Wow. Here we are, guys. Shit. I hope you guys enjoyed this, because I sure did. At the time of me posting this, the story has 57 faves, 70 follows, 111 reviews, and over 18.6k views. I was not at all expecting this kind of reception. Thank you all SO much!

Just so you know, there's a SUPER important AN at the bottom, so please, be sure to read that!

I can't say I'm proud of how this chapter went. I tied up some loose ends, but even knowing that I'll be making a sequel, it just feels unfinished to me. I mean, I'll let you guys be the judges, but if you think there's something I should add, or you see something that needs to be fixed, please, let me know and I'll fix it as soon as I can.

Even amidst the sounds of chaos in the other room, something about that single shot made everyone stop. Humans and robots alike lowered their weapons, heads turning to face the locked door. At first no one dared to move, but eventually two Spybots cautiously approached the door and punched in the code. They both quickly filed in, followed by as many humans and robots as would fit.

Even knowing what had happened, no one could believe what they were seeing. Gray, surrounded by his personal guard, a gaping hole in his chest and a single Scoutbot hunched over him. It was quite obvious who the culprit was.

Many of the robots dropped their weapons. Some of them laughed. Others became angry. Forgetting about the humans they had been fighting, these ones charged at the Scoutbot, but were then grappled by their fellow machines. Robots who had served out of fear or patience fought with those who had always been on Gray's side, turning the lasting battle against Mann Co. into a civil war. With nothing left for them to fight, the eight remaining humans crowded around the Mann's body, the last Medic absently healing the Scoutbot while marveling at the corpse of the man they'd been fighting for so many grueling months.

Mal wasn't aware of any of this happening around him. All he knew was the man pinned beneath him, the man who had lied, deceived, and killed to get the things he wanted. When Mal had shot him, he had made sure to leave his face unscathed. In the few seconds it took for Gray's heart to realize it no longer existed, Mal could see what he felt on his face. He recognized fear, anger, pain, regret, and satisfaction. Gray knew he'd made many mistakes, but he wasn't sorry for any of them. He deserved what he got.

Mal slowly, unsteadily, rose to his feet. He let out a victorious cry, and the survivors around him, human or otherwise, joined him.

Gray's empire had fallen.

(...)

Defeated, the remaining loyal robots didn't put up much of a fight against Hale as he continued his rampage. Hostiles were killed. Neutrals were killed. Anything lacking logic beyond their basic programming was killed. Some who weren't lacking saved him the trouble and did the deed themselves. By the end of it, only about two hundred robots remained base-wide. Not many, in the grand scheme of things.

After receiving word that Gray and most of his army had been eliminated, Miss Pauling was sent in to reevaluate the situation. She believed that there was hope for the mercenaries, and, surprisingly, the Administrator agreed.

Once Pauling arrived at the base, she demanded that the robots show her where Gray had his Respawn tech kept. A small group of Spybots and Mecha Engineers led her and the mercenaries down a series of hallways deep in the base, showing them a fairly inconspicuous door. They were told to go in first, and they did. They were told to use the relatively small control panel to search for anyone that had been lost to Respawn, and they did.

In the end, it was lucky that Scout had chosen to attack when he did. Gray, in reality, had had very little control over Respawn. He hadn't yet logged himself in, perhaps not knowing how to, and he hadn't removed the deceased mercenaries from the system; he'd merely locked them in. All that needed to be done was to set a spawn timer and a location. Miss Pauling requested that the mercenaries appear in that room, and it was so.

The first to reappear was the BLU Scout, and his brother ran into his confused arms, completely soaking his shirt through with tears. If anyone dared to mention it, though, he vehemently denied it and threatened to kick the offender's ass. After Bobby, the rest appeared in class order, all dizzy and nauseous, but perfectly alive and well. Many present cheered, but most just smiled or nodded politely.

Now they just needed to retrieve one last ally.

(...)

After Gray's death, no one dared to approach Mal. Even though the battle was long over, the Scoutbot still thought that everyone around him was out to kill him. He remained largely motionless, aside from the occasional tic, but if anyone got close, he would go into a mad frenzy. If approached by a robot, they would be immediately shot at or even killed. If it was a human, though, he would become paranoid, screaming about Spies but never shooting. Although, there was one time where he nearly killed the BLU Engineer when he tried to get close to fix what he figured was a "logical error." Thanks to the BLU Pyro's testimony, the mercenaries eventually came to realize that the Scoutbot really hadn't known about the ambush, but they weren't sure about whether or not it was just better to put the robot out of his misery.

One of them wanted to see what they could do first, though.

Even though the mercenaries were wary, they let Engineer into the room where Mal stood stock still. He wasn't looking good at all. On the occasions he did move, he would either pull or claw at his head, or make a series of bizarre noises the Texan had never heard him make before. It sounded suspiciously like crying.

