i slept not since the conquest

"That might be Predaking," Ravage said aloud, and sat up, sending soothing thoughts to Soundwave as he reached for his half-finished energon cube. "Can't think of anything else that looks that much like a dragon."

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Predaking tends to be imposing even when he's not especially trying to be. He knows that he's looking for a Cybertronian who resembles a cat, so he's been surveying the edge of the Wilds from a comfortable height. Between his size and power, he's confident that there's very little here that can threaten him. He's found a cave to live in deep in the Wilds, hidden from the larger Nexus but big enough to give him a safe place to live.

He's big enough that his form blots out the stars as he passes.

When he catches sight of Ravage and the other Cybertronian, he lands in front of them, wings foldoing back as he gets himself comfortable. He nods his head slightly to let them know he means no harm, but he waits for them to confirm their own identities before he transforms. He prefers his dragon form in some ways, but he needs to transform in order to speak to Cybertronians.

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Soundwave also sits up. Until he knows for sure that's actually Ravage's friend, he'd prefer to be between them.

"Designation: Soundwave of Stanix. You are Predaking, as Ravage says?"

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"Of course he is," says Ravage, and to Soundwave's consternation, slips in front of him and into his lap.

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The dragon nods again, and then transforms into his robot mode. He hadn't recognized the other Cybertronian as Soundwave until he identified himself as such.

"Greetings, Ravage and Soundwave of Stanix. You don't look like the Soundwave I know. You are a different one? The Nexus allows people to meet other versions of themselves, from many different worlds. Ravage spoke to me as a friend and fellow Predacon. Neither of you have anything to fear from me."

The fact that Ravage treated him like a person immediately meant a great deal to Predaking. None of the Decepticons where he came from did that.

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"I'm the only Soundwave I know." Soundwave is so startled that he speaks fluently without trying, because he's not even thinking about how he sounds. "Ravage was expecting you to meet us here, though not necessarily tonight. But you recognised Ravage? Surely if you met another Soundwave, you met another Ravage...?"

He'd have died without Ravage, after all.

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Predaking considers the question. Ravage is distinctive - but no, Predaking never heard of anyone where he came from by that name.

"I know Ravage because he was the one who first approached me. Where I come from, I never saw any Ravage, though I didn't know that other Soundwave especially well. You already talk more than he did. I heard you and Ravage are taking over leadership of the Decepticons, and that you will accept the last Predacon into your cause. Ravage has CNA from my people, who were wiped out by my world's Decepticons. I thought we might be able to help each other."

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"Of course you are welcome here. Especially if you can help him."

Soundwave looks down at Ravage, a little worried. "I don't even know what a Predacon is, only that some people wanted him crippled because of it."

He still feels horrible knowing how they used him to keep Ravage down, even though neither he nor Ravage knew the entirety of the story.

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"You'd be welcome here, regardless," says Ravage. "I told you, if you've got no other family of your own left, then at least you know you're related to me."

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"What I know of the Predacons is...imperfect." Predaking doesn't like admitting it, but he wants to be honest to Ravage. "There may also be differences between your world's Predacons and mine. We were an ancient people, many of us giants, who hunted Cybertronians for energon in ancient times. But we were wiped out by an event called the Great Cataclysm - until my world's Megatron had his lead scientist, Shockwave, bring us back to life for his army. I was the first to be created. I was able to access their computer system and learn about Project Predacon, as they called it."

He wonders if Predacons were also feared where Ravage and this Soundwave come from, hence the harsh treatment.

"I told Ravage that at least one Predacon-Cybertronian hybrid, Ser-Ket, was created by Shockwave. She was disturbed. But I think that had more to do with Shockwave's conditioning and her being a fanatic than being a hybrid. "

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"I know of six. Two aviforms. Four feliforms."

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"Me, Stalker, who died, Howlback, and Glit," says Ravage, looking up at Soundwave. "And Laserbeak and Buzzsaw."

He turns to Predaking and smiles. "Stalker and Buzzsaw weren't stable. Buzzsaw still isn't. So it may or may not have been all Shockwave's doing, but Shockwave is not exactly a gentle or nurturing person."

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"I have decided that, since my fellow Predacons Darksteel and Skylynx are dead, I accepted Ravage's offer of a new family. I've heard that you seek to change your faction for the better. That you're taking humans in as members now."

Humans aren't prey to Predaking - they had been beneath his consideration. His kind fed on energon, not organic life.

"Consider me interested in an alliance. On that note, I will be impressed by any human who can stand beside a Predacon and Cybertronians in battle - humans are not a physically strong species, but they are cunning and intelligent."

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"We have a human, Ben," says Soundwave. "Also a friend of Ravage's. Did the Decepticons of your universe not ever tell you why we are Decepticons, or what that is supposed to mean?"

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"No. They did not teach me about their ideals. I don't believe they saw me and my Predacons as their equals, only as weapons to be used to destroy their enemies. Megatron was afraid I would lead them against him, so he had the Predacon young killed and framed the Autobots for it. Ravage told me a little of what being a Decepticon means - battling Functionism. The idea that your form determines what you are."

