"Ratchet, do you read me?" The blue and pink femme impatiently called along her com channel. She was tired, annoyed, and hurt. The slagging government agents wouldn't give her a klik of piece until she had 'properly debriefed'. Now, she just wanted to get to headquarters as fast as possible.
"Yes, Arcee?"
"I'm low on energon and unable to use my left servo. Can you send a bridge to my location please?" Though, Arcee mused, Ratchet had less patience than she did. Any irritation pointed at him would make her medical treatment more irritating in turn.
An amused chuckle traveled down her channel, and Arcee's optics narrowed in confusion. Did the stern and cranky medical officer just laugh?
"I believe that won't be necessary. Your medical treatment should be arriving momentarily."
Arcee's voice box gave off a rattling growl as she glared at the empty space in front of her. What did that mean?
She was about to demand just that when an odd popping noise and a system notification distracted her. Her scanners were detecting a heat source in the empty space before her. With a blink of her optics, Arcee could suddenly see that the space in front of her was no longer empty.
"You must be Arcee," the human male standing in front of her announced happily, as if he was merely meeting someone a friend of his had talked about, instead of mystically appearing before a fourteen-feet-tall alien robot from another planet.
"Ratchet, what the frag is this?"
"A new medical officer of ours." Ratchet replied, disturbingly cheerful. "Let him touch your servo, and you shall see what I mean."

-

Megatronus vented heavily as he sat upon his throne. His second-in-command had just left after updating him on the state of their plan to revive The Fallen. It was progressing a lot quicker than he had initially thought it would. Starscream had never been so adept at his position when he was the possessed Megatron. Although it would be a pain to deal with, the ex-gladiator almost preferred having a blubbering seeker than to have to deal with this intelligent monster.
Abruptly, Megatronus' processor alerted him to a small heat signature appearing on his shoulderplate. Quickly covering his shoulderplate with a servo, Megatronus' energon lines raced as he scanned his throne room for any loitering vehicons. His optics and scanners coming up empty, the mech slowly moved his servo away and turned to look at his daring little human.
"Harry, what have I told you about appearing in plain sight without warning?" He admonished.
The wizard in question dropped his invisibility and then his smile as he frowned to himself. "Oh, that's right," he sighed. "I'm sorry, Megatronus. I keep forgetting you're all equipped with thermal imaging systems." Harry scratched his head in irritation before he said, "I still haven't found a way around that."
Megatronus vented as he gently rubbed a digit on top of Harry's helm. The internet had told him it was a common way to give comfort to humans. "It is okay, this time. However, I would feel safer if you teleported back into my spark chamber where the scans cannot penetrate. My soldiers-"
"Yes, I know," Harry sighed, sitting down on the mech's shoulderplate. He didn't really like teleporting into small spaces. He had done it several times before, but there was always the possible danger of not concentrating hard enough and then apparating half-inside a wall. Changing the subject before Megatronus could give him another lecture on safety, the wizard asked, "What's on your mind, Megs?"
The mech's digit stopped its administrations as Megatronus' red optics locked on Harry's green ones. "'Megs'?" The ex-gladiator questioned, confused. It was not a word the internet deemed real in the English language.
"Err, yeah," the wizard scratched his main faceplate with a sheepish smile. "It's a nickname, a shortened version of your designation. I do it with all my friends." Harry, too, froze for a moment before he continued, "...Unless you don't want me to use it?"
Megatronus' mouthplates curved upwards in a rare smile as he thought on his new 'nickname'. Harry thought of him as a... friend. It was definitely a step forwards, Megatronus thought contentedly. His digit returned to its soothing motions before he replied, "It is acceptable."
Harry chuckled as he closed his eyes, deciding to ask his question again later. The silver mech was no longer dwelling on bad thoughts, so some time relaxing would not hurt.
The two males sat there in the throne room in silence for quite some time, just enjoying each other's presence. Harry would occasionally send a few tendrils of healing magic into Megatronus to help him with his energon stores, and the great mech would send out timed scanners to make sure his human remained unseen. They felt no need to fill the air between them with distracting words when their emotions were in sync.

