They were fighting back.
Bolt could not help but stare at the new fusion in wonder, if only for a short time. His eyes followed Hydrazine's arm as she gestured to their various gemstones, he could easily pick out the distinctive Y shaped gemstone of the Rutile twins sitting neatly atop Rhodonite's ruby half, each of which were embedded in the fusion's belly. Padparadscha's was on the back of the lower right hand which was currently perched on his shoulder. Finally there was Rhodonite's Pearl half, which was placed at the collar, just a little below where the neck of the fusion branched off in two.
Bolt could feel a soothing heat emanating from Hydrazine's enormous gloved hand as they gently held his shoulder to reassure him, he had to agree, it felt great to have someone so powerful looking out for him. But that feeling diminished as he turned back around, though the squad of Amethysts looked on only with stoic disgust, the Agate looked as if she was just about ready to shatter them all and Bolt was quite sure the Jasper couldn't snarl any harder without shapeshifting even if she tried.
He knew fusions were strong, especially ones of Hydrazine and Fluorite's size, but they had little experience in combat. On the other hand their opponents were manufactured and programmed for war.
The pang of guilt returned as he remembered the last time their lives were in peril, he hastily attempted to shove it away using reason, but he was met with minimal success. Though Bolt understood the current situation was not directly his own fault, he now knew from the Agate's words that it was his existence that led to them being pursued, and the very idea of it chafed at him deep inside.
After failing to simply push away his potent emotions, he at least attempted to at least stomach them for as long as he could. Though not as imposing as the two literal behemoths beside him, he felt that he still had a responsibility for their safety, and he resolved that he would do his damndest to protect the off colours.
Holly Blue shot a look at Jasper that practically said 'do you see why I needed your help now?' Which caused her to positively snap.
"Fusion, Fusion, FUSION! That's all you DEFECTS ever know!" Jasper shouted in her trademark harsh and gravelly voice as she pointed an accusatory finger first to Hydrazine and then to Fluorite. "But it doesn't matter, during the war I destroyed many abominations like you two on my own, and I can do it again." She added with a hard chuckle at the end. Though she didn't even bother addressing Bolt, likely seeing him as a non-threat.
Though Hydrazine's left head kept its stoic vigil, her right head turned away from addressing Bolt while a smug laugh left their mouth.
"And all your kind ever knows is how to lap up to your superior's orders." The right head brazenly commented.
"Hmmph, I can only agree." Fluorite added. Their brusque comments caused Jasper to rumble with a guttural, almost ursine growl.
"Do remember this is a recovery mission. So if you could, try not to let your aggression get to you. I require that organic to be taken back intact." Holly Blue said to Jasper before her temper could boil over, and though she comfortably outranked Jasper, Holly Blue sounded nearly hesitant to reprimand the famous old war hero.
A standoff was formed and it carried on for a time without both sides moving an inch. The only movements made was at the beginning with either side slipping into a combat stance, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Though admittedly Bolt and the off colours' stances were not the best in this regard with them having not seen combat in centuries, if at all. Both sides stared eachother down from opposite sides of the rocky bridge, tensely waiting for someone to make the first move.
After what felt like an eternity Holly Blue let out a resigned sigh and barked an order to one of the Amethysts who then proceeded to dump a crate made of some unspecified blue metal that they had been carrying in front of her. Holly Blue then opened it and took out… well Bolt didn't quite know what it was but it was purple and it smelt quite good, which was new as all Bolt had ever smelt before was the rust from fallen scrap and the hint of rock salt that was ever present in the kindergartens, and they weren't exactly the most appealing scents.
Holly Blue crouched down to a squat and held out the purple thing in her hand in Bolt's direction, her staunch attitude having done a complete turn around, going from a toughened officer to a fresh out of the ground gem.
"Come here, come here human! you like the fruits don't you?" She said with faux enthusiasm as she wiggled the purple 'fruit', as he now understood it was called, in an attempt to lure Bolt to her. Though the fact that she used the term 'human' to refer to him twice now was a revelation, was that what he was this whole time? One of those humans who were supposedly only native to Earth? The very idea brought up a myriad of questions, with the two most prominent being through what methods was he placed on Homeworld undetected, and if there was a way to use it to get back.
