Chapter 26
Adler eyed and ran his hands over the metal cylinder, muttering nonstop to himself as he did so. What ever the cylinder was, it was making Garnet nervous.
She felt like she should know what it was, but she had absolutely no idea what it was.
"This whole thing feels messed up," Amethyst stated uneasily. "I mean, look at him. He's acting like Pearl when she gets all crazy."
Garnet nodded silently with agreement, nothing about this felt right. The whole complex felt as though it was quietly gnawing at the back of her head.
She could see that she was not the only one feeling uneasy. She saw it in the mercenaries and in the other Gems.
"Garnet, Amethyst!" the familiar sound of Pearl's voice called out.
Pearl and Steven ran out of the Recruitment / Medical wing of the complex and rushed over to Garnet and Amethyst.
"This place is horrific!" Pearl exclaimed, obviously frightened. "Bodies, limbs, bags of who knows what piled up like-"
"Slow down, P!" Amethyst exclaimed as she shook Pearl out of her frantic ramblings. "You're gonna freak Steven out!"
"No...I'm waaayyy past the point of freaked out," Steven muttered with a slight tremble.
Amethyst grabbed Steven and looked him over. He was pale, trembling, and covered in sweat.
"You okay, little buddy?" she asked worriedly. "You look like you're gonna puke."
"Oh, don't worry. The kid already took care of that!" a loud, obnoxious voice cackled.
Standing behind Steven and Pearl as if they had always been there were Steel and Titanium.
"Did you two find anything of value?" Adler asked without looking away from the cylinder.
"Of course," Steel said with a smile as he handed Adler the Hammer Project envelop. "I also snagged something else that I figured you would find very interesting."
"I'll look over them later," Adler stated dismissively. "Where is that Wolfram...?"
Titanium's violet eyes fell upon the yellow Gem Amber, who was hiding behind Garnet.
"Now who's this little bar code?" the Alloy asked loudly. "Just how many of you Gems are there?"
Amber whimpered and hid her face behind Garnet's leg.
"What does it matter, brother? She's probably harmless," Steel stated as he ran his fingers along the edge of his bladed gauntlet. "She looks adorable...like a little dolly."
"I want Turquoise..."Amber sniffled as she clung to Garnet, fear compromising her.
Garnet placed her hand over Amber's head to comfort her. Garnet wouldn't deny it, she too wished Turquoise was there with them.
Her wisdom and guidance was very much needed here. A dull thudding echoed from the behind the cylinder.
The thudding was nothing more than Iron's heavy foot steps. Azurite and Carnelian were following behind him at a considerable distance.
Iron walked up to Adler and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Prisoner..." the Alloy growled as he dropped the militant he had captured on the ground. "He is still alive...like you ordered."
Adler turned away from the cylinder and drew his pistol. He waved the gun at Steel as if signaling him to prop the militant up. Adler gently tapped his hand against the prisoner's cheek.
"Wakey wakey eggs and bakey," he hissed in a sing song manner.
Adler suddenly pulled his hand back and slapped the prisoner with the back of his hand. The prisoner's eyes flickered open then squinted into an angry glare.
"I'm...not...telling you pigs anything!" he yelled angrily, splattering Adler's suit visor with droplets of blood.
Adler paused for a moment, then smacked the prisoner over the head with his pistol's barrel, knocking the prisoner unconscious once again.
"Oh, you will confess the sins that have been committed here," Adler stated coldly as he reached for the seal on his suit. "One way, or another."
Much to everyone's surprise, Adler removed the protective head piece off of his radiation suit and inhaled deeply.
"Just as I thought...oh, Sergeant. Congratulations, the Oasis shards worked, just as hypothesized. You take off those masks now."
"With all due respect, sir, I think we'll keep the masks on!"
"Oasis...shards?" Carnelian asked aloud. "He doesn't mean shards from the Oasis Stone...does he?"
"Why yes, they are," Adler responded as he withdrew a blue crystal shard from his pocket. "Every stone can become a jewel if you chisel it in the right way. The shards around the necks of these fine mercenaries have been gradually removing the radiation within this complex. We have plenty more back at the Monastery as well."
"You destroyed the Oasis Stone!" Azurite exploded angrily. "How dare you. You vile, scheming little-"
Before she could finish her outburst, she felt something push past her and knock her to the ground. Standing over her was Wolfram, glaring down at her through his helmet.
"Is there a problem here?" he asked stoically.
"No, there isn't," Garnet responded flatly as she readjusted her shades, lower them just enough to flash a steely glare at Azurite.
"Good, now what do you need of me, Adler?" Wolfram asked as he stood at attention.
"I'll tell you in a moment," Adler responded as he opened up his field kit and withdrew a flashlight.
