Nacelle hesitates in front of Thundercracker's door while contemplating his course of action.
Where to start?
Making a decision, he knock on the door.
There is some shuffling and then it is opened, Thundercracker clearly surprised to see him.
"Nacelle?" Thundercracker asks confused, wondering if he has forgotten an appointment.
"May I come in?" Nacelle asks, his wings twitching and showing his discomfort.
When he is let in, he sits down at the small table in the main room with his back strategically facing the camera he knows is there. It won't do to have what he is going to say on footage in case someone is able to decipher his lips.
Thundercracker hesitates at the door, bewildered by the green and white seeker's behavior. In the time he has known the other seeker, Nacelle has never shown this many feelings outward.
"You look tired." He comments, his worry evident in his voice, "Have you refueled? Can I offer you a cube?"
"No!" The voice has an edge of desperation to it and his wrist is grabbed harshly before he can move to follow up on his offer to pour a cube of energon.
Looking from the grip on his wrist and to Nacelle, Thundercracker slowly sits down in the chair beside the green and white seeker when his wrist is released.
"You are scaring me." He whispers, "What's going on, Nacelle? You are acting so strange."
The psychiatrist sighs.
"I haven't been completely honest with you, Thundercracker. Something has happened, and I find myself forced to come clean to you." He explains, "I am a psychiatrist. I am a specialist in seekers and how to treat them after traumatic experiences, but I am also something else."
Thundercracker remains silent, listening curiously while a multitude of emotions flicker through his field.
"I'm an affiliate of the Joint Investigation Unit and have been sent here to mainly assist in the treatment of you and Skywarp, but also to protect me from danger." Nacelle confesses and waits silently for the blue seeker's reaction to the unveiled information.
"What danger?"
Time for the hard truth.
"Megatron has kept it secret, but during the last few months there have been several attacks against facilities like D-14. Some of them rather devastating." He answers, pausing to gauge the blue seeker's reaction before he continues, "The Joint Investigation Unit managed to capture a terrorist alive at the most recent attack, and interrogating him, they have learnt that the syndicate they believe runs the slave market has infiltrated some of the rehabilitation facilities."
"They're here, aren't they?" Thundercracker whispers, voice stricken with fear, and his whole frame begins to tremble with distress.
"It appears so." Nacelle confesses grudgingly.
"What did they do?" The blue seeker asks, voice trembling, "You said something had happened."
"There has been an attempt to take Skywarp's life." He explains softly and drags Thundercracker into an comforting embrace to hopefully stifle some of the reaction the information is going to cause in the blue seeker.
There is nothing else he can do while they wait for an update on Skywarp's condition.
-Skywarp stabilized. Induced coma. ICU 2.-
The short message pings three hours later.
Thundercracker is recharging restlessly on his berth while Nacelle is sitting in a chair beside it, one of his hands holding the blue seeker's in comfort.
Relief fills his spark at the message, but he can't rest before he has found the one responsible for Skywarp's state.
-We'll be there shortly.- He responds and turns his attention to the recharging seeker.
"Thundercracker."
Releasing the blue seeker's hand, he caresses soothingly along the nearest arm and repeats the motion until Thundercracker begins to stir from recharge.
"He is stable."
Thundercracker onlines his optics slowly at the words. It takes a moment for his processor to understand what Nacelle is saying, but when it does, he rises abruptly.
"I need to see him."
His voice is firm and demanding no argument from the psychiatrist.
"I know." Nacelle answers and helps Thundercracker to rise from the berth.
Thundercracker is swaying a bit, his systems low on energon, but he doesn't dare take the risk filling a cube from his own supply system.
Someone wants Skywarp dead.
What about himself?
The syndicate is cruel in its indifference towards the life of those caught in their grasp. And to feel their invisible grip tighten around his spark, even when in safety far away from the perpetrators, is deeply unsettling.
Is he ever going to be free?
Suffocating hopelessness invades his whole being.
"Listen to me, Thundercracker."
A gentle digit below his jaw forces him to lift his gaze to meet Nacelle's optics.
"I need you to be brave for your own and Skywarp's sake. You have improved so much. Don't allow them to ruin it by letting their despicable actions break you. You are not what they want you to be. You are strong and confident and no one has power over you. Fight their influence." The psychiatrist states fiercely while caressing gently along a trembling blue wings.
"I just..."
"They will always be there, waiting in the shadows."
"I'm never going to be free."
"It is what they want you to believe." Nacelle answers, his voice firm and unwavering with anger, "It is how you give them control over you. They are not everywhere. They are not all-powerful. They are cybertronians, just like you and me. And we will defeat them."
"Come." Nacelle adds and leads Thundercracker towards the door, "They are waiting for us in the medical bay."