"PROSTHESIS"
    BY JACOB MILNESTEIN

   Well here I am.
   This is the first episode in my trilogy of Transformers/Beast Wars stories 
(Prosthesis/Gnosis/Apotheosis) and it's intended for as a darker parallel continuation of Simon 
Furman's original comic series (for Marvel).
    I hope you in enjoy it, just bare in mind that over here in the dark wastelands of the UK only three 
episodes of Beast Wars have been screened to date and I wrote this way before I saw any of them.
    So here it is, not the face that launched a thousand ships but I'm proud of it. If anyone is interested 
my bosses (Vietnamese Wallflowers) are producing a four issue TF/BW mini-series, if you want a part 
of just want to comment please email me at either SHERTOGENBOSCH@hotmail.com or 
codeine_door@mailcity.com 
     All Transformers characters owned by HASBRO ENTERTAINMENT LTD.
     All other characters owned by VIETNAMESE WALLFLOWERS
     Text ¸ VIETNAMESE WALLFLOWERS 

   Just because something ends, it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.
   Spike Witwicky looked across the wave of terrain that was once Autobot City. 
Ironically it was now an institute for advanced technology.  
   Flicking ash from the end of his cigarette, he pulled his long, black Kashmir coat 
tighter, knowing that there was not a chance in Hell that he could disguise his armour 
from himself or anyone else, he was and would always be an aspect of Fortress 
Maximus, both in spirit and body.
   Maximus' thoughts droned inside his head, calling him, asking him where he was 
but Witwicky was too old to go running back to him every time he called.
   The war had been over for nearly a decade, he had the rest of his short, cancerous 
life to worry about.
   
   Optimus Prime had similar feelings, if they could be reported to be feelings. In 
another multiverse, at another time, he would have been destroyed before Unicorn had 
reached Cybertron, but that was the timeline that had spawned Galvatron and the 
many, many more Autobot and Decepticon echoes.
   The most haunting was that of the alternate Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime.
   He could see the lines where the Matrix had carved out the immaturity from the 
Autobot who was once, and still was in his timeline, the Targetmaster Hot Rod.
   He could only ever wonder what could have aged Hot Rod so much, in that 
universe, but what ever it was, suffice to say it must have been even more horrific 
than in the present worlds.
   From behind him came the sound of one of his comrades approaching. Slowly, he 
turned and faced Carnivac, his chipped Decepticon insignia still peering out from 
beneath the dirt that webbed his armour.
   "You called for me." Carnivac stated, his voice cold and harsh.
   Prime nodded slowly.
   "Bludgeon." Prime said and Carnivac shuddered visibly.
   "What of him?" He replied, the red glow of his eyes carving into the Autobot leader.
   "Both Bludgeon and the other Decepticon Pretenders are still alive."
   Carnivac turned away.
   "I already know this, Prime, I was there on Klo when your precious Autobot troops 
were massacred."
   Prime was silent, his positronic intelligence reeling within the chrome and steel 
skull encasing.
   "Let it go, Prime, let it go. Its all over, we're just learning how to rebuild our world 
and you want to jump back in the Ark, searching for more enemies, new battlefields, 
more bloodshed and more death."
   Prime nodded as Carnivac stormed out towards the exit, his huge wolf like 
Pretender shell following him.

