A/N: For those who are interested, I'm writing a collection of drabbles for the Enemy of my Enemy trilogy (whoopsie). I'm taking requests, so if you wanna drop a prompt or suggestion in the comments!

Interlude 3: Kade

"Wahahahhahaha!" Kade screamed as the tidal wave hit them.

The water was freezing cold and pinned him and the masked man up against the wall. It knocked the wind out of him, before he was plunged underneath the water. Kade fought to keep the water out of his lungs before Heatwave's cold metal hand dipped under and brought him back to the surface, hacking the salt water out of his lungs.

"Where's the other guy?" Kade asked between coughs. Heatwave, after placing him on his shoulder, glanced around, his eyes going down to the roaring water. A moment later, the man's head breached the surface, his hood still on but his face mask wasn't. Kade's eyes went wide at the sight of the heavily bearded face. The man bobbed in the water for a moment before he took a big gulp of air and going back down into the water. "Hey!"

Heatwave grunted as he started to punch the walls. While he could breathe underwater, Kade and the other human couldn't. The water also seemed to have a strange affect on him. It slowed his systems, making him sluggish. He could feel the Energon in his veins slowly turn to slush.

If he shut down, he feared what would happen to the humans in his charge.

"Heatwave?" Kade's voice was worried as he struggled to keep himself balanced on Heatwave's shoulder.

"We need to get out of here!"

"Really?! I hadn't noticed!" Kade yelped when the water, which seemed to be getting colder and colder, soaked through his clothes. "Where'd Brother go?!"

Heatwave switched his lights back on, but they didn't do much good. The water was too dark for the lights to pierce through. Thankfully, though, Brother's head breached the surface again. This time, he didn't go back under, instead he paddled on over towards Heatwave's outstretched hand.

"There's…a weak spot…" He huffed, his breathe billowing out in the air. He shivered as the air continued to drop. "Underneath the water…...at the corner. If we punch it, we can get out before the trap finally springs."

Kade glanced over at Heatwave, the firebot giving him the same look. To get to the weak spot, as Brother had said, he needed to go under the freezing water. Kade knew from experience that Cybertronians weren't invincible, and extreme temperatures could hurt them irrevocably.

"Is there any other way?" Kade asked.

"Not unless you want to freeze to death." Brother shivered.

There was silence before Heatwave scooped the two of them into the compartment, before diving down into the water. Kade felt the chill even from inside the insulated cabin, and he shivered violently. The water was dark and Kade could even see chunks of ice already forming.

"H…. Heatwave, hurry up!" Brother shivered. His teeth chattered so loud that Kade was worried. Since there wasn't much he could do inside the cab, Kade reached behind him to the back seat for a couple thermal blankets, draping one over Brother and one over himself.

"I…. I see the…. the corner…." Heatwave said. Kade winced at the struggle in his pal's voice.

"Hit the edges, Heatwave. Hit it with all you can." Brother ordered.

It took the Cybertronian five powerful hits to get the ancient stone to crack. One last punch sent the door crumbling. When the door fell, they, along with the water, were sucked out of the room and into a drier one. It wasn't necessarily warm, but at least they weren't submerged in water that was slowly becoming colder and colder.

Heatwave opened up his compartment, allowing the Kade and Brother to fall out, the thermal blankets still wrapped tight around them.

"W-what was that?" Kade asked.

It took a moment for Brother to get his shivers under control enough to speak. "A trap. A trap set for intruders." Brother took a moment to breath. "Strange how after all these years it still works."

"What are you talking about?" Heatwave demanded. He kept getting warnings about near frozen veins with gelatinous Energon. He needed a couple hours in the stasis pod to correct the errors and get his systems back on track.

But that wouldn't happen for a while.

"The Isu had enemies, though who they were, we're not sure. But Isu Scientists didn't want anyone to interfere with their work. So, they set traps. Some to hold, some to kill." He glanced behind himself at the fallen door, the water still trickling in. "That was one meant to kill. Specifically, freezing the victims to death."

