I didn´t have updated this story for some time now. This chapter had taken somewhat longer. On one side it wasn´t easy to write and I was also occupied with other things in the last time.
But now I have finally finished the next chapter. This one gets quite dark and describes torture and violence against prisoners.
Chapter 17
Of all the possible outcomes of their battle, no matter who would have been the winner, they would have never thought of this ending.
The Autobot leader Optimus Prime, along with his nebulon partner Hi Q and the the three Autobots Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Skyfire were sitting in a holding cell of the, now former, Decepticon flagship.
With them were of all people Megatron, the "new" Decepticon leader, who was in fact a refugee from another reality, his former lieutenant Thundercracker, who came from the same universe as his leader and the headmaster commander Skorponok.
All of them were now locked up together in the same cell.
Yes, of all the possible outcomes, this was the single one they would never have considered.
At the beginning of the battle, Skywarp, Prowl, the powermasters and a few others had also been with them. But during the fight they had lost contact with their comrades. They could only hope that the others had made it out alive.
Optimus remembered how it could have come to this.
xxxxxxx
Planet Nebulos, 2 hours earlier
"What, that is impossible", the Decepticon leader yelled into his communicator as he had heard that the newly arrived Sweep-Drones were not only attacking the Autobots but also their own troops.
Whatever was happening here, it was obviously a trap, not only for them but also for Megatron.
Optimus worst fears were confirmed as they had tried to contact Fortress Maximus a moment later and weren´t answered. Had Skorponok just defeated his opponent or was this also part of this set up? Where did this new Sweeps came from anyway?
The Decepticons had seemed to be confident to use them as expendable troops and as cannon fodder, but where had he got them from? Who had created them? Prime asked himself silently.
Sweeps were actually a design from Unicron, that alone was enough for him to leave a bad feeling.
He remembered briefly Prowl´s comments that somebody from this world was obviously helping Megatron. Had his mysterious ally turned on him?
Maybe, this would be a good explanation for what was going on right now.
A few minutes after they had received the warning communication the sky was filled with hundreds of Black Sweeps.
xxxxxxx
Skorponok, city mode
To say that Zarak was surprised by what was happening would be an understatement. Shock could barely describe what he was feeling.
Doomsday and his team had just entered his transformed super-body, as they said to report to him and to bring him Megatron´s new orders, orders he didn´t intent to follow much longer. But for now he would comply.
All the more he was surprised as Doomsday and his companions suddenly started to fire as they had entered the main areas of the base.
He couldn´t believe it. Had Megatron somehow found out about his plans against him or was he simply trying to get rid of him to avoid any risks? Or was it something completely different? It didn´t really matter right now.
In a open battle Skorponok was nearly invincible, but this was coming from the inside and on top of that an surprise attack. Before Zarak had even the chance to react, the three Decepticons had already hit and damaged critical systems of the city robot and left him practically helpless against their continued assault.
Against his will, he began to panic, the three were quickly coming closer to him. He didn´t knew what they wanted, he didn´t knew if they would kill him or not, but they would reach him very soon.
xxx
Both sides were trying to defend themselves against the new attackers, but they had already spend the most of their energy fighting each other. Many were damaged and had already been out of the fight when the Sweep armada arrived. What was left of them was hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered.
With both city robots taken out of the battle, they had no chance. For a short time the Autobot and the Decepticon troops were able to hold themselves, but ultimately the outcome was unavoidable. They were losing.
Optimus, Megatron and their group were now surrounded by dozens of enemies. They wouldn´t make it, they realized. It were simply too many. There was no way they could get out of there, but there were others who could.
"Autobots, this is Optimus Prime", he activated his communicator. "Bring yourself to safety. We have lost this battle", he told them. "Contact Rodimus Prime when he returns." With the use of Hotrod´s title he also acknowledged that he probably wouldn´t be with them. "Go and live to fight another day. Prime over."
He had just ordered the retreat for the Autobots and with that the damn broke. As they started to follow Prime´s order, they were closely followed by the Decepticons who didn´t even needed to be told to flee. The fighters of both sides had long realized at this point that their situation was hopeless, but so far they had been holding out, until now.
