Chapter 11: According to Who's Plan?

Phantom Fluorite: F.13 C.7 R.3

Sardonyx stands. My hands are over the controls, ready to go, but I can't seem to think. Can't seem to move. Sardonyx leans over the console, out the window, talking, but I can't hear, either. I can't seem to process this. We never planned for getting caught, never planned for being found out. My mind spirals uselessly, already given in. I don't know what else to do, what else can I do?

"Phantom, we have to go." Her voice finally edges into the realm of sense and understanding, but the meaning of the words take a moment longer.

"...go?" I ask, numbly.

"Fly the ship. Or tell me how to. Gems are swarming out there, we can still make it out of here if we hurry. Please." The whine of her voice sinks in, and I find the strength to look at her. She's removed the false binder and hand restraints, hands, like mine, poised over the controls. But her hesitation is a failure of knowledge, not a failure of mind. She blinks, eyes wide and unsure. The way she looks at my eyes and not just at my chest or shoulders, I must have dropped the illusion of Pyrope. She's looking to me for help.

"Right." I mumble, my head still heavy with indecision, and something else. I can't even name it, though it's a familiar, old friend. It's the feeling of suffocation, of drowning. The sensation of being pushed out of your own body, your own mind, until all you are is a shell of a person. I push back. I need to be here, right now. My hands drift, too slowly, over the controls, making adjustments, preparing for takeoff. My eyes drift, as well, out the window, and I can see dozens of gems, all shapes and sizes, coming towards us. I can't make out faces or expressions, only looming, approaching silhouettes.

"What can I do?" Sardonyx asks.

"I don't know.. I don't know." I answer, dumbly, useless.

"Can we fight?"

"What?"

"Are there weapons on this ship? Where can I look?"

"I… here." I pull up a directory. I can't seem to do anything more. Sardonyx searches through it, but she growls.

"There's nothing here. They gave us a courier ship.. it's only job is to go places and get there fast. Is there any way we can take off?"

"I'm trying." It's true but it's also not. I'm trying, but thinking seems impossible right now. I can't focus, can't understand. I almost manage to engage the thrusters, the motion feeling like it takes a hundred years to complete, but something lands on the windshield, the glass cracking. It's a gem, and then there's another, and another, and the window explodes inward, shards of glass flying everywhere. I am too slow to react, but I can hear, distantly, as someone else does on my behalf.

I look up to see Sardonyx standing on the console, hair a pink blur as she engages with our attackers. The ferocity with which she meets their blows is astounding and fearsome. Already she has disassembled the forms of two gems, without needing my assistance. But someone grabs a tangle of hair and pulls her from the cockpit, a flash of her white teeth visible like a snapshot before she's gone.

Suddenly I can think. I leap to my feet, skirting around the gems still on the ship, in the pit with me, gems who suddenly have faces and are more than shadowy figures. I jump out around them, tackling the gem I assume grabbed Sardonyx, using my unfortunately slight weight to roll them to the side. Sardonyx pops to her feet beside me as I jump away from the rolling enemy. I try to shoot her a glance, some form of apology for my delay, but there is no chance, no time. A gem comes rushing at each of us. I hurriedly read their thoughts, and use that knowledge to dodge them, but I realize too late that I chose a path that puts me farther from my partner.

Alone, now, separated from her, I turn off my mind, and open my thoughts to those around me. I haven't done this in so long, the wave of intentions is almost overwhelming, but I fall into it quickly enough. Read just enough to move, to dodge, to use against them. I become less of a person and more a thing of motion, using and doing everything to survive the onslaught of others against me. Vaguely, I can feel Sardonyx's amongst these many thoughts, but I cannot seem to focus on them like I can the others. Her thoughts are so slight, so nimble that I can't catch them.

With a sense of alarm, I feel what she was talking about earlier. Becoming movement. I can feel it in her thoughts, but more surprising to me is that I feel it in myself. There is something grand about this movement, the perfect rhythm of being in between here and there, and it must be perfect, or our lives are forfeit. It's a dance, even if it is a dance of dangerous necessity. My chest floods with this new understanding of my partner, and I feel a sense of new lightness to my form, as though the dance is just that much easier now that I understand it.

