Through the sounds of metal clashing and cries of pain, Arcee couldn't help but notice how well Knockout was fighting. The entire time, his face was pulled into a smug smirk, and he seemed to fighting much better than when he was a Decepticon. Back when he was a Con, she noticed he much preferred long distance fighting, using a long electrical staff instead of head on combat. Now, watching as he knocked out drones using only his servos and peds, she was glad he only started now; if he had been like that when he was against them, they wouldn't have won a single battle. In the slight moment she was distracted, a drone launched for her, blaster at the ready, only to be crushed by a certain yellow bug.
"Arcee!" He called, gaining the femme's attention. Roundhouse kicking a drone behind her effortlessly, she turned and smiled at the mech who had captured her spark. Though he didn't have a visible smile, his lit up optics and upturned faceplate indicated he was smiling back, as he brought his fist up, hitting a drone who had snuck up on him. She ran up to him, and kicked the drone, finishing him off.
"You ok?" She asked, and Bee nodded. At the sound of blasters firing up, she looked around, to discover she was surrounded by drones, a wall of vehicons forming a circle around them. She glanced at Bumblebee, who had the same idea in his optics that she had in her head. He grasped onto her servo, put his other servo under her led, and launched her straight in the air, spinning her as she did. Immediately, she started shooting the spinning figures of incredibly dumbfounded drones. Bumblebee watched in amusement as they dropped, flopping over like fish out of water. He held his servos out, and caught Arcee as she fell. She looked at his faceplate, her optics disoriented. She attempted to stand. But could hardly hold herself up. He led her over to a rock that concealed their position.
"Woo, dizzy." She muttered, before bending over and letting energon spill out of her mouth, while Bumblebee rubber circles on her back.
"Remind me...to never....do that...again." She gasped.
"Never do that again." Bumblebee joked. Arcee glared up at him again, before throwing up again. As Bumblebee watched, his concern grew. She shouldn't be throwing up this much. Arcee gasped for air, then started coughing.
And didn't stop.
Taking wheezing breaths beetween, she could hardly get a good breath of air. When she finally stopped coughing, Bee held her up as she started swaying. He gently sat her down, leaning her back against the rock. Her head immediate drooped tor he side, clearly drained from any energy. As he examined her for any sign of injury, Bumblebee noticed a little stick stuck in her leg, he grabbed it and tugged, stopping immediately as Arcee cried in pain, tears escaping her optics.
"Shh. It's ok." He comforted, and Arcee nodded her helm slightly. He tugged gently on the stick again. As much as she tried not to make a noise, the pain exceeded all manners of bypass, and she let out another cry, causing Bee to stop.
"Arcee, please." He beeping pleading.
"Can't... help...it." She mustered out.
Bumblebee stared for a moment, completely lost, then leaned forward and, retracting his mouth piece back, slammed his lips against her. In her slight moment of shock, he yanked the stick out. Her optics widened, filled with tears, and she started to pull her moth back to yell out, but Bee wrapped his servo around her helm, preventing her lips from escaping his. Finally, she stopped trying, and expressed her pain by letting the tears flow out of her optics. Once she calmed down, Bumblebee finally pulled away, and looked into Arcee's pain-stricken optics.
"I'm sorry." He apologized, before turning to examine the stick in his hand, which he noticed to be a needle, coated in a green liquid.
"Poison. One of the drones must've shot it into your system when you were in the air." He moved his servo from behind her, to hold on to her servo. He brought the other one up to his comm.
"Ratchet, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Bumblebee, go ahead."
"Arcee is down, she's been infected with poison. Send a ground bridge."
"Bumblebee, that is not possible. There's too much a risk of one of the Decepticons going through and discovering the location of the base. Jus make sure that Arcee doesn't fight, the effects will wear off."
"Understood." Bumblebee glanced around, then got up, and picked up a pile of leaves, gently covering Arcee's body with them, leaving only her faceplate out.
"Stay here, I'll be back." He beeped, before running back into the fight.
~~~
After Ratchet finished his chat with Bumblebee, he groaned, and shook his helm.
Starscream only stared, unsure of what to do. It was obvious the Autobots needed help, they were already 1 down in a fight that they could not win. If this continued on, their defeat was inevitable. He wants to help, he as part rot their team now, but how? It was as Ratched said, it was too much of a risk to open a ground bridge. Besides, Optimus had ordered him to stay at the base. He didn't want to disobey the Prime's orders.
