"I... I just want to hug you so bad right now sir but that would be really uncalled for, " Blaster plain out said.

Arcee smiled, shaking her helm at the excitement that was emanating from the red-orange mech. She had just pretty much returned back to the control room with Optimus, after he had asked Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus to finish up without him, and explained to Blaster that his request was granted.

"Once he is removed from the Shadowzone," Optimus began. "He will be under your care at all times and if you're not available to watch him then ask for someone to watch him for you."

Blaster put his servos together above his helm after lowering it, "You can count on me sir, I will take full responsibility over him. I promise you that."

Arcee looked up at Optimus, "So, do you still remember how to send a ground bridge to the Shadowzone?" she asks.

Optimus nodded his helm, "Yes I do Arcee. Ratchet had made sure that I remembered every thing, just in case I had decided to remove Soundwave from the Shadowzone. I guess he was right."

"Well, we shouldn't waste anymore time here, we have a 'Con to save," she paused then laughed. "Never thought I would say that some day."


"I'm no Ratchet but I could help out with whatever you're trying to do here," Wheeljack limped over to where Arcee was, trying to see over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Wheeljack but your in no shape to be doing anything. In fact, " she looked over at him. "You're supposed to be sitting down and letting that leg heal."

"Psh," Wheeljack waved a servo at her.

"Also," she looked back at the machine console that she was kneeling in front of, trying to rewire it, "Your ability to pretty much explode everything that you touch isn't going to help with this at all."

Wheeljack limped over to her, grinning, "Now you're just flattering me and I could tell you that you're doing that wrong. No, no... here, let me show you."

Wheeljack knelt beside her, being carefully with his leg as he reaches out, placing his servos over hers. Arcee froze immediately as she looked down at their servos.

"Here, you twist the wires together like this," he said, being completely oblivious to her tense frame as he moved her digits with his own, twisting the wires together.

After the wire had been twisted, he smiled, "See, it isn't hard to twist wires together. Honestly, I can't believe that you thought that I would make two simple... wires... " he had turned his helm to her then and had stopped, realizing that they were really close, making optic contact with each other.

"... explode," he managed out just above a whisper.

For a brief second, Arcee had felt herself leaning forward towards him and she could swear she could see Wheeljack leaning too before...

"Arcee, have you gotten that rewired yet?" Blaster called from the other side of the room from underneath a different machine.

He got out from underneath and looked over at the two, frowning, "Sheesh, what happened to you two? Did you guys get in a fight?"

Right before Blaster had looked at them, Wheeljack had looked away from Arcee completely. Arcee had stood up then and was walking over to Blaster.

"N-no, everything is fine Blaster, just dandy," Wheeljack mumbled, trying to hide his slightly flushed face.

Blaster frowned and looked up at Arcee, wanting an answer from her but all she did was shrug her shoulders, acting like nothing happened, "I got those wires rewired, what else was there to be done? Optimus?"

Their leader was over at a console that was in the middle of the room, typing commands into it, "If everything has been rewired in those machines, all I need to do is set the coordinates."

Once the final buttons were pressed, he pulled down a lever that was to the side and a blueish-green swirling vortex appeared just ahead of them on the other side of the console Optimus was at. He turned to Blaster, "Go ahead."

Blaster nodded and stepped around the console and stood in front of the ground bridge. He placed a servo on his chest and stared down the middle of the vortex. He shivered in anticipation, "Please, come, " he said to himself. "And for Primus sake, please don't be too weak to get here."

Wheeljack had gotten up and limped over to the other side of Optimus, opposite to Arcee, "So, what is with the ground bridge Optimus?"

"An old..." Arcee frowned, thinking of a proper word. "... 'friend' is coming to visit."

Wheeljack saw her do the air quote gesture and was confused, "What do you mean by 'friend'?" he asks, doing the air quote thing for 'friend' as well.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise and Blaster ducked as a metal bird flew out of the ground bridge and began to circle around the room.

"Lazerbeak!?" Wheeljack exclaimed and went to pull out his swords from his back.

Blaster quickly turned to him, "Wait!" he yelled, making Wheeljack stop and give him a confused look.

"Something's wrong," Blaster watched as Lazerbeak flew around, getting lower and lower. Once it started heading towards Blaster's direction, it began to slow down until it stopped. Blaster reached out as it fell and caught it, holding it close as it made a weak buzzing noise.

"It's alright Lazerbeak, your in good hands now," he said soothingly while patting the metal bird. "Where's Soundwave?"

Wheeljack stood dumbfounded, "Wh-what!? Soundwave!?" he looked over at Optimus and Arcee. "You guys are planning to release Soundwave from the Shadowzone!?"

"Wheeljack, calm down, there is a very good reason why we are..." Arcee had began to argue.

"Arcee?" Blaster said, interrupting her as he looked back down the vortex, seeing a form make its way through. "I need you to hold Lazerbeak."

Everyone watched as a thin mech with long thin arms make his way through the ground bridge. Arcee walked slowly over to Blaster, keeping her optics on the mech as she reached out her arms for Blaster to hand over Lazerbeak.

