Amber lay on the ground whispering to herself by the time her helpers got to her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up, there were five gems that worriedly watched her.

"We are here to help, my name is Azurite, and they are Vexus, Emerald, Jewel, and Tiger Eye," the blue-eyed gem said, "You are safe with us, we just need you to stay yourself, okay?"

"Y-Yeah," Amber said, getting off of the floor, "How did you get here so fast?"

Amber felt something invade her mind as the tall green gem communicated, "We live somewhat close."

"Gah! Get out of my head," Amber said, already starting to become more of herself, "Only Turquoise gets to see my mind!"

Emerald tilted her head, "Your friend can read minds and communicate telepathically?"

"Yes! Can't you?" Amber said, shaking her head.

"Nope, I can only speak to you," Emerald said as Amber calmed herself down.

"Oh," Amber said, "Sorry."

"This is useful information," Jewel said, "If Turquoise can do both communication and reading, she can tell us all about the opponents."

"Alright," Amber said, sitting down on a chair, "There is a strange number on the door and I was wondering if you could tell me about it."

Vexus looked at the number again, "It's a street address in the valley."

"Oh," Amber said as the two made eye contact, "Wait a second…"

"You are that Amber?" Vexus asked, "You gave me my collar! Wow you got away with so many things, I can't believe you are asking for my help now."

"At least I didn't tick off Yellow Diamond by exploding a ship with a gem in it…" Amber said, "And, my gem isn't deformed like yours."

Vexus blushed blue, "Do you really think that making that collar was a smart idea?"

"No! I regret it!" Amber said, grimacing.

"Alright everyone, get in the car!" Tiger Eye said, tired of the two arguing, "I don't care how ya feel!"

Vexus scoffed, "Who died and made you leader?"

"Certainly not me," Azurite smiled as Vexus blushed harder.

The small green gem sighed, "Sorry, Amber. We are really here to help you out, I just got miffed in the past."
"It's okay, I also escalated it," Amber said, holding out her hand.

"You two should get a room," Emerald giggled.

"Shush!" Vexus said, taking her hand away from Amber, "You are very different from what you seemed like on the security cameras."

"Yeah," Amber said, "Everyone says that."

"Well, you look better," Azurite said as Amber's hand fell.

"Really?" Amber looked up to the taller gem.

"Yes," Azurite grinned and grabbed the tan gem's hand, "Now, we need you to get in the car so that we can find your family."

"Okay," Amber said as the two got into the car.

She watched as Emerald shape shifted into a small green puppy and sat on Jewel's lap. Amber sat in the seat next to shotgun while Azurite and Vexus sat in the back with Jewel and Emerald. Tiger Eye was at the wheel and driving fairly quickly.

"Wow, it's like we have a small army," she said, "It's what Azurite would have wanted."

"What?" Amber looked back to Azurite, "What is she saying?"

"Apparently my mother and Tiger used to work together," Azurite said, "Gosh this is kind of confusing… I was conceived by my mother and father somehow which is why I look like this. That was at least five thousand years ago though."

As Azurite was reminiscing with Vexus, Amber turned around to face the upcoming world. Tiger steered the car around a sharp corner and they came to their destination.

"This is the place, right Vexus?" the pale gem asked.

"Yes," Vexus answered.

The group hopped out of the car and ran to the building. Amber was the first to break in through the door. Tiger and Azurite followed directly behind her as she ascended the steps to the rooftop. It looked empty, but Amber felt a strong wind brushing against her as she inhaled.

She felt tempted to vomit as the sickening smell flooded her nostrils. The gem walked towards the smell, but was horrified and walked backwards a bit. Amber looked down and saw a hand that had a wedding band. As the group caught up to her, they became aware of the smell too. The tan gem winced when she discovered more body parts scattered about.

Vexus picked up the hand, "This is fake, g-."

The hand exploded in her face, sending her gem straight towards the gems. Tiger Eye jumped up and caught it, passing it to Azurite.

"Get out of there!" Azurite shouted to Amber, but she didn't listen.

Amber stared into the presumed body parts and sorted through them, looking for Luca and the caretaker's. She felt herself being picked up by the silvery gem, Jewel. Her body was tossed away, but Jewel didn't have time to get out of there. Explosions echoed as her gem was tossed into Emerald's chest. The green gem held her close, but gave her to Azurite.

"Stay here, I am going to get revenge right now," Emerald helped Amber get up and started sprinting at the place where the explosions occurred.

The roof was a rather large place, but she ran into a barrier, falling backwards. She forcibly placed her hand through it and felt herself destabilizing. Suddenly, Emerald felt a hand touching hers, she pulled and pulled and out came the caretaker. He collapsed on the ground, his limp body no longer helping him breathe.

Amber ran over and put her hands on the caretaker and pulled out arrows that had been fired into his side, "Please don't die!"

