Disclaimer: As we get started, I have some things I have to make clear. One, this is my third and final Transformers story. Second, it will feature story elements from Season 3 along with new characters.

So with that said, let's get this party started. Of course, I don't own the rights to Transformers.

Prologue

In the beginning, the universe was in its infancy. It was also the battleground between Primus and Unicron. Their near ceaseless conflict threw the universe in chaos. Newly formed worlds were utterly annihilated. Stars exploded into supernovas which decimated systems. In the end, Primus would see the damage his conflict with Unicron cause upon the universe and thus, he made the ultimate sacrifice. Primus would imprison himself and his dark brother so that the universe would flourish again. But when Unciron returned with a new metallic form, Primus knew he could not simply renew the hostilities. So, Primus created a group of unique beings who much like Unicron, could shift and change their forms at will. In lore, they would become the Thirteen Original Primes.

Armed with the pure knowledge and shifting abilities of their creator, the Thirteen took the fight to Unicron. The battle was as ferocious as one could possibly imagine and for a time, it appeared that the Thirteen would succeed in defeating the Chaos Bringer. But then, the unthinkable happened; the Thirteen would be betrayed by one of their own. Siding with Unicron, the betrayer murdered his brethren one by one before he himself was defeated by the one surviving Prime. Unicron would ultimately depart to the far reaches of the universe, but the damage was done.

For his part in aiding the Chaos Bringer and the deaths of his brethren, the great betrayer was stripped of his name and title. Then the last surviving child of Primus would cast him into a shapeless limbo of darkness. It would be decreed from that moment on, the great betrayer would forever be known as… The Fallen.

Countless millennia passed and the battle of Unicron and Primus, the Thirteen and the Fallen were lost to myth and legend. The universe would go on, evolve… transform. The prison that Primus created for himself and of himself would become the metallic world known as Cybertron. Upon this young world, a new species of autonomous robotic organisms would be born. The first civilization would be the Quintessons, but they would eventually be cast out by their own creations. For a time, there was peace but as before, conflict would reemerge.

Cybertron would be plunged into a Great War between the peaceful Autobots and the ruthless Decepticons. Over time, countless leaders of the Autobots would fall and Decepticon victory would be all but assured. Until one day, when a single Autobot stepped forth to lead his brethren. He would prove himself a brave and cunning warrior with a confidence that, to many, would seem to border on arrogance. None could deny his will to fight and to win. He would prove himself a hero and would be presented the Matrix of Leadership. But then one day, he would mysteriously vanish from the face of Cybertron. His name was Sentinel Prime.

The Matrix itself would remain on Cybertron, to be held by the last of the Thirteen until another would rise to claim it. As for Sentinel Prime, his whereabouts to this day remain unknown.

TRANFORMERS
RETURN OF THE PRIMES

Chapter I

Location: Sol System
Orbiting Mars

The Solaris, a human designed deep space ship, steadied its approach toward the infamous red planet that neighbored Earth. Inside of the ship was Jessica Morgan, an attractive 29 year old astrophysicist with NASA. She was busy at the helm, keeping the Solaris level and at the same time, monitoring the life signs of her colleague, Gregory Swafford. At 34 years old, Gregory was a man in his prime and an ambitious scientist. At the moment, Gregory was outside the Solaris admiring the vista of Mars below the ship. It was an obvious distraction from the general reason behind the ship's presence. Jessica remained slightly focused on the mission and worked on the main console.

"NASA Mission Control, this is Solaris. Come in, over?"

"Solaris, this is NASA Mission Control, you transmission is a bit garble but we read you. What's your situation?"

"We've approached the designated coordinates. So far, there's no sign of the source of that distress beacon." Jessica reported. "How should we proceed, over?"

"Maintain your position and report any forthcoming findings. Mission Control out."

"Jess, what's the word from Mission Control?" Gregory asked from outside the Solaris.

"We've got orders to maintain position until we find something." Jessica said.

"Seems like a waste of good time," Gregory stated. "Why don't you come and join me; got a hell of a view of Mars from up here."

"Can I take a rain check," Jessica chuckled. "I'm in the middle of this thing called work."

"You're a damn workaholic. Would it kill you to at least snap a few pictures?" Gregory quipped.

"Wait a minute; I'm picking up something on the long range sensors," Jessica was getting a blip on the on board radar, and it seemed to be coming from the other side of the planet. "It might be the source of the beacon. Gregory, head back inside and we'll go check it out."

