A/N: This is my first ever fanfic so while I welcome reviews and constructive criticism, please no flames. Be gentle.
I do not claim any ownership of Transformers, or any of the characters.
The battle was over; Megatron was a smoking ruin lying on the ground. The same jets that had chased Starscream over the city had turned back to attack Megatron before that puny fleshling boy had pushed the AllSpark into his chest. How the Autobots and humans had managed to defeat Cybertron's mightiest warriors he'd never know, but they had, and the only thing to do now was to escape.
Starscream pushed out the "how" and "why" out of his mind, questions like that could wait until he was safely out of Earth's atmosphere and away from these pesky planes still behind him. Four planes, much like his alternate mode, were in hot pursuit, firing missiles at him. As one missile exploded and pelted him with shrapnel - not damaging, but still very painful- he transformed in midair, thrusting his right arm forward and launching a missile at the nearest plane, before transforming back into a jet and launching a pair of missiles at two other planes, leaving just one remaining. Before his targeting systems could lock onto it, a blast of energy slammed into him from below, searing his silver hide black under the wing and causing oily black smoke to spew from the wound.
Ironhide, I thought I'd terminated him.Starscream now wished he had made sure that infernal Autobot had stayed down after he had rained fire on him and Ratchet. Before he could even think of returning fire, Starscream sensed another squadron of fighter planes closing in on him. He could fly circles around the fleshlings all day if he hadn't sustained these injuries, but a few humans had gotten lucky hits on him earlier in the battle, and he decided now was definitely the time to retreat. He pointed his nose towards the sky and pushed his engines to maximum, quickly outpacing the Human fighters. Within seconds he was miles away, climbing high into the stratosphere and further up, until the city below him was no more than a speck of dust. Even higher, within a minute he had left Earth's atmosphere and was leaving Earth orbit.
Finally he was out of range. He knew the humans had no spacecraft that could be quickly scrambled, and the few ships they had, "shuttles," as they called them, weren't combat equipped and would be a pushover, should they somehow try to pursue him. He was safe for the time being.
Now he didn't have to concentrate on fighting, he took stock of the battle. Megatron, Devastator, and Blackout were all dead. He had heard nothing from Barricade, Frenzy, or Scorponok. He assumed Prime and his little band of Autobots had killed them off, too. It was a shame about Devastator and Blackout; Devastator was one of the most competent machines he had ever worked with, his military genius and brute strength had been undeniable, hence why Starscream had hand picked him to search for the Allspark. And Blackout had also been a first class operator, and Starscream had not particularly liked Blackout, who had been known to many as Megatron's Lackey, as the humans would say; but he had respected the massive Deception for his strength, and the fact that he was another flyer. All his sorrow for losing his comrades, however, was overshadowed by the sheer delight that beamed from his spark now that Megatron was dead. Megatron; the incompetent who had kept the war going on for thousands of years too long, Starscream was sure that had he led the Decepticons from the start, Prime and his followers would have been reduced to so much melted slag millennia ago.
Starscream had never made it secret how he felt about serving Megatron, and had waited thousands of years for his leader to slip up. And having led the Decepticons in Megatron's absence for ten thousand years, he had acquired a taste for leadership, and was only too glad that Megatron's "glorious" return had lasted less than an hour. As Starscream set a course back to Cybertron, his mind turned to the mantle of leadership. It would be down to him now to lead the Decepticons. Others would protest his claim; some might even go so far as to challenge him outright. But none would win. He was Lord Starscream, rightful leader of the Decepticons and Emperor of Cybertron. He looked forward to reaching his home world to claim the prize he had coveted for thousands of years.
Under the Laurentian Abyss – 6 weeks later
Unlike Starscream, Scorponok had no personal ambition, no desire to lead, not much in the way of coherent thought whatsoever. He was driven purely by his animal instincts, which were usually just to hunt down the enemy, a job that he found some level of basic pleasure in. Scorponok was tunnelling his way under the ocean floor in search of Megatron's remains. He hadn't been there for the actual battle. Scorponok was a hunter; he stalked his prey and picked them off one by one. Pitched battles weren't what he was built for, and considering the damage he had taken from his fight against the human soldiers and their aircraft in the desert, days earlier, he was fortunate not to have been involved. He probably wouldn't have fared too well against the likes of Prime or Ironhide, not out in the open, at any rate.
