Epilogue

I do not own Transformers (I wish!).

Thanks to Cliffjumpersfangirl and nessus for some of the ideas in this last chapter. Thanks to everyone who read(s) this and reviewed (or reviews), it's been a wild ride and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Reviews are still appreciated!

In space, Willie strapped into his restraints, the ones that could be removed if he needed, and told Sparkplug he was ready. Sparkplug said, "Here goes, then." He had let the ship drift as close as one of the enemy ships would let it. Willie felt the ship's engines roar as Sparkplug made his move- and they were clear, that quick. There was one shot after them, almost as an afterthought. Sparkplug hauled to meet up with the rest of the fleet, sending a report as he went.

Rodimus Prime noticed the decrease in shots and maneuvers from the enemy ships when they finished off one. Reports flew in, bewildered and nervous and feverishly hopeful, that most of the manned ships were disengaging. They chased them down to discover that most of the 'cons on the ships were in stasis lock. The defenses were quickly dealt with, and they sped on to their chose landing places, both terrified and hopeful. Was this a trap or something else?

On Earth, calls went back and forth, from farm to farm and factory to factory, to the mines and to the centers. They could see ships landing, but there was no firing, no fighting. Some of their personnel were in deep stasis lock and could not be revived. What was going on?

Razorclaw, on his central farm, got call after call. He said the same thing, over and over. "Wait, see what happens. Don't engage. If you're attacked, defend and call for help." Shrapnel got messages from other farms, that something was wrong with the other supervisors and there were ships, what should they do? He instructed them to have the humans in a safe place, barn or barracks, do not engage unless fired on, ask for help if fired on, and wait.

At the mines, one of the protective supervisors saw a ship coming down and sent the word. Miners were quietly herded into the smaller shafts, as they waited for the shouts and the shots to start. When as many as they could get word to were huddled in the shaft, they ventured out. Fellow supervisors, the ones that would have followed the 'kill the humans' order, were frozen, and when checked, found to be in deep stasis that they could not bring them out of.

Then each of them got a personal communication. When the Alliance soldiers arrived, more than half of the remaining Decepticons surrendered, terrified and/or awed out of their processors because they heard the All-Spark. The remainder fought, but most of them did not fight well, too unsettled by that voice in their minds. When the Autobots questioned the supervisors and the Alliance humans questioned the slaves, they discovered that the supervisors not in stasis lock were the ones who would not slaughter their personal charges, and the slaves often said that the supervisors left were the ones they trusted more.

Rodimus himself went after central command, determined to find Sam or what remained of him. The Alliance forces found themselves helping drones move bodies in stasis out of the way so they could walk in the halls. They found Sam in Megatron's quarters. He was poking through the datapads, gathering information, and when they came in the room, moving in careful military fashion, his greeting was, "Took you long enough."

They noticed the glowing eyes and the echoing voice and any irritation went away. When they saw Megatron in the pile of stasis-locked bodies, they were shocked until an irritated bark of "Come on, we need to get them out of the way," galvanized them into moving.

The Autbots, assisted by the humans, made certain that the Decepticons were in stasis lock, and all weapons were removed or off-lined, and literally stacked them up to get them out of the way. There were few Decepticons left and most of them fled. Rodimus sent troops after them and used Megatron's communications center to send out both offers of clemency for surrendering and messages to his own people.

By the time Willie appeared, Sam was back to being in charge of the merge. Between the slow takeover and the presence of the Prime, the All-Spark personality felt safe enough to fade back. Fortunately Sam was alone in the office when Willie ran up and hugged him hard. Rodimus and Sparkplug discreetly gave the father and son a little time.

However, Willie was uneasy on the planet and went back to the spaceport to work on the ships after seeing that Sam was safe. He visited occasionally and brought Sam food from stores until cooks and a new food distribution system made that effort unnecessary. After that, Sam visited him and lured him out of the ship to show him Earth and its wonders, teaching him that all the messy disorder that a planet held was worth what you could find on it.

Sam, Rodimus, Alex Lennox and Mulah spent a great deal of time working over what needed to be done and what was available to get it done. As each area was settled, there would be both a human and an Autobot left behind to deal with the slaves and the supervisors and make evaluations.

