Author's Notes: Nothing new except another great update! Drop a comment to let me know what you think about it, and as always, enjoy!
Date: May 21st, 2020
Soundwave
At least he could count on Sharpshot to take this topic seriously. Starscream on the other servo, was leaned casually back in his chair, often rolling his optics. Soundwave had to resist the urge to slap him.
"And we are just blindly assuming this interdimensional creature isn't lying about its identity? I mean, THE Megatronus? After how long in exile?" Starscream hummed lackadaisically.
The room was dark, locked, and occupied by only the three Decepticon Lords. That had been Soundwave's demand. Until they knew exactly what they were dealing with, the conversation was not to leave this room. "When I was similarly trapped in the Flux Space between the Space Bridge frequencies, I was utterly unable to interact with the physical world," Soundwave explained to his fellow Lords with a huff, "Other than the ground I was standing on, and even that was very limited. This entity not only physically touched Rhea, it managed to yank the connectivity wires from her head. That amount of power is alarming, no matter who they claim to be."
"But being THE Megatronus would be equally alarming," Sharpshot added with a bit of a grunt. They leaned forward, bottom jaw hinge resting on their intertwined claws thoughtfully, "Gone since basically the beginning of our written history and not a peep as to what they've been up to in total exile… Plus, if the Covenant of Primus Alpha Trion left behind is anything to go by, Megatronus didn't give up his Prime powers like the others did. And after that 'incident' with the Pirate Thundertron, Megatronus Prime's notorious weapon, the Requiem Blaster has been a no show too… He could have it back. The weapon he used to defeat Unicron and blast a hole in another Primes' chest. Two Primes' chests, if we are counting the accidental hit on Quintus Prime during the big Unicron fight right alongside the shot he intentionally took on Solus Prime. That's a concerning amount of fire power."
Starscream groaned, two claws on his helm as if he were working to resolve a processor ache, "Could we refrain from mentioning that space trash Thundertron? A few million years since our last encounter has proven not enough time to get his stink out of my memory banks."
Sharpshot looked back to Soundwave, their whole aura radiating seriousness in spite of Starscream's usual theatrics, "And the voice that is claiming he is Megatronus never mentioned what this 'Twisted' was? Only it needs to be sealed away with the same weapon that will set him free?"
Soundwave nodded, though admittedly, he had been the one to disengage the contact before he could glean more info. Whether it was really Megatronus or some other entity with the same name due to a comical cosmic irony, it had hurt Rhea. Inadvertently or not, it still caused her harm trying to get their attention. Autoclave had insisted she was fine after examining her… But he also added disrupting the mind and Avatar connection so abruptly was not a safe practice and they really should not test it beyond the first slip up, and now this event.
Then of course, Shockwave interjected there would not be any risk of the connection slipping if they installed a hard wire into Rhea's brain. Soundwave shut that down immediately, just as he had the first time it came up.
Now Rhea was back on Earth resting. All things may have been fine regarding the Cyberformations standard, but the event had also injured her head. The human medical professional June had taken Rhea into her care, and Soundwave later heard back the strike caused a mild concussion. Human terminology that he quickly researched to identify its meaning. It wasn't life threatening, but it was far from superficial. This entity caused that, and Soundwave was quickly losing his shared empathy for its current predicament trapped between realities.
"So then, the plan?" Starscream asked Soundwave, "Are we moving forward to free him, or no? What will you tell the Autobots, as this is basically their little charity project in the first place. Of course, I assume your pet conjunx has already informed them?"
"She is waiting for my assurance to do so," Soundwave explained, "As of now, it is up to us to determine how to move forward. We cannot trust the Autobots to handle any news of this magnitude responsibly."
Starscream chuckled in an amused sense of agreement. Though he hummed as his optics narrowed, concocting something, Soundwave assumed, "A thought occurs… In the records we have regarding the ancient Primes, nothing mentions Megatronus being 'trapped.' If he left Cybertron, never to return, how did he end up in this predicament to start with? Suddenly in the position to beg us lowly Cybertronian descendants for help?"
"That is a pretty big factor, I think," Sharpshot agreed, "Locked away, means something put him there. Why? What did he do in the span of time he was unaccounted for to make that happen?"
"My thoughts exactly," Soundwave nodded to them both, "So all this talk regarding the Twisted, or other worldly dangers could be an elaborate lie to incentivize us to free him. We could be gambling our safety by unleashing a force we have no means of identifying until he is free and upon us."
"Then let him stay in his invisible prison and rust," Starscream said with a shrug, "Other than those missing in the outer rings, which is probably just a faction skirmish we have yet to quell, there have been no signs of cosmic horrors. We can assume there is nothing of substance regarding the threat."
Soundwave was glad his fellow Lords were with him on this. In not so many words, he completely agreed. There was now too much risk to allow the entity to escape.
"Then, we tell the Autobots, just so they stop the endeavor, right?" Sharpshot assumed.
Starscream groaned at the prospect, "Oh Primus, they will have so many questions. They will hear the name Megatronus alone and soil themselves with transmission fluid. I am not looking forward to the conversation."
"It is not a discussion we need to have in person," Soundwave promised him. He trusted Rhea to relay the message just fine. They tended to listen to her more anyway.
The weight did lift from his Spark, at least a little. He was confident his tweaks to the translator would assure Rhea could no longer be exposed to the trapped entity. Though he had no grounds for the theory, he assumed that same frequency it was utilizing was what allowed the physical contact. There was little else that could explain it. Now that threat was gone. At least he hoped so.
