TWENTY-NINE

"Well, I woke up on the Chord Shore, being unable to move much. You remember how it was to be a newborn, right? Unrefined with no eyeballs, you can't move and everything around is one major blurry mess."

"W-well, about that," I stammered for a bit, "I was born with everything done. Except the powder and clothes, of course."

"You are?" Red Dia looked up, intrigued. "Weird. Well, it was tough. Really tough. You couldn't stand, you can't grab onto anything, you're essentially just stumbling around on the ground. Being effectively blind doesn't help at all, either. Though, how did you come with everything?"+

"I-I don't know..."

That wasn't actually a lie; you-know-who could have made me start out just like Jane.

"Hmm. Well, moving away from that, Kongo found me some time later. He brought me over to a tree and trimmed me till I was proper, gave me my eyes, then made me some clothes. That's when I asked him who he is."

"What was his reply?" Phos asked.

"Well, he told me that he's a machine, simple as that. For what kind, I'm not too sure myself. Something about sending off the humans or something."

"Wait, you knew?" I quickly sat up.

"You guys don't know?" the red diamond asked back, surprised.

"Well," the peppermint gem replied, "the others don't, the two of us only found out when we asked Aechmea."

"He never told you?"

"Nope."

"Weird," Jane pondered, "from my time almost everyone knew, just that he never personally told any of those newer gems. Somehow that information never passed down, huh."

"Did Sensei try to hide that?"

Red Dia shot her a confused look. "Hide? He never did."

"So, we just never thought about asking him."

"Uh-huh. Hehe, you guys should really be more curious, ya know?"

"Eheh, yeah..." the peppermint gem conceded, scratching the back of her neck.

"Anyway, moving away from that, I asked Kongo what I am. He gave some long-ass explanation about what I was made of, and I got bored real quick. Noticing that I was all red and he looked more like a person, I told him I wanted to look like him. So, he went to make some white powder and applied it on my face."

"Not your whole body?" I asked.

"Well, not yet; the idea to give me the full body treatment was after the school was built. Before that, he taught me stuff all under that tree. Everything; no books, just verbal communication."

"Why did you guys decide to build the school?" Phos puzzled, curious.

"That's a really good question, I'm on that now. Sometime later, maybe a few months, Fluorite appeared. Kongo and I were walking down the Chord Shore before coming across this multicolored gem lying on the shore. All she did was twitch in place, which we later found out was due to her low hardness. I wanted Kongo to help her and thus asked him to do so; he then went to that massive quartz stone in the middle of the plains and carved out the school with my help."

"Wait," I stopped Jane after she finished, "how did that quartz stone get there?"

She shrugged. "Beats me. Neither does Kongo know."

"Why do you call Sensei just 'Kongo', senpai?" Phos continued.

"Heheh, it's just a choice, Sensei just doesn't seem to fit for me. Anyway, with that school up, we took in Fluorite and got her up and running. We soon found out that she's quite skilled with her hands, so Kongo taught her how to knit, and soon enough she came up with the prototype of the uniform we're all wearing now."

"Talk about talent!" the peppermint gem commented, amazed.

"Yep, the three of us were really happy altogether! Then other gems came in. Andalite, Sapphire, Prehnite and the others. Ulexite in particular was really unique, now that I think about it. She's translucent, and thus we could literally see her insides by looking down from the top of her head."

"That sounds really unique," I commented.

"Yep! Sometime down the road Sensei made us our weapons, and since I was the secretary and the first to appear I got a commemorative sword that was specially decorated. Still is my most prized possession. I mentioned it back at the moon, right?"

Phos and I nodded.

"Yep, that's it! It's probably still there, would like to show it to you guys once we get back!"

"Hey, Senpai," the peppermint gem asked out of the blue, "how were you captured."

