Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.

A/N: After recieving such wonderful reviews for my 1st story I decided to get a move on with this idea. You guys really geve me a huge push ;3

Hope you enjoy this, and that it's as ok as the 1st.

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Prologue

It was gone.

The Allspark. Lost. Launched into the space by the leaders of the Autobots to prevent his fraction from claiming its unlimited powers.

Megatron seethed quietly as he watched the buzzing Cybertonian night from his chamber located high above the walls of his base, restless like all of his Decepticons.

They were not defeated but the humiliation of losing the Allspark was a thorn in his side, making him feel like a fool; tricked by a simple diversion created by their enemies to lure them out far away from the place the Autobots had designated for the Allspark, where they launched the planet's most precious energy source off into space. He had never imagined those fools to be that desperate to prevent him from getting to it. For him it was a disgrace, a treacherous act he himself would never had committed and they dared to call him the master of deceit. That was even more of a dishonor to him when the Fallen had called him a failure and in his spite had given him his newest, quite extreme task of retrieving the missing treasure.

As if the old despot had to point it out to him! Megatron knew how to lead his army, knew exactly what had to be done, but the ancient mech did not care for his opinion as the Fallen had taken the command over and turned out to be a real tyrant.

This was the thanks Megatron got after he had discovered his smoldering skeleton on some desolate planet and brought him back to Cybertron to have him repaired. He wasn't foolish enough to allow him to be fully functional; oh no, he knew the stories of their ancestors and their mysterious powers. He knew that the Fallen, as he demanded to be called, was not to be treated lightly. He had considered many times whether it would not be safer to terminate the old mechanism and be rid of the possibly double-edged sword he came to possess. Not once had he heard the anxious whispers or even direct accusations from his subordinates that the so-called captive of Megatron was too dangerous and should be disposed of. Yet the Fallen's ancient knowledge proved to be too much of a temptation to simply scrap his body. Megatron had believed that he would be able to use the old mech to bring the Decepticons to a new level of power and the Fallen had used that belief against him.

While not yet fully functional, he had turned out to be strong enough to overpower Megatron and force on him a new deal, making the silver leader become his 'disciple'. In return the Fallen would share with him the ancient methods of creating energon and manufacturing new mechs. Megatron's failure to predict or prevent this turn of events filled him with fury but unless he had wanted to keep functioning he had had to agree to the Fallen's terms. The only condition he had managed to negotiate was that no mech was ever to be let in on this secret and that Megatron would continue to act as the mighty leader of his army. The Fallen had only laughed, a cruel mocking snigger, at his new servant's petty demand. It never was of any concern for him who the Decepticons called their Lord as long as it was the Fallen who made the decisions.

From that day onward Megatron had been forced to do his new master's bidding, taking the blame and hate for the ancient mech's megalomaniac designs which very soon proved to be not only rash and focused on his personal vendetta towards the Autobots but causing the Decepticon army more loss than gain. The colonies built to breed new mechanisms were indeed a marvelous innovation but the price they had to pay for it was extremely high. Megatron became known as a despotic tyrant, murderer of all who opposed him, civilian or warrior alike; a thief of the precious and scarce energon feared by every city's leaders. The Autobots had thought this transformation was the result of the silver mech's overgrown ego or even madness and soon had begun to defend, but also very often initiate attacks, with more fervor and desperation than before. The war had taken a violent turn in which thousands of warriors on both sides perished, their numbers diminished to mere hundreds, struggling to maintain their forces intact. Each new wave of bred Decepticons was sent off into the battlefields only to meet slaughter as less and less energon was left to provide them with sufficient nourishment to develop correctly. The new methods of gathering the resources quickly drained the planet causing famine among the mechs and the despair soon reached the Fallen's warped mind as he came to realize the mistakes in his strategy. Naturally he had not let it show when he had called Megatron to instruct him to prepare an assault on another Autobot city and had made it painfully clear that he was fully in control of the situation when his silver 'apprentice' tried to dissuade him from his plot.

The Fallen had ordered Megatron to bring him the Allspark, the sacred entity of their race, to restore his full power so that he could end the struggle once and for all, decimating every, and each Autobot still functioning. As attractive as the end of the war in the favor of the Decepticons sounded, he feared that the Fallen's rage would not stop with his enemies' death. He did not want to be the cause of his people and the rest of the by standing populace's demise from the ancient mech's wrath but he had never expected the Autobots to learn of the plans and settle, or so they thought, the matter by putting the Allspark out of Megatron's reach.

