51*le sigh* OK! So... I am not dead. In fact, I am doing pretty well, but this fic... Good lord almighty, this fic... It DIED in my head. I had nothing to give it, and every time I tried to poke and prod at it in every way I could imagine, I just couldn't for the life of me try to get it passed this ONE SPECIFIC PART! *rubs temples* BUT! I do believe that for this specific moment, I have this chapter FINALLY done. In retrospect, I'm so sorry it's rather short for the amount of time I have had it in the works, but here it is. Any and all can pay thanks to Rapidfyrez for convincing me to poke at it a little more and to convince me not to kill it and/or put it up for adoption. Now, I do actually have an idea of what I want to do with this, but with my personal credit in this area, don't expect anything else to come out for a while yet. Sorry folks. But To say again, any and all suggestions and questions are welcome and encouraged! Now without any further rambling explinations, on with the sixth chapter of Chemical Rebound!
Nemisis cell block 3rd POV
When Raf opened his eyes, he immediately wished he hadn't, squeezing them shut again. The light from the above him was intense, and the dull throbbing in his spine made itself known as he slowly directed his attention to his aching body. His sight was blurred and his head beat painfully with every pulse, but that didn't even compare to the throbbing in his neck and back.
He was lain on his side on the cold, metal flooring, still in beast form… He strained to remember where he was and how he got there. The last thing he could recall was Starscream; his faceplate drawn up in a sneer before a flash of pain and blackness. He'd been hit with a missile… Well, almost. It hit right in front of him. He risked opening his eyes again to see if he could make out any more of his surroundings. first thing he saw was the shadowy walls, heavy tubing and insulated circuitry bolted firmly along their lengths.
He redirected his half lidded eyes to the sight of a shadowy figure pacing the wall of the cell. Raf's face scrunched up and released a light groan as he tried to sit up. The shadowy figure immediately left its post and trotted jerkily into the light. "Raf! You're up. Good. How bad do you hurt?"
The shadowy figure formed into Jack's beast form as his massive paws entered the ring of light from the ceiling. "Uh… Well, I could be better..." Raf groaned as he placed tentative paws under himself and slowly levered his battered body up, "How long have I been out?"
"No more than an hour or two. I woke up about that long ago. I looked you over and didn't find anything other than a few cuts, but then again, I'm not a medic… My mom or Ratch would be better." Jack replied as he pressed his nose to the smaller boy's ear." You had me really worried. It almost looked like you stopped breathing for a while…"
"Oh… Well, it hurts in my back and head, but it doesn't feel like anything is out of place." The smaller boy said with a cursory glance over Jack. the Older teen was littered with cuts and buses of his own, all sealed over fairly well from the dried coagulated blood. He still has his wing brace, but the one that he had donned on his leg was nothing but a broken shackle on his bicep.
Raf started slightly at the thick, metal band around Jack's neck. A small loop rested at the front that secured a small (in comparison to their forms) chain that, as he followed its length, connected to a loop in the ceiling. It was a long chain, and as he continued to follow it, he realized that it's other end was secured to his own collar that rested snugly around his neck.
A pleased expression settled on Jack's features, "That's good to hear. Well, what I've noticed since I woke up is that we're pretty much allowed to roam free in this cell, aside from the chain, of course. One of the Airadicons came in here earlier with some food and water. I left half for you." He stated as he headed for a far end of the room.
Raf watched as his friend moved with an unsteady lope, though it seemed more like he was being hindered by the broken brace on his leg than by the pain. He wondered briefly if he might be healing faster due to the nanites in his blood. They had the ability to transform them, he supposed it wasn't too far stretched to believe that they would aid in healing.
Jack came back with a bowl of water in his mouth and a small package carried in the curl of his tail.
The winged panther sat the items down, and Raf dug gingerly into the meal. It was hard to swallow with the collar nestled so firmly against his jugular, and in a pained transformation, he morphed back into his human form, slipping the now very loose collar off and morphing back. Jack looked at him, and scowled annoyingly at his own lack of cleverness, "Now, why didn't I think of that?" he stated with a touch of mirth as he initiated his own transformation, a grimace marring his features, and slipping out of his collar before looking curiously back at the younger boy. "Why did you change back? If it was as painful as it was for me, that is..."