-

The silence was finally broken when Harry felt a small mental tug on the chain that connected him to Megatronus. It was one of the reasons he had come, after all. Something was bothering the Decepticon leader. "Megs?" Harry questioned abruptly.
The great mech hummed in response.
"What is troubling you?" Harry gently asked, silently offering his support.
The great silver mech vented deeply as he scooped Harry up into his servo and brought him directly in front of himself.
Delicately running one of his sharp digits along Harry's back from where he sat in the palm of Megatronus' servo, the Decepticon leader searched for the right words to reveal his emotions.
"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Harry offered, seeing the indecision clearly in Megatronus' vibrant eyes.
The great mech vented softly once more before he began his tale.
"Our home planet, Cybertron, was a beautiful place, but of a different beauty than yours here on Earth. Everything was metallic, complex, and impressive. There was a lot of planning that had gone into the creation of each and every one of our houses and cities. There were great buildings that had been standing for ages, full of history and power, as well as new constructs full of new patterns and recently solved mysteries. However, much like you humans, we needed something to power these great ventures of ours. We used energon. It is an energy that, at one point, could only be harvested from the Allspark- an ancient cube filled with immense power from unknown origins. The other sources of energon we had were weaker and less efficient, and, as a race, we feared the day that we may lose the Allspark. Thus, there was a mission, long before I was ever a concept inside the well of the Allspark, that had several of our best Primes traveling around the galaxy in search of a material that could be harvested to make energon on a similar scale to the Allspark. The Primes, you see, were Cybertronians chosen by the Matrix of Leadership- another ancient artifact that we have since lost- because of their great power, aptitude for making tough decisions, and ability to put their people first. These Primes never returned home from their journey, and it was labeled as a failure by the greater percentage of our population. However, it is speculated that, that mission had actually been a great success. There has only been a few pieces of information recovered from the mission, transmitted before the ship was lost forever. This information had been stored away in our ancient library and never truly explored. It was not until a friend of mine found them that the pieces all fit together to create a plausible hypothesis. It was widespread knowledge by that time that one of the Primes chosen for the mission had turned traitor, forcing the other Primes to band together to seal him away, but it was never revealed why. We both believed that these Primes had been successful in creating something powerful enough to harvest high-grade energon. However, the harvester must have come with a price. We believed that the traitorous Prime had wanted to use it to create energon for their victorious return home. The other Primes, however, must have disagreed, and, when they could not persuade their brother to abandon his goal, they were forced to brand him as a traitor- re-naming him The Fallen- and seal him away."
Harry sat quietly in Megatronus' servo, watching his friend as his red eyes looked at him, but felt so far away. There was more Megatronus wanted to say.
"Unfortunately, The Fallen was a feared warrior, and all of the other Primes were forced to give up their lives in order to deactivate him. And now that the Allspark has indeed been destroyed and our allies are running out of energon, my second-in-command has taken it as a sign that we need to revive this traitorous Prime, to end this old war and rediscover the process that was used to create high-grade energon."
Harry felt his heart sink as he understood just what Megs was trying to tell him. "And Megatron would not have said no."
The silver ex-gladiator didn't say a word, but his gaze returned resolutely to Harry's own. The wizard stood up and levitated himself to hug the side of Megatronus' face, wishing he could properly comfort him.
"Do you want to go flying?" Harry offered quietly. Megatronus needed some time to vent, and he only ever really revealed his inner thoughts and fears to Harry when he was sure no bot would be able to hear him. It was a bit sad, but the Arcane Healer knew it was also a good thing for the silver ex-gladiator to do.
Megatronus felt his spark warm and his voice box clog as he gently pried his little human off of his faceplate and stood up from his throne to head for the nearest launchpad. He didn't deserve this wonderful Primus-sent being.

