Notes/ Wow this is a sad chapter. I'll admit I kinda did it on purpose, because I've been in the mood to write sad lately, and it fit. But… yeah… Nothing completely disturbing, or graphic or anything like that. Just not a happy chapter.

It's also pretty long again, but sometimes it makes little sense to break them up because of length.

Oh and I spotted mistakes in the last one. Grrr. I'm going back at some point soon to fix it up a bit, because that kind of thing drives me nuts, and I should know better.

"Help… me.. help… help… help..." Knockout screamed, his vocalizer still badly glitching and his optics wide with complete and utter panic and confusion. He'd been moved quickly into the medbay, but clearly he was unaware of ever having been moved at all.. His voice soon went to static again, but this time it was high pitched and an almost agonizing sound, shrieks of disoriented terror distorting it in the worst of ways. All the while he was constantly trying to either sit up or roll to one side in completely uncoordinated and more than likely not fully intentionally motions. The front of his face-plate, which had been smacked against the railing had almost stopped bleeding on it's own but still it was clearly bad. And more than once, Knockout nearly shoved Ratchet backward frighteningly hard, as the old medic tried urgently to get a good look at the damage.

"Are you going to power him down?" Arcee questioned. The struggling had improved only slightly, and she maintained her hold with difficulty.

"Normally I would," Ratchet answered. "But in this case, it might be unwise. I need more information first. And I don't want to try using any kind of restraint system because that would probably just make him panic even more."There's a good chance he'll snap back out of this again at least for some time."

"What can I do?" Arcee grabbed the red bot's arms and tried her best to gently stop him from his violent struggling.

"Pretty much that," Ratchet turned his back to dig through a drawer of the nearby work table, ignoring an unneeded item that was knocked out of there in the process and landed on the floor.

"Smashed himself up pretty good on that railing," he muttered. "Looks like he's busted part of the panel on the right side. It's a wonder that fall alone didn't knock him senseless." He looked carefully as he could at worst of it, and worked a bit with a cleaning rag and a spray bottle of sanitizing solution. It was likely a combination of the pain it was causing, and just the feeling of wet cleaner that made Knockout scream and shriek even louder, through the static. He fought hard in his state of confused panic, to free himself.

"You're alright, you're alright," Arcee said gently, but loud enough to be heard clearly over the constant static noise. She tried to brace herself leaning quite awkwardly forward, with her feet firm on floor, as he nearly sent her flying back against a work table. "You need to stop fighting, okay? We're trying to help you. You're a bit banged up."

The sound of loud shrieks through a field of static turned to complete silence in a single instant. In the next second the desperate horrible struggling to move ceased too. Arcee saw Knockout's optics dim, brighten, dim slightly again and then close.

"Hopefully he's going to come back around properly for us in a second or two," Ratchet said, as he set down the spray bottle and placed a hand on Knockout's shoulder panel. "We don't want to let him fell into recharge just yet if we can help it. Not until I know he's safe at least for now."

"Stay awake for me for a second," he said, speaking to him now while giving him a gentle shake. "Come on. Can you keep both optics in focus for now? Hey. Look at me."

Knockout's optics opened. The far away look and the panic were all but gone. He focused and he blinked, and then did the same again before just laying still and looking around a bit.

"Very good. Do you know where you are?"

"I dunno..." Knockout mumbled. His didn't sound quite right at all.

"That's okay. We know you can understand me and talk. That's good for now. Do you know what happened?"

"I… dunno… fall down… I…"

"You certainly did. And quite badly too. Think you can hold still for us for a bit so no one needs to keep holding on to your arms like that?"

"I… still… I can… will..."

"He's still so out of it," Arcee said quietly. Her despair and sadness was painfully clear. She let go of his arms, and true to his mumbled words he stayed put.

"He is," Ratchet nodded as he finally found a chance to hook up much required monitoring equipment. "But it's not too bad, considering."

"I... hurt… pain front… wha… wha…?" Knockout mumbled, again still only half coherent. His words were too slow, every syllable dragging on a bit more than they should have.

"You've banged yourself up a bit," Ratchet explained calmly, in answer the question that was clearly intended in the disjointed mumbling. "You smacked your face off the edge of a railing when you fell. I'm just going to turn your head a little to the side, alright?"

"Miko…." Knockout screamed suddenly, and much louder than his mumbling so far had been. As he gained more of his awareness and understanding he understood that she had been sitting in his hands the last he would have known. "Help… help… she… lost..."

