Not that he could see the sunlight in here, he was deep in the hull of the ship. He vented long and deep, but never opened his optics. He was only allowed an hour of sunlight every day and only under strict supervision.
Not noticing that the pedsteps have gotten near his cell door, he was startled and his previously closed optics flew open, when he heard three loud knocks on the door, the hatch opening and an energon cube shoved inside.
"Morning refuel time!" Was all he heard a vehicon say from behind the door, before the con walked away. The guards took back their position. Starscream growled. He hated when he was purposely startled. Rolling over he swung his peds to help him sit up, so he could get off the berth to go retrieve his meal.
It was not much, but it kept him going. Any more than that, and he would have had enough energy to put up a fight and escape somehow. But as is, it only kept his vitals running. Apparently Megatron still needed him for something, though he dreaded finding out what.
As he drank from the cube, he was thinking. His mind being the only entertainment he was allowed to have. He felt like he was forgetting something, but at the same time, he was sure he didn't...What was it?
See? It was already eating away at his processors! The seeker had finished the contents of the cube and put it back down by the door. Next he went to ponder about what he was trying to remember so badly. After all, there wasn't anything better for him to do anyway. After about a breem or two, he finally remembered.
["What was that rogue scream in the night anyway?"] He thought. It sounded familiar, but he could care less who or what was having a nightmare at that hour. It was not like he could help them anyway, so he had ignored the sound and continued his recharge session.
Right now however, he's curious. In the back of his processor he felt like it clicked with someone on board, but couldn't quite put his digit on it. He's been in here for so long, he's lost track of the goings on around him.
That's when he heard the daytime-shift guards come replace the night time ones...
"Finally...What took you guys so long?"
"Eh, you know how it goes on this ship, having to report to the superiors everything before you do anything all that..."
"Oh...yeah...I forgot. Scrap, and I'm just about spent right now."
"Lucky it's our turn to report before we go into recharge, huh?"
"Can it, Steve!"
"Speaking of recharge, You guys heard about Knockout?"
{"Dude, Breakdown will scrap us for spare parts if it spreads any further!"}
"Yeah, so long as YOU don't tell!"
After begrudgingly agreeing to his fellow crewmate, What followed next was a colorful rendition of what they've witnessed between Breakdown and Knockout last night. From Knockout kissing himself all over, to the crazy doctor tightly hugging Breakdown and calling him a beautiful hunk of pistons!
The more starscream listened, the more difficult it was to stifle his own laughter. He snickered and snorted so much his vents kicked off a few times before bursting into a loud hysterical laughter that seemed to have no end in sight!
"Scrap! I forgot Starcream was in there!"
"Hey, Silence in there!"
{"Come on, Starscream...You'll get us all killed here!"}
The guards panicked as they were desperately trying to get Starscream to stop laughing.
"HAHA! I DON'T CARE, HAHA! Death would be a blessing in disguise for me at this point, so THERE! HAHAHA!" The seeker could barely get his sentence out properly between laughing, venting and talking at the same time.
Knockout has had a long night. Longer than any he has had in the past and then some! Megatron's words still ring in the back of his processor.
"I will be getting a full report first thing tomorrow morning, from you...to fill in the few gaps that I may or may not have missed...and it better have yielded results...I will make sure that it does."
All night he was left unable to fall into recharge, but on the one hand he was glad.;The dragon's dream realm scared him now... he thought he had the upper servo this time, but even so she was able to kick his tailpipe in! How is that even possible?! She was weakened, was she not? How did Optimus Prime get in her dream? Was he a figment of her imagination? He had to be, no one else could get into her mind!
The connection Knockout shared with her now is what made that possible, and there was no way the Autobots were going to attempt to replicate what he had accidentally achieved. Still...he couldn't shake the feeling he and the creature weren't alone in there...And not just one presence either.
The only other way any of them can even hope to get in was through a cortical psychic patch and with an organic, that would mean permanent brain damage or worse... Nah, they value the pathetic lives of these lifeforms too much! Speaking of the patch...
"The earthlings have a saying... 'A picture is worth a thousand words' So I will spare your voicebox the strain of explaining in detail what happened on your little expedition..."
Even more words from the Warlord reared their heads about his thoughts...This sent an Icy-cold chill down his Bipedalism cord... He shuddered and hugged his knee joints closer. On the inside he wished for dawn never to come, but he knew this was impossible. Time always flows forward, and waits for nothing and no-one.
"And Breakdown, you are in charge of making sure the good doctor makes it to the medical bay in time... I do not care how you do it: shove him, drag him, carry him if you have to; just make sure it get done, understood soldier?"
The words of his leader clear as crystal in his audials since last night, Breakdown was not looking forward to today. He was up for the majority of the night guarding Knockout's berth room door, so he did get some sleep, but Megatron's latest order is what woke him up so early.
