Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 184 Trial and Verdict

When Alita and Ultra Magnus arrived, they almost instinctively opened fire on the Quintesson Judge.

But they were all blocked by the vector:

"Let it speak."

The main hall fell silent.

The five-faced judge stared at the vector with a "smiling" face.

"Chief Justice of Cybertron," it called out deliberately, drawing out the sound.

"A life that crawled out of a garbage dump."

"The first thing you learn is to survive."

Its sound echoed in the main hall.

"You begged for mercy, you lied, and you killed."

"You initially survived in the arena, then killed the warden and took his money."

Megatron's optical mirror suddenly dimmed, and Optimus Prime's energy blade almost severed its tentacles.

Starscream cursed from behind, and the muzzle of the Type 97 cannon suddenly rose. Arcee frowned; Alita's weapon was charging.

"Don't interrupt, let it continue." The vector once again took control of the situation.

Having finally regained some leeway, the eccentric judge continued with a "smile":

"You admit it?"

"You can't deny it, because it's all true."

It looked around at the Cybertronians.

"Did you hear that?"

"The judges you follow first learned to beg, to seize, and to kill."

"Later, she simply changed her approach. She amended the laws, rewrote the systems, and rearranged the entire planet according to her judgment."

She said that's called fairness.

The smiling face leans slightly closer to the direction of the vector.

"But that's just greed in a different name."

A sad face immediately followed.

"She has a favorite—Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, GEL-397..."

"She gives a chance to those who have made mistakes, have a history of wrongdoing, and who are standing by her side."

"Because she wants it, she likes it, she wants it."

The mutilated body of the five-faced judge trembled slightly with a mocking laugh.

"This is your chief judge."

"They are greedy for life, biased, adept at seizing, and have written their will into laws."

"How are you different from us?"

The main hall was deathly silent.

The Cybertronians wouldn't be fooled by such nonsense; that's their beloved Chief Justice of Cybertron.

This is a judge-versus-judge situation, and the response should naturally be given by the referencing vector.

Megatron finally couldn't hold back and said coldly, "Nonsense."

He tapped the man with his sword to calm him down, then looked at the five-faced judge.

"Is this your entire judgment of me?"

My smile faltered for a moment; I hadn't expected her to ask that.

The ember she held up was right between her and its gaze, and the five-faced judge stared blankly at her through the warm light of the ember.

"I admit it."

The five-faced judge was completely stumped.

The vector said, "I am greedy for life, afraid of death, selfish, and biased."

"I have begged for mercy in the Kalon Duel Arena, killed people, and taken money that did not belong to me."

"I have amended the laws and changed the system, and I have indeed made many agencies act according to my judgment."

These are facts.

Both "smile" and "sorrow" stared at her in bewilderment.

"But facts are not the same as your conclusions," the vector continued.

"Wanting to live is not a sin."

"Fear, selfishness, and favoritism are not it either."

"They are part of life."

"The sin lies in who you use them to harm, whether you package them as unquestionable justice, and whether you are willing to bear the consequences of the harm you cause."

The five-faced judge remained silent, watching her gently place the embers on the edge of the pedestal beside her.

"You saw my struggle for survival, my fight, and my takeover."

"They watched me change the system, and they trusted me."

She glanced at the Cybertronians around her.

Optimus Prime stood silently beside her, while Megatron squeezed in next to her, his cannon still glowing.

Alita, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Soundwave, Starscream, 97, Knight of the Law... all the machines are in the main hall.

They chose to trust and support the Chief Justice, so they stood there quietly.

The vector pulls the line of sight back.

"You can't understand it, so you interpret it as dictatorship."

The smiling face moved slightly:

"Isn't that right?"

The vector looks at it and explains it bit by bit.

"If one day they think I'm wrong, they are free to oppose me."

"They have the right to try me, to overturn the laws I made, and to stop me with their own hands."

Her tone was calm.

"I can't be right all the time, or be fair all the time."

