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“Come on! Come on!” A quartz yells, cheering on her subordinates as they push a huge boulder.
“Yeah! Push that thing! Put your back into it!” She cheers, punching the air.
An amethyst shuffles over to her, her expression completely blank as she watches the quartzes.
“Why are you cheering them on?” Lace Amethyst asks, continuing to stare at them.
“Why not? Encouragement is a good way to uplift people.” Cherry responds, smiling widely at Amethyst.
“Whatever. Your job isn’t cheer, your job is to work.” She grumbles, slapping Cherry on the back of her head.
“Ow! Yeah yeah, I know that!” Cherry refutes, rubbing her head slowly.
“Sure you do. Get back to work.” Lace rolls her eyes, stepping away and returning to her work.
“Get back to work.” Cherry mocks her, looking at the quartzes.
“Come on you guys, get it!” She yells at them, continuing to punch to the air.
“Hey! How about you help us?!” Zebra Jasper yells at her, turning her attention to Cherry.
“Cheering is helping!” She yells back.
The other quartzes all groan simultaneously. Cherry continues to cheer them until they finally push the boulder out of the way. The quartz soldiers all high five each other and walk towards Cherry Quartz.
“Hey, great job with that boulder!” Cherry congratulates them, trying to high five them.
The quartzes all ignore her, sneering at her.
“Thanks for nothing, Cherry.” An amethyst groans softly, shoving her.
“Yeah, real helpful.” A jasper sneers at her, avoiding her high five.
“Oh….well….hey, Zeb!” Cherry lights up when she sees Zebra Jasper.
Cherry runs towards her, excitedly waving at her. Jasper sighs exhaustively, not wanting to deal with her.
“Do you ever run out of energy?” Zeb raises an eyebrow as Cherry closes in on her.
“No, gems don’t run out of energy, don’t you know that?
“Of course.” She rolls her eyes, tapping her foot against the ground.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea.”
“Mm, another one of your ‘amazing’ ideas.” Jasper rubs her face, preparing for Cherry’s idea.
“How about we go work alongside Lace? I’m sure she’ll need help with something.”
“Like she’ll want help from you of all gems.” Jasper laughs softly, her gaze moving around the kindergarten.
“Who cares? Let’s go help her, come on!” Cherry says excitedly, already running off to find Lace Amethyst.
“Wait- Hey, Cherry! Cherry, don’t go running off!” Jasper gets startled, following the overly enthusiastic quartz.
Cherry runs throughout the kindergarten, nearly bumping into multiple other quartz soldiers. Jasper trails behind, blurting out apologies to every angry gem.
“Cherry! Quit running all over the place!” Zeb yells to her, trying to get her attention, but failing.
Cherry just continues running, her head whipping around in every direction to find Lace. She feels glimpse of purple and grey in the corner of her eye. She turns her head and sees her, Lace Amethyst.
“Lace!” She cries out, smiling widely as she rushes towards her.
Lace turns her head slowly, entirely focused on her job. As she notices a rushing Cherry Quartz coming towards her, she freezes up completely.
“Lace, we’re here to help with your tasks!” Cherry jumps up, landing on Lace with a loud bang. Zeb hears the noise and tries to follow it. She looks all around and still finds nothing. When Zeb looks around a corner, she finds Cherry and Lace on the ground.
“Hey! Cherry, you cannot just run off and cause trouble around the kindergarten, we could get in massive trouble!” She reprimands her, closing the distance.
“Sorry,” Cherry glances up at her, sitting up. “I was just too caught up in finding Lace…”
“Tell me, when are you not…?” Zeb sighs, standing above the two gems.
“I’m sure you know the answer to that…”
Zeb glances down at Lace, who lays there with her eyes closed.
“Lace? You still alive?” She kneels down, slapping her face softly.
Lace opens an eye, looking around her. When she sees both Cherry and Zeb, she groans loudly.
“Good, your still alive…” Jasper exhales, standing up.
“Maybe if I kept my eyes closed, you’d think I wasn’t…” Lace says rasping.
Cherry laughs at her, making Lace more annoyed than usual.
“My goodness……will you get off of me?!” She whips up, pushing Cherry onto the ground.
“My my, you’re so mean today.” Cherry giggles, adjusting her very messy hair.
“No, you’re just so annoying today.” Lace argues back, pointing at Cherry angrily.
“Alright, quit fighting you two.” Zeb steps between them, trying to calm down the situation.
“We’re not fighting. We’re just…having fun.” Cherry replies with a smug expression.
“What a bunch of-“
“Anyways, how about we all just get back to work? We can all work together, okay?” Zeb proposes, looking between the two gems.
“Fine. But actually do some work.” Lace stands up, looking down at Cherry before stepping away.
“Don’t worry ‘bout me!” Cherry bolts up, catching up to Lace
Zeb groans internally, walking far behind Lace and Cherry.
(Why do they always have to leave me behind?)
The three gems go to a random section of the kindergarten, where a few other quartz soldiers are working.
“Alright, now how about, we just work?” Lace says, facing away from the other two.
“Yeah, of cour-“
“In silence.” Lace points behind her, her tone sharp.
“Understood.” Cherry sighs, tapping her hands together.
Zeb rolls her eyes at Cherry, wandering off to a corner of the space. Cherry groans and walks off to another corner. Lace stays in her place, working from there.
