Aftermath - Chapter 2: Sunflare

[silberstreif]

Universe: Till all are one
Beta: Starfire 201
Continuation: AU, G1
Genre: Adventure, drama
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, Ironhide, Sunflare and several others

Summary: The Great War is only a memory now, yet far from being forgotten. Instead of enjoying the new peace, Prowl and Jazz are accused of the worst war crimes and have to fight in a trial for spark and honour, while behind the scene a master plan is entering its last stages.

2. Sunflare

Sunflare withstood the overwhelming desire to check his appearance at least once again. He knew he looked fine. Not too shiny, but clean with expert detailing as proper for a lawyer. This morning, he had even waxed his white and blue wings with the expensive polish his sparker had gifted him with on his graduation orn. Now, he had only to appear confident, do his job, make a few new contacts and then hopefully, this was his ticket to a big career. It wasn't as if everybot could claim to have had the Prowl and Jazz as their clients. He smiled and turned the last corner to the police headquarters of Iacon.

And stopped abruptly. Nearly a hundred mechs stood screaming in front of the gate, waving shields and banners. On the side, various camera bots were recording the whole scene and a reporter was even standing there and interviewing passerby. Sunflare rebooted his optics. Had he missed something? Sure, he hadn't looked up the news channel this orn, instead preferring to read again through the Basic Law, too nervous to do anything else, but this? This looked big.

He took a deep breath and started walking again. He had a job to do and this wasn't his problem. He only had to get past them. Somehow. As he got slowly nearer, he could make out what the angry crowd was chanting: "Let them go!" Maybe it wasn't the best idea to get nearer. What if they didn't like Seekers? Many still saw a Seeker as synonymous with Decepticons. What if they didn't like lawyers?

"Excuse me," said a voice behind him. "Are you Sunflare, the lawyer?"

He flinched and abruptly turned around, ready to punch his maybe-attacker. A tall grey bot who proudly showed off an Enforcer sign on his breast plate stood a few paces away from him, with a hand on his hip, near his weapon. The Enforcer's lips twitched in badly hidden amusement and hot embarrassment welled up in Sunflare.

"Ah, yes, that's me. And you are?"

"My designation is Stungun." He turned and gave a wave with his hand. "Please follow me. We saw you nearing through the cameras and at the moment it's not advisable to use the front gate. I'll take you to a different entrance."

"Oh, thank you." Relieved, Sunflare followed him into a narrow and easily overlooked side alley, where they stopped before an old door. Stungun put his hand on it, and a thin sheet of metal slid aside to reveal a scanner.

"Officer Stungun acknowledged," said the metallic voice of an AI. "Code?"

The Enforcer rattled the code off and they entered a badly lit hallway that soon descended steeply. The corridor was narrow and low and definitely under the ground, and that meant it was a place were no Seeker was meant to be. Suddenly, he remembered every single horror story of being trapped that his creators had told him, especially the one of the long entrapment of his carrier, and his wings twitched uncontrollably. He was not afraid. Just a bit nervous. Right.

Stungun sent him a worried look and said: "The tunnel isn't long. I'm sorry that this became necessary. Had we known that you were a Seeker, we would have cleared an airpath for you."

Sunflare tried to smile. "No, no, it's alright. It's nice to walk sometimes."

It wasn't as if he could expect that they would clear an airpath for every unimportant lawyer that came along.

"I suppose. Still, I have to say it's impressive how fast you were able to come." Stungun stopped in front of the door and activated another scanner. "Of course with them as your clients and considering the situation, we should have expected nothing less."

Sunflare could feel his tank tightening. What situation? "Fast?"

The door opened and they stepped out of the tunnel into the Enforcer headquarters, where pale yellow hallways were buzzing with activity. All the Enforcers who passed them seemed to be in a hurry, barely greeting Stungun and giving Sunflare nothing more than a curios glance.

Stungun asked in slight puzzlement: "Yes, aren't you the lawyer of Prowl and Jazz?"

