"What's the matter?" Solus leaned over her fellow Prime's shoulder as arms slid around his neck in a familiar embrace. It was nice to be alone, just the two of them. Maximo -their Lord Protector (or Lord rod-up-his-aft, according to Megatronus)- was off tinkering with the planet-wide data hub. The rest of their sibling units were elsewhere and she had nothing pressing to attend to now the latest issue regarding the energon supply was resolved.
But she knew the skirmishes would only keep happening if they did not find a way to deal with it, soon.
Their planet was dying and they seemed powerless to prevent it.
It was why she was visiting her lover, well, other than a simple desire to spend time with him.
"Any change?"
"The star we harvested was not enough." Megatronus tapped the data screen, pointing to the read-outs that monitored the Allspark. The input readings barely kept pace with the output; though that was only taking into consideration how much was needed to keep the planet alive. If they factored the life forms on the planet, then it was a nightmare: Starvation was barely kept at bay. "We need to harvest again, soon or Cybertron shall die."
"All our Seekers are scouring the heavens..." Solus looked over the data with a small frown. She didn't like what she saw. "Perhaps if we shut down some of the mines and allow the reserves to fill...?"
"Then we would starve. Our mines on the moons are ill-equipped and expanding them faster than we are would lead to disaster." He tapped his chin in thought. "We require a new star to orbit at the very least. The white dwarf is near the end of its life."
"A young one, yes." Solus nuzzled him a little. Swapping out the stars shouldn't be that hard. Between her, Nexus, Boltax, and Vector it was do-able... at a cost. But it would be do-able. "Shall I talk to the priests?"
"Do so. They may offer insight into this... Issue." That wouldn't be an issue if his fellow Primes would simply do what was needed. No matter for now. He'd have time enough to ponder it soon. For now, he'd allow the rest of the set to play god with everyone's lives while he and his loyal hand-picked followers worked out a more permanent solution to their troubles. "You never did tell me what Vector wanted."
"To look over his pet's coding." The female Prime made a face.
"What do you make of it?"
"It's Unicronian."
"We killed him. How." In all actuality, they'd managed to fling the planet eater to the furthest corners of the universe, but that was as good as killing him, or so the Allspark whispered.
Solus shrugged. "Vector never said. Skyfire's been sworn to secrecy."
"And he keeps it around." Megatronus frowned. Yet another thing he'd have to ask the Allspark about. His list was growing.
"Strange. But it's of little concern and won't help in figuring out the answer to our problems." She untangled herself from him and stretched before smiling. "Nighthawk returns. Will you accompany me?"
Megatronus nodded, stood and followed the slightly smaller of them out. Hopefully, the Seeker would have some news that was worthwhile.
If not, he had his own Seekers he could use in finding more suitable stars that would grant them the power they required to truly live.
"What have you done, my Prime? Why does the Allspark weep into the priests' minds?"
Megatronus stared into the optics of Maximo. "Only what was necessary to save our planet, Lord Protector."
"It is not our way to kill life-bearing systems." Solus' gold optics were judging - like everyone else's- but the Fallen Prime shrugged it off. To falter now would be to admit the bonds, the restrictions on his powers; to admit the Allspark was correct in its assumptions. It would be to admit he was just as shackled as his sibling units. But -was it truly right to so chain them to this façade of existence?
They had a paradise, yes, but it was fragile and breakable, even with the new sun they now orbited; to remove the Allspark from the Simfur Temple would be suicide -even the Allspark admitted that. The sun was young, barely capable of supporting them, yet it was.. enough. For now.
But what of when it wasn't? When demand again outstripped supply? Would they again oppose him?
They would. They would try and bind him to their laws. Laws that would see a race starve as their planet withered and died.
He could see it on Maximo's face and Vector's. On his sisters as they looked up at the stars in thought. Even Prima, as vaunted and powerful as she was, was blinkered and could see nothing but the so-called sorrow he'd created. He'd created life - the Allspark had thrummed with the power, had congratulated him and yet they said it wept.
They were wrong. They were fools and he'd enjoy tearing their sparks out and taking their weapons for himself. The Star Sabre would unravel the binds that had been placed on him, the unspoken words of morality - or the shreds that were left. He would keep his own code, but he'd be so much more. He would be the single Prime that ruled Cybertron.
And he'd show them why they were wrong to bind the powers so.
"Megatronus?"
He turned, optics landing on Prima. "Yes."
"I asked you, did we not agree to harvest only stars who's systems hold no life?"
"Forgive me. Jetfire did not sweep the system properly." The Fallen Prime, the Allspark's 'chosen', gestured to his kneeling Seeker. "I assumed... "
"Do we not also sweep the systems our Seekers report back to us?"
Megatronus bowed his helm in supplication to his Lord Protector, feeling the bindings of the Triad working on him, seeking to level him off. He closed his mind to them, pretended they worked when he wanted nothing more than to be free of them. It was a moral centre a God did not need and yet more bindings that held his true power in check. "Jetfire has never failed in his mission before."
"Perhaps the Seeker is faltering in his task." Boltax looked down at the kneeling form with an icy glare. "Or he did not sweep the system close enough."
"Be that as it may, the Seeker has only failed once. Clip his wings and warping for an orn." Prima waved her hand, matter moot now she'd passed judgement and Megatronus smirked mentally. The very idea that it was wrong his Seeker took blame for his wrongs never crossed her mind. Foolish, stupid. "It won't fail again. What of the power? Is that not-"
"No power was gained from the decision, only sorrow." Prima stared hard at her brother until he looked away, helm ducking again. "The Harvesters shall only be activated when all of us are present. Is that clear?"
"Crystal." In his mind, a plan started to form.
