Elita One (AU)

"We are defined by how we live, and the beliefs we have. We are legends by the choices we make."

ELITA ONE has survived until the end, though there are many that thought for sure she'd have died in that epic confrontation with Shockwave. The One and Shockwave, locked in a final dance of death, plunging into a null-variable field as Shockwave shot her straight in the head. And yet she returned, missing half of her head. Functionally blind, Elita One has held on to her morals, her sense of purpose, and her sense of hope. Her use in combat nowadays is limited, but even with major gaps in her memory, the One's personality, her iron will, and her principles are still the guiding light for several, past-war.

War Dawn
Nine million years ago, during the Golden Age of Cybertron, there lived a robot named Ariel, a dockworker with a boyfriend called Orion Pax. She had heard stories that the new "flying robots" that Orion and their friend Dion admired had put together an army and attacked one of Cybertron's outer cities, but Dion laughingly dismissed her as gullible while Orion remarked that they had Guardian robots to protect them, so that it wasn't of their concern.

One of those "flying robots," Megatron, with his transport drones, raided the energy storage facility at which Ariel worked. While Megatron was in the midst of an assault on Orion, Ariel tried to stop him, ignoring Dion's plea not to, only to be gunned down herself by Megatron.

Fortunately for her, the time-lost Aerialbots brought the deactivated Orion to Alpha Trion for repairs, who recreated the young robot as the first of Cybertron's new defenders — Optimus Prime. Optimus and the Aerialbots then asked Alpha Trion to try reconstructing Ariel too. After agreeing to send some droids for her, Alpha Trion mused to himself that "Elita One" would be a good name for a female warrior.

The Search for Alpha Trion
Five million years later, Elita One, wanting to go with Optimus, tried to board the Autobot starship as it took off on its mission to search for energy, but she was seemingly destroyed while the ship was attacked during takeoff.


 * Note: In the original pilot, the Ark did not appear to be under attack as it launched. The Ark being attacked and Elita One's presence as it took off constitutes a retcon.

But Elita One did not perish. And from the time since Optimus' disappearance (along with other senior Autobot leaders), Elita One, along with Ultra Magnus, took over various leadership roles within the Autobots to fill the Autobot leadership vacuum. While Ultra Magnus focused on a more centralized command structure, Elita One tended to employ more guerilla tactics to combat the superior firepower possessed by the Decepticons. About four million years after Optimus' disappearance, she was in command of a team of six Autobots, who had been raiding Shockwave's energon supplies in secret for an unknown length of time. Their existence was revealed thanks to Moonracer's carelessness, which subsequently led to Elita One's capture by Starscream and the destruction of their secret base by Rumble.

Elita was then used as bait to lure Optimus Prime into a trap, where he too was captured and was soon on the block for execution in a vat of acid. Desperate to save her beloved, Elita triggered her time-stopping power, which allowed her to save Prime... but expended nearly all her life-force doing so.

After getting them both out of Decepticon Headquarters, Optimus was able to track Alpha Trion to his secret base. The ancient Autobot repaired Elita to the best of his ability, but revealed to Optimus Prime that only he could save Elita by interfacing to her with his power filter. An astonished Optimus Prime stated that only his CREATOR could know that!


 * Note: Optimus Prime had apparently forgotten that Alpha Trion is his creator. He did seem to know that Alpha Trion created Elita One, making a subtle comment when Elita said that Alpha Trion was like a father to her, though it's unclear whether he had always known or only realized after his visit to Alpha Trion. Which is really kind of creepy when you think about it.

After Elita One was re-energized, she and Optimus Prime arrived in time to save both a group of Earth-stationed Autobots, who had followed Optimus to Cybertron, and Elita's own troops from certain death at the hands of the Decepticons. Notably, Elita shot Shockwave out of the air with a single blast from her pistol.

With their original secret base in ruins, Alpha Trion quickly set Elita's team up with a new one, full of advanced equipment.

Though regretful that they'd be apart again so soon, Elita One elected to stay behind on Cybertron and continue the fight at home while Optimus and the other Autobots returned to the war on Earth. Of course, this didn't prevent her from telling him not to stay away TOO long...

MUX History:
Elita One usually leads the resistance on Cybertron while Optimus Prime leads the troops on Earth, unless she is called to Earth to assist him. In 2011 she traveled to Cybertron to assist Alpha Trion in the hidden Temple of Knowledge.

In 2012, following the flood, Crosscut was present during an attack on a Canadian oil pipeline, where he successfully kept Scourge busy while Elita One rescued oil workers.

In 2015, Elita One was the chief prosecutor in Jetfire's trial. During the trial, she laid out a damning case, accusing Jetfire of conspiring to kill Prowl, Optimus Prime, and Jazz. Arguing against Judge Tyrest, the jurors eventually found Jetfire not guilty (but not innocent) of the crime. Moments later, Jetfire was entirely exonerated when Megatron stormed the courtroom, and began targeting any Autobot in his gun site. During the rampage, Megatron said he made sure the evidence was there to make it look like Jetfire was responsible to prove to Jetfire the Autobots would never see himself as an equal in their ranks.

In 2016, Arcee, Elita One, Kup, Optimus Prime, and Swish travelled to Dread, where they destroyed Megatron's death crystal cannon and freed the Dread Slaves, cutting off the Decepticons' source of death crystals.

Players
Apocalypse World Elita One was created by User:Zerombr