Darkshadow sat in the corner of the medical area of the Maximal base, waiting for news on her friend. The worse the shape-shifter had got was a sprained wrist, or paw in this case and a few bruised ribs.

"You said you didn't get a good look at her but saw she turned into something dark and spider-like?"

Darkshadow nodded her head, "Uh huh, we call them ticks. Ticks are a sort of parasite that bites onto you and sucks on your blood until they get fat and fall off. They also carry a sickness called Rocky Mountain spotted fever, or just tick fever if you're lazy. She was tall and sounded like a real bitch when she called my best friend a whore!"

Everyone knew that Aphrodite wasn't a whore; even the Predacons couldn't call her one because…it's just so obvious that she isn't anything close to one.

The two friends were hanging out after Aphrodite was done with patrol. Neither of them had seen where the new Predacon had come from, there weren't any new pod sightings. All Darkshadow could remember clearly was its gender and that was female. Silverbolt had gotten in touch with Depth Charge and told him the situation, which it didn't take long at all for him to get there.

She was in what was equivalent to a human's coma for a long time. It was night time before her eyes finally opened, and she was full of panic.

"Aphrodite!" The femme looked at Depth Charge and he stopped. Last time he'd seen that look of terror in her eyes was on Omicron. Tears streamed down her face and she jumped up and grabbed onto him, clinging to him. "'Dite, what happened?"

"N-nothing, just attacked by a Predacon is all…" Depth Charge heard the fear in her voice and knew there was more to the situation.

A few days later, she was attacked again by the same Predacon but wasn't too badly beat up. But still she said nothing. After a few more incidents, Aphrodite started avoiding Depth Charge. She would pretend to be asleep at night when Depth Charge came into their room so he wouldn't ask her questions. Darkshadow, even though Depth Charge didn't trust her, decided she was going to get to the bottom of this so decided to follow Aphrodite while she was on patrol. Of course, she skipped out on the ocean part and waited until she came out and made her way through the wooded area.

That's when it happened.

The femme in her robot mode was all black with purple eyes and purple Cybertronian symbols on her. The beast mode's stubby little legs on her hips and her armor on her feet looked almost like stripper heels. On her head were pieces of armor sticking on the back almost like parrot feathers.

Aphrodite fought against her for a long time, defending herself as the taller femme threw out harsh attacks. One of her weapons was thrown out and tripped the femme and she fell backwards, that was when the Predacon straddled her and grabbed her face, "I thought I told you to stay away from him!"

"I am!"

"At night you still have his attention. I am constantly watching you, angelfish." Her clawed fingers ran over her cheek, "Touch him again and I will kill you."

"B-but-!"

"Do not piss me off, girl! Depth Charge belongs to me. You're way too young for someone like him, anyway."

'What the fuck?' Darkshadow thought, 'Depth Charge? Really? You people have horrible taste in men.' But she ran back to the Maximal base, running into Primal and Depth Charge after entering the doors, "Depth Charge! That bitch is crazy!"

"What?"

"She's trying to scare Aphrodite by hurting her and threatening her-"

"Slow down," Primal put a hand on the wolf's head, "Who is threatening Aphrodite?"

"The new Predacon, saying Depth Charge belongs to her and if Aphrodite gets near him one more time then she'll kill her…"

Depth Charge growled and kicked open the doors, "Where are they?"

"The woods in front of Aphrodite's hide away area."

The mech was gone before anyone could say anything else. Of course, it didn't take long for him to get there.

The Predacon was there but there was no sign of his sparkmate. She'd blocked her end of the bond a while back and he never knew why.

When the tall, dark femme turned around and smiled at the blue mech, "About time you came back to me."

"Claera?" The mech growled, "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to find you, my love."

"W-Where's Aphrodite?!"

"She ran away."

"She'd never run away."

"Maybe she saw the proof of you and I before Omicron was destroyed." She laughed at the mech's expression.

Near the Predacon base, Cheetor had followed Waspinator and pinned him down after he was out of side in the trees. The bug was pinned down and asked questions about the new Predacon. But Waspinator stuttered every time he tried to talk. "N-new femme-bot i-izzz zzzcary! Wazzzpinator no like her! New f-femme-bot took zzzea horsey and hid her zzzomewhere in the zzznowy mountainzzz up north where she put her into stazziz lock!"

"What?! Where at?!"

"Wazzzpinator dunno!"

Cheetor sliced the bug up then ran back into an area that wasn't in the jamming zone. "Big bot! Depth Charge! Aphrodite is in trouble!"

"What is it Cheetor?!"

"Big bot! Our girl is buried somewhere up in the northern mountain area underneath the snow! I got the information from Waspinator!"

Darkshadow was with Primal and whimpered when she heard the deal, "She's dead?!"

"Not yet, not likely."

Depth Charge growled at the femme who at one time was a lover of his. She had left him after a few booty calls and never heard from her again, until now.

He aimed at her with his gun but she jumped up and over him, nailing him in the back with her whip. She was faster than him, way faster but with at least two hits she would be history if he aimed right. The fight lasted a long time until Darkshadow came as a blessing in disguise!

"Depth Charge! Aphrodite-!"

The femme looked at the wolf and he shot, hitting her chest area where her spark was. It stunned her completely but before she could attack once more, he shot a second time.

"Thanks, mutt."

"Uh… You're welcome…" She shook her head as if to clear it, "Aphrodite is buried somewhere underneath a shitload of snow!"

