Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters - Ignition

27. Gentle

Li and I had said our goodbyes after picking up her things from our main base. Raven assured me that she and Mist would be fine and that they'd be doing plenty of training. Reluctantly, I left the secondary base and returned to my own. The day was ending, and I decided to go silently to my room, to my cot, and lay down, feeling the suffocating silence around me. I didn't need any company from the others right now. I simply wanted to be alone, even though the quiet pressed closer and closer with every moment.

I'm not sure how long I was sleeping, but I do remember what I dreamt that night. I saw that lake, or rather, pond again. The location where Optimus and I had kissed for the first time, during my temporary escape from Nemesis, from Megatron.

But Optimus wasn't here this time.

And Megatron was.

The warlord stalked around me, circled me like a shark, as he took in my appearance. "Well, well, Maiden, it would seem you are not as deceased as you have led me to believe."

'It's not real, girl. It's not real. Don't buy into this.' "I didn't lead you to believe anything, Sweetheart." I added the term of endearment, an old habit of messing with his hard drive.

He continued to circle me, seemingly unfazed. "I beg to differ," he said simply.

I scoffed at him, attempting to remain indifferent. "On what grounds? I've done nothing other than do what needed to be done, Darling, you did the rest." I kept my posture straight; I kept my words clean and concise. I would not let a dream Megatron get the best of me. His sharp dentas smirked at me, but I refused to let it show how much it bothered me. This was my dream. I was in control.

Wasn't I?

"Oh, Maiden, you don't understand it, do you?"

"I get it all right." I said confidently, shrugging off his comment like it was nothing, like he was nothing. I had to. I had to keep up this charade if it was the last thing I did.

If the real Megatron had somehow found me, I would make him doubt himself before he could truly pinpoint me. And that slight edge was all I needed. I don't even know why that train of thought had even entered my mind, but it had. I would not be played the fool here.

"You're delusional," I told him in a bored tone.

That's when he snapped at me. "Stop playing games, Maiden! I know it's you!" The large mech nearly struck me, but I didn't so much as flinch. I stood my ground and kept looking straight ahead. This was my dream, not his. I knew the ins and outs of the UP better than he did, and the only one who could best me at it was Angel.

And if she knew he was here . . . he'd be experiencing the nightmare of a lifetime. She despised Megatron almost as much as she detested Knockout. And she only hated Knockout because he was the one to trap her in her own domain.

"I am simply what you wish to see, Darling," I continued, trying to poke holes in his logic. "Do you see any remnants of the would-be-fatal wound you gave me? Not a scratch."

"Do not give me that! Where are you?" He shouted again, giving me all the confirmation I needed that it was working to unnerve him.

"Ah-ah, what's the magic word?" Perhaps it was a bit far this time. Megatron was losing his temper. He raised his hand to strike me with a shout. "Actually, I was looking for 'please'." I looked up at him now, and I knew that servo was going to sting as much as it would in reality.

Yes, it was becoming quite clear that Megatron had stumbled across something that had allowed him to navigate through the Unconscious Plane. But if anything, I assumed it was more so ShockWave's doing than Megatron's. This development would not be an easy one to deal with.