:) I want to thank all you guys who've been reading and faving my story these past few weeks. Things have been pretty busy, so your interest is a nice little pick me up amidst all the busyness. Thank you and I can't wait to here what you guys think the next chapter. See you next time! :D

...

Shattered

5. Waking Nightmares

It was dark. The cavern was always dark. Except for where she stood, in a halo of nauseous pink light that turned her yellow paint purple and her turquoise plating black.

Skitter skitter skate.

She looked up, out at the darkness her optics could not penetrate. She could hear them moving around her. She could always hear them moving, but she could never see them. She didn't want to see them. But at the same time she did so she could at least face her demise like an elite guard warrior, rather then sitting shivering in the dark like a youngling afraid of the monster in the storage unit.

Skitter skitter hiss.

She felt her pump pound as the pattern of the darkness changed. It wouldn't be long now. It wouldn't be long until-

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The joint screams of Glyph and Sentinel suddenly bombarded Elita on all sides, filling her audios and rattling around in her processor until she thought they must either sink into her core and shatter her from the inside out or tear her processor apart at the seams.

Hiss hiss skitter hiss, the spiders went.

Elita's determination broke. The screaming and the hissing were too much for her. She bolted into the darkness, leaving the halo of pink light that discolored her frame until she couldn't even recognize herself.

As soon as she did the spiders were on her, biting, hissing, pulling her apart as all around her the screaming continued in one long, breathless, cry.

Elita barely heard her voice join them as the organic spiders continued to bite her, mandibles cutting through armor like it was tin, digging into the softer circuitry underneath before injecting their venom into her.

The change was instantaneous. She could feel the spider venom soak into her systems and begin to change them into something less like her and more like them, eating away at her hardware until she was nothing but revolting soft tissue. The screams of her teammates continued to echo around and inside her head, choking her, pressing in on her spark until it hurt so bad she wished she couldn't feel anything. She opened her mouth to scream-

-and shot straight up in her bed, nearly falling to the floor in the process.

Elita clapped her servos over her mouth to keep the scream of terror in. The last thing she needed, a distant part of her processor thought, were the neighbors calling the authorities to investigate someone screaming in what was supposed to be an empty house.

For a long, silent moment she sat there, systems – organic and cybernetic – working overtime to cool her heated frame down and restore some kind of balance to her body.

When that infernal organic thumping no longer felt like it was going to climb up her throat, she took her servos away from her mouth and leaned forward with a shaky expulsion of air from her vents.

"It was just a nightmare," she told herself a she leaned her elbows on her knees and hung her head between them, "the same fragging nightmare you've had every night since you got back. Nothing to stress over." She told herself.

Her body didn't quite believe her, but she thought it needed to be said anyway.

Skitter skitter hiss.

Elita froze as the terrible sound drifted through the partly open bedroom door. It had come from the living area she thought. For an awful second she thought that the spiders had followed her out of the dream. That they were here, in her house…

But her logic centers quickly shoved that thought aside as they shook off the haze left behind by her recharge. There were no organics here on Cybertron, much less Transformer sized spiders lurking somewhere in her living room.

Crash!

But that didn't necessarily mean she was alone.

Silently Elita rolled off the bed, stabilizing servos hitting the floor without a whisper. She cocked her head and listened.

She remained perfectly still and, after a long handful of cycles, was rewarded with a faint scuff coming from the living room. She wasn't sure but she thought it was a stabilizing servo knocking against one of the chair legs.

Her biggest concern though was that the intruder was slowly shuffling their way to her bedroom.

Quickly, Elita looked around the room. There was nowhere to hide and the window would take too long to open. That meant the only way out of the room was the door, and aside from the short hallway that separated the sleeping quarters from the rest of the house, there was nothing to keep the intruder-bot from seeing her when she made her escape. Not unless…

Elita looked up at the wall next to her, an idea forming in her head as bits of memory, distorted by her dark dreaming, floated to the surface of her processor. Experimentally, she laid a servo flat against the wall and tugged gently.

Her servo stuck firm.

Elita felt herself smirk. It seemed this half organic frame still had its uses after all.

Quickly, silently, Elita climbed the wall and made her way to the ceiling. Her extra limbs made no sound as she clambered over the door frame towards the kitchen. It was next to the living room, but there was a short section of wall that separated them. With a look to make sure that the intruder (or perhaps intruders) wasn't looking her way, Elita scrambled across the hall upside down towards the half wall where it ran against the ceiling.

