Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.
Note: This story takes place shortly after "The Battle in the Valley".
Beyond Earth, Chapter 4
By TVfan
Cybertron, Maximal Elders Chambers
The leaders of Maximal Elders were startled by a strange occurrence which seemed to be traveling throughout the universe. It looked as if the walls of space and time were being ripped apart.
"What is happening?" one of the elders asked.
"It's a time storm!" another answered, "What its affects will be we won't know until it passes."
The first elder gasped at the words and then looked at his hand, as the metal fingers began to seemingly fade away.
Prehistoric Earth, the Ark
Dinobot had just placed Silverbolt in one of the Ark's smaller CR chambers when the time storm wrapped itself around the Ark and anything connected with the planet Cybertron.
"By the Pit," the male raptor cursed.
"Dinobot!" Rapther yelled in desperation.
He turned to see the female raptor standing looking at her arms as they seemed to vanish in and out of time.
"Dinobot, what's happening?" Rapther asked nervously.
"I… I…," Dinobot stuttered.
"It's the affect of a time storm," came Blackarachnia's voice from around the corner of the room, "Megatron's done something to alter time and the future."
Dinobot looked at Rapther and watched as various pieces of her body were affected by the time storm. He glanced at Blackarachnia and inwardly smiled.
"Something must be done to stop this," Dinobot replied as he began to leave the room.
"Why?" Blackarachnia sneered, "You're only a Maximal by personal allegiance. By 'genetics' you are a Predicon. Like me."
"Yes," Dinobot snarled, "We are very much alike. By birth we belong to the faction we ally ourselves against."
"What?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Look at your beast mode legs!" Rapther exclaimed, realizing Dinobot's point.
Blackarachnia looked at her arms and at the thin machine gun blasters that served as her beast mode's legs, and saw that they were vanishing in and out of time, just as Rapther was.
"While I am a Predicon allied with the Maximals," Dinobot continued, "You are a Maximal allied with the Predicons. Of course for you, that means that if the Predicons win, they must win with honor and not taking short cuts, like altering time. Megatron would never fight with honor. Your loyalty to him has cost you your own life."
"And where are you going?" Blackarachnia challenged.
Dinobot turned and with an ironic smile answered, "To save you."
Meanwhile, Megatron gloated in his victory.
"I've won!" Megatron screamed, "I've finally won!"
"Rhinox, is there anyway to stop the time storm?" Optimus turned to he old friend.
"Prime's spark is strong, but it can't survive without a body," Rhinox answered while the others looked up at Megatron, "We need to repair the damage that Megatron has done."
"And like Megatron's gonna let us," Rattrap cut in, "We're all gonna die."
"We need to get Megatron out of here before we can repair Prime's body," Optimus announced, "And we gotta do it fast."
Cybertron, Tripredicus Council Headquarters
"The time storm seems to only be affecting the Maximals," General Ramhorn commented, "Perhaps this will be for our best interest."
"This has to be Megatron's doing," General Seaclamp pointed out, "I doubt that this will help us."
"Please explain," General Cicadacon questioned, "With the Maximals gone, we will be free to claim Cybertron as our own."
"It's a TIME STORM!" General Seaclamp roared, "If the time storm is erasing the Maximals, then that means someone has altered the past. And altered it in such a way that the Maximal race would not live. As we all know, the Ark is on Earth in the past with the offline bodies of the Autobots and the Decepticons. But unlike the Maximals, we know Megatron is there. This has to be his doing. He must have found the Ark."
"Have we heard from Ravage?" General Ramhorn asked.
"Not recently," General Cicadacon answered, "I tried contacting him before the time storm hit, but only received static over the radio channels. I believe his ship may have been destroyed."
"Should we send a new agent?" General Seaclamp asked.
Ramhorn leaned back in his chair, "Not at this time. The Maximal Elders will surely notice that we're up to something if we try."
"Slag," General Cicadacon cursed.
Prehistoric Earth, the Ark
Rapther and Blackarachnia staggered through the Ark's passageways following the path that Dinobot had taken earlier.
"Why are you in such a hurry to help him?" Blackarachnia challenged.
"Because he's risking possibly everything to help us," Rapther retorted, "But then, you wouldn't understand that, would you?"
Blackarachnia ignored the female raptor as the two continued.
Dinobot had meanwhile arrived at the Megatron's location and snarled at the scene that was developing in front of him.
"Aw, Dinobot," Megatron laughed, "Come to witness the fall of your comrades?"
