A/N: THIS IS IMPORTANT PLEASE READ! There are a few songs here mentioned and have the exact lyrics(I will sometimes insert the song itself)((if they are not exactly like the song then I changed them to go with the story I'm sorry)) and I will put credit to the creators at the bottom I don't own anything but this story! THANK YOU!
Calla walked to the park with a headache, what had happened? She didn't understand and that bothered her. Usually, things were normal, everything happened with logic and a reason but this was just plain crazy. She sat on a bench in the middle of a tree filled patch. The grass was freshly cut and the air was cold since spring was just coming around. She held on to her ukulele and held it against her chest. She let out a breath and it frosted in the cool air like smoke.
She reached out for it like she could actually touch it. A group of homeless people huddled around an on fire garbage can. She zipped up the sweater she wore all the way to the top of her hoodie. It covered her face giving her a bit of warmth, two holes were sowed in with black see-through fabric so that people from the outside couldn't see her face or eyes.
She tuned the instrument till she got the right pitch for each string. She kept her eyes on the fire, strange things always happened when she played near the fire so she wanted to see the effect this song had. She played the strings and sang when it was her cue.
"If your evil and on you're on the rise
You can count on the four of us taking you down
Cause we're good and evil never beats us
We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas
We are the Crystal Gems
We'll always save the day!
And if you think we can't
We'll always find a way!" The fire erupted in dancing flames that took the form of two humans and they danced, the homeless people ran and screamed not noticing her and she didn't notice the group of people behind her.
"That's why the people of this world believe in," Calla would have gone with the lyrics but something the back of her mind screamed names that she spoke over the original lyrics. "Vacker, Dizznee, and Song, and Sercen!" Calla stopped playing suddenly when she heard her own voice speak those names and the fire that was dancing in the sky happily had exploded and fell to the ground burning the grass and she returned to the spot where she stopped hoping the fire would obey.
" If you could only know, what we really are
When we arrived on Earth, from out beyond your star
We were amazed to find your beauty and your worth
And we will protect your kind and we will protect your Earth
And we protect your Earth!
And we will protect you!
I will fight for the place where I'm free to live, to be and exist as me!
I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz, and everything that she believed in!
I will fight for the world I was made in, the Earth is everything I've ever known!
I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I'm grown!
The odds are against us,
this won't be easy,
but we're not going to do it alone!
We are the Crystal Gems!
We'll always save the day!
And if you think we can't,
we'll always find a way!
That's why the people of this world, believe in
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and Steven" The fire had dance happily once more and at the end of the song it had returned to a normal fire in the trash can. Calla let out a sigh of relief, then a hand fell on her shoulder and she freaked out. She let out a yell and grabbed the hand remembering all her years of jujitsu and karate and flipped the person over her shoulder and scrambled away and burst into a run zooming off but something grey and big was following her, yellow beady eyes glowed in the dark and she panicked.
She threw the enlightened trash can at the ground as she passed by and then paused a moment and played a short tune so the fire wouldn't spread. The fire obeyed her command and turned into a wall of flames not burning anything and stopping the weird grey thing in its tracks. But unfortunately, there was a second on behind her. It gently put its hands on her shoulders startling the poor child close to death, Calla yelped and turned around to see a weird buff grey thing. She trembled at the 7-foot tall beast and nearly fainted at the sight of it. Then what scared her the most was the fact that it spoke.
"Hey, hey, hey! Careful Pyro, ya gonna burn my buddy over there so could ya take it down a notch?" She turned to face it, it had a chiseled jaw with sharp teeth and seemed like a shark smile when he grinned at her. Two big beady yellow eyes looked at her like they were laughing, she must have looked pretty ridiculous with her sweater zipped all the way up covering her face and screaming like a baby. She ran a hand through her hair once she had zipped her sweater down. Nervous to play in front of this thing but then took a deep breath and nervously scratched her jaw, habit. Playing a short tune and with her mind commanded the fire to stop being a wall and extinguish itself. Then the other grey thing stepped closer to her, but she noticed 15 people behind a squad of them.
She tried to inch away but Grey Thing 1 held onto her tightly but not hurting her. She stood her ground then realizing that if she were to be attacked she was always a living weapon. Standing straight and tall like her mother had taught her when dealing with adults. She could hear their thoughts crash into her mind like waves on rocks. They all seemed to be talking to each other in their minds. But one thing she understood was that they were friendly. They just wanted to talk. Blocking them and doing her best to look scared and confused she faked a shiver.
