Phoenix's POV, rec room.
Luckily for Phoenix and Jazz, Prime didn't end up offlining them, but he did make them clean up the rec room under the watchful eye of Ratchet who was more than happy to smack the 'bots at any given time. Prowl had been revived by Wheeljack and was nursing a headache in the med-bay which was evidently affecting Jazz as he cursed Prowl under his breath.
Ratchet promptly whacked him around the shoulder, hard.
"Shut up and work faster." He said grimly. Jazz rubbed his shoulder and scowled. Another bang. "And wipe that expression off your faceplates and show some slagging respect." He added somewhat gleefully. Phoenix muttered as her head ached a little too, and she wondered again what that stupid shard had done to her as it had obviously done something weird. Perhaps she would tell Jazz later?
Bang! "Ow Ratch'!" Jazz yelped as Ratchet whacked him again. That is, if she even had a guardian after Ratchet was done with them. She spotted Lennox and Epps across the room glaring at Ratchet, along with Ironhide as they conversed in undertones about all the things they would like to do to their joy of a medic.
She sighed and went back to clearing up the masses of confetti which the twins had decided to empty all over the floor. There were ridiculous quantities of the stuff, and Prime had ordered them all, humans included, to clean it all up until there was not one piece of it left. Unfortunately, there was too much to use a hoover on (as Epps had discovered when he blew up one of them) so they were left to scraping it off the floor and putting it in boxes.
Eventually, after a few long and painstaking hours Ratchet saw fit to release them. Jazz scooped her up and made a hasty retreat with Ironhide, Epps and Lennox. The twins did attempt to leave, but Ratchet caught them and dragged them off to God knows where for some special form of torture.
"I thought we'd never get out of there!" She said, giving the rec room and Ratchet the finger. "Slagging demon 'bot."
"I so second that, I ache all over and I've got the training run tomorrow." Epps groaned loudly from where he sat in Ironhide's hand.
"Training run? What's that?" Phoenix questioned him.
"Imagine an obstacle course. Got that? Now, cover it in sticky mud, freezing cold water and God knows what else and time it so if you don't complete it in time you end up on toilet cleaning duty. That's the training run for you." Epps moaned as Lennox laughed at him.
"Good luck man, I don't envy you."
"Thanks, Captain do-little." Epps replied, giving Will a good natured punch. Phoenix looked up at Jazz.
"Where are we going?"
"Ah thought we'd beat ah hasty retreat ta the roof, so if ol' Hatchet comes looking for us, he won' find us. Ya gonna come 'Hide?"
"I believe I will, seeing as I would rather avoid Ratchet's wrath for the time being." He rumbled, and Jazz led them through a maze of corridors until they were outside of the base. There, he and Ironhide were able to climb up one of the walls and sit on the roof, which creaked under the extra weight. Phoenix looked at it sceptically.
"Are you sure this thing will hold?"
"Ah'm sure, ah've sat out here wit' Prime an' Ironhide before. If it can take tha', it can take anythin'." He replied cheerily. Ironhide ignored the jibe and took a seat next to Jazz, releasing Will and Epps onto the roof. Phoenix noted that it was dark, and they could see the stars quite clearly from the roof.
"When did it get so dark?"
"We were in there for a long time. Fragging aft-head twins and their bloody confetti." Epps replied, lying back on the roof and using his arms for a pillow. Phoenix shrieked a little in surprise as Jazz mimicked his position and she was deposited on his chests. She turned to glare at her guardian.
"You could have warned me!"
"Wha' would be the fun in tha'?" Jazz chuckled, and she shook her head at him before lying back on his chest.
"Can you see Cybertron from here Jazz?"
"Not cybertron per se, but yah can see the star nearby. See tha' one?" He said, pointing to one.
"Oh, we call that one the North Star." She answered in surprise.
"Yeah, tha's the one closest to Cybertron."
