Med-bay, Phoenix's POV
True to what Ratchet says, Jazz is in the med-bay the next day the second he is released. Literally, the split second as Ratchet found out when he scanned Jazz's fuel levels.
"You didn't even think to refuel?" The medic demands, wrench in hand.
"Nah Ratch' man, ah had to get here as soon as ah could." Jazz says, grinning cheekily. The medic groans and retrieves some energon from his supplies and shoves it in Jazz's direction, but not before smacking him promptly with a wrench. "Slaghead." The medic grumbles and goes back to examining Prowl's spark chamber.
"So how are ya doin' Phoenix in here wit' these borin' 'bots?" Jazz asks, and Ratchet rolls his optics, sighing noisily. Prowl says nothing, but he is lying on a berth with his spark chamber being poked at so Phoenix isn't really surprised about that.
"Oh, they are okay actually. I played a prank on Ironhide yesterday with the twins though."
"Ah heard abou' tha'. Mech was slagged off as all'a pit when he came to guard meh later. Tellin' meh how ya covered the hall in bubble wrap an' stuffed 'a loada slag' as he called it, in his cannons. Nice work, ya are leanin' well."
"Don't encourage her Jazz." Prowl reprimands and Ratchet nods violently.
"I second that. Those twins are enough as it is. Primus help us if Mudflap and Skids show up."
"Please do not mention the minor twins. The orn they teamed up and declared war on the base was the worst orn in my entire life." Prowl says drily and Jazz agrees.
"I agree wit' ya there, an' ah hope tha' nevah happens again." Ratchet pokes around in Prowl's chamber for a few more minutes. "Feelin' comfy Prowler?"
"My designation is Prowl and no, I am not as you well know." Prowl retorts, sarcasm lacing his tone and Phoenix giggles at them. The way they interact is highly amusing.
"Aha!" Ratchet suddenly declares and stands up straight. "I think I've got it, hold on a second I need to comm' Arcee."
"Arcee? Wha's Arcee got to do wit' this?" Jazz questions, baffled. Prowl appears confused now as well and goes to shut his spark chamber.
"What are you doing?" Ratchet questions.
"Shutting my chamber. I am not flashing Arcee of all 'bots. It is inappropriate." Prowl replies curtly and Ratchet shoves him back down on the berth.
"I don't give a flying frag if Arcee is a femme, a decepticon or Megatron himself. You'll do as I slagging well say here and if you don't, I can pull rank. Now lie down and open it again." Ratchet demands and Prowl reluctantly does so. Seconds later, a blue and pink femme around the same height as Jazz waltzes in and shrieks.
"Ratchet you could have warned me you were looking at his spark!"
"Silence! Now sit down on that berth and open your spark chamber for a second."
"What? No! Not with Jazz and Prowl about!"
"Now, or else." He says and Arcee, thoroughly annoyed, does as she is told.
"Either or you mechs look, and I'll offline you." She threatens and both Prowl and Jazz have the good graces to face a different direction. Jazz facing the opposite wall and Prowl the ceiling. Ratchet inspects Arcee's spark chamber before going back to Prowl, then back to Arcee.
"Got it, both of you can close your chambers now." They do so, with evident relief and a still-annoyed Arcee stands up.
"What was the point in that?"
"I know what Shockwave was doing."
"You do? What was it?" Phoenix asks and Arcee seems to properly notice her for the first time.
"What is a human youngling doing with Jazz?"
"Go ask Prime, I don't have time to explain the ins and out of Jazz's troublemaking. As for the first question, it looks like Shockwave has attempted to rewire Prowl's chamber to look and act like that of a femme's." Ratchet replies, and everyone stares at him in disbelief, especially Prowl and Jazz.
"So… Prowler's ah femme?"
"No, I said attempted." Ratchet emphasizes, rolling his eyes. "The differences between a mech and a femme's sparkchamber is too different although it looks like he really did try. However, it means I should be able to fix most of it as I know roughly what I have to do now." Arcee leans on the doorframe to the med-bay, interest on her face plates.
"For what purpose?"
"I'd assume that it is to do with the lack of femmes in our race. With the allspark destroyed, our race is relying on what few femmes there are and currently there are none in the decepticon army and we only have you Arcee, and Chromia somewhere. It is logical that Shockwave would try this." Arcee nods, but looks displeased at the idea she has to be the 'Mother' of the Cybertronian race. "It is reversible though Prowl, and I can begin it as soon as you are ready."
"So ah can bond wit' him again?"
"I would say yes, but I'll oversee the process incase Shockwave has hidden anything particularly nasty in there. I can never be certain when Shockwave is involved." Ratchet finishes darkly.
"When can I have the surgery?"
"As soon as you like. Now I know what I'm doing, it will be easy to fix. I could even do it now if you wanted." Ratchet offers and Prowl and Jazz share a look.
"Now would be excellent."
"I suspected as much, so I'll need the rest of you out!" Ratchet orders and shooes them away. Jazz squeezes Prowl on the shoulder as he passes, Phoenix in his hand and Arcee in front of them, striding away as fast as she can from the medic.
1 hour later, Rec room, Jazz's POV
He has taken his charge to the rec room whilst they wait for Prowl. Jazz is pleased to see that she looks much better than she did when he was put in the brig. Whatever human drugs Ratchet has given her seems to be working quite well, and she seems to be adjusting to the arm pretty well.
What he doesn't know is how well she is faring mentally. She's currently looking through the Wii games for the console hooked up to the 'bot sized monitor, obviously looking for something. Then, she holds up something triumphantly.
"Got it!"
"Got wha'?" Jazz asks, offering her his hand and bringing her up to the arm of the 'bot sized couch.
