#but instead of going to megatron he defected and brought them to the autobots

[dragqueenstarscream]

Personally, I'd kill for a Starop fic/ onshot where Starscream finally manages to cut ties with Megatron and it's just fluff of Optimus comforting him and assuring him it was the right thing to do, that everything will be ok for the both of them

-💌 anon

i wanna scream at the top of my lungs

tfp starscream x optimus prime

i've been waiting for an excuse to write something like this! i already have a fic like this planned for my monsterformers continuity, but let's do one for tfp because i just really want starscream to stick it to this particular megatron.

title comes from "lost in the ocean" by glass animals.

contains: established relationship, starscream leaving megatron, implied abuse, angst, fluff, optimus being a supportive partner

the night sky stretched on endlessly over jasper, nevada as the town slept below. apart from a few busy establishments, the people had turned in for the night. the same couldn't be said for the autobots, who were living it up in the omega base, passing around high grade and celebrating a hard fought victory.

away from them, though, sitting on a cliffside, sat one bot in deep contemplation.

starscream looked a mess. though ratchet had patched up his injuries, he still had filth packed into his seams and a smear of energon along his jaw. his thick brows were furrowed in concentration, as if pondering some impossible question.

but one thing stood out above all else.

starscream was alive.

he couldn't believe it himself, the more he thought about it. sure, the evidence for him being alive was right there; he could see the sky above him, feel the ground beneath his pedes, hear the night breeze swirling around his wings. but he felt as if it shouldn't be real. this existence, this reality was obviously nothing more than the dreams of a dying bot, and they would fade any minute now as he joined with the allspark.

but they never faded, and he never died.

the planet turned. the stars above passed by. the night grew shorter. the world moved on.

but starscream still felt stuck in place. mentally, whenever he lost focus of his environment, he found himself back outside the nemesis, daring to look megatron in the eye while his leader held his fusion cannon to his head. he couldn't bring himself out of that standstill. how could he? he was about to die. how could he move on when he was staring death in the face?

the stars drifted by overhead like ships on a glassy black ocean. a lone car drove by on the highway far below. the world moved on.

the sound of heavy thumps tugged starscream out of his thought spiral. for a moment, he thought that megatron had come to finish the job, but he knew the sound of his leader's steps from anywhere.

former leader. he had to keep reminding himself that.

"starscream?" a familiar rumble of a voice said from behind him. of course. it was optimus, doing his team leader duty, as usual.

"what do you want?" starscream grumbled, pulling his knees closer to his chest.

"ratchet told me i'd find you up here," optimus said. he came up on starscream's right and took his seat at the cliffside. the two bots stayed quiet for a few moments until optimus broke the silence. "how are you feeling?"

"how do you think i'm feeling?" starscream snorted derisively. "i'm now public enemy number one of the entire decepticon legion."

optimus only nodded, and his silence allowed starscream some more time to vent. "i can't believe i did that. i can't believe i actually did that. what kind of glitchhead says something like that?"

"what do you mean?" optimus asked, turning to look at starscream.

"what are you- i told megatron to go frag himself!" starscream exclaimed. "no one does that unless they have a death wish!"

"starscream," optimus started to say, but starscream wasn't done rambling.

"i should be offline," he said bluntly, getting up and starting to pace back and forth. "i shouldn't even be here. i told him off, and now, the entire decepticon legion will come for me."

"starscream," optimus spoke up, but starscream had more to say.

"why am i still here?" starscream asked, shaking his head, optics turned skyward. "i don't even know how i'm still online! primus, optimus, he had his cannon to my head! i can still feel it! and yet i told him to his face to stick it up his aft! how am i still here? how am i still online?!"

"starscream."

the stern tone of optimus' voice made starscream jump. he fell silent as he looked over to his partner, whose face was now fixed in a hard countenance. after a minute's quiet, optimus' face softened, and he began to speak again.

"you're scaring yourself with things that never happened," he said. "there's no need to be saying that you should be dead, because you aren't. you survived."

"but why?" starscream asked. "i still can't process it."

"because you were right," optimus said, "and megatron knew it. you may have been his second in command, but you were also his tool."

"what do you mean by that?" starscream asked.

"he used you to instill fear in the others," optimus explained. "you were an example he would set to the other decepticons. he needed you to exert his authority over them. now, with you gone, he doesn't have that weapon anymore."

"how do you know any of this? you weren't even there to witness it," starscream huffed.

"because i know that side of megatron very well," optimus sighed. "i know how ruthless he can be. you are not the only one he has hurt."

starscream didn't say anything. he knew the history that optimus and megatron had once shared. of course optimus knew what megatron was like. arguably, optimus knew him better than anyone else.

"i suppose you're right," starscream mumbled after an awkward silence as he sat back down, knees curled to his chest. it was the closest thing to an apology that he could muster at the moment.

"this was a long time coming," optimus said.

"too long," starscream grumbled, resting his forehead against his knees.

"either way," optimus said, "you did the right thing."