He could still see the look on the Medic's face. The look of fear. Not the one he makes when he realizes it's about time he made tracks to save his skid plates, no...this was serious. So much it even rivaled the one he had when he was scared after his first experience dreamwalking.
Knockout looked as if he was made aware of the time of his own death! He lost the lustre of the sheen his Armour was known for, in just a short moment. Breakdown saw how the con wanted to scream, but he couldn't.
"Restful recharge, Doctor...He has a long day ahead of him. We need to make sure Knockout gets his rest after all..."
["Rest? What rest?!"] The blue bot respects Megatron with all his being, but that doesn't mean he has to like what he's just been ordered to do. ["Knocks hasn't had a wink of rest all night!"] He wasn't allowed to leave his berth room for the rest of the night, as per his master's orders, but he could tell.
When the bright light of this solar system's star broke through the porthole of his quarters, Breakdown vented long and labored, composed himself the best he could and left to go carry out Megatron's orders.
Knockout was exhausted, he could barely keep his optics open anymore! His limbs started slumping, but he was stubborn; he kept blinking his optics back open, he even resorted to slapping himself! Anything that will get the job done.
But nothing seemed to work, the exhaustion was winning and he could barely stay up, until he heard ped steps approaching his quarters. His optics flew open and if he wasn't feeling trapped already due to being locked in the room, he was feeling it now!
The medic crawled away from the door and curled up in the corner as he kept the door in his sights. The ped steps were heavy, they could have belonged to any of the larger cons, Dreadwing, Breakdown...["M-Megatron...?"]
He was shaking, though he couldn't tell if it was because the floor was extra cold, or out of fear, all he knew was that it was morning, and he knew exactly what the Warlord ordered from him today. Not that he feared being plugged into the patch, he's done it so many times before, it's as easy as driving down a long stretch of road, for him.
What scared him was the fact that he had nothing... He was given so much time to deliver on this one task and he had nothing to show for it! Today was the day his spark was to be extinguished... Somewhere deeper in the bowels of the Nemesis, he heard what sounded like the cackling of a maniac, which didn't help him at all.
Breakdown made his way down the hall that led to the medic's berth room. He heard Starscream's laughter in the distance and shook his helm. Perhaps he's finally lost it...Primus only knows.
When the blue bot reached the berth room, he was listening...There were no sounds coming from the room, when he stood in front of the door he could only hear Knockout venting. Clearly he was stressed; of course he hasn't forgotten. Breakdown carefully knocked on the door before opening it.
"Knockout, it's time..." That probably would have sounded ominous, but there wasn't any other way he could think of to make it sound less scary.
Not as much as a single beep came from behind that door. "*sigh* Well, at least have some energon before-Woah!"
Breakdown opened the door to try and comfort his friend and mentally prepare him before they went to the medbay, but as soon as the door opened; a cherry red blurr attempted to fly out of the room, despite not having wings to begin with!
Knockout had tackled Breakdown to the floor, knocking the energon cube out of the blue bot's servos! Once he had the con down, he was going to break out into a running start before transforming and drive to the first console he could find, get a groundbridge and escape; but his leg was grabbed by his friend.
"Knockout, please..." Breakdown held on tight to the medic's ankle guard and grabbed the other while he had em, but not before eating faceful of ped several times over. Knockout attempted to kick him hard enough that he would let go, but to no avail.
Next he switched to vehicle mode to slip out of the con's grip, but Breakdown knowing his Transformation cycle well, managed to grab Knockout's back wheel wells and hoped his weight would be enough to stop him from moving.
The Aston Martin's engine roared menacingly as he struggled against the added weight, but doc Knock was stubbornly determined to get away, that he actually managed to start dragging Breakdown down the hall behind him, Grinding his friend's chassis all over the floor!
The Blue bot could not believe it, but he didn't have much time to wrap his processor around where this strength was coming from, as the smell of burned rubber and grinding gears snapped him out of his daze. Clearly Knockout was straining himself beyond any and perhaps all healthy limitations he had. The medic was determined to get away, even though it crippeled or killed him!
It was worse than Breakdown thought. Getting back on his feet, despite the cherry red vehicle swerving around to toss him off, the blue bot dug his heel struts in an attempt to slow him down and lift the medic up by his wheel wells!
"C'mon Knocks! Don't make this harder than it already has to be!" He turned the car over so the wheels faced away from him as he wrapped his arms around the entire and lifted it up off the ground to keep the wheels from getting any traction. "I don't want to do this!"
"*Grunts* Then let me GO!" Knockout struggled to transform back into bot mode, but not resting the whole night was finally getting to him as he's exhausted most of his energon in this fight. He slumped over in defeat.
