Lessons Learned

The Age of Evolution

Alright everyone, time for lesson two. Not much to say on this chapter, I just hope everyone enjoys it

"Okay everyone." Arcee said as she walked into the classroom. It was a few days since her last lesson and she only now had a small window where all her students would be available. She planned an appropriately short lesson to accommodate. "Does anyone have questions about our last lesson before we continue?" Looking out at the group she saw Lightbrights' servo raised. "Yes Lightbright."

"During your last lesson you said Nexus Prime gathered and hid most of the other Primes' artefacts. Have any of them ever been found?" She asked.

Arcee nodded. "Yes actually, a few have been found over the years. We even have a couple of them here at the base."

"Woah really, which ones?" Lightbright asked excitedly.

"We have Primas' Star Saber for a start." Arcee began. "In addition, we have Solus Primes Forge Hammer." She finished with a grin at the look of awe on the Camins' faces.

"There's also the Enigma of Combination, which the Decepticons have." Raf added quietly, the mention of that relic brought Arcee back to reality with a bump.

"We even found Megatronus' Requiem Blaster and Vector Primes' Blades of time after The Ark left Cybertron." Arcee continued trying to change the subject. "Albeit they were lost in later conflicts."

She cleared her throat. "But getting onto the subject of todays' lesson. A lesson I think our Maximal students will enjoy. We will now cover the time between the three Primes entering the well of all sparks to the great cataclysm."

Taking a glance over her notes, Arcee began the lesson. "After Thirteen, Onyx Prime and Micronus Prime entered the well, there was a massive upheaval shook the planet. From the well of all sparks came a beam of light from Onyx Primes' Triptych Mask which scanned the heavens, collecting information on the vast amounts of life in the universe."

"For three days after the light subsided, a tsunami of new lifeforms surged out from the well." Arcee continued. "Mostly small beings at first, but soon larger ones began to emerge. Ones that looked like modern Cybertronians. Among the first was the reduced and simplified form of Thirteen who ultimately blended into the crowd."

"On the last day of this surge, came two races of gargantuan creatures. The Maximals, and the Predacons. The first Being the Primal and the Predaking with their followers." Arcee smiled slightly seeing that she now had the current Maximals undivided attention.

"Once the well had finished its' work, it would only send forth new life to replace the dead or introduce new forms of life. Either from the well directly, or from what we now call hot spots." She checked her notes again. "However, in the aftermath of what had happened to the primes, Prima and Alpha Trion agreed to keep the ability to transform a secret from the newborn lifeforms."

"Pardon my language." Raf said. "But that was a dick move." His comment got a lot of looks. Who knew Raf could cuss.

"Perhaps, and it did come back to bite the whole planet in the aft in the end, but that's another lesson." Arcee rebutted.

"Now, the Maximals and Predacons of old, while powerful, were of two different schools of thought. The Primal believed that all beings could coexist peacefully with each other and the planet. Predaking however, believed that the strongest should rule all and all life should earn the right to exist." She continued. "Predaking often culled his own tribe by forcing them to battle amongst each other."

She gave a shudder. "The Predacons had also taken to attacking any humanoid Cybertronians that they came across in their territory, often devouring them." Arcee paused a moment to let that statement sink in. "The ancient Maximals, while peaceful began to defend anyone the Predacons attacked. The resulting conflicts would later become known, as the Beast Wars."

"Ultimately, despite their greater numbers, the Maximals lost the ancient Beast Wars. Primarily because while great warriors in their own right, they refused to instigate battles, preferring to safeguard any of the Predacons potential victims. After the Primal was slain in battle against an assault by the Predaking, Prima himself intervened." Arcee said.

Miko snorted quietly. Took him long enough.

"After a fierce battle, Prima forced the Predaking into submission. His prize, a promise that the Predacons would no longer kill humanoid Cybertronians and in exchange, he would leave the Predacons to their own devices."

"Unfortunately, this era came to an end not long after, in what we now call the great cataclysm." Arcee continued. "On Cybertrons' course through the cosmos, it came by a dying red star along with its' exploding fifth planet. Unfortunately, a large number of meteors were drawn to the planet as it passed by."

Arcee paused. "While the remaining Primes deflected what meteors they could, a sizeable number still made planetfall, knocking Cybertron closer to the dying star. This plunged Cybertron into a nuclear winter, which while devastating as it was, was not as critical as the massive solar flares that seared the planet from the dying sun."

"The few remaining Primes gathered as many Cybertronians as they could and led them into underground caverns. Teaching them how to enter stasis lock, that's a kind of catatonic state." Arcee explained to the confused Maximals. "They then waited for the surface to be safe for habitation once again."

"Many of the smaller forms of life on Cybertron went extinct in the cataclysm. Others were greatly reduced in number." Arcee paused. "This is also the last mention of the Maximals, Predacons or Prima in known history." She concluded.

"So, wait." Allison said as she checked her own notes. "That planet just happened to explode as Cybertron was passing? And that knocked into range of the solar flares?"

Arcee nodded. "The truth about the cataclysm and its' cause would not be known for many years." She looked at the clock. "That however is going to have to be our next lesson."

"I wanna go see Solus Primes' hammer." Lightbright exclaimed, getting up. Nautica and Velocity nodding their agreement.

Arcee smiled. "Okay slight field trip on our way up." She spoke.

"I think we'll have to pass Arcee." Jack said as the other Maximals gathered. "We've seen the artefacts already and we have lessons to get to."

"Alright partner, have fun." Arcee said, following the Camins out of the room.

"I can't tell if that was a joke or not." Miko whispered, as the Maximals left the classroom.

A/N- Okay, that was a relatively brief chapter on what came after the thirteen. I decided to create my own equivalent of the original Beast Wars show in this chapter as a way to explain the Maximals having existed in the past. To that end, I created Primal to be a foil to the ancient Predaking.

Now full disclosure here, after this chapter I'll be picking and choosing various elements of both the IDW and Aligned timelines. I'll try to blend them together seamlessly but if there's something that needs fixed, please point it out politely.

Next Lesson-The Quintessons