A/N: There is a lot I can about this first real chapter of this story. Really. There is. But you know what? Why don't you just read it?

I don't own Transformers.

1. What Happens in Vegas

The city’s lights were blinding upon first glance. Rows of hotels and casinos lined either side of the street, the sidewalks choked with people. The city was Las Vegas. The gambling capital of the world set in a desert of the western United States. People from all over the world flocked to Vegas, putting their money on the line in games of chance in the slim chance that could walk away with more. It was all good fun, but sometimes fun was taken to far and would lead to addiction. One more dollar, one more and then I’m done, but some just don’t know when to quit. The city was alive tonight, but it was no different than any other night. After all, Las Vegas was a city that never slept.

Through the hordes of humans there were cars, many nice and expensive, like the silver Pontiac Solstice that moved down the street. The occupant in the driver seat was black, tall and handsome. His clothing was simple, nothing to fancy. His head was shaved. His cheek bones and jaw were strong. He looked like he could have any girl he wanted, but he wasn’t interested in human women, though they threw glances his way. His unnatural blue eyes held regret, bitter anger and shame. His tight jaw didn’t loosen to smile at any of the females, because he wasn’t in the mood to deal with them.

Ever since he came to this planet Jazz was fascinated by humans. Their culture spoke to him and he longed to learn all he could, and in result, becoming the self dubbed human culture specialist and that he was. But do to recent events, gone was the cocky, eager First-Lieutenant that Optimus Prime held so much confidence in. Now he wished he could just blend in and in the past three months he had done just that. He obtained his MHG, or his molecular hologram generator, before the battle in LA. It was now maxed out to a couple of hours since his rendition of blending in involved leaving his true for behind to wander the streets as a human. It was a huge risk, but he just couldn’t get himself to care anymore.

So he parked and got out. His body locked down, and his internal sensors came alive and if someone with ill intent got too close he would be able to return to his body in the blink of an eye.

He didn’t look back at it as he wandered to the Vegas strip, a destination already in mind. The neon light above the building was in the shape of a woman, scantly clad with voluptuous breasts and a well rounded figure, winking, beckoning stray males into the confines of the building whether they are single or married with two children. This was a place of sin, a lot of people believed. It was sinful entertainment and Jazz knew it. They only Autobot he could ever imagine getting into one of these clubs would be Sideswipe, merely for the energetic twin’s love of excitement. Jazz walked right up to the bouncer. The man was much larger than him, height and weight, but as he found out one night, he still had the strength and stamina of a Cybertronian in this form, but the bouncer merely looked down once and let him in without question.

Jazz didn’t bother saying anything in thanks as he entered. He was here almost every night, but not for the same reasons the men were. No, he was here for someone else and upon entering the lobby, the blue lights casting merging shadows in the dark he saw her.

Long brown hair fell into smoldering green eyes, long fingers caressing every inch of her pale skin. The silver pole she used fastened to the ceiling and ground was like an extension of herself, spinning around and sliding to the ground, the display made many pitch a tent, but not Jazz. He watched with dull eyes, it was something he had seen before, but he wouldn’t deny that the first time he entered the establishment his mouth hit the floor.

The brunette looked up and met his eyes, a look of recognition flittering to her face for a second before she returned to the task at hand, taking a bill from a middle-aged gentleman in the front row with her teeth. Jazz wandered deeper in, waving off the waitresses as they attempted to get him a drink. He couldn’t ingest alcohol as far as he knew. These bodies didn’t have the same organic functions as the human ones.

He sat in a usual spot, a small table in the corner, watching was the temptress continued to dazzle the crowd with her erotic dancing. Jazz placed his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers under his chin. Periodically, her eyes were drawn to him, but only for a mere heartbeat, but only because she wasn’t just dancing for him.

The routine was over and the dancer took her winnings and ventured off stage. It would be about fifteen minutes until the next dancer arrived. Jazz remained seated. Sure enough she emerged from a back door, more clothes on this time, but nothing deemed appropriate. Jazz watched the way her hips moved, something of a second nature to her as she approached his small table. Jazz didn’t move to greet her or anything, merely watched in a studying manner. She stood over his table, a smile on her face, her teeth white and perfect.

“Hey there Stranger,” she greeted.

“Hello, Candy,” he greeted.

“Mind if I sit down?”

“You know the answer to that.”

And she did. Placing a delicate hand on his shoulder she pushed him back and straddled his lap. Candy retained that seductive smile, but she didn’t move. No this was their ritual. Jazz wasn’t about to ask for a lap dance, it did nothing for him anyways, at least physically.

