This one is mostly dialogue, but it's important, thematic dialogue :U

Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated!

Two Vehicons and an Eradicon were standing huddled next to their transport ship. It had landed just behind another crashed transport and they were all looking on at the mangled wreck, just waiting. Occasionally it would shudder or pieces would fall off or cave in as it was pulled it apart from the inside out. None of them were optimistic about finding survivors; even before they had arrived, the thing had been pretty badly mangled. The odds of someone escaping that crash unscathed were not very high.

As they watched, one of the Vehicons crossed her arms across her chassis in a huff, "What's gotten into him?" She said, "I mean, he breaks stuff a lot but the way he came in and started demolishing the place… he almost brought that thing down on us! Breakdown's usually a lot more considerate."

"Cut the mech some slack, Clutch," the Eradicon said, "his conjunx just died in that wreck. Of course he's upset."

A second Eradicon poked his head out of the cabin entrance and had apparently been eavesdropping on their conversation. "No, Scissorwing, they actually weren't conjunx endura," he said, "in fact Knockout wasn't really that serious about him. If he'd lived they might've broken up soon anyway!"

"How would you know that about Knockout?" Clutch tilted her helm to show her disbelief, "He never talked to us Vehicons."

"Ignore Divebomb," Scissorwing grumbled, "he thinks he knows everything, but he's just a busybody."

Divebomb gave an annoyed huff and disappeared back into the ship, but nobody was fooled because he was definitely still listening.

Scissorwing sighed and leaned back against the ship, letting her wings droop low. "It's too bad, though. Breakdown's gonna be so sad when he finds Knockout in there, conjunx or not. And now he'll be the only one left at our base with any medical training, so this is a lose-lose for everybody."

"What about Trauma?" Clutch asked.

"Nah he was on this ship too," Scissorwing replied, "I saw him in there before we had to get out. He was dead. Like, really dead."

Clutch let out a sad sigh, "That's too bad. I liked him."

There was a brief lull in the conversation, and before any of them could pick it up again or change the subject, there was one last loud crash within the ship and then the noise finally subsided. The three of them looked expectantly towards the hole in the cabin, then rushed forward to meet Breakdown as he emerged from the wreckage. Divebomb had poked his head out of their ship to watch as well.

Breakdown was looking down at his servos where he was holding tight to a silvery grey arm that had a red door frame and long sharp claws. It was severed just above the joint and energon splattered down the limb from the cut, but other than the fact that it was disembodied, it looked fine. The plating was only slightly dented and scuffed.

The Vehicons still took the sight to mean the worst, and so as they got closer they started murmuring apologies and condolences to Breakdown. He didn't look up or acknowledge their words, instead taking a tighter grip on the arm.

"He's not there." He said at last.

Clutch tilted her helm in confusion, glancing down at the arm as well. "Wait, what do you mean? How could he not be in there if you found his arm? Where's the rest of- ow!" She was cut off as Scissorwing's elbow jammed into her side.

"Knock it off!"

"You knock it off, and don't use that word, it's too close to Knockou- OW! PRIMUS!"

While the Vehicon and Eradicon argued, Breakdown was looking down at the arm in his servos and didn't seem to be paying the two any mind. Instead, he kept his optics down as he ran one digit over the sharp edges where the severed limb had been cut.

"I don't understand. Where could he be?" He mumbled this mostly to himself, "I… frag it all, I don't know what to do!"

The two other Decepticons had stopped arguing at hearing Breakdown's distressed tone, and focused back on him.

"Hey, uh… maybe he's still alive!" Scissorwing suggested, trying to make her voice sound hopeful, "I mean, if he's not here he might have gone off looking for help?"

Clutch leaned towards her and spoke in a hush, "Without his arm, though? How far would he make it like that?"

Her mumbling obviously hadn't stopped Breakdown from overhearing her, and he pulled the arm in close, holding it against his chassis. "Scrap…" he groaned, "I wish we had bonded already… at least then I'd know if he's dead or not."

Just as Breakdown said this, a quiet whistle came from around the ship and the second Vehicon, who none of them had noticed slip away, poked their head around the side. They didn't say anything, but gestured for the others to come closer.

