Chapter 12

Planet Scarvix

The Sparkler Minibots and their single comrade had landed in the middle of the destroyed ruins of what had once been a city. They were standing in the devastated area next to one of the large craters of the blast and missile impacts.

"There is really nothing left", Fizzle stated.

"The Quints destroyed the entire town, they hit other parts of the planet too, but here they had completely eradicated everything", Freeway explained.

"We have to search the areas that are still halfway intact", Sizzle offered.

They transformed, two sports-cars, a tank and Freeway´s truck mode and they began to drive to the outer parts of the city, the regions that were less destroyed. With the goal to find survivors or at least a sign that suggested what was the cause of the attack.

Since shortly after their landing, they had been monitored by the Decepticon group.

"We could easily take them out", Runabout told them. "Their outnumbered and they don´t know we are here."

"We have direct instructions from Galvatron not to try anything like that", the Sweep Skyhound replied. "For now at least we shall leave the Autobots alone."

"Why not?" Flywheels asked. "We practically have them cornered."

"Galvatron wants us avoiding fighting the Autobots for now. He didn´t tell me much, but it seems there is some other problem back home, something serious and he wants to finish this first before to deal with them again."

"What kind of problem? What is happening?"

"I don´t know, he didn´t want to tell me any more. However, he did give us the authority to make a temporally truce with this group of Autobots, at least far as we investigate here."

"So that instead of blowing them away", Battletrap commented.

"At least until we find out what has happened on this planet", the Sweep replied. "We will make contact with the Autobots and get along with them until we leave this world again. I will call them now, any objections?" Nobody said anything.

"Back on Cybertron is obviously something going on", Flywheels said to his partners, "something important."

xxxxxxx

Chaar, Decepticon Fortress World

The opponents stood against each other at the fighting place of the two rivaling groups on Chaar. Like many times before in Decepticon history it was a fight for the leadership. Their culture had many forms of this kind of power struggles. Direct Duals between two rivals, a all out fight between a larger group of possible candidates or even battles of entire armies.

In this case the two parties who were now standing a few kilometers from each other had decided that the fight should be between the two leaders and their closest lieutenants. It was a variation where the combat was not only decided by the leaders alone, but also by their best warriors.

This meant Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge against Megatron, Starscream and Sideways.

Assembled to both sides of the fighting place where the Sweeps, the targetmasters, the Combaticons, Sixshot, the Constructicons, a dozen seekers and the Predacons on the one side. They were the Decepticons loyal to Galvatron

And Skywarp, Thundercracker, the triple changers, the Seacons and Sideways mercenary team on the other.

Zarak and his headmaster troops had decided to stay formally neutral and wait in a greater distance from the battlefield. No wonder, Galvatron thought, the programs the Constructicons had placed into Skorponok´s new body kept him from challenging him directly.

The Stunticons, who hadn´t clearly chosen one side, were send to earth for now, until this confrontation would have been decided, as were Soundwave´s remaining cassettes. And of course the Duocons and the Battlecharger were still on their out-worldly mission on Scarvix.

The Terrorcons who were also without a clear alliance on the other hand were standing next to the other Decepticons, beside the members of the two parties. They simply claimed that they would follow the victor. Everybody knew that the only reason they were even here was to watch the fight and hopefully to see some destruction.

Under Megatron´s followers were also a group of robots who nobody would have expected to ever side against their current leader, Sweeps. A half dozen robots from the same model as Galvatron´s own guard. The only visible difference was that the armor of this Sweeps was black instead of the usual blue. It was a shock for everybody as they had seen this group for the first time. The Sweeps were both created and indoctrinated for absolute loyalty towards Galvatron. But it seemed even that had it´s limits.

It was known now that all of this Sweeps except one were only mindless drones, all except the leader. But that one of their so called "absolutely loyal" soldiers turned against them in such a way was already bad enough for the Sweeps, a serious blow to their moral.

Galvatron remembered, six years ago, a short time after he had been reactivated after Unicron´s defeat. He, Cyclonus and the Sweeps had been hunting two Autobots who had escaped from an earth defense platform that they had destroyed. Driven insane by Unicron´s influence and the time lying in the molten plasma, he had cared about nothing anymore but destruction. He had been in a mad rage and left one of the Sweeps behind for certain death as he attacked the Autobots.

Only that this Sweep obviously didn´t die. It was a old mistake, coming back to him.

