Chapter Text
/12 years ago/
Grian shook Gem’s shoulder to get her attention from staring at the ruins of the town she had known and raised her whole life. “Gem, we’ve gotta go. Now. I know you want to say goodbye to Wemmbu and Egg but there's no time. I’m sorry Gem, but we’ve gotta go.”
Gem nodded silently although she really wanted to say goodbye to them. Stalignite exploded behind her as she weaved through the rubble with Grian shielding her to the best of his ability. The Watchers must’ve been really angry. She didn’t know why they were angry, it was just the fact that they were.
A glimpse of purple and white (and a bit of dark blue, which was Egg’s hair.) alerted Gem it was Wemmbu and Egg. She gave them a small wave, which they returned. Everyone was evacuating away from the Watcher’s wrath it seemed.
Gem almost jumped when she felt Grian push her. He pushed her onto the ledge of the portal to allow her to get out of the wrath of the deities that surrounded her home.
She gave her home - Stalignite - one last look, one last look at everyone evacuating and one last look at her two best friends since Pearl left. She jumped in.
~
“Amethyst Rank, this is the two new additions to your rank as the other two defected.” Rainfall smiled, and gestured to the new additions. It was Pyro and Abolish, the two very close. “They have ranked up from Ruby Rank, and Owen and Legundo will take their place. Shandrea and Cam will take Owen and Legundo’s place in the Sapphire Rank.”
The original Amethyst Rank nodded and welcomed the two with open arms. It gave Gem a sense of family again. It was nice, although feeling a sense of family in this economy was dangerous. It would only lead to more heartbreak.
That was the way of life. People betrayed, homes get destroyed. Gem had no idea where Egg and Wemmbu went, Scott and Joel defected and that was also what happened with Pearl. At least Gem knew where Scott and Joel were.
“Welcome Abolish and Pyro.” Gem smiled politely at the two. She knew the smile felt fake right now, but Gem knew she would grow to see Abolish and Pyro the same way she’d grown to see Scott. Gem had smiled the same way at Scott, before it slowly started to become genuine.
“Hey guys, later today at around 11, I’m having a meetup with Scar, we’re going to bring our friends. You guys coming?” Grian said.
“I’m down.” Gem answered immediately. Tango and Skizz also replied with a yes.
“Abolish? Pyro? Are you coming?” Skizz asked, his dad-codedness in full blow.
Abolish shook his head. “Sorry guys, as much as I’d love to, and I’m sure Pyro would as well, we already have an appointment to hang out with Ruby and Sapphire Rank.”
“Speaking of which, we’ve gotta go meet up with them. Bye, have fun!” Pyro said.
~
Really, Gem didn’t know how Skizz managed to forget his communicator. That was possibly the most important part of their gear. They were the first ones here, and immediately Skizz had to go back to HQ. Sighing, she turned to Grian.
“Grian, I’m going to go to the bathroom. Might also get some snacks for us.”
“Alright,” he replied. “Stay safe, Gem.”
Nodding, Gem stood up from the bench and her eyes quickly located the bathroom. Walking there quickly, Gem took deep breaths. A panic attack was coming, even though nothing should have triggered her.
Quickly, she splashed some water on her face, enjoying the cold sensation that washed over her. Deep breath, Gem. Deep breaths. Gem shouldn’t be feeling like this! She was the #2 hero, Dawn. Dawn shouldn’t have these kinds of problems.
Quietly, she slipped out of the bathroom, locating a nearby store. Perfect. Gem bought some snacks and a coffee for Grian. Watchers knew he needed it.
“Hey Grian. I got you some coffee.” Gem said, appearing behind her brother.
“Oh. Thanks. But please, don’t scare me like that.”
“No promises! Anyways, I’m going to explore the park a bit more. Bye Grian, see you later.”
“Bye!” He said, before Gem flew off. Being an avian at times like these was sure useful. Although she was a butterfly hybrid, wings were still wings, so Gem was classified an avian.
After wandering around for a few minutes, Gem saw that the first of Grian’s friends had arrived. Sprinting over, she said hi to her brother and looked at the newcomer. He looked strangely familiar…
“We met at Joel’s cafe, didn’t we? You were Lizzie’s friend who she ordered a Blood Bath for.” Gem said, her eyes narrowing. It really was a coincidence, wasn’t it?
