Title: cue the deus ex machina
Summary: AU. Soundwave and Laserbeak escape the shadowzone with some very unlikely help.
A/N: Inspired by and dedicated to great post-Deadlock Soundwave-centric fic by reka1207 and ZombieXoX.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime or anything related to it.
Soundwave compared their rations with their energon levels again. Energon levels were still adequate, though not at maximum capacity anymore. The rations he'd carried on his person per Decepticon protocol, on the other hand, were running low.
Progress toward escaping this so-called shadowzone remained abysmal.
The (former?) communications officer adhered to a strict feeding schedule, and fortunately for Laserbeak, her begging for treats coincided with the right appointment. Soundwave supposed it was bound to happen, as Laserbeak had been begging for treats nonstop after a certain point during their exile.
But when Soundwave prepared to feed her, Laserbeak struggled with him. Behind his mask-screen, Soundwave's eyes narrowed.
Through their private internal link, Soundwave commed Laserbeak, "What is it?"
Upon realizing how dire their situation was, Soundwave tried to conserve energy. He had limited or shut down what communication tools were left to him, but were otherwise useless without other stimuli in the shadowzone. Laserbeak was different, her tools always having been lighter and more integrated into her systems, to the point that they could not be limited or shut off, and typically handled energy usage more efficiently. Thus she remained, as she always had been, the perfect early sensor system.
As Soundwave expected, Laserbeak had sensed something. "Sudden spike in the energy levels you tagged," she commed back to him.
Soundwave immediately activated that tool and checked the energy levels his symbiote had referred to. The spike was rising higher, faster—a rapid line on the diagram—it flashed red—
The sudden crackle of light and sound was reminscient of a groundbridge. But the colors constantly shifted. It seemed more visibly like something was ripping in space, less stable than a groundbridge.
Laserbeak chirped excitedly, fluttering against his chest. Soundwave placed a firm hand on her. Even after summoning up all his communication tools that lit up his internal HUD and now fed Soundwave a stream of data, none of it concretely identified the rip before them as a groundbridge or even a spacebridge. There were similarities, but nothing conclusive. What if entering was only worse—
Soundwave reconsidered. Worse than this shadowzone?
The communications officer took a step forward but kept a firm hand on Laserbeak. The move seemed almost pointless, as the rip wildly expanded and curved around Soundwave and Laserbeak. But it did not engulf them.
Data growing crazier, sensors screaming louder, Soundwave tensed and tried to prepare for what would happen next, a similar escalation in data and sensor work had preceded this sudden rip's appearance—
The dark energon radar triggered on Soundwave's HUD.
Soundwave readied his tentacles and took a battle stance, ordering Laserbeak to stay put, to stay close.
More dots of dark energon appeared on his HUD. And then a screaming onslaught of violet eyes and flailing claws toppled out of the dimensional rip. Soundwave favored dodging, darting in and out of the falling Terrorcons. Them being in a mindless rage did not surprise him, but they were clearly spat out in this shadowzone against their will. But by who? And where had they come from, exactly? All the Terrorcons should be deactivated and accounted for.
Soundwave's spark seized when Megatron's spark signal activated on his HUD.
Before he could register that glitch in his sensors or shove away the sudden split flashback of Megatron falling to that alien planet, a large capsule with Megatron clearly inside it slammed to the floor before him.
Still Soundwave did not believe his optics or sensors or Laserbeak's excited "Lord Megatron!" and his hands clenched, spark-stricken. He slid his mask-screen away, so that there was nothing between his optics but atmosphere, never mind that his mask-screen never truly obsured his view before.
His optics widened, looking, looking for any mistake, but nothing, nothing, that was his master—
old friend
—Megatron.
And the older Decepticon stared back at him with his own red eyes opened wide.
"Soundwave?!" Of course Megatron was the first to speak. But in a voice so alarmed, something Soundwave hadn't heard from in a long, long time. (It bordered on fear, and concern.)
"What are you doing here, you were not caught up in the spacebridge collapse, I saw you with the others—!" And Megatron punctuated his confusing statement with a bang against the capsule's screen. Then somehow his eyes widened even more, looking past the communications officer, and already Soundwave was turning around. "Behind you!"
Soundwave whipped a tentacle at a rampaging Terrorcon, throwing him into another of its twisted kin. Laserbeak chirped, and Soundwave reminded her to stay where she was.
