"You're going to do great."

"I'm not going anywhere, you know," Mercury pointed out fondly as Tin cupped a hand around her gem. "I'll just be making sure everybody else does great."

"And you'll do great at that," Tin laughed. "You and Cyan."

"Mm." Mercury looked away, embarrassed. "Hopefully."

"You've been doing a good job working together," she added. "I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks. She's not entirely impossible to collaborate with."

Tin didn't even try to hide her laughter. "I'll be sure to tell her you said that later."

"Don't you dare." Mercury hesitated. "You could come along, you know. It wouldn't be a distraction or anything."

She shook her head. "Maybe another time. This is the first real mission you two have strategized for together, so it should just be you."

Mercury looked like she didn't understand what difference it made, but she conceded with a small nod. "Alright. You'll come get me if anything happens though? If your gem need tears or—"

"I can put tears on myself," Tin said gently, stroking her fingers lightly through Mercury's hair. "It's just nicer when you do it."

She blushed. "I know. Sorry, I wasn't trying to say you couldn't."

"It's okay. But you don't need to worry about me, I promise. I'll be in the common room, so if anything I can't handle on my own happens, there'll be plenty of gems around to help."

"Alright." Mercury pulled her closer, their cheeks touching gently as she brought her hand up to mirror the way Tin was holding her gem. "I love you."

"I love you too." Tin stood still for a moment, then softly pushed Mercury away. "Here, I have an idea," she said, tugging at her hand. "Can you get a pen out?"

"Sure," she replied, confused. She took one of Tin's usual pens from her gem, holding it out to her expectantly. "Here."

Tin smiled, taking it and uncapping it with her teeth, then bringing Mercury's hand up to write on.

Together.

Then, letting her go, she moved the pen to her own hand—her right to mirror Mercury's left—and wrote the same word.

"In case you need a reminder," Tin said, bringing their hands together. "I'll be right there with you."

Mercury's eyes softened as she squeezed Tin's fingers tight. "Thank you, Tin. I'll do my best."

"I know you will."

It was easy to slip back into the mirrored embrace that they'd used all through their service, and Mercury lingered there as long as she could before she needed to make her way over to the strategy room.

"Okay, everyone's here now!" Cyan said as White came in about ten minutes late. The lateness didn't matter—it was only vaguely a time-sensitive mission—but either way, Cyan and Mercury had expected someone or something to happen to delay them and scheduled that in accordingly.

"Hi," White said, joining Viri, Silver, Chroma, and Blue at the table.

"What are you wearing a hat for?" Mercury asked, giving White a curious stare.

"Caddy gave it to me. She said I should wear a disguise."

"And covering your gem with a hat was the best she could come up with?"

White tugged the knit cap further down over her head stubbornly. "Look, I don't get it either, but I'm wearing it."

"It's conspicuous."

"It's white. It matches." She tilted her head. "If Tin gave you a hat, you'd wear it."

"…Alright, do what you want."

"That's what I always do."

Blue stifled a laugh as Mercury rolled her eyes and decided to go back to what she'd been writing on the board.

"Cyan, your turn."

"My turn?"

"Give them a motivational speech and get them out of here. It's not like we have anything else to go over."

"I'd like to see you give a motivational speech," Cyan said with a smirk. "But for the sake of time, I guess I can do it."

Mercury scowled at her.

"Alright, let's see…" Cyan turned to the others. "You've all been training hard and you know what you have to do. Just be confident and remember you're a team, alright? Don't be afraid to rely on each other. The two of us will be here to help too, but you're the ones who get to make the split-second decisions."

"We'll do our best," Blue promised.

"And we'll bring back as many new friends as we can!" Viri added.

"Is the infirmary all good to go?" Chroma checked.

"It is," Mercury confirmed. "They'll be ready to receive any bubbles you send back."

She nodded. "Then I guess we're ready." She shot Cyan a quick smile. "No surprises this time, I promise. Or at least none from me."

"I know." She smiled back warmly. "Good luck out there, all of you."

"Thanks."

The five of them used the tunnels to get to the desired sector, White navigating them through into White Diamond's territory with ease. She knew the tunnels like the back of her hand. Then, once they were above ground, it was Blue who led the way through discreet paths. She was more familiar with these hallways, the ones where she'd once snuck around trying to rescue or at least retrieve some of their shattered sisters. Gem creation and gem destruction were practically next door to each other.

