The lab was bleak – dark, grey, and humming with machinery. Lights built into the ceiling shone with a cold brightness; the lab was so well-kept that not even faint lines of dust swirled down from them. Energy containment cells sat built into the wall on the far right of the large room, their electric bars turned off while they weren't being used.
All except two, one being the furthest to the right and noticeably larger than the others. Here the bars were almost never turned off, humming with power all through the days and nights. A nice berth, a small seat and table, and a low-lying shelf took up a good portion of the cell's space. Young Sonatina sat on the chair, mindlessly humming while her blue-violet optics soaked in every word on the pages of the story.
She had finally found an interesting-sounding story after browsing the rather limited library on the datapad. Of course, she had read even the boring stories: anything to keep her distracted in her long hours of solitude. She would rather be thinking the thoughts and feeling the feelings of the characters than facing the dark truths in her own helm; there would be plenty of time for those later.
The story was reaching its climax. She leaned forward in her chair, nearly falling out as she followed along closely. Solus and Megatronus were arguing as Alpha Trion watched on, narrating the growing intensity. He stepped closer, and closer, saw the Requiem Blaster in their servos, made a choice and turned away, but then…
"Turn that off," a voice suddenly said angrily, snapping her back to the real world. Her spark started pounding. She turned her gaze ever so slightly away from the back wall and towards the cell bars.
Shockwave was standing a few yards back, bent over some sort of testing device and training his one large optic towards her. She clicked the data pad off and turned to face him, frustrated at having been interrupted but also fearful of what he wanted.
She met his gaze and kept it steady, willing herself to hold on despite her discomfort. She could tell from his posture that he was attempting a condescending glare, although with one optic that was hard to pull off. She refused to release her gaze; she didn't want him to have any more power over her than he already had.
"What have I told you?" he growled, putting down his tools and standing to his full height.
She remained silent, unsure what he was referring to.
"Keep the fragging music box off while I'm working. Unless you'd like me to ruin these samples, hmm? Would you rather me stick you with the needle again?"
"No," she said after a beat. She hadn't even realized her music box was playing until he had yelled at her. She realized that she had been humming while reading, so the music box probably clicked on subconsciously. Since the music box was literally a part of her, that happened a lot.
Shockwave slowly turned around and went back to his work. Sona kept her gaze straight until she was certain he wasn't going to turn back around, then turned back to the story. She clicked the datapad back on and read through the last little bit of it. It didn't seem so climactic now, after being pulled out of her zone.
She clicked the datapad off and stared at the wall, her feelings numb from frustration and confusion. She quickly snapped out of it, though, when she heard a faint scraping coming from outside her cell. Her fear peaked again, and she almost dared herself to not turn around. Whatever Shockwave was doing, it couldn't be anything good. But she braced herself and slowly turned back around, only to take in a horrible sight:
A poor, weary bot was being dragged roughly by the arms towards the cells. Sona had noticed the smaller cell right next to her had its electric bars turned on, but she hadn't given much thought to it. Not nearly as much as she should have, she realized.
Shockwave pressed the button on the side of the cell and practically threw the poor bot inside, activating the electric bars and leaving the new prisoner lying on the ground in shock. He didn't even acknowledge Sona's gaping expression as he gathered a few tools and left the lab. He turned and went out the door, leaving the two prisoners alone in their cells.
She hesitated for a moment; other prisoners weren't common among the Decepticons. It was even more uncommon for them to place a prisoner in the same wing as Sona, perhaps for fear if they escaped, they would try to free her, too. Which meant, from Shockwave's carelessness, this prisoner was in no shape to fight back and had no chance of being released.
She hadn't seen another prisoner next to her in a while; the last one to come in hadn't lasted a day before Shockwave injected him with a strange serum, accidentally killing him instantly. He had left the bot to rust for several days; Sona would never forget the smell of the rust and energon leaking from the torture wounds. She had watched the guards drag away the corpse, heard something about "melting it down for scrap".
Her fear of the past and this bot's future haunted her processor, but she forced herself to stand on her berth and peer inside the next cell from the small, barred window in the wall. An older bot with flaking silver armor was beginning to pick himself up, his limbs shaky as he pushed himself into an uncomfortable sitting position.
Sona glanced out of the cage one more time to make sure Shockwave hadn't come back. "Are you alright?" She kept her voice down nervously, even though she knew it was only the two of them.
The new prisoner trained his dull optics up to the window, still shaking slightly. "I-I-I think so," he stammered. He wound his servos together, jumping a little as Sona shifted her weight on the berth.
