"Hello?" Speedbreaker called out into the empty corridor, as she wandered slowly off the lift and out into into the lower level of the Autobot base. When no sound at all greeted her in reply, she walked forward, rounding a bend in the hallway slowly. The small refugee was certain she may have wandered into a restricted area of the base, and a place a but of neutral status may not have technically been allowed. But the place was quiet late that morning, and she had yet to actually find anyone.

Curiosity got the better of her as she continued forward, and her careful steps became more hurried as she wandered past a row of empty and unlocked cells that were clearly unintended as prisoner lock ups. She paused in front of the door to one of them and peeked in, only to see that there really was nothing to see, but stark gray walls and a narrow bench that looks for from inviting.

A moment more of walking and she came to a door, obviously unlocked because it slid open when she stopped in front of it. She looked in past the doorway of what was clearly a large room used for recreation and quiet time. She wandered in to find it empty of occupants too. Speedbreaker stepped backwards and out the door again, letting it slide closed behind her.

The next door she found led right into a large training gym, and the little refugee stood at the door, wide optic'd in surprise at the lone bot she found inside. Speedbreaker stood for several minuets, watching a black and dark purple bot with his back toward the door, and who was practicing the motions of unarmed combat maneuvers with a level of perfect precision that she had never seen from anybot before. For several long moments, she stood saying nothing at all and fascinated by the motions. The bot, she understood simply from observing, was clearly far stronger than he should have been given the lankiness of his tall frame. And he was fast, and perfectly coordinated in his motions.

When her optics finally wandered away again, she took more notice of the inside of the training gym and slowly began to walk further inside. The large room was mostly empty and entirely uninteresting, with dull gray walls and a floor covered with shock absorbent rubber landing mates, in a plain dingy blue. A closed door on a back wall held a sign indicating it lead to a blaster range. And in the far left hand corner a couple of hang punching bags hung from the ceiling above, bolted securely onto heavy duty hooks. A simple metal bench mounted along part of the side wall, would have been just as unexciting as anything else in the room, if not for the strange little bird that was perched silently on the back of it.

Smiling now, Speedbreaker crept closer to the bench and to the creature that sat, unmoving, on the back of it. The little bot had never seen a creature anything like this one before, but from somewhere in her processor, a once learned and now barely recalled bit of acquired knowledge told her that a bird should have been startled away from its perch as she got closer. But it stayed where it was, turning wiry red optics to her as she crept closer. Even when the bot eventually stood in front of it close enough to reach out a hand and touch it, and then when she then hesitantly moved to do so, the creature only stayed put, and even appeared to look her over.

A fast motion behind her caused her to pull her hand back before she could make contact with the creature and she whipped around, mildly started, to see that the darkly colored behind her had stopped his practice and taken several impossibly fast steps to stand close to her. With a tiny laugh of nervous amusement she realized it was only reasonable that the bird clearly belonged to him, and that he had moved fast in concern for his pet.

"I've never seen anything like him before," Speedbreaker said, with a grin and gesturing with her optics toward the little creature still rushing on the bench. She reached a hand out to it again, but this time she did so with far greater hesitation. "He's so cute."

The refugee turned to face toward the bot that now stood behind her, and for the first time since she had entered the room, the two of them stood facing each other. Speedbreaker's face-plate had been lit by a bright smile at both the stranger and his pet. But was gone in a second, and replaced instead by an expression of utter shock and dread filled surprise. Her vocializer let out a small cry of dismay to match her look perfectly and she clamped a hand over her mouth at once, as she took several quick involuntary steps backward.

The bot that looked down at her, was for all intents and purposes, entirely without a face, or any discernible features. Suddenly he appeared to her, to be so much taller than he had appeared before, looming over the small young bot, as she took one more step backward toward the wall. Visible faction symbols indicative of Decepticon loyalties caught her attention then and she gasped again audibly against the hand that she still held clamped over her mouth. The faceless Decepticon stranger took a step toward her, and long arm and powerful arm reaching toward her in a motion that could only have been threatening, aggressive. Recalling all to well the skill with which she had just seen him practice, she took several more fast steps backward, as he advanced forward.