"by what? running?" starscream barked out a laugh. "i just did what i've always done."

"starscream, i was there with you," optimus said. "i saw what really happened. i saw you stand before megatron and choose to live for yourself, rather than him."

"optimus, i could've offlined where i stood," starscream snarled. "he had his cannon to my head!"

"and yet you stood your ground," optimus continued. "you made him back down. that takes incredible courage."

starscream huffed and turned his head away. "the only reason he left was because you were there to kick his aft if he tried anything," he sneered. in a quiet tone, he added, "that's the only reason i could stand up to him at all."

"starscream, no one else could've done what you did back there," optimus insisted. "and there is no shame in having someone to support you. i couldn't have made it as far as i have in this war without the autobots by my side. none of us have gone through this war alone, and no one is expecting you to do so." he reached out and wrapped his arm around starscream's waist, an invitation for a hug. "though we all have our own battles to fight, it doesn't mean we have to fight alone."

starscream sighed and moved closer to optimus, leaning into his touch. optimus gently squeezed his waist and turned to kiss him on his temple.

"do you remember what you told him?" optimus asked. "right at the end?"

"of course i do," starscream snipped. he took a deep invent, then said, in a calmer tone, "i told him, 'you need me, but i will never need you again.'"

"you said the right thing," optimus reassured him. "you won't ever have to go back to him again."

"you know he'll come looking for me," starscream huffed. "he doesn't like it when his prey gets away."

"if he ever comes back," optimus began, but starscream interrupted him.

"when he comes back," starscream corrected him.

"if he ever comes back," optimus insisted, "we're here for you." he squeezed starscream's side and said, "i'm here for you."

starscream chuckled and laid his head on optimus's side. "i know you are."

optimus smiled and kissed starscream again. "i'm proud of you, sweetspark. i love you."

"the feeling's mutual, you overgrown sap," starscream smirked, which made optimus chuckle warmly.

"the others are inside awaiting your presence, if you'd like to see them," optimus informed starscream. "i have to say, they're rather impressed with your bravery."

"as they should be," starscream joked. "not many people have told megatron to shove his cannon up his aft and survived."

optimus shook his head and laughed as he rose to his pedes. he reached one servo out to starscream, who gladly accepted and pulled himself up. together, the two autobots made their way back into the base, ready to return to the party bulkhead had set up for them.

the stars turned as the night passed on. wispy clouds drifted by. insects flitted back and forth along the wind. the world moved on.

and starscream knew, deep in his spark, that he would, too.

[honorarycassowary]

The Secret Life of Squadron X IDW Transcript

Inspired by @decepti-thots​ transcribing Zero Point a little while back, I decided to transcribe another text feature only available on the Last Stand of the Wreckers hardover collection. Unlike Zero Point, this is less relevant to the rest of the IDW universe, since I believe only Ferak ever appears outside of LSOTW. But I think it provides interesting and sometimes moving character notes for these characters. So without further ado, have The Secret Life of Squadron X by James Roberts.

When the time came to introduce Squadron X in issue four, Nick and I realized we had a problem: we still hadn't decided which characters were going to make up the team. All of the big name G1 Decepticons were accounted for by this point, and using famous faces was out of the question anyway because the entire squad died in issue five. There was still a handful of makeweight Decepticons like, say, Snapdragon, who had yet to appear in IDW's Transformers continuity, but in this context their relative fame caused a problem: fans wouldn't believe that they were powerful enough to pose a serious threat to Impactor and his team. We could have made them up, but there was something a little anticlimactic about them being a bunch of generics.

In the end, we decided that Squadron X would be comprised of genuine G1 Decepticons, albeit phenomenally obscure ones—characters who had appeared in the UK or US Marvel comics, if only for a panel or two. This way, they would be more than generics, they could be as powerful as we wanted them to be, and they would make hardcore fans do a double-take.

MACABRE

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE. TRANSFORMERS UK #88 (PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1986)

The crazed, insecure Macabre made his debut in the last part of "Target: 2006." when he attempted to assassinate Emirate Xaaron. He failed when Impactor took the fatal blast instead, and seconds later was destroyed by the Wreckers. Of course, we couldn't resist the opportunity to turn the tables and, nearly 25 years later, have Impactor assassinate him.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Macabre was the leader of Squadron X. He succeeded Valve. a founding member of the Wreckers (and Spark brother to Springarm and Wheelarch) who defected to the Decepticons. The badges he wore around his neck were collected over several years. and were all torn from the dead bodies of high-ranking Autobots.

TORNADO

FIRST OF TWO APPEARANCES: TRANSFORMERS UK #15 (APRIL 1985)

Compared to his teammates Tornado is a veritable superstar, having appeared in not one but two Transformers stories. He cropped up in "The Enemy Within!", Simon Furman's first TF story, in flashback: he rebelled against Megatron and died fighting a fellow Decepticon, Earthquake. Before the war broke he out he worked as a saboteur in Vos. In "State Games!", a text story from the second Transformers Annual, his plan to bomb Tarn's power plant and frame lacon was thwarted when he was caught in the act.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Tornado was Macabre's right hand robot, and of all Squadron X had the highest number of kills to his name. Starscream had secretly promised him a place on Decepticon High Command "come the revolution."