His moment of surprise was soon over as he filed the idea away to ponder on for the future, instead choosing to focus his mind on the dire situation in front of him. First and foremost, did she think him to be that dense to fall for such an obvious ruse? Well if she thought him to be a fool then he may as well play the part. He calmly turned his head to Fluorite and Hydrazine and put up the opened palm of his right hand gently to them as if to say 'I know what I'm doing'. The two were hesitant at first, but they soon gave him a reluctant nod.
With the all clear given Bolt turned back to face his pursuers where he proceeded to put on an act of false fear and innocence. While his body was already positively corded with hyperdense muscle, his face still had that soft and glowy childlike quality to it that increased the believability of his act by magnitudes.
Bolt made sure to play every bit of his role as well as he could. He made a purposely nervous and slow walk with his hands close to his body and clasped around eachother to make himself look as small as possible, all the while paying special attention to the 'fruit' in the Agate's hand to make her think that he had fallen for her ploy.
"Good human! Come on then, you want to come home don't you?" She said while patting the ground in front of her. Bolt took a deep inhale and resisted the urge to laugh, if anyone among them was dense it was her.
Despite that, he hadn't forgotten about the amethysts and Jasper. He stole glances at them more times than one, and whenever he did he made sure to stop walking and stare for a while to make it seem as if he was afraid of approaching the bulky soldiers. To his relief they all seemed more fixed on the off colours, likely deeming them the bigger threat. Good, he would need all the time he could get to escape after doing what he planned to do.
"Yes! There we go, who's a good human?" The Agate continued to chide him.
At last he arrived at the Agate, he kneeled down in front of her, his seemingly innocent eyes met the fruit and analysed it with fake curiosity for a time. Then in an instant his pretence of childlike innocence vanished, he did an unnaturally swift and hard low sweep of his legs which connected with an echoing crack on the Agate's ankle, causing her to crash onto ground with an undignified yelp. Bolt followed up by grabbing her left leg with both of his arms. He leaned backwards and then by using his entire body mass to generate enough momentum he spun around twice before letting go of the Agate, making her fly into the squad of Amethysts behind her.
But just as he turned around to run back to the off colours he felt a sudden crushing sensation surround his neck, he looked down as far as he could and saw an enormous orange hand clasped around him and in an instant he knew exactly who it was, the Jasper. She lifted him off the ground and turned him around to face her.
"Huh, I remember some of you pitiful humans trying in vain to fight side by side with those Crystal gems to defend your worthless world. I remember pulping a few of them too, how easily crushed your kind are. Even after being armed and armoured by the rebels your people were still so weak. I wonder what value Rose Quartz saw in your kind that caused her to rebel, because I certainly see none." Jasper said with barely contained contempt as orange light coalesced around her head when she summoned her crash helmet, her sharp eyes bearing down on Bolt through the transparent orange visor.
"I've got to admit, that was a smart trick on your part- but that's all it was, a trick! Looks like those defects really got to you, huh? Because that's all they ever know, they're too weak to defy the Diamond's will head on so they have to resort to only using cheap, dirty tricks!" She gripped his neck tighter and tighter with each phrase she shouted, all the while spittle flew into Bolt's defiant face.
"Spare me your talk, beast. If you are as grand as you claim you are, then act on your words, or are they all you have?" Bolt goaded her in return, his words came out choked but were still full of distaste, though it only caused Jasper to raise her mouth in a toothy smile.
"Gladly"
That was all Jasper said as she growled and reared her head back and slammed her helmet into Bolt's face. As the ram on the front of it connected squarely onto his nose Bolt's head flew backwards as a spray of spit flew out of his clamped mouth while a thin stream of blood momentarily flowed out of his nostrils, though it was not long before the stream dried up as his larraman cells rushed to the sites of damage to begin the process of patching up his injuries.
Despite not having been fully knocked out he still felt dazed, his head was ringing and he could smell and taste a distinct hint of iron in his nose and mouth. Bolt felt his body be flung around as Jasper swung backwards and began walking in the direction of the still downed squad of amethysts, all the while her piston like grip continued to clamp around his throat.
He resisted the urge to try panic, knowing Jasper could likely keep him pinned even if he tried to struggle. So instead he took the opportunity to play a farce on her by pretending to have been knocked out, he used the few seconds this granted him to mentally assess the damage he had taken and so decide the best course of action accordingly.
