Chapter Five
The discharge of the Requiem Blaster came out in a colossal blast of red-hued energy that continued spreading after leaving the barrel, and it shook the mountain home through its foundations from its vibration. And the main beam, unstoppable and plowing through everything, blew right through Solus' chest and the side of the mountain. As it did, the whole building either collapsed or was launched over a mile away from the blast. Just like when it was first used, the mountain range was shaken to its foundation. Rocks shattered into dust. Supports collapsed. Detritus scattered in the direction of the eruption. Among the debris forced back by the discharge was the body of Solus Prime.
She flew dozens of mechanometers down and landed on the plains amidst the rest of the wreckage and ruin. She bounced and skidded on her back, unmoving, a look of shock frozen on her eyes.
Right after pulling the trigger, Megatronus felt his soul die. He wished with all his heart he had not just done that. He hadn't. He couldn't have done this He hadn't fired it, he hadn't shot Solus Prime, she was not lying in pain and fear around a bunch of wreckage that was not there. As he stumbled toward her, he kept telling himself it had not happened. Everything was in a daze, as if he was not awake. He was in a state of shock, and he barely noticed what was around his feet. He had only one destination. To Solus.
What he just done? I didn't do it, he thought. I would never. This isn't real. Then what was it?
You killed her, came a voice in his head. You can't accept the truth, but you did. The darkness within you is finally making its way out. You are a monster.
No, he thought to himself. I would never do that. This he kept telling himself as he continued running through the debris. He finally stopped at where she lay. He could hardly bear to look at the molten hole in her chest, but made sure to see her eyes. She looked up at him, and he noticed that she was still alive. But barely.
Megatronus fell to his knees and picked her up, not breaking eye contact. If he could have cried, he would have. For the look on her eyes was one of disbelief and horror. He had fired the Requiem Blaster upon her, and they both knew it. He had killed her. Her being alive a little longer only prolonged the grief and the inevitable. How could she feel towards him now?
He continued looking her in the eyes, wanting her to know how absolutely sorry he was, how he wanted more than anything for that to have never happened. But he couldn't bring himself to say it. It wouldn't do justice.
"Solus..." he said, pulling her closer. She couldn't be dead. He would not allow it. He rejected the truth, and he would never accept that such an awful deed could be...
"Megatronus," Solus whispered. He was shaken from his reverie of denial by her words. He directly at her, his crimson red eyes reflecting off of her own violet eyes. Then she spoke again. One last time. "My love for you is undying..."
And those were her final words. She suddenly smiled at him, smiled at her very killer, then her head fell back and the glow left her eyes. She was gone, left to join with the Allspark. The first of all deaths on Cybertron.
All around Cybertron, it seemed that every living being felt it, not just the Thirteen Primes. They all seemed to collapse with a shudder greater than the one felt when Alpha Trion inscribed his own words into the Covenant. It brought Megatronus to drop Solus Prime's body and collapse on the ground, curl into a ball, and wail. He cried without tears, like he never had before, and never would again. He was in the deepest depths of grief, a piteous wreck of emotions.
Somewhere else on the planet, Amalgamous Prime, who had been working on a bunch of things at once with his ever-unfocused mind and multiple limbs, suddenly stopped, feeling a sudden sense of loss, like he lost something very dear to him and knew not yet what it was. It completely took up his mind, that one feeling. That had never happened to him before. And somewhere else, likely in a separate timeline, Vector Prime felt a disturbance that extended beyond the boundaries of space and time... that same emotional disturbance.
When Prima felt it, it only worsened his already moody apprehension. When Alpha Trion felt it, he almost knew what it meant. Someone had died, and he had a feeling he knew who. Liege Maximo experienced the same emotion as well, and realized that something terrible had happened, perhaps a snag in in his plans. Just what had happened he did not intend? All the others had the same sense of loss, as if it was a part of themselves that left them. And they were correct in that sense. For Solus Prime had become one with the Allspark. Right before the eyes of her lover and murderer, Megatronus.
He lay down by her, still sobbing. What had he done? How could he have done this? And why? These questions could not be answered even as they whirled through his head. One thing was for sure -- Prima would surely use this as proof of how "evil" Megatronus was. Would his twin even care for her death?
