Author's Note:
Welcome to my newest story! I thought I would tackle something else for a bit, as my Sekirei fanfic has been in limbo for a while and I'm waiting to see what the most recent manga chapters bring before I go further. I also have about 1/3 of another story that I may tackle in the meantime, so any support is appreciated.
For those of you that don't know me, welcome! I am Sir Gibs. My writing usually revolves around a penchant for re-writing well-defined stories from another point of view, or branching off in "what if" moments.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to a very considerate friend of mine who takes his free time to edit over all my stories and offer some stylistic advice. These chapters wouldn't even exist without you!
And THANK YOU! Dear sweet readers who have patiently waited through these last several months as I have overcome some hurdles in my life in order to take time off and write again!
As always, leave a review, about how great or horrible this is and I'll see if this will be a worthy project to continue.
My best wishes going into this holiday season!

The stage is now set... the characters in position... and the director on stand. Without further ado... I present Shattered Memories!

~Sir Gibs~

Chapter 1: Wake Up Call

Darkness…

Eternal Night…

A darkness devouring…a sea of black I was drowning in. I would be gasping for breath if I could breathe.

I remember little of where I was, how I got here, and who I am.

It comes back to me in pieces, a war on foreign soil… no, a foreign system. I'm on a planet surrounded by people… that I know? Family? Friends? Enemies? It is all lost to me, I'm amid a battle that is seemingly my own, yet fought for the cause of another.

More scenes flash by giving me brief glimpses of a long gone past or a reality to come.

A valley that embodies the picture of decay and death is where I stand, the walls are a rocky brown and grey with various person-sized holes dotting them, the area is covered with giant drills and pods, some silently standing vigil over the area while others lay broken and destroyed. I look around; yet I could see no one, only the lonely sound of the howling of the wind followed by a creaking of metal above me. I look up and see a cracked pod: It creaks once again and separates from a drill, tumbling towards me through the air. I try to move, yet my limbs fail, I hold my arms up in defense as it falls upon me…

I now stand upon a verdant green cliff looking down upon the ocean; my eyes adjust to the glare, revealing figures walking from the beach to the towering cliff upon which I stand. I open my mouth to shout, ask them who they are, what this place is; yet no words form. I reach out in the hopes they see me and- I slipped! Down, down, down I fall. A chasm rips open in the beach, and my fall continues…

Each location stirs something up within me… a memory? Some long past experience I have had?

It is then that I find myself upon a new vista, a wide island-like tower structure that rises above a surrounding lake or perhaps an ocean. The structure is made of crystal, as smooth and reflective as glass. There are what appear to be several pillars of stone, or perhaps other islands, surrounding the structure upon which I stand. Further inspection reveals there are several circular pedestals that adorn the face of the surface, each differing to some degree in size. I step off the one I stand upon and wander towards the center, where the largest pedestal stands. About two meters in diameter, the pedestal appears to be a large polished gem, giving off a small glow. I turned to walk away, yet something upon the pedestal catches my eye-a single note upon the ground. I walk closer and pick it up to see only two words:
"REMEMBER, JADE!"

Searing pain screams through my body; like a hot sword pressed to ice, I feel my mind yielding and melting before this word, as if my head is splitting! I feel my body go rigid, and the floor quickly rushes upward to meet my face.

Darkness once again…

Gasping for breath, I rise from the cold floor of a room scattered with bubbles of various sizes.

Two things caught my attention, the fact that my sense of touch had returned to me, indicating I had regained some sort of corporeal form; and that I was forcing myself to breathe, something that didn't matter considering I don't actually have need for gaseous intake in order to survive.

I had regenerated.

"This is Jade, gem technician assigned to off world duty, is anyone there?" No response from whatever world I had brought myself back into.

For all I know, I could've been out of commission for a single day, or millions of cycles in this sector. I held up a hand and performed the customary left swipe to instigate a call to Homeworld and figure out what had conspired in my time in stasis; yet nothing occurred…

"Ah shit…" I saw a sickly yellow-green hand outstretched from my body. I had forgotten that my gear was more than likely destroyed when my corporeal form was initially broken apart. I suppose now is a good time to take stock of the current situation: I am possibly stranded on a gem colony/battleground that may be off-grid, I have no recollection of the amount of time that has passed or where my gear is, and I am possibly within enemy territory.

