[CLOSED]

[vectorianpolarity]

WHO: Vector Prime & Drift
WHERE: Negotiable
WHEN HOW ABOUT RIGHT NOW
WHAT: Vector needs to speak with Drift about the whole death business...
WARNINGS: Grim tidings.

---

Once Solus had allowed him a reprieve from the medbay, Vector had a long list of things that needed attention as soon as possible. One of them...may had been put off for a time, but even for one whose purview was time itself, things could only be stalled for so long. Eventually, all things had to be addressed.

Including the unpleasant ones.

Locating Drift was easy enough, and he waited until the mech had some time to himself before approaching. A spacebridge opened some distance away - though easily within view - and the golden mech stepped through, sighting the smaller warrior quickly enough.

"Drift."

Comments

[sword_redemption]

"His logic. Megatronus's logic. You could see why we felt we had to take this up ourselves. Because killing is one thing." He shrugs. "But torture. Slow, deliberate infliction of pain for no other reason than enjoyment?"

He watches stony faced. If he is supposed to feel anything like remorse or regret for killing Prism, it's failing. He'd do it again.

"Prism condemned himself to it. And you can 'fix' death, sometimes here. But I'm betting even you can't undo what Prism did to Vandal. You can't heal her scars or give her back her optic, much less the other things he did to her. Even with all your power, you can't do that." They could talk all they wanted about their best and their power, but what good was it, really when it couldn't undo that?

[vectorianpolarity]

Then it's a good thing that's not what Vector's after.

"I understand why you did it," he concedes. "I need you to understand why we make to stop it. Death is one thing, Drift, but severing someone completely from the existence? This is what you would condemn your enemies to, with no chance of atonement, or even reparation?"

As for the other question...

"If...I had learned about it, only some hours after it had begun. Yes, I could change it, and she would remember what she experienced only as a bad dream. By the time I knew..."

His wings...fall back, a bit.

"Omniscience is not one of my abilities."

[sword_redemption]

"He made his choice." He sounds harsh enough, but there's a bit of uncertainty in his voice. Because he couldn't deny the possibility of redemption. It should be offered. Shouldn't it? Even to those who don't intend to take it?

"So? You're trying to say this is our fault for not letting you know."

[vectorianpolarity]

A shake of his head. "The only fault it is is Prism's. He did make his choice, and he paid for it in the greatest way he possibly could. But in doing so, you took from him any chance he had left to make something good with his life. And perhaps he would have thrown it away - I wouldn't have been surprised - but you've taken so much more than a simple life, whether you knew it or not.

That is what I brought you here for. Why I have shown you all of this." The Prime gazes down at Drift, "You ask so many questions, you get so angry about not being told things - I felt that for this, you should know the full weight of what you've done, and what is done any time a Refugee is slain."

[sword_redemption]

"I know." Or he does, now. But he can't undo that, and honestly, in the circumstances, after having seen Vandal, he probably wouldn't want to. He's not perfect and there's probably still more Decepticon in him than he'd want to admit.

He turns to face him, looking up. "So. Now what." Because there clearly has to be more than this. He's pretty sure a 'little chat' wouldn't satisfy Megatronus.

[vectorianpolarity]

"Now we go back. I've shown you what I wanted to show you, and I trust you not to do it again."

This isn't a matter of assuming trust, of an arrogant belief - this is Vector meeting Drift's optics with utter seriousness. This is him needing to trust.

"I trust you to keep what you've learned here in confidence, save the understanding that death is not an easy force to counter. And to understand, Drift, that if you do kill another Marked, if you do force me to discipline you...

...it won't matter how much I agree or disagree with how necessary it was for your target to be stopped. I give you knowledge this time, but next time, I will give you an eternity."

offers a tag that sucks marginally less?

[sword_redemption]

"You trust." Drift shakes his head. "I understand. I do. But what I don't understand is what we're supposed to do the next time something happens, when someone is killing one of ours.

Maybe one of those you can't get back, either." Because Vector had said that it didn't always happen, they couldn't always bring them back. "Do you expect us to just stand for it, let ourselves be killed and hope you will save us?"

He sounds more challenging than he intends, because he's thinking all too clearly of Tarn, whose threat was sure and not subtle.

the other one didn't suck i just needed a little bit of clarification hun ono

[vectorianpolarity]

A heavy exvent. Frustrated? Only a little. More...

It's clearly not a favorite subject.

"Stop them. If that involves removing all their limbs, disabling all their functions but their very life, then you have my blessing." Vector's optics narrow, lips pressing together for a moment in a thin, unhappy line. "Do something, Drift, if they come after you with the intent to kill then defend yourself - but do not be the one to decide, 'I will chase them, I will hunt them, I will end them'!"

His voice has risen in volume to a near shout, and he just now seems to realize this - along with the fact that he's drawn himself up as if ready to strike. He blinks once before settling, slowly, perhaps just a little...rueful.

well i like this other one better even so.

[sword_redemption]

Vector was the one who had marked Drift, claimed him. This was just the consequence. Warriors challenge authority. "So you can end them, permanently, forever, eradicate them, but we can't."

