Several things from the last chapters, in first line from the past story arc, 9.000.000 years ago, will be explained in this chapter.
The Fallen is here not, like in the second movie, the founder of the Decepticons, but like originally a herald of Unicron. His physical appearance however is more based on the movie version.
Chapter 16
The assembled Transformers, Autobots and Decepticons alike, were standing before the being who had once been the Autobot Cronus.
Somehow the robot had undergone a complete reformation on the molecular level.
Like Galvatron would have nearly twenty years later, Hotrod remembered.
But he was the only one present who could knew about this. Only here it seemed to have happened by Cronus own accord and by his own power.
The name itself some of them recognized.
The Fallen, as he was called, was a creature out of old legends that only a few Transformers today even remembered. He was said to be one of the first Transformers, thirteen original creations that were older than their current history. It was a legend, like Primus or the Chaos Bringer.
This one was said to have betrayed the other twelve and so his real name had been erased and he was only be called "The Fallen".
Of course this was only a legend or so they thought.
The entire situation was insane. What everybody had thought was an Autobot was now attacking them. The sides were reversed from one moment to the other. What everybody thought was a usual Transformer was now a creature out of an old story.
xxx
The transformed former Cronus had just mortally wounded Elita One and everybody had been too surprised to even react. Now both sides were facing him and none was certain what exactly to expect from this new entity, only that he obviously wasn´t a friend to either of their sides.
Some of them could barely believe what was going on before their eyes.
In the next second The Fallen vanished from sight and reappeared only a moment later, standing on Menasor´s shoulder.
With a move of his battle staff he hit the gestalt robot directly at a weak point between his shoulders and his arms. A strong energy impulse was shot through the connectios between Menasor´s components and the already weakened super-robot simply fell apart.
Many of the Transformers present were shocked by this display of power. Even against a gestalt that was already in bad shape it was this still overwhelming.
To that came the fact that barely one of them was still at their full strength. The most were already damaged or at least out of energy. None of them was sure if they had even still a chance against this enemy in their state.
The supposed thirteen original Transformers were an ancient myth. Only a few cybertronians were old enough to have even know anything about this story. Nobody really believed it.
They were said to be the first Transformers in existence and they were supposed to be much more powerful than most of the ones that lived in the current time. Nobody was sure if he had ever really existed, even less when.
To put it short they were a myth.
Optimus for example had heard about this old stories once from Alpha Trion. He wasn´t sure if he ever really believed anything of it.
Right now however he didn´t care. He didn´t even care about the insanity of the situation anymore or about the fight.
Elita was lying badly injured a few meters from him. He knelt beside her.
"Optimus", she stammered, "he…" She looked in the direction of their new enemy. Elita was dieing, there was no doubt about it.
"…I am sorry. I didn´t know…", she said to him.
"It is okay Elita", he answered. "You couldn´t have, none of us did."
Optimus felt like a complete fool. He should have listened to Prowl. Cronus had proofed himself to be untrustworthy millions of years ago. He had executed prisoners, possibly committed other war-crimes. But for the sake of the war-effort they had let him go away just with a self exposed exile.
And this was the result.
This creature had infiltrated the Autobots and fooled them for who knows how long.
"We have always known that it could sometimes end like this, right Optimus?" Elita told him. "That one of us would die some day. This was always hanging over us."
Elita´s head sunk down. Her optics had become dark.
xxx
The Autobots and the Decepticons, some of the few who were still able to fight, were looking at each other for a short time before they in silent agreement attacked The Fallen together.
Prowl, Ironhide, Skywarp and Thundercracker were charging him.
Skywarp teleported and attacked from a different ankle than the others. Thundercracker and the two Autobots were firing on him from the front.
Their enemy however countered their assault quite easily. He deflected one shot with his staff, two others hit his armor on chest and shoulder but barely left a scratch.
Then he threw Ironhide and Prowl with a well place hit over 30 meters through the air. Thundercracker could barely avoid a shot from his gun.
Wheeljack shot a missile at him from long range. It hit but did no visible damage. Another shot from The Fallen blasted Wheeljack´s shoulder apart and ripped his arm off.
He had won.
But it didn´t matter, this was not the reason he was here.
Then he saw the robot he was waiting for.
"Optimus, my old friend", he greeted him.
The Autobot leader had seen the creature standing over his defeated comrades. He decided it was time to get active.
"You", he said in the coldest voice anybody had ever heard of him.
"For how long have you been hiding among us?" Optimus asked him.
"From the beginning", he answered.
"So Cronus the Autobot never existed", Optimus stated.
"A useful facade, it served my purposes."
