His Spark, Her Soul

Chapter 6

Knockout sat down on a stool and folded his digits, resting his chin on them, elbows on the desk as he stared at his project in front of him. Everything was hard to do now that Breakdown was gone. Knockout closed his optics, remembering simpler times. "Knockout!"
He sighed softly and stood up, walking out of the room and into the larger medical room. The smaller room's door automatically locking behind him. "Knockout, there you are!" It was Starscream. He seemed upset but that was his mood all the time. "Yes, Starscream?" Knockout asked, he was in no mood to deal with the pest. The second in command began talking about vehicons that needed to be worked on and other orders from Megatron, all which Knockout ignored. He walked over and grabbed his tools, "Just send in the vehicons." He was tired of hearing the screaming and being ordered around by such a jerk. Starscream said a few more words and then finally left the medic in silence. Knockout stared at a wrench that was hanging up not too far away, caught up in memories.

"Knockout! Can you help me?" Níki ran over, nearly colliding with the cherry red mech. "Depends." He hummed as he scrolled to the next page on his datapad. She groaned in annoyance before smirking, "I'll hook you up with Big Blue." Knockout looked up at her, "Shut up." He nearly dropped his datapad, "If you're joking around I won't help you." "Why would I joke?" She grinned at him. "Alright, what do you need help with Doll?" He asked and watched as she pulled out a cracked wrench, "Can you help me make a better one?" "Isn't that Ratchet's?" Knockout questioned as he took it from her and started down the hallway. Níki hurried after him, "Yeah, I stole it because I want to fix it. I'm the reason it's cracked." She, then, explained about how she skipped class and ended up at an illegal beast fight. "Excuse me, you what?" Knockout interrupted her as he began to build her a new, much stronger wrench. "I got bored in class." She replied. He gave her a look and she immediately looked at the floor, "Okay, I panicked because the teacher set me up with the hottest mech in class. I didn't expect him to actually follow me all the way to the fight!" She fiddled with the flakes of metal that flew off the grinder. "But he's so dreamy and offered to tutor me!" Knockout rolled his optics before smirking, "There. Brand new wrench." He held it out to her but pulled it out of her reach, "Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, Sweetspark, a deal's a deal." "Fine." She grumbled before the walked out of the welding room and down the hallway towards the cafeteria. Once there, she waved down her best friend, "Hey Breakdown!" "Níki!" Breakdown came over and hugged him tightly, "I've been looking everywhere for you Bestie!" "Sorry, I was getting some help. And there's one more thing I have to do before we can hangout." She explained as he set her down. "Okay." He smiled. She waved, with the wrench in her servo, and she backed up, "Oh, this is Knockout. He has a crush on you!!" Then dashed down to hallway before Knockout or Breakdown could stop her.

Knockout chuckled softly to himself, "Who knew that would start the relationship." He grabbed the tools he needed and walked back into the smaller room and looked up at his project. "Don't worry, Sweetspark, all will be fixed in due time. Just be patient." He patted the cryogenic tank in front of him.

Back in Jasper, Nevada, the base was silent as they all stared at Optimus. "You-?" Miko started but then stopped, it was hard to think of a question or even a statement. It was hard to believe. Believe that Optimus killed her.
"She did a lot of amazing work, stuff that we can all look up to." Optimus started but Ratchet didn't want to hear some speech. He hadn't forgiven him. He couldn't. A small part of his spark was filled with hatred towards his leader for killing his love.
"How's it feel to know that you're fearless leader isn't all that he's cracked up to be?" Ratchet looked around at the younger mechs and femme. "Níki died at the beginning of the war. Without her the Autobots stumbled and lost a large amount of our side being lead into traps and ambushes." "It was an accident Ratchet." Arcee spoke up, "No one's perfect. You need to forgive him." Ratchet crossed his arms and glared, "Accident or not. I won't forgive him." He let out a breath, "Now leave me be. I told you the story that I didn't want to speak a word of." He turned sharply and headed over to the medical supplies to organize them when he glanced fondly at the broken wrench.

"Ratchet! I found your missing wrench!" Níki called as she hurried over to the tutoring room. Ratchet sighed loudly, "Must you be so noisy?" "Oh, sorry." She said quieter and sat down in front of him. Textbooks and datapads all over the table after a few hours.
"I don't understand!" Níki groaned as she leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling, "This is so hard." Ratchet rolled his optics as he rested his cheek on his servo. He didn't want to admit but so far she wasn't paying attention to anything he was saying. He glanced over at her as she began to teeter in her seat, clearly trying to busy herself with anything but studying. He watched her. He felt odd. It was a new feeling, like a fluttering in his chassis. His optics wandered over her frame slowly, taking in every inch of her. Why did he feel the need to hold her close? He frowned upon this thought and looked back at the books.

Níki stood outside the tutoring room. She bounced on her pedes as she held her textbook close to her chassis. It had been a week since Ratchet started tutoring her and her graded had improved greatly but she showed him older work, acting as if she wasn't getting anywhere. She was afraid that if she proved that she was now excelling at classes that he'd stop tutoring her and she'd lose her chance to spill her feelings to him. The problem was how? How to tell him? From what Knockout has been telling her, he isn't interested in love. She drummed her digit against her bottom lip as she thought. Ratchet walked over to her and pulled her into the room as she had been ignoring him for a solid ten minutes.

Ratchet smiled softly at his fond memories. Even though it hurt, it ached deeply in his spark, he didn't want to forget her again.