The last wound heals
Kaon's surface was as noisy and arrogant-looking as Optimus remembered it from many million years ago. There was only one star's distant light blinking on the northern horizon, the shadows making the tall buildings seem even larger. The citizens had been moving around silently, and most of them, alone. He could easily pretend to be one of them.
There was a familiar white shape in the distance, a bright form he felt he knew ever since he was created, but he could not yet put a name to him. The mech turned to the sky as he watched a spaceship being prepared for launch.
The others didn't seem to notice either of them. Optimus had seen a large mech pushing Megatron out of his way, murmuring an irritated „Who do you think you are". The silvery mech grinned. I always forget how it feels like not to be recognised. Optimus grinned back at him as if he understood. Remind me to give you the mouthplate back.
A heavy-duty rocket approached. He laid down landing rails as he flew over the landing platform and turned around to make his final approach. He must have been carrying the rails in his subspace, maybe he was carrying a whole spaceport with himself. Optimus Prime was wondering where he could have seen something similar, when his glance fell on the familiar-looking white mech who was still watching the Longshot's take-off. He seemed to be so young, so careless, so unexperienced.
The rocket was coming down to the runway just as carelessly, and he would have hit the white robot if Optimus hadn't pulled him aside in the last moment. Then the two of them had stood there, holding each other as if they had just found someone they had been looking for. Omega Supreme landed behind them, then transformed, picked up his landing rails, and walked away as if nothing had happened.
The two robots were just standing, taking in each other's sight. They were of the same frame type, same construction, no doubt of that. Optimus was red, blue, and gray, decorated with some damage that battlefield encounters had left behind. The other was pure white, there was not even a scratch on him yet. The shades of their optics were exactly the same.
The sparkling held on to Optimus as if he had just found his only support in this strange new world he was recently sparked into, and the Prime cuddled him much like he had seen parents on Earth holding their young offsprings. They were not only of the same structure, their bond was lying much deeper.
„Astrotrain has been waiting for us for three..." Megatron started. Optimus stared at him, having missed the moment the silvery miner landed beside them. Now, said miner was standing rivited to the ground.
A sparkling? Here? He had very much reminded Megatron of how he once looked like, unpainted, untainted. „Who is he?"
„Ultra Magnus" the Prime replied.
Astrotrain flew over the Rust Sea, landed flat and continued his way to Dream Engine.
„Those beasts you can see there" Megatron pointed at the Metallic Bay „are Dinobots. They are very peaceful, only, do not start throwing pebbles at their nose" Megatron grinned, and the white mech grinned back at him.
„Why?" he asked. Until he was given the idea, the thought would have never crossed his processor.
„Mutual respect, mechling." Megatron was still grinning as he patted the young one's shoulder. „Mutual respect. It can do miracles."
Astrotrain entered the tunnel, and sent out a brief message that he was coming home, and he had a new Autobot on board. Soundwave's reply was just as brief and informal: he was politely curious of just how many more Autobots would come to the mines in the next few orns.
The mine system was never a Decepticons-only area, Megatron reminded him. First is an Autobot, albeit quite an ancient one.
Soundwave replied that he never had to keep track of Primon. Then what's the problem, old mech?
„Problem: nothing" Soundwave replied.
Then what is it?
„In order of appearance. Red Cliffjumper: still sceptic about our good intentions and blaming us for him being stuck here."
This world seems to act as a landing platform for whoever gets lost in their own worlds.
Megatron thought of his blue and light gray Master, who spent many vorns here after he had been separated from the Matrix in an infight of the Original Thirteen, then he was trapped here, hiding underground when the surface was ruled by the defector Megatronus Prime. Things have changed, hethought gleefully. He looked at his fusion cannon, memento of his victory over the traitor.
„Optimus Prime: had injuries that could have killed any mech at least a dozen times" Soundwave continued.
„But I'm quite fine now!" the Prime replied. Soundwave didn't seem to have heard.
„Blue Cliffjumper: nigh impossible to get rid of" he stated. „Comes about every orn and asks whether he can see the other Cliffjumper. While red Cliff is convinced that the blue Cliff was an enemy for some unknown reasons."
Megatron skretched the base of his cannon. If not even Soundwave can get what kind of enemy the red Cliffjumper is afraid of, then he must be paranoid. Maybe the blue Cliffjumper should be allowed to proove himself, and then the red Cliffjumper would be willing to go and stay with the Autobots instead.
„What is this Ultra Magnus like?" another voice queried.
