Chapter 14

Gagestown, Oregon

Optimus Prime and Megatron were stuck in close hand to hand combat. They were currently fighting in a park in the center of the City.

A small group of Autobots led by Optimus himself had managed to infiltrate the town that had been under siege by the Decepticons.

To their bad luck however the Cons had already reached what they wanted.

The fight had in fact become senseless.

But at that point the Autobots and Decepticons in the town had already been firing at each other.

Both Optimus Prime and Megatron knew all too good, that it was very hard to stop an already on-going fight. Since the first side to stop fighting would risk the other one to just keep attacking them when their guard were down.

In the moment you stop fighting you risked to getting shot by your enemy.

Megatron would say the only `safe´ solution to do it was a shot in the spark-chamber.

At first Megatron had wanted a short fight with the Autobots, to give his troops some entertainment and to keep their opponents occupied.

But that was already taking too long. And a major clash with Optimus and his elite troops was something he certainly not wanted.

It could simply go too much wrong.

So the two Commanders were fighting a duel.

Some of their troops were targeting each other in the city and some were still outside the town.

This of course endangered the citizens. For the humans present it was a disaster waiting to happen.

And that despite that nobody really had a reason to continue this battle after this point.

That was the tragic of the situation.

It was by far not the first situation like that during their time on Earth and it would certainly not be the last.

Since Optimus and Megatron were in a close fight they used short range weapons instead of their blasters.

Megatron was wielding a lightsaber while the Autobot leader had transformed his hand into a battle axe, similar to their duel at the Sherman-Dam over two years ago.

Missed strikes of both of them caused damage to the buildings around them. Optimus was careful not to do too much destruction, but he still had to put up a fight.

He knew he couldn´t hold back against an opponent like Megatron.

The rest of the Autobots and Decepticons were stuck in their own individual struggles.

Prowl was fighting Starscream who was trying to attack him from the air.

Mirage was engaged with Skywarp whose heat seeking missiles proofed to be a great threat to the invisible Autobot.

Hound had created a number of holographic clones of himself to confuse the Decepticons, Soundwave however, with his highly developed sonic transceivers, was able to identify the real Autobot and attacked him.

The fighting had been going on for some time now, without a side gaining a clear advantage.

Then after a few minutes Megatron was able to land a hit with his lightsaber. He slashed clean through the armor of Optimus shoulder.

The Autobot leader was on the disadvantage now and began to draw back. He was quickly getting into the defensive.

xxxxxxx

At the same time Rodimus, along with his mysterious companion Cronus, was just arriving at the town.

They had of course not been driving the entire way. When they had heard the reports about the battle, Cronus had used his teleportion once again to bring them here faster.

Rodimus activated his com and send a call to the Autobots in the town.

"Autobots, do you hear me? This is Autobot Hotrod, my identification code is ERT0173. I am here to assist you."

He used an old identification-code from the current time under his original identity.

Rodimus had been thinking about this move carefully. He had originally wanted to avoid direct contact with the Autobots of this time.

But with the time-machine still in the Decepticons hands, he had no great choice. He needed their help to get it back. Otherwise the entire future was bound to be derailed anyway.

Rodimus had a good guess that Megatron was carrying the device by himself.

He would not let it out of his sight with someone like Starscream close by. At least that was what he believed.

If Megatron truly had it with him, he could get it back now and end this here.

And hopefully return home soon.

xxxxxxx

Megatron lifted his weapon, hoping to land another hit on his enemy, as he was suddenly attacked from the side.

Two Autobots had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

One was a tall orange and red robot, in the same size as Prime and himself.

The other one he recognized all too well. It was the one who had foiled his entire Kalis project by informing Prime about his plans millions of years ago.

And he was currently blocking his sword with a battle-staff.

But where had he been all this time? Not that it mattered right now.

Optimus was surprised as well.

"Cronus?" he said.

"Optimus Prime – it is good to see you… again," he greeted him.

Rodimus meanwhile was assisting the other Autobots by firing at a few of the Decepticons up in the air.

He managed to hit the Seeker Thrust, who was thrown off-course, burning at one side.

Megatron realized that he was loosing control of the situation.

With this two new Autobots he was now clearly at the disadvantage against Prime.

And he was getting more and more enraged.

He had just gotten the upper hand against Prime and then the same being who had ultimately been responsible fort he failure of his great Kalis-Project suddenly showed up and got into his way.

In fact he was someone who took charge of the situation and formed his environment into what he wanted it to be, at least at the most times.

