Gigatron swept his staff from low to high with both hands, catching Megatron off-guard. The Decepticon leader reacted quickly and parried, but the force of the strike still wrenched the sword out of his right hand and sent it spinning across the High Council Chamber floor. With his remaining sword, Megatron slashed at Gigatron's shoulder.
The deranged time-travelling bot did not block the strike, allowing the blade to bite into him deeply enough to become embedded, trapping Megatron. In the meantime Gigatron was preoccupied with whirling his staff about to his left to deflect fire from Bumblebee's stingers. When he had done so, he faced Megatron and grinned as the Decepticon struggled to wrench his sword free. Gigatron placed the muzzle of his left arm-cannon to Megatron's midsection and charged it for a fatal blast.
Jazz struck from Gigatron's blind spot; a high kick aimed at his left shoulder. The blow knocked Gigatron off-target and his cannon discharged into the chamber floor. Megatron yanked with all his might and pulled his blade free of Gigatron's chassis.
The wound began to heal immediately, but Gigatron did not wait for the process to complete. He bellowed and lunged forward; staff aimed at Optimus Prime.
Arcee's twin laser swords caught his strike, and as she held him fast, Bulkhead thundered forward and smashed into him. It was a blow that would have flattened almost any bot, but Gigatron merely stumbled, pivoted about and aimed a cannon at the alarmed Autobot.
Again, his effort to fire was frustrated, this time by the launch of two bolos from Optimus' gauntlets. The bolos wrapped about Gigatron's forearms and lashed them together. Gigatron tensed his arms and almost immediately snapped the cables, but Sari descended from on high with her energy hammer aimed at the apex of Gigatron's crown-like helmet.
"Be careful, Sari!" Isaac Sumdac fretted from behind the collapsed plinth he was using as cover.
Gigatron's reactions were fast: he snapped his arm up to seize and crush her, but she sent a pulse of energy to her heel-mounted boosters and changed the angle of her descent. She retracted her hammer and instead swept out her laser scalpels, drawing them down Gigatron's back as she fell. Bumblebee snatched her before she hit the ground and darted out of the way of Gigatron's swinging fist.
Gigatron wheeled about to face his foes, but they were all about him: spreading out in a circle to trap him. Dual trails of sparking wounds ran down his back from Sari's blades, but while his enemies hesitated to attack him, the AllSpark energy within him glinted and the wounds started to seal closed.
He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief at his enemies hemmed him in, "You dear, sweet fools. Do you not see the futility of your efforts?"
"Hate to say it, but he's got a point", Bumblebee said, "How are we supposed to bring him down when the AllSpark heals any hurt we can dish out on his sorry chassis?"
"You can't. An entire universe tried, failed and withered to nothingness in my timeline", Gigatron grinned, his optics glittering scarlet within the confines of his masked helm, "I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed your little rebellion, because now it's over, my restless little warriors".
"Hm. In that case, would you mind if I tried something out?" Ratchet grunted.
Gigatron turned to face him, but his senses were sufficiently sharpened that he dropped down as he did so, narrowly avoiding the blast from Ratchet's EMP generator. However, when he reared back up, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back: a moment later Megatron's sword burst through his front, totally impaling him. He gasped and clutched at the wound, realising too late that Ratchet had merely used the EMP pulse as a distraction while using his magnetic manipulators to pick up Megatron's dropped sword and hurl it at him.
"Woah", Sari whispered at the sight of the wounded tyrant dropping to one knee, wincing as he yanked the blade out of himself.
"Raargh, it's useless!" Gigatron snarled, half-lunging at Ratchet as he got to his feet and the wound began to knit back together, "Whatever damage you simpletons inflict on me is undone within a moment!"
Ratchet was looking at the injury as it healed itself, stroking his pitted chin thoughtfully, "See, if you want my expert medical opinion, I'd say your healing a little slower than you did before. I think the more hurt you take, and the quicker yer take it, the harder it is for you to heal".
Gigatron's rage faltered for a moment, and the shadow of what might have been doubt passed across his face before he was able to steel himself.
"That would make sense", Optimus agreed, "He didn't absorb the entire AllSpark from his timeline, only a fraction of it".
