"Making descent to the surface now, sir." A Fluorite said as she maneuvered one of three hand ships to the surface of a newly assigned planet. She trembled under the size and strength of Carnelian, leader of the Militia of Flames, the Diamonds' greatest asset for conquering planets. Her newly assigned partner, Fire Opal, stood just behind her, but she didn't look like much despite the rumors, just quiet and nervous.
"Good. What are the stats?" Carnelian asked sharply, her fiery eyes beating down on the Fluorite, who was shaking in her seat.
"Our scouts have concluded that it's another tropical planet, sir. The topography is moderately flat and the landscape is mostly jungle and grasslands. There is no real civilization, just small, primal villages. It shouldn't be too difficult for you." The Fluorite said.
"It never is." Carnelian grinned. "Land in the savannah."
"Yes, sir." The Fluorite said before directing the ship to where Carnelian spoke of.
"What should I do, master?" Fire Opal asked timidly. This was her first mission, and after her previous master's disappearance, she had lost all of her eagerness and self-confidence.
"Stay out of my way." Carnelian growled as she passed her apprentice.
"But, shouldn't we be working together?" Fire Opal asked.
Carnelian stopped to look her apprentice in the eyes. "Look, Yellow Diamond may have assigned you to me, but that doesn't mean you're getting special treatment. This is a game, and I'm not here to let everyone get a chance to play." Carnelian snapped. "I'm here to kill. But more importantly, I'm here to win." As Carnelian spoke Fire Opal noticed that she had a sort of beastliness to her. Her catlike eyes glinted in the dim light and she bared her teeth often. And with that, she was gone.
"Yes, sir." Fire Opal sighed quietly as she followed Carnelian down the hall with the rest of the soldiers on their ship, already waiting to exit on their speeders onto the new planet. As the ship continued to descend to the surface, it shook violently until it eventually landed. Two other hand ships touched down beside it. Since they landed in the grassland just outside the jungle, the ships didn't disturb much life, not that they cared.
"Whoa..." Fire Opal marveled at the strange new place. The plants and ground were foreign, yet the sky was the same. A few vibrant-feathered birds flew overhead. She could hear their distant calls.
Carnelian was not big on wasting time, so the entire Militia quickly filed out on their speeders and started across the savannah, searching for their first village to target.
It was dark now as one of Carnelian's Rubies pointed out rising smoke and dim, orange light just beyond a hill. It was a sign of life, and with that much smoke it had to be a civilization of some sort. "Let's go! This village isn't going to destroy itself!" Carnelian barked as the Militia kept moving forward.
Fire Opal's heart rose as she followed after her master. Once they went over the hill, they saw a rather disappointing sight. It was a village, but it was already being ravaged by a group of flying reptiles, dragons. Two alphas the size of mountains with an army of several smaller ones obeying their commands. There was no point in going in there, because the beasts had already drowned the village in flames and despite the echoing screams coming from there, all life was doomed to die.
"Well, would you look at that, sir. The village technically did destroy itself." A Ruby chirped behind Carnelian and Fire Opal before giggling nervously.
"Quiet!" Carnelian snapped, scaring the Ruby so hard she almost fell out of her speeder. "I'm not letting these beasts take my kill. Come on!" Carnelian gestured for the Militia to advance towards the burning village. Fire Opal loosened the bow strapped to her back to allow her to draw it quickly as she followed Carnelian into the ruins.
Before the Militia even reached the center of town, soldiers leaped off their speeders and began taking down dragons, one by one or even multiple at a time. It was what was expected out of Quartzes. Rubies, however, were the expendable type who needed fusion to make themselves useful. Despite Carnelian's annoyance, Fire Opal followed her through the village, taking out dragons from the air with her bow while Carnelian took them on fist to fire on the ground. Fire Opal found it strange that Carnelian never wore any armor, just the lightest paints and cloth wrapped around her chest. She was a walking showboat of strength.
Carnelian turned to Fire Opal, who had just shot her twentieth dragon. "Not bad. I'm going to take on the alpha. Go...just do something useful." Carnelian said before shapeshifting into a great alpha dragon herself, except instead of black and grey scales worn from centuries of fighting, Carnelian's were a fiery orange, just like her skin. Much like her bushy long hair, her dragon form sported a messy mane that blew behind her as she took off to take on the beast.
Fire Opal climbed up onto the burning room of a house and started to leap across the rooftops of the village, following Carnelian to watch her. Carnelian was what Fire Opal called a "hands-on" fighter, like most Quartzes. All body and little to no weapons. She was lucky that the ability to shapeshift was a common trait of Gems.
Carnelian came into view, roaring at the alpha dragon before charging at it. The dragon snarled and clawed Carnelian in the chest, knocking her down for a few seconds before she jumped back up and flew above the dragon as it tried breathing fireballs at her. Carnelian just dodged the blasts as she flew above the dragon. Before the dragon could retaliate, Carnelian landed onto its head and held it down with her paws as she bit out a large chunk of its neck and crushed its skull with her foot, leaving the rest of the creature's body to topple down with it. Carnelian roared in triumph before reverting back to her original form. The light from the fire outlined Carnelian's silhouette in a strange, yet beautiful way. Carnelian looked back in Fire Opal's direction, and even from there she could see the fiery glint in her eyes and the evil grin on her face.
