Its no secret that the Decepticon Third in Command has a few screws loose, all Decepticons do.

But since the incident, something inside of Soundwave has shifted. Nobody wants to be caught alone with him, and the empath's EM field has been spiking with nothing but pain and anger, making his outrage and sorrow clear despite his expressionless faceplate.

In the last confrontation between the Decepticons and Autobots, all of Soundwave's cassettebots had perished, leaving him in a state of complete and utter shock that quickly gave way to hatred.

And that's where you come in.

A minibot scout for the Autobots. In his grief-addled processor, you're perfect to fill in for his cassettebots. Small, good at sneaking around and gathering intel.

You can't turn into a cassette, but you'll do until he can figure out what to do.

Blue digits slowly stroke your helm with a little too much force to be considered truly affectionate, but Soundwave seems to be staring into space, replaying the empty cassettes that Shockwave made to help the feeling of emptiness inside of Soundwave's chassis.

His mind feels so empty without the constant chattering of Rumble and Frenzy, his spark feels duller without the symbiote bond of Ravage, and he just feels so alone without Laserbeak.

Sometimes, when Soundwave thinks you're in recharge (he knows you're not; he just can't stop himself), you can hear him replaying recordings of his cassettebots.

While Soundwave's been treating you... Better than you expected, he occasionally calls you by the wrong name or tells you to return despite the fact that you can't.

After he makes those mistakes, he stares at you for a moment, tilts his helm at the Decepticon logo scrawled messily on your chassis, and walks away.

Soundwave himself drew the Decepticon logo over your Autobot one because when Shockwave tried to brand you, he flew into a rage and made it clear that nobody is to lay a digit on you.

The digits stroking your helm stop for a moment, trembling, before resuming.