"You don't want to alert Mission Control?" Gregory asked.

"By the time we do that, it might be too late and we could lose the signal." Jessica stated.

Gregory saw no reason to argue, especially since he only now had about 15 minutes of oxygen left. He headed back into the Solaris as Jessica was preparing the ship. The radar blip was still present, so they had time. There was still the question of what could be sending out a distress beacon this deep into space, and Jessica reasoned it had to be marooned ship. Gregory had eventually joined her in the flight deck, carrying his helmet under his right arm. He was actually quite handsome except for a scar on his left cheek. Women dig scars, he often told Jessica, who was just now getting the engines on line. The Solaris shuttered a bit before the engines started and then the Solaris started off toward the far end of Mars. It would most likely take a few hours to reach their destination, but the hope remained that they would reach the beacon source before it disappeared entirely.

As it turned out, the detour took a shade longer than expected. But the beacon source was still present when the Solaris reached the other side of Mars. Jessica checked and rechecked the radar, which indicated that the signal was close by. Gregory cut out the engine so the Solaris would drift forward but just out of reach the gravitational pull of Mars. The source of the distress beacon was getting closer by the minute and would like be right on top of the Solaris if Jessica or Gregory happened to miss it. They managed to spot it beforehand and were suddenly in absolute awe. The source of the beacon was another ship, larger than the Solaris, but also crudely and hastily built. But even more surprising was the fact that ship was not of human design. Gregory had taken notice of several hull breaches, but that was likely due to the ship crude design. Even if there were someone inside the ship, the lack of breathable oxygen coupled with the vacuum and sub-zero temperatures would make it impossible to survive.

"This is definitely not one of ours." Gregory said.

"Agreed," Jessica said. "What do you want to do?"

"The only way a distress beacon could emanate from a marooned ship is if it was automated," Gregory stated. "I want to go aboard, see if anything can be salvaged and if possible, look for survivors."

"Somehow, I doubt there are survivors. This ship looks like it's been here a long time," Jessica said. "How'd it even get here in the first place?"

"Only one way to find out! I'm going to suit up." Gregory said and started back to the prep room.

"You be careful, alright," Jessica said. "I'll be monitoring your heart rate from here."

"Yes, ma'am." Gregory quipped on his way out.

After ten minutes of getting his suit on, Gregory disembarked from the Solaris and hovered over toward the marooned ship. From his vantage point just above, he could make a number of hull breaches that by all accounts, weren't nature by any stretch. Clearly, the ship was constructed in a hurry, and whoever constructed it did a poor job of it. Traversing the hull, Gregory came across a large breach. It was just wide enough for him to slip through without damaging his suit. There was no gravity, making it at least a little bit easier to maneuver around the ship. Gregory still had to avoid overshooting his movement, making sure he wouldn't go flying out of the ship as quickly as he entered.

"Okay, I'm inside the ship and moving forward." he said.

"Anything of note in there?" Jessica asked from the Solaris.

"Outside of the unusually large hull breaches, no," Gregory said and kept moving. "I'm heading for the main deck; might be some answers in there."

"Turn on your onboard camera so I can get a picture. You've got about 90 minutes worth of your oxygen supply. Make it fast." Jessica ordered.

Gregory moved forward toward what he could only was the corridor leading to the flight deck. At least it was an assumption. Otherwise, Gregory might as well have been moving toward an airlock if the ship had one. Moving onward, Gregory peaked out the various hull breaches and caught more that his fair share of vistas of space. On hole showed a view of Mars while another showed the Solaris nearby. Another hole exposed the Sun thousands of miles away. While he was enjoying the view, Gregory had to focus and move on toward the flight deck.

Forty-five minutes inside the ship, and Gregory was starting to think he was going in circles. Maybe it was because the ship was so large that he might've gotten lost inside. Which was a bad notion as Gregory checked his oxygen levels, noticing that they were halfway depleted. He might still have had time but the ship seemed to go on forever. But then Gregory found himself inside a wide open area, too big to check everything around him. Aside from a select few streaks of flickering light, the area was too dark to see. Gregory turned the light on his onboard camera. Then…

"Gregory, you okay in there?"

"Jesus Christ, Jess. You nearly gave me a heart attack." Gregory snapped.

"Sorry. Where are you right now? I can barely see anything through your camera." Jessica responded.

