Sonica transforms back into bot form just a few seconds before Megatron and Soundwave do. Knockout is already there from the ground bridge with some tools to measure the strange phenomena surrounding the mountain.
Just because Sonica is enjoying the errand, she waits until Soundwave and Megatron land before glancing over the three of them.
"Thanks for coming guys. This is great."
Megatron ignores her and strides towards Knockout, "What have you found?"
Standing next to a condensed toolbox of all detector types and meters, he turns to Megatron with two smaller ones in one hand and a larger, much older one in the other.
"I'm afraid I don't have much to report, Lord Megatron. Outside of mechron waves, I'm not getting anything else." He glares at one of the smaller ones, "This one seems to detect some crystoria mineral deposits but it's slight and intermittent. I'm beginning to think it's broken. I've only known that mineral to be within..."
"Cybertron's underground caves." Megatron finishes.
"Well," Sonica shudders involuntarily, "we are skipping around on Unicron's filthy, undusted armor plating."
That shudder reminded her that this fun will have to be brief. Standing on Unicron in closer proximity to dark energon than the Matrix is a big risk. Hopefully, Knockout and Soundwave make enough of a counter weight to get her through a ground bridge should things get crazy.
She watches Megatron look over the assumed broken detector when a shadow comes up her.
Soundwave.
She looks at him from under her brow, "Long time, no speak. How have you been?"
Naturally, he gives no obvious response...but he's also not giving any others.
She notices Laserbeak is gone; he must be helping Knockout investigate.
"Well hey," she tries a charming smirk, "thanks for coming anyway."
There's a sharp pulse of static in a private area that makes her jump and turn around.
Laserbeak hovers and recoils his tube-like arms.
Sonica looks back at Soundwave who wears a still of her sly smirk.
She glares, "You're a glitch."
"There seems to be no other option," Megatron takes all the attention of the group, "we'll walk in and find out ourselves."
"Most powerful goes first," Sonica skips to the front. On her way, she gives him a smile in hopes of a reaction. There is none. He's too mature.
Soundwave follows and Knockout takes the rear after packing everything up.
Sonica takes time to appreciate the beauty of the earth, despite its location on Unicron's aft. The colors of the rock are striped with different shades of orange and white. The greenery is a lovely contrast as it climbs up the stone and grows in long patches in the soft sandy parts. Some bright flowers speckle the greenery and even explode near their feet as they walk by. The stripped stone gradually swallows the path and their already tall heights.
The rock continues to jut down from the ceiling and puncture the floor to match their eye level. The light slowly fades, and shadows become thicker.
And so does a creeping dread in Sonica's gut; and it's not due to Soundwave walking so closely behind her. (She's not sure if he's doing that to pester or "help".)
Familiarity is setting in like a pin through a hole, but no memories are appearing in her mind.
Her sisters shuffle within and a few beg Doradus for Sonica to know but she refuses, to the dismay of many. She has sound and music but no pictures. Her body seems to know more about this place than she does as she fights to hide shaking hands.
What IS this place?
Something in the air tickles her exterior, like a chill down her spinal frame, and it inflames such a fear that she leaps, arches away reeling, and once ground is under her feet, she turns to run. Auto-reactions completely take over and her mind shuts off all thought.
She weaves around Soundwave but runs smack into Megatron.
It's not the physical impact that stuns her but the wall of dark aura slamming into her. Her automatic reflexes tense with greater fear and the feeling of being trapped. She's frightened for someone but there are no faces, no names. She's scared someone else is going to get hurt as well as herself, but that's all the specifics she's allowed before Megatron tosses her into Soundwave's arms.
He grapples her to hold still and look at him but her flight instinct wriggles her free. Knockout had already dropped the toolbox he carried and came over just before she ran into him. His soft reassurances calm her but she has no conscious control of hiding her shaking. But her mind returns, trying to make sense of everything.
"I'm...just scared... all of the sudden."
Megatron hears and a smirk twists a corner of his mouth, "Scared? What of, Sonica?"
"I don't know exactly," She glances around nervously.
Knockout meets eyes with Megatron and immediately, the warlord can tell he knows something. His urging glare gets it out of him.
