Written by DBX
Things were looking grim, Destron had revealed his secret, he had subjected himself to one of the organic experiments and become totally organic. DinobotX and Ballistic were somewhere inside the armory fighting a losing battle, Rhinox was dead, Nightwolf was attempting to retake certain parts of Cybertropolis with the help of the citizens, and I was facing the toughest battle of my life. It was all coming down to this, all of our hard work was going to either pay off, or count for little. As much as I wanted to help the others, I had a task in front of me that would decide Cybertron's ultimate fate.The monster in front of me was horrible, and I had taken a lot of damage in the fall from the roof of the armory. Destron on the other hand had somehow been completely healed in his transformation. Before he had a chance to attack, I fired my shoulder cannons at him trying to keep him at bay but he ran at me, attacking with his claws and cutting a gash in my side. While he was close enough, I struck with my fists hitting him in the head making him a little disoriented. Then I kicked him in the stomach sending him to the ground.
The lower caliber weapons weren't working so I pulled out my plasma cannon and started firing. It did some damage to him, enough so that he took to the air in retreat. Or at least I thought it was retreat, but he was heading for the roof of the armory. I transformed to aerial mode and flew after him firing a barrage of weaponry at him. He did a loop in mid air and came right back at me, breathing fire. I forgot about that. I dodged the attack getting a little singed. The flames were hotter than I thought they would be, I would have to watch out for that, I couldn't take many more hits like that. I turned around and fired again at him, hitting his wings. As I planned, he was too injured to continue flying and he started going down. Somehow he was able to regain control enough to make a crash landing on the armory roof. I couldn't let him get to the device. I flew to the roof until I was directly over him, then I transformed to robot mode, falling down and stomping on him with both feet. As I stepped aside, he did a leg sweep causing me to fall.
"You can't stop me, I'm organic perfection! You're nothing but a flawed machine!" Destron said.
"Flawed or not I can still defeat you." I said.
"No one can fight destiny!"
"Finally, something we agree on. You can't make your own destiny though, and you can't make Cybertron's either!" I fired several shots at him. He used his fire breath again forcing me to duck and dodge while I tried to keep firing at him. No matter what happened, I had to keep him away from that device. Destron then rushed towards me preparing for another attack. I leapt out of the way at the last second. He was now larger and stronger, but he was a little slower, I had to find a way to use that to my advantage. I continued to dodge from side to side as he attacked, preventing him from hitting me. Then he caught on and the last time he rushed at me, he stopped short, waiting for me to move, then he attacked, knocking me down. Destron had me pinned to the ground, he started using his claws slashing at my armor plating. I thought it would hold but he cut a deep gash on my chest plate revealing a small view of the Matrix of Leadership that was within.
"You die now Orion Prime!"
I couldn't move with him pinning me down and at any moment he could cut through my armor and make a critical hit, I maneuvered my shoulder cannons and used a targeting grid. Luckily he didn't see what I was doing, I only had one shot. I fired hitting him in one of his eyes. He grabbed his eye in pain giving me enough time to kick him off. He got back up, injured but not seriously. He used his fire breath that in my condition I couldn't dodge. It hit me in the arm melting some of the armor there. If he had hit me in the chest or the head, it would have been all over. I pulled out my plasma cannon again and fired at him knocking him backward. Steadily getting to his feet, I fired again to keep him down. Then he noticed his own gun still laying on the roof. He took off after it, all the while I was firing trying to keep him off his feet. He grabbed the gun and fired it at me knocking my own cannon from my hand.
"I'm through playing this game! Now I'll-..." he suddenly winced in pain, something was very wrong with him. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees gasping for air. It couldn't have been anything I did to him, of all of the attacks I had made, none of them had hurt him very seriously. I was fighting a losing battle. But now he was in a lot of pain. He fell forward, bracing himself with his hands, then he reached his hand up and grabbed his chest, still gasping. There was something else wrong with him. He started coughing into his hand and then noticed that he had been coughing up blood, "What's......happening?" his voice was strained, he sounded like he was dying. The truth was, he was dying. I picked up my plasma cannon while I watched him.
"You don't understand do you?" I said quietly, "It was happening to Megatron too, that's why he made sure he got out of Noble as quickly as possible. Sparks can't survive in organic bodies, your spark and your body are killing each other."
"No!.......Impossible!"
"It's true, I know it, Megatron knew it, and I think you do to. You just wont admit it."
"This moment is.....it's what I've been living for..."
"No, you had another purpose long before the Oracle ever contacted you."
"Megatron destroyed my friends! He took my spark! He was technological, like you!"
"No, not like me. Megatron was a monster, like you've become. Look at yourself Destron, would your friends be able to recognize you as the Cybertronian you once were? Would they be proud of you?"
"Shut up! I'm honoring their memories by ridding this planet of technology!"
"Technology was never the problem. You only used it as a scapegoat. All these years, technology defined who we were. We're robots, sentient machines. We are technology. Bringing organics into that was a mistake."
"Organics are pure, and natural!"
"But they aren't meant for Cybertron."
"I don't care anymore! This is the only thing I have left!" he ran towards the device preparing to activate it. I felt bad about it but I had no choice, I fired on him sending him back to the ground. What was happening to him was getting worse, and my attacks were hurting him more than they had before. He was now near the device and in great pain, it didn't look like he could move.
"Please....mercy." he said. I felt sorry for him but I couldn't help but to think about all of the lives he had destroyed with those experiments. Had those Cybertronians begged for mercy?
"You who are without mercy now beg for it?" I said coldly raising my plasma cannon.
