Okay, here we go. The second part/epilogue of The Inbetween. I really hope you like it, but given the feedback I've gotten I think you will. :D And just think! With this chapter I have just finished a story from a foreign country! XDDDD AWWWEEEEESOOOOOME! Whhheeeeee!

Now, eh...what else. Oh! Our group show went amazingly! At least two people told me that they really liked my prints! Which is so cool! And then everyone's work was so amazing to look at too, and our guide brought her five kids and they were pretty cool. The oldest was 13 and the youngest was 3. XP The younger four were all running around and one was meowing and they were playing with cat puppets and- yeah, it was fun. n_n I really enjoyed myself. ::happy smiley hearts!::

Allow me a few more lines to gush my gratitude to my wonderful reviewers icanhascamaro, Blackhooves, IBrokeThe4hWall, MissMary, and the ever faithful annebellelennox and plagueblood90 for their equally wonderful reviews. I was so pleased to read them! I'll try and answer them too because, well, I liked what you said and want to return the courtesy quite honestly. n_n; Now lets see if I can actually sit down and do it...

Anyway, here it is, the end of the tale. Or is it the beginning...?

;) Hope you enjoy it.

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~ The Inbetween: Part II ~

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For someone who had been dead for over a week, Prowl recovered quickly, and it wasn't long before he and the others were back on Earth, going about their normal lives. It had taken some convincing of the High Council (who hadn't wanted to give up their heroes so quickly and had offered some very nice incentives to stay quite honestly), but finally, here they were.

"And glad of it," Prowl thought with relief as he listened to the sound of the wind rustling through the trees above him. It had been sort of nice at first, being hailed as a hero by all of Cybertron, but the act had soon gotten old. Prowl still wasn't much of a bots-bot, so to speak, and soon all the crowds of Cybertronians just wanting to catch a glimpse of him had grated down his last nerve. By the end of the orn he had wanted nothing more then to park it somewhere on Earth, surrounded by all of the wild, chaotic nature, not to mention the silence, it offered.

That's what he was doing now actually. Before him and slightly to his right sat a human park sat, the children playing on the brightly painted equipment shrieking happily as they chased each other around and played their games. Prowl was sitting at the edge of the parking lot, resting under the cool shade of some trees. He didn't have much else to do except sit here and watch organic life go on since Ratchet still had him on medical leave. Despite Prowl's protests, the old bot was still stubbornly refusing to let Prowl go back to his normal duties until he was sure there were no after effects from his…being dead.

So Prowl sat there, remaining still, like he had the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that…

At first he had been struck speechless by how things had not-changed since he had left Earth (not to mention this life), but he had soon found it a relief. After the crushing crowds of Cybertron, Earth was…peaceful. A much welcomed respite from the noise of grateful crowds.

A particularly loud burst of childish laughter snapped Prowl out of the light doze he had unknowingly falling into. He looked over at the park to see a gaggle of children splinter to all corners of the playground, greatly frustrating the 'It' child.

Prowl hummed to himself, somewhat annoyed. For one, his nap had just been put off and for two, because maybe if he was falling into recharge out in the middle of the city, Ratchet's medical paranoia might not be that far off the mark.

None of the adults at the park were looking his way, their attention focused on the children, so Prowl pulled up his kickstand and straightened up, engine coming to life, as the humans said.

Prowl allowed himself a small, ironic grin. "If only they knew…" he thought wryly.

He remembered his holographic driver as he was pulling out of the parking lot and onto the street. Fortunately none of the humans seemed to notice the brief minutes where the police motorcycle drove itself, their attention focused elsewhere like it usually was.

Prowl was too tired to feel frustrated by that fact, so he stuck to the task of maneuvering through the light traffic around him. He pulled over into the far right lane, expecting to take Main Street out to the little known roads that led to the plant, but he stopped when he saw the overflow of traffic stuck on the one way street.

"Must be an accident of some sort," Prowl murmured to himself as he stopped at the red light next to his turn, "guess I'll be taking the scenic route home."

So he went straight, heading for Connick Boulevard instead.

Connick ran through what the humans called an 'unsavory' part of town. Prowl thought it was somewhat of an understatement, given the excess of graffiti and foul language spray painted on the old, brick buildings.

"I'll never understand some humans' obsession with painting things that don't belong to them." Prowl thought as he rode through the older part of the city. "They can't even take care of the things they built, much less nature!" He added, somewhat angrily.

He came to a stop at another light and gave himself a little shake. He was being unfair. Not all humans were like this. Not even the ones that were indifferent to the natural beauty that surrounded them went around covering buildings in obscenity.

With a frustrated sigh, Prowl realized he was...irritable.

This realization did nothing to make him feel better. Usually he felt so calm. He liked feeling calm. He missed his calm.

"Maybe I'll try meditating again when I get back." He thought to himself. He had of course done a lot of meditation when he had returned to Earth, trying to find some sense of peace about returning to life, but in the end even he reached his breaking point, and after going through all the meditation he could stand, he had started just driving around the city, finding little spots like the park he had just left and relaxing there for however long he felt like.

