Garnet and Alexandrite ate their donuts and played chess together. He was the white pieces, and she was the black pieces.
1. d4 d5
2. c4 e5
3. cxd5 c6
4. dxc6 Qxd4
Alexandrite ate another donut. "Good move."
"Thank you." Garnet said.
5. Qxd4 exd4
6. cxb7 Bxb7
7. Nf3 h6
8. Nxd4 Bc6
9. Nxc6 Nxc6
"How do you have so many powers?" Garnet asked.
"I can copy powers of gems by eating their gems. That's the purple me's ability. The blue me has the time-stopping. I use it on Homeworld Gems we eat, to use their own powers against them."
"You can't remember their names?" Garnet asked, surprised.
"No. I haven't defused in a long, looong time." Alexandrite said.
10. e4 Bd6
11. Nc3 Nf6
12. Bb5 h5
13. Bxc6+ Ke7
14. e5 Bb8
Things got really dramatic and tense as they got close to the end.
"Your style... it's like I'm a puppet on your strings." Garnet said, starting to use her Future Vision.
"And you're moving so quickly... it's hard to keep my strings on you." Alexandrite replied.
15. exf6+ Ke6
16. fxg7 Re8
17. Bxe8 Bxh2
18. g8=Q Bg1
"Behold! My favourite move." Alexandrite said, eating all his remaining donuts at once. Only true chess pros could do that.
19. Qxf7+ Kd6
20. Nb5+ Ke5
21. Rxh5+ Ke4
22. Qg6+ 1-0
"I win!" Alexandrite said happily.
"Nice match." Garnet said. "At first, I thought you were all talk. But now that I've fought you, and seen how you strategize... I can see why you're the leader of your rebellion." Garnet said.
"You're good, too." Alexandrite said, looking at the chessboard again. "You almost beat me."
"Almost." Garnet said sadly.
"Don't be so hard on yourself." Alexandrite said, patting her hair.
"I have to be. I'm the strongest Gem back home, and I'm the leader." Garnet said.
"I know how you feel. Sometimes, it feels like my whole rebellion rests on my shoulders. My strength is the reason my organization hasn't fallen apart into petty infighting. I know Citrine would love to be the leader... just to feed his ego. He's no leader, just a brute. A strong one." Alexandrite said, pulling his arm back and looking down.
"But not strong in the real way?" Garnet asked.
"Not even a little." Alexandrite said.
"Do you have trouble beating him?" Garnet asked.
"Sometimes. He challenges me to a 'Friendly spar' every few decades, and those fights are hard. Every time, he has new weapons he stole from Homeworlders. And every time, the fight gets harder." Alexandrite said. "There isn't a 'The strongest gem is the leader' rule, but... he could use it to convince people he should be the leader. And I'd lose everything I fought for."
They hugged.
"Aaaaaawwwwwww!" Steven said happily as he, Pearl, and Amethyst watched the two.
"I don't trust him. Didn't he say he had mind control powers? How do we know he isn't using them on Garnet?" Pearl asked.
"We should ask him!" Steven decided. He went into the store. "Hey, Alexandrite, how do your mind control powers work?"
"Like this." Alexandrite said, pointing at Lars. He opened his eyes wide, and big swirls appeared in them. "Act like a chicken!"
Lars clucked and acted like a chicken, and Sadie and Steven laughed. Alexandrite snapped his fingers, and he snapped out of it.
"Also, don't worry. I can't use that power on you guys. It only works on dumb people." Alexandrite said.
"Oooooohhhhhh!" Sadie said.
"What only works on dumb people?" Lars asked.
"His mind control powers." Steven said.
"Weird." Lars said.
"So... do your dates usually end up with this many people in the room?" Garnet asked.
"Well, they usually start with three people." Alexandrite said.
Steven, Alexandrite, and Lars laughed hard. Garnet laughed a little.
"Fusion joke!" Alexandrite and Steven said happily.
