Sandbox / Transformers Shadows Of The Past

Transformers: Shadows of the Past is a Transformers fanfic by Master_Seven.

In a departure from most Transformers media, it combines the G1 cartoon's origin story with the Primus origin story, depicting the Quintessons as creations of Quintus Prime made to help the Thirteen Primes in the development of early Cybetronians, before being abandoned under mysterious circumstances. Angry and embittered, the Quintessons, led by the Quintesson Tetrad (Quintessa, Judge Klementia, Dr. Cerebro, and Chief Edge^note Adaptations of the Cyberverse Judge, Scientist, and an individual Prosecutor) search the universe for their creators, so they may have their revenge.

• Quintessa
• Edge
• Liege Maximo

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=113395&type=lnfhttps://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/90969984 https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/96365904

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This work contains examples of:

• Achey Scars: The wounds inflicted on Solus by the Requiem Blaster still pain her millions of years later.
• Adaptational Badass: Taking a page from Cyberverse, the Quintessons have been massively upgraded.
  • Quintessa is now a Physical God able to cyberform whole planets, create miniature suns, resurrect sparks, and many more esoteric powers.
  • Klementia, already based on the Cyberverse Judge, can detach their faces into individual bodies to operate.
  • Cerebro isn't a Glass Cannon like the Cyberverse Scientist, being able to take multiple shots and a point-blank sound blast from Soundwave, which was enough to kill his remote bodies. To balance this increased durability, Cerebro doesn't have remote bodies.
  • Edge is an incredibly strong Prosecutor, which were merely hordes of drones in Cyberverse, and has the ability to transfer his mind into the body of any Prosecutor.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • The Quintessons have no grudge against the Cybertronians. The only reason they even attack Cybertron is because it's the easiest way to force the Thirteen out of hiding. By extension, Quintessa, the Scientist, the Judge and Prosecutors, all villains in their home media, are Anti Villains here.
  • Megatronus never became the Fallen here.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Liege Maximo is somehow even worse than usual. Along with his usual crimes, he also sent the Quintesson Homeworld into Unspace out of spite towards Quintus, resulting in the Quintessons thinking they were abandoned, broke the Star Saber because Prima valued it so much, and generally screws over everyone and everything just because he can. While he's always been a dick, this newfound assholery is the result of Unicron corrupting Liege's mind.
• Adaptational Name Change: Before taking on his more familiar name, Liege Maximo was known as Liege Prime, before changing it after being banished by his siblings.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: Twofold. Most Transformers media favour Primus over the Quintessons as their creators, while here, they're both responsible. Alongside that, the Thirteen are named the Quintessons creators.
• Adaptational Species Change: Quintessa is a Quintesson here, while she has no confirmed species in the films, implied to be a Creator.
• All-Loving Hero: Optimus Prime, as usual. His saintly kindness, understanding, and willingness to forgive helps him convince the Quintessons to give up their revenge, and he even talks down Quintessa from killing Liege Maximo, despite acknowledging that she and the Quintessons have every reason to want him dead.
• Ambiguous Situation: While the Thirteen recognize Optimus as the Thirteenth Prime, they all note something about him is just off enough that they're not fully sure if he really is his reincarnation. Liege Maximo refuses to acknowledge Optimus and says the Thirteenth is dead, but given it's Liege Maximo saying so, his word is ignored.
• Antagonist Title: The Quintessons are the titular "Shadows of the Past", the abandoned creations of the Thirteen Primes, returning to menace Cybertron and destroy their creators.
• Apocalypse How: Two.
  • Planetary. After being trapped in Unspace, the Quintesson Homeworld eventually succumbed to quantum disintegration and was destroyed.
  • Stellar. To power New Quintesson, Quintessa drains a sun of its energy, depriving multiple planets of the chance to grow life.
• Artifact of Power: Each of the Thirteen have associated artifacts gifted to them by Primus, and a weapon crafted by Solus.
  • Prima has the Matrix of Leadership, which was built into the Star Saber, turning it into a Laser Blade.
