_____________________________________________________________

Author's Notes: I think this was originally written for one of the 28 Marauders fiction meme.

The little yellow car sat bolt-upright in bed. He'd had *that* dream again. He'd been racing with Coral again. Down the city streets, and hairpin curves, laughing all the way. Dodging each other and passing each other to get ahead for one moment before being passed again by the other. The blue-grey blue and red flame-decorated femme in her hovercar mode, and him in his car-mode. It was nice. Once they'd reached the peak of the highest overpass, he couldn't remember it's name, they transformed, sitting at the side of the road, watching the suns set over the golden city. He smiled faintly at her, and she only giggled, smacking his hand as he tried to yawn and put his arm around her. It was almost like being in heaven.

The only problem with that "heavenly" dream was that he and Coral, aka Riptide the Decepticon, had met during wartime. After the golden sheen had faded from the city. After the buildings were destroyed and torn and gutted from the long days and ravages of war. The overpass they were sitting on was still there, but no longer driveable because of the huge chunks of it's tarmac that were destroyed, leaving huge, gaping holes in the pavement.

And then there was her.

Coral.

Why was she coming back, haunting him in his dreams?

Sure they were friends...

He smacked himself. Yeah, right. She'd barely noticed him. Maybe once or twice they'd gone to check their duty roster at the same time and exchanged smiles. But she was... pleasant to him. not like the others. They would sometimes sit at the same table and talk after their shifts. Of course it was late in second rotation when nobody else was around. He didn't blame her for wanting to be seen with a loser like him. But she still talked to him. Whenever nobody was looking, usually.

He had told her he was going to leave, asked her to come with him.

Okay, okay, so he'd left her a note.

On her personal computer.

Hey, he was a hacker, remember?

He knew no one else would find it.

At least she hadn't ratted him out to Megatron.

Or had she? she had kinda figured out he was gone.

He felt bad. If she had gotten caught with the note he left on her computer, Megatron would have shot her for sure.

So maybe that was it. Maybe she was dead and her spark was coming back to haunt him for doing her so wrong. Cable moaned sleepily and rubbed his hands across his face. This was the third time in four nights he'd dreamed about her.

Although, when he thought about her, he didn't think about the taunting jeers of the other Decepticons, and the way she looked at him like "I'm sorry they're being so mean" from across the room. Every time he thought about her, that memory sprung to mind. And he didn't feel like she was dead and haunting him. He knew if she wanted payback, she'd be making him dream far worse things than *that*. He'd seen what she could do to mechs when she was mad.

He knew the only mech he'd seen her attack was a half-powered empty, but still, he shuddered to imagine what it would be like if she decided to do *that* to a regular mech. The little yellow car figured she could take on a fully-powered mech.

No, it felt like... like she was alive.

But, then again, how would he know? they weren't bonded or anything. Oh, no. He had never even gotten up the courage to ask her out on anything resembling a date. But something felt... He sighed. "Great, now I'm starting to act like a lovestruck squishie." he muttered, casting an accusing glance to where Cap and Terrablast were peacefully recharging together on the couch, blissfully unaware of the glare he shot them. "ugh. Whatever." he rolled over and tried to ignore the dream he'd just had, going back to sleep.

====================

Yes, this fic was inspired by Within Temptation's song "Somewhere". I actually listened to the cong first, so it's full effects kind of wore off as the fic progressed. But there it is. Takes place directly after the 28 defenders fic where Riptide (Coral) first appears.