She ducked low and tackled the amethyst fusion by the legs, continuing to run nonetheless as the soldier kneed her left face's chin multiple times in an effort to dislodge her. The ground itself shook as the titans clashed, giant marks being embedded into the rock with every footstep they took. The roar of cracking stone signified to Hydrazine that the amethyst collided with the pillar, as such she moved to the side while a shower of debris rained down on the purple behemoth.
Beaten but unbowed, the amethyst smashed aside the material that temporarily buried them and rose from the rubble, axe in hand as they charged forwards and attempted to corner Hydrazine in a contest of raw strength she could not possibly hope to win. But she knew better than to humour them, and so she continued to crouch, hop and dive out of the way of the axe strikes, waiting for the correct opening before she would attack back.
The amethyst, despite the stoic soldier they looked to be on the outside, grew increasingly infuriated at Hydrazine's actions. Every consecutive axe swing they made grew more swift, more aggressive, more powerful and forced the illicit fusion to be far quicker on her feet if she wished to avoid evisceration.
"AGH!"
CRACK
She had been a fraction of a second too slow, and she paid for it with both her right hands. The severed limbs flew up into the air, poofing in a cloud of teal dust that was sent flying away by the wind. Biting through the pain she found the will to concentrate, they had been locked in combat for stars knows how long by now, but her life hung in the balance here, and she could barely afford a moment of laxity. They needed to keep Hydrazine together, for individually they would have no chance of survival.
However, the opportunity had at last presented itself. With the amethyst's axe stuck in the ground by the sheer force of her strike, she was occupied with wrenching it out of the fissure she had cut into the ground. Now did Hydrazine rise to the occasion and she ran to them at full pace, two mouthfuls of fire already billowing within, ready to incinerate the soldier.
Burning liquid fuel poured out of her mouths while she made her approach, dousing her opponent's body in a blazing shower before she followed it up with a sprinting punch, both of her left hands curled into fists that connected squarely on the middle of the amethysts abdomen. The warrior stumbled backwards, but their grip on their axe remained strong, and the momentum from Hydrazine's strike only aided them in finally tearing it out.
Unlike the amethyst, Hydrazine was scarcely built for battle, and so she began to visibly tire after how long their duel had lasted. Desperate to end it before the soldier would win through simple attrition, she closed the gap between them before the axe could be brought to bear again, then with a jumping uppercut she slammed her upper left hand precisely onto their jaw with all every scrap of strength she had left.
The blow stunned the amethyst, a sickening crack reverberated throughout the caverns as they momentarily flew low in the air, launched off of their feet by the attack. Their massive form crashed on the floor with a resounding boom, leaving a crater in their wake and sending shards of broken rock flying out all around them and kicking up a substantial dust cloud.
Hydrazine hauled herself back to where the pillar had collapsed, and with struggling breath she hoisted a boulder that had cracked off from it above her head, carefully balancing it between her upper left hand and the stumpy wrist which once was her upper right hand. There was an air of foreboding calm around Hydrazine as she stood over the dazed amethyst, continuing to hold the boulder all the while, as if waiting for something to happen before she would drop it.
The amethyst's form glowed a stunning purple that preluded the break apart into five, far smaller, demoralised soldiers who lay gloomily at the bottom of the crater. They were far too worn out to fight back now, they understood that they were beaten, and they accepted their fate. Though this was what she had been waiting for, she continued to stand there, her dual-headed gaze glaring down on them with unbarred resentment.
Neither Hydrazine nor her components had any sympathy for the ones who represented the militant arm of a regime that had persecuted them for millennia. She looked down at them as they sat there, broken and defeated, yet their expressions remained so defiant against her. This lasted for a weighted minute until with a final sneer in distaste from both her faces, she plunged the boulder down, shattering all of them in a single instant.
Though multiple lives were snuffed out all at once by her action, guilt afflicted her for no longer than a second, for she knew if she had been the one to fall then they would have treated her with much the same, if not more, contempt than she had delivered to them. Now with the deed done Hydrazine collapsed backwards onto the floor, laying there and doing nothing but breathing in and out for a time to recuperate.
