Sona cautiously roamed the other hallways of cells, on the lookout for any guards that may be on duty. Her spark raced when she finally found the right cell. She checked again for any guards, then knelt by the door.
"Jetfire," she said quietly.
Unlike the other prisoners who had trained their gazes shamefully to the floor, Jetfire had been gazing up at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts. He startled when he heard Sona's familiar voice, then smiled warmly when he saw her through the bars.
"Sona?" he said in disbelief. He stepped as close to the bars as he could without getting shocked, then knelt to be level with her.
"Yeah, it's me. Primus, I'm so glad you're alright! I was so worried—"
"You were worried?! I was told you were transported to one of the escape pods, along with Megatron and Shockwave. I saw the pods take off; I thought for sure you were gone."
Her spark melted a little, warmed by how much he cared. She snapped back to seriousness, though, and said, "The other Decepticons still haven't been captured. Do you know where the pods were heading?"
"No," Jetfire said worriedly. "I don't even think Megatron told Soundwave. I should have known that they would try to transport you somewhere else…I should have snuck back, set you free, done all of that a long time ago!" He threw up his cuffed servos in frustration.
"It was too dangerous—"
"It was always too dangerous!"
"—Besides, I don't know what I'd do if I had lost you," she finished gently. "All that matters is that I'm free now…sort of."
"What do you mean, 'sort of'"?
She sighed deeply. "I overheard the leader of the Autobots talking with someone else; they don't trust me, and he wants one of his soldiers to keep an eye on me at all times. I can't blame them, but I can't live like that. I just want to get away from all this – all this fighting, all this secretiveness."
"I told you the Autobots won't hurt you; I wouldn't lie to you."
"I know. But it doesn't matter that they won't hurt me; as long as I'm around them, I'm around the War. And I'm done being a part of this War and done being locked away. Besides…something strange is going on here. With one of them."
Jetfire's optics searched her face, worry creeping up his circuits. "What do you mean?"
"It's…their leader. He…" she glanced up and down the hallway and dropped her voice before saying, "I think he has some sort of power as well. But whatever it is, it's hurting me. It makes me feel like I have to do something, but I don't know what. It's-it's like a pulling, but it becomes unbearable quickly, like I can't be around him. It reminds me of being under Shockwave's mind games again, the way they played with my feelings and confused me. I don't want to be around that."
"I've never heard of Optimus Prime possessing some sort of supernatural power—"
"—There's a lot we don't know!" she countered roughly. Jetfire seemed taken aback by her sudden outburst, and she quickly softened her expression. "I'm sorry. I'm just so, so scared. I want to go somewhere where I don't have to remember all of this, where I don't have to hide away."
"Sona…"
"And I want to be somewhere where you're not a prisoner either! Jetfire, you're my best friend; I can't imagine going anywhere without you. As long as we're here, though, we're both prisoners of some sort."
He sighed. He wanted her to be safe, but she was right; no matter which side ultimately defeated the other, one of them was going to be a prisoner. "What are you suggesting we do, then?"
"Get out of here. Lay low until we can find a way off this world and go somewhere where we don't have to worry about war, or factions, or prisons. Somewhere where neither of us will ever be a prisoner again."
Jetfire let her words sink in for a moment. He turned his optics to the ground, deep in thought. "I don't want to live like that, either," she said. "But it won't be forever." She smiled gently at him. "I have hope it won't. You taught me that – hope. You gave it to me no matter how many times I wanted to give up."
The remainder of her words sunk in. Finally, he sighed in exasperation and looked back up at her. "I wish you would be happy here, where you're safe and the Autobots will help you, but clearly you're not. And clearly I won't be leaving this prison cell anytime soon so…alright. We'll do this."
Sona smiled in relief and stood up. "Alright, stand back – I'm still getting the hang of these." Jetfire stood up and pressed his back against the wall.
Sona channeled her powers into her servos, closing her optics as she did so. Her music box began to play a faster and more urgent version of the triumphant song it had played earlier. She smiled and relaxed, letting her powers flow through her, and concentrated on the cell. When she felt they were ready, she stepped up to the cell and touched the electric bars; the electricity peeled back like a wrapper and vanished, leaving a wide opening in the cell.
