Lyric 39

A few weeks passed, and as they did, Lyric began to remember more and more, slowly turning to a modified version of her former self. She started to sound older, and think like an older femme, which was a healthy sign.
She and Siren had survived thus far in Jazz's trainings, and with each week one of the other three girls got into her frame. They couldn't join them yet as they were getting used to their own frames, but their time was running out and they knew it.
Every so often they would have their lessons postponed and took the chance to play videogames in the recroom instead with whoever was interested or available.
Prowl would often have to send Jazz on missions for supplies with small teams, and although risky, most of the time they came back without a scratch.
In the middle of all of this, they had also finally gotten their things back from the previous base, which until then had been combed for any tracers, microphones or cameras, just to be safe.
As soon as Lyric got her old human bag back, she dug into it and investigated her old things with curiosity, trying to remember them in detail.
Some memories came back with time, completing each others, she had the strong suspicion her creators were trying to get her to remember only the good ones, so as to spare her from the bad experiences in her past life.
She remembered some, but she was just fine with the good ones and had no interest in gaining the others.
The routine set in like clockwork, and it wasn't until Jazz started giving her more private lessons that things got trickier.
They sat together on the floor of the living room, using a yoga mat each, facing each other, a cable making a connection between their helms.
"Jus' relax a lil'...yer makin' it worse than it has ta be." Jazz coaxed for the hundredth time.
"Its not that easy..." she complained. "everything's still very messed up in that area..."
"Its fine. Ya just gotta find yer way around the encryption."
"Why did you have to encrypt it anyway? It was just fine before..." she grumbled.
"Cuz' it was far too easy for the Decepticons ta find it an' use it on ya to their wishes. Ah seek ta make it harder for 'em ta do that, not that they'll have a chance at it." He scoffed. He and Prowl were not going to let Lyric turn herself in again like last time, if they could help it, she would never even get a meter's distance from a Decepticon from now on.
"well its definitely not easy anymore, I can't access my own program" she growled lowly, frustrated with their work. "I'll never be able to sorcell again at this rate!"
"Ya will, ya just need a lil' practice. Not that Ah want ya usin' it all the time."
"Right right... I know." she said, trying to focus again on her task.
Prowl watched their struggle from the dinning table, he'd finished his last reports for the day a while ago, and was now just appreciating the moment. Jazz had turned out to be just like he expected:
A strict teacher, but tactful and knowing in a way many would not be able to be. He knew how to make the separation between being a creator and being a teacher, and that was what they needed for her the most right now.
If they had wanted merely a physical and battle experience teacher, they could have gladly given Ironhide the job. But Lyric and the other femmes needed a lot of processor work as well, something Jazz was much more skilled at.
Meanwhile Prowl was taking most of his duties as a third in command, nothing he hadn't handled before. After all, he always took over when Jazz went on missions, and he'd certainly gone on missions for very long periods of time before.
No, all the management was going fine, what worried him however was Lyric's progress in her memory and the predicted date for their departure from earth.
Although she'd been recovering her memories fairly quick and well, he feared not enough would be recovered on time for the moment they would have to say goodbye to the wondrous planet she had grown in.
He was sure that, had she her full memories, she would have wanted to know what she was missing, she would want to remember it, and he did not wish to keep her from that right.
Of course Jazz had been of the opposite opinion, pointing out that it would diminish her sense of loss and sadness this way.
He had a point yes, but sometimes, one wanted to be sad, to grieve over what is lost, and Prowl knew this was simply one of those cases.
Groaning in frustration, Lyric threw her arms in the air, throwing herself back on the mat.
"I give! I can't get around it!" she whined.
Jazz was about to argue before Prowl interrupted.
"Perhaps a break is in order Jazz?" he suggested softly. "I do remember Lyric being invited for movie night later today?"
At this, the young femme perked up, sitting straight again with interest.
Jazz hummed, discontent, but unplugged his end of the cable "Fine. We'll continue tomorrow" He said, feeling unsatisfied with himself.
"Why don't you head along Lyric? I am certain you'll need some time to get ready" Prowl suggested easily as Jazz began to roll up the mats.
"Yes!Thanks dad!"The femme said all too hastily, rushing off to the private washrack.
Prowl chuckled lightly, before turning to his mate.
"You are being too eager." He noted " She will work it out in time."
Jazz sighed, putting away the mats in their appropriate place.
"Ah know...Ah jus'...Ah kinda want ta see 'er with the frame we chose for 'er again."
"The little sparkling façade is growing tiresome on you?" Prowl suggested with amusement.
"Somethin' like tha'." he noded closing the closet "Ah mean, dun' get me wrong, Ah love ta have a lil' one around. But that's not her, not the real her Ah mean, we both know it, she knows it. It feels fake."
"Its a phase, all will be fine within time." Prowl said, motioning for him to join him. "She has already progressed a lot, have you noticed? She began to call me dad instead of daddy, and you pops, instead of papa."
