Chapter Text
Chrysoberyl drew her blades from her gem as she stepped out on the surface of the Rectificator’s home planet. Before them lay a massive green palace, consisting of what appeared to be a veritable forest of brilliant green spires, reaching upwards into a lilac sky. Two grand doors stood proudly at the palace’s front, filling her with a sense of trepidation.
She watched as Connie seemed to steel herself, before pushing open the doors to the Rectificator’s palace. Nodding to herself, she readied her blades, searching for any sign of a threat. As she expected, the inside of the palace seemed just as lavish and ornate as the structure’s exterior would suggest. With bated breath, she stood in front of Steven, protecting him as they made their way into what appeared to a particularly vast grand hall. Elegant statues and frescos lined the walls of the room. Elaborate columns lined a clear path to a door at the back of the hall, the columns themselves reaching upwards to support a vaulted ceiling.
“Greetings your Radiance, Pink Steven, Fortitude of the Four Courts and Exemplar of All Organic Life, Connie Maheswaran, High Clarity of the Pink Court, Garnet, the un-shattering guardian of the Pink Court, Chrysoberyl, and Amethyst.”, a smooth voice emanated from somewhere in the grand hall.
“Hey! I have accolades too, ya know!”, Amethyst shouted back in the direction of the voice.
“Now that everyone is here, we may prepare the arena.”, the voice continued, ignoring Amethyst’s protests.
At once, the ground beneath the five shook, both herself and her Fortitude moving closer to Steven, while Garnet and Amethyst each tried to maintain their balance. Before anyone could tell what was happening, the floor of the grand hall broke apart and began to fall, the columns of the hall separating from the vaulted ceiling. What once was a single, massive hall, became a series of large platforms, suspended by what appeared to be a network of robonoids, positioned at various altitudes.
The first thing she noticed as soon as she regained her balance was that the hall had been cast into darkness as a result of a series of shutters that lined the skylights embedded in the ceiling. The second thing she noticed was that Amethyst and Garnet were both missing.
“Well, this all went to schist…”, Chrysoberyl couldn’t help but grumble.
* * *
Shakily, Amethyst stood up and took stock of her new surroundings. The platform she found herself on seemed to be roughly a quarter of the size of the grand hall, around the size of a typical sparring arena. Just as Amethyst began to grow used to the darkness that enveloped the room, the platform she stood on was enveloped in a bright light. Colorful spotlights flitted across her platform, reminding Amethyst of the Homeworld ball she attended to herald in the Pink Court and Era Three. Not allowing herself to be distracted or dazed by the flashing lights, Amethyst’s attention focused on the one significant landmark her platform possessed, a pair of columns that jutted out from the floor of the slowly spinning platform.
“Well hello there Amethyst!”, a voice spoke up from behind the column, “Are you enjoying the ride?”.
“No I’m not!”, Amethyst shouted in the direction of the voice, before taking in the sight of an Aquamarine gem that appeared from behind one of the two downed pillars.
“This arena looks set for a ball, doesn’t it 8XM?”, the gem commented idly, floating above the spinning platform, “So what’d’ya say? Would you care to dance?”.
“You bet.”, Amethyst growled, before charging at the smaller gem, unfurling her whip and attempting to strike the Aquamarine.
Unperturbed by Amethyst’s attack, Aquamarine easily dodged Amethyst’s whip, countering with a blast from her wand. Desperately, Amethyst rolled out of the way of the incoming beam, and took shelter behind one of the downed columns that littered the spinning platform.
“You think that you can hide from me?”, the Aquamarine chided, “I was the best a the best you know? I could fly around battlefields and arenas alike an’ the whole planet would cheer my name! It’ll take a lot more than a few pillars to save your gem from me!”.
Punctuating her statement, Aquamarine ensnared the column that Amethyst was hiding behind with a beam from her wand, and effortlessly hurled it to the side. Now without cover, Amethyst used her spin dash to quickly roll out of the way of another attack, before tackling the smaller gem out of the air.
“The Rectificator’s told us all about you lot, you know?”, the Aquamarine continued, unperturbed by her position, “She told us you’re scared, you’re upset at the loss of your friends, and you want to get the one friend that is still alive back from her clutches. However, there’s no way a defective gem such as yourself could ever hope to prevail against her. You do know that, right?”.
“You gems think you’re all that, huh? Just because you fit a certain description, it gives you the right to look down on us, or claim that we don’t have the right to exist!? Well tell that to my fist!”, Amethyst shouted, throwing a punch at the pinned gem.
The Aquamarine simply smirked, before shrinking down even smaller, shapeshifting herself out of the hold and avoiding Amethyst’s punch.
“Augh!”, Amethyst cried out in pain, her fist slamming into the hard floor of the platform, “No fair!”.
“Oh dear Amethyst, who are you ta say what is and isn’t fair? Especially when your very existence is an unfair allocation of Diamond essence, deprivin’ the underdeveloped Peridots and Agates of Era 2?”, Aquamarine returned snidely.
“Okay, that’s it!”, Amethyst spat, leaping up and lashing her whip out at the other gem for another series of strikes.
