Woot, another chapter! Thank you to those who reviewed, you guys/gals really make me happy! I'm hoping to keep updating this frequently enough, since the chapters are shorter. Who knows, they may get longer one day!

"It's Soundwave."

That certainly explained the feeling in his spark. Ratchet had never been spark bonded with someone before, although he couldn't argue that it was an unpleasant feeling. It was like another being was settled there with him, although right now that being was a little distant and strained, he could tell. And that was when his processor reminded him that it was Soundwave. Soundwave, the Decepticon communications officer. His sparkmate was a Decepticon! The medic was unsure of how to handle it, so instead let his anger rise to the surface as he glared at the three mechs in his range, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker spared only because Ratchet didn't have optics in the back of his helm.

"You spark bound me with a Decepticon?" he demanded, vocalizer displaying all the enraged emotions he was currently feeling. Spark bonding was not something to take lightly; it was a process that took orns, and it was mostly permanent. Ratchet felt almost… robbed. His chance to find that one mech or femme he wanted to spend the rest of his activation with was now gone, and he was bound to Soundwave, of all mechs. Had it been an Autobot, he might have handled it a little better. But a mech that stood against everything he stood for? "What did you do? Force him on the battlefield? Rip open his spark chamber and—"

"You were dying, Ratch, it was the only way to save you," Sideswipe spoke, voice full of guilt as he interrupted the angry rant. He, like Sunstreaker, blamed himself. If he hadn't been stupid and tried to take Starscream down, well, he wouldn't have been hit in the chassis, and Ratchet wouldn't have rushed to save him. Sunstreaker still blamed himself more, cursing his inability to just keep the Seekers busy for the medic to do repairs. It took practice, but Ratchet could see the guilt from the two as if they were wearing it pinned on their chassis. He sighed, calming down a degree. There was no use getting so riled up over it; what's done was done.

"Soundwave has defected," Optimus spoke, hoping to ease his angry friend a bit.

"So, technically, he's an Autobot now!" Wheeljack chimed in. Ratchet glowered at him.

"Where is my new… sparkmate." He had hissed the word, not wanting to say it or for it to be true.

"He's in the brig," Optimus spoke. "We weren't sure how honest he was, even after spark bonding with you." Ratchet snorted. Great. He was mated with a potential undercover agent.

[ - - - - - - - ]

Soundwave had been in the brig for longer than he cared to count, occupied by only his mini-cassettes and those that took shifts watching him. None of the Autobots that were down there, from Ironhide, to Bumblebee, to Cliffjumper, to about every single mech minus Optimus, Ratchet and the Terror Twins, had spoken to him, and that was just fine; he got everything he needed from digging through their processors. Quite a few of them had angry feelings they wanted to exchange about the entire situation, but Soundwave was pleased they kept quiet. Now, if he could only achieve the same with his cassettes.

Finally, the feeling in his spark, that dull, distant feeling, began to rouse, an aching replacing the dormant feeling along with confusion. Soundwave kept his side of the bond leashed, not letting the emotions he had gotten so good at restraining slip through. An inconvenience, this was. Slowly, as Ratchet became more alert, the bond became more active, and Soundwave had the instinct to respond with warm pulses before he quickly crushed that idea. Originally, he imagined the bond to be nothing but professional; his emotions would not come into play, nor would he get more involved with the medic than necessary. However, it seemed he underestimated his core coding, as well as the instincts the bond provoked.

As the bond became more alive, a spike of pain shot through it, although didn't necessarily hurt Soundwave—more so alerted him to its presence in Ratchet. Without meaning to, his spark pulsed to give a comforting caress to the hurting mech. In response, Soundwave growled, tightening the bond on his part, and fought the urge to tell it to stop. However, knowing how illogical that would be, and not wanting to give the cassettes more fuel to egg him on with, he remained stoic and silent, cursing, no doubt, Primus' idea of fun.

A lot of anger spilled over the bond, and Soundwave imagined whoever was tending to Ratchet was now telling him what happened, and who he was now spark bound to. Soundwave shared the feelings. He was not at all pleased with this arrangement, as it caused quite the inconvenience. Never before had he the urge to bind himself to another, and now he was doing it to join the Autobots. Was it all worth it?

The anger calmed, but only a fraction. A short time later and he could hear the blaster doors of the brig open, the mech on duty looking towards the entrance. Prowl had been a welcomed guard, as his thoughts were just on paper work, occasionally Jazz, but never on the current situation between Soundwave and the Autobots. He was tired of hearing everyone's opinion on it.

Ratchet came into view, his chartreuse frame fully repaired as he crossed his servos over his chassis. Soundwave, oddly enough, felt some relief trickle into his spark, and immediately wanted to smother it. The medic merely observed him, and it would have been a good opportunity to dip into his thoughts, except the silver mech could feel the wave of peace through their bond, it calming not only Ratchet but him as well.