"So, if his connection to the AllSpark isn't complete, then his control of it likely isn't either!" Sari said.
Bumblebee extended his stingers, "So, if we lay it on him quick enough, and fast enough, he won't be able to fix himself up?"
"Righteous. That, we can do", Jazz said.
Megatron stepped forward, "Let's test the medi-bot's theory, shall we?"
This is how it feels to be Gigatron as the day starts to turn against you.
It wasn't this way in your reality. That's all you can think as the allies close in on all sides. Ever since you first pressed the AllSpark to your spark and united its energy with yours, you've never had any difficult annihilating all who might come between you and your goals.
But now, as you're forced to fend off blow after blow from all sides, you're suddenly entertaining thoughts that simply never occurred to you. You had never considered what the medi-bot hypothesized to be true, but you recognise the truth in his words, and a shade of dread passes over your spark.
The pink femmebot manages to get a blow in, ducking beneath the enormous green bot's arm to slice the back of your knee. The tingle of the healing process begins immediately, but as you pitch about to fire a cannon blast at the yellow speedster, a pulse from the medi-bot's EMP generator temporarily disables your cannon.
This never happened in your original timeline. The Autobot-Decepticon war was in full swing. There was no organised effort to stop you. Nothing substantial anyway, and not until it was far too late.
The ninja-bot's nunchaku smashes your knuckles. The brute's wrecking ball pounds your shoulder plating. The yellow speedster's stingers blast your stabilizing servo. The wounds heal, and you fight on with fist, cannon and staff.
What's different in this timeline? You face not an Autobot-Decepticon war, but an Autobot-Decepticon alliance. You did not lie when you told your underlings that you were unconcerned with the larger war – everything truly was secondary next to obtaining the AllSpark. But, you are forced to admit, you hadn't expected it to go quite so poorly…
Your predecessor – what was his name again? – cleaves your right hand off with a sword strike. The technorganic pierces your left flank with a brilliant blue plasma blade. And Optimus Prime's fist connects with your jaw.
The wounds are healing. But not instantaneously. The seconds pass as the wires fuse back together and the metal warps back into position.
You had never considered the medi-bot's hypothesis, because you had never even entertained the notion of losing a battle. There had been no resistance to challenge your limits. You had put together this invasion purely so that you could stroll into the AllSpark's resting place and claim it for yourself without diversion. Optimus Prime's attack had been an entertaining distraction, but now it's become something far more troublesome.
Worrying, even.
You cannot compete with all of them. The Autobots and the technorganic are too well-attuned to one another, launching attacks purely to absorb your attention, and trusting that their comrades will step in and intercept your counter-attack with a damaging strike.
And it's working.
Your predecessor is there too, a powerhouse of revitalised strength. He fights side-by-side with Optimus Prime, and their synergy is startling to witness. You give ground to the fusion cannon blasts and sword swipes, only to step into the deft strikes of Optimus' ion axe.
Sparks fly, metal grinds. Piece by piece, they are wearing you down. The healing is now happening at a crawling pace.
You've never stopped to consider your own mortality. Ever since you bent the AllSpark to your will, you have always assumed invulnerability. But if your mastery of its energy is not complete, is the energy at your disposal truly limitless? You've destroyed empires, slaughtered heroes and bent space-time to your will in order to be here, but now that you are here…does that power have a limit?
You're not interested in finding out the hard way. When you've consumed this timeline's AllSpark in its entirety, then these sudden, troubling questions will be no more, and your immortality will be beyond doubt. You will be all-powerful, and your enemies will be ash.
But first you must consume the AllSpark. And as you feel the long-forgotten and deeply unwelcome sensation that is fatigue begin to overwhelm your systems, you're forced to admit that perhaps today will not be the day you make the AllSpark yours. If you stay here any longer, you may be killed.
Flee.
You scream your anguish, your fury, at this turn of events. Sweeping your arms outwards, you unleash a punishing, rapid-fire salvo of cannon blasts at your enemies. The scorching plasma barrage forces them all back, hopefully injuring a few of them, but you don't wait for the smoke to clear.
