Chapter 25

Carnelian and Azurite hastily made their way through one of the many hallways that twisted through the underground Chernobyl complex.
Neither one spoke to the other, both were still mad from their earlier argument. Azurite held Turquoise's gemstone firmly in her hands, wishing that she was with them in person. Azurite could feel Carnelian's eyes burning a hole in the back of her head. The blue gem glanced behind her and was greeted by Carnelian's eyes glaring angrily back at her. Azurite huffed then quickened her pace with an upturned nose.

"I won't apologize for what I said," Azurite stated bitterly.

"You don't owe me an apology," Carnelian responded hotly. "You owe Iron an apology."

"I will do nothing of the sort!" Azurite snapped. "He is not worth one."

At this, the normally peaceful Carnelian grabbed Azurite and slammed her against the wall, causing her to drop Turquoise's gemstone.
Carnelian held Azurite against the wall so that she could not summon her weapon.

"Iron has done nothing to deserve your treatment!" Carnelian spoke through her teeth. "He saved us during the Beach City invasion. He saved me and Pearl during the assault. And he nearly got himself killed protecting all of us from Sugilite!"

"We never needed his help!" Azurite snapped angrily. "Not his help, or the Alloy's, or the human's help!"

"You are either a fool or blind if you can still tell yourself that," Carnelian spoke coldly. "It has been eons since we last had contact with the other colonies. Chances are, there are none left out there!"

"Don't be stupid, Carnelian! The Crystal Gem empire covered the galaxy! We had fleets of thousands! We controlled countless planets! And yet you expect me to believe they are all gone?!"

Carnelian gripped Azurite's wrist tightly and stared her in the eyes.

"Help is not coming." she stated in a flat yet icy tone. "We need to accept any help that is offered. And Iron is one of the few who offer it willingly!"

Azurite finally managed to squirm free from Carnelian's grip and shoved her away.

"I refuse to accept that!" she hissed hatefully. "I certainly refuse to accept help from that blundering aberrant you call Iron!"

Carnelian had finally had enough of Azurite's ingratitude and spitefulness. With an orange flash, she summoned her chakram disc.

"You owe him respect!" Carnelian shrieked angrily.

Azurite drew her rapier and raised it threateningly.

"I owe your pet nothing!" she spat.

Just as the two were about to kill each other, a giant hand cut in between the two furious gems.

"No more fighting..." a voice spoke softly. "Friends shouldn't fight..."

The two gems turned and looked up to find Iron towering over them. His brow was bent with worry as is gray eyes looked over them both. Carnelian dispersed her weapon and straightened her posture. After taking a few deep breaths, she looked up to the Alloy with her usual sweet smile.

"It's okay, Iron. It was just a little argument," Carnelian spoke perkily. "Right, Azurite?"

Azurite scoffed and sheathed her sword. After she cooled down, she suddenly realized that she was no longer holding Turquoise's gemstone.

"Oh no, where is Turquoise's gemstone!" she exclaimed in a panic as she dropped to the floor to look for it. "I had her in my hands before you...fumbled into me!"

Carnelian sighed and helped look for the gemstone while Iron stood patiently. After a minute of searching, he held out his hand.

"Is this what you're looking for?" he asked as he opened his hand.

Nestled gently in his massive palm was Turquoise's gemstone.

"Where did you find that?!" Azurite snapped hotly.

"I found it on the ground, next to a scary room," Iron stated with a wince at the blue Gem's hostility. "It was shiny and pretty, so I held onto it. I was gonna give it to Carnelian as a present..."

Carnelian tenderly took the gemstone out of Iron's hand and held onto it, before Azurite could speak out.

"Awww, thank you Iron," she exclaimed as she warmly hugged his leg. "You saved Turquoise."

Iron gave a bashful smile as his cheeks seemed to glow. Azurite was felt nauseated at the way Carnelian was treating the Alloy.
It was not right for her act so maternal towards something that would have been considered an abomination in earlier eras.
It was like watching a pet trying to impress it's owner, or watching Pearl and the halfbreed.

