Magnus' therapy continued for the next two weeks. He and Kerri would work on his servo during the day when the others were out, and he would patrol in the evenings after she went home. They had become close, but neither was interested in the others knowing, so Kerri and Ultra Magnus were simply therapist/patient around the other Autobots and the kids. Ratchet usually made himself scarce during their sessions, telling them that he was needed elsewhere, and both were ok with that. Alone in the base, they were relaxed, and chatted like old friends. On the nights that he didn't patrol, Kerri would come back to base, and she and Magnus would spend time in his ship. Sometimes they would fly to the mountains, and sometimes they merely sat in his ship talking. Magnus was absolutely fascinating to the young woman. He was an alien species who had been alive for millions of years. He had seen and done so much in his lifetime, and she loved to hear the stories of his adventures. He told her about life on Cybertron before the war, and the horrors that he had witnessed as a soldier. This she could relate to. It was during those stories that Magnus would notice a sadness creep into Kerri's face. He always saw the look when he spoke about the war to her. He knew that she had been a soldier but hadn't felt comfortable asking her about it until now. Because now she was his friend. And while he was no therapist, Magnus knew that his friend was hurting. He took his finger and gently placed it under her chin, forcing her to look up at him.
"What happened to you?"
Kerri looked up into his face but said nothing. The sadness was now accompanied by tears rolling down her cheeks.
"What did they do to you, Kerri? What happened aboard the Nemesis? Please tell me," Magnus asked softly.
His gaze bore through her, and she had to look away to avoid a complete meltdown. Kerri said nothing at first. She was struggling to keep it together in front of him.
"I was part of a science/military unit under Agent Fowler when the Decepticons first came to Earth. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that we couldn't match them in firepower, so the government decided to try to find anything else to use against them. The ultimate goal was to capture one to try and find a weakness, any weakness. It was foolish endeavor, to say the least. But we didn't know that the Autobots existed at the time, and we were desperate. Our soldiers were dying on a daily basis."
The woman paused. Magnus waited a moment before gently saying, "Continue, please."
"Our last mission started like any other. The Decepticons had attacked one of our bases and we were called out. We fought, and lost two members of our team. They got what they had come for and were going back through the ground bridge. The usual. But this time, Shockwave was there, and he ordered the Vehicons to capture what remained of our unit. Nine of us."
Ultra Magnus didn't like where this was going. Shockwave was well known on Cybertron as a butcher. Nothing was off limits to him in his quests to find advantages for the Decepticons during the war. He suddenly didn't want to hear whatever she was going to tell him. But this dark door was opened at his prodding, and there was no way to close it.
"What did he do?" He asked quietly.
"He didn't do anything to me. He took the men. I-I don't know what happened to them. I never saw any of them again. I heard stories, the other Decepticons would talk about what Shockwave did to his experiments. The worse things I've ever heard. I don't... I don't know. When Wheeljack rescued me I asked him to look for the others but…but he couldn't, we had to leave."
He voice was low now, her face was contorted with grief.
"Kerri, what happened to you? If Shockwave didn't harm you-"
"I was given to Knockout."