Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Soundwave was on her way back to her living quarters that she rarely used. She was given a ordered to rest. She know she needed it but still so much needed to be done.


She slightly like it, though. The forceful break. It made her feel appreciated. She usually felt the opposite. She worked the hardest and was the most dedicated to Deceptions. Did she get recognize for it? Yeah, by a "good jop" and that's that! It's not that wanted to be shower in every way, her Seeker side wanted a little something more then that.
 
 
Seekers need to bathing in affection and attention. That was their flaw. The things she rarely got in the Deceptcon ranks.

Bots would treat her differently if the knew she was a Seeker. Not in the ways she would like it, more then likely. The reason most bots didn't know she was a Seeker because she didn't have wings, which was he most recognizable thing about Seeker. Other then their grace.

She, on the other side, never had wings. Which was rare but not uncommon. A few Seekers loose their due to injury.

Not her.

She had lost them as a birth defect. That was the biggest reason her carrier hated of her. An seeker without wings was disgrace. It was abnormal. Freakish.

Speaking of Seekers, Starscream popped into her processor, much to her annoyance. She was going to have to deal with him tomorrow. It was good to go over all the facts before going into something. That was what Shockwave had taught her.
 
 
He wasn't really such a bad mech in the beginning. He always was annoying, but in a friend way, and if you talked bad to him he gave you a look like you ruined his world.
 
 

Then the war happen.

He took his birth right to young. He lost his family to soon. That main reason why he's so treacherous now, his spark is broken. When he became the next Wing Lord, he relied on his sibling. They were all lost on different missions, in and out of war. It was unknown if any of them were alive or dead.

It dived him crazy not knowing what happed. Literary.

He couldn't, wouldn't, grieve if he didn't know if he should grieve. Or if he should have hope that one day they will return.

That's why Soundwave didn't let Megatron kill him for the most part. Starscream is so caught up in his own grief, he hurts others to ignore his own pain. She understood more then most. It was a little annoying to deal with the whole 'Fear Me' thing though. But she got used to it.


Tomorrow she had to deal with Starscream pledging his 'undying allegiance' to the Decepticons and Megatron. It's probably a good hour for him to apologize and a fake one at that.


In which Megatron ordered her to take a break to be ready for tomorrow because of that.


Which was annoying. She had so much work. Most Cons on the ship were idiots, no other way around that. But was it really their fault when they hadn't got a proper education? They couldn't until they win the war.  But she always wanted someone to help her with her duties of maintaining the ship.


Let's say, for example, they get all reports from the mines, go through, it see what's important, and what needs to be done down there. How much Energon on there is. What's needed aboard the ship. Going through logs.  Making sure the crew is in check (She could go on and on).

When they are doing this she could decode Iacon database and aswell look for the Autobot base. When she was done with doing those two tasks, she could help the con that was doing all the other work.


Speaking of which. She did have one con in mind that could help.


St3V3 aka Steve was the con she had in mind.


Steve was the nicest vehicon there was (plus the most absent-minded). He didn't like to hurt bots or cons. He didn't like the Autobots though, they kill vehicons without consideration.

But until she finishes up training Steve up, she had all the responsibility. Nothing new there.


She finally got to her room. She punched in the codes to get into her room. She had something like an 'apartment'. She is the third-in-command meaning she got the third biggest room (yay). Although Knockout and Breakdown's room and her's were almost the same size.


As soon as she got in, she walked through the 'living room' and walked into her berth room went over to the bed and fell down on to it.


She always hit her emotions. She supposed her emotions. Most Cybertronians didn't think she had emotions. She always had her EM field so close to her. But when she was all alone, she let it all out. Or well when she almost alone. Her minicons were usually there with her, but they were doing their own things.


Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Wingthing, Garboil, and Ratbat were out flying/Scouting for Energon, Revenge was with Howlback, and they were both watching over Frenzy and Rumble in the 'forever' mine. Slugfest was with Steve and VJ.



Garboil, Howlback, Slugfest, and Wingthing weren't her mincons actually. She took them in though when Cybertron fell. She loved them all some much.


She didn't think it was a weakness. Any bot or con that hurt them, well, she was a gladiator for a reason.