EARTHQUAKE

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS UK #15 (APRIL 1985)

Another Decepticon rebel. Earthquake tried to get off the hook by opting for trial-by-combat. Unfortunately, he ended up fighting Tornado. Although, in his words, he could "warp the very surface of Cybertron," he couldn't gain the upper hand: neither robot survived the fight.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Earthquake was famous for being the Decepticon who brought down Sherma Bridge. Prior to his death at the hands of Impactor he was suffering from dementia and, after exhibiting disturbing signs of primus apotheosis, had been earmarked by Macabre for termination.

FANG

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS UK #82 (OCTOBER 1986)

Another character who made his debut appearance in 'Target: 2006,' Fang was a bully who got his kicks terrorizing weaker robots in Maccadam's Old Oil House. Studded with spikes—or fangs—it's impossible to tell what he transformed into. Whether he was able to transform after being punched to bits by Twin Twist is unknown.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, the mute Fang lost the power of speech when Impactor shredded his vocal processor during the Wreckers' infamous nine-second attack on the Decepticon Penal Colony, Styx (see Wreckers: Declassified 97: The Wreckers' Lightning Strike). He subsequently communicated using a form of aggressive sign language, and at the end of conversations was inevitably the last person standing.

TRITON

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: 1989 TRANSFORMERS ANNUAL (SEPTEMBER 1988)

By the year 2510 Triton had been masquerading as an Autobot for ninety years, and was technically the last surviving Decepticon. Determined that the Autobots should not win the war, he caused a fight between Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and the Wreckers, during which Roadbuster was killed by Scattershot. Triton himself was killed during the ensuing shoot-out.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Triton served as Violator's second-in-command aboard the Fatal Consequence and its predecessor, the Rash Action. He was invited—then ordered at gunpoint—to join Squadron X after singlehandedly murdering a 20-strong Autobot boarding party.

FERAK

FIRST (AND ONLY?) APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS [US] #17 (FEBRUARY 1986)

A mid-ranking Decepticon who enjoyed hunting and killing Empties, Ferak and his fellow hunter-seekers helped Lord Straxus keep Polyhex under control. He was incapacitated after Blaster smashed him into a tower, but—according to some sources—resurfaced in 2007. soon after the battle against Unicron. commanding an airborne hunter squad. He was killed by Rodimus Prime after unsuccessfully begging for mercy.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Ferak is a talented engineer who came to Megatron's attention after designing the Nightmare Engine. Prior to his death he became increasingly disenamored with life as a member of Squadron X. and was intending to quit once they'd finished ferrying munitions to a Decepticon outpost on the other side of the Redan Quadrant. He harbored ambitions to rekindle his friendship with Wheeljack, but deep down knew this was impossible.

CROSSCUT

FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS [US] #18 (MARCH 1986)

Crosscut's chief contribution to the Decepticon war effort was to demonstrate the fatal effects of a faulty space bridge.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Crosscut was often mistaken for a member of the Decepticon Justice Division—something that invariably worked in his favor. There wasn't much room for friendships within Squadron X, but Crosscut and Triton bonded after Springer forcibly welded them together in battle.

[eloquent-music]

Can you give me a short lecture about your

previous ability as (Damus)

and your new ability as (Tarn)

//click sound of retractable pen //

While he doesn't necessarily like answering things of this sort mostly because it is far too complex to explain and giving any sort of deep valued information can jeopardize him in multiple fashions.

"I don't think you quite understand how long it took my abilities to evolve and develop. I held the name of Tarn for a while when I was under Megatron's guidance. It was to get rid of my past and leave it all behind."

"The early centuries of my abilities were awful and uncontrollable. I could not control myself. The simplest touch, even if I was resting my claws on something, I'd deactivate it and receive a bunch of recoil. The larger the machine, the more it hurt. Simple touch was out of the question for me for most of my life. Thats when the Institute broke my mind. I wanted to shut every machine off, I can hear them differently than the average mech. The machines that experimented on me hurt me more than my abilities would so feeling my abilities' recoil became like a drug because they'd ground my mind. You know in the beginning, it was very intimate to kill someone with my abilities coming through my claws because I could watch the life get drained out from them. I can’t tell you how many Institute mechs I’d accidentally killed in front of others when trying to escape their grasp  but after a point I got numb to being brought in.” 

