Chapter 20
Outside of all this the creature known as Cabal was thinking about the situation that was to the greatest part created by his own hand.
He remembered how this events had played out the first time around. That time he had only been a passive observer. This had been by Earth standards in the year 1987.
He knew by the understanding of time and space of species like the cybertronians and the humans that he himself, in his present incarnation, would have come from the year 2011, just like the Autobot Hotrod.
In his original state, a long time ago, he had not been used to the flow of time in this reality. But over the ages he had been here he came to terms with it and even managed to use it to his advantage.
When Hotrod had been send back he had secretly traveled with him to help to set things into motion.
The universe where he originally came from was a world of chaos and destruction. It was a realm completely unlike the world how this life-forms knew it.
The creation of energy, atoms and molecules, matter and finally life was there turned into it´s complete opposite. Everything that developed, everything that came to exist had there only the single purpose to be destroyed and consumed.
This universe was inhabited and controlled by a single intelligence, a malevolent intelligence that existed only for the sake of destruction.
It was a sentient energy that filled it´s entire cosmos and was ruling it´s course. Stars came into being only to go nova micro-seconds later, time flew forward only to stand still in the next moment.
Without pause it was creating only to destroy, uniting only to rip apart, forming only to undo it, time- and endless.
Once it had been different, an eternity ago actual creation and actual life existent in that universe, before the super-intelligence, before he had obliterated it all, the suns and planets, the life, even space and time itself as it had been known.
Since then it had been clawing on the borders of it´s reality, craving to consume more, to reach the other universes and bring them annihilation like it did with it´s own.
And it got it´s wish fulfilled, but in a completely different way as it had expected.
He remembered the experiment that this creatures from this universe had performed. Their actions had ripped open a hole between their reality and his own and a small part of the entity that was ruling the other cosmos came through and was then separated from the main being.
He remembered how he arrived in this universe, being alone, cut off from the rest of himself.
That was how "he", the entity that later came to calling itself Cabal, came to be in his current form.
And he did what was natural to him, he reached out and destroyed the beings who populated that planet.
Only a short time later it was nothing but a lifeless desert, walked upon only by a few twisted creatures he had formed. He had done his best to turn that world into a replica of his home-dimension. Then for some time there was nothing.
It were over ten stellar-circles until other visitors appeared. The cybertronians however turned out to be more dangerous opponents than he had expected, in first line their source of life-energy, the Matrix did.
It turned out to be one of the few things in this universe that could truly challenge him.
In the end they were able to leave the planet and he was left behind. He had staid there for what seemed an eternity to him until after a long time he had found another chance to leave.
A ship of space explorers from another alien race had landed on the dead world and became his way to access to the rest of this universe.
But soon he had to realize that he was only a shadow of what he once was. Here, trapped in this other dimension away from the eternal chaos that was his source of life, his power had diminished over the millennia.
Even the energy he had gained from slaughtering the space-ship crew had not been enough to restore him.
He had no longer the power to destroy his enemies in this world by himself and he was not able to return to his own.
But over time he had found another way.
xxxxxxx
Hotrod and Ultra Magnus were close to arriving on the Moon. They were flying a small, two mechanoid sized, shuttle-pod that the strike force had left behind in Autobot city.
On their way Magnus had further instructed his new partner about the situation.
By that chance, they were also discussing other differences between their time-lines.
"Beside Megatron it are in first line Cyclonus and Scourge you have to look out for", Ultra Magnus told him. "By what you have told me they are just as powerful as the versions from your world, but far more cruel and vicious."
He remembered his first meeting with the two unicronians.
xxx
They and a few of their fellow Unicron creations were attacking a human town, burning entire blocks of buildings, randomly shooting people on the streets.
Like he had learned later it was all only a ploy to lure Optimus out, to get their hands on the Matrix.
He remembered them "fighting", no, more likely hunting for sport, Autobots, Decepticons and humans alike. The lives that they took were nothing to them.
xxx
They had arrived. Their shuttle was landing close to the coordinates Optimus had given to them.
"This is it", Ultra Magnus said, "if everything went as planned we should be able to get to the machine without greater problems."
"Then lets hope that it went as planned", Hotrod replied.
"Megatron would have placed a small army of Decepticons between us and the time-machine. Optimus and the others have gone to take care of this."
The two Autobots transformed and drove over the lunar surface.
After only a few minutes, as they had come closer to their destination, they had a better idea of what was awaiting them.
Before them was lying a seemingly endless field of the dead and mangled bodies of destroyed Transformers, Autobots and Decepticons alike. To that came that they actually recognized the most of the wrecks.
