I stood against the back of the cell as the footsteps approached. A century and a half has passed by now, leaving me at almost two-hundred years old. I can't say that a lot has happened in the span of a century, except that I'm now a gladiator. Weird turn, right? Apparently both Dark and Pink advocated for me very strongly, prompting the diamonds to at least give me a court case, asking me why I wanted to run, what my motives were, the whole nine yards. I wasn't playing along at all, causing the zircon defending me to nearly faint, and causing Dark and Pink to do more work than they really had to. I don't know why they did. The diamonds would have never shattered me, I'm too loved by the public and, more threateningly, my army. If they shattered me, they would have to deal with an entirely new uprising altogether.
I am not afraid of anything else the diamonds could do to me. I have a high everything tolerance especially a high shui-, no, I'm not going to use that kind of language, even though I've only ever killed and given my life for them, and they have never given anything back to me. After the court case, the diamonds decided that I would have everything but my title revoked, I would be imprisoned until I die, and I would fight anything the diamonds wanted me to fight in the colosseum that was built in my name. The rules placed on the diamonds was that nothing unreasonable was to be put in the pit with me, and I was to be treated respectfully in the prison, at least as respectfully as one could be treated in a prison. I was again put in the Deep Cells, and every week I would be escorted to the colosseum where I would fight whatever had caught the diamonds fancy in the past week. The saddest part of it was when I would look up into the box that the diamonds sat in and saw Dark and Pink stare in silent horror at whatever I had to fight.
I didn't mind, though.The stuff I had to fight was pretty easy, most usually a pack of particularly overgrown deldied wyrms, sometimes monsters found on some of the colonies, just stuff that a casual quartz would have to fight throughout his career. Sometimes, they would even throw in some traitors that they had found, using me as the executioner. Every time I went, it would be televised and the public would be allowed in for free, so the colosseum would be packed when I walked out. That would be pretty hard, too, because most of the time you can tell that they don't like being forced to root against me. By example, the diamonds had almost made it a social mandate that you should cheer for the monsters, seem disappointed or boo whenever I succeeded, and just overall want me to lose. When I look to the crowd and see them doing anything, I can see that they're never really into it. They want me to win, they want to see the monsters lose, they want to cheer for me, but they are too afraid to oppose the diamonds.
Fighting is not the only thing I do, either. The diamonds still need me to be a general, and they still need me to lead my army. They found very quickly (and somewhat surprisingly, even to me) that my army refused to listen to them and follow orders. As per law, they could have been massacred right there, but I guess even the diamonds are smart enough to understand that losing seventy-five thousand soldiers is not a smart thing to do. So, they have me come out onto the battlefield, tell me what to tell my soldiers to do, and put me in cuffs and send me back to Homeworld when the fighting is over. Then they take me back to the Deep Cells, and I wait for the next fight.
This pattern has been my little fact of life for a century and a half, leading me to this moment, listening to that steady staccato of footfalls that are slowly taking the originator to my cell. Finally, the warden stopped in front of my cell, a burly looking aura quartz under White Diamond's command. I followed standard procedure and stepped to the back of the cell, the aura quartz disabled the destabilizer field, put me in cuffs, and walked me out of the cell. I was then led up to the colosseum, exactly one mile above my cell. I made it to the championsgate, the rolling gate that I will be let out of when the match starts. Whatever the diamonds want me to fight will be let out of one of the other seven gates in the colosseum.
After a couple minutes of waiting, I heard White begin speaking, "Denizens of Homeworld, welcome! Today, the famous Diamond Champion, Aquamarine, Facet 5, will start us off with a warm up match of seventeen Deldied Wyrms!," I heard uproarious applause, "Followed by the execution of thirteen convicted traitors, soon to be ex-legionnaires of the emerald army," more applause. As White finished speaking, the gate started to grate open, the sound of metal on metal spreading through the arena. I walked out into the arena and the cheering rose a few decibels as people started glimpsing me. I looked at the diamond box to see all the diamonds in their glory sitting up there, staring at me. Slowly, White raised her hand, bringing it down when it reached the apex, causing a gate across the arena to open up, revealing the seventeen Deldied Wyrms.
They were all packed in there in a way that they were tumbling over each other, each of them trying to gain a space for themselves, encircling me in a way that I was "trapped". The biggest one, obviously the alpha, tunneled into the sand and made his way towards me, I couldn't see him, but because of my shadows, I could sense him, and therefore knew exactly when he was going to strike. He burst from the sand, rows of teeth threatening to shred me. When he was close enough, I summoned my sword and dashed under him, cutting him clean in two. I could tell by looking around that everyone, including the diamonds, were impressed by my speed.
