Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The forest at night was quiet, a stillness hung in the air. The silence only interrupted by the low whispering of the wind blowing cool damp air through the tall pine trees. It was quite the contrary to what had just transpired mere minutes ago. A blue mech's mangled frame lay still on the mossy floor. His left arm and right leg ripped off and tossed aside, His other leg twisted all the way around, His head barely attached to his torso and energon leaking from every claw-shaped stab wound in his abdomen. Crushed, bent, contorted and disfigured he lay there, silently watching the stars go by with his single, lonely eye. Wishing, hoping, praying that someone, anyone out there will find him before it’s too late.

“Optimus, I’m picking up a faint energon signal” Ratchet said, typing away at his keyboard.

“Do you think the Decepticons have unearthed a new vein?” Optimus asked, joining him at the computer.

“If they did, it's a very small one.” Ratchet said as he stopped typing to look at Optimus. “Should we investigate it?”

“A small amount of energon, is still energon nonetheless. Arcee, Bumblebee, with me.” Optimus said as he turned towards the ground bridge.

“Yes sir.” Arcee said, standing up to join him, leaving Jack sitting in front of the TV.

Bumblebee buzzed sadly, his doors drooping slightly.

“It’s ok Bee! We can race another time.” Raf said smiling, putting his hand on Bee’s arm-plating.

Bee pumped his fists, letting out various beeps and whistles excitedly, walking quickly to catch up with Optimus Prime and Arcee as Ratchet opened the ground bridge.

“Autobots, Roll out!” Optimus called as he, Arcee and Bumblebee transformed and drove through the ground bridge.

Bulkhead walked in as soon as the ground bridge closed.

“Aw man! Did I miss the party bus?” He asked sadly

“I’m afraid so, but stay close in case they need back up.” Ratchet turned back to his computer to resume his monitoring.

“Hear that Bulk? You might be able to join the smackdown in round 2!” Miko said excitedly, perched on Bulkhead's shoulder.

“Yeah well, for the team's sake, I almost hope there isn’t one.”

Optimus Prime came charging out of the ground bridge, transforming and landing with a thud. Battle mask up, weapons hot and ready. Bee and Arcee weren’t far behind, mimicking his battle ready stance. But where they landed certainly didn’t look like an energon mine. Instead they saw a dark, misty forest so quiet you could hear the smallest gear ticking away.

“No sign of Decepticons.” Arcee said, looking around, holding her blasters up. “No sign of any energon either, Ratchets scanners might be faulty”

Bumblebee beeped a couple times, pointing at the ground.

Optimus knelt down to look at what he was pointing at.

“This dirt has been freshly disturbed, Though I don’t believe there are any here now, I believe the Decepticons were here earlier today.” Optimus said, standing up again.

“Do you think it’s a trap? The ‘Cons set up a fake energon signal to lure us out here, then they attack?” Arcee asked, pointing her blasters again.

“I do not think that is the case, If it were, the Decepticons would have already sprung their trap, before we would have had the chance to figure it out...” Optimus drifted off, staring at something a few yards away. He went to investigate, followed by Arcee and Bee.

“Holy Primus, is that?” Arcee asked in disbelief.

“Breakdown’s arm” Optimus finished, hesitating but eventually picking it up.

Bumblebee beeped and whistled, pointing at the arm then gesturing to his own body and shrugging.

“Bee’s right, if this is breakdown’s arm, where’s the rest of him?” Arcee translated.

Bumblebee scouted ahead, checking behind trees and bushes before coming to a dead-stop a few yards away.

“Bumblebee? Are you alright?” Optimus Prime asked, slowly moving closer.

Bumblebee turned around, his bright blue pupils small in shock, as he pointed to what from a distance appeared to be a pile of scrap metal. But as Optimus and Arcee moved their headlights closer, they noticed the pile of scrap metal had a familiar deep blue paint job.

“Found him.” said Arcee, not quite joking but too stunned to say anything else.

There he was, just barely recognizable, laying on the forest floor.

Bumblebee beeped 3 short beeps and Arcee cautiously moved forward, not moving her blaster from where it was aimed at Breakdown's head. Once she was close enough, she knelt down, and put her audio receptor close to Breakdown’s chest plate.
“I can hear moving parts, I think he’s still alive… barely. ” Arecee said, quickly straightening up.

Optimus turned on his comm “Ratchet, reopen the ground bridge, and prepare the medbay.”

“Optimus you can’t be serious. I mean I know helping would be the right thing to do but, Breakdown?” Arcee asked quickly.

“As I’ve said before, Though it is unlikely any Decepticon would choose the path of good, even they possess the potential for change. Sometimes we must rise above ourselves for the greater good.”

The ground bridge portal swirled open and a frantic Ratchet rushed out “Who’s hurt? I just-” he froze, staring at Breakdown, then to Optimus. “This better not mean what I think it means.”

“It does” Arcee said, holding the arm that Optimus gave her to hold as he and Bumblebee moved to lift Breakdown.

Chapter Text

“Uuuugh” Breakdown groaned as he came to “Where am-?” He saw Ratchet with his back turned standing over a table of medical tools.

“Autobots!” Breakdown tried to sit up quickly, but his efforts were thwarted by the restraints keeping him tied to the table. On second thought maybe that was a good thing because just trying to sit up sent waves of pain shooting through his whole body. 

“Oh, you’re awake.” Ratchet said, turning to face Breakdown. He was holding a scanner which he used to examine Breakdown while he talked. “You were pretty banged up when we found you. I wasn’t sure if it would be 5 hours or 5 days before you would wake up. Tell me, where does it hurt the most?”

Breakdown scoffed “As if I’d ever tell you Autobot!” 

“Alright then, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” Ratchet said, turning back to his table of tools. He came back around with a mallet. “Does it hurt when I do this?”  He asked as he tapped Breakdown’s right knee.

“ARGH! Filthy Autobot! You knew that would hurt!” Breakdown shouted through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t, that’s why I asked. But, that was very informative.” Ratchet said, pulling out a data pad and inputting the results.

“Oh, when I break out of these bonds, you’re dead!” Breakdown threatened, slightly struggling to keep up his macho attitude against the pain. 

“I see your patient is awake.” Optimus came into the room, moving to stand next to Ratchet.

“Optimus Prime! Never thought you would take a hostage. But it won’t work, Megatron will never pay a ransom!” Breakdown said seethingly. 

“You are not a hostage, Breakdown.” Optimus tried to explain before being cut off.

“Oh really? Then what’s with the restraints? Are you telling me I could walk out of here if I wanted to?” Breakdown retorted.

Optimus glanced at Ratchet who shrugged as if to say ‘May as well let him figure it out for himself’. Ratchet reached underneath the table Breakdown was laying on and flipped a switch, disengaging the restraints. 

“Ha!” Breakdown lept from the table but upon trying to land crumpled into a heap “GAH! What did you do to me?” 

“Those restraints were simply to keep you from hurting yourself. As I said before, you were badly damaged, it will take time and rest for you to heal.” Ratchet said, shaking his head. 

Optimus moved forward to help Breakdown up. “We are not holding you hostage, We are simply trying to assist you.” He hooked his arm under Breakdown’s. 

“But… Why?” Breakdown asked, still trying (and failing) to hide the amount of pain he was in. 

“Don’t ask me.” Ratchet grumbled, moving to tilt the table for Breakdown to get back on it.

“We will always help those in need, no matter if they are an Autobot or a Decepticon.”

With Optimus’s help, Breakdown made his way back to the medical table, finally coming to lay down like he had before as Ratchet raised the table again. Breakdown though about what Optimus had said. He had thought it was strange that the Autobots hadn’t taken him apart for scrap by now, like the Decepticons would have if they had found him so broken. Had they even looked? How long had he been out there? Did anyone care that he was missing? 

“So, I’ll ask you again, Where does it hurt the most?” Ratchet asked, Interrupting his thoughts. 

Breakdown didn’t answer at first, still wary of the Autobot. “Right leg” He mumbled. 

Ratchet nodded, “Thank you.”

“With all due respect sir, ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Bulkhead shouted at Optimus, his voice echoing off the training room walls. “Rescuing him from humans was one thing, but this is too far!”  He was furious, How could Optimus have done this? He knows he has a history with Breakdown. 

“Bulkhead, I understand you’re upset with my decision-” Optimus started to explain but he was cut off.

“What do we do when he’s fixed? You think he’ll say ‘see ya!’ and just forget about the whole thing?” Bulkhead kept going, “ He’s a menace! What if he hurts the kids?” Finally he paused, seeing Optimus still patiently waiting for him to finish. “Sorry.” He said, looking down.

“I realize you have concerns with my decision. Rest assured, every precaution will be taken to ensure the safety of our base and the humans.” Optimus reassured Bulkhead, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“If he tries anything, I swear I’ll rip his other arm off!” Miko shouted from the scaffolding surrounding the training room, shaking her fist in the air.

Bulkhead sighed as he went to help her onto his shoulder. “You, are gonna promise me you wont go anywhere near the Medbay, got it?“  Bulkhead said sternly.

“Pshh, C’mon Bulk! You know me! I’ll-” Miko started but before she could finish, she saw how concerned Bulkhead was. “I-, I promise.” She finished quietly.

“Bulkhead has a point though. What are we going to do once Breakdown is fixed?” Arcee asked, her arms crossed.

“Once Breakdown has healed from his injuries, we will hold him as a prisoner.” Optimus 

explained, “Although I am hopeful that by that point, imprisonment won’t be necessary.”

Bulkhead stared at Optimus blankly before he and Miko burst out laughing. “ You really think Breakdown is gonna switch sides?” He asked in between laughs, “That’s about as likely as Megatron starting a flower garden! Sorry Optimus, I know you want to see the best in every bot, But this one’s a lost cause!” He turned to leave followed by Arcee who looked back at Optimus one last time before leaving. 

Bumblebee buzzed and beeped, crossing his arms in frustration.

“They are entitled to their own opinions, Bumblebee. As are you.” Optimus paused, putting a hand on the young scout’s shoulder “It is understandable that they are wary of Breakdown, they feel they have much to lose. I am,” He paused again, “Well aware of the risk I am taking putting faith in him.” 

Bumblebee turned to look at Optimus, Beeping as he put his fist to his chest as a sign of allegiance.

Optimus gave a small smile “I am grateful for your support, friend.”   

“Miko! What are you doing?” Jack shouted as he and Raf ran to catch up with Miko.

“The bot’s were in such a hurry to get us away from Breakdown, I forgot my phone!” Miko responded without slowing down.

Post-Breakdown arriving, The Autobots had rushed Jack, Raf and Miko into one of the spare offices down the hall from the main silo, leaving them with not much more than a couple milk crates to sit on, a game of checkers and a warning to ‘stay put’. A warning that Miko fully intended to ignore out of sheer boredom. 

“Didn’t you promise Bulkhead that you would stay away from the Medbay? What if he finds out?” Jack asked, trying to be the voice of reason as usual. 

“Unless you want my fist in your face, he won’t find out!” Miko answered, pausing to turn and shake her fist in his face. “Plus! I have you guys as lookout if anything goes wrong!” 

“I don’t think this is a good idea. What if Breakdown spots us?” Raf said, struggling slightly to keep up with Miko’s fast pace.

“Relax! I remember seeing Ratchet put the table-handcuff thingies on him!” Miko reassured him.

“ ‘Restraints’? I guess it’s something. But what if-” Raf was cut off by Miko

“SHHH!” she put a finger to her lips and pointed up at Breakdown who was lying still on the Medbay table. Strangely enough, Ratchet was nowhere to be seen. Before she could walk past him, Raf tugged on her shirt.

“I don’t see any restraints!” He whispered. 

“He looks like he’s, Sleeping?” Jack noticed. “I mean we can’t actually see his eye from this side but, he’s so… still!” 

It was true, from where they were standing on Breakdown's right side, though they could only see his eye patch, he really did look like he was sleeping. 

“See? It’s fine! All we gotta do is be quiet!” Miko said as she quietly darted for the stairs up to their hang out spot before Jack could grab her.

“Miko!” Jack hissed quietly, keeping an eye on Breakdown while making sure Raf was safely behind him.

Miko put her finger to her mouth again, silently shushing him. From her new perspective on the ledge, She could see more from Breakdown from the left side, including seeing his other eye closed. She motioned at Jack, pointing at Breakdown then pretending like she was sleeping.

Not realizing he had been holding his breath, Jack sighed in relief. 

Miko continued on her quest for her phone searching the couch and TV stand till she found it on the coffee table. She grabbed it and triumphantly waved it at Raf and Jack, standing on a milk crate and leaning precariously over the safety railing. Suddenly, the milk crate she was standing on slipped and Miko was sent tumbling over the railing. “AHHHHH!” 

“MIKO!” Raf screamed without thinking. 

All at once, Breakdown’s eye opened as he quickly sat up and lunged for Miko, gently catching her before she hit the ground. 

“AHHH-! Um, wait what?” Miko stuttered in shock. Although she couldn’t tell what shocked her more; being caught or Breakdown doing the catching. 

Breakdown paused for a second, wincing from the sudden movement, before he lifted Miko to where Jack and Raf were standing, frozen in shock. After she had climbed off his hand he fell back onto the table, sighing in exhaustion. 

“I thought you were asleep?” Jack managed to mutter through his shock.

“Nope, I heard you come in. I thought if it looked like I was unconscious, you would leave.” Breakdown didn’t look at Jack to answer him, still laying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling.

“Not that I’m ungrateful but, why did you catch me?” Miko asked, finally recovering from her shock.

“Reflex. Something’s falling, I catch it. And” Breakdown paused, “It was the right thing to do” He finished a little quieter. 

“Huh! Well, thanks for the save but, we’ll be going now!” Miko did a mock-salute as she, Jack and Raf turned to leave.

“Wait!” Breakdown called, surprising everyone including himself, “I- uh, All this quietness is making me want to break things! If nothing else, you humans are good at making noise!”

The trio stopped “Are you… asking us to stay?”  Jack asked for the group.

“Maybe.” Breakdown answered after a few seconds.

“OK! Team huddle!” Miko jumped in, forming a circle with Raf and Jack. “Guys we should stay!” 

“What?! Stay in the room with an unrestrained Decepticon?!” Raf asked in disbelief.

“No, we should stay so we can play video games. Ok yes, in the room with an unrestrained, incapacitated Decepticon.” Miko said “Before you call me crazy again, think about it. He wants us to stay to, let’s be honest, keep him company. If we’re doing what he wants, we can do whatever we want without having to worry about him coming near us!”

Jack opened his mouth to counter Miko, but stopped short to think. “Actually, sound logic.” he said after a minute.

“Ohhh, well…” Raf wrung his hands nervously “Fine, but if anyone asks! I tried to talk you out of it!”

“Yes! Wheels of Fury III, here I come!” Miko shouted excitedly as she ran for the stairs again, this time with Raf in tow. 

Jack hung back, instead walking closer to Breakdown, “If you try anything, I guarantee it’ll be a lot longer till you can walk again!” he threatened.

Breakdown chuckled “You sure are feisty for such a small being. Don’t worry, I’ll leave you alone.”

Somewhat satisfied with his answer, Jack went to join Miko and Raf just as Ratchet and Bulkhead ran in.

“Miko?! What are you doing here? I was helping Ratchet get supplies when I heard you scream. But when I checked the office, you weren’t there!” He turned his anger to Breakdown, transforming his hands into wrecking balls “I swear if you hurt a single hair on her head!”  

Breakdown didn’t try to move away, instead simply narrowing his eye.

“Bulkhead wait!” Miko called from the living area “I’m ok! I’m sorry I left the office, It was just so boring and I forgot my phone. So I went to get it, but I fell and Breakdown caught me!” Miko talked as fast as she could, taking a deep breath once she was finished. 

“You- he-?! Wait, what?” Bulkhead’s anger turned to confusion as he lowered his wrecking-fists and looked at Breakdown in disbelief. 

“If it didn’t hurt so much, I’d shrug.” Breakdown said sarcastically. 

“...And since he obviously can’t move much right now, and because of Miko’s incurable ‘boredom-itus’, we figured we would stick around and play some video games!” Jack explained.

Bulkhead looked at Ratchet, who was looking equally perplexed. Although maybe a more accurate description is: Ratchet, who’s processor was frying because of all the ways everything that just happened could have gone catastrophically wrong. 

“Don’t get your wires in a twist Autobot. I have no interest in squishing a couple of humans.” Breakdown cut in.

“As ‘reassuring’ as that is” Ratchet said sarcastically “I’ll feel safer with you in cuffs.” He said as he re-engaged the table restraints. 

Bulkhead still hadn’t moved. Did Breakdown really do that? It’s not like there’s any way for him to fake it. Is it possible he’s changed? He shook the thought away. No! This is Breakdown! He has to have some alternative motive! “I-, I’m going out on patrol.” He said as he transformed and drove away.

Chapter Text

On board the Nemesis. Dreadwing stalks the halls with two injured Vehicon troopers in tow. Typically, Dreadwing wouldn’t bother with escorting the injured to the Medbay. But today he was under orders from Megatron to ‘Check-up’ on a certain doctor.

“No one has seen Knockout leave the Medbay in several cycles. I’m concerned our medic is too wrapped up in the past to focus on the future. Bring him back to the present.” Dreadwing recalls Megatron's exact words. Coincidentally, It had been several cycles since Arachnid had defected and slaughtered Breakdown. Dreadwing was pulled out of his thoughts as they arrived at the Medbay doors. 

Upon entering the room, judging from the disarray it became apparent that an intervention was necessary. Medical equipment and supplies lay strewn across the floor as if they had been thrown from the shelves in a fit of rage. Tables flipped, glass shattered and walls scratched the place looked as if an entire hive of insecticons had come through. Sitting hunched over on one of the few non-flipped tables in the room, was Knockout. Judging from the several empty cans of high grade energon, as well as the half empty one in his servos, he was not in “perfect working condition .” 

“Knockout!” Dreadwing shouted, breaking the silence.

“Guhhh, what-?” Knockout startled awake but didn’t sit upright. “Whooo’s there?”

