The Lost Prime

Summary: Primes and their Lord High Protectors are made as twins, their sparks coming online together far from other Cybertronian life, protecting one another until the Herald of Primus comes for them. However, the Council can't allow that and the newest Prime goes missing, his Lord Protector tearing Cybertron apart to find him. Every war has its reason. This one is just coming to light. TFA AU

"And it's operational!" Bulkhead declared and Sari and Bumblebee gave a cheer as the Space Bridge lit up, confirming a secure connection to the one that had been built on Earth two decacycles ago, when finally the needed crew and materials and time and fonds had been wisely invested in creating the bridge on the small organic planet that had been a second home to the former Autobots stranded there for an entire stellar cycle. It was about slagged time, too, if you asked anyone who had come to love that planet, so many light years away from Cybertron, and especially Sari, whose visits to both her home worlds were limited due to the distance and the time the trips took altogether. The building of the bridge had lasted three Earth months but it was finally finished, under Bulkhead's watchful optics. They had just had their first test with a piece of scrap metal and Professor Sumdac had commed them that it had arrived in the same condition it had been on the other side.

The Space Bridge was ready for use.

"Alright, Bulkhead. Invite Professor Sumdac and Captain Fanzone through," Optimus said with a bright smile on his faceplates as he stood amongst his friends at the bottom of the Bridge, waiting for their human friends as eagerly as everyone else. It had been a good ten years since he had last seen a human other than Sari. While his old team could afford to go with the now young woman whenever they pleased, Optimus had a planet to run and the rebuilding was still not even close to done. He smiled when the two familiar humans stepped through but was surprised by how much they had changed. Sari was surprising enough and he saw her half of the stellar cycle. Captain Fanzone had lost a bit more hair and had more wrinkles and Professor Sumdac's once black hair was all gray save for one streak of black that had remained, in a parody of the single gray streak the man had had when they had first met him. And his hair wasn't nearly as wild as it used to be. It was thinner and he had even more wrinkles than Captain Fanzone. It was still a wonderful experience to see them again, before their lifetimes ended. A human life was so short in comparison to a Cybertronian one, Optimus had feared he'd reset his optics and miss it. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Professor Sumdac, Captain Fanzone, and welcome to Cybertron."

"It's good to see you as well, Optimus Prime," Professor Sumdac said with a smile, shaking Optimus' finger in an echo of that first day on Earth when the mech bent down. "I did not expect not to see you again for ten years after you left. I'm not sure whether I should blame Megatron or something else." The Prime laughed and shook his head.

Fanzone chuckled as well, looking around at the city of Iacon beyond the field of the Space Bridge Nexus. "You're looking good there, Big Bot. You seem to be doing fine."

"Thank you," Optimus replied, shaking Fanzone's hand as well. "I'm actually great. Better than I have been most of my function, even though there's a lot of work to do around here." Optimus offered them his servo and picked them up as he walked back towards the Fortress Maximus. The two humans were somewhat stunned and intimidated by the seemingly impossibly tall buildings around them as the Prime made his way through the streets. "I must say that your visit is incredibly well timed," he shot a look at his former team from Earth at that, to which Sari and Bumblebee just whistled innocently, Bulkhead shifted uneasily, Jazz gave him a grin, unashamed, and Prowl remained unmoved by it. Ratchet just shrugged.

"Oh?" The blond man asked, arching an eyebrow. "How's that?"

"Well, today we just finished Sentinel's trial. It's finally done," the red and blue fire truck took a deep ventilation of relief. "It took us ten years but we've finally done it. It's over. We can finally start anew."

"Why did it take so long? I thought Sari said it was pretty straightforward," the scientist sounded confused. "Shouldn't it have ended easily?"

"It should have been, but but there was a problem with the Courts." Optimus sounded so resigned that the two humans exchanged uncertain looks.

"Um, what was the problem with the Courts? Too many cases?" The policeman asked and the Prime rubbed his face tiredly.

"Well, yes, that too. And too many cases that needed to be reviewed and throughly checked because of the corrupt Council. But while checking the Courts for any Council influences or corruption, we found that there was not one mech in the entire legal and justice system that hadn't been put there by the Council. It took us three whole years just to get rid of them and another year to build a new system. Cybertron is a big planet. It takes a while to uproot corruption when it happens on this level." He sighed again but smiled and waved to a few sparklings and younglings that yelled after him in excitement. It wasn't rare to see either Prime or Lord High Protector walking the streets of Iacon or any other city, checking on the rebuilding efforts or some administrative thing or another. It was still an honor for youngsters to meet the leaders of their planet, especially since neither ever refused to take a moment to indulge them and play a game or two with them. "We had to resort to putting Minocons in charge of the Courts as well as the prisons. It was the only way to make it fair. Well, the only way without getting the new Parliament involved too much. The judges are all Minicons and the jury is one third civilianframes, one third warframes and one third Minicons to prevent any possible bias from deciding the ultimate fate of any perpetrator."