A loud sound brought Prowl out of his musings. Frustrated at the fact that this was the second time that had happened in less then an hour, Prowl looked up somewhat sharply, for the first time wishing he really had a concrete human form so he could write whoever it was a ticket for disturbing the peace. His first and foremost.

But all thoughts of tickets left his processor when he spotted the figure on the other side of the street. It was a girl, a human girl, with brown hair and bright clothes and a face he thought was usually given over to smiling.

If Prowl had been in his robot form, he would have blinked in confusion. He knew her. Or at least, he thought he did. She just looked so awfully darn familiar…

She was maybe seventeen, eighteen, years old. She had brown hair, and deep, human blue eyes – not the bright blue of an Autobot, he thought – and she was undoubtedly in trouble.

Four other humans – the kind of rough looking young men and women you expected to find around this part of town – surrounded her, three men and a woman. The noise that had made Prowl look up had come from the sketchpads and brushes the ringleader had knocked out of the other girl's hands hitting the ground.

"So let me guess," the lead youth was saying, taking a step closer to the girl, "yer new in town right?"

The girl glared at him, but didn't answer.

The man didn't let her silence bother him. "Right, so yer new, which means you don't quite know all the rules here yet, so I'll cut you some slack. But incase you hadn't noticed, this," he gestured almost comically at the run down buildings around them as he took another casual step forward towards the girl, "isn't an art studio and we," he pointed at the other three still standing behind him before pointing to himself, "don't really care for strangers to just go running around drawing pictures of our stuff."

Confusion entered the girl's glare. "Why not? It's just a sketch. I was more focused on the flowers then anythi-"

"Because," the youth smoothly cut her off, "you just never know where those pictures might end up."

"A magazine," one of the other boys spoke up for the first time.

"An art gallery," the other girl added with a thick New Jersey accent.

"Or," the leader stepped in again, "they might even end up in the hands of some of our…" he pretended to think of a suitable word, "more unpleasant acquaintances."

"The ones that would just love to know where we hang out and all so they can pay us a special kinda visit," the other girl added, accentuating her words with a sharp snap of her bubble gum.

"But I'm not selling these to anybody." The girl tried to protest. "I just liked the way the light was playing on the overhang of that old arcade building."

The man tilted his head and made a hissing noise through his teeth. The others just chuckled quietly, like he had said something funny.

"See, yer not really helpin' yer case there. And this," he said deftly reaching down to pick up the book the girl had been carrying, "this isn't really helping you out either. This is-" he peered at the book cover, confused now, "What is this?" He flipped the book on its side, peering at the title on the spine.

"'To infinity and beyond: the theory of the multi-verse?' What are you? Some kind of reincarnation freak?"

The girl glared at him harder. "It's about multiple dimensions dumba-"

She never got to finish. The loud thwack as her hardcover book hitting the concrete abruptly cut her off.

"Another thing we don't appreciate," the lead youth said in a low, cold voice, all pretenses at friendliness gone now, "is name callin'." He told her slowly.

The girl went back a step. Or at least, she tried to. The brick wall behind her sort of impeded her escape.

"Now usually," the lead man said as he took another step forward into the girl's personal space, cracking his knuckles threateningly as the others followed his lead, "I gotta thing against hittin' girls, specially girls like you," he said, only sounding slightly convincing, "but today has been the mother of all bad days so-"

He didn't add anything else. The girl flinched slightly as his knuckles cracked again, but she didn't look scared exactly. Actually, she looked kind of peeved. Prowl didn't think she was having a stellar day either exactly.

Ah yes, Prowl. While the gang leader had been shooting his mouth off, the Autobot had quietly rolled up behind the four humans. He went slowly to avoid disturbing any of the fine gravel that littered the road so that it didn't give him away. But by then it didn't really matter. He was right behind them.

A large shadow began to unfold over them, cutting off the dusty sunlight the humans had been standing in.

The girl noticed him first since she was the only one facing him. He knew exactly when she realized what he was when her mouth suddenly went slack and her blue eyes went completely wide. The few brushes she had managed to hold onto when the boy had knocked her drawing things out of her hands fell to the concrete with an unheard clatter.

The others turned to see what she was staring at.

"Whoa! Holy frick-" the leader yelled, taken by surprise.

The rest were speechless, backing away in any direction they could to get away from the intimidating black and gold figure of Prowl.

Prowl just raised an optic ridge at them. "Is there a problem here?" He asked coolly.

The leader's mouth moved soundlessly a moment. "Uh-uh problem? N-no! No problem!" He exclaimed, aiming for disarming and sounding just plain freaked out. "We were just havin' a pleasant conversation with the lady. Weren't we lady?" He asked, giving the girl a tight lipped grin.

Despite her shock, the girl managed to glare at the other human. "If you talk to me again I'm going to break your nose." She told him.

Prowl couldn't resist a small grin. He liked this girl.

He quickly schooled his face as he returned his attention to the trouble makers. "I think you should leave now." He told them, addressing the main speaker. "For your own safety."

