Everything is.. the same.

You'd think that after so many so called 'changes' made to an individual's life, their would turn upside down and inside out.

That's how I thought it would be. That's also how everyone else thought it would be. But it's not until you actually experience it that you realize just how.. identical it is. It isn't so hard to move on, or at least it isn't for me. But someone just the same as me in every way could never let something like this go, while I moved on.

That would be individualism.

Of course, there isn't anything wrong with individualism. Without individualism, life would be bland and without variety. Though, sometimes, people mistake individualism as a way to think they're better than others. To truly understand a individual's circumstance, you must "step into their shoes" per say.

A person dealing with the loss of a family member is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. As mentioned before, the way someone sees it could be different that another person's way of seeing it.

For example, say... Two brothers just lost their mother. One brother had moved away a while back and hadn't been close to the mother, wiliest the other brother had stayed by his mother's side to the very end. Now, the latter of the two brothers would most likely be torn to the core. The first brother, while he is upset by his mother's death, it doesn't affect him as much. Not that he doesn't love his mother, he just didn't have the same bond his brother had with her.

Another scenario, one sibling feels she has to be strong for her little brother, even though she... ahem, they are just as affected by the loss.

Okay, okay... this is my problem.

My mother passed away no to long ago; maybe about three months. I'm old enough to care for myself. I'm eighteen, though I still lived with my mom. My little brother, Tommy, was in the house while it happened, while I was at a friend's house. He's only ten. He hardly speaks about what happened that night. The autopsy revealed that it was a seizure, a very violent one at that. They told me he was probably traumatized by what he saw.

Since I am a legal adult, having graduated high school and all, they agreed to let me keep Tommy. Though, some creepy child services spy comes and checks in every now and then. He reminds me of 'Mr. Bubbles' from Lilo and Stitch..

I know I have to be strong for my baby brother. If I don't set a good example, then.. What's he supposed to follow? If I'm not strong, how can he be?

"Deeeeeeeee..." I heard a whine. The voice was obviously from my younger brother; only he and my mother knew my nick-name, Dee. Though, my name is Diane.

"Whaaat?" I asked, mocking his tone.

"..."

"What?" I repeated, turning around. I decided to take Tommy to the park today, just so we both could get some fresh air. I thought it was a pretty good idea, myself. It's something Mom would have done, I'm sure. But currently, Tommy was paying more attention to the puppy in the window of the pet store.

"Deeee..." he looked up at me, blinking his innocent, pale blue eyes at me. I knew exactly what he was asking.

And I was so not complying.

The puppy stared at me with big, cute blue eyes. His fur (assuming it was a male) was a creamy white and very, very fluffy. He licked his chops, and put one paw up on the window. Very tempting, but..

"Oh no. Absolutely not! Tommy, do you know how hard it is to take care of you? Can you imagine how hard it would be for me if we got a puppy?"

"Awww, Dee! Please! I'll take care of it everyday! I'll walk it, and play with it, and love it! Pleeease!" Tommy pleaded, stomping his foot a little when I shook my head.

"No Tommy, those are not the only things a dog needs to be properly taken care of! It needs food, and shots, and a billion other things I can't think of at the moment!" I said sternly, crossing my arms. The boy obviously wasn't pleased by this, and pouted.

"Mom would have let me.."

I stared at him, a little shocked at that. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. He's pulled that one on me several times before when he wanted something, and sadly I'd fallen for it every time. But this time, I wasn't doing it.

"Well guess what," I narrowed my eyes. "I'.Mom! Now common-" I reached out to grab his arm, but he jerked away from me, which greatly annoyed me. "Tommy I am not in the mood for this right now! I just want to-"

"Dee, look out!" Tommy suddenly shouted, grabbing my arm and jerking me his way. I gasped and almost fell on him, but managed to keep my balance. Seconds after he had done this, I heard something HUGE crash behind me.

I was too shocked at the moment to look behind me, and all I could do was huddle over Tommy in attempt to keep him safe from any debris of any sort. When silence fell, I heard a grunt of pain, and believing someone had gotten hurt, I turned around to offer assistance. But.. What I saw made my blood run cold.

A huge.. metal face was barely looking my way. I was too panicked to take in much detail, but I did note the being's bright blue eyes, his red and blue body, and the longing look of protection. Maybe the latter part was my imagination.

"Cool!" I heard Tommy's awed voice exclaim behind me. His voice broke the trance, and I let out a shocked and fearful scream. I grabbed Tommy by the hand and took off in the opposite direction, literally dragging the ten year old boy with me.

We got a good distance away before Tommy broke away from me. I stopped and was horrified to see him going out into the street.

