The Energon Pub

Geez, people are thinking through this too much.

When Megatron broke free from the ship during the transwarp flight, he would have arrived at any point in Cybertron history. Megatron, being the smart cookie that he is, wouldn't want to jeopardize his very existence by creating a time paradox (knowing full well what would happen), bidded his time. He created a transformation virus and then waited until the Tripredacus council sent Ravage back in time to make his move and unleashed the virus. By the time the Maximals arrived back "home" Megatron had already conquered Cybertron and the rest as they say is history. No time paradoxes, no over complication, it's all very simple.

Loki, Faceful, both good points.

Forgot about the fact Megs didn't have to arrive after Ravage was sent, just had to stay hidden and unleash the virus and start his takeover bid after then.

Well, I'd argue that having Beast Wars Megatron and Beast Machines Megatron present in the universe at the same time could in itself create all sorts of nasty paradoxes, even if the latter avoided causing problems, but having Predacon Ravage in the timestream at the same time as Decepticon Ravage had no such disastrous result, so apparently the TF universe doesn't work that way.

Either way though, I claim Occam's razor and say that odds are BM Megatron simply arrived after Magmatron left and before the Maximals returned. And I still say it's a faulty assumption to say that the Maximals weren't 'late' getting back. If nothing else, I doubt Transwarp time travel is a very precise art when using a jury-rigged Autobot shuttle, and Rhinox wouldn't want to risk arriving too early...