TWENTY-SIX

"J... Jane...?" I managed to utter as I walked towards her, beside the bed.

She chuckled. "Yes, it's me alright. Come on, try not to look so surprised, aren't you eager to find out what I've been up two?"

"Do you two know each other?" I heard Phos interject from behind me.

"Yep!" was the reply from Jane. "That was one lifetime ago, the both of us were really close back then. Boy, I could go on for a whole day, but to put it shor..."

All sounds around me stopped registering as I stood there, suddenly being hit by a wave of joy and relief.

It's her...

It really is her...

"... Hey, what's wrong? You look like you're about to cry."

I looked up at my closest friend, feeling my face crack.

"That's because I am about to cry!"

I threw my arms around the red gem, finally breaking down.

"I miss you so, so much! I'm so sorry for not spending more time with you!"

"Huh?"

I went on, sobbing.

A few moments later, I heard her quietly giggle.

I felt one of her arms around my shoulder, the other gently stroking my back.

'Yeah, Nicole, I miss you too. There, there, it's okay now. You've really taken a hard hit from my death, haven't you?"

We're together again.

At this moment, that is all that matters to me.

My best friend has returned.2

--------

"Um, hey," Jane quietly asked, "you can let go of me now."

"No."

"But you've been hugging me for about 10 full minutes."

"No."

She chuckled. "Alright then, but not too long, alright?"

I nodded.

"Hey, you there," I heard Red Dia ask, "what's your name?"

"It's Phosphophyllite, but call me Phos," was the cheerful reply from the peppermint gem.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Red Diamond, you can call me Red Dia. So, I assume you've been looking after Nicole here?"

"You can say that, but I don't think I've not been a good senior..."

"Nah, nah, you've done really well. Thank you."

"H-huh? I don't deserve any praise, it's natural that I look after Dan!"

"Silly, you deserve praise! By the way, what's Nicole's new name now?"

"Danburite," I replied softly, still hugging her. "Dan will do."

"Ah, gotcha. Damn, you're being a bit more clingy than usual, can you let go of me now?"

"No. I lost you for two years, I'm sure as hell not going to let go anytime soon."

"Hehe, alright. Hey Phos, was she ever this clingy to you?"

I heard the peppermint gem giggle. "Not like this, but they tag along with me as much as they can."

"Ah, that's natural. I suppose she told you everything about her past?"

"Well, bits and pieces, some bullying issue and such, but Dan never mentioned you."

"Sorry," I muttered. "Never got the chance to tell you about her."

"Heh, it's okay. You'd tell me eventually too, is that right?"

"Yeah."

"Then that's fine with me," Phos replied comfortingly.

"Hey," the red diamond suddenly asked, "is that gold?"

"Yep, but it's technically a gold-and platinum alloy. I lost my original arms and got these down here. See, even my hair have these gold sections, regretted cutting them in the first place so I 'grew' them out! My legs are half-made out of agate, too!"

"Woah, that's pretty cool! Though, you lost some memories too, right?"

'Well, yeah. Nothing much, though."

"That's good. Nicole, get off me, you've had enough."

"No."

I felt something going on behind me, outside my field of vision.

'Alrighty then," Jane replied, "guess we'd have to pry you off now. Now, Phos!"

I felt two pairs of arms grab me.

"Wait, wha- woah, not this hard- ah!"

With the combined efforts of both Red Dia and Phos, I was pried off the former's shoulders.

I was then "tied" around Phos by their alloy.

"Hey, Phos, let me go!"

I struggled to no avail.

'No," was the cheeky reply from the peppermint gem, who was smirking.

"Huh?! Come on, please!"

Meanwhile, Red Dia was simply sitting on the floor, enjoying the scene.

I suddenly felt Phos trip, and as a result she fell on her back.

"Ow!"

Taking the chance, I immediately broke free and tried to get up, but I slipped and fell flat on my front.

"Argh!"

"Heh, " the red diamond commented, getting up, "the both of you are really somewhat clumsy- woah!"

She tripped over my left arm and fell onto the bed, before rolling down and crashing into both Phos and I.

We laid there in silence for a few moments...

... before bursting into laughter.

-------

"It's fortunate that we gems don't get hurt easily," Red Dia commented as the three of us sat on the bed, "else we'd all be in pretty big trouble by now. Speaking of which, what are each of your hardnesses?"

"Three and a half," Phos replied cheerfully, "but with the agate and alloy, I'm no longer that weak."

"Seven and a half," I answered, "but I'm also brittle and have a poor cleavage."

"Interesting. Well, guess you two already know my hardness, right?"

"Ten," the both of us answered in unison.