There was only one good outcome to the death of most of the human race, Sam thought. Resources scare for seven billion people were widely available to the few million left, and there was no problem anymore with distributing them. That meant there was means to bring skilled personnel and other needs to Earth to begin medical care and to restructure a slave society into a free one. It would not be easy, but at least they would not have to mortgage their children's futures to pay for the help they needed.

Miranda came with the next ship, bringing with her other medics and a few Psyches. She had a great deal to say about the lack of medical care on Earth, with her top priority improving diet. Strangely enough, her irritated attitude put a lot of the slaves at ease. They were used to that attitude in anyone in authority, and encountering it reassured them that she knew what she was doing. Of all people, she got along best with Razorclaw, who was fascinated with the fact that humans actually had codes called DNA and how the affected interbreeding.

While he was no longer in charge of 'breeding', he was interested in how the colonists kept from interbreeding. When he offered his records, he was offered in turn the choice to be part of the new Population Control that would be installed on Earth, modified like the one on Waterfall.

Sam would forever treasure the day that Razorclaw came up to him while he was walking his baby girl and said,"You finally got around to it?"

"I was born free and now my children are," Sam told him evenly."It was worth the wait."

Razorclaw was one of the first to agree to the new rules in order to stay on Earth. That choice was offered to the Decepticons who surrendered, to accept the Alliance rules and stay to work with their former charges. They would be considered neutral. All of the supervisors Sam worked well with agreed.

Those that did not want to stay on Earth under the new rules but did want the option of remaining in Alliance space had to swear to keep to Alliance law and not to render aid to those who remained Decepticons. Again, they would be considered neutral. The oaths were witnessed and reinforced by the merge.

Among the supervisors not in stasis, some were unable to give up the Decepticon point of view; they were exiled out of Alliance space, and the merge reprogrammed them so that they would not return unless willing to comply with Alliance rules. The ones in stasis lock were left that way until they could be tried and either condemned or exiled.

Months later, the trials began. Megatron and a few others did not get a trial because it was universally agreed that he did not need one. He was the leader of the Decepticons forces and second in command to the Fallen, and he was condemned by the Alliance for war crimes already, as were five other Decepticons. Sam was delighted to find that Bonecrusher was one of them.

The means of giving the others a trial was discussed along with a means to execute the ones condemned. When the meeting ended, the merge went to see Megatron. "Are you here to gloat?" Megatron was able to speak but the rest of his movement was still forcibly off-lined.

"No." The merge was currently Sam. "I came to tell you your sentence." Megatron only cursed. Sam waited until he ran down. "You're to be executed and your body will be reduced to component parts. The deaths you caused end here."

"Executed by insects," the former Lord Protector said bitterly, "slowly?" Sam remembered the executions of his fellow resistance fighters. Megatron had reason to ask.

"We won't lower ourselves to your level," Sam said. Megatron flinched as the merge walked up and caused his spark chamber to open. "Besides, you were kind to me." His eyes began to glow. "And you were once the Lord Protector in fact and not in name, before the Fallen corrupted you. So this will be quick." He reached.

Some time later Carol and Willie found Sam in the woods near base. The lights were strong enough that they could see him picking apples from a nearby tree. There were already some roots in the basket he was using. Sam had the habit of finding wild foods and bringing them to the base for the cooks to try. There were leaves in the basket as well.

"There you are," Willie said, relieved. He squinted in the dimness. "Why are you out here in the dark? What are those?" When a breeze blew in, rustling the leaves, he jumped and shivered a little.

"When you slipped away, you got us a little worried," Carol said. She came over and looked at the bucket. "What's this?"

"Apples, carrots, and spearmint leaves. I needed to think, "he said. He picked a few more apples. "Thinking about how life needs to move on, sometimes, and start again." He put the apples in the bucket and stood. "You know, back when I was young, this world was covered with people. We were smothering the planet and trying to keep from killing each other. We had cultures who tried to turn the clock back with hate and killing; we had countries that were rich and those that were desperately poor. We had cities with multiple of millions of people living on top of each other. We had all kind of pollution. "He lifted his head to the breeze and took a deep breath. "And in less than a century, it was gone, because of Megatron and the Decepticons. All human culture was obliterated. There is no longer even a tradition left."

