Sona reluctantly followed Jazz and Optimus back up through the rows and rows of cells. A couple prisoners shifted to watch them go, then went back to their hopeless lurking.

Optimus stood behind her and Jazz as they made their way back to the main hall. She shivered a few times when the strange feeling returned, and even though she sensed both bots' confusion, she continued on like nothing had happened.

They were almost back to the hall when she tripped over her own pedes, her nerves really beginning to settle in. Jazz and Optimus instinctively reached out to catch her, and she felt Optimus' servo grab her arm to steady her. The feeling was worse; something was rushing, rushing to get out; her servos were tingling, it felt warm and powerful, and they were starting to light up; it was going to spill over, her powers were coming out, she couldn't control it—

"NO!" she exclaimed quickly. She tripped the rest of the way and landed roughly on the ground. Her music box pinged a single, loud note – a B – then shut off. The light from her servos had gone down the instant she had pulled away, but she could still feel the powers there, restless and longing to burst free.

Optimus could activate her powers. Optimus had caused them to burst forth uncontrollably, and she had no explanation as to why. None of the Autobots knew about them; she knew little herself.

Primus, this was a lot. All she wanted was to disappear – disappear where no one could find her and she could live a life peaceful and free with her best friend. She could slip away; no one different, no one special, maybe just a little strange but not worth giving much thought to.

And nowhere near this War.

Sona realized she was still on the ground, locked in place by her own thoughts. No one had said anything after her outburst. She certainly wasn't doing a good job at becoming a distant memory.

She pulled herself back to standing. Remember, Jetfire would want you to give it a chance. You're doing this for Jetfire.

She continued walking forward into the main hall, two bewildered mechs beside her. She felt the curiosity burning inside them but ignored it.

Finally, they had arrived. Sona stood right outside the entrance, wary of the large crowd of bots talking and laughing. A few noticed the newcomers and greeted Optimus and Jazz, then gave her a peculiar look.

Optimus nodded his helm at other Autobots and stalked through the crowd, leaving Sona and Jazz together. The tension in her chest released.

They stood in silence for a moment before a red bot built similar to Soundwave greeted Jazz. "Hey, Jazz – was waitin' for you to start up some tunes. Figured a newly-formed band shouldn't start without their lead singer." She still missed Soundwave. She wished she had been able to—

He turned his gaze to Sona, whose thoughts cut off immediately. "Hey." She froze in panic. The bot turned back to Jazz, expecting an answer.

"Yeah, gimme a minute, Blast'. I'll be right over." The other bot nodded his helm and walked away.

Jazz turned to Sona. "Try and have a bit of fun. K? Talk to someone." He stepped away to leave, then stopped. She stood still. "Or stand there 'till someone talks to you – guess it works." He shrugged and left this time, following Blaster's path through the large crowd of Autobots.

Sona stood in place. She was honestly too frightened to move. The only times she had seen this many bots at once was when Megatron was assembling his armies – and they never mingled this freely with one another.

"Okay…" she breathed, taking in her surroundings. Bots were everywhere – drinking, talking, and beginning to crowd around a makeshift stage. Jazz, the red Autobot from before, and a few others were setting up equipment and some instruments she recognized, some she didn't. Those memories of Soundwave showing her the keys, teaching her the language of music, and praising her quick learning came flooding back. She thought about them more often than she wanted to admit. The songs were engrained in her processor, memorized in her music box.

If she could disappear, but take only one other bot besides Jetfire with her, it would be Soundwave. Erase the memories of Megatron and the Decepticons. Leave those precious moments, where she looked up to him like a caretaker or mentor.

But that wasn't life, and it wouldn't be for a while, she understood.

"Hey." She felt a tap on her shoulder and whipped around, coming face-to-face with a pair of bright blue optics and pink armor. "Sorry – didn't mean to startle you. You looked lonely," the bot said.

"Oh." Sona couldn't say much else. The bot in front of her was strikingly beautiful, and she looked so calm and serene, so patient as Sona pulled herself together.

"You know, it's alright to be afraid. This place is new. We're unfamiliar. You have every right to feel what you're feeling right now." She couldn't figure out how to start a conversation. This lovely bot was giving her advice, and she hadn't said a single word to provoke it. All she could do was stand uncomfortably, crossing her arms and gazing at the ground.

"You have some sort of ability, don't you?" Sona audibly gasped, her optics widening in fear. Primus, what? What did she know? Could she read minds? Could Optimus read minds and had told her something? Had she seen her trip? Was she somehow using them right now? Sona glanced down at her servos to check – nope, nothing. No flickers of light, no shocked faces standing around them. Nothing.