I looked down and stretched my legs and arms attempting to gain familiarity with the appendages once again. Pulling myself to my feet, I let my eyes wander along my arms and legs studying for flaws in the regeneration, however it had progressed far better than I had hoped. I wore a tight one piece suit that was a rich forest green with sleeves that stopped in the middle of my bicep that framed the slightly better-than-average muscles of my calves and arms. Lime-green combat boots rose up to roughly half way up my calves. I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and thrust my arms out creating a large CRACK sound. I could see along the length of the bodysuit there were yellow, jagged, bolt-shaped patterns twisted down across the fabric leaving the impression that electricity flowed across the fabric. Once it reached the edge of the sleeves, the pattern continued down my arms covering the sickly shade of yellow with dark green bolts which ended in the palm of my hands. Green electricity arced between my fingers and began to gather in my right palm, and after several seconds cleared away to reveal a dark light green rectangular gemstone.

"Regeneration complete, Mission parameters- unclear, scouting operation beginning." The words came out naturally without a second thought. I studied the room I had been trapped in. A pool of molten rock sat in the middle of the room, while hundreds of bubbles floated about the room. Each one contained gemstones of varying colors, sizes and shapes; some sort of prison camp for our kind?

I popped the closest bubble, releasing an orb shaped gem that was green in color. It began to form its body, only for it to scream in pain and promptly contort itself into a monstrously-shaped creature with eight legs and large mandibles. I crushed it quickly with a few stomps of my boot before it was able to finish forming, forcing the being to retreat within the gemstone once again. I picked up the orb and walked towards another nearby bubble. After a few seconds of thought I carefully pushed the orb into the bubble with another gem. The two continued to float inside without any regeneration occurring.

"Interesting. Log note: Bubble structures stop the regenerative properties of beings trapped within, leaving them in a contained state. This is how I was trapped. The new proposed question is not how, but rather why?" My mission parameters had been lost in the time I had been trapped, however I knew one thing: this place wasn't somewhere I would want to be sticking around in, I would have to find a way out.

Several crystal pipes lined the walls, all leading to a hole in the ceiling. I could climb out, but I'm not quite sure where that would place me. Would I be deeper within the belly of the beast, inside another prison worse than this? No, I continued to look for another way. A gap in the crystal pipes along the wall about a meter and a half wide caught my attention. I walked over to the wall and studied it for a doorway or possible structural weakness.

"Nothing… DAMN!" I gave it a quick punch, creating a small crack in the wall. Almost immediately, the wall began to glow, the arch of a doorway forming with a star in the middle. A ruby and sapphire colored light appeared on opposite sides of the star and the doorway split down the middle. I dove behind the nearest crystal pipe as the door opened. A woman's figure passed through the door way, I could only make out the outline of her body in the light of the passage she just came through. She looked around, her eyes resting on the spot I was hiding on for more than a few seconds, before shrugging and heading towards the center of the room with another bubbled gem. She was a tall figure, with red skin darker than that of a ruby and coal black hair in the shape of a square afro. While she conducted her business with the gem, I decided to take the risk and dove out from behind the crystal structure to the doorway she entered through.

After a few moments of blindness, I was out. I was lying on the floor of a building. It was some sort of creature's living quarters. The interior suggested a semi-evolved being with conveniences such as communication and the ability to operate simple machines. The most striking part of the room was the warp pad a foot away from my face. It was similar to the one of my dream/memory. As I pulled myself up from the ground, I heard a sharp gasp from behind me.

"How… What… WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!" Shit, I was spotted. I turned over my shoulder to see a woman with pale, almost white skin that looked as fragile as porcelain. She had a large white gemstone, perhaps a pearl, set in her forehead and an ornate-looking spear she had drawn and pointed at me.

"This world is no longer Homeworld's for the taking! Can't you just leave us in peace!? You'd think by now they would know better…" A gem that defied Homeworld? Such rebellious behavior is unheard of! The doorway behind the woman, the passage that I had come through opened once again and revealed the woman I saw from before with the afro. She now had two large gauntlets covering each hand, both curled into fists as if ready to fight.

