Prime ended up taking her back down into the archives place and placing her on top of another tall pedestal which was a cleverly designed viewing platform for humans.
"I thought you might like to see some places from Cybertron now you will be staying with us?" Prime asked and Phoenix nodded eagerly. as she leaned over the railing.
"That sounds awesome! I'd love to learn more about you guys." She said and Prime smiled a little.
"I am sure we would like to learn much about your culture too. Human culture is rich." Prime said as he went over to one of the rows and browsed along it before pulling out a small disk and inserting it into a slot below his audio receptor. Then, he pressed something to the side of his optic and a hologram appeared that seemed to fill the entire room.
Gaping in awe, Phoenix leaned a little further and admired the hologram. It was an incredibly realistic scene of a Cybertronian city skyline, with twisting spires made out of iridescent hues of crystal reaching into the clouds. She couldn't even see the tops of some of them!
"Wow! What is the name of this place? Also, I'm coming back with you to Cybertron just so you know." Phoenix told him. She would love to live in a place like that.
"This is Iacon, my birthplace and capital of Cybertron. It also held the great archives of our planet with enough history that it would take several million millennia to read it all." Prime told her and Phoenix's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Several million millennia. A Millennia was big enough on its own!
"That is awesome! What else was in Iacon?" She asked, only for her jaw to drop again as Prime zoomed in on a part of the hologram like it was some kind of special 3D camera.
"This is the Temple of the Primes. It was built during Cybertron's Golden Age as a place to remember the seven original Primes and all they did for our people. It also contains the known history of the Matrix, and the little we know about the allspark." Optimus explained to her and Phoenix frowned. That was the official name of that little zappy thing.
"What do you know about it?" She asked curiously and Optimus seemed to sigh a little.
"Not much I'm afraid. We know it has been around longer than living memory, and longer than the beginning of the Iaconian archives. It is possible that it was even around longer than Cybertron itself. It holds the only means for our people to create life that we know of at least and we previously thought it could never be destroyed…" Optimus trailed off and Phoenix felt awful that the only way their race could procreate was gone. Well, almost.
"So… why did the shard zap me if it's dead? And how do you know there aren't other allsparks?" She said hopefully and Prime chuckled at the second question.
"The answer to both of those is that I do not know. Perhaps the energy in the allspark is not dead, but merely transformed and we were unable to detect it for a reason we do not know. If there was another allspark amongst the stars, then that would indeed be a blessing." Optimus said reverently and Phoenix smiled a little as he seemed to cheer up just a fraction.
"So since it apparently put its remaining energy in me then, will I become a cube?" She asked jokingly and Optimus did chuckle at that. She felt pleased in a way, as it seemed that the stoic Prime did not laugh very often. "So this is the Temple of the Primes huh? Do you have any other Temples?" She asked and Prime nodded.
"The main ones are the Temple of the Primes, the Temple of Primus and the Temple of Unicron. The first two are in Iacon and the last is in Kaon, or more specifically, below it. Not many went there as strange things are said to have happened." Optimus said gravely and Phoenix shuddered inwardly.
"Well that's not at all creepy." Phoenix muttered and Prime looked amused. Oh yeah, super advanced alien hearing was a thing now too. She'd forgotten about that.
"Here is the entrance." Prime said, turning off the hologram and selecting a new one before activating it again. It showed two evil looking Cybertronians each holding their swords crossed over the entranceway. Phoenix noted they both had red optics.
"They looked like your version of Sith Lords." Phoenix told him and his optics dimmed as he researched the term before nodding.
"I suppose that would be an accurate description as a good translation would be 'Dark Knights'. The Primes were considered to be the 'Good Knights'." He explained and Phoenix thought that over.
"So you are a knight then?"
"Yes." Optimus answered before looking back at the image. "Although we have not been called that since before the Golden Age as it was only used as a term when the Primes went to war with the Dark Knights." Optimus explained and Phoenix tried to get the timeline in her head. She really needed a Cybertronian lesson on dates and ages, although she suspected it was like the whole 'Triassic, Jurassic, Dark ages period etc' that humans used.
