In the distance, Sentinel and D crash against a screen, shattering Sentinel's wings off his back. In the sky, Y/n frantically weaves past buildings, trying to keep her focus on the two mechs. On the ground, civilians observed the commotion with widened optics and gaping mouths.

D and Sentinel then crash onto a building above the Well of Sparks. Both were dazed as the hard floor impacted them. Sentinel's frame was chipped and scratched, and his mechanisms were damaged. 

D was also in pain, but he only felt anger, getting rid of Sentinel for good was the only thing on his mind.  He struggled but eventually stood up, releasing his grip on his side. He approached the damaged bot, aiming his cannon at him. 

Y/n landed on a rooftop right above the one D and Sentinel were on, the sounds of her transforming parts attracting the stares of some civilians below her. 

D fired his cannon, but Sentinel managed to avoid the cannon fire with his heavily damaged boosters. The fire hits distant buildings, and civilians shout and run as the buildings are hit. 

Sentinel drew back, dragging his pedes as D charged up his cannon again. His spark beat against his whole frame faster than ever. He was powerless now. 

As Y/n watched Sentinel in fear, she remembered the two times he tried to kill her. Should she be feeling hopeful about what has come around? 

And is this how justice is received?

She heard Sentinel's voice quiver as D's shadow approached him, "D-16--we can lead Cybertron together. Don't do this..."

Don't do this...

D barely fired his cannon as it was shoved to the side by Orion, the fire missing Sentinel. Y/n quietly gasped and craned her neck over the edge of the roof as she noticed Orion's pleading optics and D wanting his cannon away from his grip. 

D turned to him. "What are you doing?!" he said with clenched teeth. 

Orion continued his silent plea with his optics, strengthening his grip on the cannon. He wanted him to listen-- to snap out of it. "It's over, D. Everyone in Iacon knows the truth..."

"So do I! He took everything from us--I have to do this." D protested vehemently. 

Y/n felt her spark drop as Sentinel looked over at her, his expression imploring her to help him. 

And what was she to do? She didn't want to help. 

"No, you don't," Orion continued, "Rebuilding Iacon cannot begin with an execution." His voice cracked. His friend has changed. 

D continued his disapproval of Orion's words, "He deserves to die--can't you see that?"

Y/n felt split between the words of the two friends. Sentinel deserved to feel what he had inflicted upon his people. Death. Should death be part of it? Anxiety arose in her mind: what will happen after this? What will she do?

"We're better than this. Don't be like Sentinel," Orion said gently. 

Don't be like Sentinel.

An intrusive thought: she didn't want him to die.

Another: rot, Sentinel.

Truthfully, all she wanted to do was bid Sentinel farewell or just leave without saying a word. Leave Iacon. Never return. If she could, in her dreams, live among the stars. She was dead to him, anyway. 

D growled, "Pax, you need to move out of my way... before I move you myself." All that was on his mind was ridding the world of the false Prime. 

"D, please--" Orion stammered, D ignored him and punched him out of his way. D snaps his glare back to Sentinel, charging up his cannon once again. 

Orion gets in front of him again, shouting at him to stop. The cannon had just fired, and it ripped through Orion's chest plate. 

Civilians gaped at the sight of the black hole on the bot's chest plate; smoke swirled around in the wound, and Orion felt shocked. Even D shared his expression. 

His friend. The risk-taker. Of course, he would do this.

Orion tumbled to the edge of the well, after the blast, the world seemed frozen. Time slowed down.

And all everyone could do was watch.

Y/n watched in horror, a lump in her throat, as Orion almost slipped down into the abyss below him. 

D caught his friend's servo right before he could fall, D gripping onto the edge as Orion dangled over the chasm. A sharp pain ran through his frame, and he hoped D would not let go. Y/n helplessly thought of assisting the friends. 

D's grip on Orion's servo became stronger as guilt flooded him, "No--no, no, no--Why?! Why did you do that--why..." 

Orion continues his hope, even as he notices a change in his friend's optics. Orion felt a tingling sensation in his optics; they were flickering between life and death. Vision to glitch to nothing. He internally fought the feeling of death's approach. He didn't want to die, not yet. 