All three of them received a comm, and their tense meeting paused as they listened to the assumed very serious update being dispatched to all three Decepticon leaders.
They proceeded to vent in varying levels of irritation. It was Prion again. More particularly, it was Doomitron. According to the update from their mining team stationed there, the Minicon Decepticon leader had successfully stolen the Minicon Autobot leader from his recharge berth and tossed him off one of the planet's many cliff sides. He survived. Of course, the little bot did. These Prion Minicons were made of some sort of indestructible alloy Soundwave could not even fathom. In truth, the height he was tossed from was probably just an impressive hill. But still, this technically was attempted murder, and that violated the treaty in a big way. They now had to deescalate it.
Sharpshot let out a venting and defeated chuckle, "Well, back to the more mundane until further notice. All this talk of threats from ancient Primes, I almost missed the Prion drama."
"Primus, I didn't," Starscream groaned.
Date: May 22nd, 2020
Earth
Bumblebee
"Here's to the Prion drama no longer being our problem!" Smokescreen declared with shining satisfaction as he basically burst into the hanger. "That little crazy Doom Con or whatever his name is kicked it up to murder and broke the treaty! We are all officially no longer high enough ranking to be involved! I say we celebrate!"
From under a stack of pillows on the couch, Rhea groaned. Smokescreen's booming voice was probably not helping her lingering headache from the constant Cyberformations and now a head injury.
She had insisted on coming into base earlier that day saying there was info she had to share. Everyone had pleaded with her not to. She was supposed to be at home resting. Then the name Megatronus dropped, and Bumblebee was equally captivated along with the others.
She relayed everything, or at least, everything she was authorized to. Technically, the only key to freeing the entity, ancient Prime or not, was with a missing Con named Steeljaw. That meant the decision to free the trapped entity was in the Decepticon's court. And the Con's had deemed it no longer intelligent to continue the interdimensional rescue mission considering all the new info. There was little else they could do but trust the status quo. As Sharpshot had relayed through Rhea, if something was powerful enough to imprison one of the original Primes, and the most problematic one to boot, they should assume there was a good reason for it. That was hard to argue with.
It went forgotten as they got the news from Prion, and now Smokescreen was making a quick lap around the room, hand up to accept high fives from everyone. Arcee rolled her optics, but indulged it with a passing palm slap along with the others. Bumblebee gave a quick but hard slap when it was his turn. A well deserved high five was always in order.
All the humans followed suit. Even Rhea, who only rose a limp and miserable arm from under her pillow stack for Smokescreen to gently tap. On the table next to her was her phone and her translator, the latter usually nestled in her ear. That let Bumblebee know she was in pain. She never took that thing out.
"Something good happen?" Asked Shawn from the human sized doorway. He was fumbling to put his keys back into his suit pocket while simultaneously juggling a box of donuts and a jug of coffee. He set the treats down before his human company as he waited for a response.
Smokescreen beamed at him, "Yeah, some tiny Cons off world just broke the treaty!"
Shawn blinked at him, mouth falling open. "Um, that doesn't sound good?"
"Cons break the treaty all the time," Wheeljack said with a snorting laugh. He was halfway under the Groundbridge conduits helping Ratchet with repairs, so he had to sort of wrench his helm out from under his work to add, "This just means our little gang here no longer has to deal with the annoying scrap. It's the Con Lord's headache now."
"And Ultra Magnus'," Arcee pointed out.
"Eh, he never has any fun anyway," Wheeljack retorted before he shuffled back under the massive machine, "Doubt this will ruin his day."
"What's important, is nobot's dead," Bumblebee assured Shawn. "They'll handle it."
Shawn nodded, not entirely reassured. But he was soon focused on Rhea and her sorry state. "You ok?" He asked as he gently tapped the top pillow of her stack.
Her one arm rose again to give him a weak thumbs up. He turned to Jack and mouthed 'Cyberformation?' to him.
Jack nodded. Shawn looked more concerned, lingering over Rhea as if he was wanting to say more, but his words failed him. His ears blushed though, as they often did.
"More than that, Concurrence guy," Miko said from her place looking aggressively over Raf's shoulder as he tried to work at his terminal, "Apparently some big bad Prime from the ghost of Cybertron past yanked her brain out of her Avatar body and bashed her in the skull."
That description alarmed the well-dressed man all over again, and it forced Rhea to emerge from her cocoon of pillows and explain, "Ok, so no, that didn't happen at all as she just described. Yes, Megatronus somehow managed to disrupt the connection, but I bashed my own skull."
Miko gave her a pointed look, "Um, the head bashing never would have happened if he minded his own business. Our emotionally bankrupt Soundwave managed to take you both to a romantic getaway and the dude pulls a stunt like that to ruin it? Not cool. It probably breaks the Robot bro code."
"Megatronus," Shawn said with a face like he had a bad taste in his mouth. "I've read about him. Heard he's a nasty piece of work. He's the one we've been trying to free?"
"A complicated character to say the least," Bumblebee snickered. "But yeah, until we figure out what the Twisted is and why he wants it gone, we have decided to just let this go, at least for the time being."
Shawn fully turned from Rhea to gape at Bumblebee instead, "What did you say?"
Bumblebee shrugged, trying to seem unconcerned. The poor guy was so easily rattled, they really needed to give him context before dropping stuff on him, "The Con's think it's a ruse for us to let Megatronus out faster. He says he is trying to seal away something called the Twisted. No idea what that is, but conveniently, the only way to vanquish this faceless evil is to find a tool that frees him first."
