Author's Note:

AAAAHHHH I HIT 1000 REVIEWS! *throws confetti* Show some love to Bumbles Baby for being my 1000 reviewer! *heart*

Much love to my newest fav/followers Grayson's Redoubt, Bumbles Baby, nikikt, ThornWolf the Loyal, bluephoenix65069, SJprurry, AutoTechnoCon98, and shadybabe101!

And as always, milk and cookies and oodles of love to my reviewers! Bumbles Baby, Nonny, Fox Crimson, Lola, tonifoni, Guest, SnowHawk0316, couriosity, two more Guests, Mazamba, Zypherion-DeathNova, Neon, Foxbear, SpaceFerrari, Words Infinity, enmused, The Cybertonium Warrior, Arceegirl4evr, BossBot97, Kuurankukka, nikikt, Katie Gibbs, ZabuzasGirl, Fanatic97, AutoTechnoCon98, Sounddrive, Filly92, shadybabe101, Autobot Chromia, Spiritstrike, Miko873, and Eyrmia! (all my silent peeps came out of the woodworks! :) )

Without further ado, please enjoy the closing chapter of OHOS! :)

A shrill scream cut through the room.

Shortly after, another shriek tore from her.

No one moved to help her. Not that they could, anyways.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

Another piercing cry split the room.

Warm laughter spilled from the father of the tyke.

"Higher, Daddy, higher!"

"You want to go higher?" Wheeljack growled. He nuzzled her stomach, making the sparkling squeal and kick as he tickled her. "Then we'll just see how high you fly!"

She shrieked again as Wheeljack tossed her up high. She inherited the inverse colors of her parents, predominantly pink but with white and blue accents. Arms and legs flailed some as she dropped back into Wheeljack's arms, but big blue optics looked up at him with adoration, framed by giant audios that seemed too big for her head.

Grinning, Wheeljack dipped her head to the ground and whipped her back upright. Tossing his sparkling up high again, she screamed with delight all the way up and all the way back down. Wheeljack laughed heartily and tickled her again, taking spark in the sound of her laughter.

However, when he threw her up high again, different hands intercepted her before he could. Arcee hefted the sparkling on her hip, frowning crossly at Wheeljack. The mech in question smirked at her expression.

"Oh, come on, Angel, I wasn't going to drop her!"

"And you're not going to drop her because I think that's quite high enough," she said on a huff.

The sparkling kicked her peds and wiggled in Arcee's arms. "Where's Uncle Springer? He's always on Earth! He's coming today?"

"He's coming soon, Volatile," Arcee said with a small smile to the sparkling. She sat her on her peds, saying, "Megatronus is finger painting, Volatile. How about you go play with him until Springer gets here?"

Volatile gasped, exclaiming, "I want to finger paint!" and began to toddle off immediately. She tripped once across the hangar, falling on her face, but she doggedly got back up without any prompting to where the blue and white mech sat painting on cardboard.

Wheeljack smiled at the sight of his daughter asking to play with Megatronus, and the older mech helping her with the paints and a clean sheet of cardboard paper. Across the room, Ratchet was running a check up on Elita who was sparked with her second child, this time a girl. The proud father stood off to the side with his brother, both mechs only half watching the children; the topic of conversation seemed to be Bumblebee who was growing up trying his hardest to uphold all of Optimus' teachings.

Arcee put her servos on her hips and arched a brow at Wheeljack. Her spark mate just grinned haplessly. "Wheeljack—"

"I know what you're gonna say, Angel, and don't you worry your head off," he cut her off before she could start again. He scooped her up and buttered her up more by placing teasing kisses on her neck that made her squirm. "C'mon, Elita and Orion are already on their second child, we've gotta catch up someday, Arcee."

She finally wiggled from his grasp and straightened her armor, throwing a glance over her shoulder at the others in the room. When no one seemed to notice or really care, she looked back at him with a disgruntled expression, pursing up her lips. "Wheeljack, this isn't a competition."

