Chapter Text
This was not how it should have happened.
Broken lights flickered, showering the hallway in sparks. Smoke and dust clouded the air, filling the room with a glowing haze. Soundwave held a hand to his head as he sat upright, trying to process the scene before him. He looked down the hallway, gazing at the broken doors and collapsed ceiling, trying to remember what happened.
How did it end up this way?
Sure, it was an oddly strategic attack from several autobot ships, but what was anyone doing fighting over a barren rock in fringe space? It was strange. He remembered everything, but it had all happened so quickly that it felt like he had just woken up to a different world entirely. So much time had gone by since the decepticons' last defeat that it was hard to believe he was already on another warship. It only felt like yesterday he'd escaped the Shadowzone.
That had been stressful enough. Trapped on Earth alone while the other remaining decepticons were somewhere on Cybertron, he had spent almost all of his waking hours trying to figure out how to hail the Nemesis, or searching for energon just to survive. After all, he was lightyears away from his home. Summoning a portal was not as simple as sending coordinates to the ship's computer. Even with subspace relays, some frequencies failed to escape the parallel dimension he had found himself in. Days of hopeless isolation had become weeks, which soon became months. It was unpleasant, to say the least.
But his salvation came in an unusual form.
An urgent message drove him back to consciousness, from the quiet pondering he frequently lost himself in. He glanced at the data displayed on his visor before him, and jolted upright. A groundbridge portal had been formed somewhere, but judging by the distortion and weakness of the detected signal, it was too distant for him to fly to on his own.
Regardless of whose portal it was, though, he had to get to it.
He stood up, jumping into the air to transform, and flew out of the cave that had become his home. He had prepared for this scenario many times in his mind.
Soundwave flew toward the peak of the mountain he had inhabited, and transformed again to settle back onto the ground. He looked down at his feet, noticing the powdered snow he stood in. It was still strange to him that water fell from the sky in a form as fine as dust, but that was beside the point. He sent out a communication signal, not really filled with anything of substance, but flagged as a distress call.
He wasn't betting on the receiving party reading the message, given that it was most likely the autobots. Now, he waited. He looked down at the ground again, reaching down to scoop up some of the snow in his hands. Cybertron had no weather, and had no seasons. He had long thought that any planet that did was subject to chaos. But how was it that the chaos of a blue planet spawned life, and caused such delicate powder to fall from the sky? He let his hands drop to his sides, suddenly overcome with fatigue. With little to live on, he had little energy to spare, and flying even a short distance took a lot out of him.
But a familiar sound suddenly crackled to life, and he watched as a green portal formed before him. Two forms stepped through; Smokescreen and Wheeljack. Soundwave stood motionless for a moment, watching as the two autobots scanned their surroundings, looking directly at him but failing to see him. Such was the curse of the Shadowzone. He ran toward the portal, passing through and finding himself in a small clearing, in the center of which rested Ultra Magnus's ship.
With a purely mental sigh of relief, he stepped toward it. The curse of the Shadowzone had now become his blessing. After all, he knew the autobots now resided on Cybertron, and he now had a way to get there completely undetected.
The ship was more spacious than it looked from the outside, and Soundwave spent some time merely wandering around, inspecting its computer systems while Ratchet stood silently beside him, monitoring communication frequencies. It was strange, because while he could see and hear everything the autobot did, he was unable to sense any electromagnetic aura. Although, on second thought, that was probably for the best, since it further reduced any chance that they could detect him in turn.
It wasn't long before the radio came to life with Smokescreen's voice.
"I've scanned every pebble out here, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. Are you sure you calibrated this thing right?"
Ratchet's head tilted back as he let out an annoyed sigh, or groan, or something in between. The tone of his voice was appropriately condescending.
"If you haven't found anything, then come back. Whoever it was probably fled."
Wheeljack broke his silence, interjecting his comment soon enough after Ratchet's that the beginning of his own was cut off.
"- Just gonna leave a rogue 'con here?"
"Of course not. But we need better tracking methods than two scouts wandering around with scanners."
Smokescreen responded a moment later. "They couldn't have gone far by now though. This is the best chance we've got right here!"
"Need I remind you," Ratchet replied, "that the only decepticon known to still be on Earth is Soundwave?"
