Vector Prime and Alpha Trion sat in the ruins of the old Autobot base, in what remained of Orion’s old office. Oddly enough, the desk was still intact. Vector Prime was standing in the ruined door frame as Alpha Trion sat behind the desk. As they sat, Vector Prime felt a tremendous surge of energy. He pinpointed it to Green Hill Zone and identified it as a Terrorcon. “Okay, you felt that, right?!” he asked.
“I did,” confirmed Alpha Trion.
“And you’re STILL going to put this off?!”
“I might.”
“All right, I’ve literally had enough of this scrap!” Vector Prime stormed towards the desk. “I’ve been squatting in the old base with you and meditating…”
“Dozing.”
“MEDITATING for the past…erm…”
“Five months.”
“Thank you. FIVE MONTHS! So, either do something or get in the Matrix with me!”
“Listen, I still need to feel the situation out.”
“What in the Pit is there left to feel out?! Between your insane soothsayer act and jerking us all around, I’m pretty sure Mobius’ population is now HALF of what it once was! You’re supposed to be the Prime of Reality, START ACTING LIKE IT!” Alpha Trion then stood up and got nose to nose with Vector Prime.
“Yes! I AM the Prime of Reality! The Prime of all Reality! And you wish to take that title from me!”
“Are you serious right now?! This can’t POSSIBLY be about the job! The first chance you had to drop this gig, you tried to hand it off to Liege Maximo, the guy who set Megatronus against us initially! He never even looked after his own family! I looked after his family more than he ever did!”
“But it’s still my job! My responsibility!”
“And that’s really good and all, but if you and I don’t rejoin our fellow Primes in the Matrix and give Orion the boost he needs to beat Unicron, then all of reality will be unraveled!”
“MAYBE I’D RATHER IT BE UNRAVELED THAN EVER HAVE TO GIVE UP MY IDENTITY TO A STUDENT OF MINE!” The instant Alpha Trion finished his outburst, the only noise that could be heard was the wind.
“…So that’s what this is all about, is it?” asked Vector Prime as he broke the silence.
“No, no, that’s not what I…”
“No, it’s fine. I was a bit of a Jack-hole. I get that.” Alpha Trion sighed as he sat back down and steepled his fingers.
“Listen, Vector Prime, I’ve been the guardian of reality since our creation. I’ve seen Cybertron be enslaved, reclaim its freedom, fall into civil war, and worse…all the while trapped in the Hall of Records, unable to interact with the outside world for only moments at a time. …Now the only option I have left is to give up my free will to someone who says that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, thus making him a hypocrite. …It would not only tear him apart, but it would also just be another prison for me.” Vector Prime’s expression softened.
“…I…I never realized…”
“It’s fine, though. I’m done, in any case. My time has come.” Alpha Trion stood up, his age finally showing in how slowly he rose. “You’re right, Brother. If we don’t join our fellow Primes within the Matrix, Orion will likely never get the Three Powers. But know this; once we enter the Matrix, our artefacts and weapons will only be used in the hands of whoever is the current Prime.”
“Ah, that’s not much of a problem. I’m sure Optimus could pull something out of his aft to circumvent that.”
“Don’t you mean Orion?”
“Quit being a smart-aft. You know he’s gonna be Optimus Prime again.” Alpha Trion then grinned before looking around the ruined room.
“Well, reality, I suppose this is goodbye. It’s been…a trip.” Alpha Trion then opened a hidden keypad and keyed in a numeric code. The desk then shifted and unfolded to become an alien lathe. “Well now, I’m sure you’re already familiar with how Solus and Megatronus used this thing to enter the Matrix.”
“Yep.” The two Primes then placed a hand on the lathe.
“Good,” praised Alpha Trion. “Now, I believe the next step is to place our other hand between our legs.”
“Nope. Not falling for that one again.”
“I didn’t think so. …Creation Lathe, this is Trionus Prime! Total Matrix Access, authorization Trionus Alpha One!”
“Creation Lathe, this is Vector Prime! Total Matrix Access, authorization Vector Alpha One!” The lathe then glowed and swallowed the two Primes in light. The blinding glow lasted for a few seconds before dying down and restoring the normal landscape, revealing the lathe by itself and the two Primes gone.
