A Tale From Cybertron: Impulse

Disclaimer: I own nothing, thank you.

It was a rare mutation in a mech's personal coding that resulted in a telepath like him. In a society that despised changes and anything out of the ordinary, Soundwave found himself neglected and ignored amidst his own people. Even as a Sparkling, people around him looked with accusing optics, cursing him in silence for the ability he did not wish to be endowed with. Because of this, Soundwave thought his telepathy as a curse...

...until he met Megatron.

The ex-miner had explained that in his conquest to eradicate the statics of Cybertronian people, a mech like Soundwave, a telepath, was a valuable asset. For the first time in his life, Soundwave felt appreciated. He felt needed. He felt important. So he joined the Decepticon, willingly serving Megatron's cause even though sometimes he found the leader's method a little too radical for his liking. Still he remained silence for the loyalty he had nurtured towards Megatron was undying, unchallenged by even his own logics. Megatron was the reason he managed to escape from a life full with humiliation.

Then, Megatron had ordered for the capture of specific mechs. They were Sparklings, all five of them. Soundwave obeyed even though his Sparks cried out as they were handed to Shockwave, one of the Decepticon seniors he was working with. The horror he felt was almost unbearable when his telepathy detected the Sparklings' innocent minds faded as their physical bodies were destroyed. Their Sparks, which were left unharmed, were then transferred to newly-forged protoforms, each already programmed with the alt-mode of a cassette. When whatever lingering memories in the Sparks were erased, and the protoforms grew up enough, Megatron had given the reincarnated Sparklings – now called as the Casetticons – to Soundwave to be his minions. The telepathic mech fell linstantly in love with the creations, no matter how abominable their births had been. These were lives of whom he was responsible to and he vowed to give them what he in his younger orns was denied from. He could not give Laserbeak, Ravage, Ratbat, Rumble and Frenzy a world of peace, for they were created to serve a war's cause, but at least he could care them, give them attention, spare them love he had never felt himself.

For this gift alone, Megatron had now become Soundwave's whole world.

It was the only way of life that Soundwave knew. He was content to be in the Decepticon faction. Megatron was no fatherly figure, but it was as close to a Creator that Soundwave would ever have.
  
One orn though, Soundwave discovered that sometimes, there were things that even the wisest mech could not foresee.

The starting point of it all was the death of Sentinel Prime. Megatron had made sure that he personally ripped the Autobot leader's Spark out of its chamber and squeezed it into a lump of lifelessness. He wanted to claim leadership in all totality, that he was the strongest to sit on Sentinel's throne and was worthy of the title. However, there was a flaw in Megatron's otherwise brilliant plan – Sentinel had no named successor, but when he was de-activated, the Matrix of Leadership, the proof of his title, was not with him anymore. Thus, only one conclusion could be derived from this event – that Sentinel had passed the Matrix, along with his leadership, to someone else. Someone Megatron was yet to know.

Someone who was later known as Optimus Prime.

When the new Autobot Commander's identity was discovered by Megatron, he had ordered Soundwave to carry out a reconnaissance mission, to use his telepathic ability to find out what ordinary spies could not. He was to delve into Optimus's mind and search for any weakness that Megatron could use against the new Prime. As usual, soundwave did not object to the order given and went off with his Casetticons dormant in his chest cavity, ready to be called upon should his need of them arise.  Soundwave was blessed with luck that orn for he found Optimus Prime strolling just outside the Autobot stronghold of Iacon, alone and unaccompanied.  At the first sight of him, Soundwave gasped, his surprise was so overwhelming that he almost failed to maintain his anti-gravity systems and remained in flight.

Optimus Prime was a huge mech with a face constantly concealed behing silvery-gray battle-mask so that only his royal-blue optics showed above it. He has a rather bold colour scheme; blue was his helm, and so were his servos and lower leg-sections. His thighs were strikingly white while his chest-piece was of brilliant red. Against the orange walls of Iacon, Optimus displayed himself boldly to any watching optics, including Soundwave's, though he was not aware of the image he unwittingly prsented with his exotic colourations. But that was not the source of Soundwave's extreme reactions. Rather, it was Optimus Prime's mind.

