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tyriq-edits · 1 day ago

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The Suitors’ Trials 4:

The Crown Prince’s Knight

Part 1 < Part 2 < Part 3 < here > Part 5

When someone attempts to poison Kaon's royal family, Hot Rod - the crown Prince - ventures out of the castle's safety to find both the culprit and a potential antidote.

Too bad a certain silent knight won't leave his side.

First things first: I apologise for the VERY messy time line of this AU, I tend to kinda post these things as the ideas come. Maybe someday I will make a post summarising ALL of this in chronological order. Maybe.

But yeah this specific post once again takes place before the actual Suitors’ Trials and focuses not on Bumblebee but on his oldest Brother: Crown Prince Hot Rod and his royal guard and future Conjunx: Soundwave.

Soundwave was hired by Megatron not too long ago for his efficiency and was instantly put to work as the royal family's head guard. Too the misery of Hot Rod and his brothers unfortunately. The silent and stoic bot just feels suspicious to all three of them. And the idea of him being the one in charge of their safety now? Bad vibes all around.

One day Megatron holds a grand banquette to improve Kaon's political and diplomatic relationships to other nations. So the banquette guests include members of the council of Velocitron, members the royal family of Vos (Capital of the Seekers and Fliers in general) and of course: Sentinel Prime and the 13 Primes of Iacon, as well as several smaller politicians and diplomats and their entourage.

All is going well and everyone is being merry until suddenly : Kaon's queen Optimus as well as several of the 13 Primes keel over in pain after having drunk from the energon they had been served.

Ratchet and Knockout - Megatron's court physicians- instantly recognise the symptoms: Poisoning. Someone had slipped poison in the Queen's and Primes' drinks.

Instantly the guests begin to scramble, chaos errupts and accusations get thrown around - including at the host Megatron himself. Sentinel accusing Megatron of wanting to see his own Conjunx and in-laws dead in an attempt to annex Iacon to his realm. Velocitron and Caminus accuse each other of wanting to spread chaos so they could 'steal' territory on Cybertron while no one is looking and so clearly they must be behind the poisoning.

The Crown prince however suspects someone specific. Soundwave. While everyone else was panicking, scrambling around the collapsed primes and yelling accusations, Soundwave had stood in the corner of the room, silently and calmily observing the situation in front of him as always.

So Hot Rod instantly corners Soundwave in one of the castle's many many hallways and gets in Soundwave's face about how he KNOWS he is the one who poisoned his carrier and grandfathers. He was far too calm to not be the one behind the crime. And now he is sneaking around the castle? Clearly he was looking for a way to quitly slip away into the night.

But Soundwave just grabs the crown prince's servo and begins to explain himself: He did not panic in the moment because remaining calm is the most important thing in any time of crisis. Remaining calm like that is something that Soundwave had been taught as a knight over the course of many many years. And as for why he was now 'sneaking around' the castle? To find the actual poisoner. While everyone else was still fretting and yelling inside the great hall, the real culprit might be currently trying to escape the royal palace.

Forced to trust the knight's word Hot Rod decides to temporarily ignore his inherent mistrust of the blue mech and instead teams up with him to look for clues that may show them who the real poisoner is.

The tracks eventually lead them to conclude that the one behind the poisoning is a certain duke from Iacon. A mech by the name of Getaway.

However all of their evidence is circumstancial at best and even when Hot Rod brings it up with his sire Megatron, he just tells him that this alone is not enough to demand Iacon arrests him. If anything it might make everything even worse. Hot Rod then suggests that 'if we storm Getaway's estate we will no doubt found evidence of his crime!" but Megatron shoots that down as well. He explains that as a foreign duke Getaway is under direct diplomatic protection of Sentinel. To storm Getaway's castle and accuse him of treason against Iacon's Primes and the Queen of Kaon could lead to an outright war. For now their biggest concern should not be to point fingers at anyone but to find an antidote for the ones who have been poisoned, as the poison works fast. They have barely 14 days before it can turn deadly without an antidote, Ratchet and Knockout had apperently concluded. But the plant required for the antidote for this particular poison is extremely rare and hard to aquire.

So Megatron, ever the overprotective sire, forbids Hot Rod, Bee and Cheetor from leaving the castle. He is already worried about loosing their carrier to the poisoner. He cannot risk to lose them as well.

But does Hot Rod listen? Nah. In the dead of night, the crown prince sneaks out of his bedroom window and attempts to leave the castle grounds to go to Getaway's castle and prove that he is the culprit and also find the plant to cure his family.

Unfortunately he is discovered and stopped by none other then Soundwave. Hot Rod even asks Soundwave what he thinks he's doing, why is he stopping him? They both know Getaway is the culprit. So why is he stopping him from getting to Getaway's castle?

The issue is that while Soundwave agrees that Getaway is the culprite and a single look inside the duke's estate might give them the evidence they need and by any chance perhaps even the antidote, but Soundwave's loyalties still lie with King Megatron first. And the princes second. So if Megatron says: “No Hot Rod you may not storm the castle of an iaconian diplomat with no solid evidence of him committing any crimes. Now go to your room” then he will follow the king’s orders and not let hot rod go and storm getaway’s castle.

So Soundwave tries to drag the prince back to his room but Hot Rod manages to wrestle himself out of Soundwave's grasp and jumps the castle walls and runs into the forest headed straight towards Iacon.

