Written by DBX
The end was coming and there was nothing we could do to stop it. Since the destruction of the Council, Cybertron had been spiraling out of control. Whatever the outcome of this conflict would be, it would arrive soon. It's not that the Matrix had revealed it to me, but rather it was a feeling I had. When I told Orion Prime he agreed, saying that he had the same feeling. Even though the end was in sight, it didn't mean that Cybertron's fate had already been decided. We had to decide that for ourselves.We had helped DinobotX learn about his past, he wasn't pleased with the answers he found. He told me that he felt responsible for the deaths of other Cybertronians. He believes that they died to give him life. But he doesn't understand that they were already dead. He still feels responsible for the life that was given to him, from the stolen memories to his phantom spark. If he thinks that way about himself and a choice he was never given, then what does he think of me? As Tankor I caused pain, I attempted to kill my friends, and when they tried to help me I turned on them yet again. Megatron's reprogramming corrupted my shell, and even affected my spark on some deeper level. He drove me insane...but I didn't do anything to fight that insanity. I let it happen. I tricked Megatron and Optimus Primal into using the Key to Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy chamber to destroy Cybertron. Optimus stopped the reaction just in time but I was punished for my crimes, I was destroyed. For a while my spark wandered aimlessly, caught in a perpetual limbo. Then something caught my spark and pulled me out of that emptiness, it was the Matrix. It gave me another chance at life, and another chance to do the right thing. I had been given the opportunity for redemption, and I took it. I became the Emissary, and I was given a mission. I had to unite a small faction to overtake Destron and make Cybertron the way it was supposed to be. I told the Matrix I couldn't lead them, so the Matrix created its own leader, Orion Prime. At first I didn't think it was possible for five Cybertronians to save a planet, but each day we move closer to our goal, now I think we have a chance.
We're in the process of planning for what's to come. There are certain things that need to happen before we can stop Destron and begin the process of rebuilding. The five of us have been talking a lot about it because we know this isn't going to be easy. We can't save a planet that doesn't want to be saved, no matter how difficult it's going to be, we have to convince the people of Cybertron that we're trying to help, and to open their eyes to what Destron is really doing. Destron would have to be stopped if it meant arresting him, containing him, or if it came to it...destroying him. Orion Prime said that even if Destron was out of the picture, the Oracle would find someone else and start all over. It wasn't hard to believe, the Oracle was buried for years before it found Optimus Primal. The Oracle would have to be shut down permanently. I told them that the Oracle was powerful, and it wouldn't be easy. Prime wanted to plan the specifics of the upcoming missions before we even considered taking down Destron and the Oracle. My own doubts were getting the better of me. Gathering Cybertron's support and stopping Destron would be difficult but destroying the Oracle would be nearly impossible...unless it was done right.
It was a risk, but a risk I was willing to take. I was going to use my connection to the Matrix to infiltrate the Oracle and destroy it from the inside. I knew there was a slim chance that I would succeed, but I had to at least try. I didn't tell the others what I was doing, I didn't want them to get involved. I waited until I was alone, then I sat down and closed my eyes, concentrating on contacting the Oracle. In my vision I saw Cybertron but it was as though I was seeing it in black and white. Scanning over the planet I saw something that stood out on the surface. I moved closer and closer to it until I could clearly see it, the Oracle. This was the only assault that could work, physical attacks wouldn't. We were in the Oracle chamber, or more accurately a dreamlike representation of it. Just like in reality, the Oracle was at the edge of the bridge.
"I have been expecting you." it said.
"Then you know why I'm here. That saves me some time." I said preparing for battle.
"You intend to destroy what you do not understand. Before, you attempted to control it. Instead, it controlled you. Or do you not remember what happened when you tried to acquire the Key to Vector Sigma?" before me flashes images of the Diagnostic Drone and myself, trying to gain the key. I sent the Diagnostic Drone in.
"You feared the power." it said exactly what I was thinking, "Even now you fear me."
"But fear wont keep me from destroying you!" I said.
