Author's note. Wow, it's been a REALLY long time since I last updated this story, very sorry to all who enjoy this story that it's taken so long to update.

Tied-With-Ribbons, yes I know you're waiting for your chapter, I'm doing my best but it's taking a while. I'll update as soon as I can.

Suggestions are welcome.

Written by me and Mediziner, thanks so much for your help.

Enjoy and please review.

The large raptor approached Optimus, more of its kind started appearing out in rows, there could be a whole army of them as the bots took a slight step back. Sabre's optics had widened as he looked over at Ravage after realising why they were here.

"Ravage my lady, what have you bathed the cub in if you do not mind me asking?" He questioned.

"Hmm? I saw a batch of flowers that appeared very similar to the cub's home world they called 'orchids'. The tips were in shades of yellow, to a raspberry to a beautiful blue colour, thin black stripes along the edges to add beauty." Ravage replied, she grew worried as Sabre's expression slowly dropped grim. Ravage was horrified after realising why Sabre's expression had changed.

"No... Don't tell me...! Sabre I-"

Sabre shook his head slightly. "No, my lady. You have not known, it is alright and I forgive you. Right now, we must deal with these menaces. We have to protect the cub and help the others."

Sabre and Ravage took action as both the raptor like beings and both the Autobots and Decepticons opened fire, many of them stormed out of their hiding places.

Soundwave stood near Bumblebee and Spike, possibly due to Ravage pleading him to help protect Spike, the Cassette recorder while uneasy as with the other 'Cons to assist Autobots, he reluctantly did so as he knew Ravage wanted this on herself.

"Aw man, what am I going to do? Ravage doesn't want me to help fight..." Bumblebee groaned, he and Spike had backed up slightly into a tent so that they wouldn't be surprised from the sides or behind, he also was pretty uneasy about Soundwave assisting to help protect Spike. 'Must be because Ravage pleaded him to help protect, I guess.' He thought to himself.

"Bee, can't we do anything?" Spike questioned as shrieks, yells, curses and all sorts were heard.

"I don't know, Ravage wanted me to keep you safe from these things... I sure don't want to get on her bad side." The yellow bot replied grimly, he was uneasy as two Raptors approached him and Soundwave, seeming attracted by the scent Spike is emitting.

"Well, can we at least get this stuff off?" Spike questioned as Soundwave followed their movements. "Then at least they won't go for us."

"Not a bad plan," Bumblebee admitted before sub spacing a bottle of spare oil and drenching Spike with it."

"Urgh, I didn't mean like that," Spike complained but at least he didn't smell flowery anymore.

"Alert - Incoming attack." Soundwave said as the raptors sprang into action at them, Spike screamed in surprise as the two bots immediately punched them back but in a swift move, they leaped back at them and grabbed hold of their forearms, biting at their blasters.

"Urrgh, quick creatures, aren't you..." Bumblebee grunted out, wrestling with one of them as he struggled to overpower the offending raptor while Soundwave also doing the same thing.

The creature hissed, trying to shake Bumblebee's blaster loose but the young mech held on grimly. He wrestled and tried to shake the raptor off while trying to avoid the creature sinking it's claws into his armour. Spike just scooted back, trying to stay out of their way.

Soundwave managed to throw his off and he turned to grab the one on Bumblebee by the neck and drag it off too. The raptor snarled and thrashed madly but Bumblebee shot it while it was distracted. It howled in pain, it wasn't fatally injured but it was enough for it to wrestle free and run away.

Other raptors eventually followed in suit one by one, the battle seemed to last almost half a joor but were eventually chased off, some limped away while others decided not to fight anymore and fled. Ravage and Sabre just managed to chase off the last two raptors.

"Phew... Glad they're gone..." Spike exhaled slowly as he watched the remaining raptors fleeing back into the jungle, some of the bots on both sides were pretty banged up.

"Yeah," Bumblebee said tiredly, flopping down and looking ruefully at his blaster which was covered in bite and scratch marks.