"Even after Shockwave was reformatted, he assisted in developing said abilities before he'd defected. He got me to move my abilities from my servos to my Voice since they originated from my spark. Megatron had given me POWs to practice on. His guidance helped my abilities grow, even if I was persuaded and infatuated with causing harm. After Grindcore and all, the spoils of prisoners were split amongst some of the top tier Decepticons. I was given a good amount to assist in the furthering of my abilities for a new upcoming thing. That by the time my team was released for me, my abilities were developed enough to cause extreme harm. I learned to speak through different frequencies but thing is, ever since the beginning, I had a knack for reading sparks, so I just developed that more. I started out on using them against Autobots first before moving to traitors of the Cause. The rumors spread like wildfire because of my sickened nature of letting some go after watching what I’d done to some. It started to help frighten some that might want to abandon said Cause, Autobots happened to get caught in the crossfire and I couldn’t help but take the opportunity."

“To this cycle, I’m still in pain from my abilities. I’ve just been good at hiding them. My abilities are able to do good but no one has gotten the chance to see their true potential, instead using them to kill has been much more satisfying.” 

[transphormers]

Wanna explain for people who only saw the cartoons and movies what the warfrimes of bumblebee entail? Cause i am interested 👀

I actually wrote a fcking essay and barely evenanswered your question. Im so sorry. I wish I knew how to focus on the actuallyrelevant things dfaksjdfkshd Also please take this answer with a grain of saltcause my brain refuses to separate “actual canon” from “things I like to thinkare canon” 98% of the time. Also I’m feeling slightlydecepticon-simpatizer-like today, just so u kno

Oh, sure! Tho I must saythis answer may disappoint you, because I wasn’t thinking of Bumblebee’sparticular crimes when I made the propaganda post, more like… the Autobot’s ingeneral. (I assume it was the propaganda post that brought you here, anyway!)

(TL;DR: In IDW comics theAutobot/Decepticon conflict is not (as heavily) presented as a thing of goodvs. evil, but rather as a more complex thing which explores questions of grey morality,the greater good, means to an end, and so on. My comment about Bumblebee beingpropaganda was half-joking and half-serious, because it is not that deep, butit could be!

On the one hand, I was justmessing around. On the other, I do find it interesting how the visualrepresentation (as well as the influence of past incarnations of the charactersand popular culture) influence and shape our opinions on certain characters andtheir actions. All of this the point where these influences prevail even whenthe character has (drastically) changed and thus have little or anything to dowith the first “influencer” character.)

If you have seen the movies(by which I assume you mean Bayverse) you may have notices that, no matter whatthe main narrative tries to paint it as, the Autobots don’t always behave very…heroically. In fact, if it weren’t because we know (well, more or less) thebots already we would have a hard time telling the good and the bad guys apartin some parts of the movies. Something similar happens in the IDW’s TF comics.  

(If you meant the cartoonmovie(s?) then I won’t comment anything on them cause I truly know nothingabout them)

There is a lot going on inthe comics all the time, but let me give you some basic context:

While the IDW’s TF’s comics(Gen 1) do show us part of the Autobot/Decepticon war a big part of the comicsactually focuses on the post-war time. If you were rooting for the Autobots I’ve got some good news foryou: They won! If you were rooting for anyone else… well…  Things could be worse.

In the comics Megatron, whohas an interesting backstory as a freedom fighter gone wrong and then rightagain (tho I digress), actually surrenders. He is put on trial and ends uphaving wacky space adventures with Rodimus and company. But he got more thanenough attention on the comics already, so let’s focus on Cybertron instead. Alsothe Rodimus’ crew? They have never done anything wrong, ever! In their lives!(with some notable exceptions)

But where was I? Ah yeah,Cybertron. Good old Cybertron is a mess. Ravaged by the war, it is far frombeing the home some Cybertronians remember. Who is to blame for that? Dependson whom you ask. If you ask the Autobots? The Decepticons did it! If you askthe Decepticons? The Autobots are at fault! If you ask the Neutrals (i.e.Cybertronians who refused to participate in the war or defected during thecourse of it)? Autobots and Decepticons alike are guilty! And if you ask me?Well, you may call me a neutral, but two cannot fight if one does not want to.(Then again, are the Neutrals truly innocent in all this mess? That is aquestion for another day and many headcanons)

But, hey! The war is over,so it is time to move forwards! Forgive and forget, right? Well… kind of. TheAutobots—lead by Bumblebee—and the Neutrals—lead by a former Autobot nowpacifist named Metalhawk— don’t agree on many things, but they have some commoninterests. Mostly, they do not trust the other to rule the planet—nor do theythink the other deserve to do so--, and they both hate the Decepticons. Rememberwhen I said things could be worse if you weren’t an Autobot? It was true, butthey could also be better.

(Here my memory is failingand I can’t find the exact information I was looking for, so try to only halfbelieve me here) Most/all Decepticons who are back in Cybertron are now livingin a shitty half-collapsed building/old & grounded ship* (?), and they are alsochipped. “Chipped?” You may ask, “Like a pet?” And wouldn’t that be fucked upor what? But it’s actually worse. Most/all (?) Decepticons are now the proudowners of an I/D chip, which prevents them from transforming and using special anyspecial abilities they may have. And, fun fact, also has an explosive builtinto it, so any misbehaving Decepticons may be taken care of “accordingly”. Decepticonsare also being appointed as law enforcers by Prowl (sadly and thankfully notninja-hippie Prowl from tfa, but the fucked up IDW version of Prowl, which Iwill talk about more in a little while). This comes in handy when one of them,Horribul, gets in trouble and the Autobots (mostly Bumblebee & co.) decidethey have to make an example out of him, because they simply can’t have theother Decepticons thinking they can do whatever they want, do they?

