It was a slow day at the temple base, which meant sleeping in, and sitting around trying to figure out what to do. Moonstone had gone out and brought back some torches and lanterns to light the inside of the dark temple. However, there was only a strip of natural light that came from the entryway and small vesicles on the walls. Rhodonite and Gaspeite had found entertainment in a pull-up contest using one of the support beams in the ceiling. Whoever stopped first was the loser. Rhodonite had changed into a navy blue racerback tank top and pink shorts, and Gaspeite was wearing the same, except her tank top was grey and her shorts, brown.
Moonstone stopped underneath the two Gems who were panting, breathing heavily. "What are you two doing again?"
"Pull-up contest, Moonie. Whoever stops loses, I have to be focused." Rhodonite panted.
"Focused? If this was a focus contest, then I'm already sure to win!" Gaspeite cackled.
"You wish!" Rhodonite stuck her tongue out at Gaspeite.
"I guess this is good, then you'll be in shape for fighting..." Moonstone added.
"Excellent observation!" Rhodonite said, grunting as she pulled herself up.
Moonstone kept watching the two Gems, almost mesmerized by the rhythmic movements of their shoulder blades and spines as they pulled their weights up and down. What caught her eye were the scratches down Rhodonite's back, deep cuts that sliced through her skin like trenches in the Earth.
"Where'd you get those, Rho?" Moonstone asked, tilting her head.
"Where'd I get what? My physique? Well, a magician never spills her secrets." Rhodonite grinned.
"No, those scars! Where did you get the scars? Are they recent?" Moonstone asked.
Rhodonite blinked her eyes, only to show a blink of a flashback. The sharp, thorned whip held by a graceful, yet harsh blue hand, a piercing cry for help wiped away, overpowered by the crack of the weapon on her skin. The whip crack echoed in her ears.
"Ah!" Rhodonite mimicked the cry of the victim in the flashback as she let go of the support beam and fell on her back.
"Hah! I win!" Gaspeite jumped down and landed on her feet. "Thanks for helping me, Moonstone."
"I wasn't helping you, I was just asking. I had never seen those scars before..." Moonstone helped Rhodonite to her feet.
"Those scars were from a long time ago, during my...Sodalite's slavery days." Rhodonite said.
"S-Sodalite..." Moonstone stuttered. "Oh Gold, you're not mad at me for that, are you?"
"I told you about her a long time ago, it's no big deal." Rhodonite held Moonstone's shoulder gently as Moonstone looked up into her eyes.
"Hello? Am I missing something? Should I just ignore you guys or what?" Gaspeite tapped on Rhodonite's shoulder.
Moonstone shied away from Rhodonite's gaze..."It ends tonight."
"What?" Rhodonite and Gaspeite said at the same time.
"I hurt you, Rho, it may not have been now, but it was then...and I hurt so many other people in the past too, I-I...I'm one of them, still..." Moonstone's voice was breaking.
"No, you're not, you didn't kill me. What you did wasn't you, it was your sisters, brainwashing you." Rhodonite pulled Moonstone closer.
"And I let them, it's still my hands their blood was on, and I will always be Blue Diamond until I end it. We go to the palace tonight, and we kill Blue Diamond." Moonstone pushed away from Rhodonite. "And I'm going to have her blood on my hands, for everyone who ever wanted to feel that cursed liquid run through their fingers." Moonstone couldn't help but imagine everything that she had done... she found it hard to call Rhodonite a monster when she was the one who had actually killed people. Shattered for the silliest of crimes, whipped and cut and beaten off of her whim. It may sound dramatic, but it haunted her every night. Survivor's guilt, the humans called it. The screams of every life she had taken and ruined echoed in her head...but lately, she had heard Sodalite's loudest of all. It was almost torture to hear that same cry in Rhodonite, that same nervous smile, those same eyes, every time she looked at her or heard her, it was some strange form of torture, yet she couldn't get enough of it.
"I'm still confused..." Gaspeite said.
"I'll tell you on the way," Rhodonite replied as they drove off at high speeds. Moonstone did everything rough when determined.
White Diamond settled into the hot tub in Royal Gardens. The birds were chirping, fresh air and the aroma of many exotic flowers filled her nostrils. Luckily, the water was deep enough so that onlookers couldn't see anything. It had to be that way since White Diamond was going to be consulting with someone from the hot tub. She pulled up a holo-screen that was attached to the hot tub, checking the time.
"Ugh, she's never one to be late...There's only a minute left until it's time..." White Diamond muttered to herself before hearing the door slam open.
