Torment stares emotionlessly out of the window of his recovery room while his thoughts wander.
He has lost her.
He had known it would happen, had tried to prepare himself for it, but it is impossible to prepare for the moment when your spark shatter as your beloved rejects you.
This is the punishment for his sins and he will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
He had opened himself to Athena, had allowed himself to love her, and now he is more vulnerable than he ever has been in more than three thousand years.
It had been foolish of him to think that they could make this work.
They live in two completely different worlds, and in her world he is a monster.
He leans his forehead against the cold surface of the window while he remembers the last time they were together.
Her smile.
Her laughter.
The way she looked at him as he moved inside her.
Open and completely trustful.
His spark aches.
Now there is only tears and a look of hurt in her optics.
A single tear escapes and runs slowly down his right cheek.
He would do anything to return to what they had had, but there is nothing he can do.
She doesn't want to have anything to do with him and his grief at the loss will have to wait until they have stopped Torrent and the Organization.
Right now he can't afford to be distracted by his destroyed love life, and he hardens his spark and ruthlessly seals away his painful feelings for her.
His love for her will fade with time while the memory of their time together will be one of his most cherished, along with the memory of his deceased creators.
The thought of them brings forth the memory of the fateful day where he lost them, and which changed his life in more ways than he ever could have imagined.
Iacon, 3257 years ago.
Comet stares nonchalantly at the three heavily armed sires in front of him.
"My employer has followed your development and likes what he sees. He is ready to offer you a probation period."
The offer is a surprise, but he doesn't show any reaction.
"I like to work freelance and choose my own assignments."
The Polyhexian frontliner nods with the hint of a knowing smirk on his lips.
"He knows that."
Right.
They have been following him.
"I'll have to deny the offer."
There is a dark, dangerous and unsettling glint in the frontliner's optics when he refuses the offer, and he expects a violent reaction, but gets surprised when the frontliner instead just calmly shrugs.
"His offer still stands. You know where we are if you at any point should regret your decision."
The three sires transform into alt-mode and vanish in the heavy traffic.
Comet's nonchalant facade crumbles when they are gone, and he releases a deep breath of relief.
Primus!
He had never imagined that the Polyhexian Cartel would take an interest in him.
He is a nobody among the big players in the criminal underworld.
The fact that he has gained the attention of the leader of the Polyhexian Cartel is deeply worrisome.
He has heard the stories about Talon. The powerful sire is not one you want to have as your enemy, but he has no interest in joining the cartel.
If the Polyhexian leader wants him, then he will have to accept that he only works freelance.
In that moment, he had had no idea that he three days later would accept Talon's offer after enforcers later that same day had killed his completely innocent creators.
Talon had introduced him to Shift, and Torment had together with Shift uncovered the truth behind the 'accident' that the authorities had claimed killed his creators. It had been the beginning of an acquaintance that over the years developed into the close friendship they now have.
His expression darkens while the pain at the pointless loss returns.
He knew that his work put them in danger, which was why he kept his distance to protect them.
If the enforcers had bothered to check the credibility of the information they had received about his movements, then they would have known how ill-founded it had been.
But they hadn't, and his creators paid the ultimate price.
He had worked for the Polyhexian Cartel for 523 years until he felt the need to stand on his own again. Now more experienced and deadlier than before, and with a deep ingrained hatred against the authorities.
Talon had controlled him with a firm hand and had channeled the burning hatred that Torment had for the authorities towards his next mission or assassination, in an attempt to temper it, but it never succeeded despite the many years Torment spent as a active member of the Polyhexian Cartel and its brutal territorial fights against the other criminal organizations, or the near constant assassinations and countless other missions that Talon had ordered him on as another way to satisfy his desire for revenge.
When he had left the cartel, he had chosen a new identity for himself and Shift had erased everything related to his previous life. He became a ghost that haunted every enforcer out there while he killed more and more of them in his desire for revenge, now no longer controlled by Talon's ruthless hand.
He knows that he will have to request a meeting with Talon to express his gratitude to the Polyhexian leader for having saved him.
Shift claims that she bought his rescue of Talon, but it is well-known that the Polyhexian Cartel never do rescue missions. They are too busy with maintaining their position at the top in the criminal underworld and simply finds it beneath them to waste time on someone who can't save themselves.
He has had time to think about it and has realized that Talon doesn't need Shift's assistance to get the launch codes to Altihex's ballistic missiles, which the Polyhexian leader had demanded as payment for the rescue mission. Talon already has some of the best hackers on his payroll and could just have asked one of them to acquire the launch codes for him.
Shift had been too desperate to realize that fact.
Yet, the Polyhexian leader had grabbed their lifeline when Shift in her desperation threw it at him and had pulled them into safety.
It raises a lot of questions because nothing in their world is free and he doesn't know what Talon wants from him.
When he joined the Polyhexian Cartel, he had been young and vulnerable after the loss of his creators, and Talon had taken him under his protective wing and had offered him all the support he needed. But Torment had stubbornly refused to be treated as a weakling, and that was something which won him the respect from the Polyhexian leader in the many years that followed.
Over the years he worked himself up the ranks and became one of their best assassins, which he extraordinarily proved when he managed to assassinate the leader of the Tarnian Syndicate and later also his second in command within their own territory.
