AUTHOR'S NOTE : Do NOT read this story if you haven't caught up with the previous story An Ace's Journey Continues.
(MEANWHLE..)
A green vortexed portal opened, and out came Ariefh, badly hurt.
He ran to a nearby dumpster, and hid by crouching.
Out came next, a badly hurt Black Diamond.
"I know you know where Jarek went. here did he go?" She said, walking on her bare feet since her high heels were ruined during their battle.
(EARLIER...)
"Holly, where's Aquamarine?" Black Diamond asked.
"I don't know, I've been working on this paper all day!" Holly Blue Agate said, signing a paper that seemed to be really important.
Black Diamond grabbed her phone, and dialed Jarek's number.
"The person you are trying to call is not available-" The phone said before Black Diamond ended it right away.
"Damn it." She said, then she saw a number on the coffee table in front of her, and examined it.
It had symbols on it that were illegible to others, but she knew what it meant.
"That bastard. He's gonna pay for this." She said, gritting her teeth.
(Oculus Chamber)
Arief was gathering power from the Oculus orb hovering above him, in the entire room.
(Boom!)
He looked at the doors, which had ancient hive symbols written all over it. It read GLYPH on it.
Then one of them flew towards him, causing him to dodge on instinct.
Black Diamond came into the room, with her outfit slightly ruined.
"Arief!" She said.
"Miss Black Diamond, whatever is wrong?" Arief asked.
"Where are my daughters?" She asked.
"I returned Magma home, she should be there." He said.
"She did come home, but now she's not there anymore, and I saw your contact info that her father left behind." She said.
"Then that seems like a you problem. I did my part, and protected her." Arief said.
"Excuse me?! How dare you say that!" She said.
"It is true, and you are out of line, breaking into my room." Arief said before doing his war cry, which was a loud, distorted roar.
Several gems that wore outfits similar to those of Hive Acolyte, came out of the two exits from beneath his ground.
"Don't think that's gonna scare me, Warpriest. Either you hand over my daughters or you'll be sorry!" Black Diamond said.
"It appears you and I are at an impasse. My condolences to your partner for this." Arief said, aiming his Boomer gun at her, and firing once.
Black Diamond summoned her scythe, and blocked the blast.
Then the Acolyte gems began shooting their wire rifles at her.
Black Diamond was getting hit by the arc blasts, as she ran for cover.
"See to it she doesn't leave here ALIVE." Ariefh said to the gems.
"I don't think so!" Black Diamond said. She then positioned her scythe upwards, with the blade pointing to what was in front of her, and hit the ground with the bottom of the weapon, causing a forceful shockwave to blast everything in its path, in a 5 yard radius.
The entire chamber started collapsing.
(POOF!) x 9
Arief appeared from behind a pillar beside her, and grabbed her by the hair.
"OWW!" She yelled as she reached for him.
Arief blasted her twice in the face with his Boomer gun, sending her flying to a piercing statue.
She wasn't impaled because luckily she landed on a smooth part, instead of a spike.
She hit the floor, and got up with ease, and ran towards him, deflecting his incoming blasts. She grabbed the gun and positioned it upwards, making him shoot the ceiling.
He punched her with his left hand, causing her to flinch, but recover in time to land a critical blow to his stomach.
Arief dropped his gun, and received another punch in his stomach area.
She uppercutted him, and sent him flying straight to the exit doors behind the Oculus.
The doors cracked, some wood flying past the other side of the doors.
Arief fell to his back, and attempted to get up.
"Not bad, but you're not strong enough to beat a diamond. Didn't Jarek teach you that lesson already?" Black Diamond asked, approaching him.
"Except he spared me." Ariefh said. He raised his left hand, and called upon the Oculus' power.
The white light glowed bright, and began attacking Black Diamond's light, but it didn't do much damage to her as she already had dark energy within her.
"Not gonna work." She said, smirking evilly.
Then he aimed his gun right for her gem.
Black Diamond laughed at him.
"FIRE!" He fired a blast, and this time, it struck her gem, bringing her to her knees.
Then he closed his hands.
[EXPLOSION!]
(Earth ; NOW)
Arief growled at her.
Black Diamond adjusted her top so it wasn't revealing so much of her chest.
"Blowing up your home to try and kill me is child's play! You even ruined my makeup!" She said.