She sensed Sona's alarm and smiled gently. "I do, too. I can sense it from you." She lightly picked up Sona's left servo. "All those abilities came from Alpha Trion Prime, long ago." Sona met her gaze, a little confused, and the femme frowned worriedly at the expression in Sona's optics. "It's alright. Nothing's going to happen to you here because of it. I won't tell – it's your secret to keep, whatever your reasons."

Sona tried to still her beating spark. She pulled her servo away from the femme and wrung them together nervously, realizing she had to speak at some point. "I—it's—I'm sorry, but—who are you?"

The pink femme smiled warmly at her. "I'm Elita One. Sorry for the strange introduction, but – I couldn't help picking it up when you stepped in the room."

"What…do you know about them?"

"That they exist. And they're…different, somehow. Hybrid, maybe, from two worlds."

Sona debated speaking to Elita One. She was nervous and overwhelmed and afraid to give too much away. Still…Jetfire had wanted her to be happy, wanted her to be more trusting. And this bot already knew a huge secret; casual conversation certainly couldn't hurt anything, she supposed. "I'm Sona. I haven't been here long. I was the prisoner – from the Decepticon fortress."

Elita nodded in comprehension. "I wondered as much. You're brave to be here."

Her words caught Sona off guard. "Brave?"

"Trust can't be easy from where you came from. To speak here, to be here – yes, you're brave."

She felt a small part of her spark warm to Elita. She relaxed a little, tried to do the "mingling with others". "I didn't see much of the War, but – I suppose you're glad it's over."

"More than words can express. My team and I were based on Cybertron for a long time. To hear that the War was finally over – we were overjoyed. We came down to Earth the moment we could."

"I suppose you missed your friends here."

"And my family." Elita turned around and gazed lovingly at another bot. That bot was Optimus Prime, Sona quickly realized. He met her gaze and matched it. Sona tensed a little.

"Does he have – Optimus Prime have – abilities?" she asked warily.

Elita frowned a little in confusion, but answered, "No, not of that sort. I suppose you could consider the Matrix an 'ability', but it's not the same."

"Matrix? Of Leadership?"

"There's no other Matrix I've ever heard of," she replied. She gave Sona a peculiar look.

She had a book of fables on her datapad back at the fortress. Many were about The Thirteen Primes, and they had mentioned the Matrix of Leadership a few times. But those had been fables, short stories. "I've read about it. Not much, but I've heard of it," Sona explained.

"There's a library here, you know. If you're interested."

"Really?" Sona visibly brightened at the idea.

Elita smiled back at her. "Of course. You should go sometime, explore it a bit. And if you have questions, I'm sure Optimus would be willing to answer them for you."

Her excitement pulled back a little. "Optimus?"

"The Matrix knows a lot. If its history is that fascinating to you, I'm sure he could answer some questions."

She nodded her helm slowly. "We'll see," Sona replied. The thought of voluntarily talking to Optimus wasn't that appealing to her.

But what if Optimus knew even more about her than she did – about before she was taken by the Decepticons? Still, although the prospect of discovering the past thrilled her, she wasn't quite ready to open up that much to a different bot. Baby steps; she had already gone a couple steps by just talking to Elita.

"Just hold on, Sona. Adjusting here doesn't have to be easy; no one expects it to be. Just know that you are welcome here."

With those parting words, Elita One left Sona by herself again. She didn't know how to feel about Elita knowing so much about her already, but it was too late to take it back, now. And Elita's mention of Alpha Trion, and the Matrix…were these not just legends? Her helm was beginning to ache, so she decided to try and head back to her room, carefully dipping between the crowds to the elevator.

But before she reached it, the loud twang of a metallic instrument rang through her audio circuits. She turned around just in time to see Jazz and the other Autobots from before beginning their performance. They had started up some cheesy rock song that wasn't all that bad. Intrigued, Sona decided to listen for a bit.

Jazz was a fantastic singer, and the instrumentalists were almost as good. Sona couldn't help smiling even as the loud music shook the room. The other Autobots were cheering and dancing; some had clearly refueled a little too much. But they were happy, and they looked free and careless and almost the happiest that Sona had ever been. Taking in their joy filled her spark with such a warmth, such a pleasant feeling that she had only ever felt when next to her best friend.

She wished Jetfire could be up here, too. He wouldn't go too crazy with the rest of the crowd, but he would enjoy it. He'd be a little confused as to why it was so enjoyable, but he'd like it nonetheless.

They would both be free one day. The past wouldn't matter one day. She had hope it wouldn't.

It felt like years since she had been outside her cell. Between the tests and then the other tests and then refueling and then being too exhausted to do anything but lie against her berth, Sona hadn't gotten much of a break. Besides that, the Decepticon ship had had a rough landing. After a long siege and countless space-centered battles, the Nemesis had landed on a very distant planet. The damage sustained from the Autobot attacks had caused the ship to land in a large body of water, called an ocean. Construction on a Decepticon fortress had begun immediately, and weeks later, her and the other Decepticons had been transported via Astrotrain to the new Decepticon fortress.

