STARSONG OF THE PRIMES

A Gundam 00 and Transformers Crossover, featuring Death and Elaine Belloc from the DC/Vertigo Universe

Optimus Prime visits the grave of Sumeragi Lee Noriega and finds himself in the unexpected company of Death and God. What happens when three mighty individuals – a Prime, Death, and the Presence – meet at a tombstone? This one-shot answers that question.

Author's note: This story is set in my crossover universe of Transformers 00, although it features two of my favourite characters from the DC/Vertigo Universe: Death and Elaine Belloc, who serves as the new God. Elaine has taken the naïve Yahweh's place as the Creator, suffusing herself with the entire universe so that she can come to know the Name more intimately. Meanwhile, Death has been busy claiming soul after soul – and spark after spark – in the midst of the cataclysmic Earthen-Cybertronian War. The individual lives of humans and Cybertronians alike belong to her. Eighteen years onwards, she claims another existence – the life of a woman who was extremely dear to the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime.

That woman's name was Sumeragi Lee Noriega.

This is a one-shot set in 2335 A.D, at the head of Leesa Kujo's grave. It is late afternoon, and the autumn wind is bringing an unusual chill to the weather. Though Sumeragi no longer draws breath on Earth, her legacy is as powerful as ever, united in the wills of Prime, Death, and Elaine. How does Optimus, the bearer of the Matrix of Leadership and a member of the Dynasty of Primes, come to terms with Death itself? How does a Prime come to terms with what God permits – and cannot bring herself to permit?

Perhaps if the two ladies paid him a visit…

*

Leesa Kujo, 2281 A.D. – 2330 A.D.

Departed from this world after forty-nine years. Leesa Kujo served as the Tactical Forecaster of Celestial Being under the codename of Sumeragi Lee Noriega. Her direct contact and friendship with the Autobots contributed to the preservation of the human race during and after the Earthen-Cybertronian War.

May she find peace with the world and herself.

It's the twenty-second of March. Every year, Optimus Prime comes to visit the lonely grave of the human woman he had cherished like a daughter. The sun is already setting against a pallid canvas of bright orange and crimson. But she has been waiting for this one last visitor. Once again, he comes here. He stands like a little child, talking tenderly to the cracks and carvings on the stone. He knows that there will never be an answer. There can never be an answer, at least not from the woman he loved. No. He still loves her beyond words, adores her so intensely that it hurts. That is why he visits twice every year. Once for her, once for him, and it's too painful to come again.

When I think about him like this, Optimus Prime begins to look almost pitiable. I guess it's a pity that I took Leesa Kujo's hand when I did. But what can I say to him? It's not like it could have gone differently. And it's not like I can make it up to him somehow.

As the old cliché goes: I'm just doing my job.

*

The Autobot leader hadn't turned away from the small grave yet. Even as he heard light footsteps, he knew they did not belong to the children of Lyle and Anew. "Parting is all we need to know of Heaven, and all we need of Hell," came a lively, matter-of-fact voice. He turned around obligingly, although he did not bother to hide his reluctance. His optics did not betray any surprise at the new visitor. His company was an attractive, petite young woman with long, silken hair as dark as the night's shadows. She was pale, deliberately so – she wore her Gothic apparel proudly, with a casual black top, dark jeans and motorcycle boots. A large, silver ankh dangled in the middle of her bosom – the Egyptian symbol of eternal life. Around her right eye was a decorative marking: the Eye of Horus. The elegant cosmetic completed itself in a delicate loop, hinting at the promise of an inescapable, rather personal reception at her hands. How that reception unfolded, however, was an open question.

She seemed agreeable and pleasant. Her bearing was appealing, down-to-earth, and even perky. But Prime could never forget whom she was and what she professed to do. "A girl called Emily Dickinson wrote down that quote sometime ago. I believe it's locked somewhere in the castle of dreams, where only lovers, poets and musicians can tread." She winked up at the Autobot as she crossed her slender, ashen arms. "I had to see this for myself. A Prime – one of the most powerful beings in the universe – grieving so powerfully for one woman. I'm sorry, big bot," she said sincerely. "That's life. There's only so much to go around."

"That's easy for you to say… Death," said Prime stiffly. "I have felt your touch twice in my long life. You are a persistent abstraction; an omnipresent being that brooks no deception. Yet you appreciate the fact that the universe is still in need of a Prime. Hence you've let me go… for now. I suspect, however, that our bargains will always leave me in debt to you."

"My old buddy Lucifer once made an interesting observation about me. He said that no one ever cheats me of my duty, my entitlement. Postponing the inevitable isn't cheating me. It's just stretching the rules a little." Death let out a smooth chuckle. "And I'll give you this, Optimus Prime: as much as I don't prefer it, you're very good at bending my rules. Massive robots blowing up crap across the galaxies always seem to be."

