BREEEAAAHHH! A siren rang throughout the base, waking all who were sleeping from their slumber. A different siren sounded in Beach City, alerting all the human soldiers that were fighting. Normally in the mornings, Sodalite and Howlite were groggy, grumpy, and slow, but this time, they had never been more awake, quick, and slightly panicked. Rhodochrosite hadn`t slept, and she was confused during the whole thing. Sodalite quickly braided Howlite`s hair and the two Gems kissed each other goodbye. Howlite pulled up her bandana and the three Gems exited the pocket dimension, out into the base where all the Gems were frantically scrambling. Howlite ran off to her starship, where she flicked on autopilot and set it so that it would come and pick her up at the time she needed it. A group of Gems went and mounted their speeders, Rose included, and got ready to lead the bustling masses of foot soldiers that were to follow them to the Kindergarten. Rhodochrosite was in the middle, if not back of this crowd, waiting nervously with her weapon when a brown horse nudged its way through the masses.

It was Ajax, mounted on the horse, armed with a bow, her quiver was slung across her back and her axe was clipped to her belt.

"Are you ready for this? You could...die.." Rhodochrosite said.

Rhodochrosite could see Ajax shiver. "Of course, I`m a Crystal Gem too, and it`s worth it to fight for such a great cause." Ajax smiled through her fear.

Rhodochrosite smiled back, loosening and tightening her grip on her weapon as the battle inched closer. Sodalite and Howlite were in the line of people on speeders, and they were in the best place to hear Rose`s speech for her soldiers.

"You all know the plan, we all know the danger of it and possibly the benefit of it. Do not lose your heads, do not lose hope, and remember what we are fighting for! Remember where we came from, poverty, pain, weakness, just a pawn in Homeworld`s cold, heartless system that supposedly enforces good on the galaxy! We laugh now, but this is our time, our time to show them that they can`t just destroy people, planets, innocent lives, without someone returning the favor." Rose began.

All the soldiers cheered and cursed the names of Homeworld and the Great Diamond Authority.

"Take down the Kindergarten, stare down the face of Homeworld, and protect what really is good! For Earth and all Gemmanity and Humanity!" Rose held her sword up, everyone raised their weapons in reply shouting, "For Earth, Gemmanity, and Humanity!"

The soldiers got in their ranks, and the line of speeders in the front lead the group to the Kindergarten. Everyone ran all the way to the Kindergarten, letting what seemed to be the entire area know that something was coming, the grasses of the path leading to the Kindergarten were trampled down hard, and eventually the militia stopped at the cliff wall leading into the Kindergarten.

"Ready your weapons." Soldiers whispered to the people around them.

A few Pearls pulled out Rose Quartz`s battle flag, and everyone charged down into the Kindergarten, letting out a battle cry that had the might of a tornado and echoed in the cliffs like thunder. The Kindergarteners were and weren`t ready for this, but Kindergarteners were already on the scene, holding off foot soldiers. The bayonets on the speeders and the use of weapons by the speeder users were effective, the death toll wasn`t large in the beginning.

At least, not until the Quartz came.

The big, burly warriors were ready to fight, and they massacred the Crystal Gem army tremendously, especially human soldiers. After a while, only Ajax and a few other men were standing, trying to fight and control their spooked horses at the same time. Rhodochrosite noticed that Ajax was cornered by five Quartz, and she had to do something. Rhodochrosite ran over and clubbed a Quartz from behind, causing all the Quartz to turn away from Ajax.

"Run, Ajax! Save yourself, and tell the humans back home to evacuate the city, or at least, barricade your homes until we give you the signal!" Rhodochrosite ordered. Ajax looked at her in tears, only to recieve a calming, final, "I`m proud of you." from Rhodochrosite. Ajax galloped away on her horse away from the Kindergarten as fast as she could.

Now Rhodochrosite was cornered by five Smoky Quartz.

"We should try out that tactic.." She could hear the Quartz whispering.

Rhodochrosite readied her weapon, frozen in fear, and anxious about this "tactic". Sodalite and Howlite were fighting from their speeders, making good progress. Howlite would throw her knives with excellent precision, shattering Gems on the spot. Even a few Kindergarten workers had recognized her augmentation, muttering, "That`s that one thing White Diamond tried to make..."