"I highly doubt that they know we are human, and the Autobot's human's on top of that. If they did, I'm pretty sure there would have been more than just a collar."
Jack nodded slowly before morphing back, groaning lightly at the burning stretch of his already strained muscles.
Raf swallowed another small mouth full and examined the cell a bit more thoroughly. His eyes, still blurry, landed on what looked like a circuit box mounted on the wall. He took another bite and slowly stood, swaying lightly at a heavy dizzy spell before pushing it down and walking over to the strange device, "have you seen this, Jack?"
The massive panther stood and followed his much smaller companion, "Yeah, I have. I would have tried something with it, but I'm not all that tech-savvy. I figured that once you woke up, you would take a look."
The fox/rabbit nodded and dug his (in comparison) tiny claws into the thin seam of the front cover. With a sharp tug, the face was ripped off; leaving stretched and fragmented shards along the edges. The wire and electrical work inside was a bit difficult for the boy genius, but after a fair amount of time and suppressing of the waves of nausea, he had the gist of how it worked. It was a basic box; one very similar to a few that he had helped Ratchet install and maintain around base.
Seeing a connection for the electric locks, he cut a wire that (to Jack) looked like every other wire, and listened with satisfaction as the heavy door unlatched and retracted into its frame. A sharp jolt of electricity zapped Raf's mouth as his teeth severed the connection. A light charge resonated in his head before dissipating. Running his tongue over the roof of his mouth, he ignored the numb feeling that he now felt.
"Nice work, Raf! Let's get out of here. "With a confirming nod, the two of them trotted as quickly as they could manage to the door and carefully scanned the apparently deserted corridor, "security's kind of lax around here, isn't it?"
Raf nodded and they slipped through the halls. "Do you have any idea where we should be going?"
"Not a clue. Maybe we can climb through the rafters," Jack suggested as he motioned to the thick bulkheads and vent tunnels that lined the ceiling, "It'd be safer."
"Yeah."
They both were able to leap high on the supporting structures and onto the thick shafts that filtered air through the vessel. The large form of Jack proved too heavy for it, as his weight forced in the paneling. So he bit through the pain of another transformation, shifting into his mid made their way through several corridors, passing over many a vehicon and once even over Megatron himself, but they had yet to find a way off the elaborate vessel, "scrap! Where the pit is the control room?"
"I don't know." the younger boy replied shakily. The fuzziness was getting worse the farther they went, his breath was coming in labored puffs and his steps were unsteady as they'd made their way through the corridors. Glancing at a familiar fork in the hallway,he commented "I don't think we've been down this way yet." as he gestured a rather broad stretch of tubing leading down a rather large hall.
"Let's go then." The two boys were silent as they lightly padded through the dark corridors searching for any means of escape. They came to a large door and a dead end, "great, now it looks like we wait for someone to go through."
"Yeh. What do you think the Decepticons wanted with us anyway? They can't know that we're with the Autobots. They probably don't even know that we're human… Ish." Raf inquired as he made himself as comfortable in the small space as he could, the nausea diminishing lightly as he relaxed.
Jack looked worriedly at his friend's exhaustion, but marked it off as his paranoia, thinking that the faster they got out, the faster he could get his friend to Ratchet and his mom.
While Jack was hurting from his previous injuries on top of his new ones, he don't seem to be nearly as bad off as Raf. The boy was scarily lethargic "I don't know. They might just be curious. I mean, I did practically whip Starscream in that spar. He might just want to see if he can utilize us in some way, and maybe get a bit of revenge in the process. Then again, I could be completely wrong. Who knows?"
Raf nodded and moved into a position he could keep watch while giving his larger friend a bit more room to relax in. They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they waited for someone to go in or come out. Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait as a vehicon strolled down the corridor with his servos full of data pads. Perfect.
Jack and Raf silently descended to the floor and hid just out of sight of the vehicon as it walked to the door and on through as it slid open. The two bolted through on soft paws as the door slid back into place, sealing them in. They dove for the closest cover that was available, which happened to be a fairly large terminal.
