Part 1: The Mission
Chapter 4: Beautiful World
Ruby shook her hair, groaning with annoyance. She kicked a rock of the edge of the ravine she and Sapphire had been trotting upon, water rushing beneath them.
"I don't like haw water falls on this planet. It's just… not ok!" the rain soon drenched the gem's dense brick of hair, even under her embroidered headband there was this cold, slimy wetness.
"I'm sure it will stop soon, just you wait." Sapphire dragged her many layers of frill through the muck the ground had become. How she wished she could say that for certain; her visions were in a waning mood and nothing of tomorrow came to her. Only the rain in progress was certain.
"This sucks, I almost wish I was home." Ruby laughed, then shuddered, "almost."
Sapphire came to a standstill. "Home". The word turned in her head, coming undone; just like that she wished she hadn't been trying for visions. She got flashes of returning to an empty tower, with no Bowenite to guide her; and then of remaining on this planet, lost. More came, and as she froze up, Ruby could hear a slow squelch from behind her.
"hm, you ok Sa-" Her eyes widened, as her charge slipped away in a landslide, tumbling numbly towards the rush of the flood.
"SAPPHIRE!" Ruby dove after her, the mud quickly stealing her footing as she focused her energy into her hands, grabbing for something that was Sapphire's. Just as the blue gem rolled off the bank, Ruby's snatched her shoulders in a grip of iron.
"I've got you, its ok-" Ruby tried with all her might, trying futilely to resist the pull of the river as the mud receded.
"B-Bowenite..." Sapphire's voice echoed as a hollow whisper, contrasted by the roar of the river.
"w-who?" her escort tried once more to pull her to safety, when all at once the two were wrenched from shore by the tumble of a floating log.
Into the water, they sank. Ruby tumbled in the flow, disoriented and oh so afraid.
"t-this is not like homeworld's waters." She thought, her eyes darting around in the dark, losing focus "this can't be happening, what do I do?!" In that moment, Sapphire's visions were fading, the water seeming to caress her into reality. She spotted Ruby, her flailing form sinking beneath her. "oh no, hold on." She dived, in a swift motion carrying the red gem to the surface, and draping them both on a sturdy bundle of logs in debris. Ruby gasped, water spurting from her mouth.
"b-by the Diamonds, thank you!" she leaned up turning to the blue gem. Her cyan hair was parted, and as she panted she smiled from her one, green eye.
"No, thank you, Ruby" Ruby stared at her for a moment, flashing a more pinkish hue.
"Huh, I guess it's true about seers and being monocular." She shook the thought away, returning the smile.
"No problem, I guess…" she wondered what she was being thanked for, then decided there were bigger questions to ask," who's Bowenite?"
"oh, um…" Sapphire pensively bit at her lower lip, "she- she raised me, and mentored me…."
"Huh... what's she like?" Ruby tilted her head, the strange reaction from the blue gem throwing her off.
"i-well…" Sapphire tried to focus on her yellow visage, but the focus instead allowed her to notice the rain. The lack thereof, that is.
"Ruby, look." The two turned to the sky, as it parted. Beyond the grey, the blue sky of this world shone through. Along with a many colored band of light, unlike anything either of them had ever seen.
"what is that?" Ruby asked, her jaw drooping in wonder.
"i-it's beautiful" sapphire said, with an awed hum, "The violet of flowers, growing on the edge. The blue of the sky peeking out of the dredge, the green of the grass and every tree and hedge. Isn't this a beautiful world?"
"she's singing now?" she wondered, puzzled that Sapphire had changed the subject subtlety. She shrugged and leaned back on the log, deciding to listen instead. As the song picked up, Ruby phased on a pair of angular glasses to cut the glare of the returning sunlight.
"The yellow of this world's giant sun in the sky, the orange of leaves being turned in the tide, my red escort gem lying here by my side. Who could ask for a more beautiful world?" Sapphire took a breath, the key changing by a half step up, "oooh, I'm afraid but I am fine. Who knew what I would find after all these hours being locked away in ivory towers. I would trade it all and do all in my power, to stay in such a beautiful world." Sapphire turned to Ruby, who was now nodding off, "in such a beautiful world, oooh in such a beautiful world." She sang, lying next to her, soon drifting off and reverting to her place of anxiety.
/
Ruby awoke to an oppressive cold, causing her to jolt in surprise.
"w-what did I do?!" she yelped as she finally awoke. She found herself still on the river, which had frozen in the middle. Sapphire had also been frozen to the log, still as a stone could be.
"S-Sapphire!" Ruby worked herself loose from the frost, her hands warming out of instinct, "there must have been a cold snap, we need to get back on track." Sapphire stirred, her face blank.
"No… no I did this." Her breath came in icy little cloud, "I had visions… nightmares, really…."
"o-oh…." Ruby blinked, then set her hands upon the ice along their raft, "well, I'll have this melted in a bit, don't wor-"
"She's gone." Sapphire had iced over in the moment Ruby had turned away, "She's gone, in every vision I could find the Diamond Authority had her redacted…."