Kade shivered far too much for it to be healthy.

"Right. We need to make a fire." Brother announced as he stood. Kade looked at him.

"W-what a-bout the m-mission?"

"That can wait." The hooded man scoured the place for items he could use. Strangely, this place had shelves stacked with what looked like papyrus. He opened one of them, briefly scanning it before crumbling it up and tossing it to the center of the room.

"W-what's th-at?"

"Nothing important."

He continued to crumble up and toss pieces of papyrus into a pile. Much to Heatwave's and Kade's shock, the man pulled out a match box, striking one easily and tossing it into the pile. It didn't take long for the pile to ignite. Kade almost crumpled at the feeling of warmth that exploded from the fire. It wrapped around him as if in an embrace, and he felt no shame sobbing a little bit.

He might've heard one escape from Heatwave.

Brother sighed as he sat down, following Kade and Heatwave.

"How long are we going to be here?"

"Until we're warm and dry enough." Brother blew into his cupped hands. "It's going to get pretty crazy from here on out, so we're going to need our strength. Heatwave, you doing alright?"

"J-just g-give m-m-me a moment."

"Big guy?"

"F-f-f-fine."

"His systems are probably freezing over." Brother assured. "Just give him a little bit."

There was a silent pause, one which Kade took advantage on as he removed his gloves, boots and socks. His fingers and toes were frozen, so he started to move them around to get some feeling back. He glanced over at Heatwave, whose dimmed optics had him worried but as they sat there for a couple more minutes, they started to brighten up. Kade also chanced a glance over at Brother, and was honestly shocked to see that he hadn't removed one single article of clothing. Instead, he was just staring at a wedding band that was attached to a chain around his neck.

"Hey man. Aren't you cold?"

"I'm fine." Came the short reply.

There was another beat of silence before, Heatwave, who had noticed the ring glinting in the firelight, spoke. "Is that yours?"

Brother gave a dry chuckle. "Nah. It was Sister's before she died."

There were emotions that danced behind the man's startingly familiar steel grey eyes; emotions that told Kade the man sitting next to him had seen far more in his life than Kade ever will. They were made deeper by the flames as they danced shadows across the walls of the room. The water had stopped flowing at this point. Questions fluttered through Kade's mind, but he knew (despite what his siblings would say) when to hold his tongue.

But…

"What was she like?"

A soft smile, almost sad, appeared on Brother's face as he twirled the ring gently between his fingers. "She was, heh, she was a badass. She could go toe to toe with those even more skilled than she. When we were first trying to get into contact with the Autobots, Sister actually scaled a Decepticon foot-soldier while it was shooting at us and managed to take it down."

"Wow." Kade whistled. "Wish I could've met her."

"I hope my niece remembers her."

Kade sighed, feeling as though the subject was hitting a little too close to home. He had been nine when his mom died and he, he hated to say, barely remembered her. Every year, it got harder and harder to remember what his mom's voice sounded like, or how her perfume smelled.

Sure they had home videos but they were a far, far cry from truly remembering.

A breeze blew by, causing Kade to shiver.

Help me….

His head snapped up, as did Brother's. The redhead glanced over at the other human. "What was that?"

Eric…. Everton….

"I…" The response seemed to die in the man's throat as a vacuum affect had them digging their heels into the ground to keep from falling over. Heatwave managed to grasp the threshold from which the sucking was coming from, and from there, managed to catch Kade and Brother.

"What's going on?" Kade shouted over the rushing of air.

There was a moment of panic that shone in Brother's eyes, before it disappeared and was replaced by an expression that Graham got when he got an idea.

"Heatwave, let go!"

"What?!" Heatwave shouted.

"Are you insane?!" Kade exclaimed at the same time.

"Trust me!"

Kade glanced up at Heatwave, shaking his head at the Autobot to not do it. They didn't know what laid beyond the darkness.

"Trust me…..."

A moment passed and the three found themselves tumbling into darkness.