"You cannot destroy me. You know this, you've come here for another reason."
"Wrong."
"We shall see." then everything around me changed, I had made a mistake. The Oracle may have been more vulnerable here, but I was in its world now.
When the world around me finally stabilized, I knew where I was. Prehistoric Earth, just as I remembered it from the Beast Wars. Why had the Oracle brought me here? I recognized my surroundings, it was the same place the Axalon had crashed, but the Axalon wasn't there.
"What is this?" I asked. I could hear the Oracle's voice all around me,
"That which you considered an accident was in fact a plan. What you thought fate, was destiny." I saw two objects falling out of orbit, the Axalon and the Predacon ship. The Axalon crashed right where it was supposed to. Why was the Oracle showing me all of this? The DNA scanners started scanning our original beast forms I could hear the Oracle again.
"Megatron stole the Golden Disk as I knew he would. He thought he was in control, but he was just a pawn...as was Optimus Primal. They both acted just as I instructed, all the while thinking that they were in charge of their own lives. Primal brought with him the organic element that would later contribute to Cybertron's Reformatting, and Megatron brought with him the contempt for organics." images of the Beast Wars flashed quickly before me ending with our departure from the planet and our arrival on Cybertron,
"Megatron attempted to destroy the organics, with a little push in the right direction, he used you as his general. Knowing you were of pure spark, Primal attempted to contact you..." I saw Optimus using his connection to the Oracle to try to reach my spark when I was Tankor, "...but again, he failed to see the larger plan that was being set into motion."
"It was you! You used Optimus to contact my spark so that you could corrupt it!" I had my answer as to why I had become so evil, but the knowledge didn't erase what I had done.
"You too became a pawn, bring the Key to Vector Sigma into the equation. A tool which would later prove useful..." now images of the fallout between the Key and the Plasma Energy Chamber began appearing before me. As Tankor I thought I was the one who brought about the event so that Megatron and Optimus would end up destroying each other. It was the Oracle all along. The Oracle continued,
"The test was a success. I did not plan on Cybertron's destruction, but Primal was able to stop it from happening. There was only one proof of success, a creature called Noble." I was now in the Citadel during the Fallout, I witnessed my own death and Optimus drawing the energy into his own body. But I saw something that Optimus did not. Megatron's body was being divided by the energy combination and a second form was created, Noble. A completely organic Transformer, the very thing Destron was now trying to create.
The Oracle continued its narration of these events,
"The war escalated, but there was much to be done. So Megatron was given the same power as Primal, but Megatron believed he could control me, just as you did. It was during this time that I decided that Optimus Primal and Megatron had outlived their usefulness. Their final act for me was to bring about the events that would cause the Reformatting." I could now see Optimus and Megatron plunging into Cybertron's organic core, "Once the Reformatting was completed, Cybertron's first step towards its ultimate evolution was complete."
"You couldn't make it totally organic without making it techno-organic first..."
"It was also much easier to convince the Cybertronians, and to find another pawn."
"Destron is just as blind to this as Megatron and Optimus were."
"On the contrary, he knows the plan but accepts it. He came to me like a lost child, Megatron had killed all of his friends. Destron had to watch them die by the hands of a mad man who spoke of technological perfection. Now he despises the technological and seeks to eliminate its presence from Cybertron."
"But it can't be done! The balance between the organic and the technological is fading even now! Cybertron can't handle being totally organic!"
"It can, and it will."
"What do you mean? What are you planning?!"
"The end is coming soon. We are in the eleventh hour of Cybertron's perfection. The arrangements are being made and soon, it will be complete."
"I have to stop this!!" I charged up an energy blast and fired it at the Oracle. It hurt the Oracle, but not much. It retaliated, but its attack was far worse than a physical one.
"You who once tried to destroy Cybertron are now trying to save it? How can you do anything with such doubts?"
"I have no doubts. I know what I have to do."