  • Vector has the Blades of Time and Rhisling, his sword from Transformers: Cybertron.
  • Alpha Trion has the Quill and the Covenant of Primus. As his role is to observe and record, he has no weapon.
  • Solus has her Forgehammer. Since the Forgehammer is already so powerful, it doubles as her weapon.
  • Micronus has the Chimera Stone. Since he wields infinite energy and mostly powers others, has no weapon.
  • Alchemist has the Lenses. As he was more of an architect, he didn't request a weapon.
  • Nexus has the Enigma of Combination, which he uses on his sword, Cyber Caliber, to split into the dual swords Chaos Edge and Omni Saber.
  • Onyx has the Triptych Mask. For unknown reasons, he didn't request a weapon.
  • Amalgamous has the Transformation Cog, and a Morph Weapon called the Scythe.
  • Quintus has the Emberstone. Since he mostly oversaw Cybertronian creation, he felt no need for a weapon.
  • Liege Maximo has the Liegian Darts. Instead of a weapon, he had Solus incorporate them into his fingers.
  • Megatronus has the Requiem Blaster. Since he wasn't given an artifact, Solus built the Blaster as the most powerful weapon.
  • The Thirteenth has no artifact or weapon, as the peacekeeper of the Thirteen and a pacifist.
• The Atoner: Ever since he shot and crippled Solus, Megatronus has never left her side, doing everything in his power to protect her.
• Big Bad Ensemble: There are three separate forces at work in the story. There is the Tetrad, who want to punish and kill the Thirteen, Liege Maximo, who's against everyone, including the Thirteen, and Unicron, who's influencing Liege's worst action and trying to bring about the death of Cybertron so he can return to destroy the universe unopposed.
• Blame Game: Despite the Tetrad considering each other family, three are quick to throw each other under the bus. Edge blames Quintessa for possibly angering the Thirteen when the Quintessons are sent into Unspace, Quintessa blames Klementia's indecisiveness for the Thirteen escaping their trial, and Edge again refuses to take any responsibility for his actions and anything else that goes wrong is always the fault the others. Cerebro is the sole exception, since he's occupied making things run smoothly and doesn't care for arguing.
• Brought Down to Normal: To bring back the sun she drained to power New Quintesson, Quintessa uses all of her power to create an entire full-sized sun, falling from her Physical God state to that of a normal Cybertronian
• Combat Pragmatist: The Quintessons fight dirty. Quintessa makes liberal use of her powers, Klementia always opens with Beam Spam and uses Unspace matter as secret weapon, Cerebro fires Cosmic Rust (though they're also laced with antidote shots), and Edge always swarms his opponents with other Prosecutors.
• Deadly Prank: Liege Maximo would constantly play cruel "jokes" on the rest of the Thirteen in the past, such as stabbing Prima with the Star Saber, before revealing it was a hologram, pushing Vector Prime through a time portal without Rhisling to get back, and ripping out Alchemist Prime's lenses (which are basically his optics) for not laughing when he called Amalgamous Prime a freak.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Attempted. Edge takes over the Prosecutor network and activates the self-destruct protocol to kill as many Cybertronians as possible and destroy Cybertron in the resulting blast.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Liege Maximo may be a massive dick that puts even the worst Decepticons to shame, but he genuinely cares about Vigilem, his Titan. He was his only companion during his banishment, and when he eventually went offline, Liege mourned for 100 years.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While all of the Tetrad want revenge on the Thirteen, when Quintessa tries to destroy the AllSpark, Klementia and Cerebro try to stop her, since this would kill not just every Cybertronian alive, but Primus as well. Edge, however, is perfectly fine with that.
• The Exile: Liege Maximo constantly played cruel jokes on his siblings in the past, which they barely tolerated, but after he manipulated Megatronus and Solus into fighting, which almost led to Solus' death, the Thirteen decided he had gone too far, and they voted to banish him to his Titan, Vigilem. They temporarily freed him so he could help defeat Unicron, but after that, refusing to be sent back, he sent all of the Thirteen but Alpha Trion into stasis lock, threw the Thirteenth into the Well of All Sparks, and sent the Quintesson Homeworld into Unspace out of spite towards Quintus for casting the final vote that led to his banishment.
