Chapter 12

Beast Machines Universe

The alarm that had been triggered as the group around the two Megatron´s had entered the secured underground parameter had been send to the surface nearly instantly.

One problem however was that the time this area had been sealed off had been centuries ago and there were not many left who knew that it even existed at all...or why it had been sealed off in the first place.

So for that reason, while the alarms were working correct, even after all that time...it took some time before someone finally actually noticed.

But they did notice it.

Far away from the actual place, a old surveillance tower at the border of the sector was receiving the signal.

The small group of Maximals who were still working at this station finally noticed the ongoing alarms...and send a message to the sector HQ.

Less than ten minutes later the group around Cheetor... that also included their interdimensional visitors... was being informed about the intrusion in the lower levels...by a routine call.

There was however something about it what caught his attention. It was after all in the middle of an invasion. But this alarm was caused in a place that should be underground... and in a sector where was practically no enemy activity reported.

This was a strange coincidence. If it was one.

Cheetor for his part had learned a long time ago to look out for things like this. He did not believe in that kind of coincidences... not since the Beast Wars.

It was good possible that the invaders were trying to get underground. The only question was, why?

"Silverbolt," he commed his old comrade who was in the moment in the air, engaging some of the attackers, "there is something we should maybe check out."

"Of course commander," the fuzor answered.

Cheetor was turning around, looking at their `guests´ from another dimension.

"Optimus," he called out to the one closest to him. "We just got a message from the sector-border. There is something we should maybe check out, but we are short on men. Are you coming with us?"

Both of the Autobot Primes were exchanging a short look at the question.

"We will," Optimus answered after a second.

xxxxxxx

Cybertronian Empire Universe

They were coming closer to the place they were seeking for.

The line of Autobots and Decepticons was still walking...moving in robot form, carefully. Vehicle or even aircraft-modes would be in a too great risk to be detected.

The only exception was Bumblebee who was moving very slowly in car form. Inside his cabin were the two humans Jack and Miko who had also been unintentionally also transported to this place... together with the techno-organic half-cybertronian named Sari.

In opposite to her they were not truly part of the `game´. Their presence was absolutely not planned by the Transformers who had brought them here...in short, an accident.

These so called `Cybertronians had made it absolutely clear what they thought about the humans, organic infestion. That´s what they have called them.

In the time they had been here, this two had been mostly been standing aside.

During the raid of the Empire outpost they had stayed behind...outside of the fighting area...together with Sari...or rather guarded by her. They had just waited until it was over, in a safe distance.

They were never meant to be here in the first place.

"Are you okay Jack?" Sari asked him.

"Yes, it´s alright," he answered.

"It sucks that we are only sitting around here," Miko exclaimed. "We should do something to help."

"And what?" Sari asked her.

"I don´t know. I... I just feel that we should do something, you know?" she responded.

"If there is something you can do, you will get your chance," Sari replied. "I know how you feel, believe me. When I met the Autobots... well, the other Autobots for the first time, I was also barely a help the most time. I did not even knew that I was a techno-organic back then. The only reason I was a help at all was because I had a key loaded with allspark energy that I got through dumb luck. You get what I mean?"

"Yes, I do... somehow," she answered, still sounding a bit impatient.

"But I was still able to do something... when I acted at the right time, under the right circumstances, you see? But this here were simply not the right circumstances," she stated.

"I see," Miko answered. She was still not exactly sounding happy, but seemed to accept it.

"Who knows, maybe you and Jack will get your chance to do something when we reach the space-bridge," she told them. She wasn´t so sure about the chances for this. But if her time with the Autobots had shown her anything, then it was that everything could happen.

The device that they hoped could bring them all home however, was still a few miles away.

xxxxxxx

Beast Machines Universe

The team led by the two Megatrons had just entered the cybertronian underground. But it was not the underworld of their home-planet that either of them was used to, not anymore.

With the `Great Reformation´, the change of Cybertron into a techno-organic world, the underground became automatically very different as well. Deep roots of plants and forests that had grown over the entire globe had been compromised and to some part interrupted their entire network. Some of the old tunnels had crumbled as the organic matter had invaded the places that had originally belonged to them, others had been blockaded or simply been twisted and bend out of their old shape.

All this made it now much harder for the combined group of extradimensional Decepticons and `Cybertronians´ to find their way.

But finally, after what seemed like hours, they had reached the special underground-chamber that the information provided to them by the Liege Maximo had them led to, more precisely would be to say it was a wide hall.

"So this is it?"

"Yes," his counterpart replied. "The object we are looking for is here."

The two Megatrons were crossing the room with large steps. They were both heading for the object that wwas being fixated on top of a small pedestal on the other side of the large room. It was nothing else than the Creation Matrix. But it was not just any version of it. There was something that made this Matrix here special - maye even unique - out of all the other versions in the multiverse.

"The Allspark," the Decepticon Megatron said as he recognized it.

"Yes, that is what it is called in your reality, I think," his `Cybertronian´ counterpart replied. "The Matrix is just another name. But there is something that makes this one different from nearly all other variants in the different universes. You see a few centuries ago, the cybertronians of this world were fighting a war against Unicron, the legendary Bringer of Chaos. It even forced them to temporally end their own conflict with each other and work together.

In the end of the conflict however Unicron had not simply been defeated. In this world, his his essence had been separated from his consciousness. And while his separated mind had been `killed´, his essence, his power, had been trapped inside the Matrix... the Matrix, that had originally been created as a weapon against the ancient enemy had become the prison of his lifeforce... trapped inside right here." Megatron layed his hand on the ancient object.

"The Matrix, the Allspark as you call it, is the key to Primus Power," he explained. "But as a power-source, it has one drawback. No matter how much power you are able to draw from it, no matter how much control you gain over it, Primus and his misguided ideals will always also influence you. There had been `tyrants, ambitious individuals who searched for the power of the Matrix, but when some of them finally gained it, their goals completely crumbled into itself. Either their characters changed and they slowly gave up on their intentions or in other cases, they went insane, slowly driven mad by the others consciousnesses stored inside the Matrix."

Megatron´s Decepticon counterpart and his followers had been listening interested to the story of his alternate self.

"But here," the Imperial Megatron continued, "imagine, a completely unbounded source of power. Since Unicron´s mind had been separated and destroyed, all what is left is his lifeforce - equal with Primus - but completely free to be used in any way you see fit. Waiting for someone to free it from it´s prison. For someone to claim it and become the new Chaos Bringer."

xxxxxxx

At the same time, Optimus, Sentinel and the others who were following the alarm signal were coming closer to their position. From there on they had been following the energon traces of several of the invaders... through the underground tunnel-system.

"They are here... in front of us, maybe a half mile," Silverbolt stated.

"Good," Cheetor replied.

xxxxxxx

"Megatron, we have detected a group of the `natives´ and a couple of other Cybertronians who are approaching our position," one of his warriors reported.

"Ah, it seems we are getting `visitors´," the Liege Centurio stated.

"You have heard it," the other Megatron announced. "Let us `welcome´ them."

xxxxxxx

Cybertronian Universe

The small group of unwilling Autobot and Decepticon `gladiators´ and humans had just arrived at the location of the device they had been looking for.

Just as they had expected, it had turned out to be some sort of space-bridge... of a design they had never seen before.

"Are you ready Scourge?" the black seeker asked his `partner´, as they both readied and charged their weapons.

"Of course Skywarp," he replied.