So I changed a couple details from "Weaponized", just little things that'll allow me to bring the story and the characters together much much smoother, and so that it conforms to my new ideas and plans for this fic.
A couple of my ideas are slightly influenced by the SU fandom and community on tumblr, so shoutout to this rad-band-of-sentient-rock-loving-trash.
And if it hasn't been noticed previously as well, I throw in quotes that have actually been said by certain characters on the show, and put them into different contexts and will continue to, so keep your eye out!
Anyways, This is Ruby's POV, and takes place around the time of the end of last chapter when Sapphire was settling into her room.
Disclaimer- I do not own Steven universe or it's characters; All credits and ownership of the characters and show go to Rebecca Sugar
R- Homeworld army gems weren't known for traveling off planet like this. If fighters were needed, commanders would simply call for troops from kindergarten gem-controlled planets. It wasn't normal for myself and nearly half of the armies from home to be transported like this. It made me wonder...
What's happening on this new planet that makes it any different than the others? Why did homeworld need so much force all of a sudden?
Was homeworld losing some kind of fight?
It was strange to be stepping onto a ship, especially knowing it was going to take me across the galaxy to who knows where. Sure i'd seen the ships before but I'd never been on one myself. It was...it was just weird, to say the least.
Life here was just stale now, no wars were happening that included my sector, so the armies would just stand around, training, fighting amongst themselves, or playing games day and night; it's been like that for nearly a thousand years. And, me being just that age, add on a couple of decades, I never got to be involved in the actual fighting I was created to do. And now, finally, I was going to see some action. All I'd ever known was to be combative; I was ready to live up to my purpose.
I walked down the hallways that were stirring with the activity of gems signing in, finding their quarters, and exploring the ship. My group, 508, came a little later than we were supposed to; but who cared. As long as we got here before the ship took off, nobody batted an eye.
My teammate, Amber, was still clearly annoyed with being late, nonetheless; which meant of course that we would have to wait in line for what she claimed to "feel like eternity"...she isn't the most patient of gems, but, I can't blame her; neither am I, quite honestly.
Since she led our rag-tag group, we got the backhand of her annoyance;
"Ugh I told you guys this was going to happen; Why does nobody listen to me anymore?!" she scoffed, throwing her hands into the air and then prompty crossing them while tapping her foot.
She stood slightly taller than me, but not by much. She was short for a commander. Her burnt-orange hair crossed over one of her eyes and then met behind her back in a ribbon to hold all of her long locks together. She wore a sleeveless shirt that was cut short at the abdomen, a pair of shorts and tall boots that ran up most of her calves, the symbol of the diamond authority branded on the sides of her shorts and back of her top; her clothes matching the color of her hair to contrast her lighter orange skin.
"A, chill; we're almost at the front of the line anyway." I said, looking around the group ahead of us to see the check in gem.
"Ruby, you can't call me A here, I already told you that. I'm a commander, in case you forgot"; Even though she was angry, every time she spoke was amusing to me; she had an accent in her words that a lot of people from our sector had, but was rare outside of our group; No "R's" were pronounced, "A's" made the sound of "Uh" or "Aye", and "O's" were deep, said like "Ouah". Which was my only way of describing it to people who hadn't heard her talk for themselves. It made her sound aggresive, like she meant buisiness. Which, she did. She took her job seriously, but was still rowdy and goofy like the rest of us; that she couldn't deny.
She could put on a fake persona of someone calm and serious like most commanders all she wanted, but when she was away from the gems of power and royalty, she was just like any other warrior gem out there.
Amber had trained and guided me for as long as I could rememer, so she was closer to me than she was with any of the others. Which, saved my life on more than one occasion. She always called me her trouble maker; and, she wasn't wrong. When you don't play a part in any homeworld battles, you cause mischief to keep yourself busy. It's what you do. Its not like I was the only trouble maker around. I actually consider myself better behaved than most...
After a little while passed, our group finally made it to the Pearl checking everyone in, sending them off with a double of herself to lead them to their room.
She was dressed different than the other pearls, wearing a jumpsuit of some sort; the rest of the duplicates wearing large, white coats with collars going up most of the length of their necks, the diamond symbol in the dead center of their chest. They wore white boots that clicked with every step they took, all of them with expressionless faces surrounded by curling peach hair, pulled together at the top of their heads into a neat bun. They looked exactly like the drones they were created to be; identical, lifeless and obidient...Well, except for this Pearl. She wasn't like them, from what I could tell.
"Ah! CDR Amber, Yes?" the Pearl said, looking down at Amber and shaking her hand
"Yeah, sorry about our tardiness" Amber apologized, rubbing the back of her head and smiling bashfully
"Nonsense, your troops are here now and thats all that matters. Allow me to personally show you to your barracks, and you to your room in the Atrium; this way, everyone!" She said, sing-songy; skipping down the hall and maneuvering past other gems getting settled into their quarters and lounging about the halls.