"Yes, I am." And if pride was a sin, he would be struck down that very moment. "But I'm not sure if five orns can be considered particularly fast."

"Five orns?" repeated the Enforcer slowly. "But they called you less then four joors ago."

"Eh, no? I'm sure I would have noticed that, I had my communicator on high alert, of course. They contacted me five orns ago and said they would need my consultation today. Said that it was important to be on time..." Sunflare slowly trailed off, when the Enforcer began to walk much faster. "Is everything all right?"

"No. Are you sure that they only contacted you five orns ago?"

"Yes."

"By Primus' shiny aft, they tricked us!" cursed the Enforcer and nearly started to run.

Doors and gangs passed, until they reached an orange door like dozens of others and Stungun stormed in without knocking. Sunflare entered at a much more moderate pace into an office with three desks and a huge table in the middle, which was full of datapads and small information screens. Around the table stood three other Enforcers who had stopped their previous discussion and looked at their colleague.

Sunflares spark stopped for a moment as he recognized the big and red warrior frame on the right – Ironhide, another Autobot hero of the war, once bodyguard of Prime himself and now the head of all the Enforcers. What was he doing here? Surely his missed call couldn't be this important?

But he had to accept that it was, when Stungun opened his mouth:

"They tricked us! They didn't use their call earlier to inform their lawyer. Sunflare said that they contacted him already five orns ago!"

The sleek femme growled, to Sunflare's shock, while Ironhide just sighed, "I guess we should have expected something like this."

The last Enforcer looked at their table and frowned. "Five orns ago, are you sure?"

Sunflare gulped as every optic in the room was on him. "Yes..."

He wouldn't forget that orn. He had been ecstatic, that someone like Prowl and Jazz trusted him enough to hire him. Primus, he had celebrated with his friends and even called his creators.

"How very, very interesting..."

"Interesting, Nightbeat?" snarled the femme. "This isn't interesting, but a catastrophe! We have a slagging traitor who gave them information. Five orns ago, only a handful mechs knew about this!"

Nightbeat shook his head: "Not so few mechs, Howlback. We had to ask around, opened sealed archives... many bots might have noticed something."

"Something!" spat Howlback and started pacing. "Maybe. But not the exact information on which orn we'll capture them and into which headquarters we'll be bringing them!"

Into which headquarters Sunflare had to come.

"The headquarters was probably easy to guess. This one has the most secure Enforcer cells on Cybertron," said Stungun and crossed his arms. "So we brought them here."

"Primus," said Howlback. "Don't you all get it? Five orns ago, even we didn't know when we would get the order of Prime and the United Council on when to take them in."

This got worse and worse. First the mob, which he now supposed was demanding the freedom of Jazz and Prowl, then Ironhide himself was here, his own clients had possibly manipulated the Enforcers, installed traitors and now the Prime and the slagging United Council had issued the capture order personally. Why were the rulers of Cybertron interested in a pair of architects, even if they were war heroes? What in Primus' name was going on?

Ironhide shrugged. "It was to be expected that they still have excellent connections to politics."

"Still..." said Howlback, but Ironhide made a hand wave that shut her up.

"More important is the call that was supposed to go to their lawyer. Did we follow it?"

"No," admitted Stungun after consulting an information screen. "It was made from a communication device in our headquarters as is standard procedure and an officer entered the number for Jazz. We never had to spy on ourselves before."

Ironhide shook his head, bemused. "Jazz is one of the best hackers Cybertron has ever seen. To change a number is sparkling's play for him." He looked at his subordinates. "Nightbeat, you were with them then, right? Did you hear what was said?"

"Yes. It was a normal lawyer call. It was only the why, where and when, and nothing more."

"No names, no anything?"

Nightbeat hesitated, glanced for a second at the Seeker who tried his best to disappear into the corner, and then said: "The only name was Sunflare. But if it wasn't Sunflare who was called..."

"Then all this was planned long before," said Howlback with cold anger.

