Human senses are insufficient to describe the vast complexities and degrees of relations among Cybertronians. Therefore, while it was obvious to their fellow Autobots that Jazz and Prowl were bondmates, that Jazz and Inferno were siblings, and all the other relationships tying together the members of the various department and even the command structure of the Autobots, Spike, Sparkplug and the other humans were in the dark, until one battle.

It started the way all Autobot/Decepticon battles had started, at least since they landed on Earth. Megatron was raiding a major solar power plant in the Nevada desert, and the Autobots were called to stop him. Things were going fairly well, the Decepticons pulling themselves together to retreat, when Skywarp got a lucky shot, and Prowl went down.

Spike was standing between Jazz and Bumblebee, and watched, confused, as the Autobot saboteur gasped, clutching at his chest for a moment optics narrowed. Bumblebee turned to him in concern, and was waved off as Jazz stood back up. "Keep watch over the kid, hey younglin?" Jazz said to Bumblebee, turning and walking across the battlefield.

The scene had diminished to chaos as the Autobots' lost Prowl's live tactical field and the Decepticons' seized a perceived opportunity. But just as they were beginning to loose hope, the Autobots heard someone take over the tactical feed. Confusion reared in their processors for a moment, at the sound of Jazz's terse voice leading the battle, but used to following the third in command in battle, the mechs on the battlefield began to retaliate, driving the Decepticons back to their former position, and further as Megatron finally sounded the retreat. And as the last Decepticon finally left the battlefield, Spike standing at the back of the battlefield near Bumblebee and Bluestreak watched as Jazz suddenly collapsed to his knees.

Ratchet immediately ran to where Jazz knelt over Prowl's prone chassis. He reached out a hand to touch the saboteur, who shook it off. "'M fine," he said, "Jus' bond shock. Deal with Prowl."

Ratchet nodded, "Of course. Optimus?"

"I have called Skyfire. He will transport you and the injured back to base. Jazz, are you okay to travel?"

"Yeah. Battle protocols were up, I'll be fine in a min or two."

"Alright then." His voice changed, projecting on air and communication lines now, "Autobots, load the injured onto Skyfire, then transform and roll out."

Sky fire touched down in a clear area to the left of the battlefield. Supported or carried by their comrades, injured mechs were loaded into his holds. As Jazz walked out, having deposited Prowl on board, Ratchet walked on. The last of his passengers now loaded, Skyfire took off. The remaining Autobots transformed, and Spike found himself making the three hour drive back to Mount Saint Hillary with Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, what happened there? One minute the Decepticons are retreating, then Jazz goes all weird, then everything goes crazy for a minute and then the Decepticons are in trouble again. It makes no sense. Why did the Decepticons act like they suddenly thought they could win?"

"Not suddenly. What happened was that Prowl got hit, and the tactical feed went down. They didn't just think they could win, if Jazz hadn't taken over I'm sure they probably would have."

"What? But . . ."

"You may not realize it Spike, but it takes a lot of tactical ability to keep our forces where they need to be during a battle. Sure Prowl fights, but you will notice he is usually near another mech who can cover for him. That is because he is constantly streaming live tactical information through his battle computer in order to provide the rest of us with a tactical feed. He is the one who makes sure no bot has more than he can handle and we are all where we need to be. It takes a lot of processing power, and some specialized communication arrays. His tactical data is why we can win, even though the Decepticons frequently have us outnumbered and outgunned."

"Wow. And he got hurt? Bad enough that he couldn't keep doing that?"

"Yes. And Jazz knew, even before the feed was dropped obviously, so he was able to get to safety and take over the feed. He is one of the few bots with a battle computer as complex as it needs to be to manage the tactical feed and the correct communications equipment. Usually he is more of a strategy bot, TIC and head of special ops and all, but he has the knowledge, so he usually takes over when Prowl's down. Unfortunately, if Prowl's its only a matter of time before Jazz is out too. If the battle had lasted another hour or two we would have been in serious trouble."

"Only a matter of time? Why would Prowl being out cause Jazz to be in trouble. I mean, sure the Decepticons would be targeting him, but this is the first time I have seen Prowl majorly injured, and Jazz is at least as good a fighter as he is."

"Bond shock, Spike."

"Bond shock?"

"Prowl and Jazz are bondmates. Even with battle protocols up, major damage to a bondmate causes a great deal of stress in in the systems of his or her bonded. Add the secondary stress of running his battle computer at full capacity and Jazz's systems can only stand up for so long. We all know this. If Prowl gets hit, the battle needs to end, quick. We take a great deal of care to see that it does."

"What if Jazz were to get hit?"

"Same thing is true. We try to wrap it up quick. If we can't, Optimus sounds the retreat. We may hate it, but better to back off then to loose both of them."

"Both of them?"

"A healthy mech might survive the loss of his or her bondmate. But bond shock can kill, no doubt about it, and with the surviving mech already injured . . . it wouldn't be a good prognosis Spike."

"Okay, and back to earlier . . . you said Prowl and Jazz are bondmates. What is that exactly?"

"It's . . . well I guess the closest humans have is something like marriage."

"But . . . they're both guys!"

"Sort of. Our gender is complicated Spike. By convention, on sexually differentiated planets mechs go by the gender closest to their frame-type in appearance. On earth, which is sexually dimorphic with males larger, that means that standard framed mechs, who are bulkier and generally taller, go by male pronouns. If any femme framed mechs, who tend to be smaller and lighter were to come to earth, they would probably use female pronouns, because they most closely resemble earth females."

"Okay, back to bondmates. You said it was like marriage, but on earth, if one partner in a marriage dies, the other doesn't get sick or die too or anything like that. So obviously there is something different."

"Well, you know Sideswipe and Sunstreaker? How they are twins, born from the same spark, and because of that they can do somethings other mechs can't?"

"Like how they always know where one another are? And how they can talk without anyone else knowing it?"

"Exactly. Bondmates create a link like that, but they do it differently. Instead of being something present from birth, it results from certain ceremonies and procedures. They do it to show that they are married, sort of like humans give rings or some other trinket."

"Wow. But, human marriage rings are something we wear, everyone can see them. This bonding thing . . . it isn't so obvious. I mean, I didn't even know!"

"It may not be obvious to you, but to us . . . it is immediately obvious in their spark harmonics. A cybertronian might not notice a bonded pair if he met them separately . . . or would know they were bonded but not to who. But if he met them together, it would be . . . as obvious as humans wearing rings and kissing each other."

"Wow. Is there any way I could find out who is bonded?"

"You will in time Spike. Just keep your eyes open. If you think you spot a pair, ask me. I will tell you though, because of the way thinks are on earth, femmes bonded to other frame-types are going to be the most obvious. They can get away with it, while standard frame pairs, where both members go by male pronouns have to be more discreet."

"Well obviously! It might not be a big thing on Cybertron, but here . . ."

"We're not human. We can't change that Spike, but we don't have to make your people uncomfortable either."

"Hmmm." Spike was quiet for the rest of the ride, thinking.