“Why yes, that is me!” a carefree smile came to his face. Gem was spot on the observation, it seemed. “Lizzie’s also coming today,” he added. “Practically our whole friend group.” Scar paused, thinking, before nodding in confirmation. “Yeah, they're all coming.”
While Scar and her brother talked, Gem couldn’t help but reminisce about the old days. It had been so long since a regular hangout with regular people, people who didn’t know their hero identities. Being a hero was exhausting at times, most of the time, but Gem would put up with it if it meant saving lives.
Probably the most tiring part of being a hero is the fact you can’t get a day of peace. No, scratch that, the most exhausting part of being a hero, especially if you were one as high ranked as the Amethyst Rank, is the constant pressure one is under. At times, it made Gem slightly envious of the villains and vigilantes, able to fight battles, help the innocent with little to no pressure.
While for the heroes, the pressure was bad, but at least it was manageable. Gem couldn’t even fathom how much pressure one of her friends, Squiddo, was under. Squiddo was one of those who were born with two abilities. Exploits, and a power known as inkweaving. The ability to make things appear by drawing them and touching them with the will to bring them to this universe. She had two very dangerous powers, two that would immediately put her in one of the ranks once she had a chance, instead of leveling from the start.
Squiddo was also the daughter of Starstriker, the most notorious of the Big Three. Rainfall was in charge of the heroes and dispatching and promoting/demoting them, Supernova was in charge of all aspects of magic, as well as standard forces like the police, firefighters, and most hospitals. Starstriker was in charge of everything else, the hybrids, villains and any other matters that happened.
Gem’s thinking time was interrupted when the first bunch of people arrived. Then more and more. Eventually, everyone had arrived and the group made the collective agreement to move their hangout to Joel’s bakery.
Gem was frankly, shocked. By some coincidence, like everything in the universe aligned. Or the Watchers had mercy and allowed the two to meet again. Either way, Gem was glad to see one of the people she lost.
Gem had ordered something new at the bakery cafe. Instead of her usual Forest Green, Gem had tried the Ocean Lily drink. It actually tasted pretty good, which Gem was surprised, due to the blend of ingredients in the drink. She had not expected blueberry, apple and mango and a hint of honey and coconut to go well together, but it did.
Mentally, Gem added the Ocean Lily to the drinks she enjoyed list for next time. The list was growing longer. It seemed that Gem’s hatred of changes had slowly- but surely started to disappear. Sure, Gem still despised massive changes like the one that happened that night her brain supplied unhelpfully.
The blissful calm of the cafe shattered when everyone’s communicators buzzed. Everyone, villains Lion, Fatality, Gambit, Omniescient, and Glitch with the Invisible Mafia has been spotted at District 13. All heroes, be there immediately. The longer it takes, the more risk there is to innocents.
Gem shared a glance with the rest of the heroes. It seemed that everyone glanced at their comms, and all saw the same message. “Guys, District 13 is pretty close to Oakhurst, I think it’s safest to head back to our respective homes? Sorry guys, but maybe next week?”
“I think that can work,” Lizzie said. “Alright then. See you all next week, same time?”
Everyone agreed and quickly, the heroes started moving back to HQ and hopefully everyone else would be moving to their respective homes.
~
Since there were so many of the villains spotted, less familiar ones at that, Rainfall had also deployed Ruby Rank and Sapphire Rank, as well as some of the highest ‘unranked’ to help fight. If needed be, the remaining unranked would also join in the fight. The Unranked would be guarding Oakhurst - well, mainly HQ. Gem knew that so many lives were going to be lost in this battle. Gem just prayed to the Watchers that it wouldn't be her family. Not again.
Amethyst Rank was back to four people. Rainfall had been indecisive and allowed Pyro and Abolish to go back to Ruby Rank if they wished. When the two accepted, saying that they much preferred to be with people they were more familiar with. Rainfall had told Amethyst Rank that they would remain a rank consisting of four people. Secretly, Gem was actually thankful, but she couldn’t exactly say that out loud. Could she.
“Everyone ready?” Tango asked. When all those fighting nodded, with a few ‘yeses’ Tango opened the portal and everyone jumped in. When she appeared at the other side, Gem saw the same sight she saw when they were fending off the raiders. The villains were helping them fight. Clearly, everyone other than Amethyst Rank was considering an attack, but Grian told them no.