Adler turned a dial on the back and set the flashlight to shine in black-light. The moment he clicked the light on, the entire surface of the cylinder lit up with glowing hieroglyphs and other aged ritual markings.
"Faded, but still imprinted..."Adler muttered softly under his breath. "Four become one and then..."
Adler suddenly tapped Wolfram on the shoulder and pointed at the brass metal plate.
"Tear it off," he ordered firmly. "I have to be sure..."
"Yes, sir."
Wolfram dug his fingers underneath the brass plate and tore it off like it was nothing. Silence struck everyone the moment the plate was removed.
Hidden underneath the brass plate was an aged embossed symbol of an eagle grasping an oak wreath in it's talons.
Within the oak wreath was a symbol everyone recognized; a swastika.
The symbol of the evil Nazi fascism. The evil that stained the world.
Adler covered his mouth with his hands, almost as if his face was going to erupt with excitement.
"So they did find it," he stated in awe. "And it was here all along."
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, Steven, and all of the Remnants summoned their weapons. They remembered what that cylinder was.
They remembered what it created. It was the metal sarcophagus used in the Black August project; the project that birthed Giessel, the False Gem.
"Get away from it!" Garnet ordered loudly. "Now!"
The Anvil mercenaries all raised their weapons and pointed them at the Gems.
"This is none of your concern, Gems," Adler responded coldly. "Open it Wolfram."
"Yes, sir."
"Wolfram, do not open it!" Pearl ordered as she readied her spear. "If you open that sarcophagus, you and everyone here will die! And we won't allow that!"
Suddenly Pearl was pushed back with by a pair of winding chains.
"You finally calling us out?!" the Titanium exclaimed in disbelief. "If you wanted it, then you should have called dibs first!"
"Do what Garnet ordered you to!" Azurite exclaimed as she stood in Pearl's defense.
"We don't take orders from Gems, princess!" Steel hissed angrily as electricity surged through his hands.
"Iron, please, don't make us do this!" Carnelian cried out pleadingly. "Adler is making a big mistake!"
"Sorry Carny...but I have orders..."Iron stated sadly as he tightened the grip on his sledgehammer. "Don't make me..."
"This is ridiculous, Wolfram open it, now!" Adler ordered loudly as he raised his hand gun.
What happened next, happened so fast that only Garnet and Wolfram could see what it was.
Garnet bolted past the other Alloys to stop Wolfram from opened the sarcophagus.
Wolfram turned and took a direct blow to the face from Garnet's earth shattering fists. The Alloy converted the kinetic energy behind her punch into his own strength. He then effortlessly pried open the door of the sarcophagus.
There was a loud screaming, a bright flash, then a shock wave of pure mystical energy. Steven caught a small glimpse of...something before everything went dark.
"This is Dagger 4, respond, I repeat, respond!"
Steven felt as though he had been run over by an eighteen wheeler.
"This is Dagger 4, somebody pick up!"
Steven's eyes flickered open, the radio chatter from the mercenaries' communicators rousted him awake.
When the haziness faded from his vision he found that everyone had been rendered unconscious from the blast wave. He had no idea how long he had been out for. As he tried to stand he found that his legs felt like jelly. Once he managed to regain some sense of balance, he looked around the area.
Still too dazed to think straight, he didn't bother to check if everyone was alright. His ears were ringing and he found that his hands were numb.
Over the radio chatter and ear ringing, Steven heard soft footsteps behind him. He turned his head and saw a humanoid figure.
"Hey, you!" Steven shouted with a slur. "Where are you-"
Before he could finish, the figure bolted down the medical wing corridor.
"Wait up!" Steven shouted as he ran in it's pursuit, which was really hard with the double vision he was experiencing.
As he stumbled through the dimly lit corridor he kept hearing a voice in his head.
Stay away!
"I'm-I'm not gonna!" Steven slurred as he felt his stomach lurch. "It's...too dangerous for you to be here!"
They must not find me!
"Well, I'm gonna-" Steven stopped and threw up. "-gonna find you and get you out of here!"
You can't help me! They'll kill me if you find me!
"No one's going to kill you!" Steven responded, the haze in his head lifting. "I'm a Gem, and we protect people!"
Steven found himself in a dark storage room. There were lots of wooden crates and boxes stack around him.
Through the darkness, he could see a dull red glow behind a stack of boxes in the corner of the room.
"Hello, are you okay?" Steven asked.
A frightened whimper was all that responded to him. Steven slowly approached the corner, determined to find out what was hiding there.
"Don't be scared of me, I'm not going to hurt you," Steven spoke in a reassuring voice. "I just want to help you."
Steven slowly peeked his head around the stack of boxes.
Staring up at the young half Gem was what looked like another Crystal Gem, but not like any he had ever seen.
