Star-Cross
Chapter 1 - Go.
"Ugh-hARGGGG!" She screamed as she slammed the device restraining her hands into the door. The sound of ringing metal reverberated through the small cell, driving her back a few steps before she charged forward with a roar and slammed the metal again. And again. And again. She gave a sort of hopeless cry as she collapsed to her knees. She'd been so close. She'd finally escaped Homeworld, only to be caught by a different kind of monster; out of the lab, and into the prison cell. Probably these strange organic beings, the "Gordanians", intended to enslave her. Perhaps they intended to experiment on her themselves. Or maybe – and this thought sent a chill to the very core of her gem – maybe they wanted to use her as a bargaining chip with Homeworld. There was no way she was going back, not now, not when they would surely sha-
She needed to get out.
She forced herself to her feet and glared out the narrow window at the small gathering of guards that had amassed outside her door. They held up their spears and spoke in their strange, hissing language. She roared back, outraged at their audacity, and strengthened by her own righteous fury.
She would – SLAM! – get – SLAM! – out! – CRASH!
The door buckled and flew out of the frame. The closest guard seemed to shrink back, but not far enough back to dodge a blow that sent them barreling into the far wall. The next two guards met similar fates, but the last managed to block her with their spear once, twice, before they too were sent flying – right into an alarm trigger. She cursed.
She could hear the approach of dozens if not scores of Gordanian soldiers running toward her location as the emergency lights flashed distractedly on and off, but she forced herself to stop and focus. The stale, pressure-controlled atmosphere of the ship was cold against her projected form, but she could feel the heat and light energy trapped inside her core. She let the energy rise to the surface of her gem, twinkling like starlight as it built up pressure-
With a blast of heat and light, the outer walls of the space vehicle gave way before her.
Freedom.
)o(
She'd always been good at levitation, even for her gem type. Every ounce of that ability was put to use as she tried to resist the gravitational pull of the planet she'd chosen to land on, hoping to avoid a crash landing. Her resistance was futile. She was used to that. Still, she thought, as she picked herself up from the bottom of a smoking crater; she could have done worse. She could have made an even bigger crater. She could have cracked her gem, but – she checked – it was still very much whole.
Shaking some of the rubble rock off herself, she climbed to the rim of the crater. The smoke was thinner there, and after a moment she detected gem-like forms approaching. Ah. So this was an inhabited planet. That was unfortunate, as her limited experience with those had been unhappy thus far. This planet was not, however, a gem-controlled planet; that much became clear as the forms solidified into fleshy, organic creatures. There was no risk of being immediately warped back to the Diamond Authority, a definite plus in her logs. Perhaps these organic beings could be negotiated with.
"Release me from these shackles, and I will give you no harm!" She shouted in Tam'eranian. "Release me from these!"
None of the beings made any intelligent sounds in reply. Most of them shuffled backwards in fright, but one raised a small device which flashed at her, temporarily blinding her.
"ARRUGGH!"
That flash triggered too many bad memories. She needed to get these restraints off. She could not afford to be weak!
She raised her arms and smashed the nearest object, an oddly shaped pod that she could only assume was for terrestrial transport. She smashed a few more of these pods, and the paved path they rested on, all to no avail.
"Ughh…" She groaned in frustration. There had to be something strong enough on this primitive planet to break her free! There was a structure near her. A large portion of the second level of said structure was being supported by a single beam. Surely that would be strong enough?
With a cry she leapt towards the pillar and began whaling on it.
"You." CLANK!
"Must." CLANK!
"COME OFF!" CLANK!
She might have kept at it until either the pillar or her restraints broke, but out of nowhere something struck the metal visor she wore around her head and sent her stumbling sideways.
Pushing herself back to her feet, she looked up to see another of the gem-like-but-not organic beings. They were different from the ones she'd seen so far. For one thing, they weren't afraid of her. For another, they were uncomfortably colorful. The only other thing she'd ever seen with that many colors smashed together was an experimental gem cluster.
