*I don't own Transformers or anything affiliated with Transformers. I only own my original characters and plots. All rights go to Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.*

The sun shone brightly in the afternoon sky. It was a pretty normal day at home for me and my family. My dad was home, which was something we were all incredibly happy about. We were doing what all normal families did when it was nice out, especially in North Carolina; we were having a nice little cookout and just spending time together before my dad had to go back to Washington state. We all enjoyed spending time together, especially when my dad actually managed to make it back home.

At the moment my twin brother, Brandon, and I were in the middle of a very intense game of badminton. I honestly had no clue why we even played this game considering the fact that the both of us absolutely hated it. We both despised playing it in gym at school--when he was actually enrolled in public school--but when it came to playing against each other something just sparked. I had the intense urge to beat him just as he had the intense urge to beat me. Let's just say that playing this game against each other was nothing short of dangerous.

"Ow, you asswipe!" I yelled at my brother. He just nailed me in the forehead with the birdy, and one will never know just how incredibly painful it is until they experience it themselves.

"Watch your mouth, Brenna!" my mom called from the pool. She and my little sister were having a bit of fun in the water. It was absolutely ridiculous just how much baby Bella enjoyed the water. Normally babies her age hated being in the water, but I couldn't exactly question her about it. I mean, she was two for crying out loud.

"Sorry! Brandon just hit me in the forehead with the stupid birdy!" I exclaimed as I swung my racket backwards, hitting the birdy as hard as I possibly could. The small object whistled through the air, and Brandon attempted to hit it, but wasn't given the chance before it struck him in his brow bone. He hissed in pain while I just laughed at his misfortune. This was exactly why we didn't--and why we shouldn't--play this game.

"Nice one, sis," I heard my dad say from the grill. He was laughing, and that was something he normally did when I physically--yet playfully--assaulted my twin brother. He just got a kick out of watching his oldest daughter beat up his oldest son, and so did I.

"Thanks, pal."

"You're gonna get it, Brenna," Brandon grumbled from the other side of the net.

I laughed. "Oh, I'm so scared."

He threw his racket down and ran after me, something of which I responded quickly to. I threw my racket down as well and ran to the other side of the net. Brandon stopped on the side I had previously been standing at and glared at me. I just smirked and made a teasing face.

"Come and get me, hotshot!" I exclaimed as I began running.

It wasn't long before karma caught up to me. As I was running I managed to trip over one of the poles holding up the net. I fell to the ground, and before I knew it I was being lifted. I knew without a doubt that it was Brandon. This was the one thing that I hated about being the female twin. Brandon was a lot stronger than me, so he could lift me whenever he so pleased to do so, where as I could barely remove the soles of his feet from the ground. This was his advantage.

"Put me down, you twat bag!" I yelled to my brother.

He only laughed and continued walking. "Sorry, sweetheart."

"Dad!" I called, attempting to get some help.

"Sorry. I don't communicate with useless beings," he chuckled. What a jerk. He was only saying that because I was now losing.

I just groaned, and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by water. The fucking idiot threw me into the pool!

My eyes flickered opened beneath the water, and I was met with a dark, but dull blue color. He threw me in the deep end, and that was probably to keep Bella out of harm's way. At least I knew he cared about one of his sisters.

I propelled myself through the water and sucked in a breath when I finally resurfaced. I looked around and saw my mom laughing at the opposite end of the pool with my sister while my dad was laughing to himself at the grill, and Brandon stood at the edge of the pool looking down at me with a smirk on his face.

"How's the water?" he asked me, sticking his hand out to help me out of the pool.

I decided to take advantage of his current stupidity. I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the chlorinated water before hopping out of the pool. The glare on his face was hard to miss after he resurfaced. All I could do was laugh in his face. It was very obvious that I had won this round.

"Brenna, one, and Brandon? Still a big fat zero!" I chimed before running over to grab a towel from the pool shed, Brandon following shortly behind me.

By the time the two of us were dried off dad was calling us to eat. We rushed over to grab our food and sit down. Our little family dinner was not only spent eating, but it was also spent just talking about about all of our lives. It was a good time to say the least. A lot of families had to go out and do something expensive in order to have a good time with each other, but I was perfectly content just sitting in my backyard eating and talking with them. They were honestly the most important people in my life. Nothing and nobody could change that. My family was everything to me, and I'd honestly be nowhere without them by my side.

"Someone's hungry," I teased my dad. He was putting ketchup on his fifth hamburger. He and Brandon were like tanks. They could demolish anything edible, and it didn't even matter how much there was. I honestly didn't understand how their stomachs could hold so much food.

"Hush, child."

He turned and pointed the ketchup bottle at me before squeezing it. The next thing I knew I had ketchup all over my shirt. I gaped at him, and was more than ready to get him back until a loud snap sounded, followed by the ground trembling beneath us.