Then he remembered why he had come. He came here because of Liege Maximo. His fellow Prime had sent him to obtain something from Solus that she should not have given up. And during their argument, it had bloomed into a lover's quarrel that escalated until...
He had fired the Requiem Blaster and killed her. Realization flooded him, and he drowned in sudden wrath. This was all the fault of the conniving, plotting, infuriating, Maximo! The vile trickster would pay with his life for causing this! It was a lethal mistake of him to anger the mightiest warrior of the Primes, and he would show it to everyone!
He was just thinking this, with a newfound desire for murder when he felt the ground trembling around him. He looked around at the debris around him, vibrating on the ground. A shaking was coming from under the ground, right where Solus' body lay. Then the ground began melting beneath her. Frantic to keep her from falling to whatever was underneath, he stood up, picked up her body before it could fall, and began running from the growing hole in the ground.
It expanded as all the ground continued melting away from its starting point, folding inward to the planet's mantle, and it continued widening. The depth seemed to never end, passing all the inner working of the planet, through hidden tunnels, pipes of Energon that flowed to the surface, until what was the melted ground solidified, becoming a wall for the newly constructed pit.
Megatronus continued running for a few cycles, as the pit extended to a diameter of many miles, and finally escaped the hole's growth. He eventually slowed, and finally stopped as he laid Solus' corpse on the ground. His feelings were once again mixed, with his confusion added to it. What had just happened? But one more emotion was in him now, one he had not felt since the climactic struggle against Unicron.
Fear. Fear of what would happen next. He remembered the sculpture of Cybertron Solus had been creating. He had not been paying attention to what happened to it until he saw it among the wreckage. He had been running from the molten pit when he saw it. The figure of Cybertron, shattered, broken, and burning. It was a sign. It was going to happen, what he saw. And it terrified him. Especially the idea that the ruin of his homeworld would be caused by none other than him.
* * *
Prima stormed out of the main doors of the Tower of the Primes. He would find the thief of his hidden chart and bring them to justice! He would find out why he felt a sudden miserable despair thrown upon him. And he would find out who had caused the deep vibration across the planet's surface and tell them off for it!
Were the phenomena all connected? Was Megatronus up to something? Was another one of his brethren attempting to overthrow him? Were they Agents of Chaos, as he suspected them be? Prima stopped the questions, realizing that he was getting too paranoid. Becoming a constant companion with him, his paranoia had fueled many of his decisions and thoughts on everyone else. It kept him safe. He feared for everyone's safety, but also their potential. As long as they tried, anyone could make great differences, whether for better or worse.
He was just rethinking that when he saw a figure in the distance. His colors and size clearly explained who he was. Megatronus was walking to him, carrying something a little more obscure over his shoulder. As he came nearer, Prima noticed how he shuffled his feet, looked at the ground, and seemed lost of any energy he usually possessed. What was he carrying over his shoulder?
By the front doors still, Prima slowly walked down the steps to the foot of them, where it seemed Megatronus was approaching. He felt a new sense of foreboding now, afraid of what would happen next. As they neared to the point of meeting, Prima first noticed the same afeared look on his brother's face. Then he noticed that the object on his shoulder was someone else. It was Solus Prime.
Concern then rushed through him, wondering what had happened. He didn't particularly love her as much as the others did, but as a leader and a brother, he still worried for everyone else. Even Solus. He was going to ask what Megatronus had done to her, then decided to rephrase himself. "What happened to her? What's wrong?"
Surprisingly, Megatronus whimpered as if he couldn't say. Then wordlessly, his twin placed her unconscious body on the ground, and Prima reeled in terror. Her eyes were dark and colorless, and there was a molten hole in her chest where her spark should have been. She wasn't slumbering. This was her corpse. His sister was dead, and it didn't look like an accident. She was murdered by...
"Y-y-you?" he stammered, nearly paralyzed with disbelief that his wretched twin would go so low, be so callous, and do such a sin as end the life of another being, let alone the one he loved so dearly.
"I didn't mean to-- it was an accident-- I never--" Megatronus fumbled over his words, his voice shaking as he did so. Prima could see that his brother was finally, for the first time ever in his presence, unleashing his emotions. But they were not of anger or animosity, but instead of misery and sorrow. He almost felt pity for his twin, when he remembered exactly what he had done.