"What is it, Gearlock?" Scissorwing took the lead as the three of them hurried to meet them. From behind they could hear Divebomb, unable to leave the ship, groan in annoyance that they were moving out of his line of sight.

Once they had circled around the front of the wreckage, they saw what Gearlock had called them to look at even before they pointed up to it. Farther ahead, just at the base of an incline, was a body. Even from far away it was clearly not the bright red paint of Knockout, but even so, Breakdown rushed over to see what it was. As they got closer he realized he did recognize the dark blue frame of an Eradicon.

"Slingshot." He stated, as they all stopped to circle around the corpse. "How did he get this far from the crash?"

"Maybe he was ejected from the cockpit," Clutch offered.

Scissorwing shook her helm in disagreement at the suggestion, "No way, nothing gets through that glass. Also, he always wore a safety harness. It's Hailstorm who never buckled up, and I saw them in the cabin smushed against the console."

"Don't say it like that! I liked Hailstorm."

"What I mean is, Slingshot must have come out here after the ship crashed." Scissorwing gave a short nod, pleased with her conclusion.

"So then how did he die?" Breakdown asked.

As he spoke, Gearlock crouched down closer to the body. After looking at it silently for a moment, they bent forward and pointed at a wound in the mech's chassis. The other two Vehicons leaned in to take a look as well. It was a thin stab wound that pierced the glass and metal paneling on Slingshot's chassis and went straight through his spark chamber. It might have been easy to miss if not for a few streams of energon that dripped down from the wound and pooled around his helm. Apart from a bent wing, that appeared to be the only injury on the mech.

Scissorwing reached forward and touched the energon running along the neck and they smeared under her digits. "It's still not dried. So this must've happened a while after the crash."

"Someone did this." Breakdown's digits tightened their grip on the arm.

"Hey doesn't Knockout have a drill? Maybe Slingshot pissed him off."

Before Breakdown could shout down the idea, Scissorwing spoke up, "Shut up, Clutch!" she shouted, "Knockout isn't stupid. Killing Slingshot would leave him to fend for himself out here," she pointed up at the limb In Breakdowns grasp, "with only one arm."

"So then who-?"

"Autobots." Breakdown interrupted, his voice no more than a growl. "They must have taken him."

The two kneeling mechs stood up and exchanged glances. "Yeah that tracks." Scissorwing said while Gearlock just nodded. "Autobots love taking prisoners. They get to feel all superior and moral when they put off killing us for a few cycles."

"But I wonder… why they would they take the Doc and not Slingshot though?" Clutch asked.

Gearlock responded just by tapping their own chassis, then gesturing over to Sissorwing's identical one next to them.

"We don't count," Scissorwing clarified, "not to them."

"Ah. Right." Clutch shrank down a bit, tapping lightly at her own chassis. "So if Knockouts been taken prisoner, we should try to follow, right? How do we do that?"

Gearlock poked at Scissorwing's shoulder to get her attention, then started making signs with their servos in rapid succession. Breakdown and Clutch couldn't keep up, but Scissorwing seemed to understand, so she nodded along until they finished. Then she looked over at the others to explain.

"Knockout's injured, so we should be able to track him if he's still bleeding. You grounders stay on that trail here on the ground, and Divebomb and I will follow overhead. Then we can signal you when we get a visual."

"Alright fine," Breakdown said, "lets just hurry up so we can find him, already! Who knows what those Autobots are gonna do to Knockout?"

"This is torture," Knockout groaned as he pressed his chin into Wheeljack's shoulder. "I can't take much more of this… How much farther are we going to walk?"

Being dragged across the Badlands by Autobots while pretending to be one was bad enough, but the length of the trip and how dreadfully slowly they were moving was absolutely the worst part. Since he was unable to transform or get very far on his own, Knockout was still riding on Wheeljack's back while the mech walked across orange streaked terrain. Their pace was clearly not the thing he should be focusing on in this dire situation he found himself in, but he couldn't help himself. Nothing annoyed Knockout more than being slow. He wasn't sure how long they had been walking, it felt like it had been years, but that was just his impatience. In reality, it couldn't have been more than a few hours. That didn't stop him from complaining, though.