"Please, keep calm." Ironhide sighed. "Nightbeat, try to recover as much as possible of that call from your memory drives. Howlback, I want you to speak with the technicians to see if the call can be traced somehow. Sunflare..." The Seeker shrank a bit more. "Despite everything, you're their lawyer. Would you please come with me? Your clients are expecting you."

The seeker nodded, but instead of feeling delight, it now felt more like entering the cave of Unicron himself. This wasn't how he had imagined this case, not by a long shot.

Again he walked through the long hallways with an Enforcer by his side, just that the greetings now were much more polite. The power of might and respect, he supposed. Sunflare had nearly stopped at the shield that had proclaimed that they now had reached 'Section C' of the holding cells. What in the Allspark's endless creation were they doing in a section that was only for the worst of the worst? For truly dangerous and insane murderers?

Ironhide opened a heavy door to the section after two scans and entering a code and they stepped into a long corridor. Every few steps they had to stop again and complete another security measure. It was nearly ridiculous, but Sunflare didn't dare to say anything. Ironhide was too grim, and the two bots he would meet soon had already proven that all these security measures didn't stop them from doing... something.

"You're young, right, Sunflare? One of the new generation?"

New generation, the peace generation, the generation after the long long war. The old bots called it a privilege, but Sunflare sometimes hated that label. It made them seem younger and some fools always saw them as mere younglings. As if you were only an adult with energon on your hands.

"Yes."

Ironhide sighed deep and long. "Kid, I know I shouldn't say this... but those two were and are my friends. Even with all the crimes they have committed, I'm sure they never wanted to do something bad, you know?" Sunflare didn't, but nodded anyway. "I guess what I want to say is that whatever they're planning, they probably don't want to harm you, okay?"

The word 'probably' wasn't reassuring. Not by a long shot. Still, Sunflare appreciated it."Thanks." The last laser grid vanished and they reached another massive door.

"Ironhide, would you mind... telling me what their supposed crimes are?"

The surprise on Ironhide's face was telling. "You don't know?"

The Seeker nearly winced. "No."

The metal gave a low groan as Ironhide opened manually opened the cell door. "Then you'd better ask them that yourself. Good luck."

Sunflare felt a big hand on his wings that nearly shoved him into the cell, then the door fell shut behind him and he was trapped.

"Ya're Sunflare, right?" said a friendly voice.

Sunflare tried to calm his nervously dancing spark, looked up from the floor, and nodded once, in what he hoped was at least a halfway confident manner. The speaker was an average sized black and white bot with a distinctive visor only a few paces away from him, sitting at a table playing a boardgame. Jazz, whispered his processor. At the other side of the table was a Praxian with the same finish, wings hanging utterly relax low on his back. That had to be Prowl, the second of the duo.

"Nice to meet ya. Don't ya want to sit down? They even gave us three chairs here. A fourth one and we would live in luxury." Jazz gave an easy laugh and Prowl's wings twitched in amusement.

Sunflare copied the twitch, more out of politeness than anything else, and took the offer, all the while trying to look around discreetly. It wasn't a bad cell, as far as his knowledge of cells went. It had no window, but the light was bright and very high above. Besides the table and the chairs, the cell held two berths and a few datapads strewn carelessly across one of them. Were they only using one? As expected, there were no cameras or microphones as it was illegal to record a meeting between a lawyer and the accused.

"So, what do you know about the whole situation by now, Sunflare?"

He really, really should have watched the news channel this morning. But how could he have expected this? "Nothing. No one has told me anything."

Prowl, for the first time, seemed to really focus on him. Suddenly, Sunflare understood how the winged mech, who usually and literally wore his emotions on his back, had gotten the nickname 'drone'. His face betrayed nothing and even those elegant wings were extremely still. "Really? We had expected otherwise."

Sunflare wanted to vanish. Already he had disappointed his clients. "Sorry..."

"Don't be, 'Flare. We'll just explain it to ya."

