The Shadow of Kaon

The death of a leader

The long days of helping Soundwave with any work he slipped toward her changed Darkwing's behavior quite a bit. She found a steady routine, one that helped her concentrate and make her happy through being useful, even if it only meant the most basic work before one of the spare computers.

She woke up every day at the same time in her small quarter, stretching and cracking her joints before she made her way up to the bridge, where the silent mech was already working, and a few non-classified files waited for her arrival on her own screen next to his.

These were smaller reports from scouts and guards, depicting unusual events, or shorter messages from the heads of miner operations on different sites, requesting new machinery, or more bots to work with if they had found a bigger pile of Energon stashed in the ground.

Soundwave, just as usual, hasn't said much through these days. He tapped his digits on the side of the keyboard when he wanted her to turn her attention to him, so he could show her if she made some mistakes in the work, but outside of that, he stayed focused on his own job, sometimes letting out small, moment long static noises, like something would disturb him, then quickened his little tip taps on the buttons. Every time the femme glanced his way, his calm, focused movements seemed so distant, so incredibly far, that she couldn't figure out anything from the things that probably filled his processor.

Since their last "talk", he still hadn't told her anything more than what she already knew. The gossip in the canteen still grew with each day, the vehicons whispering above their energon cubes about possible plans, but from some annoyed engineer, she could at least learn and understand a small part of the silent mech's frustration.

Right before she arrived back from her long journey, some Autobot had a chance to sneak up and destroy an important part of the ship, something that was not easy to rebuild or replace in such a short time, not even with an in other ways fully equipped warship.

So clearly, Soundwave was looking for a way to fix this problem. But she still didn't know how he wanted to do that, or if there was any way that she could ease his burden in this matter.

Her digits stopped on the keypad as she stared at the screen, her mind not registering any of the words in the file that was currently open in front of her, and it took her even more seconds to notice the quiet tapping on the metal edge of her computer.

"Yes, yes, just a moment." She said quietly, slowly turning her helm toward Soundwave with a small smile. "I'm almost done with these files. How are you doing with your work?"

The silent mech stared at her as he pulled back his servo, almost making her feel a disapproving look from him for the question, but she only shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, at least I tried to ask."

This time, he only pointed toward her screen, his helm tilting slightly so he could inspect her work a bit better, but before she could react, he already nodded and turned his focus back toward his own screen, his digits moving on the keypad with the speed of light.

It was a small gesture, but even such a simple communication on his part showed her his awareness of his surroundings.

She was not invisible to him.

This thought filled her mind as Darkwing's gaze returned to the files, quickly looking them over once more before approving the change of schedule in a couple of guards' shifts, and registering some of the reports in the needed files.

Such minor inconveniences that usually the third in command would need to read through and approve...

'Such a boring job.'