The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Interlude.

Aboard the Peace Seeker, a ship owned by the group that calls themselves the Ascenticons, a Space Bridge portal sprang to life from which the current leader of the group, Tarn, walked out while dragging the unconscious body of Airachnid with Thunder following behind him.

The moment he walked through, the other main members of the group noticed his arrival and gave him their full attention, as was due for their leader.

Tarn tossed the unconscious Arachnoid to the ground.

"Take her to the holding cells. Inform Dominus not to begin her interrogation until I arrive. I want to personally oversee this particular traitor's interrogation."

"Yes, Lord Tarn."

Tarn simply nodded at the soldier and headed deeper into the ship with Thunder, heading towards the group of bots that he called his friends and comrades in their cause.

Soon, the door to the main chamber of the ship opened, revealing a group of bots sitting around a massive metal holographic table with data flashing about in the air.

"Tarn! Thunder! You two are finally back. Any success?"

"Good to see you too, Helex. And yes, we finally caught Airachnid."

The happy look on the bot's face turned to that of a sadistic sneer as he turned to the table, changing channels to observe the holding cell where they stored all of the traitors that they had caught so far.

"That is good. With this, we are one step closer to avenging his death."

Tarn and Thunder did not say anything and just sat at the table, observing the holding cells where Dominus Ambus, the chief scientist and philosopher of their cause observed the Arachnoid being placed in stasis.

Tarn turned to the bot sitting on the other side of the table.

"Kaon, have Tesarus and Nickel returned yet?"

The communications officer turned from his console and nodded toward his leader.

"They are on their way back on their ship. They should reach the operational range of our Space Bridge soon enough. They have also sent a message."

"What is it?"

"They say that they have an additional prisoner with them."

"Is that prisoner important?"

"it's Lockdown."

That got Tarn and Thunder's undivided attention.

"How? Weren't they in the process of tracking down Sunder? How did it lead to them finding that bastard's hiding place?"

"Nickel says it's a long story and should be told in person."

"Are they okay?"

Thunder's worry was a valid concern.

Lockdown is a powerful bot that could compete with the likes of Optimus Prime and Megatron and hold his own.

It could be said he was one of the main reasons alongside the many traitors within the Ascenticon ranks that caused the demise of their faction in the first place.

"They are fine. While Tesarus did take a beating, Nickel managed to patch him up quite nicely."

That caused Thunder to relax considerably.

"Then, what about Sunder?"

"Dead. Tesarus destroyed his body but preserved his spark chamber and brain module for us."

Tarn simply nodded at that answer, knowing how dangerous that monstrous outlier was. It would have been a great boon for his Ascenticons if they could capture him alive and conduct experiments to replicate his powers in the form of a weapon, but it is just as acceptable to be rid of a monster like him for good.

Besides, they still got his spark chamber and brain module, and most importantly, Lockdown of all bots, so it was truly not a wasted trip.

Suddenly, the holographic table changed to display the worried face of Dominus.

"Tarn, you need to get down here."

"What happened?"

"It's Airachnid. She, I don't know how I should take this new development. See for yourself."

The video feed shifted to show Airachnid.

A nearly dead Airachnid, who was still within the stasis pod where they had just placed her a few minutes ago.

The image then showed her anatomy scans, highlighting an object that seamlessly merged into her spark chamber and was still active, making it stand out within the dead body.

"It is some kind of a parasite. A very old one at that. I predict that it was within her from before she was rescued by Maximus all those millennia ago. It was only sheer luck that I managed to disable all of Airachnid's systems and activated the immunity shields around her Spark Chamber before that thing killed her."

"I am not interested in how old it is, Dominus. I want to know why it nearly killed Airachnid now of all times!"

"I was getting to that. Watch this."

On the video feed, Dominus slowly pried open the chest plate of the dead Airachnid, exposing her spark chamber along with the parasite.

The moment the parasite sensed danger to itself, it severed itself from the spark chamber and jumped into the air with surprising power and grace. However, Dominus was already prepared for it and directly snatched the tiny thing from the air and immediately placed it within a container with built-in stasis systems designed specifically for Cybertronian vermin.

With the parasite now in control, Dominus slowly turned the cylinder to show the belly of the worm-like parasite, exposing a symbol that looked extremely similar to the Autobot symbol.

The symbol of The Knights of Cybertron, the precursors of the Cybertronian council whose symbol was appropriated by Sentinel Prime.

"The base is an infant rust worm which has been heavily modified through the use of forbidden Cybertronian bioweaponry research. From initial scans, it appears to have been designed to kill any bot it was implanted into through an external signal or when a specific circumstance where the bot in question is captured by enemy forces. Three guesses as to what the point of origin is for the internal code of this thing."

"Sentinel."

"Correct. Specifically, the code bears the data mark of the Institute."

Everyone fell silent at this sudden revelation before Thunder spoke up.

"Is it possible that Airachnid was a spy planted among our ranks from the very beginning?"

Dominus processed the question for a few minutes before speaking again.

"It is possible. The thing is, I am not sure if Airachnid was even aware of this parasite's existence within her. This thing has advanced camouflage capability that allows it to perfectly mimic the internal signature of any bot's body, allowing it to evade the auto-immune response of our bodies. I also see many other systems within it that I have yet to understand completely. It is possible that this thing has some kind of mind control ability-"

"Dominus. Even if what you say is true and even if, If, she was mind-controlled into doing what she did, I will never forgive her for her actions."

Tarn got up from his chair and started to head towards the holding cell with his friends following.

"Is Airachnid's spark still salvageable?"

"Yes. Her spark chamber has been damaged quite a bit due to the parasite drilling into it followed by my forceful activation of her spark chamber shields, but she can still be saved, although it will take a significant amount of time."

"Do it. I want her operational as quickly as possible. Remove her locomotion capabilities and T-cog while you are at it. I don't want her escaping us again."

Tarn stopped for a moment before speaking again, this time with danger oozing from his voice.

"Also, start working on a way to detect that parasite. That is priority number one."

"Understood."

Tarn then turned to his communications officer.

"Kaon. Contact Tesarus and Nickel. Tell them to immediately put Lockdown's Stasis chamber in its highest setting. There is a possibility that some of the traitors have the parasite within them. I will not allow them to die before they spill everything they know about The Great Betrayal and where the rest of their kind are hiding."

With those words, Tarn headed straight for the holding cells, intent on personally overseeing his orders.

He will never allow these traitors to die so easily. It is the least he could do for the bot that was killed by these unworthy bastards.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Kaon:



Helex:


Dominus Ambus:


Nickel:


Tesarus:


Knights of Cybertron: