Shade Penn wrote a wonderful story called 'Come and Get it' which has inspired many AUs, including this one. I highly recomend reading that story, as this story diverges at Chapter 12/13, when Jack, who has been transformed into a wolf predacon, was sent off the Nemesis and into the path of the Autobots, who miss their chance to save him. This story is what would've happened had the Autobots rescued Jack in the desert. I'm posting this with Shade Penn's permission, and hope you enjoy.
"We'll take him back with us." Optimus decided, and ordered Ratchet to open a ground bridge. Bulkhead grabbed the wolf who didn't fight, tail even wagging slightly.
A roar of rage and disapointment followed them through.
"Prime, what are you thinking?!" Agent Fowler demanded, and yelped as suddenly, June shoved past him, dodging Ratchet and Sideswipe's attempts to grab her.
"Jack!" She called out. The tail wagged again as the wolf's ears went forward.
"Mo-oom." He managed, and wiggled a little in Bulkhead's grasp. "St-tt-ill-grr-ounnded-till-twenny-five?"
Bulkhead almost dropped Jack. That was not something a con would have cared to know about, as it was, he gently set Jack down, letting him try and curl around his mother who did her best to hug him. Arcee knelt down next to them both, earning another slight wag of the tail.
"Jack, is that really you?" Miko yelped as her attempt to get to Jack was thwarted by Wheeljack scooping her up. The wrecker also moved closer to Ultra Magnus, fully prepared to cover his commander in case this proved to be a trap.
Though with the way the wolf was trying to make itself small enough to be touched by June, he was pretty sure it wasn't. Miko looked up at him annoyed, and Wheeljack gave a small shake of his head. "Let June go first, kid."
"Jack?" June noticed something else, her son's optics were dull and barely open, and it seemed like- well, if he was still flesh, she would've said his breathing was labored. "Ratchet! Something's wrong!"
"Probably needs energy, Rafael, I need you to set up the scanners." Ratchet held up a syringe, light glinting of it slightly.
Jack suddenly growled, optics opening and glowing green. Instead of attacking however, he ducked behind Arcee and June, optics on the syringe.
There was a moment where everyone took in the fact that Jack was far too big to effectively hide behind either of them. Jack seemed to realize this, and scrambled to hide behind Optimus, though his movements were uncoordinated, and he nearly knocked Smokescreen off balance in the process.
"Jack?" Arcee questioned, glancing between him and Ratchet. "What's wrong?"
"Maybe he doesn't like shots?" Miko called out. She had stopped trying to get to Jack, and was watching the proceedings with curiosity. Raf had moved from his computer while the programs for the scanners loaded to stand near Agent Fowler, both uncertain about how to deal with the proceedings in front of them but unable to stop watching.
"Jack. You are safe. Ratchet will not harm you, I promise." Optimus spoke, and Jack's ears twitched. He looked up at Optimus for a long moment, and then closed his optics.
Arcee stopped June from running to her son when the wolf collapsed. Optimus and Ratchet transfered Jack to the medical berth, Ratchet quickly giving him a shot of Energon before doing something June didn't see, followed by putting one of the wires she recognized for monitoring vitals.
"Ratchet?" June looked up at the medic. "Is he-?" She didn't know what she wanted to ask, so she trailed off, she was positive that this was her son, but she didn't know how such a drastic change could've occurred, or what sort of damage such a change had done.
"He was running on empty, I believe is the phrase. He'll recharge for some time. In the meantime, I'll run some tests on his CNA to see if we can verify that way, but I'm fairly certain that this is Jack, given his reaction to his mother and Arcee." Ratchet offered. Then he noticed the way everyone was staring. "Don't you lot have things you should be doing?"
"I will head out to scout the next sector, when I return, Smokesreen and Bumblebee will head out." Optimus stepped forward, effectively blocking the view of Jack. "I suggest you two start looking over the maps and data of the area that Agent Fowler will provide." The two nodded, and moved to the secondary console, though Smokescreen kept shooting looks back. "Arcee?" Optimus looked at the femme, who had moved to be as close to the medical berth as possible without getting in Ratchet's way as he began doing the scans.
