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Rafael Esquivel died young. Barely 13, hit by a stray rock out in Nevada desert while playing with his remote-controlled car. That he lived through a war did not help him. Except... in some ways it did. He wakes up again. Surrounded by metal, a spark pulsing in his chest and a visor in front of his face. When he finally gets a chance to look into a mirror-like surface, he flinches. Soundwave stares back at him. Younger, but undeniably him. Days later, he encounters Orion Pax and Megatronus. He is in the past. In the body of a Cybertronian who committed countless atrocities, had a body count. He wants to run, to cry, to scream. And yet... he manages to approach the pair, uses the method Soundwave always used to talk. Snippets of conversations. He is received with open arms. He smiles underneath his visor.
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A long time later, he finds himself in the gladiator pit. He moves with ruthless efficiency, dispatching bot after bot, limbs moving in a flurry. He does not have Lazerbeak. He is thinking about building the mini-bot though. He feels lonely. Three days later, he does so, and a smile grazes his lips as he strokes the metallic hide of the mini-bot. He begins building more and more mini-bots, desperate attempts to fill the hole left by the absences of Jack, Miko and the bots. Stuck as he is in the past, aeons in the past, he won't meet them for a long time, if he ever will. In the end, he welcomes his small family, consisting of Lazerbeak, Ravage, Ratbat, Rumble and Frenzy.
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War is near. He can feel it in his struts, and with it comes the horrifying realization that he would need to decide for a faction. Neutrals don't survive wars for long, he learned that quickly enough. He vents slowly, runs his digits over Ravage's head, and thinks. Ages ago (and it has been ages, he has been alive as Soundwave for at least a few millennia by now) he would have joined the Autobots in a heartbeat. Now though, he has a friendship with Megatronus, one forged with spilled energon and oil down in the pits of Kaon. His friendship with Orion is... not like that. He always sees the shadows of Optimus lingering over the mech, and he longs for Orion to be the Optimus he remembers. With Megatronus, his isn't the case. No shades of Megatron, no silent, quivering fear of the mech that almost killed him, back when he still was twelve and human. He vents, before looking outside the window of his small living quarters. History always was doomed to repeat itself, wasn't it?
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He screams. His vocoder fizzles and dies from the intensity, from smoke, from fire, is warped. He screams, for he can feel the connections to his mini-cons shut down, feels each and every single one of them die, and it hurts, oh how it hurts. He screams, he cries, loud enough to rupture his vocoder and permanently alter how it sounds. He cradles Lazerbeak's broken body, shakes, then looks up with grim fury and determination behind his visor. His tentacles rise up, sparks flying over the pronged ends. They hit their intended targets with the speed of sound, and he slowly paves a way through the battlefield, carnage behind him, soldiers quivering in fear in front of him. He cradles Lazerbeak closer. When one particularly brave Autobot moves into his way, he stares down at him. Green plating interspersed with yellow and brown. Jaw clenched defiantly; weapon primed on him. He personally rips out the smaller bot's spark, no word leaving his vocoder or speakers. He is done talking. He needs to save his creation.
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His vocoder was permanently damaged. Figures, that history wanted him silent. Like his ex-guardian from 3 centuries ago, like Soundwave had been back when he was human. He did not really care anymore. Lazerbeak was still alive, if barely. His vocoder was a fair exchange for that. The energon on his hands did not faze him. He had killed before, had paved the way for it. A bitter chuckle left him, silent as it could be. Only a small shake of the shoulders. He has not been Raf Esquivel in a long time, and he fears he is forgetting how to be Raf Esquivel. He has been Soundwave for millennia. He has been calling himself that for 89154 years, 9 months, 19 days and 11 hours. Raf Esquivel had fallen in favour of Soundwave. Raf was not made for war, but Soundwave was. It was a kindness, really.
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Earth. It was a long time ago that he last saw it. A small thrill runs through his wires, and he knows Lazerbeak picked up on it. An inquisitive pulse runs through their connection, and he answers likewise, a feeling of nostalgia and longing for home sent along. The mini-con docked to his chest gives a silent chirp of understanding. He longs for home as well. For a moment both stand still, the silence amiable. The bridge is empty, no Vehicon and no Starscream in sight, something both are glad for. Starscream was trying on the best of days, never mind when he got into his funk and decided he'd be a better leader than Megatron. He rolls his eyes underneath his visor at the thought of the mech, then slowly strides over to the mainframe of the Nemesis. He has work to do. If his calculations were right (and they usually are) the Autobots would encounter who he used to be in about 3 years. Another thrill runs through his wires.
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By now he is thoroughly annoyed with Starscream. The mech gets on his last nerves (to borrow that human phrase), and Megatron's absence did not help. He had to admit, Starscream was not a bad leader, he had managed the entirety of the Nemesis for quite some time and had helped keeping almost all of them alive, but the noise that Seeker can produce is... abnormal. He softly shakes his head when he knows no one is looking, fingers ghosting over keyboards and screens, data rushing past. There are many things he is annoyed with nowadays. Starscream is just the latest in a long stream of annoyances. He takes a quick look, and, when he is sure the bridge is empty, runs his forehead. This was around the time when the Autobots would meet Miko, Jack and... who he used to be. A grim smile grows on his face. He is not longer like the boy he was. He is a decepticons, with every drop of energon in his body, and he knows it. (War changes people. Undeniably so.) If there is one thing he can, and wants to prevent though... there is one thing. The last kindness he can give, really. He is no longer Rafael “Raf" Esquivel. It has been over a million years, way, way over that, and time has the power to change and mold people. He is Soundwave now, but at the end of it all, there is one thing he can do.
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On this day, simultaneously Millions of years ago and in present day, a young boy was supposed to get hit by a small piece of debris and die. It was supposed to become a tragedy in proportions that changed persons fundamentally. Millions of years ago, that stray piece hit the boy. Today, it gets caught by skeletal servos, regarded with almost cold optics, before getting hurled in the total opposite direction. Down in the ravine, where the boy plays, he is none the wiser, oblivious to everything but his tiny toy car. For a moment, a deep sense of nostalgia envelops the Cybertronian standing silent vigil, then he turns around and opens a swirling Groundbridge. He did his part. Now, fate was back in Rafael Esquivel’s hands. He was just Soundwave. A bot who lived through the Pits of Kaon, a devastating civil war, masters technology with a wave of his hand, and who, once upon a time, was a small boy with tousled hair and the ability to understand a certain yellow Autobot.