great deal once you were mechlings, and more when you got your final frames," Prowl x-vented quietly. "I carried three creations. Two are confirmed deactivated. The third I met not long after we joined the Autobots. Smokescreen also, understandably, hates me."
~It is not understandable that he hates you,~ Jazz said as the twins echoed the designation in surprise.
~It is, at least to me. He suffered greatly for being my creation,~ Prowl told him.
"Smokescreen broke us out and convinced us to turn Autobot," Sideswipe said.
"That fragger," Sunstreaker muttered fondly. "Betcha he realized."
"It is quite possible," Prowl said, adding that tidbit to his file on Smokescreen. "He has not mentioned it around me. Though it would not surprise me if he did not want me to know that you made it."
"Sounds like you've done pretty awesome at this creator thing," Sunstreaker said, not at all kindly.
Jazz gave a deep, warning growl of his engines that was immediately returned by the yellow twin, and the tension between them skyrocketed.
"Settle," Prowl told his mate firmly. "He is correct. They are the best I ever did, ever tried to do. You know how well it turned out. Left with a stranger, kidnapped into the fighting pits and I didn't stop it. Any of it."
"And none of it was your fault," Jazz said, optics still on Sunstreaker, who glared back at him.
"It's true, you know it is," Sideswipe told his twin quietly. "Nothing that happened to us was his fault."
"He wore himself completely down looking for you and only stopped when I made him because your trail was gone, and he still kept looking every way he could," Jazz said. "If you're going to be angry at one of us, be angry at me."
"This isn't an either or kind of thing," Sunstreaker said nastily.
"Enough, both of you," Prowl rumbled. "Nothing went right. Everyone was hurt. If Sunstreaker needs to hate me to deal with it, I accept that. I did not do well as a creator. I have accepted that." He quieted and focused on Sideswipe. "I'd still like to hear what happened to you."
"Sure, yeah," Sideswipe said easily. "And don't be offended-Sunny's cheeriest isn't even very different from this."
Sunstreaker's engine grumbled at his twin, but it was lacking force and just got a grin in return before Sideswipe started in on the long, difficult story of what their lives had been. Both warriors were surprised at how respectful Prowl was as an audience, attentive and quiet, and then they were grateful, because the story they told never got easier.
But someone, for once, was listening.
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As thinly spread as they were, patrol was done by individuals instead of teams, and the twins were no exception. Sideswipe's rotation came up halfway through the night, to be immediately followed by Sunstreaker's, and the red twin stood with an exaggerated stretch.
"Goin' on a walk," he said, blaster in hand and resting against his shoulder as he looked at the other three. "Who wants to come."
"I will," Prowl gently untangled himself from his mate and stood, his frame otherwise silent even though he'd turned off stealth mode when they'd shown themselves to the Autobots.
Sideswipe nodded in approval, then fixed his twin with a hard look and shook the blaster at him. "Behave," he said sternly, got a growl in response, and then grinned as Sunstreaker suddenly looked very startled, but the growl quieted and the glare, while still present, was more for show than anything.
Jazz reached up to squeeze Prowl's hand and found it squeezed back with a flare of love, support and reassurance across their fields. "I'll come find you if the transport shows up."
Sideswipe gave him an odd look. "I'm sure he can find his way back."
"I'm sure he can, but how's he going to know?" Jazz said. "Non-emergency comms aren't allowed out here, if I'm not mistaken."
Sunstreaker lifted his head. "What, you can't just..." He gestured between himself and Sideswipe, from his chest.
"We can't bond," Prowl said, willing to leave it at that. "Though Sunstreaker could pass it to Sideswipe, who can tell me on the chance I don't see the shuttle come in."
Sideswipe nodded, eying his twin, who just rolled his optics and shook his head. "Might have to come find us, anyway," he said, shrugged, and headed off, trusting Prowl to follow without instruction.
Patrol consisted of walking the same quarter-hic line up and down the current borders, wide, well-worn pathways that had been cleared of tripping hazard, though Sideswipe cautioned Prowl not to drive on them.
"Landmine right below your undercarriage will do a lot more damage than one below your pede," he explained.
"Are they typically manufactured or IEDs?" Prowl asked, his voice low, just loud enough to be heard.
"Haven't found a manufactured one in a while," Sideswipe said, with approval in his subharmonics for the question. "They're thrown together with whatever scrap parts the Cons can find out there..." He gestured aimlessly towards the wastelands. "We sweep whenever we move to a new area, because sometimes one can sneak in unnoticed during rotation and lay a few, but every once in a while..." He kicked the side of the pathway with a look that said he was almost daring it to explode on him. Nothing happened and he shrugged, continuing on.