"I don't know who you are or where you come from, but it's time for you to leave!" She barked at me.

"What is this nonsense you've been spouting about Ho-" I was cut off mid sentence as the woman with porcelain skin threw her spear at me. I stumbled back onto the warp pad barely avoiding getting skewered by the spear. To fight against such a new enemy that I knew nothing about would be truly… disadvantageous. It would be 1000 years too soon if I was forced into my gem to regenerate once again.

"This isn't over; I promise this won't be the last you see of me!" I knew I was short on time, so I wouldn't be able to deliver a specific location to the warp pad; my only thought was 'home' before a bright flash of light and I was teleported from the base of my captors.

…

"No, no, no! Stupid, un-calibrated piece of crap…" The warp pad had worked, to an extent. I had forgotten in my haste, unless calibrated to allow free warping the pads would bring you to a set destination. On the bright side I was no longer was in the base of those rogue gems, however where I was located was not much better. As far as I could tell, I was still located on this backwater planet; however, the climate was vastly different from before, something more tropical now. I stepped down off the warp pad and gave it a swift kick from my boot, causing a small shock of pain I didn't expect.

Alright… I can still make this work. I still can't recall my mission parameters, or purpose for coming here but there must be some old gem outposts that I can get some tech to work with in the meantime.

I stepped back on the warp pad.

One more time… focus my mind…visualize where I want to go… and will the warp pad to take me there…the Galaxy Warp: perfect, it was the structure in one of my dreams/memories. If I can make it there, there's a possibility I will be able to return to Homeworld and figure out what occurred in my absence. Deep breathe in and… my body began to shift to light as the warp activated and accelerated me along the network towards my destination. I stepped down off the warp pad and looked around.

The location was just as I remember, the crystalline surface reflected from the glare of this system's sun shining down. Overall, the other warps looked fine: some cracks and chips in the gem of the warp made them seem a bit rundown, yet still useable. I went to the nearest one for a more detailed inspection…

"Crying breakfast friends…? What the hell is this, some sort of joke vandalism?" The item that had caught my attention was a piece of plastic stuck to the side of the warp pad in the shape of a crying piece of food. What sick sort of joke was this? I stepped on the warp pad and tried to imagine the island I had warped to earlier. A few seconds passed… and nothing. It seemed that pad would need maintenance once I had recovered some tools. I continued to search for another warp with the vandals mark on it. The next one, about two warp pads away, also had a similar problem, no warp capabilities. This problem persisted for every warp covered in the mark of the "Crying Breakfast Friends". Although this was a mildly concerning problem, I remembered the true reason of my coming here and put aside my thoughts as a technician.

The Homeworld warp sat in the middle of a ring of the smaller warp pads I had previously examined. About half a meter up from the ground and two meters wide in diameter, the structure had cracked down the middle.

"What is wrong with this world? Does none of our gem tech work?!" I would have to figure out an alternate plan for now, the warp would have to be repaired before anything else. But that would require tools… that I don't have. And my technician equipment… which I also don't have. I ran my hands through my hair, shorter than I remembered, now that I think about it…

Suddenly, it feel like my body was on fire, a thousand pins pricking my skin! My vision was slowly fading black. Thoughts, my own or another's (?) suddenly flooded my mind:

This… This isn't the first time I've been here.

The Galaxy Warp still sat in front of me… yet this was different: It was still one solid piece. My hands were covered in large metallic gloves, while a blowtorch was resting next to me. I could feel the weight of the mechanical gloves that covered my hands, yet I couldn't move them.

My focus shifted upwards, and I was forced to squint slightly from the light of the planet's setting sun.

I saw two other technicians working on another smaller warp. One of them took out a crystal from a pouch on their hip, and tried shoving it through a side panel into the warp pad.

"You idiots, be more careful! You put that in the wrong way, and this whole area will blow up!" I shrieked at them, then proceeded to sigh deeply. I couldn't help but thinking I would've been able to do a better job without these extra lackeys.

