Ooooh, Lil backstory coming up :]
Thousands of years ago, before the fall of Cybertron
Soundwave sat and glared at the floor. He hated the noise around him. He hated all the medics rushing around. He hated everyone and everything in the world right now.
Well, except for the Panther curled around his pedes and the small chick he had cradled in his arms. Laserbeak and Ravage were all he loved. There had been one other, his carrier, but he knew she was gone thanks to the ache still throbbing in his spark. His slag helm of a sire was probably crying over her dead body in the room down the hall like he didn't hit and abuse her basically every day. Soundwave despised him and the fact he looked almost exactly like the violent mech and nothing like the kind and gentle femme that had just left them.
But there was also one being he despised more right now.
He could hear its cries in the room behind him. More focused on keeping the carrier alive, the sparkling she'd just brought into the world had been left alone, bawling its lungs out after they made sure it was healthy.
Soundwave clutched his arm, the noise from that thing gritting into his helm. He hated it, he loathed it and wanted it gone. The birth had killed his carrier, and it was the murderer.
Finally, he had enough.
Ravage looked up as the navy teen stood and walked into the room, soon following as he felt like he knew what was going to happen.
Soundwave stood over the crib, looking down darkly at the sparkling that tossed and turned inside it, shrieking for someone but only he and his symbiotes heard it. Like him, it bore more resemblance to the mech who made his life hell, just giving him more reason to proceed. Ravage gave a warning growl to his young master but he was ignored.
To Soundwave, this thing was just a burden on the family. All it did was take. It couldn't get money like he could, it couldn't fend for itself like he could. And it most definitely wouldn't be able to survive like he could.
He found himself unhooking the tentacles under his chassis watching them creep over the rails and into the small box, towards the child inside it. It would probably be killed sooner or later. This was Kaon after all. It was no place for the weak.
Only the strong could survive.
And this thing was inferior to him.
The appendages reared up, poised over its spark and starting to spin. He would end it, right here, right now. He didn't care what the consequences were. He just wanted to avenge his carrier, the only bot who'd loved him.
But the sound of drilling that the tentacles made caught the child's attention. It opened its large optics and looked up, tears still soaking its face. The small helm turned and looked at him, their optics locking for the first time.
And Soundwave felt his frame go numb.
It was those optics. Those optics seemed far too big for something so small. The sparkling was dull from just being born but those optics shone like stars, the same swirling blue and purple as the ones he'd look into when he lay on his carrier's lap as she stroked his helm and gently sang to him.
This sparkling had her exact optics.
The longer he looked, he finally realized that it was a femme as well. The color was slowly leeching into her frame from being hooked up to a small energon tub by her arm. It was turquiose as well... like his carrier.
Soundwave let out a sob and fell to his knees, the tentacles also going limp and falling next to the child. His helm fell and he stared at his shaking servos. He couldn't take her life. How could he? How seconds ago, was he prepared to end the little femme next to him? That would mean... that would mean he was just like his sire.
His helm leaned forward and banged against the crib as he started crying, tears running thickly down his face. Who was he kidding? He wasn't a killer. Sure, he'd ended the lives of monsters he was made to fight in order to get money but he did that for a cause. This, was for his own selfish gain.
Ravage and Laserbeak both nuzzled him, trying to cheer him up as he cried just like the sparkling had. He wouldn't end up like his sire! He refused to be like him! This child didn't end his carriers life, he did! Soundwave had just been too blind to see that this little femme was innocent. It wasn't her fault she'd been born.
The teen was dragged out of his thoughts when he felt his tentacles being picked up and a strange feeling came over them. He lifted his helm to see the sparkling had stopped crying and now... she was laughing, a sound he didn't even think was possible.
She'd grabbed one of his tentacles in her tiny servos and was snuggling it. Out from under her chassis, small hatches had popped open to reveal her own small set of appendages. They were so much smaller and delicate but wrapped around him tightly. She rubbed her chubby cheek against it, finally looking happy and peaceful with a small smile on her face.
He'd tried to kill her, yet she loved him. There was no denying the feeling he felt seeping through the bond forming between them. She could feel he was her older brother. She didn't even know his name more or less her own, yet the unconditional love coming from this child washed over him like a river.