"You didn't mean to KILL SOLUS?" Prima yelled, his own voice cracking. "How could that have been an accident?"
"Don't act like you cared for her!" Megatronus' response was simply blunt, not malicious. As if he stated it as a fact. Prima wasn't sure how to respond to this at first, because his brother had a point. But this sinful act could not go unnoticed. So he drew the Star Saber from within his body and spoke to the Matrix jewel in its hilt. The Matrix had a special connection with all Primes. "Calling all to the Tower of the Primes." he said with a hard tone. "We have important matters to deal with."
That was definitely a euphemism, he thought. He was sure that all the remaining Primes heard the call within their minds, and would soon arrive at the Tower. And they would behold a terrible sight when they did. The sight of revelation. They would all finally understand the truth of how awful Megatronus really was, with Solus' death as proof.
But something else still concerned him. His chart labeled the Agents of Chaos was still missing, and if his brother had been with Solus all the recent time, then someone else must have stolen it. The chart was too well hidden for someone to accidentally come across it. So who had gained possession of it?
This was why they needed to meet. All the remaining twelve of them. And when they did, Prima felt that the meeting would have a table-turning outcome on all of them.
"Don't let anyone see until they are all here," he said softly to Megatronus. "It would be... better that way. Maybe you should take her inside."
Megatronus looked like he understood, and surprisingly, he complied. He must have been too miserable to argue. He picked up the corpse and walked up the steps to the Tower, closed the doors, and waited. Good, thought Prima. Let's make a show of it. Not of her death, but of his betrayal.
And so he waited. After a little while, the others arrived one by one. First came Vector Prime, walking out of seemingly nowhere, then Alpha Trion, followed closely by Thirteen. Both had worried expressions, eyes darting about the place. Did they work together to steal the chart? Prima wondered.
Then came walking five unknown identical bots who stood side-by-side. Nexus Prime, probably, in another form of his. Then suddenly, Onyx Prime, in his beast form, galloped up to the steps in front of everyone. Riding on him was Micronus. Then a small spaceship came blinking out of the sky to land a little way off. Alchemist and Quintus emerged from it. Then, after another little while, a yellow, liquid-like shape emerged from the ground, forming into an unrecognizable bot with multiple limbs. Amalgamous.
Was that everyone? No, Liege Maximo wasn't here yet. But Prima was done waiting. This was urgent, and his wise-tongued brother would just have to miss out on part of it. Either way, he would probably react tragically and make a big deal about it. Even though he couldn't have played much of a part in it.
"Brethren who are gathered," he announced to the group of diverse bots standing before him as he stood on the steps, "we are here to deal with the matter of a terrible occurring." Saying that made everyone uneasy, or course. Prima decided not to beat around the subject. "Megatronus!" he called. "It's time."
Just by calling his hated twin's name, he had puzzled the rest of the Primes now present by what the twins might be doing together. But that was certainly not the case. Prima stood aside to show Megatronus push open the doors of the Tower and carry Solus in his arms. The other Primes immediately rushed forward, pushing past Prime, filled with concern for her. The jostling irritated him, and he knew that this ordeal would end terribly when they saw what happened.
Immediately, there were cries of terror. Nexus Prime and Micronus Prime rushed forward to hold Solus, and Megatronus tightened his hold on her.
"Enough!" His voice cracked as he shouted. He laid her down at the bottom of the steps, the others still crowding around him. The eleven Primes present all looked down at her deceased body.
There was a moment of solemn silence, and then Nexus Prime asked, his voice shaking, "Who did this?" Did it shake with sadness, or with rage, Prima wondered? Both, possibly.
Immediately taking advantage of the situation, he stepped forward. "Today," he announced, "one of our own has been slain, her spark extinguished and united with the Allspark." He knew his tone of carelessness bought him looks of disbelief and disgust from his brothers who so dearly loved her. "But this death did not come by accident," he continued. "Our beloved Solus was ended by one of our own..." and he pointed to Megatronus, saying his name.
Immediately, they all turned in horrified surprise to the Dark Prime, who quickly blurted, "No! It was an accident! I never intended to--"
"TO SLAY HER, OUR DEAR SOLUS PRIME?" Nexus yelled, his reaction much fiercer than Prima's. He stepped forward to smash both fists into Megatronus, but Thirteen stepped in between them.