Silence passed between them for several minutes. He had little to say to her. It was only after a prolonged pause in their peculiar encounter that he met her dark, mysterious eyes again. "Yet I don't see you coming to this graveyard often. What are your reasons for turning up today?"

"I don't often come to Tokyo at all. Not anymore," replied the woman, fiddling with the keys to the afterlives in her pocket. "You can probably guess why."

"You must have enjoyed the war that tore this Earth apart," noted Prime, somewhat bitterly. "You must have been busy during my fight against Megatron."

"Hey, hey. Megatron was a thoroughly unpleasant one to deal with. I wouldn't do it again if you made me. You did a good job, though. That was one hell of a brawl, if I remember right." Death began to pout at his dour, humourless expression. "Look, Optimus. This isn't the Prime I like to see. I heard, centuries ago, that the humans gave you a rather flattering nickname: Big Buddha. Shouldn't you at least try to live up to such a compliment?"

"The sun is almost gone, Death," whispered Prime, ignoring her jibes. Part of him did not want to speak to her, and another part simply did not know what to say. "I recognized you so easily because you have come for me two times. Yet I was called to leave your side, first by Sam Witwicky, and then by Setsuna F. Seiei. You don't seem annoyed by that. I rest easy in the conclusion that you're not impatient to claim me."

Death scratched her raven hair. "I know you're having trouble coming to terms with Leesa's departure," she conceded. "But from the way I see it, you wouldn't feel much better if you swapped places with her. And I have an inkling you have no intention to join your fellow Primes just yet."

She sighed with the air of an elder sister watching over a sulking sibling. "Have you heard of the story about the Monkey King's meeting with the Buddha?" she asked. "Sun Wukong was an unstoppable force of nature and defeated Heaven's Host of a hundred thousand celestial warriors, crushed the twenty-eight constellations, trounced the Four Heavenly Kings, humiliated the trickster god Nezha, and even forced Erlang, Heaven's supreme general, to a standstill. After he was captured, no method of divine execution could destroy him. He escaped even my jurisdiction. So with nothing left, the Jade Emperor – God – petitioned the Buddha for help." She giggled. "When they met, the Monkey King boasted to the Enlightened One of his great strength, cunning and resourcefulness. He was invincible! But the Buddha didn't say anything in reply, having nothing in particular to prove. Lord Buddha's silence drove Wukong to more insults. Wukong even ended up declaring that he was actually greater. Superior."

Prime did not speak, but merely continued to listen.

"So Monkey girded himself, and made a mighty leap. His strong legs propelled him into the firmament and into the universe, and across all the worlds…" Death winked. "Until he landed on the other side of infinity. There, five columns of white stone held up the roof of the sky. To prove that he had arrived here, Monkey irreverently carved his name on the central column. Proudly, he took a second leap after this deed was done, taking him back across the face of Creation. He returned to the Buddha and told him what he'd done. Could the Enlightened One have jumped so far? Could the Buddha have travelled to where the worlds end with a single leap?

"The Buddha didn't answer in words, and simply raised his right hand, showing it to Monkey…" she paused again, for dramatic effect. "Who, to his dismay, recognized his own signature on the Buddha's middle finger."

Her peculiar story was not immediately met with a reply. "That sounds almost insulting," said Prime, after several moments. "Were you making a point about futility? That I am being unrealistic in desiring a long life for Leesa?"

"Look, even God couldn't destroy Sun Wukong. In the end, imprisonment by the Buddha's authority was all they could do. The Buddha held the entirety of Creation in his palm and smacked down Wukong with the air of a bored child." Death smiled. "You can't be the complete master of your own destiny, big bot. As Yahweh put it so beautifully, none of us can. We're all shaped by external forces, some of them more powerful than the others."

"You really do not feel any regret for cutting Leesa's life short? Not at all?"

"Cutting Leesa's life short? Me? I think you're misunderstanding who I am." Death sighed in slight exasperation. "How many times do I have to say this to different people? I'm just me. Listen: even as I'm talking to you, I'm everywhere. I'm going to the old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in several distant, beautiful galaxies that are collapsing in on themselves. I was in the hospital where Leesa gave you her last kiss. So you're wrong – I haven't met you just twice. We've met many times already, including that day you lost her. For some folks death is a release, and for others it's painful, a terrible way to go. But in the end, at least I'm there for everyone… for everything."

