Shadows Cast

by Scythio

Summary:

Soundwave's nearing the end of his time, in the Shadowzone, causing him to reflect upon his choices, his emotions, his loyalty. But when he gets rescued, he doesn't know what to do, in this world of peace and recovery.

Expect changes to rating, tags, and warnings as I continue writing this.

Chapter 1: Prologue: Final Thoughts

He knew he was fading.

 

Yet, he continued to climb. Soundwave could hear the shrieks of the creatures hunting him, here in the Shadowzone. Running on minimal fuel, he was too weak to fight them, so he was trying to reach a hiding place in a cliff. He managed to reach the cave he was looking for, and heaved himself up, before collapsing on the ground.

 

He was starving. Dying. Unable to do anything except lay on the ground.

 

Is this how I die? Starved? Alone? Afraid?

 

Skittering claws down below. A predator’s triumphant shriek. Soundwave’s optics began to dim.

 

Megatron, please. I have been your most loyal!

 

More footsteps. More shrieks. Soundwave managed to roll onto his stomach. A feeble attempt to protect Laserbeak.

 

Please, Megatron! I’ve done everything for you! I’ve lost everything for you!

 

Feral growling. Metal against stone. Fangs, grinding and gnashing. The world grew darker.

 

Megatronus! I beg of you, for our-

 

A clawed talon. Black liquid, dripping. A sharp pain in his back.

 

For my love.

 

Soundwave was dying, alone. What a fool, he told himself, to think that his Megatron would return, that his Megatron would end the war and build a family with him. What a fool, to think the Dark Energon hadn’t corrupted Megatron’s every thought. What a fool. His optics dimmed, his mind slipping into unconsciousness. Soundwave was dying.

 

Alone.

 

In deafening silence.

 

His body slumped.

 

A few seconds later, the cavern lit up with a bright green light, and displaced air howled in the space. The creature feeding on Soundwave ran away, screeching in fear as blasts rocked its body. A regal voice rang out.

 

"Ratchet! Ready the medbay! Soundwave is in critical condition!"

Chapter 2: II - Waking Up

Summary:

Soundwave wakes up in the infirmary, confused and weak.

Soundwave was waking up. He didn't understand how, but he was waking up, albeit slowly. Visual optics are offline, but functional. Audio sensors, booting up, functional. Secondary processor, online, functional. Fuel tank, low, but being fed by a dire-

Wait.

Someone's talking.

Soundwave's audials weren't booted up enough to decipher the speech, but someone was definitely talking. The spymaster focused all his spare processing power to his audials, he needed awareness, the spymaster couldn't be afford to be caught off-guard, especially in such a vulnerable state. All he could use was information, and he had very little information right now.

" -conflicted over this. I'm operating on Soundwave, for Primus's sake! He's dangerous! Cunning! Sneaky! He should be in a prison medbay, not a common infirmary!" Crabby, old, annoying. Reference files define this voice as Ratchet's. Not a good sign, it most likely meant Soundwave was in Autobot custody.

"Well -" Deep voice. Confident. Reference files point to no good. "Soundwave is canny and resourceful, yes, but he's also loyal, and honest in his own way. He was one of the original leaders of the Decepticon movement, and a master of coordination."

Great. Optimus Prime, the leader and poster boy of the Autobots was here, probably to interrogate him again. He'd just wipe his drives again, and have Laserbeak back him-

Laserbeak.

Laserbeak wasn't connected to him.

Laserbeak wasn't responding to his pings.

What, in Primus's name, have they done to Laserbeak?

Soundwave lurched up, skipping startup procedures and forcing his optics online. All he could see was blobs of color, but that was all he needed.

"Oh, slag! Sou- " The spymaster's datacable cut Ratchet off, surging with a speed no injured mech should possess. He had managed to pin Ratchet to the wall, but didn't have the strength to lift him off the ground. Another mech stood to Soundwave's right, the blobs of color telling him it was Optimus, so he lashed out with his second cable, using specs from his secondary processor to find Optimus's neck. However, when he expected to feel the reinforced protoform of the neck, he instead felt a servo gripping the cable. Slag. The Prime held it with ease, too strong for Soundwave to retract his cable from the servo.

"Soundwave, please calm yourself. You are gravely injured and malnourished, we are only trying to help you." Oh yes, of course. The Autobots, whom he has been fighting for four million years, whom have taken his only living symbiont from him, are trying to help him. He'll accept that.

"I know a mech as prepared as you has a database, check it for how I've treated Decepticons in the past. We won't hurt you." Sources pulled from Soundwave's stores confirmed Optimus's claim, but Soundwave also remembered how the Autobots fought in the field. Killing dozens of Vehicons at a time, without second thought. He withdrew the datacables, but kept them coiled outside of their chambers.

A couple of pings rang in Soundwave's systems, and he shuttered his optics a couple of times, to finalize the startup process and increase the resolution to an actually reliable state. He turned his head to look at Optimus... before turning his head lower, because the Prime was shorter now. That was odd. It was definitely Optimus though, holding that same pompous stance and the ridiculous color scheme.

"Don't do that again you little fragger! If I wasn't bound to my oath, I'd take off your datacables!" A wrench angrily tapped Soundwave's visor, and Soundwave played an audio clip of a growl in return, but it took a few more nanokliks than it should have to find the file. That was noted as a probable, but still worrying side effect of malnutrition. Spies need to be fast, after all.

"Fine, you don't like that. Don't get prissy at me about it." Soundwave internally noted to add 'slightly less annoying that Knock Out' to Ratchet's dossier. Back to the matter at hand, however.

