Cybertron, Milky Way Galaxy

Lwothin still could not wrap his mind around Cybertron. Before the Great Reformatting it had essentially been a planetwide city, like Coruscant in his home galaxy. Lwothin had only briefly spent time on Coruscant, but from what he experienced firsthand there and learned here, the similarities between the two planets had ended thirty-one years ago. Optimus Primal had unleashed the power of the Oracle against Megatron in the final battle of the Spark Wars, and the entire planet had turned into a technorganic city-garden.

Buildings still rose thousands of feet, but they were now covered in green chlorophyll-filled skins. The mechanical plasma-based lights were still present, but so were bioluminescent flowers. Those plantlike buildings still maintained internal titanium structures.

The architecture was only half of the story: the trees had visible lines of circuitry, and when Lwothin ran his talon along one and accidentally scratched it, sparks flew. There was truly little distinction between nature and technology on Nightscream's homeworld—or at least, there wasn't anymore.

Lwothin turned his thoughts toward this Oracle, which along with equally mysterious Vector Sigma was supposed to have been a Quintesson computer, but its abilities were beyond any technology he had ever seen, even that of the Quintessons. No, this was the work of Primus, the ancient Force-sensitive Rakaata that he and Uxils had met on Dathomir—the one who had told them about the threat of Unicron.

The Quintessons were still after a powerful Force-sensitive individual to use to activate the transgalactic Force Nexus as per Unicron's original plan. But where to find the ancient Rakata?

He had said only months ago that he needed to be on Cybertron, and the most likely places to look were in the maze of conduits beneath Cybertron's surface, especially in the area of Iocon, the ancestral home of the Autobots and Maximals. Fortunately, Iocon was also Cybertron's capital and the place where Lwothin had been residing for the past several months.

Gazing at the main city in the distance, Lwothin turned his head to notice a still recognizably metallic manhole.

Lwothin snarled in P'weck, "LK, we're going down there."

The minute, cylindrical interpreter droid on his belt set off in alarm, "Master, are you sure?! It's breaking Cybertronian law, and I thought we were reformed now."

"It must be done," Lwothin said resolutely. "There are graver things in motion now. I'm sure Cheetor Prime will understand."

Moving the manhole out of the way, and dragging it back with a claw after him, Lwothin proceed to the lower levels, taking a small light out the left belt pouch. This was where Optimus Primal and his small team of Maximals had hid while Megatron and the Vehicons controlled the surface. The present administration knew better than anyone what dangers lurked here—but Lwothin had a mission. He quickly noted that the passage way he was in looked almost entirely inorganic, as if it had been left untouched by the Great Reformatting.

"Curious, isn't it?" he asked LK.

"That it's not technorganic? Obviously, Master."

"The most purely organic part of the planet is closest to the core. I think I know how to tell what path to take."

After hours of walking through corridors that occasionally had dirt and animal bones, Lwothin finally made it to one chamber that stood out from all the others—he stood on a high brown and green metallic walkway that stood above barren soil below. There was a structure between Lwothin and the opposite wall. It was empty now but seemed as if built to hold a large spherical object. Lwothin tried to imagine just what this object could have been when the room suddenly became lit.

Lwothin spun around. Primus was behind him.

"Welcome to Cybertron, Lowthin," the Rakata said.

Lwothin did not know what title would be appropriate to address Primus with, as, contrary to Cybertronian beliefs, the Rakata was not a god, but he technically had no royal or official rank either. He chirped out a message anyway.

"My Master says that he wishes he had come under different circumstances. The wormhole is stable now. Ships can enter or leave it at any time. Our enemies have the advantage."

"They usually do," Primus said. "Do you know what this room is?"

Lwothin looked around before shaking his head, a gesture that he learnt meant "no" to Maximals and Predacons.

"This is the Oracle Chamber, where the Oracle gave Optimus Primal the visions to restore nature to Cybertron at a time when the second Megatron controlled the entire planet and all its sparks. The odds definitely seemed to be on Megatron's side."

Primus's larger point was not lost on Lwothin, but his curiosity had been aroused by a lesser detail.

"My Master wishes to know, what are the Oracle and Vector Sigma?"

"Quintesson computers that I reprogramed."

Lwothin felt disappointed.

"My Master doesn't understand how a computer could radically alter a planet's surface in so short a time."

Primus folded his hands. "The Oracle didn't. The Matrix did, and only because of certain actions taken by Megatron and Optimus Primal. I have worked the Matrix very well yet cannot describe it. Every Cybertronian spark is connected to it and yet it has a will and intelligence of its own. Restoring the organic to Cybertron was the will of the Matrix—to what end I do not know."

"Is this the Higher Power you spoke of?" LK translated.

"No, for the true Higher Power is not limited to one planet as the Matrix is to Cybertron. The Matrix is more a guardian and care-taker than a creator, anyway. To my knowledge it never had unlimited power, nor ever stepped down from it to live among its creations."

Lwothin nodded, not sure whether the Cybertronians were fortunate to have something higher than themselves or unfortunate to have this Higher Power Primus spoke of obscured behind so many other beings. He returned his mind to the topic of his meeting.

"My Master wishes to know, why things aren't bleak when the Quintessons have everything they need?"

Primus shook his head, "Once again, the Quintessons are merely the executors of the Chaos Bringer's plans and he currently cannot achieve what he wants."

The tense confused Lwothin.

"Forgive me, but my Master was under the impression that Unicron was dead."

"Unicron, yes, but not the Chaos Bringer. It is a position more than a person, though because of Unicron's actions, a certain amount of personality transfer has become involved. There is much I have to tell you."

