#what if tfp optimus was dropped after Willy Tybur’s speech aka the Darkest Hour Timeline

[melishade]

in the darkest hour timeline what Eren thought process over the boch attempt on stealing the war hammer and the ramification? And the corps opinion on the matter, what was a shitty operation to begin with is now a a major fuck up on there part, left empty handed and Eren is grievously injured and a metal titan showed up

Part 2: A Prisoner

Paradis is obviously in a shitty place right now.

First let's start off with Eren. Eren's plan was going well. Marley Military was sent in a tailspin. He was about to get the War Hammer Titan, and then Optimus shoots off his arm. In addition, he can no longer regenerate. This break whatever confidence that he has, and scares him to death. His visions of the future were now wrong, and there was a chance, a real chance, that he would die a slow and horrible death without completing his goal. The Survey Corps are able to see how visibly terrified Eren is.

Meanwhile Zeke is also scared out of his mind. He knew that the power of the titans would fade one day, but he expected that to be over time. Not something so immediate by a new type of titan that could pull out weapons from its arms. What did that even mean for his plans?! It doesn't help that both Eren and Zeke are put in separate locations for the time being, and Zeke wasn't sure if it was wise to activate the spinal fluid just yet. He knew that it would be better to have enough resources cannon fodder for Zeke to get to Eren and enact his plan.

Obviously, public opinion isn't fairing any better. The Survey Corps had lost Eren for ten months and he launches an attack on the whole world. Sure, the navy and military are put in disarray, but Eren was injured and didn't get rid of the titans. The public is divided, concerned about Eren's effectiveness and the power of the titans as a whole. Some are calling for the Rumbling, while others are worried that it won't even work due to this titan. Because Eren was wounded, the Jaegerists don't have much ground to go on to really start a revolt and get the people behind their cause. Which is a benefit for the military, they can't cause chaos. Floch is wondering if he even backed the right horse in this situation.

The 104th are scared as well. Sasha is still alive because Gabi didn't jump on the plane. And they're all discussing whether or not Eren can be trusted or if Eren can even fight anymore. He went off on his own and now he couldn't even regenerate. Would it be better to just transfer him over to someone else? Mikasa and Armin are opposing the idea, but Jean is reminding them that Eren clearly isn't stable anymore.

Hanji has begun to study some of Eren's cells, examining the components of his dead cells and the energon that's still lingering inside. How was this material able to break down the human body? How did it stop regeneration? Where did it even come from? They have no ideas or solutions.

Until Megatron, instead of getting dropped off at the far end of the island in the Purpose OVA, gets spacebridged to the Forest of Large Trees, right where Zeke and Levi are.

[melishade]

#44. Darkest hour timeline, Optimus lets himself known, inadvertently turning the tide for Marley

This ask game

For more context: Darkest Hour Timeline Part 1

So far, everything was going according to the plan that Eren and Zeke had forced them into.

They had attacked Liberio. They had taken out the port. They had captured Zeke and taken out the Cart Titan. All they had to do was let Eren take the War Hammer Titan. Mikasa had even assisted in taking out the Jaw Titans legs before Eren shoved the crystallized War Hammer into its maw.

However, something was wrong with Sasha. She kept on yelling at everyone that they needed to evacuate immediately. She had brought up spotting a metal titan, but no one was taking her seriously enough. There were only normal, abnormal, and titan shifters, but Sasha was trying her best to convince everyone of a fourth option. Many had continued to ignore Sasha's plight.

Magath watched on in horror as the Attack Titan continued to push against Porco's jaws. He was going to use him as a nutcracker to kill the War Hammer, and there was nothing they could do about it. He could only watch helplessly as Marley was suffering the biggest losses in-!

A loud shot rang out, and a blue ball of light had struck the Attack Titan in the right arm. It forced the Attack Titan to let go of Porco, and in consequence, the War Hammer. Both had skidded across the damaged ground as everyone turned their attention to the source of the attack.

It was...a metal titan. A metal titan that was adorned in red and blue, pointing some advanced gun directly at the Attack Titan. Smoke rose from said gun, a clear indicator that it was the one who fired the weapon.

"I fucking told you!" Sasha screamed at her comrades.