   Ratbat flexed its new, leathery wings, trying to decide what kind of nightmare it had 
awoken to.
   Its body, once titanium was now weak, tensile flesh with a positronic brain and 
several other adjustments grafted both inside and out.
   Then a sound. Metal striking metal. It looked up and what first appeared as 
Galvatron broke open revealing the familiar shape of the insidious Megatron.
   It hissed, yet Megatron simply smiled at it.
   "What's it like, Ratbat?" He asked, his voice deep and monstrous. "What's it like to 
be reborn, machine made flesh?"
   He burst out laughing, a sound more akin to the howl of a deranged Reaper. 
   The mass of flesh that once were optic circuits blurred with a foreign liquid.
   Megatron turned his back on Soundwave's former minion, his attention turning to a 
battered Autobot in the corner.
    "Soon, Perceptor," He muttered, more to himself than either Ratbat or Perceptor. 
"Soon I shall return as the supreme leader of the Decepticons, and all who stand 
before me will be crushed like so much insects."
   Perceptor's eyes grew wide; fear and panic forming a collage of helplessness as the 
horror of what he was expected to do finally dawned on him.   
   The end would end, not with the clash of battle and the final stand of Autobot 
against Decepticon but with the wind brushing through the audio diodies of a million 
Transformers, a longing and waiting familiar to them all and then the sound of metal 
being crushed between layers of animal flesh.
   The Earth, Cybertron, Nebulous burning away, a web of ash and organic hair spread 
through out the Cybertronian Empire and all its sister worlds.
   This was the way the world would end.

   The building towered, gleaming metal and plastic, a tapestry of human achievement 
or rather a tapestry of human guilt.
   The reflective light from the hologram shone back from the faces of puddles, 
carefully dropped from the skies above onto the filth encrusted London pavement.
   Peacemaker was soon inside the sanctuary of the titanium walls, his armour 
painfully removed leaving him naked in a thick, black synthetic animal fur coat and 
an old vindaloo stained Clash from several years back, when he had first arrived on 
Earth and was still adjusting to the fickle nature of his armour.
   All around, humans in their sleek executive suits bantered around; their excuses of 
power and glory like the fickle whispers of angels. 
   They ignored him, his two-month old beard and gaunt face nothing but a phantom in 
the hallowed halls of their perfection.
   Soon, he found himself walking through the mazes of various corridors, the hum of 
a thousand online computers filling his ears. 
   The world was folding in around them, humans retreating within the white, plastic 
shells of user friendly computers, etching out their existences deep within the 
telephone wires as their bodies became redundant, no longer needed.
   He remembered the newspaper headlines of several weeks ago, proclaiming in their 
bold, black typeface that no one ever need die again, the elixir of immortality had 
been compressed into a fistful of byte size memory, stamped it on a disk and 
downloaded it onto its own special little home page.
   The price of immortality was far from free though, after the significant operations 
there was the price of finding a server to support your consciousness and keep you 
alive. In short people where paying the Corporations to take their souls away, paying 
for a short-lived visitor's pass to digital heaven. 
   Peacemaker sat down in front of an empty terminal and abandoned his fingers to the 
dance that was oh, so familiar, the feel of fingers gliding across plastic, opening 
menus, clicking on icons.
   This was the way the world would end.

