"Autobots – be on high alert! Proceed with caution; do not take prisoners if it is too great a risk."
Optimus Prime led his Autobots up through the Decepticon fortress and into the final stretch – the top floor, where they had already seen many escape pods take off. As the Autobots proceeded through the fortress, groups had broken off to search for hiding Decepticons.
The large rotund room was mostly empty, full of doors with missing escape pods.
One escape pod was preparing to take off when Ratchet reached the control panel and shut it down, the engines whirring to a halt. The escape pod ejected itself back into the room, revealing a very-disheveled Soundwave.
"Take him with the others," Optimus ordered. Ironhide quickly cuffed Soundwave and led him out of the room and eventually out of the fortress, where he would join countless other Decepticon prisoners.
That was it. The final battle had come and gone, and low and behold, the Autobots had emerged victorious, although not without their losses.
"The other pods are empty," Jazz said. "Or gone."
"No sign of Megatron," Sideswipe confirmed.
"Buckethead got away," Sunstreaker seconded.
"Shame. Was really hoping this might be it," Hound sighed. "As much as I enjoy pounding Decepticons!" he quickly backed up.
"Eject every remaining escape pod back inside," Optimus ordered Ratchet. "And open them; I won't risk any Decepticons potentially getting away."
Ratchet tapped a couple more keys on the control panel, and the few remaining escape pods pulled themselves back into the room, mechanisms hissing as the doors folded open.
"Still nothin'," Sunstreaker sighed, peeking inside the remaining escape pods.
"What about that one?" Everyone turned to where Bumblebee was pointing: one escape pod had come back inside with the rest, but failed to open.
"Autobots, be on your guard," Optimus warned, readying his cannon. The other Autobots slowly approached the escape pod, weapons drawn and at the ready.
"The pod isn't picking up any of the control panel's signals," Ratchet said. "It must be damaged; you'll have to pry it open."
"Back up," Optimus ordered. He tucked his cannon away and drew out his powerful battle axe, raising the glowing blade high above his helm as the others stepped back.
He swung down and successfully made a tear in the pod. The other Autobots stepped forward again to help him pry it open.
Hound and Jazz tossed the metal panel back, letting it land with a loud clang! onto the floor.
"What the…" Sideswipe and Sunstreaker said in unison. The Autobots gathered round and peeked curiously inside the escape pod.
On the floor, as if she had been trying to crawl her way out, a young bot was passed out, optics closed and limbs sprawled on the floor.
"Ratchet, scan for a lifeforce."
Ratchet walked over with his built-in scanner and gave the bot a once-over. The light glowed green and beeped. "Yep – alive, uninjured; I can't say right now what put her in this state."
"Her escape pod might of malfunctioned, panel blew out and knocked her out cold," Sideswipe suggested as he examined the damaged control panel.
"This looks intentional," Jazz said, gesturing to the torn wires and busted panel. Optimus took in all of their input, trying to piece together exactly what had happened.
"Hey, Optimus, you might want to see this," Bumblebee suggested. He was knelt down inside the escape pod, next to the unconscious bot. He held up her servos, which were sprawled in front of her and cuffed together.
"An escaped Decepticon prisoner, then," Sideswipe said.
"Most likely," Optimus concluded.
"This is an awfully long way for a prisoner to make it up unseen and without causing alarm, especially handcuffed," Jazz said suspiciously.
"We'll probably know more when she wakes up," Bumblebee said.
"You're correct, Bumblebee – Jazz, help carry her to med bay. Ratchet, see that she receives the proper care; a Decepticon prisoner could have been through anything."
"Understood, Optimus."
Wandering through the vast halls of Unicron wasn't a fun pastime, but it was about the only pastime Sona had. She couldn't deny that Sideways scared her a little bit, even though he couldn't hurt her. He had given her a designation, though, and had an actual conversation with her, which was more than any other bot could say.