"Please, let everyone have a say in--" but Nexus pushed him out of the way in fury. After that began a bout of bots hitting at each other and holding others back. It was quite immature, and Prima soon felt like knocking everybody to the ground to get some sense into them. He was ready to hit Megatronus when a voice came from behind him.
"Dear me, what unsavory predicament have you all placed yourselves into to behave so rowdily?" spoke the voice of Liege Maximo. Prima turned around and was taken aback for a moment. The others soon stopped when they saw Maximo as well. It was slightly harder to recognize him at first, because he had a new color scheme. Before, he had been all green, with slim limbs, with a short fiber cape, and having long curling horns coming out of the top of his head.
Now, he looked similar, but the horns were adorned and golden like unto a crown, and his cape was thicker and longer. His colors were now a mix of bright red, golden yellow, and jet-black. He looked... superior. Regal, even. He stood atop his small transport vehicle, looking down at them.
"What is the meaning of this?" Prima asked confusedly. "Why do you look so different? And why are you late?"
"My humble apologies for that, but I was simply catching up on some self-improving work," the Liege explained. "And I was also doing some light reading to sate my worldly curiosity. And I departed it to see this? Such an infantine performance of unsophisticated behavior is absurdly comical! Why do you, my immature siblings, squabble so sincerely?"
"Haven't you heard?" Micronus Prime asked bitterly. "One of our own is dead." Then he floated aside in his ball of mystic energy, silently encouraging the other Primes to do so as well. All except Megatronus and the dead body of Solus.
Even though the Liege Maximo could be a master of emotion at times, Prima saw Maximo's eyes widen with apprehension. And for a moment, the silver-tongue of the Thirteen was at a loss for words for the first time in his life.
"B-b-but... How?" Maximo stammered in obvious consternation. "They were so close, the circumstances must have been entirely accidental!"
"But they weren't, and it's not all entirely my fault!" Megatronus retorted furiously, raising a finger at the adorned Liege. "I met with Solus to speak with her about a relic she needed to give to one who manipulated me into believing he needed it! And that one is you!"
This announcement caused more of an uproar. Prima was now wondering who wasn't telling everything they knew. Little did he know that a little secret of his own would soon be exploited.
Eventually, Liege Maximo stepped off his transport to speak peaceably to them face-to-face. "Everyone, while we are standing on this topic of confusion, let me reveal something that may have been weighing down on us." Whatever it was, Prima was just glad someone was spilling their information. "Because I have read over some rather fortuitous materials regarding our own."
Wait... Prima's paranoia kicked in, and he had a dreaded feeling he would know what was going on now. Then Maximo reached behind his cloak to unveil a metallic silver sheet, large enough that it warranted the need to be rolled up. Prima's spark stopped and his Energon felt cold. His deepest secrets on a chart everyone would see. All was lost.
"It required extreme measures to glean such a slice of valuable information," the Liege explained as he unrolled it, "but its contents justify the means. Behold, our leader Prima's Agents of Chaos chart!" He laid it out the ground around where they had gathered to allow all the Primes to read the contents. Many characters were erased or drawn over, or lines connected different pieces, but this is what they got from it while Prima stood by in complete shock.
Agents of Chaos; A chart of who could be servants of Unicron to shield Cybertron's people from dangers of the Chaos-Bringer. Inscribed in the hand of the I, the first Prime, Prima.
Megatronus: Quick to violence, short of temper, highly mentally unstable, greatly destructive, possesses unnatural dark powers, induces fear in others, emanates darkness akin to that of Unicron, potential threat to Cybertron (Status: Confirmed)
Solus Prime: Disobedient, given too much potential power, too free-thinking, devoid of any sense of orderliness, full of chaotic creativity, reckless, affiliates with everyone but her leaders, consorts with Megatronus (Status: Confirmed)
Nexus Prime: Unpredictable, chaotic in behavior, always shifting forms, immensely powerful, contains no trace of order (Status: High Potential)
Onyx Prime: Brutal, unintelligent, quick to action, intimidating beast form (Status: High Potential)
Alpha Trion: Secludes himself, writes unknown knowledge, possesses too much power with his universal Quill (Status: Suspected)
Vector Prime: Often secluded, holds power over others we can never dream to attain, often allows situations to solve themselves (Status: Suspected)
Liege Maximo: Almost too friendly, affiliates with everyone's affairs, trustworthy but possibly dishonest, shifty, occasionally secluded (Status: Suspected)
That and more was written across the sheet, and cries soon erupted from the readers. Prima heard shouts of surprise, exclamations of anger, gasps of disbelief, and more. Soon, all eyes were turned on him with all those emotions written across them. Prima was heartbroken to even see Thirteen looking at him with horror. Such an innocent, small bot. To ever have Thirteen disappointed in you was tragic for everyone. Everything was changing today.
