AN: Once more I should be finishing other stories and not starting new ones, but here we are... Nice little prologue, next chapter will be where we actually start to see the differences. For anyone who doesn't know, Shattered Glass 'verse is basically where the Autobots are the evil ones and the Decpeticons are good. Everything switches. Though I might have some mechs be inherently good, I don't know. Also, whether there will be any pairings or not is another unknown.
Song lyrics: It's cold tonight by Aiden.
Samuel James Witwicky was a very content teenager. Like every typical teenager his dreams had been fairly shallow and simple, involving the car, the girl, and possible high school recognition, maybe even suddenly become great at a sport or get bitten by a spider. Now he had gotten the car, the girl, and the best part was he'd gotten to meet the Autobots. He'd had his dreams fulfilled and got more than he had ever expected. He had never dreamed that creatures like the Autobots existed, that he'd become best friends with one, or that he'd become someone important to the Autobots as a whole. He had never thought he would be saving the world either, or that, Allspark cube in his hands or not, he would be able to take down the evil leader of the Decepticons.
Meeting the Autobots had also been a huge reality check, though. He realized that having a car and the girl were not the most important things in the world, that his occasional acne issues and fights with his parents over curfew were not the worst things that could ever happen, and that not being popular and going unnoticed by most in his high school was not the end of the world. He'd never been very popular, just the average Joe. Average grades, average at sports, some good friends and some not so good friends. He'd always been slightly self-conscious, and if someone had told him even a day before Mission City that he would have done everything he ended up doing, he would have thought them insane and sent them away with a laugh. But he had tapped some unknown side of himself and gotten through Mission City, worked up enough self-resolve, because he couldn't call it bravery, to actually shove the Cube in Megatron's chest. The day he learned about the Autobots, and the Cybertronians as a whole, was a day he started to change, and it was for the better.
Meeting the Autobots not only fulfilled his current dreams, but created bigger and better ones, in his opinion. Before he had been unsure what he wanted to do after high school, though he'd had plans to aim for a relatively 'safe' job, like teaching. Now he wanted to go into the military or government, work for the Autobots. What he really wanted to do was become the official Autobot liaison, though he would be happy with anything he could get, even being a soldier and out on the battlefield shooting Decepticons, as long as he got to stay with his 'bots.
That was something else that had changed, because he would have never once considered the military. Sure, he was all for their men overseas, but he didn't have any soldiers in the family so had always been disconnected from it in a way. Meeting Captain Lennox, Sergeant Epps, and Tech Fig had given him a new respect for all their soldiers in general, and even more respect for the actual men who had been through so much in the deserts of Qatar.
After Mission City the government had practically tripped over themselves to attempt to keep the Autobots and Decepticons a secret, but also set the Autobots up with a kick ass base. Optimus Prime had requested it stay within Nevada so they would not be far from their Autobot Scout, and the government had agreed, buying up some desert and labeling it military land. There they built Autobot City, something Sam was continuously awed by no matter how long he actually spent there. Going normal speed limits, something Bumblebee rarely did when there was no prying eyes around, it took about two hours to get to Autobot City from his hometown of Tranquility, so it was easy to go and spend the weekends, or get there after school and go home a bit late.
And spend time there he did, a lot of it. He had personally helped in building Autobot City, though admittedly it was a very small amount, and all he'd really done was paint and hammer a few nails into place in the soldier barracks. Everything that the Autobots would actually be using was generally too heavy for him, or any other organic for that matter, to handle. The Autobots did a lot of the work themselves, even Optimus himself, or the humans helped with their machines. One weekend Sam had been there and it had only held one hangar where everyone slept and ate together, and the next weekend it had been half way done. Autobot City had to be big because the Autobots not only required a lot of room, but because they were also hoping more of them would be landing soon.
Mikaela was there too, occasionally, but not nearly as often as he was. Sadly, they had broken up after only a month. Actually getting to know the girl made Sam love her in an entirely different way, and on her part her feelings had arisen from the fact that she wanted to try something other than muscle heads like Trent, and the adrenaline rush of everything in, leading up to, and after Mission City. Both were now just good friends, though Sam still thought she was hot as hell, something Mikaela would use against him if she ever needed to get her way in something.