These gems are not warriors, they are mechanics, engineers, designers, pilots; it's only a small wonder they fall like they do, forms evaporated into dust. In what feels like no time at all, what was a field of foes is now an empty plain, our enemies few and far between. Sardonyx and I have somehow ended up back to back, ready for the heat of battle to begin again. But they hesitate.

The sound of clapping rises out of nowhere, slow and steady, followed by the distinctly loud footsteps of Luna Agate entering the room. Her own gems seem surprised, but also relieved.

"Marvelous! I am most pleased, but not surprised. I had rather hoped you'd put up a fight." She announces to us, standing relaxed, arms crossed behind her, across the launchpad. I am quiet. I am unsure how to respond.

"So.. you want to fight us yourself?" Sardonyx asks, turning only slightly to face her. Her mind is focused on the three or four gems still directly in front of her, though they are several meters away.

"Something like that. I was a much younger gem when I was assigned here. I'd never seen a real battle, and there hadn't been much need for a gem like me to go out on space exploration missions, so they put me here, where my leadership would at least be put to use. I thought that once the planet was finished being minimized, I'd move to a new one, and so on, the construction and overseeing therein a kind of conquest I could partake in. But the planet was finalized, perfected, and I remained, as though it were never a question that I was supposed to stay." Here she sighs, eyes closing lightly. "But I am an Agate, and I have always desired a real fight. It's my purpose, and I have been denied it for far too long. Two rebels are a meager first fight, but I'll take it." Her voice, previously gentle, almost soothing, becomes a strangled snarl at the end, and she grins a wicked, malevolent grin as she summons her weapon from her kneecap gem. The whip lashes out and out and out, impossibly long, the end splitting in two points.

All the other gems immediately scatter. They can feel this is a fight they can't take part in, for their own safety. Luna Agate's mind is a furious vortex of violence, kept well under lock and key for a very, very long time, and it all comes out at once, a storm of rage that I daresay the others can physically feel as well. Once again, it's almost overwhelming, but something keeps me grounded.

"I want to be clear before we begin. I'm coming for your gems. There will be nothing left to ship back to Homeworld if I win." She announces, voice edged unnervingly. She cracks the whip, a bolt of energy rippling down, exploding out the twin ends. The room, though I know it is large, is so quiet that I feel a sense of claustrophobia, an old fear I'd hoped I'd gotten rid of. It threatens to swallow me up into thoughtless numbness again, but I stand firm, afraid though I am.

Faster than I can capture, Luna Agate launches at us, whip swirling and crackling with energy. I can't read her thoughts, but is that because I can't focus, or is she like Sardonyx, thoughts too fluid for a solid understanding? I can't even move as I see, motion slowed with fear, the whip coming down straight for me. I feel constricted as memories of days and years of torture come back to me, weighing me down. I am certain this is my end, stricken down while stuck with fear.

But a flash of pink and orange and yellow and gold in front of me catches the whip and I am brought to my senses as she and the larger Agate trade blows. Sardonyx holds onto the end of the whip with one hand, catching or delivering swipes with her other. Luna Agate cracks the whip, and a new bolt ripples down; Sardonyx neutralizes the kinetic aspect of the ripple, but the wave of electricity continues through her form, a short scream resounds through the dome, cut off as Luna Agate backhands her away.

She's after her almost immediately, but I find the strength to move, using my mind to tear her feet out from under her. She lands, face first on the ground, the neat panelling ruined under her impressive weight. She pushes herself up, head swinging back to look at me, eyes wild. I give a little gasp, backing up. I'm so tired, magically, and my physical strength is very, very limited. She goes to launch the whip my way, but something pulls back.

Sardonyx, across the room, a wall utterly smashed behind her, stands pulling back with her whole body on the whip. Small streams of electricity still lance, dancing, around her form, but she seems angry more than pained. Luna Agate gives a small but powerful snap to the whip, but Sardonyx returns an equal, neutralizing snap. She then leaps, forceful, directly at Luna Agate, but she responds by swirling the whip, sending Sardonyx in a spiral through the air until she's rammed into the upper wall, letting go of the whip's end. As Luna Agate ponders her next move, the whip's end falls and settles near me. I have the vaguest sense of a plan, but it involves grabbing hold of that torturous weapon, and my form quivers at the thought. But I see Sardonyx shake rubble from herself, standing on the catwalk halfway up the dome. She's giving everything she can to this, she even saved me when I was certain I was done for, so how can I stand to do any less?