Hotrod saw some of his best friends here.
Springer, he noticed the dead body of the triple-changer, Blurr, he realized the racer was under the corpses as they began to cross the former battlefield, Grimlock and his Dinobots, Wheeljack who was also gone in his own world, Outback, Ratchet and many more he had known.
Hound and Bumblebee, as he knew from Magnus report, had already been dead before the battle started.
"By Primus", he said quietly.
"We have to go", Ultra Magnus pointed out.
"You are right. We have to reach the pyramid before anybody else it does or all this here was in vain."
In the distance they saw a large figure kneeling over the ground.
"Optimus", they recognized him.
The Autobot leader, they realized, was taking care of the damaged forms of Ironhide and Hoist.
"You have made it", he greeted the two newcomers. "Hotrod, it is what, 25 Earth years ago?"
"Yes Optimus."
Then they saw another body lying in the place close to them, Megatron.
"What happened here?" Ultra Magnus asked as he saw the damage of the dead Decepticon leader.
"This is what is left of both sides", Optimus said, "most are dead, some may still be alive but injured and unable to move. I think a few surviving Decepticons had been scattered and fled."
"And Megatron?" Magnus wanted to know.
"His own people shot him in the back", Ironhide exclaimed.
"His own people?"
"Cyclonus and Scourge", Optimus stated.
"And now they are trying to take control of the pyramid?" Hotrod suggested.
"Obviously", the Autobot leader replied.
"Then we need to stop them. If it is now Megatron or Cyclonus and Scourge should not really make a difference."
"You think so Autobot?" They heard a voice and the activation of a weapon. Skywarp had appeared behind them with his teleportation, they realized.
"Damn", Ironhide groaned and struggled to get up.
The seeker was pointing his guns at them.
"So you have come too Magnus and I think I recognize you", he said to Hotrod. "I saw you die."
"Well, I have a habit of coming back", the Autobot replied.
"What do you want Skywarp?" Optimus asked him.
"That depends, I have heard you are after Cyclonus and Scourge, so I insist to come with you. I want a shot at this two traitors too. Beside that, this two don´t exactly look as if they could be of much help anymore." He gestured to Hoist and Ironhide.
"Or otherwise we can also kill each other in a last glorious stand-off. What do you say?"
Together they could easily overpower the single seeker, they knew this. But he already had his weapons drawn and they not. Before they could take him down he could cause serious damage to them and possibly kill someone.
On the other side, with them he could be a great help.
"You can not trust this Con Optimus", Ironhide called out.
"No offense", Skywarp replied with a grin, "but if he can trust a loud-mouthed braggart like you to watch his back, I should be a lesser problem."
"You…", Ironhide yelled.
"You can come with us", Optimus replied.
"What? But Prime…"
"We have no time for this Ironhide, we have to go now or all is too late and he is right, we can need him. We don´t know if Cyclonus and Scourge are the only threats we have to face", he said somewhat quieter.
"Then stop wasting time and let us go", Ultra Magnus suggested.
Optimus looked at the two wounded Autobots.
"I am sorry that we have to leave you here. You will be able to take care of yourselves?"
"We can", Hoist replied.
"Just go and save the universe", Ironhide said.
For a short moment Optimus looked at the body of Megatron, his oldest rival and enemy.
They had always been foes, their aims and values the exact opposite to each other, but he also remembered a time when he at some level was actually able to respect Megatron, before he had gone out to sacrifice anybody and anything for a single fixed idea in his head.
Now he was gone, but others were still pursuing what he had started and they had to stop them.
Optimus gaze moved from one member of their small group to the next, Ultra Magnus one of his oldest friends and most trusted officers, the Decepticon Skywarp who had invited himself in and the time traveler.
He hoped that they would be enough. But if they would really have to face Cabal, it wasn´t sure.
They were standing before the giant construction of the pyramid that was placed on the Moon´s surface.
xxxxxxx
Cyclonus and Scourge were about to enter the pyramid. The plan had worked better than they could have hoped for, not Megatron´s but the one of their true master.
As they were about to pass the entrance a large robot materialized before them.
"That was good work you two", The Fallen said.
"You are the herald of our master?" Scourge asked him.
"I am", he answered.
"He has informed us about your coming", Cyclonus told him.
"Good, then let us begin our work now", he replied. He led the other two inside.
xxxxxxx
Optimus thought that he couldn´t help but have a strange feeling in the presence of the young time-traveling Autobot. It was something that was already there when he met him in 1986, but not nearly as strong as now.
