Chapter Text
Darkness wove through the sky akin to ink on a canvas. A sunspot was beginning to form, the blurry shape sharpening.
The green and purple gems looked at the sudden intrusion in the blue sky. They shared a glance before unsheathing their swords with little hesitation.
"A sunspot, hmm...?" The purple gem, Rui, exclaimed, a mischievous smile surfacing. "Perhaps, this time, I could even pick this one apart–"
He was quickly denied by the green gem, Nene, his partner. "Rui... no." she sighed, "...We don't need you getting captured for the sake of your experiments."
Haunting melodies filled the air as the lunarians emerged from the sunspot. The gems' expressions quickly turned serious.
There was little time before the smaller lunarians drew their bows and took aim. The pair sprinted toward the lunarian vessel, Rui's movement suddenly ceasing to hold his sword flat. Nene understood and launched herself toward the vessel, using Rui's sword as a boost, slashing the central lunarian. Arrows whizzed by as gravity began to take hold, and she descended.
...Something was off. The vessel hadn't dissipated yet.
The remainder of the central lunarian's head began to melt at the rim, pale droplets falling toward its lower body. Nine petal-shaped holes revealed themselves and arrows tipped with a pink gem rose from within, glimmering mockingly in the sun's presence.
...Rui and Nene knew those shards. They'd both seen them before. Rui was the first to express his disbelief, halting. "Those shards, they're—"
Pink Chalcedony. "Emu's." Nene finished, grip tightening on the sword clutched in her hands. Nene exhaled, tone sharp as she concentrated. "We need to get her back."
Seeing nothing but the pink waving about, Nene charged forward, without a thought spared to her safety. Rui snapped out of his daze, sprinting after the reckless gem. She leaped toward those fragments, hand outstretched hoping to grab at least one–
An arrow suddenly shot towards her, breaking off her elbow. A gold alloy wave shone protectingly around her and she plummeted, desperately hanging on the alloy while holding onto the shards she had grasped.
The sound of more arrows being nocked alerted her, and she dropped down as carefully as the situation could allow. Nene could feel a crack forming on her leg and she could hear that an arrow had shot part of Rui's leg off, and she glanced at the gem to see he was trying to form another gold wall.
Their eyes met and Nene could see he was worse for wear. Something sparkled off in the distance and she breathed a sigh of relief, recognizing the two-tone gem.
The alloy wall successfully formed, Nene rushed behind it, feeling confident that the other gems– Touya, and his partner Akito– could handle this situation.
Blue and orange blurred by and Akito leaped using Touya as a boost, slicing through the lunarian vessel with ease. He quickly snatched the remaining pink arrows, and his sword sliced the vessel cleanly into halves.
He fell roughly into Touya's arms, orange splintering everywhere. Akito glanced at the arrows to make sure they were mostly intact and Touya gently let Akito off. The lunarian vessel dissolved and Rui finally let his alloy wall fall. Touya hurriedly picked up Rui and Nene's severed parts, making sure not to crack them even further.
The purple gem was pondering something aloud. "What an interesting vessel," he murmured, not really caring that he was missing a leg. "perhaps Kanade would like to hear about this..."
Nene glanced worriedly at Rui and then at the arrows tipped with pink chalcedony in Akito's hands. "...That's Emu right there, Akito."
He glanced at the shards, distantly recalling an overexcited pink gem. "Those lunarian bastards...!" he gritted out. "I hope they all dissolve!"
Touya finished gathering the gem pieces that had fallen off in the battle, catching a glimpse of the distant school. "For now, we should go to Tsukasa for repairs."
The rest of the walk was spent in silence, but the medical bay finally came into view.
"Tsukasa," Touya called out, getting the yellow gem's attention. Tsukasa looked up and smiled at the four of them, despite them being evidently less than whole.
"Ah, Touya!" he greeted him warmly, "Just set Rui down on the table here, I'll have Nene and Akito wait by the window."
Touya made haste and set the purple gem on the table, handing off the missing limbs to Tsukasa. Tsukasa, or the gem doctor as many called him worked methodically with professional ease, and the operations were a success. It was as if the earlier battle never occurred.
...Well, the operations were mostly a success. Tsukasa had accidentally attached Rui's leg backward the first time and the gems laughed, bar the doctor who huffed with small annoyance, and Touya who smiled awkwardly.
Steering the conversation back on track, Tsukasa acknowledged the fancy arrows sitting on the table. "Oh, right, you all brought in something else. What are these...? Lunarian objects?"
Nene spoke up first. "We encountered a new lunarian vessel type today, and these gem-tipped arrows came out of the central lunarian. They..." her voice quieted. "They look like they're Emu's shards."
Tsukasa scrutinized the pink shard between his fingers. Something seemed to have bothered him greatly because he sighed and set down the shards.
He shook his head. "These... aren't Emu's shards. Nor any gem's shards, either."
The group was stunned by this revelation, Touya and Akito whispering things to one another while a serious look surfaced on Rui's face as he thought.
"They're... not anyone's?" Nene was so certain earlier... "What do you mean, Tsukasa?"
"They're not from the Shore of Nascency, that's to be certain. They're not natural in any way, though the composition of this gem is quite close to the Emu we knew... It's entirely possible that they could work as replacements, but there's not enough to find out now." Tsukasa put the false shards away, silencing as he began to think.
He continued after a tense moment. "I'd... like to analyze these more, but I don't want anyone losing limbs for these, or worse, getting captured." Tsukasa's voice softened when looking at the group, before sighing.
The group nodded and he quickly morphed back into his usual upbeat self. "Great! All of you, be careful now! I'll see you all tomorrow, then."
Nene glanced at the shards a final time, expression lightening. "Okay. See you tomorrow, Tsukasa."
She left, and Rui followed along as their patrol had not finished and had been interrupted by the appearance of the lunarian vessel.
"See you. Tsukasa, try not to overwork yourself, alright?" Touya smiled worriedly, knowing the doctor had a tendency to work himself into dust often.
"Well, I try!" Tsukasa laughed, though had a half-smug face while he looked in Akito's direction. "But your partner doesn't make it very easy."
"Wha– Hey!" Akito glowered. "Okay, maybe I do come here a little too often, but that doesn't mean you get to–"
Touya cut him off by dragging his angered partner away. "I'll see you tomorrow, Tsukasa."
The yellow gem grinned and waved until the sound of Akito cursing became inaudible, and then his face quickly became gloomy.
The sky bathed itself in oranges as Tsukasa inspected what they earlier thought to be Emu's shards. His eyes narrowed, feeling both intrigued and suspicious at the same time.
What could the lunarians be possibly trying to achieve, using who they care about as bait, just to lure the lustrous in?