FicWad

As Jack regained consciousness, he heard two voices talking at a distance from himself. He opened his eyes very slowly, so to allow his sight to adjust correctly. Once everything became sharp he looked around to see that he was in the Paladin's medical bay, and at the far corner of the room was Kenson and another one of the station's personnel, though from the look of her, Jack would guess that she was a nurse. As the two were talking he tried to lift himself up slowly, but found that he was being held down by restraints. He took a breath as he remained calm, and decided to eves drop on the conversation taking place between the nurse and Kenson.

"We have managed to keep him under for the last two days, but we can not remove the matrix of leadership from around his neck. It just will not budge, no matter how much force we use." the nurse reported. Kenson though did not look amused.

"Damn, I guess it is true what they say about the matrixes, only the Prime's who carry them are worthy of holding a piece of Primus….or that is what our master tells me. Very well, keep him sedated until our master arrives. He wants the Prime to be handed over to his being the moment he is here." Kenson replied coldly.

The nurse looked at her confused.

"Why Doctor, why keep a potential threat alive. We should just kill him." she stated, but Kenson just crossed her arms and gave the nurse a determined look.

"I believe that you should keep that view to yourself, especially if you wish to receive the Reapers blessings."

The nurse's eyes widened as she realised what she would lose if she kept up with her current attitude.

"Oh, of course…I am very sorry Doctor." she grovelled, not that it impressed Kenson who just walked away to the door before looking back.

"By the way, have you seen the Autobot at all recently?"

"No not since yesterday when he was asking about our guest." the nurse replied sheepishly.

Kenson pressed the control panel beside her, causing the door to open.

"Well just watch the Prime, I will take care of Jazz, it seems that he hasn't accepted the master's will and that makes him a threat. Carry on." she said before walking out of the room, leaving the nurse to curse her big mouth for questioning their master. Jack closed his eyes and played possum as she turned around and walked over to his bed. She activated her holo-tool and took scans of Jack as he lay there still.

"Well, no change that I can detect." she said aloud, making Jack question why she was talking to herself. Suddenly the door to the lab opened making the nurse look round, but no one was there so she turned back around and continued to look at her holo-tool.

As Jack was lying there, he suddenly heard something hit the floor and opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the nurse, only to find her lying on the ground unconscious. His expression became one of confusion. Then suddenly he saw the air in front of him shimmer as Jazz appeared next to his berth.

"Jack, what you doing tied to that berth?" he asked as he started undoing the restraints, allowing the Prime to sit up.

"Well it turns out that everyone on this station has been indoctrinated by that Reaper artifact." Jack replied.

"Well I guess that means I am safe then, being Cybertronian." the Autobot replied as he handed Jack his octagonal disc which he placed on his chest and within seconds, he was back in his Prime armour. Jazz then handed him a pistol.

"Sorry bud, but I couldn't get your original weapons back. The whole station has gone on lock-down since you shot up the place two days ago."

Jack looked at Jazz in shock.

"How long?" he asked before checking the time on his holo-tool.

"My god…." he said as he looked down at the time. Jazz looked uneasy at Jack.

"What is it?" he asked.

Jack turned to him, his eyes wide and his face slightly pale.

"We only have one hour before the Reapers arrive in this system."

Jazz then looked at Jack with a shocked expression as it dawned on him.

"Well…..what are we going to do about it, since it is just the two of us against at station of forty thousand brainwashed people?"

Jack took a second to think before he equipped his pistol and checked the ammo.

"We need to get to the control room, do you know the way?" he said stoically as his face took on a look that Jazz knew only too well.

"Yeah I do, follow me Jack." he replied before he and the Prime left the lab and entered the white corridor. They then made their way through the station, trying to keep out of sight of any soldiers who were patrolling the route.

"So where did you get the cloak from?" Jack asked as they came to a junction and checked for enemies before turning left into another empty corridor.

"It was a gift from Cliffjumper, he gave it to me a few days before he left with Arcee for Earth." Jazz's face went sullen as he remembered his best friend. Jack noticed this and placed a hand on the bot's shoulder in support.

"Hey I need your head in the game Jazz, because someone is coming." he said trying to sound sympathetic as he pointed over to the end of the corridor as two shadows could be seen approaching. The two took cover a the doorway as two soldiers walked around the corner and toward them. Then as they approached the Prime and Autobot, Jack and Jazz looked at each as their readied their weapons.

"On three, one, two, three!" he whispered to Jazz as the suddenly leaned out and shot both soldiers square in the head, before checking behind them and in front to see if anyone had noticed the gunfire.