"Primus," Ratchet grumbled as he started rounding up those who were most injured. Starscream floated down to the ground, he and the other fliers had shot into the air to fire from above although many raptors had still leapt upwards to slash and bite at them.

"Are you alright, my lady?" Sabre asked, giving her a lick which she returned.

"Fine," she replied with a purr before heading over to where Spike was.

Bumblebee realized that now with the flowery scent gone, he seemed to frown that Ravage would be displeased now that Spike smells of oil that the Transformers used to polish and clean their armour.

Looking over at Soundwave, he couldn't help but ask: "Ravage isn't too happy that I did this... Isn't she?"

Soundwave looked at him and stated. "Autobot Bumblebee: Did what was neccessary. Ravage can always clean him up again."

"Aww great," Spike groaned as Ravage sniffed him with displeasure.

"I can show you a better place to clean him," Sabre offered with a purr. "With fresh flowers that won't attract anything."

"I would love that," she replied, moving behind Spike and picking him up again.

Gently, she grabbed Spike by the back of his shirt carefully, looking over to Sabre as she gestured him to lead on and she will follow behind. Deep inside, she still felt disappointed she had attracted danger to the camp.

"I believe those raptors were passing close by," Sabre told her. "Something else could have attracted them, don't blame yourself. I should have been more alert."

"...Alright." Ravage replied ruefully. Together, with spike, they disappeared into the jungle together as Ravage followed Sabre to the batch of flowers he would show her that would not attract any attention from others that this foreign planet contained.

Meanwhile, Ratchet and Hook were hard at work repairing their teammates.

"How do you manage it?" Ratchet said in exasperation as he fixed a nasty bite on Optimus's arm, he'd move onto the slashes on his back next. "You always get injured no matter what."

"I do what I must," Optimus said with a shrug as Megatron scoffed, he was also getting patched up.

"At least all of us are still functional." Groove spoke up in a relaxed manner; he had always been the easygoing of the Protectobots.

"Hah, I could've handled them all with my bare hands!" Blades scoffed while First Aid just sighed mentally in annoyance, Blades was always the hot headed of the group, he's glad at least Hot Spot is the leader of the Protectobots and not Blades.

"Of course you could," Hot Spot said tiredly, it was always stressful trying to keep track of his bots during a fight.

"Relax the mood, guys. You'd give the Medics a tough time if you all overstressed yourselves and got your injuries worse." Groove simply said, he was the easy going of the Protectobots and the least of Hot Spot's worries.

"I'm just saying," grumbled Blades as he eyed a slightly chewed foot with displeasure.

"Trouble?" Streetwise said with a grin. "That raptor almost made a chew toy out of you."

Blades just glared at him as First Aid said soothingly. "That raptor was a high jumper, you're likely he didn't get you Streetwise."

Blades gave off a hmph as Ratchet started to tend to the others as First Aid moved on to the other bots after he had finished patching up his Protectobot brothers, having finished tending to Optimus' wounds. Hook had finished patching Megatron and tended to his fellow Constructicon brothers. The Medics were heavily hard at work, repairing the others as best as they could and there were a lot of injured bots.

"Think there'll be more of those?" Ironhide asked his leader as he tenderly sealed up a gash on Chromia's leg.

"Hard to say," Optimus stated. "But we should probably post a guard, we may have to move camp to another location."

"All I can definitely say is, they sure ain't good at dancin'," Jazz spoke up as Perceptor seemed to nod at Optimus' words. "Hmm, but Optimus, who do you think is well enough to guard?" The microscope couldn't help but ask.

"Hmm, perhaps one of the fliers?" Optimus suggested. "They could find a high vantage point and keep an optic out for any other predators."

"I could do that," Syfire offered. "I would be able to recognise any potential enemies."

"Very well, Skyfire," Optimus gave him a nod while looking at a few of the others, perhaps one more bot keeping guard at least here on the ground wouldn't hurt, but who could he choose? He would have to choose very carefully.