-

Sam sighed as he looked down at all of the emails his professors were sending him. Lennox had made sure he wasn't punished for his extended leave of absence, but because NEST didn't know when the war with the Decepticons would be over- and thus the approximate date he could return to college-, his professors were sending him bucketloads of work.
Shutting his phone off and leaning forwards to put his head in his hands, Sam closed his eyes to try to relax, focusing on the gentle rocking of the car he was in. It was a nondescript black SUV, much like the one he had been abducted in by the agents of Sector Seven just a few months ago. Though Sam felt it was a little stupid to have three black cars with tinted windows following each other while trying to be 'nondescript'. Everyone knew these kinds of cars were only used by government officials anyway. Any action movie could attest to that.
As if listening to his thoughts, a sudden explosion and the car swerving had Sam looking up in surprise and horror. The agent driving the car he was in cursed and stepped on the gas as Sam spied the car they had been following was now a burning and warped pile of metal.
Sam leaned forwards and gripped the headrest of the passenger seat in front of him as gunfire started raining down on the highway."Is it the Decepticons?" He half-questioned, fearing that he already knew the answer.
"There is a 22-Raptor and a Super Stallion helicopter currently firing at us. They weren't on our radar until a few seconds ago. Decepticon affiliation is strongly suspected," the driver cut out sharply as he swerved around an incoming missile.
Sam tightened his grip on the headrest as his stomach rebelled. He had never liked rollercoasters.
"Wait," Sam said, his horror rising to new levels as his brain finally processed what he had heard. "You said a 22-Raptor? That's Starscream! The Decepticon's second-in-command!" He cried. They were so screwed.
"Shit. You hear that? Decepticon affiliation has been confirmed. I repeat, Decepticon affiliation confirmed. Requesting backup and medical immediately."
Sam ducked instinctively as bullets penetrated the trunk of the car, sending shrapnel flying everywhere. Sam winced as he felt something hot start to trickle through his hair. He must've gotten scraped by something.
Turning around to look at the damage to the trunk with wide eyes, Sam witnessed a large helicopter fly low towards the highway and transform into a big grey hulking figure with glowing red eyes.
Sam opened his mouth to warn the driver, only for the car to squeal to a violent halt, throwing Sam forward enough to smack his head into the headrest he had previously been clutching.
Grimacing through the pain, for he had definitely at least bruised his nose, Sam was able to see Starscream in all his unholy glory standing before their car. The agent cursed again and threw the car into reverse without looking behind him. "No, no, no, no!" Sam shouted. "Bad guy behind us!"
It was too late though, Starscream and the other Decepticon had already started closing in on them. Even worse, there were concrete medians on both sides of the highway, trapping them in on all four sides.
Sam watched the approaching Decepticons with dread, terror and helplessness weighing him down. The Autobots wouldn't get here in time. The driver couldn't make that more obvious by the way he was alternating between cursing to himself and yelling into his communication device. The 'Cons were too close for them to try make a run for it on their short legs- attempting to do so could only see the runners blown up or gunned down. Who knew what these evil robots had in store for them? Sam prayed to Primus that they all made it out of this alive.

