Warmth flushed over Amber as she opened her eyes. The gem lay in a bed that wasn't hers and she had trouble remembering what happened last night. Memories flooded her mind as light streamed through the window. She also noticed that a weight was placed halfway across her form. Amber felt it and discovered that it was Luca's stump. She needed to fix the robotic part before he went back to school otherwise his resistance to the wires would fade. Luca stirred in his sleep and Amber stroked his long blond hair.
He moved his stump off of her and rolled onto his back. Yawning, Luca sat up in his bed.
"What happened last night?" Luca asked.
"I don't recall anything," Amber responded, hopping out of the bed.
"Well, we are both dressed so I guess nothing happened," Luca smiled.
"Why would we be undressed?" Amber tilted her head.
"You are taking Health Class next semester right?" Luca asked.
"Yes," Amber said, "I think."
"You will learn it there, or you can just ask Rita," Luca said, "I wouldn't recommend looking it up on the Internet though."
"Okay," Amber said.
"Now let's go get some breakfast," Luca said, running to the kitchen.
"Yeah!" Amber ran after him.
The two quickly made oatmeal and fruit smoothies for breakfast, waiting for the caretaker and Turquoise to come out.
"Thanks for yesterday," the caretaker said, "We could have been killed."
"I did what any of you would do," Amber smiled.
Two strong arms wrapped around her, "Thanks for saving my nephew, he is the last blood relative I have."
Turquoise stood still, she had been feeling slightly off lately but had been pushing the thoughts away. The light blue gem picked Amber up and spun her around, fusing.
"Well then, it's been a while!" the fusion talked, "I hope you like giant women."
"I think I do?" Luca said as the fusion realized the house wasn't big enough for her, "Maybe you should go outside?"
"Oh, yeah," Tourmaline crawled out of the screen doors that Luca hurriedly opened, "Thanks."
Luca nodded as he looked at the fusion. The girls looked like they were enjoying their experience, running around the backyard. They unfused and got into the barn, waving goodbye to Luca.
He walked back into the house and sat down on the couch. All of a sudden, Luca's new phone beeped twice. The one-armed boy opened the front door and walked outside to a car.
"Hey Luca! Get in!" Rita said, "I need to talk with you!"
"Alright," Luca hopped in and Rita sped off.
"Remember what happened yesterday?" Rita asked.
"Yeah, a little bit," Luca said.
"Well, I met a person called Azurite who told me to take you home," Rita said, looking troubled, "I saw plenty of your blood on the ground, but there was something strange…"
"What was it?" Luca asked, "Why would she tell you to take all of us home?"
"I found a gem shard, looks like a piece of Snowflake Obsidian," Rita said, "They left before I could give it to them. It seems like they were trying to find it somewhere else."
"Oh no, do you have it?" Luca asked frantically, "That thing went through my stomach or something."
"Wow. That's deep," Rita said, "Well anyways, I do have the shard, but I don't intend on bringing it out right now."
"Are we going to the roof again?" Luca asked.
"Yeah," Rita said, calmly running her hand through her hair, "Luca, the only reason I like you is because of Amber."
"The only reason I like YOU is because of Amber," Luca said, "By the way, how come I don't have any bad or horrific memories? Didn't a lot of bad things happen?"
"The silvery gem, Jewel, can soothe painful memories," Rita said, "Emerald can't heal very well, the only thing she is good at is stabilizing."
"Oh," Luca said, "How come you know so much?"
Rita blinked twice, "You were out like a light, but I went to your house to give her something. I saw the blood and the note so I went to the place. By the time I got there, Emerald was yelling fairly loud at your body. Azurite tried to get me out of there, but I told her I knew you and Amber. She gave me Vexus and Jewel's gems and got to her knees to do CPR."
"She just left you with her friend's gems?" Luca asked.
"Yes," Rita said, "Then this other gem starts panicking and asking why you had to be human as if you were dead. So I tell Azurite to pull a defibrillator out of her gem. When she does, I hand her the gems and tell everyone to get away and start zapping you."
"What did you do about the power though?" Luca asked, "Don't you need power to use a defibrillator?"
"Well yeah, but there were plenty of outlets…" Rita said, almost not want to talk about it.
"Out with it, Rita!" Luca said.
"Alright," Rita said thoughtfully, "We kind of dragged your body to a wall with an outlet then zapped you."