Jetfire watched in astonishment as her music box stopped playing. He stepped outside of the cell and held up his cuffs. It only took a little burst to knock them off, and it was so fast her music box didn't have time to rewind itself.
"Let's go," she said.
The pair took off down the hallways, rousing the other Decepticon prisoners. Some of them grunted in frustration at seeing a fellow Decepticon escaping without them, but most kept their helms down and ignored them.
"Do you know the way out?" Jetfire asked as they ran.
"Not exactly. But the map showed that there had to be one through here—GAH!"
"Sona?" Jetfire stopped in his tracks, his optics wide, as she suddenly collapsed. Then he cried out too and collapsed next to her, spasms of electricity running through his body.
Sona lifted her helm up to see an angry-looking guard blowing steam off a stun gun. "Tried to escape, did you? Nice try, 'Cons. You're getting reported to the big bot."
Sona's face was crumpled in humiliation as the guard lifted and cuffed both her and Jetfire.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered quietly back to Jetfire. He kept his gaze straight forward – clearly disappointed they had failed, but not angry.
"Get a move on," the guard ordered, shoving the two of them forward.
Sona knew she could escape this; she could easily use her powers to set them both free and knock the guard out. But that would require revealing her powers to the guard, unless…
No. She didn't want to kill him. Angry as she was, she couldn't stoop to that low.
As they continued walking, they heard the guard comm Optimus Prime. Sona wasn't looking forward to this confrontation; for all she knew, she would be locked away, and they may move Jetfire or do something worse to him for trying to escape.
A few moments later, they heard footsteps besides their own and the guard's coming their way. The other prisoners had stirred from their shameful positions to watch the events unfold.
"Prime, Jazz!" the guard greeted. "Here's the escapees. Tried to make a run for it. Were going the wrong way, too."
Sona looked to the ground, further embarrassed, as the unsettling feeling in her spark settled in.
"Thank you, Ironhide," Optimus responded as he and Jazz stopped in front of them. The horrible feeling continued to rise through her chest, and she kept her helm down, humiliated.
"Where do I put them, Optimus?"
"Escort this one back to his cell," Optimus ordered, nodding his helm at Jetfire. "I'll deal with the other one."
"You sure, Prime?"
"Positive. Thank you again, Ironhide."
"'Course. Love busting me some 'Cons."
Sona watched painfully as Ironhide led Jetfire away. He gave her a small smile and walked obediently down the hallways with Ironhide.
"Sona, then," Jazz greeted. "I'm Jazz." He held out his servo for her to shake, but she glared down at her cuffs instead. "Ope, let me just get those for you." Jazz pulled a key out of his subspace and took off her cuffs. Then he lifted his servo again and shook it with hers.
"You realize I can't drop this and pretend it never happened, don't you?" Optimus asked. Sona felt like a sparkling when he said it, but she nodded her helm anyway.
"Is there anything more you can tell us?" Jazz asked.
Sona sighed exasperatedly; she knew there was no use lying to them. They already knew she was hiding things, and there was no way she could deny she had just attempted to break out and escape with a Decepticon. Knowing about Jetfire probably wouldn't hurt anything, anyway.
"I'm friends with Jetfire. He's the only friend I had in the fortress." That was all she said; it was enough of an explanation to get by this question, and she didn't have to lie this time.
"The Decepticons allowed you visitors?" Optimus asked skeptically.
Her frustration was only heightened by that continued feeling of dread and longing as Optimus stood in front of her. She sighed again as she answered his next question:
"Yes. We were playmates on the warship and then the fortress when we were younger, and our friendship…grew from there."
"You've been imprisoned for some time then, haven't you?"
She hated explaining her life story. "Yes. Since I was a sparkling. I don't remember anything before that, I was too young."
Optimus regarded her with a puzzled expression, but also a sorrowful one. Jazz looked at her the same way. She found it hard to believe that they wanted to listen her, that they even felt that sorry for her, especially since she had just tried to make a break with one of their prisoners. Her reputation wasn't looking good so far.
"I can arrange for you to come down here and visit Jetfire, if you would like," Optimus offered.
Her face immediately brightened at the thought of seeing him again, without having to sneak in. "Can you really?"
