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weeping-petals · 4 years

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A Lasting Song

Word Count - 3,503

The Great Gem War comes to a final and brutal conclusion.

They were Winning.

They had to be.

The battle had endured for over a month at this point, Quartz and Topaz soldiers spilling out of Home World to aid the grand take over that the Diamond Authority had planned. A final Gambit to squelch the rebellious faction, and drag the Earth back under Diamond Rule. Diamond Genocide. If they did not win this game, it was all over.

Spinel tracked every Gem that was poofed, and with a small volley of units gathered up comrades before the unthinkable could happen. Pink Diamond, or just Rose Quartz now, had a firm policy against shattering foe Gems. After all, they didn’t understand what was happening, that the rebellion was a façade to relinquish destruction of a world their Diamond fell in love with. To a fault Spinel agreed, and Pearl as well – with unrestrained devotion – understood more than their comrades would, of their kind and benevolent commander. The rage and onslaught of foe Gems was understandable, though the retaliation with such an aggressive backing came as a bit of... surprise. Rose Quartz was certain. She was always so certain about these things.

So, Spinel assured that each confirmed enemy stone was bubbled, and sent back to camp. They would sort out who was who later, soldiers fell right and left. The foe Gems were in such a frenzy that they shattered first, didn’t question later – she had seen more shards produced from Jasper’s allied to the same faction than she was comfortable with.

Which was why it was important to secure Gems before the irreversible was done!

Spinel herself was poofed four or five times, but thankfully her cut was so specific that she was easily recognized by friendlies and sent off field to recover. It became more than a process of reforming and catching a Bismuth for a new weapon, Gems needed time to reconnect with their fresh form. Adjust to the violence and cycle of poof and fight. Most of the Crystal Gems were not warriors by class, but common builders, Smithers, assistants, and some like herself, entertainers. They learned to fight, to use abilities and inherit strength, and dug deep down within the light of their Gem to tap into forbidden powers. Forbidden by Home World and class restrictions.

The dust and conflict steadily shifted across the field, they were forcing units into a preferred destination. Some even about faced and retreated, the enemy’s barrage began to thin out and more pure Gem fusions crumbled. Spinel kept busy, coordinating with Gems better suited with agility, speed, and courier as opposed to brute force.

But something… felt off.

“Where is Rose Quartz!” she snapped, at any Gem carrying a star that streaked by on the field, covering distance rather than defending fellow friendlies. She was given a variety of snarky responses.

“Over there!” “Are you kidding?” “See the blitz!” “You can’t miss her!”

And it was true. How could she miss the cloud, the ravaged landscape, the direction that every other foe soldier moved in when they caught an inch on the combatants.

She had to check in with Pearl, insure that she was still intact. There was one Gem in all the battle, she knew with absolute certainty, who could not be poofed. Or more accurately, who should never be poofed.

They would lose the game.

A quad-fuzed Topaz snared a Crystal Gem fusion and wrestled the muilti-limbed warrior, the formers focus outmatching the combined attributes of a new Crystal Gem. Spinel averted her course, her weapon twirling ‘round and around her body while she built up momentum. One arm lashed out, catching a large axe buried in the soil, her arm wrenched and tightened while her fingers dug into the metal. She circled around the side of the titans brawl, tracking movement and thinking up a good one-liner.

The Cystal Gem fusion went airborne and the Topaz drew back, winding up for a devastating punch.

“HEY!” Spinel stopped and dug her heels into the soil. The Topaz snapped her head around, and smirked upon spying her. “Why don’t pick on someone YOUR OWN SIZE!”

She retracted her heels and let herself launch. Utterly flabbergasted, the Topaz spun around and put out her arms – that expression changed when Spinel barrel-rolled her body, her duel bladed staff cycling around her arrow-esque shape faster and faster, until she was a blazing drill. The real plot twist came when her zipping shape shot between the Topaz’s feet, Spinel skid across the hard soil tearing up smoke. It was a cool pose nonetheless, and the Topaz looked around, searching for the miniscule adversary.

“Syke!” Spinel indicated upward with her free arm.

The Topaz glanced up, in time to receive the full impact of the Crystal Gem fusion that plummeted earthward.

“I wasn’t the right size! See?” She stuck her thumb to her nose and wriggled her fingers, in the direction of the popped and divided Topaz soldiers. The Crystal Gem poofed each one, and dropped into her respective pieces.

One of the friendly Gems poofed, without provocation. “Jade!” The Carnelian barked, and grabbed up the green stone.

Spinel was primed to shoot off, but this trio looked far from warrior class. They all were in the same ship on the matter, but the group appeared less experienced and shook by coming undone in the midst of chaos.

“You guys better get off field. This isn’t your time to contribute to the fight, it’s your time to survive.” The Nephrite looked offended. “Look, your friend is overwhelmed. We all are, in fact. You need to take care of her, because today, I’ve seen a lot of shards.” She spun away and began a sprint, weapon slung over her shoulders. Quietly, under her breath, she added, “And I’ll probably see a lot more.”

Rose was still in the fray, somewhere. Spinel had a vague sense of where but finding the axis was the key. Was Rose at all able to abandon the battle for recuperation? Not poof and reform, but to take time out of the constant blade clashing and shield bashing. The units took turns, everyone played a part. Fusions formed and fell within hours, pure Gem fusions couldn’t grasp the concept of multilingual conversations manifesting and shrieking amid the dust. Passion for the new overcame the droned on same-old-same-old routine of pure fusions with sharp focus.

She can’t poof. She can’t poof.

Did she mean herself, Spinel? Or Rose Quartz?

“Hey you!” she bounded down a clutch of rocks, racing toward a lumbering Crystal Gem fusion she couldn’t recognize. It’s shape made no sense, but she looked sentient, and clever enough. “Launch me!”

The fusion put out a hand and Spinel plopped herself on the palm, the moment her weight settled she was flying into the stratosphere! She swept the dual blade above her head and swung it, twirled it like a blade of light on a spool of thread. Below, the shape and movement of battle took on refined focus, though it was apparent she was miles off course. Flashes of pink and brilliant sparks glint through the thick haze, the contrasting wisps unmistakable. Ah-ha!

“Now to – ” Something collided with her backside, and before she could check herself the weight dragged them down. She squealed, nearly loosing her weapon in the process. Above her arms a Morning Glory shot through the airspace and careened out of sight.

“You’re like a star in the dark sky! What were you thinking?” a familiar voice spat. Now Spinel recognized the arms laced around her middle.

“Not much, to be honest. I’m a little on a one-track mind, if you catch my drift.” They were too high up to land safely, she decided, and wound up her legs like springs to compress the fall. Garnet released her and darted away, immediately meeting fists with a Quartz soldier.

The Quartz wasn’t alone, three large Amethyst came barreling from a cloud of dust.

“Ooh, you brought friends,” Spinel cracked. She swung her blade, doing some flashy maneuvers before whipping around to meet the line-backing head on.

Poof. Poof. Poof. And POOF! Four Gems clinked to the ground. Spinel was still poised, or frozen, while Garnet dusted her gauntlets.

“Ah… need any help?”

“Bubbling them would be a good start. Spinel, I can’t help but notice you seem a bit distracted.”

“Distracted? Me!” She hurried to bubble the Gems. “Pfft, we’re in the middle of an ongoing and endless battle. How can someone be distracted? I can’t see the soldiers past the dust.” To emphasize, she coughed.

“Something on your mind?” Garnet crossed her arms.

Don’t let Saphire trace your design. Don’t let Garnet see the pathways.

“I’m worried,” she admitted.

“I know.”

“You do.” She kicked the blunt side of her blade and flipped it over her shoulder. “Home World Gems look a lot perplexed and a lot more lost. Like, I don’t know. They have a goal, but no one’s given them a word on how to achieve it.”

“As if…” Spinel hung onto Garnet’s next words, “commanders ceased relaying orders?” She whipped around, absolutely clobbering a tri-Topaz fusion. The dismayed individual Gems took mild hits, Poofed out, and bubbled out of the field. Garnet didn’t turn back, but tracked another dropship that slipped across the far fringe of the strafe.

“You put into words the feeling.” She chuckled, but the sound was void of mirth. “Yeah, we should probably check in with Rose.”

Garnet moved, and Spinel hastened to match the pace. The fuzion had a direct and simplistic method to her strategy in conflict and battle, she concluded confrontations as quick and efficiently as possible. A perfect mesh of Saphire’s calculations and Ruby’s combat prowess. If one watched from afar not knowing who Garnet was, a short-sighted evaluation might view the method as single-minded brutality. But no, it was fluid motion, and it always impressed Spinel how precise the fusion was.

On Home World, Garnet had garnered a reputation. A blasphemous fuzion and blatant insult to the court of Blue Diamond. Other foe Gems that recognized her were drawn in, eager for bragging rights of separating the first mix fusion. It would give Home World Gems no greater joy than to see the insolent Ruby and Saphire separated, permanently.

Having to confront more and more Gems in the heart of battle was such a kill joy, too.

Another dropship careened down from the atmosphere, appearing from a blip in the blackhole that preceded its sudden appearance. However, rather dump out a buttload of generic Gems, it landed. All the Home World ships that managed to evade ground fire would land, and load up with a bulk of fighters prepared – willing – to withdraw. A tactical retreat?

