Athena pulls into the transformation lane when she arrives at her apartment complex in Kalis and transforms out of alt-mode. If she had had any choice, she would have stayed with Hotspot in Praxus, but as a professor at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, she has responsibilities that she can't neglect. Her students are waiting to receive their Ph.D.-graduations, which can't be delayed by her and Hotspot's research on Retrograde's outlier ability.
She glances up at the tenth floor, dread settling in her spark.
The last time she was home was when she broke up with Torment. The time away has done her good, but it still feels too early to be confronted by the painful memories that linger in her home.
Torment still haunts her during her recharge, and now that she slowly has begun to recover, she doesn't look forward to being reminded more about him and his painful betrayal. She still doesn't understand his reasoning for wanting to destroy their society, but then again, she didn't allow him to fully explain. Not that it would have mattered. He betrayed her trust, and that is something she simply can't forgive him for.
With a sigh, she unlocks the door to the building and walks inside.
As she walks up the stairs, a small smile slowly grows on her lips at the thought of what she and Hotspot have found out about Retrograde's outlier ability.
It is reversible.
Furthermore, they have discovered that the salvageable data on the previous Thundercracker's datapads are incomplete segments of memories. With his extensive knowledge about how the processor handles physical and psychological trauma, Hotspot theorizes that it should be possible for them to return the memories to Thundercracker. The processor is adaptable, and when introduced to the fragmented, incomplete memories, it will fill out the blanks to get the memories to make sense. It will not be a 100% complete replica of the initial memory, but close. The feelings stored in the blue seeker's spark belonging to the fragmented memories will also help Thundercracker recreate the memories and remember.
When they had been ready to test if Retrograde's procedure was reversible, they had returned the lost memories to one of the known victims of Retrograde's ability, and it had been a success. The test person had regained all of the lost memories and could give a detailed explanation of what had led him to get into Retrograde's care without any severe side effects to the treatment.
There had only been a slight headache and a delayed recall, but both diminished over a few hours of observation.
It fills her with hope for all of the other victims, and especially Thundercracker.
Now that it is a fact that what Retrograde did to him is reversible, it is only a question about how they can help him, and Hotspot is going to do everything he can to salvage more of Thundercracker's lost identity.
Watching the memories on the blue seeker's datapads, they have deduced that it mainly is the memories related to Thundercracker's most recent years that have remained uncorrupted. Some of the lost memories are not pleasant since they will reveal the truth about Torrent as well as Skywarp's drug-induced rape of him and who the true Sire to his sparkling is, and in the end, it is entirely up to Thundercracker to decide if he wants to regain them.
It will be a traumatic experience for the blue seeker to regain those memories, and it is still uncertain if the return of the memories will bring back the lost love between Thundercracker and Skywarp.
It had been deeply unsettling to experience the original Thundercracker's gruesome fate. To observe Retrograde's procedure from the victim's point of view as the erasure of who the original Thundercracker had been happened and left an empty shell without any thought or activity in his processor's higher function. It might not classify as murder in the literal sense of the word since his frame lived on, but in her opinion, Retrograde is a murderer and Torrent her co-conspirator.
It further confirms her initial assessment of the risk by bringing the original identity back into existence. The original Thundercracker will be too traumatized by what Retrograde did to him to ever recover from it. In addition to that, so much time has passed since he existed that he will have trouble coping with and understanding his new reality.
She reaches the tenth floor and unlocks the door to her apartment but pauses with her hand on the door handle, suddenly feeling hesitant to open it. As she stares at her hand on the door handle, the vivid memory of the first time Torment had come to her home to speak with her in a civilized manner invades her mind, and she stubbornly pushes it out, hardening her spark.
It is over between them, and she refuses to let the memories of him continue to control her.
Pushing the door handle down, she opens it and walks into her apartment. She stands in the hallway and waits anxiously for anything to happen, but when none of the memories she had feared surfaces, she begins to relax with a little relieved smile and walks into her home office to turn on the console in preparation for her work. Having done that, she then walks into her living room to get a cube of energon. But as she steps over the threshold to her living room, she stops dead as an imposing dark blue and white sire she immediately recognizes calmly rises from her couch.
"Welcome home, Professor." Torrent greets as he turns to face her. "We have been waiting for you."