"Soundwave!" a voice spook from across the room, from the direction of the blaster range doors, in clear and no nonsense warning. "Desist this instant. Not one more step!"

The faceless stranger lowered his arm and stood where he was. But his shoulders and knees held firm, rigid in near defiance of what was so clearly a direct order. The sound of hurrying footsteps crossed the room, and Speedbreaker continued her nervous backward steps until she crashed hard against the body armor of another bot that had come to a stop behind her.

She let out another sequel of shock and her intake promptly gasped in fright, at the firm grip of a hand on her shoulder panel. She was pulled around quickly, and let put the intake she had been holding, when she found herself looking up into Bumblebee's bright blue optics.

"Whatever it was you think you were doing, don't you dare do it," the black and yellow bot said in the direction of the faceless stranger. His right finger pointed toward him in a gesture of seriousness and his tone was one that Speedbreaker hand never heard from the typically friendly bot before. Those blue optics glared in his direction like laser beams.

Bumblebee pulled urgently Speedbreaker out through the nearby door of the training gym, and into the corridor. As it slid shut behind them, he leaned lightly against the wall and appeared flustered and shaken himself as he looked her over. She learned against the opposite wall and as her shock faded and she caught her breath, her optics met his again, looking for explanations.

"'Bee, who is the pit was that?" she exclaimed after another second of just staring around in the corridor like a youngling fool.

Instead of giving an answer, Bumblebee instead gently guided her with one hand away from the wall and then with that same hand lightly against her back panel, he led her through the corridor and toward the lift.

"That bot is Soundwave," 'Bee finally explained, after the lift doors slid shut and sealed the pair safely inside. The black and yell bot frowned. "He's a tricky one to deal with, to put it mildly. You aren't hurt?"

"I… I'm fine," Speedbreaker quietly answered, before she mumbled her assurances that the bot had not even manged to touch her before 'Bee had stepped in.

"Speedy, you stay well away from him," 'Bee warned after a moment, and as the lift came to a stop on the upper floor of the base. Before they got off the lift, she put his hands on both of her shoulder r panels and let his optics meet hers intently. "To be honestly I have no idea what he might have done if I hadn't been leaving the range and just happened to catch him when I did. Maybe nothing. Maybe one of a few horrible things that I don't even wanna try to guess at. He's defected from the 'cons, but that doesn't mean anything about him makes a hint of sense on a good day."

"He's a defector?" Speedbreaker had been so terrified at seeing his symbols of loyalty, and then so confused as to why he was on an Autobot base in the first place. In her young mind it all made far more sense now.

"Yes. But please don't assume that means much. Because the first former 'con you ever met just happened to be Knockout, a bot that's trying so hard to be good, and truly does have a good spark, I worry your viewpoint may be a bit dangerously flawed when it comes to anymore that may defect."

"I… I didn't realize.."

"The same goes for that little bird too," 'Bee said, almost as an afterthought. He shook his head a little with a look of almost disbelief across face-plate, before he finally laughed slightly over the whole thing. "Of all things, I never thought I'd ever hear anyone refer to Laserbeak, the most troublesome of the 'cons' spies and infiltrators as 'cute.'"

"I thought he was a simple and tame pet."

"She. And not in the least," Bumblebee answered quickly, before his look changed to one of curiosity. "What were you doing down on the lower level in the first place?"

"I was looking for Knockout," Speedbreaker explained. She reached quickly into her storage compartment, and pulled out a small light yellow bag, which she held dangling in her hand.

"My creator sent me to bring these over to him," she explained. Her optics gestured toward the bag in her hand. "He owns the little sweet shop at the end of the road. He said there was an incident there yesterday. A fuss started inside the shop and then it quickly spilled out into the street. Creator told me a disabled bot on some kind of mobility cart had been shoved out into the roadway by a some tin head that was screaming insults at him until some other trouble maker just couldn't seem to mind his own business and joined right on in, and with a makeshift weapon no less." She gestured toward the bag with her optics again and looked back at 'Bee. "When I told Creator I knew who the bot must have been that was attacked, he said that the poor bot had only been trying to buy some sweets when he was shoved outside. And he asked me to bring these to him."