"I understand", he answered without a visible emotion. One moment later he charged his opponent.
The Fallen met his attack, obviously without great difficulties.
"I had been posing as a Autobot for a long time", he said, "doing little things to make sure the war turns as bad as possible, playing both you and the Decepticons."
The two exchanged a number of blows.
"But it wasn´t what I truly wanted", The Fallen said.
"And what did you want?" Optimus asked him.
"That what is inside of you right now."
"The Matrix", he realized.
"Yes, I am talking about the creation Matrix, that is nothing but the life force of Primus itself."
The Fallen landed a hit and threw his opponent several meters backwards. He was physically stronger than the Autobot leader, but Optimus fought vigorously.
"You want to destroy the Matrix? Why?" he asked.
"In the future an Autobot will rise from the ranks. In the darkest hour he will stand up and bring the light." The Fallen was reciting an ages old cybertronian prophesy. "You know this verses right?" he asked. "I want to make sure that it will never happen."
"Who are you?" Optimus asked.
"I was the first Herald of Chaos. For countless millions of years I have been serving the goals of my master.
"Do you remember our first meeting?" The Fallen reminded him. "I have told you about Megatron´s entire plan and led you directly to his base." He looked Optimus directly in the eyes as he said the rest.
"The truth is his attempt to transform Cybertron into a mobile world-ship would have ruined all my plans. You see, had Cybertron staid in it´s original orbit, my master would have found it millions of years ago and you, your followers and the entire Transformers race would have been wiped out long before."
Optimus began to understand how badly he had been manipulated.
"Hundreds of Autobots and Decepticons died in that battle", Optimus told him.
"Yes, that was another advantage", The Fallen replied.
"Advantage?" Optimus asked him darkly.
The two opponents were still exchanging blows. One swing of his enemies battle staff hit the Autobot leader at the leg, causing a minor wound, not that bad, but enough to be a distraction in the fight.
"It was easy to get you to stop Megatron for me. Had you succeeded it would have been the end of your race. But something unpredicted happened", The Fallen continued. "Cybertron was thrown out of it´s orbit and left the system anyway. For all of you it was a tragedy. The irony was that you didn´t realize it was probably the best thing to ever happen to you."
"Yes, an irony of history", Optimus remarked sarcastically as he fired a shot at his enemy that scorched his armor.
"But for me it was a disaster. So I decided to make the best of the situation. I joined your ranks, at least at the outside and I waited for my chance to get to you and the Matrix. Oh, you protected it well, never taking any chances, never going out unguarded, never being careless.
It became even worse after that creature Cabal tried to take control of it. You didn´t even carried it in you from then but hid it on a secret place and my chance to destroy it was gone."
Optimus realized he had made the right decision a long time ago.
"I decided to leave Cybertron, but not before making sure that both of your sides are weakened and thinned out as much as possible, for the behalf of my master. I just executed a few defenseless Decepticons and you in your endless wisdom had "banished" me from Cybertron. I even used the chance to take others with me to never be seen again."
"Who is your master?" Optimus asked.
"You will find out soon enough, in your darkest hour you will all see him."
The Fallen´s face was partly hidden under a battle mask but Optimus was sure that he was smiling.
So far he had only been playing with his target.
He knew despite his calm exterior Optimus was close to the breaking point, he had just lost the robot who was closest to him, by his hand and now he was rubbing into his face how far he had deceived him.
Optimus would attack him in a rage and try fighting him one to one, without help, all he had to do was wait for him to come out.
In his weakened state however, he knew the Autobot leader had absolutely no hope against him.
As Optimus attack finally came, his opponent had only been waiting for it.
xxx
Hotrod had finally gotten the object that he had come for.
But now he could only watch the fight between Optimus and the robot that Cronus had changed into.
He remembered the last time this events had happened. From the eyes of the Hotrod of this time, who was still on Cybertron right now.
He had met both Elita and Cronus as they had left for exactly this battle.
And now he had watched how one of their allies had turned into a monster before their eyes.
Why had he not been informed about what had truly happened here back then? he asked himself. Why had nobody told him what Cronus really was?
Elita could still be alive, he could have warned them.
He realized that he had just answered his own question. They didn´t want him to know.
The other Autobots didn´t want him to endanger the past. They had knowingly kept him from changing anything, including Elita´s death. He didn´t want to think what that had meant for Optimus.
Then suddenly a blast nearly caught him in the side. The shot had only barely missed him.
It was Starscream. The seeker was attacking him, flying in robot-mode.
"Give it back, it belongs to me", he screamed.
Hotrod had already dodged a second blast and had now the chance to counter. It was obvious to him that Starscream was in a rage and was attacking him nearly blindly.