Jazz patted one of his wings, and Sunflare felt a small amount of surprise as he realised that Jazz did it right. Like a Praxian or a Seeker, he patted the upper points, which were the most impersonal points of the wings. Most groundframes didn't even know enough to realise there was this gesture, did it wrong with too much or too little force or didn't do it at all, because their culture was less... about touching and emotions.

His wing twitched in a gesture of thanks and Jazz smiled. Fluent in wing-language then. With a Praxian mate, maybe even bonded, not such a big surprise, but a pleasant one. The first good one this orn.

"Thank you... Maybe, we can start with what you're accused of."

What could they have done? Thievery? Maybe a stalker broke in and they killed him? Did they hire assassins to kill someone? But what he then heard, surpassed his worst nightmares. The list was long and each crime was worse than the previous one.

"But...but..." He looked at them in shock. It was impossible that these two mechs, these two heroes, should be accused of such atrocities. "That's... I can't... I mean, I've only been a lawyer for a vorn. I can't help you in the biggest trial of the last millennia!" He looked at them helplessly. "I don't know why you chose me, but surely you got the wrong lawyer."

By Prima's spark, they didn't need him, or even simply one lawyer, they needed a whole army of lawyers and the luck of Primus to get out of this alive.

"Oh, I'm sure we didn't." Jazz's visor flashed for a second in the light. "You're Sunflare, right? 432 vorns old, living in southeast Iacon, favourite restaurant a small café called 'Goodie's Love'. You graduated Summa Cum Laude from your academy, are interested in history, genius, Seeker, one of the best fliers on the whole planet and in love with Turnaround, but afraid to tell your creators, because he's no flier. Personally, I like Turnaround. You've got taste."

Sunflare felt a completely new horror inside of him.

"Furthermore," said Prowl from the other side. "You're the creation of a Decepticon and a Neutral, which is one of the few things your creators didn't change as they took on their new identities. And this fact means means that we can be sure not to be accused of using our reputation or manipulating you."

He froze. Impossible. They shouldn't, couldn't know this. His creators had gone to great pains to hide that they ever had a sparkling. "My creators...?"

"Are Starscream and Skyfire,” completed Jazz as he calmly leaned back into his chair.

"How...?"

"Anyway," said Prowl. "You can't back out now. You have already signed the contract."

It was true. He had signed it without a second thought. "But..."

There had to be a way out. Some way out of the contract, out of the room and... his thoughts always came back to the fact that they knew who his creators were. That Starscream was his sparker. Starscream, the most hated Seeker in history, who was supposed to have been dead for many vorns. If they made this knowledge public, it could mean his ruin and his creators violent death...

"As I already said, don't worry, Sunflare." Jazz smiled, but this time it gave no comfort to the Seeker. "This is your ticket to a big career. Your chance to show everyone, that a Seeker and the creation of a Decepticon can be a wonderful lawyer."

With cold certainty, Sunflare realized that they knew him somehow. Knew his dreams, his love, his creators, his whole life. He stared at them, captured in a storm of emotions and slowly accepted that he had to see this through. Whatever this was.

He shuttered his optics, defragmented his whole processor and with a clear mind looked at them again.

"So, I'm your lawyer. Your only lawyer."

"Yep."

"I'm inexperienced, without any reputation and have secrets in my past."

"Yep."

"You want me anyway."

"We hand picked you from hundreds of possibilities," said Prowl and from him, Sunflare didn't believe the words to be an exaggeration for one astrosecond. "So, yes."

"Why? Why me?" He hated the quiet desperation in his voice and that his wings trembled.

"We need somebot who will do his job, is good at it, and could be trusted," explained Prowl with a flat voice, but his wings emphasized the last word. "Additionally, we didn't want to take a former Autobot or someone who owned us in any way, because it would have been considered as an attempt to use our former positions for our gain. You fulfill all this and more."

He wasn't sure how to take the praise, so he was quiet for a long moment. "And now? I guess you don't need me for consultation." Heck, he could probably consult them. He was completely out of his depth here.

"Now? We'll explain what you will do."

