163Rumble and Frenzy had always hated their "basic" forms. They had been created with a clear purpose. Any cassette was. Which was to help their cassette master. Be it by helping with work. Helping balance emotions. Serve as a family against the loneliness. They had been created in the gladiator pits which had limited their functionality.
But.
They couldn't help but look at their brothers and sister and realise they couldn't do as much. Ravage and Ratbat skills to move fast and quietly were unmatched. The ability to fly and that way easily get places was one fully used by Buzzsaw and Laserbeak. Meanwhile Slugfest and Overkill where both designed to fight.
And...
They were the odd ones out.
None of them ever said it. Or even thought it. It didn't cross the other cassettes' minds. But it did theirs.
Why such a basic look? Sure it was hard to create cassettes who looks like full transformers. But why? Why would he even do that? What use did it have?
Eventually they asked
And Soundwave, as always, answered with reason
"It is camouflage"
They hadn't understood it at first but eventually they kinda got the idea. They looked like younglings. And in a race that all had some kind of guardian and protector protocols installed it was logical to have that as form to ensure safety.
Especially with the number of seekers on the cons side.
They had lost count on how many times they triggered Starscream's old guardian protocol much to the seekers displeasure.
Flyers, after all, were very sensitive to those protocols.
Before the flyers got those extra sensitive protocols and when the younglings were still only a new concept it caused quite a few problems.
If a sparkling would as much as whimper every single transformer within earshot would get trigger to help and protect, even if the actual caretakers or creators were near.
Eventually the Allspark fixed this. But the flyers had the honour of keeping the more primal protocols. To ensure that if all else failed the sparklings still had a safe space.
Oh how that failsafe failed with the war.
Rumble and Frenzy had never quite understood why Soundwave was so convinced it was the perfect form for them. And why the camouflage would even be successful to begin with. With what had happened with the seekers and the youngling centres they had thought that Soundwave would edit their looks, but he never did.
But honestly?
Looking at Bumblebee now?
They finally understand just how powerful those primal protocols can be.
They should have realised sooner honestly. That Bumblebee would have the guardian protocols. He was after all a half flyer, and no matter how much they had pushed the Autobot had always been nice to them.
It was very obvious now.
Rumble and Frenzy both just stared in shock at the enraged mech. The yellow wings were fully spread out, even the tiny sensor panels were up. Enlarging the wings and furthering his sensor range.
Suddenly pure white optics shot to Frenzy, Frenzy shudders but stares back. The white lights slowly look up at the tube he is in before they snap to where Rumble is bond, the written marks may not be fully understood but the tools around the cassette made it very obvious what had been about to happen.
Finally, the optics turn to Silas.
Silas gulps as a tiny bit of sweat reflects the lights in the room, "Bumblebee, I see you are joining us after all."
Bumblebee doesn't speak, he doesn't make any sound. He just steps further into the room as he tilts his head a tiny bit.
Silas smirks "Yes, of course you are welcome. You must… you must be curious! Seeing your enemies like this! See the power of humanity and just what it can do!"
Frenzy looks at the human for a second before looking at Bumblebee.
Primus they had been terrible to him.
Yet, instead of escaping himself he came for them. To get them.
Frenzy shakes and hugs himself tighter.
Rumble lays on the table shaking. His optics fly from his twin, to the Autobot, then the human and finally the remote in the human's hands. Oh stars what were they supposed to do? Anything they could say would cause them to get shocked again. Probably bad enough to knock them out as that little grimy creature-
Wait.
If they spoke!
Rumble swallows before looking straight at Bumblebee, the tiny movement caused a wing to twitch and Bumblebee to stare at him.
The dark grey and red cassette suddenly felt a lot more exposed and stupid and vulnerable. Stars does he hope this works.
He opens his mouth and tries to vocalise the fear and stress and pain in one sound.
A tiny whine comes out.
It sounded wrong, it sounded unnatural, it sounded weak. Rumble is ready to kick himself.
If those wings hadn't reacted so extremely and blazing white optics snap to the humans as he growls. The other humans, followers of that Silas guy, all panic and run for cover as the transformer walks closer. Silas, seeing the danger. Slaps a button on his little podium and it gets a glass globe kinda thing over it as it shoots to the side, to safety.
