Chapter Text
Jazz looks around the barracks warily, leaning back against the wall as he and D-16 wait for Orion to get out of the wash racks. Most miners were out doing their shifts, like they were technically supposed to be doing, and their group wasn't on break yet, so if they were caught here by a cogged superior, they'd be in a lot of trouble. Jazz shifts uneasily as a trio of miners passes by, trying to look like he was doing absolutely nothing wrong, that he wasn't supposed to be working right now, that there was no need to call for a supervisor.
It was a bit hard to relax, though, with D-16 rigid beside him, practically radiating with annoyance. He was intimidating, to say the least.
Jazz sighs, trying to avoid looking directly at him. He was well acquainted with D-16, but no one was close to him like Orion was. Orion bonded pretty well with just about everyone, but he was closest to D, considering they were Amica Endurae. D, on the other hand, pretty much kept to himself. He was always focused on work and protocol, and occasionally getting Orion out of his messes, so most bots didn't know him very well outside of that.
All Jazz really knew about D was that he really cared about Orion and hated breaking protocol, and that he wasn't a mech to be trifled with, especially when he was upset for any reason. And this little stunt they were about to pull was definitely breaking a lot of protocol.
Before they'd left the medbay, Jazz had created a group internal comm line with the five of them, and while no one had actively used it since its creation, it was at least there, should they need it. They'd be able to relay information to Ratchet and Arcee that way, but they decided to reserve it only for important matters. D and Ratchet had been hesitant, but Orion had accepted it, and Arcee had thought it was a good idea, so they went with it. And in this moment, Jazz was struggling with himself to not use the channel as a means to vent.
"So," D says, breaking the silence (and surprising Jazz), "has Orion been acting… weird around you, too?"
"Uh, not really," he replies with a slight shrug. "But I guess I also don't know him as well as you do. So you tell me. How has he been acting weird around you?"
D shifts, his optics darkening just a bit. "It's just, I don't know, ever since he woke up after passing out on us, it feels like he's growing distant. He flinches away every time I so much as move around him, he's been quiet lately, and I feel like he's been avoiding me." He holds his helm in his servos. "I just don't understand. Have I done something wrong?"
Jazz knows there's a right thing to say here, but his processor is blanking on what it might be, so he just stays silent for the moment, worry eating at his spark. It would be considered unusual for a bot to start acting like that around their Amica Endura, but in Orion's case, being quiet was a means for concern itself. It always seemed, to Jazz, that Orion always had something to say, so if he wasn't saying anything, there might actually be something else going on neither he nor D know about. What that could be, Jazz had no idea.
The two just stand there in uncomfortable silence, D's gaze fixed to the floor while Jazz looked toward the rest of the barracks. D was the kind of mech who kept his EM field closed tight to himself, but Jazz could still practically feel the negativity emanating from him, so either his emotions were just that strong or D wasn't managing his field at all in this moment. And now that he was thinking about it, Orion's own field had also been held close as of late. Maybe that would count as something strange, but surely D would have also noticed that by now, so Jazz didn't bring it up.
Luckily for them, the silence ended when Orion finally emerged, looking much shiner than before, and while he smiled like nothing was out of the ordinary, something about his expression just seemed off to Jazz. He couldn't quite put his digit on it, though. Maybe he was acting weird.
"I think I'm feeling much better now," Orion says as D passes him the transmission chip he'd found and he magnetically attaches it to his arm. "I'm ready to roll out. How about you?"
D comes off of the wall and Jazz has to prevent himself from sighing in relief as D's optics brighten and he no longer suffocates the area with his negativity. "I'm ready when you are, Pax," D says, his tone a little bit gentler than what Jazz was used to.
"Same here," Jazz responds, offering Orion a warm smile. "So you never did say, how exactly are we getting to the surface?"
"Follow me and find out," Orion says, before pushing past the two of them and making his way out of the barracks. Jazz and D follow closely, and Jazz can't help but notice the way D kept his optics glued to Orion's frame. They traveled through countless corridors, until Jazz realized where they were heading. He'd grown quite familiar with the walls they walked through when he worked in waste management a long time ago, and he felt a sense of unease wash over him. Not only did he hate that job just a little more than he hated being a miner, but he was beginning to develop a sneaking suspicion on why Orion was taking them there in particular.
Jazz was about to say something when Orion veered off course, walking into a tunnel very clearly labeled with "Authorized Waste Management Staff Only" that opened up into an equipment service and waiting area, before beginning to climb up onto a magnetic lifter. D paused, but then sighed and followed him wordlessly, and Jazz hurried to climb up after them when it started rising. Once at the top, they had a view of the station. There was a train currently being loaded, bots moving into the train carrying crates and walking back out without them.
"Waste disposal trains are the only vehicles that go all the way to the surface," Orion says as they crouch behind the lifter's cables and look over the scene.
"Yeah, but they don't allow passengers," D responds, his optics flickering with doubt. "The trains are autonomous."
