Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Knock Out was starting to think this mission might work out for him.

He initially wasn’t too jazzed about the idea of his partner being replaced by an insecticon of all things, but it only took about 30 clicks of digging in these strange human tunnels till they found the relic.

And when the Autobots showed up, he outsmarted the puny two-wheeler in no time, and was able to speed off with his prize. The insecticon could deal with the rest of the dirty work, and Knock Out would get to take all the credit for securing the relic.

And he needed that credit. After Starscream decided to ditch, Megatron had been keeping his soldiers on a shorter leash, and with Arachnid leaving, and killing Breakdown. Megatron wasn’t taking any more chances. He practically had to live with two vehicon guards, like now that Breakdown was gone, Knock Out would start thinking of ditching too.

Which, admittedly , isn't entirely wrong, but he misses the freedom he had before. Why should Knock Out be punished if he was the most loyal? Seemed like a personal attack if you asked him.

Now, what exactly this relic did was still a mystery, but as long as it got Megatron off his aft for a couple of cycles, he didn’t care what it did.

Though, his celebration would have to wait, as he hears a car accelerate behind him. Knock Out adjusts his rearview mirror to find the source is a familiar yellow camaro. 

Of course they wouldn’t just make it easy on him by just sending ‘Arcee.’

At least Bumblebee would actually race him this time.

He thought back to the last pursuit, when Bumblebee wouldn’t transform, and was almost glad to see the Autobot back on his wheels. It had been pathetic to watch the bot try and chase after him on his peds.

“Well well, look who got his treads back!” Knock Out quips as he increases his speed. Bumblebee lags behind a bit, and Knock Out takes this chance to look around the seemingly endless subway for anything he can use to his advantage. He eventually spots an intersecting tunnel feeding off behind him. It’ll have to do.

Knock Out slams on his brakes and turns sharply to the left, adjusting as he drives over the tracks, and turning around to go through the tunnel. He knows the move won't lose Bumblebee, but he’s hoping it will at least allow him to increase the space between them.

Unfortunately for Knock Out, Bumblebee doesn’t even hesitate, replicating his move, and shortening the gap between them. Bumblebee uses the opportunity to transform and launch himself over Knock Out.

He tries to swerve out of the way but Bumblebee lands straight on his hood, jabbing his front bumper down into the rails and scraping them against it as he slides forward.

Great , that will take forever to buff out.

Knock Out tries to transform, but Bumblebee grabs his front and spins, throwing him down the tunnel. The move, mixed with this timely transformation, flings the relic from his interior and down the tunnel.

He finishes shifting in the air and crashes into the nearby wall, his helm taking the brunt of the force and his vision momentarily clouded with warnings.

He growls in frustration, and shoves the warnings away, pushing himself up onto his peds and rushing after Bumblebee. 

When Knock Out catches up to him, he rams his shoulder into the smaller bot, making him stumble for a moment and let out a surprised beep. He smirks at the sound and leaps towards the relic, grabbing it and pulling it close, just in time for Bumblebee to land on top of him and try to pry it from his servos.

After a moment of struggle he lands a steady kick to Bumblebee’s chassis, throwing him a few yards back, and pushes himself to his peds. 

He vents for a moment and looks down at the relic safely in his servos once again, and turns around with a smug grin to look at his aggressor.

“Nice try, Autobot, but let’s see how you fair against this !” Primus, I hoped this did something useful. He points the device towards Bumblebee and activates it. It sparks for a click before it shoots a green beam of light through Knock Out, landing behind him.

Knock Out groans. This day was going just great. Of course he would point the device the wrong direction.

He turns around, hoping it was at least something he could use, but all he sees is the familiar glow of a groundbridge. Primus just can’t let him have this, can he. 

“Ugh, a groundbridge! Really!? ” Knock Out complains before Bumblebee rams into his back, making him stumble and fling the device into the opening.

Welp, into the mysterious groundbridge he goes. 

He groans before transforming into vehicle mode again, and racing through the portal opening, hearing the other bot do the same. 

If the ground bridge feels a bit different than it usually does, Knock Out doesn’t notice. Instead focusing on accelerating through the gateway before Bumblebee gets a chance to catch up.

He breaks out the other side of the bridge and slams on his brakes when he gets through, quickly scanning the area. He’s right in the middle of a canyon, terracotta walls tower over him on either side. He looks to one side and sees the canyon fuse in with the mountain. He looks to the other and notices the crevice opens into a rocky— yet completely empty— desert.

Great . The stupid groundbridge just took him into the middle of nowhere. Knock Out transforms and looks around for the relic, his gaze drifting over to the portal in time to catch Bumblebee speed through and transform. He lands on his peds, and quickly points his blasters at Knockout, while scanning the area for the relic himself. 

When Bumblebee can’t seem to find it either, Knockout speaks up, “Oh no, it must have been single use. Why don’t you be a good little scout and report that back to Prime.” 

That finally gets a response out of Bumblebee, and he pauses before translating his beeps into words. “You do with relic what?”

Knock Out always struggled to understand the old Cybertronian the bot was forced to use and with how outdated the language was, he was pretty sure Bumblebee couldn’t even say most words. He honestly didn’t understand why the autobots put up with it all the time. Despite this, he understood that the bot was accusing him, and rushed to his defense.

