Dear Vector Prime, When the Last Autobot turned Hi-Q into Optimus Prime, what happened to Hi-Q's body? Did his consciousness cease to exist? Were his own memories and personality overridden by that of Prime's? Does his original, organic Nebulan body still exist, entombed within Optimus' body?
Dear Q Querier,
That’s a very good question. When the Nebulan bio-engineer Doctor Arcana conceived of the binary bonding process, it was with a clear objective in mind: to grant Nebulan pilots fine motor control over Cybertronian bodies, connecting their nervous systems to the circuitry either remotely via radio or through a physical link at the neck. The original minds of the Autobots would themselves remain in radio contact with their human successors, providing invaluable cultural and strategic insight.
In practice, however, Arcana was no neuroscientist—and nobody involved in the project was prepared for the shift in qualia that would accompany the combination. The unique superposition of their brainwaves led to strange patterns of interference, their thoughts perfectly entangled with one another. Organic minds have much greater elasticity than our central processors, and show remarkable adaptability when converting our digital sensory input to analog sensations—so these gestalt beings would usually come to self-identify by their Cybertronian name. Assimilation failure, where the binary bond would fail to reconcile the two individuals within the body, is rare, but not unheard of: amongst the Autobots, Chromedome and Stylor would struggle most to overcome their differences, and have had the operation reversed post-war.
As an extension of Primus, the Last Autobot was blessed with a glimpse of his plan—and though he was initially surprised by the alien form the Chosen One had taken, it was the work of moments to perfect the binary bond between them, melding spark and soul into a singular life, embodied as a techno-organic fusion. The human body which had once belonged to Hi-Q was suffused with Nucleon, and seated there, intact, behind the windows in Prime’s chest. This was something of a vestigial organ, for in truth, the combination went much deeper; the two were bonded at a molecular level, Hi-Q’s DNA replicated throughout Prime’s genetic code. However, as a side-effect of the body’s enshrinement, Optimus Prime was unable to transform.
Perhaps Primus had intended this to be a sign of his will: that the war would end, the Cybertronian race no longer needing to change to meet its needs. Alas, were this the case, the universe had darker designs still. As battle called, Prime underwent surgery to remove the physical remnant of Hi-Q, restoring access to his alt-mode at the cost of the preternatural energy he possessed. At the request of Hi-Q’s relatives, an exemption was made to allow a number of Cybertronians passage to Nebulos, so that a funeral could be held. At the wake, Prime gave a short eulogy, in which he insisted that Hi-Q was not in fact dead, which gravely upset many of the mourners. The funeral marked the last time Prime would visit the planet.
Optimus Prime and Hi-Q were both great leaders who shared similar values of peace and freedom. In the wake of their merging, these feelings were only amplified, leaving their convictions stronger than ever before. However, both had struggled in the past to share their inner thoughts with others, preferring to bear their burdens alone. If Prime remembers being Hi-Q, or if he still thinks of himself as Hi-Q from time to time… he’s never said. However, it brings me some comfort to imagine that the self-doubt which troubled them both would have interfered destructively with their enormous mutual respect—leaving a self-acceptance that neither had independently known.