Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Heatwave couldn't help but tilt his head in confusion as Boulder, Graham, and the Greenes scribbled down notes and triple-checked the wiring and machinery for the newly built ground bridge. Even Cody was there to lend a hand.

Doc looked up at him, an excited grin plastered on his face, “We’re almost ready for a test run!”

“This ground bridge is a high priority.” Heatwave remarked, trying to conceal some of his worry. He’d never really understood how any of this stuff worked- besides all the things that could go wrong- and he couldn't help but feel concerned. He glanced at Chief, who gave him a reassuring look.

The control board comm speaker crackled to life- for the tenth time in the last hour. “Hey. Guys. Are you almost ready? We've been waiting forever.” whined Blurr.

The main point of engineering the ground bridge, under Optimus’s orders, was to create a link between the Firehouse and the currently under-construction Academy. Heatwave had watched Boulder and their gang of human scientists work for months on end to create the bridge, with both human and Cybertronian influences.

Before Heatwave could give a very irritated response, Graham quickly answered for him. “The ground bridge is nearly ready- tell Salvage to wait for my mark.”

“I hear ya loud and clear, Graham!” said Salvage. Heatwave heard a familiar squeal of excitement behind him, and turned to see Blades- with Chase, Dani, and Kade in tow. They chattered about how amazing it was gonna be to see the huge machine in action, even Kade seemed fairly interested.

As Boulder and the others finished up their safety precautions and final calibrations, the room got quieter. Graham stepped up to the control panel and began flipping up several switches and dials, and everyone watched as more and more lights began to flick on. Carefully, he rested his hand on one last lever. “Salvage, Blurr, are you guys ready?”

“Affirmative.”
“Yeah.”

“Alright. The first of the completed ground bridge commences in three, two… one!”

Graham slammed down the handle, and inched back as the circular channels sparked into action with a bright green light. Backing up, Heatwave and the others quickly placed themselves in front of the humans. The machine stabilized, and Heatwave swelled with pride for his teammates at the sight of the swirling portal. They had successfully engineered a ground bridge. He smiled and clapped a servo on Boulder’s shoulder.

Doc ecstatically spoke into the comm, “It’s a success on our end you two!”

A moment of silence crept through the air and promptly choked out their celebration. “What are you guys talking about? Our ground bridge just fizzled out.” answered a somewhat frantic Salvage, “....Your side of the bridge shouldn't be functioning.”

At that second, a burst of energy shook the room, and a loud roaring noise blasted through his audials. Right next to their ground bridge, had opened up another one- with a massive black vortex centered between them. Instantly, Heatwave and the others began to grab for their human friends, shoving them in their cabs and readying themselves. Boulder reached out to their control panel, and tendrils shot out of the darkness, knocking him aside.

Emerging from the shadowy void was a looming figure, who Heatwave instantly recognized as a fellow Cybertronian. Taking a final step out of the vortex, the other ground bridge promptly dissipated, and the one they had worked on finally wavered before following suit.

Marred but dark paint, dim purple biolights, several prehensile cables, and maybe most noticeable of all- a full-faced visor, shielding any view of possible faceplating. Heatwave’s mouth curled into a snarl, “Who in the Pit are you?” he snapped angrily, doing his best to conceal Kade and the Greene's within his cab. The mech cocked their head slightly at his words.

Boulder piped up, caution in his voice, “Why are you here? Are you okay?”

The mech stood silently for a moment, studying them. They took a step forward, and Chase’s siren quickly sounded off and he spoke in a loud, assertive tone. “Do not move, or I will not hesitate to detain you, stranger.”

Still silent, they stepped back. Heatwave took note of the grime and faded outline of some kind of insignia. Autobot or Decepticon. His jaw clenched tighter and his optics narrowed.

“Answer us.” he growled.

Biolights growing dimmer, the Cybertronian swayed in place, nearly collapsing. With a horrified gasp, Blades carefully removed Dani and Chief from his cab before rushing to the mystery mech’s side, hesitantly reaching to help him up. In a split second, a cable whipped itself around Blades’ outstretched arm and a thin servo grabbed ahold of him by his canopy. Before the other ‘Bots could react, however, the mech quietly passed out, sliding with a ‘thunk’ to the floor.

Hurriedly, Blades and the others took hold of the Cybertronian and worked towards hauling them back to their makeshift infirmary, only after Chase promptly cuffed them and relocated the humans for safety measures. Heatwave had to stop himself from angrily berating Blades for putting himself in danger like that. It was their duty to help those in need- and Blades was only doing what he thought best.

He exvented as they heaved them into the medbay slab, resting the mech on their back. Blades nervously gathered his medic equipment and began running diagnostics on them, and Chief Burns carefully entered the room.