His whining didn't garner much sympathy from the Wrecker walking just in front of him. The sniper hadn't even put her rifle back onto the holster on her back, instead walking with it armed and ready. Presumably so she could spin around and take aim at any moment should the need arise. She didn't point her gun this time, but Perceptor looked at him over her shoulder with a sharp glare that screamed of deadly intent.

"If you had ever experienced real torture you would not be comparing it to this leisurely stroll," She said, "perhaps when we reach our destination I can give you a proper demonstration, Decepticon."

"Alright, none of that, please." Springer's voice came from behind Knockout where he was taking up the rear. "I know we're Wreckers, but that doesn't mean I can let you torture mechs. Or threaten to either."

That certainly didn't ring true with Wheeljack's behavior back at their crash site and how Knockout had seen him tormenting Slingshot before killing him. Decepticons might have not have behaved any better in that situation, but at least they didn't lie about there being rules against it so they could pretend to be more righteous.

Of course, Knockout wasn't about to bring something like that up. Autobots liked to feel superior, and since he was pretending to be one, challenging that would be too out of character. Instead, Knockout smiled silently back at Perceptor, trying to make it look genuine. She didn't acknowledge him or Springer's words, and just turned away to face forward again.

"Don't mind Percy," Wheeljack spoke up. Perceptor quietly corrected the use of the nickname, but Wheeljack ignored her and continued, "she doesn't mean that. She just likes to sound scary."

"That did sound kind of scary," Knockout said, keeping his chin pressed against Wheeljack's shoulder. It would help to play up the fact that he was so helpless at the moment, and Perceptor trying to intimidate him could earn some sympathy from the others. He continued, "but she's right, I wasn't tortured by the 'Cons at all. I think they know that doesn't work when you want the mech you've captured to actually cooperate." He finally lifted his helm up slightly and tilted it curiously, "Perceptor, aren't you a scientist? You ought to know that much."

That was a bit of a jab at her, and not really necessary, but it sure felt good picking on a Wrecker. The slight chuckle from Wheeljack also let Knockout know that making light jabs at Perceptor was ok by him. Good to know.

"Well Perceptor hasn't been a scientist for a long while now," Wheeljack spoke up once it was clear she wasn't going to, "so maybe she's lost her edge."

"That's enough," Perceptor didn't even look back this time, "I realize it's well known I used to be a scientist, and most still assume that I am, but I am a soldier now. I don't like bringing up the past."

"Oh actually," Wheeljack said, "when I mentioned your name to Red, he recognized you as one of the Wreckers, instead of a scientist. So that's something, right?"

Perceptor didn't offer a response to this either, probably hoping that Wheeljack would just stop talking if she ignored him. She wasn't so lucky. He did let the silence stretch for maybe a minute as they continued along, but Wheeljack did eventually speak up again.

"I wonder how many Decepticons even know you're a Wrecker," he mused, "I mean, you were pretty famous as a scientist even before the war, so it can't be that many."

"Well, it's at least one, isn't it?"

Wheeljack let out a huff of air from his vents in annoyance, "Frag, Percy. You're no fun."

She confirmed this by yet again correcting the use of the nickname.

"Whatever. If you're gonna be even more of a grump than usual, then I won't bother," Wheeljack mumbled, then he tilted his helm to the side just a bit to make Knockout visible in his peripherals. "Don't mind her. I don't think it's you; she doesn't trust anything that hasn't been fact checked and peer reviewed at least a dozen times."

Knockout gave a short nod and smiled again, though weaker this time. "No offense taken, of course," he said, "it's good to be cautious, especially in such a dangerous place. But I'm not worried; she'll see the truth soon enough."

Being slightly cryptic was really unnecessary, but if Knockout couldn't get away with being just a tiny bit sneaky he was going to lose his mind. It also brought him a brief moment of joy as he thought of the truth these Wreckers would discover. It'd be too late by the time they did, of course. The three of them would be getting swarmed and devoured by Insecticons. Knockout sort of hoped he'd get to see the look on Perceptor's face when she realized she'd been right all along.

