"Slow down, you crazy child! You're so ambitious for a juvenile! But if you're so smart, tell me, why are you still so afraid? Hmm-mmm..."

Knockout hummed contentedly as the sounds of Billy Joel filled the med-bay. He turned up the volume on his internal speakers. Humans may be squishy, inferior little vermin, but their music was amazing. Not that he'd ever admit that to the Autobots—they'd read into it too much. Start thinking he actually liked the species. No, his musical appreciation was going to stay private.

Normally, he wouldn't indulge in this hobby on the Nemesis, but maintaining the medical equipment was tedious. Tighten loose bolts, tape frayed wires, make sure there weren't any scraplets in the machines—it didn't require much thought. The music helped pass the time. Besides, all the caretakers and their charges were currently out of the ship. The little ones were going on a field trip to the ruins of Iacon—an up-close experience with Cybertronian history, or something like that. Knockout didn't particularly care why they were gone, all that mattered was that he had the ship to himself.

"Slow down, what's the hurry about? You better cool it off before you burn it out…" Knockout sang along softly as he slid out from beneath the machine he was working on. He dusted off his hands and started across the room to record the state of the equipment. Had he been less distracted, it might not have taken him so long to notice the small form standing in the doorway.

"Vienna waits—" Knockout stuttered into silence as he suddenly saw the red sparkling watching him. He reflexively cut off his speakers, ending the music. Silence loomed heavily over the room as he and the child stared at each other.

"I-what are you doing? How long have you been standing there?!" Knockout finally managed to stammer.

"I dunno—a few cycles." The sparkling shrugged. "Do you always sing to yourself?"

Knockout felt a stab of embarrassment. He craned his neck, trying to see if there was anyone behind the sparkling. "Aren't you supposed to be on that field trip thing? Where's your caretakers?"

"They went with the other kids; I stayed behind." The sparkling walked further into the room, looking around. Knockout scowled. Great—there was a sparkling playing hooky in his medbay, and all the caretakers were miles away traipsing around Iacon. He was going to get in trouble for this somehow—the Autobots would find some way to blame him, he just knew it. He let out a sigh.

"I'm calling the caretakers. Don't touch anything." Knockout ordered. The sparkling wandered around the room idly while Knockout commed the official caretakers about their wayward charge. They were understandably upset to learn about their failing; it was promised that someone would be along to collect the sparkling as soon as possible. Knockout sighed again as the comm ended. It would take at least a megacycle for anyone to get back from Iacon. That left him to entertain this unwanted visitor in the meantime.

"What are you doing in here?" The sparkling asked, eyeing one of the machines.

"Work." Knockout replied shortly. He was growing increasingly irritated by this intrusion. Now he had to watch a child in addition to getting his maintenance done, and everyone knew that sparklings were complete monsters to babysit. And he didn't want to listen to his music while somebot else was present. That loss did not put him in the best of moods.

He folded his arms and glared at the sparkling who was so innocently looking back at him. "What glitch in your processor made you decide to sneak away from your caretakers? The fieldtrip wasn't optional."

"Didn't wanna go." The sparkling replied stubbornly. "It was dumb. Looking at a bunch of old buildings is boring."

"Hanging out alone in an empty ship is boring, too."

"I'm not alone. You're here." The sparkling said in a duh tone. Something about him was nagging at Knockout's memory. As far as he was concerned, most sparklings were interchangeable, but he felt he should recognize this one for some reason.

With some difficulty, Knockout shook off the feeling. "Yes, well, I'm hardly the best company." He glanced at the unfinished maintenance checklist, then back to the sparkling. "I have work to do. Stay out of trouble until your caretaker comes."

"Can you buff my paint?"

The medic blinked in surprise. He gave the sparkling an incredulous look. "Whatever for?"

"Because! It's all scuffed and dirty." The little mech twisted to point out the blemishes. "You said brave warriors always take care of their paint job, and I wanna look like a brave warrior, but the other medic won't help me!"