“Nothing! Honestly !” he says back, raising his hands in fake surrender as he continues to look around the area. It has to be around here somewhere.

The two stand in a tense silence for a moment before Knock Out remembers his staff resting comfortably against his backplates and gets an idea. He lowers his hands and looks into Bumblebee’s optics. The autobot prepares for Knock Out to attack again, and charges up his blasters. 

Knock Out quickly grabs his staff and throws it at Bumblebee. Not expecting it, the yellow bot fires his blaster instead of dodging, allowing the unexpected projectile to hit its mark. Bumblebee’s shot hits Knock Out’s chassis and pushes him back. 

He lands on the ground and scoffs at the new dent on his chassis. Poking at it for a bit before he looks up to see that his idea worked. Bumblebee was lying on the ground, his parts frozen in a forced stasis lock. 

He brushes himself off and walks towards Bumblebee, scanning the canyon one last time. He supposes if neither of them spotted the relic, then there’s a chance it didn’t go through the portal. Knock Out looks back down at Bumblebee as frustration bubbles up. If he was going to be fragged anyway, then why should the other bot get to walk away scratch free?

Forcing a smug smirk, He grabs Bumblebee’s front and turns his face to look at him. Knock Out shifts his arm into his saw and holds it up to the other bots chest. “Well, if I can't bring Megatron back the relic, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind the head of his favorite Scout.” Knock Out holds the saw closer to Bee’s throat, when a small glimmer catches his optics and just a few clicks away he spots the relic, the shining metal poking out from behind a rock.

“I guess it’s your lucky day,” he says, partly to himself, and drops the Autobot. Bumblebee crumples to the ground, unable to catch himself. Knock Out steps over Bumblebee’s stasis-locked form and walks towards the relic.

He picks it up and examines it. Megatron won’t be happy about the state of the relic, but it's better than if he came back empty handed like he thought he would.

Knock Out steps over the bumblebee again and waves the relic in his line of sight with a slag-eating grin on his faceplate.

“A pleasure as always, Bumblebee”

He turns around, ready to transform and escape, but freezes, energon going cold in his circuits when he spots Optimus Prime standing at the entrance of the ravine. 

Scrap.

Knock Out looks at the ground beside him and notices that Bumblebee has started to move his arms. He narrows his optics at Knock Out, before widening them as he catches sight of Optimus Prime. 

Knock Out takes a few steps back, angling himself away from Bumblebee and Optimus, but finds himself backed into the wall of the ravine. He watches as Bumblebee is able to shakily push himself up and moves towards the Prime at the entrance.

Oh he is so fragged.

Chapter Text

The moment Bumblebee stepped through the groundbridge, he recognized the rocky deserts of Jasper, Nevada, and quickly sent out a distress signal. He had hoped this would provide more of an advantage than it did, but when Knock Out had stasis locked him, Bee had started to worry.

But, when his optics landed on Optimus at the entrance of the canyon all his worries seemed stupid. Of course the Prime would finish his mission first and come to Bee’s aid.

He shakily pushes himself off the ground, and makes his way towards Optimus. His limbs ache from the stasis lock, but he doesn’t let it affect him until he’s safe next to the Prime. After taking a second to make sure his movement is back, he gets hit by a wave of excitement that he now has the upper hand. 

Fighting the urge to shoot Knock Out a smug look, he instead quickly vents to refocus on the mission. Following standard protocol, Bee starts reporting what happened to Optimus, *Relic Open Portal Here K-*

Though, he trails off as his optics meet the Prime’s. His faceplate contorted, rage radiating from his glare and disdain twisting his intake. If Bee didn’t know better he would say Optimus looked… betrayed.

Bee shrinks back at the look. He can’t think of anything that would make the Prime that mad. The most anger he had ever seen from Optimus was slight frustration, and even then, he always pushed it aside in favor of calmly approaching the situation. 

Bee stands there as Optimus studies him for a moment. And for the first time in a long while, Bee can’t help but notice how tall the Prime was. Not that he had actually gotten taller, but something about the way Optimus was holding himself made his height seem more daunting. 

Optimus finally speaks, frustration leaking into his words, “You are supposed to be dead.” 

The statement catches him completely off guard, momentarily stalling his processor. Dead? Why would he be dead? He hasn’t had any close calls recently, even his t-cog surgery hardly had a chance to kill him. 

Cutting off Bee’s confused questioning, the Prime takes a step towards Bee.

 “You think you can contact the Autobots after a stunt like that? What could possibly be so important that you’d risk a distress signal?”

Bee has no idea what he could have done to not only make the Prime think he was dead, but upset him to the point where he wouldn't even be part of the Autobots anymore. Stumbling over his limited words, Bee tries to bring the topic back to the mission again, hoping that somehow the Prime would understand this time. 

*Relic need?* He beeped hesitantly, the explanation sounding pathetic even to him. Prime reaches down and grabs Bee’s upper arm harshly, leaning down and getting in his face. Bee tries to flinch away from the sudden movement not expecting the outburst, but Oprimus just digs his digits deeper in response. 

