The worst part wasn't being absolutely powerless to stop it as she screamed in agony, a sound that tore his spark to pieces as he watched his femme die.

No, the worst part was when she stopped screaming. Because as spark-wrenching and awful as that sound was, it meant that she was still alive. So when she stopped screaming, Ironhide's spark plummeted and his optics filled with the fear that she was gone.

Once Thistleant shut down Weapon R, everything was a blur for Ironhide. He vaguely remembered being unchained, handed a comm link, and shoved through a groundbridge by Thistleant, the mech who had murdered Chromia. He whispered, "I'm so sorry" as he pushed him through, but it didn't make a difference to the numb Ironhide.

And then he was standing in one of Cybertron's vast deserts, still feeling like this was all some horrible nightmare and he was going to wake up any minute.

The nightmare became real when he saw her limp frame a few feet to his left, her sapphire optics offlined.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and began walking towards her, willing himself to not cry the entire way. When he reached her he sank to his knees in the sand beside her and brushed a servo over her faceplates.

"Chromia?" He said weakly, "C'mon, get up. We gotta get back to base so you can beat my aft at training."

"Chromia." He whispered sadly, realizing that she wasn't going to get up, "No. Please, no.". He finally let the tears slip silently down his faceplates, blurring his vision of the body of his femme.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooO

When Chromia and Ironhide were attacked by the Decepticon ship, Prowl had been in his office, hunting for his datapad of lists that he'd misplaced.

"Watcha doin'?" Jazz called from the doorway and Prowl jerked his helm up, smacking it on the underside of his desk where he'd been looking.

"Primus." He rubbed his helm, "Looking for my datapad." He began riffling through a stack on his desk as Jazz moved into the room.

"Hey Prowler." Jazz said, spying a datapad on top of a cabinet, "Is that it up there?"

Prowl looked up, "Yeah. Would you mind grabbing it?"

"Why?" Jazz smirked, sauntering over to the cabinet, " 'Cuz yer so short and adorable?"

"Hey!" Prowl flushed, "You're only like an inch taller than me!"

"And doncha forget it." Jazz stretched his arm out to the top of the cabinet and frowned, realizing he couldn't quite reach it.

"Having some trouble Mr. Giraffe?" Prowl said smugly as Jazz stood on the tips of his toes.

"Naw." Jazz puffed, "I got this."

He stuck one of his legs out slightly in an attempt to gain more height and Prowl closed his optics, surprised at how turned on he was at the sight.

Why does he have to have such a big aft?, Prowl rubbed his forehelm and smiled a little, Not that I'm complaining. How could having a boyfriend with a big aft possibly be a bad thing?

He's not my boyfriend anymore, Prowl corrected himself, He's my bonded. A small surge of happiness shot through him, Jazz is bonded with me. I still can't believe it.

He stiffened suddenly, Wait. Jazz is my bonded. That means...he can hear everything I'm thinking.

"Don' let that stop ya Prowler." Jazz called back mischievously, "I could listen to those dirty thoughts of yers all day!" He wiggled his aft a little and Prowl laughed, embarrassed.

Jazz finally snagged the datapad and walked back to Prowl, a huge grin on his faceplates, "Here ya go."

"Stop looking at me like that." Prowl complained, "I'm allowed to...admire."

"Yeah?" Jazz grinned, "Well, if yer allowed to admire, then I am too."

Prowl heard his next thought, and his optics practically bugged out of their sockets, "Jazz! Jazz, no we-we couldn't!"

"Why not?" The saboteur said seductively, leaning towards Prowl, forcing the tactician bot to back up until he was pressed against the edge of his desk.

"Because I would like to keep my office clean." Prowl playfully shoved the saboteur off him and moved away, "Not covered in transfluid."

Jazz sighed, disappointed, but caught the tactician bot's servo, "Hey."

"What?"

Jazz smiled happily, "I still can't believe we're bonded either. I kinda feel like I'm dreamin'."

Prowl smiled, "I love you."

"I love you too."

