It was the same old practice, the Gems were running out of options, and nothing was happening. Rhodonite appeared aloof, as always. The Gems wondered what she was thinking about all the time...
"Help, Sodalite!" Screams of agony kept replaying in Rhodonite`s mind, over and over again, and it was seemingly the same two voices, one who always cried for Sodalite, and the other was an enraged battle cry and visions of a giant flail hurling towards her. They haunted Rhodonite, and caused a storm to brew over her head.
The Crystal Gems were whispering among themselves until they noticed the sky getting darker with clouds, they swirled above Rhodonite`s head.
"What`s happening?" Amethyst asked.
"It`s Rhodonite, we have to snap her out of this." Garnet said, running over to the Gem. She shook her, trying to get her to stop the storm, or at least provide some insight into what was happening.
Rhodonite snapped out of the nightmare, wailing once again, a lightning strike came down and almost hit Garnet right on the head. "No, you don`t understand!" She shouted as the strike came down.
"What`s that supposed to mean?" Amethyst asked.
"Whatever it meant, we have to stop Rhodonite before someone gets hurt." Pearl said, they began to charge at Rhodonite before the storm died down and Rhodonite fell to her knees.
The Gems were baffled, and they stopped to help her up.
"What...what happened?" Rhodonite asked groggily.
"Your lesson is over, go back to the temple, we`ll be right with you." Pearl said.
Rhodonite walked out of the Sky Area and warped back to the temple..
"Well, how`d your session with the Gems go?" Steven asked Rhodonite as she warped back into the living room and walked back to the couch, where Steven was already sitting.
"I`m not sure, no weapon, no fusion, but I..did some things that may be questionable." Rhodonite said, looking back at the temple door with worry.
"What did you do?" Steven asked.
"I almost poofed Garnet, if it was even me who did it, a lightning strike came down, my daydreams have been haunting me, it`s like they`re trying to tell me something, I guess it caused some...weird emotions..I`m not even sure how it happened. It`s all coming back to me." Rhodonite replied.
"Do you think you have the ability to control weather? Like, it matches your mental state?" Steven was thinking out loud.
"Maybe, but the Gems are discussing what to do with me back at the Sky Arena. Knowing my luck, I`ll be poofed, shattered, or thrown back into the Kindergarten with the other useless, wandering monstrosities." Rhodonite sat next to Steven on the couch.
"I can help you!" Steven stood up, shouting.
"How can you possibly help me this time?" Rhodonite asked.
"I can go to the Sky Arena and defend you! You don`t seem bad, you never did, and I`m going to fight to keep you." Steven said.
"Okay, if you wish." Rhodonite leaned back and relaxed on the couch, because it could be her last time.
Steven warped out of the room, straight to the Sky Arena...
Steven warped into the Sky Arena, and heard the Gems talking in the actual arena of the thing. Steven hid behind the wall in between him and the Gems, listening to everything.
"We have too many other problems, we have to build this drill and stop the Cluster, we also have Homeworld attacks to worry about as well as corrupt Gem monsters and the possibility of Malachite emerging. We don`t have the time to deal with this, thing." Steven overheard Garnet say.
"And besides, she`s practically useless to us and seeing her performance today, she`s a tad..unstable. She just lounges about the house and has the potential to stir up trouble." Pearl added.
"Well, what are we going to do with her anyway?" Amethyst asked.
"Poof her?" Pearl suggested.
"I say we shatter her, put her out of her misery. Back into the ground where it belongs." Peridot said.
Steven gasped, and the Gems looked right where he was. Steven ducked out of sight.
"Is someone there?" Garnet formed her gauntlets.
Silence.
"Anyway, we get Steven to put her to sleep, lure her into a trap of hospitality, and boom, that`s when we get her." Amethyst schemed.
"We just have to get Steven to agree. I don`t know though, he`s pretty attached to it." Pearl added.
"Steven doesn`t have to know about the plan, we can just tell her to teach it how to sleep. Simple." Peridot said.
"Okay, we have it figured out. We strike tomorrow night." Garnet said with finality.
"Wait!" Steven came out of the shadows and ran down to meet the Gems. " Stop! She deserves to stay alive, she`s good, I swear!"
"Everything is good to you, but sometimes things aren`t." Pearl crouched to Steven`s level and said gently.
"She`s not even a real Gem!" Peridot shouted.
"You know nothing of real Gems. None of you do!" Rhodonite shouted from the top of the steps leading down into the arena. Everyone turned heads and looked to her in slight fear. Rhodonite jumped down and approached the Gems. "Fear, that`s all you see. What happened to you? You all fought so you wouldn`t be treated poorly, like less than a Gem. Thousand years, maybe more pass and you are just the same, I fought for this place and for myself same as you, I`m a Crystal Gem too, and yet you still wish to toss me aside, poof me, shatter me."
"But isn`t that what you wanted? To be shattered?" Amethyst asked.