Bright teal light filled the abyss as her sizeable form lit up in its entirety, then with an echoing pop a red, pink and orange ball of light exploded outwards from her upon her dissipation. As they fell onto the ground they solidified, leaving her components in discomfort on the hard ground until one by one they started to stand up once more.
"Ghh… Not that I have anything against any of you, but can we agree not to fuse into Hydrazine again unless we really have to?" Rhodonite groaned out while she slowly clambered onto her feet, gripping her own right hand which was still sore from combat.
"Mhmm, I think that'd be for the best." Rightile replied matter-of-factly, coughing hoarsely twice at the end of her sentence, similarly being affected by a phantom pain in her right hand that raged on despite them having unfused and no longer suffering from the injury Hydrazine had.
"Yeah, I feel like that'd be for the better." Leftile mirrored her twins' opinion while rubbing her jaw, a mild drawl present in her tone as the two clumsily coordinated their usually well-synchronised movements to stand back up.
Still partially disoriented from the experience of holding such a large fusion for so long under stressful conditions, the group took some time to come back to their senses. Despite the expansive size of the kindergartens and how similar each and every single part of it looked, the off colours had lived within these crags for thousands of years, and so they each had memorised a detailed mental map of the area.
It would be nigh impossible for them to be truly lost, or so they thought.
"We must have fallen a long, long way huh?" Rhodonite asked no one in particular, turning her head around to take in the unfamiliar landscape.
"I agree, being together in Hydrazine was… tiring to say the least. But being together normally isn't at all that bad!" Padparadscha at last responded - her usual upbeat demeanour only slightly diminished by the life and death struggle - while rubbing the back of her neck, her perception of time finally catching up to the previous question.
"Hey! Nice work on dealing with those amethysts, who knows what sort of damage they would've done if they kept running amok down here." A voice called out, startling the group with its suddenness, yet its amicable nature also worked to calm them in equal measure.
"Hello," "who's there?" The Rutiles asked one after the other, both beginning to stare up at the ruined stone pillar, which was where the voice seemed to emanate out of.
"Er, you're welcome I guess." Rhodonite responded as she faced upwards, grateful at the compliment, but also confused at who the source was.
"I have been gifted with an uncertain vision! A mysterious voice will call down to us, they will have good intentions, but who or what could it be?" She said, as if sharing some grand revelation.
"Yeah Pad, we-"
"Oh! They're a Blue Zircon!"
"...Didn't know that, huh, thanks." Rhodonite said instead, her exasperation instantly converted into curiosity. "A Zircon? I wonder how they got down here." She muttered to herself, for unless they were born an off colour, there was little that the lawyers could possibly do to be banished. They often kept to themselves between cases, so there was little chance of illicit fusion. Then even in the short time they mixed with other gems, those gems would often be defects and dissidents who they would rarely have much sympathy for.
"Whu?" The now identified Zircon sputtered, leaning out of the exit hole they were hiding in while activating the more advanced features of their monocle to scan the group. "How did you know- ah I see, you've got a type of sapphire down there with you."
"That would be me." Padparadscha said with a wave after some time had passed, looking up to face the blue light shining down on her before it moved on to look at the Rutiles and Rhodonite. However, their previous experiences with scanners caused them to instantly jump back slightly from the light, but they otherwise made no more movements as they knew the source of it was likely friendly.
"Ah sorry, where are my manners." She apologised, her hand being put near her left eye where she proceeded to shut off the offending device upon seeing the distress it caused. "I will be down there in a second, then we can have a proper conversation."
The former lawyer pulled out an amorphous mass of blue light from the gemstone on her right wrist that solidified into a similarly coloured sledgehammer. The weapon was roughly three quarters her height in length and possessed a cuboid shaped head nearly as wide as her own waist, yet the superior strength of gem physiology meant she could hoist it with little problem. She then chucked it forwards, maintaining a good grip on the handle with both hands, and as it started to fall the object's center of mass caused it to begin to straighten its descent path.
