They were gone.
Taken just like that. By some monsters, he didn't even know of it. That he couldn't even fight against. His shield, his arm, broken like nothing.
Amethyst and Garnet were gone. Not just poofed, but gone.
He was nearly killed, and they died to save him. They were murdered because they tried to help him. Amethyst was eaten. Ruby was taken.
And he couldn't even move to stop it from happening. Just lay in the sand, crying over his broken arm. Pearl had to act as a guard, letting it run away. Letting it take away their friend.
She carried him back home. Took him right back into the bathroom, and used what's left of the fountain's water to heal him.
The monster not only broke his arm, but it also tried to do something to his head.
He didn't know what but it made the top of his headache and blood leak down to his eyes.
He lost a lot of blood. Didn't help him think.
He remembers wailing at Pearl. Telling her they have to go back. That they had to follow the monster.
That maybe Amethyst and Ruby were just in its stomach. They could make it vomit them out. Pearl didn't say anything. She just brought him home and told him to stay in the bathroom after she healed him.
It was stupid. But he hoped for it. A silly idea.
When it continued to dawn on him, he just sat on the floor. Crying till his voice becomes hollow and it hurts to breathe.
Sleep didn't take him, it robbed him. Robbed him of the little bits of safety he could think of, as his mind replays the nightmare again. With how things felt, the rain, the wet sand under him, the feeling of his arm bending in itself. Seeing the creature, that living nightmare...
When he woke up, he was still in the bathroom. Wet and dirty from the fight outside, his arm aching in pain, drops of his own blood his shirt.
He doesn't even get a chance to humor himself, even for a moment, to think it was maybe a dream. That it was a nightmare and he was just tired from a fight, so much so he slumped himself against a wall in the bathroom. That things were okay.
Because he wasn't alone. She was there.
The gem, the 'Spinel' was there. She was standing over him, watching, staring at him. Still, as a statue, there was no movement on her. Not even breathing.
She gave no reaction to him waking up. Keeping an emotionless look on her face, that gave no hint of her intentions. Her hands are interlocked together in front of her. Her form was less stretched out, standing shorter than he would.
She wasn't sad, she wasn't angry anymore. She was just there, watching him. Like a doll.
Steven blinks his eyes as he looks back to the gem. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be able to scream. To yell at her. But his throat is just dry. He can only give out a shudder of breath as he wipes his tears that already reformed in his eyes. Even healed, it hurt to even move his arm. It hurt even more as his mind drifts to other things. "W-Why are you here?" He coughs out, trying to ignore the pain. Trying to focus himself on what was happening, so he could mourn later.
"I don't know." Her voice was just above a whisper. Not moving an inch from where she stood. It was unnerving for the boy how she was acting, after seeing so loud and erratic she was before. Something was wrong with her, he could tell. She was hurt.
He catches himself pleased at the thought and is disgusted by it. Even if she fought them, she didn't deserve that kind of thinking. No one did.
Tears come again, he can feel them trail down his face. "That thing. What was it?" The monster that took his family away.
"I don't know. It's my...I thought it was my friend." She tells him back, as her eyes shift to the left a bit. Ashamed. He tries to raise his voice to her. "Your friend? It...it shattered Amethyst. It took Ruby!" His voice creaks, yet he wasn't shouting. He was just sobbing. With the gem just nodding back to him, Steven tries to pick himself up to his feet, wiping his tears away as he does.
"Say something."
"Something."
Even as he stood up, standing taller than her, she didn't look the least bit phased. Her eyes are the only thing that moved as she kept her pupils on him. "Come on. You have to say more than that!" His voice bellows, the small bathroom they were in helped to amplify his voice. Made him sound tougher, something to be taken seriously.
The gem's reply was blunt, without the least bit of care. "More than that." The shrug of her shoulders just adds to it. He is willing to admit it. He lost his temper.
Grabbing her shoulders, he throttles her back and forward as he raises his voice more. Yelling to her face. "Stop that, take this seriously! Gems are dead! My friends are dead! Gone!" When he stops for an answer, he gets little reaction from her.
She just continues her blank stare. "You're the one that wanted to play this game." She still does nothing. Keeping her hands locked in front of her, keeping her numb tone. He expected, hope really for some reaction, even a violent one if it just meant something. But she just didn't seem to care enough to give him one.
"Ga-Game? I'm not playing any games. Please, just tell me why did you come here?"
"Because of a game. One where I lost."
"I don't understand what you mean!"
"That's right. You don't."
The more he tried to speak to her, the more he felt he was just talking to a wall. He tries to calm himself down. Trying to steady his breathing as he lets go of her shoulders and backs himself away from her. "Spinel, right? Please, why are my friends gone? That's all I am asking for, just please." He begs, holding his hands together in prayer, pleading to her with a shaky breath. He'd fall to his knees if he needed to. He needs to know, and as far as he knows only she had some idea of it. Of the monster.
There is little response though.
"Because I wanted to play one more game, and they were hungry." That did nothing to help. He runs his hands over his face as his frustration just grows. Taking a moment to breathe in deeply, he asks. "Who is 'they' Spinel, do you mean that thing that attacked me, that took away my friends? As in more than one of them?"
The idea that there were more of those monsters. It was enough to make Steven's stomach turn inward.
He tries to shut the idea down. Thinking that it can't be true. He would have heard of it. Either the gems or the government officials he knows would have told him something. He even got into the infamous area 51 sight to find that it was just a normal airbase, that had old gem stuff laying around. Pearl had told him how Homeworld had wiped out most intelligent or intergalactic races in the known galaxy. There was no way there were more of these monsters.
But Spinel's words put away all sorts of doubt in that mindset. Spoken in that eerie, uncaring tone, made it have weight. Made it sound just too grimdark and true.
"Yes. Many, many, more."
He isn't even able to wrap his mind around it for more than a moment as suddenly music plays out near them. It was so sudden the gem-hybrid nearly fell backward into the bathtub.
"-rive a van into your heart. Let me drive my van into your heart-" It was from a phone, his own, which was left on the nearby sink. It must have been taken out of his pocket without him realizing it at some point.
And the ringtone meant that it was his dad.
He rushes passes the confused looking Spinel and takes the phone off the sink. When he answers it, a familiar voice calls out in a panic. Filled with fear and worry that only a parent could have.
"Steven?! You there, hello? Son?!"
It was hard to make out what he said, as there was a lot of noise on his end of the line. The sounds of people, and things being shoved around. It was loud, invasive. It could only be described as pure chaos.
