When Torment materializes within the Director's office, Prowl looks up with a spark-deep weariness, that even Nacelle hasn't been able to ease.
Their brief meetings during the latest week, since the beginning of their fragile alliance, have been kept a secret. Even Aurora, Topkick and Overflow haven't known anything about them.
This meeting, however, has a different character.
"How many?" Is the first thing Torment demands to know.
"Two." Prowl answers with a deep sigh, "They killed everyone that were present in the detention center."
Including Overflow.
He gives the assassin a datapad with the footage from the attack on the detention center, and Torment reviews the footage while Prowl with tired optics leans back and studies him.
Torment narrows his optics as he watches his two team members massacre every single enforcer in the detention center, before they free Torrent from his cell and teleports away with him.
Hyperdrive and Shadestop.
It is obvious that Torrent with the massacre intends to send a clear message to the Joint Investigation Unit to show them, that he had been there of his own volition.
It had been the Organization's plan to let Torrent stay in the Joint Investigation Unit's custody to divert the authorities' attention while Torment finished the last preparations.
But it appears that he got impatient.
Or...
He curses loudly.
Of course!
"It seems like he got informed, that you had found the biological weapons and managed to get a message out to the right people. I should have anticipated this."
But he had gotten distracted.
Had been worried about Athena's wellbeing after he had brought her home.
And then he had had to speak with Switch, to inform the undercover agent about their change of plans.
About his betrayal.
And that Switch and a few others still are unknown to the Joint Investigation Unit.
Switch had accepted what he had done, and had understood the necessity to reach out to the Joint Investigation Unit as a means to reach their new goal. Especially after he had told him about Shift's examination and analyze of the explosive device on his spark chamber.
"Does your spark hurt?" He asks the undercover agent.
"A bit." Switch answers him hesitantly, and it is obvious that the undercover agent is tense and ill at ease with confessing to a weakness while he in reflex slowly rubs the plates protecting his spark chamber, "It happens at least once a day."
Frag!
They need to do something about this and soon.
"I will have to speak with the Director about it. We can't afford to be out of commission while our spark chambers heal from the damage." He concludes grimly, "The only solution is a replacement and that can only be done safely at an authorized hospital."
"And you trust that he will be willing to assist us with this?"
"I don't know if he will, but we can't be of any use to him as long as they remain on our spark chambers. He will understand that when he realizes what Torrent has done to us." He explains seriously and his expression darkens, "No matter what happens I'd prefer not to die, and right now the Joint Investigation Unit is the lesser evil."
He withdraws from the memory of his meeting with Switch and meets Prowl's optics with determination.
Now or never.
"This changes things and I haven't been completely honest with you."
I want you to meet me at the Director's office, Switch. You have permission to teleport.
He sends the encrypted message to the undercover agent and Switch responds a second later.
I'll be there right away, Sir.
Switch materializes in the Director's office a few seconds later and walks over to stand supportive beside his true employer. He had been the one to inform Torment about Prowl's meeting with the Supreme Council, giving the assassin one of the best chances they could get to assassinate the Director of Intelligence.
Fortunately it failed and now they are here.
Torment smiles smugly at the sight of the Director's shock, but the shock doesn't last for long and Prowl narrows his optics dangerously while he stares at the two teleporters.
"Switch." He growls darkly at the sight of the traitorous communications specialist.
A haughty smirk curves on Switch's lips and he looks at Torment with humor in his optics.
"Don't be hard on him. He was mine long before he became yours. There was no loyalty for him to betray in the first place." Torment says teasingly, but then turns serious, "And he stayed loyal to me despite the circumstances. You can trust him as much as you can trust me when it comes to bringing Torrent to justice."
He frowns when he suddenly realizes what he has just said.
Justice.
What a weird word for him to use...
He shakes his head and returns to the matter at hand.
"What are you up to, Torment?" Prowl demands to know when his hard gaze returns to the assassin.
"I'm taking a side, Director." Torment answers coolly, "Yours."
"And I have a urgent request on behalf of myself and my team."
Hotspot accepts the communication when Athena requests a vid-conference with him, and when she appears on his screen, he can instantly see the change in her.
The constant fear that had consumed her through the last few weeks is gone. Instead she seems to almost glow while her confidence has returned.
It is a breathtaking sight.
"It looks like you feel better." He says softly with a pleased smile.
She gives him a blinding smile and there is a distant dreamy look in her optics.
::I do feel a lot better.:: She says, her voice soft and relaxed, but then she hesitates and her expression turns hard and serious the next moment, ::He came to see me.::
Him.
Her attacker.
"Athena..." His voice turns wary.
There is no doubt about what has happened between her and the deadly sire. She literally radiates sexual satisfaction. And the thought, that she had allowed the assassin to come that close to her fills him with deep worry for her safety.
She is playing with fire.
