Torment unlocks the main door to Athena's apartment complex with the code she had given him the night before he left her.
The past five days have been hard on him. It takes time to recover from what he has been through, both physically and mentally.
His processor is still fatigued after the torture, and he has only been given permission to leave the hospital for a few hours. But while his frame and processor still suffers from the physical and psychological after-effects of what Torrent has done to him, he has never been more clear-sighted.
The experience has changed him irrevocably, and he has learnt a lot about himself in the matter of just a few days.
He has had plenty of time to do nothing but think deeply about his situation, while he has stayed at the hospital to recover from his severe physical traumas, and he has had to seriously reevaluate a lot of the decisions in his life.
What does he want?
The answer to that question has been right in front of him ever since the start of their acquaintance, but he has avoided it. Hasn't allowed himself to think about it.
Until now.
Keep the focus.
Don't lower your defenses.
Feelings are dangerous.
Don't go there.
It will be your death.
She will be your death.
No.
She brings him to life.
He has never before been more calm and relaxed as he has been after he met her.
The interfacing is amazing, but it is her he wants.
Her he needs.
More than anything in the world.
He knows that now.
Has finally accepted it.
I was ready to die for her.
And he still is.
He walks up the stairs while one of the three teams of Joint Investigation Unit officers, that are assigned to protect him, discreetly follows him at a slower pace.
Prowl made their alliance officially known to everyone within the Joint Investigation Unit three days ago, when Aurora brought Shift with him into their headquarter and gave her full access to their systems.
A faint smile forms on his lips, when he remembers the relaxing, humorous talks with Shift while she worked on improving the security of the Joint Investigation Unit's systems. They had known how weak the data security had been, they have after all used that weakness to their own benefit on several occasions, and Shift had known where she needed to start even before Aurora had given her access to the network.
The first thing Shift had done was to ensure, that she will be alerted the moment that someone tries to gain unauthorized access to the systems. Then she had strengthened the Joint Investigation Unit's cyber defenses, remade their firewalls with a stronger code before she then ran several stress tests on their defenses against sophisticated hacker attacks. She had strengthened the defenses at the areas, where they showed weaknesses, to ensure that most of the other black-hat hackers out there will have so many troubles with breaking through them, that they will give up.
She has also provided the Joint Investigation Unit with a completely new encryption technique for their communications lines and messages, which makes it nearly impossible for anyone to decrypt the sensitive information that are communicated if they succeed in gaining access to it.
Aurora's animosity towards her appears to have been laid completely aside, and Shift had told him about their talk while they had been at her home. Aurora had been surprised to discover where she had been all along, hidden right in front of the authorities.
The SIO had curiously studied her workshop.
"So you are not only a hacker?" Aurora asks while he walks around the interior of the workshop.
He stops at her workstation while his gaze moves over her specialized tools.
"I easily get bored." Shift explains relaxed while she finds the items she will need, before she walks upstairs again to find the things Celerity will need.
When she walks downstairs again, Aurora is standing in front of her computer and stares lost in thoughts at the main screen with a deep frown.
"How did you and Torment become friends?"
Shift smiles secretively.
"Don't ask questions you won't like the answer to." She answers calmly while she begins to disconnect the specialized hardware, that she will need in her work for the Joint Investigation Unit.
"So not under lawful circumstances." Aurora states without judgment in his voice, and he turns to her, "I still don't like what you are, but I will work together with you since there is no other choice under the current circumstances."
He offers her his hand and she takes it to seal their alliance.
"I know that it is hard for you to believe it, but right now I only have the safety of the society as my interest."
Torment knocks gently on the door to Athena's apartment and it opens a few seconds later.
He is immediately caught in a fierce embrace around his waist when Athena sees him, and as she leans in against him, he hides his reaction when a sharp pain shoots through him at the motion.
"Primus, Torment! What happened? Where have you been?!" She looks deeply worried up into his optics, "Five days have passed and I have been so worried. No one would tell me anything. Aurora would not answer any of my questions, and he said, that Prowl was too busy to talk to me whenever I contacted them to find out what had happened."
Her deeply worried voice, uncontrollable words and the way she clings desperately to him, as if she's afraid that if she releases him, then he will disappear out of her life again almost breaks his spark. And it's an unsettling thought, because he knows, that she has no idea of how close it actually had been to happen.
He is not the religious type, but he feels that Primus has granted him a second chance, and he will do everything to be worthy of it.
It had been so tempting to contact her earlier, to tell her what had happened and reassure her that he is safe, but a hospital is not the place for that conversation, or the talk, that had been interrupted and which now is more important than ever before.
"I'm sorry that you have been kept in the dark." He says softly as he steps into her apartment and the door closes behind him.
"About your work with the Joint Investigation Unit?" She asks while they walk into her living room and sits down at the coffee table.
Just like five days ago.
"And something else." He says warily.
He looks her straight into the optics with the painful knowledge, that he is about to ruin everything they have.
But it has to be done.
