Thanks to RevyCaitEll for beta reading!
Title: And Seekers Do Seek
Chapter 3: To The Wolves
Verse: G1
Summary: Soundwave ignores the rather hyped up Seekers until he is cornered and a rather unexpected request is made, a request which a negative response is not accepted. Taken from TFanonkink
Warnings: Really? You guys knew what you were getting into!
Chapter Word Count:1,591
Total Word Count: 6,538
He laughed.
He sat in his mighty throne, and laughed.
Soundwave had never felt so demoralised.
"They want you to what?" Megatron gasped out, slumped in his throne, smirk wide enough to split his face plate in two.
Soundwave looked down at the floor. "To sire sparklings."
That led to an even louder bout of laughter.
Megatron, the paranoid mech that he was, especially when it came to a certain seeker, had finally cornered Soundwave and demanded an explanation.
So Soundwave told him.
"You!" Megatron roared in disbelief. "They want you to sire sparklings?" And it had gone down hill from there.
Soundwave took the humiliating abuse like the loyal soldier he was.
XxXxX
If he had of known Megatron was an evil pile of scrap, well, an evil pile of scrap in regards to himself, then he would never have told the warlord anything.
Starscream glared from across the top of the monitor at him, clearly not doing any work.
Soundwave had tried to focus on his own work, but that stare. It stripped him right down to his spare parts.
He really wanted to kill Megatron.
He felt no shame in thinking such thoughts either. Stupid warlord and his stupid sense of humour. He had totally fixed the night shift rota. Him and Starscream. Alone. At night.
Alone.
Oh Primus kill him now! Starscream looked ready to devour him!
"You told Megatron."
There! See! He knew it! Starscream was totally going to…. wait… what?
Soundwave gulped. "Affirmative."
An optic ridge shot up. "Seriously?"
Soundwave nodded.
A smile, an actual smile broke free across dark faceplates. He almost looked…. beautiful…
"Megatron hasthrown you to the wolves?"
Oh, Starscream was still an aft.
XxXxX
The battle raged on.
Explosions, debris flying everywhere, shouts and grunts and the clank of contact between two metal bodies. The hiss and spew of laser and rifle fire, the crack and snap of an actual fire.
The Auotobts were suddenly vicious in their counterattack.
Pinned behind cover Soundwave could only observe and direct from what he saw through Laserbeak's optics. Megatron was roaring orders through the com. link as Soundwave uploaded the data. His symboits were sending him information an Autobot positions.
He was nearly overwhelmed with the information going through his processor.
And there was one voice absent from the com.
Starscream was suspiciously quiet.
If Megatron noticed, he didn't have time to address it.
And neither did Soundwave, besides, the seekers were trying to do their jobs. And Starscream was clearly visible doing strafing runs against the Autobot front lines. Maybe the tri coloured mech had grasped the severity of the situation.
Searing pain exploded in his left shoulder. Metal went flying as a lucky shot tore through his plating.
He fell forward, clutching his injured and useless limb.
Scrap!
Ravage cursed across their link but the tape deck ordered him to continue with his job.
"Well now. Looky 'ere."
Soundwave felt his tank drop.
Ironhide had a large gun barrel in his faceplates.
Ironhide didn't waste time with useless small talk and swung the but of his gun into Soundwave's head. The blue mech stumbled, vision full of static.
He felt strong unyielding servos bring his wrists together, jarring his wounded shoulder and causing pain to flare across his sensornet. He was pinned onto his front, a ped placed firmly on his back.
How did he let the red warrior get so close? Ironhide wasn't known for his stealth!
Then a howl of rage. Pure rage. It actually terrified the tape deck.
And the weight was gone with a gush of boiling air. The sounds of two mechs sparring reached his audios. His vision was still blurry, but he could just make out the red grounder and the tri coloured frame of his combatant.
White. Red. Blue.
Oh Primus no! Anyone but him!.
Starscream howled with rage, hissing and spitting curses at the Autobot with such venom that even his insults to Megatron seemed like nothing more than a casual comment.
As his vision cleared he got to witness one of the most terrifyingly beautiful scenes of his whole existence.
Starscream moved like he had no restrictions, not even gravity could tame the seeker. He swirled, flipped and spun. The red Autobot could only grunt as every hit landed with painful accuracy.
