A short while earlier…
Even with all of Optimus' lectures about how fragile humans were echoing in his processor, Ratchet was still sorely tempted to just shove the soldiers "guarding" him aside. It was one thing being imprisoned by smaller and weaker beings, but he would not be treated like an old relic by them.
But he had to behave himself for now; even as he replayed the sounds of gunfire and lasers light years away in his audios, and as he yet again faced the insufferable blonde woman the nanoklick he stepped out of the elevator.
"Enjoy your trip?" she asked, somehow squeezing drop of sarcasm through her deadpan voice. Ratchet huffed and stepped over her in a single stride.
"Excuse me if I want to make my imprisonment more comfortable," he muttered, almost stumbling over the squishy barricade that formed around his peds just as he was about to step on them and render their bulletproof armour as useful as a frame welder in a blizzard.
"Oh, you're not imprisoned, bot," she said as he was forced to face her again. "Not yet. That all depends on how you explain what these are." She gestured to her left, where a new line of soldiers pulled up with a device to every two men's shoulders; the Iacon relics pulled straight from the base's vaults, including the Omega Keys.
Ratchet struggled to keep his optics off the Forge still lying against the Space Bridge, struggled to do anything that wouldn't give away what he knew. If these humans were really so paranoid, there was no telling what they would do with the relics if they knew of their power.
"I… I have no idea," he lied, scratching the back of his neck to stop coolant running down his back. "They look like some kind of analysing equip-"
"Look more like weapons to me," the human interrupted, though only the spark extractor really counted as one. She advanced on Ratchet with the delusion that she was threatening, or at least as threatening as her authority was. "Don't treat me like an idiot, you Autobots have secretly been stockpiling alien technology! Not only did you not inform us of their existence, you violated our agreement to share any and all technology!"
Ratchet scowled at being reminded, having to forfeit almost all the tech he salvaged from Cybertron only to be repaid by primitive human machines. "I told you, I've never seen them before! Where did you even find them?"
The human raised an eyebrow, and looked to the closest soldier to provide an answer for her.
"Uh… in the basement, Miss Mearing." He struggled to hold the Phase Shifter up, clutching it to his chest with both arms, but he was still making a better attempt than the four tasked with hefting the Omega Keys.
"That's usually where you hide things, isn't it?" she asked Ratchet, baiting him to try and deny it. But Ratchet stayed silent, a million different plans flying past his optics before he could latch onto him. He had a sudden empathy for what bearing the Matrix must have felt like.
"I suppose… Optimus must have hidden them away from everyone else," he suggested, slowly enough to sound like he hoped it wasn't true.
Another sharply crooked eyebrow stabbed towards him above a suspicious sneer. "Is that so? Your own leader keeping secrets from his team?"
"It wouldn't be the first time…" Ratchet put just enough bitterness in to make it believable without delving too far into how Optimus sometimes made him wish he'd just stayed behind and rusted on Cybertron. But if he didn't think of something soon, Optimus and the rest of the Autobots would be the ones rusting. They couldn't hold off the entire Decepticon army on their own, and he couldn't send them any reinforcements without access to the Space Bridge.
Which meant he needed to trick the humans into letting him use it.
"Look, give me another chance at trying to locate him," Ratchet offered. "Let him answer any questions you have about those... things." He gestured at the Relics like they made him as uncomfortable as the humans, with the spark extractor in particular giving him shudders under his armour.
The human narrowed her eyes so much she might have been trying to squeeze her optics out. "…Fine," she said, arms crossed on her chest as if she was guarding it. "One more chance, then we're taking you and these trinkets in for detainment."
Ratchet nodded, saving his sigh of relief for when his back was turned. He turned on his comm unit, but it wasn't tuned to Optimus' channel. Instead he pinged the last mech he'd ever want to speak to, and the only one who could get his plan working.
"Optimus?" he asked, knowing he was wrong.
"Oh, I wish," Wheeljack answered, no doubt with a grating quip ready to deploy if Ratchet hadn't so swiftly ignored him.
"Finally, I've been trying to get a hold of you for ages!" Where Wheeljack was concerned, it wasn't hard to fake exasperation. "Look, I don't know what you and the other bots have been up to, but the humans have the entire base locked down! You need to get back ASAP and tell us what the Pit is going on!"
He paused to give Wheeljack, or 'Optimus', time to respond. "Uh.. Ratchet, I told you, this ain't Optimu-"
"I'm sending a Bridge to your location," Ratchet went on, only needing to approach the console to send the humans scattering away from it. "Bring the others with you if you can, they'll be needed as well."