After Simmons had erased her and her father's records, Mikaela had started to work in her father's car repair shop. She also spent a lot of time making sure he stayed clean, and that she kept their money secreted somewhere safe if he ever had a lapse in judgment. Mikaela did make sure to come around every so often to visit Sam and Bumblebee, and scheduled semi-frequent trips to Autobot City to visit everyone else. Some days she'd go and snatch Bumblebee away from Sam, and by the time Sam got him back, always at least five hours later, he had either been used for a girls day out, subjected to Mikaela's mechanic scrutiny, or been used for shopping for a new outfit.
Sam had become quick friends with Bumblebee, and their friendship had only become easier when Ratchet had given all the Autobots on Earth the capability of using holograms and holoforms, like the Decepticons already had. It meant Sam could do so much more with his Guardian, though they usually just ended up playing videogames or sitting on Bumblebee's hood and talking.
It also meant that Bumblebee didn't only just have to play non-sentient car, something Sam knew he was ecstatic about, and he couldn't blame him. Bumblebee might have volunteered to become his Guardian, but after a week of doing nothing but sit in Sam's school parking lot, the Scout himself had admitted he was going stir crazy. And that was with being able to access the internet and play five separate accounts on World of Warcraft at the same time. This allowed Bumblebee to really become a member of the Witwicky household, even being made to take out the trash and help in Sam's parent's garden, something the Scout had no problem with doing.
Sam had asked him about it one night, if it bothered him that his parents were giving him chores that they actually expected him to do, and Bumblebee's answer had been surprising and eye opening, which was a normal occurrence with the Autobots. After being in the War for as long as Bumblebee had, being assigned things like normal every day chores was a blessing and reprieve. Bumblebee had chores on board the ARC and with the Earth bound team, but these involved learning how to fight with Ironhide, helping Ratchet, or other war tasks. In human years, Bumblebee would be near Sam's age, and relished being able to just be innocent again, play games and listen to the 'adults' without having to worry whether he would never wake up again the next day.
Bumblebee's holoform also allowed him to meet Miles, and that had been something Sam had been looking forwards too. His childhood friend was a huge space buff, and had always been the one who said there was other life beyond the stars, while Sam had scoffed at the idea. They'd had to come up with a name and story for Bee's holoform, but it had been worth it. The first day Miles and Benji, most often referred to as Bee, had met the two had talked for hours about the possibilities of other life, space travel, and other such things. Bumblebee had actually seen other life forms besides Cybertronians and humans, and enjoyed talking with Miles about it, though he couldn't exactly say he met them. They'd been ordered to try and keep it a secret, so Bumblebee just pretended to be a Space geek like Miles, which wasn't hard for the Scout.
This allowed Sam to spend time with both of his best friends, given they didn't start throwing complicated things like 'light speed' around in their conversation. Otherwise he was so out of there. That, and Miles introduced Bumblebee, and through him all of the Autobots, to shows like Star Trek and movies like Star Wars and Alien vs. Predator. Bumblebee and Optimus loved the Star Trek and Star Wars, and Ironhide had gotten a huge kick over the Alien vs. Predator and other similar movies.
It had been only two months since he had officially met the Autobots, and the end of school was just around the corner, something he couldn't wait for. He had plans to spend even more time at Autobot City without having to worry about missed school or homework that needed done.
Today, though, he was going to Autobot City for an entirely different reason than just a social visit. Bumblebee required a checkup with Ratchet, and the Scout had tried to use Sam as an excuse to miss it. So Sam was being dragged along, though he hardly minded. He was just in the middle of getting ready, pants half way up his legs, when two honks from outside drew his attention. He half hobbled and half hopped to his window, before shoving it up and leaning outside to look at his Autobot Scout.
"It's so cold tonight, we're going nowhere fast!"
Despite his vocalizer being fixed, Bumblebee still liked to use the radio and different songs he had downloaded to talk. Sam would have yelled at him to be mindful of the neighbors, except the Scout was already doing that, holoform out and grinning up at Sam. He didn't recognize the song, but he took the hint. The desert got surprisingly cold at night, and his Guardian wanted him to grab a jacket.