He can't continue to live on the lie, and he can only hope, that she will understand why he did what he did and what he has done and continues to do to make amends for it, when he has explained everything to her.
"I worked together with Torrent."
"What-..."
The utter disbelief in her voice while she stares at him in shock fills him with regret and shame.
His optics fills with pain as he continues.
"He contacted me 1500 years ago to get my help to overthrow the society. I had the contacts he needed, and the Organization's supreme leader offered me a leading position within it, which I accepted."
"No, no..."
She rises and begins to walk restlessly back and forth in agitation while she talks to herself, and he wishes nothing more than to embrace her.
But that would be a big mistake.
She abruptly stops and turns to him.
"You-... You!"
Her voice becomes accusatory and fury fills her optics as she stares hard at him.
"You KNEW!"
The pain that enters her voice is like torture and far worse than what Brakewave had done to him.
"I told you about Retrograde, but you already knew about it, didn't you! And then Thundercracker. Primus! I saw your expression when I told you about him, but I didn't understand it."
Her rage intensifies.
"How could you..."
...do this to me.
It hangs heavy in the air, and he takes her rage with acceptance.
There is no excuse.
"I'm sorry, Athena. I was aware of some of what Torrent was doing, but I had no idea of the full extent." He explains softly, his voice full of apology, "I didn't work directly with him, but led another section of the Organization."
He has committed countless atrocities, and the worst of them is his complete indifference towards what Torrent had been doing to finance their project.
He had ignored what happened to the victims of the syndicate.
Had closed his optics to it.
It was a means to an end.
Necessary to get the work done.
No, there is absolutely no excuse, and now it is going to cost him what he holds most dear.
"Get out!"
Her voice is like steel, cold, fierce and unwavering, and he does as she orders him.
The door to her apartment closes behind him with a gentle sound of finality, and Athena finally allows herself to let go on the chaotic emotional turmoil within her.
Tears fall rapidly from her optics as she collapses on the couch and cries uncontrolled.
How could he be so evil...
How in Primus's name could he ever even consider to work together with someone like Torrent?!
The thought, that Torment has been working to destroy their society is a place that she doesn't even want to go, because she simply can't understand his motives to want to do something like that!
She had been completely blind by her love for him while she instead should have listened to the warnings in her mind.
Stop right there!
Her voice of reason harshly interrupts her self-pitying thoughts.
You knew exactly what he was before you fell in love with him, and you had several opportunities to walk away from him, but you didn't.
You chose to be with him.
So, why are you so surprised when the ugly truth finally is revealed?
She lies on her back on the couch and stares up into the ceiling while tears keep flowing down her cheeks until Hotspot contacts her to discuss their work, and she is tempted to deny his request for a vid-conference, but she knows she cannot.
It nearly takes all of her energy to stop crying, and she rises slowly from the couch.
Life around her moves on and they need to find a way to fix what...
Just the thought about what Torment has been a part of makes the tears begin to fall from her optics again.
She stumbles utterly spark-broken into her home office, but suddenly stops, when her mind gets invaded by the very vivid memory of how he had turned around to face her, when she had tried to sneak up on him while he was talking with someone on a communications line while he had been inside her home office. And she leans hard against the doorframe when she remembers the feelings, that had been so evident in his optics at that moment.
Only for her.
Her spark twists in pain.
They had been fake.
A way to get her to lower her defenses and allow him to manipulate her.
Confusion fills her.
What had he wanted from her?
What would he have gained from manipulating her?
She had believed, that she understood him, but it appears she didn't.
He could have interfaced with any other carrier, and has without a doubt plenty of other lovers out there.
She is nothing to him.
Her optics narrows.
A valve is after all just a valve, right?
With no feelings attached.
Her fury returns as she thinks about everything, that Thundercracker and so many other carriers have been through.
Because of Torment.
No.
Her mind corrects her faulty statement.
Because of Torrent.
Torment did say he hadn't known everything.
And you didn't give him the chance to fully explain.
But what could he have said, that could excuse what he had done?
She receives yet another request from Hotspot and it draws her out of her thoughts. With a deep, weary sigh, she sits down in front of the screen and contacts him.
The vid-conference establishes, and she looks at him while he has his full attention turned to a datapad on the desk in front of his screen.
::I have finally managed to make the laboratory's systems compatible with Retrograde's datapads, and I have already reviewed Thundercracke-...:: Hotspot pauses when he finally look up from the datapad and looks at her.
His optics narrows while anger fills them at the sight of her state.
::What. Did. He. Do.:: He demands to know in a fierce accusatory voice.
And she breaks down all over again.
"He worked together with Torrent to destroy our society."
Author's Note: I might have to take a minor break that will push the publication of the next chapter 7 days, maybe more. I need to ensure that the pre-written chapters that I'm coming to matches the direction I'm taking. And that the personality of the characters that will be introduced in the upcoming chapters is as I want them to be. As it is now, we will get a look into Torment's past and the world he is a part of. We are also slowly moving towards the chapters that will involve Thundercracker and a bit later, Skywarp.