I'm so sorry I haven't updated! Please forgive me...
"Garnet!"
Garnet stirred at the sound of the distant and unclear voice. Her head was pounding; it felt as if a train had hit her.
"Garnet, wake up!"
The voice was familiar. She knew the voice, but she couldn't focus on who it belonged to. Her mind felt clouded, and what little focus she could find, she focused on not defusing. She felt someone place their hand on her shoulder and shook it rather roughly. Her eyes blinked open and she saw purple. She blinked a few more times, her eyesight coming back to her slowly as she focused in on the purple sight before her to make out the image of Amethyst leaning over her. A worried look was plastered on her face.
Garnet sat up slowly. She brought a hand up to her face, noticing her shades were missing.
Amethyst smiled, "man, you were out cold. I'm not gonna lie, you had me really worried there for a minute!"
"What…?" Garnet's voice trailed off. She was going to ask what had happened, but memories of their battle with the monster had started to come back to her. She frowned. They had been defeated rather easily.
"Here," Amethyst said.
Garnet turned to her, face becoming a blank slate once more. She saw Amethyst holding out dark-tinted, triangular glasses in her direction. Garnet smiled slightly as she took her shades back from Amethyst.
"I found them over there," Amethyst said, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder in the approximate location where she had found the glasses.
"Thanks," Garnet said with a flat voice as she slid her shades back on her face, covering all three of her eyes.
"No problem," Amethyst replied, getting off the floor and backing up a step to allow Garnet some personal space.
Garnet followed suit, brushing off a bit of dirt from clothes as she stood.
"Before you ask, I don't have a clue where the monster went. Not even that nasty goo is here anymore," Amethyst said as she placed a hand on her hip and looked around, "it was all gone by the time I woke up."
It was true. The walls were as clean as they could possibly be down in the dark halls of the old gem church. Garnet hummed. She didn't like the situation. She knew the monster that attacked them was a corrupted gem, and from all the Crystal Gems' experiences of stopping and apprehending corrupted gems, she knew the corrupted gems would almost certainly try to destroy them at all costs. There have only been a few exceptions in the past when it came to Rose and Steven, but even then those corrupted gems still tried to turn on them. So why would wildebeest creature just abandon them when it had the chance to get rid of them right then and there? Something was off.
Amethyst stayed quiet. She knew Garnet was thinking and didn't want to interrupt her, but she had some information that she felt was rather important to voice. She had woken up before Garnet, but what had stirred her awake was the sound of a loud boom come from somewhere below them. Or at least that what she thought. She couldn't quite pinpoint the exact location of the noise. She had woken up in the same disoriented state as Garnet, so she couldn't be for certain. Now Amethyst was the one frowning.
Nonetheless, she spoke up once again, "uhhh, by the way, I also heard a loud boom when I woke up earlier."
Garnet turned her attention to Amethyst. Without hesitation, she asked, "What direction? We need to go after that gem."
"From somewhere below us, I think," Amethyst pointed towards the ground.
"Alright, let's go," Garnet said with a nod.
Amethyst nodded back and the two gems took off down the hall in a sprint.
The two Crystal Gems had kept up a steady paced jog for what felt like an eternity, but was actually only a span of ten minutes. The twisting and repetitive halls made them feel as though they were on a wild goose chase.
Amethyst could feel a cold sweat come on as she looked ahead of her. Everything was exactly the same no matter how far they travelled or what turn they decided to follow. The only sign of progression was that the halls were becoming narrower the further they dove into the crypt, but maybe it was just her claustrophobia coming into play. She followed closely behind Garnet, figuring the fusion must have some idea of where to go and hoping she wasn't leading them aimlessly in any direction.
A couple more minutes had passed before they saw a big, stone door in the distance. Both gems unconsciously picked up their pace, making their way to the door faster.
The door was a dark gray color and had curving markings on it that resembled something close to writing. There was small symbols embedded in the framework of the door, but with the low lighting of the torches and actual height of the door, it made it impossible to get a good view of them.
Amethyst walked up to the door and placed a hand on its cool surface. Dust escaped from the touch. She applied pressure, but the door didn't budge. The door appeared to have been undisturbed for what looked like years.
"There's no way that gem went through here," Amethyst said. She glanced over her shoulder towards Garnet.
Garnet stood with a hand on her chin.
Amethyst turned back to the door and observed the odd writing. Her eyes followed the curves and ends of the words written in the stone. She wasn't from Homeworld, and though Rose and the others had taught her enough information about it to last her entire, extended lifetime, she didn't remember them ever teaching her about this sort of writing or language, or even the location in general. Amethyst found that to be an odd situation given that Pearl had done just about everything but force information about Homeworld down her throat.
