34.

"TC, you fragger, if you don't answer this comm. now I'm going to-"

"What do you want?" Thundercracker snapped as he watched Miles continue pacing around the warehouse.

"Your human is wondering about you, wants to know if you care. It's quite disgusting." Barricade grumbled.

TC would have blinked if he was capable of it. Even now, he was still the first thing on Trent's mind? He wanted to know if he still cared. "Tell him…yeah, I do. We'll send Sasori out to bring him here; Trent will know who that is."

"Yeah, sure." Barricade replied disinterestedly and ended the call before he turned his attention to Trent. "Thundercracker still cares, and he said Sasori will bring you to them." He relayed shortly. "Now scram."

Trent sighed, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. "Thanks." He said and got out of the police car.

Meanwhile, Thundercracker had told Skywarp and Miles about the comm. call, and Miles looked relieved. "Even if he's pissed at us, at least he still wants to come around." He said and sat down, crossed-legged. "I'll tell Sasori that he's going to go back for Trent." He said and closed his eyes.

When Miles opened his eyes, he was in his mindscape, and he saw that Kyuubi was in his demon form and had Sasori under his paw. "Hey, knock it off; Sasori's gotta go get Trent for us."

Kyuubi looked disgruntled as he removed his paw and Sasori stood up. "Don't get too comfortable, you'll be back." He said with dark promise.

Sasori glanced up at him, but no emotion betrayed him and he looked at Miles. "I will be staying out for however long I desire."

Kyuubi grinned, a terrifying thing on its own even when he wasn't trying. "Don't think that's going to help you, remember what the Shinigami said?"

Sasori's face seemed to contort into a grimace for a moment before it was wiped clean. "I remember," he said and looked at Miles, "I will teach you both one of the other chakra exercises."

"How many are there?" Miles asked.

"A few." Sasori said vaguely. "Now let me out."

Miles nodded and concentrated before Sasori disappeared. "I can't believe I'm going to be seeing Trent after all this time."

"Do you still think I made a mistake all those months ago?" Kyuubi questioned and narrowed his eyes.

Miles flushed and looked away. "No." he admitted. "Just an observation." He said.

"Well, stop it." Kyuubi retorted. "If you doubt yourself now, what was the point of proving to Starscream that he let you live? Or that Skywarp and Thundercracker came back with you? These thoughts can be poisonous, and can make you falter. Don't do that." He growled.

Miles blinked. "Uh, that's the most sound advice you've ever given me, are you sure you're actually Kyuubi? 'Cause the Kyuubi I know would want me at my angriest just to prove a point."

Kyuubi scowled at him. "Beat it, gaki."

"Yeah, definitely you." Miles muttered and returned to the outside world, but Sasori was nowhere to be seen. "Wow, he leave already?"

"As soon as he got his body." Skywarp said amused.

"Now there's nothing left to do but wait." Miles said and sat down beside Skywarp.

He quickly found that waiting around was incredibly boring.

Trent's steps felt lighter as he now had confirmation that Thundercracker cared about him, and he didn't have to worry about TC not thinking he missed him. He heard a horn honk and turned around as he saw a yellow Camaro come driving up, causing him to grimace as he realized there were still other problems to deal with. "What do you two want?" he asked, quite pointedly ignoring the Camaro itself.

"Don't you mean three?" Sam asked suspiciously.

"I know what I said." Trent said crossing his arms. "Still doesn't tell me why you're here."

"Look, I'll cut right to the chase, we saw you with Barricade." Mikaela said bluntly. "What were you doing with him?"

Trent felt himself freeze up momentarily. They had seen him? "I don't really see how it's any of your business." He said and paused as he narrowed his eyes in realization. "Were you following me? Do I need to get the police to give you a restraining order? I'll do it, you know."

The Camaro started to drive off, but Sam repeatedly slammed on the break to indicate it wasn't him who saw the danger in what they were doing. "'Bee, he's not serious, the mighty Trent would never admit he was scared of geeky old me."

Trent scowled and his arms tightened. "Are you willing to take that chance? I've changed in the last few months."

"Clearly not if you're still in contact with Decepticons." Mikaela pointed out.

"And clearly you both have nothing better to do than follow me around." Trent retorted and smirked. "Unless of course you want me back." He said and Mikaela scoffed.

"Not in a million years." She said.

