A/N: I know, I know, it's been a while. Life is crazy. My muse has returned and with it, I bring you this! :) Enjoy!

More critical errors flashed through his mind, forcing him to shut them down one by one. He was running out of options since he'd already run out of hope. Secondary and emergency life support would be running out as well. His spark was finding it harder and harder to continue supplying the smaller ones inside him with precious power. With his systems dwindling, he could feel their starvation for life, and it brought on a wash of something he hadn't felt in so long. It was coming to the point he would either have to cut power to his symbiots, or die faster. He had already overridden them twice.

The priest had betrayed others many times. It was in his nature to deceive those who he did and did not work with. Even Megatron himself wasn't foolish enough to believe everything Soundwave said. Trickery was one of his best abilities because of his 'priest' status.

One thing was for certain as he lie here… he'd never been betrayed like this before. The only creatures he truly trusted were the parasites or what he called 'symbiot mechs'. He gave them life if they worked for him, and the deal had been sealed. They depended on him and he was fine with that. He relied on their dependence on him, because they wouldn't betray him. He'd made the deal with selfish intentions.

However, as time went on and the longer they remained with him, Soundwave realized there was more to these parasites than what meets the eye, so to speak. They looked up to him and learned from him as if he were their fraternal mech. In a way, he'd become attached to them, even if that hadn't been his original intention, which led him into one of the most horrible experiences of his living reality.

While he lay, he considered how much he welcomed death right about now. The mech still felt the disconnection and frantic searching for Frenzy, even knowing he was gone.

"Ah, we finally meet," The Seeker said as he leaned lazily over the desk, looking down at Soundwave's work.

The CO already had Starscream profiled, even though he hadn't spoken to him. He already knew the deceptive traits of the Air Commander. He already knew that Starscream thought he'd had him pegged, but he didn't really care what Starscream thought of him. "So my question is… why would Megatron want a priest? He certainly isn't stupid enough to worship the Dark Lord,"

Soundwave continued with the duty that had been set for him, not feeding into the Seeker's obvious ploy at distraction. It was simple filing, and other more tedious things, but once it was done, it was done and the more it occupied him, the less attention he had to give to the currently very annoying Seeker.

Feeling ignored, Starscream moved, making it so seeing his monitor would be difficult. "I am Starscream, Air Commander and Second in Command of the Decepticons – That means I outrank you by the way – so, you must do what I say," he announced with pride very unbecoming of him.

Soundwave stopped what he was doing since he could not see his screen and glared pointedly at Starscream. "Profile, Starscream: Second in Command for Megatron, Air Commander of the Seekers. Untrustworthy, egotistical, arrogant."

. Since the Seeker moved, Soundwave went back to his work and further refused to give the Seeker the attention he was trying for.

Starscream scrunched his face at Soundwave's supposed 'profiling'. He also didn't like the monotonous voice that came from the new recruit, "I supposed you take to speaking in such a manner because you know no different?"

Silence.

"Primus wouldn't ever allow one of his priests to do the things I've heard you've done. Are you a fake?"Starscream then glanced down seeing one of Soundwave's symbiots. He reached down and picked it up, "What in the name of Primus is this thing? Get it out of here! It's too small to be of any use!"

Starscream would learn quickly that the last thing he could have done, was lay a claw on Soundwave's parasites. Before Starscream could drop it, Soundwave had already grabbed his arm. He yanked and turned the Seeker quickly, grabbing him by the neck and picked him up off of his feet, watching him squirm.

Determined not to show the priest his fear, Starscream continued to goad him, "Megatron will hear of this!"

Silence.

When the Air Commander couldn't get a rise out of him that way, he tried another. "Is it… the others' fear that gives you some form of twisted… pleasure and… that's why… you torture others unmercifully… priest?"

The priest remained silent, his claws slowly tightening on the Seeker's neck as he continued to ramble.

Starscream, determined as ever, continued, "Perhaps… you personally… enjoy… the agony you bring… onto others. Some… priest you… are…"

It was then that Megatron walked in. Starscream began flailing like an idiot, "M-Megatron! He attacked me!"

