Title: Of Deals and Requisitions

Author: dreamerchaos

Fandom: IDW Universe.

Rating: R. Slash. Ratings based mostly on the gore.

Pairing: Ultra MagnusxRed Alert.

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Hasbro.

Summary: After reading the Spotlight comic for Ultra Magnus, my muses seized upon this idea.

After arresting Swindle for breaking the law yet again, the Decepticon makes a deal: This time, one Ultra Magnus can't refuse.

Note: Ignoring the entire Headmaster business. See? Wave my magic wand and 'poof'. No more.

WARNING: I'm not holding back on the gore and ickness. Be warned.

******

"Wait!!" Swindle kicks and flails his legs, arms shackled behind his back while Ultra Magnus shoves him towards the shuttle. "Wait! Deal! Let's deal!"

"Not this time." Ultra Magnus thrusts the wheedling Decepticon into the nearest seat, the chair locking and binding the prisoner into place as the Enforcer slides into his larger seat at the front of the shuttle's terminal. "Once we step off this shuttle and are aboard my vessel, I'm taking you straight to the nearest holding cell. There, you can explain to the officers how you acquired those weapons, and which system purchased the nuclear warheads."

"Don't be so quick to toss me into a deep hole just yet, my friend." Swindle leans forward as much as the shackles and barred arms strapped across his chassis will allow, "I have a deal that your iron-rod CPU wouldn't aspire to refuse."

"So you have said. Many times," Ultra Magnus gusts a breath of atmosphere, sending a prayer to Primus for patience and strength, "And many times before, I have ignored your offers."

"But this time I know where something―Or should I say…someone―is safely tucked away where you'll never find him. Not without a helping hand to guide you in his direction."

Ultra Magnus' shoulders freeze, his frame straightening until absolutely rigid. "What are you implying?"

Swindle grins. "Oooh, just something I heard a few solar cycles back. A few words about a friend of yours. A little Autobot Security Officer. What was his name…Ah..Now I remember," Swindle's denta glimmer with a shark-tooth grin, hissing the two words with malevolent glee. "Someone by the name of…Red. Alert."

******

Ultra Magnus abandons Swindle on the nearest asteroid belt once he has strained the last dregs of information out of the arms dealer, the Decepticon howling vile threats and curses when the Enforcer negligently dropped him shackled and adorned with a homing beacon onto the largest asteroid.

The Enforcer didn't care who found the arms dealer first. Let the first Decepticon or Autobot who found Swindle, deal with him themselves.

He ignored the hails and comm. bursts from fellow Autobots, worried concern traveling with their voices, not knowing what to make of the large mech's stony silence over the comm. channels.

More disturbing was the scant words that he delivered when, finally, Optimus Prime hailed his old friend.

"I found him." Ultra Magnus hands clenched upon the arms of his seat. Auto-pilot engaged, soaring through space, towards the coordinates that Swindle had provided under duress and threat of being jettisoned into the cold bowels of space.

"……" Optimus Prime's solemn features stare at the Enforcer for a long time. "It could just as easily be a farce. Swindle is not beneath lying through his denta in order to save his aft."

"I've dealt with Swindle long enough to tell when he's stretching the truth, and when he's pushed against a wall and beginning to willingly sing a tune in order to cover his hide."

"Ultra Magnus," Optimus Prime sighs, trying to reason with the mech, no matter how much he wished for Swindle's words to prove true, "I wish for the information to be credible as well. But…Red Alert was taken into Decepticon custody so long ago. You and I are both aware of the odds−"

"Don't read me the statistics, Optimus." Ultra Magnus' interrupts.

"Magnus..."

"I have to see him with my own optics." Ultra Magnus hits the series of keypads, initiating the warping sequence for his ship to jump several coordinates, cutting his travel time by a fortnight.

"…But can you handle what you may see?"

The chilling, truthful words dry the lubricants within Ultra Magnus' mouth.

Lowering his gaze from the hovering three-dimensional image of his leader and long-time friend, Ultra Magnus gives him no reply save for the fingertip shoving forward and pressing the keypad flat, severing the communication channel.

******

He hates recharge.

The memory files were unnecessarily cruel. Constantly replaying, reminding him of his failure.

"Red Alert!" Ultra Magnus stumbled, the thick ionized smoke buffeting his radar. "Get to the shuttle!" The rest of the team was nearing the ship. The Security Officer cut off by the Decepticon squad and the cloud of debris and smoke.

