Thundercracker slowly regains his memories and looks around in confusion.
Where is he?
The last thing he remembers is the utter despair filling Skywarp's spark as their merge is initiated, followed by the overwhelming pleasure when their sparks overload. Their released spark energy unites with Skywarp's transfluid within his gestation chamber, and his gestational protocols activate in response.
Guards had entered and had forced Skywarp out of the room, and he had suffered a violent panic attack at the loss of his lover's presence at the realization, that he would never get to see him again.
Afterwards there is a huge gap in his memory. No matter how much he tries to recall what happened, everything remains blank.
He rises slowly from the couch and caresses reassuringly the tiny bulge in his midsection while studying the large room.
Shelves with datapads fill an entire wall while cabinets with medical equipment fill the rest. There is a surgical table in the center of the room, and he walks closer to look at the strange device, that hangs above it.
Dozens of neatly sorted cords connected to electrodes hang from it, and he notices a high-resolution scanner, which is connected to a large data storage unit. The device itself is fitted with medical tools used to access the patient's frame and internal systems, and he shudders at the sight of the drill glinting sharply in the bright light of the room.
What is this place?
He walks over to the wall with the datapads and pulls one out.
A golden circle and the number 294 is engraved on the back of it, and he activates it.
Millions of lines of data fill the screen and a dialogue box pops up, asking him if he wants to view the content.
He touches the 'confirm' button, and the screen changes into a strange vid-file.
It's like watching a holovid, but code scrolls down the screen while confusing episodes are played in disorganized order.
"You were always too curious."
He startles at the sudden voice and almost loses his grip on the datapad, when he in panic rapidly turns around.
Retrograde stares up at him with an unreadable expression. She is only half of his height, but still manages to dominate him completely with her aura of authority, and he slowly turns towards the shelves to put the datapad back in place.
"Sorry." He whispers and lowers his wings submissively.
"If you are so interested, then why don't we watch something more relevant?"
She walks up to the shelves and climbs the ladder to search for something.
"Ah, here it is."
The backside of the datapad she gives to him is engraved with his tattoo.
"Come."
He follows her obediently back to the couch and sits down with an growing feeling of unease in his spark.
"I guess, that I will have to leave out the fifth connector." Retrograde reflects to herself while she connects his systems to the datapad through a advanced cable with seven connectors.
One for each of his senses and two he can't recognize the purpose of, he realizes, when all of the links to his systems are established.
"Go on. Activate it." She encourages, when he hesitates.
Thundercracker kneels on the floor with his hands bound behind his back and stares defiantly at the syndicate's nine leaders.
"You won't get away with this! My editor knows where I am. They will come for me!"
Torrent circles him, and his wings twitch nervously in reaction to the sadistic glint he sees in his former lover's optics.
Why in Primus's name could he fall in love with someone as morally deficient as Torrent?
He had been flattered, when the sire gallantly had approached him during a party and had showed deep interest in his work as a journalist. They had talked the whole night about the widespread corruption in the society and how it best could be combated.
Torrent turned out to have a deep insight in the political situation, and they decided to keep in touch.
After two weeks, their relationship became more intimate when Torrent after a long evening of pleasant discussions had seduced him into berth.
It had escalated from there, and he had been so blinded by the sire's charm, that he didn't notice the warnings, before it was too late.
He was in love, and had a hard time accepting that something was wrong with their relationship.
Months went by and the feeling, that something was wrong grew.
He had felt foolish when he began to research his lover, but it soon turned into confusion, when he wasn't able to find anything on Torrent.
The proposition to join the syndicate came not long after, and he had reluctantly agreed to meet with Torrent's connections, to learn more about his mysterious lover.
He should have contacted the authorities the moment he learned about the extent of the crimes the syndicate were committing, but the discovery of the hidden organization would be the biggest story of the century.
"I'm afraid Particle is a bit indisposed." Torrent mocks with a knowing smile.
"I'm ready." Retrograde states as she finishes the calibration of the equipment, and Thundercracker struggles violently when Torrent lifts him.
"You won't get away with it! They will find you!"
He is placed face down on the surgical table and fixed to it with strong straps, that completely immobilize him.
"Erase it all."
"As you wish." Retrograde answers excited and the drill activates with an ominous high-pitched whine.