"Of COURSE not!" Wheeljack exclaimed with exaggerated agreement. Arcee rolled her optics at his sarcasm. "Hey, it's doctor's orders, right?" Wheeljack spread his servos innocently. "The more babies—"

"The more bonds, and the stronger your spark, yes," Arcee said with another optic roll, this one so pronounced that her optics practically disappeared into her head. She smiled however, a long-suffering but amused smile as she crossed her arms. "Give me a little bit longer before we have another," she pleaded, "I'm still reeling from just having Volatile, and if the next comes out with the same personality, we'll never be able to keep up with them."

"Aw, c'mon, she's not THAT bad," Wheeljack defended her with a grin. Both parents looked over to the kids at the same time. They witnessed a small scene where Volatile tried to pick up the bucket of lime green paint to dump it on herself and give herself a new paintjob while Megatronus jumped to his peds in a panic to stop her. Wheeljack cringed with a sheepish grin.

"Okay, maybe she's a handful."

The edge of Arcee's lip quirked up, and she reached around him for a tight hug. Wheeljack returned the affectionate gesture happily, his mending spark practically humming at the proximity. She kissed his chassis. For a minute, they just stood entwined, and Wheeljack sighed, absently stroking one of Arcee's winglets.

He really was the aft of a lifetime. He had scared her bad when Miko had died, but it turned out that the one thing he was so afraid of? It was the best remedy. He had been avoiding making bonds with people because breaking them would exacerbate his spark more, but in reality, creating bonds would be the thing that would save him. The bonds would strengthen his failing spark, so Ratchet had immediately inferred that the larger his family, the better.

Thus, after Arcee forced their sparks to merge while he was literally on his death bed, Springer opted to make their brothers-in-arms relationship more and actually become brothers-in-spark. And with Cybertron at peace and beginning to flourish again, there was far less of a chance for the tragedies of the past since the war was over.

Wheeljack shrugged suddenly and grinned.

"Besides, Miko ordered an army of mini-Jackie's, but I think we can settle for a football team full. We'll have to get working on the mini-JACKIE bit since that girl's the spitting image of you."

Arcee snorted on a laugh, leaning back to laugh at him, "Oh please, she inherited your audios, and on top of that, she is all YOU."

They looked back over to the playing kids. Now Volatile had her hands covered in paint and was complaining about the brown and dark colors she kept getting when she mixed the colors. Megatronus was busy telling her not to mix the colors while Volatile told him to shut up and she was going to figure out why the colors kept making different colors.

Arcee frowned. "Volatile," she called out, "use your nice words!"

"It was nice!" the sparkling hollered back. "I didn't say stuff it!"

Wheeljack barely stifled a laugh while Arcee groaned and pinched her olfactory system. "That's YOUR daughter," she muttered.

Lips twitching, Wheeljack lifted his voice across the room to shout the age-old montage. "Volatile, language!"

"O-KAY."

Wheeljack pointed a finger at Arcee. "The sass is from you."

It had been . . . surprisingly easy to come to grips with the fact that Miko was gone. He wasn't sure why it had been easiest, out of all his loved ones he had lost, to let go of her. Maybe it was because she had asked him to. She had prepared him, lived her life to the fullest, and loved him to the end. He thought perhaps, most likely, that it was because her death was natural in coming and she hadn't been taken from him early. She had died peacefully, and it was all he could ask for.

He also began to finally learn to properly mourn. After watching his grandkids go too, he began to understand the concept of letting go. Instead of dwelling in the past, Wheeljack finally found himself living in the present, taking delight in the lives around him as long as he had them here. He also had just become a great-great-great-grandfather, and he was excited and loved everyone. Since he lived on Cybertron, he didn't get to see Miko's family as often, but they still retained their close relationship.

And, possibly most importantly . . . He hadn't disappointed Miko. This time, even though it took him to the brink of death, he hadn't broken his promise to her. And he knew that wherever she was now, she was shining down on him from heaven. And maybe, maybe for a change, SHE was proud of HIM.

"Wheeljack!" The Wrecker looked up to see Ratchet pointing to the berth Elita was evacuating. "You're next. Get over here and don't cause me any problems this time."

Wheeljack lifted his hands in surrender. "Ease up on the gas, Doc! I've been perfectly well behaved!"