“As much as it would be useful to catch them, right now our main priority is the lesser known villains and the Invis Mafia. Currently, they are helping fend them off. They are not an active threat.”
A majority of the heroes understood, but a few still grumbled in annoyance. But now, the fight was underway.
Gem’s elf ears heard something particularly… interesting. One of the villains, Lunar, seemed to be fighting one of the other villains, Gambit. Nevermind, it was more talking than fighting. Good.
“Why are you on our territory, We-” Whatever name Lunar was going to say was cut off by a loud explosion. Not an explosion, exactly. It was the Invisible Mafia coming in, the netherite armour clinking was what Gem mistaken as an explosion. Don’t get her wrong, it could have very well been Gambit’s Orbital Strike Cannons.
“This isn’t your territory, Lunar.” Gambit replied. “Oakhurst is. The place where the Milita controls is.”
Lunar sighed, closed her eyes, then opening them before looking at Gambit again. “You haven’t changed one bit since I left Stalignite. But to answer your question, recently the Organisation - it’s no longer called the Milita - claimed almost every single town under its protection. Speaking of towns, how is Stalignite?”
Gem almost plummeted mid-flight. Gambit and Lunar knew Stalignite??? Nobody even remembered Stalignite. That town disappeared under the wrath years ago.
“Could’ve seen better days. It’s all blown up now. By the Watchers. They got angry at someone and proceeded to decimate the place. We all had to flee, but only a few managed to. Probably also the person or people who angered the Watchers got away, or else by now Xenao would've told everyone that they had caught whoever made them angry and summoned us all back. Which means those who stayed probably died.”
“Also,” Gambit added. “Since the ‘Organisation’ as you call it claimed almost every single town to be under its protection, then maybe we should re-negotiate who’s territory is who’s and where we can each respectively terrorise.”
“Deal.” Lunar said “See you next time, Gambit.”
With that, Gambit flew away. Gem was in shock. Lunar and Gambit knew about Stalignite, and Gambit even was one of the few hundreds who managed to flee. The way he spoke and his posture, the way Gambit carried himself was so familiar to Gem. It was so similar to one of her childhood best friends.
Gem was in charge of getting the civilians to safety. So far, she was doing alright, but with the current revelation, Gem was finding it hard to concentrate. Focus, Gem. All these lives are counting on you.
Quickly, Gem alerted Shelby to help her get a family out of a quickly collapsing building.
“Wolf! Help me get these people out, I’m going to help fight.”
“On it!” Shelby chirped, before moving towards the location where Gem was. Once Gem made sure Shelby was there and helping the people, she flew towards Grian.
“Xel? Need any help?” She asked.
“No,” he replied. “Help Inferno. He is capable, but you know him. He’s reluctant to kill or injure. Try to just use nature and vines or something like that to slow them down.”
Gem nodded, making her way to one of her dads. “Inferno? Xel told me to help you.”
“Yes,” Tango muttered, “that would be incredibly helpful right now.”
Gem smiled and grew some vines to wrap around most of the non-trims and a few copper and iron trims. Interesting. There were no diamond, or even gold trims for that matter. Of course, they were probably fighting some of the other heroes, but, it shouldn’t be only the irons, coppers and un-trimmed to fight the number three hero. That was plain dangerous.
“Well… what do we have here?” A voice behind Gem said, startling her. Then it hit. It belonged to Scythe, a villain the Organisation hasn’t seen after he got heavily injured a few months back.
“Scythe,” Gem muttered dryly. She truly wasn’t in the mood for this right now. “What do you want?”
Scythe smiled, the mask ceasing and his voice making it clear. “Nothing. My job here is done.”
That was when Gem knew something was wrong. Scythe wasn’t actually initiating a fight. Oh no. He was just the distraction for another villain. Before Gem could fully dodge the mace, it hit her on the shoulder. Hard.
Breathing heavily, Gem tried to remain standing, but the world was spinning and before she knew it, Gem collapsed onto the ground. Black spots started clouding her vision as she desperately tried to stand up. The last thing she heard before darkness took her were two familiar voices.
“GEM!” Grian shouted, not caring about Gem’s identity over her life.
“I’m sorry what?!” The voice above her said, clearly horrified. Then it dropped to a quiet whisper, which Gem almost didn’t catch. “Did I just mace one of my oldest friends?”
The pain fully settled in, silencing the world around Gem.