"/Where is/ Laserbeak?/"

"Right here, on this berth." Optimus stepped to the side and gestured behind him, towards an unconscious Laserbeak. Almost immediately, Soundwave sent his datacables to check on the symbiote, reading all the diagnostics he could get. Everything checked out, except for one thing.

"/Why/ in medical/ stasis?/" His armor began to bristle, flaring from him reaching the tipping point of his anger. Ratchet took a step back from Soundwave's berthside.

"We can't fuel her, and her energon levels are around 30%. We put her in stasis in fear of her fuel running out, so we're doing our best to make sure you recover to the point of feeding her yourself, but" Ratchet glanced at the line dripping energon directly into Soundwave's fuel lines, and moved behind a medical machine to grab something. In the meanwhile, Soundwave scooped Laserbeak up with his cables and opened up his dock for her, bringing her in so he could fuel her. However, Optimus snatched Laserbeak, and Soundwave was sent into a fit of rage. Datacables flew everywhere, striking medical equipment and Prime alike, thrashing in anger. How dare he take Laserbeak, how dare he touch her! Give her back! Give her back!

"Soundwave, stop!" Urgency and calmness were blasted into Soundwave's EM field, briefly suppressing his extreme anger, a trick only medics could use. "You can't feed her yet, you're contaminated!"

Soundwave froze, slowly turning his head to look at the medic.

"/Contaminated/" Ratchet blinked at the sound of his own voice being played back, but understood Soundwave's meaning. He pulled out the vial he was looking for.

"This-" Soundwave's optics widened in fear. Their sparkbeat began to quicken.

" -currently makes up about 13% of your fuel line contents."

No. No, it can't be true. He wasn't- That wasn't-

"I have no idea what it is, but"

Screeches filled Soundwave's helm. Fear flooded his spark.

Please. Please don't say it.

"it's inside of you."

In Ratchet's hand was the roiling, black blood of the beasts of the Shadowzone.

In Ratchet's hand was Soundwave's blood.

Notes:

Happy Pride! I don't think you can notice from the everything about my writing, but my enter key's quite worn.

Chapter 3: III: Falsities and Fears

Summary:

Soundwave realizes how much he truly missed.

Optimus couldn't help but be unnerved at how still Soundwave became. The spymaster went berserk when Optimus took Laserbeak away from him, striking and thrashing with his datacables. But when Ratchet broke the news of Soundwave's odd infection, the spymaster went limp. Ratchet immediately checked the medical monitors to check up on Soundwave's internals.

"His EM field is reading shock, but the fragger's somehow managed to draw it within his frame, so I can't transmit any comfort to him." Anger had quickly left Ratchet's frame, his medical instincts calming him in front of an obviously traumatized mech.

"Can you get over here, Optimus? I need to check his back, and I'm not the four-armed medic I long to be." Inactive datacables had laid on the ground, causing Optimus to watch his feet and take tentative steps over them, returning Laserbeak to its berth before moving to help Ratchet. Delicately lifting and leaning Soundwave forward, Optimus wasn't even sure if he was conscious, getting no reaction from the injured mech. 

After a few minutes and some light grumbling and prodding, Ratchet had confirmed that Soundwave's fits did not tear or break his medical patching. A ping had sounded from Optimus's comm, telling him he had a list of questions from Ratchet to ask Soundwave while the medic focused on medical readings and reports nearby.

"Alright, Soundwave. I, well, I have some questions for you. You do not need to answer if you don't want to, but these are all related to your... condition" Smooth, Optimus. Primus, he did not have the nuance.

"Firstly, do you know the substance that has infected you?" A small chirp had garnered Optimus's attention, and he noticed that Soundwave had typed his answers across his visor.

[Recognize: affirmative. Understand: negative]

"Understood. Are you able to tell me where you specifically recognize it from?"

[Source: Unready to be revealed.]

"Is there a reason for why you are not telling me?"

[Soundwave: processing information, formulating theories.]

"Soundwave, tell me. Are you... afraid?"

---

 

What? Why did the Prime bother getting all emotional? His soft tone was nowhere near intimidating, and the two were on opposing sides of a war. 

"Soundwave, we promise that we'll help you recover from this infection. We'll do everything we can to keep you healthy." Yeah, sure. And after that? The Autobots were his enemy, they were the symbol of Cybertron's corruption. Soundwave wasn't interested in being interrogated, imprisoned, or used by the Autobots.

[Treatment: Refused.]

"What? Why?" Oh, wipe that surprised look off your face, Optimus. You know why.

[Soundwave: loyal to Decepticon cause. Autobots: enemies of the Decepticons. Autobots: treat Soundwave in return for betrayal. Soundwave: refuses to betray Decepticon cause. Autobots: kill Soundwave.] Optimus continued to look stunned, before adopting an expression full of pity.

"Soundwave... there are no Autobots nor Decepticons anymore. The war is over."

What? No, that couldn't be right. The war could never be over. Megatron would never surrender. Soundwave knew him, even in his Dark Energon-crazed state. Soundwave knew that Megatron would have to... he would have to...

The chill of the Shadowzone entered Soundwave's chassis. He felt some sort of fluid run down his dentae, dripping out of his intake. He saw the world turn gray. Ratchet had yelled something, and Soundwave faintly registered a prick in his neck, but none of this mattered. None of it outweighed the dread in his spark, the thought in his processor.

Megatron had to be dead.

Notes:

Oops.

Anyways, if you hadn't read it yet, I recommend 'Let Me Hear You Whisper' by Scancrasher. Its another Megasound fic, and I highly enjoy it.

Notes:

Thanks for reading! Please comment with critiques if you have any, they really help! Just stay constructive, please.