Unicron had lost a good amount of power when creating her, so they were currently drifting in space while he rebuilt his strength. She was starting to figure out her powers, too—
"Watch it!" Sideways scoffed, ducking away from the oncoming blast. She had been aiming for a pile of junk by the doorway, but she couldn't complain much about her new target. "Need to work on your aim…"
"I think I did a pretty good job," she responded. She smirked as Sideways growled a little in frustration. She turned her attention to the pile of junk. "What is all this, anyway? I thought no one actually inhabited Unicron as a planet."
"Just some stuff I found along the way. Unicron moves around a lot for a robot-planet; I picked up some random junk along the way. Gets boring here, you know? Didn't get any better with you here."
"Yeah." She ignored his retort and knelt down to examine the pile of junk. Her and Sideways had quickly become used to trading insults with one another. While it was funny, Sona had to admit it would be nice to have an actual friend - someone she trusted and could really talk to. Her feelings were complicated right now; she knew nothing but Unicron and the stars they rode by, but it seemed like it would be nicer to go somewhere more…open. Maybe less purple.
That would be the day. Sideways had explained to her that Unicron's ultimate goal was to destroy Primus and the planet of Cybertron, which Primus is/was/it didn't really make sense. He didn't know how one god was planning to destroy another god, though, so they were left pondering until Unicron recovered.
Both bots startled as a note reverberated through the room. Sona jumped back from the pile of junk and surveyed the room. Seeing nothing, she knelt back down by the junk and pulled out a long board covered in keys. When she pressed down on them, the note reverberated through the room again. She picked up the strange instrument and examined it curiously.
"Do you know what it is?" she asked Sideways.
He knelt down beside her and tapped a couple of the keys. He tried to pull one off but fell on his bottom. Sona laughed and tapped on the keys some more.
"Nope. I think I traded some random alien for it – that, or I robbed it – but I don't actually know what it is."
He dug around in the junk pile and pulled out a worn booklet. "Here, I think this goes with it. But it's not in Cybertronian."
She opened the book and scanned the pages. "We have universal translators, don't we?" she asked. Before Sideways could respond, she was reading the booklet to herself.
"So it looks like these keys have names. Like this one—" she tapped a white key towards the middle. "It's a C. And this one—" she tapped the black key next to it, "is a C-sharp. Or D-flat, cause the next one's a D. And this one—"
She went through each of the keys, naming them off and playing them one at a time, clearly talking to herself more than Sideways. She then started playing more than one at once, testing out different melodies and harmonies. Sideways quickly became bored and stalked off, wandering the halls until he came to Unicron's glowing, purple core.
"Sideways," Unicron said. "You two need to refuel. Take a crystal from over there."
He glanced at the wall behind the core. A few glowing crystals were growing off a vein, and he walked over and snapped them off. He nodded a thanks at the core – although, walking back quickly realized how stupid that was – and went to find Sona.
She was in the same room as before, still tapping away at the keys. To his astonishment, she had begun playing a song, adding harmonies and dynamics as she deemed fit. She seemed completely lost in the music, her fingers gliding along the instrument as she figured it out.
They stood in silence until Sideways evidently broke it. "What did I miss?"
"I…don't really know. I guess I just…learned to play it really fast."
"Weird." Sideways stood with a peculiar expression for a moment, then shrugged and tossed a shard at her. She failed to catch it and glared at him as it bounced off her helm. "Don't really care, though," he said, sitting down to refuel.
She rolled her optics at him. Just then, a deep voice echoed through the room.
"Prepare for conflict. I will explain the task at hand soon," Unicron said.
Sideways and Sona looked up at the ceiling to listen. "We're destroying Cybertron, then, or something," Sona said.
"I guess."
"Doesn't that make you upset? Didn't you come from there?"
"Meh." Sona rolled her optics at Sideways again.
But still – if Sideways had been from Cybertron, and his crew, then weren't there others living on Cybertron, as well? Where would they go if their planet was destroyed? Would they even have time to escape?