“A relic? Why would you think I care about some Decepticon relic?”

Optimus pulls him in closer, making sure Bee had nowhere to look but his optics and speaks, “Was I supposed to be relieved to see you alive again? Like faking your death and finding this ‘relic’ makes up for your betrayal? It was foolish of me to even leave your death in the hands of my enemy. I should have done it myself when I had the chance.”

Bee feels an energon line in his arm snap from the pressure, the blue liquid bursting from the rupture and leaking down his arm. He lets out a slight warble at the jolt of pain, and tries to squirm out of the hold. The Prime guns at the sound, “Though I admit, I like what you’ve done to your voice box. Maybe if you’d done this sooner, we wouldn’t be in this position.” 

Hearing that is like a punch to the chassis. This can’t be Optimus- this can’t be the same Optimus that settled a heavy servo on his shoulder plates and whispered to Bee how much he missed hearing him speak. Who had confided in Bee how he didn’t realize how much he had relied on Bee’s vocal enthusiasm and hope, until it had been ripped away. No amount of confusion could ever make Optimus say that.

Without hesitation Bee shifts his other arm into a blaster and shoots Optimus point blank in the shoulder.

The Prime is pushed back by the force of the blast, but doesn’t release him. Instead, he hefts Bee off the ground and throws him across the canyon.

He flies through the air, before skidding across the floor of the canyon and slaming into one of the larger rocks, his doorwing shattering at the impact. He vents roughly in pain as a barrage of warning covers his vision. 

He clears them all, and lifts his good arm up to try and stop the energon leaking from his shoulder. He starts to run a quick diagnostic, but stops when he hears a noise from beside him. He jerks his head to the side and comes optic to optic with Knock Out, a look of pure confusion written across his faceplates. Bee had honestly forgotten he was here.

However, Bee doesn’t let Knock Out distract him from ‘Optimus,’ and starts to push himself off the ground, looking up in time to see the fake Prime shift out his axe and stalk over towards him. 

Optimus must have noticed the interaction, and looks away from Bee, setting his sights towards the rock Knock Out was hiding behind. He starts to raise his axe to strike down on it instead of Bee.

Bee rushes towards Knock Out and tackles him, gaining a squawk from the con, but managing to push them both out of the way of the Prime’s attack. The impact splitting the rock in two and leaving a dent on the ground from the impact.

Knock out looks at his destroyed hiding spot for a moment with a look of genuine fear, and then looks at Bee on top of him. He seems to train his face plates for a moment before moving to push Bee off of him.

Bee doesn’t hesitate to push himself away from the con, and focus his attention back on Optimus. He fires a few shots to try and stun the Prime, but it only seems to bring the Prime’s attention back on him instead of Knock Out. 

He dodges a few of the Primes swings, the two find themselves in a groove of ‘swing, dodge, shoot.’ While concentrating on dodging, Bee fails to notice that he has backed himself further into the crevice and is running out of space.

The Prime uses this to his advantage and rushes toward him, grabbing the front of Bee’s face harshly. He lifts him off the ground and slams him into the canyon wall. The force pushes against his vocoder while his backplates are dug into the rough wall of the canyon.

“Enough of this game,” He tightens his grip and Bee can feel the device start to crack under the pressure.

“You’ve been nothing but a nuisance since the day I found you, and now that this little charade is over,” He moves his thumb to wipe off a stray tear running down the side of Bee’s face, “I’ll be happy to string your corpse up with the rest of them.”

Bee tries to make a sound of confusion, horror, shock, anything  but all that comes out is a sharp static.

And at the sound, Optimus starts to laugh. A vindictive and sadistic laugh, resembling the taunting laugh of Megatron more than that of the Prime’s. But it was so clearly Optimus’ voice making the sound. The comparison to the war lord makes Bee’s circuits crawl and the pain in his mouth hurt even more.

“Aww, speechless? That’s a fitting way for you to die, don’t you think?”

Optimus brings his axe up and rests it on Bee’s neck, still holding Bee up by his jaw. He tries to squirm away from the axe, but just digs his hurt doorwing against the wall of the mountain, unable to avoid the blade.

This is it. This is how he dies, not in a battle for their freedom or a sacrifice for the Autobot cause, but here. A couple miles away from the place he was beginning to call home and the bots he thinks of as family.

He always thought he’d die to Megatron, his inner sparkling imagining grand scenarios where he takes the dictator down with him.

But instead he looks into the eyes of his caretaker as he prepares for his spark to die out.

Right before Optimus finishes him off, he freezes, and Bee can feel a faint electric shock surge through his body. He looks down behind the Prime to see the peds of Knock Out walk beside him.

He looks at Bee’s situation, and vents, “There, now we’re even.” Knock Out says seriously, collapsing his staff and meeting Bee’s optics with an unreadable expression. Bee just stares at him, relief flooding his circuits, and fluid filling his optics again. 

Bee doesn't get a chance to thank Knock Out before he looks away and transforms, speeding off into the desert.