Sodalite turned and saw that Rhodochrosite was in trouble with the Quartz, then shouted to Howlite, "Fuse with me!"

"What, why? We are doing just fine on our own!" Howlite yelled back.

"But Pinky`s in trouble, look!" Sodalite pointed to the area where Rhodochrosite was cornered.

Howlite recognized the Smoky Quartz, and the two lovers powered their speeders over to Rhodochrosite. The five Smoky Quartz fused into Smoky Quartz Alpha, the deranged spider-like being that Howlite knew so well. Its hair was wild, untamed, long and frowzy, it had a leg structure like Malachite, it was almost animal-like. The fusion gave a wry, jack-o-lantern smile, showing off its crooked yellow fangs. Rhodochrosite was petrified, and she knew, that this was the end. She didn`t even try to fight.

Sodalite and Howlite quickly jumped off their speeders and ran to the scene as Smoky Quartz Alpha summoned her flail, let out a cackling roar, and began to slam down the flail. Rhodochrosite closed her eyes and covered her face with her mace. Sodalite and Howlite`s forms morphed into Benitoite, they then summoned their halbird and blocked the flail with all their strength...

CLAAANK!

Rhodochrosite opened her eyes to see that she was standing behind a tall Gem with light blue skin, short white dreadlocked hair, wearing a karategi, she was standing in a defensive stance, blocking the Alpha Quartz with what looked to be a halbird.

"Run, NOW! I`ll hold her off!" Benitoite shouted, her voice thundering, and it sounded oddly familiar to Rhodochrosite.

Rhodochrosite ran away from the two Gems, but watched in awe as the two giants dueled with their weapons. It was a clash of titans, but Benitoite poofed the Alpha Quartz with a blow to her giant, wide legs. The giant woman jabbed her halbird into the five Gems, poofing them all.

It was too early for celebration though, many Quartz got the memo after seeing Smoky Quartz Alpha, and their were more Alpha Quartz stomping around the Kindergarten. The spaceship fleet for the Crystal Gems was just showing up, but many of the ship were taken down by giant flails, whips and other weapons. A few Alpha Quartz just knocked down ships with their hands like cats whacking a dangling string. Some of the remaining Crystal Gems got the message too, they fused with their friends into massive fusions and took on the Alpha Quartz, they also demolished as many Kindergarten injectors as possible, which helped take the place of the dwindling starship fleet.

Benitoite unfused, leaving Sodalite to remount her speeder and keep going in the battle. Howlite on the other hand, ran to her pickup spot, where her starship swooped down, a ladder dangling underneath it. Howlite leaped onto the ladder and climbed into her ship as it took to the sky. Once inside the ship, Howlite pulled up the ladder, shut all ship hatches and got in the pilot`s seat. She turned off autopilot, turned on the seat warmers, and hollered, "Let`s ride!" Howlite cackled and flew up to the air battle that was taking place over the Kindergarten.

Let`s just say that there was a whole `nother battle going on in the sky. It was the job of the Crystal Gems Star Fleet to do two jobs, one, stop Homeworld Reinforcement Ships from making it to the Kindergarten, and two, destroy all Kindergarten facilities and inner workings, such as injectors. Howlite was instantly sieged by Homeworld ships, and she was also often caught in the crossfire of Crystal Gem ships.

"Okay, first order of business, turn on ray shields." Howlite said to herself as she pressed the button.

The ship`s communication device whirred before she heard the voice of Spinel. "I thought you`d never come, Howlite!" Spinel chuckled.

"Let`s push aside the humor Spinel, Team Blue is almost taken out, take Diopside, Labradorite, and Bloodstone to help take out the injectors and other Kindergarten workings. I`ll take over your position as Red Leader, and we`ll take care of the reinforcement ships." Howlite ordered.

"Oh, so you want me to just give up my position as leader?" Spinel asked with attitude.

"Team Blue needs you, this isn`t about ranks and competition, Rose would want you to take a stand and help, now go do it or I`ll hijack your ray shields!" Howlite shouted.

"You can`t hijack my ray shields." Spinel said.

"Oh yeah, I`m the head mechanic, I could have wired a remote that controls your ship from anywhere in the galaxy. Don`t test me." Howlite threatened.