"Maybe not the best hiding place," she thought as she hunkered down behind it, flattening her body to the top of the room, "but it'll do."

After a moment where nothing happened, Elita peeked around the side of her hiding place.

There was a figure standing in her living room. She couldn't tell who they were, or what they wanted because there was some sort of distortion field around them, making it impossible for her to discern anything of importance about the intruder.

All she knew for certain was that they were small – perhaps a head shorter than herself – and they knew enough about her home to get past the securities she and Optimus had installed when they'd moved in, which implied that they either had been watching them for some time, or they had been here before.

Elita's four optics narrowed at the disguised figure looking around her living room. Now that she thought about it, there was something slightly familiar about them, although for the life of her she couldn't tell what…

She suddenly ran out of time as the intruder looked up, light blue optics latching onto Elita almost instantly.

The femme gasped as the familiarity of those large optic struck her again-

-just as the intruder pulled out a high powered stun gun and opened fire on the techno-organic clinging to the ceiling.

...

It took Optimus and Jazz about fifteen cycles by train to reach Leo's preschool. Most of the parents and guardian-bots had already come and retrieved their charges, so the building was fairly quiet what with the lack of screaming younglings, happy or otherwise.

Leo ran up to his dad as soon as Optimus stepped into the room reserved for Leo's age group. Optimus smiled at the little bot as he smoothly knelt down to pick him up. It was a weaker version of the smile he had had before, but it was real, and that was good enough for the small mech.

"Hey buddy," Optimus said as he hugged the little bot. "Were you good for Miss Starchaser today?" He asked.

The teacher in question came up to stand behind her young student. She was a slender femme, with thin legs and light green arms that were faster then they appeared. She had a sweet face and expressive blue optics, but right now they looked rather sad as she watched Leo and his father together.

"Yes Daddy," Leo answered like he did every orbit before peeking around his dad's broad shoulder to stare at the bot standing behind him. "Who's that?" He asked in his small voice.

Optimus half turned to see who Leo meant before looking back at the youngling. "He's a new bot where I work," he explained, "and he needed help finding his way home today."

"Soo…" Leo said as he peered at Jazz again, "work's following you home now?"

Optimus actually managed to laugh. "Yeah, I guess so. Now you ready to go home young bot?"

Leo smiled and chirped a yes before Starchaser stepped in.

"Excuse me Optimus, but can I speak with you before you go?" She asked, optics darting between Leo at their feet and Jazz standing behind Optimus. "In private?" She added in a soft voice.

Optimus looked up at the slender green femme and thought that this probably wasn't about Leo's math project, which he'd forgotten to do last orn.

"Yes, of course," Optimus told the teacher bot, "Leo, why don't you go play a cycle while I talk with your teacher, alright?"

Leo nodded, optics already sliding away towards the building set he'd been playing with before his dad had arrived. "Alright," he said before running off.

Optimus stood up and followed Starchaser into the office, leaving Jazz by the door.

The ninja-bot vented a slow sigh as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chassis. With nothing else to do he found himself looking around the large playroom, logging away weak areas of the structure and probable points of entry in his processor. Personally he thought this place needed a serious upgrade in the security department. Why, a Decepticon could just crash through those windows at the east end and snatch one of the kids before the teacher could even scream. Or-

Jazz shook his head when he realized what he was doing. "Man I've got to find a place to chill around this joint but soon or I'm gonna end up blowin' a circuit." He mumbled to himself.

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Jazz frowned and looked up at the little voice. Across the room, Leo had fastened bright blue optics on him, building blocks temporarily forgotten on the floor in front of him.

Jazz grinned at the mechling. "Yeah kid, it's a super secret technique I learned a long time ago. Keeps me from losin' my processor." There was a slight Dink! Dink! as he tapped a digit against the side of his head.

Leo blinked at him. "Mama would say that talking to yourself means you already lost your processor." He chirped, and then went back to stacking blocks.

Jazz stared at the little bot, taken aback by the quick comeback. Most kids he knew were either too shy or too loud to make for decent company.

And now the kid was ignoring him to boot.

Curious now, Jazz made his way across the room and crouched down next to the little boy. For a moment he watched him carefully stack blocks on top of each other.