But still, even if barely, hearing his father made Steven's heart swell. The boy is only able to give out a weak whimper before he falls to tears again.
His father tries to talk to him, ask if he was okay. But Steven just began to babble to him. Saying how sorry he was. That it was his fault for what happened. That he should have been better.
He sobs and wails, like a sick animal. The words falling out of his mouth as an incomprehensible mess. But Greg did his job as a father and listened to each and every word of it. Keeping silent as Steven told him every single thing that happened. Be it the injector, the gem that attacked, the monster, and what happened to Garnet and Amethyst.
"Schtu-ball, I'm sorry." Greg's voice becomes more clear, the noise on the other end of the line being still there, but seemed to be lowering as Steven can hear the phone being moved around. "I'm so, so sorry that you, that Pearl, that any of you, god I…" His voice was hesitant as he stops himself to take a shudder of a breath. Takin the news as told by his son. "I'm so sorry Steven. I'm so sorry."
There isn't much to say. But Greg still speaks out. Trying to grab Steven's attention, to try and keep his mind on other things for the moment.
"Steven, son, I wish I could be there with you so much right now." Steven hears the sound of a door being closed, making all the background noise faint. His father's voice is now completely clear, as he could be heard coughing slightly.
"I'm at the hospital. After something hit the city, I was trying to do some help. I just bought anyone that I could find here. The storm really didn't help with stuff. A lot of people hurt, some gems too." Greg's voice falls to mumbling, with Steven tightening his grip on the phone.
With what happened with the monster, the boy almost forgot all about Beach City. He seats himself on the edge of the bathtub and runs his hand through his hair. Holding in a whine of frustration.
He is a diamond. He is supposed to be there, not held in a bathroom of all places. Already he can imagine how all the gems in Little Homeschool are panicking. If they saw something crash into the city, then they might assume the worst.
"Steven, where are you?" Greg helps him take his mind off those thoughts for a moment. Allowing Steven a moment to collect himself, as he tells his father says. "I'm in the bathroom at home. Pearl told me this was the best place to stay safe for now. The door to the gem's rooms is broken. Most of the windows out front are broken too."
"How is Sapphire holding up?" Steven pulls his face from the phone, letting it tap against his forehead as such a simple question was enough to horrify him.
Realizing he didn't even think about her this whole time. How would the gem react as her other half is gone? Would she even know that Ruby was taken? Did she know such a thing would happen with her future vision?
Pearl had grabbed her gem when she carried him home. She could have reformed and was mourning and he wouldn't even know because he fell asleep.
The lack of response seemed to be enough for Greg. "It's okay to not know, son. This is some really heavy stuff. For everyone. I think Pearl was right to leave you somewhere safe, at least till morning. The storm is calming down a lot but things are still hectic you know. And it just seems to keep getting worse." Steven hears the crackle of the phone being moved, as Greg gives a small groan.
"Dad?" Steven calls out, already fearing the worst. He had lost Amethyst and Garnet. Not him too, surely not him too.
Greg's voice was hesitant and seemed to be out of breath. "It's okay, just hit my arm on the door is all. Can you just tell me if you're safe? Are you alone? Is Pearl there?" If there was one thing Steven has gotten good with over the years, it was knowing when someone was keeping something from him. He wanted to yell at his dad, to demand an answer. But he doesn't.
It was not the time for that. Greg's voice held pain, and fear. Not for himself but for his son. He was too soft to not sound confident. Too loving to lie to his son.
He just tells the boy what he needs to hear. So Steven does the same. "I'm not alone. I have..." There is a small pause as Steven looks to Spinel, who hasn't moved an inch since he began to talk to his father. She wasn't fighting him anymore, but he is still on edge with her. The monster attacked her too, but it doesn't mean they were friends yet.
But if it could ease his father, what was the harm.
He doesn't break eye-contact with her, as he tells a lie to his father. "I'm with a friend, dad. You don't have to worry about me right now." The moment the word left his mouth, he was given something. A reaction from the gem.
Steven watched as her eyes had widened, her arms pulled apart and fell limp at her sides, her mouth was left ajar. In an instant, at a single six-letter word, she went from stoic to in awe.
He isn't able to give her much attention as he hears sounds from the other end of the phone.
A door opened and a lot of shouting started to happen between Greg and someone that walked in. From the voice, Steven could make it out to be Connie's mother. She told Greg he was supposed to be resting, and not hiding in a closet. He was telling her that he needed to make a call. Then she must have spotted the phone.
Steven had to pull his phone away from his face as the crackling of the phone being thrashed around a lot assaults his ear. He is barely able to make out the two voices as they were yelling at each other. It was hard to hear about what exactly, he does manage to make out one thing though.
"-uld heal Conn-"
About three words, one of which being the unmistakable name of his friend, and the word, heal.
But he is unable to make out any more, as the phone is slapped out of his hand, and thrown to the wall with such force the plastic shell and glass shatter has apart. Making it impossible to use.
He doesn't get any time to react, as the gem throws herself into him. Forcing Steven to fall backward into the bathtub, as she was grappling him. "What did you call me?! You called ME your friend?!" Spinel shouts, gripping the front of Steven's shirt, pressing his face against hers.
Her attitude had changed, back to the fight. A wild unhinged look was in her eyes as she was squeezing, and digging her fingers into him. Speaking in the same intensity of voice, where she stressed each other word. "Ohhh, that's just GOODY-goody! Well then, what we gonna do, huh? Play GAMES, spend all our time together!? Huh?! Isn't that what FRIENDS do?" Her arms stretched and contorted around his body, tightening on every available inch they could find.
Steven gives out a hollow wheeze, as he tries to cough out a word. Filling his body slowly being crushed.
Spinel was giving him no space, as he tries to pull himself free, she would push herself closer.
He could feel her mouth moving against his cheek as she shouts even more. No thought at all for personal space, as her teeth brushed against his skin, threatening to tear into him. "Wai-"
"Wait? What do YOU know about waiting? Is someone making you WAIT!? Are they? Huh!?" Spinel's voice continues to grow more intense as she pushes herself into him, almost crushing the hybrid as he can feel his face smudged against the tube's walls and hers. Her arms just stretched to a point that they could fully wrap around him, while the hands themselves, had moved up to grip at his throat, beginning to strangle him on the spot.
He tries to groan out to her. But only manages to spit out an intelligible choking mess. "Say something! SAY SOMETHING! Stop acting silly and just TELL me what do you mean by fr-" The bathtub burst apart, and Spinel is sent through the bathroom door as Steven form a bubble around himself, desperately gasping for air.
