Introduction: This takes place immediately following chapter 42 of Many Voices. Unlike the other Spare Parts chapters so far it will be extremely confusing if you haven't read through to that point. In other words, please be sure to read that first.

*Bang!*

Searchlight un-shuttered his optics in the darkness. What on all of Cybertron...?

*Bang!*

"What was that?" Ratchet demanded.

Searchlight got up. "It sounds kind of like something's hitting the door," he said quietly.

*Bang!*

"Hold on," Searchlight said and crossed the room to open the door. It slid aside just in time for Ravage to come flying in.

Searchlight's spark sank, even before Ravage spoke.

"Soundwave," Ravage said. "He just fell over… I think he's dying, he won't wake up."

"Primus," Searchlight said.

Ratchet got off of his berth and the two of them followed Ravage through the hall, sprinting to Soundwave's room.

Soundwave was sprawled on the floor, surrounded by scared-looking symbiots.

Ratchet pushed past Searchlight and knelt on the ground. "I think he's gone into emergency stasis," he said after a few moments of tense silence.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rumble asked.

"It means he shut down so he didn't die," Ratchet said. "What happened?"

"He just collapsed," Ravage said.

Searchlight glanced around the room and saw a box on the table.

"Out of nowhere?" Ratchet demanded. "He was all right half a joor ago. You don't go into emergency stasis just from—"

"Hey, Ratch," Searchlight cut in, picking up the box and looking inside. "I bet this is the new stuff they have him on for the pain."

"Give me that," Ratchet snapped. He took a syringe out of the box and read the label on the side of it. Searchlight knelt by Soundwave and turned him over, trying to get him into a more comfortable position.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet snapped.

"Just turning him face-up." He wasn't dead, was he? Searchlight could see no sign of life, and he couldn't distinguish the noise of Soundwave's engine from the others in the room. "Mech, I don't know how to tell if he's alive."

"Move," Ratchet shoved him out of the way, and reached under Soundwave's back, shuttering his optics.

"Should I go get Ochre?"

"Shut up," Ratchet said, and everything fell silent for a moment, before the medical student un-shuttered his optics again. "He's still got a spark pulse."

"Is he going to be all right?"

"I don't know. He might have had some sort of reaction to this," he raised the syringe. "That's the only thing I can think of."

"What is it?"

"I don't know," Ratchet said quietly. "I don't recognize the drug."

"Should I go get Ochre?"

"You go get Cablereach," Ratchet said. "I'll go get Ochre. I don't think he'll offline in the next ten breems, but we should get him to Crescent's medic."

"He's going to be ok, right?" Ravage asked.

"I don't know," Ratchet said, standing up.

Searchlight stepped out into the hall.

"Wait," Ratchet said, putting a hand to his helm. "Cablereach won't be here, it's past lights-out. You go get Ochre, I'll stay here, and comm. Cablereach."

Searchlight sprinted down the dark hallways. If he ran into anyone he'd have to slow down to explain, but his luck held and he got to Ochre's office with no trouble.

She let him in, frowning. "Searchlight, it's past lights-out. What did you do this time?"

"Soundwave's collapsed. Ratchet says he's in emergency stasis."

"What?" Her optics widened. "Hold on." She grabbed a few things off of a counter and subspaced them before following Searchlight back to Soundwave's room.

Ratchet looked up as they came in.

"Do you know what happened?" Ochre asked.

"No," Ratchet said. "He must have had some sort of reaction to this. I think we're going to need to call his caretaker's medic. If he's had a reaction bad enough to put him into stasis, he could be dying."

"No!" Frenzy said. "He can't! He…"

"He's going to be fine," Searchlight said firmly, glaring at Ratchet. "You're scaring them."

Ochre accepted the syringe Ratchet handed to her. She studied it as well.

Frenzy started sobbing quietly. Rumble put an arm around his shoulder, looking grim.

"Hmm…" Ochre said.

"What is it?" Searchlight asked, hoping it wasn't more bad news.

"It's a very strong painkiller," Ochre said. "It shouldn't have knocked him out, though. Substances like this do affect the processor, but I think this one just prevents pain, and sometimes even enhances mental capabilities."

Searchlight looked at Ratchet, who stared back with wide optics.

"Give me a few moments," Ochre said, and knelt by Soundwave. She scanned him, then frowned and scanned him again. "Ok…"

"What?" Searchlight asked.

"Well, I think he's stable," Ochre said. "I… stay here and keep an optic on him. I'm going to comm. his caretaker." She got up and left quickly.

Searchlight looked back at Ratchet.

"Did she look really worried to you?" Searchlight said.

