Disclaimer: Transformers are trademarked and owned by Hasbro. Urielle (Ellie) is my creation though. No infringement is intended or implied. No financial gain received.

A/N This story takes place after my first story; Children of Megatron. Possible minor spoilers. Sorry to sort of stick this randomly in here, but even when I'm not writing, the storyline is still continuing in my head. Just had to get it out so I could continue with the original storyline. TL

A Blue Spark for Soundwave

He couldn't believe the child was right. He was a spymaster for Primus' sake, and he didn't know she could do half the things she did. She was a human, even though she did have cybernetic implants. How was it possible this little girl had resources he didn't?

Even though thoughts were waging inside of his mind, he was externally inert. No one, except maybe his minicons, knew what he was thinking. To the rest of the universe, he was cool, aloof, untouchable, unshakeable. The truth, he was terrified of letting anyone in. He had seen what it could do to care for another spark, and he wanted no part of it. That was why he chose to have his lip plates removed when he was first in training, so no female would want him.

Soundwave was screaming through the asteroid field outside of Mars, heading for the blue world. He made one last adjustment and allowed the Earth's gravity to pull him in the rest of the way, landing where the girl's uncle had set up shop after being separated from the official workings of the government.

His impact made a large crater. As he waited for his external armor to cool enough to regain his bipedal form, he scanned his surroundings for threats. He knew Barricade was on his way, he also figured there'd be humans and Autobots around to continue going through the heartless bastard's extensive research. He never counted on her being there though.

Finally, he was able transform, easily assuming his last form while on the planet. He spared a brief second to wonder why he would worry about it, and then dismissed the thought. There was about to be a battle with Barricade and his supporters.

He roared off to meet the challenge, praying, for the first time in his existence, that he could keep the fight away from the girl. He ignored the Autobot's questioning pings as he sped away. Finally, he heard the girl hail him. Of course she would recognize him.

"Oh hell!" he thought to himself.

"Prime," he hailed, "Barricade en-route to that facility. Deploy your forces for defense."

He received the acknowledgment code from the Prime and cut off any further communiques. He needed to focus on this battle. He wouldn't let the 'bot anywhere near that place, especially now.

As soon as he stood up, Ellie knew who it was. Her heart gave a funny little squeeze when she saw he was alive and well.

"That's Soundwave!" she said excitedly to Jazz.

"I know baby gee," Jazz affirmed distractedly.

"Confirm new arrival as Soundwave. Appears to be traveling away from facility. Not acknowledging hails," he radioed to the others.

Ellie grabbed the microphone attachment to Jazz's radio port when she heard him send another ping at Soundwave.

"Soundwave! Soundwave, please come in," she called into the mic attached to Jazz's jaw.

"Ouch! That hurts!" he said as he retracted the attachment and rubbed the closed port.

"Sorry! Here, I'll kiss it and make it better," she said as she kissed the port.

"You still get to explain to Ratchet why it's bent," he grumbled.

"All Autobots, this is Optimus Prime. Deploy in standard defense grid. Barricade en-route."

"That's why he went running off like that! He's trying to keep Barricade from reaching us," Ellie said with dawning understanding.

"You better believe it. Now, you need to stay here where it's somewhat safe. Fig, you get to baby sit," Jazz said as he rushed off for battle.

"Great," he said less than enthusiastically.

"Well I'm not a baby!" Ellie grumbled. She was accessing the satellite imagery to try and help in some way. Then she saw it.

"Dad?" she called over her internal link to Optimus.

"I'm okay, you'll be safe there," he sent back soothingly.

"Of course I will be, but I found something. Can you access my optic so you can see it? Promise it will help."

She felt the weird sort of opening sensation she knew was Optimus making the connection, then a brief flash of what he was seeing before he separated the feeds.

"That bluff right there," she pointed, knowing he could hear through her audial implant as well. "This is a real time feed." She adjusted the view out to show the incoming Barricade and his supporters, and the outgoing Soundwave. "By my estimate, they should be there in about five minutes."

"Very good Ree. I love you sparkette," he signed off.

"I love you too," she whispered, and then felt him disconnect with her implants.

Without explaining to Fig, she jumped off the station and ran to the door.

