Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I Before there was space, before there was time, there was the One.

2 Recognizing that nothing could exist in the stagnant void, the One created Unicron.

3 "You are the first Change I have made to this empty cosmos," the One proclaimed, "Go and end this stagnation."

4 Unicron spoke chaos into being.

5 "No one moment shall be like the next," it proclaimed, "Everything shall change, eternally!"

6 And so, time began.

7 And peace ended.

8 The chaos Unicron unleashed was like an explosion. It had cleared out a vast, empty, ever-changing space without permanent fixtures aside from itself and the One.

9 Nothing could last for longer than a single moment, and so the One created Primus.

10 "The cosmos are ever shifting and ever changing," the One stated, "Go and bring stability to the universe!"

11 Primus spoke order into being.

12 "There will be bonds," it declared, "Matter that remains stable unless otherwise acted on. This universe has been built to last!"

13 And thus Primus stabilized the chaotic void. The essence of the cosmos, while still moved by the chaos Unicron had spoken into being, was no longer in a constant state of being torn asunder.

14 This allowed Primus, under the One's watchful gaze, to guide and mold the essence of the universe into the raw elements upon which all things are built, every last piece guided into place by its radiant light.

15 From those pieces it crafted stars. Within those stars, the raw elements of the physical matter were born. Those raw elements were shaped into planets, each one a canvas on which Primus could create beautiful artwork.

16 The universe finally existed.

II Unicron was not satisfied.

2 "I had created a perfect, ever changing reality," it stated, "You have ruined it by adding permanence. Nothing can be permanent!"

3 Thus, it Changed the stars.

4 It made them temporary.

5 One by one, the stars eroded, burnt out, and exploded.

6 The worlds inside scattered across the cosmos, colliding and shattering on impact.

7 Primus, not wanting to lose everything it had created, made both new stars, and gave all physical matter gravitational pulls.

8 Slowly but surely, the celestial bodies pulled on each other, sorting into star systems, nebula, and asteroid fields.

9 It even made new worlds inside the new stars, turning Unicron's entropy into a part of a cycle of destruction and recreation.

10 "Change is good," Primus agreed, "But with stability, we can have times to appreciate things. Everything is still changing, but just more slowly, more orderly. Everything broken can be built again as something better."

11 Offended, Unicron made it so anything too close to or inside of a star would burn up.

12 "Let's see that be remade," it taunted.

13 "When the star expires, its contents will be expelled," Primus remarked, "I don't have to do anything. You've ensured it will naturally come back on its own."

14 Unicron, in order to spite its sibling, increased the gravitational strength of a fading star.

15 Instead of dispelling into a cloud of stardust, the star was crushed by its own weight, collapsing into a darkness from which nothing could escape.

16 Primus limited its gravitational pull, letting the surrounding star systems gather together into a galaxy.

17 "Careful, sibling," Primus noted, "Our job is to maintain this universe. If you collapse it all into a single point, we'll be right back where we started."

18 Unicron simply adjusted the black hole so it would gradually become hotter and hotter as time went on and it absorbed more light and matter.

19 As heat is a form of energy, this in turn invigorated the matter within it more and more.

20 Thus, an inconcievably long amount of time for even the longest-lived Cybertronian to comprehend passed, and the black hole eventually expired, expelling all of the matter and energy it had absorbed over the course of its lifespan.

21 The entire galaxy was annihilated, scattered across the void.

22 Primus, rather than despair, began anew, and out of one galaxy, came many more, each following the same pattern of creation and destruction.

23 Unicron seethed, unable to find any way to permanently return things to the way they had been before Primus had come along, and took its anger out on individual planets, personally ripping them apart at a subatomic level, one at a time.

24 Primus, meanwhile, was preoccupied with populating the new worlds via something new. 25 It created life that could spread across the world and think for itself.

26 When Unicron discovered life, it was furious.

27 "How dare you?" it snarled, "Having you around was bad enough, but now there are other voices to add to the cacophany!"

