Chapter Text
The signal popped up on his HUD again, faint and quickly fading and Knockout knew the state Breakdown would be in. It was an emergency frequency that only was activated when his spark reached a certain point on damage, it had been installed by Shockwave eons ago when Breakdown had first been created, all the combiners had them. And as his doctor Knockout had the receiving end of the signal, and never before had Knockout been so thankful he had kept the upgrade installed. Dreadwing had told him personally that Breakdown had been scrapped by Airachnid, and that those humans came and cleaned up the mess before Dreadwing had a chance to take any of the remains back.
He had understood at the time, cried it out agonizingly each night until the signal started again. It scared him because that meant he was alive in pieces and someone was toying with him, or it was a malfunction meant to haunt him . At first he had thought it was a malfunction or a cruel joke from Primus himself, but the signal persisted, going off and then turning back on. It had been doing that for days now and Knockout couldn’t pinpoint the location he just knew it was on. He had asked Soundwave about it and he had written it off as a malfunction and told Knockout to return to work. If Breakdown was alive though, he needed to go find him, he couldn’t really return to work like nothing was happening if there was any possibility that Breakdown was still functioning.
Knockout had repaired him after the first time MECH captured him, and now they had gotten him again, this time on the brink of death he assumed. He steeled himself for his ridiculous plan. Every night after his shift he snuck off base with a crate of medical supplies. Important ones, ones that would be necessary to bring someone back from the brink of death. He had been doing it for five days now and the stockpile was hidden in the woods and covered with foliage. He had gotten dirty in the mud hiding them every night and would immediately clean himself up or go to a carwash so he wouldn’t raise any suspicion, he was just out driving and nobody saw him with the boxes anyways. The next step was to contact the Autobots. It was made blatantly clear that if he attempted rescue on his own and failed he would be dead, and Breakdown had been trying to work out a way for them to go with the Autobots or and get off planet anyways. The Autobots had saved Breakdown once, and had aided Starscream in the past, so he had no doubt they would help him. That was his assumption at least. He didn’t even hide any personal items to take because he didn’t want to waste space, and he could bargain with the information he had on Megatron and his plans with the Autobots.
Admittedly to no one other than himself this was one of the worst ideas he’d had in a long time. Risking his very secure position on the Nemesis and within Decepticon ranks for another mech was foolish. But, Breakdown was his conjunx endura he couldn’t just let humans use him as his play thing if his spark still functioned. If he was too far gone he could always just do in Breakdown himself and get rid of the humans… but that really was a worse case scenario. If that happened…. no, he couldn’t think about that outcome. That thought process would just drive him to insanity, he needed to shove all his feelings deep down and just take everything one step at a time.
It was almost midday and he had no clue how to contact the Autobots, and asking someone like Starscream would be disastrous. So he decided to wait outside the local Jasper Nevada High School, hoping to catch one of those fleshies the bots were so fond of. Truly one of his lower points was sitting outside in his alt mode waiting for a human's help. He was sitting out parked on the road for an hour before he saw the little spunky one with the pink pigtails come out before anybody else, classes didn’t end till three according to the internet... skipping class it seemed? Luck truly was on his side it seemed, at least when it was important. For a moment he hesitated, this one probably wouldn’t take her to their base, she might just call Bulkhead to come out and put some dents in him, but he had no other option and time was of the essence.
“You know I can see you over there decepti-creep! If you’re gonna destroy the school get to it!” Miko called from where she was on the sidewalk walking away from him as he was parked on the road, and as soon as she said it he was shocked out of his thoughts and instantly pulled up to drive slowly on the road parallel to the little human.
“I’m not- Listen to me. I need a favor, human.”
“Pfft- /You/ need a favor from me? Is the favor kidnapping me because-“
“I need you to take me someplace I can meet with the Autobots, call them up or something. I’ll even give you a ride.” Knockout emphasized his offer by opening the passenger side door, disgusted that he was about to let a fleshy sit in his interior, especially a dirty protoform one but he needed to do this for Breakdown.
The human girl stopped walking abruptly and her eyes widened in shock at the offer placed before her. Opening her mouth to say something rude again no doubt.
“If I wanted to force you I would have already done it, I’m trying to be agreeable here so would you just please get-“ Miko grabbed her phone from her pocket and approached Knockout, sliding into his passenger seat with almost a deranged grin of curiosity on her face. “-in.”
