15This is the last prologue chapter, we're going to the series start right after this.
Paradigm Shifts
Elita stared at the picture of her, Sentinel and Optimus. She felt exhausted, but she just couldn't rest.
Sentinel had always been a social climber. Courting him had been an opportunity to advance her own career, and as much as she had enjoyed being with him ... looking back now there had been a few red flags.
Not that she had been much better.
Optimus has been unfailingly polite and supportive... and if he had asked to court her first, she'd have said yes.
She'd considered asking him but Sentinel... could be charming when he wanted.
Her mistake. One she wouldn't be making again. Elita started to put the picture away before hesitating.
Fire star had said that choosing to change little things helped. Maybe if she got promoted to Prime, she'd get a new paint job. Elita traced her servo over Optimus's image. Red was a striking color, Speedbreaker's annoying habit aside, it would be a nice change.
If she was promoted, she would change the black parts of her paint job to red, she'd keep the gold paint.
Decision made, she put the picture away.
The Tlalak System
Optimus marveled at the difference between organic planets, where Arachna 7 had been barren mountains, this one in the Tlalak system was mostly forest.
"Ah, the energon deposit is still here." Tarantulas cackled and began talking with Strika.
A faint beeping sound caught Optimus' audials. While Tarantulas was distracted, Optimus left to find the source.
What he found was a surprise. A pre-war cybertronian land based drone, stuck in the mud.
They'd been a cause of contention for the mere fact that most had sparks and had been sent out to space with low retrieval rates.
Very gently, he pulled it out of the mud. It chirped at him.
Something rustled the foliage nearby. Optimus tensed, but nothing jumped out at him.
"What have you found?" Tarantulas dropped down from the opposite direction and cheerfully used the link to plunder Optimus's memories of the last few moments.
Optimus fell to his knees in pain, unable to prevent the memories from being viewed.
"Well now, this gives me an idea." Tarantulas trapped the drone, and smiled. "I think we shall start your final upgrades once we return to the ship."
Every small moment of time was counted as Optimus knew that nothing good would come from the final (though he doubted that they would be) upgrades.
He did his best to focus on anything else as he loaded the transport shuttle, but it was inevitable.
Once the shuttle was unloaded, Optimus wearily followed Tarantulas back to the lab. There was just no point in fighting this time, (even if he did escape, the other decepticons would just force him back) so he just lay down on the slab as Tarantulas cackled.
That's when he heard the distressed chirping of the drone. Tarantulas was pulling it apart, it looked like, only to attach various cords and cables to the now exposed spark chamber.
Optimus shuddered on the slab. He didn't want this. The sparked drone on the nearby table let out a final distress signal as Tarantulas finished the modifications to its spark housing.
"There we go, spark's definitely starting to sputter out, but if my study of symbiotic programming is correct, you should be able to stabilize it." Tarantulas cackled. "I'll be finishing your reconstruction as well... don't worry, this time, I need you to be in stasis. You won't feel a thing!" Tarantulas chuckled.
Optimus was terrified suddenly, at the concept of being operated on while he was in stasis. He wouldn't know what was happening and Tarantulas had proven untrustworthy... there was a terrifying certainty that when he onlined again, he would never be the same.
Optimus attempted to get up, to fight one last time, but it was too late, he fell back with a thud and the last thing he heard was the all to familiar cackle.
He was floating, a light flickering out in front of him, as if it would go out.
He was scared to, but he could help. The flickering light was scared, and slammed into him.
He was alone for so long, no way to measure, abandoned, they'd promised to retrieve but never had ...
Something broke. Fused together and came apart, and when it was over they didn't know which memory was whose.
When Nemesis finally woke, It was to Tarantulas cackling.
"Time to show you off." The spider crooned, and Nemesis obediently followed him to the bridge. "Look who's finally complete."
"What have you done?" Strika stared at the autobot. Rebuilt to be bigger and bulkier, less styliized and more sturdy. As silent as he had been, there had still been personality one could see and sense from his em field. Now he stood almost stiffly, and there was nothing in his em field. Much like those that had been captured by the senate in the very beginning of the war for being dissidents.
Reprogramming was one thing, this blankness was another.
"Oh, the process of making him and the drone symbiotic resulted in programming crossover. It'll even out eventually." Tarantulas waved, and the autobot transformed, releasing the drone that drove around and then returned to Nemesis. "Useful for exploration, don't you think?"
"We'll see." Strika saw Cyclonus grip the rail in front of him, optics blazing with barely controlled fury. She'd have to deal with him later.
Cyclonus wanted to rage and yell at Nemesis, snap him out of this blankness that was just wrong for him. It didn't matter that this wasn't the Optimus Prime he knew, it was just wrong to see him like this.
Would his brothers and Galvatron even exist now?!
What did he do now? Could he even reach the other through battle, like the autobot's companions once had? If this drone-like compliance was permanent ... would Prime ever be able to fight off Tarantulas's hold over Prime's processor?
Cyclonus watched as Nemesis walked away, to do whatever he was ordered, and could only feel despair.
The same despair he would feel as he watched Megatron brand Nemesis, and still no sign of the last Prime being able to fight Tarantulas off.
And just like that, Optimus is now fully Nemesis.
