Never Again

27

Sorry it's so short. I'll publish the next chapter soon. Please comment if you see any mistakes. 

Thank you, and 

~ Enjoy 

------------

Despite the current situation, both Lynlee and Soundwave felt at peace as they traveled through the dense woods surrounding them. The communications officer held the child in his servo, gently cupping her to his chest platings as Lazerbeak scouted ahead for any danger.

While this was meant to be an energon mission, the silent mech thoughts were not on the tasks at hand. He was wondering what would happen next. It was obvious his master knew he was hiding something, and while Megatron did not know it was the human he was hiding, he would find out sooner than later.

And then Soundwave would be powerless against his master's wrath. 

Of course, he could play it off as the human being a tool of importance. Somehow convince Megatron that she was worth keeping. But then she would be under the merciless control of the warlord himself. Soundwave shuddered at the thought, mentally shaking his helm as he continued to walk.

He couldn't let his master near the femme.

Despite only knowing her for a month, he felt connected to her. 

At first, he was uncertain about his dreams. The human child in his dreams was nothing short of his imagination. Yet after a week, the dreams became less blurry and it was clear to him that the femme was this child now in his servos. 

How she came to be in his dreams, he was not sure. The only thing clear to him was that she had endured some kind of horrific event in her life. One that brought her close to death. 

Soundwave knew the girl was curious, as he spoke too much in his dreams. They would switch from images of the girl to his own past- when he watched Optimus Prime slay his Sire in cold energon. Then dumping him into a scraplet pit and watching him get eaten from the inside out. 

Without thinking, he clenched his servos, making the little human squeak and yelp in pain. Immediately, he loosened his grip and stared down at her. She squirmed at the pain in her ribs, slowly trying to adjust herself before looking up at him.

At first, she was full of questions. Where were they going? What was happening? Did she do something wrong? Was he going to kill her? 

After she finally realized he was not going to answer, Lynlee lay in silence and stared ahead of them. Into the trees. Wondering where they were heading. Soundwave, despite it being his nature, seemed to be quieter than usual. 

He did not speak to her in recordings, or even acknowledge her presence at first. Simply walked further into the wilderness, knocking down trees here and there. This place reminded her of home. So many trees and animals. Nothing but absolute quiet.

When she was younger, Lynlee always wondered what it would have been like to live in the city. Her father used to tell her about the city-how loud and crowded it was. How rude some of the people could be. 

It sounded like a nightmare really. But now she wondered if it was just a scare tactic her father had made- trying to keep Lynlee and her mother deep in the forest with him. The girl shuddered at the thought, quickly biting her trembling lip and trying to move her thoughts to something more peaceful.

Instead, she found her thoughts moving towards her previous dream. That was the worst it had been. First, her nights were plagued with images of her father beating down on her, and the cold nights when she wondered why he kept her or her mother alive. 

Then, they shifted to that pit of angry metal monsters that ate away at her flesh. 

Until finally, it came to Megatron.

His hands moving down her body. Feeling every curve and biting at her skin. Telling her that it was useless fighting him. In those dreams, she always wondered where Soundwave was and if he was safe. Where her sparkmate was at. Why he didn't save her.

It was strange, how she felt so much like a different person in those dreams. 

It had taken her a while to talk herself into it, and she worried that she would break the peace that the two were walking in, but she had to find some answers. Or, at least, get to know the silent robot. If she was going to be staying with him, maybe forever if he wasn't planning on killing her, she wanted to get to know him.

Soundwave didn't hear her at first when she spoke, but at her second attempt, Lynlee finally got the tall robots attention.

"S-soundwave?" she began timidly.

The communications officer flinched at suddenly hearing her voice, but quickly pushed his sudden alarm aside and looked down on her. He could sense the little humans fear as she stared into his dark visor, but ignored it. 

"Do you want to play-" she paused, coughing in embarrassment and looking everywhere but him, "do you want to play a game?" 

Everything was silent as Soundwave paused his walking. A game? The two were possibly going to be offlined soon and she wanted to play a human game? 

"Soundwave... s-superior... games, inf-ferior." 

Lynlee furrowed her eyebrows as he continued walking again. Of course, she was pushing her luck, but she knew he didn't want to kill her. If so, he would have done it by now. With a sigh, she bit her bottom lip in nervousness before trying again.

"It's called twenty questions. A lot of people play to get to know each other." 

Sounwave did not stop this time, but immediately looked up this "Twenty Questions". After gathering information for a few minutes, he let out a silent vent. When he did not object again, Lynlee nervously began.

"So...I guess I'll start first. Where did you come from?" 

"Cybertron." 

Cyber who now? Lynlee grasped her throbbing side and moved again so she could look straight up at the robot. "Cybertron? Is that where you lived before you came to earth?"

Soundwave tried to push away his irritation as she immediately began to break the game's rules. "My... P-planet Cybertron." 

"Oh." Lynlee forced herself not to stutter and glanced up at him again. "Your turn." 

And so, despite his reluctance, Soundwave continued the game.