“I have patients for you to fix, Megatron’s orders.” Dreadwing barked. He didn’t have the time to deal with this. 

Knockout dragged himself from the table, shuffling towards Dreadwing. The can of high grade still in his servo, spilling out onto the floor. “Is that so? And here I thought you were here to give me a million shanix.” he shook the now empty can in Dreadwing’s face. 

“Dear Primus.” Dreadwing said, knocking the can out of his servo. “Get a hold of yourself, soldier! Engage your fuel intake moderation chip, and attend to these troopers! You have a duty to serve the Decepticon cause!”

“ ‘Knockout, do this. Knockout fix them.’ I have served the Decepticon cause! And look where that’s gotten me; on an alien planet where I'm not allowed to look for the remains of my conj-, My partner.” Knockout went off on Dreadwing, almost slipping up at the end. 

For a moment, Dreadwing paused, slightly taken aback by Knockout’s outburst. “I am, sorry for your loss. But that does not excuse you from your duties as a medic. Am I clear?” 

There was a soft click as Knockout re-engaged his FIM chip. “Crystal.” he said, turning his attention to the Vehicons as Dreadwing left. “You, come here.” He pointed to the first Vehicon who was holding his right servo in his left. Knockout took it in one servo and the trooper’s servo-less arm in the other and jammed the exposed wiring together.

“Argh! That hurts.” The Vehicon flailed his free arm.

“Oh stop being dramatic!” Knockout said as he grabbed a welder and reinforced the joint. “Does it hurt when I do this?” he asked as he brought his fist down on the trooper's digits.

“OW!” The trooper screamed.

“Then you’re fine.” Knockout shoved him out into the hall as he grabbed the other, now shaking Vehicon. “Now, what’s wrong with you?” 

“I-it’s my leg plating, it’s bent, bu-but I’m sure it’s fine!” The Vehicon tried to raise his hands in defense but it was too late. Knockout had already grabbed a mallet and swung it at the trooper's legs, sweeping him off his feet. “uuugh.” He groaned from the floor.

Knockout kicked the trooper over “Hmm, just one more swing should do it.” he said as he pulled the mallet back.

The trooper’s screams echoed off of the halls of the ship.

For such fragile creatures, the humans seemed to really enjoy putting themselves in harm's way. On Cybertron, racing was one of the most common pastimes, and being good at it was a point of pride. Of course it was not without its dangers, many a racer damaged beyond repair due to inexperience. It was for this reason that Knockout was surprised at how much the humans enjoyed racing almost as much as they had back on Cybertron, seeing as the consequences of inexperience were more severe. Nonetheless, Knockout was grateful for the small slice of Cybertronian culture he could continue to indulge in even on a planet that was not his own. 

The air in the cement river bed buzzed with the roar of car engines. Several colorful cars decked out with lights and custom paint jobs lined up underneath a bridge, revving their engines in anticipation. All except one, a sleek red sports car with white flame decals, gold accents and tinted windows, sat idling but not making a show of itself, waiting. Though he had never been good at waiting and quite enjoyed being admired, Knockout did his best not to draw too much attention to himself. 

Finally, a woman holding two red flags stepped out into the middle of the river bed, stopping a few paces in front of and directly between the two front cars. She lifted one of the bright red flags above her head and was met with the resounding applause of the car's engines screaming into the night. Knockout stayed silent. She smiled as she lifted the other flag to complete an ‘X’ above her head, letting the moment breathe before she quickly sliced the flags downward. In a flurry of squealing tires and burning rubber the race was off!

At first, the cars remained uniform, staying in the same orientation that they had started in. But within moments the order was disrupted by the racers hunger for first place, dodging and weaving between each other. The makeshift track twisted to the left and in response, the racers drifted so as to conserve their speed, although not all of them were successful and thus, 2 racers were sent tumbling. Within the group of those still in the race, Knockout pressed forward. 

Racing is different when you yourself are the vehicle. You don’t need a seatbelt when you have suspension to absorb every shock and bump. Switching gears is so much easier when you can feel every mile per hour coursing through your chassis. Accelerating through turns is as easy as walking. 

Though Knockout will admit, the humans know how to drive dirty, or perhaps it was because he was in an illegal street race. Narrowly avoiding cars spinning out of control after pit maneuvers, Knockout bobbed and weaved his way through till he was axle-to-axle with the first car. The human in the car grinned smugly before swinging out to crash back into Knockout. Knockout’s tires squealed, holding their ground as they sped down the track.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his optic sensor, Knockout saw a navy blue, heavy duty truck, driving down the road parallel to the track. Knockout nearly cut his engine, Could it be? The truck started to turn onto a side street. Knockout immediately forgot all about the race, he veered left climbing up the slanted sides of the concrete river bed. He hit the road hard, ignoring the pain shooting through his shock absorbers and pursuing the blue truck. Could it be him? Is there a chance he survived? Why hadn’t he come back? A million questions raced through his processor as he followed a few car lengths behind. 

The city outskirts gave way to a quiet residential area of cookie cutter houses all lined up in neat rows, street lamps illuminating every other house. What would Breakdown be doing here? The thought had barely finished computing before the truck pulled into one of the driveways. Knockout pulled off to the side of the road, his engine running hot in anticipation. Until a human got out of the cab, It’s not Breakdown. 

Knockout waited till the human had walked inside, before he sped away from the curb. Anger, sadness, frustration, embarrassment, Knockout couldn’t tell what he hated more, the fact that he had actually followed the truck, or the fact that he had allowed himself to hope for even a moment. In his emotion-fueled exit, he didn’t pay any attention to where he was going, leaving the road and driving off into the Nevada plateau. So wrapped up in his spiraling thoughts he almost didn’t see the cliff he was about to drive off till one of his front tires no longer felt solid ground.

“Ack!” He quickly transformed and clawed at the ledge, digging his digi-tips into the desert floor. His pedes scrabbled against the rocky cliff face, feeling for foot holds. Carefully but quickly, Knockout climbed the cliff and hoisted himself back up to standing.  His spark still racing as he stumbled back from the ledge. 

“For the love of Primus!” he shouted to himself as he balled his servos, “Get a grip! He’s gone!” His words echoed through the canyon, bouncing back and forth. Knockout wished with all that he was that he would believe the words this time. But deep down, some stubborn part of him knew he never would.

When moving anything below your neck causes excruciating pain, you don’t have a lot of options for entertainment. Among those limited options is staring at the ceiling contemplating your decisions. This was something Breakdown did quite a lot of nowadays, in between regular status updates from the Autobot medic of course. Previously he had been preoccupied organizing Vehicons, supervising energon mines and pummeling Autobots to give any thought to his past choices. Why would he? Fighting for the Decepticon cause was all he had ever wanted to do! Spending his days dominating with his strength, chasing the thrill of life-or-death stakes with the bonus of having the advantage of being a Decepticon? It was better than anything he could have hoped for! But, laying immobile in the Autobot base, this being the second time they have saved him from joining the Well of All Sparks, Breakdown couldn’t help but wonder why the enemy had shown him more compassion than the ones he had devoted his life to.

Breakdown thought back to a time earlier in the war, right before Cybertron became uninhabitable. He had been a part of a mission to raid a secret Autobot base they had just discovered. The battle was brutal, energy blasts flew back and forth, the weak were trampled in the chaos, it was a metal-on-metal massacre. In the end, the Decepticons were forced to retreat but the Autobots didn’t stick around either now that they had been exposed. But in the heat of the battle, Breakdown had been knocked offline and buried under a mountain of rubble. When he finally booted up, he was greeted with an aching processor, a disabled arm and surrounded by the cold, gray corpses of his friends and foes. Following protocol on instinct, he immediately attempted to radio the nearest Decepticon station, surprised when Megatron’s voice came through his comm unit. 

“Decepticon station Lima-Zulu, state your business.” Megatron’s gruff voice answered.

“Lord Megatron! Uh, This is Breakdown reporting sir.” Breakdown was caught off guard by Megatron himself responding. “I need a ground bridge to the nearest medical station.” 

“Breakdown? Breakdown… Ah yes, I remember you now. Where have you been? If I remember correctly, your squadron returned ages ago!” The ever present anger in his voice especially noticeable.  

“I just came back online, I was knocked out.” Breakdown reported factually.  “I’m sure my squadron is searching for me as we speak.” 

“Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think they reported anyone MIA.” Megatron corrected him. “In any case, we are locked on to your coordinates, report to med bay, then await further instructions.” 

He stood there for a moment, his processor finally catching up. His squadron probably thought he had just escaped, right? A ground bridge swirled open a few paces in front of Breakdown interrupting his thoughts. On the other side he found himself in a Decepticon medical bay, buzzing with nurse-bots hustling back and forth. 

“THERE you are!” a voice called above the ambient noise. 

Breakdown turned to see a sleek red bot making a bee-line for him from the other side of the bay. “Knockout?! What are you doing here?” He asked, a smile spreading across his face.

“Never mind that! How dare you disappear like that?” Knockout ushered Breakdown to an empty recharge slab, shaking his finger in his face as he scolded him. “And look at the state of you! You look like you were run over by a vengeful tank!” he continued as he collected his tools and crawled onto the slab to address Breakdown’s limp arm.

“Missed you too Doc.” Breakdown said, forgetting all about Megatron and his squadron. 

“Oh don’t start with me! You were missing for so long! You really had me worried that you were captured! Or worse…” Although Breakdown couldn’t see Knockout’s face, he could hear the fear in his wavering voice. With his free servo, Breakdown gently grasped Knockout’s arm, stopping him from working to look into his eyes.

“Knockout.” He gazed into his glowing red optics, “I swear, I would cross the entire universe a hundred times over before I ever left you by yourself.” he said, meaning the words with every atom of his being.

Knockout raised his hand to caress Breakdown face, slowly moving closer to-

No. Nope! He couldn’t take another second of the memory. Any longer and he’s sure he would break. It’s bad enough that he was immobilized behind enemy lines, He could not afford to show weakness. But he had to get out somehow!

At that moment, Ratchet walked into the med bay. “Good news; vital statistics are looking better. Nowhere near fully recovered but, better.” he said it like he was almost disappointed. Breakdown wasn’t surprised.

“Must be hard.” Breakdown said.

“I beg your pardon?” Ratchet asked, his tone a mix of confusion and suspicion. 

“Fixing an enemy. I’m sure you’d much rather be watching my spark-pulse flatline.” Breakdown mocked, testing the metaphorical waters. “What’s stopping you?” 

“I’m just following orders.” said Ratchet, with his back turned still working. He glanced at Breakdown “From someone with more patience than me.” 

“Ah, The Prime.” Breakdown paused, “How do you know you can trust him?” His tone had shifted from provocative to genuine curiosity. 

The shift in his tone caught Ratchet off guard, having his turn to pause and think. 

“I suppose, it’s because his actions are true. And…, because he trusts me.” 

A silence fell over the room, Breakdown receded into his thoughts again. He thought about the Decepticons, all the missions he’d been on, all the orders he’d carried out, all the times he’d been left, forgotten or unaccounted for. 

At this point, Ratchet had wrapped up his diagnostic scans and had started to leave. 

“Wait.” Breakdown called after him. 

Ratchet didn’t turn to face him but he stopped walking.

“I want to talk to him, Optimus Prime.”

Chapter Text

“Breakdown, I am told you wish to speak to me.” Optimus Prime said as he walked into the med bay after Ratchet. 

“Optimus Prime.” Breakdown managed to prop himself up with minimal pain to face the prime. “ I wanted to talk about the… terms, of my stay.” he said, attempting to avoid the confession for as long as possible. 

Optimus raised his eyebrows, “Is that so?” he asked, keeping his calm composure. Although this could be what he had hoped for, he had to remain cautious for the safety of everyone. 

“I’m not stupid. I know once I’m patched up you’ll throw me into a cell to rust” Breakdown grumbled. “In the interest of remaining free, I-” He hesitated. Did he really want to do this? Once he did, there would be no way to go back. No, he had to. “I want to switch sides.” 

Ratchet, who had been pretending that he wasn’t listening to their conversation, dropped his wrench. “Damn joints freezing up again.” He grumbled quietly as he hastily picked it up.    

“Breakdown, I’m glad to hear that you have made this decision. But, as pleased as I am that you are willing to join us, I’m afraid I will need more proof of your dedication before I can guarantee your freedom.” Optimus explained.

“Dedication huh?” Breakdown thought for a minute. Suddenly, he had an idea, “What if I gave you the coordinates for one of the larger Decepticon energon mines? I could even tell you when the shift changes are!”

Ratchet scoffed, finally giving up on pretending that he was not listening, “Puh-lease! Why should we trust anything you say? Especially about something that would mean walking into a trap if you’re tricking us!”  

“Ratchet, as far-fetched as it may seem, we should give him a fair chance to prove himself.”  Optimus said, trying to calm Ratchet down. 

“I-!” Ratchet started, but looking up at Optimus’s stoic face and seeing how his ever-so-slight facial expressions were pleading with him to have a little faith. He sighed,  “Alright, I just hope you know what you’re doing, Optimus.” 

Optimus nodded at Ratchet, “Now, what was this you were saying about an energon mine?” he asked.

“I lead one of the largest Decepticon mining operations on earth. If they really think I’m dead, then there’s no reason for it to not still be there.” Breakdown explained, “If I give you the exact coordinates, and make sure you can get in and out without being seen, will that show I’m dedicated?” He asked, hoping he didn’t sound as desperate as he was.

Optimus exchanged looks with Ratchet, “It will be a good start.” He said finally.

“The only problem is I can’t exactly draw you a map so I’ll just-” Breakdown started.

“What about a Cortical psychic patch?” Ratchet interrupted. “We could see exactly what the mine looked like.” he leaned closer to Optimus and whispered “Not to mention make sure that he’s not planning on double crossing us.” 

Breakdown froze. He had only seen the procedure performed once or twice but, Poking around in his memories? What if they see something and immediately decide he’s not worth it? What if they see Knockout? But, he had to gain their trust somehow if he ever wants to see him again.

“Ratchet, I do not think that will be-” Optimus started.

“I’ll do it.” Breakdown interrupted, mildly surprising Ratchet and Optimus. Ratchet hadn’t expected Breakdown to agree so quickly. Perhaps, he thought, Breakdown wouldn’t want them to see that he was planning to betray them, but if he was so readily volunteering his memories maybe, just maybe, he was being genuine?

“I…, suppose I’ll prepare my equipment then.” Ratchet muttered.

A few minutes later, Optimus had gathered the “infiltration team” AKA Arcee and Bumblebee in the Med bay to be debriefed on the mine layout. 

“I’ve activated the communications downlink so you can see what I see.” Ratchet stated, as his optical feed was displayed on a nearby monitor. It was decided that he would be the one to go into Breakdown’s thoughts simply because he was the only one not completely opposed to the idea. “Arcee, you’ll need to attach this to the base of my cranial case as I won’t be able to do it myself.” he said, handing her the other end of the cable that had already been attached to Breakdown. 

“Good luck in there Doc.” Arcee said, as she attached the cable.

As soon as the cord locked into place, From Breakdown’s perspective, one minute he was staring at the ceiling in the Autobot base. The next minute he was opening his optic, though he didn’t remember closing it, and looking into a dark empty room, the only objects inside being himself and Ratchet. The next thing he noticed was that he could move, without pain! It felt like forever since that was even a possibility and he had a quick moment to enjoy the freedom and stretch. 

“Well, Let’s get this over with.” Ratchet reminded him, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Right, the mine.” said Breakdown. As soon as he had finished saying it, their surroundings shifted from a dark room to an expansive cave, raw energon crystals poking out of every wall and crevice. 

“You weren’t kidding! How has this never shown up on my scanners?” Ratchet asked in awe.

 “It’s in the walls. I’m not really the mech to ask but something about the minerals scrambles frequencies and acts like a natural cloaking field.” Breakdown explained, walking through the cave with Ratchet in tow. “The best place to put a ground bridge would probably be here, but we’ll have to wait for a shift change 'cause there’s 2 guards stationed here an’ here” Just like before, when Breakdown mentioned the guards, they materialized into existence exactly where he pointed. Breakdown continued to walk Ratchet though the mine, being very careful to focus only on the mine so as not to let his thoughts wander. He pointed out every entrance, exit and guard station, doing his best to show that he really was serious about it all.

“You’re very… enthusiastic about this aren’t you?” Ratchet asked “I must confess, I am curious as to why you, of all Decepticons, would want to switch sides.” 

Breakdown stopped walking, trying to formulate a response. Before he could say anything, their surroundings started to blur and swirl into an ocean of color, the cave walls melting away to reform into a metal plain, stretching almost as far as the optic could see. A soft, warm breeze blew lazily through the air, scattering bits of dust and metal shavings that tapped musically as they bounced across the floor. In the distance you could see a brilliant city, towering over its surroundings. The glowing reflection of the city in the sky gave way to an expansive field of stars, twinkling like a billion optics set in carbon. 

“The Kaon plains? What does this have to do with-?” Ratchet trailed off looking past Breakdown as he turned to follow Ratchet’s gaze. 

Opposite the city, back turned, a sleek scarlet mech stood atop a small hill, staring longingly into the sky just a few yards away.

Breakdown could feel his spark burn hotter, forgetting all about Ratchet and the task at hand as he ran to him. “Knockout?” Breakdown called as he ran, stopping just a few feet behind him. When he had called his name, Knockout turned around, smiling as his optics met the big blue mech’s. He reached up, gently putting a servo on either side of Breakdown’s face plate. Breakdown leaned into the touch, closing his optic and raising his servo to meet Knockout’s.

Ratchet hadn’t moved, simply observing the situation, slightly speechless. Suddenly the ground rumbled as the surroundings changed again. The plains shrunk as the sky became a bright shade of blue. In an instant, the three were standing on the flight deck of the Nemesis. 

Breakdown was still holding Knockout’s servo as he cautiously observed his new location. 

“Breakdown…” Knockout whispered gently, pulling Breakdown’s attention back to him, his face falling in sorrow. “Why did you leave me?”.