But he had to concentrate on the here and now. Back then he had been insane, now he was not, back then he didn´t knew what he was doing, now he did.

xxx

At the same time Megatron had similar thoughts as his counterpart. He saw this universe versions of Ramjet, Dirge and Thrust under the opposing group, the Constructicons and the Combaticons. There were warriors he had met only once or twice on Cybertron and also faces that he had never seen before.

He could not believe how many of his old comrades had chosen Galvatron, a Unicron creation, over him.

But he had to remember this were not his old comrades. It were identical quantum doubles of them, their selves in this reality. Here was everything different, none of them had experiences the same things that he, Skywarp and Thundercracker had.

None of them had even a reason to believe that he was who he claimed to be.

And Galvatron? As much as he hated to admit it, was a version of himself, his memories, his experiences and abilities. He could still barely grasp the thought that Unicron in this reality had used his body and his spark to create an unicronian.

He knew Unicron, he remembered how his creations attacked Decepticon and Autobot alike, how he had destroyed his home-world, his Cybertron, how he had reprogrammed and brainwashed Transformers into his obedient slaves and used them to hunt down and destroy the survivors.

Megatron looked in Galvatron´s eyes, who stood a few meters before him. He didn´t want to think what Unicron might have done with this version of his own mind.

That was the reason this robot couldn´t be allowed to continue to lead the Decepticons. He didn´t do this only for his own power, not completely at least, he did it for the best of everybody. They would win this day, he knew it. He had made preparations to make sure that they would step from this place as the winners.

Hungrr stepped forward. As a member of a neutral party the Terrorcon leader had been chosen to give the signal for the beginning of the fight. He raised his gun into the air and fired a single shot.

In the same moment the signal was given both Megatron and Galvatron, thinking very alike, raised their weapons up and fired. Both evaded the blasts without greater problems, Galvatron´s hit the ground a few hundred meters from them and Megatron´s went up to the air.

Cyclonus, Scourge and Starscream transformed into their jet modes and flew up into the sky.

Sideways activated his combat systems and searched for his first target.

xxxxxxx

Autobot base Metroplex

Metroplex had returned to earth by now, close to the place where the burned down remains of Autobot city were standing. The Autobots had decided to use both their city robots as mobile bases for their troops that can be placed where ever it was necessary for the war effort. Similar like the Decepticons did it after they had lost Cybertron.

Inside the prisoner complex Soundwave and Rumble were sitting at different sides of their cell. The Autobot Jazz who had been asking them questions for hours now, stood in the middle between them. Both had been interrogated several times by now, without any mentionable outcome.

Soundwave had literally not said a single word since he was here, in a matter how only he it could and while Rumble actually was speaking from time to time, there was absolutely nothing useful under it.

Optimus Prime in his new powermaster form was standing outside the cell, flanked by Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, watching the progress of the interrogation of the two prisoners or rather the lack of it.

"Look", Rumble said, "whatever is going on on Cybertron, we know nothing about it. It must have started after we got trapped here." Soundwave as always staid silent.

Jazz finally left the room. Behind him the forcefield that locked the cell was activated again. He and Optimus were walking back to the other areas of the base.

"What Rumble says is obviously true Jazz", the Autobot leader stated. "The other group of Decepticons was only getting active after they had already been captured. There is no reason that they would know something about them."

"I think you are right and since this new Megatron, whoever he truly is, is challenging Galvatron now all the plans they had are now probably in question. That means the entire information we could get from them is out of date."

"You have realized the situation", Optimus replied.

"But when the two groups are competing with each other right now, it would be the perfect moment to strike."

"I wish I could agree with you Jazz, but as distracted as the Decepticons are right now, we are in a far worse situation. We have lost both Cybertron and Autobot city in only a few months, a large number of our warriors have died and our supply ways have to be completely rebuild. No, we are in no condition to strike and we need this break from the hostilities probably more than the Decepticons do. In that way this power struggle is in fact a luck for us."

Jazz didn´t reply. He wished it were different, but he could not see anything wrong with Optimus analyses. Right now they were lucky if they could actually defend the places the are currently holding, not even talking about attacking.

"To that comes that we are still waiting to hear from Hotrod, Ultra Magnus and the others. If everything is going as planned, we should in the next days."

"Is it possible that something had happened to them?" Jazz asked.

"If it was something serious we would know", Optimus replied.

"How?"

"Trust me. Come with me. I will show you something."

They were walking for a few minutes trough the halls of Metroplex before they arrived in the main lounge. Under several Autobots and humans who were sitting at different sized tables and chairs were also sitting two nebulons who Optimus was addressing right now.

