"It was the end of the Earth year 2259, and the war was upon us. [...] We came to this place because it was our last, best hope for peace. By the end of 2259, we knew that it had failed. But in so doing, it became something greater; as the war expanded, it became our last, best hope for victory. Because sometimes 'peace' is another word for 'surrender'."
- Commander Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5.
End of the Beginning PART II
Without warning, an explosion of purple and blue light was triggered where Optimus and Megatron were battling. The Autobots and humans saw their noble leader being hurled outwards by the explosion.
A few minutes before
The two blades collided, their wielders face to face.
"The last confrontation such as this, you took my arm off, Prime. This time, I will strive to take your head!" Megatron sneered.
Optimus responded by trying to overpower him and Megatron reciprocated. They were in a dead-lock. Optimus tried a gamble: he disengaged and stepped back. Acting quickly, he fired against Megatron's corrupt blade. The point was not to damage it; there was only enough time for a half-powered shot, anyways. His goal was the flash of light that resulted from the blast. It blinded Megatron and Optimus went in for a killing blow. But Megatron hadn't been a champion gladiator for thousands of years for nothing. With his other senses still available, he predicted Optimus' strike and parried it. His sight restored and saw he had saved himself in the nick of time from having his head removed.
"Going right for the throat, Optimus? Very atypical of you." gone was the taunting. Megatron had to get serious.
"You deserve no more mercy or consideration than a strain of rust plague. Even the dead suffer because of you!"
"Is this really a reason for such rage? It is not the first time I raise one of your fallen from the grave." He paused for thought. "Or is this steaming from my action in cyberforming this pathetic rock?"
Optimus sliced the saber downwards, sending a wave of energy at Megatron that drew a trench on the metal soil. Megatron dodged the blow, which continued traveling on a straight, destructive line. Megatron paid a glance to the destruction then glared at the Prime in disgust.
"So irate over the fate of a younger, weak race. What does it matter that I exterminated them just now? They would eventually destroy themselves in their stupidity and arrogance. Perhaps in 100 stellar cycles, perhaps 1000. The result would be the same."
Optimus drew several quick arcs of energy. Those attacks were weak but numerous and drew Megatron's focus to block or dodge them. Which Optimus took the opportunity to transform and close the distance between them. The blade collided and the enemies were once again face-to-face.
"You destroyed the future of an entire species!"
"And secured the future of our own!"
The struggle between the opposing energies of the swords intensified. Sparks emanated from the point of contact. Shockwaves rattled the earth that cracked under their feet. Chunks of the ground levitated like God had turned off gravity. The universe was being distorted. Yet the two continued to force their weapons against one another, each in his pursuit to annihilate the other.
"You murdered billions!"
"Not enough, Prime. Not nearly enough."
"How many more, Megatron? How many more until you are satisfied?"
Megatron smirked widely. "So long as the world is not the way I envision it, I will mold it with violence. So long as anybody stands in my way, I will respond by killing. Murder on a planetary scale. Because in the final analysis, I would happily wade across a river of corpses, chest-deep in rust and grease and spoiled energon just to crush the spark of the last enemy standing. And I wouldn't do it just as a means to an end. No, Optimus. I would do it because it would put a smile on my face."
"NO MORE, MEGATRON!" Optimus snarled. "This ends today! Star Saber, by the Matrix of Leadership, I call on all your might!" the light of the sacred weapon increased, recognizing the invocation of its wielder as that of a true Prime. The Star Saber powered up to its maximum.
Unfortunately, Megatron had a similar ace up his sleeve. Because his perfidious sword was made from the same substance that fueled his spark, the Dark Star Saber also reached a new plateau of potency.
The swords, both in overdrive mode, met once again. The last time the two forced their weapons as such, an accident happened which drove them into a misadventure both would rather forget (1). This time, however, the combination of the contrasting energies was so much more intense. There would be no insane travel throughout the multiverse. There would only be mutual destruction; the two sabers shattered on the point of contact and the resulting burst of energy caused both opponents to be launched in opposing directions.
The last thing Optimus saw before falling was the epicenter of the explosion. The cocktail of energy was a light blue and sickly purple. That was to be expected. What was unexpected was a brief shape with wings of a figure made of orange light with red highlights
What in Primus…?
The Autobots bore witness to what seemed like a battle between two gods, wielding their divine weapons. The battle came to an epic if disastrous end as said weapons destroyed one another and the resulting explosion catapulted the two combatants in opposite directions. In the aftermath, the air was saturated with dust and smoke. The landscape had been ravaged, once a flatland was now scarred with craters and makeshift hills.