   Perceptor looked out at the rows of hideous mutations, hardly believing his optics.   
   He bent down and looked into the bulging eyes of a huge, red ant like monstrosity.
   When a yelp he fell back as the huge creature shifted its a shape, the sound of gears 
grinding across metal filling his ears.
   Within seconds an organic tapestry of flesh laced with cybernetic parts towered high 
above, the purple glare of a Decepticon badge reflecting in the half-light.
   Perceptor tried to hide his fear at the back of his mind, knowing in his metallic heart 
that he had birthed this.beast.    
   He remained looking at it, not hearing the alternate sounds of Megatron and Ratbat 
approaching.
   "Perfect isn't he?" Megatron reflected, almost in awe. "An Autobot turned sour by 
this unholy concoction of animal structures he has been born into."
   Perceptor gulped a second time.
   "Whose mind will fill the shell?" He asked, his mind scanning through memories of 
dead friends.
   Megatron smiled, wickedly.
   "Inferno." He replied, his voice brimming over with glee. "Yes, most definitely, 
Inferno." He paused, looking to Perceptor for his reaction. "I always had a liking for 
him, never backed down before Prime, kept his beliefs up to the point he was 
terminated."
   "And you have the positronic matrix that contains his thought patterns?" Perceptor 
asked, weakly.
   "Oh yes, Perceptor, and this time it will be different." He said, coldly. "Unlike those 
ingrate Starscream and the incompetent Ratchet, you and my new army of 
Decepticons shall be quite loyal." He leant closer. "If not by programming then surely 
by fear."
   Perceptor could hardly formulate words but eventually, through the stammers he 
managed to formulate a sentence.
   "What.about.Hun-Grrr?" 
   Megatron slammed a fist into Perceptor, shattering the lens he would have used in 
his microscope mode.
   "I would like to confide a little secret in you, Perceptor," His voice, both fierce yet 
somehow polite. "Hun-Grrr and his Predacons, like Shockwave before, will bow 
down at my feet." He waved his arms in the air, a magnificent gesture of power. "All 
those Decepticons who turned their backs upon me as I malfunctioned, will serve me 
as surely as you do now."
   Perceptor looked into his fierce, glowing crimson optics and it occurred to him that 
there was no choice, no future but to serve to Megatron.
   Megatron recognised this, sliding casually back within his Pretender shell, assuming 
the dark hue of his other incarnation, and clicked his monstrous fingers together.
   Mindwipe, his body the prototype for the experiments, moved to his right hand, the 
gleam of hypnotic optics and an organic DNA structure refurbished with the parts of 
his former body.
   "Bring Perceptor the required information." The Galvatron Pretender shell growled. 
   Mindwipe nodded his obedience and quickly scurried out of the bleak, metal room 
that Perceptor had been confined to, Ratbat's weary eyes following him every step.
   Perceptor rubbed his Autobot insignia but it brought him little comfort, his mind 
attempted to dart around his forthcoming deactivation but, as he already knew, found 
it to be a mute point.
   He too, would soon add to the river of oil on Megatron's hands, his limp body 
fading to black and his positronic mind stumbling into unrelenting darkness.
   He was no longer certain as to what he should expect when he had been deactivated. 
His god, Primus, had been crushed like an insect before the technological Satan that 
was Unicron, his separate components raining down upon the ravaged Cybertronian 
cityscape. 
   Before, he would have held out, he would have waited for Prime and his fellow 
Autobots to rescue him, but not now. 
   Much to his discomfort he had learnt that an Autobot was never quite an Autobot 
and a Decepticon never really a Decepticon, not now, and certainly not today.

   Rodimus Prime was uncertain as to what the consequences of his actions would be 
but he knew that he must take them.
   Kup, Arcee and Blur with their respective Targetmaster companions had been in the 
parallel past for what had seemed like an eternity, serving beneath this foreign 
Optimus Prime in a universe where his human counterpart had recreated himself in 
the place of the fallen Autobot leader.
   Together with Landmine and Wreck-Gar, he had unearthed Galvatron's Promethean 
strategy, studying the bio-technology that the Decepticon had mastered to create 
legion upon legion of the new hybrid race and there seemed little choice left.
   He and his fellow Autobots had become relics, out of date commuters to an out of 
date age.
   They had no choice but to adapt, to change, to transform. 
   He couldn't confess to wanting to change, but circumstance provided no choice. 

