Chapter 1: Rose
7000 years after the 2nd gem war. Jovian city. At first glance, life on earth seems like a utopia. The world's energy crisis has been solved with giant solar stations orbiting earth, and those same stations power the huge artificial kindergarten now operating on the moon. Humans and Gems live together in peace, neither race more important than the other. Human-gem hybrids are also common, serving as diplomats and governors. But the reason all of this is possible is because of pairing.
When a human child is born, a gem on the moon kindergarten emerges at the same time. These two become a pair, telepathically linked for life. The link, or "destiny bond" as I usually say, allows them to do quite a number of things. A gem can "lend" their powers to their partner, to a certain degree. The bond also allows them to be able to fuse, if it is strong enough. Everyone's happy, and the world is a great place.
But not everything is perfect. Discontent is brewing beneath the surface of this perfect facade, and almost nobody knows it. Take me, for instance. I've worked in the mines below the city for as long as I can remember, and all because I'm a loner. Loners are humans and gems who don't experience that "destiny bond" at birth. They are cast out by society, generally preferring to stay among their own kind. So we come here, down to the tunnels where no "normal" person would dare venture. This is what we do for a living, and that's alright with me.
"Careful, Rose. This tunnel was only excavated yesterday," Jasper says. She's the leader of this particular expedition, exploring the old tunnels which were found through this new excavation. See if there's any veins of usable metal.
"I got it, i got it," I say, annoyed. I've been working here my entire life, I know what to do. "What was that?" The ground beneath my feet starts shaking, but it doesn't feel like a routine earthquake. The vibrations seem to be coming from- above us?
"Get clear!" Jasper shouts, and we all scatter in different directions as the ceiling caves in. I find myself in an ancient tunnel, one of the ones we were going to explore. The entrance is completely blocked by rubble.
"Guess I'm staying here for awhile," I mutter. I try not to think about how close that one was. A second later, and I would've been crushed.
I can hear the sound of water dripping deeper in down the tunnel. From what I can see, the tunnel is fairly structurally sound- better than most of the newer ones, in fact. I start off into the dark, turning on a small light to keep from tripping over anything.
After maybe ten minutes, I find myself in a larger cavern lined with reflective crystals. The reflection makes the light significantly brighter, allowing me to clearly see the pool in the center of the room. I reach down to test the water with a drop of DCH. The small drop turns green, then dissipates. Good to drink, then.
As I'm bending down to take a sip, I notice something at the bottom. It's glowing slightly. I try to take a closer look- and fall in.
I gasp for air, treading water on the surface. It's actually much deeper than I anticipated. Oh well, at least I didn't have anything that'll take harm from water on me.
Twisting over and diving straight down, I look though the hazy water and keep going until my hands close around a round orb. I rise back to the surface, gripping the side and panting.
"What even is this?" I murmur, lifting the orb out of the water. "Whoa." I'm holding a bubble, a pink gem hovering within. Curiosity overcomes safety, and I set it down on the stone. After climbing out of the pool and shaking most of the water out of my hair, I tentatively poke it with a sharp stone. The bubble pops.
After a few tense moments, the gem begins to glow and hover. The form of a small girl takes shape, then solidifies as she comes to rest on the floor. She has an extremely poofy skirt- like, that shouldn't be possible with the laws of physics. Her gem is on her navel, and her hair is long and poofy, completely white.
"Hi!" She says, seeming happy and almost childlike.
"Um, hi," I reply. "I'm Rose."
She gasps. "I'm rose too! Rose quartz!"
"Wait, rose quartz? As in the rose quartz? The rose quartz who started the rebellion and liberated the earth?" I ask, extremely confused.
"I don't know anything about rebellions," She says. "But I can remember something about a planet called earth from before."
"Before what?"
"Before… I don't know. I don't know what happened." She looks down, crestfallen.
"That's okay," I quickly reassure her. "I hardly know anything about my own past, ethier. I do know that you were bubbled here for what must have been thousands of years."
"Whoa!" She doesn't look sad, just excited. "I wonder what the world is like now! Wait, what world is this?"
"Earth, of course."
"I always wanted to come back to Earth," She says with a smile. "I remember that. I wanted to come home."
"Home…" I rub my shoulder, remembering.
"What's that?" She's looking curiously at my shoulder pad. I take it off and show her. The grey semimetal matches the rock almost perfectly, the red star still glowing to produce light.
"I wear it all the time. It has some cool gadgets and stuff," I start showing her how the star can glow, and how it extends when I need it. It's the only possession I've grown up with. It's useful.
But of course, everything has a double purpose. I catch sight of my reflection in the water, and quickly cover my shoulder again. Those scars bring back too many memories. Too much I want to forget.
I gently take it back and put it on. "We should get moving, try to find a way out of here," I say. "The way I came through is blocked, but you might be able to fit through."
"Okay!" she says, clearly eager to help. We make our way back down the tunnel, to the site of the cave-in. More rumbling shakes the ground, but the rock here is stable enough that it doesn't bother us. Actually, the vibrations have dislodged several of the boulders which were previously blocking the exit.
"Think you can fit through there?" I ask, pointing to a small hole which I could see light shining through.
"Totally!" She says. "But you can't." She looks down.
"I know. You can go and get help," I tell her. She's smarter than she looks, I'll give her that.
"No!" She cries. Oh boy. Back to toddler mode. But then something unexpected happens.
Li'l rose- as I've started calling her in my head- forms a shield almost identical to that of the rose quartz, but instead of circular it has the traditional shield shape you might see in medieval fiction. Before I can react, she slams full-force into the barricade, knocking away several boulders and outright breaking one in half.
"Whoa," I murmur. "Well, that works."
I follow li'l rose out and over what remains of the pile. The tunnels are completely deserted- which is strange, seeing as this area should be crawling with exploratory groups.
"Something doesn't feel right…" I murmur. "What's going on?" Suddenly, the ground shakes again, but this time the vibrations are coming from- behind us!
I immediately spring into action, shoving li'l rose behind me and extending my shoulder armor just in time to block a direct attack from a huge, monstrous gem. Their single eye glares in my face, and shaggy hair covers most of their body. I notice the telltale glow of a gem on the back of their head- if you can even call it that.
The monster jumps backwards, nearly hitting the ceiling with the force of it. The pile of boulders left over from the cave-in is now directly between us- giving them the advantage.
I pull my sword out of it sheath on my back, ready for its next attack. I've never fought a corrupted gem like this before- it's obvious what it is, now that I look. But I've fought countless gems and humans before, and won nearly every battle. I can take them down.
The monster charges again, and I sidestep it's charge, only to realise that leaves li'l rose completely open to its attack. Fortunately, she has enough sense to pull out her shield, taking the full force of its charge with little effort.
It staggers back, dazed. I immediately seize the opportunity to strike, holding the handle of my sword with both hands as I drive it through the thick layers of fur on the gem's back. For a single moment it freezes, stunned, and then its form disappears in a puff of smoke.
I kneel down on the floor, scooping up the gem. Some form of quartz- an Amethyst, if I had to guess. "Rose, can you bubble it?" I ask, holding the gem out to the Quartz. She nods and takes it, a pink bubble instantly forming.
"Where is everyone?" She asks, looking around. I stand up, looking beyond the stones to see- no one.
"I don't know," I murmur. "But I don't like it."
Another small vibration shakes the ground- just another earthquake. They happen pretty often. Shaking my head, I sheathe my sword and place a hand on li'l rose's shoulder, guiding her gently through the tunnels and out towards the surface.