Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Lizzie: Hey, we are getting updated a lot lately.

Paul: I know, and it is awesome.

Authoress: Yeah, so who wants to play a game? *homicidal maniac smile*

Ch. 12: Mental Labyrinth

I groaned as I got out of my bed. The work that Paul and I had done yesterday on the Harbinger really took a chunk out of my energy. It would take a lot of rest to get back to normal. Thankfully, though, last night had been free of nightmares and I had actually gotten a decent sleep. I then hopped in the shower and got ready for the day. But, as I was brushing my hair, I realized what was happening today.

"Frag my life." I groaned as I hit my head on the desk in front of me. This was when Optimus was going to get Cybonic Plague and then all the slag happened with Megatron.

"Lizzie, you coming down soon?" Paul asked. He sounded like he was right outside of my door.

I took one last look at myself before standing up and walking to the door. When I opened it, I nodded. "Yeah, we had better get to the base as soon as possible. Don't want to miss seeing good ole Megatron on the screen." I was not overly thrilled when I said that.

He shook his head as we both walked down the stairs before saying, "You know Lizzie, Megatron is going to be a big problem for us. We can't let any of the Decepticons, not even the drones, know that you are from another dimension and that I am really Primus. That would spell catastrophe."

I nodded and turned to the kitchen. But, Paul's hand on my shoulder stopped me. "What?" I asked.

"Come on. I packed a little snack for us to eat while at base, since we won't be actually leaving base." Paul explained.

I was really hungry but I nodded. Paul knew what he was talking about and, as long as I got my food, I was happy. We then went to the garage and got on the bike before I drove us to the base. The drive itself didn't take too long and we soon found ourselves in the Autobot base. But, when we got off and walked the bike to the main area, I knew that I was not going to be getting my food anytime soon.

Optimus was laying on the really low med table that they had and Ratchet was scanning his face. That meant that he had already been effected with,

"Cybonic Plague." Ratchet stated as he straightened back to his normal height. Great. We got here just in time for the drama. The bots gave each other worried glances before Ratchet said, "It is only contagious if contact is made with the infected energon."

"What was the plague doing in an Autobot spaceship?" Miko asked.

Well, there could be many scenarios for that. Being a writer, I was thinking of the most outrageous ones that I could think of. It was actually quite amusing. The scenarios were coming back to me like I had just wrote a chapter for one of my stories yesterday.

"The bots on board were the ones infected." Cliffjumper stated as a response.

"The virus wiped out millions on Cybertron during the Great War." Arcee continued.

But, it was Ratchet's finish that had me involuntarily flinch. "Cybonic Plague was engineered in the Decepticon's biological warfare program; by Megatron himself." Now that I thought about it though, it was ironic that something that Megatron himself created was destroying his arch-enemy. Not sure if Megatron would be one hundred percent okay with that though, since he wasn't watching Optimus offline with his own optics.

"You, have a cure...don't you?" Raf asked.

I gave a sad smile toward Raf. He was one of my favorite humans of all time...oh who am I kidding, he is my favorite human.

Optimus let out a soft groan before slowly saying, "No cure."

Sadness was creeping into my head as I watched all of this unfold. Optimus was a good bot and didn't deserve this. He just wanted to help humanity and now he was dying. Well, he was not going to die. Not on my watch. He might get a little annoying at times but he still gave others hope and courage. I would not let that die.

"Optimus please, save your strength." Ratchet stated to Optimus, grief already lacing his voice.

"Hang on." I said, "Would Megatron be stupid enough to create a disease without having some sort of cure? What would he do if he caught it? Lab accidents do happen and they would have made a cure right away...right?" Yeah, I took Jack's line. But I really needed to say something and that something was better than me spilling my guts about the truth about Paul and myself.

"Lizzie, it's not like we can just ask Megatron. He's pushing up lug-nuts." Cliffjumper responded.

"But," Ratchet started, coming to my defense. "we might be able to access the Decepticon database. For the moment," He then motioned to the screen he had been working on earlier in the episode. "we still have a fix on the warship's location."

