Autobot Base:
Knock Out's voice came through cheerily. "Had to find my stash of tools. I just needed to fix my comlink. Be back as soon as I can."
Ratchet shook his head. "When you get back, we need to talk."
"I'll remember that. Over and out."
Bumblebee stood with his back to Ratchet, conversing eagerly with Raf. The humans had been distressed when they heard the events of the battle, Rafael most of all. Jack simply muttered he knew this would happen. Miko shrugged it off, smiling forlornly and saying she wished Bulkhead would've clobbered him.
The Nemesis:
Knock Out was acutely aware of the Vehicons staring at him. He hissed and flicked his energon prod menacingly; they did not bother him after that.
The worst part about going back was the questions. Where were you? Do you know what happened to Breakdown? Is it true you were one of them?
The disgust in their voices deepened when he answered their questions. At the Autobot Base. He's dead. I was always one of them. But he ignored them. It didn't matter what they thought. He'd felt the revulsion that came off the Autobots when they saw what he did. They hated him now. Just as well, because he didn't think he could have been content with their largely pacifistic and lenient methods.
He was aware of only one way to get his mind off the day's events. Sparring.
The Vehicons had been eager to show how much better they were than Autobots and Knock Out perfectly happy to let them try.
"A piece of advice, doctor: this time, stay down." The drone – designated B35963 – shoved him one last time before walking away. "You've gone soft, just like Starscream said."
"I'll show you who's soft!" Knock Out leaped to his feet, ignoring the protests of Vehicons as he threw them aside. He lunged, plunging his prod in deep, twisting the blade as he activated it.
The energy cackled and roared as it traveled through the length of the now twitching Vehicon's frame. "You're losing it, Knock Out, just like you always have been." The drone laughed, the sound ending in a spluttering cough as Knock Out's fist collided with his head. "Admit it, you're afraid. You have always been afraid of what would happen. You've never been one of them; you've been one of us the whole time."
"I'm. Not. One. Of. You!" The rage boiled over, causing the medic to see red. All he saw as he tore vital circuitry with his bare hands was Megatron's arrogant faceplate, right before he was torn to shreds by Autobots. "I'll never be!" He twisted off the fuel line, sending splashes of blue energon on his armor. Then the rage subsided, and Knock Out stood. The Vehicon lay dead at his feet in a pool of vital fluid and energon.
Also on the Nemesis:
Megatron watched the match, feeling quite pleased – which was rare for him – and was slightly shocked when he saw Knock Out's brutal slaughter of the drone. Not very shocked though.
The medic was blinded by anger and fueled by hate. He'd make a fine weapon to use against the Autobots when the time came. There was just one more thing to do before they finished with Knock Out.
Megatron turned to the Vehicon who'd just entered. It was carrying a cube of dark energon.
Another earsplitting screech came from the screen as yet another drone was killed by Knock Out. Megatron turned his attention to it for a brief moment, just in time to catch a glimpse of Knock Out standing stunned in the middle of a pile of dead Vehicons. He looked truly appalled. His trembling voice came clearly over the speakers.
"What have I done?" It echoed back at the medic. "I really have become like them."
Autobot Base:
Knock Out never came back. Three days passed and there was no sign of him anywhere.
Then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He smiled and asked Bumblebee to forgive him; he hadn't been thinking.
Bumblebee accepted the medic's apology, challenging him to a race. That was turned down by Knock Out. He said Ratchet wouldn't approve. For once he actually looked sincere, but there was something buried deep in his crimson gaze… something like regret.
But he was more open to everyone now. He freely told the humans about life on Cybertron before the war, seeming to want them to know everything about it.
He was in the middle of describing Iacon and Tyger Pax before they were destroyed when Ratchet picked up a Decepticon signal at a huge energon deposit.
Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Arcee were just entering the GroundBridge when Arcee turned back. "Aren't you coming?"
Knock Out hadn't moved. "No, thank you. I'll stay here and make sure Miko doesn't get into trouble. Ratchet could go with you if he likes." He turned back to his audience, making a mildly irritated gesture in the general direction of the blue femme.
