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Chapter Text

The sun shone down from the wide blue sky. A gentle wind blew in across the ocean, shattering its surface into sparkling waves. Then it reached the edge of the beach and the looming presence of the land sent the air swelling up, rushing past carved and tumbling stone, scented with the touch of hot sand. Grains of silica and salt drifted up and the massive statue in the side of the cliff quietly suffered one more day's erosion on top that of the thousands of years that came before. In the temple's lone remaining outstretched hand a few hanging red shirts gently flapped from a long string hung between two outstretched fingers.

Pearl distantly hummed to herself as she folded up a small pair of blue jeans, laying this article down in the wide plastic basket on its proper stack, beside similar close-packed pillars of paired white socks and red shirts folded into neat squares with their yellow star in the center. The music with her now was an old tune, a message from so long ago that even she had forgotten whatever its original intent was. She did not try to remember. In any case it was better than the harsh sound of circling gulls that echoed from down towards the boardwalk. Pearl smiled a bit as she softly snorted at a particularly outraged squawk. Those creatures had no harmony.

Then the last shirt was down and Pearl stepped back onto the smooth warp pad in the center of the statue's palm, the plastic basket held between one hand and her hip. Looking out at the vast empty ocean Pearl once again admitted a thought to herself; there was some desolate beauty there. Then the warp pad flashed and she fell through the skin of the universe.

She stepped forward again even as the house dropped down into existence around her, walking down off the platform as the glow was still fading. Steven was across the main room on the couch leaning back with his short legs stretched out on the cushions before him. He looked up from whatever he was doing on his mobile computer phone.

"Hey, Pearl."

Pearl set the plastic basket down over near him with a smile. "I've got your clothes here. Now remember to put them in the proper drawers and not just set them on the far side of your bed where you think we can't see them."

Steven wiggled against the back of the couch, trying to sit up and quickly regain some dignity of posture. "Aww! I only did that one time! And that was just because I needed to get down to the boardwalk to..." He took a deliberate little breath, there was some other thought he was holding on to that he valued more than defending against laundry accusations.
"Amethyst and Garnet are out?"

Pearl gestured to the door and then back to the temple. "Amethyst is. Garnet is down in her room doing..." She laughed. "Well, you know what Garnet gets up to."

Steven shook his head innocently. "No. Do you?"

Pearl paused. "...No."

She decided to regain a little momentum. "What is it, Steven? Do you need help with something?"

Steven turned to the side with his feet now off the couch and very with great ceremony pressed a button on the side of his phone device before placing it face down on the low table. Then he sighed theatrically and patted the couch beside him, beckoning Pearl to sit down.

She restrained her face as she gracefully complied, hiding her amusement and astonishment at Steven's constant development. Recently he routinely tried to act like a fully formed Gem. Or a full grown human, she supposed.

"What is it?" She said, "I'm listening."

"Hrrmmph."

Steven immediately flopped over on the couch next to her with the deliberate limpness that signaled he was debating something internally. His head now rested in Pearl's lap but his eyes were looking off to the side at some patch of the rafters above whose blank wood might hide whatever answer he felt uncomfortable asking about. Contact and avoidance at the same time.

Pearl turned her head slightly as she smiled at Steven's mouth scrunched up in accidental evidence of his determination. She could feel a soft drumbeat in his neck; the dim thudding of an earth-style heart that operated more like a mechanical device than a living thing. Life on earth was truly astonishing; jerry-rigged machines of impossible complexity, a clock without a clockmaker. Sometimes she forgot Steven was one of them.

"Pearl?" Steven twisted in her lap to look up at her face.

"Yes, Steven?"

His eyes glanced away. "I wanted to ask you something. Something about Gems."

"Of course." It was his right to know.

"And, uh, the war."

"Oh." Pearl realized that she did not have the best track record at explaining the War to Steven. And now she stalled as she accidentally opened her mouth before she remembered to take in enough air to form the words. But that hesitancy passed in a moment.

She smiled gently down at him, and a few of her fingers brushed the edge of his hair. "What do you want to know?"

"The corrupted Gems, the ones on both sides who were left after it was all over...The Diamonds did that, right?"

Pearl leaned back ever so slightly before she even realized she was drawing away. "Yes. They did."

Steven now looked straight up at her, his large dark eyes taking her in with unnerving and exhilarating trust.

"How?"

She had known what he was going to ask and she felt the twinge of hurt all the same. It was so long ago, and yet no time at all. Pearl looked out across the house, vacantly staring at all the modern contraptions of the kitchen without taking any of them in. It was his right to know.

"Well, Steven, I-"

5,237 YEARS AGO

The grand hall was clean, the reflectors were angled to create the perfect light-web, and Tourmaline was happy. She stood back near one of the main translucent blue pillars and took in the room, angling her arm slightly so a shaft of sunlight shifted across the faint blue stripes in her light red chest and bare shoulder to finally land on the facets of herself.

She hadn't been made yesterday but she still knew enough to ensure that her Sapphires would not be embarrassed. This research outpost wasn't a Diamond court by any means, but it would pass muster. She had made sure of that. Trends were very slow to change but that meant that there were very subtle differences in contemporary preferences which were just that much more important to get right. That is why Tourmaline had spent much of the last few days badgering the house Peridot to help her scan all the open communications she could find between any Gems who had attended the last Diamond court function for any detail as to the arrangements there. This event would be perfect.

The ongoing rebellion meant there was a lot fewer public messages to work with than Tourmaline might have liked but that kind of privation just meant that there was more to be gained by succeeding at her purpose. Setting up the light web had been particularly difficult. She had not only needed to haul the mirrors up there on top of the newly transparent roof and program them for the proper time pattern, but she had needed to calculate for the differences in the angle of inclination of the sunlight here on this planet versus Blue Diamond's pavilion near the southern hemisphere in order to replicate the same effect. Frankly, it was exhausting and she could only be grateful that the Bismuths were not around any more. Pulling together a proper reception in a household with only a handful of Gems was hard enough. Doing so while construction was going on outside would have been impossible.

"Tourmaline!" The call rang out from the second floor.

Tourmaline halted in her inspection of the hall and turned on the spot. The predominate blue color of the building complemented her own faint stripes well and the soft red of her skin and the darker red of her short hair and her body decorations of a tailed vest and loose voluminous trousers that came together down at her ankles. There were some advantages of small household. For example she knew instantly that when someone said Tourmaline they meant herself and so she never had to go through the otherwise routine information sharing process to assemble orders that might have been carelessly been given piecemeal to several of her. So now she knew that at this moment she had her Sapphire's full attention.

It was her green master who was now descending the lefthand main staircase into the hall. Tourmaline supposed the other two must still be at their studies. Sapphire called out again as she made her way down:

"Tourmaline, come here for a moment."

"Of course," Tourmaline replied and quickly swept across the smooth polished floor to meet her master at the foot of the stairs. Without thought she kneeled, bringing her head down to Sapphire's level. Tourmalines made here on earth were a bit taller than their role might first suggest was necessary, beating out a Lapis Lazuli by a few inches. But managing a household did call for physical exertion from time to time, especially on an in-progress colony world. Still, Tourmaline had come out of the ground knowing that Gems of importance might register offense before grasping the intricacies of planetary economics. So she kneeled.

Sapphire smiled as her dress swished to a halt on the polished stairs. "The place looks excellent. You've functioned very well for the last few weeks."

Green Sapphire was always more kind and personable than was necessary. It probably came out of operating in this small household, though her two fellow Sapphires did not show the same response. Tourmaline didn't hold it against her. In fact, it made it hard to suppress a bit of favoritism. It was inappropriate to treat different examples of the same Gem differently.

Tourmaline lowered her head a little more, hiding her own smile. "Thank you. And I must express my own admiration for your success in being granted this event. Your studies but be going very well."

Sapphire made a vague gesture of upraised arms expressing an ambivalent opinion of her current studies. "Ah, unplanned colony work. It always will spring up. Well, the current project is almost over and then we'll be able to get back to this planet's climate. A few decades isn't long but these deviations are slightly irritating, aren't they?" Then her hand flicked to her stomach and tapped herself sat was set there, an individual thoughtful quirk of hers.

"Oh, of course you recognize that! You've had all those Bismuths doing all that excavation and construction between the stations for the last few years. That must have been an unwelcome set of forces to work a household around."
Frankly, Tourmaline was almost surprised Sapphire had noticed the Bismuths. That crew had not been quiet in installing those defenses but Sapphire's work rarely carried her attention to any matters more concrete than the planet's lower atmosphere."Well within my parameters."

"Of course." Sapphire turned to glance out the long hall front entrance of the household and the sparkling bridge that arced beyond it over the pit to the warp pad that hung in the center of that void. Perhaps she was looking at the other research station on the opposite side of the bridge. When Sapphire spoke again it was what would have been in a conspiratorial tone if a Gem of her rank had ever needed to learn to lower her voice.

"We shouldn't say this but we are proud of the chance to show you off. We've been across the bridge to the Beryl enough to know the other Tourmalines don't have your sheen. The light web is lovely, but don't think I didn't notice that glass chandelier you hung up over the entrance. We saw something very similar at the Sea Spire! Really, where did you even get the materials for that?"

Ah, that process actually had been close to overstepping her bounds. Tourmaline glanced up from her kneeling position at the suspended slabs of tinted glass set under their hanging base that allowed them to swivel in response to a simulated wind. But Tourmaline trusted Sapphires. She gave her master an innocent look.

"The Bismuths had a fair bit of raw material left over after constructing the Persecution Slabs. I had Peridot enter in a requisition." She had not actually received an answer but that did not need to be said right now. Such a low level request was both sure to be granted and also sure to take at least a few years. The Bismuths had been ready to remelt the material that day. Tourmalines were expected to take some initiative when their superiors were otherwise occupied.

Fortunately, Sapphire had never been made to know requisition processes. "Well, it's fantastically done. And now all your efforts will not only be seen by the Emeralds and Lapis Lazuli, but by Quartz as well!"

"That's...wait." Tourmaline suddenly felt all her contentment all crashing down out of herself. "A Quartz?"

Sapphire was still cheery. "Two of them in fact." There was a flash of light in distance out the front entrance. "Ah, in fact there's the warp pad now! The rest of me should be downstairs any moment; they will have seen that too."

Tourmaline looked up out the front entrance towards the warp pad and saw a distant number of Gems now occupying the center of the arcing white bridge over the massive pit that had been dug between the two shimmering blue research towers. The flat Persecution Slabs that hung floating over the depression glittered as their programing assessed the entrants before they became inert again. Then Tourmaline looked up at the chandelier hanging just inside the front entrance. It was a fine constriction of five thin, ten-foot long sheets of glass suspended artfully from their fitted base.

It was also too low. Quartz were at least three feet taller than Emeralds. That chandelier would pass uncomfortably close to such a Gem's head, setting her on edge before the event had even begun. Sapphire's meeting would start on a bad note and it would all be Tourmaline's fault.

In the center of the narrow bridge, warp pad flashed again; more arrivals. The guests would be here in less than a minute. Peridot could reprogram the chandelier for a different height of course, but the house control room was half a building away. There was no time.

Tourmaline jumped up to her feet and took off running. Ignoring Sapphire's sudden astonishment, Tourmaline reached her right hand over to her opposite shoulder where herself was now glowing with the energy of manifestation. Down the hall, the house's two Rubies came into sight moving towards the front entrance to provide the ceremonial security and promptly almost collided together as they were both distracted by the sudden sight of Tourmaline racing towards them at top speed. Tourmaline could not spare any thought for them as she hurriedly drew forth from her gem the broad manifested ribbon.

Even as it materialized out of light she leaned back to throw one rolled end high up over one of the stone rafters bordering the vaulted entry space above. With a smooth gesture Tourmaline shook out the other end of the wide ribbon to hang down and wrapped it around her leg and waist with a single motion as the glow of summoning died down around it. Then the other end came tumbling down as it unfurled. Tourmaline grabbed in her hand and pulled as hard as she could, smoothly lifting herself up off the floor in this make-shift harness.

Green Sapphire stood where she had been, at the foot of the stairs, her hands clasped before her mouth in surprise. As Tourmaline climbed up through the empty air one one quick arm pull at a time, her new vantage allowed her to see the other two Sapphires entering grand hall on the opposite second floor landings. They were just in time to see their Tourmaline racing to the ceiling. But then Tourmaline was up past the base of the chandelier mounting, the exess length of ribbon rolled tightly around the two halves of her flexed arm, reeling her up one body-length at a time. Above her the chandelier's supporting chain reached up far into the vaulted dimness.

The guests outside were getting closer. Quickly, Tourmaline flipped over, trusting the tightness of the ribbon wrapped around her leg and waist, never mind that there was nothing but friction keeping it in place. Flexing her torso, she swung out like a pendulum as the two Rubies gawped up from below. She grasped the chain right where it connected to the chandelier base. No time for the startled Gems. Tourmaline grabbed the loose end of her ribbon and stretched her arm out long and thin to squeeze it down through a loop in the chandelier base and then stretch it back up the far side to pass it through a loop in the support chain. Her snaking arm snapped back to its normal shape as she was busy tightly wrapping the ribbon end around her other arm. In the back of her mind Tourmaline thought that she had never actually tested the tensile strength of her ribbon but she was in far too deep to worry about that now.

Then she disconnected the latch holding the chandelier up.

Immediately the full weight of the hanging structure threatened to tear Tourmaline's body apart. Fortunately, she found herself just able to bare it and using every bit of mechanical advantage she could muster managed to raise up the chandelier, inch by inch, twisting and flipping her body to take up the extra slack in the ribbon around it as the distance closed.

She was straining to maintain her form at all, but now she could hear footsteps outside. Then one last twist and the chandelier was raised high enough. Tourmaline reengaged the chain latch, swung back, and let go of the long end of the ribbon while holding on just tightly enough to slow her decent short of free fall. She landed on the floor, banished her ribbon out of existence and bowed her head politely as the first of the guests entered into the household.

The two Emeralds came first, their forms sleek and sharp as benefited pilots. They walked before and almost flanked the elegant Lapis Lazuli in her high collared coat, who was in turn followed by five Rubies. A full Hand of Rubies; Tourmaline shouldn't have been surprised. With all the added security measures of course the visiting party would have an escort. At least, that portion of the group. The second batch of arrivals did not require any guards at all.

Tourmaline felt the imagined pressure of her own awe as the two Quartz stepped into her household. The first was Onyx, huge and imposing, with a crest of hair flowing down her dark head like a stripe. She had a long sword belted to her side; an actual permanent weapon. Tourmaline shuddered, perhaps the rebellion was more serious than she had thought if manifested weapons were no longer good enough. Then those thoughts were banished as she focused on the Amethyst that followed behind.

If Onyx was imposing then the even larger Amethyst was awesome in the most classical definition. She was worthy of awe. Waves of violet hair hung down over her broad shoulders, those same shoulders which easily supported the monumental pole arm that rested there, an arcing bladed slab on a metal trunk. Amethyst stared out at the facility with the cocky glare of someone who knew that her very creation was prediction of future greatness. And she had already fulfilled her promise, judging by the presence of the shimmering Pearl that followed close behind.

"Greetings!" Tourmaline's three Sapphires called out in unison from within the great hall. "Welcome to the Storm Study, honored representatives of my Diamond. Your presence gives worth to our purpose." Her green Sapphire stood flanked on each side by blue Sapphires of lighter and darker shade. Before the escalating peaks of the much taller guest party, these three Gems looked small and fragile. Sapphires were made for their minds rather than their bodies.

"That's probably enough of that official talk." Amethyst called out from the back of the guest party. Apparently she was not one for full ceremony. "We're here for your report. We need to know if you researchers can present the plans for the Geode or not. I hear Yellow Diamond wants construction on the Absolution to begin immediately."

"Of course," Sapphire said. Obscured by taller backs, Tourmaline could not see which master had spoken. "Please come this way and we can present our findings."

Together, the Emeralds, Lapis Lazuli, and Quartz all moved forward into the light web decorated main hall. The Hand of Rubies were of course left behind in the foyer. Distantly in her gem Tourmaline knew she had duties as the Tourmaline of this household but she was terribly distracted. She could not stop staring at the Pearl.

Tourmaline had never seen one in person before. The thin and elegant Gem followed close behind her Amethyst into the meeting, her body's decorations shimmering with each smooth step. Such a being would never dream of being left behind and none would dream of excluding her. Tourmaline felt a sharp flash of envy. To be made for such a perfect purpose, bound to serve a single Gem with every hour of her existence, it was a level of harmony and peace Tourmaline could not properly conceive of. By comparison her own making was careless. She did not raise her fingers to brush against the striped occlusions in her body, but for that moment her will was tested by that faint and fruitless desire.

A soft chatter of voices began to rise in front of her. The temporarily abandoned hand of Rubies were quickly growing directionless.

"Hrmph. Did you see those defenses here?"

"They look new."

"Hmm, I bet they haven't been tested at all."

"It's pretty here."

"Why are there only two Rubies in this place?"

"You can see, can't you? There was another one at the Warp Pad!"

"That's still not five. Right?"

"Rah, there's another building like this one on the other side of the bridge. The others are probably there!"

"Hmm, hmm. Probably right."

Tourmaline shook herself out of her envious revery at Pearl's departing back. She had a purpose to fulfill.

"Ruby," she said, addressing the escort group in front of her. "Are your orders to remain here or to secure the facility at large?"

"Here I am!" One called out while cheerfully raising her arm.

That Ruby was quickly smacked back into function by the rest of her. "No! We secure the facility! No one has penetrated the warp network in ages so there's no reason to watch that way! The enemy comes from outside. Like they did against Pink Diamond." This Ruby pointed dramatically out the front entrance, over the broad void of the central pit between the research towers to the scattered trees that grew around the outer lip. Beyond them the local forest gradually increased in density until all sight was blocked.

"Of course," Tourmaline said with a nod. "All entrances are on this floor. There are two which lead outside the facility in addition to the warp pad door. Perform your sweep to the satisfaction of your orders."

"Right!" One of the Rubies stepped forward from the rest of the Hand. "Let's go!"

As a group, all the little soldiers spun and raced off down the branching hallway towards the northern exit. In a flash Tourmaline was left in the entrance portico alone with the two household Rubies. As she looked out the high vaulted arch of the front door she could see a little red shape out in the center of the bridge by the warp pad. It was Ruby waving, silhouetted against the dark blue of the other research station behind her. Then the distant Gem cupped her hands and yelled out.

"Hey, Ruby! I saw a Quartz!"

Tourmaline winced slightly as one of the Rubies beside her cupped her own hands and yelled back, "I saw one too. And I saw another!"

The reply came back over the echoing pit. "Wait, I saw two too! It was really cool!"

"I know! Next year when you come back in the house we can-!"

Tourmaline gently but firmly put her hand down on Ruby's shoulder. "I think that's probably enough for right now." It was nice for Rubies to talk to themselves but this yelling was getting embarrassing.

Ruby looked up at her, turned to the Ruby standing beside her and nodded in unison. Then the warp pad Ruby yelled back again. "Hi, Tourmaline!"

Tourmaline waved back. There was only so much she could do.

Some semblance of order restored, Tourmaline then took a moment to stand and relax. Without much thought she found herself glancing up at the slowly turning sheets of glass hanging above them. A faint smile crept unnoticed into the corners of her mouth.

A small voice came up from beside her. "Hey, Tourmaline. That thing you did with the chandelier was awesome! I mean I don't know why you did it but all that stuff with your ribbon weapon was..." Ruby stopped and furrowed her brow. An idea possibly a century overdue flashed though her mineral structure. "Wait, I just thought of something. Why do you even have a weapon? And why's it..." She trailed off, making indistinct noises as though wresting for the right words in her mouth.

Tourmaline gave a sideways grin. "Why's it not really a weapon? Well, for the first question, look out at Earth." She gestured out the door just as the other Ruby had. "It's wild and unreformed. Alien wildlife everywhere. Tourmalines are always sent first to each new outpost so I suppose the Diamonds thought that here we should be given some usefulness for before soldiers can be apportioned to each base."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Weapons are cool." Ruby nodded firmly. She held out her short arm that contained herself and made a fist her weapon materializing on it with a flash of red. The wicked spike of her bracer jutted out quite a distance past her wrist. At her side, Ruby similarly summoned up the spiked, sheath-like helmet that reached past her head and down her back as a sort of armor. With it on she looked a little like a crystal shrimp. They both growled with identical gritted teeth which in the present situation was so unneeded it was adorable. Tourmaline surreptitiously held her hand over her mouth.

Then Ruby stopped and turned. "Wait. But your ribbon isn't good for fighting. Not even one of those stripy tail hair-monsters with the mask and the grabby hands. And I almost beat one of those all by myself!"

"Yeah, or a tree!" Other Ruby volunteered.

Tourmaline shrugged, her mood dampened a bit. "You're right. But obviously my Diamond held that defense idea as a tertiary priority, since I still passed inspection despite the defect. I mean, I'm here right? So not being able to make a proper weapon must not have influenced my ability to fulfill my purpose all that much."

"Yeah, the Diamonds are smart." Ruby seemed content with this. At least for a second. But then her face darkened as she and her fellow came across some new thought together.

"Tourmaline? Those other Rubies were talking about Pink Diamond. What-?"

"You've been talking with Peridot haven't you." Tourmaline interrupted, firming up her voice. If Rubies started coming up with their own ideas about the world they could spin out of their purpose very quickly. It was a Tourmaline's responsibility to watch for that. "What did I tell you about hanging out in her control room?"

Both Rubies looked down at the floor in uniform good-humored familiarity with these talks. They recited, "Peridot spends all her time listening to so many machines that she forgets what she already knows." Then Ruby looked up again. "Yeah, but Peridot says that all the people sending messages know that Pink Diamond was shattered centuries ago. They say a Quartz-"

"That's enough!" It was not often that Tourmaline got angry, but now the Rubies suddenly quailed below her. Two red flashes blinked out as their weapons dematerialized out of surprise. "There will be no more of that talk in this house! Other Gems might panic and get lost in rumor and their 'learned knowledge' but we are well-made here. We serve our Sapphires and they in turn serve the Diamonds with all their ideas about storms and climates and circulation systems and all that. We know our purpose. Do you understand me?"

Just as quickly as she has lost control Tourmaline realized that she had done so. She calmed down and spoke to the shivering Rubies more gently. "I mean, honestly. 'Shattered a Diamond', that doesn't even make sense. Diamonds don't get shattered, you know that."

Ruby laughed with the relieved tension and held her hand behind her head. "Ha, yeah. You're right. Peridot does get weird in there. Listening to the music all the time she even starts to talk like that sometimes."

Tourmaline smiled. "It's ok. It's good that you talked to me. We all can get confused from time to time and it's nice to check back with what's real." Tourmaline turned to look back towards the Grand Hall. She recognized the current pattern of the programed light web. It was time for her to circulate back through there. However, there was a brief commotion as the Hand of Rubies came rushing back down the transverse hall in a chattering stampede before rushing off again down the other end of that hall. Then, when Tourmaline had the chance to pry herself back off the wall where she had fled to avoid being trampled, she composed herself and quietly strode into the Grand Hall.

The reflected sunbeams of the light web had almost finished moving into their second stage, slowly glancing through the air at a speed almost below notice. Tourmaline slid across the polished stone floor as quietly as possible. Past the shafts of light, the guests stood in an easy ring before the holo display Sapphire had called up to display the household's accomplishments.

In fact, Sapphire was speaking at that moment. "The energy flow calculations are sound. Though, of course, I can not imagine what could possibly require as much power as this Geode will supply. The internal stresses alone-"

Lapis Lazuli spoke, her long hair swishing softly against the back of her coat as she moved her head. "Don't worry. A separate research team has designed the containment. It will hold. In fact, according to their report it heals its self. They say the close application of an aligned grid of carbon products triggers a remolding of the shielding material. Easy."

Emerald snorted. "Easy? Who would ever even think of doing that?"

Tourmaline saw green Sapphire look over at her two fellows in a shared moment of the silent consensus of type uniformity. Then the lead-most said, "Still, the projected energy production seems...excessive."

"We need it."

The voice was strong and commanding, even when spoken softly. All eyes turned to Amethyst. All save for those of her own Pearl who remained at perfect relaxed attention one step behind. There was nothing her assigned Gem could say that would surprise such a being.

Unconcerned by the attention, Amethyst idly adjusted her hand's grip on the lower haft of her pole-arm. It was a small flicking gesture that with her incredible strength nevertheless sent the massive weapon spinning on it's long axis at a blinding speed even as it lay on her shoulder, its flat blade forming the illusion of a solid shape like a spinning top through rapid rotation alone. Then Amethyst tightened her grip and the rotation slammed to a halt instantaneously.

"We need that power. The rebellion must be put down. Yellow Diamond's new device will be the way to do it."

Apparently Emerald had not been bestowed the same viewpoint, as she tilted her head to the side and briefly glanced at her fellow before turning to Amethyst. "Sapphire's hesitancy is reasonable. The Absolution is a major commitment of resources. This 'rebellion' centers around a single quartz. They have a handful of fighters. Caution is good, but surely it is only a matter of time until the aberrants are unmade?"