“Whatever just happened, it fried a lot of the communications and knocked out power from most of the firehouse. It'll be a little while before we can get back in contact with Optimus.” he said. “That Cybertronian…. who are they?”

“I'm not sure. They only seemed hostile when we went to touch them or the ground bridge control panel, so I don't know if they're…. dangerous, or not. Keep everyone away from them until we give the all clear, I don't want anyone to get hurt.”

The older man nodded, and turned to look at their new arrival, brow furrowed. “Well, whoever they are, let's hope they'll be willing to explain things when they wake up. There must be quite the story behind all this.”

Heatwave glanced at Blades and Chase, who were monitoring their patient, and at Boulder, who was typing algorithm upon algorithm into a datapad.

“Yeah.” his gaze settled back to the figure resting on the slab and thought back to the horrifying black void they came from.

“Quite a story.”

Chapter Text

Deafening silence.

Stale air.

Exhaustion.

Hopelessness.

Soundwave collapsed into the dirt as his energy reserves finally ran dry. He felt Lazerbeak give a small twinge of comfort through their bond. He closed his optics, and thought of his Lord and his cassettes, waiting for him in the Allspark.

……

……

……

But nothing happened.

Shakily, the mech stood up, only to see his rusted-out chassis sprawled in front of him. He looked to his hands and found them translucent.

There was no escape from this hell- not even death.

Soundwave dropped to his knees, and screamed.

_______________________________

Blades tended to their uninvited guest's wounds as they lay on the medbay slab. They were severely depleted of energon, their plating and seams full of dust and dents. Their faceplate was badly cracked- Blades wanted to replace it- but knew that some Bots were very touchy about that sort of thing. He'd ask when they were awake.

Judging by their frame and very minimal kibble, he guessed they were some sort of flight frame- but what didn't add up were the hydraulic tendrils that sprouted from his spinal strut. Heatwave and Chase had restrained them with hardening foam- but with the way they'd grabbed his arm earlier, he wasn't sure how well it would hold.

Hooking them up to diagnostics lead to even stranger discoveries- it seems his spark has a strange double wavelength pattern!

As Blades hooked the stranger up to the energon infuser, he noticed their servos twitching erratically, sparks jumping from the cracks in their visor and fans kicking on abruptly. Blades took a tentative step forward, trying to get a closer look at his patient's visor, when the mech shot straight up from the slab.

They were trembling, with a thousand yard stare into the distance. Blades didn't need to see their face to know they were terrified. Gently, he reached out to touch the other mech’s hand. Autobot or Decepticon- it didn't matter to him right now. But as soon as his servo brushed against theirs, they jerked back. Blades watched their tendrils writhe weakly against the foam and raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm not gonna hurt you! I'm not gonna hurt you. You're only restrained right now because we don't know who you are- and- yknow, the whole 'creepy looking portal' thingie you came from."

Silence.

"Uhm, right now I'm getting you all fixed back up! My name is Blades! What's yours?"

More silence.

"Ooo-kay then, not very talkative I guess?" Blades nervously twiddled his fingers, "That's okay! One of my best friends doesn't talk a whole lot either! At least, in the conventional way."

Blades grabbed ahold of the energon line he was working with, the stranger following his every move. He exvented, and stepped towards them.

"I know you probably don't trust me right now, but you're running reeeally low on energon right now. Can I please see your intake so that you can refuel?"

The stranger stayed silent, and Blades felt their optics pierce his soul. They turned their gaze to the left side of their chassis, and a small port opened up along their hip.

Blades smiled wide, and gently hooked the line into the intake. As he made sure the line and connection were stable, he noticed the stranger staring bullets at him again.

"What's wrong?"

Using what little range of motion they had, the mech gestured to his chest. Following their servo, he saw they were referencing his insignia.

"Oh! This is my Rescue Bot autobrand!"

The stranger cocked their head to the side in suprise. Frowning, Blades took the moment to glance at their insignia

Too dented and rusted away to make heads or tails of. Darn.

Blades sighed. "You should rest for now- but my partners will be wanting answers when you're feeling better. Chase will probably want to use his 'deductive reasoning' skills on you."

But the stranger didn't stir. They stayed sitting up, watching Blades fiddle with instruments and readings.

Little to the copter-bot's knowledge- planning an escape.

Chapter Text

Soundwave watched the mech tap his servos idly as his optics flitted between a diagnostic screen and a small human television. He seemed to be very lax, compared to the last Autobots that had captured him.