Predaking assumes there's something special about this human that lets him keep up in fights. A human fighting Cybertronians wouldn't exactly be an even match.

"Maybe I'll cross paths with him someday. I don't visit the Plaza for obvious reasons. I've claimed most of the Wilds as my home instead - very little here can lay a scratch on me."

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"Being anti-Functionalist means that we don't expect everyone to be a warrior," Ravage says gently. "We need medics and scholars and artists, as well. In another world, where we had choices, Soundwave and I might not have chosen to be soldiers. But in Ben's case, he is an outlier and has abilities that most humans don't have, and is more than capable of fighting at our side. Do you understand what I'm getting at?

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"If it had been up to me," Soundwave says quietly, "as deadly as you are, and are capable of being, you would have been able to spend your entire life writing."

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"I see." Fighting comes instinctively to him, but after a moment's thought Predaking can understand what Ravage is getting at. "Aggression comes naturally to Predacons. Combat is in our CNA. But it wouldn't hurt to try a new thing. The Nexus is a quiet place. Even in the Wilds, I've been able to settle in peace. I avoid flying over the territory of the Eliksni, but that's more for the safety of the people here than my own."

Predaking has faced everyone from Megatron to a horde of Terrorcon perversions of his own people to Unicron himself. It takes more than a horde of bugs with guns to intimidate him.

"I imagine I would have a lot to say if I did become a writer. My short life is...eventful." There's deep, but very sincere laughter. "If I had the memories of the original Predaking I was cloned from, I would have even more."

Edited Date: 2020-10-12 03:28 (UTC)

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"It is in our CNA," Ravage agrees. "I can feel it working inside of me now, and I've never been afraid to fight. I was one of the best we ever had in the field, and even though my conjunx would like to keep me safe forever, he'd be the first to admit that. But I don't want to create a world that is only for those who love fighting. I want to create a world that is safe for those who want to do other things."

He looks up at Soundwave. "Like people who like to make music, and build things...?"

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Soundwave's facemesh flushes a little, and he blinks his eyes slowly at Ravage, whom he knows can see through his visor.

Ravage blinks back, of course.

"Consort's point: well-taken." He ex-vents. "We will need you to fight at our side, for a while, Predaking; but, one hopes, that there won't be a need for fighting, eternally."

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"Then I can use my strength and my power to help you and Soundwave and this Ben to create such a world. That would give me the purpose that I feel I've lacked." Predaking hasn't exactly accomplished much aside from surveying the Wilds and claiming the cave as his new home.

He can follow what Ravage is saying, and nods in agreement. It would give him something to do, and while he can't forgive his world's Decepticons he can forgive these ones. They had nothing to do with their counterparts' crimes against his people.

"Even I admit that it would be better to have a world where we no longer had to fight. I was made to be a weapon, but I serve no one - and my people should not have been used as pawns in a war."

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"Would you care for some energon?" Ravage reaches over to the small pile of cubes they brought out to share while they stargazed and holds out a few; he doubts just one will suffice. "We brought more than we needed, in case we decided to rest out here all night. And...do you read? I feel that you must, since you got all of Shockwave's data and were able to understand it. There is a lot that you can read over and think about for yourself. It sounds like the Decepticons in your world were nothing but shabby knockoffs of what we are supposed to be.

"We haven't always lived up to our principles. Megatron had a few bad millennia there, and some of us got overly enthusiastic when they finally found themselves on the other side of the power differential. But we'd have never done anything so terrible as what was done to you."

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"Yes, I can read. Starscream thought I couldn't, of course - he was calling me a mindless animal and hitting me even when I was figuring out how to use Shockwave's computer and access his data."

Predacons are used to hunting for their energon, but it's easier this way - and Bumblebee had believed in a world where Predacons and Cybertronians could live together. So Cybertronians are off the menu.

"It is...tempting, when you hold power over the people who've hurt you, to abuse that power. I won't say I'd have a problem with killing my world's Starscream if I crossed paths with him again. He has Darksteel and Skylynx's deaths to answer for, too. But I do know restraint. It was because Ravage addressed me as a person that I listened to him, since I'm not otherwise inclined to trust Decepticons. The ones I knew would never have let a human into their ranks, not as an equal. They thought they were vermin."

He shifts back into the dragon to set to work on the energon cubes.

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"We felt that way about humans for a while," Ravage says quietly, "because their lives are so short, when they first began to appear on Earth, that we couldn't see them as potentially our equals. But I started to doubt that after they developed technology.

"Megatron wouldn't listen to me about that back then, but even he's changed his mind recently. I used to ask him how, if form and function and utility didn't matter, why it should make a difference if one was made of metal or flesh?

"I'm used to being treated as an animal myself, though. Especially by Autobots. Soundwave and I would've conjunxed long ago, before we were even a century old, but back then, it was considered a perversion of function for us to be lovers and sparkmerge, even though there was absolutely no law against using someone like me."

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