"Yeah...that bit ah admit ah'm sad ta lose" The saboteur said, sagging in defeat, heading over to his mate, and rather than taking a chair for his own, sitting on his partner's lap.
"Mhmm.." Prowl hummed thoughtfully.
"Somethin' on yer mind?" Jazz asked knowingly, making himself comfortable and petting his mate's helmet.
"Optimus and I have finally come to an agreement on the date for the launch."
"Already?" Jazz asked,a little surprised.
"Yes, we've been very lucky thus far in evading detection while stealing supplies." Prowl nodded, wrapping his arms around the other.
They listened for a moment in silence, the only sound being the shower from the washrack.
"An' our destination?" Jazz asked wearily.
"We've set a course that will allow us to gather some resources along the way..."
"...but no definite destination" Jazz summed up.
"No...we are hopeful however, we will be heading towards the milky way, there are many planets there, the probabilities of finding somewhere to settle for a while are good, our chances are better than the ones we had when we found earth."
"Ah suppose that's kinda okay" Jazz agreed. Heck if his mate agreed to it, then he would back him up completely, no one better than Prowl to make a decision like this.
"we will begin straight away with rations and power savings, to prolong our chances as best as we can." Prowl spoke his thoughts in his usual pragmatic way.
"Hn... that's gonna suck for the girls" Jazz said with a sigh.
"I have been investigating alternative ways to keep them entertained in the mean time" Prowl said with a slight nod.
Jazz snorted "You? Entertain?"
Prowl gave him a stern look, one that knew very well where this was going.
"Yes Jazz, I do know how to entertain."
"Oh I know ya do, jus' that yer ways are very few an' limited, an most certainly not appropriate fer young femmes" he grinned, earning himself a slap on the back of the helm.
"You have no remedy"
_________________________________________________________________________
It was late into the night when Lyric started nodding off, a tank full of goodies and warm energon, and a processor full of movie images they had just watched.
They had gotten through a few Disney classics, like the little mermaid, the lion king, then moved off to Jurassic park and she could barely keep her optics online by now.
Don't get her wrong, she loved that movie, it felt like it was a part of her childhood, but it was very late by now and the warm fuzzy feeling of the thermal blanket wrapped around her really wasn't helping her battle.
Next to her were the other femmes, Silverclaw and Fusion had gotten their frames at last, and the only one left was Windy.
They were told that her frame would be ready by the end of the week, and she couldn't wait.
It had been hard, on her. On them all really, but the four femmes had been working hard to reacquaint Lyric back into their group, and in cheering up the depressed little human over her feelings of remorse.
Currently, said little human was lounging on her lap, taking a part of the blanket to wrap herself as well, she seemed to be asleep already however, as seemed to be the usual.
To her left rested Fusion, head resting on her shoulder, her optics and visor band were still lit, but dim and it seemed she was barely aware of what she was watching anymore. Then on her right was Silverclaw and Siren, animatedly chatting, they didn't seem to be any closer to sleep, which was a bit of a habit.
Silverclaw had been... a curious choice of appearances. Her arguments with her creator over her frame had been classified as monumental by everyone, and it just amused them all that she ended up being the second smallest femme, of lilac colors, a stark contrast to Ironhide's own looks.
He of course tried time and time again to persuade her to upgrade to a stronger and sturdier frame, but she would have none of it, and there was already talk about her wanting to fly, which had Ironhide fuming around the base every once in a while freezing anyone who passed by him with a deathly glare.
Fusion however had been no exception to the added arguments to the ark. It seemed she had secretly fiddled with the schematics for her frame WHILE Wheeljack was building it, somehow successfully managing to get her frame her own way, which looked a fair amount more like Wheeljack's than Ratchet's, which of course, set the medic off on his mate who just couldn't for the spark of him understand how it had happened.
Well at least she had kept the medic's colors, that seemed to have settled him a little bit, but he would still grumble regularly about it, and there were rumors that Wheeljack was still sleeping in his lab.
Windy unlike those two, had completely left her appearance be her creator's choice, not really caring about participating in her change. It was no secret that she wasn't looking forward to it, but at least she had been just silently moping about it, rather than dissing everyone off. The fact that her human family was around was probably helping with that, she knew that they had been trying to talk to her about it and try to get her used to the idea. Though in her opinion it only served to make the girl more frustrated and mopey.
Smiling down at her, she took in the sleeping girl's appearance, much more at rest now that she was unaware, her face settled in a neutral if a bit peaceful expression.
Gently she ran a finger over the girl's hair, caressing it fondly before returning her attention back to the movie at hand.
It was when at last Dr. grant and the kids got back to the main building of the park and met with his colleague that she was woken up a bit more by the sound of the door opening, she turned her head a little to see Ratchet come in, looking around the dark room for the group.
