A/N: I LIVE! And I bring you a new chapter while I'm supposed to be studying for a midterm, haha no. XP Anyway! Here's another installment of BTD. It's a little shorter than most but my editor SteelBlastBee told me to cut it off since so much happens in this chapter, so yeah. Thanks for your reviews guys, a few recent notes in particular took my interest and here's my response to them ^_^
Brittany (Guest): "I hope your not going stop here with this Beyond the Darkness and other Fanfictions you have? It would be a real shame and we see great promise and faith with you and you Fanfictions! Don't stop now, we being fans, caring and understanding have your! Don't lose hope, faith and never give up!:)"
Reply: Thank you so much! Don't worry, I plan to continue BTD even if I'm still working on it when Robots In Disguise comes out in 2015 _ as for my other fics, I'm not sure if I still have passion for them as much as I do with BTD. I might delete a few old ones that never got any where but we'll see. I might keep up Youngling Adventures for laughs but I don't know. Thanks for your comments throughout the story! ^_^
Berry5tz: "Hello, I found this fic yesterday rather late in the evening. And so I've been playing catch-up since then. I must say that this story is fantastic so far. I really appreciate the attention to detail when giving background on Jack's family history. I really appreciate that part. I also appreciated some background on M.E.C.H. and the little bot Clocker. My favorite part is how you changed what happened to Jack and Optimus. I always felt like Jack had so much potential in the show and that it was never truly tapped. So this "Vessel of the Matrix" scenario is brillant. The connection between Optimus and Jack is a bond they will seem to share for life. It kinda reminded me of Ratchet telling of the "Spark Bonding" that happens between to Cybertonians. I wonder if little Stargazer is their sparkling. Yes, Jack is only human. But as Ratchet pointed out. Jack is to much like Optimus for his own good."
Reply: Haha, I love it when my fics can keep a reader up all right. That means I've trapped you in a good read XD Yeah, Jack's past has been an interest to me since we never got to see his dad in the series, even if he wasn't important. You'll get more of that in this chapter ^_^ Yeah, M.E.C.H was just kind of thrown aside when Silas slaughtered them so why not give them one last thing with Clocker? Yeah the whole root of the story was "What if they failed getting Optimus' memories back?" and it developed from there after I incorporated more ideas into the fic ^_^ Oh and sorry but there's no shipping between Jack and Optimus so Stargazer is not their kid, you'll find out his origins later. Optimus is more of a father to Jack since his real dad hasn't been in the picture in four years but Optimus and Jack do get a connection similar to a bond but it's because they've essentially each become one half of the matrix since the physical Matrix sits in Optimus while some of the knowledge is inside of Jack.
Thanks for the reviews you guys! For all my readers I hope I get more awesome ones like these! Don't be shy to give me speculations you have or ask questions if you're confused!
And now here's your new chapter. Enjoy! Please Read and Review!
Storm grey eyes opened quickly, almost alarmed like an animal detecting a predator. Swiping his eyes across the area expectantly, Jack didn't relax when nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
Jack has been feeling uneasy for a while now. Ever since he discovered he could see somewhat outside of the patch it's felt like he's being watched. Strangely, it felt different than before. Obviously he knew the cons were watching him but this felt somehow...familiar. Though, that wasn't the problem. His main concern was that the patch was unstable and who knew how much time he had left.
Sighing softly, Jack couldn't take it anymore and stood up before he immediately began to pace back and forth. He knew it wouldn't do him any good but it was more for lack of being able to do anything.
Still, Jack's not sure when was the last time he's felt this utterly helpless. Okay, there was probably only one or two other times that could compete to this moment. All he could do right now was wait around for something to happen, whether it be Megatron showing up or the bots arriving to rescue him.
Now that he thought about it, what was even the point of sending out decoy bots to slow down Megatron? How long would that even buy him? Thinking back to Bumblebee's patch, Jack knew it wouldn't have made much a difference, Megatron would arrive soon enough, with or without the intervention.
"Where are you, Megatron?!" Jack suddenly screamed into the sky, though he was almost glad when he didn't get a response, beside a puzzled look from Stargazer. He just couldn't stand waiting around anymore.
As he paced around the field for the umpteenth time, Jack knew there was no way he could hurt Megatron in his mind, but the bright side was that Megatron couldn't physically harm him either. Jack was just worried what Megatron could do to him mentally. That's where the real danger was.
Suddenly, without warning a sharp pain shot through Jack's head, the pain was enough to stop him in his tracks. It felt like icy needles where being shot through his head and it took a little while for the pain to finally subside.
Taking a shaky breath, Jack tried to calm himself, unsure what had overcome him.
"Jack? You okay?" Stargazer asked looking up at Jack confused, pulling the teen from his thoughts.
"I'm okay now, Stargazer…" Jack muttered weakly, rubbing his temples to try to relieve some stress but the pain seemed to come back, except this time it was throbbing. "My head just hurts…"
Jack had no idea where that pain had come from and he was still shaking. It had to be the patch, it was becoming more unstable. Jack could feel it eating away at him the longer it dragged on. It was hurting him, physically and mentally and he wanted out.
Opening his eyes, Jack just managed to see three orbs fly past his head; one blue, one green and one yellow. Their sudden appearance startled him and he stumbled a bit. Taking a step back to steady himself, Jack almost leaped out of his skin as the light of the field melted away and he everything plunged into darkness.
"You're lost, aren't you?" Miko sighed as Smokescreen maneuvered through the halls.
"I'm not lost! I know exactly where we're going and I have a map." Smokescreen argued, looking down at Miko who was sitting alongside Jaden in a compartment in his chest. "It's just a little tricky figuring out where we are when I keep having to phase through different walls to avoid getting spotted by cons."
"How much further is the elevator?" Jaden asked curiously, it hadn't been long since they started looking for the elevator but still.
