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 15

They all, Autobot and Decepticon alike, were starring at the changed form of the now menacing looking robot.

A few of them remembered the name he called himself by - The Fallen.

A creature out of old legends, far beyond recorded history. He was said to be one of their oldest ancestors - one of the Thirteen Original Creations of Primus - all of them Primes. The one who was said to have betrayed the other twelve and so his real name had been erased and long fogotten and he was only be called "The Fallen".

Optimus for example had heard this stories from Alpha Trion a long time ago. Of Transformers who existed long before an ancient alien race had taken control of Cybertron and created the current generation of Cybertronians as slaves.

But that was only a myth. Or so they thought.

The entire situation was insane. What everybody had thought was an Autobot was now a being out of the cybertronian equivalent of fairy tales attacking them. Some of them could barely believe what was going on before their eyes.

In every case, this `myth´ had made his intentions pretty clear from the moment he had shot Optimus.

Under the Transformers who had approached them was also the Protectobot Combiner Defensor. He was already low on energy and lightly damaged from his fight with Bruticus. But so was everyone else. Given the battle they had gone through barely anyone was in perfect state.

Except their new enemy... and their new ally Rodimus.

"What do you want?" Optimus asked The Fallen, forcing down the fear that was upcoming inside him.

"What I want?" The Fallen replied. "Two things. I want the object Megatron currently possesses."

In the next second he had vanished from sight and reappeared only a moment later, standing on Defensor´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 his components and the already weakened super-robot simply fell apart.

Even against an already weakened Gestalt, this was still an overwhelming display of power. Could they really take this enemy? It was said that the first Transformers in existence - The Thirteen - were much more powerful than the current ones. And this one seemed to live up to the reputation.

The only ones here who might even have a chance were Optimus and Megatron. And unknown to them all Rodimus Prime.

"The other thing I want," The Fallen continued, "is what is inside your chest," he said to Optimus.

The Matrix, they all realized. Of course, The Fallen was said to have become the Herald of some ancient enemy of Primus himself.

xxx

But out of all of them, only Rodimus knew the name and identity of this enemy - Unicron.

This could not be any worse, he realized. If The Fallen destroyed the Matrix now, then Unicron would not be stopped when he arrived and Cybertron - no the entire universe - would be lost.

He needed to stop him, no matter what happened to himself.

xxx

The Autobots and the Decepticons, the ones who were still able to fight, were looking at each other for a short moment before they in silent agreement attacked The Fallen together. Quite ironically they were united now, against a common foe.

Prowl, Ironhide, Skywarp and Thundercracker were taking shots at him from three sides, with Skywarp teleporting to attack from a different angle.

Their enemy however countered their assault quite easily. He deflected one shot with his staff, while the others hit his armor on chest and shoulder but barely left a scratch.

The Fallen teleported once again, right in front of Prowl and Ironhide and with a simple movement threw them 40 meter through the air.

Thundercracker, who flew in jet form over them, could barely avoid a shot from his cannon. He and Skywarp were still in the air, but as their enemy´s display showed, there was not much they could do.

The Fallen turned back to Optimus, Rodimus and Megatron who was now standing next to them.

"Why do you want the Matrix?" Optimus 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 the old cybertronian prophesy. "You know this verses right? I want to make sure that it will never happen."

By destroying the Matrix, Optimus realied.

"Never." He fired his gun at The Fallen.

But the ancient cybertronian moved and the blast missed.

Rodimus however used the chance to run forward, firing a couple blasts and charging at their enemy. He tackled him, catching him off balance and put his arms around him in a hold, immobilizing him for a moment.

"Optimus, Megatron," Rodimus shouted, "use this chance."

The Fallen tried to break free, but even he could not insttantly break the other Prime´s grip. But at the same time the two were now struggling with each other and constantly changing positions.

"I can not fire without risking hitting you," Optimus called out.

"Well - I have no problem with that," Megatron stated, aiming his weapon at both The Fallen and Rodimus.

"Stop this," Optimus told him, ready to interferre if he had to.

"Don´t worry about me," Rodimus exclaimed, "just take him down, no matter that."

"You heard him," Megatron said.

"I can´t let you do this," Optimus said.

At the inside he was torn. The strange Autobot who claimed to be from the future seemed determined to sacrifice himself. But could he let that happen? The Matrix was their most sacred object and beside the currently deactivated Vector Sigma one of the few ways to give life to new Transformers. It also contained the collected knowledge and even the Sparks of the past Autobot Leaders and as many believed maybe even of all Cybertronians.

But it was not as if the Matrix was automatically lost if they refused to let him sacrifice himself. Optimus had seen how powerful the stranger was. If they worked together, he was confident that they could stop even The Fallen.

In this moment however The Fallen broke free of Rodimus grip and threw him aside.

Before anyone could react he had already aimed his cannon at Megatron and fired. The blast hit him into the side of his chest and blew a hole through his already weakened armor.

The he turned around and send another shot at Rodimus, who could avoid the worst of the blast and was only glanced by it.

The next moment The Fallen made a short jump through the air, right next to the damaged Megatron and used his hand to access and materialize the object the Decepticon Leader had stored inside his sub-space compartment - the time-travel device.

Before he could actually grab it however, Rodimus had come up once again, transformed, heading for The Fallen in truck-mode, ramming him, transforming back and snatching the time-machine from the air before he could get it.

The Fallen raised his cannon and send a blast after him, which Rodimus however managed to dodge.

Then however their enemy turned back to Optimus. Then he teleported once again, appearing right before Optimus and aimed at him with his battle-staff. Optimus however grabbed the weapon right before it his him and stopped the blow.