"Great! First thing I want to ask you guys, how's it back at the school?"

"It's fine," the peppermint gem replied, "there's the twenty-something of us all living together."

"That's good. How's Yellow Dia down there? Also Padparadscha too, for that matter."

"They're fine," I answered. "Yellow Dia's still the fastest among us, and Pad just woke up briefly."

"Sweet! Wait, Padparadscha just woke up?"

"Yeah, a few minutes. Rutile has good hands, I'm pretty sure she'll be up again."

"Rutile?" the red diamond puzzled. "Who's that?"

"Quack doc," Phos chimed in, snickering. "To be serious though, they're the doctor. Unrivaled skill in that particular aspect."

"Sounds good. Looks like Kongo finally got a specific gem to act as a doctor, eh?"

"What do you mean 'finally'? Wasn't there a doctor before Rutile?"

"Nope, not at all! Any damage we took from the Lunarians, we fixed them ourselves. I did try to persuade Kongo to assign one of us as a dedicated doctor, but we found nobody suitable."

Someone knocked on the door, and we briefly stopped.

"Hey, who's there?" Jane called out.

"It's Semi!" was the reply. "Their uniforms are repaired, I'm here to return them."

"Nice, thanks! I'll get the door," Phos replied, getting up.

She opened the door. "Hey, didn't you say you wanted to rush off because it's getting late?"

"Ah, yes, but duty calls," the chubby Lunarian shrugged, handing over the two sets of uniforms over to the peppermint gem. "The one on top is yours, by the way."

"Got it, thanks again!"

"Don't mention it! Now this time I'm off for real, see ya tomorrow!"

And with that, Semi closed the door.

"Here, catch," Phos called out, tossing my set over to me.

I caught it and looked at my black overshirt. No sign of damage.

"Wow, new material?" Red Dia commented, taking the opportunity to inspect my uniform too. "I guess this got lighter too?"

"Yep!" Phos answered. "Mine in particular is even newer, made using more durable fabric that's also waterproof," she added on, passing her set over to the red diamond.

"Hmm, interesting. A great build, I must say."

The peppermint gem beamed. "Courtesy of Red Beryl! They've been doing an excellent job at our clothes; of course, that's expected of our resident tailor."

"Ooh, nice!"

"We also have winter clothing too, on their insistence. Red Beryl makes our dresses yearly without fail for that, even when faced with delays."

"Diligent," Red Dia commented, impressed. "Things sure did change back there while I was gone."

"Ah, Red Dia, how old are you?"

Jane thought for a moment.

"That's a really good question, I think I've lost count," she replied sheepishly. "Oh wait, I remember! About 5900 years old!"

"Woah! That's almost twice the age of Yellow!" Phos commented, surprised

"Yep!" was the reply from the red diamond, now beaming with pride. "When I was taken away, Yellow was a hundred-year-old kid. I was pleasantly surprised when a new diamond was born, and I think that's why the both of us had a closer sibling-like bond with each other than with anyone else around. Not that I'm not close with them, but Yellow was closer to me."

She looked away, a tinge of sadness in her eyes. "From what Semi told me, all of the gems I know are now turned to dust, save from Yellow and Pad. I was hoping that there was a way to restore them, but I think I need to accept the fact that that's beyond the abilities of anyone."

The peppermint and I stayed silent.

Jane quickly stopped sulking and looked at the both of us with a smile. "So, now you've gotten back your original clothes, aren't you going to change into them now?"

"Eh?" Phos uttered, confused.

Red Dia smirked. "Promise I won't look."

She then quickly turned back. "Tell me when you're done!"

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

"Those twintails look nice on you, you know that?" Jane commented, the three of us lying on the bed.

"E-eh?"

I felt my face turn red.

"Yeah, they do," she giggled.

"Get closer to me, Dan," Phos said cheekily, getting closer to me from my right.

"Nah, Nicole's staying with me," Red Dia retorted, getting closer.

"Oh, so it's like that, huh."

The peppermint gem inched closer.

"Oh, it's on," the red diamond replied, also inching closer.

Phos squeezed into my right.

Red Dia squeezed into my left.

"H-hey," I uttered, "I need my space..."

"Ah," both of them went as they moved away, "sorry."

--------

I opened my eyes.

Jane's sleeping face was the first thing that greeted me.

Beginning to blush, I noticed that I've been hugging her all this while.

E...hehe... Guess I'll need to free myself.

Deja Vu, though. That one school camp.

Trying to move, I noticed that Phos herself had wrapped her arms around me too, hugging my back.

"E-ehh?"

Yep, I'm stuck.

Not a bad thing, though.2

Just then, an alarm went off.

