A/N: Here we are, taking a step back from the Bots and Cons to see how our main trio are doing. So without further adieu enjoy this next chapter!
Chapter 20-Reflection and Affliction
A month had passed since Eleanor acquired the Lightbringer Staff, in that time they had managed to make it to Europe and were exploring the old world at their leisure. In that time, Eleanor had been practicing with her staff, meditating on it and trying to activate it, to no avail.
Turn this down time as it were, both Megatron and Optimus took to building their trust and though it was still rough at the beginning, they slowly, slowly, came around especially with Eleanor's persistence to put things into the past.
It was one of these times the Brothers found themselves in, Eleanor was meditating on the staff once more in another room of their Paris hotel, while the mechs in human form sat in the common room of the hotel room.
"I wonder sometimes," Optimus stated in the silence, earning his brothers attention. "If I….made the right call, that day."
Megatron looked puzzled at his brother, "What do mean?"
"The day we confronted the Council…"
"Ah, that." It was still a painful memory for the both of them, the day they became enemies. "But, I must ask, why are you questioning yourself? You've never done that before, I don't think at least, or I never thought you could regret that day."
"I do, because of my blunt words and actions I cost us our friendship and our world. I was blinded and I didn't see the path that you were headed for, I could've steered you on the right path, yet I was blindly following my own that I thought was laid before me." Megatron narrowed his amber eyes.
"Don't. Do not ever say that Orion, it was not your fault." It was Optimus's turn to be surprised, "I should've never said those things...done those things. I was blind, not you, I wanted justice but I was willing to do crimes against everything I believed in so that I could obtain it, it was a twisted way to think."
There was a silence that hung in the room before Megatron went on.
"Orion, I should've never shunted you out. I...was so wrong, and I know that I am wrong because of Eleanor. She pulled those blinders off, made me see the light, her light and see the errors I have done, to our people and home. So please, do not blame yourself brother, for you have nothing worthy of blaming yourself."
Optimus looked at Megatron, whose head was downcast.
"She gave you hope." He looked up at the Prime.
Megatron smiled, "Yes, she did. She gave me hope and showed compassion where I was not deserving, in some aspects she is like you in that regard. Someone filled with compassion and hope, but when you doubt yourself Prime, that is when you lose that spark."
He grasped the Prime's shoulder, "So do us all a favor, and don't lose yourself in doubt and guilt from the past, for it is the past brother and nothing can change it. After all, we must look to the future where our home is free and alive once more."
Optimus smiled at his brother, happy to be in his company once more.
It almost felt like the old days to him.
In the other room from the Brothers, sat Eleanor on the floor with the white staff in front of her, she wore a simple white dress, her metallic arms and legs exposed as the metal fingers lightly grazed the white surface of the staff. After some time she gave a defeated sigh and leaned back against the bed staring at the ceiling.
"Why….why won't you work?!" She moaned in her hands as she rubbed her face.
She had been at this for hours and nothing, not even a twitch out of the darn thing.
Eleanor closed her eyes, replaying the memory of the dream with Primus in her mind. She recalled ever detail, ever word pertaining to the staff. The power of a sun within it, the power of the Light.
Light, light, she thought about what light represented, then she thought back to the text written on it in a language only she knew.
To Be of the Light, is to bring Hope, for it is the Light that must balance out the Darkness and illuminate the Ether. To Those who wish the destruction of the Darkness and the Ether let the Light burn the Wicked and Unworthy.
Hope, Balance, Illumination. Words that had a meaning in their own right, but how could that bring out the power of the Staff? Then she heard some soft voices, almost as trying to not to disturb her, slowly she made her way to the door and cracked it open slightly.
She looked into the common room, to see Optimus and Megatron sitting in chairs next to one another. Megatron's hand on the Prime's shoulder, a sign of reassurance, both of them contempt in their company. Then as the sun was setting it caught the pair in it's beam.
For the first time she now understood the meaning of those words on the staff, to be someone who brings hope, hope to those who were lost before meeting her, to bring balance, to bring two people together that had original thrown their own world into chaos, to illuminate the Darkness and the Ether, to bring a Light to their shadows and to cast them out.
She turned back to the staff, grabbing it and holding tight, her eyes shut.
She let the feeling flow through her, the feeling she had whenever she saw her lover and best friend in a calm moment. The feeling of hope and compassion that drove her to fall in love with someone who had lost those entirely and to bring it back to one who had forgotten it so long ago.
Then, all went white.
As the Brothers sat in quiet contemplation, a bright light started to glow from underneath Eleanor's door, bright enough to catch their attention as they sat in dusk's light. Both looked to each other with the same expression, concern.
Quickly they sat up and flung the door open only to stop.
Eleanor stood in the center of the room, her eyes were glowing as bright as a sun, her red hair flowing all around her like if she was suspended in water, but even stranger then that was the fact that she was not standing, but floating slightly off the floor.
"Eleanor…?" Megatron dared, she looked to him, her eyes wide.
"We need to leave, now!" She said, though her voice betrayed thousands of voices.
"What?" He asked, her face contorted into fear.
"We need to leave now! They are coming!" Optimus eyes narrowed.
"Who?" He asked, her head turned to the window outside as if seeing something that wasn't there or beyond the normal visions of ordinary people.
"The Embrace."