While Shockwave would have been greatly torn between his former lord and his current friend, staying with Soundwave was a far more rewarding and secure decision.

“Cybertron will remember me for what I am. If you want peace, it would be best to cut me out of the restoration.”

He simply wasn’t known for any of his advances in medicine. The CPP would be remembered as an interrogation tool. Shockwave was well aware of his reputation. He didn’t regret it in the slightest, but it would not help restore peace.

“However there is no reason why you cannot call on me should you need me.”

Cybertron will remember me for what I am.

It was something that Megatron found himself thinking about more and more often. It was all too clear how he would be remembered, but so long as he was victorious, it was something he felt he could handle. Still, he could understand Shockwave’s point. He lay a servo on the engineer’s shoulder pauldron for a brief moment.

“I will likely need to take you up on that. There is no parallel to what your mind and skill has afforded me over the years." The Decepticon leader took a few steps away, giving him space once more.

"I cannot extend the same to your… chosen company, but you would be welcomed back should the occasion arise.”

shockwave-prime:

That caution had been one of the many reasons he’d chosen to follow Megatron. Too many in the Pits had been too rash to achieve anything. He was quiet as he thought of a way to answer the question.

“Your caution is wise. I am aware of what I am capable of. With proper motivation, I could be a serious threat.”

“Under normal circumstances, the most effective way to ensure that I do not turn on you would be to simply kill me. However, one I have come to associate with would likely seek revenge, and regardless of whether or not his attempts would be successful, at the very least they would interfere with your work.”

“I bear no ill will towards you." Perhaps a slight fondness. "To act as a hostile towards you and your goals would be to waste the majority of my life’s effort. Even I do not care to have the war be for nothing. It is my intention to make this my final visit. I would return to the Earth where I have taken residence and fade.”

Shockwave was right, of course. If he and Soundwave’s alternate had grown close, the traitor would stop at nothing to enact his revenge. Megatron was not afraid of such a challenge to his person, but he was fully aware of how much damage Soundwave could do to with a few lines of code uploaded to the Nemesis’ systems. Punishing a single deserter when the war was so close to finishing was hardly worth the trouble. Especially when Shockwave was being so Pit-damned reasonable. The warlord’s vents made a sound not quite like a sigh.

“It is not my wish for you to fade along with your intellect on some distant world. Cybertron will need as many engineers as possible to get even a single city restored to something like it once was. I would have liked for you to be among them.”

♥

The battles were getting harder, Megatronus couldn’t deny. He’d lost vision in an optic this time, his left shoulder pauldron, and there was a sizable chunk missing from his side, the vent there torn open. Still, the gladiator had refused to be carried out for medical treatment, stubbornly stalking to the surgeon on his own free will, jaw set against the pain. The alerts were increasing in number as he continued to strain his systems to push aside the heavy door to the repair bay.

A purple form was bent over an operating table, back turned to Megatronus. He turned his helm to look over his shoulder as best he could, giving the warrior a glimpse of his… “face” would be the wrong word. Megatronus had seen empurata victims before, and the sight softened his gaze in understanding. The doctor’s appearance had distracted him from the latest alert flashing in his HUD…

And Shockwave turned, his chest paneling lit from underneath the dark panes of glass. Red. He looked down to see the same hue through his one functioning optic.

“…It would appear that I am in need of… medical attention.”

shockwave-prime:

mighty-megatron:

Coming from anyone else, the insinuation that treason against him, no matter the situation, had been necessary would be enough to send Megatron into a tirade at best- at worst, a swift execution. But Shockwave, regardless of loyalty, valued logic above all else. His judgement was often cold, but always grounded in fact. If Shockwave truly believed that his alternate was undeserving of his power, there was a sound reason.

That the scientist had made the point that Megatron was worth following eased a bit of suspicion, but for all he knew, that was a calculated statement as well. Shockwave said nothing without purpose.

“And now my survival is evident. What, then, keeps you from returning?”

“I have told you. I am no longer fit for duty.”

He had been sincere when he said Megatron was worth following, but he had no attachments to his universe anymore. He could disappear quietly.

“I pride myself in logical thinking, but as of late I have found myself more susceptible to manipulation. While you are worth following, I no longer care for the cause. I hear you have found suitable replacements for me, and without passion for it, my work often drags to a halt. I would be a greater drain on resources than I would be worth.”

“I could not be trusted as my loyalty would be questionable. If I were in a position under your command, and if I felt as though I had to use force to leave, I could damage your army. I do not wish this, and so I have not returned. I do not intend to return.”

“For my prior service I ask for dismissal.”

It almost sounded self-deprecating, and that made sense. Shockwave’s place in his army had been a crucial one, and if he felt himself truly unable to perform the duty he had dedicated much of his life to, even the most stoic mech could be made melancholy.

This, however, was not Megatron’s concern.

“And what would you do if I were to give you leave, Shockwave? How am I to be certain that I will not find myself on the receiving end of your ingenuity in the future? Do forgive the insinuation, but if I were not so cautious, I would have perished long ago.”

shockwave-prime:

“I did not join the Decepticons for them.”

Shockwave did not raise his voice, but his response was given the moment Megatron hesitated.