Eren felt his body trembling from the strange sensation and shock. What...what just happened? Eren felt pain, burning, hot, searing, pain climb up his arm, almost as if it was being eaten away. He stared at his right and felt unbridled fear when he realized his arm was decaying. It was hurt. Pain! He-!

Eren couldn't help but roar intense pain and agony, forcing everyone in the area to cover their ears, including the metal titan that had just arrived. Mikasa quickly bolted to Eren's side and sliced open the nape of the neck. She pulled him out and stared in horror at Eren's actual arm decaying. She could see him sobbing in pain and quickly cut his arm off. It stopped the arm from decaying, but the arm didn't regenerate!

Levi spotted the blimp in the sky and yelled. "Fall back! Now!"

Optimus was still in a state of shock as the massive titan body collapsed to the ground, and a human woman flew away with a crying male. That was a human?! They were human! Optimus was startled at the sight of multiple humans using contraptions to fly around and towards the blimp above.

Levi slammed open the door to the cockpit and yelled at Onyankopon. "Turn the ship around! Now!"

"Levi, what's going on?!" Hanji demanded.

"There's a new titan!" Levi answered, "It stopped Eren's regeneration!"

"What?!" Armin bolted out of the cock pit to the others and gasped at the sight of Eren crying on the ground with a charred stub of an arm. Armin peered over at the opening and gasped at the sight of the metal titan aiming a weapon at them. The weapon seemed to glow brighter, preparing to fire, but Armin could see that the titan was hesitating. It had the shot, but it didn't want to shoot them down? The titan looked defeated as the weapon stopped glowing and it lowered its arm. It...it was letting them go. Why was it letting them go?

Optimus didn't like the decision that he made. He still didn't have complete context about the situation, but-! Optimus gasped when he noticed more humans aiming their weapons at him, looking absolutely terrified at the sight of him.

(Free game: 46, 19,26, 32,34, 36, 37. 17 and 45 have has been asked.)

[melishade]

For the darkest hour timeline you stated that there’s gaps of information for Optimus, and though his real action with Marley is fragile. Will he use his holoform to survey for in information or will a second party tell him like gabi because she grateful for him and he innocence or Lara because i believe she would be in the military (while her family is moved elsewhere ) sees a lot of her brother in Optimus.

Previous episode of the Darkest Hour Timeline

Because Optimus doesn’t have the full context of the situation and is having information hidden from him on purpose, he’s going to refrain from saying anything about his backstory, his capabilities, and the holoform. He knows he needs more information, and the humans weren’t going to provide it. They feared him.

However, Optimus still remained compliant, remaining seated in an outside crystal prison constructed by Lara, with the War Hammer Titan keeping a close eye on him. Optimus notices behavioral patterns of the humans and realizes that secrets are being kept from him and there is some heavy discrimination against him, but he keeps his cool. Part of him can’t blame the humans in the moment. Their home was turned into a battlefield.

Optimus does try to engage with the humans to ask questions, but they quickly avoid him. That’s when Lara finally speaks to him and tells him not to bother. Humans of their world feared the titans. Optimus is confused and asks why, but that confuses Lara. He’s a Titan. He should know. Lara questions how he doesn’t know, but Optimus just says that he’s from another world far from here. He can’t tell her too much because he still has information kept from him.

(Now you might be asking why Optimus is willing to withhold from Marley but not Paradis. That because when Optimus was dropped in Paradis, he was actively made aware by his surroundings that humanity was on the brink of extinction.)

Lara does relay this information back to Magath, who is still apprehensive about Optimus, but Pieck makes a comment of Lara continuing to talk to Optimus to try and gain more intel and determine if he’s a threat or not. Which Magath ends up agreeing to. If they can find a way to turn his weapon towards Paradis and gain control of the island, then fine.

Lara does let this happen, and she and Optimus continue to be around each other. Optimus does confess about his energon problem and how he needs to locate some on this world and fast if he is to survive. Lara relays this information to Magath and they begin to search for some. But once they realize they can’t find it, they have to talk to Optimus and ultimately let him out. Optimus is heavily guarded by Lara as he uses his internal units to find a small energon pocket. The Marleyans are actually stunned to see him chew a small peace without any negative reaction. He didn’t eat humans, and it considerably puts them at ease. However, they remember what Optimus did to Eren and quickly have him back in his prison. They are still surprised and suspicious when Optimus doesn’t choose to break out. Optimus tells Lara that he is grateful for her help. Lara merely states that he had saved her life, so she was obligated to return the favor after he saved hers from Eren.

