Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 109 Never

After the vector emerged from the sound wave's dwelling, it immediately transformed into a vehicle and rushed towards the dwelling.

The cold light of the night road flashed past her car, and she didn't notice any traffic signals at all.

A few words echoing repeatedly in the processor's sound waves.

Emotional interference has decreased, loyalty stability has increased, and judgment efficiency has improved. (Completed)

She felt her entire ignition chamber was getting cold, as if something was burning inside.

Soundwave was indeed removed, and Megatron knew it; Megatron must have known.

When she returned to her residence, the door opened automatically.

The main screen inside was still lit up.

Megatron stood in front of the screen, his silver-gray body half-submerged in cold light, the Decepticon emblem on his chest deep and sharp.

Several reports hung before him: Karon, Divine Grace New City, Moye Heavenly City, Qingqiu City—all neatly arranged into an expanding network.

He happened to be there.

Great, saves her the trouble of looking for it again.

Megatron noticed her coming in and turned to look at her: "Where have you been?"

The vector did not answer his question.

She approached step by step, her optical glasses staring intently at him: "You know that the sound waves removed the emotion module."

Megatron paused for a moment—it wasn't a question.

He said, "I know."

The finger that was pointing at the vector trembled, and the entire machine was on the edge of a certain critical line.

"You know," she repeated, her voice trembling with unease.

"He reported this to me," Megatron said.

So you didn't stop it.

That was his decision.

The vector seemed to have heard something utterly absurd.

She looked at him, almost smiling, but without a trace of a smile: "His decision?"

Megatron's expression darkened: "Soundwave knows exactly what he's doing."

"Does he know?"

Vector suddenly stepped forward: "He removed his emotional module and then told me that emotional interference was reduced, loyalty stability was improved, and judgment efficiency was enhanced. You call that clear-headed?"

Megatron did not back down: "That was the optimization method he chose."

"Optimization?" Those two words immediately ignited her. "He cut a piece off himself, and you call that optimization?"

Megatron's red optical mirror suddenly darkened: "You've made it sound too fragile."

The vector stiffened for a moment: "Fragile?"

"Not all sacrifices equate to destruction," Megatron said. "Soundwave chose to make himself more suitable for the Decepticons."

The vector stared at him.

The moment those words were spoken, she suddenly realized that what she truly feared had finally revealed its claws from the shadows.

The sound wave made a crazy decision.

In Megatron's eyes, this decision could be categorized as sacrifice, loyalty, and adaptation.

She said slowly, "So it's more suitable for Decepticons, and therefore doesn't have to be like myself?"

Megatron's voice also turned cold: "He is not unlike himself."

"He just spoke like a surgical report."

"Sound waves have always been like this."

"no!"

The vector roared in anger.

"Don't try to fool me with that. He used to be calm and quiet, like a listening system that could scan all machines into a data stream, but he wasn't empty!"

Her chest heaved, and her voice became even harsher.

"He's not empty now. He still has things, he clearly still has things! But he removed the modules that could express that part!"

Megatron looked at her, his tone tinged with impatience: "You can't define how Soundwave should be loyal."

"I'm not trying to define how he should be loyal!"

"So what are you doing now?"

"I'm asking you, to what extent do the Decepticons have to push a machine before it feels like removing the Emotion Module was the right thing to do!"

The report on the main screen was still scrolling slowly, and several Decepticon nodes lit up and then went dark. The only sound in the room was from their two machines.

Megatron's jawline tightened slightly: "The Decepticons didn't push him. They didn't order him to do it."

“You didn’t command him,” Vector said, “but you acquiesced.”

Megatron's red optical glasses were as somber as haze: "Default?"

"You knew what he was going to do, and you didn't stop him." She approached step by step. "You even thought it was loyalty."

Megatron's voice was deep, tense, and restrained: "Loyalty is not a sin."

"Of course not."

Vector scoffed: "But if loyalty requires him to shape himself to better fit the faction, then there's something wrong with it."

"As the chief judge, you can certainly talk about boundaries, subjects, and choices."

In an instant, the air was sliced ​​apart by something sharp.

Yin Xiang's eyes suddenly turned icy: "You'd better not finish your sentence."

Megatron was also looking at her.

He knew, of course, where she came from—the junkyard, the arena, the lower classes, the judicial center; she wasn't some pretty word that came from a high platform.

But the anger had already reached a point where neither side was willing to back down first.

"The Decepticons gave them names, power, and status," Megatron said. "What do you think those machines had before? They weren't even worthy of being seen."

"So you want them to surrender themselves to another, bigger name?"

"They're not handing it over," Megatron said. "They're standing up."

"And then what happens after you stand up?"