He was careful not to let that smugness creep into his smile at all, which was definitely a good thing, because once he finished that last sentence, Perceptor stopped dead in her tracks and whirled around to glare at him. Her suddenly stopping startled Wheeljack and he almost walked right into her, which brought her face right up to Knockout's. His smile vanished once he saw the look she was currently giving him: her one optic wide and flaring bright while her mouth was a hard, thin line.

"Whoa!" Wheeljack took a step back, almost into Springer who had also been caught off guard by them stopping. Knockout was silently thankful that his face was no longer mere inches from Perceptor's piercing glare.

"Something wrong, Perceptor?" Springer spoke up from behind.

"Yeah, what's the big idea?" Wheeljack added.

Perceptor's optic narrowed suspiciously as she continued to glare at Knockout. "He is planning something."

Scrap! Knockout shank down against Wheeljack's shoulder again, trying his best to look meek instead of nervous. He should have stuck to being straight forward with his lies instead of trying to be clever. Too late to fix that now, though. He would just have to play dumb and hope the others thought she was being paranoid.

"What are you talking about?" He mumbled, still pressing his chin into Wheeljack's plating. "How could I possibly be planning something?"

Springer stepped up and reached down to get his servos between him and the angry Wrecker.

"Look Perceptor, even if he is a Decepticon, he can't cause any harm for the moment," he said, "if you're so certain he's up to something, you can look into it once Kup picks us up. But right now we have to keep moving."

Perceptor took a moment to look ahead, down their intended path. They could see quite a distance away, but the rough and sloping terrain made it impossible to see further than a few kliks in any direction. It was part of why Knockout was so confident they could get right up to the Insecticon hive without the Wreckers seeing it coming. Unfortunately, Perceptor seemed to have noticed this possibility as well.

"I suggest we change course." She shot a quick glance up to Springer as she spoke, then looked to Knockout, probably to gage his reaction. "He knows that once we reach our destination he'll be found out, and yet the Decepticon hasn't made any attempt to escape. There must have been a trap laid in this direction. Why else would he come along so easily and without protest?"

Knockout was careful not to change his expression as she spoke, but the jolt through his spark made it difficult. They couldn't change direction now. If they did, he really was done for. Why did he have to come across the only Wrecker who had more than two processing components to rub together? If he didn't hate her so much, Knockout might have been impressed by how easily she figured out his plan.

"I… I didn't know what direction we'd be going, you know." Knockout offered, trying very hard to keep his voice level. "And besides, if we don't go this way, won't we miss the coordinates for that pick up?"

Nothing he said was going to dissuade her, but luckily, his words seemed to make an impact on Springer. The mech gave a thoughtful hum as he looked down at Perceptor.

"He's right. If we changed course now, we would miss the coordinates Kup gave us," He said, one brow lifted suspiciously, "but you must have realized that."

This prompted a fit of snickering from Wheeljack that he did a poor job of concealing. It seemed that Knockout was missing the joke again. Perceptor didn't seem fazed, but she did stop glaring at Knockout to glare at Springer.

"Yes I did." her vocalizer was flat. A little too flat compared to her tone just a moment ago. "I'm concerned about getting safely out of these wastelands, nothing more."

"You sure about that?" Wheeljack tilted his helm just slightly, making his statement seem all the more condescending. "I think there might be something more, if you catch my drift."

The emphasis on the last word didn't escape Knockout's notice. He also recalled Wheeljack saying someone had that name earlier as well. When he'd used it then, she had pinned him and shoved her rifle in his face. While it didn't elicit the same reaction this time, Perceptor's servos did tighten around her rifle.

"I did not share that with you so you could throw it back in my face." She appeared to be addressing Wheeljack, but she refused to look back at him, keeping her focus on Springer. "I am trying to prevent us from walking into a potentially dangerous situation. We may be Wreckers, but that doesn't mean we need to act recklessly."

"I agree," Springer said with a short nod, "but I don't think we need to be that cautious, Perceptor. I'm the one who decided on this direction, not Red. So we'll keep going."

With an annoyed huff, Perceptor turned and started walking again without another word. Although she did mumble something under her breath that sounded like, "No one ever listens…"

Wheeljack quickly took up pace behind her and the three Wreckers continued on their journey. It was silent again for a minute, but it didn't take long for Wheeljack to speak up again.

