We land on earth with a thud. My axe comes together again and I put it back in my gem. A lush forest surrounds us, with a couple of stone rocks covered in moss, and trees a few times taller than us. I hear an unfamiliar bird call in the distance, but my new friend brings me back to reality.

"I've never actually been able to pull a weapon from my gem," she says while looking at the dirt.

"It's ok, I had to force myself to summon mine back in my labor days, it was the only way to survive in the Kindergarten."

"You were created in a Kindergarten?"

"Well of coarse! Beryl's aren't exactly the fancy type of gem you just want to happen; they breed them for work because they need them but don't want them."

We were pretty deep into the forest by now, and this world seemed alive, like everything this world had was living and helping it thrive; nothing I've ever seen in the cloud arena. Everything in there was stone and crystal. We found a spot where we could survive for the night, an open space next to a lake, surrounded by trees. There was a hill that dipped to where the lake was. Pretty soon we were sitting on the hill watching these fascinating bugs that lit up when they flew.

"I just realized in all of our conversations I never told you my name,"

"Ok, what is it?"

"It is Diamond Facet-33C25P, Grade IF," I say like I was taught to.

"Grade IF is an internally flawless grade! Why do people abuse you so much?"

"I don't want people to treat me based on my Grade, I want them to treat me by my personality, and they don't like me because I'm different. I never told them my Grade; so they treat me like nothing."

"I don't think I'll be able to call you whatever you just said. How about Hope?"

"That isn't a gem name though, hope is a feeling,"

"Okay, then Hope Diamond,"

"That sounds good," I say and lay my head against Beryllium's shoulder.

I wake up to the sound of metal against rock in the distance. Huh? I think and I get out of our makeshift tent. Hope Diamond hasn't woken up yet, so I decide to walk on my own. I walk towards the sound and after a couple of minutes of walking I start to hear drilling. This is really weird, I think, it's almost like the sounds I heard at the...Kindergarten, I realize and start to run towards the place. I hide behind a rock and look at my surroundings. It looked exactly like the Kindergarten I grew up in, but in a completely new location. If anything catches me here, I'll become a slave again or get shattered. I new what I had to do to stay safe, I just hoped she would understand why.

I wake up and immediately notice that I'm in the makeshift tent. Must've fallen asleep on Beryllium, I think and walk outside. I don't see her anywhere so I realize that she must've gone out or something. I sit next to the lake and get lost in thought about everything; how I just threw away everything I knew all because of one gem. She must've been really special, I think; then I get all flustered and remember when we accidentally fused. I didn't know that was actually possible, but here I am. Suddenly I hear it. I faint tapping on the rock in the distance. What the-? I think and I start walking. I hear the hammering on rock get louder, and my curiosity grows. Soon I'm running to the spot when I trip over something. I catch myself with my hands and get up. I look back at the thing I tripped over. It's a gem, I realize with anxiety. Please, please, please. Not her. I think as I walk over to it. I pick up the gem and brush off the dirt, it's Beryl's gem.

I spend the next few days trying to find ways to pass time. I have not gone to find out where the hammering started because if it could destroy Beryllium's physical form, then it must be really dangerous. I skip rocks across the sea, but since I've never done this skipping rocks thing before all the rocks fall to the bottom of the lake. I also spend a few hours trying to summon my weapon, but no such luck. I finally resort to basket weaving with grass to pass time. Beryl has always done the hunting since she could pull out her axe, so I've gone scavenging for fruit and berries. In our training classes oddly enough we had a class telling us what kind of stuff not to eat and what stuff to eat when you ever have to scavenge. I'm now really glad they taught us that lesson or I would've become sadder, because I like eating. I walk outside and grab more grasses for the basket I'm currently making.

I wake up after my regeneration. This feels so weird, I've never swapped genders before. I look around and realize that Hope Diamond hasn't left the tent we created. I look around and see stacks of rocks, tally marks on the floor, and about five woven baskets.

"How long was I gone?" I wonder aloud to myself. I hear footsteps over all the hammering in the distance and as I look up from one basket I was holding I see Hope Diamond in the doorway holding a basket of berries. She drops the basket and walks towards me with a shocked face.

"Beryl?" She asks confused

"Yeah," I say. She hugs me with her face buried in my arms. How long was I gone? When she finally lets go her face is stained with tears but a big smile is on her face and her broken eyes are sparkling.