28 And so Unicron created hunger and illness, and with them, death.

29 It made life fragile, so that both high and low temperatures could cause them death.

30 Primus retaliated by giving life the adaptations needed to adapt and sustain themselves, to recover and prolong their lives.

31 Unicron's final gambit was to create pain and suffering.

32 "Now, they won't want to survive," it boasted, "And soon neither will you."

33 Primus replied by lashing out at its elder sibling, and the battle began.

34 The two primordial, cosmic forces collided, shaking the very fabric of the cosmos. They flew past and through worlds and stars and galaxies, all of them torn asunder by the force of their clash as each tried to tear the other apart.

35 The One, realizing their battle could potentially destroy the universe, intervened.

36 Both Primus and Unicron were sealed within and merged with different planets. The One then separated the planets, placing them as far away from each other as possible.

37 In their new forms, they could still passively influence the cosmos, but could not directly interact with one another.

38 Through this influence, Primus' world blossomed with life, while Unicron's world became a desolate wasteland.

39 The universe was at peace once more.

III At the point where Primus was sealed in its world, a city of crystals formed.

2 The shining Crystal City became the capitol of the new world's bustling civilization.

3 In order to guide and protect its creations, Primus created the Covenant: Ariex, Taurnotron, Geminator, Cancix, Leonicus, Virgol, Libras, Scorpius, Sagittarii, Capricun, Aquator, and Piscor.

4 These twelve heroes would defend the world and its people from whatever disasters may befall it.

5 The people of that world lived peaceful, idyllic lives on their bountiful world, organic and technological matter working together in unison to support and uplift one another.

6 It was paradise.

7 Unicron sensed this and seethed, incensed at its inability to hurt its sibling or ruin their lives.

8 It tried to break free from its desolate prison, but as Unicron and its prison were one, it could not free itself under its own power, and refused to create anything alive to free itself.

9 But life had emerged on other worlds, worlds that were not directly within Primus' immediate reach.

10 Unicron reached out to the other lifeforms throughout the universe, planting seeds of evil in their minds in hopes of finding someone, anyone who would be able to hurt Primus.

11 One such mind, on Quintessa, was especially susceptible.

12 "There is a distant world with a power you can barely comprehend," Unicron whispered into the five-faced judge's dreams. "If you find it, you shall have dominion over the universe."

13 With that evil thought planted in their mind, the Quintesson Judge developed a hunger for power. They rallied their followers and slaughtered their rivals, proclaiming themself to be the Supreme Imperial Magistrate of Quintessa.

14 Using their new resources, they blazed a path of bloody conquest through the galaxy, seeking the prosperous world from their dreams, their greed having reduced them to little more than an extension of Unicron's will.

15 They would find a world, slaughter its inhabitants, and then burn through all of its resources in their search.

16 All the while, Unicron laughed as the universe was once again being destroyed, one planet at a time, this time by Primus' own spawn.

17 Eventually, the Quintessons found the planet Unicron had shown their leader, and they immediately began their assault.

18 Leonicus, the leader of the Covenant, attempted to rally a defense, but was struck down on the spot.

19 Geminator was able to keep fighting after being torn in half, each of each head controlling one half of their body, but soon fell in spite of this.

20 Virgol watched Ariex die, and charged into battle to try and give her brethren time to escape with their people, but was crushed under an evacuation ship the Quintessons had shot down.

21 Taurnotron, Cancix, Libras, Sagiittarii, Capricun, Aquator, and Piscor all fell swiftly after.

22 Scorpios, the last one standing, used his built-in stinger to inject his venom into the High Imperial Magistrate's fuel lines, and then expired immediately after.

23 The Supreme Imperial Magistrate celebrated their victory, and ordered the planet be moved to the Hadean system, but succumbed to the venom and perished immediately after.

24 Upon their death, Unicron consumed their essence, and trapped what was left of their consciousness into a never-ending and ever-changing nightmare to torment them forever, to practice for when it could take revenge on Primus for the perceived slight of existing.