Red Dia rolled over to her other side, while Phos released her grasp on me.

I laid in the center, facing the ceiling.

"Ah, morning Nicole. Actually, Dan. Does it really matter?"

"N-nope," I replied, "I wouldn't mind."

"Sweet!"

She sat up and stretched just as Phos got up too.

"Ah..." the peppermint gem muttered, "is it morning yet? What's that sound?"

"Seems so," Red Dia replied, shutting off the alarm, "8 in the morning."

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

'Good morning!" Semi's voice called out from outside. "We're going on the tour today, Red Dia can come along too!"

"Nice!" was the reply as the red gem immediately got up. "Give us a few, alright?"

"Sure! I'll be dealing with something else too, I'll meet you guys outside later!"

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

Stepping outside, the three of us are swarmed by a massive group of Admirabilis.

Actually, specifically Phos.

"King... King..." they muttered.1

"Something to do with that agate?" Red Dia asked.

"Possibly," the peppermint gem replied.

"They say 'King'," I commented, "but the agate here was used from Aculeatus' shell."

"You're right," Phos replied, "I think the Admirabilis here are too 'dazed' to tell the difference though."

"Here I am!" Semi called out, walking across the group. "Now, let's head off!"

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

"Hey," the red diamond whispered to me as we walked on the streets, "how long was it after my death did you meet your demise?"

"A few months," I replied, "about 3."

"Interesting, that'd make it each month there the equivalent of 2 thousand years here."

"That's a pretty large difference," Phos chimed in, slowing down to join us.

"Yeah, seems that way," Jane replied.

"Hey, can you three speed up a bit?" Semi called out from ahead. "We have places to go!"

-----------

"Hey, you guys need to go!" Semi called out to the Admirabilis crowd which had followed us all the way to this building.

"This has no scent..." I heard one of the creatures squeak out.

Phos thought for a moment.

"Um, disperse until evening?" she said out of the blue.

The sea-faring flesh immediately went away.

"I'm good at this!" Semi replied, beaming proudly as Phos chuckled. "Anyway, come in!"

Entering, we arrived at a massive room full of ball-like structures. Looking around, we noticed that we're standing on some kind of platform.

"Um, this is a factory that produces synthetic gems," Semi explained while reading from a pamphlet. "Uh, those things in front of us... uh... these spherical apparatus, creates high pressure to... um... synthesize gems..."

"Let me read," Phos interrupted, annoyed.

Receiving the pamphlet from Semi, the peppermint gem furrowed as they looked down at the words.

"Nope, can't read."

"Let me try," I offered, getting the piece of paper.

I stared at the foreign characters.

"What is this language?"

"Let me see," Red Dia chimed in, looking from beside me.

The three of us looked at it for a few moments.

"... It's Sanskrit." Jane concluded.

"Yeah," Semi shrugged, "specifically it's Pali. Prince said that you gems don't use this language."

"Yeah," I confirmed, "we don't."

"Do you need an explanation?" a voice asked from beside.

Turning round, we noticed a female Lunarian in lab-like clothes walk towards us.

"Welcome, the three of you. Now, would you call come closer to the edge of this platform?"

The three of us got closer.

"Now," she began to explain, "within these spherical apparatus, we put in 8 different types of metals and carbon, and using extreme temperatures and pressure, we manage to synthesize large diamonds. Further into this facility we have tubular apparatus to grow synthetic corundum, and even further in we have the equipment for the synthesis of hydrothermal beryl."

She paused for a moment.

"Still further in we have various equipment for the synthesis of other crystals, one type for each, according to their properties. Now, come over to the edge and look down."

Looking down, we observed what seems to be a production section of sorts, where the Lunarians cut and shape pieces of gemstones of varying shapes and sizes.

"This is the ground floor. Down there, workers process synthetic gems in their own way. Fragile ones of poor quality quickly deteriorate in this atmosphere, so they are quickly manufactured into arrowheads and spears. Weapons in general; examples that we had deployed are those heliodor arrows and pink fluorite hooks."

"You guys can't synthesize ones whose samples have not been taken, right?" Red Dia asked.

"Correct. On that topic, the replicas we make use gemstones of the highest quality. The best workers collect them, and later reassemble the pieces to closely resemble you and your kind."

"And the biggest difference between those and us?" Phos questioned.

"The inclusions. To try and deceive Kongo we tried using false inclusions, but we had no luck for so long."

"That makes sense," I commented. "Our inclusions give us life; you can't create organic sentience for gems without organic inclusions."

"Perhaps that's the case," the scientist agreed. "Well, that's mostly it."

"Well, shall we go further?" Semi chimed in. "Up next we have an experimental facility made for the synthesizing of humans."

