Let us remember that this took place before Predaking assigned himself a name and was aware he was bipedal.

And this is kinda short because I feel it should be and because I'm a really busy person at the moment. But I haven't forgotten this.


Chapter IV

The hall was a slaughter. Seven dead drones, stripped of their internal organs, laid about haphazardly for a cleaning crew to deal with in a few hours, when the hall would start to smell of spent energon and charred metal, which would be the human equivalent of rotten meat. Uppercut leaned back as he allowed Knockout to take control again. The doctor fell down onto the floor and regurgitated his tank in reaction to the smells. He knew he was capable of such horrors but to act against his own will was terrifying. He looked around, hoping to every deity known that Soundwave had not caught his act, which he knew was unlikely as the communications officer noticed everything. There was no such thing as privacy with Soundwave around.

He ran to his private quarters, into his wash rack to rinse off the energon but was helpless when it came to the scratches the drones had inflicted upon him while fighting for their lives. When he was sure he was cleansed, he spent a fair half hour trying to buff out the markings. He really needed to get an assistant to do this for him.

He walked to the flight deck to catch a fresh breath of air, and forgotten a creature far worse than the one living in his head resided there. Now that the infestation was taken care of, it was safe for it to be on board. The Predacon was receiving another beating from Starscream and the beast retaliated with a swing of his tail, almost sending the Seeker overboard if it were not for the tall railings.

Just look at him Uppercut snarled. He's abusing the poor creature.

"Poor creature indeed…" Knockout muttered sarcastically, remembering when he passed the beast in the hall when it first arrived and one of its spikes left a long scratch on his shoulder. It was accidental, the Predacon had not even noticed it had done any damage, but the scratch took a goof hour out of Knockout's free time that he could have used to escape and go racing.

He walked over to the fallen jet to help him up. Starscream snarled that he was just fine and stood up, wobbling on his pedes. Knockout's guess was that he was assaulting the creature out of his anger and needed something to take it out on. But of all the targets in the Nemesis, why did it have to be something much bigger? Starscream was certainly a fool.

"This dumb brute needs to learn whom its masters are!" the jet growled.

"I'd say you two have a lot in common," Knockout commented with jest. "Both of you are rebels to your higher authority." The Predacon hissed, lowering its head as if ready to attack, and the doctor was not sure if that was meant to be an agreement or protest.

"At least I show respect to our Lord and Master. This creature shows me none!"

"Then maybe you're not his authority."

The Predacon's head lifted and Knockout could swear it was smiling.

"It has no rank higher than a drone's, it's just a monster that obeys us," Starscream countered. The Predacon again hissed.

"I would love to continue this argument, Starscream, really, but I came up here for a bit of relaxation."

"How can you relax with a wild animal nearby? That thing is prone to attack anything that moves!"

"Like this." He leaned against the railing. "I stay at a distance, in its sights, and we both ignore each other, as I do around Lord Megatron. That's how I avoid conflict. You should take notes so you can save your sorry skidplate the next time you try to be a show-off in front of our Lord."

Starscream had no other comeback besides a scowl and throwing down the bar he used to beat the Predacon, walking back inside. The Predacon, now unoccupied with no other dangers around and sure the doctor was not one, kept its optics pinned on the only other living being on the deck. Kncokout noticed he was being watched and curled his lip.

"What are you looking at?" he said. The Predacon made a short, low purring sound and turned around to lay. Knockout rolled his optics. Forget what Starscream said about the beast being dumb. At least they were lucky enough that it could understand speech.

I want to pet it Uppercut cooed, catching Knockout off-guard. He almost believed it was his own thought. It's so fearsome. I bet it could eat drones if it wanted to.

We're lucky it even tolerates us Knockout thought, mindful of the Predacon's superior ability of hearing. It could snap me in half with those jaws.

I want to see that.

I hope you mean "to a drone."

