Chapter Text
For Optimus Prime and Megatron, all that mattered was victory. In this moment, when the two were locked in fierce combat, the victory of one over the other could alter the course of Cybertronian history for decades to come. Both knew the stakes, and both were prepared to spill energon for it. As were their loyal soldiers, the Autobots and Decepticons, who waged their own battle.
With a hefty mace swing, Megatron shattered Optimus’ left shoulder. Optimus retaliated with a blast to Megatron’s fusion cannon, which exploded into a ball of flame. While his left side seized with pain, Megatron leapt onto Optimus, and pinned him down.
“Give up, Prime!” He brought his mace above Prime’s head. “Our war is nearly over! Once we capture this lunar base, we shall have a beachhead for the colonization of Earth! All its energon will be in our hands!”
“As long as there is life in my spark…” Optimus slammed Megatron in the face, throwing him off to the side, “I will always stand between you and the free life of the universe.”
“Their resistance is futile, Lord Megatron.” Shockwave came onto Megatron’s com. “Already I have begun to decrypt this facility’s rich databases filled with entries on Earth, as well as other space faring civilizations.”
“We are warriors, not archivists! Abandon these frivolities and fight to the last man!” As Megatron spoke, he tore off the burned fusion cannon from his arm, wincing.
As Megatron briefly turned away, Optimus went to his com. “Wheeljack! The Decepticons have left a weak point in their attack! We need to head to the archive! If we can’t take the Moon Base, we can take its knowledge!”
“Right away, Optimus.”
“You will not retreat from me, Prime!” Megatron once more leapt onto his opponent, only this time he missed and crashed into the floor. He got up smiling, gritting his teeth. “You and I were destined for each other, our fates intertwined! You would go chasing after Shockwave upstairs? Shockwave wouldn’t know what to do with you! Only I do!”
Summoning strength from his tired frame, Optimus threw his right hand around Megatron’s neck and took him in a grab.
“You think too highly of yourself, Megatron. Our only fate is for me to defeat you.” His final statement delivered, Optimus slammed Megatron’s head over his knee. His body dropped limp onto the ground. Optimus knew he wasn’t dead though. But maybe after this, he would think twice before throwing himself at Optimus hoping for an easy victory.
Before he could think on it much, his chief engineer came to his side, and the two blasted through Decepticons up the long and winding stairway to the very top of the Moon Base. As they went on, the intricately detailed murals which decorated the walls became stained with a deep purple. But they persevered.
Now up on the highestmost level, Optimus and Wheeljack found themselves in a massive glass dome which overlooked the Moon as well as the planet below: Earth. But they were not alone, for Shockwave was already disobeying orders and preparing to extract the volumes of data in the Moon Base archives. He spotted the Autobots coming, and turned away from the archiving computer at the center of the room, astro-cannon armed for combat.
“Wheeljack,” Optimus began to relay his orders, “take control of the archive and computing console. I’ll handle Shockwave.”
Wheeljack moved to take the console as Shockwave set his eye on Optimus. He aimed his astro-cannon at the Autobot leader. The two began to circle one another.
“I knew Megatron would not be enough to stop you. He thinks too emotionally, gets in his own head too much. Especially when it comes to you, Prime.”
Around the combatants, a swarm of Seekers began to form, waiting like hungry vultures to pick off the Autobot leader. And far off by the computer, Wheeljack was fighting his own battle against Starscream.
“Only Logic can destroy the Autobot cause. Cold, calculating, indiscriminate Logic. Logic does not care for petty rivalries or lost friendships. It only moves forward!” Shockwave fired his cannon, striking Optimus in his bad shoulder, sending pain shooting across his left arm and chest. The pain paralyzed him, and the Seekers descended upon him, hungry for death.
All hope seemed lost for Optimus, but a rain of fire upon his attackers sent them fleeing back. His fellow Autobots had come to rescue him!
“Back off, Decepticreeps!” Said the littlest one, Bumblebee. Besides scratches and dents all along his otherwise bright yellow frame, he seemed to be in good shape. He turned to his commander. “Optimus, we’ve secured the downstairs. Any Decepticons that didn’t retreat up here are outside hittin’ the road with Astrotrain. Sky Lynx says he has that under control.”
“Good work, Bumblebee.” Optimus spoke through pained breaths. “What about Megatron? Where is he?”
“Megatron? I didn’t see him, thought he came up here with you.”
“I’m right here!” Megatron came flying through the doorway, before transforming back alongside Shockwave. “Our position here is lost. Where is Starscream?!”
Starscream came crawling on the ground, reeling from his attack on Wheeljack, who was well into downloading the contents of the archive. “I’m here, my master! Right here alongside you!”
“Pathetic fool you are, you’re right to be here. The Moon Base is compromised! Shockwave, activate this facility’s escape protocol!”