"Uh, not far, as long as we don't run into anyone else." Smokescreen sighed as he briefly looked over the map.
"How can you even tell where we are?" Miko asked, looking around. "I've been here before like twice and all the halls still look the same to me."
"Why were you on the ship?" Jaden asked a little surprised that Miko even had experienced being on board this dark and gloomy warship.
"The first time was when I snuck on board while hiding in Bulkhead and the second time was when the ship got possessed by dark energon and the three of us and Fowler had to get on board to stop the ship from destroying Manhattan." Miko replied, remembering both experiences rather clearly.
Jaden merely stared at Miko in awe. "You guys and Jack have gone on some wild adventures, huh?"
"Oh, that's nothing." Miko replied, "Once me, Jack, Arcee and Bulkhead got buried alive in a mine and were trapped in there with Megatron and Starscream."
"Mega who and Star what?" Jaden asked confused, still lost on all these Cybertronian names.
"That's the Decepticon commander and his second in command." Smokescreen clarified, though he sounded just as surprised as Jaden and he wondered just what has Team Prime been up to while he was in stasis for the entire war.
"Yeah and now that I've shared some stories now I want to know something about you, Jaden." Miko added, looking at Jaden expectantly.
"Uh, sure. What do you want to know?" Jaden asked.
"Where have you been all this time?" Miko asked curiously, wondering how she could have not known about Jack's little brother.
"I've been living in Japan for the last couple of years, along with Marley and her family for my dad's research." Jaden explained, briefly thinking back to the last four years.
"Where'd you live in Japan?" Miko asked.
"Tokyo." Jaden said and Miko perked up when she heard a bit of an accent in his voice.
"Sweet, I'm from Tokyo. You picked up Japanese while you were there?" Miko asked with a grin.
"Hai." Jaden replied with a light smile, "That makes three languages."
"What's the other one?"
"Spanish from dad's side." Jaden replied, surprising Miko. She didn't know Jack was Latino, he wasn't as obvious as Raf. She just sort of dubbed him as American but now she knew better.
"Now speaking of family, what was your older brother, Joshua like?" Miko asked, as Smokescreen kept maneuvering through the halls.
"Well, from what you guys said earlier he's actually a lot like Jack and then some. He was outgoing, cared for others and was always there when you needed him..." Jaden replied before his demeanor changed and he let out a deep sigh.
"Jaden, you okay?" Smokescreen asked, sounding concerned for his partner.
"I can't remember anything that happened the night of the car crash." Jaden muttered weakly, "The only clear thing that I remembered is that Jack was disappointed dad hadn't shown up to pick us up for this recital he needed to go to in the next town and Joshua decided to drive us."
"Really?" Miko asked.
Jaden simply nodded and said nothing. His thoughts drifting as he thought back to that day that shattered his family. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember anything that happened. When he woke up in the hospital he felt nothing, just numb.
"Jaden?" Smokescreen called to the teen, trying to get his attention.
"Huh?" Jaden asked, looking up before he noticed a shadow on the far wall of the hall they were heading down and he dropped his voice to a hushed whisper. "Smokescreen, hide!"
"Huh?" Smokescreen asked, looking up before practically jumping out of his armor into the nearest wall as a decepticon turned the corner. The three of them stayed completely quiet in their hiding spot in the vents as said con walked past. No one dared to say a word until the footsteps and voices were gone.
Peeking his helm through the wall, Smokescreen took a look around to make sure the con was gone and let out a sigh in relieve when there was no one in sight.
"That was close..." Smokescreen sighed, stepping back into the vent, figuring they would draw less attention that way. Except the moment he stepped back he immediately felt an energon cannon against the back of his helm.
"Just give me a reason." A cold raspy voice warned as the energon cannon began to charge up and Smokescreen's energon ran cold. "Turn around slowly."
"You were saying?" Miko muttered softly, glancing up at Smokescreen.
"Don't shoot!" Smokescreen called out, raising his arms up as he tucked in the compartment he was holding Miko and Jaden. Normally he'd try to do something to get out of this situation but he couldn't put Miko and Jaden's lives in danger.
"Keep your voice down and turn around!" The con hissed, which was odd. Shouldn't the con be trying to draw attention to them?
"What's a con even doing in the vents?" Jaden asked in a hushed whisper to Miko from their hiding spot, though he was obviously freaking out.
"Calm down, Jaden, we got this." Miko replied as she picked up Nightbeat from Jaden's hair and began muttering something to him. "This isn't the first time I've dealt with cons, heck I even killed one once."
"Really?" Jaden asked, surprised it was even possible for any human to kill a transformer.
"Yeah, I'll tell you about it later." Miko replied, climbing up to peek through a gap Smokescreen left for them so they could breath. From what she could see, Smokescreen was still turning and she couldn't see the con quite yet.
"What are you going?" Jaden asked quietly as he climbed up beside Miko.
"Ratchet built a taser into Nightbeat so he could protect us." Miko explained as she gently tapped Nightbeats' back. "Nightbeat can slip through here and fry that con's circuits."
"Huh, you really do know what you're doing..." Jaden muttered softly, looking up through the gap just as the Decepticon came to view. He perked up a bit when he noticed the con's brilliant crimson armor, but it was covered in old scars. One big scar across his chest got his attention the most and he couldn't help but feel he looked familiar...
"You ready Nightbeat?" Miko whispered and the tiny Cybertronian bird gave her a light nod.
"Wait, Miko. He looks familiar..." Jaden muttered and Miko gave him a look before looking up to see the con and gasped loudly.
"Don't shoot! I know who you are!" Miko cried out as she forced Smokescreen's chest compartment open to get a closer look. "Cliffjumper! You were with Arcee on the monitor!"
Cliffjumper jumped back, a bit startled to see a human girl pop out of this mech's chest. He would have definitely dropped his cannon had it not been attached to his arm. "You know who I am? You know Arcee?"
