Smoke billowed from NEST HQ as gunfire erupted. The silence of the preceding weeks had shattered, and Earth's alliance with the Autobots was coming apart — all because of a Prime.
Sentinel.
He stood tall in the hangar, staff crackling with electric power. His once-regal form now radiated menace. Ironhide lunged forward, cannons primed.
"You've gone mad, Sentinel!"
"No," Sentinel said coldly. "I have chosen survival."
With a single, devastating blast of cosmic rust, Sentinel reduced Ironhide to nothing but steaming metal fragments. The massive Autobot fell, arms crumbling, eyes flickering out. He didn't scream.
He didn't get the chance.
In the control room above, chaos erupted. Optimus Prime stood frozen for a heartbeat too long. Betrayal wasn't new to him — but betrayal from another Prime? That was a wound deeper than war.
Sentinel turned, unfazed. "The humans are short-sighted. You're sentimental, Optimus. I am Cybertronian. I will bring our world back."
And then he was gone, vanishing into the distance with a stolen set of Space Bridge Pillars.
Across the globe, energy spikes rippled. In hidden bunkers, Decepticons stirred. From the ruins of Africa to the ice tombs of Russia, Megatron's loyalists began to emerge.
The war wasn't coming.
It had already begun.
Deep beneath Rio de Janeiro, hidden behind an old racing garage, Shepherd Fox worked.
The Rift Core glowed inside his chest, its pulses now synced with new coordinates — a distant world called Exo-Theta-9. But the trip wouldn't be simple. The dimensional path was unstable, and he needed a vessel that could ride the fracture safely.
Stacks of broken Decepticon bodies lay disassembled around him. He had hunted the wreckage after Egypt and Shanghai, salvaging anything he could: Transformium, neural wiring, even spark remnants.
"Stabilizer shell ready," ALIX reported. "Beginning mold process."
A forge ignited in the corner — half-Earth tech, half Cybertronian. Shepherd's gauntlets extended as he pressed his hands into the control interface. Slowly, piece by piece, he was building a new kind of ship. One that could survive the crush of a Rift tunnel. One that could take him to places beyond even Cybertron's memory.
The Rift Core buzzed harder, sensing conflict.
"Shepherd," ALIX whispered. "Decepticons are mobilizing in North America. Invasion protocols detected. Chicago is the epicenter."
Shepherd glanced at the monitor. "Sentinel's made his move."
A live feed played: Sentinel Prime activating the Pillars, forming a bridge to the Decepticon fleet. One by one, the sky over Earth's cities filled with black silhouettes. Warships. Drop-pods. Walking tanks.
Optimus was trying to hold them back, but Earth was unprepared.
And Megatron — revived, rebuilt, and cloaked in desert filth — was lurking at the edges. Not leading. Watching.
"They'll tear the city apart," ALIX said.
"They're supposed to," Shepherd muttered. "Let them. It keeps them busy."
He slid a crystal into the interface — a shard taken from the Moon. Sentinel's brainwave echo.
Coordinates began to triangulate. A sector appeared, locked behind encryption.
EXO-THETA-9
Status: LockedOrigin: Pre-War EraEnvironment: UnstableLifeforms: UnknownClassification: FORBIDDEN
"Give me the trajectory," he ordered.
"Calculated. You'll need to enter orbit for Rift Jump Phase Two."
Shepherd began assembling the Rift Stabilizer armor — a suit forged from Cybertronian alloys and human enhancements. Designed to handle gravitational and dimensional shears, it was his failsafe. He wouldn't travel as a passenger. He'd become the core.
Meanwhile, Chicago burned.
Lennox led teams through collapsing streets. Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and the remaining Autobots fought block by block. Civilians screamed. Buildings crumbled. Drones filled the skies.
Atop a tower, Sentinel activated more Pillars. A booming hum echoed across the city as a Space Bridge began forming — pulling Cybertron itself closer.
"We will rebuild our home... even if Earth must die."
Optimus arrived, slamming into Sentinel with a fury born of betrayal. Metal clashed against metal. The city below shook with their fury.
Back in Rio, Shepherd watched the final assembly of his vessel — a sleek, one-person slipcraft designed to pierce time-space itself. It wasn't elegant. It was efficient.
He opened a case of components and stared at the last object inside: a jagged triangular shard retrieved from Megatron's base.
"Everything's in motion. The Autobots are distracted. The Decepticons are committed," Shepherd said. "Time to disappear."
"Destination: Exo-Theta-9?"
"Yes."
He stepped into the suit, felt the neural sync engage. The Rift Core pulsed.
"Let's go find out what the 'T' really is."
And with a surge of Rift energy and a crack in the atmosphere, Shepherd Fox vanished — not from the war, but into the shadow beyond it.
Into the past of the multiverse itself.