Ratchet glanced at the red medic in hesitation before following the others. He seemed to be handling everything well.
Still at Autobot Base:
Knock Out was spared a further irritating comment from Miko because she was waiting for him to continue.
"Iacon's record halls are something to behold, I must say. So much data in one room, enough to fill a thousand of your libraries, but it isn't like that anymore.
"When the war started, the first to fall was Iacon. Megatronus, for he had not taken the name Megatron yet, burned it to the ground, leaving not one building standing. He did not harm the civilians, because at the time the war was merely a revolution against the caste-system in place; it should not have ended up like it is today.
"Most of the relics and important data were saved from destruction, but some were too damaged to save. Part of the lost data was the record on the Scientific Guild. That had something to do with my spying for the Autobots – no one would know I had even been one of them, thus they would not hold back. But, anyway, those cylinders and artifacts that were rescued were ejected, thrown out into the dark abyss of space, to one day land on planets such as this one…"
Knock Out's expression clouded with memory as his voice trailed into silence. He stared at the wall, not seeing but lost in the past. His smile faded as if he could see the horrors of that fateful day repeating itself, over and over again.
He would never tell the humans what befell the city's innocents; it would only make them afraid – afraid of him.
The truth was, he never told anyone who he really was – what side he was on. Was he an Autobot, or Decepticon? Not even he knew the answer. Before the war, he was a medic in training for the Autobot faction. Even before that, he had been a crude but well known doctor in the pit fights once so frequent in Cybertron's underground, and most of the transformers there had become Decepticons, so technically he had been part of that faction for a time. After the fighting escalated, the remaining High-Council members demanded somebot infiltrate the 'rebel faction' as the Decepticons had been called then. He had eagerly stepped up, not thinking what old friends and familiar mechs he might meet once again.
Offering to become a spy was the worst mistake Knock Out could have ever made. Now he was caught in the middle of the war on a planet full of innocents and knew he would have to choose who he would be loyal to.
He fingered the sliver of purple crystal Megatron had thrust into his grasp as he departed back to the Autobot Base under orders to fulfill the mission he'd been given.
He had to choose now, while there were no influences from either side.
He had to choose now, and face the consequences.
"Knock Out? Are you feeling alright?" That was June, Jack's mother.
He snapped out of his reverie to see all four of the humans looking up at him expectantly. None of them had seen the shard.
"Fine," he stammered, clenching his fist around the crystal of dark energon, obscuring it from view. "Just remembering the fall of Iacon. Nothing terribly important."
Raf appeared concerned. "You were completely out of it for a couple of minutes."
Jack had a sympathetic smile. "I saw part of the city when Arcee and I traveled to Vector Sigma. There was nothing left except for a few buildings. I can understand why you were like that."
Miko just grinned. "You zoned out. Your vocorder – isn't it called that? – starting going haywire, clicking in random syllables and stuff like that."
Knock Out's optics went wide. He'd been speaking. None of it was in his mind. He'd been pretty much telling the whole thing out loud in Cybertronian. "My language processor must have been activated while I wasn't paying attention. I might have run a self-diagnostic; the words meant nothing, they were meaningless, even in New Cybertronian."
He recoiled imperceptibly at the thought of what might have happened if any of the Autobots had been present. The words he'd spoken were far from meaningless. Instinctively, his hand tightened its grip on his energon-
NO! No, I never meant to forget! Something pierced the metal skin of his hand, digging in painfully deep.
Knock Out stumbled, drawing back from the source of the pain. He could feel the dark energy coursing through his systems, expelling the untainted energon.
He shuddered and jerked, unused to the rush of power. His hand twitched, reminding him of what caused the pain. He stared down at the deep purple crystal embedded in his palm, growing smaller with each moment that passed.
June recognized it immediately from the descriptions Ratchet had given. She grabbed Jack by the arm. "Get Raf and Miko out of here. I'll follow as soon as I contact Optimus."
Knock Out was convulsing viciously, his systems desperately trying to expel the poison before it was completely absorbed. After another violent jerk, he lay still.
Then his optics flashed, their usual bright crimson coloring replaced with an eerie purple glow.