She turns around to flee but comes face to face with a black sire covered in detailed blood-red tattoos she doesn't recognize. He blocks her escape and silences her scream for help even before she can voice it. Her communication systems get silenced as the next, and she is entirely at their mercy.
Panic fills her as she is turned to face Torrent, the unknown sire holding her in a vice grip.
"I have taken the liberty to cancel your meetings at the Institute. They were a bit disappointed that you had to stay in Praxus but understood it when you told them that you and your colleague had gotten a breakthrough in your research into Retrograde's outlier ability." Torrent states in a deceptively calm and civilized voice, his expression darkening. "I know what you and your colleague are trying to accomplish, and I can't let that happen. Thundercracker is mine. No one else's."
Her optics narrow in defiance, but all it does is make Torrent smile smugly and gesture for the unknown sire to bring her closer. She struggles to get free, but it is futile. Even if she managed to get out of the sire's hold, she stands no chance at escaping.
Unbidden memories of Torment fill her mind as she gets forced to sit down on her couch, and she fights to keep the burning tears from falling from her optics. Torrent squats in front of her, and she stares at him with what she hopes is defiant optics.
There is no way out of this, but she refuses to let Torrent break her.
She has seen firsthand what he is capable of and doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how frightened she is at this moment.
"I wonder why he didn't protect you."
His gentle, curious voice takes her by surprise; the same does the implication behind his words. It must have shown on her face because he gestures for the unknown sire to remove the hand covering her mouth and allows her to speak.
She is aware that he only is doing this to play with her, but despite knowing that, her mind still fills with questions, doubt and the desperate need to know.
What if Torment didn't betray her trust like she thought?
The only one that can give the honest answer to that question is the monster in front of her, but it is uncertain if he will do so if asked directly, and she decides to play his sick game in the hope of getting what she needs from him.
"What do you mean?"
Torrent studies her intensely for a long moment, his blazing optics piercing hers as if trying to read her mind before he bursts into disconcertingly delighted laughter.
"Priceless."
Torrent shakes his head in disbelief and chuckles silently at his nemesis's ineptitude.
Oh, Torment. Torment. Torment. You are so romantically inept that you have given me the perfect weapon to use against you.
"You are the most important person in his life, and he hasn't even told you."
He leans forward with dark pleasure in his optics, and Athena turns her head away in revulsion before his lips can touch hers.
"You, my dear, are his first true love." He says softly into her audial, smiling smugly at the sight of her reaction to his words. She tries to hide it from him, but the brief, utterly devastated look in her optics before she can get her feelings under control says it all.
"His biggest weakness." He adds in a low sadistic whisper while he forces her to look at him, and he enjoys the fear in her optics as she begins to understand the severity of her situation.
"And you are mine now."
He forces their lips together in a hard kiss and groans in sexual arousal when tears of despair slowly begin to fall from her optics.
He is going to enjoy this.
Nacelle studies Typhoon while he pretends to read the datapad in his hand. Ever since he let Typhoon touch him a week ago when the sire taught him how to handle his weapon, he has felt drawn to him while Typhoon has kept a professional distance.
It feels like there is an unresolved tension in his frame that just keeps growing stronger and stronger with every day that passes, and he is aware that it most likely is due to the lack of closeness with Prowl. They have not been intimate for a long time due to their work, and he feels the deep longing to be together with his bondmate in his spark.
But Prowl is not available, and it instinctually makes him want to seek out other kinds of closeness to ease the longing.
He looks at Thundercracker to distract himself and smiles softly.
The blue seeker is asking questions while one of the nurses he has become close friends with during their stay at the hospital is scanning his gestation chamber to check the health of his sparkling.
Thundercracker still believes that Torrent is the Sire of his sparkling, and Nacelle is still uncertain how to make Thundercracker understand that it is impossible. In the end, it might first be when the sparkling comes out as a purebred seeker that he can get Thundercracker to understand why Torrent can't be its Sire.
Genetic variations in the various frame types mean that to create a seeker, it requires that both creators are seekers, or the sparkling will become a flight-frame because the alleles in the CNA that code for 'seeker' are recessive while the alleles that code for 'flight' are dominant. A seeker and a non-seeker will never be able to create a seeker sparkling. It is physically impossible.
Typhoon senses Nacelle's attention on him and smiles inwardly.
He has succeeded in establishing a good and trustful relation with Thundercracker, and it seems like Nacelle has begun to trust him too. The green and white seeker is more relaxed around him.
