Soundwave is furious.

A door of light is opened in your little prison box, and your optics squint in response to the sudden light, only for a familiar shadow to appear in the doorway.

Your new frame is still getting used to its new size and weight, as well as your new Cassette alt mode that Shockwave modified your frame to have instead of your old Autobot alt mode.

Because of this, you stumble back a bit as Soundwave walks closer, closing the door to the box behind him and slumping to the floor beside you, pulling you inyo his lap with a shaky ex-vent.

"My Cassette." Soundwave mutters, his vocaliser almost unintelligible behind his mask as his grip on you tightens.

He doesn't turn the lights on, and keeps tracing your shoulders, something you've figured out he does when he wants to pretend that you're Rumble or Frenzy.

The loss of all of his original Cassettes drove the Deception insane, kidnapping you from the Autobots cycles ago to try and help him cope.

Originally, you'd been allowed to wander around under supervision, but after the surgery to change your alt mode, Soundwave became far more irritable, coming up with reasons to keep you locked in your box and pushing sheer terror at you through the Symbiote bond.

A thought slips through the symbiote bond he forced, and you suddenly realise why Soundwave is so full of rage today, why he came to see you properly instead of just watching you through the cameras and dropping off Energon cubes.

On the field, he faced off against Blaster, the Autobot Cassette Player who still has his own cassettes.

"He's gloating... Blaster knows full well that I only have you left."

Soundwave's servos tighten around you to the point of pain. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Frenzy."

That's not your name.

And then it clicks. He's not forcing terror on you to make you stay and behave, that's just his own fear of losing you like how he lost Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy and Laserbeak, seeping through the bond like spoiled Energon.