She was starting to feel light-headed (something that never happened) with a sharp helmache when the lights started to flicker. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. She closed her optics, her helm was killing her. When it disappeared suddenly she opened her optices the lights were out.



She didn't move. She knew what was happening.


The lights came on. Someone was in front of the bed. She felt his EM field. She got up and went up to her console in her room and started to work.


“Hello little Seeker,” The mech said walking up to her. He was bigger than her. He is bigger than Megatron. She paused and bald her fist. She knew who this was.


“Megatronus!,” The excited voice of an announcer screamed. She did not mean it to sound excited but was the only clip she had of his name that wasn't personal. She didn't want to use any of her personal clips for this. “What are you doing here?” a clip of Starscream.

“Ahhh, the little Seeker does not question how I am doing like normal, I feel hurt,” He said. She can hear the grinning in his voice.



“Stop delaying-” Megatron clip “these things-” Knockout “now tell me!” Starscream. She hated him. He started to show up after Megatron left. She had decoded a relic’s location, when to get herself, opened it, and he started to appear.


She had basically opened the genie's bottle and he was the dumb genie. And of course, the relic’s container broke after she opened it.


No bot knew that he was here and she wanted to keep it that way. To her knowledge she was actually the only one who could see him. More then likely because of the fact she opened the relic. She was guessing of course.


He always flirted with her making her feel uncomfortable. The only reason he hadn't tried anything is that he's basically a ghost. He couldn't touch her.


“Now that I have your attention, I have a proposition for you, ” He said, putting his hands on her hips. She froze, her processor going overload now. He couldn't touch her, but..he was right now, how?


He flipped her so she was looking at him. This wasn't possible. He made her look up at him with his clawed hand. He was smirking a smirk that Starscream would be jealous of.


“My little proposition can wait,” He paused, his hand going under her mask. “I think it's time we have some fun, you've been a tease for too long.”

Chapter Text

So what do you do when an ex-prime, thought to be dead, tries to kiss you?

You put a servo on his chest-plate, tilt your helm to the side. Let him lean, try to take off your mask, then put one of your pedes (foot) on his tank (stomach) and push with all the force you got.

Megatronus scrambled back but stayed up. He looked over at her. He scoffed at her, “One day, my little wingless Seeker, you're going to give up and you will be mine to what I wish”.

That one sentence had a lot of power over her. It triggered something inside of her. Soundwave was back in Cybertron, back in the pits. Everybot wanting her to kill her opponent. A slave for their entertainment.

She closed her optics and shook her helm when she opened them again, he was gone.

She looked over at the berth and sighed. This was getting out of hand. She was going to have to tell someone soon. But who would believe her.

She walked over to her berth and sat down on it. She knew she wouldn't be able to recharge.

She grabbed a box from underneath the berth. She put it next to her and pulled out a datapad. This was a construction pad.

Her carrier was a high middle class bot, and she loved to travel. Soundwave was able to see a lot of a things as a sparkling. She had seen what had worked and what hadn't worked in cities' architecture. Nothing really work as far as the law was.

When she couldn't recharge which was often, she did this. Remake Cybertron. Remake the cities. Remake the rules. So it was functional. So it was a right. So it was equal.

Currently, she was modeling a building in Kaon. When she and Shockwave left ran away their carrier they stayed with Shockwave other side of the family in Kaon.

She was almost done with it when she heard the door open.

She looked over at the now open door. Let's just say she wasn't prepared to see Lord Megatron there.

She quickly got up. The datapad slipped out of her hand. Hitting her personal console.

He chuckled, his EM field filled with amusement and slight concern?. “At ease, Soundwave” he came over to the console and picked up the datapad for her, “it has been a long time since I have had to sneak up on you, old friend.''

She sat down. He was right. The last time and the only time he snuck up on her was in the pits. When he sought her out to join his cause. He was also the only one to sneak on her.

She hasn't realized it but when she was ‘remodeling’ she completely zoned out. Not a good habit to be in. Especially in war.

