This one is a shorter chapter. All about falling action, giving you a bit of a contrast to the last chapter's overall mood. I tried to change the tone here pretty substantially, because this is the last chapter that pulls it all together. This is the chapter that finalizes the story, and I hope it's not too much of a whiplash.

And as for the reviews I received, thank you so much! I don't know for sure what's happening, but in the last few days, I've gotten a large spike in reviews for several of my stories from several different people. Somewhat related, there's a huge spike in activity surrounding my Pinterest where there's usually not in the same time as all of these reviews, favorites, and follows. I don't think I've done anything different, have I? Either way, I hope you're all pleasantly surprised during this chapter and it doesn't feel forced at all. Everything written below I've had planned since the beginning, so just a few words of encouragement.

Enjoy!

I blinked my eyes open. It smells weird in here. I'm on a hard surface, when was the last time I woke up on a hard surface like this? No, I'm pretty sure I sleep in a bed now. Except... last night? Last night I slept outside. So where am I now? And what is that awful, sterile, metallic smell that is so familiar and makes me feel like I shouldn't be here?

My vision came into focus. When was the last time I was so dizzy like this? Jeeze, it's like Egypt all over again, with that spacebridge-

Oh. I just traveled through a spacebridge, and now I'm in Ratchet's medical bay.

I sat up and stretched my sore muscles. The last time I went through a spacebridge, going to that other, weird continuity, I felt sore like this too. Even though I wasn't tossed a dozen feet in the air and landing in the desert, it sure felt like it. But last time I hadn't woken up. I was just switched from one place to another, sitting in Dad's car holding that paper. What makes this one so different?

There's Bee. He's still unconscious, laying over there just like me. I wonder, have we just been laying in here the whole time? How long were we gone? Is it proportionate? It can't be, because then he'd be unconscious for over a hundred years and I'd only be in a coma for a couple months. So what is this? And why is seeing him laying down there like that bothering me so much?

Oh. We were just in the middle of a big fight, like Mission City, where he almost died. Yup. I'd say that's enough to bother me.

I immediately started to walk around the side of the counter I woke up on and determined the best path to climb over to him. I'd failed to keep the Allspark safe there, but... it's not so bad. No. I destroyed it in both continuums, and I mean, things worked out here, didn't they? I mean... eventually.

I was almost to the top of the berth Bumblebee was laying on when Ratchet came back in. He stood in the door, watching me, before sighing and walking in.

"Awake for five minutes and you're already trying to kill yourself again." He pinched the back of my shirt. He was hauled into the air and hung in front of his face. "What's your name?"

"Samuel James Witwicky. Already forget who I am?" I laughed, giving a thankful grin. It's good to be home.

He started scanning me. "No, I was afraid you had. After you fell into the spacebridge parts, and Bumblebee went tumbling in after you, you both fell unconscious. When you woke up, you both acted like you were in the wrong place and time."

I frowned and tilted my head- straightening it again when he bopped me upside it. "How so?"

"Bumblebee didn't know a lick of English- he had to get the language file again -and you acted like you've never seen an Autobot before a day in your life." He mused, deeming me fit and dropping me on top of Bumblebee, who was still unconscious. "It was almost as if we'd taken you both directly from the past."

I crossed my legs, thinking. "I think I know what happened."

"I do too." He went back to where I had been laying, and messed with some piece of equipment he'd probably had focused on me. "That spacebridge sent you to an entirely different version of reality, switching you out for the native Samuel and Bumblebee here."

I frowned. "That's right, but how'd you know? We both would have come from a point on the timeline before realizing anything was different. How'd you know it was a different continuum and not ours?"

"Because, I don't remember the reverse happening in the past. And I'm sure you don't either." He turned to face me, crossing his arms. "If you two went back to replace those two, things would have changed, and it would have created a different reality of events. I tried to explain this to them both, and I believe Bumblebee started to understand all of what had happened, but you were far more fixated on insuring we didn't squish you." He chuckled.

I laughed. "Oh jeeze, I wish I could be there to see them react to the situation we left them in."

He tilted his head this time. "What happened there?"

"Bumblebee took Megatron's place in crashing to Earth, so you guys ended up following him here and meeting the soldiers. Only you didn't attack the base, you convinced Will to help. It was far more efficient than the Decepticons' antics." I mused. "Which means the Decepticon were the ones that discovered me and the glasses. They didn't pretend to be my car or actually ask me for them, they just waited until I went on my road trip to the Hoover Dam to swoop in and steal them."