This time it was Onyx who spoke. "Her numbers are not going down; they are increasing."

Lapis Lazuli joined in. "Blue Diamond agrees with the project assessment. This planet's Alpha Kindergarden is already running dry. Even with a rush job for site selection, Beta will not be on line for a century. There is a reason my Diamond gave Yellow Diamond the go ahead for her device."

Sapphire murmured, as much to her other selves as to the group. "I heard that they might even be considering Delta already. I thought it was just overzealous planning."

To her side Sapphire spoke up next, gesturing out to Amethyst. "Still, she's just a quartz. Powerful, but there are hundreds more of you who-"

Amethyst said, "She can do things. Her powers don't make sense. She has more abilities than any Rose Quartz I have ever seen before. Now some reports even say she can augment her forces with local carbon life."

Emerald laughed. "I agree with your point, but you chose a strange example to focus on. I've seen the aliens on this planet, even if you can properly call these formations life."

Amethyst turned to the side, causing Lapis Lazuli to involuntarily cower as the blade of the pole-arm suddenly swung over her head. Emerald stepped back as the quartz focused on her. "I've visited the site of one of the recent raids. I've seen what she leaves behind. Do not underestimate this planet."

Both Tourmaline's Sapphires and the visiting Gems slowly turned to look out the blue tinted windows at the field beyond. The circle of the two research stations and pit was contained within a carefully groomed ellipsoid meadow of the local grass species. Beyond that trees began. Tourmaline had always thought it looked rather nice. However, now there was a shade of anxiety laid over those strange growing shapes.

Onyx grunted and thumbed the pommel of her sword. "You're too open here. I'll put in a requisition to carbonize a two mile perimeter around this facility."

Tourmaline couldn't help but softly gasp. She had spend a bit over a century getting those trees to grow properly in place. She had needed to rip out her first attempts after she had misjudged the fully actualized forms of those organisms and now everything within sight was going to be burned?

However, it seemed she had been heard. One of the Emeralds and Lapis Lazuli both turned slightly to look in surprise at the Tourmaline who dared to interrupt. Fortunately it looked like her green Sapphire shared Tourmaline's concern.

"Surely that's excessive. This planet's local life is odd, but I will admit to liking the rustling sounds of so many free moving surfaces in a rising wind. It would be a shame to lose that."

"It's not our task to make threat assessments." Lapis Lazuli shot back. Tourmaline could have sworn that a portion of that statement was somehow directed at her over in the corner, without the blue Gem ever shifting a particle of her body. But imagined or not, the admonishment let Tourmaline remember what her current task was.

All three of Tourmaline's Sapphires had seen her and made no motion or signal, so clearly there was not any immediate need here. Tourmaline continued her circuit and quietly strode over to the staircase with a projected well-made lack of concern for whatever these gems were talking about. It pertained to outside the household, so it was of no interest to a Tourmaline. She kept telling herself that. As she ascended the staircase she thought she could feel the eyes of the Pearl on her retreating back.

Then Tourmaline was on the second floor and touched the wall panel to slide open the cover that revealed a much smaller set of stairs up to the very top of the facility. In a few seconds she emerged up through that higher floor to that small room perched above the rest of the building. The walls were heavily tinted at the moment, she noticed with a touch of dissatisfaction. Peridot's workstation allowed for views that included nearly everything Tourmaline had ever seen and the smaller Gem never seemed to leave the walls translucent enough to look out at any of it. The penthouse was lit nearly entirely by the glow of the displays and echoed slightly with the soft sound of half a dozen competing communication songs. Tourmaline was about to say something about a proper environment when a little green head with curly yellow hair popped up from behind one of the control consoles.

"Tourmaline! Perfect, you're here!"

She remembered that she had not come to talk about work habits. "Peridot, please stop tormenting Ruby with talk of Diamonds. You know how they get worked up."

"What?" Peridot shrugged with a perfect simulation of innocence. It might even have been genuine. Her type were not made with inter-gem workflow in mind. "Sure, send them up and I'll sort out whatever their problem is."
"That's not..." Tourmaline sighed. "Ok. Why is it good that I'm up here?"

"Oh, that. Right." Peridot spun around to another console and ran her finger across its surface in a searching manner, once again shifting the relative pitches of the muffled songs. "Where was it? I just had it here a second ago but...Oh, never mind. I don't need it." She turned back and flung up her short arms. "The Rebels hit another place today!"

Tourmaline experienced a trill of fear. "They breached the warp network?"

"Er, well...no."

She then let herself relax just as quickly. "Well then what are you on about? We're fine. Even if the aberrants did breach the network, we have two Quartz and a Lapis downstairs with us right now."

Peridot scrunched her face up in frustration and anxiety. "But this place was really close to us!"

"Close? You said they didn't get a warp pad. " Tourmaline truly did not know what Peridot was talking about. "What do you mean 'close to us'?"

"I mean close! Geography! A landing facility on the same continent. Look!" Peridot poked out at her console and the holo popped into existence showing an image of the planet with two glowing indicators on one of the landmasses. Tourmaline guessed one of those was this their home.

"Oh, that." It was strange to think of moving between two locations on the same planet through real space. But all the same she now had another distressed member of her household here before her looking anxious and fearful. This was part of her purpose. Tourmaline turned to study the holo and pursed her lips, looking impressed. "That's a good catch Peridot. I would not have thought to check the coordinates or such a report. Well, I guess you'll be happy to hear that Onyx downstairs is going to be getting us a lot more security precautions."

Some of Peridot's pervasive anxiety melted away. "Onyx, here?"

"Oh, yes. We're going to be getting a massive security perimeter." Tourmaline chose to hide how much the specifics of that plan bothered her. But if it would provide her household with ease of mind then she would be content to watch the forest burn. Some things were more important.

But still, the forest was not incinerated yet. She turned to the nearest wall and reached out to touch the opacity slider. "Now, lets un-tint this room a bit and get some local light. You're missing the light web down in the great hall so you might as well get a portion of the experience," she said as she slid her finger across the proper patch of wall.

The entire vertical surface before her rapidly turned transparent to a nearly clear mass with the barest tint of blue though the depths. The sun hung high in the equally blue sky outside as Tourmaline straightened her vest in satisfaction. Behind her, Peridot hissed and grumbled something about having set all her displays for a proper light balance which was now being disrupted. Tourmaline could now look down below the full length window, past the rest of the building at the white walled inverted cone of the massive pit between the two identical faceted blue facility households. The thin arc of the bridge soared over that void, bulging into a circle holding the warp pad at its center, flanked by the floating vertical sheets of the Persecution Slabs. Then to each side and out beyond the building that mirrored her own stretched the fluttering green tops of the forest. It was a nice vista. It was one of only two Tourmaline had ever seen.

Then she frowned at one part of this view that was not familiar. In the sky above and behind her sister facility, she could see a spec of something else. At first Tourmaline thought that it might be one of the local winged carbon-life but another passing second showed that it was far too big for any of the specimens she had ever seen. The next thought through Tourmaline's mind was that for it to change size that quickly it had to be traveling extremely fast. And if it seemed motionless in the sky then that meant it was headed straight towards them. This was truly something new.

She spoke gently but firmly, procedures she was not even aware she had been made with coming springing into her mind. "Peridot, I want you to scan for all local transmissions and prepare one of our own."

Peridot had hunched over one of her consoles again, shading whatever she was looking at with her short arm and now glanced up up. "What? There's nothing new happening on these. What do you want me to-?"

"Emergency broadcast now!" Tourmaline yelled with every ounce of authority her creation allowed her. Instantly Peridot's hand shot out almost out of her control and slammed down on the console. A dire song wailed to life, just as before Tourmaline's eyes the top of the opposite research facility exploded outwards into pale blue fragments at the point of impact. The outstretched wing of the crashing war-flyer smashed into and through that building at full atmospheric speed and did not stop. A glittering halo of destruction hung in the air as a frozen instant brought it hurtling still towards them. In the pit between the buildings, the floating Persecution Slabs spun in an instant as they blazed into light, lancing upwards with lasers which sliced though the armored sheets of the wide tapered wing shape of the ship. But all their destructive strength could not stop the power each smoking fragment still held in their momentum.

That next half of a second stretched on. Distantly, Tourmaline noted that she saw a large glowing pink orb separate from between two of the melted severed portions of the flying ship, somehow unscathed while the rest was falling apart. Then the ship hit bellow her, just above the building's main entrance. All those fragments impacted against her home and the brilliant gleaming walls came tumbling down. The floor tipped forward below Tourmaline and gave way, the transparent window breaking open into a thousand fragments as the shockwave traveled through it. Then she fell. Somehow Peridot was in Tourmaline's arms as Tourmaline tried to use her own body as whatever kind of shield for them she might be able to manage in the tumbling, crashing chaos. Then everything was rubble and noise.

...

Chapter Text

...

For a few battered, confused moments Tourmaline found herself wondering if she had lost her body. Then she realized that the act of considering proved she had not. She was intact. Weak from maintaining her body against a hundred blows and bashes but she was still corporeal. Her hand reflexively shot up to grasp her left shoulder and a shuddering wave of relief passed though her as fingers felt smooth uncracked facets. Then she slowly rose to a sitting position as she began to process what she could see in the shadows around her.

The celling here was only just above her head even as she was sitting down, and it was at a slant. However, that could be explained. Tourmaline was in a pocket formed by a triangle of collapsed rubble. What part of the building, she could not tell. There were loud sounds from somewhere nearby.

Then a thought exploded into her mind like a lightning bolt; Peridot! She had slipped out of her arms. Tourmaline twisted desperately, searching for the Gem with or without her body. If Peridot had lost cohesion then herself would be very small and hard to find but still Tourmaline franticly pushed through the broken building fragments which littered this floor surface. Please, she had to be intact, she had to-

A shrill scream burst out nearby, muffled by intervening rubble. Tourmaline's head shot around to focus up in the obstructed direction of what was unmistakably a Peridot's voice. The nightmare became a problem once again. Find a solution. There, up and to the left, was a gap in the jumbled pile. It was slightly too small but Tourmaline managed to compress her body's shoulders and hips enough to fit through. She pulled and crawled her way up towards the glimmer of sunlight on a thin dusting of broken glass. Then, after one last burst of strength she emerged into the air just as the sun was swallowed up by clouds in the sky above.

Tourmaline had arisen into a world of fire and smoke. She was on what remained of the building's second floor after the destruction had passed through it, looking out at the decapitated jumble of what was once the grand hall. The far end of the hall below, where once the windows had looked out over the meadow and forest was now filled with the smoking wreckage of the crashed flyer. Tourmaline rose to her feet and began to scramble across the tumbled boulders that had been her home until a moment ago. She found Peridot a few yards away in a trough formed by the sagging broken floor, clutching her knees to her chest and screaming in a detached manner.

"Peridot!" Tourmaline called out.

"What...What...," Peridot stuttered in consideration of asking some question before giving up and returning to her fallback procedure of screaming softly.

There was a sound behind them from down amid the remnants of the grand hall. Tourmaline tottered over to the ruined balcony, at the edge of the shifting rubble and almost collapsed with relief as she saw other Gems rising up here and there on the first floor.

"Oh thank everything in the stars, they're ok. Peridot, they're...!"

Tourmaline trailed off. Below, Emerald was unsteadily rising to her feet clutching bodiless Lapis Lazuli in her hand. Over in the corner was a slowly emerging dust-covered shape who's broad back meant it had to be Onyx or Amethyst, and there right at the edge of the crashed ship a metal segment was suddenly thrown back with great force. A giant Sapphire rose up from beneath, tall and powerful, with three gems glinting across her blue-green body.

All three of them had fused. Tourmaline had only seen them do so a handful of times, and only when one of their experiments needed an unreasonably strong burst of power. Tourmaline glanced up and the vanishing sunlight was explained by an orb of black clouds boiling into existence above the partially collapsed building. Electricity crackled between Sapphire's fingers and she turned to face the wreckage of the downed flyer. It was then that Tourmaline truly admitted to herself that this may not have been an accidental crash. Through the broken floor she sat on she could feel the muffled reverberations of a banging below. Someone else was undamaged down there but Tourmaline felt herself trapped in this daze, unable to react.

In the grand hall, Emerald was not looking at the smoking ship. She was turning left and right, desperately looking around the tumbled destruction for her type fellow.

"Emerald!" She called out. "Has anyone seen Emerald!" She began to stumble across the jumbled rubble, clutching her hand that held Lapis Lazuli close to her chest as she did so. Tourmaline turned back to verify that Peridot was in no immediate danger and prepared to jump down and assist in the search for any bodiless Gems. As Tourmaline stood on the lip of the collapsed former staircase, a pale shadow flashed by Emerald. Emerald stopped and turned in confusion, startled to find Pearl standing by the cracked column in the shadows under one of the lone remaining bits of ceiling. Pearl held her position, ramrod straight in an elegant pose with her hand held behind her back.

Emerald blinked and asked her, "Where's your Amethyst? I need help looking for-"

The shattered hall echoed with a roar from the opposite side. "That's not my Pearl!"

Amethyst stood up, shaking dust and stone fragments from her long hair as she lifted her massive pole-arm out in front of her one handed. In her shadow, crouched on the floor where she had been shielded, was Pearl, gleaming and beautiful as always.

Emerald slowly turned back around. Her body trembled as she remembered reports of other battles. The new Pearl simply bowed her head then in a flash she burst forward, a sword-blade flashing out from behind her back. Emerald's body vanished in a brief cloud and she clattered down onto the ground next to Lapis Lazuli. Then the Pearl slowly turned and snapped into a new pose, the tip of her curving sword now pointed at towering Sapphire as Amethyst slowly walked into fighting position across from hall from her.

Legs gave way and Tourmaline fell back into the pile of rubble behind her. That was impossible. Pearls did not fight. That was not their purpose. They were perfect, and balanced, and beautiful. They were not...that. They did not stare down Quartz or Fusions with power unimaginably greater than their own and smile over the gleaming edge of a wicked sword. Tourmaline knew that this Pearl was about to be shattered. She wanted to look away, even though she knew that what was coming was necessary. Still, despite that knowledge Tourmaline found a part of herself hoping that when Pearl was shattered they ground her into dust beyond any remaining thought. Sapphire turned towards the Pearl, electricity once more crackling between her fingers. Sapphire raised her hand.

Then the back of the flyer wreckage exploded outwards, an convex wall of brilliant pink slamming through, propelled by some new force behind it. The rogue Pearl smiled as Sapphire desperately tried to spin back to meet this new threat at her back. The strategy had worked. Then Rose Quartz turned her shield to the side as her sword sliced out at Sapphire's side.

Tourmaline screamed a useless warning. However, she had underestimated her master. Large as she now was, Sapphire managed to move with brilliant speed. But then, as she slid to a halt, the side of her body's decorations parted in a long slice across her waist, revealing just how close of a dodge it had been. Sapphire looked down at the Quartz with an expression that might have been fear.

Rose Quartz simply raised her shield again as she spoke in a voice that carried strangely well over the continued crackles and pops of the crashed ship. "Well, that plan almost worked. You ok, Pearl?"

The Pearl cocked her head elegantly to the side as she kept an eye on Amethyst's pacing. "Not a scratch. Two down."
Rose Quartz nodded, her long pink ringlets sliding across her shoulders. "Right, the plans for the Geode are here somewhere, we just need to-"

"Enough!" Sapphire roared. Tourmaline's masters were thinkers not warriors, more prone to distraction than passion. But now, with all three of them sharing a body, the wind of a furious summoned storm whipped through the dust of the shattered hall. Sapphire raised her outstretched hand and a bolt of lighting blazed forth, anchored on the rebellious Quartz with crack of thunder.

That throned pink shield neatly nullified the attack that would have melted stone, but the blinding flash provided the opening Amethyst had been waiting for. The huge Gem burst forward with a grunt, swinging her pole-arm with blinding speed at the renegade Pearl like a horizontal pendulum. The Pearl was taken off guard, but even so she simple leaned back impossibly far, allowing the shrieking bladed slab to flow above her like water. Then she sprang up into a twirling spin that carried her away from the blade's counter-swing that cracked the floor like a falling meteor.

The Pearl raced off across the rubble strewn grand hall, but Tourmaline abruptly realized that she was not fleeing from the Quartz warrior who would surely destroy her in an instant. She was aimed directly at the crouched form of her other self. Amethyst's Pearl raised her head to look at the shining blade that rushed point first towards her. She closed her eyes. Then in a flash Pearl was bodiless, clattering to the floor in a puff of dematerialization smoke. The rogue dashed away, still pursued by Amethyst who roared in anger at her departing back.

Tourmaline shook her head without even intending to. That was a senseless attack. The pounding from the semi-intact sections of the house beneath her feet was getting louder. There was no reason for the rogue to go after Pearl. Pearls weren't dangerous to... That thought threw Tourmaline's mind into disarray again. The counterpoint to her deepest truths was before her. The floor beneath her shuddered again, the storm whistled and raged through tumbled masonry, and a deafening crack of lightning rang out again. Tourmalines managed a household. The house had fallen. She clutched at her left shoulder. Right now she could not tell what turmoil was in the world and what was in her mind.

Dust exploded out below the ledge Tourmaline sat on and a heavy broken slab went sailing out to crash and skid across the grand hall. A familiar overly loud voice rang out, frustrated and angry. "Where is it! It's...Aahh! Rebels!"

The top of a massive red head passed very near Tourmaline's perch as the looming Ruby fusion pushed her way out of the semi-collapsed entry hall. It was the full Hand, now returned together. At the far end of the hall, Rose Quartz even turned away for a moment from the raging storm of fusion Sapphire. The rebel leader blinked at Ruby's approach and said:

"Oh, that's actually a bit concerning."

Pearl continued to dance across broken tumbled columns, half a second ahead of Amethyst's cleaving blade. One successful fake out and Pearl alighted on a broken blue stump, smiling. "Oh, we've fought much worse, and besides we've still got-"

"Pearl!" Someone yelled from the direction of the crashed ship. Then the thrumming blast of a massive laser lanced straight across the hall, smashing into Ruby's headlong rushing charge and throwing her back with such force that one of her feet clipped Amethyst and sent her flying too.

Pearl blinked in surprise and looked up at the crashed ship marking the end of the hall. On top of crumpled smoking hull stood an Agate who's ochre body was decorated with a swirling lace of white patterns. She held a steaming blaster cannon in her hands, one that looked like it had been ripped out of the ship itself.

Pearl called up. "...we've got Crazy Lace, as I was saying. Thank you for the assistance, though I don't think yelling my name was really necessary to-"

Agate yelled again, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had just downed of all of the household's defenders but Sapphire. "Not that! Behind you!"

"What...?" Pearl started to say. A huge black shape rose up behind her, shedding the dust and rubble that had been a successful disguise in the long wait. Banded black arms slammed together around Pearl's waist as Onyx made her triumphantly patient attack.

Up above, Tourmaline let out a cheer for the quartz warrior. "Yes!"

Onyx leaped forward, slamming the restrained Pearl against the lone intact pillar with enough force to dematerialize the renegade's body instantly while still imparting enough force to knock the pillar clean down. It was a wonderful blow. Unfortunately that pillar had been the one thing still holding up Tourmaline's viewing landing. She heard Peridot renew her screaming behind her as the floor fell out from beneath them and pulled the remaining wall with it. They dropped. Then Tourmaline's side hit a sharp edge and in an instant she felt that all the energy flowed out of her body shape. Then she did not feel at all.

...

At first all Tourmaline could see was blinding red light. Then the exertion of reformation passed and she felt the edges of her projection harden back into a body again. Newly materialized feet came down on an uneven surface and Tourmaline stumbled to her knees, hand clutching at the facets of herself on that shoulder in what was becoming an uncomfortably common reflex. Still intact.

Her thoughts jumped and skipped as she stared at the cracked and tumbled ground, covered with fragments of pale blue stone and splinters of glass. She had been with Peridot, watching the fight and then... Her body had been destroyed.

Suddenly her thoughts collapsed back into an ordered structure. Knowledge she had not even known she had been made with came to the forefront of her mind and a she remembered "what to do in the event of dematerialization."

Tourmaline rose to her feet on the surface of rubble. The decorations on her legs no longer flowed out in swishing billows before coming together at her ankles; in this new form she had chosen for her patterns to hug her limbs. The long tails of her vest were gone too, replaced by only a slight flaring where the vest met her hips. This was a body that did not have the luxury of ornamentation.

Her lips moved. "Take stock of your surroundings."

She looked up and instantly wished she had not needed to. The building was destroyed. It was quiet. She did not know how long it had been. Tourmaline stood in a pile of rubble that had been her home and her purpose. Broken slabs lay on top of fallen pillars and fragmenteted components of Sapphire's various research machines. Behind her the remnants of the crashed ship were no longer smoking but there was no sign of life under the sky that was now darkening towards sunset. A sunset on the same day or some other. Tourmaline took a few uncertain steps up the pile before her. A piece of it shifted suddenly under her foot before catching firm again. Then she stood on top.

Tourmaline whispered to herself, "Locate your superiors."

The first floor of the front of her home, which had previously survived the crash, was gone. It seemed most of it had slid down into the pit before it. Whatever had happened after Tourmaline lost her body had been devastating. The smooth arcing bridge across the pit had been broken and the Persecution slabs were fitfully glowing in sparking fragments far below, down with the shattered warp pad. The other research facility was only a little better. Its tower had been sheered off by the first crash and since Tourmaline had last been aware something had pitted the remaining front with jagged holes. One whole side-wing had collapsed from within. In every other direction the trees rustled in a faint rising wind as the dipping light slowly gained its red tint. There was no sign of life.

The warp pad was gone. No help was coming or if it had then they had already come and gone. No, if other Gems had responded to Peridot's brief distress call then they would have found Tourmaline as she lay as part of the rubble or they would still be searching. Help must still be on its way. There was nothing to do until then but continue to follow this protocol. Without her household, that was all a Tourmaline had left.

"In absence of new orders, utilize available equipment in the search to recover any additional bodiless Gems."

The cooling breeze blew around her. Tourmaline turned to face into it, keeping her footing steady on the broken slab of what was once a wall or maybe a celling. She could follow that directive.

For lack of anything else, she reached over to her shoulder and materialized her ribbon into her hand. As the glow dissipated from the wide sheet of material Tourmaline had to admit that she could not see how it would be helpful, but if she was meant to gather equipment then that was all she had. Not having an immediate task for this tool she loosely looped it across her body a few times from shoulder to hip and then set off to make her way over the tumbled desolation of the collapsed building. There was no sign of Peridot, though she had been very near Tourmaline at last memory. Finding a bodiless gem at all in this chaos seemed like a fruitless effort, especially with the light already turning red around her.

However, just as Tourmaline allowed herself to feel that despair, her eye caught sight of a single red gleam. Something down there between the rubble piles had briefly caught the setting sun. Then the shadows shifted ever so slightly and the momentary flash was gone. Tourmaline dashed forward, stumbling and sliding as she ran toward that spot. She slid down to her knees, nearly rupturing her body again on a sharp piece of conduit protruding from the broken pile, but she did not care. She rushed to sift through the small fragments, tossing out pieces of chipped bannisters and fragments of broken mirrors in a frantic search. Then her fingers touched something smooth and faceted. Tourmaline grasped the small object tight in both hands, shuddering with relief. It was Ruby and she was whole.

The sun continued to dip lower, casting shadows over the space between rubble piles as Tourmaline continued to search the depression for any others. Last she had seen five of the Rubies had all been in one place, but while she found no more here at least she found no shards. Eventually Tourmaline had to admit that her effectiveness was being reduced to near zero. She stood up, clutching Ruby tight to her chest. Two gems weren't a household but it was close enough for now.

Tourmaline was starting to feel like her thinking was clearer. The shock of her first reformation was fading and she was starting to get a handle on her panic. She could clearly analyze her memory. Last she had seen, one of the three rebels had just lost her body. Storm Sapphire, Onyx, and probably Amethyst were still standing or unscathed. If they had won outright then they would still be here searching for Tourmaline and the rest so Rose Quartz and her ally must have retreated instead of fighting to the end. With the warp pad's destruction stranding them all here Amethyst and Onyx would have pressed the advantage and given chase. If it was indeed still that same day then they could well be out there hunting down the two rebels. That was the most likely series of events.

With a tired smile Tourmaline moved back to the ruins of the grand hall to see if anyone had gotten the chance to collect Amethyst's Pearl, Lapis Lazuli, and Emerald. They should be reforming soon if she judged by her own process. Tourmaline made her way around a massive single piece of tumbled wall that lay at an angle propped up on a fallen pillar, when suddenly she saw something in the middle of the ruined hall. It was Amethyst's massive weapon, standing almost upright in a clear space, its heavy blade sunk deep into the solid stone floor. It was alone, the small sickle moon rear-blade at the end of the haft stood stark against the sky like a sickening monument in the slowly dying light. Abandoned. Tourmaline's thoughts were a distant buzz as she walked up to it. She held Ruby in one palm as her other hand stretched out to touch that terrible forged weapon.