You transform to your Cybertronian jet mode. It is a pure utilitarian mode, streamlined for top speed whilst still heavily armoured and heavily armed. When creating it for yourself, you had given little heed to elegance. It was for two purposes only: travelling at high speed, and doing so through heavy combat. But you had always imagined it would be for speeding into combat, not away from it.
Still, they're too slow to stop you. You fire up your engines, allowing the jet blast to hurl your attackers off their feet before they can recover from the cannon rounds, and rocket towards the chamber ceiling, firing a sustained shot to blow an exit hole through the roof.
Seconds later you emerge, winded and wounded in equal measure. Even your transformation back into your robot mode is agony. You can hear yourself slavering and snarling beneath your mask, and feel your own fingers claw at your cranium.
How could it have all gone so wrong?
You don't have time to waste. You know your enemies will be upon you in mere seconds. But you can't restrain a yell of equal parts frustration and anguish. Why are they resisting so fiercely? Can't they see what it is you're trying to accomplish?
No, of course they can't. They're not too blame for that. They are lesser, and they have not seen what you have seen. It is on you to correct the errors of the universe. And you will. But first you must escape.
You can hide in some remote corner of the galaxy. Recover, rethink, retaliate. Claim the AllSpark when they least suspect it. Do they truly think they can stop destiny indefinitely? They will err, they will slip. The AllSpark will be yours, and the galaxy will fall under the control of your singular vision.
But that day is not yet come. You look over the war-torn city, and you see Monocon cruisers burning and vanishing in distant explosions. There are only a handful of cruisers remaining. One ship, your command ship, is drifting nearby, alight with a thousand fires. On the ground, the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces are holding your drone army at bay in the war-torn streets.
So much for the competence of your Autobot and Decepticon underlings. They were to direct this battle for you. Of course, you would have killed them in time, for you had no intention of honouring your deal with the fools. But they could at least have served their role as commanders before you killed them. The very notion that you would abandon this timeline!
Or perhaps that was something you should consider, now? It took many stellar cycles of practice and study to tear open the fabric of time and space and travel to this timeline, but you could do it again. Travel to another timeline, where they will all be unaware of you. Claim the AllSpark from there. Bend a different corner of the multiverse to your will.
A possibility. Now is not the time to plan. Now is the time to escape and regroup.
Your commlink buzzes. You ignore it as you plot a course for the stars.
"Gigatron!"
The voice almost spits your name down the commlink.
"If there's one thing any would-be ruler of Cybertron should know, it's this: never turn your back on Starscream!"
What is he talking about?
You wheel about in mid-air to see your command ship rocketing towards you. It's coming in too quickly, and its dimensions are too vast, for you to get out of its trajectory in time. All you can do is scream with impotent rage and fear as the dreadnaught ploughs into you, and then all goes dark.
The ceiling above the northernmost section of the chamber, where the grandest and most vaunted Autobot statues were located, collapsed into shattered oblivion. Sheets of metal and supporting struts that had stood for millions of years were rendered into ruin in a single, violent moment. The chamber was immediately thick with smoke, grime and an avalanche of debris.
Bumblebee scooped up Sari and hunkered over her, using himself as a shield in the far corner of the chamber. Bulkhead in turned stooped over Bumblebee, and the other Autobots took refuge in his shadow as well. Megatron stood close by, slicing incoming chunks of rubble to pieces with his sword before the deluge became too much for him as well and he was forced to take cover.
The roar of the impact dulled to a groan of protesting steel and the crackle of distant fires. The rattle of debris on Bulkhead's plating faded until he decided it was safe to risk opening his optics and standing up straight. He looked around. The entire room was coated in a fine film of dust and ash. So was he, for that matter.
The northern half of the chamber was now utterly collapsed. The bow of the crashing Monocon cruiser had smashed into it with devastating force, rending it into an unrecognizable collection of twisted metal. The cruiser itself was a fiery wreck, protruding out of the Metroplex at a precarious angle as it consumed itself in white-hot flames.
There was no sign of Gigatron.
Bulkhead looked down at his charges, "Uh, guys, I think it's safe to move now".