The Colorful One shouted something at her. There were definitely words in there, meaning these beings weren't so backwards that they lacked language, but it was still unintelligible babble to her.
Their stance, however, she could understand, and it was not friendly. Manacles or no, there was no way she was coming off as weak. She made the first move and charged, but she hit only the pavement where the Colorful One had been standing moments before. It was fast, this being; she would give them that. Each strike she made was met only with the thick atmosphere of this strange planet. The Colorful One dodged one last lunge from her before they threw a small device at her that exploded upon contact with the ground. So they were throwing things at her now? At a being whose hands were obviously bound? What a cheap tactic. If that's how they wanted to fight, though, then that's how she'd fight back.
Slipping a toe under one of the terrestrial transport vehicles, she hefted it into the air with one foot before sending it towards the Colorful One with a hard kick.
It missed. She'd been close, though.
The Colorful One seemed surprised at her strength. They had yet to try and strike her physically, so perhaps that was an indicator that the beings on this planet were weak. That was good; it increased her odds of survival once she finished breaking off these restraints. The Colorful One had actually paused to watch the vehicle as it crashed into a building some metroj away and exploded. She used their distraction to finally land a blow.
They went skidding along the pavement, but they were not so weak that they couldn't manage to dodge her next strike, and then they sent her flying into a vehicle with the aid of a metal staff.
The staff broke though. Ha.
"Talc," she taunted as she picked herself up. She lunged into the air once more, up and ready to strike –
And then something rammed into her from the side, and she found herself sprawled on the ground. What? She levitated herself to her feet and observed that a new being had joined the Colorful One. She could have sworn that she'd seen something green and with horns, but this one was also gem-like in their physique. They looked more normal than the Colorful One, in her opinion; they were purple and black, just two colors. They weren't very intelligent, though, keeping their back to her like that, even if they did appear to be reporting to their superior. She winced suddenly in sympathy. If they had gotten to attacking her only after their superior, then things would not go well for them.
Maybe she should end this quickly for their sake. With a bit of effort, she managed to position her arms beneath a larger terrestrial vehicle, one that was the size of at least ten of the one she'd thrown earlier. She launched it towards the two, only for a third being to appear! What was with this planet and tardy reinforcements? This being was strong, too. Strong enough to catch the large vehicle.
The Colorful One, the Shape Changer, and the Strong One had all grouped together, and appeared to be exchanging words. Were they creating a strategy they could use against her? Either way, three against one were not favorable odds.
She banged her arms once more against the pavement, and the dented outer hull of the restraints finally – finally! – crumpled and fell off.
She felt much lighter now. More importantly, her hands were now free even if her arms were still bound together. With a low growl she lifted her arms until they were perpendicular to her body. The familiar energy rose to the surface, causing the star on the gem at her throat to glow brighter than usual. An intense heat ran in a current from her core to her fists, where the energy became visible; she began to fire. The three organic beings were barely able to dodge as she released a volley of solar bolts, each bolt containing the energy of a small solar flare. She'd heard of other gems doing something similar, of channeling blasts of raw energy through their weapons in combat, but nothing like this. Nothing this potent, and certainly nothing of this magnitude.
Even she could not keep it up forever, though. The three organic beings had vanished – taking shelter behind a pile of rubble, perhaps, or maybe seeking reinforcements – so she allowed herself to stop firing and sink to her knees.
Dully, she noted that three figures were running towards her, but they were still so far away that she couldn't convince herself to rise just yet. She bowed her head to examine her gem, making sure it wasn't damaged. Because of that, she never saw the shield that sprang up between her and the three figures, a shield that was larger than any she'd ever seen or heard of a gem producing. She didn't see the new figure that had suggested she might not be an enemy, or the brief negotiations that followed, but she did see the Colorful One approach her. She instantly rose to her feet, summoning the energy back to her hands. The Colorful One didn't raise any weapon, though. They didn't even crouch to attack. She held the glowing energy anyway.
