Author's Note: So this is a special early preview of this fanfic, which will be regularly posted in early 2025 after Cracks In Canon ends. My discord was desperate for me to get ANYTHING with this fic, so I decided to do this chapter early. Enjoy and see you in the Winter of 2025!

~MC~MC~MC~

Orion couldn't sleep.

Not Optimus. No… it was solely an Orion issue at the moment.

After everything had happened in Iacon it had felt like all he would be able to do was shut his eyes and enter into the longest recharge known to Cybertron. The attack on Iacon and revealing what Sentinel had done, with the rallying miners joining with the High Guard to finally bring the bot that had sold them all out to the Quintessons to justice. Dee betraying him, blinded by his rage and letting him fall. Being remade into Optimus Prime and fighting his best friend to try and get him to STOP. Seeing that Dee wouldn't listen to reason, too upset and enraged by everything, and being forced to exile him. Restarting the flow of Energon and returning all the stolen cogs… though he still didn't know HOW he had done that. He was just thankful for his battle mask to hide his shock at the matrix suddenly summoning the cogs from… wherever Sentinel had hid them. And of course all of that had led to celebrations throughout Iacon. The cogless cheering their ability to transform and that it was one of them, Orion Pax, who would lead them. The return of the Energon and what that would mean for their people. Bots had flocked to the Energon rivers and drank deep, not caring how uncultured it was to do so, feeling full tanks for the first time in cycles.

And EVERYONE had wanted to talk to Optimus.

Not Orion. No… it had been solely an Optimus problem.

Finally breaking away from them all Orion had moved to go and get a deep recharge only for Elita to catch him and point out that he couldn't do that. His old recharging area was designed for a bot half his size. In fact nearly all the miners would be looking for new places to recharge, all of them having bulked up a bit with the return of their cogs.

Bee had been the one to suggest that they go to Sentinel's grand tower and that was how Orion had found himself standing in the gilded recharging station of Sentinel Prime… what he supposed would become his recharging station.

'And I can't get to sleep,' he thought in utter annoyance as he stepped out of the thing for the tenth time and began to pace.

The slagging thing was too complicated, for one. There were all sorts of features on it that Orion had never considered. Nanobots that would repair damage as he slept… but had tickled him to no end when he'd first activated them; he'd finally found the timer and had set that to turn on in a lunar cycle… only for him to stand there, unable to drift off into recharge, and thus need to reset the alarm again and again. Heating systems to warm his body as well as cooling systems to bring down his internal temperature. He had no idea what he preferred and had nearly scorched his armor at one point trying to figure out just what to do with the settings; thank Primus for the Nanobots, at least.

And there were so many features he hadn't even tried to play around with. The elevation system that would allow one to lie down, be on their side, even face down if that would make for a better recharge. A device that was supposed to connect to his fuel lines to check for any impurities. A light pulse system that, according to the instructions he'd read through after the first lunar cycle of being unable to get into recharge, were supposed to promote positive thoughts.

It was all too much and left his brain buzzing.

'That's not why you can't sleep though,' he thought to himself as he looked around the opulent room he was in. Sentinel had loved his gold and Orion was already wondering if he could just rip it all away if he were forced to recharge there every night. The light from the different machines bounced around the reflective surfaces and made his optics hurt. 'And its too quiet,' he thought morosely as he wandered about, staring at the reliefs carved into the walls that depicted Sentinel's great 'deeds'. 'How is a bot supposed to sleep if he can't hear the comforting hum of the overhead systems? The fans trying to kick in fresh air? The thunk that comes near the top of every hour?'

He looked across from the recharge bay and sighed.

"Stop lying to yourself," he muttered. "That's not what's wrong."

Orion was lonely.

All his life he had recharged around others. He had never been alone in a recharge. But Sentinel's bay was all by itself so Elita and Bee had gone down to find bays of their own; he wondered if she had been forced to go into Airachnid's bay. He really hoped not, not just for her but all of them. Bee… well, he wasn't sure what Bee would do as he hadn't even gotten to see if Sub Level 50 HAD recharge bays. It was entirely possible he'd just gone to recharge huddled in a corner. But the point was that his friends couldn't be with him and he was alone.

