Reformed
"Aww! C'mon, why can't Garnet do this or something?" Amethyst asked with a begging look plastered across her face.
"Garnet's busy with a mission right now. We can't wait to deal with the Slinker." Pink said while putting her hands on her hips, looking around the crystal-lined room with a frown. The junk seemed higher than normal, which was natural with the purple gem being the worst hoarder in the world, only beating out Greg and herself.
"Ugh… it isn't that big of a deal. And don't call it the 'Slinker', it's just weird."
Amethyst crossed her arms while Pink looked down at her and said, "But it is a big deal, if it gets throughout the entire temple, it could mean catastrophic damage to the integrity. It's the only active one left, so we need to make sure it stays in shape… and the nickname has already stuck."
Amethyst rolled her eyes, "Whatever, just don't break all my junk." And walked past her, heading towards the mounds of garbage in the middle of the room.
"I'll be extra careful." Pink said with a polite smile, giving a thumbs up. Her and Amethyst perked up when they heard the loud thunder of clutter collapsing. The two glanced at each other before she said, "I guess we should start there."
Amethyst let out a "hmph" before heading in the direction of the noise. Pink eventually passed her while walking, so the annoyed glances Amethyst made eventually left her view. It wasn't like she was paying attention to them anyway.
The mess left by the Slinker was spread out across the ground. Shelves, a weird statue, a helmet; everything you could think of was sprawled all over. It made one think of how she could even get her hands on some of the stuff. Like the gas mask that she picked up off the ground and showed to the smaller gem.
"Hey Amethyst, look! It's that thing humans used to wear a lot! It looks like-Ahh!" She recoiled and dropped the gas mask when a skull fell out onto her hand. She threw it as far as she could, making a quiet crk when it landed in the distance. Amethyst turned her head to a pile of junk and kicked it boredly, "Ugh, this is just a waste of time."
Trash fell from the pile after her kick, accidentally revealing a tentacle resting inside. Pink saw it as soon as she turned her head, her hair nearly standing up in surprise. "Amethyst! Look out!"
"Hu-AH!" Amethyst screamed as the tentacle grabbed her leg and picked her up in the air. A chattering noise came from the pile, sounding close to a growl. Then it turned to a confused tick before a pink shield crashed into the pile. Amethyst landed face first into the ground as junk fell and rolled right next to her.
Pink ran up as Amethyst lifted her head and asked, "Did ya' get it?"
"I don't believe so, it must've escaped."
Amethyst sat up as Pink walked past and scratched her head at the Slinker's disappearance. The short gem next to her looked at the remains of the pile, before she frowned and said, "Aww, my favorite round thing was in there."
"I'll get you a new round thing." Pink gave her a sympathetic smile and Amethyst in turn gave a skeptical look. She huffed as she stood up and turned to the taller gem.
"Are we gonna go after it or what?" She said gruffly, crossing her arms.
"Of course, now let's find where it went." Pink wasted no time walking ahead and going through to the other side of the destroyed junk. She looked around before checking ahead. Amethyst joined her side and lazily glanced around, before speaking up.
"Hey, over there." She elbowed Pink's hip a little bit, making the tall gem look over. Amethyst pointed over to the side, right at a tunnel leading into the side of a jagged, abrupt cliff in the room. Crystals peeked over the top, and Pink and Amethyst walked over and peered inside. The crystals in the rock lit the tunnel up in a constant glow. They glanced at each other warily before heading in.
Silence creeped onto the two as they trudged through the tunnel. It was almost perfectly circular, and appeared to be never ending. Amethyst had her arms crossed behind her head now, and her eyes darted everywhere to find something to focus on.
The veil of silence was broken when she said, "You gonna warn me next time when you throw a wall at me?"
Her words made Pink look at her confused, before realizing what she meant and then nodded, "Oh… yeah, sorry. I will."
"Well, you would be sorry if you weren't destroying stuff in my room." Pink faltered before a frown spread across her lips.
"I'm sorry, but it had you in its grasp."
Amethyst looked down before scoffing, "I could've gotten out. I would've shapeshifted."
"Except you didn't. And we're still dealing with a dangerous monster in your room."
"Hey! You have animals and stuff around your place all the time!" Amethyst threw a hand out while glaring offendedly at Pink.
"Yes, but they don't attack me and create… holes throughout the place." Pink pointed her palm at the walls around them to emphasize her point.
"This is the first-" "Second." "Second time this has happened, okay?!"
"I don't understand why you've been ignoring this blatant problem. This Slinker has been in here for nearly a whole week."
