Knock Out checked the read-outs one more time and then brushed his palm over Starscream's brow. The seeker had remained unconscious as Knock Out brought him back to the med-bay and hooked him up to his monitors, and his internal energy levels were still dangerously high. He had connected a drip to steadily feed coolant into the jet's overheating system, but he feared it wouldn't be enough. The coolant helped with his core temperature, but didn't do much for his spark; Knock Out's research into aerial heat cycles had turned up some worrying information: the purpose of the heat was to make the body ready to conceive a sparkling, and to that end the spark began to generate an excess of raw spark energy. This was what caused the spiking temperatures and restlessness, and as long as the patient was able to burn off the excess through frequent overloads, the problem could be kept somewhat under control. However, if left unchecked the spark would continue to swell, burning hotter and hotter as it tried to produce enough power to facilitate the creation of a new spark. All that energy had to go somewhere, or the affected seeker would literally burn up.

There was a shimmer all around Starscream's frame, and the metal above his spark chamber had begun to glow.

The foolish seeker had compounded his troubles by drinking high-grade. Normally a jet could drink the strongest, most refined fuels with little consequence as their highly streamlined frames required energy-dense fuel as a matter of course, but in Starscream's case, with him in heat, the extra charge could just have tipped him over the edge.

While Starscream was unconscious, Knock Out had been frantically searching for some documented means to siphon the spark charge, but what little information existed in his medical archives warned how dangerous such a procedure would be, with a worryingly high risk of patient death. Knock Out didn't fancy explaining to Megatron that he managed to let his second-in-command die while in his care. And, he had to admit, he might even miss the obnoxious son of a glitch if he were to expire on Knock Out's table.

Besides, it was a matter of pride.

"Starscream, can you wake up?" Knock Out said softly. Then, a little more harshly, "Come on you jackaft, don't just leave me hanging. Not after-"

"Hey, any change?" Knock Out's gaze snapped up as Breakdown entered the med-bay. He straightened, realising he had been bent over Starscream's berth. He frowned and shook his head. Breakdown clicked his glossa and gave the seeker a sympathetic look. "You should try and give him the old kiss of life."

Knock Out scoffed.

"I know you're joking," he said, "but even if you weren't, it wouldn't work. The state he's in, he probably wouldn't respond to stimulus anything like enough to burn off the kind of energy he's generating. Besides, he's not quite that bad yet... I'd prefer to avoid forcing myself on an insensate mech if I can."

"Easy," Breakdown soothed. He ran a hand down Knock Out's back, intended to be calming rather than amorous. It worked, somewhat, and Knock Out's ruffled feathers smoothed. The worried frown remained on his face, however. "I'm gonna turn in for the night," Breakdown said.

Knock Out nodded distractedly and said, "Go ahead. I'll stay here a while and keep an optic on him."

Breakdown nodded, gave Knock Out's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and then left. Knock Out knew Breakdown had implicitly been asking if Knock Out planned to follow him, but he didn't feel right about leaving Starscream. With a sigh, he pulled a stool over to Starscream's berthside and sat down. He checked all the read-outs one more time, and then stared at Starscream. It was very quiet in the med-bay, only the soft hums and beeps of the equipment to fill the anxious silence.

Knock Out folded his arms. He began to tap his foot. His optics flicked from Starscream to the monitors, then to the door and back. Had Breakdown had a point? Knock Out's spark twisted. No, it was ridiculous. That kind of nonsense was protoforms' fairy tales, at best.

Hesitantly, he stood up. He touched one fingertip to the centre of Starscream's chest, but pulled it away instantly, hissing, due to the intense heat. He swore under his breath and looked down at Starscream's face. The seeker's expression was pained, even when in stasis. Knock Out absently rubbed his thumb across Starscream's brow, then up the red finial that rose from the centre. After one more quick check to make sure he was alone, Knock Out leant down and pressed his lips to Starscream's.

Nothing happened.

Knock Out growled and tried again, kissing harder this time. Wake up, you piece of slag, he thought, as he thrust his glossa into Starscream's mouth. Just as he was about to withdraw and pretend none of this ever happened, he felt Starscream respond. He didn't wake, but his glossa moved against Knock Out's, and then his lips softened. Knock Out pulled back at once and studied Starscream's face. The seeker's optics were still dim, but he turned his head as Knock Out moved away, as though trying to follow.