The three work in complete silence, groups of quartzes coming and going. They’re making good progress before a loud noise interrupts them.
“What was that….?” Lace whispers, looking around herself carefully.
“Guys….should we…go check it out?” Cherry calls out to them.
“No! Absolutely not!” Zeb yells at her, getting both annoyed and nervous about the situation.
“You sure? It could be something serious….” Cherry groans, scratching the back of her head.
“Do. Not.” Lace turns and points at her.
“Fine….”
They continue to work silently, with the strange noises continuing. Cherry’s impulsiveness grows with each mysterious noise that’s echoes through the kindergarten. She eventually stops working and turns to leave.
“Where are you going?” Zeb asks her, her back turned to Cherry as she works.
“I’m checking out what’s going on out there.”
“What?! No you’re not!” Zeb yells at her.
“Just stay here! I won’t be long!” Cherry yells back, rushing off to find the source of the noises.
Cherry rushes around, tracking the sound. It sounds like fighting. It takes her a while, running around in circles before she reaches the source of the sounds.
A huge…creature are fighting against the quartz soldiers.
“What is going on?!”
Cheery whips her head back and sees Lace and Zeb, shocked to see the creature.
“Looks like there’s some natural life forms on this planet…” Cherry says, observing these creatures.
“Well, let’s get rid of them!” Zeb tells, running towards them.
“Wait wait! Hold on!” Cherry runs after her.
“The both of you, don’t rush into these things!” Lace rushes over to them.
The three gems all accidentally fall over onto eachother, fusing together.
“Huh…? Wha…?” The gem mumbles, looking at her huge hands.
The gem looks up and sees the other quartzes fighting the creature. She stands up and walks towards the creature. The gem runs towards them and punches them hard.
“Woah, those gems all just fused!” A quartz soldier exclaims, looking up at the fusion.
The creature snarls at the gem, standing up tall to be intimidating. It rushes towards the gem, attempting to bite her. The gem manages to stop the creature, grabbing the edges its mouth.
The creature tries to push back against her but can’t. The gem throws the creature away, it hitting the ground hard enough to crack it. The fusion glances her behind her and notices the other gems just staring.
“Well? Why don’t you help me?” She says, turning back to the creatures, who’s now standing up.
The quartzes all run to the creature, holding it down. Some of them try punching it but it hits the gems away from it. They continue trying and failing.
The fusion stares at the creature, trying to figure out what to do. She begins to talk to herself, the gems overlapping in her voice.
“What should we do…?”
“Run? That’s a good idea.”
“No, what are you saying? We have to fight it.”
“Fight it? You must be crazy now…”
“I’m not. Just listen to me for once, okay?”
The fusion pauses for a moment before speaking to herself again.
“Okay, but if we get hurt, it’s all your fault.”
“I know, don’t worry ‘bout us.”
The gem clenches her hands, preparing to attack it. She closes her eyes and rushes towards it.
“Move out of the way!!” She yells out to the quartzes.
All the quartzes who are attacking the creature all rush out of the way, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. The gem raises her fists and throws them down onto the creature, over and over again.
The creature struggles to escape from her as it continues to be pummelled. The other gems hold on the creature for the fusion to finish the job.
It takes a while before the creature finally dies, its body falling limply onto the ground.
The quartzes all celebrate the death, congratulating themselves for helping. They also congratulate the fusion, who stares down at the corpse blankly.
“Hey! Let’s bring this thing to Pink Diamond!” One gem yells out.
“Yeah!”
The fusion disappears from the crowd, hiding out in a part of the kindergarten.
The gems all unfuse, falling onto the ground.
“We….We killed that thing…” Cherry whispers, her hands shaking.
“Yeah…but we’re soldiers, that’s what we do.” Lace reassures her, rubbing her forehead.
“I know that, Lace!” Cherry cries out, gripping her head.
“It sure doesn’t seem like you do!” Lace yells back at her, getting annoyed.
“Guys…just…relax…” Zeb tries to calm them down.
Cherry exhales shakily, curling up.
“You navel gems are so…annoying.” Lace mutters, her gaze moving to Cherry momentarily before looking away.
“You arm gems are so insensitive!” Cherry yells at her,
“My goodness, you both need to be quiet!” Zeb yells at the both of them, clenching her hands.
“And you, you are…are…nevermind…” Cherry stops herself.
“I’m what?” Zeb looks down at her, curious as to what she was going to say.
“It’s not a big deal, Zeb. Really.”
“Seems like it is.”
Cherry takes a deep breath before speaking;
“I was…going to say that,” She closes her eyes, unable to look Zeb in the eye. “You chest gems are just…too caring sometimes.”
Zeb’s eyes widen a little, surprised by Cherry’s expression of her negative emotions.
The three all sit in complete silence, taking in the weight of emotions hitting them all. Zeb eventually stands up, lending out her hands to the others.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“Go where?” Lace asks, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Anywhere that’s away from that thing.” Zeb replies, gesturing to the dead creature.
Cherry and Lace look at eachother for a second before taking Zeb’s hand, walking away from the others.
“Let’s just try to forget about that…” Zeb remarks,
“Like I can…” Cherry sighs exhaustively.
The three gems all walk off, with scars and pain from their actions. But they’ve got each other and that’s just good enough.