Happy holidays everybody! It is literally Christmas day, and I finally finished chapter nine! I'll be honest, I'm not entirely happy with how this one turned out, but it was kind of hard to avoid. I actually realized I had made a mistake with Soundwave and the beginning is a bit of a quick fix. I guess it fits into the story line pretty well, but…. Yeah, still a quick fix. -.-

And I promise, this is the last chapter I'll be writing about in the med-bay for a while. Stick with me if you can, because this one tends to drawl a little bit, and I'll make sure to make it up to everybody in the next chapter…. But there are some brief moments of Cass cuteness, so I hope you all enjoy that at least. XD

Special shout outs to Lightrunner, maria-ioanna984, and Gajeel-rocks: To Lightrunner, thank you for always being honest and polite. You have been very insightful, and it does help to hear people's opinions. To maria-ioanna984, your positive attitude is always welcomed. I almost always read you reviews when I'm having a hard time at work and your enthusiasm always makes my day. You are one crazy Greek and I love every bit of it, never change on me beautiful. ;} And to Gajeel-rocks, always happy to hear from a new reader! Thank you for reading and reviewing. I hope you keep having fun!

Remember, don't be shy! Feel free to leave a review and comment. If you have any questions, ask away and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as I can.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any stocks, trades, or licensing from the Transformers franchise. All rights are reserved for HASBRO entertainment.

Don't forget to check out the branch off one-shots to MERCY. There is still only one story so far, but hang in there for Steve, because some bad and good things are yet to come for our other lovable drone... And maybe some for Starscream... If I feel like it. Remember it's called MERCY: One Shots and feel free to leave a review there as well.

MERCY

Chapter 9

The Bots and the Insecticons

"Confounded drone!" Starscream griped while he searched the wide halls for the AWOL battle visor. "Next time I burn up like that I'll tell him to keep his spike to himself and eat out my—!" He paused around the first corner he came too and in all seriousness he groaned. "Who am I kidding…. If I did that, he'd probably be all too eager to oblige." Then he tapped a clawed digit under his bottom lip-plate and thought on what he just said. "Hm. Maybe next time I'll actually ask him to do it…. Just to see if he would."

"Query?" Soundwave appeared out of nowhere behind the seeker and startled him so badly he jumped. He lifted one leg up to his torso and rapidly clawed in the air like a cat pawing at string. Starscream finally settled in an acquired pose and wide red optics met with a faceless blank visor. "Commander Starscream: Conversing with comrades?"

"Soundwave?!" The seeker squeaked. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Too long." Soundwave stepped around the awkward second in command. "Excuse Soundwave."

"Ahem…. Of course." Starscream gently swiped the side of his shoulder, brushing away invisible dust as he stood upright. "Mind if I walk with you for a while. I'm trying to find something I…. Misplaced. It's around here somewhere, but I'm not having any luck searching for it at random."

"You may." The silent mech answered. "Soundwave: Not agreeing to assistance."

"I never asked." The seeker hardly paid attention to his companion. He was too busy switching his helm side to side, leering at the floor. "However, if you happen to see anything out of the ordinary, feel free to point it out."

Soundwave continued walking but took a literal sense to Starscream's request and pointed a digit in the seeker's general direction. Starscream took longer to notice this longer then he would like to admit, and when he did, he snarled.

"You're being surprisingly catty today. Did something happen last night to activate your sarcasm mode or something?"

"Query?" The third in command lowered his servo. "Last night?"

"Yes. I saw you running through the corridors on your way out of the communications bridge." The seeker stopped a minute to narrow his optics along the walls base, thinking he might have seen something there. "What were you in such a hurry to get to all of a sudden? Did something happen?"

The telepath didn't wait for Starscream to keep up with him. He didn't want to stand by and listen to the seeker to non-discreetly fish for information. Ever since Megatron nearly beat his second in command to death, Starscream had been pestering Soundwave for whatever data he could get his claws on. He really didn't want to give the snooping seeker the satisfaction by giving in to his persistence, but he also knew that if he didn't give Starscream something to maul over he would never let the third in command be.

"Nothing of importance." Soundwave gave in before any real pestering could begin. "Reason for urgency: Personal matter upon the flight decks."

"You ran all the way there?" Starscream sounded genuinely surprised. "You were already in the communications bridge. Why didn't you just ground bridge to the flight deck if it was so urgent?"

The silent mech momentarily froze in place, one of his pedes hung in the air cumbersomely as his processor reeled in astonishment of himself. Soundwave hadn't even given it any thought at the time. As soon as he saw Megatron wrap his arms around Cass he felt his spark sink and all logic seemed to vanish entirely, but now that it was back, he couldn't believe how negligent he was.

