All there was….was darkness.

That's what went through his head at the time. He was alone, dying and being held prisoner by the enemy, who have told him time and time again that the war was over. He had lost. The universe would come to know this:

Optimus Prime was dead.

The leader of the Autobots lead a final battle after they deemed the world they have called home uninhabitable. With energon at an all low, there sun now dying and burning out along with The Well of AllSparks dry and not producing life, Optimus had created The Ark initiative. The idea was simple; retreat from there home of Cybertron, and find a new one. He had tried to lead his people into joining him into finding a new world amongst the stars, but many thought it went against him being a Prime. And to himself, he had. He was left with no choice after Iacon fell and all knowledge of The Golden Age and The Dark Revolte had been lost, there was no hope in restoring Cybertron to its health. So, with much resistance, he led his troops to retreat the world and bringing an end to the war between them and the rebel faction turned super power known as The Decepticons.

No one in The Council, the fighting pits or the planet wide press thought that this band of thieves, fighters and murderers would one day be the most feared and organized hierarchy in the universe. Optimus at the time had no doubt that Megatronus would not go unnoticed, bit could never have seen his old friend turn against him and there kind. Megatron had beaten the planet to a pulp in attempts to control it. In the end, the war drained Cybertron dry and left the landscape in ruins. The fighting carried over to the other worlds; Amatron, Gigatron, Skycron, and Technocon, and they two lost life after The Well was drained. The solar system was all connected through Cybertron, as being the first stable civilization of cybernetic life. Stable.

Optimus laughed coldly. When the final ships took to the stars, The Nemesis, Megatron's personal war vessel, launched a full scale attack against the fleeing Autobots. Optimus found himself in a final duel with the tyrant. Finally, the Alpha Space Bridge collapsed, sending Nemesis and it's crew into deep space. Optimus was found hugging onto the hull, while gripping onto the remains of Lord Megatron, as only his helm remained in the Autobot's grasp. Prime was torched and maimed. He felt his limbs ache with pain. He could not tell how many cycles have passed, but he knew that it must have been centuries. The prison cell he was held in rusted over time, like a timelapse. His guards would tell him about how they boarded ships and learned that all thought that Prime was dead. He was unfazed by it all. Why wouldn't they? He was the last Prime. Of a legacy. He would simply rust over and fade to dust with the rest of it all.

Yet, that is not how Optimus works. He may have lost his closest friends, allies and even his sparkmate, but a Prime never gives up. He may have surrendered, it never meant he would never break out. The Nemesis was now on a mission lead by Starscream, who proclaimed himself as leader, to hunt down and kill all surviving Autobots. As of far, they merely encountered alien vessels and nothing more. Then, the picked up a distress call from a small organic planet. If the Autobots on the planet were still online, then this was his only way out. When his guard foolishly told him that they would be raiding a small organic world in search of Autobots to kill, Prime took it as a time to start the final preparations in escaping.

First, he knew the route to the main deck, as Starscream pulled him up so he could gloat that he had caught the leader of his enemy like a toy. With anything, 'Scream would want him to have front row seats at seeing the demise his Autobot brethren. Exactly what Prime wanted.

Then, came the assault. He had been secretly been his training as The Librarian of Iacon Data Vaults and put his studies to use as he saved up enough energon to use with a close range plasma weapon. Fortunately, even though they disconnected his T-Cog from his body, they never removed it. So, with knowledge in The Cybertronian body, he worked in secret as he mended himself back whole again.

Finally, his plan of escape, which had been his problem for so long. Now that they were going to a planet of all places, he had an end location. Now to plan out the escape route. Whenever he was brought up deck, he would sneak glances over towards the halls. He eventually made a small map in his mind of the facility. He knew the only way to open a blast door was with a badge ID devise. He could rip one off of the soldiers while he escaped, but he needed one before so he wouldn't waste time. So, using one of the last parts of Orion left in him, he made an exact replica of a badge through memories of seeing schematics on how they worked in The Data Vaults. However, it only looked the part. He waited for his guard, Skywarp, to sink into stasis, before operating on removing his badge through the bars of his cell. It almost seemed too easy, but then again, Skywarp wasn't the brightest of solders. Prime had everything in place, and for the first time in ages, he actually waited.

