Emerald

There is a loud popping sound as we emerge from Flint's teleportation channel. The trip had lasted barely five minutes but I still felt weakened. While everyone else landed on their feet, I fell flat upon the ashy surface of Io. Fire Opal grabbed one arm and Quartz did the other, all I could manage at the moment was a weak apologetic smile, "I thought'd be like warping…"

Fire Opal laughed at my expense, "Who would have thought the mighty Emerald Sageson, Praetorian of the Quartizine Legion, would be done in by teleportation?"

"Fire Opal! Do not speak of the Praetorian in such a manner!" Quartz yelled at Fire Opal, and unfortunately in my ear. Fire Opal returned a salvo of his own argument, my other ear quickly became collateral damage in this verbal war.

I eventually had enough of it and drudged up enough energy to push them away from me, "Alright…" I couldn't finish because the bout of nausea returned. I luckily only fell a couple inches before someone had saved me, her small grunt of exertion as she propped me on her back making me feel a tad bit bad. I decided to just grin and bear it, lifting myself off of Obsidian's back I sighed, from both the exertion and the nausea, "Thanks."

"It is no problem Emerald sir." Obsidian replied with a shy smile.

I turned to Fire Opal, "So, Peridot said that the core should be in Black's facility, and seeing as this is where you were created, lead the way."

Fire Opal shook his head, "I only know where my Kindergarten is. Didn't purple over there give us coordinates?" He jabbed a thumb at Obsidian to clarify who he was speaking about, which was unnecessary, seeing as she is the only purple hued creature here.

I crossed my arms, I knew it was petty, but seeing as she was the daughter of Black Diamond, of whom I had trusted during the rebellion (though it seems even he kept secrets), and knew about corruption, yet kept the last a secret from me… well it didn't sit right. So forgive me if I'm a bit wary about her real ties. Eventually, I decide I might as well trust Obsidian's direction; if there is a trap in waiting, well, I have been told luck travels. I just hope it knows its way across lightyears.

It has been about a day since our arrival, thanks to the innumerous active volcanoes that dot Io, we've since set up camp in Fire Opal's Kindergarten. Thank Meteor that Flint was smart enough to teleport us close enough to his Kindergarten, we wouldn't have been able to teleport to Black's facility on account of one of Black's pet projects: a type of generator that sends off a strange signal that prevents the warping in and out of the facility without explicit permission.

I was also doubly happy that I had brought Coral, he managed to create a rather cozy cave for us all to set up shop in (I would have done it myself, but I was having trouble manipulating the soil due to the amount of metal in it). Note to self, never go to a metal rich celestial body without Coral.

As I was meditating I could hear Fire Opal walk in, the way his shoes struck against the ground told me he was feeling particularly chipper about something, "Ah, nothing better than volcanic ash in the morning… or is it night? Hard to tell actually…"

"Is it even possible to have a day and night cycle on a moon?" I heard Coral ask.

Someone snapped, the small flicker of added heat identified the actor as Fire Opal, "That's what I'm saying!"

The evenly cut voice of Flint made an appearance, "Why would that matter?"

The cocky tone of Fire Opal's voice resonated in the cave, "For perpetuity's sake."

"That is nice and all Fire," I heard Quartz whisper, "But could you lower your voice? The Praetorian is meditating." Now what would I do without Quartz, even when he was a student of mine he was always such a great friend. Glad to see some things never change.

"Are we even sure he can hear us?" Fire Opal asks rather loudly. I can hear him approach and Quartz warns him to not to something. I can feel the swish of air and a spark of heat, I can see the tiniest slivers of light with my eyes shut, and as I can smell not a single thing burning (the only flammable thing on me was the hand stitched coat I've worn forever), I left well enough alone. Fire Opal snorted, "See, nothing? The guy could be asleep for all we know, he does require that more than we do."

Quartz's voice rose slightly, still unsure whether or not I was asleep or awake, "A-are you sure?"

I could hear Quartz give a slight whimper at the same time as I heard a sharp smack, both followed by Coral's chuckling, "As sure as you love him, ya crazy kid."

"S-shut up, you c-clod! What if he can hear you!" Quartz squeaked. Why was Quartz so nervous, I know he loves me as a brother, what else is there to love me as? Before I could ponder the thought any longer, I could hear the room grow quiet.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Fire Opal asked somebody softly.

Quartz seemed to lose his frantic tone for the same tone as Fire Opal, "Are you ok?"

I heard Coral ask if 'they' were alright, to which I heard Flint reply with, "She's obviously not." Ok, that caught my interest. I opened one eye a crack, my teammates were surrounding Obsidian, I immediately spotted the tears.

Obsidian rubbed the tears away, "I'm fine, really. It is just… how can you still trust me after Praetorian Emerald doesn't."