"I am here to stop YOU, Megatron," Dinobot growled, drawing his sword and tail spinner.
"But Dinobot," Megatron laughed, motioning toward the damaged Optimus Prime, "I've already won. There is nothing you can do."
"Then you will give me the pleasure of defeating you," Dinobot growled.
"What is he doing?" Cheetor asked quietly to Optimus.
Optimus Primal watched as Dinobot began to walk toward Megatron's location, "I don't know, but it will give us the time to repair Optimus Prime, Rhinox find something we can use. We've got to fix him before he goes offline, permanently."
It was Megatron who fired at Dinobot first with his tail gun. Dinobot was fortunate to deflect the blast with his tail spinner, but the shield device would be useless if Megatron attacked again using the same tactic.
"Dinobot!" Optimus yelled, "You've got to get him out of here!"
Dinobot nodded and fired his optics lasers at the Predicon tyrant, hitting him squarely in the chest. Megatron received little damage, but was pushed back and lost control of his flight path, since his vertical lift turbofans worked better in his vehicle mode than in his robot mode. Dinobot fired his optics lasers again, as Megatron tried to regain his flight path and hit the Predicon leader in the back. The force of the hit forced Megatron to go flying through a large door into another part of the ship. Dinobot raced after him.
"Let's get to work," Optimus said, motioning toward the damaged Optimus Prime, "We have little time."
Rapther and Blackarachnia entered the room a few minutes later to find Optimus and Rhinox scrambling around Optimus Prime's chest and examining the damage done to the historic Autobot by Megatron.
"What are you doing?" Blackarachnia demanded.
"What does it look like we're doin'?" Rattrap retorted, "Repaired the greatest transformer in history!"
"Repairing him is the easy part," Rhinox commented.
"What's da hard part then?" Rattrap asked.
"The damage Megatron did to him is too extensive to repair without removing his spark," Optimus sighed while motioning to the damage.
"But while Optimus Prime's spark is powerful, it can't survive without a body," Rhinox added, "And with this body damaged, Prime will die. Once Prime dies, the Decepticons will win the Great War and eradicate the Autobots, and thus the Maximals. Thus, why you Blackarachnia, are affected by the current time storm."
"Dinobot already lectured me on this," Blackarachnia answered defiantly.
"Then you should finally understand why Silverbolt was trying to persuade you to leave Megatron," Optimus growled ignoring his work on Optimus Prime, "And you are responsible for the damage he's suffered."
Blackarachnia found herself unable to argue.
"Megatron will whatever it takes to win," Optimus continued, "And since he doesn't care about the well being of his followers, he won't care what their fate is. For Silverbolt's sake, join us now, or no one will be able to save you."
"This is all nice and all," Cheetor cut in, "But what about Prime?"
Optimus looked at the youngest Maximal and then at Rhinox, "If his spark needs a body, than it will get a body."
Megatron landed face down in another large room behind the room that housed Optimus Prime. When he got to his feet, Dinobot, sword in hand, was already at the entrance.
"Come now Dinobot," Megatron said, "In a few minutes the Maximals will be no more. This battle will not matter."
"Perhaps," Dinobot replied, while slashing out with his sword, only doing minor damage to Megatron's transmetal armor, "Or perhaps if you die now, you won't be able to come back here to destroy Optimus Prime. I'd imagine that even if you succeed, you'll have to destroy Prime again the altered future."
Megatron fired his tail gun at the male raptor and knocked him against the far wall.
"Very well," Megatron smiled, "Then perhaps an alternative source of power is necessary, yes."
Megatron looked around while Dinobot looked to recover from the shot Megatron had just given him. The Predicon tyrant spotted the large form of an offline transformer that wasn't in the other room, and it was chained, as if it were imprisoned in its current location.
"Going back in time should be the easy part, Dinobot," Megatron smiled as he turned back to the raptor, "The problem would be remembering TO go back, but your little speech here gave me the idea on where to get that reminder."
Megatron fired his tail gun again, hitting Dinobot squarely in the chest sending the male raptor offline.
The other room
"You can't do this Optimus," Rhinox cautioned, "His spark is too powerful. You can't take it inside YOUR body."
"We don't have any choice," Optimus answered, "We don't have a stasis unit that could act as a body until Prime's real body is repaired."
"Why don't we use her instead," Rattrap asked motioning to Blackarachnia, "If it works, she gets to say she saved her butt, and if Prime's spark is too much for her? No loss."