Megatron raised his fusion gun with all his rage and fired at Optimus.

Prime could barely dodge the shot. The missed blast however completely leveled a house close to them.

Luckily nobody was hurt because all humans had already left this part of the city, something that was ironically Megatron to thank for.

He wanted to shoot a second time, but before he could, Cronus had dis- and reappeared right beside him and sliced his arm with his staff. The dangerous energon-blade at the end cut the metal open and caused a sharp pain. At the same time it ruined his aim and the blast went harmlessly in the air.

One moment later Rodimus reacted and pointed his gun at him and fired. He hit Megatron right into his chest plate.

The Decepticon Leader went to his knees.

Optimus already had his own gun drawn. He was standing a short distance before him.

The entire situation reminded Rodimus of the Battle of Autobot City years in the past – or rather 19 years in the future.

"No", Megatron whispered, "not like this."

Not in this miserable way, he thought.

It was supposed to be him against Optimus. He should been fighting the Autobot leader, not go down against others who had suddenly gotten involved.

Yes - every ruthless tactic, every dirty trick would have been acceptable then.

But this? He was already beaten, Megatron knew this, too damaged. He couldn´t even hope to fight Optimus alone in this state and now he was outnumbered three to one.

This was not the final battle against Prime, he was just being oumatched and murdered against three opponents.

But he, Megatron wouldn´t just go down and die.

He managed to stand up again and attacked the Autobots. It was an act of pure desperation, ultimately senseless, this was completely clear to everybody.

Or at least they thought so.

xxx

Above them, Skywarp, Thundercracker and Soundwave had noticed the situation their leader was in and was moving to assist him.

So did Starscream. But he purposely fired at another Autobot to draw the situation out a bit longer and have an excuse not to help Megatron instantly.

But at the same time, a few Autobots were heading in the same direction as well.

xxx

The three were standing before the injured Megatron.

"You need to kill him Optimus," Cronus said to him.

Despite everything, for a moment, Optimus was hesitating.

Just like Megatron himself he knew that this had not been a fair fight.

Beside that there was also something else. Something inside him just deeply resented killing an opponent who could no longer fight back.

"Look around. There is no way we could savely take him prisoner in the middle of this battle," Cronus continued.

Optimus hesitation lasted only for one more moment. He knew what he had to do.

Rodimus staid silent for a few seconds. All this still reminded him all too much of Autobot City.

And he knew that Megatron was not meant to die here. Had he already changed the past?

Did that mean he should actually step in to keep Megatron from dieing here to preserve the future?

"Megatron – the device you have taken from me. You have it with you, don´t you?" Rodimus finally said.

"Device?" Optimus asked.

This was it, Rodimus thought.

"A time-machine – I am the Autobot Hotrod, but from a few decades in the future. The device accidentally brought me here and the Decepticons captured me and took it," he explained.

"Also – you can not kill Megatron, not now. In several years from now on a dangerous enemy will attack Cybertron. We barely managed to defeat him.

But if Megatron dies now the entire history might change. Cybertron might be destroyed and countless other worlds as well."

Just like Optimus, Megatron himself was also more than surprised by this story. But if it bought him some time…

And they would of course need to take care of this `enemy´ in the future.

"Yes – that is true." Rodimus and Optimus heard Cronus voice, who was standing behind them.

"If Megatron or both of you die now, history might change."

With this he lifted his gun… and shot Optimus in the back.

Around them, both the approaching Autobots and Decepticons could hardly believe what they saw, as an supposed Autobot was trying to assassinate Prime.

But just a moment later Cronus appearance seemed to change.

His entire body began to glow. Then it began to change. Form, structure and consistence of his entire construction were reforming themselves.

This was not a normal transformation like anyone had seen before. His entire body seemed to be reconstructing itself on a molecular level.

After a few seconds the form of the robot who had claimed to be the Primus Guardian Cronus had completely changed.

He was now taller, in the size of Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus. His armor was now completely in colors black and red. He seemed larger in every way, sleeker, more dangerous and far more powerful.

And there was a large cannon mounted on his right arm.

His optics were now not longer blue, but red. Like a Decepticon´s. But there was no emblem of either side to see anywhere on his body.

"Autobots, Decepticons", The Fallen called out, so loud that everyones attention was on him, "look at me."

The only thing still the same was the battle-staff he was carrying.

Author´s Note: The development and pace here is much faster for this part than in the original story. With many events being changed and shortened.

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