Chapter 2: Night of 1,000 stars

I'd like to say thanks to Spacewonder who came up with the title for the story. But More about the chapter, we're going to be learning a lot more about the motives of the Solar spire. Enjoy.

"Thanks for the update Pearl, we will send troops in a couple days," Lady Moon said.

"In the meantime help Rose and Garnet, train the troops,".

"Lady Moon, I think someone to hold our position in the town until more troops arrive," Citrine suggested.

"Who do you suggest should stay behind? "

"Myself, I'll do some more scouting, and send for troops after a couple days before the solstice,"

"seems like a reasonable request. You have my permission to complete your mission,"

Citrine smiled, and galloped down the spire.

"Good luck in your mission!" Pearl sang.

"Thanks!" she replied as she leaped into the warp pad.

Citrine had gut wrenching guilt for lying to her friends, but she had to. Maybe Moss can talk Father Sun out of war. Citrine snatched her badge off and hid it in her shirt.

"If someone saw me, i'd be so dead," she thought to herself.

Suddenly Citrine felt a hand come over her mouth and and arm go around her waist, dragging her behind a tree.

"Shhhhh...be very still," the familiar voice whispered.

Citrine reluctantly obeyed. As she stood in complete silence, she heard footsteps near by.

"Were did Sunstone want us to set camp up?" Alexandrite asked his red twin brother.

" In the middle of town,"

" That's a dumb place,"

"Hey man, just following orders,"

The brothers took off toward the small village, leaving the two hiding gems alone.

"Good, they're finally gone," the voice said as he released Citrine from his grip.

"You know, you could have just asked me to hide,"

The voice laughed and stepped into the light. It was just Mossy.

"We should probably get going before more gems come," Mossy suggested.

Moss grabbed Citrine by her hand and led her into the forest.

"Were are we going, Agate?" she asked as she was being dragged.

"You'll see," Mossy mused.

After hours of being dragged through dense forest, the pair reached and open grassland with a flowering Magnolia tree in the center.

"It's beautiful, " Citrine awed.

"Just wait until you reach the top of the tree,"

Once they reached the top, the view became more magnificent than Citrine could dream of. The sky had 1, 000 stars glittering in the cosmos. The sight was beautiful enough to bring and human, or gem to tears.

"I bet Topaz is up there somewhere," Citrine whispered.

"I think she's up there too," Mossy added while catching up to Citrine.

"By the way Citrine, I'm sorry about what happened to Blue...Things have been going a little crazy lately.."

"Mossy, remember when we were In the spire a couple weeks ago, and you were trying to tell us why your spire was different?"

Mossy looked up with an uneasy face."Yeah?"

"What were you going to say?"

Mossy sighed.

"We had special white fire we use to heal our gems. With the fire we used, we healed and protected. But a month before we all went to the Lunar spire, we switched Sunstones out. Onyx got his gem back, and Jet became the new Sunstone. He foolishly declared to start stretching the sun warrior empire. In starting battles with the monk gems at the sky temple, our spire exploded. Since then, Sunstone has been obsessed with getting another spire."

"And that's why you all declared war, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Were are all staying?"

"No where really, we've been trying to rebuild our spire, but the gems that go in to fix it barley escape with their lives,"

Moss looked up and weakly smiled.

"Enough about my problems, how did the Ladies of the spire take what happen to Blue?"

"None of us really addressed it until two days ago,"

"and Imperial Topaz?"

"She's broken"

"Ohh..."

"How did the Sun warriors take it? Besides how the letter made it seem,"

" Honestly, we couldn't have handled the death any more inappropriately, "

"What do you mean?"

"We partied for 36 hours straight,"

"Wow..."

"And you won't believe it Citrine, Flourite and Obsidian were given a place of honor,"

Citrine shook her head.

"We had a funeral, and Garnet stayed locked up in a room for most of the celebration,"

"Wow..."

Citrine stopped talked for a second and thought.

"Hold on Moss, of you say that Sunstone is messing things up, what does father sun do about it,"

"Nothing, it's really strange, I can't explain it, but something is wrong with him... I've known father Sun for about 3,000 years, and he'd never be compliant to stuff like this,"

"Maybe he's getting hypnotized, " Citrine joked.

"Yeah maybe,"

"By the way, why are you guys setting camp up here?"

"Cause we knew you all would,"

"How? "

"We have our ways," Mossy teased.

"mmmmmm...creepy..." Citrine whispered under her breath.

Moss shifted his weight in the branch he was sitting on.

"Citrine, do you realize that our spire's will be at war in a couple of days?"

"More like 5, today's Monday and the solstice isn't until Saturday night,"

"Citrine I really don't want to fight, what if I retreat and I never come back? "

"Mossy that wont happen, your too careful for that, "

""What if we're fighting and I accidentally stab you... I don't want to hurt you Citrine..."