"Uhh..."
Wheeljack quickly interrupted the following silence. "Come on, you're not afraid of such a coward, are you?"
Soundwave himself looked toward Ratchet, eager to hear his response. Even though he felt no aura, he could see a trace of nervousness in the autobot's eyes.
"Soundwave is the second most capable decepticon to have ever lived."
The blue figure smiled slightly behind his visor, speaking in a quiet voice considering no one around him could hear.
"Then that's the second best compliment I've ever gotten."
Wheeljack's voice turned slightly annoyed as he responded.
"So what? We did capture him once."
"Just get back here."
"Whatever you say, doc."
Ratchet promptly buried his face in one hand, sighing again.
He had briefly known Ratchet before the war, but the medic had never left a good impression on him. Although, to be fair, it seemed Ratchet never left a good impression on anyone. But, even before the fateful council meeting that changed the course of history, it was clear there were ideological differences between Orion Pax and Ratchet, and Megatron, Soundwave, and Starscream. In truth, both sides wanted the same thing; a reformation of Cybertronian society to abolish the caste system. The difference was that the autobots were willing to compromise for it, and the decepticons weren't. But Ratchet was always somewhat strange in his beliefs. Even though he clearly hated Megatron and all that the decepticons had done throughout the past, he seemed to also resent the autobots for similar reasons; being that their methods were ineffective, and their motives were clouded by bias. By loyalty, he was an autobot, but by ideology, he was neutral.
When the other autobots arrived back at the ship, they seemed more annoyed than anything else. Had they been trying to track down the other decepticons?
Smokescreen seemed to hover beside Ratchet, but Wheeljack was content isolating himself toward the back of the ship among some energon cubes. Soundwave remained beside Ratchet as well, watching what he was doing, but after a few moments, the medic turned to Smokescreen, snapping at him with an irritated tone.
"Do you need something from me?"
The younger autobot backed away suddenly, stuttering slightly.
"I-uhhh.. no sir."
He sat down on a small bench, his posture straight and attentive, but fidgety enough to give away his nervousness. Ratchet shook his head, his voice turning quiet.
"I'm... sorry. It's just-"
"I get it, don't worry. We'll find something."
They were trying to track down the others.
The ship lifted off the ground a few moments later, and the occupants all soon settled into the tranquility of the flight. Soundwave in particular found the sound of the engine calming, which was the very reason he had chosen the unusual quarters on the Nemesis that he had. On a warship there was no silence, so the best way to escape the sounds that would otherwise overwhelm him was with white noise, and the ship's engine was perfect for it. He had grown accustomed to the sound and its predictable variances, so while the sound of this engine was unfamiliar, it was similar enough to have the same effect. He moved to the bench across from Smokescreen and laid down, his starving mind craving sleep again.
One question plagued his thoughts, though, persistently enough to keep him awake: Why were the autobots back on earth? They owned Cybertron now. Granted, there were still energon deposits and probably some stray relics here, but it seemed a waste of their limited resources.
Ratchet finally moved from his post and sat down across from Smokescreen as well, phasing through Soundwave's legs in order to do so, but he lacked the energy to care. The medic looked somber, but determined at the same time, like he was planning something.
"Tell the council they're traitors."
Smokescreen looked up, seeming to take a moment to process his words.
"Wait, what? You're not giving up on them, are you?"
"What do they expect me to do? They charged me with the death of an entire planet. Now they want me to make up for it even though it was us who restored it? They were too afraid to come down here and fight, and I don't think they have the right to order me to do anything."
"But... what else can we do? They control all of Iacon at this point."
"You're saying I should give in?"
"Well... you don't have too much of a choice. I mean..."
"This is the start of the war all over again. We all agreed that we needed to challenge the council, we just didn't agree on how."
"Yeah, but Optimus won. What would he say?"
Ratchet looked off into the distance for a moment.
"He would tell me to give in, too. To keep the peace, to cooperate. But he was always soft like that."
"Soft? I've seen him singlehandedly pummel the scrap out of decepticons!"
"But I've lost count of the number of times he spared Megatron's life. He was always making excuses like 'if we turn violent against them, we'll be no better than them'."
Soundwave sat up slightly. Ratchet was using the past tense when referring to Optimus. Could it be?