Bee is still stuck in the frozen Prime’s hold. He uses his good arm to pry away the Prime’s digits, falling to the ground once he’s free from the hold. He stumbles a bit before he runs, not even sparing a glance at the Prime. Memories of Tyger Pax grip at the edge of his processor, and he's momentarily feeling like he’s falling off the cliff, pain filling every inch of his body. He pushes it away and tries to ignore the phantom pain building in his throat.

Bee knew transforming in his state would be risky, but he had to if he wanted to get far enough away before the Prime unfreezes. He forces his body to shift and prays to Primus that it works. 

Fortunately, he transforms successfully, but not easily. His newly replaced t-cog screeches at the strain, and his broken door bends awkwardly into his interior. Bee’s damaged arm seems to have transformed incorrectly, but he’s still able to drive so he clears the warnings that pop up and accelerates.

He rushes after Knock Out, flicking his optics between him and the frozen Prime behind him. His mind continues to give him flashes of the cliff side, of a large hand holding him up while another digs inside his throat and crushing his wires and tearing his voice box out of its place.

He accelerates, using the burn of his engine to drag him from the memory. He wills his processor to think of some place he can go. There’s no way he can go back to the Autobot base with the Prime so close behind them, and he wouldn’t risk showing the Optimus clone (or Knock Out) its location anyway. 

He eventually remembers a spot not far from here that he found on a patrol once. Some old human mine he found a couple energon shards in— It’s not the best place to hide, but he’s dangerously slow thanks to his injuries and if he could get Knock Out to follow him, he could make sure the Prime isn’t able to get to him either. If that’s how he treated an Autobot, he couldn’t imagine what he’d do to a Decepticon.

He speeds up, so that he's right behind Knock Out and goes to speak, before being hit with another wave of grief at the fire that flares in his throat in response.

Would Ratchet even be able to fix this after he managed to break his voice box again?

Bee shoves that thought back too. He focuses on getting Knock Out’s attention, honking his horn and flashing his lights.

When that fails, he pulls up beside Knock Out and rams into his side. Though much more gentle than he usually would. 

That seems to have got the other bot’s attention and Knock Out snaps in frustration.

“What is your problem? When I said we were even, I didn’t mean you were free to keep going after me! I could have left you back there, you know.”

Bee wants to scream. He’s trying to help Knock Out!

Bee honks his horn and speeds ahead of Knock Out, veering to the left and flicking on his blinker.

“You want me to follow you!? Why would I do that?”

Bee silently vents. Why was he trying to save this guy again? Whatever, there’s not much else he can do. Bee speeds towards his hiding spot, hoping Knock Out just takes the chance. 

Bee speeds up and rushes to get to where he remembered the mine being.

Knock Out seems to realize Bee is being helpful, or at least, isn't actively trying to scrape off his finish and has started following closely behind him. Bee eventually reaches the cave entrance and takes a sharp turn into the entrance of the mineshaft, swiftly transforming and diving through. 

He tries to ignore the way his gears shriek and grind at the movement and has to take a second to steady himself.

Knock Out rushes in after him, transforming and squeezing through the gap, sliding on the ground similar to Bumblebee, then pushing himself up. His face twists briefly with displeasure as he examines his scratched finish, before looking around the small cave and turning to give Bee a confused look. 

Bee ignores Knock Out as he looks around the area for something to block the entrance. Prime might not think to go in, but if he sees them when he drives past, they'd be fragged. He spots a boulder large enough to block the entrance and makes his way over to it.

His damages make the boulder hard to push, and he struggles for a moment before Knock Out appears beside him and the two push the rock over the entrance. Shrouding the room in darkness.

The pair stand in silence for a couple of clicks until they hear the sound of the Semi speeding past them. Bee keeps his optics trained on the ground, while they listen.

He eventually looks up from the ground to meet Knock Out’s glowing red optics, the blue of his own mixing with Knock Out’s, illuminating the room in a faint purple glow.

Bee stiffens when he sees Knock Out reach for the staff on his back. His blaster ready to shift out at the slightest movement. But the room simply lights up a pale blue color as Knock Out places his illuminated staff gently against the wall. The ‘Con turns around to face Bee again.

They stare at each other in the dim light, now stuck together. Bee hopes he won’t regret this.

Chapter Text

Knock Out sets up his staff with so many questions swirling in his processor. Never in all of his interactions with the Prime, had he ever done more damage than was necessary. And that was unnecessary, especially to one of his own soldiers. It reminded him of Megatron, and then he shuddered at the reminder of what He would probably do to Knock Out if he takes any longer to return.

But if Optimus was going to start leading like Megatron, Knock Out wasn’t even going to ‘return,’ Screw earth and their fantastic automobiles, he was taking the first flight off this rock. Better scraped up than dead .

Though he hated the thought of filthing it on some other planet, it's not like he would have other options. He knows the Autobot leader holds back— even if he has ripped off one of Knock Out’s doors before— and that that weakness is one of the many reasons the Decepticons will reign victorious.

But if Optimus starts killing even his own soldiers? His standing is pointless, and the Decepticons can flounder without their medic.

He turns to face Bumblebee, focusing back on what caused the Prime to be that betrayed before he gets ahead of himself.

