06042015 - Arise, Optimus Prime

Orion Pax had lost track of time. He could no longer make heads or tails of where he was - those systems had long since failed him or he had scavenged their parts to repair more essential systems. Megatron would have laughed at the idea - he remembered, Megatron had wanted to be a doctor once. And now it seems that he was the suregon that was going to reshape Cybertron. In his image.

Orion had only been able to pick up bits and pieces of the radio transmissions from the world above. Glimpses into the changes that had taken hold of Cybertron. At first, it had sounded good. In fact, he had decided at one point that it had been a good run. That it was time to sit down and rest.

Ariel told him otherwise. Not in person, of course. At least Orion didn't think she was down there with him. But it was her voice that urged him onward. Reminded him not to be so down. To be strong when noone else could be. To put the cause on his back and carry it. It was his creation, these new Autobots, and it was on him to carry it forth.

So Orion soldiered on. Through the catacombs, through the long lost tombs of the past, where even turbo-rats feared to tread. He found artifacts of the past, some would call junk, but Orion couldn't help but to find some hint of joy in the world that Cybertron once must have been. And could be again. A world free of war. A world that put all the manpower from war forward into it's own advancement, it's own development. That was the Cybertron Orion had wished to see.

As he came out of one section of the underground, Orion could only wonder for a moment. The ground seemed smoother - more travelled, yet not traversed in vorns. Protoforming into his truck form, the Autobot drove along the lonely highway and into the shelter beyond. As he pulled up into the buildings, he looked around. "Hello!" he called out. Protoforming back opened old wounds opened, the pain intensfied quickly, and Orion nearly choked on the energon that pooled inside his facemask.

Pull. It was a primal thought. Even as his legs buckled under him, something or.. someone.. convinced him to pull. The feel of elusive, yet warm energy called to him. It was as comforting as Ariel's touch, yet as strong as Hot Rod's beliefs. He pulled himself forward, towards the vault. The doors that were once sealed shut had come off of their supports and gave just enough room to allow Orion to pull himself within.

And once inside all he wanted to do was lay down.

"Get up. Rise." It was no longer Ariel's voice he heard in his head. It was another voice. One that seemed to come from the energy that surrounded his very being now. It is his own voice. Older. Wiser. Calling out to me.

...an echo of the future.

"Everything you've experienced. Everything you are. It has led you to this. This very moment. Now.."

"...reach out your hand. And take hold of the Flame."

Immediately, Orion is engulfed in pain. Fire. Panic. Fear. It overwhelms him, courses through him, tearing apart his systems, light flooded from his chest just as complex as the overwhelming flood of emotions in his very cortex. Not his emotions.. not emotions he experienced before.

Blurr's fear of losing Feint.

Arsenal's loss of Hot Rod as a friend turned enemy.

Megatron's frustration at disapproval.

Cybertronians. His people. Here and gone. He could feel /all/ of them.

He sensed their pain. Their grief. Their loneliness. He could taste the bitterness of the current devastation and loss. His consciousness expands - stretching out across Cybertron itself as the flood of new feelings hit him.

Wheeljack's joy at a new invention.

Ariel's courage in speaking up for what she believes in.

Shiftlock's curiosity at exploring new areas.

Hot Rod's hope for a new future.

And even deeper feelings. Courage, hope, selflessness. There were fewer of these sparks, determined and pure, but they burned bright against the darkness, stars in the night sky, guiding the way through the storm in the void that is Cybertron.

But beyond the voice he felt more. Sparks of those from Camien, Velocitron, even more worlds out there, worlds yet linked or discovered - they all called out to him. They were no longer seperated by the endless void of space, they were as near as my touch.

This is what it meant to be connected to the Matrix of Creation.. the Matrix of Leadership. Not the trinket that Zeta and Sentinel claimed to be the Matrix. He had no idea of the power that coursed through his systems now - just facets of the greater truth.

This, in his chest, binding to him now - is the matrix of the sparks. Of those that are, have been, or ever will be.

And the fire purifies. Clarifies. His ravaged circuits barely handle the overload of power, but he can feel the power infusing into his systems.

Megatron had sought to divide Cybertron. Autobot, Decepticon. Much as the Senate had. The Functionist had. But Megatron thought through division, he would control. Perhaps, Orion realized, that was the greatest deception of them all.

However, within him - within this Matrix - ALL ARE ONE.

Right now. In this moment. In every moment that one stops to recognize something of himself in everyone else.

He has Hot Rod's force of will.

Megatron's strength.

Ariel's hope.

Unity is no longer a hoped for event, often preached and prayed for and spoken about. It has always been a matter of perception. And as Orion felt himself connected to it all in that moment. In that moment, he felt the optimisim for a new future. A closure of the divide. That unity could live in all Cybertronians in a single truth.

All were and are one.

The Senate had it wrong. They had forgotten the truth. FREEDOM IS THE RIGHT OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS. Freedom from oppression. Freedom from fear. Orion himself - no, all Autobots, could no longer battle for the rule of law. It must be a battle for a better and united tomorrow. And that change had to begin within him.

Orion Pax must pass on. His life ended on that dias. For that is what the Autobots - what all Cybertronians needed - required from him. Orion Pax is no more.

I am... Optimus Prime.

And I have a world to set free.