By the time Wheeljack realised who the 'others' were, Ratchet had put in the island co-ordinates. "…Roger that, Doc." The link closed, though the tension in Ratchet's spark only coiled tighter like the portal that burst into being behind him. The humans around it jumped back and shielded themselves against its glow, as if they were worried about getting sucked in. Only their leader seemed as unphased as ever, squinting up at Ratchet from beneath a head across her oh-so expressive eyebrows.
"He should be through in the next klick- er, minute," he said, and hoped.
"He better be," she warned. "Else we'll go and drag him through."
Half a klick passed and the portal still shimmered bright but empty, like the last breath of the Allspark. Ratchet rubbed at the rust on his palms, fighting the urge to storm through the Bridge himself.
'Come on, Wheeljack, do something stupid like you always do…'
But the last of his time passed with the blink of an optic, and the humans closed around the Bridge again with full intent to take it.
"Looks like Prime is more reluctant than you thought," their commander told Ratchet, a silent smirk passing across her face just before she turned to the closest group of soldiers. "Strike team alpha, form up on the portal. On my signal-"
But Wheeljack and Grimlock both beat her to it. "Comin' through!"
"OUT OF ME WAY!"
"What the hell-?!" Years of military training and experience seemed to dissolve in the wake of Grimlock's peds turning the entire base into a miniature earthquake, Iacon relics dropping to the ground as their bearers suddenly lost all the strength in their arms. As soon as the Dinobot cleared the Bridge he scrabbled at the ground with his claws to stop his stampede, but still almost trampled half a dozen men as they scrambled out of the way. With the size of his body and tail, he was almost as wide as the entire silo and half as tall, making it a miracle that he even fit through the Bridge's frame.
No wonder Wheeljack looked so smug, riding between his shoulders. "Someone call for the cavalry?"
Grimlock himself was a sight to behold, but the rest of his team was never far behind. A blur slung itself out of the Bridge and climbed up to the silo's ceiling, circling the air and blotting out the lights with his wings before soaring down to land above the base's road entrance. While the soldiers tried to track Swoop's movements and decipher what the Pit was happening, Slag and Snarl took up positions beside Grimlock in a bristling display of horns and armour. Everyone, even Ratchet himself, was forced into silence by the racket of growls- everyone except Wheeljack, of course.
From his vantage point, he took one sweeping look at the trembling humans training useless guns on him and his mount. "Sheesh, you weren't kiddin' about the lockdown, Doc," he huffed.
Above his shock, Ratchet felt the urge to snap about unwanted nicknames. Instead it jolted him into action before anyone else, digits moving too fast to see across the Bridge's controls as he reset the previous co-ordinates.
With frantic looks to the frozen soldiers, it seemed Mearing gave up on trying to control them and instead turned on Ratchet. "Step away from that console, bot, or my men will open fire! That's an order!"
Ratchet looked over his shoulder, at the shaking finger pointed up at him. "There's only one person on this planet that gives me orders," he said. "Even then, I don't always listen." He yanked on the lever and respawned the Bridge while expecting to feel bullets peppering his armour, but the Dinobots seemed to command more respect than any human superior did.
"Wheeljack, take the Dinobots back through the Bridge!" he called out. "It'll take you to Cybertron!"
Still holding onto Grimlock's neck, Wheeljack gave a mock salute. "Well, I am feelin' a lil' homesick." With whatever sorcery he used to control Grimlock, he steered the Dinobot back towards the portal and charged through. And with a chorus of screeches and trumpeting grunts, the rest followed suit with Swoop leading overhead as he dove into the swirling blue.
Even as they left, the chaos of terror and shock still left the humans frozen solid. Not even their superior's fury could get them moving. "What are you all waiting for?! Detain him immediately!" Mearing seemed intent on turning her hand into a spear as she kept jabbing it up as Ratchet, who was a nanoklick away from closing the Bridge. But just as his digits closed around the lever, an echo came from the road entrance.
"Hey, don't leave without me!"
Ratchet blinked, and in that time Smokescreen had already skidded to a stop in the foyer while in the midst of transforming, blind to both soldiers and guns. "Smokescreen?! How the-?!"
"Kids are safe and sound, so don't think you'll stop me joining the action this time!" He grinned at Ratchet as his helm emerged from his alt mode, and his optimism faded only slightly when he finally noticed all the guns about to train on him. Even that sight didn't distract him from the parade of Iacon relics laid out before him, once only seen from behind several inches of steel in the Vaults. Even if the humans were still guarding them, they probably couldn't have stopped him sweeping them all up into his servos like a sparkling in an energon store.