What had been a battle a short time ago, even if a losing one, was now turning into a partly chaotic, partly organized retreat. All over Nebulos the Transformers were now desperately trying to leave the planet. The sky was full of seekers and other air units who were fighting their way out.
A few Autobots and Decepticons in air-craft modes were getting into fire fights with the Sweeps. One of the Autobot jets was hit by several shots and exploded already in mid air. A Decepticon seeker met a similar fate as he was caught by blaster fire, fell burning from the sky and crashed many miles further down into the ground.
The Autobots had with some difficulty been able to reactivate the now crippled star-ship form of Fortress Maximus and finally succeeded to bring him off planet after several troops had boarded him.
For the most part the retreat was going on successfully. It was only the small number around Optimus Prime and Megatron who had been unable to get a way out. They were still trying to fight the drone-warriors off. From one moment to the other they had been going from facing each other to fighting side by side.
The group consisting of Optimus, Megatron, the Lamborghini twins and Thundercracker was now surrounded by the crippled remains of nearly a dozen Sweeps. But their enemies were still coming. They knew it was only a question of time till they would be overpowered.
xxxxxxx
In the present
Now they were sitting together in the cell, friends and enemies alike. It was really not what any of them had planned.
The one responsible for their current state was as they had found out the being known as Sideways. He, as the four captured Autobots knew so far, was the one who had done both, provided Megatron with the new version of Sweeps and was also the one who had betrayed him now.
They saw that their captor was entering the room, closely followed by the robot called Doomsday and Starscream, who had an grim expression of coming anguish on his face.
"What do you want?" Megatron asked angrily.
"You will see very soon", Sideways answered him with a cold smile, "but first let me show you a little demonstration."
xxxxxxx
Through the mind of Primus, Rodimus Prime was still watching out into the depths of space.
He was looking for other Transformers, trying to point out the light of their sparks over the great distance.
Like he did with Galvatron and his group, he would bring them to him, to Cybertron´s core.
Now his conscious was reaching out to the planet Earth. Here he felt the presence of many of "his" Autobot comrades.
Some of them he could make out by name, Jazz, who was currently commanding the troops on earth, Hotrod´s old friend Springer, Blurr and Perceptor, Blaster and his cassettes and several others.
And he recognized Soundwave and Rumble, who were still held as prisoners inside of Metroplex.
With not much more than a thought, accompanied by a gesture, he brought all of them to his resting place deep inside of Cybertron.
xxx
In greater distance, close to the Quintesson territory, he sensed another group, consisting of both Autobots and Decepticons. He didn´t knew what they were doing out there. Then he realized another presence following them, a group of Quintessons. Their ship, Primus recognized it as a small shuttle, not really able to defend itself in this situation, was being hunted by two cruisers and six Sharkticon gliders.
The entity consisting of Primus and Hotrod realized that this group was in grave danger and would probably not make it out on their own.
The Quintessons fired several salves of missiles at them. Moments before the small ship was hit, he transferred the passengers like he had done it with the other ones. Then the missiles found their target and the shuttle exploded into a giant ball of fire.
From their point of view the Quintessons saw the destruction of the ship and thought they had eliminated their enemies, so they stopped their pursuit, at least for the moment.
"We have succeeded", the judge on board of the head cruiser declared.
"Shall we return to the base?", a robot guard who was sitting at the controls asked him.
"No, it should be impossible that they had survived this explosion, but our ally wants us to make to hundred percent sure", the judge answered.
xxxxxxx
The underground of Cybertron
They were all assembled in the large underground hall, all the cybertronians that Primus had collected. By now dozens of robots from both groups were standing in the room.
The Transformers of both factions were standing in two crowds at different ends of the room. All the Autobots who had been transferred here were now meeting up with Ultra Magnus, Kup and Goldbug who were filling them in about their recent discoveries.
The Decepticons had collected themselves around Galvatron who seemed to have once again taken the role of their leader.