Quickly, Soundwave poised himself, so he could rebuttal, but once he placed his hovering ped on the floor he felt it slip out from under him. Soundwave flew forward and landed abruptly on his chest. He tried to bend his arm under him to protect Laserbeak from the impact, but she was quicker then him. She too had control of the data feelers and she immediately restrained his wrist. She would rather take the full blow of the fall then risk her master breaking a wing strut.

The moment Soundwave hit the floor he knew something was wrong. The data feeler on his wrist loosened, and the signal between the two of them crackled and wavered. The silent mech rushed to his knee-joints and clutched at his chest, first in horror until it dissipated into relief. Their signals rapidly coincided with each other again and Laserbeak cooed encouragingly over their connection. There was a small crack up her haul and though it was not a threating injury, Soundwave could feel her dismay.

"Oh! Thank you, Soundwave." Starscream barely acknowledged the silent mech on the floor and reached down to pick up the battle visor he tripped over. "You found what I was looking for. Don't let me keep you. As you were." The second in command waved his servo snobbishly in the air before he disappeared around a corridor heading back towards the mess hall.

The third in command sat there for a minute and just stroked his servo comfortingly along Laserbeak's wings. Before he stood, he pulled up a previous recording of Breakdown. Although Starscream was nowhere around to hear it, Soundwave felt it necessary to repeat anyway.

"Crazy seeker."

"Wakey, wakey kid." Knockout nudged Cass's shoulder tersely. "You've rested long enough. Time to get some energon in you and get the pit out of my med-bay."

"Mmm…." The young model moaned. "Where…. Am I?" His optical slit slowly blinked online, and he lifted himself up onto his elbow-joints. The medic gently slid a servo under Cass's back and helped him sit up the rest of the way.

"Don't try to stand yet." Knockout walked over to the energon storage cabinet. "You're still low on fuel, and I probably left you in recharge for too long."

Cass shook his helm in his servos as he remembered he was still in the med-bay, and his face-plate heated through his mask. "Oh-no…. I was hoping this was all a flux."

"Sorry to disappoint." Knockout snorted. "Most mechs don't usually complain when they wake up next to me." He sat in the seat next to the berth and handed Cass a full cube of energon. "Sip on this slowly. You don't want to churn your tanks."

"Um…. Thank you." The drone took the cube hesitantly and then looked around the room. "Where is officer Breakdown and commander Soundwave?"

"Are you still scared of me Vehicon?" Knockout teased as he placed a straw in the cube, so Cass could drink it without removing his mask. "Take it easy Cass. I'm only giving you a hard time. Breakdown is on a reconnaissance mission and Soundwave is setting up surveillance for him, so that means you're stuck with me for a while."

"Oh…. Okay." Cass lowered his helm and sipped slowly on the energon as he was instructed. He couldn't help but still feel a little intimidated by the taller red mech. Not only was he very beautiful, but he was very confident, and clearly not afraid to express it. "H-how long have I been recharging?"

"A full earth day." The medic answered as he made himself comfortable and opened a cube of energon for himself as well. "While you're drinking that, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"No sir." The drone nodded. "What do you need to know?"

"Hm. Ever the innocent one, aren't you?" Knockout smirked. "Are you always this polite?"

"Is that your question, sir?" Cass stopped drinking his energon to lightly belch on the rising fuel. "Excuse me…." He whispered through his digits.

The red mech chuckled and crossed his arms. "I'm just curious about something you said this morning. Do you remember when you asked Breakdown and I what 'getting sparked' meant?"

"Vaguely, officer Knockout." The drone tilted his helm. "Why?"

The medic quirked his optic ridges. He looked the young model over searching for any sign of canard in his pose. "Okay. Be honest. You were really just kidding. You do actually know how we reproduce?"

"You mean through the All-Spark?" Cass asked through more fleeting sips. "Yes, my brothers told me the story all the time. What does that have to do with 'getting sparked'?"

"For the love of Primus…." Knockout's optics widened. "You're not joking. You really have no idea about the other way we can repopulate."

"Um…. Repopulate, sir?" Now the young mech was really confused. "I'm sorry but I really don't know what you're talking about. Can you please explain?"

"Uh…. Wow. Okay, it's been awhile since I had to give this talk." The red mech rubbed the back of his helm and even blushed a little. "Where do I start? Oh! Here, look at the monitor."