Fire Opal felt her face blush before she heard the angry cry of the second alpha dragon, most likely mourning the death of its partner. It was in that moment something washed over Fire Opal like an attack from a Lapis Lazuli. It was a determination. An aspiration to make both Carnelian and Howlite proud. She would prove to Carnelian that she was worth her time, and to Howlite, wherever she was, that she had become stronger under her wing. Fire Opal strapped her bow down tightly and ran towards the second alpha as it bashed buildings and other dragons with its tail and paws in its wrath.
She couldn't wait. She couldn't stand to have to run all the way to the scene. For the first time in ages, Fire Opal used her pyrokinesis to form flaming wings to propel her there faster. As she got closer, she could see the other soldiers, well, what was left at least, trying to fight it off. There was no use for them. Only her.
Fire Opal landed rough, yet graceful as she slid onto the dirt and ashes of the ground in front of the beast. Compared to it, she was only the height of its claw. Nevertheless, she had a plan.
Scattered shouts from the other soldiers echoed only quietly in Fire Opal's ears.
"Fire Opal!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Quiet! She can help us!"
"Get out of the way!"
She wouldn't listen. She had only practiced using her powers with Howlite a few times, but otherwise she would practice on her own. Fire Opal closed her eyes, slammed her fist into her palm and tried to focus. She tried to turn the world into an airbrush painting and drown out all noise as the dragon bent down and opened its mouth to incinerate the entire Militia with one blast.
"Take care of them for me." The voice that once soothed Fire Opal now angered her as it lingered in her mind.
Fire Opal felt something inside of her. It was rage, pure and undeniable rage. She felt a heat behind her but couldn't see that she was creating a mirrored image of the alpha dragon out of fire. The other soldiers were astonished, even Carnelian, who had showed up just seconds before. For the first time ever, Fire Opal's spirit took on sentient, its white eyes glowing as it flew into the cavernous mouth of the dragon and grew larger and larger in size until it exploded out of the gut of the beast in a blinding, white inferno, blowing the creature to pieces and annihilating part of the village with it.
Fire Opal opened her eyes just as Carnelian jumped off the roof of a nearby building to see her. Fire Opal was astounded by the damage she did, but more so afraid of what she was capable of. Carnelian's ascending footsteps came into focus as she ran over and shook her shoulders. "Fire Opal!" Fi had noticed that Carnelian had three deep cuts in her chest just above where the cloth wrapped around her breasts. They oozed blood, but Carnelian didn't seem to mind.
"Master?" Fire Opal asked as though awaiting another command rather than a compliment.
"What did you do?" Carnelian answered with a question.
"I think I got rid of our dragon." Fire Opal said.
Carnelian chortled. "Heh, you may just be useful to me yet."
"You there! Thank you for saving us! How can we ever thank yo-" A humanoid gazelle creature sprinted over to Carnelian gratefully, only to get shut up by a chokehold by Carnelian, who crushed their neck, brutally tore off their head and tossed it away.
"As I was saying, I thought I was powerful, but you...you're a beast! You're a freak of nature! Come on, let's move on to the next village." Carnelian grinned before starting to walk back to the speeders.
"A freak of nature..." Fire Opal whispered, looking around at the damage one last time before following Carnelian and the rest of the Militia to their speeders.
Now think to your fallen foes! The ones who forced you to push past who you were, and become who you are now.
-Winter Schnee
Behold the Fire Opal and Carnelian short in all of its glory. (Not really.)
Much like Howlite when she lost her vision, Fire Opal sort of lost her moxie when Howlite was taken from her. She went from a spritely young Gem to an insecure one who was almost entirely dependent on her new master, Carnelian, who really didn't give a crap about her. After proving her worth with her fire powers in this scene, Carnelian is more eager to train her and they eventually become good friends and equals.
I always felt like Fire Opal had this Avatar/Legend of Korra feel to her and her design. Her outfit is very similar to Korra/Katara, except with a fiery color palette. She also sort of copied Howlite's long braid look. She is very similar to a Lapis Lazuli when it comes to the nature of her powers, as exemplified with the wing technique seen in this short. Fire Opal's powers in this scene are like a mix of Lapis' hydrokinesis, firebending, and Weiss' summoning in RWBY. Ever since that battle, Fire Opal's spirit has manifested in that dragon.
By the way, I loved the episode Alone at Sea, even if I did see a few flaws on Jasper's character that made her sort of shallow. The relationship between Lapis and Jasper is a great metaphor for an abusive relationship and I love how the Crewniverse is tackling this issue in a kids' show.
A few years back, I had this friend. In hindsight, many would say it was a mentally abusive friendship. It messed me up pretty good and is the source for a lot of my anxiety. It was nothing like Lapis and Jasper, but it did leave me feeling trapped, alone, and I felt like I could never rest or let myself have fun without worrying about what she was going to do next. What her next scheme or plan was to make my life miserable. And even though I'm free from that I still worry about that with all of my friendships. Yet, I can kind of understand how Lapis sort of craves Jasper, and not just for sadistic reasons like taking out her hate. I'm not sure which character I relate to more now, Lapis or Peridot hehe
These past few episodes, especially Kiki's Pizza Service Delivery and Alone at Sea have been strangely resonating with me, which is probably why I've been working on these shorts a little bit more than I should.
Okay that was really off topic...what was I talking about?
Oh yeah, Broken Together. This is probably the last short. I hoped you guys enjoyed these!
REVIEWS ARE ENCOURAGED!
(Also Rose and Greg were so cute is this last episode like Rose is how I want to act around babies but instead I'm like, "Get that thing away from me." Haha I also call my friend's younger sister and toddlers "humanlets".)