Author's Note: Hello everybody. Welcome to my newest fic and first attempt at writing Transformers. As always, reviews are welcome.
Thank you P.A.W.07 for beta-reading this story. Being a foreigner, I don't know what I'd do without wonderful people like you.
Disclaimer: The only thing I own is a Soundwave figure, who is standing proudly on my desk and staring at me with the same amount of interest the real Soundwave would. Which is zero.
Okay, I think I'll shut up now. Enjoy!
Chapter One: Chances
It was one of those warm summer nights when no clouds are blocking the moon. The mountains are also cast in silver light while a soft breeze is playing with the grass. The only sound that you can hear is the ceaseless chirping of the crickets. Well … one had been able to hear their ceaseless insect song. Now there was silence; all of them had fled upon the arrival of the Decepticons. Still, it was a beautiful night, even though the giant aliens couldn't have cared less about it.
In the center of their interest was an excavation site in the middle of the valley. Enormous panels of metal had been dug up from the ground; beneath them, several wide flues were visible. It was the rear end of an ancient Cybertronian spacecraft.
Thanks to the work of the Constructicons, the entire thing was sticking out of the ground like a dark, strangely shaped cliff. They had also found an entrance to the hull, which was now being explored.
Soundwave dated the vessel to the Golden Age and Megatron agreed with him. He could see the signs everywhere: the rooms and corridors were large and had expensive, ornamental furniture in them. These characteristics had disappeared at the beginning of the war when functionality had replaced luxury. The spaceship was now a time capsule, carrying memories of a distant past when Cybertronians could live together in peace and their greatest worry was whether the next supply of energon cookies would be tasty enough.
The leader of the Decepticons strode through the corridors towards the storage area. He was wondering if they should take some objects back to the Nemesis – he could see them adorning his throne room. But valuable equipment came first: anything they could use as a weapon or energy source. A couple of minutes earlier Starscream had called saying he'd found something, which was why Megatron was heading towards his position.
He took it at a lazy pace though; he was fairly sure his incompetent SIC had only found a prehistoric refrigerator or something else along those lines. But alas, one should never underestimate Starscream.
Maybe it was a toaster.
He smirked and decided that his opinion about the Seeker was at its lowest point. The advantage of this would be that it could only go up from here. Theoretically.
With his usual, towering, presence, Megatron entered one of the storage rooms … if it could be called that. It was more like a fragging hall! There, unsurprisingly, he found Starscream standing next to a large device, about which Megatron couldn't see anything special. The Seeker noted his arrival with a scowl.
"As friendly as ever, I see," Megatron said. "What do you have?"
Starscream motioned at the machine. "This. What else? Can you see anything else around here that might spark some interest?"
"Careful, Starscream. I am not in the mood to deal with you now."
"Too bad, you're stuck with me."
"We can help that." Megatron's fusion cannon whirred to life.
Starscream glared at him then turned back to the device. "I think this is from the Golden Age," he said.
"Your sharpness never ceases to amaze me. Of course it is a machine from the Golden Age if it is aboard a ship that is also from the Golden Age. What does it do?"
"No idea."
Megatron narrowed his optics. "Do not waste my time, Starscream. You know you'll regret it."
The Seeker smirked. "Oh, do forgive me if I was wrong about calling you. I was under the assumption that such a great and brilliant leader would be able to figure it out."
"But of course. Have you tried reading the manual for starters?" Megatron pointed at the inscription on the device.
"Do you think I'm completely stupid? …Never mind, it was a rhetorical question. For your information, it is ancient Cybertronian, more precisely Iaconian dialect and it says 'Everybody deserves a second chance'."
Megatron frowned. "That sounds like an Autobot motto to me."
"Agreed. It must've been written by Prime's grand-creator."
Megatron's comlink signaled an incoming call.
Autobots detected, Soundwave said. Fourteen units approaching from the North-East. Awaiting orders.
Megatron swore. "Is Prime with them?"
Affirmative.
"Hold them off, I'll be there ASAP." He turned to Starscream and motioned at the device. "Try it out and see if we can use it."
While the Air Commander went behind the machine to restore power, he started towards the door. He stopped halfway, though – should he warn him not to vandalize it? One could never know with Starscream.
"Don't damage it," he said. "And call me when you're done. Understood?"
Starscream's voice came muffled from the back of the room. "Wait a sec, almost got it…"
"Starscream?"
All of a sudden, the machine came to life. Some kind of a gun slid out of it and targeted the leader – Megatron barely had time to react before it shot at him with a laser beam. The only reason why it missed by a hair's breadth was that he managed to duck just in time. The gun followed his movements nonetheless and shot again; he merely dodged.