He and Arcee migrated over to the medical area as Ratchet grumbled under his breath about his given nickname. Elita suddenly gasped as Wheeljack settled on the medical berth, and she turned towards Orion and grabbed his servos.

"Orion, I've got it." A mischievous smile tugged at her mouth. "We want to name her after Magnus, don't we? Well, I've got it! How about we name her Maggie?"

Magnus' optics widened, and he said, "A human name?" at the same time rich laughter poured from Orion. Her spark mate grinned at her, saying, "I like it! What do you think, Magnus?"

Before he could answer, Volatile came stomping back from where she and Megatronus were playing, and she put her servos on her hips, not unlike her mother. She stamped her foot, saying, "Mom! Dad! Megatronus is hogging the colors!"

Orion frowned, and before he could say anything to Megatronus, Wheeljack cut in with, "He's hogging the colors? That's not fair. So you go back and tell him that there's plenty to share and don't take no for an answer. Just because he's older than you doesn't mean he can push you around, all right? Now, go assert yourself!"

Volatile brightened at that, bursting, "Okay!" and hurrying back over to Megatronus.

While Ratchet ran a few more scans on Wheeljack's spark, Arcee winked at him, saying, "Good advice, Wheeljack. Men like it when women assert themselves."

He frowned at her. He pointed his finger. "Now hey, don't you go playing match—" He choked in the middle of his sentence, optics rounding as he suddenly realized exactly what he was saying. "WHAT? Volatile! Get back here!"

He interrupted her talking to Megatronus with her servos on her hips. She came back hesitantly, exclaiming in frustration, "But I thought you wanted me to assert myself!"

"I changed my mind!" he barked, annoyed at the thought of his daughter getting involved with anyone.

Arcee was openly laughing at him along with Elita, and she patted her daughter's shoulder. "Don't you listen to your father, you're fine, Volatile," she said. "Now go on and play."

She brightened and her audios flexed. "Okay!"

Volatile toddled back off, and Ratchet huffed. "Well, you check out again, Wheeljack. I—"

"Of course I do," Wheeljack interrupted with a snort. He closed his spark chamber and stood with a stretch. "C'mon, Doc, you need to wind down. Why don't you go finger paint with the kids?"

Ratchet sputtered for a moment, unable to find a proper response before he shot back haughtily, "Unless you'd like a colored handprint across your face—"

"Or your aft," Arcee suddenly added. "I still owe you for that."

"Hey now!" Wheeljack interjected, holding up his hands. "Why's everyone ganging up on me all the sudden? And you!" He whirled to a smug-looking Arcee. "You can't still be nursing that one, are you?"

Arcee crossed her arms and shrugged. "Of course I am."

Wheeljack tossed his servos up. "But—C'mon! I had my memories wiped! Cut me some slack!"

"Oh, don't even give me that," Arcee said, lips twitching against a smile. She poked his chassis. "You'd still do it now in perfect health."

Wheeljack considered this. "Touché."

His optics caught the sight of green across the old hangar. Wheeljack opened his mouth to shout, but Springer rapidly motioned for him to keep quiet. Wheeljack snickered as he watched Springer skulk around the hangar until he was behind Volatile. Megatronus noticed him, but with a finger to the lips, Springer kept the boy quiet. Wiggling his aft like a cat ready to pounce, Springer crouched and spread his fingers.

Leaping over them, Springer snatched up Volatile as he soared over their play space. Volatile screamed with delight as Springer surprise-attack tickled her. His propellers fanned wide on his back as he growled at her, "Who's my favorite little niece?"

Volatile shrieked in between her laughter. "I'm your only niece!"

Megatronus leapt to his peds, wiping his hands on a towel to get rid of excess paint before jumping on top of their little pile. "Springer! Hi! Want to see my painting? I painted Ratchet this time!"

Springer grabbed both sparklings with his servos, hoisting them up by stretching his arms straight. Flat on his back, Springer grinned at them. "That so? Now tell me, is it an accurate picture of the mad Doc? Red optics and devil horns?"

Megatronus giggled with Volatile when Springer wiggled them. "No! Ratchet's not like that!"

The annoyed medic sighed and looked to the ceiling, entreating to Primus, "That child is an angel." To Megatronus, he shouted, "You are a miracle, Megatronus! Don't ever change!"