Miko was nearly insufferable, she wanted to touch the radio, she wanted to touch his wheel, she kept getting her finger prints on his glass, and she kept asking absurd questions. “Miko, darling, could you please call the Autobots, this is a time sensitive matter I’m afraid. I’ll answer all your questions later, hm?” He suggested, hoping to get her to sympathize a little and hurry up and it seemed to work because her fingers started to type away on her phone instead of just snapping a bunch of photos.
“Yeah yeah- don’t get your parking gear in a twist.... I’ll put it on speaker too.” Miko informed as the phone rang once before Ratchet spoke.
“Miko, if this is to ask me to put my sirens on to get you out of class again-“
“No- no! It’s important, is Optimus there?”
“Yes-“
“Okay! So long story short I’m sitting in- guess who- Knockout’s passenger seat, say hi-“
Knockout was already regretting his choice of human, he should’ve waited for that little smart one in the glasses, or maybe that taller one, “Yes, hello, do hurry it up.”
Miko stuck her tongue out while Ratchet began sputtering over the line, “Don’t worry, he didn’t even kidnap me or anything! He has ‘vital information’ apparently, and needs help from the good guys. Think you can meet us somewhere? Or can I take him back to base?” She started to play with Knockout’s passenger window by making it go up and down and the decepticon huffed and locked it shut after forcing it closed and again Miko sighed and rolled her eyes in disappointment, so instead she stuck her booted feet up on the dash and Knockout cringed but thought better of knocking her feet off.
Optimus cleared his throat over the line while Ratchet whispered something unintelligible, speaking clearly and with authority, “Miko, Ratchet will send an appropriate address outside of town where it is safe to meet with Knockout. We will be waiting there for the two of you.... When you arrive I expect Knockout to let you out and come to us before transforming... Is that acceptable, Knockout?”
“Yes- I- yes. Whatever you want.” Knockout agreed, not surprised that he was not trusted to have the little human around him. They were so fragile and squishy, and he wasn’t surprised at how deadly serious the tone of the prime was. Of course it was always like that, at least when he heard it.
“Good, we shall see you both momentarily.” And with that Miko hung up the call and rattled off the coordinates to Knockout and off they went. He slid his seatbelt across her before he picked up the speed and she squawked before settling down once she realized he was planning on opting for speed to get to their destination. It only took a few short minutes to arrive with Knockout’s speed, it was far outside of town in the desert, in a small secluded basin with a ridge overlooking it. He was certain any autobot he didn’t see in front of him was up there waiting to get the drop on him if he made a wrong move. Waiting in the basin together was Optimus Prime himself, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead.
Knockout stopped a good distance away and opened his passenger side door, unbuckling Miko and allowing her to exit. “Do not leave your coat inside of me- thank you.” He reminded sternly as Miko was getting up and she simply rolled her eyes before trotting happily over to the three autobots in wait, saying something to them that sounded like ‘I told you he’s alright’. And as soon as she disappeared behind Bulkhead’s massive pede he transformed and crossed his arms over his chassis defensively. Again nerves set in, truly he wanted to put on a brave face but it was kind of hard with Optimus Prime staring at you like that. “So- uh- I’ll just get right to it then. I’ve removed my decepticon serial tracker, and here’s a datapad with the locations of a few of our energon mines. If you help me I’ll give you the rest of them- here’s my uh.. weapon too. And I have a few crates of medical supplies to give you, I hid them off the ship.”
The tracker was sawed in half in Knockout’s servos as he produced it, having taken it out right after groundbridging, and the datapad from his subspace, tossing the tracker in the space between them, and more gently placing the datapad there as well on the ground. He followed with taking his energon prod out of his pocket, holding it at the business end and putting it in the pile in front of him before backing up a little. He took a pause and vented audibly, trying to relax himself as he looked at Optimus Prime’s neutral expression. “Breakdown’s spark signature came back online last week and I was told after Airachnid killed him MECH came in and took what was left. I have been trying to locate it, but Soundwave won’t let me near any actual tracking equipment and if I even did find him alive Megatron would have me turn him into spare parts. We do not restore severely damaged mechs, we give them mercy killings.” He saw Bulkhead shift uncomfortably and ignored the autobots discomfort at how blunt he was being, continuing on, “So I’m asking you for help because that’s what you all do correct? Unyielding kindness and rescue missions and such?”
