It was not like Opal to be worried. She was normally cool and calm, smooth and well-rounded. It was one of the things that made her special among fusions. Usually, each gem riled the other up, compounding neuroses and amplifying insecurities. Opal, however, was too balanced for that. One part of her excelled in forethought, and the other part excelled at rolling with the punches. When they wanted to be together, those two sides could harmonize their strengths surprisingly well.
Of course, right now, there were no punches to roll with, and she hardly had enough information to properly plan ahead. As a result, worry rippled through her combined body. It was so unusual for her, so unnatural.
In one half of her being, her anxiety began to climb. It was impossible to win. She wasn't going to make it out of this alive.
Her other half knew that that "impossible" just another stupid rule. Rules like this were meant to be broken. Plus, these kinds of odds had never stopped them before, right?
This seemed to quiet her panicking half down a little. Though anxiety still put a buzz in her movements, she was able to settle into something akin to stability. Opal's parts really were quite a team when they managed to work together.
It was nighttime, but the glow from the Homeworld ship lit up the sky like a second moon. Opal glanced back at the face of the eroding temple, wincing at the harsh shadows cast by the green light. Would this place still be here tomorrow? Did it even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Of course it mattered. This was why she was fighting, to protect her home. This planet was her home now, no matter how much she denied it in her separate existences. The stars held no allies anymore, and the Kindergarten was empty and dead. The Earth was all she had left. The Earth, the temple, and Steven.
Steven had left with his human friends and family, evacuating as quickly as their vehicles could take them. He was safe. According to Garnet's vision, a few very unlikely events would have to take place within a specific time frame in order to for Steven to be in any danger. Opal still didn't like those odds, but she supposed it was all out of her hands now.
She returned her attention to the looming Homeworld vessel. They needed to blast this ship out of the sky, and Opal was literally the last kind of ranged offensive the Crystal Gems had at their disposal. If she didn't find a chink in the ship's armor, then they would be at the mercy of whatever artillery the Homeworld had invented in these past five thousand years. Even Garnet had very little clue of what kind of power they were up against.
Speaking of Garnet, Opal could see the smaller fusion moving far below her. Garnet glanced up at Opal, the sickly green light playing off of her shades. "Can you hit it from here?"
Opal looked back to the ship. It would be another hour or so before it landed, which was a barely a blink of an eye even in human terms. Still, that time frame put the vessel incredibly far away. This shot would be nearly impossible even for the best of archers.
Opal wordlessly summoned her bow. She was not one to back down from a challenge.
One part of her planned a trajectory for her shot. She calculated all of the forces: the wind resistance, the ship's movement, the gravitational acceleration. She condensed all of these variables into a single adjustment and leveled the curve of her bow accordingly.
The other part of her built up the energy required to clear the distance to the ship. With a shot this far, she'd really need to give this arrow some punch. She pulled back the bowstring as far as she dared.
Both parts of her let the arrow fly.
The single shot streaked across the sky like a shooting star. It screamed towards the dead-center of its target, arcing with the horizon but still possessing momentum and ferocity. It slammed into the front of the ship in a single, brilliant impact.
Unfortunately, this was a very far shot against a very tough ship. Opal could barely see the blast of sparks as the arrow shattered against the hull.
Naturally, Opal was frustrated. Even worse, she could feel the different parts of her becoming overwhelmed once more by worry and stress. They were furious at their failure, and they reflexively reached out for someone to force the blame on. Both of them resented this combined feeling of weakness, no matter what kinds of strength they sometimes found together.
Opal grimaced, eyes screwing shut. She'd known this feeling several times in the past. Her constituents were just too irreconcilable. Without even thinking, they were going to turn on each other. Their quarrel was literally going to tear her apart by the seams.
Except that it didn't.
She felt herself relaxing. Despite her frustration, despite her shame, she was still in one piece. Her two halves, regardless of everything they hated about each other, still wanted to remain together. They couldn't afford to argue when so much was at stake, and frankly, deep down, neither of them really wanted to.
Opal's grimace shifted into a gentle smile. Humans sometimes referred to events like this as a "miracle".
Her eyes once again found the ever-approaching shape of a hand in the sky. Sometimes, the human concept of karma really did have a point. If there was ever a negative counterpart to her recent "miracle", this certainly qualified.
Her two halves agreed on what had to happen. Opal turned to Garnet. "I need a closer shot."
Welcome to my own addition to the various Steven Universe drabble collections on this site. As I've stated in the story summary, I will post a new chapter every day until the coming of the second Steven Bomb. Each chapter should go up sometime around noon EST.
Opal is an interesting character to interpret. On one hand, she's incredibly unstable. She can barely endure a small tremor of surprise before breaking up. Yet, there's no denying that Pearl and Amethyst go really well together. Just look at them when they fight side-by-side at the end of "Marble Madness". I hope I've been able to capture a little bit of that relationship in this chapter.
The next chapter is Sugilite.