Sorry for the delay. Con went well. I made a profit on my sales :)

Don't own R&C and all that jazz.

Xxxxxx

Conflicting plans ran through my head as I was walked towards the temple's entrance. On the one hand I could try to get away immediately and lose Max among the trees of the rainforest, or I could wait until we were inside the temple and bide my time until I could slip away and hide myself in the dark, backtracking to the entrance. Both plans were kinda suicidal as I knew Max hadn't taken the gun off me. It wouldn't be completely impossible to dodge him if he shot at me, but at such a close range I wasn't gonna risk it. As for whether Max would actually use it or not... I tried not to think about that. I had to treat this as I would any problem with an armed enemy.

Another plan was to try to get the gun away from him somehow, but I wrote that idea off almost immediately. Max was a large man, but he wasn't built like Qwark was. The muscle he had on him came from real world struggles, not a personal trainer. His arms were thick, his hands like hammers and his shoulders loomed over me as I walked. I was 5'1" and weighed 97 pounds. No matter how I pictured it, trying to wrestle the weapon away would only end badly for me, even if I did manage not to get shot in the process.

So I kept marching, my jaw clenched shut as I refused to give Max so much as a glance. I could hear his heavy boots behind me, crunching over the twigs and leaves that had fallen into the clearing and been scorched dry by the tropical sun. We reached the dark doorway that led into the temple, a shallow staircase leading downwards. After the heat from both the sun and the warmly baked ground, the chilled air of the tunnel hit me hard and I had to suppress a shudder. I came to a stop and finally turned to Max, trying to show nothing but anger towards him.

He wasn't looking at me, not out of shame or guilt but purely out of disinterest. He nodded towards the darkness. "Most of the passages from this side of the temple are still pretty intact. Some of the other doors lead to cave ins or other dead-ends caused over time, but there's a clear trail from this one to the deeper locked doors."

"Where is every-one?" I asked, partly out of curiosity but also to try to figure out what I had to work with to escape. "Aren't there suppose to be guys studying this thing?"

"There were," Max nodded. "However, I passed on word to the institute that we'd made a discovery suggesting the site could be dangerous and the researchers should be evacuated. I told them I'd send additional info as soon as I was able to decipher some."

"You lied." I said flatly.

"I'll call them up and tell them it was a false alarm when we get back to the station." He said unconcerned. "Let's keep moving." He nudged one of my shoulders with the back of his hand lightly. I flinched away from it as if he'd struck me, shooting him a venomous glare.

"Don't touch me." I said simply before descending the stairs into the dark.

I dunno how those scientist guys worked down there. The temple was a depressing place. I'm sure when they worked they had torches, flood lamps or some other way to keep the place lit, but even if it hadn't been pitch dark I was sure it was still just as dismal a place to be. The air was cool and had a damp, mouldy smell to it. At the edges of Max's belt-mounted light I could both see and hear things scatter, scurrying away into the cracks of the stone and floor. The intricate writing and murals carved and painted against the walls were covered in places by moss and lichen, or a slime trail from water leaking down from a crack overhead. The floor was made of paved stone. It had a smooth texture to it that came from age, broken up by an occasional stagnant puddle that'd formed either by dripping water or from some other mysterious source. I could see insect larvae wriggling around when Max's light hit them the right way.

Sometimes a breeze would brush past us before it would carry on to howl down the deeper tunnels and caverns. We walked through rooms that had cracks in their ceilings, letting sunlight in. These often had a bunch of ferns and other low-growing plants in them. But as we went deeper into the building we soon lost signs of light completely, and the only plants we'd see were small, nasty looking mushrooms growing in corners or clinging to walls, destroying the craved scenes of zoni doing miraculous acts.

We walked in silence. Sometimes it sounded like Max wanted to say something but he always went silent again. I ignored him, focusing on trying to create a mental map of the way we were going. I had a good natural sense of direction but I wasn't gonna risk getting lost in this place when I try to make my getaway.