They paused in their curious conversation as they noticed the rustling of grass. Another young female was making her way up the high mound. The cooing wind grew slightly stronger as she approached them. A couple of dead leaves were caught against her sleeve, and she brushed them away. She stopped before them, smoothing back her black hair, which was shorter than Death's. She wore rather unremarkable clothes – an outfit that would probably be expected of any girl that looked to be in her late teens. A shirt with the colour of night itself complemented a skirt that ended just above her knees. She had high black boots, slightly less fancy than Death's, perhaps. Optimus towered over them both, but he made no move to kneel before the women, nor did he rebuff them by turning his back on them. For he knew he was standing among equals, equals who were infinitely superior in so many ways.

"Oh. Hello," piped up Death, her smile growing broader. Even as she looked into the newcomer's eyes, she could see two radiant, feathered wings unfolding behind her and beating gloriously. They suffused the galaxies and endless aeons, supernaturally transcending the voids of formlessness and wrapping themselves around all of existence. From the dead planet of Cybertron to the living planet of Earth, nothing in the omniverse was denied the wings' loving touch. Nothing in the trillion world-systems equalled their beauty except for their owner. Ironically, she could not have looked more ordinary.

Prime could see those lustrous, blinding feathers, too. His optical sensors widened, and a strange urge to hold this woman in his mighty hand overcame him. Would she have enjoyed a better view of the city from his shoulder?

And then, just as quickly, those transcendent wings were gone. Optimus could no longer process them in his database. But this woman hadn't lost anything, not unless a waterfall loses itself as it collapses into a shimmering lagoon, or a warm breath loses itself as it becomes one with the limitless firmament. "This is Elaine Belloc," said Death, gesturing towards the modest-looking woman. "She was once human, and I hugged her and comforted her when she died to save her friend. And now she is the new God, the Presence that embraces the universe. Who'd have thought it?" she finished proudly. "In some ways, you could say she has become the number one cheerleader for Primus, the Lord of Light and the champion of Creation."

Elaine's voice was quiet, almost uncomfortable. "Hi, Optimus."

"Primus… the god of Cybertron, the very planet of Cybertron…" Optimus stared at the diminutive girl. "Regardless of what I know about Primus, we've already abandoned our planet, so we cannot turn back now. Yahweh – whoever human beings think he is – was never too concerned with my kind, was he?"

"Maybe," said Elaine. "As God, Yahweh may well have overlooked you, because your people have the Primes and their All Spark. Cybertronians were traveling across the seams of reality while human beings were having trouble starting a fire. Can you blame Yahweh for starting with Earth? And don't forget, too: I'm not Yahweh."

"Why did you let Death take Leesa away from me, Elaine?" asked Prime, his optics burning. "She deserved so much more. As a human being, she deserved to attain Innovation. It was the very purpose for which she followed Aeolia Schenberg's plan. She deserved to have children and to watch her grandchildren run around her. At the very least, she deserved to live past fifty paltry years. Even a human is capable of doing that. Yet you let – " Prime shot Death a rueful glance. " – you let her…"

Death shrugged nonchalantly, unaffected by his despair. "Forty-nine years or a hundred thousand years, everyone gets pretty much the same thing. A lifetime. No more. No less."

"I once had a little chat with my old friend Gaudium," said Elaine, crossing her arms. "I told him my thoughts about why I can't do too much, especially as God." She paused wistfully. "It's always bothered me, even after I took up my new job. There's just too much power, Optimus. My will is a billion crackling stars, my mind is a glass that refracts light, and the cosmos is a tiny little ant. If I concentrate too much on doing something…"

Prime did not enjoy the metaphor. Nor was he impressed by it. "Elaine, answer my question." He looked back at the humble letters that had been painstakingly etched on Sumeragi's memorial. "Please."

Elaine looked sympathetic. "I trust that you'll understand me, Optimus. You're one of the few sentient beings who care to understand me at all. If I always bend the rules for the creatures I care about, no matter how important they are in the scheme of things, I'll never get the big picture. Not if I persist in breaking the external forces that Death has already talked about. When none of us have any answers, we can only trust the presence of the Name to illuminate the path for us."

"Getting reverent, aren't we," piped up Death idly.

Elaine smiled sadly. "A long time ago, I took a different route than Yahweh. I let go of myself and sank into everything – absolutely everything. I became part of the world, a part of everything that has happened and continues to happen. I'm running the show from the inside, guiding it as its interior light. I don't rule from the top. I feel your pain as my own. I suffer as Optimus Prime and as Leesa Kujo. Do you see? Showing off my exterior strength isn't a sign of my power, nor is it in my… job description. And I never liked Heaven and Hell. Those were terrible ideas. So I did away with them," qualified Elaine. Noticing Prime's confused expression, she added, "But you never believed in that sort of thing anyway, did you? As I said, I don't rule from the top. I need no souls. When you think about it, how can anyone even own a soul?" She smiled up at him, her dark irises twinkling with divine compassion. "Ever stopped to think about why you still keep that beautiful spark inside that Mobile Suit? You belong to yourself. Face up to it and create your own Paradise… or Hell. While you work that out, I'll always be protecting you, in the same way the Dynasty of Primes has watched over your people and the people of Earth."