As if speaking of the devil, Pearl's voice boomed loudly out of nowhere, causing Amethyst to nearly jump out of her skin.
It took a few seconds for Amethyst to register what had happened as her heart raced. She whipped around to Garnet.
"That was Pearl!" Amethyst shouted.
"It came from behind that door!" Garnet's voice was raised as she summoned her gauntlets.
Amethyst moved away as Garnet stepped forward and reeled an arm back. She bought her fist down on the door with tremendous force. Cracks trailed up and down the door, but it still stood firmly. She repeated her actions once more, breaking down the weakened door with ease this time.
The stone door crashed down to the floor and dust erupted in its place. Garnet and Amethyst paid no mind to it as they jumped through the dust cloud and over the fallen stone with their arms protecting their faces. The ground shook.
Amethyst moved her arms away from her face, summoning her whip to her side. The first thing she saw was a large stone with more odd writings that was unknown to her with two pillars on either sides of it. The dim light of the torches that casted from behind the two made it hard to peer any further into the room, but Garnet raised her gauntlets up when she spotted something dimly glowing in the distance.
"There!" she shouted as she ran over to the source of the light.
Amethyst followed suit, her whip trailing freely behind her.
Both stopped abruptly when they found that the source of light was coming from Pearl's staff. It stood at an angle; the tip of the staff was lodged in the ground, as though it had fallen from a high place.
"Pearl's staff…" Amethyst whispered under her breath with wide eyes. She pulled Pearl's staff out of the ground.
Garnet's expression changed to one of distress. She looked around, her guard still up.
"Pearl?" Garnet's voice carried through the room, "Pearl, say something."
She took a couple of steps around in the darkness. Her eyes swept across the room from behind her shades, tempted to remove them to take a better look around the room in the darkness, but ultimately decided against the idea as she slowly and cautiously moved forward. She detected nothing, not even with her future vision.
Her foot stopped mid-motion as Garnet's body went rigid.
Amethyst caught sight of this.
Garnet moved her foot back to its previous placement on the ground and dropped down to one knee.
Amethyst's face twisted in confusion. She couldn't see past Garnet, but it seemed as though she was messing with something on the floor. It wasn't until Garnet stood and turned around. She was carrying something black and dripping in her arms. It took a moment for Amethyst to realize that it was Pearl that she was carrying.
Pearl was out cold and it might have been for the best, because Amethyst could only imagine how much she would freak out if she were to be awake to see how much of a mess she was. She was drenched in what looked to be same muck that belonged to the monster they were fighting earlier. Only her face was visible, but that was more than likely due to Garnet wiping away the goo before picking her up off the ground.
"I-is she alright?" Amethyst's voice was quiet.
Garnet was slightly surprised. It was an unusual tone for Amethyst to take on, but Garnet knew it was only because the purple Crystal Gem was truly worried for Pearl's sake.
"She seems to be fine. She must've encountered the same creature we battled earlier and it seems the results were the same," Garnet answered.
"So it went after Pearl after it attacked us?" Amethyst voice was back to normal, "but why? Wasn't Pearl stuck in some hole all the way over in the first room? And why did it leave all that slime on Pearl, but not us?"
"I don't know," Garnet's answer was short and sweet. She had no clue how to answer all the questions Amethyst bombarded her with; she was asking herself similar questions. What the creature's goals were or even what corrupt gem it could be was beyond her.
"We should go back to the temple for now and return when we are more prepared," Garnet continued.
Amethyst stood for a moment with a bit of a sour look on her face. Something was up. She didn't like the idea of leaving the temple with the corrupt gem still wandering around, but didn't argue. They would return soon, she figured. Once again, she was left to follow behind Garnet as the taller gem made her back to the hall the two previously followed.
Amethyst stopped to look at the room one last time from the threshold of the door. She set her jaw and her grip on her whip tightened as she quickly used it to lash out and wrap around one of the closest pillars. With all her might, she collapsed the pillar in front of the door, successfully blocking it off.
Exhaling a puff of air hotly, she turned to continue following Garnet.
I've been in a rut lately, and though I lack motivation, I've been feeling it more so than usual right now. Sorry if this chapter isn't great or if the characters are off, but I just wanted to put something out otherwise I would never make progress. I love writing even if I'm not the greatest at it, but if I don't continue on something I always end up just giving up on it and I don't want that to happen to this fanfiction. So, I'm gonna try to stay motivated! Might fix this up later, but hopefully I'll be able to put out another chapter real soon.
Thanks for reading, everybody!