"TOMMY!" I screamed. There were.. giant, mechanical beings all around us, firing upon one another. Some had the blue eyes like the one that almost squished Tommy and I, then some had red eyes. The latter was the more frightening ones, I noticed. But at the moment I didn't care who was less or more frightening; my little brother was heading right in the middle of a firefight.

Trying to keep myself from hyperventilating, my motherly instincts took over, and I dashed out into the street after him.

Several of the beings looked down at Tommy, mostly the blue eyed ones. At one point, one of them almost stepped on my little brother, but just before their giant foot made contact, they'd suddenly look down and stop just in time. Each time they looked at him, I almost had a heart attack.

The army was moving in now; that's where Tommy was headed.

My father had been in the Army when Tommy and I were younger. But he was killed in action. Dad was always Tommy's inspiration; he wanted to be an Army soldier. Mom always worried about that, but I always told her that it was just a little phase.

Tommy finally made it to the soldiers and started to talk to them, or more or less yell over the chaos that was ensuing. One of the soldiers bent down and picked him up, then glanced up to see me running that way. He started running to meet me.

"He yours?" he yelled.

"Yeah!" I replied, watching as the soldier set him down. The soldier probably though he was mine mine. As in my son. But at the moment I didn't care to explain.

"Get him outta here, it's too dangerous!" he exclaimed slowly, as if I didn't understand. I was a little irritated at that.

"You don't think I know that?"

Tommy suddenly slipped away again, and I was beginning to wonder why he kept going towards the giant robots. I yelled for him to come back, but he couldn't hear me.

He couldn't hear my screams of anguish for him to get out of the way, either.

Suddenly, I lost sight of him behind one of the robots with red eyes. But even when the robot moved, I didn't see him. When I looked closer, I dully noticed a lump on the ground.

Oh God.

I screamed out Tommy's name, and began running in that direction. The soldier held me back for a moment, but because of my wild thrashing, he released me.

Running as fast as my long legs could carry me, I scrambled across the battlefield with blurry eyes and a pounding heart. I made my way through the street, unaware of anything, not the giant robots fight, not the people screaming, not the army shouting out orders, nothing but Tommy's frail body sprawled upon the broken blacktop.

Once I reached him, I fell on my hands and knees and shook him furiously. The hot tears were pouring out of my eyes as I unsuccessfully tried waking my baby brother. He was.. ignorant of me, the war, everyone and everything. I found myself crying his name, pulling his pummeled body into my arms.

My ears were ringing as I stared down at his face. His freckled cheeks that had once been rosy red were now chalky pale, and his body felt wrong in my arms. I got the impression that... that wasn't Tommy. Tommy was.. no longer there.

I sobbed as I held him to me anyways. I clung to him as if.. he was my lifeline. And he might as well been.

I had no idea how long I sat there, holding the body to me like, if I held it tight enough, he'll just wake up. But no matter how much I wanted that to happen, it wasn't going to. It was... an illogical hope.

There was no more gunfire around me. It was quiet, in the sense that there were no more sounds of war. There were pain and anguish filled cries echoing off the shattered streets. The cries were no where close to me though.

I finally had no more tears to shed, so I looked up. One of the.. giant robots was looking at me. It was the same one that had almost smashed me into a pancake. The one Tommy saved me from..

I didn't have the energy to care about the robot. I looked down at Tommy again, and brushed some of the blond hair out of his face gently. Why hadn't I saved him? Why hadn't I been strong enough? He saved me, yet I failed to return the favor.

Why?

I slammed my fist into the broken concrete, ignoring the pain as I leaned over my brother's body, sobbing again. No tears had been spared by the last episode, and I didn't care.

After a while, someone came up to me and touched my shoulder, but I ignored them. They said something like, "I'm so sorry for your loss" or something like that. It was a female, I could tell. Soon, I spared a glance up again, and the one Tommy saved me from was holding what looked like a mechanical body ripped in half. The robot seemed to hold remorse, as if the body was a fallen comrade.

"We've lost many comrades this day," he spoke, looking down at the body. His voice sounded.. sad. "But, we have gained many new ones."

I stared at him (assuming it was a male) with a dull, dazed feeling. After talking a bit longer, his gaze fell to me again. I was fearful, so I looked away, as if I just didn't look at him, he wouldn't attack me. It wasn't long before I heard a soft, continuous thudding noise.

I was too frightened to look up to investigate the noise, because I was pretty sure of what it was. If he was going to kill me, I prayed he made it quick. I made sure I was right with the Lord, reciting the Lord's prayer in my head over and over.