As his eyes remained locked on hers he couldn’t deny that she was a very attractive woman. Candy had all the natural assets other woman dreamed of or paid for. As her fingers brushed back and forth the sides of his head and behind his ears, she was close enough to kiss him, but that was against the rules and would more than likely get him banned. He didn’t want to imagine never returning because this is who he came to see, but something was different about her tonight. They way she looked into his eyes was very different than the other nights he came to see her.

“What?” he asked.

“I can’t get over how beautiful your eyes are,” she whispered. “I’ve never seen a man with such blue eyes.”

Jazz allowed himself a grin. “I’m not normal.”

“No,” she said softly. “No, you’re not.”

Jazz frowned. She was really behaving oddly tonight and it was unnerving. He knew damn well that stripers were tough chicks. They knew how to handle themselves and for the most part, the men that tried to get a little more physical always regretted it. Candy merely smiled at the confused look on his face and started moving, her hips rotating over him.

Jazz immediately grabbed her arm to stay her. “No.”

“Let me,” she whispered. “You come in almost every night looking like you could use a little something and you always say no. This one’s on the house.”

Jazz still looked determined to resist.

Candy leaned in close, her lips dusty against his ear, and despite himself and very much to his surprise, he shudder. “Let it go.”

It took a few seconds of processing time, seeming like eons, but Jazz’s hand released her thin arm, dropping limply at his side. Candy leaned back and smiled gracefully placing her hands on his shoulders and started to move again, rolling her body in seductive waves and Jazz found himself enthralled by it, escaping the hard memories of his death and resurrection on her creamy skin and gentle movements. Megatron was nonexistent at the moment as well as his fellow Autobots. All he could focus on was her and all that mattered was her. He had been offered this escape many times before and never took it, but now he had.

Candy’s hand trailed down his chest to the bottom of his shirt, lifting it slightly and letting her fingers tickled the dark skin that lay there. Muscles in his stomach tightened as he inhaled sharply, a reaction Jazz had never experienced. He felt warm all of a sudden, but he ignored it. Normally he could’ve turn on his internal cooling system, but he wasn’t in that body right now was he? No, he was ‘human’ right now and he was experiencing human feelings physical and internal. Candy smiled like she had just given him a heavenly gift that he longed to have for years.

Jazz looked away from her body to her face meeting her eyes again. Candy’s smile fell and a look of contemplation overtook her. Hands grasping the back of his head she didn’t seem to think of the consequences when she kissed him, her lips a feather over his. Jazz easily melted into the gesture like he had done it before, his knowledge of the affectionate act present. Fingers in her hair, he took the kiss to a whole knew level, but it was not to last.

In a flash, Candy realized what she had done and reared back in shock and horror. Jazz too realized and both immediately started to see who saw, but no one seemed to be looking. Candy crawled off his lap, stumbling slightly as she did so.

“I-I have go,” she said. “I’ll see you around, Stranger.”

Jazz didn’t get to say a word before she was tearing off for the backroom. He straightened his clothes as he sat up contemplating what had just transpired. He kissed a human. He used an entirely human gesture. With the moment gone the memories flooded back and he dismissed the euphoria for self-loathing once again.

He felt the angry eyes burning holes into his back, but he didn’t turn around even as a fat human male walked around and sat across from him, two large goons on either side of him like loyal pit bulls. The man was wrinkled and hard looking, like he had given many people cement shoes in the past. Jazz wasn’t intimidated. He could wipe the floor with all three of them and Prime’s rule about not harming humans would not apply in this case if they attacked him first.

The owner of the establishment leaned forward on his elbows staring at Jazz in foreshadowing interest. “We have a problem mister…”

Jazz didn’t answer. They didn’t need to know his name.

“Silent type, eh?” the man mocked. “That’s good, because I don’t want you to talk. You’re going to walk out that door and never walk you sorry hide back in here ever. You are banned from my house and if you do come back Candy is going to be the one to pay for it.”

Jazz’s eyes flashed dangerously as they narrowed. Autobots weren’t prone to attack first in non-battle situations. They weren’t supposed to harm humans, either. Those were Optimus’ rules. But Optimus wasn’t here, was he? So when Jazz’s fist flew across the table and he didn’t regret it. He was on a short thread already and threatening the only person he had contact with at the moment just cut it.

