This chapter has been a nostalgic ride, as I finally have come to the point in Origin, that actually was the first idea I got to make this sequel.
No Warnings Apply.
The Specific Name's list is located at the end of the chapter this time.
Inspirational Music:
*NSYNC - This I Promise You.
Avicii - Heaven.
Optimus regains consciousness with a desperate inhalation. He vividly remembers the last kliks before his awareness had left him as he died.
Thundercracker's claws forcing their way through his chestplates.
The unbearable pain of his dying spark.
The Matrix disintegrating inside him.
And then nothing.
At the memories, he reflexively looks down and touches at his chestplates, perplexed at the sight that meets his optics.
Gone is the reinforced plating, which the exaltation to Prime had granted him when the Matrix had been inserted in his chest. His battle mask and any change that had happened to him at his inauguration are gone too, and he continues to stare bewildered down his frame.
There is a void inside him, where the Matrix used to be, and he rubs his chest at the strange feeling of emptiness.
The relic had been like a friend to him during the war, and now, when it is gone, he doesn't know what to do.
He looks up when he notices the sound of steps moving towards him, and realizes that he is in a cybertronian forest with tall trees filling his sight in every direction.
The steps come closer and closer, and he slowly turns around when movements behind him draws his attention.
A seeker emerges from the trees, nearly as large as them, and he finds himself staring up and up until he meets the pitch black optics. Thundercracker's size is nothing compared to the seeker standing in front of him.
Its frame is like an burning inferno, and the light flowing from the seeker only allows him to discern the outline of it.
As the seeker cautiously moves closer, in an attempt to not scare him, he slowly rises from the ground and takes a few hesitant steps back, overwhelmed by its size.
In reaction to his fear, the seeker stops and doesn't come closer, instead it kneels on the ground. It leans forward to inspect him, and one of the large clawed servos slowly extends out to him, the palm up.
/Do not fear. I wish you no harm./ It trills softly, and Optimus realizes that he can understand it, as if it had spoken in his language.
He also realizes that he knows that voice.
The voice from within the Matrix.
Once again he rubs at his chestplates. The loss of the relic feels like a physical pain, despite the fact that it had never been part of his frame.
There are so many questions he wants to ask, but he chooses one.
"Who are you?"
The strong radiance of power from the seeker is unfathomable, and he has a feeling that he already knows the answer to his question. But he wants the seeker to confirm it.
The seeker's lips spreads in a fanged smile, its black optics sparkling.
/I'm Solaris, and it is a honor finally to meet you, Optimus of the Primes./ Solaris greets in respectful satisfaction, and the light surrounding his being disappears to allow Optimus to see him clearly.
The answer takes Optimus by surprise.
"You're not Primus?" He asks hesitantly.
Solaris chuckles lightly.
/No./ Is the simple answer.
The answer confuses him.
/You are currently within my domain. Primus, the name with which you acknowledge him by, has no power here./ Solaris explains, seeing Optimus's confusion.
More questions arise and he carefully chooses the next.
"If this is your domain, where am I then?" He asks curiously, while he studies the celestial being.
/Inside the Matrix of Leadership./ Solaris answers.
"Am I dead?" He asks further with a frown.
He can still remember the sensation of his dying spark, when Thundercracker had destroyed his spark-chamber. And it is confusing to wake up and be met by a seeker, instead of Primus.
It's an enigma.
/Yes, and no./ Is the cryptic non-answer, and he has the feeling that that is the only answer he gets to his question. The seeker isn't going to divulge further information on the subject.
While he digests the information he has been given, he turns his gaze toward the area surrounding them.
Cybertron's starry sky glitters above them.
It is a welcoming sight, which he never thought he would ever get to see again, and while he looks at the constellations of stars, he realizes that they are in the southern hemisphere.
Far from any cities.
Within the seekers' territory.
He knows that it is a dreamscape, but his instincts, that has been sharpened during the war, still warn him about the threat by being so close to the seekers. And he no longer has the means to go one-on-one with one, as he could when he still held the Matrix.
"If you aren't Primus, then who are you?" He asks, in an attempt to distract himself from the feelings trying to take control over his spark.
/Always so eager to know more./ Solaris laughs enthusiastically, and Optimus returns his gaze to the seeker in the hope of finally getting answers to all of his questions.
/I'm the Broodmother to all seekers. The first seeker ever created by The Sky Above, the one you acknowledge as Primus./ The seeker reveals and stares deeply into Optimus's optics, seeing the growing curiosity there.
