"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

~Rose Fiztgerald Kennedy 

>>·<<

June collapsed onto her knee servos the moment her pedes hit solid ground, Optimus putting a comforting servo against her back while she vented heavily, coughing up the strange liquid. Her frame shook whilst her processor spun, trying to understand what had happened.

Megatron . . . Shockwave . . . they turned me into this.

Fuzzy memories danced across her processor, recollections of her time as a naive Predacon. She remembered Predaking, the others - ones she now recognized as the Decepticons and Autobots - her missions, her struggle to understand who she was.

Ripclaw.

She shuttered her optics, shaking her helm. There was a second presence within her processor, brushing against her but not invading. A Predacon from hundreds of millions of years past, roaming the Earth before the "Great Cataclysm." Providing her memories from deep within her CNA, the Predacon taught her of might and power, tragedy and war. Ripclaw was the gentlest, most maternal of the Predacons, yet was aloof and took no one, male or female, as her partner. She was a strong, independent femme, who needed no mech to protect her.

"June," Optimus rumbled, his voice slow and careful. "Are you alright?"

Pulled from her reverie, the femme's blue optics focused on the Autobot leader.

"I don't . . . I don't know . . ." She whispered. Memories of the Autobot leader broke through her haze. Optimus, flying into the cavern to protect Shovel and Wheeljack from the wrath of Predaking - and her. Optimus, engaging Megatron after the Decepticon leader had ordered her to -

Oh god. Oh Primus, what have I done?

"Mom!!" Jack bellowed, his voice filled with relief, pain, and sorrow, Miko shouting a warning as the young man began clambering down the side of the Omega Lock, the former human too preoccupied with his mother to worry about falling into the Earth's atmosphere. 

"Jack," she stood on shaking legs, Optimus keeping her supported until Jack could run to her. June was significantly taller than her son, and almost taller than the Autobot leader, though Optimus suspected that she had unitentionally used mass displacement when transitioning from her Predacon form to her bipedal, Cybertronian mode. Regardless, it did not stop the small family from embracing, June clutching her son tightly as he did the same to her in turn, her digits gently touching the back of his helm.

Jack buried his faceplates into her shoulder, venting heavily as his spark stung. Despite her Predacon base, June looked very much like she did in her human form; the coloring was off, as there were no black accents with which to mimic her hair, but her heart-shaped face, hint of a widow's peak, and slender yet filled form was all the young man needed to know this woman was truly his mother. 

"I'm sorry," June felt her optics begin to sting, energon flowing down her faceplates. "I don't know what happened to me, Jack, but if I had any control, I would have never - "

"It's okay, mom," Jack parted from her, wiping her tears away. "I know. Megatron told us that he used memory suppressors; it's not your fault."

She nodded, still very much upset, wondering how she had not been able to break through. The threads of thought she had chased so many times before - why had they gone to dead ends? Why did she not just try harder to free herself? The femme felt robbed, and used.

Movement drew their attention to the other side of the Omega Lock, where a silver titan pulled himself from the edge and crawled out of the energon. He too coughed and sputtered, hacking up energon that had filled his vents. The once proud Megatron was on his hands and knees, shuddering as he shook the disorientation from his processor.

Optimus Prime frowned, clutching the Star Saber in his servo. Silently walking past Bumblebee he approached the tyrant, his face shield slid across his face whilst the blade glowed a soft blue. He would ask for the warlord's surrender only once; and if all he received was a laugh in his face, he would end the war once and for all, without a second thought.

He pointed the sword toward Megatron. His actions drew the Decepticon's attention toward him, the Prime freezing in shock when blue optics beheld his red frame.

"O . . . Orion Pax?" Megatron stared at him in disbelief.

The silence between the two pervaded for longer than necessary, but Optimus was attempting to piece everything together. It seemed that when the Omega Lock had "healed" June Darby by wiping out her memory suppressors, it may have also purged the dark energon from Megatron, as well as the corruption that had tainted his spark. Much like when Optimus surrendered the Matrix, Megatron's surrendering of his anger and hatred wiped his memory files clean.

Megatron's gaze slid down the ex-archivist's sword, his faceplates molding into an expression of betrayal.