“May I sit?” he said (getting her out of his thoughts) and gesturing next to her. She nodded her helm a bit and scooted over. “You must forgive me for intruding, I have been looking for you and when I couldn't find you and you didn't answer your door or com, I was concerned”.

Her spark skipped a beat. She didn't show it though. She never did show anything.

Before she could respond using voice clips Megatron started talking again.

“May I see what you are working on?” Megatron glanced down at the pad for a second and then back at her.

She hesitated, other then her ‘family’ she never showed anyone these. She also knew Megatron wouldn't judge her for this, so she nodded.

His EM field turn shocked “I didn't know you were such a good architect”.

“Just a hobby” a voice clip of Knockout sounding off- handed.

“ Maybe when we win this war and we find a way to revive our home, I'll let you design the cities.” She hid her shock.

He was looking at the one she was just doing. “Do you have more?”.

She nodded again. She's so far modeled for Crystal City, Tyger Pax, Tarn, Vos, Praxus, Kaon, and Iacon. She had only done a few for each (seeing how she didn't have a lot of free time) and there was still a lot of other cities on Cybertron.

Megatron could see she was hesitant. “How about we make a deal, it's alright if you refuse it.”

He handed the datapad back to her. “For every building you've modeled and show me I will do the same except with my writing” That was interesting deal.

Megatron was a poet, as well as he was a fighter,  but not many people know this. Probably the only bots who knew this would be Optimus, Ratchet, Starscream, and herself.

He had a way with words that not many other Bots did. He wrote his own speeches and everything, she never looked at his speeches before he said them. No bot ever did.

She knew that he wrote poems as well. She'd only seen one, accidentally, but it was amazing. Of course he forbade her to tell anyone but she wouldn't have anyways. She guessed he could tell she was always curious to see more, even now.

“Do we have a deal?” She nodded she wasn't going to let a chance like this slip by her.

Chapter Text

Starscream was about to open the door when Soundwave stoped him.

“Eons ago, a decepticon transport crash-landed on this planet.”

“Oh, please, common knowledge. I scouted the crash site when we first arrived on earth.”

“Then I presume you recovered the experimental weapon prototype The Harbinger had been transporting.” Airachnid smirked. “Where is the crash site? It was never logged into your ship's database.”

She knew she should have just been quiet. She knew she shouldn't do anything. But. She knew one of them more than likely wouldn't return. And she knew it would be Starscream if that happened.

“Soundwave: Wishes to go” that made all three cybertronians freeze. Megatron turned around to face her. She had spoken with her own voice (Of course with her voice filter on) something she hadn't done in eons. She did something else too. She let Airachnid now knew she was a femme.

“Harbinger: information regarding relic locations and Decepticon locations”

This reminded her of the beginning of the war when she still spoke (with her filter). Starscream, who knew she was both a femme and could speak, had already gotten over his shocked. Airachnid, more than likely was still trying to comprehend that Soundwave was a femme.

“You may go Soundwave”. He turned around again. “ You better bring me back information as well”

She could hear pads running behind her and Starscream appear next to her. They walked in silence for a bit.

“Starscream's words: true, Starscream: wants to change.” Starscream body language didn't show he was shocked (other than a twitch in the wings) but his EM field betrayed him. She continued on. “Starscream: hurt, Soundwave understands.”

She nodded her helm and started to walk to the flight deck with him. They didn't say anything to each other. Not even when Laserbeak reattached herself to her, or when Airachnid finally joined them. They didn't need to. They understood each other and that's all that mattered.

“Me, cheat? I would never, never ever.” The smirk on his face told her otherwise. She smiled. Only he would come up with a way to cheat in a game like this.

“Are to”

Chapter Text

Soundwave and Starscream transformed and landed on the ground. They both looked up at Airachnid flying slowly towards them. When she finally landed and transformed, Starscream made a comment.

"Your chosen vehicle mode lacks thrust."

"Are you going to preen, or are you going to guide?" Airachnid snapped.

"I will reveal the exact location of the Harbinger when you tell me exactly what we're looking for." Starscream snapped right back.
 

"That information is need-to-know, And right no you don't." Before anything else happened Soundwave brought up what they were looking for The Immobilizer.

