Chapter 21(Greg)

Once Steven and the others were out of sight, Citrine signaled for him to follow her. He did. They walked out of the ship and towards the corner of the room. It was just a corner. He didn't see why they were going that way. Then Citrine tapped on the wall and a circle formed inside of it. She walked in the circle and motioned him to follow again. Greg was hesitant. It looked kinda scary. Kinda weird too.

He had to trust this gem though. He walked in and stood next to Citrine. The entrance of the large circle filled back into the surrounding stone. He was wondering what was going on. He was about to ask but then the entrance for the circle opened again. Though they were somewhere else. Through a near window they could see stars and the ports way below them. They went up. It was fast too. They were way up in the towering palace.

"Oh, it's just like some weird elevator. hah"

"what did you think it was?"

"I had no idea. We don't have anything like that on Earth."

"huh. follow me. I have an idea of where your Crystal Gems might be."

"okay",Greg said as he followed the gem once again.

The place they were now had lots of small rooms with pads next to doors for the rooms. They looked kind of like jail cells. It would make sense, considering why they were here.

"Are these things... Cells?"

"yes. Your friends would be on this level. I'm going to need you to look in every cell. But I don't know what they look like."

"will do.",Greg said. he walked faster as he passed every oncoming cell. there were a lot that had gems in them so once and a while he had to stop and look.

They spent at least half an hour looking on cells between two different floors. There were a lot of them. They only walked into one other gem. It was pretty easy to hide behind Citrine. She was pretty tall.

"I don't know where else they would be. We searched the only two floors they would be on. We wouldn't be too late would we?",Citrine asked herself.

"I hope not. Could we ask someone if they moved or something?"

"that's a good idea. let's ask the guard that passed us a while back."

They looked for the guard. She was still on the first floor that they met her in. She was staring blankly at an empty cell.

"excuse me but, do you know what happened to the erm, rebel gems that might've been taken here?"

"The rebels? They were taken out a week ago. Yellow had a "talk" with them if you know what I mean. Those twisted gems deserved that punishment.Theyre probably shattered by now."

"oh. um, thank you I guess. Do you know where they might be if they are still in one piece? I just wanted to see them."

"hmmm. If they are still together they would probably be in the cell outside the shattering room or they would be by yellows special torture room. I doubt they are still getting punished though. I'm sorry, you probably already missed them."

"It's too bad. Thanks for your assistance anyway."

"yep."

Citrine walked away to go back to the empty cell Greg was momentarily hiding in. When she got there he was leaking substance out of his eye holes. It was called crying. She remembered Steven telling her that humans did that a lot.

"Did you hear?"

"y-yes.", he looked up at her for a second. His face showed real sadness.

"It's okay. We'll find them. I'm sure we're not too late. Let's hurry up and get to the shattering floor just in case. Okay?"

"sounds like a good idea I guess..."

Citrine picked him up gently and put him in her arms like how people carry babies.

Greg felt awkward but he didn't mind not having to walk while sobbing.

He was mostly sad because of the way he treated them since Steven disappeared. He was kind of distant. He knew that they were having just of a hard time as he was and he blamed them for everything. If they were gone what was he going to do? What was he going to tell Steven? poor kid. he has gone through so much. It would break his heart.

Citrine carried him back into the weird wall elevator thing. It carried them back down. He didn't know how many levels. They all looked the same now. Nothing mattered as much as it did before. He lost hope. They were just stepping out into another level.

His pocket tingled. It was his phone. How is he receiving texts? he wasn't even on earth! this place was screwing everything up.

He checked his phone. The front screen showed four missed texts and a missed call from Connie. Oops! was he supposed to call them? he started dialing her number in to call her.

"Mr. Universe! We have been so worried. we are waiting for you guys to find them. We are in a cell but we know how to get out whenever we want. Where are you guys? Any progress?"

The line was really clear even. It was strange to call someone in space. Oh well.

"Um, well we didn't find them in the cells where they should be. We are looking somewhere else now. I have to be quiet. I'll call you if anything happens."

He hung up quickly. He didn't know if he could tell them what might have happened. It may not be true anyway so what's the point of making a big deal of it. He put the phone back in his pocket.

Citrine stopped outside of a dimly lit room. She looked inside sand saw a huge gem standing looking at the wall boredly