Tektite woke with a start. His sleep, while it did get rid of the screams, now left him with more questions than it did answers. Who was Celestine? Why did she know his name? Who was that blue gem? Why was he killing Homeworld gem in the dream? He decided to dwell on that later.

"It's about time you woke up," said a certain green technician. "Why have you not destroyed those clods yet!"

"Hold on," said Tektite as he stood with a grunt. "There were… complications. Complications that I don't feel like indulging you with the details of, so you can get off my back."

His metaphorical muscles were screaming at him to lie back down and go back to sleep. The fight took more out of him than he originally thought. Being imprisoned in your own gem did that to you.

"A better question though, why were you watching me sleep?" He said with a chuckle.

"W-well!" Peridot spluttered, "As my ally, I must make sure you are in top condition! So you can defeat the Crystal Clods! Yes that's it! No other reason!"

"Sure, and would it kill you to call me a friend?" Tektite teased, amused at how the technician had shown caring.

"I have no need for friendship! And you had better have destroyed those clods by the time I seek you out again or there will be consequences!" Peridot threatened while jabbing one of her fingers into his chest.

Tektite's expression darkened. Unfortunately for Peridot, she did not know that Tektite takes orders from no one.

"Oh really? I'm shaking." He all but growled as he grabbed Peridot by her throat and slammed her into the wall of the chamber.

"You must have forgotten just who I am," he seethed as his grip tightened, "And you should probably apologize before I forget how fragile your neck is."

"Ok! OK! I'm sorry!" Peridot cried out, struggling to get her words out,"Please don't shatter me!"

Tektite dropped her. He took a deep breath and sighed.

"I'm sorry I had to do that." Tektite said while helping her up. "I try to be as nice a guy as I can, but you have to remember that I am your partner, not your underling."

"I apologize as well," Peridot said while rubbing her neck, "You are my… partner, and I need to respect that."

"Thank you," Tektite said as he sat down against the wall.

"I'm gonna take a nap" he said, "but before I do could I ask a favor of you?"

"What do you need?" Peridot said, a little anxious about what he would ask.

"I need you to do some research on a gem," he answered.

"Who?" Peridot asked, legitimately curious.

"I believe her name was Celestine," the name alone made his head ache.

"Hmm, sounds familiar, I'll see what I can do, the only place where I can get a good enough data signal is an old gem communications hub that I was going to anyway to send out an SOS,"

"Thank you"

And with that, Peridot left and Tektite drifted off to sleep.

…

Tektite found him self in a black void. He chalked this up as his neutral dreamscape. Two door ways of light appeared on either side of him. From one door he heard Celestine's screams. From the other, he heard the screams of the blue gem.

You can choose only one

The whisper snaked around in his head. He had to make a decision. Answers or potentially saving someone? He wanted answers very badly, but this gem needed to be saved. Tektite took in a deep breath, and dashed through the door.

When he opened his eyes, he was once again where the struggling gem was. However, there was no one to be found.

Was he too late?

His worries were relieved when he heard a splash behind him. He turned around, but was surprised as to what he saw.

Instead of the dainty blue gem from before, there was now a hulking orange one.

…

"Pearl?"

"Yes Steven?"

"What was Tektite like? You know, before the rebellion?"

This is what had come out of the young gem's mouth for several hours. Ever since Steven heard about Tektite, he wouldn't stop questioning the gems about him.

"I've told you several times, Steven. I'm not comfortable discussing this,"

"Please?" He said while busting out the puppy eyes.

"Agh, fine Steven, if it is really that important to you," Pearl groaned.

"Yay! Story time!" The young hybrid exclaimed,

"It all started around 30,000 years ago, it was the beginning of your mother's revolution."

…

"Help me!" She cried out, "I'm being held under this world's ocean against my will!"

"What are your coordinates?" Tektite yelled as he tried to undo her chains.

"My latitude-" she was cut off however as she was pulled underwater by a giant hand made out of water.

The blue gem sprang up from the floor in place of the other one.

Tektite soon realized that she wasn't the prisoner, but the warden instead.

"No! I won't let you set her free!" the blue gem was adamant in not letting her go.

"Why do you need to imprison her?" Tektite inquired.

"If I let her go, she will hurt people that I care about, and I can't let that happen!" With that declaration, the blue gem made several giant water hands and tried to smash tektite.

Tektite dove to the side, a hand above him missing him by inches. Two more water hands raced towards him. He dodged to the left but the other one caught him by surprise and he couldn't dodge in time. The hand grabbed him and slammed him into the ground. He got up and charged towards the gem, but a hand rose out of the floor and grabbed his ankle. Several other hands started to grab and wrap around him to form a water cocoon. The blue gem was about to send Tektite out of the dreamscape again, but a black light started to shine from the cocoon, and from it Tektite burst forth, scythe in hand, with such ferocity it sent chills down the gem's spine. She fired another hand at Tektite, but he sliced through it. She started to gather water around her until she was encased in an enormous water golem. She swung her giant fist at Tektite, but he jumped over and started running up her arm, only to be swatted down by the other arm.

"You can't beat me! I am surrounded by my element!" The gem yelled triumphantly.

She was right, he couldn't beat her like this, however, an idea came to his head.

"Then let's eliminate that variable!" Tektite yelled back.

Discarding his cloak, has e started to run circles around the gem. He ran faster and faster, until he became nothing but a blur. The blue gem was astounded as she could not follow his movements. The resulting sonic boom dissipated her water golem.

"Just who is this guy?" Wondered the gem.

Then, he started to glow.

…

"Tektite was, in many ways, the perfect warrior. He was nigh indestructible, with physical capabilities unmatched by anyone or anything. He could level mountains with a single punch and clear several miles of land in a matter of seconds. But most importantly, he always followed orders," said Pearl.

