Sorry it's taking me a little longer to write chapters I got school and everything but enjoy, Aqua's POV will be next chapter
She arrived at Blue Diamond's combat stadium, Lapis could see herself on the reflective glass covering the outside of the stadium, it was nothing special on the outside, it was basically a big mirror. As she arrived inside though it was something way different.
The stadium was a huge expanse of seemingly endless land littered with swords, axes, arrows, maces, and a whole collection of weapons from different gems. Warriors and non-warriors from all over Homeworld were scattered throughout the field practicing, field combat, aerial combat, underwater combat, summoning weapons, field techniques, and power preparation.
Lapis gazed in awe of everything around her, she's never seen gems of all kinds get together like this in one place, the higher skilled gems, like Emerald, Citrine, Agate, Jasper, and even Blue Diamond's second-in-command Topaz was there, teaching less skilled gems everything they need to be stronger.
She looked around, not sure exactly who to approach or what to do. She decided on approaching a lone gem that looked just as nervous and clueless as she did. "Hmm, I wonder why Aqua didn't get a transmission, she's 10x stronger than I am." Lapis snapped out of her thoughts as she approached the gem. "Hello, I'm Lapis, Lapis Lazuli, are you here for training also?"
The gem looked up at Lapis, she had bright orange eyes with little black specks in them, her tangerine colored hair was about as short as Lapis' but styled differently, it was cut really close on one half and the other half looked like she just pushed it to the side, she wore an oversized black and golden orange striped sweater with the official Homeworld pants that coordinated with her gem, (black with an orange diamond on the leg.)
"Oh, hello, I'm Amber, and yes I'm here for combat training, not exactly sure what to do though." Lapis shook her hand, "Yeah I'm not too sure what to do either, you think we should ask somebody?" Amber hesitated, "I don't know, last time I asked a commanding gem a question I got a busted lip and was told that next time it'll be my gem that gets busted." Lapis looked completely shocked, she knew commanding gems were tough sometimes but she couldn't believe that her beloved superiors would do anything like that.
"Maybe they just had a bad day or something, trust me they're not that bad." Lapis noticed the look of hesitation still etched on her face and quickly added, "But I'll go ask instead if that'll make you feel better." Amber nodded, well more like tilted her head down slightly, and Lapis scanned the field with her eyes, looking for any potential help, her eyes landed on Jasper, a total brute, but at least she's a brute she knows.
"Hey Jasper," Jasper looked for the annoying thing that dare disturb her training, "You think you can help me out with something?" Jasper groaned loudly as Lapis came running towards her. "What do you want brat, can't you see I'm busy here?" Lapis flinched slightly as the bigger gem spoke to her, "Yeah, I'm sorry I was just kind of lost I don't really know what to do."
Jasper looked down at Lapis, annoyed by her simple presence, "So why are you asking me? Do I look like a have a huge sign that says information on me?" Lapis' gem started glowing as she got more and more nervous about the situation she was in. "Well no, but you're the only one I really know here and you're way stronger than me so I thought maybe you could just direct me to what I have to do?"
Jasper ran her hands through her long white hair, thinking. "Try talking to Topaz, I'm sure she'll help you out with whatever." Lapis ran in Topaz's direction, eager to get away from the short tempered gem. Lapis looked back and shouted, "Thanks Jasper!" Jasper looked after the gem, a small smile betraying her previous scowl, "Yeah whatever brat, just don't bug me again or I'll shatter you to pieces!"
Lapis approached Topaz, who met Lapis about a handful of times, Topaz was slightly familiar with Lapis as she impressed her with her newly discovered strengths, such as Lapis' water wings and increased water controlling powers. Lapis hoped Topaz would remember her as she tapped her lightly on the shoulder, hoping to seek her attention. Topaz looked up from her paperwork and turned around towards Lapis, she looked furious at first, but after seeing it was Lapis she calmed down slightly, but still looked very stern.
"Lazuli, what can I do for you?" She spoke in a very stoic, emotionless manner which didn't surprise Lapis at all, mostly all of her superiors spoke this way. "Well commander, I was just confused about what I'm suppose to do, the transmission didn't explain things too much."
Topaz turned away from Lapis, looking back down at her work, "Just find a partner and spar, do whatever training you want I'm busy." Lapis was waiting for more instruction but it never came. She turned away and walked back towards Amber, who looked more nervous than when she left her. "So, what happened, what she say?"
"Just to find a partner and do whatever training we want." Lapis looked up to see Amber biting her nails and looking at Lapis, nervously, like she wanted to ask a question. Lapis decided she would ask before they both got yelled at. "Well do you wanna be my partner or...?" Amber looked up shyly whispering a barely audible "yes".
