"You... You're certain this will work the way we want it to?" The skeptical gazes that went with Arcee's doubtful question weren't in the least bit encouraging. Of course, the plan Ratchet and Optimus had come up with was risky, and didn't sound very convincing at first glance. Ratchet gave a heavy sigh, before explaining again, this time trying harder to get his point across.

"Finding out Optimus is alive is going to be an absolute shock on their part, and tempting Megatron will distract him. We'll have the advantage. As long as we keep our positions hidden from them, we can grab Jennie and go when the moment's right. It's our best shot." He insisted, crossing his arms.

The Autobots exchanged considerate glances, before Wheeljack spoke, "alright Doc, give us the play-by-play."

Optimus shifted on the medbay a bit, listening silently, setting his jaw in thought. Ratchet glanced at him. The two of them had done their best to form a good plan, but it had it's rough spots...

"Well," he began, "When the Decepticons arrive for the pickup, the only 'bot that will be there, will be Optimus. It'll catch them off guard, and it'll distract them. Megatron will obviously engage in conversation with him. In the midst of that, Optimus will demand a trade... Jennie for the Matrix of Leadership-"

"Woah, we can't give Megatron the Matrix, do you know what he'd do? And what about Optimus?" Arcee interrupted, gesturing to Optimus. "We'd be done for!"

::We're already done for...:: Behind her, Bumblebee whirred in a mumble.

Ratchet shook his helm immediately. "They don't get the Matrix, the trade won't actually take place, but we need to tempt Megatron into moving Jennie into a more open environment, with less protection, him believing that a trade was taking place. While they are distracted, and Jennie is in the open, the rest of you sweep in, and only remain there to stun them, grab Jennie, and leave. Optimus leaves the moment the fighting commences, he can not handle any battle in his condition." He explained, his gaze switching between them, to take in their reactions. "I will stay here, to help Optimus the moment he returns, and... to take care of Jennie..." His gaze clouded with worry momentarily. "When I was with her, she was bearing many wounds... Megatron had tortured her. I don't know what her condition will be like when we reach her."

There was a shift of plating beside him, but he didn't look in the direction of the sound, until a servo landed on his shoulder. He turned his helm a bit to glimpse who it belonged to; Optimus had shakily hauled himself to stand, on trembling legs, and was now watching him with sympathy and concern. "We will return her to your care, Old Friend."

Ratchet stared at him worriedly for a moment, before nodding slowly in agreement. "I know...

Now sit your injured aft back down."

Jennie had forgotten how horrible shackles felt.

The chains had reopened her previously injured arm, which bled slowly and ached terribly, the blood seeping through the white of the bandages.

This wasn't good.

She was dangling from chains in an interrogation room again.

She was going to be tortured again.

Why didn't Megatron just kill her? If she wasn't going to be of much use, and the Autobots couldn't do anything, what would torturing her accomplish?

This had to be a jab at the Autobots, a jab at Ratchet. Seeing her in the conditions it left her in during pickups just upset him, and that's what Megatron had to be going for, to increase his determination to help her... That is, if he even wanted to help her anymore. The devil and the angel both stood on Jennie's shoulders, now- was she to believe Megatron and accept that her guardian didn't want her anymore, or keep faith in what they had gone through, and what made them continue as a team.

She knew what Megatron wanted her to believe, and she knew what she wanted to believe. Which one was right?

"Unicron's blood, Human, I can hear you from all the way down the hall, would you shut your fragging mouth?" A voice of complaint interrupted Jennie's self destructive thoughts; Primus, said thoughts had brought her to heavy sobbing. She hadn't known it had been that loud... Knockout stood before her, arms sassily placed on his hips. "You've created a new level of annoying."

"Th-That's something we-e have in c-common." Jennie muttered in ragged breaths.

Knockout huffed and gestured to himself, offended. "I don't wail miserably every time something takes a turn!"

"Ooh, m-my finish, it's ruined-d, my life is o-over, how could i-it end this way-y!" The strength and tone of the mocking was drained by her shattered voice and breath, and that disappointed Jennie, but Knockout's reaction was satisfying enough.

"Oh, you little pitspawn! You are pathetic! I'm not surprised that's the only insult your small mind could come up with!" He snapped furiously.

Jennie sighed quietly, a victorious look in her eyes. "A-Another thing w-we have in c-common." The red medic whined angrily, his optics leaving her to rest on the table of scary looking tools not far from where she hung. A shiver passed through Jennie, as a dark look of amusement passed through Knockout.

"I guess we have a few things in common... I'm sure another of which, is a low tolerance to pain." He drawled slowly, picking up a welder.

Son of a-

"Shall we find out?"

It was hard to resist the urge to panic, to scream, to beg for forgiveness... But this was going to happen anyway, by Knockout's hand, or by Megatron's, or by any Decepticon's. So Jennie held firm. "If i-it's an a-apology you want-t, you a-are not g-gonna succeed-d." She answered.

Knockout grinned sadistically, as a flame appeared at the tip of the welder. "Challenge accepted."

The fiery pain on her already injured leg was like Hell itself.

At least it was, at first.

But the pain was nothing compared to the thoughts that had been plaguing her for the past day, after Ratchet had left. It was nothing compared to what Megatron had put her through. Nothing Knockout could do, could ever bring her to the amount of pain she was already in.

She screamed for a bit, tears intensifying, before they faded into a series of whimpers and gasps, which was far less satisfying to Knockout.

"You've got to be kidding me, this hurts like the Pits! How are you not having a fragging panic attack right now?!" He complained.

"A-A... A-Asshole-e..." Jennie hissed through clenched teeth. The red medic pulled the welder away, and threw it down on the table in frustration.

"You think you're so hardcore, don't you, fleshling?" He muttered.

She scoffed, trembling a bit. "H-Hey... I-I'm not screaming anymore...isn't th-that what y-you wanted?"

Knockout glared, before huffing in defeat, and turning away. "Such a pathetic creature... perhaps this is the reason Ratchet hates you."

God, no...

That struck a chord.

Suddenly she didn't feel the burning sensation in her leg anymore.

Suddenly she was crying again, reducing back to the wailing child she had been before. It had such a horrible affect on her... this is precisely why she had called him what she had. Knockout stated in disbelief.

"That's what shakes you? Frag, human." He shook his helm and muttered, before strutting out with a sigh. "It's probably true though."

Jennie didn't answer, only continued to cry and whimper, curling in on herself a bit, despite her wounds. It was ridiculous that the torture itself hadn't bothered her, but the idea of her guardian losing his care for her... Especially with the fact that Ratchet had been the person that cared about her the most ever since her mother died. Before him and the Autobots, nobody did. He saved her from so much just by coming into her life...

Was he really backing out of it?

"Stop..." She whispered to herself at the thought. "St-Stop... it hurts..."

Megatron always succeeded in getting into the heads of others.