He wheezes, greedily sucking in much-needed air. His lungs burning as they try to take in the squeezed out air back in themselves. He is nearly thrown back onto his back again, as Spinel is back on him again, running towards the bubble and colliding against it with her body.
Her voice slightly muffled, but he can still make out her yelling at him, with each time she moves to attack the bubble.
She yelled at him for calling her a friend and about games, and fun, and waiting. He couldn't understand it.
She wasn't the first unstable gems he's met, not by a long shot. He knows what he is supposed to do. That he just needs to find a way to calm her down, that they could talk and settle any issue she has.
Unfortunately, he did not have the time and was in no mood to play therapist right now. Amethyst is gone. Ruby is gone. Garnet is gone. His dad was in the hospital. A large unknown number of people and gems were hurt and needed his help.
Including Connie.
He can't just sit down and talk, for now, he cannot just take the time needed to help just one gem. He needed to just focus. Think now, feel later. People needed him.
"-ut SURE, I could just pal around. Be your buddy! We could just laze around, play a little game of scythe just like I used to with Pi-"
Spinel's ranting came to a stop as Steven unforms his bubble. It stopped her for a moment and gave Steven a window to act.
"Spinel, that is enough!" He shouts as loud as he is able, rushing over the broken remains of the bathtub towards the gem he grasps the wrist of her hands and forces her to lower them. He spoke in a berating tone, lashing out at her like he had seen done by Yellow Diamond to her gems.
It was enough to make the Spinel stop struggling against him. "Whatever you have to say, whatever you are going through, can wait! I do not have the time to be dealing with this! I have to get to the hospital. There are people there I can help, gems too." At the mention of other gems, Steven could feel the gem flinch in his hold. She turned her head away from him, as her face tilted to the floor. Ashamed.
"Please just let me go there. And then we can settle whatever you have an issue with me I swear." Spinel's stance changes. Her shoulders had lowered, her arms were returning to normal length, and she gives Steven a look.
A look Steven could only be described as hurt. Not physically, but hurt in more ways than he could imagine. The kind of hurt that comes from having no options. From being alone and scared. He shouldn't do this, but the boy cannot hold himself. He's seen that look too many times on others.
"If you want you can come with me, okay?"
Such a simple offer, and yet it seemed as if he offered the world to her. A look of awe came once more to the pink gem, true awe this time.
"You want me to come with?" She stutters, before rapidly nodding her head. She was so happy. So very happy for such a little thing, and only made Steven worry for her more. Made him want to know why she was so hurt.
But there was no time for that. He was needed at the hospital. And he was going to fix this.
A new friend. A new friend. A new friend.
That was what's happening. He has become her new friend, and he is leaving, just like she did, except he is taking her with him. He is taking her with him. He is not like Pink, he is a good friend, a best friend.
She was smiling. Spinel could feel herself smiling as she is walking with him out the small room to the larger broken more broken room.
She watches every step he takes, and limb he moves as he looks around the room. He is the replacement, but a good replacement, better than Pink, way better than her.
He was surveying the room around them, with a worried glance in his eyes. "Where's Pearl? Last I remember she and I were arguing. Where did she go?!" He turns to her as if to expect an answer. Afraid for Pink's Pearl, his Pearl.
A good friend would tell him what they know. So Spinel does. "I don't know. She left a while ago, said something about talking to the other diamonds and telling them what was going on. Heard her and someone else screaming. A lot of crying too." She watches as Steven runs a hand over his face, rubbing at his eyes.
He mumbles something under his breath as he walks along with the wreckage of the room, stepping over broken glass and broken flooring as he moved aside some wreckage. Finding a thin sheet, and a stick, he begins to write down onto them.
"Okay, I'll write her something, that I'm heading out to-" Out. Outside. No, that's not good. The Xeno was out there. It hurt him, it shattered the gem, took the other. It'll hurt him, make him go away just like Pink did. But worst.
"It's still out there." Spinel tells him as plainly as she could. The Xeno was out. Inside the place would be safe, she could keep her new friend. Outside she could lose him.
He knows she is right. She sees it as it stops all his movement. He knew exactly what she was talking about. Her friend or who she thought was her friend was out. It would take him, just as it did the others.
But the replacement, Steven, only stops for a moment before he finishes writing something down. "I can't stay here. They need me at the hospital." Spinal wanted to ask him what a hospital was but holds back as she continues to watch him.
She can still feel them. Nothing has changed. They want to eat, they want to expand. The desire is still there and is only ever growing with each passing moment. Even after attacking one of them, it proved to be nothing. They didn't care about her. They never did.
But he does. He cares for a lot of things.
"I don't know why it attacked us, but if it shows up again then I'll fight it. I have to." He tried to look brave, but his shoulders were shaking, his eyes looked glossy and the liquid was starting to form on his forehead. He is afraid.
Spinel holds her hands to her waist, as she tilts her head towards the replacement. "That's stupid. You'll shatter, just like the other two." He stops moving again. Dropping the stick he was using to write, as he sinks his head down along his shoulders.
He cares too much. She was being mean, but he cares too much.
"I have too." He whispers back. "I just have to fix this." He gives her a look. One that is nothing like any Pink would give. A look that just spoke louder than his own words. Just how much he cared for his friends.
He ran. She followed.
It was a long trip, with much to see.
They ran through wreckages, through roads that have been craved open, through lakes of bright pink fluid. And noise. Lots of noise.
Spinel saw other humans. Other gems. Trying to look for others that were buried beneath the collapsed buildings. They barely acknowledge her or Steven as they ran by them. Too focused on their own work. There were fires, screaming, large black clouds everywhere she looked. So much pain, far as she could see.
All her own doing.
She didn't want this.
They ran, and ran more.
When they arrived at the hospital, it was filled with humans. And their noise.
She saw many humans out in the streets and broken buildings, but there were so many more of them here. Several of which were constantly running about, wearing white coats, or colorful suits. Those that didn't just stood around or sat in chairs. Many of them were crying. Tall ones were holding the little ones, with looks of dread on their faces. Some had red stains on their clothing and smelled awful. The little ones looked lost, asking questions at a near-constant for something called parents or families. They were all scared. All trying to talk over each other to each other.
So much shouting, and running about. Tools being moved around, chairs scraping against the floor, loud sobbing.
Gems were around, trying to fix much of the broken glass entrance, and also trying to help those that they could. Helping others find their groups to the right places for treatments. Keeping them from rushing off, and staying in their spots.
