Steve doesn’t comprehend at first what is going on around him. He can’t make sense that the servos preventing him from ripping Shockwave apart are not the mech’s own, and he claws at them just as furiously, trying to strain and reach back for that lone red optic. He doesn’t hear words being said. The only sound filling his audials is a loud, high-pitched ringing. It’s not until he’s been carried out of the room and the purple scientist disappears from view that the haze clears enough for him to realize whose dermal metal he’s trying to rip into.
“My L-lord…”
The rage swelling in his chassis is still there. But now as he’s set back down on the ground the stricken vehicon’s fury is overpowered by the grief. Of what he’s done. Of what Shockwave’s done. Of what can’t be undone.
Megatron’s charge appears to shrink in on himself now. The purple frame, so small compared to the warlord’s, quivers while heavy static rips through his vocalizer.
He is a pathetic sight. He knows his leader must think so too, staring down on his prostrate frame now. But for the first time he can’t be bothered to hide it. Steve lets the coolant pricking at his optics flow freely down his faceplate as his leader addresses him.
Killing Shockwave will not bring him back.
He’s not coming back.
I will never see him again.
There’s not even a frame left for me to sit vigil with. Not even fragment of his armor left I could keep close to my spark.
That thought sends him sobbing even more intensely. Steve is unable to vocalize any of this to his leader. All that he’d been robbed of. All that the deceased mech was to him. All he can to is pound his fist on the ground as another wave of convulsions hits him and wail his misery at the floor.
“K-kenny… Kenny….”
It’s not a pathetic sight, nor is it one that the warlord hasn’t seen thousands of times before. He’s so desensitized to death and the grief of others that he doubts he could feel it for himself anymore. Instead, he leans down to lay a servo on Steve’s back, careful not to get any energon on him. Wouldn’t want to risk infecting a soldier over this.
He’s never been good with crying mechs.
Megatron's back up 