But as he felt pain pulse from each individual wound, he felt something else, something loose in his mouth. His tongue played around with it for a while before he deduced it was a cracked piece of tooth, and from how thin and sharp it felt like it had likely come from one of his incisors. At that moment an idea sprung in his mind.
He would have normally been somewhat upset at the injury, but now he only inwardly smiled at the opportunity granted to him. Bolt used his tongue to place the piece of tooth in position and then took in a hefty huff of air through his nose as subtly as he could. He woke from his false faint and shot a vile glare at Jasper, and before her expression could even change to react to him 'waking up' he blew out the tooth chip with such speed that it punched a hole clean through Jasper's visor and buried itself deep into her right eye.
She let go of him and staggered back, the enormous soldier roared in fury while clasping futilely at her damaged visor, the acidic spit produced by Bolt's betcher's gland working in tandem with the jagged piece of debris lodged in her eye to cause Jasper excruciating pain. Now that she had let go of him he then landed deftly on the ground and immediately sprinted back to the company of the Fluorite and Hydrazine before any of the amethysts or the Agate could grab a hold of him again.
Holly Blue stood up and recovered from her stupor just in time to see Jasper clutching the right side of her face while the human had run back to those damned off colours. It wasn't hard for her to deduce what had happened, but in that case how had a human of all things managed to bring low, out of all gems, Jasper and herself? She was beyond reasoning at this point, she needed this human back or all six millennia of her work would be for naught.
"Well?! What are you doing just standing there? MOVE YOU PEBBLES!" She snapped at the Amethyst squad, the five gems instantly somersaulted into the air one after the other and landed in a pyramid formation. Their forms momentarily shone as one and then they combined to fuse into a single enormous amethyst, one that stretched more than a few feet above Hydrazine and had far more bulk. They proceeded to summon their weapon, an enormous twin headed battleaxe, before lumbering onwards in Hydrazine's direction.
Holly Blue herself clasped one arm around to the back of her head where her gemstone was and summoned her electric whip, then with the other she drew the destabilizer that had been tied to the back of her hip. A single hit from one should be enough to poof any single gem or fusion, no matter how large, allowing for easy capture. She looked at the large six gemmed off colour and the fearful expression they had told Holly Blue that they knew exactly what the crackling two pronged yellow device in her hand could do.
Jasper momentarily dissipated her helmet before shapeshifting her eye in such a way that it pushed the piece of tooth out. Though the acidic spit proved more difficult to clean out, made evident by the thin veins of decay already marbling Jasper's newly repaired eye as the acid that had stubbornly clung on slowly ate away at her physical form. As soon as she felt the tooth pop out she speedily re-summoned her helmet and stared down Bolt with a murderous glare for a few heavy moments, wishing to intimidate him into surrender.
"Come then, what are you stalling for - fear? If I am, in your own words, simply some 'pitiful human' then what is there to be afraid of?" Bolt took a decisive jab at Jasper's ego.
"Fine, If you're so eager then I'll teach you your place runt." She growled out through gritted teeth, barely contained rage seeping into each word.
Jasper curled up into a ball and in the blink of an eye she flew forwards with terrifying speed at Bolt using her signature comet charge. Her form would have been all but a bright blur to any normal human or even many gems, but little did she or anyone present know - Bolt was no normal human. His enhanced fight or flight instincts kicked in, superconducting nerves worked to speed up his reaction time enough that, from his perspective, Jasper instantly slowed from being a glowing fuzzy ball to the point that he could see the disturbingly maniacal grin plastered on her face as she rolled forwards to meet him in combat, likely eager to teach Bolt his place by beating him to the ground for his insult.
Though the sheer speed of her charge meant that Jasper still moved towards him at an alarming rate, even from his view. But if there was at least one thing the extra time his reaction speed gave him, it was that it allowed his augmented body to brace him for the inevitable clash - enough bioengineered hormones and synthetic performance enhancing chemicals to overdose an adult rhino twice over began coursing through his veins and into his organs - supercharging them with the potential to perform feats of frightful might against his rapidly approaching adversary.
