It's been longer than I can remember since I've seen a human on Earth. I may be the closest thing we have to a human and I'm not even close. Even if I was, i don't imagine you'd be too impressed. I'm chewed up and used by what humans once called "life." It's sad when you compare me to what we used to be. What's sadder is that gems don't even see me as one of them either. I can't be. I'm cracked. I should be just... gone... but I'm not. Not sure why but I'm. You may be asking yourself "Where did my beloved fellow humans go? How is this crossbreed communicate with me in what has to be the distant future? Is this guy reading my mind?" All your questions will be answered in due time, but for now, you're missing the most important question, and it's a simple one. "Who?" Don't worry, I don't blame you for overlooking the question. The answer is as simple as the inquisition. It's a name. Nell.

Chapter 1

I was at my home resting at the peak of Mt Garnet overlooking ground zero. Not many visitors of the sentient type. Mostly the shattered and corrupt. They hunt at night but so do I. Everyday, I start with a stroll down to the crater to collect samples of scorched rock and debris hoping to derive some sort of solution to all of the problems the giant floating rock has. The rock we call Earth. I scavenge for food in the afternoon -apparently my stomach is quite human. Some days, I find nothing but today I found some untouched coconuts. Damn, coconut trees are strong as hell. Since the rapture, they seemed to be the one thing that didn't seem to be bothered. Anyway, I snag some coconuts and head back up with my big rock, some Trinitite, and three ripe coconuts. God, the trail back up always seems the longest. Two decades of climbing up and down this lone mountain and I still dread the ascent each time. Sorry, you are the only person I've been able to complain to anybody in a long while. I digress. About half-way up, I take a load off and enjoy a snack on today's harvest. Hey, I earned it. It's not every day that you are able to find a movable yet large enough piece of radioactive glass. I sit overlooking the crater. You can still see the ocean off in the distance. It's so gorgeous this time of day. The clouds of gem dust shimmer on the horizon making a bit of a redish-blue haze by the setting sun. You may think me crazy or sick to think the shattered dust of my fallen kin is pretty as its refracts light through it's decomposer body. Well I am. I can admit it. I have been alone on this damn mountain for 18 and half- wait what's that.

-now stop. You know from reading the first part that isn't the right question.

-go on

I drip to my stomach and prone. I have a spectrum armory collected at the overlook cave, time to put it to use early today. I pull my rifle from my gem when you'd think my belly button should be. Peering through the scope, i can make out a tall girl, at least 5"10' walking towards the base of the mountain. Shattered don't walk like that. They are more beast than gem now. And corrupted look a lot less... alive than that. She was beautiful. But then again -2 decades alone- I'll let you form your own opinion. She had long brown hair, pulled back into a braid, and mocha skin. She wore a black tank top and white shorts. What?! She has black converse! Where the hell did she find black converse?!

Alas, my focus on stylish footwear was distracted when a much deader looking person seem to be running up behind her. Corrupted.

It's getting close. Aim. Take the shot! I squeeze of symbolic trigger and thin beam of light shines through the creature as the crash of the sonic boom struggles the keep up. The corrupted dissolves before it hits the ground. I must look really cool...

After waiting for hours in the same spot, she finally makes it to the top and it dawns on me... I should have walked her up here. 2 decades does a number of the manners too, doesn't it.

She looks at me silently and she approaches.

"Coconut?" I offer her

"What" she replies

"Coconut" i repeat, "you know, the vegetable or something. Those brown hair things in the trees. You can have one"

"What do i do with that?" she asks

"Well, for starters you can eat it" i take the opportunity to be a smart ass, " after you're done, you can make a sporting hat or go bowling. In some cultures, the coconut is worshipped as the deity of sarcasm. Of course you only worship it sarcastically. very confusing religion, i wouldn't bother."

"Do you just bite it" she seems to ignore most of what i said.

"Here, i will crack it open for you. You can drink the milk inside, and you can eat the meat around the walls" I say as I cut open the nut.

She frantically eats most of what i gave her. She seemed to be quite hungry or in a hurry. Or both.

A silence fell between us as we walked up to my cavern. Night fell before we reached the summit and as we entered my cave, she hesitated.

"It's safe, home girl" i assured her.

"Nelly" she says

"What?" I inquire.

She looks at me, "Call me Nelly."

Chapter 2

Yes i know! I haven't said why this girl is important. Calm down, it's called build up. It wouldn't be much of a story if i just skipped to the end. Besides, its more of when happened in between that made such a big deal about Miss Nelly.

Where was I?

Oh yes, i was on the other side of the fourth wall.

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Nelly's voice echoed up behind me in the early morning. I clear my throat.

"For your information, I'm recording my finding to better aid my research!"

"You are probably crazy, but I don't remember the last time someone bothered to save my life so i guess I owe you," she proclaims "which begs the question, what do I owe you?"

-stop that! It's not what you think!

"No ma'am, you owe me nothing." i replied honestly "I savesaved you for just the sole fact that if i hadn't, i would never be able test my research with another conscious being." i continued... Less honestly.

You know why i saved her. 2 decades. But she doesn't need to know how human I really am yet. In fact, it's time I learn more about her than divulge about myself.

"Where are you coming from?" i asked

"No where." she says.

-Oh you're going to play it like that huh?

Me: where you headed?

