WARNING! Potential Spoilers for Void Rivals #17The Energon Universe is getting ready to expand the Transformers' origins, as Void Rivals continues to explore the beginnings of Cybertron. The mysterious Zerta-Trion finally appeared after months of build-up at the end of Void Rivals #16, and from the looks of the next issue, fans will finally learn of her past on Cybertron.

Released via Skybound.com, the preview for Void Rivals #17 by Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, Patricio Delpeche and Rus Wooton finds Solila encountering Zerta-Trion at the heart of the Sacred Ring after searching the last few issues, where the ancient Cybertronian promises to reveal all.

Although it’s brief, the preview for Void Rivals #17 promises perhaps one of the most monumental issues yet seen in the Energon Universe, as readers will finally learn the hidden origins of Zerta-Trion, the Sacred Ring, and even Cybertron itself.

Zerta-Trion Makes Her Debut in Void Rivals in a Major Transformers Twist

Her Origins May Change Transformers Lore Forever

Zerta-Trion was first mentioned by the Transformer Springer when he met Void Rivals’s central protagonists, Darak and Solila. Springer described her as an ancient Cybertronian who rebelled against her own kind after helping to free Cybertron from the Quintessons. Solila quickly assumes that Zerta-Trion must be the deity Zerta, the god worshiped by the Zertonians of the Sacred Ring. Desperate to learn more, Solila parted ways with Darak and Springer to travel deep within the heart of the Sacred Ring to find Zerta-Trion herself. Now that she is face-to-face with her god, it sounds like readers are finally going to get some answers.

The main setting of Void Rivals is the Sacred Ring, a collapsed world at the edge of a black hole where two races – the Zertonians and Agorrians – war over dwindling resources.

While meeting her god is understandably an emotional moment for Solila, there are hints that Zerta-Trion may not be as benevolent as she initially appears. Considering that the Zertonians and Agorrians of the Sacred Ring all have Cybertronian biology, many fans have assumed that they are all the creation of Zerta herself, perhaps after she left Cybertron. It’s been a mystery running throughout recent issues of Void Rivals, but it looks like readers will get to hear the whole story of how Zerta-Trion left Cybertron straight from the ancient Cybertronian herself.

If Zerta-Trion is indeed responsible for creating the Sacred Ring, that could change everything fans know about the Energon Universe thus far. The events of Void Rivals have added a significant deal to already-established Transformers lore, establishing Skybound’s Energon Universe continuity as distinct among the franchise’s many iterations. Learning how Zerta-Trion fits into the origins of Cybertron in the Energon Universe in the months to come will be very interesting as fans discover what has been added to the classic continuity and what has been changed outright.

Is Zerta-Trion the Next Big Bad of Skybound's Transformers Series?

The Ancient Cybertronian Could Be Connected to Unicron

Perhaps most intriguing of all are the hints that Void Rivals has been dropping regarding Unicron, the ultimate big bad of the Transformers universe. In recent issues, both the Agorrians and Zertonians have been talking about “Unity,” a coming together of both races of the Sacred Ring. Readers have recently learned that the leaders of both races engineered the conflict between the Agorrians and Zertonians to prevent this Unity from ever occurring, hinting that the consequences could be dire. Given all the context clues, it’s not hard to imagine that Unity somehow ties into the awakening of Unicron, given the similarities to their names.

Readers also got a glimpse of a massive being that many believed to be Unicron opening his eyes in Void Rivals #12, after Darak and Solila touched the Energon Ports in their foreheads together before Solila went on her quest to find Zerta-Trion. Unicron’s connection to the Sacred Ring opens up a number of intriguing possibilities, including story threads that will hopefully get explanations beginning with Void Rivals #17 as well as answers about whether Unicron is hiding at the center of the black hole that caused the Sacred Ring to collapse and about whether the Sacred Ring is actually Unicron himself, sleeping in his alt-mode as a planet.

Now that fans know the next issue will provide a little more context to Zerta-Trion’s origins, hopefully the answers to these ongoing mysteries are forthcoming. As Void Rivals enters its third year of publication, the title continues to be the lynchpin of the entire Energon Universe, and it looks to be shaking things up considerably with its changes to classic Transformers lore. The Energon Universe has come a long way since the surprise appearance of Jetfire in Void Rivals #1, and the series continues to surprise Transformers fans at every turn.

Void Rivals #17 is available March 12th, 2025 from Skybound Entertainment.

Source: Skybound.com