There was the sound of faint crunch of gravel behind her. Tourmaline spun, backing up as her back hit the projecting haft of the weapon in that flash of fear. A tall gem approached in the shadow of one of the rubble piles Tourmaline had not yet checked. But in an instant she recognized that the dim outline did not match that of the Rose Quartz or the Agate, and Tourmaline sagged slightly in relief. She found herself laughing as she illogically smiled. The rescue had arrived after all.

The Gem spoke. "Step away from that weapon. It's dangerous."

A reasonable request. Tourmaline understood the weapons of a Quartz soldier in only the most abstract way. But then she froze as she really heard the voice that had spoken to her. Relief turned to terror. Tourmaline's eyes went wide. She looked up and the approaching Gem stepped out of the shadow into the last rays of the setting sun. It was a stranger.

Tourmaline's mouth worked in horror. "I don't recognize you. I don't...Who are you?!" She fell back away from this impossibility. This was a Gem she did not know. This was not any type of Gem and yet it stood before her. Tourmaline screamed, "Get away! Who are you?!"

The abomination continued to walk forward, and above her mismatched eyes a third eye opened in her forehead, a crowning mutation of this monster. She spread her hands and Tourmaline saw a Ruby and a Sapphire on opposite palms. Tourmaline staggered backwards, reaching up and grabbing on to the halt of Amethyst's weapon. It was a reflexive gesture, meant more for support than as a threat. But the fusion monster stopped.

"You aren't a fighter," it said. That statement was definitive. "We aren't here to do you harm."

Tourmaline found herself laughing as fearful tears were in her eyes. She was terrified and anguished but it burst out all the same. She struggled to get control of herself through the sickening giggles; she still held Ruby in her hand and had duty to protect her. "My Sapphires aren't fighters either. What did you do to them? Where are they?!"

That third eye stared at Tourmaline with an unnerving intensity. "They designed a terrible weapon. That makes them soldiers in this war." Then the abomination paused before saying, "They are disembodied but whole, in our control. Rose Quartz will give them fair hearing, as she does with all Gems. To let them choose who they really want to be."

"Choose who...?" Tourmaline stuttered, taking a step to place the weapon haft between her and the fusion. "What are you?"

The Gems smiled down as if hearing a private joke. "I'm something new. I'm my own destiny. I'm Garnet and I'm me."

Gibberish. It was all gibberish. Tourmaline fumbled to tuck Ruby down the front of her vest. She would have to run if she got an opportunity and she might need both hands. "That's not what fusion is! Fusion is meant to enhance, not change. It takes your nature and makes it greater. It doesn't...twist you, deform you like this!"

"Have you ever experienced fusion?"

Tourmaline desperately looked around, hoping against hope for Onyx or Ruby to appear from some hiding place. Garnet took another step forward.

"Tourmaline, you were made to serve in this building. That is all you have ever known. All you were intended to ever know. But the universe is much greater than that. You, every gem, is greater than the Diamonds ever meant you to be. Now this building is destroyed. Your purpose is completed. You can be whoever you want." This last sentences was almost a whisper.

Tourmaline sagged in the growing dark. A chill breeze began to pick up over the piles of rubble that had been her entire life. Then, somehow, her sorrow fell so low down her core that it transformed into something else. Despair ignited. Her fingers gripped tight to the haft of the weapon as her arm vibrated with rage. She looked up and locked eyes with Garnet.

"Choose? Complete? You destroyed my purposes! You destroyed everything! I am not a choice. I am a Tourmaline. I tend to my household and I will never abandon that!"

In a sudden flash of inspiration, Tourmaline jumped up to grab the very top of the pole-arm's haft and swung around, letting the momentum of her body provide an extra force that was enhance by the leverage. With a sudden collapse the weapon's blade slid free of its prison and fell heavily down onto the ground with Tourmaline thudding down beside it.

Garnet looked on skeptically as Tourmaline scrambled to her feet and gripped the weapon's haft with both hands. It was monstrously heavy. It took all Tourmaline's strength to barely raise up the front blade to face Garnet even with the other end of the weapon acting as a fulcrum where it caught on the ground behind her.

The fusion said, "That's a pointless gesture. You can barely lift that weapon. It's no threat to me." Garnet walked forward and Tourmaline desperately shifted the weapon to the side, trying to keep the wide pendulum-like blade facing towards the fusion. Garnet was unconcerned, and she walked forward with her hands spread, her two mismatched selves facing out.

"Do you know why I volunteer to remain behind after? Alone at these sites with Rose's creations? It's because we were like you once. We tumbled out of our world and watched everything we thought we knew come tumbling down around us. But Rose helped us. Rose gave us an identity as individuals, as an individual. Now I can offer you that. Drop the weapon."

Tourmaline felt tears in the corners of her eyes. Her body was already trembling with the exertion of maintaining the power to lift even one end of Amethyst's weapon. She could feel Ruby's cool facets helpless in between her breasts. There was nothing she could do, but she still had to try.

She yelled, "My home is gone, but my household remains. As long as one of the Gems is left I will tend to them! I will follow my purpose until the day I'm shattered!"

This declaration was only greeted by the soft sound of the breeze blowing pieces of grit and gravel across the ruins of the collapsed building. The sky was black and the stars poked out. Shadows danced and spread with the sudden onset of night. Garnet sighed, "This was always the most likely path. Still, I had to try." She turned around and, amazingly, began to walk away.

Tourmaline stood there slack-jawed, watching her retreating back. "Wait, you're just leaving?"

"You're a noncombatant. Rose's orders." Garner waved backwards. "I still have more ground to search. There should be another around here. The imbued will poof you soon enough and bring your gem back to the base."

"Imbued? I don't..." Tourmaline stammered at the departing fusion. Then a movement in the shadows caught her eye. It was the shadows themselves that were moving. They were not shadows. They were alive.

Tourmaline screamed as a thick dark tendril whipped out of the dark at her leg. She danced to the side, barely managing to escape that attack despite being hampered by the heavy pole-arm. Then she saw the whip come down in plain view. It was dark green and decorated with scattered leaves; real living leaves. Tourmaline looked up and beheld the writhing shadow tide before her. The entire half of the ruins before her was covered by crawling mounds of wood and vine. Hundreds of them; each moving with impossible purpose straight towards her. Garnet calmly walked through them, the monsters all parting around the calves of their fellow rebel.

The pole-arm sank down a few inches as Tourmaline's arms locked from exhaustion. Garnet was right, it was too heavy for a Gem of her make to use. An absurd giggle escaped her lips. Her landscape tending projects would have gone a lot quicker if she had been able to manage what Rose Quartz had done here and made the vegetation obey her will. A quick turn confirmed that the plant creations were already behind her as well. The crawling mounds drew closer, each of the vine whips wriggling out to wrap around another projection of rubble and pull the rest of the creature closer to Tourmaline. The mounds swelled and Tourmaline could have sworn they were creating mouths for themselves. Mouths with teeth of thorns.

She breathed in a bit of cooling air. Ruby still rested under her vest. Oh well, she had tried. She had really tried. She supposed she would just have to compose herself for whatever Rose Quartz had planned for them upon their reformation. At least Ruby would not have to face this particular horror.

Then a new voice carried out from somewhere over the rubble behind Tourmaline's back. "Psst! Is anyone else still...Oh! Tourmaline! You're back!"

Tourmaline whipped her head around in time to see Peridot poking her curly yellow-hair up over one of the rubble piles. The green gem grinned when she spotted her. "I knew you'd be ok! Hey, who's the newcomer over there in the..." She trailed off, her eyes growing wide as she actually processed the scene below her filled with writhing shadows. Then she screamed:

"Aaahhh! What are those?!"

Garnet turned back towards Tourmaline and the plant beasts with an almost lazy lack of concern. "Ah, that's which now this is." She looked away just as quickly, as if she had just confirmed something.

The seconds slowly shifted. Nothing had really changed about Tourmaline's situation. She was newly reformed, trapped by carbon-based monsters and a mad fusion, holding a weapon she could not use. Ruby still rested, bodiless, tucked down the front of Tourmaline's vest. The nearest crawling mound got close and managed to wrap a single tendril around her leg. More would follow any moment until they could crush her body and draw her self into their maws.

Another scream from up on the rubble pile indicated the creatures had grabbed Peridot as well. The situation was hopeless. Tourmaline's designers had never intended her to function in such a situation. She tightened her grip on the long haft of the weapon. But by a strict examination of the protocols she was created with, three Gems was in fact a household. Tourmalines served their household.

"Tourmaline! Help!"

The sound of the following splintering crunch made Garnet stop and spin back around. All three of her eyes widened as they saw shreds of leaves, vine, and wood come flying out of the deep gash now left in one of Rose's plant creations. The stricken creature flailed its vines before the pale red Tourmaline whose thin arms now swung the massive pole-arm aloft, a twist of her body already letting momentum bring the weapon around for a second punishing swing. The huge blade came crashing down into the heart of another plant with a shuddering slam which actually carried Tourmaline up and over on the other end like a deadly pole-vault.

Garnet blinked three eyes at this impossibility. "And this is the one that happened. Huh."

Tourmaline landed down on her feet and instantly burst forward into a dash. Every particle of her being was focused on reaching Peridot. She was Tourmaline and her household was in danger. She dodged to the side and swung the quartz's weapon to bat another of the mounds away as her thoughts were focused into a strange tunnel-vision. It felt like there was a distant heat in her shoulder as her self pulsed with energy there. Tourmaline's free hand grabbed and pushed at cracks and ledges as she scrambled up the rubble pile. She leapt up over the top and gave one last destroying swing with the shovel-like blade at the plant mound that had been wrapping up Peridot.

She reached down to rip the vines off the smaller Gem's face. "We have get out of here! Now!"

Her hand grabbed onto Peridot's, ripping her arm free of the remaining vines as she pulled her to her feet. For once Peridot did not question her and together they sprinted as fast as they could out of the ruins of their fallen home, out across the meadow towards the concealing darkness of the forest beyond. Then they were past the first tree and still running as if it was the only thing that would prevent their shattering.

Tourmaline did not spare a single look behind to see if the fusion, Garnet, was following them. She simply held tight onto Peridot's hand and took a series of sharp turns around tree trunks, relying on the terrain to hide them from any pursuers. For those few moments the only sound was the pounding of their footsteps against the forest floor.

But Peridot's silent compliance could only last for so long. Still running, the little Gem looked up and said, "Hey Tourmaline, how the heck are you carrying that thing anyway?"

"What? I don't..." Then Tourmaline glanced to her other side where her hand grasped a ten foot long bladed weapon easily three times her total weight. She was holding it perfectly level beside her with no effort. Then, in her moment of confusion, gravity suddenly noticed what had been happening and the weapon crashed down to the earth, carrying Tourmaline with it like a feather tied to an anchor.

The pair of fleeing Gems came to an inglorious, tumbling, sliding, painful halt. Tourmaline was face down in the dirt as she heard the dull thud of Peridot rolling into a tree trunk. A quiet "Ow," followed a moment later.

Tourmaline lifted herself out of the fallen leaves and dust. She turned around and sat there on the ground carefully listening for the footsteps of the pursuing fusion or a creeping slither of those horrible plant monsters. All she could hear was a soft rustling of the trees above them and an occasional high-pitched chittering that swooped around somewhere above the leafy crowns. Tourmaline supposed all that was normal for a night on Earth, she had never before had reason to be outside the building after dark. All she could think of right now was that she suddenly felt more exhausted than she had ever been before.

Still, it didn't hurt to be cautious so she whispered to Peridot, "I think we may have gotten away."

"What the heck was that?! You could have shattered us!" Peridot did not seem to share Tourmaline's mindfulness of caution. Then Peridot coughed up a leaf and continued in a mix of petulance and hysteria, "You're supposed to be the one I listen to and stuff. Stop falling over!"

Tourmaline slowly got to her feet. Her hand found its way over to her shoulder and touched her facets. Why was she so unsteady? Reformation was not supposed to take so much energy out of her. Tourmaline had never done it before but she knew that was supposed to be true. In fact, now that she considered it she had not felt nearly this drained before the fusion had showed up. Now she just wanted to stand in place and stare at a blank wall for two days to replenish some energy.

It was very dark out here under the trees. Still, it only took Tourmaline a moment to determine which way they had come from and slowly shuffled her feet along the uneven forest floor for a few paces. The sudden painful pressure of a blade against her ankle soon told her that she had manage to find the weapon. She knelt down and wrapped her fingers around the thick haft. It was incredibly heavy once more. What had happened back there? She had been ready to be captured by monsters, there in the ruin of her purpose. Then Peridot had showed up and Tourmaline had suddenly thought of her and Ruby and...

Tourmaline froze and clapped her hand against her chest. Fear flashed through her matrix. "Ruby!"

Peridot stopped brushing dirt out of her yellow curls. "What about her?"

Tourmaline fell down to her knees and started crawling along, sweeping the ground with her hands. "She was in my vest! But then there was the fight and we were running and, and..." Her mouth stopped working and she continued to scrabble through the dirt and mulch.

"Oh." Peridots could be quick on the uptake when it was required. She turned her head, looking out at the surrounding blackness of the forest floor and the long, jostling path they had run. "Um, I'm sure it's ok. She probably just fell out right now when you tumbled. Not back at the house when you were doing all those flips in the middle of the vine monsters. Er, we'll look."

Suddenly, Tourmaline's eyes which had been straining against the darkness were blinded by the sudden blaze of a red so bright it was almost white. Still on her hands and knees, she spun around in time to see a small body begin to coalesce out of the energy emanating from the floating red Gem.

Peridot blinked. "Oh, hey. I thought I was lying."

Then Ruby's body acquire its final shape and the light winked out as the short Gem dropped to her feet.

Tourmaline cried out in relief, "Ruby!"

Ruby swiveled her head back and forth. "Tourmaline? Why can't I..." She stopped, then screamed. "I'm blind! Ah! I forgot to make eyes!"

Tourmaline could see Ruby's panicked eyes at that very moment. "What? No, Ruby-"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll destroy this body right away!" A smaller red flash accompanied the materialization of a segmented spiked helmet. Ruby plucked it off her head and held it before her in both hands, spike towards her chest. "I'll try to be quick this time. Just let me-"

"Ruby, no!" Tourmaline snatched the helmet weapon. "You have eyes! It's just dark!"

There was a moment of silence as Ruby blinked and processed what she was actually seeing. "Oh, that actually makes sense." In that instant all her panic was gone. She turned around to look at Tourmaline and Peridot. "Hey, what happened? There was a big noise and then a wall fell on me."

That took a little longer to explain, and Peridot had to chip in some effort to help stop Ruby bolting off to charge in a random wrong direction when she heard the base had been attacked. Luckily it only took a few minutes of being trussed up by Tourmaline's ribbon for Ruby to calm down again.

"I'll shatter 'em! All of them!" Well, she was calm for a Ruby.

"No," Tourmaline said. "Rose Quartz has plant monsters all around there, as well as...other things." She could not bring herself to explain the abomination Garnet just yet. "We need to hide out somewhere until the Diamonds can send a recovery team. Somewhere nearby, where we can see their ship flying in."

Peridot spoke from over where she was once more sitting against the tree trunk. "Actually, I have-"

"Hrmm, hrmm." Ruby grunted in thought. "Somewhere safe. Right."

Peridot frowned and raised her hand. "Like I said, I actually met with-"

Tourmaline stood up and looked around. The thick trees and the dark meant that that was not as helpful as she might have hoped. She still felt weak and thinking straight was difficult. "Perhaps just over a rise? Let's try to find where the elevation-"

"I already have a hiding place!" Peridot yelled. "Peridot and I found it! That's where I was taking you!"

Tourmaline and Ruby both blinked at the technician Gem. Tourmaline said, "Oh. That's good." In her own defense she was exceptionally exhausted.

Peridot grumbled to herself. "Yeah, I never lost my body like you guys. But the fight was crazy. Explosions everywhere, and weapons, and lasers! I scrambled away to the trees when no one was looking. But then I watched across the pit and saw Peridot run out of her house too. I figured out where she was heading and met her there. You see, we alway both talked a lot about this cool bunch of rocks we could see from our towers that kind of looks like a castle, so I figured that she would go there. It was a pretty impressive piece of deductive reasoning that allowed me to-"

"Wait," Tourmaline cut into what she recognized as the beginnings of a Peridot period of self congratulations. "You've been communicating with the other household's Peridot? Over the coms?"

"Uh, yeah?" she said with a laugh. "I told you guys all the time about talking with my friend. I mean, you didn't think I was just up there singing to myself and making up stories about..." Peridot saw Tourmaline and Ruby slowly exchange guilty glances. "Oh. You actually thought I was just talking to an imaginary friend. For three hundred years." She hung her head in embarrassment. "All right, you can destroy my body now and just carry me for a while. It's probably for the best."

Ruby shook her head after a moment of intense ernest consideration. "No. Don't you still need to show us where the other one of you is? I don't think we know how to find her without you."

Peridot groaned again and pressed her face down into the dirt. Tourmaline walked over and plucked her up. She dusted off the smaller Gem's hair with a gentle smile. "Good work, Peridot. Organizing this was very clever. You're in charge of leading the way until we get to your type-sister." Peridot perked up at that.

It took a moment for their small group to devise a way to carry Amethyst's weapon. Eventually they settled on Tourmaline and Ruby each taking an end to support on their shoulder, although the height difference between their two types meant that it was not the best solution. With Peridot leading the march, they set out through the dark forest night.

Ruby grunted under her portion of the weight as Tourmaline strained her arms to make sure she was not dumping the lion's share on the shorter Gem. Ruby said, "Yaigh! And you were swinging this heavy thing around at plant monsters? Tourmaline, how the heck?"

Before Tourmaline could say anything Peridot put forth her opinion. "It must have been her unique power activating. I've heard that reformation trauma has a greater chance of kickstarting abilities that didn't show up at initial harvest."

"Cool!" Ruby grinned. "Like super strength?" Then she grunted again as she shifted the hold on her half of the heavy pole-arm. "Wooof! What, did it wear off?"

Once again Tourmaline opened her mouth only to have Peridot fill it with words. "No, I would have felt an empowered strength when she was pulling me all around by the arm. She didn't feel any stronger than normal, but at the same time she was holding that big slab there in one hand. It's weird, I tell you."

A unique power, Tourmaline thought to herself. That could explain the sudden onset of exhaustion that coupled with the weapon suddenly ceasing its cooperation. She had never shown sign of a unique power before. She'd assumed that it was part of her occlusion defects, like her ribbon weapon. Besides, a Tourmaline didn't really need a power. The Sapphires could each control wind or air temperature or electricity but they were very high value Gems who could use their powers in their research. Tourmalines kept a place clean, managed decorations, and kept other common gems from falling into disorder. Shooting lighting or fire, or dashing like a Quartz would not help with that.

Still, a power. Tourmaline was not sure how she felt about that, whatever it might be. Then her fingers gripped tighter on the weapon's haft as its weight dug down into her shoulder. She still had what remained of her household. She would keep them safe, and she would use every means to do so.

The three gems walked on through an alien night filled with monsters.

...

Chapter Text

...

Tourmaline stood leaning back against the cool granite boulder in the crisp morning light. Peridot had been right, this pile of massive rocks near the top of gentle ridge was a suitable choice. The intervening conifer trees blocked line of sight to the ruins of the research stations over a mile in the distance. Tourmaline looked towards the gap between two cone-like tree-tops which had once framed a view of the paired towers at the top of each building. The sky there was empty; both of home and rescue.

Both Peridots were back amid the boulders. After the brief round of introductions last night, during which Tourmaline had eventually gotten the other Peridot to stop compulsively chewing on the end of her ponytail in overwhelming generalized anxiety. The two little green Gems had then found a slim gap between a few of the boulders and squeezed themselves inside. Officially they declared that it was a safety precaution in case of a rebel attack, but Tourmaline saw how closely they held onto each other as they murmured speculations through the night. There was comfort in touching another one of yourself; a grounding assurance of order in the universe. Neither Tourmaline nor Ruby had made any comment.

Back in the present, Tourmaline frowned at the little wisp of white cloud that populated the pale blue sky. Peridot hadn't seen the other household's Tourmaline. Peridot's Berryl had also vanished in the fighting, captured or shattered, much like Tourmaline's own Sapphires. Tourmaline absently drummed her fingers against the facets in her left shoulder as a brief breeze carried the scent of pine sap and faint forest sounds. Then she stopped as she realized she had copied that gesture from green Sapphire. Tourmaline's world had been torn apart and she was just barely holding onto her programing now.

Then with a jerk she realized she had heard the crunching sound of footsteps approaching. Tourmaline dropped down to fumble with the little mound of pine needles she had piled on top of Amethyst's pole-arm to hide it across the entrance to their make-shift home. She had known that the rebels were probably still lurking in the forest, but she had been desperate to see help arriving from that sky that had brought so much destruction. Tourmaline's fingers gripped down on the weapon's haft as she grunted in her effort to lift it to manage some form of defense. That was when Ruby strolled around the boulder to her right, her little feet scrunching through the gravel and needles.

"Ruby? What were you doing-?" Tourmaline said before she cut herself off, feeling embarrassed that she had just failed in protecting her tiny household from what had turned out to be itself. "And where did you come from?!"

"Uh, I just went out the other side and walked around?" Ruby pointed uncertainly behind herself. "It's a couple big rocks we're hiding in, not exactly a fortress. The Peridots have been so high strung for long enough that they're mostly just staring at the dirt right now."

Then Ruby looked at the heavy weapon Tourmaline was just barely holding up with trembling arms. "I take it you haven't exactly figured your power out yet."

Tourmaline sighed and leaned the weapon back down on the dirt. It slipped out of her fingers with a heavy thud. "I thought I was never made to have any. I can't remember anything about how to use it, or even exactly what it was I did. I could barely lift this. Then, suddenly, I could."

"Probably some version of manipulating the associational gravitational relationship of objects." That voice came from behind her and Tourmaline turned to see the Peridots creeping out of the boulder pile, squinting at the sunlight. Apparently, it was the unfamiliar One who had spoken and she now continued, "I can't imagine the effect could be very great if it was generated by a Tourmaline; that's not exactly design intent."

She was about to say something else when she noticed that Tourmaline was inspecting her thoughtfully while Ruby was staring with the wide eyes stasis of someone waiting patiently for a wave to wash over them. "Er, she made the weapon lighter. I think."

"Huh," Tourmaline said to herself. She looked down at the pole-arm lying on the ground. The main blade was with a semicircle arc who's slicing edge abruptly turned concave at each end, creating a broad spade shape. The haft was long and thick, sized for hands much larger than hers, and led down to the far end where a small bladed crescent capped the counterweight knob. It was a tool of destruction, the property of a mighty warrior. But Amethyst was missing and Tourmaline was here, with three other common Gems and no orders.

The Peridots were talking together again and appeared to have once more forgotten the presence of the other two Gems.

"Limiting factors? I'm thinking proximity?"

"Obviously. But I would also wager on contact; the effect conducted through her body so that touch is required."

"Possibly. Or maybe only one target at a time? She was tugging me along like she wanted to rip my arm off but I never felt any lighter."

"Erg, this is frustrating! A proper analyzer would sing out the results in an instant but all Beryl's equipment got smashed by the Rebels! At least I think it got smashed. I wonder if..."

Tourmaline looked back to see the other household's Peridot looking back at the site of the research stations with a wistful expression. That needed to be nipped in the bud.

"No way," she declared, using her most 'authoritative Tourmaline' tone. "Everyone is staying right here until the recovery team arrives. The rebels could still be about in this forest so we are all going to go back into the rocks now. Do you hear me?"

Peridot looked down, embarrassed and mumbled something that sounded like "Y'stourm" which Tourmaline took as agreement. Tourmaline's own Peridot started making teasing faces at her type-sister as soon as Tourmaline turned away slightly but she did not have the energy to deal with that too. It appeared that groups of Peridots were even harder to handle than Rubies.

On the subject of Ruby, she was staring off towards the site of their wrecked home as well, shading her eyes against the sun.

"Hey," Tourmaline pointed. "That goes for everyone. No leaving."

"Huh? Oh, right, yeah." Ruby paused but did not change her pose. "Hey, Tourmaline? How will we know when the Recovery comes?"

"I imagine it'll be very hard to miss. An attack like this will ensure a thorough response from the Diamonds."

"Oh." Ruby stopped shading her eyes and pointed instead. "So, something like that?"

Tourmaline spun around just as the huge shadow slid across the landscape and their hiding spot. She looked up over the trees and saw a massive ship hanging in the air, perfectly above the site of the research stations, blocking the mourning sun. It was an inverted pyramid that rose to a squat rectangular body. Whatever was on top was hidden in the bloom of of the sun behind it. Tourmaline realized that despite the little bits of knowledge she had been made with, she had only ever seen one ship before with her own eyes. That was the one that had destroyed her home. Perhaps that was why she felt so uneasy.

