Voila! The second chapter to this little story of mine!
These characters are not mine, I'm just playing with them. Enjoy!

Italicized text: dreams and memories
::text:: : conversation through bonds

Warning: contains flashbacks to a near death experience and Soundwave being an introspective dork (again)


New Light: Chapter 2

The blur of red and white above him, muffled voices chattered together as they worked on his frame. His audios rang, his vision fritzed with static, the world swung around him in a dizzying sway. He couldn't breathe, something deep in his chest spasmed and energon pooled in his mouth. Soundwave felt his frame shift as the was turned onto his side, his mask torn off by practised servos as he choked up energon into the dirt. Primus the pain, something seared in his chest, his spark wavered. It was so cold, he was so cold.

Soundwave sat up with a gasp. His frame was suddenly hit with a burning pain from his chest. He clutched his glass docking station, his vision blurred to nothing. Static roared in Soundwave's audios until two strong servos rested on his shoulders and pushed him back to lay down. The telepath jolted at the touch but allowed the servos to guide him back. Soundwave shook his helm to help clear his senses, he could feel pillows being propped up behind him so he could sit up a bit better. Finally, his vision and hearing cleared. Soundwave glanced around the unfamiliar medical bay, then to the stabilizing systems and medicine drip we was attached to. He finally turned to meet the gaze of Autobot Ratchet. The medic stood next to his berth as he scanned the blue mech's frame.

"Welcome back", he stated. Soundwave noticed how relaxed his posture was, the medic had his servos crossed across his chest plates as he spoke. However, the telepath noted how closed up Ratchet's field was, perhaps he wasn't as calm and collected as he wished Soundwave to believe.

"You've been out for some time", the medic remarked, he busied his servos in checking the equipment hooked up to Soundwave. With a hiss of static, Soundwave attempted to reboot his vocalizer. Nothing came out aside from a pitiful, static-laden warble, Soundwave winced. "Almost three days", Ratchet answered the unspoken question. Soundwave re-set his vocolizer with a few clicks, his servos reached up and touched his mask and visor. "Don't worry, I put your mask and visor back in place after operating on you" Ratchet added after watching the gesture. The blue mech gently moved his servos to trace over the middle of his chestplates, his fingers lingered where the blade had gone in. Patch work was evident enough; however, it was surprisingly neat and done with immense care. Ratchet watched as his unexpected patient rubbed over his chestplates, almost unbelieving that he was all in one piece. Finally, after a long moment, Soundwave's vocolizer snapped back online. He looked up to the medic, his servos still resting over his cassette docks.

"Query: Why?" Soundwave inquired.

Ratchet stepped back from the medical equipment with a thoughtful hum. "I am a medic. War or no war, it is strictly against my coding to allow someone to bleed to death unassisted" he explained.

Soundwave absorbed this and nodded stiffly. "Query: location of cassettes?" he asked. Despite the monotone voice, it was fairly obvious that there was a strain in his words.

"Well taken care of," assured Ratchet, "After the incident we made sure that the cassettes were settled safely with everything they needed as well as supervision. They have been in to visit you every day". The medic avoided the details on how the last few days in the medbay had been nothing but tearful visits and bawling cassettes. He cleared his throat, but was cut off when Soundwave asked "Query: …why?".

Ratchet snorted, a smile etched on his faceplates, "well, we couldn't exactly leave the younglings out in the middle of no where. Hook didn't know how to bring them with him as he left, they refused to leave your side". Soundwave gave a puzzled frown behind his mask, why would leaving them out in the middle of nowhere be the only option? Hadn't the Decepticons attempted to bring them back to safety when they left? He pushed the worries and questions from his mind for now.

"Soundwave: wished to see cassettes" he said. Ratchet nodded, "I thought you might say that, I have already sent for them". Soundwave let out a relieved breath knowing that there would be no issue in seeing his family again. Perhaps they were being held hostage, but the soft-sparked Autobots would at least let them see each-other.