Five months had gone by, leaving roughly two months until the Unicron Games. Orion had learned of what happened when his team retrieved a downed Sky-spy that had recorded the whole thing. On this day, he sat by himself as Jazz, Blackarachnia, Sonic, and Amy searched for supplies. He felt that there was no hope and no goal but to survive. “…Orion?” asked a voice. Orion looked around briefly, then gave up. “…What are we doing, Orion?” asked the voice.
“…We’re waiting,” answered Orion.
“Waiting for what? We have a chance now that Alpha Trion and Vector Prime joined the Matrix. Let’s just go.”
“No. My friends are still out there. They’re still needed.”
“Needed? Are you mad?! They’re slowing you down!”
“They’re keeping me sane.”
“You’d know about losing your mind, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore!” The voice then stopped speaking.
“Well then, maybe, you’ll talk to me!” The Optimus specter was now standing near him.
“Leave me alone!” snarled Orion. “I don’t want to talk to YOU either! I don’t know why you’re following me!”
“Look, why do you always think of other people?! Why are you dwelling on Alpha Trion and Vector Prime?! They made their choice and now WE need to take advantage of it!”
“You’ll never understand that it’s all my fault! They sacrificed their lives because of ME!” The two then sat in silence before the apparition noticed something.
“They’re coming back.”
“Huh?” Orion looked outside the cave to see his team return. “Did you guys find anything?”
“We got supplies and something else,” replied Jazz. He then pulled out a Mini-con hibernation plate.
“…A Mini-con?”
“We think it’s dead,” sighed Blackarachnia.
“Welp, that’s that,” remarked the specter, unseen by the others. “Let’s get out of here.”
“No!” declared Orion he took the plate.
“Orion, are you sure?” asked Amy.
“You’re gonna see what the Mini-con is, aren’t you?” groaned the apparition.
“Yes.” Orion then held the plate in his hand…and it glowed green before it changed into a human-sized, yellow robot with sports car kibble. Jazz and Orion gasped as the Mini-con flickered its optics on and stretched.
“That was quite the nap,” the Mini-con yawned.
“SPARKPLUG!” yelped Jazz and Orion as they bowed.
Back at the W.A.P., Tails was conducting repair efforts on the bridge as Bumblebee organized the troops thus far. “All right, guys, moment of truth time!” called Tails. “Powering up!” He pressed a slider switch upwards and the lights flickered…then switched off. Tails then switched everything off. “…Sorry, guys,” he sighed.
“I know you can do this!” urged Bumblebee. “You’re the best genius there is!”
“Bumblebee, I’m hitting a wall! I don’t know what I’m missing!”
“Well, for a start, you’re mis-calibrating the Energon Inducers,” replied a voice.
“Come on, do your really…?” Tails stopped himself as he turned to the source of the voice. There, standing in the doorway, was Ratchet along with Perceptor, Knock-out, E-123 Omega, and the Chaotix! “RATCHET!” cheered Tails happily.
“I will admit, the repairs you’ve done are impressive,” remarked Ratchet. “However, you can’t do this without my help. You’d be spinning your wheels uselessly.”
“Ratchet, it’s great to have you guys here!” called Bumblebee. “We’ve got someone who could use medical attention. Knuckles lost his right eye when fighting Eradicons. He’s only got a crude prosthetic on.”
“I’ll take care of it,” replied Knock-out. “One DOES need to look good in any case.” He then sauntered off to the infirmary.
“And that rose right there,” remarked Perceptor as he pointed to the plant near Tails, “where did that come from?”
“…From Cosmo before she…” replied Tails.
“Ah, then she needs a good source of solar energy so her cells can reconstruct themselves!” declared Perceptor.
“…Pardon?”
“That, right there, is a Seedrian Regen Plant. If it’s a tree sapling, then the new body is gonna be male. If it’s a flower, it’s female. Looks like Cosmo’s last body is gonna be a woman.”
“Wait, are you telling me…?!”
“Cosmo’s simply regenerating. It’s a more extreme version of it, but it gets the job done and adapts the Seedrian to life on the planet it’s on. My best guess is that Cosmo is gonna be roughly Mobian height.”
“She’s coming back!” cheered Tails. He then turned to the rose and spoke to it. “You could have told me that before you went all Rambo on the Terrorcons!”
“And that’s the Energon inducers aligned,” called Ratchet. “Tails, try it now.” Tails slid the switch up and the lights gradually came on. The computers then gave readouts.
“Weapons power: online,” reported the fox. “Computer systems: normal operations for our purpose. Shields: ready to activate at a moment’s notice. Communications hub: fully functional! The base is ready to go!”