Bumblebee's engine gives a growl and a huff but he doesn't follow, he stalks towards the table and rips the binds apart, not even reacting to the metal biting into his servos and causing energon to leak out.
As soon as he is free Bumblebee picks him up and puts him between his wings. The half flyer growls at the humans before slowly making his way to Frenzy's prison. Where he touches the tube and chirps, a frown on his faceplates.
"No! don't let him get them!" Silas screams into the microphone, ordering the other humans to react and attack. Rumble tightens his hold on Bee and shrinks fully against him.
The door opens again and more humans appear with more weapons. Rumble studies the weapons and pales. Those are not just EMF disrupters. Those are stun guns, but many times more powerful. He shakes and nudges one of the wings right by him. Bumblebee's head snaps around and growls lowly at the new threats.
Silas smirks as he raises the remote, Rumble realises what he is going to do, and just where he is. He doesn't think as he just acts and jumps off of Bee's back. Bumblebee snaps around and a confused whine escapes his throat. Rumble feels Silas activate the remote before he can even land safely and a scream escapes him.
Bumblebee's wing snap up as his white eyes find the smirking human, he crouches down and bolts right at the human who is now no longer smiling. Bumblebee ends up stopping in a slight slide then hits the globe with his fist. It cracks.
Silas moves as far back but soon realises that while the globe seemed like a good idea he now was just stuck in a small cage.
Bumblebee growls as he hits again.
Silas starts to ramble "Now Autobot, weren't you better than this? This… murder?" Silas rambles as he is pressed right up against the glass "What would that leader of yours think? Knowing you terrorised humans?" Bumblebee doesn't react as he pulls his fist back and hits the glass again, it breaks. Silas curses as he covers his face as glass rains down. Bumblebee doesn't pause and moves to grab the other's arm Silas curses as he falls back and drops the remote.
The scout grabs and breaks it with a growl. While Silas lays between the glass, it cutting him open and making him bleed.
Bumblebee huffs as he straightens again.
Silas glares and yells "Kill them! All of them!"
Rumble looks up from where he was trying to open the tube and shakes as the stun guns are aimed at them. Frenzy shakes as he stares at Rumble "Run!" Rumble shakes his helmet. Before the humans can shoot the guns Bee rushes them and kicks them away. Rumble flinches at the snapping of bones.
The scout stands between the cassettes and humans. In a half crouch and wings flared. He growls. A few humans take out guns. Bumblebee takes one look at the weapons. Looks at the twins. And huffs. He stands still before diving down. He ends right by the glass tube and drags Rumble behind him before raising the arms just in time for the humans to rain them with bullets.
I am here. What is going on?
Rumble sobs in relieve Get inside. And follow the carnage and marks in the hallways. We need backup. Rumble looks up and sees Bumblebee's optics flicker before he shows more of his teeth in a snarl Very quickly.
Affirmative.
Frenzy suddenly gives a yelp as the glass tube cracks and breaks under the rain of bullets. Rumble and Frenzy share a shocked look before both move directly behind Bumblebee.
One of Bee's wings flicks to the side and Bee growls as he looks at the door.
Rumble and Frenzy and the humans all follow his sight just as they hear wheels and transformation cogs being activated.
Arcee rolls into a gun out position before just staring. A moment later Soundwave appears next to her and reads the room.
Soundwave looks Bumblebee over and frowns as he turns to Arcee "Can you calm him?"
Arcee huffs "Of course…" she then side eyes the humans and weapons around them "We will need to deal with-"
Bumblebee shudders and his systems glitch slightly as he raises out of his crouch position. Staring the new transformers down.
Arcee frowns as she looks Bumblebee over and her optics turn cold as she glares at the humans around them "Nevermind. I will get Bumblebee to Ratchet. You deal with whatever here. Cover me." And she starts sprinting towards Bumblebee. Soundwave doesn't bother to nod as his feelers come out and swipe outwards.
The feelers move all on their own. One feeler disappears into the controls of the computer. Two of his feelers move towards the humans and swipe them down before crushing the weapons. The last buries itself into the door controls.
Screens in the room flicker and scroll fast though data as Soundwave hacks into every system.