Soundwave inspected the other Cybertronian closely.
His white paint and chassis were almost completely unmarred and pristine. No artillery or explosives were visibly integrated into his frame, nor were his servos or dentae sharpened. Nothing about this Autobot was battle-ready- his very behavior seemed naive and youthful.

But what bothered Soundwave more than his captors appearance, were his words. A Rescue Bot? The last unit of Rescue Bots either disbanded or were killed around the start of the war, over 4 million years ago. A scan of the room revealed nothing but medical and first aid equipment and supplies, all dated- but almost brand new in appearance.

Soundwave filed this information away for later as the mech hopped up from his seat and turned back towards him, his finials twitching excitedly for a moment. He gestured to his audial and mouthed "One sec!"

"Hey Boulder! How's the groundbridge stuff going?" he chirped happily.

"The stranger? He seems okay so far, but hasn't said much at all though. I've got him more or less stabilized!" Blades shot him a smile.

"....... Heatwave and Chase will be over soon? Alright, but tell them not to get their wires in a knot, I'm perfectly fine." He chided, resting a servo on his hip. Soundwave was at a loss for why this little autobot was so….. genuinely kind. For a moment it felt as though he was taken to a time before the horrors of the war had warped the emotions and morality of everyone it had touched.

"Okay! See you later!" Blades said as he hung up. "Okay, you- I need to grab a few things in the next room over, so no funny business. I'm sure once the others deem you safe, they'll let you loose, but for now you need to stay put. Um… Nod if you understand?"

Soundwave did so, and watched the door slide shut behind Blades as he left.

He waited for a moment, feeling his internal chronometer tick away the seconds. Then he strained his hydraulics against the strange restraints, feeling them begin to crumble. Once he was loose he would wire into the servers in front of him and search for his master, Megatron.

The door slid open suddenly and he froze. But instead of Blades, there stood a small human. Soundwave wanted to roll his optics and continue, but he knew from experience that humans were cleverer than they seemed, especially the juveniles. The young organic slowly edged closer, before waving cautiously. Soundwave simply watched as the boy clambered onto a nearby med-cart, a bit closer to optic level, and sat criss-crossed facing him.

"Hi there, my name is Cody… are you feeling okay?"

This boy was much like Blades, seemingly kind and somewhat naive. This might be a good thing, he thought. In his current state, he wouldn't be able to defend himself from 4 Autobots- but he might be able to escape if he distracted them with a hostage. Primus knows how much they love their little humans.

The boy watched him expectantly, and he responded with a shrug. His little face lit up at that, and he scooched forward a little closer.

"Don't worry, Blades is awesome! He's always fixing up the others when they get dinged up!" he reassured.

Soundwave gestured towards the cuffs around his servos, trying his best to look non-threatening. The action made him think of Starscream and he tried to ignore his distaste. If it meant finding Lord Megatron, Soundwave would do anything.

Cody peered at the energon cuffs with a sad, conflicted expression.

"I'm sure you're a nice person- once Chase and Heatwave see that, they'll take those off, I promise."

Soundwave lowered his servos back down and pointed to his chassis, and therefore Lazerbeak, instead. He had kept her in stasis while between dimensions, but now, with adequate fuel, he'd decided. It was time to wake up.

Lazerbeak's biolights flickered on and her fans whirred as she woke. Soundwave relayed her missing information, and his plan, via their bond and she acknowledged.

Cody was in awe as she unlatched from Soundwave's chassis with a click and transformed. Lazerbeak's seams creaked as she stretched her wings, her purple optics trained tightly upon the small human. She gave Soundwave a begrudging look, before hopping over to Cody with a sharp flap of her wings.

His symbiont towered over the boy, and he scrambled backwards from her. He looked nervous- Soundwave tensed, wondering if he'd ruined his plan- before Lazerbeak gently bowed her head.

Cody gingerly raised his hand and rested it on her head. Soundwave could feel her displeasure just looking at her. But Cody's face broke into a huge grin.

"Noble….." He whispered under his breath.

Soundwave exvented. If he'd learned anything from his years of scouring human databases and social media, it was never underestimate the human urge to pet other creatures.

Just as Soundwave was about to use the distraction to finally break free of the cable restraints, and grab the boy, he heard the loud footsteps of a Cybertronians. This set was much heavier than the copter-bot's, he thought, and quickly willed Lazerbeak back to him. She fluttered back to his slab and stealthily crawled back onto his chestplate with another satisfying click.

At that moment, a large red mech, bearing a Rescue Bot insignia, barged into the room. He wore a snarling frown upon his hinged mouth plate. But as he saw Cody, it faltered.

Just as Soundwave had thought. Emotionally attached Autobots and their little pet humans.

