Never Again

23

Sorry if this isn't good, I'm stressed out but I want to start this book again. I'll try to update as much as possible but don't want to rush it and make it awful. Thank you for those who kept this book in their library hoping I would finish. It means a lot.

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"Do you want to talk about it? You dreams?" Lynlee sucked in a nervous breath as Soundwave's human form gently wrapped her ribs. He would do this once before he left her in the morning and once again after he returned when the day was over.

Being so close to him always made her nervous but after days in captivity by him, Lynee realized he wasn't as intimidating as she'd first thought. In a way, he was somewhat gentle with her. It was shown in the way he handled her, in the way he spoke to her- through the recordings, of course.

Soundwave hadn't spoken a word with his own voicebox since the night before, and he was horrified with himself after watching the femme fall asleep. The feeling it caused him struck him in the spark, and he lay on his bed that night wondering how he could break such a promise. The promise to his carrier. To his sire.

He couldn't be mad, though. Soundwave wanted to feel mad. He wanted to find the will to squish the human for forcing him to speak. Yet he couldn't find himself to do it. Because she didn't force him to do anything. The words slipped from his mouth without meaning to. And what scared him the most, is that it felt right. It felt so right to speak to her- as if he wasn't breaking a vow thousands of years old.

Lynlee wasn't aware of Soundwave's internal battle as he had begun wrapping her wounds again. She nervously waited for him to answer her question as she stared at her necklace that was dangling around his neck. A whimper of pain escaped her lips as he tightened the bandage around her ribs. He flinched and immediately loosened it a small amount before standing to his full height.

His body fizzled out of existence and his robotic body began to move again. Assuming he wasn't planning on answering her question, Lynlee sighed and picked up her sketchbook and pencils.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when his recordings spoke, echoing out in the silent room.

"Soundwave...can-not speak.. about dr-eams."

Lynlee snapped her head up and found herself staring at Soundwaves blank visor. Swallowing her nerves, she spoke again. "Soundwave cannot speak about dreams- or Soundwave doesn't want to speak about them?"

When he didn't reply right away, she continued cautiously, "What's a carrier?"

Soundwave snapped his helm to the little human and narrowed his optics behind his visor. Apparently, he let more information slip than what he'd wanted in his sleep. Slowly, he turned around and opened a ground bridge. The night was plagued with the usual nightmares, and he was not in the mood to speak with the femme anymore than he already had. Especially about his carrier.

No creature, cybertronian or human, had that right.

The human made a sound of protest as he stepped through the ground bridge, but he ignored it. His top priority, as it had been for a couple of days, was to find Starscream. Megatron had spoken very little with the communications officer over the past few weeks, and Soundwave took the opportunity to do his own investigation.

He'd gone over the footage of Starscream over and over again, watching him disappear into thin air after entering that storage unit. Soundwave closed the groundbridge behind him as he stepped out into an open hallway of the Nemesis and began walking towards Knockout's lab.

At first, the seeker's disappearance didn't make any sense; But after several restless nights full of his own thoughts, Soundwave suddenly got an idea. There was very little possibility Starscream had the intelligence to make up such a plan on his own, but it was something to look into, nonetheless.

Vehicons who scouted the area where Soundwave found the red energon vein reported that there was an excavation site towards the back of the cave. It was obvious that more red energon had been mined out of from hard rock and taken. What he had found was pure luck, as whoever took the red energon obviously missed a piece.

Now the question was who mined the red energon?

Soundwave had an idea of who it could be.

"Soundwave." Knockout greeted the silent mech when he entered the lab. "I'm guessing you want the results on the red energon?"

Without awaiting an answer, the doctor twisted around and retrieved a vile from a shelf. Soundwave watched as Knockout inspected the vile and then Soundwave.

"Very little has been tampered with." he said, swirling the vile, "This is red energon at its purest. Some of the first I've seen in millennia. I'm surprised we hadn't discovered the signature sooner and excavated it."

"Very surprising...in-deed." Soundwave responded. But in reality, not surprising at all. Red energon was not easily hidden. Just like any other energon source, it could be detected from long distance and excavated quickly. He would have spotted the signature as soon as he'd arrived on earth all those years ago.

His processor swirled with questions. Was it possible someone in the ranks went out of their way to hide the red energon? It was a high possibility. And now, with Starscream gone, Soundwave held no doubt that it was him. He'd underestimated the seeker- perhaps he did have some sort of plan. Now, the silent mech had to figure out what it was.

"You haven't been around as much, Soundwave." Knockout stated, interrupting Soundwave's thoughts. "Megatron has not been pleased with you."

That got his attention. Soundwave tilted his helm in question as the doctor continued. "According to him, you failed to follow his orders, and have been disappearing lately. Of course, it's no business of mine, but I'm sure you have a reasonable explanation, don't you?"

Soundwave pointed a digit towards the vile. "Busy with... excavation site-...Soundwave f-following Megatron's... orders."

Knockout shrugged as a sly smile fell upon his faceplate. "If you say so."

Soundwave nodded his helm and twisted around, an uneasy feeling in his spark. Megatron was not pleased with him? While part of him was upset because he wanted to please the warlord, the other half of him was suddenly worried.

Megatron held no mercy for those who disobeyed his orders. If he noticed something was off and hadn't already approached Soundwave, it meant he was waiting for the right moment to strike. But when?

Soundwave quickly searched through the Nemesis' security footage and checked on the human. He almost let out a vent of relief when he found her in the same spot he'd left her, scribbling away in that little sketchbook.

For now, they were safe. But he couldn't be sure when Megatron would finally catch on. Or how long he would be able to keep the human alive.