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Okay, but listen. I'm not the bad guy here.
I'm the underdog.
Like, I get it. To a lot of uninformed people I'm going to come across as the bad guy right now. The memory loops, the spinal cords, Thunderclash? It doesn't look great. I'd be nervous about me, too. Maybe worry I was crossing too many lines.
And hey, let's say I am. Things got complicated. Mistakes were made. Missteps were mis-stepped. Couldn't predict when First Aid's team would finally make it back. But you know what I did, the one thing I managed that he, in all his infinite, Matrix-wasting, tyrant-forgiving wisdom could not?
I found it.
I took control, gave Megatron the sendoff I think we can all agree he deserved, got this crew back on track and ran things the way they ought to be run. Tight and controlled. Oh, sorry, did I pick up some habits as a three-step MTO designed to die for the war? Some ideas about how discipline should work? I learned it from you, fellow Autobots.
See, that's what I mean when I say I'm the underdog. I came from literally nothing. Someone hastily slapped a spark into a constructed cold frame, gave me enough knowledge to be a foot soldier grunt and last a few hours to keep proper mechs alive, and dropped me on the battlefield. You know why I told Tailgate that story? Because it's my origin story.
I'm the guy who lived. I'm the one who survived, who proved to be crafty enough for the Diplomatic Corps. I worked alongside a damn Outlier genius under Prowl. (Miss ya, Skids. We'll look back at this and laugh someday, once you've come to your senses.)
That's the sort of person who should be Prime, you hear me? Optimus had his time. The primes before him? Petty tyrants, fakes, puppets for the Senate. But me? I came from nothing. I researched the Signs of Affinity and realized I'd had them all along. I'm a product of that war Megatron started and damned if I'm going to forget it or abandon ship like Optimus did.
They'll know when they see me, the Knights of Cybertron. They'll get it. They'll see I got there first because I was worthy. Not Rodimus, the guy who blew up Nyon, who can barely keep the Lost Light running and cares more about saving some fragile organics than achieving the damn mission we signed up for in the first place. Not Megatron, never Megatron. Megatron thinks he deserves to see Cyberutopia? What a joke!
So yeah, maybe once I'm Prime this part of my story might get a little, you know. Embellished. No need to bring up the business with Tailgate; that was a mistake. Got a little too into a role. Guy has to have fun somehow. And as far as anyone will remember, Rodimus's crew left. That's what everyone on the ship believes now, so why change it? Don't want to confuse them further. Might be bad for their minds.
But someday? New protoforms are gonna gather around and listen to the story of Getaway Prime, mech of humble origins who survived against all odds and did what no one else could, what no one else had the guts to do. And at that point, it won't matter if I was the bad guy once.