The boy and his cohorts had been backing up slowly ever since they had seen Prowl straightening up behind them, but at this the other three finally broke and ran, zigzagging their way through the streets they knew so well.

Prowl spared them a flat glance before staring down at the remaining speaker.

The young man laughed nervously, and then bolted.

There was a tense moment where they watched him go, but it was broken when the girl released a great gust of air.

"Whew," she said, mostly to herself, "that was a close one."

Her statement was followed by a somewhat awkward silence.

Not knowing what else to do, Prowl knelt down and carefully began to pick up the girl's drawing books. "Oh!" The girl said quietly as she dropped down to help him. She had forgotten they were even there. Giant, transforming robots tended to do that to people, Prowl thought as he picked up the book the boy had been making fun of.

'To Infinity and Beyond: The Theory of the Multi-verse' was stamped across the cover in indented, gold letters. Curious, Prowl flipped the book over to skim the back.

"Professor Rifkin Gray of Michigan State University delves into the complexities of the multi-verse theory and its accompanying questions of alternate realities and how our choices affect the network of different dimensions that surround us in this new edition of blah blah blah."

The rest was unimportant advertising, so Prowl skipped it. He flipped the book over again and frowned at the front cover.

"Different…dimensions..." he thought slowly. Now why did that strike such a chord within him? He had never really given much thought to different dimensions before. What did it matter what life could have been? All that was important was what it was.

"It's a library book."

Prowl's head snapped up. "Huh?" He asked brightly.

The girl standing in front of him just held out her hand. "It's not mine. It's a library book, so can I have it back now please?"

"Oh," Prowl blinked, "yes, of course." He handed the book over.

He watched as she shoved the book into her bag. He noticed she was determinedly not looking at him now.

"Are you afraid of me?" He asked her, keeping his voice down.

The girl slanted him a furtive look before she finally managed to cram the book into her bag along with her sketchpads and other supplies she had already packed in.

"A little." She admitted. "But saving me from those idjits went a long way towards fixing that, so don't worry. I'm not about to run screaming into the street." She tried to smile, but the gestures fell a little flat.

The girl fiddled with her bag a moment as Prowl took this in.

"Thank you," she suddenly said, still fidgeting somewhat nervously, "by the way."

Prowl looked at her. "You're welcome, but thanks aren't necessary. I only did what was right."

The girl suddenly grinned, most of her nerves abruptly melting away. "Yeah, but not everybody would, and you did, so thank you." She said again.

Prowl decided to just accept her thanks and gave a small shrug before transforming down into his alt mode.

The girl gasped slightly and stepped forward, one hand going out like she wanted to touch him. Thankfully she didn't.

"That's so cool," she breathed, obviously amazed by his transformation, "how'd you do that?"

Prowl would have shrugged again if motorcycles were made for that kind of action. "It's a long story." He told her. "Do you need a lift somewhere?"

The word 'no' leapt to the girl's lips, Prowl saw it. But she held it in. He guessed the chance to ride with a robotic, talking motorcycle was too much for her to pass up.

She bit her lip and nodded. "Yes please." She accepted in a self conscious voice.

After slinging her bag behind her shoulders, she got on, tentatively gripping the handle bars.

"Hold on," Prowl told her before pulling out of the alley. And then they were off.

The girl gave a little squeak at first when she almost fell off because she wasn't holding on tight enough, but she quickly fell into the swing of things. Although Prowl did make sure to go slow enough that she could give him directions through Detroit's crowded streets. But other then that they were largely silent.

"Stop up here, by the picket fence." The girl instructed him some half hour later. They had entered suburbia a few minutes ago and were now coming to a stop in front of a moderate, two story house, painted red with rich brown accents.

"Nice place." Prowl said, trying his servo at small talk as his optics were inevitably drawn to the colorful garden that was overflowing the fence.

"Thanks," the girl said as she got off, "my aunt's way into the home and garden channel." She told him before she went back to fiddling with her bag strap before hesitantly facing him again.

"What-" she started to say, rethought the question, and then went on again, "what's your name?"

Prowl felt himself blink, surprised he hadn't thought to tell her before. "Prowl." He told her. "My name is Prowl. And you?" He asked.

The girl bit her bottom lip and blinked her blue eyes at him as she thought about it.

"Aria," she eventually told him, "M'name's Aria Johnson."

Prowl felt himself relax slightly, the alt-mode equivalent of a smile. He liked that name.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Aria Johnson," he told her, smile evident in his voice too.

Aria smiled at him.

"You too Prowl."

;) Mwuhahaha! Alternate realities/Different dimensions are my playthings and I love them dearly. Hope you enjoyed the ending as much as I did when I was plotting this story out. And if you are wondering if there is anymore to Prowl and Aria's adventures, I honestly don't know. It all depends if there is more to be written and that will require some more thought, espeically since TF Ani left a whole lot of unanswered questions for us. Hmm...

Love you guys! Hope you loved the story and please drop me a review to tell me what you thought, about anything! ::goodbye heart!::