"Bulkhead will find Miko," Arcee assured him. "She's okay, she's okay. She just ran somewhere."

"Face… hurt.."

"It will for a bit. You really busted it up good."

"Miko… is okay….?" Now Knockout pulled, with an uncoordinated, waving hand at spark monitor wiring that needed to stay attached. Arcee gently stopped him.

"Ratchet," She questioned, speaking in hushed tones, and torn between needing to know and dreading any answers the old medic might have. "How is everything looking?"

The old bot stared at monitor readouts, and didn't look at her to answer. "His processor is shorting out. Some major connections have been wiped out entirely. More are failing, or are going to. There's a fair chance that if we can keep him laying calmly like this, his body will start to self repair and that may just be enough to fix this. Any more glitches though, like we saw when we brought him in here, and it will only make everything worse instead of better, and it's more than likely that will indeed happen again."

"Any idea how this might have happened? Just this afternoon he was obviously a bit unwell, but nothing that would have made anyone think… We were laughing in the hallway. He'd fallen into recharge in the afternoon, because I guess he was tired. He had nightmares again, woke up screaming. But that's not new..."

"Honestly that may have had something to do with this. It's not exactly common, but it could be that his processor started to short out due in part to extreme emotional strain and a constant state of conflict. Of course there are other factors, including simple bad luck, but it couldn't have helped in the slightest. Then there was that attack on the building site not so long ago. You wouldn't think so, but there might just be a connection. Being targeted like that along with the team would have scared him so badly, and with a processor already under such strain from unresolvable tension… Just being hurt in the first place was starting to trigger flashbacks. I never told you, because I never made much of a connection at the time. I figured he was just a little out of it from pain medication. But he thought I was about to beat on Bulkhead for making too much noise. Like actually physically punish the fellow."

Ratchet stood for a second shaking his head, as pieces of a big and suddenly tragic puzzle clicked firmly into place. "There was so much I missed, and I feel like I should have seen it."

"It wasn't your fault," Arcee said, meaning it. "There was so much we all missed. No one could have known..."

"I want.. need… I do… I… want..." Knockout mumbled. This time neither of the others in the room had any idea what it was he was trying to get across. They looked at each other helplessly and exchanged sad glances. But he had stopped as quickly as he started trying to talk to them, and they could only assume it was never all that important.

Arcee walked back to him in a few quick steps and stood where he could easily look at her. Slowly she asked, "what is it you wanted to tell us? I'm sorry, we can't understand. Do you want to try it again?"

"I want… I dunno… is okay..." He stopped speaking again. One of his hands waved in the air absently in some random direction. She wondered for a moment if he was in fact trying to point or gesture toward something specific, but quickly dismissed that thought when it was obvious he was simply waving toward the furthest wall, and probably didn't realize what he was doing at all.

Near the monitors, Ratchet still stared at readouts, and wondered under this intakes, whether it was urgent or not to attempt a repair in the still very much busted face-plate. On one hand, it was clearly a terrible cause of pain and discomfort and that was all the more reason to fix it quickly. But on the other, it was no longer bleeding. It was simply banged up, however seriously that might have been. And the work needed to fix such a thing could well cause Knockout to panic again, in his still not quite with it state.

There was a sudden knock at the closed door and before either Ratchet could answer it, Wheeljack pushed it open a bit and peeked in around the edge. Speaking quietly he said "Bulk' found Miko outside a while ago. I guess she was on a bench by the parking lot. He's been trying to get her to play a game with Raf, but she won't. She's been asking about Knockout. We didn't want to let her in here because we don't know how bad this is yet ourselves."

"I'll go out to talk to her, and for that matter everyone else," Ratchet said as he stepped through the door. "Arcee, stay and keep an optic on him, will you."

"How are you feeling?" Arcee positioned herself to make sure Knockout could see her while she spoke to him. "Is anything any better?"

He shook his head a little. His hand, the same one as before, started to gesture uselessly toward the side wall again. "No… not any…" He searched for words he should have known at once, and struggled to put them together into sentences that made any sense. "Laying… help… lights bad… brightness..."

"I can dim the lighting in here. That might help a bit. Are you cold?"

Knockout shook his head slightly, before he spoke again. This time his optics locked on hers and his voice, through all the mumbling and confused, dragging words were serious and urgent. "Condition bad… risk… failure… repair systems try fix… if not… I know no… never come back from..."