"Sorry." She fell silent, unsure what else to say. How were you supposed to make conversation with a bot you knew would be dead soon?
"T-this is Shockwave's lab…isn't it?" He visibly shuddered as he said this.
"Yes," she replied. More curious than nervous now, she asked, "You know him?"
"I can't believe you'd even call that hunk of junk a 'him'." His stammering was gradually starting to ease now. "He's horrible. A monster! —no, worse. Some mindless, twisted brute who takes pleasure in ripping open your insides, and injecting you with horrible things. Slowly carving your spark out with his little scalpel, while he stabs you with a needle to measure your fear. Chopping off pieces of you, little by little, to see how long it takes you to bleed out, and-and-and-and-and-and—"
Sona couldn't help this poor bot. He was under Shockwave's control now, just like her. The only difference was his escape would come a lot sooner than hers. The fear in his optics matched her own, even as his voice stuck on a repetitive loop. His shock and fear were terrorizing him, blanketing his processor with demonizing thoughts and horrifying outcomes. Sona knew the feeling all too well. Still, even as she stood helplessly in her own cage, she wished there was some way she could reach out to this bot, comfort him even in his moments of greatest fear.
His loop gradually slowed down, until it had faded out entirely. He heaved his chest loudly and stood up, walking over to the small berth in the corner and sitting down. He gripped the edges of it, rocking slightly on his feet while his helm hung towards the ground.
It took Sona a moment to realize her music box had started playing again. She had even less control over it now than she used to. Activating her music box had always been sort of a subconscious thought, but it was happening more and more often lately. It was hard to fight the feeling that something was trying to break free, to pull her out of this cage and burst into the sky.
The bot next to her swayed slightly with the music. He seemed a lot calmer now, his shoulders less tense and his rocking subsiding. Its music did that for her, too – gave her the slightest bit of hope even in those moments when she just wanted everything to end. Those moments happened more and more now that she had been a prisoner for so long. Even though she wanted to pull herself free, had the faith she could, it was constantly crushed by the darkness that loomed above.
She began to sing lightly along with the music box, a bright and beautiful and…
She cried out as an electric shock suddenly burst through her. She fell off the berth and crashed loudly to the ground, banging her helm. Another burst passed through her, and she pressed her pounding helm to the floor, shivering as she waited for it to pass.
She could barely force herself to look outside her cage. Shockwave was there, standing on the other side of the bars and holding a small device in one servo. His optic was fixed harshly on her limp form, daring her to move.
He said nothing, just walked away and left her lying on the floor of her cage. She clutched the spot on her chest where the music box was, tucked away safely. She loved the music box, loved its light, enchanting timbre. And singing with it – that brought a joy no other could rival. The sound of her own light voice turning any song into a lullaby brought such peace into her spark, such warmth. And the knowledge that she had been able to provide the prisoner next to her some comfort, some peace in his dark time, kept her spark alive and fighting.
This quick moment gave her the strength to clumsily pull herself off the ground and onto her berth. She lied down and tucked her helm partly into her chest, still wincing from the shocking pains and an aching helm. Her music box had clicked on again in her thoughts, and now she was clutching herself in pain, wishing for something to put her out of this misery. As beautiful as the music was, it often proved more of a curse than a blessing. And she already had enough to deal with.
"It's becoming even more random now. I wasn't even humming – just thinking – and it clicked on. I didn't even notice it, and now—"
She faltered slightly, curling her servos into fists from the throbbing pain in her helm. Jetfire quickly caught her, helping her pull herself back to balance. She smiled gratefully and continued walking alongside him.
"I'm so sorry, Sona. Shockwave's just…I don't even know the terminology I should use to describe it."
"Aloof? Sociopathic? Psycho?" She sighed. "I don't know." She spotted a little seat on the grounds and sat down. Jetfire sat beside her. She gazed up into the sky, watching the seekers do their rounds above the fortress.
"You're supposed to be up there with them," she said. Jetfire gazed up with her.
"Technically, I was assigned for guard duty today for you, so…no, I'm not supposed to be up there," Jetfire retorted.
Sona couldn't help but smile. Jetfire was a very down-to-earth bot, but he possessed a compassion greater than most bots like him. Sona knew he switched with the other guards when he could get away with it just to keep her company for a short hour. He was her lifelong friend, and her appreciation for him went deeper than he could ever know.
"It has to be a lot more fun doing—" She waved her hands in an awkward circular motion as one seeker performed a complicated loop in midair "—whatever that's called."
