"I still don't understand why you felt the need to lock me up in quarantine." Shockwave said as he and Blackout walked down the ship's main corridor towards his medical bay.

"You were ill, there was no other way." Blackout said in a slightly patronising tone.

"Clichés too? Really? I swear you did it just to annoy me." he replied.

"It was all in accordance wit Megatron Directive-" she began, but he clamped his hand over her mouth.

"If I hear one more Megatron Directive I will give you a diagnostic you will never forget!" he growled. Yet despite his anger, she couldn't help laugh.

"I'm just winding you up!" she giggled, prising his hand away.

"Why?" he snapped.

"Perhaps it's because I'm bored!"

"Why are you bored?"

"Because the moron who planned this trip forgot to bring anything to do! It's either wind you up or hide form Lugnut!"

Shockwave's angry manner suddenly vanished.

"Why do you need to hide from Lugnut?" he said, suddenly concerned.

"Ever since the incident with the Transformeritis, the big oaf has become infatuated with me. He keeps trying to seduce me. I wouldn't date him if he was the last mech alive, but it is annoying." Blackout said.

"Lugnut can't get you." Shockwave said, grabbing her arm and towing her towards the medical bay. "I have to keep you safe."

Blackout sighed. Great. Another one.

"Look, if you're both going to be like this I'll just move in with Vortex." she said, now slightly annoyed.

"No need for that. Until Lugnut gets his head screwed on straight you can come and live with me." he said firmly. Blackout wrenched her arm out of his grasp and slapped Shockwave in the face with all the strength he could muster.

"So you all think I'm just a delicate little femme who always has to hide behind a big, strong mech!" she snapped. "Well, I'll tell you something. I've been taking care of myself for a very long time and I don't need you to start doing it for me. I can have you floating in deep space quicker than you can throw a wrench. Don't make me.

She stormed off and locked herself in her quarters. After a few nanocliks, she slid down the door and buried her face in her hands. What had she done? Shockwave, who was probably the most valuable Decepticon on the team, now hated her and would be rebellious, stubborn and insubordinate for the rest of the trip. And also, she didn't want to make him angry. Sure, she was a good fighter, but Shockwave was nearly twice her weight. And she knew first hand what angry mechs did.

No. She mustn't think about that. That had happened a long time ago. This was a completely different situation. Wasn't it?

She heard a knocking on the door. He'd come for her. Just like last time.

"Blackout?" he called, his voice muffled by the door. She shuffled away from the door and wriggled under her bed. He was too big to get her under here. She hid her face and curled into a tight ball, waiting.

There was a loud crash as he broke the door down. Praying he wouldn't find her, Blackout curled up even tighter. She felt him touch her back. She flinched, knowing what was coming next...

"Don't make me fetch Quatrain to get you out of there."

Blackout opened her optics. She wasn't back there with him. She was on her ship, curled trembling under her bed with the medic reaching for her. She turned to him.

"What's wrong?" he said when he saw how distressed she was. She didn't give him an answer: she flung herself at him and sobbed with relief into his shoulder. This wasn't him. This wasn't him at all.

Shockwave held her close to him. She was glad of this. Whatever she had said, she did feel slightly safer being hugged.

"I'm sorry." she whispered as he gently rocked her back and forth.

"What happened? What happened to make you panic like that?" he asked. But Blackout didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to forget it. Forget everything.

She looked up at Shockwave. The side of his face she had slapped was already becoming discoloured.

"Will you be okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. You could say I'm used to it. I've treated plenty of femmes and most of them had more violent mood swings than you. Sadly, all of them died or changed sides." Shockwave said.

"I'm useless, aren't I? I'm just a no-good coward who hides at the first sign of trouble. I'm worse than Silverbolt!" Blackout wailed. Shockwave grabbed the distressed femme's shoulders, held her at arm's length and shook her.

"You are not useless, Blackout! You're a good, brave captain. You're not a coward. Cowards don't hit people." Shockwave said firmly. "You're important, Blackout. Very important."

"No, I'm not!" she yelled, getting angry again. "If I was important, do you think I'd be working in an a weapons factory making ammunition clips?"

"Calm down." he replied, folding his arms back around her. "You're important to the ship. You're important to the crew. They need a strong leader. Can you be strong for them, Blackout?"

Blackout sniffled. She rested her head on Shockwave's shoulder. Somehow, it felt so right having him here with her. But not wanting to embarrass herself, she pushed those thoughts away. Shockwave gently rested his head on hers.

"Can you be strong for me?" he whispered gently. That was it for Blackout.

"Get out!" she yelled, ripping herself away from Shockwave. "Get out, get out, get out!"

Startled, Shockwave got to his feet and clambered over the wreckage of the door. Blackout curled up on her bed. She knew, perhaps better than anyone that Decepticons did not love.

She woke up a few megacycles later with Lugnut sitting by her side. Having slept, she felt refreshed. And angry at Shockwave.

Well, if he's going to be so touchy and annoying, I might give him a taste of his own medicine, she thought to herself as she beamed up at Lugnut. He held out a mass of springs and cogs and presented them to her. She carefully took them out of his massive hand and laid them on her side table.

"That's very sweet of you, Lugnut." she said. "Did Vortex let you have these?"

Lugnut nodded. He gazed at her adoringly as she stepped out of her room then followed her all the way up to the main control room. She wasn't bothered about using Lugnut. With what she'd experienced, mechs used femmes all the time. And he had Quatrain. He'd get over it.

When she reached the control room, every crew member (including Shockwave) was present.

"You let him?" Shockwave exclaimed on seeing her and Lugnut.

