Chapter Text
Everything ached. The violent crash of the ship from space to rock left the vessel a mangled mess of Its former self. Jazz remembered the image of Prowl being thrown from his seat after the telltale sound of a sickening snap from the safety belts failure, thrashing his partner's body against the walls of the ship they had called home for their very, very long voyage.
Jazz unstrapped himself from the snug hold with his safety belt, gravity pulling him from the now ceiling, to the now floor of the ship, his body slamming down against the jagged edges of what remained of their ship.
Peeling himself off the ground, Jazz hurried over to his partner's side who was now beginning to stir awake. “Prowl! Prowl! Are you ok!?”
Prowl groaned as he was lifted up into Jazz’s arms, rubbing his helm. “What was that?” He said as Jazz’s fingers delicately drifted over the sparking crickets on the base of Prowl's wings, damaged from him being slammed against the wall.
“Prowler, answer the question, are you ok!?”
“Yes I still function. Now, what was THAT?”
“I don't know, guess my flying has gotten kinda rusty eh’”
“Jazz, something grabbed our ship and threw it out of the sky, it has little to do with your piloting.”
“I know, I know, sorry, just tryn to lighten the mood. C’mon let's get outta here, I don't wanna be around when that thing finds us again.” Prowl only scoffed as Jazz helped lift him to his feet.
“Can you walk?” Jazz gently relinquished his grip in a test to let prowl stand on his own.
“Yes. Grab the rifle, and my blasters.” Barely before the words could leave Prowl's lips, Jazz had snatched the weapons, and ammunition, which had been thrown from their casings due to the collision, off the floor.
Handing Prowl his blaster he neatly tucked the second one to his own side before turning his attention to the rifle. Checking to make sure that it had live rounds inside before attaching it to his back. Jazz’s rifle was unique from most Cybertronian weaponry, as the ammunition contained was not the traditional plasma bolt, but a physical round which instead of exploding on impact, would puncture and transfer all its kinetic energy into the target, abruptly slowing and causing fatal injury.
The pair crawled out from the wreckage of the ship, looking up from the impact zone, a large crater stood above them. They had crashed into a cave, a deep one at that, and it looked not to have any viable exits. Not good.
“Scrap.” Jazz muttered, extending an arm to steady Prowl as they descended down the rubble from their ship.
“‘Scrap’ indeed.” Jazz was about to crack a quick quip at his partner's mimicry, however after glancing at him he realized that Prowl was glancing towards the hole in the cave's ceiling.
A large mechanical creature descended from the sky, its impressive body and wingspan blocking out the sun as it descended down and nimbly maneuvered itself to squeeze through the hole. Sweet primus Jazz hoped the distress signal he sent out when they were shot down reached someone. Anyone.
Crashing to the ground, its long slender talons punctured the rock while it glared at the Autobots. Its wingspan was attached to the front arms, tucked nicely against itself so it could maneuver on all fours. The black and rose gold plaiting glistened with the shine from the sun as its slender tail cracked like a whip. The sheer mass of the creature alone easily spelled out its power, the creature's slender head splitting into three, the bottom jaw separating to reveal a sea of razors as it released a horrific roar.
“BY THE PRIMES!” Jazz shouted as he and Prowl jumped aside from the bubbling liquid that spilled from the creature's mouth. Watching in horror as the rock it touched melted beneath its heat.
“Move now!” Prowl shouted as he aimed the pistol at the creature, firing a round.
Jazz didn't see much as he ran to circle the creature. Only that the plasma fire from Prowls blaster did nothing to penetrate the creature's armour.
Despite the visual observation from Prowl's previous attack, Jazz attempted the same, aiming his blaster and firing between the cracks of the plaiting, burning against the monster's protoform.
Unfortunately, all this did was piss the creature off more. Whipping its head around, it screeched at Jazz, quickly snapping its tail around the special opps agent. Before he even had the time to say the very inappropriate profanity that first came to mind he was slammed against the cave wall.
Jazz felt the glass on his door wings crack. It was as if his processor was shaking around in his helm. He groaned as he tried to regain his bearings, peeling himself from the coarse earth, looking up at the first thing that was in his vision. Prowl; whose optics were momentarily fixated in a state of worry.
It was strange, infrequently Prowl would become distracted from a life or death scenario, especially one like this even if they hadn't seen any action for quite some time. Jazz tried to shout at him, to get his partner's helm back in the game. These split seconds could be a life or death scenario, but all that came out was static.
Despite this Prowl seemed to get the message. Locking his concentration back onto the creature only to be face to face with it.
Prowl grasped, aiming his blaster at the creature as he tried to create distance, it surged forward locking its jaws against his frame. Prowl shrieked as he was slammed against the rock, having the proverbial wind knocked out of him. Immediately being followed by the creature's claws smashing against his chassis.
Instinctively Prowl clawed at the palm compressing his plaiting, grasping desperately to remove it. Nothing works as the pressure rapidly increases. Plating cracked and buckled against the weight as if it was made of aluminum.