Breakdown felt his fuel tank drop, “Wha- what? Knockout I would never-!” Before he could finish, he was suddenly jerked backwards by an invisible force, sending him careening over the edge of the ship. Flipping and twisting in the air, finally stabilizing his fall as he stared up at the Nemesis. Coolant welled up in his optics as he let out an anguished cry, impacting hard with the ground. 

Somehow, Ratchet was there standing next to where Breakdown had landed. He didn’t remember ever leaving the flight deck of the Nemesis, one minute he was looking down at Breakdown, the next minute he was looking up. Nearly recovered from his speechlessness, He peered over at Breakdown who, although physically fine, hadn't moved. “I think I understand now.” He said plainly.

“I just want… to tell him he’s not alone.” Breakdown said finally, “and I can’t do that in a jail cell.” he slowly made his way to his pedes. Once he had fully straightened up, he looked at Ratchet and groaned, “has everyone else been watching this entire time?“

“Yes. But at least we should have all the information we need.” Ratchet responded, turning on his com, “Disengage cortical psychic patch.” 

Once again their surroundings changed. But this time instead of morphing into something new, the landscape started crumbling to reveal only a blank void. Like ashes to ashes and dust to dust, the landscape kept disappearing, eventually taking Ratchet, leaving Breakdown floating in an infinite nothingness. Though that didn’t last long.

Breakdown looked down to see his digits disappearing, crumbling like everything else. It didn’t hurt, instead it was kind of like waking up. As he “saw” himself disappear he could start to feel the pain creeping back, the weight of a physical frame returning. Taking one last moment to cling to weightlessness, he closed his optic and surrendered to the darkness.

Chapter Text

“Uugh,” Breakdown groaned as he slowly opened his optic. He was still lying in the Medbay, Ratchet was standing over the main computer not far away. “My helm feels like I was hit with my own hammer.” He tried, unsuccessfully, to raise his servo to his helm. But not because of any restraints, more because attempting to do so sent painful jolts of electricity through his circuitry. “Uuugh.” he groaned once more. “Hey, where’s big bot & the crew?”

“On patrol,” Ratchet replied blandly. 

“How long are you Autobots going to wait? The mine won’t be there forever!” Breakdown asked impatiently. He had practically poured his spark out just to give them the tip! They better not waste it! 

Ratchet stopped working, “We already cleared the mine.” he told Breakdown as he walked the 10 steps from the main computer to the Medbay. 

“What?! But, how? How long have I been out?” Breakdown asked in shock.

Ratchet paused, checking his chronometer, “Approximately 12 hours.” 

“12 HOURS?” Breakdown practically shouted, “All ‘cause of that patch? You sure you did it right?” 

“You’re doubting my work? Puh-lease.” Ratchet waved a hand in Breakdown’s direction “The mental strain of ‘returning’ to your physical frame knocked you into a temporary stasis, not to mention the ahem , cognitive dissonance. But your vital statistics were fine and we had bigger matters to attend to, so we let you ‘sleep’.” Ratchet explained, pausing to make sure he hadn’t lost Breakdown anywhere before he continued. “In any case, the operation was successful. By that I mean, we got in and out of the mine and the Decepticons were none the wiser.” Ratchet finished, letting Breakdown take it all in.

 Breakdown finally broke the stretching silence by asking, “So, does this mean I’m an Autobot now?” 

Ratchet scoff-chuckled, “If only it were that easy. No, you still have a long way to go.” He turned to face Breakdown. “But, today was a decent start.” He paused again, “Your information was useful, good job.” and with that, he returned to his work.

Breakdown stayed quiet at first, before giving a small smile. “Thanks… Ratchet.”

“I’M GONNA CRUSH YOU!” Miko screamed, button mashing furiously.

“Not if I crush you first!” Jack countered.

“What d’you call that again?” Breakdown asked, inquisitively. 

“Marvelous Mash Sibs! It’s a fighting video game!” Miko answered without looking away from the screen.

“Although ‘Miko always wins’ Is pretty close.” Jack said leaning over his shoulder to talk to Breakdown who was sitting on a slab in the Medbay watching them. 

“HA! Take that!” Miko said, bringing Jack's attention back to the game. 

“Would you please keep it down! I’m trying to conduct a medical exam over here!” Ratchet snapped at them. He sighed “Now, how are you feeling today?”

It had been almost a week and a half since Breakdown had arrived. Although the first week felt like an eternity. As Ratchet enjoyed reminding him, “Healing takes time!”. Breakdown had never been good at waiting. It wasn’t a total loss though, it meant that he had time to talk to and learn about the other bots. Optimus, Ratchet and Bumblebee had all started to warm up to him, well, they had at least started to trust him enough to stop restraining him to his slab in the Medbay. But he still wasn’t allowed to leave the Medbay, let alone the base.  Even after the successful mine operation, Arcee and Bulkhead still wanted nothing to do with him, which was probably fair. Their human partners on the other hand, when they weren’t at ‘work’ and ‘school’, were almost always in the silo, and as an unintended consequence, Breakdown slowly learned more about them too.

It was only recently that Breakdown had been able to do something other than lay on his aft. Slowly, it became less and less painful to move, but progress was sluggish. It had started with regaining the ability to move his arms freely, then his legs, then finally he could begin to sit up and stretch with minimal pain! Although he was less proud of his first attempt at his next milestone, that being standing/walking.

 In hindsight, jumping off the slab probably wasn’t the best idea, but that soon became clear after he stumbled forward, slamming into the table in the Medbay, clawing at tools before finally falling to the ground in defeat. That had gotten a good laugh out of the humans and Bee, as well as a stifled laugh from Ratchet. His next attempt was more successful, after getting help off the floor, he slowly managed to walk to the main console and back to the Medbay. 

All the while, he had been doing his best to supply the Autobots with intel, still working to prove his dedication to his commitment. Progress was slow in that aspect too. It was hard to re-learn everything he had ever been taught about the other side, harder still to figure out what the ‘Right thing to do’ was in every situation. But he would keep trying.

“So, when am I gonna be fixed enough to transform again?” 

“Breakdown…” 

“I know, I know ‘Healing takes time.’ “ Breakdown mocked “But come on Ratchet, I feel fine!” He pushed himself off of the slab, taking a few stabilizing steps before standing tall.

Ratchet sighed, “If you say so. But take it slow!” he scanned Breakdown as he talked, shaking a finger in his direction once he had finished.

 “Yes!” Breakdown pumped his fist in the air, taking a step back to make sure he had enough space. Closing his optic, he focused on his alt mode, letting that familiar feeling wash over him. Despite the soreness in his joints, and the fact that he hadn’t done it in what felt like forever, he transformed flawlessly.

“HA-HA! YES!” Breakdown honked excitedly, his tires squealing as he did doughnuts. He transformed back to bot mode, “That felt good!”.

“Congrats BD!” Miko called from the living area, their game had ended, with her on top as always.

The celebrations however, were cut short by Breakdown promptly crumpling over.

“Ep-ep-ep! What did I say about taking it slow?” Ratchet scolded him as he helped Breakdown stand again.

“Relax! It’s no big deal, my right leg is still acting up.” Breakdown explained, frowning at the leg he was holding in the air, “I’m sure it’s fine!” 

“No, no, no, if you want it to heal properly, you need to give it the time to do so!” Ratchet said, dragging Breakdown back to the Medbay slab.

As soon as Breakdown sat down again, The sound of Bumblebee’s engines echoed through the silo, just seconds before the yellow and black striped muscle car made his entrance. His doors opened to reveal Raf climbing out with several bags/backpacks in tow.

“Raf! Finally, what took so long?” Miko waved enthusiastically from the living area. 

“I was staying late to work on a project, sorry to make you wait Bee.” Raf apologized sheepishly as he climbed the stairs to meet Miko and Jack and Bee transformed to bot mode. 

Bee waved dismissively, buzzing something along the lines of ‘Don’t mention it!’ followed by a barrage of excited beeps and whistles.

“He’s right! Can we play a driving game?” Raf translated. 

“Oh you’re on!” Miko challenged, handing Raf a controller as they both sat on the couch.

“I’ll sit this one out, I think I’ve had enough of losing today.” Jack said with a tired sigh. 

Bee took his position peering over the railing to watch the kids play their game and Breakdown watched from his spot on the slab. It was one of those rare domestic moments he had come to enjoy. On the Nemesis, it was always work, work, work. Crisis after crisis. He almost never had any time to just sit and enjoy, which he hadn’t had a problem with back then but, he had found he rather liked just existing in a moment. 

The game was on! The flat cars on the screen fought for first place. Breakdown wasn’t really paying attention to the race, instead his optic had been caught by one of the vehicles in the race. A particular scarlet sports car. The thought of him briefly flashed across Breakdown’s processor, but he pushed it away and nudged Bee instead.

“I bet I could beat you in a race like that.” Breakdown pointed at the screen.

Bee turned to face him with a look of surprise/confusion and started buzzing what was sure to be a long speech about why that was absolute scraplet-slag before Breakdown cut him off with a chuckle.

“I was just jokin’ bug! Seriously though, we should see who the faster mech is sometime.” 

Bumblebee, satisfied that his speed wasn’t being underestimated, went back to watching the kids. 

Another engine hum came from the entrance.

“Bulkhead! You’re just in time to watch me crush this!” Miko called without looking away from the TV. 

The army-green SUV sped into the main silo, transforming as he came closer to the group. “You’re up for patrol duty Bee.” 

Bee stood straighter as he did a mock salute before transforming and swiftly disappearing down the exit tunnel. 

“Bye Bee!” Raf called after him.

“Hey Bulk, Your girl’s crushing this race!” Breakdown tried to start.

Bulkhead stopped, glancing at Breakdown then Miko, “Actually, I think I’m gonna go back out for a drive.” he said backing away, heading for the exit.

“What? But you just got here!” Miko turned around, letting Raf win the game. The game over tone echoed through the growing tension.

“C’mon Bulkhead, why don’t you let sleeping turbo-foxes lie? Come back and watch the game!” 

Bulkhead looked like he might combust on the spot. “ ‘Let sleeping turbo-foxes lie’? Are you serious?!” he paused to vent/sigh, “Look, I’m grateful that you saved Miko and all. But one ‘right’, doesn’t fix a lifetime of ‘wrongs. Now I’m going back out.”

“Wait!” Miko came running down the stairs, “I’m coming with you.”

Bulkhead nodded as he transformed to let her in and left without another word leaving Breakdown in silence.

He stared after them for a moment, playing back the last few moments in his processor till he was left with one thought; No matter how far he got, his past would always be directly behind him.

“You doing ok Bulkhead?” Miko asked. They had been driving for a few minutes, not talking, just being in each other's company.  

“I don’t know, I guess I’m still on edge. It’s just weird seeing Breakdown here so casually!” 

“Tell me about it.” 

“I don’t understand how everyone can just forgive and forget about everything he’s done!”

“It seems like he’s trying to fix things. I mean, at the very least, he hasn’t given us any new reason not to trust him!”

“Miko…”

“I know, I know, you two have history, I’m not denying that. I just think,” she paused to put a hand on his dashboard “You two might actually get along if you gave him the chance.” 

Bulkhead went quiet as Miko stared out the window, watching the blurring scenery. The Desert plains stretched on for miles, every sandy orange plateau blurring together after a while.

“Maybe you’re right.” Bulkhead finished quietly.

Unbeknownst to the pair, way up above, Lazerbeak sat hovering in the clouds. Observing from a distance, discreetly reporting to Soundwave on board the Nemesis. In his typical silent fashion, Soundwave tapped away at his console, quickly writing an attack order that he then sent to the appropriate squadron spelling out a simple mission; “Find and destroy”.

Still blissfully unaware of the impending danger, Bulkhead and Miko continued on their drive. Eventually, they pulled over to an isolated cliffside, away from prying eyes so Bulkhead could transform and they could enjoy the sunset. 

“Ooh! That one looks like a bunny playing an electric guitar!”

“That one looks like Megatron juggling scraplets!”

“What?! Where?” 

Bulkhead offered his hand for MIko to sit on to get a better view, “That one!” he said pointing to a fluffy cluster of clouds.

“Oh, I see it!” she pointed excitedly, sighing as she leaned back into his hand. “You feeling better, big guy?” she looked up to see his face.

Bulkhead gave a tired sigh, “I think so,” he looked down at Miko smiling, “Thanks Miko.”

“Anytime Bulk.” Miko said watching the last bits of sunlight slowly sink beneath the horizon. In that moment, nothing else existed, it was just them. Well, them and the rapidly approaching Vehicon squadron.

Bulkhead herded the whining of jet engines just a fraction of a second before the missile impacted the ground. It didn’t hit them but the shockwave was enough to push Bulkhead over the edge of the cliff. He managed to  grab the cliff ledge as Miko screamed, now clinging to his hand for dear life. 

“HANG ON MIKO!” He shouted over the chaos of her screams and the growing noise of jet engines. Bulkhead transformed, making sure Miko was secured in his seats as he drove/tumbled down the sheer cliff face. Hitting the ground with a bump and tumbling across the dusty desert floor as he transformed, curling into a ball around the small being clutched gently in his servos. 

Groaning as he pushed himself up, his frame ached and plating creaked, “Miko?” He slowly opened his digits, to reveal her body slack in his massive hand. Bulkhead froze, “Miko? That’s not funny Miko, Wake up!” he gently tried to nudge her, the knot forming in his tanks pulling tighter and tighter. “Wake up!” holding her closer to his audial, he could hear the soft sound of her breath. He ex-vented shakily, she’s just knocked out, thank Primus. 

His relief didn’t last long. The 5 Vehicons that had found him had finally caught up, transforming and stalking closer, blaster’s aimed and ready. Bulkhead dove out of the way of the first blast, finding temporary shelter behind a rock formation. He gently laid Miko against a rock and took his blaster and wrecking ball out as he attempted to radio base while engaging the Vehicons from a distance. 

“RATCHET!!” Bulkhead’s voice came blaring through the main computer.

Breakdown sat bolt upright, having previously been recharging and pulled awake by the screaming voice of his ex-nemesis. Something wasn’t right though, instead of the typical rage in his voice, the only emotion Breakdown could hear was panic. Something Breakdown was so unaccustomed to hearing that it deeply unsettled him.

Ratchet, who was already at the main computer, opened the comm signal “Bulkhead? What’s-?” 

“It’s a ‘con ambush! Requesting immediate ground bridge and backup. Miko’s knocked out!”

“What?!” Jack joined the chaos from the living area.

“Bulkhead, I’m opening a ground bridge at your coordinates and coming to assist.” 

“But, don’t you need to operate the ground bridge? Can’t you send someone else?” Raf asked

“Optimus and Arcee are out of communications range, and Bumblebee is an hour in the opposite direction!” Ratchet hurriedly explained as he programmed the ground bridge. “I don’t have a choice!” He pulled the lever and the ground bridge swirled to life.

Before he could take one step, Breakdown darted from his slab, transforming mid-stride and racing though the bridge.

“Breakdown!” Ratchet called furiously. But there was nothing he could do.

The Vehicons closed in, Bulkhead had been managing them at first, but it was 5 against 1 and the 1 was trying his best to protect a vulnerable human. They had gotten one too many ‘lucky shots’ in and Bulkhead was running out of steam. Kneeling to put himself between them and her, he bared his wrecking ball at the closing circle of troopers. Suddenly, an opening ground bridge drew the attention of all parties. For a moment, Bulkhead was relieved at the prospect of getting help. That relief quickly turned into confusion then shock as he saw a shouting Breakdown come careening through the bridge and slam into the closest Vehicon sending it flying and landing next to bulkhead, fists up ready to fight.

The remaining Vehicons froze, looking at each other in confusion before the closest one piped up, “Breakdown? Where have you been? We thought you were dead.” 

Breakdown scoffed, “What? You’ve never seen a ghost before?” he joked with a smirk. He turned to Bulkhead, using the Vheicons confusion as a cover, “Ratchet’s waiting on the other side, get Miko to the med bay, I’ll hold ‘em off.” 

“What?” was all Bulkhead could manage at first, followed closely by “What are you doing here?” 

“Backing you up! Now go!” Breakdown urged, finally turning his attention back to the Vehicons “Now let’s get this dance party started!” he said excitedly, transforming his hands into his iconic hammers.

With one last wary look, Bulkhead carefully picked Miko up and ran through the ground bridge. 

Breakdown stood still for only a moment, waiting till Bulkhead had crossed the threshold of the ground bridge before he lunged for the Vehicons, swinging his hammer and connecting it with the first con’s pauldron. The con crumpled, letting out a mix of a surprised yelp and pained cry. The other 3 scurried out of the way as Breakdown continued to ravage the already clearly defeated Vehicon. 

“Hey! I thought we were on the same side!” one of the Vehicon’s pointed its blaster at him, not entirely sure if it was supposed to blast him or not. Breakdown stood over the twitching frame of the first Vehicon, slightly turned away from the other 3.

“Not anymore.” Breakdown whipped around quickly, aiming his missile launcher at the next closest con, landing a direct hit to the chassis and knocking it off its pedes. He tried to fire another one at the other con but missed.

 The last two, becoming fully aware of the situation, dodged and weaved out of the way of Breakdowns missiles, coming closer with every maneuver till they were a little more than an arm's length away. 

Breakdown changed tactics, swinging his hammers haphazardly, but these con’s were faster, he couldn’t land a hit. The con’s fired their blasters as they ran, their shot’s stinging more and more with each blast. Breakdown is a tough bot, but this being the first real fight he had been in in weeks, he hated to admit it, but he was a little rusty.  But he didn’t stop, he continued to fight, pushing through the combined pain of the blaster fire and his injuries flaring up again. Eventually, one of the con’s shots hit the back of his right leg. 

“Argh!” blinding agony flared from every pain receptor, whether he wanted to or not, Breakdown fell forward, landing with a thud. The pain was dizzying, Breakdown could barely focus enough to see the two Vehicons closing in. He tried to push himself up, his arms shaking at the effort.

“Traitor.” The Vehicon aimed his blaster directly at Breakdown’s face plate. 

Breakdown gritted his teeth, a defiant growl escaping his vox box.