-

Sam woke up with a groan. His head was pounding something fierce. Blinking blearily, Sam tried to make sense of his surroundings and his memories. Just what had happened? He tried to wipe his eyes, but frowned when something cold bit into his wrists. Stomach sinking in dread as his brain caught up with him, Sam realized he was chained up on a large table. Whipping his head around to see just where the heck he was, the college student could only make out that the ceiling had a giant catwalk not unlike the NEST hangar before his attention was quickly captured by a large red robot leaning over him.
"The human's online," Knockout said gruffly as he made optic contact with the fleshling, hiding his dread with the ease of many centuries of practice. It was one thing to hear of what Starscream was planning to do and an entirely different thing to be actually going through with it, for once.
Starscream walked out from the looming shadows like the diva he was, and Knockout had to fight the urge to roll his optics. The seeker absolutely loved attention, no matter it's source.
"So he is, Knockout. How wonderful," the Decepticon second-in-command drawled as he, too, leaned over the small, injured human. Starscream sneered at the scared look on the squishy's main faceplate. "If it's isn't the tiny human that nearly offlined Megatron. A pity you didn't finish it..." The seeker sighed, inspected his long, sharp digits before he returned his gaze to the human. "I'm sure you already know who I am, and if you don't, mores the pity."
This time Knockout did roll his optics. Starscream was laying it on a bit thick.
"I'm also positive that you already know the reason why we brought you here. It has been brought to my attention that you are in possession of Decepticon property." The lean silver mech brought his helm closer to the fleshbag, his optics glaring into the tiny human and his mouthplate stretching wide to show off his sharp, gleaming denta. "Now give the Allspark shard to me, Witwicky, and I just might let you live."
Sam was frozen in terror. He had no way out, no way of contacting anyone, and no shard. He had somehow absorbed some of its knowledge, but there was no way he was telling these 'Cons that. They'd probably try to dig it out of his brain. Maybe, if he was lucky and stalled long enough, the agents that had been transporting him could lead the Autobots to where he was.
"Oh, y-you mean that glowing blue piece of glass I f-found a few weeks ago?" Sam swallowed as he tried to steady his voice. "Ah, yeah, I left it at my house. I didn't feel the need to bring it to- to college with me, y'know? What's a glowing blue piece of glass good for? I mean, I- I could probably have used it as a kind of night light, but that's just lame," Sam rambled nervously. Squeaking at the narrowed gaze of the two Decepticons- where was the third one?- Sam tried a different tactic. "I could bring you guys over there to get it? If you wanted, that is. It might take a while to get there though..." Sam trailed off, thinking about just how far away he was from home. He had absolutely no clue where he was or how long he had been unconscious. Maybe the Autobots wouldn't be able to find him after all.
Sam flinched as Starscream smacked his servo against the table next to him, nearly piercing Sam's side with his digits.
"Stop your lies, squishy. I know you have it on you. Our tracker shows that it is right here. Now, where is it?"
Sam felt like throwing up. He couldn't stop his whole body from shaking. The chains on him were rattling with the force of his fear. They could track the shards? He was so screwed.
"I-I swear, I d- I don't have it," he whimpered.
Starscream's optics narrowed for a klik before his optics brightened and he smiled cruelly. "You don't have it on you, you say. That may be true, but perhaps you have it in you. Knockout," Starscream barked suddenly. The red mech straightened in surprise and then horror as his processor caught on to what Starscream wanted him to do.
"Why don't we see just what is inside these humans? It could be quite... educational," Starscream purred, his red optics blazing brilliantly with his bloodlust.
Knockout felt his energon lines cool as he turned to look at the terrified human chained on the table. He was staring back at the Decepticon medic, and Knockout flinched at the tears that were gathered there. He... he couldn't do this. He couldn't hurt such a small creature.
"Knockout," Starscream barked again, turning from the human to glare at the red mech, only to stop in shock. "Your optics..," Starscream choked. His voice box suddenly refusing to work.
Knockout flinched again, taking a step back as Starscream's main faceplate twisted in confusion and hurt.
A roar from outside the warehouse suddenly erupted, cutting off anything Starscream might have said. The seeker shot an indecipherable look at Knockout before he stalked the few feet to the doors to find out just what was happening. The medical officer took this as his cue to run. Quickly scooping up the human, uncaring for the chains that scuffed his paint, Knockout quickly bashed his shoulderplate against one of the other outer walls, easily breaking the old metal and wood that held it together. Running a few steps outside, Knockout quickly took stock of the situation. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were attacking Grindor with Starscream deploying his blade, still partially hidden inside.
"Bumblebee!" Knockout called, his processor and energon lines racing madly. "I have your human!" The red mech then raced off into the woods, praying that the small scout would take his words at face value.
A shout of "Sam!" surprised the medical officer- for wasn't Bumblebee's voice box destroyed?- but he kept on running. The yellow mech should catch up to him easily enough with his lighter build.
"Knockout!" Starscream screeched, and the red mech winced at the hurt and anger laced within his voice. He hadn't meant to hurt Starscream, but there was no way the Decepticon second-in-command would ever give up his position of power to stay with him.
"Give him back, you slagging 'Con!" Bumblebee yelled.
Knockout chanced a quick look behind him and nearly fell into a forced recharge at the fact that every bot was chasing him. Luckily, Bee was the closest to him with the larger bots fighting to make it through the thick foliage, but Starscream was hot on his pedes and the probability of Knockout getting to explain the situation and possibly make it out of there uninjured fell dramatically.
"I will!" The medic called back as he dodged a thick oak. "But you're out of your fragging processor if you think I'm just going to stop! Speed your aft up and take him!"
Knockout silently prayed to Primus that the scout wouldn't think he was trying to trick him. The last thing he needed was another electric charge to the back.
"It's okay, Bee! He didn't hurt me!" Knockout blinked for a klik before he looked down at the human staring up at him from inside his servo. He had assumed the human would have fallen into recharge again.
"Thank you," he muttered, embarrassed to have overlooked something so simple.
Jumping over a fallen trunk, Knockout nearly shrieked as bullets whizzed by him. Chancing one more quick look back, Knockout cursed when he saw that Grindor had deployed his machine gun. That meant the mech no longer cared if he kept up, he just wanted Knockout offline.
"Traitor!" Grindor roared loudly before more bullets flew through the forest. Knockout quickly adopted a zig zag pattern, attempting to keep himself out of the burly mech's sights. He hadn't uploaded the target auto-lock into Grindor's systems yet, thank Primus.
"Now give me Sam."
"Primus," Knockout gasped, his optics widening in surprise. They flickered over to see the yellow scout was now neck-and-neck with him.
Bumblebee's blue optics widened when they met his, but Knockout figured he already knew what the smaller mech saw. His optics must be the blue of the Autobots now that he no longer agreed with the Decepticon's ideals.
"Here," Knockout hastily stuck out his servo clutching the human. He didn't want to hold the ticking time bomb anymore. He needed to get out of there.
Bumblebee easily took the human from him, and not a moment too soon. Air hissed out of Knockout's shut mouthplates as he retracted his bullet-ridden hand. That fragging Grindor. Knockout silently hoped the Prime would take care of him now that they had the human.
Bumblebee nodded to Knockout in thanks after he tucked the human away inside of his spark chamber.
"Give them pit," the medic growled before he broke away from Bumblebee's side to race off, not sticking around to see Bumblebee stop and tackle Starscream to the ground.