Singularity Ablyss

 

Writer: Robert N. Skir

Publication date: November 30, 2004

 

"Singularity Ablyss" takes place during the events of "Spark of Darkness," the preantepenultimate episode of Beast Machines. Megatron's spark has been blasted out of his Giant Floating Head body and it now careens wildly around Cybertron, briefly adopting the host bodies of discarded Vehicon drones before burning them out and becoming incorporeal again.

That's what happens in the episode, but the story, written in first-person, shows Megatron's perspective of those events, as well as revealing his soul's journey through the Transformers afterlife with the ghost of Rhinox as his guide. Baby's first Divine Comedy.

Ultimately, rather than surrender his individual consciousness to the bliss of the abyss, Megatron decides it's better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. He rejects enlightenment and cleaves to the physical plane, vowing that he will not only be master of Cybertron, but he will incorporate the sparks of all living Transformers into his being before returning to the Allspark to conquer the afterlife as well and rule over all reality as a god. In the process of escaping death, he obliterates Rhinox's spark. "And in that instant that lasts a thousand eons, I learn that there is indeed something more satisfying than the howl of a dying beast: the death scream of an angel."

Megatron is metal af.

This is probably the best story in this collection. Bob Skir, the story editor of Beast Machines, is a good writer,  but there are still moments throughout "Singularity Ablyss" that stand out as unpolished or trying too hard. Shocking that a Transformers short story anthology failed to produce any comprehensively great literature.

This can easily slot into the canon of the show, but the complete annihilation of Rhinox, especially after the character assassination he suffered earlier in Beast Machines, makes me reluctant to do so. Let the poor guy rest in peace!