"I answered a call from base for back-up on that mess in the street. I had no idea that was your creator's store."

"It is. He was obviously flustered and shocked by the whole mess. And it sounds like Knockout might have been hurt."

"He's alright," Bumblebee answered. "Knockout's not as breakable as he probably looks. Bot with the bar underestimated him, that's for sure."

"Who the frag does that?" Speedbreaker exclaimed, in a tone that did nothing to hide her clear and obvious disbelief at such behavior. "Who hits a disabled and damaged bot, and tries to knock him off a mobility device? Damaged or not, some thought it was okay to beat on him. I guess somebot called him Decepticon scum… You said it yourself 'Bee. He's trying so hard and he's got a good spark."

"You're a good bot, Speedy," 'Bee said with a grin that faded again in a second, as he turned serious again. "You want to see the good in the world, the good in everyone. Not that that's a bad thing at all, I say. But of course for everybot like you that wants to think anyone can be good if we only let them try, there are just as many that want to see only the evil and the past mistakes."

"I guess that's the trouble with us that stayed neutral," the little orange bot mused aloud. "We many never have truly joined the war, but still most still did choose a side to support, even if only silently. Not all are like Creator, that only want to sell goods and live and let live."

After a second, she held out the bag, and spoke again. "If you see Knockout around anywhere, would you mind giving him those?"

Bumblebee took the bag from from with some hesitation and thought and nodded slowly. "I will," He said, with a small laugh. "Though he may not be around much for a while. Not with a brand new bond mate. I'll give those to Ratchet for him to pass on. He's likely to see him first, in order to move him to the cart."

"Hey, 'Bee, do you think Ratchet might let me use the workshop out back again someday soon?" Speedbreaker asked, remembering the second reason she had come by. "I was asked about some modification to Knockout's cart. I figure I can work overnight, get it done while it's not needed."

Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break

Arcee woke from recharge, to find her body warm, pressed tightly against Knockout's body armor, and with his right arm wrapped comfortably around her. Slowly, without moving away from him, she looked up to find him staring at her with already open optics and a smile on his face.

"Morning," she mumbled, immediately smiling back. She considered a moment before quietly mumbling with a slight laugh, "please tell me it is still morning."

"Not quite midday yet," Knockout said with a slight laugh of his own, after a fast glace toward the digital display across the room, placed conventionally where he could easily see it from a laying position on the recharge station. "Still morning." His little smile turned to a silly grin then.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Oh not long. Well maybe a while."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Arcee mumbled still sleepily. But instead of making any move to get up, she instead moved so that she could rest her head on top of his chest panel and put both her arms around him.

"Now why would I want to do that?" Knockout answered, with the smile still never leaving his face-plate. "You clearly needed the recharge, or you would have woken up sooner."

"We should probably comm Ratchet, let him know we're ready for help to move you to your cart whenever he's got a moment," Arcee said. But her voice held an obvious tone of reluctance and still she no move to actually get up, so that she could get anything done that needed doing. She only raised her head slightly so that she could looking into his optics again. "You probably want to be sitting upright."

"No. Well I do, yes. But not just yet. Right now I'm happy to stay just like this, let this morning, this moment drag on forever." Knockout held onto his new mate tighter, as though just by doing so, he truly could make time pause for a while.

"Me too," she giggled back at him. After laying for a while in comfortable and nearly motionless silence, Arcee slowly and carefully shifted herself again on the recharge station, so that she could lay on her front, with her elbows bent and her head resting on her folded arms.

"So," she asked then, looking him in the optics again from that new angle and smiling again. "What do you suppose our home is going to look like?"

"Home?' Knockout repeated. Suddenly he sound so disbelieving and utterly clueless it made Arcee giggle again. "I never dared to imagine… us? Our home..."

"No one on this base will live here forever," Arcee said, laughing happily, with her laughter causing him to laugh a little too. "Someday soon we will all have new little homes just like the refugees and most of the returning Autobots are living in now."