„The same color as you, Ravage" Megatron replied. „He was sparked about two orns ago." He looked at the mechling, not quite sure about his guess.
„Well and truly" the white one nodded.
„In Simfur" Megatron added, bemused.
Optimus returned to the library, but he was too deep in his thoughts to concentrate on what he was reading. Cyberoglyphs passed, got saved into his databanks, but his processors were still whirling about the other Prime when Megatron joined him.
„Your new mouthplate" the Decepticon said in a tired, slightly irritated tone. That was all he let show. Grieving was over. He had seen Cy-Clone's body smelted. Life went on, and Megatron had to go along with it. He had a Prime to take care of, a Matrix-bearer who had to be healed enough to be able to fulfill his duty. His Masters, both the one who raised him and the one he had really imprinted on, have needed him.
The Prime put the book aside, and reached for the protective gray metal. „Thank you."
Then, they just sat in silence, reading each other's hapless expressions. Finally, it was Megatron who broke the silence.
„You don't have to like what you see in the mirror. He is everything you are not."
Optimus attached the mouthplate to his frame, then removed and subspaced it along with his helmet.
„I looked into his optics and I've seen everything I fear to become. And... he scared me. His killing our kind, his disregard for the difference between Autobot and Decepticon. His desire for possession."
There, he said it. He let Megatron see him without his protecting armor. He was preparing himself for another look in the mirror.
The opposite of his arch-nemesis sat down in a chair facing his own, both hands resting comfortably on his energon pick. There was a thin layer of some powderised ore on his shoulders. He must have been working, Optimus realised. He was a miner, and doing what he was meant to do helped him settle the discomfort in his processor.
„You keep forgetting where you are: that you're in a world where every bot is the opposite of what you know." Now that he was paying attention, Optimus could hear the weariness in his tone. He wasn't bored or badgered, but he surely wasn't in the mood of plotting anything, either.
„But what if Primon's wrong?" Optimus asked.
What?
„He told me that he had found himself trapped here, in a world then completely alien to him. He is one with the Matrix, which is the assembled wisdom of all its former bearers. But carrying the Matrix doesn't mean that you're right all the time. I certainly was not. What if we have more in common with our mirror selves than what we are willing to admit?"
Megatron disagreed with the idea.
„Don't insult me by saying I have anything in common with the Megatron you were fighting. We have both been to the Pit, and came out victorious, but I honestly despise him for seeking new paths that only lead to destruction, and forgetting where his enemy took him from. I was also taken from the mines I worked in, but unlike him, I have not lost my aim and I returned, even if I had to kill for that! How could I value a warrior who would fight for anything but not for what he was originally standing up for? A miner who deviated from his course, who lost his way?"
Optimus hummed.
„I respected him" he admitted after some silence. „How's the sparkling?"
Megatron gave the Prime a rather curious look. You respected him? Then why couldn't you negotiate instead of fighting?
„He's with the Stunticons. He's a rolling mech, built for travelling long distances on the surface."
„Will he work with your home delivery team?"
Good question. Of course Megatron wanted the best for the Autobot sparkling whose fate was trusted to him, but he wasn't sure if the mines were a good place for Ultra Magnus.
„If he chooses so, he will. And I will ensure his training and education." Megatron pointed at the golden disc giftbox. „It's hard to tell what he will become."
I wonder how much First knew when he bought me. Megatron tried to remember back those early orns, before the imprinting. Perhaps the old mech was hesitating, unsure whether he would be willing to serve Primus. He had certainly proven himself, but was his leadership a part of the plan that early? First had asked Primus when he took Megatron to the Sonic Canyons, and, with the approval of their creator, Primon had named him after the Fallen and had appointed him to take the traitor's abandoned position as the balancer of chaos. And fifty-five vorns later, Megatron himself had agreed to this appointment at the other side of those same Canyons. He had ruined the Fallen's plan when he had returned to the mines, placing a hoard of miners between him and Primus's core. He had destroyed the dark energon storage, albeit at a horrible cost. And he had ended the enmity between Autobots and Decepticons before it could have escalated into war. Senator Decimus gave invaluable help in that.
Decimus.
Decimus was the first local Autobot who gained his trust and respect, and his courage could always be counted on, whenever the situation was dire. He helped Starscream rise to royal height, he was the appointed secretkeeper of Cy-Clone, and furthermore, he was a friend who could always be relied on. He had retired from his office five times in a row, and he could still be talked into his position for the sixth time. His longest retirement lasted for three cycles, most of which was spent organising the reconstruction of the Tri-Torus Loop highway. Mechanisms from Tarn surely don't retire easily, and Megatron was proud of that.
