This is sort of based off something I wrote but never posted about Riella's reaction to Elita One's death. This is Optimus thinking about it, years later. Tai appears as a request from Tatyana Witwicky. Riella in the flashback is mine.

Yeah, the title is based off of the Lion King 2 song He Lives In You. I'm a geek. And yes, this does mean my writer's block is mostly gone. Go me!

She Lives In You

Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, was for once not working with humans, training with his men, or guarding against Decepticons. Instead, he was watching his daughter with her sparkmate and sparklings, while running his fingers gently over a small piece of dented pink metal.

"You would have been proud of her, Elita," he murmured softly. "She is so much like you." His processor flashed back to that fatal day when everything had changed for him.

His spark pulsed with a throbbing pain. Something had happened to his bondmate, but what it was, and how serious, he would not know until her team returned from their mission.

Rubbing a servo over his chestplates, he sighed as he thought of the sparkling they had lost just when they had begun to believe they had hope. That had hurt Elita so much…he winced as he thought of her tears when he had told her. His sparkmate had been put through so much by this war. More than anyone else he knew.

"Sir?" Jazz opened the door to the command center hesitantly. "Th' team's back…"

"Excellent." Optimus started toward the door, then paused at the look on his second-in-command's faceplate. "Is there something else, Jazz?"

Jazz winced and stared at the floor. "It's Elita One, sir…she…maybe I should… Riella will explain."

Optimus's spark pulsed in alarm. What could have happened, that Elita's second would be making the report? Pushing Jazz out of the way, he hurried through the hallway to the parade ground and stopped in his tracks at what he saw.

Riella, blue plating battered and scratched, stood at the head of the small group – only half of those who had originally gone out. She held her head up proudly, despite the traces of tears on her cheekplates, but cradled gently in her arms…

"Elita, no…" The words slipped out of him before he could stop them at the sight of his sparkmate's now-gray form. "Elita…"

Riella forced the words out, optics flickering with grief. "We were ambushed by the 'Cons. Almost a third of the troops went down immediately…Elita fought with everything she had, as always. When she was hit, it was over so fast…I tried to save her, but there was nothing I could do." A stray tear dripped down the femme's cheek. "Optimus…she did not suffer. I can tell you that much."

Somehow he forced out the words. "Thank you, Riella…I'll take her now. You realize…you realize you must take her place?"

"If that is what you want," the new femme commander replied softly. He knew she was watching him as he carried Elita's body back toward the buildings, but he never looked back. It hurt so much…

"Dad? Hey, you okay?"

Optimus onlined his optics with a slight start to see Tai in front of him with a concerned expression. "Yes…yes, I'm fine, sweetspark." His optics met hers – well, her optic and eye – and the resemblance to Elita's almost stopped his spark. With that expression, she looked so exactly like her mother would have, had she been there.

"Tatyana…have I ever told you how much you remind me of your mother? Elita?"

Tai shrugged, half-smiling. "I don't know…go ahead and say it again." She glanced at the piece of metal in his hand. "Is that…part of her armor?"

"Yes." Optimus opened his hand to show her the pink metal. "It broke off before she…died. Someone – probably Riella – picked it up and kept it for me. A reminder of her." Carefully, he placed it in Tai's robotic hand. "I want you to have it."

"Dad, I can't take this." Tai's optic and eye widened as she looked up at him. "It's the last piece you have of her!"

Optimus shook his head, looking directly into Tai's bright blue optics. "No, Tatyana…you are the last piece I have of her. Elita still lives on in you, our daughter."

Blinking away a tear or two and closing her fingers around the piece of her mother's armor, Tai leaned forward to hug her father's arm, which was all she could reach. "I love you, Dad."

"I know, Tatyana." Optimus gently folded his arm around her back. "I love you too."