And here we are at the last chapter! :D

Review replies;

LightandDarkness Warrior: Well, you know, perhaps... :D Thanks for reading!

SOLmaster: Jimmy and AJ should be science buddies more often. :P More then friendship. Well, I guess we'll see... Thanks for the review!

Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Ain't nothin' wrong with a bit o' cheese, lad. :) [/pirate] Thanks for reviewing!

Chapter 12: Back to Reality

About twenty-odd years ago...

Harold Squarepants walked to the bus stop, hands in his pockets.

It hadn't been a good day. Work had been busy, and he was fairly sure his boss had it in for him. Then the fire alarm had gone off and he'd had to stand outside in the cold for three hours while the fire brigade made sure the building wasn't burning down. To top it all off, it was raining.

Muttering to himself, Harold rounded the corner. His bus was in sight, and for a fleeting moment, he could see a sponge woman preparing to board.

He picked up the pace, reaching the bus and flashing his pass to the driver, who grunted and closed the door behind him. Harold took the nearest empty seat – next to the woman he had seen earlier.

"You don't mind if I sit here, Miss..." he began.

"Not at all," she replied, "And call me Margaret."

"Harold," replied Harold, offering his hand.

Fifteen years ago...

"We're sorry to lose you, Petty Officer," sighed the lieutenant.

Chief Petty Officer Eugene Krabs stood in his commander's office, having just handed his resignation after twelve years of naval service. It had been an experience for him, but promotion prospects had been low since the end of the war, and it was time to move on.

"Sorry, lieutenant," replied Mr. Krabs, "But I've been waiting to pursue me true calling for too long."

The lieutenant grinned.

"Seems fair enough," he nodded, "You'll have to tell us when you get it up and running."

He offered his hand.

"Good luck on the outside, Eugene," he nodded.

"Thank ye, sir," replied Mr. Krabs.

He saluted. The lieutenant returned it, before allowing his subordinate to leave his office and the Navy behind.

Five years ago...

Mr. Krabs sat in his office, counting his money.

"Come on," he muttered to himself, "I've had that sign up for a week! There's gotta be a fry cook somewhere in this town..."

He shook his head.

"I'm never gonna get any..."

All of a sudden, a voice wafted in on the breeze.

"...I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!"

Now...

The flash subsided, and Dorian Fletcher fell backwards from his office chair.

He lay on the ground for a moment, blinking, before lifting himself back up and grabbing his phone. He dialled quickly.

"Jonah, techie, you here? ...yeah, I'm back in my office too...send a team to get the Chronomancer – yeah, it'll either be in its normal place or at the Chum Bucket – maybe Three Mile. Find it..."

He paused.

"On second thoughts, no, destroy the thing. It's too dangerous."

He nodded.

"Right, do that and meet me in my office at five. We need to debrief."

He hung up the phone.

"The Colonel is gonna wanna hear about this," he mused.

Spongebob opened his eyes.

He was lying on the floor of Timmy's room, the morning sun shining through the window. For a moment, he tried to remember how he got there. The last he remembered was Sandy hugging him, then a flash of light...

He brought out his recaller and checked the portal list.

Amity Park – Dimmsdale – Retroville – Bikini Bottom.

Spongebob's cheer woke up Timmy, who was lying next to him.

"...wha?" he muttered.

"We did it, Timmy!" exclaimed Spongebob, "We saved reality!"

Timmy blinked.

"...saved...wait, that wasn't a dream?"

He blinked.

Then he shot up, running for the door.

"That means Chester and AJ saw my fairies!" exclaimed Timmy, "I've gotta go convince them that they were holograms before Jorgen gets on my case!"

He ran out the door.

Spongebob blinked.

"So, uh, should I just go home then?" he called.

Plankton peeled himself off the floor of the Chum Bucket, muttering to himself.

"Why is life so unfair?" he demanded, "Why can't I just win for-ouch!"

He felt himself being picked up by the antenna and found himself face-to-face with a very angry Vlad Masters.

"We need to talk," snarled Vlad.

Plankton whimpered.

Squidward walked outside to check his mail, humming to himself. The sun was shining, the scallops were singing, and he didn't have to go to work today. It was all so peaceful.

"Squidward!"

Spongebob came running out of seemingly nowhere and embraced him in a tight hug.

"Oh, I'm so happy to see you!" he exclaimed, "Everything's back to normal! Thank Neptune!"

He released Squidward and ran towards Patrick's rock, laughing all the way.

Squidward sighed.

"Just another day in Bikini Bottom," he sighed.

Goo Lagoon was fairly busy, given that it was a nice day and weekend at that. At the edge of the beach, Spongebob and Patrick were sitting on a towel.

