Chapter 18
It was dark all around him. He could barely see anything. His energy levels were dangerously low so that many of his systems were working only at a minimum.
He felt his body floating through the emptiness, he felt the pain from his injuries.
At the inside however he was filled with rage and despair. How could it have come to this?
Megatron remembered how he had been thrown into space by Starscream, exactly like his counterpart had been seven years before.
Sideways, he remembered, his ally.
Yes, ally he thought sarcastically.
From the beginning the robot had been nothing but a vessel for Unicron. His worst enemy had been using and manipulating him the whole time.
A part of the Decepticon leader really wanted to shoot himself. How could he have been so naive?
The answer was actually very easy, desperation. In his universe they had lost. Their last survivors were being hunted down and exterminated.
At the point where Sideways had contacted him, he would have agreed to anything as long as it promised the slightest bit of hope.
And as he offered him a chance to escape his world and to become again what he once was, the leader of the Decepticon empire, he had accepted all too readily.
And now he was paying the price. How could he have been so blind?
Was this the end? He thought. Would he die out here, slowly and pathetic?
Exactly like the other Megatron nearly did, the one who became Galvatron.
The anger he felt went beyond any limits.
No, it couldn´t end like this. He swore to himself, should he somehow survive this he would get his revenge.
He would find a way to destroy this creature and everybody who had helped it.
But despite that he felt the last of his energy slowly running out and his conscious beginning to slip away. Deep down a part of him knew and feared that there was no hope.
As his optics were starting to shut down he thought he saw an object in the distance. Somehow it seemed to getting closer, just before everything became dark.
xxxxxxx
The underground of Cybertron
At the deepest levels of the planet the Decepticon leader Galvatron was still involved in a confrontation with the cybertronian god Primus.
"Let me tell you this Primus, last time when we and the Autobots had been fighting under your so called guidance for the supposed best of the universe, well it didn´t played out for us very well. You", he pointed his finger at Primus mortal vessel Hotrod, "had just used us and then discarded us.
My troops fought and died against your enemy and then we were thrown off our own world, were forced into exile and had to start again with barely anything."
"Moment, this was not how it happened", Ultra Magnus interrupted him, "at the time the Autobots took control of Cybertron, the most Decepticons were already off-planet."
"Or they were dead", Cyclonus cut him off, "or they were on board of the flagship when Unicron smashed it and it drifted into space."
"Or that", Ultra Magnus admitted. "It is true that some Decepticons fought side by side with us against Unicron, but others were attacking us on sight and were then fighting us till the bitter end. We had not truly been allies."
"Does that surprise you. The chaos had broken out on Cybertron at that time. Every order or command structure had been lost. We would have agreed to an alliance, we just had not gotten the chance", Cyclonus explained.
"Exactly that is the point", Galvatron told them. "I was standing with the Matrix directly before Unicron. Had you allowed me to open it we would have won without my troops and half of our planet destroyed."
"You tried to force Unicron under your control", Primus reminded him.
"Of course I did. We are fighting a war and with Unicron as my weapon I could have won it in a single day."
Kup and Goldbug looked at each other, silently shaking their heads over the Decepticon´s "logic".
"But as it didn´t work I tried to destroy him but you didn´t let me."
"I am sorry Galvatron, it was not possible."
"The Autobot Hotrod, the one in those body you are right now told me that the Matrix wouldn´t work in the hands of a Decepticon", Galvatron stated.
"He was wrong. You couldn´t be allowed to use the Matrix because Unicron was influencing your mind. Letting you connect with it would have meant giving Unicron access to it."
This argument made Galvatron only more angry.
"With other words you were afraid", he accused him.
"Yes, I was afraid", Primus admitted. "I was afraid to risk all of Cybertron, including the Decepticons and afterwards the whole universe."
"Unicron tried to take me over and to turn me into his pawn. He tortured me, forced me to attack Rodimus Prime, the one who then really used the Matrix and stopped him and you did nothing to prevent this."