Then again, his orders were to stay with Ratchet, not necessarily at the base...
"Primus, I need to get to her..." Ratchet muttered frantically.
"Did you not say the poison would wear off?"
"No! I lied, as not to worry Bumblebee. If I don't get that poison out soon, it might...kill her."
Starscream's optics widened, as he decided, this was the best time to put his plan into motion.
"I have an idea."
Ratchet raises an optic ridge. "I'm listening..."
~~~
While the furious battle raged on in the field, Arcee grew tired of waiting, of depending on others to keep her safe. She was tired of others putting their lives at risk, and her not being there to join them. And she was tired of Bumblebee coming over every fragging minute to check on her. She insisted she was fine, when in reality. She was not. Her helm spun constantly, she always felt like throwing up again. Her leg ached, and the longer she waited, the more it did so. Ratchet said the poison would wear off, so why wasn't it? It had been like... 10 minutes, shouldn't that have been enough. Or maybe, it was her impatience that made it seem like so long. She wasn't sure, as she watched with worry as Bumblebee fought the drones, then went after Shockwave, who brought out his large blaster and started shooting at his speeding body. She couldn't stop worrying that he would get injured, or, and she couldn't bare this thought, killed.
She couldn't go through that again. Her spark still ached for her lost partners, and the depression she had gone through took a lot out of her.
She couldn't go through that again.
Distracted watching Bumblebee, she yelped when a shot blasted through the top of the rock she was hiding behind.
"Frag, Ratchet, how long is this going to take?" She hissed in her head. Then, in front of her, a portal opened, and out stepped out...great.
"Screamer! What are you doing here?" She hissed.
"Saving your aft." He hissed back, taking a defensive stance, then stepping aside to reveal...
"Ratchet?" Arcee whispered in disbelief as the orange medic hurried over to her. 'What are you doing?"
"Listen, where were you struck?" Arcee stared in confusion.
"Where were you hit by the fragging needle?"
Arcee moved her servo over her leg as a sudden wave of fatigue hit her, and she suddenly didn't feel like talking. Ratchet examine the puncture, then turned to Starscream.
"It's too dangerous to move her now without making the poison spread faster. I'll have to treat her here." He heard a cry of pain and looked over to scan the battle. Without one of their most experienced bots, the Autobots were loosing, and if this continued, Ratchet would have more than 1 patient.
"I'm going to fight."
"No." Ratchet complained. "Optimus ordered you to stay at the base. I'm bridging you back."
"Actually, Optimus ordred I stay with you, and you're here, so am I." Rathet thought for a moment, then nodded.
"You know very well that's not what he meant." He muttered as Starscream transformed and flew off towards the battle.
~~~
"Optimus, Starscream's gone AWOL." Optimus knocked yet another drone out, and looked up at the sound of a jet engine, and noticed Starscream shooting from above.
"Thank you Ratchet." He set his optics on Megatron, who was glaring back, and started towards the warlord. Megatron smirked evilly, then, when Optimus got close enough, yelled
"Not another step, Prime, or the femme dies!"
Optimus stopped in his tracks, and thought of Darkshade. But then, he watched with widened optics as Soundwave walked over, with something wrapped in his tentacles. The entire battlefield froze, each side scrambling to stand behind their leader.
"It's ironic, really. I was planning on kidnapping the one called 'Arcee' at the beginning, and she was practically gift wrapped for me, too weak to even scream."
"NO..." Optimus heard Bumblebee gasp, pain in his voice. He heard his comm crackle, and an obvious pained Ratchet called, frantically looking for his patient.
"Megatron, let her go!" Knockout called. "I'm the one you want."
"Tempting, but no." He smirked again as a portal appeared behind him. Right as he started to walk through, a missile struck him on the back, sending him flying towards the ground. The vehicons immediately took a defensive stance, shooting at the plane in the sky. Starscream avoided the shots so flawlessly, picking off the troopers one by one. Then, directly above Megaton, Starscream went in a nose dive towards the downed war lord.
