A/N: Okay, so just because this is the last Unit 6 chapter doesn't mean that UIS will be shutting down for good. I will, for instance, be posting a oneshot about Garnet tomorrow. I will also be posting more Garnet oneshots and drabbles as I write them-but I will not, unfortunately, be doing daily updates anymore. More on that later-for now, please enjoy the conclusion of Unit 6 :)
Fun fact: Hessonite (7-7.5 Mohs) is a variety of garnet.
Apatite said she could think of several potentially helpful gems, to be fair, but somehow Sapphire didn't expect half of the cohort to volunteer.
"You're always helping us," says Calcite, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Frankly, she's a little too excited for Sapphire's comfort. "Of course we want to help with the one thing you've ever asked in return."
"But this one thing is hugely dangerous." Do none of them understand that? She knows that Apatite made a point of warning them plainly, but if any of them are caught as being accomplices in this…
Calcite shrugs. "No more dangerous than it used to be with the Supervisors, in my case."
"Honestly?" Serpentine, who is nearby, adds with a huge smirk. "Just knowing the reason for the Supervisor's inevitable conniption fits when no one can find you already makes this worth it."
"I know, right? I can't wait to just shrug and say to their ugly faces 'I don't know, isn't that your job?' " says Calcite excitedly. She and Serpentine high five, and they're close enough in Mohs that one doesn't hurt the other for doing it.
Sapphire really isn't sure she feels comfortable letting Calcite be a part of this anymore. She no longer has a choice, at this point. Apatite has already assigned all of the volunteers their specific tasks. She works fast—it's only been than two hours, and everybody is already well versed in their roles. The gems that aren't a part of the plan, like Plagioclase, are also none the wiser because of Apatite's subtle and complex network of gossipers.
Let it never be said that Apatite doesn't take her job as resident informant of the cohort seriously.
Sapphire has known for millennia that Apatite is the central hub around which the cohort's gossip revolves, but she doesn't think it's ever occurred to her just how much power that title carries until today. To be fair, she's never seen Apatite actively put anything in motion before, either—the dark blue gem is more of an observer by trade, and understandably so.
Even Ruby is impressed. "I haven't seen Apatite throw herself so deep into something since she worked to take over the job of informant in the first place," she remarks from Sapphire's right. Sapphire, as per Apatite's oddly brisk instructions, is sitting placidly on one of the uncomfortable chairs along the east wall, and Ruby is perched on the armrest. Inmates bustle around them as if this is just another day, but if you know what to look for their seemingly casual movements carry a distinctly purposeful edge.
Has the cohort ever done something like this before?
"She's good," Ruby continues, her gaze roving over their comrades with admiration. "I've never seen someone whip the cohort into shape like this before. Where has this been hiding all these years?"
And of course Ruby is thinking the same thing, Sapphire realizes with a small smile. They really have fallen in sync.
"She's never had a reason before now. We've always been there," Sapphire murmurs. Her arm is resting along Ruby's thigh, gloved fingers curled over her knee. She squeezes Ruby's knee now, for no particular reason other than to reassure herself that she can. They're close now, but this isn't close enough. Soon and very soon, she promises the part of herself that's straining, selfishly, to once more become half of a whole. To breathe life into Garnet again. The lack of full disclosure that is inherent in their separateness feels too much like lying and shutting Ruby out, and she told herself she would stop doing that.
Ruby, obviously noticing the squeeze, glances at her. It's sort of odd to be the one looking up. Not that the inch or so of height that Sapphire has on her partner really means much in the grand scheme of things, least of all eye contact, but it's a funny sensation all the same.
"Did you think of something?" asks Ruby. Her expression is open, prepared to listen.
Soon. Soon and very soon.
"No," says Sapphire. She pats Ruby's leg reassuringly. "Just nerves, I suppose."
Hopefully soon.
"I know what you mean," she says softly. "I want her to be here, too."
Sapphire doesn't need any more context to know who Ruby is referring to. It actually makes her longing more poignant to know that it's mutual, but this time their compact individual sizes might play out in their favor, and they want to maximize anything that gives them an advantage right now.
Nevertheless, Sapphire flashes a small smile and gives her leg another squeeze. She doesn't have to speak, because Ruby already knows.