Sona hadn't been alive for long, but some part of her wasn't as eager to serve Unicron as Sideways. It didn't really make sense, considering Unicron quite literally created her for the sole purpose of destroying Cybertron, but she couldn't help her own feelings. Besides, Unicron had already stolen from Cybertron to create her; was she meant to destroy the very thing that gave her life?
She tried not to think much on it before she refueled. She knew that right when she refueled, Unicron would have enough control over her to see into her thoughts. The only reason he couldn't now was that she still needed some pure energon in order to be more than a mindless slave. They had regular energon stored that they had harvested from other planets, so even when Cybertron was destroyed, Sideways and Sona could still survive as sentient beings.
She pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she refueled. Instead, she thought about her newly-discovered hobby. The book had called the series of notes something – music, if she was remembering right. Whatever it was, she could already tell she was falling in love with it. Maybe it could express her feelings, since there wasn't anyone for her to confide in. And it was too abstract to truly determine its true meaning, so she wouldn't have to worry about Unicron or Sideways hearing it.
Besides, she would probably need a hobby after they destroyed Cybertron. I mean, what else was she supposed to do?
Sona slowly pried her optics open, allowing just a little bit of light in at a time as they adjusted to their new brightness.
She was lying down on a berth of some sort, her helm tilted up to the ceiling. She tried to lift it to look around, but found she was too weak to move.
Reminders of what had happened came racing back to her:
She had been in an escape pod, destined for wherever Megatron had ordered it to be programmed to. She had been quickly sedated by Shockwave, planned to fall asleep and wake up in her new prison, wherever that may be.
But she had tried to escape; she had destroyed the panel, gotten up out of her seat, and after that…
She couldn't remember; the sedative had kicked in just then, and she supposed she fell into recharge inside the escape pod.
That left the question of where she was now.
The shock of everything she had been through shot through her at once, and she bolted upright, forgetting the moment she had thought herself too weak to move.
"Easy, easy!" a voice exclaimed immediately. She felt herself being slowly pushed back into lying-down. She was so weak and tired, the temptation to lie back once again almost took her over…
But then the panic set in again and she bolted back to sitting, optics wide with fear. Had she failed? Had the escape pod taken off after all? Had another Decepticon found her and sent her in a different escape pod? What punishments would she face for attempting to escape? What would Shockwave do to—
"Whoa, easy, easy. I need you to slow down and calm down, alright?" Sona hadn't realized she had been whispering all her thoughts quickly under her breath.
She lowered her helm towards her chest as she tried to gather her thoughts. Her optics wanderingly drifted to her servos, spread out beside her and holding her upright.
Spread out. Unbound.
Slowly and cautiously, unsure what trap she could possibly be facing now, she picked up her servos, but –
"HELP! HELLLLPPPP!"
Sona screamed with everything she had and then some, her processor racing and her thoughts collapsing in on each other.
She desperately held her servos out in front of her, doing everything she could to keep the monstrous creatures off her. But they were coming fast, horrible little creatures, their helms thrown back and their saw-like mouths lunging towards her.
Scraplets. How could they have possibly infiltrated the fortress? How could they have gotten past all defenses, all patrols, all alarms, everything! – and way up into her cell?
Her cell.
Sona gasped and swatted them off the best she could. One managed to bite into her leg, and she quickly smacked it off. She gasped in horror at the crater it had eaten into her armor.
She scrambled to standing and ran to the other side of the lab, past a half-eaten medical berth and partially-consumed computer. All the while she swatted away the flying, teeth-gnashing pests.
She pushed past the storm, smacking and swatting and stomping every scraplet she could. She could feel more of them latching on to her, eating away every juicy bit of metal they could.
She kept swatting until she came to the spot where her cell was – or rather, used to be. Jetfire had been on his way to escort her on her walk, and he was going to meet her inside Shockwave's lab. She wondered if he had found any new pictures of Starscream. She laughed a little at that.
But then a horrible sight snapped her back to reality:
The cell bars were gone, fully eaten away at. Inside the cell were the pieces of her berth and Jetfire – or rather, what was left of him.
