Rodimus flips the badge over in his hands, focusing on that instead of Ratchet. The guilt lies heavy in him, and he wants to protest that he didn't want to. That he was going to come clean to everyone until Drift told him not to and he'd listened and he didn't protest as his best friend took the fall for him. Not for him. For everyone else. But he doesn't think protesting is what he wants to do. Not really.

"I didn't stop him," his voice is tight and pained, because Rodimus hates thinking about his last private conversation with Drift. "When I announced the investigation I was gonna come clean. But Drift, he said that's why he was there. To be the fall guy." If it's possible to curl in on oneself while standing, Rodimus is doing a damned good job of it. "I told him it was stupid, that he was being stupid. But he insisted and I didn't stop him, Ratchet."

He doesn't like feeling vulnerable, doesn't like the way it sits on him or the way it feels on his face when he looks up at Ratchet. Finally telling it after months of replaying it over and over in his head doesn't make him feel any better either, instead he just looks more miserable.