They stepped out from his shadow and took in their surroundings with disbelief.
Bumblebee whistled, "Okay, didn't see that one coming".
"Is everybot alright?" Ratchet asked.
There was a chorus of unsteady answers from the Autobots.
Sudden fear seized Sari, "Wait…where's my Dad?!"
"Rest assured Professor Sumdac is quite safe".
Megatron emerged from beneath a slab of shattered ceiling, heaving it aside with his left hand. In his right hand he was clutching something, and as he put it down Sari could see it was her father. Dazed, frightened, but unharmed, he smiled almost sheepishly at her.
"Oh Sari, was your first trip to Cybertron this eventful?" he murmured.
Sari launched herself at her father, retracting her battle-mask as she did so she could press her cheek to his. Her father returned the embrace, and they held each other for a moment before the two of them looked at the looming Decepticon.
"Thank you", Sari said.
Optimus studied Megatron's face. It flashed between a variety of expressions in under a second – irritation, amusement – was that embarrassment? – and utter confusion, before he conquered himself and projected his usual stoic countenance.
"Yes, quite", he said dismissively, looking away.
Optimus sighed. He had hoped for a simple 'you're welcome', but evidently Megatron was not quite there yet.
"What do you suppose happened?" Professor Sumdac asked, eyeing the unsteadily perched wreck of the Monocon cruiser, "An AI piloting issue?"
"Ship was in too much of a beeline for it be an accident", Jazz craned his neck up at the wreckage, "Maybe Sentinel and Starscream had a change of spark".
"Or more likely they saw the way the tide was turning and swapped sides to save their own metal", Ratchet growled.
"Don't just stand there, you cretins, help us!"
The voice was unmistakably Starscream's, and it was coming from the ship. Optimus activated his rocket pack and flew towards the source of the voice. Passing through a thick wall of smoke, he soon discovered Starscream attempting to squeeze himself out of a crumpled access hatch.
Starscream glared at him, "Well, what are you waiting for?"
Optimus rolled his optics and carved away at the hatch with his axe. After a few precise stokes, the exit was sufficiently widened for Starscream to squeeze through. The Decepticon was dragging Sentinel with him. The Autobot was not moving.
"Sentinel!" Optimus exclaimed, "Are you alright?"
"Oh, he'll be fine", Starscream snorted, "He just took a little knock during our heroic rescue, that's all".
Supporting Sentinel between them, Optimus and Starscream descended to the chamber floor. As they passed through the smoke, Sentinel stirred.
"H-hey…Optimus", he said, his voice hoarse and weak.
"Hey, Sentinel. How are you holding up?"
"Oh, you know, not so bad. I…I'm sorry, Optimus".
"I know, old buddy, I know".
"Oh please", Starscream said, shaking his head as they emerged from the smoke and the others came into view, "I'd say things worked out pretty well. Gigatron is dead, and the day is won, thanks to our brilliant deception!"
As they touched down in the chamber, Optimus took Sentinel and laid him down with his back against a surviving statue. Ratchet hesitated, casting a doubtful look to the others, but with a shake of his head crouched next to Sentinel, beginning to scan his injuries. Starscream flashed a grin at the assembled Autobots and humans.
"Your salvation is at hand! Thanks to the cunning of your Autobot comrade and I, Gigatron's ranks were successfully infiltrated and his demise orchestrated. No need to be bashful; you may bow before the triumphant leader of the Decepticons!"
"Oh, yes, let's", Megatron's voice purred as the Decepticon Lord stepped out from the shadow of a pillar and revealed his presence.
Starscream's gloating smile vanished.
"M-M-Megatron? How? Wha…how?!"
He stepped back, but Megatron fixed him in place with his implacable, icy stare.
"I…I thought you were…"
"On vacation?" Megatron took a step forward.
"N-not exactly…"
"Dead?"
"Well…a little?"
"And why would that be, Starscream? And do not insult my intelligence with more falsehoods."
Starscream gulped, "I…I thought I'd…killed you".
Megatron leaned down to look him in the optic, "I think we've both heard that one before, haven't we?"