So he clearly did understand his own condition. Arcee felt her dread rising up though her body as if it was something physical. For all of his confusion, and disoriented detachment from his own sense of self, why did he still have to understand that?

"'S'okay," he mumbled at her, when he saw her dread spread over her face-plate and clearly understood that too. He tired to give her a decent attempt at his so usual smirk of a grin, but it just didn't look anywhere close to it. She wasn't sure if it was his busted up face-plate to blame for it, or his malfunctioning processor. "I'd go… to the allspark. I… I hope not yet… yet but ready… if..."

Arcee patted his shoulder panel gently. "You're being very courageous about this. That's good."

"I try… I am trying…"

"Think you can let us fix up your face-plate in a bit? You aware enough not to panic?"

"I want… fixed..."

The door opened and they both looked toward it, Arcee turning around and Knockout turning his head a little to try glancing toward it. Ratchet walked quickly back into the medbay with Miko walking slowly behind one of his feet. He bent down to lift her up and she looked around nervously. The usually loud and hyper human was perfectly quiet.

"You found… find… you..." Knockout tried to grin at seeing his human friend again, but again the expression just didn't look anywhere close to what it should have been.

"If I'm going to let a little human sit with you, you need to stay still so you don't knock her down," Ratchet said, kindly, but entirely serious all the same.

Miko stayed for a long moment, sitting in Ratchet's hand and smiling nervously. She gave a small wave, but said nothing. Hesitantly she clambered off and inched slowly over the edge of lightly padded repair table, until she finally came to lean lightly against Knockout's arm. All the while she was mindful of the network or monitor wires, and trying not to pull anything loose from anything else.

"Ratchet and 'Bee and a couple of the others were talking out there for a minute," she said, smiling, but still so obviously uncertain of exactly what to say or do with a situation she had never had to learn to deal with before. "They're calling your status within the Autobot ranks official. Knockout, you're an Autobot! Ratchet wanted me to tell you, because of course you'd love to hear that"

When he looked at her, optics open and slightly blinking, but without making a sound, she leaned over a bot to wrap both her arms around one of his gently. In a moment he spoke slowly, as she listened carefully, making sure to catch his words. Ratchet had explained that he could speak well enough, but that it would likely sound a bit strange at first.

"I never… never got to thanks… thanking you Miko,"

"Th… thank me for what?"

"You want to be… be friend. I did so bad… so many bad… you try… you want… anyway to… I… we… I was..." It was far too much for his slowing and faulting processor to put together at once. And to speak in a human language was even more of a challenge on top of just forming a string of important thoughts into a coherent set of words. His optics leaked a small amount of cleaner fluid as he gave up in frustration and fought back his own growing fright at finding himself so helpless to explain something. Miko looked at him, smiling through the tears in her own eyes.

"It's alright, it's alright," she said quietly.

"I… needed… friend. Thank you." Knockout managed slowly, starting over and keeping it so much simpler.

Ratchet set to work, trying to repair Knockout's badly damaged and partly shattered faceplate. It would need to be done at one point or other anyway, Arcee had told him he did want it fixed, and he reasoned that sooner was better than later. He knew his mental state could grow far worse and that might well make such a job harder instead of easier. Arcee stood near a work station, handing him supplies as he asked for them. The place was quiet and the mood sad and serious and low. The monitor beeped and buzzed and lightly whirred away. But such sounds were a good thing. It all meant there was still something to hope for.

Knockout's right hand had come to rest, palm facing up, and Miko slowly let go of his arm so that she could sit beside him and rub her fingertips gently over the metal of his hand. She had been told that he needed to be kept as calm as possible, and she just smiled as she tired her best to help with that task.

"'I'm okay," Knockout mumbled at her "Isnotthurttin' toobad..." Obviously he was beginning to sound far worse. The little human could barely make out his last statement and had to think carefully about what he had said before she realized where the pauses should have been. Ratchet and Arcee exchanged serious looks. They had both heard it too and neither liked it at all. The red bots optics were staring off at nothing again, and his left arm waved in the air aimlessly again, just like before, only new much more forcefully. He nearly struck the side wall with his fingertips. Arcee quickly lifted Miko into her arms and backed up until she could set her down on top of Ratchet's work table in the corner. The little human sat down on edge of it, with her legs dangling over the side, and looked on with fear and dread as the situation began to go bad.