Arcee stops right before Bee and the scout snarls.
"Hey Beeper." Arcee keeps her voice even as she inches closer "You had it rough I see. Been a while since this happened last hasn't it? that is okay." She makes a show of folding her weapons back in "It is okay. I know you are tired. I am here. I will cover your next shift okay?"
Bumblebee frowns as he slowly rises up from his crouch. Rumble would have believed that it were the words getting though to him if he wasn't this close. No. he can feel the brush of Arcee's EM field as it just barely touches Bee's field. And only now he realises just how tightly Bumblebee has been keeping his field and how static and frantic it feels. As if it is just holding on by the tiniest strings.
Bumblebee gives a whine as his optics shoot to them.
Fuck they feel guilty.
Arcee hushes him softly "I know. and it is okay. Their creator is here. We are all getting out okay?" she stops right by Bumblebee and her servos hover inches from his plating "Let me help? Please?"
Bumblebee blinks slowly at Arcee before the battle mask gets recalled and his wings slowly relax and the sensor panels all shift back into their horizontal position. Smoothing the wings out again.
Then his optics turn off and Bumblebee falls over but Arcee is there and catches him. Rumble can just barely hear her whisper "It is okay little brother. I got you. I got you." she moves his arms around until she has a steady hold on him. She looks down at them and oh yes there was the anger they were expecting "Can you two walk?"
Rumble and Frenzy share a look, having expected anger aimed at them before Frenzy answer "We are okay to walk. Bumblebee already broke the remote to the shock collar things." Arcee nods as she starts moving.
The twins shoot each other a look and look at Soundwave.
Soundwave is still by the door. But around him humans are wrapped up in cables from the ceiling. All the screens are screaming about errors and viruses in the system. Soundwave turns to them and just gives them a nod Go with Arcee. I will come soon.
They nod and run after the femme. Arcee pauses right by Soundwave for just a moment. Soundwave looks at Bumblebee and his optics are soft and guilt filled as he slowly raises his servo, mostly calm but one of his digits trembling. He doesn't touch the yellow mech but his optics shoot to Arcee. Arcee just stares at him before nodding and leaving. Frenzy and Rumble run after the femme.
They look around but no one else shows up.
Frenzy gulps "Euh… Arcee? Where… where is-"
She doesn't wait for them to finish speaking "On their way. Soundwave could track you two easiest and I was the only one fast and nimble enough to follow him in a direct line though the forest in vehicle mode." She checks her corners as one of her servos becomes her blaster again. Frenzy nods as he silently follows.
They move as quickly and silently though the bunker as possible. Only stopping as Arcee repositions Bee more securely and for her to whisper more soft encouragements and reassurances to the unconscious Autobot.
Then they are outside and Rumble can finally relax.
It is dark. The night sky covered in stars and the air is cold.
It is late than. Very late. How long had they been in there? Doesn't matter.
Arcee raises a servo to her helm and speaks "I am out of the base. All three are secure. But Bee needs medical attention right now. He went in protocol modes." She pauses as she listens before she rolls her optics "I am very sure." She nods and starts moving towards the tree line. Keeping an optic on the bunker at all times. Frenzy and Rumble share a look and follow at a small distance. Making sure to stay within eye sight.
Arcee slowly and carefully lowers Bumblebee to the ground as she takes an arm and starts to prod at the metal bindings still lodged deeply into his mesh. She puts her helm against Bee's as she keeps up the soft voice and encouragements. Frenzy and Rumble both feel the need to look away and do so.
.~,~.
Soundwave flew fast though the night sky. They had run into some minor trouble but with the sun setting he finally heard his cassettes.
Things were dire.
Not that it mattered.
He would lay waste to those who dared to harm the ones near to him.
"Soundwave. My scanners show an underground complex." Arcee had been the only one fast and nimble enough to keep up.
"Lead the way."
They changed direction and travelled for a minute longer. Then Soundwave spotted it. He dove down and landed with a flip into his mech form, Ravage and Laserbeak transforming out and landing beside him. Arcee flipped out of her motorcycle form and sprints right towards the door "Do you hear anyone on the other side?"
Soundwave tilts his head and focusses "negative." He checks in with his cassettes and relaxes a tiny bit as Rumble answers him.
