Chapter four: Getting to Know You Better

As I followed Abigael, I began to put all my thoughts together. I had too many questions and they were clouding my thought process. First she tells me that she is half gem but wasn't born that way. While I'm not an expert on how gem human half breeds are born, I would assume that the only way to become a half gem you would have to be born that way. Then there was that ability she had. Twice she was able to know what I was feeling at the moment. That one was easy to explain. It must have been one of her powers.

Speaking of which, who was her mother. The only other gems that haven't been corrupted where the current members of the crystal gems and the gems that came here from homeworld. That means that her mother is either a crystal gem that was saved by Rose Quartz or she was a homeworld gem that came to Earth. However, if Abigael's mother was from homeworld, then why would she come to Earth of all planets? And why would she affiliate herself with humans? If she was a crystal gem that was saved from corruption, then the creed would know about her and in extension her child. Of course, that's not to say the creed knew everything. Still…

These questions bugged me. They were like wild animals moving this way and that in random orders and no direction. That's why I'm doing this. As a creed, I need to know what is what. I need to know what Abigael is, how she exists and why.

Abigael continued to walk a steady pace in the direction of what I believed to be her house. Then I noticed a change in her pace. Before that, she began to look around her as if trying to find someone. Did she noticed me? I thought. No, but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel like she is being followed. With that, I started to take a different approach: moving through allies, taking cover in flora when I could, and moving through roof tops.

Her pace continued to increased and her movements became frantic. What's going on? I made sure to lower my aggro. And yet she continued to move with purpose. It then came to me that it may not have been me that she was trying to get away from. I stopped where I was and activated my Eagle Vision. Since I was on a roof at the time, I had better coverage. Looking around I didn't see anyone out of the ordinary. No, wait. Standing in front of Abigael was a light in the form of a human. Which meant that was a gem. Reverting back to my normal vision, I saw that it was a gem.

It was a big gem-a quartz maybe. She looked like she was wearing an orange tank top with black pants. Her "skin"-if you could call it that-was orange with black stripes in the same pattern as a tiger. She had long and wild yellow hair that reached down to her thighs. Her gemstone was in the place of her right eye and had a narrow oval shape. Suffice to say, I was a bit surprised. It was the first time in a long time since I had seen a gem outside of the ones in Beach City that weren't corrupted. For a minute I sat there as I watched Abigael come face to face with the new player. I proceed to move closer and as I did they began to talk.

"Hey, look who I finally found." said the gem.

"So it was you. How did you find me so fast?" say Abigael.

"Find you? We never lost sight of you."

Keeping myself hidden, I watched as Abigael stood in fear from what the gem said. She was being followed by this gem. What for? I didn't have time to think about. The gem began to unsheathe a knife that was strapped to her side. Holding up her weapon to about chin level she continued to taunt. "I came here to see if you have gotten stronger since last I saw you. Don't disappoint me this time." Abigael tensed up, but I was already moving.

Running on the roof, took out a throwing knife out of one of my jacket's pockets. I sent it flying towards the gem, but she caught it by the blade. She looked in my direction and gave me a smug smile. She was about to say something, but as I jump off the roof, I pressed a button that was hidden under the pocket that held the knife. This activated the knife's shock trigger. Since the gem was holding the blade, she got the full force of the bolts. She let out a scream of anguish. Once I landed on the ground, I took out my knife from the other side of my jacket. It had a long blade with a smooth grip and no guard. I advanced on the now paralyzed gem and as my blade meet her….. Clank.

My blade was sitting on the gem's form. What once resembled skin was now something like armor. I tried to put more pressure on the blade, but it wouldn't move. "Nice try human." At the sound of her voice, I leaped backwards. "But it seems your weapon isn't strong enough to pierce my armor." The gem then reverted back to her original form. So, I began to think, she was still able to do something like that even after taking a shock attack. Gripping my knife tighter, I braced myself to continue.

All of a sudden, the wind began to pick up from behind me. It grew stronger and stronger until it got to a point where I fought I would be knocked off my feet. I turned around thinking that I would be faced with some kind of rogue storm or something. What I saw was Abigael holding up her hands as if she was holding a drawn bow. The gemstone on her arm was visibly glowing under her sleeves. She looked so focused on a target that I hoped wasn't me. The wind around us began to swirl in her hands until they made a visible bow with an arrow of wind. Once her weapon had completely materialized, she aimed the bow in my direction and released the arrow of wind. I put up my guard, but not to defend myself from her attack.

I felt as the arrow went passed me and was knocked sideways by its gust. I allowed myself to roll until I hit the nearby wall. Once I was able to get up, the first thing I saw was Abigael still standing where she was. Turning in the direction she was looking at, I saw that the gem had been pushed back some distance. She was completely armored with her arms blocking her face. In front of her were the groove that she left with her feet; no doubt a result of her getting pushed back by the attack. And yet, despite the fact that Abigael's attack had such great force behind it, the gem seemed completely unharmed.

She put down her guard and reveals a disappointed look. "Your attacks haven't changed since then. How unfortunate." She then takes her entire body and spins it so that she look like a yellow spiked ball. As she was charging her attack, Abigael took the chance to charge her own attack. Or at least, I thought it was an attack. Wind began to pick up once again, but this time it was moving fast enough to give both me and Abigael some lift. It was enough to move us out of the way of the attack, but it wasn't enough to get us out of the situation.

