CHAPTER ONE
Decepticon camp, Verenya
When Megatron stepped out of Killmaster’s pocket dimension and returned to the world of the living, the sight that greeted him was not an inspiring one.
Several Decepticons were laying on the ground, still functioning but badly wounded. Clearly their fight with the Destructons had not ended well after Killmaster had forcibly pulled him out of it, though he was admittedly surprised that the Destructons had been as merciful as they appeared to have been here. His optics scanned the area and he eventually spotted Soundwave and Starscream standing among the injured, watching as Flatline hastily moved between fallen soldiers. He stormed up to his two lieutenants and they both turned to look at him, their faces devoid of emotion.
“What did I miss?” Megatron growled.
“We believe the Destructons have activated the Talisman,” Soundwave replied. “Although there appears to have been a scuffle; the Cybertronian that had accompanied them is currently in the chamber, mortally wounded. Along with him is what I believe is a human techno-organic.”
Megatron vaguely recalled Scorponok having mentioned something about a techno-organic, just before Impactor had attacked him. But after everything that had just happened, he could not bring himself to care much about it.
“Do you know what they’ve done with the Talisman?” he asked instead, though he already knew the answer.
Soundwave seemed to hesitate before answering. “I believe they have infused Earth with Unicron’s essence.”
“You believe?” Megatron pressed him.
“I have detected his presence,” Soundwave clarified. “As his former Herald, I carry a permanent… connection to him, even after having my consciousness transferred into a new body. However, he appears to be dormant as he has not made an effort to contact me.”
“I don’t see why he would,” Starscream snorted. “Seeing as how you turned against him the last time we dealt with him.”
Megatron ignored his Air Commander’s remarks and spared a moment to survey the environment of Verenya; to his surprise, Earth did not seemed to have been altered by the Talisman’s activation. The forests that surrounded Verenya were still there as if they had never been disturbed. Had Soundwave not said anything, he never would have guessed that Unicron had taken over the planet.
“I’m surprised they did not cyber-form the planet,” he mused aloud.
“I will note that the Talisman appears to have taken damage from whatever conflict took place in the chamber,” said Soundwave. “It is possible that certain parts of the process were impeded as a result.”
“That must be why the Destructons have left,” Megatron said grimly. “To find an alternative method to cyber-form the planet.”
“What does it matter?” Starscream asked. “We’ve never cared about this pathetic rock. Let them cyber-form it for all I care!”
“It’s not the act itself that I take issue with, Starscream,” Megatron growled. “It’s the people behind it and their intention for it. I risked everything to imprison the Destructons thousands of years ago and I sacrificed my own life to destroy Unicron. Now, both of those things have returned, threatening to negate all that I have accomplished.”
His hands rolled into fists as his red optics flared.
“I will not let them undo all that I have done. Not after I have been granted yet another lease on life.”
“What do you intend to do, then?” asked Starscream.
“We shall withdraw our forces from Earth and regroup at New Kaon. We will mobilize every ship still in our armada. Then, we will return here… and raze this planet to the ground.”
Starscream’s optics went wide at this. “You… you’re really going to go through with that?”
“Of course.” Megatron grinned wickedly at him. “After all, they can’t cyber-form Earth… if there is no Earth to cyber-form.”
* * *
Sari was not sure how much time had passed before she finally stepped out of the Talisman’s chamber. After the Destructons had teleported away, she had just laid there, clutching her head as she struggled to figure out where she went from here. She looked over to the robot that Lord Imperious had stabbed and saw that he was somehow still alive, if barely. He was clutching the open wound in his chest, oil and energon spilling through his fingers. He glanced once at her with his dimly lit optic but said nothing to her. The two of them simply sat there in the chamber, dejected and forlorn.