It's eyes were white and without pupils. It's body was red and translucent like stained glass. Her hair was dark crimson and was long and silky. There was a dull orange glow within her chest.
Steven reached his hand out to her which panicked the Gem. She pressed her naked body up against the wall as if trying to get as far away from Steven as she could.
"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," Steven stated with a smile. "I just want to help you."
The Gem cautiously tapped Steven's hand before finally taking hold of it. Her grip was weak and trembling.
"There you go, see, I'm not gonna hurt you," Steven said with a smile. "My name is Steven Quartz Universe. What's your name?"
The Gem was silent and looked like she was having trouble thinking.
"Mmm-mmm-my nnn-name?" she finally asked, her mouth trembled as she formed the words.
"That's it, what's your name?" Steven asked.
"T-Tsarina...is what the outside voices called me," the Gem rasped softly.
"Tsarina, that's a pretty name!" Steven exclaimed. "What kind of gem is that?"
"Gem?" Tsarina asked. "What do you mean?"
"Steven, where are you?!" Pearl's voice echoed from the hallways.
Tsarina suddenly grabbed Steven and looked him dead in the eyes.
They must not find me! She screamed in Steven's head. Promise me you wont let anyone take me back there!
"I-I won't, but The Crystal Gem's aren't gonna hurt you," Steven responded, slowly freaking out himself.
Tsarina smashed her fist into one of the wooden boxes and pulled a large sharp piece out of it.
I won't let them take me back!
Suddenly, Tsarina drove the wooden fragment into her throat. Before Steven could say anything, Tsarina retreated into a blood red gemstone.
"Steven Quartz Universe, where are you?!" Pearl shouted in an irritated tone. "We need to leave now!"
In a panic, Steven picked up the gemstone and tried to think of what to do.
Do not let them find me!
Pearl walked into the room just at the right time to see a containment bubble vanish.
Pearl quickly rushed over to Steven and spun him around it face her.
"What did you just bubble?!" She asked in a panic.
"Nothing, why are you so-"
"Do not lie to me!" Pearl snapped. "What was it?!"
Steven kept his mouth shut, he was starting to see why Tsarina was frightened.
"Pearl!" Amethyst shouted. "We got to bail, like right now!"
Pearl grabbed Steven by the arm and dragged him with her to regroup with the others. She knew Steven was keeping something from her, but it wouldn't stay hidden for long.
"We are going to have a long talk back at the temple, young man!" Pearl stated in an angry mother tone.
Back in the central chamber, the Alloys were busty trying to separate the sarcophagus from the rest of the complex. Iron was the one doing the heavy lifting while the other three stood as a deterrent.
Adler paced anxiously while clutching his shoulder in discomfort.
"Why would it be empty?" he asked aloud. "WHY WOULD IT BE EMPTY?!"
"You're lucky that it was, human!" Azurite snapped angrily. "Your withered body would have been the first to burn had she been in there!"
"She? Don't be stupid!" Adler growled. "That...thing is dead! But that still doesn't explain why the sarcophagus was empty!"
"Adler, sir, you need to calm down," Wolfram stated flatly. "Remember what the doctors said."
Adler scowled as his communicator went off loudly in his ear.
"What now?!" he snapped.
"This is Dagger 4, our UAV drones are showing a large mass of H.L.A forces closing in on our position!"
"How long until they get here?"
"Thirty minutes tops! But they aren't the only ones. The Russian army is pushing in hard behind them!"
"This is Dagger 6, we have a major problem down here in the submarine! This sub is carrying nuclear missiles in her, and they have been set to launch!"
"Can you stop the launch?!" Adler asked as his chest began to tighten.
"Yes, but we can't keep them from going off. If we are not out of here within an hour, everything within a ten mile radius is gonna be under a mushroom cloud!"
"Damn it!" Adler spat as he gripped his shoulder as a searing pain shot through it. "We are out of time! Iron, just rip the damn thing out of the ground!"
"Yes sir..."
Iron dug his figures into the metal sarcophagus and with a mighty pull, tore it free from the cables and metal supports that held it in place.
"Get that thing loaded onto helicopter, now!" Adler ordered loudly. "Anvil Corps, we need to be out of here within thirty minutes!"
"What about us?" Pounamu asked. "Are we getting nothing out of this?"
"The little Gem said she found a stock pile down here,"Adler stated coldly as he looked down at Amber. "Take what you want, I got what I came for."
"Sir, all teams are accounted for and are ready for extraction!"
"Good, Wolfram, Steel, Titanium, meet me back at the Monastery," Adler ordered. "Iron will be coming with me to keep the sarcophagus safe."
"Yes, sir!" Wolfram responded.
"Everyone else, evacuate the area! I don't want to be here when the H.L.A show up with the pissed off Russian army behind them."
Adler, Iron, and the Anvil mercenaries began to evacuate, leaving the Gems and the other three Alloys behind.
Wolfram took four warp pikes that Adler had left him and drove them into the ground. Bitter silence filled the air as the Alloy's prepared to leave.
"So that's how it is then?" Azurite asked bitterly. "You got what you want and now you're leaving?"
Wolfram was quiet before finally responding to the angry Gem.
"Yeah, that's how it is," he stated coldly. "We got what we wanted, and you get to keep what you find. As I promised you would."
"Yeah, but-"
"You have only twenty minutes until this whole place blows," Wolfram retorted. "I suggest you start grabbing what you can."
As the warp pikes built up energy, Wolfram and Garnet locked eyes. For the first time, Garnet could see emotion behind his glare. He felt sorrow.
He had given them his word and honestly wanted to keep it. But Adler's control over him had kept him from keeping his word.
Garnet gave him a subtle head nod as if to tell him she understood. With a flash of green light and a loud bang, the three Alloys were gone.
"Okay, listen up!" Garnet ordered firmly. "We only have twenty minutes to grab what we can and warp back to our temples. Take only what we can carry. Pounamu, Azurite, Carnelian, Amber, you four will warp back to the Shinar Spire. We will warp back to the temple after you. Got it? Good."
With Amber leading the Gems deeper into the complex, Steven was worrying about what would happen once they returned to the temple.
Tsarina was hiding there and the first place they would find her would be Garnet's room.
Great thinking, idiot! Steven though bitterly. You really messed up this time!
Concrete turned to earth and stone the deeper they went. Finally, the Gems were led to a large cavern at least the size of Rose's training arena.
There were suits of armor, weapons, and many other crystal artifacts littering the cavern. This had to be where the H.L.A had been getting their Gem technology.
There was so much to take in, yet they now only had about ten minutes left. Garnet and Steven bubbled as much as they could before they had to start warping out.
"Alright, that's all we can take with us. We're out of time! Everyone, start warping out!" Garnet ordered as she felt time press down on them.
One by one, the Remnants stood on the warp pad. With a beam of light, the Remnants were gone, safely back at the Spire.
The Gems quickly loaded up onto the warp pad. The pad lit up and began to warp them out.
Just before they were safely within the warp beam, they heard a deafening boom and saw the earth blast and give way to a wall of nuclear fire. Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven all began to scream as the blast overcame them. When they opened their eyes, they were back at the temple. They were safe.
Amethyst fell face forward and let out a loud sigh of relief.
"Oh, man, I though we were done for!"
"Yeah, we did cut it a bit close there," Garnet stated flatly. "Still, we made it."
Before Steven could recover fully from the shock, he felt Pearl grab him by the arm.
"Where is it?" she asked firmly.
"What are you goin' off about now, Pearl?" Amethyst moaned tiredly. "Haven't we had enough crazy for one day?"
"Steven bubbled something back at the complex!" she snapped fiercely. "And he won't tell me what it was!"
Garnet moved Pearl aside and kneeled down in front of Steven.
"Is this true, did you bubble something?" she asked softly.
Steven averted is eyes, this was one of those rare moment where he felt scared of Garnet. If she found Tsarina, there was no telling what she or the others would do to her. Garnet sighed in disappointment, she already knew where it would be, she just hoped that Steven would trust her enough to tell her.
"Alright, there is only one place it can be," Garnet stated stoically. "Everyone, follow me and be on your guard."
With Steven trailing behind, the Gems entered Garnet's room. What they found immediately set off their senses that something should not be here.
All around the room were claw marks and foot prints of glowing red dust. They covered the floor and ceiling. The foot prints led up to the pool of water that went to Amethyst's room.
"Hey, it's in my room!" Amethyst shouted angrily. "It's gonna mess it up!"
The Gems crawled out of the pool of water that led to Amethyst's room. There were more foot prints as in her room as well. This time, the foot prints led to the crystal gateway, which was just closing shut.
"It's making a run for it!" Amethyst shouted as she opened the gateway and ran into the living room.
A single set of foot prints led out of the gate way and into the kitchen. The Gems readied their weapons as they enclosed upon the intruder.
"Be ready for anything," Garnet ordered in a hushed tone.
Slowly, the Gems entered the kitchen and stopped. The foot prints stopped in front of the broom closet.
Garnet grabbed the doorknob and flung the closet door open. Curled up on the closet floor was a terrified Tsarina.
Before Steven could say anything, Garnet grabbed Tsarina by the head and hurled her across the temple.
Tsarina slammed into the wall and slid to the ground. The Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl encircled Tsarina with their eyes glaring grimly down at her. Garnet clenched her gauntlet into a fist and readied another punch.
"Destroy it!"