A series of fun facts:

1º- The Decepticons hadmanaged to deactivate the chips, but to maintain their cover they had to killHorribull :(

2º- Bumblebee, of course, didn’tknew that so he was still cool with killing someone to make an example out ofthem

3º- To add a little bit ofdrama: Horribull died right in front of his conjux (i.e. his sparkmate,husband, w/e you wan’t to call it)

I think this is the mostrelevant fucked up thing Bumblebee has done that I can remember/paid attentionto. The fact that he was an active participant on a war that went on forcenturies (at least) and that he is far from being an innocent bystander—justlike anyone who willingly participated in the war—is relevant too, but I don’tfeel like getting too much into it. And I have homework to do, so there’s thattoo. So  sadly I can’t give you a list ofhis war crimes, but I don’t think it is needed to understand that IDW Bumblebeehas little to nothing to do with cartoons Bumblebee and maybe more to do withfucked up violent Bayverse bee (with the exception of Bumblebee (2018)Bumblebee who is my lil baby whom I love)

*I truly can’t remember ifthis was their choice or if they were told to move there. Either way it addsdramatism to the whole situation so I gotta mention it.  

[roseymoseyberry]

Samsara (3/?)

Heyo, time for chapter 3, aka a little bit more insight into how I had to fill in the gaps in Breakdown’s backstory and the Stunticons in general, lmao.

Thanks again y’all for reading this wild ride and I hope you enjoy! And for folks who may not watch RID15, the race mentioned in this chapter is from the episode Disordered Personalities. You don’t really need to know much beyond the stunticons joined it hoping to cement their title as Rulers of the Road (because they’re literally written dumb enough as to believe winning a race would do that) and the Autobots went to stop them from destroying the other racers. So they lost and it’s implied that Motormaster pulled a Megatron and physically punished them for it.

Title: Samsara

Series: RID15 and TFP (and some tidbits grabbed from Aligned wiki pages)

Ship(s): Wildbreak/Knockout, Breakdown/Knockout

Tags/warnings: Reincarnation AU, hurt/comfort, verbal/physical abuse (though the worst of the physical abuse is barely described or off screen), past character death, age difference (but still consenting adult alien robots), a lot of filling in worldbuilding gaps and making shit up, and a lot of Wildbreak being a sweet boy who just needs some love and affection.

Fic Summary:

From the day he was forged, Wildbreak had felt like there was something missing; some motivation or drive or desire that had been left behind in the Allspark.

Something he should know but didn’t.

|Chapter 1|Chapter 2|Chapter 3|

“About time you woke up.”

Bumblebee’s frame jolted online as he sat up, staring wide-opticked up at where Knockout was leaned against a shelf of scrap metal and watching him.

“Knockout?! What’re you--?”

“I have a favor to ask,” Knockout stated.

“And it couldn’t wait?” Bumblebee grumbled as he moved to stand. He was going to have to have a talk with his team about warning him when they had company.

Knockout gave him an unimpressed look.

“You want help with your Stunticon problem, don’t you?”

Bumblebee’s arms stilled where he had stretched them over his helm, blinking at Knockout. “You decided to join the team after all?”

“Of course not. I told you, I’m not much of a team player these days when I can help it,” Knockout replied.

“Then…?”

“I’ve been spending some time with one of them.”

“You—wait, you’ve been doing what?!” Panicked, Bumblebee continued, “You’re not gonna join them, are you?”

With a snort, Knockout shook his head. “As much as I don’t want you ordering me around, the idea of Motormaster trying it is even worse. He’s a brute and a moron who only knows how to motivate with his fists. It’s no coincidence he had to remake his team by snatching up a bunch of new forged.”

That was all news to Bumblebee. He didn’t know about any Motormaster, let alone-- “How new?”

“Post-war.”

Bumblebee winced.

But before he could comment, Knockout pushed off his perch and stalked towards him. “And that’s why, when I finally convince this kid to leave the Stunticons, you’re going to pardon him and accept him into the Autobot fold without any problems.”

Bumblebee sighed as he braced his servos on his hips.

“They’re criminals, Knockout. I can’t just waive that.”

“You did for that dinobot,” Knockout argued. He was nearly chest-to-chest with Bumblebee now, unwilling to give an inch.

“Grimlock is a special case. He proved himself to be trustworthy.”

“No. Grimlock is special because you like him.”

“He’s a good mech--”

“—And so is Wildbreak.”

With a huff, Bumblebee stepped back and paced away, and of course he heard Knockout’s pedesteps following behind. “Knockout--”

“You want to put an end to the Stunticons, don’t you?”