Synthetic humans?

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

"I don't like this place," Phos grumbled, uncomfortable with the weird selection of music going on in the background.

"Me too," I agreed.

"Me three," Jane chimed in.

"Same here," Semi also agreed.

We're now in some weird dark room, behind a glass panel. On the other side there is a clear liquid of some sort completely filling up that section.

"Well, anyway," Semi said, moving on, "humans were pretty watery, like, their bodies are 70 percent water! Hey, you guys see that moving particle there?"

He pointed to a white string-like organism, changing its shape while it drifted around. "That's a human particle."

Hmm...

We watched the "dancing" particle for a bit more.

"I can't stand it anymore," Phos said.

"Me neither," the male Lunarian agreed, "this strange music playing all the time is getting on me. Shall we all take a break?"

All of us nodded.

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

Semi ate something resembling a ball of rice while we sat on an open platform, the Admirabilis all surrounding us.

Phos turned to look at both the red diamond and I before turning to Semi.

"So, you're name's Semi, what's the Prince's name?"

"Aechmea," Jane chimed in.

"Yes," the Lunarian confirmed, "but we don't use it."

"Hm? Why?" Phos puzzled.

"He kinda said that he's ashamed to have a name."

"Complicated guy. And you're not ashamed with having a name?"

"No, of course not! He gave me the name, so I treasure it very much! The same goes for everyone else."

"Hmm..."

The peppermint gem rested her head on her right hand. "You all rely on him a lot, right?"

"But of course! Everybody loves the Prince!"

"I heard that before..." Phos muttered, burrowing her face into her arms.

"Don't tell the Prince I said my name!" Semi anxiously put in.

"Yeah, you can count on me for that. I miss home already..."

Both Jane and I looked at the sulking peppermint gem.

"Same for me," I quietly replied, looking at Earth.

"I want to get back..." Red Dia added.

We sat in silence for a bit more.

"Psst."

"What is it?" Phos asked, looking at Semi, who had inched closer to them.

"All of you, get closer."

We all moved in.

"Phos, Dan, remember when I said not everyone here is bent on grinding you all up?"

"Yeah?" Phos confirmed, now sitting up.

"Well, Prince called a meeting some time back, and his intentions were to never let any of you back until your Sensei agrees to help."

"That's bad," I commented.

"Don't worry; I want you guys to go back too. Now, I need two days to properly prepare, I believe the three of you can think of an ingenious plan to escape?"

"Yes," all three of us replied.

"Nice! Now, a few guidelines; you guys can only leave in the night, and you guys need a vessel. I can handle the vessel, but for you three to sneak over to the pad, that's something you can only think of. Remember, the deadline is two days, good luck."

We nodded in agreement.

"Why should we trust you?" Phos suddenly muttered.

Semi smiled. "Because I can relate to you guys."

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

"So," I began, sitting on the bed, "Phos, do we have the information we need?"

"Yep! Prince already told us everything, all we need to do now is to get back."

"I can't believe I'm finally going back!" Red Dia squealed in excitement. "Three thousand years of being stuck here, I'm finally getting back!"

I smiled.

"Still," Phos added in, "we need a way to bring back our siblings, or at least restore them so that we can collect them when we return in the future."

"We can't bring them back as dust," Jane pointed out, "it'll be way too messy and would disrupt our movements."

"Yes," the peppermint gem agreed. "Dan?"

"Yes?"

"Did Ventricosus mention anything about our seniors when she was around?"

"Well, no," was my reply.

"Not even when I was stuck in that shell?"

"Nope, we thought you were her while your pieces reformed on the shell..."

I stopped, coming to a sudden realization. "I've got a way!"

"What is it?"

"Phos, you were melted and formed in Ventrico's shell. What if the Admirabilis here eat the dust and allow our seniors to reform on their shells?"2

"My, that's a great idea!" Phos realized in excitement. "But how do we get them to-"

She stopped and felt her legs. "Yes, that's not a problem. Good thinking!"

"T-thanks..."

"But you guys need to make sure they don't consume the dust that quickly," the red gem pointed out, "or Aechmea will grow suspicious about the decreasing amount of dust too soon."

"Yeah," Phos agreed.

"Actually, he doesn't mind the Admirabilis eating the dust," Jane explained, "since they're allowed to do so. But yep, too much at one go will arouse suspicion."

"We'll take that down. So, Senpai, how do we get out of here?"

"No worries, I know the way!" Red Dia replied confidently. "But there are night patrols on the main streets. Want to try the back alleys?"

The peppermint gem and I nodded.

"Sweet! Now this is going to be fun."