"Cool." Will murmured from where he was sitting and turned to look at Phoenix. "I never did get to show you where you were staying." He apologised regretfully, and Phoenix shrugged I reply.
"Don't worry about it."
"Ah can take 'er there later." There was a comfortable pause in which Autobots and humans alike enjoyed the utter peace of the moment. "Ya humans 'ave such weird names for ya constellations." Jazz said finally, and she felt the movement as he shook his head.
"Indeed they do. I find it odd that one shares the first name as Optimus."
"It does?" Phoenix asked curiosly and Ironhide nodded.
"Yes, before he became a Prime, Optimus was called Orion Pax. You have a constellation of the great hunter, Orion."
"Huh. I don't really know many constellations. I was never really taught any." She said wistfully. The home hadn't had the time nor the interest to bother with such things.
"Well tha' ones Orion. The three stars over there which are also known as the 'three kings', make up 'is belt. Tha' one over there is the 'Fryin' Pan' 'cause it apparently looks like ah Fryin' Pan." Jazz said in amusement, pointing them out to her.
"Did you have constellations on Cybertron then?"
"Yes, but they were very different to the ones you have although I suppose we would have looked at your Sun as our 'North Star.'" Ironhide answered before Jazz.
"I suppose you must miss your own constellations." Phoenix put in.
"We do, as we miss our home planet very much. Although there are a lot of things your planet has that Cybertron did not. The wide variety of organic life is amazing, as is your creativity."
"Music for one thing an' although he would nevah admit it, ah've seen Sunny admirin' yah artwork too."
"Didn't you have music on Cybertron?"
"We did, but nothin' like ya humans can do. We don' have the righ' vocal cords for singin' and we didn't expand our instruments as much." Jazz replied thoughtfully. "We did have an instrument similar to ah piano."
"Did you play?"
"Yeah, before the war ah was a professional musician. Ah even played for the high courts of Iacon one orn." Ironhide let out a surprised noise.
"Really?"
"Yup."
"Huh." Ironhide replied. "Guess you learn something new every orn."
"Ah guess so. Anythin' else ya wanna know 'bout Cybertron?"
"So… you said we had more organic life right? Did you have any animals on Cybertron?" She questioned and Jazz considered it.
"Not realleh. The only thing we had was Scraplets which we hunted down an' killed wit' ah passion. Nasty little buggers ate livin' metal so we killed most of 'em. We 'ad Predacons, but they only lived on the Sea of Rust an' were so few as to be extinct."
"What's a Predacon? Sounds nasty." Will commented.
"They were. Imagine ah big dragon an' make it metal an' wit' the temper of Hatchet on a realleh bad day an' tha' ah Predacon for ya."
"Fun." Epps muttered sarcastically. "Did you ever meet one?"
"Not personally. The mechs brave or foolish enough to go near one usually got offlined unless they were from the desert tribes, but by the time the war had started the tribes had been virtually wiped out. Most were offlined due to their supposedly primitive nature or sold into slavery." Ironhide replied, sounding somewhat sad about it.
"Wasn't there ah rumour tha' Hatchet met one?"
"A rumour yes, but the mechs responsible were welded to the base ceiling by their afts although it could have been true. He's certainly old enough to have met one." Ironhide snorted as he said the last part and Jazz chucked along with him.
"Ya keep tha' up an' you'll be sharin' their fate." Jazz grinned and Ironhide cuffed him lightly.
"Aft."
"Slaghead."
"Pit-spawn."
"Hatchet spawn."
"I'd certainly hope not. God help any sparklings that mech ever had or may have." Ironhide replied, crossing his arms and failing to hide a grin as the humans and Jazz laughed. Phoenix eventually found herself drifting off to sleep as Jazz and Ironhide traded insults, until Jazz poked her with a finger.
"Mmm?" She responded.
"Sleepy? Ah should take ya back down to ya room."
"Mmhmm." She murmured, curling up into the warm metal. The last thing she was aware of was being carried somewhere.