Title: Sparkbond

Rating: T

Pairings (mentioned only): Fem! Ratchet x Ironhide, Fem! Skywarp x Thundercracker, Fem! Optimus Prime x Megatron

Warnings: Gender bending.

You asked me to explain Sparkbonding.

Sparkbonding is the act that Cybertronians engage in when they decide to take a mate. Showing ones spark to another is the ultimate act of trust, and the bonding of two sparks is our equivalent to your peoples act of marriage. The submissive in the relationship will lie back and the dominate will line up with their partner chest to chest. The sparks will meet and merge. It is a very intimate and pleasurable experience. The bond will only occur when the sparks are merged for the duration of an interface. (Interface being our act of sex.)

One way to tell that Sparkbonding has occurred is if the sparks of the bots involved have changed to be the same colour. Or in some cases the sparks will have already been the same colour. At that point the only way to tell if a bond has taken is if the bots will feel their mate's emotions and the thrum of their very life.

In mine and Ironhide's case our sparks were different colours; mine a pale blue and Ironhide's was a dark navy. When we bonded they changed to a white with a blue glow. In the case of Skywarp and Thundercracker, siblings with the same spark colour. When asked how they knew that they were bonded they admitted to feeling the others immediate emotions and the pulsing of their sparks in the back of their minds. The same things that every bonded pair can feel.

There have, of course, been cases of accidental or unwanted bondings. Very few that I have witnessed personally, but I have seen the destruction to femmes and mechs lives when a sparkbond is forced. Or when one is made when the bots involved are not ready for the commitment.

In certain cases, bondmates will be forced apart by differing beliefs. This situation was very common during the start of the war. The best example I can give is Optimus Prime and Megatron. I asked her once how she was able to stand the separation. She told me that the first couple of vorns were the worst. Especially when their sparks desynchronized, which only occurs after about a hundred years of being apart. And while their bond had weakened, but it had never faded completely. She felt flares of his emotions every so often, the most prominent of which would be his sense of longing for her.

When they came together for the first time in millions of years it was with such a sense of relief and completion that it put an end to the war.

Sparkbonding should never be taken lightly and the younger generation has been warned of this often enough. Rarely in acts of love do we remember that when a mate is taken, the bond can never be destroyed, even in death. Even if one mate is offlined, the other will follow shortly after. It is why bondmates are so protective of each other, why some Cybertronians are so scared to give up that part of themselves away. That some fear to make the commitment even with the war finished, worries and depresses me.

Chief Medical Officer Ratchet

Diego Garcio, Earth

May 16th, 2013, by human calendar.