Knockout woke to the sound of soft beeping, rhythmic and steady, an sound familiar enough to him that he believed he was going to open his eyes and find himself in the Nemesis medbay. So when he opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar white room, his heart monitor jumped.

Grunting as he attempted to sit himself up, a loud rattle and jerk on his left hand had him doing a double-take. Blinking away the blurry vision, Knockout focused on the handcuff chaining his hand to the berth.

Squinting, Knockout tugged at his wrist again, head flopping back onto the pillows. His heart-rate spike drastically when his memory came rushing back: the race, the painted hot rod, and the crash...

Daniele.

Knockout began to thrash, jerking at his restraint, as he began to call for his wife.

The door flew open, two officers rushing in with a nurse following closely behind. "Stand down! Stand down, now!"

Hands were on him, pressing him down onto the bed as the nurse prepared an injection. "Daniele! Daniele Jarkistk!" Knockout shouted, arching up off the bed in his desperation to get to his wife. "No! Don't touch me!" He screamed, one of the officers throwing himself down across his legs to keep him from kicking, the other moving to pin down his wrists as he called for restraints.

"Enough! Stand down!"

Knockout was breathing heavily, effectively pinned down when an all-too familiar figure walked into the room, smug as could be.

"Fowler!" Knockout snarled, jerking again in an attempt to get free, the officers ensuring his movements were minimal.

"Will you agree to remain complacent if my agents were to release you?" Fowler questioned, not acknowledging the red-head's initial outburst.

Glaring venomously, Knockout was able to manage a short nod in response, waiting for the agents to back off before lunging for the older man.

Slammed back down to the bed, Knockout's head spun and his vision blurred. He could hear the nurse ordering them to stop, warning them of the 'consequences' of their actions.

Knockout clenched his teeth so hard that he could taste blood flood his mouth, the young human screaming in rage, the nurse preparing a needle out of the corner of his eye.

Slumping back against the bed, Knockout had to fight to keep from sobbing. "Daniele. Please..." He begged once more as the prick of a needle caused him to flinch.

"Stop." Fowler ordered once more, holding up a hand to gesture for the officers and nurse to back off, Knockout shaking although he didn't lash out again. He remained still, lying on his back, gaze fixated on the agent's face.

"Th-the other person in the car..." Knockout coughed, vision swimming when the movement sent a wave of dizziness through him, "where is she?"

"The hostage is safe. She is being cared for in a separate-"

Rage bubbled up in Knockout again. "She's MY WIFE!" He screamed, jerking at the handcuffs again. "MY WIFE!"

Straightening up to his full height, Fowler stared at the red-haired man for several moments before he motioned for the others in the room to leave. The officers glanced at each other, Knockout, then their superior, finally relenting as they slipped past the African and closed the door behind them.

"Do you really want to risk her safety?"

The question stopped Knockout cold, the ex-decepticon looking up with a stricken look on his face. "What? Wh-what do you mean?" He demanded fearfully, shaking his head slowly.

"Daniele Jarkistk was pulled from the wreckage of your car. I pulled every string I had in order to fabricate the story of her being your hostage." Fowler explained, hands clasped behind his back as he paced in front of the door. "Do you really want everyone to know that she's the wife of an alien?"

Knockout's blood ran cold, mouth opening and closing as he struggled to find a response. "H-How do you...?"

Fowler snorted in a way that some may take as amusement, but Knockout could see it was disdain. "It wasn't hard. You and your two friends weren't present at the final battle that drove the Nemesis back to Cybertron. They found that you and your companions were in holoform," the agent looked towards the restrained decepticon with a smile. "They pulled up your records and from there we handed out descriptions."

Shutting his eyes, Knockout clenched his jaw and bit back another cry of rage and pain. This was his fault, no one else's.

"Can I see her?" The question was so quiet, Knockout wasn't sure that Fowler had heard it, but the agent drew in a deep breath and watched him with an intense gaze.

"No."

Knockout felt the tears begin to form in his eyes, the decepticon taking several deep breaths in an attempt to keep from crying aloud. Maybe when he was alone, but not in the face of his enemy.

"C-Can you at least... Tell me h-how she's do-doing?" Knockout fought to form the words, his hands shaking as his eyes tracked the other man's pacing. "Is she alright?"

For a brief moment, Fowler looked torn, but then his expression cleared. Almost too quickly for Knockout to pick it up, but he could tell that the agent before him wasn't sure whether he wanted to tell him or not.

"Please."

Fowler stared at the man before him. A man that was also an alien robotic humanoid, the man that was part of a race that desired nothing more than the extinction of the human race. A man that also married a human, and now looked more concerned about said woman than his impending incarceration.

"Miss Jarkistk is stable. She went into premature labor." Fowler held up a hand to prevent Knockout's outburst. "The baby is in the NICU. They're both stable."

Knockout shook his head, stricken with the news. He turned his face away, swallowing hard before forming an answer. "Thank you."

Giving a short nod, Fowler turned away and left the room, allowing the nurse to re-enter behind him. She moved around Knockout before beginning to disinfect his wrist, the skin rubbed raw and bleeding from when he'd been fighting the handcuff. Knockout just shut his eyes and fell away from the world.

