Chapter Text
Jazz studied the mech in front of him. He was a rather blocky mech with a strong build, but despite only having a few patches of paint left on his gray frame he was clearly well off at one point. Some of the paint patches that Jazz could see seemed to be made of gold. Actual, real gold.
Plenty of mechs went for a ‘golden’ look, but to use actual gold in your paint was a luxury only rich mechs bothered with. And yet, this did not look like a rich mech.
That was likely because the mech just stepped between Jazz and a cyberwolf that was going to kill him and literally snarled. And the crazy thing was that it worked. The cyberwolf actually ran away from the mech.
That let to where they were now. With the cyberwolf gone Jazz and the other mech studied each other. Jazz was debating what to say when the mech suddenly said, “Hail, stranger. I am Hound, a wanderer of these wilds. It has been. . . a long time since I last saw a fellow Cybertronian. What brings you out here?”
The greeting was old fashioned and formal which only piqued his interest more. Smiling at Hound, Jazz answered, “I’m Jazz, an Autobot, and you don’t have to be so formal with me.”
“Where’s your sword?” Hound asked.
That was not the reaction Jazz was expecting. “My what now?” Almost no one used melee weapons anymore. Why would Hound think he had a sword of all things?
“Your sword. Do—do priests no longer learn how to use a sword?” Hound looked aghast at the thought, but Jazz struggled to imagine a priest using a sword, or really any weapon at all. They weren’t really known to be fighters.
“Why would you think priests know how to use a sword of all things? And how is taht even connected to the Autobots?” Jazz asked.
Hound muttered something to himself that Jazz couldn’t make out before straightening up. “The Autobots are the Prime’s personal priests, and all priests know how to use a sword. It’s part of their basic training.” Just where was Hound getting these ideas. The priests all knowing how to fight with a sword? The image that conjured up was ridiculous.
“Well, I do work for the Prime, but I’ve never been a priest. I’ve never actually heard of an Autobot who was a priest.”
Hound looked physically sick at that announcement, and Jazz couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy. He had clearly been lost out here for a while. “Listen, do you need help getting to a city? Because I’m heading back to Iacon.” Where everyone would undoubtedly be worried about him after he was tossed off of a shuttle into the wilds. Jazz held in a wince as he imagined how distressed Prowl would be by his disappearance. Hopefully Ricochet would support Prowl while he was gone and make sure Prowl didn’t overwork himself again.
“Iacon?” Hound asked, focusing on Jazz. It was unnerving to have Hound’s full attention on him, and Jazz wasn’t sure why. He was just a normal mech, even if he was a little odd.
“Yeah. That’s where most of us are.”
“Help would be appreciated.” Hound said.
Jazz nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. However, I should warn you before we go that a civil war has broken out. It might actually be safer for you to stay out in the wilds here while the fighting calms down if you don’t need to worry about getting killed by cyberwolves."
Hound frowned. “Tell me Jazz. Do you. . . still follow the Prime?”
Oh, oh. Hound was a religious mech. It had been a while since Jazz had met a truly religious mech as trust in the Primacy eroded as Sentinel Prime and his predecessors were continuously terrible people. Hound must have been out here long enough to miss all of that which must have been a very long time.
Jazz smiled at Hound. “Optimus is a good guy, I promise. He was originally a dock worker, but he really stepped up to lead us when the Matrix choose him after Sentinel Prime’s death.
Hound’s frown when Jazz said Optimus’ name disappeared when he mentioned the Matrix, and was instead replaced with a look of intense focus. “You saw his transformation? The Matrix accepted him?”
Jazz took a half step back at the intensity of Hound’s question. “Er, yeah? It was a little hard to ignore the light show, and I mean, it made Optimus massive."
“Thank, Primus.” Hound muttered to himself before refocusing on Jazz. “Take me to your lord Prime. I have important matters to discuss with him.”
“And what business is that?” Jazz asked.
Hound jerked his servo down, and suddenly he was holding an beautifully intricate sword with it’s tip resting on the ground. “I am a priest of Primus. There are important things I must discuss with the Prime.”
Well, that would explain why Hound was focused on religious things. It only made sense for a priest to be religious.
“Listen, Hound, I know I you told about the war. That means that we can’t just let random people meet Optimus.” They couldn’t risk an assassination attempt. Not when they finally had a good Prime.
“Once he knows it’s me, I’m sure this lord Prime would love to talk.” Hound confidently said.
“Should he know you? I thought you’ve been out here for a long time?” Jazz asked.
“We have not met, but I knew the previous Prime. I’m sure he’ll wish to speak once he knows I’m the one who wishes to speak to him.” Hound held so much confidence as he spoke that Jazz had to wonder what his relationship with this ‘previous Prime’ was. There was no way Hound was just an average priest, even if priests did commonly learn to fight in Hound’s time. Jazz itched to figure out this new mystery in front of him.