They walked in silence for a little ways, Sideswipe holding his weapon loosely at his side, occasionally hitting various pieces of scrap metal with it in a completely unprofessional and unsafe manner that made Prowl cringe internally, but he kept his silence.
"So here's what I've always wondered," Sideswipe said suddenly. "Who was the 'bad mech?' That's mostly what I remember, that we were hiding from him."
"Vortex," Prowl surprised himself by how easily it came out.
Sideswipe stopped and looked at him, frowning. "Really rich fragger, thinks everyone should worship the ground he walks on, bought his way into power?"
"Yes, that rotor," Prowl nodded. "He's a very possessive, sick sadist as well."
"Sadist is right," Sideswipe snorted. "Worst 'face ever. Twisted up in the processor, that one. How'd you frag him off?"
Prowl hesitated, drew himself steady, and faced his adult creation even as his tanks churned at the idea of Vortex with the twins. "He owned Jazz, and Jazz loved me. It was inexcusable. He had us for a vorn before we escaped."
Sideswipe frowned. "But why would he care about ... unless by own you mean..." He trailed off, listening to something. "Oh. ...Oh. You mean owned Jazz, like ... not like a servant. Like a bonded. Seriously?"
Prowl nodded, trying not to shiver at the memories that still haunted him on occasion. "Jazz's creators sold him to Vortex, untouched and barely in his adult frame. I was a servant. When Vortex found out Jazz was carrying twins, he intended to use one of you to teach the other how to be like he was. It was too much. The escape plans weren't ready, but we had to get out to protect you both."
"Which is why you always made us hide what we were," Sideswipe murmured, looking out at the wastelands as they walked. "Damn. The number of times he was around us after we got into the top rings..." He shook his head, then shot Prowl a grin. "You sparked up a noble, rock on!"
"Vortex still believes that Jazz and his twins are his," Prowl warned cautiously. "If he ever works out who your carrier is, he'll hunt you as much as he's hunting us."
Sideswipe made a dismissive noise. "I'd seriously like to see him try, we could take him. Plus with the planet the way it is now, he's going to have a seriously hard time finding us."
"I hope to see him deactivated and gray before that changes," Prowl growled, his reserved manner truly breaking for the first time with a flare of hate so intense he was a match for Sunstreaker. "To show him how well we learned from his lessons."
Sideswipe gave his sire an impressed look at the tone. "Could mistake you for Sunny, there," he said, grinning. "Didn't think you had that in you."
Prowl gave him a grin that had no place on a sane mech. "The only difference is my anger is focused on a target rather than the world in general. I'll get even, eventually. I just have to catch him."
Unlike most mecha who had ever had that grin turned on them, Sideswipe just mirrored it back. "You don't seem so bad, Prowl," he said.
Back at the makeshift camp, though, the mood was less cheerful as creator and creation sat across from each other, separated by the sheet metal berth, doing their best not to engage. It was Sunstreaker who broke the silence first.
"Why haven't you killed him yet?"
Jazz lifted his head. "Who?"
Sunstreaker was scowling at him. "Vortex."
Jazz shuddered at the designation, not quite expecting it and not prepared to hear it coming from his creation. The display of weakness got him a sneer. "We weren't strong enough to take him on for a long time, and then the planet the way it is..." He waved a hand. "And we don't want to just kill him, it'd be done by now if that were the case. We want to hurt him before he goes."
"So you hide and skulk around for centuries instead of getting it done," Sunstreaker huffed at him. "Prowl's ready. Why aren't you?"
Jazz's visor flashed. "I've been ready since the night I met him," he said coldly.
"No you aren't," Sunstreaker challenged him. "If you wanted to be rid of him, if bonding to Prowl was worth it to you, he'd be long scrapped. You want vengeance more than you want to be free, so you aren't ready."
Jazz hissed and his armor gave a warning rattle. "We both want vengeance, that was the choice we made."
"So what progress have you made in over twenty-three hundred vorns?" Sunstreaker snarled as he pushed into Jazz's personal space, his field electric with anger and aggression that was directing itself towards the SpecOps mech. "None, that's what."
"I made a life," Jazz snarled back, tensing up and claws digging into the ground. "I fell in love and had a home. Protecting that was more important to me than instant gratification. Is that all you can see, the moment and thing right in front of you? Are you the same way, grab it and to Pit with the consequences if it's something you want?"
"What better way to protect than to eliminate the threat?" Sunstreaker got right in his faceplates, itching for a fight, to vent some of his pain on this mech that had been the very first to hurt him.
