I Remember You

by Heliopauseentertainments

Summary:

In which Galvatron watches Soundwave die and experiences Megatron’s memory.

Part of MegaSound Week 2023 - Day 3: Shattered/Whole

Notes:

Crossposting: Tumblr | Dreamwidth

Galvatron had seen mechs torn asunder by explosions before. That was as straightforward as drinking fuel, nothing to balk at. It was natural in a war!

Yet as Soundwave’s functioning suddenly went from technology to physics, something… was different.

His spark froze as he stared at the viewscreen. His screams echoed off the base’s high walls.

Why?

Why did it matter?

Why did Soundwave matter? What was so different about this one offlining when none of his other soldiers mattered? Nothing but battle—victory—ever stirred his spark to feel anything.

Galvatron slammed his fists against the console as a deep, aching pain coursed through his spark, like half of it had been roughly hacked out. The paneling cracked and deformed, electricity arcing where he had broken the device’s circuitry.

The screen flicked instantly to black, banishing the image of his soldier’s shattered body. For good measure, Galvatron punched the glass.

Thoughts, familiar and yet foreign clawed their way forward from the depths of his damaged memories. Galvatron could not remember his own creation, only that there must have been something before that.

Flashes of laughter, of Soundwave’s obscured face, of black hands removing Soundwave’s mask and visor, of warmth and safety, of longing….

He shook out his hand, scattering the sharp shards of glass that had clung to his plating.

These thoughts, these memories… predated Galvatron. They belonged to someone else. To someone he had once been, answering to a name he could no longer recall.

Galvatron howled, ripping one of the monitors from the wall. The monitor shattered against the floor. Destruction was something he could control; it felt like the only thing he could control.

He pointed, optics unseeing in his fury, at the nearest Decepticon.

“Reclaim him! Now!”

If Galvatron had been reformatted, so could Soundwave.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of MegaSound Week Submissions