"My poor body," Luca said, "Glad I don't remember any of that. Anyway, what happened after that?"
"I didn't actually know how to use the defibrillator… We stood there for two minutes and then Jewel comes out of her gem. She stares at us and sprints over, placing her hands on Emerald's and healing you up," Rita paused, "Then the green gem comes out and starts up as if she was saying something was fake. She is so surprised when she sees your body, but asks where Amber is."
"Wow," Luca said, mind blown, "Thanks for taking us home, Rita. We really owe it to you."
"That's alright, I was glad that I could help out," Rita smiled, "Oh! We are here."
When they got up to the rooftop, blood littered the ground. Rita threw the shard into the air and it started to glow.
A body began to form but it changed into almost see through. White spots freckled the pitch black being as it reached out to the two.
"I am the remnant of a Snowflake Obsidian, what do you want with me?" the being asked.
"We want to ask you some questions," Rita said, "Would you do that for us?"
"Sure," the remnant said, wandering in front of the girl.
"Why are you a remnant and not a corrupted gem?" Rita asked.
The remnant cackled, "I am not a fusion experiment and I am not a whole gem, I was just split into pieces by someone."
"Who?" Rita asked, "Who split you?"
"A man called Thomas," the remnant croaked, "Where is Amber by the way?"
"She isn't going to meet with you again," Luca said.
"I will make it happen," the remnant said under her breath, "That's okay by me. What are you going to do with my shard?"
"I," Rita paused; she hadn't gotten this far yet, "You can stay at my house in a jar until those gems come back to take care of you. How does that sound?"
"Are you sure, Rita?" Luca turned to the girl, "This remnant might make our lives worse."
"If she tries anything, then I will poof her," Rita said, trying to be logical.
"Okay," Luca said.
The remnant nodded and got into Rita's pocket, "I guess I will stay with you, Rita."
Rita drove Luca back to his house and left him with a phone for Amber, "She is going to need one of these."
Luca thanked her and walked into his house with the blue cellular device. His uncle greeted him and told him that Amber was still outside. He touched his stump before he walked out the screen door. It was still a little bit sore from the other day, but he was getting used to not having it again.
He heard chatter coming from the barn, but he stood still. Why would Rita want to let the remnant into her house, even though she was going to put her into a jar? It made no sense to even keep that shard around, Amber or Turquoise could have bubbled it and sent it to the other gems.
"Turquoise! Pass me the wire set!" Amber said frantically.
Luca walked into the barn, "What's happening… Oh."
Amber was embarrassed as her cheeks flushed blue, "Hi Luca."
"Hi, Rita has a gift for you," Luca said, handing it over to the tan gem, "Here you go."
Amber took it, "Wow! This is awesome!"
"Well, I am going to go," Luca turned around, he couldn't tell Amber that the creature that had possessed her was allowed to live.
"No," Amber said, grabbing his shirt, "I need you to help me size this."
"Is your skin going to be okay?" Luca asked, touching her arm.
"Yeah," Amber said, "It will heal soon. I just spilled a little bit of oil on it."
"Okay," Luca said, sitting down and laying his arm on the platform.
Amber gently measured it while Turquoise gave her the parts. Soon enough, Luca had a functioning robotic arm.
"Thanks, Amber," he said.
"Sure," the tan gem said, "What's eating at you? You seem different."
"Nothing's wrong, I am just a bit tired from last night," Luca smiled, "This time, the arm didn't hurt as much going in."
Amber blinked twice, "That's good. Do you know what time it is?"
Luca looked to his phone, "It's four o' clock."
"Oh," Amber said, "Looks like it's time to make dinner!"
"Yay! Dinner!" Turquoise said, picking up Amber and running inside.
Luca stood still for a bit and put his arm to his head, he was feeling a bit sick about not telling Amber, but he ignored the thoughts. After a couple minutes of trying to cool himself, Luca walked back to the screen door. He pushed it open and trotted inside, sitting on the couch.
As his phone beeped, Luca switched the channels on the TV. When he finally looked, he saw ten messages from Rita. They seemed somewhat normal at first, but they started to degrade in spelling and grammar errors. The last message read: Uca, tel ber I luv her.
Luca dropped his phone in his lap, "Amber, I am going to be gone for a while. Save some croissant for me okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Amber said, she wondered why he was acting so differently.
Luca walked out the door and ran to Rita's house. Her front door was unlocked and a window was broken. A small scream was enough to make Luca convinced enough to go into the house.
