Apologies for yet another delay; I'm entering my last few months of high school, which is both a relief and a huge supply of stress for me. Not to mention I've been working on some other 'less serious fics' (cough Dressed To Kill cough) in the meantime. But I've managed to get the next few chapters after this one plotted out, which should make writing them up a lot quicker (and there's a certain chapter on the horizon I'm particularly looking forward to... ;) )

xx

Not even Megatron bellowing into his comm link could make Soundwave budge from his vigil on the Nemesis flight deck, waiting for any speck in the clouds spilled around him to come closer; anything that wasn't just a trick of the fading sunlight; anything that looked even remotely like Laserbeak. The emptiness thrumming through him was from far more than just the absence of his drone's weight hanging off his chest, and it had leeched off his spark ever since he returned with the Resonance Blaster. Megatron was pleased enough at having at least one Relic in his possession, but Soundwave would have happily threw the trinket away in return for his drone. The only thing that stopped him pursuing Wheeljack, who he still remembered dangling Laserbeak by a snapped wing, was the seizure of his spark when he felt him plunge into stasis. It meant the pain he felt was so great, so debilitating that he turned himself off just to escape it- and Soundwave couldn't even track him down.

Not until a breem ago that is, when his signal popped up out of nowhere, coming closer with every nanoklick, and Soundwave's spark erupted from a dormant sense of relief.

Clouds were moving in front of the sunset, freezing vapour on his frame when he finally saw something that wasn't just from wishful thinking; a pair of wings soaring in from the west, barreling through the bloated white walls stretched out between them. It took all of Soundwave's remaining self-control to stay rooted to the flight deck, waiting for Laserbeak to reach him first, barely flinching when his drone slammed home and shrank into the hollow of his chest. Laserbeak didn't often speak, but now he erupted in chirps and frantic chirring as he settled tightly against Soundwave. Though his wings managed to sink into their slots, one of them still trembled along its length, and there were half-healed scars near its joint. But he still managed to fly back, like a spider retreating to its web.

Half-cradling, half-carrying his drone, Soundwave kept a brisk pace through the Nemesis with barely a glance at the curious stares from Vehicons he brushed past- though if he did glance, they wouldn't have known it. He resisted the urge to retreat to his quarters, instead routing to the comm center. Even while offline, there was every chance Laserbeak could have harvested something from the Autobots.

And as he hooked himself into the console, transfer cables thrumming from the data flowing through them, he saw he was right. Within Laserbeak's internal databanks was a single file, the only one created since his capture last decacyle. The video channel was absent, corrupted, but the audio was as clear as if he himself was in the Autobots' fold.

"Airachnid?"

"Who else would be on this frequency, Optimus?" Even without the introduction, the spider's voice was utterly unmistakable, just an octave above a hiss as it always was. Hearing it from beyond her supposed grave, beyond where she had any right to be and where he'd left her, was almost enough to make Soundwave's cables jolt out of their ports. But he only tightened them, as if he could wring clarity out of the recording and Optimus' static-laden sigh.

"Just making sure. I'm afraid there has been... a complication of events recently. I would rather not disclose much detail, but I will be anchored to the Autobots for the foreseeable future."

There was another sigh, feminine despite its depth. "And just how far do you see that going?"

"For however long is necessary."

"Which basically translates to, 'you're on your own'?"

"All I can do is apologise. But my responsibilities to my Autobots override all else. Do you have enough energon set aside?"

"I'll make it last. Wouldn't want you having to scuff your peds on the Ground Bridge over."

"Airachnid-"

"Don't try and feel sorry for me, Prime, I hate when you do that."

There was a pause, crackly and tense, and in it Soundwave noticed how hard his digits were gripping the edge of the console. "...How is Scorpia, at least?" Optimus eventually asked.

"You tell me, you're the one she imprinted on."

"But you are the one connected to her spark."

"...She can hear your voice. It makes her happy."

"I do miss her."

"Well, that's your problem to solve."

Immersed in the waves of new data, entirely foreign contexts and facts even he struggled to grasp, Soundwave didn't hear Breakdown knocking on the edge of the room's open doorframe.

"Yo, Soundwave? Megatron's been bugging me about adjusting the nav-radar receptors up top buuuuut I don't really know what they are, so-" Breakdown cut himself off before Soundwave had a chance to do the same to the recording. Shoving himself off the frame, almost stumbling in his haste to get closer, he looked like he'd just found his optic grown back overnight with the other staring wide at the screen. "Is that... is that Airachnid's voice?" He was hushed, to better hear the lilt of her vocaliser that somehow managed to cut through the air even as a collection of frequencies through a speaker. No wonder so many suspected he'd sired the spider's child; Soundwave would have bought into the belief if he wasn't already burdned with the truth. "She... she's alive! Haha!" Breakdown fell back, stumbling again over his shaking peds, with a hand to his helm as it stuttered almost absurd laughter. Soundwave might as well have not been there, but the former Wrecker's joy was as short-lived as those of his companions. His expression seemed to simmer, a grim realisation slowly leeching out his relief.