"Retreat!" The Colorful One put a hand to their belt. "Retreat and leave me alone!" She shouted again, but when the Colorful One held up their hands, all they held was what appeared to be a tool, not a weapon.
She had absolutely no idea what it said in response – which was getting kind of annoying – but she decided to take a chance and power down. If the tiny object turned out to be a weapon of some kind, she would flip the creature into the nearest building.
The risk payed off. In a moment she was finally free, and the Colorful One started to say something again, but of course she couldn't understand a word the clod was saying to her, so she grabbed them and forced their mouth against her own.
Aside from the Gordanians, she'd never met someone who didn't speak the same language as her before. Maybe it was in all sapphires' programming, maybe it was the result of some experiment, but somehow she knew that establishing lip to lip contact would transmit their language into her.
She shoved the Colorful One away from her the moment she felt the transfer was complete.
Now when she spoke, it was in the 'English,' a language native to this planet:
"If you wish not to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!"
She didn't wait for a reply. Instead she pushed off the ground hard and levitated away.
From the air she could see the city stretching out beneath her for mejloj – or miles, her new language supplied helpfully - beneath her. On one end, the city faded away into hills and then mountains covered in strange green organisms the people of this planet called 'plants.' The other end of the city ended abruptly at a large body of water called a 'bay,' or perhaps an ocean or a sea; her new language had many words for water bodies, and she was unsure which to use. Just above the mountains and heading in her general direction was…. a large metal spaceship. A very large, very pointy, and very familiar spaceship.
X'hal! She dove back down into the metal cliffs and canyons of the city, choosing paths at random. When she'd seen this planet from above, it had seemed huge! How had they tracked her down so quickly? She waited in a dark crevice – an alley – between two buildings as the dark underside of the ship passed over her, then she quickly flew in the other direction. She didn't see the giant holographic message, but she certainly heard it:
"People of Earth" –Ah, so that was this planet's name–"we come to your planet hunting an escaped prisoner, a very dangerous prisoner. Do not interfere, and we will leave your city with only minimal damage. But if you attempt to assist her, your destruction will be absolute."
The gem laughed. This Lord Troggar, leader of the Gordanians, was a fool if they thought that anyone would try to assist her, not when she had literally nothing to her name but herself. She flew into the nearest empty building and prepared to wait.
)o(
The building that she had entered was a strange one. It was dimly lit, and full of obstacles. Two of the walls were made of glass, so she quickly made her way through the rows of shelves and deeper into what her new language was calling a "store." At the very back was a table of sorts, with small machines on top and a glass casing on the bottom. She paused to examine one of the many colorful rectangular prisms that lined the shelves. It was covered in a graphic depiction of a four legged organic creature with a mechanical propeller in its back. To her surprise, when she picked it up, another rectangular prism slid out, this one plain and black. She examined the device curiously, trying to peer within the two white circles embedded in it.
"Uh, those are more fun to watch when you use a VCR."
It was the Shape Changer. She rounded on them, dropping the device and summoning the energy to her hands with a growl.
"It's alright. We're friends, remember?" the Colorful One stated.
"Friends?" She repeated. The word was foreign to her, and not just because of the language. "Why? For what purpose did you free me?" She demanded of them.
"Just… trying to be nice," the Colorful One said.
"Nice." She repeated again. "We do not have this word on my planet. Closest is rutha, weak!"
The Strong One seemed to be offended by that, but perhaps they expressed their fear as anger, the way she had known several gems to do in the labs. "Well, around here nice means nice, and if you want us to keep being nice you'll tell us why the lizard king took you prisoner." It took her a moment to decode that sentence – what were lizards? – but when she did, she drew her power back in to her core.
"Not prisoner. I am... prize. The Gordanians take me back to their Citadel, to live out my days as their servant." If she was lucky. She didn't want to think about the alternatives.
"And the Gordanians are?"
"Not… nice."
"Then you're not going with them. Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Um, don't you mean we?" The Shape Changer said right before the wall exploded.
