The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Interlude: Unexpected Reunion and Old Wounds.

"Things have taken a very drastic turn. More than I could have ever imagined."

Cliffjumper snorted at Optimus's words and looked towards the humans, one particular woman who was listening to Arcee and Jack narrate their adventures to her.

"You can say that again, Optimus. But, I still need to ask, who was that last night?"

Optimus felt his spark ache in pain as he remembered the events from last night that led June Darby, Jack's mother, to be exposed to their secret thanks to the actions of a certain traitor.

To this day, Optimus still felt his emotional matrix strain under the rage he felt whenever he thought about Airachnid, the bot that he once thought to be one of his own during the old days, only to be betrayed, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led to the disappearance of one of his closest friends, someone that he considered a mentor alongside Megatron.

However, what truly shocked him, was not that she had become even more unhinged than before the war during her lonely travels across the universe, but the fact that she was fleeing from a certain group.
Arcee snarled in anger as she attacked Airachnid, the femme fighting the Arachnoid with all her deadly grace that the Arachnoid countered with her own experience born from fighting in a war all her life.

The unhinged Arachnoid grinned as one of her arms aimed at June Darby, dangling from a large building at the center of the factory.

"Say goodbye to your precious human friend, just like you did with Tailgate."

"No!!"

However, before the Arachnoid could fire her weapon, a ground bridge opened, revealing Optimus, Jetfire, Cliffjumper, and Bulkhead running through it, immediately engaging Airachnid and the MECH forces that had now realized that their chance of victory was dropping by the minute.

Airachnid realized the same truth and looked to the sky, scanning the nearest chopper which happened to belong to Agent Fowler.

Unfortunately for the Arachnoid, she would not have the chance to escape.

The moment she transformed, a boom rang out around the area followed by a projectile traveling faster than the speed of sound directly punching through the Arachnoid, severing her extra limbs alongside her T-cog.

"You have evaded us long enough, traitor. It's time you pay the price for your actions."

The Autobots looked to the source of the voice, and Optimus felt his Spark beat faster than ever before as he spotted a familiar Minicon with a familiar insignia that he had not seen in millions of years.

"…Thunder?"

The Minicon turned his mono eye to the Prime, his body giving away nothing about what he felt.

"Prime. Don't worry, we won't bother you for long. We just need to bring in this traitor. Tarn, I have the target, open the bridge-"

"Oh no you don't!"

"No! Cliffjumper, Stop!"

Optimus's words fell on deaf ears as the young Autobot tried to attack the Minicon, hoping to restrain and question the unknown bot while also stopping him from taking the Arachnoid away.

Before he could reach the Minicon, however, a Space Bridge sprang to life followed by a massive Bot walking through it, wearing the same insignia as Thunder.

The ancient symbol that once stood for the protection of the common bot from the tyranny of the Primes. A symbol of hope that had not been seen since the start of the Great War.

The symbol of the Ascenticons.

The massive bot, wearing a mask that looked similar to the Decepticon symbol, but wore the Ascenticon mark on his chest, caught Cliffjumper out of the air and threw him towards the Autobots effortlessly.

Arcee immediately became wary and contacted the base, asking for backup.

The new arrival turned towards the Minicon and nodded.

"Let's go, Thunder. I have already caught my prey, and so have the others."

"Good. I got the Traitor as well. Soon-"

"Not here, we will discuss this on our ship."

"Agreed, let's go."

"Glitch? Is that you??"

The massive bot went still before turning back towards the Autobots, watching as a team of Femme ran through another ground bridge and arrived at the factory, while their leader, Elita-1 was staring at him with shock and joy.

Joy which he knew, was going to turn to betrayal when he answered her.

So, with a heavy heart, he turned back and answered as he walked through the space bridge back to their ship.

"Glitch is dead. I, am Tarn."

"Wait! Glitch-"

"Open Fire!!"

Elita's words were drowned out by MECH's choppers and men shooting Tarn and Thunder. However, they were not soft-hearted fools like the Autobots.

"So, this is the group that tried to disassemble Breakdown before he was rescued by Megatron? How pathetic. Looks like Breakdown is losing his touch if he failed to defeat weaklings like these"

"Now, now, Tarn. We shouldn't talk like that about our old friends. Anyways, let's take care of these vermin and get back."

"Agreed."

Tarn instantly transformed both of these arms into Riot Cannons and started blasting apart the humans and their vehicles.

"Glitch! Stop this senseless slaughter-"

"Senseless? Looks like you have become way too naïve and forgotten everything that you were taught after becoming a Prime. Let me remind you of one of His earliest Lessons."

Tarn continued to mercilessly slaughter MECH while Silas watched on in horror and awe while Fowler swore like a sailor aboard his chopper.

"Never purposefully harm innocent life, whether it be organic, mechanical, or any other form. However, should said life turn out to be evil, something that wishes for the destruction of others, especially those that you care about for no proper reason but for its own greed and arrogance, then show no mercy. He may be gone, but I will never forget his lessons, unlike you and Megatron."

By the time Tarn was done with his speech, MECH was all but decimated, with only a handful of survivors driven catatonic by the slaughter, including Silas, while the United States military was watching the horror show with terror in their hearts, imagining what would happen should the Autobots turn against them due to any reason.

With his task done, Tarn and Thunder wasted no time in dragging the unconscious Airachnid with them through the space bridge while Elita-1 collapsed on the ground, unable to comprehend the fact that the once innocent and sweet young bot that she personally taught alongside Shockwave had turned into this ruthless warrior in front of her.

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"Optimus?"

Optimus Prime came back to reality after hearing Cliffjumper's concerned voice.

"…Those two, were once our closest friends, before the war."

"I see. That makes sense. That must be why Elita is sulking about the base like she is."

"She, was his teacher, alongside another. His current actions must have shocked her too much for her to reconcile with the brilliant young bot that he used to be."

Cliffjumper nodded and headed back towards his two partners, Arcee and Jack, intending to join the group and their discussion, forgetting about the two unknown bots from the night before except for marking them as potential enemies in his mind.

Optimus, on the other hand, looked towards the door that just opened, revealing Ratchet who stared at him and shook his head, indicating that she was still not stable enough to talk.

It was times like these, that reminded Optimus of the heavy burdens that they, the older generation, carried in their Sparks, compared to the younger generation.

However, he is their leader now, and he would be damned by Unicron before he let anything happen to them.

Just like his own mentor would have done in his place.

With his mind made up, Optimus headed out of the base, intent on enacting the plan that came to him after watching Glitch, or rather, Tarn, and Thunder, last night.

But first, he needed to contact an old friend if he wanted the plan to succeed.

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Tarn: