His old enemy was near.

His weak life signal pulsed up through this planet. He had allowed his material form to grow dormant under this world and did not even bother to greet him with his energy form?

Pitiful.

The mortal rolled to the feasible ground when his punishment ended. Unicron barely bothered to look at how his energy form was smoking or heaving. The only reason he had for glancing at all was the satisfaction at seeing submission.

If Primus had learned to set pride aside and submit, perhaps his planet would not be dying today.

Unicron drew his mount up to a stop and lifted an arm for the rest of his legion to stall as well.

The time remaining for this pitiful planet was short enough. He was in little hurry.

But then those children of Primus returned to stand against him. Their dark ship hovered on the opposite side of the Well and faced him down.

"Resistance," he frowned.

What a disgraceful resistance it was. Primus truly had grown weak after these eons.

Megatron had heaved himself up to one knee and stared forward.

"From my own warship," the mortal muttered.

It received a flash of pain that sent him to a knee again- though it did not do further.

"You own no warship," Unicron denied. "You own nothing."

Bitter silence was his only reply. While he did not smile, his energy form still felt the crawl of satisfaction.

"Now-" he said in that plane, whilst moving his puppet to open its mouth. "-demon hordes-" the puppet shouted, the sound overlaying Unicron's own voice here. "Take flight and eviscerate them!"

The undead surged upwards to do his bidding.


The lightspeed engine hadn't been damaged in the ion storm. Even as the outer hull was peeling apart, the Iron Will shot towards Cybertron.

The Allspark thrummed in Optimus's chest. The multitude of sparks invited his own where it sat so close to them. He did not allow it to accept that embrace, for he knew it went one way only. To accept such an invitation meant to become one with the Allspark.

He could not do so yet.

The empty reliquary sat atop his legs while he sat in the passenger's seat once more. Wheeljack cast glances at the empty device and at him regularly. The wrecker did not say anything when he did so.

They sat in silence and hurried to a planet that lay in danger.

When the Iron Will dropped from lightspeed, Optimus sat forward. The Allspark was frenetic. It recognized where they were. It felt Primus resting nearby and longed to join with him.

Soon, Optimus thought.

First, they needed to defeat Primus's old rival once and for all.


In the end, the only one who did not rush to battle was Starscream. The seeker had stayed seated on the floor of the bridge and proclaimed that he would not engage in suicide. Out of concern that he would attempt to hijack the (crashed) ship if they left him unsupervised, they'd dragged him out anyways (by the means of Arcee, who had one blaster trained on him). Once they'd all tumbled out to the ground beyond the safety of the warship's walls, Unicron's army appeared far more threatening. Those who were airborne remained there. The rest faced the small group of defenders from the surface.

There really wasn't enough of a distance between them.

Breakdown remembered the last time Unicron had been doing anything. That was the whole alignment day debacle. Megatron had disappeared without explanation while a whole lot of natural disasters ripped Earth up. Oh, and Airachnid had tried to stage a coup. He and Knock Out had watched that get shutdown in person. It was pretty hilarious, actually.

Back to the point, Megatron had shown up later with Optimus Prime and told everyone to pretend he wasn't in fact Optimus Prime lest their voice boxes pay the price. Apparently, Unicron had been taken care of. Or apparently not, considering that he was currently facing them all down.

Unicron-in-Megatron slid down from his undead predacon and lifted his arms.

"My legion!" he called loud enough for the cybertronians to hear.

Ugh. He even sounded like Megatron. Trippy.

"The time is upon us: destroy Primus with your dragon fire!"

Destroy Primus? Seemed like a pretty ambitious plan. That much didn't seem all that far off from what the real Megatron would be demanding, since the real one had been rather excited about destroying Unicron on Earth (which, apparently, was a failure).

"Skylynx, Darksteel!" Predaking spoke first. "Allow nothing to enter the Well!"

The three predacons twisted and convulsed outward to their giant forms before taking flight. Their own fire kept control over some of the masses above. Breakdown brought his shoulder cannon out and shot at those masses. All of the others did the same, even if it didn't really seem to be making much of a difference. One of the predacons ceased shooting fire when he was overwhelmed; then another and then the third.

Damn. This wasn't looking good. Why couldn't Unicron have just stayed on Earth where he belonged?


Living predacons burned through a portion of the undead army. Megatron recognized the one in the middle. It seemed Predaking had survived Unicron during their earlier scuffle.

Standing battle-ready on the ground, more enemies and even decepticons were waiting. Traitors. Enemies. His own killer.

Unicron was hissing at the trio of predacons in the air.

"More flying pests," he dismissed from above Megatron's head and a new wave of the dead swarmed up at the trio.

The three predacons continued to fight. If there were more than just Predaking, than it seemed likely Shockwave had renewed Project Predacon. Megatron had told him not to and yet he had. And now he was standing with the autobots as they shot mortal weapons at an army. He was not alone. Dreadwing was firing his turret into the fray. Starscream looked like he was panicking and Megatron considered all the many reasons he would have for that; the army's quantity, his own frailty against attacks. The seeker was not meant to fight on the ground; had it not been for his war, the seeker would not have been meant to fight at all. Soundwave- Soundwave was alive.