"Which I agree with in principle," Ratchet continued, "but when you've seen the injuries firsthand, watched the eyes of autobots as their sparks fade... When is it enough?"
Smokescreen seemed to tense up, as though he was in over his head with the depth of the conversation.
"I mean... he and Megatron were like brothers before the war, right?"
"I lost friends to the decepticons too, Smokescreen. But even as well as I knew any of them, I would still have killed them if they'd had enough second chances as Megatron's had, and wasted."
The air went silent for a few tense moments, until Smokescreen spoke hesitantly, avoiding looking at Ratchet.
"So... What are you going to do when we get back to Iacon?"
"I'll leave."
"The city?"
"If they're going to punish me for a crime I didn't commit, then I'm not going to live under their rule."
Wheeljack seemed to hear at least the last part of the conversation, given that he stepped out of the back room to look toward them.
"You're not really going to bail on us, are you?"
Ratchet stood up, looking toward Wheeljack with eyes both threatening and desperate.
"I sided with Optimus and Megatron before the war because the Council was mistreating its citizens. I'm not about to have half of my life go to waste by settling with the exact kind of society we tried to change in the first place!"
The room went silent again, and Soundwave turned to face Ratchet. Although the autobot could not see him, he still saluted somewhat with a clenched fist held to his chest. Ratchet had just voiced every criticism of the autobots that Soundwave himself had voiced, along with Megatron. Even as much as he wanted to kill the autobot, he did hold a certain respect for the one who essentially held his own position on the other side of the war. That, and the war was over now. The Cybertronian race had dwindled to an unsustainable population long ago, and there was no future left to fight over.
As Shockwave would probably say in this situation, it was no longer logical to wage war. Thus, the usually silent decepticon spoke again.
"Even if they will not accept you for what you believe, we will."
As he reclined again following the other autobots in their nervous failure at seeming calm, his thoughts turned back to Shockwave. He had seemed to forget about the frightful scientist until then. While he and Shockwave had rarely interacted before the day the scientist was stranded on Cybertron, they had always seemed to work well together, precisely because of their rare interaction. Both of them were only focused on what immediately needed their focus, and both thrived in an environment quieter than the social hell most other decepticons usually provided.
Once Shockwave returned to the Nemesis, however, they both seemed to grow even more comfortable in the others' presence. Maybe that was due to the condensation of the decepticon movement to a warship from an entire city, but part of him always suspected that Shockwave had grown to need his company after being isolated for so long. After all, he was the only decepticon the scientist seemed to tolerate for any length of time.
His mind dwelled on Shockwave for only a moment before sleep consumed him again, considering he was finally on the path to be soon reunited with whatever remnants of the decepticons remained.
And, if things went right, Ratchet among them.
A small jolt woke him up some time later, and he heard the engines die down, As Soundwave sat upright, the autobots seemed to gather every weapon they had, walking past him as they did so. Ratchet had returned to his normal antisocial state, evident by the tone his voice carried.
"If you think anything is off, come back. We have no way of fighting an insecticon hive on our own."
Smokescreen replied as he fitted the phase shifter to his arm. That damned relic had become something of a signature weapon to him, one that he didn't even deserve.
"I'd hate to run from a fight but... got it."
He activated the device, causing its unique hum as he began punching the air in his usual naive style, his hands phasing through the walls of the ship and through Ratchet. Soundwave stood up to walk past him, however, only to be stopped as Smokescreen's arm came into contact with his own. Both mechs froze, one more confused by the scenario, whereas Soundwave was suddenly overcome with panic.
"Hey... Ratchet...?"
Soundwave swung with his other arm, striking Smokescreen in the side of his head and sending him reeling back in surprise. The medic looked back upon hearing the commotion.
"What are you doing!? "
"There's something here- it just hit me!"
"And the phase shifter is on?"
"Yeah!"
Soundwave backed away, scenarios running through his mind of what he'd do if the autobots found him out. It was then that his eyes once again focused on the object in question - the phase shifter. His cables emerged from his torso, reaching out to Smokescreen and wrapping around his arm, the other digging underneath the bands affixing the relic to his arm and tearing the device completely off. Ratchet and Wheeljack both stood by him, trying to think of some way to help, but both being unable to interact with him or Soundwave. The decepticon pulled the phase shifter back to himself, placing it on his own arm.