"It's gonna fall." Jazz told the kid after awhile.

Leo, in the process of putting the roof onto his little structure, frowned at the grown up bot. "It is not." He defended his handiwork with childish stubbornness.

Slowly, like a SWAT member deciding which wire to cut on a ticking bomb, Leo lowered the roof block onto the walls.

They collapsed in a wooden heap as soon as he let go.

"Aw…" Leo mumbled in disappointment. "It wasn't supposed to do that. My blocks at home are betterer."

Jazz looked at the pouting mechling and decided that telling him that 'betterer' wasn't a word just wasn't worth the effort right now. Maybe in a few vorns when the kid had learned a basic understanding of proper grammar.

"Probably." He agreed instead on the block issue before glancing up at the large windows between the playroom and the teacher's office. He could see Optimus and Starchaser talking, but the angle was awkward enough that he couldn't tell what they were saying.

"Hey," he nudged the child sitting next to him with a digit. Leo looked up and Jazz jerked his chin toward the window. "What'd'ya supposed they're talking about in there?"

Leo looked over at the window too. Then turned back to his blocks with a small shrug. "I dunno. Grown up stuff I guess." He mumbled as he laid two blocks on the floor for the base of another house. This one was going to work, he just knew it. And it'd have two stories instead of just one like before.

Jazz gave the kid an unimpressed look. "'Grown up stuff'? Is that all you can think of?"

Leo just shrugged and started putting up the walls of his house.

Jazz sighed. "Aren't you at least a little curious about what they're talking about? I mean, for all we know, they could be talking about sending you off to military school." He suggested.

Leo's head snapped up at that. For a minute he looked worried that this might be true, but then he scowled at the ninja-bot.

"Hey!" He shouted. "They are not!"

Jazz slanted an optic at him. "And how do you know huh?"

Leo puffed his little chest out fiercely. "Because Daddy wouldn't send me away like that!" He said louder.

"But you don't know for sure that's not what they're talking about." Jazz pressed.

"I do to!" Leo shouted back.

"Ya do not."

"Do to!"

"Not!"

"To!"

And then Leo stuck his tongue out at Jazz.

"So there!" Leo said decisively.

Jazz looked at the self decided winner and did the only thing he still could.

He made a face at the little bot and said, "Nyah!"

Leo gave a startled blink. And then burst out laughing.

Jazz propped his chin on one servo and waited for the little bot to get himself under control.

…and then waited a little more…

…and a little more…

Finally he rolled his optics behind his visor. "Alright kid it wasn't that funny." He drawled, but he couldn't quite keep the smile off of his faceplates.

Leo's laughter finally died down. "It was too," he said as he rubbed at his face.

Not wanting to start this whole thing over again, Jazz rolled his optics again and said, "Whatever you say kid."

Leo grinned victoriously and squirmed in his seat on the floor.

"Ya know what," he said after a cycle, "you're an okay bot." But then he leaned closer to Jazz and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "For a grown up anyway."

Jazz chuckled. "Better be careful with that kind of talk kid. Yer classmates will all think yer a traitor for sidin' with us treacherous grown ups."

But little Leo didn't seem phased. "But they're not here right now. All their mommies and daddies came and got them mega-cycles ago. Miss Starchaser only lets me stay late 'cuz Daddy can't stop working at the same time as the other daddies."

Leo suddenly stilled as a thought struck his young processor. Jazz watched with some concern as the block Leo had picked up stalled about halfway through its journey off the floor.

Then, in a small voice, he told Jazz, "Mama used to pick me up when Daddy couldn't, but she can't come get me anymore."

The little bot stared at the blocks in his servos as if he suddenly didn't know what to do with them. Jazz watched him, spark suddenly heavy.

Before the older mech could say anything Leo suddenly mumbled, "I threw some blocks in school today. I threw 'em hard cuz they weren't doing what they were s'posed to. It made a big mess and one'a the blocks hit Cloudraker in the head. He cried and his brother Fastlane hit me a'cuz of it. That's what Daddy and Miss Starchaser are talking about right now." Leo admitted, sounding ashamed of himself.

Jazz sat and watched the withdrawn bot. He hadn't known a little kid like him could sound so guilty about something he'd done. Most younglings Jazz had come into contact with were spoiled rotten brats that thought they could get away with anything. But obviously Leo knew better.