Sardonyx lifts and tosses an enormous chunk of wall at Luna Agate, who dodges, leaping to the side. I take my moment, take my chance, and take hold of the end of the whip, and run towards the ship. I've no idea if this will even work or help at all, but it's all I can think to do. There are tremendous thuds and crashes as I dash madly for the ship. How did I end up this far away from it? Heavens!

Thank goodness for the severe length of the whip, though, for if it were a more standard length I'm sure I'd never have gotten this far unnoticed. Thank goodness for Sardonyx as well, keeping the owner of the perilous thing too busy to think to use it. Finally I reach the ship, running so fast I can hardly stop myself from crashing into it. I pry at the underbelly, where access to the engine should open up easily. As I've thought before, my physical strength is hardly anything, but my mental strength has been far too wane recently. Constant use after next to nothing for literal centuries will do that to a gem, I suppose, but I had genuinely thought I'd never be in a combat situation again once I settled down on that asteroid.

I manage to add just enough to pop open the panel, the engine idling inside. I'm not terribly familiar with its inner workings, but there are arms that swing around when the engine is engaged, and these are what I was hoping for. I jam the talon-like twin spikes in between the numerous pumping, swinging arms, then stab the talons themselves into something stationary. Having accomplished that, I fall out of the engine, my backside stinging. I look over my shoulder to see Sardonyx toss the largest section of wall yet, the grainy, rocky insides revealing pillars of metal inside that once served as structural foundation. It crashes down, and I wonder if my actions were at all necessary or helpful, if perhaps Sardonyx has managed to defeat Luna Agate on her own.

But the section rumbles and wiggles, then slowly rises, the Agate groaning underneath, lifting the section with a single hand. She then tosses it back to Sardonyx, who disappears from my sight behind the enormous chunk of wall. I proceed with my plan, then, hoping on every star I ever saw that she escaped being crushed. I climb through the front of the ship, the window completely destroyed. I tumble to the floor, wasting no time to scramble around to the console. I almost can't process my own hands commanding the ship. It springs to life, the wings opening as it stirs, unevenly into the air. The engine makes a terrible grinding sound as it eats up the whip, countless meters disappearing into the gnawing machine. It pulls me and the ship forward, as the whip is also stuck around or under thrown segments of wall. These come loose with the straining, screaming effort of the ship, which I fight to control.

Jerkingly, it approaches Luna Agate, consuming her whip, though she doesn't seem to be aware of it until it jerks in her hand. She pulls back on it, but when it fails to fly forward, she wrenches around, and the last I see of her is a look of awe and fear as she presumably stares up into the belly of the ship. I pass over her, and the sound of the engine gets worse. It bucks and buckles, and my attempts to restrain it's erratic motions come to a failure as I am tossed from the cockpit, once more onto my back.

Without my control, the ship buzzes off into a wall behind me, exploding on impact. I look around for Sardonyx, or at least proof that Luna Agate's form was dissipated. Instead of either of them, I can only see dust settle, slowly, as there's only a limited artificial gravity on this planet for the sake of the ships. I rise, my body strangely sore. I wander through the dust anyway, anxious to find Sardonyx. She has to be okay. I feel so weak on my own that even one of those Cassiterites could realistically pose a threat. Furthermore, I cannot move on without her, not now, not without knowing I did everything I could.

I try to call out for her, but fear chokes my throat. Oh- fear. That's what had me motionless earlier. It was so overwhelming I couldn't recall the name. It's a horrible force that stains much of my early memories, one that I'd tried to defeat by force of forgetting. I can see now that those memories were only waiting to come back, to be relevant again. And now they keep from calling out.. I force her name through my mouth anyway. I need to find her.

"Sardonyx!" The room, though empty besides the three of us earlier as well, seems so much moreso now. Maybe it's the dust haunting the air, or the scattered chunks of rock and metal that have ruined a once pristine building, or perhaps yet it's that I can't place either of the other two gems who were just with me. It's empty and eerie, and I feel so much smaller than I ever have before.

I flinch as a shadow rises through the dust, but I hesitate to bolt the other way because it might be my partner. I hold fast, but I quail as it approaches, far too large to be my nearly dainty companion. My knees shake instead of running me away, however, as her whip lights up the diminishing dust, her eyes aglow with a fiery emotion I cannot place.