Hotrod and Kup had been two of the Autobots who had volunteered for the targetmaster process. For their current mission however they had left their partners behind for practical reasons. Even binary bonded humanoids were not independent from water and food. And carrying supply around while traveling through the interior of a metal planet was simply too much of a back-hold, so the nebulons had decided to wait here.

And here in Metroplex their presence actually fulfilled a purpose. From the free variants of binary bonding, the targetmasters were the loosest. The partners were the most independent from each other and could basically function apart as easily as together. While the headmasters were the closest variant and the candidates became basically two halves of the same being.

But even for the targetmasters there was still a mental connection and if one partner was killed or at least seriously hurt, the other would recognize this. For this reason were the nebulons who called themselves Firebolt and Recoil were stationed here. Should something happen to Hotrod´s expedition, Optimus would instantly hear of it. The two nebulons were sitting at one of the humanoid sized tables and turned their gaze to the Autobot leader and Jazz as they saw them coming.

"Firebolt", Optimus greeted him. "Is there something new about the expedition?"

The nebulon was silent for a moment.

"As far as I can tell Optimus at least Hotrod is completely alright", the man told him.

"I understand", he replied.

"I see", Jazz stated. "Then we will probably hear from them soon."

"Yes and at least for so long we should wait. If Hotrod and me are right and there is another threat out there we will surely need what they will find."

"You think you know what they will find down there right?"

"Yes Jazz, I think I have a good idea."

xxxxxxx

Cyclonus and Starscream were caught in a short air fight.

Galvatron´s second had strength and firepower that rivaled that of a Prime. Starscream hoped however that his speed and agility would give him a fighting chance against his opponent. But he found out very quick that Cyclonus speed was not far from his own. He could easily hold up to him in their air.

During his time as the Air Commander Starscream was the fastest air warrior on Cybertron. But this, like so many other things, was a generation ago.

Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps were designed mainly for space combat, with a far greater speed as any regular seeker.

Maybe, maybe Starscream was still a bit faster than his enemy, but maybe, as much as he hated to admit it, it may also be the other way around.

In any way, it didn´t even made a difference in this fight. If all factors were put together, Starscream was simply outmatched. After the short match in jet form was over and both Decepticons had transformed back into robot mode, he tried to get around the other robot and attack him from behind, but his opponent managed to grab him in the air and threw him to the ground.

One moment later Cyclonus had his gun pointed at him. But before he had the chance to fire, a blast struck him in the side. Starscream realized that Sideways had gotten involved and was now taking over his fight.

So far the other robot had only exchanged a few shots from a long distance with Scourge.

"Cyclonus", Sideways addressed the Decepticon second. "maybe you should fight me?"

"Sideways", Cyclonus said.

"Yes, I have heart much of you. You are said to be an example of loyalty and competence", Sideways said mockingly. "You should even have supported your leader in his own rebellion against his master Unicron."

"Unicron was never our master", Cyclonus replied. "He was only a creature that took advantage of our temporally weakness."

"Oh really? Now we will see how weak you are after this fight." Sideways fired his weapon at him and barely missed.

Starscream looked angrily at the two fighting robots. Sideways had taken his place in the battle without even bothering to ask him. Once again he was treated as nothing but a lackey, a slave.

He turned around to Scourge and then to Galvatron. Then he fired a few shots in Scourge´s direction. All of them missed, missed on purpose.

For a moment he considered switching sides, now.

He thought about everything. Then he remembered all that happened. He had been the one behind the plot to have Megatron, his Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker and the others thrown out of Astrotrain, he had controlled Cyclonus and tried to use him to assassinate Galvatron and he had allied himself with Unicron to overtake Cybertron. True, he had betrayed him in the end, but beside him and Unicron himself nobody knew that.

Galvatron had killed him, actually killed him, reduced his body to ash. Without the mysterious mutation of his spark he would be gone. Since then, he had tried to kill him all over again whenever they met. And to that came all that was before Galvatron´s reformation by Unicron.

No, Galvatron and Cyclonus would never accept him back, simply too much had already happened between them. It would be better to get the unicronians out of the way and then hope that later would come a better chance.

His time would come. He took aim and fired at Scourge again and this time he was aiming to hit.

xxx

Galvatron and Megatron were stuck in hand to hand combat. They exchanged blows and for the moment, tried to test their opponent. It was a match, not only between two very similar fighters, but between identical ones.

"It seems I have underestimated you", Galvatron stated. He began to have a very bad feeling about this enemy. It was his fighting style, his moves, some of them he had invented himself. As much as he refused to admit it, this was not a simple impostor. Somehow this was Megatron.

