INTERLOGUE
First Aid groaned, lying helpless and battered on the floor, unable to do anything to stop the Scraplets from getting to the nursery and feast on the defenseless hatchlings, crying out for help. Creop Trivem was kneeling in front of him, smiling menacingly.
"Do whatever you want with me," First Aid said through gritted teeth as the wailing continued, "but please, spare the hatchlings. They're probably the last ones on Cybertron."
"I know," Creop simply responded. He grabbed First Aid's shoulder – what was left of it, anyway – and rose up, then held his other servo on the other shoulder. There was a significant size difference between the medic and the tall mech, who was almost twice the former's size. He stared at the mech with one optic; First Aid's visor had been shattered from the Scraplet attack, and one of his blue optics underneath had been devoured immediately.
"What…are you going to do…?" he said hoarsely.
Creop didn't answer. Instead, the red pearl on his chest began glowing brightly. It opened up and revealed a pink spark. First Aid's own spark flickered, still anxious. In a swift movement, Creop pulled First Aid close, until their sparks touched.
The impact created a small explosion which sent First Aid flying into the wall behind him – Creop only took a step back in recoil and regained his balance. From the explosion appeared six small, bright sparks, smaller than an optic. They were sparklings – newborn sparks.
Ignoring First Aid's surprised moaning, Creop pulled out an orange capsule, filling out his entire servo. He opened the capsule to reveal a dark liquid metal in the bottom part.
"Now, First Aid," he said, "if you are still awake, you shall now witness the power of Transformium." He looked at the sparklings. "Get in, little ones."
The sparklings went into the liquid Transformium, as if attracted magnetically to it. They then enveloped themselves in the dark metal, creating a protective wall around them. In the next few nano-cycles, they had become small, black metal pellets, barely the size of the tip of his finger.
Creop closed the capsule with the pellets inside, then went over to First Aid by the cracked wall.
"Now, where do you keep your energon cubes?" he asked with a deep voice.
"L-like I'd tell you…"
"I am capable of finding them myself, you know. You may as well give up. You are not going to win this battle. Sorry." He added the last word with a smile.
The loud wailing from the nursery ceased. First Aid sighed hopelessly. He was right. It didn't matter what he did. This battle was lost.
"O-over by the shelf…" he grumbled defeated.
Creop walked over to the shelf pointed out for him. On the third top row were several empty cubes in different sizes. He took six of the smallest ones, about the size of the tip of his thumb.
"These will do nicely. Now, where do you keep that artificial energon you talked about? Oh, wait, never mind, I found it."
It was two rows below the cube row. He took a vial filled with pink energon, unplugged it and poured the containment into one of the empty cubes until it was filled up. He put the empty vial back in place and put the cubes away along with the capsule. He turned around and looked at First Aid.
"Thank you for your assistance. You shall not be forgotten."
A whirring sound came from the hallway, and then the Scraplets flew into the reception room while still chewing on some leftover metal they had brought with them into the room. The sight made First Aid's energon freeze like ice, almost killing his spark; the Scraplets had feasted merrily upon his hatchlings. The Scraplets were hovering, shuddering restlessly, waiting for Creop's command.
He looked at the devastated First Aid and smiled. He lifted his servo and snapped his fingers. Before the medic could react in any way, the Scraplets were all over him, eating what was left of the Protectobot.
Creop did not stay behind to watch First Aid's demise to the finish. The pearl on his chest began glowing, and then he disappeared with a plop!
Creop walked around in a canyon, looking for a particular mech. Everything seemed the same as in the real world, except slightly grayish, and there were certain things that were untouchable. The Shadowzone was a strange place indeed, but nonetheless it had something of importance to him.
Suddenly, right up ahead in front of him, he found his mech. A tall, dark green, one-armed Seeker whose armor had seen better days. The walking corpse of Skyquake, wandering around in this limbo, searching for his missing arm. But it wasn't the mech that interested him. It was what was inside him.