Blackarachnia tried to smack the transmetal rat, but the effects of the time storm caused her one hand to disappear.
"Whatever we do, we gotta do it quick!" Cheetor yelled with some urgency as his whole body began to disappear in the time storm's current.
Optimus opened his chest compartment, revealing his spark and placed it right over the spot where Optimus Prime's spark was contained.
"Open his spark chamber," Optimus commanded to Rhinox.
"May Primus help us all," Rhinox muttered as he took out some tools that he had with him and opened Optimus Prime's spark chamber.
All the Maximals and Blackarachnia watched as the brightly glowing spark rose up out of the Autobot leader's chest and made its way into Optimus Primal's body. Once Optimus felt the spark inside him, he closed his chest compartment, and almost instantly, the time storm stopped. All the Maximals were in back in perfect condition.
"What happened?" Cheetor asked.
"Prime's spark has stabilized," Blackarachnia answered, "No the only question is if Primal can withstand Prime's power."
Optimus suddenly grunted and fell to the ground before staggering to his feet. He could feel Prime's spark somehow affecting him.
"Optimus are you alright?" Cheetor asked, rushing to his leader's side.
Optimus only growled in pain as his armor suddenly began to shift and change. The Maximal commander also looked like he was getting bigger and a large ring of light began to form around him as the power from Optimus Prime's spark began affect him even more. Suddenly Optimus cried out and the light around him burst, blinding everyone.
When the light dimmed, everyone began to gather what happened.
"Optimus?" Rapther asked.
"I'm fine," came the Maximal leader's answer, "Better than fine, in fact."
When they saw Optimus, everyone's jaws dropped at the sight of their leader. The color of his feet and hands now ranged between a dark brown to dull yellow, and looked as though they actually had toes. His shins were blue and his thighs were silver. His torso and chest was also mostly dark brown or dull yellow, except for a glass casing containing Optimus Prime's spark, which glowed brightly. His forearms were silver and his upper arms were dark brown with large grey jet-like wings attached to them. His head looked much like it did when the Maximals first came to Earth, but was now different colors. The helmet was mostly blue, but parts of it were also dull yellow. The bands that went under his chin and over his nose were blue and the metallic skin underneath was a cross between white and silver. Light green optics also glowed brightly with the determination of both Optimus Primal and Optimus Prime.
"Optimus?" Cheetor asked.
"Yes, it's me," Optimus answered, "New parts, but it's still me."
There was little time for anymore mentions of awe at the new form that Optimus had taken, for a few seconds later, the back wall behind them exploded in a roar of flames and a large dragon flew into the room with the offline body of Dinobot in its claws. It was mostly red, but its underbelly, tail, and parts of its wings were yellow.
"I see we had the same idea, Optimus Primal, yes," Megatron laughed as he threw the offline Dinobot at them.
Optimus caught the raptor and laid him down near Rapther.
"What has that guy done to himself?" Cheetor asked.
"Just what your courageous leader has done," Megatron laughed, "Dinobot pointed out that even if the time storm that resulted in the damaging of Optimus Prime assured my victory, I would still have to come back here to do it…"
"But without the spark of the ORIGINAL Megatron, you probably wouldn't remember to do it, and time would restore itself," Optimus finished.
"Yes," Megatron nodded, "And now, you must deal with both Megatrons."
The Maximals looked on in horror, and Rapther never took her eyes of Dinobot. Megatron then tilted his head toward Blackarachnia.
"Come now, Miss Arachnia, I still have further use for you," Megatron sneered as he dove down toward her.
Blackarachnia only opened up with her machine guns, hitting Megatron in the head, wings, arms, and shoulders. The great dragon only roared and sped onward.
"I won't let you use me!" Blackarachnia answered defiantly, "Not when you're willing to kill off all the Maximals. Don't forget that I was once a MAXIMAL PROTOFORM! I won't allow a Predicon victory at the cost of my death!"
Megatron gave her no answer but continued to approach her. As he got closer, Megatron opened his mouth and blasted Blackarachnia with a blast of practically energized ice, freezing Blackarachnia in her tracks. Megatron only smiled as he sped forward.
Luckily for Blackarachnia, a large hand hit Megatron in his side and knocked the Predicon tyrant off course and he crashed into the wall in front of him.
"I'll deal with Megatron," Optimus commanded, "The rest of you, check to see what, if any, damage Megatron has to the original Megatron. Rhinox, get to work on repairing Prime."
"But Optimus!" Rhinox protested, "If you're destroyed, Prime's spark will die."