   Several decades earlier and a alternate dimension away, Carnivac, resplendent and 
awe inspiring in his huge synthetic wolf Pretender shell, prowled the outskirts of the 
Autobots' Cybertronian Head Quarters. 
   He liked being alone, away from the bleeding liberal hearts inside. Sometime he 
would run for miles, through the towering metallic forests, and although no wind 
would touch his face and no prey enter his sight it reminded him of his true nature.
   Carnivac was a hunter, and somewhere buried beneath all the guilt and anguish he 
was also still a Decepticon and this was something he could never allow himself to 
forget. 
   His eyes as wide as two saucers, taking in the breadth of the post-modern 
architecture, he continued to run. Padded feet hammering against metal and a dull 
ringing in his ears he came to a halt, pausing before the decaying weaponry where 
Xaaron had been crushed.
   He allowed himself a callous smile and wondered who had been allocated to clean 
up the fallen, those twenty years ago.
   Suddenly the air was full of a pounding, his ears like radars against the perpetual 
Cybertronian night.
   Something was awakening.
   Carnivac tried to move his legs but found himself rooted to the spot, his legs 
gripped by invisible icy fingers and his name whispered over and over between the 
layers of unconscious mind. 
   The shadows blossomed out into the form of a monstrous nightmare creature, row 
upon row of predatory teeth snatching at the fur of Carnivac's shell, braking strategic 
holes in the forged titanium and throwing him to the ground.
   Carnivac cursed himself for not hearing the attacking and broke out of his Pretender 
shell, launching himself into the air as the photon blast from his attacker's weaponry 
snatched the leaking oil of the shell, transmuting it into a furnace of boiling liquids 
and flames.
   Carnivac snarled and landed on his hind legs, quickly transforming into his robotic 
form and facing the intruder.
   He cursed himself for not recognising the stench as Skullcrusher let loose another 
volley from his barrel, catching his shoulders and severing vital circuits.
   "Are you ready to take your place amongst the dead, traitor?" Skullcrusher sneered, 
transforming back and forth between robot and alligator.
As he loomed over Carnivac, his excitement barely contained, a broken leer across his 
yellowed teeth.    
   Carnivac punched out as Skullcrusher lunged at him. He missed and the monster's 
mouth clamped down on him, biting through the sheen of his armour and severing 
vital connections.
   Carnivac's eyes glimmered and then faded to a dull grey.

   Inferno jerked to life, his abdomen grotesquely pulsating with energon.    
   His eyes sluggishly opened and Galvatron allowed himself a smile of satisfaction.
   Bending down, the Pretender shell patted the beast on its head.
   "Forgot those dreams of Autobot resistance, my friend. Now you shall lead my 
army of new Decepticons." He whispered, waving his arms at Mindwipe and Ratbat.
   The back door crashed upon and, with Carnivac beneath his mighty jaws, 
Skullcrusher made his entrance.
   He dropped the turn-tail Decepticon to the ground and transformed into his towering 
robotic mode.
   "I have brought the traitor, mighty Megatron, now I want you to keep your side of 
the bargain." He uttered, his voice a low growl.
   "As you wish." Galvatron nodded, smiling deceitfully.
   Skullcrusher's head unfurled revealing a small, humanoid in armour.
   "No tricks, Megatron." Grax demanded. 
   Galvatron raised a hand to his metallic chest where, had he been a human, his heart 
would have been.
   "The thought had not begun to formulate in my mind." He smiled, his eyes a 
crimson shade.
   Grax looked unconvinced but Mindwipe and Perceptor where already pulling the 
rooted Skullcrusher up of his feet.
   "Careful, Autobot fool." Mindwipe growled as they laid the body on a metal 
platform. 
   Perceptor flicked a switch on the wall and a tray rolled out full of surgical 
instruments and the bloodied corpse of an alligator.
   It hovered just above the dormant body of Skullcrusher, waiting for the process to 
be initiated. 
   Perceptor turned to look down on Grax.
   "I'm afraid that you too shall have to be altered or Skullcrusher shall be inoperable" 
He said weakly.
   "You're a bigger imbecile than I originally took you for, Autobot." Grax smirked.
   Yet beneath the smirk was a deep seated fear.
   Perceptor turned to Mindwipe.
   "Vorath has undergone the process." Perceptor protested weakly.
   Grax began to slowly step backwards, one foot after the other.
   "And look where it got him.one of Megatron's lackeys!"
   "Do it, Perceptor." Galvatron commanded and Perceptor, unwillingly reached down 
 and seized Grax's by both of his arms.
    "Free me, Autobot bastard!" Grax screamed, his voice shrill and consumed by 
panic.
   Mindwipe sighed and snatched Grax from Perceptor's hands, dangling him in the 
air.
   "You can graft Skullcrusher's memories in later." He said to Perceptor and then 
slowly and almost painstakingly closed his fist around the form of Grax.
   Arcs of crimson red and shards of miniature armour erupted from his hands and the 
rest he dropped to the harsh floors.