Shawn's face calmed, ruminating on that short explanation before adding "What tool is that?"
"Some magical staff of destiny a missing Con named Steeljaw has," Arcee huffed, "So yeah, now it is officially the Con's problem all the way."
"Hu," Shawn thought. He pursed his lips, but soon enough regained his goofy grin, "You guys sure have interesting weekends. I just got into a fender bender with some jerk outside a ramen shop. No space wars or universe eaters, just a good ol' human shouting match in the street."
"I don't like how we're leaving this," Raf admitted to the room. Bumblebee found him as he usually was, seated in front of his terminal with his eyes fixed to the screen. But he was tense, which was off for him.
"Buddy, I don't think you've blinked once since this morning," Bumblebee chuckled at him. "What's bugging ya?"
Raf clenched and unclenched his jaw as he continued to toil away at the keyboard, "I get we don't understand the whole old evil Prime thing. And yeah, it's shady as hell. But wouldn't he just lie and give a fake name if he wanted us to trust him enough to free him?" he pushed his glasses back up his nose. They tended to slip when he got sweaty from typing too fast. "I'm not giving up. Not saying I'll help free him, but I'm going to wait on his next transmission, and get more info."
"We'll back you," Shawn promised, "The Concurrence that is. I'm equally curious. At the very least, we can squeeze some more info out of the guy. Learn where this 'staff of destiny' is. Plus, if he's as dangerous as the bots say he is, it's best to have a tag on him, even in another dimension. Like the old saying goes, keep your friends close," He slapped Raf on the back and gave a wry smile, "Keep your enemy's closer. Right?"
Miko snickered, "That's basically how the Bots and Cons are handling their whole peace thing."
Rhea sighed as she sat back down on the couch, collecting her pillows in preparation to stack them onto her head, "Well, good luck to the both of you. I am officially grounded from the project from my boss/husband. Let me know what kind of other dimensional shenanigans go down."
Shawn snorted. It was coated with a lighthearted laugh, but Bumblebee caught a flash of indignation in the sound too. "Grounded?"
Miko jumped right in alongside Shawn, "Really! Girl, you are a strong, independent woman who don't need no Decepticon Lord telling you who or what you can talk to! No matter what ancient evils may arise from it!"
Rhea rolled her eyes, apparently with great effort, "Hey, I pick and choose my battles, like most married couples I assume. When you settle down with an intergalactic dictator, then you can tell me all about the ins and outs of interplanetary marital conflict." Before Rhea could return to her cave of pillows, her phone buzzed. She groaned again as she checked it. Then she smirked with mild amusement. "Wow, an Earth number. That's rare. I'm so used to otherworldly drama I'm crazy enough to hear whatever they are selling." She said as she walked a few feet towards the hanger doors to take the call.
Shawn, now recovered again and smiling called after her, "Really Rhea, sometimes the mundane human stuff is better! You really can't beat it."
"Agree to disagree," Miko hummed as she fished in the box for a donut.
Bumblebee tuned out their banter to instead glance Raf nervously. His human partner tended to get, obsessed with mysteries. He hoped he didn't dig too deep into this one. It didn't smell right.
"How the hell did you get this number?" Rhea hissed.
That successfully drew everyone's focus onto her. Even Raf finally broke his self-induced trance to instead turn in confusion.
Bumblebee had known Rhea for a while. He watched her grow up with the others, of course. And there were very few times he had ever seen her normally rich dark complexion totally drain from her face. She looked like a caged animal, shaking in tremors Bumblebee hadn't seen her have since she was a teenager and still struggled to regulate her emotions. She was scared, furious, utterly baffled all at once.
"What's wrong?" Miko demanded.
Rhea didn't answer. Bumblebee doubted she heard the question. She was gone, tearful eyes locked onto some distant point on the wall. She snapped out of it, taking a deep breath and trying to pull some semblance of professionalism for whoever she was talking to, "I don't… I wouldn't know why she would have given my number to you… Yes, we are related, technically, but… No, I didn't know she was trying to contact me… She never showed up, when… Look, I'm not interested. If there is anyone else, just pass it all to them. No, I am absolutely not going to South Carolina to 'clear this up.' I don't want anything of hers… Please, don't contact me again."
She struggled to hang up with her suddenly shaking hands. She attempted to place her phone down onto the table, but it fell off the side. She didn't stop to pick it up. She gave the occupants of the room a confused, blank stare, possibly recalling she wasn't alone. Then she turned from everyone without a word of explanation, fleeing the hanger as her nails dug into her own arms as she frantically scratched at them.
Bumblebee was bewildered and frozen, as he assumed everyone else was.
Miko thawed first. She snatched Rhea's phone from the floor and quickly redialed the number. As she waited for the mystery human to pick up, Shawn fumbled after Rhea outside. Jack considered his haste, then gave chase as well.
"Ok, who the hell is this?" Miko demanded the moment the dial tone stopped.
Bumblebee didn't have to boost his audios, because Miko had at once put the phone on speaker.
'Who is this? Where did Rhea Jackson go?' came the voice of a human man. Bumblebee didn't recognize the voice at all.
"I asked first," Miko countered with a growl, "And you just made our girl storm off."
'I'm Jennifer Swan's lawyer… I understand times such as these are hard for family to work through emotionally, but Ms. Jackson was the only contact on my client's will-'
Again, Miko interrupted him, "Um, who the hell is that?'