Even though Jasper was barreling towards him, Bolt still took the time to analyse his surroundings, just to make sure he knew how the off colours were faring so far. His head was drifting around in slow motion throughout the craggy battlefield where they were making their stand. The cubic robonoids that had come with their pursuers seemed to watch as spectators, likely streaming their life or death struggle to some uncaring viewer.
He first looked to Hydrazine, anxious to see how the new fusion was holding against her larger foe. She was locked in a mortal struggle with the amethyst fusion, her top pair of arms and even one head were clamped around the shaft of the battleaxe trying to prevent it from coming down and decapitating them.
Though curiously Fluorite looked to fare little better despite the huge disparity in size between her and the Agate, she looked incredibly reluctant to get anywhere even near the officer, and it was not starkly obvious why. However, the amount of aggression the Agate was using the small yellow weapon in her hand coupled with how Fluorite always avoided it with fervent caution each time it was jabbed at her made him conclude that the weapon likely was far more dangerous than what its minimal profile initially suggested.
Despite his worries about his companions, he reluctantly took his gaze away from them and onto Jasper. She had finally drawn close enough and as Jasper did she uncoiled out of her roll, using her gathered speed to continue flying forwards. She thrust out her right arm, her hand already tightly wound into a fist, Jasper was readying to use her gathered momentum to plunge a knockout blow squarely into Bolt's head
While her charge certainly had enough power behind it to able to put his lights out for quite some time despite his durability, in her enthusiasm to slake her bloodthirst Jasper had not accounted for how the other parts of her opponent's anomalous physiology would come into play.
Bolt knew better than to try and stop her head on, instead he ran towards Jasper to pretend that he was going to meet her in direct combat, but at the last possible moment he slid sideways and grabbed Jasper's jutted out arm - what he had in mind was not without great risk - but greatly effective if it would work. At the same time as he grabbed her arm Bolt dug both of his heels onto the rocky floor and the pair soon spun in a deadly duet with him at its centre, he could feel layers of the skin on his hands and heels being rubbed raw or totally peeled off by friction burn, but he gritted through it all regardless.
Whilst they spun around Bolt slowly lifted his arms and with each circle they finished Jasper was gradually being raised higher and higher, once the fifth circle had passed Bolt mentally judged that she had flown up high enough for his purposes. He anchored his feet flat on the ground, letting the increased friction painfully slow the two's dance down to a manageable speed before he then slammed the still moving Jasper down in an overhead smash. The orange titan smacked down in front of him, forming a crater as she crashed back first on the cold hard ground.
Not wishing to give his opponent any leeway Bolt instantly sprinted over to where Jasper lay. Each footstep he took on his nearly skinned bare feet burnt like hot coals, despite this his hatred for the Empire and wish to defend the off colours allowed Bolt the willpower to bite through it. Once he arrived he crouched over her neck and proceeded to tear off her crash helmet, Bolt began savagely bludgeoning Jasper with their own wargear, raining down blow after blow on her face as she struggled to orient herself.
"Pitiful? If anyone is pitiful it is you, little less than a crony sent to murder the innocent, but why? I'll tell you why! For all your strength and skill, all that you are is nothing more than a thrall, blindly adhering to your shimmering slave master's will!" Bolt shot back at Jasper, putting special emphasis on the phrase meant to be in reference to the diamonds. By now he had struck Jasper twice on the throat and thrice on each cheek before she could even respond.
His scathing words seemed to light an inferno in Jasper, the battered soldier was enraged at the audacity of the organic to be mocking her and the diamonds. To his misfortune Bolt was still a child, an absurdly strong child but a child nonetheless, and he was still too small to have totally pinned down Jasper's arms without also stopping his attack. She used this fact to her advantage, raising an arm Jasper grabbed her crash helmet by the ram as it plunged down and soon after her other arm flew from the periphery to rip the helmet out of Bolt's grasp, though he replied by kicking it out of her hand.
"YOU DAMN ORGANIC, I'LL SHOW YOU WH- HRRK!" She suddenly choked on her words. As she was about to berate him Bolt quickly sucked on his index finger and to Jasper's wide eyed surprise he rammed it right into her opened mouth to silence her. His acid covered nail soon began ripping into the roof of her mouth, forcing the caustic liquid that was his spit to burn deeply into every tear and wound that he brutally reaved into her mouth.