"I'm guessing that's the part about this that's not going to be easy," Jazz chuckles. "So how are we gonna get in?"
"Through the top," Orion responds, before the lifter starts moving again, going over the train.
The three of them shifted to be out of view of the workers below, and as the lifter got closer to the train, they began climbing off of it, holding on until they were right above the train and then letting go. There were soft thudding sounds as their pedes landed, but no one seemed to notice, so they proceeded.
Orion crept forward and D and Jazz followed, until he stopped just before the roof entrance. He motioned for Jazz and D to be quiet, before pulling it open to see inside.
"He really knows what he's doing," Jazz whispers to D while they wait for Orion to move in. "Has he done this before?"
"Never anything this stupid," D mutters in response. "I still can't believe I'm actually going through with this."
"It's not too late to back out still, you know," Jazz murmurs. "At this point you'd only have missed two shifts. With the cover of visiting Orion in the medbay, you'll probably be excused."
"I'm not letting him do this without me," D responds with a soft sigh. "We promised we'd always watch each other's backs. It's annoying, yes, but it's a promise I intend to keep."
"Move in," Orion says, motioning to D and Jazz as he pushes the opening further apart and carefully steps inside. D goes down next and as Jazz starts climbing down the ladder, he sees a flash of pink out of the corner of his optics. Before he can register it, though, an unfamiliar voice shouts from outside the train.
"Hey, wait, hold on! I have one more!"
The door hisses open and Orion mutters "Scatter" under his breath, before he goes one way and D goes another, and Jazz in a brief moment of panic just follows Orion.
As he and Orion crouched behind a stack of crates, in walked none other than Elita-1, her servos on her hips as a small golden-yellow mech scrambled in behind her, holding a crate.
"This is why you should move faster," she scolds as the golden mech sets the crate down.
"Sorry, Elita," he apologizes. "I'm just not used to moving fast, you know? Back down in sublevel 50, I just stood there by the conveyor belt all the time. You know, I've wondered why some scrap goes down to sublevel 50 while some comes here to be loaded into crates. Maybe what needs to be incinerated is too dangerous to just dump on the surface so they get rid of it in a safer manner, but I don't know what that would mean for me, considering my exposure to it for so long, but maybe-"
"B," Elita says sharply. "You're rambling again."
"Right, sorry," the golden mech—B, apparently—says.
"We're locking it down," Elita calls outside, before reaching over to a panel beside the door and clicking something. Jazz sees the lights under the crates go from green to red, then he sees her turn around. His vents catch in his in take as he follows her gaze to the ceiling hatch they'd entered from. Then, he feels his spark sink as she begins walking back into the train.
"Elita?" B asks, looking back at her.
Elita doesn't acknowledge him as she walks over to the ladder they'd climbed down just moments prior. "Thanks for being an idiot, whoever you are," she says, coming to a stop right in front of the crates Jazz and Orion were hiding behind. Orion grabs Jazz by the arm and pulls him down right as her helm was starting to turn their way. "Turning you in will definitely get me promoted back up a rank or two."
Then, out of nowhere, D tackles her. "Got her!" he shouts, and B yelps in alarm as Elita runs up the wall and flips over D and sweeps his legs out from under him.
No use in hiding now, Jazz thinks as he leaps from his hiding spot and pins B down, holding him in a chokehold as Orion runs up to her, narrowly dodging two of her strikes.
"Elita, stop!" he shouts.
"Orion?" Elita questions furiously.
"Hold on, let me-" Orion cuts himself off as he barely ducks down in time to avoid a punch to the face. "Please, Elita!"
Elita runs to the door. "Security! Sound the alarm!" But the door shuts before she can finish, trapping her in there with them as the train starts moving. Elita growls in frustration, pounding once on the door, before she turns and starts sprinting up the train's length.
"What's going on?" B asks, his voice strangled from how Jazz held him.
"I don't even know anymore," Jazz responds, loosening his hold on the smaller mech's neck.
"She's heading to the engine!" Orion exclaims, scrambling up and running after her. "Hold on, let me explain!" D follows close behind, and Jazz hurriedly gets off of Elita's underling and dashes after her as well, B also stumbling as he runs. "We're on a mission!"
"So am I!" Elita snaps back. "To ruin your life!" She leaps effortlessly over the crates in their way, and as the train went on a vertical incline, she swings herself up onto a crate. Jazz stumbles as he loses his footing, and he sees D hurriedly press the button to shut the door to the next cart before they could fall through it, and B landed on top of them both as Orion caught himself on his own crate halfway between Elita and the door.
"Elita, wait!" Orion calls up to her. "We found a message; we know where-" Elita presses something on the side of the crate. "Look out!" Orion shouts as it falls down toward Jazz, B, and D, and the three of them yelp and quickly jump out of the way.
"Elita, wait!" B calls up to her. "I'm still down here!"
"Elita!" Jazz shouts, but then Elita leaps up to the ceiling hatch and climbs out that way.
