The following weeks revolved around Knockout's healing process.

Surprising everyone, Starscream turned into a mother hen and spent all of his free time keeping Knockout company. At first, it was a little annoying, but Knockout quickly grew to appreciate having Starscream around. They would talk, drink Energon, play games; Knockout even managed to convince Starscream to watch movies with him!

Occasionally, Bumblebee and Moonracer will drop-in and join the friends' bouts of social hour. Not just to give Knockout a break from spending all his time solely with Starscream, but also to check on his health. Not that the red medic wanted to talk about his experience with Airachnid and the Insecticons. The only parts of his health that he worried about were his finish, – no surprises there – and his ever growing cabin fever from being stuck on the ship and not being able to go out for a drive.

As for Steeljaw… Knockout found it strange how, for the past couple weeks, Steeljaw has visited, but never spoken to him. He just stands in the doorway, staring at him. Once he's cleared to walk, Knockout decides to pay his rescuer a long overdue visit.

.

. .

. . .

It is nighttime on the ship when Knockout makes his move. He swings his legs over the side of the berth and carefully plants his pedes on the floor, putting most of his weight on his right leg, as his left leg – still damaged and sporting a nasty scar – is wrapped in a metal brace.

This is really, really annoying. Can't wait to get this thing off and go driving. Stupid Insecticons. Stupid Airachnid. Stupid everything!

Knockout extended his Energon prod to use as a walking stick and disabled the electricity so that he doesn't shock himself unconscious by accident. If he was discovered up and about without an escort, the others would surely kill him.

Well, Bumblebee and Moonracer would. Starscream, probably not, as he already yelled at him, but at least that was done and over with. Now, he has something else occupying his processor.

Knockout limps out of med-bay, through the halls, and all the way over to Steeljaw's room, making as little noise as possible so as to not wake any one of the three bots he didn't want to deal with at the moment. Once there, Knockout pressed a button on the keypad outside the double doors and waited.

And waited…

And waited some more…

Until, finally, the doors opened, revealing the occupant of the room. Steeljaw looked at Knockout with a confused, half awake gaze.

"Knockout?" Steeljaw said, rubbing his optics. "What are you doing here so late?"

"Well would you look at that? You do talk!" Knockout half-heartedly jokes.

Steeljaw was not amused.

"Any specific reason as to why you interrupted my recharge?" He growled.

"Well, for starters, you haven't been talking to me," Knockout retorted.

"Seriously? You woke me up, just to talk?"

"Of course I did! You've been avoiding me for weeks and it's driving me crazy!"

Knockout noticed the flicker of Steeljaw's optics, signaling that he was debating something.

"What?"

"Nothing, except, that makes two of us." Steeljaw replied.

Steeljaw's answer was not one that Knockout was expecting.

"Are you saying…"

"That I'm having similar thoughts to you? Yes."

Steeljaw stood aside and gestured for Knockout to enter his room. The red medic side-eyed the Lupicon, but he came here to get answers, and that's exactly what he's going to do.

Unbeknownst to him, Steeljaw is not planning on making it that simple. He's been watching Knockout from a distance since his rescue, and based on what he's seen and heard, it's clear as day to anyone that something happened to him. So, instead of going to Knockout, he allowed Knockout to come to him, on his own time and terms.

Steeljaw's predictions proved correct, and while Knockout had his back turned to him as he limped inside, smirked and silently congratulated himself on a successful plan.

He reaches for the internal lock mechanism and closes the doors.

"Did you just lock us in here?" Knockout asked, having heard a click.

"Only so we're not disturbed," Steeljaw reassured. "This is to be a private conversation between the two of us, is it not?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Knockout rocked back and forth on his one good ped, anxious about suddenly being stuck in a room with Steeljaw. He winced when he started getting a cramp.

"I suggest you sit down, before you're down another leg," Steeljaw said, scooping Knockout into his arms and carrying him over to his berth. He settled the other down gently, careful of his leg.

"T…Thank you," Knockout stammered, surprised, and a little unsettled, by the care and consideration.