   In the two hours he had sat in front of the computer terminal Peacemaker had 
discovered nothing.
   He exited the building and walked along the filth of the pavement for a few minutes 
until he came across a sleek, yet delicate looking blue car.
   He flipped the panel at the top open and climbed inside.
   "DecepticonambushonCybertronCarnivackipnapped!" The car spat out as it pulled 
itself into gear and belted out onto the skyways.
   Peacemaker turned to the shadow of a figure seated behind him.
   "All these and you would have thought Blurr would have learnt to talk slower." He 
sighed.
   The figure leant forward, instantly recognisable as his friend, Haywire, what with 
being considerably younger than all the other Nebulans and humans who had become 
aspects of both the Targetmasters and Headmasters.
   His smile was broad and warm.
   "Yeah, I guess so." He offered by way of reply then changed the subject. "So what 
did the government computers have to say?"
   Peacemaker sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
   "That all Transformers, both Decepticons and Autobots are a threat to national 
safety." He paused. "Any further interference will constitute an act of aggression 
eventually leading to a war against Cybertron."
   "Fuck's sake." Haywire cursed, slamming a fist down on his armour shielded leg. 
"You would have thought they would have thanked us for all we did for them."
   "Yeah, that's what we did think and look at us now."
   "What about the Neo-Knights?" Haywire asked.
   "Vanished without a trace. Probably executed."
   Peacemaker leant back against one of Blurr's headrests and closed his eyes.
   It was all over.
   
   Optimus Prime stood before Fortress Maximus, Kup and Arcee, his head bowed as 
if in prayer.
   "Optimus?" Arcee prompted, her voice warm and compassionate.
   He looked up, his eyes full of sadness.
   "Where is that darn fool, Blurr." Kup muttered to himself.
   Things seemed to have been on an eternal low since Hot Rod had vanished, leaving 
behind his closest friends and even his Targetmaster companion, Firebolt.
   "I never expected Megatron to strike again so soon." Prime muttered, his voice old 
and full of pain. "I should have known better."
   Arcee placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
   "You can't blame yourself." Fortress Maximus said, solemnly. "We all lose 
sometimes."
   Prime looked up at him.
   "It was too soon for Carnivac. There had been no reconciliation." He sighed.
   There was the sound of feet in the doorway.
   "Well I say we stop moping around here, find Megatron and stop him for good this 
time." Came a youthful voice, full of enthusiasm and arrogance.
   For a brief second Optimus Prime thought it might have been Hot Rod but then the 
figure stepped out into the light, revealing the gleaming form of Pointblank.
   Kup smiled at this and punched the palm of his hand with his other fist.
   "That's the spirit, lad."
   
   Cutthroat had watched the entire scene from outside the dome of Megatron's base. 
He smiled to himself as his fellow Terrorcons vied to get a look in.
   "What do you see, Cutthroat?" Hun-Grrr asked, his voice deep and cold.
   "Perceptor is quite the elegant surgeon is he not?" Cutthroat smiled, transforming 
back into his standard robotic mode.
   The comment went unregistered by the other Terrorcons, all except Hun-Grrr.
   "Prepare to assemble Abominus." He commanded. "For this is the way the world 
ends."
   He smiled bleakly to himself and then, with a single motion, launched himself into 
the air and transformed.

