Billions of Moons Later

I'm not sure what came before, but now I could see. The darkness was filled with light, red and resplendent. Dull at first, I began to feel. It was so incredibly hot, it didn't burn, but it pressed into me so heavily I couldn't stand it. I had to escape. The glow began to fade somewhat, and for the first time I could discern something outside, another light, soft and growing as it pierced this place. I struggled toward it, slowly learning the unknown shape of my body as I moved it for the first time, forcing whatever I had through the thick seaping space.

The heat rapidly began to cool, and all of a sudden I longed for the comfort that left with it. But the material thinned, and broke away easily wherever my strength directed itself. Even quicker now it shot away, and the white light filled my vision as I felt my unfamiliar shape lunge out into it, and fall onto some giant object. The space around me was so thin now, I found no resistance as I moved my limbs through it, and so couldn't orient myself away from this thing. It felt like an eternity I was in the warm restrictive, but snug space, and only a short moment had passed since I lay against this grainy surface. Thats when I opened my eyes, discovering I could shut them, and saw as the soft light faded to reveal a wondrous view of twinkling lights in endless black. There were other things too, and as my mind oriented it I saw they were high shadowy walls blocking it. I suddenly could hear now, I listened to these dull sounds with intent to learn, but as they too became sharp I found I could already understand them. "Wow! What kind of gem are they!?"

I began working on seperating myself from the surface, still looking into what I was beginning to understand as up. I had about four limbs, and a head that saw from. It couldn't lift me, but my arms had these flat things with alot more on them that could press into the ground. Something came into my dizzy view, something black and grey, and as it moved I learned the sound came from it. "There must have been a redstone deposit under the injector site, they're an exotic!"

It was a head like mine, another person! I wanted to find out more, I had to get up. Still time passed faster and faster, less than a second I spent laying like that before my arms and legs began responding with incredible precision. I began to stand, the other person touched me, and helped me. It was awkward at first, but it wasn't long until I was supported by my feet.

Blinking, I focussed my eyes and looked before me, and realized there were so many people. The first, they grey one, with black spiky hair and something on their forehead smiled and backed up towards the group. One of them spoke, "Welcome to Minecraftia, Redstone,"

I held my eyes on them, their skin was a glistening blue, and standing almost twice the height of the rest. There was another, shorter than everyone, who was red with big square hair tied behind their head. The last one, standing taller than the rest of us but not the blue one, was a much deeper blue and was leaning on something long and slender with a curved thing on the end. I looked at them in awe. I figured I could speak, so I said, "Who- Who am I?"

I looked down at my body, almost losing my orientation, but seeing that I had rough grey skin, and a big piece of clothing draped over my shoulders covering my torso. "You're Redstone!" The black one said, and I looked up at them, "One of us, the newest Crafting Gem!"

They grabbed my face, and examined it closely in seaming fascination. I too could see them closer, they had a stubby nose, and deep grey eyes still wide as they smiled. I didn't understand why my face warranted such fascination, didn't it just look like theirs? "Whats that? Who are you people?"

I looked around, and turned to see the stone wall behind me. Directly behind me there was a hole in it, shaped vaguely like a person with its walls smooth and gleaming, smoldering with heat. "The Crafting Gems, we protect this planet! Im Coal. Big one here is our leader, Diamond,"

I looked up at diamond, they smiled at me. Their face was stoic but welcoming, as well as completely androgenous. They had plump lips, a sharp nose, and fierce eyes with square pupils. "Im glad to meet you, Redstone, I cant wait to see what you bring to the team," They said.

Their hair was pure crystal, and reflected the little light from above off it's shear flat surface. They wore a tight white tank top, its edges sporting thick lines than met in the center of the neckline as a green square, just under it a spectacular shining gemstone lay in their chest. and their baggy pants had many pockets. Their huge shoes almost entirely nondescript most of theirs, but with distinct traction on the undersides.