/What a wonderful bright spark./ Solaris whispers affectionately.
The black gaze captures Optimus's whole awareness and drags him in. He is incapable of looking away from the celestial seeker's hypnotizing optics and drowns in the depth of the endless gaze holding him imprisoned.
Images starts to enter his mind, showing him his life, before and after he became the Prime.
/Selfless. Open-minded. Incorruptible. You were so willing to learn and curious about the world around you. So different from the last one that was chosen to be the bearer of the Matrix./ Solaris murmurs softly, before he gently releases his grip on Optimus's mind.
/I knew you would become a true Prime. After an aeon, I had finally found my Chosen./ The seeker adds, and the denotation of Prime and Chosen fills Optimus with a feeling that the words mean much more than he can comprehend.
'Prime' is not just a title.
It holds a far deeper meaning.
/I know it hasn't been easy, and I have tried to guide you through your hardships. It should never have come this far, but The Sky Above discovered too late that the paths were deviating. It was never meant for Megatron to gain control over Thundercracker, and The Sky Above tried to steer the paths back on their right course, without affecting the life of your people too greatly, but it failed./ Solaris continues to explain, while his black optics fills with sadness.
/Thundercracker was destined to kill you in the amphitheater, when Megatron had him kill the Senate. Only the Winglord could have destroyed the Matrix and set things in motion. But instead of Thundercracker, it was Skywarp who attacked you. We failed, and it led to so much unnecessary death./ Sadness turns to pain, before a faint hope slowly fills the black optics.
/But finally we are here, and it is time to show you the truth./ Solaris finishes his explanation. The seeker's open servo moves insistingly closer to Optimus, and the large claws are an impressive sight, as they move within his touching distance.
He stares hesitant at them, the open invitation clear, and slowly brings his own servo forward to touch the seeker's glowing plating.
All-consuming power surrounds him the moment he touches Solaris, and it feels like he is being sent back in time. Images of their surroundings flicker past his optics at an impossible speed, as the scenery around them changes. He loses consciousness when his processor finally shuts down, overloaded by the immense of information from the images.
When he regains his awareness, they are no longer in the forest. Instead he is standing in a wide clearing full of seekers nearly as large as Solaris, but to his surprise, they don't look like the Broodmother.
They are a confusing mix of more or less wingless frames.
Some of them look more like Prowl, with his door-wings, while others have no wings at all.
Solaris lands beside him and stares with sad optics at the sight in front of them.
/This is where it happened. The divide./ The Broodmother explains and urge Optimus to move closer to the group gathered in the center of the clearing.
He trusts that the celestial seeker have no evil intent, and steps closer, to get a better look at the strange seekers. If Solaris had wished to harm him, the seeker would have done so earlier.
/What you see in front of you is the first clan consisting solely of grounded seekers. A mutation occurred among the ancient seekers that caused some of the seekerlets to develop into flightless frames. After having reached a critical stage in their development, the wings would simply stop growing while the seeker reached its maturity, and they would finally disintegrate when the systems needed to control them never fully developed. As more and more creations were born with the malfunction, they were abandoned to survive on their own, exiled from the society./
A seekerlet that looks so much like how Starscream had when the tricolored seeker had been younger, passes directly through him, and he realizes that it is a dreamscape. His gaze follows the running seekerlet fondly, and while he studies it closer, he notices the too small wings, when he compares them to the size he remembers that Starscream's wings had in that age. The seekerlet's tail sweeps erratically from side to side to stabilize the seekerlet as it moves, and his spark fills with pain at the sight.
/Over time, their number grew and a rebellion broke out. Their population were now so large that they nearly out-rivaled the seeker population in number. They were dissatisfied with the areas they were forced to live in, secluded from the larger hunting areas. The prey that lived in their areas could barely keep their growing population alive./
/Wars broke out among the territories, and I, with all of my power could not prevent it. My triade-mates died in the final catastrophic battle before the divide, where all of the grounded seekers joined together in an attempt to claim my territory. At their deaths, I could no longer live on, the pain of losing them was too great./
/The Sky Above was hesitant, when I begged him to grant me death. I implored for him to take back the power he had bestowed upon me at my creation, and as I finally was called to the Afterlife, I split my spark in the hope of once again unifying our people. One essence went to the flight-capable seekers, and over time became known as the Winglord Essence. The other essence went to the grounded seekers, and became the Matrix. The intention was to bring them together when the time was right./
/That time is now, and with my spark restored, I am able to leave the Afterlife to complete the final step of unifying you all./
There are so many questions that arise, while Solaris speaks, and Optimus stares with a strange feeling at the sight in front of him.
