Chapter 10: Aftermath
Thunderous sighed, running a hand over his face. It was a habit he'd started doing a lot more often recently. The seeker in the brig cell before him didn't move so much as an inch, and hadn't since the Prime had arrived and he had turned his back to Thunderous.
"Skywarp…" he started again, and then paused, wings drooping. Silence settled in the Tagan Heights brig for a long moment. "You think I had a choice in this?" he finally asked quietly. "Because I didn't. If I'd known—" He cut himself off, still unsure after all this time what he would have done if he had known.
"Well you sure as pit didn't have to take it from Starscream, did you?" Skywarp growled lowly.
"No. I didn't." The larger seeker agreed softly. "But it happened. I can't change it now, Warp. And I have to do this."
"Why?" The other seeker snapped, still with his back to the Prime.
"Because we were wrong!" Thunderous snapped back, and then sighed, slumping. "We always were, Warp, and I knew that, somewhere in my spark. I just didn't have the bearings to act on it."
Skywarp didn't answer, and the Prime leaned back against the wall, running a hand over his face. After a long moment he muttered, "This isn't a good place for you to be, Warp."
Skywarp spun his turbines in a way that was sarcastically dismissive. It was a noise only he could make, and Thunderous had never quite figured out how he did it.
"I mean especially for you." He growled. "There are a lot of Autobots who want your helm on a stick for what happened to Prowl."
Skywarp snorted. "Would've got you if the little fragger hadn't gotten in the way." He shifted at last to glance over his shoulder. "Would they want my head if I had grabbed you instead of him?"
Thunderous shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Probably not as many of them. But it wouldn't change anything. This is where I am now, Skywarp. And I wish you could be here with me—"
"Yeah, don't hold your vents or anything."
"I'm not. But if you change your mind…"
"I won't."
Thunderous sighed, rolling his optics. "I don't know why I even try." He grumbled, and turned to the door. He paused on his way out, checking to be sure his left hand was hidden from the cameras. "I'm sorry this came between us more than anything Starscream ever did, Warp." He admitted. "But I can't really say I'm sorry it happened."
Skywarp didn't answer, and finally the Prime left.
~0~
Jazz was leaning over her with the hugest grin on his face when she finally booted up. And it was 100% Jazz, too, not a trace of Ricochet left on his frame. That told Star the most important thing, so she offlined her optics again.
"Go away." She muttered.
"Aww, c'mon, femme, doncha wanna hear what happened?" Jazz laughed.
"Shoo." Ratchet waved the saboteur away and Jazz retreated a few steps. The medic ran a scan over the femme without comment, frowning at what he saw. He walked away, still without saying a word.
Jazz snickered. "Y'know, ya really shouldn't stay under so long, I think Ratch's angrier now than he was when it happened. Th'shock an' awe musta worn off."
Star hummed, reaching up to gingerly touch her throbbing helm. The med-bay doors opened and heavy footsteps drew near. The Nova smiled a tiny bit.
"Thunderous," she greeted.
"Star. How do you feel?" The Prime returned.
"Like my head's going to split open. How are you?"
"Well enough."
Ratchet returned with a cube of green-blue energon and plopped it down on the berth next to her head. Star cracked her optics open. "Can I get a pain chip while you're up?" she asked. The CMO turned a withering look on her while he changed the settings on a monitor, and she tried not to smile. "Aw, I missed you, too, Ratchet."
Ratchet growled, his expression darkening, and Star tried not to flinch as he stomped back over, brandishing a wrench.
"Don't hit my head, it hurts!" the seeker whined, lifting her arms to shield it.
"You almost died!" Ratchet barked, slamming the wrench down on the berth beside her, making her jump a bit.
"We would have lost the province otherwise!" Star defended herself.
"You didn't have to drag half the canyon up to win the battle!" the medic snarled, waving his wrench around violently. "You didn't have to keep it up as long as you did, we could have handled the rest! But nooooo the Nova has to show off until it fragging kills her, doesn't she?!"