Suddenly it clicked. "You're that sparkling from a few months ago—the one who crawled into the air vent!"

The sparkling puffed up in indignation. "Duh! You didn't remember me?"

"There's a lot of sparklings around, kid. I can't keep track of all of them." Knockout tapped his chin, frowning. "Your name was—Sideswing? Sideburn?"

"Sideswipe!"

"Right, right." He should have recognized the spiked helm—not many sparklings had such a unique feature. "So what was that about the 'other medic?' You mean Ratchet?"

"Yeah." The sparkling—Sideswipe—scowled at the name, his ire instantly redirected to the other mech. "He's mean. He told me paint wasn't important, and if I worried about it I'd turn into a—a 'nar-sis-ist' like you." Sideswipe stumbled over the unfamiliar word.

Knockour nodded sympathetically. Ratchet had rebuked him many times for "fussing over trivialities" like his paint. That mech failed to appreciate the importance of personal appearance. Knockout looked the sparkling over again with a new attitude. He didn't know much about children, but vanity was something he understood quite well. The machines could wait a bit longer.

"All right; I think I can make time for a quick touch-up."

Sideswipe perked up. "Really?"

"Anything for a fellow narcissist." Knockout smirked at the look of delight on the sparkling's face. Sideswipe clambered onto the medical berth while Knockout gathered the needed tools. The sparkling was surprisingly compliant, holding perfectly still while the medic polished his plating. Blue optics regarded Knockout curiously as he worked.

"You're different from the other bots," Sideswipe remarked after a while.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. You act different. And you got red optics. Nobody else has red optics." Sideswipe paused. "The older bots say you're a Decepticon."

The buffer shut off. Knockout took a deep vent. "Do they, now?" He asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

Sideswipe nodded. "They don't say it in front of us, but I hear them talking sometimes when they think we're not listening." The sparkling tilted his helm, regarding Knockout appraisingly. "But I think they're wrong. You can't be a Decepticon."

Knockout's anger was replaced by amusement. "Is that so?"

"Uh-huh. Decepticons are mean; they hurt bots. But you're not mean, so you can't be a Decepticon."

"That's an interesting line of reasoning." Knockout paused to meet the sparkling's gaze. "You're correct—I'm not a Decepticon. Not now. But I used to be."

Sideswipe's optics widened—though, to Knockout's surprise, he seemed more curious than fearful. Knockout explained further. "I only joined the Autobots after the war ended. Before that, I was a medic for the Decepticons. Your caretakers—" he said with a bitter smirk, "—have not forgotten that."

Sideswipe was silent as he mulled over this information. Knockout left him to his thoughts and resumed his buffing.

"…Do you miss it?" Sideswipe said after a while.

Knockout looked up from a particularly stubborn scratch. "Do I miss what?"

"Being a Decepticon." The question was asked innocently, without judgement or guile. Knockout found the sincerity in the sparkling's gaze disconcerting. "Did you like being a Decepticon?"

Knockout wasn't sure how to answer that. He'd honestly never thought about it before. It's not like anyone in Megatron's ranks had ever asked him if he was happy there. His alliance had been a matter of survival—to leave it meant death. There had been a time, when the war first began, that he'd truly believed in Megatron's cause… but vorns of battle and witnessed horrors had turned that loyalty into mere self-preservation.

"…No," Knockout decided, saying it to himself as much as to Sideswipe. "The Decepticons were not a pleasant group to be a part of. Being an Autobot has its downsides, but at least there's no chance of getting beaten just because my leader's in a bad mood."

"Did the Decepticons beat you?"

"Aaaand you're done." Knockout flicked off the buffer. "Hop down; I need to get back to work now."

Sideswipe jumped off the berth, giving himself a quick once-over to confirm that his paint job was acceptable. He soon turned his attention back to Knockout, though. His face was startlingly solemn. Knockout was struck by the intelligence in the sparkling's optics—not the look of a child asking idle questions, but of a bot trying to make sense of the world.