"Yeah, we're her friends!" Smokescreen said suddenly, relieved as Cliffjumper started to lower his weapon.
Now Cliffjumper remembered, this mech was at base when Arcee called in for back up. Opening up his comm. link, he opened a line to Arcee. /Hey, Arcee, I think I found one of your friends but he wasn't with the bots we met earlier, we're down in the vent near where we came in/
/What are you talking-?/ Arcee said as she immediately turned the corner and froze the moment she saw Smokescreen, Miko and Jaden. The three of them tensed the moment they saw murder in her optics.
"We're dead." Miko cringed as Nightbeat dove into one of her pigtails to hide from Arcee's wrath.
One moment Jack had been surrounded by darkness and then the next thing he knew he was sitting in his living room. The same living room that was destroyed when the bots blew it up, except it looked different somehow. He blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light. As he looked around, Jack wasn't entirely sure what he was seeing. Not to mention something felt off...
"Where are we?" Stargazer asked beside Jack. Turning to look at him, Jack was surprised to see the sparkling sitting beside him was almost as big as him now.
"Whoa, when did you get so big?" Jack asked, looking at the sparkling confused.
"When did you get so small?" Stargazer replied, looking just as puzzled as Jack.
Jack had no idea what Stargazer was talking about and opened his mouth to say something before he heard someone from outside of the living room.
"Jackie? You still here?" A familiar voice called and Jack's words were lost as he immediately turned his attention to the owner of the voice. Appearing by the door, a tanned, dark haired boy about his age scanned the room quickly before resting on him. His hazel eyes immediately flashed in concern when he saw him.
Jack couldn't speak and he couldn't move. He just kept his storm grey eyes on the teen, feeling something knot up in his chest.
'It's just a memory,' he reminded himself as his throat tightened, 'It's not real, it's not real.'
Meanwhile, Stargazer was completely lost, unsure what the connection was between Jack and this boy. He thought it would be best to stay quiet.
"Dad's a no show?" The teen sighed, shaking his head when Jack said nothing as if he should've known better. "Figures...Where's Jaden?"
"I'm here!" Jaden chipped as he ran into the room, hugging his older brother's leg. Though, Jack was a bit surprised to see a boy about Raf's age instead of seeing the fifteen year old he'd seen in postcards and holiday photos whenever he got word from his younger brother.
"Are you taking us to Jack's recital Joshua?" Jaden asked, looking up at the older teen hopefully.
"Looks like I am. Mom's still at work, she said she's going to meet us over there." Joshua explained, offering him a smile before looking back at Jack. "Come on, let's get going, Jackie."
"Fine...Thanks, Joshua..." Jack sighed as the words immediately fell out of his mouth. Without a second thought he hopped off the couch and made his way to his brother, taken back a bit when he realized he was now half his height.
Now Jack knew what Stargazer was talking about being smaller. Joshua gave Jack an encouraging smile before gently patting his head as they walked out of the house. Stargazer walked quietly beside Jack, having gone unnoticed by the two brothers.
"Shotgun!" Jaden shouted as he ran past Jack, Joshua and the unseen Stargazer towards Joshua's car.
"Jaden, what did mom say about sitting up front?" Joshua sighed, giving Jaden a look.
"Please?" Jaden asked, giving the older boy puppy eyes.
Shaking his head, Joshua sighed in defeated and motioned for him to get in the car, giving Jaden a small wink. "Alright, fine but it'll be our little secret."
"Yay!" Jaden cheered before hopping into the passenger seat.
A smile formed on Joshua's lips and he maneuvered around the car to the driver's seat, perking when he noticed Jack was staring at the car but still hadn't climbed inside. "You getting in Jackie?"
Jack winced a bit and quickly looked away. His thoughts clouded the moment he saw the car. It was exactly how he remembered it, at least how he remembered from before.
No, he didn't want to get in that car. He knew exactly what would happen if he did. He would be the only one walking out of that car while Jaden would be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but he knew he couldn't change the memory so he got in.
"You're going to do just fine, Jackie." Joshua added when Jack was in the car. "Have you been practicing? I haven't heard you much at home."
"I practiced at school." Jack muttered, staring out the window as Joshua pulled out of the driveway.
"That's no fun. Mind singing me a song?" Joshua asked, smiling at Jack from the rearview mirror.
"You'll hear me later." Jack replied, rolling his eyes a bit but managing a smile as he looked out the window.
A light tug at his arm got his attention and he looked over, surprised to see Stargazer there. He was so caught up with the memory that he almost forgot he was there. Stargazer seemed troubled by something, Jack couldn't figure out what it was before the youngling pointed to something outside his side of the car.
Looking up, Jack was taken back to see the view outside morph into darkness before images began to form. Glimpses of Jack's childhood appeared before them. Memories of his brothers, his parents when they were happy and so forth.
Jack instinctively looked to his brothers, wondering if they could see what he was seeing. Though, he was taken off guard when they were nowhere in sight, along with the car and it was just him and Stargazer amongst the memories.
Scanning the memories, Jack recognized most of them almost instantly and he immediately felt himself start to get lost in them.
"Jack?" Stargazer called to Jack, tugging at the teen's arm to get his attention. When it didn't work he tugged at Jack with enough force that he stumbled forward a bit and the memories immediately began to fade.
"Huh?" Jack said in a bit of a daze, looking down at Stargazer as he finally came to his senses. He perked a bit when he noticed Stargazer was small again, or more like he was his original size again and that they were back in the star field.
"What's going on? What just happened?" Stargazer asked, clinging to Jack's side, seeming very unsure.
"Oh, well that was one of my memories from when I was a kid…" Jack muttered softly, looking around, as if searching for said memory. He definitely wasn't expecting to see his brothers so vividly just now, even if it was a memory. "And those images we saw outside of the car were just more memories..."
