Co-authored via RP sessions with FFN User: Zaran. Zaran is Optimus Prime and I am Soundwave.
Warnings: None at all, just don't expect the beginning of a post-apocalyptic fic to be full of rainbows ;-). Also remember movie!verse Soundwave does speak differently than G1 Soundwave, as in the fact that he uses full sentences.
***
One month. Was that really as long as it had been? It seemed far longer, each minute a day, each day an eternity since the last Decepticons had finally abandoned Earth. From a tactical standpoint, there was nothing more that could be done, nothing more that could be gained by remaining. Megatron was dead, his body all but obliterated in the last battle at the factory. With their leader gone once again, for good, the rest of the Autobots' age old enemies had fled for the stars once again to leave Optimus Prime and his few survivors to a slow and painful death. There were no medics left among the Autobots. Each of the ten left only had knowledge of basic field repairs, but nothing as extensive as some of the injuries that they had. The three worst were all were stable now, by some grace (or curse) of Primus, but it would take years for their self-repairs to heal the greatest extent of their damages. Optimus Prime had sustained the worst, but nothing more could be done.
What were the Autobots, then, that the vast majority of the humans who remained hated them even as the last of the Autobots tried to help them save what was left of their human world? He simply didn't know. Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and last of the Primes, did not know, and he did not know how to tell them so.
Unbeknownst to Prime, not all Decepticons had left Earth; one was left behind, intentionally. Soundwave was left orbiting the planet, uselessly, with the war over. A month ago he had gone into stasis to conserve energy but was awoken as his reserves were critically low. The former Decepticon spy knew that Earth was basically just rubble at this point but there were still vast stores of what could be used to produce energon all over the planet. Cybertronians were energy efficient creatures, at least compared to the absurd human invention; the car. Those potential energy sources would last them a long time.
Soundwave descended upon the planet and quickly located a former oil mining facility. Within a few minutes, using a primitive electrolysis process, he had lowgrade and while it was not of the best quality, it would suffice for now. After letting his systems energize, he ran a scan of the vast surrounding area, trying to look for any life at all. If Soundwave were to come across an Autobot he would not terminate and not only because of his own survival. The search had lasted a while and he almost gave up when his new target was sighted. Without a moment's hesitation, the large mech transformed into his Cybertronian jet mode and flew toward the scanned location of what he was certain was an Autobot.
There was nothing left of that area, but at the moment, that was what Optimus wanted. Perhaps he even needed it. The solitude, the loneliness. Assured his Autobots were safe with each other for the moment, he came here more often than not in his free time, what overabundance he had of it these days, under the guise of a scavenging run. This area had nothing left to offer though. He had been through it several times and knew this fact well. Or, rather, it had nothing left to offer as far as supplies went. It did have a sort of gloomy appeal, and that was what Optimus continued to appreciate about the gray, dead earth, the remnants of what had once been a forest, now burned to the ground. It had once been a beautiful valley. Optimus knew it well as a place of memories, of quiet nights and deep contemplations. This, it still was for him, but now all of his contemplations were of darker things, much like the ruined land around him. Deep in his thoughts, he was left completely unaware of the alien craft heading right toward him. A familiar sound filled the air, starting only as a low drone from afar but as it approached, it was unmistakable. Getting closer, and closer, the loud roaring engines of a Cybertronian jet echoed against the rocks, making what would seem like the whole broken world shake. This Cybertronian jet would be easily recognizable by the blue, glowing, accenting and the dark, spiky armor; it was Soundwave.
With each step on his injured leg, pain anew shot up through the shoddy patchwork and into his inner coil musculature. He never tried to show it in front of the others, but a few had noticed his limp. Now, with no one but himself to witness, Optimus tried to favor his left side as much as he could. The more gentle he was with his injuries, the faster they would heal. But it was only one of many. Megatron had not been too terribly eager to die, after all. Here, on his own, he would let their aches and stings and twinges consume him while they could. Maybe it was only a processor over matter thing, but the more he let it get to him now, perhaps, the less it would get to him later. He could always hope, though it never seemed to work. Much as he had allowed his pains to hurt him, however, he did not fail to miss the distinct sound of a powerful aerial engine swiftly headed toward him and was immediately set on high alert as he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the Decepticon.
It had to be a Decepticon. The few Autobot seekers who had found their way to Earth had not survived the last few battles, and no human would be travelling alone in the skies now.
... And no human air craft had such a particular design. He knew this Decepticon.
