Orphans: Rumble nor any of his siblings had ever anticipated the day that their creator would be extinguished or how to react afterwards; especially since none of them had expected to live past their creator and host's demise. Especially not like this: a bunch of scavengers. G1

Disclaimer: If only, if only, the plot bunny sings.

Image: Poor Rumble by crimson-firefox

Rating: Teen

…

It is of a twisting wonder,

Why children love their mothers.

…

It was twisting and turning, the waters of the world. Rumble found himself staring into it like a child in a trance. There was something down there. Something he couldn't make out because the waters refused to still and be calm. Part of him wanted to kick the liquid so he could leave this strange, shivering, wooden dock he was perched upon like a gargoyle. This place was starting to scare him for some reason. He wasn't sure why, but it was like a dreaded truth was rising to the surface and being realized. He had no idea what the truth was or how to counter it. So he was left to continue watching the water.

The cassette huffed and was about to stand and leave after a few minutes, but all of a sudden a collection of bubbles rose to the surface like popping jellyfish. With a dimming of his optics, the mini-sized Deception leaned his face a little closer to the surface of the troubled waters, the surrounding fog clouding up his visor. He squinted as excitement dripped through his spark. Was a squishy drowning? Did they have cement boots like in all those gangster movies or was it just a dumb squishy that didn't know how to swim? After a moment or two the bubbles ceased leaving a blue like substance on top the waters. The small Decepticon's visor glowed in curiosity as he decided that he was going to reached a hand down to touch it. Yeah, Soundwave told him that touching strange materials was 'ill advised' but Rumble had no worries. It looked to be nothing more than energon.

With a sigh of his intakes Rumble leaned forward, his fingers almost ready to touch the substance when there was a splash of water, a rusting hand grabbing him and pulling him under. He screamed out in shock yet there was no sound but a garble as water rushed into his intakes. He had been pulled into the water. He wasn't sure by what, but he could see a rusting and sea life covered hand … It-it wasn't Cybertronian.

With a grunt, the small mech managed to pull one of his hands free and transform it into a pile driver. He slammed his weapon down onto the offending body part and watched with amazement as it crumbled on the first shot, sea life scattering from the hole as crusty metallic bits fell into the dark sands below. Wasting no time, the cassette turned in the waters with ease ready to attack the source of the hand. Instead, he went stock still, bubbles rising around him as he stared at the figure floating between the forests of kelp and seaweed.

It was like a forgotten statue.

Rumble's spark slammed painfully against his spark casing as a ray of light shivered down into the waters below, revealing the thing in all its magnificent horror. He could just make out the blue armor where the rust had not eaten away like a parasite; there was one remaining red faded optic while an eel made its home in the other one; and the play button on his abdomen was now a home for hiding crab.

"S-soundwave?" was what Rumble could whispered into the water, bubbles rising and taking the sound away.

Unfortunately, before the small Decepticon could even reach a hand outward, something reach down into the water with blinding speed and started to pull him to the surface and away from his creator. With a splash of water and a gasp of his intakes, the blue cassette found himself thrashing as he was pulled back onto the docks. Yet, as he onlined his optics, ready to curse, he noticed that Frenzy and his fellow cassettes were merely looking down at him with faded red optics.

Rumble quickly sat up, latching onto his twin's arm. "Frenzy! Soundwave's down there! He's down there! Bro help me get him out of there!"

His fellow cassettes merely stared at him for a moment, their optics nor faces giving away any emotion.

"Guys? GUYS! What's wrong with you? Soundwave's down there!"

The stares just continued as if he had said nothing.

The blue cassette got to his trembling feet and stared at them in turn. It was like theses weren't his siblings. It was as if they were merely ghosts, drones that had wandered in from the fog.

"I-if you aren't ganna help me then I'll do it myself!" said the small Decepticon as he headed for the end of the dock, ready to jump in when a red pair of hands grabbed him and started to pull him away, his metal heels squealing against the dock. Strangely, for some reason, he couldn't stop them as they pulled him into the mists and away from the waters. No matter how much he cried, kicked and struggled he wasn't able to stop them.

"Soundwave!"

"Soundwave!"

"SOUNDWAVE!"

All of a sudden something latched onto his shoulder and he found himself lashing out with a cry, trying to rid himself of the sudden attack. The mass pulled back for a moment as if in shock, only to return, pinning him down successfully. This only managed to frighten the cassette worse and his struggling was soon joined with cries of horror.

"Rumble: Desist."

With a whining sound, Rumble stopped struggling as his vents fought to cool his form. What had just happened? Was that a dream? It wasn't real, was it? … But the weight on his chest was real. That much was certain. With a shivering breath of his vents, Rumble onlined his optics.