What Soundwave felt was a mentality whose nature was too alien to him, as exotic as the way the owner looked, as proud as his stance suggested. The new Autobot leader was the complete opposite of Soundwave's own leader; in both of their minds, Soundwave caught the hint of pride, but Megatron's was more violent, a rush of superiority swirling constantly in his processors where else the pride in Optimus was stemmed from the confidence in his abilities, subtle enough to let his humbleness ruled his personality but intense enough to command others' respects. There was sorrow too in him but Soundwave was unable to exactly pinpoint its cause – Optimus mourned of many things, it seemed; Sentinel's death, the war consuming his beloved Cybertron, the fates of friends and associates and even...even his ascension to leadership.  And yet...residing underneath layers of sadness was a penetrating ray of hope, a dream to see that Cybertron was restored to its previous glory and to see peace existing between Autobot and Dcepticon.

Why?

Why mourned for something you should be happy with? Why did Optimus Prime let such small things bothered his processors? Why dream when everything seemed bleak enough in the Autobot's prospect? Why peace between factions when genocide of the enemies would logically result in a more stable society?

Why?

"Pray and tell me, Optimus Prime," Soundwave said – and said mech looked up to see a Decepticon hovering some 20 Cybertronian feet above him.

Soundwave's CPU stalled for a nanoklik; in his fascination of catching glimpses of Optimus's thoughts, he had not realized that his body had drifted closer and closer, down towards the Autobot leader as instinctive hunger for more consumed him. The proximity had allowed his voice to be heard by the enemy, and now, he would pay for his carelessness.

"Decepticon," Optimus might have as well spat behind his battle-mask but Soundwave could not be sure. His voice was deep with a little growling finish, yet Soundwave could tell that in his peaceful moments it would instead sounded soothing. His telepathy wavered a little as fear coursed through him, but when it was re-stabilized, Soundwave was driven into further shock when Optimus's feelings flared and his mind intensified enough for his telepathy to catch without even trying. The calm mind was now in turbulence, roiling with heated anger and venomous hatred that Soundwave was paralyzed momentarily under the pure intensity of it.

Suddenly, the serene-looking Iacon came to life. Soldiers ran about in preparation to attack while security system was at full functioning capacity. Looking down, he saw that Optimus had sub-spaced a half-arm-long laser gun of which its business end was pointed at him. Soundwave spared not an astrosecond longer and whirled around, gunshots hot behind him as he fled away at the highest speed he could achieve. He dodged each shot with surprising acrobatic movements for a ground-scheme model that none managed to hit its mark. Up, up away he rose until grey Cybertronian clouds were beneath him and solid ground was faintly visible when seen through the layers of clouds. Only then did Soundwave dare to pause for a little rest and cycled an air of relief through his intakes.

What happened just now was a mistake that could easily be the end of him, yet what crossed his CPU first and foremost was how little control he had over his vocalizer's toning. He was surprised at the desperation and admiration he had allowed bleeding into his voice – no doubt his optics would have brightened and dimmed just as his voice rose and fell. Just now, Soundwave had found how very extreme his reactions were when powerful emotions had him – as a telepath, he could not afford displaying his mental states to others. It opened an opportunity to manipulate the manipulators when it was him who was supposed to be in control. It was a failure that Megatron, his idol, would not easily tolerate, if he ever could.  He had to find a way to keep his expressions from showing if he wanted to keep Megatron's trust in him.

Yes, a mask like Optimus's, Soundwave thought to himself. All the time he had spied on the Autobot Commander, Soundwave would have not been able to discern his emotions had he had not his telepathy as his secret weapon. A mask would do nicely, a mask that would conceal his expressions as well as levelling his voice into emotionless monotone.  A visor would hide whatever emotions his optics might have shown, he concluded as he flew back towards the Decepticon fortress.

Besides his emotional truthfulness, though, there was something else that bothered him. Having contacted Optimus Prime's mind, Soundwave resolved that he would never, ever, attempted similar things again. Such drastic change in the mental states was something he could not get used to; one moment, Optimus was calm; next thing he knew, the Autobot Commander was as furious the brewing of acid-hurricanes. Optimus Prime's fluidity baffled him like nothing else could. Like water, it could be mirror-still and peaceful.  It could be an ocean at full rage in monsoon storms; It could be shallow with every touch inducing visible ripple of emotions, or it could have depth that might have been able to fill the Cybertron's core, concealing thoughts and secrets revealed only to those worthy of knowing it; it could be bitter like distilled water, or it could taste as sweet as high-graded energon – And like high-grades, once you take a sip, you would be gripped by the need of it forever, unable to break free even though you wanted to escape.

He knew that he was doomed from thereon; Soundwave had had his taste of Optimus Prime's mind, and like a mech who was the prisoner of his own craving for high-grades, so too were Soundwave becoming a prisoner of his addiction for his supposedly-enemy's mind...