Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters involved in this story.

Mixed Feelings

Chapter One: The Reunion

It's a bad day for damage control.

Jazz sat down on a large rock and exhaled loudly from his exhaust. He was officially, completely, totally and utterly ready to collapse into his next regeneration cycle. He felt as though he was about to. His self pitying musings were interrupted by a datapad being thrust in front of his optics. He was glad that his visor hid the tired look in said optics. He looked up and gave a tired smile to Hound, who looked equally exhausted.

"For me? You shouldn't have," he joked, taking the datapad from Hound and trying desperately to fight past his fatigue to read it. Hound chuckled quietly, and Jazz frowned at what he saw in the report. He looked back up at Hound and sighed. "How much longer?"

Hound's easy smile faded as he also sighed. "Another week."

Jazz's head fell and he closed his optics, letting out another loud breath through his exhaust. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, something he had unconsciously picked up by spending too much time with Spike. Jazz shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. "All right, let's get back to work."

They had been working to rebuild the Earth's cities from the destruction they suffered from their Hate Plague infected inhabitants. It wasn't a small job by any means, but the Autobots had said that they were up to the task, and so, here they were. It seemed to be all that Optimus Prime's old crew would do these days; ever since Rodimus Prime took charge, they had seen less and less front line action, being relegated to patrols, repairs, damage control and such. Not that Jazz minded. After Autobot City was destroyed in 2005, very few of Optimus' old crew wished to remain on the front line, though from what Jazz had heard, it wasn't much of a war anymore.

Jazz gestured to a large piece of rubble blocking a river, and Hound nodded. Jazz was surprised that it hadn't already been moved by one of the larger Autobots like Inferno or Grapple. However, this wasn't a very strict operation, and Jazz had told them that they should simply help where needed. Someone was most likely about to move it when he was called away to help someone else. Jazz gripped one end, and Hound the other. They were about to lift when a high pitched beeping emerged from Hound's shoulder, prompting him to look at Jazz for approval. Jazz nodded and let go of the piece of rubble, and leaned against it and enjoyed the brief period of relaxation.

Hound pushed a button on his arm and a small monitor came forth.

"This is the repair crew," he said, putting on the 'official' voice that Jazz rarely heard. A vaguely familiar voice came from the monitor.

"Hey, Hound! How're you doing?"

Hounds' gently features scrunched slightly in confusion. "Do I know you?"

"It's me! Bumblebee!"

Jazz sat up and walked over to Hound, allowing him to peek over Hounds' shoulder and into the monitor. He saw a medium build golden Autobot, with a blue head unit and a sparkling silver face plate. His optics were hidden by a visor just as Jazz's were. The Autobot looked at Jazz and waved.

"Hey, Jazz! What's up?"

"Uh… not much."

"Are you sure you're name's Bumblebee?" Hound interjected.

The golden 'Bot nodded. "Yep. Well, it used to be; I was rebuilt during the 'Hate Plague' thing."

Jazz nodded, impressed. "It's a good look for you, m'man. To what do we owe the pleasure, Bumblebee?"

"It's Goldbug now."

"'Goldbug'? Who came up with that?"

Jazz could see the grin emerge from behind Goldbugs' faceplate. "Well, it was… you'll see."

"What? Was someone else rebuilt?" Jazz smirked. "Was it Blaster? I bet he's all blue now, huh?"

Goldbug shook his head. "Nope. It… look, I really want to surprise you guys, so… just wait and see. We're heading over to you guys now. We should be there in about an hour."

Jazz nodded. "Okay, 'Goldbug'," he said, smiling.

Goldbug laughed. "See you then guys. Goldbug out." He reached forward and pushed a button in front of him, and Goldbugs' image winked out. Hound shut down the comm unit and looked to Jazz.

"Well… that was interesting."

"You got that right," Jazz said, gripping one end of the rubble while Hound gripped the other. If he did nothing else today, he would move this piece of rubble.

"Who do you suppose it is?" Hound said, grunting with effort as he lifted with Jazz.

"Don't know. I'm sticking to my Blaster theory. He's probably been rebuilt to look like Cliffjumper."

Hound let out a bark of laughter and dropped the piece of rubble on his foot. Jazz could have sworn he heard Hound mutter some very un-Hound-like curses, and he smiled. "Sorry about that. C'mon man, let's get this out of the way, then we can go tell the others."

Hound nodded, and they moved the rubble with ease.

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"So… where are they?" Cliffjumper said, his arms and legs crossed as he sat on the floor. "Some of us have work to do, you know."

"Calm down, Cliffjumper. I'm sure Jazz wouldn't have gathered us here if Bumblebee didn't have something important to show us," Hoist put in, and Jazz began to hope that it was something more significant than Blaster getting a redesign. He didn't need a whole host of angry Autobots coming down on him for wasting their time. But then again, it's not like he hadn't done that a lot on the Ark. But then again, he was the Special Operations Officer on the Ark. Now he was just head of the repair crew.

"There!" Bluestreak said excitedly, and Jazz couldn't blame him. It had been a long time since something interesting had happened to them (Hate Plague aside; Jazz still couldn't remember anything he had done while he was infected), and it had been even longer since they'd seen Bumblebee. The shuttle slowly set down in front of them, blowing a large plume of dust outwards beneath it. Jazz expected to hear some kind of protest from Sunstreaker, but he was obviously as interested in who was in the shuttle as they all were.