Once he did, his optics widen after looking back over at the mech, watching as his steps stopped abruptly at the edge of the ground bridge and he began to lean forward.

"Soundwave!" Blaster gasped and ran towards him, catching him just as he fell out of the vortex, falling to his knees. As he held him, he could feel his body shaking.

Optimus reached for the ground bridge lever and pushed it up until the vortex disappeared. He turned to Wheeljack, "Blaster could feel him weakening, that is why I agreed to bringing him back. I would have brought him back sooner but Blaster never spoke up about it. He finally did speak up because he knew that Soundwave won't be online much longer."

"It's just, he was Megatron's most loyal follower. How can we trust him?" Wheeljack questioned as he watched Blaster shake Soundwave lightly, most likely trying to get his attention.

"Right now he's in no condition to be questioned about where his loyalties lie and if those loyalties still lie with Megatron. He needs time to recover and he'll be on constant watch. In time we'll grow to trust him," Optimus explained.

Wheeljack crossed his arms, "I still don't like this idea and is this going to be talked about during the meeting?"

Optimus nodded his helm, "Most likely, yes."

While those two were talking, Blaster continued to shake Soundwave, "Hey, Soundwave, can you hear me?"

Arcee knelt down beside him, placing a servo on his shoulder while holding Lazerbeak in her lap. The metal bird buzzed weakly at Soundwave's unmoving frame, trying to get his attention as well.

Soon enough, Soundwave's helm moved to look up at Blaster and they could see that his visor had a large crack in it. Because of his visor, they couldn't see what expression he had right then but all Blaster could feel from him through their bond, even if it was weak, was utter bewilderment. Blaster smiled, "It's alright Soundwave," he said while stroking the back of the silent mech's helm. "You're safe now."

Soundwave's chasssis shuddered underneath him and in one quick motion, his arms were wrapped around the red-orange mech that he had called a brother, his visor right up against his chest.

Arcee watched in amazement at the sudden burst of emotion that the silent mech was showing through actions only. Everyone had thought that Soundwave had no emotions or he was just a mindless drone. That wasn't the truth at all, he was capable of emotions just like his brother.

Blaster was taken back by the sudden hug but as he felt the relief flooding through the bond, he understood more. Soundwave was just relieved to see someone who could also see him. It must have been terribly lonely being in the Shadowzone, with no company but his own thoughts. Well, he had Lazerbeak but that wouldn't of been enough.

Soundwave turned his helm and looked directly at Arcee, who froze from whatever gaze he had on her and she was mentally preparing herself for a fight. But that didn't last long because he looked down at Lazerbeak, raising a shaky digit to point at it.

Blaster smiled, "She's alright Soundwave, she's just as weak as you are but we'll fix that."

Arcee frowned, "She? Lazerbeak's a femme?"

Blaster looked at her, "Of course she is. You and the others obviously wouldn't know that since you've been fighting each other for so long."

"Sorry."

"It's alright," he said then quickly looked down as Soundwave's servo suddenly fell to the floor.

"Soundwave?"

He didn't move.

Blaster's expression was soon replaced with fear, "He's gone into stasis lock, we need to get him energon before he completely goes offline. Wheeljack! I need help carrying him!"


Everyone in the meeting room was shifting uneasily in their seats. Not only because they can't wait any longer for the meeting to start but because a certain silent mech was sitting in one of the chairs.

Blaster could feel the uneasiness throughout the room and looked over at Soundwave, who was sitting in the chair next to him. His brother had his pedes up on the chair and his knees tucked close to his chest, arms around his legs with his gaze facing downwards.

The reason he was there was because while he tried to leave Soundwave behind in his quarters after he woke up from the scare with the stasis lock, the mech just clung to his arm. He didn't specifically say it but he could feel through the bond that Soundwave didn't want to be alone again.

Blaster couldn't just leave him behind after that, he would have felt terribly guilty during the meeting.

Because of his time in the Shadowzone, Blaster found that his quiet brother was showing way more emotions then he ever did during the war. He thinks that the war was what was holding back the emotions and now that its over, Soundwave has the freedom to show whatever emotion he wants. Even if it seems a little awkward.

Over on the other side of the table, Arcee ex-vented, rubbing her optics. She was starting to feel the exhaustion, of running practically everywhere, catching up to her. It wasn't good to be tired during a meeting but she was going to pull through it because it was about her finding about Knockout being sparked.

Speaking of Knockout, he hadn't shown yet. She sent a message to him the twelfth time in the passed thirty minutes.

In that time, Optimus had explained to the others why Soundwave was with them since some of the mechs were constantly asking questions. The Prime answered the questions to the best of his ability and ended it with saying that Soundwave is under Blaster's care and is going to be under constant surveillance.

Optimus had finished talking about the Soundwave problem a few minutes ago and was now patiently waiting for Knockout.

Arcee sent Knockout another message.

Optimus looked at her, "Is Knockout going to be joining us?"

"I've been sending messages to him in the passed half hour and he hasn't replied to any of them, it doesn't look like he's going to..."

The meeting doors swung open then and everyone looked over at them, seeing the red medic standing there.

He grinned, "Sorry about the wait, the mech of the hour always has to be fashionably late."