DeceptiKids

World Keeps Going

'What Megatron doesn't know won't hurt him.'

Soundwave still remembered the first time he had ever heard the phrase; it was from Starscream (of course it was) in his old body and still very young and naive. Soundwave had caught their 'scientific associate' smuggling in high grade (if he remembered correctly, he was celebrating one of his trinemates being rescued from outlier experimentation), and the untrustworthy seeker had asked Soundwave to join them. Starscream had waved the cube in his face until Soundwave awkwardly accepted it, earning a cheer from the other two members of the elite trine.

He ended up using that clip of Starscream several stellar cycles later, when he'd come to check on the newly promoted Air Commander. After most of their seeker forces had perished in the attack, Starscream had managed to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive, earning the Decepticons a victory. He'd walked into the Commanders bedroom to find it trashed. Every personal item the seeker had was either broken or on the floor, save for a datapad which the seeker held close to his spark, the mech himself curled up on the berth. He was overcharged - extremely so - with his optics fritzing so hard Soundwave considered contacting the ship's medic. But he didn't, instead he replayed the clip from those many stellar cycles ago, and Starscream fell into stasis lock. Soundwave left, picked up some med-grade and put it on the side for him.

He told Megatron their newest commander was recovering from the battle. Which wasn't a lie.

Now, many centuries later that phrase was running through his head once more. Megatron was proud to see one of the human 'pets' actually cause damage to an Autobot, he saw a first energon warrior and a proud mentor. But that wasn't what Soundwave saw.

Knockout looked exhausted, a tiredness he recognised well. Not the result of a hard fought battle, but of fear. He covered it up extremely well - of course he did, Knockout was one of very few mechs Soundwave could never quite figure out where he had come from.

The human was much worse off. Dried energon stained her left arm, there was dark bags under her eyes, the poor thing looked like the meer act of standing up was too hard for her. It was hard for him to get a proper read of her vitals through her enersuit, but what little bits of data he did get wasn't good. Elevated heart rate. Elevated blood pressure. Bruising on the ribs. She would be fine with rest, but she needed rest.

Megatron seemed happy with the report from his medic and the human, nodding. "You're free to go."

Soundwave felt the relief from the both of them. Knockout placed his servo on the ground, allowing the human to climb on and wrap her arms around one of his digits.

"Oh, and human." Megatron said just as the pair were about to leave, "Are you certain that you didn't recognise the pest that was with that Autobot, Bumblebee?"

She paused, "No sir. I don't."

She was lying. Soundwave could tell.

But Megatron clearly didn't, waving his servo to dismiss them both, a quiet "Pity" leaving his liplates (so quiet Soundwave assumed he was the only one to hear it). Soundwave listened as the door shut behind them and the TIC returned to his duties.

What Megatron doesn't know won't hurt him.

- - -

After what Starscream disdainfully called 'The Incident', his human, Alex, had spent hours memorising every detail about the Autobots. Their altmodes, colours, licence plates, anything that made them recognisable. He'd even doodled little fraction symbols in the front page of his notebook.

Max had also involved himself, unaware of the fear that drove Alex but interested because he looked up to Alex and liked to copy what the older child did. Max made little doodles of the Autobots (mostly them covered in a strange red liquid, altered to energon blue at Starscream's suggestion). The vehicons loved it, hanging up the drawings all over the barracks and complimenting Max on his talent.

Max shows his latest art piece to Laserbeak, who stares at the paper covered in blue, red and purple scribbles on the floor for a few moments before looking up at Max and chirping a request for an explanation.

'It's Soundwave and Prime.' Max signed, Laserbeak's translation software read it as 'prime number', but she understood what he meant, 'They're fighting. Soundwave ripped off his arm and stepped on his head.'

The minicon nodded, finally able to make sense of what she was being shown. She let out a cheery chirp and flew around him a few times to let him know the image made her happy.

Max's body shook a few times in laughter, as she flew around him he tried to reach out and grab her.

Soundwave watched silently from the console. He hadn't seen Laserbeak that happy in quite a long time.

- - -

Soundwave liked Alex. The young human seemed to take on the role of 'older sibling' quite well, especially considering he was not related to the others. Smart, both in matters of science and in the ways of people, though came off as a bit cold and awkward at first. Watching him chastise Tala for doing something reckless, or gently guiding Max to understanding and explaining his feelings to others - it reminded him of how Ravage would treat the twins, affectionate but still firm.

He liked all the humans really. Max and Tala reminded him of the twins so much: mischievous, but never quite bad. Daisy was a gentle creature; her movements deliberate and slow, she'd barely raised her voice in the time he'd known her (the exceptions being her telling Tala off), having seen so much violence in his time, Soundwave liked watching someone who tried to do as little harm to others as possible.

He knew humans could be bad - he'd seen what they'd done to Breakdown - but these ones were good, and Soundwave was really glad for that.

And he wasn't going to let anything happen to them.