“You needn’t make that promise to me,” Optimus Prime tells Axis. “Swear it to yourself and to your allies.”
Optimus looks away from Axis and cocks his head to one side as he somehow receives Firestorm’s transmission, despite his physical form being on the other end of the galaxy on Trecedim. Firestorm would hear a strange ringing sound through his communicator- some kind of feedback, maybe, as the circumstances of this encounter prevented Optimus from responding on the nonverbal comms. He waves to get Quintus Prime’s attention, and the spindly Prime of life drifts over to the old Knight headmaster.
“The quintessons are not my progeny, no,” Quintus says quietly. "Nor are they in any other way related to our people, as far as anyone has discerned. Our similar names and appearances are purely coincidental- at least, I hope so.
“Ah, but, I believe it is rude to talk about people behind their backs,” he adds, nodding toward Kitai as the ghost of Nova Prime storms off. (@MakutaOisli)
“What she has done thus far is impressive, yes- but whatever is to come may very well be what truly defines her as a Prime,” Sentinel says to Maximus as the predacon leaves. With our heroes having dispersed to speak to the specters of the other Primes while they can, the 1316th Prime turns his attention back to his empty sarcophagus. Where his body truly rested was far less glamorous, and his death had been painful. He has long-since accepted that final humiliation as penance for his failures as a leader.
Maximus wouldn’t find any Matrix-bearers from the Prime Colonies, apart from Axis. Those worlds had been isolated from the galaxy until only five thousand years ago, and so the lineage of the Primes had consisted almost entirely of people from Cybertron and the original colony planets. Among the many hundreds of specters are figures like Armax Prime, a tall red woman holding a similarly-enormous spear; Bombasticus Prime, the neon-colored Junkion who had shouted down Nova Prime earlier; Duplicitous Prime, a minicon with a featureless black visor for a face and no discernable alt-mode; and Manos Prime, famous for losing his left hand in a duel with a human warlord- his spirit even lacks the appendage.
The Knight guardians and the Angelicon stewards keep silent and out of the way as our heroes go about their business, with the other visitors having been cleared out. The Tomb of the Primes strangely feels both very empty and somewhat overcrowded at once, because of the ghostly inhabitants that temporarily occupied it. They will leave, and the Tomb will return to its prior darkened state, whenever Axis sees fit to dismiss them.
A ripple of pink and yellow light washes over the pendant, then disappears. “There you go,” Alpha Trion says. “A few documents that you and the other Followers may find interesting: some long-lost records from the Golden Age, a few theological texts written by my fellow Primes, and Solus’s original schematics for your vehicle. It isn’t much, given the limited capacity of your device, but I hope it can be put to good use.”
With the necropolis temporarily brightened by whatever strange energies pulled the spirits of the Primes here, searching for Razor shouldn’t be too hard.
“Hey, we’re traveling with the Prime, two Knights of Cybertron, and Beta Maxx,” Salvage says. “Maybe even a god, if that walking scrap-pile’s somehow not completely insane,” he adds with a short laugh. It’s clear he doesn’t buy that story, either.
“We have strings to pull, man. We could probably hitch a ride on Excalibur II if we asked nicely. My best friend also happens to be the President-Czar-God-King of Junkion, and I helped save the universe a few millennia back. We’ve got resources.”
Outside the bridge’s main viewport, the civilians who had been escorted out of the Tomb of the Primes have now redirected their attention to the Pulsar. None are approaching the ship, though many are watching it ponderously- and examining its battle damage, in particular. The two Knights guarding he Tomb’s entrance have been dissuading the onlookers from taking pictures or videos, but some may have been able to steal a few quick photos when they weren’t looking.