What Have I Done?

Chapter 19: I Swear

Orion's right wrist was cuffed to Ratchet's cabinet and he faced away from his two captors, one of which had just been welded back together. Ratchet was out of the room, getting a cooling pad for Ultra Magnus's wounds, leaving the two of them alone.

Magnus cleared his throat, "If it means anything to you, I don't disagree with what you've been doing in Kaon with Megatron."

Orion glanced away from the wall he'd been glaring at and looked at Magnus in surprise, "You don't?"

"No. I understand that Kaon has had it bad these last few centuries." Ultra Magnus looked down, "We're all just trying to get by in the way we know how. They know the ways of the streets. They know how to pick fights. Here in Iacon, our survival tactic is to scorn anyone who resists us, because we don't have those skills."

Magnus looked at Orion, "If you ever get the opportunity, you should go back to Megatron and keep fighting for equality."

Orion's optics widened, but then he furrowed his brows in confusion, "If you feel that way, why did you help Ratchet kidnap me?"

"Ratchet knows something I did that broke Elite Guard protocol and I'm already on probation. If he tells them, I'll get kicked off..." Ultra Magnus sighed, "Bots who get kicked out the Elite Guard are blacklisted. I can't afford to get kicked out, I have a family. My sparkmate, she's disabled. She can't get a job and I can't afford to fix her."

Orion didn't know what to say. This mech really didn't have a choice.

All the more reason to hate Ratchet.

"Anyway," Magnus cleared his throat, "you aren't bound by the same laws as I am. Alpha Trion wants you alive for some reason. He thinks you're important."

Orion frowned, "As leverage?"

"No–" Magnus's optics widened, "How could I have forgotten?! Orion, the council is preparing to blow up Kaon and Hailso."

Orion's systems flickered offline, "What?"

"When Ratchet comes back, we can stage an escape for you, but he can't know I helped you." Magnus said.

"Then let me go and I'll punch you before running away." Orion suggested, "They do that in tons of books."

"We're putting my job on the line for a book?" Magnus demanded.

Orion rolled his optics, "Do you want to save thousands of innocent bots or not?"

Magnus scowled, "I'd chose my family over this entire planet."

Orion was about to reply, but Ratchet took that moment to walk in, two cooling pads in his servos. Magnus and Orion quickly looked away from each other.

"None of your injuries were too shallow, Magnus, so you should be fine." Ratchet told the guard, "Just keep this over your mesh so the warm metal doesn't shift."

Magnus nodded.

Ratchet turned his attention to Orion, who had reverted back to glaring at the cabinets.

"Orion... stop being mad at me." Ratchet begged quietly, "I know you'll never forgive me, but at least try and understand where I'm coming from. I just want to keep you safe."

Orion didn't reply, instead turning away so that Ratchet couldn't even catch a glimpse of the younger bot's face.

Ratchet looked down, "I... I know you feel like Megatronus is the good bot, but he's a killer, Orion. Once a killer, always a killer."

"He didn't have a choice." Orion whirled around, "They would have sent him to the actual mining pits as a prisoner if he didn't termimate the other gladiators! He told me about them! They're horrible!"