There was never any wind on Homeworld. Over the centuries, the Gems had drained the water and contaminated the oxygen of their planet. There was never any natural weather besides sunny there, which was a blessing and a curse. The trench where the abandoned temple lie was silent for almost a day. It was surprising that no one took advantage of the poofed rebels, including the traitorous firebender, Fire Opal.
Rhodonite and Black Pearl regenerated at the same time. Once on their feet, they both shouted, "Moonstone!" before looking at each other.
Moonstone quickly regenerated as well, wearing a long silver dress. She certainly wasn't dressed for battle, which Black Pearl found incredibly stupid. "I'm alright!"
"No one thinks to ask how ol' Gaspeite's doing, do they?" Gaspeite asked a few minutes later. The four Gems were regenerated together, but Fire Opal was nowhere to be found. At least, not until a weak grunt echoed through the trench.
"You...Gems...what are you doing just sitting around?" A weary Fire Opal limped over to the four Gems. "Carnelian'll be back, with reinforcements. We have to find some as well. I hope you've recovered to your full strength."
"We have," Rhodonite said with a nod.
"I don't think I have," Gaspeite mumbled.
"It doesn't matter. I'm here to defend Howlite's cause, and you either work and fight, or you leave. It's that simple." Fire Opal said sternly.
Rhodonite and Moonstone looked at each other before Rhodonite spoke. "Now hold on a second, I'm the one leading this cause."
"Well, then you will help me train them. I know these Gems, and I know what they're capable of. You have custody of Gaspeite the Animator, and Jet, or should I say, Black Pearl, who is wanted on 2,200 planets for assorted crimes, mostly murder. Jet is skilled and prepared, and this is the one time I'll let her crimes slide. As for Gaspeite, you need to get healing tonic for her if you want her to be of use, gun-slinging only takes you so far. I've also heard a bit about you and your lover here, Rhodonite." Fire Opal explained. "Moonstone killed off Blue Diamond, and you were the one who started all of this. I suggest we get started right away."
"Right away? Shouldn't we, like, rest first?" Gaspeite asked.
"Shouldn't you, like, not disobey my orders?" Fire Opal growled mockingly before walking inside the temple base. The bricks were slightly charred on the outside, but nobody said anything. Fire Opal stood proudly in front of one of the statues in the back of the room. "And since you complained, you get to spar with me first. People confuse me, but I'll take your complaints as a coverup. I know you want to show off your brute strength to your peers."
Rhodonite and Moonstone giggled as Gaspeite muttered curses under her breath. As she approached Fire Opal, she pulled out her two pistols. As soon as she pulled them away from her belt, Fire Opal blew them out of her hands with small fire blasts. Gaspeite jumped, "What was that for?"
"You won't be needing those. One must learn to fight without a weapon, and for you, it is of the utmost importance." Fire Opal explained sternly.
"Uuugh. Alright." Gaspeite held up her small fists, and in a fit of anger, she charged Fire Opal, yelling a squeaky battle cry. Fire Opal smirked and grabbed Gaspeite's shirt, lifted her up and over her, and smashing her feeble body on the floor.
"Too easy. I know you can do better." Fire Opal said calmly.
"C-can Rhodonite go next?" Gaspeite moaned as she laid on the floor.
"What? Why me?" Rhodonite shouted.
"Don't put me off, I'll get you up bright and early tomorrow to finish this." Fire Opal smiled devilishly. "Next!"
"Ooooh." Gaspeite sulked to her sleeping quarters down the hall. Rhodonite stepped up, and Moonstone and Black Pearl stepped back. They seemed to know what Fire Opal's plan with Rhodonite was, and they knew that things were going to turn savage any minute.
"You've been through a lot, eh, Cluster?" Fire Opal asked, smirking. "You have power inside of you, and I want to see if we can harness something that no one else is brave enough to use."
Rhodonite cocked an eyebrow.