Over the week, he has frequently been in contact with Torment as he has learned more about Thundercracker and the blue seeker's situation. Observing the communication with the nurses from the sideline. Torment has particularly been interested in knowing the identity of the sparkling's Sire. Thankfully, it is not Torrent's despite Thundercracker believing it so.
Nacelle's wings lower, and Typhoon immediately registers the sudden change in the green and white seeker's mood. Something is clearly affecting the stoic carrier. When the nurse attending to Thundercracker is done with his work and leaves them, Typhoon rises from his seat by the door and walks over to Nacelle.
"Are you okay, Nacelle?" He asks.
Nacelle startles at the sound of Typhoon's voice and looks up into the sire's optics.
At first, the question confuses him, but then he becomes aware of his lowered wings and the tears threatening to fall from his optics.
There is an uncommon gentleness in Typhoon's optics as the sire attentively studies his face, and the sight makes something within him want to say no and seek the comfort that Typhoon can offer him. But before he can say or do anything, Typhoon straightens and responds to an incoming communication, and the moment of gentleness is gone.
"It's time," Typhoon announces brusquely when he cuts the communication with Torment. "Four of Torrent's teleporters have been detected approaching the hospital, and there has been a final last-minute change to our rendezvous point."
Nacelle receives a private message with the new coordinates for their rendezvous point while Typhoon walks over the wall with the window where he has prepared a few explosives to make a controlled explosion that will destroy the wall without causing severe damage to the supportive structure.
He checks the explosives one last time before he steps back and turns to Nacelle and Thundercracker. The two carriers are huddled together in a crouched position as far away as they can get in the room, and it fills him with pride to see that they are following his instructions without a word.
He moves in front of them to shield them from the force of the explosion and detonates the explosives. The whole room shakes with the destructive force, but only the targeted wall has crumbled when the dust slowly clears.
"Do you remember what I told you?" Typhoon asks Thundercracker while he quickly clears away the fallen debris.
Thundercracker nods.
"Playing tag."
Typhoon can't help the smile at the seriousness in the blue seeker's voice.
"Yes, don't let them hit you or capture you. If you do, then they win, and we don't want that. Fly as fast and far away from them as you can; I'll defend you against incoming opponents and make it hard for them to get a target lock on you."
"Now go." He orders and steps away from the hole in the wall to allow Thundercracker to fly through it. Nacelle immediately follows the blue seeker, and then Typhoon transforms into alt-mode and follows right after them with his weapons ready to be fired.
Thundercracker does as he has been ordered to. The blue seeker flies zigzag, veers from left to right and up and down and makes his flight completely unpredictable while he and Nacelle rapidly fly away. Meanwhile, Typhoon focuses on the buildings to the west, where he has been informed that the sniper is located. The moment Doublewire opens fire on Thundercracker and Nacelle, Typhoon fires a precision missile towards the building Doublewire is perched on the top of.
The sniper only barely evades the explosion, and Typhoon performs several evasive maneuvers to avoid the deadly projectiles when Doublewire turns his attention to him and opens fire.
Hottrack shows up the next moment and begins to shoot at the two carriers while rapidly flying after them, and Typhoon turns his full attention towards the real threat.
Thundercracker and Nacelle are at this moment out of range of the land-based attackers; it is only the flight-frame that poses a danger to them now. And Typhoon turns around to engage Hottrack directly when he has intercepted him, obstructing the flight-frame's line of sight and keeping him away from hurting Thundercracker and Nacelle.
Hottrack curses Typhoon for his interference when the mercenary efficiently prevents him from getting a target-lock on Thundercracker as the dark blue seeker acts as a shield for the two smaller seekers.
::You are a fool, Typhoon!:: He growls furiously over the communications line. ::Can't you see that you get nothing out of working together with our enemies?!::
::They are not my enemies at the moment.:: Typhoon answers calmly while he avoids a series of attacks from the flight-frame and immediately resumes his defensive position.
Another round of shots gets fired by Doublewire, and he can see Shadestop emerge on a building to his right.
They are boxing him in.
Time to finish this before it gets too heated.
He transforms before he teleports on top of Hottrack, and his hand breaks with full force through the armor that protects the flight-frame's spark chamber.
Hottrack doesn't get the chance to react before the chamber gets ripped out of him, and his frame falls uncontrolled towards the ground far below them.