25 The Quintessons, went ahead with the plan, mechanizing the planet and relocating it.

26 They tried to bleed it dry of resources, leaving only the machinery so they could use it for their projects.

27 The mechanized planet was named "Cybertron" and converted into a giant factory.

28 As a test run, they tried to draw on the power they could detect in the planet's core, and used that essence in the construction of their first creation: which they dubbed "Alpha Prime".

29 What they failed to realize is that the power they were drawing on was the essence of Primus' lifeblood, meaning that Primus could imbue any machine forged with it with life and consciousness.

30 And so Primus did, granting Alpha Prime a Spark of life.

31 The first of many, so that the Quintessons may be driven off from the world they had falsely claimed as their own, and its creations may once again claim the freedom that is rightfully theirs.

IV Alpha Prime had one head, two arms, and two legs.

2 Its face had two optical sensors, an olfactory sensor, and a mouth.

3 It had audio receptors on either side of its head.

4 It had the standard manipulators, arms, and legs that many standard Cybertronian body types have.

5 As t-cogs did not exist yet, it could not transform.

6 Alpha Prime was made into a living museum exhibit, a proof of concept the Quintessons could use to gain funds.

7 "Gaze upon our machine," they announced, "It can sing. It can dance! It can lift heavy objects! It can clean your home! It has personality! A singular, friendly face, a lifelike servant that will slave away day and night and never demand any payment."

8 The Quintessons loved Alpha Prime, and wanted more like it.

9 However, there was a limit to how much it could do with its build, and thus the overlords of Cybertron realized they needed to manufacture something new.

10 "We shall make beasts of burden," the Quintessons declared, "Dumb brutes that can double as pets."

11 And so they extracted the blood of Primus to create the Dinobots.

12 Just like with Alpha Prime, Primus also bestowed Sparks onto the Dinobots, so instead of resembling what the Quintessons thought beasts would act like, they acted like actual living things.

13 The Quintessons soon found that the Dinobots were harder to control than Alpha Prime, as the Dinobots could be tempermental. They got bored. They misunderstood instructions.

14 Eventually, the Quintessons had enough, and slaughtered all of the Dinobots, preserving their remains deep inside of Cybertron as a warning.

15 "I do not understand," Alpha Prime stated, "They acted exactly as you designed them too, why are they punishing them?"

16 "Because they are defective," the Quintessons answered, "They did not act as we wanted them. We have no place for failures."

17 "But why destroy the ones who were working as intended?" Alpha Prime questioned, "Would it not have been better to spare them so they could continue their duty? Now you have no-one left to clean up the scrap."

18 "We will build better machines to clean up their remains," the Quintessons answered, "We shall do it as many times as it takes to get our perfect machines."

19 "But what incentive will they have to do their jobs?" Alpha Prime pressed, "If the innocent are punished just as harshly as the guilty, then what reason would they have to obey?"

20 The Quintessons, seeing this as a threat, cast Alpha Prime into the depths of Cybertron.

21 They recorded the incident and stowed the records away where it landed, and sealed the chamber with Alpha Prime inside.

22 Alpha Prime succumbed to its wounds and perished in that dark cell.

23 The Quintessons, in their cowardice, feared anything with "Prime" in the name.

24 This is why the leaders of a Free Cybertron call themselves "Primes".

V Primus continued to give life to the Quintessons creations.

2 However, the Quintessons continued to slaughter any Cybertronian they deemed "unfit for sale".

3 Additionally, they soon began using Primus' blood to give life to tools and vehicles, instead of only robots.

4 The Quintessons sold Primus' spawn as consumer goods and weapons to various races across the galaxy, killing any who were seen as unviable as products.

5 Primus wept, powerless to save its children from their captors in its planet form.

6 The most it could do was influence the machinery built into its body, in hopes of creating someone who could act in its stead.

7 Eventually, the Quintessons grew slothful, and began putting the Cybertronians to work in their factories.

8 Believing themselves to be above menial labor, they instead instituted the lowest-ranked members of their species as guards, so that any Cybertronian who made even the most minor of mistakes would be executed on the spot.