Optimus could see the miner's face expression, but couldn't put a name to it this time. Had they been in the universe he came from, Prime would have at least worried about the sparkling's future. But now, with this Megatron, he was only concerned.
„Do you think he will like rolling with the Stunticons?"
„It's all up to him" Megatron replied. „Maybe we shall ask him, they should be back soon. Come, this way."
Optimus was getting used to navigating in the three-dimensional maze that was the mine system. Of course he didn't know every tunnel, ramp and cavern by their designation, but he could find the library on his own.
This time, Megatron led him through an unusually bright, energon-rich, but inactive vein. At a whim, the silvery miner stopped, and hammered a fistful of energon off the wall with his bare hands.
„First told me that this area is dry and barren in your world" he said with sympathy.
„Until a few decades ago, our whole planet was."
„You spent too much time fighting."
Optimus had to agree.
They had to climb at the other end of the vein, then slide through a dweller walk, which lead them to the noisy, busy main hall. Optimus noticed a warning on this side of the dweller walk, it read „Handmined energon zone – no artificial equipment allowed". So this was why the silvery leader hadn't used his pick, he mused.
„There they come" Megatron looked up in the direction of the largest ramp, one that lead to the surface. In a far corner, the Red Cliffjumper murmured something about the Autobots being the untrustworthy faction here and about the baldness of admitting one of them to the energon mine.
A dark gray and a white semitruck came down the ramp, their wheels kicking up pink energon dust in their wake. They transformed at the lower end, different ways, but just as fast as the other.
„How was it?" the leader asked.
„We were surplus to requirements!" the sparkling stated proudly.
Megatron smiled. There won't be any problems. „Well, then, Magnus. It's time you refuel, young 'Bot." He handled over the shards of the delicate energon. „Wherever your road would take you, remember that you can always find home and fuel with us, Ultra Magnus."
Optimus put his helmet back mouthplate was back, but neither of these could hide the shine of his blue optics. He was apparently moved at how Megatron treated the youngling.
„I still recall First giving me handmined energon after my first shift" the miner mentioned later. „And I was almost nine orns old at the time."
„He must have been a great mech" the Prime admitted, correcting his earlier presumption. „I wish I knew him."
„You know him more than I do."
Meanwhile, the white sparkling had consumed his fuel. „I'm done! Finished!" he announced. Megatron grinned at him in amusement.
Adorable. „He is two and a half orns old, and he's speaking fluent Simfurian."
Not far from them, the red Cliffjumper had almost choked on his energon.
„The Magnus... is a sparkling here? I'm willing to believe anything, from now on!"
The next orn was spent with hard work and little rest. The sparkling had been rolling with the gentle Stunticons and the recovering Prime. The two Cliffjumpers met at a neutral area, and had been unseparable ever since.
Megatron trusted Soundwave with contacting him if he was needed, and went mining to the vast wasteland that had once been the scene of a spaceship catastrophy. The bodies had long been reduced to medical quality alloys, and it was time to tear down the lifeless blocks of metal and smelt it down again, creating new frames that would be given a spark of life sometime. The death of those many would not be in vain, then, not anymore: they would be the source of existance for a younger generation.
Primus, how can you be this perfect?
Megatron swung his pick, the soft pink blur dimly lit the dark tunnel. He was so alone, now, with only Primus around to talk to. He had always appreciated these moments. There was nothing between him and his true Master, the God of Light. He had inherited his adoration for Primus from First, and even when he couldn't go to the Sonic Canyons and catch up with Primus's and his creations' dealings, he always spent some time with him in private. The metal was hard and strong, there was no need for stanchioning, so he could truly be alone with his real Master, undisturbed.
The energon pick gleamed as he pushed forward in the mosaic of alloys. The grease of his joints slightly steamed at the force he put in each strike, the bright red optics had been shining with the intensity of his work. He barely stopped for looking around, pushing the electrosonic sensor to the wall, determining the direction in which he wanted to move. He carefully avoided the cavern of ancient creatures that colonized what had once been the bridge of the crashed ship. What was her name? Ark? He grabbed the energon pick again, and continued digging.
He thought about those brave Cybertronians who, despite all warnings, had decided to explore what was beyond their reach. Their sparks had returned to Primus when the ship crashed into the Manganese Mountains because of a navigational error.
