~O~
9
She didn't understand it even then.
Red Alert had been avoided by Shockwave for most of the week now. She had received word that he had left Iacon for a few hours that morning and didn't return until the evening.
She found him standing in the courtyard in front of the statue of Megatron, staring off into the distance.
"Shockwave?" she said.
"Autobot," he acknowledged.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Red Alert asked, carefully.
"...no." Shockwave seemed distant, distracted.
Red Alert was quiet for a moment before she reached out and took his hand into hers. He glanced down briefly, but did not pull away.
"I did not see this," he said, quietly, "I believed I would spend my entire existence a mere pawn. That was how I preferred it. That was how things should be."
Red Alert glanced up at him, but said nothing.
"In the end, all that should be is logic. But when logic has been compromised, it should be rectified."
"But logic has room for change."
"No. Logic is flow. Logic is the even passing of the ocean waters. A simple boat can ripple the calm sea," Shockwave said, as if releasing a heavy burden.
Red Alert was silent for a moment.
"Slipstream and the other clones cornered Starscream early today," she told him, "They wanted to be treated as Cybertronians, not as copies. Megatron took one look at the situation and told him to work it out himself. They were his mistakes, so he had to correct it."
"What did they do?"
"They beat him." Red Alert continued, "I watched them do it. And Megatron? Just turned the other way. I should have found it funny, but I didn't. Starscream is a piece of slag, but that? That wasn't justice. That wasn't change... Primus, is this what it's going to be like? Are we just going to tear each other apart until none of us are left standing?"
Shockwave glanced down at her. "You want things to change. They won't. They can't. Some are so set in their ways that the war is all that fuels them. Violence is all we know anymore. There can be peace - for a time - but it will always end in death."
"It doesn't have to!"
Shockwave stared ahead. Again, he was quiet.
"Are you waiting for something?" Red Alert finally asked.
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"I am waiting to be fixed, Autobot." Shockwave said, quietly.
Red Alert looked confused. "What?"
A shot rang out, blasting through Shockwave's chest. Red Alert stood there, frozen as she watched the Decepticon crumble to his knees. He stared down at the bleeding wound in his chest before collapsing to the ground.
Red Alert could barely hear her scream as she rushed to his side. The sound was caught by others, who rushed outside. Megatron's optics widened when he found his subordinate in the arms of the Autobot slave.
"Oh Primus, Shockwave..." Red Alert moaned, "What did you do?"
Shockwave's mandibles gushed with Energon and he stared at her, disoriented from the pain.
"R-Red..." he struggled to speak.
"Oh no," she soothed, tearfully. "It's okay. Let me hold you. It's alright."
The sight wasn't stopped by Megatron or Sentinel Prime.
"Find that sniper!" Megatron commanded.
Slipstream hesitated, watching Red Alert.
"Slipstream!" Megatron shouted.
"Yes, sir..." she said, quietly.
She transformed and took to the skies. Red Alert watched her go, tears rushing down her cheeks before she held Shockwave's head in her lap. She began to stroke his helm, soothing him through the pain. He mumbled through a mouthful of Energon.
"I know...I'm here," she whispered, "I'm here."
Shockwave clicked once, gurgling through his mandibles. "A-An Autobot...shedding tears for me..." he groaned, "Even after all these years...I can still be surprised..."
Red Alert sputtered a laugh, despite her anguish.
"I couldn't...feel for you, Autobot..." he gurgled, "I couldn't love you...even if I had every desire to do so..."
Red Alert looked shocked. "What?"
"I...am a good liar..." Shockwave hissed, shuddering in her arms. "When I felt myself losing the battle, I had to end it honorably...in your arms."
Red Alert shook her head with a small whimper. "No..."
"Forgive me...I will see you in whatever hell awaits me..." he mumbled.
His internals whirred down and Red Alert let out a wail of pain, holding him tighter in her arms. The others watching made no effort to stop it.
Even Megatron looked completely stunned by what he had witnessed.
Red Alert took several gulps of air through her intakes before snarling out into the dead city around them.
"Whoever you are, I will never forgive you for this!" she screamed. "NEVER! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
She would never know of the Autobot in the shadows who cradled a sniper rifle in his hand, who wore red, racing colors. Who shed tears for the bitterness of a femme he once loved in pre-war.
O
Red Alert sat alone in the laboratory, staring at the wall.
"Autobot..."
She looked up at the sight of Megatron standing there now. He folded his arms across his chest.
"It is interesting what conditions can mold even the most ruthless of our kind..." he pondered. "That my servant Shockwave could have fallen for you."
Red Alert didn't look at him.
Megatron ran his claws across a counter. "I am without my top scientist," he continued, "A position you shall fill. I understand you have some experience in scientific research. You DID create Jetfire and Jetstorm."
"...yes..." Red Alert's voice was weak.
"Good. Then I trust you will yield results."
"...I will..."
Megatron turned to go, but she spoke up.
"Megatron?"
He paused, turned. "Yes?"
"When you find the one who shot him..." Red Alert struggled to speak, the walls would buckle under her voice, "Take him alive so that I may have him first."
Megatron tilted his head, impressed. "You would ask this of me?"
"Yes. I want to look into the eyes of his killer."
"Fair enough." Megatron said. "I understand the pain of a loss. Oh. Don't look so surprised, my dear Autobot. Even I can love someone." He grew silent and his optics seemed dimmer now. "Yes...even I can love another..."
Red Alert knotted her brow in disbelief, but she barely reacted when Megatron departed.
She later went to work unravelling a map of the surrounding districts that circled Iacon.
Whoever killed Shockwave was out there.
And she would find them.
Even if it meant the end of her.
O
Note - So there you have it. A short little fic that had no intentions of going anywhere else. This was where it was meant to end because I wanted to leave it open for possibility for a future one-shot or whatevs. Still, it felt rushed, I know, but I didn't know where else to take it. Plus, I liked this new change to the Autobot I had come to bond with Shockwave.