“AHHHHH!” Suddenly, a loud shout distracted the Vehicons. 

Breakdown turned to see Bulkhead charging full speed though a new ground bridge, wrecking ball raised. With one well placed swing, he swatted the cons away sending them flying back.

“2 against 1 hardly seems fair, let’s even the odds!” Bulkhead stood ready to fight between the cons and Breakdown. 

The Vehicons exchanged glances, then deciding it wasn’t worth it, transformed and took flight. 

“Ugh, Cowards.” Bulkhead scoffed, putting his wrecking balls away and turning to offer a still slightly shocked Breakdown a servo.

“You… came back.” He said, finally taking Bulkhead’s servo.

“I couldn’t just let you get scrapped like that. Besides,” Bulkhead pulled him up only for Breakdown to trip over his bad leg. “I owed you one.” Bulkhead pulled Breakdown's arm across his shoulder, helping him make his way through the ground bridge. 

On the other side, Breakdown immediately saw Miko sitting up on the couch in the living area holding a soda can to her forehead. “You ok, Miko?” he asked

“Oh yeah, fine! I bonked my head on Bulkhead’s dashboard on our way down. But I can’t believe I missed a con smack-down!” she stood up, walking to the railing to wave her free hand in the air.

Breakdown chuckled, “You didn’t miss much, just me getting my aft handed to me by a couple of troopers!” Bulkhead helped him to the slab in the med bay, “I must be rustier than I thought.” 

“Or maybe you should have listened to me when I said ‘take it slow’!” Ratchet scolded him. “And you’re supposed to be confined to the med bay!” 

“Sorry for running out on you like that Ratch.” Breakdown apologized. “I was just tryin’ to help.” 

Ratchet ex-vented, dragging a hand down his face plate. “I know, but next time say something!” and with that he went to get supplies to fix Breakdown’s leg. 

“So, does this mean we’re good?” Breakdown asked not looking directly at Bulkhead but he knew Bulk knew he was talking to him. 

Bulkhead thought for a moment, looking at Miko in the living area who gave him a thumbs up and a smile. He ex-vented, cracking a small smile, “yeah, we’re good.”

Chapter Text

Megatron stood observing from the helm of the Nemesis, keeping a close eye on the troopers working away at the controls. 

“Lord Megatron!” A Vehicon rushed into the control room, His hollow pede-steps echoing through the quiet. “I come with urgent news.” He paused a few paces away.

The Decepticon leader said nothing. Continuing to stare ahead. “Well? I don’t have all day!” he snapped, not bothering to turn around.

“R-right!” The Vehicon stuttered, quickly regaining his composure. “I was dispatched with my squad in response to the green Autobot being spotted out in the open. But as we engaged him we, ah- ran into some trouble.” The trooper hesitated.

Megatron peered over his spiked pauldron, visually reading the Vehicon. It hadn’t moved from where it stopped, though instead of standing at attention, it wrung its servos in nervous anticipation. Megatron knew that he had an intimidating, at times overbearing presence, but even the lowliest of scouts knew to stand tall when addressing him. Something had this warrior shaking in his stabilizers at the mere attempt of making a report.

“Spit. It. Out.” he demanded.

“It’s Breakdown. H-he’s alive.”

“I see, tell me. Why is this troubling news?” 

Even without a face to emote with, the trooper clearly looked like he would rather be cleaning the deepest pits of Kaon than be delivering the news to Megatron. 

“He fought alongside the Autobots.” 

Not a single mech in that room vented, Nor a single keyboard could be heard, no one dared move for fear of attracting the attention of the ever unpredictable Lord of the Decepticons.  

This silence lasted for what seemed like ages. Till finally, Megatron turned to face the trooper. Walking the few paces to close the distance till he stood less than an axle length away from the shaking Vehicon, towering over it staring down with his bright red glowing optics. The frozen trooper flinched as megatron raised his servo, waiting for the imminent pain but instead being greeted with a gentle servo on his pauldron.

“You have performed admirably in telling me this.” Megatron put his other servo on the trooper's other pauldron, The trooper felt some strange sense of tense comfort. It was extremely rare to hear Megatron talking in any tone other than angry or neutral. In that moment he had almost sounded sympathetic. He leaned down so that his helm was side-by-side the Vehicon’s.

“Unfortunately, It was the last report you shall ever make.” 

In one swift motion, Megatron grabbed both of the Vehicons arms and tore them in opposite directions, snapping cables and ripping metal. Energon sprayed in every direction, exposed wiring sparked violently as the Vehicon screeched in agony. As soon as its limbs were fully disconnected, Megatron tossed them aside, drawing his blade and slicing the mangled Con in two, stem to stern. The trooper had stopped screaming before Megatron's blade had even left his frame, standing eerily still, the metal surrounding the cut glowing. In the stretching silence, the Vehicon tilted backwards, coming apart at the seam as it fell, landing with a clatter of metal on metal and splashing down in a growing pool of energon. You could see every circuit, every piston and every fuse in the corpse neatly cut in two, slowly being soaked in energon. If you had studied Cybertronian anatomy, it would have been a perfect vivisection for study. Even the T-cog, which was as everything else was; cut in half, was so neatly cut you probably could have welded the two pieces together and used it as a spare. 

“A pity.” Megatron mused, “You there! Clean this up. Notify all applicable stations that Breakdown is a traitor to the Decepticon cause. But!” Megatron whipped around to point at the Vehicon currently typing the report. “Do not, under any circumstances, let Knockout know. If he finds out his partner is alive. Well, we can’t afford to lose our only medic.”

Rafael and Miko sat side-by-side on the steps just outside their school. Class had ended an hour ago but neither Bulkhead or Bumblebee had shown up. They were both used to this by now of course, If the bots were late it probably meant that they were on a mission. The only reason Jack wasn’t there with them was because he walked the couple blocks from school to work, but neither of them was even going to attempt to walk the miles from school to the Autobot base. So instead they waited, presumably for Ratchet who was the typical carpool back up when the rest of the team was otherwise occupied. Today however, instead of the grumpy ambulance, a navy blue military truck pulled up to the curb and began honking his horn impatiently. 

Raf and Miko gave each other slightly confused looks before walking down the steps. Well, Raf walked, a better word to describe what Miko did was ‘hobble’ towards Breakdown, leaning on his door to breathe before opening it and climbing in behind Raf.

“We were expecting Ratchet.” Raf observed.

“He said he needed to stay to monitor the ground bridge in case the team needed an emergency evac. So he stuck me with carpool duty.” Breakdown grumbled as he pulled away from the school.

His attention was drawn to Miko who kept taking sharp breaths as she tried to find a comfortable position in his seat.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked bluntly.

“Some idiot in PE called Bulkhead ‘A scrap heap on wheels’ and wouldn’t take it back so I had my fist do some gentle persuasion.” Miko declared. “Let’s just say, It did not end well.” 

“Let me clarify, You challenged some guy that’s a foot taller and 70 pounds heavier than you to a fight.” Raf informed, “And unsurprisingly,  he won.”

“Hey! I got some good hits in! I guarantee he’ll have a black eye tomorrow!” Miko turned around to point at Raf in the back seat, wincing slightly. 

“You humans are so fragile!” Breakdown mumbled as he navigated the ‘busy’ streets of Jasper. “Maybe if you had more armor, he wouldn’t have beat you so easily!” 

“Ok Mr.Beaten-by-someone-¼-your size, I’ll think of that next time!” Miko said sarcastically, crossing her arms and staring out the window at the buildings rushing past. 

“Hey! That’s-!” Breakdown paused, “Grr, Nevermind.” he grumbled. 

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, the heat of the neighboring desert causing most people to enjoy the climate controlled indoors. However bland the landscape was, Breakdown secretly enjoyed the drive. Mostly because he didn’t have many chances to get out of the base and stretch his wheels. Providing Bulkhead with backup had significantly helped his effort to earn the Autobots trust. He was given permission to leave the Medbay and, on occasion, the base to patrol or run errands, though he was still barred from doing any fighting, doctors orders. He also suspected it was because they wanted to really make sure that he wasn’t just pretending to be good, which he had gotten used to at this point but it was slowly becoming slightly irritating. Deep down, a small part of him kept an optic out for any sightings of a particular scarlet sports car whenever he got the chance to leave. 

The suburban cityscape finally gave way to the sprawling desert plateau, dotted with cacti, tumbleweeds and the occasional street sign. Towering mesas casting stretching shadows in the late afternoon sun on the multicolored sandstone. Creosote bushes on the side of the road blurring together as Breakdown sped down the long, lonely, twisting road. 

Soon, they came upon a sharp turn in the road which Breakdown ignored entirely, instead driving straight towards the large mesa in front of him. The door to the Autobot base opened and Breakdown slowed down as he rounded the curve into the main silo, stopping just a few paces away from Ratchet standing at the main computer.

Raf jumped out of the backseat dragging his large backpack behind, closely followed by Miko who took a little more time carefully crawling out and hobbling to the staircase. 

“Mmh, felt good to get out!” Breakdown transformed, stretching his arm struts. “I’ll be in the training room if you need me.”

“I need some frozen tater-tots for these bruises!” Miko grumbled as Breakdown left and she slowly made her way up the stairs.

Chapter Text

 The night started like any other, at 7:30 pm, everyone in Ramirez Auto Repair wrapped up their work for the night, cleaned their station and left. All except for Cassidy, but that’s only because her father had given her the closing shift tonight and he might actually fire her if she didn’t lock up his shop properly. She made sure to take extra care double checking all the tool boxes were safely secured and every entrance was locked till finally, an hour after everyone else had gone she left and locked the last door behind her. She had been about to walk down the empty street when she heard strange noises coming from the alley nearby.

Her dad’s shop was pretty close to the edge of town, the car yard in the back practically touching the desert plains so it was pretty common to get the occasional coyote wandering in to cause chaos. But this was different, instead of the rustling of trash bags Cassidy swore she could hear what sounded like someone beating the crap out of a metal trash can coming from the alley. Any sane person probably would have said ‘Huh, that’s weird!’ and continued about their business but, overcome with curiosity, Cassidy carefully crept closer to the alley entrance, cautiously turning the corner only to freeze in shock. Cassidy realized she hadn’t even come close with her trash can prediction as she stared up at the two giant robots making a mess of the alley as they… fought? She couldn’t exactly tell what they were doing but it didn’t seem like they were very fond of each other.

One of the robots was a dark blue, stocky build with hammers instead of hands swinging haphazardly at the other, which was thin and agile with a black paint job and some kind of blaster instead of a hand. None of this made any sense, she had a million questions, which she had narrowed down to 3; What are they? Where did they come from? And what the hell were they doing in some random city in Nevada?

On the other hand, The night started like any other, Bulkhead had come in from patrol just as Breakdown was coming into the main silo from the training room, which meant that it was his turn for patrol. Breakdown didn’t object, more than happy to spend an hour or two by himself, definitely not looking for someone in particular. And so, with only a couple words exchanged, he left the silo for Jasper. When he patrolled, he tried to avoid the main parts of the city to avoid all the humans that milled about constantly. He instead preferred to coast along the outskirts, where the desert met the concrete.

Although today was slightly different, as he drove, he became aware that he was being followed, he immediately recognized his tail as a Vehicon, but before he could engage he remembered what Ratchet, Prime and the others had coached him on before the let him patrol by himself; “If you are near humans, avoid confrontation or conflict at all costs.”. Begrudgingly, he turned further into the city of Jasper, hoping to lose the con in the tangled streets but nothing worked. Wherever he went it felt like the con already knew exactly where he was going. At one point he thought he had succeeded in losing the con but after turning to resume his laps around the outskirts, a familiar pair of headlights lit up his rear view mirror. That was the last straw.

As Breakdown was trying to figure out a way to explain to Optimus Prime why he had transformed and stabbed a light pole through a Vehicon’s hood  in front of humans, he spotted an empty alley. It was close to the edge of the city, there were no humans around (that he could see) and most importantly, it was just wide enough for him to transform. 

Perfect. He pulled into it, doing one final check to make sure there were no humans around before transforming and standing ready to attack. But when he turned to face the alley entrance, the car wasn’t there! Was he being paranoid? Was it really just a human in a similar car?

Before he could think of another question, blaster fire came at him from, behind? And yet when he turned around, still nothing. Either he was going crazy or someone slipped him dark energon. Suddenly, the Vehicon he had seen before hit him from the direction of the alley entrance and began clawing at his back plating. Breakdown reared back, trying to grasp it before finally giving up and scraping his back against the wall, simultaneously knocking the Vehicon off. It tried to get some distance to shoot at Breakdown with its blaster but Breakdown wrenched its gun-arm aside as he tried to land a hit with his hammer but  the Vehicon was faster, twisting out of Breakdown’s grip and using his cramped environment against him. The Vehicon seemed to bounce from wall to wall narrowly avoiding Breakdown’s hammers each time. Once It had built up a decent amount of momentum, It landed a solid right hook, knocking the blue giant to the floor. 

Breakdown tried to recover as quickly as he could, moving to stand but being stopped by the Vehicon currently standing on his back, pressing its heel strut into his neck cables as it aimed its blaster at the back of his head.

“EY! IDIOTA!” 

The Vehicon’s attention was drawn towards the opening of the alley only to be greeted by a large flying wrench to the visor. The Vehicon stumbled backwards, relieving the pressure on Breakdown, giving him just the opportunity he needed. He jumped up, hammer ready, and delivered a crushing blow to the Vehicons' already cracked face plate. The Vehicon completed one full spin before falling to the ground in a heap. 

Stepping backwards to examine the damage, it was only then Breakdown noticed the large wrench that he hadn’t seen previously being that he had been laying face down when it had hit his attacker. Where exactly it came from was another, albeit short lived mystery. 

“Holy shit.” 

Breakdown turned towards the entrance to the alley only to find a human coming out from behind one of the dumpsters. Compared to the only other humans he knew, she was definitely different. Standing at roughly the same height as Jack, with the same dark hair as Miko, but that was where the similarities ended. Her presumably long dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun while a dirty red bandana encircled her head. She wore a black t-shirt tucked into the half undone mechanic uniform tied around her waist. Looking back and forth between Breakdown and the Vheicon on the floor.

Cassidy couldn’t believe she had done that. When she had turned the corner and seen them, her first instinct was of course to run far away but she couldn’t make her legs move. All she could do was watch in fascinated horror as the giants continued to brawl. The smaller of the robots moved quickly around the narrow alley, dodging the hammer of the other. In response, the other robot swung his hammer wildly but to no avail, seemingly getting tired. Could robots get tired? She hadn’t really considered the possibility, but watching the bot stumble around as it tried its best to land a hit, she began to feel some kind of sympathy for it. Without really thinking about it, she quickly crossed the alley, crouching behind a dumpster on the opposite side, slightly closer than her previous spot on the corner. 

Suddenly, with one powerful jump off the alley wall, the smaller bot delivered a mean right hook to the larger one, knocking it off balance and causing it to fall with a thud. It stood on top of its fallen opponent, grinding its heel into the back of the other one’s neck. 

Cassidy couldn’t just sit there! She had to do something! She quickly patted down her uniform, searching for anything that could possibly be used as a weapon till her hand hit something hard at the bottom of her deep pockets. Quickly pulling it out to discover it was a 22 mm wrench. Without a second thought, she jumped from her spot behind the dumpster, pulling the wrench behind her head.

“EY! IDIOTA!” She screamed to get its attention, the wrench leaving her hand before she had even finished. 

It connected with a satisfying CLANG! The bot stumbled backwards, giving the one on the floor the opportunity to retaliate and… well, the rest is history. 

Now, after it all, Cassidy stood in the middle of the alley facing the blue giant, who in turn stared down at her. A warm desert breeze blowing through the silence. 

Breakdown spoke first, “Did you throw that?” He pointed to the wrench.

“I-, uh, Yeah.” Cassidy was caught off guard. She hadn’t expected it or, him to talk. 

Silence fell again, neither party really sure of what happens next.Though Breakdown did have one question burning at the back of his processor.

“Why did you… help me?” he asked haltingly. 

Cassidy’s eyes softened, taking a couple cautious steps towards him. “I dunno, I guess it seemed like the right thing to do.” she looked up at him with a smile, infecting Breakdown with a similar reaction despite how confused he still was about everything. A moment breathed between them, not one of awkward silence, but of friendly warmth. 

The moment however, was short lived. A soft thud came from somewhere behind Breakdown. Before he could turn to see what it was, he saw the humans eyes go wide in shock.

“Behind you!” She pointed as Breakdown whipped around. There, standing on a nearby building was another Vehicon, a flier, blaster aimed and ready.

All at once, everything clicked. There had always been two, one to confront and one to observe. All that time he had been trying to lose it, the one in the sky had been supplying his coordinates the whole time! Breakdown clenched his fists, preparing to fight again when the trooper fired, although he wasn’t aiming for Breakdown. 

“AAARGH!” a scream so raw it sent shivers down Breakdown’s spinal strut echoed through the dark alley. It was followed by a sickening snap and another cry, this time of agony. 

Focusing on the task at hand, Breakdown tried to swat at the Vehicon as it transformed and took flight. He tutted in disappointment, about to head back to base when he suddenly heard whimpering cries coming from the alley entrance. Time seemed like it moved in slow motion as Breakdown remembered, the human. He rushed to where the sound had come from to find her, crumpled against a wall, gasping in between strangled sobs. It didn’t take long for Breakdown to figure out what had happened, the Vehicon’s shot hadn’t hit her directly, instead landing close enough to send her flying and crashing hard into the brick wall behind her.

“No, no, no!” What would prime think? All that work to earn their trust, gone. No, He had to help her, she had done the same for him. He reached down, trying to gently lift her into his massive hand but as soon as he tried, her face twisted in pain as she clutched her left arm. Breakdown didn’t know much about human anatomy but he guessed that their arms weren’t supposed to bend like that. He tried his best to carefully maneuver her so that she would be comfortable in his hand. “Don’t worry, I know someone who can fix you.” Breakdown reassured her as he stood up, turning on his comms. 

