He's right -- she doesn't understand. She hadn't been prepared for this. She'd thought the hard part was over, but now she's seeing that it's only just started. Arcee cycles air through her vents, trying to make sense of the small fragments he's giving her -- she knows he's tired, he's injured and beaten down and now he's not even himself, but this...she can't just leave this alone. It's too important.

"You think the Matrix was controlling you?" Arcee sound incredulous, because she is. Her vocalizer crackles around the edges of the words, heavy with emotion and sheer disbelief. "Controlling you to do what? To -- to fight a war against a tyrant? To protect us -- to lead us when we needed someone?" She looks at him, helpless. She thinks back to her earliest memories, to the now-distant days before the war -- when she'd been nothing but a cop, patrolling the streets of Iacon. He'd been someone else back then, too. There's at least one small part of this she can make sense of. "If you're not Optimus Prime anymore, then -- who are you? Orion Pax?"