"Mal," he said gently. The Scoutbot's head snapped up with an audible crack. "You remember me, right? It's me."

"NO!" Mal shrieked, raising his scattergun. His hands were shaking. "You're a Spy! Spy! Fuckin' Spy! Go da fuck! Go! Spy!"

"Mal, it really is me," Engineer pressed, never raising his voice. He started to slowly approach, his eyes on Mal instead of the gun. "Miss Pauling got Respawn workin' again. It's over. You've got nothin' to worry about."

"You're not Hardhat!" Mal yelled, backing away and rubbing one hand over his face. "Hardhat is... is dead! And I'm da one who FUCKIN' killed him! Dead! You're a Spy! You're... You're a Spy!"

"Here, just look." After glancing behind himself to make sure no one else had come in, Engineer ripped his glove off, raising his robotic hand so that it could be clearly seen. "I know ya remember this, and ya know how I feel about showin' this off. I'm not a Spy, you've gotta believe me."

Mal did lower his scattergun then, twitching. Yes, he did remember. He inched closer and closer, stepping sideways and watching the Texan like a hawk. When nothing came of their close proximity, the Scoutbot dropped the weapon entirely, snatching the raised hand. The fingers moved the same way, but Mal couldn't be sure yet. He prodded the tissue where metal and skin met. He reached up and tilted Engineer's hardhat it backwards, then pushed it back in place. He lifted the Texan's goggles to see if there were eyes beneath them. He knew that these were things a Spybot couldn't fake.

After a long and uneasy silence, Mal enveloped Engineer in one of the tightest hugs he had ever mustered, wailing and stuttering an impressive string of apologies. Engineer simply did his best to help him calm down...

...and then fell backwards when the Scoutbot shuddered and put his full weight on him, completely drained.

(...)

Some time later, after Mal had been given time to charge, Miss Pauling and Saxton Hale had everyone gather at the entrance of the base, robots included, to discuss future plans.

"Now that the competition between Mann Co. and Gray Gravel Co. is over," Pauling droned, glancing up from her clipboard, "the merger between Reliable Excavation and Demolition and Builders League United has officially ended." There was a mix of murmurs and cheers at the news, and Miss Pauling had to clear her throat to get the mercenaries' attention. "However, due to the stress caused by this dispute and the mental exhaustion it may have caused, the Administrator has called for a mandatory vacation of exactly one year." She trailed off on the last word, flipping through her papers like she couldn't believe what they'd said. Nope, she'd read them correctly. The mercs had been given an entire year off.

Some of the men were ecstatic, whooping and cheering. Most of them, however, had nowhere to go, and were just as loud as their peers in expressing their disapproval. "Most of us, if not all of us, are wanted criminals," the BLU Spy said evenly. "Where are we supposed to go that will not result in us getting arrested or killed?"

"Oh, I can take care of all that," Miss Pauling replied with a sweet smile. "It's not as if any of you have done anything wrong, anyway. I'm sure your respective countries' governments will figure out that their documentation is faulty and realize that your records are perfectly clean." A few of the mercs shuddered. The Women in Purple were too powerful for their own good, not that anyone dared to say it out loud.

"Wot's gonna happen to the robots?" the RED Sniper asked. "It's not loike we can let 'em loose around the humans. It'd cause nothin' but trouble."

"I'm sure we can find something for them to do. Under surveillance, of course," Saxton answered him. "We could always use some extra hands to speed up production, and I have more than enough money to keep them running. It's like free labor I can't get sued for! Though I guess it's not really free..."

"You all have one hour to prepare for your departure," Miss Pauling said. "Exchange whatever information you wish. Names, addresses, phone numbers, social security, you get the gist. No need to worry about your personal belongings or your vehicles. They're already waiting for you at your respective terminals."

For a long time, the mercenaries swapped whatever information they were willing to give- only the Demos were dumb enough to give their SSNs away, though the Soldiers would have if they'd even had them to begin with- and some of them even engaged in casual conversation with some of the robots. The Scouts were having a grand time asking one of their robot selves how they drank Bonk! when they didn't even have mouths. Even the BLU Engineer had mustered the courage to question a Medicbot about how their Mediguns could fuse metal without heat.

Mal, though, wasn't comfortable with approaching anyone, and the feeling was largely mutual. A few had come up to apologize, but really, no one wanted to be anywhere near a robot that had supposedly lost its mind, however temporary. The Scoutbot just felt awful.

Still, not everyone was determined to avoid him. A Sniper that Mal could only assume was the BLU one strode in his direction, and he inched away with dim eyes, wary. However, the Aussie didn't seem to have anything especially awful to say.