The staff however send flashed of high concentrated energy into him, that would have been enough to damage a weaker robot. But Optimus kept holding the weapon away.

Rodimus tried to interfene. But then he was hit by a volley of blasts hitting him from behind.

It was Starscream. The seeker was attacking him in jet-mode.

He dove down, transformed and tackled him in robot form. To Rodimus luck the shots had only caused light damage.

"Give it back, it belongs to me," Starscream exclaimed.

"Not this time," Rodimus replied, grabbed the seeker and slammed him with full force on the ground.

But it was just in this moment that Optimus lost the struggle. He lost his grip and The Fallen moved his battle-staff and landed a devastating strike on him.

The blow left a long gash along his chest plate and shattered both glass windows on it.

At the same time Ironhide and Prowl had come up again and were running at them to stop The Fallen. But he just raised his cannon and shot Ironhide just before they had reached him and then knocked Prowl down with a single punch of his bare hand.

"You have no chance," he said.

He then 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.

xxxx

Optimus was now on the brink of consciousness.

He could now see the light of the Matrix that he knew so well all around him. He could feel it´s warm comforting presence.

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 the creature Cabal all those million years before.

A part of it, the smaller one, he realized came from The Fallen himself. But there was a force towering behind him, a darkness that was equal to the Matrix, even if in it´s nature it was the absolute opposite.

Then, in his half-conscious state, he began to hear the voices.

"And so it ends Primus," Optimus could hear the words been spoken, the "sound", however wasn´t sonic waves but thoughts transfered over space. It was a deep and menacing 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 heared another voice answer.

It was to him as if he knew this being or at least should have known it for a long time. Had the just heard the voice of Primus himself?

xxx

From some distance Megatron had been watching everything. Soundwave and Skywarp and Thundercracker were now standing right next to him.

Megatron began to charge his fusion cannon.

"What are you doing?" Skywarp asked him.

The Decepticon leader was in a damaged state, but he lifted his weapon.

"If I bring my Fusion Cannon at the highest power possible, I think I will be able to bring even him down," Megatron said.

"Course of action in your condition not advisable," Soundwave reminded him.

"I know," the Decepticon leader replied.

What barely anybody knew was that Megatron`s fusion cannon 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 himself doing it. So he barely ever used it.

It was a last resort measure.

"You are already in a dangerous state," Skywarp reminded him.

"Don´t try to stop me", Megatron told, them.

He began to take aim.

xxx

The Fallen stood over Optimus, ready to grab the Matrix and rip it out of his chest.

But before he had the chance, he saw that Rodimus was approaching him again, ready to stop him.

"Fallen," he called out. Rodimus knew his chances were not good and he was not longer in a perfect state himself anymore.

"I see you want to die first Rodimus," the Fallen stated. "If that is your wish."

If the Priest of Primus had only been a disguise, it registered somewhere in Rodimus mind, then how exactly did The Fallen knew about him? But this question would have to wait for later.

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. He had been thrown down from the power of his own blast and was currently on his knees himsef.

"Skywarp, Thundercracker, now get me the time-travel device back," he ordered.

xxx

Megatron, Rodimus realized who had fired the blast. The Fallen had been defeated and the Decepticon Leader of all people had just saved them.

But before he could think or do anything else, he heard a noice of energy loading up. And around him he noticed the sight of another time-space sphere building up...

... Buiding up around both himself and The Fallen

And one moment later they were both gone.

The Autobots and the Decepticons were still standing on the battlefield, watching what just had happened.

Both their enemy and the strange Autobot were gone, but the time-machine was still there.

xxxxxxx

The year 1986

Skywarp saw the time-machine lying on the ground.

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 - so close. Primus essence - the Matrix would have been gone, but his Servant, who had somehow returned from the beyond, had failed in the last moment.

But the short mental contact he had with Primus had already given him a vague knowledge where Primus was, a direction.

Primus could not longer hide from him.

xxxxxxx

Somewhere in another time

After a few moments of disorientation Rodimus came back to his senses. He realized he must have just been send through time again.

He looked around. He was obviously still on Earth, it even seemed to be the same place. But at the same time completely different.

The human town right next to them was lying in ruins. But the damage looked like it happened years ago. There were no humans to see anywhere, just the remains of desttroyed houses and roads.

That meant he must have been send back to the future.

Then he heard something behind him. He was not alone.

The Fallen was standing only a few meters next to him. Of course, he had been caught in the sphere of the time-machine too.

But 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.

Rodimus had been lightly damaged in the last fights and his energy reserves were low. 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.

Rodimus was left behind alone. But at least The Fallen was gone for the moment.

He looked back at the destroyed city. Did the Decepticons do this?

But that was exactly the point. This here had never happened, ot in the past he knew of. If a human town of this size had been destroyed like this years ago, he would have heard of it.

Did that mean he was even further in the future than 2019?

Or had the past changed?

He needed to find out where - or more accurately when - he was.

As he looked upwards however, he saw something that iterally made the energon freeze in his body.

Up there in the sky, in orbit around Earth... was something those sight he knew all too well... the wreck of Unicron.

That was impossible.

Unicron´s old body should have been destroyed at attacking Cybertron, with it´s head beeing left floating close to the planet.

Years later he had been rebuild by the Quintessons and been defeated for good while attacking Earth. But that time there had been no remains left drifting in orbit.

That meant the past had changed. The question was, how much?

Rodimus transformed into car-mode. And he drove in the direction of Autobot-City.

Or at least where he hoped it to be.