What Have I Done?

Chapter 6: In the Fold

Orion blinked a few times after the door closed, his optics adjusting to the dimly lit room. Two mechs were standing near the far wall, around a table. They had the same frames, but one was black and purple while the other was mostly purple with some black.

Megatronus looked at the mostly black one and grinned.

"Orion, you can get rid of the cloak now, this is Soundwave and Crashdrive."

"We've heard a lot about you," Soundwave said, holding out his slender digits.

Orion pulled off the cloak and shook the mech's hand with a smile, "Good things, I hope."

"You'd be surprised," Crashdrive cracked an amused grin. "Megatronus never spoke so hi–"

Soundwave elbowed the purple mech and shot him a glare, "Don't we have business to attend to?"

"Riiiight," Crashdrive pulled out a few data chips and tossed them onto the table. "Yeah, these have been totally screwed."

"Are these from the Hall of Records?" Orion asked, picking one up and examining it; he quickly spotted the small holes. "Did you stab them?"

"Don't worry, it's not like they're useful anyway. It's just a bundle of Iacon propaganda," Crashdrive smirked.

Soundwave stepped forward to explain for Orion could take that the wrong way, "What my brother means is that the data, when in the vicinity of the Hall of Records, are programmed to give out certain information. Your complains have only came in as malfunctioning lately because of the newly created protocals for wandering signals. The Hall of Records can't expand their signal very far anymore and instead of allowing datachips to transfer accurate information outside of range, they shut down functions."

"What do you mean, 'accurate information'?" Orion asked.

"The chips have two sets of data on them," Soundwave explained. "One is censored and the other is accurate."

Orion blinked in confusion, "But-"

"Why don't we just show ya?" Crashdrive suggested, pulling out a datapad and pulling in a chip, "This is the Kaonian mining information. When Soundwave simulated the frequency of the Hall of Records core..."

Information transferred into the datapad, pulling up a bunch of text.

"None of this information says anything about the fighting in the pits," Megatronus spoke up. "That's why you, and nobody else in Iacon knew about it."

Soundwave equipped his tentacles and inserted them into the datapad and chip. "When I hack into the chip and override it's security protocols, I find another set of data. This one, has a plethora of information about the real Pit."

Orion's optics widened and scanned over the new, unfamiliar text, which was detailing how the mining pits were ran... with information about the arena as well.

"We assume that whoever originally designed the chips created this, which would mean that Alpha Trion is the one behind the censoring." Soundwave explained.

Orion shook his head, "There's no way Alpha Trion did this... he-he's..."

Megatronus nodded to Soundwave and the mech pulled out another chip. This one was the programming chip that Alpha Trion had given Orion for malfunctioning datapads.

"We ran this as well. It's not meant to fix datapads, it's meant to install the Hall of Records frequency so the datachips can give out the censored texts."

For demonstration, Soundwave plugged it into the datapad, which had previously been displaying information about the pits. The screen glitched for a moment before switching to the other text.

There was a moment of silence as Orion stared at the screen, trying to comprehend the betrayal of his mentor. Of his beliefs.

After a long period, his servo curled inward angrily.

Megatronus put his hand on Orion's shoulderplate. "We are sorry, Orion, but it is the truth. And there are more lies and corruption in Cybertron's leadership. Many that we three have uncovered and many that we have yet to decipher."

"And thanks to you, we found another one!" Crashdrive grinned. "Now we can add Alpha Trion to our list of corrupt leaders."

"You have a list of them?"

Crashdrive nodded and pulled out the datachips. Soundwave quickly erased all tampering and progamming from his datapad before allowing Crashdrive to get out the list.

Megatronus turned to Orion as the two brothers worked, "I'm aware this must all be a lot to process for you, Orion. If you need some time–"

"No," Orion shook his helm, "I want to help. I want to know."

"Then this is the right business for you," Crashdrive remarked, handing over the datapad.

Orion's optics skimmed over the first few names before he frowned and started scrolling. And scrolling.

And scrolling.

"How many bots are on here?"

"Almost every bot in a position of power," Megatronus answered. "Unlike we thought before, the corruption isn't Iacon, it's a web of connected heritage across all of the city-states. Those who aren't corrupt have been facing energon shortages and power failures."

Orion set the datapad down, "So pretty much all of Cybertron is scrapped."

"Pretty much," Crashdrive jumped up and sat on the table, "so it's a good thing you're here now. We weren't very credible as just a few bots from Kaon."

Orion looked at Megatronus sharply, "Is that why you changed your mind all the sudden about me being able to help? Not because I'm useful, but simply because I'm from Iacon?"

Megatronus hesitated.

Orion scoffed and glared, turning away from them.

"No, no, that's not why–"

"All those things you said before, about it being too dangerous and me not being helpful enough, those never changed," Orion jabbed his finger at Megatronus. "But then you got the idea that it would be a political advantage for me to be in kahoots with you and you decided to bring me into the fold."

Megatronus looked down, "Orion, I... You are useful, we would have never found out about the datachips without you."

"And in the grand scheme of things, knowing about some censored data chips doesn't really make a difference compared to the assortment of evidence you found against countless bots in positions of power, does it?" Orion demanded.

"It doe-"

"No, it doesn't," Orion glared, grabbing the cloak and pulling it on. "But your scheming doesn't change the fact that Cybertron is corrupt. Tell me when you need my face, but otherwise, leave me alone."

And with that, Orion opened the door and stomped out of the building, leaving three shocked mechs in his wake.