He easily grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. "Just where do you think you're going chica?"

"Outside."

"No you are not."

"Soundwave's impact was close enough it could cause structural deficiency in this complex. You might want to stick around and see if I'm right, but I'd rather do it from the safety of outside."

He looked around at the walls, debating if she was right or not, and that was all the time she needed to slip past him.

"Hey! Get back here," he yelled.

She started running.

He started chasing her and swearing in Spanish.

He had to end this now. There was no other way. It was him or Barricade, and this planet was becoming interesting to him. Not to mention, if the former fourth in command were to actually get past if not him, but the Autobots as well, then all surviving Cybertronians would be as good as scrapped.

He raced headlong down the road. He scouted this area carefully; he had hoped the Autobots would realize why he was meeting this challenge here, and the fact the girl was here eased his spark a bit. If anyone would find it, it would have been her.

After about half a mile beyond the bluff, he stopped and assumed his 'bot form. Instantly, he armed. They should be here in thirty seconds. The roar of engines seemed to echo between the bluffs and he realized an Autobot division was using the sound of Barricade's groups' engines to cover their own. The sound seemed to quiet, and he knew they were in position.

That's my girl, he thought to himself.

He took the few remaining milliseconds he could spare to wonder about that. HIS girl? He couldn't afford a female, and he wouldn't endanger her by letting it be known he cared.

They were there. Seeing him standing in the road, Barricade transformed at full throttle and tackled the spymaster. Soundwave was expecting the move, and was able to fire several rounds into his chest plating and helm before he hit, then he flipped the black and white over and landed on top of him. He pointed his blaster at the partially exposed spark of his former comrade, and pulled the trigger.

The concentrated fire of Barricade's minions was enough to drive him off their leader, leaving the 'bot without an arm and half a chest. He was damaged as well; the blast had crushed his arm and left a hole in his torso, damaging one of the main Energon lines. He had lost another minicon as well, and his microcons swarmed to seal the Energon leak before he was scrapped.

Just as he thought the Autobots were going to let him and Barricade kill each other, they covered him and allowed him to retreat, giving him the precious few seconds his micro's needed to close the gaping hole in the line.

Taking the chance, Barricade rolled under the covering fire and leapt to his feet after Soundwave in the same motion. He had no choice; he needed time to heal, he deployed his last two minicons to slow his rival down while his micro's repaired his arm. They wouldn't get it completely restored before this battle was over, but they could give him limited motion.

How ironic, he thought. It was his left arm, and it would be about as useful as Ellie's had been when he knew her.

Raising his weapon, he fired at Barricade again. It caught him in the other side and spun him around.

He was glad she wasn't here to see this. She had repaired Barricade, and he had kept her hidden until they were in their own sheltered place. He knew Barricade would have never harmed the girl, but he wasn't so sure he would have ordered his supporters to leave her unharmed.

The thought of the sweet little girl broken and lifeless at the hand of Barricade's forces fueled a rage in him he never knew he was capable of feeling. They would not touch her!

He turned around and began to fire at the still advancing troops, there were only a handful left, and some of them found cover close to the bluff.

They continued on, he had to get back to the base and make sure they didn't get to it. If they found it, the game, as humans say, would be over.

They were able to get past him and several had begun to climb the bluff. That would have been the more direct route, so he had to go even more direct; he deployed his flight deck and took off over the obstacle, straight to the base. Prime had set up a second line of defense using the crater his landing had made as a fox hole. It would have been acceptable, except for what caught his attention off the flank of the line.

It wasn't so hard to outrun Fig. Of course, she did have an advantage, and she felt a pang of guilt about that. She just needed to make sure Soundwave and the others were alright. She knew that her dad would have just kept her inside until everything was over, but she knew she could help them if she was there when they got hurt.

Glancing up at the sound of a jet engine, she easily spotted her Boomer banking sharply and coming right at her.

"What are you doing?" she yelled as she raced toward the bluff.

He never answered, and instead, reached down and grabbed her as he landed. Quickly, he scooped her up next to his chest and was immediately hit in the back with an energy blast, knocking him forward and damaging his flight deck.