He approached quietly to the couch and checked on Fusion before moving to pick up the sleeping femme.
He looked at the others with a tired but still there scowl.
"You lot should turn in for the night as well. Your creators should be waiting." he advised, before heading off "good night"
They chorused a reply to him and looked at each others with tired smiles.
"Welp, I guess he does have a point." Silverclaw said, stretching in her sitting position. "Ironhide's going to kill me for staying up so late"
"Not that you really care" Lyric scoffed, already knowing the other's customs. It was surprising how little time it had taken her to get to know her friends, her memories were taking longer to come, but befriending them couldn't possibly have been easier. Which was still a strange experience, but a pleasant one none the less.
"Got that right" the femme said, puffing her cheeks and wiggling her pedes. "But if I don't go he'll
probably make practice twice as bad tomorrow" she whined.
"Bad luck" Siren said with a smirk "My creators have no problems with me staying up as late as I do."
"That's just because one of them is a paranoid workaholic, and the other's too busy trying to get HIM to sleep." Lyric pointed out.
"Eeeexactly. And I love it that way" she said with a huge grin on her face.
"None the less, it IS late, and we DO need to recharge" she grabbed the remote and shut off the system, receiving a whine from the two.
"But it was just getting to the good part!"
"We've all seen this movie a hundred times, I'm sure your processor can avidly remember the details while you sleep" She said with a roll of her optics, carefully getting up with Windy in her hands. "I'll be taking windy to her quarters, I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
"Sure" Siren said.
"Yeah, if Ironhide doesn't beat us with training to death" Silverclaw agreed.
Nodding in agreement, she turned, making sure to keep the blanket wrapped around her while holding the little human safely, she made her way out.
The humans were staying in a spare room for one of the lesser warriors, which was essentially a very small space for a bot, but big enough for a human family.
She walked through the silent halls, the only sound being of her pedesteps, which on instinct she tried to make as quiet as possible.
Since it was the night shift, (or known by many as the graveyard shift), the lights were generally on dim to save power, no one would be found in these halls, which just served to make them eery and menacing. Even with the bright orange walls, the darkness managed to make it old and scary.
She kept on walking however, her spark beating faster inside while on the outside she kept her composure. Somehow she knew she was like this, as frightening as it was to walk around these halls this late, she had to keep a level head, and just keep telling herself that the noises she heard were probably either mice or the groaning metal of the old ship, or maybe even a ceiling rock falling on the ship's exterior. There was simply, nothing to fear.
Except very creepy long empty hallways with just the perfect atmosphere and silence. Nothing harmful but still scary.
Finally, after what felt like far too many halls and floors, she reached her destination, and lightly knocked on the door.
On the other side some grumbling could be heard, as well as some shuffling. She waited patiently, wondering if they could even reach the door controls for a moment before the door finally opened.
Ah, that's how.
Next to the control panel on the other side had been shoved a berthside table, which was conveniently next to a large berth. The little human male that was Windy's surrogate father was standing there.
"About time! Its very late young miss! You should all have gone to bed a long time ago!" He scolded with an oddly soft fatherly tone.
"Sorry, we lost track of time, she fell asleep hours ago though, so she shouldn't have lost any bit of extra sleep" she said, smiling down at the small form, gently handing over to the father, who could barely hold his child.
"Next time be more conscious of the time!" He said with a huff.
"We will, sorry again. Good night" she said, before closing the door for him.
Once again finding herself alone in the halls, she started to make her way back up a few floors, where the higher up quarters were located.
On her way up from the lesser quarters and to a higher rank of soldiers she heard a door open.
Not really thinking about it, she froze at the ramp going up to that floor and listened, Spark accelerating once more.
"Coast is clear" a voice whispered.
"Urgh" someone struggled with something that sounded distinctively heavy from the sounds it made when it hit the frame of a door. "Why do WE have to do this scrap? And why at THIS hour? Doesn't Jazz know this is OUR recharging hours?"
"You know why!This is meant to be TOP secret, and you know how top secret that mech likes things!"
"Its just a p-"
"SHHH!These walls have audios!" The first said, and Lyric could mentally imagine him looking around in paranoia while the other rolled his optics.
"Seriously Sides, you're less nervous about things like these when its YOUR pranks."
"This is different!" Sideswipe argued "This is directly from Jazz of all mechs, you try and upset him by failing your given mission."
"Its not a mission..."
"I prefer to think of it as one."
"Anyway, lets just get this to the room and be done with it. I want to get back to recharge as soon as possible I need my beauty sleep"
"Sure sure sleeping beauty, just be careful with the merchandise!"
"The merchendise?! What about my beautiful paintjob huh? Did you think about that? And one more thing..."
Slowly their voices started to drift away, and Lyric dared to step the rest of the way up to that floor, looking around cautiously.
"I wonder what those two were up to?" she thought to herself, before quickly making the rest of the way to the last floor.