And he would do it. As long as it wasn't illegal, he would do it exactly as they said. They were his clients and he was their lawyer. It wasn't consultation, but he was hired to help them anyway. His honour and own desire for greatness bound him as securely to their side as any unsaid threat.

He had been expertly manipulated.

Comments

[exactly-what.livejournal.com]

Just as wonderfully awesome as the first time I read it. ^.^

Poor Solarflare. Also, I can't wait to see what it is, exactly, that they want of him. *is curious*

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Good to know it holds up to a second read as well. ^^

:)

[exactly-what.livejournal.com]

Of course. ^.^ This is a very thought-provoking story, and wonderfully written (especially when you remember your commas ^.~ ). :D

Speaking of this story, though, I haven't gotten the next chapter for betaing yet... Just wondering if you had sent it and it got... missplaced on the internet? :-/

[rose0mary.livejournal.com]

I love this!

Should have guessed Sunflare's creators (sparkers) were Skyfire and Starscream.
Connections, history, and family ties - its all here.
Hand picked out of hundreds? I believe it. Course Jazz and Prowl would learn the most important thing and casually reveal it as if it weren't a big secret.
(Turnaround mmm, he'll play a big part later, I'm sure. Skyfire might not have anything against a groundpounder for his creation, but ... yes, Starscream might)

Stungun learned they were manipulated, and now the Enforcers - except for Ironhide - are in panic mode.
Lovely

Solarflare, Prowl and Jazz aren't necessarily wanting to WIN their case, but to get it public - and using the Seeker's 'lack' as a sign that all mechs are indeed created the same. (oh, and showing that they don't hold the past against anyone, and everything else that goes with hiring a lawyer graduate with no experience).
Yep, the two on trial are playing a strategy game. With stakes only they know about.

Thanks for continuing.
*Is on edge of seat for next-week's update*

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your review! :)

Let's just say that in this conversation Prowl and Jazz had a few more asses up on their non-existant vents than they even needed.

About Turnaround: The thing with this fanfic is, that Aftermath is really just about the trial. But around it I'm developing a huge universe, which will probably written and uploaded after Aftermath in form of multiple stories and oneshots. For that reason if a side story of a character is too big, it's not inside Aftermath but receives all the attention it needs later.

You're a very good observer. o.o Is confirmation spoilern? But you've perceived why they choose Sunflare essentially.

I actually feel sorry for a lawyer

[missmaryr]

I do feel sorry for Sunflare, but if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that Jazz and Prowl are manipulating this situation for all they're worth. You've certainly got my attention. I look forward to seeing where this story is going.

Re: I actually feel sorry for a lawyer

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review.
I have often seen how in fanfics it's said that they manipulate so much, but few gave examples and even less wrote about it. This whole fanfic is kind of only about the question what it means to manipualte on the biggest scale possible. ^^

[wicked3659.livejournal.com]

This is wonderfully intriguing. Looking forward to more.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks. ^^ I'm trying to update every Wednesday.

[in_excelsis_dea.livejournal.com]

First off, I really enjoyed the chapter. I do wonder who Jazz actually called. And clearly Jazz and Prowl are pulling all the strings, even if they're supposedly in prison. I liked Sunflare as a character, and was definitely intrigued when it turned out that Skyfire and Starscream are his creators.

All in all, I'm really wondering about the background -- Sunflare is over 400 vorns, so the war would have ended before that...right? But why did it take so long for Prowl and Jazz to be tried? I mean, sure, that is an impressive list of crimes and Ironhide and Co probably had to make sure that everything was (seemingly) ironclad before going after those two, but would it take that long? OR the timeline is off and it hasn't been that long, but Sunflare can't be that old because it was recognized that he was of that first post-war generation. So all in all, there's definitely something going on here, and I can't wait to read more.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your review.:)

I'm afraid who Jazz called will only be revealed much later.^^

I'm happy that you like Sunflare. He's an OC, and many have problems with them, but I wanted to try it anyway as there was no character in the TF verse that would've 'fit'.