Coal gestured to the blue one, "This is Lapis, he's an edge lord but pretty nice under the surface,"

His hair was chin length and straight, brushed out of his face and deeper blue than his skin so that it was almost black. He wore a jean jacket which was worn with a green patch, in stark contrast with the tight uniform clothes they each had in some capacity. His feet were bare, his wetsuit cutting off above the knee. Caught off guard by Coal's assessment he stumbled, the thing slipping from under his weight before he caught himself and it vanished in sparkling light. "Hey! Thats the first thing you say about me!?"

Without Hesitation Coal continued onto the remaining person, "Ruby. She's a sweetheart, and was the newest recruit before you."

Ruby smiled, waving an arm with nervous excitement and blushing a bit at Coal's compliment. Like Diamond she wore a uniform, one bare of any decoration save for the green square on the collar, and the brim flowing into a short skirt. Her hair however was short and unnaturally cubic, tied back into a huge rectangular ponytail. Finally, in her left shoulder was another gemstone, one brilliantly red but not so glistening. "Hello Redstone! Im very happy to meet you!" she politely greeted me.

Coal himself wore a thick black apron that left his back bare, and simple light grey pants and black shoes. On their forehead they wore a pair of goggles, with tinted lenses. On their thick belt many different tools hung, and a pouch stuffed with something glowing red. I could almost feel it, whatever was in there.

"Uh, hi!" I said, mimicking their smiles, "Planet? Whats up there?"

Coal took a sharp breath, ready to explain each of my questions before Diamond laughed and put a hand on them. "Why don't we just show them, hm? Lets get out of this dark place,"

With that she took a step back, and effortlessly jumped high into the air, and out over the walls, which I could now see sported many, many more holes just like mine. This revelation weighed on me, but I could not ask about it before Ruby bent her knees, and soared after the leader. Swiftly so too did Lapis fly away, sprouting wings of water from their back and climbing into the dark sky. I looked at Coal, who with only a moments hesitation looked over at me and jumped away. They landed on one of the many strange things that stuck off the walls, and shouted back at me. "Come on, follow us!"

Finding my body much more familiar, my every movement was precise and easy. I readied myself, and once again pushed away from the ground and forced myself into the speckled sky. Over the walls I saw green, more strange things that rippled in moving air spread out flat as far as I could see. Also hidden beyond the walls was a huge glowing square in the sky, hovering above the world and raining its light upon it. I hung in the cold air, looking at more than I could ever see. I wanted to see it all, but I knew I had to come down eventually. "Carefull!" Diamond shouted, "Dont go too high, you dont want to leave the atmosphere. Its not even two hundred blocks high!"

I below me, where we had come from was a vast crack on the ground, cutting into the green flowing land far into the distance where it crossed with another, and everywhere those things clung to the walls still. There was barely any space that I could see that didn't have holes like mine.

My companions landed on their feet together, where the land was still green but clear of the swaying things. I hit the ground nearby, landing almost upside down and bouncing hard onto my back. I quickly got up, and they came to me. I looked up at them, and from this angle I could see a deep blue gem in the back of Lapis' head, and on Coal a solid black one on his palm as he reached out to steady me. Without looking, I knew I had one on my right shoulder, and had thoughtlessly made sure not to not land on it.

I stared around me at the world, the swaying green were leaves on branches that stuck tall out of the ground. Beneath my feet were small strands of green. I spoke first, "The other holes, are there more of us?"

Coal began an eager explanation, but Diamond took over as I couldn't really follow it. "Yes. Many more than what you saw. They came to this world to destroy it, but we didnt want that, so we protected it from them and drove them away. Its been a very long time, and they haven't come back since, but we are still ready to defend this planet from anything that may threaten it,"

"I see why. Its- Its beautiful," I said, both of us staring out over the crevice.

I think they were looking at the endless green, but I was looking at the sky. The moon was was rising higher over the horizon. "Come on, lets show him the base!" Coal said, racing into the green.

Ruby followed him, and Lapis soared in another direction. I was about to follow too, but a noise came from somewhere in the dark shade of the green behind me. I looked back, but Diamond put a hand on my back and brought me along.