"Sapphire, who was redacted?" Ruby turned back, eyes panicking. She decided to try that 'hugging', in attempt to warm her.
"B-Bowenite," the blue gem shuddered, her soul pained, "the only gem to truly care for me… in the only home I've ever known…. I don't think I can ever go back."
"Hey, come on now." Ruby cracked a nervous, tense smile," you've gotta go back. It's great, isn't it?"
"I don't think so." She let out a tiny sob, "it's just a prison, without Bowenite… and even then-"
"Then you'll find a new home!" Ruby shouted, a plume of tense steam rising from her.
"a-a new home?" Sapphire echoed, as Ruby's warmth finally cracked away the ice, radiating outward.
"Y-yeah, why not?" Ruby nodded, "you could ask to be moved after our mission. Maybe staying here after the war? I'll visit you… between campaigns." Her smile intensified, trying to sell her on this hope. The last thing she wanted, she decided, was to see her charge cry again.
Sapphire stared at Ruby, then sighed softly, "I think I will consider that… thank you…." She smiled humbly, and their raft carried them down river, towards the sea.
Ruby fidgeted, the river moving just to slow for her, "now what? What do I do to pass the time?" she'd burnt all the small patches of green growth off the logs, counted the stars as night fell and watched a tiny armored bug crawl from one twig to another, and the boredom could kill her. She turned to Sapphire, who seemed to be meditating. "No, she's using future vision." She realized, "what's that like? Seeing the future, and all."
Sapphire blinked, turning her head to her, "well, it's… it's like a story really. Like having to put down a book before a cliffhanger."
"Um, you'll need to explain what reading a book is like then." Ruby looked deadpan, a bit miffed.
"Oh! Well… you can recognize ways the story could continue or how it may end, but…. Nothing is concrete. Nothing is…." Sapphire froze, her one eye going wide, "o-oh…."
"What do you see?" Ruby asked, leaning a bit closer out of curiosity. Sapphire suddenly looked at her, a sudden panic washing over her.
"You're in danger…. So, so many dangers."
"What-" Ruby blinked, then snorted a bit, "come on, I'm your escort. I'm gonna be in danger all the time now."
"No! Not like before!" Sapphire urged her way from the edge of the water, "this is worse, I don't even know what this is!"
Ruby let her eyes widen in curiosity, then surprise when a greenish-brown animal lurched onto the edge of the raft, right where she'd been. As it gnashed its teeth at Ruby let out a relieved laugh, "that's just another weird earth animal!" Just then the beast was pulled under violently, and Sapphire clung to Ruby almost protectively.
"It knows we're here." She whispered, as a silver serpent nearly twice the width of their raft surfaced, roaring a mix of agony and rage and it focused on them. Ruby blinked, eyes wide and focused.
"Let's run this time, ok?" she insisted to Sapphire, who was already running for shore on the ice. Ruby tried to follow, as the thing dove and crushed their raft.
"What is that thing?! On no planet, in no system, does a thing like that just evolve! It's going to destroy us!"
"RUBY! Sapphire's voice carried from the banks, still several yards away; it made Ruby realize her panic and stress was melting through her bridge. It also allowed the beast a chance to close in on her. Ruby called upon her memories of training and swung for the monster's nose, stunning it enough to slide across the thinning ice to shore.
"Come on!" she shouted, clawing up the bank. Alas, the mud from the day previous had yet to dry, and the going was slow. Sapphire ran to her side, holding her back, "the tree! We need the tree!"
Ruby blinked, turning to dead looking pine halfway up the bank, "what for?"
"Just… trust me on this, ok?" Sapphire's eyes were full of uncertainty, but hope. Ruby hesitated, but felt the serpent beach itself behind her.
"Alright, let's do it!" Ruby and Sapphire rushed the bank, towards the tree. Behind them, the beast roared, trying to consume them. As they reached the tree, its gaping maw of teeth loomed only yards away.
"On the count of three, punch the knothole." Sapphire summoned her claws, which Ruby mirrored. The monster gained, barely slowed by the mud.
"One… two…" The abomination's jaws widened, threatening to snap on both of them, and the tree, but the two gems held their focus.
"THREE" with a synchronized motion the two gems hit their mark and the tree twisted away from the mud and smashed into the beast, it's thick branches piercing its hide in several places.
"d-did we kill it?" Ruby wondered, aloud, before the beast exploded into a cloud of smoke.
"No, we just made it retreat." A multilayered, silvery gen dropped near ruby and sapphire's feet, radiating a yellowish hue.
"y-you mean that thing was…. A gem?" Ruby reached for the gem, with the hand that did not contain her own.
"RUBY, NO!" Sapphire yelped, just as her escort's fingers grazed the gem. She then screamed, as a spider web of sickly yellow branched up her arm
"w-what is this?!" she doubled over, writhing in pain. Sapphire kneeled beside her, tearing up oh so slightly.
"t-this was the worst possible outcome." She waited for Ruby to pass out from her pain before bubbling the gem in ice and draping her escort over her shoulders, "and now… we're both lost."