"Bee, you might want to see this."

Arcee was staring at one of the many monitoring screens up and running in the new tower. Their first priority after the well had been filled and Cybertron brought to peace was to begin scouting for the new lives that would surely turn up, after Optimus' sacrifice brought new hope to the restored world. Though no designated leaders had been chosen after the age of Primes ended, Bumblebee had taken point, so to say, and was as natural a leader as he had been a scout. In some ways, he still was a scout, watching screens and organizing parties of the remaining Autobots to go and help settle refugees and new sparklings alike.

"What is it?" Bee looked up from the screen he'd been scanning, having just relieved Smokescreen so the other bot could get some rest and refuel. Though their sensors could scan all of Earth, they didn't have the power to cover all of Cybertron, and so there were three different screens each tracking a different third of the planet. Though Primus was far from cruel, he didn't really consider where new sparklings would be spawned. They didn't always crawl directly from the well. All sparks originated there, but sometimes a spark would wander for days or even years before manifesting inside a body half way across the planet from the actual well. In the old days, that wasn't a problem as Cybertronians populated the whole planet and would find any new sparklings before they could come to harm. With the barest handful of adults left however, it was vital to watch for new younglings and bring them to safety in what was becoming the new capitol.

"A signature, but it's faint. And I don't think it's a sparkling."

"A refugee?" Bee asked, walking over to squint at Arcee's screen. Since the mandatory re-boot of all their systems, they had no way to identify individuals without first logging them into the database, and this signal had yet to be logged.

"It has to be. The signature is too strong for a sparkling, but what worries me is that it's too weak for an adult. Whoever it is is going to need help, and fast."

"I'll get Knock Out, have a bridge ready" Bee said, sprinting off down the corridor to where the reformed Decepticon was keeping his new laboratory. Despite his predisposition for violence and unorthodox experimentation, the red mech had proven himself gentler than he looked in handling the three sparklings they'd recovered thus far. Three sparklings and a young femme who'd landed haggard and half rusted from a section of the universe they'd yet to hear anything about. She was too traumatized and too exhausted to relay any information. They hadn't even learned her name yet. What was left of her light green finish was peeling away with sickness, and through the hours the Autobots spent helping Knock Out with his mountain of work, they feared she wouldn't survive.

Knock Out was tending to the life-support barely keeping the femme online when Bee rushed in. His bright red optics settled on his guest with something akin to surprise. He often forgot he wasn't alone while working in the lab. The sparklings made very little noise and his adult patient couldn't make noise. Not while her voicebox was half rusted and she was in a very heavy stasis. He wiped his fingers off on a cloth and walked away from her to check on a sparkling that was stirring in its tiny berth.

"Something wrong, Bee? Did Bulkhead's crew knock another flimsy little construction bot off the towers, because I am running out of energon to be used for injuries so pointlessly sustained."

Bee shook his head, heaving through his vents to cool an overheated engine. He hadn't actually gone to rest when Smokescreen had relieved him 12 hours previously. He'd gone to help Bulkhead with repairs, and he was paying for it. "No, we spotted a new signal on the tracking maps. Section 3A, Arcee is creating a bridge."

Knock Out set down his cloth and followed Bee out, keeping up with the renewed jog back to the bridge level. "A new sparkling?"

"No, it's too strong for that. It's also not strong enough to sustain a fully grown mech for very long, so whoever it is must be wounded pretty badly."

"That's all we need. Is my kit still by the bridge?"

Bee nodded and they picked up their pace before skidding sideways into the bridge room, where Arcee was tapping away at the screen.

"You're going to want to hurry, it's getting weaker. Bee, cover the screens and the bridge, I'm going with Knock Out as cover."

"Cover from what?" the medic asked, heaving up his supply box and balancing it on one shoulder. "There are no more Decepticons and the Predacons split to the winds."

"That we know of," Arcee pointed out, falling into step with the hot rod. "But I don't want to risk any more injuries if our new arrival got those wounds from something on Cybertron."

"Fair enough," Knock Out muttered, stepping out into the darkness of their new coordinates. While the sun had just risen on their side of the planet, the side with the wounded Cybertronian was still plunged into darkness, and it took him a few blinks of his optics to adjust. Arcee was already ahead of him, her arm cannons glowing softly as she advanced.

"We're clear. The signal was coming from over there," she said, pointing to a badly charred building that had become little more than a cave.

While the entire planet had been revitalized, much of its surface structures still bore the scars of their war, and the hovel they approached was a prime example. "Whoever it is, is seconds from off-lining," Knock Out said, sprinting the last few meters to the dark little opening. His headlights flooded the collapsed space, one hand already fumbling around in his emergency kit for a vial of energon. That's when he froze.

"Knock Out, what are you waiting for?" Arcee exclaimed, peering in and trying to see around the medic's shoulders.

"It's-" he swallowed, inching forward, scanning the prone bot. When he glanced back at Arcee, it was with fear in his optics, as though dreading what she would do.

"Well? Spill it, Knock Out, we don't have time for this."

