Author's Note: This chapter was definitely fun! But just look forwards to the consequences of all of what happened so far!

Disclaimer: Own nothing! (sigh)

Iacon, Cybertron [Past]

Blaster grinned. Brilliant blue optics flashed from beneath the edge of his visor as he regarded the now cleaned up gladiator sprawled across his berth. Long limbs rested against the soft fabric, the mech's helm turned towards him, crimson optics shuttered and face in repose.

'So what are you planning on doing with him?'

The Communication's Officer turned his head to regard the black feline who sat perched beside the recharging Soundwave's helm, crimson optics were narrowed on him, clearly suspicious of Blaster's motives. "I plan on…" The mech actually sighed as he sagged a little more into the chair that he had drawn over to the berth, actually realising he didn't have any clue exactly what he was going to do about Soundwave.

'You harm him and I'll claw out your optics.' Ravage's fangs were flashed at Blaster in warning. 'I might be grateful for you rescuing him, but I'm not about to trust you.'

"That's fine with me." Shrugging, he rubbed his fingers against his jaw, wishing that he could work out exactly what he would say to the gladiator. He had gone to Kaon hoping to meet the mech, he had ended up watching several of the illegal data streams that had featured fights about this particular fighter and found himself entranced. Soundwave had been captivating. His fingertips rubbed lightly at his optics and his head dropped back, wishing he knew how to express the wash of emotions that filled his spark at the thought of being actually in the same room as the mech.

'So?'

One optic ridge lifted in question as Blaster leaned forwards again to meet the piercing gaze of the feline. "So whah, Kitty-bot?"

'Why?'

"I… I was curious 'bout 'im."

'Are you planning on turning him over to the security forces?'

"No fraggin' way would I eva..." Blaster responded sharply, his jaw clenching while his blue optics burned.

Ravage's lips turned upwards into something close to a smile at the sudden defensiveness Blaster showed towards Soundwave's health. 'You take care of him.' The long black tail twitched back and forth slowly. 'He might never admit it, but he needs someone to give a scrap about what happens to him. I can… only do so much.' A deep sorrow and anguish was reflected in Ravage's words as he shifted to rub his cheekplate against Soundwave's cool one. 'He has always protected me, given me fuel when no other would even when he was starving, he would always look after me.'

A hand reached out towards Ravage, crimson fingers outstretched, desperate to offer some kind of reassurance, some kind of expression of understanding. Hesitating, Blaster just stopped there and was rewarded with a soft brush of the top of the feline's helm against his fingertips, the feline's nose pressing against the digits and nosing them softly.

"What canna offa 'im?"

'Yourself.'

"Odd request." But it had Blaster grinning.

'Not truthfully. No high ranking officer like yourself would be caught dead in Kaon, yet you were there tonight threatening a Gladiatorial 'Boss' over one slave and brought him here to Iacon.'

"Slave." Blaster's amusement instantly faded, his fingers curling into fists, his jaw clenching sharply in response to that single word. "He will neva be a slave ta anyone 'gain, I swear it."

"Do you mean that?"

Blue optics widened as he suddenly found him the centre of attention. "I…"

A servo carefully curl around Blaster's jaw, drawing it closer as vivid ruby optics gazed down into the Autobot's face. Fingertips slowly stroked over the warm metal, admiring just how smooth it was, so silky against his battle roughened palm. "Do you mean that?" He questioned again softly, searching for something in those half hidden blue optics, seeking some reassurance that he would not be alone once more.

"Yes." Licking his lips slightly, he felt his spark pulse rapidly at the gaze he was receiving, before he reached up and covered Soundwave's fingers with his own, lacing them together. "I mean it."

Decepticon Warship, Consequence, Oregon, Earth

A soft groan escaped Blaster, awareness slowly beginning to penetrate the black haze that had swallowed him. His servo lifted, lightly touching over his spark casing and feeling the low tingling throb of his bond. Memory files were rapidly beginning to replay, bringing his partially fragmented mind up to speed. "Frag." He hissed, limbs actually squeaking in protest as he moved, telling him it had been a very, very long time since he was last online.

Blue optics flickering on, the light from them illuminated the bare cell he had been thrust into before the Consequence had headed for the planet, following after the wake of the Ark. Scanning his surroundings, he took in the fact that he was against one wall, the ship clearly listing to one side. Cables and panelling had come free in the crash, the smears of cooling fluids having long since dried in large pools across the metal plating.

Staggering slowly upright, he hissed out a puff of heated air as his leg almost buckled under his weight, the internal struts clearly bent and partially sheered through. The jolt of pain gained him an instant reaction, a bubble of intense relief erupted inside of him, filling up every inch of his spark, then worry flickered in. A tangle of wild emotions screamed in through his now open end of the bond and he almost dropped to his knee joints at the sheer force of it. There was only one way his bond could be this strong… Soundwave was close and getting closer.

