Transformers Prime: I am Allspark

That afternoon, Alpha Trion finally left his office to stretch his old joints, and he could feel his spine actually thanking him for getting out of his chair. He was living proof that even beings of godlike status could be defeated by time.

He walked through the library and noticed that the place was cleaner than it normally would be if he had bothered to clean it. [Orion finally decided to clean the library?] he thought as he entered the library rooms and saw that everything was neat and tidy.

"Orion, are you here?"

The old Prime decided to check his own library as a precaution, worried about his apprentice.

[Orion isn't the type to do something like this, when he's usually so busy reading hundreds of files every day.] He thought, very worried that his disciple had some defect or hit his head to have such a change of attitude.

Alpha Trion searched the entire library section, ignoring the thorough cleaning that had been done, though the work was spectacular to the point of making everything shine like new.

"Where is the boy?" Alpha Trion put his hand to his chin, using all of his neural processors to remember if his pupil had a special place he usually stayed in the library. His eyes widened as he remembered a nostalgic scene from when he first met him.

It was even funny for the veteran Prime to remember the day when Orion had entered the library out of curiosity when he was very young and had accidentally gotten lost because the place was a maze for the less experienced. He couldn't help but smile as he remembered finding Orion in one of the library's secret rooms, specifically the room where Cybertron's original archives were kept in their most archaic form, as there was no server system to accumulate knowledge. This location can be considered the first prototype of what the current IACON Library would look like.

Alpha Trion approached a dead end hallway, which to most would be just a boring wall and nothing special, but in fact hid an ancient entrance to Cybertron's earliest records, a fair amount of archaic archives, but most of them were outdated, not to mention that few or only he could currently read these files, as far as he knew, as they were written in the original dialects of Cybertron that he and his brothers had created after the war against Unicron.

Alpha Trion clicked a small, inconspicuous button on the wall, not even visible to the naked eye, and opened a secret passage to the room. When he entered, he saw his student holding a metal book, turning the page with a neutral expression, but his eyes reflected a certain conflict in his mind.

"I didn't think you'd come back to this boring place." Alpha Trion walked calmly over to a dusty table with a small pile of books. "So you've learned to read these scriptures. I confess I'm impressed."

"It took me over 10 years to understand the basics, but with time the rest became easier." Orion explained, flipping through the pages, taking a few seconds to comprehend a single word before reading the next. "Sometimes I find one or two more difficult to translate."

"What are you looking for? Maybe I can help."

"No need, Mr. Alpha, I... I just wanted something to distract my mind." Orion whispered almost inaudibly.

"You did a great job cleaning the library. Maybe I should promote you to janitor." Alpha Trion tried to lighten Orion's mood with a silly joke, but even that failed to make his student react. He spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to help his student. It was a situation he wasn't used to, so he didn't know what to say. "Do you... Do you want to vent to me? I'm not very good at many things, but I'm a good listener."

Orion sighed heavily, wondering if he should vent to his master, but he noticed that his master seemed to be waiting patiently. He closed the metal book and placed it on the table, his body visibly tense.

"I really don't know what to say, to be honest, I feel so lost I can't even organize my thoughts." Orion confessed, his blue eyes remaining fixed on the books. "I feel like I'm to blame for everything that's happening on Cybertron, I feel responsible for how D has acted since he got his freedom. I wished so much that he could finally get rid of fighting in that deadly arena, and now it seems that he's in chains again, chains that I feel responsible for putting him in."

Alpha Trion couldn't help but feel sorry for Orion, he understood more than anyone the feeling of guilt for the actions of a brother, a terrible feeling that comes when you think you should have acted differently to prevent certain things from happening the way they did.

"I know more than anyone what he suffered, I know how much he wished for his freedom, but I will not deny that I wished he would let go of his desire for revenge and live a normal life, live with dignity, so he could be proud of what he had accomplished." Orion sighed and closed his eyes as he clenched his fists. "I know it is selfish of me. I know it was natural for him to want to defend the honor of all those who are suffering because of the High Council's mismanagement of the government. But... I did not want him to feel responsible for putting the burden of the world on his shoulders."

Orion can't help but remember how the two of them met, how a simple oversight on his part led him to meet his best friend and cultivate a relationship similar to that of brothers.

"I knew someone would rise up against the government sooner or later, but why did it have to be him? I can see clearly that this won't end well, but I feel worse for not supporting him like I should." Orion looked at his mentor, searching for answers to these conflicting emotions. "Why do I feel so bad that he has become the symbol he is?"

Alpha Trion put his hand on Orion's shoulder, it took him a few seconds to formulate a sentence, because what his pupil felt was very similar to what he had felt when the War of the Primes happened, the feeling of helplessness, the feeling that he could have done something different before the disaster.

"Orion, sometimes people take on great responsibilities and burdens that they cannot carry alone. As a result, these people end up deluding themselves about their true ideas and ideologies because they are so determined to achieve their goal that they end up destroying themselves in the process. Many say that sometimes it is better to work alone to achieve one's goals, but they forget that little things like friendship or family make the most diverse challenges more tolerable." Alpha Trion couldn't help but remember how his brother Prima Prime always took on enormous responsibilities, leaving him little time to enjoy life as a normal bot. "I understand what you are going through, I had a very stubborn brother."

"Did you have a brother?"

"Yes, he is very similar to D-16, he always wanted to act according to his own ideals, even though he was impulsive, he did what he did for the family." Alpha Trion couldn't help but remember Megatronus Prime before the corruption, which made him smile with nostalgia. "D-16 has not abandoned the ideals of which it is proud, but it does not see that it has embarked on a difficult path. To follow such ideas, to try to save the world, is to destroy oneself or one's own happiness."

Orion listened carefully to his mentor and noticed that he also seemed to have some regret in his voice, as if he was scolding or judging himself. "What should I do then?"

"Just follow what your Spark wants, even if you two don't get along now, you're still brothers. So what I recommend from my experience is to have faith." Alpha Trion couldn't help but feel sad as he remembered that fateful day when everything changed for the worse, something that could have easily been avoided. "Try to help him as much as you can, even if it's insignificant, a little support is still a sign that you care about him. Brothers should always be together."

"What if his choices lead to dire consequences? What do I have to do?" Orion couldn't help but ask.

"Then you just have to be strong enough to reprimand your brother and get him back on the right track."

"As simple as that?" Orion stared at his mentor unflinchingly.

"Sometimes brothers can only settle their differences with a good punch in the face, believe me, I speak from experience." Alpha Trion said with a sad smile, as if he wanted to say more but didn't have the courage.