"My Diamond? Where are you, my Diamond?" A low, deep, smooth, emotional female voice echoed through the gardens, yet the voice was feeble and obedient.
"In the clearing!" White Diamond called back.
After a few minutes, a dark green, scrawny Gem stumbled out of the jungle path, trying her hardest to keep the papers and books in her arms from drifting out of them and onto the ground. She was tall, wearing a black kimono with emerald blossoms embroidered on it. The kimono had a long, dramatic train and the sleeves hung low as well. The Gem's skin was a brilliant jade color, and her hair was an olive green, tied tight in a bun except for a stray curly hair that dangled tauntingly between her eyes.
"Ms. Sit Sit! How lovely of you to come!" White Diamond said with comradery.
"Ms. Sit Sit? Um..my Diamond..." The green Gem began to speak quietly.
"I'm sure to be correct. You would never get human married, Maw Sit Sit...so it would only be Miss." White Diamond replied.
"I was just going to ask why you called me to work...here." Maw Sit Sit looked around at the gardens.
"Oh, I thought it would be inspiring for you. Call it what you will, but this garden has always been my seemingly natural habitat. Yours, on the other hand, would be talking about politics with the other aristocrats at my parties when you should be dancing, or hiding away in your bedroom as you type away at Gold knows what. That will never get you a partner, dear." White said.
"You really should be discussing politics with the aristocrats, not me." Maw Sit Sit mumbled.
"What was that?" White Diamond asked threateningly, holding her hand over her Gem as though getting ready to summon her weapon.
"Nothing, my Diamond. What is it you have called me for?" Maw Sit Sit asked quietly, flinching.
"Have you heard of the latest attempt to overthrow me, Sit Sit?" White Diamond answered with a question.
"No, my Diamond." Maw Sit Sit replied.
"A letter has been released by two delinquents, two outcasts who plan to destroy the system just because they're not in it. Rhodonite, a Cluster, and an unknown Gem named Moonstone. We need to compose a letter of our own and fight back. I have a mercenary out right now trying to kill them before a war starts, but we need to eliminate all threat of revolution...Now, where to begin..." White Diamond explained.
"Well, first, I need to read the letter, my Diamond." Maw Sit Sit said. "And wasn't Rhodonite in your custody?"
Yes, she was, but my sister Blue Diamond released her. Don't tell anyone about that, by the way." White Diamond glared at Maw Sit Sit threateningly.
Maw Sit Sit nodded fearfully.
Anyway, here is the letter they wrote addressing the Homeworld people." White Diamond whipped out her holographic screen, only to be interrupted by another slam of the entrance door and a blaring alarm.
"My Diamond!" The husky voice of a Quartz echoed through the gardens. "There has been a breach in Blue Diamond's bedroom! They look like assassins!"
Maw Sit Sit quickly took action and grabbed a dress hanging next to the hot tub. She gave it to White Diamond and turned away as she got dressed. White Diamond always dressed quickly, and who could blame her, being a Diamond was a busy job...most Gems found it surprising, yet not surprising that White Diamond could keep up such high fashion.
"We'll discuss the letter later, wait here, Ms. Sit Sit." White Diamond began to run out of the gardens.
"Why should I wait, can't I come too?" Maw Sit Sit asked.
"No, it's much too dangerous for you, you're too important." White Diamond shouted before the door closed behind her.
Rhodonite, Gaspeite, and Moonstone managed to get a ship to take them to the window in Blue Diamond's bedroom, where the injector was sitting on the table. It was becoming twilight, so they had the cover of night, but not much else was going for the three ragtag Gems. Gaspeite was piloting in the cockpit of the small starship they rented, and she opened the hatch to allow Moonstone and Rhodonite to jump through the window. The citadel seemed like an old home to Moonstone, as though she were coming back to a war zone she had once fought in, and the tidied up furniture was the carnage left behind. The wind from the spaceship's turbines blew Moonstone and Rhodonite's hair as Rhodonite grabbed Moonstone's hand.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rhodonite asked.
Moonstone had a determined glare across her face. "Absolutely."
Rhodonite nodded in affirmation. "Mm. Let's do this."
Moonstone, with her other hand, placed her hand on her Gem as it glowed ice blue, white, and lilac purple. She grasped and pulled out an iridescent and pristine blue and silver bo staff. It seemed to radiate light the color of a clear summer sky. Moonstone and Rhodonite jumped off the ship and crashed through the bedroom window, the entire glass wall shattering completely.