"Please, I'm dying anyway....there's nothing more I can do. I just don't want to die like this." whether I wanted to or not, I couldn't kill him. Not when he was laying there, already dying, and begging for mercy.
"Very well." I said lowering my gun.
"Thank you....thank you..." he said. I was about to walk over to help him up but he suddenly got to his feet and jumped to the device, pulling a lever.
"NO!!" in my anger I fired at him, hitting him in the chest, then I fired again, he was now badly wounded and bleeding but I continued firing until he fell back to the ground. I walked over to him seeing that the device was now glowing, "What have you done?!" I demanded.
"I told you......it was the only thing....I had left....Now.......I can join my friends........in death...." then he closed his eyes and a brief glow signaled that his spark was totally extinguished. Destron was dead, and I had killed him. I dropped my plasma cannon in disgust at what I had done, but I didn't have any time to reflect on it though because the energy reaction was starting. I ran to the device to shut it down but the energy reaction had started and it was surrounding the machine. The resulting plasma energy prevented me from getting too close.
"I've failed." I said to myself, "I'VE FAILED!!!" the energy started flying through the air surrounding the city, the best that could happen would be that the planet would be reformatted like Destron planned. The worst would be that the planet would be destroyed. Either way, a lot of lives were going to be lost, and there was nothing I could do. Then, I heard a voice from all around me.
"It is not over, there is still a chance to save Cybertron." through the gash in my chest plate, I could see a bright light, it was the Matrix. I opened my chest plate and pulled the Matrix out and held it high into the air. The light began getting brighter and brighter until the Matrix opened, letting out energy. The energy started swirling through the air with the energy from Destron's device. It was almost like the two energies were fighting each other for control. The Matrix energy was intensifying and overtaking the other energy, then the device on the room dissolved into thin air. I thought it was over and I was about to return the Matrix but the energy was still stretching out across Cybertropolis, and soon over the entire planet.
It took me several seconds to figure out what was happening, but I soon understood what was happening. The planet was being changed, the organic elements were dissolving and was being replaced by metal. I looked over at Destron's body and watched it disappear. The opposite of what he had expected was happening, Cybertron was changing, only this time it was changing for the better, becoming what it was meant to be. Then the Matrix energy started flowing back into the Matrix of Leadership. I wanted to see what had happened so I looked out over the city.
It was finally over, Cybertron was restored to its former glory. It was a sight to see, the sunlight reflecting off the metal city.
"Prime!" I turned around and saw Ballistic, DinobotX and Nightwolf walking across the roof towards me,
"Is it really over?" Nightwolf asked."Yes, it's over." I said.
"Most of the Guard were captured or deactivated during the battle. They'll be fine but it may take a while before they learn to trust us and accept what has happened." DinobotX said. We could hear sounds of celebration from the streets below,
"Sounds like the locals are throwing a party." Ballistic said,
"Come on let's go see if there are any bars open." Nightwolf said,
"You want to drink at a time like this?" Ballistic said, "I was thinking more along the lines of spending the next week in repair mode."
"Jeez, what a wimp. Those battles weren't that tough."
"You weren't in the last one." DinobotX said.
"You too schitzo? Come on, there has to be a drinker in there somewhere."
"I don't know."
"Then I'm going to help you regain your memory."
"Coming Prime?" Ballistic asked.
"Go on, I'll catch up in a minute." I said. I walked to the edge of the building and looked out across the city one more time,
"Beautiful isn't it?" a familiar voice beside of me said. It was Rhinox. He was standing there to my left looking at the city with me.
"Rhinox! You're-"
"I'm still living impaired if that's what you mean. I'm just an illusion." Rhinox said.
"How are things on the other side?"
"Much as they are here, it's a day to celebrate. You accomplished your mission."
"We couldn't have done it without you."
"We all had our roles to play, I found my destiny and I was able to gain redemption. But you had an even greater destiny, to become Cybertron's new leader. The Matrix knew you had potential, but you really proved yourself today when you defeated Destron and opened the Matrix of Leadership."
"I feel bad about killing Destron. I wish there had been another way."
"Destron wasn't going to sit in prison. The only thing he had left was to accomplish his dream. If there had been another way, you would have taken it. To the people of this planet, the only thing that matters is that you saved their lives and avenged the lives of those Destron killed. You've done well, but there's something you need to know."
"What's that?"
"There's a text that was long hidden on Cybertron, one that predates the Great War and even the Cybertronian rebellion."
"I don't understand, what does this history book have to do with me?"
"Not history, prophecy. It tells of a time when Cybertron will be barren, leading to an age of abomination until a hero steps forward and uses the light to restore the planet to its former glory."
"This was all written? Why weren't we told?"
"Because one should never know too much about their own destiny. But now things have changed and such knowledge may one day become vital. The Matrix has sent me here to give you a message" he told me everything I needed to know, and then he finished by saying, "I wont keep you any longer. Go with the others and savor your victory."
"What about you?"
"My time here is done, I've earned the right to move on. It was an honor to fight by your side."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing." I said. He smiled and then slowly faded from sight.
I didn't know what Rhinox meant by there being more to the prophecy, instead of worrying about it I took his advice and enjoyed the victory. I couldn't help but worry about what he said when he mentioned that everything we had done was written in the prophecy and what he said next was even more haunting.
"There is more."
What did it mean? Was there a greater destiny in store for Cybertron? I decided not to worry too much about it because right now, we were victorious. After all of the battles, all of the hardships and all of the work, Cybertron was finally as it was meant to be. Destron had been defeated, the techno-organics were gone, the planet was whole once again. We were Transformers, sentient machines, robots in disguise.