It was much, much larger than the Nemesis, meaning her cell space was a lot larger. She wasn't content – there was no mistaking that – but the rhythm of her new life had started to settle in. It sucked, but every time she had tried to escape – powers or no powers – Shockwave's electric device had left her stunned and in excruciating pain. No way she was trying that again.

When the bars of her cage slid open and someone besides Shockwave stood in front, she couldn't hide her surprise.

"—Jetfire?" she asked, astonished.

"Hey, Sona."

Sure enough, it was the same young mech as before, with his mostly-white armor and seeker wings. He was very tall, she noticed, especially for a mech as young as him.

She hopped off her too-tall berth and peeked behind him; Shockwave was still there, always busy in his lab, but he stood farther back and was watching her with what she assumed was a look of disdain, from the twitch of his headfins.

"Come on," he said, offering her his servo. She reached out to take it but stopped and watched Shockwave for confirmation.

He seemed thoroughly annoyed, even as he nodded an OK. She took Jetfire's servo and stepped out of her cell, stretching out her tired limbs. Shockwave stepped up to the two young bots in that time, kneeling slightly beside Sona. She thought it was weird but kept her wide gaze fixed on his single optic.

"It's taking longer than anticipated. Some thought it would be unjust to keep you locked up all that time, so you get breaks." She waited for him to turn his harsh optic on Jetfire, but he never did. Who else could have said something, then?

She didn't contemplate it for long before she felt a sharp pinch between her lower and upper arm. She winced and turned her helm just in time to see Shockwave pulling the syringe away. Instantly, she felt a tad woozy, and she stumbled a little on her pedes.

"You can't use your powers with this," Shockwave said coldly. "Take her back in 1 Earth hour. No later." Shockwave directed these orders at Jetfire, who nodded once. Then he led Sona out of Shockwave's lab and into the hallway.

When they were out of earshot, Jetfire began explaining things to Sona. "Soundwave was the one who requested you be given time out of there. He…somehow doesn't seem as cold around you as he does everyone else."

"Soundwave…" she repeated. Then the lightbulb flicked on. "From before. Who came into my cell…when Shockwave…"

He didn't press for details and instead said, "But the compromise was that you have a guard and be unable to use your powers. So I volunteered." He looked a little embarrassed, but his admission made Sona smile a little.

"Oh."

Neither bot could think of something to say, and they stood awkwardly in silence. Jetfire realized he was still holding Sona's servo to lead her out and dropped it. Sona finally got up the courage to speak. "We don't have that much time. What should we do?" she asked.

"Well…we could walk around, I guess. The fortress is huge, but we can go outside for a little bit. This planet is beautiful," he added, making his way over to a large window built into the hallway wall. Sona followed him and looked outside, too.

"It is. We're awfully high up," she commented, peering down as far as she could. She bumped her helm on the glass and shook for a moment cause of the stun. Both bots laughed.

"Maybe…maybe we could see Soundwave," she said uncertainly. She glanced back out the window shyly.

"We can see if he's in his quarters, if you'd like," Jetfire offered.

She nodded her helm and followed Jetfire down the hallway. He kept looking back to make sure she was still there, and she teased him about watching where he stepped just as his pede caught on a doorway and he tripped. He laughed, too, then offered to race her down the hall.

She hesitated for a moment but then took off with him, zooming past the windows and dozens of closed doors. She could make out formations of Decepticon soldiers outside training, which would explain why the halls were so empty. A trine of young seekers sped past the window, and Sona skidded to a halt to watch them.

The three seekers expertly maneuvered around various hovering obstacles, completing tricks and aiming at targets while they did so. Other seekers followed behind – bigger and older ones training the younger ones, she supposed.

Jetfire stopped, too, and joined her at the window. His gaze was fixed more on her fascinated optics than the seekers' tricks.

"Why aren't you out there?" she asked.

"Volunteer. Remember?"

"Yeah, but…I'm sure someone else would have done it. Or been ordered to, at least," she shrugged.

"Maybe." Jetfire shrugged and turned back down the hallway. "It's still pretty far down."

Suddenly, Jetfire took on a whole new form. His gleaming white armor shifted and folded with his wings, until he was something else altogether. Before her optics, her new friend had turned into a plane! A powerful seeker plane, from the looks of it, bulkier and much different from the other seekers' frames.

"Wow! That's—wow!" Some of her shyness had melted away, and she struggled to contain her glee.

"Don't you have an alt mode?" he asked, still hovering in jet form.

She examined her basic armor – no wheels, no wings, nothing to indicate she had an alternate mode. Still, she tried taking on a new form, anyway, but nothing happened. "No. Not much use when you sit in a cell all day."

"But you weren't always like that. What about before?"

"I…still don't remember," she admitted.