Following on soon after with practised precision, Zircon jumped out with the weapon, still making sure her hold on the long handle remained strong. Despite the fact she was falling she kept calm, and so her focus was instead shifted to balancing both her feet on either side of the hammer's head. At last both she and the weapon impacted the ground, sending shards of rock and dust flying upwards. As the grey mist cleared, it revealed her standing perfectly upright on the hammer - as if it was a podium and she was about to deliver a speech - looking rather pleased with herself.
"Ehehe, that never gets old." Blue Zircon quietly chuckled to herself as she hopped off of the hammer's head and lifted it back up to rest on her right shoulder, all the while dusting her well-kept uniform with her spare arm. "Well since you now know about me, I have to ask, who are all of you?"
"Rhodonite." She introduced simply as she offered her hand in greeting, to which Zircon politely accepted in a brief but firm shake as they were nearest to eachother.
"We are-" "-the Rutile twins." They told her.
"I believe you already know who I am." She said cheerily after an awkwardly long wait, eliciting a curt nod from Zircon.
"That I do." She said slowly in response. "Now that the pleasantries are done, I do wonder, what did all of you do to garner the attention of actual soldiers? Normally the Empire is content enough to just send those stars-damned shattering robonoids down here and nothing more." Zircon asked, in slight awe of the kind of defiance they must have shown to warrant that sort of action being taken.
"We didn't actually do anything on purpose. In fact, we didn't know why they came after us until their Agate-"
"Agate?!" Zircon blurted out, stupefied that whatever the off colours did justified for such a high ranking officer to also be sent against them. "Oh, pardon me, carry on."
"...As I was saying. The Agate leading them did their whole charade of listing off our crimes, which apparently included the illegal possession of a human." Rhodonite answered, subtly annoyed at having been interrupted, but making no show of it on the outside.
"A human you say? How did you even get a hold of one?" She questioned, mildly doubtful of their testimony. Though she could understand how the theft of such a valuable specimen which had only a single, heavily guarded, heavily limited source within the galaxy would lead to such consequences, those same facts meant that she found it hard to swallow the idea that one managed to find its way onto homeworld.
"Here's the thing, we didn't even know they were a human or what one looked like until she told us he was one. I mean, I knew about the human zoo, but none of us have ever been anywhere near there." She explained to them, sounding similarly incredulous of her own claims now that she had heard it be said aloud.
"Then where did it come from? It's not like a human could just be conjured out of thin air." Zircon stated, a raised circular hand gesture proceeding her words to emphasise them.
"That was…" Leftile began after nearly half a minute of quiet, also in disbelief of what she was about to say. "Exactly what happened." Rightile finished slowly, in return causing Zircon's only response being to make a muddled facial expression that practically demanded for the twins to expand further on what they said.
"He appeared a few months ago when we were running from a swarm of shattering robonoids, though shortly before he came we were trying to block the tunnel they were coming from with a boulder."
"But we weren't fast enough and a few of the robonoids managed to enter our refuge - that was when his pod arrived."
"One moment we were about to be scanned and shattered, and the next the robonoids were gone and all that was left was his pod half buried in the ground."
"There were… hostilities at first when we tried to open it, but he quickly calmed down and we tried to talk with him."
"While he couldn't say anything, we still thought it would be wrong to leave him there to fend for himself, so we took him in." The twins finished the heavily abridged version of Bolt's adoption, realising how ridiculous much of it sounded. Though in this case, it seemed as if fact was indeed stranger than fiction, as Bolt's existence was enough to prove these were real events.
"Heh, he couldn't speak a word and was tiny enough to hold when we first found him, but now he can speak like any upper crust and he's grown to be close to my height without any sign of stopping." Rhodonite commented, strangely proud of how far the child had come despite not having any relation with him.
While the Rutiles were busy with listing out the events, Zircon had taken the opportunity to activate another one of her monocle's features, projecting a near transparent holoscreen a forearm's length away from her face, and was rapidly typing out everything they told her in a rough document. Her sharp skills and knowhow in data analysis - which were once vital in forming court cases - were not forgotten, rather they were reshaped for use elsewhere.
And so her eyes squinted at the screen as she noticed a major detail in the story she had been given. "You said a pod containing this human appeared a few months ago, correct? If so, then how have they not run out of energy?"
