The hunter had become the hunted. Soundwave had watched his prey in perfect camouflage, once laser beak had informed him he was being followed. She had hardly noticed he had doubled back to follow her, deciding to wait for her to find the relic first so he could take it from the her. There was little point making yourself do the work when another could do it for you. He had watched silently, as the rock slide fell upon her, spontaneous, but at the right moment and by pure coincidence. The relic was revealed amongst the rocks, and Soundwave would have took it. Yet he refrained. The femme had caught his optic, trapped by the rocks. She was frustrated, and seemed to contemplate calling for help. Pride prevented such action. But he remembered another, trapped just the same...and he had had fired the shot. He had held back in confusion for a moment, as she had struggled to her feet, and talked to Ratchet, a conversation he managed to listen into. He heard her lying, ignoring her wound. Like him, the mission came first. They would both fight to the last for their beliefs. When she had pulled the weapon out of the rubble, he was done hiding. It was time to take what rightfully belonged to lord Megatron.

Arcee quickly entered a fighting stance, albeit timidly on an injured leg, the weapon she held in her left servo she held back slightly, while aiming her blaster at him. Her optics shined with determination not to loose the relic. Soundwave tilted his head slightly. Her determination reminded him of something...But he snapped back to reality. Everyone's determined when they are threatened with a fight. He concluded.

"If you want this, your have to pry it from my dead servos." She warned.

Soundwave already knew such a scenario was about to unfold. His tentacles suddenly shot forward, one grabbing her left wrist, before she could react, but she held tight to the relic. She brought her blade to slice the tentacle off, and it retracted, Soundwave pausing in pain. He quickly recovered, and she had already taken the offensive, charging at him for an attack, fighting bravely against the pain on her leg. He dodged as she fell past, falling to the floor, dropping the relic. He stepped over her and picked up the relic with his uninjured tentacle. Arcee watched, slightly embarrassed by her foolishness, as he examined the relic. So, the 'con could appreciate such finery. That was rare. He suddenly turned his gaze to her, and she tensed. She hurriedly pushed herself up, but a wrong footing on her leg brought her down again. She gasped in pain, and watched as Soundwave approached, and reached his long fingers out to her. She suddenly grabbed his own hand and used it to haul herself up, spun around into him, almost as though he had embraced her, and then suddenly brought an elbow to his visor, where it cracked viciously. He stumbled backward, and she grabbed the relic, but as she turned to flee, his tentacle wrapped around her injured leg, it's smaller components dug deeper into the wound, causing her to cry out as she fell to the ground. She brought the relic close to her frame protectively as she breathed heavily, feeling the tentacle dig deeper. Soundwave came to stand over her again. As Arcee looked up, his cracked visor suddenly shattered. Small pieces of glass littered her face, and she closed her optics momentarily. Assured that the last of the glass shards had fallen, she looked up... into red optics...sad, red optics.

Arcee stifled a gasp. She had never even imagined the mech had a face beneath, or even considered the possibility, or even the emotion...almost like he felt wounded himself...It confused her further. . The emotion strained his faceplates. They then suddenly turned to determination, as he struck her, rendering her unconscious.

Soundwave stood silently. His faceplates read a mixture of sadness and confusion, staring upon the unconscious femme. He turned to walk away, but found himself looking back. Just before he had struck her, before his visor had shattered, he thought he saw Solarlight...No. He imagined it was Solarlight. It was just Arcee....He looked around uncertainly, and then snapped himself out of it. He had the relic. Best to return to the Nemesis. But what about the femme? He looked back over his shoulder. Megatron would be pleased to see another Autobot spark extinguished. He turned to approach the femme, when she suddenly changed. White and red armour glistened, the wound on the leg gone, the familiar blue and pink armour of the Autobot femme had disappeared before him. Lying there, was Solarlight. Soundwave blinked and as his optics refocused, and the blue femme returned. I have to go back. He thought shakily as he transformed, sending a message to the insecticons to return to the ship, and leaving the injured femme behind.

"Arcee..." A distant voice called to her. She felt herself try to stir but felt her body tried, and not want to respond just yet. Her mind seemed to swim openly as though in a large ocean, and she could see them. Those sad optics...Soundwave's optics....

" Arcee?" Again. This time, it sounded worried. But she felt a dull pain within her, and her senses seemed to snap back to reality. The optics disappeared.