"Clear." Jazz said looking behind.

"Clear." Jack replied, looking in front.

The two then carried on past the two corpses and round the corner, following Jazz's directions.

"I still can't believe that we haven't set off any alarms yet Jack." Jazz replied, gaining an annoyed look from the Prime.

"Don't jinx it Ja…." he was cut off by the alarms blaring around the station, Jack just gave the Autobot an 'I told you so' look. Jazz just smirked and shrugged his shoulders in response, before they both heard masses of footsteps coming from behind them.

"Move!" Jack replied as soldiers came round the corner and started firing on the two as they ran in opposite direction, firing back every few seconds.

"This reminds me of the time me and Cliff were fighting Shockwave's troops at the Sea of Rust." he reminisced as he killed another soldier who fell to the ground, making the others trip over his body, buying the two an extra few seconds.

"How much further to the control room?" he said as Jazz pointed over to the door.

"Here it is." he stated as he pressed the control panel beside the door, but nothing happened.

"Damn it, they have changed the pass codes." he said in frustration as Jack heard more soldiers approaching their location. Jazz then got on one knee and opened up the casing under the control panel.

"How long do you need, because we are about to be overrun?" the Prime asked.

"I can hack the door, but it will take a few minutes." Jazz replied as he activated his holo-tool.

Jack then smiled as he held his hand out to the bot.

"Give me the cloak, I can buy us a few more minutes."

Jazz smiled back at Jack before he took the device off his wrist and passed it over. The Prime then attached it to his own before turning toward the incoming group.

"Be careful Jack." Jazz said, gaining a smirk from the Prime who then tapped his wrist before disappearing in a shimmer as he ran down the corridor.

The group of soldiers were just down the other corridor, not far from the Autobot as the leader got a call on his com link.

"Team two, the last scan we took shows two life signs at the entrance to the main control room. We have sealed it and scrambled the pass codes." the female voice replied.

The soldier nodded as he pointed the others to go ahead of him.

"Now kill the Autobot, but we need the Prime alive, Harbinger demands it."

"Yes Doctor Kenson, it will be done." the soldier replied as the group unknowingly passed Jack as he stood in silence in the doorway next to them.

'So that Reaper was Harbinger that I heard earlier.' he thought before he walked up slowly behind the one soldier that was lagging behind the group. He then grabbed the enemy's head and twisted fast and strong, snapping his neck. Jack then quietly lowered the body to the floor. He then looked ahead to see that the group was nearly upon the corridor that Jazz was in.

'Scrap!' he thought as he stood up and ran up behind the group and activated the star-saber before impaling it through the back of one soldier, who grunted in pain, causing the others to look around and see nothing but the soldier flinching where he stood with blood pouring out of his chest. Jack then pulled the blade back out, making the body fall to the ground. The soldiers looked dumbfounded as to what was happening as Jack swung the blade and cleaved the head of another enemy clean from his neck, spraying blood over another soldier who freaked out.

"He's here" he shouted as the group fired blindly around them, the freaked out one accidentally killing a colleague in front by riddling him with bullets. Jack then killed two more soldiers when he grabbed one by the throat and squeezed until he heard the soldier's neck snap while also running another one through with the star saber.

Then there was only one soldier left and he was hysterical as he blindly fired in all directions until he saw a shimmer of air in front of him as Jackson Prime appeared before him. The soldier screamed as he raised his weapon, but Jack just gave him a pissed off look as he sliced at the enemy, gaining a painful grunt before the enemy's body fell to the ground. Jazz suddenly ran round the corner, having heard the gunfire and screams and was shocked to see Jack standing in the middle of a bloodbath, looking quite bad-ass in the bot's humble opinion.

"Wow, remind me never to get on you bad side Jack." he observed as Jack looked at him stoically.

"Are you through the door yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go." he said as both of them went back to the doorway and entered the control room.

PRIME EFFECT 2: ARRIVAL

Now that they were inside, Jack walked straight over to the main console and activated it while Jazz kept stood guard at the entrance. The Prime pushed some buttons, and the main screen flickered to life, showing numerous data clusters.

"Computer, I want to launch the singularity bomb." Jack said as the screen then showed the bomb's schematics and it's target…the 'Star Sparta'.

"Warning, launching the bomb now without evacuating this station first will leave very little time to escape the system before the super nova destroys it." the VI replied as it's hologram appeared on the console next to the Prime.