Optimus finally prompts to ask why she was almost killed in the first place. Who was that human that attacked? Lara immediately shuts him down. That wasn’t a human. That was a monster that attacked her country and killed her brother in cold blood. The people of Paradis were a threat and were going to continue being a threat until they were extinguished. Optimus doesn’t say much, but apologizes for the loss of her brother. Lara is stunned. No one has really given her any condolences regarding her brother.

However Magath is in a corner as the world leaders are asking more about Optimus Prime and his overall usefulness in this conflict they currently have. Can they be trusted? Magath is ultimately frustrated at this, but he knows he has to talk to him directly. Magath ends up going with Lara one day and demands to know where Optimus is from and who he is. Optimus refuses to answer and will only do so until he is given an explanation about what’s going on. Magath gives him the information that’s in the history books, not the info that Willy told the public. And both Lara and Magath can see Optimus seems distrusting of this information. Lara doesn’t like the fact that they were lying to him, but Magath insists that it’s true and that they had attacked their home and were responsible for the deaths of innocent people. Optimus then calls out Magath on his lie, because he’s heard the chatter of the soldiers about how the King of Paradis intentionally wiped the memories of the people of Paradis. The ancestors might be guilty of deaths they had forgotten about, but the generation now were innocent.

Magath retorts that they are hardly innocent. Optimus counters that they should be given a chance and that there should be a peaceful compromise. Magath is frustrated and shouts at him, demanding why he let them go in the first place?! He had the power to shoot that blimp down and end the conflict! Prevent the Rumbling from being used and millions of lives from being trampled! Why did he choose to hesitate?!

Optimus replies that he refuses to harm human life, but Magath just calls him a coward and a hypocrite before storming off. Lara leaves Optimus in his prison. Optimus knows that he can’t stay here anymore and he needed to find a way to escape, but he needed to do it in a manner where he wouldn’t be physically wounded, he had no idea how powerful the Titan shifters were.

Meanwhile, Magath tells the Marleyan scientists to start experimenting with the energon they managed to acquire because of Optimus. If this could be used to attack the power of the Titan shifters and even kill them, then they would use it.

Meanwhile, Megatron is dealing with shit on Paradis but that’s another issue. Great way to start off the new year!

[melishade]

Question for the Darkest Hour timeline:

Did Eren forsee Optimus' arrival and interference in the attack on Liberio, or did Eren only forsee a possible outcome/future (i.e. what happened in the canon AOT timeline) like in the main AOP timeline and Optimus stopping him threw a complete monkey wrench in everything?

Part 4: Megatron's arrival

Oh yeah, Optimus arriving threw a complete wrench in Eren's plans and he wasn't expecting it. A similar thing happened in the main AOP timeline where he thought he was going to get the War Hammer Titan, but Megatron was actively sabotaging Eren during the fight.

For this timeline; however, it's kind of like the scene from Everything, Everywhere, All at Once with the hotdog fingers universe. It was something so far off the map of infinite possibilities that it shouldn't even have happened in the first place. It's not something Eren would have even predicted or considered.

[melishade]

How's everything going in the Darkest Hour timeline?

Part 3: Paradis' reaction

My brain read that as Dark Timeline for a hot minute lol, but it's Megatron vs the Survey Corps!

So Megatron is still going through the motions of the Purpose OVA, but like I stated in the previous ask, instead of getting dropped off at the far end of the island, he gets dropped off at the forest of large trees where Zeke and Levi are situated. Megatron is obviously blindsided while everyone else starts moving to attack him.

The ex-con quickly goes from defensive, blocking the thunderspears with his shield, to offensive, aka crushing Survey Corps members that get too close. Zeke does transform and tries to get a few hits in him, but Megatron quickly knocks him back and out of the fight. Levi is the only one who's managing to do damage to Megatron, although very little.