How long had it been since he had last felt the depth of his bondmate's devotion, the warmth of that love that could fill a bot to the brim and practically overflow? They had been too long apart, too long separated by the war… It was Primus sent the gift of feeling his bondmate so close.

What had it been that had disturbed his systems enough that he would rouse after so many vorns in deep stasis?

From down the corridor, voices sounded, or at least what sounded like voices. Stumbling forwards, his hand rested against the twisted out bars on one side of the cell, holding onto them until he could keep his precarious balance. Every audio pick he had was focused on the noise bouncing through the corridors towards him. Distorted tones slowly became words and he was quite unfamiliar with them, a language he had yet to encounter.

Along the bond came a number of new 'update' files, Soundwave attempting to reach him even though the mech's voice hadn't filtered through the haze that still surrounded Blaster. Abruptly, the words became clear as the translation patch kicked in.

"This place is a piece of junk. What the boss sees in it I have no idea. All it is rusted parts and empty corridors."

"We should be getting revenge on those robots, not 'scouting' this piece of shit. It isn't going anywhere. They destroyed all that equipment and… Fuck!"

There was a soft whoosh as dust and pebbles rushed down onto the heads of the two organics that walked the hall just a few yards away from where Blaster leaned against the wall. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he listened to the string of rather interesting curses that escaped them, when they were practically coated with a fine layer of brown dust.

"The pay ain't good enough for this."

Hands thumped against the back of the first pair of men's heads, silencing any further protests. "Shut your yaps already, the pay will get better, alright? The boss promised it."

"The boss promised a lot of things. But what do we end up with? The fucking Military after us because we blew up part of the fucking White House to try and kill the first lot. Now pissed off the giant robots from outer space even more than we already have."

"Stop your whining. The sooner we map out this wreck, the sooner we get out of here and back to the surface and out of the line of fire."

Blaster gritted his jaw slightly, wanting to do something, anything to silence these organics that spoke so easily of death of his own race for monetary gain. As much as he wanted to call for help, he didn't want to risk it getting picked up, he already had a feeling he was running out of time being online and moving about as he was.

'Soundwave.' He reached for his bondmate, desperately attempting to reach across the void that spread between them, his optics shuttering as he desperately hoped that after so long their bond would be enough to allow them to communicate across it once more.

A shiver of awareness fluttered through him, teasing his senses as he felt something respond to his call. It was warm, its heat seeping into his chilled frame.

'Wave…'

Suddenly there was a piercing scream, as one of the humans was pounced by a large Cybertronian feline, claws unsheathed, it mouth curled around one of the human's neck holding on until the organic went limp. Before the black form bounded after the two others, bullets pinging softly off Ravage's armour, while he stalked and took down his prey, silencing them and crushing the weapons in his jaws before discarding them.

Blaster had sagged to the side of the corridor, his legs having given out from under him, his blue optics softening and relief stealing through him at the sight of the very familiar feline. "Ravage." He reached out a trembling towards the feline and instantly Ravage was there, head pressing into Blaster's extended hand, purring his greeting. "Yah have no idea how glad I am ta see yah."

'Actually I do.' The feline gave him a rather satisfied smile, tail twitching back and forth with supreme delight at the fact that he had taken down the humans before they could even consider harming Blaster.

"Soundwave… is he?" His head lifted slightly off his chassis, feeling Ravage press against his side, reassuring and familiar.

'He will be here in a few breems, the passage way was blocked getting into the ship, he sent me on ahead to find you.'

Relief filled Blaster, his optics shuttering as he conserved strength, his spark feeling just a little lighter knowing that soon enough he would be reunited with his bondmate.

"….A terrorist attack on the White House earlier…"

"…We are not alone in the universe…" Static flowed across his audio receptors, the words becoming clearer as he tuned in the frequency. "…video shot by several eye witnesses… proof… alien machines…"

Soundwave grimaced slightly as more and more of the frequencies he monitored for any interesting activities amongst the human lands were playing the same videos and images. The Cybertronian race had been uncovered by the humans, or more aptly put, had been displayed for all the world when Firestar and Tailgate had protected both humans and Autobots alike from the mass bombings perpetrated by the same organisation that had not only located the Ark, but also the Consequence.

It was spreading like wildfire through both the media outlets and across the Internet. However, that was not the only thing that was happening.

A hundred signals were lighting up his long range detection systems, both Autobot and Decepticon signals, he recognised two dozen of those as some of his own fellow Dark Guards. His move against Megatron by unleashing the Cascade Virus on the Nemesis had sparked the end. Yet, even though he could hear them calling out to him, their voices ringing clear and asking for instructions, all he could think about was his bondmate who was somewhere behind the pile of rubble that prevented him from slipping into the ship.