Knockout stood up and tapped away on his computer console again. The screen lit up with two images adjoining each other. The image on the right was a faceless figure of a feme, and the image on the left was another faceless figure of a mech. The medic's fleeting digits flew across the keyboard and he blew up the images while also splitting them apart into different sections. He finally turned away from the console and pointed to the monitor while he stared at the bewildered Vehicon. "This is a diagram of Cybertronian anatomy. When femes and mechs reach adulthood their frames change and prepare themselves for the cycle of reproduction. This is something we have developed through centuries of evolution, so if we can never recover the All-Spark, we can still continue our race."

He stared at Cass and noticed how the drone was following him with a healthy expression of curiosity. "Too put it simply, if certain conditions are right through the act of interface, we can create life and produce sparklings." It was then Knockout noticed he had been neglecting his fuel. "You do know what interfacing is, right?" He joked through the cube over his dermas.

"I do now." Cass flinched when Knockout spewed a mouth full of energon in front of him. The red mech briefly coughed before glancing back up at the Vehicon.

"Y-you…. You mean….?" He heaved through his shock and looked the drone over helm to ped again. This was just too surreal. "Okay…. I'm glossing over that for now. Seriously, one fact of life lecture at a time."

"Um…. Okay." The drone blinked and concentrated on his own cube.

"You at least know what your spike and valve are, correct?" Knockout sighed with a servo over his fore-helm. Cass nodded, but didn't really add anything else to it. "Alright, that's a start at least."

He pushed his apprehension aside and continued to educate the ignorant drone as best he could. "Then you also know that femes also have the same interfacing equipment." That wasn't a question, so the medic didn't wait for an answer. "The difference between femes and most mechs is that femes are always born with a gestation chamber. A gestation chamber is a bio-mechanism that creates and carries sparklings. Of course every now and then there is a rare moment in life where a mech is also born with a gestation chamber. We'll be focusing on this."

Cass nodded and set his cube aside on the berth. He watched the red mech intently as the monitor switched the images around, and the feme figure changed into a second mech figure. When the images split into sections again, Knockout gestured at the image on the right. "Notice that the figure on this end has a gestation chamber, and the one next to it does not. If a mech is born with a chamber he is labeled as a bearer, but if he is born without a chamber he is labeled as a sire. Are you with me so far?"

"Yes. I think so." Cass pondered.

"Good. Now we can get to the fun part." The medic sat down next to the young mech, so he could look up at him. Knockout always found it easier to keep a patient's attention when they were optic level or when he wasn't looking down on them. "As I explained before, the gestation chamber helps create life, but a bearer can't do it alone. That's where the sire comes in. After both parties engage in interface, and the sire overloads into the bearer, he releases a substance from his spike called trans-fluid into the valve. If the bearer's gestation lock at the base of the chamber opens during this process, the trans-fluid should flow inside of it."

"If it opens?" The curious Vehicon interrupted as politely as he could.

"Yes. If it opens." Knockout nodded, glad the drone was showing an appropriate interest in the conversation. "Like I said, certain conditions have to be right. For one thing, if the bearer is planning on carrying a sparkling, he has to first be on a heat cycle. A heat cycle is a physical anomaly that happens once every two or three months and lasts for about a week. A bearer will experience mood swings, tank aches, and even, as the name suggests, a full building heat in their frames. The only good thing that really comes out of it is that everything on their body becomes more sensitive and it entices them into having multiple overloads." The red mech trailed off a moment. Vaguely thinking about Breakdown and how his large servos would trace over his finish.

"Um…. Officer Knockout?" Cass tried to regain the medics' attention again. "If it's not too personal, do you mind if I ask if you are a sire or a bearer?"

"That is very personal," Knockout's soft expression grimaced under another light blush, "but given the topic I'll be honest…. I am a sire. If I wasn't, Breakdown and I would never be able to continue our relationship."

"Why not?" The drone leaned in a little closer.

"The laws would never allow it." There was no hesitation in his answer. It only made sense that if Cass didn't really know anything about the consequences of interfacing, he wouldn't know about the Decepticon laws behind it. "Before Cybertron went completely dark the All-Spark was jettisoned into space. Nobody really knows how, but a lot of individuals believe Optimus Prime had something to do with it. To this day nobody knows where the All-Spark is, and because of that when and if this war finally ends, we'll need to repopulate our race. So all bearers are forbidden to interface until we win, and then they will each be paired off with a fitting partner to conceive and carry."

"Okay. So let me see if I understand." Cass tucked a digit over his jawline. "Femes and bearers are capable of carrying sparklings, but they cannot conceive without a sire to interface with, and not without being on a heat cycle. But our laws forbid the activity of interface until the end of the war?"