Prowl received a comm just then and sighed at the interruption, :Yes?:

:Prowl, it's Optimus.: The Prime said, :I have bad news. There's been an attack.:

:A Decepticon attack?: Prowl practically flew to his computer, :Where?:

:The old Estonce building.: Optimus sighed, :But that's not the bad news. Chromia and Ironhide are missing. We think they may have been captured.:

Prowl sat back in his chair, stunned, as Jazz sat heavily on Prowl's desk, his optics anxious, :Captured? Ironhide and Chromia? We've….we've got to get them back!:

:Yes.: Optimus said gravely, :I'm organizing a rescue team to depart as soon as we have enough bots. So far I only have myself, Blaster, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen. I need you to recruit more bots for this mission, and monitor all commlinks until they are found.:

:Yes sir.: Prowl ended the comm and turned to his computer without a word, beginning to link all of the commlink frequencies to it.

"Prowler." Jazz said unhappily, "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing." He shook his helm firmly, but his inner voice said, That's not true.

"Let me on the team." Jazz said quietly, "I know ya don't want to but-"

"But what Jazz?" Prowl said, agitated, "I just bonded with you yesterday; I don't want you to offline! They're going right into Darkmount and some of them aren't coming back."

"Ironhide and Chromia are two of my best friends." Jazz told him, "I'm not just gonna sit here on my aft while they're in trouble. So either let me on the team, or I'll go to Optimus and have him do it."

Prowl exhaled, "Please, please be careful. If you don't make it back here in one piece, I will personally offline you!"

Jazz raised an optic ridge, "If I'm already offline? How ya plan to do that?"

"I'll find a way." Prowl vowed

"Fine." Jazz sighed, "I'll be very careful. Buuuut." He grinned, pulling Prowl towards him, "Just in case I don't make it back…."

"Uggh fine." Prowl gave him a quick kiss, then thought better of it and gave him a much deeper, more passionate kiss. "Please come back to me." The tactician bot looked up at him with those worried teal optics

"Of course." Jazz murmured. He kissed the top of his helm lovingly and began walking towards the door, pausing when he got there. He looked back at Prowl and said softly, "Love ya Prowler."

"Love you too Jazz." Prowl sighed

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ironhide slumped next to Chromia's limp form, the tears still falling. Looking at her, he thought sadly, She tried so hard to be tough like a mech. And she was, at the same time as being as beautiful as a femme. I should have told her-wait did she just move?

Ironhide stared at the femme he thought was offline for a full minute, trying to detect movement. Finally, when he had given up and his spark had sunk back to his peds, she coughed weakly.

"Chromia." Ironhide choked happily, "You're-you're alive!"

"You doubted it?" She groaned, her optics onlining as she smiled up at him with those dazzling sapphire optics, "Toldja I was strong enough to-"

She barely got halfway through her sentence before Ironhide was kissing her, cupping her faceplates in his servos. She was so surprised she accidentally smacked him.

"Ah." He winced, "Chromia…."

"Sorry." She gasped, both from lack of air and the amount of pain she was in, "Defense mechanism."

"Please don't ever do that to me again." Ironhide sighed, relieved

"What? Smack you? Because you're just lucky my defense mechanism to you randomly kissing me wasn't to kick you in the nuts like normal femmes."

He laughed, his optics practically sparkling, "No, I meant please don't ever scare me like that. I thought-I thought ya were dead Chro-mo."

"I feel dead." She groaned, "My entire frame-everything fragging hurts like Pit."

"I can carry you back to base." Ironhide stood unsteadily.

She raised an optic ridge, "On your busted leg? After you look like you've been bawling your optics out?"

"I was not!" He blushed. She just looked at him and he withered, "Okay maybe a little. But only 'cuz I thought ya were dead."

She rolled her optics, "You're like a big teddy bear, honestly. But anyways, you don't have to carry me, because I got us a comm link!" She paused and looked at him, "Where did you put it? Thistleant should have given it to you."

He patted his subspaces and scanned the area around them quickly, "Aha! There it is!" He scooped it up and attached it to his audio receptor, :Prowl, do you copy? It's Ironhide.:

:...Ironhide?: Prowl commed, disbelieving, :Where in Pit are you? Is Chromia with you?:

:Yeah.: Ironhide gave her a thumbs up and she groaned, :We're a little worse for wear, but we're online at least. Can ya get us a groundbridge?:

The swirling blue vortex appeared before them and Ironhide glanced apologetically at Chromia, "I might have to carry ya a little bit."

"This is the only time you will hear me say this." Chromia winced as he picked her up, "But please be gentle. It hurts a lot." Then she blushed as she remembered her dream with Ironhide carrying her to his quarters.

"Are you blushing?" He asked amusedly as he hobbled into the groundbridge.

"Shut up."

He chuckled, "It's good to have you back Chro-mo."