"Not this time", he called out and returned fire.
The blast struck the seeker at one of his wings and brought him off balance. Hotrod used then the chance to struck him in the face.
Then he turned around to the place Optimus and their new enemy were fighting.
This creature had mentioned "The darkest hour", a old Autobot prophesy.
It was one that Optimus himself would mention on his death bed in the future, a prophesy that would become true with the rise of Rodimus Prime and the end of the Chaos Bringer.
For Hotrod, this now only meant one thing, this being was an agent of Unicron.
His aim was obviously to destroy the Matrix before it could be used to stop his master
and he was about to succeed.
xxx
Optimus managed to land few successful hits, but then he was quickly overwhelmed by his enemies greater strength and currently better condition.
Optimus was growing weaker and weaker. He had overestimated himself, he admitted silently and he had let grief and anger cloud his better judgment.
And then it was suddenly over.
A single hard strike broke through his defense, his gun was ripped from his hands.
The next blow dented his chest plate and shattered the glass plates in it and slammed him to the ground.
"It is senseless old friend", The Fallen stated. "You have taken too much damage from the previous fights, something that I have of course already known when I have send you here. You were always far too gullible for your own good Optimus or for that of your followers.
You have no chance."
xxx
From some distance Megatron had seen the entire confrontation and had heard every word.
Right behind him were Soundwave and the seekers Thundercracker and Skywarp who had landed and were now standing next to their leader.
Megatron began to charge his fusion gun.
"What are you doing?" Skywarp asked him.
"He is about to defeat Optimus", he replied.
The Decepticon leader was damaged but he lifted his gun.
"If I bring my weapon at the highest power possible I think I will be able to bring even him down", Megatron said, pointing at The Fallen. "As you know, I have never used it to it full potential, but this time I will."
"Course of action not advisable", Soundwave reminded him, "it would damage you too."
"I know", the Decepticon leader replied.
What barely anybody knew was that Megatron`s fusion gun draw it´s power from a small singularity, a black hole. But it´s full potential was so powerful and so uncontrollable that it would nearly unavoidable weaken and probably damage himself too, so he barely ever used it.
It was a last resort measure.
"Your condition is already dangerous", Skywarp pointed out.
"Don´t try to stop me", Megatron told them. "I have myself to settle a score with this being myself."
Nine million years ago his plans for the planet Cybertron were destroyed. His master plan was turned into a disaster in a single day. Now he knew the full background of what had happened back then.
He began to take aim.
xxx
Optimus was lying helpless on the ground.
"For you, it is over now ", The Fallen said to him.
He bowed knelt down before Optimus damaged form and ripped his chest compartment open
The Matrix, that was hidden in the Autobot leader´s body, became visible.
The damage was extreme. Optimus was on the brink of consciousness.
He was in a state somewhere between life and dead. He had failed, he knew this.
He had failed the Matrix and the Autobots. It was his own overconfidence and his hasty decisions that had let to this situation.
Optimus could now see the light of the Matrix that he knew so well all around him. He could feel it´s warm comforting presence.
As long as the Matrix was with him it had always been there, underlying and barely noticeable. Now, were he was on the edge of death, it became visible to him.
But then he recognized there was also a second presence, cold, hateful and malevolent.
It was pure darkness, like Optimus had never felt it before, not even when he had been confronted with Cabal all those million years before.
A part of it, the smaller one, he realized came from The Fallen.
But there was a force towering behind him, a darkness that was in intensity equal to the Matrix, even if in it´s nature it was the absolute opposite.
Then he began to hear the voices.
"And so it ends Primus", Optimus could hear the words been spoken, the "sound", that wasn´t sonic waves but something else, somehow being taken through the space.
It was a deep and cruel voice, full of hate and anger.
"My faithful servant will destroy your weak puppet that you call Prime."
"You underestimate me and you underestimate my children", Optimus could hear another voice answer.
It was to him as if he knew this being or at least should have known it for a long time.
What is that? Optimus asked himself. His mind was drifting more and more into unconsciousness.
"I don´t think so. Your greatest mistake was to make yourself so vulnerable. A single wrong decision of your creations and all will be lost to you.
I will win and I don´t even have to do something", the sinister voice said.
"Who are you?", Optimus mind called out.
"The Chaos-Bringer, destroyer", the benevolent voice answered his question. "Stand up child and fight", it told him.
Was what he was seeing been real? Optimus asked himself or was it all some kind of hallucination.
xxx
The Fallen stood over him, ready to grab the Matrix and rip it out of Optimus chest.