Part of it's a question, but part of it's making sure he understands. He wants to have faith--if not Wing's absolute and starry-eyed piety, he wants a reason to trust, something for the future he can take up, if he's being told he has to lay down his own ability to survive.

well then~

[vectorianpolarity]

The - accusation - has Vector recoiling, surprise-borderline-anger flaring in his optics. "We can-have you heard nothing I have said to you?" he demands, not bothering to reign in his outrage. "After all we have done to secure your lives, we do our best to save you from nonexistence in a dimension far from your own - what would make you think we should want such a thing!?"

The idea of deliberately condemning someone to such...it's abhorrent, pure and simply.

Vector is going to buy duct tape for Drift's mouth I think

[sword_redemption]

"Sometimes, life demands things we don't want." All right. A lot of the time.

"I'm just trying to understand." And failing, it seems. He holds up his glyphed arm. "You claimed us, you all did, one or the other. Why? Why choose us, knowing some of us were evil? And then not do anything to help them? Or anyone?"

shhh spoilers

[vectorianpolarity]

Proof that so little knowledge is dangerous...

Vector...sighs, heavily, rubbing his face. "We do not put the Mark on you. We can only affect it, once it has been set in place by Primus. What reasons He has for choosing who he does...have not been shared. And the fact is, Drift, even though our power is great, even I can simply run out of time to give to you."

He lowers his hand, collecting it slowly in to a fist. "We are fighting a war for this planet. It is a subtle war, but it is a battle that we cannot afford to lose. Every moment we give to direct management is one taken away from cleansing our home."

Drift tells no one

[sword_redemption]

"So you didn't even choose us yourselves?" Well, that seemed...sort of a let down. It would have been nice to feel chosen. Or at least, well, liked by Vector Prime.

"Then tell us. Tell us how to help fight your war. We can help, if we share a common goal." Right? Isn't that how that works? Till all are one?

[vectorianpolarity]

"We choose to keep you."

If it's in response to the unspoken disappointment, or supposed to mean something more-

There's a long pause.

And after it, Vector Prime gets back to his feet.

"Come."

[sword_redemption]

It's something, and it should be enough. It has to be enough, because at least this gave him a chance. And for once, though he's boiling with questions, he's realizing he's edging onto Not His Business questions.

Especially in the circumstances.

"...I'm sorry. For this." Vector chose him, and now he's had to deal with this. And even though Drift would kill Prism again, for what he'd done, the consequences should end with him.

He moves to follow.

[vectorianpolarity]

There's no response. Not immediately, at least, and not unless you count another step through a spacebridge, and the return to...

Normalcy?

They aren't exactly where they were before - on the outskirts of Vector's quadrant, where the terrain becomes far more primal than proven - but they've returned to the now, if the lack of unreality is any sign.

[sword_redemption]

Well, probably no less than he deserved. Drift follows, trying to track the moment when things--time, space, reality, whatever--shifts. And he can't figure out when, but he knows when he's back.

But he has the feeling, looking around, that this isn't quite over.

[vectorianpolarity]

Not quite.

Vector raises his sword, pointing far off in to the distance.

"All of it," he says, picking up the conversation, "comes down to the Badlands, and the power that has seeded them." He raises the blade up, pointing to the white scar across the sky. "To fight the war - we must purge both. To purge them, we must destroy the power that fuels them - but the Badlands have defenses of their own, ones that are capable of repelling even myself and my kin. And that is where you come in."

He lowers his sword, looking down at Drift as the tip comes to rest on the ground.

"Your mere presence here assists us. Primus has Marked you and granted a connection between us so that you may do so, but for those who would not risk the danger of direct confrontation...the Haven is here, and our protection bestowed upon it, so that you may find a place to defend. But those who would go out and do more..."

A tilt of the head.

"It is dangerous, Drift. Greatly so. We would welcome the help, but you know now the fate of those who would fall."

[sword_redemption]

He watches in silence, optics lingering on the Lambda, a glowing scar in the perpetual twilight.

It's either a sign that Vector doesn't know Drift very well or that he knows the swordsmech all too well: you don't suggest to Drift that there's something dangerous and then hint he might not do it.

"I'm not afraid of danger. Or dying, if it helps protect others."

[vectorianpolarity]

"And of ceasing to exist?"

That is the question. Vector regards Drift solemnly, expectant for an answer, whatever it is.

[sword_redemption]

"Not if it helps. Not if it saves someone else, or brings some good into the world." He swallows around a knot of emotion. "I have a lot to make up for. And all I've ever wanted was to make the world better." His world, any world. It didn't matter.

[vectorianpolarity]

"Very well, then."

Is that a smile? It's hard to tell. He certainly seems solemn enough, but there's a trace of...satisfaction.

"I look forwards to your mark upon this one."

[sword_redemption]

"I know others who wouldn't be so optimistic." He's all too aware of his power to destroy. "But I'll do my best."

[vectorianpolarity]

A soft shrug.

"I do as well. There are those who hold great doubt, citing the source of your presence as well as the effects you have already created, but...for all of it, I find myself far more interested in seeing what you can do. For good or ill..."

Vector gives Drift a meaningful glance.

"...only time will tell."

[sword_redemption]

Is that some sort of time pun/joke thingie there? Drift shoots Vector a weird look.

"It seems we're even. Some of you don't want us here; some of us don't want to be here. But we're all stuck with it, and who knows? Maybe that's how destiny wants it."