Soundwave forced himself to his pedes, leaning on the rails for support. He hurriedly wiped his face and then leaned down. The sparkling looked at him curiously as he gently picked her up, treating her like she was made of glass. His free tentacle wrapped around the base of the energon drip she was connected to and brought it over as he sat down on the berth.
Ravage hopped up and sat behind him while Laserbeak peered from his shoulder. 'You're beautiful.' Soundwave whispered down to the sparkling, using his thumb to rub her cheek. She smiled up at him. He doubted she understood what he was saying, but she knew from the tone of his voice.
The small femme reached up for him so he brought her closer. Upon going where she wanted, small arms latched on around his neck and she snuggled into him, giving the cutest yawn before closing her optics and almost instantly falling asleep.
Soundwave looked over at her medical files on the table next to them. Their carrier had lived long enough to name her.
'I'm sorry, Enigma,' Soundwave whispered, holding her tightly and rubbing her small back as she quietly slept, 'I promise as your big brother that from now on, I won't let anything happen to you.'
Months later——————
Happiness had returned to Soundwave's life as quickly as it had left him. Money was still a priority to him, but now, Enigma had taken its spot as his top thing. To him, it was worth the hours spent dragging his berth across the house and into her room so he could keep an eye on her. Every energon cube he denied himself to give to her was like the most precious gift he could offer.
He didn't care he was hungry. All that mattered to him was his little sister.
But there was still the issue of paying for food for her.
Sure his sire paid the bills for the house and for electricity, but after his carrier's death he'd just started drinking more so even the luxury of lights had been denied from the two youngsters. So, Soundwave did what he could to buy enough to sustain the small femme.
He fought monsters in the Pits to entertain the crowds and most nights would come home, dripping in energon and in a world of pain, but he'd get shanix for surviving in the arena and so could bring back food, always just in time to feed little Enigma.
Still, she'd had to also get used to the fact she didn't get as much as a growing sparkling needed as well as her big brother wasn't around most of the time. He did leave Ravage and Laserbeak to look after her, but most of the time, she wanted him.
That was just the life you had to get used to in Kaon.
One night, Soundwave got home late as usual, his arm completely dislocated from its socket and hanging uselessly by his side, every swing sending jolts of pain to his frame while rain poured down and soaked him. But he grit his dentas and held the cube of energon closer, pushing the front door open and walking in.
He didn't even have to sneak, his sire passed out on the couch with a cube of high-grade dangling from his servos and leaking all over the floor. He scowled at it and walked through the house to the nursery, shutting the door as he went in.
Enigma immediately turned when he came in and started making grabby hands at him, wanting to be picked up desperately, her pouted lip showing that. Seeing her always made the pain seem to fade. Soundwave chuckled and put the cube down on his berth before reaching into her crib and taking the sparkling out. Laserbeak hopped onto his arm as well and Ravage jumped out.
The navy teen basically fell onto the floor against his berth in his exhaustion. One of his tentacles came out and grabbed the cube, holding it up for her to feed on. They didn't even have any bottles for her so it had taken quite a while to get her adjusted to drinking like this.
But she gulped it down happily and he leaned his helm back, closing his optics as he let her feed.
There was a sharp growl from Ravage and he snapped awake, just as his tentacle had started drooping and he'd almost spilled the blue liquid onto her. Enigma had almost finished the cube, her little belly bulging slightly from having a proper meal and she looked drowsy, swaying as her optics fluttered.
Spudnwave smiled at her softly, gingerly standing up before walking over to her crib and putting her down in it, Laserbeak hopping down into it as well and snuggled her, the sparkling hugging him close.
Soundwave groaned from pain and sat down on his berth, finishing off the last of the energon before lying down. Ravage lay down next to him, letting the teen rest his arm on his back to ease some of the pain. Soundwave quietly thanked him, curling around his symbiote and hugging him tightly before drifting off as well.
...
He wasn't sure what woke him. Maybe it was the creak of the door, maybe it was the faint breeze caused by someone moving through the room. Still, Soundwave opened his optics tiredly and lifted his helm.
He could see the lanky figure in the room, standing over the crib and looking down into it. He felt his optics widen when he saw that the face of his sire held the same expression he had once when looking at his sister.
He felt frozen, watching the figure look down at the little sleeping femme with a dark expression. He saw his servos come up and reached down, not to her frame but specifically to her neck, twitching the closer they got.