The red warrior went down on one knee, arms raised to protect his face as Starscream got a claw hooked into an optic, shattering the glass.
Ironhide growled, tried to swing an arm out, only for it to be caught and used as a lever to snap the shoulder joint. Gears ground against each other as wires sizzled and sparked and the warrior finally let out a scream of pain.
Starscream's fiery optics fell upon him, upon his injured shoulder and cuffed arms.
There was a snap and suddenly there were two frames either side of him, undoing the cuffs. He never broke eye contact with the tri coloured mech who had just saved him.
Until Skywarp used his name sake ability and he was in the medbay.
XxXxX
Thundercracker and Skywarp hovered. They didn't come too close, but the occasional glance his way had him uneasy. He was in no condition to defend himself.
One arm was gone, the shoulder joint so badly damaged Hook had to rebuild it, his other arm also useless as Hook opened it up to get the schematics 100% for his new arm.
Starscream was nowhere to be seen though.
He almost felt… worried.
His symbiotes had stopped with their teasing abruptly, too abrupt. Something had happened but no one was telling him anything and he was too drained to use his telepathy to find out what was going on.
XxXxX
Megatron gave him a thorough look over once he was back in one piece and discharged from the medbay.
"Good. Are you battle ready?"
"Affirmative."
Megatron gave him an intense stare. "I will never admit this to him, but thank Primus he got your aft outta there. If the Autobots had got their servos on you, I would have had to shoot you."
Soundwave didn't take it personally. His mind had too much information, valuable and utterly destructive if the Autobots got it.
One thing still nagged him.
"Location of Seeker Starscream?"
Megatron frowned. "Do you even care?"
Soundwave paused, only for a moment. "Negative."
Megatron smirked. "Good. Then it is none of your concern."
For some reason, he felt a chill run up his back strut.
XxXxX
Thundercracker and Skywarp were suffering greatly. They wouldn't even look at him anymore.
Wings hung low and plating became dull. Optics barely taking anything in.
A quick scan revealed pain and worry. Their thoughts for once clear and straightforward, focused on one thing.
Starscream.
He managed to find out, through constant monitoring of their minds and fields that they didn't know where Starscream was, what condition he was in and most worryingly, they couldn't reach him through their Trine bond.
Megatron was not forthcoming with information either and was constantly looking over his shoulder should he even dare to try and search files for a location on the tri-coloured mech.
One evening he found himself frustrated.
Frustrated that he couldn't figure this out, frustrated that he had no idea what had happened to the mech that had ultimately saved his life.
Ravage watched him closely from his perch on the desk. Red optics glittering with… Hang on… was Ravage amused?
The panther could feel Soundwave's obvious annoyance and gave a small chuckle.
"You seem to care about Starscream all of a sudden. I just thought it funny. The one mech you would never even considered as worthy of anything and now you can't stop thinking about him. Pity it took his absence to bring this out, boss." And with a stretch the cat fromer slithered away into the shadows leaving Soundwave with a processor in turmoil.
XxXxX
What was left of the Command Trine suddenly became dangerous.
Mechs were in and out of the medbay and the names on their busted lips were Skywarp and Thundercracker.
"Go find them and glean everything you can from there puny little processors!" Megatron roared at him, spittle flying everywhere. "This is gone far enough! They are lucky they are useful to me."
And so he went on the hunt for the mechs that had been hunting him for nearly a year.
He found them, because his symboits told him where they were, and after a moment of surprise, headed towards his quarters.
They were curled up on his berth, hugging each other. they looked up as he entered.
"Are we really that undesirable?" Skywarp sobbed.
Thundercracker gave a small snarl in Soundwave's direction. "Where is he?"
Soundwave stood for a moment. He made a decision and removed his mask and visor. "I honestly don't know." He answered softly.
Skywarp keened loudly, turning his faceplate into the blue seeker's chest.
Thundercracker just offlined his optics as if in physical pain. "Please Soundwave. We will stop. We will find someone else. Just, where is he?" Red optics onlined, filling with coolant.
Soundwave felt his spark squeeze painfully at the sight. "I honestly, truly do not know. I had nothing to do with his disappearance. Megatron is not forthcoming with information either."
Thundercracker gritted his jaw. "Okay."
Skywarp looked out from Thundercracker's arms. "But he feels so close! He has to be on the Nemesis! How can you not know?"
The accusation hurt him more than he ever thought it would.