The gems of the fusing scientists didn't have to travel far to reach their new positions. Like the rest of the 'dance', the concluding step of their synchronization sequence had been devised to make things as fast and as spatially efficient as possible, which in reality meant that the gems were practically where they needed to be already. The cubic zirconia made a short trip upwards, darkening to a beautiful, glossy black colour as it went; at the same time the few 'snowflakes' that could be seen on the obsidian narrowed into thin parallel bands, which extended around the gem as it too moved to accommodate the shape of the fusion.
The shining agglomeration stretched towards the ceiling, fashioned into something infinitely more useful by the movement of the jewels within. Where two Gems had previously danced opposite each other, a single form now stood: a willowy figure, gently tapering to both its ends, with its black gems clearly visible against their shining background. The process was now complete, and as the white glow gradually dimmed the features of a fusion Gem were revealed.
…
With a grace that would've captivated anyone present to witness it, Onyx began to move her arms from their raised position above her head. Two sweeping, perfectly symmetrical arcs were formed as she lowered the slender limbs to her sides. Then, in the same deliberate way as she had the first, she lowered the second pair: luxuriating in the exquisite sensation of having physical form once again.
She took a slow look around the training grid, and grinned broadly as she regarded the space with her own eyes. She chuckled: she couldn't imagine that anyone but a permafusion (or a near-permafusion, as was the case with her) could truly appreciate the feeling of 'being back': the joy, the relief that one's components had decided to become more than themselves one more time, the additional qualities that everything seemed to take on as a new way of thinking was created out of those that had come before...
'Buht innyway…' she thought to herself. This was no time to be enthusing about the nature of fusion; there was business to attend to. It really was marvellous to be back, but no good would come of lingering, not when the best parts of the day were yet to come.
With that in mind, Onyx began to saunter towards a pair of the sliding doors that led to other sections of the kindergarten.
…
Large-scale offworld conquest was something Yellow Diamond's forces excelled at, and in order to be victorious in campaigns conducted so far from Homeworld, resources had to be exceptionally well managed; tactics had to be ingenious; and data had to be rapidly communicated across the Crystal System. The highest positions in the Imperial Army were therefore entrusted to those who had not only proved themselves on the battlefield, but had also shown that their minds were sharp enough to cope with the many considerations of extraplanetary warfare. But even the most talented Gems weren't expected to do everything by themselves, and to aid them with their administrative duties the newly appointed general officers were each gifted a Gem: a shiny new unit from one of the service rank varieties.
When the time came to decide which type of Gem they wanted, most of the lucky few opted to get a pearl: always eager to please, unfazed by even the most mind-numbingly repetitive tasks, and loyal to the point of insanity, a pearl was a solid choice for anyone who sought an obedient, competent assistant. But while the unique way in which they were grown, and the conditioning that they underwent before sale produced pretty, hassle free units, Hematite had only briefly considered getting one. There was no doubt that they were fit for purpose, but she had always felt that they were… lacking something…
She'd wanted a Gem that would be very much their own person, despite belonging to her; someone that would have their own ideas about things, and give well-considered opinions when asked for their thoughts… someone that would keenly observe their surroundings and subtlety question all that they were told to do. She found the idea of someone blindly following her around for eternity —or being totally lost in the universe if she were to be shattered, incredibly disagreeable; thus, after carefully investigating each of the available varieties, she settled on one that was first and foremost well suited to her plans, but also appealed to her personal tastes.
It was always going to be harder work than owning a pearl, but she knew that owning a cubic zirconia would be far more rewarding — with their reputation for being both curious and fiercely competitive — and that the opportunities that serving her would provide would not be wasted on them.
And so, after a surprisingly easy selection session, Hematite had acquired Pristine…
...
Slender, pastel-red fingers danced aggressively over the virtual keyboard beneath them, pausing every so often while the Gem that they belonged to looked up information, or fired off a message with the violent stab of a key.
A wicked smile crept across Pristine's face as she wove her latest masterpiece: Pink Fluorite had made one too many of her pointless requests for military assistance, and in her very particular way, Hematite had instructed her to give the infuriatingly persistent scientist a "…decisive answer." Well… her reply was going to be decisive alright, and with total freedom to explain why the human settlement near (the meticulously well-hidden) Facet 8 did not constitute "an immediate and severe threat…", it was very unlikely that Pink Fluorite would be asking again until it was actually necessary to do so…
But even venting her anger on some paranoid scientist wasn't enough to put her in a good mood. A frown returned to her face — one of irritation this time, replacing the one of concentration that she had been sporting earlier — as she remembered why she was berating Pink Fluorite so severely today…
A glance at the clock on one of her screens revealed that her least favourite people were due to arrive in seven minutes — long enough for a short break to tighten her bun. Carefully she extracted the two wooden spikes from the coil behind her head, permitting the cascade of sleek black hair to drape over her back. She collected the inky tresses together and rewound the complex knot — tidying her appearance by a degree imperceptible to the uninitiated. Order now restored she resumed typing her message, attacking the task with renewed vigour.
