Both the Autobots and the Decepticons were going about their normal day when a flash of white light transported them to a large empty room. The two factions looked around in confusion before spotting each other.

"What trickery is this, Prime?" Megatron growled.

Behind the warlord Starscream, Soundwave, Knockout, and Shockwave were looking equally unhappy.

"This was not our doing Megatron," Optimus replied.

Ratchet, Bulkhead, Arcee, and Bumblebee were at their leader's back, weapons ready to attack if the Decepticons made one wrong move.

"Then how did we get here?" Starscream sneered.

"I brought you here," a voice giggled, causing everyone to jump and look around to find the source of the voice.

There was no one there but them.

"Come out," Megatron demanded.

"No," the voice said lightly.

"Why have you brought us here?" Optimus tried, interrupting whatever Megatron was going to say.

"Oh, I wanted to see your reactions," the voice answered happily.

"Reactions to what?"Arcee asked, optics narrowed warily.

"To meeting different versions of yourself."

"What!" Almost everyone exclaimed.

"Impossible," Ratchet and Starscream said together, much to their mutual disgust.

"Not impossible just highly improbable and difficult," Shockwave corrected.

"It's true," the voice said gleefully. "Let's get started!"

A loud clap followed that exclamation along with the activation of a forcefield in the front of the room, large enough to comfortably fit several large mechs. Then there was another flash of light and Knockout appeared inside the forcefield reading a data pad. No, not Knockout, a quick glance confirmed that Knockout was still standing with the Decepticons. The mech in the forcefield was an almost exact replica except his paint was scratched and dull, so a normal mech's paint job.

The Knockout in the forcefield looked up from the data pad he was holding and startled. He quickly fell into a battle stance, dropping the data pad in favor of his energon prod.

"Where an I? What is going on?" He demanded to know, holding the prod threateningly.

It was strange to see a Knockout so similar yet different from the one they know. The oddest part, though, was the looks he kept sending the Decepticons. It was almost like he had seen a ghost. The other Knockout froze when he saw himself standing with the Decepticons.

"You are in an alternate universe," the voice said, starling the new mech.

The other Knockout made a face, "That's not strange at all."

"You are here to tell them about your universe," the voice continued, ignoring the comment. "There is a forcefield surrounding you. This is to keep you from harming or being harmed by anyone, so you can relax. Oh and for convenience you are going to be called AU Knockout."

With that the voice fell silent. AU Knockout seemed to debate with himself for a minute before relaxing his stance and resting the prod by his side.

"So how do we start?" He asked with an amused smirk.

"How about with your paint job?" Knockout almost screeched, having wanted to say something since the alternate had appeared.

AU Knockout stared at him in confusion before glancing down at his paint job.

"I forgot that I used to be like that," he muttered to himself with a chuckle. "I don't have the time to buff myself to perfection everyday, besides my lovers don't seem to mind."

"What do you mean you don't have time! The med bay can't be that busy!" Knockout exclaimed, still looking horrified.

AU Knockout straightened up, a stern look on his face making him look more intimidating and noble, "I don't have time because I am not only a medic but the leader of the Decepticons as well."

That caused a shock to go through everyone, especially Megatron and Starscream.

"What!?" Megatron growled, looking seconds away from lunging at the medic. "How?"

AU Knockout gave a predatory grin.

"Because you, my dear Lord Megatron," AU Knockout said sarcastically, "are dead, along with Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, and half of the crew. Leaving me the highest ranking officer."

Everyone's optics widened in shock.

"What? How did I die?" Megatron demanded.

AU Knockout's answering grin sent a shiver down all of their back struts.

"How? Well that's easy. I helped Optimus Prime assassinate all of you."

Megatron was too shocked to be angry. The idea that Optimus Prime could try and assassinate him at all went against everything he knew about the Prime.

Optimus, for his part, was frozen in shock. A version had tried to assassinate someone? And succeed?

"Illogical," Shockwave muttered.

"Optimus Prime?" Knockout asked.

"Yes," AU Knockout confirmed. "He can be quite devious when he wants to be. Originally he was going to execute, pardon my pun, the whole plan by himself, and he was skilled enough to pull it off. I guess I should start at the beginning, though, shouldn't I?"

The Autobots nodded and the Decepticons just stared.

"Well it started when Megatron brought back one Orion Pax. I'm not sure what has happened in your world, but I'm assuming this event happened?" Everyone nodded. "Well Orion nodded in acceptance of everything Megatron said but little did we know, he knew right off the bat we were lying to him."

Optimus cringed and AU Knockout noticed.

