Jazz counted down the astroseconds until a guard would come to bring him energon. He cared more about the guard than the fuel. Chances to interact with other living Cybertronians were rare and valuable. Even if they only exchanged a few words, it was better than the silence.

He could have escaped. He had come up with several plans for that, just to pass the time… well, just in case.

But for now, he would stay here.

They'd never gotten back to him about whether or not they were going to have him executed. Eventually, his anxiety about that had faded into boredom. But he'd weathered the boredom, trying to spend his time thinking, planning, solidifying his determination that if he ever did get out of here, he wasn't going to go back to what he'd done before.

Maybe when he was convinced of that, he'd let himself escape.

The room was completely soundproof, so he couldn't hear footsteps outside, but he knew down to the breem when the guards would come. Sometimes he could guess the astrosecond, depending on who was on duty. He knew their schedules. Most of the punctual ones weren't very talkative, but a few of the mechs who were usually a breem late were willing to have short conversations with him.

There was still about a joor, but he was already excited because the mech who was supposed to be on duty this orn was one of the talkative ones.

They didn't feed him that much, but he didn't need much, not when all he was doing was sitting in a cell. They never opened the door either—there was a small window in it that would slide aside, and they'd carefully pass him his energon, while he tried to make conversation.

He counted down astroseconds.

And then the whole door opened.

Several escape plans ran through his helm and he looked up sharply as three guards stepped in.

He didn't recognize any of them but he let them put stasis-cuffs on him and lead him out into the hall where the prison warden and two more guards were waiting.

"Where we goin'?" Jazz asked lightly. Fighting his way out at this point would be hard. He hoped they hadn't decided to execute him.

"You've got a visitor," the warden said, looking decidedly unhappy.

So probably not execution.

Curious, Jazz let them walk him down the hall and to another room with two chairs and a table. The guards forced him into the chair and restrained him there.

He waited as they left and tried to listen to the muttered conversation out in the hallway.

Then an important-looking mech with Council markings on his shoulders came in and sat down across the small table.

"Good orn," the mech said. "Jazz, is it?"

"Yes," Jazz said, intrigued. "And you?"

"Senator Decimus, of the Iacon Council," the mech said.

A senator. This was getting more and more interesting. "Honored ta meet ya, mech," Jazz said. "I suppose ya got some questions or something?"

"Actually, I have a proposition," the senator said. "We'd like to offer you an… opportunity."

The mech wanted him to work for the government? Jazz was pretty sure that wouldn't fit into his plans to not go back to being the kind of mech he'd been before prison. He didn't say anything.

"It has been decided in the courts that you are worthy of execution."

No surprise there. And pretty good leverage if this mech wanted something from him.

"And your sentence will be carried out within the decaorn."

Which gave him a good time frame to enact and escape plan if it came down to it. But it sounded like he might not have to.

"However, we are willing to offer you another option."

"What kinda option?" Jazz asked. "Are ya offering me a job, mech?"

"Yes," the senator said. "I am."

Jazz frowned, considering. It would probably be much easier to escape from a government job than a high security prison. Still… "Well," he said. "I don't wanna die. What's the job?"

The mech pulled out a datapad. "You've been in here, so you wouldn't know. But we've been having some trouble with a resistance group. Most of the time, we can neutralize them without a problem, but this one is proving more difficult. We have some guesses about who might be involved, but only a few known mecha, and those are too well-protected for us to openly arrest."

"Hmm…" Jazz said.

"Also, we've made several attempts to infiltrate, but none of our agents have been successful."

"None?"

"We've sent dozens. No one could get in."

This was too intriguing, too tempting. "Ya have any idea why?"

"We think we've got it figured out," the mech said, and slid the datapad over to his side of the table so he could read it. Jazz skimmed the list of known members, optics widening.

"We need your experience, and your skill," the senator continued.

This was different—this changed things. It was no wonder they couldn't sneak into the resistance. "Hmm…" Jazz said. "What makes ya think I can do this where others have failed?"

"Did you recognize any designations on that list?"

Jazz looked up. "Soundwave."

"If reports are true, you've gotten the better of him before."

Jazz nodded.

"Do you think you can get in?"

This would be even more of a challenge than helping mecha escape from Quantum. He wasn't even sure he could do it, at least not for long. Maybe, if he was very careful… Then again, that wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. "I'll need more info, but I probably could."

"We would provide that," the senator said, pulling the datapad back toward himself again and subspacing it. "First I'll need you to sign a contract. We'll work out the legalities and specifications in detail later. But if you are successful, we'll allow you to continue to work for us instead of coming back here to face your sentence."

Jazz wasn't going to work for the government. He could let them do the hard work involved in breaking him out of jail, though.

"Well?" the senator said.

The government could set him free, but he owed them no loyalty or honesty. Besides, he wasn't about to help them take down a resistance movement that was pushing for much-needed social reform. As soon as he was under open sky, he'd disappear. Then again, the lure of this challenge was very tempting. Maybe he could do better than just leave the rebellion alone. If they were willing to trust him, they could probably use his help.

"Ok, mech," Jazz said. "I'll do it."

...

THE END

Notes:

1. And that's it for this one. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! :)

2. I'd also like to thank my fantastic beta readers for helping me turn this train wreck of a story into something that almost made sense. Without their input the exposition would have been twice as long, the climax would have happened somewhere around the halfway point, and the prose would have been riddled with typos and badly worded sentences. Also, without their encouragement, I probably would have given up on the whole thing.

3. As you may have noticed, this epilogue ties Jazz's journey back in with Many Voices. Jazz will show up there again in chapter 72. :)