"Wait, that means... Megatron's gonna be hunting her down, isn't he? Cause she... was carrying a sparkling. Or something like that." Of course there was far more to it than Breakdown would have been able to comprehend, but Soundwave wasn't likely to explain it to anyone. Whether or not Breakdown was expecting a response, he was already running all the worst case scenarios through his processor, each one flickering in his optic and casting a dark shadow over the yellow glass.

But Soundwave had already decided what to do even before Breakdown walked in. A clutch of digits tapped his keyboard, and the recording blinked out of existence with a confirmation of deletion replacing it. Even Laserbeak seemed to relax with the evidence now wiped from his drives.

Breakdown, meanwhile, was still watching the screen, as if his one optic was glitching on him. But after some nanoklicks he accepted what he saw with gratitude emptying his vents in a shaky sigh. "You're... you're a damn good mech, Soundwave, y'know? I'd say I owe you, but... I don't think I have much to repay with."

Soundwave was expecting Breakdown to ask why he was just as hesitant to let Megatron know of Airachnid, but that was overestimating him. The mech left in the next nanoklick, like fleeing a crime scene. Looking back over his screen, Soundwave wondered if erasing the evidence was really so easy as just clicking a few keys.

xx

"Here comes Sleepin' Slagger at last," Wheeljack grumbled, just as Optimus burst through the ferns. The Prime scanned over the undergrowth, expecting to have a pair of tiny fists slamming against his ped, but thankfully Miko was kept off the ground by Wheeljack's palm as she leaned back scowling against his chest. Airachnid wisely kept out of the circle of tension, perched on a low-hanging branch and dangling her razors.

Optimus had been preparing his confrontation even while pelting through the forest, and his vents were full of leaves and thorns as he tried to predict how Miko would react. But that was the problem with Miko- she was utterly unpredictable. "Wheeljack, would you care to explain how one of my humans was allowed aboard your ship?"

The Wrecker practically swelled with anger, and the only thing stopping him from marching up was keeping still the equally angry human in his hand. "Don't pin this on me, Prime! I'm not the one lettin' them run around, gettin' into places they shouldn't be!"

Optimus couldn't help bristling even as he fought to keep his voice level. "No-one is at fault here, I am just saying-"

"Both of you, shut it!" The interruption was so loud, so forceful that both mechs thought it came from Airachnid at first. But Miko was the one standing red-faced and panting, looking as if she also couldn't believe she just talked back to a pair of mechs several times her own size. Wheeljack set her back on the ground, as if too scared to hold her any longer. Miko sighed, brushed her shirt down and cleared her throat before turning a wavering frown up at Prime. "Optimus, I was the one who decided to stow aboard," she said, with a look back at Wheeljack. "Cause I saw his ship down at the bottom of the cliff, and I was just curious... I was still inside when he took off. So it's not his fault I ended up here." Her frown deepened, a hard carve on her face as she pointed accusingly at him. "And anyway, you got no right to be giving out lectures when you're... working with a freaky Decepticon!"

"Ex Decepticon," Airachnid corrected from her branch, prompting Miko to look up at her with something bordering a hatred that no fifteen year old should have felt for anything.

"You can call it anything you want, lady, but that doesn't change that you tried to hurt Jack! And you're in on this as well, Wheeljack! And I bet Ratchet is as well- that's why you were all talking together when I slept over, isn't it?!" She was making herself dizzy with how quickly she whirled around at them all, so her glare wasn't wasted on just one bot.

As usual, it was up to Optimus to defuse her. "Miko, please calm down. There is more to this than just Airachnid."
"Like what?" she snapped, and now Wheeljack stepped in with perhaps the only thing that could distract her from her betrayal.

"Like the fact Prime found her with a newborn sparkling," he said, and like a Sharkticon on a hook Miko's head whipped back towards the Wrecker.

"Sparkling...? Like..." The dullness in her eyes shattered into bright shards as a grin spread rapidly across her mouth. "LIKE A ROBOT BABY?!" A high sound that Optimus couldn't even name shrieked from her, and the dirt underneath her feet was trampled by her frantic jumping. "I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew there was one!"

Even Airachnid was starting to look disturbed by all the commotion the human was making, and it as Optimus' turn to step back in. "Miko."
She stopped mid-jump, almost toppling on her rear as she forced her enthusiasm to compress itself. "Right, right, I'm... I'm chill." She coughed again, as if getting out the rest of the squeeing whines in one go, and planted her hands on her hips; to Optimus, looking like a shrunken administrator. "Alright, Optimus, I dunno who else knows about your secret second family, but I've got a deal for you. I won't say a word to anyone if you let me go with Wheeljack on his bug hunt."

Optimus was already shaking his helm before she finished. "Absolutely no-"

"Come on, Prime, she's done worse and survived," Wheeljack said with a scoff, and Miko beamed a particularly bright grin up at him. Optimus frowned, though even Airachnid didn't look so adverse to the idea of travelling with a human. He wasn't sure if that was supposed to reassure or terrify him, but it was two bots against one. Even if one of them was a Prime, there wasn't much he could do to change the tide of consensus, short of plucking up Miko by her shirt and carrying her scrambling back to base in his digits. Though his neck cables protested, Optimus forced himself to nod assent with a sigh.
"And I wanna see the robot baby when we get back!" Miko added.