Jazz put a servo on the little bot's back, hoping it made him feel at least a little bit better.

"I think yer Daddy and Miss Starchaser understand why ya did it lil mech." He told him in a low voice.

Leo glanced up at Jazz with big, watery optics. "I still shouldn'ta done it." He mumbled.

"No," Jazz sighed, "probably not."

Leo turned his head suddenly and rubbed at his optics where he thought Jazz couldn't see. He sniffed loudly as the coolant tears started to slide down his face.

"Ya miss yer mama an awful lot huh?" Jazz asked him gently.

Leo nodded his head a little and sniffed again.

"I had a dream a little bit ago," the little bot spoke up again a cycle later in a voice barely heard even in the silence of the empty room, "before Daddy had ta go back to work. It was a scary dream at first, because it was dark and I couldn't find Daddy anymore. But then Mama showed up. I couldn't see her, but she put a servo on my head like she used to do when I was dreaming something scary and it made me feel better."

From the way the little bot turned so Jazz couldn't' see his face, the older bot thought Leo wasn't feeling better anymore.

"Poor little guy," Jazz thought, "It ain't right for a bot as young as him to have to know what death is."

But right or not, Leo did know, and nothing could restore his ignorance. Even if his mother had appeared right then and there to hold him.

A moment later a door opened and Optimus stepped out of the teacher's office, Starchaser behind him.

Jazz heard the little bot give a small, distressed whine as he jumped to his feet and ran over to his dad, arms held out to him. This time he didn't say anything as Optimus picked him up and said something that only the boy could hear.

Leo just wrapped his small arms around his dad's neck and put his head on his shoulder. The only sound he made was the occasional sniff as coolant slid out from under his optic shutters and trickled down his face.

Optimus said something to Starchaser that Jazz couldn't hear. As the ninja-bot stood up and walked over to them, the teacher laid a soft hand on Leo's back before saying goodbye.

Leo just turned and buried his face in Optimus' neck without saying anything.

"We'll see you tomorrow Starchaser. Thanks for giving me the heads up."

Starchaser nodded and folded her hands in front of her white and green frame. "Of course Optimus." She murmured.

"Alright then little mech," Optimus said as he hefted Leo higher against his frame so he wouldn't slip right out of his arms, "let's go home."

Leo just nodded as his dad walked out the door and into the strong sunshine of the late afternoon.

Jazz followed a few steps behind. He didn't want to intrude on their family grief.

...

They walked the handful of blocks to Jazz's building in silence with Jazz following at a distance to give them some space, but not far enough that he lost sight of them on the heavily populated street corners in the shopping district.

"Well," Optimus murmured quietly as they approached the gray colored building Jazz had left that morning, "this is your stop. Hopefully you can find your own way from here."

Jazz nodded. "I hope it wasn't too far outta yer way. Where you two headed from here?" He asked just as quietly. He wasn't sure since the little bot still had his face buried in his father's neck, but he thought Leo had fallen into recharge somewhere between here and the preschool.

Optimus half turned to look over his left shoulder. "Just around the corner. We don't live far from here."

Jazz nodded, then pointed to Leo. "Tell little mech here I said I'll see 'im later then."

Optimus nodded as a little voice squeaked out, "Bye Jazz."

Jazz smiled a little. "Later kid," he told Leo as he reached out and ruffled the little bot's helm.

Nodding a goodbye to Optimus, Jazz turned and headed into his apartment building. The elevator was busted, so he took the stairs.

All twenty-eight levels of them.

It didn't really bother him like it would most other bots. They'd obviously never had to spar with Master Yoketron or they wouldn't be complaining. For an old bot, he sure knew how to kick aft still. And besides, walking up the long flights of stairs gave Jazz a chance to think.

His predecessor – this Sentinel Prime that had led the botched mission to Archa-7 – crossed his thoughts more then a couple of times. And of course from there it wasn't a big jump to the other members of the team, one femme in particular and the two bots she had left behind.

He had just made it to the flat landing between floors fourteen and fifteen when he heard a familiar little voice come through the window next to him. The building's coolant systems must have been busted too because the window, along with the fourteen others he had already passed, was wide open to try and thin out the stifling air inside the apartment complex.

"Daddy! That's our house!"