Arcee nods as her arms becomes a sword. She lodges it between the two doors and as a makeshift crowbar forces the door to crack open. Soundwave lets his feelers grab the door and forces it the rest of the way, breaking the mechanism and forcing it to remain open.
Arcee looks around and frowns "No guards?"
Soundwave nods "Affirmative. Rumble did mention that there was a… commotion going on and to follow the carnage" Both listened and heard far away alarms. They shared a look and Arcee transforms back into the motorcycle and sets off. Soundwave turns to his cassettes Find any human and make sure no one escapes. Ravage smirks as his teeth glim before stalking off. Laserbeak gives Soundwave a nuzzle before following her brother. Soundwave follows Arcee on foot, his flyer form being more of a hinderance inside enclosed spaces than a benefit.
He moves though a few hallways only to find Arcee again? In femme form. She stands just around a corner in a T-section, frozen.
"We have a big problem."
Soundwave frowns as he steps closer and stops.
The hallway walls are ripped to shreds. The ground covered in dents and scratches and marks of something hitting it. He turns around and stares at the other hallway finding it in a familiar state. He looks back to the current hallway and finds the doors that had lead into this hallway with broken locks and hinges.
Arcee frowns as she looks at Soundwave "It looks like someone stuck in protocol modes."
Soundwave nods "aggressive ones at that…"
"Do you think MECH also caught a Decepticon?"
Soundwave thinks as he looks around "Possible… it are claw marks. It may have been a vehicon." Seeing as he doubted that Starscream would be caught by MECH, again.
Arcee nods as she starts to run again "Follow the carnage right?"
Soundwave gives his agreement and Arcee transforms again to make as much use of the time she has as possible. Soundwave widens his mind again and looks. It seems they are going in the right direction to get to Rumble and Frenzy. What worries him is that he has yet to hear anything from Bumblebee's mind. Strange.
While Soundwave does his best to not listen in on Bumblebee's mind he catches glimpses sometimes. His mind is never just quiet. His mind goes a hundred places at once. As a river just flowing downstream without a care in the world where it ends up or how often it branches off. If Bumblebee is quiet…
If any of those dirty organics touched him.
He hears Arcee's mental victory when she reaches the centre of all activity but than her mind goes quiet in shock.
He speeds up and stops right beside her and-oh
That.
That explains a lot.
Right.
Half flyer.
How could he have forgotten?
Bumblebee looks like he has been though the pits.
Dried energon sticking to his frame and some still leaking. Those elegant doorwings bruised and dented as every tiny sensor on them are active and collecting information about the surroundings. He can see the dried energon from the welds by the doorwings too. Stuck to his arms are sheets of metal. His optics shoot around the room and spots a large metal slab with titanium bindings. They match with those stuck to Bee and Soundwave frowns at the picture being formed. He has multiple bullet wounds and even larger slashes in his armour.
Yet here he stands. On two feet. Crouched and ready to attack. Optics ablaze with pure energy. Teeth and claws out.
He has never looked more dangerous.
Soundwave can't help but notice he is beautiful.
He forces himself to look away and looks at the femme "Can you calm him?"
Arcee glares as she huffs "Of course." Her voice holds a confidence that does not show in her mental voice. Her optics shift to the side with the humans "We will need to deal with-"
Bumblebee's body shakes as Soundwave can see error messages appear in his optics before his system automatically dismisses them. He slowly rises to full height and stares them down.
Soundwave can hear Arcee reorganise her mental priority list and Bumblebee, who was already at the top spot, becomes the full top three. The humans sink all the way to the bottom if not completely off the list "Nevermind. I will get Bumblebee to Ratchet. You deal with whatever here. Cover me." Arcee doesn't trust Soundwave. But she does know and accept that Soundwave would do anything to help Bumblebee, and this is why she turns her back to him and starts running before Soundwave can even give his accord.
That is fine. They are going for efficiency here after all. His feelers move with minimal mental effort as two move to attack and tie the humans down.
He will deal with them later.
When there isn't an Autobot there to judge him harshly and play it back to the Prime that he killed the 'precious' humans.
He is patient. He can wait for his revenge.
