Squee! You're all so wonderful, thanks for bearing with me! X3 I'm going to put Author's Notes at the bottom of the story from now on, so I'll answer reviews and such down there. :) I won't take up any more of your reading time, so here's chapter ten of The Smallest of Sounds! :D

Chapter 10 -

Predaking thought their new home was a lot more fun than their last one, especially since he didn't have to worry about his scary master chasing him or poking him with sharp tools. He got to eat all the time and chew on stuff, plus his friends were always right outside his cage, which he was happy to stay in. He had all the energon he could drink and all the toys he could ever wish to play with. And the tiny squishy things were always willing to pet him, which made him even happier. He never got this kind of attention back in their scary old home.

His friends didn't seem to share his joy for some reason. Soundwave, was it? He didn't like it here one minute and the next he was begging to be picked up, He'd easily won over the sparks of every mech and femme with his big, imploring, amber optics Predaking was slightly jealous that all the other big mechs liked Soundwave more, but couldn't bring himself to care as the female human he'd learned to call Miko scratched his chin, cooing that he was such a good dragon and how cute he was.

Soundwave was comfortably buried in a pile of fluffy baby blankets courtesy of the Autobots' humans. He had refused to be coddled, but they would treat him like a sparkling anyway. He knew he was one now, but he didn't think that gave them the right to treat him like one anyway. Then there was the issue with the gaps in his memory banks. They appeared to be lasting longer with every black out he went through, which concerned him greatly. He was worried that all the information he had stored over the millennias would be purged should he suffer another memory gap that lasted too long.

Lazerbeak rested atop his chest peacefully and he ran his tiny servo over her back affectionately. Only now had he taken a moment to really look at himself and was amazed at how well he could see. He'd missed having his sense of sight-his REAL sense of sight. When he was young, early in his youngling-hood, his optics had finally fizzled out after years of trying to maintain their unique shade of orange. He hadn't realized just how many colors there were until he took a look around, marveling at the comparison between seeing with optics instead of a visor.

Eventually, his yellow-orange gaze fell on his little servo. Soundwave held it out in front of him, turning the appendage at the elbow, flexing his delicate, thin fingers. He really had shrunk quite a bit, hadn't he? He looked about, glancing between the Autobots all around the room, at Predaking's little cage, the three humans going about their every day activities. It made him wish he were back at Darkmount, where his Lord was, where he could bring about the downfall of all his enemies. But no, he was here, bundled in human fabric, waiting for a rescue that he was certain would never come.

Now that Megatron thought about it, he hadn't seen his second in command in quite a while. It was early in the evening, the Earth's sun glinted off the sharp jagged metal of Darkmount. It'd been so quiet without the seeker's constant complaining and whining, but Megatron saw very little of him since his parental programming had activated. He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or worried that the jet had been gone for so long.

It'd been a stressful few weeks with his communications chief missing, as well as the Predacon. Shockwave had managed to decode a few words from the database, a very servofuls of ultimately useless information about The Rattle. Knock Out wasn't much help either. He wasn't much of a leader, as Megatron soon discovered after assigning him the task of overseeing an energon mine.

With a sigh of boredom, he commed Starscream.

"Starscream, report."

There was no immediate response, but one eventually came. "Yes, Lord Megatron?"

The warlord heard the horribly hidden edge in the seeker's voice. "Where are you currently?"

There was a long silence, as if Starscream was hesitating, or thinking about what he was going to say. "To be honest, I have no idea..."

That time the underlying tone was obvious. Stasrceam was exhausted, Primus knew how long he'd been out this time.

"Starscream, return to Darkmount." He said gruffly, effectively hiding the pity in his voice.

The flight commander sputtered. "But-but-! The sparklings! They're-!"

"That's an order, Starscream. Do I need to turn it into a threat?"

There was a grumble. "No, Lord Megatron."

"Good. You will report to me directly."

"Yes, my Lord."

The silver gladiator cut the comm. then and stared down on the human world below through one of his throne room's massive windows. Soundwave was down there somewhere, out there starving or already dead. Megatron shook his helm, turning away from the window. If Soundwave wasn't dead or alone, he had to hope he was with the Autobots. And if that were the case, he needed to make a call.

Now, how did Soundwave work these monitors...?

Eh, tried to end it a bit more lightheartedly than the last chapter. :/ Oh well, can't say I didn't try. XD I made sure to make this one nice and long for you guys to make up for my month long delay. Speaking of that, I am SOOOOOOOOO sorry it took me this long to get this chapter out. D: Let's just say that being a Junior in High School sucks... :( Just a heads up, this might accidentally turn into Megatron/Starscream... I'm not sure yet, what do you guys think?

Anyway, replies to questions from chappie nine:

2Frosty4U - Nah, he doesn't start losing his sight until way later. I wish the idea was suggested sooner, though, I'd of used it. XD

Thanks for reading everyone, feel free to drop a review if ya' want, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have via PM or right here in the AN. :D

Oh! A little shameless self advertisement here, but I have a Star Wars: The Clone Wars fanfiction started up for anyone who's interested! :D