Lowering his gaze to the ground, Jack couldn't help but feel strange as he watched those memories and lived through it. It felt like they were sucking him in, like if he wasn't too careful he could easily get lost in them. Now, Jack wasn't sure if that made much sense but that's how he felt.
"I'm not really sure why I saw those memories..." Jack muttered softly, glancing over at Stargazer.
"I think you stepped on something." Stargazer replied, pointing to the ground. Jack immediately followed his gaze and tilted his head a bit when he noticed a blue vein by his foot.
Then, an idea came to mind and Jack looked up where he had seen the memory and back down at the vein before stepping on it lightly. Laughter suddenly rang through the air and the star field melted away again. Jack was a bit surprised to see he was standing in the middle of base, but what surprised him more was the ice coated all over the ground.
He couldn't help but smile, noting the Christmas decorations hanging along the rails on the platform before a loud crash nearby caught his attention. Looking over, the first thing Jack saw was Bulkhead in a crumbled heap on the ground, trying to regain his footing on the homemade ice skating rink in the middle of the command room.
"Come on, Bulkhead! You got this!" Miko encouraged the larger autobot while keeping a safe distance to avoid getting crushed.
Jack scanned over the memory briefly, he could see Arcee skating around on her own, doing a better job at it than Bulkhead. A smile was on her face as she moved to go help Bulkhead up.
A sigh escaped Jack, wishing nothing more to go back to simpler times where they could freeze the base on Christmas to ice skate or and have snowball fights.
"Just what I thought…" Jack muttered, watching the memory fade as he stepped off the vein projecting it. Still, the atmosphere of the memory had easily lifted his spirit.
"What? What's going on?" Stargazer asked, looking up at Jack with a raised optic ridge, not catching what the teen had seen.
"Hmm? Oh, well you see these blue veins on the ground, Star?" Jack replied, looking to the ground, motioning all around them. "Well, I think they're linked to my memories, that's why we saw what we saw just now."
"Really?" Stargazer asked, his optics brightening in curiosity before he decided to step on a vein to see for himself. Jack immediately cringed as the memory of him and his brothers in the car began to play out again. Letting out a shaky sigh, Jack gently coaxed the sparkling off the vein.
"I'm sorry Stargazer, but I really don't want to see this memory…" Jack said softly as the sparkling moved off the vein, ending the memory.
"Oh, okay…" Stargazer replied, sounding a little disappointed, but also a little concerned as if wondering if he had done something wrong. "Why?"
"There are some memories I don't want to remember right now." Jack sighed softly and Stargazer just nodded, understanding the teen didn't want to talk about it.
"So…who were they? Those two from before?" Stargazer asked, curiosity getting the better of him, hoping he hadn't brought up a sensitive subject.
"Uh, my brothers…" Jack replied, rubbing the back of his head a bit, wondering briefly if Stargazer knew what a brother was or for the matter if any of the bots knew what a brother was. "That memory was from a long time ago."
"And who were the ones in the other memory?" Stargazer asked as curious as ever.
"Those are the autobots and some of my friends. I'm actually waiting for them to come and get me out of here." Jack replied, looking around, "But all I can do now is wait…"
"Oh okay..." Stargazer replied, dropping his gaze to the ground, looking at the veins before perking up.
"Why do those look different?" Stargazer asked curiously, pointing at the gold veins on the ground.
"I'm not sure. Let's take a look." Jack replied before tentatively stepping on the vein, curiosity sparking as they suddenly became surrounded by data and coding. Stargazer immediately clung to Jack's side while Jack looked on in awe.
"Whoa…What is this?" Jack wondered, reaching out for the data, brushing his fingers gently against it. To his surprise hundreds of images began to flash in front of him and it took him less than a second to realize these weren't his memories.
Amongst the images he saw a metallic world and at first Jack thought they were memories when he had gone to Cybertron. Except, there was something different; it looked alive and warm.
Looking through the images spiraling around him, Jack could make out images of Cybertronians of all shapes and sizes going about their day. Before he knew it, everything around him faded into darkness and moments later he was blinded by a brilliant light.
When his eyes adjusted the first thing Jack could make out was that he and Stargazer were in a well light office in front of a large monitor. Looking around, Jack was taken when he saw an amazing view of whatever city they were in just outside the window.
"Is this a memory?" Stargazer asked curiously.
"Heh, not any of mine. I've never seen this place a day in my life." Jack replied, still looking around, taking in as much as he could.
Looking up at the monitor he was a bit curious as to what it said. Though, before he could even bother to try to figure out what it said a reflection on the monitor and the sound of keystrokes caught his attention.
Turning around to see who else was in the room with them, Jack's jaw dropped a bit as his storm grey eyes rested on a familiar blue and red mech. "Optimus?"
He may have looked a little different, maybe even smaller but there was no doubt about it, it was Optimus. Though, this Optimus made no indication he had heard him at all, his focus was completely on the task at hand.
"Who's that?" Stargazer asked, looking up at Optimus, his head tilted to the side.
"That's Optimus. He's a friend." Jack replied, answering Stargazer's favorite question of 'who's that?'. Looking around, Jack immediately figured they were in Optimus' office, somewhere on Cybertron. If he had to guess, it was Iacon, since that's where Optimus worked once and the only other city he knew was Kaon. This was certainly not Kaon.
"This has to be before the war..." Jack muttered, looking up at the sky.
"What makes you say that?" Stargazer asked, following Jack's gaze.
"Well for one, I can see the sky. The last time I went to Cybertron there was too much smog in the air for much light to go through." Jack explained, amazed by how much light was coming into the room. He was even surprise to see two faded outlines of moons in the sky. He didn't know Cybertron had two moons.
"These gold veins must be Optimus' memories. Which means they must also be connected to the Knowledge of the Matrix." Jack assumed, looking up at the Prime typing away at the monitor.