Silver glanced back at Blue as they neared their destination. "This is the place?"

She nodded.

"Okay. Chroma, you got your magic thingy to unlock the door?"

"It's not magic, but yes." Chroma smiled, pulling it off from where she'd strapped it onto her leg, between the shorts and skirt layers of her skort. "Just press the button and hold it down. It'll keep the door cracked open until you let go."

"Gotcha. I'll peek in and see if the coast is clear, you guys wait here."

Silver took the device, tucking it into the palm of her hand and going on ahead of the others to the door. She positioned herself just outside, where her body would be shielded from sight from anyone within. Then she pressed the button as Chroma had said, which made the door whisk just the slightest bit open immediately. Silver waited in place, hand curled into a fist in case she needed to react quickly.

After a few tense seconds, and no sign that anyone had noticed the door opening, she took a tiny step closer and peered around to look inside the room. It was a smallish room, no one within her line of vision, and only occupied by stacks of containers of…minerals? Minerals of some kind, but Silver didn't know enough to recognize them.

There was a bustle of activity beyond that, through an open archway, but she couldn't see much of that from her current angle. Silver quickly crossed over to the other side of the opening to be sure she wasn't missing something obvious, then held her hand out towards the others.

"I think we're good. Viri, hold the door open, please?"

Viri nodded quickly, coming over to join her. Blue-green fingers curled around the edge of the door securely and yanked it back to create a larger opening. Silver grinned and slipped inside, scoping out the room quickly and then carefully kicking some of the stacks closer together to provide better cover for them.

"Okay, tell the others they can come in now!"

She was quickly joined by Chroma, White, and Blue, the four of them crouching together behind the boxes. Viri carefully twisted around to get inside too, then released the door slowly until it was left only a crack open as it had been before.

White lifted her hat to get out a block of metal from her gem, which she shoved into place to keep the door open. Silver let go of the button, and the door stayed where it was.

"Thanks," she said, giving the device back to Chroma. "Okay. White, you ready?"

She nodded shortly. White was the stealthiest of the group, so her job was to sneak into the main room and get a feel for the layout, then look for a good opening in which they could attack.

"Viri?"

The taller gem nodded too, cautiously poking her head out to get a better view of the factory. "My owner's the one on the far left," she whispered to White as she drew back. "At the little inspection table."

"Got it. I'll leave her be."

"Thanks." Viri gave White a quick hug of encouragement, and White smiled and waved before disappearing outside.

Silver waited a moment, then peered around the boxes to see how White was doing. She couldn't see the other Pearl, so things must have been fine. Okay. Time to wait.

White was excited to be going on her first real mission. Sure, she'd done plenty of stuff solo when she'd been in service, but that was different. This was something planned, something she got to do feeling like she was really a part of the rebellion now—personally, not just professionally. Plus she'd been cooped up inside aside from her Earth visits, so she was happy to get out for a change.

For a little extra disguise, she shifted her spiky leotard to a plain one and did away with her shoes so she was as quiet as possible. Between that and her hat, at least no one would recognize her at first glance.

Before her, there were neat lines of stations, ending with rows and rows of Pearls being made. Peridots monitored them fastidiously as they grew, constantly running scans, checking screens, and tipping things into the individual chambers.

Stars, this was weird. White hadn't ever given much thought to where she'd begun her existence. She probably wouldn't think about it from now on either—she had more important things to think about.

Hmm…where to go next? She darted about a yard and ducked behind some machinery she didn't recognize. She figured out what it was for a second later though, recoiling as she saw the pile of broken gems a few feet away from her. All baroque Pearls, broken in favor of creating the perfect circles that the Diamonds insisted on. White touched her own gem briefly, then forced herself to look away.

Time to move again, she told herself. She rushed a short distance over to the next good hiding spot. Just in time too, because then she noticed an Agate that she hadn't had a good view of before. Damn it, they'd been hoping they could avoid that.

All things considered though, this Agate seemed less…intimidating than the last one she'd had to face. She mostly just looked bored having to supervise a bunch of Peridots on Pearl-making duty. Who could blame her? But White still needed to come up with a way to get her out of the picture.

Well, from here, she could just…

Yeah, might as well go for it!

Silver jumped as she heard a shout from outside. "White?"

"That didn't sound like White," Blue whispered.

