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"Jazz, are you all right?"
The black and white mech shrugged one shoulder. "All this, with Praxus, is getting to me, Optimus. Reminding me of how I got here again, you know."
"Yes, I know exactly." The red and blue mech sat down next to the smaller mech, careful of the debris scattered along Jazz's perch. "Every time I shutter my optics, I see the docks and Megatron destroying everything and everyone I knew."
"The docks?" Jazz turned to stare at the young Prime. "The Iacon docks?"
"Yes. I unloaded the barges as they came in from the processing plants." Melancholy filled the large mech's voice. "I had just started my shift the morning that Megatron attacked. My friends... I should have died with them all that day. I would have, if not for Alpha Trion."
The saboteur thought about the mechs he had known at the docks and tried to place Optimus. He didn't look exactly like anyone he'd known before, but if Optimus had been reformatted like he had been...
"I was on duty that morning, too. Up in the tower, taking calls from the refineries the Cons had hit the day before." Jazz felt his voice go thick with sorrow and he struggled to keep talking. He hadn't ever told anyone but Ratchet what had happened that day. "I watched them murder my friends one by one, even Orion who just wanted to talk to them. Mech didn't even know how to use a pistol, and Megatron, he--"
"He didn't." Optimus grabbed the smaller mech by the shoulders and turned Jazz so that he could stare intently at him. "I'm Orion Pax, Jazz. Or I was."
"You...?" Jazz felt his voice crack, torn between sorrow and relief. "How?"
"I do not know what Alpha Trion did before he gave me the Matrix of Leadership, but it repaired the damage to my spark. It... formatted me for its own needs." The large mech's hands tightened on the black and nd White's shoulder. "Please, Jazz. Tell me which of my friends has been returned to me. Who were you before?"
"Meister," the smaller mech replied. "I was Meister."
Optimus pulled Jazz against his chest plates and hugged the saboteur tightly. "I should have known that if anyone could survive it would be you."
"I almost didn't." Jazz returned the Prime's tight embrace and let the larger mech hold him up as he shuddered with remembered horror. "They blew the control tower on their way out, and that did enough damage to kill any bot before it collapsed. I don't know how I survived the fall. And then I should have died when I lost half my plating crawling out of the ruins, and again dragging myself to the street for help. If emergency services hadn't been so close, I wouldn't be here."
"And it was Ratchet who repaired you?"
"There wasn't enough of me to repair. He kept me on spark support long enough to build a new frame for me." Jazz snuggled closer against the other mech's strong plating. "He let me customize it after he transferred me in. Joined up after everything stabilized, and tried not to think about everyone I'd lost. I never thought I would see you again."
Optimus tightened his arms and rested his head on top of Jazz's. "I am grateful beyond telling that you're still with me."
"Me, too."
They sat together in silence after that, wrapped in each other's arms and drawing comfort from the other's presence. Bend them, they could hear the recovery work as the Autobot teams tried to locate survivors.
Finally Jazz sighed. "I need to check on Prowl again. No one else will think to, with all of this."
"I'll come with you," the Prime offered immediately.
"Not this time, Optimus. He won't... he can't let anyone else see him like this. He's not the Prowl you know right now." The saboteur extracted himself from the larger mech's arms slowly. "It'll mean more to him if you check on Ratchet and those survivors Blaster's team found."
"All right." Reluctantly, Optimus let Jazz step away from him, then rose to his own feet. "Will I see you again later?"
"Count on it." The black and white mech smiled, though it was tinged with sadness. "We've got a lot of catching up to do."