Opal Illusions
"Ugh you can not be serious," Amethyst complained loudly from the kitchen, her, Pearl and Garnet were having some type of meeting down there. Steven was trying to not ease drop but couldn't help it. Connie who had come over for training but had to stall it until the meeting was over wasn't even trying to hide she was listening in.
"Well you don't have to act like its such a terrible thing," Pearl sighed in response.
Garnet walked passed the other two gems as they started into another petty argument and came over to Steven and Connie. "What up Garnet?" Steven asked curious what Amethyst and Pearl were both annoyed about.
"Connie, Steven, I have a mission for the two of you," the fusion said in her stoic manner.
"A MISSION!" Connie said excitedly, jumping up from where she was laying at the foot of Steven's bed.
"This isn't gonna be like my first mission is it?" Steven asked kinda embarrassed remembering the Sea Spire mission he managed to screw up.
"No, this is far different then a typical mission. Inside the ruins of the Sea Spire, there is a monster trapped inside, I foresee a future where it is set free, so we must take steps to stop it now before it breaks free."
"What kind of monster is?" Connie almost jumping with eagerness and a sort of blood lust.
"Are you sure this is a great first mission for Connie?" Steven asked face terribly worried.
Garnet chuckled to herself and a burst of light appeared behind her, "No no, you two don't need to fight the monster, just make sure she stays together until she can fight the monster." On the floor below the tall thin figure of Opal stretched out happily forming herself yet again.
The three of them walked slowly down a dank and dreary hallway, getting inside the sunken ruins hadn't been quite as hard as Steven had thought. Connie was running ahead a bit, "scouting for danger" in though Garnet had been rather clear that the only thing down here now was the monster they had come to fight. Steven looked down nervously trying to think of something to say, he had never spent more than 5 minutes with Opal before, he had never seen Amethyst and Pearl manage to stay fused for more than 5 minutes before.
"This is kinda nice," Opal interrupted Steven's thoughts.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Steven asked startled looking around at the rather crappy cavern like halls they were passing through.
"Well normally, they only bring me out if they wanna use me, I know that I'm really just here to fight a monster but its nice to just go for a walk with you." Opal smiled almost sadly at Steven.
Steven felt his heart clench a bit. "I wish they did too. I wish I could get to know you better. Why don't Amethyst and Pearl fuse together more? I get not wanting to be like Garnet, I fuse with Connie sometimes but I don't think I would wanna be fused with her 100% of the time like Garnet does, but why don't they ever form you, just for fun?"
"I don't know Steven," Opal says sighing loudly, "Honestly I don't understand them at all."
"But you are them," Steven replies confused.
"Garnet is the one who understands this stuff not me, she says that they don't understand each other and because of that they don't understand me and I can't understand them either, but I suppose the important thing is that we do what we must and protect the people we love," Opal gave Steven smile. "We do love you Steven, even if we don't always say it, all 3 of us."
Steven blushed a bit breaking eye contact. "I know, and I love all of you as well," the young teen replied scratching his head slightly embarrassed.
"Steven, Opal," Connie called from slightly ahead, "I think I found what were looking for."
The two rushed forward to join Connie. They peered around a corner into the next room and standing in the center perfectly still was the monster Garnet had described. A shadow made of inky black, tendrils trailing down a hidden body like bangs covering a persons eyes, at this center was a perfectly round white gem stone, with just a slight hint of blue coloring in it. Opal's eyes focused and she stepped out into the clearing before the creature.
"Come quietly, I don't wanna cause you anymore pain," Opal called out as she summoned her gem weapon the spear and whip fusing as well to form her bow. As Opal leveled the bow and pulled back her arrow of light the shadow creature lashed out. One of its dark tendrils shot forward, forming into a blade at its point as it pierced through Opal's chest.
Steven and Connie both gasped in shock, but then Opal's form shuttered a bit, a clue they both quickly recognized. This Opal's form was stuttering just like how the Holo Pearls' forms would stutter when they got damaged. Suddenly the room burst with light coming from Opal's body, but not just her body either, 5 more Opals appear surrounding the creature, all giving off radiant light from the gem on their forehead, all 5 raised their bows in unison drawing back their arrows. The monster whirled, pulling its tendril out of the first Opal and shooting them into the 5 new Opals, but these only stuttered too.
However the first Opal hadn't disappeared after the creature removed its blade like the Holo Pearl would have, it still stood arrow draw back and poised to fire. The arrow of light fired forth from the presumed Holo Opal striking the creature full on in a burst of light. As it reeled back from the blow pulling all of its tendrils back to defend itself and away from the other Opals, more arrows of light were let loose by the now forgotten Opal, bombarding the creature on all sides and filling the room with light, every Opal was real except until the beast struck at it, then it became an illusion and yet a single gem was managing to attack from all 6 spots at the same time, every arrow was real, none of the Opals were real. Completely overwhelmed by the assault in a final blinding burst of light the poor creature poofed.
When the light returned to normal Connie and Steven ran over to the now singular Opal as she bubbled the blue pearl-like gem and sent it back to the temple. "Opal that was amazing," Steven said excitedly.
"How did you do that? It was like they were all you and none of them were you," Connie said trying not to geek out to hard in front of everyone.
Opal smiled, "It was magic," was all she said. Then suddenly in a violent burst of light she defused.
Amethyst and Pearl both lying on the floor now. "Amethyst don't lie, it was not magic," Pearl shouted sitting up.
"Well then you explain it," Amethyst said rubbing her head clearly annoyed by the sudden and violent end to the fusion.
"Well it was," Pearl started only to realize she no longer knew the answer. "Well I don't know what we did, what Opal did, but I'm sure there was a better explanation for it then "It was magic." " Pearl blushing trying to save face, no longer knowing how Opal had combined her and Amethyst's abilities to do what she had done.