"I-I can't see!" Red Alert's voice warbles over the comm. link, intermixed with static. "Magnus..I can't make it to the ship. You need to get aboard without me!"

"Wait for me." Ultra Magnus snarls, kicking away a pair of Decepticons. Turning in the direction of Red Alert's raised voice, "Red! Wait for me! I won't leave you!" The large truck swore.

"T-There's…" Red Alert gasps over their private comm. link. "Magnus…someone's walking through the smoke towards me…"

"Don't be afraid!" Ultra Magnus' cracks two Decepticons together by their heads. "Just hold on. I'll be there in six astroseconds--"

"Magnus!!" His soldier's―No…Red Alert, his partner―the red and white mech's scream froze the energon inside his capillaries. The utter terror in the mech's voice never uttered before.

Ultra Magnus roars, rage and alarm fueling his every strike, knocking down every foe who dared to meander into his path. Throwing himself through the thick dense fog. "RED!"

A howling roar and churning wind spears the thick ionized clouds, a tornado of debris and clouds swirling towards the stratosphere. Ultra Magnus curses, shielding his optics from the flying grit.

"Roadbuster! Talk to me!"

"Sir!" The mech shouts, "It's a ship! A Decepticon ship! It's taking off!"

"Where is Red Alert?!"

"He-He's aboard that ship!"

"Track it! Track it now!"

"Sir! I can't! The ionized clouds have fragged up the radar! I can't even triangulate your position, and you're barely two hundred feet from the shuttle!"

"No no no…" Ultra Magnus uncovers his face, the ionized cloud dispelling, but slowly so. Moving as swiftly as a glacier, so many precious astroseconds wasted until the cloud disappears, Ultra Magnus already knows it is far too late. The Security Officer no where in sight once the thick fog disperses. No Decepticon soldiers or vessels on the battlefield or hovering in the horizon.

"Red!"

******

"Autobot intruder detected! Enforcer has breached the main gates-"

Decepticons race in all directions, failing to heed the warning over the intercom systems. The entire base appeared to rattle and groan around the soldiers as the battle rages, many stumbling to find a cache of weapons in order to fend off the large Autobot intruder.

"Get me an open comm. link!" A large black and yellow Decepticon roars, waving a large gun in the air, "Send out a distress signal!! Tell them that-"

The nearest barricaded doors explode, and with a loud 'BOOM' that shatters several audio receptors, the massive explosion skins the metal paint from the thick frames, sending the heavy metal panels spinning like out of control missiles throughout the room, one bent sheet of metal splitting a Decepticon's shoulder and arm from his chassis with an agonizing squeal.

"I-It-It's him!!" Soldiers fall over one another in a bid to escape from the Enforcer, the flats of their hands seared from the scorched metal and charred remains of their Decepticon brethren.

Ultra Magnus hurls two concussion grenades over his shoulder from the hallway he has breached, cutting off any soldiers sneaking up on his back. Waving his D27 short-range blaster to his left, and swinging the weapon around to his right, he lays down a barrage of shells. The shotgun rounds punching holes into the half circle of Decepticons who are too slow to retreat, and the rarer few who have raised their weapons and aimed at the large Autobot.

Howls and energon flood the massive hangar. Ultra Magnus drops the gun when he is out of ammo, kicking the smoking weapon aside. He couldn't risk losing his footing in the middle of a gun-fight.

Sweeping a massive hand around, he backhands a soldier, cracking open his face and mandible like an eggshell. Another, larger brute receives a harsh knee to his gut. The blow bending the Decepticon over the Autobot's knee, Ultra Magnus shoving the barrel of his secondary weapon, the 445 Magnum, into the Decepticon's chest.

He fires.

A smaller, quaking Decepticon soldier, sprawled on his aft end on the floor amongst the scatter of limbs and dripping fluids, flinches when the spray of blue and lavender energon speckles his face and lips as the Autobot's weapon discharges, splitting open the Decepticon tank's spark chamber and most of his frame.

Ultra Magnus coldly looks upon the carnage he has laid down upon the base. This chamber no different then the rest of this dirty, haphazardly slapped together fortress is the farthest dank corner of the Gerchaan Sector. He had passed by this purple and orange planet several times when on retrieval for separate prisoners, but his ship's radar had not picked up any signs of inhabitation.

Obviously, the Decepticons were getting smarter and hiding in deeper within the most rotten of solar systems. Scratching their holes into the dirt and squirreling away to hunker down and hide, tucking away their secrets and concealing the few cannons that had protected this miserable domicile before Ultra Magnus' ships had shot out the large gun flanks.