"I don't like it when you guys start goin' through my stuff. Plus, I ain't even the one who brought it in here! That was you guys," She threw her hands up while groaning, "Besides, this is all junk anyway!"
"You need to care for your room, though. I won't deny that we had a hand in it being here, but now it's tearing up your home. Shouldn't you want to stop that?"
"I'm here, ain't I?" Amethyst scowled with an annoyed glint in her eyes. Pink didn't respond, instead focused on the tunnel ahead. Her brow was knitted together as she gained a troubled look.
The cold that covered her gemstone was more prevalent than ever. It was distracted for a little bit after Amethyst walked ahead of her, her pace speeding up. Finally, after two minutes of walking, a crossroad appeared in the tunnel. Two options sat in front of them, left or right.
The two stood still for a second before Amethyst stepped into the middle and hummed. The tip of her finger met her chin as she tapped it in a quick rhythm. Which stopped abruptly when the rock above her exploded and the slinker plowed down on her, digging into the floor. Pink staggered back in shock as a cloud shot out from the hole. After regaining herself, Pink cried, "Amethyst!"
She jumped down the hole, summoning her sword in her left hand after she landed. Her eyes caught a glimpse from the purple gemstone on the ground, causing her eyes to fall into a sullen look. She picked up the purple gem off the ground and rubbed her thumb against the side. A distant shriek made her look up warily, and see that the tunnel ended ahead. Hiding Amethyst's gem behind her cloak, she continued down the tunnel to the exit. Outside the tunnel, it was much clearer than the last area she was in.
The garbage that ruled the room wasn't as piled up. The purple gem probably didn't go over this far in the room, which was something Pink was glad for. Having to find a quick, sneaky, and dangerous monster in piles of random human paraphernalia wasn't the easiest thing on Earth to do.
And doing it alone was even harder. Now she was left by herself to deal with the pesky creature. A deeper part of her corrected 'creature' to gem. They weren't just fighting monsters or animals. These things used to be normal gems, soldiers, friends-
Her thoughts were interrupted by a purple light radiating from her cloak. She looked at Amethyst's gem to see it was reforming already, and let it fly up in the air. Amethyst reformed into her previous look, and landed a bit unceremoniously. "Hey, welcome back Ameth… haha!"
Pink laughed uncontrollably when she realized that Amethyst's arms came back as two more extra legs, even having feet at the end. Amethyst blushed before crossing her… legs and frowning.
"Why, hehe, why do you have legs for-hahaha! I'm… hold on… haaa, give me a second!" Pink wiped the edge of her eye and giggled quietly, holding down her laughs. After a while, Amethyst blushed and asked, "Okay, are you done?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I… whoof, I was not expecting that!" Pink smiled childishly before asking, "Why did you come back like that?"
"It's nothing, I just like walking!" Amethyst said as she quickly began walking away, moving her head to make Pink think she was searching for the Slinker. Pink followed right behind, her smile slowly turning into an amused grin. Then, after a few moments passed, she asked, "You should change your form back now. I mean, that was a good joke, but we need to get back to hunting down the Slinker, you won't be able to use your whip with feet."
"Maybe you should mind your own business." Amethyst retaliated, angrily looking back at her. Pink's eyes grew disturbed when she saw that a huge ear was poking out from Amethyst's hair. She slowly lifted up a finger and pointed at her, "Did… you mean to have that?"
Amethyst blushed and stopped dead in her tracks. She flew around and glared at her, "What? You got a problem with how I look?!"
"W-what? No! No, it's just-"
"It's my business how I reform, okay! I get to choose how I look, it doesn't matter to you if I rush it or not!"
"You… rushed your form? I… Amethyst, you need to take your time with it, like Pearl. I thought it was a… I'm sorry, but you need to fix yourself." A worried look flashed over Pink before Amethyst snarled.
"You sayin' I'm wrong?! Sorry but I'm not Pearl! And you're the last person who needs to tell me to fix myself!"
"What do you mean?"
Amethyst's glare hardened at the genuinely confused look plastered on Pink's face. "You know what I meant!"
Before the two could continue their slowly heating up conversation, a tentacle wrapped around Amethyst's leg and dragged her into a nearby junk pile. Pink's body shot up in horror as a purple cloud once again exploded. With a summoned sword in one hand and a shield hovering over her forearm, she carefully stepped up to the pile. A quick poke into it garnered no reaction from anything.
After a deathly quiet moment, she seized the opportunity to find and grab Amethyst's gem again and kept it close to her chest. Her mind tried racking what the purple gem was saying.
