It takes her a moment to realize that the familiar violet and grey ceiling is a bad thing.
"Oh no," She moves to plant her hand on her retarded brain and sit up. It's difficult, and part of that is the table cuffs around her ankles, wrists, and waist.
"Lord Megatron, she's awake."
"Knockout?" She looks and her optics take a nanoklik to focus. "Is that you?"
"Welcome back."
She doesn't miss the nonchalance in his tone but seeing the scratches all over him, it makes some sense. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," He turns away from her to type some things on a screen tablet.
"I'm so sorry."
He almost ignores her but lifts his head; still facing the other way. "About what?"
"Breakdown..." She tries to steady her sorrow.
"Don't be sorry." A sharp edge traces his words,"There is nothing to forgive you for."
Her insides twist, "Are you angry with me?"
He looks back at the screen tablet and doesn't answer.
Sonica starts to build up what she wants to say; he should know she feels she failed him too. But just as she starts to speak, the doors swish open and Megatron walks in.
"Ugh, it's too soon." She defaults to her facade with all knives out.
"If you liked that drug, I have more." He strides past her and gets onto the second table.
"No thanks but since you know it works, how about you release me so I don't have to force my way out?"
"I'm far from done with you, Sonica Doradus. I'm glad that your time with Prime has greatly sobered you."
Murderer lazily opens an eye, but it struggles to stay open.
"Wow, you must be exhausted holding that fat grudge of all the excitement I put you through."
"And then some," He sneers.
"Oh yeah, how's Soundwave's head? Does he get dizzy when he thinks of me?"
Long fingers reach from her peripheral and fall on her neck; she turns carefully.
Soundwave stands there and his irritation emanates like heatwaves.
She glances at Megatron, "Nevermind, I'll ask him.
"Hey, how's your head? Are you still feeling honky?"
He squeezes hard enough to short-out her voice box.
"You shouldn't have left, Sonica." Megatron leans back as Knockout fastens the psychic cordial patch under his table. "You owe me."
Her eyes widen and fixate on Knockout who refuses to look at her, as he approaches with the other end. He can feel her stare though, his body language is uncomfortable in her direct line of sight.
"Don't-t-t do thi-this," she grunts out with a glare at the silver warlord.
Megatron smirks as he eases back comfortably and takes it further by interlocking his fingers over his midriff.
The cordial patch clicks into her head and hisses in her audio receptors. The world goes inwards and black.
Megatron steps into a hallway of strange window-like doors. The top of the door arches and a blurry sheen acts like textured glass but it moves lightly like fog. There are thousands of these openings and they all stand in two never-ending lines.
He forgot about her past lives; these must be them.
He starts walking anyway, peering as best as he can through the cloudy windows and getting nothing. The next one gives the same results, so he looks around for Sonica.
High-pitched whispers ghost through him and grumbles crawl over his surface. The other Doraduses...
"Give me Sonica. I don't care for the rest of you; just give me what I want."
"Do not talk to my sisters that way."
He whirls around to see her image vanish and reappear in front of him.
Her stare is blank, almost empty, "I told you not to do this."
"Your secrets have come due, remember?"
"I do. Thank you for the reminder." An eerie smile crawls up her face, "Where do you want to start?"
"The other types of energon, like the orange one that you gave me."
"You can find out through any of these doors. We've all been given the same powers and knowledge."
"I just want yours."
"That's not possible; my memories are shared with my sisters and they, in turn, share theirs with me."
"I want to see the things you have seen." He towers over her, "Do it, now."
"Of course," she takes a couple steps back to the second window he tried to peer though. "Here I am."
Lifting a hand, she aligns her palm with the misty, gloss surface and the area shifts. The window-like doors are replaced by hard drives of all things. They float unnaturally in a circle around him with the old-fashioned hand-scanners on their tops. These aren't nearly as numerous as his last selection. In fact, he only counts six.
He supposes it makes sense; there are six colors in a basic prism.
She gestures slowly and gracefully, "Choose any one."
