Hey! I'm MotherUniverse, and this is my first donation to the Transformers Prime fandom.

So, this is a human AU, where instead of Autobots, we've got Alchemist, and everything else will become apparent as time goes on.

This story is rated T because of gore, violence, and bad language. The topic of rape will be handled, but nothing explicit will be described. I'll have a general avoidance of sexual elements since I can't write them, but it's a thing that happens, especially in scenarios that occur in this story. Discussions of slavery, class difference, anarchism, war, and other politically triggering issues will occur in this story. That being said, if you don't want to deal with controversy, I suggest you go read something else.

In the beginning of the story, pretty much nobody is born yet. Since the concept of immortality will be explored, one can see why. All relevant characters will pop up when they pop up.

Enjoy please.

And without further ado, on with the show!

Prologue

The island of Primus was famous for its Alchemy, and, rumor had it, had successfully created a Philosopher's stone, granting immortality to many of the islands inhabitants. However, while most legends depicted the Philosopher's Stone as a brilliant red orb, in reality, the Philosopher's Stone the Alchemist of Primus had created was in the form of murky blue crystals, which where given the name "Energon" for the sheer amount of energy contained in a single shard of the crystal.

Despite Primus being a pillar of knowledge and science, the island was far from devine or perfect; it thrived off a cruel system of classes, with the top being the rich and cruel tyrants, who used Immortality as blackmail, and frequently quarreled over Energon, and the bottom being made up of slaves, who were forced to work almost all hours of the day, surviving off little food, and nothing but the thin clothes on their backs to keep them warm during the night.

The slaves were usually either captured from other countries, or made from the citizens who where so poor they couldn't afford to become anything else but a slave. Either way, the slave traders made good business, and often became some of the richest people on the island. Evidently, because of their wealth, they would get major says in the affairs of the government, meaning that slavery would never have a chance at being abolished, unless someone was able to make a case against it that not even those profiting from it could disagree with.

It was on one particular slaver transport boat that sparked the beginning of young slave Orion Pax's journey. He had accidentally fallen asleep on a boy next to him in the boat. It was funny how fate worked; if Orion had simply fallen asleep on anyone else, or was not seated next to the boy at all, than everything would be different.

"Get off!" Shouted a gruff, mid-puberty-sounding voice, cutting through Orion's sleep like a knife. The young boy stirred a bit, but tried to stitch his sleep back up with the threads of exhaustion, once again closing his eyes, and falling asleep again on the solid surface of smooth skin and muscle that he fell asleep upon in the first place.

"I said get off!" The voice shouted again, this time, adding his elbow into the equation. Orion felt the surface he had rested himself upon betray him, with a quick but painful jab to his ribs, the large boy who he fell asleep upon glaring at him with malice and annoyance.

Orion stared at the boy who had elbowed him. He was tall, a good five inches taller than Orion at least, and was well-built, every inch of his body covered in muscle. His skin was beige, just a shade darker than Orion's, leading him to assume that the bigger boy had come from a place just a little farther south than where he came from. His eyes where a brilliant reddish-brown, and his pitch-black hair grew in small, close-shaven tuffs across his head.

Orion was quite the opposite. While his skin was only a shade lighter, his tuff of red hair, and multiple splotches of red freckles across his entire body, made him look more pale than he really was. His eyes where a murky blue, and his form was that of a short, skinny boy, whose body strength didn't amount to much; while the boy himself held so little self-confidence that his form seemed to match. However, what he lacked in strength and courage, he made up for in wisdom and kindness.

Orion wasn't sure why he started crying when he did. All he knew was that his family was dead, and he was about to spend his life as a slave. The entire trip he had been abused and neglected, and it seemed like he would forever be viewed as nothing but the scum of the earth. And not even the boy next to him wanted anything to do with him. So he started crying, embarrassing as it was.

The larger boy's entire demeanor changed, his eyes softening, looking guilty, but there was something else. Almost protectiveness.

"Oh shit!" He cried out, upon seeing the smaller boys tears. "I didn't mean to make you cry! You can sleep on me, it's not that big of a deal,"

Orion shook his head. "No, you don't want me to,"

The larger boy let out a sigh, turning away. "Whatever. Why do I care anyways,"

After a minute of attempting to ignore the sobbing child, the larger boy finally gave up, and, with a small, albeit exaggerated, groan, he wrapped his large arm around the small figure, and scooted him closer to himself. "It's fine, your fine," He told the boy. "Yeash, I'm finally getting shipped to someplace cool and the first thing I do is make a little kid cry,"

"I'm 15," Orion corrected with what could almost be described as a pout.

"Yeah, and I'm God's mother," The large boy retorted sarcastically.

"It's true!" Orion insisted.

"Whatever," The older boy sighed, deciding not to comment on it. If the boy wanted to insist that he was 15 years old, who was he to shatter the kids dreams?

"So, what's your name?" Orion asked. It was an innocent enough of a question, but it was one that made the larger boy quite frustrated.

He laughed, even though it wasn't funny at all. "I don't have a name. Was never given one. I'm just called whatever my masters choose to call me. Last master called me #39, but I was #108 before that, and before that I was #17, and so on. So I don't have one,"

"You mean your parents never named you?" Orion asked innocently.