Airachnid glared at her and opened her mouth but Soundwave cut her off, "Starscream: Second-in-Command, Airachnid: high-ranking officer, Starscream outrank, Airachnid follow orders." 

If glares could kill Soundwave would be a pile of ash right now. Airachnid didn't argue though, she knew better than that surprisingly.

But Starscream had to put in his two sense.  Oh, you would do well to respect me, Airachnid. Before I joined Megatron, I was air commander of a squadron of Energon seeker."  Airachnid brought her attention back on Starscream 

"And how many eons ago was that?" She said smirking at Starscream.

Starscream being Starscream, had to be the one to come up on the top." Just recently, I personally vanquished one of Optimus Prime's fiercest warriors, Cliffjumper."

"You snuffed an Autobot?" She sounded surprised. Glitch please, all of us have killed Autobots through this war.

" Yes, I did -- without mercy." He said with a triumphant smirk. His EM field filled with arrogance.

"Oh," She paused, "Even Megatron showed you mercy when he planned to terminate you at the mine."

"What?!" Soundwave stiffened slightly."He told you about that?!" 

"We talk." Soundwave tried to hold her jealousy. Only Megatron and herself we're the ones who knew, and when would they talk? Before she could question to herself anymore, Starscream started to talk again, trying to get off subject.

"The wreckage lies just beneath where we stand. I will need to find a point of entry." As soon as he finished that sentence Airachnid transformed and drilled down into the Earth to the Harbinger.

"Show off." Her and Starscream glanced at each other. They were both Seekers, it's a well-known fact they don't like claustrophobic spaces.

 Starscream jumped down first before she when she ejected Laserbeak. She just being precautious, and it kept her alive this long.

When she jumped down, Starscream and herself followed Airachnid. At one point Airachnid found a console she could use.

"Suit yourself." Starscream started "I conducted a thorough search of this husk years ago." He paused to see what Airachnid was doing, "What are you doing?"

" Accessing the cargo manifest -- or didn't you think to do that during your thorough search?" Airachnid argue back. Dear Primus, they love to argue.

"Idiot. The ship's systems haven't been activated for eons. The Autobots could detect its energy signature."  Airachnid ignored him.

"Ah, here it is. Section 23."

 Airachnid went to turn it off but Soundwave grabbed her wrist. Arachnid glared at her and pulled her wrist out of her grasp and went to Section 23, Starscream following behind her.

Soundwave had to investigate something. They're cybertronians here,  dead or alive. Starscream didn't bring anything back from the ship so that instead they had to get off somewhere. But where?

She started off with who was on the ship. At least she could see if anyone smart was in charge. She wasn't expecting who was on the ship.

Tailgate.

Tailgate was on this ship. That wasn't possible though. Tailgate with sent to and Decepticon Space Station to help the younger generation sparklings to be taught.

Then how did he end up here? It didn't make sense unless he was transferred without her knowing. But that was impossible, she always watched things like that with her family.

Other Bots were here as well that were assigned with tailgate such as Rewind and Chromedome, who we're both neutrals. Swerve and Blurr were also on the list. 

All of those Bots were assigned with Tailgate which means the Space-Station was compromised or they were kidnapped and freed by these Decepticons who were on the Harbinger.

But that doesn't answer the question of what happened to the Bots on the Harbinger. She quickly downloaded any security footage from the ship.

She would watch it now but she didn't trust the two of them alone.

She turn off the console. Which was lucky since Laserbeak flew down to her nearly knocking into her. She caught her in her servos.

Laserbeak was chirping madly, which she could barely make out as Autobots. Laserbeak wing was also damaged with Energon spewing out of it.

She was going to kill whoever hurt her Laserbeak.

"Shockwave?" 

"Yes?" 

"What am I doing?" 

Shockwave sighed "You're taking care of Tailgate while his Carrier and Sire are at a business meeting" 

"Why can't you take care of her or Thunderhoof for that matter." She argued back. Although she didn't miss how Shockwave referred to Bluewing as tailgate's creators. 

"Thunderhoof is going to training for the 3 solar Cycles and I myself is going to Academy for the rest of the semester." She wants to argue some more but she didn't, she knew better. The academy was Shockwaves life, she can't take that away from him.