Dee wasn't there.

"How are you handling your recharge?" he murmured to himself as he moved to the window and looked not down at Iacon but up towards the surface, where he knew his best friend, his brother, was at that very moment. "Will the High Guard know that you like to read a little before you go into recharge? Or that even though you grumble when the alarm goes off you always like to be first out so you can get energon in your tank? Will they understand?"

Orion leaned his forehead against the glass.

"Damn it, Dee… it wasn't supposed to be like this."

Abandoning the window, Orion moved back to the bay but rather than settle into it he slouched down onto the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs and pressing his forehead to his knees. Everything was… wrong. Messed up. Nothing at all like he had expected. And he simply didn't know what to do anymore.

Closing his optics Orion sighed and, thankfully, felt himself drifting into recharge.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Now, All We Need Is a Little Energon and a Lot of Luck!"

"I Will Never Stop Fighting for Our Freedom."

"But the Day Will Never Come, That We Forsake This Planet and Its People."

"As Long as Power Flows Through Any of My Circuits..."

"Do not lament my absence, for in my spark, I know that this is not the end, but merely a new beginning"

"Thrones are for Decepticons."

"There's a thin line between being a hero, and being a memory"

"Do Not Forget What You Have Learned of Our Past..."

Orion's eyes snapped open and he gripped his head in his hands. Too much. It was far too much. What he had seen…

He leapt to his feet and looked out upon Iacon once more. Plenty of robots were still out celebrating, those that had been in recharge and too tired to be awake during all that had happened now taking their chance to celebrate. The city… the city was alive and beautiful.

Not at all like the countless other Iacons he had seen.

He twisted away from the window, mind haunted by familiar faces twisted into so many different forms, performing so many different actions. Like his own. Like his friends. Like his… enemies.

Dock worker. Data clerk. Space bridge maintenance worker. Law enforcement officer.

All had been where he was, in some way or form. And all had watched their people suffer and war tear them apart.

"No…" he whispered and at once he was on the move, racing out the door, not even thinking about calling for anyone. There was no time… no time at all. He moved towards the train station, knowing he would have to activate one even though the deliveries to the surface shouldn't be happening anymore. That would create a lot of questions but he didn't care in that moment.

He fumbled slightly as he made it towards an exit and leapt onto the elevated roadway, transforming and squealing his tires as he raced on.

'I have to break the cycle. I have to stop it before we're sucked into it again.'

He took a curve and without thought he activated his comm device, calling a number that was so painfully familiar it made his spark ache. Orion didn't know what he'd do if he didn't-

There was a click. Nothing else. No words. But… it was still an answer.

"Please… I know you hate me. But… I need to talk with you. Please…"

Silence.

And then…

A location ping.

Orion did his best not to break down keening.

"I'll be right there."

~MC~MC~MC~

The surface of Cybertron would never stop being beautiful.

As Orion drove along the surface, the train far away from him but silent and still, he allowed himself for just a moment to enjoy the sky above him and the strange structures that surrounded him. A herd of iondeer suddenly leapt from the long strange shoots that stuck out of the surface and ran alongside him. Iondeer… they were supposed to be mythical creatures… or rather a creature. All the records he had found had only spoken of a single Iondeer and now he was surrounded by 30 of them! He wondered what else was on the surface. Turbofoxes? Petrorabbits?

He turned right at a crystalline spike and then transformed back into robot mode, spotting the location that had to be his goal. It was a tall rocky structure, maybe 60 or 70 feet tall, with what looked like a narrow path twisting along it towards the top. He moved carefully moved along the path, wanting to believe there was no way that it was a trap or an ambush but knowing in his spark that he couldn't be that naïve. So he went up carefully, tense but also making sure he did nothing that could be seen as him being an aggressor. He would not be blamed if a fight broke out.

'No fight can break out. We can't afford it,' he thought as he finally reached the top… and the lone figure that was currently sitting there, back to him and legs dangling off the edge.