"Knock knock." He said.
"Who's there?" She said.
"Boo." He said.
"Boo who?" She said.
"Stop crying over your stupid makeup." He said, before shooting her again.
Black Diamond grabbed the blast, and absorbed its power, restoring some of her energy.
He grunted, and started shooting her without stopping.
Black Diamond grabbed two of the blasts, but was struck by the next three that came.
She fell on her back, trembling, and struggling to move. She moaned in pain, and grunted.
Once he was near her, she tried to punch him, but grabbed her right wrist, and twisted her arm.
She yelled in pain.
"You shouldn't have came at me." He said.
"You fucking monster! Let go of me!" She said, trying to yank back her arm.
"Certainly." He said, tossing her over him, to the dumpster.
She fell inside.
He closed the lid, sealed it shut, and kicked it, so it rolled away, into the street.
Conveniently, a large truck collided into the dumpster, making fly, with tons of trash flying out.
Though Ariefh found it hilarious, he remained silent.
(Beta Kindergarten)
Jarek's clone looked at the defeated corrupted gems, who were now laying there on the ground, whimpering in pain, unable to get back up.
"These poor gems deserve to be restored, not tormented because of their instability." He said.
"Why do you care about them? They're weak, that's why they ended up that way." Jasper said, with her arms crossed.
"You don't know what happened, do you?" Jarek's clone asked.
"What do you mean what happened?" She asked, now intrigued. "The gem war happened, and my diamond was shattered! Rose Quartz is loose, and very much alive! She deserves to pay for what she's done, and I thought these gems would been my chance at victory, until you showed up with Lapis Lazuli, and that traitorous peridot, and destroyed my plan!" She said.
"I did what I had to. You were going to use tormented corrupted gems to help win against them. I'll have you know, everything you know is a lie." He said.
"What are you saying? Do you think I'm just gonna believe anything you tell me because I like you? Is that what you're gonna do now?" She asked.
"No, damn it, I'm gonna tell you that she's not really gone." He said.
There was silence.
"Impossible. You're lying." She said.
"Am I, Jasper? Then why is it that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond, in her own palanquin without being attacked? How can a villainous brute breach security, and shatter a leader without alerting even ONE gem? How's that possible?" Jarek's clone asked.
"Maybe she slipped past them!" Jasper said.
"She didn't slip past them, Pink Diamond created an alternate version of herself because she fell in love with this planet. The creation of the gems here in these kindergartens were killing this place, and leaving nothing behind. Take a minute to think about it." Jarek's clone said.
Jasper couldn't believe what she heard. She found it believable, but she wasn't finished just yet.
"How do I know this isn't an attempt to get me to leave the gems alone?" She asked.
"Because if I wanted you to leave them alone, I would have killed you already. That's the only way. I prefer to save people than to just kill them." Jarek's clone said.
".. Really?" She asked, actually showing concern.
".. Yes. I thought, since you served Pink Diamond, you have the right to know that she really is still alive.. but as Steven now. She gave up her diamond life to become Rose, and she fell in love and had a child, Steven being that child." He said.
"I don't believe this. Why didn't I know that? Why didn't she tell me?! Why didn't Steven say anything?!" She said.
"Because he didn't know then, but he does now. And now that you know, I think you oughta start working on your apology to him." He said.
She looked to her left arm and rubbed it.
"I'm stuck here. I'd never get to him on time. He's probably gone by now. The diamonds are coming." She said.
"It's not too late." He said, lifting her chin up, even though she was still taller than him.
She looked into his eyes.
"I'm gonna get punched. Nice one, Jarek." Jarek's clone thought.
She looked at his hand.
He moved his hand away from her face.
She grabbed his hand.
"I wasn't trying to come off as weird. Don't hit me." He said.
"I'm not gonna hit you." She said.
"Then what are you gonna do?" He asked.
"Just.. stop for a moment. And tell me : are you really telling me the truth?" She asked.
"Yes. I promise you, I am." He said.
There was a moment of silence. A mere minute passed, but it felt like forever for the both of them.
She let go of him.
"Let's get out of here. These gems are beaten, we should leave before they wake back up." He said.
".. Fine. You're leading the way?" She said.
"Yes." He said.
The two walked away from the sight.
...