"And risk getting killed in the process," Jazz growled. "Would you even take Sideswipe into account or is it just the kill you're really after?"
"To protect him? I'll do anything," Sunstreaker gave Jazz a hard shove and kept close, pressing into the smaller mech's space. "We take a risk getting blown to pieces with every step we take. Every battle is another good chance one of us bites it. The only promise in existence is that it will end."
Jazz backed up, armor tight to his protoform and clicking aggressively as he started to size up the opponent that had always represented just one thing to him. "You protected him from threats that didn't exist, you thought he belonged to you," a low, anticipatory growl before Jazz shoved back, drawing on all the hidden strength in his frame. "You were just like him!"
The odd twists and curls in the growled glyphs were lost on the former gladiator that had yet to really leave that part of his existence behind. Faced with yelling and accusations that made no sense, he fell back on his most solid training and attacked.
The first punch came out of nowhere for Jazz and cracked against his faceplates with the full strength of a well-upgraded and enraged warframe. Jazz slammed back into the scrap pile and twisted away before the next punch could land, grabbing the arm and using the leverage to swing around, shooting both pedes up and into Sunstreaker's chest.
Sunstreaker grabbed the smaller frame and threw it down in the next moment and Jazz clawed across his face, getting an enraged howl that carried across the camp, reaching even the patrolling pair that had by now turned around to rewalk the distance.
Sideswipe groaned and reached up to dry wash his face. "Damn it, Sunny," he muttered, then saw the confused look Prowl was giving him. "How well can Jazz handle himself in a fight?"
Prowl sighed and shook his helm, already understanding what was going on and moving a little quicker. "Very well. Though he's partial to fighting dirty and he'll kill your brother if pressed."
"Yeah, well, I'd say the same of Sunny so let's just hope they're evenly matched." Sideswipe whistled sharply, two notes, and after a few kliks another war frame was joining them. "Calling in my favor," the red twin told him. "Rest of my patrol, three joors."
"You have rotten timing," the other growled at him, but obediently pulled his blaster out and waved him on. "Three more cubes for no warning."
"One," Sideswipe countered. "Stuff ain't cheap or easy."
He got a laugh. "Sides, mech, it's two or nothing."
"Fine, two, but it won't be ready for another decaorn," Sideswipe said. The mech nodded and Sideswipe gestured with his head for Prowl to follow, moving away from the line now. Prowl moved silently and as swiftly as his patrol partner until they got to camp and joined the mecha watching their best fighter scrape with a smaller mech that fought at least as dirty and just as savagely.
"I say we let them sort this out unless one is about to be maimed," Prowl suggested.
Sideswipe nodded, his expression as he watched the pair guarded but dark. "At least neither of them are pulling weapons," he said, then shook his head as Jazz got the apparent upper hand. "Sunny misread him-he'll catch up and change tactics in a klik to counter that strategy, watch," he told Prowl.
"If Jazz hasn't gone for a weapon and kill yet, he likely won't," Prowl added, watching and calculating every move either made. "At least some of him knows who he's fighting."
Sideswipe nodded, and then the pride that brimmed through in his field as Sunstreaker gathered himself, made some rapid calculations about his opponent, and shifted his weight in a flawless and almost invisible change in strategy was unmistakable.
Jazz didn't see the shift, and the next flurry of movement had the smaller mech forced into a hard defense. A flurry of snarls, claws, lunges and strikes and just a few furious kliks later, Sunstreaker slammed Jazz into the ground, knee across his abdomen, wrists in a crushing grip, legs trapped.
Jazz thrashed, snarled, claws still out and frame shaking with the rush of the short fight, and he spat a violent, Kaon-dialect curse up at his opponent.
"Slag," Prowl hissed sharply and moved forward. "Deal with your brother," he ordered Sideswipe. Despite what he'd just witnessed he showed no fear of getting close to Sunstreaker. It was something that even most of the frontliner's unit-mates would have been wary of.
Sideswipe gave Prowl a sharp, startled look but moments later Sunstreaker tensed and froze, optics brightening but not moving away from his pin. Another moment and he growled, but the sound wasn't directed at Jazz, and then his gaze went to Prowl, silently judging the threat level, and then his twin, and then his grip loosened slightly.
It was enough for Jazz to pull his hands free and he was holding a blaster within nanokliks, the sharp whine of it powering up and filling the air.
Sunstreaker shouted a curse and grabbed for it as Prowl reached them. Prowl let the frontliner deal with the weapon while he got a hardline plugged into Jazz and went to work with grim efficiency at hacking the mech's processor to break him out of his glitch-induced hallucination. Jazz fought it, at first-threw up firewall after firewall against the intruder, but Prowl shattered them ruthlessly until he reached the innermost data cores, took over control of the frame, and forced a hard reboot.
