TFO :: 13 Primes

Zeta Prime awoke from a long spell of stasis, feeling a strange emptiness in his chest—as if a part of himself had vanished without a trace. Gathering his strength, he headed to the main chamber of the Council of Primes: it was always bustling with life, where his brothers could dispel any doubts. His brothers stood before him—proud, majestic, but not a spark of recognition flickered in their optical sensors.

"What's your designation, Birtlett? " asked Prima.

"Zeta Prime," he said firmly, looking into the faces of those who once called him brother.

A ringing silence hung in the hall. Zeta...Prime?—

Lidge Maximo asked again, frowning his face shield. The words struck Zeta like a bolt of energon—he froze, unable to move. Memories flashed through his processor: shared battles, oaths sealed with a spark, the voices of his brothers calling his name… And now they looked at him as if he were a stranger. Zeta's voice wavered, but he immediately suppressed the weakness, trying to regain control.

— I stood beside you at the gates of Iacon! I led the vanguard in battle!

His words echoed throughout the hall, but instead of recognition, his brothers' eyes revealed only bewilderment. He knew everything: how he'd erased Zeta's memory from all of Cybertron, how he'd reshaped the past by traveling back in time to erase Zeta from history forever. But now he played his part flawlessly—pretending he was seeing this Prime for the first time, since he was now Prima's apprentice, not Zeta's.

Zeta peered into his face, searching for any hint of deception, but saw only cold certainty. Desperately, he stepped forward, extending his manipulator as if trying to grasp onto an elusive reality. A cold light illuminated a glowing artifact—the Matrix of Leadership. Its facets shimmered, but within their depths, there was no hint of Zeta's image.

• And now she doesn’t see you as who you say you are.

He staggered, as if the energy flow within him had been momentarily interrupted. His past, his achievements, his name—all seemed to have dissolved into thin air, erased by someone's merciless hand.