"…hey Dee," Orion said as he slowly approached. "Or… do you want to be called Megatron? You… you said that was your name now. Its… it's a good one. I like it. Megatronus Prime was always a bit of a mouthful, no offense, so Megatron is… is good. Short. And hey, I can call you Megs if you want, or Tron or… well, whatever you want. And hey, I know that I said I was Optimus Prime now but… not really feeling like an Optimus or a Prime at the moment. And it won't be weird if you call me Orion. Elita and Bee are still and I like it." He shook his head. "Yeah."

Megatron merely reached over and patted the spot next to him.

Orion carefully sat down and rather than look at his friend he stared out at Cybertron.

"I had a dream. At least… I think it was a dream. Part of me hopes it was. Just everything that happened over the last few days getting to me and… driving me insane. Which will mean that you were right and I finally did snap." He smiled and let out a little chuckle but his good mood fell within moments. "But yeah… I had a dream. You were there, Dee. Sometimes we started out as friends… that was nice. I liked that. Most times though… well, I think you can figure it out. But sometimes… sometimes we didn't even know each other until we came to blows. I think that was the worst part. At least knowing you, having those good moments? It was something to hold onto. I felt bad for the… mes… that never knew you as anything other than some threat to stop."

Megatron said nothing.

"How it ended… well, it ended all sorts of ways. Victory. Defeat. And everything in between. Sometimes I died to achieve what I needed to do. Sometimes I killed you. Often it didn't stick for either of us and we just… kept coming back. Primus refused to let us rest. We would make the ultimate sacrifice for our own causes and… we'd be brought back. Or they'd be brought back.

"They weren't us, Dee. Versions of us but… not us. I have to keep reminding myself that. I saw things there… bots I've known for years… do horrible things and amazing things and I have to remind myself that I don't actually know the ones that did all that. They are just phantoms wearing their faces." He shook his head. "Its going to be hell dealing with them. Maybe that's why I wanted to come out here, to talk to you. Because I saw you the most and I wanted to reassure myself that you weren't them. Because if you weren't them then I wasn't him. Optimus Prime."

Megatron said nothing.

"Because no matter what happened, which one of us won or lost, the result was the same. Cybertron torn apart. Maybe, once or twice, there was hope… things would continue on and our people had a home… but we were divided and filled with fear and distrust. But most times we were completely wiped out."

Orion looked up at the sky, feeling his fans shuddering as he let out a sigh.

"Millions of us… billions… all gone. Wiped out. We were reduced to a few hundred. That was it. Even the Quintessons didn't manage to cripple us like that. I saw versions of the two of us destroy Cybertron again and again and again." He swallowed and dropped his head back down once more. "That's why I pinged you Dee. Because I don't want that to be our legacy. I don't want the two of us to be like all those other versions; being blind to everything other than our need to win. Too stubborn to compromise or find some way to work things out. I'd rather have died in that fall than to let that happen." He shook his head. "I know its sounds crazy. I know that. And you are probably getting ready to give some long speech about how I'm letting a dream get to me but-"

"You call yourself… a prime?"

Orion winced at that. He deserved that.

"You were a records clerk when I found you."

That made Orion blink though. No… he'd never been a records clerk. He-

"That's Because Everything I Touch Is Food For My Hunger." Orion turned to Megatron, seeing that his friend's eyes were shut tight. "Here's a survival tip: when everyone's lining up to make sacrifices... always get to the back of queue. I do this only for the benefit of my Decepticons. It grieves me that you may also profit. You see, leadership is not something I fear losing: It is something I dread you gaining."

"Dee…" Orion whispered.

"You see… wrong again. No speeches. Not rants. You aren't the only one that's special." He looked up to the sky. "You aren't the only one that watched Cybetron burn." His voice cracked as he said that. "I… I never wanted that."

And with that Megatron opened his eyes… and the shone gold.

The two sat there for a long time, looking at the sky, the weight of what they both had experienced pressing down on them. The plans each had made on their own were now shattered… they couldn't ever hope or consider going back to them after what they'd experienced. They had been given a gift, a chance to look into all the different ways their future might go… and seen how so many times their hubris, their stubbornness, and their blindness had led to ruin of their home. The rise of the Autobots… the great Decepticon Empire… both died in their cribs because their leaders, on that night, had seen what would come of them and decided that they could not allow it to pass.