"I'm staying with Jack." Arcee declared.
Optimus merely nodded, knowing that now that they had Jack back, it would be difficult to get Arcee away from her partner until she was sure he was real and healthy. Arcee and June had been hit the hardest by the absence of the young man, getting him back in any form was a blessing. "Then I suggest everyone else go about their usual activities as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Jack's recharge."
"All due respect, sir, but the predacon does not appear mentally stable. Are you sure it's wise to leave it unrestrained?" Ultra Magnus spoke up, absently flexing his new claw hand. Agent Fowler grimaced, while he shared the same concerns, he would not have expressed them quite like that, especially as June was still in the room.
"Excuse me?!" June whirled on Ultra Magnus, "My son would never hurt anyone!" Arcee knelt down to place her hand on June's shoulder.
"I don't want personal feelings to cause us to overlook a security risk." He calmly responded, optics returning to Optimus. "His behaviour in the desert and just now was rather erratic and not what I'd call stable, especially given what we do know of the other Predacon."
"He's exhausted and just escaped the Con ship, could just be keyed up." Agent Fowler offered, bringing their attention to him. "Of course, that doesn't explain how he got off the ship to begin with, or why he was heading our way- there's no tracker on him right?" He almost wanted to kick himself for not having voiced the possibility sooner, Ultra Magnus had a point about personal feelings clouding a security risk.
"Hold on." Ratchet quickly checked, and everyone was relieved when he declared that there were none.
"When Jack awakens, we will ask him how he escaped, but for now, we will continue as normal." Optimus decided. "As for the issue of any instability, at least one Autobot shall be on watch at all times ... and it would be best for any humans to keep their distance until we know if or how much of his mental state is compromised." He looked down at June who looked like she was going to start yelling at Optimus. "I am sorry Mrs. Darby, but Jack's new state is an unknown we cannot currently predict, once he wakes up, we will know what has changed, but until then, we must be cautious."
"Not to mention he probably needs time to get used to how big he is now." Wheeljack noted with a wry grin. "Might break a few things on accident anyways."
"Like Bulkhead and the power lines?" Miko asked. Bulkhead spluttered in shock.
"Who told you about that?" Bulkhead asked, looking at the other bots and Agent Fowler.
"Wheeljack." Miko pointed to the mech holding her.
"Jackie! How'd you find out?" The trio moved off to another part of the unit to watch a movie they had planned to watch earlier.
"I'll hold off telling the brass the full situation until Ratchet has a report, for right now I'll just tell them you found an injured bot that might be an ally." Agent Fowler offered, and Optimus nodded.
"That would be best, thank you Agent Fowler." Optimus transformed and left through the ground bridge to go scout for energon. Agent Fowler immediately went into his office to give the initial report.
Ultra Magnus went to his ship, flexing his replacement claw and frowning.
"Scanners ready?" Ratchet looked at Raf who had returned to his computer. June reluctantly went up to sit nearby, alternating watching the monitors and the recharging form of the wolf.
"Yes Ratchet, and computer scanning programs are online." Raf tapped a few keys as Ratchet hooked up another wire to Jack's still form.
"What are you doing?" June asked, unable to watch silently. "I though you already hooked up the cable for monitoring vitals."
"I have, this cable is for more in-depth diagnostics, it will basically read the codes that make one function and let us know if there are any errors or bugs in them. Unfortunately, given the equipment I have access to and the fact that Jack's new body is basically an ancient system I am not familiar with save from historical data files, it's going to take some time for us to see the full map of codes." Ratchet explained, and the computer made a soft beeping noise. "Ah, we're getting the first basic sets of data now."
"What about the CNA sample?" June asked, and Ratchet merely held up a second syringe that looked a little smaller than the one for energon, it was filled with an odd yellow substance.
