Later that day Prowl sits within his office inside the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter and analyzes the incidents of the day.
There is no doubt that the assassin has a close connection to Torrent and it is now obvious why Torrent wanted to get a hold on Skywarp and why they haven't been able to locate the warp-gate.
It fills him with a growing worry, that there now is an unstoppable teleporting assassin somewhere out there who is ready to follow Torrent's orders, and the more he analyzes the situation the more is he convinced, that Torrent is behind the assassinations on the other leaders of the syndicate.
Who else would benefit from their deaths?
But it doesn't explain the attack on Athena.
Topkick decided to hire her after Torrent's arrest, which means that Torrent couldn't have known anything about her recent affiliation with the Joint Investigation Unit.
What were the assassin doing inside Retrograde's laboratory, and why did he chose not to kill Athena?
He must have known that she would provide them with a detailed description of his appearance, if he let her live.
The action seems completely illogical, which means that there has to be more to it than he currently is aware of.
He looks at the identikit of Torment.
It really shouldn't surprise him that out of all of the criminals Torrent could have given the warp-gate technology to, he gave it to one of the most dangerous professional assassins out there.
The authorities have hunted Torment for thousands of years and with vague and often contradicting eyewitness accounts from those who have been lucky to survive their encounter with the clever, cunning and elusive assassin, it has been impossible for them to create a usable identikit of him.
Until now.
He is proud of Athena's immediate reaction when Topkick arrived.
With her knowledge about how psychological traumas has a tendency to alter the victim's perception of what happened and how the perpetrator looked, she immediately gave the SIO a clear and precise description before her processor as a natural reaction to what had happened began to shut down to protect her from the psychological trauma she had suffered.
He doesn't dare think about what could have happened if it had been Nacelle who had faced Torment.
Torment is known to toy with his victims, especially if they work in law enforcement. And despite Nacelle's status as a civilian, the fact that he is bound to the Director of the Joint Investigation Unit makes him into an obvious target for someone like Torment to rape, torture and kill solely to inflict pain upon Prowl. It is as if Torment has a personal vendetta against the authorities and wants to punish everyone that works for them.
Which could be why Athena survived her encounter with him.
Since she is a civilian, he has no interest in hurting her.
A knock on the door draws him out of his deep thoughts and he nods grateful to Aurora when the SIO enters his office with two cubes of energon.
"What a day." Aurora states as he tired sits down in a chair.
He scoots one of the cubes across the desk towards Prowl, where it collides with the datapad that contains the official proposal from the Vice President of the Senate, senator Highline, to dissolve the Joint Investigation Unit.
Now that the syndicate no longer exists, the highly esteemed senator no longer sees a reason to fund them.
The Joint Investigation Unit was created to combat the syndicate, and since they now no longer have a purpose the most logical is to dissolve them.
He would agree with the senator, if it wasn't for the fact that Torrent still is alive and even more dangerous than they first anticipated now that they are aware of his close collaboration with Torment.
In his opinion, the Joint Investigation Unit has the best chance to stop them and he has already given the permission to shoot to kill, if any of their officers encounter Torment.
They simply can't afford to take any chance now that Torment possesses the warp-gate technology and can circumvent any security precaution.
"How is Nacelle?" Aurora asks collegial while he drinks his energon.
"Stressed out." Prowl answers with a sigh and takes a sip of his cube, "He feels responsible for what happened to Thundercracker and worries deeply about Skywarp's psyche and the severe psychological trauma, that Skywarp without a doubt will suffer when he finds out what has happened to Thundercracker."
"I can easily imagine how I would react, if Nacelle suddenly couldn't recognize me." He adds grimly and sends a wave of affection through his bond with Nacelle.
Nacelle responds with his own wave of affection and it eases some of his worries.
"I wonder..." He slowly removes the hand from her mouth, but keeps the other between her legs with a firm stimulating pressure against her valve cover, "...will you willingly let me take you before I kill you, or will you fight me while I claim your valve."
His lips claims hers in a fierce dominant kiss while he easily lifts her frame against his, and she wraps her legs around his waist and clings desperately to him out of fear of losing her balance.
A deep appreciative sound escapes his lips while he kisses her and his hands begins to roam her frame possessively.
"Mine." He growls against her lips.
Tears begin to fall from her optics when he places her on the surgical table, and she slides aside her valve cover but remains otherwise passive as he begins to stimulate her anterior node.
"You're perfect."
She begins to sob in earnest when two digits penetrate her and begins to prepare her valve for his spike.
"So tight."
His digits locates and stimulates her innermost sensors with a flair, that shows, that he has experience with what he is doing, and the fact that he apparently doesn't intend to rape her without a thought about her wellbeing fills her with a sick form of gratitude.
She moans softly as he continues to violate her and feels how her valve begins to lubricate at his unwanted stimulation.
Soon her processor is so clouded by arousal, that she completely gives in to him when his spike finally penetrates her with a swift hard thrust and she moves with him as he takes her.
Athena sits up with a startled gasp when she wakes from recharge and looks confused around. She begins to tremble while tears of relief fall from her optics, when she realizes that it only had been a very vivid nightmare of what could have happened, if she had surrendered to him and willingly had let him take her.
It is a sign that her processor has begun the process to process the psychological trauma she has suffered.
She had seen her inevitable death in his cold merciless optics, when she had met his gaze, and nothing in that instant could have prevented him from taking her life.
So what made him change his mind?
And why didn't she contact Topkick earlier?
Topkick hadn't been far away and the complex had been full of heavily armed JIU officers who in an instant could have stormed Retrograde's laboratory.
So why didn't she alert them to his presence?
She is not the religious type, but there is no doubt that Primus protected her today.
Topkick had pulled her into a strong and reassuring embrace when he had arrived, and she had provided him with a detailed description of the assailant before she lost consciousness due to stress and collapsed in his arms.
She had felt a little bit better when she woke, but still far from her usual stoic self and Topkick had sent her home with protection.
Later she had been informed that Prowl had decided that the Joint Investigation Unit no longer is in need of her expertise. She still has full access to the datapads that they have found in Retrograde's laboratory and can work on finding a solution on them together with Hotspot, but her physical presence is no longer needed at Retrograde's complex.
Her first reaction had been anger, but then she realized that it is Prowl's way to protect her, and if the experienced enforcer believes that this is a necessary step to take to protect her, then she has to accept it.
It is in the middle of the night, but after the nightmare, she is far from ready to go into recharge again and she sends a message to Hotspot in the hope that her colleague still is awake.
It is not unusual that he works during the night, especially not if something has caught his interest and she knows that he currently is working on a program, that will make the laboratory's systems compatible with the way, upon which, the data have been stored on Retrograde's datapads and will make the use of her specialized cable unnecessary.
He answers with an affirmative a minute later and she walks into her home office to contact him.
Hotspot studies Athena and fills with concern at what he sees.
It requires a particularly strong psyche to regularly be face to face with the society's most dangerous mentally ill criminals, and he respects her deeply for her ability to remain calm and analytical in any given situation in her work as a forensic psychiatric expert.
But in all the time he has known her, he has never seen her as shaken as she appears to be right now.
"I assume that you already have made a profiling of him, so..."
His expression turns serious and he leans forward on the screen.
"...how dangerous is this one?"
She bursts into tears and he waits patiently until she has gained control over her emotions.
They talk for more than an hour before Athena feels ready to try and recharge again and he gives her an encouraging smile.
"Contact me again if you need it." He says softly before they terminate the connection and he stares thoughtful at the blank screen.