"I am sorry my child", Primus replied. "You are right, I had failed you. It was not possible, for the best of the universe."
"Yes and who says it won´t end exactly the same way this time? That `for the best of the universe´ you have to let me down in the end.
Like things are standing right now, I rather risk fighting Unicron alone than follow you and relying on your help." Galvatron turned around.
"Come Cyclonus, we are going", he told his second in command."
"Yes, mighty Galvatron", he answered with obvious conviction. Both of them started to walk away.
The dozens of Decepticons in the room moved to go with them. They all had heard the exchange and none of them hesitated to follow the command."
"Wait." They heard Primus voice behind them.
"What is it?" Galvatron wanted to know.
"You are right that you have no reason to trust me. It is my duty to look out for all my children and I failed in this.
You should know however that I don´t expect any faith from you, not even respect. I am not asking for your services, I am offering you mine. I am yours to command my master."
"What did you say?" Galvatron asked him.
xxxxxxx
Nebulos, the moon Ceras
A number of Decepticons who had escaped from the battle had begun to regroup on one of Nebulos moons. They were right now repairing their damage and trying to reorganize themselves.
Ironically a few Autobots who had shared the same fate had settled only a few miles away from them. At the end of the fight both sides had only been left to flee for their lives.
Lying on the ground were the damaged forms of Megatron and Thundercracker. A group led by Skywarp had just brought them in.
The seeker had been very surprised to find the two floating in space instead of in a brick cell of board the Conqueror. That was at least one point where Starscream had been wrong.
The techs had done a good work. Skywarp saw that the two damaged Decepticons were coming close to be reactivating.
xxxxxxx
Former Decepticon flagship, in orbit over the planet Nebulos
Optimus Prime, Skyfire, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Skorponok were still held captive on board of the former Decepticon ship.
The five prisoners were placed at the end of the command bridge and watching down on the continents of the planet below them. They were flanked by Doomsday, Tracer and Flashlight, who where guarding them with raised weapons.
Sideways was before them in the center of the room. Behind them, close to the consoles, was Starscream standing. He, even more than the prisoners, was looking as if he didn´t want to be here at all.
"Optimus, Skorponok", he addressed them, "you surely ask yourself why you are still alive. Why didn´t I just kill you?
The answer is simple. You are just not important enough, not even you Optimus, the so called greatest leader of the Autobots. Were you able to stop me or to even make a difference in the greater scheme of things? No."
A number of screens were activated in front of them. They showed what had once been the nebulonian capital. Now it was a devastated wasteland, crowded by Sweep drones. The robots were collecting parts of trash and rubble.
"As you see my soldiers have taken control of the planet. My new Sweeps are currently assembling raw materials for their cloning process, to produce more versions of themselves."
One of the screens showed a Sweep picking up a particular large piece of metal.
"They will grow even larger in number and soon you won´t be able to stop them anymore. The Quintessons did a good work in constructing the first of them for me."
"The Quintessons?" Optimus said.
"That too is not longer important to you", he addressed the Prime. "I am not interested in your death, in fact I am not interested in you at all.
All what I want from you is to know one thing. Where is the Matrix?"
"I won´t tell you anything."
"You won´t. Yes, I actually expected this reaction from you.
Starscream", he addressed the seeker who was now enslaved to his will. "After my last demonstration I think you would be glad for a chance to prove your loyalty to me."
The former Air Commander looked at him but didn´t say a word.
"Doomsday, show us the cities on Nebulos that had so far been spared by the war."
"Yes master", the Decepticon, who was in fact one of Unicron´s worshipers answered dutifully.
The screens changed and showed now aerial pictures of several larger cities.
"What you see here is Ambya, the largest town at the south continent", Sideways pointed at one of the showings. "It has slightly over five million inhabitants."
"No", Optimus called out. He realized what their enemy was planning.
"I will give you a choice", Sideways said to the seeker. "You have two possibilities to show your devotion to me."
He looked at Skyfire.