His forefathers.
But no... Not quite.
The strange feeling grows, when he finally realizes the truth behind what it is he is witnessing.
Seekers are his most ancient forefathers.
They originate from them, from Solaris, if what the celestial seeker has told him is the truth.
The divide, as Solaris calls it, doesn't change the fact that the land-based cybertronians were born as seekers.
"What happened after your death?" He asks and looks up at the celestial seeker with a growing understanding of what it is that Solaris is showing him.
His race's ancient past.
/The Matrix has stored everything from back then and until this moment in time. Touch me and let me show you./ Solaris offers, and the seeker's servo is once again held within reach of Optimus.
This time he touches it without hesitation.
Their surroundings shift in front of his optics, and he is no longer in a forest.
/After the divide, the seekers destroyed the grounded seekers' clans, forcing them to seek shelter outside the forests. The few uninhabited areas of the planet were barren fields that housed no life, and they needed to change their way of life to survive under their new circumstances./ Solaris explains, while Optimus stares at the barren field they have arrived at.
A grounded seeker emerges from a hole in the ground, and he steps closer in fascination, as it drags a large cluster of crystallized energon with it to the surface. The large claws are scratched and dented, and some of the deadly tips are missing completely.
The cluster is broken into edible pieces, while more and more grounded seekers emerge from similar holes in the ground. And he stares in marvel at the purity of the crystallized energon. The fuel requires no refining, its potency sufficient as it is in the natural form.
A far cry from the quality of the energon of his own time.
"They needed another source of energon to survive, with the lack of their natural prey." He concludes, and Solaris nods in silent confirmation.
Optimus touches Solaris again, when he gets the feeling that he has seen everything there is to see, and the scenery changes once again.
Now they are standing in a flourishing clan with primitive dwellings filling the area, and he notices a significant change.
The grounded seekers' frames have adapted in size to match the scarce prey available to them. With the growing lack of essential metals in their diet, they no longer have the resources to create the large full-frame creations. The smaller creations mean smaller frames, when they reach adulthood.
They are still towering above the modern seekers, but their new circumstances are gradually affecting their evolution.
At the next touch to Solaris, another significant change has occurred.
Their reproduction has changed completely.
The dominant and submissive code is faded through the generations, until it has become nonexistent.
In addition, their fangs have vanished too, while their dentals have become sturdier, enabling them to crush and consume the crystallized energon more efficiently.
As a result of their change of fuel source, the secondary tank no longer holds a purpose and has given way to a larger primary fuel tank.
With their system now unable to digest their natural prey, they are now completely missing the critical materials that are needed to construct the newspark's frame within their spark-chamber. Instead they nurture the tiny spark connected to their own, and builds the frame when the newspark reaches the critical stage where it needs a frame.
To be able to do that, their servos have adapted too.
The claws are gone, replaced by blunt digits able to handle tools.
Optimus fills with awe at the evolution that is happening in front of his optics, at each following touch to Solaris.
More and larger cities are forged from the ash of devastating wars with the seekers, as the grounded seekers' population expands their society and destroys more and more of the forests and the seekers' habitats.
Territories shifts back and forth, while the ancient Winglords and Primes clash in mighty battles.
Winglords are killed in the battles, allowing new ones to come to power, while the Matrix is carried from Prime to Prime, when the leader of the grounded seekers is killed, dies of age or diseases.
The Matrix remains intact through the times, while its protective power continuously keep extinguishing the sparks of those Winglords that succeeds in landing a killing blow on a Prime.
/They weren't found worthy enough to hold their position./ Solaris explains, before he can ask the question.
The pattern continues, until finally a armistice is agreed between a Winglord and a Prime, and the ensuing peaceful centuries allows for further evolution.
Their processor evolves, its capacity to understand and analyze steadily more advanced information increasing, and it enables them to think and theorize outside of the basic needs that previously have driven them in their life.
The origin of the Matrix is lost to time.
The Matrix still passes from Prime to Prime, but the ancient title now holds a different meaning. The Matrix bearer has become the spiritual leader of the society, with his connection to the relic and its mystical connection to their god, Primus.