Sona let out a horrible scream as she took in the sight in front of her. It was horrid, but she couldn't peel herself away. The scraplets were swarming her, eating away at every part of her body. But all she could do was collapse on her knees, howling in agony at pain that wasn't even her own.
Jetfire's armor had been almost entirely eaten-away at, revealing the valves and gears that made up his innards. Energon pooled onto the floor – Jetfire's energon – as the scraplets ate away at the remaining armor before moving on to the innards.
"NO!" she cried, swatting the scraplets off the body. But they just kept coming back, teeth shredding and mouths feasting, no matter how many times she threw them off.
"NO!" she sobbed, reaching past the scraplets and underneath Jetfire's huge body. She carefully picked it up and scooted it closer to her, the remains of his helm tucked into her lap. "No, no, NO!"
Her agonized screams warranted no help, and she lied down on her side, cradling Jetfire close as fluids leaked from her optics and the scraplets devoured her beside him.
"NO!" she screamed, thrashing around her body and throwing out her servos.
"Ratchet…"
"We need to stabilize her, NOW, before she hurts herself!" Ratchet grasped the bot around her shoulders and shook her. "Snap out of it! Come on, come on!"
Sona didn't think she could muster up another scream, her body was shaking so hard and her emotions caught in an endless loop of pain and agony and fear…
She snapped her optics open, squinting at the bright light above her.
She tried to sit up but fell back against the berth, hitting her helm hard against the back.
"We're done; put her back in her cell," Shockwave ordered.
Someone pressed against the small of her back, forcing Sona into standing. She stood up on shaky legs, wobbling as she struggled to get her balance.
She bent forward and looked down at them: no markings. Nothing to indicate she had been in an awful place just moments before, absent of physical but not emotional pain.
"Remind me again, Shockwave, why these tests must be conducted?" Megatron asked as two guards led the dazed Sona back to her cell at the far end of the lab.
"In all likelihood, the extent of her powers are tied to her emotions. I've theorized that we can use her emotions to isolate the exact source of her powers by eliminating a factor in their control, rendering us able to separate her powers from herself…as you wished, Lord Megatron," Shockwave explained.
"How close are you to confirming this theory?"
"I require a substantial amount of evidence in order to even call it a theory; it will require many more tests similar to the one today."
"Could something be done about the screaming?"
"The simulations are tests designed to focus multiple emotions into one singular event – these typically include the emotions of fear, anger, and sadness. I'm afraid I cannot provide the same results without the same side effects witnessed today.
"Continue with your work, Shockwave. But I expect to be pleased soon with your results."
The bot had finally calmed herself down, and she sat straight up, staring blindly ahead while fluids leaked from her optics. Ratchet's tight grasp on her shoulders remained, but she seemed completely oblivious to it.
She stayed that way a few minutes longer, no reactions, no sounds; then she sobbed. A quiet, heaving sob escaped her chest, and the fluids in her optics leaked even faster. But she wasn't screaming anymore.
Ratchet cautiously lifted his servos off her shoulders and backed away, allowing her tense body to collapse into itself. She held herself tightly with her arms, squeezed herself until the sobbing subsided.
She made no moves to suggest she was going to go into another screaming fit. Quietly Ratchet asked, "Is it alright if I check your vitals?"
Her helm was tucked into her chest, her arms still squeezing her body ever so tightly. She relaxed her grip on herself and allowed the last drops of fluid to spill, then slowly lifted her helm. She peeked to the side Ratchet was standing on but left her optics trained down, and she nodded her helm ever so slightly.
Ratchet opened his scanner and scanned her over; the light glowed blue the whole time, and he nodded his helm once at the results, satisfied.
"Vitals are alright. Clearly worked up, and a little low on energon, but fine," he concluded.
No response. She kept her gaze low and made no effort to readjust herself from what had to have been an uncomfortable position.
Ratchet looked back at the other doctor who had rushed over to help the screaming patient. "Red Alert, you can attend to the other patients now. She'll be fine." Red Alert nodded his helm and walked off.