"Knockout!" Ratchet said firmly, as he put down a pair of little pliers he'd been about to use. "Focus back on us. Look at me, please. Come on. Follow my voice and look at me."

The red bot's metal finger tips banged hard against the metallic wall behind him, and scrapped with a terrible noise, before he immediately did it again, until Arcee grabbed his arm. It clearly took some effort to move it to rest beside him, and he nearly scratched the side of her shoulder panel in his half mindless struggle against her.

"I think he's trying to check out on us again," she cried, fighting to keep her voice even.

"He is, and I don't know if we can do much about that," Ratchet answered, speaking quickly as he rummaged through a drawer, close to Miko's feet. "Just let me try something..."

He tried shinning his light close to Knockout's face, but it seemed to only make him panic and look very near to another episode of shrieking terror. He clapped his hands together lightly near the side of his head, and the red bot turned to look for the sound. But he was still staring at nothing, and had actually turned in the wrong direction, away from the sound instead of toward it. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times silently as he tried to talk, but there was no sound. Finally there was a little scream of panic, and then unintelligible mumbling noise, before the static returned.

In was in the midst of that chaos and helplessness that Bumblebee pushed the door open and walked inside the medbay quietly. He stared unblinking for at least a second, his disbelieving shock betraying him, as he realized for the first time himself that the situation had potentially worsened. He collected himself as quickly as he could and without being asked he jumped right in ready to help as needed, ready to receive instruction.

"Miko," he said, with his back to her. "Jack is here. He's looking for you."

"Jack?" Miko snapped out of the horrified shock that began to claim her, and shakily she climbed down to the floor, using huge bot sized drawer handles for foot holds. "Jack came back?"

The human girl found her former classmate and friend, standing around in the middle of the little kitchenette, which happened to be across the common room form the medbay doors, and tucked in beside the steps to the upper level. He bore a look of disbelief, and stared absentmindedly at the bottom of the stair rail. Miko ran across the room in less steps then should have been possible for her hight, and almost flung herself at him. Awkwardly he hugged her and waited for her to say something.

"Jack, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back." She let go of him and stepped back. "Sorry. I just..."

"Agent Fowler had work to do on the base tonight. He brought me back with him. He said I should come back, at least to congratulate Knockout. He said the bot is clearly serous about redemption and all that, and I'll only regret it if good friendships were ruined up because I got angry at someone who only wants to start over. My mom actually kind of agrees with him. But I got in here and Bumblebee said there was an emergency. He said Knockout is hurt or something. He talked so fast and then kinda booked it."

"He could be dying, Jack."

"Whoa. Miko? What?"

They sat down on bottom of the stairs, and for a moment they just looked at each other without saying a word. Finally Miko tried to explain it all without trembling from the shock of the whole evening.

"Ratchet says his processor is basically shorting itself out and shutting itself down, or something like that. It glitched out badly and now it just keeps doing it again. If Ratchet can't fix it, or his body can't fix itself fast enough, he'll just lose functions until his spark dies out."

"Well… Ratchet will fix this..." Jack spoke in a tone that people tended to so often use when they wanted to sound convinced themselves.

"He'll do what he can. Of course he will. Ratchet would never fail any member of his team, if he has any choice in it. He says we need to wait it out a while. See what happens, and he'll decide what to do next, as the situation changes. Which he says it will."

"Miko..." Jack's eyes opened wide in dismay as he listened to her. "This afternoon, before you and Raf came back here without me, I said I think that maybe some bots are better off dying, meaning of course that bot… I didn't think anything like this could happen, then."

"Can we take a walk? I wanna go outside for a bit."

It was getting late, and growing dark outside. The flood lights that sounded the military base, were already lit, and shinning over the high chain-link fence. Miko shivered slightly in the cooling air of the Nevada dessert's early summer, as the two of them walked the path that led around to the back of the main hanger.

"You didn't know," she said in response to Jack's last regretful comment. "Nobody knew. I guess this is just kind of a freak thing that almost never happens to any bot. It's so uncommon that even Ratchet is a bit stumped on what to actually do that might do any good."

"Okay, so worst case here, how long would he…?" Jack didn't finish the question, but Miko nodded understanding anyway.

She filled in the blank herself, as part of an answer. "How long would he live? Maybe a couple of days, apparently. But half that time at least he'd be pretty well sleeping, and with so little left of who he was, until finally the lights just go out."