Both panting, Jack peaked around the mechanical shield, scoping out their next destination. It seemed that the door that they had just gone through was a section divider. He could see down the expansive hall way that lead to a fork. In the intersection, a second terminal stood.
There.
When they deemed it as safe as possible, both boys bolted down the hall, paws thudding mutely as they quickly trotted along. They were almost there when they heard heavy, resonating ped steps. There was not time to make it to the terminal, so they ducked to the side each claiming refuge in the semi-cover of a two, thick bulkheads, Jack closer to the terminal than Raf. Jack transforming once again into his more powerful form, noting that it wasn't nearly as painful now as it had been before, watched silently as the mech steadily came into view.
Just before he was in sight, Jack was hit with a wave of pure aching sorrow and piercing loneliness that was dulled by shear will and determination… It took every bit of the panther's self control not to keen in sympathy as his eyes took in the purple and blue wisps if life aura that resonated from the mech that had yet to be revealed to him. Without a second thought, Jack pushed out his own life wisps to absorb the agony inducing emotions that rolled off the unseen mech.
The ped steps came to an abrupt stop at the same time that he came into view. Soundwave brought his servo up to his chassis as he felt a sensation he hadn't felt in vorns… Since the day he had lost his second to last symbiont… But why..? Why after all this time did the shattered bond choose to stir? He felt the pull of his spark that so often had meant the comfort of his oldest cassette. That the felinoid had felt his sorrow and come to see to his pain.
But… Ravage was permanently offline… In a preservation chamber and utterly lifeless… Killed by a randomly uncannily accurate shot on the battle field a vorn before. He had kept the spark-less shell to at least retain his lost memories as he waited for their return to Cybertron. He had no other way or disposing of the shell outside of discharging his corps into space or in a cryo chamber on a random planet. However, the communications bot couldn't bring himself to leave the precious cassette anywhere but on Cybertron in the most respectful ceremony he could conjure in a post war wasteland. Ravage deserved no less.
But here, out of the empty nothingness, he felt his spark caressed and soothed of a vorn old pain. In a startled haze and a instinctual attempt to find his deceased cassette, the communications officer whipped his helm around, searching for the one that he swore was gone.
His visored gaze landed on the shadowy form of Jack, and froze. The mech visibly flinched as he took one then two steps back, his servo that lay on his chassis where laserbeak normally resided, but who was currently on a scouting mission, clenched desperately to him as he took in the sight that met his shocked optics. "R-Ravage..?" his voice nothing but a deep drone like series of beeped tones not unlike Bumblebee's, but the wavering sob, thick with unbridled emotion and confusion was obvious to even the inexperienced ear of Jack. The resemblance was uncanny in the dark depths of the Nemisis,though there were several features that seemed odd to the tall con. But the presence in his spark waked hopes he had long forgotten, and had no hopes of stopping.
The panther didn't understand the word out loud, but the message was sent clearly by the bot's spark as he tried to reach out to the deliverer of much needed comfort and understanding. He closed his eyes and let a single tear slip down his muzzle at the desperate hope that was laden in that one, pleading inquiry, "No… I am sorry. I am not the one you have lost. I simply could not let your pain go untreated while there was something I could do."
The mech seemed much taken aback by the information that he had been given as well as how it was given. He took a few tentative steps toward the being that had called to his spark and held so many characteristics to one that he had held so dear, "B-but… How can you speak to me this way if you… What are you..?"
Jack had no real answer. He bowed his head but kept eye contact. He couldn't give himself away, but he found himself drawn to this being. Being the person that he was, he couldn't just leave this poor being the way he was... Con or not. But there was something… Off about his spark. It wasn't just the loss that had scarred it. No, there was more to it; almost as if…
Jack's eyes widened as he slowly put the pieces together. It wasn't a whole spark. It was… in pieces. Small bits so dim that they almost had no existence left. Four sat as nothing but flecks of light around the main shard that had no real substance to them, but were still distinct in the spark's chamber; almost like shattered rings around a broken planet.
