Chapter 1: Waking Up

"Where am I?"

"What's going on?"

"Why do I hear voices?"

...

"Am I alive?"

"I feel incomplete."

"Need to form!"

The ground cracked and split as once solid rock was forced to give way to a light that shot from the ground. The light, uneven and a mix of colors, rose up until it reached a certain height where it split into three. Those three lights took on separate outlines of gems. Each reaching out in different directions as if trying to escape while giving off an inhuman wail of agony. Suddenly, their forms glitched and their lights were slammed back into one. Morphing several times until it reached a form that was nowhere near close to a human shape. Almost resembling a giant pear with three arms and two legs sprouting from different points of the mass. Wrapped around it was a long thick cloth that also functioned as a mouth while ending in a long tail at the back. And on the larger end were three pairs of eyes, none symmetrical to another. All amounting to something straight out of a horror movie that would have made anyone unlucky enough to see it sick to their stomach.

The mutant spasmed and shook wildly while the same three voices continued to scream out of one source. Each limb responding to a different master, causing the whole form to spin uncontrollably in an almost spider like fashion. The lack of coordination proved to be the mutants downfall, as all it took was one hand to slip off the edge of the ledge they were near before the entire being plummeted down below. The mutant made one last dis-harmonized wail before it harshly impacted the ground below. One of the larger rocks scattered about impaling the mutant and forcing it to retreat inside it's gem. When silence fell there was one final sound of their shared gem hitting the floor with a small 'clink'.

White. That was all Jade could see when she opened her eyes. When she was able to come to her senses panic filled her mind and she began frantically looking around. But wherever she looked all she could see was the pure color. This was confusing because she had the feeling of being inside her gem but this is not the color she was used to seeing.

"Where am I?"

With nothing else to look at she looked down at herself and was nearly driven to screaming. Instead all that came out was a sharp gasp at the sight of her body. She was in floating in her base form, that being no different. But her right arm and leg no longer existed. All that was there was small rectangular streams of light that reached out from where her arm and leg should be as an attempt to connect with the missing limbs. When the horrible realization came to her, Jade's remaining hand shot up to her forehead where her gem should be. She froze when she felt the large shard of what was once her full gem.

Jade tightly grabbed the light representing her hair as memories, unwanted, filled her mind. But before they could become too much they were diluted out by the many questions that demanded to be answered.

"Am I...alive?" Were just one of the questions that managed to escape her.

"Jade?" A voice called from behind her.

'That voice.' Jade thought. All her previous panic leaving her mind.

Turning, Jade caught sight of another gem at it's base form looking just as confused as she did. And like Jade, this gem was also missing some of her limbs. That being both of her legs along with her right arm. This gem had a long, wavy, representation of hair and bright yellow eyes. Though her form altogether was familiar to Jade, it was the bits of a Sunstone on the gem's stomach that was the dead giveaway.

"Sunstone?"

Sunstone smile and Jade quickly followed her example.

"Jade!"

"Sunny!"

Within moments they were in each other's comforting embrace. Holding one another close to the best of their abilities, with them both only having one arm.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Jade cried, hugging Sunstone tighter.

"I thought the exact same thing." Sunstone replied softly before pulling out of their hug.

"But...how are you here?"

"How are you here?" Jade demanded. "I saw you shattered during the battle."

The two then once more glanced around at their surroundings. But like before they only managed to see the color white.

"Well we seem to be inside out gems. Yet it's like we're not in our individual gems." Jade said, pondering what it could possible mean.

Sunstone looked back to Jade with a puzzled expression.

"Did...we fuse?" She suggested.

Before Jade could respond their attention went to a third voice that neither of them recognized.

"The cluster experiment." The voice growled.

Looking to the the voice's source, they spotted another gem that they had failed to notice until now. This gem was slightly taller than both Jade and Sunstone and had a mohawk-ish representation of hair that curled near the top. Like Jade, the gem only had an arm and leg but on the left side of her body. And floating near the gem's body on the right side was a large gem shard that, by guessing, looked to belong on the gem's left hand if it still existed.

But the appearance of the unfamiliar gem was not important. What was important, for the time being, was the gem's distress as she was grumbling and growling to herself. Seeming almost as if she hadn't even noticed the other two gems with her as she continued to glare off at the white that surrounded them.

Finally Sunstone, no longer able to take the awkwardness that was the situation, spoke up and asked.

"Are you...alright?"

The gem sharply turned to the two, a fierce rage burning in her eyes.

"NO! I am not alright! How could Homeworld do this to me? After I had been nothing but loyal to them! After I had fought for them!"

The gem grabbed her head and continued yelling incoherently. As she did Sunstone and Jade briefly looked at each other before Jade went forward a bit while clearing her throat.

"Listen um..." Jade started, motioning with her hand for the gem to finish for her.

"Agate." She hissed back.

"Agate." Jade continued, "Why don't you just calm down a moment and tell us what's happening."

Agate rolled her eyes and looked away from Jade.

"You should know..."

Then a thought struck Agate which made her slowly turn and give Jade a skeptic look.

"Unless you're rebels."

Jade hesitated for a moment before replying.

"We are."

"Then I won't tell you anything!" Agate yelled.

"Agate please! It'll better help us figure things out." Jade pleaded.

Agate fully turned to Jade. Arm stretched wide to better emphasize her rage.

"There's nothing to figure out! Homeworld subjected us to the Cluster Experiment and now we're stuck like this!"

"What's the 'Cluster Experiment'?" Sunstone asked from behind Jade.

"I said that I won't tell you anything!"

Jade brought her hand to her face and sighed. This was getting them nowhere and she was the first to realize it. Sliding her hand down her face she had already decided the next approach.

"Okay fine then, don't tell us. That's not our main priority anyway. What matters is that we figure out how we got here and where we actually are."

Agate scoffed. "Isn't it obvious? Our gems, or what remains of them, were forcibly fused together and now we have to share the inside of it."

Jade frowned in annoyance at Agate. "You know this whole thing would be a lot easier if you just told-" She stopped herself and regained her bearings.

"Okay. Now we know where we are, thank you Agate. Now let's try to make a physical form to find out location."

"We're on Earth. Where else would we be?" Agate asked, rolling her eyes only half way this time.

Before Jade could say anything in her frustrated state Sunstone went between them.

"I think what Jade means is that we need to find out where we are on Earth."

Agate was about to reply, but that actually made her stop and think for a moment.

"I guess you're right. There'd be no point of us being here if we emerged in a dangerous location and got even more shattered than we are now."

Finally getting somewhere, Jade smiled again.

"Okay. Let's try to make a physical form!"

They each nodded to each other and the remains of their gems started glowing.

"Ready...Go!"