We were sitting in the war tent, discussing matters of the diamonds, and I found myself dozing off, thinking about the past week. My name is now officially Comoediae, which Amoura lovingly shortened to Como. After that, nothing much. Amoura made an official announcement of my name, met with not a whole lot of interest, and work went on as usual. As for the meeting in the war tent, we had recent reports that the diamond army were making movements and preparations to attack the emerald moon somewhere close to the western pole, a decent ways away from our camp, so we were discussing what we could do to help them from here (as we wouldn't be able to make it on time, with the estimated time of arrival).
I some point during my dozing off, I began to think about my own acclimation to the emerald army and the sages. Some may think that my situation is strange, but in a weird way, I feel at home in the camp. The vibe is almost the same as my wonder days in the diamond dwelling, but the actual feel of the camp is much more different. In the camp, there's a feel of friendship and family that was never fully felt on homeworld. Even the sages had some comparability to the diamonds, Til obviously being similar to Pink, Librium taking after Dark, Oceanus sometimes sounding like White. Amoura, though, I couldn't figure out. Sure, he cares about his people in the same way that Blue does, but he's not as outwardly depressed as she is, and he bares absolutely no resemblance to Yellow whatsoever, which doesn't leave anymore diamonds to compare him to.
Then, strangely enough, I heard my name being called out in the distance, slowly getting louder as I began regaining more and more concentration, when, out of nowhere, a large green hand made connection with my face and I went sprawling into the ground below. I was immediately up again and ready to fight when I saw that it was just Amoura attempting to get my attention. I sat down and asked what the problem was.
Oceanus face-palmed and answered, "The problem is that we are talking about very serious issues, and you sat there daydreaming about Moonstone-knows-what. Before Amoura slapped you, I was attempting to ask you what you thought the diamonds were going to do during their attack on the western encampment."
"So, you want my honest opinion?", I asked.
"Yes, I want your honest opinion."
"Well, my honest opinion is that they're not going to attack the western encampment at all." Everyone sat in silence, confused at what I said.
"What do you mean they won't attack the encampment?" Librium asked.
"I'm not saying they won't, they might just, I just think it's unlikely. From my knowledge of the diamonds, they wouldn't dare let information of an attack leak with me over here. I know too much about their mannerisms in battle and their common strategies in certain scenarios, and they wouldn't want to risk that I would be able to perfectly counter them in those scenarios. They think similarly to me in battle, or rather, I think similarly to them, as they taught me everything I know, so, if I were them, I would weedle who the spies are, feed them misinformation, and then I would perform a sneak attack on the enemy's HQ."
More silence, when Oceanus asked, "Why didn't you tell us this a week ago, at our last meeting?"
I gave it some thought, and answered, "Because this wasn't important until about…" I counted silently in my head, and then said, "Now", right as an explosion rang out somewhere across the camp.
All of the sages immediately jumped out of their chairs and began running towards the sound, me following suit, when we came upon a ridge towards the eastern part of the camp, below which we saw the diamond army massing. Me and the sages stood at the edge of the ridge with the emerald army slowly collecting behind us, when Amoura put his hand on my shoulder and said, "There was something you wanted to try, Como?"
I nodded my head and responded, "I'm either about to embarrass myself or win us a major advantage in this battle."
Amoura gave me a pat and replied, "You can only gain something from either of those outcomes."
I grunted and stepped out closer to the edge, waiting for the diamond army to fully form up. As I was waiting, I saw something that boiled my blood more than anything else that may happen today. I looked out across the field behind the army, where they had built the platform for the Diamonds, when I saw a quartz standing with them on the platform. They had already appointed a new diamond champion, an obvious attempt at spiting me and maybe even a more subtle attempt at making me lose my focus and messing up during the battle. When I realized this, I immediately stilled myself and calmed myself down, focusing instead on my objective.