D's shock flourishes into something much more powerful: rage. Orion is a moron, and he should've come to this long ago. This all happened because of him, he thought. Orion continued to hang on to a seemingly final thread of life. His frame twitched, his spark exhausted. He wanted this to be over. Get Repaired, perhaps save D from his thoughts. 

"D...no..."

But it was too late. 

D felt a strong surge in his optics; he looked down as if wanting to ease the pain. His optics change in color. Orange, realization. Forging an eternal plan for justice. Then, fading to red. What surrounds the mind is solely justice, to be done with wrath. 

The Justice was hidden away... for what? For a pathetic liar. That is what angered him most.

He looked back down at Orion, his grip lightened. 

"I'm done saving you."

He released his grip, and Orion fell into the abyss. The light in his optics flickers to darkness. 

Y/n clenched her jaw. Her servos over her mouth as she heard Elita's helpless shout for Orion in the distance. She looked down at the roof below her. She should've helped him...

 Y/n felt a familiar warmth in her optics. The warmth on her faceplate. The feelings of glass in her throat. She folded her forearms over her chest plate, servos clutching the opposite elbows.  She shuddered as she heard D's shout and Sentinel's frame dragging against the floor as he tried to get away. More trackers arrive from the sky to attempt to protect him.

D fought off the trackers, rage had consumed him completely. One by one, each tracker plummets to the floor, motionless. Y/n watched as Sentinel was terrified. She'd never seen him like this. He tried to crawl away, clawing at the floor with his digits. No more trackers, he was on his own. 

D grabbed Sentinel, who was practically limp from the damage he'd received. D proceeded to hold him high over his helm, displaying a great amount of strength. 

Without giving Sentinel any time to react, D slowly began to rip Sentinel in half. Wire from wire sparks emitting grand and small, energon harmonious with the sparks, and some spilling to the floor. Y/n let out a short, horrified scream as Sentinel's body is bisected completely. D drops the severed body, color slowly draining away. 

Y/n dropped to her knees; servos pressed against her mouth as hard she could, trying not to emit another scream. Tears rolled down her faceplate, and the feeling of glass in her throat returned. She hyperventilates, and her voicebox is hummed with her silent cries. 

Sentinel's optics fade at last. His spark is extinguished. 

Among the crowd below, the High Guard begins to cheer at the sight of Sentinel's body. 

D saw the soft light of the Transformation cog in Sentinel's chest plate, and he was drawn to it. 

"That's why after I killed him...I took his cog for myself."

The cog of Megratronus Prime would be his now. He approached the severed half and tore the cog out, grinning at the sight of it in his servo. He turned to the crowd before him, some terrified, some eager him on. He held the cog up, showing it the widened optics of the crowd.

"The Age of the Primes has ended--" he began, "no more false prophets. Follow me, and you will never again be deceived--RISE UP!" he gestured to the High Guard to chant.

The High Guard began to chant; each word dug more into Y/n's already confused mind. She hugged her knees, pressing her forehelm against them. Tears continued to trickle down into an abyss in her vision. 

The High Guard continued their chanting, and D grinned as he lowered the cog from above his helm, he revealed his previous cog and replaced it with the new one. 

"I will lead us all into the future..." he said as his frame began to shift into new parts. He had changed, he was no longer D-16. Unrecognizable. His optics burned bright red. 

"I. Am. MEGRATON!"

He begins firing at images of Sentinel throughout the city; horrified civilians were running for their lives as his cannon fired each second. "BURN IT DOWN--ALL OF IT!" he shouts to the High Guard. 

"All hail Megatron!" Starscream shouts from his place, and he and the rest of the High Guard begin to shoot their surroundings. 

Y/n pushed her pedes to get herself away from the edge; she gawked at the fire flying around in her vision, fearing one might so happen to shoot her in the process. She hid under the shadow of a wide pillar next to her. She stared at the pillar's surface for a sense of comfort. Plain, geometric ivory. All she could hear were the distant screaming of civilians, the rioting of the High Guard, blasting, and collapsing sculpture. 

Megatron's cannon fire is interrupted for a while, and the rest of the blasting seemed far quieter.

"Stop! It's over!" Elita's distant shouts drag Y/n from her coping. 

"It's over when every last one of his followers is dead!" Megatron protests. "Where's Y/n?!"

Hearing her name come from his mouth panicked her, and Y/n wanted the shadow she hid under to envelop her.