Spinel spent some of her energy to propel herself high enough to get a good look, but only a glimpse before she descended – and sliced out the Jasper’s that went fist to fist with Garnet.

“I don’t like this,” Spinel voiced. “I like this even less than when they’re bombarding us with weapons.”

Garnet was about to reply, but swung around knocking down a duel Ruby fusion. The soldiers were losing numbers and retreating. But it seemed too good to be true.

“I can’t see— Where did you see Rose Quartz?”

Spinel pointed her staff and watched Garnet take off. At first she didn’t follow, a few foe Gems galloped by hunting for the one that took out their friends. Spinel helped. A little. She bubbled the two Ruby’s.

“Take a rest,” she murmured, lost in thought. “When this is all over, maybe, just maybe, we’ll all be friends.”

She tore off in the direction she sent Garnet, hastily bubbling the Gems she tangled with, getting sloppy with her tactics. Once or twice, foe Gems tore past her as if afraid of something. Not Garnet, but it amused her that Gems twice the fusions size were spooked off after seeing a duel-fused Jasper pop.

Something was wrong.

Spinel stalled and turned her face skyward, peering through the clogged air unable to make heads or tales if it was dawn or dusk. The days meshed together, the fighting was never ending. And something was amiss.

“Argh!” That yelp sounded familiar, followed by the clash of weapons. It was Pearl, which meant—

“Rose!”

Where was she? “Where is she?” Spinel hollered. And where exactly was Pearl? She spun in place, searching, dashing in short sprints. This was the axis of the spinning wheel, the eye of the storm.

The unmistakable clang of a weapon hitting the resonating point of an impenetrable shield was an incriminating factor. Its sound carried, rebounding back through the clatter and barks of combat. A large helmet went whizzing by, nearly colliding with the small Gem.

“Rose!” Spinel called. The noises were moving around. As she searched the smog, she spied Pearl at last! – their Pearl – on her knees, blocking another blow from an enemy Jade. Spinel swung her body around and shot out with a long kick, knocking the foe Gem backwards.

Pearl looked battered and absolutely spent to her limits, but held her ground. She glanced over her shoulder, an expression Spinel couldn’t read in her eyes.

“Do you hear that?” she whispered. “Do you?”

Confused, Spinel squinted her eyes. She heard nothing, aside from the shouts of fellow and foe Gems meeting weapon to weapon. She did feel something was… missing, some creeping uncertainty coiling inside the core of her Gem. A resonation. An oncoming storm.

It was bright. The dust thinned out, or was it an intense ray of heat breaking through the atmosphere? She chanced another gaze upward, despite an imposing foe Gem bulldozing from the choked vapor.

No. Oh no. No-no-no. No, it couldn’t—

“Spinel!” Garnet dove from somewhere and tackled her, rolling aside as the foe Gem plowed into the soil where she stood mere moments before. “Where is she?!”

A shadow swept in from the side and caught Garnet by the shoulder, it swung around holding the fusion close.

“Pearl!” Spinel wailed. Wordlessly, Garnet aimed an arm into the murk. There was Pearl, on her back and blocking the sword that descended for her forehead. Spinel dropped her weapons and zipped her arms out, catching Pearl by the plush of her shoulders and reeled her in with enough force it nearly knocked Rose down.

Everything was so bright, so intense. Cutting through the stark haze without contest, with absolutely no mercy.

“Stay DOWN! EVERYONE!”

There was only four of them, Spinel reflected. Garnet tightened her arms around her and Pearl, and Spinel coiled her body tighter around Pearl. Looking back around Garnet’s side, she beheld Rose Quartz summoning her shield and brace it to the ground, their commander pressed herself into the concaved center. In the same instant, a radiating blaze shredded the clouds, obliterating the fog clinging tight across the brutalized landscape. It was unlike anything Spinel had ever witnessed, capable of blinding and painful to view directly. The shield hummed a strange melody of agony, as the song from the sky thrummed from beyond the charted galaxy of Pink Diamond’s doomed colony.

Rose hissed through her teeth, pressing back into Garnet. Garnet could do no better than to push back, and keep their leader from toppling as the shield pressed and buckled under the intensity. It would crack, Spinel was certain. It would crumble and they would all vaporize into stardust.

She poofed and all was silent. Dark. And the world was Gone.

What felt like ages later, she managed to reform. It wasn’t easy, but she succeeded in straightening out into a shape, and draw in something worth solidifying into. She slammed hands and knees into the dirt, a scream belting from her core. The landscape stretched as far as the eye could perceive, and was barren, void of sound and movement. Colors across the horizon slated in dreary reds and blacks, and weapons lay trapped in the soil where they fell. Abandoned and lost.