"We would live on an upper floor in one of the high rise buildings," Knockout said, his confidence returning as he finally dared to shape the daydream that she was so clearly encouraging. "The place would need a working elevator obviously, but the views would be amazing. Our front windows look out toward so many other little apartments, and shops, and the road far below us at the edge of the commercial district. There's a huge set of sliding doors out the back way, and those lead out to a wonderful balcony we will spend our evenings sitting on and looking out at the perfect view of the sulfur field, and the cliffs far beyond that. Our place is simply furnished but tasteful as you can imagine. The walls are light metallic gray, with perhaps a hint of blue. No maybe violet. There is one wide hallway that leads to our lovely little recharge room, and there are windows everywhere to let the light shine in from morning until night."

"Eventually the city will grow up all around us of course," he went on, optics half closed now and his voice quiet. "Someday we not see the endless yellow field anymore. Eventually we may not even see the cliffs. It'll all just be more and more buildings for miles. And then we'll sit outside and look out and realize that a thousand Earth years have passed and we barely noticed it all in the excitement of just living as the world changed. The war will be forgotten then to history. Factions will be a part of ancient stories that bots love to tell their younglings, but no one really thinks about anymore. Legends will grow, getting bigger and bigger, until some of it's true and most of it isn't. And that day, looking out at the world that grew up when we barely thought to notice it, we will decide it might be time to repaint the apartment."

Arcee let herself flop down carefully so that she could lay using his chest panel as her pillow again, as washer field pooled in her optics.

"I didn't know you could paint pictures with words like that," she said.

"I've never really tried to before," Knockout answered.

Arcee snuggled in tighter against him. "We have have a such a great and happy life."

"Starting out with so close to nothing… we get to build it together. It won't always be the easiest thing to do."

"I do so love a challenge. I'm not sure life was supposed to be easy exactly."

A beep from the room's commlink startled both bots from a state of narrowed optic's half sleepy daydreaming. Two pairs of optics fully opened again, and the pair of bots groaned at the interruption.

"Connect commlink..." Knockout said out loud, using the voice command function to activate the comm. Arcee half sat up on the recharge station, and half leaned her body against him, searching for her sense of motivation to get up.

"Terribly sorry to bother you two," Ratchet said somewhere on the other end of a commlink, his voice recognizable at once without a need for him to say so. "I realize obviously that it's generally impolite to bother a brand new bonded pair. But no one comm'ed me for assistance yet, and Knockout, I figure you probably want to be sitting up on your cart soon."

"Do I need to do rehabilitation today?" Knockout almost whinnied over the commlink. Arcee giggled, but then she promptly gave him a light and playful smack to his shoulder panel.

"Well, I am willing to let you take a break from it today… and only today…" Ratchet said quickly. "But that said, I would prefer if you still agreed to do it today anyway."

The pair looked at each other silently for a moment before Knockout confidently answered toward the comm that he wanted to, and Arcee grinned encouraging approval at him, as she stood up from the recharge station. A second later she was on her knees across the room to unplug the mobility cart. She spent a moment fighting with the armrest and lifting the front tray into an upright position. And finally she pushed it over, to leave it in front of the wall closest to the recharge station.

After Ratchet had come to the door a short while later, and after Knockout had been transferred to cart, and then following an opportunity to refuel, Both Knockout and Arcee were surprised when they were led by the old medic toward the lift to take them to the lower level. After they had followed him onto it and Knockout had managed to turn the cart somewhat awkwardly, so that he could face forward, the pair spent of the short trip downward, simply exchanging confused and baffled glances at each other, questioning, while telling one another at the same time, that each of them was just as clueless as the other.

"Getting you onto your cart is simpler all the time now," Ratchet commented as the lift came to a stop. When Knockout nodded slightly at the acknowledgment, he continued. "When transferring both on and off lately, you've obviously been both supporting a decent part of your own body weight, and starting to keep your balance at the same time. Today was the most efficiently we've ever done it."

Knockout nodded again, and smiled a little, allowing himself a moment to feel pleased with his own efforts.