“Ratchet, I need an emergency ground bridge at my location.” Breakdown's voice pierced the peaceful quiet Ratchet had been enjoying in an empty silo. He sighed as he reluctantly left his work and went to the ground bridge controls. 

“And prep the Medbay.” 

Ratchet hesitated, “What have you done this time, Breakdown?” He asked sarcastically, opening the ground bridge.

Almost the second it had stabilized, Breakdown came charging through. Over millennia of treating wounds, Ratchet had gotten pretty good at guessing what the issue was before his patients ever told him. He scanned Breakdown up and down, looking for abnormalities. He wasn’t limping, he was running straight, he wasn’t clutching anywhere and there was no energon in sight. The only ‘abnormality’ he could spot was the fact that it looked like he was cradling something. 

“What’s wrong?”he asked,still confused. That’s when he saw the dark red liquid dripping from Breakdown’s servos. His optics went wide, “Breakdown, What did you do?” 

Breakdown stopped in his tracks, just a few feet away from Ratchet, he slowly moved his arm to reveal the injured human lying semi-conscious in his arms.

 “What did you do?!” Ratchet repeated, the anger and panic in his voice rising. 

“Hey! I didn’t do anything! I didn’t even know she was there until she threw the wrench!”

“ ‘wrench’? ” 

“The point is, she tried to help me and now she needs help.” Breakdown rarely expressed concern, and even now he probably sounded more demanding than sympathetic. But, even so, Ratchet seemed to understand. “You have to help her.”

Ratchet sighed “My understanding of human medicine is… limited.” He admitted reluctantly, “But I think I know someone who can help.”

Chapter Text

“June Darby,” June pressed her phone to her ear with her shoulder as she peeled a banana in the empty ER break room. “Who is this?” 

“Nurse Darby, This is Ratchet.” 

She sat up straighter in her seat, “Ratchet? You caught me on my break, to what do I owe this call?” 

“I wish it were better circumstances, but we have an emergency” Ratchet paused, “A human emergency.” He clarified.

She froze, “Jack?” 

“No, Jack should be at his house with Arcee. But we do require your medical expertise.” Ratchet explained quickly, “We have a human with what I suspect is a broken arm.” 

June quickly gathered her things and began moving towards the door, “Got it, I’m on my way. But, in the meantime, you should apply pressure to the area with something cold to reduce the swelling and, if there is any, stop the bleeding. I’ll be there soon” and with that, she hung up as she left the hospital.

“Well?” Breakdown asked impatiently as Ratchet joined him standing in the Medbay. 

“Nurse Darby is on her way. She advised applying pressure to her arm with something cold, but I don’t know where we would find anything like that here!” Ratchet gestured to the empty silo. The kids and their respective partners had all gone home for the evening and Optimus had gone to patrol for the night leaving the two of them alone with the injured human. 

“Wait, didn’t Miko say something about frozen tater-tots the other day?” Breakdown suggested. 

“Miko and her ‘snacks’. At least now they’re serving a purpose!” Ratchet reached over the railing of the living area to carefully tilt the mini fridge open, looking especially small compared to his servos. Its contents spilled out, soda, ice cream and a bag of frozen tater tots.

“Here, put these on her arm and lay her on the med berth” Ratchet offered the tots.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Breakdown argued. 

Ratchet looked like someone had just told him the sky was green. “Oh? And just what makes you think that?” 

“Any time I move her she sounds like she’s in pain! I can hold her steady.” Breakdown held out his servo for the tots. 

Ratchet hesitated but eventually gave them up. “Gentle!” He warned as he finally released his grip on the tots. 

Breakdown paid him no mind, instead focusing on the human again. She hadn’t said anything since he had picked her up, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t unconscious because her eyes were ever so slightly open. With the bag of tots in his massive digits, he tried his best to gently press them on the wound. 

The human flinched away, squeezing her eyes tight, “Frio! Demasiado frio!” 

“What’s ‘frio’?“ It didn’t sound like any human words Breakdown had ever heard before. He looked to Ratchet, who shrugged unhelpfully. 

“Cold! It’s too cold.” the human piped up again, talking through gritted teeth. 

“Oh, why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Breakdown muttered glancing around till he spotted a blanket draped over the kids couch. Using his free hand, he did his best to wrap the tots then attempt to re-apply them. 

The human sucked in a sharp breath at the touch, but seemed to relax after taking a second to adjust. She stared up at Breakdown, “Are you real?” she asked deliriously.

“Uh, Pretty sure I am. Why?” Breakdown responded with a chuckle.

“Cause you’re big and you’re a robot and you can talk.” she slurred slightly when she talked, clearly not completely conscious. 

Breakdown gave a questioning glance to Ratchet.

“Maybe it’s some kind of stasis delirium?” The doctor suggested. 

The human giggled, “He talks funny!” she beamed up at Breakdown.

“Yeah he does.” he gave a small smile in response as he sat on the med berth, careful to hold his arm still. 

“You fought really good out there.” the human continued, “You were like POW POW POW POW! It was awesome!” 

“Glad you thought so, I was getting my can kicked!” Breakdown though back to those few moments. Honestly, he didn’t know what would have happened if the human hadn’t interfered. If the Vehicon didn’t kill him right then and there, he probably would have been dragged to Megatron, tortured horribly, then killed for his treason. 

“Hey, what’s your name anyway?” the human asked.

“Breakdown.”

“PFFFFFT!” She burst out laughing, wincing slightly at the increased movement. “ ‘Breakdown’??” 

“What’s wrong with it?” He asked defensively.

“It’s not a name! It’s a… I don’t know, a verb or something!” 

“Well if you're so smart, what’s your name?” 

“Cassidy Ramirez or just Cassie for short.” she answered smugly.

“HA! I’ve never heard of a name like that!” he proclaimed triumphantly.

“Well, I’ve never heard of a name like ‘Breakdown’!” Cassie rolled her eyes playfully, “I guess there’s a first time for everything.” 

“I guess so, Cassie.” Breakdown agreed.

Cassie’s eyes fluttered, fighting to stay awake, but eventually being won over by exhaustion. She fell into a sort of semi-sleep, not able to completely fall but too tired to continue talking. Her chest rose and fell in a steady motion, occasionally interrupted by twitches of pain.

Breakdown simply watched, unsure whether he should try to wake her or just let her rest, he chose the latter. Such a small, fragile being. No armour or shell to shield it, just a thin layer of flesh protecting a brittle endoskeleton. He had never really put much thought into it, but now he could see why the Autobots put so much time and effort into defending them. 

Other than the quiet beeps of Ratchet typing away at the central computer, the silo was quiet. It might’ve been 15 minutes or an hour but Breakdown never checked his chronometer. He just sat there, cradling the broken human otherwise known as Cassidy. He had to admit, The name did have a nice ring to it. 

Soon, the base’s proximity alarm went off, Ratchet turned it off almost as soon as it had started.

“Finally.” He turned towards the entrance to greet the white sedan. 

It seemed like the car had barely stopped before Ms.Darby got out, “Where are they?” she asked, urgency especially present in her tone.

“Over here,” Breakdown pipped up as he carefully stood up and met Ms. Darby. Steadily, he crouched down to show her Cassie. 

Ms.Darby gently pulled the now blood soaked blanket back and grimaced, “Oh yeah, it’s a compound fracture, I need to get her to the ER.” she went back to her car and opened the back door, “Here help me get her in.” 

Breakdown didn’t protest carefully propping Cassie up as Ms.Darby helped her lay on the seats. Before she had been fully transferred, Cassie stirred to consciousness and gazed up at Breakdown with tired eyes.

“Me alegro que estés bien, Breakdown.” She smiled wearily before she fell asleep again and Ms.Darby closed the door. 

“Is she gonna be ok?” Breakdown asked.

“I can’t promise anything, But.” She gave him a smile, “I think she’ll be alright. I just need to get her to the ER.” 

“Is there something I can do? Maybe I should follow you, to make sure she gets there ok.” Breakdown suggested. He couldn’t say what, but something was telling him to make absolutely certain Cassie would be alright. 

“Oh, that’s very sweet of you. But I’m afraid there’s nothing more you can do for her.” Ms. Darby reassured him. With that, she closed her car door, started the engine and left. Leaving Breakdown staring down the exit tunnel after her. 

He turned his lingering gaze from the tunnel to his servo. It was dripping in the red liquid Cassie had been leaking. It didn’t look anything like energon, but something about knowing where it came from made him shudder. 

“Do you think she’ll be ok?” he asked, not bothering to look at Ratchet.

“Nurse Darby is the best, albeit the only, human doctor I know. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Ratchet stated plainly, shaking his helm slightly, “I must say it is strange how focused you are on this specific human’s well being. I supposed it just seems unlike you.” 

It was unlike him. Why had he cared so much in the first place? Ah yes, her  injury had technically been his fault. But that doesn’t explain why he felt such a need to care for her or why he currently feels so anxious for the news of her recovery. Perhaps it was because her red bandana reminded him of the one he misses most. Or perhaps it was because of how she’d saved him that he felt involuntarily obligated to help her in return. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because when she looked at him, he could tell she didn’t see him as an ex-Decepticon or a brute, but as just another person. With no knowledge of his past to cloud her vision, she saw him clearly.

“In any case, we will need to inform Optimus and the others.” Ratchet interrupted his train of thought. 

Breakdown’s pauldrons slumped, “I know.” he groaned.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Bulkhead’s voice echoed off the silo walls.

It hadn’t been long after the rest of the Autobots had assembled the next day that Ratchet had pushed Breakdown to tell them of last night's events. They weren’t taking it well. 

“First, you allow a human to see you, then you let her get hurt?” Arcee scolded Breakdown. “What were you thinking?”

“It was an accident!” he tried to explain, “I was trying to do the right thing!” 

“Well obviously you failed!” Bulkhead exploded, taking a step closer to him. “It’s our number one priority to protect humans! You almost got one killed!”

“Enough!” Optimus Prime’s strong voice cut through the chaos. Not yelling, but he didn’t need to in order to draw everyone’s attention. He looked down at the blue mech, “Breakdown, I am disappointed that you were so careless in protecting your true identity and as a consequence, allowed a human to come to harm.” 

Breakdown looked at the floor, angry, embarrassed or ashamed, he couldn’t decide. But to his surprise, he felt a servo on his pauldron.

“But,” Optimus continued, “I am pleased to know that you took ownership and responsibility for your actions by ensuring the human received proper care.” he turned to stand by Breakdown and face the rest of the Autobots, “Admittedly, Breakdown’s actions may have been unnecessarily risky, but in the end, it was an accident. And Breakdown did all he could to fix his mistakes and care for the human.” 

“Cassidy.” Breakdown added, gaining the attention of the Autobots, “Her name is Cassidy.” 

Bulkhead stared back and forth between Breakdown and Optimus for a while. He sighed a long and tired sigh, “If you say so boss.” 

Arcee just shook her head as she left, “I’m going on patrol.” 

Bumblebee gave a small nod to Optimus before hopping to catch up with Arcee.

Optimus turned to face Breakdown, “I’ll need to contact agent Fowler in order to discuss what comes next.” 

“What do you mean?” Breakdown asked

“From what you described, one of the Vehicons escaped after seeing Cassidy’s face. We have seen the Decepticons are becoming more aggressive in the frequency of their attacks. We need to ensure Cassidy will not be made a target.” Optimus walked to the main computer, typing as he talked. 

“Understood sir.”

“Of all the reckless things!” Fowler exploded.  “What in the name of Sam Hill made you think engaging the enemy in a populated area was a good idea?”

An hour or so later, Agent Fowler had landed on the roof and been duly informed of the current situation. After which he promptly began voicing his multiple concerns. 

“Agent Fowler, please.” Optimus interrupted him, “Breakdown already understands his actions were misguided. We need your assistance in locating the human, Cassidy, in order to ensure her safety from the Decepticons.” 

Fowler paused, looking like he had more to say but decided to bite his tongue instead, “You win Prime, Who is this person?” he said with a sigh, shaking his head.

“Her name is Cassidy Ramirez.” Breakdown informed him.

“Cassidy… Ramirez…, got it! I’ll run it through our database when I get back.” Fowler jotted down the name, put the notepad in his back pocket and was about to walk away when…

“Wait!” Raf stopped him before he could leave, “I think I can access it from here.” 

Raf was joined by Miko and Jack (Picked up from school courtesy of Arcee and Bumblebee) who followed him to his workstation near the central computer. He set up his computer and got to work typing and clicking away. 

Agent Fowler chuckled, “I appreciate the offer, but citizen records are a part of a highly encrypted databa-” 

“I’m in!” Raf smiled as he put the database homepage on the main computer screen. “Ok, Cassidy Ramirez…” he typed the name in  the main search.

Fowler stared, eyes wide at the screen, “How did-?” 

“I’ve learned to not question it.” Ratchet reassured him. He stood in front of the main computer,  crossing his arms as he watched Raf work.

“Got her,” Raf leaned back to look at the person on the screen. “Cassidy Ramirez, 17 years old, works at her father’s shop; ‘Ramirez Auto Repair’ in Jasper.” 

“17, huh? I wonder why I’ve never seen her in school?” Jack asked no one in particular. 

“Looks like she has her drivers licence! Lucky!” Miko pointed out crossing her arms.

“So, what’s the plan here Prime?” agent Fowler asked.

“Our best course of action would be to make Cassidy aware of the dangers that may make her their target and in doing so, make her aware of our existence. And, as a precaution, I am assigning Breakdown to be her guardian in case the Decepticons do decide to attack.” 

The silo went quiet. Immediately followed by a collective “WHAT?!” from every being in the room (except for Optimus of course). The loudest of the voices being Breakdown, who was staring in jaw-dropping, shocked, disbelief at Optimus. 

“Optimus, do you really believe that is wise?” Ratchet was the first to find his words as he pulled Optimus away from the group, “He was the one that caused the incident in the first place!” 

“That is precisely the reason I believe it will be a good experience for him.” Optimus explained quietly, “By giving him a charge, It will provide an opportunity for Breakdown to demonstrate his responsibility while he isn’t under our supervision.”

“But with a human? Ther- ah! There has to be another way!” Ratchet stammered.

“Ratchet,” Optimus turned so they were standing face-to-face, “I understand you have your concerns, but we must offer trust if we wish to receive it in return, old friend. ” 

Ratchet studied his face plate. Then, sighing and shaking his head slightly, “Alright Optimus, I trust you.” earning a small, momentary, smile from the Prime.

 Optimus turned back to the rest of the group, stoic as always, to address a spiraling Breakdown. 

“Optimus, I can’t do this.” He hastily explained, “I know what I did was wrong, I’ll never do it again. But I can’t look after a human! I don’t know the first thing about humans!” 

“Breakdown, our forces are stretched thin as it is. Your assistance would be invaluable. Additionally, It will be an opportunity for you to learn more about the native life on this planet.” Optimus turned to Agent Fowler. “Would you be able to get in contact with Cassidy?”

He nodded, “You got it Prime. C’mon, I’ll introduce you.” He invited Breakdown. 

“I-!” Breakdown sighed in defeat, “Alright, I’m commin’.”

Chapter Text

Have you ever tried to clean a wrench with one hand? It’s hard. But what else was Cassidy supposed to do for work? Even with her left arm in a cast, she had pleaded with her dad to let her go to work and with great reluctance he agreed. But now he wouldn’t let her do any actual work and stuck her with cleaning up the tools instead. 

From her perch on a stool in the back of the shop, she saw a blue truck pulling up to the garage entrance. It parked and a man in a blue suit got out of the driver's seat and started walking towards the entrance. 

Her dad never did say anything about helping customers. She hopped off the stool and went to greet the man. “Hello sir, how can I help you?” She asked, holding out her good hand for a handshake. 

“Hello,” He shook her hand with a firm and practiced grip, “Are you Cassidy Ramirez?”

Weird, she thought to herself, but not totally uncommon. Occasionally people would refer to her by name when they told other people about their service. Cassidy was proud of her reputation as a good mechanic in this little town. “That’s right, can I help you?” 

“My name is Special agent Fowler,” agent Fowler introduced himself as he flashed a badge, “ I’d like to ask you a few questions if that’s ok. Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

Special agent? Cassidy felt her stomach drop. Did she do something illegal? She didn’t think that she did. “Um, yeah. Sure, follow me.” She tried to remain calm. Maybe this is a mistake, maybe it’s some kind of tax thing for the shop. 

Cassidy led agent Fowler to one of the empty offices attached to the garage. She let him go in first before following and closing the door behind her. She wasn’t too worried about being attacked or anything like that. Afterall, they were still in the shop, and she knew all the employees well enough that if she screamed, they would bust the door down. 

“Off-record, I gotta know. It’s Saturday, how come you aren’t relaxing at home or out with friends?” Agent Fowler led.

Cassidy was caught slightly off guard, “Well, um, this place is kinda like home for me. My dad is the owner and I spent a lot of time here growing up. Plus I’m working to save up for my own car.” She answered honestly, shrugging. 

“Ah, I see.” agent Fowler, leaned against the only table in the room. 

“So what’s this about?” Cassidy asked, anxious to know why he was here.

“Ms. Ramirez,” He leaned forward, “I’m concerned that you may have been involved with an issue of national security and I just need you to answer a few questions truthfully.”

“National security?” Cassidy’s heart jumped to her throat. Oh god, what did she do?! “What- uh, what do you want to know?” She tried her best to present as calm but her mouth had gone dry. She just hoped she didn’t look as panicked on the outside as she did on the inside.

“What happened to your arm?” Agent Fowler asked. 

Oh. “I-, don’t think you’d  believe me if I told you.” Truthfully, Cassidy wasn’t sure she believed what she had seen.

Agent Fowler smiled, “Try me.” 

Cassidy sighed, “It happened a couple nights ago, I was just locking up for the night like usual. When I heard something coming from the alley but when I went to check it out…” She paused, looking for the right words, “It was these, giant robots? One of them was bigger and blue and the other was smaller and black.” 

