Different Wavelengths

Reverb

To say Megatron was unhappy was a terrible understatement. He was pissed. He grabbed Starscream by the throat, threatening to pop the seeker's head clean off. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOUNDWAVE IS GONE?!?", He barked, eyes wild with blind rage. "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY LOSE HIM?!?" Starscream choked. "M-master- ACK! Please, i-it wasn't my f-fau- AAARGH!"

He was thrown against the wall as the Deception leader continued to yell at him. Shockwave just stood idly as he watched Starscream get the scrap beaten out of him. He looked back at his right hand, which held the mysterious cube that had spirited the TIC away. It seemed dormant now, the glow dead and the gears still. Whatever energy it may have had appeared to have been completely spent during the incident. Shockwave's fins twitched as he let himself be lost in his thoughts. Maybe the cube had teleported Soundwave somewhere, sort of like how a ground bridge does? If so, perhaps he could reverse engineer the process... But that was a very steep order. He wasn't even sure if that's what the cube did. For all anyone new, Soundwave was permanently offline.

Shockwave was then interrupted by Starscream being chucked at the floor near him. Megatron gave the seeker a solid kick in the gestation tank before leaving the war room, mumbling curses. Starscream struggled to get up from the sheer pain searing his system.
"...wasn't even my Primus damned fault to begin with", he grumbled, coughing up a bit of energon.
"You're easy to vent his frustration on", Shockwave told him, his tone as flat and uninterested as ever. Starscream glared at him before leaving to get his Megatron-induced injuries patched up. With nothing else on his agenda, Shockwave made his way to his lab to study the cube further. Not only was that his goal to begin with, but with Soundwave's very existence on the line, he would have to work on that with the utmost urgency.

When he got there, he relished the beautiful sound of pure silence. It was essential for Shockwave if he wanted to work at maximum efficiency. He locked the door behind him so that no one could barge in to disturb him (unless it was an emergency or otherwise highly important) and set the cube on a nearby table. On a surface level, there was nothing really noteworthy. It merely appeared to be a detailed box.
But it was obvious that was not all it was. He had to research as much as he could about this... Thing. He accessed a monitor and began to do a deep dive on the many artifacts and mechanisms that had been found and created throughout Cybertronian history. His optic twitched slightly as he read numerous paragraphs. However, he was only able to find a single mention of anything close to the mysterious cube in a small excerpt of a scripture talking about various supernatural entities in folklore. The tale itself was called The Tragedy of Starfleet and while most of the original scripture was lost, the piece that was recovered did have something intriguing:

...returning to his compatriots, Starfleet held out the prism, the Fallen Star. "Look upon it", Starfleet commanded. "Look upon the piece of Primus and re... Now behold as I...bout a new era!" He lifted the piece...glow with a holy light... Star shined brightly...Starfleet...spirited away. For many cycle..."Where art thou, Star....
Praying to the F.... Cube... "From distant worlds and a Fallen Star, let the otherworldly meet."...Glow... Starfleet...surrounded by a great radiance..."Starfleet! He has returned! Huzzah! Huzzah!"... Confusion..."This is not"...fleet lamented. "And who are..."...This Starfleet...impo...?...

Shockwave's fins wiggled. It was an interesting tale, but on top of missing massive chunks of text, it was also not backed by scientific evidence. As such, Shockwave put it to the side in pursuit of actual facts and logic.
Deciding that reading was going to get him nowhere, the scientist turned his attention to the cube itself. Perhaps the solution to Soundwave's predicament laid within the inner machinations of the cube rather than an outside source. Besides, he was planning to take it apart regardless.

Picking it back up, Shockwave examined the cube for any potential access point inside, whether it be a button or even a hidden compartment. However, it seemed to be devoid of any obvious marks. With no other option, Shockwave grabbed a screwdriver to unscrew one of the gears off, but discovered that there weren't any screws on the cube. In fact, everything appeared to either be melded onto the cube or were otherwise unremovable. His optic shrunk in frustration. Plan B. He pulled at a gear in an attempt to rip it off, but the cog refused to budge. He pulled harder and harder until his servo began to ache.
But alas nothing.

Shockwave growled and slammed the cube onto the table out of frustration. Normally he would've been a lot more professional but with the Deceptican's best spy at stake, the stress was getting to him. He really didn't want to deal with Megatron's ire either.
Shockwave sighed and pulled up more archives on artifacts in the hopes it would calm him down before he erupted. His eye landed back on the old excerpt. The first word he saw was 'praying'. So these supposed Cybertronians prayed to the cube...

He had no idea what made him want to do so, but Shockwave began to recite a prayer. He wasn't religious by any means, but he had to get Soundwave back by any means necessary. He chose the one in the passage, as those exact words allegedly returned the titular Starfleet. "From distant worlds and a Fallen Star, let the otherworldly meet..."

Believing that nothing had happened, Shockwave began to dig for more destructive equipment in hopes to dismantle the cube. After all, what was a measly prayer going to do?
Well, as it turned out...
A lot.

Whirrrr...

Shockwave's fins jumped up and his optic widened when he heard the cube's gears come to life. The second he turned around to see what was happening, the cube was already lighting back up again, white electricity dancing on its metallic surface. Reeee....
Realizing the mechanism was about to go off again, Shockwave ducked behind a table to shield himself from the inevitable blast. Sure enough, a force went off in the lab, knocking over equipment and scattering files. Shockwave grimaced as his precious test tubes audibly shattered on the ground.
But that wasn't all. In the corner of his peripheral vision, a shadow zipped past Shockwave with a hiss of static and slammed into a series of crates.
Then the cube's gears halted and the cube dropped back onto the ground.

Once he was certain that the incident was over, Shockwave got up from his cover. He rushed over to the crates and began to examine what had been released from the cube. But what he found shocked him.

"Impossible... Is this...Soundwave?!?"

It was hard to tell. The lithe frame and wide arms matched up, as did the visit but there seemed to be a few key differences. One, Soundwave was now wearing a green bandana, wrapped just above the visor and around his helmet. Second, instead of being a dark and somber bluish tint, Soundwave was now stark white with splashes of gold and baby blue biolights.
He almost looked like a complete stranger. Soundwave let out a small his of static as he fought stasis lock.

He attempted to look Shockwave dead in the optic before promptly passing out completely.
Shockwave shook Soundwave but the other Con was unresponsive. Thinking logically, Shockwave ran to his computer and sent out a message to Megatron before taking his comrade to Knockout:

Important development: It is done. You will find the TIC in the medical wing receiving a check up.
                                                                           -Shockwave