"Cliff, come with."

I jumped when Arcee stated that. Scrap it was happening again. Things were changing because of what Paul and I did. While there hadn't been too many things that had changed, they definitely had an effect on the show. Things were going to start to get real crazy and I knew that our work on the Harbinger was going to bring even more of those changes.

"Arcee." Ratchet said to gt her attention. "Quickly."

Arcee nodded before she and Cliff left. Since we had to wait for Arcee and Cliff to get to the controls, I walked over to Paul, who was sitting on the couch instead of by the rest of us, before saying, "Hey, how are you doing?"

He motioned toward Optimus before saying, "It is hard to see him like this, so closely and from this perspective. All of those stellar cycles ago, I chose him to be the next Prime. He was young and inexperienced but I saw something in him that has helped the Autobots in this war. He has an air of inspiration around him that encourages others to step up." He then let out a sigh. "It is hard to see him suffering like this. He has done so much and now he has to suffer because of a cruel plague. This plague should never have been created."

Wrapping my arm around his shoulders and hugging them, I said, "Hey, he's going to be alright. We aren't going to interfere with this episode so everything is going to end up just fine. You'll see." I then let out a comforting smile before saying, "I won't even prank him any more if it will make you happy."

That seemed to lighten up his mood as he let off a couple of chuckles. It was strange that Primus was acting like this. I had always pictured him as some hard aft guy who was impartial. Frag was I wrong. Of course, this might have something to do with Paul being only a detachment of Primus that the entirety of his conscious used to survive and be able to find help after his spark had been poisoned with the dark energon by Megatron.

"Thank you Lizzie." Paul turned to me, causing my arm to fall from his shoulders. "Now, what do you say we get over to the others and see what is going on now.

I nodded and stood up before following Paul over to the others. It seemed like they were all tense. "What's going on?" I asked.

But, before any of the others there could answer, I heard Arcee's voice over the open comm. link. "It's Megatron...he's alive."

Everyone in the room let out their own surprised expression at this news before Ratchet said, "That's not possible." He sounded a little scared when he said that to me.

"Well I'm staring right at him. Good news is; Megatron's not exactly staring back." Arcee retorted to his disbelief. I shuddered at the thought of Megatron coming back. He was a scary bot and I hoped that I wouldn't have to cross him. That would be a very bad day.

"Mega...tron?" Optimus asked. We could all hear the pain in his voice from the plague attacking him. Showed how much of a concern that Megatron being alive actually was to Optimus. He knew that Megatron was vicious and could do massive damage once he was awake. Now I was silently hoping that this episode wouldn't change in the way that Optimus might die.

"He's critical; hooked up to life support." Arcee continued before there was a pause. "Time to finish this once and for all." We all heard her growl. I honestly didn't blame her. If Optimus wasn't dying and in need of information that Megatron had, I would blast him too...well if I had the capability to do that I would.

"Wait! Don't!" Ratchet yelled, delaying her.

"One good reason; fast." Arcee responded. We could all hear the sound of her blaster charging in the background.

"Megatron may be Optimus' only hope for survival." Ratchet answered. Yep, that was a pretty good reason to not kill the warlord yet.

"What are you talking about?" Arcee asked, obviously confused.

"Does he display brainwave activity?" Ratchet questioned.

Of course, it wouldn't have surprised me at this point in time if Megatron had been dead and still coming up with plans to end the war and destroy the Autobots. He was a calculating and, sometimes, creative evil warlord and I wouldn't want to be on the other end of his ideas.

"Spiking hard. His sick mind is still at work." Arcee answered with disgust. Nah, he was just dreaming about destroying you all. He was in the Well right now. Of course, it was all fake.

"Perfect!" Ratchet stated as a response. "If a cure exists, Megatron may be the only one who knows it. You must enter his brain, and find it."

Yuck. I was so glad that I could not do that. Because I was pretty sure that Paul would make me if I could. And, given his current depressed-like mood, I probably would have done it without question or argument. Thankfully, the cortical psychic patch wasn't human friendly.

