A/N: Ah, fall is in the air. I have a stuffy nose to prove it! Fall means cold is coming. I don't like cold.

Anyway, less about me, more about Soundwave. Read on ;)

Previously…

"Lord Megatron's location: detected." With the announcement, he'd given Starscream, the stand-in leader, a circumference of where he believed Megatron to be just before he too began his descent into the planet. Even though he didn't have the exact coordinates for Megatron, he figured it was close enough, rather than having to search the entire planet.

Seeing the priest rolling for insertion, Starscream quickly told him in a condescending tone, "Why don't you remain out here in orbit until I give you further instructions." The Decepticon Air Commander had to play his cards right with Soundwave being so close. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the mech would want to rescue Megatron as soon as he hit the ground – something he did not want.

Heading in the general area of his nemesis and leader, Starscream could really care less where Megatron was – he only cared about getting that Allspark. It was guessed that the tyrant wouldn't have crash-landed that far away from the cube. Starscream and the mechs he'd chosen to follow began their insertion. There was no knowledge of where the Allspark was because its energies could not be detected, but with Megatron located, it would make it easier to get it. In addition, after it was in his possession, he would gladly find Megatron and help him find his way to the pit.

Starscream and his brigade were already well within the planet's atmosphere while Soundwave remained in stationary orbit over where he'd located Lord Megatron. The mech tracked where the others were and listened to Starscream give orders to them. Night began descending upon this side of the planet. He watched the land glitter with light as Earth rotated, reminiscing on how Cybertron looked a lot alike at night.

While he remained, he had considered what Starscream had ordered him to do. Well, technically it wasn't an order, at least it didn't sound like one to him. It sounded more like a suggestion. The large Decepticon began transforming then rolled and aimed for Nevada, USA. He knew Starscream's plans, whether the twisted Seeker knew he knew or not, and he knew that he wasn't going to help Megatron. He used Earth's natural gravity to pull him in rather than waste the energy to enter faster, putting distance between him and Starscream.

What happened next, he wasn't entirely sure. A painful blast shot out of his left thruster just as he'd crossed the atmospheres. There was a louder and more powerful explosion that completely destroyed his thruster, throwing him wildly out of control, causing him to change trajectory away from his intent. His systems that had been devoted to controlling him blinked errors and unreadable jargon as he tried to correct his now tumbling body. Being in between the atmospheres at the time of the explosion caused a chain reaction up his back and his other thruster exploded. He watched as energon and other fluids spewed from his injuries, though there was nothing he could do at the moment. To top that off, his sensory system went on the fritz. Veering a long way off from where he was headed, he couldn't correct his fall and he knew he was doomed.

"Warning: Propulsion systems down." His monotonous voice boomed in Cybertronian through their Decepticon internal link. He could only make an educated guess as to where he was headed. "Trajectory: Pacific Ocean," He wasn't certain if that was even right because of factors that were now unknown.

Upon hearing the CO, Starscream growled, angry that he'd disobeyed a direct order, "That's what you get for disobeying my order. Do me and yourself a favor and die," The cackle that followed was menacingly familiar. Starscream and the others were used to comrades falling all of the time, and this was nothing new for him, but at the same time, it was a blessing for him. The Air Commander certainly wasn't going to Soundwave's aid, and he wouldn't perchance he be rescued by any of the other Decepticons, so he would see to it no one else knew of what happened besides those who were present at the time. The Seeker figured the humans would find him and dissects him just as they did with any other curiosity they came across and thus get rid of him for him. It was the only thing, as far as he was concerned, that the humans were good for.

Soundwave, falling to the planet rapidly heard Starscream still giving orders, "Blackout, see what information you can get on the Allspark sin-"

His communications sparked, sizzled, and then went to static before he could finish listening to the stand-in leader. This posed quite a problem because he also could not send out, rendering him mute. No one but himself would know where he would end up and he would not be able to call for help. With his flight systems unable to control him, his HUD was flashing at him as he lost all control on his decent. The mech read the scripts as they came across his piercing red optics before they fizzled into white noise and then shut down. None of it was good news.

Going off what he'd last seen on his HUD system before it blanked out, he was still able to determine where he was and basically where he was headed. Quickly he realized his velocity was now too high and his trajectory was far too steep turning him into a large meteor as he rocketed toward the planet. He was going to crash and had no way to slow his decent or even shield himself from the coming impact. This was going to hurt, and he knew it. The mech transformed into his root mode, hoping that would slow him just a little bit.

The smoking fireball that was the mech's body hit the Pacific Ocean water with an astounding crash. If anyone had been close by, they would have immediately noticed him. Steam erupted from where he'd hit and quickly vaporized as he was completely submerged by the stinging liquid. The water, not deep enough to break his speed, provided little cushion and he hit below where large rocks and boulders were just out of sight, ripping his shoulder-mounted radio wave sensor right off. The sudden cold hit his processors making him scream in pain, which sounded more like a squeal. His body screeched with sickening scrapes of metal against stone as it tore at his body, shredding armor from his torso, abdomen and legs. The impact wave he'd caused in the water began to return and he felt himself moved slightly as the waves above him on the surface rolled over him.