"Rita?" he called aloud, "Are you still here?"
"Not Rita…" a voice called out, "Me, Snowflake Obsidian."
"How did you get out of the jar," Luca demanded.
"The girl let me out," the remnant spoke coldly, "Now I have her body. But I would prefer Amber's."
"Let her go!" Luca said.
"Sure," the remnant said as she left Rita's body flying straight at Luca.
"Oh hey, Luca! You are just in time, dinner is on the table," Amber smiled as Luca blushed.
"You are beautiful," he said.
Amber narrowed her eyes, did Luca usually say that? She couldn't remember if he did or not, but she just nodded. He sat down next to his uncle and started to eat his croissant quietly.
The tan gem sat next to him and leaned on his shoulder, "Do you like it?"
"Yes, I do," Luca said, "It's delicious."
"Where did you go?" Amber asked.
"I-" Luca began to say as memories rushed through him, "Rita says she loves you."
"What?" Amber said as Luca struggled to stay calm.
"I visited with Rita for a bit, she is doing well," Luca smiled.
Turquoise and the caretaker left after a while to go watch their favorite TV show. Luca's face started to turn pitch black with white splotches.
Amber frantically put her hands on his cheeks, speaking quickly. He closed his eyes and when they opened, all he saw was red.
"Luca!" Amber said, slapping his face.
He was now all black with white splotches decorating random spots. Luca heard voices calling to him as he lost more of himself to the remnant. He remembered the remnant lunging at him. Luca thought he defeated it, but he knew now that he hadn't. He called 9-1-1 before he blacked out so that she could get treatment, but his body was moved to his house.
Amber watched as the caretaker and Turquoise were thrown across the room. She stared at Luca's now red eyes and wondered if he could see her. The tan gem felt cold hands on her thighs.
"You feel much better when I touch you on the outside than the inside," she heard Luca's voice say.
There was something different about the voice though, something familiar. It hit Amber as she remembered that it was the remnant's voice. She fell to her knees and placed her hands on the floor. Luca must have gone to the roof and gotten possessed.
Luca's body kneeled and Amber felt cold hands on her cheeks, "Maybe I will make you two my slaves?"
"P-Please leave my family alone," Amber said, pushing the hands away.
They travelled to her stomach and started to scratch her gem lightly. She groaned as the remnant in Luca's body had its way with her. The tan gem had no way to get it out of Luca without hurting him so she stayed put. Something caught her eyes so they drifted to the left, it was an eggplant, Luca's least favorite food. Amber grabbed it and laid herself down on the ground as the remnant crawled over her.
She broke off a piece of the eggplant and put it into the remnant's mouth. It coughed for a minute as it tried to get the taste out. Amber rolled out and stood up with more eggplant, forcing it down the remnant's throat.
"What are you doing?! Stop it!" the remnant cried out.
Luca's body started to shake as the remnant escaped into the air. Amber caught its gem and bubbled it in a golden yellow bubble. She sent it up and immediately went to Luca's side.
The last of the affects were subsiding as Luca looked to Amber, "That tasted awful."
"That was the point," Amber said, wrapping her arms around him.
"I am so sorry for not telling you," Luca said, "Rita wanted to keep the remnant around for some reason. I didn't know how to tell you."
"It's all okay," Amber said, "We all survived so it's okay."
She kissed Luca on the forehead and helped him get up. They helped Turquoise and the caretaker up onto their feet. The two didn't seem to remember what happened, but they were fine with that.
Luca ate some more of the croissant and went to his room. Amber joined him after she finished doing the dishes.
"How are you feeling?" Amber asked her lover.
"I am fine," Luca said, "I am sorry for touching you in places you didn't want me to."
"It wasn't you," Amber said, throwing the blanket over Luca, "Besides, it doesn't matter now."
She hopped into the bed and took off her visor, putting her feet on Luca's. He looked at Amber as she stared into his chocolate brown eyes.
"Are you excited for school tomorrow?" Amber asked Luca.
"Yes," Luca said, "But Rita is going to stay home, she is really sick."
"Okay," Amber said, she knew that Rita had been possessed as she would never be sick from school for anything else.
Luca closed his eyes, "Good night, Amber."
"Good night," Amber said, stroking his hair.
Today was a hectic day, Amber thought they couldn't get any worse but they always did.