"This is really happening, isn't it?" says Ruby, her voice still pitched low enough that you wouldn't be able to hear it if you weren't looking for it.
"Yes," murmurs Sapphire. "It is."
Ruby lets out a long breath. "I think I'm gonna miss this place. Just a little bit."
"I'll figure out how to feel if and when this plot succeeds."
"You're uncertain?" For the first time since this began, Ruby's voice wavers. If Sapphire is uncertain, then so is Ruby. There doesn't seem to be any avoiding that.
"The odds are forty-five and fifty-five percent," she says. "Everything is uncertain."
"That's close enough to chance that we could get lucky anyway, though."
Sapphire looks to her partner. She can't be serious about that, can she?
Sapphire never does get the chance to know for sure because that's when Apatite approaches them. "Everything is in place," she says with a hint of pride.
"I've got to say, A," says Ruby, impressed. "You've got to show this assertive side more often. We didn't know you had it in you."
Apatite's lips twitch, torn between frowning and smiling. "Once this starts, how much time do we have before they realize you're missing?" she asks Sapphire.
"An hour at the most."
"That's plenty of time. And you know you're paired with me, while Ruby's going with Hessonite?"
As if on cue, a gem whose color scheme is primarily deep reds and oranges approaches them. She's a head and a half taller than Sapphire, with smooth and shiny hair and limbs that are built thick and sturdy like pillars. Her chest is broad, and her stance is wide. This is a gem made to weather the front lines of combat, and her Mohs of 7.5 only makes doing do easier. Her cushion-cut gem is set in her chest, but on the far left. She waves with a bulkily gloved hand, and upon sighting each other she and Ruby both grin.
"Never thought I'd have to impersonate someone so ugly," Hessonite quips, as she is wont to do.
Ruby snorts. "You're telling me—who would ever voluntarily use that shade of red in their projection?"
Nevertheless, Ruby hops down from the armrest of Sapphire's chair. There are two discordant flashes of light, and then Ruby and Hessonite are looking at each's interpretation of the other's forms.
"You're too short," is the first thing Hessonite says.
"You're too tall—my projection doesn't look anything like that!"
There is another set of uncoordinated flashing as they make the proportional adjustments, and then Apatite is circling them critically. "Ruby, your hair still has too much of a cubed look to it. Hessonite is flowing lines, not angles. Okay—yes." Apatite claps her hands. "This is good. A Supervisor who isn't paying attention isn't going to notice this. Heck, they might not know even if they do try to look—except for your gem placements, of course, but that can't be helped. Okay, Sapphire, now you and me."
Sapphire stands, and after the obligatory white flash Ruby makes a loud snort at Sapphire's shapeshifting attempt. "Your eyes—"
Sapphire blinks them. It's awkward, to be sure. She's used to having to function around poor depth perception, and to suddenly not have to anymore is disorienting, to say the least. Apatite has it easy. She gets to keep her vision as-is—she just needs to cover it with hair.
She isn't used to being this tall, either. Apatite is a head taller than her typical projection, and suddenly the ground seems very far away. Everything about this form feels wrong, like she's tried to move into someone else's home.
"Alright, Sapphire," says Apatite, holding out her much shorter and now-gloved arms for inspection. "What do you think?"
"Can you lighten the hair?"
Flash. "Better?"
"The dress is all wrong," Ruby-as-Hessonite says.
"The dress doesn't matter," says Sapphire. She feels as if she has to talk louder than usual in order for her words to reach Apatite from her current height. Somehow, the fact that their height difference is usually the other way around isn't as a big of a deal. "The hair is better, Apatite, but is that as light as you can go?"
Flash. "This is."
Ruby-as-Hessonite hums. "Still not right."
"You can tell the difference?" Hessonite-as-Ruby says.
"It will have to do." Sapphire holds up her own much longer arms now, looking for constructive criticism. "And this?"
Apatite moves her new bangs out of the way and squints up like she's seeing a puzzle she can't quite decode. "Your eyes look… off."
"This is the best I can do, unfortunately. Always has been."
Apatite makes a noise in her throat. "Otherwise, you do a great me—you even have my bracelet-striations down. Your color palette is more versatile than mind, I think, because those shades look about right too."
"I don't know how you stand looking up at everyone like this," complains Hessonite-as-Ruby. "My neck already hurts."