"Doradus the First told her about this place. All she said was she needed to come here to learn something."
He almost chuckles, "She's getting tired of you too, is she?"
"That's not it," Sonica steps back from Knockout, "I'm here to learn how to undo something that happened long ago."
Megatron raises a brow but reflects a moment, "Ah, the curse you believe in? Is that it?"
"It's none of your business regardless."
She walks forwards again and the tickle returns. This time, she keeps her head on, and forces herself to walk through. Doing that, felt the equivalent of staring off into Cybertron's lifeless horizon. Somehow, she's walked into death.
Murderer chuckles, stretches and reclines, ~Get comfortable, Sonica. You're going to be here for the rest of your life cycle and beyond~
Knockout comes up beside her, again checking if she's alright. Just as he reads dreadful regret on her expression, the toolbox in his hand starts to beep, tweet, and buzz.
Soundwave stands at the other side of her from Knockout. He, and Megatron behind them, wait for him to read the meters and detectors.
He does so a bit hesitantly as he keeps glancing at Sonica's frozen terror. The energon detector is red lining and pressing to the far right. Others measuring waves and particles are acting similarly or pointing dead center.
"I don't know how but..." he looks up at his superiors, "those last few steps made a difference?"
"The shielding," Megatron recalls, "Perhaps preventing discovery to protect the loot within."
"No,"
They look at Sonica as her optics dim.
"We walked into a trap."

Megatron's head whirls her direction, "You had better be joking."
The emotion gets too heavy for her to stand and she falls to her knees. Knockout drops a couple of the meters, risking breaking them, and tends to her the best he can.
Soundwave looks back and starts to retrace their steps. He keeps his hands up as he walks, and he strides past the marks in the dirt from Sonica's leap of instinctual terror. He makes it through without a problem.
Soundwave turns back to Megatron who follows him and exits also without a hitch. He's only confused for a moment before his mind makes a connection. He strides back in and grabs Sonica's arm.
She winces, flails, and kicks and begins to summon energon to help but his grip cuts into her abilities. She starts to curse and yell for release. A few times, she threatens him, but it does nothing as he drags her for the estimated barrier.
He walks across the same impressions in the soil and a sudden, unseen, block rips Sonica's arm out of his grasp.
She falls onto the dirt and it splashes her face. Sitting up, gingerly, she glares at Megatron as Soundwave starts drawing a line with his finger.
Megatron's laugh starts as a chuckle before it builds into full blown cackling; reading the despair on her face that she knows she will not be escaping trouble. He bends, hammers his leg, and arches back as it erupts out of him at top volume and echoes up and down the rough stone. He bends in half again as it barely starts to ebb but when he looks back down at her glaring, it starts over.
Sonica starts getting information about the trap while he does this. Doradus can't stand his laughing. With the new knowledge, Sonica is able to get comfortable in the dirt as Knockout examines her partially crushed arm.
Megatron continues for a few more moments as the laughter escapes in bounds and spurts. Finally, the humor lows to a simple but wide grin.
"All my patience is paid off at last."
Knockout begins working on repairs and mutters just to her, "Are you alright?"
"I will be,"
"Are you really stuck here?"
"I have a theory about how to get out. This one will hopefully keep me online this time."
"What?"
"The best part is," Megatron behaves like he's in a blissful awe, "the Autobots will never find you here. I'm the only one that knows! I could not have asked for a better outcome!"
Knockout tries to ignore Megatron, "What are you going to do?"
"Handle it. Don't worry."
"I always worry about you."
She shares a brief smile with him before she stands. When she brushes herself off, some dust clouds form. "Don't get too excited, Megs. I've escaped this trap once, and I can do it again."
"Oh?" Megatron settles as he eyes her, "How did you manage that?"
She can tell him, she has a new and better plan, "It took a tidal wave of energon and a past life but there are..."
"Wait, wait," he puts a hand up, "you had to kill yourself last time and you fell for it again..."