"You know, sometimes I do, and then I realize, this isn`t misery, or pain, it`s a second chance, an opportunity. It`s a chance to live again, see how much Earth has evolved, and it`s evolved so much! It`s beautiful, I remember why Rose fought for it, I remember why I fought for it. Just watching the ocean roll on the shore, the rain fall, and I look at him." Rhodonite looked at Steven, tears forming in her eyes. "I look at Steven, and I see Rose, and I see the beauty of Earth and the beauty of Rose together, and when he smiles, I feel it, in my Gem." Rhodonite patted her Gem. "It`s like nostalgia I guess, I may not be a real Gem, but we all aren`t, and maybe, just maybe, I can make a new life for myself again. As myself. Shatter me if you wish, but just realize, you may have just lost another Crystal Gem." Rhodonite felt a cold tear run down her cheek, and a few drops of rain fell upon the Sky Arena.
"Rhodonite, we.." Pearl began.
"Save it, I understand. Shatter me, I`ll allow it." Rhodonite looked back at Steven with wistful eyes. "Thank you, Rose."
"We aren`t going to shatter you." Pearl finally said.
"You are giving me a second chance?" Rhodonite asked, beginning to smile.
"Yes." Garnet replied.
"That`s..." Rhodonite began before falling to the ground and holding her head, screaming in agony.
"What`s happening?" Steven asked.
Rhodonite began to glow white, and her form suddenly grew to be a white blob the size of Malachite. Finally, six legs came out of the white blob, a lean, reptilian like body formed, it had a long neck and tail, and what used to be Rhodonite`s mohawk spiked up and began a wild pink and black crest that contrasted with the pink and dark blue scales that formed on the giant lizard`s body. The corrupted Gem reared and screeched as it began attacking the Gems and destroying the arena with its monstrous tail and body moving about.
"It can`t be out of anger, why is she like this?" Steven asked, dodging the monster`s claws swiping at him and the Gems.
"It isn`t out of anger, her Gem must be glitching out or something, figures, all other fusion experiments are corrupt like that." Pearl speculated.
"I know what to do." Garnet said, straightening her glasses.
"What?" The Gems asked in unison.
"We poof the Gem, leave her in a bubble for a few days, should be back to normal." Garnet said.
Being reluctant and trustworthy of their leader, the Gems sprang to work on how to poof the monster, except for Peridot, one look at that monster`s cavernous jaws and she high-tailed back to the temple faster than you could say "Stop."
Steven kneeled and let Pearl leap on his shield, which boosted her onto the alligator snout of the Gem monster. The monster narrowed its fiery red eyes on the small, defiant figure of Pearl, and tried to shake her off, but Pearl held her ground and began to climb up to the top of the monster`s head, where she began stabbing the beast. The beast roared in agony and continued to try to shake off the nuisance.
Amethyst on the other hand, tried to demobilize it by slashing its legs with her whip, and it was affective, because after five attempts with the help of Garnet pounding her gauntlets on the legs of the animal, the corrupt Gem tripped and fell to the ground. Amethyst then whipped a large piece of a destroyed pillar and put it on the animal`s back, almost like a paperweight.
Garnet then began the climb up Rhodonite`s long neck, the prize? The glimmering Gem.
Steven, after helping Pearl, sat on the snout of Rhodonite, trying to snap her out of this madness, but it wasn`t working. Even the son of Rose Quartz who helped her get through everything couldn`t help her get through this. The monster still saw him as a bother and tried to snap its jaws on him, or anything it could gnash at.
Finally, reaching the Gem, Garnet pounded on the Gem, causing the monster to lurch convulsively and screech in agony. It stood up suddenly, knocking Pearl and Steven off of it. Garnet grasped her gauntlets on the Gem of the monster and yanked it out of the beast`s neck, causing it to let a final roar before poofing into a cloud of smoke.
Steven ran over to the Gem and bubbled it before Garnet could even pick it up. He then sent it to the temple and looked at Garnet, who gave him the usual poker face.
"You could`ve just let me bubble it." Garnet said.
"I know, but this one deserves special Rose Quartz bubble service." Steven smiled.
Where am I?" Rhodonite asked, her voice echoing across the blackness of where she was.
She strolled through the room, or at least she saw it as a room.. it had a ground below her feet, but yet, the ground didn`t feel like ground, it felt like thin air on her feet. Occasionally, the image of the room in her eyes would glitch out, like Steven`s laptop when it gets overloaded and burns out.
"Is this...my Gem?" Rhodonite knew she wouldn`t get an answer, but just assumed that this was where she was. She remembered following Steven into Rose`s room, and thought maybe, that this room could give her answers too. "I guess I gotta think about it." Rhodonite got into meditative stance and closed her eyes, and finally she whispered her big question.
"Who am I?" Rhodonite suddenly lost herself into her mind...
Now we`re getting to the meaty part!
During the next large amount of chapters, Rhodonite will finally be exploring her past, the lives of the two shattered Gems that make up who she is. This is a story 1,000 years in the making and I can`t wait to share it with you!