𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐮𝐦 - A Transformers Story

Shockwave Commits Slightly Immoral Atrocities

Shockwave stepped through the trees while holding Maria as if she were a toxic specimen to dispose of.

"Your emotional state is off-balanced." Shockwave didn't comment without a reason. His pursuits of knowledge came from understanding how the processor of a human works. While they weren't as advanced as the Cybertronian processor, the ability to process emotions at the rate they do is remarkable.

Maria didn't respond through words, but shifted slightly in her position. Shockwave was never comfortable holding specimens in his servos. Besides the unsanitary conditions it could bring on it could spark a misconception that he was acting on emotions. It was simply logical for him to be the one to return Maria to her human dwelling himself.

"It's stupid," It likely was; most human conflict and emotions were. And Shockwave didn't care enough to ask her to elaborate beyond her commenting that "it was stupid". If it was that irrelevant that even Maria was calling it stupid then it wasn't worth even a human's time of day.

But this was Maria so she would elaborate without being prompted to.

"I just- they didn't tell me about the cave or the Energon," Now, for all of Maria's frankly pointless and unconstructed speeches there were a few times they sparked interest in Shockwave. Hearing that the two more unbearable humans take interest in Energon wasn't a surprising turn of events considering Starscream's body was degrading and Soundwave was on the verge of starvation.

"And they tried to leave me out again!" Maria wasn't emotional, it was the few qualities of hers that Shockwave enjoyed. But she wasn't reprogrammed to be completely emotionless like he was (regretfully, he must add). It was a work in progress on his part.

Shockwave didn't have to respond. With Maria, she was delusional enough to imagine he responded and continue on without a second party.

"I don't get it. Why did they want to leave me out? Navia is acting like I betrayed them in some way. I would never do that,"

Shockwave didn't worry himself over many things including instances like these. Maria always figured out the minor errors in her processor. However, the longevity of her irregular behavior had spiked recently.

"Do their choices truly have such an effect on your processor's wellbeing that your emotional state is subsequently affected?" Shockwave set her down and released the fleshbeing to her home.

"Forget it," Maria mumbled and had a forced smile present on her faceplate. "I'm sorry, Shockwave."

"Apologizing for trivial errors will not fix said errors." Shockwave wasn't "upset" she went to the mines. He simply did not care about her human escapades. "Actions are the only thing that carry weight. Words are deceitful."

Maria nodded dejectedly and had begun the walk back to the human dwelling. Shockwave had left before he saw her figure enter the safe dwelling. If she were smart enough to release him, she was smart enough to maintain her own safety.

~*~

Lola didn't respond to words, Soundwave had learned that very early on. She wasn't a minicon and that left no prior knowledge on how to get through to her. In times like these her body was on adrenaline, and her mind was on a shutdown.

Sometimes, Lola managed to bring herself out of her processor. Sometimes, it was Soundwave. From the blue tint of her tongue that was slightly lolling out and her general "drunken" state he assumed she licked the raw Energon.

Perhaps a fault on his part as he should have ended the chemical testing a while back, but watching her expression turn from energetic to crushed was too hard to imagine, let alone watch. Soundwave applauded Starscream in silence for he never struggled with telling Navia "no".

And Soundwave wasn't a stupid mech. It's not like he let her run around rampant. But the chemicals were a minor thing he could ignore. As long as she didn't have them (which he ensured she never did) she would be healthy.

Following at a slower pace behind Starscream, Soundwave could see there was no visible damage to the body, but from her mind Soundwave knew she was hurting. Something Maria did, likely unintentionally just off of the patterns of her processor.

There were always a few patterns in one's processor that told a lot. Soundwave wished his naive past self had realized that those thoughts don't remain the same, but he wasn't able to change that. But Maria's thoughts had remained in a trapped box made from her own bounds.

Lola shifted in his servos and Soundwave was tempted to peek into her mind again and check if she were awake. However, there was a lingering bit of guilt whenever he spent too much time checking on her mind.

"My head hurts," Lola was in fact awake, curled up like a small animal. She held her helm, it must have hurt to take raw Energon as a human. Soundwave knew Cybertronians that couldn't bear the taste of it.

"It will for a bit. Are you alright?" It was always best to confirm that before continuing. He should be lecturing her as Starscream would do with Navia. But he didn't want to do that. Not at the moment.

Lola was not Navia and Navia was not Lola. What Soundwave understood about the human race is that each individual responds differently to the same words or actions.

Lola nodded her head before squeezing her optics shut. She was not asleep; her mind was still running and was the furthest thing from asleep. Soundwave made sure to keep her as still as he possibly could. The pounding in her helm likely wouldn't cease for a while and he had no intention of making it worse.

Starscream had already made the food and disappeared into his chambers, leaving Navia eating on the too small table near the cabinet of books. Soundwave thought about setting Lola down and letting her socialize with Naiva, but she was hardly awake at the moment. The human needed stasis.

Soundwave's chambers were always dark and gave the perfect atmosphere for stasis. Lola had fallen into it when he had entered the base and felt that moving her into the small stasis set up would wake her up. He would sit in his chair and watch the shut off monitors until she woke up, allowing her to remain in stasis on his servos.

He made sure to check on Navia as well. She had fallen into stasis as well.