It was too much to see at once. All of them suffering, all of them pleading for something. Wanting their pain to end, wanting their families.
She didn't want this, she couldn't.
Spinel could feel her form shrink a bit as she tries to follow Steven through the humans. He rushed up to a large cover, where a human was hiding behind, talking to pieces of plastic on a cord as she was frantically typing on a large keypad.
As Steven was talking to her, shouting his voice to be heard over the mass of others, Spinel lets her eyes wander around, taking it all in once more. Hearing the organics wailing. Watching as they were suffering right before her. It hurt. It hurt her. Made her gem ache. Her mind itch.
Spinel holds her hands to either side of her head as she tries to block it out the noise. It was too much. Way too much. She didn't want this. She didn't want it. All she wanted to do was to play a game that she wins.
This is not winning.
Even through all this noise, she can feel them. The Xenos.
Something was happening. She can feel them. She can hear them, she can see them. They were near, and getting noise with each moment. Growing and nurturing themselves. Festering they all thought as one mind, to one goal.
Creeping through the stillness, it shrouds them, the silence. They're awakening, they're stalking, enduring, painstaking. They're amalgamating, they're galling, the massacre's calling.
The swarm is now rising.
Spinel snaps her eyes across the room. Through the many humans, and gems. Through the broken glass entrance of the hospital. Through all the noise and many broken buildings, she can see it. The Xeno was there, the very same that attacked her.
It was not alone. There was another.
It was bigger than the one that attacked her. Had more eyes, the tendrils down its face more along an angle. And it was looking back towards her.
Spinel stares back at it. Unblinking as she tries to make sense of what they will do next, what they want. But all they want just continues to be the same. They want to feed. To accept more within themselves. Her fingers dig more into her own face, as her form was beginning to shake uncontrollably. The noise.
The noise of crying, shouting, of those shoving others out of the way as they keep moving. Sometimes breaking her line of sight to the Xenos. They just kept on, making it harder and harder for her to see, to think. She was a good gem. Her friend took her somewhere, and they were making too much noise. Just like the Xenos were. Just as they went on and on about their hunger, all the humans whined about was their pain, their sadness.
All noise. Just loud noises.
She isn't able to think, her mind feels as if it's pulsating, the itch growing. When she gets a clear view, the Xenos weren't there anymore. The noise is overwhelming.
And she screams as loud as her form would ever allow her.
The hospital room is quiet.
Filled only with the sounds of a heart monitor, and a ventilator. There ain't any warm colors to be had, no get well soon cards to be given. Just a bitter reality of the situation, with the sound of busy work barely muffled by the thin walls the room provided. The space they gave her was small, as it seems to be more fit for a closet than an actual room.
It was not like there was much choice to be given. The hospital was packed, with each room seeming to store up to three people or more within it, with families and more. It must have been hours after the impact of the injector, yet panic did not set down one bit.
This small room was all they could give her. Some little space that had barely a room for a bed, and chairs. A window with a view of just the streets below.
She didn't deserve this just as much didn't deserve to be forced to watch her like this.
On the bed was his best friend, the first friend he made. His jam bud.
And here she was, lying still on a bed. Her only movement was her chest, as it rose up and fell with every breath. The only real visible sign she gave for being alive.
Her body was broken.
Steven is unable to find the list of the things that had happened to her, the treatments the doctors used to keep her alive. All he saw was the final result.
Bandaging covered her, from her head to chest, to arms, to leg. Each had some spot to cover. Less more to stop the bleeding, more to cover up the surgical scars. The evidence of that could be seen most of all in her hands.
Stitched and messed together with needle-like pins sticking out of them. Steven had to hold himself from vomiting as he can see how the skin was morphed over the fingernails or forced them to be pushed outward.
The most notable damage to her was the lack of her left leg. Severed from the thigh down, the limb was completely removed. Taken from her.
She is not dead, but she has been so close.
When he asked what had happened, he was told that she was near a building when the injector crashed into the city. An entire section of a building, the whole outside wall collapsed right on top of Connie.
Just as soon as they had tried to dig her out, the rain came down on them. It was over two hours before they managed to get her free and deliver her to a hospital.
It was a miracle for her to be alive.
Her ribs had collapsed inward, stone and rebar had stabbed into her. Her left leg was very much crushed and had to be amputated.
They couldn't even keep her awake for him to talk to her. The poor girl was put into a medically induced coma. Just a bit of spit would be enough, he could fix her. He was sure of it.
The doctors literally held him back from doing so. They knew he could heal but strongly advised against it. With how busy the hospital was right now, they simply didn't have the people to help her with the trauma she just went through.
Here she was with most of her bones broken and missing a leg. Her buried under rubble for so long, it's possible that it left more than physical scars. Her waking up could lead to her panicking and possibly hurt herself.
It was better to keep her asleep for now, as much as Steven hated it. He hated very few things, but this was one of them. Not being able to help, forced to just sit back and do nothing.
First the city, the gems, now Connie. He doesn't know if he could take any more of this. Amethyst and Ruby are gone and he can't even process it, as just more things come to him. So many hurt, so many things he is afraid to look to. How many more were hurt? How many more are dead? Then there is that monster that attacked him. What if it was attacking others. Gems and humans alike. Suffering as he wasn't able to stop it.
A small tug on his other hand takes him out of those dark thoughts. It was Spinel's doing.
She was sitting down next to him in her own chair, his hand was held in both of hers.
The gem had a panic attack earlier when he was trying to check-in at the front desk. Screaming at everyone to shut up, trying to give herself space in the crowded room, yelling about a swarm. The poor thing collapsed on the floor, seeming barely able to breathe.
He did have to thank her. As it was enough to quiet the room enough for him to ask the desk for Connie. When he was told, he offered the gem a hand, and she took it and has not let go of him since. Gripping his hand tightly towards her own gem. Very unlike her usual behavior, there were no outbursts or attitude to her now, just timidness. She was scared and clutching onto him like he was her lifeline.
He didn't know why. Even when he tried to ask what caused her to scream, she didn't give much of a response. "Noise, so much noise. The noise of the swarm. The itching." She would whisper as she tightens her hold on his hand, as she pushes it more into her gem.
Steven had just nodded his head at her. Barely understanding, but willing to try and make her comfortable as best he can. When they came into the room, he was horrified by Connie's condition. Spinel was helping him without realizing it. Acting as his anchor for him, and helping him focus.