Skyquake noticed Creop's presence and walked sloppily towards him while emitting groans and grunts, holding out his remaining left arm at him. Creop did not move an inch. He knew how to handle this.
As the zombie approached the dark mech, he drew forth a long sword with a dark green hilt and black ornaments on the bottom of the blade, glowing in a similar green light. In a swift movement, he swung his sword and sliced Skyquake in half on the vertical side. The two halves fell to the ground on each side because of the weight, but they kept moving around.
Creop ignored the flailing of the zombie-halves and kneeled down by the left half. He dug his servo into its chest and pulled out a shard of dark energon.
As soon as the dark energon had been removed from the zombie, all parts went limp and then still, as if they had never been reanimated to begin with.
"Two down," Creop said before he disappeared, "four to go."
Creop looked down into the hole before jumping down and landing hard on his legs as he hit the bottom. He looked around before choosing a path and walked through the abandoned and stripped energon mine.
He smiled as he found a green stain on the floor in the corridor. He kneeled down and brought forth an empty cube, scooping up as much of the synthetic energon as he could, until the cube had been filled.
"Three left," he said as he put it away and disappeared with a plop!
Creop was looking forward to his next destination. He arrived in a harbor with several warehouses and hangars.
A lot of noise told him there was a battle going on. He looked to the side and saw Optimus Prime fighting a dark copy of himself at the top of a hangar. He drew forth his sword but did not do anything yet. He had to wait for the right moment.
Suddenly, Optimus Prime punched Nemesis Prime through the roof. Now was the time…to stop.
Both the sword and the pearl in his chest began glowing brightly, the sword in green and the pearl in red. A white wave flowed away from him across the entire area, the entire world.
At first, it seemed as if nothing had happened, but then everything froze. Optimus Prime stood completely still in his recoiling pose, Nemesis Prime stayed in the falling frame through the cracked floor which had large chunks floating around it without falling down. Helicopters were stuck still in the air with the rotors sticking out like spikes.
Creop Trivem put his sword away and walked casually across the ground towards the hangar. There were no entrances large enough for him to enter, but that was no problem for him. His pearl glowed, and with a plop, he was now inside the building. Several humans were scattered across the room, in particular a scarred man right underneath Nemesis Prime, looking up at the incoming mech in horror. In the next second, Silas Bishop would be crushed underneath the huge mech's weight and later be revived inside the body of Breakdown, the deceased Decepticon.
But not this time. Creop had plans.
He walked over and picked up each frozen human and held them in his arms like they were toy soldiers. He placed Silas at the top before warping out of there.
He appeared in a forest where he put down each of the MECH soldiers and Silas on their legs. He stood straight and snapped his fingers. Suddenly time began moving again, and the humans screamed in fear and fell on the ground, despite Creop having carefully and thoroughly placed each one of them on their feet. He sighed.
"Wh-what? the soldiers exclaimed in confusion, looking around at the trees.
"What is this?"
"What?"
"What just happened?"
"Where are we?"
"Commander Bishop!"
Silas looked just as perplexed as the soldiers, but instead of staring at the trees he stared at Creop Trivem. He was the only human who had not fallen down when time had begun moving again.
"Who are you?" he asked, hiding his shock rather well. The soldiers looked up, having first noticed Creop now and aimed their weapons at him.
"Do not be alarmed," Creop said and uncovered his faceplate, smiling. "I have no intent to hurt any of you. Quite the opposite, I need you to do something for me."
"And what exactly does an…" he looked at the yellow Unicron insignia on Creop's wings, "…extraterrestrial like yourself need us for?"
Creop hesitated before he spoke his words. "When you find a red crystal the 18th this month, you must deliver it to me."
Silas squinted at the mech. He seemed to be contemplating whether he was trying to mess with them or not.
"And what if I refuse?" he asked suspiciously.