"I was not showing off!" Star protested, and then shrank when the CMO loomed over her. "Okay, I was showing off a little bit. But they're not coming back here any time soon, are they?"
"I don't care." Ratchet growled, jabbing his wrench into her shoulder to accent his words. "It was unnecessary, and it wouldn't have done us any good if you had died. The only reason you didn't is because you somehow managed to crash your sorry aft into the tunnel Prowl happened to be lost in."
"Fragging pit!" Star sat up fast. "That was Prowl in the tunnel, wasn't it?" She slumped over, putting her head into her hands and moaning at the stabbing pain the abrupt movement had sent through it. Ratchet snatched the energon off the berth and shoved it at her.
"Drink this, you moron." He snapped, and then stomped off to finish putting away monitors and medical devices.
Star took it with a wince at the bright med-bay lights, which her head had decided were now a problem. She slowly turned to let her legs hang off the side of the berth, sipping from the cube. Jazz vaulted over the berth and landed next to her.
"You are not gonna believe how Prowl an' th'twins managed t'not die!" he crowed. Star flinched at his volume, and then glanced at him sharply. "Aw yeah, you heard tha' right!" Jazz exclaimed gleefully. "They made it out, too!"
The seeker leaned down suddenly, narrowing her optics on the mech. "Modulate your volume or I will punch you in the throat." She growled.
Jazz snickered. "A'right, jeez, no need t'get all testy."
Star glanced back as someone moved, and caught Thunderous trying to sneak back out of the med-bay. "Prime," she called, and the large seeker turned back. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked, and then waved him over, patting the spot next to her. "C'mon. Sit with us for a while."
"I have some things that I should see to," he tried to excuse himself.
"Are there alarms going off?" Star asked.
Thunderous paused, looking confused. "No?"
"Then it can wait. Sit." The Prime shifted, uncomfortable. The Nova narrowed her gaze. "Sit down, Thunderous Prime." She ordered. Jazz smirked at him and finally the seeker flicked his wings back, giving in. He trudged over and Star and Jazz scooted to the end of the berth so the huge mech would have room. As soon as he sat, the femme looped her arm through his with a smile, and turned back to Jazz.
"Alright. Now go."
"A'right, so here's what I got between th'three o' them. So Prowl got dragged straight t'Darkmount, 'cause they knew he knew where TP was hidin' out an' all, an' th'twins ended up there after an orn or so, too, after they wouldn' break. About five joors after th'twins get there, an' by now all three of 'em are in pretty bad condition, th'alarms start goin' off. Th'next thing th'twins know, th'powers goin' out. So they high-tail it outta th'brig, get about half a hallway away, an' get jumped from behind. Meanwhile, Starscream had been workin' on Prowl in an interrogation room, left right when th'alarms went off, an' then th'power went out right when a guard was comin' in. So Prowl plays dead until th'guard's not lookin', an' then jumps 'im. He heads down th'hall, turns a corner, and finds a coupla femmes standin' there!"
Star shook her helm. "Should have known that attack was the femmes."
"Right? So they stand there lookin' at each other fer a second, an' then one of 'em tossed a stun grenade at Prowler, an' in his state it sent 'im straight t'stasis. Next thing any of 'em knew, they were wakin' up in th'femmes med-bay all alone with just a little note scratched on their arms tellin' 'em where everybody'd gone."
Star sighed. "If Starscream wasn't such a proud aft, we might have known it was the femmes that sent Darkmount into lockdown and I would have known to look for them there."
"I know, right?" Jazz tilted his helm, obviously rolling his optics behind his visor. "So the three of 'em got up an' hurried over. Missed mosta th'action, o'course, but got here in time for Prowl t'save you an' th'twins ta save me."
"Save you from what?" Star demanded.
Jazz shrugged. "Someone took a shot at me after ya fell inta th'canyon. They mighta killed me right there if th'twins hadn't stood up fo' me."
