He was sitting under a tree whose leaves had begun the slow process of changing from vivid greens to brilliant yellows mixed with brown and orange. Picking up a stick he carefully marked out a symbol on the intricate board he'd created of the earth still moist from the storm the previous night. Brown eyes narrowed in concentration his teeth gnawing on his lower lip as he thought through a dozen odd possibilities before sighing and leaning forward to rub out the symbol. This wasn't what he'd had in mind when Optimus had suggested he begin taking lessons on strategy from Prowl. Especially as he'd been unaware that the tactician was apparently a closet sadist who took unholy pleasure in forcing his student to think until his head threatened to explode from the excessive heat generated by using parts of his brain he didn't know he could use.

Growling softly with frustration he threw the stick down and leaned back until his head was resting against the rough bark of the tree behind him. Stretching one leg out as he dragged the other in so that the sole of his foot rested flat against the ground he tapped it in a rhythm that held no purpose other than to help him center his thoughts. It was official (and not like it hadn't been obvious to begin with but still…) Optimus was insane if he honestly thought that he could manage to learn even a 100th of the stuff that he was supposed to learn. Prowl's lessons were meant to teach him things that he wasn't sure he was ready for or that he would ever be ready for because Optimus had to be wrong. Optimus had to be wrong because if he wasn't wrong then—

"I think that perhaps you are blind to the qualities within yourself that shine so brilliantly that Optimus can't help but take note of them." Taking care not to disturb the board that had been drawn in the dirt from memory Prowl took note of the many areas where the dirt had been rubbed smooth. "You were speaking aloud," he commented softly as brown eyes turned to him with awed wonder in their depths, "and I find myself thankful that you were. How is it that you can hold such faith in him and yet you doubt the strength of his judgment when it comes to you?"

"Because I'm Sam." He said simply as if it explained everything his shoulders slumping when the tactician glared at him. "I can't be what he wants me to be. It's just not possible. How can I be like him when I'm who I am? He died because of me and now everyone thinks that because the Primes brought me back to life (and one of these days we're gonna seriously have it out about that whole coming back from the dead thing) and told me how to bring him back that I'm all of sudden something more than who I've always been."

"We neither ask it of you nor do we expect that you will become Optimus' shadow. It would be impossible and illogical to ask you to become someone that you are not." Prowl said somberly his hand reaching out to pluck up a stray branch before scratching a symbol into one of the squares. "We want nothing more from you than what you yourself are capable of giving. There is no one true way to become a Prime because if there were we would have more candidates then there would be teachers." Leaning back in a crouch as his student picked up his own broken branch and began to look over the board Prowl gestured towards the bottom of the hill where a yellow Camaro waited patiently. "Loyalty as it is seen between you and Bumblebee is not something easily found nor is it something that is forged without sacrifice. Tell me why you fought against your own so fiercely when it became apparent that Bumblebee was in danger."

"Because it was wrong."

"I do not ask for half-truths or for words that are given to whosoever may find it necessary to ask. I ask for the truth behind the emotions that drove you to act with little care for your own safety so long as his was assured." Making an approving hum at his student's choice, he glanced over the remaining spaces on the board. "Tell me why you could watch your parents being taken away from you but yet you fought with every atom of your being to protect Bumblebee even when you knew that you could not do anything but fail."

"Because I had to try!" Brown eyes glared up as cool blue optics continued their perusal of the makeshift board. "I couldn't stand there and watch them hurt him!"

"But why him and why not your family? Am I mistaken in my assessment of the bonds shared between yourself and your parents?"

"Why does there need to be a reason?" Sam asked with a mutinous twist to his lips. "They wouldn't have hurt my parents because they were human and my Dad knows enough people that they wouldn't be able to hurt them even if they wanted to. Bumblebee didn't have those protections. They looked at him and all they saw was an experiment."

Prowl squatted back on his haunches a pleased smile quirking the edges of his mouth as he watched Sam try to calm his breathing the redness of the youth's cheeks fading with his anger. "I think you ask me why I am able to accept Optimus' choice as a logical one and I can see now why you fail to understand my reasoning. Tell me what good pieces on a board are without a master to move them?" Picking up his stick, he etched symbols into the remaining squares with a sure and steady hand. "A master can be more than what you imagine him to be, Sam. A master is not the one willing to sacrifice every pawn on the board because they believe it to be the best course of action but rather they will wait and watch for the picture to unfold in blinding clarity before they will take action. The master will take the actions that will ensure the safety of those under him whilst understanding that there are some who can never be saved because they were never the master's responsibility to save."

"They're my parents! Of course—."

Prowl interrupted the beginnings of a rant by way of a poke to the teen's forehead with the branch in his hand. "Do not speak without taking the time to think or else you dishonor the instinct that guided your actions. You said yourself not a few kliks ago that your parents were safe because they were human which means that in your subconscious you recognize that they are not yours to protect. You are not yet a master but you will be." Tracing lines through the symbols the tactician stopped once the symbols were connected through an intricate pattern of straight and curving lines. "You are in training and that means you will make mistakes but never make the mistake of believing your instincts to be incorrect. Even the most logical processor knows the value of instinct and only those that have loose circuitry will ignore it. Your instincts led you to protect Bumblebee at all costs whereas those same instincts told you that your parents did not require your assistance."

Sam opened his mouth to speak before closing it with an unsettled expression on his face as he turned his attention to the mess that Prowl had made of his carefully etched playing board. Brown eyes intense they traced the intricate lines before widening in surprise. "Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing¹." He murmured in a breathy tone before he chuckled and pressed the heels of his hands against his temples. "This is why he wouldn't tell me anything. He wanted me—," tilting his head to the head to the side Sam peered up at the Autobot with a curious expression. "He needed me to figure this out on my own, didn't he?"

"That is not an answer I can give you."

"No but it's the right one, isn't it?" Standing he stared up at Prowl for a moment longer before looking down to begin rubbing out the playing board with his feet. "Something's coming and he wants me ready. But how do I know I'm ready?"

"You don't." Prowl said simply with a flick of his door wings as he stood. "You trust that we have given you the preparation needed to face whatever it is that you must face. You trust in it just as we trust in you to be able to stand ready if the time comes."

"Prowl?"

"Yes?"

"Promise me you'll be there if I need help?"

"Would it not be more prudent to ask Bumblebee?"

"No. No, it wouldn't cause Bee's not the one making me realize things that I've been trying to ignore. Bee'll be the one to protect me when I need it but he won't be the one to smack me in the head with a stick when I need it."

Startled into laughter at the teen's somber expression Prowl swiftly regained control of himself to kneel down. "As long I function I will be there to aid you if you need it." As the teen sagged in obvious relief, he was struck by a mischievous urge that he blamed on Jazz. "I will also be sure to keep sticks on hand in the event that they are necessary." Picking the teen up in one hand Prowl straightened before he began walking down the hill. "You should probably close your mouth before you ingest a rather unpleasant organic life form."