"Parliament? As in, like back on Earth kind of parliament or completely different?" Fanzone asked, apparently very interested in the administrative bodies of an advanced, robotic alien race. Then again, the Autobots' - and the Decepticons', even if he will never admit to it even under the pain of death - absence from Earth those first few months had seen an increase in human crime from the likes of people like Henry Masterson, Professor Princess, Angry Archer, Prometheus Black and some new faces that Optimus had only heard about from his friends. It had been a relief for Fanzone when Prowl, Bumblebee, Ratchet and Jazz arrived back to Earth on Omega Supreme and dealt with some of the criminals. Optimus' absence was felt from the team, as was Bulkhead's, but Team Prime, as they were now called, had managed. Still, Detroit missed the transformers they had gotten so used to, even the Decepticons who usually tried to have as little contact with them as possible. At least the Cons had kept Masterson and his HeadMaster unit away.

"Similar to your Earth customs, but not quite the same," Optimus replied, trying to think of a way to explain it. "We had to do an extensive investigation into all candidates before we could put anyone in the new Parliament and that was an exhausting enough process without giving them additional background checks. You never know when one of them could have been a previous regime supporter. Since we were trying to kill all that was left of caste, class and function restrictions, we couldn't have someone who thought those were good ideas sitting in a parliament that was discussing which laws to bring back and which to keep. The Prime-Protector regime laws were all, as expected, immediately accepted but we had to check some of the other past regulations just in case there were better alternatives. It's only fair. We can't overlook something because of prejudice and propaganda. Some of those regimes had decent solutions to some of our current problems. The less decent ones I don't want to even think about. Our Parliament is similar to yours in that we have representatives for the people, only we don't have political factions - we've had enough of those, thank you - or parties. We have a bot each to represent a city, a frame type - civilian or warframe, flier or grounder - a profession, a 'gender' as you would say - femme or mech - a wealth level and military or civilian life style, all for all frame types. As you can imagine, that's a lot of mecha gathered for just one city and there are well over a million big cities on Cybertron and an additional two million smaller cities and settlements. And that's not even counting all the colonies, formerly Autobot and Decepticon both and don't forget the neutrals, and Luna 1 and 2. The Parliament is led by Alpha Trion, thankfully, and all the mecha that sit in it are chosen by the people, so there is no foul play. Megatron and I take the Parliament's decision into account when finally accepting or disregarding a law suggestion. So far, it's been pretty much unanimous. The Parliament has to give at least 70% approval for their vote in the matter to be a clear yes, or disapproval if it's a no. It had started off as a very long and very tiring process, but it's getting better. Especially as our organic worlds are finally sending in their ambassadors to take their rightful seat in the Parliament. I'll have to have a word with them that a single person isn't enough - better me than Megatron, who had conquered them, even if interspecies relations is the Lord High Protector's job. You are being informed right this moment, by the way, if no one had told you sooner, so you should probably start gathering people."

"That's a lot of politicians in one place, Prime. Don't you fear a power struggle?"

The religious and civilian leader of Cybertron smiled down at his companions. Fanzone had a right to worry. A previous power struggle had led to a war that had landed Team Prime, the AllSpark and Megatron on Earth as a consequence in the first place. "No Parliament member can gather support from other Parliament members outside of his own city state. We have Space Bridges, Captain Fanzone. With the amount of Energon we're producing, we can practically keep them constantly online if needed. Most of the Parliament members are eager to go home as soon as the sessions are over. They don't get much time to interact and most members don't even know each other by designation. If you don't know a mech and their motives, you can't form an alliance and try to bring about a power struggle."

"That sounds suspiciously like something Megatron would do," Sumdac observed and a snort made the two humans nearly jump right out of Optimus' hand.

"That's because it is, Professor Sumdac," the Lord High Protector said as he approached the three at a lazy pace, his optics flicking between the two organics before settling on his Prime. Sumdac and Fanzone were certainly surprised by the amount of affection that settled on Megatron's metallic face when looking at the once Autobot. They were even more shocked to recognize the almost identical markings on him as on Optimus. "My Prime. I see you have brought guests." He then nodded to the two humans. "Professor Sumdac, Captain Fanzone. It is good of you to finally come and visit. I take it the Space Bridge is operational?"

