From Liability to Lover

(A Transformers: Prime JackXArcee Fanfiction)

Chapter One: From Weight to Warrior

Jackson "Jack" Darby, he was just your normal teenager that had to worry about nothing but school and oh yeah…there was that little thing about being embroiled in a war between mechanical titans! It all started when he accidentally saw something he shouldn't have. I know what you're thinking. The Mob got him. No, he became the charge of a reluctant and somewhat conceded Autobot named Arcee. This is the story of how a nuisance became a lover.

"Arcee, I need you to go on a resupply mission," Optimus said as he looked at Arcee. The femme sighed. "Jack, you want to come along?" She asked as she looked at the human who only stood to the height of the two-wheeler's waist. Jack was nervous but agreed. He had been feeling a little under the weather lately but didn't tell anyone because he was afraid his mom and Arcee would fret over him. Primus knows he didn't want that. The Groundbridge whined and swirled green as the vortex came to life. Here you go, Jack. The teen thought as he walked through the Groundbridge with Arcee at his side. As they walked though the Bridge, Jack tried not to stare at the beautiful femme.

Once the portal closed, Arcee was instantly on guard. They were in a forest for one thing, not a mine."Scrap!" Arcee growled. With a smaller version of the sound of a T-cog activating, Arcee had her blasters at the ready. She turned toJack. He looked up at her and nodded silently. "The Old Bot probably mistook a downed ship for an untapped Energon deposit." Jack reasoned to himself. A small smile played with Arcee's lips. Jack was smarter than he let on. They came into a "path" of broken tree limbs and scarred earth. Jack's internal warning system was going nuts. NONE of this felt right to him. As they walked along, a bad feeling started to rise within Arcee. When they came to the ship, Arcee saw flashes of the innards of the ship. That's when the memories began to resurface. She was bound in quad stasis restraints and was struggling for freedom as a cold laughter echoed in her audios. The memory was interrupted as Jack asked "Arcee? You ok?" She looked down and terror filled her optics. "Jack, run!" She ordered as a strange sound zipped through the air just before metallic webbing pinned Arcee to a tree. A giant black spiderbot landed in front of him and made him yell in terror. "Hello, Arcee." The spiderbot hissed with a twisted glee in her violet optics as she approached the slender femme. "Airachnid!" Arcee growled though her stressed vocalize. "I'm touched you still remember me." Airachnid said with a soft demeanor Jack instantly recognized.

Great! He thought with a growl as he started to feel rage boil up within himself. The teen's fists clinched and he stood, his fear replaced by rage. If he was asked where this rage stemmed from, he would have said he had to do something to protect Arcee. The "why" of the rage was still a mystery to him, though. Nevertheless, he stood, glared at Airachnid with a mountain of fury, picked up a rock, and…threw it at her. Airachnid turned on a dime with a hiss and smiled at the form she saw below her. "A local?" Airachnid mused to herself "My first catch on this world will be your pet, Arcee!" The psychotic femme growled. Jack started to run as Arcee struggled against the webbing. As Jack ran, he could hear Airachnid: "You're making this too easy, human, and I do not enjoy being bored!" She said "bored" with so much malice, it made Jack swallow hard in fear as he slid under a fallen log for at least as small window of rest.

Arcee was still struggling with the webbing and knowing that Jack would either be stupid or brave enough to draw Airachnid away made her fight harder. The human had grown in her eyes to be nothing more than a burden, but the thought of him risking his life for her put serious doubt about her previous assumptions in her processor. She had to get out of this if it was just to thank him later. If there would be a later... She thought sadly. She glared at her restrained body and ordered it to transform. Then, she poured Energon into her body and pushed against the webbing with every ounce of determination she could muster. Soon, the portions of the web secured to the tree released one by one until she was free. "Jack!" She yelled as her voice carried though the forest to the boy's ears.

As he looked up in response to the sound, the twisted grin of Airachnid looked upside down at the boy. She laughed. "Jack, is it? It seems Arcee cares for her little pet, even giving you a name. I'll make sure after I'm done breaking you to keep you living long enough to watch Arcee's optics slowly fade to nothing but black, lifeless holes!" Jack felt something snap inside him when he heard the psycho talk of killing Arcee. He glared into The Spider's violet optics and ginned at her as the sound of a blaster powering up reached the black femme's adios. She looked back to see Arcee was too far away to get a shot and that she was still in her vehicle mode. She looked back, and her optics widened at the sight before her. The human was armed! "If you're going to kill someone, kill them! Don't just stand there talking about it!" He said as he started blasting her face calmly. He stood up and kept firing until Airachnid batted him away.