Cybertron, 2006 A.D. on Earth's Gregorian Calendar

The hour of Starscream's vengeance was close at hand. Megatron, or Galvatron as he now called himself, had destroyed Starscream's body nearly a year before as his first act in his new form. However, unbeknownst to the Decepticon leader to whom Starscream had spent millions of years as a second-in-command, the jet had a mutant indestructible spark. It had traveled to prehistoric earth in the past year and interacted with Autobot and Decepticon descendants including a second Megatron, and now had returned to his own time to make a deal with the one being who could restore his body—the same being who had turned a near dead Megatron into Galvatron—the planet-devourer Unicron.

Starscream was not the only one to have lost a body. All that remained of Unicron was the horned and bearded head of his gigantic robot form. At this moment Starscream's spark was possessing the Decepticon dinosaur/city Trypticon, using the massive body to connect chords to link Unicron's head to the planet Cybertron. Suddenly, as he was ready to make the connection, Starscream lost control of Trypticon. It had to be the work of Decepticon saboteurs inside of Trypticon—no matter, Starscream could turn this to his advantage.

Decrying, "I can't control him anymore!" Starscream's spark left Trypticon's body, leaving the larger Transformer temporarily dazed.

Starring Unicron directly in the eyes, he said, with the full confidence of certainty, "Unicron, if you want the connection made, you'd better give me a new body now!"

Unicron gave commands, he did not take them, but he knew the reality of the situation.

"You shall have it!"

Green beams from Unicron's eyes restored Starscream's robot form.

"I live again!" The Decepticon jet cheered hapilly.

"Now, do my bidding. Complete the connection!" Unicron, however, had lost his leverage. He still needed Starscream, but Starscream no longer needed him.

Letting the chords fall to the ground, Starscream laughed, "Do it yourself!"

Soon an explosion sent both Unicron and Starscream flying outside Cybertron's thin atmosphere. Unicron knew that he would not likely have another chance to take Cybertron for his body, or to be a world devourer again. Not even his allies, the Quintessons, trusted him with that power. No matter, after millions of years imprisoned in that husk he wanted a body more like his original—it would be better if it were organic and Force Sensitive—but he could take such a form later. He released his own spark and entered Starscream who was being fired at by Galvatron as he tumbled through space.

Suddenly Starscream noticed that Galvatron had disappeared and he had stopped spinning. Unicron in his full robotic body floated opposite to Starscream—but his body was much smaller than it should be—the same size as Starscream's own.

"Where are Galvatron and his toadies, and more importantly, why are you whole and in my size?"

Unicron laughed.

"We are not in space. We are inside your body. You betrayed me, Starscream, just as you betrayed your former master, time and time again. You have cost me my last chance to devour worlds but you have provided me with something much more valuable…something I thought lost forever."

Unicrons eyes glowed bright green.

Starscream listened to what Unicron was saying: they were inside his spark, he would provide Unicron with something he'd thought lost forever—

"You want my body!"

"You cost me mine and now I will take the one I gave you!"

Unicron flew at Starscream with a hand ready to slash into him, when something pushed him back…something from inside Starscream.

"How do you resist me?" Unicron growled.

Suddenly Starscream realized something.

"Your spark isn't immortal, is it?"

Unicron scowled but said nothing.

"Mine cannot be destroyed, it needs no body. But yours," Starscream sneered, "Without your precious world-devouring body, you have no power at all. Everything you did required your body, didn't it?"

Unicron wanted to incinerate this arrogant Decepticon with a blast from his eyes, and he did, bu this too was deflected.

"So, you do have some powers after all."

This taunted further incensed Unicron. His power was not in question here. He had destroyed trillions of lives over millions of years to sustain his existence. He had forged the Quintesson Empire by transforming a group of desperate Cephalopods into super-intelligent cyborgs. He had remade Megatron into the deadlier Galvatron. Unicron's powers were not in question.

The question was Starscream and his mutant spark. A legitimate question that Unicron could not ignore. Never had he encountered a Cybertronian whose spark would not move on, but that was precisely what Starscream was.

"Only one of us can be the consciousness in your spark. I will fight you with all that I have and you shall fight me with all that you. The strongest shall become you."

Unicron rushed at Starscream again. Starscream was a coward by nature, but knew that he had no choice this time. The Decepticon met the Chaos Bringer head on and lightning flashed. Where there had been two forms in this mystical plain before, now there was one. Starscream's form floated calmly until another flash of lighting revealed Unicron's scaled-down body with Starscream breaking through. His arm in a defensive position. Another flash and Starscream twisted violently, Unicron all but disappearing. Another flash and Stascream was back in physical space. But he felt memories that were not his own, and a confidence that was entirely Unicron's.

Galvatron was still firing at him, but the fool was not following him. Starscream looked back to see his former leader leaving. He flew toward him and called out, "You have failed spectacularly, Galvatron!"

The Decepticon leader turned back.

"What do you dare say, traitor?"

Starscream smiled, "'Traitor,' I like that word. I've betrayed Unicron, something you tried to do and failed!"

Galvatron started to charge his plasma cannon, when Starscream said, "Relax, Galvatron. I have no further desire to overthrow you. My ambitions are now far larger than leading the Decepticons. I'll leave that to you. I've taken Unicron's place."

"You're insane!" The Decepticon leader said.

"It's not nice to throw stones in a glass house, Galvatron. Now if you'll excuse me I have schemes to plot."

The first of those schemes had to do with this other galaxy from which Unicron seemed to originate and this mysterious planet called Dathomir…