Ratchet looked down at the bot a little uncomfortably. She had made no effort to speak, which was understandable, considering her fragile state of mind. A Decepticon prisoner at the height of the war couldn't have had it easy. And who knew how long she had even been imprisoned for?
Ratchet decided to leave the speaking part up to time and turned away from the patient, pressing a few fingers to his comm link.
"Optimus, you told me to tell you when she's awake."
The bot glanced up in curiosity as Ratchet hung up his comm and turned back to face her. "I understand if you're not up for talking right now. You've been through a lot. But can I at least get a designation for you?"
"Sona," she responded quietly.
"Well, Sona, you've been through enough that the leader of the Autobots would like to check up on you. I assured him you'd be fine but…the where-and-how-abouts of your discovery were most peculiar."
She nodded her helm in understanding and trained her optics back to the floor. Ratchet understood her cues and left her alone.
She hadn't felt that kind of pain in a long time; Shockwave hadn't subjected her to one of his twisted tests for quite a while.
The shock of waking up, in an unknown situation and without a cage, without a cell or cuffs, had triggered the horrible memories of his simulations.
And the purpose of them – "to focus multiple emotions into one singular event" – was so twisted and so cruel, the idea couldn't belong to any bot other than Shockwave. The images they showed her were so terrifying and nightmare-inducing, she had a hard time believing they were to advance his studies rather than provide Shockwave some twisted amusement. They hadn't lasted long, anyway - not when Shockwave realized there was nothing useful being provided from them – but the awful memories were forever burned into her processor.
But this wasn't one of Shockwave's simulations; this was real. She had squeezed herself as tight as she could to be sure, and when she felt pain, she knew it had to be reality.
Which meant she had made it. She had made it! She was as free from the Decepticons as she could possibly be, although she had traded that familiarity for freedom in an unknown place. She found she was shy around the other bots, uncertain. The bot next to her had assured her that was normal, even though she hadn't asked.
Sona looked down at her servos. She folded them into her lap, then turned them over every which way. Then she held them out in front of her, then spread them to the side, then stretched them toward the ceiling – something she couldn't have done if she was still cuffed and locked away.
She was free…truly free! She couldn't help but smile in glee at her newfound freedom. Her escape had been such a long shot, one that could have had devastating consequences, but she had succeeded, and now she was here; wherever here was, that is.
The medic who had been talking to her before – Ratchet, she discovered his name was – had seen her examining her freedom from her bonds and smiled lightly. There was pain behind his optics too, though. Did he feel sorry for her?
Ratchet had said someone else was coming to check up on her, too – someone she didn't know, had never seen in her life – someone who somehow cared what happened to her.
The door to her room – a large, spacious room, filled with dividers and beeping equipment – slid open, and a large, red-and-blue bot stepped in-between the dividers around her berth and greeted Ratchet. Both Ratchet and this other bot, she observed, bore a sort of symbol on their shoulders. She knew she didn't recognize the symbol, but it felt familiar: somewhat similar to the Decepticon symbol, but not quite. Which meant…
Autobots. Not only had she escaped, but she had found her way into the hands of the Autobots – which, if Jetfire had been right, meant she was safe. Jetfire was the only bot she had ever trusted, so she heeded his advice for the moment to keep herself calm.
Wait. Jetfire! Where was he? Had he escaped? Had he been injured, or worse—she didn't want to think about that. She kept her worries to herself, though; her priority was figuring out what the Autobots were going to do with her, and then she could focus on finding Jetfire.
Ratchet and the other Autobot had finished talking, and they were both approaching her berth. She remained sitting up but kept her arms crossed over her lap, still uncertain and fearful.
The larger Autobot looked to Ratchet as if confirming it was alright to speak with her, then turned his focus on her. Almost instantly, the moment he stepped closer, Sona felt something strange, but she couldn't place where it was coming from; something almost like a pulling inside her, familiar but she couldn't place it. It was uncomfortable, and it made her wary.