“‘Course, you won’t even get to see the Rectificator at all.”, Aquamarine laughed, “Not you, and certainly not that Fortitude organic!”, the gem spat out the title as if it were a curse.
“Yeah, and what do you have against her?”, Amethyst grunted, dodging another attack.
“EVERYTHING!! That newbie Pebble took everything from me!”, she screamed, enraged, “I was the best of the best! All a’ Homeworld knew my name until she came along and defeated me that that blasted Gauntlet! But that’s okay…”, Aquamarine F73L, Cut 5TL was practically vibrating with glee, “You see, in exchange for my dutiful service, the Rectificator promised me a rematch with that organic. And by rematch, I mean that I’ll get to torture that worthless schist to my gem’s content, before shattering her with the very rapier that I used in our first battle! I’ll take everything from her! Just like she took EVERYTHING FROM ME!”, her laugh twisted into mania as she effortlessly dodged Amethyst’s attacks, and attacking with her own flurry of strikes.
Amethyst trembled from exhaustion as Aquamarine prepared another flurry of attacks, the sound of her manic laughter filling the hall.
* * *
Grunting, Garnet pushed herself to her feet, leaning against a column for support.
“This is bad…”, Garnet muttered to herself.
Truth be told, she couldn’t see anything that was about to happen. It was if the very timeline before her in this space was blank. According to her last meditation, none of this should have even happened. Pearl should have been safe, training a group of Helenite from HK-7 right now, not have been captured and taken hostage on some Diamonds-forsaken rock out in the middle of nowhere! As if to add insult to injury, not only could she not see into the future, but it would seem that the Rectificator has decided to make the lighting on her platform as dark as physically possible, judging by the veritable rave party that appeared to be taking place on the platform across the chasm. Garnet squinted, peering across the gap to see who ended up fighting on the platform, watching it spin and glow various colors, before noticing a small purple gem fly at an even smaller blue dot.
“Amethyst.”, Garnet sighed, before readying herself to float across the gap to help her teammate.
“G-garnet?”, a voice called faintly from somewhere in the center of her platform.
“Pearl!?”, Garnet called out, turning around and facing the forest of columns, “Pearl, is that you?”.
Swallowing thickly, Garnet entered the rows of columns, looking for her friend. A shuffling sound emanated from deeper in, Garnet herself becoming enveloped in the shadows of the columns. Pausing a moment, Garnet raised her left hand, a beam of red-tinted light shooting forth from her gem.
“Pearl, are you there?”, Garnet called again, her photo-kinesis casting shadows amidst the sea of columns.
“I’m sorry.”, the voice spoke up, a tall tan, white, and red gem coming into view, “But your Pearl isn’t here right now.”.
At that, the Bixbite smiled viciously, detaching what appeared to be a small, square device from her gem, and summoning two impossibly sharp-looking sickles, before cleaving one down at Garnet.
Quickly, Garnet rolled out of the blade’s path and threw a punch at the enemy’s head.
Not one to be out-sped, Bixbite nimbly ducked under the punch and swung out with her other sickle, catching Garnet’s heavy gauntlet as she punched forward. With a powerful thrust, Bixbite buried her blade into deep into the platform, pinning Garnet’s hand to the ground, before spinning around and cleaving her sickle at Garnet’s face.
Desperate, Garnet caught the blade with her other hand, stopping the sickle with her gauntlet.
Bixbite only laughed in response, “You know, for a High Clarity, you should really have the foresight to know that was a bad idea.”.
At once, the sickle in Garnet’s hand began to glow, a searing pain erupted in her form’s fingers as the sickle cleaved through her gauntlet. Garnet screamed in pain, before dispelling both of her gauntlets, freeing her other hand from the sickle that pinned it, and rolled out of the way. Frantically, she hid behind one of the columns, desperately putting as much distance between herself and the enemy as possible.
“Pfft, you think you can hide from me, Clarity?”, the Bixbite drawled, peering through the darkness at the rows of columns.
Quietly, Garnet pressed herself against a column, before turning her attention to her injured hand. Thankfully, the blade missed her Sapphire gem entirely. Focusing herself, she willed her light manifestation to reform the digits she lost in the Bixbite’s attack, before donning her remaining gauntlet.
“Focus, focus. I’m going to need the element of surprise if I want to beat this gem.”, Garnet thought to herself.
Quietly, Garnet weaved through the columns, ensuring that she was kept in the shadows. It wasn’t long before the Bixbite’s silhouette came into view once more, the sickle -wielding gem facing away from her. A determined expression on her face, Garnet leveled a punch at a column directly behind the Bixbite, startling her opponent. Having been forced on the defensive, Bixbite rolled out of the way of the column, however Garnet was counting on the gem’s reflexes, and dove at her opponent to grapple her.
In one instant, it appeared as though Garnet had her, her gauntlet-clad arm had wrapped almost completely around the other gem. However, in the very next instant, the Bixbite leaped, and was now nowhere to be seen.
“You’re good.”, Bixbite praised, mild surprise coloring her tone, “But you’ll have to be better than that.”.
* * *
Connie and Chrysoberyl shouted in unison, poofing the form of a particularly large Topaz gem.
