Stormwind sits on a medical berth inside the Joint Investigation Unit's infirmary and hugs his knees to his chest for comfort while he watches Prowl speak with his carrier. He can hear Thundercracker's hushed worried voice as his carrier asks his god-creator questions about what had happened. No one is paying him much attention at the moment and his thoughts start to wander back to what happened.
It is still like a surreal dream and he constantly relives the situation in the shop. The moment the weapon gets pointed at him. The look in the cold optics possessing it―as if he is nothing. Merely a nuisance. Nothing more. Not a living being with feelings.
Another pair of optics replaces them. Just as cold. Nightflow's creator. Torment. Tears fall from his optics as he remembers the sire order the weapons lowered and the way he had sent his people away. He had been kind to him, but only because he once knew his creators. What would have happened if he didn't? What would they then have done to him?
He could have died. He could have been taken as a prisoner. He could never have seen his creators again.
He breaks down at the thought and cries loudly while he holds himself.
His crying draws his carrier's attention and Thundercracker embraces him comfortingly. "It is okay, Stormwind. You are in shock after what happened. Just let it out."
He looks up at Thundercracker while he leans into the embrace. "I'm so sorry, carrier." He chokes out.
His carrier smiles reassuringly at him. "You have nothing to apologize for. You handled it as an adult. I'm proud of you."
Thundercracker caresses Stormwind's tears away and leans down to kiss his forehead affectionately, and his crying slowly stops at the close reassuring presence of his carrier.
"Prowl wants you to talk with one of their psychologists to help you process your experience when you are ready for it. It doesn't have to be today, but the sooner it happens, the better."
He looks at his god-creator, and Prowl nods calmly to him.
"You might have come out of it physically unharmed, but a situation like that irrevocably leaves its mark on you. Professionals call it 'the loss of innocence'. Once confronted with our society's dark side, you can never return to the childlike belief that everything in the world is good. It will happen to all of us at some point. I just wished it hadn't happened this early for you."
He looks back at his carrier, a pressing question forming in his mind. Something that has bothered him ever since Torment said it.
"Torment said he once knew you and creator. Told me to greet you. How do you and creator know a criminal, carrier?"
Confusion fills him when Thundercracker's field abruptly flinches back at the question as if he had hit him, and he senses a chaos of feelings in his carrier's field while Thundercracker's optics widen in shock.
"He mentioned that he knew us?"
He sees his carrier and Prowl share a glance, and then his god-creator turns around without a word and leaves them, confusing him even more.
"Yes, carrier. He said he knew you before I was born."
Thundercracker lets out a resigned sigh. "After what you have experienced, I guess it is time for you to know what happened. Why your creator and I don't participate in the annual event."
He has been wondering.
Everyone else participates in it.
He has heard of the event from his friends but has never experienced it. It is supposedly a whole month with events where people get together. Even the city-states come together despite their differences, offering gifts to the other city-states to cement a bond of unity.
"It all started a long time before your c-c-conc-cep-ption." His carrier takes a moment to gain control over his stammering voice. "Some evil people took me prisoner and did horrible things to me, which is why I still see Nacelle."
He nods at that last bit.
Sometimes his carrier gets mentally ill and needs to see his god-creator's bondmate to get better.
"Torment was a part of the evil people's organization. He didn't realize what they were doing at first, but when he did, he left them and sought out your god-creator. Together, they managed to stop them and prevent a societal crisis. Torment is the heir to the Polyhexian Cartel, and we needed their help. The leader of the evil organization was no less than the Vice President of the Senate at that time. The evil people succeeded in dissolving the Joint Investigation Unit when your god-creator discovered what they were doing, and it took away his power to stop them. Without Torment and his people, if the evil people had succeeded with their plans, our society would have looked very different today."
"But that doesn't explain why he knows you and creator."
He looks curiously at Thundercracker when his carrier lowers his gaze, and he sees it go distant as if Thundercracker recalls a memory. Thundercracker's lower lip trembles with emotion as if he is about to cry, but then he seems to gather himself and looks at Stormwind again.
"You are right."
The voice is a low, barely audible whisper full of insecurity and distress, and Stormwind's spark aches at hearing his carrier this distressed. He is about to tell Thundercracker to stop―if it is so painful for him to explain, he doesn't need to. This is enough explanation as to why they don't participate in the annual event. But before he can say any of it, his carrier continues.
"I fell in love with one of the evil people before I realized what he was. When I found out, he took me as a prisoner and had one of his allies experiment on me. They took my memories. Made me forget who I was and what they were doing. I was his prisoner for over a thousand years before your god-creator's people found me."
Thankfulness chases away some of the pain in his carrier's optics, and a small hesitant smile forms on Thundercracker's lips. Questions fill Stormwind's mind, but he holds his breath, waiting for his carrier to continue.
"I was sent to a rehabilitation facility to recover from my traumas. After a few years, I was ready to move on but stayed at the facility to help other victims recover from their traumas. Your creator was sent to my rehabilitation facility after he got freed from an illegal arena, and we fell in love."
He smiles at the sight of his carrier's affectionate smile at the mention of his creator. But Thundercracker's smile suddenly falters and becomes solemn the next moment, his wings lowering in sadness.
"Then my old lover discovered where I was and kidnapped your creator and me. He tortured us and took your creator's warp-gate. He hated your creator because I loved him and forced us to do unspeakable things. I was taken to the one who had taken my memories the first time, and they took them from me again. I forgot your creator and who I was, but soon after that, your god-creator once again freed me from his grasp. Nacelle cared for me, and he and some of his colleagues worked to help me regain my memories."
"And they did." He concludes confidently because how else would his carrier be able to remember now?
"Yes, after half a year, they managed to find a way to return my memories. But while they worked to find a way to return them to me, I was very vulnerable. I was no more than a sparkling in mind and had to relearn everything. My old lover broke out of the Joint Investigation Unit's detention center with the help of people that possessed your creator's warp-gate technology. He became a threat to me once again, and your god-creator and Torment discussed how to protect me. Torment took action into his own hands and kidnapped Nacelle and me when my old lover attacked the hospital I stayed at. I was taken to the Polyhexian Cartel, and that is how I met him."
"So...he protected you?"
"You could say that. Torment had your creator transferred into his custody. While we stayed with him, your creator and I became friends with him and some of his employees. He gave us the sanctuary we needed for Nacelle to be able to help us restore our lost relationship."
Stormwind tries to imagine the sire he had met in the shop as a protector for his creators, which eases some of the fear and anxiety in his spark. If Torment protected his creators, he can't be that bad, right?
"Why doesn't Prowl like him when Torment helped you?"
"It is complicated. You saw what kind of sire Torment is. He and your god-creator have a longstanding feud. They are on different sides of the law. Torment has done things no one can accept."
"But you are still friends."
"Yes, we are friends, but from a distance. We haven't talked to him or his people for over a hundred years."
"How did he then know who I was in the shop?"
Thundercracker hesitates and looks towards the door Prowl had left through.
"Your god-creator told him."