Chapter Text
He had no answer for the charges laid on him. When he turned to look at Vigilem, his helm was forced forward.
“We deliberated for a long time what to do with you. Execution was our first thought but…” Prima grimaced, pain flashing across his handsome face, “both Solus and Nexus are dead now. There has been enough death and suffering for a lifetime. We will not kill you, Liege Maximo, but you will be punished adequately. Bring it.”
He addressed his last words to the second-forged watching Maximo, and two left Maximo’s line of sight. A short moment later, they brought a veiled object carried on a platform. When the tarp on it was pulled away, a clear, crystal box was revealed.
“You’ll be sealed within,” Prima said, “unable to ever open it yourself. Your powers will be of no use to you, Maximo. You’ll stay inside until we see it fit to release you.”
He said nothing. He glared instead, still as he glowered. Prima met his gaze head-on as he said, “Onyx. Alchemist.”
The two Primes in question stood up. They walked to Maximo and took him from his escort. The cuffs around his servos and feet were unbuckled. When he tried to lash out, Onyx struck him across the face with the back of his fist.
The collar was removed next, then the gag.
“A prison for me?” he hissed the minute he could speak. He was dragged towards it as the box was held open, and struggled. “A prison, while Megatronus wanders the universe? This is what you have decided for me, Prima?!”
“You’ll be sealed within your titan,” Prima said, “since you asked that you not be parted from him.”
“You-!” Maximo jerked forward but his brothers’ grips were solid. “You mock me!” he screamed across the square. “You will not make Vigilem my prison! For all that you accuse me of monstrosity, you -”
“Enough,” Onyx growled and he wrenched Maximo forward.
He fought, but there was little use. With his powers held in check by Alchemist, Maximo was pulled into the box despite his enraged shouts. The box was hardly taller than him when he was kneeling, and not much wider. His voice was abruptly cut off when he was forced inside, struggling, and the box was sealed after him. Forced into an uncomfortable crouch, his shoulders bunched up and his knees drawn in tight, Maximo couldn’t do much but twist, trapped as he was.
He was sealed in, furious but powerless. When his mouth moved and his palm slapped against the box, no sound came.
Vigilem, meanwhile, was forced to watch all of this in the shackles placed upon him by his former brothers. The proceedings were haunting to him, with his Prime receiving an undeserved punishment for craving freedom. He didn’t have the strength left to raise his voice, not after the weeks he’d struggled to escape from the hold of the other titans. Overpowered, he had to concede defeat and watch their fate be decided by unsympathetic, former brothers.
Maximo’s sentence was odd, but at least it was not death. When Prima declared that Vigilem would be Liege’s prison, a sliver of relief came upon the titan. Once they were exiled together, he could find a way to open his lord’s prison and they’d be truly free, as they sought to be. The mercy of the Primes and the titans would be their downfall, and they’d pay for the pain they’d inflicted upon Liege Maximo.
The box containing his lord was brought towards him just as Metroplex forced Vigilem into transformation through an unwanted, forced connection. Vigilem felt his frame yield, folding into the bulky shape of his spacefaring altmode. Still, Maximo was brought inside of him, close and closer, to his brain module in fact.
Warmth and affection pulsed through the bond they still had, which was not limited by Maximo’s prison.
My liege, my love...we are together, at the very least.
The prison was stored inside his brain module and Liege found himself in darkness. He reached out for Vigilem, scrabbling at the smooth, cold walls, and wrapped himself in their link as tightly as he could. We are together , he said fiercely. That much is worth it, at least.
“Your punishment is not complete,” Prima continued after it was done. “Calvor-1, speak.”
“We will be your wardens,” Calvor-1 said in a flat voice. He looked upon Vigilem without sympathy. “We renounce Liege Maximo as our leader and renounce his ways. There will be no more lies, not after everything he has done.”
No more lies, after his greatest one , Maximo hissed from inside Vigilem. He calls me betrayer, when he learned at my feet what he did.
“And to prevent him from ever escaping, I’ve suggested your final punishment, Vigilem.” Calvor-1 tilted his helm. “You’ll be put into stasis. Never again will you act against anyone again, or assist Liege Maximo in his plots. You won’t escape punishment this time.”
Maximo was shocked into silence for a moment. Suddenly, he exploded inside Vigilem, banging against the walls as he screamed, No! NO!
