Listen to me rambling about my shattered glass au (i will edit this alot)
So to start
Sentinel never betrayed the Primes. Instead, he had once been a slave to the Quintessons before being rescued. Since then, he has remained fiercely loyal to Cybertron and to some of the Primes.
However, the Primes are still eventually killed, not by Sentinel. They were betrayed by the council meanwhile Sentinel and the high guard, who remains stationed in Iacon, is completely unaware that the council are traitors.
Later, the council begins discussing how to keep their end of their deal with the Quintessons without losing too much energon. Eventually, they come up with the idea that they will give the Quintessons sparklings and protoforms instead.
Sentinel and the High Guard eventually discover the betrayal and the deal and try to fight back. Unfortunately, they fail and are forced to retreat to the surface and the council stops giving sparklings and protoforms to the Quintessons, since Sentinel and the High Guard now occupy the surface.
Several cycles later, a young archivist named Orion Pax is demoted to a miner after getting into a fight with his superior. In the mines he meets D-16, the mech placed in charge of him.
At first Orion dislikes D-16 but after D-16 keep orion out of trouble he becomes curious about him and, after some digging, found out that D-16 is megatron who's writings had inspired a growing movement among Cybertronians. But after his caretaker Terminus died protecting him by claiming he is megatron, D-16 lost hope.
(Terminus had been one of the few members of the High Guard who failed to escape during the earlier conflict. He was subjected to Empurata, losing some of his memories, his voice, and his transformation cog and reduced to a miner)
After Terminus died, D-16 gave up on his ideals and simply continued working in the mines, he keeps saving Orion from trouble, and somehow the two become friends (everyone is confused on how they became friends)
Eventually Orion discovers information about the superior who had him demoted. He plans to blackmail them. However, Darkwing who has info about Orion illegally sneaking into the archives multiple times blackmails orion.
Both Orion and Darkwing end up being promoted to Enforcers. Orion because of darkwings demands has no choice but to leave D-16 behind but promises that he will eventually get D-16 out once he deals with Darkwing. D-16 does not believe him. He is convinced he will die in the mines like so many others.
Time skip idk how long but, D-16 accidentally kills one of his superiors.
The miners in that sector believed he intentionally killed the superior caused a riot break out throughout the mines.
Eventually, the uprising was suppressed, and many of the miners were detained. Instead of executing them, they are forced into brutal tournaments for entertainment.
Fortunately, D-16 continues to survive match after match, defeating every opponent sent against him. The senator in charge of the games eventually grows nervous about D-16’s growing reputation. He sends his elite guards to kill him in the next match but Instead, D-16 kills them all.
The senator is later killed by Orion Pax, who had been sent by the other senators to eliminate him after the games began spiraling out of control and the tournament is shut down.
After this, D-16 begins writing again, inspiring more mechs to resist the Senate. Riots and protests begin erupting across the city.
Orion and D-16 still end up going to Sub-Level 50 because Orion found a mysterious signal and somehow dicipher some bits of it and sees alpha trion.
D-16 joins him because he doesnt feel safe in iacon and Orion refuses to leave him alone.
They meet B-127 and find the message left by Alpha Trion and they go to the surface.
They find the cave where the Primes and meet Alpha Trion and later they are captured by the High Guard. (And d-16 learns of his caretaker's forgotten past)
Orion and Sentinel are the ones that got kidnapped.
D-16 is the one who gathers help rallying miners and other Cybertronians who were inspired by his writings.
Airachnid is still the key to revealing the truth.(she was originally loyal to Sentinel, she eventually switched her allegiance to the Senate because she valued her survival.) They exposes the council's crimes to all of Iacon.
Orion and Sentinel fight the members of the council.
During the battle, Orion is shot not by D-16, but by one of the senators.
D-16 (who's alt is a tank and is later a flier in the future) tries desperately to save him but accidentally loses his grip and Orion falls.
Orion rises as Optimus, chosen by primus and receives the Matrix of Leadership and defeats the remaining corrupt senators, restores the natural flow of energon to Cybertron, and everyone gets their t-cog.
Happy ending!
…
Just kidding. Lol.
After the Senate’s defeat, peace on Cybertron was short-lived. Optimus and Sentinel soon begin clashing over about how Cybertron should be ruled and op's questionable acts. Their disagreements escalate until Sentinel openly challenges Optimus’ authority. The confrontation erupts into a battle in Iacon, op supporters rush to defend their new Prime causing the High Guard to join in. The fight causes massive destruction across the city. Outnumbered once again, Sentinel and the High Guard are forced to retreat to the surface. D-16 stays by op side and watches and slowly realizes how much Orion has changed that he ultimately defects to Sentinel and joins the High Guard.
