Warning : Maybe a little OCC...Not sure where this idea come form and I want a moment between the to of them.
/
Ratchet passed the ground bridge and automatically looked at the scanner on his arms. The distress beacon was still active and stronger in this area. He looked around the forest letting his optics calibrate to his dark surrounding.
/Anything Ratchet?/ The deep voice of Optimus Prime resonated over his comlink.
/Not yet Optimus, but I am locked on the source of the beacon. I'm heading that way. / He answered, walking in the woods, following the signal.
/Proceed with extreme caution old friend. / The prime warned him.
Ratchet rolled his optics, resisting to the urge to remind his leader that he was doing this before he event received his last adult update. He knew Optimus was only worried about him. He would have come with him or at least send one of the team member instead, but the last battle with the Decepticon have left them wounded and the medic refused to let anyone out the medbay.
/I will Optimus. / He answered before moving in.
He walked for a few minutes before he reached a clearing. It was clear this one have been made by something large. Many trees were broken, woods splinter were everywhere. The smell of energon was heavy in the air. A cybertronian life form badly damage was near him.
The medic scanned the clearing. His optics caught a spot of red on the other side of the wreck. He moved closer and his processor seemed to freeze. The size of the frame, the color…
"Cliffjumper…" he whispered before he shook his hand, cursing softly. Cliffjumper was gone…After what happened to him it was better like this. He wouldn't suffer anymore. That left only on possibility for him.
"Knockout." He said out loud as he carefully walked in the direction of the fallen mech.
A part of his processor was screaming to leave him to extinguish. He was a decepticon and all this was probably a trap. He couldn't do this, his medic programming could not ignore the wounded. Enemy or not.
Seeing there was no reaction from the mech, he knelt down beside him looking at the wounds. His chests have been crushed under a heavy and blunt weapon, probably a mace or hammer. His frame was pushed in the soft soil. Energon was polling under him. The armor was cracked open and he could see the faint white blue light of the other mech spark. Ratchet moved closer to examine closely and sighed. The energon lost was not the only reason his spark was so faint. The spark chamber casing was cracked. A fatal and painful way to go. On Cybertron, with all the equipments, it would have been near impossible to save him at this state but here on Earth….. Ratchet reached to examine more and jumped when the red optics fixed on him.
"I knew you...would come." Knockout said in a low voice, full of static. He managed to make his trademark smirk. Ratchet didn't think he could have had the energy necessary to stay online. Considering how much pain he was in, it would have better if he didn't.
"You want me to come here?" Ratchet asked a mix between surprise and worry. Could this be a real trap? No! The vain decepticon medic would never get this far to kill him. Not as far as killing himself in the process. "Why? You know well can't do anything for you."
To his credit Knockout managed to look upset. "I'm a medic too….I knows I can't come back from this…." He hissed in pain and his optic went offline again. He stayed silent for a long moment like he was gathering his strength to continue. "I…..I didn't want to die alone…." He whispered as he looks up at the older mech.
This was shocking for Ratchet.
Knockout had used a lot of his remaining energy to keep a beacon opened in hope to not be alone when his time came. Even if it was enemy.
Ratchet had hundreds of questions on why he didn't call a fellow decepticon like Breakdown… Judging the wounds he had a good idea why. Knockout, not matter what happened in the past, didn't deserve an interrogation at this point.
With a tenderness he didn't think he had in him he took the smaller servos in his own. "I am here, young one." He said softly.
The red optics turned back to him. "Than…." Whatever he was about to say was cut by a scream of agony as electricity passes through his body.
Ratchet frowned deeply and bit his lips component as the electricity ran in his hand and arms, flaring against the sensor in his hands. This agony could continue like this for hours.
"Let me stop this…." He whispered as he moved his fingers of his free hand to rest against the main energon line. One move and all this would be over.
Knockout lifted frightened optics to him. "No...I'm not ready." He panted as the pain subsisted.
The white medic looked at him and drew his hand back. "Alright…" As he laid it on the red helm and caressed it softly. "At least let me numb the pains receptors."
Knockout nodded only once. A gentle pulse later the frame relaxed a little more on the grass. "They are right… You are the best medic Cybertron have." He muttered. "I'm jealous. Good thing… I'm better looking." He weakly teased.
"I only wish to make to make this easier for you." Ratchet replied brushing the comment away.
"Even if I'm a Decepticon?" He seemed genially surprise. "I thought you would have taken pleasure to see me in pain."
"Right now there no faction, Knockout." Ratchet continued his smoothing motion on his helm. "Just two mech…" He tried to not get upset by his insinuation. "See someone in pain wound me. Even an enemy."
"I don't want to …"Knockout muttered, changing the subject.
"Don't be scared. You will go to the Well of the Allspark. Returning to the ones that have died before you." The old mech have accompanied so many mechs, femmes and sparklings on that road before. It was sadly like a second nature. "Primus will guide you."
"I'm not scared" he hissed still able to look so proud. He looked away. "It's the Pit for me. I'm the bad guy…remember." He growled.
"We are at war, Knockout. We all have hurt others, but like me you are a medic. You have taken and saved life. You weren't all bad. Primus will know." He said in a soft voice.
"You…really think so?" The dying mech asked.
"Fear not young one. Where you are going pain and hurt could never touch you again." He squeezed his hand a little.
Knockout looked thoughtful for a long moment. "Can…I have one last… request?" He had more and more trouble talking clearly with all the static.
Ratchet leaned in to listen and give a chance for the other mech to not push himself so hard. "Tell me."
"I have three...in fact." He said. "First, bring my body somewhere… human won't find it." Ratchet only nodded. He was already planning to bring him back to base where .H. can't touch him and dissect this body. "Second… If it compatible… Give my vocalizer to that yellow bug…"
For the second time since he arrived, Ratchet was totally staggered. It was something he never imagined Knockout could offer something like this.
"If Bumblebee is alright with this, I will do it. You will live through him." He whispered to him. He knew that may calm him a little.
Suddenly, an alarm rung from inside Knockout's body. Blue and red optics met knowing well what that meant. Spark failure was imminent. Knockout's frame began to shake, knowing the end was near. "Hold me…" he asked reaching for the older medic. At the moment all masks, all appearances dropped.
Ratchet couldn't ignore the fear in the other's face and gently took the red mech in his lap, not caring for the energon that ran on him. He held his head against his chest, letting the rumble of his system and the beat of his sparks reassure the other that he was still with him. "Don't be scared. I will stay with you." He whispered to him. "You're going back home." He tilted the red helm so Knockout could look at the sky in the rough direction of Cybertron.
Knockout's frame relaxed and his optics fixed on the sky. One of his servos weakly caressed the large white arm Ratchet didn't stop him realizing it was probably reassuring him.
"Breaky…"he muttered his voice low. "I forgive you" The red optics dimmed more until they were totally offline. "Thank you Ratch…."
Ratchet looked down at Knockout, only to see his spark extinguish. It had ended. "Safe journey. 'Til all are one" He surprised himself doing a human gesture as he pressed his mouth piece to Knockout's now cold forehead. Gesture he had seen Nurse Darby do with his son Jack or even Miko and Raf.
He got up, picking up the body. He had better to go before someone came here and found them. Human or Decepticon.
/Optimus….Bridge me back./ he said in a tired voice.
They still had a war to win.