“What was his deal?” Knock Out waves his hand towards the entrance of the cave, “that hardly seemed like our friendly neighborhood Optimus,” he looks over towards Bumblebee with a smug look on his face.

Bumblebee just glares at the response, though the effort looked pathetic at best. The bot had definitely seen better cycles, energon was still leaking from his shoulder and his finish was completely scrapped up. Though Knock Out’s own finish wasn’t in the best shape either. Still, it was odd for Bumblebee to not even beep at this point. Especially after getting Knock Out to follow him.

Knock Out straightens his expression and crosses his arms, “What, too good to talk now or something?” 

Bee doesn’t appreciate that comment, and starts moving his good hand around in response. Knock Out assumes it was supposed to be a form of sign language, but not one he’s even remotely familiar with, especially not with only one hand. Why would Bumblebee expect him to understand that?

“Seriously, What's with the charades?” 

Bumblebee looks around for a moment trying to find something, but gives up and vents a deep sigh before letting out an ear pearcing static screech straight from his vocoder. Knock Out flinches backwards and has to fight the urge to turn off his audials as the sound grates against them and reverberates around the cave. 

“Well that’s just lovely ,” This was not lovely. If Bumblebee couldn’t confirm any of his theories, he was starting to regret even bothering to save the other bot. He could have gotten a head start on his escape by now.

Bumblebee just looks away from him and stares at the ground, and Knock Out scoffs at the movement, “So you brought me here to, what, waste my time? I could have easily outrun Optimus and —” A notification pops up on the corner of his vision and his systems freeze for a moment.

“ oh. ”

His ranting halted as he stared at the notification to see Bumblebee sent a request for a personal comm link. Knock Out didn’t even let people from his own faction have his personal link– barring Breakdown of course– So why would Bumblebee want to send him something like that?

He goes to retort, but pauses, it made sense why the other bot chose it. Personal links allow bots to send written messages straight from one processor to the other, and despite the huge breach of privacy, it was probably Knock Out’s best chance at getting information.

Especially with his long range communicator fritzing out– Back in the canyon, he had tried to call Soundwave for a groundbridge, but his comm was completely silent. He tested it again when he was driving away from the canyon, and while he was interrupted by Bumblebee ramming into him, he could tell he wasn’t going to get the comm back online anytime soon.

But due to the nature of how personal comm link’s worked, he wouldn’t need any part of his communicator to receive written messages from Bumblebee, especially at such a close range like this.

That doesn’t mean he can keep the disgust out of his voice as he looks at it, “Well that’s one option…” He trails off, still looking at the notification in confusion before looking over to Bumblebee, “You’d really risk giving me –” He laughs a bit at how absurd it seems– “ the Decepticon CMO, your personal comm?” but his laughter falls flat when Bumblebee gives him a serious nod.

“Fine, suit yourself, it’s no scratch off my finish.”

He still hesitates for a second before accepting the request. This could be some sort of trick. He doubt’s the Autobots are capable of that kind of deception, but a spark link could be tracked down with the right technology…

He quickly shakes away the thought, if this was the plan all along, Optimus would have left Bumblebee in better shape than that .

He decides it's worth the risk, and accepts the request. Though, he’s taken aback by the message attached to it.

::thank you::

What exactly the bot was thanking Knock Out for was beyond him, but at least he could finally get answers. 

He decides to ignore the message and looks at Bumblebee again before continuing, “Well, then, you’ve kept me in suspense long enough, what happened to your great leader?”

::I don’t know! I clearly wasn’t expecting him to act like that. He kept going off about how I was dead, and he didn’t even know about the relic when I mentioned it!::

“You don’t know!?” seriously all of that for nothing .  

::I think you ‘cons did something to him.::

Before Knock Out got a chance to retort, Bumblebee sends another message, :: Maybe you planted something in his head during that time you stole him.::

Knock Out scoffed at the accusation, “It was nice when Optimus finally came to his senses, but you bots ruined it, why would that still be a problem?”

Bumblebee glares back as he writes his next message, ::I don’t know, Knock Out, why would it still be a problem?::

“I didn’t do this!? Why would he have gone after me if this was the plan!?”

::Well it’s not like dark energon usually goes the way you cons want it::

“Oh sure, blame dark energon!” He takes a step towards Bumblebee, “What would a scout like you even know about that”

::probably more than you!::

He vents in frustration before defending himself, “Well I know for certain that dark energon doesn’t change a bot’s finish like that. He hardly even looked like an Autobot with that mudded red and blue he was rocking.” 

Though after he said it, he really started thinking about how weird that detail was. Even if, somehow, without his help, the Deceptions managed to control Optimus Prime . Why would they bother to recolor him, without giving him the Decepticon insignia? 

::Of course you would be thinking about his paint job.::

“Even if he was mind controlled or had a sudden change of heart, why would anyone bother to change his paint job ?”

He sees Bee’s face light up before being blocked by a message, ::Maybe it wasn’t Optimus at all!:: 

Oh. That would make sense. And if that was the case, it opened up so many other questions. but he couldn’t give the autobot the victory of figuring out something so obvious. He forces out a scoff, “Obviously, that's what I just said. I forgot how slow you Autobots can be.” 