Megatron looked between the two and a malicious grin appeared on his features, "I see you have met our new Communications Officer. I would suppose it's already off to a lovely start too, Starscream. You're an idiot."

Starscream was at a loss for the fact his leader didn't seem to care that he was dangling in the hands of some new mech. "B-but aren't you gonna do something for this behavior?"

"You have obviously crossed a line… something ill advised. I could tell him to squeeze until your head is detached from your body," Megatron offered with a dark grin, "but unfortunately, I still have need of you." He nodded to Soundwave who simply dropped Starscream.

He no longer felt pain from his body, which to him, was a telltale sign that he didn't have much longer to go.

'Frenzy…' What little thought process he had left, he used to think about him and where he had gone. If he could feel any emotion, it would probably be annoyance at himself for not being able to get the mech off of his mind and let him think about solutions, no matter how grim.

Perhaps death had finally come. He had heard that death brings with it all memories of everyone you ever knew and what role they were in your life. This one made another emotion wash over him, as if he was waking up from some sort of dream, so overwhelming was this emotion, that he screamed in silence because his processors were no longer in touch with his body.

Protocols that had since been erased and destroyed began returning. But it really didn't matter – he already considered his life as ended as there was no escape and no help anywhere around. More programs went down. His body was now completely without power and the only parts of him that remained alive was his spark and his mind and even that was rather questionable because of the memory-flashes.

This might end his existence sooner than he had previously thought. He needed the energy to get away from the Acidy water that rolled into the cave and over parts of his body when the tide came in, but he couldn't pull himself online enough to move. Days and nights became more and more, the bot didn't even seem to hardly come online at all, he started to fear the worst for the little ones inside of him.

Wait. He started to feel sorry? This wasn't like him. Maybe the time like this was making him go crazy.

Few days passed. Full systems check. Failures all over again, he could feel his spark wanting to extinguish, but this was more than just death to him. He had plenty of time to think about what was happening. What he'd done… His existence…

How could Starscream leave him like this? He felt it may have been his destiny, just as Megatron proclaimed his own over the universe so many times, and that he was so much denied by his enemies.

More erratic failures, he felt the whimpers of the ones inside of him, but there was nothing he could do. In some selfish way, he wished either he or they would just perish, because the agony was becoming as unbearable as the situation. He held life support to them as long as he could.

"Soon," He sent through their questionable internal link, "They will come," His voice nearly a whisper, "Megatron," Soundwave sent to the tiny bots within him, doing his best to calm them.

One night, days after the events at Mission City, while the giant lay dying, two teens happened across the sight of their life.

The first one had come back up from where he wanted to investigate pieces of metal that was strewn in the rocks below. "You gotta come see this. It looks like some big boat or something crashed under there, man,"

" Really?" a voice said as they knelt down to view what was hidden under a crack in the ground.

"Lookit, it's right there!" He started back down, "Come on, I'll show you,"

The second teen nodded and began making his way down the rocks to look as well.

External proximity sensors that still functioned tried to alert Soundwave of a possible threat. They pulled him from his almost death when he heard them. His busted HUD tried to get information automatically, even though he could not see anything. Through his half functioning audios, he could barely hear something that might have been language, but the static made it almost impossible to tell for sure.

He felt the tug of one of the symbiots inside him as if it may be dying. Soundwave started to feel... pity? No, that wasn't it. Compassion? No, not possible. He was a soldier, no time for compassion, all he knew was killing. Soundwave didn't want to feel this 'compassion'. He knew not where it came from, nor how to get rid of it. A part of him had already been lost when Frenzy ran from him.

"What the fuck!" Devin said harshly, his voice low as if it would disturb their find. "That's not a boat – what the hell is that?"

"Hell if I know," the other said as he climbed over torn metal.

As they made their way up further, they found not a boat, but a pile of metal that had… a head. They'd stumbled onto something huge – they knew. The first one saw a symbol on its would-be shoulder and rubbed away the bits of rust to reveal a symbol he'd never seen. It was an insignia – one they'd never seen. It was a pretty mean image of what he could only relate to a face. "This thing looks to be at least 50 feet,"

"50 foot? I doubt it, highly, what is it?"

"Hell if I know? I think it's one of those monsters that hit Mission City."

