Dark Memories: Chapter Two
Title: Dark Memories
Chapter Two
Rating: PG
Summery: Jazz reflects over the events of the last few weeks. And looks for intel elsewhere.
Characters/Parings: Jazz/Prowl pre-relationship
Alerts: AU- Yokotron is alive; he survived the attack on the dojo. Jazz has been indefinitely assigned to Earth as the Elite Guard liaison.
Disclaimer: Transformers (c) Hasbro
The horizon was just beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn as a white mech made his way out of the water and up the beach of an island in the middle of Lake Erie. Glancing over his shoulder at the city he had just left, the mech’s resolve solidified as he recalled his self appointed mission. Jazz sighed as he the events that had brought him to this point drifted through his processor. Upon returning to Earth he had hoped to establish some sort of relationship with a certain member of Optimus’s team. Prowl was a gorgeous black and gold cycleformer with the added bonus of being a fellow ninja. His quiet and reserved personality had, for some unfathomable reason, immediately endeared him to the white ninja in the short span of their pervious acquaintance.
When the guard had left Earth he’d been disappointed but optimistic of his chances at looking the mech up once the Decepticon crisis was over and the mech was back on Cybertron. Thus when the council had decided to send him back to Earth as backup and to improve communications by installing a tachyon satellite in orbit, Jazz had joyfully accepted the mission. As his journey had gone smoothly and the installation of the satellite had been completed without any problems, Jazz had high hopes for a successful courting of his intended mate.
After landing his shuttle on Dinobot Island, he had been informed by Optimus that the humans of Detroit had been very upset about the Elite Guard parking their ship in the middle of the city on their last visit, and getting settled in he had started on his courtship plans. The first phase, which consisted of getting his intended used to him via joining him in meditation and offering himself as a sparring partner, had been completed successfully. After about two weeks, Prowl was willing to allow him to spend time with him around the base as well letting him tag along on his patrols.
At that point Jazz decided to start on his second phase, getting the mech alone repeatedly so they could get to know one another. Unfortunately phase two crashed and burned. It started when Sari told him about a nearby cavern system that had some interesting rock formations. By this point he had already figured out Prowl’s love of nature and figured that a visit to the caves would be a good way to get a chance to talk to the mech without worrying about eavesdroppers. At that point things started to get rocky; first it took a lot of begging to get Prowl to even agree to the trip. Then to make matters even worse upon arriving at the cavern they were attacked by a very large Decepticon, who Jazz would later learn was designated Lugnut. The fight with the con was short as the mech attacked with a barrage of missiles that chased the ninjas into the cavern and collapsed the entrance, trapping the pair in total darkness.
Once the rocks stopped falling Jazz and Prowl had listened carefully for any sign that the con outside would try something else to permanently offline them. After nearly ten minutes had passed with the only sounds reaching their audios were those emanating from their own systems the pair relaxed in relief, or at least Jazz had. To the white ninja’s shock and dismay his companion proceeded to become even more tense and edgy as the hours slowly ticked by. The pair had sent out a distress signal as soon as they encountered the Decepticon so Jazz had known it was only a matter of time before the rest of the team showed up to dig them out, nevertheless mentioning this to Prowl had simply caused the mech to snap at him irritably. Jazz had been confused by Prowls response and the fact that all further attempts at finding out what was bothering the other ninja were vehemently rebuffed. They had been stuck underground for well over an hour when Jazz came to a startling conclusion; Prowl was afraid of the dark. As he could easily hear his companion’s intakes cycling rapidly, the white ninja was surprised that he didn’t make the connection sooner. Unfortunately for Jazz, this revelation simply posed questions that only Prowl could answer. Nebulous plans to distract the dark ninja had swirled slowly through Jazz’s mind but all had been discarded as they included poking fun at such a simple fear; he had a strong feeling that if he did he would alienate the other ninja very quickly.
Jazz had just started to get serious about distracting Prowl and calming him down when shouts of their names shattered the near silence. Following their replies it had taken Optimus and the rest of his bots just over an hour to break through the rockslide and open a gap large enough to let them escape. While Jazz had been thrilled to see daylight again he had still been worried about Prowl, however once again his entreaties had been ignored or brushed off with assurances that the other was fine. He had spent the drive home with a scanner tuned to the motorcycle and a lot of unanswered questions playing through his processor.
Now Jazz would readily admit that he was a live and let live type of mech. He was sure that he would have dismissed Prowl’s reaction to being trapped in the dark as a onetime incident if not for what he had witnessed two weeks after the cave-in. There had been no moon when he had returned from a late patrol and decided to spend some time meditating on the roof before heading in to get some recharge. He hadn’t been planning to check in on his fellow ninja that night but the soft barely audible sounds that reached his audios as he walked past the entrance to Prowl’s room convinced him otherwise, crouching down he had peered through the foliage into the darkened room below. What he saw had nearly stopped his spark; Prowl writhed on his berth, armor glistening heavily with condensation, the quiet terrified whimpers escaping his vocalizer told Jazz that the mech below was having a very intense nightmare. He had just made up his mind to go to him when Prowl awoke with a strangled gasp, bolting upright on his berth shaking wildly. Jazz had quickly dropped to the ground to avoid being discovered, but it had been an unnecessary precaution as Prowl had apparently been so thoroughly shaken by the nightmare that he never looked up, he had then stayed until it became obvious that the dark ninja wasn’t going back to recharge before backing away.
Situating himself on the other side of the roof, Jazz had forgone recharge that night as he began to work out a plan to help his fellow ninja. The first thing he decided he needed was more information about what was going on. This turned out to be a major snag as Prowl wasn’t being forthcoming and the rest of the bots had only known him for a short period of time. Jazz had remained stuck on this problem for nearly a week before having an epiphany. Said epiphany was the reason he had swam to Dinobot Island after sneaking out of the base before sunrise; he had a call to Cybertron to place and the fewer questions asked the better. Jazz just hoped his sensei knew more about the situation than he did.