#apelinq

Predacons are Predaking’s whole world. Every decision he makes, he first considers if it would be for the benefit of his people.

Truthfully, he never expected things to go the way they did. He used to be very open about wanting the Predacons to flourish on Cybertron once more but now that he got his wish it seemed all wrong. It all went down too fast and they were too different from the mighty ancestors from his memories. 

He doesn’t hate them. Of course he doesn’t. No matter what size they are and what they turn into, they are alive and that’s most important. However, that doesn’t mean he accepted them as they were. Initially, he thought of them as fragile and less likely to defend themselves from the Autobots if they decided they were too troublesome to keep. He saw it as his duty to be their guardian and protect them, something he couldn’t do for his original Predacons.

Predaking did what he thought was best. He gave them home, trained them and taught them everything he knew. Skylynx and Darksteel were doing their part but most of the burden of leadership fell on him. All Predacons were kept in the kingdom and told to be wary of those outside. Predaking took every precaution to make sure he wouldn’t lose them…

Only for Apelinq and his Predacons to turn against him years later. 

Predaking still remembers it being the worst day of his life. They suddenly confronted him in front of everyone in the kingdom and started talking about ideas he viewed as dangerous. The banishment was declared to teach them a lesson about the outside world. It backfired horribly. Instead of them crawling back and begging for forgiveness, they took a good part of his remaining Predacons and left. No matter how hard he tried, he still lost his subjects. 

A big part of him still hopes the Predacons that now call themselves Maximals will return to him someday. He’s not stupid, he knows it’s not realistic after everything that happened. The Maximals don’t feel like the Predacons anymore and a lot of Predacons see them as traitors. There is a shaky peace between them as it is and with the Autobots thrown into the mix it’s an explosive combination. Magnus was the one who blew up his brethren all those years ago and when he first learned his banished Predacons turned to him for help it felt beyond painful. As time went by and his kingdom grew, only then did Predaking began giving in to the Maximals’ pleas of changing some of his ways. Opening up, especially to his former enemies, was and still isn’t an easy process. The only reasonable thing he can do at this time is keep his relations with the Maximals positive and avoid conflicts with the Autobots as much as he possibly can. 

Perhaps there was at some point an idea in Predaking’s mind of attacking the Autobots first and becoming a dominant species of Cybertron again. It was a long time ago before the Predacons around him began growing in numbers. Now another war is the last thing on his mind. 

Predaking may not take interest in humans and their culture like the Autobots and in some way the Maximals but there is one concept of theirs that speaks deeply to him- a human perception of family, “Blood is thicker than water”. The Maximals and Predacons have their strong disagreements, but no matter what, they are connected. A father can’t be mad at his children for growing and trying to follow their own way. He no longer feels any anger towards the Maximals and instead will consider himself their guardian as well. 

Despite his distaste for the Decepticons, he internalised a lot from them during his time. He will go through things Maximals would never agree to in order to keep peace. He'll spy, threaten or make use of his covert operation agents so that no threat arises against his people ever again.