When Sari heard movement going on outside, following by some sort of warping sound, she managed to muster the courage and energy to pick herself up and fly up towards an opening in the room’s ceiling. When she poked her head out, she was surprised to find the city of Verenya completely deserted and devoid of Decepticon activity. It was almost as if they had never been there in the first place, though the remains of buildings that had once been occupied by people—torn down to make way for Trypticon—indicated otherwise. For whatever reason, the Decepticons had decided to just up and leave; whether they had teleported somewhere else on Earth or away from the planet entirely, she could only begin to speculate.
Deciding to take the risk, she flew out of the opening and emerged fully into Verenya. Just as she was about to survey the rest of the city, a gleam of light caught in her eye and she looked over to see a gold-plated mechanical figure limping towards her. Its optical sensors were blue and weak and the mere act of walking seemed to be taking a toll on the robot. Sari stared at the robot for a moment before finally being able to put a name to the face.
“Hey,” she called out to them. “You’re the other Bumblebee. Goldwheels, right?”
“No,” the robot said weakly. “That’s not who I am. Not truly. My real name—the one I had forgotten for so long—is Centurion.”
“Oh.” Sari paused for a moment, unsure how to respond to that. “So what are you doing here? Where have you been?”
“I was aboard the Predacons’ starship, held prisoner within that spider’s lab. He tore my head open, pricked into my brain module, and brought back memories that I did not realize I even had. I discovered that I was, in fact, never the Autobot known as Bumblebee; I was Centurion, subordinate of Domitius Major and crew member of the Axalon. My compatriots and I resided on Eukaris in secret, away from the warring tribes, and answered only to our master Onyx Prime.”
Sari grimaced at the familiar name. “I’ve heard of him. Not exactly someone I would ever want to answer to.”
“Nonetheless, we obeyed his wishes without question. He entrusted us with a mysterious device—the same that lies in the chamber behind you—and sent us into deep space to keep it out of the hands of Maximals and Predacons alike. Onyx more than anyone understood what it was capable of and dared not dream of what horrors it would unleash should it fall under the wrong hands.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” Sari muttered.
“Indeed,” Centurion replied. “We all found out for ourselves when, after being shot down over this planet, the device activated and flung us back to the distant past. The crash knocked us into stasis lock and wiped out memories; when we awoke, we did so with new names and fabricated identities, derived from those we had never met.”
“Did the Talisman do that to you too?”
“In part. Based on my rediscovered memories, a Decepticon by the name of Shockwave had followed us through time and taken to analyzing us to figure out who we were. He then started to rebuild us into bodies that resembled Autobots and other Decepticons that he was familiar with. For what purpose, I cannot even begin to guess; but it was because of his experiments that I knew myself as Bumblebee, Domitius as Optimus Prime, and so forth.”
“Wow,” Sari said. “And I thought my origin story was convoluted. I’m… I’m actually really sorry for you. You basically lived two different lives, one of which was a complete lie.”
Centurion nodded solemnly. “My entire life ever since that fateful crash has been a contrived series of events. All because of that accursed Talisman….”
“Well, it’s screwed up my life as well, as well as everyone else on the planet. Once I get in touch with the Autobots, they can come pick us up and hopefully we can fix what its just done.”
“No need.” Centurion raised his right arm and it altered its shape, assuming the form of a blaster cannon. “I intend to resolve things here and now.”
Sari’s eyes went wide. “What? No! We can’t destroy it now. Maybe we can use it to undo everything. I mean, if it has the ability to do all of this, then maybe—”
Centurion shook his head. “The Talisman will bring nothing but further grief and despair. The Warren opened my eyes to that and I will do what I must to prevent the future it showed me to past.”
“Wait, the Warren spoke to you, too? But it told me—”
Before she could finish, Centurion was already moving past her and heading for the chamber that laid beyond. Acting on instinct, Sari raised her hand and fired a blast of energy from her palm. However, the shot missed as Centurion jumped straight down into the chamber, landing in front of the Talisman and the ailing Primus. As Sari moved to fly after him, Centurion raised his arm cannon at the Talisman and, ignoring Sari’s cries of protest, fired.
The resulting explosion lit up like a miniature star and consumed Sari’s vision with pure white light.
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