It wasn't really a question but Optimus still answered it with a nod of his helm, smiling at the much bigger mech. "It was just brought online and tested and had its maiden transwarp. Bulkhead did a wonderful job, as always."

Megatron just nodded, optics still focused on the organics. "I know you may think of my move as a manipulation of sorts, but it is for the best as long as we are still rebuilding. As Optimus has no doubt informed you, the court trials have only finished today. Ultra Magnus, the Elite Guard and the Council had some loyal supporters who have greatly benefited from their rule, the Council especially. Freedom and equal rights for all don't bring as much profit. And seeing as it is the cohesive alliance of the Council that had brought about the assassinations of three Lord High Protectors and one Prime - that one had many of our people demanding their helms mounted on a pike and paraded around Cybertron, just so you know - it is for the best that they never form too strong bonds between themselves. Such alliances lead to corruption or forming of factions. As it is now, each Parliament member has a small fraction of power and a responsibility to his or her group of people. Unity is good. It will come with time, as Cybertron recovers. Alliance between them will only end with more sparks extinguished. And another Great War will kill our planet."

"It still sounds wrong, like tyranny by obliviousness" Sumdac insisted and the former warlord snorted at this.

"Of course a short lived organic would think so. One of your lifetimes is barely an orn for our species. Not even a Parliament member's mandate." He narrowed his optics at the man that had eviscrated his head, some echoes of disdain still beating inside his spark. "They're not oblivious, Professor. We're not forbidding them from interacting. Sure, we have provided them with a means to return to their homes immediately, if they wish so, but we do not discourage them to stay nor do we encourage them to avoid interactions. They are simply aware that there is much to do, that their homes need them more than they themselves need some sort of political or administrative power. It's what makes them popular amongst our people. Mechs and femmes that sit in the Parliament are chosen to speak in the best interest of their people. I believe you humans have a saying 'By the people, for the people' or something similar. These Parliament members go by that motive. Prime and Lord High Protector are the ones who unite them."

"Still sounds wrong."

"Oh, for spark's sake!" The gray mech huffed in exasperation, looking done with it all. "Optimus has an ancient relic that connects him to our Creator and god and he hasn't been zapped by it yet, so we are clearly doing something right. When Primus decides we're no longer suitable for our roles, we'll be dully informed. Not that it is any of your business."

"Megatron," his Prime said in a warning voice, making the mech bristle but say nothing. "Be nice."

"As my Prime wishes," Megatron said and showed his displeasure by giving a very Starscream-like bow. That is to say, half mocking and not at all sincere. He then pivoted on his heel and stalked away, anger radiating in his field. Optimus sighs and just hands Sumdac and Fanzone over to Prowl before excusing himself. The two humans watched as he jogged after the larger ruler in startled confusion, jerking in surprise when Ratchet gave a long, loud groan.

"Sheesh, you sure did manage to push old Megs' buttons there, Prof. I've rarely ever seen him react like that." Bumblebee commented and would have whistled had Ratchet not wacked him over the helm.

"I have never gotten the impression that Megatron was so ... sensitive," Fanzone said with irony but shut up when Ratchet shot him a glare.

"Yes, well, that happens when the organic that had utilized his head to further his own goals and used his servo as a chair dares accuse him of being like the mechs and the system he has spent his entire function fighting against. He may be chosen by a deity and bonded to what amounts to a demigod, but neither he nor Optimus are perfect. They've done a great job so far and Megatron doesn't appreciate the shortcomings of their hard work being pointed out by people who haven't seen their struggles or don't understand the complexity of the system they're trying to create. The Council had been a disaster and the Senate before it had been a nightmare. The Parliament is only an advising body that should, technically, represent the people and their satisfaction or discontent, needs or problems and it is utterly unneeded but Megatron had insisted on it, anyway."

"Wait, what do you mean 'unneeded'?" Both humans asked, startled and perplexed. To be expected.

"Primes are the center of our people. Through the Matrix of Leadership that rests in their very spark, they feel what every Cybertronian feels and they know what is needed. As long as their Lord High Protector is alive, the Prime serves the people in a way no other ruler, anywhere, even in hives, can. There's a reason why the Prime-Protector regime was always the most loved and enjoyed and why the true Golden Age of Cybertron had been when they were the ruling diad. Megatron and Optimus are very popular with our people. I wouldn't be surprised if they get monuments erected for them. They finally really brought us out of the Great War and are destroying all the systems that have been restricting us since Lord High Protector Galvatron was murdered and Sentinel Prime went mad - no, not that Sentinel, although he'd definitely been named after the right bot." Ratchet gave the two a pointed look. "As you can see, Megatron wants this peace to last. Forever, if it can, but he's not an idealist and is always making contingencies. A Prime has been murdered once and that old rust bucket has fears that someone will try the same with Optimus. Not all that irrational, as you already know how they onlined. He's giving the people a visible sort of power that they had always had in an attempt to protect Optimus."