I looked back to the army, looking at the different groups and battalions, identifying which one belonged to which diamond, when I found the faction I was looking for. The diamond champion's army, the personal vanguard of the champion, a fighting force completely under his control and totally slave to his command. The rest of the army was currently messing around, waiting in poorly contained merriment for when the diamonds gave the command to charge. Not the champion's army, however. They had seen me walk forward on the ridge, and they were watching me intently. I began scanning all of them, recognizing every single one of their faces, remembering every single one of their names, and still I feel absolutely proud of them, deeply impressed with their discipline. Out of the entire force, the champion's army was the only one that wasn't hooping and hollering and teasing the emerald army and generally causing a ruckus. They were standing tall and proud, ready for the command, when it would be given.
I looked at their position in the army, as well, and was pleased. They were placed in the back, a very, very convenient placement if my plan went over smoothly. I took one last look at the diamond army, looked back at the sages for comfort, and cleared my throat.
"HELLO DIAMOND ARMY!", I bellowed at the top of my lungs. All activity ceased immediately, and all eyes turned towards me. I cleared my throat again and powered through, "There may be a chance many of you know me," some snickers, "Well, if you do know me, then you know that I don't want to fight you," I addressed the champion's army, my army, personally, "especially you guys, the soldiers that I have trained from the ground up in honor, discipline, and skill. I know all of you, and if asked, I could say all of your one hundred and seventy five thousand names right here, right now. But I didn't come here for a roll call, I came here to ask a favor of you, the army that at one time, I called my own. I ask you to fight back! The diamonds are tyrants, destroying worlds on the guise of the greater good, tricking all into thinking that they fought for the good of all. Please, you are strong! You deserve more than their dictatorial rule. What you deserve is what I offer to you today. FREEDOM! Freedom from the oppression, from the murder, from the genocide, from the diamonds. So now I ask not only the champion army, but the entire diamond army. Will you fall, with the rest, when we come down on you like the torrents of a thunderstorm? Or, will you stand? Will you join us, and fight for not only your rights, but the rights of the entire galaxy, the rights, OF ALL!"
Again, I am met with silence. My heart began to drop, as I looked around and saw nothing but stony faces, especially in the champion's army. Amoura walked up to pat me on the shoulder and Oceanus was getting ready to order a charge to our own army when I saw movement in front of the champion's army. I signaled for Amoura and Oceanus to stop, when I identified the movement as none other than Amicus and Socium, my two best friends from the army. They marched forward a few steps from the army, pulled a perfectly executed about-face, and yelled in unison, "AT EASE!". The entire champion's army relaxed, and out of nowhere they uttered one of the loudest and most powerful battle cries that I think I will ever hear in my entire life.
The cry lasted a good minute before dying down, when the champion's army rushed forward and began attacking the diamond army. The diamond army, caught unawares by the deafening battle cry, was not prepared for an attack from behind, and was almost instantly cut down by a third. After a few minutes, I had finally regained my wits, and, still not fully comprehending what had just happened, I gave Amoura the special signal, to which he smiled wide and plunged his fists into the earth, sending an inaudible signal through the earth to the emerald terraformers hiding in the earth under the diamond army, ordering them to burst through the ground and begin fighting. Burst through, they did, giving the diamond army even more confusion, as they weren't expecting green warriors to be birthed from the ground as they simultaneously had to fight off an insubordinate army of hundreds of thousands.
I gave Amoura a second signal, and his smile grew even wider as he twisted his fist around in the ground, and threw it up, jettisoning a pillar of stone under my feet, causing me to fly through the air directly above the diamond army, sending me in a path to land smack-dab in the middle. When Oceanus saw me shoot off into the air, she turned around and yelled at the emerald army to charge, sending a cascade of green off the ridge into a multicolored amassment of extremely confused quartzes.
I landed right where I knew I would, and instantly set to work, summoning my weapon and slicing, stabbing, and slashing as was necessary, adding yet another element that the army was not ready for. After a solid three minutes of working my way through the army (plenty of time for me to make quite a noticeable chunk) the diamond army regained their senses enough to think to summon their weapons and begin fighting back. Sure, it made more of a challenge, but they still didn't have enough sense to put up a good fight. Only approximately thirty percent of the original diamond army was left by the time the diamonds called the retreat, the troops running almost gratefully away. All in all, the massacre took only an hour.