Megatron thinks about it for a moment, "Are there only six types?"
"Nine, actually."
Why is she behaving so strangely? She had nothing but sass earlier. He doesn't have the patience to think about it beyond that. "Why do I only have six?"
She turns to him slowly, like she floats in water, "I was going to add, you know of three: red, blue, and violet."
"Violet is dark energon."
"Yes."
"Good, all my choices are in order."
She giggles darkly, "You didn't get much from the orange I supposedly 'gave' you?"
"It still has its ingredients."
"That's all you get after it freezes. It's virtually useless in that state, but I think you already knew that."
"Luckily, I'm in just the right place to learn more." He walks towards a hard drive to his left with a hand ready to select.
"One more thing, Megatron."
"What?"
"Equivalent exchange. Every two you choose here, I choose in your memory."
He chuckles, "The first one linked into the cordial patch is the one who controls the settings. We will not be leaving here."
Sonica's eerie smile returns but it doesn't part her lips, "Do you agree to equivalent exchange?"
"Yes, I'm finally getting the information I deserve." He presses a hand to the scanner. As the light follows up around his hand, his image materializes into the memory banks.
In an instant, Megatron stares into the face of a bot he's never seen before. His long face is bordered by a helmet that looks like a crown and he stares down at Megatron with a look in his eye.
"You belong to me."
He realizes then, he's strapped to a table in a place that seems to be from old past and he can't move. Something pinches inside the nape of his neck and stops all his brain signals. "Sonica!"
The crowned creep starts touching him, throwing static harshly into his mechanics; he is unable to do anything about it. He hollers angrily and the scene changes in a dizzying blur. The context is the same but different bots, some with audiences, and many times she's defenseless.
"I want the things you have seen!"
"I have seen these. I have felt them. My sisters have experienced them and to protect me, they share these things."
The visions continue and a few of these memories are shorter when she throws orange energon plates into them; some are fatal blows.
Megatron tries to pull out of the memories but they change and keep him there to endure the next one. His whole body is being touched and the static begins to hurt. He shouldn't be feeling any of this. The cordial patch is purely for observing. Why is he living the memories as she did?
It changes again and she's on a stage being stared at while twirling and twisting to music straight from Cybertron. Then it shifts in a blur again and he's in a decorated room meeting someone. More static is pressed over his body with another stranger. For the next several cycles, the memories switch between those two settings: a stage and another "customer".
There's no control over what happens to him even when he's able to fight back. His anger is boiling over and many times he fights to run out of the memory. A few times, he seems like he can, and he almost does until it changes again. Each turn, starts him over.
Finally, he's thrown back inside the circle of floating hard drives. A filthy sensation tingles his armor and burns his insides. His gut twists and he feels as vulnerable as an exposed spark. The shame he feels threatens to cut him down and he fights with everything he has. He stands but he feels himself shaking and watching his hands, he knows he is.
He remembers Sonica is watching and he bolsters all his protective pride. "What in the AllSpark was that? I asked for the types of energon!"
"You asked to see what I've seen. I honored that first." She states and her smile is gone. Her gaze is better aimed, and her presence is more solid. "Besides, you did see a type of energon. Red and orange got me out of many of those situations. But the last hundred where voluntary...mostly."
He stomps over and leans above her; embarrassingly cautious not to touch her. "The energon types! No memories!"
"You can't have one without the other."
"You said these represented the types!"
"No, we discussed how many there are, versus how many you knew. I wasn't talking about these portals."
He swings an arm around as his temper is brimming, "Forget it! I'll find the information on my own!"
Sonica shrugs, "You can certainly try. I will warn you that you might not find your way back...especially if Doradus the First catches you."
He stops; clenching his fists and teeth, and fighting all urges to destroy her. It's not going to work while he's in here- he can't touch her. And he hasn't received the information he needs.
Whirling around, he stomps and shouts at full volume, "Give me the types before I tear you apart for them!"
Sonica makes a small smirk and shakes her head, "I am obeying for once and you're not satisfied."