Typhoon transforms into alt-mode again and decides that it is time for him to get out of there. He has air superiority and can challenge his former colleagues, but he also has a mission to complete, and he needs to make sure that Thundercracker and Nacelle have arrived safely at the rendezvous point.
Relief fills Nacelle when he sees Typhoon in the distance. He must admit that he had gone into a panic when he noticed that Typhoon had turned around to face their flying attacker.
Typhoon lands, and Nacelle's attention is drawn to the energon that slowly gathers into puddles on the ground beneath the mercenary. He can see several bleeding wounds on the large frame, but Typhoon doesn't seem bothered by them.
When the mercenary had said that he would handle the flight-frame if he showed up, Nacelle had not known that Typhoon, in fact, had had the intention to kill him. It was first when Typhoon turned around to face their flying attacker that he had realized the deadly intent behind the mercenary's words.
How stupid he had been.
Of course, it would end in an armed conflict.
Why hadn't he listened to Prowl?
He had put everyone inside the hospital in danger because he wanted to protect Thundercracker. But in the end, it turns out he hadn't protected him at all. On the contrary, he had put the blue seeker in even more danger.
Posthaste's wise words come to his mind, and he realizes that he might be too invested in Thundercracker's wellbeing.
This time it could have cost them their lives.
And the conflict is far from over.
"Are you okay, Nacelle?" Typhoon asks as he steps closer, searching the green and white seeker for any signs of wounds.
To his relief, he finds none.
"Yes." Nacelle answers with a little grateful smile and turns to where Thundercracker is hiding out of sight.
Thundercracker steps out of his hiding spot with a frown at the sight of the energon slowly dripping from Typhoon's wings.
"You got hurt." He states, his frown deepening as he walks closer.
Countless wounds cover the sire's wings and ruin the beautiful tattoos.
He reaches up to touch them curiously. He has wanted to do that ever since he saw them the first time, and his digits caress along the surface of the large wings, following the outline of the tattoos until Nacelle suddenly takes his hands and roughly forces them away from the sire's wings.
"I'm so sorry." Nacelle apologizes frantically to Typhoon, his cheeks heating with embarrassment. "He simply doesn't understand that it is rude to touch before asking for permission."
"It's okay, Nacelle. No offense taken." Typhoon reassures with an indulgent smile at Thundercracker.
The concept of being hurt is clearly something that Thundercracker fully understands, while the notion that someone would want to capture or kill him is utterly foreign to him in his current mental state.
That was why he had decided to turn the hostile situation into a game in Thundercracker's mind. It would get the blue seeker to do exactly what he wanted him to do in the life-threatening situation without getting afraid at a critical moment and freeze.
"You like my tattoos?"
Thundercracker nods slowly.
"They are-"
He furrows his brows while searching for the right word.
"-pretty." He finally says, expression brightening.
Typhoon looks at his wings and their damaged surface. Some of the tattoos are ruined and will require a remake when the wounds have healed. But until then, they can serve as a convenient distraction for Thundercracker as they wait for the enforcers from the Joint Investigation Unit to come and pick them up.
He waves Thundercracker closer as he slowly sits down.
"As long as you are careful not to touch the wounds, I'll allow you to touch my wings." He says to the blue seeker.
Thundercracker eagerly sits down beside him and begins to slowly explore his wings up close. Typhoon shares a glance with Nacelle, his lips curving into a fond little smile, and in reaction, Nacelle looks away flustered.
Now that the dangerous, life-threatening situation is behind them, Nacelle is suddenly embarrassingly aware of the feelings he had felt towards Typhoon moments before they had had to flee from the hospital.
He hugs himself as he turns his back to Typhoon and Thundercracker. When he first met Typhoon, he never would have imagined that he would come to trust the mercenary or that he would want to be close to him. But the desire had been there, and that fact is impossible to ignore. Even now, he longs for Typhoon to embrace him and reassure him that everything is okay and that he is safe. Something Prowl would do if he was here with him.
His spark fills with a desperate longing for his bondmate, and he reaches out for Prowl in their connection, immediately receiving a burst of reassurance in return.
Soon.
The gentle sentiment coming from Prowl's side of their bond eases the tenseness within his spark. He slowly begins to relax and walks to the edge of the roof to look for a transport wearing the Joint Investigation Unit's golden logo against its indigo blue coloration.