"How is the pain level?" Ratchet asked, he gestured to Soundwaves chestplates. Soundwave hesitated, his servos hovered above his glass as he looked down for a moment. He struggled to breathe, energon poured from his chestplates as he stared blankly at the hilt of Megatron's dagger. His spark burned, he felt his intakes fill with liquids. Soundwave shook his helm to remove the memory. A chill crept along his spinal struts as he clutched his repaired plating.

"Pain: tolerable" he answered. The term 'tolerable' was, perhaps, a bit of an understatement. His chest ached from inside to outside, each breath brought with it fresh streaks of agony. Nonetheless, if he let the medic know the pain level he might not be granted access to his creations.

Ratchet nodded and jotted something on his datapad. He hadn't missed a thing, nothing got away from Ratchet's optics. He noted the random freeze Soundwave displayed as he stared at his chestplates. It was possible that some lingering fears and survivor guilt would be carried by the mech after that battle. He made note of it.

A knock on the door directed both mech's attention to the entrance just as six excited cassettes burst through. With shrieks of joy, all six cassettes clamoured up onto Soundwave's berth. They stopped at the foot of the berth, their optics lingered on their carrier's chestplates. Soundwave sent a gentle greeting through the bond, he let them know just how happy he was to see them. Ratbat, being the youngest and most in need of proximity, was the first to move. Tentatively, he crawled up towards Soundwave. He let his carrier lift him from the berth and cradle him in the crook of his neck. Once Ratbat felt the warmth radiating from his carrier, he knew that everything was going to be ok. He churred and affectionately nuzzled his creator, who clutched the sparkling tighter. Gradually, the cassettes picked their way up towards Soundwave. They took care not to lean on his chestplates or place too much pressure on the healing wound. Soundwave greeted each with a gently embrace and warm welcomes through the bond.

After a moment of adapting, the cassettes let down their hesitant walls and climbed all over Soundwave, finding their usual spots to cozy up to. Ratbat stayed curled up in the crook of Soundwave's neck, Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw each perched on Soundwave's shoulders, Rumble and Frenzy curled up on their carrier's lap, and Ravage pressed his side to Soundwave's.

::We missed you!:: the cassettes sent through the bond, ::We are go glad to see you awake::, ::When will we go back home?::, ::It's really nice here!::, ::we have so much to tell you!::. The questions and messages bombarded Soundwave's side of the bond, he accepted each message with a soothing burst of love and as many answers as he could muster.

"That was real scary, Boss!" Rumble was the fist to speak aloud. The rest of the cassettes joined him in a unison of voices.

"Yeah!"

"It was so scary!"

"I'm just glad you're ok"

"I'm glad you didn't offline"

"Primus Frenzy, don't say that"

"Well it's true!".

Soundwave smiled behind his mask and listened as they chattered on to him. His servos gently smoothed down their dorsas in turn as he nodded and listened.

"It's been fairly nice here" Lazerbeak remarked. The other cassettes nodded at this. "Query: Autobots treat cassettes well?" Soundwave asked them. More nods from the cassettes set his spark at ease.

"Yeah, they've been real nice" Rumble confirmed, "they feed us the nice energon, and let us play together, and let us visit you when we want". Soundwave's brow furrowed, what kind of hostage situation came with such freedom of choice? Soft-sparked Autobots indeed.

"Yeah, and Blaster is super nice too, he lets us watch human TV in the mornings and play games with his cassettes" Frenzy added cheerfully.

…what? Blaster? Soundwave felt his nasal ridge pinch at the idea of Blaster caring for his cassettes. As if on cue, a soft chuckle sounded from across the room. Soundwave's helm snapped up to look at Autobot Blaster. The orange boombox was perched casually on a medical table, he winked at Ratchet and Soundwave.