"Oh." Although she couldn't see his expression in alt mode, Sona could sense his sadness, as strong as her disappointment. He remained hovering for another awkward moment. Transforming back, he suddenly said, "Well, then hop on!"

Her optics widened in confusion. "What?"

The thrusters on his back and pedes sparked to life, and he hovered in the air again. He tipped a little off-balance for a moment, but then caught himself. "I can give you a ride…" he trailed off shyly, unable to meet her optics for a moment. "I mean, that is, if you want…"

She was considerably smaller than her friend, and he had offered. He held out his servos to hold her, and she awkwardly climbed on, sitting piggyback. He fired his thrusters up some more and turned his helm to look at her the best he could. "You ready?"

She held on tight. "I think so."

He smiled and turned forward, then took off at full-speed down the hallway. Sona gasped from the sudden burst of speed and clung tighter, but then gradually loosened her hold. She was beginning to trust Jetfire, she realized, as she allowed herself a small smile and then a laugh as they flew down the hallway. The windows and doors fell back in a blur as they made their way to Soundwave's room.

She gasped again from a sudden sharp turn but smiled in excitement as she did. After a few more turns and accelerations, Jetfire slowed to a rough halt outside a large closed door. He turned off his thrusters and landed. Sona carefully hopped off his back, then stared up at the large sliding door.

"Do we…knock or something?" Sona asked.

"I don't actually know," Jetfire admitted. He took a cautious step forward and raised his fist to knock, but before he could, the doors slid open on their own. The two younglings jumped back, startled.

The other side of the door revealed it hadn't opened of its own accord; Soundwave stood next to the doorframe, glancing down at the two of them.

Both were frozen slightly in fear, Jetfire more so than Sona. Soundwave's minicons had gathered by the door, too, and regarded the younglings with their master.

Without a word, Soundwave stepped to the side, revealing a bunch of instruments Jetfire didn't quite recognize. Sona seemed confused, too, until she spotted one among the rest of them. She stepped inside, and Jetfire followed warily behind as she made her way to a rectangle-shaped instrument with black and white keys. It was a little tall for Sona, but she pulled a chair over from nearby and began to play.

Her servos flew across the keys, a lovely melody that Jetfire quickly recognized. It was the same one she had hummed and played her music box with the day she met Soundwave and Jetfire. It was just as beautiful and emotional as he remembered, with the ever-changing dynamics and gorgeous melody reflected in a new timbre. When she had finished, she turned slowly back to the others.

Jetfire couldn't hide his shock; his expression mimicked hers when he had transformed for her the first time. Except, he thought, this was much more impressive. Jetfire had absolutely no idea what the device was, but Sona had manipulated it seamlessly. He thought about applauding but decided against it, unable to understand Soundwave's expression from his stoic demeanor.

But Sona saw it. He lifted his helm slightly, demonstrating pride and astonishment the best he could. She smiled slightly at him, then hopped down in front of Jetfire, who still couldn't find words. She smiled at him, too, then turned her gaze back to Soundwave.

"That's…all I know how to play. Could you…teach me some of the others, maybe?" she asked shyly. She grimaced and fidgeted nervously, a little surprised at her own boldness.

No reply came from Soundwave. He stood still, as if taken aback that she was bold enough to ask him a question. Soundwave's minicons were watching him, too, expecting some sort of answer out of their stoic master. The cat-like one stalked over to Sona, reaching out its helm for her to pet. She obliged, and it purred happily.

Then Soundwave spoke, and all attention was turned to him. "Of course."

Those two words sent smiles through both Jetfire and Sona. Sona seemed much less afraid of Soundwave now and had certainly warmed to Jetfire. "Thank you," Sona told Soundwave. She was still a little too shy to elaborate, but Jetfire knew that that 'thank you' went far beyond the surface.

And Sona knew that Soundwave was giving her a gift greater than music. It was kindness, a small glimmer of caring underneath the injustices that were and would be inflicted upon her. Her life wasn't going to be easy. She would break down, wish for anything but to be alive at times, rebel at others, then break down again and again. But somehow, something had to keep her holding on. And somehow, something would.

Those precious moments with Soundwave and Jetfire had been her happiest ones.This exact moment – the one she was living in right now, and now, and now, could have topped that had she had Jetfire by her side. She couldn't think about Soundwave without her painful final moments with him coming back up.

But this moment wasn't the happiest. And the lack of a friendly presence by her side was the very reason she wanted to leave this place. She couldn't deny she was still frightened and uncertain of the Autobots, and that was enough to make her want to leave this place, but Jetfire being imprisoned had truly solidified her longing to leave. No more prisons, no more cages, for either of them – that's what she needed.

The song had ended, and the room erupted in cheers and applause. Sona applauded, too, but her mind was still a bit distant. Only her name echoed through the microphone could draw her out of it.