I'm brave when I am with you, Primus, but I would be a coward if I left you, ever. You are my life, the source and the reason of it. Is Cy-Clone there with you? I trust you take care of her. I loved her. Love her for me, Primus.
The lonely miner's pick clattered against the metal, and the walls of the narrow corridor magnified the sounds with a comfortingly familiar echo.
Before dropping into recharge, Optimus had ran a quick scan on himself. His primary energon abridger was brand new, not yet functioning at the optimal level, so he was still using his secondary abridger. Apart from this minor discomfort, he felt as good as new. He wondered how long his vacation would last.
Megatron was recharging on the berth when he entered the tiny room. He had seen the Decepticon leader stumble in, perhaps to check on his guest before dropping into recharge in his own, private vein, but he was so exhausted that he immediately collapsed onto the then-empty berth on reflex as soon as he'd seen it. Optimus didn't want to disturb him, but at the lightest touch, Megatron curled up into his tiny pistol mode, otherwise unbothered in his recharge.
Optimus sat down on the berth, adjusting its dimensions. He set it for two, possibly three mechs of their normal size, then he simply dropped back, careful to give Megatron enough space if he would transform back while they were both recharging. He wondered if this was overkill, sleeping on the same berth as his enemy. Not enemy, he decided. He slowly powered his systems down, barely noticing the small gun now relaxing into his palm. He wrapped his fingers around the grip.
When he came out of recharge, Megatron was still asleep, but lying on his back in his full size robot mode. What felt weirder, Primon was also there, right between the two of mechs, resting his head on Optimus's newly repaired chest, but his right arm under Megatron's helmet. He seemed to be just as sleepy, but very comfortable between the two of them.
„Good morning, Primon" he whispered.
Those dark-framed blue optics focused on his face, as if the newcomer himself hadn't known what he was doing here.
„Greetings, Optimus Prime" the blue and light gray mech muttered. „It's good to see you functional. How do you feel?"
„Better than ever, thank you."
„You finally allowed your wounds to heal instead of questing new ones. It won't be long before you can go back to your world. You are very much missed there. As the Matrix, I'm closest to Rodimus Prime, and he would be eager to share his burden with you again."
Optimus Prime looked up to the ceiling. He could feel this mech being the same as the artefact he was carrying for nine million Earth years, and maybe it was time to word his doubts.
„I am unsuitable for leadership" he stated quietly. „Inadequate and unworthy. I have led half of Cybertron's population into a devastating war against the other half."
First moved so that he was facing Optimus, but Megatron's helmet was still resting on his right arm.
„That doesn't mean that you were unsuitable, Prime." Blue optics, wise and deep as the Matrix itself, looked him in the face. „Alpha Trion made a desperate move when you received the Matrix, Optimus. You were badly damaged, unfit for duty. Do you blame yourself for decisions you made? For fighting a Decepticon who had killed you?"
The answer would have been yes, but the question seemed thetorical. There was no arguing with the Matrix, he knew that from nine million years' experience. But there was something he still could do, still had to ask.
„Primon, you are one with the source of all Primes' wisdom. I know that I will loose my memories of this visit when I go back to where I belong, but I solemnly ask you to guard one memory for me. I have seen Autobots and Decepticons walking peacefully in a city I have only known as ruins on a battlefield. Please, let me remember that it wasn't just a daring dream. I will do my best to make it real again. Can you do that for me?"
Primon gladly agreed to that favour. If nothing else, it was proof that Optimus was suitable to become a leader again.
„That memory will be in the Matrix the next time you open it" he promised. „It will be there for you and for all mechs whom its light of wisdom falls upon."
Rather cryptic yes.
Megatron gradually onlined his systems, relaxing into the receiving signal of his thought transmitter. Not that Primon would have recharged in his proximity before, except for that one case when Astrotrain had brought him back wounded. Is something troubling you, First?
Primon had moved his arm just enough to pat Megatron on the shoulder.
„I'm worried about my brother." Who? „Liege Maximo. He always tried to play the lone outsider who doesn't share his problems with the rest of us, but Retcon has just found the broken shards of the Hub. Splattered all over the multiverse."
Now Megatron understood his Master's uneasy mood. The Hub was his dark brother's corporeal body, thousands of planets bound to each other, creating a fine network that should have held against the Unmaker himself.
I promised to help him out. „If he needed us, he would have let us know, wouldn't he?"
Primon turned back to him.
„I hope so."
Retcon finding the Hub cannot be a good sign. Since when does he care about the Liege?