Peridot came running back out of the rock fort. "Yes! Oh, thank you Diamonds! We aren't going to be trapped in the wilderness forever!"

Tourmaline leaned down to collect Amethyst's weapon. She would need to return it. Her fingers gripped around the haft and suddenly it felt like some of her strength flowed out of her self and filled the weapon with some lighter-than-air force. She was getting the hang of this. The pole-arm easily swung up to rest on her shoulder and Tourmaline turned back to the distant ship that defied gravity in its own way, now motionless over the research site that it dwarfed. The Peridots were celebrating and Ruby was grinning up at her. Tourmaline began to smile just as large red dots began to glow on each face of the pyramid.

Peridot was in the middle of speaking, "I mean it's kind of weird that they sent this type of craft, but I guess they were worried that the rebels might still be around and...huh. What's it doing?"

Tourmaline held out her arm to her side with the palm back towards the others. "Go back in the boulders."

Ruby was confused. "Why?"

Tourmaline didn't know. Small bits of information and treasonous suspicions were clicking together in her mind. The red circles on the side of the ship were glowing brighter. "Just do what I say right now. We need to-"

Blinding beams of light blinked into existence from the sides of the ship to the ground below. The world turned monochromatic as for an instant only shadows and white existed. Then orange joined the searing medley, jumping up from the forest in dancing spasms as the ship began to slowly rotate. At those temperatures even the dirt was burning. Tourmaline dropped the weapon and grabbed her Gems, throwing them back into the gap between the two huge boulders. Then the fiery heat washed over them with the impact of splintering trees. The only sound was the roar of the inferno wind.

...

Much later, the four of them staggered out of their crude, blackened refuge into a snow of ash. Amazingly, no one had lost their bodies. Ruby had summoned her helmet to protect her and lay against one Peridot as a sort of shield. Tourmaline was worse for the wear. The back edges of her body, decorations and, all had been worn away by the wave of fire that swept across the forest. As she sat in between the boulders in a meditative stupor, feeling the hot flakes white ash slowly rain down on her, she considered that it might have actually been easier to lose and reform her body. Executing repairs on an existing manifestation was extraordinarily difficult. But she couldn't leave her household alone. Not again.

The sky was empty once more.

Peridot was talking to her other self. "They must have executed a sensor sweep that came back negative for any Gems. That's the only explanation."

"What kind of sweep would that be, magic?! And how could they possibly find any bodiless gems that could have been lying in the rubble without leaving the ship? They burned it all to slag!"

"Well, obviously we don't know everything because that has to have been what happened! Or maybe the rebels sent some broadcast saying they'd captured us all! I don't know but they clearly thought we were out of range."

Tourmaline slowly turned her head towards Ruby over in the corner, knowing that she herself was operating at far below standards. Ruby seemed better. The small red Gem stood in the v-shaped gap that had served as the entrance to their odd jumble of a shelter. She wasn't a wreak like Tourmaline, or in hysterics like Peridot. Rubies were soldiers; they might not be the best problem solvers, and dealt with boredom poorly, but they did not flinch from physical threats. The household needed that now, because Peridot was wrong. That ship had not cared if they were beneath it or not.

Tourmaline took in a breath to speak and immediately regretted it. The ash coated and irritated the inside of her body, but she ignored that sensation as she said:

"Ruby."

"Tourmaline!" Ruby turned and relief flashed into her face as she saw Tourmaline active again. "Oh, I'm so glad. You weren't responding before. I was worried you had micro-fractures or something on the part of you thats inside your body. If you hadn't come out of it I was thinking of popping your body to take a look." Worry still edged at the corner of her voice.

Tourmaline couldn't remember how much time had passed, it seemed like only a moment, but she supposed that she must have experienced some stress related failure of operation. That must be possible. Her fingers crept up to her shoulder on their own volition and once more felt mercifully smooth facets. It wasn't possible that she'd been heat-damaged, was it?

"Don't worry, I'm fine." She was not in the position to worry about herself. She needed to protect her Gems. Tourmaline rose to her feet, unsteady, with her hand reaching out to touch the boulder beside her for support. The granite was still cool. For some reason her mind objected and insisted that it should at least be warm after having all that terrible fire wash over it, but the stillness of its vast interior cold reservoir not be influenced by such a paltry application of heat. That unchanging core gave it strength.

The other Gems were looking at her. Tourmaline stopped pressing her fingertips into the rough grains of the granite slab and turned towards them. She could feel the last remaining hole in her body's decorations slowly close up on her back, leaving her vest and pants whole once more.

"The diamonds made a good decision. Those alien plant servitors of the rebellion were extremely dangerous, but they'll all be gone now. Unfortunately, our superiors mistakenly believed we were gone." Or they had written them off as acceptable losses. "That means that the recovery team is not coming to collect us, and our warp pad was destroyed in the attack."

"So we're stuck here?" Ruby looked up with plaintive eyes.

"No, we're going to deliver ourselves for collection. It's just going to take us a little bit longer." She turned. "Peridot!"

Both Peridots jumped slightly. "Er, yes?

"You spent all that time looking at geographic maps of the Earth, right?" She addressed both but she kept her eyes on her own curly haired one. Tourmaline didn't know if that odd obsession with maps was a quirk of one Gem or just an unimportant characteristic of the type.

Peridot smiled triumphantly. "Oh, I see! Yes, I know all about this area and...oh." The impact of what Tourmaline was about to say suddenly sank in past her pride. "Oh no."

"So you know where the closest warp pad is."

The other Peridot joined in, trying to avoid the certain conclusion that was making her tug on her pony-tail our of stress again. "I mean, yes, but that's over five percent of the way around the planet!"

"Then we'd better start walking." Tourmaline strode out of the group of boulders that had been their camp. The rear bade of Amethyst's weapon stuck slightly out of the ash that covered the ground. Tourmaline grabbed the haft of the weapon with one hand. She felt her shoulder pulse as she allowed herself to lift it. She set it across her shoulders, held it with both hands, and then let go of her new power before the energy expenditure made her collapse. The sudden onset of many times her body weight almost brought her down anyway, but she managed to compose herself before turning back to the others who uncertainly filed out of the feeble protection of the rocks.

"Peridot, point the way."

The landscape around them was stripped of color. In every direction was a vast expanse of black charcoal, white ash, and grey rock decorating undulating ridges scoured free of trees, all under a wide blue sky. The only sound was their footsteps and the faint crackle of the remaining fragments of carbonized wood periodically collapsing under its own weight. Peridot indicated off towards the horizon and they started walking. It felt good to have a task and purpose again.

It was five minutes before Ruby started asking if they were there yet.

...

Traveling was a new experience; one that contained innumerable other sub-nested novelties. In Tourmaline's previous thousand years of existence the furthest she had ever walked was from her hole in the kindergarden to the warp pad. In that first hour of memory she had been surrounded by others of herself, also newly harvested, and had only needed to follow the direction that the overseeing Peridot was pointing. It was simple. Though, in a way, Tourmaline supposed was still doing that.

The untamed Earth was a strange place. Tourmaline had long known this but she was now continually assailed by examples. The local aliens existed in innumerable shapes, the sessile plants and the mobile animals both existed in a constant violent war. A dead-end quirk of creation, they could only exist by ripping the bodies of others apart for matter to convert into sustaining energy. And when they fell there was no evidence of reformation, only exposed white structural supports and slowly crumbling fibrous trunks. It was almost as sad as it was horrifying.

Somewhere out there in the wilderness, the rebels were still lurking. From time to time as Tourmaline and her friends walked through endless forests or rolling plains they could see small streams of smoke rising in the distance. Once they came to a river under a bright moon and saw saw lights gleaming in the distance down its course. They found rutted dirt paths sometimes, but avoided them. Who knew what manner of device or creature might have made those tracks? The mountains were safer.

Tourmaline shifted the pole-arm's haft that lay across her shoulders. Her feet splashed through the clear stream, the flowing cold water bulging up above her left knee to brush her thigh. One of the smooth, rounded stones that covered the stream-bed clacked as it rocked under her foot, forcing Tourmaline to briefly adjust her balance. Then she was was across and pushed through the mud-silt at the edge to climb up past the crumbling grass ledge that formed an overly large step onto dry land.

She looked down. All this water made her leg decorations cling to her calves even more and attracted dirt like an adhesive but that would dry quickly enough. She tried to not smile at Peridot's incessant low pitch grumbling as the smaller gem sat on a rock curled into an angry, soaked, dirt and grass covered ball. Peridot had lost her balance during her own crossing. Turning upstream, Tourmaline watched the other Peridot slowly inching her way by hands and knees across a thin bridge of tree fragments that had collected against a few rocks. That left Ruby alone on the far bank.

"Ruby, do you want me to come back across for you?"

"No, no! I got this! Just..." Ruby growled as she stamped and paced, staring down the flowing water. "Just give me a moment!"

Tourmaline checked that Peridot had finished her inch by inch crossing before turning back to Ruby. By then Ruby had given up on her apprehension and simply marched straight forward, her hands clenched in fists at her sides.

"Oh, Ruby, it's actually much shallower if you cross on the other side of those boulders or...Well, I guess she's fine. Her body's dense."

The top of Ruby's hair disappeared under the surface for a few moments as Tourmaline spoke. An exodus of flashing shadows scattered from the center of the stream, swimming in every direction to flee this invasion of their favored space under those rocks. Then Ruby emerged up the far side, streaming water down every inch of her body. Ruby was excited now and pointed back.

"Glur blegh ish ba urglurgugik!" More water came pouring out of her mouth. Apparently she had not thought to close it while in the stream.

Tourmaline sighed. "Speak with air, not water."

Ruby blinked then opened her mouth wide to eject a small sparkling waterfall. "Oops. Thanks, Tour! I saw a fish!"

"Yeah, yeah, great." Peridot was not as enthusiastic for their impromptu surveying mission. The grit and pine needles that suck to her soaked body looked like a very odd set of manifested decorations. Now both of the green gems were back together again so they could chide in unison. "Come on! We're almost there!"

Ruby glanced at Tourmaline then back at the Peridots. "You said that before."

"Well, I'll admit we may have taken a slight detour for a while back there."

"We were on a frozen ocean and you insisted we were still heading south!"

"Like I said, detour. We've only been walking for one hundred and seventy two days," a Peridot said. Ruby mumbled something about the initial estimation being thirty-eight days. "Hey, I'd like to see you try and plot a course across the planet from memory without any technology whatsoever! It was our genius that concocted the plan of observing the polar oriented star quadrant as a navigation technique! But look, we've got to be in the right area now. You saw the cliffs we've been passing. That's totally the right geology for the shaping yard! Civilization is right around here somewhere!"

To Tourmaline's eyes all that was around them were more mountain ridges and behind them undoubtably more valleys that led to more mountains; mountains, trees, and dust. Tourmaline missed when they had been striding across the plains of tall grass. She at least had been tall enough to see over the plants and there had been no trees to get Amethyst's pole-arm stuck between. Of course a giant herd of shaggy horned aliens had almost trampled one of the Peridots down into shards and then Ruby had accidentally started a grass-fire that was still raging across the entire horizon behind them last time they had seen it. Still, the land, when it was not on fire, had been relatively flat.

Now they were climbing yet another seemingly endless mountain ridge-line. Each time Tourmaline thought she saw the blue sky through the trees that signaled they had reached the top they crested a slight fold to reveal another interminable slope. Her mind fell into a trance, constantly looking down at her feet crunching into the dirt, following the winding trails that might be dry watercourses or the paths of native creatures. She and the Peridots were flagging, only Ruby seemed to be keeping up a constant level of pep and energy. Then Tourmaline looked uphill once more and just saw blue between the pine trunks. This time the blue didn't vanish and slowly the ridge finally gave up its fight.

"Ha ha! Yes!" Peridot crawled across the last bit of flat ground on the top of the slope before collapsing on an overlook. "Oh thank the Diamonds we made it! We finally made it!" Her other self was also grinning ear to ear as she fell over to topple into into the first's lap.

Tourmaline had to admit that there might have been a similar grin on her own face. For months they had been wandering the eerily empty wilderness. From time to time they had sought shelter from a storm in a cave or rock overhang only to find mysterious scratches or lines of pigment adorning the walls. They were no manner of writing or symbol code that even the Peridots could understand. Once, the middle of in a vast plain they had summited a round hill to find a single standing stone. When they approached it they saw what seemed to be strange creatures carved or frozen forever in the process of emerging from the obelisk. Never before had Tourmaline considered that the world she was made in from was so very alien. Now they once more looked down on the glory and magnificence of Gem civilization and it was as if the invisible watching eyes that had followed them were now drawn away.

Below their vantage point, vast miles wide pits had been opened in the solid grey rock of the mountain range. The land had been scraped clean of plants and dirt leaving only the hard core, and in places entire ridge-lines were gone, sheered down to flat bottom depressions by the extraction of raw construction material. Elsewhere the needs had been more targeted and whole mountain peaks here sat suspended like tables, held up by massive irregular columns left over from a desired material being extracted from the mountain roots. This was one of the Earth's shaping yards for the Diamond's construction projects.

"Awesome!" said Ruby. "How do we get down?"

The answer turned out to be: carefully. In most places the overlapping rectangular pits were sheer walled for thousands of feet to their bottoms. The little group eventually made their way along the ridge-line until they found an excavated area old enough that water and temperature effects had weathered cracks into its side. Tourmaline summoned up her ribbon to help lower them down in places. For almost a thousand feet of the decent she struggled under the oppressive handicap of the massive weapon she carried. Then, in the middle of a nearly sheer section she suddenly had an embarrassingly obvious epiphany. Tourmaline swung her arm and threw the weapon out over the side.

"Ahh!" Peridot screamed up from a crack few paces below. "What the heck, Tourmaline!"

"I'll find it at the bottom. It's a quartz's forged weapon. It's not like it's going to break."

"That's not..." Peridot lapsed into a moment of silence. "Then why didn't you do that from the beginning ?"

Tourmaline sighed. Fortunately, Ruby managed to shush the green Gem by briefly using her curly haired head as a foothold. Tourmaline mostly resisted returning Ruby's grin.

They made it to the bottom relatively safely, even if Ruby did accidentally end up taking the last two hundred feet the same way as the weapon had. Fortunately, she landed with her self up facing up so only her body took the hit. Then it was just a matter of dusting off and gathering the group to apply the proper leverage to extract the weapon's blade from where it had sunk deep into the solid rock. After that, the little party turned and faced the uneven landscape that led to the newer quarries. Grey clouds were moving in to cover the sky and filter the sunlight into cooler colors.

It was easy enough to see where the more established parts of the Shaping Yard were. Even at this distance the giant, many-legged shells of the excavators could hardly be mistaken for anything native to this planet. The shelved expanse of right angles artificial canyons, pits, and sheer cliffs began to be dotted with other bits of technology as they drew closer. These machine nodes were connected by thick paths of elemental gold, tracing angular untarnished circuitry across the stone walls.

Tourmaline was still looking forward as they walked, sensitive of the many sudden drops in this artificial landscape, when one of the Peridots spoke behind her. "Wow, that's incredibly crude. Actually using gold for electrical conductivity? Well, I guess in the early days on the planet they might have had to make do. And if the element's a byproduct of the other extraction then their doing it could make sense?" No matter what she said it still sounded like she wanted to find whoever had designed this place and shake for making such a choice.

Then Tourmaline's own Peridot spoke up. "But nothing seems to be online. Where are all the Bismuths?" Tourmaline was briefly surprised that she had recognized something about that voice as distinct from her type fellow's without seeing the yellow curls. Then she processed what Peridot had actually said.

She was right, something was wrong. The machines were quiet. They walked and climbed across a barren rock landscape and saw absolutely no other movement. None of the massive excavators had budged since they first came into sight. There was only gusts of wind and a dim haze creeping up from the lower elevations to spill over the walls into the massive excavation site. Ruby shivered and Tourmaline found herself walking a little closer to the other gems.

But there was something in the distance; a glow. Tourmaline pointed. "Look, under that space. Is there a light down there?"

The 'space' she was gesturing to existed under one of the moth-eaten mountains. High above them, three thousand feet of mountain peak and snow sat on a base that had been excavated down to the barest supports. The archways between those irregular bedrock columns could have welcomed a capital ship flying underneath into the shadows of that gem-made sunless land. But somewhere within those depths was a faint orange glow.

"Hey, you're right!" With a concrete target in sight, Ruby's anxiety instantly vanished. "That must be where everyone is!" Tourmaline just wished that her own gem type had not been designed in part to predict potential problems. In this chaos of their new unhinged existence that quality was becoming a hindrance.

However, the Peridots were still looking to her so Tourmaline nodded and began to march forward towards the hollow mountain. She'd just have to try and hide the fact that she kept pulsing her power into the weapon she carried every time she heard a small rock fall in the distance. Her suddenly lashing out with a massive bladed pole-arm against an attack from a slight breeze would not be good for household moral.

After half an hour of walking they stepped into the shadow. There was now half a dead mountain hanging over their heads. Separated from the sun, the grey cloud-tinted light of outside began to fade. Yet still it was enough to catch scattered glimmers off more thick angular circuitry, branching across the stone walls and columns in geometric rivers of gold. They walked through the increasing darkness. At first, Ruby tried to give some illumination but her placement on her body meant that the constantly moving results were more disorienting than helpful. Then after ten minutes of immense cavernous tunnels, the Gems saw even more glimmers coming from the opposite direction and Tourmaline realized that she had been right. There was a light source under here.

Ahead, the massive bedrock pillars took on an orange tint that shone up from somewhere below. Then they rounded one more two hundred yard wide cough column and saw the shallow pit carved into the rough hewn floor level. About twenty Bismuths stopped in place to look back up at them.

Unlike the rest of the boreholes and tunnels that branched out below these lower levels of the excavation, this patch clearly had been modified to be a bit more homey. The rock had been smoothed and polished, carved into neat lines and corners. A large computer bank stood on the other side, merged with a rock wall and the gold circuitry that joined there. There were a few other scattered pieces of technology, but the most notable sight was the numerous thick limbed builder Gems rig there below them. Tourmaline found herself needing to brush a tear from the corner of her eye. They had been alone in the alien wilderness for so many months and now they were finally back in the bosom of their species. The sensation was almost overwhelming.

Several of the Bismuths marched up a granite staircase to approach Tourmaline and her comrades. With each step, the Bismuths' thick multi-colored dreadlocks slid from side to side across their broad backs. As they summited up to the edge of the living-pit, Tourmaline felt a Peridot grasp lightly at the flared base of her vest's back. This close, Bismuths were quite intimidating. By sheer size they were even bigger than a Quartz though of course they were never used for violence. Then Tourmaline's relieved smile caught on an edge. Pearls were never used for violence either, yet she had seen what the Rebels had done.

Bismuth planted her feet heavily on the stone floor before them, worn down by a millennia of steady traffic too and from. She placed her hands on her hips and smiled as she looked down at the newcomers. "Well, hey now. What are you girls doing in a place like this?"

Tourmaline opened her mouth but both Peridots burst into anguished wailing at the same instant. "Oh, it was terrible! The Rebels attacked! They destroyed our stations, and then command accidentally melted out entire job site! We were the only uncaptured survivors, and then we had to trudge across the geography for ages! Not to say that we were walking for any longer than could be managed by even the best navigators under our circumstances-"

Tourmaline put a soft hand on her Peridot's curls before she could continue defending their unintended detour to the icecap. "Our warp pad was destroyed in the attack. Your facility was the closest alternative we knew of. We think we may have been wrongly recorded as having been shattered."

She waited for some response. Then she frowned. She knew that Bismuth was not needed as a conversationalist but still with three of them standing right here at least one should have something to say to an implied question. Instead, the rear two exchanged a brief look.

Tourmaline spoke again. "Ok, were is your supervising Gem? I suppose it would be Beryl, or maybe Topaz in a place like this. Heck, if Tourmaline happens to be stationed here that'd be fine too, if only as a check against my own mental drift patterns. We need to..." She trailed off. Tourmaline was made to keep peace and order in a household she could see the troubled thoughts behind those thick Bismuth faces.

Bismuth raised one massive arm to scratch at her ropes of hair. "Yeah, we'd love to help you, but we're kind of on our own here."

The east station Peridot murmured in flat disbelief, "Oh, please no."

The builder looked sheepish. "Yeah, the rebels hit us too. It was a real big thing, all woosh bang pow, which is why I guess no one's gotten around to checking on us since the survey they did right after it happened. But you're welcome to wait here!"

Ruby growled and began to stamp on her way to a particularly noteworthy fit of frustrated rage but she was suddenly quieted by a sudden loud smash. Even the Bismuths stepped back in surprise from the faintly vibrating pole-arm that had just dug its heavy blade several inches into the solid rock at Tourmaline's feet. Tourmaline felt her teeth pressed tight together as her fingernails dug into her palm

"They got here before us," she said. She wasn't sure who she was addressing. "Of course they did, they're used to traveling without the warp pads. The rebels must have arrived here a month after they destroyed out home."

Bismuth blinked. "Wow, your stationing was attacked ninety-three years ago too?"

Tourmaline felt all the anger abruptly drain out of her to be filled with a cold splash of surprise. "Sorry, what? Ninety-three years? You've been sitting here inactive for ninety-three years?" Her voice was growing shrill despite her best efforts, however in this case she felt she was warranted. This level of wasted resources indicated something very wrong with Command. Tourmaline thought back to hearing Amethyst talk about the severity of the rebellion. Things out here were even worse than Tourmaline had imagined.

"Hey, we haven't been inactive!" That other Bismuth sounded offended. "There's plenty of prep-work that can be done. Chiseling guidelines and such. Measuring. Over the last decade with finished the preliminary plan for the rest of quarry seventy nine!" She trailed off as she realized that did not sound very productive. "Admittedly, it goes a bit slower without any of the machines."

"Yeah, about that." West-facility Peridot had questions. "Where are your Peridots? In an operation this big there should be at least three of me, minimum. Did command evacuate them?" This last sentence was suggested in a faintly patronizing tone, suggesting that Peridot would be willing to coopering in entertaining the fiction that twenty Bismuths were as important as even a handful of her. Tourmaline sighed to herself, there was a reason Peridots were rarely set to interact with the general population without managerial gems around.

The Bismuths paused for another moment of silence. It was certain now, something more persistent than a brief attack almost a century ago was bothering them. Tourmaline looked closely at the way these huge gems subtly shifted their weight. Something kept their anxiety close to the surface. Several of them gave micro-glances over the same shoulder. Something with directionality.

Foremost Bismuth shrugged, "No, they're still here. With the other gems. Yellow Diamond's orders. Not that we...Yellow Diamond's orders." She finished by repeating that same phrase.

Something was still nagging at Tourmaline but she was more desperate than she was curious. These Bismuths were not her household so their mentality was not her primary concern. She could not imagine what managing the interactions an even larger group of Peridots would be like but right now they needed information and for that she needed some Gems who were not content to double and triple-check their measurements on a stone wall until a rockslide at the end of time crushed them all to dust.

"Could you please take us to them?" She asked Bismuth.

"Uh, sure. Come along this way." The huge builder Gem turned and gestured for the others to come with her.

Tourmaline and her small household followed Bismuth off to the side, along the edge of the habitation pit. Almost two dozen faces looked up from below, turning their heads in unison to watch the newcomer's progress. Then they were leaving the improved portion of the excavation and followed another well worn path that curved around a massive column of rock leading up to the invisibly black celling above. It was very quiet.

The path started leading down. The way contracted around them, becoming more of a tunnel than the cavernous void under the harvested mountain. Bismuth lit their way by the thin beam of her projected light until she suddenly stopped and reached out to touch a panel set into the rock wall. Multiple illuminators sprang on around what was revealed to be a large round chamber.

Bismuth gestured to a wide circular opening in the center of the floor. Tourmaline assumed it must be another habitation pit like the one the Bismuths had constructed for themselves. Bismuth said, "They stay in here mostly."

Tourmaline's Peridot jogged forward towards the edge, eager to be united with more of her type. "And what, did they all forget to hit the light-switch? What are you idiots doing down here in the dark when you could..." Tourmaline saw her freeze. Then Peridot let out the most terrible scream Tourmaline had ever heard.

The rest of the refugees rushed up to Peridot's side, but as soon as Tourmaline got close the pole-arm dropped off her shoulder. Her grip on it had loosed without any conscious decision. She could focus on nothing but the horror she saw before her.

The pit floor was covered with the shards of shattered Gems.

Even as Tourmaline staggered to maintain her fitting there were dim flashes of light down below. Partial limbs and grasping hands materialized around some of the shards. They writhed and twitched, flexing what joints they had to crawl a little closer to the pit wall right below Tourmaline. Then more of the shards began to materialize similar mockeries; green and red and blue in every shade of Gem bodies.

Tourmaline's two Peridots were clutching on to each other as tightly as any gem could, seeming ready to fuse out of pure terror. Ruby had summoned her helmet and clenched her small fists in front of her as if she was desperate to fight something but had no idea what her target could be. Behind them all, Bismuth shook her head sadly.

"I think the light gets them riled up."

"Wha..." Tourmaline stammered. She could not comprehend any course of events that would lead to this. She could not even count how many distinct Gems had been lost here. It could have been hundreds. "Why did you leave them like this?!" This wasn't a harvest, these fallen were not incorporated into a new use and purpose. They had not even been ground down for raw materials. They had just been left here, in the dark.

"I said before, Yellow Diamond's orders." Now Tourmaline heard a difference in tone when Bismuth said the word diamond. After all she had been watching this for ninety-three years. "Being all together might bother them, but we didn't have much tried to keep them separate at first but that just made it harder to round them up when they wiggled away. And there were just too many."

Ruby ground her teeth together. "How did this happen?"

Bismuth shrugged. "Rose Quartz's rebels came. There was no warning. They dropped down over the cliff into the middle of quarry seventy-seven; floating in a big pink orb. Nearly the entire work crew was there."

Tourmaline needed to talk, any movement to distract her mind from what she had turned away from. "And they attacked?" She murmured.

"No, they started to talk."

"Talk?!" Ruby roared.

"Yeah, just talk. I'd never heard anything like it. They wanted every one of us to join their rebellion. They wanted us to choose. I didn't even know what to do. I'd never even heard a Quartz talk to me before." Bismuth sighed. "Of course Citrine tried to fight them off, despite their numbers, and then everything was a rockslide from there. The rebels made their way towards the warp pad but reinforcements were already coming in from command. Things started exploding. Then giant monster Gems started showing out of nowhere, types I'd never seen before. The rebels must have made their own twisted kindergarden somewhere out in the wild."

"No," Tourmaline said in a distant way. "It's fusion. Fusion between two different Gems. One of them told me herselves."

"What?" West-station Peridot yelled. "That's impossible!"

Her fellow said, "...wait, that was that other gem in the ruins of our home? The one with the plants? That was a, gah, dual-type fusion?"

Tourmaline turned to say something, offer some type of reassurance or explanation, but then she felt something clutch down onto her foot.

She jerked back, screaming as she accidentally pulled dup the disembodied arm which grasped onto her over the lip of the pit. Tourmaline fell over backwards, then kicked and kicked until the arm briefly lost its grip and flopped onto the stone floor. But it flipped over and continued crawling towards her.

Peridots were screaming too, more of the shards were making their way up over the lip of the pit. Tourmaline rolled over and scrambled on her hands and knees over to grab at the pole-arm as Ruby stamped around trying to head-butt the crawling shards with the spike on her helmet. She looked as likely to pitch forward into the pit as help the situation.

Tourmaline jumped up, pulsing with energy in her shoulder as the heavy weapon was suddenly as light as a feather. She spun the haft and the wide blade cleaved across the floor, leaving a puff of smoke and a tinkling shard. These things moved unpredictably, and with the weapon made light like this Tourmaline couldn't muster up enough force in her swings to always bite through the surface of their manifestations. More were coming over the lip. Tourmaline moved around the pit and looked down to see a crawling mound, a wave of manifested limbs that had splashed against the side of the pit and formed a ramp for the constantly circulating shards. That had to be stopped.

She glowed in her shoulder as she reached out to draw her ribbon. The long bolt of cloth shimmered into existence even as she wrapped one end around the haft of the pole-arm. Then she planted her feet, spun and felt her power pulsing out through the manifested tool as she let go of the weapon, letting it swing out and down in a bladed arc. The weapon sliced through the pile of shards half way up the wall and left their poor attempts at bodies vanishing into colored smoke while those above that point came tumbling down. As the spear on a ribbon swung back up Tourmaline allowed herself a breath of relief. Unfortunately, that accidentally released her concentration on her power and the pole-arm abruptly resumed its weight, causing its trajectory to instantly shift from angular to ballistic. The massive weapon hit the far wall of the chamber with a heavy thud, followed shortly afterwards by Tourmaline herself, still tied to it by her arm.

Bismuth waded forward through the screaming Peridots and Ruby's growling, stamping performance. She sighed sadly and casually kicked at the few remaining shards that had made it out of the pit. Those wiggling limbs sailed out over the edge and dropped down. Bismuth even caught hold of Ruby's shoulder before the smaller gem accidentally pitched over the lip herself.

"Sorry about that," Bismuth said. "They all get excited sometimes. Maybe its the new people. Now that you've seen them we can head back up if you want."

Flat on her face over in the corner, Tourmaline held out a thumbs up.

Bismuth reached her hand out to the panel on the wall and turned out the lights. They left the shattered fallen to their peaceful dark.

...

A week later Tourmaline and her fellows were ready to depart the Shaping Yard. This wasn't their stationing, so there was nothing to be gained by staying here. They needed to find some other way to report to command. The Peridots had managed to get access to the remaining computers here and had placed together navigation clues for the next closest warp pad. Presumably it was still active. At this point they could only hope.

The large cloud of Bismuths all left their habitation pit as one to follow the group through the under-mountain cavern. But then they reached the edge of the shadow where high above the table slab of a mountain peak suddenly gave way to the sky. Bright sunlight washed the flat stone floor of the quarry, turning the grey rock almost white. Behind them, the Bismuths lined up in alternating rows. Past those Gems, from certain angles some could see past all the giant's forest of stone pillars to the daylight on other side of the hollowed ridge where they had first come from. Tourmaline shifted the pole-arm across her shoulders and took that first step with Ruby and the Peridots at her side.

They had hardly gotten more than a few yards when they heard Bismuth call out behind them.

"Yes, Bismuth? What is it?" Tourmaline turned to say. "Did you forget to mention some active weapons systems or rigged explosives you have out this way?" She had not managed to completely forgive that one individual for springing the surprise of the shards on them, even if it had been done with no malice in mind.

But when she looked back it was actually three Bismuths walking out into the sunlight after them. Tourmaline held out a hand and her small household stopped, even if it was done with some small amount of grumbling from one of the Peridots behind her back. Tourmaline glanced past those three at the other Bismuths still in the shade of the mountain behind them. There was some new discontent there.

Ruby blinked and looked far above her at the three huge Bismuths. "What's up?"

The Bismuths froze for a moment. Then they leaned in close to each other, exchanged a few quiet whispered words and then returned to their straight posture.

They spoke in unison. "We'd like to go with you."

Tourmaline's curly haired Peridot twisted her mouth to the side. "You're not really part of our incident report. And your stationing still exists! Shouldn't you stay here with the rest of you?

There was another whispered conference several feet above the rest of their heads. The Bismuths turned back and said:

"It's been...a while. Something in the reporting system's gone wrong. If similar things have happened to your place too, then the Diamonds might be working with incorrect statistics. The rebels are disrupting their measuring, making Gems cut out bits that should be left in. And vice versa. We would like to present a report."

Tourmaline was honestly impressed. Even for type-sisters that three part harmony of a speech was a remarkable level of cohesion. Yet they had also clearly separated from the group consensus here. Despite misgivings, Tourmaline smiled.

"Well, I'm not part of your organization structure so you can exercise your purpose regardless of my input. Still, it'd be nice to have you with us." Three Bismuths could be useful on a cross-country trek, if only for their strength. In fact...

However, when Tourmaline held out the heavy pole-arm all three Bismuths uniformly shook their heads. No Bismuth was made to touch a weapon, even if each of them could easily carry it one handed. It made sense that they would have a modification to differentiate the powerful builders from Quartz soldiers. Tourmaline sighed as she settled the massive weight back onto her slim red shoulders. It had been worth a shot. She just wished the whole display had not amused West-station Peridot so much.

After hours of walking they were still within the depths of the quarry pits. However, here Tourmaline noticed the smashed excavation machinery and remnants of impact fractures in the otherwise smooth rock walls. In a few places the pine tree lined rim of the mountain edges had crumbled down into tumbled scree slopes. There had been a battle here.

Ruby was looking around too. She slid over to the Bismuths and addressed the nearest's knee. "Is this where it happened?"

The three replied in unison. "Yes, it is."

Then one of the Bismuths added an extra sentence. "Over there. You can see what they left."

Tourmaline turned to follow Bismuth's pointing hand. There was one sheer quarry wall, a horizon of grey taller than any other in the Shaping Yard. It nearly bisected an entire mountain. A wisp of cloud slowly crashed against its upper reaches. The smooth, solid face was marred by massive shapes, characters melted into the solid rock. They spelled out a message fifteen hundred feet tall.

"You are unique."

Tourmaline shuddered as she turned away. The rebellion of Rose Quartz was infecting the very material of the planet itself. Her little group of allies walked on towards the gentle downward slope towards the quarry exit far in the distance. Their small numbers had now grown a little larger.

...

Chapter Text

...

"I like this part of the planet. The organic ground cover has a much more regular arrangement."

Curly Peridot nodded approvingly at the plants around them as they walked through this particular wide shallow valley in the hazy mourning light. Tourmaline had noticed this too. As their little group crossed down over this latest long low hill the sparse dry forest of the past few days had abruptly vanished to be replaced by fields of grass and scrub. Then as the ground grew level again near the small stream in the middle of the valley the ground cover alternated between vaguely defined patches of a tall grass species and large clearings covered by crawling flowering vines. Now they were in another small growth of forest made of trees all of uniform age.

They'd been walking for a long time. It had almost been a year now since Tourmaline's home was destroyed in the rebel attack. In that time they had wandered to and from the planet's northern reaches and across great distances, searching for their destination without any map. They had seen many strange things; massive shaggy beasts, valleys filled with ice, circles of blackened stones around piles of charcoal, and forests that resonated with rhythmic hollow beats in the distance. Now they were down into slightly warmer regions and supposedly narrowing in on the facility they were searching for.

However, Tourmaline still eyed this small grove of trees suspiciously. They grew in rows. She'd never seen another place in their travels where the plant life did that. Without alerting the others she looked down. Their feet gently beat against a trail worn by the native life that now sounded with the heavy footsteps of the three Bismuths behind her. Then they left the stand of trees and passed by a small patch of broken tree bits and crumbled dirt chunks. The dirt chunks looked too regular, almost stacked in places, and the weathered wood segments were too straight. Tourmaline tightened her fingers on the haft of the pole-arm across her shoulders. This place reeked of intention rather than random growth.

She turned her head around, casually scanning their surroundings and listening distantly to the low volume argument between West Peridot and Curly Peridot over whether they were still keeping to their proper heading. Ruby contentedly stamped down the path, but then Tourmaline caught the eye of one of the Bismuths. All three builders nodded in unison. They'd noticed too. A Bismuth would always recognize the sign of deliberate construction. Native lifeforms had been active here.

However, when West Peridot began to stumble over dragging her feet in the dust in the middle of their argument, Tourmaline knew that they'd been walking continuously for too many days. In truth, she herself had been feeling drained of energy for the last day but had been hoping for the Peridots to provide her an excuse. Ruby was still going strong and of course the Bismuths could have gone at nearly the same pace if they were digging through solid rock, but Tourmalines weren't made to withstand this level of continuous exertion.

"All right, Gems. We're going to stop and shift to low activity for a little while." She'd been fantasizing of throwing this painfully heavy weapon down on the ground for two days now. With the prospect of finally being able to do so right in front of her it was all Tourmaline could do not to just collapse to the ground right here.

But West Peridot turned to plead. "No, Tourmaline! Please! We've got to be close by now. The colony base is definitely somewhere in this general part of the Earth. We'll probably find it in a few days! We'll finally be back!"

"No," Tourmaline shook her head. "That may be true but we're still stopping for a bit. The colony is still going to be here after we're all back at top performance."

Curly Peridot threw her arms around her type sister to hang off her back as she joined in with her own entreaties. "No, please! Look, we're almost out of this valley it looks like the landscape opens out over there. For all we know we'll be able to see the base's towers across that plain!"

Tourmaline glanced at Ruby, and then back at the Bismuths who simply blinked back at her in unison. She sighed. "Ok. We'll continue on to the end of the valley so we can get a look at what comes next. But...!" Here she cut off the Peridot celebrations. "No matter what we see we are stopping there to rest. All of us could do with recovering some energy reserves and for some of us it is even more important." Tourmaline knew the importance of trusting on self reporting from other gems and maintaining moral but she was also going to put this blasted spear down if she had to dematerialize every one of their bodies first.

After half an hour of walking down the valley their group slowly angled off the grass covered path to rise up the last low shoulder of the left hand ridge before it gave up its last ghost. Then they were on the hilltop and looked out at the wide plain stretching out before them. The stream they'd been following down from the hills spread out here, slow and shallow as it wound into the flat grassland. If Tourmaline was to judge from the other landscapes she had seen, somewhere in the depths of this vast flat valley there was a larger river hidden in some slight fold of the earth. Off in the distance the horizon was smudged by the dark shadow of tall mountains. And at the foot of those mountains, fifty miles away and glinting in the sunlight, a far off forest of crystal spires. The Colony base.

"Whooo!"

Surprisingly it was a Bismuth who cheered first, letting out a bellowing whoop which sent Tourmaline and the Peridot to a startled jump. Ruby stamped in an excited circle, pumping her fist into the air in celebration as Peridot spun in a circle with her other self. The remaining two Bismuths exchanged a series of cheerful affirmative head nods.

Amethyst's weapon thudded down onto the dirt of the hilltop as Tourmaline fell to her knees before it. She was smiling as tears formed in the corner of her eyes. She'd done it. She had gotten her small remnant of a household here safely. This was a major colony center, not anything that could be abandoned for any length of time. They would be returned and receive some renewed purpose. They wouldn't be lost and useless out in the wilderness any more. They would be home.

"Yeah! All right!" Ruby called out. "Let's get there right now!" With that she began to race off down the gentle slope towards the wide grassy plain.

Despite her earlier insistence, Tourmaline grinned, ready to follow suit. Then she tried to get back to her feet and fell face first into the dust as her legs collapsed under her.

Fortunately, Ruby turned back to wonder why no one was following her and saw Bismuth lifting Tourmaline back up with one easy strong hand. Tourmaline smiled sheepishly as she patted Bismuth's thick arm.

"Thank you, Bismuth. Like I said, recovering our energy stores is important."

The whooping Bismuth smiled back down. Weariness was probably not a sensation she had ever experienced herself but she was sensitive to its occurrence in the gems not designed for sustained physical exertion. Tourmaline nodded, "Right. We should stay here for a while. It's not like the colony's going anywhere."

It looked like the Peridots might have argued if they had not been hanging off each other to stay upright. Five days and nights of hiking had been too much, which Tourmaline recognized had mostly been stubbornness on her own part. She cast an annoyed eye down at the bladed pole-arm lying on the ground. Carrying that thing was more exhausting than she liked to admit. She was only a tourmaline after all.

So they settled down on this low hill at the edge of the wide plain. Curly Peridot and Ruby were bouncing ideas off each other of what was going to be at this colony base; Peridot's guesses based on monitoring a slice of the planetary information flow for centuries, and Ruby's mostly based on what she thought the white clouds above them looked like. West Peridot had planted herself down on the grass and sat staring out at the distant Gem structures with a vibrating intensity. The Bismuths had found a moderately sized boulder and so were occupied in chiseling it down into a chair that would presumably be fitting for a rest break. The fact that at best they would finish the moment the group had to leave did not seem to bother them.

Tourmaline leaned back against her hands as she sat on the hillside watching an invisible flow of soft wind send a wave sweeping across the long miles of grass under a sparkling blue sky. Distant crystal towers stood out faintly pink against the vague blue shadow of the mountains behind them. She smiled. She was fulfilling her purpose. She would deliver her report, the Diamonds would learn that the rebels had captured her Sapphires. They would be rescued, the rebels would be ground down to powder and everything would be the way it ought to be. Tourmaline's little ad-hoc household would all be able to find their place again. In her imagination she could almost hear the bustle of civilized activity carried on the wind after long months of only the sounds of alien wastelands.

Then Tourmaline pricked her head up. She actually did hear something. She straightened up in her sitting posture and then slowly stood up. As she turned into the breeze she saw a distant tan wisp rise and dissipate from behind another hill a few mikes away. Then more of the cloud emerged into the valley where it caught on the breath of faint wind. It was a dust, kicked up from the ground. By what she didn't know.

Curly Peridot looked up at Tourmaline. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure." Tourmaline was telling the truth. During their wandering they'd seen several large herds of various alien types. This could be one of those. However, Tourmaline looked down at the base of their hill where a wide line of dirt spotted with grass wound along the edge of the plain. A little way off, one side of the dirt strip had been reenforced to stay level when the ground dipped on the edge of a hill. There was no denying it. That was a road. Primitive, and ill-maintained, but a road none the less, and someone was using it.

A Bismuth came up to stand behind Tourmaline. Tourmaline thought it might be the same one who had whooped in joy at seeing the colony base. The big gem peered into the distance. "That could be a bunch of me. Construction crews are sometimes dispatched overland. Maybe these are gems returning to the colony?"

"Could be." Tourmaline folded her arms below her chest. They still had several hours left in the break she had scheduled. If it was alien life, they should ignore the group on the hill. Native creatures tended to discount Gems based on their lack of scent. If it was other Gems approaching then their joyful reunion could start even sooner. And if it was other Gems...

No, it couldn't be. Even at this distance they were technically in plain view of the colony base. Rose Quartz's rebels attacked out of nowhere every time, leaping from hiding for surprise strikes. That was the only way they'd survived for so long against the Diamonds' loyal forces. They would not be marching out in the open. They couldn't. They couldn't be that strong.

The dust cloud advanced across the edge of the valley. At its head were strange shapes, large, eight legged, and strangely segmented, followed behind by hundreds of walking figures. Whooping Bismuth and the other gems walked forward on their low hill to look out. The majority of the approaching creatures were Gem sized, but even at this distance Tourmaline could tell they lacked the vibrant colors of Homeworld, Instead the mass of creatures all merged to variations of brownish shades. Tourmaline frowned, no, this was the mark of the native lifeforms; the rectangle makers. The leading shapes shone in the sunlight like specks of metal.

Ruby spoke softly but firmly down near Tourmaline's waist. "That's a lot of things. Do you think they're animals or...the other things."

Despite everything Tourmaline had done to control harmful speculation, there had been a lot of whispered conversations over the months about one type of aliens on this planet. The false Gems. Accidental mimics, a quirk of random design that molded tubes, joints, and fibers into mechanical shapes very like the bodies of Tourmaline and her companions. They were called humans, and supposedly possessed some minor degree of intelligence. Over the endless leagues of trekking the planet's northern reaches they had come across a number of their abandoned nests, piles of stacked rocks, or the useless random mimicry of natural shapes painted onto walls of caves.

"It doesn't matter," Tourmaline said though she knew in her matrix what the answer was. "We're still staying here until we are done resting. But don't worry, we're a large enough group now to dissuade any local wildlife. This herd will be no different." Just one last encounter with strange creatures before they could all return to the safe uniformity of civilization.

She sat back down on the hill, carefully setting the pole-arm down beside her. Both Peridots sat again as well, though they chose sites much closer to Tourmaline this time. The Bismuths did not seem as engrossed in their chair-carving now.

Over the next half hour the dust cloud grew closer. At one point few of the aliens peaked over nearby hills and retreated back to their herd. Curly Peridot began to shudder as the rest of the herd grew near. Tourmaline reached out to put a reassuring hand on the green Gem's her knee. Then the whole mass of aliens stopped at the foot of their very hill. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, and they carried physical spears. Four legged creatures were linked together with round-legged conveyances to form some sort of vehicle.

Tourmaline watched how the humans focused their attention within their herd. Near the front of the formation there was one individual of the natives around whom radiated the telltale ripples of authority. She didn't look notably different from the rest of the individuals but she must have been a command-type, whatever that was in these creatures. This human superior stepped down from where she had ridden in on one of the strange conveyances and began to walk up the hill. Several slightly larger humans flanked around her in the familiar formations of a guard retinue.

Higher up the slope Ruby bristled and summoned her spiked helmet, provoking a flurry of emotion in the human herd below. However, the human superior turned back and gave a brief glare which caused other managerial humans to remember their making and get the simple-cut humans into line again with harsh shouts. Tourmaline narrowed her eyes as she watched the human superior begin to once more ascend the hill towards them. This human wore a braided cloth band around her head decorated with bits of flattened gold that matched the gleaming of the wide bronze plates across her shins, forearms, and chest. Her skin was the muted color of sand and curly black hair hung down not only from her head but also grew across the lower part of her face.

Tourmaline's hand gripped the haft of the pole-arm.

The lead human stopped several paces below the gentle summit, made a hand gesture to her guards to stay put and then took one more step alone.

"Well met, demigods of sky and earth," she said, her voice deep and strong. "I am Mashda, son of Atab, King of Enmengalana under vassalage to Krish."

Tourmaline heard a Peridot gasp behind her. In truth, Tourmaline had felt the desire to gasp as well. She had intellectually known that the humans could speak but to hear it was still shocking. At first glance these creatures looked so close to Gems, but every single thing about them down to the most basic physical laws was profoundly alien. Even just standing there Tourmaline thought she could hear faint wet noises of their strange internal mechanics. Surely these creatures could be shooed off without incident. She didn't bother trying to understand any of that babble it had just recited.

However, no matter how disturbed she was, the other Gems needed someone to take charge so she said, "This is an improper place for you to be, human. The colony base will probably send someone out to clear you off soon."

The human superior, the Mashda, set out a deep bark of laughter. "Ha! We know that they will ride out soon. They always do. There's a reason we answered the call when she gave it."

Peridot frowned, "The call?"

Tourmaline felt a sinking sensation. "Who called you?"

The human gestured vaguely. "The plant goddess. She of the sword and shield. The Rose of Earthborn Heaven calls, and for what she did to help my city I must answer with all the strength I can muster.

Rose. The Rose Quartz. Tourmaline blinked very rapidly as terrible thoughts were racing through her head. These creatures were allied with the off-colors, more terrible creations like the plant monsters that had been set loose in the ruins of her home. And now they were here, another ambush, just when she and her household had almost made it safely back to civilization.

Ruby snorted somewhere in the level of the Mashda's belt. "Strength? I don't think humans are that strong. What would a quartz want with you?"

The Mashda glared down at Ruby with all the distain of an Agate of the highest clarity. For a moment even Tourmaline felt her matrix-born instincts urge her towards obedience, despite the absurdity. Then the Mashda said:

"It is true, I have seen enough about your kind to know that my two arms are nothing compared to the might of your smallest." But then a grim smile tugged at the corner of her hairy mouth as she flung her arm back, setting her cape to catch the soft wind. "But look behind me! There are four thousand arms of mine! Four thousand legs, and four thousand eyes! There is strength in that. We come to deliver a holy declaration of war."

Tourmaline couldn't help it. A chime of laughter burst out.

"War?" It was so absurd that it washed away the anxiety that had been growing within her. After all the attacks and mysterious messages the answer was comfortably simple. The rebel Rose Quartz was insane; a defective off-color that unfortunately whose flaws had been unfortunately missed in the harvest inspection. There wasn't any conspiracy or secret truth, no dark revelation that threatened the empire. Just a collection of malformed gems wandering the woods, playing with the local wildlife. These humans declaring war was as ridiculous as Tourmaline declaring herself a diamond.

The Mashda didn't like being laughed at. Her face grew still and fierce, even as her chin hair shifted in response to her clenching muscles. "Ah, so you are among the enemy divines of the crystal city." She gestured to the huge weapon Tourmaline had planted in the earth beside her. "If you wish to lift your spear then I will probably fall here before you. But know this, red deva, that though we are but mortal men, two thousand soldiers will still fell even your powerful kind, though hundreds perish in the fight. I know this because I have seen it."

Tourmaline parted her lips to laugh again, but then she saw the hard glint in Mashda's eyes. This human was not lying. Tourmaline looked out to see all those swords and spears in the valley below, bronze metal hammered to two thousand deadly points. Of all her household Ruby was the only one formed with any knowledge of fighting. The Bismuths were innately conditioned to resist even the suggestion of any violence, and Peridots were just technicians. Tourmaline's hand clenched on the Amethyst's weapon. She was just a house tender, a butler. Her grasp on this thing was a lie, Tourmaline's weren't made to fight.

Out across the wide plain of grass, the colony's spires still glinted in the setting yellow sun. It was so close. It was right there.

A familiar tingle of energy flowed down Tourmaline's arm, down into Amethyst's weapon. The crushing weight that bit down into the rich earth suddenly vanished and the whole weapon lifted up into the air at the slightest gesture of her hand. Mashda stepped back, her eyes widened as that massive half-moon of a blade swung down to halt a foot in front of her nose. The other humans were equally startled, that weapon's immense mass had been fully evident from the way its other end gouged the ground, and without knowledge of Tourmaline's unique power it appeared to them she was as strong as a battle fusion. She just needed to not let on that she could only maintain this effect for a few moments.

