Out of the One, Many

The rules of the multiverse change, and the evil Optimus Prime is reborn...

Synopsis

In a metaphysical realm, Nexus Prime monologues to himself. Long ago, two powerful swords were forged by Solus Prime, blacksmith of the Thirteen. The first was the Terminus Blade; designed to allow the Thirteen to travel from universe to universe to stop primordial Unicron. As their power grew and technology marched on, the sword was tossed aside, left forgotten. The other sword, the Star Saber, was also lost, but not unintentionally. Its power was great, and Megatronus, jealous of its power, turned on his brothers and sisters. To prevent further conflict, Solus used her Forge to split it into five pieces, with Nexus splitting himself into five components as well, each entrusted with safeguarding a piece, so that it would never be reunited. But when the evil Ultra Magnus of the "Shatteredverse" recovered the Terminus Blade and used it to spread destruction throughout the multiverse, Nexus knew he had to retrieve the Star Saber once more. Having recovered the pieces, Nexus uses the two blades to inoculate the multiverse from further destruction. His brothers and sisters gather around him in the metaphysical plane; some are there to aid him, while others try to stop him. Ultimately, Nexus is successful; after healing the still-living universe touched by the destruction, he begins altering the rules of the multiverse, strengthening the barriers in-between universes. As his alterations go into affect, he begins to feel himself separate; the newly-built walls mean that he and his siblings can no longer exist as singularities, and all of them separate into countless forms, each one with a separate identity for each timeline. Primus and Unicron prove no less immune; the Chaos Bringer howls as his power is diminished, with one iteration, filled with light rather than darkness, finds his way to the Shatteredverse...

...and there, the benevolent Unicron has come across the mortally wounded Optimus Prime, betrayed by his former underling Rodimus. Unicron explains that while other Unicrons seek only entropy, he seeks extrophy, bringing truth and enlightenment to the cosmos, embracing the individuality of every Cybertronian. Optimus rejects the god's offer to sooth his mind of the chaos, believing that Unicron wishes to brainwash him. Unicron decides to seek an alternate route; he proclaims that he has seen Optimus' greatest victory, causing Prime to demand to see how it happens. Unicron offers a brief taste of enlightenment, and Prime, enraptured, accepts his offer. Unicron begins to revive and reformat the Autobots into the Knights of Unicron: Brawn becomes X-Brawn, the champion. Prowl becomes Checkpoint, the guardian, while Inferno and Ratchet become his patrolmen, the Autotroopers. Finally, Optimus Prime is reformatted as well, becoming Nova Prime! His sanity restored, Nova promises Unicron that he will stop Rodimus and the evil Autobots, once and for all. Unicron ensures that he has faith in his new disciple, but senses something else; another light to aid him in the oncoming fight...

Back on Cybertron, Rodimus sits on Prime's former throne room in Iacon, bragging about Prime's defeat. His stories are interrupted, however, when Nova and his knights are teleported in, offering Rodimus one chance to surrender. Recognizing his former leader, Rodimus refuses, and the Autobots engage the knights. Nova takes Rodimus one-on-one; his former underling is disturbed by Nova's new found morality. Nova swiftly defeats Rodimus, using his axe to throw him out of the tower window and into the depths of Cybertron. Rodimus' fall, however, is stopped by a number of spikes; when he finally reaches the ground, the moaning Autobot is confronted by a voice, proclaiming him his new "chosen one". The voice, belonging to a massive face on the wall, explains that he has had a revelation recently. Disgusted by all the so-called "impurities" on his surface, the evil Primus declares that it's high time... for a mass extinction!

Featured characters

Characters in italics appear only in flashback. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

• Characters mentioned include: Galvatron.

Continuity notes

• This story takes place after the prologue published at the start of the storyline, with the second page almost immediately following on from Unicron greeting Optimus in the prologue.