"The railing to the stairs..." Jack changed the subject slightly, and Miko was almost glad of it.

"Yeah. It's a bit busted. Knockout fell against the railing. It was built for a bot be able to safely lean on it, so yeah, very heavy duty rail. His face is pretty beaten up, but I guess that's nothing in perspective, right?"

"I never think of a bot getting sick, or anything like this," Jack commented. "We've all seen them get hurt, and we know they can die, but this sounds so human."

Miko shrugged. "I guess it is, kinda. We have brains, they have processors. But I guess it's about the same if either decides to mess up on you."

"Where's Raf?"

"I'm not sure. I should know I guess, but I just lost track of him. Actually I don't know where all the bots went either. I would think Raf went with them."

"I'm gonna text him. Let him know I'm back."

"Okay."

"We should get back inside. We'll make some hot chocolate or something. We have those cinnamon buns too."

"I could go for both of those things."

Raf wandered inside as Jack took the kettle off the top of the hotplate on the kitchen counter. Miko added a third cup to the two that were already sitting out ready for use. All three of the young humans went back to sit on the stairs, each with a brightly colored steaming mug. Miko set a plate of sticky cinnamon buns between them on the second step. Raf, sitting up on the forth step, and reaching down to grab one of the treats, opened his laptop. Balancing it on his knees, he typed on it's keys, somehow without it getting sticky.

"Ratchet has me on research duty," he explained, with half a mouthful. "He said find anything I can, that anyone's ever learned about anything from human brain damage, to computer system circuit failure. Ya never know what might be useful, right?"

"I wanna call my mom," Jack said. "It's a long shot. Her patients are humans obviously. But still she might have some idea, something for Ratchet to work with."

"Aren't you and your mom both angry?" Raf asked while typing. It was unclear while he talked with his mouth full again, if his tone held any contempt or not.

"We were," Jack admitted. His own tone again regretful. "But I think she's rethinking things, and I think I might really have screwed up."

"Miko," Arcee's voice speaking from the middle of the room made the little human female look up. She wondered how it was she had not even heard a pair of metal feet walking across the floor. But then it did seem like the others hadn't noticed either. "There you are. Knockout is asking repeatedly if you are coming back. I told him I would see if you would. You don't have to..."

"So, Ratchet was able to get him back where he was again?"

"Well stable again for now. And responsive and alert. But he's not where he was, no. The glitches will just keep making it worse most likely. He's talking, but not well. Miko if you don't want to deal with this, I can tell him I decided not to let you. Let him think it was my doing… maybe that's best."

Miko got to her feet. "I… I don't know. Maybe I wanna remember him as the 'con that ran toward a better way. The street racer, the medic. Maybe I wanna remember how he talked to me on the roof of the base about how he had big dreams before he joined the war… He was so happy to be an Autobot."

"It's still hopeful," Arcee said as she kneeled on the floor to talk with the tiny human "His system is still not self repairing, but Ratchet is now pretty convinced he can repair him. The scans are indicating wiring glitches, and wiring is replaceable. So is circuitry."

"Ratchet can do bot brain surgery?" the little human's tone was a mix of impressed, amused and anxious.

"Maybe," Arcee answered. "He wants to put Knockout into compete power down within a couple hours… exactly what we were trying not to do earlier, but things have changed. He needs to avoid any more glitches and that's the best way to do that. He'll be left in power down while his systems have one final go at self repairing, and until the manual repairs are done."

"He might not wake up?" Miko's question was more of a statement of understanding more than a real question. Acree nodded sadly, but said nothing.

"Miko, you're his friend," Raf said. "If the worst case happens, and I hope it doesn't, you'd regret it if you never said good bye."

"You're right," Miko sighed and hugged Acree's knees. She looked back at the boys. "Are you guys going to come and talk to him too?"

"In a little bit," Raf said, while Jack nodded.

As soon as Arcee lifted her back up there, Miko sat on the edge of the repair table inside the medbay, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on her elbows. She looked at Knockout's open optics, as he blinked silently and gazed rapidly around with a look that would only have been growing fright. She wanted to talk to him again, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't what he'd sound like when he answered back, though she knew he would try to answer her. She remembered that he'd talked to her when it seemed he didn't feel safe talking to anyone else. A thought formed in her mind, and though it seemed so silly, so irreverent and so ridiculous a thing to say then, she began to speak anyway, because it seemed right and she'd somehow said the right things before when she'd barely been trying.