He could tell he was getting closer now. He could sense the radiation from the Allspark. It was almost straight above him. Tunnelling upwards, he cleared the sea bed and was stunned momentarily by the immense pressure of the water. Regaining his senses, he quickly located the bodies of his comrades; Devastator's face had been shattered by an energy blast, as well as a large number of impact wounds all over his body. He was definitely dead, as was Blackout, not as badly wounded as Devastator had been, most of the damage was to the head and chest, and looked as if someone had gotten a few lucky shots rather than having succumbed to the sheer amount of firepower that Devastator had. Scorponok, being more like an animal than a sentient being, didn't normally feel much in the way of emotions, but was stricken with a mourning sadness at the sight of Blackout, his master, lying inert on the sea bed. He crawled past them and passed the battered, headless corpse of Bonecrusher, until he found his target; Megatron.
The mightiest Decepticon to have ever lived laid there Motionless, pieces of him had been blown away in the battle. One of his legs was missing, and his left arm was a twisted wreck, though something was off about his appearance. He was giving off radiation, more than what Scorponok's sensors told him would be expected from the Allspark. Barricade had sent him down to look for Megatron, to see if anything could be salvaged of the Allspark in his chest. Even a few pieces might be enough to grant life. But the Allspark- still inside Megatron- had been changed somehow. It had changed Megatron's appearance as well, the wounds he sustained in battle weren't blackened anymore, there were no exposed circuits, he had seemed to have started healing somehow.
Scorponok sensed very faint life signs within Megatron, it wasn't much, but it was still there. It hadn't killed him after all; Megatron had somehow survived the force of the AllSpark. He was in stasis lock, the transformers' equivalent of a coma. This was big. His sensors worked overtime, trying to gain as much data as he could on Megatron's condition. In a millisecond he had processed the data, compressed it and passed it through ultrahigh frequency radio waves to Barricade. Megatron was alive!
Cybertron
High on a ragged metal cliff, the stoic warrior Grimlock lay, looking down over the Decepticon forces below while trying to keep his massive form from being seen. He had no idea what they were up to, and he didn't care, as long as he stopped them from doing whatever they were doing. His optics glared as he zoomed in on the Decepticons, trying to discern who they were. He spotted three seekers - Decepticon warriors that transformed into sleek and deadly aircraft. Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet, they were three of Starscream's followers, even though Starscream had been missing for years, hunting for Megatron and the AllSpark.
The Decepticons on Cybertron were now under the cold, analytical command of Shockwave, a ruthless and cunning warrior whose strength rivalled even Grimlock's. They had been sworn enemies as far back as Grimlock cared to remember, sharing a heated rivalry even stronger, he thought, than that between Megatron and Prime. Along with the three seekers were Blitzwing, a heavily armoured and sadistic Decepticon who enjoyed pulling apart smaller Autobots with his hands before blasting them to pieces with his pulse cannon; and Onslaught, a brilliant tactician and one of the highest ranking Decepticons under Shockwave's command.
Grimlock brought his weapons online and activated his targeting system. Crosshairs appeared over the face of Onslaught. As the most powerful of the five Decepticons before him, he'd have to be taken care of first.
"You're not seriously going to take on all five by yourself, Grimlock?"
"Of course I am, weakling. If you don't want to fight, get back to base and leave me to it."
If Springer had been human, he would have sighed. He'd had the bad fortune to have been paired up with Grimlock - the craziest Autobot ever created - to weaken the Decepticons by taking out a number of their key players. Springer admitted to himself that if they could pull it off and take out these Decepticons, it would put the Decepticon army in a much weaker position. If, was a big word, though; Springer would have had trouble fighting against any of the Decepticons down there in a one on one fight, and Grimlock was proposing the two of them take on five Decepticons.
"I'm not going to back out, but you better have something good planned."