"Let's get to it then, can you summon your weapon?" Amber nodded as her gem started glowing, she pulled a average side medieval mace from her gem, it had a spiked ball chained to a orange, metallic handle. "What about you?" Lapis grabbed a basic curved sword out of a light blue scabbard she had, "All I got are wings, which can't really help too much in field combat, I'm more of an aerial or underwater fighter so I figured I could try to improve my field skills more." Amber nodded and held on to her weapon. "Well, let's get started."
Both gems ran at each other, Lapis blocked attack after attack from Amber's mace. Amber aimed low at Lapis' feet, Lapis jumped barely avoiding a painful blow, Lapis countered, spinning and attempting to cut Amber from the back, but Amber flipped over Lapis' hit, landing on her opposite side.
Their practice combat intensified, Lapis was pushing herself harder as she noticed that Topaz stopped her previous work to examine her. Lapis cut partially into Amber's cheek as she snuck in a low side attack, dark orange blood begin to ooze out of the gash, causing Amber to cry out in pain. Lapis took this as an opening to finish their practice round and slashed her sword across Amber's stomach area, however Lapis was unaware of her gem being located in that exact spot, and instead of being met with flesh, she was met with the sickening sound of a breaking gem.
It seemed as though everything around her stopped, the only sound Lapis could hear was that of a gem being broken in pieces ringing steadily in her ears. "What have I done, I'm a monster, I killed her, she's gone." Amber's form was indeed gone, all that remained was a broken gem, no longer glowing with life. Lapis' gem started glowing violently, threatening to outshine the lights in the stadium, as she weeped over her former sparring partner, tears flowed down onto the gem, creating a miniscule puddle underneath it.
"Wow Lazuli, didn't know you had it in you." Topaz's voice broke Lapis from the silence she was previously engulfed in. "I'm s-s-sorry commander, I w-wasn't aware of her gemstone's location, I-I've never broken one before." To her surprise Topaz wasn't mad, instead she laughed, "Well that's good, you're going to have to get used to breaking a lot more if there's going to be a war soon."
Lapis looked up from her partner, "You're not infuriated that I broke a gemstone?" Topaz suddenly looked concerned, "It's not that Lazuli, we care about all gemstones here, but Amber was weak, she wasn't going to get very far, you just sped up the inevitable." Lapis held the broken shards in her hand, still tearing up over Amber. "I suppose that's true, I just wished it could've been different, also, not to be an inconvenience, but how are you so sure there's going to be a war?"
Topaz went away into a crowd of gems, coming back after a minute with a much smaller gem in her hand. "This is Sapphire." The small, blue gem curtsied, her blue dress barely shuffling the ground. "She had a special type of 'future vision', she can see possible futures and she said there's an impending war to come, but she can't exactly pinpoint who's behind it." The blue gem looked very calm, almost like a statue, her bangs hid any emotion that her eye or eyes, (Lapis wasn't sure what she had), may show.
Lapis' dimming gem lit right back up again, "So there's definitely going to be a war?" Sapphire nodded, still looking very stoic. "Is it going to be big, like will there be a lot of casualties?" Again Sapphire nodded, this time a little slower, as if indicating sadness. Lapis was relieved that Aqua wouldn't be there for all of that, if one of them had to go, she was glad it was her instead of her friend. She had to tell her though, this wasn't something she could keep to herself. Sapphire waited till Topaz walked away to check on some other gem's training to whisper to Lapis, "You can't avoid the inevitable, one of you WILL end up like her." Sapphire pointed down at Amber's gem, causing Lapis to start tearing up again, but before she could ask who Topaz came back.
"I think you had enough for today Lapis, maybe you should go back to your facility to rest." Lapis nodded and walked away, she looked back once at the small blue gem, who was already walking to her original place, her back turned towards Lapis. Lapis sauntered back home, her insides an emotional wreck of fear, confusion, sorrow, and curiosity. "What did that gem mean, how would Aqua end up broken, she wasn't placed in the battle?"
Aqua was still out when she arrived home, of course she was, ever since she started working for Pink Diamond she was always out. Whatever, Lapis needed to be alone right now anyways, she knew she had to tell Aqua about today though, there wasn't any doubt about that. For now though, Lapis decided on resting her sore form to prepare for another day.
There was the sound of metal on metal clashing in her mind, a sword making contact with another sword, and a soft but stern voice saying 'again' over and over. Looking around there was mirrors everywhere each reflecting the same thing, Lapis was Aqua again, she was in some type of light armor, Aqua's sword in her hands, and she was battling what looked like a, pearl? "Are you even focusing right now? You won't last one second in battle if you can't focus on level 4 sparring practice, now come on let's go again."
Lapis sat up in her quarters, her spine was tingling, a chill running through her body. "That couldn't have been real, what would she be doing sparring with a pearl? This doesn't make any sense." Lapis had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as Sapphire's words echoed through her mind, "You can't avoid the inevitable, one of you WILL end up like her."