Despite his name, Soundwave was silent as he moved through the ship. His shadow was familiar enough no one looked up when he glided by, even if he walked down the middle of the hall. Which he didn't. But he could if he chose to.
This deep into fourth shift only the mechs stuck on duty were awake. And Soundwave. He passed by security cameras, nothing more than a quick flicker of shadow before all was quiet again. Ravage ranged ahead of him, liquid black so quick he was there and gone before anyone registered something not quite right.
They went deeper into the ship where the little used storage bays were. As unused as the bays were, the communication console had been completely forgotten. But Soundwave remembered. Ravage paced impatiently in front of the console, capable of sending the communication, but needing Soundwave's fingers to do the encryption. Soundwave's fingers flowed over the keyboard encrypting the signal with everything he knew. It hadn't been picked up by anyone and it was such a small signal there was a low chance anyone would even catch it. But he remained vigilant. Ravage sat at his side, sliding his claws in and out against the tile floor, his version of drumming his fingers.
At last, Soundwave finished the encryption to his liking and sent the signal. Powering down a now unnecessary portion of the keyboard he allowed Ravage to leap up onto the console. The colony was distant, but not so distant as their homeworld. It would still take several breems for the initial signal to reach.
Ravage waited with more patience now that it was out of their hands with how quickly things moved. Conversely, Soundwave felt impatience stir in his spark. This was the worst part. Waiting. It was early evening on the colony and sometimes they weren't there or the signal was lost with cosmic interference.
This was not one of those times, though. After ten breems a confirmation signal came back followed thirty seconds later by a video feed. "Hey, sorry I missed you last kel," the mech said. He lay on his chest on a berth that probably hadn't been made since he put sheets on, but it looked comfortable. Behind him, part of the mural that adorned his berthroom was visible, just a few splashes of bold colors, but Soundwave knew what each paint stroke looked like. It was a sunset and sunrise captured on the walls, chaos at first glance that sorted into breathtaking beauty if one took the time to look at it.
Stray flecks of paint still covered part of his face. Soundwave caught himself before he reached up as if he could wipe them away. A small muddog jumped onto the berth next to him and barked, tail whipping back and forth so fast the video feed couldn't keep up with it. A rarely heard rumbling purr left Ravage. Soundwave slid his mask back. The mech smiled and Soundwave didn't stop the smaller smile that answered his. Sometimes the scars made smiling uncomfortable, but he had never stopped one for this mech. "How was the gallery?" he asked in a deep voice with a touch of husk borne of disuse and damage dealt an eon ago.
The mech's amethyst optics lit up. "Amazing, I still had mechs out the door half a joor before we were supposed to close. That's why I missed you. I didn't leave until the dockworkers were getting breakfast." His laugh made Soundwave smile again. Ravage made a light chirrup that Soundwave didn't think anyone else would believe him capable of. The mech smiled at the symbiont. "Berserker misses you," he said. The muddog barked again and whined dropping to his belly and pressing his nose against the screen. "I miss you too," he added softly.
Soundwave's spark kicked and Ravage rubbed his head against his arm. "I know," he said, voice turning whispery for how quiet he spoke. "Scythe, I—"
"I know," the mech said pillowing his head in his arms, his amethyst optics dimming to royal purple. "Just…promise me if you have a chance to come home you'll take it?"
"I will," Soundwave answered. His hands ached to hold his mech. He missed his warm frame next to his, watching his hands glide across canvas where they wreaked havoc that became beautiful if you took the time to look at it.
Scythe's optics returned to their normal shining amethyst. "Come home, soon? I'm running out of things to paint," mischief lit his optics and Soundwave's answering smile made part of his face hurt but he didn't stop.
"What unholy colors are you going to cover me in this time?" he asked.
"I still say the neon green offset your frame beautifully," he said. Ravage shook himself from head to tail and sneezed while Berserker lolled his tongue out and rolled back and forth with laughter. "I think I'll blindfold you and let it be a surprise," Scythe said, rubbing Berserker's belly. Soundwave had tried to do that once with Ravage and still had the scars.
"No," Soundwave said and Scythe laughed because they both knew Soundwave would submit to whatever he wanted. And they both knew he would enjoy Scythe's hands stroking over his frame, even if they left cold streaks of paint behind.
At the same time a quiet beep alerted them that they only had ten seconds left before the signal automatically terminated. Scythe's optics darkened again. "I will come home soon," Soundwave said, not stopping himself from reaching out and touching the screen. Even if he had to manufacture an excuse. He would hold his mech before the vorn was out.
A sad half-smile lifted part of Scythe's mouth. "I love you," he whispered. Berserker whimpered softly once.