Without answering, Grimlock double checked his aim, charged up the energy cannon on his right arm to full power, and fired a burst of energy at Onslaught. Before the sound of his shot even reached Springer's audio processors, Grimlock had leapt down from the cliff, a projectile weapon extending from each shoulder and firing a salvo of explosive rounds and the three seekers. The shot from his energy cannon struck Onslaught squarely in the face, burning away his optics and vocal processors, rendering him blind and twitching on the
ground in pain. The three seekers quickly transformed into their aircraft modes and took to the air, while Grimlock fired another salvo skywards and charged at Blitzwing before the Decepticons could even register what was going on. Springer's wrist cannon extended from his forearm and he took aim, unable to get a decent shot at Blitzwing as he was wrestling with Grimlock.
Instead he focussed on trying to shoot down the seekers, he scored a few hits on Dirge, but nothing serious, they were simply too fast for him. Thrust fired missiles at Grimlock and the explosive impact sent him flying. Now Springer took aim at Blitzwing and fired off three shots. The energy rounds did very little to the Decepticon's thick armour, and Blitzwing launched himself at Springer. Grimlock was too busy firing at the seekers to help. He transformed into his alternate mode, a large and powerful fighting vehicle, and drilled Dirge with a pair of shots through his centre mass. That didn't help Springer at all, though. Blitzwing fired a volley of shots from his chest cannon that blew his left leg off at the knee. Pain seared through him as Blitzwing picked him up by the neck and pulled his arm off at the shoulder. Springer's systems nearly overloading, he screamed in pain as Blitzwing casually tossed his arm aside and prepared to pull off the other one.
"Should I pull off another arm or perhaps a leg this time, Autobot?" Springer tried in vain to bring his wrist cannon to bear at Blitzwing's maniacally grinning head. The larger robot crushed the weapon in his hand, and his grip around Springer's neck tightened. He struggled to free himself, but was powerless against Blitzwing's superior strength. In his pain and desperation to escape, Springer didn't notice Grimlock approaching Blitzwing from behind; he didn't notice until the tip of Grimlock's energy sword burst through the Decepticon's chest. Blitzwing dropped Springer, stunned by Grimlock's attack. He'd pierced Blitzwing's spark chamber, and the Decepticon was as good as dead now, but Grimlock wasn't finished. He pulled the sword up, cutting through Blitzwing's chest and shoulder, and severing one of his arms, before the sword was free. In the same motion, Grimlock swung the sword backhanded and sliced Blitzwing's head clean off.
Through the cloud of pain and damage reports flooding across his vision, Springer made out the smoking ruins of two seekers, and the still twitching form of Onslaught. Grimlock aimed his cannon at Onslaught and fired once, blasting his head apart. Grimlock saw the look of disdain on Springer's face, he'd been taught by Prime to never gun down a helpless enemy.
"This is war," Grimlock grunted, "they're the enemy. If you don't approve, that's just tough." Grimlock then called for assistance from the other Autobots in the area to collect Springer and take him home for repairs, before walking off.
"Why don't you wait for the others?" Springer said to Grimlock, an offer as much as it was a question.
"Thrust escaped. I'm going to follow him." Then he walked off, following the vapour trail Thrust left in his wake.
Following Thrust, while important to him, wasn't the only reason he declined to wait for the other Autobots. He worked best alone, always had. He couldn't bring himself to join the other Autobots. He'd gone into battle shoulder to shoulder with several before, and he hadn't said no when Springer showed up, though it wasn't part of his plan to have worked with a partner. He was a loner, didn't like the company of the other Autobots. He hadn't always been this way. He'd had friends, a long time ago. Slag, Swoop, Snarl, and Sludge. The Dynobots. Together they'd been five of the strongest, most powerful transformers on Cybertron, and had very nearly won the war at one point, until Shockwave killed them all.
Grimlock remembered that battle vey well. The five of them had fought off a massive force of Decepticons and taken the fight back to them, even nearly killing Megatron at one point. But Shockwave, protecting his master, had had the entire battlefield carpet bombed by seekers and artillery, raining firepower down on them like a coward, rather than facing his defeat honourably. The devastation was so complete that out of five Dynobots and legions of Decepticons, only Grimlock had survived. His team, his only friends, had been wiped out, and he had vowed that day to avenge them by killing Shockwave, whatever it took.