His attention is taken away from the gem as Connie's father, Doug, comes into the room. "Hey, I got you guys stuff from the snack machine. Again." He says, trying to give the two of them a smile as he enters the room. There were several bags and cans in his arms, all huddled on top of one another. Shuffling across the room, Doug places the food and drinks on the serving table by the bed, before he moves to sit down in his own chair by the door.
It was more for him then it was for Steven. The original pile he had first gotten them was already on the table, bow he doubled it. It was now the second time he left the room.
The second time he came in holding a bunch of food and drinks. The second time he came in here feeling of smoke, and his red from eyeing. He didn't even bother to hide the pack of cigarettes in his coat pocket. Steven couldn't even work the nerve to joke about it.
The poor man was obviously exhausted, more so than Steven could possibly imagine. Having been here for hours now, being forced to sit there and watch his daughter waste away before him.
When Steven first came into the room the man hugged him so tightly, looking so happy. Only for his hope to be shattered as Steven tells him he couldn't cure her. Not yet at least.
Doug had to leave right after. He'd come back, tears still in his eyes, smelling of smoke, and bringing food, possibly from a snack machine.
With it being the second time he's done such a thing, Steven wanted to tell him, he didn't need to make a third trip.
But the words just die on his lips. He couldn't bring himself to didn't say anything, just watches as Doug just seems to fall apart right in front of his eyes.
"I got a bit too much, huh." Steven watches as Doug runs a hand over his glasses and face as he sits down on a chair by the door, looking off to the side as he tries to collect himself.
He tries to tell the man it's okay, but Doug ignores him. Seeming to drift off into his own world. His eyes locked onto his sleeping daughter.
This wasn't right. It wasn't fair.
So much was happening, too fast for Steven to possibly keep up with. Doug told him how Greg and Priyanka were on the first floor of the hospital, around the back area. Connie's mother, Priyanka, was helping patients there. Greg's arm was being treated.
When the injector crashed, he was hit by the pink ooze that rained down the city. Just his arm, but it was enough to numb the entire limb, badly damaging the muscles and nerves in it. But he was alive, and that's what matters.
Connie's mother was working. With all the people hurt, all hands were needed. The whole hospital was overpacked, and her being a doctor was needed more than her as a mother.
Steven could understand why, with everything happening, she probably felt she had to do something. But he also knew she must be a worried wreck about Connie. Remember exactly how she sounded over the phone.
He wanted to go to them to see how they were doing. He isn't able to help Connie, but maybe he could help his dad, maybe the other people too.
But upon seeing Connie, he just couldn't bring himself to leave her. Not when she was so defenseless.
Just like a gem when they are poofed.
Perhaps he was being paranoid, but there was a small part of him that couldn't help but feel that he was being watched, even now. Looking out the windows, all he sees is the city.
Places, where buildings fell inward, gave him a wide view. Not many hiding spots to be seen. But the thing that worried him, didn't need to try hard to hide. It could be anywhere. It could be right outside the window, in the room, and he wouldn't be able to tell.
Not until it is too late.
He's startled as he sees something suddenly move into his vision, assuming the worst, as his shield forms out of sheer reflex.
Only to find it is a hand stretched in front of him. Holding a bag of chips. A timid voice follows with a simple question. "What's this?"
For the first time, Steven is truly grateful to the gem. He needed a distraction, something to help him from thinking.
The crunching echoes within Spinel's own head as the thin salty chip enters her mouth and rendered to mush underneath the pressing of her teeth.
Eating. Food. Taste.
A lot of new things at once, that Spinel didn't even know how to deal with. But Steven was patient enough to walk through it all. Showing her how it was done.
Bite, chew, swallow, repeat.
It was meant to be done when hungry, but since gems didn't feel such a thing, it wasn't needed. It was for fun, to enjoy herself. When Spinel had bitten into the first 'chip' she was shocked by the idea of taste and immediately started eating more of them.
Though that ended poorly as she wasn't able to fully grasp how swallowing was done. No matter how much her Steven tried to explain it, Spinel couldn't understand such things as the words throat, and stomach.
The solution was that she kept a small cylinder near her called a trash can. Once the flavor was gone from whatever she was chewing on, she could spit out the content and just simply grab another piece to enjoy.
A similar idea came when it comes to small containers of liquid, called drinks. Taking an amount and enjoying it's exotic, bubbly taste as it slush in her mouth before spitting it out. To Spinel this was an entirely fun new game, to experience this sense she didn't know she had.
She also takes in what her Steven told her of hunger. What it is, how it feels. She knew it existed, knew that organic beings needed it, but that was it. Looking at the empty bag in her hand, she wondered if that was what the Xenos wanted.
Food.
They were hungry. So very hungry. And that is all that they wanted. More and more to feast on. More to consume. There were so many, and they needed so much food. Trillions and trillions of bodies.
All wanting food, all wanting to eat.
The echoing of a gem shattered courses in Spinel's head. Remembering how she saw the Amethyst eaten right before her.
The bag in her hand is tightly clutch, as Spinel comes to realize it will not stop there. She remembers 'Biggie'. The planet that hung above her head for thousands of years. So lush and green. How barren it was when she awoke.
No green. No life.
Not even an atmosphere.
Everything was gone. Devoured. Leaving nothing but a large hollow rock.
And now they were here on this nowhere planet, filled with gems and her Steven. The dark thoughts come in once more, telling her how pointless it is. That they were gonna eat everything. Everyone. She would be shattered at best, at worst, be left behind once more.
She is able to hold back a whimper, as she drops the empty bag and grabs at her own head. The itching never left, if anything it was getting worse. Less than itch, more like something was in her head, crawling and thrashing its way through her mind.
She turns to him, to her Steven, for a distraction. Watching as he continued to stare at the human that was laying down. He told her that she was sleeping. An act that organic beings need to recharge themselves. He seemed saddened, ever since they came to this room he has been so.
She hears the sound of the taller human leaving the room. The third time he has done so. Every time he did, he would return with more snacks, so Spinel didn't mind.
"You said she was hurt, right? By what?" She honestly couldn't care less for the human, but she wanted to hear him speak. Which he does as he explains to her, what had happened to the human, and the city itself.
Something came from the sky. It crashed into the mountain and parts of it hit everywhere because of it, along with a pink ooze. Many humans, including the one before them called Connie, were hurt by it.
"Pearl told me that it seemed to be a large injector. One that came from the sky somehow. It crashed right into the cliff and-" Steven is stopped as Spinel speaks up for him. Seeing how confused he was, at the idea.
"Oh, you mean my injector."