All five of them were knocked backwards, but all five just as quickly got back on their feet. They shared a glance before rushing to meet the enemy. There were dozens of Gordanians, much more than the four she'd fought aboard the ship, but somehow fighting them was much easier now that she had allies.
With a flying kick, she sent one Gordanian crashing into another. She fired star bolts at one, brought her fists down on another, and looked for more to fight, only to see that her abductors were making a quick, airborne retreat. She contemplated their fleeing forms. It was… nice, having friends.
Aloud, she said, "I believe your expression is 'thanks.'"
"Aw, man – my suit!" She turned in curiosity at the cry, and was surprised to see that the Strong One was no longer the dull gray of stone. Instead, she saw the smooth, shiny planes of metal. Ragged strips of grey covering hung disconcertingly over shiny silver armor and glowing blue panels. The Strong One was not a gem, but they didn't look entirely organic either. That was confusing to her, but the Shape Changer merely seemed excited.
"So? You look way cooler without it."
"Yeah, like I'm taking fashion advice from the guy in the goofy mask," the Strong One said.
"Goofy? My mask is cool… isn't it? Raven?"
She watched the exchange, trying to keep up with all the strange words and gestures of a culture that was very different from any she'd seen in the labs of Homeworld. She was also trying to figure out when the fourth being, a quiet figure draped in blue who reminded her disconcertingly of Blue Diamond, had joined the other people of Earth.
"But what about my secret identity?"
"What secret identity? You're green."
She had seen plenty of green gems on Homeworld, but apparently that was less common on Earth.
The Colorful One brought her back to the present situation. "This isn't over. Now that we've interfered –"
"–Troggar will strike harder. It is only a matter of–"
"Fools! The earth scum were warned. Your insolence will be punished. Your city shall be destroyed." She glared up at the ship she could just make out in the distance. She was no stranger to cruelty, but that didn't mean she had to approve of Lord Troggar's.
The Hooded One apparently thought differently. "Great." How could they say that? This was horrible!
"So after trashing a pizza place and a perfectly good video store, now we've managed to make a humongous space gecko mad enough to vaporize our entire town?" the Shape Changer asked redundantly.
"Go team." Team? That comment pushed her past the edge. She couldn't stop the fury from exploding out of her.
"All the fault is yours! I commanded you leave me alone, but you insisted upon the being 'nice!'"
"My fault?! You blast me, you kiss me, but you never stop to mention they have a gigantic particle weapon?!"
"It is obvious that they have the weapons! They warned you not to assist me, I told you not to assist me, but you did it anyway like a Clorbag barbernelk!
"QUIET!" yelled the Hooded One. The gem blinked. She had not expected them to be capable of such volume, but their next words were soft once more, "Hi." If the Hooded One had intended to say more, they seemed to have lost the nerve, but the Colorful One picked up for it.
"Look, it doesn't matter how we got into this mess. We're in it, and we will get out of it… together."
The other three organic beings made a small head motion in response to the Colorful One's words, and while she didn't recognize the gesture, she could read the determination on their faces.
"C'mon – we've got a city to save."
There was a pause.
"So… what's the plan?" The Hooded One asked.
"Before we can do anything we need to get on that ship," the Colorful One mused. From where they stood, they could see where the ship was hovering above the ocean, far from any structures. "I don't suppose anyone else can fly?"
"Ooh, me! I can!" said the Shape Changer. They shifted their form into that of a small, green creature with wings instead of arms to demonstrate.
"As can I," she stated, though by now that was obvious. "I am also capable of carrying someone."
The Hooded One was still gazing contemplatively at the ship. "I can fly," they said, "but if I knew where to go, I could teleport us there."
"Dude, sweet!"
The Hooded One looked at her expectantly, and after a moment of thought she said, "When they first brought me aboard the ship, we passed through a room for storing… non-sentient cargo. I saw no soldiers there, and it would be a discreet place to teleport."
"Where?"
"At the bottom of the ship, near the back."
