...

For a few battered, confused moments Tourmaline found herself wondering if she had lost her body. Then she realized that the act of considering proved she had not. She was intact. Weak from maintaining her body against a hundred blows and bashes but she was still corporeal. Her hand reflexively shot up to grasp her left shoulder and a shuddering wave of relief passed though her as fingers felt smooth uncracked facets. Then she slowly rose to a sitting position as she began to process what she could see in the shadows around her.

The celling here was only just above her head even as she was sitting down, and it was at a slant. However, that could be explained. Tourmaline was in a pocket formed by a triangle of collapsed rubble. What part of the building, she could not tell. There were loud sounds from somewhere nearby.

Then a thought exploded into her mind like a lightning bolt; Peridot! She had slipped out of her arms. Tourmaline twisted desperately, searching for the Gem with or without her body. If Peridot had lost cohesion then herself would be very small and hard to find but still Tourmaline franticly pushed through the broken building fragments which littered this floor surface. Please, she had to be intact, she had to-

A shrill scream burst out nearby, muffled by intervening rubble. Tourmaline's head shot around to focus up in the obstructed direction of what was unmistakably a Peridot's voice. The nightmare became a problem once again. Find a solution. There, up and to the left, was a gap in the jumbled pile. It was slightly too small but Tourmaline managed to compress her body's shoulders and hips enough to fit through. She pulled and crawled her way up towards the glimmer of sunlight on a thin dusting of broken glass. Then, after one last burst of strength she emerged into the air just as the sun was swallowed up by clouds in the sky above.

Tourmaline had arisen into a world of fire and smoke. She was on what remained of the building's second floor after the destruction had passed through it, looking out at the decapitated jumble of what was once the grand hall. The far end of the hall below, where once the windows had looked out over the meadow and forest was now filled with the smoking wreckage of the crashed flyer. Tourmaline rose to her feet and began to scramble across the tumbled boulders that had been her home until a moment ago. She found Peridot a few yards away in a trough formed by the sagging broken floor, clutching her knees to her chest and screaming in a detached manner.

"Peridot!" Tourmaline called out.

"What...What...," Peridot stuttered in consideration of asking some question before giving up and returning to her fallback procedure of screaming softly.

There was a sound behind them from down amid the remnants of the grand hall. Tourmaline tottered over to the ruined balcony, at the edge of the shifting rubble and almost collapsed with relief as she saw other Gems rising up here and there on the first floor.

"Oh thank everything in the stars, they're ok. Peridot, they're...!"

Tourmaline trailed off. Below, Emerald was unsteadily rising to her feet clutching bodiless Lapis Lazuli in her hand. Over in the corner was a slowly emerging dust-covered shape who's broad back meant it had to be Onyx or Amethyst, and there right at the edge of the crashed ship a metal segment was suddenly thrown back with great force. A giant Sapphire rose up from beneath, tall and powerful, with three gems glinting across her blue-green body.

All three of them had fused. Tourmaline had only seen them do so a handful of times, and only when one of their experiments needed an unreasonably strong burst of power. Tourmaline glanced up and the vanishing sunlight was explained by an orb of black clouds boiling into existence above the partially collapsed building. Electricity crackled between Sapphire's fingers and she turned to face the wreckage of the downed flyer. It was then that Tourmaline truly admitted to herself that this may not have been an accidental crash. Through the broken floor she sat on she could feel the muffled reverberations of a banging below. Someone else was undamaged down there but Tourmaline felt herself trapped in this daze, unable to react.

In the grand hall, Emerald was not looking at the smoking ship. She was turning left and right, desperately looking around the tumbled destruction for her type fellow.

"Emerald!" She called out. "Has anyone seen Emerald!" She began to stumble across the jumbled rubble, clutching her hand that held Lapis Lazuli close to her chest as she did so. Tourmaline turned back to verify that Peridot was in no immediate danger and prepared to jump down and assist in the search for any bodiless Gems. As Tourmaline stood on the lip of the collapsed former staircase, a pale shadow flashed by Emerald. Emerald stopped and turned in confusion, startled to find Pearl standing by the cracked column in the shadows under one of the lone remaining bits of ceiling. Pearl held her position, ramrod straight in an elegant pose with her hand held behind her back.

Emerald blinked and asked her, "Where's your Amethyst? I need help looking for-"

The shattered hall echoed with a roar from the opposite side. "That's not my Pearl!"