Our heads shot in the direction towards the front of the house. My eyes widened in fear as I watched what looked to be a twenty foot tall robot making its way into our backyard. Its piercing red eyes bore into my bright blue ones, and I immediately found myself fearing for both mine and my family's lives. What the hell was this thing and why was it here?

I heard my mom gasp, and I watched as she clutched Bella tightly in her arms. I stood up and grabbed both my brother's and my dad's wrists before attempting to run away.

Everything happened so fast though. We barely made it five feet before we were forced to the ground. I felt a sharp pain in my head, and the next thing I knew I was seeing black.

It felt like hours had passed before I was able to open my eyes, but when I opened them I found that it was still light outside. With a groan, I sat up and began searching for the large robot that had made its way into my backyard earlier. When I saw that he was nowhere to be found I began to wonder whether or not this entire thing was a dream, but it soon turned into a nightmare as I saw what surrounded me.

My mother and my sister lay about four feet away, blood covering the entirety of their bodies. From here I could see the large gashes across their necks. The tears burned in my eyes at the sight of them, and I quickly looked away from them, only to look down to find my brother laying dead beside me. Blood was coming from his head, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he had a fractured skull. The swelling on his neck also made it clear to me that his neck was broken. I gasped and covered my mouth before looking around to see if I could find my dad. I saw him sitting up against the pool shed, and I got up without another thought. I ran over to him to see that there was absolutely no sort of injury to his body, yet he lay here lifeless, his skin cold and pale.

I honestly didn't know what to think. My wonderful family had been taken away from me and there was nothing I could do about it. It's been barely three minutes, but I already felt so incredibly lost without them. They were my absolute everything and now I had nothing.

Without another thought, I dropped to my knees. The pain was already eating me alive, and I honestly didn't know if I was going to be able to survive it. I just couldn't begin to understand why this had to happen to me. What had I ever done that was so bad that I deserved this?

I took a deep breath before letting out an ear piercing scream. The next thing I knew I was seeing black.

•••

My breathing was ragged as I sat up in bed. My entire body was shaking terribly, and my mind was running a million miles an hour. Even through the sweat that covered the entirety of my body I could still feel the warm tears rapidly making their way down my face.

It's been two days since I've had a nightmare, especially one like that. At first I believed it was going to turn out to be a lovely dream about me, my family, and the little cookout we had last summer. It was truly one of the greatest memories I had involving my family, but it was ruined when that stupid robot showed up to take them away from me.

A loud sob escaped my mouth and I wrapped myself in my blanket with hopes to find some sort of comfort from the pain of missing my family. I missed them so much, and at the moment it was worse than it has ever been. Since I met Optimus the pain of missing my family was slowly dissipating. Of course it was always going to be there, but being around Optimus brought me the comfort that no one else could give me.

I guess I understood why this was happening though; I mean, tonight is really the first night in two days that I've spent without him around me. For the first time in what felt like so long I actually felt alone, and I hated that feeling more than anything in the world. I could go and fetch Optimus if I wanted to, but I did not want to remove him from his duties just because I was feeling a bit upset.

I clutched the blanket tighter and cried harder. There was a knock on my room door, but I ignored it and continued staring into the darkness. Footsteps sounded, as well as the sound of my name, but I was too focused on trying to stop the tears to pay attention to who it was.

A movement could be seen out of the corner of my eye, and it was hard to mistake those bright blue eyes. I heard my name being called again, and the next thing I knew there were two hands placed firmly on top of my covered shoulders. An immediate wave of comfort flowed into my body, but I only calmed down enough to realize that I was now sitting in front of Optimus's holoform, and during his little journey over to the bed he had turned the light on. He was looking at me with a worried expression on his face, and I could even feel just how worried he was.

"Brenna, I need you to tell me what's wrong," he said as he moved closer to me.

"I h-had a nightmare about m-my family," I answered quietly. My tears were coming to a slow halt.

A frown fell upon his face. Just by looking at his expression I could tell that he wasn't exactly sure what to say. He was probably afraid that I would get upset again.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything," I assured him.

He was silent, just as I said he could be, but he did pull me to him. He wrapped his arms protectively around my small body. I sighed in relief at the amount of comfort flowing through my body and proceeded to wrap mine around him. It was a bit difficult to do with this blanket restricting me, but I managed.

"If you are ever feeling upset you can come to me, young Brenna. I do not care what I may be doing at the time. Taking care of you and keeping you safe is my number one main priority, and it will continue to be that way," he finally said. I almost wanted to start crying again, but I refrained from doing so.

"Thank you so much for being here for me," I whispered. All he did was let out a breath of air in response.

Optimus Prime truly was one of a kind. He risked his life to protect me, even after I nearly killed him the first day we officially met each other. Even now he was still vowing to take care of me and keep me safe even though we were in one of the most secure military bases in the country. It just meant a lot to me that he was here. It's been several months since I've actually had someone by my side, and I honestly wouldn't want to have anyone else but him. I'm just more than glad I made the decision to hide out in that blue and red flamed semi those few days ago.