Chapter Twenty-One: Tourmaline
The battle on the shoreline raged. The Central Spire was rattled by explosions from all around, coming from both Gem and Interloper forces. While their assault was being held back for now, their metallic foes inched ever closer as the Apex trudged onwards through the water. Turrets laid into it, and it was repeatedly bombarded by Gem fighter ships, but nothing seemed to slow it down.
Nines fired at the approaching Interlopers, never giving them a moment to get past. "That thing's getting closer!" she said. "Don't we have anything bigger we can hit it with?"
"This planet's not big on weapons," said Onyx. "It didn't have any reason to be, to be fair. We're lucky to have what little we got."
Tenrit stood ready with his blade, on loan from Nines. "This is bad business. Are you sure you can't call in reinforcements from Homeworld or something?"
"Doubtful. We're stretched thin as it is," said Nines.
In the middle of this battle, a third party made an unexpected appearance. Tenrit saw it first: something approaching from over the water, speeding towards them. At first, he thought it was some sort of projectile, but as it grew closer, he recognized it as a Gem ship. Specifically, a small, one-Gem skiff. Before he had time to surmise what such a vehicle was doing in a place like this, the skiff collided with the shoreline, barrelling through several Interlopers and skipping like a stone onto the land. He was also familiar with the Gem that then climbed out.
"Hey, isn't that Emerald's Pearl?" he said.
Nines gave a quick glance behind her. "Yeah, it is," she said. "What's she doing in a place like this?" Before the two could wonder further, the Pearl ran off towards one of the defense towers, evidently having seen something over there. "Emerald's not gonna like this."
"I will tell you something else she will not like." Tenrit and Nines turned around to see a new challenger standing before them: Pythoriax himself. "Me."
"You..." Tenrit hissed disdainfully. He raised his khopesh. "You're the reason I was stuck in an iron lung for five thousand years! You're gonna pay, you-"
Just as Tenrit charged Pythoriax, the latter took off into the air with his jet boosters, avoiding the former's sword strike. He summoned a pair of familiar-looking claws onto his hands, delivering a nasty slash to Tenrit's chest.
"The only one that's going to pay is Emerald," Pythoriax said coldly. "She'll pay dearly for what she has done to me. For everything she has cost me...I'll make her suffer. No, better yet, I'll take her power for my own."
"You'll have to get through us first!" said Nines. She unloaded her blaster into the general, who was only slightly inconvenienced by the ionic barrage. He held up his arms to block the beams, before flying towards the Citrine and knocking her to the ground with a kick.
"I've begun to understand why you Gems are so insubordinate," he said, looking down at his hands. "This power is almost overwhelming! I can only imagine what it would feel like to take hers for myself. Now...consider this going through you." He drove his claw downwards, sending all three blades through Nines' chest. The wound was bad enough for her body to destabilize shortly after, her armor falling limply in the place she had been. "Too easy."
"Nines, no!" yelled Tenrit. Before Pythoriax could act further, he ran over and picked up the Citrine gemstone, running off with it.
"Shame-I was going to shatter her," said Pythoriax. "No matter. I've more pressing matters to attend to. For example…" He rotated in the air, turning himself towards Onyx. The black Quartz was standing firm, hammer in hand. "...Where is Emerald?"
She opened her eyes, gazing at her surroundings. She was still in the core chamber. Zirconium was still there as well, a look of disbelief on her face. "How...is this possible?" said the latter.
The last thing she could remember, she was being held close to Emerald. No, to Pearl. No, to...what? If she wasn't Pearl, and if she wasn't Emerald, then who-what-was she?
This new being looked down at herself. Her skin was mostly green like Emerald's, but some of it was swirled in pink, like Pearl's. Biggest of all, she had four arms. The upper pair had floating touch stumps, like Emerald's exo-shell had, while the lower pair was dainty like Pearl. She wore the rest of the exo-shell as a sort of armor, with the screen forming a visor over her eyes, of which she had two, though each had two pupils. Her hair mostly resembled Emerald's, though it was slicked back rather than standing straight up. It was mostly green with pink stripes.
"This can't be happening!" said Zirconium. "This wasn't supposed to happen! Gems like you...you aren't supposed to fuse! You can't fuse!"
"Did I...did we...just fuse?" The new Gem looked down at herself once more. Indeed, she had both of her components' gems, on her stomach and upper-right forearm. Both gems were swirled with pink and green. "We did." She looked up at Zirconium. "Did you do this?"
"What!? Of course I didn't!" cried Zirconium. "I was trying to crush you! I had no idea the upper crust could fuse! You're supposed to love a Gem to be able to fuse with them!"
"Well, I love...I mean, they love each other. My components, I mean. Pearl, she looks up to Emerald. She trusts her. And Emerald respects Pearl, knows she's a Gem, too. And I...I guess their love made me."
"No!" yelled Zirconium. "An Emerald can't feel love for a Pearl! No upper-crust can love lower-class Gems! They can't see us as anything other than objects! And Pearls...they're brainwashed into loving their masters! It's not real love! You're not a real fusion!" Zirconium threw all four of her hands out towards the other fusion, attempting to grab her with her powers.
While this worked at first, the fusion instinctively tried to access Emerald's electric abilities. However, something different happened. An invisible force of her own threw off Zirconium's psychic grasp, causing her to stumble back. The fusion looked down at her own hands, confused as to what she had done.