Amethyst stood up, shaking dust and stone fragments from her long hair as she lifted her massive pole-arm out in front of her one handed. In her shadow, crouched on the floor where she had been shielded, was Pearl, gleaming and beautiful as always.

Emerald slowly turned back around. Her body trembled as she remembered reports of other battles. The new Pearl simply bowed her head then in a flash she burst forward, a sword-blade flashing out from behind her back. Emerald's body vanished in a brief cloud and she clattered down onto the ground next to Lapis Lazuli. Then the Pearl slowly turned and snapped into a new pose, the tip of her curving sword now pointed at towering Sapphire as Amethyst slowly walked into fighting position across from hall from her.

Legs gave way and Tourmaline fell back into the pile of rubble behind her. That was impossible. Pearls did not fight. That was not their purpose. They were perfect, and balanced, and beautiful. They were not...that. They did not stare down Quartz or Fusions with power unimaginably greater than their own and smile over the gleaming edge of a wicked sword. Tourmaline knew that this Pearl was about to be shattered. She wanted to look away, even though she knew that what was coming was necessary. Still, despite that knowledge Tourmaline found a part of herself hoping that when Pearl was shattered they ground her into dust beyond any remaining thought. Sapphire turned towards the Pearl, electricity once more crackling between her fingers. Sapphire raised her hand.

Then the back of the flyer wreckage exploded outwards, an convex wall of brilliant pink slamming through, propelled by some new force behind it. The rogue Pearl smiled as Sapphire desperately tried to spin back to meet this new threat at her back. The strategy had worked. Then Rose Quartz turned her shield to the side as her sword sliced out at Sapphire's side.

Tourmaline screamed a useless warning. However, she had underestimated her master. Large as she now was, Sapphire managed to move with brilliant speed. But then, as she slid to a halt, the side of her body's decorations parted in a long slice across her waist, revealing just how close of a dodge it had been. Sapphire looked down at the Quartz with an expression that might have been fear.

Rose Quartz simply raised her shield again as she spoke in a voice that carried strangely well over the continued crackles and pops of the crashed ship. "Well, that plan almost worked. You ok, Pearl?"

The Pearl cocked her head elegantly to the side as she kept an eye on Amethyst's pacing. "Not a scratch. Two down."

Rose Quartz nodded, her long pink ringlets sliding across her shoulders. "Right, the plans for the Geode are here somewhere, we just need to-"

"Enough!" Sapphire roared. Tourmaline's masters were thinkers not warriors, more prone to distraction than passion. But now, with all three of them sharing a body, the wind of a furious summoned storm whipped through the dust of the shattered hall. Sapphire raised her outstretched hand and a bolt of lighting blazed forth, anchored on the rebellious Quartz with crack of thunder.

That throned pink shield neatly nullified the attack that would have melted stone, but the blinding flash provided the opening Amethyst had been waiting for. The huge Gem burst forward with a grunt, swinging her pole-arm with blinding speed at the renegade Pearl like a horizontal pendulum. The Pearl was taken off guard, but even so she simple leaned back impossibly far, allowing the shrieking bladed slab to flow above her like water. Then she sprang up into a twirling spin that carried her away from the blade's counter-swing that cracked the floor like a falling meteor.

The Pearl raced off across the rubble strewn grand hall, but Tourmaline abruptly realized that she was not fleeing from the Quartz warrior who would surely destroy her in an instant. She was aimed directly at the crouched form of her other self. Amethyst's Pearl raised her head to look at the shining blade that rushed point first towards her. She closed her eyes. Then in a flash Pearl was bodiless, clattering to the floor in a puff of dematerialization smoke. The rogue dashed away, still pursued by Amethyst who roared in anger at her departing back.

Tourmaline shook her head without even intending to. That was a senseless attack. The pounding from the semi-intact sections of the house beneath her feet was getting louder. There was no reason for the rogue to go after Pearl. Pearls weren't dangerous to... That thought threw Tourmaline's mind into disarray again. The counterpoint to her deepest truths was before her. The floor beneath her shuddered again, the storm whistled and raged through tumbled masonry, and a deafening crack of lightning rang out again. Tourmalines managed a household. The house had fallen. She clutched at her left shoulder. Right now she could not tell what turmoil was in the world and what was in her mind.