Jazz scrambled for his rifle as a sickening crunch echoed over Prowls screams. Firing a shot, miraculously the round pierces through the armour. Not killing, but redirecting the anger of the beast who removed its paw from his lover's chassis. Prowl just lets out a choked gasp.
The beast lashed out, snapping his jaws at him which luckily Jazz dodged. Using the opportunity to rush to Prowls side.
The damage looked… bad. Bad was an understatement. Prowl’s chassis had practically been split open. His spark exposed, energon leaking from his fuel lines. “PROWL!”
Before Jazz could act, the creature was on them again. It loomed over the pair and reeled back, its jaw expanded, latching apart and glowing as plasma swelled in its throat.
Instinctively, Jazz raised the rifle, and fired. The round exited with a loud *BANG* which cracked against the walls. Piercing the roof of the monster's mouth and exiting through the top of its helm. It was like a switch was flipped, and the creature crashed to the ground, the last twitches of its body ebbing out as all living charge slowly dissipated.
There was no time to celebrate however. Prowls' systems wheezed with the trying task of keeping his failing body alive. Jazz could see his partner's mouth open, as if he was trying to say something but the words had been physically pulled out of his throat.
“Shh shh, dont talk lover. I've got chu.” Jazz tried to console Prowl as he inspected the damage. Steading his quivering body and shooting off another distress signal.
“It probably looks a lot worse than it feels… Hold tight, you’ll be ok.” Jazz lied. And prowl knew he was lying. The ebb in his voice and the tremble of his servos against his plaiting told him as much.
Prowl opened his mouth to speak, and after a long strained choke the words he gasped out hung in the air like the plague. “... I'm dying.”
“No, no, no don't talk like that you'll be fine.” Jazz shakily responded, already setting to work on any immediate repairs he could manage. It was nothing in comparison to what a medic could do, but it was something. Jazz gently peeled the remaining fragments from Prowl's chassis with a creak, fully exposing his spark and leaking fuel lines which Jazz did his best to weld and seal.
“I love you.”
“Me too Prowler, just hold on you'll be ok.”
The hum of Prowl's spark was faint, Jazz could see the energy fading from it as the spin began to get slower and slower, fading in colour and the electric buzz emitted from it became a light hum.
“Scrap! Scrap! Scrap!”Jazz’s work intensified, scrambling to utilize all of those precious seconds that could give the gift of saving Prowl’s life.
He was running out of options, there was little he could do. Jazz frantically pinged another distress signal out as he reached for his own chest plating and manually opened it to reveal his spark chamber.
Prowl raised an optic ridge as his partner pulled his own wires apart, floundering with the wires until they were haphazardly connected to his Spark chamber. Reaching down, Jazz frantically tied the other end of the cord to Prowl's chamber. He hoped this would work. A shared connection of energy like this would kill any other bot. Different frequencies didn't mesh well with the spark. But Jazz and Prowl shared the same frequency after their spark bond.
The connection linked and Jazz could feel the surge of energy passing from his own spark to Prowls. Followed by a surge of pain from Prowl’s end. He barely registered the sound of a ground bridge opening in the background as his processor was flooded with a surge of emotion and feeling.
Jazz scrambled for his rifle. Pointing it in the direction of the audible sound from the ground bridge, thinking it could be cons only to be met by the gaze of Autobots. Familiar Autobots, or well most were familiar.
Immediately Jazz was filled with hope at seeing his old friend Optimus. But he didn't need him right now, he needed the mech standing next to him who was already rapidly approaching to their aid. Jazz pushed through the static in his vocalizer shouting “Ratchet!”
Ratchet immediately knelt to the pair's aid and analyzed the situation. Digging his hands into Prowl’s chest and quickly tying off the major arteries which Jazz was unable to solder before turning his attention to Prowl’s spark.
“What in the frag! What are you doing? This'll kill him!!” Ratchet shouted, reaching to sever the cord which connected the pair at the spark.
“NO! We share the same frequency! He needs it!” Jazz frantically spat out hearing the commotion of the bots behind him as Optomus tried to organize his troops.
Without questioning, Ratchet merely nodded. “He needs to be transported back to base immediately, I can't operate on him here. Prime, help me carry him back, don't sever his connection with Jazz, I think it's the only reason he's still functioning!”
Jazz aided in lifting Prowl off the earth beneath him as Optimus and Ratchet began the careful, but quick scramble towards the portal.
Jazz could hear the faint chatter of the other bots in the cave, the only voice of which he did not recognize causing quite the commotion over the creature Jazz had slain. Only to be shushed by a voice he did recognize, Arcee, ordering the team to follow Prime and the doctor through the bridge.
Everything felt hazy. Jazz could tell that there was chatter around him, but could no longer make it out as they exited the bridge into what he presumed to be the new Autobot base. He heard many voices, some familiar, some not. He couldn't even make out the individuals in front of him as he felt Prime, Ratchet, and himself settle Prowl against what he presumed to be a medical birth.
Jazz felt a sudden surge from his spark, likely caused by Ratchet connecting Prowl to some sort of power source before having their connecting cord abruptly severed.
Jazz turned his helm to the side and purged. Then everything abruptly went dark.