Kzzt!
Sir Soundwave stirred from stasis lock. He checked his internal clock and discovered he was out of commission for about an hour. His processor ached as his vision returned to him. A servo instinctively moved to his chassis and he was relieved to feel Laserbeak still docked safely. He looked around the room he was in. Soundwave noticed a rack of surgical tools on a wall. Was this a repair bay? It was a bit hard to tell as only dim violet lights lit the room, a far cry from the bright and clear ones that the Interceptor had.

"Oh? Rise and shine, Soundwave." He recognized that voice! It was Knock Out! So he WAS back on the ship. Soundwave turned his helm, happy to know a familiar friend was with him, but was immediately taken aback by Knock Out's appearance. The normally teal bot was now a vivid red, with crimson eyes to boot. Additionally, there was nary a scratch to his paint job. Knock Out strutted over to Soundwave and examined him. "No serious injuries", he said casually, "And I've already buffed out all of the scratches and scrapes on your metal. And I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you actually look pretty good in white~"

Okay, this was getting wacky. Knock Out buffing out scratches? How absurd. Soundwave sat up and got off of the medical table. Knock Out grabbed a data pad and tapped on it. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're a busy bot. I'll let the head honcho know you're good to go." It was weird seeing Knockout act so casual. Soundwave stared at him in bewilderment. The medic noticed. "Um, can I help you?" Sir Soundwave gestured to Knockout's red body. "Oh? You want a lustrous finish like moi?", Knock Out asked, clearly misunderstanding. "Well, let's just say a good buffing goes a long way. Especially if you know a bot with some talented servos~"

Deciding he was better off not knowing about what Knock Out and Breakdown did when the doors were closed, Sir Soundwave quickly shuffled out of the repair bay. That's when he realized that something was very ungroovy. Was the Interceptor always this... Purple? Everything was just lit enough for Soundwave to not bump into a wall. It almost made the hallways seem smaller. Sir Soundwave trembled nervously as he walked through the corridor. His only source of familiarity and comfort was Laserbeak, who consistently sent them encouragement through their neural link.

While this version of the Interceptor Nemesis was strange, the pathing remained the same and Soundwave found himself at the bow of the ship. But then he froze. Vehicons. Vehicons everywhere. However, something seemed off. They were pretty nonchalant about their enemy waltzing in unannounced and a few even looked over at him. When he tried to look at them though, the Vehicons would instantly snap back to whatever they were doing before, as if afraid of Soundwave's gaze.
"Soundwave."
He turned to see a large grey mech gazing at him with sharp red eyes. Was that... Megatron? He looked rather scary to Sir Soundwave, who tensed up in the event this bastardization of his boss tried to harm him. Not to mention the bucket-shaped helm lacked the regality his leader usually had. "I do not know the in and outs of what occurred to you in that cave", Megatron told him, putting a clawed servo on Soundwave's shoulder. "So I've decided to be a bit generous. You're on shore leave for a bit. Take this time to recover. Feel free to document anything... Unusual while you're gone, okay?"

Free shore leave? Radical. Sir Soundwave gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "Good. I'll let you know if you are needed again." With that, Megatron walked towards the main console. Sir Soundwave immediately ran off to the ship's roof to begin his break. While everyone and everything looked unfamiliar, he was just glad to get some time to himself again, what with all those bogus Autobums wrecking his fellow Cons in the war. And now that his processor was catching up to reality, he realized that he'd get to see his other friends again!

Once at the top of the Interceptor, Sir Soundwave took a running start and leapt into the air, letting Laserbeak undock from his chest and transforming into his jet mode. As the two darted through the sky, Soundwave gave his little bro an objective.
Laserbeak. Operation: Locate human homies.
They soared over the desert for a good while, scanning their surroundings, when Laserbeak notified Soundwave of movement near some hills. Examining the area, Soundwave spotted three dots down below.
Broskis located. Commence Operation: Grand entrance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Miko, this doesn't seem safe..."
"Relax! Er, just don't tell Bulk or Prime, okay?"
Raf and Jack didn't know where she got them, but Miko had somehow come into possession of illegal fireworks and wanted to see what they did. Raf nervously adjusted his glasses. "I just don't think this is safe. I mean, who knows what these things do?"
"Duh, they go boom in the sky?" As per usual, Miko was persistent. She pulled a small match box from her pocket and prepared to light the fuse.