"I wonder..." Ratchet said quietly. "If the drug increases processor performance, it might have done something to his range."

Searchlight looked down, spark sinking. That was not good. "It shrinks back to normal on its own, though, so it'll be..."

"Hopefully," Ratchet said. "But something must have been damaged in order for him to have shut down like that."

Searchlight took in a deep, calming vent. This couldn't be happening. "Someone should go tell Breeze."

Ratchet frowned at him.

"This could be…" He glanced at the symbiots. "I mean… she'd want to know."

"Then go tell her," Ratchet said. "Nothing she can do, though. It might be better to let her recharge in peace."

Searchlight didn't want to leave Soundwave, but Breeze would be really upset next orn if she found out he hadn't told her. He sprinted down the hall, up the stairs, and to her room to request entry. He waited for what seemed like forever but was really only a few astroseconds before he door opened.

"What? Searchlight…" she said, then her expression changed. "…what's wrong?"

"It's 'Wave. He's collapsed. Come, I'll explain on the way."

Breeze nodded and a moment later, they were running through the halls again while he told what had happened. By the time they got to Soudnwave's room, Cablereach was there, talking to Ochre.

"So what's happening now?" Searchlight asked. He felt so useless. It couldn't be happening. Soundwave had to be ok. There had to be something they could do.

Just breems ago, Soundwave had asked them to take his symbiots if something happened. Had he known?

Cablreach, who had been talking to Ochre, trying to reassure her that trying to get in contact with Crescent and her medic would be more productive than taking Soundwave to a hospital, paused mid-sentence, and then nodded briefly.

"What?" Ochre said.

"Crescent's going to be here in less than a breem to take Soundwave to their medic. We should be ready out in front of the school."

"I'm going with them," Searchlight was not about to let that glitch take his best friend alone.

"You should stay here," Cablereach said as he walked through Soundwave's door and bent to pick the unconscious mech up.

"No, I am going," Searchlight said again. There was no way they were talking him out of it. They'd have to magnetize him to the floor to stop him.

"We're coming too," Ravage said fiercely.

"Now that's a definite no," Cablereach said. "You four need to stay here. No medic's going to let symbiots in his office. Soundwave will be fine."

"Why are you so worried then?" Ravage demanded.

"Ravage, mech you know you can't come," Searchlight said. "I'll make sure he's ok, all right?"

Frenzy buried his faceplate in Rumble's shoulder and started to wail again.

"Hey," Searchlight said. "It will be all right. Soundwave's going to be all right…" He looked at Breeze and Ratchet. "Someone should stay with the symbiots."

"I will," Ratchet said quietly. "I can watch them."

"Then I'm going," Breeze said

"You can't…" Cablereach said.

"I'm technically an adult,"

"You're also still a student, and we can't let you leave during off-cycle joors without permission from your creators."

She looked down.

"Don't try to talk us out of it," Searchlight said.

He met Cablereach's gaze for a moment, and the teacher sighed and looked away. "Fine."

"Let me know how things are going," Ratchet said.

"Of course," Searchlight said. "I'll keep you updated."

They walked down the hallway with Cablereach, who was carrying Soundwave. He could be dying. Primus, that conversation, just a few breems ago might have been the last.

They got out to the front of the school, just as a transport drove up. Its door opened and Crescent stepped out. "Get him in," she said.

"We're coming," Searchlight said.

Crescent huffed. "Whatever, I don't care. As long as you don't expect a ride back."

Ochre looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn't say anything while Searchlight and Breeze followed Cablereach over to the transport. He deposited Soundwave on the bench across from Crescent.

"You two make sure he doesn't roll off," Cablereach said. "You…really should stay here. Especially if you aren't going to have a ride..."

"We'll manage," Searchlight said. "I can find my way around Kalis."

"Ok."

Searchlight and Breeze got in and sat on the floor. Searchlight put his arm around the Praxian femme, careful of her doorwings. She leaned into him, trembling. Searchlight was infinitely grateful that she'd come, in part because if he had her here, he had someone to be brave for. The transport started moving, taking them away from the school.

"It's going to be all right," he promised. It would be all right and Soundwave would get better and everything would be fine.

"I know," she said. "It's just... terrifying."

Searchlight nodded. "No slag. Don't you ever do anything like this, Breeze. I don't think I could take that. I can't… this…"

Things would not be the same without Soundwave.

"You're so dramatic," Crescent said. "He's not going to offline."

Searchlight tensed, but Breeze grabbed his hand and shot him a warning look.

He hated that femme—hated her for everything she'd done and hadn't done, and for making his best friend's childhood a living pit. But the anger faded back into worry after a few moments.