"Starscream, perhaps you could assist Skyfire?" he finally said. "You also have experience with Predica's inhabitants."

"What?" Starscream exclaimed in outrage. "Why am I always paired with him?"

Skywarp reappeared near Starscream, causing his Air Commander to jump in startle. "Didn't you tell some of us before that you and him are close friends or something?" The black and purple seeker pointed out before disappearing again and reappearing this time inbetween two Autobots, startling them.

Starscream glared at him.

"As I have repeatedly reminded you, that was 'before' the war," he stated coldly as Skyfire smiled sadly.

"I still consider you my friend," he said softly.

Some of the others, mostly the ones that hadn't known this before, wondered just how did Starscream, a Decepticon, befriend an Autobot like Skyfire long time ago? Unfortunately not many of them knew that they were once Neutrals a long, long time ago.

A few breems later their olfactory sensors had picked up the smell of flowers, Ravage, Sabre, and Spike have returned. The scent emitting from Spike was light and easy, it wasn't as strong as the previous ones Spike was bathed in.

"Aww, looks like someone's been cleaned up again," Jazz chuckled as Spike pouted.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, arms folded.

"Come on Spike, it's not as bad as before," Bumblebee pointed out, making Spike smile slightly.

Ravage walked on over to a clean sheet as she gently sets spike down on it, it was next to Soundwave, who could have put it there for Ravage's return as she settled Spike inbetween her paws gently.

"Much better," she purred to Sabre was laid down beside her. To Spike's annoyance and everyone else's amusment, she started to wash him again.

Optimus chuckled before looking at Starscream.

"Will you stand watch?" he asked as the Seeker grumbled but nodded.

"Fine but I'm not doing it all cycle," the Seeker warned as Skyfire looked very pleased.

"Thank you, Starscream." Optimus replied, though his attention seemed to turn to Megatron who certainly wasn't pleased at all, repairs were going rather slowly and the Medics were taking a break from repairing for a while. The Autobot leader then turned to look at the three Medics, who seemed to be chatting rather well though Ratchet looked like he was telling First Aid some advice. Or, at least that's what he thinks as they were too far for him to hear what they're talking about.

"Your handling this well," Ratchet was saying to First Aid as they sipped Energon. "You ever been to an exotic planet like this?"

"No, unfortunately... Wherever Hot Spot goes, we Protectobots follow. I mostly kept to studying whenever we're not traveling. Sometimes Hot Spot would have Cosmos take us to various planets but they would often look similar to moons." First Aid replied, seeming to frown. "I'm afraid I may not be as talented as you are, Ratchet..." Pausing for a moment to take another sip of his Energon Cube, smiling. "...But someday I'll be one of the best Medical Officers like yourself, I just wish I didn't have to fight, however... I don't like it."

"No Medic does," Ratchet stated with a half glance at Hook who was also sipping from his cube. "But we do what we must, our duty is to heal even if that means healing soldiers...from both sides."

First Aid nodded his agreement.

"Perhaps... When we find time... You could show me what there is to learn and improve on being a Medical Officer, Ratchet?" First Aid couldn't help but ask, he seemed a bit nervous asking Ratchet, being the most famous Chief Medical Officer among the autobots. "...If you don't mind, of course."

"I'd be delighted to," Ratchet said with a smile. "I could use a bit of help to deal with the slagging idiots that routinely visit my Med Bay."

Hook paid them no mind as the two Autobot Medics chuckled heartily, he seemed to have his optics towards the direction of his Constructicon brothers, who seem to be guffawing wildly about something, then finally the rest of the other Decepticons at times.

The Seekers seemed to be chatting to each other, though with Starscream getting annoyed with Skywarp's constant warping about the tents while Thundercracker seemed to be lost in thought and in disappointment, wondering why he had to put up with his Air Commander and his other Trinemate. Skyfire on the other hand seemed to be watching the three interact with each other.

