A/N: For most people, the story will make absolutely no sense. That's because most people don't love Simon Furman like I do. Under IDW Publishing, he wrote a Beast Wars Comic with a completely different cast that takes place on Earth at the same time as the TV series and is completely canon! That is what this story is based off of. It's basically a mix of Beast Wars and Beast Machines with some G1 and Alignment (another Simon Furman work which, with a few minor alterations, I am accepting as canon) for flavor. You can find Alignment on the internet. It rocks.

If not having read any of this doesn't bother you, then by all means read on. Just be warned that it won't make the most sense.

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Once and Future

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Maybe it had something to do with all the time they'd just spent near their slumbering predecessors, but when Grimlock leaned over Ravage and snarled, "Once a Decepticon…always a Decepticon!" no one thought it the least bit strange that he didn't say Predacon. For a brief moment, a split-second in time, all the countless meta-cycles of pseudo-peace melted away and there stood not Maximal and Predacon, but Autobot and Decepticon.

Lio Convoy could feel the palpable tension, could see the hatred hanging tangible in the air, but then Ravage went on to explain his intentions and the fleeting glimpse into the past was gone.

But not forgotten.

He had met Grimlock before, of course, but it somehow hadn't occurred to him to ask him about the past. Grimlock had a commanding, captivating presence that tended to keep one firmly in the present and history had seemed trivial, insignificant at the time. Now, Lio Convoy found himself wondering how he could have ignored such a tantalizing glimpse at Cybertron's heritage. The stories Grimlock could tell…

If, of course, he could remember. The reformatting from Autobot and Decepticon to Maximal and Predacon was more than just a size downgrade. It had generally been accepted at the time that certain…animosities should be repressed. For the sake of the budding peace. It was a difficult, delicate procedure, and most had retained little memory of their former selves.

Having seen first-hand the deep-seated, eons-old hatred between the two factions, Lio Convoy could understand this reasoning.

But still, the stories he could tell… He resolved that if they survived this suicidal run with Shokaract, he would breach the subject with Grimlock.

If only…

"Looking for something, Lio?"

Lio Convoy looked over his shoulder strut and stopped to allow his assailant to catch up.

"Not something, Big Convoy, but someone," he explained. "More specifically, Grimlock."

"You saw it too, then?"

"Who could miss it? It's made me curious, I admit."

"I know." Big Convoy looked up, optics directed toward the star-strewn heavens but not focused on them. "The past… It's not something I've ever given much thought to. No one has, really. Why bother trying to find something that's lost forever? Recent events, though," he gestured at the corpses piled high around them, testimony to Shokaract's awful might, "have called to my attention how much bearing it has on the future. We've sacrificed much for this precarious peace. I wonder if the cost was worth—AAAARRRRGGGHHH!"

Lio Convoy felt it, a sizzling in his circuits, a feeling of molten lead running sluggishly through his fuel lines. "Ungh! What—?" The words died. His companion couldn't have heard them anyway.

A smattering of laser-fire burst against the ground near him and he dove for cover. Something flew by overhead, and a quick scan revealed that it was neither Maximal nor Predacon, but a spark-less drone. He raised his weapon to pick it off and convulsed, collapsing into his beast mode.

The feeling, of charred circuitry and overcharged synapses, intensified, and it was all he could do to keep from crying out.

"Stay quiet, Lio Convoy."

He jerked his head up and saw a dark figure emerge seamlessly from the shadows with a fluid grace that was broken by small spasms where sparks played over his frame.

"Come," Ravage beckoned. "We cannot be found."

"What is this?" Lio Convoy ground out painfully as he clambered to his feet.

"A virus of some sort. It seems to target the neural network."

A virus? Then there would be an anti-virus. "Bump—"

"—is dead," Ravage interrupted smoothly, optics narrowed at a ground-bound drone that was passing nearby. "As is everyone else. Those of us who went to Earth and acquired semi-organic alternate modes seem to have survived the initial infection, but you're the only one I saw find cover from the drones."

"Then…we are the last?"

"Almost…"

"Hurry up!" someone growled entirely too loudly to be successful at hiding. "Me Grimlock see you! You not so sneaky!"

"I'm an infiltrator," Ravage said calmly. "The best there is. I'm very 'sneaky,' as you so eloquently put it. You, however, are not who I'm 'sneaking' from."

"Bah, hide like cowards!" Grimlock's huge frame was hidden in shadow, but small electrical discharges betrayed his position to Lio Convoy. "Warriors not hide! Warriors charge!"

"Of course, since that's worked out so well for you in the past." Ravage smirked. "Tell me, how long did it take your dear friend Swoop to pick up your pieces after you tried that against the Liege Maximo?"

Grimlock chose not to dignify that comment with response. "Him all you find?"

"Him all there is," Ravage mocked.

He grunted. "Fine. Now we charge."

"Charge what?" Lio Convoy asked.

"See for yourself." Ravage gestured at a gap in the pile of rubble they crouched by and he peered out at—

"Megatron!"

"Yes, yes!" the sinister figure crowed, one hand outstretched over rank upon rank of drones. "Leave none alive! There can be no one to mar my perfect, automated utopia!"

Grimlock snorted. "Him not Megatron. Him just copy-cat. We charge."

"Wait!" Lio Convoy cried. "We can't just run out there without a plan! We'll be killed!"

"We already dead!" Grimlock roared. "No Wheeljack to make cure. No Prime to make plan. Me lived long time. Fought bigger army than this. Fought real Megatron. Faced Unicron." His fists clenched at his sides. "Me not die hiding!"

He flung himself over their pitiful cover and began hacking his way through an army. Unsure, Lio Convoy turned to Ravage.

He was nearly impossible to see in the darkness, but his optics burned as he spoke.

"I was a Decepticon for a far greater portion of my life than I have been a Predacon," he said slowly. "There is much I would have changed among the Predacon order, but the first among my complaints is their deplorable willingness to accept any insufferable suppression dealt them!"

For a moment, Lio Convoy saw what he had seen before, that ancient agelessness that only the last real Autobot and Decepticon could know. But then Ravage turned toward Megatron and the spell was broken.

"There is a time to wait, to be patient," he said, eying the tumultuous battle calmly, "and there is a time to stand up." He turned back to Lio Convoy with an appraising optic. "You look very like him. Like the only one with the power and will to oppose my master. Do you deserve to?" And he flung himself into the fray.

Lio Convoy stood very still for a moment. He watched as Megatron parried Grimlock's attack and ducked to avoid a blow from Ravage. He watched as drones circled them, wary of attacking lest they strike their master. He heard internal warnings blare, felt safety protocols try to engage and fail. Then he stood straighter and charged.

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A/N: I'll try to keep this short to avoid the Author's Notes being longer than the actual story, but this whole thing is basically a shameless Simon Furman plug. I doubt you read the things I told you to first, so go do it now. Seriously. Simon Furman's writings are sexy.

Sorry I've been gone so long, but school tends to take up my valuable fanworship time.

--BlackMarketTrombones