Jack wondered what memory this was for Optimus and when it was taking place. He already figured it was before the war or at least before things got bad. Still, it surprised him how youthful and smaller Optimus was. He was maybe even Ratchet's height and that's pretty small compared to Optimus' current towering height.
"These look like the memories Optimus couldn't get back from the download…" Jack muttered, mostly to himself, looking over the memory. Though, something didn't feel quite right but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Looking over at a few spiraling memories around them, curiosity got the best of Jack and he reached out to touch another memory.
Jack and Stargazer were suddenly enveloped in darkness, the light that had filled the room disappearing along with Optimus. Jack quickly tried to get his bearings when a light caught his attention. Following the light, Jack was surprised to see it was coming from some sort of massive, glowing sphere, hanging high above them.
Wires and cables shot out of it from several parts, connecting it to the sides of the round room they were in, though Jack wasn't sure if he could call this place a room, it was more like a chamber.
As he stared at the sphere, Jack wasn't sure why but he felt awe struck just looking at this thing. Yet, he had no idea what it was. The massive sphere was silver and appeared hollow with some sort of blue light pouring out of the only opening he could see. Inside the opening, the light looked alive and pulsed with energy. It was the only way he could describe it.
And then there was the sound. The sphere was pulsing so loudly that Jack could feel the vibrations in his own chest, his own heart seeming to fall in the same rhythm as this sphere.
"It's a heartbeat." Jack said with realization. He must be staring at a massive spark. But who could have a spark this massive? The memory belonged to Optimus. What was he doing in this place?
His question was answered almost immediately when a flash of blue and red caught his attention. Walking along a platform down below Jack could see the Prime in question approach the sphere.
Optimus called out something to the sphere and Jack immediately knew whatever he was saying he was speaking in Cybertronian. Of course, they were probably still on Cybertron so Optimus would have no reason to speak a language of a planet he's never been to.
"Wait, this memory is on Cybertron does this mean..." Jack said suddenly, watching the Prime intently before something began to happen to the sphere. "Is this Primus...?" Jack muttered softly, remembering Ratchet's story about the Primes and Unicron. He looked up at the massive spark chamber and realized now that they were in Cybertron's core.
Suddenly, the light of the core began to pulse faster as some sort of relic began to emerge from its opening. Jack's breath caught the moment he recognized a familiar relic; the Matrix of Leadership.
Oblivious to the teen and sparkling watching him, Optimus bowed his head in respect as light started to envelop him. His chestplates opened automatically as the Matrix neared him. Jack was surprised to see Optimus' spark. In all honesty, this was the first time Jack's seen a real spark, even if it was just a memory of one.
It was amazing, just like the core, Optimus' spark was a glowing sphere of light. Though, the casing around Optimus' spark was clear, revealing more of his spark and just like the core, the light looked alive.
Suddenly, the matrix opened and before Jack could realize what was happening, it encased Optimus' spark, merging with him. Optimus' optics flashed brightly as light enveloped around him, encasing him.
Stargazer immediately clung to Jack's side as they were blinded by the light coming off of Optimus while Jack used an arm to shield his eyes. Jack tried to watch what was happening to Optimus but the light was too intense for him to see anything clearly.
Then, as quickly as the light had appeared it was gone. Jack tentatively lowered his arm, from his head, looking down at I make sure Stargazer was alright as he waited for his to adjust.
Stargazer looked up at him puzzled, clearly not understanding what they had just seen. Jack wasn't entirely sure he knew what was going on either. Turning his attention back to Optimus, Jack was surprised to see a new bot standing in front of him.
This bot was Optimus, except not the Optimus he had seen moments ago. This Optimus was much larger than the other. His armor was also much sleeker and appeared more battle ready than the mech he had seen before.
"Wait, something's not right…" Jack said suddenly, moving up to the Prime to take a closer look. This looked like Optimus Prime, it was the only way Jack could describe it and that was the problem. "Why is this here?"
"What do you mean?" Stargazer asked, following Jack, glancing up at the mech as he walked by, cringing a bit at his massive size. He wondered briefly why Jack had no problem being so close to this mech who could easily step on them.
"Optimus told us that his memory loss was only of his time on earth and a few things before that, so why is this memory here? What else doesn't he remember?" Jack asked as the memory began to fade, by then he was mostly talking to him.
"Is he Optimus?" Stargazer asked as he gestured to the disappearing Prime. "Who is he? Is he important?" Stargazer watched Jack, waiting expectantly for an answer, puzzled when the teen started to laugh.
"Yeah, he is important," Jack replied as his laughter subsided, finding the sparkling's question rather amusing. "He's leader of the Autobots and a good friend of mine." Jack smiled as he watched as Optimus was replaced by stars.
"You said he lost his memories. Did he forget something important?" asked Stargazer as Jack's smile faded.
"Yeah, he did. Long story short: he lost his memories and something went wrong when we were trying to get it back," Jack explained as he unconsciously held his injured arm. "Thanks to Megatron, he didn't get all his memories back." His grip on his arm tightened as the memory returned to him.
'Are you...certain that I am worthy?'
Jack looked up, stunned when Optimus' voice echoed in his head as the memory suddenly began play out before them. Looking to the ground, Jack hadn't even realized he had touched one of the veins with his foot.
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him and Jack looked up, surprised to see Optimus, or rather, Orion Pax, kneeling in front of him as began to accept the knowledge of the key to Vector Sigma. It felt surreal, seeing this again that it almost caught Jack off guard when he became blinded by light and pain erupted in his arm.
Jack stumbled back, cutting off the memory as he doubled over, clutching his arm to his chest as he waited for the pain to subside. He could heard Stargazer calling out his name as the pain quickly began to fade as the memory disappeared.
"I-I'm alright," Jack grunted in pain as he looked up at the sparkling, "Just give me a moment."
"Is that what happened? How you hurt your arm?" Stargazer asked after several moments of silence.