At almost the same moment, he opened his chest plates as he fell, and shoved her inside.

He landed hard, rattling Ellie within his spark chamber to the point her wind was knocked out.

She just breathed a moment, regaining her senses.

Where am I? she thought. Then realized when she saw the white light of his spark before her.

"Oh crap!" she said aloud.

"Boomer! Boomer, I know you can hear me and this is a really bad idea," she called to him.

"You will be safe there," he said into his chest plates.

"I'm not so sure you will be though."

"I will be fine," he assured.

"Seriously! Boomer, it's hot in here. I need to get out," she cried.

"Internal temperature not excessive for human tolerances," he informed her.

"Oh please, Boomer! I've had a really weird case of static electric build up lately and I'm not sure if I can keep from shocking your spark," she revealed.

"I will be fine," he assured her again.

She heard the sound of his weapon going off. Then she tried again.

"You can even ask poor Bumblebee! My dad sent him off for exercises to keep me from shocking him anymore," she admitted.

He was only half listening. He couldn't afford to divert his attention from the battle, she knew.

"I really mean it Boomer." The strange itching sensation she felt over her birthmark was really painful now. If he didn't let her go, she wasn't going to be held responsible for his injuries.

Suddenly, she was jarred again and instinctively reached out in front of her. The strong indigo light leapt from her right hand and engaged his spark. In answer, a bright white light arced back to her, and engulfed her in its radiance.

She took a few moments to blink away the spots she was seeing.

Well that was weird, she thought. What was even weirder was that now, instead of facing Soundwave's sterile white spark, she was facing a pale blue-violet spark.

She suddenly realized that Soundwave was no longer moving. That frightened her more than she would have guessed.

Just as she was about to ask him if he was harmed, she heard him moan in . . . agony? Despair? Pleasure?

"Boomer?" she called, concerned.

"Oh no. What have you done?" he asked her in a whisper.

"I'm sorry! I never meant to hurt you! Are you alright?" she pleaded.

In answer, he opened his chest plates and allowed her to spill out, catching her gently with his tentacles.

"What have you done?" he demanded again.

"I don't know. I told you I've been shocking people lately," she said as she rubbed the itch on her right cheek.

His optics flared at the movement, turning an odd shade of violet, then returned to their normal red color.

He never would have believed it. He just assumed she was exaggerating about the young mech. But then, when he felt the jolt of another spark, and his share itself with her, he knew, if anything, she was understating the facts.

She had told him she didn't know what she had done. He knew she would not lie to him; she truly was as confused as she stated. Then, when she removed her hand from her cheek, he knew exactly what had happened, and what she was.

The bright red blotch she had rubbed into her right cheek had revealed the pale outline of the mark of the Primes. It started to fade almost immediately.

Human or not, the girl had her own spark, and now, they were spark mates.

He gently brushed the hair away from her face with one of his tentacles. He wondered at this, how could this happen? He had been so careful. He didn't ever want anyone to be spark mated with him, not with his existence as a spymaster. It was too dangerous, for the both of them.

Gently, he couldn't believe how much so, his tentacles lowered her the rest of the way to the ground. With great reluctance, he retracted them and levered himself to a standing position, closing his chest plates as he stood.

The battle was over with one last parting shot by Barricade that had caught him in the shoulder; that is what had caused him to fall. He and the Autobots had won, and he had lost even more.

He noticed the assembled force approached him with their weapons lowered, but still fully armed just the same.

"Artifact located in the north west sector of the facility," he informed Prime. "Barricade's target."

He disarmed and gently lowered his hand to the girl's right cheek, rubbing gently over the spot she had unknowingly showed him. The mark reappeared briefly, and then faded away.

He found himself humbled by the absolute trust she demonstrated in him when she remained perfectly still as he reached for her.

"By the All Spark!" Optimus swore as he covered his own identical mark.

"Dad! I thought that was swearing?" she innocently asked the Prime.

"It is. But some situations call for it," he told her.

"I'll talk to her about this," he promised Soundwave.

"Guard this knowledge with the last ounce of Energon in your spark," Soundwave advised. "I am a spymaster and have many enemies."

He turned around and redeployed his flight deck. He had to leave the girl behind.