She raises the whip, and I find the strength to run, but I fail to get very far as the whip catches around me, halting me. I stumble to my knees, my arms pressed at my side. More memories bubble up, and I find it difficult to move, to think, and Luna Agate tugs me, sliding, across the floor to her.

"You know, you almost had me there. If you had, perhaps, fully brought the ship down on me, I might not have escaped. Instead, you let it pass over me, and I simply let go of the whip. You do know I can make more than one of these, don't you?" I only shake, wordless. She examines me, eyes flitting up and down.

"My, my, what a thing you are. Is this what you really look like under that fascinating Pyrope disguise? How did you do it, by the by?" Her sweet voice from earlier is back, but her eyes are cruel and hard. "Can't you speak any more? Come now, tell me your secrets. Homeworld will do it's best to wrench them out of you anyway. You might as well divulge a little bit willingly." Here, she kneels, stooping down. She takes my face in her hand, thumb resting on one of the extra facets of my gem. If I felt motionless before, I certainly am now. I feel like a statue, no thoughts, no will, no wishes. I can do nothing. I am nothing.

"I could do some of the wrenching for them." She almost whispers to me. She taps the hilt of the whip, little snippets of electricity dashing down the length of the whip. I stiffen, utterly afraid, but they dissipate before long. "What a creature you are.." She snarls, gripping my face harder. I want to cry, to whimper, to plead, to beg, but I can only tremble, overtaken by fear and memories. "What will Homeworld give me if I tear you apart, piece by piece?" Her eyes widen, and I feel myself fall further into despair.

However-

"Excuse me." Sardonyx says, eyes narrowed to slits, Luna Agate and I stunned into silence, her approach gone unnoticed because of our focus on the moment- the terrifying moment. Sardonyx pulls a golden hand back, and suddenly those gold-adorned fingers are buried in Luna Agate's face. Like dust being blown away, the nearly suffocating rage disappears from Luna Agate. Or, rather, it's smothered by something else, something bigger, something angrier.

In motion too slow to be real, I watch the shock process in her eyes as her form dispels. Sardonyx stands over her, victorious, even as or perhaps especially as her body disappears. Her gem clinks to the ground, and then her whip dispels as well. I nearly fall over, shocked myself, but Sardonyx, hands suddenly without their gauntlets, catches me by the shoulders, holding me close. I'm too numb to react, but somewhere in my addled mind, I'm quite glad to be held.

"Are you okay?" She asks, face buried in my neck. Mute, I move my hands to her back, returning the embrace. "Okay." She's silent, as contemplative as I am, for several moments. "I'm sorry all this happened. I thought we could get in and out and.. and we couldn't. I'm sorry we got separated, I'm sorry if you thought I was gone, I- I got stuck but I came back as fast as possible and-"

"No, I'm-" I manage to blurt out. "None of this could have been planned for. We did our best beforehand but, but there's too many variables to figure it out. We did our best. You did your best."

"We're still stuck here, though. No ship.." She mourns. I hadn't even thought that far ahead. I was still processing the fact we're even still alive, that she saved my sorry stone again today, that we managed to take down an Agate… A small voice clears their throat, alerting us to their presence. We break apart, Sardonyx immediately on her feet, ready to attack. It's a Cassiterite, the one with the glasses.

"W-wait!" She throws out her hands. "We- I don't want to fight you! I don't think I could…" She mumbles.

"Then- Then what do you want?" Sardonyx asks, diplomatically, if still wary.

"We, uh, want to negotiate for our leader." She gestures to the pale blue gem on the floor by Sardonyx's feet. "Luna Agate.. isn't the worst leader. She's strict and bossy and impatient sometimes but.. there are worse gems to have to work for. And.. I, at least, am a bit inspired by your.. relationship. You fought for each other, not just yourselves or.. well, anyway, I guess I want to offer you a bit of help.. in disguise of asking you to spare our leader." She explains, then bows, hands pressed together in front of her head.

"You- you want to help us so we don't shatter your leader?" Sardonyx reiterates. "I wouldn't-"

"I figured!" Cassiterite interrupts, "I mean, you haven't already.. But I don't know how else to phrase it so that we, and Luna Agate, don't get in trouble for giving you a ship. When we report this…"

"Oh, I see. Well, uh, yes, then. We, uh, demand a ship and- and in return we'll, uh.." Sardonyx falters, unsure.