The voice sighed in growing frustration, 'My client, Jeniffer Swan, was the maternal grandmother to Ms. Jackson. If you could please put her back on the phone, I would greatly appreciate it.'
Even Miko bulked at that. Then she rudely scoffed, "Grandmother? I don't know which Rhea you are looking for but ours is an orphan. Where the hell was this grandmother when her parents kicked the bucket?"
There was a pause as the man clearly hesitated, 'I was unaware of that detail. All I was given was the next of kin. I will send her a formal copy of the statement, but if you could also inform Ms. Jackson that if she does not come to sort out her grandmother's affairs, all her assets will be passed to the State of South Carolina.'
Miko didn't protest as the lawyer cut them off with a curt goodbye. She was left confounded like everyone else. "Sooo, if Rhea had a grandmother, how the heck did she end up in foster care as a kid?"
"Oh…" Raf said out loud. Bumblebee glanced away from the insanity taking place in front of him to see Raf wincing at the screen. Going by his tone, it appeared he had found the answer. He had typed in the woman's name into the search engine and gotten a rather bountiful list of results. "Jennifer Swan, a member of an extremist religious faction and has been for like, forty years… She is…was, a character. Protests with offensive signs at parades, hospitals, and funerals… congress appearances. She was among the groups that did not take the revealing of aliens well ten years ago. Oh, here it is… A Court stint for a custody battle. Lost because she had a restraining order taken out by her own daughter… I imagine that's why she weren't next in line to take in Rhea. Going by all this, I don't blame Rhea's folks for that decision. Found the obituary too. She died last week."
Ok. Bumblebee was now finally caught up. A human genetically related to Rhea had died. At this point, it didn't really matter. Bumblebee decided he would be among those walking out to check on her. He didn't make it far. Arcee stopped him at the door, her field flashing hesitation. Bumblebee shifted on his peds, but didn't go any further. Fair enough… What would he actually do? He didn't even understand fully what was going on. This was a human issue, and Jack and Shawn appeared to be handling it, both in their own ways.
Rhea hadn't fled far. She was now trembling under the shade of a parked tank, but she appeared somewhat engaged with what Shawn was saying. She even laughed at something Jack mumbled. But soon enough she was crying. Shawn was struggling, finally seating himself in the dirt to be next to her. Jack mirrored the stance on her other side.
"I can relate. My old man is basically a cobra," Shawn confessed in hopes of cheering her up. "Sometimes, people suck, and it sucks more when they're family."
"I wouldn't consider them family, genetics be damned," Jack pointed out.
"I don't know why I'm reacting like this…" Rhea admitted, sniffing, and trying to pull herself together. "I never really knew her. My grandmother that is. She didn't even come to my parent's funerals. I didn't know she was trying to get custody of me. Thank God she didn't, she sounded even more unstable than the people the state landed me with. Am I even sad? I have no idea how I feel. I still don't know how her Lawyer got my number to begin with."
"Whatever you feel is right. No wrong answers in this situation," Shawn offered her gently. He pulled her into his shoulder, patting her in a comforting way, "Want to get your mind off it? How about I take you out to eat tonight? I find food helps me with all life's problems."
Jack abruptly cut in, "We can all go. More support to be found in numbers, right?"
Shawn rose a brow, giving Jack a glance as the other maintained a subtle glare.
Bumblebee was very lost, because something was silently communicated between the two human men in that moment. Something tense. But with no fields to read and a lacking understanding in most human context, he didn't understand it. All he knew was Rhea was too upset to catch it either.
The next thing he knew was Miko walking under his peds to cut a straight path to the group under the tank. She was basically strutting on self-righteousness. "So here's what we'll do!" Miko explained to the small huddle. "We Spacebridge to South Carolina, collect the old lunatic's stuff, and sell it all and go out drinking with the cash."
Rhea sort of laughed again through her sobs, and Miko sat basically on Jack so she could be next to Rhea, pulling her into a rare and genuine hug.
"So… What do we do?" Bulkhead said from his place, awkward against the far wall still cowering in the hanger.
"Nothing. The kids have it covered," Arcee said.
"Should we, like, tell Soundwave?" Smokescreen asked awkwardly to the room.
Everybot slowly panned their focus to the unassuming earpiece on the human sized table. Rhea wasn't wearing the translator, so Soundwave wouldn't know what was going on. Bumblebee grimaced.
That was a good question. Technically, he probably should know, but would he be any more help than they were? This was a human thing all the way. Family dynamics among humans they didn't even know existed until now. Well, they didn't exactly exist anymore.
Plus, Soundwave was intrenched in the Prion drama, trying to work with Ultra Magnus to keep the war from starting back up because a bunch of minicons could not put the breaks on their murderous shenanigans. Bumblebee didn't want to say this was unimportant by comparison, but…
"Maybe we leave that to her when she calms down," Arcee offered.
Bumblebee glanced up as Shawn stood. He offered a hand to Rhea, and she took it to stand. Still wrapped under one of Miko's arms, they led Rhea away to the mess hall.
Hesitantly, Bumblebee stepped back into the hanger. He waited, at least as long as he was comfortable. But as the hours ticked on and Rhea and the company did not return, he did end up sending Soundwave a private com. Not like Arcee would know who contacted him…
/Hey, I don't think it's a big deal anymore… But Rhea was upset by something that happened here. Maybe check in./
Soundwave was a master of ignoring his private comms, so it was actually a little alarming how fast he got a response.