His advance was checked by Bumblebee, who stepped between the two giant Decepticons fearlessly.
"How about you two continue your old song and dance routine after we're sure Gigatron is molten scrap?" he said.
Megatron's optics blazed as he glared at the diminutive Autobot between himself and the object of his wrath, but after a moment he relented and stepped back.
"Very well. This discussion is postponed, but not forgotten, Starscream".
Starscream's shoulders sagged with relief, "You needn't worry, there's no chance that freak could have survived that impact!"
The misshaped mass of wreckage exploded outwards. Razor sharp debris was blasted out in all directions, and Bulkhead swiftly stood in front of Sari and her father to shield them. But the Autobots and Decepticons were pelted with lacerating shrapnel.
Optimus dared to look at the explosion with his servos shielding his eyes. At the centre of it was Gigatron, slobbering and howling like a wounded animal as he crawled from the ruin caused by the crashed starship. He was merely an upper torso pulling himself along with his hands, dragging his legs after him by a few tentatively connected cables.
Most of the sounds coming from his screaming maw were unintelligible, but a few coherent words slipped out in a raving cry, "This cannot be happening! I cannot lose! I will not lose! Mine…AllSpark! I'll kill you all!"
He began to radiate dazzling white AllSpark energy. The cables holding his torso to his mangled legs began to wrap around and reinforce each other before drawing his legs back towards his body.
"He's using up the last of his AllSpark energy!" Sari cried, recognizing the sudden outburst of power as an unsustainable, draining flare of energy, like the one that had sapped her Key of its remaining potency.
"That's a good thing, right?" Bulkhead asked.
"Not necessarily", Optimus said grimly, before re-igniting his axe blade.
Gigatron's legs reconnected to his body with an audible, messy crunch. His body was facing the wrong way around, and metal was peeling off him even as the AllSpark fragments in his spark chamber worked frantically to heal the damage done to him. His right cannon and lower arm were smashed into splinters of metal that seemed to be beyond ability to repair: after he rotated his torso about to face the correct way, he reached over with his left arm, snapped the right arm off at the elbow and flung it aside.
"You cannot stop me! Do you hear me, you peons! In this timestream or another, I will triumph! You will not even be a memory in my Singularity!"
In his remaining hand he held aloft his staff, crackling with deadly potency. As Optimus led the Autobots and Decepticons in a charge, Gigatron aimed the staff like a javelin and hurled it in their direction. Instead of waiting for it to impact he targeted the staff with his singular remaining cannon and fired.
The staff exploded into fragments, unleashing its stored power in one colossal blast. Electrical energy blasted out from the staff in all directions, skewering the Autobots and Decepticons with forks of lightning. Not even Sari and Isaac Sumdac were spared. The chamber was washed with crackling white light, and the acrid smell of burning metal and hair.
The pain coursing through Optimus' body was acute and incapacitating in its own right, but he felt his motor relays overload with an excess of voltage. His legs gave out from under him and he fell with a crash. Several following clatters heralded the collapse of the others, but his limbs were utterly paralysed and unable to do more than crane his neck around and watch the horror unfold.
Evil pleasure curled Gigatron's slavering lips into a satisfied smile. But mad as he was, he did not stop to gloat for long. His optics scanned the room until they settled on something, and then his smile broadened. Twisting about as best as he could, Optimus saw what he was looking at.
The AllSpark. Somehow it was undisturbed from the corner of the chamber it had spun into when Optimus had first knocked it from Gigatron's grasp.
Wounded as he was, Gigatron limped towards it with a desperate urgency, shedding pieces of his chassis as he went.
"C-can't…move…" Arcee groaned.
"S-someone has to…stop him…" gasped Bulkhead, "If I can just…just get up…"
Optimus looked at the others as best he could. They were all collapsed, groaning, and seemingly unable to move. At least they were all alive. Not that that would matter for much longer unless they did…something…
He could just about feel a small measure of life return to his right arm. He dug his fingers into the chamber floor, felt them bite into the metal, and dragged himself after Gigatron.
It was too late. Gigatron had already reached the AllSpark's resting place.
"No more mistakes, and no more hesitation!" he hissed as his chest panel retracted, exposing his own pulsing spark merged with the jagged crystals that were all that remained of the AllSpark from another world.
He reached for the AllSpark of the present time.
It sprang from his reach and whipped across the chamber, tethered by a whip of organic webbing.
"No…!" Gigatron howled.
Blackarachnia stood at the entrance to the chamber, holding the AllSpark at eye level.
"I will not be denied!" Gigatron howled, lurching towards her with his remaining hand clawing at the air.
"Blackarachnia, get out of here!" Optimus cried, "Take the AllSpark and go! If he gets his hands on it, there'll be no stopping him!"
"That's not going to end this", she answered, "It's like the kid said. Only one thing will stop this".
She closed her optics and touched her long-fingered hand to her chest. A panel retracted, revealing a small chamber and a spark pulsing within.
"What are you…no!" Optimus dragged his limp body as fast as he could across the floor, but it was not fast enough.
Blackarachnia held the AllSpark directly in front of her chest. Her spark shimmered, wavered, and drifted from its containment chamber.
Gigatron's massive hand seized the AllSpark: Blackarachnia did not let go of it. With one hand, Gigatron lifted it and her in the air and swung about, smashing her into the wall. Blackarachnia cried out in pain, but she did not let go.
Gigatron began to flail about, thrashing Blackarachnia from side to side in an attempt to dislodge her from his prize or smash her into pieces, whichever came first. She held on grimly, eyes still squeezed tightly closed.
"Get your hands off of her!"
A blur of blue plasma whizzed through the air and smashed Gigatron in the temple: the titan staggered and released his grip on the AllSpark. Sentinel's shield clattered to the floor noisily.
Optimus looked back at his paralysed comrades: somehow Sentinel was on his feet, panting with exertion, fury in his optics. Misplaced fury, Optimus realised – he was unaware of Blackarachnia's sacrificial intentions.
"E-Elita…"
Sentinel groaned and collapsed on his front, but his attack had distracted Gigatron long enough for Blackarachnia to leap back out of his reach.
"Blackarachnia, no!" Optimus called, his voice laced with anguish and dread, "We'll find another way!"
"There is no other way", she hissed back.
There has to be. There has to be. Please, not her…
"Please, let me do this. Let me go", her spark was humming, throbbing, inching towards the relic in her hands.
Optimus willed his legs to right themselves, but they did not obey, did not respond, did not help. He could only crawl towards her as Gigatron loomed up between them, a monolith sculpted out of pure rage.
"I swore I'd never leave you behind again", Optimus said between gritted teeth.
"I'm not worth the universe, Optimus! This is my decision. Respect it".
Her spark pulsed once more before merging into the AllSpark. As it did, Gigatron swept forward, screaming incoherently.
"Mine! All will be one under me! AllSpark! AllSpark!"
Already the rich purple and golden hue was draining from Blackarachnia's body, but with her last ounce of strength she lifted the AllSpark and delivered a kick that rammed it into Gigatron's open spark chamber.
"You want it? It's all yours…!"
She sighed and fell, body draining to lifeless ashen grey. As she hit the floor her helmet came loose and rolled away, revealing her true technorganic face. Her optics dimmed to black.
The anguished cry of loss and pain that Optimus issued was drowned out by the bellow of Gigatron. The AllSpark was reacting with his own lifeforce, flashing with radiant blue light that illuminated the chamber.
"Yes, yes!" Gigatron threw his head back and laughed, "Your arachnid friend has only served to deliver my boon to me, and now, this world shall be re-made in my image! The Singularity has begun!"
Optimus had managed to crawl to Blackarachnia's lifeless body and he cradled her even as Gigatron stood over him. Had it all been a cruel joke? Had Blackarachnia given up her life for nothing, just to install the worst tyrant the galaxy had ever seen?
He heard movement from across the room and looked to see his friends and comrades shifting, their mobility slowly returning to them, but from the looks on their faces they could see it was too late as well. No weapons, no heroics, no desperate last stand would avail them now.
"No…" Ratchet whispered.
