Chapter 18

Rodimus was sitting at a transformer-sized table together with this timeline´s Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Jazz and Perceptor.

Their human allies Spike and Marrissa and Optimus Nebulon partner Hi-Q were also sitting close by, in smaller human-sized seats.

They had just listened to what he had to say to them.

"So you are saying nothing that took place in the last 30 years should have happened?" Spike said.

"At least not in the way it had here," Rodimus stated. "The Autobots should not be close to extinction. Cybertron should not have been destroyed. Through an overload of energy-radiation during an incident at the end of the war, we are unable to live on it savely, but it is still intact," he continued.

"Earth should have not have been devastated like this either. Unicron had been stopped before he could destroy either of our planets. We should have a peace agreement with the Decepticons and they had left this part of space," he explained.

They all looked at him with visible surprise at the last statement. Given their current situation, the entire idea seemed quite unreal to them.

"All this changes have to be related to the time-travel devise," Rodimus stated. "Look - for you this here might be reality. But for me it is a nightmare scenario. And I think it is caused by me loosing the time-travel device in the fight against the Fallen and Megatron 32 Years ago."

"You are not wrong," Ultra Magnus replied. "Our reality is a nightmare scenario. Cybertron is destroyed, Earth is in ruins, humanity decimated, there are barely maybe a hundred Autobots left in the entire galaxy. There is not one of us who has not lost many people close to him."

"Me and Carly once had a daughter," Spike said. "They both died when this monster Unicron had fired his goddamn blasts at Earth. Like countless millions of others. If you are able to change that, then you have my full blessing."

"In my world you and Carly had a son - Daniel," Rodimus responded.

Spike just nodded at him quietly. No matter what, if what Rodimus said was true and he had little doubt about it, it would be a better world than this one.

"Nebulos had in opposite to Earth not been directly attacked yet," Hi-Q said. "But like many other worlds it is under potential threat from the Quintessons. Not to mention the other planets that have already fallen victim to them. It might be just a question of time until my homeworld becomes their target too."

"An interesting explanation Rodimus," Perceptor stated. "And you want to use it to return to the past and fix whatever happened," he repeated.

"Yes. The last time I saw it, it had just fallen into Megatron´s hands. So I think he - or rather Galvatron - still has it. And this has somehow changed the past. I need to get it back from him."

"You are right Rodimus," Optimus said. "The Decepticons took the device with them back then. We have not really known what had happened to it until recently," he stated.

"But that is not everyting. Jazz - please show us the recordings from our last spy-mission," he asked.

Jazz activated the large screen in front of them.

xxx

Recording:

What it showed them were pictures from the moon´s surface. Rodimus could make out the sight of the Earth hanging in the sky over the grey rocky surface.

The scout unit they made this recording seemed to consist of three Autobots. All of them with flight-capable alt-modes. He recognized Cloudraker, one of the two `twin-scouts´, as well as the Headmaster Brainstorm and another robot with a blue-colored cybertronian jet-mode he did not know personally.

After a couple minutes the Decepticon Base itself came into sight. It was still several kilometers away from the scout-team.

And Rodimus understood instantly why they showed him this. It nearly made him freeze in disbelief.

What he saw was a kilometers high and wide pyramid shaped metal-construction. It was the same large pyramid that had suddenly appeared in Earth´s orbit in his own year 2019.

If any of them had any last doubts about Rodimus story, it had disappeared now.

The recording zoomed in closer and he saw that right next to the pyramid was a large entrance to an underground cave, where two Decepticons were just walking out of. It was obviously the entrance to their base.

At the right side from the entrance was the pyramid. It was still in the construction-phase, as they could see now.

But it was nearly finished.

Somewhere on top of the structure Rodimus could see the Constructicons and other work-forces who were just dealing with the last parts of the building.

xxx

"How?" Rodimus said. "This looks exactly like the pyramid that appeared over Earth in my time. And the Decepticons are building it?"

Were they building a new version of the pyramid? he asked himself.

Or was this actually the first one, that had at one point - or rather would be from the point he currently was - somehow been transported into his own timeline?

"We believe that Galvatron had it built based on data he got from the smaller device that Megatron got his hands on back in 1987," Optimus said. "We are not sure how long they had been working on this. Maybe it had already begun when he was still Megatron."

Yes, Rodimus remembered how the Decepticons in the past had said that the smaller device had easily accessable data.