The other Wyrms, at seeing their alphas death, finally understood that maybe the best way of dealing with me was to work together, and all sixteen of them burrowed underground, determined to destroy me. I sensed out about three of them and stabbed them while they were underground using my shadow scythes. I felt that four of them were about to simultaneously pounce on my position, so I jumped out of the way at the last second and threw scythes at them, incapacitating them completely. That meant that there was still nine wyrms underground, so I sensed out their locations and saw that they were grouping up at one corner of the arena, indicating that they were meaning to stampede me, in a sense. While they were grouping up, I walked over, to where I was directly on top of them, and stomped as hard as I can, causing the tunnels they made to cave in, crushing them to death.
The diamonds, understanding that the match was over began clapping politely, and the rest of the stadium also began cheering excitedly, following the diamonds' example. White once again stood up, raising her arm and dropping it, causing another gate to open, revealing about eight quartz soldiers, obviously elders because of their markings, signifying that their only crime was attempting to start a clan. I was confused, though, because White said there would be thirteen traitors, not eight. I let it go, assuming that whoever wrote the itinerary just messed up the numbers. I looked at them, assessing my opponents, seeing that some of them were given crude weapons, showing that they either couldn't summon a weapon, or didn't have a useful weapon so to speak of.
They began coming at me, raising their weapons in preparation of a fight. I humored them and let them surround me, parrying and blocking multiple attacks at the same time with my sword, and immediately dispatched four of them with a sweep. The remaining four momentarily surprised me by growing wings and flying into the air. They then began deploying the tactic of swooping in and attempting to swipe at me. I summoned a bow and sniped at them in return. Within the next ten seconds, the last shard had fallen and I was alone in the arena again. There was more cheering and applause, and I looked to the box to wait to be dismissed back to my cell, but instead White raised her hand yet a third time and dropped it, causing one last gate to open.
I turned around to see who my opponent was, and was utterly horrified. I saw none other than five children stumble out of the gate, each holding crude weapons to attempt to fight me, all of them holding the scared, innocent look of a child beginning to understand their own mortality. In a stumbling shuffle, I made my way to the gemlings, each of them dropping their weapons in an attempt to show surrender, hoping that I wouldn't shatter them. In the back of my mind, I hoped the same thing. When I was five feet away, the full impact of what I was about to do hit me, and I fell to my knees, unable to walk anymore. I hunched over and began weeping softly to the sand, "I… I can't do it."
At that moment I heard Yellow speak up, "Excuse me?"
I shot up with a wild expression in my eyes and yelled, "I said I can't do it you clod!"
Yellow put on her infamous glare and started with "How dare you"
White held up her hand and quietly said, "Champion, do your job. Slitonzi." I shivered. That phrase was very popular on Homeworld. It was a crystallic word that meant "A path cannot be crossed with broken legs". In other words, if I didn't shatter these gemlings, they would be tortured until they wished for death, and then they would be shattered, and I would be forced to watch the entire time. This is bad. It was a conundrum all the way around. One option was to shatter them, something I would never want to do in a million years. Alternatively, I could let them live, and they would be tortured and executed. While neither of these were favorable options, I couldn't help but think that one option was better than the other.
I stood up and summoned my sword, looking inward towards my gem, looking for a spot of it that I know to exist, a kind of empty space that I can mentally enter to clear my thoughts and not feel if I needed to. I found this spot and entered, allowing my body to follow instinct, watching from the inside as my body brutally committed the murders. When the act was done I was ejected from my empty space and forced to stare at my handiwork, feeling my emotions rushing back to me, and fell right back onto the sand and began sobbing, the gem dust sticking to my face, causing my normally blue caricature to erupt into a multi colored ball of sadness.
It got so bad that I had to dragged back to my cell, where I was thrown in and the destabilizer field was reactivated, leaving me alone in my sadness. All the while, I couldn't help but think about the unfairness of it. The only thing those children had done wrong was be children to the traitors I had to fight before them. Because they were related, they were chucked into the same pot, being told that if they could kill me, they could run free. And then I thought about the fact that that was what I should have done. I should have let them kill me. Then they wouldn't have to die, I wouldn't have to kill them, and they could run free, going back to whatever family they have left and living a life of amnesty. In my heart, though, I knew it wouldn't happen. The diamonds are, by design, liers. If the children had killed me, they would have been shattered anyways.
I looked towards the field upon hearing footsteps, and saw Dark walk into view. He saw me and sighed, stating, "Champion, I'm glad to see that you're okay, and that for the most part, you've recovered. There are some things we must talk about. First and foremost, absolutely no one but Yellow and White knew that children would be thrown into the arena. You know that me and Pink would have fought like hell if we knew, even Blue is angry over it. Hell, it took all of my self control to not sic my onyxes on White right then and there." He sighed again, deeper this time, and said, "Champion, if there was ever a thing to fight for, it's this. I swear to you that if I ever see another child in that arena ever again, I will start a civil war with the diamonds, and they all know and acknowledge that I will, so of that, you will not have to worry about."
