For one brilliant moment, it's like listening to Optimus again, so much that it's jarring. Arcee feels something like hope swell in her spark, but it burns too hot, hits too hard for that to really be it. It feels just as much like trepidation. The emotion in his voice -- the passion -- those belong to Orion, but the words...those are words that could just as easily have come from Optimus.

"Optimus Prime isn't dead, Orion," she says quietly, circling around slowly to come to a halt in front of him. "You're right -- this is bigger than you, because it's bigger than all of us. But I don't think you fully understand the part you've played in it so far. Optimus Prime isn't dead, no more than Orion Pax died when he accepted the Matrix. I've known Optimus for thousands of years, and having met you, having talked to you...I can see it now. Optimus wasn't just someone to carry the Matrix -- that was only part of what made him Optimus Prime, and you were every bit as much a part of that. The Matrix gave Optimus the wisdom of the Primes, but the clarity of purpose, the willingness to see the good in every spark, the sense of responsibility you feel toward making every decision count, the dedication to ensuring the decisions you make are the right ones -- all of the things that made you worthy of the Matrix in the first place...those were a part of Optimus, too, what inspired people to stand by him. They're why I followed him for seven thousand years, and they're why I'm here now, because even with the Matrix gone, Orion, I can see that in you. Your memories might be gone, but...you'd be surprised at how little Optimus changed over the course of the war. Those things about him...they never changed."