Full Summary:
Thundercracker looks up when the door to his cell gets unlocked, and he rises on unsteady legs. He stumbles towards the door, not even hesitating when a dark figure enters his cell. He doesn't care if they have come for him again, doesn't care that it is too soon; he just wants to find that part of him that is missing. His spark hurts; the bond that should have been there isn't. Where is my sparkling? Darkness begins to blur in the corners of his optics and rapidly claims more and more of his sight. With a last stumbling step, he collapses in the arms of the figure, vaguely noticing the unmistakable enforcer insignia that is emblazoned on the shoulder guard of the figure before the darkness claims him completely, and he enters stasis lock.
Torrent smiles triumphantly down at the barely-conscious seeker in his arms while he and their chief physician walk toward the medical bay.
Thundercracker moans faintly and hides his face against the dark blue chest plates.
"I know it hurts, my dear." Torrent soothes while his field envelopes the blue seeker in a rare expression of compassion.
"I must admit that I had my doubt, but your plan worked, and Riot and his team performed flawlessly," Cloudline remarks, his voice cold and calculated. He stares at Thundercracker with a sadistic smile while the blue seeker comfortably leans against Torrent's chest.
Their operative leader is the last person the blue seeker would want to be with if his sanity had been intact. But in the current situation, Thundercracker clings to the only one that seems to care about him.
It is incredible what a little bit of compassion can make people do when they live in a world of pure pain.
Torment is perched at the top of the building straight across from the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter and looks at his target through the telescopic sight on his sniper rifle.
Click. Click. Click.
He adjusts the sight carefully before he begins to pull the trigger and prepares to shoot but gets disturbed when he receives a heavily encrypted message from the Organization's supreme leader.
He narrows his optics displeased when the brief loss of his concentration causes him to miss out on the perfect chance to kill the Joint Investigation Unit's Director of Intelligence when Prowl and his escort, unaware of the threat, enters the military-grade transport that waits for them on the landing platform on the roof of the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter and which is ready to fly them to Iacon where they have a formal meeting with the Senate's Supreme Council.
So close...
He lowers his weapon and watches darkly as the transport takes off before he reads the content of the message, and his mood darkens further.
Communication forms used in the story:
"..." - Communication between people in the same room.
::...:: - Communication between people not in the same room, or visually over a vid-conference.
-...- - Private text messages.
Italics. - Thoughts. Highlights. Emphasis. Dreams. Past.
Data-file identification number: 7841
Name: 574349 – personal identification code, doesn't remember his actual name.
Frame type: Seeker-type flyer.
Mech type: Male sire.
Age: Unknown.
Estimated time of enslavement: 363 years.
Occupancy during enslavement: Gladiator.
Height: 63 meters.
Weight: 45 tons.
Physical state of health when found: Energy starved. Malnourished. Signs of old and fresh untreated injuries and improper care to sealed wounds. Wings non-functional. The wing structure is weak and many of the old, poorly healed injuries are located around the wing hinges and expanse of the wings' surface, immobilizing them. No apparent pain. Thrusters disabled. Missing outlier component in the midsection.
Physical evaluation: We are dealing with a seeker that shows the classic signs of slave abuse. Most of the damage is obviously from gladiatorial matches and shows the lack of a proper physician to treat the severe injuries. The prognosis is good. He needs to undergo several surgeries to deal with the wing issues, but we are confident that he will recover completely and regain full mobility. His other injuries are less severe and should be easy to treat. However, his malnourishment is a concern that might hinder his recovery, and his treatment will thus also include a strictly monitored fuel supplement to get his weakened plate structure back to full strength. Localization of the missing outlier component is paramount. Maybe it is stored at the site?
Mental state of health when found: Hostile. Aggressive to touch. Doesn't like anyone coming too close. Reacts violently to being cornered. Doesn't like too many people around him. Anesthetic used to lessen stress during transportation to a temporary detention center.
Mental evaluation: We still haven't observed the patient long enough to conduct a precise psychiatric evaluation. Current observations show a seeker with an abnormal aversion to touch. Seekers are, in general, very social and need closeness. They are fast to create bonds of trust with others. This abnormal aversion shows that 574349 during captivity has experienced abuse that has made him develop a deep and almost ingrained distrust towards others. His chance of recovery relies on further observations and his reaction to therapy. If he remains hostile, which isn't rare for traumatized former gladiatorial slaves, we fear that he will have to be stored.