Arcee transformed and kicked Airachnid to the ground. Arcee noticed fresh scorch marks on the masochist's face. "That was from your pet human!" Arcee looked at Airachnid. For a tense moment, no one moved. Airachnid bolted for her ship, but Jack was waiting there as he leaned against the ship. "I'LL SLAUGHTER YOU, JACK!" Airachnid growled as she charged him. Jack rolled out of the strike and touched the flame of his lighter to the pool of Energon that trailed back to the ship. Then, he bolted as Arcee ran beside Jack, scooped him up, and transformed. They were barely a hundred yards away from the ship when it blew. Jack concentrated and added his unknown Energon reserves to Arcee's drive systems. "Ratchet, we need a Bridge." Her request was answered as the Bridge opened. She was about to transform and walk through the portal when Jack suddenly passed out with a tired sigh.

Arcee flew through the portal and was startled when the proximity alarms went off. "What is it?" Arcee asked surprised as she held Jack in her arms. The Medic sighed. "What happened?" He asked, concerned. "Airachnid happened. " Arcee said hollowly. Ratchet sighed. "As for the alarm. The system somehow didn't recognize Jack. Strange." He brought out a servo-held scanner. "I could have sworn I put Jack's biometrics as an exception for the security system." As Ratchet scanned Jack, something was wrong with the scanner. "That's strange," The old Bot said to himself in confusion. "My scanners are reading Jack as a Cybertronian." Just to double check his data, Ratchet ran a diagnostic check on his scanner and found it to be functioning properly. "Maybe…" Arcee said as she began to pace. "Ratchet, scan him for armaments." Ratchet did, and his optics widened at the results. "By the Allspark! He's a techno-organic!"

Jack groaned as his eyes opened slowly. His skin was greeted by the chill of metal. He shivered at the sensation. It somehow seemed sharper and more defined. Galvanized steel. He thought to himself absentmindedly. Then, he realized he knew nothing of metallurgy, and that scared him. He sat up slowly. "Easy…Partner." He turned toward the familiar voice of his femme guardian. "Arcee...what happened?" Jack asked as he held his head and looked at her in confusion. "You got in a scrap with Airachnid." At hearing this, Jack's eyes got huge, but before he could respond, the Groundbridge opened. Bulkhead rolled in with Miko going wild in his backseat "Uh guys," Bulkhead asked slowly when he saw everyone gathered around a medical slab. "What's going on?' He asked as Miko got out and slowly walked up to the berth. "I survived?!" Jack yelled in shock. Arcee smiled. "You gave her quite a beating." Arcee said with a pleased smile."What?! How?" He then noticed the tubes full of a blue liquid that ran into his arms. Energon? He thought. "That's impossible! I'd have to be a…"

Another Bridge opened and a human walked out as she held a small device and walked over to the med bay calmly. All the Bots warmed up their blasters and pointed them at the intruder. Then, Arcee recognized her. "Stand down." The femme ordered with a matter of fact tone. June looked at Arcee, who looked at the device in her hand. "…Cybertronian." June said calmly to her son as she sighed. Jack looked up to see the face of his mother and paled. "Mom?!" Jack asked as his eyes went wide with surprise and shock. "What are you doing here?! How do you know about Groundbridges?!" Miko was about to scream and go on a rant about how cool it was for Jack when Bulkhead transformed and put a large servo in her path. She froze.

June looked at her bewildered son and sighed as she prepared herself. "Jack, it didn't take me long to figure out that Arcee was an Autobot." He stared at her. "You knew?!" June held up a hand. "I knew the truth because I was very much like you when I was your age. I met a Pretender…" She and Jack both saw how every Autobot in the room, even Optimus, tensed when she mentioned a Deception infiltration unit. "Explain quickly, June." Arcee growled as she glared at the Human. "I showed him compassion and love. He defected and…was slaughtered while I was forced to watch…" She shivered violently at the memory. For the first time, Arcee saw herself in June. The femme blinked and knelt so she could be closer to the woman. "I'm so sorry, June." Arcee said as she tried to apologize. Jack walked up and hugged his Mom tightly. Then, a terrible thought ran through Jack's mind. "Is Megatron hunting us?' He asked the Bots as he gestured to his mom and himself. "I think he would be if he knew the truth, but he doesn't have time to watch all his underlings so closely and probably doesn't know." Optimus said with a smile. Ratchet smiled just faintly at the boy. "Jack, I've been tinkering with old Autobot armor blueprints and think I can make an Autobot casing for you." Ratchet said with a gleam in his optics at the welcomed challenge. Jack nodded.

"Hey…" He grinned at Arcee as a thought crossed his mind. "…no more Junior Partner for me?" June gave her son a worried look. "Mom, don't worry." Arcee smiled and stood by him. "If Jack is going to be in the field, I will train him, June. Don't worry." She looked at the worried woman and then to Jack and Arcee's faceplate shifted from caring to hard steel. "You better be ready to enter the Pit. We start at first light."