A shudder ran through the prone titan as the former follower of his lord spoke his vicious punishment. Some cold, distant corner of his mind understood the cruelty of this verdict; without Vigilem, Maximo would never be so powerful that he alone could threaten the other Primes. Without Vigilem, Maximo might not even have reason to fight the other Primes. It was all terribly logical and Vigilem felt numb as Metroplex forced him still.
Helpless. He was helpless. Fear, despair, everything that he felt, he fed back to Liege Maximo through their bond. He looked to crawl into his lord, his mind clinging as best he could as the former members of their tribe entered his brain module. Vigilem would have shot them if he could, would have transformed the chamber and ground their frames to dust, but Metroplex controlled him, held him still.
And spoke, in that mountain-grinding voice of his.
“You are no brother to us, Vigilem. You are our shame, and you will be forgotten. Learn from this that you are not an island unto yourself.”
The vicious remark Vigilem had for his former brethren was turned into a cacophony of hissing and sputtering as the first functions were severed from him. Speech was chief among them, followed shortly by autonomous transformation.
Metroplex released him, and Vigilem could not move. He remained stationary, a mass of blue and orange metal, vibrating with anger and fear as Vigilem’s mind wrapped itself around Liege Maximo’s.
My liege, I feel...cold…
Vigilem, stay with me. Maximo reached out for him desperately as the darkness seemed to grow thicker. The lack of cohesion on the other side made his panic spike as he tried to hold him tighter to himself, as if by sheer strength of will he might keep Vigilem with him.
They can’t - please, not you. Vigilem, please!
But slowly, surely, Vigilem was slipping away from him. Maximo could feel him going dark, piece by piece, and he wanted to wail from the unfairness of it all. He was here, he was so close, and he could do nothing but run his claws down the walls as he screamed for Vigilem to stay, please, please stay.
Don’t leave me, he begged as the link grew colder, you promised me, Vigilem.
It was no use. No amount of begging could divert reality. As each connection was severed, Vigilem’s higher thought shut down with it. Even the most primal of instincts were destroyed ruthlessly, leaving him inert, useless, cold. Nothing but metal.
I order you, Vigilem! Maximo shrieked as he battered at the dying link. He summoned his power but it was no use. Unseen in the dark, he wept as the tips of his claws were ground down to nothing against the unforgiving walls. I command you as your Prime! Vigilem, you will stay with me!
The link went dark. It was a gaping wound inside Maximo’s helm, bleeding, ugly, unresponsive. He tore at it, tore at his own helm, but it was no use as the silence echoed. For million of years, Vigilem had been a constant presence, even before they fell in love. He had grown so accustomed to him being there that with him gone, it was as if a piece of himself was gone too.
No! I need him! VIGILEM!
He screamed as he struck the walls one more time, but there was no one to hear. His throat grew ragged as he cursed and shouted, demanded and pleaded to be allowed even a piece of Vigilem. “Stop! Enough, please! I’ll surrender, just stop !”
Not even an echo remained. Not even a wisp. Vigilem was gone, all gone.
Liege Maximo could not collapse inside his prison, as curled as he was. But he could come closer as he shook, knees pressed to his chest, and touched the cold, unfeeling walls. “I’ll surrender,” he repeated, “just give him back. I love him. Please. Please .”
But there was only silence left for him.
Liege’s pleas did not fall on deaf audials, but neither the present Primes or titans would give in to his desperate requests. They were not unfeeling monstrosities, each suffering through pity or sympathy, but they had all come to the consensus that Liege Maximo and Vigilem were a dangerous combination. And although their relationship seemed genuine and sparkfelt, they could not be allowed to slip away into exile to plot their vengeance. At least, not together. Liege Maximo was a smart Prime and a brilliant tactician, but the hurdle of his prison would be beyond even his skills.
Even if he managed to find the prison’s flaws, he could not use his power to destroy it, for he would also destroy his greatest asset and servant.
Prima determined that this trap was the only thing that could keep Cybertron safe from Liege’s cunning. His mercy had allowed Vigilem to not be killed and serve instead, as prison and protection to the lord he loved so much that he’d defied his function and brothers for him.
It was with a laden silence that Cybertron watched the departure of the ship, piloted by its wardens and burdened with its prisoner. This world would not see their return in millennia.
-x-