• After having been around for over ten years, first made explicit with the "Balancing Act" storyline after indications from stories published in the early 2000s, the concept of multiversal singularities is retired. The concept became harder and harder to justify with the takes on the Thirteen in both the "Aligned" continuity and IDW Publishing's contemporary Generation 1 comics, and as such, it was given one final outing in its last year. Both the Ask Vector Prime sections in The Complete AllSpark Almanac and its page on Facebook hinted massively at this, with Vector heavily affected by the upcoming dissolution of multiversal singularities. His final post on September 30, 2015 indicated that he was going to meet with his brothers and sisters as Nexus Prime undertook his task, as seen here. In the panel where the Thirteen gather, thirteen figures can be seen, although some are harder to discern than others. From left to right:
  • A pair of legs whose details match up with Cybertron Soundwave's. This is Galaxy Force Soundblaster, who was revealed to be Logos Prime in the Beast Wars Reborn prose stories, published in the Japanese Figure Ō magazine.
  • A squat orange and blue robot, with what appears to be an Autobot insignia for a face. Although the general proportions are off, the shape of his face and color scheme indicates he's likely to be the Last Autobot from the final two issues of the Marvel The Transformers comics, who was revealed to be a member of the Thirteen on the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime, wherein Vector Prime also revealed his real name was Autonomous Maximus.
  • Vector Prime, who appears in his original Cybertron body and colors. He also appears in the first panel of the story, alongside The Fallen and the Shattered Glass versions of Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus.
  • A teal-colored mustachioed bot, who first appeared as a bartender of Maccadam's Old Oil House (his depiction here retroactively making him none other than Maccadam himself) in issue #240 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic. His teal coloration was first given in an illustration published in The Ultimate Guide, a book that also mentioned that drunken rumors surrounded Maccadam's past, claiming him to be one of the Thirteen. Several stories further hinted at this, including the prose story "Prime Spark" from the Transformers Legends anthology. A discarded concept by Fun Publications would have likewise used this bartender's coloration for a toy of Maccadam made from Reveal the Shield Perceptor. The Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime took this one step further, hinting at a connection between him and Alchemist Prime, a member of the "Aligned" version of the Thirteen introduced in the Transformers: Exiles novel, and which would later be confirmed as true for the Cyberverse version of Maccadam.
  • Solus Prime, one of the "Aligned" members of the Thirteen, introduced in Transformers: Exiles as well. Her design does not appear to be the one from The Covenant of Primus, but is vaguely Arcee-like, which is likely a reference to another unproduced concept proposed by Fun Pub for a Solus Prime figure that would have been a mostly purple retool of Generations Arcee. Her forge appears as well in the second panel, drawn to the specifications of its appearance in the Prime cartoon (the aforementioned Fun Pub Solus concept would have featured a gold version of the Forge accessory that came with Prime: Beast Hunters Ultra Magnus).
  • An orange, winged, vaguely bird-like figure. This is probably meant to be Onyx Prime, introduced in The Covenant of Primus. He's meant to be a centaur-like figure, but his main piece of art in the book made this detail hard to tell, something that would affect IDW's version of Onyx a few years down the line.
  • Nexus Prime, in his original Timelines toy body. His individual components also appear in the second panel as headshots.
  • An as-of-yet unidentified blue and yellow robot, with spiky "hair".
  • Prima, the original Transformer, in his gray body from the "Aligned" continuity, as first seen in the guidebook Transformers Vault.
  • A blue-purple lion, who might be intended to be Alpha Trion. The original Trion was intended to show up in the 3H Enterprises The Wreckers comics, with an accompanying toy redecoed from the Beast Machines Maximal lion Snarl. The "Aligned" version of Alpha Trion, meanwhile, was established to be a member of the Thirteen. The Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime claimed that, after the "Uniend Cluster" (what the TransTechs called the "Aligned" continuity) was reintegrated with the main multiverse, the various versions of Alpha Trion began converging into a singular state.
  • A green and spiky robot with head similar to Generation 1 Megatron. Though it doesn't resemble any version of the character, this is presumably meant to be the Liege Maximo, introduced in Marvel's Generation 2 comics. Aside from the obvious color and spikes, the final issue of Generation 2 hinted that the Liege was Megatron's ancestor. An unused Fun Pub proposal for a Liege Maximo toy was a redeco Generations Skullgrin, likely explaining the somewhat bulky proportions of this design.
  • A yellow and blue robot with a beard and a spiked helmet. While not confirmed to be anyone as-of-yet, we would be remiss to not point out the vague resemblance this character bears to the first pre-Decepticon "military hardware" robots seen created by the Quintessons in the flashback sequence of "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4"; the bearded face of one of these robots (perhaps the original template on which they were all based?) would later be seen as one of the oldest robots residing within the Matrix of Leadership in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2".
  • The Fallen, as seen in his original design from the Dreamwave Productions mini-series, The Dark Ages. He's only visible from behind, but his head-crest, along with his headshot in the first panel, make his identity obvious.
• The Terminus Blade is finally given an origin here, introduced back in "Invasion" as simply as a sword with connections to the Thirteen. Its effects on the multiverse have been document in various TransTech stories, starting with "Invasion Prologue". The Star Saber, meanwhile, was first introduced in Nexus Prime's profile in issue #30 of the Collectors' Club magazine, which first mentioned the sword's separation and told the story of Nexus Prime's quest to recollect its pieces; the fact that it was Solus who split apart the sword is a detail added in the Facebook Ask Vector Prime retelling of the Star Saber's origin.
• Shattered Glass Fortress Maximus' corpse can be seen in the Autobot throne room; his sole previous appearance in "Reunification: Part 3" showed that he was covertly assassinated by the Quintessons. Also seen is the smelting pool, long established to be Optimus' favorite method of execution in various Shattered Glass stories. Along with that, Nova mentions his former penchant for hanging up the corpses of his foes as macabre "trophies".