Bumblebee was always a bit anal over Sam, and Mikaela had accused the Scout of being a mother hen more than once. The only reason Sam dealt with it was because he knew why Bumblebee did it. Humans didn't even live the shutter of an optic to Cybertronians, and Bumblebee wanted Sam to live as long as possible. It was also easier to just do what Bumblebee wanted, because otherwise he was either locked out of the Autobot, locked inside the Autobot, or manhandled by a holoform, none of which Sam particularly enjoyed.
So, grab a jacket. Sam frowned, glancing around the room. Tranquility had a fairly mild climate and it rarely if ever snowed. Even if it did Sam, and several other males of his age, would just go out without one for the most part. The only jacket Sam could think of that fit him anymore was the one he had worn in Mission City, so he set out to find that, which was a harder task than he would have liked.
Five minutes later he had found it, tossed into the back of his closet and buried under a pile of junk. Grabbing it by the shoulders he gave it a few good shakes as it was slightly dusty. He gave it a sniff, happy to see his mom had washed it at some point, though it still looked like it had been through the ringer. As a habit he gave a cursory inspection of the pockets. He was always leaving money, grocery lists, or anything small enough that he could carry around and bothered to put in his pockets inside of his pockets. Usually the stuff came out after both the washer and dryer, but sometimes there was an especially stubborn thing.
The check revealed a small, slightly rough to the touch object, and he pulled it out, staring in surprise. He recognized a piece of the Allspark cube immediately, infinitely smaller than the actual object. From the looks of it he would have expected it to be smooth, but a closer look revealed miniscule engravings on the outside. He was completely stumped on how it had even gotten into his pocket in the first place, much less that it existed at all. They had all thought the last existing piece of the Cube was the one Optimus had pulled out of Megatron's dying Spark.
Sam was about to call outside to Bumblebee about the shard when he accidentally inhaled some of the dust still in the air, sneezing and reflexively bringing his hand up to cover it. Without thinking it had been the sneeze holding the shard of the Allspark, and Sam winced when he realized, going to clean it off in his shirt when it grew scorching hot in his hand. Sam gasped and dropped it in surprise, watching it bounce twice before giving off a brilliant white light.
Sam felt hot all over, waking up a sweaty mess and tangled up in his bed sheets. Groggily Sam shoved them off his torso and arms, trying to stand up without thinking and landing straight on his face with one leg still caught. He groaned, rubbing at his nose and kicking until he was free, laying on his bedroom floor for a moment until he felt safe enough to try and get up again. When he finally picked himself up, he glanced at the clock by the head of his bed, eyes widening in surprise. The clock sitting by his bed was one he'd had since childhood, shaped as Mickey Mouse's head.
But Bumblebee had destroyed that clock, making Sam buy a plain black one.
Despite the fact that their technology had been reengineered from Megatron, it didn't mean the Autobots knew anything about it when it wasn't a computer, car, or plane. The first morning Bumblebee had been scared out of recharge by Sam's blaring alarm clock, and had transformed, reaching inside and smashing it with one huge finger, doing a better job of waking Sam up then the alarm clock had been. After Sam's initial panic attack, because there was a huge robot reaching in his room with battle mask down and he had been convinced he was under attack by Decepitcons, he had carefully explained to Bumblebee that no, an alarm clock was not out to kill him. He had just been happy he left his window open that night. Later, Will had told him of how Ironhide had short the microwave in the Lennox household when he heard it running. There was a surprising amount of stuff that the Autobots just didn't bother to look up on the internet, apparently.
Sam rubbed at the back of his neck in confusion for a moment, before suddenly remembering that he had been in the process of getting ready to go to Autobot City with Bumblebee when he had ran across the Allspark shard in his jacket pocket. He cussed under his breath, immediately going to his window and opening it to call out to Bumblebee that he was fine, but he couldn't see the Autobot Scout in his driveway anymore.
He frowned, turning around and searching his bedroom floor for the shard, eventually giving up when it was nowhere to be found. He sighed, looking down at himself and realizing he was in pajamas. Maybe whatever the shard had done had made him pass out, and Bumblebee had put him back in bed. It was a bit creepy to think that his Guardian might have bothered to undress him, but Sam could live with it.
"Sammie!" Sam heard his mom yell from downstairs, "Hurry up and come eat breakfast now or you'll miss the bus! And don't forget you're genealogy report is today in History!"
"I won't mo-" Sam cut himself off mid yell, realizing what his mother had said.
