Chapter 3: Regrouping
After two days holding their position in Florida by herself, Citrine finally retutned home on Wensday night, mentally exhausted, but ready to see her friends again. When she stepped of the warp pad and back into the spire, the troops were begining to look like a real army.
"Can you believe it Citrine? We trained the army in two days!" Pearl beamed.
Citrine nodded in admiration. They've really come a long way since she left. Garnet placed her hand on Citrine's shoulder.
"Rose would like to see you," she said.
Citrine walked up the spire, and into the fountain room. There she found Rose Quartz, filling canteens with healing water.
"Oh, hey Citrine, how did the mission go?"
"I have some bad news..."
"What is it?"
"The village is gone,"
"Well what happened to it?"
"The sun warriors happened,"
"What did they do...burn it to the ground?"
"Yes,"
"Oh no... Is everyone okay?"
"I don't know Rose...""Those sun warriors must be stopped,"
Rose stood up, and summoned body armor covered in pink Roses.
" Anything else to report?"
"I have found an open clearing for us to set up camp,"
"Good work soldier, say your goodbyes to Lady moon and Moonstone, we're moving out in 10 minutes!"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" Citrine saluted.
Citrine traveled up the spire were Moonstone and Lady Moon were waiting. Citrine stuck out her hand to Lady Moon for a hand shake. Instead Lady Moon grabbed Citrine's hand and pulled her in for a long hug, that Moonstone joined in on.
"Protect my gems, Citrine, " Lady Moon croaked with tears in her eyes.
"I will, I promise,"
Gem after gem, stepped off the warp pad, ready for battle.
Rose Quartz raised her hand to silence the noise among the ranks.
"Okay gems, follow Pearl and Citrine!"
The two gems pushed through the crowd of gems to the front were Rose and Garnet were.
"Lead the way," replied Garnet.
"Ugh, I hate wearing this armor, its so clunky, and tight," Pearl complained to Citrine. "Its only for a little while more Pearl," Citrine whispered back.
When they finally reached the feild, it was left completly untounched by the people, or the Sun warriors. Rose turned to the crowd to give orders.
"We're going to set up camp just like we do at the spire, Officers will start in the middle, the rest of you spiral out by ranking. There will be two gems to a tent, and your tent mates gem will be merged with yours next to the officer tent. Dismissed," Rose Quartz ordered.
"Officers over here, we need to set up our tent," Garnet flatly stated.
The six major officers stood in the middle of the camp, equally spaced from each other. Each gem summoned their weapon, and slammed it into the ground, causing their gem shards to rise from the ground and create a huge tent. This tent had each gem's shard , while Pearl created windows for the gems to see out of. Rose Quartz led the way in a made a table rise from the ground.
"According to what our scouts have informed us, the sun warriors are camped out in the...remains of the village," Garnet stated.
"I say, we rush in and take them out," Amethyst suggested while cracking her knuckles.
"No ,that won't work Amethyst, we rush in they set the place on fire," Emerald suggested.
"Besides, the solstice isn't until Saturday night, we have time to relax, train and build weapons. That reminds me, I have promoted Turquoise as engineer master, shes building us special vehicles, and weapons,"
"So that's why Turquoise gets a tent all to herself?" Pearl asked.
"Yep,"
"She said shes making us our own special armor, too,"
" I wanna go see what she's making for me!" Amethyst said as jumped up and down in excitement.
"Hold on Amethyst, I'll let you go, but I have a special task,"
"Okay?"
"For the first battle, you'll be in charge of the canons, so I'm going to need you to allow Turquoise to get a good look at your gem, so she can synthesizes amethyst weapons, ""Oh wow!" Amathyst jumped up, and ran towards Tourquoise's big blue tent.
"The rest of us should practice fusions until Amathyst is done and the next person can go,"
"Dismissed gems,"
The gems took off outside in the middle of camp.
"Citrine get over here," Garnet ordered.
"yes cousin?"
"Let's fuse,"
Citrine's eyes widened in excitement, as she danced across from Garnet.
"Ready?"
"Yes!"