"Starscream, turn it o—"
The third shot hit him before he could have finished the sentence. His armor should have been durable enough to survive one hit but oddly it wasn't. He collapsed, warnings of system shutdown flashing in his vision. His last coherent thought before going offline was that he was going to kill Starscream for this.
- o -
"Oops. Looks like somebody forgot to turn it off before cutting the power source," Starscream said, straightening himself behind the device. "Maybe I should do that. But what were you saying?"
Crawling out of the space from behind the machine, Starscream was surprised to see … nobody; he frowned at this. He stepped forward about to investigate, but froze when he noticed his commander lying on the ground. He looked at the ancient gun, which was now retracted in its storage unit. Then he looked back at Megatron. It didn't take long for the ex-scientist to make the connection.
But fate couldn't be so generous, right? There was no way, that after several millennia's attempts to overthrow Megatron, it would be an accident that got rid of him.
Still, even though the tyrant had no visible wounds he wasn't moving, and that seemed promising. Starscream decided to cut the power for safety's sake, but before he could, the machine beeped. Then it emitted a deep, rumbling noise, prompting him to take a cautious step back.
A door opened on the side of the device, smoke rolling out like it was some sort of Frankenstein movie. Starscream leaned forward to glance inside, but before he could even get a good visual something fell out through the gap with a dull thud. The door closed and the machine fell silent. Not wanting Megatron's fate as well, the flier quickly turned it off.
Then he stood there for long moments staring at the small, silver… thing that sat in front of him and was emitting clicks and chirrups every other second. He couldn't believe his own sensors.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding."
- o -
Having informed Megatron about the upcoming threat, Soundwave looked for suitable cover. Scrapper glanced at him from where he was trying to strengthen an instable part of the ship with his gestalt mates. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"Constructicons: prepare to fight."
Hook rolled his optics. Scrapper sighed. "Come on, guys. Autobrats on the way."
"Thrust, Dirge, Ramjet: return to meeting point," Soundwave said through the comlink.
Comin', Thrust said.
On my way, Ramjet said.
I'm almost at the cockpit, it'll take some time to get back there, Dirge said.
"Acknowledged."
Maybe one or two minutes had passed before Soundwave's audio receptors picked up the sound of engines. He pulled a gun out of subspace and knelt down behind a large rock.
This was the sign to everyone else with less sensitive hearing. Thrust and Ramjet, who had already emerged from the hull, took cover behind one of the enormous thrusters while the Constructicons scattered around the ship.
The engines stopped and they could hear the faint sounds of transformations. After that, the silence became so great that the click of Ramjet's cannon sounded like a sonic boom. Soundwave glanced in his direction and allowed himself a mental frown. No wonder the Coneheads had never become spies: they wouldn't have been stealthy enough to ambush a squadron of sparklings.
The energy signals indicated the Autobots were about two hundred yards away and approaching. Soundwave turned his audio receptors to a more sensitive setting and, after momentarily getting distracted by a moth, had no trouble picking up their footsteps, as well as something else. He couldn't determine the exact source, but it sounded a lot like the whine of several plasma cannons.
The world around him exploded in a swirl of shots, flashes and explosions as both sides engaged in a fire fight. He recalibrated his sensors for the loud sounds and fired his gun at the nearest Autobot. He couldn't see who it was – didn't care either – but the resulting cry of pain showed that his aim was still perfect. He crouched back behind the rock.
Someone ducked and fell beside him – he almost released a shot but realized it was Dirge. The Conehead cursed and peeked out from behind the rock.
"I don't mean to complain," he said, "but we're kinda outnumbered."
"Slag it! Where's Megatron?" Hook yelled from the far left. When Soundwave glanced there he saw the impressive figure of Optimus Prime wreaking havoc among the Constructicons.
He quickly called Megatron through the comlink but got no answer. Reluctantly, he switched to Starscream's frequency.
This is Starscream.
"Confirm Lord Megatron's status. He fails to answer my calls."
A small pause. Then, He's fine. Just having some certain… drawbacks, that's all.
"Assistance required."
You're such a smart mech, Soundwave. I'm sure you can solve it on your own. Starscream out.
Soundwave looked around and debated his options. He was certain that Starscream had been lying, which meant that Megatron needed help. On the other hand, leaving the battle was risky: the Autobots were already at an advantage.
The safety of their leader had priority over any battle, though.
"Constructicons: take up position around the hull. Coneheads: provide support. Defend the ship until further notice."
He took off towards the door of the spacecraft.
- o -
Having finished his short conversation with Soundwave, Starscream crouched and tilted his head at the small creature in front of him. He had no doubt that this was a sparkling; the question was how a sparkling got here. Or why said sparkling was emitting Megatron's energy signature.
He had an explanation, of course, but he could hardly believe it himself. He glanced at the machine to the right. "At least we know what the inscription means. Now you have a second chance." He cackled. "Or at least you would if I didn't kill you now."