What? He didn't even have school that day, it was Saturday and he was supposed to go with Bumblebee to get the Scout checked out by Ratchet. On top of that, he didn't have a genealogy report for History, or at least not anymore. He had one two months ago, the final A he needed before his father would allow him to buy a car, and more specifically the day he got Bumblebee.
Sam left his room, flying down the stairs and taking a jump to skip the last two altogether, sliding into view of the kitchen. His mom was cooking, humming a little tune from God knows what, and he could smell eggs, bacon, and the delicious scent of his mom's special French toast. His mouth nearly watered and his stomach growled, demanding that he do as his mother said and eat, but Sam had another thing on his mind.
"Mom, where's Bee? Did dad send him out to grab something real quick, or did he already leave without me?" Sam asked, glancing outside the kitchen window. Still no Bee.
Judy sent her son a puzzled look, "Who?"
"Bee! You know, Bumblebee?" Sam frowned at his mother, "He's been staying with us for the past two months now?"
"Sammie, are you okay?" Judy paused in her cooking, coming over and placing a gentle hand on Sam's forehead as she felt for a fever. "Do you need to go lie down? Mommy can call your school and talk to your History teacher, I'm sure he'll let you go tomorrow."
"I'm fine, Mom!" Sam protested, brushing her hand off.
He realized with a small amount of horror that his mom really had no idea what he was talking about. He left the kitchen, ignoring his mom calling him to come back and eat breakfast, going and looking in the garage. There was no sign that Bumblebee had ever been in it, nothing they had done to make it more comfortable for the Scout there anymore. Sam turned around and ran back upstairs to his room, checking his calendar and seeing the date circled, a bad feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
"This is a dream," Sam whispered to himself. Sam pinched himself hard just to make sure, before his brain came to a complete halt.
Dreams weren't supposed to hurt.
Okay, so maybe it was a really realistic dream, Sam told himself. That could happen. People had those dreams where they were falling all the time and jerked awake in fear, but of course they weren't actually falling. He'd had several nightmares of dying a painful death at the hands of Megatron in the first few weeks after Mission City, but pain like that had never felt so real. Sam took a deep breath and chided himself for being silly; of course it was a dream. If he was going to have a detailed dream replicating when he got Bumblebee, he might as well have fun with it.
He did have some regrets with the choices he had made. The main one was when he had been unable to find the glasses quickly enough while up in his room with Mikaela, then getting caught by Sector Seven and needing rescued by the Autobots. Bumblebee had been captured and tortured, however briefly, because of that fact. And Sam and Mikaela had still been taken in by them. Then there was the embarrassing fact that he had been chased through town on his mother's bike by the Scout, no matter that he had been terrified that he was being chased by a possessed car then.
Come to think of it, it was his dream. He'd already gotten Mikaela once, and ended up nearly losing Miles because of it. Miles had been there with him through thick and thin, had even taken to insulting Mikaela because he didn't want Sam to get his hopes up, and Sam had known that. But he'd still tossed his friend out like an insensitive jerk, and made him walk home. From the lake to Miles' house was a good ten miles, and most of that was on dirt back roads. To top it off he had let Miles miss out on something as amazing as the Autobots, something his friend would have absolutely loved.
Nearly losing that friendship had been all him, too. Miles had been willing to forgive and forget, had even been willing not to bother him with questions about where he'd disappeared and why he looked like he'd had a fight with a pro wrestler and lost. Unfortunately, Sam had been running on very little sleep and was still working on a combination of adrenaline and stress, and Miles' sarcastic 'Well, look what the cat dragged in' had not been appreciated. He had ended up flipping on Miles, taking out all the stress and worry on him and chasing his friend out of the house. It had taken him three weeks to work up the guts to apologize.
Not this time. This time he'd do right by Miles, would keep track of where he put those damned glasses. Hell, this time he wouldn't even attempt to hock great-grandpa Archibald's crap in History class and then string an A out of his teacher anyway. He'd actually do a decent report, get the A through honest work, hopefully, and if not he'd get it the same way he had before. Maybe he'd even avoid the party at the lake and the confrontation with Trent, though he did kind of want Mikaela in on everything even if it wasn't as a love interest this time around.
With a new appreciation for what he deemed one hell of a wacky dream, Sam whistled and got dressed, packed his backpack, and then ran downstairs to finally fill his stomach.