"Tense as always I see. Lieutenant Jade, I need a status update." Someone approached me from the left. I turned to see a tall, imposing silhouetted figure approach out of the sunset. The voice sounded like a gravely feminine voice. Even without seeing the expression on their face, I could tell they were already in a bad mood. I stood and crossed an arm in front of my chest, bowing slightly.

"Commander [ERROR~REDACTED~ERROR], a pleasure as always to see you." I felt myself crack a slight smile.

"Even after almost 500 years of service with you, that joke is still as bad as the day you first started telling it. Now, how's the warp pad? I need a way off this shit hole, and Homeworld needs a way to bring in more troops without relying on jumps to the other planets or moons of this system." I ran a metallic glove through my short crop of hair as I thought of the best way to explain the current situation to her.

"Well, you know how tough calibration of these things can be… one wrong sequence in the programming, and the teleportation will result in you being stuck in the middle of the hull of a colony ship. Best case scenario, it'll be up in five minutes; worst case scenario, we'll be waiting here for a long time." As I finished speaking, I used my right hand glove to pry open a loose panel on the side of the warp pad and stuck that hand in, grasping around until I found the bundle of wiring I was searching for. In the meantime, I held up the palm of my left hand which brought up a small hologram screen with details of the warp pad's inner workings. Using my right hand, I sent small bolts of electricity into each wire, one at a time, while I studied the monitor on my other hand for signs of a malfunction in the system. The screen flashed once, and then vanished: the "all clear" sign. I sighed and pulled the glove out of the warp pad. Using the blowtorch, I sealed over the panel of the warp pad, which seamlessly disappeared on the surface of the warp as if it never existed.

"Alright [Redacted], the system is returning a positive for connections to Homeworld. How about you do the honors and warp first." She gave a hearty laugh and slapped me on the back.

"For all I know, you're just trying to kill me."

We both burst out laughing. I could hear her sigh, as if the smile that had just graced her face was blown away by the wind.

"No, it's not our time to go home yet, we still have a job to do. You and I both know that. Between the increasing amount of resistance mounted by [REDACTED], and the attacks on the Kindergartens, Homeworld will order, hell, even force us back, if we leave this place."

The person in front of me offered me a silhouetted hand to help me up to my feet. I accepted the offer and grasped the hand. As they helped me up, I felt the skull-splitting sensation from before once again.

The figure in front of me seemed to crack apart, and became dust that was quickly swept away in the wind. I looked around for anyone else, but it had suddenly become very quiet…

I looked down and noticed that the ground I had been standing on suddenly was slowly flowing around me, like water or quicksand! My feet were already swallowed whole by the time I processed what was happening.

I pulled at one leg… tried jumping… but nothing worked! The more I moved the faster I seemed to move down. I was now waist deep, I tried to calm down… I need to assess the situation. What am I thinking?! It's too late for anything! I closed my eyes and accepted my fate…

"J—e… Jade… JADE!" The person from before was standing over me, an outstretched hand offered to help me back up from this pit. I grasped for their hand… almost… just a bit closer…

I brushed fingertips with the person, before sinking down even further. The figure disappeared into dust on the wind once again. Is this part of the memory? Is this my mind running rampant? Have all these years in solitude driven me insane? I took one last look at the vibrant orange and rose sunset before the earth opened up and swallowed me whole.

…

I found myself sitting on the Galaxy Warp, starring off into the distance. How long had I been here? I stood up and stretched a bit. I stretched my arms and cracked my knuckles.

It-It's starting to come back to me now… who I was, who I am: several Millennia ago, I was posted here as a lead technician for the development of this world. There was someone else there, someone very familiar with me; after all those years waiting to regenerate, it seems my memory has degraded some…

There's no doubt in my mind however, that commanding officer from back then knows me. If I can find them, I'll be able to figure out why I was left here and what my objective was for Homeworld on this planet.

"GAH!" I was panting, almost exhausted. Wherever that memory had come from, it had brought up a lot of anger that I had been keeping repressed for awhile now. I could feel the palm of my hand where my gemstone was begin to spark. A circuit of electricity began to form between my finger tips.