"I'm in a dark room; it's huge. It might be the flight deck but I'm not sure," Gregory said. "I'm going to see if I can find a working console, figure out how the ship got to this system."

"Hurry up then. You've got about thirty-eight minutes of oxygen left." Jessica stated.

"Great, no pressure," Gregory quipped and went to move deeper into the room when he suddenly stopped. "Wait a minute, I see something."

"What?"

"I don't know," Gregory moved forward toward whatever it was he saw up head of him. It didn't look like any part of the ship he'd seen yet, but there was a faint gleam that suggested it was metallic. Then Gregory's eyes widened in utter astonishment. "Jess, you're not going to believe this. I think I just found a hand."

"That's not funny, Greg." Jessica chastised her partner.

"It wasn't meant to be funny." Gregory stated and floated up.

It was a hand, a giant metal hand. An entire arm actually. Gregory floated further up and to his left and started to make out more of what he saw. The arm was attached to a metallic torso, with two huge legs at the bottom. The body was a mangle mess of steel, had a faded red, silver and blue color to it and was in a seated position on a massive chair. Gregory moved further until he was at the very top of the body before he found the head. It was slumped over to one side and bore a faded blue helmet with and a pair of antenna. There was an indication that the face was covered by a mask, but it was clearly exposed now. The eyes of the corpse were completely darkened, thus conforming it was completely inert.

Gregory couldn't deny what he was staring at when he called back to the Solaris. "Jessica, please tell me you're seeing this."

"Oh my God, it can't be," Jessica mused from the Solaris. "That's… Greg, that's Optimus Prime."

Gregory was speechless as he was staring at the inert body of Optimus Prime. He found himself closing his eyes, and he experienced a flashback. It was a day years ago that Gregory could never forget…

((Ten years earlier:

Gregory Swafford was only 24 years old, but an ambition and enthusiastic scientist with dreams of changing the way people could live. He wasn't going to allow a bunch of alien robots to change things for him. He harbored no ill will toward the Transformers, but he preferred to handle his business his way. He wanted to change the world, and no Autobot or Decepticon would get in his way. But that all changed…

The Decepticons had attacked a research facility in which Gregory was employed at the time. Naturally, the Autobots intervened and in the ensuing carnage, Optimus Prime confronted his nemesis Megatron in one of the labs. Gregory himself was inside the lab as the two leaders fought it out, watching them pound on each other repeatedly while he hid behind the main computer. Optimus was forced back, too close to the computer where Gregory hid.

"Why do you keep fighting, Prime," Megatron bellowed. "Why even waste your time protecting these filthy humans?"

Optimus quickly kicked Megatron back against the wall where he landed with a heavy clang. "The humans of this world have every right to live. That is something you simply fail to understand."

"I've heard this all before. If you love your precious humans so much, then you will die with them." Megatron shouted and raised his fusion cannon.

Optimus Prime acted faster than Megatron could pull the trigger and the Autobot leader tackled his counterpart down to the floor. The momentum caused Megatron to fire his cannon up at the ceiling and created a gaping hole. Chucks of debris began falling to the floor, some of it pelting Optimus and Megatron as they wrestled on the floor. Gregory had to move out of the way of the debris and tried to make a break for the nearby exit. A large chuck of the ceiling fell right in front of him, blocking the exit. Optimus had taken notice of the human's predicament and Megatron took advantage, kicking Optimus off of him and into the main computer. The computer immediately blew apart in a shower of sparks and one of those spark caught Gregory a bit across his face. While Optimus was incapacitated, Megatron stalked the wounded human.

"Disgusting," he growled before aiming his cannon down at Gregory. "Well, at least there'll be one less insect to worry about."

Gregory looked up at the hulking machine, holding the left side of his face and saw the violet light coming out of the barrel of the cannon. At the last second, Optimus Prime again intervened and threw Megatron as hard as he could right through the far wall. Megatron outside the facility, where a handful of Autobots and Decepticons were fighting for control. Optimus Prime emerged from the building with his laser rifle in hand. Megatron brought up his cannon while Optimus raised his rifle and they came to a stalemate.

"This facility is under the protection of the Autobots, Megatron," Optimus declared. "Leave now."

Megatron knew he was beaten, especially since the Autobots were gaining the advantage over the Decepticons. "You'll see us again, Optimus Prime. This I promise you. Decepticons: fall back!"

The Decepticons followed Megatron's lead, although Starscream was reluctant to retreat. When Optimus was joined at his side by Ironhide though, the Seeker rocketed away after the rest of his allies. "Another time, Autobots." he shouted as he jetted away.

