I was finally discharged the morning after. I still felt bad about what I did to Crosshairs. Outside the autobots waited in vehicle form. I told Alisha, "Go with Bee. Bee, take Alisha to her friends house."

"Who are you going with then?" Alisha didn't have her backpack, I realized. It was probably lost in the fire.

"Crosshairs," I told her. We hugged and got in our respective vehicles. After a long drive of silence I called the school to explain Alisha's absence and missing homework. Nobody asked a lot of questions, they just wanted to get off the phone as fast as possible. I hung up the phone and sighed as I looked out the window. We still didn't speak for a long while. Finally I said, "I'm sorry for not trusting you had Alisha, Crosshairs. I acted on impulse." There was nothing but silence. "I should have known you'd have Alisha. I don't know what else to do to show you I'm sorry…"

Finally Crosshairs answered, "Is that why you didn't let Alisha come with me?"

"I needed to apologize. You were so upset last night."

After a long while he laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" I huffed.

"You! You think I'd be mad for this long? I get it. I knew a guy who did the same thing and would probably still do it."

"He ran into a burning building?"

"No! He put himself in danger to save his daughter even though we would have protected her! It makes things ten times harder but maybe that's why…." He never finished his sentence.

"Do you know where Trion is?" I just wanted to change the subject. "I need to speak with him."

We stopped at a military base I'd never seen before. Here Crosshairs felt comfortable enough to stretch out and walk around in his non-car form. It didn't take very long to find Trion. The only building big enough to hold him stood off away from the rest of the buildings. Four boxes surrounded him as if trapping him in a box. It was made of some advanced technology that no human could have built on our own.

Trion sat awaiting a long overdue sentence and trial. He sat with his back toward the door and he turned as soon as the soldiers slid the door halfway shut. He huffed.

"Surprised they didn't kill you," I started in a quiet half whisper that echoed through the hanger.

"I've lived too long to know that death wasn't worth the Covenant or the Quill." He sounded very sad and very defeated.

"I have questions I was hoping you could answer." I paused waiting for an answer, expecting him to refuse but he never said a word. I let the silence grow larger than it needed to. "I keep having dreams. In these dreams I'm surrounded by…well, more recently it's been eleven members of the Thirteen. Your brothers, I assume. They tell me things that I don't remember when I wake up."

Trion stroked his long beard. It was hard to tell if he was simply playing with it or if he was thinking. "I hope you have an idea of what kind of things they say. I can't be of much help to you if you don't tell me."

"Right. The first time I blacked out after an explosion when I took the Quill from you. I suddenly remembered when I looked at Sam and told him to destroy the book. Now, they keep telling me a name that I need to call on when I need help."

"You said before that there were only eleven members?" After I nodded he continued. "Do you know which ones are there?"

I shook my head. "No. They all look the same to me. The only other one I know isn't with them is you, Trion."

"Hmm…I hope it isn't whom I think…" was all he muttered under his breath. Whoever it was made Trion uneasy.

"And I have another problem. I can't think of why someone would burn down my house or who would do such a thing. The only one I can think of that I've really upset was maybe Galvatron."

"Did you have a look inside? What did it look like?"

I gave him a dumb look, "Um…smokey."

He sighed and muttered something in a language I didn't understand. "Close your eyes." He commanded. "Now, go back to when you went inside. What do you see?"

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it. "Smoke and sunlight," I answer.

"No, no, no. Okay what do you smell."

"Smoke. Burning wood. A nasty fabric smell."

"Good, good. What do you feel?"

"Heat from the fire."

"Now look around you. Look through the smoke. What does that look like?"

"I see…" I could see everything clearly under my eyelids. "Everything is torn up? The couch is flipped on top of the TV. There's a huge hole in the wall…how did I not notice before?"

"You humans get in such a hurry you don't know what you see. Keep going."

"I'm heading up the stairs and everything seems normal minus the fire." I opened my eyes and looked up at him.

"They didn't set your house on fire because they hate you, Child," Trion said. "They set your house on fire to draw something out. Whatever it was they never found it."

"What would I have?"

"I have no more answers for you."

I went in with questions and walked out with more questions and no answers. In my gut I could feel what I felt a year before; I felt adventure, excitement, and danger. I also felt something watching me something far greater than humans or even transformers.

"Did you get all your questions answered?" Crosshairs was waiting for me at the other side of the base.

"No. I have more questions than answers. I need to go back home and have a look around. Maybe there's something there that'll give me answers."