"Yeah, well your center of gravity is a nightmare," Ruby retorts. "We both have to deal, Hessonite."
"We'll be in the center of the group," Apatite says, ignoring their half-serious banter. "And we won't talk; that'll give us away."
"I'll say," Hessonite agrees with a quirky grin that just doesn't look right on Ruby's likeness.
Apatite takes a step, but trips on the petticoats of the dress she is now wearing. Hessonite-as-Ruby, who is closest, steadies her.
"It helps if you pick the front up when you walk," says Sapphire. "At least until you get used to them."
For herself, Sapphire's legs feel alarmingly exposed in Apatite's style of leggings and a straight, knee-length skirt. They're too long, as if she is teetering on stilts.
"I don't even want to know how you learned to fight so well in something like this," Apatite remarks as she practices stepping with lifted skirts. Fortunately, Sapphire can see that the technique is working. "I can manage for the walk to the assembly lines, though." She shakes her head, and her not-quite-light-enough bangs fall into place. She lets out a groan. "Sapphire, how do you prefer this?"
Sapphire shrugs, and Ruby-as-Hessonite can't seem to help the little laugh that comes out. Of course, her sense of bodily awareness is shot—she's a lot bigger than she's used to being, and she keeps bumping into gems and furniture as she experiments with her own altered form.
"You're going to have to help me, Hessonite. I'm half-blind here," says Apatite.
"Yeah, okay." Hessonite-as-Ruby doesn't appear the least bit surprised.
The buzzer sounds, and the recreation center's doors snap open. Right on time.
The gems all file out in the same sedate and unrushed manner as they always do. Sapphire, pretending to be Apatite, walks alongside Citrine with at least two gems between her and the next Supervisor. If any of the Supervisors look at her or her doppelganger for too long, then one of the gems shifts herself inconspicuously into their line of sight.
Walking on Apatite's long legs is an experience Sapphire is not likely to forget any time soon. Garnet is tall too, but her stance is much sturdier than Apatite's skinny stilts. Each stride is just a shade too long, and while she's sure it doesn't look like it Sapphire can't shake the notion that each step feels a little like she's falling in the right direction.
Today Pollucite and Petalite are supervising the transfer, which is a stroke of good luck because Kunzite and Morganite would have probably noticed something was amiss—that their old enemies 'Ruby' and 'Sapphire' were present—immediately. They've simply fought each other too many times. Sapphire and Ruby have only fought Petalite and Pollucite the one occasion. She checks to see if they will eventually notice—
Try again.
Checks to see if they will notice—
Oh no.
"What? What's wrong?" murmurs Citrine out of the corner of her mouth. "You've gone tense."
Sapphire should have known this would happen.
"Two eyes," she mutters. "I have two eyes."
"And?" Citrine clearly isn't following, and Ruby-as-Hessonite is clear on the other side of the formation; there will be no translations of what that means coming from anyone else.
She can't shapeshift her eye back now—the flash would absolutely draw unwanted attention from Petalite and Pollucite. But they're going into a situation with a forty-five percent chance of success effectively blind, she has to do something…
"What is so wrong with that, besides your usual aesthetic?" asks Citrine quietly. "You're making me nervous!"
Sapphire can't See what will happen next. She can't See it. She's blind. This future vision is glitchy and unreliable, and this situation is too risky for that to be good enough. What can she do? She's not supposed to be here. Pollucite and Petalite have seen Ruby and herself before, and even though they are in disguise right now the two Supervisors might take their lingering bitterness out on their doppelgangers before reporting their presence with the main cohort. What can Sapphire do if—when—if—that happens? She can't tell. Her prescience isn't effortless right now, it takes concentration and stillness and time she just doesn't have. What if there is something she's supposed to See, and because she doesn't See it she gets them all killed because this future vision is no good? What if—
Sapphire startles at the hand that grips her by the elbow, strong and unrelenting. "You're starting to hyperventilate," hisses Citrine, her voice tight and controlled. "You need to calm down."
Well, this is a role reversal if there ever was one.
She's right, though. Having a panic attack in the middle of a transfer is a surefire way to get herself noticed. She doesn't need future vision to understand that much. Sapphire forces herself to suck in a long breath and let it out just as slowly. "I'm fine now," she whispers.
Citrine's silence says she believes otherwise, but she does grudgingly let go of Sapphire's elbow. Good.
Tourmaline, who is walking behind them, mutters, "Everything okay up there?"
"Yes," Sapphire forces herself to say. It's just a transfer. They're just walking. If they remain as casual as possible, it isn't likely that Pollucite and Petalite are going to notice anything is amiss. Even if she can't See it working out, she has to trust in this plan they are all following.
She's just… never felt so vulnerable before. Future vision is her constant, and Sapphire has gotten so accustomed to it being reliable and easily accessible over the millennia that she simply doesn't know what to do—how to act—without it.
It's actually a fairly short walk to the assembly lines from the recreation center, for Unit 6. While assembly rooms need a lot of space, they don't need anything fancier than that, and so—unlike the forge—there is no reason to have them located deeper underground than strictly necessary. By this point they're about halfway there, and so far without incident.
That's when the vision hits.
A screen glowing in a brightly lit room. A gem is seated in front of it. She taps the glass, hums to herself, and reports, "She hasn't even opened the first message yet."
There is a shift of proudly spiked hair. "That is unusual."
"What is she doing?"
A pause. Then, "Send someone to check on her. Now."
"…moving—you just had your social hour!" Pollucite is barking out. "What the hell is going on over there?"
Sapphire feels Tourmaline's hands push at her shoulders, sending her stumbling forward. "Don't worry, we'll keep her moving," the green gem promises the Supervisor.
At first Pollucite doesn't look convinced, but then she sees that the disruptive blue gem is indeed being forced forward by the gems around her, and moves on with only a small frown of annoyance.
"What is going on?" demands Citrine quietly, speaking through clenched teeth. She has a hold of Sapphire's elbow again, and is hauling her onwards with surprising strength.
"They know," gasps Sapphire, unable to keep the panic from her voice. "They already know!"
Citrine's grip on her arm flexes, and from behind her Tourmaline sucks in a breath. "Are you sure?"
She's blind. She's blind, and they're coming. How much longer do they have? She doesn't know, she doesn't know.
Sapphire has never felt so utterly useless before.
"Yes," she says, for what it's worth. "But I can't See what happens next, I have two eyes—"
"Doesn't matter." Citrine holds onto Sapphire's arm and sets her jaw with a new will. "T, we're going to have to go to plan B."
"Way ahead of you."
If Sapphire didn't have the ability to go so fast herself, she probably would have missed what happened next. Suddenly Tourmaline is gone, and Ruby-as-Hessonite is being bodily shoved towards Sapphire and Citrine.
"Hey, what are you—"
"Grab on, and close your eyes," says Citrine briskly. She doesn't wait for Ruby to obey before she is conjuring a round object from her gem storage.
"Wait—" Ruby's hand clasps around Sapphire's just as the flash bomb goes off. Citrine, who is apparently impervious to its affects, pulls them both forward as she breaks into a run. She forces them to push through their own stumbling, to find a way to sprint in these unfamiliar bodies and temporary blindness, because there is no mercy in her pace. Her weapon's light has scarcely faded, but they're already skidding around a corner and leaving the rest of the cohort behind.
"The repercussions of this—" Sapphire starts.
"Let us deal with that," says Citrine without pausing or slowing down. "If they know you're not where you're supposed to be, then we need to put you where they're not going to find you when they start looking, and we need to do it now."
There are no footsteps behind them—and for good reason, because Sapphire knows their vision and equilibrium haven't recovered yet. If Citrine weren't leading the way Sapphire and Ruby certainly wouldn't be running right now, much less going in the right direction. Still, despite their lack of pursuers, they do not slow down. Sapphire doesn't need her faulty future vision to understand that they need time to make this work.
By the time they reach the assembly lines, Sapphire has just about blinked all of the floating spheres from her eyes. The equipment is humming along in a state of temporary restfulness, cooling down in between shifts, and the space is cavernous enough to echo all of their rapidly pounding footsteps back at them, tauntingly loud. Citrine weaves around conveyor belts and stools like she was made to do this, and they come to an abrupt and disorienting halt in front of a massive metal crate half full of identical injector parts.
Citrine doesn't hesitate. She picks up two parts and shoves them into Ruby and Sapphire's hands. "Shapeshift into these, and I'll bury you at the bottom. This crate will be the first that's sealed up and shipped off today; they shouldn't find you there."
Sapphire is not mechanically inclined. She knows the basic functions and movements that injectors have and do from her visions, but as she turns the heavy metal object over in her already shapeshifted hands she can't figure out which part of the injector it is supposed to go to. That doesn't matter, she supposes, because she doesn't need to know its function in order to form a likeness of it.
Citrine catches both Sapphire and the reference part before they hit the metal floor. She tosses the latter back into the crate and waits for Ruby to follow suit. Resting in her orange hand as a blue version of the inanimate object, Sapphire can feel the trembling of her fingers. She's just as scared as they are.
Just before the flash of her own transformation, Sapphire hears Ruby place her reference part in the crate and say softly, "Thank you, Citrine."
"You're welcome," Citrine murmurs as she catches her. The tone of her voice makes Sapphire think there is more she wants to say, but instead all she tells them is, "This will probably be uncomfortable. Sorry about that."
It takes some grunting and shuffling around, but eventually Sapphire and Ruby find themselves plunked at the bottom of the crate and buried. The weight of all the heavy metal parts is, indeed, uncomfortable—all sharp angles and gravity doing its best to bruise her—but Sapphire knows better than to complain.
At first things are quiet, waiting. Then she hears is muffled voices. There are a couple of different timbres, but none of which she can identify with certainty. All of the noise is warped and dulled by the metal walls of the crate and the various parts above her.
There are two occasions in which someone digs through the crate—and if the way they are digging is indicative of anything, then they are certainly searching for something out of the ordinary—but they never go deep enough. Nevertheless, the tension that seizes her in those instances is almost enough to shatter her completely—at least, that's how it feels. Each time when the rummager stops, fruitless and frustrated, she thinks about the great heaving breath of relief she would be releasing, if she had a mouth.
When the machinery starts up, all groaning mechanical limbs and hissing conveyor belts, her shapeshifted form shivers and nearly breaks. The same happens when the first completed injector part of the day drops on top of the pile, but then it becomes a rhythm, and Sapphire tolerates the weight that's being slowly built up over her without as much as a flinch.
Sapphire still cannot See—apparently, the fact that she had two eyes when she shapeshifted into an injector part still holds. The anxiety of not knowing what will happen next gnaws at her, cranks her internal tension so taut she feels as if she might snap at any moment. If they're caught now, if anything were to happen to Ruby…
Ruby is nearby—Sapphire can feel the anxious heat radiating from her, always—but they are not touching. She comforts herself by focusing on her partner's heat signature and thinking about Garnet. It helps to soothe her frantic thoughts about not knowing the future. Maybe, if they're lucky—
No. Don't think like that. Once you start thinking about luck, you will only ever be disappointed.
Perhaps it's been minutes or hours. When you're impersonating an inanimate object, time tends to become abstracted. All the same, the sudden slam-and-seal of the crate's heavy steel lid jars the entirety of Sapphire's being. She is equally startled when the crate shudders and begins to roll down a conveyor belt. Her stomach, if she had one, would have dropped with the crate as it switched conveyor belts as well as directions. Feeling it come to a stop, and hearing muffled voices speaking to each other once more through the crate's walls, is equally disturbing. She doesn't know what they're saying, she doesn't know what's going to happen—
Sapphire almost abandons her shapeshifted form again when the crate is unceremoniously dropped, causing parts to clank and shift jarringly. This is it, Sapphire thinks. They know we're in here, and there is nothing more vulnerable than being caught shapeshifted as an injector part.
In that moment, though, she can't bring herself to wish that things had happened differently. She is scared, and vulnerable, and this is the biggest risk she has ever taken, but she doesn't regret this. For even the smallest chance that Ruby—that Garnet—could avoid certain destructions at the hands of the Diamonds, she would have done this all over again.
After a long, long moment of stillness, the ground moves under her. Lifting. The crate's seal is not broken, and there are no hands plunging amongst injector parts looking for her. They are simply being transferred again. This time, it feels as if they might be on a transport. Sapphire can't say for sure, though, and while she can still feel Ruby here with her she knows better than to shapeshift a mouth and ask for her opinion.