The danger was averted for the time being, but he could not shake the awful feeling of defeat, of being unable to protect his people with his own power. The Autobots could rejoice for a while, but he knew in his spark that the Fallen would never relinquish his mad quest for vengeance. And his anger was first directed not at his enemies, but at him.

He had hidden the dents and tears in his battered armor well on his way from the Fallen's chamber to his own, darkness of the night aiding him in his shameful retreat. He had called a medic mech and threatened to dismantle him and his femme companion if a word of his state got out to the public. The obedient con did not disappoint him; he left with a fearful bow having patched his leader up as best as he could in the short time he was given.

Now, when he looked no worse than after a sparring match the cons sometimes held to entertain themselves, he called Starscream to his chamber to give him a briefing on the new plan. The seeker, as always, was very eager to point out all the faults Megatron himself had noticed, but hearing his second in command's disbelieving voice as he questioned his leader's sanity had hurt him more than he had expected. He was very tired of the whole masquerade he had to put up with because of the Fallen, of being accused of the other mech's blunders and Starscream was not making it any better.

So he relieved himself and proved to himself he still had some power left over his subordinate; made sure he was still feared and able to make his screeching Air Commander whimper and cower before him. He ordered the plans to be taken into action the following morning, leaving an energon-seeping, wing-fractured Starscream alone in his chamber as he proceeded towards the launch pad section of the base.

He heard muffled curses and metal scraping on the floor as Starscream was trying to get back up. He didn't slow down; seeing his second in command for a second longer would break his resolve to follow the Fallen's orders because everything Starscream had said was right: chasing after the Allspark throughout the universe was like chasing a ghost – it could be anywhere. And he himself, the mighty leader of the Decepticon army was going to do it personally; something was very wrong with that in Starscream's opinion. The flier had called him a senile fool, and of course didn't omit the chance to point out how he would have devised a better course of action if he were the leader, and Megatron really wondered if this time Starscream hadn't been right about that.

But it was not his decision to make – the Fallen had demanded Megatron announce him as the leader for the time of his absence. Starscream had not understood, naturally, why he wasn't appointed, but he could never know the truth behind this charade. And he had not understood why Megatron hadn't included him in the pursuit team; as he predicted the Seeker took personal offense assuming his leader didn't trust him with such a mission.

Megatron shook his head as he passed a series of corridors, the launching pad minutes away. The truth was, and admitting it to himself yet again was a strain to his circuits, that he did trust his second in command. Trust to keep the army together at least. As emotional and easy to aggravate he found Starscream, the Seeker had demonstrated countless times how competent and mature he was on the battlefield. After all Megatron would never had appointed him the Air Commander if there was no talent behind his overconfident attitude and he would never had made him his second if he did not believe in his ability to manage the mechs efficiently. This was exactly why he was leaving Starscream behind; the Fallen cared not for his troops but the Seeker did. He was tough and his hate for the old mech was enough to stand between his soldiers and the evil being and to keep him from wasting their resources on another fool's errand.

To waste more resources than Megatron had already allowed to waste.

He braced himself; it was no time for self-pity. The tasks have been assigned: Starscream was now in the most difficult position and it was up to Megatron to end this farce as fast as possible. He didn't know what he would do after retrieving the Allspark yet but the Fallen could not get a hold of it; he would have to come up with a plan to get rid of the menacing ancient before his Decepticon empire fell.

Megatron ordered his flagship to be prepared for a long journey and called the Decepticons he had chosen to accompany him. He organized a brief meeting and not before the sun rose over his base, he bid Cybertron a silent farewell as his vessel prepared to launch

He did not see Starscream among the officers who came to pay him respects; he wasn't surprised – if the fool had crawled behind him after what he had done to the Seeker, Megatron would only mock his sentimentality and ordered him away from his sight and into the repair bay. What did stun him was how heavy he felt leaving him, them all, at the mercy of the Fallen. Was this the right choice?

But as the ship took off he reminded himself that his time for choices was long gone – ha had made one when he had found the Fallen. Now he was paying the price for it and he would rather die than admit he had made a mistake.

It would take millennia for him to realize how wrong he had been…

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