"As I understand, you know this Autobot quite well. You are old friends right?" In the background, they heard one of Unicron´s followers chuckle.
"Doomsday", Sideways said and the Decepticon and his two partners were drawing their guns at Skyfire.
"So I leave the choice to you. You can either fire the antimatter missiles or watch your friend here die. It is your decision, it doesn´t matter to me which you take."
"You are joking right?" Starscream exclaimed. "I have tried to kill him myself once. This Autobot means nothing to me."
"Then the decision won´t be hard for you right?"
The seeker looked at Skyfire for a few moments. This bot had been his mentor, his friend, his role model, once a long time ago.
"Starscream", he said, "let them kill me."
Starscream´s face showed no visible emotion. His gaze wandered to Skyfire, then at Sideways and back.
"Please, don´t even think about doing this", the Autobot jet begged him.
"Now, what is it?" Sideways wanted to know.
The seeker moved a few steps backwards.
"Starscream?" Skyfire asked him unsure.
He pushed the bottom on the console before him.
"No", Skorponok shouted.
They watched as the missiles were descending downwards, for a few moments.
Then one of the screens was filled with a flash of light. They saw the explosions on the surface.
Skyfire was looking downwards, starring at the ground.
"And Optimus?" Sideways asked.
The Autobot leader staid silent. He knew if he told this creature what he wanted to know everything would get only worse.
"No? Here you see Sebios, three and a half million citizens and Cirya, one million." He pointed at two other screens.
"Starscream", he ordered. The seeker fired again. A few seconds later they saw two other towns going up in flames.
"Enough", Prime shouted. "The Matrix is on Cybertron, at the planet´s core", he told him.
"With Primus", Sideways realized. "Thank you Optimus, that was all I wanted to know."
"He will bring us the Matrix back and then Hotrod will use it to stop you."
Sideways was laughing.
"Primus can not recharge the Matrix. He did it once and it cost him nearly all his strength. Now he is only a shadow of his old self. No Optimus, I fear there is no hope for you and now that I know I can make sure that there will never be again.
Bring them away."
xxxxxxx
Somewhere in space
Fortress Maximus, the wrecked form of his space-ship mode, was flying somewhere between Nebulos and Earth.
The Autobots had found the command station destroyed, Galen, Fortress nebulon partner, dead.
Fortress Maximus higher functions were off-line, they were barely able to fly the ship.
Out there they had been meeting a shuttle from Earth that was helping them repairing the damage.
"Do you think you can be doing anything? How is he?" Spike asked Perceptor.
He and Marissa Fairbourne had been accompanying the Autobot shuttle crew that was currently inspecting the damaged super-robot.
"I don´t know", the Autobot scientist answered him. "If we can repair the systems the machine itself will probably work again. But Fortress Maximus, his personality. I don´t know. Galen was practically a part of him and that part is now gone. I don´t know if he will ever completely recover from this."
"And it is unlikely that his super-form will ever work again, unless he got another humanoid partner", one of the other robots pointed out.
"Hardhead", someone hissed at him over the headmaster´s insensitive behavior.
"Hey I only say what is true", he defended himself. "We are in the middle of a war you know?"
"You mean we need someone to replace Galen", Marissa said and looked at the burned out room where the nebulon leader would have been.
xxxxxxx
Nebulonian moon Ceras
Megatron was restored. The leader of, what was now merely a small remnant faction of the Decepticons, was standing before his very reluctant followers.
After the disaster of the last battle the trust they had in him was more than shaken, the little the most of them had in him from the beginning.
The simple and ultimate truth was, he wasn´t their leader and had never been. He wasn´t the Megatron from their past.
True, he had usurped leadership by cunning and trickery, not even entirely his own, as he hated to admit, but his first real chance to prove himself once again had turned in a total loss.
And now the truth was out.