Transformers references

• "Another Light" continues to reference The Transformers: The Movie in both its visuals and dialogue.
  • The scene of Unicron's contact with Megatron and his reformatting is the main one in this chapter. Unicron's dialogue from "very well" and onwards is flipped, with lines like "proceed on your way to oblivion" becoming "way to enlightenment"; Prime paraphrases dialogue as well, specifically Megatron's "I accept your terms!" The recreation of the Autobots goes in the reverse order to that of the film; X-Brawn's creation mirrors the creation of Cyclonus (minus his Armada); Checkpoint and the Autotroopers' creation mirrors the creation of Scourge and his Sweeps; and Optimus Prime's recreation into Nova Prime mirrors that of Megatron's recreation into Galvatron.
  • While there is no actual coronation scene, Rodimus is seen addressing the assembled Autobots, much like Starscream addressing the assembled Decepticons. When Nova Prime arrives, Rodimus paraphrases Starscream's famous quote: "Megatron? Is that you?"
  • Rodimus' fall into the depths of Cybertron mirrors his counterpart's fall into the depths of Unicron, complete with spikes breaking his fall.
  • Nova proclaims that he and Rodimus were meant to be "instruments of progression, not destruction." "Instruments of Destruction" was a song by the band N.R.G., part of the soundtrack of the movie.
• Unicron also appears in the gathering of the Thirteen, seemingly based on the solid-orange Vok hologram generated from Optimus Primal's memories in the Beast Wars episode "Other Voices, Part 1".
• One of the Unicrons seen "splitting off" from the fractured entity's head seems to be colored after the Lucky Draw "Unicron of Light" from the Legends of the Microns toyline (the Japanese version of Armada), based on the combined form of the Mini-Cons from the Armada episodes "Union" and "Origin".
• The Knights of Unicron are named after the musical ensemble of the same name, a set of four exclusive toys sold at San Diego Comic-Con 2014. Aside from Nova (who, in IDW's original continuity, was the former master of that version of Galvatron), its members include:
  • X-Brawn, reformatted from Brawn. Named for the Robots in Disguise Autobot, he's a "virtual" redeco of Combiner Wars Rook, using the color scheme of Robots in Disguise Rook. Of note, he uses the Rook mold's "pretooled" head, designed for a version of Brawl made for the mold. See Ironclad's page for more details.
  • Checkpoint, reformatted from Prowl. He's named after an K-Mart exclusive Autobot from the Energon toyline, redecoed from Energon Rodimus and sold in a two-pack with the Energon version of Prowl. He's a "virtual" redeco of Combiner Wars Offroad, using the Trailbreaker head and Energon Checkpoint's colorschemes.
  • Inferno and Ratchet become the Autotroopers. They're named after the generic Autobot policemen from Animated, who were themselves based on the man-made Transformers known as the Autoroopers from Kiss Players. Like Checkpoint, they're "virtual" redecos of Combiner Wars Offroad, but use the "pretooled" Hoist head designed for the Trailbreaker version of the mold.
• Rodimus' position as Primus' "chosen one" mirrors his counterpart from the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, who was called "the Chosen One" multiple times in its third season after his transformation into Rodimus Prime.
• Primus' depiction in this chapter, as a face in the core of Cybertron, is based on his depiction in the original Marvel The Transformers comics. His "face" is more closely based on the Autobot symbol, however.

Real-world references

• The chapter's title is a reference to the Latin phrase "E pluribus unum", a motto of the United States of America which is traditionally translated as "out of many, one".
• Extropy is a real-life, pseudoscientifc concept, mostly originating from the transhumanist movement.

Other trivia

• The Timelines Nova Prime toy had heavily been hinted in both advertisements and the toy's tech specs to be the redeemed and reformatted Shattered Glass Optimus Prime, as finally revealed here. The toy still serves as a version of the Nova Prime from the original IDW Generation 1 continuity, however.
• Nexus refers to his brothers and sisters, despite there supposedly being only one in the multiversal version of the Thirteen. As Ask Vector Prime had shown, however, the Thirteen already were different genders in some branches of themselves, and Nexus Prime's actions had already affected the Thirteen's membership even before he undertook them.
• Similarly, Vector Prime's appearance in his original coloration goes against that of his Ask Vector Prime appearance, which uses his 2009 Universe toy's colors, but this could easily be because of the metaphysical nature of the realm he and the others are in.