Minutes later, a little graphic of the room adjacent to her office popped up in the corner of Pristine's main screen, and almost instantaneously her eyes flicked towards it. The small line indicating the door opposite her was highlighted in blue, and when she looked towards the door itself a blue light similarly blinked on the display over it. She saved her work as the portal slid open, and moved to inform Hematite when she saw who it was.
…
There were so many things for her to despise about their fusion that sometimes Pristine found it hard to decide which vexed her most. Seeing her standing there however, was enough to convince Pristine (at least for the moment) that it was her appearance.
Like ninety percent of the kindergarten's personnel, Beryl and the obsidian were expected to project a variant of the standard uniform, but while they were fused they seemed to think that the rules somehow stopped applying to them. Unlike everyone else's, Onyx's form-fitting jumpsuit was entirely black — save for the yellow diamond in the centre of the chest; but more noticeably the whole garment was lace, which really irritated her: nobody else was permitted to have that texture in their uniform, she couldn't understand why Hematite allowed it… Another thing she took issue with was the revealing opening on the side of her jumpsuit. The obsidian's gem — a gently sloping black pyramid — was located on the left of her body, sitting neatly between her midriff and her back; its position meant that a cut-out there was justifiable, but the fusion took it to indecent levels: the diamond-shaped opening showed unnecessarily large amounts of skin at the side, front and back, and showed off a portion of her hip as well!
But what affected her most was how much of Beryl was visible in their fusion… Though Onyx's hair was a curly, platinum blond, she still wore it in the same pixie style; and while she'd received her eyes (for the most part) from the obsidian, the rest of her face was essentially a light-grey copy of Beryl's own delicate facial features.
Every time Pristine had to interact with the fusion she felt as though she was being mocked for her loss: like gemetics was making a conscious effort to spite her…
…
The doors to the long, elliptical room hissed quietly as they slid apart. On stepping into the space, the first thing that Onyx noticed was Pristine, and from the way Pristine's head tilted upwards briefly it was clear that she'd noticed Onyx too. She sat behind the central pane of the row of large windows which made up the only flat wall in the room, and the fact that the red Gem was visible almost certainly meant that she was supposed to talk to her before she went to see Hematite.
Onyx swept casually over the polished black floor, through the middle of the two lines of fancy metal chairs that stretched along the length of the (almost) oval-shaped room, towards Pristine's office.
…
"Good morning, mistress." Pristine said politely when her call was answered, "Onyx is here now, shall I send her up?" she asked rather hopefully.
"No, not yet. I'll finish reading this analysis, and call you when I'm ready to receive her." Hematite replied.
Pristine resisted the urge to smile: even through the speakers her mistress sounded powerful. She found her deep, smooth voice comforting; it was a sound that she could listen to all day… Then, a pang of dismay shot through her as she realised that the fusion would be staying longer than usual. She wanted to protest, but knew that on this occasion it was best to just accept her orders.
"Yes, mistress. I'll tell her to wait." she confirmed.
"I know that she can be extremely trying sometimes —and how much it hurts you to see her, but you're doing very well, Pristine. If she starts to get to you then pause, and consider which course of action has the best outcome in the long term." Hematite advised in a softer tone.
Pristine felt a little better after she'd said that, and as ever, was silently grateful for her mistress's deep understanding of her.
"Thank you, mistress. And yes, I'll keep that in mind."
Finished with her for now, Hematite nodded sagely and disappeared from the screen.
The moment her call had ended, Pristine turned to Onyx. Before she could even open her mouth, the fusion spoke:
"Oh hey there, Pristine." she said in a neutral, open-ended manner.
For a couple of long seconds Pristine glared into her strange, luminescent eyes, unamused at the pre-emptive interruption. Onyx had barely said anything and she was already sick of her…
"I've already called to tell her that you've arrived, so go and sit down until she tells me to send you up." Pristine said brusquely, totally ignoring Onyx's greeting.
…
She was going to have to do something about Pristine's obvious issues with her.
If Hematite wasn't ready for their meeting yet then now was the perfect time to finally engage Pristine in conversation. With a smirk she proceeded to get things started.
"Aind it's good to see you too." she replied jovially. "I notice tahm's done nothin' to improve your people skills..."
Pristine debated briefly whether she should just black the glass out and wait for Hematite's call, but they were practically asking her for a fight… Instead she slid her finger up a panel to her right, and stood up to give the fusion a piece of her mind.
"Hah!" she exclaimed as the barrier between them rose out of sight. "What would you lowlifes know about people skills? And why would I even bother when there's no one around except us? Swapping pleasantries with you two would be a waste of my time."