That was meant to put out his victory flames, not make them worse; wrong "water". Refusing to dwell in humiliation, Sonica forces the emotion aside. The situation confirms she's funny; who else has made aft-king laugh so hard? Besides, she's not here because of something they did, she's here to undo the curse she's under. Doradus said she must learn the hard way and that's what's she is willing to do. If this is what it takes to be free from the curse, so be it. No amount of ridicule is going to change her mind.
She turns around to face Knockout, who looks embarrassed for her. With effort, she shares another comforting smile.
While Megatron carries on, she invites Knockout to explore with her by a simple head nod. They don't get very far.
"Sonica! Knockout!"
He turns around instantly. She moves dramatically and slowly.
"You looked like you were having a good time, Megs, I didn't want to interrupt."
Megatron catches up to them, without Soundwave. No doubt, he's sent him to look for the source of the shield so they can utilize it.
She knows they won't be able to do anything with it. It's deep underground within Unicron's armor. The titan made it so it's the titan's version of tiny: about five Nemesis ships combined and it's impossible to reach.
Megatron towers over her and the dark energon wafts heavily in her face like a smoke cloud, "You will not be permitted to explore this trap until I have seen everything."
"Trap? You mean my new home?" She grins evilly as Murderer takes in another breath of the dark aura, "I'll say, it's so nice having my own place instead of your stuffy float boat."
He shoves her. She stands her ground and starts to lunge back, her eyes beginning to glow violet again.
Knockout embraces her before she touches Megatron. He talks softly to her and she cools after a cycle. That was a faster escalation than usual.
Sonica is aware and realizes it's due to her earlier embarrassment; it acted like a trigger.
"My Liege, I suggest you keep your distance, and if there's a way to get her back on the ship, we should, if we don't want to lose her."
"She's trapped here," Megatron gestures, "if it gets complicated, we can just leave without her."
"I'll be fine," she tells Knockout with a low volume, "there are loads of regular energon under us. I should be alright."
Knockout insists on staying by her side with one arm around one another's waists.
They travel the rest of the cave that way. After a while of darkness and weaving around boulders, they come into a clearing.
It's perfectly circular, and large enough to fit Megatron's ship inside. The walls are nearly clean cut. Flat spots between the jagged areas are frequent up the entire length of the walls and the hard ground is leveled smoothly. The same floor travels into tall entrances. They count seven other openings; the eighth is the one they stand in.
Soundwave steps in from the fifth one to their right. He gives Megatron a slight shrug to whatever question he wore in his expression.
Sonica walks out into the center after assuring Knockout that she was doing better. "This is it." She gestures, "Underneath me are units after units of energon."
"Then it's here, that we'll begin to mine." Megatron announces then eyes her, "If you want my help out of this trap, you will give me true, clean samples of the other energon types. You have until we drain this place dry."
"Then I have lots of time, Megs. Go up to your ship and see it it's scanners can tell you exactly how much is below."
He sneers before turning and asking for a ground bridge. The worker attempts it, and nothing happens. Megatron commands the worker to try a few more things but there are no positive results.
"Oh yeah, you can't use a ground bridge in here. Not only was it made to prevent me from using one to get out, but it's to contain me and anything that might resemble me. Remember bridges have a mimic of silver inside?"
He glowers at her; she waited to tell him that.
"How would you like to proceed, Megs? Would you like my help for a price?"
He almost smirks, "Not if your price is to let you keep the samples I desire."
"Cool, I'll sit and watch then. Should be entertaining for the next...hundred stellar cycles or so."
"We'll see about that," Megatron starts his walk before transforming, "I always get what I want."

"I need all hands to participate to make this happen. Anyone who even dares to hint at this plan, will be...removed. It's not difficult and I have confidence that all will execute their rolls well."
Soundwave cuts the feed to the troupes.
Megatron turns to Knockout beside him, "Are you going to be able to perform your part or do you need to stay aboard the ship for the entirety of the project?"
"I can do it, my Liege."
"Be sure you do," Megatron glares down his height at him, "it would be more convincing to have you down there to attend to the 'weary' workers."
After being dismissed, Knockout walks away, deep in thought.
How did he get into this mess? He's still hiding some things from Megatron but it's to protect Sonica and he's also hiding things from Sonica to help Megatron. It would be simpler if he could just choose one.