"Really? Why would someone that strong take orders from anyone?" Steven asked.

"Well when Tektite was created, he was created to not have feelings or thoughts outside of completing orders and missions. Even on missions he did not feel any hate or anger towards his targets. So when they said jump, he said 'How high?'," Pearl explained, "But then he met Celestine."

"Who's Celestine?" Steven asked?

"She was the first person to get Tektite to feel something,"

…

Tektite was running at such a speed that the air around him was igniting and the water evaporating. The blue gem flew some distance away to prepare for whatever her flaming adversary was planning.

She began putting up hundreds of several feet thick walls of water in front of her and compressed them to the point where they were hard as titanium.

Meanwhile, Tektite was in agony. Not only was running at this speed physically straining, but the heat being generated was slowly tearing his physical form apart. Only through sheer willpower was he keeping himself together. But he kept running, feeling that he had to do this not only to save the orange gem, but to save this blue one, too.

Breaking off from his circular route, he ran in the opposite direction of the blue gem, and then arced back in her direction, still maintaining his speed. He charged straight at her walls. As he approached the first one, it evaporated before he even reached it. However the next one was denser, and did not evaporate, so he crashed through it, and the next one, and the next, each wall slowing him down.

The blue gem was sweating bullets. Her super condensed water walls were nearly impenetrable, yet this guy was plowing through them like they were made of sand! Each wall Tektite crashed through shot enormous amounts of pain throughout his body, but he kept running. The walls seemed endless as he crashed through one after the other.

Eventually there was only one wall left. However, Tektite had lost all of his momentum by this point, even struggling just to stand. He fell to his knees, crying out in anguish as he slammed his head and hands against the final wall.

The blue gem was astonished. This gem had managed to smash through all but one of the walls of her ultimate defense. Even now, with his body smoking and broken, he was still trying to break through the the final wall, despite being on the brink of death and his entire body screaming at him to let go and poof.

"Why?! Why are you so incessant on freeing two gems who do not deserve to be freed? Why do you nearly kill yourself for our sake? What have we done to deserve this generosity? Tell me damnit!" She screamed.

Breathing heavily he answered.

"You're wondering why I fight? I fight for the freedom of all gems, good or evil, because I believe everyone deserves a chance. I know what it's like to suffer, to be enslaved and hated, to not have freedom. I know what it's like to be kicked down and not be able to do anything about it. I fight for the freedom of every gem and that includes you and your prisoner."

Tektite stood up.

"That's why I don't give up,"

Tektite reared back and slammed his right fist against the wall. Cracks spidered up the wall as it and his arm up to his shoulder shattered like glass.

"Because if I don't fight for what I believe in,"

He slammed his left fist into the wall as the cracks spread all throughout the wall and this arm shattered as well.

"Who will?"

With that final statement he slammed his head against the wall, shattering it as the pieces of wall turned back to its liquid state.

The blue gem was visibly shaken by his words and the display of his tenacity and overall prowess. Tektite stood tall while holding his head high. That is until he fell forward.

But someone caught him.

…

"One day Yellow Diamond ordered Tektite to battle and enslave a planet full of a very powerful race of humanoid creatures that could turn golden and got stronger every time they got close to death," Pearl said.

"Did he win?" Steven asked.

"Well of course, he slaughtered them all," Pearl chuckled.

Steven gulped.

"However he did sustain serious damage to his gem," Pearl continued, "First they sent him to your mother, but not even her tears could heal the wound."

"Then how did get healed?" Steven asked.

"There was someone else with healing powers," Pearl explained.

"Ooh! It was Celestine, wasn't

it?" Steven inferred.

"Very good Steven! That's right! Yes Celestine had legendary healing powers. She had the power to put shattered gems back together, and even uncorrupt gems. She was Tektite's opposite in every aspect. Where Tektite was cold and harsh, Celestine was warm and kind. Tektite was a ruthless killing machine, Celestine was the most powerful healer in gem history. Even their color pallets contrasted. The two were like yin and yang," Pearl said.

"Then how were they friends?" Steven asked.

"Well at first they weren't. Their relationship was just as doctor and patient. But the more Tektite was exposed to Celestine's warm personality, the more they warmed up to each other. But the diamonds did not like this. They felt like their perfect weapon was going soft. So, they prohibited Tektite from seeing her outside of medical emergencies," Pearl answered.

"And he followed orders?" Asked Steven.

"No. He had grown to care for Celestine so much that he openly defied the diamonds." Pearl responded.

"That couldn't have gone well," Steven said.

"Well they knew that they would not be able to punish him physically, so they decided to get to him through the only thing he cared about, Celestine. They made a plan to shatter

her and blame it on your mother, as there were rumors of rebellion. But Tektite found out about their plan and ran off with Celestine to join Rose's rebellion anyway. And well you know the rest," Pearl finished.

"Thanks Pearl! I'm off to play with Connie! Bye!" Steven said while running off.

"Goodbye Steven! Have fun!" Pearl waved at him.

Good thing he left before he saw the tears now streaming down Pearl's face.

…

Lapis stared at the unconscious gem in her arms. Despite losing both arms, he still has not poofed.

"Maybe it is time to let go," she whispered to herself.

Now that the fight was over, she noticed how exhausted she was. She also noticed how her prisoner had stopped pulling against her. Why wasn't she? This would be the perfect time to escape. Using her control over water, she brought the orange gem to the surface.

"Hello Jasper," she simply said.

Hey guys I'm back with another chapter. I know it's been awhile but with school and all you'll just have to bear with me. I'll try to post more often than I have. Thanks for stopping by and please review.