Sunstreaker looked startled as Jazz went limp, leaving him holding the blaster, which he quickly disarmed and set aside, but didn't move beyond that, too wary of letting go of the pin on a mech that had moments ago been a very real threat.
Sideswipe was there a moment later, kneeling down to partially shield his sire from the silent stares surrounding them. "We've seen that before, haven't we," he said in a low voice as Jazz began to boot back up, a statement more than a question.
"Yes," Prowl said softly. "He'll no longer be a threat when he boots. He'll know who we are again."
Sunstreaker stared at him, his scowl deepening. "Who did he think we were?"
"Vortex," Prowl murmured, keeping a careful hold on his mate's processors as Jazz began to regain consciousness.
The twins glanced at each other, startled again by that answer. "What-us specifically or does he just randomly think any mech is that piece of slag? We don't look like him," Sunstreaker said.
Beneath them, there was the briefest flare of alarm followed by fight before Jazz realized who was buried that deep into his data cores and he relaxed, immediately at ease. He glanced around briefly, took stock of the way Sunstreaker had him pinned, and waited for the memory set from prior to the forced reboot to settle back in and sync up. ~Ah, slaggit,~ he said.
~Yes. Fortunately Sideswipe and I were close enough to return and stop things before you shot him. We have some explaining to do, I believe.~ Prowl said with a mixture of gentle and informative. "You are the only ones I know trigger it. Once each now. Did Sideswipe pass on what I told him?" ~Should I tell them he is their spark sire? They are smart. They are likely to work it out. Eventually.~
Sunstreaker nodded as Jazz thought, looking between the twins-his creations-and then at the surrounding audience. ~If we do, it should be somewhere more private,~ he said, then looked back at Sunstreaker with something almost like pride. ~I bet if we asked, he could make them clear out. He seems to be the unofficial boss out here.~
"If possible, we should speak somewhere more private," Prowl looked at Sunstreaker. "Sideswipe did not hear it all."
Sunstreaker frowned at him for a moment, looked down at Jazz and gave a clear warning growl of his engines and vocalizer, with all the dominant subharmonics of the victor in their match. He released the pin, satisfied when Jazz neither tensed nor tried to move. He and his twin stood up and turned glares all around at their watchers.
The crowd immediately started to thin, and the few who didn't leave right away vanished as soon as Sideswipe hefted his blaster up and Sunstreaker growled a low, "Get lost."
They complied quickly.
"I didn't knock up a noble," Prowl said quietly as he helped Jazz stand, still hardlined and watching his mate's processors carefully. There was no telling what this was going to do to his stability.
The twins stared at him.
"Wha-oh," Sunstreaker said, and then in unison with his brother, "Oh."
"Oh, damn," Sideswipe said after another few moments. "No wonder he wanted you dead. Frag."
Sunstreaker was starting to feel over the gouges in his facial plating, very evidently disturbed by them, and he just shook his head in disgust. "That explains so many things."
"Such as?" Prowl asked curiously.
"Like why Sides has an obnoxious obsession with flying, for one," Sunstreaker snorted, and got punched in the arm. "And why you were so fragged up and hated us so much," he growled at Jazz.
"That's true," Jazz said, voice flat. "I tried to love you. I wanted to."
"We had to block the bond with Vortex, and thus his creator bond with you. It allowed the glitch to take hold. If he could have still felt you, it wouldn't have had a chance. It would have been no different than when he was still carrying you."
Jazz shuddered, not enjoying the memories of carrying and the painful conflict it brought up in him.
"If it's a glitch..." Sideswipe said, cautiously, "Can it be fixed? I assume you never had it looked at before when you were hiding, and then we weren't there and it didn't matter, but..." He trailed off on an odd, hopeful note.
Sunstreaker snarled at him. "We don't care if he wants to kill us or not!" he snapped. "We are not going down that road!"
~It's your choice, love.~ Prowl told him, but hardlined as they were it was impossible to hide the creator coding rearing its influence even when Prowl knew it should have gone dormant ages ago.
~I'm going to ask Ratchet to look at it,~ Jazz said. ~No lost memories to repair-it isn't worth that, but there are many, many ways in which is a positive to not glitch-hallucinate him when I'm seeing fellow Autobots, which is exactly what they are.~
"Ratchet will look into it when we return," Prowl answered Sideswipe. "At least I would like to keep in contact, such as the war allows."
Sideswipe brightened and Sunstreaker huffed, then looked at his twin with a sudden, sharp look. "Who's covering your patrol?"