Jack and Raf looked at each other. This was a terrible idea. Raf had tried to tell Miko that there were multiple things wrong with lighting illegal fireworks. On top of being against the law, they also risked attracting unwanted attention. Like a Decepticon. But alas, Miko was Miko and she lit the fuse regardless. "THAR SHE BLOWS", the girl yelled as she ran to a safe distance. It took a few seconds for the spark to reach the rockets but when it did, they shot into the air at breakneck speed and exploded in the sky with a loud boom. Miko cheered and hollered while Raf and Jack just sighed and decided to let her have a little fun for a minute.

But in that instant, a shadow ripped through the air, soaring past the firework show. Miko stopped celebrating and became worried. "Uh oh. You two may have been right..."
The shadow came back, closer to the ground this time. And began to transform.
"LOOK OUT!"
Jack grabbed Miko and Raf and pulled them away from the Decepticon that was about to land.
Heavy pedes slammed into the earth and kicked up a cloud of dust, the vibration of the impact knocking the kids over. Raf stood up and adjusted his glasses. Then he gulped as he saw who had landed.
"Soundwave!" Jack and Miko turned to look back and sure enough, it was indeed the Decepticon communications officer. The trio watched in horror as Soundwave slowly stood up, visor fixated on them.

Little did they know, Soundwave wasn't how they last remembered him. But soon Raf would notice some other oddities. "Wait. Was he always white?", He asked. Miko and Jack were confused until they looked back at Soundwave and confirmed that his plate colors had been altered. And what was with the bandana?

The slender mech held out a servo and Laserbeak perched on top of it, trilling happily at the sight of the kids. But Soundwave was confused. Why were his homies scared of him? Did he do something wrong? Or maybe someone told them about what happened in the cave and Miko convinced the others that he had died or something. That seemed like something she'd do.
Sir Soundwave knelt down and tried to reach out to Miko with a spindly digit but was sad to watch the girl scoot away from. She picked up a rock. "Eat this, Decepticreep!", She yelled as she threw it at Soundwave. The stone bounced off his visor. No physical damage was done, but it hurt his spark.

Suddenly, Laserbeak fidgeted and sent a message to Soundwave.
Enemy contacts approaching. Evasive maneuvers recommended. Commence Operation: Protect little homies immediately.
Soundwave scanned his surroundings and sure enough, there were bogies approaching his position, likely Autobots. While he realized that the kids were frightened of him, it would be wrong to let them be taken by the Autobots. As the sounds of engines grew closer and closer, Soundwave grabbed the children in spite of their protests and frightened yells.
"PUT ME DOWN, YOU LANKY JERKWAD!"
"AGH!"
"HELP!"

Just as Soundwave prepared to take off, one of the bogies rushed ahead and transformed. Her blue paint job was a jarring sight to see but the frame was unmistakably Arcee. She pointed her blasters at Soundwave as the other caught up. Accompanying the female bot was Bulkhead and Bumblebee, each looking very different but still having roughly the same build. "Put 'em down Soundwave", Arcee demanding, a charge building in her guns. "Or else."
Soundwave refused, pulling the kids closer to his chassis. Bulkhead sneered. "So how do we do this without harming the kids?", he asked. Bumblebee made a series of beeps in response. Arcee turned on her comm link. "This is Arcee. Soundwave has the kids but we have him cornered." A pause then she nodded. "Copy that. Get here soon, Optimus."

Uh oh. Soundwave trembled. Not him. Not Optimus. Not now. He silently panicked as he tried to figure out what to do. He had no idea why the Autobots wanted the kids but he wasn't about to let those slagging scrubs lay a digit on em. That's when he realized something.
So how do we do this without harming the kids?
They wanted the kids unharmed. So as long as Soundwave kept them close, they wouldn't dare to shoot. Optimus Prime must have a real nasty plan!

Armed with this knowledge, Sir Soundwave mustered up some courage and began his exit. He turned on the player on his audio receptors and let music fill his senses. Then he replayed the most loud and obnoxious sound he could muster. Every voice clip he'd ever recorded, the screeching of creatures and weapons, car alarms- if it was loud, it was there. And it worked like a charm. The three bots covered their audio receptors as they tried to block the sound to no avail. Soundwave transformed into his jet mode, carefully placing the kids in his cockpit, and took off. The sound lessened and the bots regained their concentration, but it was too late. Soundwave was already long gone.