The soldiers on this base are a sorry lot. Probably commissioned to stay and guard this base because they were at the bottom of the Decepticon totem pole. Scraping and clawing their way up the pecking order, desperate to get off this rock and earn favor and fortune.

His face wrinkled in disgust at the sight of the fortress hidden deep within the dank, sulfurous swamp. Surrounded by a lake of heated yellow and orange ooze, the stench and pathetic twist of metal bunkers enough to send most mechs away in disgust.

But that certainly didn't mean that this base didn't hide a few secrets. He's already radioed for backup, warning the nearest Autobot contingent forces to have medical teams waiting for an influx of Autobot prisoners.

From the looks of things, from what his ship's scans have determined from the slew of shallow graves dotting the rare few patches of dry soil, there were more than a handful of Autobots on this base at any given time, besides the one mech for whom he was searching.

The smaller Decepticon yips in terror when the Enforcer drags him onto his pedes―drags the smaller, kicking, wailing mech entirely off the ground―shaking the Decepticon like a wild cur. "Where is your prison ward?" Ultra Magnus demands.

"d-d-d-don't have a p-prisoner w-ward.."

The grip of the large hand around the Decepticon's throat squeezed.

The Decepticon flails, facial plating flushing with a flood of energon from the steady pressure, capillaries bursting around his optics, "gggkk..allggg…all right! Alright! I'll tell! I'll tell!"

"No." Ultra Magnus sneers, pulling the Decepticon close. "Show me."

******

The skittish Decepticon kept his head down, purple hands bound in front by the shackles Ultra Magnus had 'liberated' from the carcass of another soldier.

"Never been down here…" The young Decepticon whines, freezing in the entrance towards the long flight of stairs leading down into the prisoner ward. Shoved forward when Ultra Magnus pushes him to proceed, "Only the top brass are allowed to view and question the prisoners."

"Less talking, more walking."

The soldier hisses, ducking his helm as if anticipating a blow. When he receives none, he scurries forward, the large Autobot shadowing his steps.

"Um.." The smaller mech pauses in front of the locked doors, staring blankly at the keypad and screen, "I…don't know the passwords. Steel or Ridgetooth would know--"

He practically leaps out of his dermal plating when a huge fist smashes into the keypad face, punching through the wall until the Autobot's curled knuckles disappear. The electronic combination lock gives a pathetic squeal of ripped gears and sparking wires, before falling silently. The door releases a hiss of pressurized atmosphere, and shudder open.

"…of course…that works too." The Decepticon whimpers.

Ultra Magnus' prisoner cautiously steps into the prison ward, the smaller mech moaning softly in terror, head whipping back and forth as if preparing to be caught in a restricted sector by a superior officer.

Ultra Magnus eyed the sealed cells. "Where would they keep a high ranking prisoner?" He wondered out loud.

The Decepticon bit his lip. "P-Probably at the..end of the hall?"

Ultra Magnus sighs with impatience. Obviously this mech was no longer of use. "I'll keep your advice in mind." Noting that one cell was partially open, and with a quick glance the Enforcer determined it was empty, he grabbed the Decepticon by the shoulder. "Sit tight until the Autobots arrive." Warning the prisoner before throwing him into the tiny cell and slamming the door shut, muffling the mech's weak cry of surprise as he smacks into the wall opposite from the now sealed door.

The Enforcer has to steel his resolve and continue with each step down the hall, ignoring the faint wails and whimpers from the locked cells. Knowing reinforcement would soon arrive was the only sense of reprieve that he deigned for himself, the only measure of comfort that gives him the fortitude to keep walking and ignore each cell door that he passes.

He had a mech to find.

He would start at the end of the long hall of cells. If the Decepticon's words proved true, then his search would not take too long.

If proved false, he would search this entire ward. Twitch and rip every single scrap of plating of the fortress apart until he found him.

'And if there was still nothing?' The worrying thought flitted through his CPU.

With a quick wash of impatience, he deleted that stray bitter thought.

******

He finds the one who he has been searching for in the fourth cell.

His hand falls slack from the handle of the door, staring at the horrible tangled image of the Autobot and dozens of cables and wires. "…Red.."

What looks to be some sort of breathing apparatus covers the lower half of the Security Officer's mandible, a thick tube lodged down his throat―more than likely extending down to his fuel tank―A method to force feed the prisoner, he wonders.