Tilting his helm to the side to look at Knockout, he said, "So hey, like I said, don't mind her. Turns out I was right; it's notabout you."

Knockout was still a bit shaken from how close Perceptor had gotten to ruining his chance to escape just now, and was focusing on making sure that didn't show. Though, despite being a bit distracted by that, he did find himself feeling a bit curious. If he could dig a little deeper, he might learn some helpful information. At the very least, it would get Perceptor to focus on something besides how much she wanted to put a bullet in his head. So he decided to ask.

"Who's Drift?"

"No one!" Perceptor almost shouted this over her shoulder, but her one optic was focused more on Wheeljack than Knockout, as if in warning. Already, this distraction seemed to be working.

"Don't be embarrassed, Percy," Wheeljack said, "it's not a bad thing to have someone who's important to you."

"Drift is not important to me." It sounded like Perceptor was restraining herself from shouting some more. "And I am not embarrassed, I simply do not want you discussing personal information in front of a Decepticon."

This was going to take a bit of goading. "Well, that's no fair," Knockout said, "I'm obviously the only one here who doesn't know… and think of it this way: if I really were a Decepticon like you say, then you've captured me, and I can't go telling all the rest of them about your secret Drift weakness. So no risk." Knockout nudged Wheeljack's shoulder with his severed arm just slightly. "Come on, the silence is driving me mad, and I love a bit of gossip."

After a quick glance ahead at Perceptor, Wheeljack looked back to Knockout and spoke, "Drift was Perceptor's conjunx before she joined the Wreckers. They were on Kup's team together, and he still is." He said it quickly so the sniper didn't have a chance to interrupt.

"Oh, your conjunx endura?" Knockout made his vocalizer almost obnoxiously sweet, trying to sound interested. "But that sounds nice. Why wouldn't you want to see him?"

"Drift is not my conjunx. There was nothing between us." Perceptor responded curtly, clearly wanting to end the conversation.

She wasn't successful, of course, because Wheeljack continued anyway. "That's not what you told me!" He said, "You definitely said that you two were together."

"Together does not mean bonded." Perceptor insisted, "Drift and I were not serious. We just… had an arrangement."

Up until that point Knockout had been rather enjoying himself pestering the sniper, but his smile faltered at her last word. This sounded very familiar suddenly.

"An arrangement?" He repeated.

"Wow, sounds super romantic." Wheeljack added, his sneer was audible in his tone.

"There was nothing romantic about it." Perceptor suddenly seemed more interested in correcting the record than keeping the whole thing a secret, because she continued. "We were partnered up on the field, and spending our down time together helped our team work. I ended it when I realized he had gotten too attached."

"How do ya mean?" Wheeljack asked, "How attached is too attached?"

There was a noticeable hesitation by Perceptor before she finally admitted, "He told me he loved me."

"Whoa, wait, you didn't say that before!" Suddenly, Wheeljack sped up, taking up pace next to Perceptor. "So the mech says he loves you and you just dump him right there? That's fraggin' cold, Percy!"

"It's Perceptor. And I have no interest in coddling any of my partners." She didn't turn to look at Wheeljack, keeping her optic focused straight ahead. "I wasn't going to go out of my way to spare his feelings when he violated what was an understood agreement. I had to look out for myself first."

Wheeljack leaned toward her just slightly, enough to reach out his elbow and nudge her arm a bit. "So you loved him back, didn't ya?"

"No!"

"Liar. You love that fragger, but you just can't admit it! That's why you don't wanna see him."

"I do not appreciate being told how I feel." Perceptor had sounded somewhat annoyed during this whole exchange, but after this last assertion, her vocalizer was low and tinged with anger. She shot a fierce glare over at the other 'Bot and continued, "We don't have the luxury of forming relationships like that anymore. We're soldiers in a war. Having attachments is a liability."

"No way, you're crazy!" Wheeljack turned his helm to look over at Knockout. "Red, back me up on this. That's crazy, right?"