There was a very loud crash.

"That sounds like White," Viri said brightly.

"What's going on?" Mercury demanded from their communicators.

"Not really sure yet," Blue said.

"You're not sure?"

"It's alright, we thought something like this might happen," Cyan spoke up with a sigh.

"Yes, but Plan A was Plan A for a reason," Mercury huffed.

"I'll be sure to tell White that as soon as she's done smashing things," Chroma muttered. "Gotta go now, talk to you in a bit."

"Be safe," Cyan said quickly.

Silver and Viri were the first out of the room, with Chroma and Blue close behind them. No point hiding anymore if White had decided to jump start this fight.

And as much as it might have been reckless, a quick look around told Silver it had been a smart reckless. White had managed to get the Agate separated from the Peridots, keeping the larger gem in the middle as a kind of shield from possible attacks from limb enhancers. If the circular burn in the wall was any indication, it seemed like at least one had already tried to use them.

"Do not fire those things in here, you fools!" the Agate snapped over her shoulder. "This is delicate machinery! Not to mention, I'll be the one to suggest a shattering if you damage any of these Pearls!"

"That's nice of you to say," White deadpanned. "So I don't have to use this?" She lifted her sword with one hand.

She received only a look of disgust, ignored as the larger gem addressed the Peridots instead. "Restrain these…obvious defects. And for stars' sake, don't let them touch anything."

"Right!" The Peridots seemed to relax at that order, a confirmation that really there wasn't anything to be concerned about. This wasn't a danger; it was an inconvenience.

They were about to regret that, Silver thought. There was a part of her that wished she could say something witty to the Agate like White, but right now her fists would be better used for punching. The other four could handle the small talk—and the directions-giving, which was more important.

Blue was already moving to take White's place, nudging her away. "Start getting everything we talked about," she said. "We'll cover you."

"On it!"

Blue's spear was out within seconds. The Agate reacted with a tiny step back when she drew her weapon, but was surprised to find that Blue just grinned and ducked past her to get the Peridots out of the way instead. Silver wanted to stop and watch her in action—gems fought differently for real than they did in training—but she didn't have the time for it now.

She checked around to make sure everyone else was where they needed to be. Chroma had joined Blue, sword drawn, and Silver was proud to see she seemed as confident as she'd been in training lately.

Meanwhile, White had slipped away and was gathering up supplies, all the Pearl "ingredients" for lack of a better word. It wasn't as if stealing these would stop Pearl production entirely—nor would destroying the machines, as they would later—but taking out this facility meant putting a very large dent in the process's usual workings. It would be a victory, and it would make a statement.

Last, there was Viri, who Silver just barely caught a glimpse of as she hauled a Peridot bodily out of the crowd and into the room they'd entered through. Stars, she hoped this worked out. Viri's owner's reaction was one of the biggest unknowns in their plan.

Silver trusted that to Viri though, and right now she couldn't spare it any more thought. Her job here was to take out the Agate. Or, well, to keep her occupied and wear her out until the others could help. She didn't want to get too cocky about a victory.

This Agate, unfortunately, seemed to have zero qualms about just calling in what was happening. Probably because of the sensitive equipment involved, not because she was particularly worried about Pearls coming in and starting a fight.

She was already at the communicator near the wall, her fingers skimming the panel quickly. "Requesting—"

Silver jumped onto the Agate, slamming her fist into her cheek to interrupt.

"Why you—"

"Please repeat your request," came a polite voice from the communicator.

Silver shoved her hand over her Agate's mouth, her other hand clinging to the Agate's uniform to stay on her back. She threw her weight to one side, forcing the other gem off balance and away from the wall.

Teeth snapped painfully down on one of her fingers a second later, but she kept her hand in place. The Agate growled in frustration and reached back over her shoulder, tearing Silver away far easier than she would have liked.

"That is quite enough from you. Settle down."

She tossed a struggling Silver to the floor and attempted to pin her there with a boot, but Silver rolled sideways and jumped back to her feet, fists at the ready.

"Oh, and you've got quite the fancy gem, don't you?" She reached for Silver's gem hand, grabbing it by the wrist and pulling it closer. "A bit of an older one, but certainly—"

Silver's arm, which she'd let go lax in the Agate's grip, pushed forward suddenly, her fist slamming up into the Agate's nose.