A part of her knew why she was saying it.
Yet she steeled her nerves and continued the hunt of the dangerous Slinker. The thing had poofed Amethyst twice already. It was clear the thing was strong enough to simply squeeze a gem to poof, and it loved sneak attacks. Simply amazing .
She internally groaned before another glow from Amethyst's gem made her look down at it. Releasing it into the air, Amethyst reformed yet again and…
The biggest deadpan she ever made spread across her face. Amethyst reformed into a shabby recreation of Pearl. The collar and sleeves were overly exaggerated, and nearly falling down to the floor. Her hair was longer than her arm, and she even had a sharp, pointed, upturned nose to finish off her crude look of Pearl.
"What… am I looking at?" A hint of pure confusion rode on her voice as she stared at Amethyst. Or would it be Ame-pearl?
"What? I took my reformation seriously, just like you said. You told me to take my time, like Pearl , so I did." Amethyst gave a snarky, wide smile before twirling around on her foot. "What do you think of my look?"
Pink shook her head, "That's not what I meant. I didn't mean to literally be like Pearl."
"I just did what you said. You can't really be mad at that, soooo." Amethyst stuck her tongue out to make her taunting even more annoying. A disappointed frown stretched Pink's face, before her brow furrowed and she walked past Amethyst coldly. The purple gem turned and followed, putting her hands on the back of her neck.
"I feel so elegant and tidy now, I can almost feel how everyone besides me is so idiotic! Simply horrendous!" Amethyst put on a fake fancy accent while putting the back of her hand to her forehead.
Her words garnered no reaction from the pink gem she was following. So she continued… for several more minutes. She would make fun of her appearance, the environment, anything to try and get under Pink's gem. What she didn't know was that she was slowly making the diamond boil with anger. The Slinker's trail had stopped at a large clearing, almost surrounded by junk mounds around the sides.
Then she saw another tentacle laying on the ground, just barely poking out from the garbage. She paid no attention to Amethyst as she slowly snuck in for an attack, lifting her sword just above the tentacle.
"OH THIS GARBAGE IS JUST LUDICROUS!"
Pink nearly fell backwards as the Slinker struck out at her from surprise, before quickly disappearing deeper into the mound. Amethyst continued on rambling as Pink breathed in while glaring at the trash in front of her. She stood straight up as Amethyst ended her rant and placed her hands on her hips.
"Didn't anyone tell nature how I want it to lo-"
"Stop being an idiotand help!"
Pink's scream made Amethyst shudder as the pink gem's head shot at her with a dark glare, her diamond pupils white. "This whole time, I've been the only one actually doing something! Just once can you find it in your gem to help with anything?!" The anger fell from Pink's face, replaced by desperation. "Please, Amethyst, stop!"
A few seconds of silence went by before Amethyst finally recovered and snarled. "It's not like you're helping at all!"
A moment of confused silence went by before Pink yelled, "WHAT?! I've been doing everything . You-ya-you can't-"
"How's keeping Homeworld a secret helping, huh?!" Amethyst yelled, her eyes nearly tearing up at the full emotional anger behind her words.
Every emotion on Pink's face drained away into a blank stare on Amethyst, a shadow covering most of her expression. Amethyst didn't falter as she continued, "Everything was fine until Peridot came, and then you said you knew she was here! You even dragged Steven in with you because he was some witness or something!
"I mean, did you want us to get killed?! Ha, we nearly did already when Peridot and that big gem came! They destroyed us! And now they're somewhere on Earth and we're wasting time with a stupid monster that doesn't even matter! T-this whole thing is stupid and I can't even be mad about-"
She took in the look on Pink's face before gritting her teeth and turning on her heel. Her footsteps were heavy as she began stomping away. Pink didn't move to follow her, instead keeping her stare on the ground as her face quivered.
"Am… Amethyst wait." Her foot barely listened to her as she willed it to step forward. Amethyst didn't listen, not even sending a glance back at her. "Amethyst… you have a right to be mad!"
The purple gem slowed before letting out a huff and turning her head. "Yeah right! How can I be the only one mad when everyone else already moved past this! You all act as if it didn't matter! Pearl and Steven are doing weird training stuff and Garnet's always off trying to find Jasper and Peridot! I… know I need to move on but it's just so confusing!"
She kicked a rock and split it down the middle, and the other half fell over with a dmpf on the ground. Her fists tightened, the pressure egging her anger. "What was even the point?! Did you just want to kill us, is that it!"