Another feeler disappears into the computer system and gets to work on the data. Another feeler disappears into the door controls and thanks to it the controls to all the doors. He uses the computer to locate all the humans and lock them in rooms. No one shall escape the consequences to their actions.
Once satisfied that that is taken care of and none of the humans are free he turns his focus on the data. Rumble and Frenzy are close enough that information on what went down gets automatically uploaded to him. So steadily and quietly that he doubts either of them notice.
Now what did those humans do to his family.
Oh.
He understands.
His optics snap over to Rumble and looks him over. The markings drawn on him now tell a clear tale of what was about to happen. He watches Arcee walk over with Bumblebee over her shoulder. He looks at his cassettes and mentally orders them to go with Arcee.
Arcee stops right by him and for just a moment he wants to touch Bumblebee's face but he stops himself. He looks to hurt. He doesn't wish to make his pain worse.
Make them pay.
Soundwave pauses and turns a tiny bit towards Arcee. Arcee stares right at him, her optics unblinking and holding a cold hatred in them Accidents happen. I will see you outside. And she nods before leaving.
Soundwave stands there before he starts to smirk.
"You must be the so called boss"
Soundwave slowly turns to the pathetic human between the glass. Memories of his twins filter in and Soundwave holds that anger inside. This is the pathetic being that tried to harm what is his.
Silas smirks "You must want to hear more! Playing the long game with trying to get in the good graces of the Autobots? Yes I can see why that would be useful. How about we talk-"
"You are a moron."
Silas stops and glares "You-"
Soundwave slowly walks over. One of his feelers slamming a human into the ground. Crushing its skull. Silas turns and slowly pales. Good. Soundwave tilts his helm "You think you are smart. You want to join the ranks of a race that has perfected the art of war long before your species was even born." He stalks over. More skulls are crushed behind him as the screens flash all the information this disgusting creator has gotten.
Soundwave stops right before him as he holds Silas up with the feeler that before was in the door controls. It now holds the human up. He throws him up and stabs him straight though the leg into the wall with one of the four claws at the end.
Silas screams.
Soundwave feels a smile appear on his face as he leans closer "Then you proceed to harm our own. Did you know. That before Cybertroniums rained war on its own. We fought another race? A race that wanted to dominate us. Control us. We eliminated them. and now here you are. Trying to harm our kind."
Soundwave stares him down. Invading his weak mind and speaks directly into his mind You have no idea what you are up against. Do you?
Silas is now fully pale.
More crushes.
No more humans in this room.
Then ravage falls into the room from a vent, a lifeless body in its mouth as he crunches down and the body falls down in two pieces beside him "Done boss. Laserbeak is going the last sweep." He sits down and cleans a paw.
"Well job Ravage. Get into the wiring in the room. I want this place ablaze." Ravage gives his okay and dives back into the wall. Ripping a hole into it easily with his claws.
Silas gulps "Now. I am sure this is just a misunderstanding-"
Soundwave twists the blade in the humans leg and Silas screams Soundwave waits until he stops before speaking directly into his mind again You know nothing of our kind. If you did you would have known that all you did here would doom you. not only do you take two of mine cassettes you also took my intended.
Silas blinks as he looks confused. His mind a mess of his own prejudice counter fitting with what he is hearing. Soundwave smirks Oh? Right of course. You think we are like your kind. Very unfitting. If you think our species is like yours. But why would we? Why would a species made by an actual god look anything like one made though evolution? Why would our kind, that is millennia older than your planet look anything like yours?
Silas stares.
Soundwave huffs "Of course. I could just kill you here. Be done with it. but I want you to suffer. Sadly I can't do all the pain to you that I wish. I have much more important matters to attend to." He hears Ravage and Laserbeak return. Ravage has been dragging all the human bodies into one pile while pulling every piece of wiring out. Leaving them sparking.
Laserbeak returns with some gas and dumps it all over the pile. Laserbeak lands on his shoulder as she nuzzles him, completely ignoring the human "We are done sir."
Ravage grins, blood still gleaming on his fangs "everything connected and all wiring pulled out."
"We have gathered flammables at each room and left trails of gas everywhere to help spread the fire efficiently." Laserbeak cleans a wing as she speaks. "We are ready to move out."
