Homeworld

The kindergartens on Homeworld are old, very old. Few gems are born from their withered husks - the life force needed for their formation long since used millennia ago - and even fewer still ever come to visit. Especially when the glowing perfection of gem society lies above, far contrasting the drab grey collection of rocky tunnels and towers that made up the kindergartens.

Though this suited those who call this place home just fine, all the less to bother the assortment of outcast gems who live there, as if they didn't have enough to worry about already. Those who are malformed, rebellious or disgraced each shirking away from the diamond authority's will made manifest in the form of the shattering robonoid swarms that prowled those desolate crags. As it should be.

But now among their number was one mysterious organic.

One mysterious organic which has quite recently become a thorn in her side. At first she had thought the robonoids under her purview had made some grievous error, or that their scanners had malfunctioned somehow. The data they gave before their untimely destruction showed there were four - perhaps four and a half, or even five, depending on how that abomination of a rutile quartz was classed - separate gems detected. That much was correct, but there was a fifth… more anomalous signature detected among them.

The first part was its very gemoid shape, that coupled with their relatively bulky proportions at first suggested that it may have been a quartz. One who she could tell that despite their somewhat smaller stature would have still been, if barely, within acceptable parameters. Though even that on its own would be odd, why would a functioning quartz - usually programmed to be loyal and disciplined soldiers - be colluding with defects and dissidents?

Dissatisfied with that idea she re-read what little bits of data that each robonoid had managed to send before their destruction over and over again, the floating fingers of her limb enhancers tapping away at a separate screen to record each scrap of detail she could possibly gather. And with each scrap of information she sorted through the idea that it was a quartz at all was being chipped away piece by piece. But that brought up another question, if it wasn't a gem, then what else could it have been?

'...Humans' She reluctantly considered. As ridiculous as that idea sounded, what other known still living species could match the gemoid body plan so neatly in both basic form and proportions?

The first piece of evidence that this thing was most definitely not a gem was the lack of a gemstone anywhere on its body. Though it was certainly a possibility that machines could have glitches and errors from time to time, she was very sure that an error as egregious as not registering the presence of something as distinct as a gemstone was incredibly unlikely.

Then came the body of the thing itself, or rather the composition of it. No gem, at least no gem wearing limb enhancers, had a form composed of anything but hardlight and their gemstone. This reinforced the odd conclusion she was coming to even further - just how many highly improbable errors would have had to happen for robonoids to mistake light for water and carbon?

With all the evidence pointing towards the strange, yet most likely situation of a loose organic she let out a nervous sigh as she opened the direct messaging line to the overseer of the human zoo. Normally she wouldn't ever dare dream of directly contacting someone so high up as Holly Blue Agate, especially with her being in another diamond's court, but these circumstances seemed important enough that an exception would have to be made, just this once.

"This is Peridot, Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG reporting from Homeworld. Though this report may at first seem… unusual, I believe that this falls under your jurisdiction. Recent data I have received suggests there may be an escaped organic, possibly a human, on Homeworld. Though they serve no obvious purpose these organics were still valuable to her grand clarity - the late Pink diamond." Peridot's tone shifted from flat formality to noticeable mourning at the mention of the fallen diamond before cutting off for a moment's silence in respect.

"Therefore, knowing of the fragility of organics, I thought that it was necessary to alert you of its presence as soon as I was able so that it may be recovered intact. The data I have gathered on it will be attached for your own viewing. If this happens to be a false alarm then, your clarity, I humbly ask for your mercy. Peridot out." She finished. Though she'd never admit it, the final part of the message was more of a begrudging last minute addition to try and please Holly Blue's infamous stubborn ego more than anything else.

#####

Homeworld kindergartens, moments before.

Bolt's legs swung back and forth as he gleefully looked down the canyon. Though rather than being met with a vertical drop into a valley below his eyes were instead the audience to a rather eerie, but alluring sight - open space.

He could see the point where the rocky walls and towers of the kindergarten were abruptly cut off by the darkness of space, looking even further he saw the other pieces of Homeworld drifting near eachother, then looking further still he could make out a section of the two shimmering rings of ice and dust that surrounded the planet coming into view.