Well, he thought, here goes nothing.
He deactivated it, watching the autobots' reactions with pure dread permeating his mind. If they found him, he'd have little chance to get back to Cybertron considering he was far from being in fighting shape, even against one autobot.
After a moment, however, the mechs began looking around the rest of the ship with shifty glances, clearly scared to move. Finally Ratchet spoke.
"By the allspark..."
Wheeljack looked toward him, clearly angry.
"Do I have to ask?"
"Soundwave."
"What?"
"Someone we can't see or hear, but can interact with people out of phase... This has to be Soundwave."
Smokescreen waved his hand through Wheeljack's torso.
"Need I remind you that I'm still out of phase?"
Ratchet's eyes tried to hide his fear, but Soundwave was the kind of decepticon who struck fear into the sparks of the dead. The medic took a shaky step forward, unintentionally looking directly at the hidden decepticon.
"Soundwave?"
He might have been disadvantaged in multiple ways, but fear always seemed effective in helping gain the upper hand. And if Megatron had taught him anything, it was that one's own perception of self was less useful than how others perceived them. He sent a simple ping to all the autobots, mostly questioning if the phase shifter had affected his ability to communicate at all. Ratchet seemed to tense up.
He'd received it.
"I... presume you're still in the Shadowzone then..."
[Yes.]
"Hey," Smokescreen interjected, "I'm not hearing anything..."
Ratchet's expression turned confused for a moment. Though, it made sense. Previously Soundwave was out of phase with all of them. Smokescreen went into an alternate phase, and then he was able to interact with him. But once Soundwave used the phase shifter again...
"I think Soundwave might only be in phase with us now."
"Then why can't we see him?"
"Smokescreen, please. I barely understand how the phase shifter works."
Soundwave smiled behind his visor. He was now better than being out of phase with them - he was a ghost. He could do whatever he wanted, and do so without detection. He could practically taste their hidden fear in the air.
Although... it was then that he realized he now could sense Ratchet's aura, as well as Wheeljack's. The question was, could they sense his?
"Soundwave..." Ratchet said hesitantly. "We're willing to cooperate... if... you can help us find the relic buried here."
Clearly he'd made that up on the spot. Wheeljack turned slightly to look at him.
"You're not really making deals with 'cons now, are you? Why should we help him?"
Soundwave promptly emitted a jamming frequency, but one aimed only at Wheeljack. The autobot promptly cried out, trying to cover his audio receptors as his whole body was wracked with pain.
Oh, how he'd missed doing that.
Finally the wrecker collapsed to the floor, and Ratchet backed away, clearly gripped with fear. Soundwave replied a moment later.
[Because you know what I'm capable of.]
"... Fine then. What is it you want from us?"
[Take me to Cybertron.]
He looked toward the computer console Ratchet had been working on and hesitantly laid his fingers on the keyboard, finding that he was indeed able to interact with it. As he started typing furiously, Ratchet and Smokescreen both drew slightly closer, trying to see what he was doing. After only a few moments, a chart came up, showing a diagram of the nearby topography and the spot where the relic seemed to be. Based on the scan and his own memory of some of the Iacon database, the artifact in question was either a shield bubble device or the location of a dark energon cache, neither of which would be very useful to the autobots.
[Here is the location of your relic.]
Smokescreen's voice barely spoke out, but did so in disbelief.
"H-How..."
"He's Soundwave."
[Second most capable decepticon to have ever lived.]
"Wait," Ratchet said, moreso curious than afraid. "How could you hear us before?"
"He was listening to everything we said? That's like... horror movie creepy right there."
[I would like to know as well.]
"That doesn't make sense... Someone in the shadowzone can see and hear us but we can't see or hear them?"
[That should not be your concern at the moment.]
Ratchet tensed up suddenly, and Soundwave smirked somewhat. Fear was truly the most powerful weapon. The medic hesitantly stepped toward the computer, and Soundwave backed away in response. Smokescreen kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other. For one as young and restless as him, it must have been somewhat agonizing not to be able to help. Ratchet worked silently for a few moments, then looked up again.
"How do I know you won't just terrorize everyone in Iacon?"