"Hm." She eyed the short mech for a moment, and then asked, "What was Prowl doing lost in the tunnels if he'd been with the twins?"
"He sent 'em ahead, since he was a lot more damaged than they were. Y'know he drug ya around for almost a joor before he found 'is way t'the community? Woulda left ya somewhere an' come back for ya, but he didn' know if he'd be able t'find ya again if he did."
"He was running on fumes by the time a medic got to him, and you were even worse." Ratchet complained as he came back over with a scanner. "Move, you two." He ordered. Jazz and Thunderous shifted away from the femme so the scanner could get a good reading on her. Jazz moved back and Star pulled the Prime back once the medic was done. Ratchet pursed his lips, humming at the readouts. "Your energy levels are climbing steadily and your spark is stable." He finally reported, and lowered the scanner to glare at the femme. "You may go, but you are on medical leave until I say you're not. Understand? That means no showing off!"
Star grinned impishly, but the expression fell when she glanced down at herself. She still looked like Verasuvius, even if Jazz didn't look like Ricochet anymore. "What about my frame?"
Ratchet frowned. "Slow shift. You can change your optic color and your insignias for now, but the rest better be a slow transition. You'd better not be in here for any reason other than a check-up until you are off leave, femme." He growled. He held up a hand, showing her a pain chip. "Understand?"
"Yes, Ratchet. I promise not to overtax myself." The seeker said with as much innocence as she could muster. Ratchet only glared as he handed the chip over. Star quickly inserted it into a port and sighed as her headache disappeared.
"Now get out." The CMO snapped.
The three of them quickly vacated the med-bay. "So what's happened since the battle?" Star asked, blinking her optics a few times as they slowly shifted to blue.
"Well." Jazz started. "Didn't get Screamer, too bad 'bout that. We did manage t'capture Skywarp, but a couple joors later he escaped. Some sort of malfunction with Percy's anti-warp field." The saboteur stared over the femme's head at Thunderous. "Still not sure what happened there." He said.
The Prime's engines coughed uncomfortably, but he didn't comment. Star and Jazz smirked.
"Probably for the best." Star speculated.
"Prob'ly." Jazz agreed. "Other than that, we got Autobots flocking t'our door from all over Cybertron. Haven't seen th'femmes since the battle—they left as quick as they came, no trace of 'em. Might be a good idea for ya t'start getting' in contact with 'em more often. We need t'start coordinatin' our efforts an' stuff."
"That should be doable, now that I'm not tied down here." Star agreed. A group of Autobots turned a corner and stopped suddenly when they saw the three of them. Star and Jazz smiled and greeted them casually as they passed. None of them answered, skirting around the trio with odd looks and hushed whispers.
"They'll get over it, 'ventually. Jus' give 'em some time." Jazz stage-whispered to the seekers as they went around the same corner.
Star lifted her wings. "I'm sure it'll be better once I don't look like… this." She gestured at her sleek black frame, pursing her lips.
Jazz chuckled. "I dunno, kinda always liked Verasuvius' style."
"Ugh, stylish, yes, but a monster to keep up. You can see every scratch and fleck of dust ever, and I hate having to worry about it. Besides, nobody else has this nice of a paint job, I stick out."
"Hey, you should see some 'o th'paint jobs people are gettin' now that they have that option again. Yikes." Jazz shook his head with a grin. "Been so long since they've had a paint job that some of 'em forgot how t'match colors!"
Star pushed him a bit. "Just because you had the privilege of a nice paint job this whole time! They'll get over that, too, I'm sure."
"Y'should keep th'black, though. Looks good on ya." Jazz said with a wink.
The femme snorted with laughter, pushing him again. "You flirting with me, short stuff?"
Jazz put a hand to his chest as the elevator door opened in front of them. "Me? Naw, never. Can't I give ya a compliment, femme?"
Star crossed her arms over her chest, peering down at the mech as he grinned his widest, most innocent grin. "I suppose. Thank you. Maybe I will keep the black."
"Ya missed th'big party, y'know." Jazz mentioned as the elevator rose.