Citrine climbed down from the branch and wrapped her arm around his neck. There was really nothing she could say to comfort him. The war was going to start, gems will die, and there was nothing either of them could do to stop it. When that realization hit her, small tears started to come from her eyes. Mossy looked up, and pulled Citrine in.

"Hey, hey, stop crying, its going to be okay,"

Citrine looked up at him with sulky eyes.

"How? How is any if this going to be okay?" Citrine croaked.

"Well umm..."

Mossy was lost for words. Instead, he just held her tight, while she wepted into his chest. He whispered into her ear.

"Always and forever?"

Citrine stopped crying for a second to look up and smile at him.

"Always and forever, "

With that, Mossy summoned his dagger and carved a small shard from the gemstone he had on his throat. He handed the dagger to Citrine so she could do the same. Once she was finish, they both dug the shards, deep into the tree, changing the Magnolia tree's flowers from white to white with yellow on the ends. The leaves became a mossier.

"I didn't know gems could do that,"

"There's a lot of stuff in our gems we don't know about Citrine, "

"mmmmm..." she said as she leaned her head on Mossy's chest.

The next couple of weeks were going to be pure tourture, but for right now, in this moment, Everything in the world was just right for Citrine. The two gems watched the sky until morning, were Mossy had to get his new assignment.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Same time tomorrow,"

The two gems took off in different directions. Today, Citrine actually had to get work done, following the direction Angel quartz had given the day before. Upon trekking further, she realized it was some farmer's cow pasture.

"Well we can't camp here, " Citrine thought to herself.

Shapeshifting into a short brown and yellow cow, Citrine was able to move almost unoticeably. Reaching the fence, Citrine went back to her normal form, and scouted the area further. Suddenly she saw Obasidan, and Jasper. Quickly, Citrine turned herself into a butterfly, and begun to follow them.

"I heard the moon girls are scouting out this area at night," Obasidan noted.

"Figures that they can't take the sun, laying up in that spire all those years have made them softer than ever!"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on don't tell me you didn't notice how little Blue was,"

"Oh yeah, she retreated into her gem so fast, and when Flourite broke her, she shattered like glass! A sun warrior's gem would have hit the ground like a rock,"

"Yeah"

"So what if catch one? "

"One what?"

"One of the girls stupid!"

"I think Sunstone wants us to take them prisoners,"

"Waste of room don't you think?"

"Just following orders,"

"I think there should be a change in leadership, "

"Hey man, the sunstone chose him for a reason, don't question it," "He's being dumb I think. Who wants to burn a village down when there's a perfectly good plot of land not being used a mile in the opposite direction?"

By now, the little yellow butterfly had heard enough. Citrine flew straight for the village. But, it was too late.

"oh no..." she whispered.

The night was young as Citrine waiting in the Magonlia tree.

"Hey!" a voice called down from below.

"I brought you something"

As the gem climbed the tree he noticed something was wrong with his friend.

"Anything wrong Citrine?" Mossy asked her.

"Why,"

"Why what? "

"Why did you burn the village down?"

Mossy cringed at the question.

"You, see umm... Sunstone ordered us too... We can't disobey him, you don't know what he'd do to us..."

"What would he do?"

Mossy swallowed the knot in his throat.

"He'd burn us until we retreat into our gem..."

"What does Father Sun do about it?"

"He tried to stop him before, but, since the spire s been destroyed, hes gotten weaker, and he's also acting weird like I said yesterday,"

"Has he made you retreat? "

"A couple times..."

"Why?"

"I went against him, when he suggested burning the village,"

"I'm so sorry,"

Citrine leaned her head on Mossy's shoulder.

"Oh Citrine, I almost forgot,"

Mossy pulled a small sunflower from his sun-shaped pocket.

"It's for you,"

Citrine's face, lit up with happiness as she gazed on the sun flower.

"How did you get this!? I thought your spire-"

"Managed to save one before the explosion,"

"Mossy...I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have say anything"

Citrine held the flower , letting the light warm her hands. Mossy quickly reached for them.

"You have to keep it hidden for now, not even Sunstone knows I had this...if they found out they'd-,"

"Mossy you worry to much, I'll keep it hidden I promise,"

"Only me and Obsidian found one before the explosion. He used his to help Sunstone's mission, I hid mine,"

"mmm..."

The rest of the night, the gems talked and laughed. In the morning, they both knew that more lunar guardians will be arriving, giving Citrine a less chance of sneaking off.

"You realize this is our last night to hang out? After today, more of your troops will come, and then..."

"Let's not think about then Mossy, Let's think about right now,"

"Why can't things just stay like they were?"

"I don't know Mossy, I don't know..."