"Ow!" she yelped, letting go. She just barely got her arm up in time to fend off Silver's next attack, and quickly ran the couple of steps back to the communicator. "Requesting backup immediately! We have intruders."

"Backup, yes, one moment. A team of Rubies will—"

"I do not need Rubies running around and making a mess of things! Send me a couple smaller Quartzes, some Carnelians maybe." She snarled as Silver jumped onto her again and threw an elbow back to try and hit her. "I don't care, but someone who knows how to channel their destruction a little more efficiently."

They were on a time crunch now that gems outside had been alerted to the problem. Silver redoubled her efforts, getting in as many hits as she could to the Agate's head before she was thrown off. When she was, she tumbled to the ground and rolled easily to her feet like she'd practiced hundreds of times.

Even as the rebellion's best fighter—or second best if you counted Pearl—Silver wasn't exactly experienced in terms of real fights. But she could do it. She was especially glad she'd been able to train with a bigger gem like Garnet recently because she would have been guessing her way through this fight without it.

Unfortunately, this factory's location in central Homeworld meant that the backup was close by, and soon there were new opponents running in to replace the ones Blue and Chroma had already taken out.

Alright, Silver thought, time to put all their training to good use.

"You!" Viri grabbed her owner and hauled her into the room where they'd come in, out of sight of the others.

"Let go of me!" she screeched. "What are you even doing here?! You ran away!"

"Yes, I did. And that's what you need to do now."

"What?"

"Run. Go back home."

"I can't just leave while—"

"If you don't leave, Homeworld's probably going to punish you," Viri said, eyes dark. "And if there's one thing the two of us agree on, it's that that needs to be avoided. Please just run. Make up an excuse for not being here when it happened."

Her owner stared at her.

"You'll get investigated," she continued, "and I don't think they'll like that one of their Peridots is smuggling unusual Pearls home for her own enjoyment."

She gulped. "Alright. Alright, I'll go."

"Good." Viri went over to the door, yanking it open again. "Here."

Her owner stumbled a little in her haste to leave. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me. I'm doing this for them, not for you."

As soon as her owner was out of sight, Viri rushed back inside, looking around quickly to gauge where she was needed most.

With Silver. Definitely with Silver. The smaller gem was being swarmed by Carnelians because she was the best of the group. Chroma was right beside her, helping her hold them back, but they were still too outnumbered. Blue had her own share as well, but their main energy was definitely focused on Silver.

Viri liked that none of these gems seemed to know what to do with them—it worked in their favor, especially when they kept recoiling when Viri got anywhere close, eyes glued to the gem in her chest. It wasn't the best feeling, since she knew they thought it was wrong to have a gem like this, but this wasn't the time to be picky. Besides, they were the ones that were lacking, if they couldn't see the beauty in more than one kind of gem.

Viri shoved her way into the fight, pulling out the sword Azalea had given her and swinging it wide to clear a path to Silver and Chroma. "You two okay?" she checked with Chroma, quickly putting herself between her and the Carnelians. Silver was still locked in combat with about three different gems at once, but primarily the Agate.

"A little banged up, but okay," Chroma said, her hair wild around her shoulders. "Can you cover Sil? She's starting to get worn out."

"Yep!" Viri ran forward, getting in front of Silver. She was able to knock the Agate backwards with her sword and quickly took the opportunity to drag both Silver and Chroma to a more defensible spot closer to the corner. Better to see all the enemies coming at you instead of having to protect every side, right? "Hurry and put some healing tears on," she said over her shoulder.

"I'm fine, I can keep fighting," Silver insisted.

"Healing tears first! You'll be able to fight better if you're in tip-top shape again."

Silver relented with a nudge from Chroma, and hastily got out one of the vials of tears that she had stored in her gem. "You first," she said to Chroma, tipping about half of it out over her head.

"Thanks. Here." Chroma took Silver's hand in one of her own and drizzled the rest of the tears over the surface as evenly as she could in her rush.

As soon as she'd put the vial away again, Silver flashed a smile and headed back into the fray.

"Silver!"

"I'm okay, I promise. And the healing tears helped."

"That doesn't mean you don't need a break."

"I'll take one after," she said with a grin. "Gotta make sure everyone's okay first."

"Wait, Sil, you can't just—"

There was a sudden sort of pull in Silver's gem, like Chroma had yanked her hand especially hard, and it startled her. She looked down at their joined hands, only to find that she couldn't distinguish the two in the unusually bright light coming from her own gem.