• Final Solution: After failing to destroy Liege Maximo or punish the Thirteen, Quintessa snaps and tries destroy the AllSpark to kill every Cybertronian. Veers into Omnicidal Maniac territory since this would kill Primus as well, and he's essential to the function of the universe.
• Godzilla Threshold: Solus' Forgehammer has its power source of a neutron star as a secret weapon she unleashes as a last resort, since it takes a long time to recharge without Energon, and the hammer is left powerless during that time.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Unicron is responsible for the whole story, having corrupted Liege Maximo's mind when the Thirteen defeated him so he could cause the eventual downfall of Cybertron.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Out of jealousy for their relationship, Liege Maximo manipulated Megatronus and Solus into fighting each other, causing Megatronus to shoot her with the Requiem Blaster, resulting in Solus' crippling.
• Handicapped Badass: Despite the near-fatal damage she took from the Requiem Blaster, Solus Prime is still one of the best fighters in the Thirteen, and would have won against Quintessa and Klementia if not for her injuries.
• Heel–Race Turn: Optimus eventually manages to convince Quintessa, Klementia and Cerebro to abandon their revenge, causing the most of the Quintessons to follow suit. Edge and the Prosecutors refuses to give up, but Quintessa eventually makes them stand down.
• Hive Mind: The Prosecutor are all connected to each other via a shared mental network, which is why they fight so effectively in swarms. It also lets Edge, as Chief Prosecutor, completely take over and issue any command he wants, including ordering every Prosecutor to self-destruct.
• Hostile Terraforming: Quintessa uses her powers to cyberform multiple planets into metal, then fuses them together to create New Quintesson, since the Quintesson Homeworld was destroyed in Unspace.
• Implied Death Threat: Each of the Tetrad have a unique way of threatening without explicitly threatening.
  Quintessa:
  Klementia: I declare you innocent. ("Innocent" means Guilty)
  Cerebro: Cosmic Rust can destroy metal in seconds. Would you like a demonstration?
  Edge: Klementia is usually the Judge, but I'll be pulling triple duty as Judge, Jury, and... you know.
• Last Ditch Move: When it seems like Edge has all but lost, he activates the Prosecutor network's self-destruct protocol in an effort to destroy as many Cybertronians as possible and Cybertron itself.
• Made of Indestructium:
• Mook Lieutenant: As the Chief Prosecutor, Edge looks like a regular Prosecutor, but he is much larger, has silver plating, yellow eyes, and can speak.
• Mythology Gag: The fic contains a mishmash of elements from various Transformers series, so references abound.
  • Klementia is the name given in "Ask Vector Prime" to the Quintesson Judge who resurrected Optimus Prime in the original G1 cartoon.
  • Quintessa has a pet three-headed dragon named Iacon that she refers to as her "Knight", a reference to Dragonstorm, the combined form of the Guardian Knights/Knights of Iacon from The Last Knight.
  • During the Thirteen's trial, Klementia declares Liege Maximo "innocent" before sentencing him to death, and declares the rest of the Thirteen "guilty" before letting them go. The reason Quintessons reverse the meanings of the words varies, usually to mock their victims, but here, they genuinely believe innocent means guilty and vice-versa. Later, Quintessa declares every Cybertronian guilty, revealing she knows the true meaning of the words, but reversed them to match the other Quintessons.
  • Onyx Prime and Shockwave can't explain it, but they feel an instinctual dislike of each other. This is a reference to the 2005 IDW series where Shockwave time travelled to the past and killed the real Onyx before impersonating him.
  • Amalgamous Prime transforms by breaking into cubes before reforming into something else, similar to how Galvatron and other Transformium-infused KSI drones transformed in Age of Extinction.
  • Acid Storm swaps between male and female pronouns, a reference to Cyberverse Acid Storm, who kept switching between male and female Seeker models before it was decided they were genderfluid.
• Our Souls Are Different: A big deal is made between the ways Cybertronians are alive compared to how Quintessons are alive.
  • Cybertronians are brought to life by sparks granted to them by the AllSpark. This is treated as being truly alive. Cybertronians animated in other ways, such as the Matrix or Vector Sigma, are treated as "alive, but lesser". This inequality is what motivated Megatron to start the Great War.
  • Quintessons don't have sparks, since they were originally constructs created by Quintus and brought to life by the Emberstone, rather than the AllSpark. Liege Maximo used this as an excuse to treat them like slaves, since in his eyes, they were never truly alive to begin with.