"Show me what- courage, honour or whatever other actually commendable traits you foolishly think your kind has in droves?" Bolt stopped ripping at her mouth when he asked Jasper, now deciding to also begin ripping into the very foundations of her beliefs.
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COURAGE?! Do you even know how many different campaigns on hundreds of planets I have fought on, how many of you inferior organics I have broken with my own hands? You should be thankful my mission objectives are preventing me from adding you to that list, OTHERWISE YOU WOULD NOT BE ANY DIFFERENT!" Jasper managed to gurgle out.
"And honour." She rumbled the words out. "Neither you or those defects know the first thing about honour. WHAT HONOUR DO ANY OF YOU HAVE, HUH?! What honour do you have in disgracing the order imposed on the universe by diamonds with your flawed existence? Look at me, I HAVE HONOUR- THE HONOUR OF HAVING A PURPOSE IN THE DIAMONDS' VISION, MEANWHILE YOU HUMANS SERVE NO PURPOSE BUT TO BE PUT IN A DISPLAY!" She shouted at Bolt, cold spittle flying into his face with each word she roared out.
"Hmph, tell me then - is there truly any courage to be shown in defeating those you believe to be far your inferior? Is there any honour in being a serf who is seen as worthless beyond their purpose by the same glittering tyrants they so obediently serve?" Bolt rhetorically questioned. Judging from Jasper's reaction, the implication of his words had gotten through. She was huffing in scores of air, ready to give him the berating of the century.
"I have wasted my time it seems. Too indoctrinated to learn any better, too fixated to have even thought about it." Bolt coldly whispered as he lazily shook his head to Jasper. He could feel her take in a gulp of air and realising what she would soon do, he plunged his index finger back in and ripped at her mouth again before she could loudly retort against him for another time. He drew his spare hand upwards, ready to drop a hundred heavy handed strikes in speedy succession to shatter the gemstone that made up her nose.
Despite the veracity of his words Jasper paid them little heed, for rage and fanaticism clouded her mind. She was outraged at the idea that an organic much smaller than her had even managed to last this long or deal this much damage against her. She began justifying simply murdering him to be done with it, it was only one human anyway, how many hundreds more would be produced in only a few cycles? Jasper decided she would break him for his insults, both against her and the diamond authority.
As he was about to land the first punch on her face his arm was suddenly stopped as it was crushed by Jasper's vice like grip, she followed that by lifting her head to take half of his hand in her maw and biting down hard as she could, all the while gnashing her teeth to cause maximum pain. Bolt first yelped in agony, then in surprise as Jasper spat out his hand and abruptly stood upright with a spin before flinging her far smaller adversary in the direction of the off colours. His limp body collided with the wall behind them, leaving a human shaped impression full of cracks into the unstable rock face as he did.
Bolt tested his now very sore arm by moving it ever so slightly, only to grimace as his nerves screeched in fiery protest at even the most minute movement. He tried to muster the fortitude to stand back up, but his knackered body reciprocated with little else aside from a flood of aches and pains. Failing that he at least made an effort to prop himself upwards against the wall, Bolt clumsily placed his torn and bleeding hand onto the wall behind him in an attempt to hoist himself back onto his feet, the precious ichor of the Primarch staining the wall as he did.
Though as he did he felt the damaged rock face shift and move ever so slightly under his grasp. His hearts soon began beating in panic as he was suddenly filled with a new panicked determination to stand up as fast as he could, for even in his disoriented state he could still understand what the noises made by the creaking rock implied.
But it was too late, at first only a low rumble could be heard, then only an instant afterwards many terrible cracks resonated through the air as the rifts formed by his impact grew and tore themselves larger and larger. Then as suddenly as it began, a monumental amount of rubble broke off from the walls and began cascading onto him.
He only had enough time to look upwards to see the falling debris that was about to crush him before he was hit in the face by near a dozen blocks of stone one after the other. He fell to the ground and in a futile attempt to defend himself he held out his arms to parry the falling cliff face, only to scream in pain as an even larger rock impacted directly into his already broken arm. He helplessly laid on the ground he saw his view get dimmer and dimmer as more and more rubble collapsed over him. He felt his strength failing as weight was continually added to the pile, and soon enough he felt his willpower wane too.
"BOLT!" He could have sworn he heard a muffled wail shout out his name as he drifted into unconsciousness.