The group before him consisted of 14 Decepticons, his two seeker lieutenants, the six Seacons, the two fliers Darkwing and Dreadwind, both had never been really loyal to him and only followed him by default, two triple changers named Ripper and Talon, the headmaster called Mindwipe and a mechanic named Bolt who he had never met before. The last two played a great role in repairing him and Thundercracker. To that came a small group of nebulon followers of Zarak.
Beside them there were also 5 Autobots, the three powermasters Getaway, Joyride and Slapdash, a robot called Punch and Prowl, the Autobot from his world who had by now informed all of them about his true identity and his heritage.
To make it short, some of them were not happy.
Despite his own doubts Megatron addressed the group.
"Decepticons", he said, conveniently ignoring that over a quarter of the robots present weren´t even ones, "we have lost the last battle because we have been betrayed by an ally. But we are regrouping. Now is our chance to strike back, now is our chance for revenge."
From the robots before him he could hear less than enthusiastic remarks.
"And why should we follow you after you were the one who brought us into this entire mess in the first place?" Darkwing asked him.
The two jets had just been repaired and had bonded themselves with two of the nebulons. For this they copied the technology of the present Autobots and became Decepticon powermasters. It was the quickest and most easy way to replace some of their damaged systems.
"Yes, it was you who has brought us here", Dreadwind fell in.
Normally Megatron would not tolerate anybody talking to him like this, but here he knew it was all too justified.
"It is true that I let Sideways or should I call him Unicron? trick me", he admitted. "But believe me, right now I would like nothing more than to destroy this creature with my own hands."
"You have lied to us about your identity, about Galvatron", Snap Trap accused him. He knew that his team was right now distrusted by many simply because Sideways was the one who had recruited them and he blamed Megatron for it.
"And when had a Decepticon leader ever made it on top by honesty alone?" the same Megatron asked him sarcastically.
"Listen to me, Unicron, our all worst enemy is on Nebulos. He is in a simple, regular robot body. Maybe this is the first time he had ever been vulnerable, maybe this is our one chance to destroy him and free ourselves from him once and for all. I am not the Megatron you know and remember., but right now I am your best chance of success.
If anybody is here who thinks that he can lead us better against Sideways than me, he shall step for."
As he had predicted nobody moved.
"You may not trust me, but right now I am the best leader you have. If you still not trust me after this battle you can replace me if you want. But right now I am your commander. Who will follow me?"
As he had predicted everybody fell in and gave his agreement.
"And you?" He asked the five Autobots. "Will you come with us too?" He addressed Prowl, the nominate leader of the group.
The robot in question remembered how he had come to this world in the first place.
XXX
"Do you really think this will work Wheeljack?" He asked.
"This is the same technology that Megatron had used", the Autobot scientist reminded him.
"Correction, this is a recreated version of the technology that you have built based on what we know about it."
"Yes and I guaranty you I have done my best."
"I know you did, but if there was something missing in our information you couldn´t do a thing about it."
"See it from that point of view, it is not as if your life expectancy would be any longer if you staid. Yesterday we lost Blaster and Hoist. Our southern outpost had been destroyed last week. We are dieing."
"I know", Prowl replied.
"Your mission to locate Megatron and to find out what he is doing is possible the very reason you will stay alive."
xxx
The next day
"Are you ready?" Ultra Magnus asked him.
"Yes."
"You will have to go alone. We can not afford to send anybody with you."
"I knew that."
"When you have arrived try to made contact with the locals. Warn them about Megatron. Then try to reestablish contact with us."
"And if I can not?"
"When we are lost."
"I understand." Prowl stepped into the machine.
"Good luck", Magnus told him.
xxx
And now he was here, in another world, between other Autobots and Decepticons, fighting the same enemy.
"We will come with you", he answered Megatron.
xxxxxxx
Former Decepticon flagship Conqueror
After the last terrible events the prisoners had been brought back into their cell. They all felt even more lost than before.
Skorponok was the worst of. He was completely silent, starring at the walls.
The nebulon in him had just watched how his home-world had been burned down. Optimus had seen similar states in others who had gone through terrible experiences.