That brought Bumblebee up short. He stopped and looked over his shoulder, and Knockout lips barely curled enough to be called a smirk, but it was there. “If you really want to ruin their plans, I can’t think of a better way than getting one of them to defect and thus depriving them of two combiner forms.”

“Two? Can he combine with one of the other ones too?”

The smirk grew.

“I can’t believe the Autobots are still so behind when it comes to understanding combiners,” Knockout said, strolling closer, looking every part like the Con he once was. “You don’t honestly think that if your lot could fuse together by sheer accident that a team led by Motormaster, a mech who has been combining for millennia, would be limited to just combining in pairs, do you?” Genuine fear started to spark in Bumblebee’s processor as realization of what Knockout was suggesting settled.

“All of them?”

“Menasor was never as successful a combiner as Devastator, no doubt because Motormaster was never as good a leader as Scrapper, but you still wouldn’t want to meet him on a battlefield,” Knockout continued, examining his claws lazily, as if he wasn’t discussing the former army’s deadliest soldiers and weapons. “Motormaster has only had this team for a little over a decade, so I can’t imagine they’re as good as his previous teams, but that’s more than enough time for them to learn to form Menasor and control him. Certainly enough time to cause your team some serious problems.”

Bumblebee’s engine growled in his chest as he snapped, “Why the frag didn’t you tell me any of that before?!”

Knockout shrugged, looking victorious already. “You didn’t ask.”

“I asked for your help!”

“No. You ordered for it,” Knockout replied snidely. “If you wanted my advice, as one mech to another, you could have asked for it. Instead you got prissy because I didn’t want to play house with you and your little band of misfits.”

Bumblebee’s engine sputtered with indignation and some guilt.

“Fine,” Bumblebee finally agreed, unable to completely rid his voice of irritation. “I’ll figure something out if Wildbreak leaves the Stunticons.”

“Thank you.” It was more a declaration of victory than gratitude.

“Now uh, you have anything else you could tell me about the Stunticons?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve revealed all my cards,” Knockout admitted with a shrug, not sounding the least bit sorry. “But I’ll let you know if I learn anything juicy.”

With that, Knockout was gone again with barely a wave for the handful of team members even online this time of morning.

It wasn’t until later when Bumblebee had Fixit pull up any information he could find on Motormaster and Menasor, criminal or historical, that he finally got the answer to why Knockout had gotten himself so invested. For all that Bumblebee had known Knockout after the war, he had always looked to stay distanced from others, charming but not caring to get involved past pleasantries, never staying in one place for long. But this sparkling of a criminal had caught his full attention in ways no other mech had for over a decade.

The research also explained the almost personal distaste he had for Motormaster and the Stunticons as a team.

There was list of former Stunticon members from early in the war, before even Bumblebee had been forged, and standing out like a glaring neon sign was the name Breakdown.

“Do you believe in reincarnation?”

Dragstrip stared at him before asking, “What?”

“You know, like, where a spark that joins the Allspark comes back out to be forged again--”

“I know what it is. What I’m trying to figure out is why you’re even asking such a pointless question,” Dragstrip mocked. However, he still handed Wildbreak a cube of energon before sitting down to drink his own.

“I dunno. Just been thinking about it.” Because admitting that he was being plagued by thoughts of a mech he shouldn’t know would make Wildbreak sound insane. He wasn’t completely sure that he wasn’t. “Like, would he be the same, or would he be a different mech the second time around? Would he remember anything?”

Dragstrip stared at him out the corner of his optic as he took a long drink.

“When’d you decide to become some sorta religious type?”

Wildbreak just shrugged, muttering, “Doesn’t matter,” and busied himself with his drink.

“This ‘bout your spark thing? You think it’s ‘cause you’re a reincarnation or something?”

“Yeah. But that sounds pretty glitched, don’t it?”

“Eh, who knows how all that Allspark business works,” Dragstrip said with a lazy wave of his servo. “Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. Would it make a difference to ya if you were?”

Knockout’s sad smile as he said Breakdown’s name flashed unbidden in Wildbreak’s processor.

“Depends on who I was.”

Dragstrip hummed noncommittally before finishing off his cube with a satisfied ex-vent.

“Ah well, no way of figuring that out anyway, so don’t worry that tiny little processor of yours over it, buddy ol’ pal,” Dragstrip said as he pushed up to his feet and chucked the cube carelessly. “We got more important stuff to focus on today. We got a big race to win for the Boss!”

“A race?” Wildbreak asked.

“Yeah! With that title, we’ll really be the rulers of the roads!”

Wildbreak’s sparkpulse barely quickened at all at the idea, but he forced a grin onto his face and followed after Dragstrip.

The third time they talked, it was over commlinks. It had only been the one day – Wildbreak hadn't even had a chance to recharge yet beyond the couple hours that morning – but already he missed Knockout something fierce.