"Mario Kart. I played it once at one of my foster homes and I was pretty good. Do you have 'bot sized controllers around here by any chance?" She asks, and in reply Jazz retrieves one of the Wheeljack-made remotes that are definitely a much loved invention. Sometimes during the middle of the race, Jazz asks her the question.
"So how are ya doin' metally? Ah mean, do ya miss ya home or anythin'? School?"
"I could never miss school in a million years Jazz. As for the care home, it wasn't ever my home to be honest and I'd never call it my home and I don't really miss anyone there."
"No friends or anythin'?"
"Nah." She shrugs off and Jazz frowns at her.
"Did ya never talk to anyone or somethin'?" She sends a red shell into his cart, overtaking him in the game and she whoops whilst he groans in annoyance as he falls back three places.
"I mean… not really no. I'm a bit of a weird kid if you couldn't tell and people like to kick my ass, although I do generally kick their asses back, which gets me in a load of slag." She says absentmindedly and Jazz wonders if she realises just how quickly she is picking up their language.
"So this ass kickin', wha' did they do?" He questions curiously.
"Oh the usual slag. Punching, kicking, slapping – I've even been bitten once but this girl in the year above who fought really dirty. I twisted her nipples for that one. Little fraghead deserved it and I got detention, we both did but it was worth it. Most serious I had was when some of the boys from the home threatened me with a knife."
"Wha' for?"
"Um… google rape maybe?" He does and is expression goes dark. "They were the really nasty idiots though, the ones that nobody liked and are going to fail later on in life. They didn't get me because I kneed the one with the knife in the nuts and gave someone else a black eye, and broke the other one's nose."
"Good. If they did tha' now ah'd offline 'em." He mutters, still annoyed that anyone would dare attack his charge. The game ends as Phoenix passes the finishing line in first place with Jazz coming in second.
"Get wrecked Jazz!" She cheers, jumping up and pointing at him. He gives her the finger and she laughs.
"No respect for the guardian?" He says and she shakes her head, still grinning.
"Nah, I don't generally respect slag piles." She jokes and he activates his holoform behind her and jabs her in the sides, which has the desired effect of causing her to double over, laughing as he tickles her. The internet is pretty useful for finding where most humans have their tickle spots.
"If ya won't respect ya guardian, ah won't stop." He warns and it continues some more, before she relents.
"Alright, alright I give!" She chuckles and he stops. "I beg your forgiveness oh wise and wonderful guardian." She says sarcastically.
"Tha's more like it, oh amazin' charge of mine." He returns and she shoots him the finger. Then, he gets a comm from Ratchet, who is apparently done with Prowl already.
"Hatchet's done, let's go an' see Prowler."
He picks her up and places her on his shoulder where she dangles her legs above the ground and swings them back and forth, banging against the plating every so often. When they reach the med-bay, Prowl is up and looking relieved whilst Ratchet just looks pleased with himself.
"All done. Now, like I said you two can rebond whilst I monitor you from the office. Nothing should go wrong because I can't find anything that should cause a problem, but I want to monitor you just in case."
"Awesome!" Jazz states happily, ready to have their bond back and Prowl graces him with a rare smile. "Ready to see inside mah head Prowler?"
"Naturally, although it seems I shall have to adjust to the mess that is your processor once more." Prowl shoots back good-naturedly and Ratchet attaches a device to each of them.
"That will allow me to measure what is happening in your bodies from my office monitors. Now, would you like to come with me and wait?" Ratchet offers his charge and she nods, accepting the offer. Ratchet carries her off with him.
Phoenix's POV
Ratchet is explaining what each of the monitor's do and she's trying to pay attention but there are just so many for her to remember. Heart rate, temperature, energon flow, fuel lines etc. She gives up on trying to remember them all and stares at the heart rate monitor which is identical to their's practically, except it's much bigger.
They must begin, and through the office window there is some kind of bright blue dazzling light and she shields her eyes. If won't hurt her, because then Ratchet wouldn't let her stay and to her surprise he offers her something.
"Sunglasses. Sometimes, my apprentice Mikaela uses them. You'll have to meet her at some point, she helped with your arm and she's an excellent apprentice." He says proudly, and Phoenix files away that information for later, putting on the glasses and watching the monitors.
All is going well and Ratchet looks pleased.
Until the monitor on the far left makes some kind of noise.
"Is that bad?"
"Spark pressure is increasing, but that's normal. Thing is, it's getting a bit high." He murmurs worriedly and looks back. The bright blue light is increasing and Ratchet dims his optics. Now she can't see Prowl or Jazz for all the light and another monitor goes. Then another. Then another. All the ones on the left go erratic, and she doesn't know if they are hooked to Prowl or Jazz.
Then both of them cry out in pain and shock and an explosion shakes the med-bay, shattering the office window and leaving her ears ringing.
She stumbles, aware of glass in her flesh arm and Ratchet rushing into the med-bay.
Half-blinded by the light, she stumbles down the stairs and out the door. Both are stumbling, energon leaking everywhere and it's evident something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Ratchet must be shouting at her, or maybe he's just cursing Shockwave, but she can't tell because her ears are still ringing, ringing, ringing.
There's energy crackling too from both spark chambers and a bolt from one of them leaps out and strikes her, shockwaves travelling through her body like a weird kind of electrocution. Then, from far, far away, the beep of the monitors returns, the pulse ones and her hearing returns.
Just as one of them flatlines with a high-pitched shriek and she doesn't know who it is.
Until Prowl collapses to the ground, lifeless.
A/N Yeah, I'm evil, leaving it on a cliffie like that but I'll be updating really soon so you won't be in suspense for long hopefully! Don't kill me please xDD
Thank you to my reviewers and anyone who has favourited/followed this story! I hope you liked this chapter and thank you all for reading!
-AnAshBlackSword