"Hey Doc Knock. So I guess it's been quite the last few days. Feels like longer than that. I didn't think I'd ever be your friend, but here we are. Last time I saw you before Cybertron was restored, you were still just one of the bad guys. Then I came back to visit and you came with the Autobots, and you were on our side. And I saw you had hopes and dreams, and you were funny, and lonely, and lost... I think that was three days ago."

She carefully wiggled over a bit and even more carefully she leaned against him. She was pretty sure there ware more wires than before to not pull on, and she was pretty such he wasn't moving either, not that he had much before. She thought he had heard her and she was sure he could probably understand her still, but he didn't speak to her. She'd been so sure he would. Miko looked at his optics again. Suddenly she strangely felt herself smile slightly at realized just how much a pair of red optics on an Autobot would stand out in their group pictures. She remembered the same pair of red optics staring at her through the glass of a container, and she could almost not believe they belonged to the same bot. She wondered if what she had seen that day, for a tiny fleeting second, had been remorse and regret, or if she had only began to imagine that in the past days because he'd been so clearly sorry.

"Yuwertoo," Knockout spoke at nearly a whisper under his intakes. But what he'd said – or tried to say – had made no sense. It wasn't a word. Or was it? She thought hard, determined to make it make sense, because she knew he was trying. A short sentence, so badly blended together that was was hardly language at all. You were too. Yes that was it.

"I was what, Knockout?" She asked, and she waited. Nearby she saw Ratchet and Arcee smile slightly at each other. 'Bee nodded at her very slightly. She could only assume then that she was doing the right thing.

"Funnylonelylost," came another half way to mangled little sentence. Funny, lonely and lost. He meant he'd thought she was like him. That was why he trusted her over anyone else.

"Hey, Knockout," Arcee said, approaching him from the right side. She bent down a little to talk to him gently. "You really need to refuel. Do you think you can drink?"

"Idunno..." He shook his head.

"Can you try? Please?"

Another little shake of his head. Bumblebee handed her an energon container anyway, so that she could offer it to him. She slid and arm under his head in order to sit him up a bit, and he stayed in that position without any fuss at all. In fact, he looked around a bit more and probably even liked being up a little. But he didn't drink when she held the container to his mouth. He wasn't even trying. Ratchet was so well known for putting quick stop to any patient stubbornness in his medbay. But this time it was little Miko that took care of that before he could even think to. The old medic exchanged a look with Bumblebee, of something pretty close to amazement, as the tiny human glared at Knockout with her eyes narrowing slightly and barely blinking. Without a word she gave a perfect message of don't you dare try me, to a huge Cybertronian big enough to carry her without a thought, in one hand.

Knockout slowly tried to take a couple of sips from the container. He refused anymore, with more head shaking, but at least he had tried a tiny bit. Arcee chuckled slightly, and gave Miko a look of thanks. She offered the container again, but this time Knockout only shook his head in refusal and it didn't matter that the little human glared at him again. Ratchet reached out to take a container from her. He set it down on top of the work table behind him.

"I'll need to hook him up to energon lines eventually anyway," he said. He was clearly saddened, under his professional tone. He turned to yank open a drawer and rummaged around for equipment. "Might as well be sooner than later."

Bulkhead stepped inside the room, for a moment he simply stared around in obvious shock at just how bad everything looked. He'd known it would of course, but to know and to see first hand were always two very different things. Miko carefully made her way back over toward him, and clambered onto his hand, so that he could put her back up on his shoulder. She sat still, leaning her head against the side of his, and remembered that the newest of the Autobots still had a fair chance left.

Bulk' mumbled a greeting because he knew Knockout could understand even if he choose not to answer back, which he didn't. The big green bot went on talk for a minute or two, mostly joking about how if Knockout could truly handle chasing after Miko, then he was thankful for the help he'd provided in keeping track of her the last few days. But Bulkhead never had been one for any real talent in conversation. He much preferred loud heavy metal and smashing things, to idly chit-chatting with anybody.

Smokescreen stepped in not five minutes later. Both Raf and Jack rode on his shoulder panel, and the bot and both humans looked edgy and scared as soon as they had stepped in. The bot backed up to stand by the wall. Clearly he'd practically forced himself to visit, and just as clearly he was about to run off again. Somehow anything involving a bot in a medical situation still triggered a need to run as far away as he could get.

