Revelations

by Phantom

Chapter Three

//So this is what claustrophobia feels like,// Prime thought to himself in a detached manner. His hands trembled uncontrollably, and the walls seemed to bear down on him, crushing him between them. His energon pump was beating furiously, inducing a wave of vertigo. He had lost his sense of direction, his sense of time, and sometimes it seemed he had lost his sense of up and down.

"I must get out of here," he gasped. The endless tunnels, all carved out of the same slate-grey metal, all melted together in his mind. He may have been walking in circles for hours, for all he knew. He may have even walked deeper into Cybertron, putting another nail in his coffin, as the humans would say.

Prime shut his optic covers for a moment, trying to shut out his surroundings, the never-ending sameness of it all that threatened to overwhelm him. He needed to see *something*, *anything* that was different, or he would go mad.

"It's all the same!" he cried out loud. "Each tunnel I enter looks just like the one I left, and the one before that! My sensors are so overwhelmed, I have no idea which way is up any more! I'm never going to get out of here! I'll be trapped forever!"

He flung his arms out to the side, trying to push back the walls that seemed to engulf him. He could feel beads of coolant forming on his brow, trying to cool his overheated systems externally. His whole body was trembling.

Suddenly, he heard it -- a sound that was so very familiar, yet so out of place with his surroundings. The eruption of a fusion cannon. "Megatron?" he murmured. "No -- it can't be. Megatron would not be down here. Just me. I'm alone." The word seemed to echo within his head. "By Primus, I *am* going mad!" he gasped. He was seeing things, he was hearing things -- what next?

With a panicked cry, he began to run desperately through the tunnels, trying to escape the crushing walls that seemed to mock him. All semblance of control left him as he fled from the one thing he could not escape -- his imagination. If he was beginning to hallucinate, it would not be long now. Soon he would slip into a delirium and die.

"I can't let that happen!" he hissed. "I *won't*!"

With that thought, he rounded a corner and bumped straight into Megatron.

"Oof!" both grunted as they bounced off each other and fell to the ground. The loud clang of their impact echoed through the tunnels.

"Oh, what hit me?" Megatron groaned, sitting up and gazing around in confusion.

Prime clambered to his feet and began to back away slowly, shaking his head. "No," he muttered to himself. "It's too late. I'm hallucinating again. It won't be long now before I'm stark raving mad!"

The hallucination gazed at him, looking bewildered. "Prime?" it said. "What are you doing here?"

"Stay away from me!" Prime cried. "This isn't real! If I shut my optics and concentrate, maybe it will go away and I will be all right." His optic covers slid into place and he stood still, concentrating.

Megatron could only stare at him. "Prime, what *are* you doing?"

Prime's optics flew open, and he let out a soft cry of dismay when he heard his illusion begin to speak. Megatron walked over to him and touched his arm lightly. "Are you all right?" he asked, noting Prime's strange behavior.

Prime jerked away as if he'd been burned. "You -- you touched me!" he gasped. "Either it's too late for me and I've gone completely insane, or--"

"I'm perfectly real, I assure you," Megatron said with a faint smile.

Prime reached out cautiously, touching Megatron's arm, as if to reassure him that his enemy was, indeed, real. "Oh," he said, feeling rather foolish. He withdrew his arm. "What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"Save the questions for later, Prime. Right now I've got to find a place to rest and think of my next move. I suppose we're stuck together for now."

"I suppose so," Prime agreed, still somewhat overwhelmed at this turn of events.

"I think I spotted a good place somewhere up ahead," Megatron said as he strode forward, his words floating back to Prime. "Ah, here it is."

Prime gazed around thoughtfully. The tunnel ended in a rather large open space, with a metal wall curving along the inside. It wasn't much, but to the two Transformers, after wandering around the tunnels for almost a day, it was heaven, or close to it.

"It will do," Prime decided. He was extremely glad to get out of the confining tunnels. He watched Megatron walk across the room, of sorts, and settle himself against the back wall. Feeling his gaze, Prime walked slowly forward and seated himself against the wall also, carefully keeping his distance from Megatron.