Making her voice as small as possible she spoke. "Who," she pretended to clear her throat and stood taller. "Who are you?" Pretending to sound braver than she wanted them to think she was. One man with wild blonde hair that stuck out in every direction walked up to Calla and smiled what was meant to be a dazzling smile but from Calla's point of view, it was just weird. "Hey there Mini-Foster." Calla looked back at him with a blank stare. "It's Marquis." He blinked. "Huh?" Calla still looked at him with that blank stare. "My last name, it's Marquis." The man just looked at her with his ice blue eyes and she looked back at him with her brown ones. "Oh well, that just kills the joke now." He complained and Calla did her best not to roll her eyes. I mean it wasn't even funny in the first place. She thought.
She then felt a tug on her mind and her eyes cut through the small group of people to the same boy from the beach. He looked at her surprised and then she understood. They were freaks like her. The man's hand fell on her shoulder and he flinched like she shocked him. He looked at 12 different adults and then he doubled over in pain. Suddenly a beautiful woman did the same and they groaned. The grey things ran to their aid and Calla took this as her chance to escape. But seeing those poor people's bodies hit the floor and their pain-filled groans stopped her. Sighing and cursing herself for being so soft she walked and pushed away from the grey guard things aside with her mind and came over, this seemed to make it worse and she relaxed and this seemed to help them. Strange.
She walked away from them once they got up and they shared a look. They then look at their team or group, the others nodded and the woman from the beach came to her. The guards parted making an aisle for her. Their eyes locked and Calla stood strong and glared at her head on. Whoever these people were she wasn't afraid, she was her own weapon, she knew other ways of fighting too. If any threat or sign of one came from either one of them she was ready. But the woman didn't suddenly attack she stopped a foot away from Calla and reached for her temples pausing and then looked at her and said. "Um...you don't mind do you?" Calla shook her head and closed the space between her and the woman's temples.
Calla felt her enter her mind so she took her somewhere where they could talk. They were in a dark space, it looked like there was no floor but they could walk without falling. Calla thought up a table and chairs for them to sit in and they sat. Calla pushed her hair back with her hand she sighed. "What are you guys here for?" Calla finally spoke startling the woman so much she jumped. "And don't even try reading my mind, I can feel you ya know." She said tapping her head and the woman nodded. "Sorry," She tugged on her eyelashes pulling a few lose ones out. Nervous habit? Sitting straight in her chair to woman spoke, her voice soft and soothing. Calla felt like she had heard it before but she didn't know where. "My name is Sophie, Sophie Vacker." She said giving Calla her hand to shake and Calla almost shook it before she realized. Vacker?! The name that she spoke before. Getting herself out of her surprised state she shook the hand in awe.
"Vacker?" Calla questioned, it was a strange last name. Sophie laughed and it was musical to Calla's ears. "I know it's a strange name but if you want strange you should my husband Fitz's name." What kind of name is Fitz?! Calla thought to herself confused. Sophie laughed some more at her like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. "W-What's so funny?" Calla asked feeling stupid now for some reason. Sophie crocked her head to the side and gave her a warm smile. Her cheeks flushed in a nice rosy pink. "Oh sorry, I'm not laughing at you it's just I found the name weird too." Calla blushed feeling strange now.
Calla gave Sophie her hand to shake as well. "I'm Calla, Calla Marquis." Sophie seemed to visibly flinch at her name. What was up with that? Sure her family was well known for having a freak for a daughter but that was a strange reaction. Sophie nodded and shook her hand but Calla could have sworn she heard something.
'Keep her distracted.'
This was a trap. Calla instantly broke the connection and got into a running position. She looked at Sophie in the eyes and ran. Using her fire for boost she zipped past the guards and halfway across the park by the time any of them could react. Calla went back to old fashion running and she could have sworn she saw them glimmer away in a flash of light when she turned around to look back. She huffed as she ran along and far from home. "What's going on?" She growled to herself, was she finally going crazy?
She didn't go back home but as she reached the other entrance to the park she smiled seeing her family. Her father held the note in his hand looking worried and she ran right into his arms. "Oh thank the stars you guys are real!" She cried out relieved she hadn't gone completely mad. "Real?! Did you have one of your dreams again?" Calla shook her head. "No, I-" She paused and looked up to see the same people behind her family. "Dad look out!" She stood before her parents worried and got into an attack stance. "Woah kiddo, hold up!" Her dad cried out and Calla wondered why he was protecting these people.
