Summary: Jack and Arcee go to Cybertron to return Optimus' memories but only one returned. Jack, stuck on a mostly dead planet, had no escape. How will he cope? What happens to the rest of the Autobots on Earth? TFP Slash

Rated: T (Language and shit.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers; it belongs to Hasbro/Takara.

Author's Note: Oh man I did not mean to take this long. Sorry. Next chapter will have some Jack/Optimus. I promise.

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Chapter 4: Kup's (dreadfully awful) Bad Day

The moment his alarm began beeping; he knew the day was going to blow. His head pounded and joints ached from passing out on the floor. Kup really needed to stop drinking with Drift; that lad could drink as much as he wanted without a hangover. Kup on the other hand…well his age was creeping up on him somehow. With an annoyed grunt, he pulled himself from the floor with as much dignity he could muster and reached into his subspace. But this morning just kept getting worse. He couldn't find his cy-gar. Frustrated, he leaned against his berth and emptied the contents of his subspace: Three contraband data pads, his well-worn blaster, a knife, and the mandatory first aid kit, courtesy of Perceptor. No Cy-gars.

Kup grinded his denta; he already craved the chemical filled metal usually resting between them. If he remembered right, today the Xantium would orbit Cybertron but Kup doubted Ironhide would want to make a personal stop to search through some abandoned buildings. Instead, he and the upstart Hot Rod had to check the mystery signal. It was probably a 'con trap, he could feel it in his tanks.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't reach Cybertron for another few hours. Which left his list of slag to do. An old bot like him shouldn't be feeding prisoners or cleaning out the energon dispenser, but he wasn't bitch out loud. He had a reputation to hold, the youngins looked up to him…or at least Hot Rod and Blurr still did.

First on the list was to feed the prisoner. The slagging 'con had the audacity to bite Kup when he put the energon cube next to the beast. While it was no blast to the chest or spike through the leg, it still stung like a fragger. He'd annoy Perceptor about it after planet side. But now Primus, he needed a cy-gar.

Cleaning the energon container in the rec room was no walk in through the Crystal Gardens either. The thing hadn't been cleaned since Hot Rod and Drift were last punished. Who knew trying to tame a baby space slug on the ship would be a total disaster. Too bad they didn't do something stupid since then. Kup bit back another string of curses when he saw the inside. Crystalized energon hung from the top and the bottom was coated in a dark black dredge instead of the normal rationed blue slag.

It wasn't until an hour after he finished cleaning up the mess that the others came in to collect their daily ration. The sorry afts drag themselves in half awake and covered in marks from the nightly activities. It was one of the more amusing things he got to see on a normal day. But it wasn't so amusing now. Without that chemical smoke through his system and cy-gar clenched in his teeth, it was just another thing that slagged him off. Fraggin youngins.

When Kup and Hot Rod arrived planet side, what he expected to find was a starving Decepitcon who thought himself to be clever. But to his surprise it was an organic. An alive organic. The thing had no protection from the acidic atmosphere. The clothing that covered it was torn bloody and filled with stale flaking energon. In all his years, Kup had never seen something alive so small before. Watching the huddled shaking form was enough to tug at his spark. It reminded him of nothing more than a sparkling. So screw the protocol, the bitlet was coming back onto the ship, Ironhide's approval or not.

After returning, the tongue lashing from Ironhide made him want to punch the weapons expert in the face plate. It took all his will not to throttle the brute for trying to punch Perceptor. Ironhide may be younger than Kup, but that didn't mean much on the Xantium. In fact because Ironhide was Prime's personal bodyguard, the drone Prowl gave Ironhide control over the now decrepit ship. Slagging glitch. Actually, if Kup didn't get separated from Magnus all those years ago, he wouldn't be here listening to the paranoid bodyguard ranting about organic plagues. But then again, he would have never found Perceptor and Drift.