"I'm not gonna apologoize for anyhtin' I've said or done to ya, let's start with that. You bein' a stupid ponce got most of us killed, but... wot ya did helped to keep the same from happenin' to the rest of us, so I s'pose I owe ya a little respect, at least. And no, Engineer did not tell me to tell ya that." With a sneer, he stuck one hand out, offering a small truce.

The gesture, though, flew straight over Mal's head, and he blinked in confusion. "Uh... Nice to meet ya...?"

With an annoyed snort, Sniper waved his hand dismissively and stormed off.

Seconds later, Engineer, who had been talking with Scout, walked up, watching the marksman's back. "Hey, he didn't say anyhtin' mean to ya, did he?"

After a moment, Mal shook his head. "...No, don't think so. Nice to meet ya, or thanks, or... I think. I don't know what he said."

The Texan gave a short hum in response. He didn't say anything for a few minutes. "...Hey, Mal. Do ya think... Do ya think you'd like workin' for Hale, buildin' guns for the rest of your life?"

Mal didn't even have to think about it. "No, absolutely not. No. Like... Like dismantle fire, but not? I'm scare-da, I do not like."

"I see," Engineer murmured. He smiled. "Well, I've talked with Miss Pauling, and she cleared this with the Administrator... I was hopin', maybe, you'd like to come and stay with me for the year? I know someone who'd love to meet ya."

Mal looked at him fully then, thrown off by the offer. "...Dat's good? Dat's alright?"

"Well, not really," Engineer admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "But in my case, I'm an inventor. It wouldn't be too unusual to see a walkin' talkin' robot in my neighborhood, so long as everyone thought I built ya. That is, if you'd really like to come with me."

It wasn't a hard decision for Mal to make. "Yeah! I wanna go!"

Engineer laughed heartily at that. "Glad to hear it!"

Minutes later, Miss Pauling called for everyone's attention once more, pointing them to a row of four Teleporters; no one knew how or when they got there, but there they were (though Engineer thought that Pauling had said that Teleporters weren't good for long distances). She guided the robots to the one on the far right, while the other three teams each got their own. The mercenaries were instructed to take turns on the Teleporters, which would take them to the airports closest to their respective bases. Miss Pauling assured them all that they'd gotten tickets to wherever they needed to go, and yes, they were all cleared for flight.

Among the last to go was Engineer, Mal at his side. Once the Teleporter was ready, the Texan stepped onto it, disappearing in a flash of light. Mal rocked on his feet, eager to follow him. Once the platform started spinning again, he all but hopped on, leaving all the terrible things behind.

The End

...Well, fuck.

All right, let's get into the important stuff. First, the sequel. It will be a direct sequel, and it will be shitty in the sense that it takes place in Bee Caves (which I've never been to), and Engie has a wife, though I will try SO HARD to not Mary Sue the shit out of her. After the first one or two chapters, the rest might not take place in chronological order, and if that's the case, I will indicate how much time has passed from the FIRST CHAPTER. The sequel is mostly meant to teach or learn things about Mal and how he would behave in different situations, so I am super open to chapter suggestions. So long as they're within the boundaries of the AU, anyway. Knowing me, though, the story will develop some semblance of a plot over time, but if it will, I don't know what said plot would be yet.

Okay, a prequel. I have written out a oneshot prequel to help clear up a few other things from EM. Some of it is from Mal's POV, but it's more omniscient. If I don't post it later today, maybe expect it within a few days? I don't know.

Also, I know that some robots had only been brought up briefly, so I also plan to do a oneshot collection, with chapters dedicated to robots like M-146, SC-62 and SC-63, and SN-98. These will also largely be written based on request. Give me a robot you want to learn more about, and I will do an origin story or something. Give me a scene with it, and I'll write what was going on from their POV.

Animation. Thanks to Little J's DSi breaking, flipnotes will take a LOT longer, if it's even possible for me to get them off of my 3DS. I want to do an SFM animated series of the fic, but I could sure use some help with maps. I'm learning how to make them, but all I've done is a cube to test out, and it didn't work. If anyone can post a fixed Ghost Town in the workshop (with a base attached to the Resupply Rooms, if at all possible), or tell me how I can do this myself without downloading a bunch of programs or apps, it would be a great help!

Lastly, the rewrite. I want to rewrite this, but probably not any time soon. When/If I get around to it, here's what can be expected: Fixed plot holes/inconsistencies, better dialogue, more accurate accents, TRANSLATEABLE Pyro (no translation at the end of chapters), Gray being more prominent as a villain, and a lot less loose ends.

If there's anything you want to know this moment that I haven't explained or you're just curious about, PM me. If it's something blatantly wrong or I haven't touched on it at all, I'll fix a chapter, write a oneshot, or do what I need to do to make it clearer for everyone.

Thank you all so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you when the sequel/prequel rolls around!