" Come on 'Cee, wake up." She heard Bulkhead say, worry within his words. Her optics fluttered open, adjusting to the bright sunlight shining her down on her. As her vision cleared, She recognised the three mechs. Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee looked down upon her with concerned gazes.

" Are you alright?" Bumblebee beeped, as Optimus helped her sit upright, supporting her back.

" I'm fine...But I lost the relic." She said regretfully, holding her head as a processor ache stormed her mind.

" That is of no concern right now." Optimus spoke. " Ratchet, we need a ground bridge for immediate medical evac."

The bright light of the ground bridge appeared. As she went to stand, the three mechs reacted quickly.

" 'Cee, you really don't want to walking right now." Bulkhead commented. Arcee looked questionably at her leg, and she could see not only the damage of the stone, but also when Soundwave's tentacle had dug deeper...and it was not a pretty sight. Her metal armour was dented, covered in energon, and some delicate circuitry was exposed. A small pool of energon lay beneath it.

" Okay...that's not too bad." She said sarcastically. Optimus managed a soft smile as he gently picked her up his arms, (which surprised her a little) and carried her through the ground bridge, followed by Bumblebee and Bulkhead. Yet she spared a look behind Optimus, wondering why she had seen such optics full of ...sadness, vulnerability...and why, when he had the perfect opportunity to take a prisoner, and even finish her, had he left her as she was? As she looked back, she saw the same insect that had passed her earlier, land near the small pool of her energon.

Soundwave presented the sword to Megatron, who, like him and Arcee, admired the complex design of the beautiful yet deadly relic. And it was his. He smiled happily, as he turned to look upon Soundwave. He himself had only seen Soundwave's visor removed once before, yet even now it surprised him to see the determined optics.

" It seems this relic has cost you. Pray tell, which Autobot shattered your visor?" Soundwave walked silently to a monitor, and after inputting commands, a picture of the blue autobot femme appeared on the screen. Soundwave found it hard to keep a strange emotion inside of him...Without his visor, he felt vulnerable, like the entire universe could see into his very spark, and he did not like it. Megatron looked upon the femme with an annoyed look.

" It seems we can not even underestimate Autobot femmes." He commented. At that moment, Knockout walked in.

" My liege, I have a full report of the latest energon mine's capacities-" He paused as he saw Megatron turn uninterestedly.

" I shall attend to them later." the large mach turned to face Soundwave once more. "Soundwave, surely you got revenge on the femme, or does she still live?" Soundwave's optics looked down, and his answer was heard. Megatron growled a little. But either way he had the relic. One could not always have everything. Knockout could not contain a small gasp when he saw Soundwave's visor was gone, only a few pieces remained around the edge. His face seemed like façade, as though he was hiding something. Knockout smiled seeing the displeasure in his lord's features, and the vulnerability Soundwave felt, no matter how hard the silent mech tried to hide it.. Perhaps Soundwave's fall from grace, is to be more sooner than I predicted....

Soundwave returned to his quarters, with a new visor form Knockout, who seemed strangely happy...He shook his helm. Megatron had been pleased with the relic, but not the fact that the femme still lived...and he wasn't pleased either. He had allowed a situation to arise when he could have easily prevented it, and his own visor would have never shattered. He remembered clearly the look on the femme's face. How shocked she had been. How vulnerable he had felt. Why had he helped her in the first place? Only to fight and overcome her? It made no sense- He paused, having been walking back and forth within his room, his gaze fell on the holo-image beside his berth. Solar light. The femme he loved with all his spark...looked so much like the autobot femme....And Solarlight had been trapped, just like Arcee was...Is that why she had taken over his vision? Yes, their frame designs were not far off each others, but when he had seen the look of determination in her face...It was the very same Solarlight's had been.

Now he saw the very femme he loved in the face of his enemy. In her determination, her feelings of pain, her shock.

What would Solarlight have done? Killed her without thought. Would his beloved spark mate even be proud of his actions? No. She would have gave him the silent treatment until he made up for it. Especially if she had known he was comparing her to an Autobot...an unspeakable action of a traitor, she would have thought.

But he had not killed her. It would have been like killing Solarlight himself...and he couldn't bring himself to ever harm Solarlight, even when they had argued, he hardly raised his voice. ...But Arcee was an enemy...who fought proudly against the great ideals of lord Megatron... He felt an energon tear fall behind his visor. For once, he was unsure of exactly what had happened, why it had happened, how it could of happened...rather than returning to thoughts of the old Cybertron, or even the future Cybertron, his mind darted between the painful death of Solarlight, and femme who looked so much like her.