The Silent Light - Part 2 (A Megatron x Starscream (Megastar) Fanfiction)

Episode 18: A Mech

The hissing pipes transfering gas sing softly amongst the shadows of the laboratory, and the long tubes curl and curve about.  They squirm amongst broken floors and exposed duct work.  They scuttle past dancing diodes of yellow, green, and blue snuggled together upon keyboards and control panels.

Shockwave is settled at high table, sitting upon a stool.  His legs hang freely in the air as his hands busily tend to a new abstract project, currently just a cluster of wires and motherboards.  A spindly pair of tweezers is trapped between his fingers, moving around miniscule parts and rearranging wires to ensure the best and most efficient transfer of energy and data.

After his final service to Megatron and Starscream -- bringing them out to a void in space so they could produce their silent light -- life has been monotonous at best.  Megatron had instructed that he and the rest of the Decepticons stand down and refrain from interfering with the restoration and social harmony of Cybertron.  He could either assimilate and return to civilization or cling to his scientific duty -- and Decepticonism.

His knowledge could not be wasted, nor his pride for his dying faction.  There is much more to discover, so much more to bring logic to.  If his findings wouldn't be for the Decepticon cause, then it would be for himself.

But one recent disocvery, something Shockwave had never witnessed before, perplexed him:  the black and white holes Megatron and Starscream produced.  Shockwave had attempted to replicate the touching of sparks before with willing Decepticons, but their sparks refused to even leave their chest.  Maybe it was because these Decepticons hardly knew each other; maybe a connection is required.  So, testing began on soldiers and their squadmates.  They had endured traumas together and protected one another, so a connection was assured.  But even these bots' sparks didn't move.  They would just stare at each other awkwardly in space, their chest cavities wide open, before glancing at whatever ship Shockwave was watching from.

It was the the look of, So what now?

Shockwave knows love has nothing to do with science.  Love, at its core, is just a combination of signals sent through the brain module and nothing more.  "Love" is just an evolutionary advantage: those who are connected deeply with each other and remain with the group have a higher chance at surviving.  Those who "love" survive, and those that don't die out.

But if love is just like all other brain processes, how could two individuals with a deep connection cause a rip in the fabric of space?  Shockwave would recoil at the thought of Starscream and Megatron now having an intimate and caring relationship, but their adorance for either other has resulted in a scientific achievement.  In other words, they are important to Shockwave's work.

Shockwave places his tweezers down.  His lone optic flickers subtly as he studies his work in progress.  His spark wavers a bit, and an emotion creeps into his consciousness...

Shockwave viciously grabs his seat, anchoring himself, before curling his legs up.  He thrusts them against the table, and it squeals violently as it crashes across the room.  Heaps of wires launch into the air like scrambled CNA, and little bits of metal flutter through the air.  Shockwave gets off the stool before backhanding it to the ground.

"Traitors!" Shockwave roars. "Liars!  Sons of glitches!" 

Shockwave quickly batters the sides of his head.  This was not supposed to happen!  He dedicated so many eons to Megatron, but now the vile mech has turned his back on the people he brought together!  They were supposed to transform the universe into a haven for Cybertronians, but now their efforts are lost.  All this work and research...just gone.

Shockwave rushes to the gigantic computer at the other side of the lab.  The monitor's cerulean face glares down at him, casting a cold sheen over the distraught mech's armor.  Shockwave hastily presses buttons, and vast amounts of data pop up onto the screen.  He scrambles to a lockbox a couple meters away, and after thrusting the lid up, he grabs a harddrive. 

Shockwave slams it into the computer system, and after a few desperate clicks, the vast array of findings downloads itself to the drive.  As progress bar slowly fills itself, Shockwave steps back, analyzing his sudden tantrum.

Even anger is hated in this lab.

But hatred is also an emotion!

Shockwave falls to his knees and screams up at the shadows infesting the ceiling.  His fingers tremble as the sound erupts from deep within his body.  He would never end up like Megatron, riddled with the burden of a heart and a lover!  Shockwave attempts to get to his feet, but his sudden bout of fear weakens his body.  He promptly crashes back down and grunts as his head cracks against the floor.

A long buried feeling slips through Shockwave: helplessness.  He is trapped in his own mind, and what he would give to return to childlike joy and the innocent wonder of science.  Shockwave curls up, and a strange sound bubbles front his throat.  It sounds like choking, but it is simply an attempt at crying after a millenia of shoving down emotion.

No tears fall from him.  Just another grotesque croak and then silence.  The pity party is over, and the aftermath is shrouded in shame.  How dare he break his own rules?  This is a place of logic, and there is no room for the chaotic, unorganized mess of the spark.  

The computer emits a sad whoop as the transfer completes.  Shockwave pulls himself up and drags his feet as he approaches the intricate machine.  A few more somber clicks, and the server filled with data he once shared with Megatron and other Decepticon researchers is cleared.  All the information is just for his reference now.

Shockwave stews in his silence.  The darkness of the lab is his haven, shielding him from the broken world outside.  And no one can witness is own breakdowns, and Shockwave wishes he could admit this was his first expelling of emotion since the restoration of Cybertron.  Maybe it is time to...leave this place.  Find others.

Shockwave lifts his head as the lab starts to tremble.  Reverberations echo through his backstrut and tickle his brain module.  A groan fills the sky hidden behind the shaking ceiling, and Shockwave rushes outside.

Nothing strange is entering the atmosphere or whisking through the sky.  The lively city of the reestablished Iacon continues bustling on the horizon.  Shockwave sprints back inside.

He darts up to his computer, his spark pulsating at an astonishing rate.

I've heard this sound before.  It sounded different, more natural and less synthetic, but the sound was similar.  Please, don't let my hunch be correct.

A model of the universe summons on the screen, and Shockwave targets a specific sector of space.  And the thing he so desperately searches for, the child of Starscream and Megatron, is nowhere in sight.  He scrolls his view around, looking to see if it had just drifted along to a nearby area, but the supermassive black hole has abandoned its nest.

He pulls his view back out to the galaxy before diving towards Cybertron, and lo and behold, the venturous celestial body is indeed creeping towards the planet millions had just reclaimed.  It is out of the view of Cybertronians on the ground, but its willingness to move billions of miles terrifies Shockwave.  With a few swift taps on the keyboard, Shockwave charts its course, and Cybertron is dead in the center of its wrath.  From what he can tell, the black hole, almost sentient, has completely avoided other terrestrial bodies, leaving other civilizations safe and sound in the blanket of stars.

It...it's targeting Cybertron.

Shockwave snatches a communcation device off a nearby table, and as he holds it to his auditory receptor, he examines the model of the imminent destruction of his newfound home.

"Hello?" Megatron's gravely voice crackles through the device.

"My liege --"

"Just Megatron is okay."

Shockwave growls.  "I don't care.  We are in trouble.  Your silent light is coming to Cybertron."