Jazz turned and looked down at the street to see Optimus and Leo standing in the middle of the public walk beneath him. Even the distance couldn't hide their shock as they stared, probably open mouthed, in the direction of their home.

Jazz quickly saw why. On the other side of the row of buildings across the street from him, a plume of gray-black smoke was rising into the air, like a charcoal smudge against the sky.

Below him, Optimus took off running towards their street, Leo held securely in his arms. Off in the distance, Jazz could just make out the sirens that signaled the fire department was on their way.

Optimus and Leo would get there well ahead of them and, fearing what they would do after suffering a blow like losing a spark mate and a mother, Jazz did what he thought was best-

-and jumped out of a fifteen story window.

He hung in the air for a split-klik before gravity got over its surprise and began to pull him down. Arms held out for balance, knees drawn up like he had been taught, Jazz let it.

Then as he passed the third floor, with the ground rapidly looming up to crush him flat, Jazz reached out and caught hold of the electrical line that spread across the street.

He only stayed there long enough to change the angle of his flight by kicking out to the side until his stabilizing servos came in contact with the pole that the wires connect to. It wasn't much of a spring board, but it was enough to get him to the other side of the street, where he landed effortlessly on the top of a small store.

Without pausing, Jazz ran across the roof of the store and leapt over the edge down to street level. After dropping the twelve stories from his apartment building, the one story to the ground was nothing. After that it was a straightforward matter of running up the street to the smoking house.

He reached the building just as Optimus and Leo did. For a brief nano-klik, Optimus stared at his home, optics wide and mouth hanging open. Jazz however, kept his optics on Optimus instead; more worried about the other bot then the building.

"Sweet Primus," Jazz heard the other bot mumbled, "Elita."

Jazz felt his optics narrow. Elita? Like the late Elita that had perished on Archa-7? Had Optimus' processor just snapped from the burden of a burning home being added to the grief of losing a mate?

The fire must have been worse then Jazz had thought, because a sudden explosion made them both duck, Leo protected by his dad's body covering his. The sound of shattering glass and the roar of fire incensed by the sudden oxygen told Jazz that a window had just blown out.

"No!" Optimus shouted in something akin to total panic as he stared in horror at the flames. Off in the distance, the sirens of the emergency vehicles were growing steadily louder, but they were still too far off for Jazz's liking.

"What the-" Jazz said as a quivering Leo was suddenly shoved into his arms.

"Take him!" Optimus ordered. And then before Jazz could shout out more then a few words, Optimus turned and darted towards the burning building.

"Daddy!" Leo screamed.

"OP! Wait!" Jazz tried.

But if Optimus heard either of them, he didn't respond. Just ran to the window and leapt through the roiling smoke into the house.

Distantly, Jazz heard the thump as he hit the floor and rolled. And then curiously enough he heard something else. The shriek of…a weapon of some sort firing quickly followed by a cry of pain. A strangely feminine cry…

Ideas began to accelerate across Jazz's processor. He was naturally a very curious bot and Master Yoketron had taught him mental prowess along with the physical. Those were probably the main reasons he was now an elite guard intelligence bot, but just because he was off duty didn't mean he stopped trying to piece things together.

Like why he was now hearing the sounds of struggle coming from inside the house.

And why a femme was one of the combatants.

And why Optimus had stared in such horror at the flames boiling out of his home.

And especially why the first thing the other bot had said was the name of his deceased mate.

Supposedly deceased mate, Jazz internally corrected himself.

"Oh Primus!" A high voice gasped next to him, shaking Jazz out of his thoughts. He turned to see a sea foam green femme with the elite guard insignia on her shoulder armor standing next to him. Like Starchaser, she had large, expressive optics and a slender frame. Right now though, her servos were clasped over her mouth as she stared at the burning domicile.

"Who're you?" Jazz asked the startled femme bot.

The femme turned to look at him with her wide, sweet optics. "Moonracer," she told him, "I live next door. Optimus isn't in there is he?" She asked in horror.

Jazz felt his mouth thin. "'Fraid so," he told her and then plunked Leo into her arms. She scooped him up automatically.

"What are you doing?" She yelled at him as he turned and ran to the door, smoke pouring out of the cracks provided by the doorjamb.

Jazz didn't slow as he shouted back at the femme. "Making sure he doesn't get his fool self killed!"

And then without question, he kicked open the door and dove straight into the burning internals of the house after Prime.