What Is Light?

Chapter 14

" Uh, hi?" Raf began as he walked up to the newest guest. Erudina turns to him curiously as the other humans watched cautiously after she offered to Bulkhead. " I'm Raf, it's nice to meet you." He held out his hand to shake hers, she gave no response. She stares at him for a while, red eyes looking into his dark browns blankly. End hesitated to act and was about to say something when the figure moved closer to Raf and knelt down to his height. Hand over her chin, she seemed to be thinking, analyzing.

" Boop." Raf blinked as a tip of her finger touched the bridge of his nose. She was wearing gloves too.

" Uh, Grandma?" Hyde called out to her. " I think you're creeping him out." Erudina looked back at her in surprise.

" Am I?" She quickly rose. " Oh damn. Sorry, kid." She said quickly but was met with confused looks.

" Not to interrupt whatever this is but what's a Grandma and why do you keep calling her that?" Smokescreen asked them.

" This is your Grandma??" Miko asked in disbelief. " Hang on, but... she's so young."

" You said the oldest among you were 35" Arcee pointed out.

" They were! It's not that she's our Grandma- but, you see-" Val tried to come up with an explanation. June yelped in surprise as the small orbs faded away. " GRANDMA WHAT DID YOU DO??"

" I made a friend." She said with a smile. Only then were the humans able to hear one of their voices.

" But I thought....they're not....But the light??" Patch asked in confusion.

" This is your first time dealing with a dimension slip, isn't it?" The other sky kids exchanged a look while the Elders watched on with an amused smile on their faces. They looked up at her and waited for her to explain. " Okay, hang on. Where do I start.......So, let's talk about how this...this, is possible." She began as she gestured to just about the whole room. " Right then, we'll start with the end. The death of a star. They flicker, flare and fade. Some become nothing more than an addition to the vastness of space, some fade and some may become voids, black holes."

" Where is this going?" Fowler said carefully.

" When dying in Eden, what did it feel like?" The kids looked down for a moment before trying to answer.

" Like glass. Like we broke." Weslen answered.

" As you know, we're basically vessels for light." She further explains. " Our embers are reborn time after time but for how long? Nothing stays forever. I'm sure you've heard of burn outs. That random moment when one of us just...fades." Sha paused to let it sink in. " Some burn out young, others much older. But some burn outs can end rather.......well, terribly, to be blunt. These rare occurrences causes holes and ripples in reality. Light scatters, the vessels breaks instantaneously and the soul simply fades. We're not sure what causes these ripples but they're always linked to these burn outs. So, this whole thing is basically our fault. Don't worry, the Patchers have it fixed."

" How come there's seven of us though? We're not exactly... necessary right?" Hyde asked.

" Technically yes. But it's an old procedure that has to be followed. A representative from each realm or occupation has to be here in order to stabilize the extraction of the anomalies and return them immediately to our home. That and because with each ripple, seven krills tend to pop up as well in response to the burn out." Her eyes widen slightly and she turned to the Elders to speak.

" It's been dealt with. All seven are gone." The Forest Elder told her.

" Thank you, Ma'am." She sighed in relief. " And for the last question, it's kinda a funny story. I was just guiding a few of these kids back during another of these incidents when one of the new human allies they made said I sounded and acted like a grandma." She paused as the other humans stared at her. " I'm literally 18." June covered her mouth as the others laughed.

" Last question!" Sunshine raised his hand. " How do you share with humans? They don't have light like Cybertronian sparks."

" What they call a spark is what a soul is to a human. Just more...physical. Kinda like our innermost light. It's blue, isn't it? Compared to the other lights. Our souls, our lights. Same thing at the end of the day." She said softly, patting her gem. " So, enough death talk and light stuff, I believe you all need to start spending candles."