"I won't!"

"Yes you will!" Volatile laughed, kicking her legs. "You'll get old and rusty and cranky like Ratchet!"

The medic grumbled, pinching his brow and muttering under his breath, "And that child is of the devil . . ." He glared at Wheeljack, causing the father only to laugh harder.

Springer grinned, and he tweaked both the kids' audios, one pair reminiscent of Wheeljack and the other pair reminiscent of Optimus. Sitting up, he placed the kiddos on their peds, saying, "All right, show me these masterpieces of yours!"

Elita smiled as Springer crouched down with the kids to look at their art, and she patted the disgruntled Ratchet's shoulder. "Don't worry yourself, Ratchet. And smile! Wheeljack's right about you needing to relax."

Ratchet straightened his armor with a small huff, defending himself with, "I AM relaxed, Elita."

Elita and Orion grinned knowing smiles at him, making Ratchet look to Ultra Magnus for help. He shrugged his massive shoulders and shook his head. "I am not about to try to disagree with those two," he said simply.

Wheeljack grinned and punched Ratchet's shoulder. "See, Doc? It's unanimous! You've got a stick in your afterburner!"

Ratchet whirled with a hot retort, but instead there was a smack of metal against metal and a shouted, "Ow! Volatile!" along with a growled, "Hey!"

The culprit of the trouble squalled angrily as Springer yanked her up by one of her wing kibble, carrying her back to her parents. "I believe this one is yours," Springer grumbled to Wheeljack. He hiked a brow up as he deposited Volatile face-first into Wheeljack's waiting servo. "Punched Megatronus right good. She's got her mother's right hook."

Wheeljack grunted, grabbed Volatile's leg and hoisted her upside down at face level. The stubborn sparkling crossed her arms and pursed her lips as Wheeljack shook her. "All right, what'd you punch him for, Volatile?"

"He said his painting was better than mine!" Volatile shouted, energon filling her cheeks with indignation.

Wheeljack shook her again, but she didn't budge from her unrepentant position. "I've told you once, I've told you twice, Volatile, you don't hit people."

"He always acts like he's better than me!" Volatile yelled, her free leg kicking a little. "And he's not!"

Across the way, Orion was knelt with Megatronus who had his helm tucked down while his father spoke with him. Compared to the two hot tempers across the room, his punishment was much easier taken care of. Megatronus listened dutifully to his father who was saying, "Both works of art are equally fantastic, Megatronus. While yours is attentive to detail and shows hard work, Volatile's is fully of passion and experimentation. We appreciate both kinds of art and don't put others down. Right?"

Megatronus cast a look to his picture of Ratchet and the smears of browns and purples and splashes of color that indicated Volatile's masterpiece. He frowned a little at the nonsensical artwork, but nodded. "Yes, Father."

Unable to talk Volatile down, Wheeljack shook her again, threatening, "You want to visit Miko's family today, right?" Her arms slackened a little from their crossed position, and her audios tilted back a little in submission. When she pressed her lips stubbornly, Wheeljack gave her a little shake. "Right?"

"Yes," she finally muttered, looking away.

"Then you've got to behave," Wheeljack reminded her. Finally, seeing that she had had enough and was giving in, Wheeljack flipped her upright. "So. Are you going to apologize to Megatronus?"

She wrinkled her olfactory system. "Do I have to?"

"Yes."

If possible, she made an even more annoyed face. "Okay."

Wheeljack sat her back down on her peds, and Volatile walked up to Megatronus. Her face continued to stay pinched. "Sorry," she all but spat at him.

"Nicely," Wheeljack cut in. "Mean it, Volatile."

Since her back was to him, Volatile gave a huge optic roll, thinking she would get away with it. However, Orion—crouched next to Megatron—lifted one disapproving brow to her. She flushed brightly and looked to the ground, muttering a chagrined, "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for hitting you."

Megatronus nodded, also looking at the floor. "I'm sorry for saying my picture was better. Yours is good too."

Volatile nodded. Orion bopped Megatronus' bottom, saying, "Now go on and play some more, you two."

