A/N: Callous cruelty is hard for me to write. I try and sand down its sharp corners to make it easier to deal with, and by the time I'm done softening the blow the whole thing has turned to superficial mush and the impact the characters needed is just not there. Hopefully I haven't done that this time, and what you read is as poignant as it deserves to be. I don't think there are any triggers, though, unless talking about bullying is a problem for you.

Fulgurite asked a good question that I imagine others are also wondering, so here's some clarification: sending your oneshot suggestions to me via PM or review both work just as well :) I'd prefer for them to be applicable to UIS (so, either Ruby and Sapphire or Garnet related), but it is becoming understandably difficult to conjure those up, and I've already received a couple of prompts that would have to be posted as standalone oneshots. To be honest, I'm not sure how comfortable I am venturing outside of my cushy world of UIS at the moment, but I said that about writing human-AUs too, and look how well that turned out, so it certainly can't hurt to send suggestions my way :)

The recreation center, usually full of hustle and bustle and laughter and loud conversation, is oddly hushed today. It has nothing to do with them, Sapphire doesn't think. Nobody's staring as they walk in, anyway, and nobody approaches them either.

"What happened?" Ruby asks when they find their friends. They are also all shrouded in melancholy—even Tourmaline, who usually does her darndest to make the best of any bad situation.

The pitch of Ruby's voice is troubling. It's like she already suspects what's going on.

For her part, all Sapphire can see is everyone eventually going back to normal after a day or so.

"You know how Rhodochrosite got shuffled onto another roster a while back?" says Citrine. When Ruby nods, expression grave, Citrine glances at Sapphire's expression and adds, "It happened right before you transferred in."

Oh. Sapphire can fill in the blanks now. Unit 6 is not the most crowded of Containment Units, but it is small enough that shifts have to be carefully organized. In Unit 6, gems are placed in groups that share both work and recreation periods. Even when schedules are switched about to provide a change of pace, inmates still remain in their cohorts. While other gems are seen and occasionally interacted with in the halls during transitions between labor and recreation, by and large your associations are limited to those gems within your cohort. It wasn't necessarily to give the inmates a sense of stability as it was a matter of tidiness and organization. Mixing up gems from different cohorts usually meant a slew of new interpersonal conflicts that the Supervisors would simply rather not deal with. If they all stayed in the same groupings, the Supervisors would know what problems to expect from whom, and even those tended to sort themselves out over time. It is unorthodox for a single gem to be singled out and transferred into a different cohort, to say the least.

That being said, Sapphire's abilities have forced the administration to make unorthodox moves before. Rhodochrosite was a friend of theirs, but she had needed to move because Sapphire's schedule needed to align with her handler's, and Ruby couldn't be moved because her amiable dynamic within her cohort was one of the reasons she had gotten the job to begin with.

It all makes sense, logically speaking, but Sapphire can see now that this little group of inmates missed their friend.

"What happened to Rhodochrosite?" asks Ruby, though Sapphire can hear that she already fears the worst.

"Nothing good," Apatite says sadly. "She was a 4 Mohs gem in a new cohort, without a single friend anywhere."

"We would see her in the halls during transitions," says Citrine. "Never for long, of course—can't have that—but Rho would always smile and joke with us like everything was okay. She kept assuring us she had made new friends, except we never saw them with her."

"We were concerned when we didn't see her yesterday," Apatite says. "So we put out feelers for information, and that's when it all came out."

"The other inmates were torturing her; they didn't even need the Supervisors to start it," says Tourmaline bluntly. "Rhodochrosite wouldn't tell us about it because she didn't want us to worry."

"And finally she just—refused to come back out of her gem. The Supervisors gave her the standard twenty-four hours."

"But the inmates crushed her first," says Citrine. Her fists are clenched, and her jaw is set. "She might have been too depressed to come out, anyway—who can blame her? She waited over three centuries for things to get better before finally giving up. We get enough grief for being what we are from the Supervisors, why would other inmates feel the need to add to it? What good can that possibly accomplish? I'd give up too, if I thought had to face an eternity of that."

Citrine is an emotional creature, but Sapphire doesn't think she's ever seen her so openly upset. Not even after being tortured by the Supervisors. Right now, she's almost upset enough to go looking for a fight (actually, the Citrine from an alternate timeline already has; it doesn't end well for her, which is why it's good that this Citrine is staying put).

Well, this definitely explains why the entire recreation facility is lackluster. Sapphire can only guess at how long Rhodochrosite was in this cohort before her transfer. Perhaps this little group had been her closest friends, but it was fairly obvious that Rhodochrosite had at least been accepted here as one of their own.

"You don't actually mean that, do you Citrine?" asks Apatite.

Sapphire can't help but feel partially responsible for the situation. While she couldn't have known something so wretched would happen to the gem her transfer inevitably displaced, it is her fault for disrupting the harmony of her last Containment Unit so thoroughly that a transfer was even necessary.

"Think about it, Apatite! What would you have done, if you were in Rho's place?"

Her friends can't possibly be blind to the fact that Rhodochrosite's disappearance and her own appearance are linked, either. So why don't they resent her? Why did they accept her as a friend to begin with? Were she in their position, Sapphire isn't sure she would have done the same.

How much does she owe these gems for their sacrifice?

"I hate to say it," says Tourmaline in an oddly subdued voice. She rubs her green hand through her pink-streaked hair, visibly shaken by the realization. "But I'm not sure I would have handled it much differently. Think about it: even if she had asked us for help, what could we have done?"

