Paranormal Encounters Chapter 25.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
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Jazz would have liked for things to calm down a bit. He knew that probably wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. But, he couldn’t help but dream. Even tasks that should have been mundane felt exhausting. Jazz kept pushing through. He did his best to keep moving.
It was getting hard to do. Mainly because there just wasn't a lot for him to do. Eventually, they’d probably be asked to start helping with whatever repairs Wheeljack was doing to the ship. It was going to be dull work. Jazz just knew it. But it was something.
He didn’t want to give in to the urge to hide away. Prowl needed him, and so did Blaster. Jazz was going to push through everything for them. They had each other through every strange moment and uncomfortable discovery.
Jazz was worried that if he slowed down, everything would catch up with him. He didn’t want that to happen. He normally could talk to the others. Blaster or Prowl. Or even Mirage. It kept him at least a little busy.
Prowl had been more distant the last few days. Blaster was being dragged off more and more by his kids. Mirage had been as elusive as ever. If anything, he had been seeing less and less of all of them.
Blaster was spending some time with Jazz. He didn’t really have a good way to keep track of time, but the two of them had just gotten up from recharge. The little guys all had duties, and Blaster decided to spend some time with Jazz. The two of them were slowly making their way toward the mess hall. Jazz was already dreading refueling.
“Is it weird?” Jazz asked.
“You gotta be more specific than that, man,” Blaster said. “Lots of weird things going on.”
“You know, Rewind or the others going inside the chest thing?”
Jazz felt bad for asking. Or at least a little bad. He was curious about it.
Blaster looked away, “Yeah, don’t tell them that though. It’s familiar, but it doesn’t feel right. All of the parts moving,” Blaster shuttered.
“Why do you even let them do it then?” Jazz’s voice echoed down the empty halls.
“They’re supposed to do it, not docking for so long made them a little sick, almost?” Blaster didn’t sound very sure. “It made me sick, too, it’s why I got all weird. Ratchet tried to explain why, but parts of it I don’t really understand. He said part of it is how they were made, and how I was made, but he didn’t really want to get into that.”
“Ratchet didn’t want to explain the alien birds and the bees, I guess,” Jazz said.
Blaster chuckled nervously, “Well. He told me that he didn’t want to have to explain it three times.”
The two of them walked into the mess hall. Jazz groaned.
“No! I already had one very awkward version of that talk as a teenager,” Jazz said.
“I know, we were both there for that, so was everyone else in the group home,” Blaster said. “Just prepare yourself for however that talk is going to go. Ratchet already looked uncomfortable.”
“Great,” Jazz said sarcastically.
“I swear every time I drink Energon it tastes worse somehow,” Blaster said awkwardly.
“Good subject change,” Jazz said.
Jazz and Blaster were the only ones in the mess hall so far. It was just them and the disgusting, glowing blue, almost liquid cubes. Cubes were left out for them by Ratchet daily. They always tasted a little different.
That day, Blaster’s Energon had something that shimmered and moved like mercury. Jazz looked as if it were topped with metal shavings. They grabbed the cubes left out for them and sat at the only table in the space that was clear of dust.
The two of them had taken to drinking it slowly. He didn’t taste it as much when he took smaller sips, and he got to sit down and relax for longer. He resolved himself and took the first sip. Whatever had been added to his made it taste like a horrible mix, overly sweet with a coppery undertone that reminded him of blood.
Jazz hid his disgust. Blaster didn’t. His face scrunched up, and he blanched as he started to drink. Blaster froze and tilted his head. His audials perked, and he turned toward the door.
A few seconds later, Jazz heard the distant echoes of footsteps coming towards the mess hall—more than one set. They were too loud to be any of the smaller guys. Jazz narrowed his eyes behind his visor. It was rare for Ratchet or Wheeljack to come refuel with any of them willingly. It was awkward at best, and uncomfortable at worst.
They wanted all of them to be people they didn’t remember being. Jazz didn’t think he would ever remember; if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t want to remember. He was content with the person he was now. He didn’t want to become someone else. Jazz was already comfortable with who he was; he didn’t want to change that.
As they approached, Jazz felt the connection he shared with Prowl grow stronger. That had made him even more confused, and it started to make him worried. He didn’t like how much time Prowl had been spending with the two of them. Prowl was sneaking off more and more. Jazz knew he wasn’t with Mirage. None of them could leave the ship alone. That only really left one option.