For a moment he just stared up at his creator's visor praying that this wasn't a dream too. After a cycle, once he was sure it was his creator sitting on the edge of the berth staring at him, soft sobbing clicks started to escape the creation. The cassette was at first shocked by the sudden weakness that had escaped his spark, and he did all that was in his power to stop the clicking from becoming full blown crying. Yet, despite his will, the fresh energon tears still came, pouring down his cheeks in a merciless manner. The twin quickly tried to pull himself away so he could go find a place to hide his growing shame, but as soon as Soundwave let him up Rumble found that his creator wouldn't allow him up escape. Even when Rumble turned his head to hide his shameful tears, the larger Decepticon merely clutched the creation's chin and forced him to look at him.

"Let m-me go, S-click-soundwave," choked the creation as he struggled weakly against the larger blue fingers, the metallic scraping making Ravage's ear shifted as she continued to slumber on the other side of the berth.

With a sigh of his engines, the Communications Officer quickly wrapped his fingers around Rumble's waist as he pulled his creation into his lap. He then started to rub the small hell-fire's back with his thumb trying to comfort him. His creation soon gave up trying to hide his tears and fell into soft quiet sobs as he buried his face into the older mech's chassis. Soundwave did not stop him. He could feel that his creation's mind was deeply troubled at the moment and being close to his creator's spark would calm him down.

"Conclusion: A nightmare?" said Soundwave in his usual tone, allowing only a little emotion through. "What was it about?"

"N-nothing, b-boss," murmured the smaller Decepticon as he latched his fingers onto his creator as if he was afraid that the elder mech would suddenly disappear. "It was nothin'."

The Third in Command didn't press the matter. If the nightmare persisted he'd just observe his creation's mind one night during recharge. If not, he'd hack it up to nothing but a bad memory purge. It was something that nagged onto his processor from time to time. It was not a wide known fact, but most of his creations were young. No older than that Bumble-brat the Autobots had. Well, except Ravage. She had been an only child for a while there, which probably explained her short temper towards the rest of the siblings from time to time.

=He's in recharge,= came a voice in the back of Soundwave's head.

He quickly looked up startled that he had dived so deeply into his thoughts that he had forgotten to observe his surroundings. It was then that he noticed that Ravage was now sitting next to his leg on the berth, looking at Rumble with her ears back in a worried manner. The creator followed his other creation's gaze. Rumble had fallen back into recharge, curled against his creator's chest like a sparkling.

=What was the little slagger remembering? Isn't it more Frenzy's style to have those little recharge terrors?= continued Ravage as she looked up into her creator's visor.

"Observation: True."

=What was it about Soundwave? If something throws Rumble into a fit, we should worry,= said the cat as she nuzzled Soundwave's elbow, trying to get his spare hand to offer her some attention. The spare hand complied and soon a soft purring filled the dim room.

"Recommendation: No need to worry. If the dreams persist, I will interfere," replied the older mech as he rubbed his mind softly against all of his creations in the room, earning a collection of soft murmurs and squawks. None of the others seemed to be having troubled dreams and for that he was glad. He wasn't known for his emotions, but he'd be hell bent before he allowed something to harm his creations, mentally or otherwise.

=Whatever you say. Now, I recommend you get some recharge too. You didn't even notice I was up until I was on top of you,= murmured his eldest creation as she nudged her creator's shin with her nose, trying to get him to move. The blue mech decided to comply. It was not often that Ravage meddled in his sleeping habits, being so fond of the darkness herself, but when she did decided to nag him than he certainly was in need of some.

=I recommend the chair for now. It seems that everyone is being a berth hog tonight,= said the cat as she gave her sleeping siblings a quick glance before jumping off the berth soundlessly and onto the floor. She then headed over to the chair in front of the Communication Officer's desk, giving it a look as if saying 'sit'.

With a nod, he looked back down at the blue creation on his lap and pulled Rumble into his arms, trying not to stir his creation. Rumble's head just slumped noiseless against his creator's shoulder, not even stirring when the mech sat down and leaned back into the chair. Ravage waited until the boom box was still and then leapt into his lap where she curled her tail around Rumble's foot before starting her recharge cycle again.

Soundwave gave Rumble one more pat on the back before he started his recharge cycle as well. He had no idea what he'd ever do without his creations or what they'd do without him.

XXX

Paw07: You know what … I think this is the first and probably only time where I actually give transformers the ability to shed tears. Anyway, this little bunny developed over exams week so I decided to humor it and myself after taking some crap-tastical final exams. This is just a prequel so its short compared to what the length the other chapters are planned to be. As usual, constructive criticism is welcome, and please leave a review if I should continue or not; or if there something you hope to see in the story … this idea is still developing and kind of on a test run.

(Revisions February 2016)