In the place between them stood Hotrod, now once again in the form of Rodimus Prime. He was still connected to the spirit of Primus, his body glowing from the energy of the "god".
He wasn´t possessed in the regular sense, since the being connected to his body wasn´t trying to control him. His thoughts and mind were still his own. More correctly was that the Autobot had allowed the entity to share his body with him for a short time, to do what was necessary.
Robots of both sides were looking at this being in awe and in question.
He had introduced himself to them as Primus, an ancient creature and known as the god of Cybertron, currently merged with the body of the Autobot leader Rodimus Prime.
They all were more than just surprised by their sudden situation. All of them had been on their posts, on missions, in their free time or in two cases even in a prison, but now they were all here.
Being displaced without warning and then confronted with a being who was claiming to be their creator was certainly a shock, but the most of them seemed to take it quite well after some explanations from him or one of the three Autobots who had already been there.
Galvatron and Cyclonus however showed also mistrust and demanding. Like it was in their nature, Primus thought, good.
"What do you want from us? Why have you brought us here?" the Decepticon leader asked him.
"Where are we here anyway?" his second in command wanted to know. "This is Cybertron", he observed, "but I don´t remember ever seeing a place like this."
Both of them knew who they were dealing with, but none of them seemed to be particular intimidated. They didn´t even seemed to be too surprised to see him. Had Unicron informed his creations about Primus existence?
In either way, he certainly hadn´t expected any blind loyalty from this two and on some level he was glad that he wasn´t been disappointed. He hadn´t created his children to be mindless followers.
He knew however that to fight Unicron he needed both sides.
While the Autobot Hotrod, who he was connected to, was used to seeing the Decepticons as his enemies, Primus knew that for his purposes it shouldn´t make a difference, even if he didn´t agree with the their aggressive aims.
But ultimately this was one more reason more to talk with them.
He knew his chances to actually reach something in that manner were more than slim after them being stuck in this way for 10 million years.
And he had no intention to try to force change upon their kind. That wouldn´t solve the problems anyway but only delay them.
Right now he needed them to stop Unicron and prevent the worst, all of them, even if he didn´t share their opinions.
As the last of the assembled robots seemed to have calmed down, Primus began to talk to the two groups. All in all he repeated the same story he had already told his four original visitors and was explaining the situation they were facing now.
xxxxxxx
Decepticon flagship above Nebulos
The robot was screaming out in agony.
Optimus, Megatron and the others were watching in disturbed and shocked curiosity how his form was constantly assaulted by flashes of high level energy that were sent through his body and by mental assaults, what the watchers however couldn´t actually see.
Then Starscream´s tortured body fall hard onto the deck.
For the last few minutes they had all been watching the torture of the seeker before them.
The Autobot Skyfire had been the first who had protested as he saw what was happening to his old friend.
"Stop this", he shouted at Sideways. The purple robot however didn´t even honored him with an answer.
Before the war the two had been the best friends and colleagues. They had been scientists and explorers. Originally Skyfire had started out as Starscream´s mentor. The young robot had been looking up to him for a long time. Later they became partners in their exploration flights.
Until one day Skyfire went missing on a long rage mission. After searching for a long time without success, Starscream was forced to return to Cybertron alone. There he had to find out that the war had broken out in his absence and the home he wanted to return to didn´t exist anymore.
And so the disillusioned and bitter Starscream had joined the Decepticons. From there on began a dark development into a vicious killer. He became the Air Commander of the Decepticons and for a long time Megatron´s second in command, a mass murderer and war criminal, then finally a murderous outcast and traitor to both sides,
a development that had ended up now with him lying on the ground before them.
When Skyfire had been recovered millions of years later Megatron had tried to turn recruit the him for the Decepticons. Not knowing the situation, he had joined them at first until Starscream had ordered him to kill a group of defenseless prisoners. As he refused the enraged seeker shot him instead and this was officially the end of their old friendship.
Skyfire joined the Autobots shortly afterwards and since then they were fighting on different sides.
That however didn´t mean that both, he and sometimes even Starscream didn´t wish from time to time that this would had never happened.