Dust exploded out below the ledge Tourmaline sat on and a heavy broken slab went sailing out to crash and skid across the grand hall. A familiar overly loud voice rang out, frustrated and angry. "Where is it! It's...Aahh! Rebels!"

The top of a massive red head passed very near Tourmaline's perch as the looming Ruby fusion pushed her way out of the semi-collapsed entry hall. It was the full Hand, now returned together. At the far end of the hall, Rose Quartz even turned away for a moment from the raging storm of fusion Sapphire. The rebel leader blinked at Ruby's approach and said:

"Oh, that's actually a bit concerning."

Pearl continued to dance across broken tumbled columns, half a second ahead of Amethyst's cleaving blade. One successful fake out and Pearl alighted on a broken blue stump, smiling. "Oh, we've fought much worse, and besides we've still got-"

"Pearl!" Someone yelled from the direction of the crashed ship. Then the thrumming blast of a massive laser lanced straight across the hall, smashing into Ruby's headlong rushing charge and throwing her back with such force that one of her feet clipped Amethyst and sent her flying too.

Pearl blinked in surprise and looked up at the crashed ship marking the end of the hall. On top of crumpled smoking hull stood an Agate who's ochre body was decorated with a swirling lace of white patterns. She held a steaming blaster cannon in her hands, one that looked like it had been ripped out of the ship itself.

Pearl called up. "...we've got Crazy Lace, as I was saying. Thank you for the assistance, though I don't think yelling my name was really necessary to-"

Agate yelled again, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had just downed of all of the household's defenders but Sapphire. "Not that! Behind you!"

"What...?" Pearl started to say. A huge black shape rose up behind her, shedding the dust and rubble that had been a successful disguise in the long wait. Banded black arms slammed together around Pearl's waist as Onyx made her triumphantly patient attack.

Up above, Tourmaline let out a cheer for the quartz warrior. "Yes!"

Onyx leaped forward, slamming the restrained Pearl against the lone intact pillar with enough force to dematerialize the renegade's body instantly while still imparting enough force to knock the pillar clean down. It was a wonderful blow. Unfortunately that pillar had been the one thing still holding up Tourmaline's viewing landing. She heard Peridot renew her screaming behind her as the floor fell out from beneath them and pulled the remaining wall with it. They dropped. Then Tourmaline's side hit a sharp edge and in an instant she felt that all the energy flowed out of her body shape. Then she did not feel at all.

...

At first all Tourmaline could see was blinding red light. Then the exertion of reformation passed and she felt the edges of her projection harden back into a body again. Newly materialized feet came down on an uneven surface and Tourmaline stumbled to her knees, hand clutching at the facets of herself on that shoulder in what was becoming an uncomfortably common reflex. Still intact.

Her thoughts jumped and skipped as she stared at the cracked and tumbled ground, covered with fragments of pale blue stone and splinters of glass. She had been with Peridot, watching the fight and then... Her body had been destroyed.

Suddenly her thoughts collapsed back into an ordered structure. Knowledge she had not even known she had been made with came to the forefront of her mind and a she remembered "what to do in the event of dematerialization."

Tourmaline rose to her feet on the surface of rubble. The decorations on her legs no longer flowed out in swishing billows before coming together at her ankles; in this new form she had chosen for her patterns to hug her limbs. The long tails of her vest were gone too, replaced by only a slight flaring where the vest met her hips. This was a body that did not have the luxury of ornamentation.

Her lips moved. "Take stock of your surroundings."

She looked up and instantly wished she had not needed to. The building was destroyed. It was quiet. She did not know how long it had been. Tourmaline stood in a pile of rubble that had been her home and her purpose. Broken slabs lay on top of fallen pillars and fragmenteted components of Sapphire's various research machines. Behind her the remnants of the crashed ship were no longer smoking but there was no sign of life under the sky that was now darkening towards sunset. A sunset on the same day or some other. Tourmaline took a few uncertain steps up the pile before her. A piece of it shifted suddenly under her foot before catching firm again. Then she stood on top.

Tourmaline whispered to herself, "Locate your superiors."