"I'll be putting this in once I get enough of the codes for comparison. It would help if you could give a sample of your DNA as well, it wouldn't have to be much."
"I'll ask Bill if he can get me what I need from the base's infirmary. Shouldn't take long." June got up, but kept glancing back at Jack and Arcee as she went to the Agent's office.
"June," Agent Fowler was surprised to see her come in, "Do you need something?"
"Ratchet wants to see if he can compare my blood to Jack's new CNA. Think your base's Doctors would mind me using a butterfly needle, IV tube and blood vial?"
"I'll go ask, but June, I need you to do me a favor." Agent Fowler had submitted the intial report, and realized there might be a problem that he hadn't thought of previously.
"What?" June looked at him, and something of what he was thinking must've shown in his face because she instantly became suspicious. "What is it?"
"I need you not to say anything about Jack being found, on social media or the email chain that we're using to help Jasper residents stay connected and find any missing family members or pets."
"Why? They already know Jack was missing, some of my co-workers picked that up while we were starting to set up at the triage center."
"Except he's come back as a giant Wolf Robot, any friends or well-wishers wouldn't be able to see him or even speak to him." Agent Fowler grimaced. "I don't want to do this, June, believe me, but my job is to keep the existence of giant robots secret from the general public, and now your son is one ... I have to do my job."
"... I know." June understood, and it was something that she had already realized even though she was focusing more on the fact that he was back with her at all. She had Jack back, but their life wouldn't be the same as it was even compared to only a few short months ago. "I just ... I'll think of what to do eventually, but right now ..."
"Let's just be glad your son is alive. The rest can keep until tomorrow." He put a hand on her shoulder, and recieved a very watery smile in return. "For the record, I'm glad he's back with us too, it was killing me that I might've lost one of those kids. Thought General Bryce was going to order me in front of a firing squad when he realized the three were actually minors and I hadn't told him." The general in question had been furious when he learned that Jack was captured as well, Agent Fowler had needed to call Prime for help in assuring the General that the instant they had a clear shot at the Nemesis they would be launching a rescue mission for the boy.
June gave a small laugh at that. "Thank you, Bill. You've been a great help and comfort during these past few months, I'm sorry if I was ever short with you, I just ..."
"No need for apologies, June, we were all on edge without the kid. I thought you were amazing, holding up as well as you did." There was a small pause as they looked at each other, seeing a possibility in each other's eyes that might one day be a reality. Agent Fowler suddenly realized he still had a hand on her shoulder. He hastily removed it and cleared his throat. "Well, I, uh, better get you those supplies, won't be a moment."
June gave a quick cough and a nod. "Right, I'll be with Jack and Ratchet, thanks again, Bill." She took a moment to compose herself after he left. Jack needed her now, she'd think about that possibility later. Returning to the main hanger she walked back to her spot. "Agent Fowler's going to ask the doctors on base. Is there anything else I can help with?"
"Well, while Jack's memory seemed pretty good, there's a possibility he might've lost some memories during the process of changing species, perhaps you could come up with some sort of memory test we can give him in the morning so we can tell if he's lost anything?"
"Alright, I can use the one we normally use for concussion patients as a basis, if he wakes up you might want to ask him his name, age and the year, as well as if he knows what happened to him ... I'll work on a more in depth one after I draw my blood sample." June agreed.
It didn't take long for Agent Fowler to return with the medical supplies needed. "Ah, Mrs. Darby, maybe you should have gone with me and gotten the sample that way, I don't know how you're going to do it yourself." He realized, and June just gave a small smile.
"Don't tell my teachers, but I might've practiced on myself once or twice during nursing school. But I hope you don't mind helping me." She sat down and it didn't take very long for her to walk Agent Fowler through the process of connecting the IV tube to the vial once she got the vein. Once she had the sample and disposed of the needle and tube in a biohazard bag she would later throw away at the medical bay, Ratchet had her put the sample into an odd looking slide so he could compare it to the CNA sample from Jack. Raf stayed up helping Ratchet log the data from the scans, until June ushered him to the couch. She waited until he was asleep before joining Arcee in a vigil near the resting form of Jack.