Finally, after the thudding gotten a little louder as the robot drew closer, the noise stopped. It was silent for a long moment, and I was unsure of what to do, so I looked up.

He was knelling before me, his eyes –optics– soft. He had a gentle expression the begged of understanding, and I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that he wasn't here to harm me. He didn't say anything, I suppose he was waiting for me to say something. Well, he asked for it.

"You almost.." I started, letting my gaze fall to the boy in my arms. "you almost crushed me when you fell. Tommy saved me, and I failed to return the favor." I muttered, slightly fearful of the giant being. Maybe he was going to kill me anyways, who knew? I didn't. Maybe I was speeding up the process. Hopefully.

"I am.. horribly sorry for your loss." his voice rumbled gently. "I tried warning my comrades of the boy, but.."

"It wasn't enough." I finished sharply, my voice coming off a little more hostile than I wanted it too. I couldn't bare to look up to see the expression on his face, knowing it wouldn't be pleasing. His voice was full of remorse and sadness, something I couldn't comprehend at the moment.

"Yes," he made a sound that sort of resembled a sigh though accompanied by a slight hissing noise. Finally, I built up enough courage to look up, and what I saw was, as I thought, unpleasing. The expression on his face was a mix of pain and depression, as well as something else I didn't understand. It effected me so much that I almost instantly wanted to tell him it was alright, for I have seen the look before on Tommy, but I reminded myself that he was the reason the said boy was dead.

Or was he? He said he had tried warm his comrades about my brother, but of course that didn't do much. But.. it was the others that had done this, right? So, he wasn't to blame.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," I mumbled. "Sometimes.. good-bye is a second chance.."

I pulled Tommy closer, cradling him close to me as I stood up. I needed to do something with my baby brother. But I was barely up for that short about of time before a sudden pain overtook me, and I gasped and fell to my knees. The robot reached out, putting his hands just around be, but backed off a bit soon.

"Are your injured?" he asked, voice full of concern that I could fathom. Why would he care?

"I.. I'm not sure." I hissed out, setting Tommy back down on the pavement. I looked down at myself, and was surprised to see a pull of blood on my side. Shocked, I peeled my shirt off the area, and with wide eyes started at the hole in my side. "Holy.."

"Ratchet, come quick!" the robot called over his shoulder. I suddenly found myself being moved away from the ground, and because of the sudden movement, I let out a startled scream. "Easy, you're alright, I've got you." the bot eased reassuringly. I groaned in pain then, holding my side. How on Earth did I get shot and not feel it?

"What is it, Optimus?" another voice asked, and into my view stepped another robot, presumably 'Ratchet'. His face went from confused to concerned seconds after seeing me, and he made this weird whirring noise. The one holding me, 'Optimus' looked to Ratchet.

"She was shot," he explained shortly. Short and sweet and to the point. Nice.

"I see," Ratchet rumbled, making me feel a bit awkward because of the way he was looking at me. I was still fearful of these giant beings; just not as much as I was the other ones. "I need to run more scans to be more precise, but she's losing a lot of blood, very fast."

"Great," I snapped, then regretted it when another painful sensation shot through me. I almost screamed, but I bit it back, and instead I curled into a frail ball.

Optimus glanced down at me for a moment, then looked at what I presume is the medic. "Can you do anything for her?" he asked, his tone sounding a bit more eager than I would have expected. There was a long pause on the medic's part, and I'm pretty sure both Optimus and I held out breaths.

".. Give her to me, Prime." the medic murmured. I was confused as to the name change; Optimus, Prime? Maybe Prime was his last name, like Carter, my last name. So, Optimus Prime.

When Optimus shifted his hand, I could no longer hold the scream of complete pain and agony as the shot to the side sent pain to every single nerve in my body. Optimus' hand jerk a little bit, probably in surprise, and soon he was making a hushing noise, telling me all was okay. But it wasn't enough to stop the pain, and after a moment, I completely lost all my senses, and blacked out.

XxxXxXxXxX

Author's Note: The very first few paragraphs prooooobably don't make sense. That's because I wrote it. Haha! But I am sorry about that, I hope you can overlook my awkward explanation as to how I see things.

So how many of you almost cried or did cry while reading this? I didn't cause I'm all tough and stuff. *shifty eyes* Hah! Who am I kidding? I bawled!

Anyways, more yet to come! I have the second chapter written already, so when I get the third chapter done, out comes the second one. But as you can see, these chapters are very, very long, and with this girl's busy schedule, it might take a while. So, be patient, I'm only human!

Or am I?

Haha, just joshing you! Until next time!

~Carter547