"We are too far," The voice came back, making his way down the side of the cliff, "Besides, I thought it was a plane crash?" Devin shot the kid a look as if to say 'you know better'.

Remnants of metal and other alloys were scattered about the area still. The sensor lay half out of the water. Metal scraped against metal as the waves hit them, but there was an even stranger metallic sound that came from beneath them. Similar to a vocal and metallic cry, it screeched.

"What in the hell!" both of the men jumped down to look at the silvery and purplish blue thing that was near dead inside the cave. They hadn't expected the sound at all, they had expected it to be dead, in which all terms of the word, it looked.

"What was that noise?" they both probed in further. The thing was certainly unaware of them, or so they thought.

Another scraping noise came from the hull of the behemoth that laid there. It was the cry and pitiful means of trying to escape. Rumble tried to transform, but was too weak to perform it completely, which is why the kids heard it cry out.

"Whoa, dude, you sure that thing is dead?"

"Yeah, it doesn't look like it's moved in a long while," Danny quipped, pointing to the rust and other damage, "Look at it!"

"What was that sound, then, smartass?" Devin asked half heartedly.

Danny only shrugged and got ever closer to the dangerous mech that lay there, unaware of who it was, or what it was, "You know, maybe we should contact the right authorities. Maybe they will know what to do with it."

"This is too weird, yeah, we should call them. But who? Think we should call the FBI? CIA?"

"Maybe. I don't know who handles giant machines like this," he replied just as quick.

They had gotten the call from Sec Def Keller not long after the teens had called the FBI. Optimus was already tired of talking to the US Government, no matter how much they were trying to help, they were getting downright annoying, but he didn't have it in him to tell them they didn't want to be bothered.

"That's it! I can't take it anymore!"

"Take what?" came a dry and un-amused reply.

"The humans constantly calling on our communications! Can I shoot it, please?"

"No,"

"But… it'll make me happy…"

"No."

"Just one small shot,"

"No,"

The black mech frowned over at the medic, who was giving him a no-nonsense look, "Come on, 'Ratch, It's only the communications. I won't hit any humans."

"Ironhide," the medic turned from watching Bumblebee and Sam, having decided the weapon specialist was out of his processor, "Blowing up the phone companies is not an option."

"It was only the one…" the black mech muttered in disappointment and started to walk off. "The one this Keller human keeps calling from," He thought Optimus was just too kind sometimes.

"That's what they have cell phones for," the medic quipped, watching Ironhide leave.

"Shut up!" There was an extra hard stomp and a growl as Ironhide made his way to the opposite side of the building. It wasn't all that far, since it was, to him, a shack in the middle of nowhere. Optimus had told them that they were to stay here – wherever here was – until Keller had secured them a better place.

Optimus considered that since they were so new to the planet, they were the talk of the government anyways and to appease them, he was generous in speaking with them no matter how many times they called and how frivolous the calls were.

This call, he swore would be the 15th call in under 6 hours. He figured it was no different, and he let out what could only be considered a sigh with a roll of his optics. Having just gotten off of the phone with Secretary Keller not 15 minutes prior about getting each Autobot registered in the Driver's Bureau so they were 'legal' should a cop decide to run their plates – Something he refused to do because of the implications, he answered.

"Yes Secretary, what can I do for you?" He asked, just as calm and collected as could be.

John Keller wasn't quite positive how to start the conversation that he now had to hold with the Autobot leader. He collected himself and face palmed before speaking, "Optimus, sir, I hate to bother you again, but it seems that we just got an anonymous phone call that was forwarded to us from the FBI. They reported to me that there was a supposed 'giant robot' found off the coast of California, and we brought the witnesses in for questioning. They gave their full statement and were shut up."

Hope rose in Optimus' voice that another Autobot may have arrived, "Another Cybertronian? Is it an Autobot, do you know?"

However, the answer was not what Optimus had hoped. "Turns out it's not sir," Keller held his breath a moment, staring out the window that adorned his office, He took little notice of the incoming dark clouds, "By the witness' description and an artist rendering, we believe it's one of the other ones – a Decepticon."

So there you have it... another chapter! There's prolly errors, which I will fix later.