"Moonstone!"
Ruby came in with a punch from the right and the column of a monster tumbled sideways. When it righted itself it staggered directly into a swinging kick from Sapphire, the blue gem swaying her entire body like a bell, a grunt of effort ringing out as the beast went down. It wouldn't stay that way. Worse, it was between the two.
A bite, a hard bite, trying to wrench the gem from Garnet's hand, had caused the two to come undone. Now they couldn't get their thoughts together fast enough to fuse again, and the lurching beast was free from its bindings. It wouldn't bubble. There wasn't a bubble big enough.
All it took was a moment of reminiscing for it to break free. As Garnet remembered the fateful day the former crystal gem had discovered that pearl of knowledge, fleeing from Homeworld and war and swirling stormclouds that lingered like a noxious stench, the monster – the term was venomous to think of but it was the only one appropriate for the lily-pale monstrosity – had leapt upon her. She was unable to complete the ritual to sate the creature, cease the rumbling in the temple's nerves, she was unable to keep it together.
"Garnet, I'm here, are you okay?!"
Both gems froze and it was time enough for the beast to attack Ruby with such violent ferocity that the ground under her feet smouldered with shock. Pearl screamed. Nausea overwhelmed her. Not only was Garnet, her steel-nerved leader, her hero, her friend unfused and in danger, but the beast - the loathsome towering beast – twisted a knot of hatred in her stomach. Each ridge on its vile body, each glittering facet like a boulder, each writhing movement threatening a landslide of white gore to tumble loose of its exaggerated, malformed body; Pearl's fingers wrung the false fabric of her shirt. A bead of sweat hung from her forehead.
She let out an ungodly shriek.
Elsewhere, Amethyst and Steven perked up.
"That was Pearl! Come on!"
With newfound vigor, Amethyst grabbed Steven, hoisting him up into a fireman's lift (a gesture he was used to by now) and began to sprint up the sheer, slippery surfaces of the tunnel. A howl from Ruby, a yell from Sapphire, a squawk from Pearl called the duo towards the Carotid Chambers, foghorns leading them through the bad and towards the worse. Steven prepared himself, mentally, to draw his shield and prepare to defend his friends, his guardians, from the horror that would, curse the thought, make Garnet come undone. He thought back to the Cluster, the monstrosity of limbs, and lurched with queasiness.
They burst into the room. Five on one.
The imposing red walls, like polished petrified flesh with veins of white like worms, loomed above them. A half-finished sigil dried on the floor. Time stood still as the beast was surrounded on all sides. One huge eye, bulbous and yellow, twitched as it sized up its opponents. Steven stared back and it immediately made him think of something –
The previous night's diamond moon.
Three things happened at once. Steven let out a wail of What is that?! and the beast took a rush for him and, in a movement as fluid as water, Amethyst grabbed it by the head. It was flipped onto its back and thrust onto the ground hard enough to send cracks through the ground, a shudder running through the temple. It recovered with hatred and lashed out with a beastly leg, Amethyst's head thrown back with a disconcerting crack. Steven clasped both hands over his mouth as she stumbled backwards, head lolling backwards as if broken, before she nodded forwards hard and came for the beast in a whirlwind dash.
She collided with its chest and it rolled backwards into a gauntlet of violence. Pearl stabbed for it but was thrown forwards, colliding with Ruby, who tossed her aside and bought a fist down on the beast's head, causing it to topple forwards into Sapphire's punch. Steven hammered his fists ineffectively on its thigh. Pearl ushered him back and leapt forwards again. Rearing to attack, the monster threw its head back and let out a heaven-piercing roar of pain as the spear was buried in its side, chipping the deep, glistening hide. Dark ooze seeped out. Pearl retched.
Exchanging only a glance in preparation, Pearl and Amethyst attacked together, Amethyst coming in first with her whip; Pearl close behind with the dripping spear ready. The creature was pulled forwards onto the spearpoint and out of its gruesome maw came a gurgling scream. Steven scrambled backwards, all elbows and knees. Ruby and Sapphire froze in terror, huddled in each other's embrace. Both gems watched the beast tear through its bindings, lurch free, pluck the spear like a thorn from its gut.
It was trying to flee.
Scrambling for purchase on the war-weathered floor, it sent Steven flying with a smack of its grisly claws and disappeared, howling, down the arteries of the temple in a flurry of gnarled white limbs. While Steven recovered, Amethyst and Pearl fussing over him like a couple of grandmothers, Ruby and Sapphire took chase. Sapphire was impossibly fast. The beast bounded. Sapphire glided. Skated as if the world was her rink and she was going for gold. Ruby trailed behind, the earth sizzling wherever her feet touched, crying out with terror, concern for her love, as they followed the devil into hell.
Onto the roof, into the rain.
Onto the head of the lady of the temple. Slick with rainwater, the beast, standing upright and terrible on two twisted legs, glistened in the night as the heavens opened. It stared towards the moon; the great grisly eye of the diamond moon; and let out a howl.
Sapphire was in pursuit. There was nowhere for the creature to go.
"Moonstone."
Her voice was fierce. None of the previous restraint. She wanted this over and it was over now. She took a step forwards. It took a step back. It tilted its head, squinting with that gruesome yellow eye, form loosening as if relaxing in her presence, challenging her.
"You always wanted too much. Look what you've done." Conviction was thick in her tone; her eye was wet with tears. "Look what you did to yourself."
"I can tell you anything," the creature said.
"I don't want to hear it," Sapphire replied, cold, and she took a step forwards. The creature, the moonstone monster, took a step back, but it stumbled clumsily on the slick roof.
"Anything you want to know," it persisted, a voice as cruel as time and as hoarse as the end of it. "Anything at all."
After a pause, as Ruby clawed her way onto the roof and stared, dumbfounded, at her lover's standoff with the old friend, the gone friend, Sapphire brushed her fringe away and stared, eye to eye, into Moonstone's now unfamiliar face.
"Why did you do this to yourself?"
Moonstone – the beast that she had become - began to laugh. Low, thundering, a guttural laugh that escalated slowly.
"Everybody needs to eat," she hissed, eyeing the smaller gem, "Everyone needs to satisfy their hunger. And it's fusion, all the same-"
Those were the final words; Sapphire lurched forwards sharply, Moonstone tottered back in shock, lost her balance on the roof, stared at her former friend in terror as she reached a hand forward, a plea for help, but Sapphire's hands remained bunched into fists at her sides.
"I'm sorry," Moonstone croaked, and she was gone.
Pale, useless limbs clawed at the air, and the cannibal bounced with a crack against the house's roof, tiles shattering on the deck as she smashed the wooden handrail and fell to the beach, body laying limp against the rocks.
Sapphire peered over the edge, Ruby's hand warming her own (her hands felt so cold, her gloves were like ice), but she saw nothing but gems, hundreds of glittering gemstones littering the beach like stars in a hopeless sky.
One lone moonstone, cracked and warped and filthy, sat in the middle of the lot, staring up towards the boundless night.
"We have a lot of bubbling to do."