Athena sits in silence, trying to make sense of everything Nacelle has told her.
Torment came to save her.
Torment stayed by her side.
But, then, why isn't he here now?
Her spark aches, longing for him, and when she can take it no longer, she opens the door and sneaks a peek at her immediate surroundings, unsure of what to expect from a criminal organization's medical bay.
What she sees is definitely not it and she dares to open the door a bit more to glean more of her surroundings, studying the medical bay curiously. Medical personnel of varying sorts walks calmly from section to section, talking among each other in low, hushed voices while a few visitors enter during her observation time.
The visitors look nothing like the medical personnel, carrying visible weapons, and she isn't quite sure what she feels about it.
Worried?
Yes!
Scared?
Not quite...
Not with the knowledge she now has. But if she hadn't had it, she definitely would have felt fear seeing the weapons displayed this openly.
Torment had not shown off his weaponry like that when they first met or at any meetings afterward, but she still knew they were there. Instead self-confidence and lethality had radiated off of him in abundance, making it unnecessary for him to brandish any weapon to achieve a sufficiently threatening aura.
She muses that it is possible being around Torment has made her somewhat immune to their threatening aura and why she can now look at the weapons and their owners from a more clinical standpoint without any fear.
It also helps to know that these people in some way have contributed to her rescue, and she is deeply grateful for their intervention, knowing that she wouldn't have survived without their help.
She waits patiently for a moment when no one is coming in or is in view and then slips out of the recovery room and out of the medical bay to hunt for Torment.
Outside the medical bay, she is met with seemingly endless corridors on both sides and simple numerical directions on the wall across the door into the medical bay.
Where to now?
The numerical directions make no sense to her. Arrows point to what she reads as corridors G-45, H-51 and P-67 to her right and T-93, R-21 and N-54 to her left.
Taking a chance, she goes right and finds herself at an intersection that splits up into the mentioned corridors. And it only gets more confusing with new directions splitting into new corridors. Turning around, she moves back to her starting point and goes left but is again met with an intersection and more new directions leading to who knows where.
But there is one significant difference.
This intersection has activity, whereas the other had been empty of people.
Feeling insecure in the unfamiliar surroundings and not wanting to gather attention, she takes the currently empty corridor to her right and follows it until it splits into two corridors. Seeing activity in the one to her right, she turns left and left again, followed by a right and one straight ahead. Soon she has lost herself completely in the intricate maze of corridors, and panic settles in.
Her spark feels like bursting with how fast it is pulsing from panic and she runs blindly down corridor after corridor, trying to find any familiar identifier on the walls, but there are none.
Turning a corner, she stops when she sees what must be a guard guarding a door and is in the motion of turning about to go in another direction when his hand grips her shoulder and stops her. She freezes on the spot, uncertain of how to handle the situation, fear flooding her mind.
"You look lost. Can I help you?"
Her mind halts at his concerned words and she slowly turns around, meeting his optics hesitantly.
His offer of help seems genuine, and, to be honest, what does she have to lose at this point?
She is already as lost as she can be, without any hope of returning to the medical bay, less so finding Torment on her own.
"I need to see Torment. Can you take me to him?"
The guard shakes his head and walks back to the door he had left when he stopped her from fleeing. Then he looks at her again.
"I am not allowed to leave my post, but I can get him to come here."
Athena deflates at his refusal, but hope blooms anew in her spark at his offer.
"Please do so. I really need to see him." She stresses insistently.
He nods and pushes his hand to an area behind his audial.
::Sentinel 92 here. I am sorry to disturb you, sir, but I have someone here requesting to see you. Do you have time to come by?::
Athena looks at the sentinel in surprise at his formal wording.
What in Primus's name is going on?
::Yes, sir.::
::Corridor F-65, sir.::
::Yes, sir. We will await your arrival.::
The sentinel's hand lowers and he looks at her.
"He will be by shortly." He says and then resumes his guard duty in silence.
Athena looks at him for a while, unsure what to make of it all, but then decides that she will find out once Torment arrives.
"Thank you." She says to the sentinel, grateful for his help, but his only answer is a brief glance. Nothing else on him moves.
Heavy footsteps sound in the distance and come closer and closer, and she turns towards the direction they come from. Moments later, she sees Tormenttake the corner at the intersection and enter the corridor she is in. He doesn't look anything like he used to, and if it wasn't for his optics and the way he holds himself, which screams Torment, she wouldn't have recognized him.
"Torment?"
Her optics follow the outline of his upgraded frame, paying close attention to every change done to him since she last saw him. It is overwhelming to take in, but she finds comfort in the small things that haven't changed.
His expressive, cold, sharp optics.
The mirror of his spark.
Which, as she looks into them, becomes less confident.
She steps towards him with a frown at the sight of it, and Torment responds with a hesitant step back.
What on Cybertron is going on?
"What are you doing outside the medical bay?"
She offlines her optics at the sound of his voice, savoring it.
How she has missed the sound of it.
Another thing she is grateful for hasn't changed.
However, what is new is its accusatory inflection and defensiveness, which makes her frown even more.
What is going on with him?
"How else was I going to see you since you weren't by my side when I woke up but had been during my coma. I don't know what is going on, Torment, but I'm getting the distinct feeling you are avoiding me." She states pointedly, her optics narrowing slightly.
He flinches at her accusation and seems to shrink into himself and become smaller. An incredible feat, his new impressive size taken into consideration.
"I wanted to give you time to recover and not burden you with my presence." Torment says, voice small and insecure and a far cry from how it used to be.
Athena glances over her shoulder at the silent sentinel by the door, realizing that this conversation isn't meant for public space but needs to be had in privacy away from prying audials.
"Do you have somewhere we can talk undisturbed and in privacy?" She asks as she looks back at Torment, her spark aching at seeing him as insecure as he is right now.
Torment gestures towards the corridor he had come from and Athena follows him in silence, wondering how he is able to orientate and find the way in the complex maze of corridors. They pass not a few sentinels on their way, and while Torment ignores them as if they don't exist, Athena acknowledges them with a respectful nod as she passes, gaining not a few wide-opticed confused, perplexed or surprised looks from them.
They stop at a nondescript door and Torment unlocks it and holds it open for her to enter. She steps into what turns out to be private quarters and stares at what constitutes a home for Torment, walking over to curiously study one of the many curios adorning the walls. Glancing around at it all, she smiles at how it all radiates Torment.
This is where he lives.
Where he thrives.
And it all feels so right.
Her spark is thrumming with contentment as she soaks it all in. It might be sparse, but it has a pulse, and the curios have clearly been chosen with utmost care as they adorn the walls in carefully organized chaos.
Honestly, she had never thought of how or where he lived before now.
There is a closed door to her right, and she steps towards it but stops before opening it.
This is Torment's home, not something to explore for her own amusement.
"Go on."
She looks at him, looking into his optics, but they are unreadable and back to how they used to be, as if the slip-up in the corridor never had happened.
Turning back to the door, she pulls it open and reveals a sparsely furnished berth room. Once again all kinds of curios fill the wall as decoration. However, the vibe here is more relaxed, fitting for a place he finds rest.
She senses movement behind her and almost expects him to embrace her from behind, but nothing happens and she feels a loss in her spark. To be honest, she shouldn't expect otherwise from him. She was the one to break them apart and has no right to expect everything to be normal as if it never had happened. No matter how much she regrets her reckless reaction back then now.
But she has to believe that him staying by her side during her coma means something.
Because if not, then why did he do it?
She steps into the berth room and looks around while she thinks hard, trying to find a way to fix their fractured relationship, hoping she is right in her deduction. In a spur-of-the-moment, she sits down on the berth and leans back on her hands, noticing Torment is leaning against the wall by the door, his optics downcast and focused everywhere but on her. And that won't do.
It pains her almost physically to see what she has done to him.
That uncertainty is not him and she needs to fix it between them.
Torment leans against the wall by the door into his private quarters and silently observes Athena as she studies her surroundings, unable to believe she is here.
When he received the communication from the sentinel, he had been buried in work and confused at the request. But his confusion had not lasted long. Because by elimination, only one person could have gotten the sentinel to contact him and request to see him. After all, Nacelle, Thundercracker and Skywarp have Shade as their liaison and everyone else within the stronghold would have gone to him directly if they needed him.
Athena moves towards the door to his berth room but then stops, hesitating.
"Go on."
She looks back at him, and the look in her optics fills his spark with a yearning for what they had.
He doesn't know what kind of relationship they had before she broke up with him, because he never talked about his feelings for her or asked her about her feelings. Now it fills him with all kinds of questions.
Was he simply a lover to her or something more?
What were her thoughts of him before it all went wrong between them?
Could she see a life with him?
He follows her into his berth room and senses her heat with how close he is to her, but he quells the temptation to reach out and pull her into an embrace. Instead he leans against the wall by the door, his arms crossed over his chest to keep him from doing something unwise, like touching her, and looks down at the floor. With a sigh, he offlines his optics as his troubled thoughts seize all his attention.
He had wanted to do it right when he confessed his initial collaboration with Torrent to her.
It would only be the start of a new and more serious direction in their relationship where he would have opened up and confessed his deep feelings for her. Would eventually have gotten to talk about how right it feels to be with her and how calm and relaxed she makes him feel. That she is his one if she wants him for life.
He never thought he would fall in love like this and even less imagined considering bonding. But it just feels right. He knows there is a considerable risk in doing it, but the realization that he can't live without her pulses strongly in his spark.
But all of that is gone now. Have become wistful thinking while his feelings for her remain unchanged.
"Come sit with me."
He onlines his optics and looks up, unsure if he has heard her right.