The Colorful One filled out the rest of the plan. "The control room for the ship will have to be at the front of the ship. That's probably where we'll find Troggar and his weapon. When we get there, focus on disabling the weapon." The Colorful One looked at her as they said that, trying to emphasize that this mission was about saving the city more than it was about enacting revenge. She nodded.
"Everybody ready?"
)o(
Aside from a drop in temperature – something organic beings were apparently sensitive to – the Hooded One's teleportation of their group to a discrete location occurred without issue, and they quickly identified a likely passage and began walking. The halls were utilitarian and uninteresting, and the sound of their footsteps, subdued. It gave her time to think.
The gem couldn't help feeling a little bad. She was sort of-kind of beginning to understand this concept of "nice," and the fact that these four organic beings had helped her despite several warnings, which before had struck her as foolish, now seemed very, very nice. Certainly it was not the sort of action that deserved to be met with harsh words.
"I bring you... a-polo-gy," she said to The Colorful One, making sure to pronounce the strange word correctly.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I yelled too."
"And again you are… nice. On my world I never knew such kindness."
"Well, things are different here."
The Colorful One smiled at her, and she thought she might be smiling back, when the Shape Changer interrupted.
"Uh, guys? I think they know we're here."
The gem started at the sight of the Gordanian guards who had managed to sneak up on them, but smirked when she realized there were only three. The Colorful One ducked and weaved beneath the attacks of the nearest Gordanian and swept them off their feet with a low kick. She unleashed a barrage of star bolts on the second as the Shape Changer and the Strong One charged the third. She had disarmed her opponent and had them on the verge of collapse when a dark energy wrapped around their torso and lifted all three "space geckos" off the ground.
The Colorful One shot a smile towards the Hooded One. "Nice one," they said.
)o(
It was not too hard to find the control center. Lord Troggar had a loud voice.
"The Earth scum shall learn. It takes more than five juvenile heroes to defy the mighty Lord Troggar!" Lord Troggar also had a nasty habit of speaking in the third person.
They could have attempted to hack the door, but blasting it was faster and much more satisfying.
CRASH!
"We're not five heroes. We're one team."
The Gordanians charged forward, but it was clear that their rag tag group had not been expected, and the five of them managed to land a few good strikes before they started taking hits of their own. This battle wasn't going as well as the previous ones – clearly Lord Troggar kept their fiercest warriors close at hand.
One of the Gordanian soldiers focused on her, and for the next indeterminate amount of time it was all she could do to punch and block and dodge and swing until finally she pulled back enough to find her center. With a blast of energy delivered at close range, her enemy fell. She looked up from their slumped form only to see the Colorful One hit the wall.
"Hey!" She shouted.
The Gordanian standing over her friend looked up in time to take a star bolt to the face.
Later, she would reflect that she had never used her star bolts for someone else's sake before. Earlier, she had been using them to help herself escape. On Homeworld, she had used them because the scientists wanted her too, and because defiance would not end well for her; replacing her would take time of course, but she was replaceable. But this – using star bolts to protect her friends – felt different. There was a sort of righteous fury that empowered her, fueled her to release more bolts, and gave her more strength than she would have otherwise had.
She let the energy surge up and sent out an army of her own, not targeting any specific soldier but seeking rather to pester and weaken them as a whole. She didn't anticipate that they or possibly their uniform might be somewhat flammable, and smoke soon filled the cabin. She paused where she hovered, no longer able to distinguish her friends from her enemies. The haze shrouded a soldier from her sight until they were nearly upon her, and by then it was too late to do more than lift her foot before she was pinned to the ground. She drew back aforementioned foot and kicked the being off of her. They reeled back, but didn't fall. Another figure appeared as she twisted onto her elbows, and she launched herself in the opposite direction with an awkward motion that was half-crawl, half-levitation. But when she turned around, it was the Strong One she saw, sinking their fist into the joint between the space-gecko's head and neck. She spun on her heels and the next strike the Strong One delivered was concurrent with her own.