"Only for the bearers." Knockout nodded approvingly. "If you are registered as a sire you can fool around to your sparks content with other sires or drones. Oh…." He tried to stop himself before finishing that sentence, but it was already awkwardly lingering in the air. "Sorry. No offence."

"It's…. Fine. I guess." The young mech didn't actually understand why he should be offended, so he pushed it aside to address all the other questions he wanted to ask. "What happens if this law is broken?"

The room fell silent, and Knockout blankly stared off into the distance. "Part of me was hoping you wouldn't ask that." He finally answered. "Not that it really affects you, but if you must know." The red mech reached up and delicately patted the servo resting on the drone's thigh. "If a bearer is caught interfacing…. Sigh…. The punishment is actually quite severe. Not only would the guilty party be forever separated from each other, but the bearer would also…."

This was clearly causing the medic some stress. He even started to shake a little, but he bit his bottom derma and powered through it. "The bearer would be deemed unfit to breed…. And a medic would be ordered to remove his gestation chamber."

"Oh Primus!" Cass gasped and clasped his other servo over Knockouts', intending to be sympathetic. "That is terrible. I hope you never had to be given such an order."

"Well so far I've been lucky, and in more ways than one." Knockout actually smiled. "Not a lot of Decepticons out there that are really willing to break such an outstanding law. Of course, it's not like you really have to worry about it."

"I don't?" The young model tilted his helm. "Is it because Lord Megatron is above this law? Or…. Uh…. I don't even know if I'm a bearer or a sire. How would I be able to tell?"

"Like I said you don't have to worry about it." The medic smirked. "You are a drone. Drones are created without the ability to conceive. You don't have a chamber, and you have no potency."

"R-really?" Cass almost sounded disappointed, but perhaps it was for the best. He had only discovered what interfacing was the night before, and now that he knew what could come from it, he probably wouldn't really be fit to take care of a sparkling. "Wait a minute…. Can bearers conceive with other bearers?"

"Good question… And no." Knockout stood and went back to the cube he left on the computer console. "Of course they can spark with femes, but their potency is ineffective with other mechs. And this doesn't change the law. The main reason this law still stands is because not everyone is known to be listed in our medical data banks. It's mostly a precaution."

"Can bearers at least interface with other bearers?" Cass watched the red mech walk away attentively.

"You would think, but no." The taller mech snorted. "It's a very discriminating law, but Megatron insists on keeping it. Even though it was Shockwave's idea in the first place."

"Shockwave?" The drones optical visor flickered when he heard the all to familiar name.

"Yes. Your creator." Knockout hummed. "He didn't just build and design you drones, and for a while he was more then Megatron's top scientist. He was also his advisor on tactical and political movements. That one optic prick..." He stopped and swirled his energon as his mind pulled up the not so fond memories of the mad scientist. "Always bragging about superiority through logic, and how logic told him that sires were more superior then bearers based off his own 'research'."

There was a long pause, and Knockout thought that maybe that comment was a little out of line. Even if it was true, it was kind of unfair to speak so negatively about Cass's creator like the drone didn't have his own opinions about Shockwave. The medic was about to finally speak up and break the silence, but Cass beat him to it and continued to ask questions.

"Does this law also applies to femes?"

"I think that goes without question." The red mech chuckled as he finished the last of his energon and threw out his cube. "Have you finished refueling?"

"Yes sir." Cass picked up his cube and handed it to the red mech.

"Good. You can go back to work now if you don't have any more ques—." Knockout paused when he took the cube from the small Vehicon. He quickly swished it around and glanced back at Cass curiously. "This cube is still half full. Why didn't you drink it all?"

"I…. I didn't think I could." The young Vehicon stammered. "I'm a drone. We're not allowed to drink more than half a ration a day."

"Really? Who established that rule?" The medic handed the cube back to Cass.

"You don't know? It was Commander Starscream." The puzzled drone leered over the cube. "He decreed it right before Megatron returned to Nemesis."

"Hm. I had no idea about this." Knockout crossed his arms. "I'm guessing Megatron doesn't know either…. But don't you dare waist that cube. You have a higher officer's permission to a full ration. Doctors' orders, got it?"

"Yes sir." Cass smiled under his mask. "Thank you, sir."

The red mech watched him sip the cube slowly and began to wander what he looked like under his visor. He knew that asking the Vehicon to remove his mask would be almost asking for too much. Drones didn't have a lot to call their own, so their identities were always held in high regard. The only time they would ever remove their masks would be around other drones they trusted, or if they were ordered to by Megatron. Cass noticed Knockout staring at him and he unintentionally withdrew into himself again. It was almost the same way Megatron first looked at him on the flight deck the other night…. And it was starting to concern him.