And he had wandered too far from the encampment to be heard now should he try and shout for assistance. Internal communications had not survived Megatron's assault. Optimus knew he might well be in serious trouble, but regardless, he stood his ground, moving back into an all too familiar defensive stance, steeling himself for whatever was to come.
Soundwave made a midair transformation and, like a hawk, descended toward Prime. He landed a few feet away in a crouched position and straightened to his full height, silently regarding the Autobot in front of him. With his wings spread, Soundwave stalked toward Prime, still keeping his silence.
Prime didn't flinch, not as Soundwave approached, not as he landed, and not as he began his advance yet again. But this was not something Optimus could easily allow. Injured as he was, alone as he was, he knew this was not what he needed. Not in the least. One hand moved swiftly to his back to retrieve his canon and brought it around, business end to bear at a place on the ground between the two of them, its systems whirring dangerously. "Mind your distance, Soundwave."
Soundwave immediately ceased his approach and stood there, looking at the Autobot calmly. After a few long moments of silence he bowed his helm, "very well, shoot." It was logical that even Prime would immediately have guns blazing at his approach but in truth, it was not the former third's intentions to start a fight; he wanted to help. There was no war anymore, autobots and decepticons were mere figments of what seemed like a nightmare that lasted too long.
Optimus shook his head, aim trained on the ground between them, neither raising in threat, nor lowering in acceptance. "No, I will not shoot you, not unless you give me a reason to do so." For a moment, he stood his ground, eyeing the Decepticon communications officer warily. "Why is it you have come here? There is nothing left of this world that could be of any use to any of our kind now."
As Optimus lowered his weapon, Soundwave slowly began to approach again. "Do you not wonder why I am here, Optimus Prime? There are no more Decepticons on Earth, there is no reason for me to be here," he continued to approach, "no mission for me to complete."
Lifts the end of his barrel an inch or two, still leaving Soundwave well out of the line of fire, but making his meaning clear. "Soundwave." But the satellite's words echo his own concerns, and he pauses them to debate just a moment more. "I believe that is why I just asked you what your meaning here would be now. You could have left with the others."
"I was left here," Soundwave stopped walking, seeing the cannon rise again.
Optimus tilted his gaze, unconsciously shifting a little to the side, subtly making a smaller target of himself. "Abandoned?"
"Affirmative," the satilitte inched closer, looking over Prime's injuries with curiousity.
When Soundwave moved closer again, the Peterbilt's hand shifted, finger tensing over his weapon's trigger mechanism, but the barrel did not rise. "Why would they leave you behind? Your reputation among them was not the best, socially, but they knew no Cybertronian better at your duties than you are. You are their asset."
"And all that is left of the Decepticons are the shock troopers, not the intellect," he stopped moving when he was only a foot from Prime, almost casting a shadow over him. "You are injured badly," he observed.
The proximity was far too close. Too many attacks - successful attacks - could be launched at him from this range that would easily disable him even more so than he already was. As the satellite continued to advance on him, Optimus steadily began to backpedal, barrel of his cannon rising again, this time to level on his opponent, but something within him refused to move in a way that he asked it to, and he stumbled with a soft, strained sound, dropping abruptly to one knee. The cannon losing its threat for a moment, but it didn't take long before Optimus realized something critical within his leg had become disabled. He could no longer rise and hope to support his weight on that leg for much longer. "Stay back!"
Soundwave took this moment to approach and grabbed for the gun to disarm Optimus. "I will not harm you, idiot Autobot, what would exactly be that function? I do nothing without a purpose." He tossed the cannon away from Prime and pushed the mech to the ground. "You have no medics, you have no one to repair you...except for me," he kneeled beside Optimus and looked at him. Disarmed in an instant, Optimus struggled against it, but much to his annoyance, fate laughed at him again - a second, rough repair disconnected, sending his energon pumps stuttering. From experience, he knew the tremor was not immediately fatal, but if left alone, it could become troublesome. Without his comms, he could not call their temporary medic back to him (only to fight off Soundwave before he could ever get to Prime?), and he could not hope to repair himself. Defiance flared his spark, brightening his optics even as he was forced to the ground, but he could not fight back again. The odds were against him. Begrudgingly, he realized, he was at the Decepticon's mercy. "What is it that you want?"