Next to Sapphire, Ruby stands very still. She doesn't speak. Her temperature is normal—just a little bit warmer than average—and there is something deeply unsettling about that. Ruby is a creature of action, of movement! Where is her fire, her clenched fists, her air-shimmering heat, her desire for revenge? She can't just hear news of her friend's destruction and stand here like this.

"It's not like she could have asked the Supervisors to stop it. They would have joined in."

Of course, who would they retaliate against? This isn't like going after Morganite and Kunzite, specific names and faces to rub into their past misdeeds with personalized care—this would be an entire cohort of some two hundred gems. Sapphire and Ruby are both strong, and they're smoothing out the kinks on a truly exquisite tag team, but even they can't take on two hundred gems alone. Proper retribution would require an army, a full on war between the two cohorts.

"I don't know!" cries Apatite, throwing up her hands. "Maybe she could have—befriended gems of similar Mohs, or something. That's what happened with us, isn't it?"

Sapphire can See it now. The cohorts would tear each other apart, and the survivors would feel no better for it all. In fact, they would feel worse, because they would have lost more than just one friend. What's more, is Sapphire would be transferred again and the unthinkable would happen to Ruby for allegedly allowing her reap havoc like the old days.

"Are you saying Rhodochrosite didn't try that? You knew her as well as we did! Listen to yourself, Apatite."

It's selfish—oh, she knows too well how selfish it is—but Sapphire absolutely cannot let that happen.

"I know, I know! I just, I don't know how to deal with the fact that Rhodochrosite—our Rho—just… gave up." Apatite's hands fall into her lap. She swallows, looking close to tears. "How low must she have felt? How did we miss that?"

Gems are shattered in Containment Units for refusing to participate more often than one might think. For inmates, it's the only way out, the only choice they can make that is wholly their own. Rhodochrosite's isn't a new story.

That doesn't make her choice hurt her friends any less, and it certainly doesn't make Sapphire's culpability any less real.

"Ruby."

Ruby, still silent, glances over. Her face, usually so expressive, is terrifyingly devoid of expression. However, Sapphire knows her enough to see the grief and the rage and helplessness writhing about like so many serpents just under her surface.

To be honest, it makes her want to slump in relief. At least the Ruby she knows is not gone.

Sapphire doesn't recall calling forth her spiked knuckledusters or burying them in the folds of her petticoats as she clenches her fists hard enough for her fingers to go cold and numb, but apparently these things have been going on in the background all along. She reveals her weapon now, and gestures towards the exercise mat with it.

"Ruby, fight me."

Ruby blinks slowly, either uncomprehending or disbelieving, but Sapphire's watching closely now and she can see the blank barrier has grown just that little bit thinner. Good, she thinks. Let it happen, Ruby.

"Sapphire, what the hell are you saying?" says Citrine sharply. "This is not the time for a sparring match!"

"Look, Sapphire, I know you didn't know Rhodochrosite," Apatite begins.

"No." Ruby's voice is rough like she hasn't spoken in weeks, but her eyes are clear and her body language is certain. "It's okay, I want to do it."

Ruby summons her boxing gloves and walks, slowly and deliberately, to the exercise mat in the northwest corner. When she turns, Sapphire is already there with her.

All around them, the rec center is stirring. Affront battles with confusion, which in turn struggles to reconcile itself with interest. A few gems peek around their peers to watch without trying to hide their intentions.

Sapphire ignores them all. She dismisses her typical dress for the bodysuit with the white diamond she used to wear all the time, long before Unit 6 welcomed her. On an afterthought, she ties back her hair (all but the bangs, of course). She sinks into a low stance. "I won't be holding back," she says calmly. "I expect you will do the same."

Sapphire knows what she's asking for. Once she cracks through this barrier, Ruby isn't going to be herself. She's going to be terrifying and out of control and strong, and there is a chance that Sapphire may not win.

None of that matters. If anyone knows about the dangers of bottling up, it's Sapphire. She can't—she won't—allow Ruby to experience the same fate. Out of all the possibilities for the near future, this is ironically the least destructive of them all. Ruby is a creature of movement and physical self-expression, and her fury is not a part of her she should deny or contain. It will only hurt her to be consumed by her own stillness.

It's unlikely that Ruby is aware of the situational nuances right now, but the instant before she speaks she looks Sapphire in the eye, and Sapphire can see that she knows enough. Her demeanor dips into magma, molten and fiery and red, as she growls, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that" and charges. The fight is on.

Sapphire is ready for the scorching clash of weapons that comes next, and she doesn't flinch as she skids back several feet, the ice reinforcing her resistance of the strike hissing as it melts. She reforms it just in time for Ruby to charge again, and uses the stockier gem's momentum to flip her over her shoulder and slam her into the exercise mat, hard.

Ruby grunts, disoriented by the air that has been temporarily knocked out of her, but then she's kipping to her feet and clashing with Sapphire again. Punches and kicks flurry about her, and she's clever enough to feint them and confuse Sapphire's future vision, but while Sapphire does take a few knocks she doesn't back down. Every time a blow lands, Sapphire makes sure that Ruby takes at least two from her. She's not as strong as Ruby, but that doesn't mean she's going to back down.

There is an instant in which they clash again, ice and fire, arms trembling as each struggles to break through the other's guard, and their eyes meet. For her part, Sapphire looks right into the smoldering eyes of a grieving berserker, and doesn't fear. Ruby can't hurt her, and she needs this catharsis so badly. It's safe for her to funnel all of her helplessness and rage and grief at Sapphire, who isn't going to allow herself to burn or hold it against Ruby even if she fails. It's an odd thing to say, but this takes about as much trust as Sapphire's singing had.

Maybe Sapphire can't save anyone, and maybe retribution is an impossible dream, but at least she can do this.