Except him, none of the other robots present particular cared about the former Air Commander, not even the other Decepticons. For the Autobots he was a bloodthirsty enemy whose atrocities they had seen for millions of years and for his own faction an untrustworthy renegade who they had only kept along because of his skills and their own need for troops.
But still none of them knew what he had done to, in Sideways eyes, deserve this kind of treatment.
They all watched by now in silence and in some parts concealed horror the purple robot torturing one of his own men.
As Megatron and Thundercracker were aware, this Starscream was one of the first members recruited by Sideways for their group. For them he was just the counterpart of the one from their home universe. It hadn´t been a surprise for them in the slightest that he was banished from the Decepticons in this world. Like him their Starscream had been a traitorous back stabber until Megatron had been finally forced to execute him.
When Sideways had brought this new version to them, they had been very distrustful at first, but their ally kept assuring them that he was useful and that he could keep him under control.
Well, so much for trusting Sideways anyway. What however motivated him to put the seeker through this ordeal now, they didn´t knew either. One thing was clear, this was meant to intimidate them, as he had pointed out, a demonstration, a cruel one.
Right after both of them had entered the room, Sideways had activated some mysterious torturing device that seemed to be placed inside of Starscream´s body.
The former Air Commander had so far been enduring the punishment without an protest or complaint. That was something completely untypical for him as everybody knew. It was nearly as if he had been expecting something like this all along or, even more terrifying, as if he was used to such a treatment.
"No, please stop it", he finally begged after wordlessly enduring the torture for several minutes, my master", he ended the sentence, sounding defeated and full of pain.
Sideways smiled at him.
"Good Starscream, you played your role very well."
"Thank you my master", the seeker gasped in a defeated voice.
But as soon as his tormentor wasn´t looking at him anymore, Starscream starred in grim anger. This was typical for him.
"Why are you doing this?" Optimus asked Sideways horrified.
"Ah Optimus Prime", he replied, "always caring, always trying to prevent suffering, even for your worst enemies, like him", he gestured to the seeker, "always trying to be the hero, to be noble. I have already heard of this trade of you and I never understood it."
"I doubt that someone like you would ever understand, someone who tortures others for his personal amusement." The Autobot leader looked at Starscream.
"Oh, that is just the price he had to pay for trying to betray me once and by that he can also be useful in showing you all what happens with the ones who are daring to stand in my way", he told them.
"And for your so called heroism Optimus, fact is you had failed to stop the Decepticons for over 9 million years, you have lost Cybertron to them twice. As I have heard, you could have easily killed Megatron during your so called battle of Autobot city, but you instead let him talk you into hesitating and that led to your own death and to the creation of Galvatron. You have only the Quintessons and the Matrix to thank for the fact that you are even alive right now. And finally like Megatron here, you walked completely clueless into my trap", Sideways said.
"Face it, your Autobot ideals are doomed to failure, exactly like the ones of your creator Primus. Seven years ago you had just luck, but this time I will win."
"What are you saying?" Optimus asked him, for a moment confused, then with a very uneasy feeling.
Sideways didn´t answer, but turned to the robot lying before him on the ground.
"It is good that you had learned your lesson from betraying me by now Starscream", Sideways told him mockingly. "Never forget one thing, you belong to me."
"Yes master Unicron", the seeker responded. He spoke this words with a hidden smirk, despite his own pain and public humiliation.
The entire room seemed to be like frozen as he had said this. They all spend a short moment not really believing what they had just heard.
Megatron and Thundercracker starred at the robot before them in shock. For a second, their minds didn´t even registered it, didn´t accept what they were just witnessing.
"Yes", Sideways continued to talk. His voice had suddenly changed into the deep bass of Unicron, a voice that only a few of them knew.
One of these was Optimus, even if in his case only from Matrix induced visions.
"It is me. You see, this body before you is merely a drone, a vessel that I placed a part of my consciousness into", Unicron told them, "and Optimus Prime, as I had said before, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
"No, no, no that can not be", Megatron stuttered. When he had thought he was in shock before, now that he heard this voice coming from the purple robot it was a hundred times worse.