"What do you-" "-mean by that?"
"Humans are organics and so, if I remember correctly, they need to consume organic material and water every few days to stay alive. However - there is no substantial enough source of suitable organic material and water in the kindergartens, or on Homeworld." She explained, leaving the implication to sink in.
"I've never seen Bolt consume anything, but he seems perfectly fine." Padparadscha answered after no one else did, shrugging her shoulders as she did not know he managed it.
"That's impossible!" Zircon half shouted, perhaps a little too angrily, though it was more due to the details not aligning the way they should have, and not because of the off colours. "Sorry for raising my voice. Anyhow, I may not be the most knowledgeable on organics, but from what I do know, none of what you describe should be possible."
"Don't worry, all is forgiven" The seer replied after a delay of a few seconds, the sincerity of it made evident by the sweetness in her tone. "Though I do agree, if what you say is correct, then it is odd that Bolt is still functioning."
"I assume that 'Bolt' is the human's designation?" She asked the off colours, a nod in confirmation then coming from each one of them.
"Stars, he and Fluorite are still up there aren't they? How are they supposed to find us again?" Rhodonite suddenly came to a grave realisation, all this talk about the child reminding her of where he was previously.
"At least he's safe, he did poof that Jasper-" "-and Holly Blue Agate before we fell after all." The Rutiles said, granting some partial solace to the fusion's mind.
"Wait, did you say this 'Bolt' poofed a Jasper?" Zircon said, the surprise in her voice muted but tangible, her head snapping to their direction as soon as they finished speaking. She closed the document she was previously working on, instead bringing up what appeared to be a communication log with another person - full of text, images and even video.
"Yes." "Yeah." Rightile and Leftile replied one after the other, causing fascination to seep further into Zircon.
"I think we may just be looking for the same person." She murmured as she opened up a file that contained footage sent to her by an ally, and in the process drawing the curiousity of the off colours. They gathered at a respectful distance behind her and watched on in anticipation, the possible scenario her words hinted at having sparked a sense of hope within each of them.
The video appeared to have been taken from directly above, the filmer being cooped up inside a far up exit hole where they were mostly safe from the battle, aside from the time when the human was flung into the wall by the Jasper. His impact created cracks which grew dangerously close to where they sat, causing them to exclaim as they gripped onto the rock for stability while they waited for the shock on the wall to pass.
Zircon slid her index finger across the screen and skipped past that part then into the relevant section instead, where she then paused just as the human turned around so the off colours could try to recognise him. Their sullen face was as clear as day, there was no mistaking who it was - the metal plating around his chest, the enigmatic symbol displayed on it and his distinctly bald head - all of it concrete evidence of his identity. He was battered and bruised, but thankfully alive.
"There, that's-" "definitely him!" The Rutiles exclaimed while pointing at the recording.
"Is this person still following him?" Rhodonite asked, wishing to gain an updated status about his and possibly Fluorite's safety.
"They should be, but I'll confirm with them now." Zircon said, closing the screen soon after and bringing up a list of contacts.
"Pery, this is Zircon. Do you still have a visual on the target?" She typed up the words on the screen before sending them.
"Yes I do, they are currently accompanied by a fusion. Their height and figure makes me think it's a mix of a pearl and something else, but because of how far I'm watching them from I can't be totally sure." The reply came after nearly a minute.
"Ammolite." Rhodonite whispered, quickly realising who the person being described was even though they had not been independent from Fluorite for many millennia. "Can you ask them to send you another image, just so we can be sure about who they are?"
"Of course, just a moment."
"Pery, a quick request, but can you take a fresh image of the target and send it to me?"
"Sure, here it is right now on an attached file. Have fun ogling over more data, but don't pop your rocks off." 'Pery' replied rather snidely in jest after roughly fourty seconds. Zircon fumed slightly, knowing full well the off colours saw those words on her screen despite her having speedily opened the file to hide them.
