TF: With Time and Distance
Rating: PG-13
Series: G1
Summary: After so long together, it was difficult to adjust to life apart. Four and a half million years apart and does he still care?
Warnings: Creepy!Shockwave
Disclaimer: As per usual, the good things in life are not mine to have, but belong to someone else... in this case Hasbro, Takara and IDW and anyone else I’ve forgotten…
Authors Notes: For the tf_rare_pairing monthly challenge - ‘Missing You’. This works as a kind of prequel to Experiments in Emotion
Feedback makes friends. Flames dealt with by the masters of paranoia and fire, Red Alert and Inferno.
It wasn’t as if he’d stopped loving Shockwave. More that he just couldn’t be with a mech who just seemed to view him as property for the Decepticons to acquire. In the past, he would have argued with himself, telling himself that wasn’t true. But after that last time… when Shockwave had asked him about joining the Decepticons when they were interfacing. Really, there were better times to bring that up. He’d pushed Shockwave away, closed his chestplates and left the apartment they shared. Left everything behind.
The Autobots had provided accommodation for him, and he’d retrieved most of his possessions when Shockwave was on shift. Yet did that mean he didn’t care for him anymore? Of course it didn’t. His spark still twisted painfully when he thought about what they’d shared. But he put that to one side and focussed on his job. As the war escalated, he found himself busier and busier, caught between repairs and salvaging parts. There were times he wished for a simpler life; a life before the war. And that life always seemed to feature Shockwave.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shockwave hadn’t been able to understand why he had said what he said. He knew it was bad timing the moment Ratchet had pushed away. He thought it would be like all the other times Ratchet stormed out; having a younger lover with a temper meant that he was used to Ratchet’s outbursts. But when Ratchet didn’t respond to his comms or come back to their quarters, Shockwave began to get worried. The day he came back to their quarters to realise that Ratchet had been in and collected his possessions was the day that Shockwave realised he’d truly lost Ratchet.
And then the Autobots launched the Ark to search for more energon. With Ratchet on board. Megatron left him in charge of Cybertron, launching his own craft to chase after the Autobots. Megatron was determined that the Autobots would not win this war.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ratchet couldn’t remember much of what happened. The asteroid shower he remembered. And the Decepticons boarding the Ark; grappling with Soundwave and then Thundercracker. But after that, his memory banks were blank. When they woke up, Teletraan-1 had already reformatted them. They were on a distant planet, and years had passed. Teletraan-1 calculated that at least 4 and a half million years had passed. Without knowing what had happened to the Decepticons, they began making repairs, determined to get back to Cybertron. If there was still a Cybertron.
Ratchet paused as he let that thought sink in, his spark pulsing uncomfortably. If there was no more Cybertron, there was no more Shockwave. And he certainly hadn’t been on the Decepticon ship, so Ratchet could only presume he’d been left on Cybertron. And he was surprised to find that that thought hurt.
Four and a half million years. That was an awfully long time. Ratchet had been younger than Shockwave before, now he was even younger; his time in stasis not having aged his systems. Yet Shockwave… presuming he was still functioning… had spent the last few million years living. Ratchet bit back a sob and picked up the panel he’d been fixing. He couldn’t afford to think about Shockwave now. He doubted the mech even thought about him now. But he didn’t care. Did he?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shockwave checked the radio frequencies one more time. The result came out exactly as it had the last thousand or so times he’d tried it. Static. No Decepticons within comm range. The only Autobots he had had any contact with over the last four million years had been the Autobot femmes. And only then for them to steal his energon. Shaking his head, he keyed in the frequencies again, hoping that he might eventually contact Megatron. He was getting short on energon, and vital repairs to the base needed doing - none of which he was qualified to do. He needed someone who could repair the base. An engineer or even a medic.
A medic. Ratchet. He’d often wondered what had happened to the Autobots that had left Cybertron. Had Megatron vanquished them and continued on to search for energon? Was Ratchet still even functioning? Not that it would matter; Ratchet had made his feelings towards Shockwave abundantly clear. Not that it mattered. Shockwave had decided exactly what he would do if he ever found Ratchet again. But as the years passed, he didn’t think he would ever get that chance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ratchet heaved a sigh and wiped his hands. He’d finished the repairs after the latest battle. The Decepticons had stayed on Earth, determined to suck all the energy from the planet they could. Prime had decreed that they stay and protect the humans, as they were the ones who’d brought the Decepticons to their planet. Not that any Autobot disagreed. The Decepticons had built a space bridge and had contact once more with Cybertron. Ratchet couldn’t help the glimmer of hope that announcement had sparked. If Cybertron was still there, then perhaps Shockwave was?
Although, what would it matter? He’d turned his back on Shockwave years ago. So why was he still thinking about him? Why was he… missing him? All around him, the Autobots were renewing friendships having thought they were alone in the galaxy. And he had no one. And if he was truly honest, he didn’t really want anyone. Not after Shockwave. So he was reduced to watching everyone else around him. Aside from the fighting, it was almost like being back on Cybertron before the war - all he seemed to do was treat minor injuries. Which he didn’t mind. After so many years of treating war wounds and having sparks gutter out under his fingertips, it actually made a nice change. Yet it still felt like something was missing. Like someone was missing.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Shockwave finally managed to contact Megatron, he felt a variety of emotions; shock, pride and hope. Megatron briefed him on the situation on Earth, including the surviving Autobots. Shockwave thought his spark would actually stop pulsing when he heard that Ratchet was still alive. Between them, they came up with a plan to restock Cybertron with energon, ready for Megatron’s glorious return. Space bridge technology meant that Megatron could easily transport energon back to Cybertron. And Earth had plenty of energy for the taking. Megatron was determined that the Decepticons would win the war.
Having been warned that the Autobots would try to use the space bridge to try and regain a foothold on Cybertron, Shockwave had assured Megatron that he and his drones would be able to stop them. He had been holding his own against the Autobot femmes for millennia after all.
The first few Autobot incursions were easily routed. They came nowhere near Shockwave’s base of operations. In fact, they seemed to be searching for other things entirely. Shockwave kept an optic on them, but didn’t see the logic in wasting resources fighting them unless they came too close.
Logic however, went out the window the first time he saw Ratchet on his viewscreen. He was surprised at the depth of his emotions. The medic was with a small group of Autobots, but, again, they weren’t near any vital energon storage facilities, so Shockwave let them carry on as he always did. He might have more energon now, but that didn’t mean he would be wasteful and try and fight off the Autobots. Especially when they weren’t doing anything he deemed harmful. He still kept a watchful optic on them, almost unable to keep his optic off Ratchet. The years had certainly been kind to the medic, and if his plating was a little worn and dull, all it did was make Shockwave want to take care of his medic.
His medic.
In his next comm to Megatron, he outlined his plan. Since receiving the extra energon, he’d been working on Megatron’s Robosmasher; ensuring that the programming could not be overwritten or broken. But he would need mechs to experiment on. Autobots to experiment on. Megatron willingly agreed, saying that any Autobots they captured in battle would be transported to Cybertron for Shockwave to use as he saw fit.
Shockwave saw no need to mention that if Ratchet was ever to be captured, he would be using him for an entirely different purpose. Without him even knowing, Ratchet’s fate was sealed before the comm even ended.