He also remembered the Hotrod from his own world, the one who had saved his life once.
That Hotrod had been an a bit reckless but skilled and impressive young Autobot with great potential and his death had been a great loss for them, but this particular feeling had not been there.
It was nearly as if Optimus could feel his presence in his spark, no he realized, in the Matrix.
The Matrix was reacting to him, as if something of the other Autobot draw it to him.
Now Optimus was fully starring at Hotrod. Inside his chest, he felt the Matrix calling.
"You are a Prime", he said in open surprise.
Ultra Magnus and Skywarp were looking equally bewildered.
"What?" Magnus asked.
"The Matrix is attempting to bond with you", Optimus explained.
"This…", Hotrod interrupted himself. "It did this before. This means the Matrix in my world."
Before the eyes of everybody Optimus opened his chest compartment.
"I have a feeling I should give you this", he said as he handed the Matrix to Hotrod.
"Optimus?" He asked wanted to ask the Autobot leader what he was doing.
In the moment the object touched the hands of the younger robot a bright blue light started to radiate from it and as it hit him, Hotrod´s entire body began to change.
He seemed to grow before their eyes and they could see subtle modifications in his body structure. All of them were starring at him in shock, even Optimus, but he didn´t show it.
"Take it, at least for now", he told the robot who had been Hotrod a moment ago and was now as tall as himself.
"You can call me Rodimus Prime", he said.
xxxxxxx
The Fallen was leading Cyclonus and Scourge who were walking closely behind him inside the inner constructions of the pyramid.
They were ready to fulfill the plan.
When Megatron had first got his hands on the new technology he had already realized the possibilities.
In opposite to regular, more primitive and crude, methods of time travel that were already used by cybertronians, this one didn´t merely displaced people into past or future periods, often with barely any control beyond the start.
This form on the other hand offered far more. It was able to send travelers through time and never loose track of them, it could send people into different periods at the same time and then back at will and that was only the beginning.
The larger machine allowed a control over time and space like never seen before and could literally form it at someone´s will.
What was also possible was to reach other universes, parallel time-lines and new dimensions, it was possible to reach not only what was and what will be, but what might have and could be.
"When will our target era be?" Scourge asked their new found leader.
"I have a special destination in my mind", The Fallen replied. "But maybe we should spread our efforts", he said and began to explain his ideas to his underlings.
"None of you moves", they suddenly heard a voice.
Behind them stood the Autobots Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus and Hotrod in a new form. With them was the Decepticon seeker Skywarp. They all had their guns drawn.
"Optimus, how good to see you again", The Fallen addressed him. "As I see you have some more Autobots you want to send to their death."
"You", Optimus growled as he saw the other robot. He remembered how Elita died by his hand, thinking he was an ally, like he himself had foolishly thought for far too long.
"And a new Prime", The Fallen said, "one that I haven´t met before, at least in this form. How is it `brother´, don´t you want to introduce yourself?"
"I am Rodimus Prime. We are here to stop you."
"That is something I have already heard from many others."
"Maybe this time you should listen", Optimus told him. "You are outnumbered and your two allies are weakened from the battle."
"So are you", he replied.
The ancient Prime looked more amused than intimidated. They all knew Optimus confident words were not much more than a bluff. The Fallen was far more powerful than any of them.
They had known the possibility that they would have to face him. He had traveled along with Hotrod to this future. But they had hoped the was still too damaged.
"I have killed many Primes in the past", The Fallen said, "now I have the chance to add two more to the list."
He materialized his laser cannon that he had mounted on his arm and shot at the Autobots.
Optimus, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus and Skywarp reacted instantly and fired back.
After a short struggle their group seemed to be getting the upper hand, but it soon turned out to be a false hope.
"That's enough, fall back", Scourge called out as the two unicronians turned around and were running deeper inside the pyramid.
"They are trying to activate the machine", Rodimus said urgently.
"Indeed", The Fallen confirmed, "and I am making sure that you won´t interfere." He fired a blast at them to hold them back.
Optimus and Ultra Magnus aimed their weapons and shot at him at the same time. Both blasts hit their mark but did not leave more than superficial damage.
After a second however he began to retreat into one of the corridors behind him, only laughing.
"It is too late to stop my two minions now", he told them, "but I am curious how you will react."
A few seconds later he had vanished from sight, disappeared somewhere behind the inner structures of the giant machine.
"Damn", Skywarp yelled.
"Can you teleport?" Optimus asked him.