"SCREW THIS CRAPPY WORLD!" In an instant, I thrust my right hand straight out towards one of the rock pillars surrounding the Galaxy Warp. A huge discharge in the form of a bolt of lightning shot from my hand and struck the rock. A moment of silence… followed by a huge grating sound of rugged stone sliding on stone as the top half of the rock fell into the ocean. The top of the now broken pillar now smoldered with bits of molten rock dripping over the side of the pillar. I nodded, satisfied with the power output.

"At least one thing still functions…" I sat back down on the Homeworld warp and stared off absent mindedly towards the still smoking rock. Where would I get the tools necessary to fix the warp, I could summon my weapon from my gem and improvise, but then what? Even more important, who were those other gems that I was forced to flee from before?

"… there it is."

Hmm? Probably just my imagination… Anyways, I need to use the warp system and try finding an old gem establishment or outpost to get/make some equipment at. That enemy base I was in could be a possibility, though the likelihood I could take on all three of those beings again would be… unlikely.

"… just like I told you… Garnet! It's trying to get off world!"

Alright, this can't just be hallucinations, what the he-

A spear whizzed past my face, near centimeters away from impaling itself in my eye. I could feel the sting of a small cut on my right cheek. I twisted my head to the right, already knowing what aggressors had come to attack me. It was the woman with the porcelain skin, the other woman with the coal-colored afro, and two others I hadn't seen before.

The woman with the coal-colored afro lunged at me with a fist thrown forward. It seemed a straight forward attack, nothing but brute strength behi—what? Where'd she go?! Just a minute before I had seen her a few meters away, attempting to hit m-

"OOOF!" In the last second possible, I slid off the Warp Pad right as the Afro's fist connected with it. I could FEEL the air rush as her fist went by my torso. If that hit me, no doubt would I destabilize or worse… my gem may have crushed into a powder. With a speed that incredible, she had not only passed the limits of a brain's processing power in keeping up with her, but she also was able to crack the crystal surface of the warp even more! How the hell can I fix this thing if they keep making it even worse?! I jumped to my feet attempting to formulate a plan. I could probably get to one of the functional warp pads and at least teleport out of the area. Or I could attempt to negotiate a parlay, and attempt to gather information from the gems of this world… ha, I almost laughed at the prospect of that second thought.

"Awww, Garnet, you were so close to crushing that thing like a bug. HIT IT AGAIN!" Another gem yelled from over near the Porcelain-Woman. This newcomer wore baggy clothes: a shirt that loosely hung off her shoulders and a pair of black pants.

"As much fun as this would be fighting it by myself, I would appreciate a bit of help here. Amethyst! Pearl!" The one known as Pearl, the woman with the snow-white skin, pulled another spear out of the gem on her forehead, while the one who was just talking, Amethyst, pulled down her shirt slightly revealing a gem on her upper chest from which she pulled a whip covered in pointed gems.

Before I could even consider a plan, the Amethyst flicked the whip towards me. It cut through the air with incredible speed, forcing me to drop to the ground to avoid getting hit by it. As soon as my back roughly hit the crystal of the warp island, the Pearl rushed forward with a spear and made another attempt at hitting me by jumping up and lunging at my chest. I rolled to the side, and the spear roughly clanged while hitting the crystal surface. I quickly hopped to my feet and began running towards the nearest warp pad. When I was about a meter away, I saw the Garnet smash the pad with two giant gloves she had formed on her hands. I turned to run back the other way… but it was too late. I felt something hit roughly into my back. I coughed as the wind got knocked out of me, and then I fell down to the ground, sliding face first. As I pulled myself back to my feet, I spit out roughly onto the ground next to me. I could see the Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst slowly moving towards me, boxing me into a kill zone.

I won't die like this! I refuse to be stuffed into one of those bubbles again and forced into another several millennia of solitude!