The door to the shuttle opened agonisingly slow, the ramp touching down on the ground after what seemed an eternity. Goldbug was the first to step out, closely followed by Kup. Jazz smiled at the sight of the grizzled old Autobot, remembering the countless times Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Hot Rod had found some way to humiliate both Kup and Ironhide in one fell swoop. Springer helped occasionally too, though he would somehow find a way to weasel out of taking any of the blame.

Everyone shook hands with Kup, exchanging various pleasantries, but Jazz's attention was focused on the young golden Autobot before him.

"You've really gotten tall, m'man. I guess Sunstreaker and Sideswipe won't be able to play 'pass the Bumblebee' anymore, huh?"

Goldbug's grin was evident. "Yeah. Now it'll just be 'pass the Cliffjumper'."

Jazz laughed and Cliffjumper scowled, though he was as happy as any of them to see the young spy again. "You mean 'pass the Gears'," Cliffjumper said with a smirk, and Gears scowled in an almost exact copy of Cliffjumpers' earlier expression. Jazz turned back to Goldbug.

"So, what' this 'big surprise' you got for us?"

Goldbug looked over at Kup, the smiles on their faces increasing Jazz's impatience. "C'mon, don't leave us hangin' like that."

Goldbug's grin grew beneath his faceplate. "Okay." He turned back to the shuttle. "Okay Prime, c'mon out!"

Jazz frowned.

"Prime? He got us all excited for a visit from Rodimus?" Jazz heard Sideswipe whisper, and he couldn't agree more. He stepped towards Goldbug.

"Hey man, I thought for the amount of hype you were building it was gonna be something like… like…" the words became caught in his vocal processor as he stepped out of the shuttle. His red chassis glistened in the sunlight, his mighty frame almost totally encompassing the exit to the shuttle. He took slow steps down the ramp, heading towards them with deliberate strides. Jazz still couldn't say anything.

"It's good to see you again," his voice rumbled, though Jazz wasn't sure if he was addressing him specifically or all of the Autobots. Everyone else seemed to be having the same reaction as Jazz. After an agonising silence, Bluestreak couldn't contain his excitement any longer.

"Optimus!" he exploded. "It's… Optimus!"

That pretty accurately described Jazz's state of mind. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, was standing before him, good as new, as if he had never died in the first place. A grin slowly crept across Jazz's face.

"Prime! How… I mean… what…?"

Optimus chuckled slightly. "It's a long story, my friend."

"But you're… back!"

"I'm well aware of that, Jazz," Optimus said dryly, the grin behind his faceplate evident.

Jazz wanted to dance for joy. Optimus Prime was back. Optimus Prime! It was a miracle! Optimus' show of humour seemed to knock the others out of their stupor, and they all rushed forward to greet their old leader. Jazz almost felt sorry for Optimus as he was surrounded by his old friends, all of them shaking his hand or patting his shoulder. Cliffjumper even wrapped himself around his leg, before quickly letting go in embarrassment. At least, Jazz would have felt sorry if he still wasn't completely and utterly overcome with happiness. Damage control didn't seem so bad anymore.

"So… how did it happen?" Bluestreak asked, and the others all voiced their interest in Optimus' return.

Optimus raised a hand to silence them. "I'll explain later; I'm afraid I can't stay for long. I have pressing business to attend to, and a few astro-cycles worth of information to catch up on. I… just wanted to come here and see you all again," he said, his voice becoming enraptured in warmth and kindness as he spoke.

"Anyway, we're throwing a big welcome back party for the big guy later today, so you can ask him then!" Goldbug threw in, and Jazz couldn't help but grin inanely at Optimus' response to the word 'party'.

"That's not…" Optimus looked at the faces of his old crew, his old family, and sighed. "…completely accurate. It's also a party for Goldbug."

Everyone chuckled, and Optimus slowly turned to get back in the shuttle. Jazz walked forward. "Prime, wait."

Optimus turned to look at Jazz, a curious look on his face. "Yes, Jazz?"

Jazz smiled and extended his hand. "Just don't go dyin' on us again. You got me?"

Optimus smiled beneath his faceplate and shook Jazz's hand. "Not if I can help it."

"That's all I ask," Jazz joked, smiling. He backed up off the ramp and watched as Goldbug and Kup joined Optimus on the ship. Optimus remained in the entrance as the ramp came up, finally obscuring their view of Optimus. The shuttle rose off the ground and rocketed away, leaving the Autobots to stare in awe as they followed the shuttle into the horizon. Jazz whirled on his heel to face the others and rubbed his hands together.

"What're we all standin' around for? We got a lot of work to do before the party starts!"

Jazz grinned as the Autobots before him energetically got to work, their energon supplies boosted by Optimus' visit. Jazz turned back to where the shuttle had disappeared into the horizon before getting back to work.

It's a beautiful day for damage control.

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(A/N: I'm not too sure on Transformer time measurements, but the 'Astro Cycles' bit is meant to mean Optimus' time away – at least two years. If anyone has any handy conversion charts for Transformer time measurements, then by all means e-mail me or post it in a review.

Anyway, You like? You hate? Either way, review!)