That was a good question. A thought still lurked in the back of Soundwave's mind that Ratchet could be swayed to join them, not even so much as a devious plot but as a statement to the other autobots. Nonetheless, his words had to be chosen very carefully.
[There would be no reason to fight, as there is nothing left to fight over.]
Ratchet let out something of a nervous laugh. "That's what I keep trying to tell the council."
The ship lifted off of the ground again, and Ratchet seemed to look around nervously, considering he could not see Soundwave at all, or apparently the phase shifter he had with him. The decepticon relaxed somewhat, knowing he was driving the situation.
[It is a rare occurrence that the decepticons would side with you.]
"Well that's... nice to know, I guess."
For a while the ship was painfully silent, until Ratchet turned to Smokescreen.
"You have to call them."
"Why?"
"They won't let me back unless there's a good reason, and they'll be more willing to believe you."
"What do I say?"
"Say we woke the insecticon hive, and that we have an autobot down."
Smokescreen reached for the radio, but his hand phased through it. Ratchet grabbed it instead, pressing one button and looking toward Smokescreen.
"Uhh... Iacon... command?" he said hesitantly. The response took a moment, and when it arrived, it was clouded in static.
"Spacebridge control, identify yourself."
"Smokescreen?"
Soundwave facepalmed, and it was clear Ratchet was trying not to do the same thing.
"Spacebridge control, who is the captain of your ship."
"Ratchet. But... we encountered an insecticon hive, and we have an autobot down. We need backup."
Ratchet nodded in approval. The following response took longer than usual.
"Spacebridge control to hunter ship, return is authorized."
Ratchet set down the radio, and Smokescreen looked away, somewhat dejected.
"I feel wrong knowing I just helped a decepticon."
A spacebridge portal formed before them a moment later, and the ship flew through the green vortex. Finally Soundwave looked up, once again laying eyes on his home planet, damaged and scarred as it was. They flew high above the surface, but not out of reach for a predator drone.
"We're not taking you all the way to Iacon," Ratchet muttered. Soundwave took a moment to respond, once again choosing his words carefully.
[If you make the reasonable choice to leave Iacon... there might just be another place for you.]
With that, he opened the hatch to the outside and dropped out of the ship, transforming and simply gliding through the air. On the horizon he was able to spot the Well and the remains of the Nemesis beside it, resting among the shining lights of a new Iacon. Finally he was able to access a decepticon beacon, and he turned toward the south, toward the ruins of Kaon; naturally where any remaining decepticons would have fled.
He was incredibly fortunate that his alternate mode was an exceptional glider, since by the time he reached the source of the signal, he barely had the energy to walk. His whole body felt heavy, and it seemed like every step brought him just a bit closer to collapsing.
Eventually he stepped through a rusted door near the ruins of Kaon, leaning his weight against the doorframe as he looked inside, staring at the purple form of Shockwave facing away from him, doing something related to the lab he was in.
He was alive... All of his concern suddenly melted away, and he sent a silent message to the scientist.
[Stuck in parallel dimension "shadowzone". Phase shifter with me. Standing in the doorway.]
Shockwave turned around, looking toward him but clearly unable to see him.
"I developed an alternate way to access that dimension weeks ago, but you've been stranded on Earth, haven't you?"
Shockwave gestured to a device in the corner, looking like a makeshift cage woven solid with various wires and mechanisms.
"It's rudimentary. Tell me when you're standing in it."
It took some mental effort to bring himself over to the other side of the room, but Soundwave finally stepped into the space in the center of the mass of wires.
[Here.]
Shockwave flipped a large switch, causing the lights in the room to go out for a moment. The space around Soundwave almost seemed to turn distorted and oddly blue. There was a sound like space shearing itself apart, although it manifested moreso as an assailing sensation rather than a physical sound. After almost a minute, the device shut off, and he looked toward Shockwave, who was the first to speak.
"Welcome back."
Soundwave would have responded, but it felt as though he was still stuck in flux, given the way everything seemed muffled. Colors were pale, the quietest sounds were almost painful in volume, and the world seemed to drift away as he finally collapsed. He didn't even notice he was falling until he felt Shockwave barely manage to catch him. Even in his delirium, however, he knew he was finally safe.