Chapter Four
It felt as though her very being were falling apart.
Sapphire hadn't cried in a long time, and every tear hurt her more than the last, though nothing was as painful as the horrible throbbing from her cracked gem. She couldn't see anything. All she could perceive was the cold floor beneath her, and the pounding of her own head. If a threat came now, she wouldn't be able to defend herself.
Sighing, Sapphire squeezed her eyes shut and allowed herself to go limp at last. This was it. She probably wasn't going to make it out of this.
"Steven," she murmured softly. "Steven, Pearl, Amethyst… I'm so sorry. I should have fought back. I should have found my way home." Her gem gave a particularly powerful surge, and she whimpered, stopping her stream of apologies for a moment. As soon as the pain had passed, she continued.
"Ruby… Oh Ruby, I wish I could have found you. I… I love you so much… I just wish I could have been stronger…" Oddly enough, the blue gem thought she heard a different pound, this time coming from the field. After a moment of no sound, she dismissed it sadly. "I love you… My Ruby, I only wish…" She trailed off, feeling as though she were leaving somebody out. With a pang, she remembered.
"Garnet… I'm sorry you're split up. I'm sorry you're going to lose a half… Garnet, please forgive me…" Sapphire went silent, clenching her teeth. It was awful. She couldn't do this anymore.
"I'm so sorry…"
The cell was deathly silent for a moment. Then, Sapphire heard the sound of hissing from the entrance wall, and held perfectly still. Somebody was entering her room.
Footsteps echoed off the walls, and Sapphire shivered as she felt someone grow near. She resisted the urge to cry out when somebody grabbed her arm.
"Hush…" The voice was different from the last one, a bit softer somehow, and less rough. Strangely, there seemed to be a note of carefully hidden sympathy in it. "Relax. This will not hurt your physical form, nor your gem directly. Please hold still."
Sapphire obeyed. It wasn't like she had anything else to do.
The blue gem felt the hand moving her sleeve up a bit, followed by a small prick in her shoulder. Instantly, she felt dizzy and disoriented. She could have sworn she heard the voice grow a bit shaky and sad as the other being departed her cell. "This is a test. Calm yourself, Sapphire, it will be over soon." Below that, she strained her ears as a lower, more angry murmur came. "And maybe they'll finally let you see her for once…"
The blue gem tried to choke out a plea, but nothing seemed to be working. Her? Did they mean Ruby? Was Ruby here? Oh gosh, what if they were hurting her too? That couldn't be happening. Sapphire didn't want that to happen.
However, she didn't have much time to dwell on that possibility as pain swamped her head. She cried out and struck at the floor, not even sure it was the floor anymore due to her sense of gravity completely malfunctioning. She was beyond dizzy. She was sure she was going to retreat any moment now-
Sapphire gasped and opened her eyes. All around her was white.
Completely in shock, she raised her head. How was she seeing? The crack in her gem would impair her from using either of her sights, though honestly her future vision didn't seem to work in this strange facility anyway. Looking down, she covered her mouth as she saw her hand, now missing the white glove usually covering it.
The crack was completely black, as though somebody had filled it up with dark ink. She still felt an almost overwhelming pain from it. It wasn't healed.
Getting to her feet, Sapphire stumbled a bit. The world was tilting sideways, and she put out her hands to steady herself. This was too strange. She squinted, brushing down her clothes and gazing into the distance.
Far off, she could see a small dot. Well, if that's something, I'd better find out what it is, she reasoned with herself. Taking care to walk slowly and pace herself, she delicately made her way towards the dark mark she saw amidst the white.
As she drew closer, she realized that the dark shape was a figure. Somebody was kneeling down on the ground, seemingly marking something out. Sapphire was unable to see much, but she could tell by the dark red hue that the figure must be a gem.
Covering her mouth, she had a sudden thought. Was if it was Ruby?
Sapphire started to run, not paying any mind to the rushing of blood to her head and her sense of balance flipping out. If Ruby was there, nothing mattered except her. She needed to see Ruby again, needed to feel her arms, needed to kiss her cheek and hold her close… Every fabric of her being ached with emotional agony. Being separated from her love was making her panic all over again.
However, as soon as she was within earshot of the figure, she whipped around. Sapphire was briefly overjoyed to see it was indeed Ruby, but then noticed the furious look on her partner's face. She slowed her pace, approaching the red gem cautiously.
"Ruby!" she cried, feeling a jubilant smile spread across her face. "Ruby, is that actually-"
She was cut off as Ruby leaped into the air, kicking her to the ground. Completely caught off guard, she smacked against the white floor without catching herself. Ruby stomped over to her, glaring down at her while she stared on in shock.
"Get away from me!" the red gem growled, kicking her again. "Go on, run!"
"Ruby-"
"Shut up!" Ruby screamed. "I hate you! Go away!"
Still completely taken off guard, Sapphire dragged herself a few feet away, not wanting to be hit again. Her heart was pounding. Why was Ruby hurting her? What was wrong? "Ruby, wha-"
"Stop talking!" Ruby snarled.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong!" Sapphire burst out, staring up at her love with angry tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Ruby drew herself up incredulously. "What's wrong?! You're a useless defect! Scum like you shouldn't be allowed to exist! I can't believe I thought for a moment you were ever worth something!" Her words were full of venom.