Turning on her heel, she stomped over to Pink, making a small, single crack every time her foot met the ground. "Did you just not want to deal with us? Huh, I guess old habits die hard! You are a diamond after all!" She jabbed her finger up at Pink's gem, causing the diamond to recoil and stagger, her face scrunching into a dejected look.
Pink placed a hand on her gem as she averted her gaze to the ground. Amethyst's anger took a dive, her words rolling in her head before she scowled and looked away.
"That isn't it, Amethyst." She glanced over at Pink, which came out as more of a glare. "I… didn't want to break the team apart with the threat. I knew that it would hurt us and we wouldn't be prepared. I… thought it was to protect you, but… I only hurt you all more."
"Yeah, you think?!"
Both stopped instantly when a tentacle wrapped around their arms. In a single instance, they were being pulled towards a cluster of large crystals, a small crack between them. A cyan colored mouth sat inside.
Amethyst struggled as much as she could, trying to regain her footing on the ground. Pink bit her lip before pointing her foot towards the Slinker. A pink shield shot out, flying towards the cluster of crystals. The tentacles loosened before the shield crashed into the crystals. Rocks and pieces of the crystals launched everywhere as the cluster was destroyed.
Amethyst was released and flung against the ground, rolling on her side before stopping unceremoniously on the dirt-rock mixture. She stood up and growled, "Ugh! I'm sick of this thing!"
The area fell silent as Pink summoned a shield near her arm and looked around, trying to catch sight of the monster. She stopped and tilted her head slightly when a low cracking noise reached her hearing.
Then the ground underneath the two collapsed.
Amethyst fell backwards and Pink fell forwards as the dirt and rock raced down into the growing crater. The collapse roared across the temple as a plume of dust rose up in the air. Silence fell across the room before Amethyst's head popped out of the dirt. She coughed up dirt and groaned, "Now what?!"
Her eyes whipped left and right before widening. Pink crawled out of the dirt shortly after, while she dusted herself off and looked around. Amethyst stood a short distance away from her as they both seemed taken aback. They were surrounded by rounded, rough walls, rocks poking out and stabbing through them. The large tunnels they travelled through not even fifteen minutes ago were lined up, pointing straight at them.
"Did the ground fall? What's going-" A black figure shot past Amethyst, grazing her head and cutting off a chunk of her hair. It disappeared into the air as she stood frozen in shock. "On."
A chattering noise echoed through the tunnels while Amethyst summoned her whips. Pink flickered her eyes from tunnel to tunnel, her nose and brow scrunched up in frustration. 'Why is this corrupted gem so smart?!'
The Slinker shot out again, using its tentacles to throw itself out of the tunnels at hyperspeed. This time it knocked the two down on their backs, using the ends of its tendrils to get quick, stinging lashes on them. Amethyst's whip was useless, none of her strikes coming close to the monster. Pink was faring a little better, her shields able to interrupt the Slinker's dash. But even with them, the Slinker used its speed to its advantage.
It wrapped a tentacle around one of Pink's shields and swung around, running down the diamond and using the speed to fly off and almost crush Amethyst. The diamond, after getting hit with the force of a full blown monster, slumped against the wall before coughing and pushing herself back up.
Her form held together, but it was stressed. 'Anymore time in this pit could mean shattering! '
"Amethyst, we have to do something!" Pink yelled to the smaller gem.
"No duh! This thing is too fast man!" She put a hand out before the Slinker shot out again, this time grabbing onto her neck. It took her along and slammed her into the wall, right as it went back into a tunnel.
Amethyst groaned in pain as Pink stepped forward with a snarl, "I should've done this at the beginning." She put her arms out before walls began forming at the tunnel entrances. The shields acted as barriers, stopping anything from going in or out of the holes. "There, that should give us some time."
"Good, lets get out of this stupid crater!" Amethyst groaned and began walking to the curling wall.
"Wait… we… Amethyst, I think we might need Enstatite."
An instant, "No way!" Came from Amethyst as she turned and pointed angrily. "There is no way I'm fusing with you!"
"Just listen to me. The Slinker won't be able to use its speed when it can't get near us. And her weapon-"
"I don't care what she can do! I'm not fusin'!" Amethyst crossed her arms defiantly and snarled, "Go find someone else to manipulate!"
"Manipulate?! That's crossing a line! I don't manipulate anyone!"
The ground behind Pink flew open and sent dirt everywhere. Just the force of it sent Pink and Amethyst to the ground and scrambling to protect themselves from the volley of dirt. Amethyst shook her head and glared around, then turned her head up.