He stared at the vapor trail quickly dissipating in the sky, calculated the vector Thrust had taken, and transformed, following the same heading he estimated taken by Thrust. He rolled forwards, through the wastelands of Nova Cronum, what had once been a large, prosperous city. His armoured hide ploughing through the debris of thousands of years of war. His sensors showed that he was alone, already miles away from Springer and the others. Just the way he liked it. There was a risk that he could be ambushed by Decepticons at any point, his scanners, while displaying no signs of life, were not infallible, and Decepticons could be hiding anywhere, ready to pounce on him.
Let them come, Grimlock thought. He was the mightiest Autobot created, and easily more than a match for almost any Decepticon. He pushed those thoughts aside, while relishing the idea of another fight he knew he had more important things to accomplish. Following the direction Thrust took, Grimlock kept rolling until his sensors detected Decepticons in the air, a few miles ahead of him. Although his alternate mode was a heavily armoured fighting vehicle that was well equipped for fighting both ground and air targets, and he was confident he could easily handle the Decepticons before him, they'd report him as soon as he revealed himself, and Shockwave would surely send more troops to attack him, slowing him down in his task of finding and eliminating Shockwave.
The pair had fought each other twice previously, and both times they had nearly killed each other. The last battle, over a hundred years ago, had left them both shattered on the battlefield, they had literally ripped chunks out of each other, inflicting blows that would have left other Cybertronians crippled or dead, but they kept going. Grimlock out of a burning hatred for Shockwave; and Shockwave, because, creature of logic he was, realised the threat Grimlock posed to the Decepticons and needed to eiminate him. The only problem was they were too evenly matched. Grimlock had the edge in physical strength and brute force; shockwave had superior speed and firepower. When they fought neither had managed to gain a significant upper hand against the other, neither Autobot or Decepticon had dared to get between them, their battles were that savage.
Transforming back into his robot mode, Grimlock tried to sneak past the Decepticon patrols, keeping low to the ground, moving slowly and silently, which was quite a feat, considering his huge frame was larger than even that of Optimus Prime. Stealth was not one of Grimlock's natural attributes, he had been designed for power and strength, as a war machine - one of all too few that had joined the Autobots at the start of the war. Sneaking around like this went against every instinct in Grimlock's cybernetic brain. What he needed to do here was to capture an isolated Decepticon and beat out of them the location of Shockwave.
Scanning the area, he quickly found what he was looking for, a small Decepticon warrior he'd not seen before; not a seeker, and didn't appear particularly strong or fast. This was his target. As he prepared to move, something caught his attention from above, a strange aircraft shape. Metallic, obviously, but no design he had ever seen before. Was this a Decepticon? He wondered, or some kind of alien. It had descended from space, so there was a good chance it was alien in origin. It was none of his concern, he decided, until said aircraft paused in midair and transformed into a shape he instantly recognised. Starscream.
Starscream had been gone for thousands of years, in search of the AllSpark, and supposedly, Megatron. Though as Grimlock and every other being on Cyberton knew, Starscream cared nothing for his leader, and was searching for the AllSpark for his own purposes. As far as he could tell, Starscream had come alone, had he succeeded in finding the AllSpark and brought it back here? Not likely, seeing as he was alone and looking very battered. Grimlock calculated that Starscream would report back to Shockwave, whatever the circumstances of his return. If he followed Starscream, logic dictated that he would lead him to Shockwave. Then Grimlock could take down both Decepticons in one fell swoop.
Slowly, he crept closer to the two Decepticons, aware that he could be discovered any minute. He managed to follow them into a giant tower, the Decepticon Headquarters, he guessed. He managed to keep out of sight and was straining his audio sensors to listen to what was being said. Grimlock wasn't so obsessed with revenge against Shockwave that he would ignore any chance of gaining some valuable intelligence on the Decepticons. Before he could listen properly, his internal radio came to life.