A dim shade of vitality, the barest of alabaster glimmer of light, paints the mech's optics. The dull, patchy red and white paintwork scuffed by grime and scratches from crude hands holding him down and forcing the feeding tube down his esophagus.

A multitude of colored wires and cables are welded into his transformation seams and joints, the edges sealed by a thick black and silver coating, a welder used to prevent the cables and thick syringe ends from slipping free. Old and fresh stains of energon flake down the lines of the cables, marring the coiled flesh of the wires, staining Ultra Magnus' memory files with the knowledge that Red Alert struggled hard before he was strapped down and forced to endure being stabbed and…raped with the crude, needled ends of the array of wires.

A weak, steady hiss of atmosphere breaks the choked silence of the cell, the prisoner's practiced breathing timed by the breathing apparatus. Over half a dozen metal canisters litter the floor of the cell, connecting to the wires and cables, and Ultra Magnus can not determine the materials within the heavy containers. The walls behind the containers lined with small computer screens and the tiny text of readouts dancing across the screens every spare astrosecond.

His sensitive audios catch the chug of liquid through the tangled web of wires, the long array of thick and thin cables shuddering as the fluids churn and drip intravenously into Red Alert's slumped frame. His slack arms and hands strapped to the lone berth in the center of the room, the prone mech lit by the dull white halo of light from the ceiling.

"Red Alert." Ultra Magnus gently splays his hands upon the mech's slack features, tracing the familiar smooth ridge of the mech's face. He breathes the mech's designation again, barely brushing their lips together, "Red Alert. Please. I need you online."

His pleas do not earn a response. Red Alert's glazed optics never wavering from the halo of light glowing above him.

Sliding his hand down to grip the thick tube and breathing apparatus drags a reaction from the Security Officer.

A weak moan precedes the flash of Red Alert's optics slowly coming online. The mech's helm tilts, looking up into Ultra Magnus' face.

There is not a shred of recognition.

Red Alert struggles with meager strength against his metal bonds. A gurgle of indistinguishable words stifled by the tube and breathing apparatus.

"Shhh." Ultra Magnus isn't eager about his decision not to wait for a medical officer, but he knows that he must disconnect the Autobot from machines and cables.

"Please trust me." Trusting his instincts, the Enforcer lets his sensors guide him. His fingertips find the loops of plastic that prevents the breathing apparatus from slipping off the Autobot's face.

One of the machines bleats in alarm when the apparatus is removed, red text stenciling the computer screen.

Ultra Magnus grimaces with distaste as he continues. Firmly wrapping his hand around the thick, muscular cable, "Gently," He directs his cautionary tone towards his hands, one large hand gently holding Red Alert down as the mech whines and continues to struggle.

The tubing slowly slips up and out, the lubricated length spanning the length of the Enforcer's arm. He gags at the wet squelch of the cable flopping to the ground, the apparatus and tubing discarded to coil in an abandoned wet pile of lubricant and black bile.

Red Alert gags as soon as the tube is free. A long, horrible gurgle. Ragged, torn lips streaked with cuts and fresh energon grimace before a wash of black bile erupts from his mouth. The Autobot moaning, twisting his helm left and right.

"Frag it all." Ultra Magnus hisses in alarm. Quickly and as gently as possible, he tears away the metal straps over Red Alert's arms and legs with his bare hands, ignoring the sting of the scratches and torn plating of his palms while he tears away the restraints.

He helps lever Red Alert upwards to sit upon the berth, and helps him to tilt over the edge of the berth. Red Alert gags, vomiting more of the noxious black fluid from his fuel tank, the crude gout of fluid slicking the ground, the awful grinding, retching heave of his internal components engulfing the scream of the machines warning that the patient was no longer cycling atmosphere.

Ultra Magnus switches off his olfactory sensors before the stench overwhelms him. Shuddering in weak distaste as the fluid coats down his chassis and legs. But he persistently hangs on to Red Alert, keeping him elevated, coaxing him to purge the waste from his systems.

When Red Alert's tank and systems have nothing left to give, the Security Officer folds pathetically into the Enforcer's tight embrace. A low, long whine of agony following as the welded cables and wires stretch taut, causing fresh beads of energon to drip from in between his seams.

"…hhh..h-help…" Ultra Magnus freezes at the words haltingly uttered by the weakened mech. Red Alert's hands trembling against his chassis, "…help…meeee.." The Security Officer's lips, mandible, and face streaked with gore, head rolling to the side until he can peer up at his savior.