We looked at each other a moment longer, not needing words to feel the other's almost sibling love for each other. Having accomplished what he set out to accomplish, Dark bid me goodbye and went to leave, but I stopped him before he could. In that moment, there were many things that I knew to be facts, like planets are round, stars are hot, and I couldn't stand this anymore, I have finally been tipped over the edge, I have surpassed my tolerance for whatever this was, and so I said quite simply to Dark, "I want to leave." He slowly nodded his head, said, "I'll see what I can do," and left. When his footsteps receded, I smiled, feeling something that I had not felt in a century and a half.
Hope.
Three months have passed, Dark knew it would be time soon. He walked briskly down the hall, heading towards Pink's office to discuss a very important matter, one that they couldn't discuss in front of their guards, for fear of there being spies. Dark knocked politely and walked in, saying, "Hello Pink, I'm so glad to see you today."
Pink returned with, "Oh, I bet you say that to everyone."
Dark, in his stress about the matter at hand, took the joke literally and said, "Actually, I do, I think it helps put people at ease when I express that I'm in a good mood. Hence, I say 'I'm glad to see you'." Pink chuckled, knowing that this was just Dark's temperament, for which she truly appreciated him. Dark sat down in the chair that Pink had special made for him, one that would float up to her at an equal level when he sat down. She thought that it would help him feel equal to her, even if she wasn't that much taller than her younger sibling. He already was as a diamond, but none of the others ever really gave him the diamond treatment because of his height, so he had somewhat of a complex.
Dark started, "So, this month would be perfect for it because of the guard rotations. Our guards would be placed in such a way that if he went in a straight line, the only people he would see would be ours. Although, if we place the guards just right, he won't be seeing anybody, and even if he did, he's a master of stealth, it wouldn't be that hard for him to sneak past one or two tired guards that would rather be drinking. Are we agreed." Pink nodded silently, but she felt she had to ask, "How do we know he'll take the right path. If he strays he could be caught by any of the other three diamonds' guards." Dark mulled it over and said, "The only thing I can think of is that we would give him a map, but the problem is, neither of us can be there in person handing him a map and letting him escape, so we need to send someone else. The problem with that is, we would need to send someone that he trusts not to lie to him, but he's been out of the loop for a hundred and fifty years, I don't imagine that there are a lot of people he trusts."
Pink recalled something that she remembered Dark telling her long ago, "What about those two jaspers that you had hired, the ones that used to be his friends?"
Dark thought about it and said, "It's not 'used to be', it's 'are'. They still visit him pretty regularly, bringing him chrysol and reminiscing with him. That is also genius, so we are definitely going with that plan, yeah." Dark smiled, probably the first time in years, and him and Pink began devising the plan in deeper detail, creating routes and trying to plan where to split their guards so that there would be open areas. They were both happy, because the fidelity of the plan made success an absolute.
I was asleep in my cell when I heard knocking. I thought that strange, because there is nothing in my cell to knock on, so I sat up and looked at the field only to see that there was no field. In it's place sat instead the best two jaspers in the world, Amicus and Socium. I bolted out of bed immediately and ran to hug them. They returned it fervently, equally happy to see me. When we parted, I asked, "What are you guys doing here? How did you get the destabilizer field open?" They waved me off, and Amicus said, "That's not important. What is important is this piece of paper that Dark Diamond gave us to give to you. He said that you would know what to do with it. Whatever it is, though, I'm pretty sure that me and Socium are smart enough to know that it means you won't be here tomorrow. So, before we distract you further, we'll just go ahead and say goodbye, lest we get caught busting the Diamond Champion out." With that, they turned on their heels and walked out.
Not giving myself time to get caught, I flipped open the paper to find that it was a map of the Homeworld capital, one with a red line leading from from the Deep Cells to the Homeworld docks. At the bottom it said "Follow exactly, Single-seater peri ship, fly straight up." Well, I guess that was easy enough.I snuck out of the Deep Cells, surprised by the fact that there was no one there. When I made it to the streets, I was again surprised by the fact that there was no one there. I looked down at the map and began following the red line out of the city. As I looked around warily every ten or so feet, I was constantly confused by the fact there were absolutely no guards. After basically taking an evening stroll through the city, I made it to the docks to find that there was no dock-keeper. I walked into the dock and found the peridot ship that the map had mentioned, and climbed in, remembering all the controls exactly.
I started the ship and took off the ground seamlessly, pointing the nose directly upwards towards the sky, hitting the throttle and blasting through the air. As I was approaching the edge of the atmosphere, I looked at my rearview cameras, watching intently to see any missiles, but there was none. I broke the atmosphere without a hitch and found myself faced with deep space. As I looked up, I could see my target, the emerald moon, a beautiful lunar orbiter tinged all the shades of nature itself, greens and blues as far as the eye could see, with brown splotches mixed in here and there. I stared in wonder for another minute, then gathered myself again and hit the throttle one more time, feeling for the first time in a hundred and fifty years, truly free.