The two colonists waited. "The odd thing is, we have a chance to not make those mistakes again. We'll have a chance at rebirth. No rich and no poor, no strangling cultures backlashes, no one to say something is right or wrong because that was the way they were taught to think and there's no better reason."

The two younger people said nothing, wondering what caused the musing. Sam picked up the bucket. They walked inside with him, relieved to come in from the dark. Rodimus Prime was waiting. "We just discovered that Megatron's permanently off-lined," the Prime stated.

"Yes," Sam said.

"You knew?" Rodimus said.

"I took care of it." Sam continued to carry his bucket to the kitchen. Willie and Carol were staring at him. The biggest danger to the Alliance, the murderer of how many humans, Psyches, and Autobots, and he just 'took care' of him, without any noise, without any preparation, nothing?

"That was something of a presumption on your part, Sam," Rodimus said, his voice carefully neutral.

Sam's eyes began to glow. "No," he said. "I did what was necessary. With him gone, the ones wavering will fall in line, and the rest will be afraid. Megatron was already condemned. He was once my Protector, and I have dealt with him as he needed to be dealt with. As the All-Spark, I have always had the right to take back a spark, and I have done so."

"Take the spark?" Willie squeaked. "What do you mean?"

"Take the spark back into me," the merge answered. "To be reborn again, to try again. He was once a good being. Always ambitious, always arrogant, but strong, and once he lived up to his title. So, eventually in time, it will come to pass. In the meantime, use his body for spare parts, and I will use the rest later."

With that, the glow was gone. "Now, Willie and Carol, would you like to try mint tea? It's really good with some sweetening."

Fifty years later…..

"It's time," Sam said to Rodimus Prime and Bumblebee.

Prime and Bumblebee came to Earth on a more or less routine visit to report Earth's situation to the Alliance Council. They met Sam at the old command center. It was still the government center, but in the middle of a thriving city.

In the fifty years that had passed, Sam formed a bonded relationship to Carol Lennox, who stayed on Earth to organize and run security matters. Carol died of totally natural causes five years ago. They had adult daughters with children and careers of their own. However, anyone who knew Sam over more than a few years knew he was still different; he did not age at all. He looked the same now as he had when they found him in Megatron's quarters the day they arrived, except the white line around his neck had faded away.

"When?" Bumblebee asked.

Of course, there had been problems, and there were still problems, but matters were stable for now. A new world leader was chosen, a young man named Cole who once worked at the energon plant and went to the colony world to study before working under Sam. The vast majority of the Decepticons who were in stasis were exiled from Alliance space and reprogrammed to never return. Most left that part of the galaxy.

Those that stayed had to live through changes. They watched as the collars came off. They had to deal with humans who worked in shifts and who rose to responsible positions. They helped organize the building of homes and arrangements for families. They had to get used to required medical care.

"Tomorrow. No need to put it off further. From what Ratchet says, they've taken all the parts they can use. There's enough left for my needs. I'd like you to be my witnesses. Willie's already agreed, and so has Mulah."

"Tomorrow, then. "

The next day Sam stood in front of the remains of the condemned Decepticons, those from the ones locked in stasis and condemned thirty years ago. The witnesses could feel power in the air, rising like heat from metal or concrete on a shimmering hot summer day. The pieces of metal began to melt and merge into each other, as white lightning danced into it, coming from Sam.

Soon, a cube shape emerged in the light. Then Sam's body became tranluscent, and with one last swirl, dissolved into the light and went into the new Cube, which then settled gently onto the ground.

The bargain the All-Spark offered Sam was time and assistance to rebuild Earth and to live a settled human life. In return, Sam agreed to become part of the All-Spark, with his memories of pain and enslavement and human history forever entrenched into the rest of the information in the Cube.

And so, in the vorns to come, when Cybertron was alive and growing once again, Sam, as part of the Cube, was there to advise and remind those in power the cost of one being's ambition.

Author's note: If you are interested in reading or have ideas for Sam's lives that I did not address (two which were not specific except in how he dies) let me know; also if you have ideas for same. This would be published as additional stories.