Chapter Two: Lost

"No, no, no—" Ruby whispered. "Sapphy— Saphhy—"

Steven gulped, and licked the palm of his hand.

"It's okay," he said, and he wasn't sure who he was talking to. His shield was still out. He remembered what had happened last time he'd tried to heal a newly corrupted Gem. He tried to push that out of his mind. He took a few careful steps towards Sapphire, reaching his hand towards her.

Sapphire didn't strike. She didn't lash out. She just backed away, her feet scrambling against the hard stone floor. Her single eye was wide with terror and confusion.

Her eye was now set in a face which was strange, yet still familiar. Still small and round, but the nose and mouth jutted out into a slender muzzle. Her hair had turned into long white feathers. Her mouth was a thin line, sharp white teeth visible. They were barred.

Steven took another step forward. Sapphire made a low keening sound at the back of her throat, holding up a talon as if telling him to stay back. When she caught sight of it— saw how wrong it was, how the fingers had fused into a single clawed digit—a shock ran through her. She screeched again, she shook, she shivered, her feathered plume puffing out huge. Her talons clawed at each other, as if he was trying to cut them away.

"Sapph— Sapphire," Ruby managed. "Please, it's okay to be okay."

Sapphire didn't— couldn't— listen. The temperature was plummeting. Frost formed on the walls all around them, and the spit on Steven's hand froze instantly.

Steven made a decision. He flushed his mouth full with saliva, screwed up his face, took aim, and spat—

The sound of it startled Sapphire, who rose onto her hind legs and thrashed her tail. That just made her a bigger target, and the healing spit hit true.

But her fear had made the air even colder than before, and by the time the spit hit, it was frozen. The ice-glob hit against her scaly chest with a tiny ping, and bounced off.

Sapphire released a high trill of pain.

The sound was sharp and splitting. Steven's hands flew to cover his ears, and even Ruby grunted from the pain. Cracks began forming in the frozen one-way mirror, growing larger and larger—

Sapphire went a note higher, and the mirror shattered.

The creature didn't stop or hesitate. She saw her escape route. She jumped into the air and scampered off.

xxxx

Lapis and Peridot were still in the instrument storeroom, having long since been distracted from the goal of the mission. Lapis was playing a wind instrument, a sweet tune filling the air. Peridot was attempting to company her with six metal drums which floated in the air around them like a very loud flock of birds.

There was a loud swoosh from the end of the hallway, as something small and blue hurtled right towards them.

They jumped back in surprise. Peridot recovered the quickest. "Monster!" she yelled.

She seized one of the metal drumsticks with her power, and flung it at the creature as it flew past.

Her powers still being weak and untrained, the drumstick fell several inches short of hitting its target, and the creature flew on.

xxxx

Amethyst and Pearl, meanwhile, had actually managed to stay on-mission.

They were currently clinging to a once-magnificent chandelier, now long dilapidated by age. They were balancing on two of the chandeliers' branches, staring at the centre piece floating in the middle. It had resisted all attempts to be speared or pulled into their grasp. Finally Amethyst took a flying leap from her branch, grabbed the thing mid-air, and had it bubbled by the time she landed on the opposite rung.

"Nice job, Amethyst!" Pearl called.

Amethyst grinned, then took a closer look at the artefact. She said, "It looks like a speaker phone."

"It is, essentially," said Pearl. "It was modified so that the sounds it produces will cause crippling hallucinations in everyone who hears—"

"Woah, woah," Amethyst interrupted. "Monster at three o'clock!"

The two looked down into the auditorium below. A creature had just raced in, and was leaping over chairs and benches, scattering what instruments remained in its rush. Amethyst dispelled the bubble with a tap, then jumped down at the monster, Pearl following suit.

As Amethyst fell, she summoned her whip and let out a battle cry. This turned out to have been a bad decision. The creature heard, noticed the Gems for the first time, and rushed off.

"Drat," Amethyst muttered, as she landed right where the creature had been a moment ago. She transformed into a flaming ball and went accelerating after it.

Pearl ran behind them. Her spear was in her hand, ready to throw— but for some reason, she held onto it. Something, some gut instinct, was staying her hand.

She'd seen many corrupted monsters since the War had ended. Many kinds of them. Hundreds, perhaps. She'd seen ones like this— small, blue, feathered, flying— but only twice. They were rare. She was certain that she knew what kind of Gem this was (or had been), and it sent an icy chill to her core.

But Amethyst chased, and she did too.

Amethyst sped up a ramp, went sailing into the air— at the top of her arc she transformed back to her normal shape, and went diving at the monster. Her aim was perfect, but it seemed to know she was coming, somehow, and nimbly sidestepped. Amethyst ended up crashing head first into the ground.

She growled and picked herself up. They were out of the auditorium, now, and back at the Citadel's entrance hall. The exit was at the hall's end, sunlight streaming through the huge doors. The monster was heading right towards them, and it was gonna get away—

Her whip shot out, and twisted around the monster's long, billowy tail. The monster hissed and yanked back, sending Amethyst sprawling. The whip vanished. The monster stared back at her and Pearl for a moment, then raced out of the citadel.

Amethyst got up again, and watched as the thing sailed up into the sky. She muttered, "Thanks for the help, P."

Pearl didn't answer. There was a dreadful fear in the back of her mind.

xxxx

Pearl and Amethyst set off to tell the others about what had happened. They met with Lapis and Peridot first, who said they had no idea where the others were. They all set off searching together.

They found Ruby and Steven in the dungeons, not long after. Neither had moved. Ruby was on her knees, sobbing, surrounded by shattered glass. Steven's face was buried into her shoulder.

xxxx

Ruby was inconsolable. When she wasn't crying, she was yelling, or burning, too hot for anyone to get close. So as they made their way out of the Citadel, Steven explained instead.

He told them what had happened in a quiet, hollow voice that didn't fit him.

Amethyst stared. Pearl sniffed. Lapis and Peridot fidgeted, left wordless.

xxxx

Outside the Citadel of Sounds, they searched and searched, but Sapphire was long gone.