Orion Pax's POV

In the aftermath, as the dead were counted and the Grid thrummed with outrage and speculation, I consulted with Alpha Trion.
"Sentinel Prime was at Altihex," I said heavily.
"Much time has passed since it mattered where Sentinel Prime was," Alpha Trion said. The Quill left afterimages a he ticked it metronomically back and forth, thinking.
Once again, I had thought to myself...Alpha Trion surprises me with his lack of....compassion maybe? I thought otherwise, and i would be me that has no feeling for all of the institutions— caste, leader, and so forth— that defined Cybertronian society. It feels odd to get from the Head Archivist of the Hall of Records, the one bot who ws entrusted with organizing the history of our civilization.
I might be overthinking this a little too much and i'll write it off as stress of the circumstances. "My concern," he starts to say, "is that Megatron, having gotten a taste of armed rebellion, will find it to his liking. Did you know that the gladiator tournaments across the Badlands— including Kaon— have shut down? All of their warriors now clamor to join these Decepticons." He got up from his desk to look out the window from his official study over the great cityscape of Iacon. "Orion Pax, did he know? You've seen that he denies it. You even supported his denials of the terrorist bombings." Alpha Trion turned to look at me in the face to then ask, "What is your intuition about this? Is the Altihex takeover the brainchild of a rogue splinter cell, or is that a cover to keep Megatron safely distant from actions he has ordered?"
I didn't know the answer, only to speculate that his ideals matched mine, even seeing his personality and the way he comes off; the quickness of his anger, the sharpness and aggression even of his wit. I don't believe it to be impossible for Alpha Trion to be correct in the case that Megatron had gotten a taste for violence and is unable to stop indulging that taste. Maybe he's always been that way given his initial entry into the gladiatorial pits, or maybe the pits had changed him somehow.
I smile at the sense of irony, that I carried an unusual sentiment for thinking that, given my own job as a data clerk in the Hall of Records. Alpha Trion noticed my smile and said, "I see your expression, but i detect no humor in the situation. What is the answer to my question?"
    "Only that I do not know, and my smile is a recognition of irony rather than an indulgence of humor. I apologize if it came off differently."
    "You know this Megatron better than anyone in Iacon. If you were advising the High Council, what would be your advice?" He asked.
    "If i were..." I trail off, lost in the belief that I could actually advise the High Council. But the more I considered it, the more sense it made. The High Council won't do anything unless they hear from the parties involved. "Alpha Trion, what if Megatron and I appeared before the High Council? I would take it upon myself to be a go-between and explain my understanding of the situation, but they need to hear his grievances directly from him."
Alpha Trion swipes a thumb across his chin, pondering the idea. "Perhaps," he eventually said.
    "Will you contact the High Council on my behalf?"
    "There are specified times for specific castes to bring their grievances before the Council."
    "Slag the specified times! Even now, with Altihex destroyed and Sentinel Prime gone missing, with Megatron about to lead Cybertron into a civil war, and you want to talk about caste?!" I cried out. In that instant, I felt remorse for having realized the truth for what it is, or what it just might become...that Megatron may or may not plunge this planet into a civil war.
    "You mistake me. I have never wanted to talk about caste. I thought the castes were a poor idea when they were instituted," Alpha Trion said. "But they exist, and must be dealt with, especially when one is contemplating an audience that will deeply disturb the High Councilors. If you're going to get anywhere with this idea, Orion Pax, you're going to need to think instead of just act."