Below, Megatron moved so he could see the roof above him. Y/n was spotted, and her optics widened in fear as Megatron raised his cannon. 

Elita rushed after him, "D, stop!"

He fired the cannon, Elita shoving it out of the way, causing him to shoot at the pillar instead. 

" And It's over  when his consort is dead!"

He shakes Elita's grip off of his cannon and proceeds to fight off his former friends. 

The pillar began to collapse, and Y/n barely had enough time to get away. However, one of her pedes got stuck under the wreckage, causing her to yelp in pain, and without thinking, she began trying to pull it out. 

Once she pulled it out, a piece of her pede broke off, and a huge dent was left. 

She breathed audibly and looked up at the condiment above her. Fire everywhere. Surrounding buildings were set aflame, and debris fell from buildings above. 

A rumble from the chasm near the Well attracted everyone's attention, Y/n looked over the wreckage in front of her. 

A figure silhouetted in blue light arose, landing before Megatron. 

The Matrix was given to Orion. He was now Optimus Prime. 

Megatron stares at the new Prime in disbelief, muttering something under his breath.

"Primus gave you the Matrix?" he said. 

Optimus looks at him, just as shocked as Megatron, "We could've built the future together..."

Megatron shook his head, "I'll build it myself. After I tear down everyone in my way!" 

Hearing this, Y/n turns back to the wreckage--another reminder of her past. The two mechs are heard fighting, and she sits down, gripping her servos on her knees. Her optics felt dry. She felt no need to hope for the victory of either the rivals. Her optics trailed to Sentinel's remains below her. She stared blankly.

He took everything from her. 

However, something inside her still felt some sort of compassion for him. No, she shouldn't be feeling this. 

She shut her optics tight. A mental prayer to Primus. Though, would he hear her anyway?

Shooting is heard, and a sudden thud is heard on the roof she is on; a groan of pain follows. She paid no heed. She felt drained of her emotion, like she'd wasted it. 

I loved you. 

...

Suddenly, Optimus's triumphant voice reaches her audials, "We were given the power to change our world...and you chose to destroy it."

He spoke to Megatron, who scowled at him. 

Optimus continued, "Just like Sentinel, you have betrayed Cybertron and its citizens. And you betrayed me..."

Megatron stood in front of his former friend, eyes glowing bright red with anger as Optimus continued his speech.

"Go. Take the High Guard...and leave. You are banished from Iacon."

Megatron felt a twinge of shock but kept his composure.

"It didn't have to end this way..." Optimus finished off with a pained voice. 

Megatron clenched his teeth, "this isn't over, Prime..."

They part ways, and Megatron gestures to the High Guard, "High Guard--follow me!"

The High Guard follows Megatron into the distance, all of them transforming and disappearing into the horizon. 

Y/n watched as they left the city, as if her whole life just flashed before her. 

An entire event had just flashed before her. Fate. Fate of everyone. Her fate. 

She stood, shame flooded her. She still felt as if she'd played a part in this. She had. 

If only she could go back in time and fix every mistake she'd made.

One mistake was accepting the offer she was given cycles ago. How different her life would be now. 

And one was ever leaving her primitive city. 

Overthinking, she began to weep. Down her mind went in spirals. 

Hopeless thoughts, Primus, let this be some sort of dream...

Sentinel is not gone. He can't be gone...not yet...

Though she wanted to believe this, the remains of Sentinel lay before her vision. 

She let her tears roll down freely as she stared blankly down at the crowd below her. They all gawked at the new Prime, who held the Matrix over his helm as it glowed brightly. 

Murmuring among the crowd intensified as the Matrix glowed brighter in the Prime's hands, and the Well of Sparks began to function again. 

Energon began to flow in front of everyone's optics; it glittered under the light as it began to stream all around the city in a gentle pattern. The crowd became ecstatic at the sight of the fountains before them beginning to flourish again. 

Cybertron has to the state Y/n knew long ago. It has returned to life. 

As the crowd became more enthusiastic, she moved away from the view, wrapping her arms around herself. A look of sadness was painted on her faceplate. She felt she couldn't be happy right now, not after what had happened. 

Confusion and anger made her feel revolted at the cheers of the citizens before her. 

What will happen next?