"Yes, ma`m." Spinel whimpered as she and the ships of Diopside, Labradorite, and Bloodstone dove down to help Team Blue.

"Ha, suckers." Howlite muttered as she fired a missile at an oncoming Homeworld ship. Howlite helped Team Red tremendously, according to Howlite`s count, she had taken out 10 Homeworld ships in the span of 15 minutes. By the time she reached her 11th ship, the remaining Homeworld pilots were panicking.

"Hey, Howlite, this is Labradorite. Spinel has been taken out, along with Bloodstone. Team Blue needs your help down here, Team Red is doing fine now that you`ve helped, but these Alpha Quartz are really being a problem." Howlite heard through her communication device.

"I`m on it. Moonstone, you are Red Leader now, take care of `em." Howlite said as she dove down, taking out an Alpha Quartz with a missile as she was coming down.

Howlite and Labradorite, being the only Team Blue ships left, took out three injectors and two training facilities before Labradorite was taken out by the flail of an Aventurine Quartz Alpha. Howlite took out the Alpha Quartz soon after to avenge the death of her friend and teammate.

"Okay, getting serious now." Howlite whispered before speaking through her communication device. "Anyone on Team Red who is free, please come help, I`m the only one left."

Howlite directed her ship for an injector, the last one in the Kindergarten, her look was a paragon of pure determination as she took aim at her prize, almost there...almost finished...almost time to wake up from this nightmare...

WHAM! Out of nowhere, her ship was whacked by the giant paw of an Alpha Quartz. The ceiling of Howlite`s ship was dented in and she could feel her ship sinking towards the ground. Alarms were going off here and there in her ship, beeping and whirring and screaming in her ears as her ship slammed to the ground, exploding in an inferno of green fire.

Sodalite and Rhodochrosite were off fighting again, for a while they fought side by side, but once Sodalite found her way back to her speeder, they were off in different directions. Rhodochrosite was fighting near a Pearl and Rose Quartz. Rhodochrosite would catch glimpses of the Pearl taking on every foe, no matter how big, just for Rose. Occasionally, Rose would shove her out of the way and shatter the opponent herself or protect her with her shield. Rose even took out a couple Alpha Quartz all in the name of protecting the Pearl. It wasn`t until the Pearl was poofed, that Rhodochrosite got back on task, wondering what was so special about that Pearl that made Rose fight for it so vigorously. Normally on Homeworld, people didn`t care what happened to their Pearls, besides letting out a little angry growl because they were expensive.

Rhodochrosite and Sodalite went through many enemies, and within another fifteen minutes, the air battle had very few heads left, three to be exact, and only about a hundred foot soldiers remained. Sodalite and Rhodochrosite were separated, oblivious to what was happening with the other person. Sodalite was in a speeder chase with a Kindergarten Worker, slaloming through the cliffs. Sodalite was headed towards where Rhodochrosite was cornered by a smaller, yet still large Milky Quartz Alpha. The brown Gem chasing Sodalite pulled out a laser gun, something that Sodalite hadn`t seen except on as a feature on her starship. The brown Gem caught up to Sodalite, only a few yards behind her speeder, before firing the laser gun. The laser bullet went right through the back of Sodalite`s neck, penetrating her Gem placed in the front of her neck, and shattering it in a burst of blue shards.

Rhodochrosite cowered in the shadow to the Milky Quartz Alpha, shivering, shaking in her clothes, but still standing defiant. Rhodochrosite`s mind was rushing, adrenaline fueling her as she thought, I`m not going down without a fight.

Rhodochrosite ran towards the Quartz` leg, hoping to take it out the same way Benitoite did, only to get kicked away. Rhodochrosite back slammed against the cliff wall and she felt to her knees, weak, and in pain. She couldn`t even move. The Milky Quartz Alpha cackled in triumph, its glittering, yellow snake eyes beaming down on her.

Rhodochrosite called out as a last resort. "Help, Sodalite!" Just before the giant flail, although it was more of a morning star, fell down on the form of Rhodochrosite, splintering her Gem onto the already war-stained ground.

Everything was black...

Three weeks after Rhodochrosite and Sodalite`s funeral and the desertion of the Kindergarten...