A fizzing swoosh was heard as the bars of the laser prison collapsed into the floor. Skywarp stoop with cuffs in one hand and a Shock-stick in the other. Optimus found himself awoken from stasis in great pain as the Seeker jabbed the stick into his rotator cup, sending volts directly to his Spark. Prime stumbled to his feet and cautiously stuck his servos towards the guard. Skywarp grinned.

"I guess I finally broke you into submission, Auto-bunt? Well, it may have taken three Stellar Cycles cycles, but it was worth it." Three Stellar Cycles was all Prime thought as Skywarp towed him along through the ship. Had it been that long? With passing by stars in gravity influenced environments away from civilization warped the mind's idea of time. Prime prayed that the Autobots were still alive on the planet.

Finally, they reached the deck where Starscream had just concluded giving a speech to his troops about the glory of The Decepticon empire and how they would fight on in Megatrons name. Starscream place his lost leader's helm in a crystal case in his quarters, more as atrophy than a token of his Lordship.

Soundwave was standing next to his new leader, who was really his partner than anything. Soundwave was a former surveillance officer at Iacon and became the leader of Megatron's secret police as an assassin. He could hack any system, and with the help of his Minicons in tow, he had extra processing capabilities to formulate thorough plans. Optimus thought of the officer as more of a threat than Starscream, as his cold visser shined red with no deviation. Starscream turned and bared his dental plates in a scrap eating grin.

"Welcome once again to the deck, Optimus Prime. I do hope you stay operating as we begin our raid on this primitive world." He said with arrogance. Optimus simply scowled behind his faceplate. Prime rarely spoke when he was on the ship, so silence was expected. However-

"I would enjoy seeing the faces of my fellow Autobots before my time ends." He spoke in a fractured voice. The Decepticons were taken back as they heard him speak. Starscream recovered and snickered.

"I would do anything for a rusted old bot like you for there dying wish." He said sarcastically. "I think we should keep one alive so we can show them the broke state of their long lost leader. It would be most entertaining. That is, if they still are online, as they could have rusted up by now." Starscream snarled. He turned back, but Prime wasn't finished.

"If you say that just because my physical condition has declined, I am unable to stay strong? My Spark resonates with strength and with hope to light our darkest hour, I shall always stay strong. For cycles you have found my weakness, but now you have made a grave mistake."

"And what mistake is that, Prime?" Starscream said as he looked into the bot's optics and could only see weakness.

"You brought me here." Now or never. Optimus quickly activated his Plasma Axe from his wrist and tor the cuffs off. Before Skywarp could react, Optimus amputated his left arm and picked up the Shock-stick and embedded it into the open wound, sending rapid bursts of pain through the guard. "You can never break me." Prime spoke menacingly. Soundwave charged him and they started to tousle till finally, Optimus launched him with a kick into a nearby monitor setup the pilots were using. Starscream was stunned, and could do nothing as his greatest enemy grabbed him and slammed his frame into another computer setup. Sparks flew and with one downward motion, Prime sent his Axe down and Starscream wailed in horror...to then see the axe embedded itself in the console. Lights went off and alarms rang. Optimus fled the deck down the halls. Starscream stood up and looked back. The ship was going down. Prime had destroyed both the pilot position and the engine monitoring systems. With no way to stabilize the dark matter arrays, the ship will start to explode and lose to gravity as it descended into the planet's atmosphere. Starscream felt dread once more in his circuits as the ship fell farther and farther down.

Optimus was bobbing and weaving through waves of soldiers and beheading and amputating them as he made his way to the nearest blast door. Opening his chest compartment, the badge fell into his servos and he held it in front of the scanner. It hissed open and he had to brace himself as he was about to be pulled into space. The plant was nothing like Cybertron, but Prime thought it looked beautiful nevertheless. He positioned himself and leaped off the ship. Goodbye to the prison. Goodbye to the torture. And now, hello to his brothers. A large explosion erupted behind him as he saw Nemesis split down the middle as it descended. Optimus felt the burning of the atmosphere as he entered orbit. He squinted his optics and tried to find a place to land. He found it was night on this foreign world. He moved closer and closer to the ground. He needed a way to land. He looked around and saw nothing. He closed his optics tight as he made a hard and sudden impact with the surface.

Darkness. That's all there was. Yet a faint voice was heard through it.

"What are you?"