That was when he turned to face her, his eyes slowly widening as a look of realization crossed his face. Mistaking it for awe, Spinel continued speaking, to make it more clear for him. "Yeah, I flew it here with the ones that I thought were my friends." Steven mumbles something under his breath that Spinel could barely make out, but does answer it. "Yes. The one that shattered-"
It was her turn to be stopped as Steven stands up from the chair, ripping his hand out from Spinel's hold. The look on his face showed he was appalled, horrified. "Y-You did this? You brought them?" Spinel didn't understand, why was he acting like this. She was answering his questions as a friend should.
She nodded her head at him, thinking it would calm him. It didn't.
He raises his voice and shouts at her. "Why!? Why did you do this to us!? Ruby and Amethyst are gone, they are gone because of you!" She looks down in response. Knowing that in a way, it was true. But this isn't what she wanted.
She wanted to make Pink and her new friends pay. To get back at them. She didn't mean for things to happen as they did.
Now she made her friend angry. Now she's made him feel hurt and he continued to shout at her, mainly about his 'family' being taken. About his home being torn apart. Always asking why.
Why?
Spinel hated the word. For over 6000 years she's asked it to herself over and over again. Never getting an answer. Why should he get his? Why should he be the one getting mad?
She speaks over his voice, as she stands up and gives him her own glare. "Because I wanted to play another game and win for once." She tells him, watching as he grits his teeth and his face contorts in frustration.
"I don't understand you!" He steps closer to her, raising his hands up to grip at his own hair. "You mentioned my mom, and Pearl even knew who you were, but that doesn't mean I know anything! Just tell me what happened!"
Would he attack her, shatter her? It didn't matter. She didn't matter. For so many lonely years, nothing mattered. "Are you feeling lost, confused, that things are unfair. Try feeling that for 6000 years, and maybe I'll tell you." She scoffs off as she crosses her arms over her gem, and turns her head away from the hybrid.
Becoming sick of looking at him, the replacement.
She can feel his stare as the room grows quiet again. With only the sound of the from the still sleeping Connie. Spinel waits for it. A sign that the replacement is gonna put up a fight. So they could continue the game they were playing when she first met him. She could beat him, she could win this time without being interrupted.
When she hears Steven finally move, Spinel turned her body to face him again with a raised fist and meet him mid-strike. To finally win.
Only to see that he didn't move towards her at all. Instead, he had just grabbed his chair and pulled it away from her, from the spot where they sat next to each other, and more towards the sleeping human, Connie.
Without a word, he just sits back down in the chair. Refusing to even look at Spinel anymore as he holds his head in his hands.
The room is quiet as he ignores her. Ignored the game.
Spinel lets her fist drop but doesn't move yet. She stares at him. The replacement. She hates him, she despises him.
The itching is still there, and it gets worse. She can almost hear it now. A low buzzy sound.
Spinel sits back in her seat and focuses on ignoring it. The taller human comes back with more snacks.
She doesn't feel like eating anymore.
Time passes before Doug leaves the room again.
This time he does it because he recognizes a doctor that rushed by room. Steven doesn't know what to do. Spinel kept making a habit of revealing things to him. Dreadful things.
He hated not knowing things. Be it just because of secrets or even how to react to them.
Spinel brought those monsters to his home. She wrecked his town. Hurting so many. But what is he gonna do exactly? Poofing her and then placing her in a bubble seemed like the right choice, but how? She has already proven to be actually better at fighting than him, having faced him and the gems together without one of them laying a hand on her. What hope did he have alone?
It would only end poorly for him. Especially with him doing it here in a hospital, with so many people already suffering.
Fighting was out of the question. Talking to her more, only made the gem more unstable at times. With her acting one way a moment and then changing at the drop of a hat.
Ruby, Garnet, and Amethyst are gone. And she wouldn't even tell him why. Always just referring it as a game of some kind.
Taking a glance, he sees she was standing. Looking out the window, as rain drizzled on it. He tries to figure her out. Trying to focus on what he knows of the gem.
Something happened to her. She came to earth on the injector. It crashed. Somehow she was friends with the monster that attacked them. Although that might not really be the case as Steven remembers how she was smack aside. How it attacked her.
Was she tricked? Lied to? Is that what's wrong? What did it have to do with his mom is the thing.
He tried to imagine it, but he was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. He had to take a risk if he needed things to become clearer.
"Spinel?" He calls out to her. Getting a very irritated grumble thrown back as she snaps her head in his direction. "Did you do this on purpose? Did you mean to hurt all those people? To fight us? To have Garnet and Amethyst…" His voice choked, and he had to hold himself back from slamming his own fist into his thigh, in frustration. How the words die on his lips. He hated to think they were gone, but he couldn't let that hold him. Not now.
He looks at Spinel. Watching as she turned to look back out the window. She seemed conflicted for a moment, as her face changes expression, seeming to go through several emotions at once.
"I didn't...I..." She mumbles out, before becoming quiet. Raising her hands up, she begins to tug at her pigtails. She whispers something under her breath, as her arms had rubbery sagged to the floor, but the hands continue to grip her hair.
He knew it was dangerous, and yet he pushed on. Needing something. "Spinel, please just tell me the plan. Whatever you or those monsters came up with-"
"Plan?" That is when her mood changed again. Her hands fall limp to the floor, as she turns her head towards him. A timid look returning to her face. Her eyes quivered, her bottom lip twitch.
She was scared.
He tries not to rush, as it seems he can finally get somewhere. "Yeah, a plan. You said you were friends with that thing, that there were many of them. What was the plan then?" He asks, turning on his seat to face her.
Spinel glances away from him in turn. It took but a whole minute of silence before a look dawns on her face, one of horror. "I didn't have one."
Using the back of the chair as support, Steven pushes himself to his feet as he raises his voice to her. "What do you mean you didn't have a plan?! I…" He stops himself, taking a moment to take a deep breath and lower his voice back down. Knowing where yelling would lead. "Spinel, you told me you came with those things, please just tell me what you can-"
He is stopped again, but not by himself this time. Doug comes back into the room. "Steven, I need to talk to you!" The man shouts while he is gasping for breath.
Before Steven could ask him what is wrong, the man races towards him, slapping his hands onto the teen's shoulders. "Priyanka was hurt, she was hurt bad! I don't know how but people are panicking! She's in surgery right now, and-" His words just kept on, rapidly speaking in a strutting mess.
He looked ill.
As if he was gonna vomit at any moment. Sweat was rushing down his head, yet he was shriving. He was so out of breath, Steven had to hold his arms out of fear the man would collapse right on the spot.