The trip to the medic's office did not take long and then they had to rush to keep up with the medics who came out to get Soundwave and take him inside. Crescent came too, and eventually they all ended up in a spacious office with Soundwave lying horribly still on a berth and a yellow and green medic scanning him.

There was a bench by the side of the room and Breeze led Searchlight over there to sit down. Crescent joined them and they waited.

Eventually, the medic left Soundwave and Crescent looked up expectantly from the datapad she'd been reading as he approached. She'd been holding the datapad at an angle so that Searchlight couldn't see the screen, so he didn't know what it was, but he couldn't help feeling angry that she'd be acting so nonchalant about this whole thing.

"His memory storing programs and subroutines are very badly damaged—much more so than they were before. The medicine I gave him must have made the problem worse somehow."

"Oh, really?" Crescent's voice was icy.

"I apologize. There was no way to predict it would do that. I did warn you, that there was a danger in trying to prescribe medication when I don't understand the problem entirely."

"Are you going to make excuses or are you going to tell me what you're going to do to fix this?"

"I can go in and repair the damage," the medic said. "It will be a long procedure, though, and may not be effective. It will take some open-processor surgery, and joors of manual recoding."

Breeze gripped Searchlight's hand more tightly.

"So?" Crescent said.

"The problem," the medic said. "Is that repairing the damage will most likely not result in a resolution of the original problem, and his processor will only continue to rip its own subroutines apart. He wouldn't have time to recover fully before he'd need the surgery performed all over again."

And in the meantime, Soundwave would be in pain. He would always be in pain, for the rest of his life. Searchlight looked at Crescent, hating her for not caring.

She seemed deep in thought. If she told him that was all right—that letting Soundwave need processor surgery every few decaorns was an acceptable idea, Searchlight might strangle her.

"Do it," Crescent said. "Fix the damage. When you're done, we'll talk about expanding your access to his medical files."

The medic nodded solemnly. "I'll do all I can."

"You had better." Crescent stood.

"Where are you going?" Searchlight demanded.

"I don't want to sit here for joors watching open-processor surgery," Crescent said. "I doubt very much that you do either."

Searchlight looked at Breeze.

She looked down.

"It's all right," he said. "Go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Searchlight said, letting go of her hand. "You should go back to the school."

"What about you?"

He shook his helm.

"Ok," she said, offering him a weak smile, then followed Crescent out of the room.

Searchlight was not going to leave Soundwave's side until he was online again, or permanently offline. He needed to be here.

The medic shot him a less-than-pleased look. "You'll have to go out in the hall."

"I'd rather stay here," Searchlight replied. "I'll be quiet, and I won't move."

The medic looked surprised, and then somewhat unsure. "Well… I don't think you understand…"

"I'm not going anywhere and I won't get in your way. I just want to be here, please."

The medic still didn't seem satisfied. "All right," he said. "But stay there quietly."

Searchlight nodded.

The medic looked at Soundwave, then back over at Searchlight. "You two are good friends aren't you?"

He'd just asked Searchlight not to talk. "Yes."

"Good," the medic said. "This mech needed friends."

And then there was no more conversation. The medic called in assistants and they set up equipment and positioned Soundwave so they would have easy access to his helm. Searchlight couldn't see much, but he wasn't really sure he wanted to. He kept telling himself that Soundwave would be all right, that they'd find a solution. But he had to admit it looked pretty bleak. He hadn't been this worried since Motormaster had nearly killed him. And that had been different. That time, they'd known pretty quickly that he was going to be all right—that everything was going to go back to normal.

The medic took a step back and looked in turn at his assistants, probably giving them instructions over a comm. So far the whole procedure had been silent save for beeping spark support equipment and the clinking of tools against tables. Searchlight wished they'd explain what they were doing. At the same time, he was perfectly happy to avoid ever hearing the specifics. They bent over Soundwave again, and Searchlight heard buzzing and the creaking sound of plating separating, and then one of the assistants turned and set Soundwave's face screen on a table. Searchlight took a deep calming vent to keep his systems from overheating. They were responding to the stress in his core, running hot and fast as if he were in danger. He tried to focus on something calming, tried to meditate.

But he'd never been good at that.

"By the Allspark…" the medic stopped.

Searchlight looked up.

"What… what is that?"

"Primus beneath, it's not supposed to look like that, is it?"

"No," the medic said. "I've never seen a layout like this. Excuse me a moment, I need to talk with his caretaker."

There were a few breems of quiet and then the medic sighed. Searchlight sat forward on the bench, desperate to hear what was wrong.

"Well?" one of the assistants said.