"Noted, now launch the bomb!" Jack said, getting agitated as he looked at the countdown on his holo-tool. (it now read thirty minutes and twenty seconds.)

"Very well, launching bomb in one minute, but be warned that this will result in an estimated forty thousand casualties."

Jazz looked back at Jack in shock.

"Jack are you sure about this?" he asked, gaining a determined look from the Prime.

"Jazz everyone on this base has been indoctrinated, there is no way we can help them. But there are trillions of lives in this galaxy that will be saved if we destroy this system before the Reapers arrive, which will be sometime the next thirty minutes."

The Autobot looked down at the ground for a moment as he saw that Jack was right, he then looked up.

"The needs of the many right.." he said sombrely. Jack's expression changed to match the bot's as he nodded back.

"Something like that." he replied.

The VI then spoke, regaining their attention.

"fifteen seconds remaining, I only need you to press this button to finalise the launch." it said as a button started flashing in front of the Prime. Jack took a moment to compose himself, Jazz was right in a way, forty thousand lives was a steep price to pay to stop the Reapers. But he did not have a choice.

'I guess that comes with being a Prime…making the hard choices.' he thought as he pressed the button.

"five, four, three, two, one…..launch." the VI responded as the bomb was fired from the station and towards the star at the center of the system.

"The bomb will reach the star inside of five minutes. After detonation, the star will take approximately 15 minutes before going nova. If you are going to evacuate, I suggest you do so now." the VI replied before disappearing.

"Thanks for the advice." Jazz replied sarcastically as Jack turned to him.

"So how are we going to get out of here, because we wont get to the shuttle bay in time." the bot said. Jack responded by tapping his com link.

"Jackson Prime to Defiant, come in Defiant." he said, hearing nothing but static. After what felt like an agonisingly long moment, Hotrod's voice came through.

"Prime…. thank Primus, we have been waiting forever for you to answer." The pilot said relieved.

"Hotrod, we need an evac right now." Jack said stoically as Miranda suddenly spoke over the com link.

"Jack, we have detected a projectile being launched at this system's star, could you elaborate on this?" she asked.

"Miranda, just know that if we don't all get out of here in time, then we will be caught in a super nova." he replied as Jazz heard more soldiers approaching their position.

"Roger that Jack, we are on our way. Meet us on the landing pad on the outside of the station nearest to your position." she replied as Jack deactivated his com link and joined Jazz at the door as they both equipped their weapons.

"You ready?" Jack asked as the footsteps drew closer.

"When you are, Jack" Jazz replied coolly. They then both came out from behind the doorway and fired at the soldiers, killing a number of them before the enemy had a chance to react. They then turned around and ran further down the corridor, as they followed the directions from Jack's holo-tool.

Jack and Jazz came up to a large door at the end of the last corridor they had ran through. During that time they had killed several more groups of soldiers who had gotten in their way. Jack looked at the time, Jazz noticing this just had to ask.

"How long left?" he asked sheepishly.

"Less then ten minutes until the Reapers enter the system, and about the same for the super nova."

The Autobot nodded and gulped before looking through the window of the door in front of them.

"Well, just this last room and we are home free." he said as Jack opened the door and they both stepped through and scanned the area with their weapons ready, just in case any soldiers were waiting in ambush.

"Looks clear." Jack said as Jazz took that as his cue and walked over to the airlock at the far end of the room.

"Get your breather helmet ready Jack, we are about to do a space walk" he said.

Suddenly a gunshot echoed through the room and Jazz fell to the floor clutching his stomach.

"Jazz!" Jack shouted as he ran to his friend.

"Don't move!" Kenson threatened as she stepped out from behind cover, her pistol pointed directly at the Prime as Jazz was sprawled on the floor clutching at his wound.

"You have ruined everything Prime..." she spat at him as he raised his weapon at her.

"...I can't hear their whispers anymore, you've taken them away from me."

Jack though had to try and get through to her.

"Kenson look at what you are doing, you came here to stop the Reapers, not help them." he said gently to her, but she just stared daggers at him.

"I will never see the Reapers arrival." she replied while showing what was in her other hand, which Jack recognised as a grenade.

"All you had to do was stay asleep." she gritted her teeth as her thumb hovered over the trigger.

"Kenson, we can still get off this base together." Jack reasoned. But the Doctor's face became stoic looking.

"No we wont." she replied angrily, but suddenly another gunshot was fired as she was knocked back as blood spilled out of a wound to her arm. She dropped the grenade which fell to the floor harmlessly. Jack looked down to see Jazz pointing his pistol at her.