"Starscream?" Starscream made a small, wordless sound in response. "Can you hear me? Are you awake?" He checked the monitors again. The charge was the same, but Starscream's processor seemed to be booting back up. Starscream gave another little grunt, and then his optics flickered online. It took him a moment to focus on Knock Out, but when he did he tried to reach out to him, one hand moving limply by his side. "Starscream, I need you to listen to me carefully. Your charge is dangerously high." He took Starscream's hand and absently brushed his lips across the seeker's knuckles. "If it gets much worse there might not be anything I can do."

"Are you... admitting defeat...?" Starscream whispered. He then groaned and arched on the berth. "Oh, frag. Do something..."

"Are you in pain?"

"Not sure... Doctor, help me...?" He looked up at Knock Out, and then pulled him down by their still linked hands. Knock Out kissed him, and Starscream opened to him, letting him in. Knock Out's free hand caressed down Starscream's frame, avoiding the burning hot centre of his chest and instead sliding down his middle and between his legs. He deftly opened up Starscream's panel and slipped his fingers straight into Starscream's valve. Starscream was so wet that fluid splashed down onto the berth the moment Knock Out opened him. Knock Out winced a little at the heat, but figured it must be far worse for Starscream.

Starscream whimpered at the first touch to his hyper-sensitised valve, spread his legs and arched restlessly. Knock Out bent close, caressing Starscream's helm with one hand while the other delved into his molten core. His face was but a breath from Starscream's, and he watched the seeker's expressions avidly as he stroked, thrust, and rubbed. Starscream grabbed his shoulder hard enough to scratch the paint, but Knock Out winced and bore it. He could fix it later.

"Come on, Starscream," Knock Out cooed. He thrust two slim fingers into Starscream's valve again and again, lubricant now coating his hand up to the wrist. When Starscream cried out breathlessly for more, he added another finger, and then another. He ground the heel of his hand against Starscream's anterior node as he jammed four fingers knuckle deep in the seeker's lush, hot valve, forcing Starscream into overload. Starscream yelled and clutched at Knock Out as he came, and sparks literally flew from his joints. Blue lightning crackled from his chest, licking over his armour plates. Starscream's chest opened to reveal his swollen, blazing spark. Knock Out's optics widened at the sight, and he was momentarily captivated. The next moment, however, he realised what he was seeing – a spark that was critically close to a meltdown. The monitors showed only a miniscule reduction in energy output; he would have to repeat that overload a hundred times over to make a dent in those readings. It was too late to try siphoning, and it was too dangerous anyway. There was only one thing left to do.

He lifted Starscream off the medical berth, tearing the monitor cables free as he did so. He lay the seeker on the floor and covered him with his body. His frame was painfully hot to touch, and Knock Out's precious paint blistered on contact, but he couldn't pay that any mind just now.

"I'm sorry, Starscream," he said. Even as he silently cursed the circumstances, there was something dark and possessive inside of him that became excited at the idea of what he was about to do. When he opened his own panel his spike pressurised straight into Starscream's valve. Starscream panted and clutched at Knock Out's shoulders. Knock Out growled and pressed himself as deep into Starscream's body as he could, pushing through the intense heat, then snapped his hips once to make sure Starscream really felt it. Then he opened his chest-plates, wrapped his arms around Starscream to force his back to arch, and crushed his chest to Starscream's.

The first spark on spark contact was somewhere between searing pain and exquisite ecstasy – it was too intense to classify, and Knock Out just grit his teeth and rode the feeling.

"I started this," he growled, thinking of the feckless drones who almost claimed this for themselves. How dare they? "I will be the one to finish it."

Starscream tipped his head back and screamed, and Knock Out yelled with him as the seeker's spark latched onto his. The doctor's spark input would be the catalyst that Starscream's spark needed to put all that excess energy to the use it was designed for. It felt as if his soul was being pulled from his body. At the same time, Starscream's potent spark punched into his own, their two essences synchronising and binding, frequencies matching; for a critical moment, they ceased to be two beings and became one instead.

Knock Out was helpless in the face of the lightning storm burning through both his and Starscream's chambers. His frame crackled with tongues of blue lightning, and Starscream's optics flared blindingly bright. They overloaded at the same moment, bright and hot as a supernova.