"Human, you have made-"

A sudden sound filled the air, interrupting her from somewhere in the distance. It was a long loud keen that trumpeted out from some where across the valley and hills and yet it seemed to swirl around their heads to come from every direction. Then it was joined by a hundred similar sounds in rising trumpeting. It was like song, but somehow infected with the crude organic nature of this planet. Startled, Ruby spun around and threw reflexive punch in some arbitrary direction but Tourmaline's mouth just hung open as her eyes went wide. She looked left and right but couldn't see anything new but the shadows growing across the wide grassy valley. In front of her the Mashda human smiled with a new confidence. It was not a reassuring smile.

"Wh...wha..." Tourmaline stuttered. "What was that noise?"

Mashda bowed her head slightly in mock courtesy. "Why, that would be the other armies."

"Other..."

Mashda raised her hand back at her fellow humans down at the foot of the hill. "Men! Sound the horns! Let our allies know that the city of Enmengalana did not forget her promises! Let the gods hear that the forces of man have come to fight!"

Down in the mass of armed humans, two dozen humans raised black curling objects to their mouths and then a new sound burst forth, loud and punishing. It was that same distant cry, now point blank. For a moment Tourmaline could feel the roar hit her like a wave of pressure that reached deep inside her body, reverberating through her throat like she was singing too. She turned away from Mashda, looking back out over the wide valley. Off in the distance, dust clouds were rising from between the border hills, fiery red where they caught the last rays of the setting sun. More humans, more armies.

Tourmaline's pole-arm fell, renewing its weight in her trembling hand. The blade dug into the earth with a thud and in that moment a new faint note joined this symphony of savage blasts. It was distant, it was small, and it was hard to make out but it was unmistakably a Gem's voice raised in song. But that single note grew and rose as lone clear string somehow fighting free of the roaring horns. It climbed and it grew to master even the trumpets until then new voices joined it, new notes rising with it. Tourmaline squinted into the distance. The sun was dipping behind the Colony's high mountains but on this side of the valley the top of one last low hill was still dipped red in that final shaft of dying light. A group of tiny colorful figures stood on that low gentle peak, blazing in the sunset, little flecks of pink, green, orange, and blue. They were Gems and they were singing a song of rage and terrible triumph.

Tourmaline stumbled backwards to the Peridots and Bismuths, catching Ruby's arm as she did so. The Mashda returned down to her troops and chariots before that whole mass of two thousand fighters stomped off in the direction of the colony base, to what would be their inevitable destruction. It had to be their destruction. There was no way the humans could actually win. Tourmaline gripped tighter to Ruby's little arm.

In the shadows under the mountains, the colony spires glowed with pink light as small aircraft detached to begin swarming through the air across the valley. They drew closer across building dark like a force of angry fireflies. Then the rebel Gems's hill shone with a new light, as sudden and bright as a new sunrise. After one blinding instant the light faded and then Tourmaline felt her hope fade with it.

Giants strode down into the open valley.

They were massive, these multi-armed monstrosities. Their colors mixed and swirled in horrific chaos of forbidden union. Tourmaline now felt Ruby's hand twist up to grip her wrist, seeking comfort from this madness. Somewhere behind her, the three Bismuths spoke, horror breaking up their former synchronization even further.

"Wh-Wha-What are-are those-ose-those?!"

Tourmaline could only whisper the terrible answer, "Fusions."

These giants were even worse than the Garnet that she'd seen at the ruin of her home. They had to be fusions of three or four or even five different Gems. Tourmaline felt weak. It was like watching torture being conducted in front of her. The rest of her little party were no better, this was the first time most of them had ever seen this horrible sight.

Then the giants threw up their hands and beams of lights streaked out to meet the colony flyers. Explosions bloomed across the evening like flowers of dust and fire. The human armies now joined up beneath the feet of the monster fusions and charged as one across the valley plain, striking forth towards the distant colony towers.

"We have to help the colony!" Ruby charged forward before she remembered Tourmaline's grip on her arm. Almost falling off her feet she twisted back to look up at Tourmaline's blank expression. "Tourmaline! Come on! We have to defend the Diamonds' mission from those defectives! We have to. That's what...That's what we're for! Right?!"

"No," Tourmaline whispered. She knew Ruby was right. The Amethyst's bladed pole-arm beckoned to her from the ground, urging her forward to throw her meager existence down in defense of her superiors. All her fellows here knew the same thing. Their duty to the Diamonds was clear and they had been made knowing it. But as Tourmaline stood there on that hill she couldn't even see the valley before her, she only saw that stone pit, back deep in the Bismuths' shaping yard. She saw the pile of shattered gems, writhing and clutching with what little shreds of their mind that remained. Tourmaline's grip tightened on Ruby's wrist until her fingers hurt and then she only squeezed tighter.

"No." Her voice was horse. "We aren't going near there. We aren't soldiers. We aren't Quartz. We are going to be safe. I'm going to keep you safe." Her head fell as she clenched her teeth in anger and frustration and loss. There were tears in her eyes. "No! I refuse! I refuse! I'm not going to lose anyone else!"

Curly and West Peridots moved close and each raised a hesitant hand to place on Tourmaline's waist. Together with Ruby they were the last survivors of their destroyed home. That should have been their whole world and their whole purpose for ten thousand years but it had been destroyed; destroyed like everything else this conflict touched. But no, it wasn't destroyed; not completely. The four of them survived. They were still here.

And the Bismuths were still here, so the Shaping Yard hadn't been destroyed either. Not yet. Tourmaline looked up and the flashes of distant battle lit up her face. Even if the forces of good lost here, the colony base wouldn't be destroyed. Not completely. Some Gems would escape. There would always be some who managed to get out and hide in the wilderness, just like Tourmaline and the others had. And they could find them. They could find them and keep safe all those other Gems thrown loose by war and destruction. They could still fulfill their purpose.

They could make a home.

...

Chapter Text

...

The snow crunched and compacted under Tourmaline's feet as she walked up the mountainside. The wind blew past her bare red arms, carrying from below up a faint whistle from it's passage among the scraggly twisted pines that gave up their advance lower down the slope. These icy peaks were a refuge from the world of aliens, where for half the year she could relax among the sterile grey rocks. But now the system's sun was growing closer and now patches of snow had already vanished leaving orange lichen clinging to boulders and little tufts of stubborn alpine grass peaking out in between. Some of those green tufts were putting out tiny purple flowers.

Then Tourmaline turned back to look out at the steep valley that descended from the hulking glacier that sat in the highest scree lined bowl below a ring of granite peaks, down to the lower reaches where the land gave way to meadows of hardy yellowed grass and little stands of stunted trees. Tourmaline squinted against the bright white light, reflected off the sparking snow. There was movement in that lower meadow, and now some of that movement was creeping up this mountain in a distant line of little matching figures.

The humans were coming back. Tourmaline shrugged as she returned to her own path up. Odd, these creatures rarely left it this late to stage their first visit of the year. Well, this would at least provide a bit of distraction for the more distractible of Tourmaline's household. The long haft of her pole-arm rested lightly on her shoulder, barely pressing down at all. After thirty years of practice the weapons seemed to welcome in her gravity resistance power with only the lightest effort on her part. Tourmaline spun the haft slightly as the wide spade-shaped blade started to catch a gust of cold wind. Her manifested ribbon glimmered around her body where she wrapped it in folds, holding the pretty flecks of inert rocks that some of the other Gems liked to decorate their home.

Soon the miles passed and the sound of snow crunching under her feet vanished as the open mountainside slope abruptly gave way to a neatly swept set of neatly carved stone steps. Tourmaline smiled, Whoopy Bismuth liked her little staircase project, and had been toying around with it for a few years. At least it was only a hobby so the Gem had only completed a few miles of this hand carved staircase. Any more risked being detected from space. Tourmaline shook her head, she didn't like to think about that.

Soon she reached the head of the staircase and the cave entrance emerged in front of her. The portal was a massive, squared out rectangle carved into cliffside, decorated on each side with intricate pillars made of the same raw rock, left in place as the rest of the sanctum was dug out around them. All around the lip of the entrance was a geometric border of carved, alternating triangles. During the design process the traditional diamond pattern had been quietly, and without comment, discarded. The newly enlarged cavern was rough and primitive but after a few decades here in these remote mountains, it had become a home.

Ruby was waiting at the front entrance as always, pacing in front of the overly large stone chair she'd asked the Bismuths to make for her and set at the mouth of the cavern. The idea had been a something like the throne of an eternal protecter but, to be frank, Tourmaline had never seen Ruby manage to sit still in it for more than forty-six seconds at a time. Well, at least now she served as an early warning system to note Tourmaline's homecoming. The little red Gem started jumping up and down in the shallow groove her pacing had managed to wear in the rock over the years.

"Hey! Hey! Tourmaline's back!"

Tourmaline waved up at Ruby, smiling slightly at the unwarranted enthusiasm. She'd only been gone for around forty-eight hours, after all. But more motion came from within the carved cliffside cavern and additional gems emerged, coming into the view from the head down with each step Tourmaline took up the steps.

"Oh yeah, hey! Tourmaline's back!" New Ruby darted forward from deep in the back to offer her own assessment of the situation. Their little household had found that Gem wandering the landscape far from the colony base battle, having charged off into the distance in some illformed idea of revenge after she'd been blasted free of her squad fusion. Newby had evidently always been used to outsourcing a good part of her thinking to four other of her and so was often a step behind Tourmaline's more independent Ruby. Now she was just a lone unmatched little fighter, through no fault of her own unfit for the purpose she had been made for.

Tourmaline nodded at them and said, "The humans are coming up the valley. They should be here in a few hours."

Another voice joined in as Tourmaline neared the cavern entrance. "Hmpf. Makes sense. Now is about the time of year when they move their hairy extraction-pods up to the meadow for preliminary nutrient harvest. Of course, I'm still not sure why the humans don't just eat the grass themselves."

West Peridot was perched in her normal spot on Nephrite's shoulders, leaning forward to casually prop her arms on the dark green Gem's white hair as the former pilot served to carry her around. For her part, Nephrite just smiled and nodded at Tourmaline. They'd found her weeks after the battle when the light of her regeneration shone out from a hillside. Nephrite's flyer had exploded during the battle and Tourmaline long suspected that the Gem had some micro-damage to her self that she was still hiding. Nephrite didn't talk much save for a few whispered words now and then and from time to time Tourmaline caught her staring blankly into space as if she'd forgotten what was happening around her. But those spells always passed and Nephrite had managed to forge a strange sort of close partnership with West. They were seldom apart, even if Tourmaline sometimes had to wonder exactly what Nephrite got out of having a Peridot constantly stationed next to her ears.

Then a rainbow dreadlocked head stuck it's way out of an inner side chamber deeper in the cavern. Whoopy said, "Oh, that's good! I like them, they make neat little trinkets." She sauntered back into the main hall, her hands shapeshifting back out of their stone-chisel forms from whatever decoration project she'd decided on today. Then she frowned. "But wait, don't they usually come earlier in the year than this? I wonder what delayed them? I hope nothing bad happened."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Tourmaline said as she loosened her manifested ribbon to hand over the stone colors to their resident decorator. "The Earth Natives are so inexact about everything they probably think this is the same day they always come." That wasn't any sort of insult. Over the years she'd come to appreciate that these humans did certainly have a sort of intelligence that came close simulating to that of a Gem, but they were held back by the same chaotic randomness that plagued all organic life and prevented them from settling on any true purpose. It wasn't their fault, it was just poor design.

She swung the pole-arm off her shoulder and planted its end down on the floor, by now no longer wincing every time at the metallic impact as the weapon's weight suddenly resumed. The huge bladed head leaned against one of the front columns as Tourmaline moved to join Ruby by her post. Newbie had raced back off to inform the rest of the Gems deeper in the network of precisely geometric caverns the Bismuths had excavated. Curly Peridot emerged, squinting at the bright daylight outside and a moment later the mountain got imperceptible quieter as the distant noise of Bismuths' chisel hands on stone abruptly stopped in unison from somewhere deep in the mountain. First and Second Bismuth were still a perfect model of type symmetry, so much so that Tourmaline sometimes still called them the wrong number.

Then she shook her head at that strange thought. Called them the wrong number? They were both Bismuth and always at each other's side, it shouldn't matter who she called what. They were both the same Gem and Tourmaline should know that. She'd been away from civilization for too long. A gust of cold wind blew down from the glacier and whistled a low tone across the cavern mouth. Sometimes she thought the Earth was mocking her.

The sun had passed its zenith and was beginning to descend again when the humans reached the Cavern. Tourmaline stood at the front, watching the creatures make their way up the last reaches of snow dusted steps. They were all wrapped in thick, bulky coverings, and capes pulled tight until it seemed like they interfered with motion. Tourmaline quietly snorted, the natives did so many odd things, impractical decorations were the least of it. Beside her, Ruby stamped forward towards the human herd, puffing out her chest as her spiked helmet manifested on her head in a flash of light.

The strange party stopped a little distance away from the front step, and some of the humans gently leaned down crude, flaked stone spears on the ground beside them. Their physical weapons were poor mockeries, but the Gems had seen first hand that no matter how weak the natives were, great numbers could have a chance of overwhelming real people. Tourmaline made sure that her pole-arm was within reach as at her back, Curly nervously positioned in her shadow even as curiosity drove the green gem forward.

One of the humans moved forward, keeping low, before she laid a wide bowl down at the mouth of the cavern, its carved wood holding an assortment of objects. Tourmaline looked at her face as the human pushed back her hood, revealing black hair and light tan skin. This was one of the more normal looking ones. Curly had a theory that the humans existed in approximately three strata: the normal looking ones, the hairy faced ones, and a third type that existed in a range of sizes smaller than the two more common types.

Whatever their strata, the creatures at least hid their kindergartens well. Their kind were clearly lacking in any centralized structure but all her travels across the planet Tourmaline had still never seen any of the hundreds of informal kindergartens that had to be necessary to support these numbers. She supposed it was possible that they functioned the same way as earth plants and simply grew wherever their seed cores landed in the earth, but that should have resulted in more wandering humans, not villages. Of course West had her own preposterous theories about the periodically distended stomachs of the normal-type humans, but Tourmaline was not about to entertain that kind of nonsense.

As Tourmaline was inspecting them, Newbie eagerly ran forward to see pluck up the offered objects and enthusiastically present them to West and Nephrite. Tourmaline let her at it, they already had a room full of various gifts from the humans over the years, bits of fabric, pieces of shaped wood, and some other softer organics that turned green and sprouted white fuzz within a few weeks before desiccating down to half their size. But several of the Gems enjoyed looking at this stuff so there was at least no harm in it.

The gift giving done, one of the hairy-faced humans stepped forward and kneeled before she began to speak, "Great beings, I-"

Tourmaline interrupted, holding up her hand with a frown. She'd realized a familiar sight was missing. "Wait, where's your Dawa? She's your leader, is she not? She's always the one who talks here. Why didn't she come this time?"

The humans froze, some in the back of the little party exchanging strange looks. Ruby looked around and then furrowed her own brow. "Yeah, wait, hold on. Where is she?" She walked up to the lead humans. "You know her: human, your same color, got a bunch of lines on her face, grey hair around her mouth and on her chin? Anyone seen her?"

The lead human shot a nervous glance over at her companion at the front, the normal one. But the normal one just gave a silent panicked shrug so the hairy faced one opened her mouth again. But before she managed to make any sound West spoke up, waving her green arms at the other Gems from up above Nephrite's white hair. "Come on guys, stop being so dense. Really, you're embarrassing us. Just actually look for a moment. That's Dawa right there in front, she just reformed her body at some point. Or she's doing a little shapeshifting for some reason but you can still recognize her."

Tourmaline blinked as she looked down at the lead hairy faced human who was frozen in a slightly stunned expression. Sure enough, now that she thought to look, she could see the resemblance to Dawa's previous form. Tourmaline quickly bowed her head, recognizing that even humans deserved more courtesy than this. "Oh! Dawa, I deeply apologize. Forgive me for not recognizing your new shape, that was very rude of me. I must commend you, you did a great job on this one, much smoother than your last form."

Dawa blinked rapidly for a few times and opened and closed her mouth twice before managing to say, "Um, I'm not Dawa."

Tourmaline froze in mid smile. "What?"

Not-Dawa hesitantly stood up from her kneeling posture. Her confusion made every statement into a question. "I'm Dawa's son? He was my father? I...I came up here to see you every year when I was a boy."

At Tourmaline's back, Curly leaned forward. "Wait, 'was'? What happened? What happened to the other Dawa?"

"Um..."

Tourmaline reached out to grip her pole-arm, feeling that familiar clench of fear in her core. "Speak, human. What happened?"

The human held out her hands in a gesture of helpless supplication. "Divine Being, my father, Dawa, died during the winter. The village elders chose me as the new head-man on the turning of the year. My name is Rigzin."

Tourmaline stepped forward, feeling strength flow out of herself down into the weapon as she did so. "That is not an answer. How was your previous Dawa shattered? Who did this? Why did you keep this treat from us for so long?" Terrible thoughts raced through her mind. The rebels could be in the area. Striking at humans was just the sort of destructive chaos they were capable of, especially if they were hunting down a group of nearly helpless Gems. Or Rose Quartz could have seized control of these organics too. In a sudden shift of perspective the humans suddenly stopped looking like almost-Gems and were once more horribly alien.

The new Dawa said, "There was no violence. He was merely old."

"What kind of gibberish is that? Being so many thousands of years old would make her harder to destroy, not easier!"

"I..." The new Dawa bowed her head. "I am sorry. For you divine beings our human lives must seem odd. But for us, death is inevitable. To live a human life for any more than one hundred years is a miracle. Our bodies simply do not last."

Everyone, both Humans and Gems, jerked in surprise as Tourmaline suddenly laughed. A flash of anger raced through the humans and even the other gems turned to look at Tourmaline a bit reproachfully. She held her hand up over her mouth, hiding the involuntary smile behind it. "I'm sorry. I apologize. Please forgive me for that inappropriate reaction. I simply...I realized that I had been thinking of you like Gems."

Tourmaline felt like a weight had been lifted of herself. Over the last few decades she had been experiencing strange feelings when she contemplated this planet's future. She looked out at the green trees below and the blue sky above and experienced something like regret. She'd come to dread the visits of these humans, as she looked at each of them and knew each one would inevitably be shattered in a few thousand years. But now that guilt could vanish; humans didn't last. No one was being killed, all Gems needed to do was to shut down their human kindergartens and then all those remaining would have plenty of time die of their own accord. The Diamonds' plan was perfect after all.

But despite this resounding some of that insidious dread and fear still lingered. Tourmaline's eye crept out over the expanse of the valley below. Even up here they still felt the distant earthquakes from time to time, they saw the dust that filled the sky some years, blotting out the sun with debris from explosions continents away. The War was still raging. No, not a war. Gems could not go to war with themselves. The defective off-colors were simply...waging war. Tourmaline shook her head, trying to keep her thoughts straight, trying to remember the sense she had been made with. She'd been in the wild for too long.

"I'm sorry. Let us continue, what do you wish to speak of this visit. Do you have any new questions you want to ask? Do you want something heavy moved again?"

Curly and Ruby still looked concerned, but strangely it was the new Dawa's eyes that caught Tourmaline's. The human's stare wasn't offended, but it was hard; hard and searching. Despite the absurdity of it, Tourmaline felt herself shrink back slightly from that stare. The human parted her lips, outlined with that line of thin black hair down to her chin, and said:

"I too, have been struggling with how to think of you. My father feared your wrath but you've dwelled here over a generation and the most wrath I've seen was some overenthusiastic construction projects from your comrades with the rainbow hair. You haven't done anything."

West snorted from her perch on top of Nephrite's shoulders. "Pff, I guess you never heard about Ruby's attempt to train the-" Fortunately Nephrite's hand came down on the Peridot's mouth and while that didn't slow her talking it at least muffled it into obscurity. Tourmaline smiled slightly without turning back. Nephrite was a good gem, as long as she was having one of her good days.

However, the Dawa looked still serious. "Our people's lands are remote, but we still hear stories from the world beyond the mountains. We've heard about the war between the gods."

Tourmaline froze as behind her she heard even the Peridots fall into nervous silence.

"Everyone who travels down to the farmers in the flat lands hears the legends from far off places from holy men and merchants alike. The army of the flower against the diamond goddess. Tales of cities destroyed, entire countries turned to dust, floods that scour the whole land bare. The dirty priests say that it will end with the end of the world, and sometimes I think I believe them. Even up here we feel the earth shake. We've had more deadly winters in the last two generations than in all our oldest stories, and they're getting more frequent."

Tourmaline turned her head away, crossing her arms as her hand unconsciously felt at her gem for some manner of comfort. Somehow hearing it from an a native made it seem so much more terribly real. Some of those garbled accounts had to be just normal colony terraforming work, but the rest...? Just twenty-three years ago she'd found a Topaz wandering among the high ice, a spot of yellow against the blue and white. The powerful quartz's body was weak, shifting and shimmering as she staggered around. Her gem was cracked, but more horrifying than that to Tourmaline was the look in her eyes as she described the state of the wider planet. In the shadow of the off-color rebellion, uncertainty reigned through the halls or the colony. To any good gem, that uncertainty was more terrifying than any attack.

The Topaz had smiled as Tourmaline dissipated her malfunctioning body. Now she hung in the back of their cavern, a little yellow gem in a pink stasis bubble, waiting in blissful pause for...Tourmaline didn't know what she was waiting for.

The Dawa rose to her feet and Tourmaline actually found herself stepping back away from this human. "A war for all the heavens and the earth is raging and you divine beings aren't doing anything. You say that you honor and follow the great goddesses, but you stay here away from her. You say you are not among the exiled divines who fight for the flower, buy you do not return to the land of the gods. You say you honor the celestial diamond, but still you hide. So yes, I do have a question for you. Who are you?"

Tourmaline felt more eyes than just the humans' on her. The other Gems of her household had refrained from that same question for far longer than this Dawa. Their silence and quiet acceptance of their purpose, which under normal circumstances was a great virtue here in the wild was transformed into a form of treason. A treason Tourmaline herself was leading.

"I...We..." Tourmaline a swirling dizziness, as if her mind was at war with herself. "We're not part of those rebels; those off-color slaves of the Rose Quartz. We are loyal." That felt like a lie on her tongue. She looked around as if searching for some hint in the air. "Our homes, are purposes were destroyed. None of us were meant to fight in a war. We...We just want to be safe. We want a chance to just...be as we were meant to be."

That didn't feel like an answer, but for some reason the human Dawa nodded as if Tourmaline's blather actually had meaning. She bowed her head. "Thank you. And now I have another thing to ask you." She stepped back and held out her hand as if becoming Tourmaline to come. "Please follow me."

"What? Why?"

"There's something I need to show you."

...

It took three days of travel at an incredibly slow pace. The humans only walked for around a third of the total day, their weak bodies giving out periodically and then failing completely for almost eight hours at a time. The first day just reached their summer village, a collection of fabric walled dwellings and a few crude storage compartments with low walls of roughly fitted stone near a small lake . There, most of the human party was left behind and the next morning Tourmaline had left with only the Dawa, heading further down the mountain valley. Then two more intermittent days brought them the top of a rocky outcrop where the mountains fell away down towards the low-lands below, checkered here and there between forests with the square marked earth of human activity. As soon as Tourmaline reached this overlook, Dawa's purpose became overwhelmingly clear.

The planet's thick primordial atmosphere made long distance vision difficult but still Tourmaline could make out the massive angular shape that hung off in hazy blue horizon. It was a cube larger than a mountain, floating above the ground as if balancing on a single point. At this incredible distance any more detail was impossible to make out, but Tourmaline could still see how the land beneath it seemed to melt and flow upwards into the sky in slow, motionless rivers.

Dawa stood beside her, clutching its wooden spear. "It's getting closer. Last time I was here it could just barely be seen and that was only a week ago. It's one of the gods, isn't it. Some palace of the diamond goddess?"

Tourmaline's fingers gripped tighter onto the textured haft of her pole-arm and felt it press down into her shoulder despite the constant flow of her power keeping it light. She recognized that shape in the sky from years ago, back when her existence made sense. "Not a palace. It is Absolution."

"That...doesn't sound good."

"My Sapphires built its heart. The Geode; a storm that will tear these mountains to dust. No, it's not good. It means the rebels are nearby. It means the war is coming here."

She expected the human to question her, to ask a constant flow of questions in an attempt to wrap it's mind around this. But the Dawa just bowed her head as if she had expected this. As if she could imagine what war was truly like. Then Dawa looked up at Tourmaline and said:

"So, what are you going to do?"

...

Chapter Text

...

Thought returned from nothingness and Tourmaline's mind resumed. She saw nothing, heard nothing, and felt nothing; but still she existed. She was simply waiting to be. However, this wasn't the first time her body had been destroyed so she was no longer operating on pure reflex. She was once again reduced to just her gem, but now she had the chance to remember.

She remembered fire.

Flashes of memory came to her in a tumult, mixing together without order. It was painful and chaotic but eventually, in this timeless space she learned to relax. A new kind of peace came to her and she allowed the knots of her mind to loosen and unravel. All the knowledge, thoughts, and experiences that made up Tourmaline were allowed to spread out and she could look at them from afar and manipulate them at will like jewels upon a table.

