Starscream/Soundwave/Shockwave friendship/co-conspirators fic
If he’d stopped to think about it beforehand, Soundwave would have expected that the hardest part of starting a mutinous conspiracy would be convincing himself that he wanted to help Starscream to overthrow Megatron. Certainly, convincing himself had been the slowest part. Convincing Shockwave had been much faster.
But no—it turned out that the trickiest bit was convincing Starscream that he wanted to overthrow Megatron.
After everything Starscream had been through, perhaps that wasn’t surprising.
Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave meet to conspire against Megatron—and it dawns on Soundwave that even now, his first instinct is still to unfairly judge Starscream.
It’s high time he unlearn that knee jerk reaction.
Got commissioned to write a follow-up to chapter 1. I’m trying to write these chapters so that they each stand alone and so that they don’t need a sequel, so feel free to hop in if you didn’t read chapter 1.
“And where are you going?”
At Megatron’s growl, Soundwave looked away from his workstation toward the brewing conflict.
Starscream froze halfway across the walkway to the Nemesis bridge’s exit, shoulders hunched fearfully and wings trembling; then he spun around to face Megatron, wings snapping down against his back, knees bent to make himself smaller, hands curled over his chest. “I was—just—I was simply—I was going to assist Shockwave! With—with the things he… needs assistance with.”
Soundwave fought the urge to shake his head in disappointment. One sentence and Starscream was already collapsing like a tin foil table. And he’d brought Shockwave’s name into things.
“A likely story!” Megatron snarled, advancing on Starscream. Soundwave stayed at his station, watching, recording how Megatron’s plates loosened and separated to broaden his shoulder width, how Starscream’s pulled in tight as he shrank.
“I-it’s true! I swear it, master!” Starscream took a hesitant, jerky step back, torn between backing from Megatron and not making it look like he was trying to flee toward the exit. “Ask Shockwave yourself! He’ll confirm it!”
Megatron paused, then snorted, turning heavily so one foot scraped loudly on the bridge’s walkway. Starscream cringed at the sound. Soundwave maintained his stoic posture.
“Comm Shockwave,” Megatron snapped, not even glancing at Soundwave. Without looking away from Megatron or Starscream, Soundwave activated his console via hardline cable.
Soundwave could see Shockwave appear as he answered the comm, both through the cable and through his own optics as he viewed Megatron’s console at an angle. Shockwave nodded slightly. “Lord Megatron. What do you require?”
“Nothing at the moment,” Megatron said, much of the growl in his voice smoothed out, his tone almost light. With a gesture, he coldly instructed Starscream to remain back and out of view. (Soundwave should have directed Shockwave’s call to a console that would have shown a clear view of the whole bridge, Starscream included.) “Rather, I’m calling to ask what you need. Do you currently require any assistance in your lab?”
One of Shockwave’s finials flicked in confusion, but his steady gaze never wavered. “No.”
Starscream flinched. He opened his mouth to protest, but was silenced without getting a syllable out by another sharp gesture of Megatron’s hand.
Megatron laughed humorlessly. “No? Interesting!” He turned threateningly toward Starscream.
(If you enjoy the fic, I’d appreciate a reblog or a comment, either here or on AO3!)
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