Forbidden bond

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, never had and certainly never will do… a shame...

A/N: Now for the epilogue. Thanks to everyone that followed me through that entire story! It took me a year to finally complete it but I did! YAY! This chapter will be the last on that storyline. I don't reject the idea of a sequel though... We'll see. Anyway, Enjoy, and thanks to all of those whom followed me through this adventure! Thousands cookies for you!

A/N 2: This story's being beta-read. Chapters will be updated, rewritten and reposted. Thanks to KiaMianara for beta-reading this story. All are now updated! Hundred thanks and cybercookies to my Beta!

Rating: M for the overall story, K+ for this chapter.

Warning: None, really...

"Crimsonlight! Silverstar! Come here, immediately!"

The harsh, deep and authoritative tune boomed through the Hallway of the large Mansion, and soon, two small silhouettes came running down towards the door from where the command had originated. The two sparklings, despite having grown considerably since their strenuous, but blessed introduction to the world and their kind were very recognizable. They were still small for their age, Silverstar a bit taller than his twin brother and with the harsher features of their sire, while the red and blue one was a little smaller and had smoother features of their Bearer, but that were only their more prominent features. Everyone could see traits from both their parents in them, but right now the two sparkling, almost younglings now, were more worried about what would await them behind the door they were about to open, the door to their sire's office.

"Yes, father?" Silverstar asked, the image of innocence, or so he hoped.

Megatron sighed and looked at his sons. They looked so much like their bearer, so innocent, especially when they knew they were guilty.

"Don't try it on me, sons! What have you done to poor Starscream this time, huh? He hadn't come out of his room ever since you two hellions pranked him!"

The sparklings bowed their heads, as they always did, and Megatron let out a long suffering sigh, shaking his head.

"I'm seriously considering forbidding you to tag along with Ironhide ever again. He's a bad influence, not that it comes as a surprise, seeing who his parents are."

That much was definitely true. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were strongly influencing their adopted creation, not that the medic, Ratchet, was any better. Optimus had voiced the suspicion that they had bonded and one of them was actually carrying, but they hadn't given a comment to that yet.

"But father, he agreed to come with us! We didn't forced him, I swear!"

Megatron immediately lifted a hand to stop Crimsonlight as he started his row of pleas and excuses. His optics were hardened and filled with disappoint. The little miracles that had ended the war weren't angels at all, far from it. Granted, it would be unfair to expect it from them just because of that, but was better behaviour really too much asked for? Well, he probably had only himself and his bad temper to blame for this, but that wasn't the point. Right now all that was important was the fact that the twins locked Starscream in a dark sublevel room for almost five hours. The poor seekerling was so traumatized he hadn't come out of his room since he had been freed and that put him in a very bad light in the optics of the delegation from the city state of New Vos. This little prank could ruin Optimus' and his hard efforts to form a trading contract with the seekers, left aside that it was generally cruel to lock in a seeker underground and as the father of those two trouble maker it was his duty to punish them.

"Stop it right there, I don't want any excuses! You two are confined to your room until I say otherwise, no games, no vid-screen! I've already disconnected them."

He narrowed his optics again and added, in a tune that promised real trouble if they dared to disobeyed: "And if you ever again try to escape through the air vent like last time I'll seal it myself and ground you for an entire vorn, is that understood?!"

The sparklings knew it was no use to try to argue with their sire when he was in such a foul mood and they nodded with deep pout, before slowly walking to their room and closing the door. Once they were gone, Megatron slumped on his chair and sighed deeply, shaking his helm with a deeply annoyed expression. Sparklings were sparkling, they would hopefully sooner than later grow out of it, yet ... had it already been ten vorns since they had ended the war and started to rebuild Cybertron?

It was hard to believe that some already spoke about a second "Gold Age" despite all that had happened and the scars that the war had left on their home planet and not all of those were visible.

When they returned home after the Cybetron-Earth Peace Treaty had been officially signed, there had been many "neutral" mechs that had started to call for justice, justice for the crimes mostly Decepticons, but also some Autobots had committed, although the later was ignored by most, and Megatron himself had been the main target for their hatred.