Arcee slammed her first into ground in anger as a blue and red semi truck approached the scene. Optimus transformed into his robot mode. "What happened?", He asked. "Where are the children?" Arcee was too upset to respond so Bulkhead took over. "We're sorry, Prime. But Soundwave has them." Optimus furrowed his brow. "I do not know why Megatron would send Soundwave to capture the humans, but I fear time may be of the essence."
Arcee stood up and clenched her fist. "What are we waiting for? The longer we stand here, the further away Soundwave gets."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sir Soundwave made a sad vocalization as Miko kicked the cockpit floor and spat insults at him. She scowled. "Oh sure, YOU'RE the one suffering", she growled. "Look, everyone calm down", Jack tried to reassure the others, but the stress was getting under everyone's skins. "I just hope that Optimus and the others can save us", Raf muttered. He curled into a ball, fearful of the possible dangers that awaited the trio. "They are coming to save us, right?" "Of course they are", Miko replied. "They've always had our backs. Even Ratchet wouldn't leave us hanging."

Soundwave grimaced at what he was hearing. He played back some voice clips. "Has your processor been scrambled?!?", Came Knockout's exasperated tone. "The Autobots are-our enemies!" Continued clips of Megatron and Starscream. Miko scoffed. "Duh. You guys are Decepticons! Of course they're your enemies, bolts for brains."
Soundwave reiterated with a few more clips. "You are my friends- Soundwave- protects- his friends-" Miko was taken aback. "...what? Who said I'm your friend?!?"
Although he was hurt, he kept digging into his files and eventually found what he was looking for.
"You know, Soundwave", came Miko's voice. "I think we're gonna get along just fine. Provided you keep those bangin' tunes coming! Ha ha!"
Miko's mouth dropped. "What the... I don't remember saying that!"
"You are my friend- Miko!", Said the myriad of voice clips in Sir Soundwave's drives. "Jack- is a friend. Rafael!- is a friend. You are- friend- of- Soundwave."

The kids were even more confused. Then Raf spoke up. "Um, if we're friends like you say, then can you answer us something?"
"Go on...", Said Starscream's interested tone. "Why did you kidnap us?"
"Not a- kidnap- Autobots were- charging- protected you-"
"You thought they were going to hurt us?", Jack asked.
Soundwave played a jingle from a gameshow, signaling that he was correct.
"Okay," Miko began. "So when did you decide to paint yourself like a snowman?" Now it was Soundwave's turn to be confused.
"That's just how I usually look", said Arachnid's growl. "Really? You don't remember being blue?"
A gameshow host exclaimed, "Nope! That's incorrect!"

Raf spoke up again. "Wait, where are we going?"
"The Interceptor Nemesis...", Gasped a very old clip of Megatron. "Interceptor Nemesis?", Raf asked, puzzled. "I thought it was just Nemesis?"
Soundwave did not reply to that. He gave up on the voice clips as they were too tedious to comb through and used his voice box in spite of its lack of use and damage from a past incident. "Miko, Raf, and Jack: Do not remember Soundwave?"
Raf was caught off guard by the sudden shift in vocals but answered. "Kind of. Last we met, we were fighting each other in a satellite array."
"Soundwave: Does not recall any incident at a satellite array. Soundwave: Would never harm his allies."
Miko was still not convinced. "Really? You say that while taking us back to your ship full of your Decepticon buddies."
"Decepticons: Would never harm a human."
"I dunno. I remember when we got stuck in the Shadow Zone with Screamer and he tried to step on us." A pause. Then Soundwave spoke again. "Starscream: Never in Shadow Zone. Miko, Raf and Jack: were trapped with the Autobot Smokescreen."
"Who's Smokescreen?", Jack asked.

Soundwave was freaking out. Not only did the kids not remember him, but now they were claiming to have completely different accounts of past events. That's when Soundwave remembered what had happened before he awoke on the Interceptor. The sounds, Shockwave's voice... The cube.
It was impossible. It had to be. But there wasn't any other explanation that made sense. That box of scrap metal... Did it send him to an alternate timeline?!?

"...Soundwave: may not be where he belongs..."