The Diego Diaries: Matrix 1 (391) edited
-0-Nearing the Temple
The crowd which was silent ruffled, making way for the progress of the Prime and his escort. The energy of the crowd was intense. The humans standing on the ledge craned their necks but they couldn't see beyond the tall bots lining the area between them and the street. Ratchet and Ironhide were behind them as well as the trine, Prowl and all of the elders of their families. Bots they knew and many they didn't filled in their view as far as they could see.
Then the crowd parted and two black armored bots stepped through the crowd turning to walk up the steps of the Temple. More came followed by Prime who was in their midst as they performed their duty as his honor guide. The guard reached the steps and stopped, turning to the crowd as they lined the stairs on each side of Prime as he continued to the platform of the Temple itself. They turned and looked out assuming their posts as they did.
Everyone watching bowed as did the Hu An and the humans. Even Annabelle and the Epps kids bowed as Prime walked onward and upward. They straightened as he passed and watched riveted as the biggest bot of them all continued. It reminded them of the year before when they waited in the same place for something to happen. They didn't know what it was then but that had all changed after that experience. They felt the same electrical anticipation the crowd felt as they watched.
Prime continued to the top and stopped as if waiting for something Lennox guessed as he watched with the others. Movement in the Temple could be seen in the shadows. Then the Priests and acolytes walked forward and bowed to Prime. Lauren and Chevron turned to the acolytes. They stepped forward nervous and expectant, then knelt before Optimus. Prime placed his servos on their helms, the electrical spark of the Matrix plain for everyone to see. When he was finished, Vraz, Gravitas, Eronus and Templar stood up and took off their cowls. They turned and moved to the side, their faces filled with joy and happiness.
:They are now full time priests: Lennox said to the others. :The Matrix accepted them. Prowl told me:
The other humans nodded, then turned back to the scene before them. Prime turned and looked out at the crowd, a vast organism of hopefulness spread out as far as the optic could see. He saw friends and enemies of a lifetime standing together and a verse from the humans came to mind … 'and the lambs shall lay down with the lions …' He turned at last and walked forward into the Temple disappearing from view.
The priests turned and walked inside disappearing as well. The guards stood where they positioned themselves ready to escort Prime out when he came back no matter how long that would take. The crowd became silent and everyone stood motionlessly waiting together.
-0-Earth
"What happens in there do you think, Daddy? In their Temple?" Pastor Bob's son, Little Pastor Billy glanced at his father, a man of the cloth himself.
His father shrugged slightly as they watched the scenes change of the crowds all over the city stretching out for miles and miles now that Prime had reached the Temple. That view was cut off to general broadcast. Viewers who weren't there could only conjecture. "I have no idea but it makes they happy. However it is that they can be close to their creator, however that is for them is a good thing."
Everyone in the room turned to look at him. He looked back at them and shrugged. Mama Annie and Papa Leonard sat back and winked at each other. All was well, they thought together. All was indeed well.
-0-Inside
Prime walked in and stopped before Alpha Trion. Bowing slightly, he grinned. "A-3."
"You know?" Alpha Trion asked with a touch of surprise.
"A little birdie told me," Optimus said with a slight grin. That the little birdie was Alpha just now would remain Optimus's secret. His intuition was correct.
"I don't pretend to know what you mean," Alpha Trion said. "I just wish you good journey. We shall all be waiting here for you when you return."
Optimus nodded, then turned and walked onward heading for the steps that would take him downward to the holy precincts of the building. He disappeared from view.
The sound of his own footfalls accompanied him as he walked toward the great energy vectors of the AllSpark and the Well of AllSparks. The room was dimly lit but at his approach grew in illumination as the Well began to glow. He paused there feeling the agreement of the energy in his chest and that before him in the relics, then turned and walked to the room nearby that held the Matrix Flame. It filled the room with light as its energy pulsed too. He paused and touched it, the heat of its flame a testament to its reality this time around.
He paused, then walked out heading for the AllSpark where he felt his journey was going to happen. Reaching it, staring into the shimmering blue energy of the Well, he felt reality start to fade and the Matrix begin to take its place.
Lights flared, then stretched out to infinity as he felt himself drawn into a tunnel of light. He stood as he did in the Temple but felt the sensation of flight over a great expansion of distance and time. Nothing seemed to matter but the moment so he off lined his optics. The sensation of halting greeted him but he stood in the warm embrace of comforting energy a moment before chancing a break in the perfection around him with a glance.
Before him sprawled a plain similar to the one from the last time. This time however it was without organic appointments. This one felt like a gaming tabletop from the courtyard of the Fortress. He half expected to see squares for game pieces as he looked down but they weren't there. What was however was smooth steel, gray and cold stretching out in all directions forever. No matter which way he looked he felt the loneliness of infinity.
He waited. Why he knew he should he couldn't say. He just knew it was required. As he did a shape appeared rising up out of the surface of the plain, then paused looking at him with a sense of resignation. "Hello, Optimus. You came again."
"It is my duty, Kudon," Optimus said. "Why are you here?"
"I can't remember. I do remember seeing you last. When that was, I cannot say. Time has no meaning here," Kudon said moving closer. He didn't look as ravaged, as broken and harmed. He was mostly put together, most of his outward wounds and breakage repaired. There was still some to go but not much. "I want to tell you something."
"What?" Prime asked gently.
"I am sorry," he said simply.
Prime waited but Kudon had nothing more to say about that even as something damaged in the elder's chassis melded back together before Prime's gaze as if never broken. Prime considered it, then looked into the pained expression of the mech. "The ships. You figured that one out did you?"