Across the hangar, Wheeljack kept a steady stream of questions to keep Miko distracted, though for the most part she had agreed when Bulkhead had asked her to wait until Jack woke up to ask any questions she might have had.
"So, I thought the previous movie had this monster hunting and killing people, why is it helping them in this one?" Wheeljack asked as the giant lizard slammed into another monster.
"Because while humans might be snacks to that big guy, he doesn't like other monsters coming into his territory." Miko explained like it was obvious.
"... This is one of the creatures that was probably inspired by the Predacons Shockwave sent to earth millenia ago, isn't it?" Wheeljack asked, grimacing as the lizard was flung into a building, nearly demolishing it.
"Probably, and there are a couple other monsters that he sometimes works with. I think they're planning to reboot this idea soon."
"That poor car." Bulkhead grimaced at the sight of a squished car. "Those humans need to get out of there now."
"You've been saying that since the movie started, Bulkie." Wheeljack noted. "Please tell me we're not going to have a random romantic interlude right now?" He grimaced as it focused on two of the humans trying to help the giant lizard against the other monster.
"Nah, they're just getting the rocket propelled grenades loaded into their launchers- nevermind. One of them is totally gonna die." Miko noted. Bulkhead partially covered his optics as Wheeljack joined Miko in betting which human would die before the end. Both ended up being disappointed. "Seriously? His best friend? Why do they never have one of the leads die, it would make a more interesting death scene."
"Hey, I like the happy endings." Bulkhead interupted.
"Except they set it up to look like he was going to die the entire movie- whoa." Wheeljack did a double take as the Lizard Monster had a blue glow under its scales before unleashing extremely hot looking flames onto the other monster, which just barely stayed standing.
"Ooh, Atomic Fire!" Miko cheered. The female lead managed to get her RPG to go into the open mouth of the monster. "Nice shot."
After that it took a very short time for the lizard monster to defeat the other monster. Once the movie finished, Wheeljack left to patrol the rebuilding city of Jasper. Miko chose to sleep inside Bulkhead, and eventually, the base went quiet.
Arcee sat next to the berth, watching the monitors measuring the wolf predacon that was Jack's vitals. She almost couldn't believe this was real, that the wolf predacon was Jack. Or that they'd almost left Jack in the desert (and she was still kicking herself for that). There were so many questions left to answer, but right now she could relax in the knowledge that Jack was safe, and they'd figure everything else out later.
"Arcee, you should go recharge, he won't wake up for a while." Ratchet checked the monitor before gently adjusting the line.
"In a bit, Ratchet, I'm ... I need some time." Arcee shifted slightly, studying the large black frame. When he transformed, he would be bigger than her, maybe even be the same size as Bulkhead or Ultra Magnus.
Ratchet shook his head. June had been hard to convince to leave, as it was Agent Fowler had barely convinced her to sleep in his office before he left for the night, and Ratchet suspected she'd be back long before the bare minimum of human's required sleep time. Arcee was trying to make up lost time, but there was no need for her to be on guard twenty-four/seven.
"Arcee, Ratchet and I will watch over Jack, you should recharge for a little while, we will get you if his state changes." Optimus spoke up from where he was logging his latest scouting mission.
Arcee looked up, and reluctantly nodded. As she stood up, however, a soft growl surprised them. "Jack?" Arcee turned back, in time to see Jack's optics open. "Jack?"
It seemed to take a while before he focused on her. "Arrcee?"
"Right here, Jack." She gently touched his paw, "How are you feeling?"
"Betterrr-I-guess." He growled slightly, trying to clear the static. "Dunno-how-should-feel."
"Jack, how did this happen?" Ratchet began checking over Jack now that he was awake.