The Senate is formed to unite the leaders of the various large city-states, while the High Lord Protector's position is created to balance the Senate's power together with the Prime. Every decision from the Senate have to go through the Prime and Lord High Protector before it can be made into law.
It all speeds up the development of the society he knows, while the seekers' society remain the same, bound by its strict traditions and the power of the Winglord.
The knowledge their advanced processors acquire turns into different scientific fields, while medicine and the deeper knowledge of their own frames enables them to fight the diseases spreading throughout the population.
The technology at their possession grows exponentially, affecting everything in the society and improves the life of the many. The demand on energon escalates with the influx of technology and while the technology improves the mining process, it also depletes the natural energon veins at an unhealthy pace.
Power corrupts when it isn't curbed, and the Senate gradually gains more and more power from the election of weak or corruptible Primes and Lord High Protectors.
The Golden Age reaches its zenith and starts its inevitable decline.
The society fills with discontent, and weapons are fabricated at an increasing rate, their potential for destruction growing exponentially.
Discontent turn into revolutionary protests, when citizens with Decepticon heritage are forced into a position in the society where they live a poor life and fights to survive, while the citizens with Autobot heritage lives a life in abundance.
Megatron comes to power as the first Lord High Protector of Decepticon heritage.
There is a sudden gap in the Matrix's stored data, and it confuses Optimus, when all that greets him in the next memory are darkness.
/The Matrix was never carried by the Prime before you./ Solaris explains softly in the darkness that surrounds them.
Optimus hesitates as he realizes that the next he is going to see is himself as the Prime.
His servo hovers uncertain above the seeker's outstretched servo, and he almost expects that Solaris brings them into touch to take the leap into the next stored information.
But it doesn't happen, and he looks slowly up to stare into the black optics. They draw him in, but this time he is able to look away if he wants to.
"I..."
He looks away from the endless gaze in discomfort and stares out into the darkness.
The silence stretches on between them, while Solaris allows him time to find words.
"I failed..." He finally whispers, "...didn't I?!"
After seeing everything that the Primes before him has achieved, he feels completely unimportant.
What has he achieved?
War and destruction.
Nothing more.
/You didn't./ The words are a soothing whisper, and before Optimus can react, Solaris finally brings their servos together and the next information from the Matrix is revealed.
His exaltation to Prime.
His failed attempts to change the way their society functions.
The growing connection to the Matrix.
The impossible debates with the Senate to try to make the leaders see reason.
The images that flows unnoticed through his consciousness from the Matrix, when Solaris speaks to him during his recharge.
Their society's final downfall, when Megatron, filled with the feeling of injustice, takes control over Thundercracker and brings the seekers in play.
And the following full-scale war between the Autobots and Decepticons.
"Enough." He whispers, and Solaris return them to the forest where he first had met the seeker.
The last information that the Matrix had stored is filling him with emptiness.
It had been like a living nightmare to relive the battle at the foot of Mount St. Helens from a perspective giving him the full overview of what had happened.
To witness the Decepticons' merciless attack, while more and more Autobots died in the confrontation.
And realize the fate of those, who had been inside their base.
He had stopped Solaris before he could witness Soundwave take control over Thundercracker. He didn't need to know how that ended. He already knew it.
There are so few of them left. The war has brought their numbers on the very edge of extinction. After the battle with the Decepticons, there are at most a few handful of the Autobots alive, while the Decepticons on Earth have suffered great losses too. He has no idea of how many Decepticons that are left on Cybertron, but it can't be that many.
The promising society, he has observed through the information stored in the Matrix, is now lying in ruins.
Gone.
/It was predestined./ Solaris explains and kneels to encircle Optimus with the wide wings in a offer of comfort.
"Why?!" He asks in despair.
/Your people are a mutation that should not have existed, and The Sky Above was too hesitant to intervene. The mutation grew out of control, and when The Sky Above finally tried to intervene and prevent the divide from happening and tear our society apart, it was too late./ Solaris lifts his gaze to the sky, his optics filling with resentment towards the god's passivity, his words just as much for Optimus as for The Sky Above.
His attention returns to Optimus and the despair that is so visible in the blue optics.
/I understand your despair, and I know it is impossible for me to ease it fully. We predicted the violent nature of your people and utilized it in our plan for your people's future. We even instigated some of it, to lead you all in the needed direction./ There is no remorse as Solaris continues, /It was paramount that Thundercracker killed you. You needed to meet him in a situation, where he was likely to attack and kill you./
"Soundwave..." Optimus whispers, "The premature attack with Thundercracker on the planet..."