I could feel energy begin to gather in the gem on my right hand, my gem shinning slightly. I focused all my energy into my hand and thrust it up above my head. Lightning struck my arm from the cloudless sky and enveloped me in light. Metal plating began forming around my gem, and slowly crept down around my hand, and slightly up my forearm. In a brilliant flash of light, the metal plating solidified and became one solid gauntlet. The main piece was a lime green gauntlet that went from my hand up to the middle of my forearm. From the end of the gauntlet on each finger, dark, forest green claw-like pieces of metal extended out like jagged knives. As the knives finished forming, yellow wiring ran from the side of my gem to the underside of each knife. When the wires connected, they began to pulse sending off sparks of electricity and making the knives' edges pulse slightly yellow.

I flexed the hand a bit, amazed by the lack of weight from the gauntlet. It was as if my hand itself was the gauntlet. I put my hand back down and the light dissipated. I turned and looked at the other gems who'd been standing off to the side looking on in slight amazement and worry. The Pearl summoned another spear and threw it at me this time. Instead of dogging, I caught it and crushed it in the gauntlet.

"This power… it's incredible! It's been so long since I've fought. Perhaps I can spar with you before I leave this place?" I said it without really thinking. The pure power that seemed to gush from the gauntlet and my gem was overwhelming. It filled me with newfound courage and strength.

As the Amethyst and the Pearl stepped forward, the Garnet spoke up.

"It's mine. It must have slipped out when I had gone to the heart of the Temple, so I'll fix this problem I created." Round two, huh? She disappeared once again. I closed my eyes and focused not on where I saw here, but rather where I heard her, where the rush of wind was. There! She struck from the right with another punch. I tried to counter with my own gauntlet, yet was pushed back by the sheer force of the blow. The Garnet seemed to see this as an opportunity and rushed with a follow up punch! I steadied myself and tried countering her gauntlet again.

THUNK~ Eeeeeeeeee~ Thwack

I spit once again recovering from the blow, my body and mind left reeling from the pain. Yet I smiled. Our fist had glanced off each other and slammed into one another's face. I saw that the Garnet's visor covering her eyes had been cracked by my punch, yet not much else had changed. On the other hand, I had to stop from screaming out from the white hot pain spreading across my face; I'm pretty sure they broke my nose! While I held a hand up to my face, the Garnet followed up with another punch smashing my hand into my face as well!

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK! You'll pah fer tat!" I barely managed to spit out the phrase due to the hand covering my face. I focused all my anger, all my hatred from my mind into my hand. I could feel the electricity surging across the gauntlet. Any shred of confidence that filled me before was now gone. The energy was now surging from the glove, electricity arcing off and hitting the ground. I grabbed my right arm and steadied my hand.

"SCREW YOU GEMS AND THIS SHITTY WORLD!" The lightning shot out: several bolts all at once twisting around each other in a beam, the light it so blinding I couldn't see anything. I heard several CRACKS of crystal and rock around me. The light began to fade, leaving only smoke clinging upon the ground…

"HOW?! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" Those other gems. Those damn, evil gems who wished to deny me my freedom were still standing. When the smoke cleared I saw a fourth person, a small man, standing in front of them with a pink shield decorated in a rose pattern that was flickering in and out of existence. He slumped to the ground, and gave the other gems a thumbs up. The Pearl was yelling something at him in a high pitch tone… but it doesn't matter anymore. They're going to catch me. They're going to kill me. And they're going to trap me again. Unless…

I crawled over to the Galaxy Warp while they were arguing with one another, and reached around to where I was in my dream/memory. There! I placed my gem on the region of the warp, and a panel slowly opened up. Inside resided a single crystal connected to various circuits. I reached in with the gauntlet on my hand and grasped it firmly, tugging it and the wires out.

"D-Do you know what this is?" I yelled across to the gems. They stopped bickering and looked over with confused expressions. They exchanged some glances and words in a hushed tone before turning back to me.

"Not particularly?" At this response, I gave a low, hollow laugh.

"This is the core of the circuit for all these warp pads, mostly for the Galaxy Warp. Think of it as a really big power source. Now what do you think would happen if I overload this with more electricity than it can handle?" The Garnet and Amethyst seemed to simply shrug this off, while the Pearl on the other hand gave it some thought.

"Come on Garnet! Just punch its face in and bubble it so we can go home!" The Amethyst yelled. I grimaced at the thought of having my face mashed in again and continued from my previous thought.