"Right… so your race is born and eventually there's a whole war of the knights. Then, the Golden Age happens. Then the war between 'bots and 'cons?" She asked just to clarify.
"An accurate summary, although there are other more specific time periods and others before the war of the Knights as you call it but there is not a lot of data on those." Optimus replied and she nodded. She understood it now.
"I'm really learning a lot today." She concluded ruefully and Optimus smiled.
"Do you like History?" He asked and she nodded. She'd always liked History at school; it was in fact her favourite subject.
"Yeah. I do. Always have done." She replied and Optimus looked thoughtful.
"I am not the best when it comes to retelling Cybertronian History as I am actually one of the younger Autobots despite being a Prime. Ratchet knows more than I and one of Prowl's passion is History." Prime said and Phoenix groaned.
"Ratchet, maybe if he's in a good mood but I think lessons from Prowl are the last thing that is going to happen at this point." She sighed before pointing at the Prime threateningly. "And if you dare say 'give him time' , I'll have you know I've heard that enough and I get it already." Phoenix told him and Prime chuckled again.
"I was going to say that actually. It is true though – Prowl is not one to be deliberately mean. He is a good Autobot, and a good spark." Prime told her and she nodded, looking down at her feet.
"Yeah, I mean, I guess so. He seemed nice enough and the bond just scared him off." She sighed. "I can't blame him though. I just want to fix it… you know?" She told him and he nodded knowingly.
"Something tells me you'll figure it out, so perhaps you should wait for an idea to come. Do not worry about it either." Prime said kindly and Phoenix thought the words over carefully. Maybe she could figure something out? Yeah, she could do that. It might take a little while to think of exactly what to do about it but Prime was right, there was no point worrying about it.
"Alright. Thank you Optimus." She said sincerely and he smiled down at her.
"You are very welcome. Now then… what else would you like to know about?" He asked and Phoenix opened her mouth to say she wanted to see other cities and know about their History, but was interrupted by a shout from the entrance.
"Optimus! Mearing wants you!" Called Epps. Phoenix turned to look at him and he sighed as he noticed her. "You too, Kiddo. She ain't too pleased with what you said to Galloway, even if the asshat deserved it." Epps told her and Phoenix groaned in annoyance.
"Great. A telling off. Who is she anyway?" Phoenix asked and Optimus vented heavily as he picked her up and followed Epps out.
"Our resident Director. She and Liaison Galloway get along extremely well." Optimus said distastefully and Phoenix looked up at him sympathetically.
"That bad huh? Guess I'm in a lot of trouble then." She groaned dramatically, causing Epps to grin up at her.
"You don't even know how much we hate them both kid." Epps said ruefully as they made their way to the meeting room.
Half an hour later, and Phoenix was finally released from the presence of her great highness Mearing. That woman was awful! First, she'd been forced to apologise to Galloway in front of all the Autobots and important N.E.S.T soldiers before receiving a lecture from both Mearing and Galloway that her behaviour had to be perfect on base or they could send her right back to the home.
Phoenix knew that she shouldn't have been that rude to Galloway, but it had been well deserved according to everyone on base and it had been worth it to see his face anyway. Then, she had been kicked out so they could finally have their important meeting about whatever the heck it was about. Thoroughly annoyed, she wondered where to go to now. Jazz happened to be in said meeting so spending time with her guardian was out.
She could go to the rec room? Yeah, that wasn't a bad idea. Walking in, she found that the only one in there was surprisingly Ratchet who seemed to be looking up for someone. When she went in, he pointed at her immediately.
"You! I've been looking everywhere for you! It's time for another scan." He said and offered her his hand which she climbed into.
"Sorry Ratchet. I got kidnapped by Mearing over the Galloway incident." She sighed and Ratchet rolled his optics before launching into a tirade about Mearing.
"That woman is an absolute menace to the Autobots! She never tells me anything, includes me in any of the meetings, even the ones that are about medical supplies for Primus' sake and on top of that she never grants any requests for supplies anyway!" Ratchet pretty much yelled to the heavens and she blinked in surprise before grinning.
"So, you don't like her?" She asked and Ratchet groaned.
"She's a pain in my aft." He answered at a lower volume as they entered the med-bay. "Do you know what the meeting is about?" He asked hopefully, setting her down on the nearby berth.