Emerald kneeled, "I will try to heal him, you put your hands through there and pull people out."

Something fell out of the caretaker's pocket, Turquoise's gem, "Is this your friend's? Her gem has a crack in it so I can't heal that, but when Jewel gets back she can help."

Amber nodded, "Okay."

She stuck her hand into the barrier and felt instant pain, instinctively retracting it. When Amber recovered from the shock, she forcibly shoved her whole body into the barrier. Emerald rose to try and stop her, but she got through with brutal effort.

On the other side, Amber saw Luca's arm lying on the ground. It had most likely been beaten off of its attachment. She turned around and hit the barrier, causing it to ripple and fall apart. A small building had been revealed that was almost pitch black except for a bit of light in the corner.

Tiger and Azurite came to Amber's side, watching out for her. She ran forward and they followed her every step to the light. In the corner, Luca sat in a chair, looking like he had been drugged, as he didn't react to the arrival of his lover.

Amber ran her hands through his hair, "It's gonna be okay, Luca."

He struggled to look at her but his body wasn't able to help him move. She removed the duct tape from his mouth and tried to untie him. Tiger pulled out her switchblade and cut the tape within a few seconds. Azurite picked him up and carried him to Emerald. Amber continued forward with Tiger, breaking the chair to make a small blade out of the sharp wood.

All of a sudden, several bullets flew past Amber, one hitting her back. Tiger tried to pull it out of her, but it wouldn't come out so they continued to fight the people ahead of them with the blade of wood until it broke into pieces.

"It's okay, let's continue," she winced as Tiger attempted to try to get the bullet out, "Let me take the damage, your type doesn't handle that aspect very well. Besides, I am going to need you to fight these evil idiots."

"True," Tiger said, "But still…"

The two ran quickly through the area until humans surrounded them. Tiger wiped the sweat off her brow while Amber leaned against her. Quickly pulling a makeshift dagger from her gem, Amber lunged at the humans. She dragged it across one of their stomachs but memories flooded through her mind as blood spilled on the ground. Amber stared at the human as he collapsed, the sword still in his hand.

His group started to surround Amber as she stood in shock. Tiger Eye kicked most of the people away with her fringed boots. Within minutes the large group was diminished to three people.

"Why are you doing this?" Amber asked, but the humans only drew their bows.

"Answer her or we'll attack ya!" Tiger said, narrowing her eyes, "Hey Amber, it looks like they have mind-control on them."

"Really?" Amber asked, "Then that human I killed…"

"When Jewel gets back she can heal him, I don't think he died," Tiger looked to the body, "Yup still breathing."

Arrows fired at the two, but they successfully dodged them, running around the people and kicking their shins to knock them down. One hit Amber's visor, knocking her down. She panicked slightly, but calmed herself as Tiger ripped it out.

"That was close wasn't it?" Tiger Eye smiled.

"Yeah," Amber said, standing up.

The two looked around for the mastermind. Tiger felt a hand on her thigh and within a second she was laying flat on the ground.

She looked into the red eyes of a white-spotted black being with snowy white hair and a short black dress. It blinked twice and drew away, looking disgusted. When its eyes met Amber's the tan gem backed off but the being got closer and closer till their faces touched.

"S-Stay away f-from me!" Amber stuttered.

"Why?" the being asked, "I am the remnant of a gem called Snowflake Jasper. I possessed all of these people just so that I could get interesting gems to come visit me."

"I don't care about you, you took my family away!" Amber practically yelled with all of the bottled up anger, "You took and hurt people I loved and now you expect me to want to be close to you?! No way! Get the heck out of here!"

"That is what I like in a gem," the being said, "Amber, you are going to need to kill your friend."

"What?" Amber asked, looking to Tiger Eye, "I would never hurt her."

"I wish to see you cry and turn dark," the being developed a glint in her eye and put her lips to Amber.

The gem started choking as the specter-like being crawled down her throat. Her small shard of a gem got caught, but it was forced down. Amber's eyes started to dull as she looked to Tiger Eye with a devilish glint.

"Whoa Amber, everything is okay," the light-brown hair gem said, "Ya are going to be okay."

Amber coughed, "Run the heck away! I am dangerous!"

"But ya were a technician, ya can't be that powerf-" Tiger was thrown across the roof, hitting the wall, "Oof, stronger than I thought ya were."

"Please run!" Amber yelled, pulling a long sword out of her gem as Tiger pulled out a katana.

"I am not gonna run! My pride won't allow it," Tiger Eye grinned.

Amber ran towards the gem and lunged, knocking her over again. This time, Tiger couldn't get up in time and the tan gem stabbed her in the stomach.

"Golly gosh, that is a hard stab," Tiger laid back, expecting Amber to remove the dagger.

Instead she drug it up, "Wow, ya are unpredictable aren't ya?"

