#soundwaveweek2020

GUYS... it’s SOUNDWAVE WEEK!

So here’s a tapedeck and a spaceship in love.

“So, what, the war’s over and everybody can get on with their lives but the Decepticons?  That’s shit and you know it Prowl!”  Cosmos stamped his pede, and glared at the screen in front of them.

“The station is obviously a security risk, I would expect you to understand that Cosmos.”

“Frag you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said FRAG YOU.  You’ve never been here, you don’t know anything that happens here, and you certainly don’t know Soundwave!”

Prowl’s optics narrowed, “Oh, and you do?”

“Yeah, and he sure as hell doesn’t need to redeem himself to you!  And I’m not your damn spy anymore so you can stop treating me like one and go frag yourself.” Cosmos mashed the button to end the call, and growled at the black screen.  “Asshole.”

“Little autobot?”

Cosmos turned, and saw Soundwave int the doorway, “Oh, hey, Soundwave, sorry about that.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Cosmos ex-vented, “I will be.”

Soundwave walked over and hugged him.  “I don’t need to redeem myself, hm?”

“No, you don’t.  The war’s over, you’re trying to do something good here, and I know that.  I believe in you, even Prowl doesn’t.”

“Thank you, Cosmos,” Soundwave said quietly as he nuzzled the top of his partner’s helm.

“Hey, I’m tired, want to watch Netflix and chill?”

“...what is that?”

Cosmos laughed, “It’s something Rumble and Frenzy said to me earlier.  Apparently, it’s human slang for watching vids and relaxing.  I know they were being brats, but it does actually sound nice right now.”

“Kid, you better get back home, before you can’t anymore.”

The voice, low and purring, Soundwave recognized it.

“Ravage?”

He he sat up in a field of flowers.  They glowed faintly in the dim light.  Ravage brushed past him and set down in front of him, tail waving slowly from side to side.

“Come on kid.  Stand.”

“Ravage: Deceased.”

Ravage just laughed, “Yeah, I’m dead, where do you think you’re sittin’?”

“Soundwave: Deceased.”

“Not yet.  You’re right on the edge.  There’s still time.”

Soundwave reached out a servo, Ravage headbutted it gently.

“Ravage…”

“Not a lot of time, now come on.”

“But…”

Ravage sat back down again, staring at him, “Soundwave, we don’t have time for long good-byes.”

“I..I know,” Soundwave rose into a kneeling position and leaned forward wrapping the cassette into a hug, “Thank you.”

“Live well, you big blue dummy.  Be happy, and not for my sake either.  For yours.”

The world dissolved into a wave of white, and the next thing he heard was Cosmos’ voice.  “Soundwave!?!”

“Little spaceship.”

“Thank Primus,” Cosmos muttered, pushing him back down when he tried to sit up.  “You’re injured and don’t you dare fraggin’ move.”

As Cosmos commed for medical assistance, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw landed on his chest, and made it perfectly clear that he moved he was gonna have to deal with them too.

Rumble and Frenzy (as they often did) were having an argument.

“Pfft, besides everybody knows I’m his favorite.”

Rumble glared at his brother, “Nu-uh!  The boss doesn’t have any favorites!”

“Does too, and it’s me, so suck it Rumble!” he stuck out his glossa to further emphasize his point.

Rumble growled and tackled Frenzy.  They rolled around the floor a bit, bumping into the large berth in the corner of the room.  Ravage opened a lazy eye to see what had distrubed his rest, and when he saw it was ‘those two idiots’ again, he closed his eyes, turned off his audio receptors and went back to sleep.

It is new.

And unfamiliar.

But not the new and unfamiliar that scares him, that rubs against his spark like chaotic noises in his audios.

No, not like that at all.

It was much more like music.  Soft, and gentle.  He’d liken it to white noise, ever present, and helping to take the edges off the world, but it was far too distinct than that.

He can hear Cosmos’ melody humming in his spark no matter if his little spaceship is near or far.  No matter if he is safe in their berth on the Sanctuary Station or traveling in the cold vastness of space.

A side effect of the spark bond they now shared.

“Conjunx?”

“Yes, Soundwave?”

“...”

“Is something wrong?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“Wanted to hear your voice.”

“...Really?”

“Yes.”

Cosmos’ laughter is the sweetest sound he’s ever heard.  It adds a layer to the melody already playing between their sparks.

Soundwave is the most loyal Decepticon in existence.

I’ll be the first to admit that (privately, at least.)

So why isn’t he my second in command?  Why in the hell would I have promoted Starscream, but not my most loyal communication officer?

(Starscream’s own questionable merits aside.)

Soundwave is a loyal, trustworthy (if there were ever one) Decepticon, possibly the only one in my ranks.

The answer is simple.

The Decepticon cause may sit at the top of Soundwave’s priorities, but there is something higher.

Well, five somethings.

The mech would betray me in a heartbeat if I put any of his cassettes in danger.

And you can’t trust love.

Oh, but you can certainly trust selfishness.

And I can always trust Starscream to be a selfish bastard.  Putting himself first, in any circumstance, is a given.

But what would Soundwave do if something meant offlining one cassette or two to save another?

Would he be willing to let other Decepticons die in order to save even just one of them?

I don’t know.  I doubt Soundwave would know himself until such a circumstance arose.

Galvatron wasn’t Megatron.

He knew the rest of the Decepticons didn’t realize this, but he did.

Their minds were not the same.

There was the tiniest bit of overlap, Galvatron did have Megatron’s memories, or at least  some  of them.

But where Megatron’s mind had been rigid order, Galvatron was merely  chaos.

The mission had gone up flawlessly… up until the scientist handed him over as a present for the human sparkling.

Which is to say, Soundwave’s normal plan had gotten him into the right house, but not the man’s study or workshop or some other useful location.  Oh no, instead his was in a violently magenta room that made his processor spin just looking at it.

To make matters even worse.  He was stuck in his alt mode.  The first thing the child had done was chuck him at a wall.  (He was the wrong color apparently.)  Due to his mass shifted body and the unexpected force, this had managed to damage his T-cog, and now he couldn’t transform.

All of this would be fine, if he could com for help for one of his cassettes to retrieve him.  But he also couldn’t do that.  The Constructicons had deactivated his ability to com in his alt mode to keep the signals from being picked up by any nearby Autobots while he was undercover for this particular mission.

Which meant… he was stuck.

Not to mention this was deep cover mission, no one would even begin to look for him for at least a couple of weeks.

He knew he should have taken backup.