The first floor of the front of her home, which had previously survived the crash, was gone. It seemed most of it had slid down into the pit before it. Whatever had happened after Tourmaline lost her body had been devastating. The smooth arcing bridge across the pit had been broken and the Persecution slabs were fitfully glowing in sparking fragments far below, down with the shattered warp pad. The other research facility was only a little better. Its tower had been sheered off by the first crash and since Tourmaline had last been aware something had pitted the remaining front with jagged holes. One whole side-wing had collapsed from within. In every other direction the trees rustled in a faint rising wind as the dipping light slowly gained its red tint. There was no sign of life.

The warp pad was gone. No help was coming or if it had then they had already come and gone. No, if other Gems had responded to Peridot's brief distress call then they would have found Tourmaline as she lay as part of the rubble or they would still be searching. Help must still be on its way. There was nothing to do until then but continue to follow this protocol. Without her household, that was all a Tourmaline had left.

"In absence of new orders, utilize available equipment in the search to recover any additional bodiless Gems."

The cooling breeze blew around her. Tourmaline turned to face into it, keeping her footing steady on the broken slab of what was once a wall or maybe a celling. She could follow that directive.

For lack of anything else, she reached over to her shoulder and materialized her ribbon into her hand. As the glow dissipated from the wide sheet of material Tourmaline had to admit that she could not see how it would be helpful, but if she was meant to gather equipment then that was all she had. Not having an immediate task for this tool she loosely looped it across her body a few times from shoulder to hip and then set off to make her way over the tumbled desolation of the collapsed building. There was no sign of Peridot, though she had been very near Tourmaline at last memory. Finding a bodiless gem at all in this chaos seemed like a fruitless effort, especially with the light already turning red around her.

However, just as Tourmaline allowed herself to feel that despair, her eye caught sight of a single red gleam. Something down there between the rubble piles had briefly caught the setting sun. Then the shadows shifted ever so slightly and the momentary flash was gone. Tourmaline dashed forward, stumbling and sliding as she ran toward that spot. She slid down to her knees, nearly rupturing her body again on a sharp piece of conduit protruding from the broken pile, but she did not care. She rushed to sift through the small fragments, tossing out pieces of chipped bannisters and fragments of broken mirrors in a frantic search. Then her fingers touched something smooth and faceted. Tourmaline grasped the small object tight in both hands, shuddering with relief. It was Ruby and she was whole.

The sun continued to dip lower, casting shadows over the space between rubble piles as Tourmaline continued to search the depression for any others. Last she had seen five of the Rubies had all been in one place, but while she found no more here at least she found no shards. Eventually Tourmaline had to admit that her effectiveness was being reduced to near zero. She stood up, clutching Ruby tight to her chest. Two gems weren't a household but it was close enough for now.

Tourmaline was starting to feel like her thinking was clearer. The shock of her first reformation was fading and she was starting to get a handle on her panic. She could clearly analyze her memory. Last she had seen, one of the three rebels had just lost her body. Storm Sapphire, Onyx, and probably Amethyst were still standing or unscathed. If they had won outright then they would still be here searching for Tourmaline and the rest so Rose Quartz and her ally must have retreated instead of fighting to the end. With the warp pad's destruction stranding them all here Amethyst and Onyx would have pressed the advantage and given chase. If it was indeed still that same day then they could well be out there hunting down the two rebels. That was the most likely series of events.

With a tired smile Tourmaline moved back to the ruins of the grand hall to see if anyone had gotten the chance to collect Amethyst's Pearl, Lapis Lazuli, and Emerald. They should be reforming soon if she judged by her own process. Tourmaline made her way around a massive single piece of tumbled wall that lay at an angle propped up on a fallen pillar, when suddenly she saw something in the middle of the ruined hall. It was Amethyst's massive weapon, standing almost upright in a clear space, its heavy blade sunk deep into the solid stone floor. It was alone, the small sickle moon rear-blade at the end of the haft stood stark against the sky like a sickening monument in the slowly dying light. Abandoned. Tourmaline's thoughts were a distant buzz as she walked up to it. She held Ruby in one palm as her other hand stretched out to touch that terrible forged weapon.

There was the sound of faint crunch of gravel behind her. Tourmaline spun, backing up as her back hit the projecting haft of the weapon in that flash of fear. A tall gem approached in the shadow of one of the rubble piles Tourmaline had not yet checked. But in an instant she recognized that the dim outline did not match that of the Rose Quartz or the Agate, and Tourmaline sagged slightly in relief. She found herself laughing as she illogically smiled. The rescue had arrived after all.

The Gem spoke. "Step away from that weapon. It's dangerous."

A reasonable request. Tourmaline understood the weapons of a Quartz soldier in only the most abstract way. But then she froze as she really heard the voice that had spoken to her. Relief turned to terror. Tourmaline's eyes went wide. She looked up and the approaching Gem stepped out of the shadow into the last rays of the setting sun. It was a stranger.

Tourmaline's mouth worked in horror. "I don't recognize you. I don't...Who are you?!" She fell back away from this impossibility. This was a Gem she did not know. This was not any type of Gem and yet it stood before her. Tourmaline screamed, "Get away! Who are you?!"

The abomination continued to walk forward, and above her mismatched eyes a third eye opened in her forehead, a crowning mutation of this monster. She spread her hands and Tourmaline saw a Ruby and a Sapphire on opposite palms. Tourmaline staggered backwards, reaching up and grabbing on to the halt of Amethyst's weapon. It was a reflexive gesture, meant more for support than as a threat. But the fusion monster stopped.

"You aren't a fighter," it said. That statement was definitive. "We aren't here to do you harm."

Tourmaline found herself laughing as fearful tears were in her eyes. She was terrified and anguished but it burst out all the same. She struggled to get control of herself through the sickening giggles; she still held Ruby in her hand and had duty to protect her. "My Sapphires aren't fighters either. What did you do to them? Where are they?!"

That third eye stared at Tourmaline with an unnerving intensity. "They designed a terrible weapon. That makes them soldiers in this war." Then the abomination paused before saying, "They are disembodied but whole, in our control. Rose Quartz will give them fair hearing, as she does with all Gems. To let them choose who they really want to be."

"Choose who...?" Tourmaline stuttered, taking a step to place the weapon haft between her and the fusion. "What are you?"

The Gems smiled down as if hearing a private joke. "I'm something new. I'm my own destiny. I'm Garnet and I'm me."

Gibberish. It was all gibberish. Tourmaline fumbled to tuck Ruby down the front of her vest. She would have to run if she got an opportunity and she might need both hands. "That's not what fusion is! Fusion is meant to enhance, not change. It takes your nature and makes it greater. It doesn't...twist you, deform you like this!"

"Have you ever experienced fusion?"

Tourmaline desperately looked around, hoping against hope for Onyx or Ruby to appear from some hiding place. Garnet took another step forward.

"Tourmaline, you were made to serve in this building. That is all you have ever known. All you were intended to ever know. But the universe is much greater than that. You, every gem, is greater than the Diamonds ever meant you to be. Now this building is destroyed. Your purpose is completed. You can be whoever you want." This last sentences was almost a whisper.

Tourmaline sagged in the growing dark. A chill breeze began to pick up over the piles of rubble that had been her entire life. Then, somehow, her sorrow fell so low down her core that it transformed into something else. Despair ignited. Her fingers gripped tight to the haft of the weapon as her arm vibrated with rage. She looked up and locked eyes with Garnet.

"Choose? Complete? You destroyed my purposes! You destroyed everything! I am not a choice. I am a Tourmaline. I tend to my household and I will never abandon that!"

In a sudden flash of inspiration, Tourmaline jumped up to grab the very top of the pole-arm's haft and swung around, letting the momentum of her body provide an extra force that was enhance by the leverage. With a sudden collapse the weapon's blade slid free of its prison and fell heavily down onto the ground with Tourmaline thudding down beside it.

Garnet looked on skeptically as Tourmaline scrambled to her feet and gripped the weapon's haft with both hands. It was monstrously heavy. It took all Tourmaline's strength to barely raise up the front blade to face Garnet even with the other end of the weapon acting as a fulcrum where it caught on the ground behind her.

The fusion said, "That's a pointless gesture. You can barely lift that weapon. It's no threat to me." Garnet walked forward and Tourmaline desperately shifted the weapon to the side, trying to keep the wide pendulum-like blade facing towards the fusion. Garnet was unconcerned, and she walked forward with her hands spread, her two mismatched selves facing out.

"Do you know why I volunteer to remain behind after? Alone at these sites with Rose's creations? It's because we were like you once. We tumbled out of our world and watched everything we thought we knew come tumbling down around us. But Rose helped us. Rose gave us an identity as individuals, as an individual. Now I can offer you that. Drop the weapon."