"Hey, thanks!" He could have been entirely sincere for all Ratchet knew, because he was already transforming again and heading for the Bridge before he could see Mearing's ever-growing outrage.
"Put those down! I am in charge around here and I forbid any unsanctioned transport-!"
"I don't think he can hear you anymore." Now Ratchet closed the Bridge with a weary servo and tired smile, knowing that the full might of the Autobots was where it had to be.
By contrast, Mearing might have popped a gasket by now if she had any in her trembling joints. She looked from empty Bridge to her inept soldiers, and then back to Ratchet with a glare like Unicron's own.
"You have just intentionally sabotaged a federal investigation! I swear, I will have you and every single one of your friends rounded up and shot back into space!"
"I'll be in charge of that, Director." The voice came from the elevator, a human that Ratchet was actually glad to see for once. "Special Agent William Fowler." He presented his badge to Mearing over the platform, but she seemed to recognise him without it.
"Yes, I know who you are," she said with narrowed eyes. "The one who was supposed to be keeping an eye on these things!"
Fowler descended to ground level to properly challenge her glare. "Well, if your department hadn't gotten paranoid and called me away from my business then I would be keeping an eye on them, ma'am."
"Well then, Bill, since you're such an expert in these affairs, care to explain why some of your bots just disobeyed direct orders and went off with an arsenal of potentially dangerous weapons?!"
"The Iacon relics?" With the faint smile that he almost dared to show, Fowler almost seemed to be enjoying himself. "They've already been catalogued! None of them pose any danger to humans! Right, Ratchet?"
The medic was still sighing from relief, caught off guard for a klick. "Er… I would hope not." He avoided looking at Mearing, but he could hear the frustration boiling over in her voice.
"Dangerous or not, my orders still stand. I was told to bring in all the Autobots and their technology-"
"Only if there was any proof that they were working against us," Fowler interrupted. "Or did you forget about that part?"
Mearing scoffed after a pause that only proved Fowler right. "More like I wasn't expecting to keep your badge after this."
Now that she wasn't trying to bite his head off, Fowler turned to Ratchet again. "Ratchet, where are the relics and Autobots currently?"
"On Cybertron, assisting in battle against the Decepticons," he answered, wondering if Mearing would even be surprised that he'd been lying this whole time.
"See? By confiscating that tech, you might as well have doomed us all to getting stomped on by Decepticons," Fowler went on before she could cut in.
"In fact, if this goes well we might finally be able to return to Cybertron," Ratchet added. "Permanently."
Mearing looked fully capable of and intent on launching a missile strike of retorts, but the medic's suggestion left her silent for the longest time Ratchet had heard since she walked into the base. "Is that so?" she eventually asked.
Ratchet nodded with a careful smile. "And you need never have to worry about us again, ma'am."
Mearing watched the medic, then the agent, blinking slowly. "…I think we're done here, then." She swiftly turned, letting the force of air slap Fowler because she couldn't do it herself. "Let command know that the situation has been handled," she told the nearest soldier, giving a signal to the rest that had them all piling back into the elevator. Again, she stood at the head of them, and she only glanced once at Ratchet as the doors closed.
"Give my regards to Simmons!" Fowler called out after her, laughing quietly to himself as the base was left deserted.
"About fragging time!" Ratchet muttered, practically sinking to the floor under the stress that seemed to dissolve into his armour. Only his console kept him standing.
"Was almost expecting to come back and see the whole place gutted," Fowler admitted. "What did I miss?"
"Optimus and Airachnid found Megatron on Cybertron." Ratchet straightened himself with a sigh. "I sent the Autobots through just as the humans showed up, then I brought the Dinobots and Wheeljack through to help. Everyone's there… everyone except me."
Fowler stood beside his console with an empathetic shrug. "Yeah, it's a bad feeling, stuck behind a desk while everyone else does the fighting."
"Well, someone has to make sure they can get back in one piece," Ratchet said. "Speaking of which…" There was still one Bridge he had to do, just one to set his processor at rest. He found Airachnid's co-ordinates, and this time they stayed in one place long enough for him to lock on. With everything set up, he pulled the Bridge's control lever…
But nothing happened. No burst of light, not even a hum from the power cables. He had to pull the lever three more times before he realised what the problem was.
"Oh, scrap…"
"What? What is it?" Fowler asked as Ratchet struggled not to collapse.
"The Space Bridge fuel supply… it took so much energy to Bridge the Dinobots that it's completely drained. And we don't have nearly enough energon stored to power it."
"You mean… the Bots can't get back to Earth?"
