From Cohort to Gestalt

Chapter 1

A single shot. That was all it took. From undying loyalty to betrayed grief, Ravage's life was turned and tossed. She had climbed to- not the top- but enough that the drop back to rock bottom was startling.

Soundwave was dead, his graying frame probably already in the smelter. Shot for a crime he did not commit.

But maybe he did deserve reparation. After all, Megatron had taken the innocent and sent them to their destruction because of another's sin (at first, a sin against the cause, but nowavorns it was sins against a worse sinner). Soundwave knew when Megatron accused the wrong mech of the wrong crime. Telepathy was the ultimate lie detector. Yet he would do nothing. He'd stand there, loyal as always. Ravage had once asked why he didn't speak up. It was a vague answer, one Ravage didn't understand. In the end, Ravage assumed it was just so he didn't end up like Starscream. The mech was constantly berating Megatron and paying the price.

Not like Soundwave though.

Rage curled in Ravage's spark, but she reprimanded herself when the five other bonds flinched back at it.

They were the creations of Soundwave. All six of them. Ravage knew many (had) judged Soundwave for creating during the war. Ravage was the only one who knew what life looked like without war.

Most younger creations would either live or die when presented with a bond that broke. Live with the grief of a broken bond, or die from the shock from one. Those were the only two options. But Soundwave wasn't a normal creator. He was a host, their creations developed differently.

Symbiotes didn't have fully formed sparks. They came into the world with cassette frames that could link up to their host and feed on their spark until they were fully grown. While symbiotes had smaller sparks, hosts had very enlarged sparks. The energy was too much for most to handle. So hosts had to create. They were one of the only frame types able to create buds without outside aid. Their creations fed off their excess energy that threatened to overload their systems while the symbiotes were able to feed and not offline from not having enough energy.

Symbiosis, but not completely.

Because a host could theoretically go on without their creations/symbiotes.

The loss of a symbiote was a tragedy, the loss of a host meant death for the whole cohort.

No.

Ravage wasn't going to let that happen. Her cohort got lucky, if you could count it as luck. Her spark was fully formed. She was an independent unit. Once this stage hit, usually hosts would make a frame for their symbiote. Unlike sparklings from hot spots or spark merges, symbiotes were able to interact with the world through a temporary frame before choosing their final form (unless the host was controlling but Soundwave had assured Ravage she'd get full support from him for whatever frame type she chose).

War had a way of sidelining that.

Vorns ago she should have gotten her final frame, but war made her stay a cassette. There were no resources to make a brand new frame. Even if it did, it needed to go toward the wounded. Megatron had been willing to make her a new frame, but it would have to be some kind of war-frame. And Shockwave would have had to be one of the framers. Ravage had been willing, but Soundwave shot it down quickly.

She was glad he did.

Once, Megatron had her loyalty, but it was lost with her creator. She would not give him a scrap more of her time and commitment. Ravage would always be grateful for what her host had done, and refusing to have her be remade in Megatron's image was one of them.

I probably would have been slave coded. The thought goes to her cohort, and they flinch before snuggling closer. Ravage knew Soundwave's replacement- Barricade- was slave coded. She had been awed and sort of disgusted when he had stayed with the Decepticons after Praxus was destroyed. At the time, Megatron had still been benevolent(ish) and had been appalled by what a commander had ordered just to attempt to please him. He'd probably easily ruin a city-state now.