First didn't answer him, but he pulled himself closer to the two Leaders. To Optimus, his closeness was the most evident sensation ever since he was created. To Megatron, this tiny movement spoke clearer than a thousand words: his Master was afraid of something, and he was seeking reassurance from the mechs he had trusted.
The Hub was only the physical extension of his indestructible spark, he said it himself. He might be too proud to call for assistance, but he's even prouder to let himself be defeated.
First nodded in gratitude. He may have been just as worried as before, but Megatron had reminded him of how self-assured (and indeed powerful) his brother usually was. And he could take care of himself, just like the rest of the Thirteen. Different rules of physics had applied to them, rules they bent or broke whenever they had to. Hadn't he survived being torn apart from the Matrix?
„I will be back later" he promised, and vanished from the tiny room.
For a klik or two, there was nothing but silence.
„Does he usually do that?" Optimus finally asked. He was used to the Matrix being constantly with him, and not disappearing anywhere.
„He comes and goes, and you can never know when he will show up again." He's been around much more than usual, Prime. He's been staying here for you.
Optimus finally got off the berth, and repositioned his facemask. New day ahead. „Hi, Ravage. Ratbat, good morning."
Behind the white shadow and the flying drop of gold, Soundwave entered the room, as if he was waiting for the guest to get up. The dull white mech knew that Megatron wouldn't exactly be fond of the news he was bringing.
„The Senate wants you to know that the meeting about the highway reconstruction is due in forty-eight breems in the Crystal City Council Hall."
„Slag" Megatron replied. He, too, got off the berth and greeted the always-happy recordicons. He stretched out his arm, and Ratbat attached himself to his wrist, shining as if he was a jewel.
„The sooner the better" the golden one reasoned. „Before Senator Prowl gets another idea of overcomplicating the schemes. And before those Simanzi activists would organise another demonstration, in favor of one plan or the other. Or Rook getting wind of the meeting and then there's no slag in the universe that could keep the broadcasters away."
Megatron had to agree: he didn't want the listed possibilities to happen, especially not Rook showing up. He blinked at the Prime, wondering what the pesky correspondent could possibly do to his guest.
To his surprise, and despite his sparkspoken warnings, Optimus Prime was eager to come and see how matters would be settled in this world. He guessed that the mech was either bored with the peaceful work down here, or still had some malfunction, but he agreed to the request.
Crystal City had grown from a memento of good relationship between two polities into a citadel of diplomacy, the center of the neutral zone, quasi-capital of the region.
„The matter of highway construcion mostly evolves around the influence each polity and city-state want to claim, and around trade routes for heavy industry" Megatron explained. „It all started with the reconstruction of the Tri-Torus Loop: they had to build a collateral to let throught most of the traffic, and it involved a segment that's now used as a shortcut from Uraya to Tarn. Now every other state wants to have their own fresh passways to all their trading partners, and don't want their rivals to have a similar advantage."
„Politics." Prime's tone said it all.
„That exactly. You cannot allow more than two Autobots negotiate about their interests without supervision. Believe me, I tried. I walked out of the room, and in less than a breem, they were spark-down into an arguement. By the time I got back there, Decimus sorted the rest of them out, though"Megatron rumbled. „Not that his method wasn't effective, on the short run. He sent the three most troublesome senators to the repair bays with bare fists, so the others could be heard out and their suggestions had been taken into consideration." Megatron rested comfortably on the top of Optimus's cabin in gun mode, enjoying the view through what would transform into his fusion cannon, glad and grateful that he didn't have to fly as usual.
„Are all your politicians Autobots?" Prime queried.
„Most polities elect Autobots to represent them" was the reply. „There are some truly Autobot values that make them a good politician. They would always stand up for what they believe to be their good, and they won't change their opinion about it. They would never back away just because their superior or a chief officier told them to do so. They are free-sparked and adamant."
Optimus Prime was silent again. Wasn't this exactly what he wanted to happen? All partners negotiating as equals, coming to an agreement on their own free will, so that none of them would be suppressed?
Megatron tried to relax into the peace of the present before the meeting. There were some mechs whom he wasn't looking forward to meet. The Autobot leader was only one of them. And there was also the representative of the Badlands: Clench, the most affluent tycoon of Kaon. As much as he tried to convince himself of the opposite, he was scared of the weasely politician, and the purple Decepticon insignia he was wearing just felt so wrong by all means. On the other servo, wasn't Ultra Magnus wearing a red version of the Autobot symbol?