She smiled, her eyes shimmering with empathy. "You are burdened. So do me a favour and know that you are never alone. Never. We are all servants of the Name, whether we know it or not. I'm being honest with you: the new Earth you and Leesa have fought for reflects what I've been working towards these past few centuries."

Optimus nodded slowly in understanding. "Gundam. The human-Autobot dialogues… world peace. I think I see at least part of the landscape that you're painting." A certain sense of serenity and closing had settled on him, and it was the realization that his fragility was the same fragility that empowered Elaine. He had always moved forward, despite the haunting memories of his failure to save Cybertron. Twenty-three years after the decisive victory over the Decepticons, he still could not escape that duty. He had no choice but to persist, to continue pushing on. The Presence had reminded him of that much.

Despite himself, he could feel a faint smile underneath his faceplate. "Thank you… Elaine," he said softly. "I feel grateful that you came today."

She turned around, hugging herself. What a relief. He trusted her. He was so kind. It was difficult not to cry; especially when she wanted to shed tears for a being that could not weep. "I know Lord Primus has probably got your back, but I'm around, too," she offered tentatively. "Look, you can always talk to me if you ever feel down. I'm a shocking correspondent, but I really do enjoy hearing the voices of others."

A soft gust of rejuvenating wind, and Elaine had disappeared. She had departed as quickly as she had come. Her Presence, however, did not seem to follow her physical emanation. Prime paused, holding a hand to his broad chest. She is as real as the Matrix of Leadership, as real as the spirits of my ancestors. Perhaps the warmth in his pulsing spark was proof of that.

Meanwhile, Death placed her fingers against her hips, looking up at the Autobot. "This is the part where you can barter with me from the counter of eternity," she called. "But sometimes there are those who have the courage to accept me as what I really am: freedom. Rest. Another chance. That makes me darn happy, you know. Anyway, it's your call now. I can't bum around here forever. I've got work to do."

"I don't want to make any bargains with you. Not now. You're much too honest for that." Prime turned away, looking down at Sumeragi's grave. It was as if his optics could not rest unless they fell back on that tiny, inherently meaningless slab of stone. "I thank you too, Death. I think I've been unfair to you. For that, I apologize."

"Drop the guilt at the door, big bot. It doesn't suit someone of your stature," reassured Death. "I think I really like Elaine's ways. Because if there's something – anything – I believe in, it's this." She pointed to her silver ankh, and it shone with the ruby glow of the setting sun. "It's the most precious truth in the whole multiverse. I'll always be around too – at least, until the day comes for me to turn up the chairs and switch out the lights. But you'll probably find me a worse conversation partner than Elaine. And she's the one who has to watch the universe's back."

The Goth beauty raised a wise eyebrow, eyeing him closely. "You know, Optimus… I always thought you had a real majestic air about you," she admitted. "And with these quaint contraptions they call Gundams, you look cooler than ever."

He could not resist a chuckle. "We will meet again."

"You betcha."

She gave Optimus a lively wave, and as if to tease him, slowly faded away in a haze of gentle GN Particles. He blinked in surprise. So she does enjoy learning new things, he observed to himself as he watched her. Perhaps that's why she bothers to visit Earth. To learn about mortal life even as she takes it away. Aquamarine light refracted off Prime's metallic body and swept Death away to a destination that he could only speculate about. Her Horus eye was the last portion of her material form to disappear, and it continued to gaze at him until it followed the rest of her dainty body into the abyss of infinity. She had returned to the Dreaming, bound by the laws that constituted her role in the grand, interconnected cosmos.

They would meet again, perhaps in the next space-cycle, or perhaps in the next aeon. But to Death and Elaine, an aeon was but a day on the horizon of the Name. They would come to him again, just as he promised Leesa that he would always visit her grave. He would continue to share his memories, meditations, and hopes with her until Death took him for herself. They would come together and dance when the time was right for Elaine to destroy and remake Creation itself. And so it would go on, forever and ever.

He closed his optics musingly, allowing the autumn wind to stroke his face and caress his arms. Somewhere, in the distance, ethereal singing could be heard amidst the stars.

A starsong.

"Leesa… my darling amongst the constellations. I reunited with two very special women today. And I know without a doubt that you have taken their hands and walked into the gentle eve."

THE END