Carnelian began to replay what Iron had told her in her head. Something didn't sound right to her.

"Iron, sweetie, tell me again, where did you find Turquoise's gemstone?" she asked sweetly.

Iron turned around and pointed down the long dark hallway.

"Found her down this way. In front of the big scary room." Iron responded flatly. "The room was big...even for me."

Carnelian turned to Azurite with a questioning look. Azurite rolled her eyes and started walking down the hallway, making sure to brush rudely against Carnelian.

Unbelievable, Carnelian thought angrily. How can she be so ungrateful?

Carnelian suddenly felt herself being swept off her feet as Iron placed her on his shoulder.

"Carny needs rest..." the Alloy stated flatly. "Let Blue lady go ahead..."

Carnelian couldn't help but laugh at the nickname Iron had given her. It was sweet but sad at the same time.
Sweet, because he at least cared enough to know her name.
Sad, because he couldn't process how to pronounce it properly.
Carnelian couldn't help but stare at the dent in his forehead. If what Steel said was true, Iron had always had it.
That left Carnelian with more questions then she had time for.

"Does it ever hurt?" she asked the colossal Alloy. "The dent in your head?"

Iron remained quiet, which lead Carnelian to think that she had overstepped her boundaries.

"I-I didn't mean to-"

"Sometimes...not always..." Iron spoke abruptly. "Pain stops when I think about happy things..."

"Well...that's...good to know." Carnelian responded awkwardly, not really sure how she should respond. "Happy thoughts are always good, yeah?"

Iron fell silent again as his eyes stared blankly forward.

"Blue lady hates me, doesn't she...?"

"What, no, no, no, Azurite doesn't hate you!" Carnelian exclaimed as she tried to reassure the Alloy. "Sweetie, why would you think that?"

"Azur- Azi- Blue lady says it with her eyes...and body" the Alloy stated sadly. "She's not like you...or Pearl...you are nice."

"Well, thank you Iron," Carnelian responded warmly. "I wish Azurite was could see how nice you are."

Iron suddenly halted once he caught back up to Azurite. She was waiting out side the massive doors of an unlit hanger bay.
Air howled loudly through the darkness which did little to calm anyone's nerves.

"Is this the 'scary room' you spoke of?" Azurite asked in a condescending tone.

"Yep...found gem rock rolling into here..." Iron stated proudly. "Smells like oil and gasoline..."

Carnelian hopped off of Iron's shoulder and entered the dark hanger. After finding the light switch box, she turned on the hanger lights.
With the loud groan of aged machinery, the hanger lit up to reveal the source of the gasoline smell. Lined up next to each other were rows and rows of tanks, armored trucks, and artillery vehicles; all fueled up and ready for war. Crates of ammunition and weapons were stacked almost seven feet in the air.
With this kind of military hardware, the H.L.A was more than just another random terrorist cell, they had the means and power to seriously launch an invasion of massive scale.

"Where did they get all of this weaponry?" Carnelian asked in awe.

Her question was answered by a loud mechanical groaning sound high above her. High on the ceiling was a large crane that slowly extended down from the hanger ceiling. Attached to the end of the crane was a Tesla coil, at the tip of the coil was a Gem Replicator Wand. With a loud thunder clap and a flash of electricity, the wand fired down onto one of the parked tanks. The crane then turned to the empty spot next to Carnelian and discharged a bolt of electricity. Once the flash of light faded, standing next to Carnelian was a perfect copy of the tank.

"That's how they managed this arms build up!" Carnelian exclaimed. "They were using Gem technology!"

With a flash of orange light, Carnelian summoned her chakram disc and threw it up at the crane. The chakram effortlessly sliced the wand in two. But oddly, none of the tanks or weapons disappeared.

"How is this possible?" Azurite asked frustrated. "They should have vanished once the wand was destroyed."

Carnelian picked up the two pieces of the wand and looked at it closely. One of the three prongs that stuck out from the center had a metal stud hammered into it.
On the metal stud were tiny hieroglyphics. She didn't recognize what the hieroglyphics were, but she knew that they were somehow keeping the wand from dispersing the copied weapons and tanks.