"Oh, how long I've waited to do this. He sneered, nearly at the warlord. Before he could plunge into Megatron, however, a red shot struck him in the underside, sending him flying off course, transforming as he did so, crying in pain. He crashed into the Prime, knocking him down immediately. Megatron took this time as a good time to retreat, and called to his army to do so, allowing everyone to go through the portal first, before himself. Enraged, Bumblebee started shooting at them, when a recovered Optimus placed a servo on his shoulder.
"Stand down, we cannot risk harming Arcee." Reluctantly, buzzing with anger as he did, Bumblebee stood down. Right as Megatron stepped into the portal, and Bumblebee cried out Arcee's name in pain, Knockout felt a rush of energon, his wheels started turning with determination, and, transforming as he did, sped off towards the portal, disappearing through it right as it disappeared.
The field was silent, still, emotionless. everyone stared at the place where the portal had been, their eyes deceiving them, pretending the portal was still there, that nothing had happened. The setting sun disappeared, and left them completely at the mercy of the moonlight. No one payed any attention at Starscream's groan of pain, or whimper as he stood up on an injured ankle, and joined them in their moment of silence. Other than Starscream, no one was truly severely injured, only blanketed in scratches and dents.
"Op...ti...mus..." Ratchet's gasping voice crackled through the comm. Optimus immediately snapped out of his trance, and responded.
"Ratchet, where are you?"
"Look behind you." Optimus turned shaking, and noticed Ratchet's figure limping towards them. He also noticed, a certain scout shivering violently, his optics filled with tears. His arms crossed, servos grasping his elbows, his optics shook as well.
"Ar...cee..." He manger to whimper before collapsing in sadness and erupting in pained sobs.
So much was going on at once, it hurt Optimus' helm. Too many things swarmed around him, all wanted to be grasped onto.
Only one thing stuck out.
They had lost.
~~~
Bursting through the portal, Knockout gasped as he recognized the dark halls of the one placed he wished never to go back to.
The Nemesis.
Cautious not to be spotted, he dodged behind a ledge. He heard Megatron's ped steps pause, then start to to grow louder.
Scrap, he was coming.
Knockout skunk back as far down as he could, pressing his back against the wall. He didn't have much hope; cherry red stick out in a dark background. He listened as the ped steps approached his position, and suddenly, he could see him.
The bucket-like helm inches away from his own, looking in the opposite direction. Holding his breath, Knockout watched with worry as Megatron looked around. Then, his helm disappeared, and his ped steps receded, until they were gone. Now, the only sound was the soft whirring if the engine. Sighing a breath of relief, he started towards the brig, where he knew they would keep Arcee. But, as he whirled the corner, he ran smack into...frag.
"Knockout..." The vehicon stepped back, then transformed his servo in a blaster, and aimed it towards him.
"Woah, woah, what are you doing?"
"Lord Megatron ordered us to shoot you on sight." The blaster started beating up, as the vehicon moved his servo up to his comm. Swiftly, Knockout lunged at him, shoving the vehicon and himself into a storage room. Knockout held his saw up to his neck, as the vehicon gasped.
"WHAT ARE YOU..."
"Shh! Steve, is it? Listen, I'm not here to fight."
"Likely story."
"Will you let me finish!?" Knockout snapped , then took a deal breath. "You know of...Darkshade, right?"
Steve, still shocked, seemed to freeze, and a flash of sadness flickered on his visor.
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"Just answer the fragging question!"
"Yes. She is not well."
Knockout nodded, growing sad himself.
"Listen, I'm here to help her, but I don't have a lot of time." Steve gasped for air, and Knockout loosened his grip, allowing him to breath.
"Help me save her."
"No way."
"So you would let your commander die?"
Steve froze at the statement. Would he? She was much more than a Commander. Since the first time he met here, in the hallway, they had become good friends. In the hallway, when he was on patrol, she would always greet him with a smile. And she kept her word, never telling Megatron on how he had helped her. He was so worried about her, when she collapsed. He remembered the way she felt when they were carrying her to the medical bay; cold, and lifeless, it was scary. He wanted her to get better, and if helping Knockout and betraying the Decepticons was the only way,
He was willing to do so.
Because, Darkshade was more than a Commander. She was a companion, an ally, a light in the darkness, a sweet kind femme.
She was a friend.
"I'll do it."