"Enter Megatron's brain: Ratchet are you out of your fraggin' mind?" Arcee asked in shock. Of course, I would be reluctant to go in too.

"The Decepticon laboratory should contain all the equipment you need for a cortical psychic patch." Ratchet responded. Of course, he probably didn't help his case with the cortical psychic patch part. Since I had seen the episodes, I knew that she had felt the effects of it first hand and probably wasn't very excited about the notion of doing it on purpose.

"No way! Have you ever even preformed the procedure?" Arcee asked the medic. She knew that there could be some damage if it had gone wrong. But, hopefully, this would play out like the episodes and work.

"No." Ratchet answered honestly. "But I have thoroughly studied the theoretical literature. Invented by Decepticons, outlawed by Autobots."

"Whoa!" Arcee started. "Can't we just haul through the ground bridge and buy us some time to figure this out?"

Uh, wrong thing to ask Arcee. "Time, is one thing that Optimus does not have. One of you must try this. I will not allow Optimus to pass, knowing that Megatron will outlive him!" Ratchet yelled. Yeah, very wrong thing to ask Arcee.

"Ratchet, I would lay down my life for Optimus, anytime, anywhere, but a mind-body split.." Arcee started.

But, then Cliffjumper jumped in. "Hey, I'll do it. It'll give me the chance to give ole Megs a piece of my mind."

"You will?" Arcee asked him in shock.

I was worried about Cliff and asked, "Are you sure Cliff?"...No, I was not starting to go to the 'Bot side. I just didn't want my saving him to have been a waste. He was not going to die either. I would make sure of it.

"Cliff can do it. He is great at talking and will have Megatron spilling out the cure in no time." Bulkhead said to me, trying to comfort me I guess.

I felt Paul wrap his arm around my shoulders and pull me into a hug. "Hey, he'll be alright. You're too stubborn to let him go. If he got in trouble, I'm sure you would march through the bridge and drag him out yourself."

I smiled at Paul. "Thanks Paul. I guess we are even on this now."

We then turned our attention back to what was happening when Arcee's voice came through, "Ratchet, we're ready."

"Initiate cortical psychic patch." Ratchet stated.

In the background, we all heard Cliff say, "Well, hook me up 'Cee. I want to go get the cure from bucket head as quickly as I can."

There was another pause before Ratchet said, "Communications down-link activated. This will allow us to see and hear everything that Cliffjumper does while within Megatron's subconscious mind."

I looked at the screen and shuttered when I saw Kaon. The city looked a lot creepier then I remembered it from the show. The molten metal that could clearly be seen glowing was bothering the scrap out of me and I really hoped that this episode would be the same as when 'Bee went in. But, it was only a matter of time until we found out.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Bulkhead. "Ratch, Optimus' vitals." I glanced at the screens and even I could see that they didn't look good, and I couldn't even read Cybertronian.

"I know." Ratchet said solemnly. I knew that they were all extremely worried for Optimus. Of course, everyone in the room was worried for him. "Quickly Cliffjumper. I know you are in unknown territory, but you must figure out where information might be filed in Megatron's mind."

"Working on it Ratchet. This place isn't exactly tiny you know." Cliff stated back as he walked forward. When he reached the top of the stairs, we all stared in shock when we saw Optimus standing there. Well, a mental figure that Megatron made up of Optimus but still, the same thing.

"Optimus?" Cliff asked as he ran up.

"Cliffjumper that is not Optimus, but merely a figment of Megatron's mind. It cannot see, or hear you." Ratchet quickly said as we watched Cliff run up to the figment.

When Megatron's laughter suddenly filled the air, I jumped a good ten feet. That was one scary laugh and I had not prepared myself for it.

"Lizzie, are you okay?" Paul asked me, concern in his eyes.

I nodded. "Yeah, just wasn't ready for that laugh. He could give almost any villain a run for their money." I then shuddered as I watched.