Arcee looked around. Everyone but their leader was present and still alive. "Ratchet?"
"Optimus' signal is still active, if weakened."
"Right. Scatter and search for Optimus." as usual, Arcee took command when Optimus was unavailable. "Except for you." she pointed at Miko, still encased in the Apex Armor, now fully conscious. A good thing was she only regained consciousness after 'Bulkhead' was put back to rest.
"Hey, I can help!" she protested.
But Arcee would have none of it. "Miko, this has been a bad enough day. You are going back home. Period."
"Home?" she glared. "I don't have that anymore!" without warning, she turned around and took off, vanishing into the misty battlefield.
"Scrap! Miko!" Jack shouted. They would have gone after the girl had she not stopped as suddenly as she started. A talk and broad figure manifested from the mist, walking heavily towards her.
"Optimus?"
"Guess again." that raspy voice drained all the color from her face. In a flash, Megatron slammed into her, knocking the girl off balance. Quickly, he grabbed her by the helmet before she hit the ground. She went for a punch, but the veteran gladiator grabbed the fist in his hand and bent her arm backwards. Miko cried out in pain; the Apex Armor gave her an awesome boost in strength, but it wasn't enough.
The Autobots aimed their weapons at the warlord, but he wasn't finished. In a fluid movement, Megatron pulled Miko up and forced her to face the Bots. Her fist was still in his grasp, bent behind her back. The armored human was now a decent sized living shield for the Decepticon.
"Let her go, Buckethead, or the next shot goes into your spark!" Wheeljack growled, all cool lost.
"Doubtful, Wrecker." unphased by the threat, Megatron knew they wouldn't dare fire on him with their human pet's life on the line.
"Get wrecked, scrapper!" Miko used her free hand to try and punch her captor, but Megatron caught it with his other hand. Aggravated by that rebellion, he twisted the other arm further. Miko screamed in increasing agony until there was a crack. Her screams dissolved into cries of pain.
"MIKO!" Jack and Raf cried out. The Autobots were enraged. Wheeljack looked ready to go tackle the tyrant and assault him hand-to-hand.
"Humans, so resilient. And yet, so fragile."
"You're a monster!"
Megatron retorted Jack's insult with a disdainful look. "Do you have the slightest idea how many beings have called me that? The whole Universe may call me a monster. What does it matter; the Universe is wrong."
With one of his hostage's arms out of commission, Megatron grabbed something on his back: the hilt of the destroyed Dark Star Saber. Now it only had a small shard of broken blade attached. It was a small consolation for everyone involved that their enemy had lost his most potent weapon. But if Megatron was revealing that for all to see, his reason could only be nefarious.
"You Autobots cost me my sword, my undead minion and my first lieutenant. So it is only fair I take something from you." he crushed what remained of the pestilent blade above Miko's head. Liquified dark energon oozed between his talons and dripped onto the helmet of the armor. "The Apex Armor may protect its wearer from virtually any physical blow. But a liquid can easily slip between the plates."
Proving his point, droplets of the wicked substance formed inside the helmet. She looked up for a drop to fall and land right on her forehead. The burning sensation was as intense as it was painful, escalating her sobs into a wail.
"MIKO!"
"Perhaps I will make your human pet my new undead slave." the villain provocated.
"Megatron!" The lord of the Decepticons was ready to counter any attack the Autobots could throw at him. He was ready to further brutalize the human vermin in his grasp. What he wasn't ready for was for Optimus to reveal himself out of the mist and tackle him.
Miko was tossed aside and everyone else ran to aid her. The Apex Armor deactivated and retracted, wether by accident or Miko's directive, nobody cared. She looked like a wreck; covered and reeking of sweat, hair disheveled and clothes torn up. The injuries were the worst, though. Her left arm was clearly broken, swollen. The left side of her forehead had a small burn mark with the shape of a drop that landed on a surface.
Jack was careful to be gentle when carrying her pickybag. Rafael asked her frantically if she was alright. But all she did was whimper with the pain.
"Ratchet, bridge for Miko, now!"
The children were evacuated back to base. The rest of the Autobots meant to join Optimus, but Megatron transformed and took flight, Optimus still grabbing onto him. They were high in the air reaching the clouds of vaporized oil, all while Megatron tried to shake him off.
"You are more persistent than rust, Optimus!" Megatron sneered. Optimus replied with a volley of punches, causing Megatron to lose stability. "Are you so pitbent to send us both to the AllSpark?"