"Y-yeah," Jack said as the pain subsided, "It's the reason why Optimus didn't get all his memories back." He looked away, staring at the golden veins, some of them overlapping the blue ones. He noticed with a start that there was a large number of golden veins crisscrossing throughout the landscape.
"Why didn't he tell us?" Jack muttered as he traced the golden veins with his gaze. "Why did he keep it a secret?"
Stargazer perked a bit as Jack quickly stood and knelt down beside a cluster of gold veins. Jack reached out to the veins and hesitated when he realized what he was about to do was an invasion of Optimus' memories. He quickly forced the thought aside. He had to know, he needed to know: how much did Optimus actually remember? What wasn't he telling them?
Disregarding the privacy that these were Optimus' memories, Jack reached out and touched the cluster. As a series of memories began to spiral around him, Jack knew what he was doing was wrong but he needed to know what Optimus was hiding.
"What are you doing here, Smokescreen?! Optimus didn't assign you to the mission!" Arcee hissed as she shoved, the rookie not to kindly against the wall, all while staying as quiet as possible in case a con patrol walked by. "And what are Jaden and Miko doing here?!"
"U-Uh funny story about that." Smokescreen stuttered, raising his arms up in defense, "Miko, Jaden. Tell her."
"Uh, we wanted to help." Miko shrugged, not sure where to go from there.
"It's not Smokescreen's fault." Jaden said quickly, "He saw us go through the bridge and tried to stop us"
"Yeah and you guys didn't notice us in the fight and we tried the comm. but the signal was down so Nightbeat called base." Smokescreen added. "Bulkhead sent us a map and told us to stay out of sight and head to the med bay."
"Does Optimus know you're here?" Arcee asked, not looking as mad as before but she still had her death glare that read 'I'm going to kill you all when we get out of here.'
"Yeah, at least Bulkhead said so." Smokescreen replied though appeared confused. "I guess he used the blade or something since the comm.'s down."
"Yeah and we're looking for the elevator to get up to the Med Bay." Miko added before she gave Arcee a look. "Wait, why are you guys doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be in the engine room?"
"We were trying to head down there after the others took the elevator up to the Med Bay but cons showed up and we had to head down this way for the next elevator" Arcee explained as she motioned back to the direction she came from. "I just scouted up ahead and it's clear. We should get going."
"Uh, right." Smokescreen replied as Cliffjumper and Arcee began to make their way down the vent shaft. Smokescreen followed at a steady pace, careful to make as little noise as possible as he moved. Sure enough, Arcee and Cliffjumper lead him straight to a waiting elevator, no cons in sight.
"This elevator is closer to the Med Bay so watch out for guards." Arcee added and they all moved into the elevator and she punched in the code for the next floor. "We'll go up to the floor of the med bay first and then we'll head down."
"Alright, thanks." Smokescreen added and let out a sigh in relief. He sure hoped their plan wouldn't run into more problems.
Arcee stood there quietly as the elevator ascended. She also shared Smokescreen's hope that nothing else will go wrong. Still, so much has happened as of right now she was anticipating for something to happen. Glancing up at Cliffjumper, Arcee was a bit surprised to see he was staring at Miko, almost curiously. Then, looking over at Jaden, Arcee realized he was staring at her quietly, as if he wanted to say something but no words came out.
Arcee couldn't blame him, she was his brother's partner after all.
"Dude, why you staring?" Miko asked, looking up at Cliffjumper, tilting her head a bit.
"Huh? Oh, sorry!" Cliffjumper replied, a little flustered, rubbing the back of his head, and looking at anything but her. "You just remind me of someone!"
"Oh really? Who?" Miko asked curiously and it even sparked Arcee's interest. Cliffjumper never told her that, then again there was really no time to talk since their escape from the brig.
"Oh, this girl who helped me out before the cons got to me." Cliffjumper replied before perking when the elevator came to a stop. "And it's a story for another time."
"You better keep your word on that!" Miko grinned before Smokescreen gently coaxed her and Jaden back into his chest compartment, leaving it open only a sliver again.
"Here's our stop." Smokescreen sighed, glancing up at Arcee and Cliffjumper, nodding a thanks to them before stepping out of the elevator as the doors opened. Luckily, no one was in sight so Smokescreen stole another glance back at the partners.
From his hiding spot, Jaden immediately noticed a look in Arcee's optics. She was staring out past them, at least where she thought was the med bay. Jaden could clearly see the longing in her optics and he had to say something.
"We'll make sure Jack comes home." Jaden said suddenly, opening Smokescreen's chest compartment so he could stand and see Arcee. He knew Arcee wanted to go help Jack just like him but she had her own mission to finish. "Make sure to get us there."
Arcee simply nodded and crossed her arms. "It's good to see you, Jaden but it's not exactly how I imagined meeting. Now go and get your brother." She added with a weak smile before the elevator doors closed and they were alone.
Jaden let out a sigh in relief, as he sat back down beside Miko as Smokescreen began to maneuver through the halls. At least now he was confident Arcee wasn't going to kill them after this.
Scanning the memories, Jack could see several images that he recognized as being on earth. Images of Optimus driving along a dirt road, other images of a forest and so on. Jack even saw the truck Optimus scanned when he first arrived on earth and even when the bots first moved into the base.
Still, the more and more Jack searched through the memories, images of earth began to slowly be replaced by stars, stars seen through the windows of a command bridge of a massive starship. The blue sky darken until Jack could barely see any light coming through smog filled sky. The concrete walls of the base changed to silvery metallic walls.
Suddenly, a memory projected around them and Jack was surprised to see they were in some barren wasteland. Looking around, Jack tried to figure out where they were, unsure if this was a memory of earth or Cybertron. The sky was filled with smog and they were surrounded by mountains but Jack still wasn't sure what planet it was anymore.