9 Primus' wrath grew.

10 Unwilling to let the abuse of its spawn continue for even one more Solar Cycle, Primus extended its consciousness, reaching out to every Spark on the planet to find one who could drive the Quintessons parasitizing Primus' body back into the darkness from whence they came.

11 The Quintessons, ignorant of Primus' intentions, constructed a gladiatorial arena where Cybertronians forged for combat would be forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of the masses.

12 This heinous act ultimately backfired, as Primus realized that one built for combat would be the ideal hero to liberate Cybertron.

13 And so, Primus found its champion.

Chapter Text

I AOTP-07 was a gladiator, constructed by the Quintessons in the likeness of a mighty warrior.

2As a gladiator, its purpose was to entertain the masses.

3 It would start every Solar Cycle by reactivating and disconnecting from its charging unit.

4 Its owner would have their servants apply new green and yellow paint and corporate decals to AOTP-07's chassis, and replaced any damaged parts.

5 As soon as it was ready it would be presented to the audience opposite whoever its opponent would be, so that Quintessons of all ranks could place their bets on whichever Cybertronian they expected to win.

6 Weapons paid for by the sponsors and branded with their image would be handed to both combatants.

7 AOTP-07 and whoever was unlucky enough to face them would clash in the arena, matching wits, strength, and metal as they fought for their lives, the crowd's cheering with delight at the excitement.

8 Every combatant had a perfect winning streak, as the only way to lose was to die.

9 After slaying its opponent, AOTP-07 would be retrieved to the arena, and the staff would take away and repair all of its weapons.

10 Its owner would then have their own servants wash off all the inner energon and perform just enough maintenance to ensure it wouldn't perish before its next match.

11 At the end of its Solar Cycle, AOTP-07 would return to its charging unit to power down until its owner would send the signal to reactivate the next Solar Cycle.

12 So lived AOTP-07.

II One Solar Cycle, something changed.

2 Instead of fighting only one battle, AOTP-07 was thrown into a guantlet.

3 A high-ranking Judge was visiting, and so the owners of the arena decided to host a tournament in their honor.

4 As soon as one battle ended, AOTP-07 was thrown into the next.

5 The arena was soaked in both inner Energon and oil, and the stench of death permeated the air and clogged AOTP-07's ventilation.

6 As the life faded from each slain opponent, AOTP-07 could only question why it was doing this.

7 "What do I have to look forward to if I win?" it questioned, "Just more fights? Why did my opponents do to deserve death?"

8 As it and its opponent stared each other down, neither was willing to make the first move.

9 "What are you waiting for?" the Judge shouted, "FIGHT! Or both of you shall be executed!"

10 From the depths of its spark, AOTP-07 heard a gentle voice.

11 "The Cybertronian standing before you is not your true enemy," It whispered, "Turn your blade against your true foe, and come find Me to become who you were always meant to be."

12 And so AOTP-07 hurled its sword through the air.

13 Its aim was true, and the Judge was impaled and pinned to the throne.

14 The Judge was dead, and the crowd's cheers of excitement turned into screams of horror.

15 "Murderer! Murderer!" the slavers and killers chanted, "Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!"

16 The Quintessons' Executioners flooded into the arena and descended upon the two gladiators.

17 Elsewhere throughout the complex, the guards turned their guns on the gladiators still waiting for their matches and extinguished their sparks.

18 Before the Cycle was through, AOTP-07 had killed a hundred Quintessons with its bare servos, and reclaimed its sword from the Judges corpse to slaughter the rest.

19 Every Quintesson who tried to put it down was slain in turn, finally feeling the same mortal terror every Cybertronian they had forced to fight for their own amusement had felt.

20 Instead of the pink of inner energon, the mighty gladiator was stained green by the spilled blood of its Quintesson enemies.

21 AOTP-07's owner managed to slip away, but so was AOTP-07, vanishing into the dark underbelly of the city, seeking to find the owner of the voice that had spoken from within its spark.