The two Gems landed on the floor, surrounded by glass. The security alarms in the palace immediately sounded, and it interrupted the thought process of both Moonstone and Rhodonite.
"We have to find the injector!" Moonstone shouted, standing up and running over the glass, which Rhodonite found surprising that she didn't stop to leap.
"It was over on the desk, I remember!" Rhodonite yelled back as she got up and walked over the broken glass as well.
Moonstone ran over to the desk where Rhodonite and her wrote the propaganda letter that started this whole thing. She picked up the small injector full of luminous blue Gem matter that she recognized as hers. She stared at it for a long time, her hair still blowing away from her face because of the ship turbines outside.
"What are you waiting for? Shatter it!" Rhodonite shouted, summoning her tomahawk for safety, she had heard approaching footsteps.
"I...I..." Moonstone couldn't seem to bring herself to do it. She wanted to change, she wanted to end it, but there was something keeping her from taking the leap and shattering the injector. She stared at her hands, her calloused, yet elegant hands. They looked the same as the hands that had destroyed so many lives...the hands that bore the whip for slaves and Pearls, the hands that were stained with blood from all over the galaxy. It was in that moment when she realized that it was never really going to change. She was always going to be the one responsible for everything, no matter what name or appearance she went by. Sure, being Moonstone helped her forget, but maybe, she thought, maybe it would be better to tell her sisters the truth...that she was going to rebel against them, and that she never wanted to be like them. Maybe, she thought, that Rhodonite doesn't care about the past because they already have such a bright future...
"Moonstone! Do it now!" Rhodonite yelled as the bedroom door burst open. Instead of Quartz or Ruby guards flooding the room, Yellow and White Diamond had entered.
Out of surprise, Moonstone clenched her fists, breaking the glass injector and spilling the Gem matter all over her hands...Blue Diamond's blood was on her hands, just as she had promised.
White Diamond looked over at Moonstone and her blood-stained hands and gasped. "Blue Diamond!"
"What?" Yellow Diamond asked and turned to White, but she was already approaching Moonstone, pulling out her white war fans threateningly.
"You...YOU! You're the one they call Moonstone, aren't you? First you take our Cluster, then threaten our thrones, now THIS?" White Diamond asked, enraged.
"I...I..." Moonstone stuttered, having her sisters be this angry at her was one of her worst nightmares, all she could do was stay frozen and hope to be shattered...
"Moonstone!" Rhodonite called out to her as she was being backed into a corner by Yellow Diamond, dealing with a monolog of her own. "You can't let them win! If you do, this is all for nothing! Face your fears, you're free! You're not in their grasp anymore, stand up, be a Crystal Gem! For my sake!"
Moonstone turned back to White Diamond's gaze just as she brought down her war fan. However, Moonstone blocked it with her bo staff and pushed it away. A duel broke out between the two Gems, and it meant life and death for Moonstone, but for White Diamond, it was all about revenge.
"Cluster...I KNEW you would be responsible for our destruction, now look at you, going to kill us off with some war over a fake cause! Clever...clever...but with every clever villain, there's an even greater hero!" Yellow Diamond summoned a grand golden sword and attempted to thrust into Rhodonite's abdomen.
"Gaspeite! Little help!" Rhodonite called, not sure what else to do.
"Gaspeite? The mercenary? Oh, that little runt! How dare she defy me again, she'll die next!" Yellow Diamond growled.
Gaspeite turned the spaceship so that the cockpit and small blasters faced the inside of the bedroom. "I don't know, Rho! After that last comment, I'm really thinking about blasting out of here and grabbing a drink!"
"Oy, you coward! Just shoot already!" Rhodonite growled in frustration.
"Coward? Oh, you're on!" Gaspeite couldn't turn down a competition, so she began shooting with the ship's blasters, shattering lights and breaking through walls. She completely annihilated the bedroom in a series of small explosions. During the smoky confusion, Yellow Diamond evacuated the commotion, however, White Diamond wasn't finished yet.
"Run! We have to leave, now!" Rhodonite commanded, noticing a very angry White Diamond running after them, her hair burned in some areas and clothes tattered. Moonstone followed Rhodonite to the ship with blue blood on her hands and clothes and glass shards in her skin. Gaspeite turned the ship around quickly so that Moonstone and Rhodonite could quickly jump back on. Gaspeite began closing the door to the ship, but of course, the hatch was slow to close.
White Diamond stopped at the edge of the room and threw her war fan into the ship with a roar of wrath, hoping it would hit one of the two assassins. The fan hit the back wall of the ship just as the door closed.