Out of nowhere, a sonic boom ripped through the air, startling Jack and Stargazer. The two looked up, stunned to see a massive volcano erupting in front of them. Though, what surprised Jack the most was that the volcano wasn't spewing out lava; it was dark energon.
"Where are we?!" Stargazer asked, clinging to Jack's side in fear.
Jack tried to answer but words were quickly lost to him when a massive metal foot landed beside them. If is was real life they would have been inches from death. Looking up at the owner of the foot, Jack was surprised to see Optimus. The Prime looked battle worn, his armor scratched and his windshields on his chest were shattered yet he didn't look even the least bit exhausted.
Following Optimus' gaze, Jack wasn't surprised to see his adversary was Megatron. The decepticon leader was hundreds of yards away and suddenly began to charge towards them. In turn Optimus charged forward as well and the two commanders raised their arms to strike.
Suddenly, just as the two collided, the air shifted. Everything darkened before an explosion went off. Then, the moment Optimus and Megatron were thrown back by the impact they were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of other Cybertronians on a massive battlefield.
Jack flinched when several explosions went off all around and he looked up, surprised to see Seekers fly overhead, dropping missiles as they passed metal skyscrapers. Though, they were quickly intercepted by a group of autobots fliers before they could get any further into the city.
Looking around, Jack was completely shocked to see autobots and decepticons alike fall one after the next. Some of the fliers on both sides fell from the sky while several ground units collapsed into crumbled heaps, their sparks literally extinguishing right in front of them. Those who fell were quickly forgotten as the battle waged on.
"Autobots! Protect the borders of Tyger Pax at all costs! No one breaks through the defenses!" Optimus suddenly called out through his comm. link once he broke away from Megatron before he activated his ion blaster.
Jack immediately tensed at the mention of Tyger Pax. If memory serves right, Jack heard that name before during one of Ratchet's history lessons. It's a city on Cybertron and that meant this was a memory from Cybertron, long before Optimus and the others came to earth.
"No, this doesn't make sense..." Jack muttered softly, not bothering to hide the horror in his voice of the death and carnage all around him.
"What doesn't make any sense?" Stargazer asked, shouting over the explosions and cannon fire. Looking up at Jack, it was clear that Stargazer was frightened beyond belief.
"All these memories, they all mixed between memories from earth and from Cybertron..." Jack said, shaking his head. "I don't understand. Optimus should have these memories of Cybertron, especially the one when he received the matrix...He should have these memories unless..."
Jack's widened as realization hit and he stumbled back, moving away from the vein in disbelief as the memory began to fade. Jack just stared at the fading memory Optimus as he cut down any decepticon in his path, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach.
"Jack? What's wrong?" Stargazer asked, concerned as he moved to Jack's side, following his gaze to the Autobot commander. "Unless what?"
"Unless Optimus never received his memories of being a Prime that day at the space bridge." Megatron's raspy voice hummed in amusement as the memory faded completely and they were no longer on the battlefield but back in the field of stars.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Megatron added, smirking at how distraught Jack was at the revelation. "That he could keep such a secret hidden for so long; even from his most trusted acquaintances. To think Orion could be filled with so much deception."
"Can't say I'm completely surprised." Jack spat out bitterly. It's not like Optimus hadn't lied before. Optimus lied to Jack when he gave him the Key to Vector Sigma, so why not lie to him about how he utterly failed him?
"Is that so?" Megatron asked, his voice rang with amusement.
"Is that Megatron?" Stargazer asked suddenly, retreating to hide behind Jack and the teen nodded solemnly.
Looking back up at the Decepticon leader, Jack couldn't help but glare. "What took you so long? I almost thought you forgot about me."
"Your little body guards were keeping me entertained. I should say it was an interesting battle. Though, it seems I took so long you even created a little pet to keep you company." Megatron hummed lightly, regarding Stargazer with a smirk.
The sparkling tensed as Megatron exposed his sharp teeth and clung tighter to Jack's side. Jack immediately moved himself between Megatron and Stargazer, anger flashing in his eyes. "Leave him out of this."
"Ah yes, he is of no importance to me." Megatron chuckled, swaying a bit. At that, Jack immediately sensed something was off about Megatron. He seemed unstable, at least more than usual and that was saying something. And then, just now he mentioned fighting with Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee.
Taking a closer look, Jack could make out dents and scratches on Megatron's armor. Not only that but he looked worn out if not exhausted but he must have been hiding it pretty well. This wasn't good, Jack didn't like seeing Megatron in this condition while he was in his mind.
"What do you want from me?" Jack asked, he needed to figure out how to get Megatron out of his head but he obviously wasn't going to give him what he wanted.
"What I am here for is for Optimus." Megatron hummed, taking a step towards him giving Jack a toothy grin which sent shivers down Jack's spine. Jack immediately stepped back when Megatron swayed forward too much for his comfort.
"So you figured it out?" Jack asked, glaring as he stood his ground. Though, now that he thought about it, it was more like stalling. "I'm surprised you even managed."
"Speak for yourself. You had all the proof inside your mind since the incident. I just happen to know Orion much more than you do." Megatron replied, waving off the teen like he was a child.
"Stop calling him that!" Jack suddenly snapped, remembering Raf's birthday party. Optimus had remembered the snowball. "He's still Optimus!"
"I can see why you're so upset but the facts are all around you, Jack." Megatron smirked before taking a step forward, stepping onto a cluster of blue and gold veins. Jack flinched the moment the field of stars faded, revealing a series of memories all around them, both his own and Optimus'.
"You see Jack, when you sent out those manifestations to try to stop me I learned a lot about you from these veins scattered all around us." Megatron smirked and Jack started to feel sick. Megatron had been looking into his memories. He couldn't even begin to imagine how violated he felt but that just made him feel guilty for looking into Optimus' memories.
"You gave up a lot to rescue Optimus. Almost losing your life, not to mention you've been plagued by nightmares ever since." Megatron hummed, circling Jack, every so often looking up at the spiraling memories around them. "You must feel utterly useless for failing him in his time of need."
