Transformers Prime: The Tesseract

Twelve: Illusions and Voices

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ratchet asked as he helped Sunbeam get hooked up to monitors.

"Yep. If it'll help get me ungrounded, I'd sell my...uh...everything," Sunbeam stated.

"Yeah, that's not the expression," Ratchet deadpanned.

"Well, sue me!" Sunbeam remarked with a laugh before passing out.

"That was fast," Arcee said.

"Thankfully," Ratchet responded.

Meanwhile, Sunbeam woke up in the confines of her own mind. She could hear the echo of the Tesseract, and tried to follow it. However, her mind was like a maze with no way out. She constantly hit dead ends, sometimes quite literally.

"Hey Tesseract thingy! Where are ya?! Think ya could help me out here?!" She heard the echo, but couldn't make it out, which only made her more frustrated. Then, she saw a blue butterfly and instantly calmed and forgot her frustration and mission.

Back in the real world, things were getting pretty strange, walls would appear for a split second, only to fade away, and the Autobots began seeing silhouettes of their deceased loved ones.

"What is going on?" Bulkhead asked.

"This must've been what those files meant by scientists going mad..." Fowler realized.

"Don't be ridiculous. What would the Tesseract have to protect itself against at the present moment?" Ratchet questioned as a bright blue, partially translucent butterfly landed on his shoulder before disappearing.

"Cliff?! How are you here?" Arcee asked, reaching out to grab her late partner's hand, only to pass right through it.

"It's an illusion, Arcee. He's not real..." Bulkhead comfortingly patted Arcee on the back.

"I'm gonna wake her up," Knockout decided aloud.

"Wait! Who knows what problems that could cause! We should let it wear off naturally," Ratchet pointed out.

"No way. This is already too weird, and I'm not looking forward to coming face to face with an illusion of Breakdown," Knockout admitted, waking Sunbeam from her sleep, which caused the illusions to fade.

"What happened? Arcee?! Are you okay?!" Sunbeam questioned.

"The Tesseract has some sort of self defense instinct, and when we put you into stasis, we must've triggered it. Were you able to hear the voice more clearly?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah...but it was usin' way too many big words...and it was speakin' in another language," Sunbeam reported.

"Another language?" Ratchet asked. Sunbeam nodded.

"Yeah...I learned every language on Earth, but I never heard this one..."

"It could be Cybertronian," Knockout suggested.

"Well, we aren't putting you under stasis again until you can learn to control your own mind. However, I now better understand why you're so..." Ratchet decided aloud.

"Simple?" Sunbeam finished.

"Sure," Ratchet agreed.

"If you guys don't mind, I'm going to go get some fresh air," Arcee spoke up. Ratchet nodded.

"Alright. Come back when you're ready."

"Thanks," Arcee replied before leaving the base.

"I'll go with her," Sunbeam announced, unhooking all of the wires from her arms and chest.

"Hold on, you should wait at least an hour before trying to-" Ratchet started before Sunbeam stood up and promptly face planted on the ground. "Walk..."

"Yep. Understood," Sunbeam stated. Ratchet let out an exasperated sigh.

"Are you okay?"

"Well....I could use a little help getting up." Ratchet helped Sunbeam sit back on the gurney, and handed her some things to fiddle with so he could look at the results of the tests he ran on her while in stasis.

"Hey Ratchet?" Sunbeam asked after a glorious moment of silence.

"What?" Ratchet replied.

"What do you call the person Ms. June is?"

"A nurse."

"No, I mean the other thing. Ya know, with Jack."

"A mother."

"Ooh. I like how that sounds. I wanna be one!"

"Say what?"

"Yep! I'm gonna be a mother! Like Ms. June! But...how do you become a mother? Hey, Ratchet? Do you know how to become one of those?"

"How would I know?!"

"I don't know! I just figured ya knew everything!"

"You really need to meet more people, if you think I know everything."

"Well, I would if you'd unground me." Sunbeam pouted and crossed her arms.

"Don't be a child. This is for your own good."

"That's what I don't like about it! I should be out fightin' like everyone else!" Sunbeam let out a frustrated huff.

"You don't have to be a fighter to be important."

"Yeah, but I gotta find some way to prove myself! And I can't do that if I'm stuck in here! I mean, I ain't smart like you, I can't heal people like you, I can't communicate with humans like Fowler and the kids, and now I can't fight like everyone else...I just wanna prove I'm worthy of all y'all's time..."

"Fine. If I teach you everything I know, will you do as we tell you and stay here?"

"Ya really mean it?!" Sunbeam's eyes sparkled.

"Why not. It's not like either of us have anything better to do, and I'd rather not have another person to worry about."

"Alright! I promise, you won't regret this!" Sunbeam jumped up and gave Ratchet a hug.

"I'm pretty sure I will," he remarked with a slight chuckle, a little startled at the sudden embrace.

"Probably."

"Are you serious?!"