"So, I heard you defected," Ratchet started. He paused, glancing back to Prowl who immediately looked to his paperwork, as if he hadn't been watching. "You can go, Prowl. I'll probably be letting him out." Despite Prowl having a higher rank than the medic, he merely nodded, standing and taking his leave from the cell holding area. Soundwave heard the blaster doors shut, before answering Ratchet.

"Affirmative."

"Why?"

"Reason: Decepticon living environment: Undesired." Ratchet frowned.

"What, you didn't get a big enough room on the Nemesis?" he snarked. Soundwave ignored it.

"Negative. Starscream: Insane. Decepticons: Loss imminent." Ratchet's frown deepened.

"Always a puzzle with you," he grumbled. "Why is Starscream insane? Unless you just mean in general, because we already knew that. Someone who tries to usurp Megatron that often can't be healthy mentally."

"Negative. Grounded Seeker: Mentally Unstable." Ratchet was silent. As a medical officer, he of course knew about Seekers. If their wings become too damaged, and they cannot fly, they slowly become mentally unstable. However, the last he checked, Starscream had both wings.

"Did… Megatron rip his wings off or something?" Surely Megatron knew what would happen to a Seeker if he lost his wings.

"Correction: Offender: Sunstreaker." That made more sense to the medic. Starscream had delivered a shot that had the capacity to kill Sunstreaker's twin, no doubt the golden frontliner was thrown into a frenzy, and as a result, Starscream lost a wing. Ratchet almost pitied the Seeker (before, of course, remembering Starscream was currently at fault for him being bound to Soundwave). He was doomed to go insane, and his trine members would have to suffer and watch, as well as any other Decepticon. However, that alone being the reason for Soundwave's defection was a little unbelievable. After all, the telepath seemed emotionless—so why would he care?

Then Ratchet remembered the second part of Soundwave's reasoning. "So you think Megatron's defeat is on the horizon?" he asked, shifting his posture. That'd be nice; finally able to relax and not have to worry about the Decepticons surging up and trying to deactivate them all and enslave the human race. It brought an interesting question to the front of Ratchet's mind; what would they do, without the war? Just lounge around and… he didn't even know what else. Without the ability to have sparklings, they would be all that was left until the last mech deactivated. That's comforting, Ratchet thought sarcastically.

"Affirmative. Lacks: Second in Command, Communications Officer." He supposed those were important to the war effort.

"But what if he just promotes some else?"

"Impossible: Decepticon Army: Lacks: Competence."

"Well, you're not the first to say it, and I don't think you'll be the last." So basically, the Decepticon army was going to fail because Megatron had lost his two most competent soldiers. Ratchet could see that. If they took the equivalent of that away from Optimus… Well, the medic liked to think there were others competent enough to be promoted. But nonetheless, it'd be a heavy loss for them.

"So, how are we supposed to know you're not lying about defecting?" he asked, generally curious. He didn't think the other was lying, judging on the warmth in his spark, but he could still ask.

Soundwave stood from his seat on the bench in the cell, and approached the electric bars that stood between him and Ratchet. He was easily taller than the medic, but not by a whole lot. Behind the visor, his red optics looked over his new mate, assessing him. Never before had Soundwave really wanted a mate, but he supposed, that out of his few choices, Ratchet was acceptable. A little more than acceptable, he could say. He was a medical officer, useful, and the chartreuse color of his armor was nice on the optics.

"Sparkmate: Satisfactory." Ratchet gapped.

"What? That's not what I asked!" he exclaimed, flustered. He felt the tight hold on Soundwave's half of the bond loosen a tiny fraction and bit of desire trickled through as a result. A shudder ran through Ratchet's systems, and he couldn't find the words to say, instead just staring at the mech. Did this mean that Soundwave was accepting their current predicament? That he wanted to be his mate? The medic wasn't sure if he could say he felt the same way, although the desire he felt through the bond—Soundwave's desire for him—was quite stimulating.

Until part of his processor reminded him that he hadn't chosen to bond with Soundwave. The choice was made for him, regardless of feelings or desire. And before this, he had no desire to be with Soundwave. At all.

In an embarrassed, not-quite-sure-what-to-do haze, Ratchet turned promptly on his heels, moving quickly for the blaster doors. He couldn't deal with this right now. He was still coping with the idea that his choice in sparkmate had been stolen from him, but now… now that sparkmate was showing interest in him. He didn't even want to think about how it could be false interest, only there because the bond provoked instincts Soundwave may not have had before.

The telepath watched his sparkmate go, before turning back to the cell, almost disappointed in how things had worked out. Through the bond, he could feel the emotions that were currently shuffling through Ratchet's frame; unsure if the desire he exhibited were genuine or not. Sitting back down with a mental sigh, Rumble looked up at him, shaking his head.

"You blew it." Soundwave glowered at him through the visor.