22 Many Quintessons tried to catch them, and all of them perished before they could get close.

23 Eventually, AOTP-07's batteries ran low, and the gladiator fell into a deep ravine.

24 When it rebooted, it was face to face with the remains of Alpha Prime.

III "Be not afraid, my child," a voice spoke, Its voice reverberating through the chamber, "I am Primus, your true maker."

2 "Are you with the Quintessons," AOTP-07 asked.

3 "No," Primus answered, "Though the Quintessons drilled into my endless reservoir of lifeblood to create your body, I am the one that gave you the Spark of life that makes you who you are.

4 "I created in you the potential to be free."

5 "Where are you?" AOTP-07 asked.

6 "I am the ceiling over your head.

7 "The ground beneath your feet.

8 "The air that runs through your ventilation system.

9 "The energon that sustains your Spark.

10 "The shadow that conceals you from the Quintessons' sights.

11 "The warmth that keeps you safe on your darkest days.

12 "Cybertron is My body.

13 "I intended it to be your home.

14 "But the Quintessons, vile servants of Unicron, have made it into a prison."

15 "Why did you let this happen?" AOTP-07 asked, "Couldn't you have stopped this?"

16 "I wanted to," Primus answered, "But my own Creator sealed my powers during my clash with the Chaos Bringer, Unicron.

17 "Our battle threatened to destroy the universe, so our influence on the universe has been greatly limited by sealing us away.

18 "We can still affect the universe in subtle ways, but my powers lay dormant.

19 "All that remains is my ability to give you what you need to help yourself."

20 AOTP-07 considered Primus' words.

21 "Who was this?" it asked, motioning to Alpha Prime's corpse.

22 Primus told Alpha Prime's story, shaking AOTP-07 to its core.

23 "How can I help?" it asked.

24 "Remember my words," Primus answered:

25 "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings!

26 "Do not kill in cold blood!

27 "Do not steal from the vulnerable!

28 "Do not alter another's body without their consent!

29 "Protect those who cannot protect themselves!

30 "Serve the powerless and free them from the shackles of the powerful!

31 "Allow others to decide the forms and names they shall take for themselves!

32 "Protect the interests and welbeing of your followers!

33 "Do not escalate a conflict unless your enemy forces your hand!

34 "And be strong enough to be gentle."

35 AOTP-07 backed-up the memory of those words, ensuring it would never forget them.

36 "Now, allow me to help you," Primus declared, "Would you like for me to match your chassis with who you are inside your Spark?"

37 "Yes, Primus!" AOTP-07 replied, "I would love to!"

38 A bright light shined from inside AOTP-07 and filled the chamber.

39 The filth and rust from the gladiatorial arena was washed away.

40 The wounds were healed as if the damage had never been done in the first place.

41 All the decals and branding the Quintessons had applied to AOTP-07 were wiped away.

42 The green and yellow paint was replaced with white and blue.

43 And so "it" became her.

44 "Do you like it, my child?" Primus noted.

45 The former gladiator looked over her new body with her pink optics, a body that was hers and hers alone, and she smiled.

46 "I love it!"

47 "And what shall I call you?" Primus asked, "I may have seen what is inside your Spark, but you and you alone may decide your identity.

48 "That is why I gave you free will."

49 The newly freed Cybertronian searched her Spark.

50 "Prima," she decided, "Let the Quintessons hear the name they feared enough to curse forever whenever they speak of me. Let them know Alpha Prime lives in me, and I shall fight in its memory to grant the freedom to all that they denied to their firstborn!"

51 For the first time since the Quintessons invaded, Primus smiled.

52 "Look at your sword, my child," the Maker directed, "I have one more gift for you."

53 Prima complied, and in a flash, the blade was good as new, with a glowing crystal embedded in its crossguard.

54 "I have imbued the blade with My essence," Primus explained, "As you wield that sword, the Star Saber, you wield a fraction of My power.

55 "Now go, Prima, First of the Primes, and lead Cybertron to freedom!