"You owe me your lives," Creop pointed out. "And if you do not cooperate, I can make sure you will never have been born." He spoke with a deadly serious tone, one which confirmed for Silas that this mech was not someone you messed around with. Still, Silas was not entirely satisfied with the answer.
"What do I get in return?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard what Creop had just said.
"You humans are certainly greedy life forms, aren't you," Creop replied slightly impatiently, looking sternly at the soldiers with still-raised weapons. A signal from Silas made them lower their weapons. "Very well. When you give me the crystal, I shall grant you all the knowledge of Cybertronian technology there exists."
"And you're not afraid that we're going to use it against your people?"
Creop laughed. "Where I come from, there is no such thing as danger. You can do whatever you want in this time. All that matters to me is the future."
His pearl glowed, signaling he was about to leave. Silas made a gesture for him to wait.
"Where do I find this red crystal?"
Creop thought for a moment. "I'll give you a hint. Blood is thicker than water. I will find you when it's time."
And without another word, he disappeared with a plop!
Creop looked around as he appeared on a dirt road. He wasn't completely certain where MECH was going to meet him, but not long after the thought had passed his mind he saw the cavalry of green cars, similar to the Autobot Bumblebee, driving down the road behind him. He turned around and smiled satisfied as he saw a trailer behind the middle car, carrying the red energon crystal with a white cover to shield it from onlookers.
The cars stopped right in front of him, and from the front car stepped out Silas.
"Well?" Creop said, wanting to let the human play his role.
"We have your red energon. I suppose when you said 'blood is thicker than water', that you meant the crystal was at the harbor?"
"You could say that," he replied modestly.
"Now, I believe you said something about Cybertronian technology?"
"Yes, right, about that. There has been a change of plans..."
Silas knew by the tone of his voice that the mech had lied to him. But Silas was not the kind of guy who just let giant alien robots do what they wanted with him.
"Cease him!" he ordered.
The soldiers began firing upon the large mech, but their weapons had no effect on his armor. Creop ignored their attempted attack and kneeled down by the trailer, removed the sheet and picked up the red energon chunk. It was just big enough to fit in his palm.
"This will do nicely," he said and rose up again, amused to see the humans' reactions when they realized their weapons had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the mech's armor. Silas was completely horrified by the outcome. He looked on stumped as Creop picked up the crystal without paying attention to the shots.
"But…but how?" he said in disbelief. "Those shots are designed to put out machines bigger than you out of commission!"
"Oh, is that what they do? I had no idea. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play your little games, humans. I have places to be, things to do, words to say…"
He was about to leave – Silas could see that by the pearl glowing – when the commander gestured him to wait once again.
"If you have so much power, then why did you need our help to get the red energon? Why not just get it yourself?"
"I have my reasons. And you still have a role to play in this game. Play it well."
And then he disappeared to arrive at his next destination.
He arrived onboard the Nemesis. He had not been sure where to get regular energon, but as he already had two crystals, he decided it would be easier to just extract already refined energon. He wandered down the hallway without paying attention to anyone who might see him.
When he arrived at a fork, he met a pair of Vehicons who stopped in their tracks and pointed their blasters at him.
"Halt! You shall not pass!" one of the Vehicons shouted.
"Who are you?" the other Vehicon said.
Creop didn't answer them. He did not stop walking either; he just continued to walk past them down the path opposite of the one they came from. They didn't shoot at him but instead followed him in an uncertain pace, trying to determine what the Pit was going on.
"Don't you walk away from us!" the first Vehicon exclaimed. "You're under arrest, you hear? Stop ignoring us!"
It did not matter what came out from the Vehicon's mouth. Creop just continued his path to the storage room. He saw a pair of dead Vehicons lying by the door, and the light above them was blinking. He just walked over them and into the room.
The Vehicons saw the dead troopers on the ground and were about to fire when Creop finally spoke to them.
"Careful where you aim those," he said calmly and opened a cube. "If just one of these cubes gets hit, it's goodbye warship."