The boy let out a scoff. "Parents? I was born a slave. If I ever had a name, I forgot it; The moment a slave baby exit it's mother's uturus, we're carried off and sold to the nearest slave-school, where we're raised to work. The only reason I'm not a brainwashed sod is because I've been sold to many times to have a definite 'master' I'm supposed to worship,"

"Oh," Orion hummed quietly. "I guess that makes sense. Maybe you'll get a name now,"

"Unlikely," The nameless boy scoffed. "But I guess your lucky enough to have a name, considering you asked for mine,"

"Orion," The smaller boy told his new friend. "Orion Pax,"

"You don't look like an Orion Pax," The nameless boy said.

"Well, wadda I look like?" Orion responded curriously.

The nameless boy simply shrugged. "I'm guessing you had a family at some point, if you have a name,"

"Umm hmm," Orion hummed. "I had parents, and two older brothers. They were pretty strong. And about as big as you,"

"They must've been pretty cool then," The nameless boy said pridefully.

Orion nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! My entire family was really cool. They really valued education, so we learned literature, foreign languages, mathematics, astrology, and even a bit of Alchemy!"

"You know alchemy?" The nameless boy cried, surprised and impressed.

"Only a little. My dad was much better at Alchemy than I was," Orion said shyly, not expecting the praise. "But…" He continued sadly, his eyes brimming with tears, "When the soldiers invaded my hometown… my family, they… were all killed!"

The nameless boy looked at him sadly, and pulled the smaller boy closer. They just met. He didn't really care that much about the kid. But he knew one thing; when people were sad, they needed someone to comfort them. So he would do that for the boy named Orion Pax.

"How did you survive?" The nameless boy asked, mostly for curiosity's sake, and to determine a slavers reasoning for letting a boy with an education live.

"They wanted someone smart. Apparently there was a special request. I couldn't fight them off, I was too small. And they liked that. They liked that I'm not strong enough to rebell," Orion answered.

"I guess it's the opposite for me," The nameless boy mused. "I'm plenty strong; could probably lift an ox without breaking a sweat. But I'm not smart. If I used nothing but my strength to get away, there'd be nothing I could do with my life, without learning something. So I'm stuck,"

"Maybe I can teach you how to read. Then you can escape,"

"How are you gonna teach me?" The nameless boy scoffed. "You said you were taken as a special request. That means you'll be carted off by this requester while I go to the auctions. We'll probably never see eachother again,"

Orion shook his head, a confident smile on his face, despite his pain at the recent loss of his family. "No, I'll find you. Somehow,"

"Kid, not like I don't think you'll try, but I've had too many people tell me the same thing only to be carted off far away. The ones who said they'd find me? I'm going to an auction on some isolated island, and they're who-knows-where, probably no closer to freedom than they were when I left them,"

Orion shook his head again. The nameless boy was almost amused by the boys confidence. Despite the fact that he knew it to be the opposite, considering the life this boy will have now, a small part of the nameless boy hoped that the cold reality of a slave's world would not kick the optimistic boy over.

"We're heading to an island called Primus," Orion explained.

"Yeah, the island where people live forever or something," The nameless boy stated, unsure why this fact gave Orion hope that the would reunite.

"I read about that island. It's pretty isolated. Only ever makes contact with other places when they're in need of more resources, like slaves, I guess," Orion informed the larger boy. "Once you enter the island, unless you're some sort of merchant, you don't come out. Everyone stays there, including the slaves. We'll be on the same island for the rest of our lives. I'll find you at some point,"

Every inch of experience the nameless boy had gone through told him not to put his hope in that boy's words. But there was something about Orion, — weather his tiny demeanor made the nameless boy want to protect him, or weather the way his voice shined with honesty and confidence despite the horrors he had lived through, or maybe it was because the boy had chosen to befriend him of all people; a nameless slave, who's size intimidated all he came across, who had been sold so many times he could barely remember the faces or voices of even the closest of friends he had made in each household, who had all his hopes crushed by the cruel reality of slavery, who had become so cynical and nihilistic that it was hard to believe such an optimistic boy could ever befriend someone like him — something that made the nameless boy want to believe him, and something that made the nameless boy hope that maybe, just maybe, Orion Pax would be the one friend he made that he would be able to see once again.

For the first time on the entire trip, the nameless boy laughed an actual, real laugh. And he couldn't stop laughing.

"Are you alright?" Orion asked.

"My ribs hurt," The nameless boy responded, still laughing. "Your really something, aren't you, Orion?"

"What do you mean?" The smaller boy asked, confused, and somewhat self-conscious over the larger boys laughter.

"You actually made me believe you! Me! Of all people!"

"I'm confused," Orion stated planely.

The nameless boy calmed down a bit. "Your so hopeful and optimistic. And maybe it's because you haven't seen the things I have, but you've still seen things, so I'm surprised you are that way,"

Orion responded, "I don't understand,"

The nameless boy simply shook his head. "That's alright. You don't have to. We're complete opposites, you and me. And yet it's you of all people who actually made me hopeful that things will get better,"

"Uh, thank you?" Orion said, still more than a little confused. He supposed the older boy was just laughing at the irony, or maybe he was laughing at himself, or at an inside joke he had made a long time ago.

The nameless boy finally finished laughing, and placed an arm around his new friend. "Orion, you and me? We're gonna have a good life. It's gonna happen,"

Orion smiled a smile that was bright, ernest, and impossibly wide. "Yeah!" He agreed.

And done. Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review. Please. I really like reviews.

~MotherUniverse signing out