“Are you guys okay?”, Steven spoke up, grateful that the last of the wave of troops were dealt with.
“Yes, I am fine my Steven.”, Chrysoberyl replied, “How do you fare, my Fortitude?”.
“I’m alright. There were a lot more gems than I was expecting though.”, Connie commented, “We need to find a way to get to the Rectificator, that way we don’t tire ourselves out on her minions before we face her.”.
At that, Connie looked out at the series of platforms before her. While Garnet and Amethyst ended up on the platforms to her right and left, there were three additional platforms between where she stood and the door at the far end of the hall.
“What do you all think about that door?”, Connie spoke up, pointing to the hall’s end.
“Assuming that this palace is styled according to the architectural themes of Era One, which its exterior suggests, it would make sense that a room of great importance would be immediately behind the door leading out of the main hall. Whereas less significant rooms would branch off to the sides.”, Chrysoberyl replied, gesturing to a few smaller doors that lined the sides of the room.
“Back door it is then.”, Connie replied, before analyzing the platforms that stood between them and the door, “Steven, you and Chrysoberyl can both float, but I can’t jump that far. So one of you will have to carry me across the gaps.”.
“I’ll do it.”, Steven replied quickly, before gathering Connie into a bridal carry.
“Uhm…”, Connie blushed lightly, the meaning of the gesture having been lost on both Steven and Chrysoberyl.
“If you are both ready, I am as well.”, Chrysoberyl replied.
Moving past her embarrassment, Connie steeled her expression and nodded to the others. With a mighty leap, Steven bounded over the gap between the two platforms, gently setting Connie down on the other side.
“This isn’t looking good.”, Connie spoke up, staring as several enemy gems turned to face towards them.
“The Rectificator wants to shatter you both before we can even reach her.”, Chrysoberyl grit her teeth, “The pattern in which the floor split was no mistake, she wanted to split us apart.”.
Suddenly, the platforms moved once more, the platform that Amethyst and Garnet ended up moving towards the back of the room, with the platforms that were positioned behind those platforms shifting forward and to the center row, putting more ground between the trio and the door, yet also rendering the space between the platforms easily traversable.
‘That all but settles it.”, Connie growled, glaring at the distance between them and the door, “Rectificator’s definitely behind that door.”.
“Well, if Garnet and Amethyst’s platforms moved forward, then there’s a good chance that they’ll tire Rectificator out a bit before we reach her.”, Steven replied with a hopeful tone.
“I’m not sure that the Rectificator would be willing to take those kinds of chances.”, Chrysoberyl hummed, analyzing the battlefield before her, “I have an idea though.”.
“That being?”, Connie questioned.
“How fast could you run if you were carrying our Steven?”, Chrysoberyl asked, her static-filled gaze now analyzing Connie.
“Fairly quickly.”, Connie replied, smiling a bit, “He’s quite light.”.
“Hey, I don’t think that battlefield is a good place to be discussing the fact that I’m fun-sized!”, Steven interjected.
“I’m going to clear a path.”, Chrysoberyl spoke evenly, leaving no room for argument, “Get yourself and his Radiance to the door, understand?”.
“Got it.”, Connie replied, her expression hardened as she picked up Steven in a bridal carry, mirroring his gesture from earlier.
At once, Chrysoberyl began to glow, the light around her seeming to bend and warp around her form. In one instant, she was standing at the front of the platform with Connie and Steven, and in the very next, she stood at the platform’s opposite edge, a swath of poofed gems in her wake.
“Hurry my Fortitude. I cannot traverse the battlefield much slower in this state.”, Chrysoberyl’s voice was warbled, distorted as though her speech was sped up at odd intervals.
Not needing to be told twice, Connie followed after Chrysoberyl to the best of her ability, leaping short distances from platform to platform amidst a sea of gemstones. What once seemed like an insurmountable enemy offense became a simple stroll as Connie and Steven followed Chrysoberyl to the doors at the end of the room.
“That… should be enough…”, Chrysoberyl huffed, tinges of static flitting through her form as it returned to normal.
“Are you alright?”, Connie spoke up, her voice laden with concern.
“I will be fine, my Fortitude. Moving like that was never easy after Era One ended, but I will be alright.”, Chrysoberyl replied, moving herself between the enemies and her superiors, “Right now, you should devote your efforts to facing the Rectificator. I will be more than enough to handle these soldiers.”.
“Are you sure?”, Steven asked.
“My Steven.”, Chrysoberyl turned to face Steven, something more than determination alone in her gaze, as she moved into a Diamond salute, “I will keep you safe from them. Not a single enemy gem will cross the threshold between this chamber and the next, this I swear to you on the Stars above.”.
“Thank you…”, Steven replied, not knowing what else to say in response to such conviction.
Nodding, Connie turned away from Chrysoberyl, entrusting her to keep the enemy troops at bay. With a deep breath, she took Steven’s hand.
“Are you ready?”, Connie asked, looking to Steven.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s finish this!”, Steven replied, a determined fire in his eyes.
At once, the two pushed open the large doors, each of them holding their breath in anticipation of what lay inside.