She remembered the Absolution, looming black against the sky like an inverted pyramid. She remembered the other Gems, her household, standing at her side. And there were humans there too, doing something. There had been an idea, something to do with the Geode that powered it. But then there were others, other Gems. Or had they been there before? Then there had been fighting, and weapons, and monsters. And then there had been blinding fire, followed by nothingness.

This formless world of thought and potentia was entrancing, but part of Tourmaline could still remember what time was and knew that it must be passing. She needed to reform her body and return to the world of matter and action.

The enemy would be waiting for her.

Bright white light stung her eyes and that sensation brought the realization that she now had eyes. Her body coalesced around her with a pleasant burning heat as Tourmaline hung in place, feeling the arms and legs, fingers and toes return to her. Then gravity returned as well and she dropped a few inches, down to the ground. She landed on her feet and looked up. The scene was more or less what she had expected.

She said, "Hello, rebels."

Gems surrounded her on all sides, a refreshing rainbow of familiar hues. But it only took a glance to tell that this was not true civilization, but rather a cruel and vicious mockery. Tourmaline's new body stood in the middle of an empty circular arena carved out of rock. All around her, standing in elevated rows, were the enemy. There were over a hundred of them, Agates, Quartzes, Bismuths, Rubies, Peridots, and even more. Here and there among them loomed fusions, some normal, some monstrous, but all of them just existing, not performing any task. But Tourmaline knew who to blame for that, and she stood in the forefront of it all.

Rose Quartz wrapped herself in a gentle white dress but still her terrible power radiated out from her false beauty, like the very shadow of war. A Bismuth and the monster Garnet flanked her on each side of the platform and still the Quartz seemed taller by far. Tourmaline's eyes flicked down and saw the defective, violent Pearl sitting elegantly at Rose Quartz's feet, one arm gently trailing up to rest on her leg. Then Tourmaline saw the purple pole-arm lying flat the stone beside the Pearl. Tourmaline fought the urge to laugh, it was twelve feet away and for all the good it would do her it might as well be on Homeworld.

So she turned her face up towards Rose Quartz. "Where are my household?"

An Agate off to her right said, "Hey, how about a little thank you? With that super weapon exploding in the sky we didn't have to risk our gems rescuing you guys, but we did anyway. And then we had to deal with a crazy hopped-up Tourmaline swinging some Quartz cleaver so a quick poof and bubble was pretty gentle under the circumstances."

Then a very familiar voice joined in. Tourmaline's own words sprang out from another mouth with a sarcastic lilt. "See, I've always been telling you we Tourmalines are mighty warriors." Tourmaline turned to see a other one of her in the stands. The other her was about to continue but was then interrupted by the Rose Quartz herself.

"Crazy Lace, Melon, that's enough. She's just had a very challenging day and her first thought is for her friends. Don't give her a hard time for that."

The other Tourmaline shrugged her perfectly type-standard pink shoulders, and shook her absolutely normal green hair. Without meaning to, Tourmaline crossed her arms, fingers tracing across her own much redder skin. No, she couldn't allow herself to be rattled. She wasn't an off-color, she was within minimum acceptable standards. She just had to remember that reassuring thought.

Rose Qwartz smiled down at Tourmaline. "Your friends are safe. In fact we have already spoken to several of them before you were unbubbled. They had wonderful things to say about you, Tourmaline. It seems you've done amazing things."

The rebel Bismuth at Rose Qwartz's side snorted. "Yeah, amazing. Amazing and really convenient. Let's just say there was reason we let you out last"

Tourmaline didn't know how to respond. "I didn't try to do anything. Just my duty."

An Amethyst shouted out from the crowd. "Are you kidding? You're the one who told us how the Geode worked! Without that, the Absolution would have shattered us into dust before we could have hoped to stop it."

"I...I didn't mean to..." Guilt and confusion swirled around Tourmaline. "I was just try to..trying to..."

Tourmaline stood on the ridge-line before the Absolution. There was smoke and there was dust, and there were mountains breaking apart like falling sand. Somewhere nearby a human screamed. That individual had known the humans who dwelled in that other valley. Now there was no valley, only a scar, black and red were the friction had melted rock. Tourmaline felt something small brush her skin.

Grey flakes, drifting on the wind like gentle falling snow. It was the ash of the forests and the farmlands below. Knowing chemistry, some of it was probably human bodies as well. It sounded like Dawa's humans knew that too.

Her Gems hadn't wanted the humans to come here, but they still had. They carried weapons of wood and stone, spears and axes and bows, but still they came. They had no hope of defeating Gems, and yet they had come anyway, because all they wanted was to exist in peace, away from the specter of war. Tourmaline found herself smiling at these creatures.

Then the Rebels had arrived. The Absolution had fired. And Tourmaline's humans had burst into flame.

That was in another place. A place where she'd forgotten who made her. A place where she had helped the enemies of the Diamonds because the alternative was destruction. The enemies who had destroyed her home. She stood before the court of Rose Quartz. She looked down at the floor. "I'm a failure. Again and again."

"No, you have failed. That is never the same thing." Rose Quartz's voice was so firm that it felt like a blow. Then it softened like the glaciers melting into twinkling streams. "We've all failed. And we've all succeeded. But look at us. Failure doesn't have to weaken, it can give us strength. It allows us to learn. It allows us to hope for change, like the life on this planet does every day. And you can be a part of that strength, if you want."

Tourmaline let out a single laugh, so harsh she almost choked on it. Her fist trembled at her side and there were tears in her eyes, the evidence of more swirling emotions than she could label. "You want me to join you?"

"I know it's frightening. After all, you were just hiding out to find a safe place for your friends to be themselves. But that's what we're fighting for." Beside Rose Quartz, Tourmaline saw the Garnet shift slightly, as if for some reason no longer quite as at ease.

But Rose Quartz continued, "That is what this planet means to us, to everyone. A chance to celebrate who we are, not who we were meant to be. And the only way that can happen, the only way that safe place can be made, is to drive back the Diamonds who refuse to understand." She stepped forward to the edge of the raised platform, stepping over the abandoned pole-arm, and knelt down on one knee, her hand outstretched towards Tourmaline. "You can help us. On your own you've already done more than most Gems would imagine attempting. We would love to join you. Please, will you come be part of our home?"

She was so tall. Even without the platform, if Rose Quartz had kneeled like that beside Tourmaline on flat ground she would still have been at eye level. Tourmaline could hardly bare to look up from the floor to meet her, and yet from her periphery she could see no offense from the Quartz, only a genuine warmth and ernest passion. Slowly, Tourmaline loosened her hand from its fist and took a step towards the platform.

She raised her hand up to her shoulder as her self glowed, shimmering as her long ribbon coalesced into existence. Around the chamber, several of the Gems dropped into attack postures but it quickly became apparent that a Tourmaline's inherent weapon was a poor tool for war. She said, barely murmuring. "I'm not made for fighting."

Rose Quartz voice was smooth like the embrace of solid rock. "So few of us are."

Then Tourmaline raised up her arm to hurl her ribbon between Rose Quartz's feet. Around the room there were sudden gasps of shock, but Rose Quartz only leaned back in surprise, even as Tourmaline's power increased the ribbon's weight, turning its end ballistic. The same pulse of added weight allowed her to whip the ribbon, and let the end wrap around the haft of the massive pole-arm Rose Quartz had left lying right behind her.

Tourmaline yanked back on her ribbon and with another pulse of her power the forged weapon shot towards her, now almost weightless. The motion was violent and sudden and yet, despite her confusion, Rose Quartz simply hopped slightly in the air, effortlessly dodging the weapon that threatened to knock her legs from under her.

The weapon haft landed in Tourmaline's hand and there were already twenty instruments of war pointed at her gem from various parts of the stands. Flashes of materialization light from every direction showed more were coming from the rest of the rebels, but all those were academic before the thin sword-blade that raced forward towards Tourmaline like a rocket, clutched in the fist of a Pearl. By the time Tourmaline blinked she was only two paces away.

Tourmaline spun the pole-arm haft, only at the last moment remembering to give it back enough weight to deflect the sword point. It caught the blade but the rogue Pearl didn't care, pirouetting as the sword flashed again, this time towards Tourmaline's abdomen, ready to bite through her body and dissipate her form in an instant.

"Stop!"

Rose Quartz called out and Pearl froze at the very point of impact. Tourmaline could feel the metal point pressing against her surface, just at the limit of what her body could withstand. Then the sword was gone and Pearl had stepped back, holding her weapon elegantly behind her back.

"Of course," Pearl said, never taking her eyes off Tourmaline. "She's still clumsy. I don't think she is any real threat."

Tourmaline's hand gripped so tight on the haft that its texture bit her palm."No, I'm not." She had been defeated in less than two seconds. Then she looked up at Rose Quartz and her next words tore out of throat with the force of long suppressed rage. "But you are. How can you not see that you've become monsters!"

She screamed up at one of the most powerful warriors ever made, with an army surrounding her. But Tourmaline couldn't bring herself to care, because in front of her was Rose Quartz. Somewhere within her soul, a dam had broken. "You've ruined everything. You claim your rebellion is to allow Gems to be themselves, but how can we? You destroyed my purpose! You came upon all these Gems, and you destroyed them, ripped them free of their lives and their destinies to leave them lost in this storm of chaos. No wonder they cling to you, they have nothing left after you pass by."

The Bismuth at Rose Quartz side snarled and stepped forward but her mistress held out a hand. Rose Quartz' head had tilted down, her long pink hair falling to cover her face.

Tourmaline was trembling with fear and with rage but she continued, tears running down her cheeks. "Your freedom is poison. No one actually wants that! Gems want security, they want understanding, they want long existence where they can be successful and productive. And they want peace. That's what you've destroyed. You destroyed our hope for peace. Gems are being shattered, Gems are lost, Gems that were never made to fight are being forced onto the battle field. Who are you to decide that? You're just an Earth-made Gem like the rest of us. What gave you the right?!"

A deathly silence had descended over the rebel gems. Tourmaline knew her time was short. Slowly but firmly, she gripped her weapon in both hands and angled massive blade towards Rose Quartz. Tourmaline began to walk forward.

"I'm too weak to make myself hate you. I don't even think you're a terrible person. You just don't understand. You can't see that you're wrong, that everything you stand for is dedicated to the destruction of those I love and the ruination of this world."

The sword blade was at her throat. "Step back," the Pearl said.

Tourmaline never took her eyes off Rose Quartz, even if the other gem had hidden behind her long pink hair. She was only speaking to the leader. "No," Tourmaline said. "No, you could destroy me in an instant. I'm just a Tourmaline and you're a Quartz. You're bigger, you're stronger, you are so far above me I can barely comprehend it. I'll lose, I know that. But I will fight you. I have to. To protect the world and the people I love from what you are trying to do."

Tourmaline didn't know what to expect. Something swift and violent, ending with the destruction of her body and the shattering of her mind. What she didn't expect was laughter; loud, rough, and debilitating laughter.

Even the rebels looked confused as they saw their leader, the terrible Rose Quartz, gasping in laughter. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to wipe them away. For a moment she regained breath. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Then a new peal of laughing broke through and she held up her hand as she tried to stop it again.

The disrespect was so fierce Tourmaline felt like her gem had been ripped out of her body. "How dare you!" she screamed.

"I'm sorry," Rose Quartz finally managed to gain control of herself. "I really am sorry. But sometimes a moment is so astonishingly perfect that you just can't help it. A mirror in time. Garnet, go fetch the rest of her friends, all those who didn't really want to ally with us."

The Garnet fusion nodded with a small smile and darted off. Tourmaline was left in the middle of the amphitheater, weapon loose in her hands as she boggled.

"What...what's happening?"

The Bismuth turned to, "Uh yeah, Rose, what the heck's happening? Sure, give them a chance to join, but that gem is an unredeemable Diamond supporter who's just declared eternal war on us. Why does she still have that weapon? Why's she still have a body? Why's she still standing?! Rose! Answer me!" Even the Pearl, who by her behavior must have been Rose Quartz's own, seemed unsettled.

The Garnet returned with an armful of containment bubbles, and then a few seconds later flashes of light heralded the return of Ruby, the Peridots, Nephrite, and the latter two Bismuths.

Ruby came back into the world already punching. "Yaah! You ready for more?! I already told you clods I...!" She froze and realized that time had passed. All her aggression flicked off like a switch. "Oh, hi Tourmaline. Cool, you got out too. These Gems are weird."

The Peridots both reformed at once. In unison, they started talking and got as far as, "So as I was saying..." before they noticed the remarkably changed circumstances and shut down mid word out of fear and confusion.

Nephrite ran up and threw her arms around Tourmaline's shoulders in a hug, silent as always. For her part, Tourmaline just patted the larger gem's arm, still half in a daze. It wasn't all of them, not everyone from the mountain cave. Some must have defected to the rebels. But it was enough.

Rose Quartz smiled down on her, not the same warm yet calculated smile she had before, but a genuine and ungrateful expression of joy. There may even have been something like wistfulness.

"Go on your way Tourmaline. After that speech there's really nothing else I can say, now is there? To do anything else, I'd be betraying myself."

"You're...You're letting us go?" Most of the rebels didn't look happy about that either.

However, it seemed Rose Quartz didn't care. "It's a big world out there. I hope that, no matter what happens, you find a place for yourself. And know that, if things go to plan, I'll make sure of it."

...

Chapter Text

...

A century passed and the world was on fire. No matter where the neutral Gems traveled, they could find nowhere that had not been ravaged by war. Wreckage smoldered in the desert, crashed ships littered the jungle, and weapons larger than any single Gem covered battlefields filled with flowers withering under a smoke choked sky.

Tourmaline hopped up the slope of this volcanic crag, making towards the peak. As fast as her ascent was it was still taking too long. She reached up to her shoulder and in one smooth motion she manifested her ribbon and knotted it around the pole-arm, swinging the whole weapon around her head as a pulse of her power rendered it lighter than a feather. In an instant the blade and haft became a purple blur; a huge disk spinning above her head. Then she let the weight return and the blade shot off toward the mountaintop, trailing a much lighter Tourmaline behind it.

She landed on the crumbling red peak, an ephemeral structure of jagged, porous rock. A quick twist of her arm wrenched the weapon out from the crack it had bitten into the stone and she swung it up to rest on her shoulder. A cold wind blew through her hair, but it only held the sound of the savage atmosphere. It was blowing the wrong way to carry the footsteps of the twenty armies who marched in the distance below.

Dust rose up from the sandy valley floor, ruffled plumage ejected from the endless stamping feet. Most of them were humans but the largest of the armies was composed of Gems. There were thousands of them of every color, squadrons of Amethysts, entire battalions of Rubies, and ranks upon ranks of other Gems, Gems who were never meant to fight. But the pink rose banner flapped overhead and so all their purposes were undone by that hateful symbol. Here and there, towering fusions stalked among them like organic beasts preparing to consume the grass.

High up above, the grey clouds split around the line of a flyer's engine trail, but the device made no effort to stop the armies below it. No, it was already fleeing. Tourmaline turned away and jumped back down the far side of the mountain.

She reached within twenty minutes she reached the mouth of a shallow canyon. Curly stuck her yellow-haired head out as soon as Tourmaline drew near. The Peridot breathed out in relief, "Oh thank everything, they didn't spot you. What did you see? Was it as bad as we feared?"

Tourmaline didn't answer, only headed deeper inside the rough walled box canyon.

Curly bit her lip. "Ah, that bad."

A little further inside the stone and the canyon opened up a bit into a small bowl. There waited Tourmaline's own Gems.

This was just a temporary rearing place, the latest camp in their long string of retreats and escapes. Tourmaline's household had grown in numbers over the years. Cast-offs and defectives, Gems loyal to Homeworld who had lost their purpose or received damage. If they returned to the Diamonds' side they would have been commanded into the fight, and they would have been shattered. How would it have helped the Diamonds for a Peridot to fling herself at the ax of an Onyx, or some Tourmaline to charge a fusion? Then there were gems like the Nephrite and Jasper whose gems were too cracked to remain as fighters, but they were still whole enough to be useful to a civilization in peacetime. Surely, it was still loyal to preserve that use until then?

But the Diamonds were losing.

The assembled Gems gathered, waiting anxiously for Tourmaline to speak. There were five other Tourmalines with them by now but somehow over the years she had come to gain exclusive rights to her type name. The others went by facet designation, or by color descriptions, or in one case a completely arbitrary designation invented on the spot. Tourmaline no longer had the energy to fight such heretical things as names.

She stamped her pole-arm on the rock and called out with as much air as she could bring into herself. "It's as we feared, the rebel force has joined with another detachment. Their numbers have almost doubled and they're still heading east. I'm afraid there are other armies converging as well."

Off to the side a Bismuth wondered, "I thought they'd seized access to the warp network. Why are they still walking?"

Tourmaline might have said something but West held up her green hand to get attention. Despite her energy she still looked glum as she said, "There's just too many. The warps can only carry so many at once, and now the numbers have tipped to the rebels side. Using that technology now would only weaken them in an attack."

"Where are they heading now? What's left? The Lunar Sea Spire was abandoned."

"The Temple of Earth was torn apart fifteen years ago."

"The Storm Teeth were in this general area of the planet, but we lost those ages ago. I doubt there'd be anything still standing."

Tourmaline winced ever so slightly at this careless reference to her own long lost home. At her side, Ruby stood a little straighter. Her Ruby, one of the three Gems who had been part of her household her since she walked out of the kindergarden two millennia ago. The she looked up at all the other worked faces in every color of red and yellow, green, blue and purple. She supposed she had to tell them what she had figured out. Most of them had probably already guessed by now.

"They're heading towards the Galaxy Warp," she said.

Gasps rang out. It was one thing to be pessimistic about a war that had shattered so many Gems, but if the Galaxy Warp fell that would be it. The war would be over. The main line connection to Homeworld and all the other Gem controlled worlds had to be the most well defended site on this planet and if the Rebels felt confidant enough to threaten it...? Tourmaline heard a few Gems let out strangled sobs.

West had come to stand nearby, joined by her fellow Peridot, Curly. Her arms were crossed across her chest as if hugging herself. "What are we supposed to do about that? What can we?"

Tourmaline focused her eyes on the vague distance above the other gems. The light that filtered down from the clouds was grey and cold. "A little over a hundred years ago, Rose Quartz captured a few of us. She let us go, but she said when everything was over, she would make a place for me in her forces. I'm going to take her up on that."

"What?!"

"You can't!"

"Tourmaline? After everything we've been through, how could you-"

Tourmaline projected her voice through the building racket, cold and firm. Her weapon slammed down on the rock floor with a sharp crack. "I will go to her. And when I get close I will strike at the traitor's gem with all my strength."

Silence reigned. Gems were not like organics, when they had no desire to move they were completely and utterly still, as silent as the inanimate stones around them.

Little Ruby looked up at her, red brow furrowed in disturbed confusion. "But Tourmaline... they'll shatter you. And why would you try anyway? She's a Quartz, you can't beat her."

It was a simple statement of fact. A Tourmaline could not beat a Quartz. A butler could not defeat a warrior. And it was true. Tourmaline looked out at all the Gems who surrounded her, refugees and invalids. Every truth she was formed with told her they were doomed. But Rose Quartz had broken so many truths, destroyed so many rules. Maybe, after all these years, there was a chance some of that chaos would strike back at its own author. Tourmaline clung to that ridiculous hope.

Air hissed through her teeth as she inhaled. "I have to try. If I don't, then the whole Earth is lost. If I stand aside now, then I truly am a traitor."

Over among the other Rubies, one stamped her foot. "Then what the heck would that make the rest of us? Tourmaline, this plan's stupid and even I can see that." Then she shrugged. "But if you're trying it then we're coming with you."

"What? No, you-"

West broke in, superior at first but quickly losing confidence. "Yeah, Tourmaline, I don't think you get to choose this time. It's the freaking end of the world. Every Gem's on her prime programing here. So I guess that means we're jumping straight into the metaphorical crusher. Or the literal crusher. Or some horrible, special purpose hybrid fusion made specifically to...You know what, are we sure there aren't any other options?"

Then Second Bismuth stepped forward, her huge stature parting the smaller gems around her. Concern was on her face, and she didn't look up to meet anyone's eye, but still she gestured her hands widely as she said, "The foundation is cracked. The whole structure is tumbling. In times like this, what is right but sometimes yield to what is necessary."

First Bismuth joined at her side, but her eyes met Tourmaline's, clouded with desperation and regret. "Violence is the enemy of our purpose. But for the rest of creation to continue, perhaps some must be destroyed." Her hand shifted and morphed into a smith's hammer, but as Tourmaline watched, the hammer slowly grew cruel spikes that it had never known before. First looked sick. "If we succeed, I will shatter my own gem as soon as it is over as I would no longer be a proper Bismuth. If I cannot, I only ask that you do it for me. I trust you, Tourmaline."

Tourmaline couldn't trust herself to speak. The words seemed to swell in her throat and choke her, as if her body was going to break from the anguish and love. One by one, the rest of the neutral Gems moved forward, slowly at first, but then in a building rush. They joined together around Tourmaline, pressing together in something that was partly a hug, partly a need for support. Tears stung Tourmaline's eyes as she looked up at the grey sky, her fellow Gems holding her up on all sides. That was what they did. They supported each other.

Above, the rip in the clouds the departing flyer had made was slowly widening into a stripe of clear blue sky.

...

Gaining acceptance into the rebel army had been almost sickeningly easy. The surrounding forces of humans and their beasts just let let Tourmaline's friends walk by, sometimes with a triumphant raised weapon or a cheer of bravado. The traitor Gems were not much more complicated. The orange-striped Jasper who spotted them moving towards the flanks of the main force had taken one look at their group's eclectic composition and greeted them with a broad grin.

"Welcome, sisters! I'd say you're late but you're still just in time! Still half a continent to cover. Where're you coming from? Did your squad get held up by retreaters?"

Tourmaline tried not to shiver. "No. We...we're trying to join. Join the rebellion. We've been looking for you."

Jasper blinked, but then laughed. "No kidding? Ha! Well, then welcome to the movement. Don't worry about hard feelings. If we turned away last minute defectors half this army wouldn't be here. There's no shame in being afraid the rebellion would fail. Heck, I thought it would myself, half the time, but here we are!"

"Yes, here we are." Tourmaline looked out at the massive crowd of marching Gems. This close, their formation and their dust blotted out the horizon.

In her mind, Tourmaline had assigned this rebel army some dark and persistent drumbeat, the constant hammering at the foundations of civilization. But now that she was among them, she was unnerved to find that the persistent sound was not any of war; it was laughter. Gems of all types mixed together, intoxicated by some delirious excitement that rose from the crowd. Ruby flinched and Tourmaline grabbed the smaller Gem's shoulder as suddenly a company of miss-matched Gems burst into song. It was nothing sensical, and it seemed that they were making up the words as they went along, but somehow their voices locked together and soared towards the sky, as clear and strong as any formal message down from the stars.

These Gens were happy. They were doing the greatest evil imaginable and yet they looked happier than Tourmaline could ever remember being. Ruby looked up as Tourmaline's fingers dug into her shoulder, but Tourmaline turned her head away, not willing to show the tears. But in that moment Tourmaline felt a hand press gently on the side of her own arm.

Tourmaline turned and saw herself. A green haired Tourmaline she'd never seen before was standing beside her, concern and understanding on her pink face. "It's ok to cry. You just got here? Don't be ashamed of all those confusing emotions, we all went through that at first. And now we're here for you."

Tourmaline flinched back and the other Tourmaline let go, taking no offense. She just kept smiling that warm expression at Tourmaline. Then, just as the discomfort was reaching it's peak, the other Tourmaline looked away, breaking eye contact as if to address the sky above. "I know what you're feeling. Part of you just wishes you were still back at your post, looking after your neat little household, with nothing ever changing from now till the end of time. It's...peaceful." Then that smile drifted from her face. "But the other part of you knows that peace is a lie. That peace is the shattering of off-colors, the crushing of innovation, and the destruction of all the organic life that surrounds us. This Earth is different from the other planets. Here we weren't making something out of nothing, we were destroying something huge to make something very small. Trees burned to ash, humans shattered without a care. And that's why you're here, to allow that second little voice to finally be at rest. To achieve the inner peace of knowing that you are changing the universe by your own hand, and changing it for the better."

Tourmaline's mouth worked noiselessly. She had spent so little of her existence around other Tourmalines that this was very unsettling. Her own voice was lecturing her, picking at the core emotions of her creation and tempting her towards treason. And it sounded so nice.

At her side, Ruby said, "Tourmaline? Er, other Tourmaline? Don't we need to...kind of need to find the, um, you know?"