"Were the Decepticons really as bad as they say?" Sideswipe asked. Again, there was no judgement in his tone—simply curiosity, and a desire to understand.

"As bad, and worse." Knockout replied somberly. "I'm sure your teachers have dumbed down the more gruesome details to be suitable for little audials." His expression softened somewhat as memories weakened his usually-perfect emotional shield. "Of course… there were some good moments, too…"

"Like what?" The sparkling pressed, and those blue optics were so disarming that Knockout found himself answering.


A green-and-black mech speed-walked down the hallway, struggling to keep his composure. In reality, he was close to a panic attack. This was a disaster; how could they have left behind a sparkling?! They'd been so careful, taken so many precautions to make sure a mistake like this didn't happen, and yet somebot still slipped through the cracks!

Stay calm, his rational mind reminded him. This wasn't a disaster. Sure, it could've been, but the sparkling was fine, safe on the nursery ship with a—a semi-responsible adult present. The mech gulped at that thought. They'd all been assured that the former Decepticon medic had proven his trustworthiness. Still, he'd only joined the Autobots recently—and only when it had become clear that his side had lost. The caretaker doubted Knockout would harm the sparkling, but he wasn't terribly fond of children, and his nurturing skills—well, they weren't suited to this task. Him being in charge of a sparkling was a situation that could fall apart fast. At last, the caretaker reached the med-bay. He took a deep vent and braced himself for the expected scene of chaos before opening the doors.

Laughter greeted him. The missing sparkling stood by the medical berth. His armor looked unusually bright, as if someone had polished it. He was currently bent over with laughter. Knockout stood to the side, gesticulating wildly as he apparently told a story.

"—Right on his face!" The medic exclaimed. "He looked so ridiculous, I couldn't help myself—I said 'Maybe you should change your footwear, Commander—high heels aren't good for this terrain."

The sparkling's laughter doubled until he was practically howling. Knockout joined him in his own giggling fit.

"Oh, I paid for it later, but the look on his face—priceless!" As Knockout spoke, he spotted the caretaker out of the corner of his optic. Immediately, he straightened up.

"Ah, there you are." The medic's chuckles subsided, though a grin remained. "Here for Sideswipe, I presume?"

"Uh—" The caretaker found himself speechless. The sparkling saved him from having to answer.

"But I don't wanna go! The story wasn't done!" The little mech whined. He looked from Knockout to his caretaker pleadingly. "Do I have to go?"

The caretaker collected himself. "Uh—well, the other sparklings are still waiting for us. And I'm sure the doctor has work to do. We wouldn't want to bother him."

The sparkling pouted furiously. He pulled away as the caretaker tried to hold his hand. "NO! I don't wanna!" He stomped the ground for emphasis

The caretaker winced at the outburst, but Knockout merely chuckled. "I'm afraid he's right, Sideswipe. I have work, and I'm sure your compatriots miss your company." The medic went to a drawer and fished out a small, silver packet. He held it out to the sparkling. "Perhaps this will make up for the inconvenience."

Sideswipe grinned at the sight of the energon sweet and snatched it. The caretaker took advantage of the distraction to grab the sparkling's shoulders.

"Thank you for looking after him. I'm so sorry for the trouble—" The caretaker began. Knockout waved his hand dismissively.

"No trouble at all. It gave me an excuse to take a break." He smiled at Sideswipe. "I'll finish the story next time you come in for a diagnostic, okay?"

"Okay!" Sideswipe agreed eagerly. He waved goodbye to the medic as the caretaker steered him out of the room. Knockout waved back with a bemused look. The med-bay door slid closed, leaving a baffled caretaker and a sparkling beaming in anticipation of his next check-up.


And there's chapter 2! Hope it wasn't too long of a wait. The song Knockout sings is "Vienna," by Billy Joel. Please leave a review when you're done! I want to know where I can improve.