"Stop!" Jack shouted, griping his head as it began to throb. This wasn't happening, he wasn't going to stand here and listen to Megatron tell him who he thought he was. "You don't know me!"
"On the contrary, I know a lot about you. When you first met the autobots, you nearly left but your partner insisted you stay. Something about losing a partner." Megatron hummed lightly, smirking as an image of that day flickered into view. "And you've been with the autobots since. It's been what? A nearly a human stellar cycle since? Yet, your Sire has worked for the autobots much longer."
"My what?" Jack asked, not understanding at all what he meant, figuring it must be some Cybertronian term. It definitely wasn't something anyone ever said at base.
"Hmm, what is the human term?" Megatron wondered to himself, deep in thought. "Carrier? No, it wasn't your carrier...Creator? Father? Ah yes, your father."
"What?!" Jack shouted, caught completely off guard. Then, just to prove his point a memory suddenly manifested around them and there he was.
Standing on the platform by the monitors at base, his father stood, talking to Optimus. Jack was in too much shock he didn't catch anything they were saying. His dad, he looked exactly the same as he remembered him. It was just surreal seeing him standing there, chatting to Optimus, not at all bothered that he was speaking to a metallic titan.
After a moment, Jack caught on they were talking about some medical project and Jack realized that all this time this is what his dad meant when he said he was working on some big medical breakthrough. Whatever it was it had something to do with the bots. Now that would have been some take your kid to work day.
"You haven't seen your father for a very long time. Perhaps it has something to do for that car accident with your brothers? That the three of you would have never been there had it not been for you and Joshua would still be alive." Megatron wondered to himself and Jack's breath caught in his throat.
He did not just go there.
No, he did not just go there.
"Stop!" Jack screamed suddenly, gripping his head to try to stop the memory from resurfacing but it was too late. Memories from the accident surrounded them and Jack froze in fear. His knees buckled as more and more memories filled his mind until they overwhelmed him.
He wanted them to stop, he wanted it all to stop but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the memories. He didn't want to see this but something kept pulling at him. It was like something was trying to drown him and he was desperately trying to fight it but it was proving too much for him.
Suddenly, Jack was back in Joshua's car, staring outside except this time Stargazer was nowhere in sight but he could still hear him.
"Jack! Jack!" Stargazer called to him, practically screaming his name and Jack could faintly feel his small hands shaking him to snap him out of whatever was happening to him.
"Jack?" Stargazer's voice suddenly morphed, becoming deeper and much softer. Looking up, Jack was vaguely surprised to see Joshua staring at him through the rear view mirror. "You okay? You've been quiet for most of the ride."
Jack said nothing for a moment and turned his attention to the window. "Dad said he'd show up this time."
"Maybe something came up at work?" Jaden suggested.
"Now what could be so important he forgot to pick us up for Jack's big day?" Joshua sighed, shaking his head.
Meeting with a giant alien robot was what Jack wanted to say but the words couldn't come to him. Then it suddenly dawned on him that was a silly thought. There are no such thing as giant alien robots. What he really should focus his attention on was getting ready for the recital.
"Mind singing a song now?" Joshua asked as if reading his mind.
"Maybe." Jack replied, hiding a smile for his brother's persistence.
"Please? Just the beginning of your song? Or how about my favorite song?" Joshua asked hopefully.
Jack chuckled and looked out of the window with a smile, not realizing he had given up fighting the force that was pulling him down.
"Jack! Jack!" Stargazer kept calling to his friend, trying to pull Jack back but his voice fell on deaf ears. Jack was gone and all that was left was a hollow shell in his arms. Stargazer couldn't see it but he knew Jack was trapped in a memory. Something like this had happened before but Stargazer was there to keep him from getting lost. Now Jack was alone and nothing was keeping him up.
He was drowning.
Hugging Jack tightly, Stargazer looked up at Megatron who was admiring his work. Megatron, he did this to him. He made Jack chase after the memory but why?
"It's done. Knock Out, separate the knowledge of the matrix." Megatron ordered, answering Stargazer's question while smirking at the fact that Jack took the bait. "With the boy trapped within the memory he should provide minimal resistance."
"As you command, Lord Megatron." Knock Out called through the patch. It was definitely a help that Jack wouldn't be able to delay the process further. He didn't like the state Megatron was in and just wanted this to be done with. Shaking his head, Knock Out went on to activate the protocols for the program to take effect.
"I'm surprised he's lasted this long…" Sideways commented, watching Jack's physical body.
"He's strong, I'll admit…" Knock Out muttered, not looking up from his work. He glanced up at Jack's vitals and became alarmed when the teen's heart rate suddenly skyrocketed. Looking at Jack's body, Knock Out was surprised to see his body was relaxed and began to think it must have been an error with the machine when a loud crack suddenly brought his attention back to the main monitor.
"Knock Out, what's going on?" Megatron asked looking around him, alarmed as the ground began to crackle beneath them. Then, both gold and blue vein suddenly shot out of the ground and began to rise all around them.
Following the veins, Megatron perked when he noticed the ground beneath Jack seemed to glow as the veins rose around Jack and the sparkling. Though, the strange thing was that the veins seemed to attach to both Jack and the sparkling. The sparkling flinched in fear while Jack remained unresponsive. The veins spiraled around them until they seemed to cradle them but more and more veins appeared, rising high above the two.
Suddenly, another crack ripped through the air and Jack let out a scream as veins suddenly explode out of him, rising high above him, intertwining with the veins that had risen from the ground.
"JACK!" Stargazer screamed out, fearful to have possibly lost his friend for good.
A/N: Well that was fun :) Hoped you like the new chapter. I might have the next chapter up in a week or two, depending how long it takes me to write and how to balance it out with my crazy schedule :I So yeah, please Review! I love hearing from you guys!