She grumbled and walked away. 

 Soundwave was almost back to her room when she heard a noise. She turned around to see a small mini bot. Tailgate.

"What are you doing?" She asked him. She didn't want to deal with him.

"W-well I-I want you to play with me?" It came out of the question. She glared at him.

 "Why don't you get one of  the maids to play with you?"

"Well-well they're not my sister" She wasn't expecting that. 

"What?" 

He turned blue "Well-well you're my sister, maybe not-not b-by Energon but by Spark, aren't you?" The way he looked at her when he said that. The innocent in his Optics. It made spark flutter but a pain of jealousy hit her.

She wanted a sparkling-hood like him. He may only be three thousand years younger than her but he's had more of a sparkling-hood than she's ever had. She finally got her sparkling-hood when she got here but about eight thousand years of her life was ripped away from her, she knew she wouldn't ever get it back. 

But it wasn't fair to hurt him like this, not like her carrier hurt her for so many years.

"Fine" his optics lit up and he ran over to her. He grabbed her servo and pulled her to his room.

Maybe this will be ok. Just maybe.

Chapter Text

Soundwave knew she couldn't stay here. After she calmed down Laserbeak, she had all the information she needed to know

All of 'Team Prime' was here, other then Ratc- the medic. She was a good fighter, but she couldn't fight all of them. They must have picked up a signal when Airachnid activated the ship. She had to hide.

She quickly reattached Laserbeak to herself and put a servo underneath the wound. Then she activated the map on the console. Not far from here was the brig. She was about to run off but then she heard a scream. Someone was living up to their name.

She shook her helm and took off to her destination. She will worry about Starscream later, right now she needed to protect Laserbeak and herself. 

She just barely had time to get into the ship's brig before somebot was rapidly approaching.

Because she heard so many tapping she was guessing it was Airachnid. She slid down the wall. The Autobots were here so she couldn't leave anytime soon. 

She had to worry about Starscream. His mental state was fragile. He might think that Lord Megatron abandon him. She had to do something if he was to stay one their side.

She hated to do this at the moment but she sent a ping to Laserbeak to stay on alert.

She cleared her mind and focused. She cleared her mind of the war, of all the pain and suffering. And focused on the brighter side, the hope, and the love. She focused on all the spark speeding along with the tune of life and death.

She could feel the Autobots above with Starscream, more than likely hostage. And the very faint spark of Airachnid running away. She focused on Starscream.

Starscream, please answer.

Soundwave? Is that you.

Stay calm, play along I'll find you shortly. I need to get there before Airachnid does. I promise you from a Seeker to another.

Till all are one. When Starscream replied with that, she knew that he believed her.

Till all are one.

She lightly pulled out of her meditation state. To her, it felt like eons, but it has been only a few Earth minutes. The conversation with Starscream was only nano-seconds. the mind scape was odd.

She was always tired after mind-communication, but she had to keep going.

She got up and dispatched Laserbeak again. She laid Laserbeak on a table and looked around. She needed to close the wound so Laserbeak could fly to Lord Megatron and inform what's going on. She didn't like doing this to her symbiote but it had to be done.

She couldn't ground bridge Laserbeak to Nemesis because that would take too long (expanding and getting troops), and with Airachnid, you needed to be quick.

This was the brig to this ship so there had to be some type of device here to help her. After scanning the room, she found the Energon-Pod next to a datapad. She put the datapad in her subspace and went back to her injured symbiote.

After using a steady servo to meld the wound, Laserbreak was ready to fly. She picked up Laserbeak (wanting to save Laserbeak's strength) and walked out.

Once she got out the way she came in, she let Laserbeak fly back to Nemesis. Soundwave transformed and followed the path where she felt Airachnid going. 

She couldn't ground bridge to her location because she didn't know where it was, but it didn't take long for her to get to the other half of the Harbinger. She got there before the Autobots did, because of her superior fight.

She transformed and landed next to the Harbinger. Knowing Arachnid this would more likely be a trap.

So she did the logical thing, spring the trap.

