Work Text:
Megatron sat on his throne; his head in his hands, a migraine building by the minute, with a pained expression on his face. He was alone in the room, he had ordered everyone to leave, and he was waiting on his two commanding officers to arrive. He spent these few, quickly depleting minutes trying to choose his words for the smelting pit of a conversation he was about to have. He had no expectations of any of this being received well.
_____
"Lord Megatron," Soundwave announced his greeting as he entered the room.
Sound wave was the first to arrive. He came as soon as he received the summon for the sudden meeting, feeling wary at the specific request to leave his minicons behind. Megatron rarely requested such a thing, knowing it was more efficient to have the minicons in the room when being assigned tasks, and that it made Soundwave feel more comfortable. He didn't like the light, empty feeling of his tape deck and he wanted to get the meeting done as soon as possible.
"Soundwave, glad you're here."
"Query: why did you request this meeting with such urgency, when there have been no reports of anything concerning?"
"I.... I'll tell you when Starscream gets here."
Whatever the reason for the secrecy, it was bound to come out sooner than later, thanks to the ever "trustful" Starscream on spreading "gossip" when he was in a good mood.
Starscream came in twenty-five minutes later, picking at his retracted claws, and not even looking apologetic.
"Couldn't this have waited for another hour? I just finished polishing my servos," the SIC commented, tone drenched in boredom.
Soundwave read the seeker's mind and could see that the brat chose to paint his claws as soon as Megatron had requested them. "The rust bucket could wait for me if this unscheduled meeting was SO important," the seeker thought, Soundwave could feel the pettiness and the joy the brat felt from his choices.
Soundwave withheld his thoughts on the SIC, just as he usually did, and brought his focus to his leader; who looked like he was suffering from a head injury. The TIC never liked to dive into his leader's mind out of respect, but he couldn't help but pick up the very prominent thoughts from the other.
"Scrap. Scrap. Scrap. Scrap. Scrap. SCRAAAAAAP!!! Just- just get it over with!" Soundwave didn't like the distress he was getting from the mech.
Megatron took a deep, long vent and lifted his head to look at his two officers. "It has come to my attention that you both need to know about something. Something that I just learned of," his voice was strained like it took so much effort to get the words out.
At the tone, even Starscream looked up from his drying servo to look him over.
Soundwave could feel Megatron's hesitancy to speak, and he felt traces of deep-rooted regret that the mech was trying to hide.
"Uuuugh, alright. I'm going to tell you a story, and I want you both to take this seriously," Megatron leaned forward as he moved his hands to gesture the importance of this story.
Both Starscream and Soundwave gave him their full attention, and that made it harder for Megatron to continue. But he pushed on nonetheless.
"There was once... once two bots. Both lived different lives in the cast-system their corrupted society assigned them to. One was put to work recording, organizing, and storing information in the great hall of knowledge. The other was put to work in hard labor; mining for fuel, usable metals, and other resources. Two very separate sides of their society.
Despite the odds, they met each other by accident, but they talked to each other. They developed a friendship, built on trust and mutual interests. They talked about their lives and how different they were to each other's; and how they agreed that it wasn't right to be forced to do something your entire life just because of what you were built to do.
So, they decided to do something to change things. Together they gathered bots from everywhere to support their cause to change for a better future. And slowly, day by day, their relationship grew into something more. The archivist proposed one day to the miner and they held their union in secrecy; since their coupling was forbidden in their society," Megatron had a weak smile as he spoke of the two.
He seemed to be fond of this story. Soundwave didn't see why this story was relevant, though he knew it was an odd story. He knew that before the great war started, there was a caste system in place that prevented those on the bottom from basic rights, and those at the middle or top to keep their political power. A story like this would have been quickly destroyed by politics and war if it was told in their planet's golden age. Soundwave was constructed at the end of the golden age and the start of the war began; he never witnessed what the caste system was like, and those early memories were fuzzy due to tens of thousands of centuries of brutal war.
Starscream seemed to agree with Soundwave about the story's origins. "How is this story relevant to anything? I can't tell if you're trying to tell us an old folklore, or you're stalling to tell us the point of this meeting," Starscream groaned.
Soundwave knew Starscream was also constructed at the beginning of the war and, though he didn't agree with his choice of words, he was glad the seeker spoke both of their minds.
"I'm getting to it," Megatron snapped. "As I was saying, the two bots gathered a massive following of supporters; they had organized a meeting with the Autobot high council to present their case and their meeting would be broadcasted to the whole planet. They had a month to prepare for the meeting and they knew that if they faltered in any way, the corrupted high council could easily have had them melted down to spare parts.
And so, they decided to... enjoy each other, while they still could. The closer the day for the meeting got, the more recklessly the two bots acted with each other. And one day... .... the miner woke up one morning to find two spark-buds attached to their spark," Megatron seemed to cringe as he spoke about the spark buds.
Soundwave denied himself to dive deeper into his leader's mind to find out why; his respect for the mech gave him strength in his choices. A glance at Starscream, and he could see that the seeker didn't understand either; his helm tilted, hip hitched up with a hand resting on said hip, and his optics squinted.