"…I should have let you kill Sentinel," Orion muttered.

"No… you shouldn't have," Megatron declared though with no heat. "You didn't want to let him go… did you? You wanted something more."

"I wanted to put him on trial," Orion said. "I wanted him to confess everything."

"That would have been better," Megatron said with regret. "I gave him too quick of an ending. He was able to skitter off to whatever awaits us when our sparks fail after only a few moments of terror. He should have watched as everything he built up was torn down. Been forced to reveal every sin he had committed. Realized that the entire planet hated him."

"He was too slippery," Orion argued. "And he had too many allies. They would have helped him escape."

"Except now we don't know them all," Megatron stated, the delight and thrill he had felt in slaughtering Sentinel now bitter on his taste receptors. "They'll go to ground and escape punishment." He sighed. "I was too hasty."

"…yeah but Sentinel was a dick." Megatron looked over at Orion, raising an eyebrow at that. "I saw all of us in those visions. You. Me. Elita. Bee. Jazz. Soundwave. Starscream. I saw us at our best and our worst. I saw you work together with me when our planet was gone and all we had was Earth. I saw Soundwave become a trusted advisor and Starscream sacrifice himself for the greater good. But you know what I never saw? Sentinel not being an ass. Every time, Dee. Every time a version of me dealt with him he was always worse than a rusted oil can"

"Well… its nice to know that there is one constant in all of reality."

The two chuckled at that.

"…I'm sorry I let you go," Megatron said softly.

"I'm sorry I put you in that position to save me. That I kept making you save me." Orion threw his hands up in the air and let out a growl of frustration. "Geez, looking at it now… I was the biggest hypocrite! All my life I broke the rules and did what I wasn't supposed to do and you bailed me out. Then you decide to break the rules and I go "You're exiled"?! Primus, what was I thinking?"

"I have to admit I was a bit startled at that," Megatron said and he was just as surprised as Orion himself that there was no heat in his words. No anger. Surprisingly he felt only amusement. "I wondered briefly what the heck had happened to my friend."

"We made a lot of mistakes," Orion said. "But now we can fix it."

"Can we?" Megatron asked.

"Of course!" Orion declared at once. "Come on… look at what the two of us did! We found the Matrix! We found Alpha Trion! Every Cybertronian can transform now… did I tell you that?" Megatron shook his head, startled by that revelation. "Well I did. Not sure how the Matrix called them forth… guess it was like how Alpha Trion called forth the cogs we got, but I did. Every miner has a cog now."

"All of them?" Megatron whispered.

"Every one of our friends, buddy," Orion assured him. "Every one of them. I refused to abandon a single one."

Megatron swallowed at that. "There… there are so many miners who I wish had gotten a chance to experience this…"

"I know," Orion said. "Best we can do is ensure that this never happens again. Tomorrow I planned to go to where the protoforms were cared for and make sure that every new Cybertronian is born with their cog in place." He shook his head. "I wonder why Sentinel was keeping them… why not just destroy them?"

"Power," Megatron said.

"Well… I guess," Orion admitted. "I mean, I can see that smug jerk going into where they were all stored and just staring at them and feeling wonderful about himself-"

"That's not what I meant," Megatron told him, cutting him off. "You didn't see it but when I claimed Megatronus' Cog is altered me."

"I did wonder about that," Orion stated. "You did look different. I wasn't for sure…"

Megatron nodded. "The cogs… they can unlock new abilities and new powers. I bet Sentinel was scared that there was a cog more powerful that Megatronus' out there and he decided to keep all the cogs until he could go through them and make sure that none were a threat to him."

"Sounds like him," Orion said muttered darkly. He knew what Megatron… what Dee had said, that it would have been better to spare him but now that Orion knew just how irredeemable Sentinel was, how many problems he'd caused his counterparts, he couldn't find it in himself to mourn his death. In fact he very much regretted not getting to watch the smug pain in the aft bite it.