He, once the mightiest of the Decepticons, was now shivering in fear and blank terror and that in front of his enemies. But still, his mind nearly collapsed, refused to comprehend the true identity of the robot before him.
"What however is disappointing is that you don´t have the Matrix with you", Unicron told Optimus.
"The power of the Matrix had extinguished", the Autobot leader answered him. He only hoped that the monster would believe his bluff.
"Optimus, I know that it´s energy has already started to refill itself and even in it´s current low power it would be good to destroy it. But I take you have given it to Rodimus right?"
He said nothing.
"So Primus has already reacted", Unicron answered in his place. "Well he will be too late", he said with visible self confidence.
"Ah and you Megatron, my good friend", he addressed the former Decepticon leader. "I remember how I found you. I have been searching a number of parallel universes to find fitting candidates for my plan, someone who was either desperate or naive enough and you certainly did fit. All I needed to was to show you a way out of your doomed dimension and the chance to once lead the Decepticons again and you would get along with all my `suggestions´.
"...to play us against each other", Optimus remarked.
"Yes exactly, you see Optimus, after the Matrix had destroyed my body, I was not quite as helpless as you might have thought. I possess followers under the cybertronians, you call them the `Brotherhood of Chaos´. They had helped me to repair my true self so far and to realize the beginnings of this plan. Even one of your Autobots is on my side Optimus", he informed them. "He had taken out Fortress Maximus for me.
You see", he said, now looking to his three Decepticon prisoners, "the most of my mercenaries, that I have recruited for you are actually members of my loyal cult, Doomsday here and the others", he explained to them.
In Optimus mind the points started to connect, Megatron and his group, Sideways followers, in fact Unicron minions, the new black Sweeps, a design from Unicron, right.
"Thanks to you Megatron, I was able to infiltrate the Decepticons. It is ironic, all I needed to tell you was that one of my creations was leading them in this world and you were more than willing to bring him down and like you called it, `save´ your empire from Unicron´s influence.
But like you have surely recognized by now Megatron, it was not Galvatron who was my pawn in all this, but you", he smiled at him, "and now you have served your purpose."
"No", he still stuttered.
With this words he raised his arm and shot the shackled and already injured Decepticon.
Megatron fell to his knees, even more damaged than before. A similar blast hit Thundercracker one moment later.
"Starscream, my loyal minion", he said this to the seeker in a ironic tone that made clear that it was meant to be insulting.
"Yes master", he answered.
"As you have probably known", Sideways/Unicron explained to them, "it was Starscream here who had reactivated me 6 of your years ago, in exchange for a new body he promised to help me in my failed attempt to take over Cybertron. But in the end he wanted to betray me."
This statement surprised nobody.
"As you remember my plan failed anyway because a group of Autobots stopped me from connecting my head to the planet. Starscream had only overseen one thing. I was the one who had created his new body and like Galvatron was, he is now under my control."
"Yes trough torture", Optimus remarked.
"It doesn´t matter how, he belongs to me", Unicron replied without much care. "Like I said before, I doesn´t need my `Decepticon leader´ anymore and I have decided now how to deal with him. You see, seven years ago I have picked something from the cosmos, his version from this reality and recreated him into Galvatron. It is time that I give something back to the universe."
Optimus heard his words and it took him a few moments to realize what the robot meant. Then he understood.
"Starscream, Doomsday, come and bring Megatron and Thundercracker to the air lock", Sideways told them.
"You can not do this", Optimus Prime tried to protest.
"Like I said, always trying to help your enemies. That is the reason you will loose in the end", Sideways replied.
He has gone mad, the Autobot leader realized one reason for the sadistic behavior of the robot who was in fact the entity Unicron. The last seven years he had been not much more than a bodiless head, floating in space, a god-like being reduced to a shadow of his former self, defeated and humiliated by beings he hadn´t even considered worthy enemies.
And now he was taking cruel revenge on anybody he could get. He was still torturing Starscream for his betrayal 6 years ago and maybe for the simple reason that he is available. A insane god, Optimus thought, for a moment he asked himself how dangerous this being really was.