"...and then there was light and everything was normal again," finished Spongebob, "So, all-in-all, I'd give that day a five out of ten."

"Wow," replied Patrick.

"Yeah, I know," nodded Spongebob, "But that really got me thinking. I mean, for a while there, I didn't even exist! So I decided, heck, we could all be dead tomorrow, so..."

"...we could all be dead tomorrow?!" exclaimed Patrick.

He leapt to his feet and ran away, screaming.

"No, not really!" called Spongebob, "It was just a figure of speech!"

"Still talkin' about commitment, me boy?"

Spongebob jumped as Mr. Krabs walked up behind him.

"Oh-uh-hey Mr. Krabs!" he exclaimed, "I was just talking about...well, you wouldn't remember but...uh...I nearly died and so..."

"Spongebob," advised Mr. Krabs, "Ye need to calm down. Whatever yer gonna ask her..."

"...how did you know I was..."

"...it's pretty obvious," replied Mr. Krabs, "Anyway, whatever yer gonna ask her, just calm down, look her in the eye and say it. You'll be fine."

He shrugged.

"Besides," he said, "The bond between the two o' you is stronger than any multi-billion dollar machine."

He chuckled and walked away. Spongebob blinked.

"Wait, did he just say..." he began.

"Howdy, Spongebob!"

Spongebob jumped again as Sandy walked up behind him.

"Sandy, um, hi!" he replied, scratching the back of his head, "So...about that whole Planktopolis thing..."

"Yeah, I kinda wanted to talk about that," nodded Sandy, "That whole 'power o' friendship' thing got me thinking..."

"Yeah, me too," replied Spongebob, "I mean, we've been friends for a pretty long time..."

"...and heck, I nearly lost you, that was pretty dang scary..."

"...yeah, it was pretty..."

Spongebob trailed off, looking Sandy in the eyes.

"...are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"Well, that depends," replied Sandy, "Y'all busy tonight?"

"Nope," said Spongebob, "What about you?"

"I got nothing," Sandy grinned, "So what's say you come on round tonight for dinner or something?"

"I'd like that," nodded Spongebob, smiling, "I'd like that a lot."

"Then I think we have ourselves a date!" said Sandy, putting an arm around Spongebob's shoulder.

There was a brief pause, and for a minute Spongebob wondered what he was getting into.

"Course," mused Sandy, "We got a bit o' time to kill before then..."

It was at this point that Spongebob noticed that Sandy had her karate gloves on. He grinned.

"Bring it on," he replied, pulling his own gloves out of his pocket, "Bring it on."

And so it was that Spongebob and Sandy began dating. Dystopias and nearly ceasing to exist tend to bring people together, after all.

Chester and AJ bought Timmy's hologram explanation quite easily, much in the same way Jimmy did. If they doubted Timmy's excuse, they didn't say anything about it.

Danny was most disappointed to lose his Chronomancer-granted fire powers.

Jimmy did a couple of quick experiments in the lab and decided that the reason they, Sandy, Chester and AJ were unaffected by the Chronomancer was due to the residue created by the Recaller's Multi-Dimensional Drive, the device which allowed the machines to open portals between worlds. Like Fletcher, he never quite accepted that the Power of Friendship affected science, despite all evidence to the contrary.

The Chronomancer was quietly destroyed by the CIA.

Plankton was suspended from the Syndicate (or at least he was when Vlad finished beating him up) while the other members decided how to deal with his betrayal. Crocker's own betrayal was ignored, due to the fact that he swiftly 'double-betrayed' Plankton (in his own words).

And so, everything went back to what passed for normal in the Nicktoons' lives.

For now...

"So the Chronomancer has been destroyed?"

"We used nuclear weapons, Colonel," replied Fletcher, "It doesn't get much more destroyed then that."

"Excellent. The thing was a liability anyway. We need to focus on the true objective."

"The Warlord," nodded Fletcher.

"Precisely. Keep watching that group, Fletcher – I've continued deciphering the Man in the White Suit's file, and they may be more important than we previously thought."

"How so?"

"Hard to say at this point, but I've uncovered a written prophecy."

"Let's hear it."

"The Warlord will seek out his Heir in the Phantom."

Fletcher blinked.

"Well – that complicates things."

Warlord arrival in ONE month and ZERO days...

To Be Continued...

One day I'll write a story that doesn't take ten months to finish. :)

Still, we're one step closer to the big one (which is both exciting and somewhat terrifying), and it is in fact closer then you think. I was originally going to write two stories before then, but one of them never really got past the planning stage. By which I mean it never got past the 'wouldn't it be funny if...' stage.

Anyway, I'll see you in the next fic, It Came From Retroville.

Have a good Thorsday!