In an instant, Soundwave sprang into action, all tiredness gone from his systems as he realized Enigma was in danger. Their sire was drunk and about to take her small life. He yelled out and lept clear over the crib, tackling the bigger mech away.
He yelled and flailed around at his sudden attacker, trying to find a grip on his son but Soundwave knew better. Using his tentacles, he grabbed the older mech and flung him across the room.
He'd had enough, his own fragmented memories of the times he'd woken up to see the exact same face looming over him, servos out to his neck of chassis. But his carrier wasn't there to calm him anymore. He'd kill his own children without even thinking now.
Yelling to Ravage, Soundwave sprinted to the crib and grabbed his sister who was still holding onto Laserbeak. His tentacle wrapped around her and his arm, securing her in place so she wouldn't fall as he ran out of the room and house, into the rain that came down in torrents.
He could hear his sire yelling behind him but he didn't look back, instead just running as quickly as he could, away from the house with Ravage by his side. The cold shock of the rain had woken Enigma and she started wailing in his arms but all he could do was try to cover her with his tentacles, not even able to grab her blanket in the scramble.
Soundwave was unsure for how long he ran for. The streets morphed into each other and dulled his sense of time and place till he no longer knew here he was. His sire would surely be looking for them in the morning, but they weren't going back to that place.
Finally, fatigue overtook him and he collapsed into an alleyway. Ravage grabbed him by one of the spikes on his back and dragged him to the wall where they were sheltered slightly. Enigma had cried herself to sleep again, leaving him alone and in pain.
'Ravage?' Soundwave asked hoarsely, feeling himself get weaker by the second, 'If I don't make it, please take her, find the nicest bot you can and give them my sister. I don't care what they looks like, as long as they have a spark of gold like carrier.
The cat lowered his ears sadly and curled up around the mech, trying to keep him warm in the cold night air. Soundwave didn't even have the strength to pet him, only to look down and acknowledge his lifelong companion one last time.
'Thanks, buddy.' He whispered and closed his optics.
...
The silver mech walked through the rain, down the quiet streets of Kaon. He found it helped ease his mind and recover from whatever fights he had fought in the Pits that day. He didn't mind the downpour, it just added to the sense of tranquility for him.
But he then stopped and looked around, a strange sound reaching his ears. It sounded like a cat howling into the night, the long notes stretched out and shaky, like it was trying to call to the heavens for help.
How was no one else hearing this and coming out to see what was going on? He scoffed. Of course they weren't. This was the society they lived in that he hated, bots too caught up in their own lives to hear the cries of help from others.
But he heard those cries.
The gladiator turned from his path and followed it into a dark alley. There, at the end, he could just make out something on the floor, leaning against the wall. Here, the cries bounced off the walls and echoed around him.
This was the place.
He walked all the way to the end where he could make out the form of a cyberpanther draped over the legs of a mech. This was the source of the howling, the black cat lifting his helm to the sky and crying into the rain over the still figure.
So the silver mech knelt down by them and cleared his throat. The howling immediately stopped and the panther's attention snapped toward him. The plating on his back stood up and he hissed at the bot, his tail curling around the mech he was protecting.
Still, the gladiator looked at the youngster, unconscious as he leaned against the wall. He immediately recognized the frame, having seen this bot fight before. This was one of the youngest gladiators in the arena, marveld for his fighting skills over by older than him. He didn't do any of it for the fame, only taking the money from the bets and placed on him and leaving afterward.
Yet here he was, dying in an alley with no one to help him. The navy mech always fought with a visor but it was still clear that this was him. One thing the older gladiator didn't understand was why a young mech like him needed the money. He should have creators looking after him.
His answer soon came when crying started coming from his arms and the tentacles wrapped around his arm fell slightly, revealing the small femme who had tears mixed with rain streaming down her face as she clutched a small bird-like symbiote.
Not even thinking twice, the gladiator leaned down and picked them both up easily. The cyberpanther seemed to realize he wasn't a threat as he circled his pedes, howling again. The large mech put two digits to the younger one's neck, feeling how weak his pulse was.
He hurried out of the alley and made his way to the nearest hospital, Ravage following behind him quickly as Megatronus held the two siblings close, already preparing in his mind how he'd look after them.