The seeker stood at the air lock, the damaged body of Megatron in his hands.
"Starscream", the wounded robot said weakly. The former Air Commander overcame a horrible sense of deja vu. This was exactly like the point where his own downfall had started. He had once betrayed Megatron, exactly like this, but he came back as Galvatron and took revenge.
All this started a chain of events that ended with his own enslavement by Unicron and now he stood here as a puppet of someone else and was forced to do the same thing all over again for his sick amusement.
Starscream couldn´t act differently, the sarcastic part of him that was still active in him just had to do it.
As he let Megatron fall out into space, he said the words in cruel irony on himself,
"Oh how it pains me to do this."
He remembered that he had said exactly the same words when he had abandoned Megatron like this once before.
This time however he meant them.
xxxxxxx
Underground of Cybertron
"So if I have understand you right Primus, you want my help?" Galvatron asked.
The Transformer god had just finished telling all of them about the situation and about the history he wanted them to know about.
"Yes Galvatron, as you know our common enemy has returned and we have to work together to stop him."
The Decepticon leader and Cyclonus looked at each other, then at Scourge and the others.
"What do you think?" A Sweep asked his group commander quietly.
"What he says is true, but can we trust him? Scourge replied.
"You are right that Unicron is behind all of this. I have met this robot Sideways myself and I have seen what he truly is. There is only one problem with all of what you said."
"And what is that?" Primus asked him.
"Why exactly should I help you?" Galvatron asked him with obvious bitterness.
"One moment", the Autobot Kup called out, "what do you think…?"
"This is enough Kup", Primus/Rodimus interrupted him. "Let Galvatron speak."
"You claim that our common enemy has returned, that we all are in danger, that we should work together. All that was true seven years ago too", the Decepticon said.
"I remember that I stood before Unicron with the Matrix in my hands, hoping that it would help me. But it didn´t work. The Matrix failed me on that day and the Matrix and you, as you admitted yourself, are one and the same. You have failed me.
Seven years ago we controlled Cybertron, we conquered it in a long war. You claim to be neutral in our conflict, but your `sacred weapon´ didn´t do anything to help us until the Autobots took over the fight", he accused him.
"Where have you been when hundreds of our troops had been slaughtered?" Cyclonus asked him in anger now too. "You had done nothing to help till our defenses had been destroyed, our troops were decimated and our cities lay in ruins and nearly all the Autobots still needed to do was to just march in and take over.
You were on their side all along and now you want to use us in the same way as before. We fight for you and the Autobots and when it is over we are too weak to defend ourselves", he claimed bitterly.
"I promise you", Primus answered, "what you think is not the case."
"Yes? Why should we believe you?" Galvatron asked now again. "You have deserted us before. You have made it pretty clear which group of your `children´ you prefer."
xxxxxxx
Somewhere in space, a few hours later
Skywarp was flying through the emptiness. He was still following the signal.
As Starscream had told him about this the first time he didn´t believe him, no wonder considering who was talking.
Still this was too important to just ignore it.
However from the moment the Sweep drones were starting to turn on their own troops, he had to admit that he was starting to believe what he said.
Starscream had warned him and Thundercracker during the battle that Sideways was planning a coup. It was not really an unlikely thought, but coming from their former superior officer, no matter what version, everything was suspicious.
Despite that they had agreed to an emergency plan he had proposed. Right now he was following the signal from one of the tracers Starscream had given to them. To his surprise however it didn´t came from somewhere on board the captured Decepticon ships, but from some point in space.
A few minutes later he began to see the damaged forms of Megatron and Thundercracker floating before him.
The title of this chapter refers to the situation both groups of Transformers are in.
At one side are Galvatron and Cyclonus who are asked for help by Primus but then confront him because he had in their mind let them down at the time of Unicron´s first attack.
At the other there is the group around Optimus, Starscream and Megatron, who are confronted with a revenge-hungry and bloodthirsty version of Unicron.
Both are literally facing a god.