However, Levi notices Zeke actually fleeing the battle in his human form. Levi's about to go after him, but Zeke screams, and whoever's left that's still alive gets turned into pure titans. Megatron sees the pure titans going after Levi and Zeke running on foot, so Megatron grabs Zeke before he could get any farther. Zeke commands a few of the titans to attack Megatron and save him. However, Megatron disposes of many of them easily before grabbing one of them and pinning it to the wall. He holds Zeke over the titan's thrashing mouth, causing him to panic and thrash in his grip, but Levi immediately holds whatever thunderspears are left at Megatron's head.

Megatron finally speaks, reminding Levi that Zeke had abandoned them and turned his men into monsters. Levi states that he needs to be interrogated further before he's transferred over. Plain and simple. Not to mention, Levi is hiding his shock at the fact that Megatron spoke, and Zeke is just straight up flabbergasted and afraid for his life. Megatron challenges Levi, demands to know why he should even listen to a pathetic human. Levi, knowing that this is a long shot, decides to bring up Optimus via appearance. Levi describes his appearance pretty accurately, and it gives Megatron pause, because he saw Optimus dive into the Well. He should be dead unless it was divine intervention.

Megatron demands to hear more details from other eye witnesses, and if he's not given those details, he's going to kill Zeke. Levi reluctantly agrees because he obviously can't get Zeke out of Megatron's ironclad grip. Levi tells them where they need to go, and Levi is stunned when Megatron kills the titan in his other servo, grabs Levi, and transforms into his alt mode with Zeke. Zeke tries to transform, but Levi shoves a blade towards his face to prevent him from doing so.

Megatron arrives in Wall Sina, freaking everyone out! Megatron transforms and puts Levi on the ground while he's still holding Zeke. Levi tells the others to locate the Survey Corps. It takes some time considering Zeke's screaming alerted every military official about the wine situation, but they all arrive and gawk at the sight of Megatron, and grow fearful at the sight of Zeke in his grasp.

Hanji really wants to bombard Megatron with questions, but Levi quickly warms them that Megatron slaughtered a good portion of the Survey Corps and incapacitated Zeke. He isn't someone to be messed with. Hanji takes a deep breath and controls themselves, asking Megatron who he is and what he wants.

Megatron, wanting to hide his identity to get the humans to be more cooperative, says his name is Galvatron, and that he's a rouge that escape his homeworld's planetary war. He got flung here through a spacebridge malfunction, and was immediately attacked by Levi and his men. Hanji apologizes on Levi's behalf, although, Levi's not happy about it.

However, Megatron start's demanding details about Optimus, and everyone's descriptions are similar or identical. Megatron draws the Autobot symbol in the dirt and demands to know if they saw that on Optimus. Armin is the one who says yes, and Megatron is filled with a sense of both hope and dread. Armin recognizes the expression and asks if Megatron knows Optimus, Megatron reluctantly admits that the identification should be Optimus: Leader of the Autobots, but according to 'radio chatter', he's supposed to be dead. So either Optimus is supposed to be dead, or his death was faked somehow.

Hanji thinks fast and proposes an alliance with Megatron. Work together with the Survey Corps to confirm Optimus' identity. If that is Optimus, Megatron removes him from the situation so Marley doesn't have the unfair advantage. However he does it, they don't care at all. Megatron agrees, and an alliance is forged.

A few notes:

-Zeke is automatically put in prison until they can decide who to hand his power over to.

-Megatron gets a run down of this world's history and the current conditions of the outside world and automatically assumes that Optimus is being deceived. Because if Optimus knew the whole truth, he would not condone the treatment of the Eldians on the mainland and try to forge a path for peace. His gut guess is that Optimus is being kept in the dark intentionally until the Marleyans can figure out what to do with him.

-The Survey Corps start to get suspicious of Megatron's relationship with Optimus, because he's stated that he was a rouge in the war but knows Optimus like the back of his hand. So when the confrontation does happen, the Marleyans will be shocked but the Survey Corps is going to be like:

Cause it was either mortal enemies, lovers, or both. That's what they narrowed the options down to.

-Also, because Megatron has no connection to Armin and Mikasa, and Optimus has no connection to the island, Megatron will attempt kill Eren the first chance that he gets, because there's no guilt weighing in the back of his mind. He's still an asshole who only cares about Optimus.