"From that expression I guess that didn't happen in your world."

Optimus shook his head, optics downcast in shame.

"Don't worry too much about it," AU Knockout said, waving it off. "Megatron can be rather persuasive when he needs to be."

That got the mech some strange looks. They had never seen their Knockout comfort someone.

"Anyways, as I said Orion knew we were lying. It was only when I saw something in his medical file did I realize how. I went to warn Megatron but by the time I found him the alarm had already gone off. We found Orion in the bridge, the drones knocked out around him, and the ground bridge active," AU Knockout shook his head. "We still have no idea how he managed all of it."

"Wait. What did you find in his medical file?" Ratchet asked.

"I found out he was part Ossessian, and from the blank looks I'm getting none of you know what that is. That might be where our two universe branched off."

AU Knockout trailed off falling deep in thought. Bumblebee beeped at him impatiently, wanting him to continue.

"Ossessians are a race of Cybertronians who found one being and formed a special bond with them. They would do anything, be anything for that one being. And I mean anything," AU Knockout explained. "The Optimus Prime of my world bonded to Ratchet."

Optimus and Ratchet exchanged startled glances.

"I warned Megatron that eventually Ratchet would have enough and make a comment that would allow Optimus to act. I warned them but I was ignored."

AU Knockout's face twisted and he glared at the Decepticons.

"Eventually my prediction came true," he said ominously. "It happened when the scout took a particularly hard hit. He almost off-lined from what I heard."

The Autobots all glanced at the yellow scout, shifting unconsciously to put themselves between him and the Decepticons.

"That night Ratchet broke down and wished that the war would end, and for Optimus, Ratchet's wish is his command. I stumbled over Optimus less than an hour latter in Megatron's quarters, standing over his dead frame," he gave a huff of laughter. "I guess even great war lords let their guard down in their private quarters."

Megatron shifted, still not believing that Optimus Prime, even a different version of him, killed him.

"I knew better than to get in his way. Instead I offered to help him."

"Why did you offer to help him?" Bulkhead asked.

"Were you as power hungry as Starscream and just hid it better?" Megatron asked.

"No, I never cared for positions of power," AU Knockout spit. "No it was your treatment of me that pushed me to offer. You never liked me because of my frame type and my fighting style. It didn't matter that I was the one who put your sorry afts back together! No, no one on board liked me and they made sure I knew it. Breakdown had protected me from the worst of it but after his death it got worse. It got to the point where the scrapes I had to buff out came from the crew. I was sick of the treatment, I was sick of the isolation, and I was sick of this pointless war!" He almost screamed.

"So yes," AU Knockout snarled. "I helped him carry out his plan, I even fixed it to guarantee a ceasefire. I distracted each one of you," he pointed at the Decepticons, "while Optimus stabbed you in the back and downloaded the virus he created. It was so easy. I guess no matter how little you thought of me, none of you ever expected me to betray you. After that Optimus left and I spun a convincing story about a deadly virus, leaving none the wiser of what really happened that night."

The Decepticons took a step back at the almost feral look on the medic's face, silently swearing to treat their Knockout better.

AU Knockout calmed down and continued, "In the end Optimus's plan worked. The ceasefire eventually turned into a peace treaty and the war was over just like that."

Everyone in the room turned slightly wistful at the thought of the war ending, even Megatron, who was less than thrilled that he had to die for it to happen in that world.

"We worked together to rebuild Cybertron piece by piece. It was hard work and, at times, tensions between the two sides could have been cut by a sword, but we did it eventually. Reintegration of the two sides into one people was almost harder than rebuilding Cybertron itself, especially when bots from both factions started returning home along with the citizens who had managed to flee. The tensions did ease a little when I bonded to two Autobots," AU Knockout said with a sly smile.

Optics widened in surprise. Not many ever thought that the playbot of the Decepticons would ever settle down and bond.

"…My lovers don't seem to mind," Soundwave played back.

"Who are they?" Knockout asked.

AU Knockout's face broke into a breath taking smile, "The night we killed half of the Decepticons Optimus said that if I could convince Ratchet then I could join them for a threesome. I took that to spark and managed to seduce Ratchet. Eventually I grew to love them both even though I know I will always be second in Optimus's optics."

"W-we bonded?" Ratchet squeaked looking between Optimus and the two Knockouts.

"Yep, we are happily bonded with three sparklings."

Knockout choked.

"Your time's up," the voice said, reminding everyone why they were here.

AU Knockout just smiled and sent a kiss to Optimus and Ratchet before disappearing.

"Well, that was fun."