Chapter 7: The Truth About Carnelian

In this chapter: Quartz and Carnelian's rivalry finally comes to a head as Rebel fights Rebel!


All was silent on the Homeworld Warp Pad Hub. At one time, it was used by Homeworld soldiers to teleport troops or supplies all over the planet. But due to the intervention of the Rebel Gems, several of the warp pads became damaged beyond repair. To this day, the massive piece of Gem technology remained stationary in the churning waters of the Pacific Ocean; silent, isolated, and inactive.

However, one of the warp pads was still active and connected directly to the Rebels' Temple. In a sudden flash of light, the warp pad activated and four Rebel Gems began to survey the rest of the pads. While it was very unlikely, it was still possible that the pads could come back online and allow troops from Homeworld to come back to Earth. This resulted in bi-yearly check-ups performed by the Rebel Gems. The Gems would manually test the pads for activity, and then Stephanie would mark them "inactive" with glittery stickers.

As the Gems spread out to test the pads, Stephanie followed them around, ready to mark them. Onyx stood on the first pad and concentrated on a location. After a few, short moments, the tall Gem raised his head to look at Stephanie. "Inactive." He said, prompting the teenage Gem to mark the pad with a sticker.

Next, Quartz stood on another pad and copied Onyx's actions. When he deemed his inactive, Stephanie marked it with a sticker. Carnelian back-flipped onto another pad and sighed in boredom as he copied the others. "Inactive… do we seriously have to check all of the pads? They're all inactive."

"You know we do, Carnelian." Quartz scolded the short, blue Gem. "We can't risk one of the pads coming online and sending an army of Gems our way."

"Wait, guys," Stephanie pulled the hood down from her raincoat and looked at her three guardians. "Why don't you want to see more of your own kind? Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

The Rebels looked at each other with nervous expressions. How could they tell her without breaking their promise to Margaret? Was there even a way to explain it so that Stephanie would understand?

"Eh… what's the best way to put this?" Quartz rubbed his hands in discomfort before finally looking back at Stephanie. "Stephanie, not all Gems are… necessarily… good. The Homeworld Gems did a lot of… bad things to Earth that would have completely ruined it."

For some reason, Carnelian seemed to take offense to Quartz's choice of words. The younger Gem crossed his arms and leaned against one of the walls of the Warp Hub's interior, an action that caught the eye of Stephanie. It was true that Quartz and Carnelian argued a lot, but Stephanie hadn't noticed anything Quartz said that could have offended her blue friend.

Finally, after all of the other warp pads had been checked, Quartz and Onyx went home with Stephanie not far behind. But before the girl could enter the warp pad to head home, she noticed that Carnelian hadn't moved.

"Carnelian?" Stephanie walked over to her guardian and sat down next to him. "Carnelian, aren't you coming back with us?" Carnelian said nothing as he kept up his sour demeanor. "Don't you want to come back home, to the Temple?"

"That's not my home…" Carnelian finally said, grimly.

"Huh?" Stephanie was confused. Normally, Carnelian was a fun-loving goofball, but this attitude was completely unfamiliar to Stephanie. "I don't understand. What do you-? Oh! That's right!" Stephanie snapped her fingers as the realization popped into her head. "I'm sorry, I forgot; you're from Homeworld… wherever that is…"

"That's not my home, either!" Carnelian snapped at the girl.

"Oh, well then… where are you from?"

Suddenly, Carnelian's face lit up as a wide grin spread across his face. "I'll show you." The blue Gem led Stephanie over to the only active warp pad and told her to let him take control. Stephanie watched as Carnelian concentrated on where he wanted the pad to send them. In a flash of light, the two Gems where teleported away to a new destination for Stephanie.

This place was surrounded by two large mountains with large, rounded holes in them. All around the mountains were odd, drill-like machines which appeared to be clawed into the mountains. These machines had a similar design to a large computer in between the two mountains, but the computer appeared to be severely damaged. As she looked around, Stephanie noticed that the trees were limp and lifeless, several animal skeletons were scattered around, and dark clouds blocked out the sun. A chill ran up Stephanie's spin before Carnelian gleefully called for her attention.