    There was a sense of irony in his words. Megatron accused me of thinking and not feeling, Alpha Trion accused me of feeling and not thinking. This might just mean that i found or was finding some correct middle ground. "What must be done, must be done. I thank you for speaking to the Council. If you will do it," I stated
    "I will do it," he sighed. With that, I transformed and headed out to prepare a rendezvous with Megatron. Somewhere in between Kaon and Iacon had lain the Hydrax Plateau, a place that was once the busiest points on Cybertron. I had found a hangar that once had contained a semi-sentient spacecraft but now stood empty, its door open and roof collapsed.
    "Orion, I need you to find something out for me," Megatron says after transforming and holding out a servo for me to hold. I hesitate to take it, because i want to do things my way, and I can't keep submitting myself to his touch. I gently push his servo down and say, "First we need to decide what we're going to do Megatron. The Altihex situation makes us look very bad. Sentinel Prime himself has disappeared. The invaders claimed to be Decepticons, operating under your instructions. This is going to be difficult to explain."
    "And explain it we must. You said Altihex makes us look bad. Us. How us?"
    "You and I are associated. I spoke up for you, and now whatever happens associated with your name, or this Decepticon term...that is associated with me as well. And i don't like it. This is not the way I would've done things."
    "No, it isn't. But this is the way that things are being done, and it's working. All of Cybertron is talking about caste and privilege now."
I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I go on to ask in a sardonic tone, "Really? They are? You must mean all of Cybertron except for the millions of Cybertronians on every channel of the Grid who are screaming for your head because of the violence. Are you that out of touch?"
    "I'm in touch with what needs touching,"
    "When you're in shackles before the Judge of the High Council, we'll see if you feel the same way."
    "Who's gonna put me there? You, Orion Pax? I don't think so. You can disdain my methods, but every cycle that goes by without you stopping me means that when it comes right down to it, you approve. You want things done just as I do, but you don't want to contemplate what must happen to get them done."
    I hated the fact that he was testing me and it's as if he wanted things to happen this way. We may believe in the same things, and what i told Alpha Trion was true; it's important not to let these kinds of disagreements get in the way of the larger vision: a caste free Cybertron, populated by Cybertronians who chose their own paths since the beginning til the end of their life cycle. "And you rely on me to get you things that you can't get as well." I say and then he places a servo on my shoulder.

    "Of course I do. And one of those things—the most pressing thing for our movement—is to find out what Trypticon Station contains."
    "Because of this Starscream? He's a Seeker officer, just like any other. What makes you think he knows anything?"
    "Can't tell you. It's better you do not know. One secret to a successful rebellion is compartmentalization. Just like I don't want to know what you had to do to get us an audience with the High Council." He paused to see the expression I wore on my visage. "Yes I know, How do I know? You don't want to know."
    "You know because you have Soundwave's Minicons sneaking all over Cybertron finding things out. I'm not a fool, Megatron."
     "No, you're not. And you're not as naïve as you appear to be sometimes. I'll have to keep that in mind." Megatron states in a contemplative tone that made me curious as to what he was thinking. Not curious to ask however if it meant distracting the conversation from the critically important subject. That subject being the appearance in front of the High Council. I'm sure enough that doing so should be enough to stop the violence before it escalates any further and creating the best possible platform for the reforms we proposed.

    "We can appear before the High Council in five megacycles," I said. It gives me enough time to do some preliminary research through the Records to see what they might have to say about the secret projects on Trypticon Station. Not that there were any. I believe Starscream's way of angling for a role in the rebellion—or,perhaps, of suppressing it. What if we went to Trypticon and found a reactionary force established there, ready to put us in custody and try us for treason?

    "Yes, we should appear before the Council and make our arguments there. I do not wish anarchy, Orion. But you will notice that before, when we were talkingto each other beyond the sight of the Grid and the hearing of the Council, nothing changed. Now when they can ignore us no longer, we will have an audiencein the Grand Conference Chamber with the entire Council. See the relationship?"
    "This is what you were talking about when you said that the existenceof terrorists would make you more palatable, isn't it?" I sigh.
    "Yes, amd it's working."
    "Well, that will console all of the dead in Altihex and Six Lasers."
    "If their deaths mean we get a hearing before the High Council instead of an all-out civil war, then in the future we will know it was a worthwhile sacrifice."
    "But it's not a sacrifice they chose, Megatron. Isn't this all about self-determination? It's a little too easy for you to sacrifice other people to your goals."
    "Yes, perhaps it is. And that is on reason why i value our relationship. You keep me conscious of these things that otherwise are too easy for me to forget."