"Optimus Prime," We all heard Megatron start to say. "your Autobot armies are defeated; bow before your new master."

I shook my head at that. He sounded like Starscream did when he was asking Skyquake to bow to him. It was futile and pathetic. Of course, I wasn't going to say that to Megatron. He would probably kill me if he ever found me if I did.

"Never Megatron." The fake Optimus responded. "One shall stand, one shall fall."

If the situation wasn't so stressful, I would have pounded my head against the railing. That was one of the most abused lines in the franchise. While it was pretty good for the epic battles between the two, it was used way too much and I was sick and tired of hearing it.

"So be it." Megatron stated before the two charged at each other. When they clashed though, I shook my head as the fake Optimus turned to dust. That was pathetic. Megatron could have at least made the fight last a little longer, be a little more realistic. In the words of a Galvatron from another reality, this was bad comedy.

"That never happened." Bulkhead stated in shock.

But, Ratchet was there with the answer. "It's not a memory. We're seeing Kaon as Megatron has recreated it, in his darkest dreams."

I jumped again when, in the dream, another Optimus formed out of the boulder that Cliffjumper was hiding behind. Was this all that Megatron could imagine? Maybe his mind wasn't so great after all.

"Megatron, your treachery ends here." The new fake Optimus stated before taking out his sword. Oh yeah, another totally bogus battle. It made me wonder how Megatron could not know that he was not asleep. This was way to evil yet good to be true for him.

Cliffjumper, just like Bumblebee, jumped out of cover and tried to block the blast as it traveled to Optimus. But, of course, the result was the same: the blast just went right through him like he wasn't there.

"Well that felt awkward." We heard Cliff mutter before Megatron walked up to him.

"Another Autobot." Megatron started. He then started to rotate his shoulders before saying, "The punishment for trespassing in my domain, is your destruction!" Okay, I would admit that the line he just said sounded completely and totally awesome. It wasn't some humdrum line that we heard all the time...like a few certain lines that a certain semi liked to say. Points to evil for creativity.

"Ha! You can't touch me!" Cliff laughed at Megatron. I face-palmed myself. Okay, how did he get picked? He was going to get Megatron so angry that he wouldn't give us the cure formula.

"How can this be?" Megatron asked in shock. Well, to give him some credit, I would be shocked to if my blade passed right through someone I was trying to kill.

"And you missed. Missed again. And again. Oops, not today!" Cliffjumper taunted as Megatron tried to slice him to bits.

"Why can't Megatron hit Cliff?" Paul asked. I knew he knew but we had to keep this episode as close to reality as possible.

"Because he is not a creation of Megatron's mind, Cliffjumper is immune to his physical attack." Ratchet explained. Of course, physical was the key word. Megatron would succeed in attacking Cliff mentally if this all played out right.

"You are not wearing phase displacement armor." Megatron observed as he walked around Cliffjumper. "Your eyes track my movements, so you are not a hologram, and I do not believe in spirits." Well, Megatron certainly knew how to deduce things. What if spirits were real? Then, he would be fragged. "So tell me, what are you?"

"Well, I'm certainly not your conscious." Cliff retorted.

Very good of you to say that Cliff. Get him more upset than what he might be now. You are brilliant. This little talk made me wonder if Autobots had any sort of tact in their processors.

"Megatron," The view then turned and we saw a fake Optimus, Bulkhead, and Cliffjumper standing before him.

"I think I hit my head too hard, I'm seeing double." I joked.

"Uh-oh, special guest stars." Miko added.

"This is not good." Ratchet commented.

"Hey, I didn't know that I looked that handsome." Cliffjumper commented about himself. He then ran up to his copy. "Hey good looking. How do you keep yourself looking so handsome." I face-palmed myself. He could be a real idiot at times.

Well, Megatron must have thought something along those lines because he suddenly yelled in frustration before firing at the three newly arrived fakes.

"Hey, I was looking at myself." Cliffjumper complained as he turned back to Megatron.