/Elaborate./
/It's not anything world shattering. I mean, no one's hurt. Or at least, no one we knew… Someone is dead I guess. And I know you're busy with the Prion thing-/
/Elaborate, Autobot./
/See, the thing is, I still don't really get it, no matter how many times Raf has tried getting it through my thick helm. But apparently there is a human problem? Something about family of Rhea's trying to get in contact with her, and their crazy, but they just died? I mean, I thought she didn't have family so this is kind of confusing me. I forgot how humans have kids, they also were kids, so like, there would be older humans also related to her? Anyway, somehow they got her number from nowhere and she was very upset-/
The com went dead.
Bumblebee was unsure how Soundwave took that disconnected rant about human familial relationships. He may have assumed, like Arcee, there wasn't much he could do from his position. Not like any of them knew what having parents was like, or grandparents… Or if either of the latter were unstable.
A small ping registered on Bumblebee's audios. Rhea's translator had activated on the table, and he doubted it was Megatronus phoning in to check on the status of his rescue plan. Scrap, Rhea never came back for the translator. He should have thought of that before contacting Soundwave. Well, he would probably try her cell next… Unless Miko still had it. Or turned it off.
A Bridge ripped open in the hanger, making at least half of them jump.
Stoic, but alert, Soundwave stepped out and scanned the room. "Where is she?" he demanded of the bots present.
"Um, how did he Bridge into the base without an access code?" Bulkhead rightfully pointed out.
His question went unanswered as Soundwave locked his cold focus onto Bumblebee. "Rhea. Where is she?"
"I can take you to her," he offered as he hurried up from his seat next to Raf's terminal. He was avoiding Arcee's glare as he ducked out of the hanger with the Con lord right on his heel struts. He heard Arcee following too, and felt the tendrils of her irritation picking at his own aura. Welp, it was obvious he called.
Rhea looked better, or at least she did to Bumblebee. He felt kind of silly for making this a big deal.
She was seated at one of the outside benches with Shawn, Miko, and Jack, all who had ice cream in varying states of melting. She was snickering, eyes dry but still marked red with tears. Their conversation stopped short when she spotted Soundwave coming out of the Autobot hanger.
"Soundwave?" She asked, genuinely surprised to see him.
He slowed to a stop, giving her and her company a healthy distance. "I was informed, there had been an incident. Then I could not reach you. Are you alright."
She hesitated. She appeared struggling to find the right words. Was she considering explaining it to him? She must have thought better of it because she instead just forced a smile, "I really don't get it either. But, I'm ok. Weren't you busy?"
"Really, it's fine, Sovereign," Shawn assured him with a nod, "I called off work for the rest of the day, and Miko already sent the offending parties packing. Human issues. No need for alien intervention. We have it covered." He patted Rhea on the back in a gentle way, "Nothing dinner and ice cream couldn't fix! At least it does for me. Curtesy of the blank check my department gets from Uncle Sam each month."
Miko rose her own cup in cheers, "Here here to that!"
After ten fragging years, Bumblebee still had the hardest time reading beyond Soundwave's flat expression. His field wasn't much easier to read. It was even closer to his person than Arcee usually had hers. He just looked to Rhea again. "Are you sure you are well?"
She offered him a little shrug, "Yeah. I'll have to explain it later. Or at least, try to. Like Shawn said, it's human stuff."
There was the smallest twinge. It was the most Bumblebee had ever glimpsed of the Con beyond the mask of indifference that was somehow less emoting than his faceplates were when he had his red visor and battle mask engaged. But he saw it. A hint of hurt at the root of that statement. Then it was gone, and he nodded in understanding.
"Inform me when I am needed," he said before excusing himself back into a Bridge off world.
Bumblebee didn't have to look behind him to see Arcee's glare. He already knew he fragged up by calling.
Date: Present day: September 28th 2021
Steven
Steven awoke, frustrated, exhausted, and shaken to his core.
A week of horrific nightmares that continued to build in intensity. As if it were trying too crescendo to something mind shattering. It had also been one week since Rhea's disappearance from her place in bed by his side. Both scenarios were horrific, but at least the nightmares weren't real. Rhea vanishing from the face of reality was unfortunately real.
He swung his feet off the side of the bed and buried his head in his hands. He would get through this. He was a fighter. He had made it this far in life that way. This was just another battle to conquer. An enemy to vanquish. Of course, this battle was different than what he was trained to overcome. He couldn't fight off his nightmares or struggle any more than he already was to find Rhea. And the enemy tormenting him was his own brain. Rhea wasn't here to lean on or give advice. He was on his own.
His commanding officer was starting to get wise to his slipping mental faculties. Steven could only get so far on one to two hours of sleep a night and still act functional.
He should see someone.
Just that thought alone made his whole aching body recoil as if he had stuck a fork in an electrical socket. He didn't see doctors, outside of the annual military physicals. And all that occurred during those were semi-invasive exams and him answering 'yes' when the doctor asks if everything is fine.
It was a preposterous idea for any number of reasons. What would he say that wouldn't have him thrown out of service? 'Well, doctor, my girlfriend seemingly slipped out of reality. I'm being tortured nightly by squid monsters in my dreams, and I have been running in circles following the advice of a constantly changing letter I wrote to myself but don't remember writing. Oh, and those nightmare squids I mentioned? I'm starting to see them when I'm not sleeping. Almost forgot to mention that. Is there a supplement I can take for all that?'