"You're giving me unnecessary memories! Just give me the information I seek!"
She straightens with a glare, "My memories are stored this way and that's how it is. I don't sort my experiences by knowledge, do you? Each one is a category of five general emotions plus one for pain." A smile crawls over her countenance and she spits out a laugh, "You picked disgust."
Megatron yells a growling fit of frustration, "FINE. Which ones are which?"
"This will be great. I can't wait to see what you have in your mind." She pauses purposefully and gives him a look, "Ready?"
He hesitates. After what he just went through, he's beginning to believe her. What if she can enter his memories? She could learn all his plans...unless...
He sets his hands on his hips and it triggers some of his new discomfort; even he touching himself feels strange. He fakes it, "I will choose what memories of mine you learn."
"Then I choose which memories you see." She mimics his posture, "I'll dismiss your experience with disgust and give you two more that I'll allow you to look through."
Irritably, he thinks about this again and he finds no preference. She could waste his time easily with anything BUT the information he needs. He also doesn't want her taking any perceived equivalences from his memories. He's not sure if she's looking at that sequence of memories as one or many. Neither is ideal if she's allowed to choose.
"I have a proposed median," She shifts her weight to one leg and smirks up at him, "I'll tell you a brief context of each of these portals and let you choose which one, if you are willing to reciprocate."
That might work. Can he lie to her about what memories are what? Does he take that gamble?
"Well?" She presses.
Megatron removes his hands from his hips and straightens. "Only if it's agreeable that one portal is equivalent to one of my memories."
She approves his strategy but a look in her eye says she's going to pull one of her stunts. "Five for each one you choose."
"Two."
"Three, final offer."
"I said two."
"I minus two from five." Her regular sass returns with that annoying smirk she has.
Just as he's about to threaten her again, the setting begins to shake like a bell. Some femme voices yell and the chatter grows intense. In the mix, he hears a few cheers. All voices sound like they're right beside him but he sees no one but Sonica, who's looking up.
He notices her expression first; it's that stubborn yet slightly submissive look during those times he has gained a victory over her.
Megatron dares to look up.
Glowing optics swirl around in the light-absorbing darkness. They way they move, it seems like they walk on a transparent floor. Shuffling excitedly and causing the vicious shaking. They glance down at Sonica then lock onto him with great emotion; some angry, some curious, but mostly offended that he's trespassed.
The shaking slows and the bright optics vanish one by one until everything is quiet. Though the shaking has stopped, he has a sensation that echoes the shaking, rippling all the way down the cordial patch to his body.
He looks to Sonica, "Your sisters are all still here?"
Her eyes slowly fall from the view above to his own, "Yes. They cannot leave."
"What was that about?"
"Doradus the First is awake. She senses your presence and is waiting to see what I'm going to do about it."
He recalls her previous warning of getting lost.
"Only she knows how to tear a mind apart..." she grimly adds, "without using physical fingers."
He hides his concern.
"If you see a pair of white rings, she's here and looking at you."
Megatron moves cautiously as he can't fight the temptation to glance upwards. The setting remains black.
"Make your decision quickly, Megatron. If she decides to come here, I can't fight her- not like I can with dark energon."
He stares down at her, hoping for a lie. But where he stands gives all the evidence; he better swipe and run.
"Three and no more."
"Agreed." She nods solemnly and turns to the portals displayed as hard drives. Her finger points to one that's behind her.
"That one is filled with pain. My darkest memories are in there." She moves clockwise, "That one is gladness. Anger. Sorrow. And fear."
"That's not brief, that's vague." He frowns, "I will need a little more information than that."
She raises a brow at him, "Do you not understand some of those emotions?"
"I wouldn't have known what was inside disgust if that was all you said about it. How do I know gladness is anything other than your irritating laughter?"
Her smirk returns, "Point taken. You're lucky that I'm picky about my audiences." She gestures to each again, "Fear is more than me screaming- in case you were looking for something soothing- those are times I found myself in dire situations, including some of the ones you've already seen- I mean, felt. It also holds the times I worried about consequences to actions. Of which, I do a lot of so this one's pretty big.