I dunno how long we'd been going before the passage opened up to a large hall. There were zoni statues on the far left and right sides of it, similar to the ones that'd been guarding he entrance. A small staircase descended in front of us before going up again on the opposite side of the room to three different doorways. Pillars rose upwards to the ceiling but they seemed to be mostly for show. They had highly detailed designs spiralling across them. One of them had broken and was clinging to the ceiling. Its base lost somewhere below. I couldn't see where exactly because stretching between the two sets of stairs the entire floor of the hall was flooded with dark, murky water.

"No complaining this time." Max said next to me. "We need to cross to get where we'll start seeing lombax influences."

I said nothing but gave him a dirty look. I thought about using the water to my advantage in trying to get away but decided to wait. I didn't have my O2 mask and I wasn't very good at swimming or holding my breath. Water's never been my strong point.

With that in mind I started climbing down the stairs into the pool. I couldn't see through the water and hoped there wasn't anything hungry and vicious swimming below the surface. The water was cold and the floor below it felt somehow both slimy and gritty at the same time. I could feel a thin layer of muck get dislodged each time I took a step. The room was larger than it looked in the dark and it was a few minutes before we reached the other side. The water had luckily only been up to my stomach but I still felt soaked to the bone when I got out. I wanted a shower more than anything at that moment to wash off whatever bugs, scum or algae was living in that soup.

"Come on, keep moving kid." Max said as he wrung out his shirt. The water didn't seem to be bothering him at all.

I shook water from my hands as I glared at him. I noticed he'd been staying behind me as we walked, telling me where to turn and which passages to ignore as we went. If he'd led the way I could've easily tried to lose him when he wasn't watching. I figured he'd thought of that too. I started walking again as he motioned towards the left most tunnel. The air was getting cooler and staler the further we went. I could hear something echo as it dripped.

"Is this really what you wanna do?" I asked eventually. As angry and betrayed as I felt, I couldn't completely convince myself that Max was a violent person, regardless of the barrel pointed between my shoulder blades.

"No." The reply came surprisingly quick. His voice was even, but there was a seriousness to it I wasn't use to. "But you heard what I said. I refuse to let 10 years of my life be wasted for nothing. At first I thought you'd be willing to help but... here we are."

"So all that genetic lock stuff you made me learn and all those things you made me unlock. It didn't mean anything to you? You were trying to prep me for this?" I gripped my thumbs so hard I could feel my knuckles crack.

He didn't reply.

"That's cold Max." I added.

"Just keep walking." Something steel nudged me slightly and I went silent, watching the darkness ahead of me.

After a while I noticed changes in the Temple walls and floors. Something that looked like brass was inlaid in the stone of the walls, often overlapping faded zoni paintings. Copper and gold coloured metal in spherical shapes also started appearing on the floor. After a few minutes I saw the first design that was unmistakably a gear. More could be seen as we walked further. Soon the architecture had changed so much that, if I hadn't known better, I'd have sworn we were in a lombax ruin like those Max had taken me to before. There were no more circular script in blue paint or carvings of glowing, floating zoni. They'd been replaced by the now almost familiar shapes of interlocking cogs and gears. They weren't moving. I could see rust built up on them as well as a healthy growth of fungus and tiny mushrooms. The next doorway we passed through was rectangular in shape, not spherical like the doors had been up till now and it was smaller. Max had to duck slightly to get through. There were fewer turns into other passages as we kept going. The hallway seemed to be leading to something specific.

After what felt like hours we came across what at first looked like a dead-end. As we got closer however Max's light made it possible to see the difference between the wall in front of us and the walls around us. The stone it was made from was much smoother, almost like marble, and the only gears it had on it were three in its centre.

"Here we go." Max said with a soft smile on his face, as if he was looking over a family photograph or a child's drawing. He brushed a hand across the stone. "We've found at least a dozen of these doors throughout the place but we haven't been able to open any of them. Not for lack of trying either, but they're heavily reenforced by the looks of things. We've tried everything short of blowing up the whole temple and we haven't made so much as a scratch." He pulled his hand away, turning to look at me, his eyes flashing. "You have no idea how long I've waited to see one of them opened."