It was laughable and pathetic, and he was now too disgusted with himself to stay in bed. He had to get up and move around, even if he still had three more hours before his alarm was set to ring.
He retrieved the now crumpled letter from his nightstand drawer. As important as it appeared to be, he didn't like looking at it in passing. Right now, it was blank. It had been so since it led him to Corporal Ben. There was always the chance it never had anything written on it. He didn't want to indulge what that scenario would mean for his mental health.
He had heard more about Ben's case. Steven was apparently in good company when it came to having problems. The young army man was still a blank slate when it came to his memories. Worse for the kid, the military couldn't figure out how he had ended up in the middle of the ocean in a little sinking life raft. He was supposed to be stationed in Germany. Those he was stationed with had said he was there the night before he vanished, and everything had been fine. No amnesia, all horsing around in the mess hall. He vanished the same night Rhea disappeared. The same night Steven's nightmares started. He didn't want to admit it was all connected.
At least the recovered cast away Ben was taking it all in stride. He was helping around the hospital and organizing high impact sports amongst the more able-bodied residents, very much against Dr. Combs' advice. This attitude was totally unlike Steven, who was coming undone in less than a week's time.
Habit drew him to the gun safe. He tried his usual password it should have been, and then many others he had committed to memory. Much like every attempt previous, the safe was still unyielding. He could call a locksmith, but that would be admitting defeat. It wasn't like he had anything else to do when he wasn't working or driving around looking for Rhea.
He intended to pace the house until sunrise. The mundane activity didn't last long. Flashes of shadow continued to catch the corner of his eyes each time he entered a new room. The shimmer of a torture device threatened to touch his flesh when he wasn't looking.
Steven flicked on every light in the house to kill the last bit of darkness left until the sun took over. For the moment, it fixed the problem.
He still had too long until work. It had been a day or so since he had eaten. He would do that.
His previous food run was a blur. Rhea always did the shopping. And that wasn't because of some archaic housewife expectation. Steven sucked at cooking. Rhea refused to eat anything he created while delving into the culinary arts.
He dumped the now spoiled food Rhea was preparing in the fridge before her disappearance. The next thing that came out was his soon to be breakfast. A can of Pilsbury dough biscuits. Steven stared at the smiling mascot on the can for a little longer than he had to. He had spaced out. He was running on so little sleep he was almost nauseous.
That sleep deprivation was probably why the packaged dough reminded him of Rhea. Of course, everything reminded him of Rhea. From the beach downtown to the computer the base police had returned after finding nothing of interest on it.
But more to this point, she used it in cooking. She would hold the can out as far from her body as she could in preparation of the loud and sudden sound it would make once opened. She was never prepared and would scream the moment it popped. Then she would laugh and apologize. He hated when she apologized for her tendencies. He would kiss her and insist he can open the cans while she hides.
God damn he missed her.
He opened the can, and the semi loud pop was so underwhelming without her there to react. The biscuits slopped onto an awaiting tray, and he shoved them into the oven.
Whispers hissed from his room.
Steven spun around, palm on his gun belt. The doors were still locked. Alone. Alone and losing his mind. He wouldn't look. He had to stop feeding into this…
He clearly heard the buttons on his safe beeping in protest from his bedroom. More hissings as whatever was in there tried to get into his safe.
He started shaking. He had to see, just to prove there was nothing there. But he still drew his gun, socked feet sneaking towards the bedroom. Back to the wall, deep breath… Steven spun around the open entranceway to his room.
There was supposed to be nothing there. But there was.
Two hunched forms loomed over his safe. Semitransparent, wispy. Like they lingered in between the real world and his nightmares. Because that was where he recognized them from. The monsters that amused themselves with torturing him. The farthest thing from human. Metal plated armor covering gray slimy flesh, tentacles instead of limbs.
Red beady eyes looked up from the safe that refused to yield it's secrets. Now they were gazing him down, his once boisterous entrance bringing their horrific focus onto him. And he was frozen. He couldn't bring his finger down on the trigger. He couldn't protect himself, just like in his dreams.
The slimy beaks of the two creatures pulled back to smile crooked fangs at him. And then they were gone. Vanish from around his stubborn safe like they were made of smoke.
His gun thudded onto the carpet. The wall was at his back just in time to keep him from falling. He had to admit it to himself now. He had lost his mind. Where to go from here? The doctor, he supposed, followed by an extended stay in a padded cell.
Date: October 20th 2020
Soundwave
As it was endlessly pointed out to him by the Autobot Arcee, and now in addition, the human Concurrence leader Shawn Berger, he was not meant to understand the subtleties of human interactions. That included, unfortunately, the troubles that had occurred to vex his conjunx. Rhea had tried to explain at the time, though vaguely. The topic appeared to still upset her, even many Earth months off from the initial incident. He was able to at least absorb the outer context.
Others on Earth who had shared Rhea's genetic makeup had been alive until recently. Rhea had explained their 'religious affiliation' was what caused a rift between her deceased parents and this individual. For more reasons related to this original rift, she was not granted possession or even access to a younger Rhea when her parents perished.
Whoever this human was, their relation to Rhea's parental creators, or the animosity between all parties involved, they were now no more. Succumbed to the organic aging process or one of the boundless human ailments. That should have been the end of the problem. But Rhea was still shaken. Shaken for reasons Soundwave struggled to understand. She would shake the topic off every time he inquired more. "Human drama" she would always just sigh with a forced grin. And that was meant to be the only thing that needed to be said. He wasn't supposed to get it. He wasn't human. Not even close.