She stopped to look at agent Fowler, expecting him to be looking at her in confusion or just straight up laughing but instead he was still listening intently, “Anyway, they looked like they were fighting, and I really did want to leave but I was just… frozen.” Cassidy continued, “The blue one looked like it was losing and I had forgotten one of our wrenches in my pocket so I threw it at the smaller one and it backed off giving the blue one time to get up and finish the fight. I thought that was it, so I went closer to try and figure out what was going on but another robot landed on the roof and hit me with some kind of laser thing! All I remember from there is hitting the wall, blacking out then waking up in the hospital with a broken arm.” Cassidy finished gesturing to her arm.  

“I see,” Agent Fowler said after she was done, “I promise you’re not in any trouble, but what provoked you to help Bre-, the blue robot?” 

Cassidy thought for a moment, remembering what happened, “I don’t know, I guess I felt bad for it? That’s weird though isn’t it? Feeling bad for something that can’t feel.” 

“Trust me, compared to what I’ve seen, it’s not that weird.” Agent Fowler joked.

Cassidy chuckled lightly, though he was probably joking and just trying to sympathize with her, it gave her some comfort to not be called crazy.

“Ms. Ramirez, If you’ll allow me, I’d like to show you something I think you’ll find interesting.” Agent Fowler stood up and walked back towards the door, opening it and gesturing for Cassidy to follow him.

The alarm bells for following a strange man to a different location began ringing in Cassidy’s head, but they were all but muffled by her growing curiosity and her thirst for an answer as to why this man seemed to actually believe her!

She followed agent Fowler out of the office and into the main garage where they started walking out the main exit when Cassidy noticed something odd.

“Hey, Your truck’s gone!” Cassidy pointed out the driveway’s lack of blue trucks.

“That’s ok, he’s not far.” Agent Fowler reassured her as he kept walking.

He? Maybe he was talking about another driver in the car. But she hadn’t seen anyone, and she was sure Agent Fowler had gotten out of the driver's seat.

They walked a couple buildings down, turned right on the curb and passed a few more buildings before coming upon an old warehouse. It had been empty for as long as Cassidy knew. A dusty old ‘For Sale’ sign propped up in one of the only windows that wasn’t boarded.

Agent Fowler pulled the metal door open and a breeze blew by with a distinct smell of cut wood and rusted metal. He gestured for Cassidy to enter and she did, followed closely by himself. 

“Oh, It’s right here.” The first thing Cassidy saw in the middle of the empty space was the blue truck, just sitting there idling. Someone else must have pulled it around, but she couldn’t see anyone inside, How-?

Agent Fowler closed the door, carefully looking around to make sure no one was nearby, “Ok, you can come out now.”

Cassidy gasped and stumbled backwards as the truck began to move, but not in any way she had seen any car or truck move before!

The wheels folded backwards, the door plating pushed out as what looked like two giant metal hands came out from the undercarriage and pushed the entire frame up. The hood and nose pushed forwards as the grill retracted underneath them. From somewhere she couldn’t see, Metallic legs unfolded and stood underneath it all. The fender bent and folded around a waist and to top it off, a familiar orange face popped out from the chassis as the sound of moving metal subsided and Cassidy stood face to face with the blue robot from that fateful night. 

“It’s you!” Cassidy quickly recovered from her shock as she recognized him. “So, It wasn’t a dream!”

“Yup. How’s the arm?” Breakdown took a knee to get closer.

“Oh, it’s fine. The better question is, what are you?” Cassidy did a full circle around Breakdown. “Some kind of futuristic robo-car?” She realized how weird that sounded but currently nothing else made sense so it didn’t matter. “Who made you?” 

Breakdown scoffed, “Humans make this? I don’t think so.”

“So where did you come from?” 

“The planet Cybertron.”

“Wait so, YOU’RE AN ALIEN?!” Cassidy stared at him in disbelief. She stole a glance at Agent Fowler who nodded and shrugged.

“I told you, weird.” 

“How much do you remember from when we last met?” Breakdown asked cautiously.

Cassidy momentarily pried her train of thought away from ‘a truck just stood up and turned into a giant robot right in front of her’ to focus, “Well, Honestly after hitting the wall my memories are pretty fuzzy. But I feel like…” She paused again, “Wait, I remember! There was some kind of swirling portal. I remember you picking me up and going through. I remember another voice but I don’t know where it came from. I remember you holding me and something cold on my arm and-” she stopped mid sentence, Looking at the mech’s face again, “Breakdown?”

He smiled, “Yup, that’s me, Cassidy Ramirez.”
She chuckled lightly at the sound of her name, “Call me Cassie for short.” She stepped back, Shaking her head and sighing with a smile on her face, “This is… Wow! I just can’t believe this, you, are all real!

“Yes, what you saw was very real, but that also means that there are very real dangers that may make you their target.” Agent Fowler interrupted the reunion.

Cassie’s face fell, “like those other robots from the alley? What kinds of dangers?” 

“I’m really not the best person to explain,” Agent Fowler started, “but I can take you to someone who is.” Agent Fowler nodded to Breakdown. 

Breakdown returned the gesture and transformed back to a truck. Starting his engine, he opened his doors for the other two.

“Woah wait, you’re really ok with us riding inside you?” Cassie asked, still trying to wrap her head around the whole situation.

Almost simultaneously, both Breakdown and Agent Fowler responded with simply “Don’t think about it too hard.” 

So, doing her best to ignore the raging river of thoughts that barreled through her mind, she approached the open door but hesitated before getting inside. Was she really about to do this? Despite what she had seen, this was still going along with two almost complete strangers! 

Agent Fowler saw her uncertainty from the driver's seat, “I know it’s a lot kiddo. But we just want to keep you safe.” he leaned over offering his hand.

Cassie put on a brave face,  making up her mind as she took his invitation and hoisted herself in the passenger seat. 

Before she could reach for the door to close it, it swung shut on its own as Breakdown’s voice came through the speakers.

“Buckle your seatbelts.”

“Up, flat, down.” Knockout commanded from his stool in the Nemesis Med bay.

 The trooper that he had been attending to responded diligently, following his commands to move its arm and test its range of motion. 

It had come in earlier reporting difficulty lifting supply loads from the mines above torso level. Knockout could tell immediately that it was just a stripped servo and it only would have taken a few minutes to fix, but he was in no rush to get back to doing nothing. So he used the next 30 minutes to do a full analysis of the Vehicon’s arm, paulron to digit. Sure it was excessive, but what was the trooper gonna do about it? Question his medical expertise? 

In the end, his initial diagnosis was correct. He found the faulty servo, repaired it and was now ensuring it was working properly.

“All working properly…” he turned his back to the trooper, picking up a spare piston, “reflex test!” he tossed the piston at the trooper.

The piston hit it in the chest plate with a donk! Before the trooper caught it as it fell.

“Eh good enough.” Knockout sighed as he stood from his seat and ushered the Vehicon out to the hall. “You’re cleared for work, now go!” he pushed it out the door and it was on its way. 

Leaning out into the near empty hallway, the flicker of an idea sparked in his processor. Glancing around the empty Med bay, he tapped the communication datapad on the wall. No incoming emergencies or appointments for the next hour. 

Knockout left the empty Med bay, closing the door behind him and setting the digital door lock to ‘be back soon’. 

Without an exact destination in mind, he set off down the halls. The Med bay, though decently busy, had become near unbearably quiet since he had gone. It had been long enough since it happened that Knockout felt that he could treat patients again, but work had turned into a distraction. If he wasn’t fixing mechs, he was calibrating equipment. If not calibrating, he was cleaning, always moving. If he stopped, if there was a moment of rest, his thoughts would always wander to him . To Breakdown. There could be no stopping the tears that came at the mere thought of his absence. How could primus be so cruel? Taking the one thing he cared about that had actually managed to survive those million years of war.

As he strolled around a corner, he felt a distant memory tugging at the back of his processor. 

Before the war started, not long before, but long enough that ‘the Decepticons’ were no more than a rebel group of Cybertronians that were advocates of freedom. 

Knockout was in his garage, fresh from a race, frantically polishing his finish. 

“Gah, come on!” he reached from 3 different directions just to try to get one spot next to his spinal strut. 

There was a chuckle from the doorway, “Need a servo?” Breakdown leaned against the door frame.

“Ugh! Yes please.” Knockout offered him the polisher as he took a seat on a stool and Breakdown went to work.

“Tough race, huh?” 

“You don’t know the half of it. Just look at what those amateurs did to my finish!” Knockout gestured to his near-perfect plating. 

“Yeah I see it.” Breakdown agreed, “But, this isn’t just about your finish, is it?”

Knockout went quiet.

“You know you don’t have to win every race,” He continued, “ You’re still the best racer I know.” he leaned in so Knockout could see him, “and the most handsome.” 

Knockout covered his flustered smile with a servo, “Oh shut up you big lug!” he said with a laugh. 

Breakdown chuckled as he stepped in front of Knockout, “All done, nice n’ shiny.” He said as he stowed the polisher. 

Knockout stood and stretched, a chorus of struts and joints clicking as he loosened up. “You always know how to hit the spot.” he sighed.

“Wanna go for a drive?” Breakdown offered, “We can go down that one road you like on the outskirts of the city. No timer, no score board. Just you, me and the open road. Whaddya say?”  

Knockout pretended to consider it for a moment, though he had made up his mind before Breakdown had finished talking, “Oh, who can say no to a face like that?” He joked with a smirk.

Breakdown just laughed as he turned to leave.

Knockout quickly caught up with him, threading his arm around Breakdown’s as they left the world behind. 

He could feel the coolant stinging his optics as he pulled himself away from the memory. To avoid completely breaking down in the middle of the hall he focused on counting his steps. One, two, three, four, five… 

Soon enough, the repetitive walls that lined the hall had become too boring. What he really wanted to do was drive, just for a bit. It had certainly been a while since he had had a chance to really floor it and stretch his tires. 

Navigating the identical halls with practiced precision, Knockout made his way around to the ground bridge controls. Standing silent as always, Soundwave was busy at work with the help of his cables to type.

“Ah, Soundwave.” Knockout greeted him with practiced charm, “I need to borrow the ground bridge controls momentarily.” 

Soundwave stopped typing. Turning to face Knockout, he tilted his head in a questioning manner.

“I just wanted to slip out to do some driving is all. These halls get so suffocating after a while!” Knockout began to move towards the console but was stopped by one of Soundwave's long, thin outstretched arms. Shooting a confused look at his blank visor, only to be met with the silent Decepticon shaking his helm. 

“What? Why not?” This was certainly strange. 

In response, Soundwave’s face displayed a rippling audio wave as Megatron’s voice played from his speakers.

“Knockout, If you’re hearing this it means you are trying to use the ground bridge. The reason does not matter, though it’s likely because of your bizarre fascination with automobiles.” Even over the voice recording, Knockout could hear the disdain dripping from Megatron’s voice. He crossed his arms, he was not in the mood to be called out. “In any case, I have decided that allowing you to go gallivanting puts you at too much risk of being captured or destroyed by the Autobots. As our current and only medic, you are simply too valuable to lose and as such are now confined to the ship till further notice.”  

Knockout’s jaw went slack, “Confined to-, Till further notice?!” he stammered in disbelief. “This is outrageous!” 

Soundwave did nothing in response. Not so much as a shrug before turning back to his work and leaving Knockout to spiral. 

Staring at the back of the silent con’s neck cables, he considered his own sharp digits for a brief nano-click before shoving the thought down deep. Despite knowing that Megatron was full of scrap and as mad as he was at the current situation, he also knew that he had absolutely no chance at beating Soundwave. He may be upset but he was no fool. 

Still fuming, Knockout backed off retracing his steps back to the Med bay where he begrudgingly changed the door sign, went in and took his seat on the stool again. 

He knew that Megatron wasn’t fond of his habits, but he had never stopped him before. Something was wrong. Something had changed. What that something was, remained a mystery. But one thing was for certain, Megatron was hiding something from him and Knockout was going to do everything he could to find out what.

Chapter Text

Today was definitely shaping up to be one of the most bizarre days of Cassie’s life. 

Just to recap, one minute she was going through the motions at work when some government agent asked to talk and now she was riding inside a sentient, transforming truck from space. Yeah, this definitely tops that one time she  saw a street performer right outside the shop.

“So, let me get this straight.” Cassie started, “He’s driving himself?” 

“I can hear you, you know!” Breakdown’s voice came through the speakers.

“Oh! Sorry, This is all still so strange!” Cassie apologized quickly. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” Agent Fowler answered for him, Leaning back in the driver's seat as Breakdown did all the driving. 

“Anyway, I don’t want a human touchin’ my wheel.” Breakdown’s cabin shuddered, “Grosses me out just thinking about it.” 

“Duly noted,” Cassie leaned on the door, watching the desert blur by, “So what exactly were you doing in the alley that night?” 

“I was doing a routine patrol and caught a tail. I figured  I could lose it on the streets. Evidently, I was wrong. What’s your story?” 

“Oh I was closing the shop for the night when I heard you in  the alley.” Cassie paused as something occurred to her, “Wait a minute, If you’re a truck, how similar are your… I don’t know, organs? I guess? How similar are they to normal car parts?” 

Breakdown lurched, caught off guard by the mildly invasive question, “Uh, well-. Ahem , Unless human-made cars have a T-cog, I doubt we have much in common.” 

“I have so many more questions.” Cassie remarked but didn’t continue, instead turning back to stare out the window. 

Secretly, Breakdown couldn’t help but agree. Despite having been on this planet for so long, humans and their culture were still so foreign to him. Sure he had overheard Miko, Jack and Raf talking, but that didn’t mean that the words meant anything to him. Never before had he had the inclination to ask more, but driving down that lonely desert road with Cassie in the passenger seat. He found he was intrigued by what she talked about. 

Soon enough they came upon the bend in the road. Without a second thought, Breakdown continued straight, barreling towards the very solid looking mesa.

 “What are you doing?!” Cassie asked, all the panic and anxiety she had pushed away filling her mind once more, “¿Estas loco?! STOP!”, she knew it! She never should have trusted them! Cassie squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable impact.

Breakdown could only hold back his laughter as he felt Cassie grip the side of her seat. 

Like usual, the disguised door opened letting Breakdown continue into the winding entrance.

“Hey, kid! It’s ok, you can look now.” Agent Fowler put a hand on Cassie’s shoulder.

Cassie slowly opened her eyes, simultaneously coming to terms with the fact that she was currently still alive and not an unrecognizable blood stain on a rock wall. 

Instead, she looked around and saw that they were driving through a tall concrete hallway. Before she could finish processing the sudden change of scenery, It changed again. This time, it was a lofty open space, stretching taller than it was wide with metal walkways spanning the distance above them. It then became clear that they were inside the mesa, given the bits of rock Cassie could see poking out between the concrete and metal. 

And then there was the elephant in the room. Er- Elephants, to be clear. Standing in the room, facing the incoming trio were five more giant robots.

The tallest of the group was red and blue, standing beside him was a slightly shorter red and white one. Beside him were three of varying heights; one green, one yellow and one blue. 

Breakdown slowed to a stop in the middle of the room. No one else moved, seemingly waiting. 

Fowler popped the door open and was just about to get out when he realized Cassie hadn’t moved since they entered the tunnel. She was just staring wide-eyed out the front windshield, not moving a muscle. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Breakdown asked, subtly be damned.

“Cassidy,” Agent Fowler leaned across the console, putting a hand on her shoulder, “These guys only want to protect you. They won't hurt you, you have my word.” 

Still wide-eyed, Cassie nodded bravely, swallowing hard as she undid her seatbelt. The door popped open on its own allowing her to slide out and stand shakily in the room. 

“Optimus,” Agent Fowler walked around Breakdown to stand next to Cassie, “This is Cassidy Ramirez. Cassie, this is Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots.” he gestured to the tallest red and blue bot.

“H-hi.” She gave a sheepish wave as Breakdown transformed and stood behind her. 

“Cassidy,” Optimus kneeled, making sure to move slowly so as not to scare her, “I apologize for the unusual terms of our meeting. But it was urgent that we contact you about the current situation.” 

Cassie shrugged, not taking her eyes off of him, “Don’t sweat it. Er-, uhh.” She shook her head, “What is the ‘current situation’ you’re talking about?” 

 The next five-ish minutes were filled with an abbreviated history of Cybertron and its natives. A speech that Optimus had performed more than a few times at this point. Cassie tried her best to listen, taking in what she could understand and saving questions for later. 

“So, Just to recap:” said Cassie, “You guys are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron and you’re here to defend the planet from the Decepticons and their leader Megatron, did I get it right?”

Despite clarifying, when Optimus Prime nodded, Cassie still found herself confused, “So why am I here?” 

“We have reason to believe that the Decepticon that saw and attacked you may target you in the future because of your perceived affiliation with us.” Optimus informed her grimly. 

Cassie swallowed hard, “I-it, might come back?” the strength of her confident defense wavering quickly as her legs buckled. What was she supposed to do? She had no chance against that thing!

“Rest assured, I will not allow you to be caught in the crossfire of our conflict. I want to give you the very best protection I can offer by having Breakdown be your guardian.” Optimus gestured to Breakdown as Cassie turned to face him.

He nodded with the slightest of smiles.

Knowing this, Cassie relaxed. “Thank you, for saving me and for this now.” she turned to Agent Fowler, “What now?” 

Agent Fowler just smiled, “Ok! You can come out now!” 

“FINALLY!” a voiced called in response, 

To Cassie’s surprise, a girl with two fluffy pink buns in her hair jumped out from a stack of white crates. The girl was followed by two boys, one tall with black hair and the other–obviously younger–had spiky brown hair. 

“Who-? Where-? How-?” Cassie stuttered in disbelief as the girl introduced herself.

“I’m Miko! You must be Cassidy!” Miko came forward eagerly, the other two trailing just behind. 

“Y-yeah, Who are- ?” Cassie pointed to the other two.

The taller one waved, “I’m Jack.” 

“I’m Raf.” He mimicked Jack’s wave. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“You too,” Cassie answered haltingly, She shook her head and blinked, “I’m sorry this is still so weird, How are you here?” 

“Let’s just say you weren’t the first human to encounter Decepticons.” Jack answered.