"I'm…I'm trying."

"..pleeeeezzzzz--"

The Enforcer physically braces himself for the next course of action. Threading his fingers through a cluster of cables buried into the seam of Red Alert's hip joint, thigh, and knee.

"I'm sorry…" He apologizes with sincere regret.

Then he wrenches hard, popping the tight seams of the welds, wrenching the needle tips and wires coiled within Red Alert's frame like long muscled parasites from within the mech.

Red Alert's entire body jerks spasmodically, the agony of the torn welds and fresh spill of energon from the removal of the needles drags a howl of a scream from the mech. The scrape of the needles along his insides like acid pouring down his internal wiring network.

Ultra Magnus uses his superior weight and strength to force Red Alert to remain as still as possible within his grip when he moves towards the next cluster. Losing his grip the first time, his fingers and palms streaked with fresh damp energon causing the cables to slip free from in between slick fingertips.

He pulls hard and steady, continuing to tug at a persistent cable that refuses to budge until he twists and pulls at the same time. The bent needle slipping free from the crease of Red Alert's elbow joint.

"Sssaaaahhh!…s-stop!" The Security Officer wails.

"Hang on a little longer.." Ultra Magnus begs. Red Alert curling against him, continuing to cry and wail as the hot, screeching pain of the cables and needles split him open again and again as they are regrettably but necessarily pulled from his frame.

Ultra Magnus loses count of how many times that he must continue this agonizing process of twist and pull, fingertips and palms streaked with energon and red and white paint as he claws and yanks the twists and coils of invaders from the mech.

Over his comm. link, he hears the blessed words that he has been waiting for.

"Enforcer Ultra Magnus…We have stepped onto the planet. Are you in need of medical assistance, Sir?" First Aid, joined by his brothers, is the first to make their way off the shuttle, along with the other soldiers who are beginning their sweep through the base in search of survivors.

"Medic!" Ultra Magnus' voice rings over the comm., curling Red Alert's limp frame into his arms―Red Alert ceased struggling halfway through, and wouldn't not respond to inquiry or touch―the Enforcer's strong, thick legs shoving back and heaving them both away from the distressing mess of cables and stained berth and bleating computer equipment. The wash of light never piercing the slick oily stain of fluids and cooling energon soaking the floor of the room, Ultra Magnus violently kicking away the mess of cables away from his pedes, the wires seeming to coil around him as if still searching for their host.

"Medic! I need a medic right now! First Aid! I need you here now!"

******

He loses track of the cycles that follow. The controlled chaos of the teams scrambling and stabilizing the Autobots found within the base, while neutralizing the few Decepticon straggles that remained.

Ultra Magnus does not refuel or recharge until the shuttle has docked with the Valiant, the orbiting battle station looming alongside the rim of a planet, the floating vessel moving from system to system to avoid Decepticon detection.

First Aid dropped into the seat next to the Enforcer. Covering his throbbing helm in his hands, "We had no idea that there was a Decepticon prison ward on that planet." The young medic shudders, trying to delete the memory files of the mechs and femmes helped and carried out of their cells. His brother and leader, Hot Spot, had helped First Aid feed a small cube of energon to a starved mech barely a quarter their weight, the pale blue and purple mech too weak to maintain his grip, skeletal fingers curling in vain around the cube.

"I'm sure the Special Ops will find ways the get the few Decepticon prisoners to talk." Ultra Magnus sits with both arms folded over his large chassis, fresh from the wash racks, but a dirty look stretching his facial plating into a dark frown.

"How will that help us, I wonder?" First Aid wonders, "I doubt they will reveal any other prison wards in that solar system, let alone any other galaxy."

"We can only hope."

The two mechs remain in companionable silence for a long while.

Ultra Magnus is the first to speak. "…How is he?"

First Aid sighs, seeming to wilt further. "Primus…I've never seen such a thing. Who could do that to a mech?"

"What was done to him?" Ultra Magnus demands.

"Besides the obvious?" First Aid forces himself to stand, guiding Ultra Magnus to follow with the nudge of his chin in the direction of the Medical Ward.

"The other prisoners were starved. But the Decepticons kept Red Alert fueled for a reason." First Aid had had Ultra Magnus summarize his findings when he'd located the Security Officer, "Your assessment was correct about the feeding tube. Red Alert would not willingly consume his rations, so they forced the fuel directly into his tanks. Strapping him down and monitoring his cycling of atmosphere was a means to ensure that he hadn't deactivated himself."

