Knockout is on Cybertron.
He has his medical credentials back.
He's now the head of a small medical clinic on Iacon's east side, with a dozen employees under his command.
He's got Wildbreak, nicknamed "Wiley," who hardly ever leaves his side and screams murder when he's handed off to someone else and it breaks Knockout's spark every time.
And then he gets a message from Bumblebee on Earth. Breakdown's spirit is still around, he's still trying to fight the Autobots with anything he can manage in his non-corporeal state, and Knockout is one of the few bots who might be able to calm him down.
Knockout's life, the life he's spent years rebuilding into something soft, something quiet and simple, has now had a brick thrown through its window.
He's on the next spacebridge to Earth, of course. Him and Wildbreak both. They arrive at Bumblebee's base in the Scrapyard and he sees Breakdown for the first time in years. He looks the same, but more... ghostly. Is it really him? Can it really be?
But he notices. Wildbreak isn't crying, like he always does when first meeting all strangers for the first time. He isn't ecstatic to see Breakdown, but he's not screaming and grasping onto Knockout for dear life. He recognizes Breakdown as someone his dad knows, someone his dad trusts.
That's all Knockout needs to be convinced that Breakdown is who he says he is... But then... what now?