"Max. listen." I tried one last time, raising my hands ever so slightly. "I get why this is important to you. Maybe I can't empathise or anything but I get it. But this is... weird. I don't think this place was meant to be opened up and waltzed into. I mean... obviously the guys who built this part of it didn't want it to be found, let alone opened up."

"Yeah well, I'm afraid I'm not really interested in your opinion this time kid." Max said with a slight bite to his voice. "An archaeologist can't just walk away because something seems weird."

I frowned again. "This is an obsession you have, Max! And you know it."

His eyes narrowed. "Open the door Ratchet. You know you don't have a choice."

I ground my teeth, flexing my hands. "I just can't... I really don't think..."

"I said open it!"

He shot out a hand and grabbed me by one of my forearms before yanking me painfully forward. My wrist felt like it was being bent at an awkward angle. He pressed my palm against the door, hard. I squirmed but it was like trying to push a boulder.

There was a heavy thunk from somewhere and bits of stone and dust rained over us. Max let me go and I took several steps backwards, away from the door. I instinctively clutched my wrist, rubbing it as I watched the door in front of us rise upwards with the sound like something scraping against granite. Max was staring at the doorway as it slowly opened up. I could hear wind rushing from somewhere deep inside it.

I watched Max silently out of the corner of my eye. He was transfixed on the doorway, as if everything else had stopped existing. He was even holding his breath. I adjusted my stance, lowering my arms as I turned to the side very slightly. Before I could move any further his hand grabbed hold of me again, this time by the shoulder. He didn't even bother turning to face me as he did so. He just gave me a slight shove forward so I was in front of him again.

"Come on! We gotta keep going! We have to see where this leads! Get moving!" He barked his orders, his voice frantic with excitement.

I frowned hard to myself but started walking again, cursing myself for not moving faster.

The hallway on the other side of the door was similar to the one we'd just come from. It had the same designs and metals on it. The only real difference was that there was less moisture damage done to the walls. The air also had a bad taste to it. Almost like egg, and not in a good way. I also noticed as we walked that there were only three or four passages that led off from the one we were in. We stopped in front of all of them when we reached them. Max muttered to himself as he inspected them, trying to decide whether we should change our course or not. Each time however he seemed to decide, for whatever reason, to keep going the way we were.

"Did you have to jerk me around when you opened this thing?" I grumbled after a while.

Max didn't reply, there was a hunger in his face as he walked behind me. I wasn't even sure if he'd heard me. He looked like a man possessed. I turned to the front again, trying to work out what I was gonna do now. I wondered how long we'd been gone. It must've been morning on the Apogee Space Station by now. One good thing about finding out it'd been Max who'd knocked me out was that at least I knew he wouldn't have done anything bad to Talwyn or Clank. I wondered if they'd figured out I wasn't just off playing hooky somewhere. I couldn't remember if the station had security cameras or not. I wondered if they'd check it when they started to get worried. I wondered if they were worried already.

I realised we were approaching another dead-end looking door. This one was much different though. The ceiling sloped upwards, making the door almost double the height of the passage we'd been following. It was made of industrial looking steel, not stone. It had no gear designs on it and no inlay of brass or anything decorative at all. The only thing on it was a few lines of Lombax text. Everything else about it clashed with the design of the hallway completely. It also had the large, blackish flowers of explosions on it although it didn't seem like the metal itself had been damaged.

"What's it say?" I asked Max despite myself. When I got back to Igliak I really had to sit down and learn how to read this stuff.

Max stood next to me, raising his belt-mounted light to shine on the text as he squinted, trying to read the black lettering against the reflecting steel of the door.

"'You've travelled far to find this room

but know it is no vault or tomb.

What sleep inside all life should dread

The stolen secret we hid instead.'"

I gave a load groan. "What is it with them and the overly dramatic poetry?! They did this on Rykan V too!"

Max wasn't listening to me. He was inspecting the rest of the door with a deep frown, running his hands over it and scratching at the black burns. "This isn't a lombax structure. Or at least... not completely."

