She hit nothing.

When Zircon opened her eyes, she met pink sky. Glittering spires. The courts were behind her, and nothing beneath her but air. She was falling fast. If she could control her fall, she might be able to land on one of the structures jutting out from the sides of buildings. Desperately, she grasped inside of her for a skill she never knew she would need — manipulation of gravity, to slow an ascent or descent. All gems had it, even the Era Twos. She just had to reach deep inside or something, perhaps have some sort of transcendent revelation, and she would reveal the sklll…

No such revelation came. About a half mile down, she met a docking ramp at very high speeds, flat on her face.

"Ow."

Dizzy, she pushed herself to her feet and took stock of herself. Destabilizer in her left hand, Yellow Zircon's gem in her right. Her own gem was luckily undamaged, even after the rough landing. There. That wasn't so hard.

Then she looked up and locked eyes with an olivine.

The lanky old thing, clearly an early Era One, had been climbing a ladder into the cockpit of a cargo ship, but froze in her tracks when she saw Zircon. Her expression was akin to that of someone who has been approached suddenly by a pyrite and told that they owe six hundred credits to a bank that clearly doesn't exist, and to pay up immediately or the pyrite will spill a secret that the approached gem does not have. The olivine's eyes squinted under her bulky goggles.

"The blazes er you? Ge' off my dockin' ramp, clod!" she rasped, jumping off her ladder. With the ferocity of a quartz pulling a sword, the olivine whipped an impractically large wrench from her belt. Stuttering apologies, Zircon scurried off the docking ramp and into a cluttered workshop beyond, where the olivine kept yelling not to touch things that Zircon clearly wasn't touching.

She was thrown unceremoniously out of the olivine's workshop with a crass warning, a wrench-whack on the head, and a slamming door that told her she was on her own. Alone again — in streets that were grimy with eons' worth of refuse, wavering with dim and flickering lights, and pockmarked with gems who glared from under dark hoods.

Zircon gulped. The underworld. She could handle the underworld. Still, she gripped her stolen destabilizer a little tighter.

Rather than the crumbling residential crust she had navigated after escaping the Harvester, she was now in what seemed to be a "downtown" area. The depressing sky of pipes and concrete — instead of pressing down from a cramped two stories — soared five stories overhead, the buildings seemingly hunched under its limit. In both directions, they stretched down the weathered road until fading into the grey haze. Most shops were either barred up, vandalized, or sputtering neon with the kind of nightlife she'd always been warned about.

Other than the hooded gems shuffling along the thoroughfare, the only sign of movement was a hunched figure on a curb. A small hoarse voice called to passerby, "Lead cloaks. Lead cloaks, twenty credits. Th — th — there's danger."

A chill crept into her gem. Danger.

Holding the destabilizer and Yellow Zircon's gem close to her sides, Zircon made her way to the gem on the curb. Even with the bulky cloak and hood, the thing was still much smaller than her. The only thing she had was a small crate filled with rumpled fabric.

"Um, excuse me," Zircon spoke up, unsure, "but did you say there's danger?"

The gem lifted her head. She didn't turn around, but when Zircon crouched down beside her, she realized something very odd — a scarf tied over her eyes. No, not her eyes; there was a shape under the fabric. A gemstone, right in the middle of her face, where her eyes should be, but weren't. Zircon looked closer at the gem's twitching dark hand, her scuffed boots tapping the asphalt. It wasn't just the darkness; this gem was a very familiar dark red. Nearly black. Off-colored.

"I know you," Zircon blurted. "You were my first client — maybe the second. I, er, I don't remember, but...I remember you. You had — oh stars, what was it, it's been millenia — you had future vision, even though you're a ruby, but it only gave you the power to see negative outcomes. The kindergarteners wanted you shattered, but your agate refused...that...WAS you, right?"

The ruby didn't respond. Then, she spread her hand, making a grabbing motion with her fingers. "N — need to give you a cloak. Want to help. Twenty credits."

Inside of Zircon, something ached. She reached into her gem, prayed for more loose change, and pulled out only a five and a ten. "Sorry. I only have fifteen."

"F — f — fifteen, good enough. You get cloak with no clasp. Jus' string."

Quick as a whip, Ruby snatched the fifteen credits from Zircon's hand and replaced them with an unusually heavy cloth. Then, almost in an afterthought, a piece of string. Zircon didn't know if she would need the string, so she cautiously set it, Yellow Zircon's gem, and the destabilizer on the ground behind her.

She turned her attention back to the cloak. It shimmered in the uncertain light, and Zircon was surprised to find that it was only partly fabric; instead, the threads were polyester twisted with hair-thin strands of lead. Tentatively, she pulled the cloak — essentially a one-size-fits-all tube — over her head and fiddled with the inside buttons to secure it on her shoulders, so as to cover her gem but leave her arms free.

"Protects against robonoids," rasped Ruby. "The lead confuses their eyes."

Of course. Just like when Zircon hid in the power plant booth — the robonoids couldn't see through metal. Upon closer examination, Ruby's blindfold seemed to be made of the same material.

"There's danger," Ruby said suddenly.

Zircon picked up the destabilizer and Yellow Zircon's gem again. "You just said that the cloaks protect our gems."

"From the r — robonoids," stammered Ruby, and grabbed her crate from beside her. "N — n — not patrols. Patrols will find you. I have to take you somewhere."