"I think it's endearing." she replied, reaching up and putting her hand on Lugnut's elbow. She could see Shockwave's temper rising.

"Blackout..." he said warningly.

"Be quiet, Shockwave darling. Lugnut's got a little crush on Blackout. He'll get over it in twenty four megacycles." Quatrain said, but Shockwave was still on the verge of growling. Not at her, Blackout realised. All his attention seemed to be fixed on Lugnut, like he'd personally offended Shockwave with his crush. It was almost amusing.

"Is there a problem?" Blackout asked coolly.

"No." Shockwave said through gritted teeth.

"Good. Now then everybody-" Blackout began, but she was interrupted by Shockwave.

"Blackout, would you like to have energon with me in a megacycle?" he asked. Blackout didn't know what to do until she saw Quatrain mouthing humour him behind Shockwave's back.

"Okay. If you insist." she replied.

Out of the corner of her optic she saw Lugnut visibly wilt. She patted him on the head then left to get ready.

Shockwave was nervous.

He needed to keep Lugnut away from Blackout. He knew he'd be over her soon and he wasn't sure she'd be able to cope with the breakup. he didn't know how mentally strong she was.

That was what now was for. He was going to have to use every bit of his medical skills and natural Decepticon cunning to give her a secret medical assessment.

Or he could just tell her.

No. He couldn't. If she knew what he knew it would jeopardise everything. All the work, all the planning would hang in the balance. Because what happened would be up to her.

Her knock on the door made him jump. He got up to let her in.

"Good evening." she said, no happy tone evident in her voice. That was bad. Not only was she still angry with him, he needed her in a relatively stable mood. Fortunately he'd planned ahead. He'd laced her Energon with a mild sedative; not enough to render her unconscious but enough to sooth her and make her easier to handle.

He politely stepped aside to let her in. He was tempted to make a sarcastic comment but it would only have made her worse. He led her into his room and they both sat in front of the viewing window.

"Hungry?" he asked. Maybe if he could get enough Energon into her she'd open up about what had spooked her earlier. He didn't want to imagine what might have happened.

"Yeah." she replied shortly. He pulled out a box full of the spiked energon and handed it to her. She stuck an ingot into her mouth and bit off a chunk. And another. And another.

Shockwave smiled. She was eating it and she could already see the drug taking effect. She was beginning to look tired. Now, with her inhibitions lowered, he could begin.

"What happened earlier? With you hiding under the bed?" he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." she replied. So, even drugged, that was a taboo subject.

"That's okay." he said, placing an arm around her. "So what's going on with Lugnut?"

"I don't know. I was using him to get to you really." she whispered.

"Why?"

"Mechs use femmes. They all do. I'm just returning the favour." came the reply. So that was what this was all about. For some reason, Blackout felt that all mechs were not particularly nice. Suddenly he felt guilty about the drugging. But he had to persuade her otherwise. It was a necessity.

But when he looked down at Blackout, he discovered that she'd fallen asleep in his arms.

Blackout woke up nestled against something warm. Her CPU was a fuzzy mess so she couldn't figure out what the warm thing was. But then, as she woke up a bit more, she caught a whiff of scent. The warm thing smelt suspiciously like Shockwave.

She sat up. That made her head spin. She felt Shockwave stir beside her.

"You slept for a long time." he said. Blackout was now beginning to suspect foul play.

"Did you drug me?" she hissed.

"Only so I could assess your mental stability without you clawing my optics out." Shockwave said. He reached forward for Blackout's arms. Snarling, she ripped her arms away. Shockwave, unable to stop his forward momentum, tipped forward and ended up flattening Blackout.

"Get off me, you moron!" she snapped. Shockwave propped himself up on his elbows. Blackout found herself glaring into his crimson optics. But the more she stared, the less angry she became. She tentatively reached up and touched the bruised side of his face. Then she snatched her hand away. What was she doing? Decepticons didn't love. She was only deluding herself-

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her damaged rib. Shockwave, relaxing under her touch, had rested almost his full body weight on her. At almost six tonnes, he was slowly crushing her.

"Shockwave, get off!" she cried desperately. Shockwave must have sensed the panic in her voice because he immediately got back on his elbows.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked. Surprisingly, Blackout could hear concern in his voice.

"Just a bit." she replied.

"Oh, Primus, I'm so sorry." he whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Just leave it." she replied. "It must be hard to resist the touch of a femme."

"I shouldn't have done that." he said. "That was stupid."

Well, this was a first. Regret at being with a femme? It sounded a little suspicious. But perhaps there was more to Shockwave than met the optics...

Clang.

Blackout and Shockwave both whipped around to face the door. Lugnut was standing there, his mouth so far open his lower jaw had fallen off and was lying on the floor by his feet.

"Lugnut, stop-" Quatrain said, but he stopped when he saw them. "Oh dear. We appear to be interrupting something. Put your jaw back in and we'll leave."

Lugnut did as Quatrain said. Only then did it finally occur to Blackout.

"Shockwave, you have to get off me right now." she said firmly.

"Why?"

"They think we're doing it!"

"Doing what?"

Blackout's voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "Interfacing."

Shockwave immediately sat bolt upright.

"That's not good." he said.

"No, it is not!" Blackout said furiously. "Now everybody's going to think-"

She was cut off when Shockwave clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Don't. You're much nicer when you're not being so angry." he murmured. And for some reason, Blackout found herself caring. She wanted to be appealing to him. Yet she couldn't fathom why.

"Blackout...there's something I need to tell you." Shockwave said hesitantly.

"What?" she replied, her voice now soft.

"I...I need to tell you what the precious cargo is."