For all that they are doing this for the chance to stay together, to protect the all-enveloping closeness they have discovered it's possible to maintain, it is ironic that Sapphire feels so isolated right now. It's torturous, becoming reacquainted with solitude all over again. How was she ever happy to be so alone before?
When—if—when—I get out of this crate, I am never, ever going to let you go.
She still doesn't know that as a certainty—she still can't See well enough to be sure—but maybe, if she believes it enough, it will happen anyway.
Time passes, Sapphire is sure of it. She keeps prodding her future vision for the right moment to resume her normal projection, but it is being as frustratingly vague as it always is when she has two eyes. She's not used to having to decipher it anymore, and so the more she pushes the more frustrated she becomes.
It's possible that someone figured out they are in here a long time ago, and this crate is being delivered to the Diamonds' front door.
It's possible they could have escaped by now, and now they've already missed their chance and will be discovered when someone dumps out the parts to properly assemble an injector. Whether it's on Homeworld or on-site won't matter, then, because they will have been found either way.
It's possible that a gem scanner has picked up on their presence here—such things exist, right?—and they're being circled back around to the Containment Unit. Sapphire knows that, while the Diamonds may not like her, they do want their oracle alive and serving. Ruby, on the other hand…
It's possible they could make her watch Ruby's destruction as a form of disciplinary action before they send her back to the same lonely work she's always done.
Sapphire can't bear the thought of how she might react to something like that. She doesn't allow herself to think about it.
Time passes on and on. How much, Sapphire can't be sure, but by the time she feels the lurch of a second transport she glimpses something that gives her a tiny spark of hope. She searches for it again—the more scenarios she can see it in, the more likely it is—and yes, there it is!
Destinations. That's what they look like. Two distinct destinations.
Neither of which belong to the Diamonds.
Neither of which are anywhere near Homeworld at all.
There are two destinations, and they are going to be landing on one of them. Sapphire is sure of it.
She wishes there is a way to let Apatite know that the rumors are true, and injectors are fully assembled on-site after all.
There is no graceful way to shapeshift into your usual form while at the bottom of a crate full of injector parts. There is no way to do it that isn't uncomfortable, either. Truthfully, Sapphire doesn't care about any of that right now—she's suddenly very claustrophobic, and she needs to get out of this box, right now.
As soon as her light flashes, Ruby follows suit. Sapphire glimpses her partner's familiar form through strands of her own aquamarine bangs and around the bulky corners of injector parts, and they both share a hysterical fit of giggles. They giggle as they push their way to the top of the crate, and they laugh as they punch the top off together.
Sapphire's newly reformed legs are weak with hysteria and laughter and relief, and as soon as she lands outside of the crate her knees buckle and she collapses. She's back to having one eye again, and the return of the future vision she has come to depend on is enough to make her weep.
There is no danger coming for them. The Diamonds don't know where they disappeared to. Their cohort made such a boisterous scene in the assembly room that Pollucite and Petalite were blamed for their lack of control, and their friends are fine, they're okay—
Oh, stars above, it worked.
"I can't believe it," Sapphire whispers as Ruby squats down next to her. They hold on to each other tightly, and Sapphire closes her teary eye and shakes her head into Ruby's shoulder.
"Can't believe what?"
"They're okay. We're okay. It worked, Ruby—it actually worked!"
The laughter bubbles up again in both of them, and when Sapphire looks up she can see that Ruby is crying too. They grip each other, possessive and relieved and comforting simultaneously, and laugh and sob until it feels as though there is nothing left.
"Ruby?"
Ruby looks up. Her eyes are puffy and red, and her expression is fragile and tender, mirroring Sapphire's own, but she's listening.
"I want her to be here with us."
It takes a moment for Ruby to understand, and then her tear-streaked face breaks into a slow spreading smile. "Well, then what are we waiting for?"
While they have only managed it three times now, the process of fusing becomes easier with each repetition. When Sapphire falls into Ruby, it doesn't feel like another shapeshifting attempt, it feels like they're finally becoming what they have always been meant to be.
It feels like home.
Garnet does not have sore, puffy eyes from crying. The future vision that flows behind her third eye like an endless river isn't the same as the prescience Sapphire has come to know, but that is a proficiency that will come with time. Her jeweled palms tremble, but not from the kind of fear that had been paralyzing her two halves for so long. Her hands, long fingered and deceptively slender, clench into fists that comfort with their strength. Her big hair doesn't brush the ceiling of the cargo hold, but it comes close. Her legs, curvy and strong, hold her up without awkwardness or stumbling. Truly, being this tall has never felt so natural before.