The sparkling stared up at him with wide crimson optics.
They stayed like that for a second. Then it started to cry.
Starscream rolled his optics. "Oh, come on. You ought to know that's not going to stop me from extinguishing your spark." He thought about it for a moment. "Well, normally it maybe would but not after millennia of abuse."
The sparkling cried harder.
"Very well. Because I'm such a great mech, I'll do you a favor. I've always intended this to be long and painful but now I promise I'll make it quick. I can't say it'll be painless because I've never been shot square in the spark. But it'll still be much better than my other ideas."
He targeted the sparkling with one of his arm cannons. "Let's get this over with before Soundwave decides to check on us. After the talk we had, he must suspect something."
"Freeze."
Starscream let out a dramatic sigh and turned around. "Talk about the Devil and he shall appear." The human saying fit the situation, although the Communications Officer standing at the door seemed unimpressed by the accurateness of the quote.
"Wave!"
Megatron – wow, it was weird to call a sparkling by that name – got up in the blink of an eye and like a flash of silver ran to his third-in-command and hugged his leg. Starscream scowled. So the slagger still knew who to run to. As for Soundwave, the sudden display of affection had clearly caught him off-guard, especially since he hadn't yet realized who the sparkling was. He looked down at the tiny creature now attached to his leg then glared at Starscream.
Someone who had never met Soundwave couldn't imagine the way he managed to glare while remaining emotionless at the same time.
"Explain."
"I'd rather not."
Soundwave glanced at Megatron's former frame, lying on the floor. Then he looked at the sparkling. Starscream could see he would make the connection in seconds, if he hadn't already.
The Second-in-Command held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, it was an accident. Megatron got shot by that machine. I don't know how the sparkling got here."
Soundwave tilted his head.
"And we don't need a sparkling anyway, so I'm going to kill it if you don't mind."
No reaction. This was what Starscream hated about the mech: he could never tell what Soundwave had on mind. For all he knew, the telepath was as likely to shoot Megatron for him as he was to step in and protect him.
Okay, maybe not quite as likely.
His suspicions were proved right when Soundwave moved between him and the sparkling. The Communications Officer didn't raise the gun he was holding but the message was clear. Starscream narrowed his optics. If the glitch-head wanted to fight, he was not about to disappoint him. He was too close to leadership to give up now.
His null-rays fired up with a soft whine. Soundwave's shoulder cannon whirred to life in response.
They glared at each other for the longest time. They had never been friends: their opposing views upon Megatron's leadership prevented that. In fact, they had always been enemies, even though they shared the same faction. The routine hadn't changed for a long time: Starscream thought up a plan to overthrow Megatron, Soundwave caught wind of it and made sure he wouldn't succeed. Sometimes he managed to trick him and get to Megatron, but that was rare. It had been a battle of minds, based upon the silent agreement to leave both their weapons and their subordinates out. To tell the truth, Starscream had enjoyed it: it was a challenging game and he loved challenges.
But every game has to be over one day. The stakes had been raised too high: this time, one of them wouldn't survive.
Starscream fired his null-rays. Soundwave dodged and shot back with both his gun and his cannon. Neither hit the target: Starscream used his thrusters to fly across the room and hide behind a stack of boxes. From the cover he fired again and hit his opponent this time. Soundwave ducked behind the machine, pulling the sparkling with him.
Starscream's next shot hit the device though, and he could only hope that when this ended, it would be still repairable. He didn't want to lose such a valuable weapon, but at the moment his priority was disposing of Soundwave and Megatron, the former's shot almost hitting his head this time. He pulled back and crouched.
Dirge to Starscream.
"What is it?" he snapped.
We're losing the battle. We can't even use Devastator 'cause some Autoscum took out Long Haul. Soundwave told us to defend the ship, but we can't hold out much longer and we can't reach him. Neither can we reach Lord Megatron. What the slag is going on in there anyway?
Starscream thought about the answer. He had no idea why Soundwave hadn't answered the call but he thought he should take advantage of it. He fired some rounds to keep him distracted.
That was when he discovered an interesting circumstance. Before the shooting began he had been standing between Soundwave and Megatron's dead frame. When he had flown to take cover Soundwave's shots had missed him and one of them apparently hit the frame instead. The energon left in it was now dripping to the floor.
Coincidentally, Soundwave's cannon was known to leave a mark just as characteristic as his own null-rays.
A plan began to formulate in his mind. Getting rid of these threats to his realm might be easier than he had thought.
Starscream?
"You can't reach Megatron, you say? Well, that must be because Soundwave shot him."
What? Why in the Pit would Soundwave shoot Megatron?
