Knockout felt better than ever as he stood there on the threshold of the meeting doors. That recharge had done wonders to his mood and his processor was much clearer than before. One of the things that irked him though was being interrupted from his recharge by a message that was sent by the two-wheeler.

He knew that he wanted her to wake him if there was a meeting but he was having the best recharge that he had ever had in the passed week. So of course, after being rudely awoken, he had taken his sweet time to wash up in his wash rack.

It wouldn't have taken long for anyone else to wash but because it was Knockout, the narcissistic mech had to wash himself twice and then a third time for good measure. Taking more time after to buff himself, which would have been quicker and easier if he had help.

Knockout didn't dwell on that thought for very long because he began to look at himself in his full body mirror after the buffing. As always, he found himself looking quite stunning in the light and he couldn't help but turn to get a look at himself at each angle.

That didn't last though.

He paused when he had turned to the side, his gaze falling on the reflection of his swollen abdomen. It was large enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be worried about. He sighed and placed a servo on his stomach, looking away from the mirror.

"You're technically not even online yet and your causing me stress, especially to my appearance," he grumbled to himself.

Arcee had sent him another message. She had sent a few others while he was getting himself ready but he had been ignoring them. Now, it was getting annoying.

He threw his arms up in the air, leaving the wash rack, "Fine, I'm going!" he yelled, leaving his quarters after. He began walking down the empty hall towards the stairs, mumbling to himself, "Primus, she's acting like she has never waited for someone to get ready."

He took his time showing up to the meeting, for once not speeding in his vehicle mode to get there. He wanted to savor his transformation a little longer because soon enough he wouldn't be able to transform.

Now here he was, standing in the doorway of the meeting, grinning. He could only hope that he didn't scratch his paint on the way there. His appearance has already suffered enough from being sparked.

"Knockout," Optimus greeted.

Said mech nodded his helm, "Prime," he acknowledged and began walking around towards one of the empty chairs.

"Someone sure took their time," Smokescreen commented from down the table.

"A mech knows when to look his best," Knockout winked at him, making the rookie frown.

He stopped at an empty chair and his optics momentarily widened at who was sitting in the chair next to it, "Soundwave!? When did you get here?"

Soundwave turned his helm to look up at him for a second then looked back down. Blaster leaned forward, looking up at the medic, "He was recently released from the Shadowzone, while you were recharging," he explained.

Knockout sat in the chair, keeping his gaze on Soundwave before looking up at Blaster, "How was his condition and how come no one bothered to wake me about this?"

Blaster frowned, "I had asked about waking you but Optimus said you getting your recharge is more important," Knockout frowned at that but Blaster continued. "Soundwave's condition on the other hand was, well, critical. He had gone into stasis lock from having so little energon in his systems."

"And me getting my recharge was more important than that!?" he exclaimed, causing a few mechs around to flinch from the outburst but he didn't notice.

"He's okay now Knockout, don't worry," Blaster reassured the suddenly fuming mech. "We gave him some energon just in time, low grade, of course. If you want, when the meeting is done, you can check him over to make sure he's fine."

"Forget that, I'm doing it now," Knockout spat, taking out a scanner from his subspace. He then began to grumble to himself about the incompetence of Autobots as he turned Soundwave's chair to face him, making the silent mech look up at him.

"Now that Knockout is here Optimus, can we get on with why we are here?" Wheeljack asked from the other end of the table where he sat with Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus.

Knockout waved a servo, not even looking at anyone while he scanned Soundwave from helm to pedes, "You can start this meeting whenever, I'm listening."

Arcee ex-vented, looking annoyed on the outside but on the inside she couldn't help but laugh at Knockout's sudden change in attitude. A sparked Cybertronian having mood swings is always entertaining.

Optimus laced his digits together on the table in front of him, "As you all may know already, this meeting is about Knockout."

"Kind of figured that out already since he finally came to one of the meetings," Bulkhead said.

"Did the doctor do something wrong?" Ultra Magnus asked.

Arcee frowned. No one told them. No wonder they didn't come up and say something when she told Optimus.

Optimus looked over at the green wrecker and his second in command. He shook his helm, "Knockout is sparked."

Knockout grinned at that. He didn't need to look but he could just imagine their expressions. He looked up at Soundwave though, who had put his pedes firmly on the floor and had his servos in his lap while he kept his helm lowered. Seeing Soundwave sitting like that made him think of a young mech just out of sparklinghood.

The scanner beeped and he looked down at it, checking the readings. His systems were adjusting to the low grade perfectly, no sign of internal damage. That was good.

While he did that, Bulkhead was looking between Knockout and Optimus, trying to grasp onto the news, "Since when?"

"Since earlier today," Jazz said, having his pedes up on the table and his arms behind his helm.

"The fact that Knockout is sparked still surprises me," Smokescreen said.

"How long has it been since there has been anyone sparked?" Bumblebee asked.

Everyone was silent.

After awhile, Jazz put his servos in the air, "Whoa, whoa, my mechs. Not all at once now," he joked.

Wheeljack, Bulkhead, and Smokescreen were the only ones who laughed at that.

"To answer your question Bumblebee, it was just before the war since the last known sparked Cybertronian. After the war started, however, all current sparked Cybertronians had been kidnapped by the Decepticons. No one knows what happened to them but rumors had spread that they were going to raise the sparklings as Decepticons," Optimus explained.

Arcee frowned, "Those were just rumors. Right Optimus?"

Optimus shook his helm, "Knowing the Decepticons back then, they had tried everything to have more followers."

Knockout snorted, "You got that right."