"You are real. They were not!" Megatron said, seeming to finally get what was going on here. He then walked around for a few seconds before stopping and chuckling. "A cortical psychic patch. How unexpected." Uh-oh. This wasn't good.

"We have stirred Megatron from his oblivion. He's becoming self-aware." Ratchet sounded shocked when he said that. What were they expecting once they saw Megs? That he was just going to think this was a dream the entire time? They really were stupid.

I didn't even flinch when I felt Paul punch me. I knew that he had some way of getting into my head and reading my thoughts so he heard the stupid Autobot comment. "Nice thoughts Lizzie." He whispered.

I responded by sticking out my tongue.

"If this is my sub-conscious, what are you doing inside my head?" Megatron demanded, getting in Cliff's face and showing up really zoomed in on the screen. Yikes, that was scary. I would be having at least one nightmare tonight about that.

Since I knew that we would be hearing Starscream, who has roped poor Knockout into helping him, try to convince Soundwave that they should terminate Megatron, I turned to Paul instead and asked, "Ok, so what happens if Megatron doesn't go through with Cliff?" That question had always bothered me when I used to watch the show on T.V. and I was not wanting to be surprised anymore today. It was bad enough that Cliff had replaced 'Bee. It was so hard to follow the show when it kept changing when you least expected it and stayed the same when you most expected it.

"I'm not sure Lizzie. Megatron is a vital player in the show and it would be very difficult for the show to go on without him in it. Just think, he will lead them to my brother and no one else will be able to do that. So, Unicron will destroy Earth if Megatron doesn't go through with Cliffjumper."

I figured it would be something that drastic. Megatron was so lucky that we needed him. Otherwise, I would really wish that he would just stay in that fragging body of his.

"Ratchet, are you hearing this?" Arcee questioned. She was probably talking about how Starscream and Knockout were talking about unplugging Megatron from life support.

"If Megatron perishes, Cliffjumper's mind will remain separated from his body, forever." Ratchet answered. I got chills up my back when he said that. It would be like having a zombie that couldn't move hanging around but still needed energon to live. Kind of like how Megatron was going to turn out if this all worked out. Well, his body would for a little bit at least.

It seemed as I had missed some of the talking because I was soon drawn back to the screen when Megatron spoke. "The only way you could have entered my mind, is via cortical psychic patch. But the question remains; what happened to me?"

He really didn't remember? Well, he was going to get a shock. I was pretty sure that he was reliving what had happened at that moment because he seemed to zone out.

"The space bridge explosion. And yet if you're in my head, I am not one with the Allspark." He then turned to Cliffjumper. "So tell me Autobot, do I still function?"

Ratchet then decided to cut in. "Cliffjumper, we are out of time!"

Cliffjumper seemed to hesitate for a minute before saying, "You bet you are. But, I heard that you had a cure for Cybonic Plague in here. Can you tell me what it is?"

"Cybonic Plague? Someone besides myself is...is unwell?" Megatron asked with a gleeful look in his optics. I just shook my head. No duh. Why else would an Autobot volunteer to go into his mind?

"Yeah, so you do you have the cure?" Cliffjumper again asked.

But, Megatron seemed to be thinking. "Optimus!" Megatron suddenly stated before letting out a few chuckles and then going into a maniac-like laugh. "Such irony, that after ages of battle, the mighty Optimus Prime is felled by a simple virus from distant past." Megatron then glanced at Cliffjumper before asking, "And what makes you think I would save the life of my oldest enemy?"

Yet another fake Optimus walked up and started talking before Megatron shot it.

That must have given Cliffjumper an idea. "Well, if you don't help, then you are not going to get what you want most."

"Oh, and just what is it that I want most Autobot?" Megatron asked him.

I was curious as to how Cliffjumper would answer this because we could all actually understand him. It made me really excited to see what was going to change in this.

"Just think about it for a click Megatron. Destroying these pathetic knockoffs of Optimus would never be the same thing as taking him out with your own hand." Cliffjumper tried to convince Megatron. It was a pretty compelling argument.