She leaned forward and turned her head, as if looking down the road despite her blindfold. Then she stood up and shifted her crate onto her hip, her other hand reaching vaguely towards Zircon. Tentatively, Zircon stood and put her free hand in Ruby's. At first, Ruby gasped...and then slowly smiled, showing her little gapped teeth. Inside, Zircon felt the ache from before return. The poor gemling. Probably was the first friendly physical contact she'd had in ages.

Ruby tugged on her hand and they set off, deeper into the underworld. It didn't take long to spot another panel with her face plastered across it, so she pulled her cloak hood over her head (her headscarf still poked out a little) and gripped her destabilizer tighter.

Then, they turned down a corner and Zircon gasped. A robonoid glared down the street, the blinding red eye causing her to flinch back. Initially, panic welled up in her — but then Ruby tugged her hand, grounding her again. Right. The cloaks.

"Get to the side," said Ruby, as matter-of-factly as if avoiding a large but harmless street vehicle. "So it don't hit you."

Wordlessly, Zircon obeyed, her form trembling so much that she couldn't resist even if she wanted to. Ruby pulled her right against the wall, the concrete ice cold on her back even through her appearance modifiers and cloak. The blinding red beam crept down them, and Zircon couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut as it moved towards her chest...but then, she felt nothing. No harsh screech in her ear as the alarms found her gem. No agonizing blast of energy as it shattered her. Just Ruby's tiny, warm hand, squeezing her own gently.

"You're safe," Ruby whispered. "Look."

She opened her eyes and met darkness again. Its scanner deactivated, the hovering robonoid whirred around the corner and disappeared, satisfied that it hadn't found anything.

You're safe.

Zircon knew she should be relieved. Now she had a shield, a companion, an underground in which to hide. But she didn't feel safe at all. She was still lost. She was still on the run. Involuntarily, a giggle bubbled up her throat, and her hand slipped out of Ruby's as she slid to the ground.

"Eheheh...ahahaha, oh my stars, no — " Another laughing fit tore itself from her mouth. Her hand shaking, she touched her own face and felt tears. "No. No, no, no...oh my stars — !"

Ruby took a small step back. "A — are you okay?!"

Zircon inhaled slowly, trying to compose herself. She failed, and the words spilled.

"No. I'm so sorry, Ruby, I'm really not okay. I — I'm not supposed to be like this. don't know what's going on, I'm so scared, I — I — I don't like this. I'm sorry. It's not your fault. But I can't take this. I can't."

The fabric of the cloak had gotten caught up in her free hand, and she squeezed it so tight that her knuckles turned pale. Her chest felt hollow; it was like there was a gaping hole in her gut filled with nothing but the writhing terror that nothing would ever fix it.

In her other hand, a drop landed on the surface of Yellow Zircon's gem. Still silent. Still cold. A sob trickled out.

"I can't do this. I feel so alone, Ruby. I don't want this. I want to be innocent again, I want to have a purpose, I want to have people who don't try to grind me into powder, I want to rest and have things be normal, I want — I want to be okay. I want to have a home again. I can't do that here. I know you want to help me, but I don't know if anyone can anymore. I'm sorry."

And now there was nothing left. Just an unconscious friend, a defective ruby, and her own self-pity. Her monocle was spattered with tears and she clumsily took it off to clean it on the cloak — but only to stop as a weight rested on her shoulder. Ruby curled up against her, small arms barely reaching all the way around Zircon's body.

"I can help," she whispered. "I can. I know I can."

Her chest still aching, Zircon sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Disgusting, but she had to make do. "I don't know."

"I do," said Ruby, fiercer this time. "G — gems like you. Like me. Off-colors. More than you know. Some of them le — le — left Homeworld. They want to help us. They are finding ways for us to leave. To — to go home."

"Home?"

"Home," she repeated. "Earth. Where Rose Quartz says we are free."


SO i didn't really know how to end this chpater but that's why it took a long af time so uh better shit than never amirite

anyway so i was inspired to post this because a.) i was reading Always Been An Off Color by thelittlemerms and iT'S REAL GREAT GO CHECK IT OUT ITS ON AO3 SORRY TO MY FFN READERS and b.) i told my sister that if i threw a styrofoam bowl in the air and it landed on the side rather than the top or bottom i would finish this chapter tonight and guess what landed on its side

which are probably the worst two reasons for ending a chapter completely terribly but you do what you gotta do man

anyway i don't know when the next chapters will be out. honestly no clue. not even the slightest. first of all, im applying to college right now and its crazy. second of all, i'm playing the wicked witch in the wizard of oz, and it's also crazy. third of all, i like to procrastinate. i have two more chapters handwritten in my writing journal, as well as the remaining 5-ish extensively outlined elsewhere, so im ALMOST done except for the typing bit. and that's hard to do.

but we'll see.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS CHAPTER BECAUSE I AM PERFECTLY AWARE OF THE BAD THINGS (I.E. THE SHIT PACING, THE FACT THAT THERE'S NO REAL COMPLETE ARC SINCE I HAD TO CUT IT IN HALF, THE WEIRD TRANSITIONS AND MY DISTURBING LOVE OF GROSS GREASY LOWER-LEVEL CORUSCANT AESTHETIC)