What Have I Done?

Chapter 33: Both Shall Fall

"No, no, no, no!" Orion groaned in frustration as the navigation device short-circuited again. The screen flickered out of existence before disappearing entirely.

Ratchet stopped his pacing and looked over, "We're not far from the location, Orion. If we continue straight, we should be able to find it without too much difficulty."

Orion scoffed, "For all we know, Alpha Trion has already blew them up. If we were using our vehicle modes, we would have reached the caverns hours ago!"

The red and blue mech tossed the datachip they'd found to the floor and growled, "I promised Ultra Magnus's family that they would be safe there. If they get hurt, it will be all my fault.

"And I was working with him!" Orion exclaimed, "I was working with that sick son of a scraplet while he was planning to blow everyone into the Allspark! Unicron take me if I ever trust that pits forsaken mech again!"

Orion's helm paint peeled as he ran his servos over it harshly, "Primus told me I needed to oppose Megatron, but he never said I had to work with Alpha Trion! It was stupid and foolish of me and now bots are going to ve terminated."

"From what you've told me, Orion, widespread termination is unavoidable. This only the beginning." Ratchet said softly.

Orion vented shakily and looked down, "This isn't fair."

"Not much is," Ratchet walked over and wrapped an arm around the younger mech's frame, "but you are doing this for a good cause. This war, it's nothing more than a glorified emergency room. When you accept the task of being a doctor, you must accept that not everyone can be saved, and some, you will have to terminate."

Orion's throat clenched painfully, "I just wanted to help people."

"And you will," Ratchet assured him. "Lives will be lost, but you must look past your failures in order to see the bigger picture. To see those who have been saved and those who will be saved."

"How'd you get so wise?" Orion asked with a trembling smile.

"Old age." Ratchet grumbled, "Now, come on. We have to go find these caverns."

Orion nodded, taking a deep vent before following Ratchet forward.

It took some time, but soon enough, the jagged cliffs around them leveled out into a large expanse of gleaming blue metal. Orion and Ratchet stopped, their optics widening in surprise.

"This isn't– this isn't the caverns, this is the Well of Allsparks!" Orion exclaimed. "Pits damned signals!"

"I doubt a weak signal could have screwed up this badly," Ratchet frowned. "Besides, the Well of Allsparks has a rather strong energon signature."

Orion growled, "And yet, it took us here. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were hack– Oh, scrap."

"Hacked," Ratchet tasted the word and scowled. "Why would anyone want to bring us here?"

"I don't know," Orion walked toward the well, "but I don't want to stick around to find out. We need to warn everyone about Shockwave's explosive."

With a small huff, Ratchet followed Orion back toward the cliffs. They had almost reached the edge when Ratchet stopped, his audio receivers perking up slightly.

Orion glance back and frowned, "What–"

"Shh!" Ratchet held up his servo and squinted, listening closely.

At first, there was nothing, and then the faint sound of jets parting the thin air of Cybertron's atmosphere.

"They've found us!" Ratchet growled, grabbing Orion's wrist and yanking him toward the well.