"You're weak." Fire Opal's voice turned stern. "You're cowardly. You have the ability to slaughter the Diamonds one by one, yet you don't even try. You cling to Rose Quartz and the past like a safety blanket. You are brave enough to publicize your hate, but you can't even take your girlfriend on a goddamn date. Every person meant to stop you, including the Diamonds, Maw Sit Sit, Carnelian and myself, know you like the back of your hand. Face it, you're dead where you stand."
Rhodonite's hands began to shake, her shoulders tensed and her right eye twitched. "You don't know what you're talking about." She growled.
"Your determination is unstable. You're unstable. That leads to villainy. Soon you won't just be after the Diamonds, but everyone else too. That's because you're meant to kill. Why do you think you set all of this up?" Fire Opal continued to fire up Rhodonite.
"What is she doing?" Moonstone whispered with a hint of frustration.
"Shh, I want to know what happens." Black Pearl whispered back.
"You're a mindless monster. Show me you aren't." Fire Opal said with a surprising calmness.
Rhodonite clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. Even as she tighten the muscles in her arms, they still shook until she collapsed, transforming into the creature that Moonstone knew well. The sauropod beast that came out during moments of intense emotion. How could Rhodonite not see what Fire Opal was saying as a game? Moonstone knew the creature inside was hard to control, since Rhodonite was impulsive enough. The beast hit its head on the temple and lowered it just a touch, much to its frustration. However, the ceiling didn't stop its blue and pink crest from standing on end. The creature's stood strongly on its six legs, stared into the eyes of a cockily tranquil Fire Opal and roared in her face, blowing her braided hair away. "I'LL SHOW YOU MINDLESS!"
"There she is." Fire Opal cooed happily. "Angry, big, strong, unstable, but powerful. What an asset to me you are."
Rhodonite growled and tried to whack away Fire Opal with her paw, but she dodged it by rocketing herself away with fire magic. Fire Opal landed behind Rhodonite, who turned abruptly around, knocking things over with her long tail.
"Rho! She's messing with you! Don't kill her, okay?" Moonstone shouted while throwing a rock at Rhodonite's head to get her attention. In response, the beast snorted and clawed Moonstone, leaving a bloody gash on her shoulder.
"I probably should have told you not to mess with either of them." Black Pearl said casually as Moonstone walked over to her. She was leaning against the wall, watching the fight as nonchalantly as a baseball game.
"S-She usually listens to me," Moonstone whispered.
"You have to realize that you're not always in control, aristocrat." Black Pearl muttered. Moonstone was confused at first until she remembered her lie. The two Gems focused back on the fight to see that Fire Opal had harnessed her dragon spirit, and the two were having a face-off of fangs and claws that was causing a bit of damage to the inside of the temple. Moonstone especially didn't appreciate the dissonant vibrations in the ground with every footstep of the creatures. "Rho's gonna lose. Look, she's too burned. Besides, her corruption won't last. She'll poof." Black Pearl said.
And just like that, Rhodonite let out a final roar of agony and exploded in a cloud of pinkish white smoke. Moonstone ran over to catch her falling Gem.
"Joke's on her. I was first sergeant of the Corruption Corps for 100 years." Fire Opal said, dusting off her hands.
"What was that for?" Moonstone asked.
"Training. Everyone knows how this war is going to work. As much as the Diamonds hate it, fusion is the only way to wipe out every trace of nonconformity. Knowing of Rhodonite's condition, they may form an Alpha Diamond. The only way to win is to harness Rhodonite's corrupt power." Fire Opal explained.
"So, kind of like a Godzilla versus whoever it is the screenwriters came up with next?" Black Pearl asked.
"What?"
"Never mind."
"Anyway. We train tomorrow again. All day, every day until we are ready, or if they find us first, understand?" Fire Opal started down the hallway to the sleeping quarter rooms. Black Pearl followed readily, much to Moonstone's surprise. She was confused by Fire Opal's actions. Although, it was surprising that she had been on Homeworld the longest and yet she was the most confused. Fire Opal turned back before leaving them completely. "I won't lose."