The fat man went reeling back, blood spurting from his nose. Jazz really wasn’t considering the repercussions of his actions, until the two goons whipped out shiny pieces of metal that could very well end his existence in the form if they targeted the small portion of his spark in the center of his chest. The pulsing music was too loud, it was too dark even with the strobe lights and the customers were far too intoxicated to notice the Glocks trained on their fellow patron.

As the fat man got up, cursing, he ordered Jazz to be thrown out, but not without a beating first. Jazz was taken out back and beaten to a pulp. It was dark so the two men couldn’t see that Jazz wasn’t actually bleeding or getting black eyes and what not, because a creature with no blood can’t bleed, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less. Jazz was left in a crumpled heap on the ground to drag himself away. Times had changed and while it would’ve been considered easy to kill a beaten ‘man’, it would look suspicious.

Jazz pushed himself over onto his back his body aching terribly and the pain wouldn’t be lessened when he was back to her real body. He was about to fade out of existence when the door opened again. Did they change their minds? Were they coming to finish him off?

But the hands that touched his face weren’t hard. They were soft and delicate, a woman’s hands and when he opened his eyes his eyes were able to see in the dark. It was Candy, looking distraught and concerned. For who, him? She didn’t need to worry about him. He had known what he was doing when he hit the owner in the face and when he didn’t fight back against the beating.

Candy didn’t seem to care that there was no blood or swelling because she could still tell that he was hurt. Over the past three months he had come in to the club and wanted to see no one but her. The tenant allowed it because Jazz paid good money, but what he didn’t know was that Jazz often hacked the machines at the casino to rig his winnings.

But Jazz never took anything from Candy. She was willing to do anything he wanted for a certain price, as long as it was not a documented pleasure, but he merely wanted to talk. He chose her by random. She was on stage and he just wanted to see her. Neither had no idea what it was going to lead up to, mostly becoming each other’s confidant. Jazz talked to her and one night she found herself talking back and actually they developed a dysfunctional friendship.

“Candy!” a familiar voice shouted. “Get back in here!”

Candy’s hands never left Jazz’s face and she looked over her shoulder at the man. The man could very well kill her, but Jazz heard her take a deep breath, hands shaking. “No.”

“What was that?”

“I quit, Donnie. I’m done.”

Fast footsteps strode forward as the owner drew closer. “You’re done when I say you’re done!” he bellowed. He grabbed Candy by her chocolate hair, yanking her forcibly back. She couldn’t stop the cry that tore from her throat. “Get back in there!”

Jazz was on his feet in a second, ready to intervene, but he currently had Candy in a choke hold, dragging her back to the club. Stalking forward, Jazz followed, hands in tight fists. He wasn’t thinking, merely acting on what his spark felt and that was hate for this disgusting human. Donnie pulled out an expensive hand gun, custom made apparently, and pointed it at Jazz. Even Candy stopped struggling at this, but Jazz, however, continued to walk menacingly toward him. He moved fast as Donnie tossed Candy aside to shoot him, but Jazz grabbed the beefy writs and pushed it into the air as the gun went off. People nearby screamed and cell phones were wiped out to call the police. Candy watched from the ground as the two struggled and called out when Donnie’s bodyguards showed up.

Jazz noticed as well and spun Donnie around, aiming his wrist the way he wanted, shooting the two men in less fatal areas, merely to bring them down. Jazz made a tight fist and struck the bastard across the face, knocking him unconscious next to his wounded men.

Candy got up and went over to him. True to her denying her boss the pleasure of returning to work she had a duffle bag on the ground with all the belongings he assumed from her locker. No doubt that someone heard the gunshots, so wordlessly, Jazz held out his hand to her. He wasn’t sure what he was doing still but he was merely following his instinct. Candy smiled slightly and took his hand.

“Thanks, Stranger,” she said.

“Jazz.”

“Huh?”

He grinned at her, the first real one she had ever seen. “My name is Jazz.”

“Jazz,” she smiled, tasting the name on her tongue. “Well, Jazz, than. You can call me Beth.”

He nodded and started pulling her out from behind the building to the street, avoiding the crowds through the back alleys. The sirens could be heard fast approaching, but Jazz’s scans were keeping them one step ahead. Candy aka Beth followed without question until they came upon a familiar Pontiac Solstice. She was slightly surprised by the expensive car, but got in anyways when the door was opened for her. Jazz got in as well, firing up the engine and pulled out onto the street, driving slow as if not to attract attention.

“We can go to my place,” she said. “I’m hardly there anyways they won’t check there first.”

