She couldn't. She heard very well that Turbulence had said to her, but she couldn't bring herself to stand, much less touch the dead body of her now former leader. She could only look up at the dead body of the once great bot who had inspired her to become more than what she was. Without his guidance, she would have never been where she was now. He lived and existed before the war, he knew of sense and how to live. She was created for the purpose of war, meant to destroy and kill and die for another to take her place.
But he taught her that she was more than that.
Looking at his body, she could remember when she had come back from her tenth successful mission after having graduated from the academy.
"Prism." She remembered him saying. He had pulled her aside soon after she had returned on her own. The team she was placed on deemed the mission too dangerous for bots of their skill level, but she stayed and finished it to the bitter end. "Why did you not follow Prowl's orders when he called you all back? He is your commander and the only one in your group that isn't fresh out of the academy."
"Because I knew I could bring it down." She remembered herself replying hastily, grunting as her arms crossed one another. "That ambush wasn't enough to stop me, and I think I should be commended for finishing the mission rather than running back."
Back then, she was still a sparkling, a greenhorn demolitions expert who had been assigned to what was believed be a simple mission. They were to take down a new decepticon outpost that had just been put up, and wasn't believed to have had any ranking officers there. However, the intel of the mission was wrong, and Starscream himself was there, overseeing the construction and finalization of the outpost. Prowl had decided that starscream was too much for just himself and a squad of trainees, and had ordered them to retreat. Prism didn't listen and took the mission into her own hands, rushing the base in her alt mode and setting her charges as she went along. Starscream was too busy screeching at the grunts to do any of the work himself, and thus the two never fought. Soon enough, Prism drove away and detonated the base as soon as she was just out of the danger zone. It was risky and life-threatening, but she got the job done.
"You did finish the mission, and I'm sure that you will finish other missions in the future, but at what cost?" He asked her. His solid blue eyes looked down at her, his battle mask off as they were in Iacon at that time. Unlike her, he lacked pupils in his eyes, but that didn't stop him from letting her know that he was looking down at her. "Will you take the same reckless path in all of your missions? We are in a time of war, but that does not allow you to throw your life away for a completed job."
"What's it matter?" Her tone was rather annoyed at his words. "If we all worked like I did, then we'd be in Kaon quicker and have Megatron at his knees."
"If we all worked like you did." He parroted her words. "Then there would not be anyone to celebrate the victory over the descriptions. " There was no beating around the bush; Optimus Prime wanted her to know the dangers and risks of her actions. "Yours actions today could have failed, and you could have died, Prism. We have already lost too many Autobots in this war, and I will not let you do this to yourself if I have any say in this."
"I'm just a war bot! I was meant to kill and die, there's nothing I can do that another can't do just the same!" Prism exploded at her commanding officer. "I got the job done when the others wouldn't step up!"
Prime's head tilted down in what seemed to be silent rage at her words. His cold and hard stare actually broke through her tough words as he returned with some of his own. "It's more than the job, Prism, it's your own life at stake. You may have been created during this war, you may have thicker armor and heavier weaponry, but your spark is just like mine, just like Prowl, Ratchet, and many others created before the war. Your spark is no less valuable, and neither is your life. This may be your view on life, but I will not accept it. There is more to you than you can imagine, more than you can see right now. When this war is over, maybe then you will see that there is more to you than meets the eye."
Those words resonated with her even after all of this time. Prime instilled within her a sense of self worth that was more than just a disposable tool for killing. The fate that he kept her from was the same that he had met, she knew that much. The only way he would have gone down was by protecting every last spark in the name of peace and justice.
Her eyes tightened shut, the memory fading as she returned to the present. Slowly, she looked up at Prime and nodded. She rose at a similar pace, nearing the corpse and assisting Turbulence in prying the chest plate off.
Even with her strength, it was no easy task, but the two doors that led to his spark finally opened to reveal to things to her.
With the cavity opened, she could see a gaping hole where Prime's spark once was, showing the back of the pod between mangled cords and other metal pieces.
The second thing was both similar and something else entirely.
Right below where his spark once laid, the very Matrix of Leadership sat in it's compartment in Prime's body, completely untouched, but the crystal inside dim and dark. It laid dormant, not inactive. There were no signs of damage or wear on the gold-orange dome, nor the silver handles on each side.
Prism looked at the Matrix and looked to Turbulence, almost as if she were afraid that her very gaze would break it. Optimus, the last of the Primes was dead, and the matrix was jettisoned off with his body in hopes that someone back on Cybertron would be able to do something with it. When she finally spoke, her tone was soft and scared, almost like the was a sparkling all over again.
"What do we do now?"