As for the future

The Autobot cruiser that used to be the Ally, with the offline but otherwise repaired Optimus Prime on board and Unicron's body exploding into hate plague spores near it, had been pushed into the universe from where Optimus had previously been taken away. Liege Maximo took care of Unicron's chaotic essence and his remaining dark energon, bringing him to a world where the rebuilt Hub could constantly monitor him. Vector Prime gave all participants one last look, then he settled back to his refuge away from normal time and space.

Megatron moved slowly, barely avoiding discovery by Aira who kept vigil in the main room. The purple Prime did not even tolerate her in his presence, but he was also too weak to move. Megatron watched silently as his nemesis struggled to sit up in the austere berthroom. He tried to get dark energon for the unfortunate mech, he tried and failed. But now he had come to end his sufferings forever.

He remembered the cube that Primon later identified as an escape pod of all doomed sparks. The Chaosbringer was so drained at the end, he didn't even have control over the angolmois. Megatron suppressed a proud grin. If Unicron killed him the next time they met, maybe it wouldn't even be rightous to complain. This had not been a fair victory. In fact, it wasn't a victory on either side. Optimus Prime, the mech he was trusted with, and whom he had respected as Primon's worthiest partner and bearer of the Matrix, was offline and dangerously close to the glowing red seeds of the exploding dark god. First told him that he'd already met the Prime fully repaired and restored in his own world, so maybe it was overkill to worry for the red and blue and gray semitruck. Perhaps it was just that he could not even say goodbye, but Primon assured him that this wasn't the last time they had met.

Just tell him that I send my best regards, and he tried not to feel bad for what had happened.

The purple Prime's collection had been wiped out completely, Megatron could by no means hide in the spacious dark room. Fading yellow optics stared at him with hatred, anger and fear. The broken mech was too weak to call for help, and Megatron doubted he had much to say to him. He patted the broken Prime's purple frame, then he reached for his fusion cannon.

He was surprised that he never thought about this before, or maybe he had, but hadn't liked the idea and threw it away. Now he had no other choice.

He detached the cannon from his arm, removing the weapon he once took from his namesake and carried around like a trophy ever since. He considered it to be a part of his frame by now, belonging to him like some gruesome property. It was only the discovery of Liege Maximo that reminded him of what it really was: a powerful weapon once created by Unicron, and its power source was the Chaosbringer himself. That was exactly what he needed. He felt an almost physical pain as he opened the casing of the black tube, breaking a peg off during the process. He didn't care. He was not going to wear that weapon anymore.

He stepped closer to the Prime, and looked him in those fading optics. What did he expect to see? Forgiveness? Understanding? Appreciation of his sacrifice? Afterall, he was giving up something that became a part of him many hundreds of vorns ago.

He opened the purple mech's chest panels, and got down to the delicate work of wiring the fusion cannon's dark power source to the mech who required it. The cannon had worked fine even when Primus's most dedicated slave was using it, Megatron was sure that it would also provide enough fuel for the menacing Prime. He gave up his treasured weapon to the enemy he created by himself, not only because he still blamed himself for Hunter of War's fate, but because this was the only right thing to do.

When he was done with the wiring and his fusion cannon was no more, Megatron stepped back and watched the purple Prime gradually regaining his former strength. Everything seemed to be going fine, so far. He wondered how Optimus was doing in that other universe – the last time he'd seen his charge, the red truckformer was more dead than not.

For some odd reason, a graffiti popped up in his processor, a line that had been written on the Hastak ramp's wall only an orn before.

„Three things are present in all universes: Primus, Unicron, and the death of Optimus Prime."

He mentally smirked at the remark, accusing Retcon of leaving that statement.

Thank you for reading Shattered Prime! The last, one-shot piece of the series is alreadu up. You can find Shattered to the last here:

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