After the first explosion came smaller flares, and then at last Starscream's spark relinquished its grip on Knock Out's, and their cores separated. Knock Out hardly knew where he ended and Starscream began; who knew how long it would take to sort through the muddled files that had been inadvertently transferred during the merge? His chronometer had to be lying to him – it told him only a few moments had passed since he pulled Starscream to the floor and took his spark, but it felt like joors. He didn't remember a time when he had felt this exhausted. His whole frame was thrumming with residual charge, yet weighed down with a strut-deep weariness that was somehow deeply, primally satisfying.

He raised himself up on his arms, sliding his spike out of Starscream's valve as he did so. Rivulets of transfluid flowed from the opening, mingling with the seeker's copious lubricants. He looked down at the seeker. Starscream was asleep once again, his chamber wide open. His spark was still bright, but no longer feverishly so. It pulsed gently, and Knock Out thought he saw a constellation of tiny stars orbiting the central core. His own spark warmed at the sight, seemingly instinctively. He'd certainly never planned on being a parent, but sometimes one's biology defied logic. Very gently, he slid Starscream's chest closed, making sure the armour plates clicked securely into place to protect the delicate spark within.

He rose, tucked his spike back away behind its panel and closed up his own chest-plates, and then picked Starscream up. He carried him in his arms out of the med-bay and to his own private quarters, where he lay Starscream on the berth. Then, because he was too tired and spent to do anything else, he crawled into the berth alongside the seeker, curled around him, and succumbed to sleep.


He was awoken by a pounding on the door. He took a moment to come around, but when he did he sat bolt upright and stared around in panic. Starscream sat by his side, a grimace on his face, his wings angled low. He mouthed, "Megatron."

Knock Out winced, then got up from the berth. He checked himself in the mirror and gasped in unchecked horror. He looked a disgrace! His usually pristine paintwork was scratched, melted, scuffed, and burnt. He couldn't face Megatron looking like this! He glanced over at Starscream, but the seeker looked no better. In fact, he looked as debauched and dishevelled as Knock Out was beginning to get pleasantly used to seeing him, with numerous scuffs and smears of crimson paint adorning his silver armour and a residue of transfluid visible between his legs. Knock Out felt desire begin to kindle, but it was cut short when Megatron slammed his fist against the door once again.

"Knock Out, stop primping and get back to work!" Megatron thundered. "And where is my second in command?"

"Uhh, just a moment, Lord Megatron," Knock Out called.

Megatron growled and replied, "I don't have all day to wait around for you. Just report to the medical bay within ten klicks, or I'll be forced to find myself a new medic."

Knock Out breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the warlord's receding footsteps. Then he turned to Starscream.

"You look like slag," Starscream said. "What... What happened?" He touched his chest, looking down at it, and then pressed one palm to his forehead. "I feel better..."

"Well of course you do," Knock Out said smoothly – a little too smoothly. "I'm a brilliant physician, of course you're cured."

"I wasn't sick," Starscream said. "I was- Wait." Very slowly he looked up at Knock Out. Knock Out experienced the inexplicable urge to flee, but he was pinned by the seeker's accusing stare. "Tell me you didn't do what I think you did."

"That depends, what do you think I did?"

"Run that smart mouth again and I'll shoot it off your smug, shiny face," Starscream snapped, rising from the bed and aiming a rocket at Knock Out's head. Knock Out raised his hands and backed away as Starscream advanced.

"All right, all right! I merged my spark with yours. It was the only way I could see to save you." Starscream tilted his head, narrowing his optics. "It's true. You think I would do that for any other reason?"

"Let's not get personal, doctor," Starscream muttered. He lowered his weapon and folded his arms. His wing tips twitched, betraying his agitation.

"I'd say we couldn't get much more personal than we did last night," Knock Out remarked with a small smirk, then instantly regretted it when Starscream glared at him. "Relax," he said. "It might not even take."

"...You think so?" Starscream turned away, and there was a click and a whir, and then a soft blue light emanated from the seeker's front. Starscream inspected his spark for a few moments. Knock Out padded up behind him and laid a hand upon his back. Starscream jumped, but aside from another twitch of the wings, he didn't move away, nor did he close up his chest.

"I do," Knock Out said. "You don't need to worry."

Starscream closed himself up then and turned to face Knock Out. He was smiling, but if Knock Out didn't know better he would have said he looked almost sad.

"I suppose I ought to thank you for saving my life, then," Starscream grumbled.