Two seemed to twine together in a thick band, one a dark crimson, the other a vibrant purple. Another light periwinkle sat in odd waves at a different angle to the other bands, and the fourth yellow band tried to inter connect to a strand burning rather brightly directly beside the main shard, glowing a faint magenta, and stretching out far beyond the con's body and through one of the far walls. T his confused Jack until he felt around the tether and found that another spark was connected to the other end. A bond between the two. The words of Ratchet came into his mind. 'Soundwave has what are called cassettes. They basically share a spark, but not in the senses that spark twins do. The spark is broken by the original mech and placed into the smaller frames, and is allowed to live connected yet separate lives…'
He remembered Ratchet's lessons regarding this mech. His many cassettes had proven to be very deadly in previous experience with the Autobots, and after Fowler's trip to the Nemisis and the revelation of Laserbeak to the humans, it had become imperative that the children learn about the cassettes that the communications officer might still have. And a basic run down of bonds and bonding in general. THAT was quite the awkward conversation for all present.
Silence stretched between the two and Jack "I don't think I can tell you that… Your spark… It's bonds…. what happened to them? Why?"
Jack felt tiny waves of longing and painful loneliness trickle out of the main shard of spark, and pushed forth his own of comfort and reassurance that pulled in the ill emotions; absorbing them, and soothing the hurting spark. "That's ... I'm so sorry-"
A light whine from behind Jack interrupted him, and both the mech and panther turned to see the smaller form of Raf leaning heavily against the closest bulkhead. The fox-rabbit turned pleading eyes up to his older companion before sinking to his knees in exhaustion.
Startled in trepidation of losing his young friend, Jack turned to Soundwave,"I need to go… He's hurt, and I can't help him. But, I don't want to leave you like this. I…Can you get us out of here? Please...?"
Soundwave tilted his helm, "How can I trust you?" That was a very good question. Here Soundwave was, conversing with a tiny, strange organic that he had never met, wandering the halls of the Nemisis, a heavily fortified and manned vesicle capable of interstellar flight with seemingly no purpose. And with powers of unknown ability, they could very well wreak havoc if they were to stay. He had had no intel from any that there was to be any form of prisoner aboard, and most certainly not of any he had never ever heard of.
For all he knew, they were here as pet science projects of Starscream's, and unauthorized at that. If anything, it might be best if he DID dispose of them. But then, he should report this to Megatron for confirmation. The war lord would be very displeased about the unauthorized containment of unknown entities about his vesicle. He would have them annihilated on the spot.
That would take care of everything, and Soundwave could continue his duties unhindered. But then... He would never answer the questions of just what this creature that could touch his spark was.
So with a curt nod, Soundwave walked to the smallest furry form kneeling beside the ebony feline, picking it up and turning once more to Jack. "Follow me."
The purple mech began down the hall way at a careful pace so as not to jostle the tiny burden in his servos and activated a portal to a remote valley that he had records of Starscram having recently bridged from. Odds were, that was where these creatures had come from. And in a swirl of greens, blues, and whites, the three figures emerged in a crater littered area, lit faintly by the light of the moon and stars over head, a faint hint of dawn creeping over the horizon. Pools of long dried energon and blood sat undisturbed in random intervals.
It seemed that despite the feeling of immense time that had passed, not more than a few hours had passed since their capture. And with that Soundwave, and Jack's mental request, placed Raf in the cradle of the panther's wings before stepping away. "It would be for the best if you were to keep from Decepticon patrols. I can't guarantee that you will be overlooked if Starscream finds you gone."
Jack nodded and turned to leave, heading towards a shallow over hang on a cliff before Soundwave nudged the panther's mind once more, "Would I enquirer that I meet with you again?" Curiosity and heavily repressed longing and loneliness stirred up laced the question.
"I'm not sure. It's possible, but this might be the last time we speak. " Jack looked around and saw the enterance to the valley that held his little cove in the far distance, "I have a place in that valley that I spend a little time in occasionally. If you really want to, I might be there."
The echoes of disappointment were choked off as Soundwave resumed a stiff posture, "Very well. then fair well. I wish you luck."
And with that, Soundwave turned and headed back into the portal, leaving the two to their own devices.