There was one more thought Megatron couldn't get out of his processor. Would he meet Steeljaw again? The bulky dark Recordicon usually came, if for nothing more then to gloat at the aging Senator Decimus. The Decepticon leader couldn't help a bitter grin as he remembered who Steeljaw used to be before he was hit by the Robo-Smasher. Ravage still tries to make him remember who he was when they were friends. The wounded dark Recordicon, once Decimus's partner and bodyguard, was usually too weak or lazy to even react to the white shadow's playful teasing.
They reached the hilltop, quite on time. Tarn was shining on their left, Vos scraping the cloudless sky on their right, the bright green city of crystals towered right in front of them. They could see Xantium and her hen-pecked partner Sky Lynx flying in the bright sky. The ship-chick has finally found her mate. Megatron felt a painful emptiness in his spark at the sight of the loveships.
Optimus picked up a familiar energy signature from Iacon's direction. The strong-built, mostly blue and purple firetruck soon showed up in his rearview mirrors, and he gently pulled to the side to allow the faster vehicle pass him.
The truck sped up, but he stayed next to them, and Optimus could see the cerulean blue flames on his paint job, surrounding the purple Autobot insignia.
The other must have been scrutinizing him just as eagerly. „So it was you who diminished our Hunter's collection. You came and you immediately felt authorized to destroy what had been his sole pride and obsession" he said in an icy, aristocratic tone. Optimus almost shivered at his statement.
„His passion had cost the lives of many Autobots, Cold Rodimus" Megatron inserted. „As much as I understand your concern for the evil Prime, wasn't it you who all but ordered me to do something about him when you've seen what happened to Blurr?"
The truck only seemed to notice Megatron on the top of the cabin.
„Ah, the hypocrite who had caused all this misery. Tell me, Decepticon leader: who should be concerned of the Prime, if not his leader?"
„Hunter of War is not an Autobot anymore" Megatron pointed out.
„He used to be" Cold Rodimus stated. „He should have remained one."
Optimus could feel the tension in the gun's voice. „For that, I have openly apologized. I have organized the search for dark energon so that he wouldn't starve if I could help it. Not even the Leader of the Autobots can ask for more."
„The best and only you can do is to accept Megatron's apology, my colleague" Optimus Prime interrupted. „He truly tries his best for all Cybertron, and you seem to fail to recognise it."
„The newcomer." How could a single word sound so freezing cold? „How would you know what the Prime has to withstand because of him? How can you unsee what your friend Megatron has done?"
There was an awful silence for an astrosecond.
Cold Rodimus is right. How would you know?
„Your world is not nearly as different from mine as I originally thought. Different events might have shaped us differently, but mechs themselves are exactly the same as those I have known."
Megatron all but fell off as he transformed in astonishment. „Are you sure about that?" he asked.
Both Autobot leaders pulled to the side of the road and returned to their bipedal modes.
„I am" Optimus nodded firmly. „I recognised Soundwave first, your liutenant of devotion and understanding. I met Tankor and Astrotrain, they could hardly be told from the Decepticons I know, only, they weren't given any reason to fight. I watched Wildrider perform the same stunts I have already seen from him. I have heard about Blurr, who was helpful and obsessed with speed. Last night Aira spoke the words that Ariel should have told me long ago. I look at you, Rodimus, and I see the noble and reliable leader my successor will, one day, become. And I can't tell whether it's an insult or not, but the more I watched you, Megatron, the more I realised that deep in your spark you are not at all different from the Megatron I know. You're a great leader, a mech whom others will follow without hesitation, because they trust you know where you're taking them. You won't stop to go around an obstacle, you will diminish it with permanent dedication and strong will. You have a wide scale of emotions from despair to victory, but you hardly show any of it. Nothing but events in your past separate your path from the other Megatron's. Nothing but unfortunate events in his past prevented him from making the decisions you have made. And I fear that many of his actions could have been prevented if I was up to the task of seeing him as a mech of my kind, instead of ignoring everything but the fact that he once killed me."
Was the Prime blaming himself? What for?
„He... killed you?" Cold Rodimus frowned.
„I should have seen past beyond his murderous actions. Even you, Megatron, would kill the mech who stands in your way. When I look at you I see a fierce leader who lead Cybertronians to a peace where every bot is content with what they are doing. When you are not provoked, you are open to negotiation, and when I talk to you as a wise leader I always hoped to become, I can't see my enemy anymore. That was Orion's damage – an injury I was carrying all the time. Megatron, thank you for healing my deepest wound."
That was the time when the purple Prime opened fire at the three of them.