"But I thought he's the protector, as in of your whole race," Fanzone sounded as confused as Sari had been when the full extent of how the Prime-Lord Protector dynamic really works, too. As any of the younger bots had when the older ones tried their best to explain. Alpha Trion had had to do an interview with several news stations for the younger part of their people to understand fully. It had taken decacycles.

"And the Prime is the very spark of all Cybertronians," Prowl was the one to reply this time. "The deactivation of Nova Prime had led to the start of our war. The death of a Prime always brings about instability."

"And the Lord High Protector's highest priority will always be his Prime. It's difficult to explain to a species who don't have sparks, so we'll just leave it at that. The less we confuse you, the better," the medic huffed again, looking after where the ruling pair had disappeared to. Not at all unexpectedly, they had marched off in the direction of the Primal Basilica, where their quarters were at. It was a bit more than just a religious place of their people, as it was also the most secure building on the planet. "Just remember that Megatron has a temper and is stressed and has a very short fuse when someone dares even imply a comparison between him and his previous oppressors. Not that I blame him. Or you, for that matter. You didn't know. Just ... lay off, okay?"

The two humans, as utterly confused as they might be, agreed and Sumdac even resolved to throughly apologize to the gray mech the next time he sees him. For now, he and Fanzone enjoyed the rest of their tour and were even humbled and honored to be invited to a ceremony in the Primal Basilica the next morning.

And speaking of the Lord High Protector and the Basilica, they were now sandwiching the Prime as Megatron all but devoured his smaller mate's intake, in desperate need to forget the foolish human's half accusations. Optimus didn't mind, mewling in delight as Megatron squeezed his aft. He knew his counterpart needed this and was enjoying the attention he received in the process. What had started off as a fairly innocent bond had quickly went from zero to a million miles per hour as their sparks longed for more merges, ones where they didn't have to do it in front of thousands of prying optics. And Megatron had kept his word; as soon as the Council was behind bars and they started the rebuilding of their planet, he had started wooing his Prime like no other mech has ever been wooed. He'd make the old Lord Protector's green with envy with how his Prime accepted the gifts and he had some quite innovative ideas.

Like getting Sumdac to reverse-engineer a jetpack for his Prime and teaching him how to fly. Optimus so loved flying that one wondered how his spark was that of a civilian. Well, it's not, not really. Primes are a category of their own.

And Cybertron only found joy, entertainment and contentment in their ruling diad's relationship, as it meant a steady and secure era for them. And it was great gossip. Everyone loved talking about how their warframe ruler made their Prime blush on this fine orbital cycle. Optimus didn't know whether he should be annoyed or embarrassed. Not that he cared. All that mattered was that Megatron took great delight in continuously courting him, as though they weren't already bonded. The Matrix delighted in it even more than he did. Primus found them both much too cute for Optimus comfort. It was like the three of them had ganged up on him and Alpha Trion was a traitor for only further encouraging the Lord High Protector with new absurd ideas. Not that Optimus would deny Megatron. Not when he himself loved it.

"That foolish, insignificant, uninformed, uneducated, simplistic, idiotic-" Optimus rolled his optics when Megatron started muttering while laving attention at his neck cables and just grabbed the former Decepticon's helm and brought it up for another kiss, offering his mouth and lips for the taking. If Megatron wanted to blow off some steam with Optimus after Sumdac had torqued him off, then he was going to do it by way of pleasure, not useless complaining that had the dangerous possibility of ending in a Fusion Cannon being fired at a helpless organic. Megatron, apparently, would also rather pay attention to his mate than Sumdac.

He would always rather pay attention to Optimus than anything else. He had lost his Prime once. He won't let it happen a second time. He was possessive and overprotective and a secret worrywart and Optimus was perfectly fine with that. Cybertron was at peace, those who would upsurp them have finally been dealt with accordingly, their people were happy and rebuilding their old lives, the Galactic Council only occasionally bothered them, his friends were safe, Earth was safe and his spark was as content as their god's and as his mate's.

Optimus had never believed in a happy ever after, like from Sari's fairytale books and movies, but as Megatron picked him up and moved them away from the wall beside their room's door and towards their big berth, he guessed he could believe in not a happy ending, but a happy beginning.

The lost Prime and his Lord High Protector who had searched the universe to find him and bring him home ...

Their lives were only starting now.

THE END