Soundwave nods and turns to Silas as he raises one of his servos and one claw "Now." He slowly pushes the claw into Silas other leg and each arm. Silas screams and curses him out but Soundwave just stares. Only showing neutrality.
Then he drops the human and hears a crack as he breaks something. Soundwave gets a bit of glee out of seeing that he aimed well and the human is now also leaking blood from new cuts and pieces of glass stuck in his body.
Soundwave crouches down and makes his voice take a sickening sweet tune "Now. I am done with you causing trouble for my future mate. I am also done with you causing him stress by your continued existence." Silas pants and Soundwave uses a feeler to tilt his head up, the human hisses as the pull on his neck is painful "Now. I want to be sure you stay right here and burn alive." Laserbeak dumps gasoline on top of the human and Soundwave makes sure to turn Silas' face into the stream before letting him fall back on the ground fully "There. Next." He picks Silas up and puts him on top of the table that used to be habited by Rumble.
Ravage jumps on top of the table and gets to work securing the dirty organic. Laserbeak moves move kindle towards the table and around it.
Soundwave steps back and watches the human weakly struggle at the bounds. The human ends up glaring at Soundwave "You-"
Soundwave rolls his optics "Don't bother. You are a miserable creature that is short-sighted and closeminded. Nothing you say will ever affect me or be anything I aren't already aware of." As he speaks he shows all the information Silas collected and makes a show of deleting the humans life work "You will be forgotten. Everything you did will never see the light and be swept under the rug. Nobody will know your name and nobody will morn you. You will be forgotten to time as if you never existed." With that Soundwave turns, filtering the human out as to not hear its last words. They would be meaningless and a waste of breath anyway.
Laserbeak shoots the kindle and a bright flame starts to come to life. Soundwave stays in the doorway long enough to make sure the fire starts burning the human before leaving. He has more clean up to do.
.~,~.
Soundwave leaves the base only after he knew for sure everything was ablaze. He closes the door behind him and looks out into the night. quickly spotting Arcee and Bumblebee and, thank primus, Ratchet. Ratchet sat next to Bumblebee and had his tools out. The metal that had been stuck to Bumblebee all already removed and thrown to the side.
He would be worried about seeing no other guards if he hadn't known better. He pitied the fool that would try to take Bumblebee away from Arcee tonight. He was sure even the Prime wouldn't get away shot free if he tried.
Soundwave sees Arcee look up and both stare. Arcee gives a nod and turns back to watch Ratchet work. Seems like they would continue their ceasefire. Soundwave lets his optics roam. He hears Optimus and Smokescreen in the forest around them making sure no traps are nearby. He finds his twins. In clear view of the Autobots but giving the three room.
Soundwave walks over to them and sits with them both look up and then look down at the dirt.
"What in the name of the pits were you two thinking?" He didn't sound angry. The words may seem like it. especially with his own even voice. But it wasn't anger in there.
The twins know this and both just shrink further in on themselves as they share a look.
"We…" Rumble starts as he rubs his arm, trying to rub one of the marking away. Soundwave pulls Rumble closer as he pulls a wipe from his subspace and starts to remove the markings that miserable creature left on his creation.
Rumble relaxes under his servos and purrs. Frenzy joins in as ravage starts to clean him after pushing him right by Soundwave.
Soundwave keeps his touches slow as he focuses on the marks "I already gained the knowledge of what went down inside that complex. But the why you went out I do not understand."
Rumble looks down again as guilt flows though his EMF. Frenzy sighs as he leans against Soundwave but speaks "We… realised that we have been…" he frowns as he searches for the right words "That we were causing trouble… bad trouble and that our actions would in the end only do harm. That we had been pushing it. we figured that if we did something good that it would lever out a bit. And then with that we could… you know… fix this mess we made and and" he stops speaking as he just stares down at his servos.
Soundwave sighs as he moves his servo to Frenzy's head and pets him "If you want to make things right. Sometimes an apology is the best way to start." It had taken him a while to learn that "You can't just cover the old hurt with a few good deeds. That means anything build on top will just have the bad foundation. Before you start the past needs to be put to rest." He gives both of his youngest cassettes a look "Do you understand?"