Jazz didn’t know why Prowl was spending so much time with Ratchet and Wheeljack. He didn’t want to pry. They were all hurting.
Prowl walked into the room first. He was drawn into himself. The wings on his back drooped, and his eyes snapped to Jazz. His wings drooped lower. Jazz felt guilt and sadness radiate off of Prowl before their bond went numb.
Ratchet and Wheeljack trailed behind Prowl. Ratchet’s expression was as firm as ever, and Wheeljack looked almost bothered by something. That immediately put Jazz on alert. Wheeljack had always been so positive around them.
“Prowl? What’s wrong?” Jazz stood up from the table. He placed a hand on Prowl’s forearm.
Prowl didn’t look at him.
Prowl opened and closed his mouth. He clenched his eyes shut, “I have to tell you something that might make you upset.”
Jazz was on alert. This seemed weird for Prowl.
“What’s going on?” Jazz asked, narrowing his eyes.
“We need to head near town and make some phone calls,” Prowl said slowly.
Jazz could already imagine why. They’d been gone for a few weeks. He didn’t want to dig too deep into it. Dread was building inside of him just thinking about what he was going to have to tell people. He was already thinking about lies to tell about where they went and why they dropped off the grid for so long.
“Why would that make me upset?” Jazz asked.
He could still feel something off with Prowl. If anything, it felt more intense. Prowl had done something else.
“That isn’t the part that might upset you,” Prowl looked down at the ground. “I’m going to start by thoroughly apologizing to you both.”
Blaster slowly put his cube down. He tilted his head.
“Both of us?” Blaster asked, “Prowl, what did you do?”
Jazz watched as Prowl tensed his jaw. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he seemingly forced himself to look up. He wasn’t meeting either of them in the eye.
He heard Prowl vent a few times, “I’ve been using both of your emails to assure people you aren’t missing.”
Jazz took several seconds to process that information. Then. several more seconds to decide on an emotion to attach to that information. He eventually settled on somewhere between betrayal and anger.
“What have you been telling people?” Blaster asked. Jazz saw his audials lower, and a flash of anger cross his friend's face.
“That you both left to help me take care of a family emergency in Portland,” Prowl said.
“Why?” Jazz asked.
It was the only word he could get out calmly.
Prowl looked at Jazz. Jazz glared, and Prowl didn’t look away.
“Missing persons reports would have been filed if I hadn’t reached out to people. Search and Rescue would have found my car, then there would be who knows how many people looking for our bodies nearby.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jazz asked firmly.
Jazz jerked his arm from Prowl's grip. Jazz ignored the sadness coming off of Prowl. Jazz was happy for once that Prowl could feel what he felt. The complicated combination of anger and disappointment was hard to put into words.
“Jazz, there was too much of a risk; if the earth authorities saw something they shouldn’t have, I don’t even want to think about what could have happened.”
“Why didn’t you at least ask first?” Blaster asked.
Prowl was silent. “I don’t know. I just wanted to save you the pain. We’re all going through enough already.”
There was going to be a long discussion between the three of them when the peanut gallery wasn’t present. Jazz knew they were right in some messed-up, horrible way. He was relieved that there weren’t people worried he had gone missing. At the same time, he was upset that this was another decision made without his input.
“You haven’t even spoken to your adoptive parents in two years,” Jazz said. “How is anyone buying that?”
Prowl had only spoken about them a few times. Jazz hadn’t even met them.
“I never spoke to most people about my family, I don’t even think Red knew I was adopted, let alone how often I spoke to my parents,” Prowl said,
Blaster looked down at his cube of Energon. “When are we leaving?” His voice was grim.
Prowl visibly relaxed. His wings twitched back up. “As soon as you're ready to leave.”
Ratchet uncrossed his arms, “What he means,” he narrowed his eyes down at the three of them, “Is as soon as you're done refueling.”
Jazz grumbled. He was being dramatic. He picked up the cube and chugged it down in front of Ratchet. Ratchet looked thoroughly unimpressed. He heard him let out a harsh vent. He turned his critical stare towards Blaster.
Blaster shuffled back toward the table. He didn’t chug it down, but he drank it faster than he had been. The white bit of metal on the top of his head fell to cover his face slightly. Jazz could only see the blue light of his eyes in a sea of black. His eyes narrowed in disgust as he finished off the Energon ration.