As she started to walk around, scouting, she stopped when somebot called her name.

"Soundwave" the even voice of Optimus Prime ringing out, echoing off the cavern walls.

She turned around to see the Prime and his personal Scout and Wrecker.

It looked like he was about to say something but his scout beeped out "Look out!" 

Because of that she just had the time to get out of the Immobilizer ray, landing on her backside.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here. Megatron's most loyal and his mortal enemy, what would he say if he saw you two." Airachnid said smirking down at them from the Harbinger.

Just as quick was she felled down, she got up. With that weapon in Airachnid servos, she couldn't afford to stay still.

She glanced over at Optimus. He seemed to know she was looking at him and nodded to her. She nodded back. A temporary alliance between them.

"I got her," The Wrecker said as he ran up the Harbinger. The Autobots didn't know what this weapon was, they only knew it was dangerous. Before she could do anything, he was immobilized.

"The Immobilizer, true to its name," she said as she aimed again. They were able to get out of the way of its blast.

After a bit of time, a pattern happened. She aimed, they moved, she aimed, they moved. Over and over again.

Change it to where you move first and you win. Soundwave knew that form experience. Airachnid seemed to know that too.

"Oh, Soundwave" Airachnid voice called out to her. "You know, I was going to back to the Decepticons, it might have even brought Starscream back." Her voice seemed to be everywhere. Due to her lack of weapons, she was at a distance. "But because you came along, messing up anything. You'll go running back to Megatron, I can't go back." Her voice paused.

Soundwave took this to look all around including up. And that's exactly where Airachnid was. "So thank you for giving this Rogue the edge she needed" and with that Airachnid fired at her. Soundwave wouldn't be able to move in time, but she didn't need to because Optimus jumped in front of the blast.

Things seem to pause at that very moment. Part of her spark cried out for her old friend, that part of treacherous spark said he still cared. She ignored her hopes and focused on the battle.

But of her hesitating Airachnid took full advantage of it, shoving her into the earth below her. She tried to move but Airachnid's other limes, Airachnid had her pinned down. 

Touched the side of her, then Airachnid ripped off her mask. She smirked. "Look at the lovely femme we have down there," She said. Then she went right up in her face and said "But look at that, we don't have one". As soon she finish her sentence she stabbed her right in her fuel tank. The pain was written all over her face. Why wouldn't it be? Someone who wears a mask doesn't need to work on hiding their expressions.

Before Airachnid could do anything else, something red shot hit her. Airachnid went flying off of Soundwave. Both femmes turned to see Starscream next to Scott and the two-wheeler. Airachnid growled and transformed digging into the Earth. Taking her mask and the Immobilizer with her. The two-wheeler run to the newly dug hole and jumped down following her.

Bumblebee came over to Soundwave and helped her up. And looked over Starscream and carried her over to him. They made optic contact and nodded. Bumblebee went to help the two-wheeler.

With one servo over Starscream's helm and the other on her wound, they started to walk back to where the other half of the harbinger was. 

They walked in silence 1/3 in the walk before Soundwave broke it. "How did you get away?" She had a very slight British accent in her voice. With her mask off, the system to turn on her voice filter and clippings wore off. She could focus and turn it on if she really wanted to but she couldn't focus, the pain was overwriting her systems.

"I was apparently uncharacteristically quiet, and that seemed to annoy the two-wheeler." He scoffed and went on "The Autobot Scout, Bumblebee, came to where we were looking for backup. He gave us a brief summary of what was going on and I made them take me to you."

"Why" She questions before she could stop herself. He smiled.

"Seekers stick together, no?" The rest of the walk to the other half of the Harbinger was him joking around with her trying to get her to ignore the pain.

Keyword trying.

They both knew if they didn't get her somewhere quickly she was going to go offline from that wound.

When they finally got there a group of vehicons was there with Laserbeak and Breakdown. Laserbeak noticed are immediate.

She's chirped and started circling them. The other vehicons and stared at her bare faceplate. Breakdown yelled at them. Starscream did too, she thought. The world was starting to blur. The last thing she saw and remembered, was Breakdown taking her up in his arms and running through the Ground Bridge.