I do not own Transformers Prime or any characters it contains. I do, however, own this plot and any twists, turns and OC's it entails. Enjoy! ^_^

Epilogue

Jack and Arcee were bothat the Autobot base being checked over by Ratchet. It was mostly Jack seeing as he was the one that took the bullet to the neck.

"Are you sure you're okay?" June asked as she looked at her son's neck.

"It's just a mesh wound," Ratchet said as he replaced his medical equipment. "Nothing a bit of rest and stasis won't fix."

June sighed as she relaxed her rigid stance, some of her gears whirling and pistons hissing.

"Thank goodness," she said as she sat down on the table next to Jack. "I don't want anything bad happening to my baby."

Jack had taken a drink of water when she said that, water shooting out of his nose.

"Ow!" Jack said as he pinched his nose. "Mom!"

June just shook her head.

"You will always be my baby, Jack. My first son. My only child."

Jack sighed as he released his nose. Nothing else dripped out after he let go and he sighed again.

"Okay, okay," he said as he looked at his mother. "But please don't say that in front of the Autobots. And I don't mean me."

June smiled and nodded.

"Okay, Jack."

Jack smiled before pulling his mother into a hug.

"We're going to head up to the ridge. It's almost time for the sunset."

June nodded before looking back at the Autobots. She then walked with her son and his fiancee to the lift.

Jack and Arcee stood together, watching as the sky changed colors.

A grinding of gears caught their attention. Turning, they saw Optimus, Wheeljack, Ratchet, Bumble Bee, Bulkhead, Breakdown and Smokescreen all stepped off the lift and walked over to the three.

"Optimus," Jack said as he returned his gaze to the rainbow of colors in the sky.

Jack heard and felt the heavy footfalls, indicating that Optimus was behind him. He turned around and faced his commander.

"Jack," Optimus said, kneeling down to his level. "I am very proud of your actions today. You could have caused the human serious harm, but you only raised your weapons in defense."

Jack nodded before holding out his hand to Arcee.

"I will do whatever it takes to protect those I care about," Jack said once his hand was grasping Arcee's. "Though Arcee is closest to my Spark, I still think of all of you as my family." Jack turned to look at Miko and Raph. "Even you two." He turned his attention back to Optimus before continuing. "We've been through a lot together and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. Good or bad."

Optimus smiled before reaching into his chest and pulling out the Key to Vector Sigma.

"Jack, I would like you to have this. Let it be known by all here today, that as of this moment, you are an honorary Prime."

Jack held out his hands and accepted the Key.

"I will protect it with my life, sir."

Optimus nodded with a small smile gracing his faceplate.

Jack looked back out over the mason, pulling Arcee against his side.

"Whatever happens now, we're in this together," Arcee said, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Always," Jack said.

My name is Jack Darby.

I used to be a typical teenager living with his mom in a sleepy, boring town called Jasper, Nevada. My whole life changed one day when I found an awesome motorcycle – that turned out to be an alien robotic lifeform. Her name was Arcee, and she was an Autobot. I'm not going to explain all that happened afterward, since I assume you've learned about it already. My life did change once more, though, and it proved to be the most life-altering change ever.

As a result of that, Arcee and I are now human/Cybertronian hybrids of some kind. Neither of us knows what will happen to us, or what further changes await us. Whatever the future holds, we'll face it together. Even now, the Decepticons continue to pose a threat despite having lost three of their number. We have to fight on if we want to survive, if we want to live our lives the way we want to. The unexpected side effects of our transformations are unclear, but we've embraced them anyway.

And to those who want to stop us, to cause us harm: Watch your step. We are strong, we are willing.

And we will fight.

And that does it. The final chapter in this story. I hope you all enjoyed Unexpected Side Effects and will watch for it's sequel. Expected Side Effects is sure to be another smash hit! Til next time, everyone, I bid you all adieu. ^_^

A/N: Jack's speech beta'd by Hitotsune-Kozo. Deep thanks to you, my friend. ^_^

Talon Earthstone