The Vehicons seemed unsure whether to attack the stranger or not. Creop liked the fact that the Vehicons were much more cooperative than those humans and the medic had been. It made everything easier. He took out a small empty cube and ran it through the big cube, scooping up enough energon to fill the cube, and then put it away again.
He rose up and turned to look at the Vehicon troopers.
"I'll see you some other time," he said and disappeared with a plop, leaving the two Vehicon troopers behind in confusion.
"Should we report this to Lord Megatron?" the first Vehicon asked the second.
"No. We didn't see anything. Let's just clean up this mess."
Creop walked across the corridor into the laboratory. It was fascinating how the other half of the Harbinger had survived Unicron's first awakening, despite it sticking out from the cliff and being much more exposed than the half buried underground, which had been torn apart by the storm.
As he entered the lab, he saw that everything was as Starscream had left it; the surgery tools were still on the instrument panel over by the recharging table, the GroundBridge remote was still lying on the other table along with the Seeker's recorder, containing all his thirty-five logs. But the most important thing was that the refiner was still there and working.
Creop went over by the refiner and brought out the six cubes, both the three filled ones and the three empty ones. He took out the red and dark energon crystals and laid them beside the cubes. The dark crystal was seething with a bubbling hiss, and the red crystal was ringing with a lighter tone than the dark one. He took the dark shard and put it in the refiner.
He waited patiently a few cycles until the refiner beeped. A small amount of purple liquid energon was in the tank, but it was more than enough. He took one of the empty cubes and poured the dark energon into it until it was full. What little remains was left he threw on the floor and wiped the glass clean. It was utmost important that not a single stain remained to corrupt the red energon.
He then put the red crystal into the refiner and turned it on. Despite its small size and outcome, it would take at least a week for it to refine. But that was nothing Creop couldn't handle.
His pearl glowed brightly, and with a plop he arrived a week later in the same spot at the exact same time, observing a small portion of the tank having been filled, the crystal almost completely gone.
The next cycle, the refiner beeped, signaling it was done. He took the next empty cube and poured the red energon into it. There was just enough to fill the cube completely, but it also emptied the tank completely. Just as well, though. It made everything easier. Red energon was not something to just throw on the floor like the dark stuff.
Now five out of six cubes had been filled with a different kind of energon: Blue for regular, purple for dark, green for synthetic, pink for artificial and red for…well…red.
There was just one type of energon left to fill the last cube. Energon that was so rare, so scarce, with so little information to it, that it only existed in one particular place in the entire universe. Luckily, Creop Trivem just happened to be in possession of it.
He drew forth his long sword and held his right servo around the blade. Then, with all his strength, he squeezed, the sword cutting through his thick armor, making him leak. Instead of blue, however, he was leaking yellow energon. He grunted a little in pain – pain that was all worth it.
He held the last empty cube underneath his leaking servo and watched as it filled up with golden energon. When the cube was completely filled up, he stopped squeezing the sword and put it away, closed the yellow cube and watched as the wounds on his servo healed instantly. He wiped off the yellow stains and placed the last cube beside the other cubes, lining them up.
"Now, it is time, little ones," he said and drew forth the orange capsule containing the six black pellets.
He opened it and put each of the pellets into a cube. He watched as the pellets enveloped themselves in the different kinds of energon: Artificial, dark, synthetic, red, regular and golden. They created thick wombs and turned into six colorful balls, glowing with bright and innocent lights.
Creop picked up the cubes and turned them upside-down, thus making the energon eggs fall out into his other servo. He put them into the capsule and put it away.
"It is done," he said as he rose up and warped out of the ship with another plop!
He arrived in a forest, where he was about to change everything that was originally supposed to happen. He walked among the trees until he heard a blast. He went towards the sound and found the back of a small, familiar gray Seeker kneeled at a burrow, having found a small energon site. He seemed to be talking to himself.
Creop smiled and put on his face-plate.
Let the countdown begin.