I'm republishing this because this actually fits in perfectly with what I have planned. Just edited as of 11/3/24

The seemingly forever prisoned mech could only conjure up one question: how?

Nothing could compare to the shock the cybertronian was going through.

The shock of the mech he dedicated his loyalty to, his existence to, end the war by disbanding the Decepticons.

The last of his words burning into his processor, forever a scar;

"I now know the true meaning of oppression. And have thus lost my taste for inflicting it,"

"The Decepticons are no more. And that is final."

After all the suffering they went through, all the countless lives that were lost, all the pain and agony, he just ends it right then and there.

To say the least, he was speechless. Astonished.

The mech simply watched from the sidelines as his former leader transforms and leaves Cybertron.

For once, in many eons, Soundwave didn't know how to react. How should he feel? What should he do? What can he do, what with still being trapped in the shadowzone. His leader, whom had once been a close companion of his from battling in the pits, rose against the counsel, held him as his TIC, and then abandoning him to the shadowzone at the peak of the final battle against the autobots, takes off to the stars...

...

Seeing the Autobots start to converse about about what should be done next, Soundwave
deemed the situation as unknown and decided it would be best to wait before even attempting to find a way out of the shadowzone.

-----------

Days have passed.

Soundwave has kept track of it in the back of his processor. Of how long it has been since the war ended. Of how long it has been since his imprisonment in the shadowzone. 

The drones were working in harmony with the Autobots as they rebuilt Cybertron side by side- not a single drone thinking of going back to war again.

This somehow relieved Soundwave.

And yet...

There was an annoying...thing.

A glitch in his drives perhaps?

Maybe. Unrest?

Perhaps- almost like a need to move, an unrelenting throb in his spark. As if something was missing. 

After a quick analyses of his systems, he came to a result of the cause of the unrest.

A purpose.

He does not have a purpose anymore.

It began with being part of the high council. Cybertron's ruling council. Sitting in the position of one gave him access to almost every single data disk there was in Iacon and more.

Even the ugliest of them.

He soon grew disgusted at Cybertrons decay under the cast system, watching how the lower class suffer simply for the luxury of those more fortunate to be protoformed in a higher class.

It was no mistake that he grew enraged with one of the council members specifically, deeming it his duty to offline him personally in front of the rest, to garner their attention to the unjust of their ways of ruling Cybertron. 

But it was to Kaon where he was banished to, and ultimately a Gladiator in the Pits.

He fought for his life ever cycle with no rest, no peace, and no freedom. As he was confined in the dark rooms in the area, awaiting for his next fight and only able to watch as his rank among the strongest grew, so did his anger for the council.

And it was on that fateful day that he dueled Koan's champion- D16. Megatronous. Soundwave was the first and only mech to ever come close to defeating him in the Pits.

The fight was unlike one he had ever been in.

The use of more strength.

The use of more intelligence.

The use of more cunningness.

The use of more...everything. Every gear, every bend and joint in his body, even ones he had no knowledge of existing in him- all of it was used against him. 

Megatron, then Megatronous, spared him. 

The final blow was never landed, but rather and outstretched hand to pull him from the energon stained grounds, to pull him from the grounds where he and others alike have offline many other bots for the sake of entertainment of those in power. And with the outstretched hand came the optics that saw him, not as one of the previous attending to the councils, but as Soundwave himself. 

It didn't take long before they became close comrades, second to Optimus, but even then that didn't bother him, so long as he was able to be heard, be seen for the injustices that he had once tried to expose to the public, 

and Megatron gave him that opportunity with that outstretched hand. 

They became partners in a rebellion against the councils cast system before close allies in the war. He did agree with Megatron, for many others before have tried to peacefully convince the council of abandoning their ill ways, to divert their way of ruling but all have met bitter ends. So what more then to grieve his anger and vengeance and throw it all back at them? To force them to be under their own control through the oppressive ways many below have been victims to? 

Looking back during the Great War, many things have happened.

Many have perished, many have lost their ways, many have went into hiding, possibly to never come back, and many still grieve. 

Such as his...minico-

Immediately erasing the thought out of his processor, Soundwave looked up at the old destroyed sky scrapers. Seeing a few drones carry a metal beam and walking near the edge. It was inevitable to see the beam would be dropped in a few moments notice, seeing how there was another pair of drones walking towards them also carrying a support beam.

Soundwave watched the scene unravel above him, seeing the two of the drones bumped into each their and one slip off the platform only to grab the edge before they could fall to their doom.

Unfortunately, the support beam the drone was holding fell and landed a few meters from the Autobot wrecker, Bulkhead.

Soundwave almost pitied the wrecker as he groaned in exhaustion. Almost. It wasn't easy when the drones were first manufactured by them in the beginning. 

