Chapter Text
Optimus was not foolish; he felt little shame in admitting age had worn down his frame. A millennia of fighting and encountering substances that all the wax in the world could not shield him from did no favours to his joints, either. He did not, however, think that his frame was so old as to suddenly decide to not respond to any command.
He could feel the energon thrumming through his lines - but its course was drastically unfamiliar, running through a frame he did not recognise, one he vaguely registered as his own. When his optics finally shuttered open, he instantly closed them and lifted up what little was left of his arm to shield his sight. He could sense the Primes parting as tendrils of light pulled him closer to the core.
“Orion Pax, your noble sacrifice for the greater good has proven you worthy in the eyes of Primus.”
His mentor’s voice remained the same as he remembered and somehow vastly different. Alpha Trion’s words thrummed in the air, Optimus feeling the vibrations more than he heard them through his broken audials.
“Alpha Trion? Sir, is that you?”
Forcefully resetting his light filtering parameters, Optimus squinted against the assault of blinding blue on his optics. The tendrils released him and the Thirteen gasped, shuffling closer while pushing Alpha Trion to the front. Without a doubt, Optimus knew this was Alpha Trion - just not the one he knew. None of these Primes looked anything like the Thirteen Optimus knew, either.
“He has a Matrix! Is this really Orion?” Megatronus Prime gestured as the exposed spark chamber began reconstructing itself, shards of unblemished metal weaving together Optimus’ broken frame.
Was that distress in Megatronus’ voice? The Primes, other than Alpha Trion of course, that resided in Optimus’ original Matrix were callous at best and infuriatingly condescending at worst. During the worst of his ventures into the Matrix’s realm, Optimus found himself wishing Megatron had been appointed as the next Prime, if only to watch him suffer through their flowery words.
It seemed none of these Primes acted anything like the Thirteen Optimus knew, either.
“No, no. That is Orion. No two bots have the same spark signature, and this one is too similar for it to not be Orion. Same spark signature, different wavelength.” Zeta Prime flicked away a piece of old cabling that had been pushed out of Optimus’ frame as it rebuilt itself, straight into Onyx Prime’s helm.
“Frequency, not wavelength.” Onyx glanced at the cables, but maturely decided not to retaliate.
Solus Prime, very maturely, bunched up the cables and other discarded pieces into a ball, and pitched them at Prima Prime. “They’re inversely proportional. I doubt dying suddenly flipped Orion’s spark signature-”
“Wait, sorry, I died?”
“You do not recall?” Alpha Trion stepped between Solus and Prima, confiscating the ball with a glare.
“No, all I remember is… fighting Unicron with Megatron. I… am not certain of the outcome, however. I cannot recall if we succeeded in saving Earth.”
The Matrix chose that moment to materialise, startling everyone. Optimus slid his windshield open as the new Matrix flew closer, before it violently jolted to a stop. He had never known his Matrix to be capable of producing sound, but the new one let out a displeased whirr, repeatedly bumping into Optimus’ freshly reattached arm as if he had personally insulted it. The original Matrix already inside his spark chamber rattled as if it was laughing, but remained rooted in place.
“Evidently, I do not need another Matrix.”
The new Matrix thunked against him harder. Optimus swore the thing was actively trying to tear off the arm again.
“Stop that. Leave the poor bot alone, for Primus’ sake.” Alpha Trion swatted the new Matrix over to Megatronus, who caged it between his servos to prevent any further attacks. Solus glanced at Optimus’ Matrix, optics widening. “Your Matrix is incomplete! Did you make contact with a transwarp key, perhaps? Your Matrix’s unstable energy could’ve somehow brought you here instead of our Orion.”
“No, nothing of the sort. There was only Megatron, Unicron and I in the area. I do not believe either of them had transwarp keys.”
Optimus tried ejecting his Matrix to allow Solus to inspect it, but it stubbornly refused to comply. Optimus broke off a piece of the confiscated ball from Alpha Trion’s servos and used it to wrench out the Matrix.
Zeta yelped and whacked Optimus’ arm. “You’ll damage your spark chamber! Just use a servo to gently pull it from the corners next time.” Optimus fought back a noise of surprise. He had expected to be reprimanded for damaging the Matrix, not to receive concern.
“...It’s the Matrix that usually gets scratched when I do that.”
“Usually? You do this often?”
“Whenever Ratchet performs checkups. It just - never listens.” Just like the Primes housed within, Optimus thought somewhat bitterly.
The Thirteen glared at the now exposed Matrix floating between them. The new Matrix frantically fought against Megatronus’ grip, eager to confront the older one. Zeta hummed, pointing at the glass centerpiece. “Clean split. Its energy has been perfectly halved.”
“I imagine the other half lies within his original frame. Primus must’ve orchestrated this ordeal.” Alchemist Prime gently nudged the old Matrix back to Optimus. The new Matrix screeched, somehow freeing itself from Megatronus and launched directly at the old one. The Matrixes fought while evading the Primes’ attempts to grab them, inching closer to Optimus. A solution formed in Optimus’ mind, though he was not sure his frame could handle the stress. But if his original Matrix’s energy had been halved…
He adjusted the circuitry around his spark chamber to create as much room as possible, and both Matrixes took the opportunity to lunge toward him. They slammed into him in unison, fusing into a Matrix that looked exactly the same as his original one, except now held the energy of one and a half Matrixes. Wincing, Optimus bit down a groan and closed the windshield, currents of raw power rippling through his frame. The Primes were shouting and he could feel Alpha Trion shaking his shoulders, but Optimus struggled to stay conscious as the rampant energy burned his circuits.
“Zeta, is this normal? Will he be alright?” Optimus could not recall if he had ever heard Alpha Trion so desperate.
“How should I know?! I didn’t try fusing two Matrixes together, for Primus’ sake-”
The Thirteen gasped, optics lighting up for a second.
“Primus!”
They pushed Optimus closer to the core, sighing in relief as tendrils reached out to offload excessive energy. Under significantly less pain, Optimus felt the fused Matrix inviting him to access the other Orion’s memories, and allowed it to do so. A steady stream of data flowed through his processor, displaying clips of Orion Pax, Elita-1, Bee and Dee. He hissed when the fusion cannon formed on Dee’s arm, unable to stop himself from remembering that same anger on Megatronus’ face. The tendrils released him, the fused Matrix fully settled with a final flash of searing heat as Optimus watched Dee shoot Orion.
“The Matrix showed me your Orion’s memories. Though he died here, I can sense he is alive - the other half of my original Matrix resides in my original frame, which he now inhabits.”
“Can you sense anything else? Is Orion in danger?”
“His survival indicates Unicron’s defeat, so he should be in no immediate danger. However, with only half the Matrix, and from the injuries I suffered when fighting Unicron, I do not think Orion is in… an ideal state.” No doubt Orion would be perplexed at waking to see an entirely different universe, in a different frame, with a different-
“Megatron!” How could he have forgotten? Megatron would jump at the opportunity to offline Optimus, but perhaps he would take pity on him in his injured state - no, that was too much of a stretch to envision, even with their flimsy truce.
Optimus sighed, concentrating to feel Orion’s strong, but frantic, sparkbeat faintly through the Matrix. Orion must’ve woken up just then, based on the waves of bewilderment Optimus could sense from his field. In turn, he channeled waves of comfort, hoping it would reach Orion.
“We can only hope Orion is tactful enough to survive.”