   Carnivac lolled his head from side, when he opened his eyes the first thing he 
registered was the garish purple of a Decepticon symbol.
   A strange liquid rolled behind his eyes, blurring his vision and then with a violent 
jerk, the green and black aspect of Megatron.
    "Welcome, Carnivac." Megatron smiled. "I take it your new body is to your 
liking."
   Mindwipe sniggered and Carnivac simply leapt down from the operating table and 
transformed.
   He held out the palms of his hands and looked at what he had become.
   "What.have you.done?" He whispered in silent rage.
   "Really, Carnivac, I can't take any of the credit." He smiled and indicated the 
cowering Perceptor. "It was all Perceptor's work," He paused and scratched his chin. 
"But maybe I'll sell you to Bludgeon all the same. Just to see how durable his work 
is."
   Megatron had not expected Carnivac to be so strong, so soon yet all the same he 
launched himself into the air and brought his full weight down upon the second 
generation Decepticon leader, imprinting his outline into the soft metal of the ground.
   Megatron kicked back harder than he had expected, knocking him back into the 
wall.
   "No," He growled, transforming into a thunderous tank. "I'll crush you myself."
   The cannon glowed with light and then unleashed a volley of missiles that narrowly 
missed him, blowing holes deep into the structure of the safe house.
   A low, rumble was issued from the ceilings as invisible hands tore it open.
   Megatron transformed and looked up as the face of Abominus eclipsed the 
Cybertronian sky.
   "And now Megatron," The huge Terrorcon growled. "Abominus will drain you of 
your very energon!"
   "No!" Megatron screamed, issuing blast after blast from his fusion cannon.
   Abominus brought his fist and crushed the empty operating table.
   "Daemoncons!" He shouted to Mindwipe, Skullcrusher and Inferno. "Destroy 
Abominus!"
   The Galvatron shell enveloped him as his three minions took to the skies above his 
head.
   Quickly Galvatron turned and snatched Perceptor from his hiding place.
   "I'm afraid that it is time for our partnership to be terminated, Perceptor." He 
snarled, banging the Autobot head against the wall. "I can't allow the Autobots or 
anyone else learn my secrets."
   He threw Perceptor back and then transformed into a powerful futuristic 
improvement of Megatron's tank.
   The cannon issued one blast and the metal of Perceptor's skin blistered up, his eyes 
exploding in flames and his very body breaking into segments.
   There was the fizzle of severed wires and what was left of Perceptor was sucked out 
into the maelstrom outside, sprinkling his components across the Cybertronian 
skyways.
   A Comm unit flicked open on Galvatron's right arm and emitted a shrill, high pitch 
bleeping noise.
   "Get me out of here!" He shouted into the small communicator.
   A glow of synthetic light enveloped him and began to fade away.
   The Comm unit bleeped erratically and Galvatron stabilised, still standing in the war 
torn room.
   "Curse you, Nightracer!" He screamed. "Curse you to the grease pits of Polyhex!" 
   Abominus' onslaught increased, his fists beating the walls of the building into 
crumpled pulps of their former selves.
   "And what do we have here?" Abominus mocked as he snatched Inferno from the 
ground. "An Autobot traitor."
   Inferno reached up and opened fire.
   The blaster shots bounced off the starched armour and Abominus roared with 
laugher.
   Carnivac flinched at the sound as he sniffed out an exit, his new eyes darting about 
the room. Suddenly the organs deep within him trembled in fear and expectation, he 
tried to think his way through the process but he was still attempting to gain control of 
this new, semi-organic body.
   What looked like a whirlpool of crystal light bore it's way into the darkest corner of 
the room. 
   Carnivac turned his eyes away from the light as the howl of wild beasts filled the 
air.
   When he looked back him he was confronted with four beasts, creatures that looked 
like hybrids between futuristic motorcycles and massive hyenas.
   Behind them, two large figures stood.
   The first was clearly one of the hyenas in an alternate robot form. He had glowing 
red eyes and straggly beard of sorts.
   He outstretched an arm in Abominus' direction.
   "Don't delay, friends, the sale is now on. Everything must go!" He shouted, his 
mouth curling in a smile.
   "Everything must go! Everything must go!" The hyenas yelped as they pounded 
forwards toward Abominus.
   "And now, a particularly hard customer." The stranger smiled. "Will he prefer new 
improved Junkions to his regular brand?.that is the question!"
   As if he were about to dance, the stranger transformed.
   His hind glistened with weaponry, each one unleashed a crimson blast of energy 
towards Galvatron.
   "No!" Galvatron screamed, slowly backing away. "This can't be so!"
   The second stranger stepped forwards, filling the room with Matrix glow.
   "It's all over, Galvatron." He said, his voice firm and authoritarian.
   Carnivac gasped the majesty of the mysterious Autobot.
   Ragged fur of a deep red hung from his shoulders giving him a somewhat unkempt 
look. Upon his chest was a large fire motif with a glowing Autobot sign central to it.
   Carnivac reared up on his hind legs. The stranger had turned the tide of the fight and 
he was not one to neglect a favour.
    