"Rrragh...fine!" Zirconium reached up to her gemstones, pulling something out of each too quickly to see. Both of these unseen objects were slammed against each other, and the result was an ornate, white and red bo-staff. She twirled the staff in front of her. "Now we finish this. Come, Emerald!"
The fusion was quiet for a moment, taking in the thoughts of both her component Gems. When a conclusion was reached, she opened her eyes, staring at Zirconium. "My name…" She held all four of her arms up to her chest, and threw them out to the side. From all four wrists, a blade extended. Almost identical to Emerald's, though these blades were slightly longer, as well as not needing to emerge from her gemstone. "...is Tourmaline."
"Your name doesn't concern me; you'll be shattered shortly enough." Zirconium raised her lower pair of arms into the air, lifting several objects up behind her. She thrust her arms forward, and the objects were flung towards Tourmaline. The newly-formed fusion charged, slicing cleanly through each of the objects with her blades. Upon reaching Zirconium, she leapt into the air, bringing all four blades down at once. Zirconium blocked them with her staff-the two were locked in a struggle.
"I know you've been hurt," said Tourmaline, "but I can't let you destroy Homeworld. Especially not with help from the Interlopers."
"You think you can understand me? You've never felt what I have!" yelled Zirconium.
"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize you've suffered. Come with me, Zirconium, I can help you!"
"I don't need your pity!" Zirconium shoved off Tourmaline's blades, striking her repeatedly with the staff. "You think just because you two fused, you can understand me!? You will never be one of us!"
Tourmaline grabbed the staff before it hit her again. "I'm not trying to be." She tried to pull the staff out of her hands, but instead ended up throwing Zirconium against the wall so hard she smashed through it. Before she could be amazed at her own strength, Tourmaline was pulled through as well but Zirconium's psychic abilities. Both of them rocketed towards the floor of an underground chamber.
Tourmaline held out her hands to lessen the impact. However, she soon found that she didn't hit the ground at all. She slowly opened her eyes, finding herself floating inches above the floor. She awkwardly tried to maneuver herself around, twisting around like an astronaut in zero gravity. Wait a moment…
"Gravity," she whispered to herself. "My power is gravity." Knowing this, she was able to slowly lower herself down to her feet, her boots planting on the floor. Before she could study her surroundings, however, a blunt object collided with the back of her head.
"You won't win!" yelled Zirconium, continuing to swing her staff. "I won't let you destroy everything I've worked for!"
"What have you worked for?" countered Tourmaline, blocking the blows with her blades. "You really think Pythoriax wants what's best for you?"
"I don't care!" she yelled. "I just want those who made me suffer to pay! And if I have to die to achieve that, so be it!" Zirconium's power surged as a tornado of objects swirled around her. "And I'll start with you!"
Tourmaline was bombarded with these objects, doing her best to dodge or intercept them. Her powers soon came to mind, using her control of gravity to make herself nearly weightless. By doing this, she was able to use the projectiles as platforms, jumping from one to the next towards Zirconium.
With a gravitic wave blasted from her arms, Tourmaline cleared a path through Zirconium's makeshift shield. She leapt through right towards her, blades outstretched. However, Zirconium was prepared; she pushed back with a blast of psychic power, preventing Tourmaline from getting closer. Tourmaline, however, pushed back with her power as well. The two struggled in midair, each trying to outdo the other's power. The very air around them pulsed as an unstoppable force tried to collide with an immovable object. Eventually, though unable to win out, Tourmaline cut the struggle short by slashing Zirconium with her blade; the power immediately ceased, and all the objects and both Gems fell to the ground.
Tourmaline was exhausted from the struggle. She barely had enough energy to stand. Zirconium, however, was faring worse. While she wasn't nearly as tired, a large slash ran across her chest. Light poured out of the wound. While she didn't poof immediately, the flickery state of her body showed that she was about to.
A staticky message came through Emerald's communicator. "My Emerald...almost ready...five minutes…" Tanzanite.
"Understood, Tanzanite," said Tourmaline. "Prepare to fire on my command."
"What?...who...this?" came the reply.
"I'll explain later, just get ready," said Tourmaline. She deactivated the communicator and stood up, looking at her foe. "It's over, Zirconium. Pythoriax and his armies are finished...but you don't have to be." She held out a hand. "Come with me. You don't have to run anymore. I can keep you safe. I promise."
Zirconium looked down at her sorry state. "No. I'm afraid I can't accept. I won't allow myself-allow them-to be a prisoner anymore, even to one as well-meaning as you. There is only one option."
She reached her upper arms up to her shoulders...and tore her gemstones from their places. Light shone from the spot where they had been. Tourmaline tried to express her concern, but refused to hear it.
"Goodbye, Emerald."
Both of Zirconium's gemstones were immediately crushed in her grip, shattering them to pieces. A look of peace flashed across her face as her body flickered violently, before vanishing into nothing, leaving the tiny shards falling to the floor as the only memoir of her existence. Tourmaline just stood there, staring in shock at the place her fellow fusion had stood just moments prior.
AN: To put your worries to rest, Pearl will not become corrupted as well. Emerald's exo-shell acts as a barrier for corruption, so it won't spread to Pearl like it did Jasper. So there's no need to worry!