"Did I." the Nova rolled her optics with a smirk.
"It was pretty wild. Been a long time since I been t'a party I actually enjoyed." Jazz speculated, the ghost of a frown on his face.
"Hm. Well, guess I should have been there, then." Star said, her expression softening a bit.
"TP didn't seem too thrilled with it, though." Jazz grinned up at the huge seeker taking up half the elevator.
For his part, Thunderous Prime wasn't sure why he was still following them or where they were even going. He frowned slightly at the minibot. "I'm not a huge fan of parties." He admitted.
"Well, I'm just gonna hafta fix that, aren't I?" Jazz announced, putting his hands on his hips. ""Cause, y'know, Optimus wasn't either, an Prowl still isn't, but at least they never looked like they wanted t'crawl outta their own armor when they were there."
Thunderous almost looked offended at that.
"Ooooh, he went and called you out, Prime!" Star crowed, laughing as she stepped out of the elevator and into her quarters.
She stopped suddenly, looking around the circular room as if seeing it for the first time. Datacases full of files, pristine couches, delicate crystal formations that she had carved herself littering every horizontal surface, the little table by the window facing the Hole… She sighed.
"Buncha mechs tried t'bring it down when they couldn't get up here t'ransack th'place." Jazz said. "Hot Spot nixed that, though."
The saboteur wandered toward the table, tapping the floor to bring up the energon dispenser.
"We should bring it down." Star murmured. Thunderous glanced at her, surprised. "Verasuvius lived here." She explained quietly. "It was a symbol of power and rank. Alternatively, it gave me and Jazz a safe place to be ourselves, to remember why we were here." She smiled up at the Prime, accepting the cube of green-blue energon Jazz handed her. "We don't need any of that anymore."
Jazz held up a cube of high-grade to Thunderous, grinning, and when the small mech clearly wasn't going to take 'no' as an answer, the seeker took it.
"To Thunderous Prime." Star said with a smile, lifting her cube. "Because if you hadn't happened, we would still be Verasuvius and Ricochet, and this province would still belong to the Decepticons."
"I hear that!" Jazz agreed, lifting his cube as well.
Thunderous frowned down at the cube of high-grade. "You didn't need me to do this." He said.
"'Course we did." Jazz protested.
"No." The Prime looked up, confused and almost a little lost. "You didn't. I'm not the strategist Prowl is. I'm not an inspiring leader of any sort—I didn't even want to be the air commander. I didn't have resources the way you did, and I'm not powerful the way you are, Nova. I didn't bring anything to the table; you already had what you needed to do this. You didn't need me. That's what I don't understand. That's what I've never understood." He admitted quietly, looking down.
Star smiled softly. "Sources of light so often fail to recognize what they contribute to everyone around them." She said, and took a sip of energon. Thunderous stared at her, even more confused. Jazz chuckled.
"Ya know what we didn't have that'cha brought, TP?" the minibot looked up at him, visor bright. "Hope." He lifted his cube. "So here's t'hope."
Star lifted her cube as well, and this time they waited for the Prime to join them. And he did. He put a hand to his chest as he followed them over to the couches. The matrix was burning next to his spark like a torch, and that was how he knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Jazz was right. He wasn't supposed to be a strategist, or an inspirational speaker, or lift metric tons of metal with the wave of a hand. They already had people who did those things.
He was just there to be a beacon of hope. And that task would have been more daunting than the others combined, but he finally understood that it wasn't him. He was merely a vessel. An active Matrix of Leadership and someone to channel the wisdom in it was what the Autobots had been missing, and his simple existence was filling that need. All he had to do was continue to exist, and allow the Matrix to speak through him.
He smiled, finally, as Jazz filled Star in on the party she had missed with enthusiasm, even chuckling a bit at the mech's theatrics. A weight was gone from his spark, and for the first time since he had acquired it, the Matrix was comfortable in his chest.
He could do this. And who knew? They might even turn this whole war around.