Soon the wind died down and Abigael dropped to her hands and knees. Whatever she was doing clearly was draining her. The gem continued her attack, mowing her way towards us again. Moving as fast as I could, I grabbed Abigael and moved her out of the way of the second attack. Turning to our attacker, I reached into my pant pocket and pulled out a mini bomb. After unclipping the safety, I through the bomb in the direction of the gem. At the same time, the gem was making her third round, but was soon meet with a great explosion.

I didn't wait. I took Abigael and ran. It didn't matter where it just had to be far. Soon the buildings were behind me and I was surrounded by trees. I was gasping for breathe and my pace was slowing down. It was far enough.

I gently placed Abigael down with her back against a tree. Once she was sitting up right, I flopped on the ground trying to catch my breath. My guard was still up, but I could tell that no one else was around. So I sat there and waited for Abigael to come to. Now that everything was a little peaceful, my thought began to trail. I thought about how quickly things went from my first day back to now. Maybe things went a bit too quickly; like events just couldn't wait to happen. Huh, what a weird thought.

No more had 30 minutes pass had Abigael began to stir. Once she opened her eyes, she started to look around frantically. "Where am I?" she asked.

"Some woods outside the nearest town." Abigael turned to me in surprise. "It's just me I said." I said, pulling off the hood that was still on my head.

"Rekirts? Why are you here?"

"I followed you." I said bluntly. I decided that if I wanted answers to my question, I needed to be as honest to her about myself as possible.

She gave me a rather suspicious look. "Why?"

"Well you kind of just left me hanging back at the pier."

Her expression went from skepticism to embarrassment after hearing that. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Don't worry about it. Actually, I was just thinking that we might have been moving a bit fast here. I mean, we just meet and I barely know as a person and here you are telling me that you're a half gem."

"You know what a gem is? Not the rocks you see on rings, but like the one that attack me."

"Yeah. I'm a creed after all."

She raised an eyebrow after hearing the word "creed".

"There are a lot you don't know about me." I said.

"I guess so. I just wanted to tell someone."

"But why me?"

"I guess it was because you were the first person I talked to as much as I did. That and the fact I didn't want to keep this a secret. I didn't want to live in this town having to keep something like this hidden."

"I guess that make sense." A moment of silence. "Why don't we start over." I got up and brushed the leaves and dirt off my my clothes. As I offered my hand to Abigael, I said, "My name is Rekirts, the creed."

Abigael stood and shook my hand. "Abigael Turqouise. You can call me Abi. It's nice meet you Rekirts." She began the giggle at the thought of having to reintroduce to someone she already met and I couldn't help but laugh with her. "By the way," she said when she was done laughing, "What exactly is a creed?"

Humans had gathered around the battle site that was left by Tiger Eye and her opponents. That is, if you could call that a battle. Heck, it wasn't even a real fight in the eye of Tiger. For one thing, the abomination had not gotten any stronger and then some human had the nerve to put an injector in her fun. That last attack left Tiger disoriented long enough to allow them to get away. She had to give the human credit for his speed though.

With no way of tracking them and, frankly, feeling the chase was not worth the reward, she made her way back to Obsidian. Maybe it wasn't a complete waste of time. Maybe if Tiger explained how weak the thing was, then maybe Obsidian would just give up on it. She might even decide to leave this planet for good. Of course, the key word was "maybe". They had been observing the abomination for three years now and it just seemed unlikely that Obsidian would pull out now.

But, hey, she was a free gem, and one such as her could hope.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 8

Abi and I made our way to her house. Along the way, I began to explain what a creed was. I told her the creed are just a bunch of humans that go around the world to fight gem monsters and keeps everyone safe from them.

"What else do you guys do?" she asked.

"That's about it as far as what we do."

"Oh come on, that can't be it."

"Nope."

"That seems kinda boring." she sounded a little disappointed.

"I guess it's not the same as a group of gems trying to hunt you down." It turned out that the gem that attacked Abi was not alone. As far as she knew, there were two others after her. She claimed to not know them by name, but she did know what they looked like. When I asked why they were after her, she replied by saying she didn't know exactly. She did, however, believed it had something to do with the fact that she was a half gem. Even now it still bugged me that she was a half gem but was born human. I wanted to ask how that was possible, but I chose not to.

Even though nothing had jumped at us yet, we were constantly looking over our shoulders just to make sure that gem wasn't still around. We finally got to her house, and after doing a quick sweep of the place, we proceed to the door.

"Are you sure you'll be safe here?" I asked. From what I saw, the house itself didn't look even that well protected. Even if Abi could defend herself, it would do her no good if she stayed here.

"No. We might have to move again if the others are around."

"Maybe not." I muttered under my breathe.

"Did you say something?"

"I was just thinking that maybe I can help. If these gems are the only ones that are following you, then it should be easy to deal with."

"Would you, really?"

"Well, it is my job to protect the earth and all those that live on it."

She ran over to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you." she said. After that, we said our goodbyes and I made my way back to the barn. On my way there, I began to think again. I thought about what I said to Abi: that I would help her with this problem she had. But I couldn't do that alone. That gem we fought-whatever her name was-was a bit too strong for me. If it weren't for Abi…

Not to mention there were potentially two more that were probably be just as strong if not stronger. I need help. More than that, I need more strength. But did I have the will to get it?