Rock skittered out of his path as he shifted forwards on his chassis, his arms sweeping away another wave of stones, attempting to keep them quite as they skittered down into the cold interior of the ship. Slowly edging forwards, Soundwave slipped into the cold darkness, rolling so that he came up onto his pedes on the other side. His head lifted as he was heard the low frequency calls from Ravage, his pedes already in motion, before he even realised it.

The mech was moving at a dead run, his spark screaming at him to hurry. He was so close. So close!

Not even the clusters of humans he came upon stopped him for long, they were flung aside with no care for their wellbeing, the former Decepticon slamming through barriers and showing more emotion in that one moment than he had in a very long time.

A flash of red and white against the corridor wall.

And the moment later he was dropping to his knee joints, both arms gathering up, his bondmate in his arms and cradling him closer, his cheekplate resting against the top of that pretty helm. The first touch between them was like electricity zapping through every inch of their frames, the connection as precious as the love that bound them. "Blaster." The name was a whispered prayer of love and devotion. Soundwave's fingertips trailed along the dirty cheekplates, lingering lightly over soft lips. "My precious Melody."

Blue optics slowly fluttered open, lips curving upwards into a sleepy smile at the sight of Soundwave. "Are yah… really 'ere?" Blaster's hand lifted upwards to return the soft caress, feeling the warm lips brush against his palm lovingly.

"Right here." Soundwave promised softly. "Forever, I will be right by your side."

"I… dream'd of… yah…"

"As I did of you, Bondmate." Carefully Soundwave was returning to his pedes with Blaster cradled in his arms, his expression a touch worried at the sight of the damage done to his bondmate's frame. "I love you." He breathed the words out against his bondmate's audio, catching the flash of joy that it gained.

"Don't wanna be withoutcha… 'gain…" The mech's voice was filled with the exhaustion that Blaster was suffering from, his face ending up pressed against Soundwave's throat as they were moving down the corridor, Ravage moving silently by Soundwave's pedes as they walked.

"You never will be." He promised, both to Blaster and himself.

"A traitor right beneath my pedes."

Soundwave felt the wash of cold seep down across his spinal plating the moment his optics focused on Megatron, his facial visor having been lifted so that Blaster could see his face. His grip tightened around the wounded Autobot, his jaw clenching sharply as he knew that this was a situation that could mean his extermination if he was not careful.

"From Starscream I would expect it, but from you." Crimson orbs narrowed dangerously on Soundwave and then dropped to the scarlet Cybertronian clasped protectively against his chassis. "From you I would never have suspected it. You played me for a fool, Soundwave."

Silence was Megatron's only answer, the Communications Officer not even twitching with the fear that lurked inside him for Blaster's safety.

"How long have you been consorting with Autobots? How many others…"

"Justice acknowledges no tyrant."

And that made Megatron stiffen in outrage as words that had long since haunted him were thrown back into his face by a mech whom he had trusted since the very beginning. The leader of the Decepticons had heard a number of his own troops repeat that very phrase before their sparks had been extinguished for defending Autobots from their own forces. Even during the first attacks on Megatron's position and leadership, there had been those who had willingly allowed their sparks to be snuffed out rather than bow to him.

"I have never been a Decepticon." To be able to speak the words for once lightened Soundwave's spark, his jaw clenching and optics blazing in open defiance, he would not cower before this tyrant who had brought about the destruction of their very world. "Your words Megatronus struck me deep in my spark when we first spoke of rebellion, yet I knew that you were like those who had forged you. Your greed for power, your ambitions would never stop at changing the caste systems on Cybertron. I was never blind to what you intended. However, I also knew that Optimus Prime was not yet ready to confront you. What you started could not be stopped so easily."

A snarl of rage escaped the Decepticon, his expression becoming more murderous as Soundwave actually confronted him.

"But we have been there every step of the way, Megatronus. We have been eating away at your control, protecting the innocent from your rage. You never saw the truth, blinded as you have been by your own plots and schemes." Lips twisted upwards in quiet amusement, optics flashing at Megatron. "Did you not think it was strange that Starscream managed to hold the Decepticon forces together?"

"You could have had all that you desired, Traitor. And for what?" A flicker of disgust was reflected in the mech's optics, when he glanced down at Blaster who lay clasped protectively in Soundwave's arms. "A piece of Autobot filth?"

Soundwave actually laughed at that, his shoulders straightening as he stared down the monster who had been unleashed upon the universe by circumstance. "I have gained more than you, Master. I was gifted with something infinitely precious and I understand its value. You are too blind to know…"

Megatron's arm raised, cannon levelled at the pair, illuminated with restrained energon. His expression murderous at being so humiliated before not only his troops but before his enemy. "You will not live long enough to enjoy your 'gift', that I assure you."

XD Cliffhanger! HEHEHEHE I hope you like Blaster and Soundwave together!