That seems to kill Bumblebee’s joy and he trains his faceplates, Knock Out staring at him waiting for some sort of retort, but Bumblebee just averts eye contact, and the two fall into an uncomfortable silence. 

What was he doing? Sure, it was weird that the Prime attacked Bumblebee, but why didn’t he just run when he had the chance? Hand Megatron the relic and news of the Autobot leader ‘going rogue.’ He would have been celebrated . 

But instead he followed Bumblebee into this stupid cave, and all they managed to figure out was that there was some freaky second optimus they’d all have to deal with. 

Knock Out looks towards the exit, then towards Bumblebee again. He could still kill him, or at the very least, doubts Bumblebee would be able to stop him if he leaves. Though how to contact the Nemesis without his long-range is still an issue—

::Knock Out::

The message halts his train of thought, “Ugh, what do you want?” 

::We need to go.::

“ We ?” 

Bumblebee ignores him and starts moving towards the entrance of the mine. Trying to move the rock on his own again, but pauses to form a message before looking back over at Knock Out.

::This might be worse than we thought it was, and I just gave the Autobots our location.:: 

Knock Out was really regretting not leaving when he had the chance. He walks over to the rock and starts to help Bumblebee push the rock, but once they get it open, he blocks the entrance and looks back at Bumblebee, “Well I’m sure you’ll get that all sorted out just fine on your own.”

He transforms and revs his engine, “Thanks again… for the relic!”

He laughs as he starts accelerating, but can’t help but feel his spark jump at the sight of a line of cars approaching from west of the entrance.

He turns to go east but angles his side mirror to try and get a better look at them. They look mostly like the Autobots. A semi, a motorcycle, a military truck, but like Optimus, they're all strangely off-colored. The motorcycle was pitch black, as opposed to Arcee’s usual purple, and Bulkhead seemed to be almost completely red instead of green.

Clearly, this problem was more than some sort of Optimus clone. He stays watching his mirror as Bumblebee rushes out of the cave entrance turning to face the autobot advance before facing to look at Knock Out and rushing his direction.

Knock Out focuses back on where he’s driving, just in time to spot an unknown blue bot standing right in front of him, immediately aiming his blasters for Knock Out’s front tire.

Knock Out speeds up to ram into the bot, but the blast just hits his back tire instead and he starts to swerve out of control, heading straight towards the canyon wall to his right. The impact dents his front and manages to screw up his front axle.

Fragg.

He shifts back into bot mode and dodges a punch from the bot. He reaches for his staff to defend himself, but is startled by Bumblebee ramming straight into the bot, transforming and using the momentum to throw the unknown bot towards Arcee, who had managed to catch up to them.

After the move, Bee starts running along the edge of the cliff, using its natural curve as cover before quickly moving between some of the rocks jutting out of the ground as a way to hide.

Knock Out is quick to do the same, using a nearby rock as cover. He can hear the sound of transforming behind him, and the sound of Optimus’ voice giving out curt orders that only make him press further into the rock.

Knock Out looks around the area they're in, the walls of the canyon on all sides of them, but just across the wide rocky valley, he can see a clear cut through the canyon leading into a town. 

He goes to transform and rush towards it, but remembers his injuries. There's no way of driving out of this without a back wheel or functional steering. 

He looks away from his path of escape and over at Bumblebee, who seems to spot the same exit and transform. Knock Out’s energon tanks sink. He can’t get out, and there's no way he could fight off four bots.

He quickly abandons his cover and runs over to Bumblebee, grabbing his back bumper as the bot starts to accelerate. Causing a loud screech. The car stills and Knock Out gets another message on his viser. 

::Are you trying to get us both killed? Let go! we need to get out of here!::

“You got me into this mess, you can’t just leave me!”

::I thought you were faster than me,:: He can practically hear the sarcasm in the message, ::just catch up.::

He gets out of Knock Out's hold and starts to speed away. Knock Out doesn’t even think before he jumps forward and lands on the top of Bumblebee’s roof. Holding on to the sides of the car as he starts to swerve. The car slows for a second as Bumblebee messages him again.

::What in Primus are you doing!?::

“I can’t transform, just drive!” He watches as Arcee turns the corner and rushes towards them, Bumblebee floors it and the two rush forward, straight towards the city of Jasper, Nevada.

Chapter Text

Bee skids as he accelerates with Knock Out on his roof, the pressure of the other bot mixed with the rest of his injuries making it hard to steer. But, with the ‘Autobots’ close behind them, they don’t have much of a choice.

He takes a sharp turn to avoid a ram from Bulkhead, almost flinging Knock Out off, who seems to take it as an opportunity to start talking, “Why would you contact them again, I wasn’t even attacking you!” The ‘this time’ was left unsaid.

Bee goes to retort, and takes his sight off the road to focus on the message, he’s about halfway through it when his side crashes into a rock, almost flinging Knock Out off of him again, getting a yelp from the ‘con, “Hey! watch the road!”

Bee taps back into reality, speeding up faster to make up for the mistake. He doesn’t bother to try and respond again. Knock Out will just have to wait. 

A few shots land by his wheels and he feels Knock Out struggle to stay on. The ‘con muttering something about wishing he had long ranged weapons before he speaks louder so Bee can hear him, “Remember that time we raced and I stole your pet?”

