The massive machinery sat silently above him, moved completely from its original tracks. Skygnaw studied the mechanism closely for a long moment, but found nothing out of the ordinary with the device itself.
If the machine was perfectly fine, then the issue lay with the exact spot it had been covering. The device was meant to hide something.
Deploying his heavy photon cannon, Skygnaw aimed the barrel straight at the floor. He didn't care about the consequences; he was going to blast it open and see what happened.
Photon slugs didn't trigger massive collateral explosions, making them perfect for close-quarters breach work. Of course, if he accidentally brought the entire chamber down on his head, he would just pretend he had never been here.
*BOOM!*
A single shot shattered the reinforced metal plating beneath his feet like thin parchment, tearing open a massive, jagged hole.
He caught the faint, whistling echo of the projectile cutting through open air, the sound fading deeper and deeper into the dark. The space beneath the Spark Chamber was completely hollow.
It took a long time before he finally heard a distant, muffled impact from far below. He knew his instincts hadn't lied to him; something was definitely buried down here.
Stowing the cannon, Skygnaw drew the Black Hell Blade. With a few quick, brutal strikes, he cleared the jagged edges of the metal plating, revealing a vertical shaft plunging straight down into the deep dark.
A hidden passage right beneath the AllSpark's vault, completely omitted from every official blueprint. Where did it lead? Was it part of the original ancient construction, or had the Autobots dug it out in secret during the civil war? Either way, the mystery was undeniable.
"Let's see what's down there," Skygnaw decided.
With his current strength, he was at the absolute peak of the planet's remaining active forces. As long as there were no true Primes on the field, he was confident nothing could threaten his survival. Even if he ran into an elite combiner squad, he knew he had the power to retreat unharmed.
After sealing the main vault doors to ensure no one would disturb him from above, Skygnaw stepped into the breach and let himself fall.
Gravity took hold, pulling his massive frame straight down into the abyss. The vertical tunnel was deeper than he could have imagined, making him wonder if it led directly to Cybertron's core. It took nearly a minute of continuous falling before a pinpoint of illumination finally appeared below.
The white light glared brilliantly against the surrounding dark. Skygnaw noticed the ancient, hand-carved markings along the shaft walls and quietly unholstered his weapon. Confidence was one thing, but arrogance was a quick way to get killed, and he couldn't guarantee the bottom was empty. He maintained his guard as the light expanded, swallowing him completely.
*Thud.*
His boots touched solid ground. Staring at the massive, ancient figure with a silver beard sitting before him, Skygnaw froze in absolute shock.
A name instantly flashed through his thoughts: Alpha Trion. Having viewed the appearances of the thirteen original Primes from old historical records, he recognized the giant instantly. This was the third of the original Primes, Alpha Trion.
Unlike the other original Primes who carried grandiose titles, Alpha Trion's name sounded relatively simple, but underestimating him would be a fatal mistake. While the numerical ranking of the Primes didn't directly translate to raw combat power, Alpha Trion wielded the legendary Quill, using it to record the history of the cosmos with Go-tier wisdom.
Legends claimed he possessed the ability to perceive the past, the present, and the future. Skygnaw took those rumors with a grain of salt, viewing them as ancient myths, but the old man's presence was undeniable.
Looking at Alpha Trion's weak, fading energy signature, Skygnaw slowly lowered his weapon. Waving a sword in front of an original Prime felt entirely disrespectful.
The chamber around them was a massive, oval dome filled with ancient relics and cluttered shelves, and nearby lay the smoking shell of his own photon slug. Since neither the blast nor his sudden arrival had awakened the elder, it was obvious Alpha Trion was in a severely weakened state. If the old Prime tried to turn on him, Skygnaw knew he could easily defend himself.
In truth, after facing The Fallen on Earth, Skygnaw had already mentally prepared himself for the possibility of encountering other surviving members of the original thirteen Primes. He just hadn't expected to stumble across one buried directly beneath the central archives the moment he arrived on Cybertron.
He hesitated for a moment, then began walking toward the motionless form. He wanted to check the elder's condition first; if the old Prime really had one foot in the scrap heap, he wouldn't mind helping him along.
"Mm..."
A faint murmur echoed through the quiet room. Sensing the approach, Alpha Trion slowly opened his eyes.
Skygnaw froze mid-step, locking eyes with the ancient Prime. Seeing that deep, all-knowing gaze that felt as if it could pierce right through his thoughts, Skygnaw smoothly pulled his foot back and stood at attention. He quickly dismissed his darker plans; his original intention was obviously to assist the elder's recovery, after all, he would never take advantage of an old man.
"What is your name, child?"