Smokescreen waved a silent greeting, much like Bulkhead had done. Knockout had turned his head slightly to see who had come into the room. He actually laughed slightly, and rolled his optics a tiny bit. It made other smile slightly, but it took anyone a second to realize it was a good natured try at reacting to the dreadful look on Smokescreen's face-plate.

"Ah come on," Smokescreen said, grinning. The humans that sat on top of his shoulder panel laughed a little too.

"You and Miko are the ones that managed to make him laugh, Smoky," Arcee said. She was entirely serious, but smiling too.

"Hi," Raf said to the red bot, from his place still on Smokescreen's shoulder. For a second or two it looked like he might say more, but he didn't.

"I never got to say sorry to you for the rude attitude since we all met up the other day," Jack said. "I don't know if you can understand it now, but sorry for just plain being judgmental and rotten about everything. I guess I think sometimes I know it all. Just like my father apparently. That man knew how to hold a grudge or so my Mom says. And I guess I do too."

"Of course he can understand you, Jack," Arcee said. She stepped closer for a moment. "He can comprehend far more than he can say. And in any case, he probably just doesn't feel like talking anymore. It's not that he can't at all." Her last comment was directed to anyone that was listening, and they all nodded their understanding.

"I want to go..." Raf said quietly, after a moment or two during which no one said anything at all. He sounded entirely uneasy in the situation, and no one could think of a reason to blame him. He was still almost a little kid. Jack nodded his agreement in the next second.

Ratchet nodded his understanding. "Smokescreen, why don't you go and play with the children somewhere." He'd obviously managed that way to let the very uneasy bot off as well with that. The poor Autobot could barely follow his suggestion quickly enough. Though he did look regretful all the same.

Bulkhead sat down on the bench along the far wall, ready to help if needed, but still for the most part out of anyone's way. Miko got down from his shoulder, half climbing and half sliding down one of his arms carefully. She sat herself down again, this time on one of his hands that rested in his lap, and showed no intention at all, of leaving to play with the boys. For a while nothing much happened, and nobody said anything at all. 'Bee and Arcee stood around waiting nervously for the next bad thing they knew was probably inevitable now. Ratchet gathered up supplies, and probably things he would probably not need, just in case he did need them. Bulkhead sat waiting to be useful, and Miko sat on him and just watched everything with both curiosity and concern.

"Hey where's Wheeljack?" Miko asked, after a while, and realizing someone was missing.

"Oh," Bulkhead said. "Wheeljack is at the main comm. There was a call to the base back home, but I guess it was rerouted here. Looks like we've got another ship inbound for Cybertron. Autobot officer flying in another group of refugees. So he's busy on the commlink takin' to the bot on the ship. He's promised construction jobs to any that want them. I guess we'll have help when we get back to work up there ourselves. Thanks for askin', Miko."

Others in the room exchanged excited grins and shoulder claps. In the midst of a very bad day, it looked as though some great good might still exist, and the news of more returning, served well to boots the spirits of everything present.

"Who is this Autobot officer?" Bumblebee asked from his place near the monitor. He ahdn;t said much for a while, simply waiting to be needed, and hoping nothing would happen soon to make it so. But now he joined in the conversation. "Is it anyone I know?"

Bulk' shrugged slightly being careful not to roughly jostle Miko. "Some bot called Drift."

Ratchet's optics lit up slightly at the name. "I wondered where he got too. I worked with him for a while, ages back. It's pretty common knowledge from the records, that he switched sides, came to serve our cause, and never looked back."

"Another 'con defector?" Arcee was suddenly excited at the thought of how much help this new returning bot could eventually be to Knockout, who was still confused over so much.

The talk about the returning ship, inevitably led to idle talk about home and the work they had taken their very short break from. They small group got to chit-chatting quietly about work and projects, and so many things they looked forward to rebuilding.

Knockout gave a clear look of understanding, but he still didn't even try to talk to anyone. Most of them wished that he would talk to them again. Any of them would have patiently listened and at least tried to grasp his failing language, but no one was going to insistently push the matter either. He may not have been talking, but he did clearly enjoy listening to them anyway. The bots went on conversing, and once they even had a small spell of laughter at something Bulkhead said, without meaning for it to be all that funny.