Jazz nodded again and followed her directions. It was a decent apartment building, but Jazz wouldn’t know what the inside would look like because according to his calculations he was running out of time on the MHG and getting beaten didn’t help much. Both climbed out but as Beth headed for the stairs Jazz stayed by the car.

“Well, are you coming?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I’ll stay out hear and keep watch.”

She frowned, but accepted it. There was cearly something else on her mind. “What are we doing?”

“I don’t know,” Jazz admitted.

Beth walked forward towards him dropped her duffle bag at the front of the car. Leaning against the car she ran a finger along it ignorantly as Jazz felt a small tingle. “Donnie’s gonna come after us. Me for quitting and you for shooting Ron and Mitch and punching him twice, one, of which, knocked him unconscious.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“You should be. Donnie knows people. He could have you killed.”

Jazz looked down at the woman hard. “What about you? Will he kill you too?”

Beth’s lips took on a bitter smile. “Probably.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Well, I can probably only stay here for the night. Maybe I’ll catch a flight to Mexico or something. What about you?”

Jazz shook his head. “I’m not running.”

“Then why are you in Vegas in the first place?” Jazz looked surprised by the question and his head snapped up to look at her. Beth seemed to be all knowing as she took another step closer to him. “I’ve seen all kinds of men come into Donnie’s. They all have different stories, but you…Your’s is the story you’re running from.”

“How can you tell?”

Beth laughed. “In my occupation, it’s all about learning about the customer. What he wants, why he wants it. You may think you’re mysterious and hard to read, but, honestly, it was kind of easy.”

Jazz laughed as well shaking his head. Beth was happy to see him genuinely happy about something even if it was a little thing. She stepped even closer her body flush against his. Jazz’s smile dropped into a serious expression and Beth was captivated by his eyes again. But before she could make her move, Jazz made his instead taking her lips in a passionate kiss, feeling things from a different perspective, a human perspective, and it was addicting.

Beth’s arms wound around his neck holding him as tightly as he did her as she was sandwiched between the MHG and Jazz’s real body. Jazz’s hands kneaded the flesh of her thighs, swallowing her moan. Her body was warm, alive and so much more different from the femmes of his planet. Not that there was anything wrong with them. Human females were just so different and this was just so new.

She pressed her hips forward, enticing that part of anatomy human men had, but since he wasn’t human it wasn’t supposed to react so to say he was surprised when it did was an understatement. Jazz’s eyes snapped open, shock apparent, more emotion than Beth had ever seen in three months. Jazz felt a trickle of sweat slid down the back of his neck and his shock increasing.

“Come up with me,” she whispered breathlessly.

Jazz realized that this had gone a little too far and something was happening to him that wasn’t physically possible. “No,” he said. “I need to watch to make sure your former employer doesn’t come here looking for you. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Beth didn’t hide her disappointment. Lips pursed together she nodded and walked away, not exchanging goodbyes as she head upstairs. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful, she was just a little embarrassed.

Jazz waited until his scanners indicated that she was inside before his holoform released a breath. He grasped the back of his next, feeling the moisture that lay there. He wasn’t supposed to sweat. He looked down at his crotch. That was something new as well. He wasn’t a real human and yet he was displaying human behavior and there was no doubt in his processor that he really wanted to follow Beth upstairs with all that it entailed.

To reassure himself that he was still autonomous he allowed his MHG to fizzle out of existence and return to his true from. He welcomed the familiar feeling of being himself again, an inorganic organism that couldn’t possibly be with, in any shape or form, an organic one.

How could that have been possible though? Of course the only one that could answer that question was Hound and he was in Tranquility and Jazz wasn’t about to return to his comrades now. He still needed time away from them, to conquer his fear he supposed, but in reality he knew the truth. He was ashamed of himself, so ashamed that he didn’t think he deserved the titled of Autobot. Starscream saved his aft that day. It’s a sad day when your enemy risks his life for your own, whether or not that said enemy had a change of spark.

Beth was right. He was running and as time wore on he was failing miserably.

Falling into an unpleasant stasis he kept his scanner open for Donnie and his henchmen. It was going to be a long night.

A/N: Yep. Jazz got a lap dance. I hope this chapter explains why Jazz left and is being angsty. I wrote this chapter before the Preface, but I decided to postpone this and maybe play around with it a little before posting it. I played around with it A LOT actually so that's why it took so long. I hope you liked it. I thought it was pretty dark lol, but I still had fun writing it. Thanks for reading!

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