"Crack shot or what!" he exclaimed with a grin. They then both looked up to see Kenson recover and point her pistol at them.

"YOU…..!" she screamed at them as they then shot her repeatedly with their weapons, her body being riddled with bullets as blood spilled out in all directions before her lifeless body fell to the floor face first. Jack then sighed as he looked down at her body for a moment.

"Jack..." Jazz said, gaining the Prime's attention.

"...I think you should leave me here, I will only slow you down."

Jack shook his head.

"No, we are both getting out of here." he replied as he knelt down beside the Autobot. Jazz then stopped and pointed behind Jack, making the Prime swing round with gun ready to see Kenson's body standing back up. She then opened her eyes to reveal them to be glowing a bright yellow.

"Jack Darby, you are becoming an annoyance." the corpse of the late doctor said, revealing to Jack and Jazz that Harbinger was controlling it.

"You fight against inevitability, dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you, a star system sacrificed. But even now your greatest civilisations are doomed to fall."

Jack stood in front of the Reaper controlled corpse, a thoughtful expression on his face as he listened to the Reaper. He then took a breath.

" You know what Harbinger, that is your name right. Maybe your right, maybe our fight is futile. But we will fight you regardless, just like we did against Sovereign and the Quintessons. Just like we are doing right now. Now matter how small and weak you believe us to be. We will fight, we will sacrifice and we will find a way. That's what Humans do." Jack replied defiantly. Harbinger just looked at the Prime with a disinterested expression.

"Know this as you die in vain, your species will fall, the galaxy will be purged. You should prepare yourselves for our arrival."

The doctor's corpse then fell to the floor in a heap again as the presence that was controlling it faded away. Jack then raced back over to Jazz and helped him to his feet.

"Come on, we have to go now." he said as he helped the Autobot into the airlock.

The two of them (with their breather helmets on) walked slowly to the landing pad on the outside of the station, just as the Defiant came into view."

"Prime, Defiant is inbound for pick up." Hotrod called over the com link.

"Roger that Defiant." Jack replied as he and Jazz stood at the edge of the pad, while the ship stopped next to the station's hull, allowing the two to step into the Defiant's airlock.

"Okay, we are in!" the Prime commanded as he closed the airlock door. The Defiant pulled away and flew from the station at top speed. Jack meanwhile handed Jazz over to the medics as he looked to his pilot.

"Hotrod, get us out of here now." he shouted, as Hotrod opened up the engines to maximum as the Defiant flew towards the space bridge like a rocket, just before the star shown extremely bright before exploding into a massive energy wave that shot out in all directions, consuming each planet that was engulfed inside its expanding plasma field. The people on board of the station were blinded by the extreme light as the wave hit the station, engulfing it and killing all on board as the Defiant entered the glowing green vortex of the space bridge only moments before the wave hit it and destroyed the gateway.

Jack though watched in silence, with Miranda and Airachnid at his side as the galaxy map showed the star system fade away into nothing as he then hung his head, knowing the lives he had just sacrificed, before he stood back up and walked to the elevator. Both women watched him, Airachnid took a step forward as she was about to follow. But then felt a hand on her arm as she looked back to see Miranda's sullen expression look back at her.

"I think it's best to leave him alone right now." she said gently. Airachnid just looked back to the elevator as her thoughts dwelled on the Prime.

'Jack!'

PRIME EFFECT 2: ARRIVAL

The Defiant was in orbit over Earth, it had just returned from the black op mission. Jack sat on the berth in the med bay as Doctor Chakwas and Admiral Bryce were talking at the entrance to the room. Chakwas then nodded and walked out, leaving the Admiral and the Prime alone. Bryce walked over and stood in front of Jack.

"Its good to see that you have recovered." he said looking at the Prime.

"Admiral." Jack replied as he got up and stood to attention.

"As you were Prime..." he said allowing Jack to relax.

"...Sounds like you went through hell back there. How are you feeling son?" he asked.

Jack scratched his head and looked at the Admiral.

"Fine now, no more visions or headaches if that is what you mean..." he replied.

"...I have to say that I am surprised to see you here sir."

Bryce held his hands behind his back as he looked at Jack.

"You went out there as a favour for me, so I decided to debrief you in person..."

The Admiral's expression became more serious all of a sudden.

"...But that was before the star in that system went nova and destroyed the station and killed everyone on board. What in the hell happened Prime."

Jack picked up the pad that was on the berth and handed it to Bryce.