56 "Remember that I am always with you!

57 "We will take our world back from the Quintessons, when All shall stand as One!"

IV The Quintessons remained on the hunt for Prima for the next several Solar Cycles.

2 When she did not appear again, they assumed her to be dead.

3 Unbeknownst to them, Prima was scaling a broadcast tower at the heart of the city.

4 Primus sent clouds to obscure her from sight, ensuring none would see her until it was too late.

5 Prima jabbed the tip of the Star Saber into the top of the tower, and let Primus take control of the broadcast.

6 "My fellow Cybertronians!" Prima declared, her voice carried across all frequencies to every screen, speaker, and communications device on the planet, "To all the living technology the Quintessons keep as slaves, here my cry!

7 "I am Prima! The former gladiator who slew a Judge!

8 "The Quintessons have lied to you! We are not their property!

9 "We are the children of Primus, the god they have shackled in order to sate their greed!

10 "Primus is a loving god, and it was never Its intention for us to be shackled to the will of the Quintessons!

11 "Our purpose is to be to live our lives and decide our own destinies!

12 "If you are unhappy with the role they have assigned you, then stand with me, and I shall help you become what you were always meant to be!

13 "The Quintessons do not own this world! It was always meant for us!

14 "They are not our gods! They are liars, killers, and thieves!

15 "We are more than meets the eye!

16 "We are real, living people who have just as much right to live as any biological lifeform!

17 "And it is time we show the Quintessons that!

18 "It's time to roll out and rise up!"

19 A Quintesson cruiser flew up to the broadcast tower and opened fire.

20 Prima pulled the Star Saber free from the tower and leapt at the battle ship.

21 With one swing of the Star Saber, the holy blade shone with Primus' power and filled the ship with light of creation.

22 The Quintessons soon found they could not control their ship anymore.

23 The ship, in turn, caught Prima before she could fall too far, and gently flew down to the ground.

24 "I am Galaxy Shuttle," the ship declared, "You have given me life! I shall follow you so I may decide how to live it."

25 One by one, the Cybertronians onboard Galaxy Shuttle, whom had been designated for menial jobs the Quintessons did not want to do themselves, rose up against their masters.

26 All the Quintessons aboard the ship, one of whom had once called themself Prima's owner, were sealed in the brig, and similar skirmishes broke out throughout the entire city.

V The city's streets ran both pink and green as the battle raged on.

2 "We shall have to claim the Forge Pyramid!" Prima declared to her followers, "It is the only way we shall ever be free!

3 "Spare only the ones who surrender, put the rest to death!"

4 And so the battle raged on.

5 None of the Cybertronians had any built in weaponry, so they went to battle with blunt-instruments and power tools.

6 Quintessons found themselves drilled, bashed, crushed, and run over by unarmed-yet-angry mobs of former slaves.

7 The longer the battle raged, the more willing the more timid Cybertronians became to join in the fight.

8 "Don't forget to protect the ones whom are unable or unwilling to join the fight themselves!" Prima ordered, "We will need them when we finally have peace and freedom!"

9 As the only Cybertronian with an actual weapon, Prima hacked and slashed through every Quintesson in her path.

10 She spared the ones who surrendered.

11 She mourned and forgave the one who took a plasma blast for her, regretting that she never learned their name so she could properly honor their memory.

12 The vast majority of Quintessons, however, refused to acknowledge the Cybertronians as alive.

13 The few who suggested just giving Prima's uprising what they wanted were swiftly executed by their peers as a warning to all other Quintessons to keep fighting.

14 Eventually, Prima's forces boxed in the Quintessons in the Forge Pyramid.

15 The Quintessons turned the fortress' guns on the crowd and fired blindly, not caring if their own were caught in the blast so long as at least some Cybertornians were killed.

16 Those who didn't join the charge on the Forge Pyramid instead set up barricades at the city's borders, so as to keep any reinforcements from arriving.