He remembers that time Knock Out stole the wrong human, but unable to make the correction he settles for a honk. His sights checking back on Cliffjumper trailing closely behind them. His fans halt again at the clearer sight of him. Earlier when he rammed the bot, he thought his processors were glitching by thinking this blue bot could be his old teammate. But, there was no mistaking it at this distance, even with the discoloration and added spikes, it had to be Cliffjumper.

Though, he supposes it was as much of Cliffjumper as the rest of them were the Autobots.

All of this had to be some curse of the relic. Nothing else made sense to him. He felt like he was looking at his team through broken glass, and there's no way at this point they could be clones. If Knock Out were to be believed; The Decepticons weren’t behind this, and no human knew of Cliff besides Jack, Raf, and Miko.

He pulls himself from his thoughts and realizes that Knock Out was speaking again.

“--shoot straight through town we should get to the same racing area. Without those pesky humans, your little bridge stunt could actually work.”

Through the town? Was he trying to get them killed?

Bee honks twice in show of disapproval, the whole reason knock Out was on top of him was because, apparently, he couldn’t transform. Driving through the town even with the sky darkening, would be a sure-fire way to get them unwanted human attention.

Bee speeds towards the edge of the town and stars to veer down one of the side roads onto an interstate highway

Knock Out shifts on his roof, “Hey! I said go through the town!” Bee simply ignores the protest and keeps following the feeder road, but Knock Out places his ped down and jabs it into the ground, forcing Bee to swerve off the road towards the town again.

Bee goes to turn himself back around again, but gets shoved forward by Cliffjumper ramming into his back bumper. He speeds up, and drives into town, watching the light turn yellow in front of him. 

Like he thought, it wasn’t nearly late enough for humans to be asleep. He has to dodge several other cars on the road and speeds up to avoid hitting someone crossing the street. Usually Bee wouldn’t be too worried about a stunt like this, Raf or the human government could find a way to cover it up, but could Bee even trust them anymore?

And you know it's bad when the bot he trusts the most right now is Knock Out.

It doesn’t take long before they’re through the town and back at the racing area. Bee spots the bridge and sharply turns under the cover. He slams on his brakes, flinging the Decepticon off of him. 

He’d have to change his altmode at this point, there's no way humans would see the incredibly obvious giant robot on a car like him and not make the connection. 

And even though Knock Out was right, and it did lose the Autobots, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t upset about it.

Knock Out pushes himself off the ground and goes to retort, but snaps his mouth shut when the sound of tires screech overhead. 

“Dammit!” He can hear the sound of the bot shifting before there's a crash, like something was kicked in anger, “I lost them.” 

It seems the blue bot even had Cliffjumper’s voice. If Bee didn’t know any better, he would leap from where he’s hiding and embrace the other bot. But instead he stays still in alt mode, making sure his engine is cut completely.

“I don’t know, it sure as Primus looked like him.” 

“O-of course, my apologies, my Prime.”

“yes sir”

Cliffjumper shifts again and speeds off the way he came from. Bee and Knock Out stay completely still for a couple of klicks until the sound of tires fades and there's nothing left but the eerie silence of the desert. 

Bee shifts back into root mode and watches Knock Out reach into his interior to start fiddling with the relic. Seems he made the same connection Bee did. 

Unlike last time though, nothing happens, and Knock Out starts fiddling with it more aggressively than before. 

Bee reaches out to try and use the relic himself, but Knock Out pulls it away fast,

“Nuh uh, finder keepers, Bug.”

Knock Out starts hitting the thing at this point, and Bee steps closer to try and grab the relic again, causing the ‘con to grip it close to his chassis. Bee eventually glares at him and sends a message, ::maybe it’s only single use per bot, if you’d just let me try it, we can get back to how things normally are!:: 

Bee’s optics starts to fill with cleaning fluid when he sends the message, and for a second, he almost felt thankful for not having his vocoder. Had he beeped that outloud, Knock Out surely would’ve noticed the desperation in his tone. 

“What. so you can just take the relic back to your leader when we return? As if.” Knock Out quickly shoves the relic back into his interior and takes a step away from Bee.

Bee wants to scream. He’s used to Knock Out being difficult, but with everything that's happened on this mission, he was hoping for one thing to go smoothly. Plus now that his systems were reverting from battle mode, his injuries were flaring up again, and it hurt.

Bee shakes his head, before pausing to send another message, ::I’ll give it back, just let me try!:: 

The two have a silent staring contest for a beat before Knock Out scowls, “Fine!” He grabs his staff from his back and points it directly at Bee’s chest, causing his fans to whir in surprise. “But one wrong move and I’ll take it back myself.” 

It’s better than nothing. Bee holds out his good arm to Knock Out and stays still while he watches the bot grab the relic. 

Once it's in his servo, Bee isn’t actually sure what to do with it. Sure he watched Knock Out activate it before, but as he fiddles with it, he can’t get anything to budge. Let alone open up like it did in the subway.