The barracks room we found just a little ways away was a long room, the crystal walls in an array of warm colors to represent the scheme of the warrior gems. Though gem's didn't need to sleep, warriors found it relaxing and fun, so beds were made available to those who wanted to indulge. The rest of the room filled with various items like punching bags and instruments; seeing as many of us had become skilled in the art of music and singing in our off times. It was nice to know that homeworld didn't treat warriors like total garbage...
"And Amber, this way to your quarters." The Pearl guided, glancing at the troop before promptly beginning to make her way to another section of the ship
"A...I-I mean, Commander, can I tag along with you?" I asked; I usually stuck to her like glue, and wasn't too friendly with too many of my troop-mates, since most of them were relatively new or came from different sectors. The only gem besides Amber that I was fairly comfortable with was Tiger's Eye, but everyone called her T; we had a thing for first letters of gem's names.
"Oh, I don't see why not." she said ruffling my block of hair "is it alright for my comrade to come with me?" she asked the servant
"Oh, why yes, I think that would be fine." she questionably answered, looking at me with a scrunched face.
Which annoyed me of course; All the royal and pristine gems look at the fighter gems as dirty and beneath them; Apparently, even the servants did. Go figure.
"Hey, T! You wanna join?" A called, her accent becoming thicker as her voice rose
"Just a sec!" Tiger called out before strutting over
She was one of the tallest gems in our posse, standing at least the height of two of those Pearls stacked on top of one another. She had light yellow hair that came down to her shoulders on the sides of her cheeks, with raised bangs hanging above her forehead, the remainder of her locks pulled into a tail-like fashion towards the top of her head. Her skin was striped of a pale orange and a deeper, much darker version of the color. She wore a tight top that ended in the middle of her wide hips; Underneath was a red shirt that came up most of her neck, the color of it matching her leggings, and contrasting her orange top, with a yellow collar and mid-section, matching her slim boots; and finally with her gem sitting on the middle of her forearm, surrounded by a red cloth she wrapped around it, with a hole cut out to expose the orange rock; a diamond symbol branded at her chest and on her boots.
T either looked ghastly intimidating or comely and sweet; With burnt-orange-dyed irises, and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth made her look pretty damn scary, quite honestly. But when she spoke, her nicer side could come out with her accent matching A's, hers a bit softer in nature. Either way, she was still an arrant, audacious gem like the rest of us.
Along with Amber, I pretty much "grew up" with T; in the sense as well that she was the one who trained most of the new warrior gems. But she was more than a teacher to me; she felt like kin, not just a teammate.
"Oh...alright, this way." The pearl noted before walking off slowly, clearly intimidated as well by the gem that stood towering over her
We made our way to the spiraling stairway in the middle of a large, open section of the ship; of which was clearly to house the "more important" gems like the royals and the leaders, before the Pearl stopped and spoke of an epiphany;
"Oh! Amber, Pink Diamond said that she wanted for you to keep an eye out for a special passenger of ours; At the time, the gem doesn't seem to want or need much guarding or guiding, but she just wanted to make sure you were there in case anything were to go awry for the gem, would that be alright?" She asked, turning and leaning downward to Amber
"Oh sure! That's no problem. Where is this special one at exactly?" Amber answered back happily; a bit more excited about having to take care of some royal than she should be, in my opinion.
"She'll be exactly two floors above you and across the way, Room 300, preciesly." She guided by showing a hologram projected from her forehead while handing Amber a crystal door key "Now, this gem is of high importance and priority, so she's to be kept safe at all costs, and made sure to be attended to if needed, okay?"
"Sure thing, thanks for your help" Amber said contently, looking at the key and waving goodbye to the servant as she disapeared into a large room on the bottom floor, that had gigantic, slow opening pink, crystal doors.
"Why are you so happy about having to watch some regal, A?" I complained, trying to convey my annoyance for A's new job as babysitter unto her and T
"Ugh, Ruby get over yourself; you can't just automatically hate all royals without even seeing their damn face." T cringed, patronizing me. She tried to be nice to everyone, but failed to realize not everyone was worth being nice to.
"I'm just saying, you're a commander, a leader; not a princess-keeper" I muttered, crossing my arms
"Ruby, seriously. Drop it." Amber said,harshly; pointing at me, lingering for a moment before she made her way towards the "important" gem's room
"Whatever, Im going back to the barracks. Have fun with your oh-so-special little gem!" I mocked through gritted teeth, waving my hands sarcastically
"Go ahead and have your little tantrum, Ruby. We can hang out again when you stop being such a sad sack." T said, flicking her wrist my direction beforre turning to follow Amber.
I groaned angerly, stomping back to the room
Fine. Don't listen to me. Not like you ever do anyway
When it comes to Amber and Tiger's accents, I tried my best to describe the Boston idiom, so just think of that as their voices, it adds a lot of depth to their character in my opinion.
Hope everyone's enjoying the fic so far, I'll try to write another chapter and have it uploaded by tomorrow, now that I've planned everything out;
Stay tuned!
-B