"All in a day's work, Commander," Knock Out replied. Then, feeling impulsive, he slipped his hand behind Starscream's head and pulled him into a kiss. Starscream tensed, but then he melted into the kiss and even returned it. He pushed Knock Out gently away with a hand in the centre of his chest.

"Megatron-"

"Can wait," Knock Out said with a dismissive flip of his hand. "Besides, neither of us can exactly turn up for duty looking like this, now, can we?" Starscream looked down at both their frames and laughed. "What do you say to a visit to the wash-racks first?" He lifted a brow and smiled lasciviously.

Starscream sniffed, made a show of reluctance, and said, "Oh, if you say so."


Despite Knock Out's assurances to the contrary, it did take. Starscream was "with spark", as they used to say back on Cybertron, and the clock was ticking until the moment when he started to show.

He had not taken the news well. Knock Out was relieved to have escaped that particular tantrum with his life, although he did have a few new dents and scratches for Breakdown to buff out afterwards. He supposed he deserved it.

From that point, he kept a close optic on Starscream's condition, insisted he come in to the med-bay for regular checks, and neither of them breathed a word to Megatron.

Soundwave was the one Knock Out was really worried about. The bot was canny and always seemed to have a knack for ferreting out the truth of all the goings on aboard the Nemesis, whether the crew liked it or not. And of course, whatever Soundwave found out, if it was of note, he passed on to Megatron.

Once, when Starscream came by for a scan, Knock Out suggested that maybe they should just come clean about the whole thing. He didn't really fully believe it, but he was clinging onto optimism because he didn't see any other options. Starscream gaped at him.

"Are you insane?" he said. "You've seen how Megatron treats me, how the slag do you think he would treat my offspring? Maybe, maybe he'd be careful if it was his, but yours and mine? The pit-forsaken thing won't even have a chance."

Knock Out felt and looked distinctly sick. He was about to ask, "You don't think he would really...?" It was on the tip of his glossa, but he never voiced the question because he already knew the answer.

Starscream cycled a breath, and seemed to visibly calm down. It wasn't an improvement, as instead he now looked spark-achingly deflated. His wings lay as low as they could down his back, his shoulders slumped, and his optics took on a haunted look.

"It would have been better if you'd let me go up in flames," he said.

Knock Out folded his arms and scowled.

"You don't sound like yourself, Herr Kommandant."

"Mm."

Starscream linked his hands behind his back and began to pace. His gait was slow at first, his pose a dejected slump, but the longer Knock Out watched him the more purposeful his steps became. His brow furrowed, and his wings twitched and gradually rose by degrees.

"This sparkling could be all that's left of the once great Vosian civilisation," he said, still pacing. Knock Out leant against a counter behind him and let Starscream talk. "The heir, in a way, to my former homeland. This sparkling could be the last true Vosian seeker in the entire galaxy, excepting myself. Why, I may carry the next Winglord himself in my chamber. We must ensure he lives to claim his destiny!"

"All right. So how do we do that? Convince Megatron it's in his interest somehow?"

Starscream was shaking his head. "As long as Lord Megatron lives, he'll be a threat to the child. If Vos were to rise again..." The seeker's optics took on a dreamy, faraway look, and Knock Out knew he was seeing an unlikely return to glory for his homeland, long-ago lost to the war and destruction that had consumed all of Cybertron. He took another breath and let it out in a huff. "Besides, I can't take the risk. The next time he's displeased with me he'll beat the scrap out of me, as usual. I can manage when it's only myself, but I won't risk a sparkling."

Knock Out sighed. Starscream had a point. The moment Megatron took out his anger on Starscream, as it was his habit to do, Starscream ran the risk of losing the child – and it was apparent Starscream had overcome his reluctance to keep the sparkling. It was a less than ideal situation.

"So either we leave, or Megatron has to go."

Starscream's optics darted around, as though expecting the warlord himself to step out of the shadows.

"Keep your volume down, Soundwave has audios everywhere."


They put off making a decision for a while longer. In the end, it was Megatron who forced their hand.

Knock Out had been on the bridge picking up a stack of reports and was on his way out when his attention was drawn, as it so often was these days, to Starscream. The seeker stood at Megatron's side before the main bank of monitors, and from a quick glance at the screens they appeared to be reviewing a recent field mission. Knock Out dawdled, pretending to check and recheck the datapads he carried. Tuning in his audios, he could hear that for each critical remark Megatron made about Starscream's performance or leadership during the mission – for instance, the fact that he had hung back more than usual, which Megatron took for cowardice – Starscream responded only with restrained or non-committal replies, barely speaking at all. He was no doubt attempting to defuse Megatron's ire by not rising to the warlord's bait, but instead his failure to engage was having the opposite effect, and Megatron's tone became increasingly harsh, his remarks more personal.