"I'm sure anger is self-explanatory; your face is in there a lot. If you're not still disgusted with yourself after feeling the contents of disgust, this one would make an excellent 4D mirror. It also has my frustrating moments, bots I hate, and burning resolve of no longer taking people's slag.
"Gladness is more than my laughing but there is a lot of that in there. Along with friends and lovers, some of my most lit parties are in here and favorite songs... Good times, and many contents to make you jealous.
"Sorrow contains a lot of death; the bots I left behind and bots I failed to protect." She sighs, "Plus a lot of ugly crying. I've had more bad days than you've been online." It also contains some of her most sacred memories, like Breakdown's visit after he... Her arms wrap around her torso so she can hold it in. She'd rather Megatron not visit that one.
"So," She fakes the usual sass until it returns, "What lucky memory bank will you choose?"
Megatron smirks and strides to the one of gladness; the one she really didn't want him to choose. She confides in all her friends in there about her abilities; he must realize that too.
He sets a hand on the scanner and disappears.
The setting shakes again, and her sisters move more excitedly. Many eyes stop to look for him and they see him far off into her memories. Some glare disappointedly at her. All their voices whisper and one of the elder sisters asks:
Why are you letting him do this?
"Don't ask like you don't know, SinStorm, especially after deliberately lying to me." She glares back, "I am not going to end up like the rest of you."
The shaking intensifies and Sonica sees a glimpse of white rings in the distance. Her eyes drop to Megatron inside the portal. He's learned all of them save the silver energon.
She looks up again. The shadow of Doradus the First's essence strides over her and into the depth of her memories, where Megatron is.
Sonica dives in through a short-cut and pulls him back through by the collar of his armor. Naturally, he's not happy about it; he just started the memory where she shares her knowledge with Prime.
"We need to go."
She throws up some mental barriers between them and Doradus but it's only going to give them two nanokliks. After four of them, she threads their images back through the first portal.
Everything quakes with more ferocity; some of her sisters scream and duck out of the way and SinStorm laughs from the depths. The white rings set on them.
She takes his hand, "To your side. Go, go, go."
Megatron jumps and dives out with her in tow.
They tumble into a warm, lava-like setting with a large and pointed building overhead. She stands and glances over it.
"Good Primus..." She gives him a look, "Is this what you did to Kaon?"
Megatron gets a slight shudder that he's being watched. When he looks back the way they came, white rings stare up at him from a small hole.
He stands carefully, his gaze locked on it, "Can Doradus see us?"
"Sort of; not as clearly as you can see me and she can't hear anything- only because she didn't get ahold of you and use you as a key into your own mind. But like I said before, they can't leave."
He raises a brow and challenges, "How do you know?"
She mimics his look and tone, "Because I do, they are in my head after all. And do you think your little psychic toy is new?"
He stares again at the eyes peeping at him. Sonica glances over the scenery some more.
"By the way, you're welcome." She continues to mimic, "I could have just let Doradus destroy you but I didn't."
"Why are you here in my head and not your sisters?" He ignores her, this time.
"A psychic cordial patch only works on living bots, and, you so politely invited me."
"So they're dead?"
"...Yes." Sonica's sass dampens. How many of these questions does she want to answer, exactly?
"Why can they see me if they're dead? Why can they touch me?"
"That, I have yet to fully understand." That's a lie. Silver energon is the all-powerful connector and she's burning some as they stand there.
"Hm," He lightly strokes his chin with the tips of his fingers, "You must all be trapped inside your body."
"Drop it. Now honor your end of the deal."
He smirks, "What afterlife do you get, Sonica? An eternity in the body you once occupied?"
"I can surf your memories without your consent. I don't need a guide into your simple brain so shut it and move it, or else."
Because he knows she'll wait for him, he kills time to "think" about it. This topic could probably wait until she can no longer threaten him. He tucks it carefully away in his memories.
"Of course, my dear Sonica. Come on in."