It took everything she had to quickly tackle to the left to avoid being crushed by the monster. ?" Amethyst yelled while The dirt flew up behind her, coating her back with a fresh new coat of purplish rock.
She shook off the dirt as Pink stood up and said, "Amethyst, Please! I know… I've known you for four thousand years," She shook her head. "Not one moment in any of them did I ever intend on hurting any of you... I'm sorry."
Amethyst sat in silent contemplation, staring at her with a glare. And then she let out a loud, annoyed groan and yelled, "Fine!"
She made it over and grabbed Pink's hand, taking her by surprise. The taller gem stared at her, seeing how Amethyst's eyes were focused more on the ground. Then she nodded her head and began the dance.
It was short, to the point, and more importantly, worked. The two were engulfed by light, feeling their minds slowly merge before Enstatite appeared.
She put her hands on her hip and gave a frustrated sigh. "So, it's one of those days huh?" She said to no one while she brought her hands up and cracked her knuckles. A mirthless chuckle escaped her throat before, in a blur, she reached backwards. Her lips turned up into a wide sneer as she looked at the squirming monster now stuck in her grasp, her sharp canine teeth glinting.
"Sorry Slinker… but you gave u-Pink and Amethyst a really bad time. So now you've caught me in a bad mood." Her eyes hardened at the monster before she threw her fist down, slamming it into the ground. It wreathed and tried using its tentacles to escape. Enstatite squeezed harder, her hands gaining a small vein from the pressure.
Seeing no other options from the death grip, the Slinker aimed its head at her before a shot of pitch black ink came barreling out and hit her in the eyes. "Augh! What the fu-"
She grabbed at the ink, trying her hardest to get it off her face. Clawing it away, she whipped her head and saw the Slinker had escaped, leaving no trail. Her hands clenched together tightly before she felt her form waver. She was losing stability, and hit her leg harshly.
"Not… now! Hold it together… you idiots!" Her own anger was boiling with it, not helping at all in keeping her form together. But it held, and soon she took a few moments to collect herself before continuing.
"You both did this to kill it, so… we're all gonna do just that. No matter what's goin' on between us."
After the two halves of herself had calmed down, she took action and climbed out of the crater. The hole was making it harder to stay together as it was. Nothing could be heard of the Slinker, and a part of her wondered if it genuinely left.
A tentacle grabbed her foot. It didn't leave.
She turned her head, seeing the origins of the tentacles at a pack of crystals. It was pulling on her foot, trying tos drag her there. She pulled back.
The force brought the Slinker flying out, hissing the entire throw before landing on the ground. Just as it tried moving again, Enstatite's right hand came down on it, pushing it roughly on the ground.
Her left hand began glowing a pale cream before it turned into fire. If the Slinker had eyes, then they were wider than the full moon.
Without saying anything, she brought her fist down onto it. An explosion of clouds and fire burst out, covering her sight. The feeling of the Slinker under her was gone, and a bubble of satisfaction rose in her stomach.
After the clouds dissipated, she found the Slinker's gem and tapped it with one finger. A brown bubble appeared around it. She tapped it again to send it off, her eyes staying where they were as she watched it go off.
Then she smiled, "Guess I'm gone then. Try not to kill each other, alright?" She looked down at her hand before unfusing, leaving Pink and Amethyst standing near each other.
The smaller gen had her arms crossed, staring to the side. Her form was normal now, with a black shirt that was properly on her shoulders now. Pink gave her a glance before awkwardly frowning.
"Well... I guess it's over."
Amethyst hummed before huffing, "Yeah, well... You better not lie to us again."
"I won't, I promise." Pink gave a smile, even if it was weak.
'I'm sorry Amethyst, but I don't think I can keep that. I already made a promise to keep things you can't know hidden. But-"
She stopped and turned to Amethyst, trying to spark a conversation.
"You… reformed properly."
Amethyst's arms slumped in their position, and she said, "Yeah… so?"
"You look amazing! Oh, and you fixed that shoulder strap! Pearl's gonna love it!" Pink couldn't stop the giddy feeling brewing in her gem.
A blush creeped on Amethyst's face at the enthusiasm. She rubbed the back of her neck and said, "You… you think so?"
"I know so! Oh, we have to show the others! They'll be so happy!"
"W-wait! Hold on!"
The purple gem struggled, but it was too late to escape the grip the diamond had on her. She put on a frustrated glare, but it disappeared into a wide smile as soon as her face was out of view.