"We continue as planned," the medic said. "Leave the rest for later."

"The rest of what?" Searchlight said. Then added "sorry" into the end when the medic shot a disapproving look in his direction.

"Soundwave's processor has a lot of abnormal qualities that didn't show up in the scans," he said. "And… look, I shouldn't have told you that—patient confidentiality and all—but it's nothing to worry about, just…" he shook his helm. "I don't even know what half of this is for."

Searchlight looked down again. They removed all the rest of the armor on his helm, leaving nothing but the delicate, inner-workings of his processor.

After that, it simply seemed to take forever. Searchlight sat on the bench and waited, feeling sick and helpless and exhausted, but too nervous to recharge.

After long joors of quiet, intense work that ended with them reassembling Soundwave's helm, they stepped back.

The medic came over to Searchlight. "What's your designation?"

"Searchlight."

He nodded. "We're not going to wake him up yet. You should go catch a few joors of recharge before dawn."

"I'd rather stay here."

"So long as you don't move from that bench, and don't touch anything."

"So…" Searchlight said.

"There's definitely hope," the medic said. "Though not much else. I've never…" he frowned to himself. "In any case, I still suggest you recharge some. Do you need anything? I can get you some energon if you want."

"No thanks," Searchlight said. "I'm fine."

One of the medic's assistants repositioned Soundwave so he was lying in a more comfortable-looking position on the berth and then they all left. Searchlight sat and kept vigil. He was exhausted, and at this point could probably have recharged, but he didn't want to. Not until he knew whether or not Soundwave was going to be all right.

So he sat and waited, and occasionally talked, though he knew Soundwave couldn't hear him. After a while, he got out his datapad and found that Breeze had sent him several messages, asking how things were going and if they were all right.

He took his time responding, then messaged Ratchet with the latest news as well. At least Soundwave wasn't dead—that was one thing. There was hope, and the medics hadn't given up so Searchlight wasn't going to either.

He wished it could be him instead.

After a few joors, the medic and his assistants came back in. Crescent followed them, and went over to stand above Soundwave, looking down at him with a thoughtful expression on her faceplate.

"Well…" the medic said. "I don't know what to tell you."

"I told you," Crescent said coldly. "I told you the files wouldn't help much."

"They do help, just… now I know there's absolutely no way for me to find out what's wrong through any sort of research."

Files? What were they talking about. "What files?" Searchlight asked.

Both of them looked at him.

"You're still here?" Crescent asked.

The medic looked to her. "Would you like me to have him leave?"

She looked at him and he could see it in her faceplate that she would enjoy kicking him out. He glared at her, daring her to do it. He was pretty sure the medic would be able to help more if he knew about Soundwave's abilities. He'd promised never to tell anyone, but if Crescent gave him a reason…

She smirked and shook her helm. "He can be here."

They'd talked about files earlier, and Soundwave might have mentioned it as well. Some sort of restricted medical files about him, maybe?

"All right," the medic said. "We're going to start bringing Soundwave back online."

Crescent nodded.

The medic and his assistants gathered around Soundwave, and Searchlight couldn't see him from his position on the bench. He barely dared to vent, as the medic talked quietly, for about half a breem, and then shook his helm.

"Put him back," he said. "Shut him down again."

A few moments later, they backed away.

"Well," the medic said. "You have two or three options here."

Crescent nodded. "Go ahead."

"I still don't know what's wrong with his processor, but the moment we reset it and started it up, it began to malfunction again, undoing the work it's taken us all off-cycle to do. We can't bring him online like that. He would probably only last half a joor before going back into emergency stasis. I don't understand the modifications made to his processor any more than the medic who compiled those files, so I don't know what's going wrong with it, and I don't know how to fix it."

"You said I had options," Crescent said. "And now you say you can't do anything?"

"No," the medic said. "I'm trying to lay out the situation. You do have options. One of which is to give me full permission to experiment. I can do tests and make attempts to figure out what the problem is. This has no guarantee of helping. In fact, it's likely I could do more damage. Your other main option is to replace his entire processor."

Crescent frowned.

"That would be expensive, even for you," the medic said. "And there's no guarantee we'd be able to safely transfer everything in short term memory, or connect his long term memories accurately. Many processor transfers are either unsuccessful, or significantly change things about the mecha who undergo them."

Crescent stood expectantly.

"That's all I have," the medic said.

She crossed her arms.

"I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I think it's likely either of those will completely resolve this problem. You could go to another medic, but I doubt they'd be able to do much more under these circumstances, even though some might say they could. Now if you could find the original medic… but I actually think I remember hearing about him, and he was sentenced to…"

"Give me a moment," Crescent said quietly.