And the autobots were all there as well. From the two traitors to the old medic to the youngling who'd killed him: he knew he should want them all to suffer.

But then what? Unicron would win? Take Primus, destroy this world, and keep his spark and body forever?

There was another motivation there. It crept slowly, unwanted, shoved aside. He knew he wanted them to pay but he knew they would not deserve to; not from a standpoint outside his own selfish anger or hurt. Damn Unicron. Damn him.

"Whom to root for?" Megatron muttered aloud as he looked at the autobots he knew he should want dead. "The lines have certainly blurred."

The ground beneath him wavered. His musings dropped away while he reeled for balance and felt a spike of recognition. No no, he was dropping, he was- ...he was not gone yet.

Megatron twisted around to look at the god behind him in confusion.

"You certainly have not been wiped away of your insolence yet," Unicron said dispassionately when he finished turning. "Perhaps you should witness eternity rather than this battle."

But that would be-

that would be so long inside those memories-

It was phrased as indecision, but the dissipating ground revealed the decision already made.

It made his own decision as well.

He glanced back to the autobots, narrowed in on the one who had stabbed through his spark chamber and sent him to this hell in the first place- the one he was meant to loathe and hate and crush for the audacity he'd had in trying and succeeding to kill the tyrant of the universe; to loathe in a manner greater still than his hatred for Optimus, as this scout had not adhered to their legendary struggle at all. There was something disgustingly inferior about having been killed by a scout. It spat on legend and circumstance. To be killed by that same random autobot soldier would carry double the shame. And yet-

"I hope he kills you," Megatron managed to say through the first waves of pain.

Unicron shoved him deep into the cycle for the insolence.


There was one single perk to this all.

And that was knowing who was coming any minute now. It let Knock Out relax a bit, even when things were looking as ugly as they were.

The only downside was one nagging thought: what if the Iron Will had gotten more damaged this time? What if what if-?

Knock Out shoved the little doubts away because, quite frankly, they were too unpleasant to bother humoring.

"We're not going to lose our planet," Bumblebee said aloud as the others sank into a bit of despair. "Not without taking Unicron with it."

"Agreed." Ultra Magnus gripped his rifle tighter and set his jaw. "The enemy may have flown into the Well, but we can still give our lives to cut off its head."

Maybe it would even work to stop that army in the Well.

"Decepticons-" Dreadwing let his turret point downward so that he could face the few cons near him. "We shall do the same."

Great, so, after nine million years, everyone got to be in unity over a suicide mission. That was a lovely thought but also frag no. They didn't all need to die just to also drag the stupid troublemaking chaos god down. Not when-

Only a short distance away, Unicron had broken his look of glee to stare up flatly at the sky.

Frag yes. Knock Out knew what that meant.

"A familiar resonance of pure energy..." the immortal muttered aloud. "Not unlike Primus. One I have not encountered since ancient days..."

Yes yes yes, oh yes, it was as good as won now. The medic was grinning and drawing looks for it, but he could hardly care.

Then the cybertronian ship dropped from the sky and raced towards Unicron.


Wheeljack fired the main guns at the figure on the ground below. Optimus held on while the ship shook from effort. It was damaged already. The force of shooting its weapons seemed to be straining the Iron Will further.

They tried to stabilize but it was no use. Unicron was firing bolts of energy at them that seemed stronger than Megatron's former fusion cannon. They tore through the weakened hull and flickering shieldings.

"Bring us down," Optimus ordered when he saw the inevitable. Wheeljack clenched at the controls unhappily, but did so. A controlled descent would be preferable to crashing hard.

The moment the Iron Will landed on the surface, Optimus had taken the reliquary and ran from the ship. He and this empty canister were Unicron's targets; Wheeljack and the ship were not.

There was a whine of torn air. Rusted and eroded silver flashed in front of him and slid into a mech's frame upon landing. A familiar- if distorted- face sneered at him in an unfamiliar manner.

"Thank you, Prime, for delivering the Allspark so that I can erase it," Megatron's voice said what no doubt were Unicron's words.

It would not have been said in anything but a taunt by the mech that body belonged to. Megatron desired the Allspark and Vector Sigma both to gain the power of a Prime and control all new life; never to erase it all.

If any fraction of him remained in that body, he would fight against this threat to his own maniacal desires.

"Not while I stand before you Unicron," Optimus shook his head. He kept the reliquary behind him, dropping it to the ground behind his legs; close enough that its energy signature in his chest could be attributed to the container, hidden enough that Unicron would not yet see it was empty.

The monster charged with a speed that should not have been possible for his bulk. Optimus threw a fist into his face whilst moving his own head to one side. The air still pushed from the missed blow and he knew to avoid all others; force like that could take his helm off his shoulders if it hit him head on.

"Megatron!" Optimus sent a knee into the godly avatar's middle and grabbed at the other's head to shove it into Unicron's own chest. "You and I once united to save a world from Unicron; we must do so again!"