The voice was warm and gentle, carrying a natural kindness that immediately put people at ease. Skygnaw felt a bit self-conscious, but given the massive age gap, he chose his title carefully. "Eldest, my name is Skygnaw."
He had hesitated over whether to use the term elder or ancestor, but remembering that the ruling body of the thirteen was officially known as the High Council of Primes, he decided that addressing him as Eldest was the safest, most respectful option.
"Are you a Decepticon?"
Skygnaw felt his pulse quicken slightly, but he spoke the truth. "Yes, Eldest."
"Do not be afraid," Alpha Trion said kindly, noticing his tension. "To me, there is no difference between a Decepticon and an Autobot."
To the ancient Prime, the factions meant nothing, even though the Decepticons had started the devastating civil war thousands of years ago. To him, they were simply a good child and a rebellious one, but both were his descendants.
At his level of existence, he didn't measure the universe by simple standards of good and evil. The survival and evolution of their species was the only metric that mattered.
If turning into ruthless Decepticons was the only way for the Cybertronian race to endure and expand across the stars, he wouldn't mind lending them a hand. Both factions were born of the same world, and that was enough. Because of this, his attitude toward Skygnaw remained perfectly amicable.
"Skygnaw, you do not need to worry about any judgment from me regarding your faction," Alpha Trion continued. "Besides, I am the last remaining Prime of the original line. Addressing me as Eldest breaks no protocols."
Skygnaw felt immensely grateful that he had ended up in the live-action movie universe. If he were trapped in the animated or Aligned continuity, Alpha Trion would have likely lost his temper the second he recognized the Decepticon badge. Still, the old man's claim of being the last survivor caught his attention. Had all the other original Primes truly perished?
"Tell me, Skygnaw, has the war between your kind and the Autobots finally concluded?"
"Yes, Eldest. The war on Cybertron is over. The Decepticons secured the final victory." Skygnaw briefly laid out the current state of the planet.
"Has it truly been that long?"
A distant look entered Alpha Trion's eyes. The last time anyone had descended into this vault, the fires of war were still burning across the surface. Sentinel Prime, the leader of the Autobots, had come to bid him farewell.
Sentinel claimed he had uncovered a new path to save their world and preserve their race, choosing to abandon the Autobot cause to leave the planet alone. The old Prime had smiled and listened as the leader he had once mentored laid out his grand design to rebuild their home. Even though he hadn't agreed with all of Sentinel's methods, he had kept his thoughts to himself and offered his sincere blessings.
---
Seeing the old man lose himself in his memories, Skygnaw didn't interrupt, quietly observing the elder's condition.
By all logic, even if Alpha Trion's strength was in a worse state than the battered Fallen he had faced on Earth, a true Prime shouldn't be completely devoid of any detectable power signature. If the old man weren't actively speaking to him right now, Skygnaw would have assumed he was looking at a pre-recorded holographic program.
"Skygnaw, how did you manage to uncover this sanctuary?" Alpha Trion finally asked, snapping out of his daze.
"Eldest, it happened like this..." Skygnaw quickly summarized his journey through the Spark Chamber and his discovery of the worn button on the console.
Alpha Trion nodded slowly, understanding the sequence. "You appear to carry many questions in your mind."
"Yes, Eldest. I do."
The old Prime could read him like an open book, but Skygnaw wasn't surprised by his sharp intuition anymore.
"Ask whatever you wish, child, while I still remain in this world for a brief moment."
Skygnaw's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that, Eldest?" He wondered if the old man was about to fade away right in front of him.
"Skygnaw, do you understand the true origin of our race?" Alpha Trion countered, ignoring the question.
"Our origin?"
Skygnaw's thoughts immediately flew to the AllSpark, the mysterious artifact that drove the entire narrative of his past knowledge. The historical lore always focused on how powerful and vital the object was, but never provided a single detail regarding its true source. How it was forged, or where it came from, remained a total mystery to the modern world.
"Yes, and no," Alpha Trion said, nodding before slowly shaking his head. His voice carried the weight of ages.
"Eons ago, a creator from an alternate dimension forged Cybertron itself to explore this newly born universe."
"Eldest, you mean to say..."
"Exactly," Alpha Trion nodded gently. "Cybertron itself was the first of our kind, the singular ancestor of every Cybertronian alive. And the AllSpark is simply its heart."
Skygnaw's expression turned remarkably strange, a deep sense of absurdity washing over him.
So Cybertron was essentially an oversized Transformer, a machine so massive that its alternate mode was an entire planet? And every single Cybertronian was born from a split piece of its core, making their relation similar to cells within a living body? Talk about an unbelievable plot twist.
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