Nelly: somewhere

Me: To do what?

Nelly: Something important

Me: How important

Nelly: Enough for me to walk there

Me: fair enough... Are you human?

Nelly: Aren't you?

Me: You know I'm not

Nelly: Do i?

Me: Are you meeting someone?

Nelly: Apparently, I already met someone

Me: Do you know what happened here?

Nelly: Don't you?

Me: I think I hate you

Nelly: You aren't the first person to say that. Shall we get started?

Me: Started on what?

Nelly: The research testing you mentioned before...

Foiled!

" I saw you had trinitite and some rock samples. Have you had a chance to examine them?" she says.

"Only a glance but nothing extensive," i tell her.

"Well I could be a second eye. What are you looking for?" she asks.

My so-called "cave" is more like a office than a cave. It's not exactly the secret lair i use to suit up into my alter ego to fight crime in the night. No, it's more like a room. I have several lights from lanterns and luminescent stones littered throughout the area. I have 3 large table with way more chairs than i need. The tables have scattered papers and loose graphite wedges sprawled around various rocks from the crater debris. I also have 6 or so trunks, I lost count. All are full of dumb old rocks labeled with a letter and number. Each trunk is assigned a letter but I haven't a clue what letter i'm up to. I tossed out the system on the first year. If a rock yields no significant result, its tossed down the other side of the mountain. I also have 1 book shelf with 3 books on it. One being "The Unabridged history of Beach City" because I like to remember what humans used to talk like. One was my ledger to keep track of my stored rocks. And the last book was simply titled "The Universe." Enough boring useless, uninteresting and completely unrelated information, back to rocks!

I grab the radioactive glass from atop one of my tables. I had set it there last night next to my half-eaten coconut. Hmm i don't remember if the coconut was bluish on the inside... Oh well it is now. "I want to what exactly caused the crater down there" i started.

" Well we know what caused the crater, that's no mystery" Nelly interjects.

"No, well yes, well... Here. See the light discolorations in the glass surface? This was the only piece that. Cracked this small. It's no bigger than a foot long and 6 inches across. I think stepped here when she caught it" I finished.

"Well than would explain the shape and size but wouldn't she have sunk into the glass while it was still hot?" she responded

I stared at her with enthusiasm

"Not if pressure rose much faster than temperature. But it would have to be an ungodly amount of increasing pressure."

Okay enough play, it's time for a history lesson. Shortly after the Crystal Gems fought off Homeworld for the god-knows-how-many-th time, they decided Earth just wasn't worth it. So they sent their worst, not to fight, but to live. Prisoners, war criminals, insane, and who knows what else was rained down onto Earth but the millions. Beasts and demons in gem form now called Earth home. Bad right? Well i guess it wasn't bad enough because Homeworld still wanted to make sure we got the message. They constantly send orbital strikes down to the surface killing dozens and even hundreds with each strike. Finally, they raise one last middle finger to us and launched an experimental orbital strike down on Earth. Now this isn't your grandma's orbital strike. It was a total world destruction, extinction level, holy-jesus-big orbital strike. A giant burning mass that glowed as bright as nothing you've seen before. Just when we all put bags on our heads and confessed to every deity we have ever heard of (this is why i call it the Rapture), something happened. One of the most powerful protectors of Earth stepped to the plate and laid down their life for ours. The ball of catastrophic death seemed to be pushed back into the sky. Just as terrifying as it came, it left! Everything was fine!... But it wasn't. Some of the finest humans I knew no longer stood next to me. In their stead were piles of ash. The same thing happened to every human on earth. Just what homeworld wanted...

What they didn't want was to play a game of death ball tennis between us and their home planet. Unfortunately for them, it was our serve and they received. They received harder than a drunk night at a gay bar. Homeworld is now an asteroid belt. I know you may wonder how one of the Crystal gems nailed a shot from over millions of light years away. Well I'm sorry but it's a long story that isn't relevant right now. I will give you a hint. It uses the same technology that the old warp pads used.

Anyway, lets go over what is important:

-Lot of bad gems

- I have no friends

-Your entire race was eliminated... Or were they?

I think it is entirely possible that some humans that remained in a tight enough seal, like a bunker, could have survived. Thats theory one. Theory two is a little bit crazier and defeats the purpose of asking people if they are human... Ready? It may be possible that the physical bodies of the exposed humans were completely annihilated but they developed a spectral essence and retained life in dormant gems. We don't know the nature of the weapon used against Earth from all those years ago (120-something years.) The one group of people that did know ended up being on the wrong end of it and also got completely annihilated. The reason this second theory exists is that there was no such thing as Corrupted gems before the Rapture occurred. They are a product of some sort of gem manipulation that was not completed. Corrupted gems are faded in color from regular gems. They also don't contain just one color, most of 3 or more colors and they sure aren't pretty. The point is, if the weapon was intended to affect the gem composition then made, just maybe, we can see exactly how it reacted in contact with humans and other animal life. Which brings us back to the glass...

"If the discoloration stays on the surface on all the trinitite then I can use the lab instruments to learn so much more about the variation in energy across the contacted surface and possible identify its composition!" i exclaimed.

"I know. It took you how long to figure that out? I have even been here a day!" she said rudely

"Thats rude" i said masculinely.

"Stop being a girl" Nelly said without any empirical evidence.