"What?!"

A weak laugh was heard from the ground where the fallen femme was, "You'll…never find her." Even when she was in pain, she was giggling!

Of course, Depth Charge kneeled down beside her and stared down at her, "Where is she." It was said as a command, not a question.

"I'll tell you on one condition."

"No. I'm not doing anything to betray her. Now, tell me."

"You really have changed…" And with those last words she went offline.

Growling, the manta-bot stood and balled his hands into fists. "I can't sense anything on her side of the bond. She's not conscious."

The entire way to the area Darkshadow was in tears, trying to track her down. Even Cybertronians could freeze to death and they were trying to find Aphrodite before such a thing happened. Without her being conscious, Depth Charge couldn't feel anything on her side of the bond. Hours went by and they had no luck until Darkshadow lay down in the snow with a sob. Sniffling, she lifted her head up and sniffed the snow again, "Hey! Wait!" She followed the scent that smelled of ocean air and flowers, it was Aphrodite's scent! "I –sniff- think I -sniff- found something!"

Depth Charge followed her as she tracked down the source of the scent. When she stopped and began to dig with her paws in a very frantic way, Depth Charge didn't hesitate to join in.

"I can smell her! She's here!" Darkshadow kept digging and Cheetor jumped in to help. Optimus Primal had brought Rhinox along, him being the 'medic' of the group so he could see if they were able to move the femme or not. It took them several hours to dig down almost six feet to where they found a sort of coffin made of ice. They recognized the figure inside, instantly.

"'Dite!" Darkshadow clawed at the ice but it didn't even crack. Thankfully Rhinox stepped up and aimed his arm towards the frozen femme and from the armor on his wrist shot an orange laser. Once it hit, it caused an acid-like effect, causing the ice to melt away. Rhinox held a hand up when she was free and kneeled down towards her and confirmed that her spark was still active but barely. "There's some damage to her head, hopefully it didn't erase any of her memory core." He went to pick up the top half of her body which was limp and pulled her out of the icy tomb.

Seeing Depth Charge, Rhinox motioned for him to come over and pick her up to take her back to base. Which, the trip back seemed to take forever and Darkshadow heard him speaking to Aphrodite's limp body, "This was my fault. Forgive me."

Back at base, Aphrodite's body was laid out on a medical table where Darkshadow could've sworn she looked dead but forced herself to think positive. Rhinox undone the armor around her chest and opened her spark chamber where the spark was barely there. "Depth Charge, I need you."

'Oh great.' He thought, hoping he wouldn't have to join his spark with hers with these other two in the room.

"Having your spark near hers is the only thing that will help her now. It's up to her if she wants to live. Connect to her and see if you can possibly communicate. You can use the plugs in your wrists and hands to communicate with each other. Not just for sexual urges." He looked at Darkshadow, who really didn't want to hear about ways Cybertronians could pleasure each other, and motioned for her to leave the room with him.

Now alone, Depth Charge climbed up on the berth with her and gathered her in his arms. All he could do was apologize and blame himself for what happened. The cords in his wrist connected with hers and he concentrated, sending nothing but love to her through his side of the bond. Slowly, he started to feel something from her side of the connection and noticed her spark was getting brighter.

'Depth Charge?'

'I'm here, you're safe.'

'Where's-'

'She's gone. Do not be afraid.' All he could feel was fear until he informed her of the Predacon's distruction. 'Come back.'

'I can't feel my body… I can't move!'

'Don't panic. Take it slow.'

'I'm cold.' It was quiet for a while after that until her body twitched.

'Aphrodite?'

'Yes?' Her body twitched again.

'I love you.'

A whimper was heard and Depth Charge saw that the femme had managed to move a bit. Mainly facial expressions and her fingers as she was gripping his hand with hers but they didn't disconnect. A pained expression painted her face and Depth Charge kept talking to her, 'You're okay. You're going to make it.'

'I hurt.'

'Well, you're going to.'

Her spark had already returned back to its normal size and color and her hand was able to squeeze his.

"My head…" She was awake but couldn't open her optics. "It hurts…"

"'Dite! You're okay!" Darkshadow ran in and put her paws up on the table beside her friend.

"By the allspark, you never left did you?"

"Nope!" She stuck her tongue out.

A few weeks later, Darkshadow pranced up to her friend where she sat on the beach, "'Dite!"

"Huh?"

"I'm bored and Megatron found where I hid the ducky." The wolf laid her head on the femme-bot's shoulder and looked at the holopad she was looking at, "Whatcha doing?"

"Research!" She smiled.

"On what?"

"All the femmes Depth Charge has been with."

"I don't wanna know. Looks like a lot of pages. That man-slut!"

"Preparing myself in case something like that happens again." A dark expression formed over her face, "He's mine, now. Nobody else can have him."

Darkshadow stepped away from her friend, "'Dite?"

"But, really! Only one bot out of all of these listed is pretty! He has horrible taste!" She sighed, "Like this one. She's an icky green color, for one! Second, her breast plate looks like its going to make her spinal area snap at any second… That cannot be healthy."

"So mechs aren't that different from human males, after all."

The shape shifter sat down beside her friend and they both looked through the pages on the holopad together for the rest of the day.

Note: I started this a long time ago, figured I'd post it after adding an ending. Needed to keep it somewhere! =P Aphrodite belongs to me and Darkshadow belongs to one of my best friends! Hasbro owns Transformers.