"All Autobots, come in. This is Air Raid. I've just received a transmission from Optimus Prime. He and the others are alive and residing on the planet Earth. Coordinates as follows." Grimlock recorded the transmission as standard procedure. He had no interest in going to Earth to meet up with the other Autobots. He was saddened by the rest of the transmission, in which Air Raid replayed Optimus' message, and informed them that the AllSpark had been destroyed, that they could never bring life to Cybertron.
Grimlock was sure that Starscream was relaying a similar message to Shockwave, and decided to focus on that instead. He closed the encrypted channel he kept open for the other Autobots to communicate with him. He only ever kept it open to listen, seldom did he speak to any Autobots, over the airwaves or otherwise. He activated his missile targeting system and kept an eye on Shockwave. Starscream, provided he could keep him on the ground, would be easy enough to handle. Shockwave was the one to worry about, he wanted to bring as much firepower to bear on the purple Decepticon as possible, hoping to do him some serious damage before going in close for the kill.
Grimlock watched, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, when Shockwave brought up a large screen that dominated one wall and played back a sequence of events on an alien world. Earth, Grimlock guessed, from the chatter he was intercepting. He watched as the image focussed on a group of alien aircraft, similar in design to Starscream's new alternate mode, fire wave after wave of missiles into Megatron and consuming him in fire. The image then zoomed out to show an injured Prime, a badly wounded Megatron, and some tiny, fleshy bipedal creature holding a cube - The AllSpark - and shoving it into Megatron's exposed Spark chamber.
Grimlock didn't know how to feel, one the one hand, Megatron was dead, which was something to celebrate, at least. But that creature that destroyed the AllSpark, Grimlock hoped Prime stamped on it for that. Not that Prime would ever do such a thing, as soft sparked as he was. That was effectively the end of their race. No AllSpark, no new life to Cybertron. Oh well, Grimlock mused. He liked being alone. No AllSpark meant there would be no more new annoying imbeciles to get in his way. He charged his missile launchers and shoulder cannon. Ignoring the news, he took aim and prepared for his revenge.
"Megatron isn't dead," Shockwave said as a matter of fact.
"I saw him die, Shockwave," Starscream could barely conceal the grin on his face as he told Shockwave of Megatron's demise. "The Allspark was merged with his Spark. No one could survive that."
"Shortly before you returned, I received a transmission from Barricade, still on Earth."
"Barricade's alive? I assumed the Autobots had destroyed him. Why wasn't he with us during the battle? The coward." Starscream didn't mention the fact that he had bailed as soon as Megatron had fallen.
"He did not specify any details in that regard," Shockwave said flatly. "Though he and Scorponok are both in hiding on Earth, and have located Megatron. According to the data from Scorponok's readings, Megatron is still alive. We must quickly get to him if we are to revive him. We could be there within-"
"We will do no such thing!" Starscream snapped. "LordMegatron has failed us time and again. Thanks to him Cybertron has no hope of being revived. We cannot rebuild our army, nor can we achieve Decepticon supremacy throughout the universe. Megatron is dead!"
Shockwave played through the video images Starscream captured during the battle, replayed the last part, something strange. Prime was bent over Megatron's body, doing somethingto it, though he couldn't tell what. He enhanced the image and played it again, zooming in as far as he could. Prime put Megatron into a more peaceful position and said something, Shockwave couldn't tell as there was no audio recording - sloppy work from Starscream, typical of him.
"Starscream look there, a piece of the AllSpark. Not all of it was destroyed. We can use it to restore Lord Megatron."
Starscream was horrified at such a notion. He was rightful leader now, and nothing would stop him now. He had to stop this before it started. He raised his right arm and fired three missiles at Shockwave, transforming before they hit their target and taking to the sky to attack from above. Shockwave managed to shield himself from most of the impact, his heavy armour holding up against Starscream's attack. He raised his left arm, aimed the energy cannon at the end of his wrist (instead of a hand) at Starscream's form and fired a long burst of energy, missing the seeker but throwing him off a steep attack angle. Starscream pulled out of his attack and sped away, Shockwave, unable to fly, did not pursue him. He had plans to make.
