Chapter Text
"Thank you again for your service Rung, you say that his processor should be stabilizing now? He won't- he won't be forgetting anything else?"
Rung smiled, benign, polite, to the worried Prime in front of him. "Correct! Maccadam's processor is not in danger of forgetting any more details, for now at least. You and I both know the dangers and complexity of information creep my Prime." He sighed, feigning sympathy aimed at the disgruntled mech who huffed at the look he got from Nominus Prime. "However, from the sessions we've had, his processor should be stable. Though, should anything change, you have my comms. Do not hesitate to inform me."
Nominus Prime, the ever-too trusting leader of Cybertron, gave Rung a grateful expression as he began escorting his sire from Rung's office.
"I don't need to be escorted back to my own damn bar, don't you have Cybertron to be running?!" Maccadam exclaimed as he left, trying to resist his grown sparkling's fussing. "Nominus! I swear to Mortilus! Don't make me smack you cogling!"
How sweet. Rung thought with a sneer once both mechs had finally left the vicinity. Rung let out a deep vent, leaning back against his comfortable chair, a smirk forming on his faceplate. The purple mech luxuriated against the chair, letting himself show amusement now that he was alone.
"Finally." He said, bringing up Maccadam's personal files on his desk's holographic monitor. His derma curling into a pleased grin as he rested his helm against his servo, "That's one mech dealt with… Enjoy your life, 'Maccadam', for it is the only life you will ever remember now."
He modified the files, another successful 'stabilization' of information creep under Rung's belt. One of Cybertron's best and most examplary mnemosurgeons. "I wonder if you think this was worth it. Worth losing yourself just to protect him." Rung laughed incredulously, shaking his helm as he closed the file. "How droll… Whatever, it's done. I'll keep my end of the bargain, just live in sinful ignorant bliss. Enjoy it, for as long as possible."
Checking his schedule, Rung was pleased to see that Macaddam had been his last patient for the cycle. Not that it mattered, he could pick and choose anyone to be his next patient at his leisure. He had no troubles in clientele nor in finance. Especially in finance.
Rung hummed, pondering on what to do next. Should he take another patient? Wander Iacon? Indulge in some carnal cravings he's been having? Or perhaps peruse the activities of his old acquaintances? He'd been meaning to check on them, Amalgam especially. Their last near-encounter had been positively delightful after all.
Still considering his options, Rung made the absentminded decision to check the news. To see if anything would catch his attention.
And something indeed caught his attention.
His red optics widened, monocle nearly falling from his nasal bridge as he suddenly stood up. An incomprehensible feeling bubbling in his tanks all the way to his spark as he saw the headlining news on his feed. "Impossible." He hissed, agitated as his optics reread the headliner again and again. Glancing between it, the article itself as well as the photo provided in the news.
Lit Anew! Pious Pools No Longer Dried Out? New Sparks And Protoforms Emerging From Dead Hot Spot!
"Once a hot spot dries, it cannot be relit!" Rung snarled, servo coming to his sparkwindow, curling into a fist. The headliner taunted him. Mocked him. "Not unless…"
Amalgam.
Rung's gears grinded harshly within his frame, "No! Did he really manage to figure out how to use the Matrix to reignite hot spots?! Does he remember!? No, no—" He took in a deep calming vent, his red optics glinting harshly as he glared at the headline. "If he did remember, he would take the Matrix to Vector Sigma… And even then, he needs my assistance to do anything."
Unless he somehow figured out how to do it without Rung's assistance.
The thought was inane, impossible. Yet it annoyed him to no end.
"So, you didn't lose the Matrix, hm? Adaptus?" Rung whispered to himself, laying his fists on his desk, taking in the picture of the abundant sparkfield that was reignited into Pious Pools. A place he had claimed to be his origins… Another point of mockery for him, Rung supposes. "How interesting… Let's see what you've done then, old friend."
Rung scrolled through the article, skimming it for information. Not that he was expecting much from it since the real information would no doubt be hidden. But he'd need clues and more, details that could be found before he would head there and check on his own.
The article gave little, there wasn't much useful details that Rung could parse. Still, the article itself told Rung that it had happened all of a sudden. Fast enough that word spread before the Senate or the Council could do anything about it. Rung had to wonder if Nominus had known about it, considering the Prime had been in his office mere kliks ago.