Everything was hazy, the cliffs of what used to be the Kindergarten were surrounded by mist. Every creaking sound, every noise made by the wind or the settling of ruins, echoed through the cliffs eerily. There was nothing there, not flowers, grass, animals, Gems, technology. The whole area was just a radioactive, desolate, wasteland. A shell of what could`ve been... a beautiful geographical feature or a big Gem facility. It looked liked a nuclear fallout area, and visible particles of dust and ash blew in each blow of wind.

Deep in the decay, were the remnants of Howlite`s starship, not making a sound, until a white hand burst out of the debris. The body of Howlite emerged and climbed out of her spaceship ruins. She looked around the area, taking in her surroundings.

"We must`ve won." Howlite said, looking around.

Howlite wandered around the Kindergarten, not sure how long she had been there. Suddenly, she collapsed on the ground, holding her head as the memories came flooding back. She was laying on the floor in a crippled ball, knocked from her pilot`s chair, screaming, her hearing and thoughts interrupted with the wailing of sirens and alarms as she felt gravity pulling her to a plunge into utter blackness. The wiring of her ship, destroyed and loose, electric sparks leaping off the wires and onto her skin, burning her, shocking her, running up her veins and toying with her augmentation. The sparks got into her eyes and irritated them, causing her pain no matter how much she blinked, closed them tight, or opened them wide.

That same eye pain came back, and Howlite had no idea how to stop it. Her ears rang with the same wailing sirens, the burning from the sparks hitting her skin came back, and the feeling of each electrical current weaving through her veins as they shocked her caused her to vibrate and shake. Howlite noticed in her agony that her Gem was cracked, a large fault up the middle of the prism-shaped stone in her palm.

"Gah, curse this putrid form! Why have I chosen to be so weak?!" Howlite shouted in rage.

Howlite growled and grunted in agony as she morphed into a serpent-like form, she still had legs, but she was bigger and looked more like a crocodile or giant lizard. Howlite`s back and limbs cracked, fractured and reformed as she took this form. Her skin hurt too as it went from soft and smooth to rough, hard and scaly.

Howlite stomped around the Kindergarten, still walking off her rage, when she felt a sharp pain in her foot.

"Yow! What is it now?" Howlite lifted her foot to find a shard, and she immediately recognized it as Sodalite`s. Her form shrunk back into its previous humanoid shape. She clutched the shard in her hand, and tears rolled down her face.

"Sodalite? Oh, how could this have happened? Those stupid Quartz, stupid Homeworld." Howlite growled. "Of course, they`re making me weaker every minute I stand here, I won`t let it happen... I`ll show you that I`m stronger than you! Howlite morphed into her sauropod appearance and roared into the sky.

Howlite looked down at the lone shard sitting lifelessly in front of her, and she sat down, more so, fell to her knees. Howlite closed her eyes and allowed her form to shrink back down. Tears welled in her eyes and eventually fell like light drops of rain on the ground, which caused her eyes to burn. More memories came back, a flashback of her entire life, from the pain of the experiment, to the fear and trauma of her crash to Earth, from meeting Sodalite in blackness, to the luxurious kiss as snow fell at her wedding, from their first fusion to their last, and finally, the crash that could`ve ended her life.

Could`ve... Howlite thought. It already did. My entire life killed me. My past is merely spitting in my face, kicking me in the gut, and for what, to all come down to this. I should be thankful to have survived, but instead I laugh at fate, because I`ve been dead all along.

Howlite morphed back into her sauropod form, but felt more pain as she felt conflicted, her mind battling itself, more and more serpent heads sprouted from her scaly body, each representing a different emotion, a different idea on the subject of her life. She lost her legs, just as she had lost the feeling of purpose, she wasn`t going anywhere, so why did she need legs? Howlite felt empowered by this form, and she never wanted to go back. She slithered away, leaving the shard on the ground, where it later sunk into the ground with the rest of Sodalite`s shards and Rhodochrosite`s shards to meld together...

Oh gosh, allow me to fall backwards on my bed in exhaustion because I just barfed up a lot of words and emotion...

Dang...that was intense...

I didn`t think this was going to be done on Thanksgiving, so I guess I`ll say it again...Happy Thanksgiving!

The end of A Story 1,000 Years in the Making! What did everyone think of this? I would love to know!