I kept quiet, watching him as he worked, almost like he could extract knowledge from the steel just by touching it. I frowned to myself, running my eyes over the lombax letters again. The only sentence that seemed to make any sense was the first one. The other three made me very nervous as to what was inside.

"If it's not Lombax then what is it?" I asked.

"The design's a little generic but from what I can figure out, it looks like it might be Cragmite." He said with a frown of concentration.

I blinked wide-eyed at him. "What?! Why?"

"Well now, that's the exciting part isn't it?" He gave me the long absent grin, but this time it wasn't good-natured or jovial. It looked a little manic.

"You gotta stop Max." I started but he wouldn't hear any of it.

"Open the door kid." It didn't sound like a request.

I bit my lip. This was wrong. This was so wrong. I couldn't just let him keep doing this. I needed to take a stand. But my eyes hovered to the gun in his hand again, and I thought of my friends back on the station. Besides, if he did shoot me that probably wouldn't stop him from opening the door anyway.

I hesitated too long and he walked towards me, taking a hold on my arm again and gripping it painfully hard. He led me to the door and pressed my hand against the door. I balled it into a fist, glaring at the steel in front of me.

"Open. The door." He hissed next to my head.

I didn't look at him, my eyes narrowing as I clenched my fist tighter. I felt cold steel press against my temple.

"Don't you push me Ratchet! Don't you think for a moment I'm not determined enough to do it!" He yelled. It echoed down the passageway.

"Whatever's behind this door isn't for you Max." I said in a voice much calmer than I felt.

He growled furiously and I felt the barrel pulled away from my head, followed by a painful blow. I made an involuntary strangled noise as I stumbled in place, Max still holding my arm. The brief moment of disorientation was enough and I realised I'd opened my hand instinctively to catch my balance. There were clicks from behind the door followed by the whir of machinery. Max let me go abruptly, causing me to lose my balance. I gave my head a quick shake to pull myself together. I watched as the giant steel door groaned and complained from movement after who knows how many years. Eventually, slowly, it started to move, sliding sideways and out the way, revealing a dark cavern.

Max's light picked out several more doors like the one we'd just opened leading into the same room, but they were all still shut. The cavern itself was circular, the top most part of its ceiling was made from something like glass although the dark and the build up of grime made it impossible to see what was above it. The walls between the doors were completely occupied by silent consoles. In the centre of the room there stood something like an island console, but it was more than that. It had controls and screens circling it at its base, but it kept going beyond that, becoming an entanglement of wires and tubing that curled around a central steel pillar like some kind of ivy. The pillar rose through a hole in the glass ceiling and from what I could tell, kept going upwards beyond that.

Max walked into the room eagerly, making directly for the console in the centre of it. I quickly scrambled back to my feet.

"Leave it alone Max!" I warned as I followed him.

He was frowning to himself, but not in frustration. It was the pleased frown of some-one trying to work out a puzzle that, although hard, they were enjoying immensely.

"This is it." He said softly to himself. He smiled. It was quiet, and sad. "This is what I was meant to find."

He reached out and put a hand on the console, tracing the dust-covered buttons and dials.

"Max..." I shook my head. "Don't..."

His hand stopped, remained in place for a second, and then pressed down.

Green lights started coming on all over the room. Energy started coursing through previously unseen cables underneath the floor. The central console's buttons started to blink and flash before its screens started to flicker on one by one. Lights started going on up along the steel pillar and beyond the glass-like ceiling. On the other side of it was something I couldn't even describe as a cavern, or a hall, or a room. It was too large, and too high. It spanned all the way from where we were deep underground back up to the very top of the temple above us.

There was a deep rumble and the floor, walls and even the ceiling over us started to shake. I snapped my gaze back to Max for a second and was startled to see he was staring at me, quiet resolution on his face.

I gave my head a shake at him, took a step backwards, and then spun on my heels, running out the room and back down the passage as the rumbling grew louder.

Xxxxxx

Ratchet's height and weight are not some bullshit stats I just thumbsucked but are in fact canon.