Plasma crackled and wrapped around Gigatron's form as the AllSpark burned within him. He cackled, bathing in the light that emanated from his chest as it pulsed and flickered. It blinked out, just for a moment, then returned.
But when it returned, it was no longer blue light but green.
"Wha..?" Gigatron glanced down at his spark chamber, puzzled by the sudden change.
There was some shift, something that could not be described by any known sense, and barely perceivable - but certainly tangible and potent. The air throbbed with a different energy and hummed to a different tune.
Sari had collapsed on Bumblebee's chest plate: the Autobot had just managed to sit up so that the two of them could see what was transpiring.
"Is it…is it happening?" Bumblebee whispered.
Sari nodded.
Gigatron gave a sudden animalistic wail. The green glow of the AllSpark was now blazing within him, lighting him up from within. He reeled and lurched from side to side, roaring in pain.
"No! No no no, what have you done?!" he began to claw at his own body, tearing into his own armour and gouging great holes into it. But the more he ripped holes in himself, the more the emerald light blazed forth from within him.
YOU HAVE COMMITED A TERRIBLE CRIME.
The voice was sourceless, yet everywhere. From without and from within. Optimus heard it within his cranial chamber, and he could tell from the way that Gigatron jerked his head around that the mad bot had heard it too.
A CRIME AGAINST REALITY ITSELF. AGAINST LIFE ITSELF. YOU HAVE TURNED THE SOURCE OF CYBERNETIC LIFE INTO A WEAPON FOR YOUR CONQUEST, AND YOU HAVE USED IT TO TEAR AT THE FABRIC OF TIME AND SPACE.
"No…no!" Gigatron span about, as if looking for the speaker, "I did what was necessary! If the sentients in my timeline had just heeded my demands, I would not have needed to travel to this reality!"
YOU DID NOT PRESENT THEM WITH A CHOICE.
"They did not have the willpower! They did not have the strength!"
The cracks in Gigatron's armour were spreading out from his spark chamber in great spider web-like fissures, fracturing him from head to toe. Green light lanced through him like a laser in a thousand breaches.
"Only I had seen what was coming! Cybertron is doomed without my strength! Do you hear me? Doomed! Doomed to despair!" he howled.
DESPAIR IS FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE FUTURE BEYOND DOUBT. NONE KNOW THE FUTURE BEYOND DOUBT. LIFE THRIVES IN DOUBT AND UNCERTAINTY. YOU HAVE COMMITED A TERRIBLE CRIME.
"That…that voice", Bulkhead was saying as he dragged himself to his feet with the others, "I…I know it's crazy but it sounds like…"
THE ALLSPARK HAS CHOSEN ME TO GUIDE YOU TO OBLIVION. THERE CAN BE NO WELL OF ALLSPARKS FOR YOU.
"No…no!" Gigatron raved, "I did what was necessary! Terrible things are coming for Cybertron, and it must be pure and perfect and whole under one mind to withstand the ancient evils that will come to devour it!"
THAT IS NOT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE. ORGANIC LIFE ADAPTS TO ADVERSITY. MERGED WITH ORGANIC LIFE BY GREAT SACRIFICE, SO TOO WILL THE ALLSPARK ADAPT. IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AS IT COULD NOT IN YOUR REALITY.
The light tearing Gigatron apart from within became painful to look at, as directly in front of the stricken giant the green glow twisted itself into a luminous ghostly shape. A familiar shape.
"Prowl!" Bumblebee called.
He was incorporeal, a phantom of light and shade, but he was unmistakable, with his sleek build, angular optics and formidable Samurai armour. He did not regard them as he faced down Gigatron in silence.
Even as he was burning with killing light, and facing down an ethereal AllSpark manifestation, Gigatron's hostility did not fade. He snarled and snapped up his remaining cannon to fire at the intangible challenger before him.
Prowl moved faster.
Twin emerald shurikens span through the air and into Gigatron's body. The gesture seemed more symbolic than literal, but it also seemed to trigger the final reaction. The AllSpark blasted out yet more energy, ripping a scream out of the dying Gigatron as he faced his mortality. His cybernetics writhed and scorched into nothingness like ash in the wind, his body shattered like volcanic glass and his spark became unmade.