A Search For Something More

Chapter 13: Meeting the Parents

We walk for about an hour until we make it to juvenile hall. A security guard checks us and escorts us to a room where friends and family are visiting kids. The guard guides us to sit in one of the tables while on the other side, another guard escorts Sonata to sit on the other side of the table. She is wearing an orange shirt and pants, and her hair had been cut to only reach her shoulders. She sits down, giving us a small appreciative smile on her face that we return.

"Hello, Sonata," Octavia says. "How are you doing here?"

Sonata lets out a deep sigh before she answers, "I'm doing okay, I guess. It's still a little scary to be in here, and there's not a whole lot of especially nice kids, but I'm managing."

"Yeah, we heard as much from the others who visited you," I say. "By the by, sorry I tased you and all that."

"Eh, it's all good," she says with a shrug. "I dove in to save Dagi, and that meant getting several nasty volts through me, so I had it coming. If anything, I should thank you. I would never have known Adagio would abandon me like that, and I feel a little happier to be with you guys and the Rainbooms since you guys have been so nice to me after my trial."

"You seem strangely okay about that," I say concerned "Are you fine with that and giving the police information about Adagio and Aria?"

Sonata's face falls for a moment until she reluctantly says, "It does hurt that she did that, and I do feel a little guilty about talking to the police, but maybe it's for the best that I do this. Maybe it'll clear my mind after everything I did with them for over a thousand years, and it will give me a chance to move on with my life."

"Yes, but they were kind of your sisters," Octavia points out. "Are you sure you can live with betraying them after a thousand years?"

Sonata's frown deepens at that question. There is a hint of guilt in her eyes as she looks away from us with a small tear coming out of her eye. Octavia regrets asking the question, and I'm about to tell Sonata that she doesn't have to answer, but she wipes away the tear and looks back at us.

"Sorry, it's just...I don't know if I even want to call them that anymore," she says with a sniff. "I want to believe that Adagio didn't mean to leave me behind and that it's just out of fear of whatever spooked her and Aria. But at the same time, I...I don't care anymore. It's like I said back at Vinyl's place. I've tried my best for them despite how ditzy and confused I can be, yet they still ridiculed me and insulted me even if we were supposed to survive as a team. They may have wanted me to come with them back to Equestria back when we attacked the school for all I know, but after Dagi abandoned me..." she sniffs again before tears run down her eyes before she cries, "T-that was the last straw! I-i may as well have taken a bullet for her, and that's the thanks I get? She left me all alone with people who are chasing us? I should count myself lucky I was captured by kind and caring people like you two as opposed to some gangsters or something! I just..."

She cries, covering her face with both hands. Octavia and I sit there on the other side of the table, feeling sorry for what she's going through. Clearly, something is amiss if something drove Sonata's sister to abandon her. Maybe something else has come here from that Equestria world or something. Whatever the reason, they left Sonata behind, and it hurts to watch her feel like her world has been taken apart by Adagio's actions.

I clear my throat and kindly say, "Just for the record, Sonata, I think I can speak for both Octavia and me when I say if they didn't have the rule against touchin inmates we'd be hugging you for comfort right now."

Sonata chokes out a chuckle in the middle of her sobs.

"Thanks. That's nice to know," She says with a sniff before she regains her posture. "I'm okay now. Really. It's just a little hard to try to get over it after a thousand years. Kinda all the more reason why I hope I get freed and sent to the Apple girl's family and start over."