"Yes," Optimus said. He smiled upon seeing her happy expression. "I'm afraid I can't let him go – after all, he is still a Decepticon – but maybe in due time. For now, you're open to visits as long as someone accompanies you."
"Thank you," she said softly. As frustrated and frightened as she was, she deeply appreciated Optimus' gesture, despite the extreme discomfort whatever-he-had was giving her. And despite the constant surveillance he had placed upon her.
"We know you're scared and uncomfortable here," Jazz said. "And there's not much we can do but try to make you feel welcome. So give us a chance, alright? Why don't you come up to the main hall, try and mingle, have some fun?"
The thought of mingling with other bots wasn't very pleasing to Sona. But as long as she was here, she knew she would be better off the more bots she knew. Besides, those bots had welcomed her into their home and offered her the best of care.
While she was still apprehensive of them, she knew Jetfire would want her to try and be happy here. And that was all she needed to convince her to move on.
Meanwhile, on Earth's moon…
Shockwave expertly dodged a servo flying right towards him. "Lord Megatron, I assure you I kept maintenance up-to-date on every single escape pod, and that one was no different. I—" He quickly dodged another backhanding.
"THEN WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MESS?!" He fired his cannon angrily into the sky as the other Decepticons took a few steps back. "Soundwave has been captured, over half my troops are dead or prisoners, AND THE ONE THING THAT COULD REDEEM US IS GONE!"
A group of Decepticons fell to the ground for cover as Megatron unleashed his anger on a huge chunk of rock. It blew to bits and settled to the ground as dust. The Decepticons slowly stood up and backed away as the smoke from Megatron's cannon blew towards them.
"Mighty Megatron, surely you'll think of something. After all, I'm sure it was an honest mistake," Starscream replied smoothly. Shockwave's headfins twitched in anger.
Before Starscream could provide another snarky comment, Megatron grabbed ahold of his wing and chucked him over the previously-huddled group of Decepticons. He screeched as he flew above the terrified soldiers' helms and landed roughly on his back.
"Of course I'll think of something, Starscream. Your continued mockery should have had you off-lined a while ago. Lucky for you, the Decepticon numbers are at all all-time low, and we need every soldier we can get."
Megatron turned to Shockwave, who braced himself for another attack. Instead, Megatron asked, "You brought the needed equipment, yes?"
"Correct. The device is almost finished."
"Perfect. Get to work, Shockwave. Recruit anyone you need to assist you. Use our underground base. In the meantime—" he locked optics with all his Decepticons while Shockwave got to work "—we will be infiltrating the Autobot base. We will free all remaining Decepticon prisoners, then recapturing our own. I will discuss the details shortly, but in the meantime, rest and prepare for battle."
The Decepticons watched their leader, awaiting further instructions. When none came, they split off into groups to rest and explore their barren surroundings. Megatron stalked over to his own escape pod, but not before Starscream had returned. He was certainly gutsy, Megatron had to give him that.
"Lord Megatron, if I may ask – how do we plan to recapture the prisoner?" He was careful to tone down the snideness. "If the Autobots know even a bit about her, then she's probably under a lot of protection. And if she's figured out anything about her powers, she won't be so easy to take down this time."
"Don't be so certain, Starscream. She is naïve, locked away her whole life. And after all—" He reached into his escape pod, pulling out a sharp crystal shard. Thick smoke curled around the crystal as it pulsed a bright violet.
"Dark energon," Starscream breathed in wonder. He didn't dare approach it.
"With its dark powers—" He impaled his chest with the crystal. It glowed brighter and slid inside the Decepticon leader's chest. Veins of purple began to replace blue ones, until the red of Megatron's optics was washed back with violet.
Megatron shivered from the new blood, then settled proudly to smirk at Starscream. "—it can be used to control another bot."
"But she doesn't have dark energon, does she?"
"Not quite."
"Then how do you know this will work, Lord Megatron?"
"You're not doubting me again, are you, Starscream?" Megatron asked, giving no effort to hide his threatening tone.
"Of course not!" he said quickly. "But why do we need Shockwave's device to harvest her powers if you can simply control them with dark energon?" Starscream asked cautiously.
"Dark energon is in limited supply. The connection will not last without it. And besides, it's a hassle to keep another bot alive, isn't it?"