"I see," he responded. "Ironically - we originally found the smaller one inside the large pyramid. And now the small device is being used to build this larger one."

"This might explain most if not all the differences in the timeline you had mentioned," Perceptor pointed out. "If the Decepticons had truly been working on this in secret for decades, it had drained resources that would otherwise used elsewhere.

Forces were working on it who otherwise would have been positioned somewhere else. Priorities would have shifted. Entire campaigns might have changed or been dropped entirely."

"Yes Perceptor - we get the picture of what you mean," Ultra Magnus said drily.

xxx

Recording:

The recording continued. Suddenly blaster-fire was to see on the screen.

The Decepticons had found their scout-group.

It was a group of Seekers, led by Cyclonus and Scourge. The Decepticons had instantly opened fire on them.

In the first moment they saw Cloudraker being hit by Cyclonus twin-missiles, along with a volley of blasts from the Seekers and was literally blown to pieces.

Next Brainstorm was hit by a blast from Scourge, that hit his engines and forced him to crashland. As soon as he transformed into robot-mode, before he could even fully stand up, he was being hit by blasts from two more Seekers, that pierced through his chest.

The remaining last Autobot whose name Rodimus didn´t know also went down under dozens of blasts from all sides.

They were dead, he thought. Just three more Autobots, he thought... after thousands that had before.

xxx

"If the smaller device can transport a few Transformers through space and time?" Marrissa questioned. "What can the larger one do?"

"Entire armies that can appear on any planet and in any time," Hi-Q stated, "and can rewrite the entire history if they want to."

"It would be a disaster," Spike said.

"And all that in the hands of an insane Decepticon Leader," Ultra Magnus added. "We have to stop this... at every cost."

"I agree with you Magnus," Optimus said. "We will attack the Decepticon Moonbase, by tomorow."

"If we do that be the end of us," Jazz pointed out. "We are badly outnumbered and barely surviving as we are."

"If Galvatron manages to activate this machine, he will not even need to find and destroy us," Optimus replied. "He could just change the past again and erase us all from the timeline."

"It is even worse," Perceptor added, "with Galvatron´s completely slipped sanity, there is no telling what he might do. He might just cause random destruction all over history with no concern for the consequences. Optimus is right, this needs to be prevented."

"Even if we all die doing it," Spike said in an hollow tone.

"If we don´t we are lost anyway," Ultra Magnus stated.

He was looking downwards in clear anguish. In this way at least they had a chance.

"There is however one more thing, another threat," Rodimus reminded them, "as you already know, I was not send to this time alone."

"You are talking about this being called The Fallen," Optimus said.

"Yes."

"But hadn´t he been badly damaged during your fight back then?" Spike questioned. "If for you just a few hours happened since then, he should not be able to do much at all."

"He has some kind of regeneration-ability," Rodimus replied. "Honestly it didn´t look as if it would be able to repair him till tomorow. But I am not sure."

"Unless he finds someone to repair him of course," Perceptor pointed out.

xxxxxxx

In the outer atmosphere, far above the planet Earth, a single robot was flying towards his destination.

It was nobody else than The Fallen.

And he was on his way to the being he had eternities ago, chosen as his Master.

The Fallen in this moment approached the remains of Unicron´s body, that were still circling in a orbit around Earth. It was not much more than the head and parts of the chest and upper body and the broken, mangles and burned up remains of an upper arm.

But the body was not dead. The life-essence of the Chaos Bringer still remained inside the wreck. At least so far.

It was just deactivated. Just like it had been in the other timeline, after the Matrix had completely destroyed his body and all what had been left was a head.

And just like Starscream had in this other reality, The Fallen entered the shattered shell of the Chaos Bringer and fixed and rewrired a few connections and systems.

After a short time was was being reactivated.

"Unicron! It is me, your Herald," The Fallen called out... your first Herald," he added a bit quieter.

After about a minute the giant colloss seemed to awaken and showed signs of life.

"Who?" Unicron´s telepathic voice halled through the vacuum of space. "Fallen," he said.

"Yes Master - I have returned."

"Fallen - help me," Unicron commanded.

"Like you helped me?" The Fallen replied. "After I had been trapped between the dimensions. You have done nothing to retrieve me. Instead you replaced me with someone else. Galvatron - right?"

"After we had both been drawn in the void between dimensions, I managed to get out and reach another universe," Unicron replied. "But my body had been destroyed. It took a long time to create another one. I had not been able to help you."