He had infiltrated the heart of their territory, had painstakingly surveyed their routines, the facilities and immediate surroundings for two weeks, before he then spent yet another week with patiently waiting completely motionless until the perfect opportunity came and he took the shot.
It cemented his position in Talon's inner circle and won him the respect from both allies and enemies. With one shot, he became a player that they all needed to take into consideration.
He and Talon parted in a good way, and the fact that Talon now has intervened and saved his life is without a doubt the Polyhexian leader's way of discreetly reaching out to him.
It shows him that he still has their full support, and he wonders how much Talon already knows about Torrent and what has happened.
A dark smile forms on his lips while a cold fire burns in his optics when he realizes what the prospect of the Polyhexian leader's interference will mean for his plans to stop Torrent.
If Talon wants to be a part of this, then he is more than welcome.
The Joint Investigation Unit is hard pressed to be everywhere to prevent that the Organization's countless hidden agents kill their designated targets. He has considered several ways to deal with Torrent's extensive plan without the loss of too many innocent lives, but he has yet to find a solution where the losses are acceptable.
It is literally impossible to avoid a bloodbath in the current situation.
But with Talon as a potential ally, the solution is clear. As one of the largest criminal organizations, the Polyhexian Cartel is present all over the planet with hidden operational bases in almost every city-state. If he can get the cartel on their side, then Torrent won't know what has hit him before it already is over.
He will have to convince Prowl that it is necessary to enlist Talon's assistance, but before that, he will have to get in contact with Talon to see if the Polyhexian leader wants to meet with him.
He sends a message to Darksteel with a new assignment.
-I want you to locate the local Polyhexians and give them a message for Talon. Tell them that 'Comet is ready to come home'. He will understand.-
Darksteel responds immediately.
-Are you sure you want their attention, Torment?-
He smiles at the obvious worry in his friend's words.
It is only Shift who knows about his connection to the Polyhexian Cartel, and he is only taking contact to the cartel because Talon with his unusual interference already has indicated that he wishes to reestablish their connection.
-Trust me.-
The response comes directly from Talon an hour later.
-Tomorrow at noon. I'm keeping your subordinate until then.-
Prowl steps out of the transport with a troubled expression when it lands on the top of the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter.
He has just returned from a public hearing in Iacon where Vice President Highline's proposal to dissolve the Joint Investigation Unit is on the agenda in the Senate.
The Senate's President had listened attentively to him and had asked relevant questions when Prowl presented his arguments about the necessity of the Joint Investigation Unit's continued existence, and his clear and precise answers and unwavering argumentation had clearly convinced the Senate's President about the importance of their continued existence.
But politics is politics and nothing is certain.
He will have to figure out how to handle a situation where the Joint Investigation Unit potentially gets dissolved while Torrent still poses a direct threat to their society.
Time is against them.
If the proposal gets enacted, then he loses the resources to put a stop to Torrent's plans while there no longer will be an alliance with Torment, since they once again will become enemies when Prowl returns to his work as one of Cybertron's most prominent investigative officers.
Torment and his team will stand alone against Torrent while Prowl will be forced to resume his hunt on the infamous assassin. And he will succeed in capturing him this time, simply because Torment is so weakened right now that he is forced to stay at the hospital for observation until the physicians are certain that it is safe to release him.
There is only one winner in this scenario.
Torrent goes free, Torment will be sentenced to death for his crimes, and Prowl and his SIOs will be assassinated because they know too much.
-I need to speak with you, Director.-
He frowns at the heavily encrypted message he receives from Shift and looks up into the nearest surveillance camera in the corridor. The red dot that shows that the camera is turned on turns off and on and for a brief moment, his troubled expression is replaced by a wry little smile.
It took him a few days to get used to the hacker's special quirks and shenanigans, but now it has become natural for him to look for the nearest camera when Shift contacts him this way.
-I will meet you in your office.-
He nods in response to her messages and moves towards his office, curious to find out what she wants to speak with him about.
Shift waits for him when Prowl arrives at his office, and she follows him inside without a word until the door has been closed.
"I have deactivated the camera inside your office." She says with an uncommon seriousness before she pulls a datapad out of subspace and gives it to him, "This is all of the information I and Torment have on the Organization and its plans to destabilize our society. After what happened with Torment, we both agreed that it is time you get access to all of the information you need."
The datapad is encrypted with an advanced OTP encryption, and Shift provides him with the one-time key necessary to decrypt it.
A long list of identities, schematics, schedules and locations are revealed to him as the decryption progresses, and when all of the information has been decrypted, he understands why Shift is so careful with sharing the information.
He stares at the first identity on the list, and everything begins to make sense.
Senator Highline, Vice President of the Senate.
A long list of other senators are listed below the Vice President, including Enigma, and he feels like a fool for not having made the connection before now.
Of course Torrent isn't working alone.
He isn't even the leader.
"Now you understand why we have been so secretive, and Torment wants a meeting with you tomorrow before noon to discuss the Organization's plans and what changes Torrent might have made to them."
He meets Shift's optics and mirrors the hacker's serious expression.
"Tell him I will be there."
6