Both look at Soundwave, then each other, and then nod.
Soundwave sighs as he cleans Rumble.
"We are sorry for disobeying" Frenzy speaks softly as he hugs his legs "Again. We just. We wanted to make things right. We thought what we did before was right. That we were helping and protecting you and…" He sniffs but wipes his optics harshly before they can leak "We just, we just want to help" instead of using English Frenzy is using the Cybertronium glyphs for it which more roughly translates to; helping, saving, protecting, assisting, supporting.
Soundwave couldn't stop himself from getting a soft look even if he wanted to try. Frenzy hasn't looked up yet "We figured, with the Decepticons busy and you not there they wouldn't know we went after a relic. We were planning on it just being a quick trip and make it back to the spot we dropped off with the relic before anyone would notice." He hugs himself more "That we really want to help…"
Rumble speaks next "We promise we won't bother Bee anymore."
Soundwave feels relieve but also curious "Since when is he Bee?"
Both the twins freeze and look down more. Soundwave raises a brow and waits.
"Well… after… we spoke with Smokescreen and we realised we messed up…" Frenzy starts but stops and lets his twin continue.
"We just… While we were going towards the relic we were thinking about how nice Bee has been." Soundwave can feel the sheepishness from both of them "Even with us being absolute brats and us trying our best to test him and to prove he wasn't nice and stuff… he stayed just nice and calm and patient and well…" even softer now "He could have gotten out but he came to get us. Even with us having been so mean to him. Even then he came to get us. His first priority was getting us out." He stops after that. Unable to explain more.
Soundwave smiles softly "Yeah… I agree…" both look up a tiny bit at him "Bumblebee is a good mech. Just though and though good. That can change your perspective on someone very quickly."
Rumble and Frenzy relax a bit. He doesn't know who of the two sends it but he hears them think none the less We will apologise for our behaviour when he healed a bit.
Soundwave nuzzles both "Thank you."
Soundwave looks up as he hears Optimus and Smokescreen return. Optimus goes straight to Ratchet but the old medic just waves him off. Optimus sighs but accepts before looking at the building and frowning.
Soundwave looks over and sees the building completely ablaze.
Oh. Yes.
The fire.
Right.
Optimus looks at Soundwave with a deep frown "Soundwave."
Without missing a beat "They had a lot of faulty wiring."
Optimus sighs "Soundwave. We don't kill-"
"He isn't lying."
Optimus turns to Arcee.
Arcee stare shim right in the optics "Lots of faulty wiring and other flammable stuff just laying around."
Optimus frowns deepens while Arcee just looks at him determined and unflinching. Soundwave can't help himself to sneak a look into both their minds. The Prime is sure that Arcee is lying about the wires. Arcee knows he knows but is not backing down. If Soundwave hadn't done this she would have returned herself.
Optimus sighs louder "Arcee… just because we don't like-"
"He would have offlined Bumblebee." Arcee glares as she then hisses "You may not be willing to take lives Optimus. But I am. And I will if I have to. I am not losing another member of my family."
Optimus's optics turn soft as grief and regret fills his mind "I know Arcee… I just wish we didn't."
Arcee doesn't bother to answer but before Optimus can speak again Ratchet gets up "Enough with that Prime. We need to move Bumblebee back to base right now. I did what I could in the field."
Smokescreen opens a comm link and calls for a groundbridge. The portal opens and he moves right through it.
Optimus walks over to Bumblebee and picks him up easily. Ratchet stays near to ensure nothing rips.
Arcee calls forth her blasters and keeps them aimed at the forest around them as Ratchet and Optimus move towards the portal and disappear.
Soundwave moves towards the portal next but pauses right by Arcee "Why did you lie?"
Arcee's optics look at Soundwave before looking back at the forest "does it matter?"
Soundwave stares at her for a moment before speaking again "I suppose it doesn't. I just figured with you still wanting me gone this would have been a good way to start that."
Arcee glares at him but sighs "I still don't like you, which is obvious. But if I were to do that I would just be hurting Bee. I want Bee to be happy. Even if that is with you." She glares "Now get though that portal before others think you made a run for it."
Soundwave nods and walks though the portal with his four cassettes close.