`You mean you saw no point in it, since you only care about yourself,´ The Fallen thought.

"But you have made it on your own," Unicron said.

`No thanks to you.´ But The Fallen shielded his true thoughts well from Unicron.

He was completely aware that Unicron had manipulated the being calling himself Primacron into creating a new body for him. After that Unicron had countless millions of years to locate and free him if he had actually wanted that. He had just not bothered.

"As you see I am alone Master," The Fallen said. "So even I should have problems to get a new body for you on my own."

"You will help me," Unicron ordered without any compromise. "If you need work-forces, get them. I don´t care what you have to do for it or how long it takes. Bring them to me and together we will subjugate them and turn them into loyal minions. But it should not take too long," he said warningly.

"May I offer an alternative Master," The Fallen stated. "As you may know, your former Servant Galvatron is working on a machine that can move through time and rewrite time and space. If I could gain control of it, I can return to the past of this universe and destroy the Matrix before you even arrive in this part of space. This timeline will be replaced with another one and all of this here will have never happened."

"Interesting," Unicron replied. "Especially since I myself have not sensed the existence of this object."

"The machine is based on Vok technology," The Fallen stated, "nearly as advanced as our own and designed to avoid detection. In your damaged state even you might not have been able to detect it´s presence."

"Maybe," Unicron admitted.

`Yes - isn´t it pitiful what you have come down to?´ The Fallen thought silently. `Nearly blind and deaf and unable to detect that is right in front of you. Just because of that it is so easy to play you now.´

He did not just mean the broken optics of Unicron´s robot body. He had other senses to perceive the universe. But they as well were greatly dismished.

"Your offer is... acceptable," Unicron finally said.

"Then Master - do me a favor and repair the damage I have taken," The Fallen asked. "My regeneration has already begun to restore me, but it is taking too long."

This was the only reason he had even bothered to reactivate him, even if he had preferred not to. But by himself it would have taken days to return to fighting condition and that might have been too late.

"As you wish," his former Master responded.

The Fallen could sense Unicron´s now weakened powers washing over him, restoring his body and assisting his own already powerful self-repairs.

After a few seconds he was as good as new.

"Thank you Master," he said.

"Now - do what you promised," Unicron told him.

"I will," The Fallen stated. But this time he would be the Master.

"There is one last thing," Unicron mentioned. "There is someone who could help you, a few pawns who might be able to be used again."

xxxxxxx

Decepticon Base

It seemed like a day just like any other.

With other words a bad day, Skywarp thought.

He was currently on guard duty along with the Targetmaster Slugslagger, standing in front of the entrance of the Decepticon Base.

Not that guard-duty was something generally bad. He remembered the many times that he and Thundercracker stood together at their old base on Earth or at the space-bridge. It felt kind of nostalgic.

He did not like the way things were now.

Skywarp often thought back to the old times, when Thundercracker and Starscream were still around, when Megatron was still, well - himself.

It was not even that much his transformation into Galvatron, but the insanity and change of his personality that followed afterwards.

He recalled how Galvatron stood by and did nothing when Cybertron was destroyed, claiming that it didn´t mean anything, because when the time-travel device were finished he could just erase it from ever happening.

Skywarp admitted he didn´t trust the Unicron created Decepticons, not anymore.

Galvatron was just the most obvious one, mostly thanks to being completely insane.

Sometimes Skywarp wished he had done it like Thundercracker and went with him when he deserted some years ago.

But it was probably too late for that now.

His eyes fell on the large pyramid close by, where a few of Scourge and Cyclonus underlings, the Sweeps and Armada Drones, were helping the Constructicons working to finish the work on the giant object.

Their work was nearly finished.

xxxxxxx

Autobot Base

Optimus, with Rodimus at his side, was standing in front of a large group of Autobots that included beside Magnus, Jazz and Perceptor, also Springer, Hound, Bluestreak, Hoist, Cosmos, the three surviving Dinobots Grimlock, Sludge and Snarl, The remaining Protectobots Hotspot, First Aid, Groove and Blades, Airraid, Fireflight... the Targetmaster Shureshot and the two Powermasters Getaway and Slapdash.

And three Autobots Rodimus never met before, called Roadstorm, Blink and Hoverstar.

It were not many.

This day might be their last. But it might also be their last chance.