::Tomorrow?::

::Yeah,:: Wildbreak said, aware of how hopeful his tone was. ::I’d like to see ya.::

::Unfortunately I'm leaving town tonight. I shouldn't be gone more than a day or two though.::

Wildbreak's spark sank.

::Oh. Ok. Well uh, let me know when you get back then?::

There was a pause, and Wildbreak worried that he had sounded too needy, that Knockout wouldn’t be interested anymore because he was so pathetic—

::You could come with if you wanted.::

Wildbreak's spark was caught between joy and the reality that was his frame. Losing the race had made Motormaster mad and he had taken it out on them all, leaving them battered and just this side of broken. Wildbreak's lines had only just finished closing up, so he wasn't leaking energon anymore, but it would take a couple hours at least to work out the dents. Even then though, Wildbreak knew he needed a long, deep recharge to let his frame heal enough that his injuries wouldn’t be obvious.

Normally, after one of Motormaster’s beatings, Wildbreak would curl up and spend a couple days healing until someone finally dragged him out.

But now, Wildbreak wanted desperately to be up and running as soon as he could.

::I really wish I could, but I can’t do nothing tonight.::

::You can’t honestly tell me that little race was enough to tire you out,:: Knockout teased. Heat bloomed in Wildbreak’s frame with embarrassment.

::You saw that, huh?::

::No need to be embarrassed. We’ve all had Autobots ruin a race or two,:: Knockout said easily.

::Yeah? Tell me about yours?::

::I’m sure you can wait a couple days.::

Wildbreak curled up tighter, arms around his knees and back against a boulder, staring out across the terrain as the sun dipped closer to the horizon.

::Wildbreak?::

::Could you tell me about it now? I—I just really wanna hear you talk. If that isn’t weird. That’s weird, isn’t it?::

There was a moment of silence before Knockout asked, utterly serious, ::Is something wrong?::

::I’m fine,:: Wildbreak answered automatically.

::That’s a lie if ever I’ve heard one.:: And now Knockout sounded concerned.

::Uh, then, I’ll be fine, so it’s ok.::

::Wildbreak.::

Wildbreak squirmed, imaging the look that Knockout would give him.

::Motormaster got mad about the race and, well, you know.::

There was a tired ex-vent that carried across the line before Knockout replied knowingly, ::I do.:: The thought that Knockout had ever been punished when he was a Decepticon hadn’t ever crossed Wildbreak’s processor, but it was there now and it sparked something furious in his lines. He didn’t have time to do anything with that outrage though before Knockout said, ::I can wait until tomorrow morning if you still want to come with me. It won’t be fun, exactly, but I wouldn’t mind the company.::

Wildbreak blinked as he realized what Knockout was offering.

For the first time that day, a genuine grin split Wildbreak’s face.

::Yeah, that would be great! Where’re we going?::

::To visit my old friend.::

“Ey, Wildbreak!” Dragstrip called, and Wildbreak went stiff as a board as his partner continued, “Get over here!”

Wildbreak could also see the sudden fear in Dragstrip’s optics when Motormaster’s engine hummed loud enough to carry as their boss stepped closer to Wildbreak, making himself visible to the other mech.

“Oh, uh, sorry boss, didn’t see you there. I’ll come back later--”

“We’re almost done here,” Motormaster interrupted, deep rumbling voice sounding oddly pleased and all the more terrifying for it. It was rare that a smile on his face meant anything good. “Wildbreak was just telling me his ideas for the next couple days.”

A sinking feeling gripped Wildbreak as Dragstrip stared in confusion.

“Ideas?”

Wildbreak broke their optic contact and stared at the ground as Motormaster continued, “Yes. He’s going to drive out further than we’ve gone before, expanding our territory and proving who those roads belong to now.” His large servo landed on Wildbreak’s shoulder in what should have been a show of pride and affection, but Motormaster’s optics were trained on Dragstrip, mocking him. “If even Wildbreak can show some initiative for once to make up for his failure, then I don’t see what’s keeping the rest of you from doing the same.”

Nothing could have pulled Wildbreak’s stare from the ground, spark pounding because he knew the hateful look that Dragstrip must have been wearing, that all the Stunticons soon would. He had seen it time and again when Motormaster turned them against each other to motivate through spite. But Wildbreak had never been the cause of that; had never been used to shame the other Stunticons.

Wildbreak had never shown initiative before and his teammates were going to hate him for it.

But he did his best to focus on the fact that as soon as this was done, Wildbreak could grab some cubes of energon and escape into Knockout’s company for a while. It would be worth it.

Even knowing the vaguely macabre purpose of the roadtrip, there was nothing that could have kept Wildbreak’s excitement from bubbling over. He got to use his Earth alt-mode and spend hours upon hours driving with Knockout, listening to more of his stories and talking about Earth and Cybertron and politics with him. Knockout was far more knowledgeable about it all, but he wasn’t unkind about it, which in Wildbreak’s opinion was exceedingly kind. He would simply explain what Wildbreak didn’t understand and they would continue with their conversation.