"I could say the same for you", the other Decepticon replied.

Both had the same fighting style, a similar way to think and nearly the same experiences. But there was still one difference. As much as Megatron´s new body was an upgrade to the old one, in raw strength Galvatron was still stronger than him and he decided to show it.

He grabbed one of Megatron´s arms and pressed it with all his force. The metal was actually denting under his grip. He lifted his rival up into the air and held him over his head.

"Do you see now who you are dealing with?" Galvatron shouted and then he simply threw him hundreds of meters through the air. He landed hard on the surface of Chaar.

"Yes, I see who I am dealing with", he replied and transformed into his tank mode.

Through the damage it hurt to transform but he did it anyway. He fired several shots at Galvatron from the distance, who evaded the blasts by flying and returned the fire.

xxx

Cyclonus and Sideways were at the same time dealing heated strikes to each other. This two had been fighting in the air while Megatron and Galvatron were of the ground. They were circling each other and waited for the next move of their enemy.

Finally Cyclonus activated his EM-blasts, an electromagnetic weapon that Unicron had provided him with, hoping to take his enemy by surprise.

These he had used years ago to drag the Autobot Ultra Magnus back into a ship after he had been blown out into space, back then when they had both been kidnapped by the Quintessons.

Now he activated it´s full power against Sideways and as he saw, he hit him directly in the chest. This direct hit would short circuit his systems, damage his machinery. It would not kill him completely but damage him severely, leave him weak and disoriented. He had landed a direct hit and

nothing. Sideways was flying directly before him as if nothing happened, the EM-blast had no effect on him. From surprise Cyclonus was frozen for a moment and in that time a blast from Sideways had struck him into the shoulder.

"No Cyclonus", Sideways murmured, "it is not that easy. I know your designs all too well."

xxx

Galvatron charged downwards at Megatron. He had evaded the shots of his opponent and was now counter-attacking.

Megatron had transformed back into robot mode and was awaiting him.

Galvatron landed directly next to him and attacked.

Megatron tried to get into an ankle where he could aim his fusion cannon at his foe and at the same time tried to shoot him with his hand blaster, but Galvatron did everything to prevent that and held his arm in an iron grip.

xxx

Cyclonus fell to the ground, his damaged shoulder was burning and his opponent landed directly beside him.

"Nightstick", he shouted to his nebulon partner. The humanoid who was before hiding in his cockpit area was flying into the air, transforming into his gun and landed automatically in his hands.

Sideways tried to react but Cyclonus was far faster than a usual Decepticon. Before he had a chance, he had aimed his gun and shot him into the stomach. The next two blasts hit him straight into the chest and were burning a smoking hole through his body.

Sideways destroyed form fell to the ground.

xxx

One of Starscream´s shots had hit Scourge and caused light damage to him, but not enough to slow him down significantly. The Sweep transformed and flew up in the air, winning a greater distance from his enemy, before turning around and attacking him from above.

After the disastrous fight with Cyclonus Starscream had hoped that he could deal with this opponent better. His hopes however were quickly dismantled. In the air Scourge was just as fast as Cyclonus, he transformed back into robot mode and began shooting at the old Air Commander in return.

To Starscream´s horror Scourge had drawn his gun faster than he had ever thought it possible. A shot hit him in the wing and caused nearly unbearable pain. He could barely believe it. The targetmaster process, he remembered, the reflexes were greatly improved. How much of a difference did this process made? He thought.

As long as he had been a warrior, Starscream had always taken pride in one fact, Megatron may have been the best ground warrior, other may have more firepower, be bigger and stronger, but he was the fastest, he was the best air warrior on Cybertron, maybe in the galaxy. Like Megatron was the champion on the ground, he was in the sky.

And now he felt how this pride was shattered to dust. Outdated, that was all what he was, he tried not to admit it to himself. But even a spineless lackey like Scourge could easily match him in the air now, in his home-ground.

He had already lost his position, his freedom, temporary his life and now he had to realize that his abilities no longer had meaning anymore.

xxx

Cyclonus walked away from the dead body of his opponent. He was now watching the fights of his comrades. Galvatron had his enemy clearly in the defensive and Starscream was in an disadvantage against Scourge, especially as a targetmaster.

"We are winning", he said to Nightstick.

"Yes Cyclonus", the nebulon replied, "it looks good."