"Chainlink," Sideswipe said easily.
"Ugh," Sunstreaker said, and he had pulled a cloth and polish from his subspace and settled down on the ground, already starting to go over his arms.
"...You carry polish with you?" Jazz asked.
"Of course. I have to keep up appearances," the bright yellow warrior glared.
"Never mind him. He's got his own glitches," Sideswipe rolled his optics. "Hasn't quite caught on to the fact we aren't in the arena anymore."
Jazz nodded-they'd spent enough time in Kaon to become more familiar with the Gladiator culture than they would have liked-hesitated, and sat down next to him, silently holding out his own polish, a higher grade than the one Sunstreaker was using.
It got the warrior's attention instantly, as well as Sideswipe's, though for very different reasons.
"What do you want?" Sunstreaker growled with pure suspicion.
~It's an apology gift you glitch,~ Sideswipe hissed at him.
"Don't take handouts," Sunstreaker muttered.
"So trade me," Jazz said.
Sunstreaker looked him up and down, this time taking in his frame with more detail, and very clearly judging him for its state. "You certainly don't look like you've been using it," he said disdainfully.
"Yeah, well, I've been eating scavengers in the wasteland, had no one to look pretty for," Jazz said, quirking a grin.
Prowl huffed and glared, but it was painfully obvious as an act and Sideswipe held back a snicker.
"What do you want in trade?" Sunstreaker asked again, still too wary for his own good.
"Could gimmie yours," Jazz said, gesturing to Sunstreaker's polish. "Or whatever."
The wary look didn't fade, but a bit of prodding from Sideswipe had him handing over his mostly-used container and trying to not show how eager he was for the higher grade tin.
Prowl settled next to his mate while Sunstreaker went to work and watched the process calm the warrior in a way he recognized very well. "I hope knowing doesn't change your view of the war," he murmured, a statement more than a question. Even if it did, he didn't want them to tell him. He didn't want to know and have to respond.
Sunstreaker snorted. "What-you think we're going to have some kind of sudden creator loyalty? After you two? Please."
"I was thinking more that you wouldn't want to side with us," Prowl said quietly.
Sideswipe glared at Sunstreaker. "What my dumbaft brother meant to say was, no, this doesn't change our view of the war. Autobots keep us in fuel and as free as service allows, Decepticons ... were unsavory company."
"That they are," Jazz gave an uneasy but honest smirk. "They make good targets though, and easy prey."
The twins both hummed and looked up with identical, vicious grins, more than a little reminiscent of the one Jazz liked to wear.
"That's the first thing you've said that hasn't been total slag," Sunstreaker said.
Jazz nodded, satisfied with that, and settled comfortably against Prowl, and they all sat quietly for a while. Sunstreaker continued to work on his armor, now with a small hand-held dent-popper, going over the places Jazz had struck the hardest.
"Were you involved as a sire at all?" Sideswipe asked suddenly, looking at Prowl.
Jazz smirked.
Prowl chuckled and gave him a look that spoke of just how lustful the pair could be. "Oh yes. Once we escaped, about a metacycle after kindling. I helped with the protoform construction a great deal."
"And coding, no doubt," Sunstreaker grunted. "Medics were always saying how bizarre our coding is."
"A top grade seneschal siring for a second creation noble carrying on first creation protocols," Jazz said. "I have no doubt your coding is bizarre."
"And then add in what twin coding did to that mangled mess," Prowl nodded, then glanced up and focused for a long klik. "I think our ride is here."
Both twins twisted around, looking incredulously up into the sky. "They sent a high speed shuttle for you?" Sunstreaker exclaimed, while Sideswipe turned to give Prowl an impressed look.
"They don't sent just anyone to deep cover in Kaon," Jazz said, focusing in on the distant shuttle's approach for a moment before looking back at the twins. "Kind of like how they don't send just anyone to guard the front lines."
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe glanced at each other. "Well, yeah, they kind of do," Sideswipe said, grinning. "But thanks for sayin' it."
Prowl stood and looked at them. "Do you like it our here, with few rules?"
"Pit yes," Sideswipe said, with Sunstreaker's simultaneous, "Frag rules."
Prowl chuckled. "Glad you like where you ended up, no matter how you got here."
"You too," Sideswipe said, and leaned against his twin, immediately getting shoved back off.
"We'll ... check in?" Jazz asked, hesitantly.
"Sure, whatever, Sunstreaker grunted, otherwise ignoring them.
Jazz nodded once, brushing a pleased flare against Prowl's field. There was work-centuries of work after that much pain and more-but this was a start.
With that, they moved to meet up with Steamroller for their shuttle.