"I...can't..." It was all Breakdown could say, that wouldn't get him into trouble with medic didn't want to talk to him. He felt betrayed by the only real friend he had on this ship...or anywhere really, and now it's that same so-called friend that was about to take him to be stripped for spare parts.
He thought about using his Buzzsaw on him, but he's barely any energy left to stay up, let alone start another struggle fest. Breakdown took a moment and just stood there, he wanted to make this as less traumatizing as possible, part of that plan just went out the window, but at least he wanted to be successful with the rest of it.
{"Whatever happens in that Medical bay, I promise...I'm go down with you..."} Breakdown tried to reassure the red bot.
"Don't make promises you can't keep..." Knockout still remembers what happened last time Breakdown said that. Those words sliced about as bad as his Buzzsaws would have, but the blue con was seriously starting to question some things...
The rest of the trip to the Medbay went without another hitch and unusually silent as well. Knockout had powered down along the way.
The Medbay doors opened when he got close enough and he was greeted by the presences of bot Megatron and Soundwave, as the warlord said would be the case.
"All hail Lo-..." Breakdown was about to greet his master as he always would, but still standing as he was carrying Knockout, but he was interrupted by the Warlord.
"He is not damaged, is he?" Megatron demanded to know.
"Mentally no... ["I hope..."] There was a short scuffle, but no damage to the helm." The blue con answered truthfully. " I know it looks like I knocked him out, but it was the excitement for today's...report's that prevented him from resting."
"Excellent..." Megatron smiled. "Unconscious or powered down, doesn't matter...It only makes it easier for us to navigate his memory banks for the answers we need. Place him on the berth, Soundwave will plug him in."
Breakdown felt his pistons cinching up, but did what he was told and placed the sleeping medic on the berth. Soundwave then took over and hooked Knockout up to the machine. Megatron climbed onto the other berth and let Soundwave plug him in as well. When everything was all well and good, the device was activated.
Successfully making it into Knockout's memory banks, Megatron found himself , Breakdown and Starscream inside one of the Energon mines, evident by the exposed crystals and Vehicons workers around.
"L-lord Megatron!" It was Knockout. At least the present version of him.
"Yes, doctor...you seemed to have passed out by the time Breakdown had to accompany you to the medbay..." Megatron said as he focussed on the memory playing out around him.
He directed his attention to past Knockout who was having trouble staying focussed. Then Megatron's vision blurred and once it cleared back up he saw them: The Autobots and their human pets! He had a strange perspective of everyone; he was eye-level with the humans, which made the Autobots appear gigantic in comparison. He must have been seeing the world through the eyes of the dragon.
Though he could feel past Knockout's nervousness, the warlord remained calm. "Knockout, explain." He ordered his medic.
"Y-yes my liege...After my energon got mixed in with the creature's blood, it seemed that we were bonded in a way. This could have gone completely unnoticed, haven't I started trying to track down those faint traces of energon through meditation." The red bot explained.
"Why not use an energon detector?" The warlord asked.
"Of course that would have worked, yes. But only for a short while, besides having a limited range and since it's mixed in with organic blood, that would further interfere with the device's capabilities. And since the Autobot base is cloaked, there was no way we could have picked up the signal, so long as she stayed indoors."
Megatron was taken to what appeared to be a medical bay. "So this must be the Autobot base! Now if only we can discover some kind of clue to its exact whereabouts..."
He couldn't get a clear view of the surrounding area, as they were inside a geological formation. The warlord felt like there was something or someone trying to tap into his processor. His vision returned to the mines as he briefly looked around, probably trying to make out where the Decepticons were at the time, through Knockout's optics.
"It seems that she turned your technique against you, doctor..." Megatron noted. "I see you did make an effort to establish contact, but she cut off the auditory connection you had."
The Decepticon leader saw Ratchet and Optimus give each other a look, the Autobot medic typed something on the console, gave a comment and Prime ran out the door. He could see the screens clearly, but for some reason, he couldn't read it.
"Soundwave, save these screenshots for analysis later. The dragon may not be able to read Cybertronian, but we can." Megatron was pleased with the first fruits of his labor.
Knockout was internally Faceplate-Servo-ing himself for not doing that in the first place! Scrap, he was such an IDIOT!
After some primitive medical care was performed on his shoulder pad, both Megatron and the human Jack's carrier were deposited onto the floor before Ratchet walked off into the direction where Prime stormed off to. The command room perhaps? He wasn't given much time to dwell upon his thoughts, when suddenly the Autobots rolled out of a groundbridge that opened up in the mine.
"What proceeded afterwards is a battle that ended with us retreating and me *cough* expelling energon *clears intake*." Knockout explained.
"Indeed, I remember now." The warlord answered as he gave the medic a look.