• Poor Communication Kills: When the Thirteen left to defend Cybertron from Unicron, none of them thought to explain to the Quintessons where they were going, so when Liege Maximo sent them into Unspace, they came to believe they all abandoned them.
• Reincarnation: During the Age of the Thirteen, Liege Maximo threw the Thirteenth Prime into the Well of All Sparks, and it's noted he was reincarnated. It's kept ambiguous whether the Thirteenth became Optimus Prime.
• Shout-Out: Chief Edge is named after another famous Prosecutor.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Solus Prime isn't killed by Megatronus here, being merely wounded by the Requiem Blaster thanks to a failsafe she installed in all her creations in case they were ever used against the Thirteen.
• Staff of Authority: Quintus created the Staff of Quintessence for Quintessa to wield as her symbol of leadership among the Quintessons. Cerebro later modifies it with the ability to drain the life force of planets and stars.
• Taking You with Me: Edge refuses to surrender or give up his vendetta against the Thirteen, so he activates the Prosecutor network's self-destruct protocol to kill as many Cybertronians as possible and destroy Cybertron, uncaring that he will die as well.
• That Man Is Dead: Liege Maximo completely rejects his old name of Liege Prime, out of ego and resentment towards his siblings.
• Title Drop: When Quintessa tries to destroy the AllSpark, she gives a giant rant that includes a cheeky nod.
  Quintessa: "Cybertron! Eons ago, the Thirteen Primes abandoned the Quintessons, and banished us to Unspace! We lost everything! Our creators! Our planet! OUR PURPOSE! For too long, you have all basked in Primus' light, while we were cast into the darkness! But now, your retribution has arrived! I, Quintessa, have reached my verdict! I judge you all GUILTY! Your sentence: The destruction of the AllSpark, and the death of every Cybertronian! The Shadows of the Past SHALL CONSUME THE LIGHT OF YOUR FUTURE!"
• Red Baron: The Quintessons bestowed each of the Thirteen a title relating to their most prominent aspect. Quintessa gave herself the title of "Prime of Life", thanks to having many abilities that facilitate the creation of Cybertronians.
  • Prima is known as the Prime of Light.
  • Vector Prime is known as the Prime of Time.
  • Alpha Trion is known as the Prime of Knowledge.
  • Solus Prime is known as the Prime of Creation.
  • Micronus Prime is known as the Prime of Energy.
  • Alchemist Prime is known as the Prime of Perception.
  • Nexus Prime is known as the Prime of Combination.
  • Onyx Prime is known as the Prime of Beasts.
  • Amalgamous Prime is known as the Prime of Transformation.
  • Quintus Prime is known as the Prime of Perfection/Judgement.
  • Liege Maximo is known as the Prime of Lies.
  • Megatronus Prime is known as the Prime of Power.
  • The Thirteenth Prime is known as the Prime of Virtue.
• Token Evil Teammate: Several.
  • Liege Maximo is the most evil member of the Thirteen, constantly doing morally questionable or utterly reprehensible acts, and even before his mind was corrupted by Unicron, he wouldn't hesitate to do something the other Thirteen considered wrong.
  • Klementia's faces of Death and Cruelty are , which the face of Judgment object to.
  • Edge is the Tetrad member most obsessed with revenge on the Thirteen, refusing to hear them out or entertain the idea of them being anything other than innocent (guilty), and continuing to fight when the other Quintessons make peace before Quintessa makes him stop.
• Token Good Teammate: Klementia's faces of Judgement, thanks to their
• Transformation of the Possessed: Any Prosecutor that Edge inhabits gains his size, silver plating, and yellow eyes.
• We Have Reserves: Edge's attitude towards the Prosecutors. Because they are mass-produced citizens, there are literally an endless amount of them, so he feels nothing when individual Prosecutors die.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Modern Cybertronians are confused by Megatronus and Solus' relationship.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Solus designed the Requiem Blaster to be not only the most powerful weapon, but a weapon capable of killing Unicron. That kind of firepower makes any damage caused by it permanent and impossible to heal, which is why Solus is still damaged billions of years later. Solus even tried transferring her Spark into a blank protoform to get a new body, and her wounds just reappeared once the transfer was complete.

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