All he wore was the bent gunmetal grey front plate of his former gestation pod hanging loosely on his shoulders in a way that covered his chest and back, the hatch long since removed to make a hole for his head, and a breechcloth made from a synthetic black plastic-like material that once formed the tubes torn apart from his pod. Despite his minimal dress, the bitter cold emanating from the void of space only a mere few hundred meters below did very little to mar his experience.

He smiled as he looked on with childish wonder, he'd be lying if he said that he wouldn't want to stay here with the off colours just to marvel at the sight of it all for hours, days even. All just spent gawking at the infinite cosmos. But he knew that even if he wanted to, he couldn't - they were always being hunted down and soon enough they would need to move again.

'Always being hunted down…' Wisps of cold air escaped his lips as he let out a silent sigh, his smile faltering ever so little. With that thought in mind the view before him looked far less marvelous, how many were out there who are also being hunted down just like him and the off colours? How many were on the various pieces of Homeworld alone? How many were out there in the rest of the Empire's colonies?

vwooom

Bolt's mind snapped to full readiness as a faint whine passed into his ears, his superhuman hearing managing to pick up the distant noise despite the thin atmosphere. It sounded all too familiar.

From the corner of his vision he saw the off colours already standing up and getting ready to wander once more, despite this instead of following them he stayed put, his body still remaining relaxed as to not betray the unease he felt in his hearts.

Vwooom

There it was again, now there was no doubt as to what the source of it was. Even though it was obvious they were coming he dared not move, he didn't want to move. No, he would make a stand.

"Uh, Bolt? We're going now, you coming?" Rhodonite asked him half humorously, thinking he was going to say the obvious answer.

"Can I stay just for a moment longer? I'll catch up with you later." He hastily lied as he pretended to suddenly be totally enthralled with stargazing again.

She stood in nervous silence for some time, but after seeing the joy the experience brought to him a small smile worked its way onto Rhodonite's face, likely from falling for Bolt's faux innocence. Momentarily she relented, after all, what was the harm a few more seconds of stargazing able to do?

"Alright then, just make sure y-"

VWOOOM

Even from his peripheral vision Bolt knew instantly that Rhodonite had definitely heard that, her smile was washed off and was replaced by unease as her stance became more rigid. A moment came and a moment went before she called out to him again.

"Hey, I think we should really get going now." Rhodonite anxiously called out to him again, louder this time to try and get his attention. Much to his dismay the others heard and had stopped walking, their attention now turning to them.

Rather than complying Bolt continued to sit there, his false smile gone and replaced with the hard resolve that had been previously hidden underneath it. The only movement he made the entire time being the subtle grab of a rock that lay beside him.

"Rhodonite, What's going o-"

VWOOOM

Rightile's concerns were cut off by the growing whine of scanners, indecision and fear paralyzing her and the rest of the group. Their prospects were slim - either they ran and left one of their own, or they stayed and wait for him to say something as their window of escape rapidly began to close.

"Oh stars! A vision has shown me that Bolt plans to challenge an approaching threat!" Padparadscha worriedly announced her late premonition to the group.

"What?! Bolt please, we need to run now while there is still time!" Fluorite tried to reason with him, her concerned maternal demeanour making her plead so hard to deny.

But as the others opened their mouths to try and speak, Bolt gathered the willpower to ignore Fluorite's words before then holding up a hand to cut all of them off from speaking any further. He stood up and faced the off colours with a reply to each of them already forming in his mind "But why? Why run away in fear when we can so easily fight?" He stopped for a moment, now aiming his look towards the Rutile twins.

"Leftile, Rightile. As malformed as you two believe yourselves to be, both of you are still quartzes, I have been taught that your kind are born and bred warriors! If anything the question you should be wondering is why shouldn't we fight?" Bolt told them, making sure to be stern but reassuring in both words and tone.

"Rhodonite! What of you?" He now turned his gaze to her. "Half of you may be a pearl, a showthing and servant made to order - but what of the other half? You have taught me rubies are grown to be guardians and protectors, so I ask you to take up arms and protect not some indifferent and haughty highborn, but those who truly care for you!"