The tan gem ripped it out of Tiger's chest and took a moment to stroke the pale gem's cheeks. She stared into her eyes for a few seconds and bent herself down to whisper to the gem.

Amber maintained eye contact, moving the dagger to her gem and pressed down with all of her effort. She looked down at the dagger and the specter reveled in frustration. The remnant struggled Amber's body as she started to get dizzy. Amber jabbed deeper down into her gem and the specter felt itself dissipating.

"No! You are going to die!" the specter said.

"Wrong person to possess!" Amber said, staring at her cracked gem.

It had never been this badly cracked, but she was ready to give up her life to make sure this specter never came back to hurt her family. A single tear rolled down Tiger's face as she helped Amber support herself.

"It's gonna be okay," she said to Amber, "Luca is gonna be so happy to see ya."

"Yup," Amber said, "Did I get her?"

"Yeah, ya did," Tiger said, "Doncha leave me, okay?"

Amber smiled as the shorthaired gem and her shuffled through the dark room. When they exited the building, the tan gem saw Luca and ran to him. He stood and watched as Emerald and Azurite struggled to resuscitate his uncle.

"When is Jewel getting back?!" Azurite said frantically as Amber got to her knees.

She took her dagger from her gem and changed it so that it looked like a long needle. Amber then shoved it into his lung and he started to cough.

"I saw that on a TV show, Luca," Amber smiled; changing the blade took a lot of energy from her.

Luca looked to her gem, "You aren't going to make it are you?"

"Probably not," Amber said, wiping her brow and staggering to her feet.

He put his fingers on her gem and touched the cracks. The amber was warm where the dagger went in for some reason as his finger travelled to the location. He quickly moved it out of the way as he felt a strange presence. Luca was knocked backwards, feeling some weird pain.

Azurite looked in back of him, "What is that?"

Tiger looked to it too, "That was that snowflake obsidian's gem… Oh no."

Luca fell to the ground, "What happened?"

Amber looked down to her gem; a huge hole had been created, deeper than the dagger cut. Luca's stomach started to bleed as Amber's gem started to fall apart.

The tan gem got on her knees next to Luca's head and placed it on her, "Emerald, please start healing him, his wound won't kill him but the pain will. I am already basically screwed so put all of your effort into healing him."

"Okay," Emerald communicated, "When Jewel gets back-"

"Don't worry about it," Amber smiled as she started to dissipate into the air.

"Amber, please don't die," Luca said, "When Jewel heals your gem we can go to the beach."

"That will be fun," Amber smiled, running her hands through his hair, "Who knew a couple days away from the caretaker and Turquoise would lead to this?"

"I sure didn't," Luca giggled, but coughed a little, "It was a nice little time wasn't it?"

"Yes," Amber said, "Hey Luca?"

"Yeah?" Luca asked.

"I love you," Amber said, kissing his forehead.

"I love you too…" Luca responded, closing his eyes.

"Amber, stay with me!" Emerald said, "Why do I have to be the only healer here?"

The tan gem placed Luca's head on the ground and poofed. Emerald was left with Luca as she tried to quickly heal him.


Luca opened his eyes, he was in his bed, but everything looked blurry. The one-armed boy walked to the kitchen, his uncle was there with Turquoise. They both ran to him, wrapping their arms around his revived body. When the hug ended, he walked around the oddly quiet house. He checked on the couch and in the barn, there was no sign of Amber.

"Uncle, where is Amber?" Luca asked.

"She is in a bubble," the uncle responded, "Here ya go."

Turquoise made the blue bubble appear, "She hasn't come out since the incident."

"Oh," Luca said, holding the bubble, "Can I open it?"
"Yes," Turquoise smiled, "She has been waiting for you."

He released the bubble and Amber's gem fell gently into his hand. Nothing happened for several minutes and Turquoise and the uncle were getting worried.

"She did take a lot of damage…" Luca said, frowning.

All of a sudden, Amber's gem started to float into the air. It glowed onto the group as a body formed.

"Hello, L-" Amber was interrupted as she felt Luca's lips on hers.

"I was so worried," Luca said in between breaths.

"Sorry about that," Amber said.

"Okay you two, enough making out in the kitchen," the uncle smiled, "Go be discreet like kids."

"Alright," Amber said, "See you later then."

The two disappeared onto the roof until sunset.

"Gosh I thought you were dead," Luca said, holding Amber's hand.

"Same," Amber smiled, leaning onto Luca, "I wonder what even happened."

"Yeah, I guess next time that crew comes, we got to ask them," Luca said.

"Yes," Amber said, "Wow I feel hungry how about you?"

"Very," Luca grinned and the two climbed down the ladder.

After dinner, they slept together in Luca's bed. She watched as he closed his eyes, knowing that she would wake up next to him in the morning. Sleep washed over her like waves and her blue eyes closed, not opening for the span of a night.