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They shouldn't have built us. Primus can only imagine why Vector-Sigma thought it a good idea to give us life. As always, a balance was sought. When the Autobots designed and built me, the Decepticons of course caught wind of it and built a counterpart. Vector-Sigma gave us both life (and added an interesting little feature, but more on that in a moment) and soon, we were doing our dirty work for either side. I am Kronoform. I am a TimeWarrior for the Autobots. My counterpart in the Decepticon ranks is called Scorpulator. Each of us has the unique ability to 'stop' or 'reverse' time in a small area, usually during a battle, and 'adjust' the situation for our side's benefit. Not anything too-large; after all, we are only very small robots, and the effect only lasts a short time. And it takes a lot out of us; after the adjustment, we 'phase' out of this pocket of reality for a short time. We keep close watch on the autobot/decepticon war; due to our unique nature, we can observe the near past as well as the near future. If there is a chance of making a small improvement for our side, such as turning a blaster away to stop a key asassination, or placing an object in easy reach, we do so. The transformers don't know we exist; when we were created, we immediately phased out of existance. They thought we blew up upon activation. Which is a good thing; we would rather they not know that we are around, making adjustments here and there. Knowledge of our existance would affect them in ways that we could not begin to plot and adjust; the timestreams are tricky enough as it is when things are on-schedule. Of course, we are linked; Vector Sigma saw to that. Whatever one of us is aware of, the other is aware of. I suppose it was his idea of a balance. That's why we must be careful when we use our powers; as soon as one of us does our trick and 'phases', the other can very well step in afterwards to undo the other's work. It is a strange situation, and one that neither of us particularily appreciates. But we do our duty, as we have been created to do. I cannot stress enough how important it is to think out a situation before you intervene; I was careless once, and it cost our Leader, Optimus Prime, his life. I was watching the battle for Autobot city back in 2005. Things were not going well. The Autobots were slaughtered, their base destroyed. I saw a small opportunity where I might effect, if not a complete save, at least a partial one. I went back to a key point in battle and 'stopped' time; then went in and reinforced the rod to the transmitter dish to allow Blaster to get a communication thru to Prime. Just a few quick welds was all I had time for before I 'phased' out. Time started again, and all went as planned; the message got thru, and Prime arrived to save his troops. He even managed to kill Megatron in the bargain. Shortly thereafter, he used the Matrix to destroy Unicron, the chaos-bringer. Eventually, Cybertron came back under Autobot control. I thought all was well, but of course, Scorpulator had other plans. While I was phased out, he took the opportunity to make a change of his own. He went back and stopped time during the key battle between Optimus and Megatron, and placed a small blaster within easy reach of the Decepticon leader. His mission accomplished, he phased as well, and I could only watch helplessly as Megatron used the Blaster to kill Prime. What was worse was that Unicron got ahold of Megatron, and rebuilt him into Galvatron. He sent him after UltraMagnus. Magnus opened the Matrix, and killed Galvatron with it, thus exposing Unicron to a small part of the Matrix energy. When Magnus had to face Unicron, he opened the Matrix again...to no effect. Unicron found a way to protect himself. And destroyed Cybertron as a result. Needless to say, both Scorpulator and myself were shocked at that. With both of us having exhausted our powers, there was no way we could go back and make an adjustment to save our beloved Cybertron. All of our comrades on the planet, dead. Our creator, destroyed. And it was our fault. That was not supposed to happen! Neither of us had wanted this. But we were powerless to stop it. We both sat helpless in subspace, knowing by the time we phased back into existance, too-much time would have passed for either of us to be able to go back far enough to undo our actions. "There is another way", said Scorpulator, "But you won't like it." Being linked as we were, I already had a hint of the idea that he now told me. And he was right; I didn't like it. But the worst part was that it WAS a good idea. And from a Decepticon, of all people. He proposed that, if we combined our powers, we would be able to phase back quicker. Problem was, we still couldn't go back far enough to effect a reverse in the changes that we made. Not that we would have agreed on which one to undo. I searched the timestreams for an eventuality that would satisfy us both. And I found it. Again, not a perfect fix, but one that would allow us to work together. I presented it to Scorpulator, and he agreed that this was the best solution available to us. We had to make this work on the first try. For we could both sense somehow that, once we did this, we would phase out of existance permanently, unable to effect time ever again. This was something that Vector Sigma had counted on, which is why he made us able to work together when we needed to the most to save Cybertron. How he could know these things, I couldn't guess. But it was a moot point, anyways. In the end, I welcomed this eventuality; the ability to travel time and affect history is a power that transformers just aren't ready for. Perhaps when we are one people again, and can handle it responsibly. But not this day and age. We pooled our energies; approached each other in subspace. Crackles of energy jumped between us as our components transformed and merged. At last, we were ONE. We are no longer Kronoform and Scorpulator, we are TimeWarrior. We jump thru the timestream and back into reality. We reverse time; past the destruction of Cybertron, past the destruction of Galvatron, back, back...back to Prime's death. Back before he hands the Matrix to Magnus. And a key change; we stop time briefly, and bend Prime's wrist, just slightly; enough to allow the Matrix to Miss Magnus' hands. What is odd this time is that we are seen; Prime did not freeze along with the rest of time. One can only wonder why; perhaps because he was on his way to join the Matrix. It was a moot point. He saw us, but he was unable to interfere, as he perished almost immediately after. Back to the change; it is all we have time for. Once again, we phase out of existance, and time starts again. Prime drops the Matrix. Hotrod catches it; it is now keyed to him. He hands it back to Magnus, who carries it. Tries to use it on Galvatron, and fails; dies. Galvatron tries to use it, fails. Hotrod takes it from Galvatron, and tries to open it; succeeds. The Matrix destroys Unicron. Cybertron is saved. And now, the transformers are on their own, away from our meddling. For as we surmised, we are trapped in subspace, unable to phase back in to reality. Which is just as well. In the end, our interference was no longer needed. We are still bonded; the fusion was permanent. But it allows us to pool our mental resources, and think: Did Vector Sigma know all-along what would happen? Did he think there would be a time when we would be needed to effect the changes we did? Is that why he allowed our creation? One has to wonder. And we do. For all eternity. We watch the transformers as they evolve, and we wonder: was TimeWarrior a part of the Plan?
We may never know. But we take solace in the possibility. |
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NOTE: I'm pretty sure I 'borrowed' part of this story concept form another fanfic. If anyone can remember whose it was, please e-mail me. I'll gladly add their credit, and a link to that fanfic. Thanks!
Thanks to redearslider1@yahoo.com for pointing me in the direction of Rob Jung's fanfic, Little Things. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, Rob! :-) |