And, despite his designation as an Autobot, Knockout was frank about the war and the aftermath and where the Autobots were succeeding and where they were failing. The more Wildbreak got to know him, the better he understood why Knockout left the Decepticons after spending millennia with them.

Wildbreak wasn’t sure it could really be considered a betrayal when Knockout hadn’t been particularly loyal to start with.

Knockout was a mech who looked out for himself first and foremost. For all his dramatics and charm, he was pragmatic, and Wildbreak might have thought him ultimately detached and cold if he wasn’t so drawn to him.

Not the mention the fact that Knockout had also looked out for at least one other mech.

As the sun started to sink low in the sky, Knockout mentioned Breakdown again. Maybe it was because they were growing ever closer to their destination, or maybe, as Wildbreak hoped, Knockout simply felt more comfortable opening up to him.

Knockout talked about how they had met.

Breakdown had been recovering from an upgrade which had left him larger and stronger, a little loopy as his processor was slowly booting up and accepting the changed frame. When Knockout had walked in as his assigned medic and introduced himself, saying “I’m Knockout,” Breakdown had given him a dopey smile and replied, “Yeah you are.”

It had been far from the first time that Knockout had heard the line, but there was an awe to it that had made Knockout laugh. It had been a good decade since he had last had a genuine laugh.

Knockout talked about how Breakdown would come back time and again, his frame broken and bleeding, but always so honest when he asked how Knockout had been. Once, his entire arm had been crushed into a mangle of twisted metal, limp and immobile and no doubt severely painful, and Breakdown had asked Knockout if he was getting enough recharge. “Your optics just seem dimmer than usual,” Knockout recounted Breakdown saying, not bothering with a funny voice or imitation like the other Cons in his stories received. There had been nothing but affection in Knockout’s tone.

Knockout talked about being reassigned to work in the field. How he had insisted he would need an assistant that could double as a bodyguard. And when he had managed to convince them, he demanded it be Breakdown.

Knockout talked about their resulting partnership.

For a brief moment, as Knockout was halfway through some exciting story about an adventure they had had on a planet Wildbreak had never even heard of, he wondered if he should be jealous.

But he wasn’t.

Not completely.

Wildbreak wasn’t jealous of the relationship that Breakdown had gotten to have with Knockout. It was sweet, and it warmed Wildbreak’s spark in a way that made his processor whirr with confusion, because it was that familiarity again, recognizing what he couldn’t possibly recognize. If anything, it just made Wildbreak feel as if he was truly going mad. Was he really a reincarnation of some big bruiser of a Decepticon soldier, or was he just so desperate for Knockout’s affection that he was fooling himself with wild ideas that those feelings and stories could somehow be about him?

The sun set and Knockout said they had a couple more hours before they would arrive.

And Wildbreak thought to himself that if he was jealous of anything, it was that he wanted to be rescued by Knockout too.

“Any updates, Fixit?”

“A couple, sir,” the minibot replied as he continued to tap away, bringing up a screen for Bumblebee. “I’ve managed to get all the information on Motormaster that’s on record. It’s like Knockout said – he led the Stunticon combiner team during the war, but rarely to any great success compared to the more infamous Constructicon team. It seems to be due to a lack of proper leadership kills – spills – skills!”

Bumblebee scanned the profile as he prompted, “How so?”

“Well, while it isn’t ever spelled out so obviously, the simple fact is that the Stunticon team had a shockingly high turnover rate. Some were deaths of course, but others seemed to find ways to quit the team, which is unprecedented in other Decepticon teams of the time.”

Near the end of the profile was a list of Stunticon members, and indeed there were more than a dozen names, many with (DECEASED) or (TRANSFERRED) by them.

It still seemed like some weird twist of fate to see Breakdown’s name among them.

“The Stunticon team was apprehended at the end of the war, but Motormaster managed to escape and has been on the run since, so Knockout is correct that the team he has now has likely only worked together since then.”

“Well, that’s good to know, at least,” Bumblebee said as he crossed his arms. He’d have to go through the whole profile a couple times to see if there was anything else helpful to be found there. “And did you find anything out about Breakdown?”

Fixit gave him the same bemused look he had when Bumblebee had first asked him, clearly not sure why he was interested in a former member. But still, his digits tapped away, but only to zoom in on where Breakdown was listed on Motormaster’s profile.

“Unfortunately sir, there isn’t much to be found. While he is listed in the Decepticon registry, he’s labeled as deceased, so like most Decepticons who died in the war, there hasn’t been any effort put into searching the former army’s archives for his files to transfer to the Autobot systems. The only information I have is what’s listed here.”

Which wasn’t much. Just a designation, a frame type (small four-wheeler, which had to be a mistake considering what Bumblebee remembered of the big brute), and (TRANSFERRED).

Still, it was a confirmation of Knockout’s connection to the Stunticons, as tenuous and outdated as it was.

“Don’t worry about it, Fixit. I was just curious. Tell me more about Motormaster.”