Bang, bang, and Soundwave turned around to find Megatron still slamming a fist against the capsule's screen, agains the entire capsule, he was trying to get out, he was trapped—
Soundwave took up a position by Megatron's capsule, finally giving Laserbeak the curt order to only hover at his side while she provided coverfire. She eagerly detached herself from his chest and readied her mini-cannons.
Soundwave plugged a tentacle into the capsule, looking to hack its security codes. Through the glass, he spied Megatron's arm blade broken in half, his shattered arm cannon.
(Mistakes. These were mistakes, weren't they? Discrepancies. Last he'd seen Megatron, his blade and cannon functional. But those were his eyes, those were his weapons broken...)
Megatron began to slice at the capsule glass with his shattered blade and claws in addition to punching it. Laserbeak fired at the Terrorcon hordes, while more of them spilled in from the rip that still writhed and grew madly.
Soundwave's tentacle slipped out when the hacking job was done, and the capsule's glass slid away. If this had been a more normal situation, Soundwave would've stepped back and let Megatron step out himself.
In this case, Soundwave immediately wrapped an arm around Megatron and helped him out.
(Alarm bells rang in Soundwave's head when Megatron did not protest, but Soundwave told himself he'd moved too fast for Megatron to respond, Megatron was out of it after the ordeal in the capsule, Megatron was prioritizing better, Megatron was dead...but no, no, he was here, his master—his friend was here, his oldest friend—and it was not unprecedented. Megatron had made no real comment when Knock Out touched his shoulder after the dark energon-infected Nemesis overwhelmed his mind—but Knock Out was the medic, and for all his efforts to hide it, was clearly an emotional creature, emotion was expected of him; but Soundwave had cultivated his cold reputation, and Megatron never argued it, had even encouraged it—but no, this situation was different, the extreme, it warranted this strange minor behavior from Megatron.)
"Laserbeak, move!" Megatron barked as he shoved Soundwave back, and darting after him as another Terrorcon fell out of the rip and onto the capsule, right where they had been before.
Soundwave immediately commed Laserbeak. Their private link stayed silent, but she was soon back at his side.
Terrorcons clawing toward them were soon beat back by Megatron. Normally Soundwave would've been more composed, but alarm seized him, moving to immediately fight with his friend made his body more erratic. But he paused. Something caught his attention on the dark energon readouts. The dots indicating the Terrorcons...they were starting to dwindle...
And the data tracking the rip anamoly's status continued to skyrocket in insanity. Soundwave's head started to ache. To sway, even, the world tilting.
Wait. No.
The world was tilting.
Looking down, Soundwave saw the ground begin to crack, and multi-color light peek out. The Terrorcons banging and biting the ground probably weren't helping. The energy tendrils of the rip piercing the ground definitely weren't helping.
The readouts said the last of the Terrorcons arrived, and the data skyrocketed as the dimensional rip spread and sharpened and stabbed straight through the ground, shattering the world.
Soundwave wrapped tentacles around Laserbeak and Megatron. His leader tugged, and Soundwave followed, dragging Laserbeak along until she was close enough to attach to his chest.
With a grimace, Megatron shoved Soundwave into the capsule he'd escaped, then followed him inside. A tight squeeze, but Soundwave understood, plugging back in and hacking the capsule into shutting the glass again.
Their capsule shook—Laserbeak trembled, and Soundwave froze when Megatron stroked a gentle claw against her—and then plunged, and if Soundwave tilted his head back, he could see above Megatron's shoulder and through the glass that the Terrorcons fell too.
Finally the dimensional rip engulfed them all.
###
Now the onslaught of data was overwhelming Soundwave as the rip transported their capsule.
Shut it off, shut it off, his strained mind thought and did just that, deactivating what communication tools he could.
But his head still ached as their capsule was tossed about. The Terrorcons shrieking outside stressed his audial receptors.
Their screaming heightened and intensified as the capsule was battered particularly hard, just when Soundwave's dark energon radar went haywire before Soundwave could turn it off. A large burst of energy from the dimensional rip around them had been registered, before leaving just as quickly, and with it the dots of dark energon. A glitch in his sensors? But the Terrorcons did not shriek in the rip again. Had the rip canceled out their dark energon? Drained them?
Soundwave and the others weren't in the rip much longer after that. The capsule bounced and spun, before finally slamming down and settling with one final whine of metal.