"Um…. Officer Knockout?" His optical visor fluttered nervously.

"Huh? Oh! Sorry." Knockout shook his helm, deciding he wouldn't bother asking him to take it off. "You just finish that cube, and when you're done, you're free to go." The medic smiled before he walked over to the bay doors. "I'm going to allow you to escort yourself out. You seem to be pretty trust worthy. I've been in the med-bay for a little too long…. Almost feels like a month." He opened the door and glanced over to the drone one last time. "I'm actually going to head for the communications bridge, so I might see you a little later on and—."

"Caspian!" Suddenly, Knockout was shoved aside by a group of emotional Eradicons.

"Hey!" The red mech growled as servos reached up to push on his chassis. "Watch the paint job!" They ignored the higher officer entirely and rushed over to the small Vehicon still sitting on the edge of the medical berth.

"Guys?" Cass muttered in surprise. "What are you all doing here?"

"When you didn't show up on the flight deck today, we went looking for you." One Eradicon answered as he crawled up onto the berth and wrapped his arm around Cass's shoulders.

"We were so worried about you." Another cooed as he took the astounded Vehicon's servo. "We all started to hear rumors that you were walking towards the med-bay, so we waited outside for the doors to open again."

"Are you okay?" Another knelt by Cass's leg struts and eagerly caressed his helm along the Vehicon's thigh soothingly. "Did Megatron hurt you?"

"Tristian," Cass would've patted the doing Eradicon on his helm if both his servos weren't either being clung too, or still holding a cube of energon, "I'm alright, I promise. "I'm not hurt. Not badly anyway."

"What are you even doing here?" One Eradicon standing in front of him asked. "This is the higher up medical center. If you were hurt at all, why didn't you go to the double digits?"

"Well Bobbi, I…. Um…." The smaller drone searched his processor for a quick answer, but nothing really made any sense. He really didn't want to lie to his friends again, but he didn't want to make them worry more. "I…. I was asked—."

"He was asked to assist me." Knockout stepped back into the room and stared the group of Eradicons down. "Breakdown has been called out on a recon mission, and I needed some help archiving some new medical data. Soundwave sent him to me."

"Really?" The fourth and final drone questioned. "So Cass is really okay?"

"I just told you I was Daniel." The Vehicon sighed. "And please officer Knockout, you don't—."

"Watch it Vehicon." The red mech sneered. "I am still your superior and even though I've grown to like you kid, I can say whatever I see fit to express." He raised his vocals a little louder then he intended and was slightly taken aback when the group of Eradicons encircled the timid Vehicon protectively. Knockout sighed and decided to not berate anyone for technically being insubordinate. "Okay. I hate to break up this little fan club, but I need to leave the med-bay and I can't leave all of you in here unsupervised."

"Does that mean Caspian can leave too?" The nameless Eradicon on the berth interjected, holding Cass snuggly to his chassis.

"If he's ready to leave." Knockout raised an optic ridge and smiled. "Just let him finish his cube."

"I already finished." Cass shrugged. "And if it's alright with everyone I would really like to go to the communications bridge and see if there is anything, I can help commander Soundwave with. Especially if officer Breakdown is on reconnaissance. He had been very kind to me, so I would like to assist in his surveillance if I can."

"Can we walk you there?" Daniel asked as he took the cube from Cass and threw it in the incinerator.

"It really isn't necessary." The Vehicon chuckled and slipped off the berth. The Eradicon next to him whimpered when Cass pulled away but was reassured when the smaller drone nodded at him. "But if it makes you guys feel at ease, I'll let you…. But no crowding or doting over me. Remember I'm not a sparkling."

Knockout was growing a little impatient, but before he could properly shoo everyone out of the med-bay his comm link spurred to life. "Medical officer Knockout: Requesting your attention."

"Ah! Speak of the devil." The medic ignored the odd glances from the drones. Sometimes he forgot that not everybody understood a lot of earth euphemisms, and he wasn't going to stop to explain it. "What can I do ya' for, Soundwave?"

"Medical assistant Breakdown: Reporting progress." Soundwave hesitated, which Knockout found this to be suitably concerning. Cass surveyed the changing expression on the confident mech's face, and his wide optics were frightening.

"What about Breakdown, Soundwave?" The medic held the back of his audio receptor as if he was bracing himself for what he was about to hear next.

"Breakdown: Reconnaissance mission ending in ambush. Suspected assailant: Human organization MECH. Breakdown's current whereabouts…. Unknown."

Knockout didn't even wait for the drones to ask what was happening, or even bothered asking them to leave. In a flash he was gone. Out the door, and down the hall, running like he was on fire.

-END-