"So . . . you are the mole," he whispered. "You were the one sent to kill me, to end my 'political reign of terror'."

Optimus gazed at his old friend, recalling the incident clearly. The corrupted Council had sent someone to assassinate Megatronus before he could form a proper gathering and rally against the caste system. Megatronus had guessed it was one of his closest allies; and now it seemed that it was Optimus - Orion Pax - that was the one who betrayed him.

"No, old friend," Optimus Prime rumbled. He heard Ratchet cry out in protest, but he cast aside the Star Saber, watching the weapon spin away from the Omega Lock, catching fire as it entered Earth's atmosphere. "I am not the one that was sent to hurt you. But, there is a lot of explaining that must be done."

"Explaining?" Megatronus eyed his extended servo suspiciously, his optics wandering over Optimus' frame, noticing the drastic difference and weapons upgrade he did not think his friend possessed. "I suppose . . . there is." 

The gladiator took the archivist's servo, letting him assist in bringing him back onto his pedes. Their EM fields brushed during that brief moment, Megatronus surprised when he felt no sort of deceit from Orion, and a new kind of humbleness within him.

"Master! Thank the Allspark!" Starscream gracefully leapt from the side of the Omega Lock, briefly transforming and streaking toward Megatron, reverting back to his bipedal mode and landing elegantly in front of the Cybertronian. Megatronus took a step back, his optics narrowing. "You have survived! I thought that beastly femme had offlined you!"

"Beastly?" June muttered, shooting the shrieking Seeker a withering look.

"You . . . you are that annoying Vosnian," Megatronus replied distastefully, trying to make sense of what the strange mech was telling him. "The Seeker. Starscream, wasn't it?"

Starscream's jaw dropped a little, gazing at Megatronus' blue optics and attempting to figure the situation out. He chuckled nervously briefly, then gestured to him angrily whilst looking at Optimus. "What have you done to him?!"

Optimus Prime was surprisingly calm. "It stands to reason that the Omega Lock wiped the corruption and dark energon from Megatron's systems, reverting him back to his Megatronus state. Any and all of his previous ideals have been wiped from his memory processors. It would also explain why June's own memories were restored."

"The Omega Lock performed mnemosurgery on our lord and master?!" Starscream asked skeptically.

Shockwave gazed at the scene below, speaking out loud to no one in particular. "A logical assumption. However, why exterminate his corruption?"

"Primus works in mysterious ways," Ratchet muttered, though the statement was extraordinarily sarcastic. "I say we count our blessings."

"Perhaps, but I do not know," Optimus confessed, turning toward the amnesiac Megatron.

"Well, this leaves us Decepticons and you Autobots in quite the conundrum," Starscream sneered. "Do we continue to battle when our lord is clearly incapacitated? Are you going to coerce him into surrendering, Optimus Prime?"

"Prime?" Megatronus looked at him, shocked. "Orion, what is he prattering about?"

"To ask Megatron - now Megatronus - to surrender an army he does not know exist would be unethical," Optimus ignored his friend's question for the moment. "I only ask that we instead unite, Starscream, and help Megatronus understand from both an Autobot and Decepticon perspective. From there we may discuss the next step."

"You want to teach him the entire Autobot and Decepticon conflict?" The Seeker snorted. "Within what, a few more million years?"

"We will teach him what we can," Optimus looked toward Megatronus. "I am sorry, old friend, but there is much that needs to be discussed. Let us all meet at the bridge of the Nemesis and continue this conversation. There are many things that need to be attended to." His optics flickered over to the mother and son that remained across the Omega Lock, Bumblebee also standing and observing with a confused gaze. 

"I expect to be fully briefed on whatever the frag is going on here," Megatronus growled, eyeing Optimus. "Starting with your new frame - and apparent title."

Optimus gave him a thin smile. "Of course."

"I suppose . . . I should be caught up on a few things too," June gave her son a sad smile, gently brushing his face as if she was moving a piece of hair out of his eyes. 

"I'll do the best I can to explain," Jack promised her,  the two of them embracing briefly before Miko flew down to retrieve them.

This was going to be a long, long day.