Ultra Magnus stared at the two, absolutely bewildered, before shaking his head and coming out with, "Absolutely not." He turned his head, looking down at Ratchet's two sleeping patients, then faced the two and asked, "Why would you even think for a moment that I would help you with something so foolish?"

Alice groaned. "Because we need your help!"

This caused the warrior to raise an eyebrow. "That gives me no reason to aid you."

Ratchet sighed. "Ultra Magnus, please, you must help us." He walked over and put his servo on Ultra Magnus' arm. "Without your assistance…" He looked over at Vesper and Optimus, his face falling when he gazed upon them. Then he turned back to Ultra Magnus and said, "Optimus will die, and Vesper will never move again."

This caused the stony warrior to stiffen. He slowly looked down at the unconscious duo that he was standing near, and his spark twinged with grief and pain. He didn't want to see the two in the condition they were in, and was willing to even give his own spark to see them both well again. After all, Optimus Prime was the last hope for the Autobot cause, and without Vesper, Optimus would be broken and hopeless.

He eventually sighed and looked back at Ratchet and Alice, who were giving him pleading looks. Then he looked around at the others, who were all chatting amongst themselves. They didn't seem to be aware that Ratchet and Alice were planning something so foolish, and for that, Ultra Magnus was incredibly grateful. It was sheer folly that the two had even considered their dumb plan… but, as the warrior sighed and looked away, he knew that it was even worse of a decision to actually go along with it.

"Very well," he said after much deliberation. "I will… assist you." Then he shook his head. "But I cannot allow you to take my ship."

"H-Huh?" Alice whimpered. "Why not?" she whined.

Ultra Magnus crossed his arms over his chassis. "If we're taking a Decepticon Space Bridge, then it will be hidden underground. There is no room for a ship underground." He shook his head. "But, if we can lock the bridge onto Cybertron's coordinates, then it should be an easy matter for you two to… get what you need, without use of a ship."

Alice grinned and looked up at Ratchet. "Okay, so now what? What do we tell the others?"

Ratchet and Ultra Magnus shared a look before the medic shook his head at the human girl. "We're not telling them anything."

"Well, then we've already stumbled upon a problem," Alice sullenly said, putting her hand on her hip and looking away. "I need a spacesuit if I'm going to Cybertron."

"Scrap," Ratchet cursed under his breath. "The only human who has a spacesuit is… Jack," he remembered, looking over at the sixteen year old who was chatting to Arcee. The three devising the plan to head to Cybertron all shared a look of dread, realising that – in order to actually go through with their plan – Jack would need to be informed… or he would have to go along in Alice's place, which was probably a better option seeing as he'd been to Cybertron before.

"So, which one of us is going to ask?" Alice quietly said, looking back up at Ultra Magnus and Ratchet, who said nothing in return. Instead, they gave her a pointed look, and she groaned as she realised what they were saying. She was the one who needed the suit, so she was the one who was going to have to ask. "Well," she said, looking back over at Jack and steeling herself, "Here goes nothing…"

She walked over and tapped the boy on the shoulder. Jack immediately turned and smiled at her, then asked, "Hey, what's up?"

"I, uh, need to ask you something… so can we talk privately?" she asked, and Jack frowned, then gave Arcee a confused look before nodding to Alice. The two walked down the hall – with Alice trying to ignore the curious looks that Miko and Raf were giving the both of them, and Jack not caring either way – before stopping a fair few metres out of earshot from the others. "Can I, uh, borrow your spacesuit?"

Jack looked as shocked as Ultra Magnus had when Ratchet and Alice had explained their foolhardy plan. "Excuse me?" he asked.

Alice blushed and rubbed her shoulder. "I need to borrow your spacesuit."

Jack frowned, even more confused now. "But… but why?"

Alice sighed, not really wanting to reveal anything even though she knew that she had to. "Promise not to tell anyone?" she asked, and Jack – even though his confusion was growing – nodded. Alice immediately told him the details of Ratchet's and her plan, and his expression of incredulousness grew as she explained. When she was done, she fell silent, absolutely humiliated and unsure of what to say.