There was another whining sound above, of—Laserbeak shrieked when the glass screen shattered, and Megatron twisted to make sure he covered Laserbeak and Soundwave. Finally when quiet truly settled, Megatron twisted back slightly, and Soundwave saw a large spiked piece of stone debris embedded through the screen right above them.
Soundwave's head bumped against the capsule interior, letting the tension drain out and his body fall back. He gave a small exhale. Laserbeak shuffled closer against his chest.
"Are you all right?" Megatron gruffly asked.
Soundwave stiffly nodded, and Laserbeak chirped back an affirmative.
"Come, sensors indicate the Terrorcons are gone," Megatron said.
"I know," Soundwave absent-mindedly replied with a sound bite of Starscream, heedless of Starscream's irritable tone at the time of recording.
Megatron kicked away the shattered screen, and it flew off its hinges along with the shard of debris. As Megatron jumped down, Soundwave realized their capsule had landed so that it leaned diagonally against some ruined building. Another level of ruined building wasn't far below them.
Soundwave joined Megatron, and looked back up at their ruined capsule. He whipped around at Megatron's low growl, and found his leader stalking toward the bodies of the Terrorcons, their optics dimmed out. Megatron knelt by one of them, examining.
Laserbeak immediately detached herself and flew in excited circles over Megatron's head before Soundwave could protest, and Soundwave wasn't sure if he would've in this case. He hurried to Megatron's side.
"Drained," Megatron grunted, leaning back on his heels from where he knelt, casting a look at the rest of the bodies. "All of them, by the looks of it." Megatron's eyes narrowed. "But how ...?" Megatron quietly wondered aloud. Then his optics rolled over the bodies again. "Some of these bodies aren't the Terrorcons that came with us..."
Soundwave scanned their surroundings. This was—
"Soundwave, we are on Cybertron again!" Laserbeak eagerly chirped on their private line. In addition to his own observations, Soundwave reactivated some of his communication tools that fed him the appropriate data, and he had to conclude that she was right.
"Did Prime's spacebridge simply send us back here?" Megatron murmured in a low voice, unaware of Laserbeak and Soundwave's entire private exchange. The communications officer's head was spinning.
Laserbeak voiced Soundwave's concern. "But it's still ruined...I thought the—did reconstruction just not reach here? Soundwave?"
"I'm not sure," Soundwave commed back on their private line. While in the shadowzone, he and Laserbeak ventured outside the Nemesis docked planetside. Never going far, but witnessing the reconstruction. They had not seen something like this on the revived Cybertron recently.
Megatron stood up, scanning their surroundings again. "Perhaps Prime did not have enough dark energon to infect the entire planet, if some remained here unaffected..." Megatron's brow furrowed more. "But then his recording had said—"
"Sir," Soundwave said, breaking the vow he'd taken since Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage had died and Cybertron first went dark, "what are you talking about?"
It had been so hard to speak since his other symbiotes died, and their planet with them, it was easier to make a vow of silence, but not long after Megatron's—
death
—critical injury, Soundwave had thought of how he never spoke with his old friend again. And the thought had stayed and lingered like an infestation. So Soundwave had used his voice box without really thinking. And the confusion, the curiosity, it was all a pressing matter.
Megatron shook his head, as if extricating himself from a daze. He had been talking to himself in a rambling way. "Soundwave, you were there...not for the recording, but for everything else..." His leader's jaw clenched, baring his fangs. "You were there, I did not see you follow me into the spacebridge!"
Anger. Anger and confusion and actual worry in Megatron's voice. But it was more the anger that triggered Soundwave—triggered the communication officer's own accusations against himself since getting trapped in the shadowzone, since Megatron had—
"I was foolish enough to let the human children trick me, I—!" I'm sorry. I'm sorry? Apology was worthless at this point.
"What human children?!" Megatron snapped. Then he growled. "If you are referring to Skywarp and Thundercracker's kin, they were left on Earth—
Laserbeak flew away from Megatron and attached herself back to Soundwave's chest.
Soundwave's eyes widened. His mask-screen, it was still down, he should put it back up...but nothing slid into place. "Skywarp and Thundercracker are dead—"
"I know that—you know that they're infected with dark energon—!"
"And Optimus Prime did not have dark energon—"
Megatron slammed a fist against a pillar. Laserbeak twitched against Soundwave's chest, but Soundwave did not budge. At least this impulse from his leader was very familiar, but not the look on his face. Sheer confusion. And something else, some dawning revelation.
"...What did you say, Soundwave?"