Trent shrugged it off, but he knew better than to assume he'd distracted them from his meeting with Barricade. He couldn't let them know what it was about; he had to ditch them. "Whatever, I'm outta here." He said and started to walk away, but once hit was at the corner, he could still hear the Camaro trailing after him.

Trent built up the chakra in his legs, and though this was mostly used for walking up the walls and trees, right now it was for speed. He took off around the corner and heard the Camaro's engine gun it and Sam yelled for it to go after him. Trent kept running down the sidewalk until he came to another street corner and when he saw the stop sign, he got an idea.

As soon as he was close enough, Trent jumped and felt his feet stick to the pole, feeling it wobbly under his feet before he shot off and though he stumbled at first, he managed to keep from falling as he ran back the way he came. The Autobot though went speeding right past him and it gave Trent a bit of leeway to find another route to take.

Trent sharply turned at the corner and saw he could go over the fence surrounding a construction site, or he could hide in the tree at side of the road. Deciding he didn't want to be too predictable, Trent ran up the tree to hide in its branches. Hopefully they would pick the construction site because that's where they saw him and Miles training before and think it gave him plenty of places to hide.

Trent watched Bumblebee go speeding past him, and he let out a relieved sigh when the Autobot kept driving toward the construction site. His legs felt weak and he leaned against the tree trunk; he felt like he'd just run a marathon.

"Not bad."

Trent grabbed onto the tree trunk to keep from falling out, his heart nearly jumping into his throat at the sudden voice. He looked up and saw Sasori's deadpan expression, but he couldn't tell if this guy even felt anything. "You saw all that?"

"Yes." Sasori answered simply. "I must say, you seemed to be smarter than you look."

Trent didn't know how to feel about the backhanded compliment, so he decided to ignore it. "What are you doing here?" he asked and when Sasori's eyes narrowed, he felt incredibly stupid. "Let me rephrase that," he said quickly, "can I rest before we go see the others?"

"As my only other option would be to drag you back, make it fast, as I don't think Thundercracker would like seeing that." Sasori answered dully and looked off toward where the Autobot went. "I will keep watch; you will remain absolutely still should they return this way."

Trent nodded and leaned back against the tree, forcing himself to calm down, but his heart rate picked up again. Not out of fear or surprise, but excitement. He was finally going to see TC after all this time; his emotions came bubbling up and he wasn't sure what to feel at this point.

He had waited for this day, and now that it was here, he was just a mess inside.

"I can't believe he just slipped away like that." Mikaela said as she and Sam searched around the construction site.

"You'd think the guy was a ninja of something." Sam muttered. "I wonder just what the 'Cons did to make him like that."

Mikaela turned her glance to Sam, her expression growing incredulous. "You're not seriously thinking you want that done to you, are you?"

"What? Of course I don't!" Sam retorted. "It's just; maybe it'd give me a reason for why Miles had been with them. They certainly gave his attitude a makeover." He said smirked bitterly. "I don't think Trent needed the same adjustment done to him."

Mikaela didn't reply as she continued to look around, Bumblebee playing the look-out for any sign of the fast movement that Trent displayed. He'd informed them he was waiting on orders of how to go about this, omitting the fact they had spectacularly failed to not tip Trent off to the fact they were on to him.

"I don't think he's here, or he's very good at hiding." She said after a moment of thought.

"Man, we spent all this time on a wild goose chase." Sam said kicking the dirt up irritably. "He's probably long gone by now."

Trent followed Sasori up a hill to a warehouse, his insides still jumbled as many emotions were at the forefront and fighting to take control. He felt anger, sorrow, hope, joy, and uncertainty all at once, and feeling of vertigo they brought made him feel physically ill. "Are you sure they want to see me?"

"You've asked that three times on the way up here, yes they want to see you." Sasori replied and he was starting to sound annoyed.

Trent would have been amused, but now was not the time to add on any more emotions at this point. "Okay then." He said and paused at the closed doors. He clenched his fists in resolve, and opened the doors wide open. His eyes ignored Miles and Skywarp for the moment as he walked over to a jet on the side, his eyes lock onto the purple emblem, and it was a familiar blue shade.

A pin could be heard in the warehouse as Trent stared at Thundercracker.

The blond bit his lip momentarily before he spoke. "It's been a while, hasn't it, TC?"

"Yes," TC rumbled back solemnly, "it has, Trent."

"I heard you missed me." Trent said stoically.

There was a pause. "I have."

Trent felt himself relax a smidge as he slowly placed his hand on the jet. "I've missed you too. I'm…I'm happy you're back."

"So am I."