If the prime was surprised by the information it didn’t show on his faceplate like it did the other two autobots. “If Breakdown still functions we cannot let a fellow Cybertronian continue to suffer at the hands of MECH. I do believe you, Knockout. I do not think you would go to this much trouble to cause trouble. But, I know your loyalty to the Decepticon cause is quite high. What do you wish to accomplish by us aiding you?” Optimus didn’t know how much of a loaded question that was, and now it was Knockout’s turn to squirm uncomfortably. He and Breakdown had talked about going neutral as they had done before landing on Earth, doing their own thing and abandoning the whole war. It wasn’t their fight anyways.
“My loyalties lie with myself and Breakdown, not the Decepticons. If I try and go back after this I’ll get scrapped for sure, especially if I bring him as well. Without a medic there soon the injuries will start to pile up and the war is as good as yours. Someone might be able to step up and do minor tasks on the ship but if you truly injured someone it would go untreated.” Knockout said, knowing they had already heard he was only doing this for Breakdown’s benefit as if that wasn’t obvious enough already, but confirming it just made him feel exposed. Nobody was supposed to see him like this; vulnerable and weak, willing to do anything for one mech in particular. He used to be ruthless, he used to be one of the most feared decepticon doctors in his league and now he was practically begging the Autobots for help. And not even for himself either. “I am willing to help you in turn only if I am allowed to repair Breakdown. I’ll give you the leftover medical supplies and offer any assistance I can. I won’t be able to go back after this anyways, Soundwave probably sounded the alarm as soon as I removed my tracker.”
Optimus didn’t look at his two companions but they were murmuring something Knockout couldn’t hear, “I believe your intentions are good Knockout, we will help you retrieve Breakdown and you may repair him in our limited medical facilities. Your skills will no doubt be of help to us.” Optimus actually offered what seemed to be a sympathetic look before he turned to Bumblebee. “Gather his weapon and the datapad Bumblebee.’ He activated his comm and a moment later a green swirling groundbridge activated and Miko was picked up by Bulkhead, saying something about how they were letting anyone in these days.
Knockout was almost frozen next to Ratchet as they listened to the communications channel. He was wringing his servos together painfully, scraping at them to ground himself and feel something, trying to get his flight reflex to settle. If Ratchet had noticed he thought better of saying anything to him about it, and instead was guiding the autobots through the rescue mission and where the signal was located within the MECH compound. After the signal had been booted into their systems it was much stronger and easily located. Knockout had been afraid if they waited too much longer the signal might go out so first they gathered the supplies Knockout had hidden, much more of them going than needed because they clearly didn’t trust him. It was medical grade energon, surgical tools, replacement parts, coding aides, solvent, nano-bite mesh, all sorts of things he knew the autobots probably didn’t have access to. The boxes were placed carefully around and opened for easy access, and the med bay was prepared for a worse case scenario, and Knockout had never been so quick to prepare a station in his life. The medical station was just a corner of the main room, but he had worked with far less before so his complaining of the facilities was stifled for later. He needed to calm himself down some for when they brought him in, he was usually so good about emotionally distancing himself but this was Breakdown and he had thought he was dead for so long…
Ratchet and Optimus hadn’t trusted him completely, which was why Wheeljack was still here with his weapons out, ready to immobilize Knockout at a moment's notice. Knockout knew it was necessary but it wasn’t helping his mood to have two blasters pointed at him at all times. And Wheeljack hated him by sheer association with Breakdown which made him feel wonderful.
“Oh primus... what did they do to him?” Suddenly Knockout was pulled from his thoughts and felt his plating crawl at the tone of voice Bulkhead used as they supposedly found whom they were looking for. The chatter that followed next sounded almost like static to Knockout, and he only caught a few key words.
“He’s completely open-“
“-human transplant-“
“...it doesn’t look good.”
Ratchet was relaying some sort of emergency medical information. How to cauterize energon lines. And the next thing Knockout knew Ratchet was sending him through a groundbridge with an emergency medical pack to assist.
