The Promise in The Name (Transformers Bayverse)

It is my honor to speak to you on this occasion. My friends seem to believe that I am best suited to this task. After all, the name that I have chosen for myself can be translated as “the best.” I recognize how that must seem arrogant, inappropriately vain for this joyous occasion. I mention it because it would be meaningless if not for those we are here to celebrate, who have given me not only my life, but the once-forgotten promise of my name.

Once, I was what you would call a dreamer, not unlike Sam. I always imagined, and sought, the best that I could for those around me. Like Sam, those efforts often brought suffering, at first. We are not here to mourn those I have failed, but they were many.

I was about to abandon hope when I met Sam. Though he was young, small, and relatively powerless, he applied himself to solve a problem not his own, to protect people unlike him, with a fervor not unlike that of the finest Autobots. I knew that I would perish in that battle, but out of nothingness he pulled a solution that saved my life.

When I was mortally wounded in battle, I resigned myself to my fate. I never expected a child to travel the world to resurrect me, nor to succeed, to deliver the very embodiment of hope into my hands. Sam’s faith surprised me.

When humanity turned its back on me for fear of one in whom I had placed my hopes, when I feared I could not protect your people… that same child, now a man, cut through enemy territory toward a hopeless battle to save the one he loved. And when that battle seemed lost, and I once again prepared myself for death… when Carly was threatened as I was… She did not cower and accept her fate, as I did. She found the words to turn our enemy’s hopes against him, and her cunning and courage turned my battle and slew the ghosts of my optimism.

I stand before you today because these two beings have returned to me my life… and the hope I promised in choosing this name. Thanks to these new Witwickys, once again I believe the best outcomes of our dreams can become reality. Against impossible odds, they sit here together, devoted as ever. It is my greatest hope that their light will shine on each other for the rest of their days, for no two heroes are more deserving of each other than these. And if ever again I forget how to be an optimist, I need only observe their faith in each other to remember.     

This couple—this family—can be a beacon to us all, illuminating what we can become. I aspire to give to my people what these two give to each other… and perhaps one day, in their example, I should fulfill the name you hear alongside the name I chose.