Minimus Ambus returns to Cybertron following a two-million-year service in the Primal Vanguard, and is met at the spaceport by Rewind. Minimus is a little disappointed, hoping his brother Dominus Ambus, Rewind's partner, would have come to greet him in person, especially given that he has not heard from him in months. Minimus's return home has come about due to the decommissioning of the Primal Vanguard, occurring in the wake of the Functionist Council's sale of Luna 2 to the Black Box Consortia to end hostilities with the rest of the galaxy, which has also led to the "recall" of the now-obsolete spaceflight-capable Lunabots. As the pair are attempting to leave, Minimus's outdated papers cause concern for a law-enforcement "Functionary", but just as he is scanning Minimus to confirm his function, a battered 'bot suddenly charges through the crowd, pursued by another officer. The two Functionaries gun down the fleeing 'bot, and report to the Functionst Council headquarters that they have just "recalled" the last Lunabot. Few 'bots even pay attention to the grisly scene, however... just another commonplace sight on present-day Cybertron.

Across the galaxy, on the Lost Light, Chromedome smashes in Rewind's hab suite door when he hears him cry out, but the little archivist has merely been having a bad dream. Things are tense between the pair; Chromedome had hoped to pick up their relationship where they left off, but Rewind is mindful of the fact that neither of them is truly the same 'bot that the other one was with. Chromedome asks about Rewind's nightmare, and the archivist tells him he was remembering the "Dark Dawn" half-a-million years prior, when the Functionists recalled the laser pointers. Chromedome is baffled; such an event never occurred, as Functionism had long since been abandoned by that stage. Rewind pulls up the relevant information from his database, before realising that he too has no memory of it...

In the Lost Light morgue, Megatron solemnly regards Trailcutter's dead body when Rodimus enters. Megatron expects a castigation, and Rodimus wants to deliver one, but more important matters demand their attention: namely, Brainstorm's recent attempt to poison everyone on the ship by tainting the drinks at Swerve's, which only left everyone unconscious instead of dead because Swerve waters down his drinks. Rodimus reveals that Brainstorm has fled through means of a time machine, a situation so ludicrous that Megatron has a mini-breakdown just trying to process it. Regaining his composure, Megatron concludes that rather than flee to escape repercussion for the poisoning, as Ultra Magnus believes, Brainstorm poisoned everyone so he would be free to travel back in time and change the outcome of the war.

On Cybertron, Rewind brings Minimus back to his and Dominus's home, where they watch pirated security footage of a protester being executed by the Functionist Council by means of the explosive obsolescence chips that all Cybertronians are now implanted with. Minimus is slowly realising that Rewind and his brother are anti-Functionist rebels when Dominus appears, and the reason for his recent silence is revealed: the council has subjected him to the horrifying process that has supplanted empurata, replacing his head with a screen, thereby robbing him of his face and voice and leaving him able only to communicate through on-screen text. Minimus is overwhelmed, but has to leave to meet with the other former members of the Primal Vanguard so they can receive their new job allocations.

Elsewhere on the planet, in their floating headquarters, "The Cog", the Functionist Council meets to discuss the next mass recall, choosing their victims not based on functional value, but rather, on their ability to store data that could be used against the council. Thus it is decreed that data slugs shall be recalled...

On the Lost Light, Perceptor is explaining the means by which Brainstorm has time-travelled: his enigmatic briefcase is

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