Jetfire laughed. "You can be fun when you want to," he insisted. She sighed and turned her gaze to the ground. She could sense him analyzing her mood disapprovingly.
Jetfire suddenly smiled and reached into his subspace. Sona felt his mood shift and turned around curiously as he pulled out a datapad – clearly not his own, judging from his devious expression. She couldn't help but smile with him as he powered it on.
"I was able to get ahold of Starscream's datapad again," he whispered. She giggled slightly as he pulled up the first picture and started swiping through.
Her smile only grew as they swiped through Starscream's weird, derpy, and occasionally downright-inappropriate photos. "Wait, wait, wait!" she exclaimed when he swiped past one in particular.
She snatched the datapad from Jetfire's servos and instantly cracked up at the photo. It looked like the photo was originally intended to be nice and professional, but that was quickly ruined as Swindle walked directly in front of Starscream in the middle of scratching his behind. The best part by far was Starscream, who had glanced down at Swindle's behind in shock but forgotten to stop smiling. The result was quite the image, and depending on the viewer could be interpreted in many different ways.
Sona was laughing so loudly and refusing to hand the datapad back. She shared her insights with Jetfire, who laughed loudly along with her. He leaned over to try and take it back, but he stumbled from his own laughter and fell back into his seat. Both young bots laughed even more, giving Jetfire the chance to swipe the datapad back. This time Sona made a grab for it, but being much shorter than Jetfire, she fell over his lap and caught herself with her servos. Both continued laughing as she struggled to pull herself back up.
When the silliness had worn off and Sona had finally righted herself, Jetfire tried to covertly slide the datapad back into his subspace. A few Vehicon guards watched them with peculiar expressions: the guard and the prisoner, laughing like the two best friends they were.
"Well, I'm afraid I'll have to take you back," Jetfire sighed. They both stood up slowly, following each other back through the fortress entrance.
Jetfire escorted Sona to an elevator, then pressed the door shut and waited for it to go up.
"Feeling any better?" he asked.
"Yeah. As best as I can, I suppose."
"That's better than before."
Something had been eating at Sona's processor. Her story and the insights with the prisoner had distracted her from it, but now that she was with the only bot willing to listen to her, she wanted to hear Jetfire's take on her observations. They stood in silence for another moment before Sona said, a tinge of worry in her voice, "Jetfire, Shockwave's running less and less tests lately. And he's getting more and more impatient. I think he might be close."
"Close to—"
"—finding a way to remove my powers, yes. He's ran tests for so long, and he hasn't kept up with regular medical checks and refueling times. I don't want to sound selfish, but I'm so worried…not just for what the powers will be used for, but what will happen to me after they're gone."
"That's not selfish; any bot in your position would feel that way. But either way, they won't need to keep you here anymore. You can leave this place, or join the Decepticons. You can become one of my seekers—"
"I wish I had as much faith in my cause as you do, Jetfire. But I know that isn't true." Jetfire stayed silent, watching Sona nervously. Deep down, she knew he also realized what her fate would be once she outlived her usefulness, and neither of them wanted to think about it.
"Just…hold on, alright? I think things are going to change…and I think you'll be alright. Just be strong and…fight back, when the time comes. I think you're stronger than you're letting yourself be."
She glanced over at him peculiarly. "What makes you so sure?"
"I—" Just then, the elevator doors swung open, revealing two Vehicons set to escort her back to her cell in Shockwave's lab.
She looked back at him expectantly. "I'll explain it the next time they let you go for a walk, alright?"
She knew she didn't have many more of those left – the little breaks from her cell she was given once or twice a day. Shockwave always injected her with a serum that temporarily prevented the use of her powers for a short time before she went on walks. She wasn't sure she would be able to escape even with her powers, what with the vast Decepticon armies and defenses surrounding the fortress. She knew next to nothing about her powers, having been unable to use them for so long.
She had tried to escape her cell using her powers when she had first arrived, but the shocking mechanism in the cell was set up to shock her violently at the smallest sign of an escape attempt. Plus, Shockwave always had the remote to do it manually, and if he felt like it, he could easily shock her into near-death. He had done it before, and he would do it again.
But she didn't let Jetfire in on any of her thoughts. "Alright," she replied, before allowing the Vehicons to guide her back into her cell. She felt Jetfire's sad optics follow her as she turned into the lab and stepped into the cell. She sat on the edge of the berth while the guards activated the electric bars, leaving her by herself once more.