"You're welcome."

Steeljaw wandered over to his desk, grabbed his chair, and dragged it back over to the berth.

"Consider it my own thank you for the breakfast in bed a while back."

"Back on Phoria. Oh yeah. How could we possibly forget that?" Knockout laughed, remembering how messed-up that world of living nightmares was, but he quickly regretted his words when he looked over and saw how uncharacteristically bothered Steeljaw was. "Oh scrap. Sorry, Steeljaw. I forgot the effect that planet had on you."

"It's fine," Steeljaw shrugged-off, pretending that his experience on Phoria didn't bring a whole mess of old memories to the surface. Knockout wasn't at all convinced by this.

He's up to something.

"Is there a problem, doctor?"

"Just wondering why you're holding something back."

"What makes you say that?"

"You're not acting yourself. It's like…"

"I'm doing this on purpose?"

I knew it! He wants something from me! He's trying to throw me off my game so he can push me for information. But what could he possibly be interested in about me?

.

.

.

.

.

Oh no.

"Ah, there you go," Steeljaw mused. "You figured it out."

"Did the others put you up to this?" Knockout demanded, his servos clenching into fists.

"Nope."

"So this is all your doing? Not talking to me, making me go crazy with curiosity, on purpose?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"I saw it, Knockout. That flicker in your optics. The flicker of realization. You know why."

Knockout desperately wanted to yell and throw a fit, wake up the whole ship and get the others to get him out and away from Steeljaw. For two weeks, he drove the red medic crazy with his weird behavior, and now, as he said earlier…

"You know why." Curse you, Steeljaw!

"Well, I guess it would be a waste of your two weeks if I didn't give you something to think about or whatever you plan to do with whatever I tell you," Knockout admitted. He wasn't happy about it, but at the same time, a small part of him wanted to talk more than anything about what happened.

"However, I do have one condition before I tell you anything."

"I promise not to tell the others," Steeljaw immediately spoke. "That is what you were going to request, correct?"

". . . How do you do that?" Knockout asked, impressed by Steeljaw's apparent sixth sense.

Steeljaw laughed at Knockout's reaction.

"It's a gift."

Knockout laughed as well and rolled his optics.

"Alright, enough jokes."

The mechs settled down and allowed peace and quiet to overtake them as they spent a moment gathering their thoughts. Knockout knew he wouldn't be able to lie to Steeljaw, or rather, not get away with lying to him.

Just tell the truth. He'll listen to you.

"Well, where do you want me to start?" Knockout asked. "I mean, it is kind of a long story…"

"What did she do to you?" Steeljaw interrupted. The red medic was a little put-off by the bluntness of the other mech.

"You mean Airachnid?"

Steeljaw raised an optical ridge.

"Ah, yes, of course you meant her. Who else could it have been, right?"

"Knockout."

"Yes?"

"Does this have anything to do with Breakdown?"

.

.

.

.

.

"Knockout, aside from working under Megatron at the same time, the only other connection between you and Airachnid is Breakdown. Your partner."

"More than a partner."

"Excuse me?"

"Breakdown. He wasn't just my partner. He… He was my lover, too. We were conjunx-endura."

.

.

.

.

.

"Uh, Steeljaw?"

"You have a conjunx-endura?"

"Had a conjunx-endura."

"Right. Sorry."

"It's okay,"

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. Time to turn the tables!

"How about you?" Knockout asked, a sly smile having formed.

"Me?" Steeljaw questioned.

"Yeah. Do you have a conjunx-endura, or anyone special in your life?"

"We're here to talk about you, Knockout. Not me."

"And we will! I just want an answer first!"

"No."

"But…"

"No is an answer, and the only one you're getting. Moving on."

Knockout huffed out of annoyance, but he knew one thing: he certainly wasn't going to forget about this.

He's definitely hiding something in the "love and relationships" department, and I'm going to find out what.

"So, Breakdown, your partner, was killed by Airachnid many years ago," Steeljaw restarted. "Then, just a couple weeks ago, you put yourself in a life-or-death situation with the same femme. She tortured you, obviously, but the physical damage is the least of our concerns."