“Right away! The base’s built-in warp pads are ready for use!”
“‘Warp pads?’”
“A sort of instantaneous traveling apparatus. Quickly, step on!” The two warps at the edge of the room lit up with a bright white shine.
“Follow them!” Optimus ordered. As the Decepticons crammed onto the warp pad on the right, Shockwave and Starscream, alongside hordes of Seekers, disappeared in beams of light. But Megatron’s escape was interrupted by Optimus.
“You want to follow me? You should have kept up the fight!” Megatron pushed him onto the left side warp, sending him off with a bright light.
“Optimus!” The other Autobots jumped onto the warp that disappeared Optimus, ignoring the retreating Decepticons. They, too, went off in a flash.
—
“Uh oh.” Peridot sat perplexed looking at her tablet.
“‘Uh oh?’ What’s ‘uh oh’ supposed to mean?” Steven perked up from his book.
“Nothing, nothing, just…” She squinted her eyes, perplexed further. “I just got a really strange reading from the Moon Base.”
“Is it the Diamonds? Jasper? One of their goons?”
“No, no, that’s not it. This reading is- woah.” Her screen lit up ten times brighter. “Scratch that, these readings - plural - are like somebody set off a bomb! What energy signatures are these?”
Peridot got up from the couch and began to pace the room.
“They’re not Earthlings, they’re not Gems, not even close! Who’s on the Moon Base right now?!”
Steven got up to follow her.
“Is this a Gem emergency? Should I get Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl??” He pulled out his phone.
“Yes, and quickly! Because whatever these things are, they just accessed the warps that I installed for ease of travel and-!”
Right then, the warp at the center of the house began to glow. Steven and Peridot jumped into battle formations, with Rose’s shield front and center.
The warp’s beam of light came down, and in front of the two Crystal Gems was the biggest robot they had ever seen. Just the one was enough for Steven’s jaw to drop to the ground and for Peridot to drop her tablet. But then an entire legion of them followed.
“CYBERTRONIANS?!” Peridot could feel every fiber of her being explode with excitement. A non-Human, non-Gem alien species long forgotten by time had, so suddenly, appeared right before her. So little often in science did genuine miracles happen.
While she and Steven processed everything that happened, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl jumped through the door, weapons in hand.
“Steven, there you are!” Pearl’s voice was laced with worry. “All you said on the phone was ‘LIVING ROOM EMERGENCY’ and we thought-” Her eyes wandered to the robot inhabited warp pad, “Oh my stars!”
“Woah.” Gawked Amethyst. “You dudes are building robots in the living room now?”
“Those aren’t any ordinary robots…” Garnet said.
“Precisely!” Affirmed Peridot. “They’re Cybertronians!”
From the pile of robots, Bumblebee rose to his feet. He put his hands to his head, still dizzy from the interstellar warp travel. And perhaps he was delirious too. In front of him were humans… with brightly colored skin…
“Yeah, we’re Cybertronians. What’s it to…” It began to dawn on him that these perhaps were not humans, “...you?”
Optimus got up alongside Bumblebee, then Wheeljack, then Arcee, then Windblade, until the whole Autobot legion was upright again.
“Ah, Gems.” Optimus remarked after rubbing his optics. “Are we on the Gem Homeworld?”
“Far from it, Cybertronian.” Peridot replied.
“Wait, back up a second.” Bumblebee said. “Optimus, do we know these little critters?”
“Of course we do, Bumblebee, although our first contact with them was long before your time.”
“Well, can someone explain?” Steven said. All eyes went to him. “Because I’m kind of confused.”
“Of course, Steven.” Pearl stepped between the two alien groups, and set her gemstone to projection mode. A hologram of two alien diplomats, one Gem and one Cybertronian, appeared before them. “Long ago, during the height of Homeworld’s expansion, Homeworld came across a planet much like ours. This was Cybertron. Cybertron had likewise charted a course for expansion. We each decided that the other was our target, and thus began our war. Battles were fought across the galaxy, grinding hundreds of worlds to dust and turning thousands of others into planet-sized fortresses. Eventually, both sides realized there would be no winner, only death and destruction. And so our leaders, White Diamond representing Homeworld and Nominus Prime representing Cybertron, signed the Nominus Edict to stay out of each other's business. Cybertron stopped colonizing altogether. Their dedication to ending colonization was our last transmission from them, however, and we lost touch.” She turned to their new alien interlocutors. “Until now I suppose, now that they’ve landed here on Earth.”
“Your knowledge of Cybertron is appreciated, dear Gem.” Optimus knelt down to keep eye level with the Gems. “Unfortunately, it is in dire need of updating. The Nominus Prime you spoke of passed away two generations of Primes ago, now I, Optimus Prime, am bearer of the Matrix of Leadership and leader of all Cybertronians.” He opened up his chest to show the ancient artifact inside him, the Matrix of Leadership, then closed it again.
