I gave up waiting for my beta. This complete fic was sitting in my drawer for over a year, and wanted out no matter what.

Shattered origin can be found here: s/7391659/1/Shattered-Origin

Shattered flight can be found here: s/7524962/1/Shattered-Flight

Shattered Prime: see below :)


Shattered Prime

When you look into the mirror, you might see the opposite of whatever should be normal... or you might see Real Life in there.

Hanging

Megatron was hanging from the ceiling of his enemy's berthroom, silently, motionless. There were few lights in the place, and the voices of a mech and a femme in the distant hall could hardly be heard. There were other Transormers' dead bodies hanging like an upside-down collection, like a horrible reminder of what he had done to the mech who now lived here. Autobots, Decepticons – they were all equal in death, unsorted, as if each corpse had been hanged wherever the evil Prime found some space for them. Waspinator, who'd been believed to be a natural survivor until fate had recently found him. Starscream's former boss, the proud Skyfire. Beloved, threacherous Lugnut. Two out of the eight Constructicons. An innocent neutral named Bludgeon. Zippy, speedy Blurr, now reduced to a cube. Members of the three-parts gestalt known as Reflector. Dark gray bodies, charred beyond recognition. Someone in a sealed box. Body parts that must have fallen off a rusting figure and have not yet been put back to their places.

Right next to Megatron was his trusty assistant, Soundwave. To their little comfort, they've both been alive. The odd-one-outs silently hoped that they wouldn't be spotted as the room's owner would come in for his recharge. Soundwave was still busy with the security system he'd been fooling – theirs had been the only energon signatures in the collector's room for a long time. Megatron tried to relax. He remembered why they were both here now, waiting for the Prime to fall into recharge. Do you have the complete list? Soundwave nodded. He didn't seem to mind the idea of taking some spare parts, but he obviously disliked the risks and unwanted challenges of the mission. Megatron wasn't exactly happy, either, but it was the fastest way of aquiring the needed parts. He didn't hesitate for long. The Insecticons had told him that there wasn't much time to waste.

He remembered back. It'd happened almost two orns ago, but it was still hard to believe. There was a Prime with him. A Prime whom First considered to be truest of them all. Optimus Prime.

Megatron remembered waiting for him in the deep space, at the coordinates Retcon had given. Astrotrain was so eager to come! And finally, there they were, waiting for the broken mech's arrival. Vector Prime didn't make them wait for long. The wreck of an ochre Autobot flagship appeared out of nowhere. There were so many shootmarks on it, especially on the bridge, it seemed impossible that there was anybot functional aboard. Megatron took off from Astrotrain's hold, and carefully entered the ruined vessel.

He'd found the mech in the pilot's chair, mostly blue, red and gray, repeating „Till all are one" in a weanened voice that still held the power of the very strong. Most of his faceplates were missing, his mouthplate was almost gone. There was some broken glass in his chest that was obviously missing an important part. The Matrix of Leadership, Megatron realized. He was holding the Matrix right next to his spark.

„Till... all... are... one!"

Megatron nodded as he carefully attached towing cables to the badly damaged Optimus Prime.

„Yes, till all are one. Where's your left arm?" Not that he'd expected an answer from the almost offline mech. „Starscream, I'm ready. Pull us back to Astrotrain!"

That had been two orns ago. The first orn was spent with stabilizing the broken Prime's systems and trying to prevent them collapsing again. At the beginning of the second orn, the Insecticons arrived. It took the whole swarm to repair the most menacing wounds and bypass the damaged circuits. When Megatron asked, they gave him a list of parts that had to be replaced, most of them, urgently.

Now, at the end of the second orn, this list was in Soundwave's processor.

There was some distant light, and Aira's voice could be heard. She gave the darkness-afflicted Prime her opinion. By the Prime's reaction, this was uncalled for. The femme continued nevertheless, and Megatron had to admit that she had a point: if the dark Prime hadn't exhausted himself this often, he wouldn't need to refuel this soon. Megatron bit back an apology. It was his fault that the Prime was now running on dark energon, addicted to it for what seemed to be the oncoming eternity. His once-shattered frame had rejected energon, as if it was poison for him. The silver miner kept blaming himself for the Prime's condition.

