"Where is this thing?!" Amethyst shouted, stretching her pliable skin to its limit before letting it snap back to the frame of her skull with a painful slap. She flung her hands into the heavy air and roughly ruffled her hair messily in frustration.
The shiny, damp leaves of the plentiful forest life intermingled kindly with the odd glowing rock formations. Distant floating islands lazily dotted the vibrantly, clear sky. It was usually a rather beautiful spectacle, it had been one of Rose's favorite places to visit. It was an untamable garden that stretched an entire continent. They had come here, so early in the morning that the stars and the sun had shared the periwinkle sky, for a single mission.
"It keeps moving-erratically too and it's…slippery, I can't latch onto it." Garnet mumbled, her fingers near her temples as she struggled to locate the monster with her future vision. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"It can't be intentionally avoiding you…can it?" Pearl asked, swatting a few rampant flies away. She was constantly looking up at the sky, her eyes going blank as she constantly checked her perfect, internal clock. She had developed this sense of time when she had first met Greg, and later perfected it to match ten time zones when Steven had been born. She knew that it was exactly 6:59:12 am back in Beach City.
"How can a corrupted gem even do that?" Amethyst moaned, falling onto her knees and settling down face-first into the loamy soil. The humidity of the jungle they currently sat in was making her hair frizz up. Squadrons of droning bugs flitted around them and the thick condensation dampened their faux skin.
"Anything's possible." Garnet muttered, running through hundreds of scenarios now. The river of futures were constantly splitting and settling into stagnant endings. Every time they attempted to approach the monster, the more likely it was to make its way towards the few, remote villages here in the forest. The more futures she opened, the more failures she found.
"Perhaps, it is isn't just any corrupted gem. Maybe a corrupted Sapphire? That might explain how it's avoiding us." Pearl theorized quietly, beginning to pace. "Or maybe we missed someone."
"We checked everywhere Pearl!" Amethyst shouted, her voice muffled by the dirt she was currently talking through. "We didn't miss anybody."
"We don't know that." Pearl whispered. "There are no certainties with future vision. And if any of the fallen gems knew about Garnet-."
"Barely anybody knew about us." Garnet grumbled, sighing and straightening up finally. She was rubbing her temples now with a groan. "We didn't miss anyone. Rose knew practically every gem she recruited by name and she was certain our comrades were either crushed or corrupted."
"Then why can't we find this stupid thing?" Amethyst sighed, rolling over and looking up into the crowded canopy. "We're gonna miss Steven's field camp thingy."
"Field trip." Pearl corrected, nervously gripping herself in an awkward hug. "I told him not to put on his shirt before we got there. Y-you don't think he would go without his shirt would you?"
"Greg would stop him." Amethyst assured her. "But I promised him I would carry him on my shoulders. He's like never gonna talk to me again."
"We all promised to walk with him. Apparently visiting this zoo is a very important moment in a human's developmental milestones." Pearl muttered, her long feet wearing a slight path were she paced. "I wanted to take pictures too. And maybe check the bus-those things aren't safe transportation units for small children, you know? "
"The faster we find this thing, the faster we can get back." Garnet grunted. "The only thing I can see right now is that it is moving toward the lake."
"We're going to miss it." Pearl whispered miserably. "After we promised. We promised, Garnet. We made sure we could keep it this time."
"I know, Pearl." Garnet sighed heavily, removing her visor and rubbing all three of her eyes. "As you said, future visions has no certainties and it was foolish of us to promise to go when we knew there was a five percent chance we couldn't make it. But we can't change the present. We'll make it up to him somehow."
"We said that the last time and the time before that!" Amethyst spat. "And the time before that too!"
"He knows why we're doing this." Garnet argued.
"But he's just a baby Garnet! Can he really understand? You know how he gets, he's going to think we don't want to spend time with him." Pearl said, her arms trembling with the effort of holding herself together. "Greg says he's always worried about whether or not we really want to spend time with him."
"I know." Garnet shouted, a flock of birds bursting from the emerald foliage above. "I'm just as much as worried as you are. I feel bad that we keep breaking our promises too. But we can't let it affect our ability to protect this planet. That monster, if we let it roam free, will eventually make its way to a village and hurt people; children like Steven. We are doing the best we can. We will make it up to him."
Garnet leapt into the muggy air with clenched fists, a slight sheen on her cheeks as the rising sun beat down on them. Pearl and Amethyst looked at each other briefly, before leaping after Garnet without a single word between them.
A/N: Sorry for the lateness. was freaking out yesterday and I couldn't access my account. Thanks for the favorites, follows and reviews!