He thinks of Breakdown and Sonica's story about visiting her. It sounds just like him; he'll bond with anyone who's kind to him. Breakdown chose Sonica... For as long as he can remember, it's always been Autobot or Decepticon, and he chose the team certain to win. He's not much of a warrior but someone should survive this war.
What does he do? Can he choose or does Breakdown have an advantage being dead? As Knockout is now, he needs to figure this out.

Ratchet examines his communicator. He can hear Sonica's voice, but the screen isn't giving any visual.
Optimus and the others are waiting as Ratchet tells her what's going on.
"Don't worry about it. It's working. I'm just in a bad area right now." The transmition crackles through the speaker. "For now, silver energon can only do sound. It'll be that way indefinitely."
Optimus motions politely and Ratchet hands the communicator to him, "What would be restricting the silver energon?"
"It's good to hear your voice, Optimus. I'm so sorry about how I left off last time. I can explain everything."
He ushers her kindly to continue and she begins at the beginning with Doradus the First.
She was the first spark forged after the Thirteen Primes. They were her teachers, mentors, protectors, and elder siblings. She absorbed their wisdom and knowledge plus their talents; including the energon types and their source gems, which she holds within her body.
Doradus only became a "fountain", by the city of Doradus- the first city of Cybertron after the war between Primus' Thirteen and Unicron. Her original role was to be a library of sorts, if the Matrix was taken from the inhabitants. Her abilities were meant to cater to her precious cargo. Her fragile body and mortality was given to prevent abuse.
Then Unicron surprised them by returning from his defeat.
It was a long, grueling, and difficult war and the city of Doradus was lost in the crossfire. Unicron discovered Doradus and her abilities as she saved one of the Thirteen, inspiring him to set a customized trap, containing a tempting amount of energon and...
"And?" Bee ushers.
Sonica thinks carefully, "I don't remember. But I know there was something else that lured her there. The energon was tempting but not irresistible."
Arcee is anxious, "Than what? Was she trapped?"
"Yes," she sighs, "and we tried everything to get out."
Doradus was able to find the source of the shield but it was heavily protected by another identical shield. She couldn't reach it and it couldn't be moved without her captor knowing. None of the types could break it or fool it. For a while, she feared that she would be there forever. Other options included her demise and she didn't feel the time was right. After all, she was just about to tell the city of Doradus about the types; the Primes thought them worthy.
Unicron, while wounded and aware of his impending doom, he attached her trap to his armor and formed a hex of sorts:
I curse you, Doradus, until I can possess you again, your body will reincarnate. Your spark shall re-ignite from the fragments of your true self. You will not enter the AllSpark until my curse is fulfilled. You will be mine to destroy the Primes and with your added powers, I will defeat Primus.
His words burned like quasar, temporarily stripping her of all abilities, and the casting came at the tip of his finger. Upon touching her, the curse was implanted. The pain threatened to melt her as it changed her. In a way, he re-animated her like one of his undead.
The ambush of the Thirteen immediately followed. Finding her trapped on his armor, they fought cautiously to preserve her, crippling themselves.
That was what lead her to make the tidal wave of energon, from the units below her, to thin the shield enough that she could break through. She didn't die like she'd hoped. When she awoke, she was behind the mind of Doradus the Second, later re-named as SinStorm.
A new story began that caused more conflict but ultimately lead to Doradus being terminated again to bring her back to the Twelve Primes remaining, as Lortune. They tried to undo her curse, but their greater sources were limited. With Primus at rest, there was nothing they could do.
Sonica concludes with her current location and explains the reasons to how the silver energon is restricted. It connects just enough, by a fine, narrow thread, to get audio through the shield to them.
"This is bad," Arcee rubs at her forehead with a finger, "how are we going to get you out of there?"
"You won't. I'm not done here."
"Sonica," Ratchet tenses, "Megatron will no doubt barter for the types..."
"He already has." Sonica sighs, "And..."
Optimus clutches the communicator and leans over it as he brings it to his face, "Don't do it. We will get you out of there."