He managed to bring another knee up while transforming one servo to a blaster and firing into the neck of his opponent. Then, his advantage was shaken away. Unicron roared in irritation and shoved him backwards.

"Megatron may hear you," he growled. "But he cannot help you! For he is enduring eternal suffering."

It did not matter. If he would not have aide from within the puppet, he would still fight. He would always fight. It was what a Prime was created for.

Optimus drew himself into a defensive stance. The reliquary remained on the ground behind his pedes. The others were racing towards the Iron Will and the two legendary figures both.

He needed to finish this fight before they were caught in the crossfire here.


Over.

And over.

It moved and shifted and crushed down.

Over again. He had lost track of how many lifetimes had been repeated. He had almost lost track of himself.

The scout.

The archivist.

A hundred billion organic and techno-organic lives.

His greatest crafts, turned upon him.

Claws cut down through the thinnest portion of his wings and it stung, it burned, it hurt, but it was the betrayal, the confusion- where where where did it go wrong, why did it, frag this mech he'd kill him he'd pay, he could do better he swore he could-

Unicron broke through the illusion briefly.

-The foolish Prime is here- his voice hissed through the madness. -Listen to him plead for you-

And the request- far from a plea- was heard even as he still wore Starscream's skin and felt his body beaten.

It was a clever move on Unicron's part, he must admit.

It only served to reveal his utter helplessness. Then the presence left and he was swallowed up once more.

The start. The start again. The first mech, on the ground, watching him overhead.

Again.

And again.

An eternity of looping until where he stopped and the false memories started ebbed away to nothing.

His nerves burned from the electrical fire outside on that first plane of being. His immaterial frame scorched with the stress of living a million deaths or abuses.

And still it went again.

The pede above slammed down. Shattered metal carved into his spark chamber. Fuel erupted out. The cannon above turned, flaring at its weakest, letting the heat catch that fuel-

How many times? And still it looped again.

The interrogation at Tyger Pax. The betrayals built from proxies. The deaths strewn over aliens and cybertronians alike.

The first mech, on the ground, watching him overhead.

He keened and it had nothing to do with the warlord overhead stomping on his chest.

Primus, how long, how long had it been, how many more, Primus, Primus Primus-

The god around him let his mirth envelop his rebellious tool. The sick irony flashed by in the twenty-eight million cybertronian memories that had uttered that same incomprehensible, desperate plea while he killed them. But they rested among the Allspark. He did not. Primus could not hear him because he'd shoved the blood of Unicron into his very spark chamber and believed himself too strong to let it claim him.

-do not worry- Unicron whispered. -their rest will be as empty. I will consume the Allspark, just as you invited me to consume your own-

He keened again and the cycle reset.


"Your efforts to protect Cybertron's most sacred relic are futile!" Unicron shouted. "My legion is within reach of Primus- your planet's very core! And we both know," the god's voice dropped in amusement. "-that the Allspark cannot thrive in a poisoned Well."

That may be the case, but Unicron's assured victory was not. Optimus would not step aside and let this galactic wanderer's poison reach the core of Primus.

Neither, it seemed, would the others.

A violet cannon blast hit Unicron in the shoulder. Rifle fire peppered his shields. A flyer shot near to lay down fire and another fire a missile from afar. The plasma shots of autobot blasters fired again and again.

None of them scratched the upgraded armor beneath the shields, but they still kept Unicron distracted.

"Go, Optimus!" one of his autobots- or perhaps more than one of them- yelled. "Save the Allspark!"

They did not know it was already protected.

But their combined attack also did not harm this new armor of Megatron's.

Optimus had tried to battle him the traditional way. Now it was time to battle through trickery.

He turned and grabbed the empty reliquary before taking off. On pede, he could hardly be considered fast. With the upgraded speed of Unicron, it was hardly possible to even imagine getting away through running.

He did not need to succeed in getting away.

Indeed, the sound of audial-splitting speed approached. The bait won out. The trap sprung.

Burning plasma fell over the shields of his back and knocked him to the ground. Optimus groaned and reflexively clutched the reliquary; that much was no act.

The ground rumbled under a step. Another step. Unicron approached with delighted slowness and gleeful certainty of victory. One servo- so much larger than Megatron's old one- grabbed his shoulder and tugged him to his back.

"And now..." Unicron smiled. The warlord's sharp dentae gleamed alongside those hungry purple optics. "I shall devour your Allspark whole!"

Optimus scrabbled at the ancient reliquary as it was tugged from his arms. The locking device shot open. Unicron's hunger gleamed down at-

Nothing.

"What?!" the god's head shot back to the fallen, but undefeated, Prime. "A trick?"

His disbelief did not stop the trick's reality.

The reliquary was meant to hold great energy. Its well reached out to find something, anything, and pulled at the nearest energy spike.

The anti-spark.

No matter how Unicron threw the device aside and tried to back away, it reached for him-

-until the chaos bringer was devoured and locked away.