It could be said, Rhea was far from being Cybertronian in kind, but that was hardly the case in recent cycles. To avoid said 'human drama' she had jumped into the Cyberformation testing. She also wanted to learn how to fight in her metal form. All wise goals to indulge in, and he was happy to arrange any and all help she may need to master those tasks. She practiced transformation, more advanced blaster training, and hand to hand combat every time she had a free moment, with or without him there. And he was often not there. His duty to the Decepticons called him away more times than he wanted it to. And so, the Autobots filled in. He wasn't happy about that either, but he suffered it. Being away from Earth appeared to distract her from her stress. And annoyingly, Arcee was a very reliable teacher when it came to all of the above activities.
It was selfish, but he liked her there when he returned to the Kaon Capital. He enjoyed her company on the almost constant Prion missions. A galactic dumpster fire she claimed she had to witness for herself. She was not disappointed when she beheld it. He didn't mention Earth. She was in her human skin enough each day to eat and rest, and then she was right back into his arms. Only occasionally did she trek back to the organic world to resume a communication with the Concurrence leader Shawn for business related purposes. But those times were brief, and his Spark sang in relief when she was quick to request a Bridge back home to Cybertron.
He knew it was selfish how much he enjoyed it. And if he didn't know it, the Autobot Arcee never missed the opportunity to remind him. It had almost been the push for him to start looking deeper into avenues of adapting to her human needs.
But he decided that didn't matter anymore. Rhea was happy again. On Cybertron she was far away from the memory of that problematic human. She was more comfortable in her metal plating every time she dawned her Cybertronian body. The Autobot Arcee's griping aside… This could have been a good time to gently bring up making her change permanent.
Instead of offering a Bridge from the Northern region of Cybertron, he flew there to meet her. She had become a quick study with flight, even in Cybertron's unpredictable gravity and weather. Busy as he was, he took any opportunity to share a sky view with her. It would be a perfect time to inquire her thoughts on a permanent change.
Autobot arial forces were lurking a few kliks behind him, but he didn't offer them anything but a ping of acknowledgement. They knew he was coming into their airspace. He wouldn't linger.
He followed Rhea's life signal towards the ground. One of Iacon's large parks that encircled the whole Autobot city was where he found her. As rotten luck would attest, she was not alone. Arcee was there, of course. They were sparring, which was common. Rhea had requested those lessons a while ago. He was always too busy, and he didn't exactly trust any of his subordinates to be as gentle as he would be. Arcee was Rhea's general size and weight, so she was the best teacher to take up the task. Soundwave could tolerate it.
The more offensive form was sitting a distance away, admiring the view. Jazz smiled wide as Soundwave transformed, blocking his line of site. "Um, anybot gonna bring up the fact a Con lord just landed inside Iacon? Nobot? Really, just me? Ok… Probably fine. Hope he doesn't decide to start killin' us." Jazz vented. But he was soon on his peds and greeting Soundwave with a casual wave across the distance. "Howdy ya Lordship! Care to squeeze in a spar of our own? For old times sake?"
Soundwave totally ignored his blustering, knowing full well any spar between them would end in Jazz's spilt Energon. Anything less would be a waste of time. Instead, he left the Autobot spy in his dust and walked up to the two smaller bots. Rhea and Arcee stopped their practice when they saw him.
Rhea smiled as Arcee frowned. She hurried away from her Autobot teacher to rush into his awaiting embrace. "I thought you were meeting with an off-world colony?"
"I am. I thought I would invite you," he offered.
She brightened even more at the concept, her field flaring with excitement. "You thought right! When are we leaving?"
"Hold up Rhea," Arcee interrupted. Soundwave repressed the urge to roll his optics as the two-wheeler approached stiffly. "We talked about this. Jack brought up a good point yesterday. When was the last time you popped by Earth? Ya know, breathed non recycled air?"
Rhea shrugged. "I'll go back after this trip. Earth's not going anywhere after all."
Arcee was still noticeably concerned, "That aside, your human body is going to need more then those quick bursts you are getting in… The last I saw it, you were sort of on the thin side."
Soundwave repressed his offended aura to remain outwardly indifferent, "Your concern is noted, but misplaced. I have maintained full monitoring over her human body's vitals. It is still optimal."
Arcee narrowed her gaze at him, "Optimal, and healthy, are two very different things."
"It's not that, Cee," Rhea assured her, much less hostile than the two native born Cybertronians were slinging at each other. "I wasn't eating much on Earth for the past few months anyway… Considering, ya know. I'll add lard to my sandwich tonight or something."
"I've still yet to get shown around your hometown, little lady," Jazz decided to insert. "I've been dyin' to take the Earth tour."
Thankfully, Arcee turned on him before Soundwave could shift out a blaster and blow his helm off, "Jazz, your flirting is far from what this conversation needs. Please go drive yourself into Iacon's incoming traffic."
Jazz was still smiling behind his optic band, hands rose in mock surrender. But thankfully, he did shut up, so Soundwave was about to go about ignoring him.
"I was planning to head back to Earth this week," Rhea promised Arcee, for some reason always feeling the need to assure the Autobot and her strange insecurities. "They've totally hit a dead end with the whole Megatronus thing… Shawn's team has been ravenous to get another signal. They are uncomfortable with how quiet he's been the past few months. I promised to help Raf and the rest of the team."
