Orion POV

I opened my eyes with a groan, my helm aching along with the rest of my frame.

"Megatronus?" I asked as my optics focused on the mech in front of me.

The larger mech froze at my words. I was about to ask him what was wrong when I took a closer look at my friend. He was different, very different. My processor immediately started analyzing the difference between the Megatronus in front of me to the one in my memory. He was older, that much was immediately noticeable, with a much larger collection of scars (which was not much of a surprise), and purple optics. The symbol on his chest was what really caught my attention, it was a warped version of the character meaning oppressed, my processor provided.

"Where are we?" I continued as my processor raced.

"Orion?" Megatronus asked tentatively. "You don't remember?"

I gave him a confused look, "What do you mean?"

Before he could respond three bots came running towards us.

"Optimus!" The femme yelled.

"Who are they?" I asked Megatronus.

"Our enemies," he said quickly. "We are outnumbered. Come, Orion, we must leave."

A ground bridge appeared behind us and Megatronus ushered me towards it.

"Stop!" The green bot yelled from behind us.

I turned around and gave the three strangers a calculating look before following Megatronus through the bridge.

.:i:.

"What happened to me?" I asked Megatronus, no Megatron, after we had both been checked out by the red medic.

"You had been captured by our enemy, the autobots, long ago. They brainwashed you into fighting for their side," he began.

"Those three bots, they were autobots?" I asked.

"Yes. The autobots seek to rule over all, and in there quest for power they destroyed Cybertron. We are the only ones left to stand against them," Megatron continued.

"What about Ratchet?" I asked innocently. "Where is he?"

Megatron looked at me with regret, "He is the leader of the autobots. Back on Cybertron something in him must have snapped. I'm sorry Orion, there is nothing left of your old friend, all that is left is Warlord Ratchet."

I looked at him with sorrow, allowing nothing else to show.

"There is something you could do to help us, if you are feeling up to it. Before we were forced to flee Cybertron we managed to storm the Hall of Records. Files written in a code we can not crack."

"And you want me to break the encryption," I finished for him.

"Yes. We believe they hold information that could change the tide of the war," Megatron confirmed.

I gave him a smile and told exactly what he wanted to hear, "I will do what I must."

Megatron beamed at me and turned around to lead me to my room. He never saw my eyes flash or the dark look that fell on my face.

.:i:.

I almost laughed at the firewalls Megatron had around all of his important files. They were above average, but they did not seem to realize how much skill it took to be the top archivist. I easily slipped through the firewalls undetected and started sifting through all of the information they had. It only took a few minutes to learn most of what I needed to know and even less to copy all of the information onto a spare hard drive.

The hard part came next. I had to track down the autobots' base. It was difficult but my specialty at the archives was tracking down anything with little information. After three hours of scouring every camera, website, and satellite I found everything I needed.

It was time for me to go.

Knockout POV

I was looking over Prime's medical report when something caught my attention. My eyes widened.

"That's not good," I muttered before I took of running to find Megatron.

Megatron POV

"Megatron!" Knockout yelled as he ran towards me.

He came to a stop and opened his mouth to tell me something when the alarm went off, someone was attacking us.

Knockout let out a string of rather impressive curses as we ran to the bridge. Soundwave joined us half way there.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Unknown. Cameras were looped. Locked out of systems," Soundwave answered as we reached the door to the control room.

I entered the code to the door but it did not go through. Soundwave connected to the control panel to override the door but pulled back in pain as bolts of electricity arched from the panel to him.

"Move out of the way!" I growled.

I pointed my cannon at the door and fired. It only took a few shots before the door was completely destroyed. I rushed in to see the bodies of the drones that took care if the bridge littering the ground, most bleeding energon, and Orion standing in front of an open ground bridge.

"Orion!" I yelled at the red and blue bot. "What are you doing?"

He turned around and gave me an innocent expression, "I'm leaving. I am not fond of liars."

That caused me to freeze, "How did you find out?"

He smiled at me and said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "If Ratchet was on the other side of the war I would never be here with you. The information in your databanks told me the rest, about how you were actually the warlord and Ratchet the one fighting against you, not that it mattered."

What did that mean? He couldn't be implying that he would have joined a side that went against his base principles, that was the reason he did not join the deceptions after all.

"And if Ratchet had really become evil?" I asked trying to get confirmation.

His smile turned dark. I had never seen an expression like that one on either Orion Pax or Optimus Prime.

"I can do evil," he purred.

With that he ran through the ground bridge before me or the other decepticons could process what he said. The bridge closed before we could regain our senses. Soundwave went to the ground bridge controls to try and reopen the bridge but it shorted out just like the control panel for the door. Orion was gone and we could not follow him.

"How did this happen?" I asked myself out loud.

"I believe I can shed some light on this situation," Knockout said.

I turned to look at the medic and gave a silent command for him to continue.

"I saw something interesting in his medical file. Did you know he was part Ossessian?" The medic asked.

I gave him a blank look. I had never heard of that race of Cybertronian.

Knockout sighed, "Ossessians found one being and formed a special bond with them. They would do anything, be anything for that one being. It was after this special trait that their race was named, ossessian derived from the word obsession. No one outside of that race knows how exactly they decide who to bond to. The bond itself is rather interesting. It can be formed without the partners consent or knowledge. From what I had found, the bond doesn't affect them in any way besides marking the being as theirs and helping to decide what would make their bonded most happy. If Ratchet really is Prime's bonded he would follow him anywhere and do anything for him, and he might not even realize the power he has over his leader."

"So when Orion said it didn't matter if Ratchet was evil or not…"

"If Ratchet turned evil Optimus Prime would not be going against his moral code because it was never his to begin with. Anything and everything he does is for Ratchet," Knockout said gravely.

"And if Ratchet ever decided he wanted us dead?"

"We better hope that does not happen because we wouldn't stand a chance."