The smaller beings inside him had felt the large body hit forcefully, knowing he had crashed and it had knocked one of them inside of him offline, and the others questionable in status. His connection with them went unstable as well. They hadn't known how badly their host had been damaged and it was all too fast to even ask him. They were forced to wait until he settled before they could say or do anything. All of them curled up tighter into themselves to get away from the burning sensation the water made when it touched their damaged bodies.

Copious amounts of Energon flowed from his body in many places, mixing with the water, turning it a glowing blue. One could mistake the luminescence for plankton, and think nothing of it, while it was his lifeblood lighting up the water. His vocal processor was also damaged from the water.

His legs were considered a complete loss. The current caused by his crash mixed with the natural rip-current rolled and slammed him unmercifully against the jagged edges below mangled his armor beyond recognition and there was no relief in sight. Errors started to flood him more now, running amok all over his internal neural net, circuitry started shutting down as more and more malfunctions began. The crash sent him into an unstable overload of information, confusing him. His HUD was trying to display, but kept fizzling out, therefore he had no accurate readings. It told him is that he was still very much alive. However, he really didn't need that to tell him, the unbearable pain was sure enough proof of that.

The water felt like it was burning him from the inside out. He needed to get out of this; it was stinging him and would surely destroy whatever circuitry he had left. His vision was down to mere shadows because his visor had been smashed and his optics had been damaged. They were running at only 20% and failing.

While he could still see, he looked for where the waves moved so he knew where dry land was. He painfully managed to pull himself from the rocks and into the sand. One arm, he found was more damaged than the other and wouldn't last long. Digging his claws into the sand for grip, he found it was extremely difficult, because the sand would move and his grip would fail. When he finally surfaced, he saw a rock wall with what appeared to be a cave or cavern not far from him. He limped by his arms, pulling his massive and wrecked body slowly and painfully over the ground towards the cave. The mech pushed through the pain from bare receptors scraping on the ground until he'd fit his entire body into what small shelter the rocks had to offer. He didn't know how long he would be here, but he needed to get his bearings and try to live. The mech was now fighting to stay online as the rest of his body told him it was preparing for imminent stasis.

Disgruntled and nearly destroyed, the mech could now feel and hear his minions crying and panicking when they felt him settle. Through the unstable connection between him and his symbiots yet to be learned even by him, he tried to soothe them and calm them, which would also help him concentrate. Through curiosity he had allowed the little 'parasites' to exist within his body, but now they were pulling from him what little power he had left. The intensity would have driven him mad if he hadn't been able to calm them all with a silent wave that was so often transmitted between the interconnected bots on a more intimate level. The small Decepticons that were now trapped within him started to become even more frantic and wanted out, knowing their host is in critical condition and might terminate, taking their sparks with him. They could feel his insecurity, which annoyed them as well.

Starscream had lost track of Soundwave and internally, he laughed. With Soundwave down, that was a total win. There was one less, and the most obvious, to challenge for throne of the Decepticons when Megatron would fail, and he felt he would this time. He wanted the Decepticons, and he made it clear when he'd tried to assassinate the tyrant without hiding the fact he'd done it. Soundwave always stood in his way. Somehow, Starscream felt it down to his internal circuitry, even if that's what you could actually call it, that Megatron's termination was short at hand. Until then, he'd play along. He still needed to find the Allspark.

Frenzy, the one who happened to be on the top of the smothering bots inside their host, knew about the enigmatic mech's condition the most and he started to fight for his own life. Soundwave wanted to scream when he felt a sharp stab in his chest. He had tried to reassure him, but it wasn't enough. There was a crack in Frenzy's compartment, which meant freedom. The Decepticon CO felt the little terror on legs start to violently attack the compartment that held him prisoner. Frenzy swiped and kicked, stabbed and ripped at the crack, fighting with all he had to free himself from the giant that was now at the mercy of the environment.

The mech knew no real emotion for millennia until now. As if his circuitry jarred it into him. He had since forgotten what it truly felt like to feel since he had been under Megatron's control. His life was only to take orders from his leader, which he did with precision. He had self-preservation at utmost hand however, but in some cases, he swore he had put it on the line for his master. That was his job, no matter what, even when Megatron ordered one of the smaller bots to do something, Soundwave could feel the dread from them and he could feel it on a very deep level when one of them got hurt to some extent, yet, it was nothing like he was experiencing now.

Finally, he'd managed to break the compartment enough to squeeze out. He looked at Soundwave to check his condition. Energon dripped into puddles under him. The extent of damage was horrendous; there was no way he would live. He ran, knowing he couldn't survive long on his own, because his spark wasn't all that powerful; he searched out another Decepticon host quickly. He did a quick search, seeing Barricade as the closest possibility and set a course for him. Frenzy severed his connection with Soundwave completely while he found a new host. The larger mech tried to call Frenzy's name, but even if Frenzy was listening, he never would have heard him.

The large mech finally dropped into stasis with the possibility of never coming out of it. Such extensive damage required him offline and even then, he would still be fighting for his life and the life of those that remained.

Poor thing...