Dee and Orion sat there for several more minutes, looking at the surface of Cybertron. It was so strange to think about how far they'd come in such a short time. And… how close they had come to ruining everything. The visions of their alternate selves and the wars they had fought… it made Orion's system gurgle and churn at the thought of it. Mostly because he had been so ready to go down that path.

After receiving the Matrix and becoming a Prime he had tried his hardest to appear aloof and calm as he had cast judgement of Dee. To keep his voice level, to not shout and scream, to make clear that this was because of everything his friend had done. But the truth was… he'd been so shocked and angry over him dropping him. Banishing him…?

"I wanted you to fight back," Orion admitted softly.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Dee asked him.

"When I banished you… I didn't actually want to banish you. I didn't want you to turn and leave."

Dee turned and stared at him, utterly befuddled. "I'm sorry… you wanted me to stay so you told me to leave?"

"I wanted you to get angry and attack me again. I wanted you to throw off that canon you have glued to your arm-"

"It's not glued."

"-and fight me." He shook his head. "I was so angry at you, Dee, and you were angry at me and I thought… well, if we beat the slag out of each other then we wouldn't be angry anymore. But you walked away and I couldn't chase you down and tackle you because I had to be "Primely" or whatever you want to call it and… yeah, all I was left with was… I don't even know anymore."

Dee just stared at him. "So instead of actually telling me what you wanted you decided to be vague and hope that I would figure out what you wanted? And this was AFTER I shot you through the chest."

"To be fair you didn't shoot me in the chest. I leapt in front of your shot… there is different."

"There really isn't."

"If you spill your energon and it forms into a portrait of Arcee from Supplies and Maintenance can you claim you drew it?"

"Shut up," Dee said, embarrassed; Orion knew that his friend had suffered a bit of a crush on the pink Fem but never been able to work up the nerve to ask her out. Orion really hoped that the visions didn't scare him off; Arcee's alternates had been a bit… intense… in some of the other realities.

"So yeah, you didn't actually shoot me. All on me."

"And you're… proud of that?"

"Of course!" Orion said. "Means I'm faster than a fusion cannon!"

Dee stared at his friend for a long moment before he gave up and just shook his head at that. "When you got that shiny new chest piece did it fry your brain?"

"Probably," Orion admitted which caused Dee to blink before he began to snicker.

"That… is not very respectful to the most sacred of relics our species has."

"If it has a problem with it then it can speak up." Orion tilted his head towards his chest. "Nope… I think it agrees with me."

That caused Dee to throw back his head and laugh. "The Matrix has a sense of humor… no wonder it decided to avoid Sentinel."

Orion joined him. "At least you only had to deal with him a few times. Some of my counterparts had to spend all their time with him. In one reality me and him were… ugh… friends."

"You were?" Dee said.

"Well, not me. My counterpart. Until he betrayed him."

Dee groaned. "This is so confusing!"

"Its not us. Just… versions of us."

"That doesn't make it easier," Dee said with a shake of his head. "We get these visions and they are of us… but they aren't us. But it feels like they could be us because a lot of them were like us. Except not really and… gah!" He grabbed his helm. "It hurts to think about!" He waited a second before adding, "Don't you dare say it?"

"Say what?" Orion said with a smirk.

"You know, I know, just don't do it." He rolled his optics. "You are better than that… as shocking as that might be for me to admit."

"That hurt you to say, didn't it?"

"Agony."

Orion leaned back and just smiled. It felt so good to have his friend back. It felt so good them to be back to their normal.

'Even if we'll never have 'normal' again,' he thought, his smile slipping slightly. 'I'm a Prime now… chosen by Primus himself to lead Cybertron. Dee is the leader of the High Guard, the greatest warriors Cybertron has left.' Though… he really did need to learn more about the High Guard. He certainly hadn't heard of them when he'd been researching the Matrix. 'Granted… I didn't know the truth about the Primes either… just how much did Sentinel destroy in his hopes of cementing his status?' He let out a sigh. 'Your mind is wandering Orion…'

"Hey," Dee suddenly said. "You think the cogs of the Primes are why we experienced all this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… there has to be a reason why we saw all that," Dee reasoned. "I've never heard about anyone else ever having visions. Starscream isn't getting visions after all." He grimaced at that. "If he did he would have killed me the first chance he got, considering some of the things my counterparts did to him."