Ratchet seemed satisfied. “The sooner you leave and come back, the better. I don’t want Mirage noticing you all left.”
“Mirage isn’t coming?” Jazz asked with a frown. “You don’t think he’d want to get out for a bit?”
“No,” Ratchet looked sad, almost. “No, I don’t want him to be there. I don’t think it would be good for him.”
“I don’t want to lie to the kid,” Jazz said.
Wheeljack and Ratchet shared a glance.
“Jazz, Mirage never had this opportunity. He never got to say goodbye to anyone he knew as a human,” Wheeljack said. “He never talks about it, but we know it bothers him.”
Jazz didn’t like keeping this from Mirage. Even he knew that this would open an old wound. “Fine, but if he asks, don’t expect me to cover for you.”
“How are we even going to make a phone call? I don’t know if you noticed, we’re kind of too large to use a phone,” Blaster said.
“Rewind and Eject will dial for us; none of the calls need to be long, they just need to be consistent with what I was telling everyone,” Prowl said.
“Wait, did they help you send the emails?” Blaster asked.
Prowl’s silence continued.
Blaster rubbed his hand down the side of his face. Metal scraped against metal, and Blaster winced.
For once, Jazz was happy he didn’t have a family to contact. Everyone he considered family had been dragged into this bizarre hell with him. It was both horrifying and comforting.
Ratchet looked down, “I would join you, but one of the husks is in for repairs. We trust all of you to come back as soon as you’re done.”
Ratchet shot another look over to Wheeljack. The way they stared at each other almost made it seem like they were having a silent conversation.
“Rewind and Eject should meet you by the exit ramp,” Wheeljack said.
“You’re not going either?” Jazz said.
“Ratchet needs my help in the med bay,” Wheeljack said with a shrug.
“Let’s just get this over with, then,” Jazz said.
Ratchet and Wheeljack started to walk away. The three of them were alone.
“Jazz-” Prowl started.
“You should have told us what you were planning, Prowl,” Jazz pointed a finger up at Prowl's face. “You can’t just make decisions for us. We’re all we have right now.”
“I’m sorry,” Prowl said.
“We had a right to be involved, you should have at least asked,” Blaster said. “Don’t get me started on you dragging Rewind and Eject into this.”
“Are you going to say anything besides sorry?” Jazz asked.
Prowl stayed silent.
“What do you want me to say? I did it already,” Prowl said. “I just didn’t want you two to have to deal with it.”
Prowl’s wings twitched behind his back. Jazz could still feel the complicated tangle of emotions from him and Blaster. It was hard to keep up his anger when he could feel Prowl’s regret.
“I know where you were coming from, Prowl. I just need you to not do things behind our backs,” Jazz said.
“Just be honest, even if you think it’s going to be painful,” Blaster said.
“I’ll do better,” Prowl's voice shook as he spoke.
“Good,” Jazz said. “Come on, I just want to get this over with.”
Jazz started to leave the mess hall. Prowl followed behind him without missing a beat. Blaster trailed slowly behind both of them. Their walk was silent. Prowl started walking in front of him and Blaster. Prowl’s pace was steadily picking up.
“You good?” Jazz whispered.
“Not really,” Blaster said.
“Me either,” Jazz admitted quietly.
Blaster looked shocked.
Jazz was emotionally exhausted. Too much had been going on for too long. Jazz was the type to hide when stuff bothered him. But this had pushed him over the ledge. It felt like betrayal.
Prowl’s wings drooped ahead of the two of them. He started walking faster. Prowl felt numb in their bond. A dull buzz where Prowl’s despair and upset had been. It hadn’t felt like that since they woke up.
Prowl entered the storage area that was next to the exit ramp of the ship. The space was still disorganized with materials, but things had been moved around. It wasn’t light out yet. The sky outside the barrier looked dark.
Rewind and Eject were lingering near the ramp. Eject was leaning against a wall, staring outside. Rewind nervously stood next to him. Eject slumped as Prowl approached and turned around to face him.
“Is there still a charge on the phone?” Prowl asked.
“Yeah, fifty percent,” Eject said.
Eject had Prowl’s phone gripped in his hand.
Blaster looked conflicted. Jazz felt his distant storm of emotions through their weaker bond. He couldn’t even name which one was dominant.