/Yes./ Solaris nods, /We influenced him too, to take the needed decisions./
"You killed everyone..."
/It was necessary./ Solaris explains calmly, still without any sign of remorse for the deaths he and The Sky Above has been the cause of, /The chance of a war between you and Thundercracker were nonexistent. His will to please his trine is too strong. He would never have done something that would have hurt Starscream, with his trinemate's connection to you. Thus, it was necessary to force him into a confrontation where he had no choice but to kill you. To do that, we granted Soundwave the power to take control over him./
/Everything that has happened has been essential to the future of your people. Soundwave's attack on Ratchet. Starscream that came to Earth. Thundercracker's sparking of Ratchet. The attack on your base. Even Ratchet's miscarriage and his touch with death./
/Typhoon is a godborne. His creation happened between Thundercracker and the essence of The Sky Above, and it enables him to leave the Afterlife. He has been sent as a gate keeper to the ethereal plane and is guarding the entrance between the worlds, to prevent the sparks of the dead from entering the Afterlife./
/Instead of returning to the Afterlife, the essences of the dead has been stored within the Matrix, and now resides within the Matrix of Leadership, where they will remain in dormancy, until the time where it is safe to release them. They are not lost./
A fragile hope fills Optimus, while Solaris explains the reason for their actions. He still doesn't understand everything, but who can expect to understand the motive behind their god's actions?
"What is going to happen now?" He asks.
/Your function as Prime has been completed. The Matrix has been destroyed by a Winglord, and the merged powers of the Matrix and the Winglord Essence have restored me to my full power. While my spark is whole again, my frame is long gone, and I cannot return to life./ Solaris explains and rises from his kneeling position.
/That's why you are here. You have one final purpose to fulfill as Prime./ The seeker adds, and his wings start to flare with uncontrolled power, while he walks away from Optimus.
The forest surrounding them vanishes, and Solaris stops at the far edge of a huge clearing.
In its center, Optimus notices a strange monument.
"What do you want me to do?" He asks, his optics full of hope and trust.
The monument flares to life, mirroring the power of the seeker.
/I want you to run./ Solaris's voice distorts at the end of the sentence, when the celestial seeker transforms into a being so foreign, that Optimus has never seen or heard of anything like it.
The transformation freezes him on the spot as he tries to comprehend what he is seeing.
The massive six-legged beast is almost twice the size of Solaris. Its spine and flanks are covered in dense armor, and horrendous spikes cover the long swiping tail. Several sharp horns adorn the center of its forehead, and huge clawed hooves dig into the ground beneath it.
/Run!/
The word hangs in the air and echoes all around him.
But it is first when the beast starts to attack him, that he follows the order.
Running for his life.
Solaris - The Broodmother to all seekers. Before his death, his power nearly rivaled that of The Sky Above.
The Matrix of Leadership - Solaris's restored spark. Consisting of the combined powers of the Matrix and the Winglord essence.
The Winglord Essence - The first part of Solaris's spark. It empowers the Winglord to control his people in every way, and is passed on through the Winglord Challenge.
The Winglord Challenge - A fight to the death between the acting Winglord and the challenger, to determine the challenger's worthiness to lead the people. It ends with either the death of the challenger or the Winglord. If the Winglord dies, the Winglord essence detaches from his dying spark and merges with the new Winglord's spark.
The Matrix - The second part of Solaris's spark. It is carried by the Prime, its origin forgotten through time. It is not as invasive as the Winglord Essence, and is carried within the Prime's chest compartment. It empowers its wearer to withstand nearly anything and stores data from every Prime's reign in its essence until the time where it once again can be made whole with the Winglord essence.
Typhoon - Ratchet's deceased creation. He is a god-borne, just like Starscream, and is therefore able to travel back and forth through the portal into the Afterlife. However, he is incapable of returning to life, not having a frame to return to. His colors are blue, silver and white.
God-borne - A seeker possessing a spark stronger than the regular seekers. Starscream became a god-borne, when Thundercracker accidentally Sired him together with his god-infused carrier. Being a direct creation of the god himself, Thundercracker passed over more of the god's power to Starscream, tipping the balance. This is also why Typhoon is a god-borne, with Ratchet's heat being influenced directly by The Sky Above.