"'High potential', you say?" Nexus Prime roared. "You just can't accept who I am, thinking I'm too much like Unicron? Well, have you ever thought that that makes you like Unicron as well?"
"Your claims disgust me!" shouted Onyx Prime, who was always of few words.
"This is more than I feared," said Alpha Trion shakenly. "Our very leader, thinking against us."
"Why have you done this?" Vector Prime's calm, magnified voice asked in a neutral tone.
"Can someone tell me what the bot this is all about?"
Everyone turned to the last speaker, who was Amalgamous Prime. "I've just been yelling because you all were. Is something wrong?"
Shaking their heads, they parted to show Solus' corpse. "Well, yeah, I knew about that, but what's on the chart?"
They stood aside to let him see it, and the shifter peered over the words. After a moment of skim-reading, he said, "Yeah, so?"
"So, our established leader, bearer of the light of Primus, is holding enmity to his fellow beings?" Liege Maximo wondered aloud. "Why?"
They all turned to Prima, who was standing totally dumbfounded by his revealed secret. All except Megatronus, who stared at the ground with a countenance of acceptance. Prima was at a loss for words, and he knew that upon simply speaking a sentence, they would all mobilize against him again.
So he began steadily. "Do you all agree with what Thirteen has said concerning the seeds of Unicron's dark influence that have incorporated themselves into us?"
"Now, don't try turning attention to Thirteen!" blurted Alchemist Prime. "He is obviously the most pure of us!" The other few assorted Primes glanced at their youngest brother, who turned away shyly.
Prima nearly fumbled, but picked his words back up. "He is right about it. We all have been affected by Unicron's darkness in some way, including me. My wariness, distrust, and uncertainty are results of that. If it is all the same to you, I am sorry for it. I have just never fully had faith in anyone. But even if you are ingracious at my attempts to protect my people, please listen. I am not the only one tainted by this dark seed. In some small way, we all have it. Look inside yourself, and see if there is something you dislike about yourself that you find unnatural. Something you have not felt since after Unicron's defeat. Is it a quality that you loathe about your being, but cannot help it?"
All of them shifted uncomfortably. Some avoided eye contact, some still stared at Prima. He understood. They felt it, too. "Sometimes I believe that Thirteen is the only one of us with a full sense of purity. That is likely why he noticed it at first. And I was the first he noticed. Then there are the rest of you, who just have too much potential to turn to a dark side. Especially Megatronus, Nexus, Onyx, and..." he paused for a klik, stopping himself from saying "Solus". But remembering something, he instead said the name "Liege Maximo." Now that sounded much more fitting.
A murmur echoed through the others, and Prima turned to the Liege, pointing at the chart. "How did you steal this from my possession without my notice, confirmed Agent of Chaos?" He spat the name, for that was how he now saw this traitor.
Maximo smiled shakily. Prima saw unsure triumph in his eyes. "If it is so precious to you, then why did you not protect its location? You left it unguarded, waiting to be discovered," Maximo said. "You found yourself distracted by a... change in atmosphere, is that right?"
Prima turned swiftly to the Tower. The Energon and air flow. It was Liege Maximo who somehow disrupted it. He suddenly remembered Maximo saying something on the matter of Liegian Darts... All in all, this day was just worsening beyond belief. Then, surprisingly, Megatronus spoke up after hanging his head low for so long.
"And I would like to repeat that it was Maximo who caused me to meet with Solus in the event that led to her murder! My actions were an outburst of anger, and I would never have opposed Solus' good judgement if I had not been manipulated by the Liege Maximo in trying to take one of her artifacts! It's his fault she's gone!" Megatronus surged forward, fit to tear Maximo apart. Amalgamous and Onyx grabbed him in time.