At least Aira was there for him. She came as soon as she got the news of what had befallen to her rival. Megatron tried to gather as much information about her as he could. Aira was a technorganic once, more advanced than any of her colleagues. Not even Soundwave could get what exactly happened to her, but she'd lost her organic self, and she was left 'crippled', completely mechanical, like any other robots of her size. Megatron guessed that she was staying with the Prime because she was the only one who could understand what he had gone through, and he also guessed that the understanding was mutual. As much as the sight of the duo had pained him, their cooperation and relying on each other had warmed his spark.

Not that his guilt could have prevented Megatron from doing what he had come for. He fixed himself to the infamous ceiling, relaxed, and pretended to be another element of the horrible collection hanging from the ceiling of the berthroom. Soundwave seemed to be doing it a lot better.

The Prime came, stumbled to his berth, and dropped offline without even looking up at his extended collection of passed-by Transformers. The two living elements of the collection exchanged cautious glimpses, then lowered themselves to the ground and started what they had came for.

Megatron took the position opposite to the berthroom entrance, so that he could spot Aira if she came this way. Soundwave caringly took the Prime's black helm in his palm, making sure he wouldn't wake up during the process. When he was sure he had the dark one's mind under control, he nodded to his silvery leader. For your information, I very much disagree with myself. Soundwave nodded without a click. Megatron grabbed the chest panels of the mech, and pulled them open. He wished there was any other way of getting spare parts for the other Prime.

The red and blue mech was still offline after two orns of repairs, his central energon pump hardly following the rythm of his faint, weakly pulsing spark. According to the Insecticons, repeated damage to the left side of his torso had offlined him in the first place. The other wounds seemed superficial compared to the damage of his energon distributor and filter systems.

„Ring-shaped central cable valves" Soundwave said in his melodic, calming voice. „They should be directly above the air intakes."

Megatron took a close look at the devolved central cable. It should have been pulsing with life-giving energon, not standing uselessly and dry. He wondered how dark energon spread in the shattered mech's purple frame, because it didn't take the same way as energon did, for sure.

At least he won't be missing these, he told himself. He handed the ring-like component over to Soundwave who subspaced it without a word of complaint. What's next?

„Secondary abridger unit" Soundwave replied. „Or the primary one, if it's easier to remove."

No way I would take out his primary abridger! Where is that supposed to be?

Soundwave relayed technical information, while both of them kept watch. Neither of them were comfortable with this visit (robbery), but most Decepticons were either unable or unwilling to mass-shift, and this mission required stealth and going unnoticed.

Megatron was wrist-deep in the fine instruments of the purple mech when Soundwave gave him the signal for retreat. Having finally found the abridger unit, Megatron took it out without hesitation, as if he was taking a precious gem from the hard rocks of the mines. He closed the chest panels, and transformed to his small pistol mode as he winched himself up to the ceiling.

Is there anything else we need to take?

„A complete left arm" Soundwave whispered.

I've already ordered the replacement.

„You have ordered everything, because either this Prime or the other will..."

Soundwave couldn't continue his sentence. Aira entered the room, suspiciously watching the oddly inert purple Prime.

Do we need anything else? Megatron asked, as if he hadn't known what were on the list. Facial panels and a mouthplate. Optic glass, but he had already dropped the idea because he wanted the optic's color match that of the remained optic. Chest glasses, but he wasn't sure they could take them without breaking one.

Aira stepped closer to the purple Prime, and Megatron knew she would notice the bent chest panels any klik by now. It was time for them to be elsewhere.

A flying pistol left through a joint gap of the large building's dome. A thin and steamlined lamp post followed. Neither would have admitted it to the other, but they were highly relieved to leave.

Megatron wondered for an astrosecond whether those many Transformers whose rusting bodies had been hanging from the ceiling would have agreed to the two Decepticons using them as cover. But maybe that was all they could do against their killer.