"This is war, you hear? No one kills a Diamond without death as a fine!" White Diamond yelled as the ship flew off. White Diamond stormed off from the bedroom, her own tears welling in her eyes over the death of her sister. Maw Sit Sit managed to catch her in the hallway.
"Now that that's over, do you want to get back to writing the letter?" Maw Sit Sit asked, oblivious to what had happened.
"No, we'll meet again tomorrow, but this time, in my bedroom. Those dirty sister killers are going to pay...hard." White growled as she kept walking.
At the temple base...
"Nice one, Moonstone! Now it's a real fight! Man, you guys are crazy for doing something like this...and you're just lucky I happen to like crazy." Gaspeite gushed as they walked into the base. Granted, it was an action-packed night, and the three Gems were just glad to be home. It was completely dark now, but Rhodonite took the initiative to turn on the lights so Moonstone wouldn't have to.
"Welp, I'm ready for a nap," Gaspeite said before falling backward onto the floor. "Aaaah..." She sighed.
Moonstone averted Rhodonite and sat at the base of a Sunstone statue in the center of the temple. Rhodonite decided to sit next to her. Moonstone's eyes were fixed on her hands, which were still covered in blue liquid.
"Aw geez, you really need to wash your hands. Here...let me help you." Rhodonite wrapped her own hand in Moonstone's bloody one, then pulled away to reveal that she had acquired some of the liquid on her hand. She lightly giggled. "It feels like soap."
"Not to me, it feels like blood," Moonstone said, pulling her knees closer to her chest and resting her head on them.
"Hey, come on, just pretend this stuff is soap. Soap cleans ya up, all you have to do is rinse it out with some new feelings." Rhodonite smiled.
Moonstone couldn't suppress a small grin.
"I'll take a bath too, with you. Maybe that will make us forget everything..." Rhodonite rubbed the blood all over her face, then smeared it across Moonstone's forehead.
"Rho...that's disgusting..." Moonstone groaned, almost indulgently.
"Okay, what about this..." Rhodonite pulled Moonstone in for a kiss on the lips, which came as a pleasant surprise to Moonstone. Rhodonite pulled away, blushing. "There, now whenever you look back at this, you'll think of that. Association, it's scientific."
"Probably not." Moonstone giggled.
"Just pretend it is, okay?" Rhodonite whispered.
"Okay..." Moonstone slowly laid down on Rhodonite's lap.
Rhodonite smiled and closed her eyes as she stroked Moonstone's hair almost absent-mindedly. She thought back to the first Gem War...so many years ago...Howlite was always an anxious Gem, so Sodalite would sing to her every night while holding her.
"Soda...? Are you awake?"
"What? You can't sleep?"
"How could I? You're forgetting about the threat of attack."
"Never bothered me before, come closer and I'll protect you."
Even though it was merely a memory, Rhodonite could feel the warmth and weight of Howlite's body on her chest, as if she was snuggling with two Gems instead of just the one. She decided to sing the song for her anxious friends, both imaginary and real.
Go to sleep, my child,
Though war outside rage wild,
In the end, it'll be all worthwhile,
Just lean on me, my child.
Keep dreaming on, my child,
Though doubt roar dark and vile,
When we're through, you're sure to smile,
For now, just dream, my child.
Do not fear, my child,
'Spite enemy so wild,
Just fight through for a while,
It will be good, my child.
Hold on to your hopes, my child,
Keep your spirit mild,
And avoid getting riled,
Everything will be okay, my child.
Urgh this took forever...sorry about the wait ya'll.
Wait, is that really all I had to say?
Oh yeah, looks like it's finally a war...and White Diamond is particularly targeting Moonstone...that dirty sister killer.
Moonstone is definitely traumatized, it's like a kid confronting their abusive parents...and surprisingly, just barely surviving? Geez, and to see one's own lifeforce in their hands is a little...err...depressing. Luckily, Rhodonite is there to help! She's dealt with all kinds of things with Howlite, so she's ready to be a good friend to poor Moonie in her time of need.
You're probably all going to say at least one thing about the song so I might as well add a fun fact about it. I had no idea when I was going to use this song in the story, if ever, I was almost going to save it for later, but this seemed to fit in just fine.
Reviews are so encouraged on this! So please tell me your thoughts!
(Also, for people wondering what the heck I will be doing with Skimming the Surface...I will be continuing it! Stay tuned!)
(Gueeesss who's on FictionPress? Meeee)