"You think I have an idea what that glitch-head thinks? You can come here and see for yourself. I could use some help anyway. He's trying to take me out at the moment."
We're coming.
"When you get here, don't ask for an explanation. He'll shoot you too. He's either gone completely crazy or switched sides."
Okay. Dirge out.
Lucky thing the Coneheads weren't the brightest mechs around. Starscream fired some shots again. He could only hope Soundwave had been too preoccupied with the fight to listen to the conversation because if he knew what he was planning, that could mean a problem. At least Starscream knew the limits of his telepathic powers: without a proper mind-probe, Soundwave could only have a general idea of his thoughts. He knew if he was about to attack him or if he was planning something against him but that was all. Normally the telepath would have added a precise analization of his body language to mind reading but that wasn't possible now.
Taking all of that into account, Starscream was sure he had the upper hand this time. If Soundwave wasn't aware of this, then it was all the better.
- o -
Soundwave glanced out from behind the machine. Things were not looking good. Whatever had happened to Megatron, it was obvious he wouldn't be in the condition to survive a battle. The logical step would be to get him out of here as soon as possible but Starscream wouldn't allow that. And to top it off, the seeker's last shot had damaged his comlink: he couldn't even call for help. He had to take out the seeker on his own.
Megatron didn't make his task any easier. He watched the flashes of guns in awe and didn't seem afraid at all, Soundwave even had to catch him before he could have run out into the open for a better view. Given his past life, this wasn't terribly surprising but still, the Communications Officer would have been far happier with a shier sparkling.
He was debating how he should attack when his audio receptors picked up approaching footsteps from the corridor. They told him it was the sound of three mechs roughly the same size as Starscream and he recognized the mental pattern. It was the three Coneheads. For whatever reason, they had apparently decided to check on them.
His opinion about them improved considerably.
When they stepped in, he turned to them. "Assistance needed. Capture Starscream."
They didn't move but stared at Megatron's frame that lay in the middle of the room. The sparkling he held behind his back was hidden from their optics.
"Holy Primus," Dirge said. "The slagger really shot him."
Soundwave didn't have time to figure out what on Cybertron he meant by that, because Thrust raised his gun and shot him. His battle experience kicked in and he rolled to the other side of the machine to be at least partially hidden from all his opponents. He glanced at the wound in his side; it was leaking energon but his more important systems were functional. Megatron stared at it with wide optics. Throughout the whole encounter, this was the first time he seemed scared. His behavior worried Soundwave: apparently, his emotional level was that of a sparkling's, which meant he hadn't been just put in a different frame. How it was even possible to turn someone into a sparkling like this, Soundwave had no idea. The fact that Megatron remembered him gave him some hope, though.
He fired a short round and glanced out of their cover. Starscream hadn't moved from behind the boxes; the Coneheads were hiding behind the door. He pulled his head back and their shots hit the wall behind him.
It was time to reconsider his strategy: he had to admit that he was at a severe disadvantage here. Four against one wasn't the best situation he had ever been in. Maybe showing the Coneheads what had really happened to Megatron would turn the table.
"Cease fire," he said. "I surrender."
The shooting stopped. Soundwave shut down his shoulder cannon and held up his gun as he stepped out of cover, Megatron trailing behind him.
"He's trying to trick you, fools!" Starscream yelled from his cover. He fired and Soundwave realized too late that he had targeted the sparkling and not him.
He managed to place himself between Megatron and the second shot but the damage had been done. The Coneheads opened fire as well. He picked up Megatron and threw himself in cover again.
Now he had a wound on his leg as well but he didn't care about that at the moment. The sparkling whimpered in pain. He had been hit in his stomach; the damage was severe but not irreparable. However, Megatron's chances of survival were grim if they remained here any further. He didn't have time left to convince the Coneheads: he had to get his commander to safety to be able to repair him.
His sonic amplifiers came to life with a noise so small that nobody except him could hear and recognize it. He told Megatron to turn off his audio sensors; somehow, through the pain, the sparkling complied. He did the same. He couldn't hear the cries of pain when the room exploded in one enormous sonic boom.
He didn't waste his time. He activated his thrusters and roared out of the room above the others' heads.
Maneuvering through the corridors wasn't such an easy task: Soundwave was no small mech and his agility in the air couldn't match that of the Seekers. Still, he managed to get out of the ship to where the Constructicons were still trying to fight back the Autobots. He released several powerful sonic strikes as he increased his speed to the maximum and soared high above the valley. He cloaked his signal and activated his audio receptors. Still, he was too far away to pick up the sounds of Starscream ordering the troops to retreat, the Coneheads taking off carrying Megatron's lifeless frame or even the shots of the enemy. As he made his way towards the nearest human settlement, the only thing he cared about was if the sparkling in his arms still functioned.