The medic nodded and backed away as Crescent walked right up to Soundwave and stood looking down at him for a couple of breems. Then she walked over to the side of the room. She looked troubled, but Searchlight was pretty sure she was only worried about how this would affect her.

"Do all you can," Crescent said at length. "If the other option is completely getting rid of his processor, you might as well try to fix it. If it is further damaged… if there is nothing else you can do, then we'll talk about the second option. Let me know when you have some results."

She turned and walked to the door.

Searchlight watched her go, relaxing when she left. He noticed that the medic seemed to relax a little as well. He turned to look at Searchlight. "Are you still going to stay? You should really get some rest."

"I'm fine," Searchlight said.

In half a joor, the medic and his assistants had Soundwave's helm open again. The medic talked a little more as he worked this time. Searchlight picked up the fact that there were not only unusual modifications to his processor, but systems that shouldn't even be in there at all. These files everyone kept talking about probably explained it at least somewhat. He'd have to ask Soundwave about that, after this was over.

If Soundwave made it, that was.

They tested things, brought Soundwave partially online, and put him back under again. Eventually, exhaustion won over the anxiety and Searchlight slipped into a fitful recharge as the medics worked. He came back online several times, often when they were shutting Soundwave down again after a failed experiment. He lost count of how many times that happened. Eventually, they all left and then Searchlight got a few solid joors of recharge. He was running low on energon, but he couldn't bring himself to care. When he came back online, he sent messages back and forth with Breeze and Ratchet, but pretended things were going better than they actually were. Hopefully, he'd never have to tell them the truth.

Eventually, the medics came back. One of the assistants came over and sat by Searchlight. "You doing ok?" she asked.

Searchlight nodded.

"Here," she pulled a cube of energon out of subspace. "You probably need this."

"Thanks," Searchlight sipped the energon while they started working on Soundwave again. He wished this was over already, but he didn't want them to give up. If they replaced Soundwave's processor, he could come out of this a completely different mech. Searchlight had to hold on as long as he could to the hope that they'd be able to save him.

As the joors wore on, though, he started to wonder. Breeze and Ratchet and the symbiots kept pressing him for updates, and he stopped responding. All he'd be able to tell them was that the medics were still trying.

Near the end of the orn, the medic had them bring Soundwave partially online again. They had done this hundreds of times. The sun had gone down again. He'd heard from Breeze that she and Ratchet and the symbiots were all camped out in Searchlight's room, which wasn't allowed, but even Ratchet apparently hadn't argued about it.

"Ok," the medic said. "Here it… whoa! Shut him down! Shut him down!"

Searchlight's helm snapped up as the assistants scrambled to shut Soundwave back down again.

"What happened?" one of them asked.

"It got worse…" the medic said. "By a lot. That… finally. This is good."

Searchlight couldn't see how that was good.

"Do you think you can reverse what you did?" one of the assistants asked.

"Yes," the medic said. "I actually think I can."

Searchlight wanted to ask what was going on and what they were so excited about, but he didn't want to distract them. After almost a breem of quiet, the medic told them to bring Soundwave online again.

There was a brief, tense quiet.

"There," the medic said. "that most definitely made a difference. Leave him on this time, let's see if we can get it down to normal levels." The medic reached into Soundwave's helm. Searchlight couldn't see what was going on, but he dared to hope.

"It's going down," one of the assistants said quietly. "Keep going… there."

The medic stepped back. The other assistant grinned. "So he's good?"

"I hope so," the medic said. "No way to tell without waking him up the rest of the way, and I'm not going to do that until we've reset him once or twice and repaired all the damage that happened during the experimentation process." He turned to face Searchlight. "I almost don't believe it, but we may have solved the problem."

Searchlight let out a long ex-vent.

"One more operation and then we can let him start recovering."

"Ugh," one of the assistants said. "Fourteen more joors on the clock."

They went back to work. Searchlight got out his datapad and sent a message to Breeze and Ratchet. [They think they've finally figured something out. I think he's going to be all right. Tell the symbiots not to worry. I'll probably see you mechs next orn.]

It was late, but they probably weren't recharging. Searchlight leaned back against the wall and shut himself down. By the time he woke up again, hopefully, it would be over.

Notes:

1. When I first drafted this it was just a chapter in the main story, but since it would have been the only time in the entirety of Many Voices that we left Soundwave's point of view, I figured it would be better to stick it here instead. You don't need it in order to understand what's going on in the next chapter anyway because Soundwave missed all of this and it will need to be explained to him when he wakes up.

2. Hey, thanks for reading and stuff. You people are great.