Transformers Prime: The Tesseract

Nineteen: So Much For Staying In the Base

It didn't take too long to patch up the wall. However, due to conflicts between helping on Earth and rebuilding Cybertron, Ultra Magnus, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, Arcee, Smokescreen, Knockout, and Bumblebee had to say goodbye to their friends once again. They did, however, trust that Shockwave and the Predicons would help take care of things on Earth.

"Man, it's much more quiet without everyone here...I miss Knockout..." Sunbeam admitted, standing behind Ratchet so that she didn't have to tilt her head as much to see what he was doing.

"They only left an hour ago," Ratchet pointed out, now focusing on his work.

"Yeah...but I liked when it was loud and chaotic..."

"That makes one of us."

"Jeez...ya don't gotta be so rude..." Sunbeam grumbled playfully. Ratchet sighed in exasperation.

"I'm sorry," he responded. Sunbeam stared at him for a minute.

"I was kiddin' buddy. I know ya ain't too playful, but I figured I'd try to help lighten ya up a bit since you've been so stressed..."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," Ratchet responded. Sunbeam just gave him a hug as a response from her place behind him. "What're you doing? I'm working."

"I know, but Miko said hugs can help calm people down."

"Of course she did..."

"Is it working?"

"A little."

"Okay, then I'm gonna go play now!" Sunbeam exclaimed, letting go of Ratchet and rushing off to play with the kids and predicons.

"Odd..." Shockwave said. Ratchet nodded.

"Tell me about it," he agreed. "So, why did you really come to us?"

"I do not underst-"

"We both know you would much rather help Starscream than be around us, and we both know he would listen to you. Why are you here?" Ratchet asked again.

"If I am being honest...it's because the predicons are not fond of Starscream," Shockwave admitted, pointing at Predaking, who was in his dragon form and playing with Sunbeam in her dog form.

"I can't say that I blame them," Ratchet replied.

"Your comrade mentioned something about trying to reason with him. Did they get along?"

"Not exactly. She thought he was her friend, though. I'm pretty sure she even told him where the Tesseract is. Luckily, he hasn't made many efforts to retrieve it," Ratchet explained.

"If I recall correctly, the Tesseract is a sort of power source, correct?"

"Correct. Although, it seems to be more than that. It's almost like it's alive."

"Alive? But that shouldn't be possible without a spark."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too."

"Do you think that if the Tesseract was destroyed, then the war would end?"

"I...uh...I don't think so. The Tesseract didn't start the war, it's only a small part of it. Besides, I'm not sure I would even want to know if it would."

"Hey, I need this!" Sunbeam exclaimed, running up and stealing one of Ratchet's tools before running outside.

"On second thought..." Ratchet grumbled teasingly.

While Ratchet and Shockwave were working, Sunbeam, the kids, and the predicons were building something outside.

"Why are you requesting our help? What are we doing?" Skylynx asked.

"I compiled a list of all of the fallen Autobots from Cybertron's public records. I translated everything and wrote the names down," Raf explained.

"Their records would be on Cybertronian...how did you translate it?" Jack wondered aloud.

"Ratchet taught me some Cybertronian words and phrases," Raf responded.

"Awesome! Can you teach me too?!" Sunbeam questioned.

"Yeah, we should probably focus on learning to read for now..." Raf deadpanned.

"You can't read?" Predaking realized.

"I'm getting there..."

"Slowly," Miko added.

"Shut up, Miko," Jack stated.

"Why is that not surprising that a small, primitive biped such as yourself wouldn't know how to read their own language?" Predaking asked mockingly. Sunbeam huffed and crossed her arms.

"Nobody asked you. Mind your own business and help us make this," she suggested.

"I won't stoop to your level," Predaking responded.

"Oh yeah? Then be the bigger bot and help out," Sunbeam teased. "If you're so big and smart, writing names down shouldn't be so hard anyway."

"You doubt me?!" Predaking boomed.

"So what if I do? What're ya gonna do about it? It's okay if you're scared of proving me right," Sunbeam taunted Predaking, who transformed into his dragon form. He turned toward one of the giant stones and blew fire at it, quickly engraving the stone with all of the names it would hold.

"That was freakin' awesome!" Miko and Sunbeam exclaimed.

"Good job, buddy! Way to really step up!" Sunbeam grinned and patted Predaking on the back, causing the bot's proud glare to turn to a confused glance. "I totally can't wait to show Ratchet! He's gonna love it!"

"After he lectures me about hacking his computer again..." Raf mumbled, earning Miko's comforting pats on the back.

"Don't worry, Raf. He probably won't even realize you did anything," Miko pointed out.

"Yeah, and you can be in Cuba by the time he does! Though, I can't promise it'll be much of an escape..." Sunbeam exclaimed jokingly, causing the kids to chuckle.

It took hours to finish the little project, and the kids were exhausted by the time they had finished carving names. Sunbeam volunteered to walk them home, and tried to stay awake once she returned to the base.

"You really have to start telling me before you leave," Ratchet declared.

"So you can lock all the doors and windows? Besides, I was walkin' the kids home. Shockwave watched me leave, right ol' buddy!" Sunbeam assured Ratchet.

"Do not pull me into this," Shockwave insisted, not looking up from his newest experiment. Sunbeam skipped over to see what he was doing.

"Whatcha guys workin' on?" She asked.

"I am not sure you would be able to understand if I explained. But, I will allow you to be the one to test it out," Shockwave decided aloud. Sunbeam's face lit up.

"Absolutely not!" Ratchet denied.

Late that night, Predaking woke up Sunbeam by violently shaking her.

"What's goin' on..?" Sunbeam asked.

"I need you to come with me on a mission," Predaking suggested.

"Sweet!" Sunbeam hopped up and unlocked the door. "The ground bridge will put off too much light, and Ratchet's a light sleeper."

"For someone so small minded, you've put an alarming amount of thought into this."

"I just wanna prove I can be useful too. If you can help me do that, I'm all for it." Sunbeam explained as they left the base.