The mech's voice was stern, "Cody, what are you doing in here? I thought you were with Kade." He rumbled, as Cody sheepishly hopped down from the med-cart.

"He fell asleep and well…. I wanted to meet the new Bot! I promise, I wasn't gonna do anything dangerous." He exclaimed.

"It's not you, it's him that could be dangerous. We have no clue who he is, or where he came from."

"But Heatwave-"

'No buts, Cody, c'mon." Heatwave chided, stepping between the two and ushering him out. "We'll all talk about him later tonight, but for now we have to make sure he's not a threat."

Soundwave looked back at the boy and gave a small wave from his cuffs. Cody waved in return before leaving the room. Now it was just the two of them.

Heatwave whipped around and glared daggers at him. "Don't mistake our kindness for weakness. As Rescue Bots, we are responsible for helping others, but if I think for a second that you're a danger to my family, you'll be sorry." He growled, jabbing a finger at him, "Understood?"

Soundwave nodded curtly. He could play along.

Chapter Text

Heatwave grit his dentae, trying to ignore the jolt of fear he'd felt, seeing Cody by himself in a room with this strange mech. Chief Burns was aware of who and what the Decepticons were, but the others had been spared the nitty-gritty details. Heatwave couldn't recognize the mech from what scarce footage he and his partners had seen of the war. He knew Optimus was keeping them in the dark, trying to spare them the horrors of battle and the grim reality of how their former planet was destroyed. Despite his frustration- the initial feeling that Optimus simply considered him and his team incapable- Heatwave accepted that this was the Prime’s way of trying to protect them. He didn’t always agree with it, but he understood it.

Now, as they stood in front of the stranger, Heatwave kinda wished he'd brought Boulder along- even restrained to the medbay slab, the dark mech was significantly bigger than both him and Chase. The flat, angular planes of their limbs and lithe frame put him in mind of an aerial mode. The dark color scheme put him in mind of the Decepticons. But as Chase and Chief Burns would say, the mech was “innocent until proven otherwise guilty.” Heatwave ex-vented. They would be right. Just because he was worried about his family, didn’t mean their visitor should be treated any differently because they were an unknown Cybertronian.

Chase shook him from his thoughts as he filed in and stepped forward, datapad in hand. The mystery mech remained deathly still and silent as they watched him. Creepy.

"Greetings, my name is Chase, law enforcement officer of the Sigma-17 and Griffon Rock."

".........................."

Chase wasn't perturbed by the silence, "I ask that you please state your designation. Blades assures me that your vocalizer is fully intact."

Heatwave watched the mech's servos clench slightly, and prepared himself for retaliation- but it never came. The mech merely shook his head.

Heatwave grumbled a little. Due process would be much easier if it wasn’t a one-way conversation.

"Look, we're not here to interrogate you. We're Rescue Bots, we protect and help those in need- and right now I need to figure out if you're dangerous- or IN danger." He said, looking into the mech's cracked faceplate.

The only sound was the huff of an ex-vent, almost in humor, and Heatwave could feel his composure being tested when a small voice piped up from below.

"Have you guys considered that maybe he can't talk for some other reason?" Cody asked, peeking out from the medbay doors.

Heatwave felt his fuel pump stutter, "Cody! What'd I tell-"

"C'mon Heatwave- just hear me out!" he pleaded, “What if he’s like Evan and Myles?”

“Like who?” Heatwave grumbled, confused.

Chase perked up and cycled his optics, no doubt scouring his memory banks, “Ah! The delinquent twin brothers!” he exclaimed, “Evan, who is unable to communicate verbally, and his brother Myles, who would offer his own words. Not that he would communicate much either, he typically invokes his 5th amendment rights rather swiftly.”

Heatwave looked back up to the mech on the slab. “Is he right? There’s some other reason you can’t talk to us?”

The blank visor remained still for a moment, and Heatwave nearly gave up, when the mech finally nodded in confirmation. He squinted in suspicion, but accepted it.

Cody took the opportunity to walk back into the room fully, closer towards the mech than Heatwave (or Chase, judging by the way his teammate stiffened) was exactly comfortable with. The boy looked small in comparison to him, let alone this stranger who would’ve stood at chin-height to Optimus Prime. Unbothered, Cody smiled up at them, to which the mech merely adjusted their gaze downward.

“If you can’t speak, there’s gotta be some other way you can talk to us… maybe you could write? Or use binary, like Bu-”

Heatwave watched as the mech’s visor lit up like a datapad, the damage causing it to glitch and spark a little. He braced himself, shifting himself slightly to snatch Cody up if the mech made any sudden moves, when they let out a familiar voice. Several of them.

“I- Will- Communicate. This. Way.”