The moment he'd seen the news, Soundwave knew they were coming for him. Sofía had pleaded with him to leave, but he'd refused. He would face what was coming.

It wasn't long before the sound of sirens reached his ears, then the sound of the officers ordering for him to come out. It was like a movie, and it gave Soundwave the briefest flicker of amusement passing through him as he stood up from where he'd been seated on the couch, pistol in hand.

Soundwave stopped only briefly to lean over and place a kiss on Sofía's cheek, Soundwave trying so hard to not just take her hand and flee as he looked down into the tear-filled eyes of the woman he loved. "I'm sorry. I'll be back." He murmured, turning away and heading for the door.

"Dad?"

Stopping at the door, hand on the knob, Soundwave half-turned to look at his son standing at the top of the stairs. "Go back to bed, Rafael. This will be over soon, alright?"

Raf looked distressed, the young boy moving to com down the stairs before Sofía arrived, catching him in her arms as she hugged him close, preventing him from going to Soundwave.

Looking down on his family, Soundwave finally turned away, pulling the door open before stepping out onto the porch. Police cars were lined up outside, officers taking cover behind the doors and bulk of the cruisers, guns pointed at him.

"Stand down! Put the gun down!"

Soundwave silently regarded the officers waiting outside, expression cold and emotionless as he watched them, slowly lifting the gun up before a voice stopped him.

"Soundwave!"

Turning quickly, Soundwave levelled the pistol with Agent Fowler, the human standing off to one side.

Expression grim and determined, Soundwave pulled the hammer back.

"Lincoln Esquivel, is it?" Agent Fowler questioned, hands up as he slowly approached. "Otherwise known as Soundwave?"

Soundwave clenched his jaw and lifted the gun a little higher, lining it up with the other man's head. "Step any closer, and I'll shoot you."

Fowler snorted, shaking his head in amusement as he stepped closer. "Do that, and you'll have another charge laid over your head." The African-American responded, stepping up right in front of the decepticon. "Do you want to make this any uglier for your family? Surrender, and we can keep this under wraps."

Studying the human in front of him, Soundwave lifted his chin a little more. "And imprison me? For life? Megatron will come back for us." He responded firmly, gaze narrowed. "Then you won't be able to hold me responsible for what happens next." He hissed, Fowler shaking his head. "What makes you think that we will be the ones holding you? The autobots will have that pleasure."

Soundwave clenched his teeth, breathing heavily as he glared at the dark-skinned agent, Fowler returning the gaze as neither was willing to back down.

"Put the gun down, Soundwave. The autobots will have the opportunity to incapacitate you." Fowler ordered, stepping closer so the barrel of the gun was almost directly in front of his face, though his eyes never strayed from the decepticon's. "Be grateful it's not the human government. You have prime to thank for that, otherwise you would've been sentenced to multiple life imprisonment, without the chance of parole, and possibly find yourself in a seat on Death Row." The american murmured under his breath, seemingly trying to keep what was being said from the other humans present.

"What of my family?" Soundwave questioned, teeth still tightly clenched as he tried to think through his options.

Fowler took a deep breath and straightened himself fully, studying the dark-haired male for several moments before responding. "They will be told what everyone else will be: that you are a dangerous criminal. A corrupt CIA agent that we've been hunting for the past decade." He explained, Soundwave giving a sharp sound of bitter amusement. "And ruin my family's reputation?" He demanded.

"They will play the part of being unaware, I'm certain. What other choice do you have, Soundwave?" Fowler questioned quietly, jerking his head towards the home behind the taller male. "Let them watch you kill one of their own kind? Let your son watch as you're killed right on his front lawn?"

Regarding the human with bitter hatred, Soundwave slowly lowered the gun as the officers around him shouted orders at him, the steady noise just a buzz in the background as the cybertronian slowly dropped himself down to his knees in the grass.

They were on him faster than he'd expected, but Soundwave was silent as he was jerked around, arms roughly pulled behind his back as the agents locked cuffs over his wrists. The entire time he just looked up at Fowler.

Raf was shouting in the background, alternating between pleading with the officers to leave his father alone and angrily shouting at Fowler and Soundwave collectively. He felt betrayed by both of them.

Soundwave understood the feeling.

There was nothing he could do. The agents refused to let Raf come any closer than the porch, and his wife was keeping a firm hold on the young boy. She was crying, but this was a possibility she always knew could happen. Raf's face was stained with angry tears as he was held back.

Soundwave stared back at them as he was pulled to his feet and shoved towards the nearby vehicles.

"You know, for a guy that supposedly loves his family," Fowler approached again, looking back at the scene Rafael was making and then back up at Soundwave, he shook his head. "Why would you still help Megatron destroy the human race?"

Fixating the dark-skinned agent with an angry gaze, Soundwave tried to pull away from the officers holding him back, the anger clear in both his expression and his words. "You can't even begin to understand! If you did, you wouldn't dare come here nor arrest me!" The tall cybertronian snarled as he was dragged back and forced into one of the vehicles, the door slammed behind him.

"He will destroy us all."