The more he read, the more Rung began to doubt about Amalgam's involvement with the field.
He simply could not see how in any way this could be beneficial to Amalgam's little mission. It felt too abrupt, too sudden and bizarre. If it truly had been Amalgam's fault the hot spot had been lit anew, then there wouldn't be as much coverage of it. No, it'd be non-existent actually.
Not only that, but this sparkfield was large, according to calculations. The sparks were practically overfilling the field, giving out more sparks than even past ignitions in hot spots.
So if it wasn't Amalgam, then who?
It couldn't be the Senate, they would've kept it low as well, not as low as Amalgam but still. The Council would have bragged, would have used it in their propaganda— they probably still will, after they made it clear on how it wasn't their fault considering they were scrambling to claim as many sparks for themselves.
How curious.
How interesting.
Rung's anger nearly completely dissipated, his annoyance lingered but this… this meant something.
What, Rung did not know.
But he would find out.
Because he was Primus, and he was the God of his people. Of this planet. Nobody remembered, and Rung preferred it that way. Yet he should know what went on with his people, shouldn't he? What went on with his planet.
Rung hadn't lit that field anew, couldn't have.
Not only because he was here, in Iacon, in his office.
But because he had lost that ability far too long ago…
So what happened?
Rung smiled, it wasn't a kind smile. Unhinged, someone would say.
"Perhaps I should revisit my 'birthplace'."
Before he left, Rung read the rest of the article and snorted. Rolling his optics at the smaller article that was attached afterwards; some noblemech idiot had their ship stolen nearby Pious Pools. Although Rung had no idea who would want a hot pink painted ship, that was a ghastly decision on both the noblemech's part for painting his ship that color as well as the thief's part for stealing such a ship.
Either way, it wasn't interesting nor related to Pious Pools aside from the area being the place it had been stolen from.
So Rung immediately tossed the information aside.
Surely, it wasn't related at all, no?
It had been far too long since Rung had been to Pious Pools.
Last he remembered, the area was arid and near-abandoned. The once-infamous canals, Vinvissius Canals, had long dried out alongside the hot spot. Last he heard after he left permanently, without a plan to ever revisit, the area had been redeveloped into Vinvissius Heights. A place for noblemechs and military seekers to show off their personalized ships and such.
And now it was swarmed with multiple bots, mechs and femmes alike trying to see the newly reignited hot spot. Perhaps even claim a protoform for themselves, for profit, for familial reasons, etc. etc.
Rung had no plans to claim a spark for himself, his cycles of raising sparklings were long over. Although, the purple mech hadn't been 'Rung' back then, so Rung himself had never raised protoforms according to his files. Rung just had never been interested in that.
Even now, when the opportunity was perfect; Rung had no plans in claiming a spark from the fields. No, his interest were in the fields themselves.
Pious Pools hadn't been the first hot spot to emerge, not the first to dry up. Now though, it was the first to reignite.
Rung stood atop a private platform near the Vinvissius Heights, overlooking the sparkfields. The hot spot.
The view below was…
beautiful.
The field was aglow with sparks of various colors and sizes. The land lush with various silvery and metal hues of sentio-metallico, all awaiting a blacksmith's servo to become fully-forged protoforms. Or perhaps, even the rare One-Percenter spark to become a protoform without a blacksmith's skill.
For a moment.
Primus stood there.
Not Rung.
Primus.
The First Who Walked On Himself.
An old, old feeling of awe permeating his frame across the reignited fields. Even from where he stood from afar, he felt it.
Creation.
Life.
It was as if he had his powers again—
Rung immediately snapped out of that mindset, tank twisting with a nausea he rarely felt. And yet, it wasn't as annoying as usual. In fact, Rung felt… a little excited.
Something happened here.
Something created this sparkfield, lit up the hot spot again, and actually reminded Rung of back then.
Back when he'd really been The Life-Bringer of his people.
Rung wanted it.
Rung wanted that creation again.
It was his in the first place, why shouldn't he have it?
"H-Hey! You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't—"
Shhhhffffff—
"W-What the— What… what was I doing again? Oh right, patrol. Ugh, can't wait to swap shifts. My helm's aching…"
Rung huffed as he stepped into the shadows, letting the poor confused guard to walk away as she remembered what it was she was supposed to do; patrol. She hadn't seen anyone at all, no. She hadn't seen Rung, hadn't thought to confront him. She didn't notice Rung in the shadows, nor the lightly glittering smoke that was fading fast, disappearing by the time she moved on.
