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Oc x Soundwave (Pre-war)

Ch. 1 'Upgrades'

Before a rebellion had even been mentioned...he adored her.

"Soundwave, have you read this?" He had patted her head, watching from behind his visor as a mere sparkling onlined a datapad and offered it forward for the mech to glance over. Tiny, fragile servos...so dainty and defenseless in her own awkward little world that resided within the safe confines of stories and records. Remarkable tales that altered her reality in the finest of ways, forcing an intelligent form of worldly ignorance upon her. She was a perfect example, he always though, of something untainted by society in its weakest forms...her innocence was thick and unaltered despite the high and corrupted professions of her creators. They had named her 'Prisma' out of sheer ignorance and respect for Primus, constructing her for nothing of importance unlike their other offspring.

He, an already fully matured mech, had first met her in the archives, noticing the youth looking through countless datapads of things beyond her age. He returned the next cycle as required...coincidentally finding her there again, reading aloud in the database halls. His curiosity beckoned him to seek her out the next cycle, and the next, and the next...every visit purely out of discreet interest as well as the fortuitous need for historical information. She had one day approached him, also through curiosity, and after a lengthy introduction he had decided to teach her due to her similar interests; to give some form of meager hope into the lesser generations of these new 'sleeker' yet less articulate and capable models.

She was still young, her armor a dark shade of aqua and her optics a common purple shared among a good amount of femmes. So unused...so pure and untainted by the negligible bots of their city. She thought beyond anyone he knew, and there were cycles where he found it difficult to understand her.

"When I'm older I want to visit Praxus*...I want to see the Helix Gardens, and I want to find peace." Such unnecessarily bold words for a sparkling, he'd noted at the time...her tone unusually hushed as she smiled and glanced over the edge of the balcony, unintentionally ignoring the studies he was supposed to be teaching her.

Soundwave found that he didn't mind though...that watching her speak and watching her think was much more fascinating than forcing her to learn the things that she probably already knew. A prodigy of some sort...a genius for just a mere sparkling that stood no taller than his shin joints. She knew almost everything he'd first intended on revealing, from programs to spyware to firewalls...it was odd.

"You can come with me, Soundwave!" So pathetically cute; so naive in her hopes even with such vast intelligence. She would go and see Praxus one day, and although it would be peaceful...he was sure that she wouldn't find what she was looking for. He didn't have the spark to tell her that her desires would only lead to disappointment.

By this time equality had become a demand, and bots had become violent as the revolts were slowly set into play.

"Soundwave, do you think this will progress?" She'd asked so solemnly that he had not answered, and Prisma, who had long become accustomed to his unnecessary silence, hadn't minded in the least despite her curiosity. Her optics glanced back to the city, its countless inhabitants passing through the sky with haste as the sun touched the metal horizon and the end of the solar cycle drew near.

The nightlife slowly advanced with the darkness, the evening seeming even more active than the day. The constant movement and velocity made her lip components quirk upwards in appreciation of the noise; she didn't like the chaos of life, but with the exception of Soudwave...silence made her uneasy. Her random smile caught his attention, and he studied her for the first time in a while, attempting to figure what made her grin so pensively.

She was a little older now, this new frame being her second upgrade and making her stand a little taller than the vorns before. Her plating was the same color, her optics still a sharp purple and her vocal controls were tighter with a still immature tone. She was growing, and he noticed so often that she would add little changes to her programing that most bots wouldn't notice much less think over. She was making improvements upon herself, and he admired that for a femme so young.

Soundwave had also changed in the lengthy amount of time that she'd know him; his actions quicker and stricter...he wasted no energy anymore, and he began withholding all of the political information that he could as if...waiting. He was using up all the space in his CPU, and she noticed even as he built firewalls around all of the important material. His index component would twitch ever so slightly, a sign of too much thought and contemplation that was rare for the mech to visualize.

His visor still covered his face, making her incapable of reading his emotions. Or...or perhaps his visor was his face? Did it really matter? No, because she could have cared less...it was unimportant and incoherent, something that was personal and none of her business. As much as she wanted to know she ignored her uneasy curiosity, instead fiddling with the datapad that'd been held against her chest.

The older shifted and looked up as the sky turned dark, the lights illuminating the rest of their little community with a visually unusual tranquility.

"Are you okay?" The sparkling inquired so faintly, as if unsure of her own question much less his response. She was anxious for no reason; the evidence in each fidget as her finger components curled around the edges of the datapad.

"..." He looked down at the femme before patting her head with a light and reassuring servo, as if dismissing the question entirely. He wouldn't worry her...it was none of her concern.

"Alright." She didn't believe him...the hesitance in her tone made it obvious. But she wouldn't say anything, because he might eventually figure it out.

She attended the academy. Her main studies in science and biological physiology. She accelerated through her courses, always coming near the top of her class, but never quite there. Always the chief, never the commander.

The other youths bullied her, only because she was smarter than the rest of them, and a little more odd. Her lack of proper name also beckoned teasing; most sparklings having been created for a specific function and formally named through it whether they be creations of Vector Sigma or of another Cybertronian. So, as casually assumed, everyone questioned her...they were all convinced that something was wrong because of her knowledge, yet lack of foreboded profession. It was disheartening.

He'd been pulled out of his education early in order to develop his advanced potential for intelligence collection, yet even then he noticed how she'd become wary as a response to the social mistreatment, her internal firewalls, as well as those of insecurity, standing higher than before and her comments of pessimism demoralizing compared to the blissfully giddy femme he'd become familiar with.

He visited her every so often, finding that if he didn't she would no longer seek him out, ask those random questions, and make small conversations that taught him to be more optimistic in his outlooks. She rarely even acknowledged him when he did confront her with a silent form, finding the juvenile to simply keep quite and enjoy some of the company he offered. He no longer taught her...because there was nothing left to teach that didn't involve politics or things that she shouldn't or didn't need to know. Maybe he would later, but as of now Prisma proved herself beyond her time and generation. So in a way he could effortlessly admit...that he did care more for her than he should.

"You don't have to come anymore you know." She murmured it as he stood beside her, the duo tensely silent as she lowered her wings in an unknown emotion; making her appear skeptical. Soundwave looked over, watching her movements as her optics searched for something over the city. She found it even uglier than before...the skyscrapers, the endless traffic, the noise and the bots. A big, messy, conflagration that burned her audio receptors and burdened her processor until it throbbed out of annoyance. Silence was no longer intimidating, it was welcomed now. She didn't like it here...and he noticed.

"..." Soundwave set the usual servo on her helm, watching large optics glance back at him for a brief moment and shutter naturally. She would be fine; he knew it for a fact.

This behavior...it only made him adore her even more.

And her name? Although only the lower class earned their titles...she would eventually attain one.

-End of Chapter One

*Praxus - Praxus was the home city-state of Prowl and Bluestreak. One of its key locations was the Helix Gardens, where crystals were arranged in a beautiful manner to create a place of contemplation. It also hosted The Assembly, a "center of Autobot science, technology, art, philosophy and culture."

I made this for all of you. Many requested a pre-war slash for Soundwave...and here it begins. I had originally planned for this to be maybe three chapters, but it seems that the plot had slowly evolved into something along the lines of seven. Either way I hope you enjoy this.

Please, review!