"But my mistakes have the opportunity to be pointed out, corrected, and those responsible held accountable."

After the vector finished speaking, the main hall remained quiet for a long time.

The five-faced judge's remaining two faces stopped smiling.

Suddenly, a few glistening tears began to seep from her sorrowful face, slowly sliding down from the slits of her eyes.

It didn't cry out.

The drop of liquid fell from the mangled face and condensed into a small water droplet on the ground.

Megatron scoffed coldly: "Crocodile tears."

The five-faced judge did not refute, but simply stared at the gravitational vector.

"What about the realm of impermanence?"

It asked.

"Did the one who created us not commit a sin?"

Another drop of liquid fell.

"He's made us like this."

"Let anger, doubt, pessimism, violence, and greed be etched into our nature."

"He taught us to fight with ourselves from the very beginning."

"And now you're standing here, telling me we shouldn't have lost?"

The vector stared at it, her judgment unmoved by those few drops of liquid.

But she acknowledges its existence.

“Those weren’t fake tears,” she said. “But tears aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

The five-faced judge was stunned.

"Impermanence is a sin."

The main hall fell into complete silence in an instant; even the five-faced judge seemed not to have understood.

"When He created you, He treated imperfections as design and life as an experiment."

"He may not have meant any harm, but curiosity is not an excuse, and it does not absolve him of responsibility."

The sad face opened its mouth, but didn't know what to say, carrying a belated sense of bewilderment.

"You were victims, that's true."

The grotesque judge's mangled body trembled once more, the damage he had suffered being acknowledged by the verdict himself.

"But later, you became the perpetrators."

The vector moves a step closer to it.

Optimus Prime didn't stop her, and Megatron's cannon just followed her movements.

The vector-guided sword cannon was only assembled and not yet lit up. It continued:

"You killed the God of Impermanence."

"That was your extreme judgment against the creator."

"I will not excuse the impermanence of the heavens."

"But then you took the Emberstone, twisted it, created the Shark Spirit, and used it to develop low-frequency cognitive interference technology. In this way, control and obedience were etched into the lives of another race."

"You have done to them the things you hate most."

The five-faced judge looked at the gravitational vector that was so close at hand, but this time he did not attack.

"In your courtroom, the death penalty is the only outcome."

"You colonized Aquitron, imprisoned Leviathan, and locked away their songs."

"Colombing Cybertron leaves behind rust of ranks, identities, and what is usable and what is not."

"You falsely claim to be the creators, illegally detain Optimus Prime, and force the Cybertronians to witness a trial without legal authority."

"You are trying to drag all life into the answers you have imagined."

The five-faced judge stared at her blue-green optical glasses, clearly seeing the cold light and a trace of... pity within them.

"You were wounded, but you chose to let more lives serve the price for your wounds."

The five-faced judge seemed to be hearing the meaning of "trial" and "judgment" for the first time.

The facts are laid out clearly and systematically, the suffering is seen, and the crimes are not overlooked.

"You are both a victim and a perpetrator."

In the distance, the low frequencies of Leviathan King Kong emanated from outside the bubble, as if expressing recognition and respect for the Chief Justice of Cybertron.

The five-faced judge slowly lowered his head, this time his sorrowful face took center stage.

Its voice was soft and low, filled with confusion, bewilderment, and unconscious awe:

"So what do you want now?"

"You obtained the Emberstone."

"How would you use it?"

"To create a better life? To correct flaws like ours that shouldn't exist?"

Yin Xiang lowered his eyes and looked at the ember stone beside him.

It's not that it's wrong; the problem always lies with the hand that uses it.

But as long as such a thing exists, there will always be another hand reaching out.

They might say they had no ill intentions, perhaps for the sake of creation, order, or the future.

"I won't use it."

The long-barreled sword cannon, guided by the magnetic force, was raised again and slowly descended towards the embers that she had once again lifted with magnetic attraction.