Chapter Text
Jazz stared down the hall where the Jettwins had disappeared a long moment after they left, his spark already sinking in remorse. He didn’t know what he had said wrong, but it had obviously upset the two Autobots. Squaring his shoulders determinedly, he started off to look for the two errant jets. After searching most of the open areas of the ship, though, he determined that they didn’t seem to want to be found. Deciding they just needed a little moment of space without him harassing them (they got enough of that sort of thing from Sentinel and the scientists), he dropped his pursuit and went back to the bridge, shrugging loosely when he got a skeptical look from Sentinel. He gave them some time for things to cool off, but was getting steadily more uneasy as the deadline for them to go to the scientists approached and they hadn’t appeared again. His guilt at not putting more effort into getting their side of the story hadn’t faded, and he decided to try talking to them one more time before Sentinel forced them back to Cybertron.
Hoping that they had gone back to their room, he started there, staring into the empty space with resignation. Then he did another loop of the ship, peeking into more hidden areas this time around. He could respect their need for space, but with time dwindling he really wanted to clear up this misunderstanding sooner rather than later. His concern only grew when there was no sign of the mechs anywhere. He wondered, hoping against his increasing dread, if they had been sent early and he just had somehow not noticed, and made his way back to the bridge.
“Hey, SP, you already send the twins back?” he asked, doing his best to hide his trepidation.
The Prime gave him a judgemental look in return, “No. Haven’t seen them since they went off to sulk in their quarters. They had better report in soon, their time’s almost up.”
More nervous than before, Jazz did another sweep of the ship, his step more urgent, at last coming to a restless stop in the middle of a corridor as he mulled over their absence. This was not good. Being flying mechs, if the two weren’t on the ship, they could be just about anywhere.
“Where are those two? Still hiding? You figured they could take a reprimand like members of the Elite Guard," complained Sentinel, who had also started a search around the ship for the younger soldiers as their time ran out.
“Eh,” hesitantly supplied Jazz, not really wanting to snitch on the two to the Prime, but worried about where they could be, “They appear t’ be gone, sir.”
“Whaddya mean, ‘gone’?” asked Sentinel in irritation.
“Splitsville,” he elaborated without elaborating, earning a disgruntled look from the Prime as he continued completely unbothered, “I looked all over the whole ship for ‘em. Ain’t seen ‘em since they ran off,” he admitted.
“And you didn’t think to tell me sooner?!” barked Sentinel, as he raised a hand to his comms. “Jetfire! Jetstorm! Report in, you truants!” He jerked his head sharply away when only static resounded in his comms, his expression quickly dropping darkly. “Those bolts have gone AWOL!” he declared with a deep scowl.
“Should we start a search for ‘em, then, sir?” asked Jazz cautiously, wary of Sentinel’s rapidly declining mood.
“Why bother! Those two traitors made their loyalties pretty clear!” he thundered, throwing an arm out angrily. With an even heavier scowl, he turned sharply back towards the bridge of the ship, stomping away as he shouted, “Good riddance!”
Jazz stayed in the corridor, his spark sinking apprehensively, “Hope those little mechs are a’ight, wherever they are,” he spoke quietly to the empty room. When a loud, angry sounding clang resounded through the Steelhaven he grimaced, muttering, “And hope we’ll be alright, too.”