Nearly the entire sparkfield was 'quarantined' by Senate's command. 'Concerned for the populace' or so they claimed, they just wanted to harvest as many sparks for themselves. Distribute the protoforms to trusted sources and such. Of course that didn't stop those who truly wanted a protoform for themselves to come by and take one, or two, or however much they actually wanted.
Rung crept at the edges, keeping away from clear cameras and sticking to the shadows. He kept away from the more crowded areas, from the brightest edges of the hot spot since there'd be plenty of bots harvesting away. Instead, Rung went towards the dimmer end of the fields.
There was still a chance to meet someone there, but it'd be easier to deal with them.
Rung stood in the sparkfield with barely restrained hunger, the signs of creation were everywhere. Ignoring what remaining sparks were left in this side of the dim field, Rung looked at the signs.
Unnoticeable to anyone but himself.
The air shimmered in his optics, leftover energy from creating so many sparks, from reigniting the hot spot. From what Rung remembered from his platform from the Vivnissius Heights, the brightest part of field, the one that held the most sparks… that was originally the source of it all. The start of creation. And yet, the energy there was less than the dimmer fields.
Because that energy had sunk into the fields, absorbed into sentio-metallica. Distributed among the area, shared among the sparks.
But here, in the dimmer side of the field? The leftover energy was abundant, because the source of creation had left the hot spot. Rung realized giddily, reading the energy with a smile that would seem manic to the outside perspective.
He was merely excited is all.
Rung was fascinated by the leftover creation energy, it seemed so much like it was Rung's own energy, yet different. He could manipulate it, he found with glee. Coaxing the energy to gather around him. It took effort. It'd been so long since he'd even handled creation energy, the last time had been the Matrix during Nova's harvest for cold construction.
But this?
This was different.
This was his old power, during the battle with Unicron, he wielded this energy. Created Vector Sigma with this energy, the Matrix. It had been his. Rung's. Primus'.
Now it wasn't.
Someone else had it now.
And Rung wanted them, because they were his.
"I wonder." Rung murmured, smiling to himself as he held a servo up. A crystal slowly formed, dim and dark. A photonic crystal, made by his current power. It was different from the crystal sparks embedded in the fields, different from the crystals that made Vector Sigma and the Matrix. Because it was empty. No energy within whatsoever. And whatever energy Rung would have tried to make— it wasn't creation. Not anymore.
However, now that he was surrounded by the leftover creative energy…
Rung watched.
Enthralled as the energy began to seep into the crystal. The once empty crystal began to absorb the leftover creation energy, and soon, Rung was now holding a living spark in his servos.
"Heh… hehehehe…" His frame shook as he held up the spark, optics wide and dentae flashing sharply from his smile. "This… Haha… THIS SPARK— HAHA- AHAHAHAH!" Laughter spilled from his derma as he held the spark up in the air, watching it flare a bright red.
"My sweet! I don't know who you are, but you're mine! This spark— it's ours! Made by my crystal and your energy!" Rung exclaimed to no one, inner circuits firing at a rapid pace, steam escaping his vents as energon flowed quickly through his cables in euphoric excitement. "I will find you! I will have you! That, I promise!"
Whoever left behind the energy, whoever reignited Pious Pools and started the Chromatic Harvest as his people would soon call it; they were Rung's.
As for this precious spark…
Rung left it in the fields.
He had no plans to raise a sparkling after all, and despite the wonderful creation; he still did not want to raise a sparkling.
But Rung didn't leave it on its own, oh no.
It was a special creation after all. By him and his sweet little creator.
Rung gathered sentio-metallica, providing his precious creation with more than enough to survive. In fact, considering the circumstances of his creation…
It was certainly a surprise to a nearby harvestor when they found a nearly fully-formed protoform in the dimmer side of the Pious Pool sparkfield. It was clearly a One-Percenter spark if it was already nearly fully formed!
Ecstatic, the sparkling was immediately sent from Pious Pools to Iacon, to be given to a proper blacksmith and caretaker.
Orion Pax would be ignorant to his special creation, yet there was something in his spark that felt off from the moment his processors began to learn and understand.
Meanwhile, Rung would now have a new goal;
Find his lovely little creator and claim them as he rightfully should.