He heard a faint rumble coming from the dragon and prepared himself. After a minute he realized it was snoring. He felt better knowing the beast trusted him enough to turn his back on him and sleep without fear of his assault. Or it simply thought of him weaker and could not possibly harm him.

As his destructive ego had stated, he was tempted to pet it. What a sense of power it would give him! To stroke the maw that merely chose not to kill you, to graze the neck that could swallow you whole, to admire the talons that would never pierce your body, was such an exhilarating thought. Just to even get into its striking distance and knowing the creature would not harm you…

Go on, doctor, touch it.

Not while it slept, not a chance. To bother it now would be like annoying Megatron with a denta ache, only this mechanism's fangs were much longer. He wondered what it must be like to have the physical form that intimidated. There have been times before he wished he had that, just to fend off admirers who would not leave him the hell alone. He was just born, designed, molded to be perfect. A blessing and a curse.

His musings were interrupted when he noticed the beast standing up and walking towards him. His engine hiccupped in surprise and he felt the need to run. But if he had learned anything about Earth animals, and hope this applied to the creature, it was to stay absolutely still and let it do whatever it wanted to do. Especially if it was bigger than you. And by Primus was the Predacon bigger. It made him appreciate the Insecticons a little more. Too bad they were not around.

The black dragon initiated a hostile takeover of Knockout's personal space. It got so close it almost scraped a fang against his chassis. He heard quick cycles of air. This thing was sniffing him. He had half a mind to slap its muzzle and tell it to back off, but had not the tanks to do it. However, Uppercut did. His optics turned pink and he went from dead scared to utterly annoyed.

"Stand down, Pred," he hissed. "I'm not in the mood for friendly greetings."

The Predacon's head reeled back a little, ready for an assault where none came. But it heeded the flashy mech's warning and walked back to its spot on the flight deck to fall back into recharge. Knockout's optics became red again, and he silently thanked Uppercut for the save, although he still hated him for existing in the first place.


He worked part of a night shift to get the last of the drones out of his med bay once and for all. He wanted peace and quiet. Hard to manage with a psychopathic ego inside his own head. It kept yammering about how Knockout was only fixing up the drones so quickly because he felt guilty about killing the other ones. He wondered if ever Soundwave, seeing as he was the will o' the wisp factor of the Nemesis, everywhere but nowhere, was going to figure out who had done it. Perhaps he already knew. Perhaps he had told Megatron of the doctor's mental breakdown and plan a strategy to offline him without getting attacked by whatever fiendish spirit possessed his CMO.

While he worked on the drones and while Uppercut wouldn't shut the frag up, he was muttering, forgetting that some of what he said was out loud and not as a thought. Three brave drones questioned if he was okay, and he snapped at them. He told them to sit still and shut up or he would slice an artery. No other drone asked again that night and everyone was sent home healthy. Well, save for the doctor himself. He felt as though his binary was going to blow a couple of fuses before he turned in.

But he knew what would happen if he fell asleep. He would dream of death, caused by his own hands. He would shred a hole into a drone's abdomen to pull out a tangle of cords and ruptured organs and laugh as he did it. He would bite down on a helm as hard as he could and tear off the plating, then jab his sharp digits into the sensitive chips and watch as the drone malfunctioned into insanity before deciding his time had come and ended it all. He would dream of tasting new blood. He would dream of screams. And worst of all he would dream of seeing himself in the mirror, covered in bodily fluids and smiling, knowing he was a monster.

And it had happened.

None of it was really a dream or a thought. Knockout woke up in the showers, confused as to how he ended up here. And, to his horror, realized what Uppercut had done. The green menace overrode his systems, forced him into a shutdown that he never saw coming, and went on to scare and pillage the masses.

I took the liberty of cleaning up after our night out. I knew you wouldn't want to wake up with dried fluids all over your precious frame.

Knockout shivered where he sat, in fear of knowing that this thing, whatever it was, this… demon, had the power to take control over his life.

And best of all, sweet doctor, I can kill you at any time.