Megatron let out a chuckle before saying, "Did you not see? I do slay Optimus by my own hand, at will, whenever I desire."

Cliff just shook his head. I would give him that he was persistent. "Come on Megatron, you know that it isn't the same as fighting the real Optimus. Think about it, if you let the plague destroy the real Optimus, you won't be able to do it yourself."

I let out a chuckle at that. "You know, Cliffjumper wouldn't make a half bad 'Con with the way he can smooth talks like that." I whispered to Paul.

Paul just shook his head. "Lizzie, sometimes...you scare me."

I just smiled.

Megatron again seemed to think about it. "After our deep history together, to not watch the spark ebb from Optimus' eyes with my very own,"

"It would mean that all of your fighting has been for nothing." Cliff finished. Hopefully, he knew what he was doing.

Thankfully, it seemed like he had because he then said, "Well played Autobot," He then showed Cliff the formula. "The chemical formula for the cure you seek, not that I expect you to know how to read it."

As Cliff went to reach for it, I shook my head. Did he really thing that Megs would just hand over the formula, simple as that? "Hey, what gives?" Cliffjumper demanded.

"Not yet." Megatron simply answered.

"Why not?" Cliff asked, obviously confused due to the whine behind the question. I kind of chuckled at that. He expected things way to readily. There was always a price, no matter how insignificant it could seem or how deadly it could be.

"And how am I to accomplish terminating Optimus as you propose, when I'm trapped here in a perpetual daydream?" Megatron asked. He had a very good point. He knew when somebot was trying to pull a fast one on him, most of the time. "Once you release me from this prison, you will have the cure. You must guarantee my recovery, or Optimus fades to gunmetal gray; the real Optimus."

But, unknown to Megatron, Ratchet was working on our end to rewind the footage we were getting to the formula. It did not take him long to get to a pause to retrieve it. "Arcee, we have the formula. Disconnect Cliffjumper now!"

After that, was silence. It made me nervous since we couldn't hear anything from the other side, since Ratchet had turned it off to go open the bridge for Arcee and Cliff as well as hurry and create the cure to the plague. I hoped that it all worked out. I glanced at Paul and saw that he had moved so he was sitting closer to Optimus.

Sighing, I walked over and sat by him. "Hey Paul, he's going to be okay." I nudged him playfully as I said that. He needed to cheer up.

He turned to me and nodded. "I know, it is just...I want this war to end. I want all of this fighting to stop and my creations live in peace with each other."

I nodded and put an arm around Paul's shoulders. "Hey, I want that just as much as you do Paul. That's why we're here, isn't it? You and I are going to make sure that this all ends nicely."

He smiled back at me before the two of us turned back to Optimus. The cure seemed to be taking almost immediately effect. Soon, we found Optimus, with Ratchet's help, trying to stand up. All around us, we heard clapping and I saw that Arcee and Cliffjumper were back. I wonder when they got back exactly. Oh well. I guess I would just have to live with it.

"Please, reserve the hero's welcome for my physician, and for Cliffjumper." Optimus stated.

When I looked up at Cliffjumper as he was bowing, I smiled. He was a good bot who had braved almost pure evil, Unicron was pure evil, and had accomplished his mission. But, as he straightened up, I glared. For, from the look in his optics, I could tell that we were no longer looking at Cliffjumper. But, we were looking at another bot entirely, using Cliffjumper.

We were looking, at Megatron.

Paul: She has gone insane!

Lizzie: I know. Authoress is going to torture us! I don't want to die!

Paul: And I don't want to either.

Authoress: *searching* Paul, Lizzie; *sings creepily* Come out come out wherever you are. *says creepily* I just want to play.

AN: And here is the next exciting chapter of this story. Seems like poor Cliff is going to have to act like Bumblebee did during the actual show. Oh well. What can I do? It is much more fun to see it like this. Well, I don't have a lot to say except that I will start on the next chapter right away. This is a lot of fun and this story seems to be taking off pretty well. So, please drop a review, even to say hi! =D