"Ratchet!" Miko cried, suddenly, over the otherwise relatively quiet voices. The medic had been readying tools for later use, and he dropped a complex tool he was holding his his hand about to place onto a work table. It looked for a fleeting second, like he might just shout at her, as he so often would have, warning her against scaring an old bot like that, or shouting loudly and suddenly in the medbay. But he caught himself in under a second. If she was screaming at him now there was a reason. The old medic did not even look over at the human to ask why had called him like that. Instead he looked straight at his patient because that made far more sense at the moment.

Knockout's optics had begun to blink again, so clearly in and out of focus, as she tried clearly so much harder this time to actually hold his gaze on the room and not lose it again. His right foot tried to kick itself backward as it had much earlier on. Both his hands started to tremble horribly and his optics quickly began to close only to snap open again fast and with force, like someone determined for any reason not to fall asleep in a body clearly determined to do so against his will. His arm and hand were not scraping against the wall this time, or even reaching back awkwardly behind him, but his face had taken on a horrid look of utter and complete terror and dread, as he blinked again.

Ratchet was close beside him in under another second, arms out ready for anything, and optics glancing around ready to give orders. "Thank you, Miko. Scrap, we need this now like we need mud in the air vents."

Knockout strangely choose that moment to speak again after a perfectly silent hour. He was barely conscious and his words were so mumbled and mangled that It sounded like mostly only gibberish noise. The static was returning too, triggered by an attempt at speech, but at least he wasn't screaming again. Arcee was close to his head and listening closely, trying hard to understand him, because the look on his face-plate said it might have mattered.

"W… what did he say?" Miko asked, so quiet she was barely heard at all.

"He said he's scared," Arcee said without looking away, ready to grab him again if she needed to. "He's so frightened. I think he's conscious of what's happening to him while his processor glitches like this."

"That's entirely possible," Ratchet answered fast, "Arcee just try to hold onto him a bit, but be careful of the monitor wires. Don't be alarmed if he tries to grab onto you pretty hard."

Arcee nodded slowly. Her expression was calm, but her optics were wider than usual. She moved to try to follow Ratchet's direction.

"Hey," Ratchet said, speaking to his patient slowly and evenly over the slight sound of vocalizer static. "We are all still here, okay? This should be over in a couple of minutes. Just focus on taking some nice slow intakes and keep on listening to me, alright. Don't you worry, I'm not going to shine anymore lights at you. I don't know what the view looks like to you, but you go ahead and close your optics for a minute if that's helpful, okay."

"You're nice and calm this time," Arcee said quietly to him, when Ratchet had stopped speaking. She just leaned over him, her arms draped over him lightly and let him hold tightly to one of her arms to reassure himself. "Don't be afraid. You're alright."

Little Miko turned herself from her position still sitting on her bot partner, so that she could face backward and hide her face against his front plating. But she didn't get down and run away.

Knockout came back from the glitching again, but this time a return to any normal state of consciousness was slower and he probably never fully did at all. For several long and dragging minutes, he just layer exactly where he had ended up, arms flopped to his sides, and one in a way that could not possibly have been very comfortable at all. His optics, which he had let shut a moment before, snapped open again, and he did appear to see Arcee and Ratchet, standing closest to him just fine. But there was barely a reaction or acknowledgment. Arcee had almost hoped he'd show at least a little resistance when she stood up and took a step back from him, but there was none at all.

"Ratchet," she said, trying to keep her voice even. "He's not looking good."

Mumbling his agreement with the bad news under his intakes, Ratchet grabbed a scanner, while starting for a long moment at monitor readouts. No point anymore in even trying to give Knockout any commands, however simple they might have been. It was obviously he would not be able to follow them anyway. So he just scanned him and left it at that.

"This is happening too fast," the old medic muttered out loud. "The processor is shutting itself down faster than I had hoped for, and with it every vital function is shutting down too. I'm going to power him down now."

"Does he still have a chance, then?"

"If I'm honest, Arcee, I don't know." The old medic looked at her with a look of determination she had seen so many times, and yet sometimes it still almost scared her. The look that just dared fate itself to let him fail, and find out what it would get for trying him. "But how can I give up without a good try. He's come too far, survived too much, wanted redemption too bad, for me just to let his lights go out."

Arcee nodded. Bulkhead and Bumblebee immediately did the same. They all knew how far he'd go to do the same for any Autobot. They all knew he had. They'd all seem him do it time and again.