Besides the Concurrence's tireless efforts, it was yet one more problem apparently solved. Since the incident involving the wires yanked from Rhea's head all those months ago, the voice claiming it was the long lost Megatronus had yet to reappear. There was always the chance he had finally starved from Energon loss in whatever dimension he currently inhabited. Soundwave didn't feel sorry if it were the case. One less thing to worry about.
"I keep offerin' to give it a try huntin' down the rogue Prime…" Jazz once again chimmed in, because apparently he was incapable of keeping his thoughts inside his own head. "Yet Magnus keeps saying no for some fragging reason. Something about unleashing untold evils onto the universe, just because I would want to prove I'd be the one to crack the code. I mean, you've been tryin' to crack it too, right Wave? No luck yet? I know you've been busy… I'm sure I could figure it out for ya if it's that hard."
It was fine. He didn't have to murder the annoying Autobot. The blustering Autobot spy was all talk at this point. Unless the war rekindled… In that scenario, Soundwave knew exactly where to find Jazz.
"It's a good idea," Arcee agreed with Rhea's previous statement as she was doing a better job ignoring Jazz than Soundwave was. She patted Rhea on the shoulder, making a resounding clank between them. "And this was a good effort today. Ring me when you shake this one again," She nodded her helm Soundwave's way before heading off towards Jazz. "Oh, and don't forget our little deal! You're gonna stay human for as long as possible!" She added over her shoulder.
"I remember. But are you headed back to Earth too?" Rhea asked before Soundwave had a chance to whisk her away, or question when such an arrangement had been made between them. "Don't forget the other topic we talked about. It may be a good time to talk to Jack."
Arcee visibly winced as she stopped in her tracks. She vented hard with shoulder joints slouching. "Yeah, I know. Still working up the guts," She turned to give her a worried grin, "This week, for sure… Maybe the next."
Rhea snorted through her vents with a chuckle, "No rush. Not like I even know what freaking week it is on Earth anymore. Maybe I should pop in. I have been craving fried food for some reason."
"We can stop by Earth momentarily before leaving for the colony," Soundwave offered.
Now Arcee snorted, but it was totally sarcastic. "Momentarily? Like she doesn't spend every fragging klik with you anyway."
"Again, you find any means to twist my words to fit your narrative Autobot," he said dismissively. He was far from in the mood for a fight. Though he noticed Rhea's unfocused but familiar gaze. That look suggested her pulling up her inner HUD info to check something, so he decided he had another moment to add, "As always, your opinion is noted, but unwarranted."
Arcee took the bait, ready to lose the high ground to start a shouting match right in the posh Iacon courtyard.
Rhea's gasp killed any potential for a fight.
Soundwave turned to her quickly, feeling the full weight of her Spark broken field. Her faceplates reflected a similar crushing realization. But she pulled it all quickly back into herself, trying to squash the feeling and look with a vent of defeat.
"What's the matter?" Arcee demanded.
Rhea looked up, glancing between Arcee and Soundwave's gentle yet firm prodding of her aura, silently asking the same question. With a great deal of effort, she smiled to ease away any tension, "It… Doesn't matter. A date, it… I missed something, back on Earth. Totally forgot. My fault completely. It was just, unimportant human stuff."
It was all she apparently wanted to share. She shrugged it off, outwardly appearing fine again. But her field was pulled basically under her plating. That kept Arcee from reading further into it. But the Bond didn't lie, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. She was crushed under self-annoyance for a forgetful blunder and as a consequence, disappointment. Soundwave didn't recognize the other human emotions beyond that, and that was frustrating in itself.
He ignored Arcee's glare aimed his way, somehow deeming him responsible for whatever was on Rhea's mind. They flew home, and he didn't pry further when she insisted everything was fine. It was just more "human nonsense" according to her.
That wasn't sufficient for him, so he started going over the evidence he was left with. There had been no mention of that pesky human grandmother of hers, so this was something else. Her shift in emotion was around the time she checked her HUD… This followed a brief conversation about dates back on Earth. She said she missed something important.
He pulled up her chosen region on Earth. The eastern United States. Her love for the ocean perhaps? No, the current weather conditions would be far too cold for that luxury. Human holidays were coming up… according to the calendar he was looking at, she hadn't missed any of those yet. It was October back on Earth. In the score of information he scanned on the human internet, he landed on something he recognized. It was an event she had mentioned a few times, and rather wistfully at that. In fact, it was one of her admitted regrets regarding their relationship that night when they shared those intimate thoughts.
Human physical relations aside, she had wanted to go to the State Fair. An important event her long deceased parents would take her too. He couldn't go, for obvious reasons, but perhaps she had planned on going alone, just for nostalgic satisfaction. According to his current calendar, the time for the celebration had come and gone. In the midst of her Cyberformation training, and all other unrelated drama, she had forgotten. And so had he.
She had indulged him in every Cybertronian need he had shared in that intimate conversation. He had her by his side, standing as his same species. She could fly with him, they melded fields… And he hadn't even had the decency to remember this one thing. He had been moments from inquiring when she wanted to switch fully to a Cybertronian form, leaving her human life behind. All for him. He no longer intended to have that conversation now.
It was small. Compared to everything else going on, it was basically inconsequential. In fact, by the time they returned to Kaon, she was basically over the disappointment and was ready to jump into their next Cybertronian adventure. But it was a deciding factor in his own mind.
A budding idea he had been ruminating for a while was now assured. The next free moment he had; he would begin preparations for it, no matter how much the prospect unnerved him.