“How far do we need to go to get a signal?” Jazz asked Prowl.
“Not far, a mile up a ridge, and we’ll have enough bars to send emails and make phone calls,” Prowl pointed off into the woods. A rocky mountainside jutted out over the trees.
Blaster walked forward. Rewind and Eject’s audials dropped down. Blaster had a firm look on his face as he kneeled in front of the two of them.
The two of them whispered to him as he asked them questions. Jazz forced his eyes away but kept his audials tuned into the conversation.
“We were ordered to,” Eject said. “Prowl was never happy about it.”
Blaster whispered something back to the two of them. Jazz didn’t catch what it was. Blaster stood back up. He offered a hand down, and Rewind and Eject climbed up to his shoulders.
Prowl walked down the exit ramp of the ship. Their small group took off into the woods. Jazz had trouble fighting off the thoughts of how wrong the trees looked as he walked. How small everything seemed in comparison to him.
“How long has he been having you both do this?” Blaster asked.
“Just for a few days. Ratchet came to us one morning with Prowl. We only agreed after he told us he was going to tell you,” Rewind said.
“Who has he been having you guys’ email?” Jazz asked.
Rewind and Eject shared a glance before shrugging. “Don’t really know, he just tells us what to type. Yesterday, someone emailed Blaster asking if he could call soon.”
“Do you remember the name?”
“Mitchell,” Rewind said.
Blaster’s boss. The old man must have been getting worried.
“Ah,” Blaster muttered. “I’m going to have to quit over the phone.”
“Damn, same,” Jazz said, dazed. “I didn’t even think about my job.”
“There are a lot of things I haven’t really thought about. I mean, what are we even going to do about our apartments? Mine is set for autopay. I should be fine for another couple of months,” Blaster said.
“Rent comes out of my account, probably got two months’ worth in there,” Jazz said.
He didn’t even know what they were going to do with all of their stuff.
“Nothing we can do about that for now, I guess,” Jazz said, “Another thing to talk to Prowl about later.”
Jazz was worried. He had been caught up in suddenly being a transforming alien to remember he had a life that couldn’t be put on pause for much longer. They had to officially move out of their apartment, and they had to set up something to still get mail if they were going to try to continue a ruse of being human.
They had to even learn how to look human again whenever Wheeljack and Ratchet decided they were ready to use their other bodies again.
A headache was building as Jazz thought about how complicated this situation had become.
They had reached the top of the mountain they were climbing. Eject and Rewind expertly hopped off Blaster. The drop seemed high to him, but the two of them didn’t act like they were in pain when they dropped to the forest floor.
“So,” Rewind said nervously, fidgeting with Prowl’s phone, “Who’s going first?”
Prowl kneeled to the ground. Rewind walked towards him.
“Go into my contacts and call the number under Red Alert,” Prowl said quietly. His voice was full of pain.
Rewind and Eject also seemed shocked at the weight of Prowl’s voice. At the sadness in his eyes.
Prowl didn’t feel numb in their bond anymore. Jazz felt Prowl’s grief. He hadn’t known he was this close to Red Alert. They needed to talk. Jazz needed to know Prowl wasn’t keeping anything else from him for his own good. For now, though, Jazz would sit next to him for this call like Prowl would for his.
Rewind hit the dial button on Prowl's phone, and the ringing of the phone echoed out into the trees. Prowl curled into himself the longer it rang.
Red Alert answered the call, “Prowl! I wasn’t expecting to hear back from you for another day. I thought you were busy.”
“Hey, Red,” Prowl said. “No, everything is fine, I just had to head back into service and thought I would give you a call.”
Red Alert hummed over the line, “I see. Any updates on when you’re coming back?” Red Alert couched, “Not that we’re in a rush! You can take as much time as you need to make sure everything is alright. I know medical emergencies can be,” Red Alert muttered something that wasn’t quite picked up by the phone, “Difficult.”
Prowl’s shoulders rose; he was stiff as a board. “It's looking like we’re going to stay longer than I thought. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to work.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Prowl’s hand dug into the forest floor. Jazz grabbed it and squeezed.
“I am going to come back to pick up some things. I’ll stop by and drop off my work gear.”
“Any time frame?” Red Alert asked.
“Nothing concrete. I, I am hoping to see you again soon.”