"Megatron," he managed, ducking into the cave and kneeling by the great silver body of his former leader. His fingers clicked softly as he placed a hand on Megatron's chassis. "He's still warm, but his spark is flickering. Severe energon depletion, among other things." He held the energon he'd prepared in readiness, optics flicking to Arcee for permission. "He won't survive more than a few more seconds without it. Maybe a minute."

Arcee's jaw clenched, her optics narrowed, every evil Megatron had ever committed coming back to her. She sighed, wishing Optimus was still there to say what she knew she had to. "He's different now. Every sentient being deserves a chance for redemption. I can't let Megatron die before he's had a chance to earn his place back with the good guys."

Knock Out nodded, plunging the needle into Megatron's arm and injecting the sorely needed energon. Holding an arm up, he ran a diagnostic scan immediately while Arcee contacted Bee and warned him and the others who exactly would be coming back to base with them.

Megatron was a sorry sight. He was pitted with scraplet damage and his every breath wheezed through infected venting ports. Many of the changes Unicron had made to his body had either been eaten or torn off, and though he was weak he looked much more like himself. What really worried the medic was the pool of soiled energon around Megatron's body.

Either out of instinct or purposeful action Megatron's body had purged the dark energon from his system. The problem with that was he couldn't handle as much damage, and he'd been burdened with the bad stuff for so long he barely had anything pure left inside him. Half of what flowed sluggishly behind his plates came from Knock Out's emergency vial—the rest was tinting the diseased energon with hopeful little trails of bright blue that were doing nothing for the creature they'd slipped from. On top of whatever trauma Knock Out had yet to catalog, Megatron's spark was in shock from trying to cope with an altered fuel source.

"Can we get him back to base?" Arcee asked, her guns out again when she beheld the amount of damage on the former warlord.

"If we do it's going to be a very delicate process, and I need to get at least six more vials of energon into him before I'll risk it. The bottom line is that he should not be functioning right now. I would bet my racing record that he is only alive because he's too stubborn to die easy."

"You call this easy? He's been half eaten by scraplets and he still has damage from the fight. Shouldn't that have healed?"

"It would have, if he'd had energon. By the looks of things he's been purging up the dark energon and hasn't had the ability to take in more. Not that he has the equipment to properly process it out here. Hand me the other vial, will you? And then get Bee to bring us more. I can't leave him like this."

Arcee set the vial in Knock Out's waiting hand and pressed two fingers to her communicator, relaying their situation and needs to Bumblebee. Shortly after, even though he was supposed to be resting, Smokescreen came running through the ground bridge with six more vials of energon clasped in his arms.

"Woah, how is he still alive?" Smokescreen breathed, handing the vials off one by one as Knock Out siphoned them into the ailing mech.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Arcee said, her arms crossed as she watched Knock Out work.

"No, actually right now we're trying to figure out if I can stop him from falling to bits the second we try to move him. Hand me a patch, will you? He has a hole torn in his side. I didn't see it before now because his hand is practically welded to it. It will do him no good to keep pouring energon in if he's just going to trickle it back out again."

"Didn't you scan him? How could you miss that?" Arcee said, handing him the requested materials.

"I was a little busy trying to make sure his spark didn't flicker out. Now, if you don't mind, shining a light? This is very delicate work."

He crouched over Megatron's side, gently moving the mech's clawed hand away from the gaping tear in his side. It had stopped leaking hours before, but with the influx of new energon the flow had begun again with a slow trickle. Knock Out was about to begin applying the patch when he squinted, bracing himself on Megatron's chest as he bent closer. The gasp that came out of him echoed in the small space.

"What? Some more bad news?" Smokescreen asked, his arms still half-full of energon vials as he twisted himself into the low room, trying to see around Arcee and Knock Out both.

"I don't know yet—could be bad, could be good. It all depends on your perspective, really."

Arcee rolled her eyes. "Knock Out."

"There's something—or should I say some one in his side."

"IN his side? As in buried in the wound? A scraplet?" Arcee asked, shining her light more insistently.

"No, not a scraplet, though I do think it's parasitic. Unintentionally so."

"Knock Out..."

The medic leaned forward and worked his fingers into the wound. Megatron's lack of response was worrying, but the bundle Knock Out freed from him was even more so. Covered in drying energon and shivering in the new exposure, the silvery creature made a small sound of distress, but appeared too weak to do anything else.

"A sparkling?" Arcee exclaimed, optics wide. "What was a sparkling doing in his wound?"

"I have a theory, but if you don't get him back to base right now and put him in an incubator he's not going to survive," he exclaimed, handing the sparkling over to Arcee.

"I'll take him back Arcee," Smokescreen offered, setting down the energon and cradling the sparkling to his chest as she relinquished it to him. "You stay and cover KO. He's going to need help getting Megatron back to the base."