The transmission cut off and Soundwave reached out to touch the screen again. "I love you, too," he said in a hoarse whisper. Ravage sat stoically next to him but he could feel sadness feeding back into his spark. "Soon," he told his symbiont. Stroking the top of Ravage's head once he started shutting down the console.
oOo
Blaster twirled in his chair with a stylus balanced on his nasal ridge. He should've known when Prowl asked if he wanted to listen to his music all shift there was a catch. The catch was it was fourth shift and he couldn't bump his tunes at the decibels needed to truly appreciate them. He spun a circle trying to keep the stylus balanced and made it a quarter turn before it flew off and hit Steeljaw in the head. The small lion smacked his feet and growled. Boredom made him irritable and Blaster was always on the receiving end of that irritability.
"Frag off," he grumbled, picking up the stylus. They only had another half joor and then they could go see what Jazz was doing. Because despite what everyone said, Jazz was definitely back on ship, he just wasn't in a 'being seen' mood and locked away in his quarters. It wasn't good for mechs to lock themselves away like that. That's why Prowl had such a warped sense of humor. Who else would think it was funny to put him on fourth shift where he could listen to his tunes but couldn't actually listen to his tunes. Maybe Red Alert. But there again was another mech who locked himself away way too often. So he had to get Jazz out of his quarters. For the good of them all.
Steeljaw, desperate for something to do snagged on a tiny but heavily encrypted signal. Blaster tossed the stylus away and swiveled around to the console, hands finding their places without conscious thought. The transmission was short and without the ridiculous amounts of encryption wouldn't have been anything to write Prime about. As it was, he and Steeljaw set to work on deciphering the code.
The signal cut off just as Blaster broke the last bit of encryption and they got the fading pixels of a video call.
I love you.
The words were garbled and distorted as the feed broke apart, but they were unmistakable. Blaster and Steeljaw shared a wide opticked surprised look. The signal origination code was from the Nemesis. Someone told a Decepticon they loved them?
Checking the clock he groaned. Still twenty breems before his never-ending shift was over. But when it was, he had just the mystery to get Jazz out of his quarters. Holding his hand out, Steeljaw slapped it with his paw and they sat back to wait for the clock to run out.
oOo
Even Megatron had to recharge. And who was going to tell Starscream, Second in Command, that he couldn't be on the bridge during fourth shift. Keeping one screen on star charts in case someone was stupid enough to be curious about what he was doing, he plugged a small datpad into the console and searched through the terabytes of information the ship held.
Because there was something. There was always something. Nothing was infallible. Not even Megatron. He had not clawed his way to the top of the senate just to be outdone by a former gladiator who wielded power like a club instead of the scalpel it should be.
He was the rightful leader of the Decepticons. Megatron had done his best to destroy the vastly outnumbered Autobots and yet here they were barely holding the line. Yet, not one glitchy soldier in the rabble he called an army thought anything of it. They should have decimated the Autobot forces an eon ago.
A furious snarl twisted his mouth and the datpad creaked where he held it too tight. Soon. Soon he would right all wrongs and be where he belonged.
An outgoing signal caught his attention. Not only was it an abhorrent time for anymech to be awake, the encryption on it was Soundwave's work. Breath catching he traced the signal to its origin in the ship. Storage bay? An odd and out of the way place to send a transmission from. He'd actually forgotten there was a console down there.
Megatron.
Flashing his sharp fangs when he smiled he started hammering at the code trying to find some way to get through. As small as the transmission was it wasn't going to last long. Starscream couldn't think of anymech Megatron would be contacting, especially during fourth shift. This could be the thing. Because no one was infallible. Megatron had weaknesses and Starscream would break him from the inside out with those weaknesses.
Hacking in through the bridge communications he caught the last few seconds of the transmission. A mech with sad dark purple optics whispered, "I love you." And then he was gone and static filled the screen. Starscream's spark pounded in his chest. He didn't move, didn't blink, but stared at the blank screen where the mech had been a second before.
A smile started to curl the corners of his mouth and a quiet laugh shook his chest that grew into a hoarse cackle. He found it. Megatron's weakness. And now, he was going to kill it.
oOo
A/N: Hey, a Soundwave one shot! It really is a one shot, too, because I have no idea where I'd go with this. I guess you guys can do a Write Your Own Adventure thing with it. Actually, that'd be cool to see. If you do that, let me know, I'd love to read it.
Anyway, I'm stuck on NaNo again and was running through characters I haven't done a one shot for and landed on Soundwave. So enjoy! I'll just be here crying author tears and lamenting how goddamn hard writing is :D