Continuing his ominous walk across Cybertrons wasteland, he found himself at the entrance of the Nemesis. He knew before he could properly address the pang of unrest in his spark, he had to make sure he tied up any loose ends,

he'll be damned if the shadowzone will stop him from that. 

Beginning his treck up the ramp of the docked Nemesis, he lazily tilts his head up at the sight of a blue, pink pointed helm walking out and towards him, followed by a group of drones. 

He watched them silently walk towards him with servos full of cubed energon, thought none spared a glance at him and simply walked right through him, continuing towards their destination.

To feel a being phase right through his frame wasn't something he deduced he would ever really be comfortable with. 

The treck to the main room felt ominous, even to him now with how quiet the halls were now and how empty and barren the rooms and walkways were without the drones working anymore. He almost would have appreciated the noise the door would have made should it have slide open upon his presence, but alas to be in the shadowzone is to be nonexistent. 

Phasing through the door, he was immediately greeted with the sight of the newly named warrior Autobot, Bumblebee and their field medic, Ratchet.

Seeing them huddled by one of the holo computers and immediately recognizing that it's one of  his own, he took a few large steps towards them and looked over the shoulders of their smaller frames. Seeing the familiar red cybertronian text, he immediately recognized the kind of reading by the few words he read.

Who were they to try to get a read on him? 

Of his person?

Of his past?

No ones goes through any reports of anyone except himself on the Decepticon warship, only he knows everyone and none know him, apart from Megatron and Megatron alone. 

He wanted them to stop. To stop reading what was not theirs to read.

"Are you sure we should be looking at this kind of stuff?" Bumblebee's voice brought him to attention. "I mean, this is his personal information,"

Soundwave paused.

An Autobot? Considering a Decepticons privacy? How ludicrous. 

Ratchet stopping his scrolling and looked at Bumblebee with a raised optic ridge.

My, what a joke...

"Even if he is or was a Decepticon we, well, we don't really know what he'd consider himself now that the war is over- ok off topic. What I'm trying to say is," Bumblebee rambled. "Even if he was our enemy, everyone deserves to have their own past memories to themselves right? I mean, is it really right of us to go looking through his files?"

"Bumblebee," Turning all the way to the said bot, Ratchet continued on. "Even if he was our past enemy, we need to know his full story. Why he joined the Decepticons- why he did the things he did- what else has he done that we don't know about. We need to know who he is. There is too much mystery on just what kind of mech he is. Even Megatron didn't speak much about him." He then turned back to the monitor and resumed his reading along with Bumblebee who reluctantly continued as well.

Soundwave looked at the text as the text kept generating on the screen.

If only he could push them to the side and crash the blasted tech. Or somehow stop the system from continuing to reveal all there was to know about him.

This, this he needed to tie up.

...

Tech...

His mind began to race.

Even if he is unable to interact with anyone physically...what would happen if he tried to access something he was already connected to before he entered the shadowzone? It seemed like a long shot, but truly he had no restraints being in the shadowzone when it came to testing something. 

It was the most freest prison one could truly be in. 

Looking over at the main computer panel in the room, he searched through all of his inner networking's before managing to grasp onto a weak link from the main Decepitcon hub and breaking off other unnecessary links to strengthen the ties he has with it to make a more stable connection.

Looking at the probability of success and margin of error, he saw that what he would do was risky; there was a lower percentage of success then failure. If he were to succeed he would have a connection to access the inner networkings of the Decepticon hub to a degree, but if he were to fail then he looses all form of network connections he has to the real world. 

But truly, what else could he do but take that risk?

With that final thought, he weaved his last remaining connections though the warships network and locking onto the exact monitor the two Autobots were reading from. Without a moment to waste he crashed the entire system.

He watched the screen fizzle out and the words glitch as it slowly faded away due to his actions, the monitor beginning  to smoke from the hard clashing of its own drives. 

The two Autobots could only panic at the sight, unable to do anything as they hopelessly watch the fleeing data.

Finding the despair on their faces humorous, Soundwave couldn't help but give his last 'laugh' towards the Autobots. 

While Megatron had defected from tyranny and hatred towards them, Soundwave would not be so easily swayed. 

His signature blue/purple smiley face flickered on the monitor screen before the monitor completely crashed, putting the entire tech out of commission.

The two Autobots could only stared in shock and confusion at the now smoking monitor, realization slowly settling in between the both of them.

"How did," Bumblebee was at a complete loss of words.

"Soundwave," Ratchet slightly growled out. He then turned towards the center of the room and looked around, unknowingly staring through Soundwave behind them. "He's here. He knows what we were doing."

Bumblebee turned as well and looked around in wariness.

"We can't do anything with him around," Ratchet said. "He may end up crashing other files and we may lose important information. We cant risk looking at anything else right now."

All loose ends...

Soundwave exited the room, disinterested in what more the Autobots had to do or say.