I came out of the ground fighting. My legs struck out at one of the rebels, the Crystal Gems, as I clambered from the dirt. They reeled as I grabbed for their weapon, a gnarled mace, and twisted it from their grasp. A satisfying puff of smoke came after I struck them with the cudgel.
My fellow Gem soldiers were smashing their way through the mosh of rebels, trying to get into formation. Quartz bruisers smashed their crash helmets into any skull that got too close, sending friend and foe flying.
Other Rutile, my make, were climbing to hire ground, in an attempt to start sharp shooting. Rutile Quartz soldiers are bowmen; not as sturdy as a Jasper or a Citrine, but not meant to be. Our purpose was to get behind larger soldiers and fire on mass at any enemy that wasn't falling fast enough.
A particularly burly Silicate was in the way of a prime positon, inside of a Quartz bruiser's exit hole. Light shimmered from the Gem planted in my right shoulder, a crossbow formed around my wrist. Three bolts exited the bow before the Silicate rebel could blink, all met their target.
The battlefield was in disarray. I could barely make out who were our own. Luckily the Crystal Gems had made an error; their uniforms had removed their Diamond's mark and replaced it with a five pointed star. Picking them out of the crowd took time, time I could not waste. After four or five shots going wide at a rogue, I went to meet with the other Rutile to combine our efforts.
More of my facet were hanging from sandy cliff walls, having the same difficulties I was. None of us were sure how long this battle had been going on. In an ideal scenario we would have popped without any interference; this must have been a surprise attack. I scaled the rocks' face, the exit holes made good foot holds.
A gauntleted fist hammered into my back as I scrambled along the wall, another armored hand grabbed me by the waste, and threw me into the fray. The Gem that had me was huge, bigger than any Quartz bruiser; it had multiple pairs of arms and eyes. On account of my recent birth I had never seen one of them, a Gem fusion; a tactic weaker Gems would use to become momentarily stronger.
It raised its four gauntleted hands over its head, readying to crush me. A spiraling ball slammed into its multicolored chest before it could finish me off. Long white hair unfurled down the back of my savior. A Quartz, a Jasper judging by the color, stood above me, scowling at the fusion.
"What a shameless display," she grunted. Her large hands grabbed onto mine, pulling me up. "Get behind me solider. I want you to fire as many times as possible after my signal."
I could only stutter, "W-hat's the signal?"
She smirked, her crash helmet reforming over her head, "You'll know it."
Just as the fusion got back to standing the Jasper collided with her mishmash of a face; the white spiral spun and then shot up into the sky. That must have been it. I fired wild, the fusion was so big that I didn't have to aim. A dozen or so shafts of solid light peppered the giant's body. It gasped before exploding into the fused Gems' dormant forms.
I jumped as a hand clapped me on the shoulder, it was the Jasper.
"Good job Rutile. No time to rest though. We can drive them off, but we'll need covering fire. Look, your facet is regrouping. Get shooting," she patted me once more before running into a cloud of dust.
That Quartz soldier was probably the best thing to come out of this Kindergarten. I would see her a few more times throughout the war. In the fray, fighting hard. She'd breakthrough lines of huge gems with ease. I'd only see a few more victories before the end.
I was with my facet, what was left it at least. Half of us hadn't lasted the first fight. Shattered by the Crystal Gems. We were on a recon mission. My manager, a Rutile of light coloration, had taken the lead. She was checking a message, sent from our base in the southern sector of the Earth, when we found the rebel stronghold.
We were in one of the planet's many jungles, in a shadowy canopy of branches and vines. Our scouts had been hearing rumblings of a rebel base being constructed for months. Now we had found it.
It was a pyramid, coated in foliage, surrounded by a variety of Gems. The Crystal Gems didn't care much about castes. Soldiers, engineers, even high ranked officials had mingled together. If they were a guard it didn't show. They looked blithe, happy as can be. Happy as a rebel could be, which was a thing hard to imagine.
My manager spoke, "We're only surveying the area. If any of them see us, diffract their bodies, take their Gem. They can't know we were here."
"They already do," a soft voice spoke from behind us.
Three of our seven were diffracted before we could react. Wisps of smoke did little to hide the form of a Pearl. It held two dueling sabers, no emotion was present on its face. The beauty it displayed as it danced between my Cut terrified me. Two more dropped, two were left. Myself and my manager.
I did my best to ready my bow. Only a single bolt of hardened light managed to take a lock of hair from the Pearl. A whirl of blades met my manager's throat, she diffracted a moment later, leaving me with alone, clutching her Gem.
"Stop," a voice that wasn't the Pearl's, or my own rang out from the trees. A large Gem walked out from the vines. Ringlets of rosy hair toppled over her head. A magnificent, white gown covered her body, save for her naval. A five pointed star was cut out, showing a brilliant pink Gem. It was Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion.
"Take your comrades and leave," she spoke in hushed tones.
I couldn't move, I couldn't even shake with fear. I had heard stories about Rose Quartz. Stories of her strength were unparalleled among Quartz. How she could diffract a Gem's body in a second, even without her sword. Stories about how she had started this war….
I felt something put in my hands. It was my Cuts' Gems, completely unharmed. Rose Quartz stood before me, the Pearl behind her still brandishing its sabers.
She closed my fingers around my fellow Rutiles, "Never come back here. If you do, it will end as it did today." She didn't say another word. The Pearl glared at me, and pointed a sword back where we'd came. It took all I could muster to move. Once I was running I didn't stop, not until I was grabbed by another soldier back at base.
My superiors did not heed Rose Quartz's words. We went back not long after our disastrous mission. The battle took weeks. Our victory pyrrhicc. The losses we sustained must have had a part in our eventual defeat.