Doug was clearly desperate for help. His glasses had fallen from his face and was crying. Intelligible sobs choking from his throat as he tries to speak more. "-I can't lose her too, Steven, god please, my family why! Why my family, please god-"
Steven knows exactly what the man is feeling. And he knew he could help, but then comes the thought of Connie.
He looks to her, seeing her still defenseless form. He couldn't leave her, not like this. Not when literally monsters are out.
It was selfish and terrible. He shouldn't have such thoughts yet he was scared. Scared to leave her, to have her with nothing to keep her safe.
But what was he to do, as he held her father's sobbing form? What was it about the many other people that he could heal? He has to make a choice, for the greater good of all times, as hard as it may be.
Just then his eyes wander, to the one other person in the room. Spinel was still standing up, holding herself. Biting down on one finger of her hand, as the other gripped at her pigtail. She was panicking, nowhere near the right mindset. But she was all he had.
The words fall out of his mouth, more of a fumble than anything else. Very much a miracle that it even came out at all. "Spinel, I need you to watch Connie for me." It was enough to get her attention, to have her staring at him. So lost, so frightened.
Despite it all. He couldn't bring himself to truly hate her. Not now. Not when she was all he had. "It'll just be for a little while, I promise." He then turns to see Doug looking at him with his eyes fully widened."I can heal Connie's mom, just take me to her."
He thanked him, he thanked him the same way as he would a savior. Tears in his eyes, and weak in the knees. It didn't sit right for Steven, but now wasn't the time to think of those thoughts as he began to be dragged from the room by the man.
"Spinel, please, stay with her! I don't want Connie to be alone." He calls to the gem.
Spinel is looking at him, with the same blank face. As if not registering what he just said. "Please Spinel, we don't want her to be left alone." She hesitates for a moment, staring blankly at him. He is barely able to see her nod as he is dragged out the door and down the crowded hall, filled with workers and patients.
It didn't even come to Steven to question what attacked Connie's mom.
Not till he had already argued and forced himself into the surgical room. Not until after he spat on the woman and watched as her unpeel skin seemingly placed itself back together.
The thought never came till after he saw her horribly coughed and wheezed out blood that filled her lungs. When she is trying her damndest to speak.
He could barely understand her, through the vomit and blood she gurgles out. But the question is clear through the few words she is able to mutter out.
The thought was a simple question.
What attacked her?
"It was a monster...an invisible monster."
There was no plan.
There was never a plan.
Leaving the garden, having her new friends, the entire year-long trip, there was no plan.
Spinel just wanted to make Pink pay for leaving her behind. To make the Pink hurt, as she had hurt her.
But her diamond was gone.
Just like when she first left her. Abandoning Spinel twice in a row without the gem even knowing it.
But then there was the replacement and her other friends. She could make them pay. Take out all the years of loneliness, pain, and sorrow she has ever felt on the four of them.
Make it so that they will remember her. That finally Spinel would win a game.
But then one of her new friends hit her and the Amethyst was shattered.
It stopped being a game. It stopped being fun.
It became scary.
She did not have a plan. But they did. There was always a plan with them. She can feel them as they think. It used to be a comfort, in the silent cold abyss. Now it wasn't. It scared her.
A collective of billions of forms, all moving and acting like one. All for the purpose of one thing. To still their hunger.
The itching continued to get worse.
It was like something in the back of her mind was digging and scraping its way within her.
It was them.
They were moving, formatting. She didn't want to know this. She didn't want to feel them anymore. She wanted the itching to go away, to get the bad thoughts away, but they just continued to drown her every thought.
She tries to keep herself focused, to do the task asked of her by the replacement.
To watch the human, to keep her from being alone. It was a small little thing to ask. Something she could easily do, or at least she thought she could.
So ready to please she was, at the drop of a word yet again.
Connie, the human, laid before her. Her whole body was like a statue. The only noises being from her breathing and from the machines hooked into her.
It wasn't much. Even the muffled sounds from outside the room did little to fill the quiet. Spinel hated it.
The lack of sound, the isolated feeling. It was such an all-too-familiar feeling. The Replacement did this. Telling her to stay in place as he closed the door outside the room, having her confront the quiet.
She wanted to be mad. But she couldn't. Cause he didn't want his Connie to be left alone. Immediately she folded to his words because she knew how it felt. To be alone, left behind.
If only though she wasn't so quiet. "He told me you were hurt, that you can't talk or move." Spinel spoke, just to break the silence. There is no replay.
"And you're his friend? His best friend from what he told me? He's really worried about you." Spinel steps closer to the human, sitting on the soft table she laid on. "He's nice and I don't get why."
There is still no response, but Spinel continues. "I hurt him. His friends, his family, you, his home and all he does is shout at me and then stops." She grips at her own arms, as she thinks about the replacement. A familiar feeling of dread is slowly creeping on her.
"He even taught me about snacks. He held me when I was scared. So why? Why is he nice? Is he gonna trick me? Is he?!" Spinel turns to the unmoving Connie, an angry expression forms on the gem's face. "Well, say something already!"
Spinel gets up from the soft table and tightens her hold on her own arms, the fingers digging into the skin. "He's probably laughing at me right now, isn't he?! He told me to do something, to wait right here and I did it! Just like with her!" She shouts as she twists her head to look back at Connie and becomes infuriated as she sees the human do nothing, still.
Moving her head back, Spinel stomps towards the window. "He thinks I'm probably too dumb to notice. That's what it is, isn't it?!" She looks out to the city. Seeing they were above on the second floor of the building, as it gave her a view of some of the collapsed buildings, and the ooze from her injector that had spread everywhere. Her own handy work.
The itching in her mind grows, becoming more irritating. More violating. Things were moving, something was happening and she couldn't even think what it was. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Spinel shouts as she pulls a fist back and slams it into the side of her head.
The feeling just kept on, slowly getting stronger to a point that it just made Spinel want to tear her own mind apart.
She turns to Connie, glaring at the human that was still on her soft table. Still laying there, still just doing nothing as Steven risked himself coming here for her. Even as he sat and waited, she stayed still there.
No smile, no wave, no hug, no game! She was not a friend, this human was just hurting him. Laughing at him, laughing at Spinel. Playing a game with them that they didn't want to play.
Friends don't do that.
Connie is not a friend.
"Get up. I said, GET UP!" Spinel shouts as she moves back to the soft table, and grabs at the front of Connie's covers, lifting her up from the table. "I've had it with you! Open your eyes, right now!"