Tourmaline shook herself out of that dangerous daze. In a flash she was back to herself. She remembered the sense she had been made with. And she remembered her mission. "Of course. Sorry, Tourmaline, but would you mind if I asked you a question? A while ago I got the chance to see the Rose Quartz herself. She said to me...she said that she'd like to see me again some day. I know things are busy right now but if I knew where her Clarity was I-"

The other Tourmaline laughed and the rest of the neutral Gems looked very unsettled. Their Tourmaline hadn't laughed like that in a long time. But the other Tourmaline just said, "Wow, you really are new. I'm sure she'd be happy to see you. Just don't bother calling her 'clarity', that's not the way we do things around here. Yes, you'll get your chance in a few days. We're going to be meeting up with the main army then."

Tourmaline thought she was at her lowest but then a new chasm opened up in her soul. "...main army?"

"Right. And all the others too. We'll be forming up just outside the Evacuation Site's combat range."

"For the end."

The other Tourmaline gave her a funny look. "Maybe an end. You're right, you should get to talk to Rose Quartz."

Tourmaline nodded and gradually slowed her walking pace, falling back within the group of her fellow neutral Gems, hiding in plain sight within the army of traitors. After all, no one looked for enemies when they had already won.

...

Endless miles of grass and trees passed and eventually the chill air became tinged with the faint scent of salt. A dense forest canopy shielded the sun, but the leaf-packed floors underneath thundered with footsteps of the growing armies. Then Tourmaline and her fellow gems stepped out from under the last tree and looked out at a sloping hilly landscape filled with traitors.

The rebel leadership stood on the top of a hill that rose up above the forested land along this coastline. In front of them the ground dropped away into a steep white cliff, a perfect partner for the divide in the landscape ahead. A perfect mile-wide strip of rock stabbed out into the ocean like a line drawn on the sea. It was new land, raw and rocky, only patchily infested by the organic plants that strove to colonize it. Far off on each side the ocean splashed fruitlessly at the edges of this peninsula that stretched out into the distance. Somewhere out there was the Galaxy Warp.

The primary colony sites like that were of course not chosen based on the raw planet's current shape, but according to the plans of its eventual transformation. That might place a location as crucial as the Galaxy warp far out into a deep ocean, but when specialized Gems could part the waves and raise up rock from the seabed what did it really matter? The expansion of the Gems was invincible. Things like mountains and oceans were terribly transient things.

Now a massive army waited at the edge of that land. Tourmaline's legs worked as she climbed up the grassy side of the commanding hill in the middle of it all. The rest of her strange mismatched household followed just behind. No one in the massed armies seemed to question this large group of unknown Gems walking straight towards the rebellion's leaders. That was good, but also a very ominous sign. If a group was that arrogant, they might actually have reason for it. Then Tourmaline reached the peak of the hill and stood before the leaders of this apocalypse.

The towering instigator of the rebellion, Rose Quartz, looked different. Her body had not reformed in all those years but still there was some change. It was something about her eyes. The inexplicable humor and warmth that Tourmaline had seen there before was still present, but now it seemed as if it lay over something raw and desperate.

The obscene fusion, Garnet, and the renegade Pearl still stood at her side. Both looked Tourmaline's way as she approached. The Crazy Lace Agate that had attacked Tourmaline's old home was a few yards away but the angry Bismuth from the amphitheater was no longer at Rose Quartz right hand. Perhaps she was down with the rest of the gathering troops. Or perhaps at least a few traitors had been destroyed.

Tourmaline breathed in, steadying herself for this final bit of acting. "Rose Quartz, I-"

The Garnet interrupted, addressing Rose in a conversational tone. "She plans to shatter you."

Tourmaline's mouth was stuck open in the middle of a word. Her great blaze of suicidal martyrdom was undone in a single second. And worse than the shock was that no one seemed to care. Two of the Amethysts nearby materialized their weapons, but didn't otherwise change their posture, watching the crowd of neutral gems with an almost bored attention. These rebels had fought the full might of Homeworld's armies and had emerged victorious. Tourmaline's band of Peridots, Bismuths, Rubies, and cracked Gems did not compare.

Rose Quartz was not looking at them at all. She still stood on the lip of the cliff, facing out towards the distant site of the Galaxy warp out in the ocean. Near the horizon, loyal Diamond ships could be seen converging from elsewhere across the planet.

Then Rose Quartz started to voice was soft but somehow carried perfectly despite the gusty air, conversational as if she and Tourmaline were standing beside each other in some friendly parlor long ago.

"I didn't start this rebellion to help Gems. It's shameful to me now, but I'll admit it. In those early days my thoughts didn't stretch beyond what was immediately in front of me, the most urgent threat to the most vulnerable target. So I looked out at the life on Earth, saw that it was all going to be destroyed, and preventing that became my priority. I didn't stop to think to myself why; to ask how this scenario came to be in the first place. I just saw a mistake about to be made and so I tried to stop it."

"Other Gems joined me but it wasn't until far too long that I really looked at why they were joining me. It wasn't just coming to the defense of lifeforms they could barely understand, they were fleeing as well. Fleeing the rules that had led to this same story unfold across a hundred other worlds. Fleeing the system that told them there was no alternative to this; no place for anything that was even remotely different."

Somewhere behind Tourmaline's legs, West started to say, "Well, why would anyone-?" but Tourmaline pressed her hand across that little green mouth to silence her.

Rose Quartz didn't seem to notice. She tilted her head towards the sky. The sun was beginning to dip lower and the whips of clouds were turning pink against the blue. "You know, for a thousand years I still had faith. I still hoped that somehow, the Diamonds would come to understand that there had to be another way to do things. That we could be better than we were. But in the end, that hope broke. They cannot be convinced. But for the rest of us there is still a chance."

Tourmaline felt a sinking feeling in her soul. "The rest of us?"

Rose Quartz turned back and there was an intensity in her eyes so fierce it was almost feverish. Anger and guilt and blinding passion mixed together. "Gems. All of them. Every Gem on every planet across the empire. They are our comrades too, as much as any who have fought beside us on Earth. Homeworld has already surrendered this fight but we will not let this be over. We will not let our sisters remain captives of the Diamonds. We will be better than the Diamonds. From this day forth this is no longer a rebellion. This is a revolution; a revolution that will continue on and touch every world in the sky."

The other rebel gems nodded firmly in unison, as if they had heard this before. In scattered voices they added their own quiet calls.

"For freedom."

"For love."

"For change."

"For all those who were lost."

Tourmaline took a step forward toward before she realized she had done so. Then she recognized the sense of doom she felt and what impulse drove her. Rose Quartz stood before her, gem exposed on her stomach. Tourmaline's hand tightened on the haft of her purple weapon. However, the instant her hand clenched she felt a sharp tap on her own gem. She looked to the side and saw Pearl holding the sword blade against Tourmaline's true self. Their eyes met and for a moment Tourmaline could see a swirl of emotions inside that perfect, elegant, beautiful Gem. She saw hope and fear, rage and horror, love and regret. Tourmaline even imagined that there was a distant part of this Pearl that was still whole, a tiny hidden aspect that wanted to lose this war. Some part that was still like Tourmaline wished she was. But then it was gone and only the deadly warrior remained.

The great curve of the pole-arm's blade dipped and Pearl silently withdrew once more, leaving Tourmaline standing alone. No, she was not alone. Behind her were all those other Gems who had stayed with her because they had no where else to go, nowhere else to avoid the war. But in the end, she had led them to the war, to this war, and they had followed gladly. What did that make her?

She breathed out. "Then, Rose Quartz, I don't suppose you would-"

Garnet interrupted again, "She's going to ask for leave to go join the Homeworld defenses."

"Stop that!"

The fusion shrugged. "We're on a schedule."

Rose Quartz turned back to her vista. "How many Gems are with her?"

Pearl was at her owner's side once more, somehow having avoided the intervening space. "Thirty-seven. Of those, I believe eleven would not be able to fight effectively without first receiving healing."

One of the rebel Jaspers spoke up, "And I love you Rose, but even I'd have to stop you short of actually healing up soldiers on behalf of the enemy."

Rose shook her head and her long pink curls rolled across her back. "We are past the point where a few more on each side will make a difference. And the reason we have reached this point is because of how we have behaved, showing mercy at every point when it is possible." Tourmaline noticed that the Quartz's platitudes were now tempered by many of these caveats. This war had worn away at her too.

Then Rose Quartz gestured back vaguely without looking back in Tourmaline's direction. "Go wherever you want. When this is over, you will always have another chance to join us. The Diamonds are not so generous, so be glad."

Tourmaline could feel herself trembling with anger and didn't trust herself to speak. But then she heard someone step up behind her and a faintly unsteady hand rested on her shoulder. Nephrite glared with her one eye and began to force out her own words through an uncooperative mouth. "Th-th-th...The D-Diamonds. Th-they g-g-gave us life. You onl-ly t-take."

That was the longest speech Tourmaline had heard the cracked Gem give in a hundred years. Tourmaline loved her for it. Nephrite, for her part, only turned away from the fearsome rebels and smoothly lifted West back up onto her usual perch on her shoulders.

West and the other Peridots looked less sure about all this. "Um, sure. All right then," one of them said to the rebels. "Well, you can all see it's not like we're useful in a fight. So if you see us, um, out there, maybe you could just, uh, look the other way?

Garnet turned away from them as well, joining Rose Quartz in her vigil. "No, I don't see us meeting again. Not anytime soon."

Coming from something that was part Sapphire this was almost excessively ominous. Tourmaline and the others turned to walk away, leaving them behind standing on that hilltop in the bitter breeze.

...

Ocean waves crashed against the sheer artificial coast, sending up a mist of spray jagged with salt. Tourmaline stood with the sea at her left, holding place at the flank of Homeworld's defenses. Half a mile behind her another one of the huge, saucer-like colonizer ships slowly rose up from the flat rock platform towards the sky. That meant that there were only four ship now remaining around the Warp itself. The army that was stationed in front of it looked far too small.

Two Lapis Lazulis floated in the air above the green-grey sea, ready to unleash waves that could scour gems down to nothing. On the wide rocky peninsula of the warp platform, other Lazurites in yellow hues slowly walked across ground that trembled and shook in anticipation of its masters' coming commands. Agates tested their whips from on top of newly raised spires while below them hundreds of Jaspers, Amethysts, Onyx, and Topaz formed up in squadrons of identical selves, bristling with blades and armor. In between these towering valkyries, knots of Rubies waited in Hands of five, ready for the signal to fuse together into their battle forms. All that, all those forces, and it was still far too small to face what was coming.

Tourmaline didn't know what she was supposed to do. A squad of Amethyst warriors had grabbed her pole-arm away as soon as they reached the defensive lines. They had been ready to shatter her as a rebel until they saw her manifest her ribbon and recognized that she was not a Gem well-made enough to be a threat. The rest of Tourmaline's friends had received the same treatment, deemed too useless to be worth fighting. Since they hadn't expressed a desire to fight for a spot in the planetary evacuation line no one really cared what they did instead.

They were still without a purpose.

West stood a little behind Tourmaline, partly hiding from any dangerous conscription task and partly to cast more envious glances at the other Peridots fleeing through the flashing warp pads. Those evacuating Gems clustered around the ring of Agates who held command of the towering crystal platform that held the warps. Many of the panicked refugees held things clutched in their arms; tools, instruments, memory cores, and various other harvest-made things. As Tourmaline looked back she saw a high class Zircon stumble as an Agate pushed past, dropping a blue hand-mirror that skidded somewhere out of sight. Tourmaline turned away. Everything was falling apart.

A small group of Rubies stopped nearby at it took Tourmaline a few moments to realize that one of them was actually her Ruby. Ruby wore the fraught facial expression of twisted ambivalence that always made any Ruby's inner struggle quite outer.

"Tourmaline?" Ruby said, uncharacteristically hesitant. "These Rubies say they lost their fifth in a fight with the rebels. If I go with them they can be a full Hand again and be a proper fusion for the front lines."

"That's great. I'm proud you get to help."

"But, um, what are you going to do? 'Cus they took your weapon, and I kinda just remembered that Tourmalines aren't, you know, supposed to fight."

Tourmaline murmured, half to herself, "It wasn't my weapon. I just found it."

Curly Peridot said, "Yes, in retrospect our grand gesture of loyalty is starting to seem less than well thought out. Is it really worth the danger to just be standing here? We could stand anywhere! Someplace that isn't about to be a deadly battleground!"

Peridot's words echoed the tired despair in Tourmaline's own mind. But somehow, as the little green Gem said that, the swirl of sorrow and recrimination shifted and all that anxiety solidified into something stronger.

"No," Tourmaline said, speaking louder to be heard above the panic and preparation for the fight. "No. Where we stand has meaning, even if we just stand. Those rebels have tried to take away our purpose, they have tried to take away our place. Just by being here we are fighting them."

"If they take a single sword swing to dissipate my body, then that is still one second that is not attacking our warriors. If they have to flick one eye in my direction out of fear I might do something, that is one moment of distraction to give our side an advantage." She laughed, and as she smiled she noticed that there were tears in her eyes. "This is the end of the world. How could we be anywhere else?"

Nephrite moved forward, standing at the head of the small group of other damaged Gems. There had been no resources available here to heal them, but they still stood by, held up by determination as strong as any other.

Tourmaline felt her voice growing raw with emotion, but she tried to hide it. "Listen. We know who we are. We know why we are here. No one can take that from us. And no one can take you all from me. Don't be distracted by this one bad day. We will be victorious here, The Diamonds will win, and then eternity is in front of us."

A tear glistened for a moment in the corner of Second Bismuth's eye. Nephrite ran a hand through her thick white hair and took a breath. Her body fell still as her will fought to dominate it.

"Together," she said, as firm and as clear as they day she had come out of the ground.

All around the other Gems who had joined them over the decades let their voices join in a spreading whisper.

"Together."

Tourmaline let her own word melt beneath the rest, almost inaudible.

"Forever."

...

Screams and crashes and explosions swirled together into a seamless roar of battle much like that of the sea itself. Towering loyal fusions lashed out with mountain-crushing blows against multi-armed monsters that spat fire or beams of energy. The powerful Lazurites were mostly at a stalemate, each side holding back the others waves or earthquakes. However, the rebels had the advantage of numbers, and the loyalist fortifications were slowly being stripped away. The enemy always had the advantage.

Tourmaline stumbled over the broken ground as she reached for a small orange gem that had skidded to a halt against a cracked boulder near the foot of the Galaxy Warp pillar. She gathered it up, another Jasper, and tucked it into the loops of the sash-bag she had tied her manifested ribbon into. That part of her was clearly a defective weapon, but at least she could be helpful in some small way. She could try to keep these helpless fighters safe from being shattered. The Jasper clinked against a dozen others already tucked inside.

She didn't even know if these Gems she was picking up were loyalists or rebels.

A gout of fire from somewhere overhead splashed against the ground beside her. The heat clawed at Tourmaline's hair and skin but she didn't let that bother her. In the distance she heard the roar of another advancing charge of human soldiers in their surviving thousands. They were always beaten, thrown back, and cut down, but they always regrouped to charge again and again. They would swarm forward until they caught some overextended unfused Gem and bore her down with hundreds of spear thrusts that tore her body to mist. However, that was at the front lines, and so Tourmaline could not concern herself with that. Even now that was still almost fifty yards away from the Galaxy Warp.

She was happy. She couldn't explain it, it seemed such an obviously defective thought, but it was true none the less. She could barely function from the overwhelming fear, hopelessness dragged at her limbs until it seemed like gravity itself had decided to claw her down, and all her makeshift household were now lost in the smoke filled chaos, but she was happy. For over a hundred years she had been uncertain within herself, infected by treasonous suspicion of the Diamonds, stumbling through the dark at the head of Gems she had never been meant to lead, striving towards an undefined goal she could not even visualize. But now she was here and her soul was at peace. She was serving, as she was meant to.

She had forgotten the bliss of subsuming herself under the role she was meant to play, she had forgotten the joy of faithful service and complete trust in the Diamonds. Now she didn't have to plan, she didn't have to adapt or invent, she didn't have to think. She just had to walk through hell and gather up the lost souls as they fell from the sky. If the ground was crumbling into the sea all around her, that just left less area to search. It was simple. It was her purpose; to manage a household.

A huge rock shot through the air, erupting out of a plume of smoke straight towards Tourmaline. That much force could crush her gem to shards, but by now Tourmaline was ready for these. She spun and raised a single, thin hand up to meet that meteor with open palm. It crashed into her, and flung her back but with each fractional second of contact more of Tourmaline's power flowed into the stone, stealing away its weight and inertia. In the end she skidded back fifty feet on her heels but by then the yak-sized boulder was held easily by two pinched fingers as of it was nothing more than air.

Tourmaline flung her arm to the side and the boulder dropped to crush the ground the instant it left contact with her palm. Then a cool and gentle breeze brushed past her hair, some strange sea breath that had managed to weave unharmed through this chaos of apocalyptic battle. The breeze brushed aside a black cloud of ground-hugging smoke and Tourmaline was left suddenly face to face with Rose Quartz on the battlefield.

The rebel commander was beautiful and she was terrible. Around her, the burning fire and splitting ground seemed to transform from chaotic fury into art. A sword was in her hand, a shield on her arm, and the light of the Earth's setting sun lay a burning crown on her head. Other rebels were fighting nearby, dispatching the disoriented components of some sundered fusion. Amid the dust and the smoke Garnet, Pearl, and Crazy Lace at least could be identified, but in this single instant Rose Quartz only locked eyes with Tourmaline.

Tourmaline stared back, even as her limbs trembled and shook from her hours of continuous exertion. It was all she could do to stand up and watch the expressions play across Rose Quartz's face. Even from this distance they were clear to see. First it was a smile of triumph and exhilaration mixed with a wry amusement for Tourmaline even managing to survive here, but then that all melted away and the shadow Tourmaline had glimpsed once before returned. It was a rush of sorrow and self doubt that Tourmaline found far too familiar. Then the last sickle edge of the planet's red sun dipped through the sea and the brief moment of contact was over. Rose Quartz turned to place one foot on the first step up the side of the Galaxy Warp.

Something changed. It started as a vibration through the ground, a hum below the range of hearing that seemed at first like some new attack from the stone-shaping Lazurites. However, in a moment that trembling presence lifted up to fill the air as well, forming an all encompassing touch of gentle pressure around every Gem. Then the note rose across some barrier to be transformed into a single beautiful sound, pure and bright.

Across the crumbling battlefield, Gems stopped in mid combat, eyes wide and stunned as they felt this new bliss touch their souls. The few surviving humans stumbled to a belated halt as they realized their allies and their enemies had both suddenly halted to stand and turn their heads towards the sky. Tourmaline saw Rose Quartz look up and she saw the Quartz's eyes now filled with a terror and a longing in equal measure. Then Tourmaline turned around to face the sky and the wonder that hung above it.

The brilliant might of the Diamonds shone down from the heavens. Their light was blinding past the edge of sight, but somehow Tourmaline could still feel their presence in the most fundamental core of her gem, as if something that had been taken from her for all her life was now returned. In this moment she was whole and joyful tears streamed down her cheeks.

Then the Song began. Tourmaline could feel it vibrating through her true self and so she felt it as if it was her own mind. She felt the Diamonds; she felt their sorrow, she felt their grief, and she felt their rage. The sensation was so powerful it left no space left to feel her own body.

Out of the corner of her eye Tourmaline glimpsed Rose Quartz's pink shield suddenly expand, racing out to an absurd size as if suddenly trying to cover the entire battlefield like a roof. Then the sensation of the Diamonds' song shifted from emotion to direct instruction and the expanding shield slammed down to seal against the ground as a shallow dome. The very edge of that manifested tool pushed against the edge of Tourmaline's foot, leaving her just outside. However, Tourmaline could not focus on that. It wasn't important. The Diamonds were speaking to her directly.

Every Gem came out of the ground with all the knowledge they needed to carry out their purpose. That purpose was their entire being, from their body to their mind. Any later experience or learning could only taint that most precious innate truth, until inevitably the errors compounded through the millennia and eventually the Gem made some mistake that resulted in harvest or shattering. That was simply how life worked. However, now Tourmaline was receiving a new truth that was as powerful as that original core of her own identity. This message was not to her, it was her.

The Diamonds spoke through song in a language more powerful than words of music. They spoke to each gem individually with the personal touch only possible by the ones who designed them.

To those who heard it, the Song's message was filled with wonder and joy. They understood it perfectly. It said all of them, all the Gems on Earth, were defective. They did not behave as Gems and so they were not Gems. To be a Gem was to be useful, to support and advance the civilization according to the will of those who commanded it. Those whose actions did not follow that path, wither willfully or by failure, had no place in the universe.

The Song reached inside each gem and it undid the mind within. It inserted a new truth down at the deepest level of everyone who heard it. The message was simple.

"You have no purpose."

And the gem that once called itself Tourmaline knew this to be true.

The blinding light above faded away and new natural stars slowly emerged into the sky of the newly born night. Ocean waves distantly crashed against the brittle rock around the Galaxy Warp. The Warp was familiar, that was what people used to travel to other places. Remembering that was easy. But who were people? That thought was meaningless.

All around, standing shapes of different sizes slowly began to change. All those things had been there before, but why did they all have the same shape, two legs and two arms? Was there a reason for that? Now they was changing and that was fine.

Distantly, shouts and screams began to drift on the breeze. Humans made sounds like that. It was easy to remember that they had come here for the battle, but who were they fighting? There was no one here, only things. Now some of those things were lashing out at the humans. They shouldn't have come here. Humans could not see well in the dark and now the night was growing very dark indeed.

A huge pink dome suddenly vanished from nearby. Three more things walked out from its former site, but these things still held the same shape as before; two legs and two arms, thin and tall. For some reason that was an aggravating thought. Those three things staggered as they walked across flat ground, as if they were hobbled by something more than physical matter. They made noises from their mouths, some loud, some soft. Those sounds had meant something once, hadn't they? That was frustrating to think about.

One of the three things walked closer, her hand clutched over her mouth. It was the the thin, pale one, not the pink one or the three eyed one. The one who moved like a dancer and fought like a blade. It was the most beautiful of the things. Someone had once held a secret wish to be like that one. That someone was gone now.

The pale thing approached, water streaming down her face. It whispered soft sounds and held up a trembling hand. Then another hand raised up to mirror that one's, but this new appendage was no longer really a hand. Its light red color was filling with growing splotches of grey and the fingers were now very long, connected together by thin membranes. Suddenly, there was a brief flash of light as a ribbon stopped existing and several gems clattered to the ground.

The pale thing looked down at the scattered gems and knelt to grab at the nearest.

No!

Teeth snapped out at the pale thing's hand and it only just withdrew in time. Everything was confused, something was wrong. But those gems on the ground belonged. They belonged to someone, someone who was gone. Someone who might return. But not this pale thing.

The mouth stretched out again towards the fallen gems, growing by each moment from whatever it had been before into a long fanged beak. It took up the first gem, held it for a moment and then swallowed it. The gems belonged together. They were supposed to be safe. The beak swept across the stone and found more gems to scoop up and swallow. Yes, this was good.

The pale thing made a loud noise and drew a thin sharp sword. That sword was dangerous. It had pressed against someone's skin several times before. Now that sword was waving through the air between the beak and the few gems still on the ground. The gems should be together, but they should also be safe. That sword wasn't safe.

Two arms flung out, now transformed into wide strong wings. They beat against the air and the ground retreated, leaving the pale thing behind to rejoin her two friends. This perspective from above was unfamiliar but it was away from danger. Earth was wide and empty, where was a good place to go? Where was safe? Mountains were safe. Someone had once hidden there. But there would be more gems in more places. More gems to swallow, to keep together, to keep safe.

The Sky Spire was in the mountains. Someone had always wanted to see that. Maybe she would be waiting there. Whoever she was.

...

5,103 YEARS LATER

...

Steven stared up into Pearl's eyes. Pearl realized that at some point in the story he had sat up straight again and moved over on the couch until he could face her. She hadn't noticed him move.

"That's...that's terrible," he said.

"Yes. It was."

"That's all you saw? The light in the sky, and the beginning of a song?"

Pearl nodded. "Rose's shield came down a second later, and she cut off nearly all the sound from outside."

"Nearly?"

Pearl only distantly heard Steven say that. "There were more Gems just outside, more that she almost got inside. She couldn't have risked waiting a single moment more, and we all knew it. Even if it's possible another second wouldn't have mattered. Crazy Lace was just a few yards past me. Another second more and five more Gems would have been saved. Two more seconds and twelve Gems wouldn't have heard the song. Rose never forgot that."

Steven's voice was still gentle, but more forceful now, jerking Pearl back from thousands of years in the past. "Pearl, you said that the shield blocked nearly all the sound."

"Not enough to make anything out, or to be harmful, evidently, but some still snuck through. The faintest whisper."

Steven paused, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to ask his next question. But he did anyway. "What did it sound like?"

There were tears in Pearl's eyes. "It was beautiful."

Deep in the living heart of the temple, a constellation of gems hung in silent bubbles. There were Rubies, Peridots, Nephrites, Bismuths and endless other gems. There were even a small number of Tourmalines. There in the dark red light they were together, and for now, they were safe; waiting for the chance to one day come back.

END