"You look different,"

"Well I'm a guy now," he says,

"Do you like it?"

"How could I not?" I look at the new Beryl and smile.

"And you owe me a dance."

"What? I can't dance!"

I just laugh and drag him to the middle of the clearing. I put one of my pale blue hands in his hand and place his other hand on my waist. Then I put my other hand on his shoulder. After I showed him the steps he was a pro at the dancing. Time that was chained heavily to me flew away. I didn't have to worry about the past or the future, all that was important is the wonderful time I am having right now. I've never felt this way before ever, I've only felt darkness and despair; and this is happiness? Love? Words have no meaning right now!

I don't know why when I was regenerating I was afraid that Hope Diamond wouldn't like me. She seems so happy as we are twirling around the floor and laughing. Suddenly I hear the slightest hammering on the rocks and my hearing goes back to normal. The hammers are louder than ever before, we are not safe. Diamond is still laughing with her eyes closed, like she is still by the lake next to the tent we created. I find the rock I hid behind and I drag her down and put my finger to my lips. She looks confused, then scared with realization, then determination not to be scared.

"We need to go," I whisper.

"But.. What are they doing?"

"I don't know but it's bad, I can tell."

"I'm really sorry, but I need to know,"

"No!" I say but I fail to grab Hope Diamond's arm as she goes into the Kindergarten.

I jump from rock to rock just like in a training simulation. But this time, if I fail I can't hit the reset button. I look over and see drills with giant glowing red gems attached to the mechanical structures drilling holes and placing chemicals into the hole before covering it up again. The ground is covered with this chemical. I lift one hand that was on the rock ledge and see sparks of the shining colors that were the chemicals scattered across my hand. As I study it, I realize its chemicals to form gems at will. But what created the hammering noise, I think and continue to search the rocks. On another ledge I see other machines that looked a lot like the ones that drilled holes, but these had giant glowing blue gems on top of the machine and instead of a drilling mechanism there was a hammer. These were beating the rock on places where the drills couldn't drill through. I hear a small rock hit the ledge and I look over at who -or what- is behind me.

I scale the rocks making sure that no one sees me. I have to find Diamond, I think as I climb onto a rock ledge. She doesn't know I was created in a mess like this because she has never seen a Kindergarten and that what we are doing is going to make her think I should have never happened. As I get to a higher ledge I see her, looking intrigued at the machines. I put my foot in one of the openings I see and a small rock falls to the ledge. Hope Diamond tenses up and turns around.

"Oh, it just you," I say and smile.

"What is this place?"

"Nothing, but it's unsafe so let's go,"

"No, I won't I want to know what this is! They destroyed your physical form and I need to get them back!"

As we're arguing I walk towards her and in turn Diamond is going backwards to the edge of the rock. She is dangerously close to falling so I stop moving.

"Please can we just leave and find a new spot to be together without danger?" I say.

Diamond seems to ponder this. Suddenly she slips and falls but catches herself with one hand. She starts breathing heavily from the shock. Diamond has the frightening face of an idea.

An idea just occurred to me. I'm pretty stable so I can probably let go of the ledge and land on the ground. From there I can destroy the metal that hurt Beryl.

"Diamond...I think I know what you're thinking; don't do it!"

I don't reply as I mentally prepare myself for the jump. Or is it a fall? I loosen my grip and let go ready to land and the chemical filled ground.

Diamond lets go. I panic from the shock that she has actually willingly let go to fall to the ground and I quickly grab her arm. In those couple of seconds I realize that I really care about Hope Diamond.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving you from a painful death."

"Those machines hurt you! I can't live knowing that I didn't-"

"They didn't destroy my physical form!" I shout.

I go silent in confusion. Those machines are the only things that could've destroyed his form. There are no corrupted gems in this part of the forest either. As I hang I let Beryl bring me up onto the rock.

"The truth is...I destroyed my form once I figured out that there was a Kindergarten in the forest."

"That's a Kindergarten?"

"Yes. I didn't want you to not like me because of where I came from; also, if they found out about me still being alive, I could either be turned into a slave or be killed by White Diamond. So I never told you why I regenerated into a guy."

"Beryllium I love you no matter what form. Wait did I just say that? Well, no taking backs now. You know how I feel about you so I hope I didn't completely embarrass myself."

"No no you didn't it's cool. I was actually starting to feel that way too." Diamond's cheeks flushed and we walked back to our tent to go somewhere new on this planet we escaped to.