"Idiots," Starscream mumbled.
Soundwave could feel Starscream's boredom growing. The telepath was getting anxious to get to the point of the story; Megatron said he was telling them something important yet he tells a highly unlikely love story and their mistakes. There had to be a reason he would tell them in the first place.
"The miner," Megatron continues, though notably more reluctant to do so. "- knew that having sparklings at the time was a terrible idea,"
"At least he sees his screw-up," Starscream commented; crossing his arms and fighting the urge to tap his ped in impatience.
"He knew that it was terrible timing," Megatron glared at his SIC. "He and the archivist never talked about having sparklings before. And with the meeting with the Autobots in a little more than a week, he didn't want to give his conjunx more stress to worry over.
So......
....he decided to keep them a secret from them. And the day before the meeting, the miner went to the construct-facility and gave up their sparklings and never looked back."
The words sounded heavy in Megatron's voice; his posture slumped and his face was lined with poorly hidden sadness. Grief, regret, and self-loathing were all projected from the mech. That was a very strange reaction to a story. Starscream and Soundwave shared a look; both reassuring themselves that they witnessed the same thing.
"The meeting with the Autobots' high council ended with betrayal. While the miner had stated his intentions of getting equal treatment by bloodshed if he had to, the archivist proposed a different idea, a democracy. That suggestion divided the two in the Council's gaze and they favored the archivist more than the miner. The council gave the miner and their followers their collective name: Decepticons.
And so, after that day, the great war began and the two bots never reconciled." Megatron said, sadness and pain clear in his voice.
It was quiet for a moment, what the Decepticon leader said floated in the air. Then Starscream erupted "That's it? This whole time you were giving us your pitiful back story? Seriously?! What was the point of all that?!"
"Soundwave: unfortunately, concurs with Starscream's opinion. Sees no relevant information to current problems." Soundwave couldn't help but agree.
"I didn't need to know your tragic love life, lord-rust-for-brains. If you seriously called both of us in here to tell us that useless confession then maybe you aren't suitable to continue leading the Decepticons." Starscream gazed at Megatron with disapproval.
Soundwave didn't agree to that extent.
Megatron looked at both of them and made a drawn-out sigh; holding his helm in his servo again. "I haven't gotten to the point yet. Do you remember the two spark-buds? I... you- to submit a new spark to get its first frame, you have to fill out your and your partner's ID code to ensure that the new bots recognize their creators. I...I neglected to fill out that part of the information for the program.
I didn't want my offspring to be targeted if the meeting ended in death. And as I said I never looked back. The new-spark facilities back then always had a waiting list where they prioritized the upper-class mech first and rarely let the lower class, like me, procreate. This is why families would build their frames from scratch so they can give their offspring a frame quicker. But during the war, the facility was destroyed, and all the new sparks were extinguished." The weight of the statement was palpable.
Soundwave remembered that. He remembered feeling grief for those lost sparks and feeling guilty for the relief he felt remembering he was just leaving the facility when it happened. Soundwave sensed Starscream's recollection of the tragedy too; though he was older when it happened.
"I thought my sparklings were lost when that happened, and have ever since. Until..."
The pause suddenly shot ice through Soundwave's spark. The pieces of the puzzle start to connect. No... It couldn't be. Yes, there was no ID number for him to identify his creators, yes the new-spark facility he was constructed in was destroyed; but that didn't mean that he... was...
Soundwave glanced at Starscream who was frozen with a fearful look on his face. No, it can't be him too! Megatron continued.
"Recently, I had Hook do system checkups on all of our soldiers, including you two, and myself. While I was having mine done today I noticed that both of yours were displayed on a monitor with the combiners looking and muttering about it. When I questioned why they were making a fuss about you two they said you both shared CNA, which means that you two are siblings."
Soundwave couldn't believe it. He. Was related. To frAGING STARSCREAM?! He was trying his damndest to keep his composer; to stop himself from shaking. That was more he could say for Starscream; who was clearly on the verge of hysterics. Body shaking, the panicked mumbling of denial, and the increasing rapid venting.
"And, " Oh Primus, what now?! "Though I didn't put our IDs in the program, your Sparks admission date and time were included in your files. And they match the same date I gave up my creations. So..."
Starscream's panicked mumbling and hyperventilating were suddenly silenced; then he leaned back and passed out on the floor with a heavy thud. Soundwave wasn't too far off to join him, but he remained stoic. He denied that his visor was glowing bright red with panic; denied that his servos were shaking like a leaf; and he was definitely not fighting off the urge to scream and wail in horror. Nope. Not him.
"I knew he wouldn't take it well," Megatron shifted his gaze from the unconscious Starscream to his only standing officer. "I need both of you to go back to Medbay so Hook can do a CNA test to make sure I'm right. But it's highly likely."
Soundwave dreaded that he might throw up.
"I don't even know how to break it to Prime. I know he won't be thrilled, either."
It was like an asteroid the size of the Nemesis landed directly on top of Soundwave and killed him with how fast his body hit the floor after that.
Megatron gazed at his, most likely, children and thought: I'm too old to be a parent.