Jack growled, eyes glowing a faint green. "Knockout-found-rrresidual-sparrkk-enerrrrgy-mayybe-from-vector-sigma-he-decided-to-make-cyberrrtrrtonian-Megatrrron," Jack growled again, "said-no-Predacon-instead." Jack shifted slightly on the berth.
"Do you know how they did this? A machine or something?" Arcee asked, honestly baffled how this could have been done.
"Nno-was-Energon-and," Jack growled, "Silverrry-yelllow-stuff-dun-rememberrr-worrd." He snarled suddenly. "Predak-Predaking-used-green-enerrgon, fasterr-he-said."
"Synth-En, the Decepticons must've been able to reverse engineer some." Ratchet frowned. "That accounts for your optics and your anger, as well as the anomalies from your readings. I'm going to do some more diagnostics while you're awake."
"Rrratch-fix?" Jack asked hopefully, and Arcee watched as Ratchet flinched.
"I'll do what I can." Ratchet responded, earning a growl from Jack.
"Ratch-et-fix-anger." Jack snorted. "Dunnt-spect-mirracle." Jack laid his head back down. "Sleep-more."
"I'll be here when you wake up." Arcee promised. None of them corrected Jack's use of the word sleep, though it wasn't remotely accurate.
"Ratchet, what Jack said about the residual spark energy..." Optimus started, then hesitated, not sure what to say.
"His Mother was the one that did the initial physical, and the human doctor they went to found nothing abnormal. I wouldn't have thought to scan for it." Ratchet turned back to his monitor. "It would not have been harmful, we would have noticed that."
"It might be prudent to check the others for it, though, just in case." Arcee vented. "They've all been exposed to various energies, we should make sure that this is a one time thing."
"Probably shouldn't tell Miko, she might try it." Ratchet glared at the screen. "Now go recharge."
"She's got the apex armor, I doubt she would." Arcee sat down so she could lean against the berth.
"I will discuss this with Agent Fowler as well." Optimus returned to the report he was typing. Once Arcee was in recharge Ratchet vented harshly.
"Optimus, Jack requires more Energon to try and stabilize his new body. The synthetic Energon used is strengthening him now, but the longer he goes without being stabilized... I don't know if it will start breaking down." It was the worst case scenario, most likely nothing would happen for a long time, but Ratchet was a believer in preparing for the worst. "Even at rest, his body is processing energon faster than I would consider healthy, similar to my old readings."
"I will talk to Agent Fowler. For now, we will focus on getting Jack acclimated to his new body." Optimus assured him.
Ratchet gave a short nod, and began the comparisons on the CNA and DNA samples.
Raf was an early riser, had always been, but this morning, he wanted to check that he hadn't been dreaming that they'd gotten Jack back as a giant wolf.
"Ratchet?" Raf moved over to stand near the medic.
"Good morning, Rafael, did you sleep well?" Ratchet greeted.
"Well enough." Raf looked at the new form of Jack. "Is that really Jack?" He managed. Raf wasn't sure how- they knew how Silas had taken Breakdown's body as his own, but this was something different.
"There are trace amounts of DNA matching Jack's mixed with the CNA. I'm guessing the CNA partially bonded with the DNA, using it as a template instead of completely rewriting it." Ratchet explained, showing the the comparisons on the monitor screen. It had taken most of the night to get them this comprehensive, and there were still some parts of the Predacon CNA that didn't seem to be active yet, but Ratchet didn't know if that was because of it bonding with Jack's DNA, the use of the Syth-En or some other factor.
"Which is why he still sounds like himself?" Raf asked, looking at the monitors. "His energy levels are still kinda low, Ratchet."
"The Decepticons used Synth-En when they transformed him, while he can function on less fuel than his body needs, it's also making him process it faster. I'm still trying to calculate the amount of energon he'll need to offset the faster processing."
"So, Jack's got the cybertronian equivalent of a really fast metabolism?" Raf asked. There was a pause as Ratchet looked up the word.