Sounwave knows he could very easily run after the prince and catch up with him. But result would be the same. The prince would keep escaping and run right back en route towards Iacon. And he sure as hell would not let Soundwave follow him. So instead Soundwave ejects his trusted cassette Laserbeak and orders the bird to secretely follow the prince. And if anything happens to him the bird should instantly sound the alarms and notify Soundwave.

So Hot Rod travels all alone (for the first time) through the forest not noticing the bird following him from above. All is going well until suddenly the prince gets ambushed and kidnapped by a bunch of bandits who can tell by the shiny polish of his frame that he is clearly rich (but fail to recognise he's the crown prince of Kaon). The bandits take a (probably knocked unconcious) Hot Rod to their hide out to decide how much ransom to ask for him. Laserbeak of course saw everything and instantly notifies Soundwave.

With the help of Ravage the knight can track down the location of both Laserbeak and the prince, he defeats the kidnappers and rescue Hot rod. Hot Rod thanks the knight but clarifies he still has no intentions of returning to the castle. But he will agree to let Soundwave travel with him to Getaway. So despite his reservations, Soundwave decides to go against king Megatron's orders and follow Hot Rod to Getaway's estate on the conclusion that keeping the prince safe is more important then trying repeatedly to drag him back to his father's court.

So they now journey together to Iacon (maybe with Soundwave even helping to change paint Hot Rod's frame to a darkened black so no one will recognise him as the prince of Kaon as they travel) and the two of them begin to grow closer. Soundwave recognises that Hot Rod is not just some huffy spoiled royal brat but in fact someone who deeply cares about justice and his family and Hot Rod finally comes to term with the fact that Soundwave is not some secret villain who is silently plotting his family's demise - he is just very autistic /hj.

(during all this Megatron back at the court of Kaon has not even once left Optimus berth side, urging Knockout and Ratchet to hurry up and find the antidote, as he watches his conjunx's health wain with every passing day.)

Hot Rod and Soundwave eventually arrive at Getaway's castle and sneak in. As they explore the duke's estate they find proof of him having planned this poisining for several months already and luckily for them - He even has the plant needed for the antidote sitting neatly in a pot in his study.

But too bad for the both of them, they end up getting caught by Getaway before they can leave the castle with the evidence. This is when Hot Rod asks Getaway straight away why he would try and kill his carrier and the primes.

And that is when Getaway explains how his dearest sire is to blame. While Hot Rod and Kaon may view the king as a great revolutionary and someone who had liberated his people from oppression of Kaon's old leaders, Getaway had seen first hand the destruction and devastation Megatron and his Decepticons had left in the wake of their 'revolution'. A revolutionary? No. A warlord is what his sire was. A brutal and ruthless warlord who never had to face any consequences for his crimes. Instead he got to get married to a civilianframe Prime, got to raise a happy family together. In Getaway's eyes Megatron and all of the decepticons are sub-cybertronian, they are not worthy of this land and titles, nor their disgusting halfbreed offspring, etc. In fact during this entire exchange he only refers to Hot Rod as the "eldest of the royal half-breeds". And their carrier? A dirty traitor to Iacon who willingly married such a barbaric war criminal and carried his half breed offspring with a smile on his lips.

But Getaway then reveals that the poison had indeed been intended for the entire royal family. Not just the Queen and the primes. But unfortunately Megatron - like all Kaonites - is a warframe. Meaning it unfortunately takes 5 cannisters of poison to knock him out. And his kids, while not being exact warframes were lucky enough to have inherited their old man’s immune system and high tolerance to poisons (this however also comes with the downside tho that pain meds barely work on them). Their carrier Optimus on the other hand? 100% civilian frame. And so are MOST of the primes (except for Megatronus). In short Getway says: “It is really too bad you inherented the immune system of your barbaric sire. My plan kinda hang on the assumption that - given your size - you were closer to us civilian frames. Too bad I had guessed wrong."

TLDR; Hot Rod and Soundwave defeat and escape from Getaway (idk how so suggestions are welcome) and return to Kaon with the evidence and the antidote. Optimus and the Primes are saved, Getaway is expropiated of his title, wealth and lands and is banished from Iacon and everyone lives happily again.

But there is one issue remaining: Soundwave and Hot Rod having caught feelings for one another. But no matter how much they love each other there is still a significant distance in their social standings. A simple guard and a crown prince. Surely King Megatron would never let his heir marry below his status?

And so Soundwave one day kneels down in front of the king and queen of Kaon and proclaims that he has fallen in love with their eldest son. He knows it's an affront, apologising repeatedly for falling for the crown prince as someone of such low social standing, claiming he will willingly leave the court and even the kingdom of Kaon if they deem it necessary.

But Megatron just stares at him in utter confusion asking Soundwave whatever gave him the idea that he cared about something as trivial as that. "I have started out as a slave, fighting as a gladiator in the pits for the entertainment of the old bourgeoisie of Kaon. It was only by the accord of the people of Kaon that I was crowned King after the revolution. And yet you stand here believing I would care about the 'social rank' of whoever my sons fall in love with? All I care about is their character and capabilities. If they treat my sons well and can protect and support them through dark times. And you Soundwave have proven your capabilities more then enough by supporting Hot Rod on his journey to Getaway. You have my blessings."

And so Soundwave and Hot Rod get engaged. I am unsure yet if by the time of the 'suitors trials' Hot Rod and Soundwave are still only engaged or already married so let me know your opinion on that matter.

As always: If you have thoughts or ideas for this AU let me know. Or heck you can post your own version (and if you do please tag me in it, I would love to see more Transformers Fairy Tale AUs)

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