Prime nodded. "They were ours. They are with us now."
Kudon nodded. "I am glad. The others … the ones you saw walking into the ocean ... working without hope … they are my burden."
"How?" Prime asked.
"They are my burden," Kudon replied. "I didn't care for them."
"They looked at me as they walked past and I thought I could see all their faces one at a time," Prime said recalling the masses of Cybertronians he had seen before walking by him in endless streams.
Kudon nodded. "They were the ones I failed. Don't fail, Optimus," Kudon whispered before he faded away and was gone.
An unsettling feeling permeated Prime as he looked at the spot. Glancing around, he saw nothing. So he turned and began to walk. Across the great expanse he moved heading no place in particular but the Matrix soothed him, assuring him as he traveled. It could have been days or minutes when he saw a rock in the distance. He continued and as he did it began to take form and shape. It was a megalith sunk deep in the surface, its obsidian-like facets filled with hieroglyphics in a language he didn't know. He paused before it, dwarfed by its immense size and looked at the carvings.
He saw the glyph of the Primes, the glyph he carried on his own audial and through the poems of his personal tattoos. He touched it, then walked around the structure pausing halfway. Standing before him with a smile he saw a surprising face.
He saw Prowl.
-0-Outside in the big world
The transmissions of programs across the Earth showed the images of millions of bots standing and staring silently at the Temple which they were not allowed to broadcast. The Temple had appeared in the shows made on Mars, its glittering roof tantalizingly out of reach. It was mysterious and there was a lot of speculation about what it contained and what happened there.
Talking heads the world over were discussing it and what it meant. They would continue all day long and into the days upcoming. They would speculate forever because no one there, none of the humans, Hu An or bots were ever going to tell them.
-0-On the ledge
Glenn and Barbara Morshower stood next to Julie and John Fulton. Lilly Bolger and Andrew Settle were there along with the female soldiers from Diego, comrades in arms and woundings finally making it to the promised land. The scientists were there along with all the soldiers from the N.E.S.T. Habitat who were Alpha team. Mikaela, Sam and his parents and the Roberts family were there with the rest of the regulars and a few noobs.
They stood quietly watching the Imperial Guardsmen standing like statues on the steps. They were in the middle of more than 2.5 million bots but it was so silent they might have been alone. The sun was beaming down and the temperature had risen to 0 degrees. They had barely begun to wait. It could take a very long time for the process to come to a conclusion.
Or not.
What it meant most of them didn't know. They just knew it was an incredible honor to be there. Niall Graham stood with his parents, his arms around their shoulders as he tried to explain what this was about. All any of them could do now was wait for Optimus to return.
-0-Inside the Matrix
"Prowl."
The bot nodded, his handsome face filled with amusement. "You can call me that."
"What is your real name? Why have you taken this form?" Optimus asked.
"What form pleases you more? I can supply it as well," the 'Prowl' replied.
"Amalgomous Prime?" Optimus asked with surprise.
"They call me that," the Prowl said before shifting. He changed to Kestrel. "You can call me Ada if you like. Or I can become Prowl again."
Prime looked at him, then reached out touching the bot before him. "You can shift to anything you wish. Why are you here?"
"I am here because your fate is tied to the fate of Cybertron. You must save the planet, the home of my creator, where he survives in slumber. They are looking for Vector Sigma. They have looked a long time. There are beasts in the deep. They keep evil at bay but not forever. Your fate will be to recover Cybertron and restore our people."
"How?" Prime asked.
The 'Kestrel' smiled, then changed again. Megatron was standing before him. Optimus startled stepped back, his fists rising automatically. "You would strike a god?" Amalgomous asked with amusement.
"I do not approve of this form. He has been a terror to our people for too long," Prime responded.
The being shifted and Prowl was back. "Is this better?" he asked.
"Much." Optimus waited aware of this Prime's prankster nature. What he was supposed to tell him, he only vaguely understood. Of course, he was supposed to save Cybertron. He had tried in the past. He would try now and in the future. He would try until he died trying. He waited, then the figure disappeared along with the megalith. Prime blinked, then looked around. He was in the main open square of Kaon back on Cybertron.
-0-At the Temple
Hero sat on her ada's arm watching the Temple and the crowd. She leaned toward Ratchet's audial. "Where did Uncle Optimus go, Ada?"
Ratchet glanced at her. "Inside. To save us. Again."
She looked at her ada without comprehending. Cuddling closer, she sat on Ratchet's arm, a tiny cabbage patch dollie in servo and waited.
Just like everyone else.
-0-Kaon
He stood in Kaon but it wasn't. There was no one there. The square was rebuilt and unharmed. The megalomaniac statue of Megatron towering over the square was there undamaged. He stood watching as the door to the Decepticon's HQ opened and Soundwave stepped out. He was alone ... he didn't seem to see Prime. He paused ten feet into the open space.
Overhead, Prime could hear a ship coming, then turned to see it land nearby. It powered down, then the hatch opened, Overlord stepping out to pause at the bottom. Overlord took the measure of things, then turned to walk to Soundwave. They exchanged words, then fire rang out from roof tops hitting the big chaotic beast on several points. Overlord toppled and fell, falling offline in the fusillade.
He was dragged away into the building, Soundwave following. Prime watched him go, then felt a fury rising. Overlord was alive, probably in storage and available for Soundwave to reboot. As he stood in rage, he felt a rumbling beneath his peds, a rumbling that began to grow in intensity.
-0-TBC August 8, 2013