"Yeah, your little fellas have been a dream" he remarked in a friendly voice, "I think the hardest part of all of this will be separating them from my little guys after all is said and done". Blaster was met with a cool expressionless mask and visor. Soundwave stared at him for a long, hard moment. This is the supervision given for his cassettes. His creations had been in the care of his own nemesis. Soundwave felt properly miffed.

The silence and long stare from Soundwave dragged on until his cassettes jumped in. "He's been super nice to us!" Rumble hurriedly explained.

"Yeah, he takes real good care of us, you don't need to worry" Buzzsaw added. The cassettes nodded their approval and tugged at Soundwave until he broke his gaze from Blaster.

Blaster spoke up again, "I know you're probably not jumpin' with joy to know I was the one watchin' over your bitlets" he started, "I would totally feel the same way if I was in your shoes. Although, I am the only bot here who actually knows how to care for these little guys, and they've been makin' pretty good friends with my cassettes".

Soundwave nodded. Something in his gut still boiled, but he understood the reasoning. He glanced over his cassette's conditions again, all seemed perfectly well and in place. If anything, they had better quality energon in their systems… all was in order.

Stiffly, Soundwave turned to face Blaster again. "Soundwave: is grateful that you have taken adequate care of cassettes". Blaster grinned and pointed a finger gun at him with a wink, "Any time, my mech". Soundwave wrinkled his nasal ridge again, he was glad that he had the facemask to cover his grimace.

Some time passed as the cassettes rambled to Soundwave about their stay, Blaster's cassettes, the energon goodies, and the awesome pranks they had planned for when they returned to the Nemesis. Soundwave smiled and listened to them, more than content in just nodding and holding them as time passed.

Suddenly, a sharp pain jabbed Soundwave in his spark chamber. He clutched at his chestplates and gasped, his action instantly silenced his cassettes.

"Boss?" Rumble asked softly, tilting his helm to the side.

"I think it's time you boys head back with Blaster", Ratchet intervened. The medic made short work of scooping up the cassettes and delivering them back to Blaster's waiting servos. The last cassette he went to retrieve was Ratbat, who was still clutched in Soundwave's servos. The medic put out his servos to receive the sparkling, he gave Soundwave a gently nod. It was time to say goodbye.

"You can see them tomorrow morning" he assured in an unusually gently voice. Soundwave stared longingly at his youngest creation. Ratbat gazed up at him with big red optics. The telepath brought Ratbat up to his mask and placed a tiny little nudge from his mask on the sparkling's forehelm; a mock kiss goodbye. Slowly, Soundwave placed his youngest in the medic's waiting servos. Ratbat let out a little chirp as he was taken back to Blaster.

Soundwave watched as Blaster accepted the tiny bat in his servos, he held Ratbat close and with a warmth Soundwave didn't expect. "I'll take good care of them", assured the orange boombox. His voice was uncharacteristically soft as he promised Soundwave. Gradually, Ratchet shooed the group from his medbay, Soundwave watched with an aching spark as his cassettes waved goodbye and the door closed behind them.

The gentle tingle of scans spread over his body as Ratchet worked to source the flair of pain. Soundwave silently watched as Ratchet adjusted the machinery he was hooked up to. The blue mech had nothing to say. Without his cassettes cuddled up to him the world suddenly felt so void again. He hollowly let the medic adjust his position to lay back down. The sudden urge to weep filled Soundwave's throat, but he made no move to do so. He didn't have nearly enough energy to cry. Soundwave watched as the medic worked around him, he could feel his systems shutting down for a recharge.

"Get some rest", encouraged Ratchet, "Your system needs it. You can see more of your cassettes tomorrow". Soundwave heaved a sigh and let his systems power down for the night. Somehow he already knew that his sleep would be fitful.


I hope ya'll enjoyed this! Like I said before, there will be more chapters soon, so keep your eyes peeled for more if you're interested! Feel free to leave a like, follow, and comment! I love to hear your feedback. If you have any requests or are interested in an art trade, message me and we can sort something out. For more info on art trades and requests take a peak in my profile description.