A/N: WARNING this part of the story involves nightmares of Prowl and Firebolt. Firebolt's is a little graphic (a bit of gore) but keep in mind these are dreams. No mechs or femmes were harmed in the making of this chapter ;)

Megacycle- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to one Earth hour

Breem- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to 8.3 Earth minutes

Klick- 1.2 minutes


Firebolt, usually the heavy recharger, began to toss and turn in the berth. He gave small whimpers of displeasure at his unfolding dream. "Take her away," someone shouted, shoving Moonseeker to another guard. Firebolt tried screaming but his voice was lost. He needed to get to her. He reached out to grab her but Moonseeker jolted back. He was confused and called out for her again, his words finally escaping but it was too late. Moonseeker held her servo to her spark and her energon began to run down her chassis. The little con's optics widened and he screamed for her over and over, lubricant running down his faceplates. Then everything went black and the dream repeated.

Moonseeker immediately onlined her optics when she heard Firebolt mumbling her name. She climbed out of her berth, still half in recharge. Her processor fully activated once she saw her youngling, tossing and turning in his recharge with a pained expression "Firebolt," she called gently, trying to shake her youngling out of recharge but it only seemed to worsen the images since he let out a small squeak in response. She went to wake Prowl so he wouldn't become distressed while they went to the medbay. Prowl, however, was battling his own demons in recharge.

Fire in the shape of that magician chased the little bot through the Ark IV. He called for help but no one was listening. They either laughed or called him silly or they just ignored him entirely. Lubricant fell from his optics as he continued his search for anyone who would protect him from this monster. Prowl ran to the medbay. They wouldn't ignore him. They never did. If anything, they gave him more attention than he wanted. The door swished open and Prowl ran to Riffraff who was recharging in his chair as usual. Prowl ran over to him, shaking him and yelling at his top volume. Riffraff wouldn't budge though and now Prowl was trapped in the medbay by the monster who was melting the door. Now going for a more silent method, Prowl ran to the backroom that he used to recharge in and dived under the berth, hiding himself behind the crates under there. Soon, however, the entire room was on fire and the servo of the fiery beast grabbed Prowl and the searing flames melted his plating as the youngling screamed. Then he blacked out and awoke again on the ground floor of the Ark IV and the magician appeared again, restarting the nightmare.

As Prowl dreamed this and Firebolt dreamed his own dream, they were on their way to the medbay, held in their carrier's protective arms. Despite only having a megacycle of recharge, Moonseeker had lost all thoughts of recharge as her younglings twitched and whimpered in their recharge. She knocked on the medbay doors with her pede, her servos occupied by the younglings, and waited for the reply, which quickly came. There were always at least two medics on staff and, unfortunately, that's all that were on staff right now. They were young too so it was likely Riffraff was seeing how well they could do on their own for the night shift. Injuries at night usually only consisted of overcharged mechs or femmes stumbling and hurting a joint or beating each other up.

This was an entirely different case for the two young medics who put the two younglings on the table. One looked to the other with a frown. "We should call someone higher up. This has to do with the processor, not a dent or scrape." The other medic nodded reluctantly and commed Riffraff, Dasher, and Razorclip. Dasher was the superior of these two but Riffraff was everyone's superior. Razorclip usually did best with processor material so it was no surprise to Moonseeker when the femme autobot appeared in the medbay. Razorclip seemed chipper compared to the other two who just walked in. Both looked ready to collapse or beat the two younger medics, who explained the situation hurriedly so the three could get to work.

The first method used was what Moonseeker had already done, trying to simply wake them. That, as predicted, didn't work. Next, they scanned both processors to see how deep in recharge they were. By Razorclip's reaction, they were almost in stasis lock at this point, which did nothing to calm Moonseeker. Riffraff vented and finally went to get the strongest treatment they had. He hated having to use it on younglings. It was necessary at this point, however, since the two would either crash, be in stasis lock, or they might be caught in their nightmares forever. The trouble with this procedure was the many possibilities in it going wrong simply by the poor connection of one wire but some of the best medics were helping out here and Riffraff decided to take the risk.

Razorclip and Dasher hooked up many clips and wires to the younglings, making Moonseeker want to crash with the sight of her younglings looking so helpless and tangled in wires. Riffraff sat down at the main computer as he waited for them to give him the okay. Razorclip lifted her head from working on Firebolt. "He's ready. Go ahead." Switches and buttons were pressed, blowing the two interns' minds as they watched their superior work quickly with the complicated technology. The screen lit up to reveal a room that was gray and empty save for a few doorways. It wasn't complicated, not surprising for a youngling's dreams.

Dasher walked away from Prowl who was set up but the focus was currently on Firebolt. He walked over to some of the other buttons and held a digit to his mouth, signaling for everyone to remain silent. Riffraff grabbed a microphone and some controls, similar to the game chips that some of the entertainment rooms had. He guided the camera and spotted Firebolt who was on the floor crying. Riffraff moved a bar down and looked over to Razorclip and Dasher. "I think it just ended but if my guess is correct, we should be seeing a replay of this which is why he isn't waking right now." The two nodded and seemed they already know this but Riffraff was saying it more for Moonseeker's benefit so she wasn't completely lost on what was happening.

