Note: All Cybertronian characters are in a human/pretender form.
Disclaimer: Transformers and characters within the brand do not belong to me. Ember (c) Me. Lyrics (c) Eminem.
Just gonna stand there and watch me burn…
…but that's alright because I like the way it hurts…
Masochists, they existed even within the weak and fragile race called Humans. Soundwave went over the series of events that led to him being charged with watching over a human girl. He would have just as soon erased her memory of the Decepticons and sent her back to her dwelling had he not been aware of her pertinence to Megatron's plan for total dominion over the Autobots.
The girl, aptly named Ember for her fiery and burning personality, moaned in her sleep and turned over restlessly. No doubt having repeats of the nightmare she was plagued with.
This was the third night he was watching over the girl, and though considered a young adult in human years, and she kept engaging in a strange moaning and rolling ritual akin to some human infant. During the hours she was awake, he inquired about the restlessness. Each time the questions were shot at her, she deflected them with snarky comments or glares that would have done a Decepticon justice. Frustrated with her refusal to be forthcoming, he had decided on a previous night such as this to find out for himself what was causing all of this and tapped into her brain waves to translate them into images from her nightmares.
It turned out that the cause of her torment in slumber was because of a memory of a plane crash. It seemed a poor reason to be so disturbed, seeing as how his research had shown that vehicle crashes were commonplace among human; she should just accept that it took place and move on. He had expressed his thoughts to Ember the following morning, and she was apparently infuriated with him for "invading her personal thoughts". After a mostly one sided argument (on her part), she stormed off saying that she refused to forget the incident and there was nothing he could do about it.
And so there Soundwave was, watching the tossing and turning human with a cold and emotionless stare. She grimaced and clenched the pillow that her head had abandoned as she moved about. Long locks of ebony hair were messy and slightly matted from tossing about while chocolate hues flicked back and forth behind her eyelids. Soundwave was starting to lose interest in watching her squirm when there was a sudden change in her body that registered on his sensors. Her heart rate and blood pressure spiked and the adrenaline levels in her blood jumped without warning. She clenched her teeth and grimaced again. She muttered something incoherently and flopped over onto her back.
If this was something that could kill her, Megatron would not be pleased, seeing as the girl was necessary in order to activate the Sacred Artifacts and find the last great source of power that was still in existence in this universe. A power source which was rumored to reside in a hidden city somewhere beneath the surface of the planet, hidden for millennia. Tapping into her brain waves once more, Soundwave looked to see what could have been causing the sudden change. What he did not expect was the sheer amount of brain activity taking place. It temporarily took over his vision center and he froze as a wall of fire flared up before his optics. When the flare settled a little, he found himself standing in the same field where the plane had crashed, the ruins of the doomed machine dark and silhouetted some ways away.
Ember stood within the field, littered with burning bodies of the quick and the dead. She just stared out at them with a melancholy and half lidded gaze, fires aided by jet fuel crackling around her. She looked down at the form of a child squirming and crying as the heat of the flames melted her skin and muscle away. The young woman's body shook and trembled with fear, but her expression never changed. She did nothing when her hair caught fire and began to burn, soon setting her clothes and body ablaze as well. Soundwave's usual frown deepened with scorn as he watched; the inefficiency of whomever or whatever had caused such destruction sickened him.
The Ember in the nightmare looked to her hands as flesh gave way to bone and then to ashes. As she faded away into nothingness, she screamed, which translated into real life.
Realizing she'd woken, Soundwave removed his hand from her head and disconnected the link, seeing that Ember was now sitting up in bed, her chest heaving as she panted. The sides of her face were streaked with a clear fluid that trickled from her eyes, lightly tanned skin was pale and her whole frame shook. It took her several long minutes to regain her composure and realize that she was in the world of the conscious once more. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before looking to Soundwave. The two shared a stare before she frowned lightly and looked away.
"You did it again, didn't you?" She muttered.
"There was a radical change in your body chemistry, and since Lord Megatron charged me with task of supervising you, I am required to investigate such reactions in order to assess their potential lethality."
"Well, stop it. This isn't Inception…" Soundwave took a moment to scan the internet and figure what she was saying before cocking a brow at her as he gave her a quizzical stare.
"You have chosen to use a movie reference in an attempt to make a point…I'm afraid your choice is somewhat inaccurate however, seeing as how I was merely attempting to identify the cause of your discomfort." He said dryly, "But what I fail to understand is why you permit these nightmares to affect you in such an adverse fashion; are you not capable of deleting such information?"
Ember shot him a bitter glance. "If you want to know so bad, then fine!" She spat before taking a breath, "I would not be the person I am today if I had not witnessed that crash. I have made it a point to prevent something like that from happening in the future. I can't know where I'm going if I don't remember where I've been."
His features contorted as he attempted to comprehend her logic.
"So you are content with seeing your form burn to ashes every night for the rest of your existence?"
"If that's what it takes to save lives, then yes. Besides, I've gotten used to pain… sort of."
Again, his expression was that of frustrated confusion.
"…Your logic seems flawed…It seems irrationally pointless to cause one's self so much internal turmoil on a nightly basis in order to accomplish a goal that could be just as easily achieved without it…"