He knew for a fact he was dissociating the experience, he felt like on autopilot and like this wasn’t really happening. The view that greeted him when he arrived was not a good one. Optimus was doing as Ratchet instructed with Bumblebee, trying to hold energon lines closed, Arcee was covered in energon up to her elbows and Bulkhead was standing off to the side gawking at the scene next to Smokescreen who looked like he was going to throw up. Breakdown was spread out on the floor of a warehouse, chest plating pulled back and spark exposed. There was a contraption inside his chest where it looked like a human could sit, with a console next to it. His helm looked like it had just recently been attached but his bottom half was detached and one of his arms was off to the side.
The scene looked rushed and like the humans had been interrupted while trying to attach his bottom half and in the process had opened several energon lines and Breakdown was bleeding out. And with that realization Knockout sprung into action. “Move.” He said calmly to Optimus and the yellow bot as he took over, the prime holding the lines with his servos for Knockout until the medic could burn them shut. After he did get out of the way and Knockout peered into his chest cavity, weighing his options before he took his saw out and cut out the crude metal casing the humans had put in. He heard Smokescreen finally lose whatever lunch he had and Bulkhead trying to corral the kid away, Knockout almost had a mind to find it funny, but he was quite busy at the moment. With his spark exposed he examined the usually bright and gorgeous yellow that illuminated from the casing. It was more a dim yellow and rather than being vibrant it was dull as well, but still pulsing which was good. He made up his mind fairly quickly for the next course of action. “I’m going to set an IV and give his spark a jump before we go. I can carry his upper half. But I need someone to hold the energon bag while I work. Go ahead and take the rest of him back though, this shouldn’t take long.”
Knockout got to work, employing Bulkhead to gather Breakdown’s legs and arm with Arcee’s help and the Prime held the energon IV he was setting up. Smokescreen was utterly useless and he kept apologizing through gagging until Bumblebee finally took him back through the groundbridge. First he used an EM device to numb his entire frame just in case they hadn’t turned his pain receptors off and then he gathered the tubing from the IV. He slid the needle straight into one of his exposed main lines from his chest, securing it rather harshly since he was sure Breakdown couldn’t feel anything now. The doctor then immediately transformed his servo and jolted Breakdown’s spark casing, watching it immediately become more vibrant and bright. “Okay…. that should be good enough. Let’s move.”
Optimus actually ended up carrying Breakdown’s upper half back into base and Knockout carried the IV as well as any plating the humans had tried to discard. In truth the injuries weren’t so bad… Airachnid had just chopped him up it seemed before the humans got him. And they hadn’t done such a bad job piecing him together it was just crude and Knockout would have to sand down some of the welds and repaint him.
The humans had attempted to retrofit a human command center within Breakdown’s chassis without removing anything necessary. Which was why his spark was exposed and functioning, as well as all his essential components. If Ratchet was shocked at Breakdown’s condition it only showed briefly, the others had probably told him how it looked. Breakdown was placed down on the berth and Ratchet and Knockout fell into an almost wordless rhythm. They connected the fuel lines and handled any pressing matters, adding a spark stabilizer into his chassis so he wouldn’t offline from energon loss. Ratchet was arm deep in his chassis removing the leftover human additions and Knockout was reattaching his limbs methodically. It took hours, and his spark has fluctuated twice and almost offlined. And towards the end Knockout felt close to passing out, his pedes hurt, emotionally he was at his limit, and his servos ached, he was covered in energon, and he was tired.
The two medics sat back a moment and looked over the patchwork blue mech with trained optics, looking for anything else they could’ve possibly missed. “We got it all right?” Knockout asked almost hesitantly, afraid the fellow doctor would tell him something he didn’t want to hear.
“Well... we got his spark chamber restored, nerve endings attached... fuel lines are done. Welding is done.... only thing left really is to check his code because there’s an endless list of errors and mistakes the humans implemented.” Ratchet listed, wiping down his servos with a rag to rid them of energon, handing it over to Knockout and the decepticon did the same. “Course we don’t need to mess with his code until he starts to wake up. Primus knows how long that could be... I can clean up here.” There was an unspoken kindness and understanding with Ratchet’s words, he was trying to get Knockout to go recharge since there’d be more work to do tomorrow. Well he wasn’t sure if it was kindness or pity, but Knockout wasn’t going to complain.
“I- thank you....” Knockout began hesitantly, looking over Breakdown’s patched up frame to avoid looking at the autobot. “I’ll do the code tomorrow, better to just get it out of the way... If um... there’s any changes, can you let me know?”