He wanted to say something. But what should he? Had he not waited so long to give Sideways the information he wanted, would things have been different?
After about an half hour of waiting the door opened.
Starscream stepped inside.
"You", Skorponok hissed at him now.
"Hello all of you", the seeker greeted them.
"What do you want Screamer?" Sideswipe asked him, using Skywarp´s old nickname for him.
"What would you say if I told you that I came to release all of you?"
"Why should we trust you after all you have done?" Skyfire wanted to know.
"Oh please old friend, as if Sideways would have not destroyed this towns anyway if I had simply refused to push this button. You would have died for nothing and he would have still bombed them."
"You don´t know that."
"You know Skyfire, even after all this years in the war you can still be quite naive. Sometimes it is hard to believe that we had been the best friends."
"Yes, it is hard to believe", the Autobot said in a somewhat softer tone.
"Why do you want to help us?" Optimus asked him.
"Is that so hard to understand? I want to stop Sideways."
"To free yourself from him and to get revenge", the Autobot leader remarked.
"Yes", Starscream replied sharply. "I have contact with forces outside and I have a plan."
"We can not trust this snake Optimus", Sunstreaker said.
"I know."
"But you have no choice", the seeker told him, "or the entire galaxy will share the fate of Nebulos."
"We will work with you", Prime agreed.
"Very good", Starscream said and deactivated the energy supply for their chains.
In the moment they were free, Skorponok tackled him. The much larger robot smashed him against the wall and held him in place.
"Skorponok", Optimus said, "I can imagine how you feel."
"Yes? Then you will understand when I kill him."
"I understand you, better than you know. But he is right in one point, if he is not stopped, Sideways will continue to destroy Nebulos and then he will go to other planets. He needs to be stopped and for that, we need Starscream."
"Good", the Decepticon reluctantly agreed.
"This is not over", he told the seeker before he finally released him.
"Well", Starscream smiled with mock modesty, "let me tell you the plan."
xxxxxxx
The group of Autobots and Decepticons was once again nearing the planet Nebulos.
"Starscream had warned us about the coup shortly before it happened", Skywarp informed Megatron. "Of course we didn´t believe a word. By what he had told us Sideways and his crew would turn on us during the fight."
"What he had forgot to mention were the hundreds of Sweeps or that Sideways is actually Unicron", Thundercracker remarked, "or he didn´t knew it himself."
"Starscream planned to break us all out from the Conqueror´s brig and strike directly against them. He gave Thundercracker a tracer right before the battle to find out our direct location. Instead Sideways decided to dump you two into space.
I followed the signal to find you, real luck after all."
"Yes", Megatron replied darkly, "we were truly lucky, but now it is Sideways who will need luck."
xxxxxxx
The group around Starscream and Optimus was walking through the corridors of the Conqueror, aiming to catch their enemies off guard.
They were trying to reach the command bridge, where they suspected their enemy would be. Their chance to get any far undetected were very small, they were aware of that. But it didn´t hurt trying.
It came as it had to. After a few meters more, Eraser and Tracer, two of Sideways warriors came around the corner.
For a moment the Autobot-Decepticon group and the two Unicron cultists were only looking at each other.
"Blast them", Eraser then suddenly yelled and the two opened fire.
xxxxxxx
At the same time at the command bridge
"Have you followed my orders?" Sideways asked the Sweep leader Carnage, who was standing behind him.
"Yes, I have ordered the greatest part of the Sweep army to Cybertron."
"Very good, they shall raid the planet, destroy everything in their way."
"Excuse me master, but won´t that leave us vulnerable here?"
"Yes it will Carnage. Believe me, it is all going according to plan."
xxx
At this moment the ship was shaken by an attack from the outside.
Megatron´s group had arrived.
The Seacons had merged into Piranhacon and were spear-heading the attack, the super robot was slamming the ship with his bare hands.
The rest of them were firing from a larger distance or struggling with the Sweep-drones.