Metabolism referred to the Metabolic rate that humans processed fuel into energy, a slow metabolism meant the person was more likely to gain weight from eating too much or the wrong foods, while a fast metabolism meant that they needed to eat more in order to keep up their energy stores. Most humans had their metabolism slow as they got older, and occasionally if there was a problem with the available food amounts the metabolic rate would change to match, so it was very rare for those with a fast metabolism to starve in a situation where they were required to take less fuel, but it wasn't unheard of for there to be problems following such a situation. It wasn't exactly accurate comparison, but it was certainly close enough to what was going on for Ratchet to accept the use of the phrase to describe Jack's situation.
"Yes." Ratchet looked up in time to see Raf's expression go from curiosity to concern.
"But, you guys are still a little low on Energon, do you have enough?"
"Ep, ep, don't worry about that, we'll be able to take care of him and ourselves just fine." Ratchet assured him. "Go get something to eat, I'm going to need your help for calibrating the scanners for more detailed internal scans, Jack's armor is making it difficult."
Raf nodded, and began to move to the ladder that would lead down to the floor. A low growl made him pause, and Ratchet immediately turned to the berth.
"Rratch?" The wolf stirred, but didn't lift his head.
"Right here, Jack, you're safe." Ratchet assured him. "It's morning."
"Rraf?" Jack looked over, his tail gave a slight wag, before stilling.
Raf managed to smile. "Hey Jack, we missed you."
"Miszsed-you-too." Jack's optics seemed to have trouble staying open. "You-oh-kay?"
"I'm fine, Jack, you might want to get some more sleep before Miko wakes up though." Raf suggested.
There was a low huff that might have been a laugh, and Jack's optics closed down again.
"He still sounds ... staticky." Raf looked at Ratchet, who wordlessly picked him up. "Ratchet?"
"There are several possibilities, most likely his vocalizer is still trying to calibrate and him forcing himself to talk interrupted the process, I'll have to run more tests."
"I'll be back in a bit, Miko will probably be up by then." Raf noted and Ratchet set him down gently by the door.
"I'm not looking forward to that." Ratchet sighed, and Raf just waved before trotting over to the mess hall. Ratchet watched as one of the soldiers struck up a conversation with the small teen, before he turned back to analyzing the data he'd already recieved from Jack. After a moment, he grumbled to himself and gently shook Arcee out of recharge.
"Watch Jack for a moment, I need to go to Ultra Magnus' ship." He informed her, at her questioning look, he sighed, "Need to see if he has a data pad or file I can borrow, I won't be long." He assured her before leaving. Hopefully he could use that to start backing up the information he was getting, the last thing he needed was to start over from scratch if they lost this base as well.
Arcee immediately stood up and stretched, before studying Jack. He looked to be much better than he'd been last night, and was even already coming out of the recharge cycle. "Morning Partner, how are you feeling?"
"Better-I-think." Jack grimaced, then sniffed the air. "Where-arrre-we-Arrcee? Smell-people."
"We're on a military base, the base that Agent Fowler is actually assigned to, we're in one of the hangars. The personnel are sworn to secrecy about us, and according to Agent Fowler there's a 'Don't ask, Don't tell' type of policy in place regarding our interactions with the personnel, whatever that means. Smokescreen apparently keeps violating it, he got himself a new paintjob by asking someone on base for help." Arcee shook her head.
Jack chuckled, "Some-people-dun-change."
"You can say that again, just wait until Miko wakes up." Arcee smiled as Jack huffed in mock annoyance. "Your mom had some questions she wanted you to answer when you woke up, she said you normally ask someone with a possible head injury these questions, so I need to ask for your full name, the year, and the last thing you remember."
"Jackson-Daarrby, Twenny-Thirrten, Talking-to-RatchnRraf." He lifted his head as they received a call from Smokescreen, who had apparently lost Bumblebee in a jungle.
"You're a giant wolf! That's so awesome!" Was the first thing Miko had to say to Jack once she woke up. "Can you breathe fire?"