"Do you? Then why is it that you let your fear control you? You confront me here, but not on the physical plain as your alter ego Tankor once did. You are a much weaker as a hero than you were as a villain. Leave, I have no time for weakness." with that I was thrown back into my own body, but something was wrong, I wasn't in control of it. It felt like I was in sleep mode. The world around me was bleak and black. The darkness consumed everything around me, but not me. I could hear a vehicle approaching in the distance becoming louder. There was a dark outline of someone coming closer to me I couldn't see their form, they too were consumed in the darkness that surrounded this world. Where was I? Was this the Oracle's work? Then the other one fired something at me. I dodged it easily and it struck something behind me. Little by little, the darkness began to crack like glass and then it fell away revealing Cybertron as it was before the Reformatting. It was desolate and quiet, just like it had been during Megatron's reign. I turned back around to face the one that fired at me, I immediately recognized him, Tankor.
I knew this wasn't a drone, but which Tankor could it be? The slow, dim-witted bot Megatron had programmed, or was it the evil lunatic that had been created when I took control?
"What do you think?" Tankor asked with my voice. He knew my thoughts, and I knew why. He was me, my thoughts were his.
"Why are you here? Why now?" I demanded.
"Don't you know? I'm here to take back control. You've become soft Rhinox! Look at you, calling yourself the Emissary. You can't save a planet! You couldn't even save yourself!"
"At least I didn't destroy a planet."
"Oh but you did. You see, Rhinox was just the bi-product, we've always been Tankor, you've got to accept that."
"Never." I said preparing for a fight.
"You honestly think you can win against me?"
"What do you think?" I said coldly. He fired a volley of missiles at me, one of them met their mark. I answered with a shot of my energy taking out his missile launcher. He transformed to tank mode and started firing at me with his cannon. I dodged the shots quickly running behind him. He was having trouble keeping up, he was a lot slower than I was. I knew the irony, and so did Tankor. Only Rhinox could beat Tankor. I transformed to beast mode, much different than my original mode, this one looked more like a steel-plated rhino. I charged at him at full speed as he was turning around to attack. I connected right into his side knocking him over. He changed back to robot mode and tried to get up. I went back to robot mode as well, I knew what kind of world this was, one I could control. Concentrating I used my thoughts to form weapons, two chain guns like the ones I used so long ago. By now Tankor had struggled to his feet. I fired at him with both guns sending a hail of bullets at him. The first hundred bullets bounced off of his armor, the rest were able to punch through because of the damage the first ones had done. Tankor then fell to the ground on his back battered and broken. I walked up beside of him with my chain guns trained on his head,
"Finish it." he said, "You know you want to."
"If I were to kill you, then I truly would become you." I answered, "I'm not you, and I never will be again." the chain guns disappeared and I started walking away, knowing he could no longer follow. Ahead of me was a tunnel of light. I knew I was made of wires and circuitry but I never knew what really drove me, the good and the bad. Not until that moments, when I ventured into my own spark. I never though that deep down inside me was my own dark side, the body of Tankor with my own voice. But now I knew.
"I'm not through with you yet! You haven't seen the last of me!" Tankor shouted.
"I know," I said quietly, "you'll always be here inside me. Waiting for a chance to take control again. But now I know how to deal with you. You haven't seen the last of me either." then I walked into the light.
I awoke from my meditation, back at base. Orion Prime was standing there looking at me questioningly,
"I disobeyed orders." I said.
"I thought you might." he answered, "You tried to attack the Oracle from the inside?"
"Yes."
"How did it go?"
"I failed...but I believe I've learned something."
"Then you didn't fail. Do you want to talk about it?" I thought for a moment and then nodded,
"It's about time I did."
Tankor was right, a part of me always was him. Only when I lose control do I let him get an edge, but I know better than to let that happen, and I know I can't do this alone. Figuring all of this out now was very important because like the Oracle said, we're in the eleventh hour. The end is coming and all of us have to be ready for what lies ahead. We can't let anything stand in our way, not ourselves or our own individual Tankors. If we do then we wont have been defeated by Destron and the Oracle, we'll have been defeated by ourselves.