Suddenly they heard a sound behind them and turned around. There they saw that Sideways corpse was somehow standing up again. The obviously dead robot was somehow moving by itself. Then the darkened eyes came back to life.

Cyclonus saw that the wounds on his body were somehow repairing themselves in a impossible speed. For a moment, both he and his nebulon were frozen in shock.

"That is impossible", he called out, the same words were mirrored by Nightstick.

In this time, Sideways had already aimed his weapon and fired. Two blasts hit Cyclonus directly in the center of his body. He staggered back before he went to his knees. He realized that he was close to the lave river that separated this area into two, he couldn´t draw back and that he couldn´t fly anymore.

"You have actually won Cyclonus, congratulation", Sideways stated, "but it doesn´t mean anything."

With another strike send his opponent down into the lave. Cyclonus was falling. In the last moments he realized that they had completely misjudged this enemy. But who could have anticipated something like that?

xxx

Galvatron had also seen what happened and like everyone else in the audience he was shocked. Megatron used the chance to rip his arm free and shoot him from a short distance with his hand-blaster. That brought the other´s mind back to his enemy and he answered by punching him hard in the face.

xxx

The Black Sweep Carnage had been watching the fight from the sidelines. He had to admit it would be a great pleasure for him to see Galvatron go down. Six years ago of course it was different. He had been as completely loyal as any other Sweep, before he had left him to die.

It were Sideways and his followers who had found him and gave him his new form. Since then he had been serving his new master. With the help of the Quintessons they had created their new army of mindless drones and put it under his command. For now they were supposedly serving Megatron, but always ready to strike at the order of their true master.

Right now however it was going against Galvatron. Two small groups were standing very close to the fighters, on the one side the five Sweeps present, the normal Sweeps and on the other, himself, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Doomsday and Snap Trap. Five supporters for every side. It was one of the unwritten laws for this fight.

Should one of the sides break the rules, this ten warriors had the right to interfere. And as it looked, the Sweeps considered undead fighters on the battlefield a breaking of the rules. A few seconds after they had seen what happened, after they had recovered from their shock, they transformed into their hovercraft modes and were now charging at the battlefield.

And like Cyclonus they didn´t knew what they were dealing with. But their attack gave the other group the right to interfere too.

Sideways saw the five Sweeps coming, flying in to them in precise formation. His face turned into a wicked smile. Before they were even in firing position, something happened.

A terrible pain ripped through all their systems, their vision was replaced by red light. Pain receptors, place into them in the moment of their recreation by Unicron were suddenly activated. They couldn´t think, they couldn´t feel anything beside the piercing pain.

Some of their systems were already shutting down through the shock. They all were losing control and were starting to go down. Some were falling into the lave, others were crashing in the area in some distance away.

Galvatron saw that was happening and he had only one thought in his mind, no.

xxx

Carnage had now joined the attack. He took aim at Scourge, who was currently fighting with Starscream and shot him in the back. The Sweep leader fell down, but the former Air Commander only turned around and gave him an angry glance. He obviously didn´t like it that he was interrupting his fight.

Then however he decided to turn around and take care of Scourge instead, pushing him to Cyclonus into the lava.

xxx

"You are losing", Megatron said to the Decepticon leader, who was now surrounded by enemies.

"You idiot", Galvatron called out, "do you even know what is happening here? Do you know who…"

Before he could say another word, one of Megatron´s followers had already fired at him. He was falling back and getting greater distance between himself and his enemies.

Sideways shot him directly into the chest and Galvatron fell. The damage was too much even for him.

"My "leader", Sideways said to Megatron, "may I have the honor?"

"You were the one who brought him down", he answered, secretly slightly ashamed that he didn´t manage to defeat his enemy by himself, "you can finish him off."

What does it matter? Megatron thought. This needed to be done, but he was not the one who had really defeated him, so he had no right to do this anyway.

Sideways bowed down before the damaged Decepticon and talked quietly to him.

"You see Galvatron", he said, "it is all going to my plan." But it wasn´t in his usual voice.

This one was deeper and far more menacing, a voice Galvatron would recognize everywhere.

Nobody beside themselves was able to hear their conversation.

"You", he yelled.

"Yes."

"I will never leave the Decepticons to you, I will find a way to stop you", he said.

"No, you have already lost", Sideways replied, "you and everybody else here. They only doesn´t know it yet."

He picked Galvatron up over his head and carried him for several meters.

"I will allow you for now to continue existing, so that you can see how everything perish."

With this words he threw him down into the lave sea.

In the seconds the Decepticon leader was falling, he realized that he had indeed lost.