When no one said anything after that, Knockout looked at them, "What? I wasn't always a Decepticon you know, I was an Autobot in the beginning," he turned back to Soundwave, checking the mobility in the slender mech's digits. "They had tried everything to have more followers, even kidnapping medics because all the medics had stayed on the Autobot's side. A lot of them didn't last long, getting offlined for not obeying orders. I was, of course, one of the ones that survived long enough to decide that I would do anything to stay online. Even if it meant following the Decepticons and taking on an assistant while I was at it," he ex-vented, shaking his helm. "That's all in the past now. What mattered then doesn't matter now. The war is over."

"It's still a miracle though that after so many centuries of fighting, there is finally someone who is sparked," Blaster was looking over at the medic as he began to check Soundwave's knees. The silent mech wasn't fazed at all.

Knockout just shrugged.

"How far along are you by the way?" Smokescreen asked. "Does anybody know?"

There was silence as everyone shook their helms.

"Considering how far along he looks, I would guess about four months. Maybe four and a half," Arcee guessed.

Bulkhead frowned, "That can't be right."

Wheeljack turned to his fellow wrecker, "What do you mean Bulk?"

"That would be sometime after the war ended. It's only been about five months since then."

Jazz looked among the mechs, and femme, around the meeting table, having a servo to his chin, "Unless one of us had..." he trailed off, looking really serious for once.

There was a dreadful awkward silence then.

"It wasn't me!" Smokescreen panicked, servos raised up in defense.

Jazz burst out laughing, "I was only kidding. Oh Primus, you should have seen everyone's faces. Priceless."

"Seven months and a half."

Everyone turned to Knockout, all confused.

He looked at all of them, a much more serious look on his face than Jazz's, "If you must know, I've been sparked for nearly seven months and a half now."

"What!?" Everyone yelled at once, besides Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Soundwave, and Knockout himself.

"Then, that would mean that..." Wheeljack began but couldn't find himself to finish.

"You've been sparked while still being with the Decepticons," Smokescreen finished.

Knockout ignored them, inspecting the crack that was still on Soundwave's visor. He frowned, every time the visor got a crack, the screen projections stop working. He reached up and turned Soundwave's helm away from everyone and unlatched the visor off. Only him and Megatron were aloud to see the silent mech's face. Knockout more so since he was the medic.

Soundwave sat, unfazed, while his visor was removed. Knockout placed it on the table and took out an adhesive, from his subspace, to fill in the crack.

Everyone was surprised that Knockout had just removed Soundwave's visor without the silent mech struggling. Either they thought it was a normal thing or Soundwave's mental state was much worse than they thought.

Arcee looked away, giving the slender mech his privacy. His face was his own business. Soon enough, she thought back to what Smokescreen said and looked over at Knockout. She frowned, "That can't be right. A Cybertronian's spark cycle is eleven months. How can you be close to seven months and a half along when you look like you're only close to five?"

Knockout shrugged his shoulders, "It must be because of the frame type of its sire," he said without thinking.

That one big question that had been nagging Arcee earlier came back to her, "Knockout, who is the sire?"

Knockout froze and quickly looked up. He looked really unsure about telling them but since the secret of him being sparked in the first place was already out, it wouldn't matter if they knew who the sire was either. He sighed, "It's..."

"Wait!" Jazz yelled.

Everyone looked at him.

He smiled, "We should try and guess who the sire is."

Knockout sighed and rubbed his optics, feeling relieved that he didn't have to say who the sire is right away. He took this time to take a break and get out of his chair, going over to the energon dispenser that was against one of the walls.

Smokescreen crossed his arms, "I for one don't think it would be Dreadwing."

"Yea, too big," Wheeljack agreed.

"Megatron?" Bumblebee asked.

Everyone stopped to think but that didn't last long and there was a great big, "Nah."

Knockout almost snorted out his energon about that. He was going to enjoy this.

"Airachnid?" Ultra Magnus asked then. Or not.

There was the sound of something shattering and they looked over at Knockout at the refreshment table, broken pieces of energon cube falling from his energon covered hand. If everyone could see his face at that moment, they would see that he was pissed.

"I would never show anything that was remotely close to a positive feeling to that femme," he spat.

"Is it because she had offlined Breakdown?" Wheeljack asked. Knockout stayed silent for a second then nodded his helm. He had found out about the incident after Dreadwing came back from the mission, without Breakdown and Airachnid. It tore him apart and he couldn't recharge for days.

Bulkhead perked up, "Is Breakdown the sire?" he asked. That got everyone's attention. The two mechs were always seen together in battle, it made sense.

Knockout shook his helm, "No, he's not. He was my best friend, nothing more and if I ever get the chance I would find a way to offline that wretched femme myself."

There was a drastic need to change the topic so Blaster did that, "What about Shockwave?"

Knockout made his way back to his seat after cleaning his servo and getting two new cubes of energon. He shook his helm, "I can't stand Mr. Personality," he said then sipped his energon cube, handing the other to Soundwave who took it without looking.

Jazz smiled, "What about Soundwave?"

Blaster quickly looked over at Knockout who winked at him, grinning into the cube, "You guessed right, Soundwave is totally the sire."

Blaster looked horrified, "What!?"

Knockout burst out laughing, "I'm only joking and besides, Soundwave is too young for my liking."

"It's Starscream, isn't it."

Knockout froze then, looking over at the Prime who he didn't suspect would participate in the other Autobot's game.

"Am I right?"

Knockout ex-vented, there was no point in hiding it. He placed the energon cube gently onto the table, resting his arms on the table as he kept his gaze trained on the cube, "Yes, the sire... is Starscream."