Knockout didn't respond for a moment. He didn't want to side with Perceptor because she was so insufferable, but how could he not agree? It was astonishing how similar her words were to what he had told Trauma. So she was right. Although, being honest wasn't really a priority at the moment. Keeping his cover was more important, and the Autobot thing to do here would be to take Wheeljack's position and be on the side of friendship and love and all that nonsense… but even so. Perceptor was right. Wasn't she?

He really hated that he had started this conversation.

"There… there might be some logic in what she's saying." Knockout mumbled, annoyed with himself for agreeing with the sniper.

Wheeljack was annoyed too, and he let out an indignant huff of air through his vents. "You're both idiots!" He said, "Having friends and being in love isn't a liability, it's what makes all the fighting worthwhile!"

"A charming sentiment." Perceptor still sounded mad, but less so than before. "That's all it is, though. In practice, that sentimental nonsense is more likely to get you killed if you find yourself distracted on the battlefield. Or worse, you might even get some self-sacrificing nonsense into your head and die trying to save them."

"Quit tryin' to sound all cold and detached. I've seen you risk your neck out there for me before, and you barely even tolerate me."

"Danger and imminent death are different things." The sniper sneered over at Wheeljack, "You're my team mate, so of course I would put myself in harms way in order to keep you alive. That doesn't mean I'd die for you."

Wheeljack's grin returned at last, "Ha ha, wow. That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me," he said, "I think you're not telling the whole truth, though, Percy. If you were so concerned with staying alive, why join the Wreckers? We're kind of famous for the turn-over rate."

A few seconds passed as Perceptor failed to answer. She didn't even correct his use of the nickname.

"I'm just sayin'" Wheeljack continued, "you coulda gone back to being a scientist if you were so worried about getting killed. So it's something else, right?"

"It's not," She insisted, "I've been a Wrecker for far longer than you have, so I'm not worried about-"

"Yeah yeah, I think I figured out what you're worried about," Wheeljack interrupted her, "you just don't want someone else gettin' themselves killed to save you. You pretend to hate everybody so they won't."

Perceptor was glaring at him again. She looked like she might reach over and smack him. Wheeljack noticed, but didn't seem to care.

From behind, Springer spoke up at last, "Quiet, both of you."

"No worries, boss. We're just having a friendly conversation," Wheeljack said, "me and my good friend Perceptor here, who I'd definitely die for!"

"Stop it. You are not funny." Perceptor growled.

"Is that why you really quit Kup's team? Did Drift almost die or somethi-"

Wheeljack didn't finish his sentence, because Perceptor had finally reached the limit of her patience. Drawing up her rifle, she clocked him right in the face with the back end of it, sending the mech staggering backwards. Knockout's helm was just next to Wheeljack's and so, as his helm snapped to the side from the blow, his audial smacked into Knockout's face. It didn't really hurt that much, but the shock of it made him lose his grip on the mech's other shoulder and he fell backwards off of his back. Wheeljack had been stumbling backwards and tripped over the downed Knockout, falling practically right on top of him.

There was a sharp pain from his severed arm from the sudden pressure, but it didn't last too long. Thankfully, almost as fast as he landed on him, Wheeljack jumped back up and lunged back at Perceptor. Knockout didn't pay attention to the two grappling, and focused instead on the sting still lingering in his arm. He sat up, clutching at his upper arm just above the wound, internally running through a stream of curses directed at these violent, idiotic Wreckers.

Before he could muster the strength to pull himself upright, he felt a massive servo slip under his good arm and lift him up and place him on his feet. Knockout looked up just as Springer let go of him.

"You alright?" The green mech asked.

"Uh… yeah." Knockout grumbled, "Thanks."

Springer left it at that and turned back to his two fighting subordinates. Perceptor had somehow pinned Wheeljack and gotten him into a headlock. The mech was struggling against her, but not very successfully. Despite the position he found himself in, he had a smirk on his face like it was all just in good fun. This appeared to be a regular thing for the two of them.

"Alright, ENOUGH!" Springer's booming voice immediately got the two Wreckers to give him their attention. "I said to be quiet… do you hear that?"

Perceptor released Wheeljack and the two of them sat still for a moment, just listening. With the both of them finally being silent, there was sound just barely audible in the distance. It was some sort of quiet hum, like an engine. Springer looked back around the way they came.

"We're being followed."