"We'll release Luna Agate." I say, taking hold of her gem. Though my form shivers, disgusted, at the cold stone, and I desperately desire to fling it at the nearest wall, I hold it gently. There's a life in there, and I promised shattering would be 'only if necessary', and I cannot think of a way that it would be, especially now that she's a hostage.

"O-of course! Wh-what ship can I provide you with?" Cassiterite asks, looking up from her bow. She glances at the both of us, but Sardonyx looks at me, shrugging.

"The- the same kind of model as the one Luna Agate gave us, but with some kind of weaponry, if that's at all possible. And load up our files onto the new one, as well." I start.

"And if you don't mind actually deleting the files, please." Sardonyx asks.

"Absolutely. HB models don't come with weapons, but there's a similar model that does. It's a little bigger, a tiny bit slower, but it should serve your needs."

"That sounds perfect." I say.

"Then I'll get my gems to get on it. If you'll come with me." Cassiterite says, standing up from her bow. She waves a hand as she leads the way. I feel a twinge of fear, but I sense there's no intent of dishonesty in her mind, so I let Sardonyx pull me to my feet and lead me, hand tight on mine, down the hallway to the left, opposite where we entered. I am startled by how little I can think, even now that the danger has passed, but I feel as though I've expended all my good ideas just haggling for a ship. I hate it, in a way, that I must rely on Sardonyx to pull me forward. In another way, I am glad that I have such assistance, that, in this moment at the least, I can trust her enough to do so.

"That launchpad's in pretty bad shape, so we're getting your ship ready over in another one this way." Cassiterite announces, ahead of us. For such a small gem, she moves awful spritely. "Say, while we're on our way there.. can you tell me what it's like?"

"What do you mean?" Sardonyx asks back.

"What it's like.. outside Homeworld rules. I'm.. I'm not brave enough to join the Rebellion, and honestly, I do like my life here, but.. I sympathise. I wonder. A lot of the Cassiterites do."

"Well, it's mostly a lot of running, so far. We just started our adventure, really. But it's also.. making decisions for yourself, freely. Thinking and not wondering if those thoughts are forbidden. It's dreaming and feeling a real hope that something.. that things can be better." Sardonyx explains. Cassiterite nods. I can think of nothing to add.

"I wanna say, I wish you luck in your journey. I wish I was brave enough to join you but… it's a lot out there, and I'm a small gem with a limited set of skills.. and I am comfortable here." She says, sighing. "Thank you for your fight. It gives a lot of us hope, too, that maybe things will change." She stops as we step into the light of a new dome, a new launchpad. "My gems should be just about done with your ship, now. I'd hurry. They're still towing that Pyrope in, and she'll be after you quickly. We can delay her but.. that'll only last so long." Cassiterite offers.

"If you could, but don't get in trouble for our sakes. You're already doing a lot, really." Sardonyx smiles. Still, she pulls me forward, towards the new ship. We do have to be going. Cassiterite follows behind us.

"I wish I could do more." She says, dejected. As we approach the ship, Sardonyx takes Luna Agate from my hands, gently, and passes her to the Cassiterite, who looks oddly down at her leader.

"Just keep believing there are better ways." Sardonyx's cheerful reply seems to startle the Cassiterite, who adjusts her glasses.

"But how will that help?"

"It'll help you keep going. Keep believing and keep doing what you can to be kind. Is there anything we can do for you, before we go?"

"No, ma'am. We're rooting for you." She says, and salutes, her fellows falling in behind her. "We'll say as little as we can about you in our reports." She whispers with a wink.

"Thank you." Sardonyx says, and I nod. I wish I could say something myself, but I'm worn out. Sardonyx pulls me into the ship, guiding me gently to the controls. "I'd do it, if I could." She whispers, even though we're alone. I nod. I shall have to remember to teach her how to fly a ship sometime in the future..

A bit on auto-pilot myself, I set up the machine and the path that we should take. I don't care about specifics right now, only that we leave, now. Hastily, I check to see that our files are there, and then lift the ship up and away. Sardonyx waves out the window to the Cassiterites, some of whom wave back. Soon, though, they are dots on a blue-gray background, and sooner still their planet is distant and small behind us.