The vector stared at him: "Kneel before the Decepticon flag again?"

Megatron took a sudden step forward, his imposing aura instantly closing in: "What did you call the Decepticons?"

"Today I saw what sound waves can become."

Megatron's expression turned completely cold in an instant.

The vector didn't retreat, and she didn't want to retreat either.

She's so angry she hasn't even adjusted the magnetic attraction, or rather, she's even forgotten she can.

She knew him too well and trusted him too much.

Even though they were arguing like this, she didn't immediately categorize him as a dangerous person who needed to be guarded against.

This slowness turned into a price in the next second.

Megatron suddenly reached out.

The vector only had time to retreat before its carapace slammed into the wall.

In the next instant, he had already pressed down.

One hand gripped her waist, pinning her back firmly.

He placed his other hand on her shoulder, trapping her entire body between the wall and his shadow.

The distance between the two machines suddenly closed.

She could see the surging anger in his red optical glasses, and she could also feel the oppressive heat emanating from his body that made it almost impossible for him to move.

The vector was stunned for a moment, not afraid, but unexpected.

Megatron leaned down to look at her, his voice low and dangerously hoarse: "Say it again."

Yin Xiang looked up at him; her chest was still aching, but her eyes were terribly dry.

"I said, the Decepticons are devouring subjectivity."

Megatron clenched his fists, and the outer armor on her waist made a slight cracking sound as it was pinched.

"It makes sound waves feel that the less they resemble themselves, the more valuable they are."

That's enough.

"It's not enough." She stared at him. "You want power, I understand. You want to pull those machines that are being trampled underfoot up, I understand that too."

Her voice was hoarse, but it became increasingly steady.

"But if in the end they're just turning from parts of the old system into parts of the Decepticons, then what's the difference between you and the Council?"

Megatron's optical mirror suddenly retracted.

This sentence was heavier than all the previous ones, hitting him right where he couldn't be touched.

He leaned even lower, trapping her entire machine in his presence and shadow: "Do you know what you're saying?"

"I know." The vector didn't look away. "I know it perfectly well today."

Megatron looked at her, his anger, disappointment, resentment, and something deeper all squeezed into the red optical lens.

"You'll understand sooner or later," he said. "Only the Decepticons have enough power to protect what you're building."

The vector was still staring at him, and this time, she suddenly gave a very faint, ugly laugh.

"If the price of protection is turning every machine into a cog in your machine's coattails, then I don't want it."

Megatron's hand froze for a moment, his whole body feeling as if it had been paralyzed by lightning.

The vector driver said, word by word:

"I could never join the Decepticons."

The room fell completely silent.

The report on the main screen was still flashing, and the Decepticon logo hung beside it, cold and sharp, like a wedge that had just been driven between them.

Megatron did not move.

He looked at her, and in that instant, his expression barely changed; all his emotions and reactions were completely suppressed.

He pinned the vector to the wall and finally realized how dangerous the position was.

His hand was still on her waist, and the pressure on his shoulder hadn't eased.

She could sense that if he wanted, the access control could be locked immediately, communications could be blocked, and she could be left behind.

She finally realized that Megatron really intended to do that.

That thought really did cross my mind.

The voice of the vector-guided figure turned icy cold, devoid of any inflection: "You're going to stop me?"

Megatron did not answer.

He looked at her.

He really wanted to.

I wanted to keep her here, to make her not leave, and to make her take back what she just said.

He wanted her not to use "forever" to separate herself from his future.

All these thoughts flashed through his mind module so quickly that he himself couldn't deny it.

Then he saw the look in the vector's eyes.

Anger, disappointment, pain, and a certain wariness that he had just drawn himself.

Megatron suddenly realized that if he really did that, she wouldn't be left behind.

From now on, she will only group him with the things she just cursed—devouring subjectivity, coercion, control, Decepticons.

His fingers loosened little by little, and the pressure on his shoulder also dissipated.

Megatron took a half step back.

That half-step was abruptly halted from some bottomless abyss.

His voice was deep and hoarse: "I won't stop you."

She looked at him, but didn't move immediately.

A few seconds later, she stood up straight from the wall.

The sensation of being restrained still lingered on my waist, and the weight on my shoulders felt like it hadn't dissipated.

She looked at Megatron, her voice low and soft.

"It's best never to."

After saying that, she turned and walked out.

The door opened, but she didn't turn around.

Megatron stood still and did not give chase.

The door closed behind her.

Silence fell over the place again.

The Decepticon logo on the main screen was still lit, its cold light casting a sharp shadow on Megatron's silver-gray armor.

He looked at the closed door.

She said it would never be possible.

Megatron never liked the word "forever".

Especially when she says it.