Thundercracker screams in excruciating pain while the drill slowly pierces the plating, that protects the area where his spinal strut connects with his processor.
"Let's see what this naughty little processor has found out."
The drill stops, but the pain remains, and he jerks violently when something invades his processor through the incision in the back of his head.
"NO! STOP! What are you doing?!"
Thousand of connections get established between the invader and his processor, and his whole processor tingles unpleasantly as data is downloaded directly from his mind.
"STOP! PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS!"
"Keep begging." Torrent whispers lecherously into his audio, "It turns me on seeing you like this."
"Download complete. Now for the fun part."
Thundercracker pulls out the cables and looks away from the datapad as more and more of the data turn into static noise, when Retrograde remorselessly erases who he used to be.
There had been no physical pain, but the other sensations, thoughts and feelings tell him how painful it had been.
"Was it enlightening?"
He doesn't know what to say or do.
To experience his original identity's last moments is something he can't truly fathom, but now he knows why Torrent sent him to Retrograde.
"If it is any consolation, I promise you, that it will be done with anesthetic this time." Retrograde reassures with a friendly smile, "You won't feel anything. And Torrent doesn't want a complete reformatting. He likes you the way you are right now. You will wake up and still be you, but with a few changes."
Skywarp lies on the floor inside the small windowless room and stares catatonic into the wall while his frame suffers from the severe withdrawal symptoms after the combination of drugs, that Torrent had used on him to get him to rape Thundercracker.
The painful memories of his rape of Thundercracker slowly returns to him as clear and vivid flashbacks, and his desire to die grows with each of them.
It would have been so easy for him to rip his spark out and stop the endless torture, if it weren't for the active parental protocols that prevents him from doing just that.
He is a sire now.
He has responsibility.
His sparkling needs him.
The protocols don't care about the merciless fact, that he never will be allowed to see Thundercracker or his sparkling.
Tears fall from his optics and runs down his cheeks while his spark slowly is consumed by grief at the loss.
What has he to live for?
Thundercracker will never forgive him.
His sparkling will never get to know him.
And Torrent is going to coerce him to rape carriers until he is so broken, that he will do it voluntarily to ease some of the pain.
Death would be a mercy.
The door opens, but he remains unmoving.
There is no longer any reason to fight.
He has lost everything.
Thundercracker is gone.
He should have known, that Torrent never would have let them be together.
He feels how Torrent's field gently invades his as the operative leader sits down on the floor beside him.
"See what you made me do." He hears Torrent sigh exasperated. "I told you, that I could spare you for future pain, but you just had to refuse and force my hand."
A hand caresses softly along his trembling wings, and he can't muster the energy to pull them away from the unwanted touch.
"If you had simply accepted it, then none of this would have happened. I would have been lenient and killed you painlessly afterwards."
The honest truth fills him with relief.
There was nothing he could have done.
And there is only one last thing he can do.
"Kill me." He begs.
"No."
Torrent's smile is evident in the utterance of that single word, and his spark fills with even more hopelessness, when his deepest wish is denied.
"You are too valuable now."
There is a tiny sound of something metallic being placed on the floor.
"This is a harmless drug our biochemist has designed to help you get rid of those nagging parental protocols. All of the sires in our breeding program is offered it after they have been separated from the carrier they have sparked."
Torrent rises.
"It is up to you, if you want to use it, but it will prevent you from going insane."
He hears Torrent leave the room and the door close. Turning around, he stares at the syringe containing a clear liquid.
Torrent observes with a growing smile as Skywarp, with shaking hands, takes the syringe and stabs the needle into an energon line.
"Come on. You can do it." He murmurs encouragingly to the screen, that is showing the live-feed from the seeker's cell.
Skywarp hesitates with pushing the plunger and finally pulls the needle out again without injecting the content into himself.
"You owe me 500 shanix." Cloudline remarks with a deep laughter.
"I was so sure he would do it." Torrent growls frustrated, "It looks like I need to work more on destroying his love for 391."
"Why not tell him the truth?" Cloudline suggests, "I wonder how he would react, if he knew that 391 soon won't be able to remember anything about him."
"I like that idea." He says as he turns his attention back to Skywarp on the screen, "It would break him completely and make it easy to shape him to our will. He is already so far out, that he wants me to kill him."