He looks up to Knock Out to catch a look of worry on the bot's face before it hardens again, and he moves to activate the staff. Bee quickly looks down at the relic again. He didn’t get a good look at it before, but he doubts it was this destroyed when they found it. 

He vents a sigh, and slowly returns the relic to Knock Out. The other bot snatching it from his servo but making no move to retract his staff.

“Great. New plan! How about it's my turn to call for backup.” Knock Out takes a step towards Bee, “Only problem with that is somebot broke my comm.”

Bee wants to retort, but he doesn’t want to take his optics off of Knock Out. He settles for pushing his fans in warning.

“Clearly your comm is working just fine. Plus I’ve dealt with your ‘Autobots’ far too much for one cycle.”

Bee goes to move further away from the staff, but Knock Out just follows. Causing Bee to raise his servos in a universal sign of peace, before taking a risk to write his bargain. 

::What if I tried contacting the humans first. They could tell us if something changed with the Autobots.::

“Ugh, enough with your ‘friends.’ Just accept you’re an enemy of the Autobots now!”

::That doesn’t mean I’m a Decepticon!::

He rolls to the side narrowly avoiding a jab from Knock Out. He goes to shift his blaster before seeing the ‘con had fallen to the ground from the movement. He pushes himself back up, but seems to be favoring one of his pedes. 

::We just need to find somewhere to lay low,:: Bee vents before sending another message, ::The Autobots are probably searching for us.::

Knock Out seems to make no move to show that he’s reading what Bee’s sending, but he tries sending something else anyway, ::Like it or not we’re on the same team here.::

“I don’t do teams.”

::Just a truce, something until we figure out what's going on!:: Or anything to at least get the ‘con to stop trying to kill him. 

Knock Out pauses a frustrated look on his faceplates before speaking again, “How about we make a deal?” 

“I play along with your little truce.”

“But only if you contact the Decepticons for me at the dawn of the next earth cycle.” 

Bee considers this for a moment, before his processor supplies him with a thought he really doesn’t like, ::How can you be sure the Decepticons will be any different than the Autobots.::

Knock Out’s expression falters for a second. Neither of them are in the state to take a chance on that. Though Knock Out just scoffs,“Well, unless you have a place I can go to fix the relic, the Decepticons will be my best bet.”

“I only need you for your comm, you’re more than welcome to leave after the message is sent.”

He supposes it's better than nothing. As much as Bee dreads the idea of facing the ‘cons alone, if this all was caused by the relic, he doesn’t have much of a choice but to follow Knock Out as long as he has it. 

At least he’ll have the whole night to come up with a better option than the Deceptions.

::Fine. I’ll contact them in the morning. If there's no other options.::

He extends a servo to the ‘con to solidify their deal. Knock Out rolls his optics, but shakes his servo anyway.

The sky has fully darkened by the time the two bots are walking through the desert. Without alt modes they can’t get far, but hopefully they’ll be far enough away for the ‘badbots’ (as Bee has started to think of them as) to not find them before morning.

They walk up to one of the canyon walls and eventually spot a small divot in the wall. It’s not nearly as secure as the mine, but it's better cover than a human bridge.

He looks towards Knock Out and nods towards the cave, the other bot following in behind him clearly withholding complaints.

Bee’s just thankful he’s actually cooperating. He thinks this might be a new record of time without Knock Out trying to kill him. Even if it is only for a set amount of time.

Bee practically slides down the cave wall once they reach the back portion of the crevice. Energon loss finally getting to him. He’ll have to do something about his wounds before anything else, but he can’t stop his processor from swirling in anxiety.

He doesn’t trust Knock Out, even with the bot needing him alive for his comm. And without finding another location they can go. He’ll have no choice but to go straight to the Decepticons.

He tries to wrack his memory files for anywhere they can go. But besides government bases the Autobot’s have access to, he can only think of Decepticon laboratories. Wasn’t there a crashed ship they found somewhere in Iowa? Or that abandoned lab in…

He’s distracted by another energon warning blocking his vision. Slagg. That rupture must be draining his energon faster than he thought. 

He clears the warning and looks down at the wound on his armplate. His mind flashing back to Optimus’ servo wrapped around his arm. Bee wonders if he didn’t think to shoot, would Optimus have torn it off? Megatron would have. And the most Bee thinks back on how that Optimus acted, the more the two seem to overlap. 

“And I’ll be happy to string your corpse up with the rest of them”

Bee shakes away the thought and loosens his own grip on his arm. When did that happen? He needs to focus. Fix his injuries, find another location for Knock Out to fix the relic, and cure whatever's wrong with the Autobots… 

Bee vents. Why him? Of all Bots, someone like Arcee would handle this better than he is. Ratchet wouldn't have gotten found on the comms back in the cave. Bulkhead wouldn’t need Knock Out to save him from Optimus.

And Optimus. He’d know what to do right now. He had all their backup locations memorized. He’d probably even know the entire history of the relic along with what was wrong with it.

Bumblebee’s a good scout. A spy. You send him into a building and he can memorize the map at a glance, make it to any location unseen. But this isn’t his usual mission. There isn’t a map, and there isn’t someone on comms for backup.

But it doesn’t matter. Bee’s survived worse and he’d be damned if he let some relic end him before the war does.