"If that rids this Universe of you, it is a price I will accept!"
"I would much rather see you fall." To make it literal, Megatron performed a variety of wild maneuvers. Try as he might, Optimus couldn't hold onto him and fell down from an altitude above the clouds.
"OPTIMUS!" Smokescreen and Bumblebee cried out.
Arcee called base. "Ratchet, an instant ground bridge for Optimus!"
"I'm trying…I have his coordinates but it's difficult to open one in a closed space!"
Bumblebee shrieked. "You won't have time. He's coming down pretty fast."
Optimus couldn't find a way to save himself. The Autobots wouldn't be able to stop his fall and the Jackhammer was scrapped. He couldn't end like this! It was not death that frightened him but leaving his comrades in a hopeless war like this. But as the ground became more visible, the inevitability of his failure became unavoidable. He realized he had failed not only Cybertron but also the legacy of the Primes by failing to pass it down to more worthy hands.
An interesting thing; humans say that life flashes before one's eyes when death approaches. Optimus concluded there was truth to that. Old memories started playing in succession, each one a regret and personal failure. He saw Senator Halogen struck down by Megatron when their joint attempt to speak with the government crumbled. The peace talks between Autobot and Decepticon falling apart before the war began spiraled out of control. Friends dropping dead, one after another, over time: Prowl captured, interrogated and tortured by the Warrior Elite Sixshot, Hound in a suicide mission to assist the Wreckers to escape, Sparkplug, his fellow minicon archivist in Iacon crushed by Megatron himself. Alpha Trion, likely perished alone on Cybertron following the Exodus. Elita-One, is beloved conjunx endura, lost to him forever.
"Forgive me Primus. Forgive me, everyone. I have failed you." He closed his optics and waited for the end. And the end did come when the fall suddenly stopped and Optimus felt a kind warm embrace envelope him. He opened his optics and all he saw was light.
"By the AllSpark..."
Arcee blinked thrice, to make sure her optics were functioning properly.
" Arcee… the computer says Optimus' signal has ceased falling." Ratchet's tone was loaded with despair.
"Ratchet, I... I don't think I can report what I'm seeing."
" Ugh, well, what are you seeing?! "
"I'm sending you a visual feed."
Autobot HQ, Site Cradle.
The mainframe displayed a video of what Arcee was witnessing. Optimus was being carried up the abyss by something afloat. Ratchet had to double check his instruments to ensure what he was seeing. Whatever it was carrying Optimus was unrecognizable to him.
"What in the AllSpark is that thing ?"
The children, however, had some recognition of it. Rafael readjusted his glasses. "Guys…"
"Is that an…" Jack blinked.
"A-angel?" Miko finished, still half incapacitated by the pain.
"A what?" the medic
The 'angel' had grabbed Optimus before he hit the ground and was carrying him up the abyss. In its embrace, the Prime was just as mystified as everyone else. The thing that just saved his Spark was almost as large as himself, but no Cybertronian at all. Its skin(?) glowed, but not as if it emitted light. No, the being looked as if it was made out of light of a pale orange hue with strawberry red highlights. It had a bulbous head with two stubby horn-like appendages atop. What passed for arms were short and ended into long tentacles; one of each 'hand' was gently ensnared around the Prime. The lower part of its body didn't end in legs but just a conical extremity as long as a leg. To complete its look were the wings on its back, yet they didn't flap to elevate the creature.
"Who are you?" no answer was offered to the Prime. "What are you?" still nothing.
A sound gradually entered his audio filters, slowly overcoming every other noise. It was a melodious hum of some kind. A music…or a song? Regardless, the melody was all he could hear. He felt his exhaustion, both physical and mental, fade away. Replaced with a sensation, a feeling, a belief that whatever the future reveals, all will be well.
Once they reached the plateau, the winged being gently dropped the Prime on the ground. The Autobots quickly rushed to their leader's side. Assuring them he was alright, Optimus turned back to his savior. Its bioluminescence reflected upon the Bots' metallic frames, giving the appearance that they also glowed. Mesmerized, Optimus looked into the creature's 'face'.
"Thank you." he whispered to it. The 'angel' made a subtle movement, as if almost nodding and disappeared into a flash of light that momentarily blinded everyone. Having no purpose left in there, Optimus called for a groundbridge back home.
Far in the distance, Megatron had witnessed the whole event and left as bamboozled as everyone else. "What in the Pit was that thing?"
Place: ?
