Comfort

Fortress Maximus stared at the titan's brain module. He felt connected to it now, thanks to Cerebros. The bond was artificial, sure, but he had controlled the titan's body! He was a part of the titan for a moment, and that was enough to make him feel close to him; to make it comforting to be near him.

That was all he needed right now. He was tired, though he couldn't sleep. After Prowl arrived, he began to think about Overlord more. The phaser sixer was making appearances in his processor with every offline of his optics.

To add to his exhaustion, maneuvering the titan had drained him physically and mentally. In his weak state, it helped to be near the giant's center.

He couldn't make out anything more than a few words from the titan's brain, words like Luna-1, and Sentinel, and surprisingly, his name, in a little blue box that was projected from the brain.

Fortress Maximus = Max-core.

Fort Max had enough common sense to understand that one. He was, temporarily, the titan's core, his only way to move. He reached out and touched the projections, the titan's thoughts, and saw his fingers pass right through.

"What's your designation?" He asks the titan. The titan didn't have time to speak before Max had been connected his nervous systems, and Cerebros didn't want to disconnect Max before the titan was safely on the ground. Perhaps another time.

In a gigantic, purple box that flared across the sphere: Metrofort.

Max laughed, shortly. "Huh. Well isn't that fitting. Red told me you look like me."

Some of Metrofort's thoughts shifted and it looked as if he was downloading something from his database. Then, he pulled up picture.

Primus, Red Alert was right. Metrofort looked exactly like him, save for the different paint job and size differences.

"I guess we were supposed to be connected," Max smiled.

"At least you have your gestalt with you." A voice said from behind him.

Fortress Maximus whipped himself around, grabbing his gun and aiming it straight for the source.

But it was just Prowl.

"What are you doing here?" Fort Max asked. He was relieved. He wasn't looking to fight right now, he was tired and working with Metrofort had really drained him. "I thought you went to Earth."

"I did," Prowl says, walking into the room. "And I came back. It's peaceful here."

"Yeah, it is," Fortress Maximus says. He still feels resentment towards Prowl, for Garrus 9, for Overlord. "I came here to get away from people like you."

Fortress Maximus barely sees it, but Prowl winces. Max cringes. Why had he said that? Rung wouldn't have approved. It was plain rude, because even though he felt upset at Prowl, he still liked his company.

Prowl's chevron twitched. He spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry, Maximus."

He began to leave.

"I—wait. I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

Prowl stopped, then turned back to face Max. He'd actually apologized for being rude to Prowl...? Did he mean it? Prowl supposed it didn't matter. Some people (some people being Optimus) would rather leave him barely alive than resolve things with him.

He slowly re-entered the room, shut the door behind him, and stood beside Max. He watched the titan's thought just as Max did, but the only thing that made sense to him was the numbers. At least, that was the only thing he saw.

"Did you say you had a gestalt?" Fort Max turns his helm to look at Prowl. He'd just thought about what Prowl said—"At least you have your gestalt with you."—and realized the implications.

"I do, yes," Prowl says, sighing. "A combiner gestalt."

"How did that occur?"

"The Decepticons—they got inside my head. Chromedome—surely you know him?—injected me a while back and let them right in."

"Chromedome did that?!" Fortress Maximus asked. "I wouldn't have thought—"

"You don't know him like I do," Prowl sneers. Nobody knows anything about what happened between them. About how much Prowl cared for him, how Chromedome hated his circuits by the end of it because he saw what Prowl really was: a monster.

"Who did you combine with?"

"The Constructicons." Prowl says. "They aren't as bad as you think. Maybe I just like them because they don't treat me like slag, or beat me into pieces for doing what I had to do—regardless, I'm bonded to them."

"I never would've guessed," Fort Max chuckled softly.

Prowl smiled, a fleeting expression, and shook his helm. "Neither would I."

Now Prowl asks Maximus a question. "Your bond with the titan—does it hurt you to be separated?"

"No, it's not that severe," Fort Max looks at the brain module. He assumes Prowl is asking to see if his bond is anything like a combiner one, and in that case, Max guesses Prowl must be pained right now, since he's separated. "It's just comforting to be near him."

"Ah." Right now, Prowl realizes, he feels the same way about being near Fort Max.

They just stand there, after that. Eventually they make their way to the ground, and soon enough Prowl's head falls on to Fort Max's shoulder, his body leaning into the warden.

And Fort Max lets him. Fort Max lets him get close, lets him be comfortable. Prowl! Prowl, who's cold and calculating and left Maximus for the dead.

Prowl hasn't felt this soothed in years, especially after he was forced away from the Constructicons.

Before his systems fall into recharge, he says one thing to Fortress Maximus.

"Thank you."

And Fortress Maximus smiles. He wraps an arm around Prowl, pulling him closer.

He couldn't fully forgive, or forget about G-9. But he realized that Prowl was not as bad as Max had thought.

Not at all.