Fire Opal crossed his arms, "We don't defer to him for everything, it isn't like we're mindless drones without our own personalities."

Coral shook his head and chuckled, "Besides, it ain't like we can't make our own choices."

"But still, he's right not to trust me. I've wronged the Praetorian and I've betrayed the trust I've earned." Obsidian sniffled.

"Oh posh," Quartz objected rather loudly and authoritatively; the suddenness of it caused everyone to flinch, even me to a slight degree.

"What?"

Quartz stood up and, for the first time since I've known him, spoke with a very stern and angry tone, "You heard me child, the Praetorian does not distrust you, it may seem like it and even he may believe he feels that way but I have never known him to be as petty as such."

Fire Opal pointed at his stern compatriot, "You're only saying that because you worship him."

Coral nodded, "I'm all for giving Emerald praise, but I think you're a tad bit biased because of your feelins Quartz."

Quartz closed his eyes and released a bout of air through his nose, "The Praetorian… Emerald is daft, he is rash, he often follows his gut instinct without considering the repercussions just because he feels he needs to. Emerald often cannot truly see how his actions affects those who know him until it is nearly too late."

There is a stretch of silence, just as it became unbearable Fire Opal spoke, "Woah… how long has that been caged in there?"

Quartz still remained rigid, "Since the beginning." he turned to Obsidian and his eyes softened, "He is a dependable Gem, he is a pillar that will never crumble under the weight of a friend, he is a savior to many. But, Emerald is just the same as any sentient creature, he has his faults. I've listed the most obvious, but I can assure you that Emerald is not as petty as to distrust you for events you yourself had no hand in."

Obsidian shook her head, "But…"

"But nothing. He may think he distrusts you, like I said previously, but he is only committing another one of his faults. He is being rash and is following his gut instinct because he feels he needs to, he does so without seeing how his own actions are affecting you. But all of that considered, he does not distrust you for Black Diamond's hand in the Final Melody."

There is no further reply, and not a single bit of conversational quip is uttered. Only silence, insanity inducing silence. It goes on for the better part of the day until I finally decide I've had enough. When I stand it startles everyone; my thoughts turn to Obsidian and Quartz's words return to me. Had I truly been so inconsiderate to Obsidian? Maybe Quartz was onto something when he had called me rash, but, I cannot spare the time right now to fix my character. "Obsidian."

Her vision is fixated on the iron-rich ground, "Yessir?"

I raised an arm, "Lead the way."

It didn't seem like much, but I could tell from her change in posture that my words had told her Quartz was right, "Of course, it shouldn't be too much further."

I rubbed my hand across the sut covered cliff side and trace the bottom of the humanoid shaped hole, "Wow Fire Opal, you weren't kidding when you said you went supernova."

"Yeah…" Fire rubbed the ingrown gem on his right wrist, he had a two gem defect like I did once, however unlike me the one on his right wrist was ingrown and thus he should have been sentenced to harvesting by the rules of that time. He would have been normally too, if not for the fact when the harvesters came for him he had some sort of meltdown and ended up torching the entire moon. It took the Homeworld Loyalists a month to soothe the newly made volcanoes on Io and get Fire Opal under strict lock and key. During that time spread, we had managed to liberate many prisons.

This had made the loyalists cook up the idea of sending Fire Opal to attack us, with his state of mind he would repeat what happened on Io to us rebels when we tried to attack him. It failed naturally thanks to the smooth talking of Rose, who had managed to calm a raging Fire Opal before too much damage could be done. My coat's colors haven't been bright since...

Quartz crossed his arms, "Seems you came out of the rock a hot head, I had thought you just naturally developed it." Fire Opal was about to give a retort but was quickly silenced by a bestial roar.

Flint was the first to action, she unclipped the small black rectangle from her back and I stared in amazement as it expanded into the dual bladed scythe I've come to know in the past week. She launched into the sky and with just the tiniest flick of her wrist she severed the corrupted creature in two, the explosive plume of smoke happened seconds after. She landed back down, her eyes lit with excitement, "There are hundreds of them!"

"Hundreds?" Fire Opal gulped.

"Flint, could you be more specific?" I asked.

She nodded and answered with an uncharacteristically large amount of enthusiasm, "Enough for three legions."

I looked down at Obsidian, her gaze was once again focused on the soil beneath us. "I'll hold them off. The rest of you get that core and hightail it back to the kindergarten."

"With all due respect kid," Coral started, "I've got this one."

Quartz shook his head and drew his shortsword, "Not without help you don't."

"Look around ya boyo," Coral gestured in a circle and patted his chest, "There is iron everywhere! This is my element."

Flint looked suddenly less enthusiastic, "Are you sure you wish to do this alone?"