Sona glanced up at the bot. She could tell he was giving her a slight smile from the turn of his optics, and then he began speaking:
"I know you've been through a lot in the past cycles, but believe me when I say you're safe here." He said these words so gently, so reassuringly, Sona wanted to believe them despite her uncertainty and despite the strange feelings she was having. What was going on?
"It's Sona, correct?" She nodded. The peculiar feeling remained. "Sona, my name is Optimus Prime. Although you did not come here on the best of terms, welcome to the Autobot base." He used his left servo to gesture around the large room. "This is our med bay; with the recent conflict, I'm afraid it's quite full, but we do possess many other rooms and services."
"Did you…find me?" she asked quietly.
"Myself and other Autobot warriors, yes. We recovered you from the escape pod room; it appeared to us you were attempting an escape when you were knocked unconscious. Part of the reason I came to see you was to hopefully put the pieces of the story together."
Sona thought through her explanation carefully. She didn't want to overshare with these strangers, but she didn't want them to think she was hiding something either. "I was…put in an escape pod by Shockwave and Megatron. Shockwave used a sedative to knock me out, but I got out of my seat before it set in. I destroyed my control panel the best I could and tried to leave…but I guess I didn't make it out on time." Sona paused to let her explanation sink in and fill all the gaps in Optimus' investigation. She hoped it was enough; the feeling was beginning to become unbearable, and she felt like she had to do something, but she wasn't sure what.
"I see. Thank you for offering your explanation…but I'm afraid there are still a few more gaps to fill in." Sona glanced down nervously, allowing Optimus to continue. "How long were you imprisoned for?"
Too many questions. Too much time. She wanted to believe what Jetfire had told her, but there was no way he could truly know what the Autobots were like. And something in Optimus was giving her an uneasy feeling; she was becoming extremely wary of him, although she just couldn't explain why. She didn't want to say any more than she had already said, but she desperately wanted him to back away.
"I don't know."
Optimus nodded his helm in understanding and did not press the question, thankfully. Please go away, please go away—
"Do you know why you were imprisoned?"
She had to lie. She didn't want to, but the less they knew about her, the better.
"No," she said quickly.
She trained her optics back onto the floor, unable to meet their gazes but sensing Optimus' disbelief about her claims.
She remained that way for a moment before Optimus said, "You must be tired. There are rooms on the second and third floors, one of which has already been assigned to you." He stepped back just then, and Sona felt whatever feeling had been overtaking her release. She let out a deep sigh of relief.
She set her pedes on the floor and leaned forward to stand but lost her balance from lying down so long. Optimus and Ratchet both reached out to catch her, but she backed away from Optimus and tripped into Ratchet's arms.
"Easy," he assured her. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she said quickly, regaining her balance.
She didn't like the feelings she was getting next to Optimus. What was he doing to her?
Optimus' servos remained outstretched to catch her, and he pulled them away curiously as she took a step back from him.
Past Optimus' shoulder, a few injured Autobots followed what appeared to be a classic guard – perhaps the Autobots' form of Vehicons.
"Hey – can you show her up to the rooms, too?" Ratchet asked the guard. "Oh, and Sona? Make sure you come down a little later for an energon refuel; it'll be in the main hall." The guard and Sona nodded, and Sona went the long way around her berth to follow the guard out.
Ratchet and Optimus watched her go, peculiar expressions on both of their faceplates.
"Ratchet, are you certain she's alright?" Optimus asked.
"Physically, yes. Her emotional state is likely quite fragile now, though."
"I understand…but it seemed like something more than that."
"I truly can't offer you a logical explanation, Optimus. We don't know what the Decepticons put her through, or why, or for how long."
"Maybe not…but she seems to know more than she's letting on."
"Her secrets are her secrets, Optimus."
Ratchet ducked away then to attend to other patients. Optimus knew his old friend was right, but he couldn't shake his feelings. Something was odd about the new arrival, and something inside him told him his suspicions should not be ignored.