"Time is up! Think of this as a small bomb in my hand, you try making me 'poof' back into my gem to regenerate, and I blow this entire place up. So let's think through these next moments very carefully." The Pearl's eyes widened, catching onto what this meant for all of us. This would we would all be shattered, if not vaporized in the blast. Game over, for everyone. She turned around and started yelling at the others.

"This is exactly the sort of … I said dangerous… and now we put Steven in harm's way! He needs to stay off missions until he has better control over his powers." The man-child I saw before that protected the gems stepped over towards the Pearl and made a move as if to argue with her, only for her to shake her head and hush him up. Do-Do they not realize the gravity of the situation?

"Soooo, should I blow us into nothingness, or can we parley?" The Pearl seemed to perk up at this once again and turned to talk to the others while making sweeping arm motions. They turned back towards me, and the Pearl cleared its throat and stepped forward.

"Alright. Name your terms." Really? It was that easy? Either these people are idiots or they see me as an actual threat! I need to make sure I use this to my advantage.

"I need transportation off this planet, and seeing as you've broken most of the warp pads I'd say it's the least you can do?" Perhaps this is a reasonable enough request? I couldn't see why not.

"No. We don't associate with you people, and we don't need another gem running back to Homeworld. Consider it a gift that you haven't been destroyed and bubbled already." This line came from the Garnet. Not what I wanted to hear. Damn. Hmm, perhaps…

"Ok… at the very least, I want information about this planet. Obviously much has changed since the last time I was alive." Another reasonable request. No one every complained about a conversation.

"No. Who says you won't send this info back to Homeworld and lead another attack on this planet. Our people were enough of a plague on this world the first time around, they don't need to return here anytime soon." This time it was the Pearl who spoke it. They really didn't want me to know or do anything! This is ridiculous!

"Well, what the hell sort of parley is this if we can't come to agree on anything?"

"Hey, you were the one that wanted this. If it was up to me, we'd be beating your face into the ground," retorted the Amethyst. Wonderful, just wonderful. I was running out of ideas very quickly, and I honestly didn't feel like killing myself off again so quickly… This wasn't fair! What did I do to deserve such treatment? I can't even remember why the hell I'm here, or how I died? What sort of crappy existence could I even call this?

"What are you willing to do?" They seemed to ponder this question for a few moments before the Garnet gave a reply.

"We can always beat you to a pulp and take you back with us again." I could feel myself begin to sweat at the prospect. Another thousand, several thousand years kept chained up on display with all the other gems there? I would rather die!

"Wrong answer…" I began to focus my energy into the gauntlet once again. If I was going to die, I'd take the rest of these fools out with me. Goodbye, dear friend whose name still escapes me. The gem of my drea- no, my memories. Perhaps we can meet in another time… another life. The energy was bursting from the gauntlet… this is the end. I closed my eyes…

"WAIT! You don't have to do this." I hear a young man's voice yell out. I opened my eyes tiredly. A young, somewhat rotund man with curly black hair stood in front of me. He was wearing a red and pink shirt with a yellow star in the middle, jeans, and flip flops. By the looks of it, he was but a child.

"Wh-What is this… thing?" It didn't look like a gem. The skin was too bland a color, and it had no defining traits or presence to it that made it seem like a gem… Was this an indigenous species of this planet? The being turned around and addressed the gems.

"Why are you offering him hope, only to crush it? He just returned to this world after a long time, and he's scared and confused by everything he sees. The first thing he saw was you guys trying to kill him. I don't think it's fair we try to attack him without first giving him an opportunity to explain who he is… so what do you say guys?" He actually is defending me? How strange… The gems turned and looked at each other, then turned back towards us.

"Absolutely not, how could y-"

"Ok."

"But Garnet!"

"Steven has been right with his gut the last couple days, let's trust him on this." I couldn't believe my ears. A child, a mere child, had changed the mind of these… monsters. I let my grip on the crystal slip, and dropped it to the ground. I shifted to my knees and looked up at the child. He looked at me and gave me a smile. I dissipated the gauntlet on my right hand and relaxed a bit. He leaned over, and offered me a pudgy, little hand. I tentatively grasped it, and he helped pull me to my feet.

