Chapter 34: Disconnect
We don't hit the ground. Something catches us just before the critical impact, something purely magical. It isn't me, for while I tried, and so desperately did I try, I still could not access my magic.
The force, the presence drops us after stabilizing us in the air a moment. Our forms land with a thud, but as I struggle to hands and knees, Sardonyx rises effortlessly, summoning her blade.
"S-Sardonyx?" I tremble. What is happening?!
"Not quite!" A chipper new voice answers instead. I look, finding the source quickly. Safely on the rising part of the hill, there is Elbaite, and a gem that looks much alike her, who I guess is her Tourmaline. It is the Tourmaline who spoke, not our Elbaite.
Speaking of, Elbaite looks miserable. She's held by one elbow to the side of the Tourmaline, who grins. Elbaite looks at me guiltily.
"What's..?"
"My lovely partner Elbaite here alerted me to a horrifying presence in our forests today! She said she'd been investigating for a while, but when I asked her she told me allllll the details.. So here we are..!" Tourmaline giggles. "And what an interesting little monster you are! I'm certain that someone at Home wants you back, don't they?" Her grin grows. I quiver.
"Wh- what have you done to Sardonyx?"
"She's my puppet! Her body is mine now! Impressive, isn't it? I'd have you under my control, too, if you didn't have such an impressive wellspring of magic!"
"Let her go.." I demand.
"Oh dearie me.. I don't think I can do that!" She laughs, her almost pleasant grin devolving into a snarl. Sardonyx prods me with her sword, forcing me to my feet. Her dead eyes and tilted head terrify me more than even that moment with Elbaite ever could. "She's going to help get you to our holding cell. Friends should support each other, don't you think?"
"I don't-"
"Although!" She says, tromping over. Sardonyx leans down, and the monster puts her hands on Sardonyx's face, crooking her neck as if to make her head stay up straight. "This is unusual! She's fighting very hard, don't you think, Elbaite?" Sardonyx's head lulls again as Tourmaline lets go.
"..yes.." Elbaite says in just a whisper. I don't understand.. is Elbaite helping her? I want to be furious, I want to attack, but I can think only of damage control, of getting us out of this somehow..
"Let her go, please. Homeworld doesn't want her, they only want me-"
"I don't give a damn! I don't care who they want! I'm going to do what I want to do, because I'm bored! And if your friend is really so precious to you, that means you'll do what I want you to, too! Otherwise cutie here will have a tragically dramatic walk off a tall building!" As if to demonstrate her point, Sardonyx lurches upright, teetering too close to the soft edge of the cliff. "Oh no! So dangerous, what ever will become of little Sardonyx!?" Tourmaline fakes a perilous gasp.
"No, no! Stop!" I reach out, feeling real danger and fear, but I know that if I needed to my inhibited form could not catch Sardonyx. But Tourmaline lets her straighten out, walks her forward, and has her help me to my feet.
"Good! Now, let's march, friends!" Tourmaline declares, throwing her arms high and open before latching on to Elbaite again. Sardonyx similarly places the point of her sword at my back and prods me forward. "Besides, if I let her go, what's to stop her from trying to rescue you? I'm not so easily tricked, you'll find!"
(\)
My body feels a million miles away. My mind is foggy, but I can feel my form moving. It's against my will, and I can't tell what it's doing, but it's going. It's doing something.
I feel like it's behind a thick and blurry glass pane, but there's no metaphorical way to even strike the glass, to break through or clear it somehow. It's like I'm a million miles away from the glass and no matter how hard or fast I run I'll never get to it. I fight through the haze, but I might as well be trying to catch fog in my hands.
But I can, I notice, think clearly. My memories are all here. Clean, crisp, and not a single one missing. It's a little overwhelming, and yet it's all familiar. It's all mine, of course it's familiar!
I remember my sister, 4OS, and I remember her smile and her laugh and walking down our tiny corridors to watch the sunset, the only sort of break we ever really got. I remember so many good times, joking and teasing and smiling through and around work. I almost want to cry with joy, but my body is still a distant concept to me.
I chase the memories, travelling back and back and back and back, and I see the evidence of all the times she hid my deficiency. Every lie she ever told for me, my hazy head only vaguely realizing in the moment that comes to slap me in the face now. I adore and appreciate it all now that I can, knowing that if I ever break out of my head I'll forget again. I know it with certainty that I will forget, but at least I have this moment now. I wish I could have told her while she was alive how much I appreciated her, even then, even only half-knowing..
I want to continue down this nostalgic path of memories of my sister, but my now-clear mind remembers that I got here in the middle of a very important conversation with Phantom.
Phantom, who was once an enemy and now my greatest friend. Phantom, a spire of a gem with a horrible past who had no hope when I met them. Phantom, who I adore more strongly than makes sense.
Phantom, who I could see catch me as my mind went blank and I fell from the tree.
I need to get back to them. I don't know where my body is now, but I know I need to get back to it. I don't know where they are, but I'll find them. I have to let them know I'm okay, that everything is okay. I have to be there.. to protect them from whatever did this to me, to us, because I saw them struggle too. I saw whatever force this is that's separated my mind from my form try to do the same to them. I have to protect them. I have to help them.
So I rage against the static and the disconnect. I feel fire in my heart, in the energy that is the quintessential me, and I set it loose on this horrible wall that's keeping me not only from my self but my friend.
I will not remain here.
[X]
We march along, Tourmaline chirping her incessant thoughts every few moments, like the silence beyond the tromping of feet is too much for her. But no one responds. The party of small red gems barely larger than the psychic menaces and the blue ones with wings made of water don't seem quick to chatter, and I certainly have nothing to say. My best pleading has no effect, and Sardonyx is beyond my reasoning with..
Though as we walk, hers is an uneven step. Jilted, jittery, just in control. i hold out hope that my friend will find her way back to herself, and soon..
But we near the city, the towers splintering into the sky, far beyond the natural reach of any tree, and my hope wanes. It's too much.. there's nothing she or I can do, it seems. We're doomed for now.. maybe if she regains consciousness we could fuse and destroy these monsters, but until then, without my magic and without her? I can't think of anything to do.
"What is that smell?" Someone complains suddenly. Smell? What is 'smell'? I look around me, searching initially for the source of the complaint hoping for context, but I see Sardonyx, her form twitching like she's under enormous strain, and black smoke rising from the ground beneath her feet.
A strangled groan fights it way from her mouth, but her face is still blank, head still lulled, blade still drawn.. though the hand bearing the weapon shakes. Is she fighting off her possession? How?
"Elbaite.." I hear Tourmaline growl. I wheel around, and find that she's on her knees, eyes focused on Sardonyx, convulsing seeming in time with Sardonyx. Elbaite stands to her side, obviously worried, but for who? She looks between her partner and Sardonyx and I, "Elbaite, help me." The deep growl demands of her, decides for her, and Elbaite places her hands on Tourmaline's shoulders without hesitation. So that's who's side she's on..
I feel their magic redouble on myself as well as hear it clamp further onto Sardonyx. She falls behind me as I crumble to my knees. But it's not enough to consume my mind, only further weaken me.
"Let's get going, shall we?" Tourmaline demands. "And no more.. funny business." My friend rises behind me, head straight, and eyes somehow more dead than before. I let her lead me away, but I know she's fighting now. She's fighting for us, for me.
I won't stop either.
[X]
I have a couple plans in mind by the time we reach the city. I didn't realize how long Elbaite had to walk to visit us each day.. Not that it matters now. She's chosen her side, and it isn't mine.
Still, the walk is tiresome, the only sound that of our feet crunching through fallen plant material and the swooping of those blue gems' water wings as they circle overhead. Tourmaline seemed talkative before, but now she leads the way in an exhaustive manner, Elbaite her willing but unhappy crutch. Good! Let her suffer for this betrayal!
I need to find a way back to my magic. If Sardonyx can fight Tourmaline off, perhaps so can I. They said I had an impressive 'wellspring of magic', didn't they? If only I can access all of it, push through to it, I can free Sardonyx and we can be out of here. It's just finding it now that they've seemingly buried it away from me that I don't know how to do..
We've crossed the threshold of the city now. Dirt and debris have given way to impossibly smooth pavement, arching towers of silver and platinum, painting in all the colors of every gem, and yet no one to fill them.. There's more of the small red gems everywhere, who I can tell for certain now are not Rubies. They're much too large and more heftily shaped. But beyond them and the blue ones, there appears to be no one of value in the city. Perhaps it's to do with the heat?
My first plan involves stealing Sardonyx's sword and running through the two tourmaline gems, then running off as fast as I possibly can, possibly carrying Sardonyx until their magic wears off. I'm waiting for the blue gems to be in a decently spread out position, as they're prone to do, and the red ones to lower their weapons, already weakly held, unfamiliar to them. I've seen them look at me, stare, and let their weapons fall ever so much.. I know that I seem weaker than them, especially now, but they don't know for certain.. If I can just command her weapon for a moment, for a second, I can do this..
Wait a moment.. where there always twelve of the red ones?
As soon as I notice her, the world explodes. The ground beneath our very feet erupts in light and it both sounds and feels like a blast from a ship. I fall backwards, the light staining my vision. I feel Tourmaline's vice on my magic loosen, but not enough, and I don't have enough time to use it anyway.
When the light has faded, gems have scrambled into position around me, weapons alert. A blue gem flies over head, and at her apparent command, water forms around my wrists, another vice to bind me.
"Those damn rebels!" Tourmaline shrieks, Elbaite pulling her to her feet. "Who did it? Tell me someone saw that!" She points around to everyone, but every gem shrinks with the finger comes round to them. "You're all useless! You!" She points, snarling, at the water gem who has me bound.
"M-my Seer?" She replies, jolted.
"Yes, Lazuli. Take this one to the holding cells. You're now to guard it with your life while the rest of these blazing idiots searches for the other one!" The other one-? Sardonyx? True enough, she's gone. But how, but who?
"But my shift is coming up, I can't-"
"Have one of your other Lazulis take over for you! I don't care what you have to do, but it's your job to make sure this thing doesn't escape!"
"I can't! You don't understand, the others are overworked as it is, they need me to let them recover-". She shivers to silence as Tourmaline raises a hand, taking control of her, it seems.
The 'Lazuli' falls to the ground as her wings dissipate, but the water tight around my wrists never fades. Tourmaline lords over her, daring her to refuse again. I have no doubt that she would shatter this gem just to prove a point..
"Are we understood?" She whispers menacingly. Lazuli nods without looking up. Tourmaline and Elbaite leave, the rest of the gem entourage following after. One of the other Lazulis lands next to the fallen one and gives her a pat on the shoulder in sympathy.
She stands, tugging me to my feet with the water cuffs, and then takes off with me at a hurried, aggravated pace.
"No, please!" I shout even as my heels drag on the ground. "I have to find Sardonyx!" It's probably useless, but I have to try.
"No use." The Lazuli says simply, not even slowing.
"Please!"
"Someone else will find her." She looks down at me. I notice the golden flecks on her cheeks and in her eyes, and it might be stunning if she weren't looking at me with such complete apathy. "You'll be reunited. Probably."
"But I-"
"Quiet! I can't help you." She says as we arrive. The water cuffs keep me proportionally distant to her, and I skid across the ground as she lands. She drags me like this into a strange, squat building, and into a small cell. I try to resist, but the water cuffs seem almost locked in place by the back wall and my physical strength without my magic to help me is next to nothing. She closes a barrier of energy and the water releases me. It simply drops to the floor, and I stumble when the force of it is gone.
The Lazuli sits in front of the barrier, legs and arms crossed. I press my form against the barrier. It buzzes against me, but it doesn't hurt, though I think that case may be different should I really press into it or try to break through.
"Please, she's very important to me. We were talking about something important.." I continue to beg.
"I can't do anything. If Tourmaline the Mindseer finds out I let you go, she'd have my gem plastered to her Diamonds-damned personal cruiser by the waste valve." She says.
"Then.. then don't do anything. Make a 'mistake'. You have to go talk to the other Lazulis, don't you? Perhaps you can leave some sort of hole in this defense-"
"I can't." She stops me. "Look, I'm not unsympathetic to your plight. I'm.. usually able to help in situations like this. But I'm in the spotlight. If I have anything to do with you getting away, the Mindseer will know, and then I won't have the ability to help everyone ever again. So, like.. sorry, but I can't help you." She says, resolute.
I linger with my hands pressed on the barrier for a moment, hoping she'll relent if I just stare long enough, but I can see she's got a stronger will than that. With a sigh I pull back.
"Fine. I see how it is."