He may be a calculating evildoer, but there's something touching about Soundwave rushing out to help his minicassettes, putting himself in incredible danger.
Keep in mind he's also willingly sacrificing his mission by going in to rescue his minicassettes. Soundwave is willing to fail a mission if it means protecting his loved ones.
During the battle aboard the Dark Energon station, Megatron and his team pass through what amounts to a Decepticon field hospital. While their leader bloviates about how "...they should be victorious, or dead", a medic can be seen attending to a grievously wounded comrade, even taking care to cradle his patient's head as he works. For all Megatron's grandstanding about survival of the fittest, it's clear compassion isn't a foreign concept to at least some of his rank and file.