"If we can even move him," Arcee murmured, kneeling opposite Knock Out and placing a tentative hand on Megatron's shoulder. It took courage for her to say it, but knowing what she did about Bumblebee's history with Megatron she figured if the brave little warrior could give Megatron a second chance, so could she. When she'd radioed in the situation Bee had been silent for a long time, the echoing quiet eerily reminiscent of the days before he got his voice back. Eventually though, Bee acknowledged what was going on and got off the com link to radio Ratchet. With Megatron in such bad shape and a new sparkling to care for on top of everything else, Knock Out would get no rest without backup. Ultra Magnus was back on Earth with Ratchet undergoing physical therapy still, but Arcee was sure he could manage without the medical bot for a few days. It was tough, having only a few adults left and out of that handful only two were trained in medicine.

"Moving him will have to happen soon, since most of this damage is from parasites and vermin, and you can bet they'll be back," Knock Out said, bending over his patient as he worked to patch up what was left of Megatron's side.

"How did he survive a hole big enough for a sparkling to crawl in? And why was it there in the first place?" she asked, leaning across the much larger bot's body, bracing a hand on the Decepticon symbol carved into his breastplate. It had long been dark. Even before Megatron had merged with the dark energon, when he was healthy, his spark had shown a gentle pulse behind the semi-translucent armor. Now, even as dark as it was in their hovel, not a flicker could be seen beneath the sinister etching. She shifted her weight as carefully as she could to avoid further damage and pointed an additional light to aid Knock Out's work.

"Well, the hole is as big as it is because this-" he gave a tug that shuddered Megatron's frame as a charred, half-eaten piece of bio-mech clicked loose into his servo. "Is all but scrap." He sighed, his vents loud in the cramped space. "No more wings for Megs, I'm afraid." He placed the remains of Megatron's T-cog in his medical kit, though he seriously doubted he could do anything with it. Megatron, without a donor, would never be able to fly or access his weapons again. His cannon might still be functional simply because it never folded back into his arm, but his sword would be locked forever. "As for the sparkling—hand me another patch, will you? I don't think it crawled in, I think he put it there."

Arcee handed it over, a spark of worry jolting through her when she realized the cracked wheeze of Megatron's vents had gone silent, and she wasn't sure when. With his spark so weak, he couldn't afford to have his bio-mech overheat. Even a few degrees too hot would be fatal. "What do you mean he put it there?"

Knock Out either hadn't noticed the change in Megatron's condition or was working in spite of it. "That sparkling was too weak to be climbing anywhere, let alone in the exposed wound of a Cybertronian as big as Megatron." He gestured for one of his tools and Arcee reached across herself to grab it, handing the portable soldering torch to the focused medic. "Anyway, even the way he was if a sparkling just up and decided to crawl into his side he would have reacted and pulled it out. I've seen him functional and on a warpath when no mech had a right to be. The only reason that sparkling was burrowed into his side was because he put it there, and I'd wager it was there because he had no-where else to keep it warm or hide it from the scraplets."

Sparks flickered their space as Knock Out worked, patching up the massive damage until he was certain the torn energon lines were no longer leaking. When he was satisfied with his patch-work he went back to siphoning the rest of the vials into his patient.

"Okay, it makes more sense than the sparkling getting in there by himself, but why would Megatron go out of his way to save a youngling? Especially when he's in such bad shape himself?"

"Different though his goals may have been, Arcee, Megatron wanted the re-birth of our world as badly as the rest of us did. The younglings are part of that re-birth, and after Megatron's change of spark I'm not really all that surprised he was trying to help one. Even before he went through torture with Unicron I don't think Megatron could have left a sparkling to the mercy of a scraplet swarm."

"I get that, but Megatron's always been about survival of the fittest. That sparkling might not even make it back to medbay. His fight with Unicron proved just how badly he wants to live, and protecting a youngling would only slow him down in his condition. Which, by the way, has gotten worse," Arcee finished, her fingers clicking against Megatron's breastplate as her sensors noted the rise in temperature. "He quit venting properly at least ten minutes ago and now I don't think he's venting at all."

Knock Out's vibrant optics widened as he placed a clawed servo next to Arcee's. "Scrap!" he cursed, scrambling for something in his kit. Only one vial of energon was left to inject, but he ignored it.

"What?" Arcee asked, blue optics following Knock Out's scrambling movements. She knew Megatron was bad, doubted he'd make it alive back to the base, actually, but the medic was almost panicking.

"This only happens in extreme cases," he explained, placing a sharp tool against the base of Megatron's breastplate, feeling along the underside where it met his abdominal plating. "Almost half of our systems are built to keep the spark chamber safe, and every single one but his armor just failed. That heat building up is from systems still running energon and chemicals to his spark—but the rising temperature is going to cook his spark chamber." His tool caught on something underneath the breastplate and a sharp click resounded. Knock Out tugged on the plating but it was stuck, and he cursed again as he began searching for a secondary latch.

"What are you trying to do—do you need help?" Arcee exclaimed.

"I have to get his chassis open!" Knock Out exclaimed in agitation. "And he's all locked up. Everything is going to shut down around his spark in an attempt to vent the energy, and one of two equally horrible things will happen after that. Either his spark will snuff out from the lack of vital systems running, or, and you should pray to Primus this doesn't happen, his spark will try and take in the heat and it will overload, exploding with more force than I have time to explain right now. This close, it'll fry both our neural nets."