As I was watching the army shrink, I momentarily caught a glimpse of the new Diamond Champion making his way off of the platform with the other diamonds, and I had a random thought. I summoned a bow and arrow and I trained it on the champion. I wanted to see just how good he is. Before I could loose the arrow, however, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a stern voice asking, "What are you doing, Como?"
I turned around to face Amoura, "I wanted to see if the new champion was fully qualified for his position."
Amoura shook his head, "Como, you don't attack an enemy when they are running away. That's not how we do things."
I let my bow dissipate and looked at him in confusion, "I don't understand, an enemy is at it's weakest when they're running. Plus, it was cheap of the diamonds to choose a new champion to obviously just spite me."
"That doesn't mean that you retaliate, Como. It's unhonorable to hit a fleeing enemy. You let them run and challenge you on another day. For now, let's celebrate one of the first victories that we have experienced in two hundred years!"
Amoura began jogging off, joining the rest of the army in the party that was happening in the camp about a half mile off. I couldn't join, though. My head was spinning, and i began thinking about the full extent of diamond's training on me. I started realizing that I had been raised mercilessly, and, against my will, I had gained some of the habits of those monsters. I was attacking not out of strategical advantage, like I would have Amoura believe. I was attacking just because I was hurt, because I was spited by the diamonds, and I wanted to get back at them. If I had not been held by Amoura, I would have attacked that poor quartz for being awarded one of the greatest honors of their life. I would have taken their life because of my own selfish vengeances.
It took a few minutes for me to realize that I wasn't alone. I looked around and saw that my army was surrounding me. As I was scanning the crowd, I saw foremost among them Socium and Amicus. As I saw them, real as sunshine, I found myself at a loss for words. These two were the main reason that I was able to escape, next to Dark, as far as my knowledge went. There was nothing that I could think of to say to them that could convey how grateful I felt towards them. In the end, the only thing that we could think to do, and which sufficed greatly, was to walk forward and clasp each other in a strong embrace, not caring about the world around us or the people that could be watching. When we made contact, the entire army began to cheer, almost as loud as the one they gave before winning the battle against the diamonds for us. Before they were even finished, they rushed us as well, and we all stood there, a massive embrace counting one-hundred seventy-five thousand and one strong.
After a few seconds, we all released each other and I began leading them back to the camp. As I was walking, I realized that there was nowhere in the camp where I could put them. I knew it wasn't a big deal, for these soldiers were trained to last in any condition given to them, but it still made me feel bad, because I had the opportunity to plan for this, but a week ago, I didn't honestly think that this army would defect for me.
We reached the camp, where I told my army to mingle, get used to their new brethren, and I started to seek out Amoura. It wasn't hard to find him, as he was the loudest person in the party, his booming voice ringing out across the camp from somewhere towards the center. I followed it, and found him dancing just about the same way he fought in a large group of people that were celebrating similarly. I didn't need to call out to him, because he saw me first, and immediately yelled, "COMO!", and began shoving his way through the crowd to get to me.
Once he reached me, he clapped me on the back and, with a large smile on his face, told me, "That was a great thing you did out there, Como! I can't believe you pulled it off! Granted, I didn't know what you were planning in the first place, and therefore couldn't help you out in any way, but still, good job!"
"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," I answered, "I didn't plan this far ahead, either. I didn't think that I would get this far. So now I have the problem of not having anywhere to put my army."
Amoura nodded in a knowing way, perhaps he's had some unexpected victories in his life as well, "I understand. I'll send for bedding and tenting immediately. Their encampment will be put on the southern side. I'll also make sure that they'll be taken care of hospitality wise, if you catch my drift."
I nodded. My main fear with bringing my army over was that the emerald army would treat similarly to how they treated me, initially (and still do, to some extent). My concern, however, was not that they would get their feelings hurt, but that they wouldn't have the same self-control that I have, and would therefore start fights that would cause an even greater mistrust for them. I gave it some thought and asked Amoura, "Would it be possible to assign them a sage guard, like you did for me?"