"Oh Pristine, you poor thing." Onyx cooed with mock concern. "First your manners, aind now you've forgotten howta count... Buht don't you worry about a thing: we got loadsa smart people around; we can fahndya a tutor, get you back to your old self in no tahm. You're in the best place to get the help you need, okay?"
"There's me, there's you, and there's the obsidian. That's three." Pristine snapped irritably, "Even if you two choose to slink around the place as this." She spat the last word out, gesturing in Onyx's general direction.
"Slink…" Onyx repeated with a thoughtful grin, "Whut an interesting wayta descrahb it. Y'all bin payin' maybe a bit too much attinshun to the way I walk?"
"Don't flatter yourselves: you'd have to be blind not to notice the way you flaunt this freakish assortment around the place; look at what you're wearing, even! If we were back on Homeworld people would think you're a stimulation dancer."
"Aind they'd pay gooooood money to get up close and pers'nal with these lahns and curves." continued Onyx, sliding her hands down her body and rolling her hips seductively. She was enjoying this game…
"Only a pervert would pay for that with someone like you." Pristine countered.
"At least they'd be payin'. All they'd have to do is get in Hematite's good graces, and they could probly have you for free."
With astonishing speed, Pristine's arms shot over the desk and she grabbed Onyx firmly by the straps of her jumpsuit. The fact that she was about a foot and a half shorter than the fusion did absolutely nothing to discourage Pristine from wrenching her forwards, suddenly bringing their faces a lot closer together.
"Listen, you twisted little fragments of glass! You might—"
She stopped herself.
There was nothing that she wanted more than to verbally tear Onyx apart, but she was supposed to be in control of her emotions, and already she was dangerously close to losing that control. This was exactly what Hematite had warned her about; this was a test of her discipline: giving into her anger now would be a huge step backwards — she'd only end up disappointing her mistress and herself.
But they were so smug! — wrapped up in their fusion like that, acting like they owned the place because Hematite allowed them to exist that way…
'It could be worth it…' she thought, the satisfaction that she'd get from giving them even a tiny fraction of what they deserved.
...
Onyx had been a little surprised by the outburst, but chose to let Pristine hold her like that. Moving or talking was only likely to make things worse, so she decided to just enjoy the close-up view of her face that Pristine was treating her to. Dark green eyes bored into her with incredible, hateful intensity, and as she looked into them Onyx noticed that she could see the reflection of the light from her own eyes. It was then that a much brighter light source caught her attention, and she shifted her gaze to Pristine's forehead to get a better look at it.
The slight tilt of Onyx's head brought Pristine back to the real word. She realised that her body was rigid, and that she'd remained completely still since she'd grabbed the fusion. The interruption also gave her chance to acknowledge the tingling sensation coming from her gem, which she deduced must be glowing.
With a reluctant shove she let go of Onyx; there was nothing to be gained from this confrontation…
She sat back down and closed her eyes to block out the world for a little while. She took a few deep, slow breaths to relax — telling herself that she was calm, and that she could easily handle a couple of nuisances like the ones in front of her. When she felt better she opened her eyes again and scowled immediately, disappointed (though not surprised) that they were still there.
"For a moment back there I was sure we were gonna have a repeat of the first tahm…" Onyx commented.
"That was nothing: you keep going and it'll be more than a slap you'll have to worry about…" Pristine threatened quietly.
He remembered Hematite mentioning her desire to guide Pristine through weapon summoning at some point, if that had already happened (which was likely, considering how well their lessons must be going) then provoking her further was a bad idea.
"I'm sorry, Pristine." she said sincerely. "I was just kidding earlier. There wasn't any ill will in it."
"Whatever." Pristine uttered dismissively, "And are you deaf, or just stupid? I told you she'd call when she's ready to see you, so what are you still doing over here?"
"I'm just trying to have a conversation with you… understand you a little better and all. Because me and you, we've never really spoken to each other before —not about innything that matters."
"So it's stupidity then. I can't say much for her, but I thought that you at least were smart enough to understand that I don't want to talk to either of you, Beryl. And you must think I'm some kind of idiot: I know… I know how it works, okay! You can pretend you're a new person for the next thousand years —acting like we don't already know each other. But I know you're in there, you can't fool me… You're just two people stuck together in a single, degenerate body."
"You really hate fusions, don't you?" said a mildly amused Onyx. It was more of a statement than a question.
"…I don't hate fusions…" Pristine slowly began, "Just as long as people stick to their own varieties —or if they have to mix, then they should do what they were formed for and separate when they're done. No, you're what I hate; specifically you; right to the core of my gem."
Onyx remained silent as she looked at Pristine with newfound curiosity. The black haired Gem was intriguing, in her own misguided way.
"Well say something then!" Pristine forcefully prompted.
"You hate me… Why?"