"TA-DA!" the blue Gem lifted both of his arms in the air. "Stephanie Topaz Universe… welcome to the Kindergarten!"

"Wait a minute," Stephanie's eyes widened in disbelief. "you mean… this is your home?"

"Yeah! I was made here on Earth. Just like you!" Carnelian chuckled and grabbed Stephanie's wrist. "Here, let me show ya around!" While the ominous atmosphere made her feel uncomfortable, Stephanie weakly smiled and followed Carnelian around as he pointed out everything in the Kindergarten.

"Ah… be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. Ooh! There's my old throwing rock! And there's the rock I once kicked in half! And, oh! I remember this guy!" Carnelian leapt up onto a giant boulder and patted his hand on it. "This was my climbing rock! Ah, good times… good times."

"So, how long did you live here?" Stephanie's anxiety began to increase as the dark atmosphere was getting to her.

"Uh… for a while, I guess. At least until I ran into your dad and the others. Oh, hey! Check it out!" Carnelian jumped off the rock and landed right next to a four-foot-tall crevice in the mountain side. "Isn't it cool?! It's the hole I came out of!"

"What?!"

"It's. My. HOLE! Look, it's me-sized!" Carnelian giggled as he casually slid back into the crevice and let out a deep sigh. "Ah, still has that good cave smell."

"Y-you came out of this hole?" Stephanie stepped back to see the rest of the mountain. Hundreds of holes in different shapes and sizes seemed to completely dominate the mountain. Stephanie nervously gulped. "So… what came out of the other holes?"

"There you are!" Stephanie turned around to see Quartz running over to her with an expression of worry and anger.

"Great…" Carnelian muttered as he crawled out of the hole. "The fun police."

"Are you alright? Oh, nebula help me, I was so worried! Onyx said that you might be here, but I didn't want to believe him!" After insuring Stephanie's safety, Quartz turned to the blue Gem who crossed his arms. "Carnelian… what the nova were you thinking bringing Stephanie to the… Kindergarten?"

"I don't know…" Carnelian angrily kicked a pebble away. "We were in the neighborhood."

"Quartz?" Stephanie tugged on the back of Quartz's tunic, earning her his attention. "Was Carnelian really made here?"

"What did you tell her?!" Quartz's eyes will filled with rage as he went back to the blue Gem.

"What…?" Carnelian's eyebrows knitted together as he face his fellow Rebel. "You mean about the… bad thing? How this bad place is where bad Gems came to grow more bad Gems? Is that what you're talking about?!"

"They grew Gems here?" Stephanie was confused as Carnelian moved closer to her.

"Yeah! But don't worry, Stephanie, we won!" Carnelian's eyebrows remained in their angry position as he plastered a wicked smile on his face.

"Carnelian, stop! She's not ready!" Quartz tried to intervene, but was unsuccessful.

"See, the Rebels came and chased everybody away!"

"Carnelian-!"

"And we shut this place down so that Earth would be safe from ugly, deformed, evil parasites like me!"

"CARNELIAN! That's enough!" Quartz finally stepped in between the two Gems. Carnelian walked away while Quartz tried to comfort the teenage Gem. "Stephanie, I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to have to see this horrible place."

"Then why don't you just leave?!" Carnelian summoned his fail and wrapped it around Quartz. Before he knew it, the white Gem was thrown away to the other side of the Kindergarten. Quartz stood up quickly and summoned his quarterstaff. Stephanie ran to Carnelian to get him to stop, but he simply tossed her aside.

"Carnelian, don't do this!" Quartz stood in a defensive position. "I don't want to fight you!"

"I wouldn't wanna fight me either!" Carnelian sprinted towards Quartz with an angry yell. The blue Gem suddenly became a deadly, spinning ball intent on running over his ally. Quartz leapt out of the way at the last minute, leaving Carnelian to circle back around for a second chance at hitting him. Quartz aimed his quarterstaff at Carnelian and sent several blasts of concussive energy bolting towards the blue Gem. But Carnelian simply dodged the blasts and violently lashed at Quartz.

The white Gem elegantly dodged each blow before Carnelian finally came close enough. Quartz used his quarterstaff to propel himself over Carnelian and kick him in the head. Carnelian kneeled on the ground, seemingly defeated.