"Well, about that..." the red diamond stammered sheepishly, "it was my own fault. I got into a really heated argument with Kongo one night, and in a moment of anger I ran out of the school onto the plains. Just at that time the sun rose and the Lunarians rolled in, and I left my sword back in the school. Yep, I stood no chance at all. I still feel bad about pissing Kongo off like that, too. Over something stupid, too."

"Well," I comforted her, putting my hand on her back, "now that we're going back, you can finally make amends with him, right?"

Red Dia smiled, looking at me. "Yeah, you're right."

-----------------

"Oh look, we're here!" Red Dia shouted excitedly as the black dome began to open up, revealing sunlight.

Phos and I immediately got up.

"What do you know, we're back!" the peppermint gem cried out, looking at the familiar island in front of us. "Hey, Dan, want to take a look from here?"

"Um, I'm afraid of heights, so I'll pass," I replied. "I can still see from here, though. It's really nice!"

"Heheh, some things really don't change, do they?" Red Dia commented as the vessel began to approach the island, slowly descending in altitude."

Out of the blue, the vessel itself began to be covered in white mist.

"Hey, what's going on?" I called out as small holes began to slowly appear.

"Looks like the vessel is disintegrating," the red diamond commented. "Dammit, I don't think we'll make it that close- WOAH!"

Jane had tripped over a small hole right behind her and had fallen over the side.

"Jane!" I shouted, rushing over to look down.

"I'M FINE!" was the reply shouted back to me from below. "WOW, THIS IS FUN!"

"Fun?!"

"No worries, I'll get them! Stay on board till you get close enough!" Phos shouted before leaping off herself.

"Phos!"

I watched as the two figures got smaller as they fell.

Standing back, I began to avoid the multiple holes that were enlarging by the second.

Hey, how high am I now? I think I'll jump too-

I looked down a hole, noticing the blue sea beneath me.

Nope.

I looked forward. The disintegrating vessel had now inched above the island. Above sweet, sweet ground.

Maybe a bit too "above" said "sweet, sweet ground", though.

I moved to avoid a large hole above me...

... and promptly tripped over myself, falling straight through the hole.

"AAAAAAAAAH! HOLY FU*K! HOLY FU*KING SH*T!"

Alright Danbu, calm down! Calm the hell down, you can't die!

I took in a few deep breaths before opening my eyes.

A fast-approaching grass-filled ground greeted me.

This is bad. Hey, where's the two of them-

Two large splashes at the ocean answered me.

So if they've landed in the sea, I'm going to...

I resigned myself to fate as the ground quickly approached me.

"Aw sh*t, why must it be me-"

-----------------

White room. Well, not really. You get the idea.

I looked around. Nobody and nothing in sight.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Why the long face?" a voice called out from right behind me, startling me.

"H-hey, you scared me..." I replied to the man, who was reading a book.

"Did I mention that I'm not the God the bible here says?" he asked, flipping through the aforementioned bible.

"Eh?"

"Yep, I'm not," he confirmed, tossing it over his shoulder. It disappeared into thin air. "But that doesn't mean they didn't get some parts right. I'm simply a god that exists, helping people when needed. It's hard, though, can't help everyone and answer every single prayer without repercussions. Anyway, that's not the point of you being here."

I looked at God, puzzled. "Then why am I here?"

"Well," he smiled, "you've done it."

"Eh? Done what?"

"You've healed. You're like a different person compared to what you were a few months ago, right?"

I thought about it for a while, before smiling softly. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks to the second chance you gave me."

"Yep. And now, you've got to make a choice."

"Huh? What choice?"

"Well, you can choose to stay in this world and live out this life, OR you can go back to the world you came from and live out that life."

I stared and him.

He stared back and laughed. "Don't worry, you've got plenty of time. I don't want to pressure you too, so here's two doors."

Two doors appeared before me.

"Left brings you back to where you came from, while the right door brings you back to your new life. Choose wisely, my dear; you've only got one shot. I'll see you around."

And just like that, he vanished.

I stared at the two doors.+

Wh...

What do I choose?