"And if Megatron is destroyed, the original Megatron's spark will die," Optimus answered, "We're both in the same boat. Neither of us can go all out against the other."
Optimus then rushed forward and grabbed Megatron in tight 'bear hug' and lifted the Predicon tyrant off the ground.
"Let's take this fight, outside, shall we?" Optimus said as he activated rockets in the heals of each foot.
With that, Optimus took off with Megatron in his arms for the exit to the Ark.
"He seems to get used to new bodies awfully quick," Cheetor commented.
"Whaddya expect?" Rattrap retorted, "He changes them often enough!"
"Quiet you too," Rhinox ordered, "We got work to do."
Rapther lifted the offline Dinobot into her arms and began to walk off, "I'll get Dinobot to a CR chamber."
Outside the Mountain
Megatron finally managed to break free of Optimus's grip once the now giant Maximal leader had gotten away from the Ark.
"Afraid to have your followers watch you die, Optimus Primal?" Megatron taunted.
"More afraid of what you would do to the transformers sleeping in the Ark," Optimus answered, "Why did you do this, Megatron?"
"Power," Megatron smiled, "And because I needed something to remind me to come back here once your faction is destroyed."
Megatron, still in beast mode began to breathe fire down on Optimus, but Maximal leader raised one arm and blocked the fire with special pieces of armor. Afterward, Optimus checked his arm to see that such a maneuver wouldn't work again. Megatron had melted those extra pieces of armor on his hands.
"Alright," Optimus answered opening his chest compartment, revealing two large gun barrels.
Inside the Ark
Cheetor shuddered as the sound of another explosion rocked the mountain, shortly followed by a rumble from the volcano.
"Are you sure we shouldn't try to help him?" Cheetor asked.
"Optimus can deal with Megatron," Rhinox answered, "Our priority needs to be repairing Optimus Prime. Besides, it looked to me that both Optimus and Megatron's armor was upgraded. We'd have to aim to kill to even put a dent in Megatron."
"And what's dah problem with killing Megatron?" Rattrap demanded.
Rhinox set his tool down with a frustrated sigh, he wouldn't get anything done if he had to keep answering these questions, "Because if Megatron is destroyed, the spark of the original Megatron will die and a time storm just as bad as the one that Megatron tried to unleash by damaging Optimus Prime would be unleashed."
"You win," Rattrap conceded as he tossed Rhinox another tool.
Rapther had just placed Dinobot in another CR chamber as another rumble from inside the volcano shook the ship. She checked the chamber that Silverbolt was in and saw that he wasn't ready yet and new that the frozen Blackarachnia would need to be placed in a third CR chamber. The ground rumbled again shortly thereafter.
"As if things can't get any worse," Rapther muttered.
Outside
Megatron easily dodged the blast the Optimus fired from the large guns mounted on his chest, but while Megatron was busy dodging, Optimus shifted into a vehicle mode that resembled a strange jet and charged straight at Megatron. The same guns that were earlier in his chest were now on his back and firing in rapid succession. Five shots hit Megatron's wings and one hit his lower back.
This gave Optimus the time to catch Megatron, grabbing the Predicon tyrant with his hands by the wings and quickly diving toward the ground at supersonic speeds. Optimus slammed Megatron to the ground, head first, in an attempt to knock him out. Megatron only shifted to his robot mode and flung Optimus off of him. Optimus landed on the ground a few feet away in robot mode.
"You can't win," Megatron sneered has he leveled one arm at Optimus, which was his neck and head in robot mode.
"I can't let you win," Optimus answered back and he opened his chest compartment to fire his own weapons.
The both fired and the shots exploded in the air between them as they came in contact with each other. Both transformers pulled themselves up to find each was slightly damaged by the fire. Optimus then charged on foot and punched Megatron while the Predicon leader was still regaining his balance.
"Optimus," came Rhinox's voice over the radio, "We have Prime about fixed, has Megatron been subdued."
"Getting there," Optimus answered as he ducked under a punch thrown at him by Megatron's dragon head hand.
The Maximal leader then dodged another punch thrown at him by Megatron's normal hand and kicked the side of Megatron's left knee. The blow dropped Megatron to his knees and before the Predicon tyrant could lift himself up, Optimus stepped on his dragon's head hand and grabbed Megatron by the back of the neck.
"You've lost, Megatron," Optimus said as brought his other hand down on Megatron's head knocking the now red transformer out.