But they made no remarks about, for they were now far more focused on picking over the image, and as small as the people on it may have been due to the distance between them and 'Pery', there was absolutely no doubt as to who they were, even if it was also taken from behind and above. It was the willowy, purple and four armed form of Ammolite along with Bolt's peacefully resting, well-sculpted body sitting comfortably on her shoulders with his trademark crude metal chestplate.
"I take it from the stunned silence that these are the people you were looking for?" She asked, though still with her back to the group as to keep the monocle in front of them.
"Yes, that's them alright. It's good to know they're safe and all, but we're separated by a few miles of the planet's crust, how in the stars are they going to be able to find us?" Rhodonite voiced her thoughts.
"Ah I see… If the vision I have received proves true, then Ammolite will meet us later as she will use her own future vision to learn where we will be. How inventive of her!" Padparadscha announced her late premonition to the group, assuring them somewhat.
"Another Sapphire?" Zircon said, her interest piqued, as it was incredibly rare for any functioning version of any high ranking aristocrat to turn away from the Empire. "I was going to ask Pery to meet them personally so she could guide them to our base eventually, but I suppose that works too."
"You have-" "-a base?" The Rutiles asked, their own interest caught by the statement.
"Ah yes, that does remind me of why I came here in the first place. Your arrival as that huge fusion or your battle with that amethyst wasn't the most subtle and it caught our attention, so I was sent out to bring all of you in."
"Our? And what do you mean by 'bring in'?" Rhodonite questioned, her interest also now ensnared.
"I'm part of a group, you see. With the rest of the Empire throwing us out then wanting us dead, some off colours and other disgraced gems long ago decided that they should look after one another. Since then we've actively tried to find more hapless gems to take in, at this point we're about a few hundred strong now." Zircon explained proudly.
"That sounds-" "-great!"
"You can count me in."
"That is wonderful to hear."
"Good to see you're all enthusiastic about this. Come, follow me." Zircon said, turning around to face a tunnel and flicking her spare hand upwards to gesture to the off colours. Her holoscreen remained on, and now she tapped on it for another time to bring up a top down map of the layer of the planet they were currently on.
"I mean, how can we not be?" Rhodonite asked rhetorically as she began to follow. "So, how did you begin? I can't imagine it was any easy with all these robonoids… shattering us left and right."
"I'm not one of the founders, but I do know their story." She said, going into contemplative quiet for a moment as she tried to find a way to easily summarise it. "Because of the rebellion, for a few centuries around the end of era 1 and the start of era 2, the prisons of homeworld were flooded with wanted criminals awaiting trial." She stopped speaking for a moment to take a deep breath, bitter memories of her participation in convicting so many of the accused rising from the back of her mind.
"But there were a few - our founders - who fought their way out of the prisons. With the skills they learnt during the battles on Earth, they managed to fight off the robonoid swarms and saved many people who were about to be shattered by them in the process." Zircon recounted. "For millennia we have been doing this, finding lost gems and taking them in if they wanted it, though not many have declined that offer."
"Looks like we're not the only ones giving the Empire a headache with our existence then." Rhodonite said jokingly.
"Hmm, I imagine you could look at it that way." Zircon replied in good humour "But that does make me curious, how did all of you find eachother and form your own little group? Because that doesn't happen all too often, but whenever it does I find the tales are always quite compelling." She said sincerely as she continued to follow the map projected out of her monocle.
"It would take a while to explain how each one of us here met." Leftile said, seeing no point in speaking if the journey, which she believed would be relatively short, was going to be over too quickly for her to detail it enough for it to be interesting.
"It would be even longer if we talked about each of Fluorite's components." Rightile added.
"I don't mean to pry if you don't want to say, but it is a long way to the base." She informed them, pinching her fingers on the holoscreen to zoom it out all the way to prove her point, the sheer amount she had to downsize the map before the white marker representing the base appeared leaving the off colours in wide eyed surprise at how far they needed to travel. "Might as well try and fill the silence with something." Zircon finished with a shrug.
Happy New Year's eve to all my readers!
I just want to say a big thank you to everyone for the over 5000 views this story has received so far from when I first posted it in the middle of August to now at the end of 2020.
A/N:
Just to clarify something, this Blue Zircon is not the same one that appears in the episode 'the trial'.