Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: This is the fic that refuses to end. Only a few more chapters.

P.S: have any of you been ona swim team. 2 hours in the water,ten minutes(total)to change and dry off, and an hour on the road leaves very little time for writing.

Chapter 20

"Have we received a return message from Prime?" Scourge asked Bouncer, who was monitoring all the communication channels.

"No sir. But there has been an unusual amount of activity among the Predicons though," Bouncer informed him.

"Keep an eye on it," Scourge ordered. He didn't like the sound of it.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to just leave the Sparters alone like this, Prime?" Ultra Magnus asked as they headed toward the warp gate.

"I can deal with them when Koji is safe. At the moment they are an unnecessary distraction," Optimus said. "If we wait much longer to go after Koji all we'll get back is a body and I don't want that cemetery to get another Onishi head stone anytime soon."

As they entered the warp room, they were greeted by the sight of the three Autobot brothers and Axel. To Ultra Magnus' surprise Optimus didn't ask any of the brothers to leave.

"Remember this is all about stealth and surprise," Optimus told them. They all nodded. "Let's go then."

"Oww," T-Ai woke to yet another sharp kick. She'd fallen asleep on the kitchen floor and her back wasn't happy about it. Neither was her son, apparently. She had a feeling that she was going to raise a kickboxing champ. The baby was already practicing.

"Ok, ok I'll find a bed," she said to her self. The baby settled down after that.

She put the picture back in the drawer incase Koji ever decided to go looking for it. Then she headed for the stairs. She was pretty sure that there was a guestroom on the second floor.

Unfortunately for T-Ai only two rooms were unlocked. One contained a thick metal table and an assortment of small weapons, Axel's room obviously. The other room held Koji's belongings, a bed that hadn't been slept in, and thankfully no weapons.

She was about to go back downstairs when she noticed another set of stairs. The door at the top was slightly ajar. Curiosity compelled her to climb the stairs and see what was on the other side.

As she neared the room she caught the scent of lavender and dust. On the other side of the door she found a room half full of dusty boxes. She wondered why Koji kept so much stuff he probably didn't need. 'Maybe we should have cleaned the entire house' T-Ai thought to herself. The cleaning crew had been ordered to leave the basement and the attic alone.

A box near her was ripped down the side revealing a bit of cloth. Upon closer inspection she realized that it was woman's clothing. Opening the box T-Ai found an odd assortment of clothing. Some were formal wear, others causal wear, and finally military fatigues. Also, she found two pieces of metal on a metal chain. She'd seen a pair exactly like them before. Koji had been wearing them. He still did, under his shirt. Koji had told her that it was his mother's spare dog tags… meaning these were the ones she died wearing.

Death was nothing new to T-Ai. She'd had friends that had gone off on assignments and never came back. She'd felt a sense of loss when they died but that didn't compare to the sadness she felt for a woman she'd never even met.

T-Ai sat down on a makeshift bed that smelled, she noticed strangely enough, like Koji. She fell asleep shortly after that.

Apparently his plan had worked. Scourge hadn't been back since they firework incident. The unfortunate side affect of that plan was that they stopped feeding himas well but he could last a few days with out food. Plus he had a nasty feeling that they were planning a painful, long drawn out way to kill him, probably involving monologueing.

"You win some you lose some," Koji sighed.

"Or you could win them all," voice said from above him. Koji looked up and saw what resembled a flying squirrel.

"Umm… give me a minute," Koji tried to remember the Predicon's name.

"It's Dark Scream!" the squirrel yelled.

"Yeah… how did you get in here?" Koji asked.

"The ventilation system," Dark Scream said simply.

"Why does this place have a ventilation system?"

"They need to keep you alive, don't they?" Dark Scream said nervously.

"Yeah but go through all that trouble. It would be easier to just…this is an old research lab isn't it?" Koji realized.

"Uhh… yeah."

"Which one?"

"Research Center 587"

"Alright."

"Uhh... we really need to go now," Dark Scream said, wondering how long it would be before somebody realized that they were no longer watching a live feed of Koji's cell.

"Ok where are we going?"

"Do you honestly care right now?" Dark Scream asked.

"No."

AN: Don't worry there's still a big show down coming up.