The two sat in silence for some time, each lost in thought. Finally Megatron looked over to Prime and said, "So, Prime, what brings you down here?"

"I asked you first," Prime replied, feeling wary.

Megatron shook his head. "Come now, Prime, don't play that old game with me. We both know each other too well for that."

Prime sighed to himself. Unfortunately, he had a point. "I was scouting the tunnels to see where they led."

"By yourself?" Megatron asked pointedly. "I know you better than that, Prime. You would not waste time on such a pointless endeavor, and especially not by yourself. No, I think you came here to spend some time alone."

"How did you--?" Prime gaped.

Megatron chucked at Prime's bemusement. "We are not as different as you would think, Prime. I know all too well the burdens of command. That is why I'm here. I came to grab a few moments of solitude. Of course, it both looks like we got more than we bargained for."

Prime nodded slowly. He felt somewhat uncomfortable agreeing with Megatron, especially since he seemed to know too much about him. Still, he needed Megatron's help to try to escape, and picking a fight would do no good. "Do you have any idea how to get out of here?" he inquired.

Megatron's expression darkened. "Unfortunately, no. I tried to use my fusion cannon to blast through the tunnels, but it was ineffective. We are simply too far down to escape that way."

"So it wasn't my imagination..." Prime murmured.

"Did you say something, Prime?" Megatron asked.

"Nothing of consequence. I fell through a trap door near the entrance to the tunnels. Is that how you arrived down here too?"

Megatron nodded, scowling at the memory. For a Decepticon leader to fall into such a simple trap was nothing short of humiliating.

Prime continued on his line of reasoning. "Is there any way we could travel upwards and exit through the trap door?"

"I thought of that, too," Megatron replied, "but it is not in our capability to do so, even if we could find the trap door. I don't know about you, but I, er, have lost track of its location."

"You mean you're lost," Prime stated flatly.

"Perhaps I do," Megatron replied, an edge to his voice. "Does it really matter?"

"No," Prime admitted. He had let his discomfort around Megatron interfere with his better judgment. "I'm lost too. The tunnels all look alike down here."

"Tell me about it," Megatron sighed. "It was driving me mad!"

"Me too," Prime agreed. "This room is a lifesaver. It's so spacious. I couldn't take being in those tunnels another minute."

The two regarded each other for a moment, uncertain what to do next. Each was wary of the other, unused to each other's company without the energon rush of battle. The pattern of old habits was difficult to resist, and yet they were surprised with the ease in which they talked. To be sure, they still regarded each other with suspicion, but the feeling seemed to melt away as the minutes passed.

"So what do we do now?" Megatron asked as the silence became stifling.

"I was hoping you'd have some ideas," Prime commented.

"You mean the great Optimus Prime doesn't have some brilliant plan to save the day?" Megatron said teasingly.

Prime couldn't actually frown, but Megatron could read his emotions through the small part of his face that was visible. From what he could see, Prime was not amused.

"I-I'm sorry, Prime. I wasn't thinking," Megatron said, choking a bit on the apology. It felt odd to be apologizing to his arch enemy over some ruffled feelings.

"Sorry?" Prime echoed, not trusting his audio sensors. "Uh, that's quite all right," he replied quickly, not wanting to offend Megatron by questioning his sincerity. "Anyway, I have not been able to come up with an effective plan to escape from the tunnels. Apparently our weapons will not be of any use to us, since our desire is to travel upwards, not blast our way forwards."

"I don't think that would be feasible anyway," Megatron replied.

"Oh?" Prime inquired.

"My fusion cannon has run out of power." Megatron voiced this hesitantly, not wanting to reveal his weakness. He noted that Prime's laser rifle was still in subspace, which meant that they would be more or less evenly matched in a fight. He quickly brushed that thought aside. He was supposed to be thinking of a way to escape this prison, not estimating his chances in a battle. They were supposed to be working together, but four million years of fighting each other was not so easy to brush away.

end of Chapter Three

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