This chapter is dedicated to Adelphius over on AO3. You enjoyed Happy Anniversary so much on there, even if it hasn't been cross-posted completely yet (as of me writing this). Because you reminded me to do it, I went and did a few more chapters, and while I was doing so thought of this little ficlet. So, thank you! This is for you. It wouldn't have existed without your comment.
Amethyst was a sly one all right. Quick, cunning, and quiet when he needed to be, there was a very good reason he was the scout of the Gem Gang. He was very proud of how well he could track things, too. It came naturally to him.
What didn't come naturally to him was politics. That was the domain of his friends Diamond and occasionally Ruby, although the latter could cause a little more volatility than not at times. So how he came to be here, in Legion, asking after his apparently sick friend when there were others far better suited to dealing with governmental headaches and run-arounds was anyone's guess. He blamed bad karma. Or maybe it was because Diamond was on a mission? No. Definitely bad karma, he figured, when the umpteenth secretary he was trying to interrogate about his friend's whereabouts, his condition, is he okay? Went all pretty much ignored or talked over as the elderly secretary went on blabbering. And on, and on, and on some more for kicks. Another secretary was actually giving him a sympathetic look, as well as making a few sideways glances at the fellow currently droning his life away. Clearly this rambling was a more common and unfortunate occurrence than even those working at Legion would have liked.
Then they all heard a scream from the garden. Amethyst ran.
Amethyst was okay at running. Not as quick or agile as his fellow Gem Gang member, Opal, but she could probably out-speed the Model H Mega Man if she put her mind to it. He was only okay at it. Amethyst ran like mad all the same. He arrived at the garden, panting and out of breath, to a couple of people already searching for the disturbance. Amethyst already knew, however, who it had been doing the screaming. He'd recognized the voice after all. Knowing that it was his friend made everything worse, so much worse, when no one could find head nor tail of what had occurred. He ended up running around that entire garden, through both the winding paths and the wild brush, at least three times over in search of clues.
He never found more than a few odd, dangerous looking footprints, and some damaged branches from where something had flown away.
Days passed after that incident. Every member of the Gem Gang applied for information on behalf of their friend at least once, the Pearl twins included. After some tricky finagling with various misdirections, dodging bureaucratic red tape, and even a few sneaky bribes here and there, they learned that he was alright, apparently, even if they weren't able to see it for themselves. They learned he was alive. No more, no less. That wasn't enough for them, of course. What sort of horrors was their friend dealing with if he was screaming in pain in the middle of a Legion-owned garden? So they kept searching.
But despite their heroic efforts, they never really did find out what happened...