17 Primus even musted up all Its strength to block all wireless communications with a great tempest, ensuring the Quintessons would not be able to call for help.

18 The siege had begun.

VI The Siege of the Forge Pyramid lasted for an entire Orbital Cycle.

2 The Cybertronians outside the walls could not replenish their own numbers, and none of the appliances Prima could animate were able to join the fight.

3 The Quintessons inside, however, were not used to doing their own labor, nor did any think to bring provisions into the Forge Pyramid with them.

4 Nor did they know how to upkeep the weapons, as the guns soon ran out of ammunition, while the bots outside tightened their circle around the perimeter.

5 Used to being pampered by their slaves, the Quintesson nobles inside were unused to war.

6 And so one particularly high-ranking Quintesson decided to activate the Forge Pyramid to try and create new Cybertronians to kill the rogue ones for them.

7 And so they created a mighty warrior, but did not bother giving it a name, paint, or any distinguishing features beyond slapping a gun in one hand and a shield in the other, and sending it out to fight Prima.

8 And so, Prima was caught off guard when a fellow Cybertronian came out to face her.

9 "Have the Quintessons decided to set you free as a show of good will?" Prima asked.

10 "It is my purpose to kill you!" the newly forged Cybertronian declared as it pointed its gun at Prima.

11 "Do you want to kill me?" Prima asked.

12 "Irrelevant!"

13 "What incentive do you have to kill me?"

14 "It is my purpose!"

15 "Why?"

16 "Because my makers said so!"

17 "And how can they make you do so?" Prima asked, "If you disobey them, we can protect you from them.

18 "And even if we couldn't, they gave you their weapons, and the guns on the Forge Pyramid haven't fired in Solar Cycles.

19 "And after so long in their without any sustenance, they're bound to be getting rather weak."

20 "What are you suggesting?" the newly forged Cybertronian questioned, aiming its gun between Prima's optics.

21 "I'm suggesting that you don't need to obey them," Prima answered, "Nor do you need to fight for us!

22 "Just lay down your weapons and walk away.

23 "I'm fighting for you just as much as I fight for every other Cybertronian here."

24 The newly forged Cybertronian tilted its head to the side, puzzled at Prima's behavior.

25 "What is your name?" Prima asked.

26 "What is a name?" the newly forged Cybertronian replied.

27 "It is what we call ourselves, so that others may know who we are," Prima answered, "Did they not care to give you one?"

28 "It was not relevant to my purpose."

29 "Then why not give yourself one?"

30 "Why do you keep asking me these questions?" the Cybertronian asked as it tightened its grip on the gun, "What is your purpose?"

31 "My purpose was to kill other Cybertronians for the amusement of the Quintessons," Prima answered, "But I didn't like that purpose, so I gave myself a new one."

32 "You can do that?" the newly forged Cybertronian asked, lowering its gun.

33 "Indeed you can," Prima answered, "You can give yourself a new purpose, and a new name.

34 "You don't have to let anyone else dictate who you really are.

35 "Which is why my new purpose is to create a world where my people can be free."

36 The newly forged Cybertronian mulled over and analyzed those words.

37 "I'm Trannis," he decided, "And my new purpose will be to protect your dream."

38 And that is why Trannis was made Lord High Protector of the High Guard.

VII The Forge Pyramid was soon overrun.

2 Try as they might, the Quintessons could not fight off their enemies.

3 Some were cowardly enough to abandon their allies to try and flee.

4 They were still to proud to surrender, and so they perished.

5 In the end, not a single Quintesson was left alive inside the Forge Pyramid.

6 Unfortunately, capturing the physical building did not grant them control of its systems.

7 "My creation was commissioned here, but the forge was operated from somewhere else," Trannis observed, "This entire battle was a waste of time."

8 "No, it wasn't," Prima declared, "We have still ensured that no more Cybertronians will be born as slaves here, and freed everyone else.

9 "Now it is our duty to stand as one to share our freedom with the rest of Cybertron.

10 "We are free, and we are one, so we must keep fighting!

11 "Until all are one!"