“But hopefully you’re the last!” the red and white bot called before turning to the main computer. 

“Ignore him,” Miko dismissed, “C’mon! I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team!” She tugged Cassie’s free arm, leading her towards the other 3 robots she had seen before as Optimus Prime went to stand with the red and white bot.

Miko dropped Cassie’s arm as she ran to stand in front of the tallest, green robot. “This is Bulkhead!” She gestured upward with open arms, “He’s my partner!” 

Bulkhead waved with a smile, “Hey.” 

“And this is arcee!” Miko moved to gesture to the shorter blue and pink bot. “She’s Jack's partner.”

Arcee nodded to her before Cassie looked back at Jack who shrugged in agreement.

“And this is Bumblebee, Raf’s partner!” Miko finished her performance by finally gesturing to the yellow and black bot at the end.

Bumblebee buzzed and waved enthusiastically, causing Cassie to look confused.

“Uhh, What?” 

“His voice box was damaged in battle,” Raf stepped forward, “He said ‘Nice to meet you’.” 

Cassie did a double take, “You can understand him?” when Raf nodded, she smiled and shook her head, “And I thought speaking English and Spanish was cool!” 

“And finally, This is Ratchet, the team medic.” Miko pointed to the Red and white bot, sticking her tongue out.

Ratchet paused his work, turning to say, “Hello.” as he nodded to Cassie.

“You’re a medic?” Cassie asked, intrigued.

“That’s correct,” Ratchet answered.

“So, you’re like a mechanic?” 

“No, I’m a medic .” Ratchet clarified once again, quickly becoming tired of the conversation.

“But you fix Cybertronians that transform into cars…” 

“That’s right.”

“Like a mechanic would.”

Ratchet looked like he wanted to counter her statement but found himself with nothing to say. The silence stretched on.

“So, either you’re a mechanic or I’m a Cybertronian medic?” Cassie joked with a smile.

Ratchet scoffed, “No! That’s not how that-!” He scoffed again before returning to his work.

“I think you and I are gonna get along just fine.” Miko said with a smile, “C’mon, I’ll show you the rest of the base!”  she said as she pulled Cassie down the hall. 

Breakdown watched from the same spot he had stopped in as Cassie was introduced to the rest of the team. Only after Miko led her down the hall did he take notice of the rest of the team. The difference he saw was slight but definite.

The whole team had a few extra dents, a few cracks and looked collectively tired. 

“Hey, Bulkhead.” Breakdown grabbed his attention, “Did I miss something? Why do you all look so…” He gestured to the dents 

“Worn down?” Bulkhead filled in the gap. Breakdown nodded.

The big green bot hesitated, internally weighing his options before sighing, “We had a run in with an old ‘friend’ of yours.” he explained, making air quotes at the word “friend”.

“Who?” Breakdown asked, thinking maybe his new crew met someone from his old one.

Bulkhead looked him dead in the optic, “Silas.” 

Breakdown froze at the name, phantom pain of his missing optic flaring up. Just the mention of his name, sent shivers down his spinal strut. Through his shock, the only thing he could manage to ask was a strained, “How?” 

“He somehow managed to build himself a life-size replica of Optimus and used it to make the big bot look bad!” Bulkhead clenched his servo, “We shut him down quick, the thing itself was so half-baked, he had to pilot it from the inside. As much as Optimus hates killing, Silas didn’t give us any other option.” He punched his own open fist, “We crushed the knock-off like a tin can with Silas still inside.”

That knowledge gave Breakdown some relief, “So, he’s dead?” 

“I don’t know how anyone could survive what we dished out. But, to be completely honest,” Bulkhead checked over his pauldrons before leaning in to whisper, “The mechanisms were so damaged, there was no way to pry it open to check on him when the humans stored the thing.” and with that Bulkhead left.

Breakdown stared after him, partially reassured but also slightly unsettled. Silas had come back? After his last run in, he wasn’t sure what he would do if he ever came face-to-face with him again. But there was no need to worry. He’s gone for good this time, right?

Chapter Text

<< SYSTEM ERR >>

<< DAMAGE LVL: CRITICAL >>

<< DAMAGE REPORT >>

{

<< FUEL LVL: 5% >>

<< ENERGON LVL: 15% >>

<< PILOT STATUS >>

{

<< BPM: 0 >>

<< BP: 0/0 >>

<< BRAIN WAVES: SYNTAX_ERR >>

}

<< MULTIPLE STATUS RECEPTORS OFFLINE >>

} 

<< REPAIR NECESSARY >>

<< PROGRAM START UP: PROJECT_CHIMERA >>

_

_

_

<< ”Hello?” >>

_

<< “Who’s there?” >>

_

<< “Where am I?” >>

<< OPTICAL RECEPTORS ONLINE >>

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Dark. Everything was dark. And cold. Dark, cold and blurry. Blurry? Why was everything blurry? After a few blinks, everything came into focus. In the dark were endless rows of crates, stretching on within a tall metal building of sorts. Each crate stamped with the same crest of a star and stripe-ed shield and eagle. 

How did he get here? Where exactly was here? 

<< MOTOR SYSTEMS ENGAGED >>

Where is that coming from? More importantly; 

<< “Why can’t I move?” >>

Everything felt heavy. Maybe ‘can’t’ was an understatement. Putting more effort into his next attempt, he curled his fingers, feeling them press into his palm. But the sensation was strange, like a phantom pressure of some foreign and distant object.

<< PILOT INPUT REGISTERED >>

<< ”Pilot?” >>

Who was that? Who was he again? 

<< CURRENT PILOT: LELAND BISHOP, ALIAS: SILAS >>

<< “Silas.” >>

That’s right, He’s Silas. Slowly but steadily, he remembered. MECH, the Autobots and Decepticons, Optimus Prime…

The fight. Didn’t he… Die? What’s going on here?

The more he thought, the more aware he became, the more the panic began to set in. Fueled by rising anxiety, He pulled at every impulse, every motion, in a desperate flailing attempt to feel or move.

<< AUDITORY RECEPTORS ONLINE >>

A cacophony of creaking and scraping like a bundle of sheet metal hitting the ground shattered through the previous silence. But the noise wasn’t the worst part, it was the fact that he could feel every sound. It was coming from him. 

That’s when he saw it. Or rather, saw himself. Catching a glimpse of his arm, or what it had become. Instead of flesh and blood he saw rusted metal, bent and crushed to near oblivion. 

Senseless flailing became horrified curiosity as he turned and twisted the false limb, The gravity of the situation becoming heavier by the second. 

<< “What… am I?” >>

Barely aware of what he was moving or how, he rose from his crumpled position on the ground. Stability was nonexistent, toppling over the moment he felt upright. Falling forward with rusty arms outstretched, his hands connected with the opposite wall with a CLANG! One hand landing on either side of a darkened window. 

In that moment, staring at his reflection in the dark glass, everything clicked. Staring back at him were two glowing orange eyes and a painfully familiar face. The Prime. Or rather, the false Prime. 

Silas froze, staring at the one he hated most through his eyes. The longer he studied the face he saw the more enraged he became.

 He pulled one hand away from the wall, reaching for his face and grasping the tip of the battle mask covering half his face. With the force of strength he didn’t realize he had, he yanked and pulled at the piece of metal. At first it didn’t give, but with every attempt, it moved ever so slightly. With one great final pull, he wrenched the mask off his face pulling with it a tangled mess of wires that snapped and sent sparks flying into the darkness.

Tossing the mask aside, he once again stared into the window. He remembered when they originally built this monstrosity, they hadn’t thought it necessary to give it a mouth. It wasn’t like they had expected the confrontation with Optimus Prime to be diplomatic. Besides, with no government funding, wasting valuable time and resources they could be using to build weapons, only to figure out how a Cybertronians mouth works was a no brainer. So they slapped on a permanent battle mask and called it a day. 

But now, after ripping it off, Silas was greeted with a mess of wires sprouting from the void that was the lower half of his ‘face’. Somewhere behind them, he could just barely see the vague outline of a speaker, through which he had talked to the Prime before. And the sensation that came with it, how curious! Something akin to an electrifying pain but unlike any he’s ever felt before. 

Satisfied with his self-mutilation, Silas turned his attention to the rest of him. Peering down at the broken mess he had the unfortunate pleasure of calling ‘a body’. His rusty and faded red and blue plating was bent from chassis to pede. Despite his limited understanding of Cybertronian anatomy, he was pretty sure their knees do not bend that way.

<< DAMAGE IMPEDING FUNCTIONALITY, SEEK REPAIR STATION >>

Ugh, how irritating. He’s barely woken up and he’s already being bombarded with flashing warning signs. And how was he supposed to find a repair station when he barely knew where he was? Speaking of which.

Doing his best to balance on his single functional leg, Silas hobbled his way through the crate-lined aisle towards a roll-up door at the very end. 

Moving was… weird. Every motion felt like an echo, like he was in control but out of touch. The only sensation he could really feel was what he could only assume was his original body flopping about in the pilot's chest cavity. Every so often, after a particularly sudden lurch forward, he felt/heard a loud snap come from somewhere inside him. What followed was a dark, thick substance that oozed between the plates of his chassis and dripped down his front. 

Finally, he reached the end of the aisle, coming face-to-face with his last obstacle. Perhaps he could just… no. Surely it couldn’t be that simple!

BOOM! The shot from his blaster erupted into the previously quiet night. Silas did his best to step over the metal rubble on the pavement of a military storage ground as he lifted his gaze to the glowing night sky. But as picturesque as the sight was, with no lungs to fill with cool, fresh air, the scene seemed stale and dull.

<< “What now?” >>

Before he had even finished the thought, he realized his objective; Kill the Prime. 

It was so obvious! In fact, why stop there? Why not eradicate all of the Autobots? Maybe it was a lofty goal, but you know what they say; Aim for the moon so even if you fall, you’ll land among the stars.

<< DAMAGE IMPEDING FUNCTIONALITY, SEEK REPAIR STATION >>

Ah yes, the nuisance. No matter, Silas recognized the surrounding area and terrain, he knew somewhere nearby was an abandoned MECH facility, he would definitely be able to find the tools to repair himself there. 

One wobbly step after the other, he pressed on into the night.

<< “Soon Optimus.” >>

<< “Soon I will have my revenge.” >>

The sun had set by the time Cassie said it was time for her to be getting home. After a long day of Miko giving her the grand tour of the base and stopping every so often to tell (slightly excessively) graphic stories of her personal encounters with Decepticons, Cassie was definitely ready to hit the sack. 

Breakdown on the other hand had spent the majority of that time asking Bulkhead, Arcee and Bee all the questions he could think of; “How long do I have to stay with her?” , “Do I have to stay transformed the whole time?”, “What if more Decepticons show up?” and finally “Do I have to?”. 

Bulkhead answered most of the questions with Arcee and Bee piping up every so often.

“You’ll do fine! Curbside duty is easy.” Bulkhead reassured him. 

“But what if-!” Breakdown started but was interrupted by Arcee.

“Look, you have two priorities; Number one, Protect Cassie. Number two, stay hidden. If anything happens, it’s your job to make sure she’s safe and only reveal yourself if absolutely necessary . Is that clear?”

Though slightly caught off guard, Breakdown nodded, “Yes ma’am.”

“Good.” And with that, Arcee walked off just as Cassie came back into the main silo. 

“I should probably be heading back to my house. Don’t want my dad to worry.” 

Optimus nodded, “Understood.” He turned to look at Breakdown.

“What?” He paused, “Oh, right.” finally getting the hint, he transformed and opened his passenger door for Cassie.

“If you’re not doing anything, you should come hang out again tomorrow!” Miko called as Cassie started to climb into Breakdown’s seat, “I’d be nice to finally have another girl to hang out with!”

 “Well, it’s not like I can do much at the shop anyway.” Cassie gestured to the cast on her arm, “see you tomorrow then!” she settled in and put her seatbelt on as Breakdown closed the door and started his engine. 

“See ya!” Miko waved enthusiastically as Cassie and Breakdown sped out the exit tunnel.   

The large mechanical doors of the secret base split open to reveal the quite, moon-lit Jasper desert. Breakdown’s headlights flicked on, and they continued on into the night.

Cassie watched the door close through the rear view mirror before settling into her seat. “You guys sure are a colorful bunch!”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess.” Breakdown was pulled from his thoughts. He was so used to being alone while he drove. Having a passenger was going to take some getting used to.

Cassie drummed her fingers on her leg, “Soooo, would now be a good time for questions?” She hoped she seemed nonchalant but really she was dying to learn more.

“Uhhh, sure. Why not?” Breakdown answered. 

“Ok! First question, How do you guys go from car to bot?”  

Breakdown thought for a minute, “The simple answer is with a T-cog.”

“What’s a T-cog?”

“A ‘Transformation cog’, is the organ that lets us transform.” 

“It’s an organ?” She asked, perplexed at the notion.

Breakdown responded with a simple “Mm hm”

“Sooo, Theoretically, If I put a T-cog in a normal car, would it turn into a Cybertronian?”

“What?! No! A T-cog is just how we transform, sparks–among other things–are what makes a Cybertronian.”

“Ohhh, I get it.” Cassie leaned on his door to stare into the starry sky.

For a moment, there was quiet. Just the two of them, driving swiftly down the lonely desert road.

This peace was quickly interrupted.

“So if I-”, Cassie started again.

“No.” Breakdown cut in.

“But I didn’t even-!”

“You didn’t have to.”

She huffed and ‘crossed’ her arm. “Alright, I get it. No more questions for tonight. But you bet your fender I’ll be asking all of them tomorrow!”

He chuckled, a sound so small it could be mistaken as engine noise. Despite the fact he was in his alt mode, Breakdown smiled to himself. 

At this point, they had turned into Jasper’s more suburban streets. The slow, flashing pattern of yellow-ish street lamps passing by was accompanied by the low, warm glow of Breakdown’s interior bio lights. The empty street made everything seem so still, as if the world had frozen in place. Such a peace and comfort that comes from feeling like the only person in the world. 

“This is me, on the right.” Cassie pointed to a house a few doors down from the far corner of the street. At first glance, the house was as unremarkable as its neighbors. But upon closer inspection, its little quirks became noticeable. Though it was the same build as the rest of the houses, It was painted a light blue, not unlike a clear sky. Rusty car parts and old tires were piled up next to the gate to the backyard and several cars covered with tarps were parked in the driveway and on the street.  

Breakdown pulled up to the available curb and opened the door for Cassie to climb out. 

“I’m going to do a perimeter check before I park for the night.” he shut the door behind her as she turned to face him on the sidewalk.

“Okie-doki! Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow!” She waved as she walked up the paved path to the door.

He waited till she had fished the key out of her pocket, unlocked the door, went in, then closed it behind her before he pulled away from the curb. With his route in mind, he decided to do a quick loop around her block and back, nothing much.

What a wonderful night it was for driving. The streets were quiet, the stars were bright and a cool breeze cut through the dry desert air. Absent-mindedly, Breakdown turned down a different street, elongating his solitary cruise just a little longer. 

A further down the sidewalk, on the opposite side of the street were two humans, both male, just walking side-by-side. 

That’s weird . Breakdown remarked. These were the first humans he had seen since coming back into town tonight. He had assumed they would all be recharging by now. 

As he got closer, their features became clearer. One of the men was dressed in a loose, blue button down, black T-shirt and shorts while the other man wore a dark red tank top and sweatpants. With their hands clasped, they milled down the sidewalk, talking and laughing in voices too far away to understand. 

The man in red stopped his partner, pointing at something in the sky. Once the man in blue had paused to squint into the distance, his partner leaned in sneakily and planted a kiss on his cheek. Coming to realize the trickery, the man in blue tilted back in a laugh before gently grasping his partner's face and returning the favor. 

At this point Breakdown had slowed to a crawl as he watched the scene unfold, unable to look away. A sharp pang of grief struck him suddenly. He picked up the pace again, becoming aware that a solitary, lingering, military vehicle might look suspicious. His gaze drifted into the cosmos once again, feeling a strange combination of longing and determination. He’s up there, Somewhere….

Chapter Text

“Come on… come on!” Knock out grumbled under his breath as he typed furiously. His scarlet optics scanned through every mission report in the Decepticon database, searching for any miniscule inconsistency that might clue him in to whatever it was that Megatron was hiding from him.

[Seeker team Beta completed a sweep of the north-west sector

Nothing to report]

[Seeker team Delta completed a sweep of the north–east sector

Nothing to report]

[Autobots spotted at 23.4162° N, 25.6628° E

Decepticon response team dispatched]

Log after log, report after report, everything matched. 

“Gah! There has to be something !” He exclaimed, slamming his servos down on the console in frustration. Though, in all honesty, he had no idea what exactly he was looking for.

 The only clue he had to go on after the groundbridge incident was that there was something on earth that Megatron was trying to keep him from finding. But that could be anything! And what would even matter anymore? 

He sighed, slowly pulling away from the panel as he procured a data pad from his sub-space.

This isn’t getting anywhere. He thought as he plugged the pad into the console and began downloading all the logs he could. I’ll just have to try again later.

The loading bar ticked away, slowly but rhythmically as Knockout’s thoughts wandered where they always did when he was alone, back to Breakdown. 

Though he still missed that brute dearly, the sharp pang of grief had slowly been replaced by an almost warm feeling of nostalgia. Make no mistake, the hole left open by his missing presence was still there, but a few memories had begun to bring him more comfort than pain. 

It was just the small things; His zeal for combat and the way his optics would light up when he found his target. His infectiously brutish chuckling that never failed to make Knockout smile. And finally, those moments when it was just the two of them in the med bay. Between the chaos of constant battles, where Knockout could clearly see the compassion Breakdown hid beneath all those layers of armor. 

Lost in thought staring at the -now blank- console screen, Knockout almost didn’t notice the sound of pede-steps approaching behind him. That is, until he felt a tap on his pauldron.

Knockout pulled away from his daydream and turned to find the ever-silent Soundwave standing behind him, the data cable he had used to get Knockout’s attention swiftly retracting. 