"I understand, you're all worried about my mental health and believe that I'm doing more harm than good by not talking about what happened, but that's not it," Knockout vented.

"Let me get this straight. You refuse to talk about what happened because you are actually fine?"

"Well, yes and no, but it's just… I don't know. It's kind of hard to explain."

"I'm all ears."

"I mean, it was during the Great War, so everyone was affected, but we all expressed ourselves and dealt with the stress and trauma a little differently. For me, well, I'm sure you can see for yourself. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, being caught and held hostage by Airachnid and the Insecticons isn't what really bothered me. I mean, it did, because of course it would. Anyone with a functioning processor would be bothered by the whole experience. But while I was there, Airachnid decided to talk to me, and not just about Breakdown. She started saying all of these things, and yeah, some of it I knew, but even the stuff that I didn't know about, I'm just wondering, like, how did she know, you know? How come someone who spent so little time on the Nemesis know so much? Then again, I guess that's another reason to add to the list of why nobody trusted her. Not that we really trusted each other, especially Starscream, but most of her time on-board was during Screamer's exile…"

"Knockout," Steeljaw interrupted, his tone calm yet firm. "I hate to interrupt, but I believe you're getting off-track."

"Oh, sorry," Knockout apologized. "Now, where was I?"

"You were about to tell me what Airachnid told you, or at the very least give me a semi-coherent summary of what you two talked about."

Knockout deflated. He really didn't want to talk about this. Not because it hurt, – which it did, but that wasn't the primary issue – but because of how confusing it was. It was unbelievable how believable Airachnid was, and, as much as Knockout hated to admit it, the spider-like femme did make some compelling points.

I suppose getting a second opinion will help, and from the only one who doesn't seem biased or personally involved in the whole thing.

– One information dump later –

To say Steeljaw was stumped would be an understatement. Knockout figured he broke a part of his processor.

"Hey, Steeljaw, you awake?" Knockout asked.

"Huh? Oh, yes, of course," Steeljaw answered, rising to his pedes and pacing the room. "Just thinking about what you said. I can see why you haven't told anyone yet. What Airachnid said must have really rattled your plating when you first heard her words."

"You have no idea. I just don't understand. How did she know so much? And why tell me? If she was trying to mess with my head, then she succeeded. But why tell me the truth? Or was some of it lies? Gah! I'm so confused! I'm getting a processor ache just thinking about it!"

"Calm down, Knockout, before you fry your circuitry! Tell you what? Give yourself a break from thinking about what was said…"

"Easier said than done."

"Yes, I know, but for everyone's sanity, and especially for your mentality, please try to give your processor a break from obsessing over the whole thing, at least for a little while."

Knockout circulated his vents.

"Alright, I'll try. Thank you, Steeljaw, for listening."

"Again, you're welcome," Steeljaw said as he grabbed a hold of Knockout and helped him off the berth. "And now you have to go, before one of the others notices you missing."

"Yeah, I've had more than enough lectures to last me a lifetime, thank you very much."

The mechs laughed, enjoying each other's company. Steeljaw held Knockout steady as he grabbed his Energon prod and rebalanced himself. With assistance, the red medic limped toward the exit.

"Oh, by the way, what happened to Airachnid?" Knockout asked.

He nearly fell forward when Steeljaw came to a sudden halt.

"The others didn't tell you?"

Knockout turned around, confusion clouding his optics.

"Of course not. Why am I not at all surprised?"

Steeljaw brought Knockout over to the exit, but instead of opening the doors, leaned the red medic against the wall next to them.

"Wait here a moment."

Steeljaw walked to the very back corner of the room, sorted through a pile of scrap, then returned with a box clutched in his servos. Without waiting for a response, or even sparing a second to give a warning, Steeljaw opened the box. What Knockout saw inside was unexpected.

"What… but… how did… who…" Knockout stammered.

"You did."

Knockout had to do a double-take. He looked up at Steeljaw, then back in the box.

"I…"

"Killed Airachnid."