Amoura shook his head, "I'm not sure. The sages are already stretched thin with all the responsibilities they have. The only reason we afford a guard for you is because you're mobile. You could go with the sage wherever they needed. An entire army, however, that could be problematic. I can't assure that we could keep them properly guarded. After the valor you've shown today, however, and the victory that you've helped us win, I'm gonna talk to the rest of the council and see if I couldn't get you off of needing a sage guard. Then, you could protect your own army whenever you feel the need to. Although, I have quite a bit of faith in my own army, so if your fear is that fights will break out because of nationalities, I can assure you that my troops will keep themselves in check."
I was happy with that answer. It was better than I could've hoped. Suddenly, I was again struck with another chord of recognition. This was similar to my first months of life. Just like Amoura said that he would try to get me free of a sage guard, so did Pink and Dark say that they would do everything in their power to help me become free as a Champion, free to effectively rule the empire and keep it in check.
I thanked Amoura for his words, and asked if I could wander back out to the battle grounds alone. He granted me that, and I started to walk back to the east. On my way, I saw Socium and Amicus again, and, without words, they followed me. I finally reached the battleground, where I saw the first few shards. Silently, we three walked around and bubbled the shards, sending them to the nearest collection area that we sensed. When we had gotten about a tenth of the way across the field, I looked around and saw that many of my other soldiers had joined us, plus, I was surprised to find, Amoura and the other sages. We had made about half way across the field when I worked my way over to Amoura and asked him, "I know why my soldiers came to help, but why did you guys come?" These were the first words spoken during the entire ordeal.
Amoura looked at me for a second and responded, "Well, honestly, I don't know why the other sages came. They were probably just following me out of respect or reverence. But I came out here because I was following you out of respect. It takes a great person to respect a friend, and it takes an even greater person to respect their enemy. I couldn't think of a better thing to do after a battle then to at least pay these fallen gems some final condolences. Como, these are the reasons that I think you are a great leader, and these are the reasons why I want you free of the sages. I could tell the second that they began attacking the diamond army that these were your men, and I don't want anyone else to lead them but you. It's obvious that you trained them very, very well. I'm extremely happy to say that they are a part of the reformist army." He smiled and then continued the job.
When we finished up, we all headed back to the camp where, true to his word, Amoura set up an annex to the encampment where my troops could rest. I made rounds around the camp for a few hours, making sure that everyone settled in and was comfortable. As I was walking through, I got more or less the same the same greetings from everyone, utterances of glad to see you, champion, I'm glad you're here, I'm happy to be free, etc.
At one point, I came back into contact with Socium and Amicus, and they also expressed their appreciation. "Champi- er- I've been told your name is Como, now, so, Como, we can't express how much we appreciate you helping us escape," Amicus said.
"Yeah, when you left Homeworld, everyone in the army was antsy to leave, too. After the way the Diamonds treated you, we wanted to fight them just as much as you did," Socium added.
"And we would've, but Socium here kept us in check. There would have been too many troops against us, we would've been slaughtered, especially right after you left, when the Diamonds were really on their guard. They were watching us especially, since they knew that we were specifically loyal to you."
I smiled, I always appreciated these guys, "Thanks, you guys, I really needed your words. Anyway, I need to start heading back to the sages tent before they notice that Amoura left me alone. I'll see you guys later." We waved to each other and headed off in different directions, them making their way around camp, doing basically the same thing that I was doing, and me heading back to go to sleep at the command tent.
The Next Morning:
I didn't quite wake up normally. I was shaken awake by Amoura, who had one of the goofiest smiles I had ever seen. When he saw that I was conscious, he began bouncing a little bit, and began in an excited whisper, "Como, Oceanus just left the encampment to do some political stuff in the capital city. She won't be back until the evening. Wanna spar?"
I allowed myself my own goofy little smile, and answered, "Of course, I would love to spar." I jumped out of bed and started walking with him to the sparring ground.