The empty dimension shook under the fervent rage of The Exiled One. "I WAS SO CLOSE!"
His arm transformed into an enormous blaster and fired shot after shot after shot. Each blast could have easily pulverized a mountain chain. But in the void that was his prison, there was nothing to make an impact upon and the shots just flew off into the infinite distance. It did very, very little to sooth The Exiled One's wrath. "The struggle between Unicron's and Primus' energies should have torn open a passage for me to cross! When the swords collided, I could have been set free from this cage! What went wrong?!"
The Exiled One waited until his rage was dormant enough before he made a swiping gesture with his hand. The battle between the leaders of the two factions played again before him. One of the very few blessings of this dimension was that, since he now had a fix on the real world, he could view the events that trespassed there without the natives realizing.
He played the final impact of the two sabers on a loop. The moment the swords connected, they both shattered. The power of Primus and Unicron were never meant to be unified in such a way, after all, as they were antithesis to one another. So they destroyed each other. But that instantaneous impact should have been enough to open an entrance in reality for him to escape and…
"Wait." he whispered to himself. He observed the loop once more. There it was; a tear in reality where the swords collided. And then it appeared; that strange creature. The interloper that saved the Autobot from his demise.
"YOU!" the Exiled One felt his rage reawakening. "You stole my one chance for freedom, you abomination!" he degenerated into another violent tirade of anger. He cursed the interloper and vowed to exact revenge upon it, as well. He vowed that the next opportunity to escape this prison will not be taken from him. No matter what, he would be avenged. He would be free. Free from this accursed Dead Universe. Free to destroy all of his enemies 'till all are none!
Autobot HQ, Geneva.
Optimus got up from the medical berth after Ratchet made absolutely sure he was in pick condition. Which he was, given that he didn't even feel exhausted at all.
"How is everyone else?"
Ratchet's groan was saturated with exhaustion. "Just fine. When the Jackhammer was destroyed, Miko shielded Wheeljack with the armor. His wounds were light. Miko took the brunt but was fortunately shielded by the Apex Armor. It's extraordinary that armor was able to withstand an exploding vessel. Her left arm is broken but fortunately, Jack has experience in applying a sling. Lastly, although the dark energon was able to leak into the armor, only a drop fell on her head. I've scanned her thoroughly; a severe second-degree burn, albeit small. It will scar but cause no permanent damage. The substance never got into her system."
The figurative weight on Optimus' Spark reduced somewhat. They had suffered a irreplaceable loss, but no one was injured, at least. Not physically, anyways.
Ratchet became pensive before asking. "Optimus, I don't suppose you have any idea as to what that thing that saved you was."
"None, old friend. All I know, what I can sense is that entity was aware, sentient." he paused, thought gathering. "It sang to me."
"Sang?" Ratchet quirked an eyebrow.
"It may be inaccurate, but it is the best I can describe it. There was a melody of some kind while I was in its embrace. It rejuvenated me. My aches and exhaustion disappeared." he clenched his fist, feeling himself well-rested and energized.
Ratchet hummed. "That would explain why your energon levels are at maximum, now. Still, I can't rule out that whatever that thing did for you will not cause nefarious side effects." the medic descended into a monologue about making more examinations but Optimus wasn't listening. The sensation of that creature touching him came back. He felt a tingling sensation in his head. Like he was trying to remember something. Then a word came up:
"Techno…angel?"
"What?"
"That name 'Techno-Angel'. I think it is the name of that creature…or perhaps its species."
Ratchet gave him a quizzing look. "How would you know that?"
Optimus touched his own chest, the Matrix of Leadership pulsing within. "I don't know how, Ratchet. I just know it."
The medic pinched the bridge of his none-existing nose, muttering a curse under his breath about more problems and workload to deal with.
Optimus left the med-bay and immediately, the medic went back to fixing a piece of equipment. Since they have moved in so recently, the new base was far from top efficiency and as the only scientist around, the responsibility fell solely on the old Bot's shoulders.
Thinking of responsibilities reminded Optimus of his own, as he spotted Wheeljack, alone, leaning against the wall. He traded looks with the Prime, both knowing the Wrecker would now face his judgment.
( 1 ) - 'Optimus and Megatron in the Multiverse of Madness' is a prequel to this story, but it doesn't affect the plot at all.
Next chapter will be the epilogue of Arc I of this story, that arc of the new status quo. For the fans of IDW comics, some of Megatron's lines may sound very familiar, albeit after I gave them some tweaks. The Techno-Angel is a concept from the original version of the story that I'm reusing here.