Current physical state of health: 574349 has undergone six scheduled surgeries and one emergency surgery when complications arose after installing the missing outlier component, resulting in a breach of several major fuel lines. His physical recovery is progressing as we had hoped, and he should be able to leave the hospital within the next six to eight weeks.
Current mental state of health: 574349 still shows significant aversion to touch and has major trust issues. The therapy has been unsuccessful since he outright refuses to speak about his experiences during enslavement. He isn't dealing with his problems. The only progress we have seen is that he has become less hostile and aggressive, even though he at times still explodes in fits of anger when he feels pressured. Future treatment plan will be discussed at the next psychiatric conference. Despite lack of progress we no longer recommend storage.
Future rehabilitation plan:
Medical team: When 574349 has recovered physically, we recommend that he gets transferred to one of the rehabilitation facilities, where he will be observed by mentors who have specialized in rehabilitating former slaves and integrating them back into society.
Psychiatric team: There has been some progress in the recent week. We are aware that 574349 recently has been informed about the medical team's decision and the change we currently are seeing is a clear reaction to that. It seems like it has filled 574349 with some hope, and he has explained that he has been afraid of being given up as a lost cause and stored. We fully agree with the medical team in their decision and recommend transferring him to a rehabilitation facility at the end of his medical treatment.
"I have the data-file you requested, Sir."
Prowl looks up from the datapad he had been reading and leans back in the chair with a heavy sigh.
"Thank you, Dropwave. Just put it on the desk." He says gratefully to the young enforcer, who dutifully stands just inside the door to his office.
When the young enforcer has left him, Prowl lets out another sigh before he turns his attention to the new datapad.
Data-file identification number: 6
Name: Thundercracker. Personal identification code - 391.
Frame type: Seeker-type flyer.
Mech type: Male carrier.
Age: 2314 years.
Estimated time of enslavement: 1036 years.
Occupancy during enslavement: Breeder. Pleasure slave. Personal slave.
Number of successful births: 253.
Height: 52 meters.
Weight: 39 ton.
There isn't any further information in the file. But Prowl doesn't need any descriptions because he remembers Thundercracker clearly as if it had just been yesterday they had freed the light blue seeker from enslavement.
It had been by pure chance that they had stumbled across the illegal gladiatorial arena and later found out that it also was a breeding facility. Hundreds of cells along the seemingly unending corridors. Each cell containing either a carrier or sire. Most of the carriers heavily sparked and terrified at the sight of the strangers coming to free them.
Only Thundercracker hadn't been afraid of them. The blue seeker had stood up on shaky legs when his cell had been unlocked and had collapsed into the arms of his rescuer, a black and green enforcer named Freewheel.
Later they found out that they only had been a few hours too late to prevent the light blue seeker's newly born sparkling from getting sold to a buyer by his captors. It had horrified them to realize the circumstances under which the carriers had lived. Being forced to spark and then later have their sparklings taken from them, never seeing their little ones. Thundercracker had been too shell-shocked to fear the enforcers who had come to free them simply because he mourned yet another lost sparkling.
The light blue seeker was one of the first cases of a freed breeding slave and had been the topic of political debates that later resulted in the creation of the Joint Investigation Unit, whose sole purpose is to stop the criminals running the breeding facilities and the illegal gladiatorial arenas.
Prowl sighs again and turns his attention back to the first datapad. Flight-frames, and especially seekers, have always been notoriously harder to rehabilitate. It is a miracle if they haven't been driven insane by the lack of flight or ruined wings. In addition to the lack of flight, the carriers also suffer from the traumatic loss of their creations. Something that would cause even the sanest Cybertronian to go insane over time.
This seeker requires a mentor with the necessary knowledge about seekers to help him back into a healthy mental state and social stability, or he will never recover enough to be allowed back into society.
He encrypts his communication line before he contacts the officer who handles their contact with the rehabilitation facilities.
::This is Prowl, the director of the Joint Investigation Unit. I need to know which rehabilitation facility Thundercracker is working at.::