Then the inevitable happened.

For Megatron, it was barely even a tap. A swift backhand across Starscream's cheek, forcing Starscream's head to turn but not hard enough to topple him off his thrusters. Knock Out felt the fuel freeze in his lines.

Starscream rubbed his jaw and hunched over, his wings down as he unconsciously tried to make himself appear smaller. Megatron's massive frame dwarfed him, a self-satisfied smirk upon his faceplates. No one else on the bridge reacted; everybot had had centuries to learn how to look the other way.

The pad Knock Out was holding creaked under his grip, the glass screen threatening to crack.

"What, that's it?" Megatron was saying to Starscream. "No excuses today? Where's your spirit, Starscream?"

It seemed Megatron was simply in the mood to pick a fight. Starscream would be in for it whether he talked back or not, and he seemed to know it. At least, Knock Out assumed that was why he did what he did next. Instead of shrinking away from Megatron, Starscream flared out his wings and snarled. Megatron's optics widened a little in surprise, and then he bared his teeth in a malicious smile.

"That's more like it," Megatron said. He reached out to take Starscream's throat in his hand, but Starscream darted out of the way. Irritated, Megatron struck at Starscream's torso. The heel of his hand connected with the centre of Starscream's chest, and the seeker went flying. Knock Out dropped the stack of datapads and ran toward Starscream, but slowed when Megatron's fiery glare shifted from Starscream to him.

"Yes, Knock Out? What do you want?" Megatron shifted his weight in such a way as to make the silent threat of his powerful war-build body unavoidably clear – if Knock Out took another step, he would suffer for it.

Knock Out glanced at Starscream, who was curled on the floor. He had taken worse beatings, and only Knock Out knew why he was still struggling to cycle his vents and covering his dented chest with his arms.

"Well?"

Knock Out's attention refocused on Megatron again, and he thought fast.

"I, ah... I was only going to say that, in light of Lord Starscream's recent illness-"

"Yes, yes," Megatron interrupted with a deep sigh, waving a hand. He rolled his optics and turned away. "Get him out of my sight, and make sure he's repaired fully this time." He turned back to the screens and just like that, both Starscream and Knock Out were forgotten. The silent tension in the large chamber eased as the other bots returned to their work, and Knock Out took advantage of the reprieve to help Starscream to his feet and practically drag him from the bridge.

Once outside, and the door closed behind them, Starscream pushed Knock Out away and stumbled, leaning against the wall for support instead. He still had one hand pressed to his chest.

"Is it-"

"I don't know," Starscream snapped. "I think it's fine. I think I'd know."

"We should still check to be sure-"

"Stop fussing over me! And I don't need you coming to rescue me either."

Knock Out scowled and stepped back.

"Squawk at me all you like, Commander, but if you don't come back to the med-bay with me I'll shock you into stasis and carry you there instead."

Starscream looked at him in mild surprise.

"You've grown a bigger set of sparkplugs since you knocked me up," he remarked. Knock Out gave him a slag-eating grin and offered him his arm.

"Shall we?"

Starscream pushed the proffered arm away and straightened. "I can walk on my own," he griped. He glanced over his shoulder, and then added, "Quickly, before Megatron decides he let us off too easy."

After Knock Out had finished his scan on both Starscream's spark and the newspark and was satisfied that Megatron's attack hadn't done anything more than damage Starscream's outer armour, he sat down with the seeker and they locked optics.

"That can't happen again," Starscream said. "I know."

They sat quietly for a while, Starscream hunched with his elbows on his knees, Knock Out sitting back with his arms folded.

"So. We leave tonight?"

"I leave. No one said anything about you tagging along."

Knock Out pulled a face, and said, "If you go, I'll just be Megatron's next punching bag. I'd rather take my chances with parenthood, if you ask me. Although, it won't be easy out on our own..."

"Who says we'd be on our own?" Starscream said. "Don't be ridiculous. If Megatron has to go, then I'm planning on calling up the very bots who stand a chance of taking him down."

"You're not proposing-"

"I am. We're going to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Autobots."