"You can't, Optimus. With the Matrix having an amount of silver energon in it, you could get stuck here too. My key out is Megatron...my possible cure to this curse is Megatron."
The air about them freezes and cracks.
Sonica's voice shakes, "If Megatron knows about the types, it could lure Unicron out again so I can confront him. That should break the curse."
~You're not going to win,~ Murder sings in her head, ~the moment he looks you in the optics, you'll go bonkers. Doradus the First was unable to resist and you're all cheap imitations of her.~
Her eyes dim as the Autobots aren't saying anything.
Murderer's voice becomes louder than usual and it cuts, ~It's cute and all...that you're trying to get rid of me, but you know that you'll join your sisters where I can keep an eye on you until Unicron returns. Stop making a big deal out of nothing~
"Please," her voice waivers, "say something."
Optimus' spark aches, "We're here, Sonica. There is much to think about." He's got nothing; no ideas.
The others are quiet but not by choice. They hear her pain and they wish to comfort her, but if she can barely stand to be around Megatron with a single shard of dark energon, how is she to face a titan fueled by it?
She can't see them, but the silence gives her all the evidence. Her anger flickers desperately under the soaking pain, "I...I can do this. I don't have to live like an observer who can't join the living because of secrets, and I won't get left behind when my friends join the AllSpark. I hate my existence...I just want to change it."
Arcee cringes and looks down. Bee wrings his hands and Bulk slides a hand down his face. Ratchet looks to Optimus dispiritedly and finds the Prime shutting his eyes tightly.
"Sonica," He begins heavily, "Unicron cannot be allowed to obtain the contents you carry..."
"Don't. I already have a plan. I have to try."
Ratchet clenches his fists, "You risk ending everything. The way you've described how you lose consciousness under dark energon influence..."
There's a click and the connection ends. The silo is silent and dense, like the bottom of an ocean trench.
Sonica sits in her private nook that she found in the first tunnel. It leads to a room fit for Doradus. A self-charging cleaning station, recharge bed, and elegant, shimmering decor hanging from the ceiling and doorway. Sheer, dark blue fabric weaves between the gold decor, making stripes across the ceiling and flowing down the walls a few centimeters. In the dim light from the lamp in the corner, the dark blue looks almost black.
Her spark feels like it could snuff itself out. She's on her own...as she always has been...always will be.

Soundwave gets Megatron's attention and he turns away from the screens that are calculating for the fourteenth time what amounts lie below. It gives them a different number each time. It seems only Sonica can see the total amount.
Soundwave shows him a video feed from the tube-lift of the ship.
Sonica stands in the center, floating with her arms out, absorbing all the energon into her frail frame.
Megatron scrutinizes this; as much as he'd like to think she's doing this for him, she's likely doing this to keep him from emptying the mine. If he doesn't contain the load, she has another bargaining chip. She needs to be stopped.
He flies down the tube, transforms, and lands immediately behind her to her right.
"Sonica, what do you think you're doing?"
"Helping. Where do you want it?"
He grins but he keeps it to himself, "What did I do to be deserving of such kindness?"
"Nothing." Her voice is strangely dead, "I'm just doing it."
"What do you want in return?"
"Your assistance out of this fragged up place."
He's hearing all he wants to hear but he's suspicious. "I thought you were just going to watch. My price for the types has not changed."
The energon stops just half a nanoklik before she whirls around, "I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT. STOP ASKING ME RETARDED QUESTIONS."
Her volume rings up the tube-lift and crinkles the surrounding rock. All the troupes are stopped and watching. The thick silence fills the area from the locked stare between her and Megatron.
The only movement in the stillness, is the narrowing of Megatron's optics. "That energon you're filling up on, is mine. If you keep it, I have full right to open you up to get it."
She returns to the harvest, "So be it. I don't care anymore."
Megatron warily decides to let her cool down from whatever mood she's in. She's not usually self-destructive. He doesn't trust it. If she's faking it, he needs time to learn her intentions. However, if it's real, she's too powerful to push back at the moment, but later, she'll be more workable. Had he known it could be this easy, he should've found a way to trap her sooner.