"Road trip to the Hoover Dam." He mused, clearly amused.

"It sounds like I'm telling you about some crazy dream! Bee'll back me up when he wakes. But seriously, Mikaela and I took some stupid, ordinary car down to the Hoover Dam to meet Sector Seven, defrost Bee, and get the Allspark. Instead of taking it to Mission City, we called for the Ark to just come down and get it off the planet."

"That would have taken a significant amount of time to pull off." Ratchet mused.

I nodded, sobering up. I looked over to Bee, wishing he'd wake soon. "Yeah. It did. I actually never got to see the Ark. When Megatron caught up to me this time, Bee was the one trying to be self-sacrificing and making me shove it in his spark, instead of Optimus."

"And you didn't." He assumed.

I shook my head. "Ha. No. Stupid idiot, like I could actually do that. I killed Megatron again. I was hoping they wouldn't have to lose the Allspark like we did... but I guess it had to happen."

He nodded. "Somethings just can't change. I don't know much on time continuums or that sort of thing, I'm only a medic, but I don't image another turn of events that could have possibly resulted from that day. With the Allspark so near, neither side was going to back off or concede. We were going to drive our species to extinction then and there, or destroy the very thing we fought over."

I sighed, nodding.

"But from what it sounds like," He tried to cheer me up, being so weirdly non-Ratchet like. "Their course of events is back on track. The Allspark is gone, Megatron is temporarily offline, and your future is undeniably intertwined with ours. I'm sure that having to experience the death of the Allspark twice in a lifetime is very hard, but you do know that it's rebirth will be within both also."

I smiled sadly. "Yeah. But... you have no idea how it felt. That whole time I was there for months, the whole time it felt like I had a handle on things. I knew how events were supposed to take place, and I figured I could use it to my advantage. But then Megatron almost ripped Bee apart like... like Jazz..." I suddenly realized Jazz is gone in this continuity, "I realized that things were different, and I had no idea how it was going to pan out."

"We never know how events are going to unfold." Ratchet reminded. "You lost an advantage you never had."

I sighed and nodded. "But... they've still got Jazz. Apparently his death wasn't as necessary for the fate of the universe."

"There. You changed one thing for the better. So stop beating yourself up." He insisted.

Bumblebee was finally starting to stir and I adjusted my position just in case he decided to sit up without catching me- like that'd ever happen.

I gave Ratchet a quizzical stare as Bee's hand came up to hold me down while he sat up. "Why are you being so nice right now? You should be lecturing me on something or another, or throwing a fit."

"Hm?" Bumblebee moaned, only starting to be aware of things a bit quicker than I had. "Is Ratchet being nice? Don't trust him, he's plotting something."

Said medic snorted and started towards the door again. "I can't be in a good mood the day we return home?"

In an instant, everything changed. Everything we'd just experienced in that alternate universe was rendered irrelevant, because we were there.

Up on the observatory deck, we joined every other remaining Autobot to admire the massive metal planet quickly approaching us. We've been on this ship for several years, long enough to make my time in that alternate universe seem like a week, and we were finally there. We made it to Cybertron.

"Welcome back, Bumblebee. Samuel." Optimus greeted us as we came to a stand beside him. I admired the planet for the first time from my perch on Bee's shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. I've never seen Cybertron in person before, so I can't even imagine what it's like for everyone else here to stare at that hunk of metal. But I can know what it feels like to look at it and know that it's so alive.

As the person that killed it twice, I know the joy in seeing an entire planet thriving once again. Cybertron has healed itself, and at it's very center, in the same location it was when it originally formed during the time of the Original Thirteen themselves... the Allspark was back.

"Welcome home."

Dun dun-dun, The End. All of Sam's worries about loosing the Allspark were more or less driven by actually holding it in his arms, but he knew that eventually it would reform anyways and all would be well. Everyone is home, back where they belong, and Sam never has to see 'DOC' again...

This Sam at least...

There will be a short epilogue, about the length of this chapter, and you can expect it in the next few days. I'm nearly finished with it. I'm actually kind of waiting to read feedback from this chapter to see what is best to put in it. No hints yet, though.

So please, review. The epilogue is going to be rather reader-driven, so long as suggestions fit in with what is already planned, and I'd love to hear your overall reactions anyways.