Soundwave had let his cassettes roam about, especially Buzzsaw, Ratbat, and Laserbeak, who had perched themselves on objects not too far from their master.

Rumble and Frenzy appeared to be wrestling but they always were. At least if they were wrestling, then they weren't causing mischeif. He'd lost count of the number of times Soundwave had been forced to punish them or place them in his chest compartment just to protect them from angry bots. And this wasn't just their fellow Cons, the Autobots were often swearing revenge for various reasons.

Now he looked at Optimus and Megatron, they were sitting together and appeared to be talking quietly. A quiet moment between two distant brothers it seemed.

"Ravage, my lady," Sabre purred as Ravage looked up at him.

"Yes, Sabre?" She replied, nuzzling him as Spike seemed to slightly groan, though observing the other bots while doing his best to ignore the mushiness going on between the two.

"Would you like to take a walk with me?" he offered and she purred with happiness.

"I would love that, Sabre." Ravage replied with a smile, before getting up, she looked up at Soundwave, seeming to ask her master if he and the others could keep an eye on Spike through a special bond that she, the other cassettes, and Soundwave himself shared together. At least as long as he did not wander out of sight.

Soundwave offered her a nod and a mental smile as she gave Spike a lick before heading off with Sabre. Spike sighed with relief, maybe now he could relax a bit and not be treated like a kitten for a while.

The two cats got up and walked out together, side by side. It was fairly nice out; birds were chirping in rather unique patterns that did not sound like the ones back on earth. It sounded rather... melodious.

"Mmm, beautiful," Ravage murmured as they stopped by a massive tree that had a very thick truck but loads of branches snaking all the way upwards.

"It is," he replied, looking at her before looking up. "There might be some eggs up there, shall we take a look?"

Ravage gave Sabre a nod as the two climbed up the tree together, though they had to be careful not to make too much noise as to not scare the birds nearby or any other creatures that could also be living in the tree.

"So big," she said, carefully jumping onto another branch. "Earth has some trees like this but the branches are set at the very top of the trunk. But this is perfect for climbing."

"The planet sounds very interesting, like a new world to explore," Sabre chuckled, sitting down on a particular branch which seemed to have a great view, like a lookout. "Come over here, my lady. There is a nice view of the sky and partially the jungle from where I am," He added with a smile.

She padded along her branch before leaping lightly onto the one he was on. Sitting down next to him, she gazed over a cliff which swept downwards to a flush jungle, only occasionally broken up by clearings where trees had recently fallen or been cleared. It was beautiful, a mixture of greens, browns, blues and many other colours.

"It's beautiful..." Ravage said softly, smiling.

"It is good that we have come out here at a good timing, it's difficult to catch a glimpse of nature at its fine beauty at the right moment," Sabre replied, overlooking the environment.

Ravage began thinking deeply, wishing that for the first time in her life that she wouldn't have to be a part of the Autobot and Decepticon civil war... She hadn't thought of taking the time to look away from it and admire the beauty a planet has to offer at times. Unfortunately not all as it seems would come true, as she and the others would have to leave this planet when they find a way and she wouldn't be able to see him ever again once that time came... She would ask Sabre to come with her but knowing he probably wouldn't want to leave his planet.

"I wish," she began, not sure how to explain. "I wish this cease fire could last...then we'd be able to come back to this planet more often."

"Cease fire?" Sabre didn't understand what it meant. "I'm not sure I follow, my lady... Please accept my apologies. There isn't... a lot of things that your world or Earth that this planet has," He said with a frown. There was many that Ravage knows that he had not known himself.

"It's alright," she said, nuzzling him. "You may have noticed that the bots belong to two different groups, their leaders are two brothers."

"Yes, I have. At times I have seen them throw bitter expressions to each other... I have not seen many relatives do these things to their own family members. Very rare for me to see such things," Sabre softly replied, nuzzling. "What can you tell me about them and the others if you do not mind me asking?"

"They're at war," she explained softly. "We used to be one on our home planet but we've split off into two groups, Autobots and Decepticons. Optimus was taken away when he was young because a special artefact chose him to be the next Prime. That's an important role on our planet while Megatron left behind. Many struggled for survival as our planet started to fail and Megatron led a rebellion but it led to our war."

Sabre frowned as he listened carefully. Once Ravage had finished telling their story, he apologetically replied. "I'm so sorry to hear, my lady... It must have been very, very hard for you... I pray that someday, the two will be one again and that war will never erupt once this one has been solved, peacefully." Sabre nuzzled Ravage softly.

"I hope so too," she replied. "Maybe their time spent together here will help things..."

He nodded and licked her head tenderly. She purred and nuzzled him back, and they relaxed together, enjoying the view and each other's company.

They were quiet for some time. Until finally Sabre decided to break the silence, there had been something he had thought of for some time, but is unsure whether perhaps he could tell her now or wait a bit longer. Sighing to himself mentally, he softly spoke. "Mmm, Ravage my lady?" He began, purring softly.

"Yes, Sabre?" Ravage replied softly, looking at him in the eyes.

"I...I have never met a lady like you before," he told her softly. "So strong, so lovely and graceful...and so caring and protective."

"You have had many mates?" she questioned and he chuckled. "Some, all special in their own way but none of them are you."

"Really...? I'm flattered." Ravage was surprised, slowly seeming to shy a tad slight from Sabre's kinds words. "I have never met a gentleman like you before... None as brave, strong, charming, very caring and protective... Well, I have not met anyone at all unfortunately throughout the years... Due to the war being in the way, there was no time for seeking another..." Ravage frowned as she drew close to the end of her sentence.

He nuzzled her and said. "I know that we will have to part at some point but if you wished...we could create something together. Then we'd never be truly apart."

Ravage wasn't sure how she'd answer to his offer, a part of her made her overwhelmed with joy while the other half she would in a way feel lonely without him by his side. "Oh Sabre... I... I don't know what to say to this offer... I... I'm, surprised... That you would think of this, with me..." Her tone showed no hint of disappointment.

"I can think of no one better," he said quietly. "Even if you're leaving this world, I know there is no one I'd rather trust my kittens to...you have such a way with that cub."

"Oh, Sabre... I wish you could come with us... I accept." Ravage purred, nuzzling close to Sabre.

Unaware to the two, Ratbat was nearby from afar, he was sent by Soundwave to check up on Ravage as she had gone for some time, eventually he flew back to the camps to report to Soundwave.

"Ratbat, report," Soundwave commanded as the little Minicon landed on his arm.

The Minicon gave his report and Soundwave thoughtfully processed it. He'd had a feeling that Ravage was planning to have kittens but hadn't fully realised how much she cared for this Predica native. Well, this would be interesting to say the least.

"Hey, Soundwave. Where's Ravage gone to? She's been out for a long time," Rumble said as Frenzy replied after his brother with. "Yeah. Gone for a long, long time... She wouldn't be out for this long, would she?"

Ratbat chirped a response, making them both stare.

"What? She's out on a date with that cat?" they both exclaimed as Soundwave sighed.

"It is none of your concern," he intoned. "She is free to make her own decisions."

The two looked at each other, while they seemed happy about Ravage finding a special someone, they were both somewhat... Sad at the same time, they knew that everyone eventually can't stay for long. They walked off afterwards to get themselves a cube of Energon.

Ratbat chirped to Soundwave, telling him that Rumble and Frenzy were expressing their sadness that everyone has to leave this planet eventually, and that he also expressed the same feeling as he, too, wanted Ravage to be happy- Wishing that Sabre and Ravage could remain together.

"I wish they could remain together as well," Soundwave said with a nod. "But for now, it cannot be. I do not think Ravage will want to leave us and Sabre must remain on his home planet. But perhaps someday."

Ratbat cheeped that he hoped that it would happen.

Author's note. Can Sabre and Ravage work something out? Find out next time, until then.