"We should go after 'em, Optimus." Ironhide said.

"Let them go, Ironhide," said Optimus Prime. "Our priority at the moment is assisting the humans. Have the Protectobots see to it. You, Ultra Magnus and Ratchet take the rest of the Autobots and secure the parameter."

Ironhide nodded and rushed off while Optimus Prime stared in the direction the Decepticon had gone. He heard a grunting sound behind and saw the human scientist tumbling out of the hole Megatron had create. Optimus Prime knelt down to see to the human, holding out his hand. The human dropped to his knees, holding the side of his face and he looked up at the Autobot leader. Instead of feeling some sense of relief, the human was angry and back away. Optimus was nonplussed by the reaction and kept his composer.

"Are you alright, doctor?" Optimus gently asked.

Gregory stared almost incredulously at the robot and bellow, "Am I alright? Does this look alright," he pointed at the new burn on his face. "Look at my face, you idiot! Take a damn good look; this is on you," Gregory then pointed at the facility and everything around it. "All of this is on you, Optimus Prime."

"I understand your frustration, doctor, but I need you to calm yourself," Optimus Prime said, remaining ever calm and focused. "If you could tell me what you were doing here that drew the attention of the Decepticons, the Autobots can…"

"Can what? Steal my experiments for yourselves," Gregory shouted out. "Why should I even attempt to explain it to the likes of you?"

"It is imperative that I know what Megatron was after. It may be the only way to prevent another attack." Optimus stated.

Gregory was more that reluctant to explain before he said, "We were, Key Word: Were,working on a prototype heat-resistant alloy for the NASA shuttles. But now, the research is gone because you destroyed my computer. That was five years of pain-staking research, GONE in five minutes, because of you and your ridiculous conflict. It'll take five more years to reconstruct the formula."

Optimus Prime didn't attempt to argue; He let the human vent, and then replied, "I am sorry, doctor."

"My name is Gregory Swafford, and I don't need or want you apology. Just, stay the hell away from me." Gregory stormed off.

Optimus Prime rose to his feet and allowed the human to go on his way, clearly to search for human assistance. Looking at the devastation wrought by the Decepticons, Optimus could understand Gregory's anger. But he also lamented that in some way, he was just as responsible. Still, he would harbor no ill will toward the human Gregory Swafford, instead hoping he would be able to move on from this incident.))

"Greg? Greg, are you listening?"

"What," Gregory said aloud. "Jessica, yeah, yeah I'm still here. What'd you say?"

"I was talking about bringing the body back to Earth." Jessica stated.

"Back to Earth? Why," Gregory said. "These machines have caused nothing but endless misery for years."

Silence came about before Jessica responded, "Look, I know about your dislike of the Transformers, especially Optimus Prime, but the Autobots deserve to know that their deceased leader was found."

"Jessica, bringing the body of a dead Autobot back to Earth is a colossal waste of time," Gregory explained with some mark exasperation. "And, there are questions that are going to be asked. For one; how'd did Optimus Prime get here in the first place. We shouldn't even bother at all."

"Maybe, but it's still the right of the Autobots to deal with this as they see fit," Jessica stated. "I'm making the call right now; we're taking the body back to Earth and we're handing it over to the Autobots. End of story."

Gregory was now even more exasperated at being essentially overruled by Jessica. But obviously, her mind was made up, and she didn't harbor any anger toward the Autobots, not like Gregory. Gregory leered at the lifeless husk of Optimus Prime, feeling as if it was staring back at him. He'd had ten years to grow up and move on from that incident and thought he'd gotten over it. But to encounter Optimus Prime, a dead Optimus Prime but Optimus nonetheless, brought Gregory back to a bad place. He didn't like that bad place. Through all of this, Gregory was still haunted by that one very important question; how did Optimus Prime make it back to the Sol System if he was already dead? More importantly; was Optimus Prime ever really dead at all?

Author's note: That's it for the Prologue and Chapter I, with several key players already introduced including The Fallen, who will be one of the central antagonists. He'll be nothing like Michael Bay's Fallen.

Gregory Swafford and Jessica Morgan also debut and before you ask, since I'm doing this story my way, the Hate Plague will not be featured, but it might well be referenced.

And, where does Sentinel Prime fit in all this? Only way to find out is to read and review, but keep the speculation to a minimum please.