"Why?" she echoed in complete surprise: unsure for a second whether she'd heard correctly. "What do you mean, 'why'!? Is that supposed to be funny!?" she demanded with an angry flush. She knew that her gem had started glowing again, but she didn't care: it would be just as much their— her… their fault if the three of them ended up fighting.
"Hey, calm down! I'm not playin'!" Onyx exclaimed, slightly unsettled by how strongly Pristine seemed to believe she was her enemy. "I just— I know what happened, buht cain't you get over the fact that that wusn't me? I pers'nally didn't do innything to you."
…
Pristine hesitated. This wasn't what she'd expected: what the fusion was saying and the way she was saying it, her tone… it made her question what to believe. She sounded so genuine, so certain that she hadn't been a part of their falling out… maybe she didn't understand fusion as well as she thought, maybe Onyx really was a separate entity from Beryl or 'Sparse'… Perhaps that was—
'No.' she decided. 'I am right.'
She knew Beryl: she'd met her first, and had got to know her long before the obsidian had started calling her Glare… She knew how Beryl argued, and it wasn't like this. The obsidian must be doing most of the talking today, trying to soften her opinion of them with that relaxed and friendly tone of hers.
She wasn't falling for it.
"You abandoned me, Beryl. She got to you, and you forgot what we are, and then you abandoned me —discarded me, like a failed colony! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel!? And then on top of that you become this fusion with her and—!"
"Waitwaitwait, so you're tellin' me you hate me because you're jealous of them?" Onyx asked her with a sly grin. She really should've seen it coming, but hearing Pristine say it was much more interesting.
"I'm not jealous!" Pristine lied, even as she felt her cheeks warming. "What an idiotic thing to say!"
She was jealous, but nobody — except Hematite — was ever going to have the satisfaction of knowing that, especially not the two of them. But jealousy wasn't the only thing on her mind, and she smirked in preparation for a more biting response.
"I'm disappointed and astonished, Beryl. You and I are grade fives: lesser cubic zirconia would risk shattering for an opportunity to be like us, and most people would shatter someone else to own us... Gems of our class are supposed to associate with people who actually matter back home... not stupidly named obsidian nobodies.
Even the top-spec pearls know who we're supposed mix with, and they don't know anything!" Pristine went on. "Honestly, you're an insult to our variety, Beryl. And a waste of your freedom."
A grin played across her lips once again and slowly, Onyx began to shake her head.
"What are you smiling at?" Pristine snapped.
"It's just pretty ironic how you belong to Hematite, but you're still the most conceited, backward-looking Gem I've had the pleasure of meeting in person. I knew you were bad news, everything insahd me was sayin' 'Onyx, just stay away from her…' But I like to discover things for myself; well, now I fahnally have, aind I'm preeety sure I know why you ended up getting ditched. Buht then again… you're not even whut, two hundred and fifty yet? There's still plenty of tahm for—"
Pristine's head suddenly turned away from the fusion, towards the largest screen on her desk. With some hesitation she reached forward to touch one of the glowing panels on the flat surface.
"Hello, mistress." she said cheerfully.
If she hadn't been so amazed by Pristine's complete change in demeanour, Onyx would've burst out laughing. She had to admit that she was very impressed by the act though, it was impossible to tell that they'd been talking at all.
"…Hello, Pristine." Hematite replied warily. Now that the glass had been lowered Onyx could hear the director as she spoke: something in Hematite's tone told her that she wasn't convinced by her Gem's greeting…
"I'll take Onyx off your hands now, please send her to my office."
"Yes mistress." Pristine said.
"And tell her not to delay." Hematite finished.
"Yes mistress, I'll make sure that she understands."
Pristine turned back to Onyx, signalling that her conversation had ended.
"You heard her, she wants you now. So why don't you do everyone a favour and get lost." she spat icily.
Onyx regarded her for a short while longer, and she simply glared back: her narrowed eyes conveying nothing but malice. "…Alright, Pristine." she said with a shrug. "Uhntil next tahm."
She turned to the door on the right, one of the doors at the either end of the oval's long axis. Less than ten steps towards the main event she heard a voice from behind her.
"Beryl!" Pristine called to her, leaning on her desk to look out of her window.
Onyx stopped, cocking her head to the left to show that she was listening.
"If you want to talk properly, come back unfused."
A wide grin of triumph spread over her face. She hadn't made as much progress with Pristine as she'd hoped to, but she was a busy Gem, and she thought she'd made a very respectable effort in the time she'd had available. At the very least she'd managed something that would've been a lot more difficult for her components as individuals, and she thanked herself twice for making their lives that little bit easier.
It was very rare that she split herself willingly, but Glare could only build on the gains she'd made today if she was around to talk to Pristine in person.
"I'm sure I can arrange somethin'." Onyx called back to her.
She started towards the door again; Hematite was waiting…