"Not inside the pyramid, it is somehow distorting time and space", the seeker replied. "I guess that is the reason The Fallen didn´t pull his little trick either."
"We have to go after them", Ultra Magnus said.
xxx
As they had reached the core of the pyramid they entered the wide hall Rodimus remembered from the last time, they could see the large screen at the end of the room and in it´s center the smaller time-travel device with Cyclonus and Scourge standing next to it.
"Cyclonus, stop", Optimus shouted.
"Too late Autobot", the unicronian answered.
Before anybody could react the two were surrounded by a energy sphere and in the next moment they were gone.
"Where are they?" Ultra Magnus asked.
Rodimus approached the machinery before them.
"We can read the displays and control the machine", he explained to them, "no wonder if Megatron had constructed it.
By this data they are", he red the information, "in the year 1987, on Earth."
"1987", Ultra Magnus broke out.
"That is the same year Galvatron´s group appeared", Optimus pointed out.
"They obviously have the same agenda", Rodimus said, "rewriting the past to their own aims."
"Yes but in opposite to the last group they will certainly not help us against Unicron", Magnus remarked sarcastically.
They realized that around them more and more of the machinery was coming to live.
"The pyramid has been activated", Optimus realized. "There is no telling how much damage this two are causing to the past. Our world could cease to exist while we are standing here and everything we have done could be senseless."
"Megatron had build this machine, based on designs that Hotrod had accidentally brought from the future in the first place", Ultra Magnus explained.
"At some point in the future Galvatron decides to travel into the past in an attempt to stop Unicron but all he reached was to replace his time-line with our own", Optimus pointed out, "and now the circle starts again." He looked at the place where Cyclonus and Scourge had disappeared a short time earlier.
"We have to stop it once and for all", Ultra Magnus claimed. "This thing here is the source of everything."
"And if we don´t manage to do that in time?" Rodimus asked him. "Cyclonus and Scourge could make everything even worse right now."
"I will follow them", Magnus volunteered. "I will warn you about them in the past Optimus and keep them from causing any more harm."
"Magnus", he said. …"If we succeed…"
"You don´t have to tell me. We knew from the beginning if we succeed our entire world would probably vanish. You don´t have to tell me."
"Okay, then good luck my friend."
"Goodbye Optimus", he replied. "Rodimus", he told the younger Prime, "activate the machine."
As he had dropped a few buttons on the consoles the energy surrounded Ultra Magnus and then he was gone in the same manner as Cyclonus and Scourge.
"He has arrived", Rodimus confirmed a second later.
"Good", Optimus said, "now we will find a way to stop this machine once and for all."
"I fear it is far too late for that Optimus." They heard the voice of The Fallen coming from the other end of the hall. "Cyclonus and Scourge were only a distraction. I have ordered this two into the past because I had hoped you would send someone after them and weaken yourself even further, just as you did. Actually you had no choice, they alone were a threat to your entire reality, right?"
Suddenly the ground began to shake under their feet. The giant machine had now completely come to life.
"We already had programmed the machine for it´s true destination", The Fallen announced. "So your goal to stop it had failed before you even tried."
At the outside the pyramid began to lift off the ground and ascended slowly into space.
xxx
At the inside they realized that they were moving.
The screen before them activated and started to show different scenes. Some were obviously from an old Cybertron, others from different worlds.
Next they saw a group of large robots fighting with each other and in space over them they could see the giant form of Unicron.
"Our glorious battle", The Fallen told them, "back then when I and my master fought together and destroyed entire worlds."
Next they saw a sun exploding and wiping out everything that existed in the system.
Then they saw an ancient Cybertron in ruins.
Of all that they only saw small glimpses, before it came to later periods, a few scenes from the Quintesson rule and the rebellion.
xxx
Outside, as the pyramid had reached enough distance from the Moon, energy began to spread through it´s entire form. A new energy sphere was formed, one that surrounded the entire construction.
And a moment later the pyramid was gone from this universe.
xxx
The four Transformers inside began to reorient themselves.
They knew the pyramid had traveled, there was no doubt about it in their minds, the only question was, to where?
"Where are we?" Optimus asked.
The screen showed now another view on an cybertronian landscape.
"You will remember this time", The Fallen said. "It is a significant era in your history, 9.000.000 years ago, at the start of what you call the Great War, shortly before the battle of Kalis.
I am sure you remember Optimus."
Yes, he remembered this time, Megatron´s attempt to reconfigure Cybertron into a giant space-dreadnought that ended with the planet being thrown out of it´s orbit, his first meetings with "Cronus" and Galvatron.
They were back where it all had started.