We actually came too the center of the two cracks, down where a huge white gemstone lay surrounded by loose parts of the things on the walls. Lapis wasn't there however, but Coal explained that he was 'sort of a lone wolf'. The others stepped onto the gem, its entire surface was intricately carved with a complex pattern of circles and symbols. Joining them, Coal grabbed my hand, I could feel the rough stone in his palm press into mine with its circular facet, similar to Ruby's with a square. "Hold on, just stand still,"

"Ok for wha- Woah!" I was interrupted as the ground suddenly shot away, and we were surrounded by cascading white energy.

We were not falling, even the air was as stagnant with each other as ourselves. This went on for a couple moments, before I caught my footing again in a new place. We were looking out across the green from a high hill, just at the base of which were strange glowing things with little plumes of grey air rising from them. Around us was bright grey stone. I was surprised to see it warped into two huge spires on either side of us not far from the new gemstone we not stood on. Behind us, I turned to see a stone wall, with some carving in it shaped a little bit like the holes, but rounder with a square in the center, with gemstones on each corner and in the center. "This is our home base," Coal said, walking me up to the door, the others remaining behind, "We each have our own space inside, and now you do too!"

The center gemstone had markings around it, like the big gemstone in the ground but much simpler and not carved but made from something applied to it. As I approached, the markings glowed and vanished as the gem changed from white to a bright red. The others I realized corresponded to the others, one bright blue, one darker blue, another a solid red, and the last completely black. "Oh uh, inside?" I asked.

Just as I spoke, the new red gem glowed brightly, and so did mine from my arm. The square's carvings seemed to move in the stone, folding in on itself and expanding as a red light to the edges of the whole carving, that too followed and revealed a hole. After a moment, I stepped in, Coal following a few steps behind me. Inside there was nothing. Actually nothing, no walls, just a white void and a bare stone floor. Seeing such ceaseless immaterial, it disturbed something deep within me, like I was sealed back in the cold stone I had emerged from. Hair raised on the back of my neck, and after nearly falling backwards I turned and sprinted, right into Coal. He caught me, firmly holding me in place. "Oh! Right, right, your not really desensitized to existential terror yet, sorry."

Looking behind him, the entrance was now a stone hole leading into some cavern. I gave a shocked yell, and stepped back once more. Quickly I came back up to Coal and grabbed his shoulders. "Coal what is this!"

He took my shoulders again focussing his eyes on mine. "Its fine. Just to prepare you, the system is already fixing it and acclimating to you what you want. When you turn around, it will be different again but much more natural. An icy feeling struck my gem, and in both dread and hope I slowly turned my head to look at the room. Thankfully, it was now a room, and actually one I think I liked. There were walls of light gray rock, completely decorated by green strands clinging to it. There were two wide pools of a glowing, bubbling liquid in the floor, which filled the room with light. The void began to feel like a memory, but one that wasn't real. Cautiously I walked to the center of the chamber, and looked up into a wide opening in the roof, where the black sky glimmered with its countless stars. With the infinite nothing now it the correct position, I sat down let my body relax.

Coal came up and sat next to me. "Sorry for the scare on your first day, I never really saw anything like Minecraftia when I was new,"

My gaze was fixed on the stars, which now hung still, not like they moved outside. "So, there are other places than Minecraftia, where you came from and the other gems went, there are other worlds?"

"Well ya," he said, leaning on me, his spiky hair felt nice on my skin, "Every single one of those stars is a world, just like Minecraftia and also completely different. A whole lot less squares in most cases though, this place is kinda an anomaly in that regard,"

"I want to see them,"

Coal did not respond. When I looked down at him, his face was unlike I had ever seen him, or anyone. Like something really bad had happened. I quickly backtracked, "I- Im sorry I don't-" "No, no, Im- Sorry. The invasion, the gems arrival, that all happened a long time ago. To make sure they cant come back, we cant leave."

"Oh," I said, sitting with him for a couple long moments, "Then whats it like?"

He shrugged, looking up with me with his head on my shoulder. "Not much, from what I saw. I only emerged soon before I was sent here. That planet was already, lets say, ruined, and after that I was just on the colony ship for a couple million years before we landed. We can go see that, if you want, it was abandon on a beach right where it set down,"

"Whats a beach?" I asked.