Well, of course were they targeting him. He was Lord Megatron after all, the high commander of all Decepticons. 80% of what was left of the Cybertronian population hated, despised, literally loathed him and poor naive Optimus had soon been buried under official demands to hold a trial for the mech that was nothing but a tyrant who started this destructive, terrible war in almost everyone's optics. The new Ruler of Cybertron – the only truly deserving one in the peoples' optics – was therefore confronted with the first real challenge of his new function: put his bondmate through a trial in which only one sentence would satisfy the public opinion, namely permanent deactivation, or risk a public uproar that could easily end in a civil war. To Optimus neither was an option of course, but what choice did he have?

It ate away on the former Autobot leader, but he wasn't the only one. Although putting up a cold, emotionless facade in public the despise of his own people was deeply disturbing for the silver mech and guilt crept its way through his spark and CPU, sending him reeling in its darkest depth. Optimus had watched him slowly break down as he was confronted with the after-effect of the war they waged for so long until Megatron had given in, admitted his guilt in public and asked for the trial without at least informing his bonded of his plans – the red and blue mech still wasn't really over that one.

The trial itself, although it actually was more for the show than anything else, was devastating for both leaders. The only reason Megatron wasn't sentenced to death was because with him also Optimus would have died, not to mention their sparkling, and it left Megatron as an emotional wreck. The guilt was making him sick and eroded his self-confidence, which made him turn to high-grade as a temporary pain reliever, but that started a vicious circle, because passed out he was hardly any help for his bondmate, who then had to take care of the twins, their people and him. How Optimus had managed that was beyond his comprehension and it filled him with wonder that the other had stayed at his side through all that slag, but he had and he had even found ways – underhanded and even slightly deceptive ways – to pull Megatron's head out of the gutter and get him on his pedes again with the help of their friends and allies. What had helped the most was probably that, while he worked on restoring order and Megatron's image Optimus left the sparkling in his care for the most part of the day. Silverstar and Crimsonlight were the only things that could lighten his world during this horrible period. Every time they were near him he could calm down and was at peace with himself and after two vorns had passed also the public opinion of him started to change. The past would never be forgotten, and in many cases certainly not forgiven, but instead of dwelling on the past they started to accept it and build their future for them all and that was when Megatron could finally leave their home again, although it took a while longer before he actually did. Restoring his self-confidence took even longer and left him a much more humble than he had ever been before.

It was also during that time that Megatron learned what had become of the other Autobots and Decepticons that had been with them on earth. It wasn't really surprising that they mostly kept to themselves – something couldn't be lived through without binding people together or so he had heard. Prowl and Jazz were now the official Cybertronian ambassadors on Earth, they even had an own embassy built for them there and since they were able to vastly improve their environment and now also travel through the stars thanks to their first alien allies the humans were forgiving them considerable fast. Bluestreak had also stayed with his creators on earth, to help them maintain a good relationship with the humans, as were Cliffjumper, Hound and Mirage, although each maybe for slightly different reasons. Still, they were all doing fine and visits went back and forth as far as time and resources allowed it.

As for the other ... as far as they could most of the former Autobots and Decepticons – the old faction names had remained in used for a couple of vorns after the war, but now they were almost completely reduced to material for history lessons – had returned to whatever they had been doing before the war, or chosen an entirely different profession. Soundwave and Shockwave were now managing a youngling centre with day-care and schooling possibilities with the help of others, while the scientists ... well, they were doing science and research and who knew what else.

The seekers, however, were an entirely different matter. Under Thundercracker's and Skywarp's leadership those few still left of their kind had moved into the remains of Vos and rebuild the city into a small state of their own. The Coneheads had also followed them, although at first reluctantly so, as had the Aerialbots and most of the other fliers and it had to mentioned that they were a very ... fertile brood. In the last ten vorns Skywarp, as far as he had heard, had sparked eight more seekerlings and Ramjet and Thrust had six, to just name two of the pairs that had been formed during the war, partly even before and also after. It was said that they weren't always from the same sire, that the fliers had no distinguishable family units or bonds, but were sharing everything with each other, partners included, but Megatron didn't know who much of that was true. The fliers rarely left New Vos, were even heard to be aggressive towards ground bounds and that was why Megatron was so determined to establish an official trading relationship with them. If they closed up completely, the former Decepticon leader knew, it was only a question of time until rumours became fear and fear morphed into hate and hate into violence. He really hoped that the ruling family, namely Starscream's creators, would agree with him that that had to be prevented from happening and would forgive his offsprings their prank, not because they were the creations of Megatron and Optimus, but because they were sparkling and had actually not meant any harm. That would not be an easy task, but once that obstacle was mastered they could indeed look forward to a bright and peaceful future.