"And Fluorite, you made up of so many gems. One of the lessons I have been taught is that in you, and Rhodonite's, cases fusion is an expression of love, but I have also been told that it is usually an avenue to greater strength. Surely being made of six gems would grant you enough strength to make these robonoids be all but fodder in your eyes!" He proclaimed with far more passion to try and convince the gentle giant of their group.

And at last came the greatest challenge, he concluded simplicity was probably best for this. "Padparadscha." An awkwardly long pause ensued as he almost didn't know what to say. "Tell me, honestly, where do you think running will eventually get us? I do not need some prophecy, only what is in your thoughts." His words somehow coming out equal parts grim and gentle.

Another pause began as Padparadscha's perception of time caught up to Bolt's words. "It may take a hundred, or a thousand years. But eventually, one by one, we will all… die." She replied solemnly. Though the answer was obvious, someone saying it made the truth feel all too real.

"See? If our ending is all the same, so if we are destined to burn away then we mustn't flicker in futility against the darkness until we are snuffed out by the bitter cold. No, instead we should burn so brightly that even our ashes will glow with such fury that they blind anyone who takes but a glance at them!"

The scene was almost comedic. Here he was only a few months old compared to the centuries to millennia old off colours, and in addition he was still a tad shorter than the Rutiles and Rhodonite were while being completely dwarfed by Fluorite. Then to add insult to injury his young, moderately high pitched voice did not do much to help his cause. Thankfully though, it seemed his programmed oratory skill and passive inspirational aura had been more than enough to make up for his, as of yet, otherwise uninspiring demeanour.

VWOOOM

Their attention was once more grabbed by the whining of no longer so distant scanners, by now the robonoids were on the other side of the canyon, and wherever their cyclopean scanners pointed towards was being bathed in the same terrifying red light that heralded shattering for any off colour gem caught in its gaze.

Bolt turned around to face the foe, his eyes locking onto the closest robonoid's position as he twisted his body slightly down and backwards, the arm holding the rock now stretched out wide. All the while his superhuman mind raced to calculate every little variable to make sure that the projectile connected with the machine in the most destructive way possible.

With a mighty swing he surged forwards, using his whole body to generate momentum he flung the rock with such force that it flew practically straight and cored the robonoid, its conical back crumpling then tearing inwards followed shortly by scrap metal and pulverized rock shooting out of the other end. It struck with such force that the debris it created travelled even further and got haphazardly buried into the wall beyond.

As the ruined robonoid came crashing down onto the rocky floor below its brethren stopped their scanning and turned towards the direction where the source of its demise had come from, their bright red scanners lighting up the wall above the group and menacingly travelling downwards as they sought to find whatever the cause may have been.

He knew the robonoids were too close now. "The time to run has ended, now we must make a stand or it will be all for nothing!" he called out a rallying cry.

Bolt looked around and to his relief the off colours, instead of shrinking away from danger, had elected to follow his example and picked up the few rocks that had naturally crumbled off from the walls over time and flung them at the robonoids. Though many of their shots missed, the innate strength of gem physiology ensured that whichever ones did strike struck hard, denting their shells and breaking parts within. Fluorite's shots were especially damaging, practically causing the robonoids to cave in on themselves.

However; their vigour soon faltered as one by one each robonoid made a disapproving groan, signalling the switch into combat mode as each of their gemstones were detected and marked as flawed by the cold, uncaring programming of the machines. Though as expected, the robonoid which had survived scanning Bolt stayed passive as he didn't possess a gemstone, but it did not live long enough to move on and scan the others as another rock from him crippled enough of its internal parts to disable it and send it careening down the canyon into open space below.

As the newly aggressive robonoids hovered over the canyon to close into attack range, the group soon found themselves suddenly out of projectiles. This was not exactly the glorious last stand they had imagined from Bolt's speech.

"What do we do now!" Rhodonite snapped at him. Though it wasn't totally her fault, this was not the end she imagined to meet, out of ammo and left to become a sitting rock whilst their opponents hovered over a canyon where they couldn't get to them.

"MOVE!" Was all he screamed out to the off colours as the robonoid's scanners switched from being red to glowing white. The group scarpered in all directions while Bolt, who hadn't been targeted, made a mad dash to unceremoniously dive and shove Padparadscha out of harm's way at the last minute. But it seemed he had been a few moments too slow, as the energy beam meant for Padparadscha managed to graze him and sear an ugly gash into the side of his head just as he crashed chin first into the cold hard floor.