"Miko." Bulkhead tried to censure her enthusiasm, as well as keep her from running over to Jack, who was still on the berth, but far more alert than he had been. He was looking around, and immediately focused on Ultra Magnus as he entered with Wheeljack, who distracted Miko only a little better than Bulkhead.
"Who-he?" Jack asked Arcee, who startled in surprise.
"You wouldn't know, that's Ultra Magnus, he was Optimus' second in command on Cybertron, he found me after ..." Arcee trailed off, and Jack shifted to nudge her.
"Not-fault. Knnockout-planned-kiidnnapping." Jack assured her.
"What do you mean, he planned it?"
"Hhad-part-of-house-in-room." Jack managed, making an odd noise to try and clear the static. "Was-weird-cage."
"How'd you escape?" Miko had slipped Bulkhead, much to his exasperation.
"I'm curious as well." Ultra Magnus spoke stepping closer.
"Dun-Don't-remember." Jack growled. "Was-so-angry-Attack-Predaking-try-attack-Knockout-green-light-then-desert."
"A space bridge? Why would they bridge you out?" Ultra Magnus asked.
"Was-angry," Jack growled slightly, shaking his head before laying it down, "m-not-sure, not-thinking-then."
"How did you find us?" At this point, Arcee was about ready to stop the commander from interogating Jack, no matter how much she wanted answers, she wanted to protect her partner more.
"Find-you?" Jack asked confused.
"You were roughly a hundred miles from the base, and heading straight for us." Arcee explained.
"Mom." Jack answered, lifting his head. June immediately responded as she exited Fowler's office, having slept a lot harder than she had expected to.
"Right here, Jack." She reassured him, and his tail wagged a little as he looked at her.
"Focus on the question if you would." Ultra Magnus frowned at him. Arcee tried not to glare at the commander.
"No. Smell-mom-knew-she-was-important." Jack corrected with yet another soft growl.
Unnoticed by the bots, June gave a tearyeyed smile at that.
"Wait, you could smell her from that distance?" Wheeljack asked.
"I-guess?" Jack was baffled by the scrutiny, but he was also still rather tired and his throat still hurt. He put his head back down, optics partially closing. "Sorry-tired-again."
"Your vocalizer is still bothering you?" Ratchet came in, and did another scan. "Hmm. Try not using it for a while."
"Great! I can tell you everything you've missed! Check this out!" Miko activated the apex armor, and used it to clamber up next to Jack. He looked stunned at her wearing it, or possibly at the way she scrambled up, bumping into Arcee on the way.
"Wrecker, what have I told you about using that?" Ultra Magnus frowned down at her.
"What? You were worried about Jack accidentally hurting us, he can't hurt me in this, Snuff the Dragon couldn't."
"What?!" Jack jerked up, growling. "He-"
"Relax, he didn't even hurt me." She patted his shoulder. "Anyway, so it all started when we got back together and," Miko launched into the story with gusto, ignoring most interruptions and corrections with, "Yeah, that, anyway!"
Jack for the most part listened silently. Occasionally he would give a low growl at the mention of Knock Out, Starscream or Predaking. He didn't react to Miko accidentally hitting him, just shifting slightly. Eventually, however, his optics closed and he fell into recharge.
"Why's he so tired?" Miko asked when she noticed.
"His entire biology has changed, he's still adjusting and rest will help." Ratchet scoffed. "Now, if you would get out of that armor, I want to scan you, Rafael and June."
"What? How come?" Miko asked, and promptly came out of the armor while still on the berth next to Jack. Arcee watched as Ultra Magnus twitched, the stoic commander struggling with something internally. Ratchet just picked Miko up and moved her to a work table.
"Jack woke up last night, apparently, Knockout noticed he had a unique energy signature which was why they captured him, we want to make sure none of you have something similar." Arcee explained. "We're just covering our bases."
June frowned at them, but didn't press, there would be time for that after they let her near her son.
Next chapter, what's happening on the Nemesis, and some more plot. I'm going to expand on some of the thoughts I had about the third season, mostly because it was way too short for my tastes.