The background is... huge to say the least. I am contemplating on writing another fanfic that starts shortly before the war ends until the moment the peace really begins.

But suffice to say, we are working with 3 time periods here.
1. The Great War.
2. *unnamed period* (later chapters there is more about it, but I don't want to spoiler)
3. The Great Peace.

Why the second period? Because I couldn't believe that they would go from war to peace without any transition. Sunflare was born at the edge between the second and third period.

Your question while Prowl and Jazz are only tried now, is a very good question. :) I will not answer it though as the answers will be mentioned in chapter 4 & 5.

You've got me sitting so far forward...

[whitefirebird.livejournal.com]

... that I fell off the chair!

Ooh, this is fascinating. The interplay here is wonderful, and the enforcers realising they've been duped is hysterical.

Poor Sunflare. Inexperienced, walked into the situation blind, and now he's stuck. Yes, this'll be the case of the centivorn, and yes, it could make his career, but if it does Jazz and Prowl will have done a lot of the work to make it so. Talk about feeling redundant!

At this stage, Sunflare seems to be largely there as a placeholder and attention-drawing figurehead while Jazz and Prowl get themselves out of the morass. And he knows it, poor spark!
That said, I have a feeling you've got something in mind for Sunflare, yeah? Maybe make him a little more integral to J & P's final play?

Good chapter all 'round.


Anticipating the next one eagerly.

Aya

Re: You've got me sitting so far forward...

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Literally fell of the chair? Really? Wow, I never managed that before! :D

Yes, poor enforcers, they kind of expected it, but that it really happens...

About Sunflare, in a way you're right he is important, and in a way not. This was his chapter, and from now on he'll be only mentioned through the optics of other bots, so you can't see all of him. But he is integral to a part of J&P's final play, even though his part might not be obvious.

For me personally Sunflare is important, because of the backstory. His sire is Starscream and my muse insists that I write a whole fanfic about what happened the era between the war and the current peace time in Aftermath.

Thanks for the review!

~silber

[darksirocco.livejournal.com]

Oooh...i am very much intrigued!
Characterisations and speech patterns are excellent, and the plot is quite interesting. I'm curious though, are they the only Autobots on trial for war crimes? If not, i can just imagine what others would be accused of, Ratchet and Wheeljack, in particular...
Definitely want to see where this is going..
Great job!
-Siro =^.^=

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reviewing.
Yes, they're the only Autobots on trial. And yes, that IS strange... and part of the plot. ;)
Ratchet has his own chapter later, chapter 9. In that chapter Wheeljack is also mentioned.

[darksirocco.livejournal.com]

Blast you and your teasinglinesses!!! *pouts* now imma be bouncing everywhere, dying to know what happens next! :P gah!
-Siro =^.^=

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Teasing is half the fun. ;) But I also *love* when readers think with the story and notice things. So thanks for that. :D

[neverminetohold.livejournal.com]

Poor Sunflare - but even Madonna knew it already 'it can't be fun to always be the chosen one' XD

Love it just as much on the second read through then I did on the first! Can't wait to see where this is going...

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them"
-> Sunflare is on a good way to achieve all three.

Thanks! :D And your encourage ment in the beginning was very helpful.

[neverminetohold.livejournal.com]

LOL That reminds me of TV Tropes: the call definitely knows where Sunflare lives ;) And I'm sure he will, though Jazz's and Prowl's fate is even more intriguing.

You're welcome :)

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

I looked up the "Call to Adventure" page on TvTropes. I read it. I read the next page. And the following one. Oh no, I'm on tvtropes again! It's like an addiction... *reads on*

The call definitely knows were Sunflare lives, but maybe he just knows were Starscream lived and thought when he visited: Oh look at that, a sparkling!

[neverminetohold.livejournal.com]

Happens to me too, every damn single time I visit TV Tropes, I'll get stuck and read for hours ^_^" Sorry for mentioning it, I really shouldn't feed your addiction ;)

So the call likes shiny new things? XD Sounds probable...