The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Chapter 43

Windblade continued staring with awe as her mentor directed the Insecticons to carry the Forge to their temporary base in the Rust Sea while the rest of the Insecticons started scouring Vector Sigma for any other hidden surprises.

How could she not stare when the relic of the very god that her people venerated was in front of her?

If only she could touch it, or maybe even hold it in her hands.

Unfortunately, Maximus forbade her from doing so for the fear of causing unintended problems should the relic respond adversely to them, since they already have relics of their own in the form of her optics and his T-Cog.

And yet, despite such a valuable relic being in her vicinity, it was only a part of her that was paying attention to the Forge of Solus Prime.

The rest was focused on Maximus and her own thoughts, not to mention her nervousness at being within a building that might suddenly decide to take them for an unintended ride across Cybertron.

According to her mentor, Vector Sigma should immediately relocate itself when it feels threatened, which it definitely was when Maximus nearly cleaved it two in rage after Alpha Trion's revelation. The only reason the supercomputer still stood was due to his experience in controlling his emotional outbursts.

Thankfully, for some reason, it seemed as if the ancient supercomputer had no intention of moving from this place.

Windblade had a feeling that this had to do with Maximus, but she could not be too sure about it, so she kept that theory to herself.

Especially given the mood that her friend was in.

Ever since that message from Alpha Trion appeared and revealed the Forge of Solus Prime, Maximus had been in a world of his own.

He was still efficient in directing the Insecticons and was still using his power to access the supercomputer, scouring it for any data that he found useful.

However, as someone who spent many centuries by his side, Windblade knew him just as much as she knew herself.

That was why she was able to notice the slight delay in his reaction time, the sluggishness in his hacking, and the way he took a second to think before issuing orders when he could normally do it nearly instantly.

Maximus was thinking deeply about something, assigning the majority of his processing power to this thought, which led to all these changes that no one else could probably pick up on aside from herself and maybe his old friends.

“Maximus? Are you alright?”

“Hm? Ah! Yes, I am fine, Windblade. Let’s get going. We have a lot of work to do before Silverbolt’s return.”

“…Alright.”

Windblade let his blatant lie be, knowing that now was not the time to press him for details, especially in front of what might be his subordinates, even if he only sees them as his friends.

As someone trained by the Torch Bearers of Caminus, Windblade could easily tell the difference between a friendship and a master-subordinate relationship.

Granted, the Insecticons were not simple subordinates. Their loyalty and genuine care that they held for her mentor were far beyond anything that a simple subordinate would have, but still, the principle remained the same.

As they moved out of the building with four Insecticons carrying the Forge with them, Windblade could not help but move closer to her mentor, hoping that her presence would calm him down like it usually did.

Despite her behavior, Windblade was no fool.

Ever since she was born from the Spark of Caminus, she had always known that she was far too unpredictable for others of her kind. So much so that she only found her Amica just a few cycles before she would become an outcast.

Even then, she still had a hard time fitting in with her people.

She was far too filled with energy for the people of Caminus, far too unpredictable, far too curious, and uncontrollable.

She was never mistreated, nor did others look at her differently. However, her awareness of herself would always make her believe that others looked at her weirdly, seeing things when there were none.

That was why she followed Maximus around all the time.

Because even as a youngling, she saw him as kin. She saw a fellow bot who was like her.

Someone who did not fit in, someone who was not part of a mold.

And just like she thought, he turned out to be everything she ever needed in her life.

A friend who would not judge her for who she was. Someone who, while exasperated at her actions and always scolding her for her mistakes, never gave up on her. Someone who was patient enough to teach her despite her flighty and excitable nature.

Someone she could truly call family alongside her precious Chromia and the Mistress of Flame.

She did not know when it happened, but as time passed, she started to see him as her Sire, just like she did with the Mistress and Caminus himself.

And as someone who knew him so well, there was no way she would not pick up on his issues.

As they finally left Vector Sigma behind with the Insecticons, her optics saw as Energon surged through the structure, pulling it underground and then suddenly disappearing somewhere.

Given that her mentor and the Insecticons did not have an artifact of the Primes as their optics, it was a given that they did not see any of that. They only saw the building suddenly collapse on itself before leaving behind nothing but rubble in its place.

“…Well, that was a thing. Let’s go.”

Windblade knew that Maximus was not well.

But the poor femme had no idea how to confront him about it or how to help him.

All she could do was silently be by his side, hoping that her presence would reassure him.

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Within the depths of Iacon, in a chamber long forgotten by everyone but a select few, ‘Fortress’ worked on the terminal connected to massive tanks full of natural Energon, stolen and stored here thousands of years ago.

“Hm, looks like many of his systems are still intact. A miracle considering what that bastard Armorbite did to him, along with those traitors, Soundwave and Shockwave.”

The being smirked as the systems began activating one by one, drawing Energon from the tanks and into the chamber below, housing the ancient secret that nobody who knew of it ever wanted to remember again.

“Then again, I am a miracle myself, given that I never anticipated that out of all my backup plans, this would be the one to succeed.”

“Regardless, it is time for me to finish my work, once and for all, and rid our species of those abominations that he cares about so much.”

Across the surface of Iacon, the ruins trembled as an ancient being awakened from his eternal slumber.

A titan of old, rising from the dead to wreak vengeance upon everyone.

A being that was born for the sole purpose of war, a result of the Quintesson influence on the Well of Sparks.

A War Titan.

‘Fortress’ laughed maniacally as the being rose to his full height, destroying everything in his vicinity and alerting the only other Titan alive on this planet.

“Come to me! Iaconus! I, Senti-"

He could not speak any further as the Titan stomped on the clone, nearly killing him then and there.

The ancient war titan simply looked down at the heavily damaged clone with disinterest, as if looking at an ant.

“IACONUS ANSWER TO NO ONE.”

With thundering steps, the ancient war titan, Iaconus, walked off. Heading straight towards the Spark that he could feel instinctively.

Another Titan that was still active on the planet.

Another prey to be hunted for the ancient titan created to destroy other Titans.

All the while, a strange insect-like creature, similar to the Rust Worms, crawled out of the nearly destroyed spark chamber of the Clone, only to be squashed by falling debris.

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Iaconus, the war titan: