Chapter Thirty Seven- Extinguished Flames
Peridot knew Homeworld was ruthless. She'd grown up under its rule. Hell, she identified as a part of it until fairly recently and conformed to its terror of a regime. And yet, she still hadn't expected them to start firing down.
At least she'd been decent enough to go down to converse with the enemy. To show Jasper what she was looking for.
No, there was no speech. No introductions. Their enemy was faceless. Operating a giant, intergalactic hand and blasting down at Beach City with an array of lazers. Buildings were beginning to burn, people screamed. Gems screamed. Jasper, angered, had literally picked up the stage from its foundations and thrown the still alight wooden set of planks and cables at the ship, screaming, "NO ONE INTERRUPTS MY SET!"
Clearly, that had to be the only thing she was upset about.
Mayor Dewey had sobbed as his stage slammed into the sky. "My new donation!" He screamed at the heavens.
"P-Pearl? We've gotta run. Come on." Steven tugged at her hand. She was frozen to the spot. "Pearl, we need to go!"
She just sat there. Wide eyed, as chaos built around her. Boom! Bits of shrapnel began exploding over her as the hand was starting to shoot at the city. Amethyst had picked her up and hoisted the taller gem over her shoulder. "We need to run. Pearl's down. Steven, find your dad and get safe, alright? I'll…"
She was interrupted by a closer hit of the lazer, the ground setting alight and a large wall of fire blasting out of the ground. "Oh, fuck." She swallowed, grabbing a hold of Steven's hand in her own. "Change of plan. Stick by me. We'll… We'll… For fuck's sakes don't cry! Not-N-Not now! I'm… We're all freaking out, Steven, just…" They both broke down, skin burning at the heat of the flames.
"H-Hang on." He wiped a tear away. "I'll bubble us and we'll roll out. Where are the others? Lapis? Peridot?" He called, desperate, as the world turned pink. He enclosed himself and Amethyst in the circular form. "We oughtta be safe in here. There's Lapis."
The blue gem was hurtling water at the flames, trying to cool it and stop it from spreading. She picked up the water from the ocean and chucked it away into surrounding fire. Peridot and Jasper were shielding her from further lazers as they attempted to get away. Jasper was carrying Greg, both still donned in their outfits from before, under her arm.
"Guys! We're heading to the temple, alright?" Amethyst called, but couldn't get her voice loud enough to escape the bubble. "Oh, geeze. We'll have to get close to them. Come on, let's roll."
They managed to spin their way to the Homeworld gems. Steven broke the bubble to allow the four to jump into its protection. Out of breath, they paused to settle down a little as the world turned to a wreck around them.
Amethyst was the first to recover. "What the hell is this?" She snapped to the three, gently putting Pearl's limp body down. "Why are they here? I thought they had no idea where you guys were."
"I… I sent a distress signal and a death frequency like Garnet told me." Peridot replied, shaky. She then began to push at the bubble to move. "There's no reason they should have come. They should think I've died. This planet was abandoned. They… They should never be here! We need to move. There's enough energy in those blasts to vapourise us in a hit. This bubble won't be enough to protect us."
Jasper nodded, joining her. "This is an initial attack phase. We deploy an arsenal to begin with when we're… Invading. This is an invasion plan. I don't… Understand why. We never had any hunger for this planet since it was abandoned."
"Will it stop?" Amethyst asked, rolling the sphere. The rest of the still mobile inhabitants of the bubble had joined along with trying to roll it to the temple.
"Shortly." Jasper replied. "Once they see Beach City isn't a threat, it will stop for about a day or so as it manages to scout the perimeters. Then, it will possibly send a few more attacks just to see how a provocation causes the place to respond. It should then go idle as they set up."
"They set up?" Greg asked, falling on his face as he lost his footing. "Set up for what?"
She pushed away her wild, long locks. "The reception of the rest of the invasion fleet. That's when we're screwed."
"Jasper… Are you with us on this?" The purple gem glanced up, balling her fists. "Because we need to know, right now."
"Well, duh. No one attacks when I'm still going through my song list. Ain't that right, daddy-Universe?"
Everyone looked at Greg still on the floor as he shrugged. "Eh. I guess so."
"This musical performance was my pride! I spent hours sewing tiny kitten skulls onto the hems of this corset. Homeworld will pay for this!" The orange gem raised her fist, threateningly screaming. However, the sound barely made it out of their space within the sphere.
"I'm with you, too." Peridot nodded. "Like I said before, I'm going to be destroyed if I go back."
"Homeworld's not a place for me, anymore." Lapis shrunk next to Pearl's unmoving form. "I'll do all I can to help."
"Then that's settled, you guys are honorary crystal gems!" Steven beamed. He then looked around. "Wait, where's Garnet?"
"Ruby and Sapphire are still split." Amethyst looked around in horror. "They're still out there! We can't leave without them."
"But everything's on fire! And they're blasting at us." Greg winced as a row of buildings were turned to ash at another blast. "Well. There goes The Big Donut."
"No!" Steven screamed, watching the large fake donut roll out of sight. "Not that! Anything but that!"
"Wait! I see Sapphire!" Everyone turned as Pearl finally stood up, seemingly having snapped out of it. "Everyone. Get back inside, now. Make sure you're all safe. Steven, let me out right now and I'll go and bring those two back home."
"Pearl? A-Are you sure?" He stumbled over his words, too shaken to process much more of this.
"Please. I'll be fine. I just… Had a moment." She swallowed and turned to the rest of the gems. "Sorry you had to see that. I'll be alright once I make sure those two are safe."
…
"Ruby!" Sapphire called out for the other gem, her voice desperate. She paused to search her mind for a future where she'd find the other. Bang. That was it, just around the corner. She could practically hear the other gem screaming her name. "Ruby! It's me!"
She picked up the trail of her skirt and paced to the direction of her lover. She just had to find her. Just get out of this mess. Everything would be fine as long as she had her. As long as she had Ruby back in her arms.
A blinding light.
The lazer.
It burst into the building before her, slicing it in half and causing chunks to fall down before the entire building began to collapse. Sapphire gave an ear splitting scream as she tried to get out of the way, but realised she had little hope of making it out unscathed.
That was until she felt a push. All of the sudden, the small blue gem saw stars as her head hit the pavement. In her previous place, a pile of the concrete rubble had fallen. She waited for a few seconds until all had stopped before finally trying to get up.
Silence.
She looked around, and made her way closer to the spot.
Ruby.
Ruby.
The Crystal Gem lay limply under a large pile covering her. It appeared to be the section of a window, glass slicing at her throat. She groaned in pain, Sapphire could see her lover twitching. She ran over. Calling her name over and over again.
Ruby's face turned to see her, her lips curling up to a gentle smile. A pained smile.
"Ruby! Y-You didn't… Why did you do that? You're all hurt!" Sapphire began to dig Ruby's body out from the pile. "W-Why aren't you talking to me? Please, say something!" Horror struck her as the red gem's mouth opened and a slur of garbled words spilled out. "No! Your gem! L-Let me see your hand. Please!"
She nearly jumped back as Ruby's form began to glitch out. The other giving pained noises every time a part of her body morphed. Sapphire couldn't look away.
She couldn't stop watching the death of the one presence she loved the most.
Her eye met Ruby's pair for the last time before the red gem split into several tiny fragments.
Ruby was gone.
Gone, completely.
Garnet would never form again.