“My reasons have always been selfish. Yes I served under the same banner as the ‘treacherous’ Soundwave, but I doubt you understand his supposed treachery. You are not the same as his Megatron. You are worth following. Your alternate needed to be euthanized. Soundwave acted in his own interests and the interests of his home universe. Were the warlord anyone else, you would no doubt praise him for the mutiny.”

His winglets dipped ever so slightly.

“I could not return to serve a dead mech. Regardless, I am no longer fit for duty.”

Coming from anyone else, the insinuation that treason against him, no matter the situation, had been necessary would be enough to send Megatron into a tirade at best- at worst, a swift execution. But Shockwave, regardless of loyalty, valued logic above all else. His judgement was often cold, but always grounded in fact. If Shockwave truly believed that his alternate was undeserving of his power, there was a sound reason.

That the scientist had made the point that Megatron was worth following eased a bit of suspicion, but for all he knew, that was a calculated statement as well. Shockwave said nothing without purpose.

“And now my survival is evident. What, then, keeps you from returning?”

shockwave-prime:

“As should be expected. My mind is a great asset."

Shockwave knew when someone was attempting to guilt him. That was not a chink in his armor.

"I had no way to either contact or even locate the Nemesis. There was no evidence to suggest the rubble of the space bridge had even been swept. A careless error in neglecting resources.”

There was a moment before he continued. He wanted his points to be separate.

“Yes you forged on, once again without me. Once again I was left to the rubble. When the Autobots took the Nemesis, when you apparently died, when all there was left was Starscream, I did the only logical thing. I went to where there was the most opportunity. My communications frequency has remained the same. I did not make it a secret where I was. Yet only now when I come to this Cybertron for entirely unrelated reasons do you contact me.”

“Yes, you made no secret of it. No secret that you left our faction for another universe, taking up under the same banner as that treacherous alternate of Soundwave’s. Was I meant to assume that you would return?” His arms folded behind his back, still gazing forward.

“Without me, without command of any kind, the eradicons were left at the mercy of the Autobots. Luckily they were able to forge their own escape, but these soldiers were promised a better future, not to be abandoned to more of the same slavery they faced before the war. I was nearly dead, Soundwave was trapped in another realm, and even Starscream has been aiding them in rebuilding! You should not have left!” His servos tremble slightly behind his back, and he tries to remain calm. Damnable spark.

–

shockwave-prime:

“Contemplating.”

Shockwave feeling guilty? Pah. Maybe. Just a little. But not for abandoning Megatron.

“I lost many important projects in this lab.”

“And nearly your life. I forget how long we believed your spark been had extinguished here, destroyed along with so much vital information. Yet we forged ahead as best we could, and when you decided to make your presence known, you were welcomed back with gratitude.”

He let his words hang in the air, accusation unspoken.

shockwave-prime:

mighty-megatron:

Soundwave had shared with him an unusual transmission. A space bridge, from neither the one beneath their pedes or the Nemesis. At the location of one of Shockwave’s laboratories. Determining the identity of the life signal present there now was merely a formality: Megatron knew who it had to be.

He ordered Soundwave to remain behind, while he navigated the extensive tunnels beneath the planet’s surface alone. By the time the location was reached, the sun had set on the desolate scene. The warlord emerged from below without the cloak he had used previously; no Autobots were in the area to recognize him, and concealing himself at all seemed needless. He would speak to Shockwave as himself.

If he had heard Megatron approach, he did not give any indication.

However, he was not deaf, and he certainly wasn’t stupid. The warlord’s arrival was far from surprising, but it was not ideal, and while there were plenty of things to say, plenty of ways to acknowledge Megatron’s presence, Shockwave remained still and silent.

The warlord’s heavy pedefalls were simply not something one missed. So why didn’t he turn? Out of guilt, perhaps? Remorse? There were any number of reasons and Megatron couldn’t yet tell which resided in the stoic scientist’s spark. But he would not have come here without a shield if he did not expect to be found.

And found, he had been. The Decepticon leader stepped forward again, behind and to the side of Shockwave, observing the same wreckage that the engineer’s optic appeared to rest on.

“Revisiting the past, Shockwave?”

shockwave-prime:

For reasons Shockwave knows but will not share, he opens a space bridge to his home Cybertron.

He does not inform Soundwave or Starscream. He does not tell his humans where he’s going. He does not tell his predacons he’s leaving.

Since early in the Earth morning he stands in the rubble of his old lab in the dark of the Cybertronian dusk.

There’s not much left. Not after detonating the major power sources.

Still he stands in the ruble, a spot in the rubble that holds meaning only to him now.

Soundwave had shared with him an unusual transmission. A space bridge, from neither the one beneath their pedes or the Nemesis. At the location of one of Shockwave’s laboratories. Determining the identity of the life signal present there now was merely a formality: Megatron knew who it had to be.

He ordered Soundwave to remain behind, while he navigated the extensive tunnels beneath the planet’s surface alone. By the time the location was reached, the sun had set on the desolate scene. The warlord emerged from below without the cloak he had used previously; no Autobots were in the area to recognize him, and concealing himself at all seemed needless. He would speak to Shockwave as himself.