Riffraff moved the bar back to its original location. The screen turned black and Riffraff used this opportunity to put a drop of his own energon on a small tile and slid it into the computer. Riffraff's identification material appeared on the screen and he got out of his chair, holding his arms out as the computer made a scan of him. He then sat back down, controlling his player who was now him as the nightmare restarted. Firebolt seemed fine now, looking for Moonseeker who quickly formed while his optics were elsewhere. Some strange creature made of just black wisps and seemed to be in the shape of a mech shouted, "Take her away!" Meanwhile Riffraff watched carefully as Firebolt opened his mouth to scream for her and reached out to move but was held back by another strange black creature.

Moving the character up to Firebolt, the Riffraff on screen reached down and pulled the weird creature off of Firebolt who immediately ran for Moonseeker, who was about to be stabbed. Riffraff looked over to the soldier who held a blade in one servo and Moonseeker in the other. Rushing forward, he tried to stop the weird creature from killing Moonseeker but by the time he reached her, it was too late and Firebolt screamed again and the screen went black. He turned the bar down again and huffed. Dasher walked over. "You just use your voice. I'll control the bug," he stated, moving his own chair over and stealing the controls.

It was honestly like playing a game chip but this wasn't for fun. It was to prevent a youngling for going into stasis lock. Riffraff stopped for a klick and looked over to Moonseeker who was holding onto one of Firebolt's servos, feeling helpless as she tried to calm him. "Moonseeker, come here for a klick, won't you?" She reluctantly released Firebolt's servo and Riffraff guided her in front of the scanning device. Dasher, following Riffraff's way of thinking, took out the current bug and helped Riffraff to create the new bug of Moonseeker. "We might be able to trick his nightmare. It might work, and it might not but we've got to try." They directed her to the microphone just as the screen was lighting up again. The bar was still positioned low. "This might be our last shot for Firebolt," Riffraff explained. "We need to give Prowl a chance too." Moonseeker nodded, her optics not meeting him as he was telling her that this was her only chance to save her creation. "Just talk to him so that the one who is being stabbed isn't his carrier in his mind. You are."

She nodded again and he turned up the bar and pointed at her to speak to him. Dasher found the brightly colored sparkling already silently screaming for his carrier with outstretched servos. Dasher pulled the same move Riffraff had done but now it was Moonseeker saving her youngling, not the medic. "I've got you, 'Bolt. I've got you," she said quickly, trying to calm her youngling who was still looking horrified, not sure which Moonseeker was real since the other one was being stabbed right now and screaming for her creation. Firebolt looked over to her but Dasher reached out Moonseeker's servo to direct him back to them. "Sweetspark, that one is fake. You're just in a nightmare right now. I'm in the medbay with you right now, just wake up, 'Bolt. It'll be okay," she cooed lightly and the game went black, making Moonseeker's spark give a jump. "What happened? I thought I had him," she exclaimed, leaping to her pedes.

A movement in the side of her vision caught her attention and she smiled at seeing Firebolt groggily onlining while the medics were disconnecting his cables. "Let's see what Prowl's situation is so we know who to throw in." The screen lit up with the second floor containing all the tables, chairs and lights it always had, something more creative and in more detail than Firebolt's dream. "What is going on here," Riffraff mumbled to himself, taking over the controls as they just tried to search for Prowl in the charred mess that was the first three levels. The screen went black, signaling Prowl likely died or his biggest fear ended his dream. "I'm just going to throw myself in and see what that does," he decided. "I don't want him reliving this too many times because I know he'll crash."

Once the digital Riffraff was made he walked to the medbay. "You think he'll be in there," Dasher asked, looking uncertainly at his superior.

"If he wanted me, where would I be," he asked in return and smiled as his suspicion was confirmed by seeing his clone recharging in a chair.

"See, 'Raff, I told you that you need a vacation. Prowl even pictures you recharging in the medbay," Dasher laughed. Riffraff just shook his head, throwing his clone behind some crates and taking the same position as the other had on the chair.

Within less than a breem, the door swished open and then closed. Prowl ran over to him and shook him just as he had done in the other dreams. Riffraff woke instantly and Prowl quickly explained the huge fire monster chasing him. Trying to get him to believe this was just a dream like Moonseeker had to Firebolt, Riffraff explained, "Prowl, it's not real. This is just a dream."

This just made the bot give a cry of frustration and he went to run off when Riffraff grabbed him again. "No! That's what everyone else said but it's real and it's gonna burn me up," he cried, struggling to escape from Riffraff.

Riffraff held the kicking youngling to him and hid beneath the desk by the monitor. The door began to melt away and Prowl gave a cry, clinging to Riffraff now. "It will be all right, Prowl. I won't let it get you," he whispered to him. The screen went black then and Riffraff turned around to see Prowl waking up, looking a bit shaken and unsure of his surroundings but otherwise okay. "They should be fine now, Moonseeker. Just have a normal day tomorrow so they will be preoccupied and not think about their nightmares." She nodded and scooped up Prowl in her other arm while the other cradled a recharging Firebolt. Saying quick thanks to the medical team, she walked back to their quarters to get the two back into their berth. Prowl's optics stayed open until they were back in their quarters. Once he was safe in his berth, he fell into recharge where a black void of nothingness greeted him and he gratefully accepted it.