It was easy to get lost in thoughts on the half-dead ship. When there was no fighting and the halls were bare, the Xantium was a ghost that flitted across Kup's memories. The room he just passed was Impactor's, the wrecker who saved thousands and in return was torn apart by a traitor he saved. And there in Perceptor's lab, Kup held the hand of the last youngin' as his spark faded…

A scream rang out, dragging Kup from his ghosts and into Perceptor's lab. The room was almost packed full yet it was almost in silence except the organic. Everyone stared as the small thing that was clutching his head, curled up, and rocking on his heels. He kept screaming STOP over and over again. But it wasn't gibberish, it was pure Praxian-dialectic Cybertronian.

Kup was the first one to react. He reached down and slid the hyperventilating Jack into his servos. Carefully he lifted the organic to his chest and held Jack against his warm chest plate protecting him from the others.

"Now what in Primus' name did you do?" Kup bit out at the surprised bots. The silence was broken and everyone shouted at once, all trying to tell their side of the story. The loud roar of voices made Jack jump, he clutched Kup's chest tightly and let out a pained whimper.

"That's it. Everyone shut your mouths! The next bot to talk without permission gets assigned to clean the space barnacles off the ship at next dock!" Perceptor opened his mouth preparing to rebuttal but only a small squeak slipped out as Drift slapped his hand over the microscopes face.

"I'm taking care of the organic tonight. Drift, you're on guard duty." A small groan slipped from the white mech. Kup turned and glared at him. "What was that?"

"Uh, nothing. Just me leaving to watch the stupid 'con. Yup." He walked backwards out of the room and disappeared quickly from sight.

"Preceptor, clean up this mess. And Blurr, don't you dare pop your head into crew fights again." Kup turned and left the room clutching Jack close to his chest. He wanted nothing more than to smoke a sweet cy-gar at this point, he could feel his oil just boiling. At least it wasn't as bad as his time on Deneb IV…

The movement against his plating startled him from his flashback. Jack was trying to pry his fingers apart to slip through. It probably wanted to just hide. Letting out a deep sigh, he brought Jack back to his room. Grabbing the never used polishing clothes, he bundled them up on his desk next to his bed.

But Jack didn't want to be forced onto a crappy bed. Kup had to keep pushing him down, so he wouldn't get out of the cloth pile. It wasn't until the sound grinding denta that Jack finally stayed still. According to Kup's chronometer it only took 15 minutes before the organic feel asleep. He couldn't help but watch as its chest raised and fell. It looked peaceful, almost reminding him of Hot Rod a few million years back.

A small knock on his door, turned his attention away from the sleeping Jack. Kup wanted to ignore the intruding mech but another knock forced him to get up. The door slid opened to reveal Blurr who was looking somewhat jumpy.

"What is it Blurr?"

"The mess is cleaned up from earlier and everything is fine but now that my shift is over and I don't have to work till tomorrow and I know that you don't work tomorrow I was wondering, that is if it was okay by you, to stay here tonight. I know the squishy thing is in here but I tried lying down in my own room and couldn't fall asleep cause I was missing-"

Kup placed a hand over the fast talker's mouth. "You know the rules. Just don't wake the organic."

Blurr nodded and followed the older mech into the room. His attention quickly turned to the sleeping form of Jack who was sprawled out over the cleaning rags mumbling in his sleep.

"It is kinda cute…if you want I can bring over some extra polishing clothes so he can be more comfortable."

Kup lay on his back and patted the space next to him. "We can worry about the lad tomorrow. Now are you joining me or am I kicking you aft back to your room?"

Blurr nodded once before curling up next to Kup and placing a tentative hand on the dented face plate. "Did you get into another fight with Ironhide? Will you tell me what happened?"

"Good night Blurr."

With a quiet sigh Blurr curled up on his side. The organic was asleep in a safe place. Today didn't seem too horrible. However, one thing was still missing. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his helm with his free hand. Primus he kill for that Cy-gar.