Garnet doesn't cry, but she does let out a little laugh. There is a joy flowing through her, a sensation of completeness that she can't shake, and no other mode of expression feels appropriate.
Thank you, says a voice that is neither Ruby nor Sapphire's, but rather entirely Garnet's own. A personality that they have both contributed to is budding between them—strong but patient, commanding but compassionate, both singularity and unity at once. I won't let you down.
Of course you won't, Sapphire says, and though she has become intangible a part of her still knows how to smile.
You couldn't, even if you tried, Ruby assures her. And if you need help, you're never alone. It's just that simple.
She fumbles a bit with the future vision, it's true, but Garnet still manages to See that the most probable destination for this cargo ship is a tiny planet called Earth. It's a water planet, but also incredibly fertile. No wonder Pink Diamond marked it for a Kindergarten.
Speaking of which, finding a way to avoid getting killed upon arrival for having snuck onto Pink Diamond's cargo ship is what she should work on next.
It's not as daunting of a task as it should be. In fact, Garnet finds herself smiling as she conjures a pair of reflective glasses over her three eyes. She is solid, and powerful, and unequivocally made of love—she is a force to be reckoned with, and she is already fully aware.
Whatever surprises Earth has in store, Garnet is ready to take them on.
A/N: This is a little different from the original cargo-hold scene from way back when, I know, but I just didn't think that other scene matched the tone of the rest of the chapter. I do apologize for any disorientation of the rewrite, however. Hopefully this one still feels okay?
So, as I said earlier, United I Stand is NOT dead just because I finished the Unit 6 storyline. I just won't be updating daily anymore. After working on UIS almost nonstop since mid-June, I'm a little tired and I think I could use a break. I also need more episodes to come out to give me more oneshot ammo, because I kind of ran out and rewatching episodes just isn't provoking me like it used to. ^^"
In other news: While I can't do much to help how convoluted all of the oneshots and Unit 6 chapters are here on this website, I will be posting the oneshots separately from the Unit 6 storyline when I cross-post all of this on AO3 here in the next few days. The reason I'm telling you folks about this is because I figured some of you might appreciate the opportunity to re-read Unit 6 without having to dodge all of those pesky oneshots (or vice versa). I have to rework some of the earlier Unit 6 chapters (looking at you, non sequitur wasp jokes from chapters 3 and 4), but if you follow theladyforester on tumblr I'll be sure to keep you well informed! :D
In other, other news: Just because Ruby and Sapphire's time in Unit 6 is over doesn't mean I'm done writing about it (and Spatial, this is entirely your fault). I will soon start writing drabbles about things such as: the first time Citrine used her flash grenade, Apatite's mighty gossip network and how that even works anyway, Tourmaline being delightfully morbid, and just generally what goes on in the rec center when Ruby and Sapphire aren't there (because, due to Spatial's influence, I now realize there is a lot Rupphire just never noticed/cared about). If you have any requests for Unit 6 drabbles, please feel free to send them my way! :)
This A/N is so long already, but I really just want to take this moment to thank all of you. Thank you to those of you who have taken the time out of your day to leave feedback and PM with me; thank you artists for your fanart (because holy COW, you thought this thing deserved fanart?!); thank you to all of the silent followers; thank you to everyone who has read all the way to chapter-freaking-75 and will X out of this window without saying a word to anybody, because that in itself is a goddamn impressive feat. I have never felt so completely welcomed by a community, and the stupendously kind people that I have been able to meet and interact with because of this story and SU in general is truly mind boggling. As someone whose writing has never gotten any kind of recognition whatsoever, I am floored and shocked and humbled that so many people have taken even the slightest bit of interest in what I have to say. I wish I knew how to repay you all somehow, or communicate just how much it means that someone I've never actually met is supporting and believing in me, but for as much as I write I just don't have the words.
Thank you, so much, every single one of you. Thank you.
I hope to see you all again tomorrow for a oneshot in which Garnet forces Rose to be less cryptic about something, and for whatever comes after that. ;P