"Hey!" the shifter yelped. "Let's not jump to actions just yet!"
"Calm," the beast warrior said. "Control yourself."
"NO!" screamed the Dark Prime. "Let go of me! This will be a slaying I will not regret in the slightest! I'll be doing this world a favor!" his optics were widened in madness, and he fought to break free with all his might. Quintus Prime and Vector Prime reached out to also hold him back.
"Hey! You are not the only one who did something wrong!" Quintus said, his face up to that of his raging brother's. "I've been keeping a secret that I think is right to tell now!"
Everyone perked at that. They all stopped, looking at the unusual Prime with many long tentacles in place of legs. Quintus was often known as the strangest of them. Whenever he had an idea he thought was brilliant himself, he would rant on about it to everyone he knew about it until they wanted to cut out their audio receptors. He had claimed to have made a bunch of unusual objects of curious ability, but none were proven true. This gave him the nickname of "The Experimental Dreamer". And for once, they were all listening to his crazy ideas. Prima knew this day could only become more interesting.
"You all know about the Emberstone I have told you about, correct?" When they shook their heads, he sighed disappointedly. "It is a special stone with mythical powers I imbued into it with my own spark and mind. It can bring any metal on a world to life like the Allspark. I... meant it as a personal alternative Allspark so I could create my own lives. Beings created in my image from any raw material."
This was another shock. Quintus had made an... Allspark replacement for only him to use? As if he saw himself as some kind of new god? Just as this information was being processed, Alchemist Prime spoke up as well. "I feel as if I should speak up as well." As Prima listened, he couldn't help but notice Alpha Trion looking increasingly uncomfortable, as if he had a secret of his own to tell.
And so Alchemist admitted to using a borrowed strand of cybernucleic acid from Onyx Prime to try creating other creatures of his own. He had seen it as a pursuit of science, but may have gotten too greedy in attempting create lives of his own. Then Vector Prime spoke up on the fact that he had been using his abilities over space and time to spy on the behavior of the other bots, but keep his knowledge from Prima. He had held the belief that his opinion of what they did was no one else's business, even that of his leader. After that, Amalgamous revealed that he was the one who had been cutting down the homes of innocent Cybertronian primitives. He had only meant it as a daring prank, but had gotten attracted to the feel of destroying things.
As these confessions rolled by, Prima became increasingly aware of the seeds of darkness that truly inhabited them all. But why were they all admitting to it now? What had inspired more Primes to divulge their greatest secrets as well? Then Alpha Trion revealed it as he stepped forward.
"I recently made an entry into the Covenant of Primus that was not completely left to fate," he began slowly. "Just as history is recorded into the Covenant, anything else written into the Covenant becomes actual history. I relented to the seed of darkness within me when I wrote something that was not meant to happen. I inscribed that our secrets would be revealed. And now, my actions have caused all of this to actually happen."
It was as if Prima's optics were just really being opened to knowledge. Everything was weaving together. Everyone who had a seed of Unicron's influence within them was now revealing it because of Alpha Trion listening to is own. They did things that were wrong that they would not have normally done. This was only proof that all of them really did have potential to be Agents of Chaos. Prima was right all along. And his own most well-kept secret was revealed, but by none else than--
"Wait!" Megatronus' voice called out. They turned to him, and Prima just knew that more and more would be uncovered. This was proving to be a most interesting day indeed.
"Before we focus too much on our own small flaws," Megatronus began, "let us bring up the one who has secretly been infested with darkness from the beginning, plotting against us all for quite a time. And no, I do not mean myself. Alpha Trion, these terrible events were not all your fault, for someone else orchestrated much of the events that led to now as well. Let us finally hear the secrets of the master manipulator, Liege Maximo! He, who is the cause of many problems we may or may not not know about!"
It was true. Everyone else had spilled their classified information except this enigmatic Prime. Perhaps Maximo would further explain why he stole the chart, enlighten the rest of the Primes on the relic he wanted from Solus Prime, and then explain why he had redesigned his overall appearance into that of a monarch.
Liege Maximo stood silent for a moment, opened his mouth to speak, stopped himself, tilted his head as if to consider what to say, then smiled charmingly. "Very well, then," he began.