Chapter 14 Struggles.

Knock Out struggled to hold on to Arcee as they were both swept down the river. At one point they had been slammed against some rocks. Knock Out who saw it coming quickly forced his body to turn so Arcee who had gone unconscious when they hit the water didn't take any of the impact.

But Knock Out ended up taking all of it. He didn't even want to think about what all this was doing to his paint. Right now he just wanted to make sure Arcee was OK.

Then he got an idea the rocks he was being slammed into were attached to the shore so he jammed his saw between some of the rocks so he wouldn't be washed away. Then managed to toss Arcee to safety where she landed in some snow.

"Now the tricky part!" Thought Knock Out as he attempted to pull himself to land. He had been able to toss Arcee over the rocks to where the snow was but he was going to have to climb over them which was much easier said then done.

Knock Out could feel the rocks scratching him as the rapids kept pounding him into them. He had to pull his saw out from between the rocks before he could climb out but the water was pushing against him so hard it felt like the pressure was crushing him.

Thinking fast he drilled through one of the rocks and freed his saw and quickly change it back to his servo and grabbed the rocks again before he could be swept away.

The red medic was now struggling to hold on. As the freezing cold water crashed against his frame. And he felt the rocks scrape against him every time he tried to pull himself to shore. And it hurt like crazy.

Then as he finally managed to get over them and stepped on what he thought was land only to realize it was ice right when he fell through it. Knock Out noticed as he was sinking that there was a wall of rocks on one side of him so it wasn't all ice and Arcee was safe.

But he felt so cold, tired and weak he couldn't swim back up. He wanted to move but his body wouldn't obey. He could feel himself starting to pass out. As his life flashed before his optics.

He remembered when he was a Deceptacon and he and Breakdown had come to Earth after Starscream called him to tend to a comatose Megatron. And the war and when Breakdown had been killed and all his battles against the Autobots before he switched sides and joined them and had talked Starscream into joining them too after he came out of a coma he was in.

Had it all really been that long ago? And he remembered his resent adventures. Being captured by Order of Gray then rescued by Starscream and Metalhawk and defeating Arachnid with Arcee and meeting Blake and Shayna and the other humans and Autobots who had joined Bumblebee's team. And when Metalhawk was killed and how sad they had all been.

Knock Out remembered all of it and was seeing it like a dream passing through his processor. Right up to where he was now sinking in part of a river that ran into the ocean feeling to weak to move. Was he dying was that way he was suddenly remembering all these things that had happened in his life? Was this the end for him he thought about closing his optics and going offline.

But then he remembered Arcee was still up there unconscious and she might need medical attention and Blake still needed Knock Out to be his guardian and Sideline had already lost his brother in the war and didn't need to lose a friend too. Knock Out wasn't going to let that happen.

So the red mech starting forcing himself to swim back up to where he had fallen through the ice and finally after what seemed like forever shot up out of the ice and pulled himself to land.

Then made his way over to where Arcee was still unconscious and examined her and was relieved to see other then being knocked out she was fine. And then carried her to a cave he saw because a blizzard had started and they would be warmer inside the cave and out of the wind and snow.

Sometime later Arcee opened her optics as she regained consciousness luckily she had snapped out of Quintessa's mind control so was back to being herself.

"Arcee are you OK?" Asked Knock Out after he saw she was awake.

"Yes I'm fine." She answered. Then remembered Quintessa had put her undermine mind control and had gotten the container with Unicron's spark inside it.

"No Quintessa has the container!" She said recalling what happened before she had passed out after falling into the river. "I'm sorry I attacked you back there."

"It's OK you weren't yourself." Knock Out told her. "I'm just glad your OK."

Arcee noticed Knock Out sounded weak and suddenly he collapsed and then Arcee saw that he had dents and scratchs all over him. And some wounds that had been caused by the rocks had gotten water in them that had frozen into ice.

"Knock Out!" Arcee yelled as she ran to his side. She saw that his optics were dim because he was starting to pass out. "Knock Out you have to stay awake!"

"OK." He moaned. Arcee could tell the cold was also affecting him.

"Hold on I'm gonna try to com the others!" Arcee told him. She noticed Knock Out's com-link had been damaged by the rocks. But luckily hers was still working. So she call the scrapyard hoping to get through to someone or that at least they would lock on to their location. Knock Out needed medical attention.

Meanwhile at the scrapyard Ratchet had just finished treating Starscream's wounds from his battle with Megatron. And was glad to see that his most serious one from when he was stabbed was just a mesh wound. And that the seeker would make a full recovery. Then he saw that Starscream was starting to regain consciousness.

"Starscream are you OK?" Asked Ratchet. "How do you feel?"

"In pain but I'll live." Starscream answered him.

"Excuse me I'd like a word with my former second in command." Said Megatron who walked into the med bay.

"I think you've done enough to him." Ratchet told him.

"Its OK Ratchet I'll hear what he has to say." Starscream said to the medic.

"OK but if he tries to lay a finger on you scream and we'll all come running." Ratchet told Starscream before walking out of the med bay.

"Starscream I just want to say I'm sorry for all I did to you during the war." Megatron said to the seeker. "No one deserves to be treated that way."

"It's OK that's all in the past now." Starscream told him. "Let's just move foreword and try to do better in the future."

"OK that sounds like a good plan." Said Megatron.

"That's so sweet that you guys are making up!" "Group hug!" Yelled Grimlock who just happened to walk by and overhead the exchange. And ran over and hugged both of them.

Then Miko went over and snapped a picture of them like that. Grimlock had a big smile on his face while Megatron looked completely humiliated and Starscream appeared to be in shock.

Then Shayna walked over and Miko showed her the picture and she couldn't help but laugh at Megatron and Starscream's faces.

Just then the com-link beeped and Ratchet answered it but only got static. But was able to lock on to the location.

Then he open a ground bridge there and went through it with Optimus and Bumblebee and they came out in the Arctic.

Then Arcee ran to where they were and explained what had happened with Quintessa and the container and the river and that Knock Out had been hurt and needed medical attention. And they wasted no time getting them back to the scrapyard and rushed Knock Out to the med bay where Ratchet got to work.

Then after a few hours Ratchet came out and said Knock Out was going to be fine. He had treated his injuries and the Austin Martin would make a full recovery. It was mainly the cold that had affected him. And Arcee, Blake and Sideline were all glad he was going to be OK.

"Sideline I am sorry for any damage I may have caused you." Optimus told the Brunt Orang Autobot.

"It's OK it was Quintessa's fault not yours." Sideline told him.

"We must find her and make sure she does not release Unicron no matter the cost for Cybertron, Earth and the rest of the universe are at stake." Optimus told the team.

And they all knew there next mission was to find Quintessa and stop her from freeing Unicron.

To Be Continued.

"Well that's it for this chapter." "I'll try to have the next one up soon." Please let me know if I missed any spelling errors."