"That Optimus Prime had no dark energon."
"'I leave you in some alternate dimension, even I don't entirely know where it is,'" Megatron growled, looking away, his optics starting to look wild.
"What?" Soundwave hissed, concerned, and very confused. And beginning to suspect...
"Something Prime said in his recording," Megatron absent-mindedly said. Then he shook his head, and looked at Soundwave. Really looked at him, pinning him down with his gaze. Then he vented a slow breath. Soundwave couldn't remember seeing his old friend...look so old. So tired. Soundwave was utterly unnerved. And yet so very grateful to see him again, despite the strangeness—the strangeness meant nothing, he had no reason to suspect anything.
"Soundwave...do you remember—
no, for the horrible thought now fully breached his mind, that of
"—talk of interdimensional travel? From...Orion, from the archives? From Shockwave? From Starscream and Skyfire?"
Soundwave stared at Megatron.
no he did not want this he wanted him to be his
Closing his eyes and sliding his mask-screen back into place, Soundwave dug up the relevant (damning) recording of Orion Pax. (Damn his voice, the traitor.)
"Interdimensional travel goes beyond intergalactic travel, not between planets but dimensions of planets—"
"Orion."
"What I mean, Megatronus, is that—"
(Soundwave fastforwarded through the part where he, a weak sparkling at the time, had asked Megatronus for a treat, telling him he was hungry. Orion had paused their discussion while Megatronus tended to Soundwave. And Soundwave had stayed eating his treat and listening and recording at their feet, only occasionally playing with the puzzle Orion had given him, its contents scattered on the floor.)
"—take Cybertron for instance. There is one Cybertron in one dimension. But interdimensional travel suggests that there are multiple dimensions. So there can be multiple Cybertrons. And these Cybertrons can be similar, or different, or somewhere in between—"
"So that conversation stayed the same between dimensions," Megatron said with a growl, and Soundwave stopped the recording of Orion.
"Do you truly believe that—?" Soundwave started, but Megatron cut him off.
"—that we are from different dimensions? Yes."
Soundwave rather felt Laserbeak's mind go into a mini-coma.
"How?" Soundwave snapped, something he hadn't done with (any) Megatron in a long time.
"To make a long story short—"
"I want the long story," snarled Soundwave.
Megatron nodded. "And you will have it. Later." Megatron vented a sigh. "Suffice to say, my Optimus Prime tried some very specific manipulations with his space bridge."
"That went wrong."
"For me, anyway," Megatron grumbled. "Prime clearly achieved his goal." But then he shook his head. "Though doubtful Prime ever expected I would run into you—a version of you and Laserbeak." Megatron sighed. "So yes, manipulating the space bridge did not happen without side effects."
"And the capsule..." Soundwave flicked a glance to it. "Part of his plan to banish you?"
Megatron nodded, optics narrowed to slits.
"A bit extreme, isn't it?" Soundwave said, his voice low.
"The situation was extreme," Megatron replied, glaring at the capsule. "His failsafe was extreme..."
Soundwave bit the inside of his cheek, a nervous tic no one ever noticed thanks to the mask-screen.
"You remember Cybertron as dead, correct?"
Megatron stared at him. Then he nodded, something like hope in his optics, and Soundwave felt somewhat ill. "And yours is...not? It never—"
"It did." Soundwave shrugged. "It got better."
The alternate version of his friend vented a small relieved sigh. Soundwave continued, "If your Cybertron is dead, like this one is—" And Soundwave cast an arm about their surroundings. "—perhaps we are in your dimension, and on its Cybertron."
Megatron quietly considered that. "A possibility. Unless Prime did have enough Dark Energon to infect all of Cybertron's dead. Then the ones here predating the Terrorcons that were transported with us—"
"—could be from a wholly different dimension we've landed in, yes," Soundwave flatly said.
Then the winds started to pick up.
"A storm is coming," Megatron muttered, and Soundwave confirmed it by checking his weather sensors. "We must find shelter. Then, you'll get the long story. And then you can share yours."
Laserbeak detached herself while Soundwave and Megatron transformed into their flight modes, and she followed the two into the air.
And as the winds picked up even more and the dust kicked up, Soundwave privately thought he would omit the death of his dimension's Megatron.
A/N: So, basically, I feel like Mirrorverse makes everything better. XD Hope you enjoyed, and I always appreciate the feedback! I'd like to continue you this sometime to try to answer some of the mysteries here.