Jack scratched the back of his head. "Well," he said, but that was all that he managed to get out for a few minutes. Alice's embarrassment grew, and her cheeks flushed a bright scarlet as she looked away. Finally a sigh escaped Jack's lips before he said, "I guess I can lend it to you."

Alice's eyes widened and she whipped back around to face the boy. "R-Really?!" she exclaimed, a happy, wide smile appearing on her face. When Jack nodded, Alice squeeflailed (which was hard to do with one arm) and started jumping up and down. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried before jumping at him and wrapping her only arm around his neck.

"You're… urk… welcome!" Jack gasped, completely unable to breathe, and Alice – detecting the breathless tone in his voice – immediately stepped back and released him. Then she sheepishly scratched the back of her head as he gasped for air. "Anyway," he said when he recovered, "I'll go and get it for you." He turned on his heel and walked away, and Alice waited for a few minutes until Jack returned, spacesuit in hand, and handed it to her. She took it awkwardly, then nodded.

"Thank you so much," she said, before Jack nodded again and walked away. She immediately headed to where she stayed when she wasn't staying at her home, which happened to be Ratchet's room, and put the spacesuit somewhere where it was hidden from the view of others. Then she walked out and noticed that Ratchet was over near Optimus, his expression dark and fearful, and alarm bells immediately started to ring in the white haired girl's head. However, before she could walk over, she was stopped by Ultra Magnus putting his foot in front of her. "Hey, what—"

"Optimus' spark rate just faltered for the briefest of minutes," the warrior explained, his voice low as he cast his eyes in Ratchet's direction. "Now Ratchet is even more concerned, and it means that your plan will most certainly be coming to fruition very soon."

Alice looked over at Optimus, biting her lip as tears welled up in her eyes. Then she looked over at Vesper, who was still asleep. Ratchet had, to ease the femme's pain, put her in power-down, and she'd been in that state for some time.

"I guess we should start preparing for our little trip then," Alice murmured as Ratchet finally walked back over and shook his head at Ultra Magnus, who frowned in concern.

Ratchet looked down at his sad little human charge, then sighed. "Did you get what you needed?" he asked her, and she gave him a barely perceptible nod as an answer. Ratchet nodded sadly, then said, "Good. We'll leave tonight, then, under cover of darkness."

Ultra Magnus sighed. "Is this the right thing to do?" he questioned, speaking more to himself than to Alice or Ratchet, but Ratchet still shrugged.

"I don't know, Ultra Magnus, but…" He looked down at Alice, who was nervously rubbing her shoulder and wincing as she touched a particularly painful spot. "It's something that we have to do." He looked at his two patients, and tears would have welled up in his eyes if he was capable of producing them. He hated seeing anyone in this condition, and knew that it was absolutely imperative that he get to Cybertron and locate what he was looking for. Of course, he knew that he wasn't going to be going alone, but there was a part of him that didn't want Alice to accompany him. Partly it was because he didn't want her to be in harm's way, but also because he didn't want her to see Cybertron as it was now; a dead, barren, uninhabitable world.

When it was finally dark, and the others had gone to recharge for the night, the three – after Alice donned the spacesuit – departed from the base as quietly as they could, and drove to the location of a Decepticon mine that had, of late, been swarming with activity. When the three members of Team Prime got to it, they immediately saw that the mine was heavily guarded…

Too heavily guarded for a simple energon mine.

The three quickly took control of the mine, making use of the Magnus Hammer and Ultra Magnus' wealth of battle expertise, and soon enough they were standing before a Space Bridge. Alice was gazing up at it, amazed, but the two Autobots were used to seeing them.

"Alright," Ultra Magnus said as he returned his EMP hammer to his subspace and walked over to the control mechanism of the bridge. "You two will head to Cybertron; I will hold the bridge for as long as I am able to."

Alice looked back at the warrior, a frown on her face. "But—"

"No buts now," Ratchet said as the Space Bridge opened; it was a turbocharged version of the Ground Bridge, and the vortex swirled with more fury and strength. Alice looked at it and frowned, biting her lip, but said nothing as Ratchet walked towards it. She looked back at Ultra Magnus – who nodded in farewell – before stepping after her guardian and entering the bridge.