Chapter 8

A couple of Chromites were chucked through the windows of an oriental shop from the fight going on outside that Zircon and Steven were a part of. Slowly being surrounded by the swarm of Chromites, the two half-Gems tried to hold off these foes with the use of the molotovs. Quickly pulling Steven back as a Chromite tried to gnash at the little guy, Zircon was starting to panic about the situation. "Darnit! We're not gonna have enough for all of them!" Zircon shouted out. From his side pocket in his trench coat, Zircon pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Labra, status update!"

"It's not looking good, Zircon!" Labra shouted back on the other end. "Me and Pearl are down to our last five molotovs!"

"Me and Garnet are on our last three!" Amethyst popped in as well.

Clicking his teeth in anger, Zircon grabbed Steven's hand and pulled him down an alleyway as the pack of Nega-filled Chromites chased after the two boys. "Z-Zircon, what's the plan?!" Steven shouted out in panic as Zircon was trying to think at a light-speed process in order to not get them eaten early. "Zircon, you've been here before with your dad, right?"

"Well, dad and Pearl, yes!" Steven answered.

"This is a bit of a theory, but in order for Carnelia to set off all of these Chromites, she needs to be in a place of great "connection", to say the least." Zircon startd.

"What exactly do you mean?" Steven questioned.

"Well, think of her as some kind of humanized Wi-Fi router! Whenever I'm around her, the Nega-Dust inside me feels for her! I feel connected to her in a way!" Zircon tried to explain as he forced Steven to duck, a Chromite zooming past their heads and into a wall where Zircon and Steven turned to go down another alleyway. "I-I guess that makes sense!" Steven answered, understanding a bit of what Zircon was trying to get at.

"So in order for her to connect to all of these Chromites, to set them all off, she needs a place that's high enough for her "connection" to project of from." Zircon finally finished. Inside Steven's head, thoughts were all muddling around until one came into the light that made Steven's eyes shot out in his little "ah-hah" moment, "Zircon! I think I know where she is!" Steven then took the walkie-talkie from Zircon as he spoke in it to reassure the others that there is still a way, "Guys! I know where Carnelia is! Me and Zircon are heading there right now!"

"Steven, be careful!" Garnet exclaimed from the other end.

"Kick her butt!" Amethyst followed.

"We're all counting on you two!" Pearl continued.

"I have faith in you, boys!" Labra finished as the two half-Gems were now filled with invigorated hope that they could stop Carnelia's plan. Putting Steven up on his back, Zircon summoned a giant, skeleton fist that pushed them up onto the rooftops and away from the encroaching and still pursuing pack of Chromites, leaving them in the alleyway scratching against the dead end wall that they were left at. "Steven, where to?!" Zircon shouted out as Steven pointed ahead, "There!" Steven's finger pointed across the rooftop span as before them was a skyscraper that seemed to have protruded out from the city itself. "The Imperial Monument Building!"

Up on the Imperial Monument's rooftop helipad, Carnelia was standing on the stone railing, looking down at the city below her. Relishing in her glorious plan, her eyes slowly closed as she thought back to her earlier life. When she was first created, she remembered being one of the successful excavations from Earth in its earliest processes. Fortunately for her, along with all of her fellow "sisters", they were taken back to Homeworld before the Rebellion led by Rose Quartz even began, much to Carnelia's disdain. She felt like it would've been an amazing carnage to witness~…

Unlike her "sisters" though, Carnelia, in particular, was special. She was one of the rare Gem Witch breed that specialized in not-so-normal powers that would differ from the usual breed. Obviously, Carnelia's ability to make her designated as a Gem Witch was the Nega-Dust. Her power was something of which Carnelia felt she would use to gain a great title from the Diamonds. When she revealed this ability to her superiors (at the time), they felt she was a worthy enough asset to show to the Diamonds, Yellow specifically. When Carnelia's superiors brought her before Yellow Diamond, they had no idea what the little witch had planned. In exchange for Carnelia's ability, she demanded that Yellow Diamond gave her a position of power, specifically a Diamond Advisor. Carnelia's teeth clenched when she remembered Yellow Diamond's laugh…and her words.

"A lowly Gem like yourself is only best suited as the weapon she was originally created for."