Why would she-
But Athena is patting the spot beside her in a way that cannot be misunderstood.
Indecision is warring within Torment, but finally, he pushes away from the wall and walks over to sit down beside her, his posture stiff. None of them say anything and the minutes tick by in silence until Athena slowly leans into his side, her head hesitantly finding rest against his upper arm. His arm loops around her waist on pure instinct and he secures her firmly against his side and could cry when feeling her against him for the first time in what feels like forever.
A faint sigh escapes Athena as she relaxes against him, and once again, they sit in silence, Torment's processor working on overdrive to understand what is going on.
"I'm sorry for not listening," Athena says, being the first to break their silence, and Torment feels her head move to look up at him.
He looks down at her, meeting her gaze and seeing apology clear in her optics.
"I forgive you."
The words come easy and seem to unravel the tension between them. As they stare at each other, Torment takes a risk and hesitantly lowers his lips to Athena's, giving her apt time to pull away. But she doesn't. Instead she meets him halfway and their lips meet in a kiss that becomes increasingly desperate as it continues.
He cups Athena's head affectionately with his hands as he deepens the kiss and fills it with all his built-up feelings of longing, worry, and fear. And Athena likewise opens up to him, welcoming him into her mouth while happy tears fall from her optics, the kiss mending some of her emotional wounds after Torrent's brutal physical and psychological torture.
When they finally pull apart, they stare silently at each other again, but everything has changed.
Emotional wounds have healed or begun to heal, and they feel stronger in each other's presence.
Athena leans out of Torment's embrace and smiles at seeing him be more like his usual self after their kiss. As if he had needed her to confirm her continued feelings for him.
"I would really like to understand how all this is connected. I heard the sentinel address you with 'sir' and have no idea what is and has happened except for what little Nacelle has told me." She states, studying his changing facial features as he thinks about her request.
Then he nods and releases her from his embrace before sitting back more comfortably on the berth.
"It is a long story, but I guess I should start with why I hate enforcers and how it led to who I am today and my position in the Polyhexian Cartel."
He starts with the tragic loss of his creators and his following meeting with Talon, where he accused the Polyhexian leader of killing them because he refused an offer to join him. Then he moves to how Talon took him under his wing, supported him in his grief, and gave him a purpose in life. He only briefly goes over his growing spark-deep hatred towards the society that took the life of his creators but takes the time to explain how he got into contact with Torrent, why he did as he did, and the thoughts behind his actions.
Athena listens in silence, pain and tears filling her optics when she realizes what has shaped her loved one to become the one he is.
If only she had taken time to listen back then when Torment first tried to open up to her, so much pain could possibly have been avoided.
"After you broke up with me, I returned to the hospital and got a friend to send a message to Talon, telling him I was ready to return to the Polyhexian Cartel. I had nowhere else that meant anything to me at that point, not after losing you. Talon responded with a meeting time, and I arranged a meeting with Prowl close to that time frame, facilitating a meeting between them, knowing that I needed them on the same side to be able to take down Torrent. When Talon showed up, he threw a bomb at me, announcing me as his chosen heir. To be honest, after the death of my creators so early in life, I had come to view him as a creator-figure and still do."
Torment studies Athena carefully as he throws the bomb of being heir to a criminal organization, knowing that this information has the possibility of breaking them apart again if she can't handle or accept it.
Athena knows it should scare her to know what Torment has become since she last saw him. But she already knew what he was when she fell in love with him, has long since accepted him as who he is, and now, learning he is the heir to a criminal organization, she can do nothing but embrace it all. Because her spark is set in stone when it comes to him.
She scoots closer to him and reaches her hand up to caress his cheek in affection.
"I love you with all of my spark, Torment. No matter who or what you are." She says, smiling softly at him, seeing the nervousness in his optics. "Do not be afraid to be yourself around me. Nothing you can do or say can scare me away anymore. I am in for the long run, whatever it entails."
Her words seem to break him, contrary to what she had wanted, and she accepts his emotional tears without a comment, waiting patiently until he has gathered himself and regained control over his feelings. It fills her with warmth to see him able to show emotions in her presence, no matter how unwanted they had been. It indicates a great deal of trust from his side, and she will do everything to be worthy of it. Because with Torment as who he is, their life together will be different than she had envisioned, and she is the one that will have to adapt to his needs in the new world she is going to be a part of.
When he is somewhat back to himself, Torment pulls her against him.
"I love you too, Athena. With all of my spark."
They remain like this, Athena in his lap and held in a close embrace, until she succumbs to fatigue and slips into recharge. Torment watches her for a while as she recharges against him before he rearranges them and falls into recharge alongside her, his arm wrapped protectively around her like he had done the first time he visited her in her home.
An hour later, he gets a communication from Flux, who asks about the whereabouts of a particular missing patient. And with a smile down at Athena, Torment informs Flux that his patient is in safe hands and will return to the medical bay when she is rested.