“Ah-! Soundwave! Funny seeing you here!” Knockout gasped, slightly startled, “I was just looking to fill in some gaps in my, uhh… patient logs.” he fumbled slightly, hoping the silent con hadn’t noticed.

Soundwave, not bothering to make any acknowledgements to Knockout’s reasoning, simply pointed to the console with one spindly digit.

“Yes, of course! You need to use the console, I understand. If I could just get another moment to finish…” Knockout tried to explain but in doing so was interrupted by Soundwave using one long, thin arm to push past him.

“-Or you could just take it. That’s fine” Knockout finished, nervously eyeing the datapad still plugged into the console. “Allow me to just…”  before Soundwave could object, Knockout quickly reached across Soundwave for the furthest part of the keyboard, pretending to close out of his research while secretly unplugging the datapad.

After grabbing the pad and safely stowing it in his subspace, it occurred to Knockout what exactly he was doing. Still stretched across the key board, he stole a glance at Soundwave’s not-face. 

If the silent con had a face, Knockout was certain he would be giving him the most disgusted look he had ever seen in his millions of years of life. 

Just as quickly as he had done it, Knockout retracted from the desk, “Heh, Apologies! I wanted to make sure you had a clean slate to work with!” He tried to explain, hoping his charm would help him not get offlined on the spot. Luckily, Soundwave had long lost interest in this one-sided conversation, turning to type on the console keyboard. 

Without risking another word, Knockout quietly slipped away. Primus, that was close! He thought to himself as he navigated down the repetitive halls and finally arrived at the all-too-quiet med bay.

He vented a sigh of relief as the doors slid shut behind him and he went to, once again, re-organize his medical supplies.

“Where did you say we were going again?” 

“The scrapyard!” Cassie bounced excitedly in Breakdown's passenger seat. “My dad sent me to try and salvage some car parts, but I figured you might enjoy smashing the useless bits.” 

Breakdown swore his sparkpulse quickened at the word ‘smashing’. He realized it had been forever since he had been able to truly let loose and clash his hammers, metal to metal. He had to restrain himself since siding with the Autobots due to their frowning upon the reckless brutality he was so fond of.

Maybe Cassie was imagining it, but the lines of orange light that ran all throughout the interior of Breakdown’s cabin glowed brighter. She smiled to herself, I thought he might like that.  

The two drove on, getting closer and closer to the edge of the city till the only thing on the horizon was the stretching expanse of  the Nevada desert. A good ten blocks before they had made it to the edge of the city, the rows of industrial warehouses on their right ended abruptly and were replaced by a wide plot of land surrounded by a chain link fence. Inside were pile upon pile of discarded scrap. Towers of tires, structures of steel beams, mountains of monitors! Any sort of metal or mechanical piece you could think of, Breakdown was sure he saw at least two of them!

“The entrance is just up here on the right. ” Cassie pointed as they rounded the corner to a locked gate in the chain link.

Breakdown rolled to a stop just a few feet in front of the entrance, “It’s locked. How are we gonna get in?” He asked as Cassie opened the door. 

“Wait here.” She reached into her pocket as she walked towards the gate, fishing out the same keyring that Breakdown had seen her use for her house. Opening the lock and loosening the chain that held the gate together, Cassie quickly pushed the two doors of the chain link apart and motioned for Breakdown to follow her. 

Once he had rolled far enough into the yard, Cassie closed and locked the gates just as quickly as she had before. “You can go back to robot mode if you want.” She offered as she walked past him. “We’re far enough from the other entrance on the city side that no one will be able to see you. not to mention we’ll be surrounded by huge piles of scrap.” She explained as she continued further into the jungle of scrap and Breakdown transformed behind her. 

“You sure know your way around this place.” He pointed out as he took the 3 steps he needed to catch up to her. 

“My dad used to take me when I was younger and he went on salvage runs.” Cassie stepped over a broken microwave, “Once I was old enough to go on my own, he gave me my own key and sent me on solo runs.” She picked up the pace after side-stepping a broken, rusty pipe. “Here it is! The automobile section!”

Cassie gestured grandly to row upon row of rusty cars, boats, and motorcycles. Some lined up and barely touched, others crushed into pancakes and piled in heaps. 

“I can smash all of these?!” Breakdown asked excitedly.

“Slow down tipo duro !” Cassie teased, “I still have to check them for salvageable parts! But, I guess if you’re too impatient, you could start with the already flattened one-” Before she had even finished talking, Breakdown had already brought his hammers out and started pounding on one of the pre smashed cars, laughing heartily with each swing. 

Cassie grinned as she shook her head, “ Tonto .” She made her way towards the back of the lot, using the same keyring to pop the trunk of an older SUV, revealing a basic tool kit. Cassie took it, closed the trunk and got to work on a nearby pickup truck. All while Breakdown had gone through three of the pre smashed cars and was pulling out a fourth. 

Breakdown looked over to see her under the hood, arm-deep in the engine compartment. “Hey, where’d you get all those tools?” He asked, noticing  the box on the ground next to her.

“Oh, I stashed it in that old SUV a while back. It’s locked and I have the only key!” She answered, pulling away from the engine block with a serpentine belt in her hands. “Huh, still in pretty good condition!” 

Cassie dropped the belt into the tool box and dove back under the hood for more as Breakdown turned back to his soon-to-be-flatter car pancakes.

He reached to grab the next one from the pile when something about the car caught his optic. Though faded and chipped, the car’s bright scarlet paint job made Breakdown hesitate. He gently placed his servo on the dented hood. It wasn’t even close to the same model of car, it was big and blocky with sharp angels and edges. But the color…

Cassie climbed down from the truck and stashed a couple of fuses in her toolbox. She was just reaching up to close the hood when she noticed a distinct lack of the sound of metal being crushed. Turning around, she saw Breakdown standing frozen with his back to her, just staring at something in the pile. She took a couple steps to try and see what he was staring at when she noticed his hand on the red car. 

“Breakdown? You ok?” She asked.

He jumped, snapping out of his thoughts, “Uh, Yeah.” He turned around with a smile on his face. “Did you find a car I can crush?” 

“O-oh, yeah! I just finished with this pickup, It’s all yours!” Cassie turned back, letting the hood close with a loud KA-CHUNK!

Breakdown grinned and brought his hammers out, “Perfect.” 

* * * * *

“Would you just-? Ugh! Come on!” Cassie grumbled to herself, sitting on a small mound of tires while fiddling with a broken frame piece. 

Meanwhile, Breakdown was kneeling a few paces away, carefully balancing three cars in a triangle shape so that one car teetered atop the point of the two others. He stood up and stepped backwards, taking a moment to admire his work. This moment did not last long however as it was swiftly interrupted by Breakdown bringing his hammers down on both sides of the balanced car, crushing the other two beneath it into even more compacted slabs of metal. 

“HA-HA! That was a good one!” he said, smiling as he turned to where Cassie was perched, still fiddling with her latest project.

“Hmm? Oh yeah.” she looked up for just a moment before returning back to her project. 

The sun hung low in the sky, casting a golden glow across the piles of scrap strewn across the lot.  The warm desert atmosphere finally started to drop in temperature as the sun went down. It had been a long day of scrapping and scavenging with the occasional chatter in between. A decent portion of the cars that used to be whole and sitting in neat rows were reduced to scrap. 

“I GOT IT!” Cassie exclaimed suddenly, holding the piece in her raised hand triumphantly. “Whew! That took forever!” She looked around, finally surveying the damage. “Woah you really went to town, huh?”

“Hey! You’re the one that brought me here.” Breakdown pointed out, leaning on the scrap tower next to Cassie. 

“I know! I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. They were all meant to be crushed into scrap eventually.” She stowed the hard earned pieces in her tool box and walked towards the SUV. 

“It’s just…” She paused before opening the trunk. “Does it bother you at all?” 

“Does what bother me?” Breakdown asked.

“All the broken and rusty cars? Isn’t it like dead bodies for you?” She asked while opening the trunk and starting to sort all the scavenged parts into a separate plastic bag.

“Er, Not really.” He started, caught slightly off guard by the question, “We might have similar insides, but it’s not like these things were ever alive.”  He paused, staring at the last slivers of sun slip below the horizon, “Besides, even if they were. I’ve seen scenes worse than this before.” He finished a little quieter. 

Cassie paused with her hand resting on the open trunk, “Well that doesn’t seem right.” She stated plainly before letting the trunk close with a THUD!

“I-! Wait, what?” Breakdown turned to look at Cassie locking the trunk. “What’d you mean?”

“I mean, no one should ever have to see that many dead.” She grabbed the plastic bag of parts and walked over to where Breakdown was still leaning on the scrap pile. “It messes with your head.” She turned to lean on his pede, following his gaze along the horizon. “I think war in general does that. Fucks with people’s heads. It makes them forget what they were fighting for in the first place” 

For a moment, the two of them just sat there. As the night grew deeper and the silence stretched on, it was just them and their thoughts alone. 

What was he fighting for? That was easy. Breakdown fought for him. For Knockout. He fought so someday they could be together in peace without the threat of annihilation constantly hanging over their heads. But… had all that fighting amounted to anything? No matter what happened, there was always the looming threat of uselessness. If Megatron deemed that you no longer served the cause, that was it. You were done. Fighting had never made anyone more or less useful. It was just what you were expected to do and if you couldn’t, what good are you?

Breakdown jumped suddenly when a knock came from his pede plating. 

“It’s getting late, we should probably start heading home.” Cassie pointed out, standing up and stretching. 

“Uh… Right.” Breakdown slowly pulled away from his thoughts as he followed Cassie to the same gate they had entered in. 

After the same routine of unlocking, opening, closing and locking the gate again, Breakdown transformed and opened his passenger side door for Cassie. But before getting in she paused. 

“Could I, maybe, possibly, drive?” She asked haltingly, putting on her most innocent smile. 

Hearing that was just the push Breakdown needed to snap back to reality. “What?! No! Like I said; No human is touchin’ my wheel!” He reminded her as she huffed and buckled in.

“I swear I’m a good driver!” She tried to explain but was cut off.

“It’s not just you I don’t trust, it’s all humans! With your gross fleshy hands… Eugh!” He continued as he started down the street towards Cassie’s house. 

“Ohh, I know what this is about!” She shook a finger at Breakdown's non-existent face, “you’re worried I might be a better driver than you!”

“WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

The irony of his current situation had not been lost on Silas. Such a fickle thing, irony. In pursuit of destroying the thing he hates, he had become one. Although it wasn’t all bad, now he was on a level playing field with the Autobots. Especially since Silas had just finished repairing his legs. 

Pushing off his concrete work area/medical table, Silas carefully examined his work. Bending and twisting the actuators that now made up his knees and ankles. 

It’ll do. He thought to himself. He made his way around the scattered supplies and weapons as he flexed his arms and wrists, shaking them free of a feeling akin to soreness. But that’s not really what it was, just some stickiness in the gears from holding them in the same position for an extended period of time. 

Silas stepped over a pile of scrap metal before coming to stand in front of the main display. The humble abode he was currently occupying was one of MECH’s backup facilities hidden inside a long-abandoned train tunnel. It functioned as a store house of sorts, a place where they kept spare equipment in case they had to abandon base without the time to gather equipment. It was, at best, rudimentary. But, it would have to do. 

With one flat finger, he refreshed the radar software on the glowing orange screen. Zero hits, of course. Silas had done his best to boost the signal of the energon scanner, but with his limited materials, there wasn’t much he could do. So he would have to wait for one of Optimus’s little soldiers to wander close enough to be detected.

No matter, that gave him plenty of time to come up with the perfect plan to annihilate the Autobots.  

“Gah! Where did these things come from?!” Breakdown shouted over the sound of clashing metal. 

He had been sent, with Arcee as supervision, to investigate a faint energon signature coming from the forest region that bordered the Jasper desert. Just as they had concluded that the signature was a false alarm, they had been ambushed by a swarm of 5 Insecticons that seemed to descend on them as soon as they left the cover of foliage. 

“No idea!” Arcee shouted back, darting quickly past the sloppy swings of the Insecticons, “Last time I saw these things- Ha!” pausing as she delivered a solid kick to one of the cons heads, “They were under Airachnid’s control.” 

“Grr, Airachnid.” Breakdown growled through gritted denta as he blocked an attack. “I have a score to settle with that multi-legged freak!” He shoved the insecticon back, giving him the time to swing his hammer and deliver a crushing uppercut. 

“She can’t be the one controlling these things!” Arcee swung her arm blades as she jumped over an incoming insecticon, slicing off its antenna. “She’s in stasis back at base!” she finished as she landed back-to-back with Breakdown while the Insecticons closed in.

Breakdown clenched one servo as his hammer on the other side twitched. He could probably take out one or two with just a couple swings, but he would undoubtedly be overtaken by the other three. Damn it! He hated being out numbered! 

“Throw me,” 

Who said that?! 

It took Breakdown a moment to realize that the command had come from Arcee, still standing  behind him also keeping a close eye on the encroaching circle of Insecticons. 

Unsure of this course of action but not wanting to ignore an order from one of his allies, he lowered his free hand while still keeping an eye on the danger surrounding them. As soon as he felt the comparatively light-weight of the two-wheeler in his palm, in one swift motion, he launched her into the sky.

In that moment, Arcee’s plan clicked in Breakdown’s processor. The unexpected motion drew the Insecticons gaze to the flying Autobot, leaving them open and vulnerable to him. 

Well alright then. 

The first missile hit an insecticon square in the chest, sending it flying backwards. Breakdown lunged for the next, hammer raised and connecting with its jaw so hard, he heard a couple neck cables snap. 

Meanwhile, from above, Arcee provided cover fire, aiming for the ones that Breakdown wasn’t paying attention to. 

The insecticon fell limp after the blow, hitting the ground with a crash. Breakdown, aware that he somehow hadn’t been tackled to the ground by the remaining three, turned just in time to see Arcee’s heel connect firmly with the side of the head of the insecticon she had previously broken the antenna off of. It too fell unconscious to the ground. 

And then there were two. 

Both of which looked at each other, then their fallen comrades bodies and…

Took off. While hissing and cursing profusely, they turned heel-strut and, after grabbing the other three, took flight. 

“Huh, guess they don’t like even odds.” Breakdown relaxed as he put his hammer away.

Arcee watched the massive bugs leave, ensuring they didn’t turn around. As she started to turn back to Breakdown, she caught a glimpse of the antenna she had severed, lying on the desert floor.

Airachnid. She thought bitterly as she absentmindedly picked it up. 

Suddenly she was back in that underground cavern, staring at the spider femme frozen in stasis. A glint of something leaking bright blue caught her optic. Airacnid’s spindly severed leg, still wedged in the ground.

“Uh, Arcee?” 

Just like that, the cave was gone. Arcee looked down at the severed antenna in her servo, a feeling she couldn’t quite pinpoint somewhere in the back of her processor. 

“Hellooo?” 

Oh right, she’s not alone. 

“Uh, what?” she asked, turning to face the big blue bot. 

“I said, we should probably comm Ratchet for pick up, right?” He asked, pointing a thumb-digit over his pauldron. 

“Oh, yeah.” She agreed, looking back at the antenna still in her servo. 

Noticing her hesitation and the way she kept staring at that thing, Breakdown paused, “You ok?” 

Though she heard his question, Arcee didn’t answer right away. Could she really trust him with an answer? How long ago had it been that he would have swung at her without a second thought? Although, come to think of it, it had actually been quite a long time. 

“I’m fine,” She said finally, “ I just have a grudge against a certain spider.” She crushed the antenna in her fist before storing it in her subspace. Even scrap shouldn’t be left for humans to find. 

“Oh, you too huh?” Breakdown asked, relaxing slightly. 

Arcee paused, just now processing what Breakdown had said mid-battle. “You-? What did she do to you?” 

“She’s the one that tore me up and left me for scrap!” He explained angrily, “If I ever get the chance, I swear nothing on this dusty rock will keep me from tearing those extra legs off!” In one swift motion, he transformed his fist and slammed it into the ground.

Arcee watched him fume, Breakdown’s anger reminding her of her own and how much it had influenced her every action. Perhaps there was more to this brute than his rage and strength.

Breakdown straightened up, sighing as his hammer disappeared and he rolled his pauldrons to shake the tightness in their joints. He looked to Arcee but couldn’t meet her gaze, her optics locked on the ground as if in a trance. 

“What about you?” He asked. 

Finally, Arcee’s focus left the ground, “ What? Oh…” She hesitated again, but after a shake of her helm she continued, “ She killed my partner, Tailgate.” 

Arcee expected awkward silence, maybe even a laugh from the former con. What she didn’t expect however was a large but gentle hand on her pauldron. She turned to see Breakdown standing beside her, not laughing or smiling, but meeting her gaze with grim yet sympathetic expression. 

“I’m sorry.” the words almost didn’t feel real, the fact that they came from Breakdown didn’t necessarily help either. But they were real nonetheless. 

Breakdown knew that words wouldn’t fix anything, but in situations like this one, the damage done is irreparable. So he did the only thing he could; understand. 

At that moment, a swirl of green sparks appeared a few yards away. 

After noticing Arcee’s confused look Breakdown explained, “I commed Ratchet a little bit ago on a direct channel.” He started to walk towards the portal but paused, “ It looked like you had something you needed to get off your chest.”  

He disappeared into the swirling green particles with Arcee not far behind. On the other side, he was greeted by an excited “Breakdown!” From Cassie who jumped from her seat on the couch with the other human kids.

“Did you find any of that ‘ener-gin’ stuff?” She asked as she hopped down the steps to the main base floor.

“Ener-gon,” Breakdown corrected, “ And no, it was a false alarm. Instead, we got ambushed by Insecticons! ” As Cassie drew closer, Breakdown knelt down and held out an open servo that Cassie hoisted herself into. 

Once she was stabilized, Breakdown lifted her to the space between his helm and pauldron, at which point she took a seat holding on to the natural grooves in his plating for stability.

“What’s an Insecticon?” Cassie asked as the two went down the hall, leaving Arcee to watch from the main area. 

This was not the same Decepticon Arcee had fought a few months ago. Optimus was right, Breakdown had changed, actually changed. She could finally see that now.