"I do feel like I'm clearly far stronger now, than I was at first," he said. His tone turned hesitant as he mused, "it's… honestly hard now to think back to the early days after my… hmm...malfunction. I do remember of course, and I've since read over my own medical report. But to recall just how much I served as simply dead weight, unable to hold myself up at all… to recall how when first learning to operate this mobility cart, I was so entirely dependent on both the restraint harnesses, the seat back and the armrest in order to not fall off helplessly… But then to realize that I should be dead – that any known medical literature says I should not have been savable..."

Knockout pulled on one of the harness straps, as he rolled out of lift behind the others. He was becoming well known for a tendency to pull with his right hand on one or both straps, if they felt uncomfortably tight against his chest panel.

"No sense in us trying to rework the harnesses right now," Ratchet said when he noticed the frustrated fidgeting and pulling. "I'll be transfusing you back off of there again in a second."

When the old medic came to stop again, in front of the doors to the training gym, of all the most unexpected places in the base for him to have lead them, the other two exchanged baffled glances again.

When Ratchet walked into the gym and headed straight for the middle of the room gesturing for the others to follow him, Knockout hesitantly rolled the cart forward with Arcee walking slowly beside him. He clearly noticed the strange new feeling of it at once as the cart rolled across the springy rubber of the mats that took up much of the floor, but he managed to roll ahead just fine on its surface in any case.

"Landing mats will make a perfect surface to try this on," Ratchet explained, in his typical serious but not unfriendly tone. He stomped one foot lightly against the padded floor, both to double check it's resistance, and to emphasize his point. "Besides, on the floor, we have all the space we need and there's nowhere to fall."

"What… are we doing now…?" Knockout slowly questioned as the old bot lifted the movable armrest of the cart back into an upward position, and he looked around understanding that there was no seating surface to be transferred to. For the first time in a long period of rehabilitation work, he sounded genuinely nervous about what might happen next.

"We're going to see if you can't start learning to roll yourself sideways and back again today," Ratchet explained. Carefully he unfastened the harness straps and immediately put his arms out, as he had done so many times in past months, to keep the damaged bot from slipping forward dangerously.

"I can't possibly do that," Knockout protested, uncharacteristically anxious and speaking faster than was typical because of it. Indeed he had advanced a great deal over many months. Still however, such a thing was beyond anything he had even tried before to relearn.

It was a somewhat challenging thing to do, because he had never exactly done it before, and was required to think carefully about how to safely do it. But Ratchet managed to quite efficiently transfer his patient into a laying position on the rubber safety mats that covered the floor.

"There was a time you couldn't even refuel by yourself. Until one day you finally could," Ratchet said. He kneeled on the floor nearby, and with a motion of his hand held behind him, he motioned to Arcee to pull the cart farther back and out of the way. "You certainly won't be able to roll anywhere on your own today. I'd be amazed if you could even start to do it next week. But I had no reason to think you can't learn it all all, ever. Besides, the ability to roll yourself to one side, the right one most likely, combined with sitting yourself up, which we are getting closer to, are the basis for any ability to transfer from your recharge station to your cart, or any seat, and back, unassisted."

"I'm not sure how I feel about being down on the floor," Knockout replied in obvious protest over it. His voice still contained the same hint of anxiety. His long term goal of transferring his body on and off the cart on his own, was clearly known. To now see even a hint of possibility of eventually getting there, clearly made him almost panicked in his potential for failure.

"Oh come on," Arcee answered back, with a good natured laugh. "Every bot on this base can tell just how surprisingly often we end up down there down there while just training together. Knocked to the floor... thrown to the floor… That's why we have landing mats." With uncharacteristic silliness, she lifted one foot and then the other quickly, letting herself drop onto the landing mat underneath her, in a humorous bid to make her point.

Knockout laughed a little then, his anxiety disappearing. Arcee grinned at him, as he sat herself up and bounced slightly on her knees on top of the rubber padding of the floor. Ratchet shook his head, with a look across his face-plate of clearly mock annoyance, as he mumbled over how the pair of 'young bots' really ought to be serious and stop 'goofing off.' But it was perfectly clear how, for all of his complaining, he was honestly pleased to see the pair of them find a chance to laugh and be silly, Knockout especially so.