Carnelia never liked the idea of being someone's pawn. She always thought of herself more as a leader than a follower… Using her abilities to cause a riot within Yellow Diamond's HQ, she stole one of Yellow Diamond's personal aircrafts and fled from Homeworld. After which, Carnelia became a well-known and infamous Rogue Gem, a title given to the most highly wanted Gem criminals that would dare disobey the Diamonds…

"Hehehe~…if only dear, mother Yellow could see me now~. Once I bring this planet that they so desperately failed to capture to its knees, they WILL give me my well-deserved title." Carnelia thought with pure bliss as she ran her hands down her cheeks.

"So that's what this is about, huh?" Carnelia's head quickly turned to face behind her to see Zircon and Steven walking out from the helipad's roof entrance. "Seems little miss witch's dream is to be a darling, little Diamond Princess~." Zircon teased mockingly.

"And here I thought you learned your lesson the last time we faced each other." Carnelia sneered, materializing her nine-tailed whip, making Zircon and Steven materialize their weapons in response. "Stay close to me on the attack, Steven." Zircon requested as Steven nodded his head, still keeping his sight on Carnelia.

"Oh how cute~. "Brothers" reunited after so long. Almost brings a tear to my eye." Carnelia fake wiped her eyes. "How about I kill one of you first so you can relish the idea of reuniting once more in death!" She shouted out as the nine leather whips from her nine-tail whip lashed out at the two boys, making Zircon and Steven roll off to the side. A majority tried to attack Zircon with Carnelia thinking he's the most dangerous, only for a pink bubble to shield Zircon from the attacks. With Steven adding spikes to the outer wall of the bubble shield, Zircon ran it straight towards Carnelia, making her leap away to the side. With the bubble shield dissipating at Steven's command, Zircon made a sharp turn with the help of his sickle scraping into the ground and dashed straight at Carnelia. She admitted in her mind that these two's teamwork was starting to become annoying…

("Maybe I can make this a lot more interesting…") Carnelia thought as a sly grin crept across her face. Standing up she held her hand out, forcefully, making Zircon immediately stop in his tracks and convulse a bit as he seemed to be struggling against something.

"Oh no…no no no no no!" Steven yelled out as he knew what Carnelia just did. Screaming out in pain, Zircon dropped to his knees as he held his head in great pain, his eyes' pupils convulsing between their normal black color to the Nega-Dust's unsightly orange effect. She was trying to brainwash him again.

"Hmmm…you know what." Carnelia started as she snapped her fingers. On that command, it sounded as if the sound of something shattering echoed through Zircon's mind as now the orange from his pupils spread out to his irises and eventually the white of his eyes, where all could be seen in his two orbs was nothing but orange. "Servitude to me is still too good for someone as an annoyance." Carnelia cackled out afterwards as Zircon fell backwards against the helipad.

"ZIRCON!" Steven yelled out as he ran to his best friend and held him up as Zircon was convulsing and shaking in Steven's arms. "What did you do?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!"

"You see my portly, little thing. There are certain typings of my Nega-Dust. One of them you saw when I brainwashed him to work for me using his negative tendencies. Another is what I'm using to entice violence out of these people using the dark thoughts of their minds as amplifiers. This one I just did to your friend is unleashing all of them onto him at once…Anger, Depression, Wrath, anything that would leave one's mind in an extremely fragile state. I call it, the Insanity Phase~." Carnelia cooed out after her explanation, making Steven's expression one of complete shock and dread. "I feel so sorry for that puny mind of his~. It must be too much to bear with all he's been through~. Now then, let's get this party started~!" Carnelia announced as she stood up on the stone ledge once more and an aura-like power surged from her body and went all around the city. The Chromites began to burst, unleashing the Nega-Dust stored inside of them.

Garnet covered her mouth and nose as she coughed, "Amethyst! A-Amethyst are you oka-" Before Garnet could finish, she was tackled down by a frenzied Amethyst, already being overtaken by the Nega-Dust's effects. Over in the Musical District, Pearl and Labra were already wrestling on the ground trying to tear each other apart. All Steven could do was look on in utter dismay, his hopefulness shattered to dust as he held a quivering Zircon in his arms.

"Zircon…" Steven whimpered as his head slowly fell to Zircon's…

"ZIRCOOOOON!"