A/N:
Wow, how long has it been? Anyways, I'm kinda glad I did wait because of all the new lore we got during the Steven Nuke. Good stuff! As always, if you want a gemsona included here, cause it is going to be a very expansive fic, contact me! Anyways, I said I'd be introducing myself, alright. I'm actually walking distance from a quarry. Well, that's if I wanted to walk down the highway, which I don't want to do, but you get that it's pretty close. Yeah, lots of slate mined in my area. Anyways, ENJOY THE READ!
The crystal path led the way. Their destination grew in size. Graphite looked around the group, wringing her hands as she thought of the taller gems. She wasn't meant for fighting, and that's what, what was her name? Lazulite? That's what the blue gem wanted her and Lonsdaleite for. A shiver rattled through the small gem. Though it did not go unnoticed. Lonsdaleite looked down at her twin. Her face showed no visible sign of concern, which worried poor Graphite beyond belief.
"Not all of us are here just for the sake of fighting." The blue gem which brought them together said. "If we were only here to fight, I wouldn't have gone out to all those planets to bring you here."
"Failures." Obsidian remarked.
"They said the same thing about Zircon, they said the same thing about me and ole Obsidian here." Lazulite retorted. "Now look where we are, with a chance to join the elites!"
"They just wanna see us shattered so they don't have to do it themselves." Obsidian said, crossing her arms as she looked back at the group. "You and Zirc are too idealistic, Laz. You know what they think of gems like us."
The blue gem closed her eyes, letting out a thoughtful hum.
Graphite gulped. She definitely did not want to be here. Either way, stay in that cell or join these fighters to do whatever they were meant for, she knew she was not long for this world. She was a mistake. Lonsdaleite would probably fight and win glory like their recruiter described, but she, she wasn't going anywhere.
The structure was gigantic from where the little gem stood. A green gem stood out by the arched entrance, hands behind her dark uniform. A white diamond symbol stood out on her chest, as a flowing skirt reached down to the floor. Her mantis green hair feathered over her left eye, heptagonal gemstone situated on her forehead. "Lazulite, you've finally brought my defects." She said, smile across her face.
There was that word again, defects. Was that truly what they were?
"Of course Zara, every colony in the system, just like you said." Lazulite responded, pushing her recruits forward.
"Yes, yes." The gem looked over the others before her, spending extra seconds on the graphite and lonsdaleite in the group. She let out a sigh. "I am Zaratite, and I'll be your owner from this point until any of you earn a transfer. Don't think that will be easy though. If any elite, much like myself, take interest in you, ownership will be negotiated. But for that, you'll have to prove your worth.
"I realize many of you are newly formed, and you must be very confused about not serving your designed purpose. Forget about that. You're all defects anyway. You earn your place or you shatter." Zaratite looked over the group before her, making sure every one of them understood. "Zircon will be your instructor. Dismissed." And with that, the green gem walked off, leaving her new gladiators.
\
A lower level of the arena, the ceiling seemed to light itself, and various weapons were held on racks alongside the wall. A light blue gem sat behind a desk of sorts, examining data on a holographic screen before her. The screen shut off, and the gem stood, taller than both Lazulite and Obsidian, but still not reaching the height of a proper quartz warrior. Her hands were folded behind her back and her lips formed into a great grin. "Welcome, pebbles!" She boomed. "Zaratite's probably already told you, but in case you weren't listening, I'm Zircon, and I'll be the one to turn you from pebbles to the gems you were all meant to be." She stepped forth, waving Lazulite and Obsidian over to the back. "Might as well tell you a bit about me since you're all here. Like you, I'm a defect, I couldn't perform in the observatory like I was meant to. Where did they send me?" The gem put a hand to her chin, seeming lost in thought for a brief amount of time. "Memories… To the bottom! Like you pebbles. I fought, I earned glory, even took down a few quartzes in my prime." She added, incredibly proud of her feats. "And then I ended up here, under Zaratite's command."
She paced back and forth, in front of the group, folding her hands back behind herself. "Don't let Lazulite fool you, Zaratite does not take to that stupid nickname well. You will address her as her full name, Ma'am, or Mistress Z. Now then, before I send you off for training, I'm going to take a look over you myself." She stated, immediately keeping her word.
Lonsdaleite straightened up, urging Graphite to do the same. If this gem was going to judge them, the two should look their best. She could feel those celeste eyes set upon her. "See something you like?" Lon cracked, breaking her usual silence and earning a snicker from Graphite as well.
The zircon raised a brow. "Well I could say the same for you." She said, giving a nice smack to the tall gem's rear, causing her to shut back up.
When the gem came across Graphite, she couldn't help but tilt her head. She hummed as she circled the small one. Picking up hair, lifting her chin, checking her gemstone, it was very… personal. Quite uncomfortable for Graphite to sit through.
"By all means a perfect graphite, but, why…?"
Lonsdaleite couldn't help but overhear Zircon's silent monologue. Whatever Graphite believed, Lonsdaleite was more the defect of the two. She shouldn't even exist alongside the little one. But she had to be strong for the little gem.
"Alright everyone," Zircon started. "Lazulite and Obsidian here will gauge your abilities in the pit. I know you're probably tired of hanging out with them, but I promise, Obsidian isn't as grating as she comes off. Go on, pebbles, prove your worth."
The gems followed the veterans back outside, but Zircon stepped up to Graphite. "Except for you, little one. We might have another use for you."
A/N:
Zaratite, why is she an elite gem? Welp, zaratite is a nickel carbonate and a pretty rare one at that, so I thought "Okay, it's a rarer mineral, might as well be higher ranking", even though it's only a Mohs of 3.5. I actually came up with her by researching minerals mined in my state XD
We didn't exactly get the action I promised last chapter, but I'm trying to keep a steady pace here. This is still the beginning of the first arc here. And I do not write long chapters. Anything over 3000 words and I completely lose focus. My average seems to be about 1k though. Short yet sweet. I say a lot with a little.
Anyways, as always, hope you enjoyed. Leave a review, follow, favorite. I know these gemsona fics aren't as popular as ones of the canon characters, but we try our best. At least I do, even though I noticed quite few spelling errors in the past chapters that I'm too lazy to fix now that the files expired from doc manager and I'd have to re-add authors notes if I reuploaded right from the computer.
So yeah, be sure to show some support here.
This is your lovely squish, wishing you all the best in gem hunting!