"I'm a coral, a chalk, barely worth to stand in any of your presences. Raised from the stone to be cannon fodder," he turned his gaze to Flint, "Or so that's how the Diamonds viewed me as I'm sure they viewed those they corrupted. So yes, I'm sure I want to do this alone."

Obsidian raised an arm, "But-"

"Ok." I say. Everyone but Coral turns to me, "What? If the chalk says he's got this, he's got this. Need I remind you that he is as much of a warrior as I am? No, so everyone understands the plan?" Nods all around. "Good, now, if it isn't too much trouble, let's get to that facility."

Coral smiles as he hears his friends leave, their echoing footsteps soon being silenced over the quaking of the legions of corrupted. He prayed to Father Meteor for strength and thanked Mother Moonstone for the advantage of element and a rather large canyon with ample room to maneuver.

The first corrupted creature reared its ugly head, Coral smiled and began his assault. The ugly maw lowers, its roar echoes for a few moments before the iron fist of Coral is shoved into it. It's muffled roar of pain and the resulting boom of its destabilization rings in Coral's ears like music.

Another creature appeared, then a second, then a third; Coral added another tally to his kill toll, then a second, and then a third. He loosed a stream of childish laughter. This is what he lived for! Not for some false idol, not for some half-baked matriarchs who made their own kind into slaves. Battle, that was what Coral still drew precious breath for.

Maybe at one point he drew it for another, but that all changed the moment his allegiances changed. The moment his eyes were opened to the horrifying truth of Homeworld. From that moment on he had cast off his assigned place in life, he fought against the tyrannical system of the Diamond Authority.

So, for the first time since the rebellion, he felt truly alive. His warrior spirit, the same one the Matriarchs of his society indirectly stated could never exist, burned with the intensity of a god. Left and right, up and down, every possible direction was filled with corrupted gems that, when they tried to rush past or overtake Coral, were burned away.

A full hour passes and neither the horde nor Coral show signs of letting up, the signs of a one sided war were evident from the many holes where Coral had uprooted the terrestrial iron deposits and applied another coating to his gauntlets.

Coral was just starting to break a sweat whenever a chill crept its way up his back. He swung the corrupted gem he was currently battling in a full circle to swat the enemy behind him. Coral flew back as the corrupted beast exploded in his hands, slashed in twain by the enemy who had still to show their face.

As Coral struggled to open his eyes he heard the slightest of giggles, however, it did nothing to warm his heart. He could practically hear the insanity dripping off of the outburst. "A toy?" the question was as innocent as the giggle prior to it. Coral finally managed to shake off his daze and opened his eyes; he found his vision taken over by a pale face with eyes of the same color. The short, jaggedly cut hair was as dark as Coral's immediate future. "A toy?" the creature repeated before gripping Coral tightly by the shoulders.

Even with the the residual energy from the battle pumping through his form, Coral could not break free of the iron cast grip of this new creature. "Could ya let go of me you crazy-" his vision is dotted with stars as the creature bashes their head against his head.

"Toys don't speak." the gem, which by now Coral was able to see was a Howlite, said with the same tone that a parent would scold a child. The creature then raised their hand, revealing a very black and white speckled gem that set it apart from all of the corrupted monsters; unlike those of the corrupted gems, of which odd specks were common, these seemed more natural, though for some reason still alien. Coral also noted for first time that none of the corrupted gems were no longer nearing him, in fact they seemed to skitter about whenever this gem twitched. "I was once a toy." it stated.

Coral dared a smile, "Oh were you?" They didn't seem to take notice of his question and instead seemed more intent on studying Coral's Gem. As this creature eyed the glossy, rust colored stone, Coral allowed his thoughts to race in order to come up with a plan. Nothing came to mind, except a blaring pain on the back of his hand. The Howlite had only traced the area around the stone, yet it still pulsed with pain.

Coral howled in pain as the Howlite traced closer and closer still; they smiled, obviously pleased with Coral's anguish, "It has been quite a time since I've been able to play with a toy."

Coral choked back another cry of anguish and spat, "Barely feel a thing, ya crazy stilton." Howlite frowned, she was corrupted, that much was evident, though she still had some sort of sanity because she appeared to dislike Coral's comment. She removed her hand, much to Coral's relief, and waved her other hand over her Gem and produced a rather wicked looking axe, much to Coral's anguish. He thrashed about in order to kick the Howlite off of him, but they were stronger than they looked. They held Coral down with one arm and smacked him with the blunt side of her axe to disorientate him.

'This is it,' Coral thought. 'This is how I die.'

There was silence, there was no light, only Howlite and Coral. Their only company being a horrid legion of corrupted Gems and a sudden bout of shadows.