"To help, fool..." he rolled Optimus over onto his back and pinned him by straddling his hips and pressing down on his shoulders; not wanting to deal with any struggling when he did this. He spent a lot of time on his own and with the lack of trustworthy comrades he had to learn to be skilled at self repair, but there was something else that made it that much more effective; the fact that he was a split spark. He could create life if he desired but that immense energy within his spark could be used to heal others as well, such as his symbiotes or badly damaged, idiotic Autobot leaders. Of course the technique by which this process was used would likely scare the very Pit out of Prime but regardless, Soundwave would do it anyway. A few tendrils slipped out of a subspace in his back and immediately moved to slide under the the armor, nestling near Optimus' spark casing. It was there that the tiny glowing tendrils at the end of his tentacles stretched out and attached themselves to the main lines transferring power to and from the Prime's spark. Once the connection was complete, Soundwave tightened his grip on the mech beneath him and began to transfer the healing energies he used to use to help repair his now deceased symbiotes, into the battered body of the Autobot leader.
Restraint. If Soundwave's continued advances despite his best suggestions had not tossed up warning signs before, Optimus was most certainly on the alert now. This did not bode well. This did not bode well at all. But the Decepticon left his hands untouched, giving him the opportunity still to struggle and attempt to free himself. This gave the Autobot pause. Soundwave could have taken his wrists and whatever he would do, Optimus would not have been able to fight back. But Soundwave left Optimus the option to fight him. For a moment, he wavered in his resolve, but then the wariness was back as tentacles moved from the communications officer's sides and closed in on his own chest. Of all of his weapons, these were Soundwave's strongest - these were the reason he was so widely feared and respected of both Autobots and Decepticons alike. Acting on reflex alone, Optimus reached up to grab those tentacles, prevent them from entering him. "Don't." A few escaped, and he grappled the air trying to grab them all, but one or two managed to slip past, much to his dismay. "Soundwave, stop."
"You fool...I am trying to help you..." Soundwave hissed as he pushed Optimus down harder. "You must not fight this..." he began to try the process again.
Still the tentacles did as Soundwave wanted, but still Optimus tried to hold them back. The ones that had already breached his armor had moved on to his very spark chamber, sending Optimus into a fitful struggle. But he could not fend them off. And still Soundwave made no move to restrain his hands. In fact, the Decepticon seemed more intent on willingly letting him have that freedom. He could have released other tentacles to hold his hands down. He could have given the Peterbilt no room to move and simply poked through his systems at will. All at once, Optimus stilled in his physical attempts to rid himself of the satellite's influence and dropped back within himself to stop whatever it was that the hacker was trying to do to him. It was then, not without any small measure of shock, that he realized what Soundwave was pushing into his systems was not malicious code at all, but energy. Pure energon. Stunned into silence, Optimus lie on the ground, hands still at his waist, the Decepticon's thigh, tendrils still in his grasp, and stared up at Soundwave. Soundwave looked down at Prime, wondering how much the other understood from what was going on. All who could preform these healing processes were splitsparks and most were long terminated
Though Optimus still felt his pump's stuttering, the ebb and flow of energon throughout his system was continuous, augmented with what Soundwave provided. His internal repairs did not even notice the disruption had even taken place, though the stutters sent warnings out of their own. Soundwave was indeed helping him as he had said he would. In the silence between them, Optimus began to consider the Decepticon's reasons behind these unprecedented actions. Alone, he never would have survived. Perhaps it had been self-preservation what sent him down to Earth to the Autobots. Optimus hesitated, but slowly released the tentacles in his hands to let them go to their tasks.
Soundwave offlined his optics, feeding a larger mech this much healing energy was taking a lot out of him as he was used to caring for only his symbiotes. The dizziness it brought him was almost overwhelming but he still let the energy and fuel flow into the other. A long time ago splitsparks were the healers and revered almost as highly as femmes who were revered almost as highly as the Allspark itself but that changed drastically when their culture became only about war and not about the sacredness of life.
Watching Soundwave carefully throughout, trying to keep an eye on the Decepticon as much as he was feeling the energy move throughout his frame, strengthening him even as Soundwave tried to maintain his hold on him, Optimus began to believe the satellite. Stronger now than he was before, he could easily wrestle the Decepticon, try and fight his way out of this position, but he would still not be able to escape. Not with his leg damaged as it was. And the more energy Soundwave fed into him, the less he would have for himself. One hand moved back to the tendrils linking them and took a gentle hold. "Soundwave, stop. Save some for yourself."
Soundwave onlined his optics and let the tendrils disconnect and slide back. Letting out a shakey intake he rolled off Optimus, onto his back. Slowly, Optimus shifted to push himself upright once again, then turned to look at Soundwave. Just how much of his personal reserves had the Decepticon pushed into him? "Will you be alright?"
"Affirmative..." He answered weakly. It was well worth it, regardless of his own wellbeing; the Autobots needed their leader and Soundwave no longer had anyone.