::I know it.:: Her voice is soft, but there is also a seriousness in it, that shows that she understands his unvoiced warning, ::It's just...::
She sighs.
::I think I have fallen in love with him, and while he tried to hide it, it looks like he feels an attraction too.::
It wouldn't surprise him if she is correct in her observation that the sire is attracted to her.
It would explain so much.
But it doesn't make it less dangerous for her.
He himself has throughout the years had his own thoughts about her, but he has never pursued the thought, because a romantic relationship between them would never work. And he can only hope, that the sire is ready to fully accept how and who she is, because Athena lives wholly for her work.
It requires a deep accept of her needs from the dangerous sire if their relationship are to have the chance to last for more than a few months. And from what she has told him about him, he isn't sure that someone like him is up for the task.
Scientists like himself and Athena use all of their time on research and Ph.D.-thesis's that can take several years to complete.
And when they are done...
...then they begin on a new project.
All for the sake of helping the psychiatric patients, the practicing psychiatrists and the society as a whole.
They are literally bonded to their work and their only socialization are with like-minded colleagues.
The case with Retrograde's outlier ability is definitely going to become one of the longest and most complex research projects any of them have been a part of. One thing is to find a solution to her outlier ability, but they also need to learn from experience to ensure, that the grave mistakes made by psychiatrists and health practitioners in Retrograde's case never happen again.
They need to be better to spot an undiscovered outlier, especially among sparklings and adolescents. It is vital that those are provided the necessary guidance to understand themselves and develop into healthy individuals. Retrograde had been diagnosed with Bipolar Personality Disorder, and she most likely had been bipolar, but if they had known the main reason behind her mental instability, then so much pain could have been avoided.
If she had gotten the needed supportive assistance to handle her outlier ability, then she could have lived a normal life.
Then she could have found a better purpose.
Her ability had been remarkable, and he would have loved to work with her to see if she maybe could have helped other psychiatric patients recover from their mental illnesses.
But instead she had went under the radar and had committed her atrocities.
A deep sigh escapes him and he focuses his attention back on Athena.
"Just promise me that you will be careful when you see him."
Prowl has to admit that he initially had been skeptical when Torment had explained what Torrent had done to him and his team.
The mere thought, that someone could think of doing such a thing against another cybertronian...
There is a reason why the society's strict social ethics stipulate, that it only are healthcare professionals, who are treating spark related health problems or who are treating an acute life-threatening situation, where the patient can't give his or her consent, and where they need access to the patient's spark chamber or spark, that have the permission to see one's spark without first getting consent.
Their sparks are their souls.
It's the only part of them that is said to return to Primus at their death and thus sacred, and to learn that someone purposefully has broken the society's strict ethics and has defiled something that is that sacred, is utterly repulsive.
But then he remembers that it is Torrent they are talking about, and it really shouldn't surprise him anymore, that the syndicate's operational leader wouldn't have any qualms with going to such lengths to take control over someone like Torment and his team, not with the atrocities they have seen being committed by him or at his orders.
A deep sigh leaves him as he watches the live recording from the preparation for Torment's surgery.
The assassin had not lied.
There is a device on his spark chamber.
The device is carefully dismantled by an explosives expert while he looks on, before the surgeons begin to initiate the extensive and complicated procedure it is to replace the damaged spark chamber, and he terminates the live recording in respect for Torment's privacy.
Three other teams of surgeons are also right now working on removing similar devices and replacing the damaged spark chambers on the remaining loyal members of Torment's initial team of teleporters.
It is deeply unsettling to learn, that Torment had managed to infiltrate them and the special forces. They had made an in-depth background check of everyone who were hired to work for them, and yet Torment had still been successful in planting his agents in key positions within their organization.
The talent and skills that are required to do that...
He has begun to understand why they have been unable to apprehend and arrest Torment during their thousand years long hunt on the assassin.
It took an 'the enemy of my enemy is a friend' situation for them to get this close to him, and he is still not caught.
Torment is there of his own free volition and aids them against Torrent solely to get revenge, and when their fragile alliance cease to exist, then he once again becomes their enemy.
Their hunt on him will commence anew, and while they will have gained vital information about Torment, which might make it possible for them to finally arrest him, then likewise will Torment have gained access to critical information about them during their alliance.
He has no doubt that their status quo will continue.
Torment is and will always be an irredeemable criminal, but despite that fact, Prowl still prefers Torment to be free of Torrent's control.
He has not forgotten Athena's analyze of Torment, and he can use the fact that the professional assassin is completely sane and rational to his benefit.
She had been correct in her deduction that Torment is practical, and that he won't hesitate do what's necessary, if it becomes necessary. The evidence of that lies right in front of him in the form of their alliance. And right now they have all of Torment's deadly skills directed right at Torrent instead of them.
When it comes to it, they could not wish for a better ally under the current circumstances, no matter how long it will last.