Ratchet nodded in acknowledgement, “If his vitals shift I’ll be pinged and I’ll come get you. I don’t think they will though, he seems pretty stable.” The old mech began to gather the tools to clean as well as wipe down the surfaces covered in spilled energon. “I’ll get someone to find you a place to recharge and clean up.” The other Autobots had quickly vacated the entire area during this time, the humans were nowhere in sight, left when Knockout showed up probably. Occasionally through the surgery Optimus had come in and out, seemingly unphased by the carnage and mess, but he never said much, only checking in.
Moments later Ratchet called someone and Arcee came out to the main room and seemed to look over all the work the two had done before gesturing for Knockout to follow her. A tense silence fell over the two as she led him back down the hall, looking back at him every so often and it made Knockout sigh loudly. “Spit it out. I’m not in the mood to argue, autobot. So just threaten me or whatever it is you-”
“I’m sorry Airachnid did that to him, nobody deserves that.” He hadn’t been expecting that to come out of her mouth, maybe a warning to watch himself or a threat. Not… sympathy? Empathy? Pity? He couldn’t tell.
“Oh…. well- I- thank you I suppose….” Knockout said as he relaxed, the tiredness in his voice finally revealing itself. “Airachnid has always been one to brutalize things.” He shrugged, not even finding enough energy to be mad at her, he was more angry at MECH or playing with him.
“She has, which is why I’m sorry… He’ll recover though, right?”
“Hopefully.. this is definitely the worst injury he’s had but he doesn’t break too easily.” Knockout answered, stopping when the little two-wheeler did and looking to the door she gestured at.
“Here’s the washrack, I’m gonna wait out here and then take you to your room once you’re done. I have a cube of energon for you too.” Arcee explained as she leaned against the wall.
“Okay. Thank you.” Knockout questioned the kindness but went in and gladly cleaned himself, hating the sticky feeling drying energon always gave. He took care to use the simple washracks to their best ability. Scraping the energon out of the seams of his sensitive servos felt so good, especially under the scalding hot water he had it set to. It would ruin his paint a little but he couldn’t care less, it felt so good on his aching frame. He went as quick as possible though, knowing he’d be annoyed if an Autobot was using his facilities and taking their sweet time. And recharging sounded much better than staying awake any longer. The red mech dried off and went back out to the hall, following Arcee back down the way they had come for a while before they stopped.
“It’s not the fanciest or anything, but it’s a place to sleep. Here’s your cube too.” Arcee handed over the single cube and opened the door to a small habsuite. The single berth was shoved against the wall with a few shelves and only enough room to really walk to the storage unit next to the berth.
“You don’t see me complaining.. Thank you again.” Knockout said genuinely, giving her the briefest of kind looks which she seemed to appreciate.
“You’re welcome. I have to actually lock you in. For safety. Optimus didn’t want to really but it’s a necessary precaution. Just in case. He trusts you for some reason.” Arcee said, waiting for Knockout to enter the room, which he did. “Someone will let you out at seven in the morning, you can get another cube then too. And I think Optimus wants to talk with you about some rules.”
“The prime sets a curfew I’m guessing? Thinks he’s everyone’s sire?” Knockout snorted, and Arcee actually smiled in slight amusement.
“Something like that. Goodnight, Knockout.”
The door was shut and locked and Knockout sat on the edge of the berth, staring down at his energon cube before he sipped it slowly. He sighed and put the cube on the table next to the berth and fully sat back on the berth, taking in his new room for the foreseeable future. Definitely not big enough to fit both him and Breakdown, but he could live with that he supposed if Breakdown was okay. There was no mirror, the walls were bare, but there was ventilation and a blanket folded at the end of the berth. Wasn’t a very soft berth like the plush one he had commandeered on the Nemesis, but he could live with sleeping on the floor frankly to get Breakdown back to functioning.
It was as if it just clicked in his processor. He was alone in this room, no Soundwave listening, nobody was demanding anything from him and all the emotions he had been bottling up over Breakdown came out all at once. The tears welled up in his optics, he had been crying every night pretty consistently since Breakdown’s supposed death but had stopped when the signal popped up. Now he was crying with what he felt was relief, at least for now. He pulled the folded blanket up to his faceplate and wailed into it, sobbing until he tired himself out.