Silenced

4 | Broken Rememberance

What? I...I was a gladiator?

Still alligned with the Decepticons, yes, but then I suddenly went and deserted? No, no, this is nonsensical--how could any of this even be possible!

"I was never all that good at fighting out there in the battlefield. I was a cultural investigator, you see? Living the high life, really. I wasn't cut out to be an Autobot. Nor a Decepticon. But, I knew I still wanted to help, somehow. I hated seeing people dying out there, and I just knew in my spark that what the Decepticons were doing was wrong!" The former Autobot spoke with bright-eyed vigor.

"N-No offense..." Shiner later added in an anxious murmur. Soundwave shook his helm to the side plainly.

"None taken. I deserted the Decepticon faction because of that very fact. I did not want to be a part of such gruesome cruelty, once I saw what was happening behind Megatron's silver-tongued political rallies. The Decepticon cause that I once proudly stood for had been corrupted into something I no longer recognized. Even Megatron, whom I once thought to be the one to lead us all to a greater, fairer Cybertron.." Soundwave droned alongside a very slight computerized undertone, his faceplate held low. Shiner placed a servo onto their shoulder gingerly with a faint smile.

"Don't dwell on the past too much. There's nothing you or I could have done to stop any of this."

Present Soundwave's metaphorical gears were audibly winding and turning in his processor. The only way the Third in Command could possibly surmise what was happening before him was that he was reliving past events, but without any way to change them. He was simply a spectator to his own previous actions. The only problem that came with this theory however...is that Soundwave remembers none of this.

Soundwave looked back up at them, a questioning look in his mellow optics.

"...so, why did you leave? If your moral compass was so strong?" He asked. Shiner hummed in deliberation, tilting his head up and to the side. "I just, it didn't feel right, extinguishing another bot's spark, without any feelings of remorse or regret left for them, who might have been a decent friend before the war. Every time I shot a bot down, I felt utterly sick to my tanks." Shiner shook his helm, a bitter frown plastering onto his faceplate. Soundwave stared at them, unsure of what to say.

"I...do not fully share your sentiment for killing, albeit I have been more than accustomed to it. Yet, I do agree that I did not enjoy having to extinguish one's spark, unless under dire circumstances." Soundwave started slowly and carefully.

"The Decepticons now have turned into bloody brutes, ruthlessly massacring any who oppose them. Even neutrals." He said with a darkened, downcast gaze. Shiner's optics widened in surprise, yet let him continue.

"I was once on a mission with a small troop of Decepticons. We weren't close, just partners in arms. But, when I saw them slaughtering unarmed neutrals like they were nothing more than the filthy dirt they walked upon--I nearly snapped. I said to them that the whole affair was a waste of resources, but, perhaps I should have said more." Soundwave breathed out a self-depricating vent.

Shiner frowned, before cracking a small forced expression in the faint semblance of a smile. "Well, let's just hope they don't find us ex-faction bots, yeah? I doubt they would appreciate an either Autobot or Decepticon turned neutral, would they?" Shiner crossed his arms, looking to his friend.

"...No, no they would not."

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Soundwave awoke in a violent stir, knocking more than a few things off a work table where he had been apparently resting whilst in his dreamstate. It took a few astroseconds, but Soundwave eventually regained full consciousness over himself, and stilled.