In the meanwhile the other off colours had managed to get out of the other robonoid's beams in time, their power instead hammering into the already structurally unsound walls filled with exit holes from millennia worth of gem cultivation.

"Gah, sorry about that." Bolt silently muttered to Padparadscha as he bit through the blistering pain on his face. Looking around he saw the off colours had all survived the first wave of attack and the robonoids had done exactly as he wanted. A true smile coaxed itself through the pain and formed on Bolt's face as he bent down to grab one of the heftier rocks blown off from the wall and chucked it at the offending robonoid with all his might.

"Now it is a fair fight." He announced as he faced the off colours, the clanging of stone slamming into steel punctuating his point. Now only three of them were left standing, or rather hovering.

The remaining robonoid's programming ordered them to close the range to make sure they did not miss a second time, all the while charging their beams as they did so. The machine's actions made it abundantly clear their creators expected that their quarry would only ever run, never thinking that they would ever gain the spirit to fight back.

Fluorite usually was a gentler soul, though with herself and her friends in danger it seemed that it was all temporarily pushed aside in favour of simple self-preservation instincts. She grappled a robonoid, and using all four of her arms she crushed it as if it were a simple tin can before it had the opportunity to fire again.

Two left.

The Rutiles closed into melee range, and just as the eye-like beam was about to expel a charge of energy they leapt upwards and used their arms to forcefully bury a sharp rock deep into it, causing a catastrophic cascade of its internal machinery. The following explosion flung them to the ground and pelted their form with burning scrap. They were battered, but alive.

One left.

While the others contended with their own robonoids, Rhodonite had taken the time to grab ammo and add it to the ever growing pile of rocks that she cradled in her lower pair of arms, all the while her pearl half's instincts allowed her to perform a panicked ballet as she deftly dodged the beams from the robonoid which had targeted her.

Feeling she had gathered enough, her ruby half's instincts took over, making her stand her ground she turned to face the terrifying cyclopean glare of the robonoid before using her upper pair of arms to bombard it with a stony shower. Each time it tried to get a lock on it would be knocked out of position by a rocky projectile, over and over again, until eventually one of her shots pierced its outer shell and hit something vital underneath.

The robonoid seemed to sit still in the air for a moment, its indifferent gaze peering deep into her very gemstones. Another moment ticked by until electric sparks began to be emitted from the gash in its shell, heralding an explosion that sent more fiery debris flying out to litter the battlefield. The group looked around in disbelief, they had stood their ground, and lived to tell the tale.

However, the mood wasn't as merry as Bolt had thought it would have been. A short lived smile formed on his face as he readied yet another rousing speech congratulating the off colours in their courageous stand, but as he looked around the faces he was met with were not of jubilation or of accomplishment but rather of… well he couldn't quite pinpoint what mood in the air was but it felt of that it was made of varying parts disapproval, fear and shock from their close brush with death.

"Let's just… get going then." Bolt's words felt empty as they left his mouth. He meant well, he really did, all he wished to do was to show the off colours their potential. As the group marched on Bolt walked slightly behind them in guilt, he couldn't help but hold onto the feeling that he had been too idealistic in the idea of rushing his companions into a trial by fire, and in that rush he had inadvertently driven a wedge between them and him.

A/N:

Because it is publicly available online I am currently using the Dornian Heresy AU (Credits to Aurelius Rex and whoever else worked with them + Bolter and chainsword magazine) as a reference for the version of Angron I am writing in this fic. To tell the truth their alternate portrayal of him, and especially his alternate childhood, was what actually inspired me to write this fic in the first place.

Apparently Rutile and Rutilated quartz are two different materials irl. But for the sake of simplicity I will go with the Rutiles being Rutilated quartz because the role of quartzes in gem society is known while the role of an actual Rutile remains a mystery and it will also tie in with their character arc in later chapters.

A final note I want to make here is that updates on this story will probably be quite slow as it is more of a hobby project and school for me is going to start again soon so I will have less time to work on this fic.