"What about the tubes and cables that I found?"

First Aid shuddered with repulse, not wanting to remember the brief moment while he had combed through the wires and mess to determine their function. The thick cables and wires slipping between his fingers like fat, bloating worms and leeches gorged from feeding, "The Decepticons wanted the data in Red Alert's CPU. When he wouldn't bend under interrogation, they tried to override his firewalls. When that didn't work, they opted to implant a virus that would degrade his firewalls and codes."

First Aid's optical band turned to stare directly up into the Enforcer's. "Have you ever seen a liquid form for a virus, Ultra Magnus? I've never seen this before…It is unprecedented. What the Decepticons used on Red Alert…" He had to halt, stopping near the privacy curtains around one particular medical berth, turning his stare towards the blank surface of the thick metal curtain, his voice a low whisper to not disturb the topic of their discussion, "The virus was meant to wipe his CPU, as a last measure. If it couldn't frag with his fire walls, then the Decepticons couldn't get to the data. Based on the other chemicals in those vats, alongside the virus, they must have determined that if they couldn't extract the data, then they would allow no one to have it."

"…Is the damage permanent?" Ultra Magus knew that First Aid could repair the wounds inflicted from his rough and abrupt manhandling to tear Red Alert free from the berth and liquid vats.

His concern was for the damage that may have already been done by the virus.

"I do not know." First Aid admits, "Who knows how long he was hooked up to the virus and chemicals. Or how long it takes for effects to be noted?"

"May I see him?" First Aid nods in affirmation, stepping aside and allowing Ultra Magnus to push aside the curtain and step into the privacy of the cubicle.

"Use your comm. channel if you need me." First Aid asks before leaving Ultra Magnus.

Ultra Magnus remained frozen at the very edge of the curtain, scan meters from the other lone occupant. A sentry of machines hummed softly, monitoring the patient and the flow of energon from an intravenous drip and virus upgrades being downloaded from a portable disk drive directly into the Security Officer's CPU.

"……" Red Alert twists his helm in the direction of his visitor. First Aid and his young medical team had patiently and fervently cleaned every speck of dirt from his frame, nary a scratch visible. A damp sheen of paint and polish giving the sedated mech a vibrant glow, marred only by the intravenous drip and the silver metal plating covering the multitude of puncture wounds from the cables and needles.

"…Red Alert?" Ultra Magnus can't hold back any further. Stepping up to the berth, he gently cups the Security Officer's hand between his, holding the slimmer fingers against his cheek.

"…you..you are?" Red Alert stumbles, frowning up at the Enforcer. Movement and words slurred by the sedatives, and the damage from the virus.

Ultra Magnus' spark shrinks and feels as if it shrivels in despair. His hands weave tighter around the Autobot's hand. He forces a pained smile to flit across his lips, chin falling, weakly shuddering inward a calming draught of atmosphere.

"It's okay..it's all right.." He isn't too sure which of them he is trying to assure.

"…..mag…nuss.."

Ultra Magnus' vents hitch with a gasp, head jerking, immobilized by the faint brush of fingers against his cheek from the hand still trapped between his.

"You…came for me…" Red Alert breathed with wonder and firm credence. When Ultra Magnus dared to lean close, still unbelieving of his twist of good fortune, Red Alert pressed his forehead to the Enforcer's, sighing and trembling with relief as he pushed as close as his body would allow to his large mate's. "Knew…you would..come.."

Ultra Magnus carefully and gently stretched across the mech, mindful not to allow his heavy frame to press upon the wounds or tangle with the intravenous drip.

He curled around the smaller mech, breathing in the familiar scent of wax and polish, the Security Officer's spark thrumming beneath his cheek, the recognizable hum and pulse warming the plating of Red Alert's chassis. The Enforcer's spark pulsing in accord to its mate.

"I never break my word." Ultra Magnus allowed his composure to break when Red Alert wound one arm around the large Enforcer's neck, murmuring words of devotion while Ultra Magnus shivered, clutching onto his partner and swearing never to let him out of his sight again until the mech was able to walk without a limp and when First Aid removed the last of the plating from his wounds.

"You're right." Red Alert presses a kiss to the mech's helm, "You always keep your word." He smiles tiredly.

END

Author's Note: Bleerrgh. I need something sappy. Sappy happy. Hey! I rhymed!