It would take time, but he would crush them. His fellow Primes had failed the planet and he was the only one who was capable of doing what needed to be done. He would slaughter them and rule this planet as it should be or see it burn to slag around him.
In the end, Megatronus chose again to betray them. He'd lured them through time itself - in a gross abuse of his full power -to a small world on the outskirts of the galaxy. There, the final stand between his supporters and their own had taken place.
It had been costly and energon stained the rocks the Harvester sat on.
But it was over.
Over and Cybertron would never again face such a threat. The mere idea that her own sibling had turned against his own, claiming to be acting on the will of the Allspark was ludicrous, but it had happened.
But, now, it was over.
The silver form panted as knees hit the ground and she slumped, that single thought reverberating around her processors, even as intakes desperately tried to cool an overheated and overtaxed frame.
The Star Sabre dropped from her hand, her Matrix - a mirror twin of the Harvester Key - glinted on its hilt. Behind her, the Fallen's sarcophagus hit the ground in a cloud of dirt, the being inside powerless to escape the dimensional prison. It'd taken almost all of their power to seal him and so much luck on her part. Her surviving siblings - those who'd not sacrificed themselves to seal the Harvester Key - gathered around her. She simply shook her head and stood, hiding her wince. Though, there was no denying the battle had taken it's toll on her in a number of ways. She couldn't look around, not when the bodies of so many of the children lay scattered across the final battlefield.
Seekers, workers, followers, and even a few priests. The fight had been indiscriminate and brutal. But some still lived; Sonar, Nightscream, Air Raid to name but a few. Prima couldn't bring herself to look at Sonar, the youngling in shock as her systems struggled to comprehend the fact that the Original she'd been Sparked to serve was no more.
The surviving children were equally in shock. She couldn't blame them. To witness the moment of the First's fall...
Bitterness welled up inside her, but she shook that away.
A glance at her siblings showed their reactions to the loss. Vector was stony-faced, optics a whirl of pain as the primal systems that had designated a Ruling Triad (there had been four of them in the set plus Trion) slowly clicked off. She knew the loss hurt. She knew it would take them time to adjust to no longer having the emotional checks that their Triad Prime/s and or Lord Protector provided.
Logos seemed to be taking it hard, and Prima offered a sad smile to the Prime, only to be rebuffed with a mix of rage, anger, hate and pain.
Rung seemed to have shut down, but she didn't doubt he was rationalising everything. It wouldn't be so bad on him; He was a Lord Protector but he would still have to cope like the rest of them. They couldn't just form a new Triad. Being a Prime or Lord Protector didn't work like that.
She wished it did, yet she dared not look at her own systems.
They would cope in their own ways. They had to, at least until the three returned to Cybertron to pass the torch to the next generation. After that, it was unknown what would happen.
"I'll stay here. Guard them and the Leadership Matrix." She couldn't go back to Cybertron. She'd failed. This was her penance.
"Sister..."
"Mistress Prime..." Air Raid blinked at his Prime, only to fall silent when she offered him a sad smile.
"No. Someone must. I am not fit to be leader if I allowed this happen." Now that it was over, she could see that how the betrayal had unfolded and it hurt. She blamed herself for it, but no-one could have really seen what was to happen. He'd hidden it so well. Her remaining optic stared up at Vector before the leader of the Thirteen turned. "Take it back to Cybertron. Bury it. Hide it away so that none might fall under its accursed influence."
But she could not - would never order the executions of the innocents Megatronus had drawn under his sway. They knew no better and with their leader gone, they were no threat.
"Of course." Vector nodded. He wasn't going to argue with her. They'd all lost something this day and he could understand anger ad her rage at her failures. He too was blaming himself for the events that had transpired. "What of energon?"
"I have stored enough in my sarcophagus to last me. Go." A wave of dismissal.
"I shall stay." Air Raid levelled a Look at Prima, who simply nodded, bemused at the daring of the red and black Seeker.
Vector bowed, then nodded to Logos, Rung and the rest of the Seekers and children that remained. Together, with the Fallen's prison, they were gone in a crackle of spacebridging and warping that would see them return to their original time in the past. Prima and Air Raid watched them go, optics unreadable before the silver Prime turned and limped away. "Gather them up. I shall find enough wood to melt them down."
The flier nodded. "Yes, Mistress Prime."
He watched her go before he started his task of gathering the dead.
Later, as metal burned within fires that rose high over the primitive landscape, Air Raid turned to his mistress. "Why did you not kill him?" "
He is still my brother. Trapped, he can do no harm."
"What of what corrupted him?"
The silver Prime looked heavenward and heaved a sigh. "I.. do not know. Perhaps it shall return."
"Should you no-"
"As I said, it is not my time to lead." Prima shook her head. "I am no seer, but I know my place is here, watching, guarding. Waiting for the day when one who seeks the Light of Leadership for intentions pure comes. They will come, just as what happened to us will come a full circle, as it must."
Even if it never comes and she would prefer it to never come, but she was also realistic.
"You sound like a seer, Mistress Prime."
"I am hardly one, but I know well the threat that still remains. I could not kill him, merely seal him." She didn't have to be a seer to know that they had only bought precious time. She didn't need to be a seer to know that eventually, evil would return for a frightening and deadly conclusion. She didn't have to be a seer to pray that her race would have the strength to face it all over again. She could only hope.
"Of course."
Prima offered a humourless smile as her answer before she turned and limped towards the nearby cave system. "Guard me well, my Seeker."
Elsewhere on the planet, a lone Seeker looked out at the world, optics burning with betrayal as he nursed a hatred of his former master deep within his spark. But, as injured as he was, there was nothing for him to do other than wait and watch.