"Yeah, but Starscream's duplicates weren't exactly kind either. Sometimes they could be huge dicks. Like… Sentinel level being a dick."

"That doesn't sound much like something a Prime would say," Dee commented.

Orion though smirked at that. "How would you know? Primes could curse."

"They are the representatives of Primus."

"So?"

Dee threw his hands up in the air. "And Primus doesn't-" He blinked, considering that. "Wait. No. He probably curses all the damn time!"

That got Orion chuckling. "Yeah… considering how we messed things up so bad? Its either that or sob."

The two of them once more lapsed into silence, looking out at the stars. For both of them the silence was a gift, one they didn't want to give up. They feared what it would mean when they began to talk again. What it would do to them when they had to begin admitting the hard truths. The silence… it meant they could pretend that nothing had changed. That they were back to being cogless miners.

"…we should have just found a little spot on the surface where no one could find us," Orion finally said. "Make a home for ourselves and just enjoy this."

"Nah, we'd have never lasted," Dee commented. "Even before all these memories or visions or whatever they are… we were never ones to relax and take it easy. Remember that time you were told to just watch the maps for the new mine? Cushiest job one could get. You were allowed to sit on your aft and do nothing! They even gave you stuff to read, man! And what did you do? Huh?"

Orion muttered under his breath.

"I can't heard you…"

Orion, rather than replying, stated, "I still can't believe some Orions were data clerks. At least you being a gladiator makes sense!"

"Yeah… I was a badass." Dee's smile fell though. "We can't keep doing this. Can't keep fighting."

"I don't want to fight you," Orion stated.

"I know but… the cycle the other Optimus Primes and Megatrons got stuck in. Destruction, exile, slow extinction, enslavement, death. Rinse and repeated, cash the fucking check." When Orion looked at him Dee shrugged. "Its something from another life."

"Right." Orion's shoulders slumped. "But… we might no have a choice, Dee. Feels like all of Cybertron wants us to fight each other. I didn't see any of the High Guard trying to separate us… which still annoys me because I worked with them to save you and then they just turned their backs on me?" He huffed petulantly.

"We're our own beings," Dee told him. "We aren't the ones that came before. We aren't those Optimuses. Aren't those Megatrons. We choose to be who we want… and I choose to work with my best friend."

"I choose my brother."

Dee frowned. "Great, now you made my comment not sound as good!" Orion smirked at that before holding out his fist, Dee returning the bump. "I got your back."

"No matter what," Orion said… just as the sound of engines filled the air. "Uh oh."

Dee was instantly on alert, scanning the skies to see if it was the Quintessons or the High Guard. Honestly he didn't know which of them would be worse. But soon he realized that he was looking too far up and dropped his gaze, staring at the two familiar vehicles that were racing towards them.

"Hey, its Elita-1! And Bumblebee!" Dee proclaimed, though he realized he and Orion would have to find some reason to give Bee his new name. "Wait…" he said as the facts before him began to come together, "…what are they doing out here?"

"So… this might be a bad time to mention I forgot to let anyone know I was leaving Iacon."

"Of course you did," Dee complained with a shake of his head.

"Did you let any of the Hight Guard know?"

"Yes."

"Liar."

"You can't prove it!" Dee grew quiet as Elita and Bee got closer. "You… you think they had visions? Like us?"

"Nah," Orion said with a wave of his hand. "No way."

Elita transformed... and leapt right at Dee.

"AAAAAARRRRGH!"

The Silver bot had JUST enough time for his eyes to go wide before Elita struck him, punching him again and again, then grabbing his head and shaking it, then roaring out in frustration and rage as she began to just lash out at him seemingly at random.

"Hey, I think she remembers!" Orion declared.

"I NOTICED!" Dee shouted as he tried to shield himself.