Sapphire was utterly silent. Deep inside her, she could feel something starting to crack as the red gem carried on with her rant. "Worthless! Absolutely worthless! You are a mistake! Everything about you is wrong! You are nothing to me!"
"Ruby…" the blue gem whispered. Her voice was shaking.
"You are nothing!" Ruby repeated, staring down at her with undisguised loathing. Sapphire was thrown back as she kicked her roughly in the arm. "Now go away! You disgust me!"
Lost for words, Sapphire began to drag herself further. Ruby turned around and sat back down once she was at least fifteen feet away and resumed whatever she had been doing. The blue gem was hiding her face in her hair, but she couldn't help but look one last time at her love.
The red gem looked back with utter revulsion. Something inside Sapphire broke.
Sapphire pulled herself further in silence. Once Ruby was nothing more than a black dot in the distance, she buried her face in her hands and began to shake with dry sobs. Hatred for herself trickled from her eyes, slicking her palms and dampening her hair. Ruby was right. Ruby had always been right.
The words echoed through the broken gem's mind. You are nothing to me.
"I'm… Nothing…" Sapphire choked out. "Worthless… Mistake… You're right, ok?! I'm wrong…"
She sunk deeper, squeezing her eyes shut and refusing to let any more tears through. Slowly, she felt as though the world were turning over, and different voices began to echo through her head.
"I can't believe I looked up to you!" Steven shouted.
"You seriously think you can stay here? When you're like that?!" Came Amethyst's disbelieving yell.
"Get away from my family! You are not welcome here anymore!" Pearl cried.
Sapphire burrowed her face deeper in her clothing, trying desperately to muffle the horrible statements. Why was she thinking of those? Were those memories? They had to be memories… She was just remembering things she had buried deep… And now they were all coming back…
The voices were becoming her reality. The far cries of insanity through her mind were becoming recollections, the horrible vision of Ruby thoughtlessly kicking her becoming her present. This horrible nightmare was coming true.
She wailed, finally letting out her emotion in a verbal cry. It was too much.
Ruby was bleeding badly.
She had finally stopped throwing herself fruitlessly against the field when the other gem had left, after injecting Sapphire with some sort of fluid. However, her hands were bruised and cut from the pure amount of times she had smacked them against the walls, and she was pretty sure she had broken a finger.
Sapphire had stumbled to the ground, and was now blinking blindly at one of the walls. Ruby watched intently as she pulled herself to her feet. The blue gem started to slowly walk forward, squinting her sightless eyes and putting her hands out in front of her. Suddenly, she began to run.
She must be hallucinating, Ruby realized.
The blue gem ran a few more feet, and her partner found herself zoning out a bit. What could she possibly be imagining at the moment? What had that gem drugged her with? She looked almost completely out of it. Now she was slowing down, trotting towards the wall with an almost… happy expression?
The red gem jumped as she heard Sapphire shout, overjoyed. "Ruby! Ruby, is that actually-"
Ruby flinched as Sapphire slammed into the wall forcefully, smacking onto the ground. Squinting almost in disbelief, as though denying there were a wall there, the blue gem picked herself up and threw herself against it again. Ruby could only watch in disbelief as Sapphire dragged herself a few feet away, staring at the wall fearfully. "Ruby…"
The blue gem paused for a moment or two, before calling louder, "Ruby, wha-"
It hit Ruby like a freight train. Sapphire must be seeing her in her mind. Slowly, it dawned on her what the gem's intention must have been when she drugged Sapphire. No, no, nonononono-
"Not until you tell me what's wrong!" Sapphire cried, and Ruby flinched again at the desperation in her voice. She was right. Why had she been right? Why couldn't they just leave Sapphire alone?
"Why are you doing this?!" Ruby yelled to no one in particular, feeling her fingers scream as she pressed them against the field. "Why are you hurting her?" No answer came.
The red gem's frantic train of thought was interrupted by the soft, heartbroken whisper of "Ruby…" from Sapphire. Trying to forget how much pain she was currently in, Ruby slammed herself against the field again to no avail. Sapphire took no notice, instead pulling herself further and further away from the wall until she was huddled in the center of the room. She covered her mouth slightly as she heard shaky sobs from underneath the mass of hair Sapphire had buried herself in.
"I'm nothing… Worthless mistake… You're right, ok?! I'm wrong…"
"Sapphire, you're not a mistake and you never will be!" Ruby shouted as loud as she could. "You mean more than I could ever imagine to me! Please hear me! Please understand!"
Sapphire showed absolutely no sign she had heard. Giving a scream of frustration, Ruby rammed herself into the wall once more. The blue gem simply burrowed deeper into her ball, trembling like a wounded animal. It was useless. Sapphire wasn't going to notice her anytime soon.
Ruby felt something deep inside her start to crack, not with sadness, but with a deep, consuming rage that she couldn't control. It was boiling just beneath her surface, hissing and scratching in low snarls. She hardly knew it was there. But she knew that built-up rage could never be contained. It would break free. It would break free, and destroy her final emotions at last.
A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner! I hope you guys had a good week. School is letting out for the rest of the team and I pretty soon, so I should have some more time to write. See you guys next week, and please review! I love getting feedback to help with the story.