As the fighting continued I thought back to the rebel leader. She was so sure of her might, even against the insurmountable strength of the Diamonds' forces, that she could let her enemies leave with their wounded, unharmed. It frightened me right to the core of my Gem.
I couldn't see through the smoke of diffracted Gems. The sound of warriors shattering was cacophonous. The field was littered with weapons from both sides. Colossal fusions unmerged, dropping obscenely large swords and axes into the Earth.
An aftershock broke my concentration on a group of rebels dicing their way through a platoon of Ruby, ground troops. It was almost humorous that the higher ups kept making those runts. Strength in numbers was one thing, but I don't think any number of them could help now.
I recentered my aim back on the Crystals. A rogue Peridot had created a wall of iron around herself, blocking all of the Rubies' inept slashes. Who knew Peridot's could do that? It didn't matter. Three bolts descended into melee. Two missed their mark, clanging against iron shields, the third hit its mark. The Peridot clutched her chest, losing control over the metal, allowing a Ruby to diffract her.
A sigh of relief wordlessly escaped my lips. Other Rutiles were next to me on a floating hunk of rock. We had, had to fall back several times, each time losing a prime perch. My manager directed me towards a gargantuan fusion that had just emerged onto the battlefield. It widely struck out, taking out a line of Quartz.
My entire facet was firing on it. Bolt after bolt of condensed light shot into the aberration, but it didn't do much besides annoy it. Its attention was turned to us, a blast of turquoise energy sheared away half of the platform we were standing on. Two of my facet were gone.
We had to jump before another blast was released from the fusion's multiple hands. It made a strange gesture with the left side of its body, and then mirrored it with its the right. Earthen walls erupted around us, taking away any escape route.
The five of us huddled together, not willing to look up at the approaching giant. I could feel the fear of my facet…. of…. of my sisters. That fear coalesced into something more. I wasn't sure what. Light emanated from our Gems as we embraced.
I, or I guess, we were looking at the rebel fusion. We were looking at the giant, but from a much higher position. None of us had ever fused before. Our purpose never called for it. A hail of crossbow bolts was more effective than one massive one.
The rebel giant looked at us in surprise, and then horror. Our size along with our strength had increased by five. Our wrist mounted crossbows had merged into a ballista of shining light. A burning arrow blazed from our bow. The fusion was thrown backwards from us, crumbling like a mountain. The aftershocks shook us apart, leaving me next to my sisters.
Fusing was something I had only known as a sign of weakness. The Crystal Gems had obviously disproved that with their countless victories, but my superiors still scoffed at the tactic. It confused me how nice it felt to be a part of something. Not just a part of the Diamond's armies, but something closer. I wish I could have done it again.
I was running. We were all running. Not just the remaining Rutiles. The entire force was sprinting for their lives away from… something. None of us knew, only that it would be the end of the war. The Diamonds' last ditch effort to wipe out the Crystal Gems. It would destroy them, but the higher ups had said that if we didn't act fast, it would take us too.
The last ships from Homeworld were leaving. I could see metal legs receding back into the ships' hulls. Why weren't they waiting? Other Gems must have been having the same thought, because all around me were terrified glances going back and forth from each other back to the leaving ships.
A sound was coming from the distance. It rattled our bodies to the ground. If not for the volume it might have been pleasant. It sang louder and louder, swelling into a crescendo, before…. Nothingness.
A woman walked alone through a sprinkling of snowflakes. Her bare feet crunched through an already fallen, blanket snow, not wincing at any sign of cold. Her long pink hair was the only thing that stuck out in the ice capped mountains, her white dress blending into the surroundings.
She stopped in front of a forest of pine trees, all dusted with frozen white. Rumblings turned into crashing as the woman stood stock still among the ice. Waves of trees broke away as a four legged beast careened towards the large woman.
Two horns poked out from a mane of shaggy white hair that hung over a sandy orange pelt. No eyes were visible above its massive, jagged jaws. It roared approaching the pink haired woman, ready to kill whatever was in its territory.
A white palm was raised against the monster, nothing more. It halted as if stopped by invisible chains in front of her. She looked up at the creature, sorrow in her eyes. A large, sea green Gem was produced from the folds of her voluminous curls, incased inside of smooth, clear bubble.
She spoke strained words, "I'm so sorry."
The bubble floated from the woman's hands, and popped lightly, dropping the Gem to the ground. Light shown from the Gem, growing brighter and brighter, before exploding into a monstrous form.
A multicolored beast screamed into the mountaintop air, unaware of where it was. It was a carbon copy of the horned monster already in front of the woman, the only difference was its sea foam color. The monsters looked at each other for a few long moments before nuzzling their eyeless faces against each other.
They turned to the large woman, who had already started down the mountain. Roaring excitedly they scrambled back up into the tress, and into the higher mountains.
Rose Quartz looked back up into the sea of conifers.
"You can come out Pearl."
A thin figure emerged from behind a snow covered tree. A light blush emblazoned on her cheeks. She burst out, "I'm so sorry, Rose. I saw you take one of the corrupted Gems and I was worried! Why did you release it?! It could be dangerous to the humans!"
Rose turned to her, "Did you recognize her?"
"Who? The corrupted Gem? Of course not! Ho-?"
"No, no. You're fine. You only met once, I'm not surprised." Rose stepped closer to Pearl. She was smiling, but her eyes let an echoing sadness escape, "I shouldn't have waited so long. You were only doing what you were told."
Pearl wasn't really sure what to say. She wasn't really sure what Rose was talking about. Her leader put a soft arm around her, "Come on. Let's leave them be." They went back in silence.
End