"Rodimus...Roddy, Rodimus, please," you begged as the mech's fist clenched ever tighter, his protoform coiling tighter beneath his bright armor.
"I...I failed. Does no one get that?!" Rodimus bellowed as he struck the wall, shame in his blinding white optics, "I know I failed! I know!"
You rushed the mech, your own optics brightening as you grasped the mech's flared armor, letting him collapse into your awaiting arms. Gently, you guided the mech to his recharge slab and held him as he fell to pieces before you.
You cooed, sweet and gentle as you brushed his helm. You relied on this broken mech just as much as he relied on you. He needed you right now. You just weren't sure if there was anything you could do to help. Death weighed a lot on anyone. Or it had the potential to.
But the death of twenty? Forty?
One hundred?
The mech was crushed; crushed under the lives that slipped through his fingers. You knew Rodimus. You knew how he thought. It didn't stop at just loss of life. It was the loss of what came with life that pulled him to shreds.
With every life he failed to save, came the loss of their potential. Their futures, the possibilities they offered, the lives they changed and all the way down to the jokes they would never tell. No, loss of life was more than a number. It was the loss of experiencing the wonders and emotions of a person, either from them or the one's they elicited.
Rodimus clung tighter to you, unable to move...or perhaps lacked the motivation too. But nothing was said. Nothing could be said.
All you could do...was grieve.