She still wasn't listening, still playing with her. "Stop it, right now, I mean it!" Spinel shakes her, but even when the plastic object is thrown off her face and the tubes are ripped from her nose she remains still. "You think playing games on us is funny?! Fine, then I know a game! It's called make them go, poof, Pink used to love it!"
Tightening the grip she had on Connie's covers, Spinel raises a fist up, ready to throw all her might into a single strike on this human.
She is stopped, as the window of the room bursts apart, and Spinel feels something large crashing into her body and knocking her to the floor.
It took Spinel just a moment to recover from the shock of the strike as she shoves the object off her and looks to the window…
Her form freezes up, just like it did before when her mind was sent reeling when she saw it.
It was one of them. The Xenos.
It was the bigger one with multiple eyes. Its large body climbs into the room, not even making a single sound as it steps upon the shattered glass on the floor.
The thing that hit her, that was thrown through the window, was a human. A large one, that seemed bloated with its form. He was not moving, nor breathing. Seemingly broken as he had strange whiten objects projecting from his body and was missing two of his limbs. He had his long hair torn into, the very top of his head was carved open, its insides left hollow.
Spinel takes a step back as she sees the horrific expression of agony frozen on the human's face and slips on the warm red ooze that spilled from his body.
A large puddle had already formed under her, and she was now covered in the thick liquid. The smell was horrid. The feeling of it on her skin was as well. It made Spinel feel sick, it made her want to gag.
Tearing her eyes from the sight of the broken human, Spinel turns back to the Xeno, just in time to see it picking up Connie in its claws.
"Stop-" Spinel tries shouted as she moves to stretch herself, getting ready to spring for an attack. She doesn't even get a chance to fully stand before she is hit by a splatter of red ooze.
Right before her very eyes, she watched as Connie was effortlessly ripped in half. And she is unable to react.
Odd organic stuffing is falling out of Connie's open sides, as the bottom half of her form is thrown against the corner of the room.
Her head is taken by one of Xeno's claws and is brought to its mass of tendrils, as they violently and horribly begin to pierce into it.
Spinel's lips quiver, almost as if she would speak but is interrupted as a loud sickening crunch echoes across the room, followed shortly by the wet splat that is made due to the top of Connie's upper body being thrown against the wall next to the gem.
Half of the human's face is now gone, just replaced with a mess of organic red ooze and white structures.
The Xeno then looked to Spinel. The itching scrapes in the back of her mind growing to the point she can feel as if billions of little teeth were biting into her psyche at once.
There was a plan. There is always a plan. Target, misdirect, break, consume. No hint of hesitation, no empathy to be had. Just unending hunger.
The monster stomps towards her, it tosses aside the soft table, with enough force to make it shatter it against the wall. An alien rumbling echoes from its maw as it reaches closer towards Spinel.
Her form keeps still. There is no breath to scream. No energy to move. Spinel's body is completely numb as if she was watching from outside her own form. It's tendrils licked at her face, as it raised a claw towards her gem.
The door to the room is thrown open and Spinel only has enough time to turn her head. To see the replacement, to see her Steven.
To watch as he screams in pure terror, right before she feels a horrible piercing going through her body, as the monster slashes it claws through her very gem.
Everything goes dark afterward.
Everything becomes quiet.
The itch is still there.
The Lictor
A highly specialized development of the Tyranid bioform that is specifically adapted at stealth. Roving ahead of the main body of a swarm it seeks out pockets of resistance to be eradicated and native life forms to be absorbed. Able to move swiftly and without sound through even the densest terrain, and concealed by a chameleonic carapace that renders it all but invisible to the naked eye, a Lictor can remain hidden until it chooses to strike. Remaining motionless for days, unnoticed by its victims, it will wait till the perfect moment to strike.
When the time comes, Lictors are brutally efficient, with mantis-like claws, talons that can pierce steel, barbed flesh hooks and feeder tendrils from its maw. The feeder tendrils alone hold enough strength to pierce a victim's skull as easily as they poke through eyeballs and the sockets behind. They are used to lobotomize victims so that the Lictor can swiftly devour its brain and importantly absorb its memories. Thus, in death, the enemy reveals more to a Lictor than it ever did in life, betraying the whereabouts of comrades and exposing any weaknesses that might be exploited.
With the right victim, the Lictor and by extension, the swarm will learn who to target. Be it the world's leaders, and heroes. Who are those that are revered and looked up to as a light in dark times. They will learn how to target those, most of all. And they will learn how to break them down into nothing.
"It was like the shadows just came alive and took him, right from under our noses. One moment he was there, the next he was gone... and none of us saw an Emperor-damned thing."
— Sergeant Morvik, 351st Castobel Rifle Brigade
The Deathleaper
Of all Mankind's phobias, it is the unknown and the unseen that commands the greatest fear. None more hold such a thing, than The Hive Mind's ultimate assassin and psychological weapon, The Dealeaper, a unique Lictor bioform. Such a creature was first encountered on the missionary world of St. Caspalen. Such a world was lead by a spiritual leader, Cardinal Salem, a man both respected and loved by his people on the planet. Fueled by his faith and love of others, he carried on his mission to always raise the spirits of his people. The kind of person, that even in death, would only be seen as a martyr, steeling the resolve of the St. Caspalen people in the face of the approaching terror known as the Tyranid Hive Fleet.
The Deathleaper knew this. So instead, it broke him.
The Lictor had infiltrated the Cardinal's cathedral-bunker and slaughtered his advisors, hacked through his bodyguard, and left only the prey-leader himself unharmed, covered in the blood and viscera of his closest aides. For ten days, it would do this. Targeting the leader's friends, and family. Any who were close to him. Like a monstrous predator toying with a mouse, bypassing the ever-increasing levels of security each time to come within a claw's grasp of the Cardinal before mysteriously fleeing from the bloody scene. Leaving him to mourn over those who died for him.
The knowledge that the Tyranid assassin could eliminate him at any time was more than the Cardinal's sanity could take. His daily broadcasts became increasingly frantic, and his panic-stricken paranoia and broken mind did more to break the morale of the St. Caspalen defense forces than any mere execution could have. When it came time for the Hive-Fleet of the swarm to arrive, it was able to easily butcher its leaderless prey due solely to the actions of the Deathleaper.
"It's there, I know it is, lurking in the shadows, stalking me like an animal. It's death itself I tell you, just watching me, waiting… Oh blessed Emperor, why won't it just kill me?"
— The ravings of Cardinal Salem