Author's Note: Random speculation, totally not cannon, could be considered AU.

Warning: Long before the Cybertronian war, pre-recoded history, when 'Primes' were generals of a forgotten resistance. Takes place after 'the final battle'
Disclaimer: Do I look like either Roberto Orci or Alex Kurtzman? No. (If I did, one of them would have to have boobs)

Last Ray of Hope

He had to move quickly, he had no choice, there wasn't much time.

"Sentinel stop." His first lieutenant called from behind him, "You'll kill yourself."

Sentinel ignored him, half because he had no reply, half because he lacked the strength to.

"It's too late for her Sentinel," Siren continued "her and the sparklings, maybe even for you." The lieutenant touched his shoulder gently as Sentinel continued to crawl forward, clutching something to his chassis in one arm protectively.

"Even…so…" his voice capacitor was wrecked, and his words came out hoarse.

The other mech, though also heavily damaged, could at least still stand; Siren paused as he walked after the Prime, the last Prime. His optics twinkled with admiration for his commander's faithful determination. "I see." He whispered.

"Sometimes…to win we must…lose…" Sentinel continued through his exhaustion as he continued to scale the mounts of scrap left from the great battle, holding his precious cargo close as climbed.

The other mech nodded, "We must leave Cybertron to the young then. They are our kin's last hope." Though the Prime's back was to him, Siren knew that Sentinel was smiling even if it was only slightly. The lieutenant gave a small, sad sigh, knowing this would be the last time he saw his friend alive. "Good bye Sentinel." He whispered to the air, and turned away, back to the youngling he had left at the shelter. One day the youngling that awaited him would be part of a another war, almost as great as the one he had been sparked into, but years of laughs, love and friendship would wipe this nightmare from his memory banks, for now he had the hope of a playful innocent.

Sentinel climbed further, until at last he reached the barely functioning form of another Cybertronian. The yellow femme's optics came online at his approach and flickered with recognition. The Prime was relieved that her optics had returned to their original cool blue rather than the fiery red they had been during the battle.

"Sen…" She weakly called, but too much of her life had already slipped away and she lived now only for the secret The Fallen had not managed to rob her of.

"Ariel." Sentinel replied, approaching her side for the second time since the Twelve had sacrificed themselves to seal away their brother, the Betrayer.

He kneeled down next to her and carefully laid down the protoforms he had clung to life to retrieve. His earlier examination of his mate had revealed that the spark they had created together had split. Twins were rare among their kind, and thought to be a blessing, but because of Ariel's predicament before, Sentinel worried about the purity of their sparks.

The last Prime looked his mate sadly in the optics. Before this battle they had created a spark to ensure hope for the future of their kind, but the Betrayer, The Fallen, had some how enslaved many, including his beloved Ariel, for his army as they tried to steal for themselves the power that had once been shared by all.

Ariel's optics dropped suddenly and Sentinel knew he had to do it now. Slowly wracked with aches, he climbed on top of her, opening her spark chamber gently, careful not to hurt either her or the sparklings. She clasped his hand for a moment, silently asking to be forgiven for her weakness when her mind had been stolen. Sentinel smiled, though he did not believe that she had done anything wrong, he understood that she needed to know he held nothing against her.

"Hold still." He whispered, as he removed the first small spark from her chassis.

Ariel winced, carrying the sparklings took a lot of energy, but the removing them was even worse. Sentinel paused a moment out of concern, Ariel uttered a wordless sound, urging him to hurry, for without a body the spark could go out quickly. The mech nodded and put the spark within the small formless body that was one of the protoforms he had brought with him.

Instantly a shape began to form, and a tiny, helpless sparkling appeared from nothing. Sentinel promptly repeated the process with the second spark, and once the two sparklings had been forged they began to wail, wanting the comfort of the other half of their spark which resided within their brother.

Ariel groaned and forced herself up, with all the energy left in her, for one final act. She scooped up her offspring and held them close, a smile formed on her face plating, and her darkening optics brightened with the love only a mother could know, or even imagine. "They're beautiful…" She sighed as her optics began to dim for the last time.

Put together, the two brothers had ceased their crying, and brought to their mother's bosom, had fallen into recharge, looking almost as lifeless as she did.

Agony swept through Sentinel as his mate's spark faded out. He sat by her side in silence, mourning for a moment, feeling himself growing weaker as his own will to live started to slip. Surges of unidentified energy swept across the battlefield, making him look up. He tensed as his sadness was replaced with fear. Sentinel watched as markings appeared on the sides of the heads of his sons, like an invisible iron had burned them on, the markings glimmered with a scorching red color and the brothers started to groan with discomfort.

Fear boiled into anger as the last Prime realized what was happening. The Fallen's voice rippled from one dimension to another, seducing the new life to his evil as it had so many others.

No!

He wouldn't let this happen. Sentinel moved forward to grab his young, but his energy was almost spent, his progress was weak and slow, he was dying.

He was forced to make an unbearable decision as he realized with dismay he would only have enough time to one of them. Could he allow both his heir to fall into darkness? Or would he use his last energies to save one of them. That decision was not hard, as he looked at his slumbering young, Sentinel knew he'd never let them both go. What really tore him apart was picking which one to save.

"No parent… should ever…" He whimpered. The new father shut off his optics and thrust a hand forward, grabbing one of the sparklings at random. The separation woke them both and they started to shriek, each scrambling for his brother's presence. Sentinel did not online his optics as he uttered a prayer in what would come to be known as 'Ancient Cybertronian' and with his bare hands, scratched a single symbol into the side of his son's head, that burned away The Fallen's curse.

Prime.

Only then did Sentinel online his optics to see which child he had saved. He smiled at his younger son, forged from the second spark and protoform. The young life looked at him questioningly, feeling a bond to the bigger mech who held him. A cry for Ariel's lifeless body reminded Sentinel of the son he could not save.

He placed the brothers together and their shrieking ceased once again as they snuggled closer together. Something caught their father attention as he lied down to join his mate in the will of all sparks.

The curse burned onto the helm of the older twin had faded. The blessing of one spark had eliminated The Fallen's threat from that one, and dampened its power in the other. That gave the last Prime the one last ray of hope he needed to pass on in peace.

The sparklings were found later, still nestled into their mother's bosom, and brought back to the shelter. The two were given names, Megatron and Optimus, the progeny of Sentinel and Ariel. They grew to be leaders, but they were also both protective of each other.

One because he recognized something special about his brother; the other because he could sense that deep down there was something terribly wrong.

Author's End note: One thing that keeps sticking out to me when I see previews for ROTF is Optimus' line "We have kept much from you Sam." I suspect that the Autobots know something about the Fallen, and most of this one-shot was revolved around why they 'kept it from Sam' because none of them were old enough to know if the stories where true. This also is my theory on why Megatron was so easily seduced by The Fallen's promise of power, whereas when Optimus finds out about Megatron's plan he doesn't want to go along with it. I hope you enjoyed this fic.

Editor's note: I had to yell at Zaerith in order to get her to write this in time, so you'd better like it. Hopefully I managed to catch all of the mistakes Zaerith made, see my dominate hand has been damaged so I can't work as well, if you catch any mistakes that I missed, inform us please. Leave reviews, and please, no flames, I'd hate to have to go on a hunting trip with an injured hand… I do wonder though, why is it always me who gets the unfortunate injuries?