Last official chapter! There will be an epilogue, probably later this week.

Riella Meets The Cousin

Chapter Ten

"…Did you just…thank me?" Tai frowned and held out a hand to the older technorganic. Seriously, don't try to distract me by being nice again. "Without being asked to? Riella, how hard did you get hit in the head?"

Riella rolled her optics in annoyance. Now that was normal. "There's no concussion. Let's get out of here."

Across the building, the warehouse door crashed open. Tai dropped into a crouch, energon blade flicking out of her wrist again. "Riella?"

"Relax," Riella told her, not even bothering to activate her own weapons. "It's Prowl."

Oh. Right. Tai checked her own sparkbond, a little embarrassed that she hadn't thought of that. "Jazz, too."

"Tatyana! Are you alright?"

And my Dad. How worried were they?

"Very worried, apparently." Riella sighed. "We're fine, Prime."

"Wait, did I say that out loud?" Tai yelped as Jazz scooped her off the ground. "Hey, I'm okay, babe." She hugged him back, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I saved the day, too. How's that for awesome?"

Riella tilted her head to the side as Prowl tried to check the injury. "Easy. It's not as bad as it looks. And no, Tai, you didn't say it out loud. You just think loudly and you were right beside me. Prowl – oh, for Primus' sake. Stop that." She ducked under his hand, grabbed his shoulder fin, and pulled herself up to kiss him. "I'm fine."

Tai pulled away from Jazz and stared until Riella let go of Prowl and raised an eyebrow in her direction. "What do you mean, I "think loudly"?"

"Well, you do," Riella said dryly. "It's okay as long as you don't make a habit of it."

Tai's response was interrupted by Optimus, practically looming over Jazz. "Tatyana, are you sure you're not hurt? What happened?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, Dad." Tai climbed up on Jazz's shoulder to hug her father. "Long story short, Riella got captured, I came after her, we kicked Decepticon aft, and then you showed up."

"The 'Cons have a new signal jammer," Riella added. "That's how they caught me. I think all six of the ones here have it on, so we can probably get Wheeljack to reverse-engineer it and adjust our scanners."

Jazz groaned. "Great, more new tech? Where're they getting it?"

"Primus knows," Riella said with a grimace. "I've never seen this before, but…"

"The 'Cons we took down in Australia implied it was a new invention," Prowl continued seamlessly. "I suspect Shockwave's involvement."

Tai looked from one to the other. "Okay, wait. There's a new signal jammer, Riella can read minds, and now Shockwave is on Earth. Did I get all of that?"

"I believe so," Optimus responded, apparently not bothered by any of it. "We should go. Riella, will you help Jazz collect the signal jammers, please?"

Riella nodded and slid down from Prowl's arm gracefully. "Yes, sir."

Tai followed her sparkmate, still looking oddly at Riella. "Wait, so you're serious about the mind-reading thing?"

"Touch telepathy," Riella called back over her shoulder, prying the first signal jammer off. "So I can only read your mind if you're touching me or very close."

"Wow. That must make things interesting on base."

Riella shrugged. "I'm rarely bored. Although I occasionally learn things I would rather not know. For example – "

"No, no, no, don't tell us!" Jazz shook his head rapidly. "Ya did that once and I had nightmares 'bout Ironhide for a week."

Tai snickered. "Tell me later, Riella?"

"Back at base," Optimus said firmly. "Time to go. Autobots, roll out!"

Riella went to transform, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "Ri?"

"Yes, Tai?" Riella turned to face the younger technorganic with a raised eyebrow.

Before she could react, Tai hugged her tightly. "I'm glad you're okay. Even if you don't think I…" She trailed off. "Well, I'm not Mom, but…"

Riella's spark pulsed in old, remembered, grief, but it wasn't overwhelming this time. She knew exactly how Elita would have felt about that day. "Tai, Elita would have been proud of you. You're not her, but you are her daughter. That's obvious to me."

Tai blinked, tears appearing in her eyes. "Really? Thanks…"

"You're welcome," Riella responded, forcing her own tears back and smiling. "Now let's roll!"