Return

« Transformers Cloud: Spacetime World: Guardians of Time Chapter 2: Part 6 »
"Return" 帰還 (Kikan)
Publisher	e-HOBBY, TakaraTomy Mall
First published	April 3, 2014
Story by	Makoto Wakabayashi
Illustrated by	Nagi Miyako
Continuity	Cloud

SARA explains.

Synopsis

While Brawn and Armada Starscream take care of Cloud Starscream, SARA takes the time to speak to Optimus Prime's mind...

SARA explains that she existed to stabilize the spacetime-managing Cloud World by absorbing and amplifying excess energy gathered from other spacetimes by the Spacetime World's guardians, the Autobots. Thus it was for hundreds of millions of years, a long time compared to Optimus Prime's more relative stint as the Autobot's Supreme Commander. But Megatron disrupted that peace, by absorbing most of SARA's power into his own body. Megatron became an entity comparable to SARA, unlike Starscream, who merely evolved with some of SARA's energy remnants. In the aftermath of Megatron's theft, SARA was forced to become a humanoid girl, immature to everything, due to losing her memory and wisdom accumulated over the millennia. This tabula rasa state is meant to serve as a way to effectively interact with other beings, so that she may reenergenize herself with spacetime energy and gain new wisdom from contact with the many beings that exist across the Spacetime World. Regarding Megatron, she notes that he was sent to a spacetime of nothingness and that, despite him possessing much of SARA's power, he is unable to open dimension gates himself. However, SARA states that she doesn't have enough power herself to transverse space and time, and that the SARA speaking to Optimus is merely a backup that's soon to disappear. This knowledgeable persona leaves Optimus Prime with words that lead Optimus Prime to think that SARA came to this spacetime to acquire power from its Mini-Cons, but he can only despair as he looks upon the shattered remains of the Mini-Con storage panel at his feet.

As the conversation ends, Brawn and Armada Starscream return with the knocked out Cloud Starscream. Armada Starscream wants his counterpart dead, but Optimus Prime vetoes the idea, promising to bring him back to their world to be tried as an Underground criminal. Also something to consider is that Starscream was evolved by the power of SARA and could perhaps be useful in saving the Cloud World from its imminent collapse. The Autobot's pondering is interrupted as SARA glows... along with the fragments of the Mini-Con panel. The panel reconstitutes and reveals a shadow of the Mini-Con whose soul still lingers—Over-Run. SARA asks the Mini-Con if he can lend his power, to which the diminutive Transformer agrees, melding with SARA's being and granting her access to the great power of this world, Mini-Con energy. SARA's backup explains that she can now open the way back to the Cloud World, but that she still needs to travel the spacetimes with the Autobots to became a better caretaker of the Spacetime World and prevent its destruction. Ending with that request, the backup fades.

Optimus Prime asks Armada Starscream not to tell others of what happened this day, for fear of complications, and the Destron promises to try his best. The Autobot thanks Starscream for his assistance, but he simply states he didn't do it for them, but for his beliefs. After prompting, the childlike SARA opens a Dimension Gate and the Autobots, with Cloud Starscream in tow, enter the portal. Before it closes, SARA utters her first words to Armada Starscream—"Thank you." Starscream muses on the events of the day, but his thinking is interrupted when Hot Shot, Scavenger, and Side Swipe show up, with the hot-blooded Hot Shot itching for a fight. Starscream isn't alone, as Cyclonus and Demolishor soon arrive and the two sides face off.

In the Cloud World, SARA's return has allowed the spacetime to stabilize, to the Autobots' relief. Ratchet asks if they can also heal Hot Rodimus in a bit, and Optimus Prime worries that Ratchet and Wheeljack will push the now childlike SARA too much. But he thinks... would SARA's future journeys through the Spacetime World be able to restore her to her former magnificence? He knows he must do it, to protect both SARA and the Spacetime World.

In a Decepticon base deep in the Underground, a computer notifies its owner of an abnormal reaction. Shockwave has finally found Megatron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Cloud Optimus Prime (1) Brawn (3) Ratchet (12) Unicron Trilogy Hot Shot (7) Scavenger (8) Side Swipe (9)	Cloud Starscream (5) Shockwave (14) Unicron Trilogy Starscream (4) Cyclonus (10) Demolishor (11)	Cloud SARA (2) Unicron Trilogy Over-Run (6)

Notes

Transformers references

• The destroyed Mini-Con being Over-Run is a reference to the fact that he never showed up in the Armada cartoon beyond the first Japanese title sequence.

Other notes

• Shockwave's control terminals in the illustration display legible Decepticon Script, which can be decoded to read:

MIYAKO NAGI
COMPLETED TRACING THE LOCATION OF [ME]GATRON
REPORT FROM SOUNDWAVE

References

• "Return" at e-HOBBY
• "Return" at TakaraTomy Mall (archived)
• Machine translation of "Return"