PROLOGUE
Sari Sumdac was between worlds.
Just moments ago, she had been sitting dejectedly against a wall as the Darksyde, vessel to the Predacons, activated its quantum drive and jumped through the fabric of time and space. As soon as that had happened, things had started to go awry. The lights in the corridor started to flicker, sirens began to ring throughout the ship, and voices cried out in alarm. Before she knew it, she was sitting in near darkness, with the only light coming from the blaring red alarms as they shrieked incessantly. As she clamped her hands over her ears, she saw the arachnid Predacon known as Tarantulas start to skitter around, clutching his head, though she wasn’t sure if it was from pain.
“It’s happening,” he was murmuring to himself. “I should have known it was going to happen. I should have said something. But would they have listened? No, no, they never listen to me. They never would have believed me.”
“What are you talking about?” Sari called out to him, her hands still clamped over her ears. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Tarantulas whirled around to look at her, his yellow visor flashing madly. “We’ve broken it. All of our meddling with time and space as broken the very fabric of the universe! We have invoked the wrath of its guardians! And we are all going to pay the price!”
At that moment, an invisible force began to tear the Darksyde apart. Plates of metal shot out around as the wall in front of her was ripped apart and she was flung out into the realm of quantum space. She quickly sealed her head within her helmet and activated her boot thrusters to gain control of herself as she spun into the void. When she was able to achieve some sort of balance and turn around, she saw that Tarantulas and the other Predacons being thrown out of the Darksyde as well as it was torn apart piece by piece. Before long, none of the ship remained and Sari was left to fly aimlessly through quantum space. All sorts of colors flashed before her eyes and even the act of closing her eyes did nothing to dispel them. Unable to see or hear the Predacons, Sari had no idea where to turn to or if there even was a place to turn to. For all sense and purposes, she was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and she was well and truly alone.
“Are you?”
The voice rang in her head like a gong and her eyes snapped open, though still all she could see were the flashing colors.
“Who’s there?” she called out, though she couldn’t even hear her own voice.
“I am,” the voice responded.
“And you would be…?”
“My true name would not mean anything to you. The people of your universe would know me simply as the Warren.”
“Can’t say I’ve heard of that name either,” Sari replied. “My name’s Sari, by the way.”
“I know your name. I know everything. My body is a knot of tunnels that stretch all across space and time, spanning all of reality.”
“Great,” Sari said dryly. “I’m not going to even pretend to understand what you’re going on about. At this point, I don’t even care. Everyone I know is dead and I have nowhere to turn to now.”
“You are from Earth.” It wasn’t a question but rather a statement, though she wasn’t sure why the Warren was making it.
“Yeah, but its not Earth anymore. Its been… its been wiped out and replaced with—”
“I know what has befallen your planet. I know everything.”
“Then you don’t need to rub it in,” Sari snapped. Behind her mask, she could feel tears begin to trickle down her face. “I just… I just want it to end already. I’m so sick of everything going to crap. You might as well just kill me now. I don’t have anything left to live for.”
“No.” The Warren’s voice rang louder than before, like a drum beating into her head. “Your story is not yet over. There is still more that needs to be done.”
“How can there be more to do? My home is gone! There’s nothing I can do about it!”
“That is where you are wrong.”
Suddenly, the flashing colors were replaced with a great ball of light that began to fill Sari’s field of vision and she raised a hand to shield her eyes. As the ball grew bigger, the intensity of the light subsided and she was able to discern it as some sort of opening, giving her the view of a large robot standing before some sort of device.
“You can still set things right,” the Warren said. “It is not too late to undo things.”
Lowering her hand, Sari gazed upon the scene unfolding before her as the end of the tunnel grew closer. “Is that… is that Earth?” she whispered.
“Yes, just moments before its destruction. You can still stop it, Sari. You can still save the world.”
Sari was not sure what to make of this. It all seemed too good to be true. Surely after everything she had been through, it wouldn’t be that easy to set things right.
Would it?
But as she saw the robot slowly raise his hand towards his device, she decided there was no time to mull things over. Unsheathing her energy blades, she kicked on her boot thrusters again and flung herself through the portal, towards the one-eyed robot. A cry came out from the depths of her throat as she lunged at the robot and brought her blades down on his wrist, cutting through the metal and circuitry. The robot released a cry of anguish as his severed hand fell to the floor and he staggered back, clutching his remaining stump of an arm.
“What in the blazes?!” a voice cried out and Sari’s attention was immediately drawn to a tall, fearsome figure in maroon armor. His arms split into four as his cape-like wings unfurled and his face split open, revealing multiple rows of eyes and teeth.
“Interloper! I will not allow you to undo what we have spent so long to achieve!”
Lord Imperious’ maw began to glow with energy and Sari, realizing she would be no match for the monster, braced herself for the end. That was when Primus, the robot whose hand she had severed, raised his remaining hand at the beast and fired a blast of energy, knocking the Destructon leader back. He then turned his head to look at Sari.
“Go,” he said. “I will hold them off.”
Sari blinked in confusion. “But… I thought you were with them.”
“Not anymore. I’ve realized that I’ve been deceived; that I’ve been misled to bring about that which I have sworn to prevent.” Primus looked back at the Talisman, the device he had been about to activate. “It’s not too late for me to set things right. I can still—”
“You will do no such thing.” Back on his feet, Lord Imperious drew a blade from his arm and skewered it straight through Primus’ chest. The force of the blow was enough to push Primus closer to the Talisman and the tip of the blade, jutting from the other end, scratched against the Talisman. Lord Imperious then retracted the blade and let Primus crumple to the floor as he stepped up to the Talisman and pulled the switch. Sari cried out in alarm but knew that there was no way she could stop the Destructon leader. All she could do was brace herself for the inevitable.
As the Talisman hummed to life, Lord Imperious let out a disgruntled snort as he turned away from the device, walking over to three other monstrous beings. One of them, a snakelike female robot, glanced questioningly between Lord Imperious and the Talisman.
“Is it… is it working?” Medusa asked. “Nothing seems to be happening.”
“The Talisman got damaged in the scuffle,” Lord Imperious muttered. “The infusion will proceed as planned but without the cyber-forming. We will have to use external means to complete the process.”
“And how are we going to do that?” asked a centaur-like robot.
Lord Imperious stopped to look over at Sari, his eyes narrowed. She stared back at him but said and did nothing, still trying to process what had just happened.
“We will have to turn to our benefactors,” Lord Imperious finally said. “They will have the means to do so.”
“What about him?” A brutish giant of a robot gestured at the mortally wounded Primus. “Are we just going to leave him?”
“He’s already done his part,” Lord Imperious said dismissively. “We no longer have any use for him.”
With that and a flash of light, the four Destructons departed from the chamber, leaving Sari alone with the wounded Primus and the damaged Talisman.
Outside, things proceeded as they had originally. Unicron’s essence was infused with the Earth; Scorponok was remade into his Herald; the Darksyde carrying the Predacons and Sari’s past self jumped back in time to close the loop she had created. In trying to avert the future, she had succeeded only in delaying it. She could only hope that the little time she had bought would be enough to make sure it never came to pass.
ALIGNMENT
Part 4: Waiting Between Worlds
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