An Autobot convey made it's way through the shards of crystalline blaster blots, 
heading straight for an impact with Megatron's experimentation laboratory.
   The large oil tanker at the front transformed into the familiar shape of Optimus 
Prime, blaster in hand, sending volley upon volley crashing into Abominus' left leg. 
   Rippersnapper broke under the fire and Abominus' limbs snapped into the separate 
Terrorcons.
   Rippersnapper trashed on the ground, his chest streaming with poisonous smoke and  
fire and eventually his body shattered into a thousand pieces, dulling to a grey-black 
hue.
   Arcee, Kup and Pointblank accelerated forwards through the battered corridors, 
sending equipment spraying forth over the floors.
   Kup launched into his bipedal mode, flames bursting forth from the barrels of  both 
of his handguns.
   Abominus crumpled, the shell of his armour fading to black as the Terrorcons 
shuffled off to their mortal coils.
   Hun-Grrr pulled with all his lifeforce, draining the remaining energon from the 
comrades he had been linked to.
   Just enough to survive, He thought to himself. Then I can revive the others, I'm not 
stealing, not killing, just surviving.
   Even as he passed from consciousness he knew it had been, and always would be, a 
lie.

   The Autobot stranger crushed Galvatron up against the folding panels of the wall.
   His eyes gleaming with the flowing power of unreleased power.
   "It's all over, Galvatron," He said, his voice full of authority. "It's all over and no 
one's won. Not the Decepticons, not the Autobots, not your freaks, no one!"
   Megatron shrunk within his Pretender shell.
   "It's never over, Prime." He spat. "Never over, in every universe, every dimension, 
a cradle of darkness, the insidious revelation that pain, suffering and death will tinge 
your existence forever!"
   A familiar look of disgust filled the stranger's optics.
   "You're insane."
   Galvatron smiled and in with sudden movement pushed the stranger back from him.
   "You're wrong, Prime," Galvatron shouted. "It's not insanity, it's vision."
   "A vision of what?" The other Prime snarled. "The multiverse at your fingers, an 
entire way of life melted away into symbols and icons?"
   Galvatron looked uncertain, he raised his fusion cannon, prepared to fire and then 
lowered it. His eyes looking to the pot holed floor.
   "It wasn't supposed to be like that." He whispered.
   No one in the room moved, all eyes focused on him and then slowly he pointed the 
cannon at his head and pulled the trigger.
   
   "Where did you go?" Fortress Maximus asked, his back turned. "I've had to use 
Cerebros for all my primary functions."
   "Earth." Spike replied, solemnly.
   "For eighteen months?" Maximus questioned, his voice full of doubt.
   "I needed some roots." The small human stated, defending his actions.
   He closed his eyes and waited, waited for Fortress Maximus to tell him about his 
responsibilities, like a huge mechanical father figure but there never came.
   Maximus went down on one knee.
   "I know what that's like." He replied and smiled weakly.
   
   Without warning Skullcrusher pounced, seeming to hold his form in the air.
   Optimus Prime raised his gun but couldn't get an aim on the creature.
   Then the other Prime turned, painfully slowly and his entire body shifted, 
transmuting into the image of a Gryphon.
   Skullcrusher faltered, his snout heading towards the ground and the Gryphon 
counter-pounced.
   His claws reached out, first snatching the air and then racked across Skullcrusher's 
nearly formed flesh, pools of blood sputtering across the sheen of the Gryphon's deep 
red fur.
   And then in an instant he had transformed again and Optimus knew who he was 
looking at.
   In a way he had never comprehended he saw the future, snaked out beyond the 
wrecks of fallen Decepticons, the future was taking place.
   It was no longer a vague shape at the back of his mind it was before his eyes.
   Rodimus Prime stepped up.
   "Till all are one?" He asked with respect.
   Optimus was quiet and then the strength returned to him. 
   He nodded.
   "Till all are one." He replied.