"Looks like we have to climb," Orion shouts, already beginning to make his way up. Jazz quickly follows, B right behind him and D taking up the rear. The train still ran vertically, and Jazz found himself occasionally having to leap from one crate to the next as he climbed. He hears B struggling behind him, and he looks up to see Orion was already at the ceiling hatch, glancing back at them before he exited the train cart.
Jazz heaved himself onto the ledge before the hatch, peering outside before climbing further. Oh slag, he thinks as he looks down at the rapidly shrinking lights of Iacon below him. His grip on the train tightens, recognizing that if he fell, he was dead. Behind him, he hears B yelp.
"Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?" he repeats over and over again as he goes higher.
"Climb faster!" D shouts up, climbing up behind him.
The five of them climb higher along the train, before the train starts curving down and leveling out. Jazz is taken by surprise at the sudden movement and briefly flies up, but his grip tightens even more and his frame slams back down against the train as it barrels through some kind of dust storm. Jazz covers his face as he's pelted with tiny shards of metal, and he looks up at Orion and Elita ahead of him.
"Gotcha!" he hears Orion shout as he grabs Elita's heel, and Jazz sees Elita aim a blow at Orion, before he and probably everyone else are distracted by the train clearing the storm and revealing their first clear view of the surface.
The sight was extraordinary. Metal shifts and grows and changes, forming outcroppings and growths, patterned and highlighted by various colors of alloys. The sky was scattered with countless stars, streaked with colors and lights, some emanating from Cybertron itself. To the left, the sky filled with bright orange and red light from the rising sun, bathing the environment in an even more ethereal light. To their right, Cybertron's two moons glimmered softly, their pale light beginning to fade out as sunlight took their place.
"The surface," Jazz hears D-16 utter as he gazes upon the landscape.
"It's… beautiful," Elita breathes, she too captivated by the sight.
"I am… speechless," B says in awe.
"I never thought something like this could be up here," Jazz himself murmurs, marveling at the sheer beauty of the surface. As long as he could remember, they'd been told the surface was extremely dangerous. Jazz wasn't certain what he'd expected it to look like, but it definitely wasn't this.
After a moment, Orion speaks. "Elita," he says, as he and everyone else turns to him and her (and B starts shuffling closer to Elita), "listen to me. We know where the Matrix of Leadership is."
"Oh, sure," Elita scoffs, "and I'm really a Prime, I just prefer loading crates of toxic w-" She cuts herself off as Orion taps the transmission chip, the coordinate map displaying itself before them. "Whoa. Where did you get this?"
"He stole it out of the archives," D says scornfully. "I guess it shouldn't come as a shock to you he'd do something as stupid as this, given his track record."
"D, please," Orion says with a note of exasperation, which stunned just about everyone here, D especially. Jazz was shocked Orion of all mechs would speak like that to his Amica, especially considering their normal dynamic, and he could tell Elita was surprised, too. He didn't miss the brief flash of confusion and possibly hurt in D's optics either.
"Look," Orion starts, "Sentinel told us he was going to the surface and then we found this message. We figured that we could hand deliver it to him or scout the locations ourselves, whichever comes first." Jazz couldn't help but notice there was something off about the way Orion spoke, as if he had been reading off of a script, like he knew he had to say something like that at some point. But that would mean he'd have to know Elita would somehow get roped into their little quest and that just didn't make any sense. "This was too important to wait," he continues. "It will change all of our lives."
Elita studies Orion and the map pensively, then she sighs and shuts her optics. "No, no, no, no, I'm not going to get demoted again because of you. I'm turning this rig around and notifying the proper auth-"
Jazz heard the distant rumbling right before D cut Elita off. "Hey, guys, guys," he says, catching the attention of everyone else. "What is that?" D points to something in the distance behind the train, a metal formation that was shifting and changing as it did. "Is it getting bigger?"
"Or closer?" Elita questions, taking a few steps forward.
Jazz locked optics with B, and then they both turned around and bolted. An alarm sounded from somewhere and Jazz heard Elita, Orion, and D following them close behind as they made a mad dash for the nearest ceiling hatch.
B was repeating the word "no" under his breath as they ran, and then Jazz saw the hatch start to close.
"Why are you closing don't close stop closing," B fell to his knees and pulled futilely at the locked door, "it's closed!"
Jazz and the others immediately crouch down beside him, desperately trying to get inside the train before the formation caught up to them. Unfortunately, their attempts were useless, the door remaining shut tight. They all look up in horror as the metal wave finally reaches them, lifting the train and its track up into the air.
"Oh, now I know why no one comes to the surface!" D shouts, before they all lunge to hold on to the railings along the side of the train roof.
The train maneuvers roughly around the shifting metal walls and waves, throwing the five bots around as it did. The train turns sharply and they were all airborne for a moment, before crashing back down as the train barrels forward.
And as the train went over another metal wave, none of them could hold on any longer. They were thrown into the air, and as Jazz hurtled toward the ground, he was surrounded by screaming, until he hit the surface, getting knocked out instantly.