She dared to hope that together they would be victorious. Then their combatant rammed them back. They were both sent skidding to the other side of the control room, where they arrived in a graceless pile next to the Colorful One. The gem winced and rubbed her head.
"Can you rewire that into some sort of weapon?" asked the Colorful One. Once her perception stopped spinning, she was able to see that the two earthlings were regarding the Strong One's arm, where some of the metal components had shifted.
"I can try."
In the middle of battle? She thought incredulously. She doubted a peridot could do it. She left them to their tinkering and pulled herself up. They were surrounded and losing. Lord Troggar may have been arrogant, but they were also strong, and their army was numerous.
She summoned her energy to her fists, wondering if shattering in a fight was preferable to shattering in captivity.
"Get away from my friends!"
The gem barely had time to be surprised at the Hooded One's second outburst before-
"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"
It was hard to process what happened in that split second. Something loud seemed to have burst forth from the quietest of her allies, something dark and cool that contained and exploded simultaneously, leaving fire in its wake. When it disappeared, their enemies were left like so much rubble rock on the floor.
The largest lump on the floor twitched. It slumped and straightened until Lord Troggar stood at full height, towering over the Hooded One and the Shape Changer, who by now seemed to be leaning on each other to stay upright. There was one final blast, made as much from sound energy as light, and her captor returned to the floor. The gem turned to the source of the blast. To her shock, the Strong One's arm seemed to have been converted into a miniature laser light cannon.
They grinned. "Alright, I'm only gonna say this once: Booyah."
)o(
The salty breeze of this planet's – gulf? cove? – felt good after the stale smoke of the space ship. She was all too happy to follow the Hooded One's lead and levitate off the downed craft and onto a nearby outcrop of rocks, taking the Colorful One with her.
"You know… we just kicked butt, and I don't even know your guyses names," said the Shape Changer, landing easily on a boulder after shifting back to a gem-like form. "I'm Beast Boy."
"Cyborg."
"Raven."
"Robin."
The gem blinked. Like 'nice' and 'apology,' 'name' did not appear to have a direct translation into Tam'eranian. She gathered that it was a word used to describe or denote something, and did her best to answer from there.
"I am an orange corundum with an artificially enhanced asterism."
Silence.
"Sooo, a Star Sapphire?" Cyborg supplied.
"Yes, that would be correct."
"More like Star-Fire," Beast Boy joked.
Star Sapphire giggled. "That would also be an accurate description."
"Welcome to Earth, Star-Sapphire."
"I thank you all for your bravery and help, and… I wish to ask permission to remain here, where the people are most strange, but also most- kind."
"You don't need our permission," The Hooded One – Raven – said.
Robin interjected, "But if you want our friendship, you've got it."
"'Think we could all use some new friends," Cyborg observed, and Beast Boy nodded their agreement.
"Besides we kinda made a good team!"
)o(
Her friends left the island – they flew back to the mainland to do whatever it is that organic beings do – but Star Sapphire elected to stay. It was peaceful on the island, surrounded by sunlight and waves. The only other creatures on the rock were small, spongy and non-sentient, and soft to the touch.
A heavy weariness had settled over her – it had been a long time since she had spent this long outside of her gem. She stretched out on a boulder facing the sun and basked in the heat for a moment before she released her form and retreated into her gem stone.
She'd worn armor most of her short existence, not that it had done much against the destabalizers of Homeworld. But Earth was very different from Homeworld, and her new friends were very different from the gems she knew; perhaps she could be different too. She snuggled in cozily and thought for the first time about changing her form into something a little more "nice."
Omake:
Beast Boy: "Sooo, does that make you a Rock-Star?"
Star Sapphire: *Looks confused* "Yes. Is that not what I said?"
Beast Boy: "… Nevermind."
A/N: Tada! I've decided to take a slightly different approach to the crossover genre in this fic, so be sure to leave a review and give me some feedback :)
P.S. The Crystal Gems/Beach City will be featured in this story, it'll just take a bit for the Titans to meet them.
