The blast shattered through his chest, his spark sputtering like a dying star.
Orion Pax fell, silently, his frame greying as he descended. He had made a choice, and he was ok with the risk it brought. That was what he'd told D-16 so many times, in late-night whispers beneath rusted towers and miner’s lights. It felt like forever ago now. A different lifetime.
He remembered the warmth in D’s voice then. The way it softened when they were alone. The way Orion had leaned in once, just once and D had let him. Had wrapped his servos him around him back, trembling like he was afraid the whole world might catch fire.
But now, the only fire was in his chassis.
He fell through Cybertron’s crust, layer after layer parting for him like a grave making room. The planet carried him, reverently, deeper into its heart.
Light, impossibly bright, flooded him. The voices of the Primes, ancient and thunderous, rose in chorus.
“Primus has deemed you worthy.”
The Matrix descended divine, perfect. Meant to cleanse, to elevate. But something within Orion twisted that purity. The betrayal. The pain. The love D had thrown away like scrap metal on the floor, he'd be better than than sentinel, than megatronus if that's what it took to change D's mind then so be it.
The Matrix cracked. And when it rebuilt him, it didn’t make Optimus Prime
It made something else, someone else.
The ground above the battlefield trembled, then exploded in a column of violet light.
Megatron,no longer D-16, turned to the crater, his optics narrowing. The battle stilled behind him. Even the High Guard, even Elita, frozen at the edge of disbelief.
The mech who rose from the crater was no longer Orion Pax.
Taller now, frame a deep burning violet lined with black, dark as the void between stars,and venomous green. His optics gleamed a glowing red, but not with rage.
“Orion...?” Megatron breathed, his whisper a breath on the wind.
He stepped onto the scorched platform, helm tilting, that smile stretching just a little too wide. “You can’t destroy everything Sentinel built, D-16” he said, voice smooth like oil, but sharp at the edges. “It’s mine now.”
“But it could be ours, D.”
Megatron flinched. At the offer and at the name. No one would ever call him that anymore, D-16 was dead.
“I died for you,” Nemesis continued, voice low, almost reverent. “I loved you. I still do. Even now. Even after you let me fall.”
“Orion...” Megatron’s voice cracked.
“Ahh No,” Nemesis said, stepping closer, “that's not my name anymore. I'm Nemesis Prime."
He reached out, gently brushing Megatron’s jaw with digits that could crush steel.
“You made me into this,” he whispered. “So I’m going to make everything ours. The city. The guard. The planet.”
He leaned in, optics glowing inches from Megatron’s.
“Or I’ll burn it all until there’s nothing left but you and me.”
And with that, Nemesis turned his gaze to the High Guard, who stood awaiting his orders.
“Kill the rest,” he said, smiling down a megatron like he making a vow. “Leave him.”