“So cool…” Steven’s eyes were practically the size of dinner plates.
“Wait,” Began Pearl, “if Nominus is gone then the Edict needs to be renewed by both parties. Its own stipulations say so.”
“Nominus’ successor and my predecessor Sentinel Prime saw little value in continuing courtesies with a race we had fought against. He banned all attempts to renew the Edict on the Homeworld side.”
“But surely you planned to do so when you inherited the Matrix?”
“I inherited the Matrix amidst a planet-wide civil war. One which is ongoing, and in fact is what led us here. If I ever thought of Homeworld, it was only because I knew I could never reach you when the necessity of being a military commander called out to me.” Suddenly, Optimus jerked his right hand to his left shoulder. “I’m afraid I must cut our conversation. Me and my troops are in desperate need of repairs.”
Steven and Peridot looked at each other.
“The Barn!”
Quicker than a racer on Velocitron, Steven and Peridot grabbed Optimus by his giant hands and pulled him out of the house and onto the beach. Although the front of the house was completely smashed to pieces, they continued on. Crystal Gems and Autobots followed them. Bumblebee, quick to sense where this was headed, signaled to Hound for the two of them to transform, whereupon they jumped and flipped into their vehicle modes.
“Quick, Optimus, hop on!” Hound said, letting Optimus rest on his solid frame.
“Kids, get inside!” Bumblebee called out to Steven and Peridot.
“I’m not a kid!” Peridot protested, still getting inside Bumblebee.
“You can turn into a car??”
“It’s a long story.”
Before too long they had reached the barn, and Optimus was laid on the ground where Peridot and Ratchet got to work.
“He needs an energon infusion, stat.” He turned to Peridot. “Does this facility carry energon?”
“It does not… But! I can definitely cook up a substitute! Is anybody here an engineer?”
Wheeljack raised his hand. “I am.”
“Then follow me into the barn!”
As the two ran off, the four Crystal Gems returned to Optimus to continue their discussion.
“So, Optimus, you say you’re involved in a planet-wide civil war?” Amethyst asked
“Yes. In our last battle mere moments ago, we prevented the Decepticons from taking control of a base on this planet’s moon. Such a base would have provided a beachhead for colonization.”
“Well,” Pearl started, “it just so happens we’re in the same situation. Homeworld sought to colonize this planet as well, many hundreds of years ago. But the process would have extinguished all this beautiful life. We couldn’t let them do it. Our leader Rose Quartz rose up and used this planet Earth as ground zero for a rebellion which kept the Gem Empire’s colonialist ambitions at bay.”
“Then we are soldiers of the same cause.” Optimus got up in a sitting position. “Tell me, what are your names?”
“I’m Pearl.”
“I’m Garnet.”
“I’m Amethyst.”
“I’m Steven!”
Together now: “And we are the Crystal Gems!”
“I am Optimus Prime, these are my Autobots: Bumblebee, Ratchet, Hound, Arcee, and Windblade. My engineer Wheeljack is in the barn with…”
“Peridot.” Steven said. “Her name’s Peridot.”
“And this is the planet Earth you protect?”
“‘Tis our sworn duty.” Steven replied in a mock-fancy voice.
“Then, Crystal Gems, I have a proposal for our two groups: no doubt your rebellion and presence here on Earth means Homeworld is lost to you. Likewise, with Cybertron in the hands of Megatron and the Decepticons, we have lost our home. Long have we spent searching for a new one, but I think we have found it here. And so, I propose the Crystal Gems and Autobots become joint stewards and protectors of the planet Earth.”
The Autobots look at each other, unsure of what to make of this situation but ready to trust Optimus. The Crystal Gems likewise, but Steven stepped forward to make the decision.
“Every comic book I’ve ever read has taught me to trust giant freedom fighter robots. We’re in!”
“Good. Because we will need your assistance now.”
Before Optimus could elaborate, Peridot and Wheeljack rolled out with a giant vat of swirling, bubbling purple liquid.
“Well, Optimus, they didn’t have preprocessed Energon. But we managed to make some homemade stuff right here for you.” He began to pour liquid from the vat into cube molds. “This little green gem here’s got some real science spunk.”
“You’re not so bad yourself, bolt head.”
“Peridot.” Optimus turned to the green one. “You are the scientist of the Crystal Gems?”
She grinned. “The one and only.”
“Then we require your assistance. The ‘warp pads’ which sent us here to Earth from the Moon, there were two on the Moon Base, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“We accessed one. The Decepticons accessed the other. Where did that one go?”
“Oh no…” She grimaced. “That one… went to Homeworld.”