"Sorry, no. She kicked me out after giving me a lecture." Phoenix said in annoyance. Ratchet sighed.
"Can't be helped I suppose. I'll just get it out of Prime later." Ratchet said threateningly, brandishing a wrench at an imaginary Optimus. Phoenix felt quite sorry for their leader when he next arrived in the med-bay to find an evil doctor ready to extract information out of him. The thought made her giggle.
"Have you ever thought about becoming an interrogator? She asked Ratchet and he searched the term before shaking his head at her.
"No. I'm a medic." He responded bluntly before running various scans over her body. "Well, you seem to be in order so you can go." He said and she shook her head.
"Nah. Haven't got anywhere to go and you might get lonely." She said in mock sympathy.
"Primus forbid that should happen." Ratchet answered sarcastically, giving a snort as he turned back to organising his med-bay which still looked awful from the explosion. The thought inspired a question.
"Hey Ratchet?"
"What?" He practically growled at her. Hostile much?
"What kinds of bonds are there between Cybertronians?" She asked.
"Well… there's sibling bonds, Creator and Sire bonds and Sparkmate bonds. Any Cybertronian can form a Creator or Sibling bond with someone who is not related to them by energon and that is where the term surrogate creator comes from and how Jazz and Prowl were able to form their brother bond." Ratchet explained to her. "Although, not many mechs do due to the risks involved. If one of the members die, the pain is… excruciating." He told her and she winced.
"So Prime's sparkmate… he's in pain all the time?"
"Yes." Ratchet answered shortly and then said no more. Phoenix shivered. What a horrible fate, to be alone forever. Although….she was now part of a bond so if Prowl or Jazz offlined which she sincerely hoped they wouldn't, that would be a big problem.
"How many of you have sparkmates?" She asked and Ratchet hummed thoughtfully.
"That I know of? Prime did, do you know of Chromia?" He asked and Phoenix nodded.
"Arcee's Creator and Bumblebee's as well yeah?"
"That's right. Other than that… there's none that I know of, but there may be others who keep their sparkmate a secret, either because they are a decepticon or offlined long ago." Ratchet said and she nodded thoughtfully.
"So it's taken seriously then?"
"Very. A spark-bond cannot be undone and many do not survive the offlining of the other partner. Optimus is an extraordinarily strong 'bot." Ratchet stated. Phoenix nodded and stopped talking, curiosity satisfied for now.
"He's lying. He does know about other sparkmates." Said a silvery voice that Phoenix recognised.
"Elita?" She murmured out loud and Ratchet shot her a strange look.
"What was that?" He asked and Phoenix smiled at him falsely.
"Nothing." Phoenix replied and he looked at her suspiciously before going back to his work.
"Elita? What are you doing in my head?" She asked and she felt Jazz probe her across the bond, but told him it was nothing to worry about.
"I am here to guide you, remember?" Elita's voice said and Phoenix resisted the urge to shake her head from side to side as Ratchet would think she was even weirder.
"And since when did that include snitching on the medic?" She asked and Elita's laugh resounded in her head. Yup, she was crazy for sure now after the allspark had zapped her. Urgh.
"You aren't crazy." Elita said and Phoenix frowned.
"That's what they always say." She answered back. Elita laughed again, but it was beginning to fade.
"I must go now, but I will be back." Was the parting message she received before Elita's voice faded from her mind.
"Reassuring." She muttered to no-one in particular and Ratchet shot her another odd look.
"Are you sure you are quite alright?" He asked, scanning her again much to her annoyance.
"I'm fine. And even if I wasn't, it's been a weird week." She told him and he relented at that but did not question her further to her relief.
Phoenix was left to think over said week which had been the craziest one of her life. Living on an Autobot base, getting zapped, hit with energy, taking to a dead robot in robo-heaven or wherever they had been, losing an arm, History lessons with a giant robot and an Autobot wedding were definitely things she had never thought she would experience.
"It seems like ever since I met Jazz, the world has gone completely mad." She told Ratchet who snorted.
"Welcome to the Autobot base. Everyone you meet here is insane." Ratchet sighed.