"Someone has tampered with this," Carnelian stated as she handed the wand to Azurite.

"Ce'est ridicule." Azurite hissed as she eyed the wand. "Humans are not smart enough to be able to do something like this."

Iron suddenly raised his sledgehammer and bulldozed his way through the rows of parked tanks.
The two Gems watched as he tossed the tanks aside like they were toys as he continued plowing forward towards the back of the hanger.

"What is that idiot doing?!" Azurite shouted over the sound of crashing and breaking metal.

"FOUND YOU!" Iron roared loudly.

Before the two Gems could respond, there was loud yell followed by a man flying across the hanger towards them.
With a loud smack, Iron's victim hit the ground and rolled to a stop. The man was wearing a H.L.A uniform. The man coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth. Iron grabbed the man by his legs and held him up like a broken toy.

"Enemy..." Iron growled threateningly.

The militant coughed and sneered defiantly at the Alloy.

"Go on, finish it!" he yelled angrily. "Kill me!"

"Adler gave orders..." Iron stated bitterly. "Take prisoners alive...and keep them from running."

A sickening snap followed by a blood curdling scream rang out as the man's legs snapped under Iron's grip.

"Iron, stop it!" Carnelian shouted as he shook the man limply. "You're hurting him!"

"His face is the same as the rest...he will go to Adler...answer his questions..."

Carnelian didn't notice it at first, be Iron was right. The man's face was the same as the hundreds of militants that were slain during the assault.
A chill ran down Carnelian's spine as she realized what that meant; the H.L.A were replicating their followers.
Replicating living creatures was not supposed to be possible.

The broken and mangled militant finally passed out from shock and hung limply in Iron's hand. The Alloy swung the man over his shoulder and walked out of the hanger.

"I'm going...follow if you want..."Iron stated flatly as he left the hanger, unfazed by what he had just done.

The two Gems were silent as the Alloy left them in the hanger. Carnelian couldn't believe what she had just seen. Iron was seemed so nice and gentle before.
But he had just shown her that he was just like his comrades. He followed orders without question. Their was no doubt in her mind that the lone militant had information that both the Bureau and the Gems needed, but how Iron apprehended him frightened her. His mood changed almost as if on a switch.
He went from docile to train wreck in an instant.

"As I said before..."Azurite hissed as she walked out of the hanger. "...blundering aberrant."

Carnelian stood alone in the hanger, she was too stunned to face the others. She looked down at Turquoise's gemstone and held it against her.
She was confused, scared, and the one person who could comfort her was so close yet may as well be thousands of miles away.
Carnelian couldn't stand what Azurite was becoming. The long isolation from the other Gem worlds was slowly turning her away from the others.
She knew what the isolation did to the other Gems, it corrupted them, turned them against each other, and finally mangled their forms into the mindless monsters that threatened the planet. Carnelian felt tears roll down her cheeks as she remembered the dark age of the Gem isolation. She would give anything to keep that from happening to her friends.

"Come back Turquoise..." Carnelian whimpered. "I don't want it to lose another friend..."

It is quiet.

The pain has stopped.

Are they gone?

Am I alone?

No, there is movement outside.

Maybe they can free me.

Maybe I'll see the sun again.

No...something is wrong.

There are four, yet they are one.

I see her. She is me. But she is not me.

She is angry. She wants to hurt me!

She wants to kill me!

Don't open the door! She will find me!

Keep her away! Don't open the door!

"Hmm..." Adler paused as he pressed his ear against the metal cylinder.

He could hear a faint rumbling within it. He sighed as ran his hand over a brass plate that was riveted on the top of the cylinder.
The brass plate had a hammer and sickle embossed on it. The plate looked like it didn't belong with the rest of the cylinder.
It looked like a sloppy attempt at coveting something up.

"I hope Wolfram gets back soon," Adler stated eagerly. "It's time to open the treasure chest."