WHIIIIIRR!
"It's finished!" Pearl sang proudly, much to Peridot's annoyance. She flinched at Pearl's singing.
"Finally," Peridot muttered.
A weary Amethyst was laying on the grass, staring up at the passing, fluffy clouds in the blue sky. Steven laid down next to the small purple Gem. "No luck on finding Rhodonite?"
"Nope."
"Man, it's been months. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to her. I would keep looking." Steven said.
Amethyst nodded, although it wasn't much of a nod and more of a slight vertical movement of her head, but Steven knew what she meant. Besides, the Crystal Gems had had their hands full for quite some time. With the threat of Diamond attack, the Cluster hatching at any moment, and Malachite looming over them, all they had been doing is taking precautions. Connie had recommended to Steven that a seismometer would be a good device to track the Cluster's movements, so Pearl and Peridot whipped up a high tech one just that day, since the drill was almost if not complete. It only took a few seconds to bury the seismometer and connect it to all the necessary equipment.
"Alright. All done. Now we can move on to other manners. Garnet, I-" Pearl began before...
BOOM!
The ground shook with so much velocity, it felt like someone was pounding at the Earth from the inside...which is likely what it was. The shock caused everything to bounce, including the drill and the Gems. They all landed with light grunts before glancing at each other with worry.
The clock is ticking.
Filler scenes, filler scenes everywhere.
I hate making you wait this long only for it to suck.
Welcome back to Broken Together!
So, this is just a filler scene, obviously. The Second War looks to be really short because you know the Diamonds don't want to waste time.
So...Can I just say some things?
I added the scene with Steven and Crystal Gems at the end for three reasons:
1. A lot of people have been asking when I'm gonna go back to them. I like to imagine fanfiction as two lines. One is a straight line, a medium, an x-axis, and that's canon. Another line is the fanfiction. In the beginning, my fanfiction line was just parallel to canon, not quite canon, but close. As the story progressed, the fanfic line went berserk and practically scribbled all over the graph paper...Yet, for some reason, it still looks pretty good according to you guys. Near the end, I plan to go back to that parallel. Just be patient.
2. I had the idea for the seismometer in my head for a while. Way back before Rho ended up on Homeworld. To be honest, the new trailer made me super excited but it also made me feel hurried as a fanfic writer. I wanted to write that idea down just in case they come up with the same thing. Just so I could say that I called it. Idk that sounds childish but that was a legitimate thought.
3. I miss the Crystal Gems...a lot. The last time I really wrote about them was in the beginning, and my portrayals of them sucked, according to someone. I wanted to write a scene about them just to see if I even grew at all since then. I have complex feelings about straying this far from canon. I was listening to the soundtrack for the first time in weeks, maybe even months and I couldn't help but think, "What went wrong here?". Like, Steven Universe to me was kind of my safe place. I would watch it whenever I was sad or anxious. This fanfic took my fantasy, then symbolically mixed it up in my aggressive, destructive tangle with reality. Basically, I turned it into a complex piece of shit. I'm sorry if you guys were expecting a fun fanfic from the start but just ended up being disappointed. I remember when I watched The Answer for the first time...I was in the thick of my struggles with identity. I wanted to cry, because that episode meant so much more than a love story to me. It gave me hope, even if that sounds a little dramatic, but it did. If I didn't see my characters as portrayals of my own inner demons, then maybe I would enjoy reading this. I enjoy writing this, but thoughts like these are ongoing for me. So I wrote about the Gems, to kind of remind me of why the heck I'm here.
Okay, back to the story.
Fire Opal is used to military strictness, so she's going to train Rho's group harder than my gym teacher does...and that's saying something. Imagine running a bunch of laps while he sits in a cushioned chair, eats a donut and says, "It's not that hard."
My life.
As always, REVIEWS ARE ENCOURAGED!