Shockwave called on his radio for Soundwave, the dark blue spy Decepticon, to join him. Within a minute the tall, stoic robot was before him.
"Soundwave, Megatron is alive but may not be for long, and there is a small remnant of the AllSpark, which may be enough to revive him. But we have to leave for Earth quickly. Starscream is determined to stop us from reaching Megatron, in an attempt to claim leadership of the Decepticons."
"What are the odds of successfully reviving Megatron?" Soundwave asked in his characteristic monotone voice."
"I calculate thirty six percent chance of restoring Megatron to life, provided we encounter no resistance from Starscream."
Soundwave nodded, not needing to mention the fact that Starscream was openly making a grab for power, and would do everything in his power to keep them from reviving Megatron. In seconds, both Shockwave and Soundwave had reformatted their alternate modes, optimised for space flight, and prepared to launch.
"Shockwave!" Grimlock screamed as he unleashed all of his missiles at the purple war machine. Catching Shockwave unaware, the missiles smashed into his chest armour, seriously damaging his armour, but luckily failing to penetrate through to his vital components beneath. Another salvo like that and Shockwave could be killed. Assuming the attack came from Starscream, or at least one of Starscream's followers, Shockwave looked upwards, a bad mistake on his part. The barrel of Grimlock's cannon erupted as blue white energy tore through the air and smashed into Shockwave's shoulder. Shockwave had located Grimlock and managed to react in time to avoid the shot hitting the same spot on his chest the missiles had hit. He returned fire with his gun arm, striking Grimlock in the midsection and knocking him off his feet, undamaged, but stunned by the impact.
Shockwave and Soundwave together launched a massive barrage of fire, aiming not at Grimlock, but at the ceiling above him, causing untold tonnes of metal to rain down on Grimlock, trapping him. As he struggled to free himself, the two Decepticons transformed into comet shaped vehicles - the standard Cybertronian form for space travel, and launched at immense speed from the planet's surface. Knowing they would be out of sight before he freed himself from the tangle of metal, Grimlock calculated their trajectory and recorded it, as soon as he was free he would chase them both down.
Starscream looked at the Decepticons assembled before him. Skyfire, his oldest friend, as fast and agile as he himself, though not quite the warrior Starscream was. He was a fearless, if a little reluctant, warrior, a little naïve at times, but an asset to have for this mission. Thundercracker and Skywarp, on the other hand, practically lived for battle. They enjoyed nothing more than raining fire and destruction down on their enemies. Opposite in many ways to Skyfire, they favoured destruction over precision. Between the four of them, they should be able to handle Shockwave and whoever else he had taken with him to bring Megatron back from the Dead. All three of them were loyal to Starscream, and would fight in his name without second thought. Absent though, were the other seekers from his squadron; Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust. He had tried to hail them, but they hadn't answered to his transmission. Typical, but no matter. The four of them would go. More glory for them.
"Decepticons, Prepare for flight. We are headed to a planet called Earth, to retrieve what's left of the AllSpark, before Shockwave gets to it."
"Is there any real point to this?" Skyfire asked, "There's not enough of the AllSpark to create new Decepticons, and the Autobots wont let him just take it from them."
"The Autobots are our enemies, as well as shockwave!" Starscream snapped at him. "We are the only ones worthy of possessing the AllSpark. According to Shockwave's data, there is a chance the AllSpark will regenerate itself. Even if it doesn't, we can still dominate Earth and Cybertron. Once the Autobots are dealt with on Earth, we will return to Cybertron and wipe out the Autobots once and for all."
Skyfire said nothing, but failed to see the point of continuing the war against the Autobots, now that the AllSpark, the reason for the war in the first place, was gone. Skyfire seriously doubted that the fraction of the AllSpark the Autobots possessed would make any real difference. But he was a loyal friend to Starscream, and would follow him in his mission. As Shockwave and Soundwave had done minutes before, they reconfigured themselves for space flight, transformed, and launched into space to intercept Shockwave. None of them saw a lone Autobot on the ground, watching them, transforming his own body for interstellar travel, and following them into deep space.