"What's your name?" He asked me inquisitively.

"…Jade…" I roughly barked out. He seemed the size me up, while stars twinkled in his eyes.

"Cool! I didn't even know there were guy gems! Where are you from? What's it like? How long have you been here…" He was bombarding me with questions faster than I could think of answers… it was like a thunderstorm had discharged near my head, and I was left shell-shocked. I couldn't process all of his questions. The other gems slowly moved closer as the boy fired off more questions.

The tallest of the three, and the first that I… met… was the one they called Garnet. She stood about a half a head taller than me, a fact that only seemed to become noticeable as they came closer. She had on what appeared to be a skin tight body suit. The lower half was split into two colors: Her right leg was a rich dark red; while the left leg, up to her midriff was black. Above that, her top seemed to consist of a black piece with a pale pink star within another hot pink star on the right side of her outfit. Each arm was topped with what seemed to be a puffy sleeve on each shoulder. Finally my eyes had drifted up to her face: her eyes were shielded by a pair of wide sunglasses, while her expression under them remained stoic; the most defining feature about her was the block-shaped afro that framed her head. Her skin was a dull red, like clay. Being the first to approach after the young man, she dissipated her gauntlets and reached out to… shake my hand? I grabbed it after a moment of hesitation.

"Garnet." She muttered. Her grip was nearly crushing my hand. I could feel a gemstone in one of her hands grinding up against mine.

"Jade." Was all I could manage to reply.

Another one of the gems approached me, this one much shorter perhaps about as high as my chest. A bored expression graced her face as we awkwardly starred each other down. She had long, silver-ish hair that went down almost to the ground. Her outfit seemed to be that of loose baggy clothing. A pair of black sweat pants with star shaped holes cut into the knees, and a dark purple tank top that drooped loosely off her right shoulder. For a moment, I thought I saw the edge of her gemstone underneath the tank top, before it disappeared as she readjusted the shirt. Her skin was a slightly darker tone of purple than her hair, akin to the color of lavender. She regarded me with a strange look, then sighed and held a fist out. Did she want a fight?

"… you take your hand and also make a fist, then we bump them, ok?" My confusion at the gesture must have been apparent. I guess this was also some form of greeting on this world? I tried as she said and punched her fist… it was a weird custom.

"The name is Amethyst, you better not forget it!"

"Jade, and I could say the same." I replied, taken a bit aback by the whole situation. She seemed a bit free spirited and not too worried about anything.

Finally, the one who first attacked me approached. She seemed to be wearing a dress or skirt of some sort? She wore short, peach colored pants and over it had on a light blue top with a yellow star in the middle. The top then had a small, sheer light blue skirt that extended slightly over the shorts. She had a short crop of peach colored hair that stood up together, almost in a cone shape. Her face was set with a large pair of eyes, between which sat a large pointed nose. Most notable of all was the pearl that adorned her forehead. Her skin was as white as porcelain, and seemed like it might be as fragile too. After these last few introductions, I decided to take the initiative and held my hand out to shake. She starred down at it for a moment.

"…"

Several awkward moments passed before I spoke up.

"The name is Jade, and you are…?"

"Pearl." She replied before harrumphing and turning away from me. Hmm, cold. Seems like I might have to avoid this one. Everyone sort of awkwardly stood around for a moment not saying anything. Then, the child who had besieged me with questions earlier approached me once again. He gave me a thumbs up. That reminded me… I never learned my odd savior's name.

"Wha- ahem- what is your name, boy?" He turned around and gave me a sheepish grin.

"Steven, Steven Universe. And we're the Crystal Gems!" That name… it sounds familiar! I feel like I should know this group. For whatever reason, just the mentioning of their name had stirred up the remnants of some long gone emotion that I had buried within myself long ago…

"Where do we go from here?" I found myself asking aloud.

"Home." He simply replied. He and those 'Crystal Gems' already stood on what appeared to be a functioning warp pad. I sighed and walked towards them as this boy, 'Steven', continued to vigorously wave me over. One of them triggered the warp sequence as I contemplated what had just happened.

I had just gone out of the frying pan, and into the fire.