There was brief moment of panic where she tried to project and couldn't, but then she was swept up in unfamiliar warmth, her eyes finding Chroma's for a split second before they both vanished.

She could feel Chroma's surprised smile more than she saw it, and then it was her smile, and then—

Suddenly they were towering over the others, looking at the fight from a new angle. A fight that wasn't much of a fight anymore—everyone had frozen to stare at her.

The fusion stood still too, though the surprise of her existence soon faded into calm certainty that this was exactly how things should be. Like this, she could protect everyone better.

Now, she should start with the Agate, right?

Just as she thought to move, suddenly White was there, shoving her sword full force through the Agate's back. The Agate screamed, twisting to try and grab her attacker, but it only lodged the sword in deeper.

"Poof her!" White called to the fusion. "I can't hold her like this forever!"

She nodded, moving quick to grab the front of the Agate's uniform and drag her away from White. She was approximately the same size as her now, which was an odd feeling, but she took full advantage of it. A few hits at full strength, centered around her gem, and the Agate was clearly struggling to hold her form together.

However, she eventually managed to escape White's hold, freeing herself and charging at the fusion.

The fusion whipped her head around instinctively, long hair snapping into a kind of protective shield. It repelled the attack easily, only a few small pieces breaking off and falling to the floor. She pulled her arm back and punched the Agate back as hard as she could, making her dissipate instantly.

"Nice job!" Viri congratulated her.

"Are you feeling alright?" Blue checked, coming closer but keeping her spear at the ready.

She nodded again.

"Good. It's great to meet you. Mind helping us out a little more?"

"I'd love to." The voice that came from her mouth surprised her—quiet but deeper than Chroma's, and coming out perfectly. She pressed her fingertips to her lips. "I can talk."

"You can!" Viri exclaimed. "I'm going to give you a hug as soon as we're done fighting!"

She smiled. "Okay."

With that, the five—four—of them rushed into action again.

The fusion made quick work of the remaining Carnelians, the other Pearls pushing them towards her as they fought in order to speed up the process of dissipating all of them.

"Okay, that's the last of them!" Blue called, hurriedly scooping up the gems that had fallen all around the room. "Where should I put them?"

"Just shove 'em in there," White suggested, pointing to a storage closet. "Better make it fast, that Agate's going to come back soon."

"Got it."

With them taken care of, they hastily set to work on the room itself.

"Could one of you please give me an update on what's going on?" Mercury was asking when the fusion picked up her two fallen communicators and held them on either side of her head.

"Hello," she said. "Chroma and Silver fused, so I'm here now. What do you want me to do?"

"Oh my stars, congratulations, but could somebody stick to our plan?" She paused. "What's your name?"

"…Slate," she answered slowly. She wasn't sure where it had come from, but it felt right. "I'm Slate."

Cyan was laughing in the background, then spoke up. "Hi, Slate. Can you bubble?"

"Um…just a minute." She made sure the communicators were securely attached to her, then let go to test it out. In an instant, there was a large gray bubble in her hands. Slate popped it easily. "Yes, I can," she answered.

"Okay, then you can take over Chroma's job. Get any gems you can back here; Aura and the others are ready in the infirmary."

Aura. The name brought with it a rush of lovely anticipation. "Got it," Slate said.

"White, why don't you help me start breaking these?" Blue was saying. "And Viri, if you want to start breaking the stuff over…" She trailed off, turning around to try to locate the larger gem. She was kneeling down beside the pile of destroyed gems. "Viri?"

"I-I never knew they…" Angry tears were dripping steadily from her eyes. "There's so many. How could they just destroy them like this?"

"Viri—"

"I'm taking them home," she said, no room for argument in her voice. "I—I have to take them home."

"Viri," Slate said. "They're already gone. We have to prioritize the ones we have a chance of saving." She gestured to the chambers where new Pearls were forming.

"But we might be able to fix them!" Viri argued desperately. "We have the healing tears now! Please, just bubble this and then I can try to heal them once we're back!"

Slate hesitated. "Okay," she said. "Gather them up into something and I'll send it over."

"Thank you."