Inside the Ark
"We'd best deal with Megatron first," Optimus said to Rhinox while Rapther placed a series of energy restraints on the Predicon tyrant.
Rhinox nodded as he pushed a large hover board that was carrying the unconscious body of Megatron. They soon arrived at the offline body of the chained original Megatron. Rhinox moved into a position and opened the ancient Decepticon's chest compartment while Optimus lifted Megatron up to him. Rhinox then carefully pressed a hidden button that they had found on Megatron's chest plate to open the dragon transformer's chest compartment. The original Megatron's spark once freed flew into the nearest open space, the spark chamber of the original Megatron. Once that was done, Rhinox shut the chest compartments of both transformers.
"Now, Prime," Optimus said, "Bring Megatron with us. I don't want him out of where I can see him."
Rhinox nodded as the two transformers returned to the other chamber. Rhinox had left the ancient Autobot leader's chest compartment open to allow for greater ease in the spark transfer when Optimus returned. Optimus activated the rockets on his feet and flew up to Optimus Prime's chest and released Prime's spark from the containment unit that it was in. Prime's chest compartment automatically closed as Prime's spark settled inside Optimus Prime's body.
"Hopefully this is the end of everything now," Optimus sighed.
"Afraid not," Rhinox said, "While you were battling with Megatron, Rapther activated some of the Ark's computers to monitor the seismic activity in this sector."
"Seismic?" Optimus asked, "We're not on a fault line."
"True," Rhinox replied, "But the Ark is embedded in a volcano. We've already noticed that the volcano was unstable when we arrived, but according to the computers, it's ready to blow at any minute."
"Prime," Optimus cursed.
"The good thing is that the Ark can easily withstand the volcanic heat," Rhinox said, "But there is a chance we could be buried in here."
The rumbling returned again. This time stronger. And it didn't look like it was about to let up.
"It's blowing now!" Optimus exclaimed.
And at that moment, the volcano the Ark was sitting over did blow. Hot magma shot upward into the air. The alien metals used on Cybertron in constructing the Ark protected it from the lava, but the rock that made the cave wasn't and the force of lava's upheaval cracked it extensively. The rock contained the lava from flowing into the surrounding land, but the structural integrity of the caves was destroyed, and the top part of the mountaintop began to fall apart.
The mountaintop fell down, much of the rock falling into the resettling lava and melting away, while much of the rest of it fell on top of the Ark. The ship's auto guns were crushed, but the ship otherwise remained undamaged. Once everything had settled, the Ark was buried under rock and the former lava pool of the volcano had been filled in by falling rock and part of it had actually cooled.
While all this was going on, Megatron was jolted off the hover board he was laying on and aroused back into consciousness. He snarled at finding himself tied up by the energy binds, but found they were not designed to withstand his strength. Noticing that Optimus and Rhinox were busy watching a nearby computer screen, Megatron slowly opened his wings and threw out his arms, roaring as the restraining devices finally came free.
Optimus and Rhinox turned to find Megatron free once again and prepared to fire on him, when the Predicon leader shot a blast of fire at them from his dragon's head hand. Optimus and Rhinox easily dodged the blast, but the computer console was destroyed.
Megatron was about to try again when a barrage of laser bullets hit him in the back.
"Yah ain't gonna cause any more trouble," Rattrap warned as he cocked his gun to fire again.
Megatron glanced at Rattrap and turned to see Rapther and Cheetor coming at them from another portion of the ship to join Optimus and Rhinox. He couldn't win and he wouldn't get another chance at this time at Optimus Prime.
"This isn't over," Megatron growled as he lifted into the air and shifted into his beast mode and flew out of the room.
"After him!" Optimus yelled.
Megatron flew at full speed for the ship's exit with the Maximals in hot pursuit. The Maximals, were however, unfortunately unable to catch the Predicon tyrant before he could blast through the main entrance to the Ark and then through the layer of rock that covered it. The Maximals stopped with a defeated look as Megatron flew off into the sky toward the Predicon base.
"At least we got an exit now," Rattrap quipped.
"We should have used stronger restraints," Rapther added.
Optimus looked the most defeated of the entire group, "That doesn't matter what we've gained or what we should have done. The point is, he's escaped, and the Beast Wars will continue. We've let another chance to end this war, slip away. And I doubt we'll be able to go home."
"Don't worry, Big Bot," Cheetor encouraged, "We'll beat Megatron and you'll eventually find a way home. You can do it, Big Bot."
"I hope you're right," Optimus answered, his optics on Megatron's retreating form.
The End