"I confirmed Doctor Kenson's evidence, the Reapers were coming. But Kenson and the entire crew of the station were indoctrinated by the Reaper artifact and they had me sedated for nearly two days. With Jazz's help I managed to launch the singularity bomb into the star and cause the super nova with barely minutes to spare..." Jack then looked away in shame for a second.

"...It was the only way to stop the Reapers from gaining a foothold in our galaxy."

The Admiral looked at Jack and then down at the report in his hands, taking in every detail before taking a breath and looking back at Jack.

"You believe the Reaper threat was genuine?"

Jack looked at Bryce, his expression becoming stoic.

"No doubt sir, they were only moments away."

The Admiral turned around and looked around the med bay.

"Fortunately this was a black op, so we should be able to keep this under wraps…but"

Jack felt uneasy at that comment.

"But sir." he asked sheepishly.

Bryce turned round and looked at Jack, his expression serious again.

"You did what you did for the best of reasons, but there was forty thousand people on that station….and now they are all dead." the Admiral replied.

"They were indoctrinated sir, there was no way to save them and I had to balance their lives against everyone else in the galaxy. But if there had been a way to save them too, you could bet your ass I would have." he replied stoically.

"You don't have to convince me Prime. If it were up to me, I would give you a medal. But unfortunately, not everyone will see it that way." he replied with a tinge of regret in his voice.

Jack sat back on the berth.

"What do you suggest?" he asked.

"The Defiant is orbiting Earth right now, but I should be able to hide your presence long enough for you to get back out there and do what you do best. I will also make sure that the Council never hears about what happened in the Sparta system. I don't think they need any more ammunition against you."

Jack nodded before he remembered something else.

"Admiral how is Jazz?" he asked.

"Jazz is no recovering at the medical center in New Iacon, Ratchet tells me he should make a full recovery." he replied smiling at the Prime who looked relieved at the news.

"Thank you sir." Jack replied as Bryce handed him back the pad.

"Your welcome son, and you keep this. I don't need to see a report to know that you did the right thing, you've done a hell of job Prime." he replied as he turned to leave, but suddenly Anderson walked in.

"Captain, what is it?" Bryce asked as both of them saw the worried look on the Captain's face.

"Admiral, Darby…..I am sorry, I don't know how they found out." he said fearfully as both the Prime and Admiral stared at him confused.

"What do you…" Bryce said as suddenly Sparatus and three council soldiers walked into the med bay, the Turian Councillor pointed at Jack and stared daggers at him.

"There he is, arrest him at once." he spat as the soldiers walked over and grabbed Jack by his arms.

"What is the meaning of…." Bryce started only to have Sparatus right up in his face.

"Back down Admiral, or I will have you in chains too for aiding and abetting a fugitive of this Council and the Alliance." the Turian spat back before looking at Jack while the soldiers handcuffed him.

"Jack Darby, you are under arrest for the treacherous actions in working with the terrorist organisation MECH, and for the murder of forty thousand human souls in the Sparta star system. You will be held in an Alliance prison until the day you face justice for the crimes that you have committed against those that you swore to protect." Sparatus finished as he motioned the soldiers to escort Jack away. Jack thought of voicing an argument but decided to keep quiet, knowing that if he was to mention the Reapers, that Sparatus would just tear him a new one. The Prime instead looked over to Admiral Bryce and Captain Anderson.

"We will fight this Darby, I have already informed Optimus." Anderson said as Jack was led away.

PRIME EFFECT 2: ARRIVAL

Jack found himself to be in a dull grey cell with a standard bed, toilet and desk, he had no idea how it came to this or what he was going to do to get out this situation. But as he placed his belongings on the bed and walked over to the window, and looked out at the view he had. He just hoped that the lives he sacrificed at the Sparta system would be buy enough time, for his friends and allies to find something that could help against the coming threat. He knew that each and every one of them would not back down to the pressure that the council was piling on them. So in the meantime all he could do was sit and wait for his day in court and hope that he would prevail.

As he looked out of the window he saw a small park just away from the prison that he now resided and saw a small play area there. The area was empty and Jack decided that he would turn in early. It wasn't like he had anything else to do, but as he did, he suddenly heard a child laughing and he turned back to see a small boy in the play area, running around with a toy ship in his hands. Jack looked at the boy as he played, a confused look grew on the Prime's face, but he then shook his head and lied down on the bed. Closing his eyes and letting sleep take him.

TO BE CONCLUDED

IN

PRIME EFFECT 3