"Worse." Ratchet gulped as his hand fell limp from the Bridge's powerless controls. "It means I can't get Airachnid and Scorpia out of there."
xx
Megatron may have only returned to the Nemesis long enough to rally his drones together, but that was still enough time to order Knockout into the command room, with no instructions other than to 'stand by'.
Even amid a war for his home planet, the medic found himself no more useful than a bystander as he watched the bloodshed below from the Nemesis' exterior cameras. Not that he was complaining. Even without the dust of centuries covering the planet, he wasn't about to risk his finish for a tiny squad of Autobots, not when a few drones could take them out just as easily.
"Never one to get your own claws dirty, eh, Megatron?" Knockout inspected his talons as he muttered, dragging a scalpel across them to sheer off the grime and chipped paint that came with his job. With one hand done, he looked across at the camera screen with surprise to find the Autobots all still standing. There was a thud from above as someone, most likely Megatron himself, slammed into the flight deck, and then a cloud of dust as the drones feel to the ground.
Knockout waited for the two armies to clash with a faint sort of anticipation, the kind only a spectator could feel. How many bodies would be filling his med-bay today, he wondered.
Bu despite the full might of the Decepticons being on the front lines, he heard a hiss behind him as the door to the command room opened. And as soon as he saw who it was, he wasn't surprised at all that he was instead cowering inside the ship.
"And where are you off to, Starscream?" he asked the bug-eyed Seeker, with a glance at the Apex armour clutched like a lifeline to his spark.
"Didn't you hear him?" Starscream jabbed back, looking ready to fly right through the ceiling at any sign of danger. "He destroyed the Omega Keys! Our one chance at restoring Cybertron, gone because he's a sore loser! I'm getting out of here while everyone else is busy getting slaughtered!" He spun towards the exit on heels that must have been shaking as much as his limp wings.
"You really think you'll get far with the Apex Armour dragging you down?" Knockout pointed out, wondering how such a scrawny frame could hold up such a hefty relic. Even now Starscream had to drag it as he looked over his shoulder at the medic.
"It doesn't matter how far I get," he said through clamped denta. "As long as I'm still alive by the end of this mess, I'll count that as a-"
Starscream must not have been paying much attention to Knockout's expression, else he might have expected the digit that tapped sharply on his shoulder. He turned with flared wings that instantly fell in the shadow of the mech behind him, one that wasn't even much bigger than the Seeker but which still managed to loom like a ghost. And from the way Starscream froze, he might as well have been one.
"S…S-Soundwave?! I… y-you're supposed to be-!" Starscream tried to lift his claws towards the mech, as if he expected them to pass right through his frame, but his servo seemed far too heavy to move. Soundwave raised his own arm, as if he was mocking the Seeker, revealing the Resonance Blaster tucked into his hand. Even without the silent threat, he likely could have snatched the Apex Armour from Starscream's grip just as easily as he did.
By contrast, Knockout wasn't surprised at all by the appearance. After all, he was the one who cut Soundwave's restraints off. And Soundwave could always just wake himself up again.
Now that the relic wasn't weighing him down, Starscream jumped back and scrabbled to the nearest door, then around the room in a panic before finally stopping at Knockout's side. Though he aimed his rockets at Soundwave, who still hadn't moved more than a servo, a rare strike of intelligence stopped him from firing them. Or maybe the effect of one relic scared him more than the thought of losing another.
"You... were supposed to kill him, Knockout!" Starscream snarled, practically spitting in Knockout's face with a hypocrite's fury.
"And you were supposed to oversee the safety of the Nemesis while Megatron was gone, Starscream," the medic said as he wiped at his faceplate, not budging his smirk at all. "Neither of us are very good at our jobs, are we?" Though Starscream's mounting rage was amusing, Knockout instead looked behind the Seeker to where a dark shape was flying from the same corridor Starscream came from. Laserbeak shot straight for Soundwave's chest, latching on as soon as he was close enough. By the time Starscream noticed the new arrival, Soundwave had already created an escape route for himself. The Ground Bridge showed his shadow just before it winked out of existence.
With only two mechs left in a room full of treachery, Starscream didn't seem to know where to look. "…Whose side are you even on, Knockout?" he asked quietly, all simmering and sulking and knowing that he'd been beaten at his own game, one he didn't even know he was playing.
For once, Knockout had to think about that. He watched his reflection in Starscream's armour, studying it for the answer.
"…The one that's winning," he replied. "Same as you, though I suppose we have different definitions of what 'winning' is." He turned just as Starscream tried to face him, with a glance at the ship cameras. Now there was no one on the field, not even corpses.
"Don't you have some fleeing to be getting on with?" he asked to silence, allowing himself another smirk when he heard the door hiss again behind the harsh tap of heavy peds.