*~*

Megatron only noticed he had slipped into recharge at his desk when gentle hands on his shoulders woke him. A little disorientated he looked up and into the upside-down face of his bondmate, smiling at him mischievously. To Megatron's great relief Optimus had given up wearing that stupid mask vorns ago already and was showing his handsome faceplates freely now. A great improvement in the larger mech's optics, although he sometimes felt tempted to be jealous at everyone allowed to see his mate like this, but only sometimes.

"Hey. You missed the seeker delegation's little incident in the hallway. It was ... quite entertaining."

"Oh really? What exactly did I miss?" Megatron asked with a smile, not bothering to lift more than his head right now. Optimus sat on the edge of the desk and crossed his arms, sighing slightly annoyed.

"Actually it was just the usual. Ramjet and Skydive were making a scene, a lot screams and whining and such, but it actually should help us with the negotiations. Thundercracker was ... not very pleased when he dragged them not-too-gently back to their quarters. The expression on his face was priceless and I really don't want to repeat the words he had used."

Megatron smirked when he imagined the scene. Priceless indeed. Ramjet had always been a drama queen when given the chance. Couldn't they have brought along one of the more reasonable fliers, like the triple changers? Ah, but the delegation was going to leave the next day and he really wanted this contract finished and signed before that, annoying or not.

"I'll go and settle things with them right away, before it gets really ugly. The incident with Starscream was bad enough. By the way, did he come out of his room already?"

"Yes, his creator's cursing actually persuaded him to come out just a moment ago. From what I could hear he hadn't really been hiding, just recharging very deeply, but I don't think he will ever join our sparklets in their adventures ever again. Where are they anyway?"

"I grounded them" the silver mech explained proudly. "It was wrong what they did and they knew it, so they had to be punished."

Optimus couldn't suppress an amused snore.

"And how long do you intend to keep that up? We both now neither of us can stay mad at them for long" her reminded and started to laugh when Megatron started to pout, displaying that against common believe that trait the twins hadn't actually inherited from him, but his larger mate.

"At least I showed good will."

"Alright, alright, well done love" Optimus smiled and pulled to other up and into a loving kiss. How could he have ever lived without this, he wondered, a memory of the hate they had felt for each other once in what seemed like another live and the pain they had gone through to have this, but the unconditional love he felt through their bond washed it away soon.

"I'm so glad you found me" Megatron murmured into his neck, pulling the other even closer.

"Are you sure it wasn't the other way round?"

"Does it matter?"

The red and blue mech shook his head. Of course it didn't matter. All that was important was that they were together with their sparkling growing up and filing their lives with joy, even if they sometimes were really trying.

"Say, love, with our little hellions grounded for now and seekers busy, don't you think we could take the evening free for us?"

"Using the troubles of others to our favour? Shame on you, Optimus, I'm disappointed" the silver mech smirked, but, when an unimpressed side-glance met him, added that he knew just the place to go and laying an arm around his mate's hip he let him out of the office on the street, telling him about a cosy little bar a former Decepticon – and he dared Optimus to guess who – had opened a while ago., just for an hour or two.

Behind them the doors felt shut and the lights went out when their sensors weren't stimulated anymore, using the time to cool down until the twins would notice they were alone at home and would use that to their full extend to make something for Starscream to apologies with – they really hadn't meant to harm him after all – and would turn the living room into a warzone of its own in the process, but that was okay, because Cybertron was finally at peace and so were its people and sensing all this safely hidden away in a secret room under the mansion that was the home of Optimus and Megatron the Matrix closed up and fell into a deep slumber it hopefully would never have to be wakened out again.

END