As he walked away, Volatile suddenly announced, "I don't want to play anymore," and effectively excused herself from the area. Wheeljack watched as his daughter walked to the opposite end of the base and sat down near the door, looking out. She hitched up her legs and sat in a ball, chin resting on her knees. A small smile softened his optics.

When Springer moved to go to her, Wheeljack grabbed him and shook his head. "I think I'll take this one," he said, nodding his head his way.

Wheeljack walked across the base as they began to chatter again about naming the newspark Maggie Magnus. He crouched next to his daughter, and when she didn't respond, he nudged her. "Hey now. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

He watched her lips purse. "Yes," she said stubbornly, "it was."

His lips twitched at her indignation. "What, so now you're going to pout?"

Her wing kibble tensed. "I'm not pouting," she muttered sulkily.

Now he really had to resist a smile. Ignoring if she was going to squirm, Wheeljack picked her up, saying, "C'mere. We need to have a talk, you and me." Sitting her on his hip and walking from the hangar into the Nevada sun. Wheeljack glanced down at her. "Have I ever told you who you were named after?"

Volatile suddenly perked up with interest. "I'm named after someone?" she asked.

Wheeljack grinned. "You sure are. She was a lot like you, actually. Unpredictable, a hot temper, and just as stubborn!" He softened his words by tickling her, making Volatile squeal and kick, pushing his servo away. "You see, her personality, her very spark was extremely volatile, combustible and unpredictable, so I named you after what I loved about her most."

Volatile looked up at him with big blue optics. "Who was she?"

Wheeljack let his head rear back as if she had personally offended him. "You mean you don't know? I named you after your big sister, Miko!"

Her jaw dropped and her optics popped. "Miko was my big sister?" she gasped.

"She sure was!" Wheeljack said on a grin, poking her chassis.

"But she was a human!"

Wheeljack laughed warmly, sitting down with Volatile in the sand. "She sure was! I haven't told you enough stories about Miko, but now that you're old enough, I think you can understand. I've got a million stories about Miko, but we'll have to start at the beginning. It's a tragedy, but it's also the start of a beautiful story . . ."

Volatile settled in eagerly for another of Wheeljack's entrancing stories, however, the glare of the sun against metal flicked in her optics. Glancing out over the sand as her father began to tell the story, she saw an old human. He was leaning against an old red pickup truck and smoked on a cigar. His boots looked like they had seen better days, and he tipped up his cowboy hat so she could see his eyes.

He winked at her, and with a strong wind, blew into dust.

Author's Note:

AHAHAHAAHA BITE ME! :D But seriously, I do promise in all seriousness that I have NO IDEA who the Chief is. I think he's just an OC, maybe a guardian angel Cybertronian style or something...

And I confess, more than once I nearly wrote "Miko" instead of "Volatile". *sinks into a puddle of tears*

BUT THE FLUFF. ENJOY IT. I even brought back Springer! Uncle Springer! AND I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THE IDEA OF MAGGIE MAGNUS. *flails*

BUT OMG IT'S FINALLY OVER. After 767 pages of NO SPACING (which is 1,517 pages double spaced) and 391,923 words, 2 and a half years, OHOS is finished. It's got it's pitfalls like any other story, but it's full of feels. I've got some massive plot holes here and there (LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO SHOCKWAVE AFTER ALL THE SHIT HE DID, I FREAKING FORGOT ABOUT SHOCKWAVE! HOW DOES A PERSON DO THAT?) But I guess things like that can lead way into the sequel that I'm considering more and more. I want to see some of the new cartoon before I attempt something though to decide if I'm going to line it up with 2015 RID or just go my own way. (So yeah, since I've been thinking about it the way I have and I've even got the sketchings of the start of a plot, it'll probably happen at some point.)

But oh my gosh, I am really really gonna miss this story. This has been a fun, hilarious, feelsy, and happy run, and I'm glad it ended on this high note! Wheeljack's grown a lot in this story, and I have to admit, while I think this story started off with me thinking Miko was the very center of attention and main character, I think it was really Wheeljack's story all alone. It's good to finally see him happy in both mind and soul, and see him at peace with himself!

*waves* Well, that's that! Thanks for reading, and I hope my next stories will be even more entertaining than this!