Both gems raised their hands above their heads signalling their gems to glow. The gems danced around each other using rapid hip movements while Pearl observed. As the gems merged, a rising phoenix, came from the two gems revealing a large Coral. This Coral gem had a yellow headress with one green, and one orange eye. her hair was corn-rowed into a ponytail, that was created by a braid. Coral's ponytail, was as fluffy and full as Garnet's afro, except it was much longer, with orange braids running throughout her hair. Coral's dress had one sleeve on the left for the upper arm, and on sleeve on the right for the lower arm. On the bottom of the dress, two yellow stars are on both sides . The middle of Coral's dress was slit, and a bright was about the same size as Opal. She looked down at Pearl and smiled.
"How do I look Pearl?" Coral asked. "Amazing, but can you summon your weapon?"
"Yeah, lets see it,"
Coral focused on the gems on her hands and elbows. Suddenly two bright orange gauntlets were summoned, along with baby blue hook swords. Coral tossed her gauntlets in the air, and slapped them with her hook swords fusing the two weapons, and forming a pair of hook hammers.
"I've never seen any weapon like it Coral,"
"Oh cool I get two! " Coral beamed.
"But can you fuse them? "
Coral swung her hook hammers in opposite directions and then slammed the two hammers together. "Wow Pearl you have no idea how heavy this is," Coral explained.
"Okay guys im done, Emerald's with Tourquoise so you'll have- wow you guys made Coral!"
"Yeah, but I'd honestly would like a sparring partner to test my hammers, you guys want to make Opal?" Coral asked.
"Sure,"
"I mean, I guess,"
Pearl and Amethyst bowed, and made their gems glow. Amethyst twirled around like a ballerina, while Pearl flipped like ab acrobat. When their hands met, a bright light emitted, and combined the gems, creating Opal.
"Oh, why hello Coral," Opal greeted. "Hey Opal, lets find somewhere less populated to practice," Coral suggested.
"Sure lead the way," Opal agreed.
Coral lead Opal to a feild beyond the camp. The two fusion gems stared across from each other.
"Opal, you need to summon your weapons, "
"Okay,"
Opal focused on her whip and spear, then swung her arms. Fused together, the weapon created a baby blue bow, with a glowing purple string.
"Ready?"
" Yup!"
The two fusions charged at each other. Coral let out a battle cry, and swung her hook hammers at Opal. Using acrobatics, Opal dodge the attack.
"You're faster than I anticipated, Opal,"
Coral complemented.
Opal shrugged, and pulled out her arrow. Creating a giant force feild bubble, Opal, drew back, and fired. Coral quickly combined her hammers, and slammed the arrow into the ground. Letting out a huge explosion, the arrow desinigrated under the force of Coral's mighty hammer.
"Wow Coral, I'm impressed,"
"You, may like far range attacks, but lets see how you do up close!"
Coral separated her hook hammers, and charged at Opal again. Opal, put away her bow, and summoned two spears, and charged at Coral. Opal swung her spears attempting to slash the middle of Coral. Instead, Coral used her hammers to block each swing. Then, Opal jumped over Coral, and tried to trip her with her spear. Seeing the attack, Coral kicked the spear out of the way and knocked Opal over.
"Want to pick this up later?"
"Yeah,"
Coral reached out her hand and picked up Opal.
"I totally kicked your butt Opal,"
"That's funny, I though I almost got you with my arrow,"
"Haha, it was a lucky shot," Coral teased.
The two gems walked back together side by side.
"Gems, separate, Turquoise wants another officer in the tent," Rose ordered.
That night
"Citrine can you go get me some water from the pool?" Rose asked.
"Of course, anything for you Rose,"
Citrine left the officer tent and went to the pool with a bowl. The forest was dark, as Citrine stepped through the underbrush. A slight breeze chilled the air, and rustled up some bushes.
"Sure is quiet, better hurry up," Citrine whispered while hugging the bowl.
When she finally reached the pool, some sun warriors were present. So they couldn't see her, she quickly climbed the closest tree, and waiting for them to leave. Once they did, Citrine, dropped down from the tree, but felt someone push her in the water. Citrine fought her attacker, but was no use against against his strength. She screamed for air, but fell unconscious under the water.