She dragged a hand to her chest and sat back, wincing with each movement. Tears dripped from her eyes. Why was she crying?

“I thought you were too.”

She looked to the one that spoke, Pearl, curled up beside a rock with her face in her hands. “They’re all gone,” she whispered.

“Who?” Spinel croaked. Though it was obvious. “What happened?”

Pearl shook her head and sat up straight. “Retaliation. We felt it. Rose… er, Rose. Felt it, I mean.” She hugged herself and shuddered.

“My Gem. It feels weird. Hurts.” Hurt was a human made term. Gems couldn’t get hurt, not really, only the Gem stone could be cracked. Humans learned the Gems language, but made new terms to describe new sensations. The best way she could describe the unsettling tingling was hurt. It buzzed and didn’t feel right at all.

“I know. We all feel it. We were safe though.” There was such emptiness in her tone.

Spinel jumped to her feet. “Rose! Garnet! Carnelian! The others! Where are—” She gaped at Pearl. “No!”

“Rose and Garnet are fine. The others, though... the others.” Her tone became soft, almost inaudible. “All gone. They’re all gone.” Pearl pressed a hand to her forehead and at last, began crying. “I thought, you too. Not Spinel, please my stars. Not her too.”

“NO! It…. That’s not fair! It’s impossible! IMPOSSIBLE! They can’t all be…. Not. Them….” She glared at Pearl, as her co-conspirator stood and walked over. Pearl looped her arms around her shoulders and tugged Spinel in close. Spinel accepted the embrace, and set her head against Pearl’s chest. “They can’t be,” she murmured. “Not everyone…. Our friends. It’s not fair. We were winning. We should have won.”

“It was Retaliation from the Diamonds,” Pearl hummed.

“What have we done?” She brought her arms up.

And shoved Pearl away. Hard. “Just WHAT have we DONE? WHAT was the point! We have nothing now! NOTHING! We’ve LOST the GAME! It was rigged against us!”

Pearl gawked, wide-eyed. “It was never a game, Spinel.”

“I KNOW!” She grabbed at her pigtails, her words cracked. “But how was I supposed to get through every minute of every single day, if I didn’t have some way to keep grounded? HOW! And now we’ve lost! We lost EVERYTHING! And for WHAT!?” She buckled to her knees, body falling into a ropey mess. She hiccupped and sobbed, like the broken toy she was.

“What was the point of fighting so hard, if this was all we were gonna get? What… why did I have to fight? I wanna go home. I just… wanna go home.”

After a few minutes, Pearl inched in closer. Spinel was still bawling, quivering, and wouldn’t look up. Pearl knelt low and, tentatively, set a hand on the Spinel’s head. “We still have each other.” Spinel flinched, and Pearl hesitated. “We have each other. And… Rose and Garnet are searching for survivors. Maybe in the caves, or the underground.”

“That’s stupid.”

“They need to check, nonetheless. Garnet… she doesn’t see if we find anyone, but we have to explore the scenarios. Maybe someone found the best hiding place.”

“I could find them,” she muttered, but it was bitter. She dragged her head up and checked their surroundings once more. “How long?”

Pearl pursed her lips. “Two. Weeks. Nearly thr—” Her arms snapped up when Spinel dropped onto her lap.

“I want to go home.”

“I think Home World believes we’re gone. Completely.”

“No,” Spinel sighed. She observed the strange patterns in the sky, as the atmosphere stitched molecules back together. “I want to go back to my Garden, with 𝐻𝑒𝓇. I want to play real games. Not this stupid war business. This was so stupid. We’re so dumb. Stars, I’m such an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot. None of us could have predicted this. Even Garnet— ”

“Yeah, sure,” Spinel hissed. She rolled over and coiled her limbs under her body, struggling to push off the ground.

“You need more rest.” Pearl tried to pull her back down, but Spinel brushed her off.

“I’ve done enough rest. I need to be someplace less destroyed.” She scrubbed at her eyes and cheeks, but the tears still came. There was nothing to be seen across the horizon, but the derelict and orphaned weapons of once proud rebels, intermixed with armament of terrible foes avenging a fallen Leader. “What do we do now? What’s the point?”

“We start by looking for survivors. Catalog the damage done.”

“How exciting.” She was better off in her Gem. “If the rest of the planet is this level of destroyed, I’ll shoot myself into the nearest star.”

Pearl straightened up from the ground and began walking, in no particular hurry, and Spinel followed without complaint or quip. She kept her eyes set on Pearl’s heels, ignoring all the half-buried Gem stones they passed across the wasteland. It was the longest walk back to the nearest base of operations, done in excruciating silence, but they had all the time in the world. They only had time, and each other.

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