"This is the council, they're friends." The council of what? "Who?" Her father looked sad as he held her mom and Betty close. "They um, uh," He sucked in a breath not sure what to say. "They let us keep you."
"What?!" Calla cried. Keep her? What did they mean by that? These people didn't own her! She wasn't some piece of property! Sophie came to her with a sorry smile. "Sweetie please calm down, you're hurting your 'uncle' Keefe." What kind of stupid, crazy name was Keefe? Calla looked over at the odd blonde man from before who was waving his hand in the air like there was a fly bothering him. So was the beautiful lady from before. Calla shook her head. "Oh I get it, it's a prank, right? Where's the camera? Man, you guys sure had me fooled." Calla watched as her dad backed away from her as she stepped forward to them. "What? What's wrong?" The man she had known all her life then looked at her like she was a stranger attacking her.
"Um, can I help you with something miss?" He asked voice soft. Calla backed off surprised. If this was a prank then her dad deserved an Oscar. Calla looked at her mom who was passed out in her dad's arms. But where was Betty? A hand suddenly took her by the shoulder and pulled her away forcing her to leave her father. "Let go!" Calla shouted but whoever it was didn't listen. It all went by too fast. The city lights blurred away and soon Calla could hear the ocean, but that was impossible. That would have meant that they traveled miles and miles in just a second. The beach was always far from where she lived so suddenly feeling the sand under her feet was weird.
She turned around to see Betty, she stood tall and looked at her not saying a word. Calla felt like she was going to throw up. What in the world was going on? Betty walked so quickly and gracefully Calla almost didn't see her move. She didn't even leave tracks in the sand like Calla did. "Betty? What's going on?!" She asked now shouting. Betty turned to her. Her ginger hair fanning around her like a halo, her once green eyes now blue. "What do you mean? You did what you had to do, you sealed the deal."
Calla took a step forward mad. "What deal? What are you talking about?!" 'Betty' held up her hand to silence her. "You caused this all, so remember." Well, what the hell was Calla supposed to do with that? What kind of response was that? Calla fell to the sand defeated. She was done, this all made no sense. All she did was see three people and suddenly she made a deal, sealed it, her family isn't real, it was like reality was splitting apart. Calla looked around at the trashy beach, a can here, empty water bottle there. It looked normal but she expected a monster to suddenly pop out of thin air. She noticed some cliffs off in the distance. She walked over, they weren't really far from where she was.
'Betty' turned around as was surprised to see that Calla wasn't there. She looked around and saw her on top of the cliffs. She gasped and ran to her. "Calla! What are you doing?!" She shouted. She was just supposed to help her remember, not this! Calla took out her strange string item and played music with it. She had a dead look in her eyes.
Calla didn't even notice she had an audience as she tried to get rid of it all. Destroy madness at its source. She took her ukulele in hand and suddenly her head snapped up so she looked at the sky, she didn't even notice the glimmer of light from the corner of her eye as she played.
Her interment felt different in her hands but that feeling quickly left as she played but something at the back of her mind bugged her. Like what she was about to do was wrong but instinctively she knew it was what she had to do.
Sophie came as soon as she heard from Nellie. She looked up to see her daughter, her only daughter glowing a brilliant red in the dark light. She turned to them but this new person definitely wasn't the girl she had just met three seconds ago. She was being engulfed in fire, her pupils were no longer visible and all you could see were not eyes but the odd yellow glow a fire makes. Her hair frailing around wildly and her fits clenched and she looked out to the sea. Sophie felt useless as she tried and failed to get even an inch closer to her baby. It was like the heat was so strong it was blowing her away.
"Calla! Calla please!" She cried out and the girl ran her hand through her hair like her father and she sat down still on fire but Sophie could now move closer. Sophie looked around and saw the others struggling to get close while she moved with ease. She walked over and as she got closer she could hear humming. It was a sad song. She looked at her, what had Sophie missed. A lot probably. Way too much. the fire cooled down but still, the others couldn't get past this invisible barrier. They were out of earshot too.
Calla took a deep breath before letting it out. She stared into Sophie's eyes and stood walking closer to the edge. She opened her arms like she was going to jump. Sophie ran over so quickly she was amazed she didn't trip or anything like that. She grabbed Calla from around her waist and pulled her away. "Stop!" SHe cried out scared. She couldn't lose her again.
Crystal Gem-Steven Universe