She nodded, then turned her attention to the larger task ahead of her. The Pearl chambers were lined up together, locked into a larger base that was attached to the top of the table. The original plan had been for Chroma to break each individual chamber one by one and bubble the partially formed Pearl inside as fast as she could, the stasis hopefully able to preserve them safely until they could be placed in the machinery they'd set up back on base.

But…if Slate was bigger, if she had both Chroma and Silver's energy reserves to draw from, then…

"I'm going to try to bubble the whole thing," she decided.

"What?" Blue, nearest to her, glanced up in surprise.

"I want to see if I can send them all back at once. That way we're not disturbing them as much."

"It's a good idea," she agreed. "Can you lift it though? You'll probably need to pick it up to be able to bubble it."

"Yeah, that might be a little too big even for you," White said, suddenly appearing right next to Slate, in the sort of tent made by her hair.

Slate took a step back, startled. "When did you get there?"

"Just now. I finished smashing the stuff on my side."

"Oh, okay." She gave White a careful pat on the head. "Stand back while I try this, okay?"

"Okay." White pushed her way through Slate's quills easily, going over to help Blue destroy the rest of the equipment.

Maybe it was a silly idea, doing it all at once, Slate thought, but it couldn't hurt to try. At the very least, if she failed, she had the option of sending the units to base in groups rather than one Pearl at a time.

She was careful as she took hold of the chambers, then gave them a firm yank. The base snapped off the table, and Slate felt a wave of relief rush over both her gems.

"Nice job!" Blue congratulated her.

"That was way easier than I thought," White commented.

"Me too," Slate admitted.

Now for step two.

Slate concentrated hard, pulling from Chroma's memories of how she'd learned to bubble, then from Silver's, from the time they'd spent practicing together, from the time they'd spent showing off their progress to Aura and teaching her to do it too. Home, she thought. To Aura, so I can meet her as soon as possible.

"You got it!" White exclaimed, making Slate open her eyes quickly.

There was the bubble, far bigger than she'd expected could be possible to make, but it was complete. It was lighter than Chroma's in color, but it had that same near-opaqueness that her black ones did. "I did it," she breathed.

Before anything could happen to disturb the bubble, she hastily tapped it and sent it back home. It shimmered and vanished, leaving nothing behind.

"Let's get the others as well," Blue said hastily, gesturing to where Viri had just finished scooping up all the gem remains she could into a bag. From what Slate had seen, there were some bigger pieces, some that might be put back together, but far too much of it was dust and tiny shards that now clung to Viri's hands as she tried to brush them off into the bag.

"You can shapeshift it off," White said neutrally, watching her.

"Oh. Oh, you're right." There was none of Viri's usual cheer in her voice, but she was at least efficient as she shifted once to dispel the foreign pieces of gem on her hands. "There. That's—That's all of them, I think."

Slate nodded, taking the bag from her gently and bubbling it, sending it to follow after the first.

Viri dropped to her knees when it vanished, gasping out a small sob. "What if they don't make it? Even if I put them back together, it's…there's so many pieces…"

"They might," Slate said quietly, leaning forward and letting her hair fall all around Viri for a moment as she touched a careful finger to her chin to raise it. "They have a chance now. But we need to go, if we want to get back safely and help them."

"I-I know. Okay." She reached up to take Slate's hand, using it to pull herself up. "Let's go," she said, a little bit more composed.

"Let's go," Slate agreed.

The four of them did one more check around the factory, making sure they hadn't missed anything and giving Slate a chance to smash some of the machinery a bit more with her added strength. Then…Then it was time to unfuse.

She didn't want to—she'd barely had any time at all, really—but she had to. There was no way to sneak out at this size, so Silver and Chroma would have to do it for her and she'd trust them to bring her back once they were safe at home.

"Um, see you later," she said, giving the others a little wave.

"See you later, Slate," Blue answered with a smile. "Thanks for all the help."

Her face warmed happily, and then she pushed herself apart, her two components helping as they agreed it was time to go.

Silver and Chroma ended up sort of running in opposite directions when Slate came apart, Chroma laughing a little and quickly turning around to grab Silver in an enthusiastic hug. "That was amazing! And I know we can't talk about it right now, but it was great and I love you!"

"I love you too! Come on, come on, let's get out of here already." Silver gave Viri's arm a reassuring squeeze. "Take care of our new friends."

"Sounds good," Viri replied with a small smile.

"Yeah," Blue agreed, one hand at her gem. "We'll all take care of them together, whatever happens."