"And so it ends", he said, repeating the words of his master.
xxx
Hotrod had seen what was happening and he knew the entire time what this being was after.
It reminded him all too much of what had happened in Autobot city.
But this time it was worse, this time it was not only Optimus life at stake, it was the world, the future, the entire universe.
Hotrod knew he could not make the same mistake twice. Once he had gotten involved into one of Optimus fights and it backfired terrible. But he had no choice.
He would not fail this time.
Hotrod transformed into car-mode and raced at the enemy. The time-machine was now lying on his driver´s set.
xxx
The Fallen was ready to to tore the Matrix from Optimus body and destroy it.
Too late he registered that a sports-car was coming at him with full speed. Hotrod crashed into him and slammed him down.
"No", he screamed. He had been so close.
Hotrod transformed and tried to drag Optimus away from his foe.
The time machine was still with him. He could hardly let it lying around.
It was the reason he had risked involving the past Autobots in the first place, to get it out of the hands of their enemies and now this.
He didn´t dare to put it into his sub-space pocket, not knowing what it could have of a effect on the technology,
he couldn´t let it lying around where he had been standing, where Starscream or any other Decepticon could just pick it up,
he couldn´t keep it in his hands while he was fighting.
So he threw it away, in a short distance from him. Of course his stand against this enemy was still hopeless, he thought.
The Fallen was standing up again.
Hotrod realized he was finished, his energy reserves were close to their limit and this enemy was just too strong. He had succeeded in bringing Optimus out of his enemies range, at least for the moment. There was no chance that he could continue the fight.
Now the others would have to react or it would all be over.
At that moment a giant blast hit The Fallen from behind. The shot ripped through his body. His right arm and the greatest part of his shoulder were literally blown off.
With a terrible scream the original Prime went to his knees.
xxx
"Yes", Megatron said to himself. It felt good doing this, he had to admit.
"Skywarp, Thundercracker, now get me the time-travel device back", he ordered.
xxx
Hotrod and Optimus saw how their enemy went down. When they realized who had made the shot they could barely believe it. Megatron of all people had just saved them.
But then something happened that nobody would have expected at this moment, a energy sphere that he only knew all too well was suddenly surrounding Hotrod.
The time machine, he realized. He saw it lying a few meters from him, active.
Before he could do anything the bubble had already swallowed him and everything around. In the next moment the time-traveler had vanished.
And so had the fallen Prime.
xxx
Hundreds of meters over them Cabal was still watching the whole development. He said only one word.
"Perfect."
xxx
The Autobots and the Decepticons were still standing on the battlefield.
Nobody really knew how they should continue from here. Everybody was confused by what just happened.
They were all in a terrible state. The few who were not too damaged to function properly were completely out of energy.
The Autobot named Hotrod had just vanished, possibly and hopefully back to his own time.
But the time-machine was still there.
xxxxxxx
Somewhere in time
After a few moments of disorientation Hotrod came back to his senses.
He looked around, he was obviously still on Earth, it even seemed to be the same place, but the landscape looked quite different.
Another time, he thought, again.
Then he heard something behind him.
Had someone else been transported with him? He turned around and froze.
The Fallen was standing only a few meters next to him. He had obviously been caught in the sphere of the time-machine too.
Hotrod looked at him, he was an absolute wreck.
The right arm and a great part of his upper body were gone. He was bleeding energon. It was a wonder that this robot even managed to stand.
Hotrod had been lightly damaged in the last fights and his energy reserves were close to zero. But he was still far better of than his enemy. Right now, he knew, he had the upper hand.
The Fallen was looking him directly in the eyes.
"It is not over yet Autobot", he said.
With this words he vanished from sight. Whatever teleport technology he was using, it was obviously still working despite his damaged state.
Hotrod was left behind alone.
xxxxxxx
The year 1986
Skywarp saw what he was looking for lying on the ground, the time-machine.
He picked it up and flew back to his leader.
He and Thundercracker realized that they were among the few robots left who were still undamaged around.
"I think this is this what you wanted", he told Megatron as he landed beside him.
xxxxxxx
A million light-years away, outside of the Milky Way Galaxy
Unicron was sending his anger in waves out into the universe.
He had been so close.
Primus, the Matrix would have been gone, but The Fallen had failed in the last moment.
And he had lost contact with his servant. It was as if The Fallen had been ripped from the face of the universe.
But in the end it didn´t matter. He would just have to replace him.
The short mental contact he had with Primus had already brought him an idea, the one who had stopped his harbinger.
What a better choice was there to take his place?
And ultimately this short contact was enough to give him a vague knowledge where Primus was, a direction where he would find his world.
Primus could not longer hide from him.