"Carnelian, stop this…" Quartz breathed heavily. "You can't beat me."

"I… don't… care!" Carnelian leapt up and wrapped his flail around the white Gem's quarterstaff.

"Guys, please, stop!" Stephanie ran over to her guardians, hoping to quell their rage.

"I'm not gonna let you stand there and remind me of everything I HATE ABOUT MYSELF!" Carnelian flicked his wrists, sending a jolt of energy through his flail and sending Quartz flying into one of the drill machines. When he landed on the ground, Quartz was shocked to see tears dripping from Carnelian's chin. "I never asked for it to be like this! I never asked for you to hate me! I never asked to be made as one of them! I never asked to be made!"

"Carnelian…" Quartz finally understood Carnelian's anger.

"Carnelian, please, stop this!" Stephanie ran in between the two Gems with tears running down her face. "I can't stand to see the two of you fighting like this!"

A sudden creaking noise drew the attention of the three Gems. The drill machine Quartz had been thrown into was falling over. Instinctively, Stephanie summoned her shield and held it over herself and Quartz, but Carnelian stepped away from both of them.

"Carnelian, what are you doing?! Carnelian! Carnelian! Carnelian!" Stephanie called out to the blue Gem as he sprinted away. The machine broke in half after hitting Stephanie's shield, leaving the two Rebels unharmed. As the dust settled, Stephanie searched for the Gem she considered her brother, with Quartz closely behind her. Finally, the teenage girl found Carnelian, sobbing in his hole as he held himself in a fetal position.

"Carnelian?"

"Go away! I'm bad and you shouldn't be around me!"

"What? That's ridiculous!" Stephanie had no idea why Carnelian would think she wouldn't be safe with him after fifteen years. "Look, I don't really understand what any of this means, but-"

"Yeah, you don't," Carnelian tearfully interrupted, "because if you did you wouldn't be talking to me…"

"Quartz, get in here." Stephanie pointed at the white Gem.

"But, I-"

"I don't understand this. You do. You have to talk to him."

Quartz hesitated at first, but he soon found himself squatting down so that he could squeeze through. When he finally reached his comrade, Quartz crossed his fingers, trying to think of what to say. "Carnelian…?" The blue Gem said nothing, so Quartz tried again. "Carnelian, I… I had no idea that you've been upset about this."

"What!?" Carnelian turned around angrily. You had no idea?! Excuse me!? This is, like, my entire existence! You, Onyx, and even Crimson! You all hate everything about this place! You wanna pretend that none of this ever happened! You think I'm just a big mistake!"

"What!? No, no, Carnelian, no! You're not the mistake. You're just the byproduct of a… big mistake…" Quartz cupped his hands over his mouth when he realized what he had said. He could see that he was not helping the situation. "No! That's not what I… I just never thought of this place as you! None of this is your fault! You didn't build this place! You didn't try to drain Earth of its life-force! I… I… I'm sorry, Carnelian… I never wanted you to think that I hate you."

Quartz placed a hand on Carnelian's shoulder, prompting the blue Gem to slightly turn his head. Stephanie continued to survey the conversation, hoping that it wouldn't end in another fight.

"The truth is…" Quartz's eyes started to tear up as he continued. "If I ever seem hard on you, it's because…because I'm jealous of you. No matter how hard I try to be an independent, normal Gem… I'm just a quartz. I'm useless on my own. A dime a dozen. I need someone to tell me what to do. But, you…? You're more than just your own Gem. You're the one good thing that ever came out of this mess. I always thought you'd be proud of that."

Stephanie backed away as Quartz helped Carnelian out of the hole. Wiping his tears away, Carnelian hugged Quartz tightly. At first, Quartz was surprised by such a gesture, but he fondly conceded and returned the hug. Stephanie held hands with her guardians as they stepped onto the warp pad.

"Rebel Gems forever!" Stephanie pumped her fist in the air, earning a smile from Quartz and Carnelian. "Now let's go home so I can go to bed." The warp pad teleported the Gems away, leaving the Kindergarten empty and silent once again.


Next: Warp Tour!