Tourmaline felt tears in the corners of her eyes. Her body was already trembling with the exertion of maintaining the power to lift even one end of Amethyst's weapon. She could feel Ruby's cool facets helpless in between her breasts. There was nothing she could do, but she still had to try.

She yelled, "My home is gone, but my household remains. As long as one of the Gems is left I will tend to them! I will follow my purpose until the day I'm shattered!"

This declaration was only greeted by the soft sound of the breeze blowing pieces of grit and gravel across the ruins of the collapsed building. The sky was black and the stars poked out. Shadows danced and spread with the sudden onset of night. Garnet sighed, "This was always the most likely path. Still, I had to try." She turned around and, amazingly, began to walk away.

Tourmaline stood there slack-jawed, watching her retreating back. "Wait, you're just leaving?"

"You're a noncombatant. Rose's orders." Garner waved backwards. "I still have more ground to search. There should be another around here. The imbued will poof you soon enough and bring your gem back to the base."

"Imbued? I don't..." Tourmaline stammered at the departing fusion. Then a movement in the shadows caught her eye. It was the shadows themselves that were moving. They were not shadows. They were alive.

Tourmaline screamed as a thick dark tendril whipped out of the dark at her leg. She danced to the side, barely managing to escape that attack despite being hampered by the heavy pole-arm. Then she saw the whip come down in plain view. It was dark green and decorated with scattered leaves; real living leaves. Tourmaline looked up and beheld the writhing shadow tide before her. The entire half of the ruins before her was covered by crawling mounds of wood and vine. Hundreds of them; each moving with impossible purpose straight towards her. Garnet calmly walked through them, the monsters all parting around the calves of their fellow rebel.

The pole-arm sank down a few inches as Tourmaline's arms locked from exhaustion. Garnet was right, it was too heavy for a Gem of her make to use. An absurd giggle escaped her lips. Her landscape tending projects would have gone a lot quicker if she had been able to manage what Rose Quartz had done here and made the vegetation obey her will. A quick turn confirmed that the plant creations were already behind her as well. The crawling mounds drew closer, each of the vine whips wriggling out to wrap around another projection of rubble and pull the rest of the creature closer to Tourmaline. The mounds swelled and Tourmaline could have sworn they were creating mouths for themselves. Mouths with teeth of thorns.

She breathed in a bit of cooling air. Ruby still rested under her vest. Oh well, she had tried. She had really tried. She supposed she would just have to compose herself for whatever Rose Quartz had planned for them upon their reformation. At least Ruby would not have to face this particular horror.

Then a new voice carried out from somewhere over the rubble behind Tourmaline's back. "Psst! Is anyone else still...Oh! Tourmaline! You're back!"

Tourmaline whipped her head around in time to see Peridot poking her curly yellow-hair up over one of the rubble piles. The green gem grinned when she spotted her. "I knew you'd be ok! Hey, who's the newcomer over there in the..." She trailed off, her eyes growing wide as she actually processed the scene below her filled with writhing shadows. Then she screamed:

"Aaahhh! What are those?!"

Garnet turned back towards Tourmaline and the plant beasts with an almost lazy lack of concern. "Ah, that's which now this is." She looked away just as quickly, as if she had just confirmed something.

The seconds slowly shifted. Nothing had really changed about Tourmaline's situation. She was newly reformed, trapped by carbon-based monsters and a mad fusion, holding a weapon she could not use. Ruby still rested, bodiless, tucked down the front of Tourmaline's vest. The nearest crawling mound got close and managed to wrap a single tendril around her leg. More would follow any moment until they could crush her body and draw her self into their maws.

Another scream from up on the rubble pile indicated the creatures had grabbed Peridot as well. The situation was hopeless. Tourmaline's designers had never intended her to function in such a situation. She tightened her grip on the long haft of the weapon. But by a strict examination of the protocols she was created with, three Gems was in fact a household. Tourmalines served their household.

"Tourmaline! Help!"

The sound of the following splintering crunch made Garnet stop and spin back around. All three of her eyes widened as they saw shreds of leaves, vine, and wood come flying out of the deep gash now left in one of Rose's plant creations. The stricken creature flailed its vines before the pale red Tourmaline whose thin arms now swung the massive pole-arm aloft, a twist of her body already letting momentum bring the weapon around for a second punishing swing. The huge blade came crashing down into the heart of another plant with a shuddering slam which actually carried Tourmaline up and over on the other end like a deadly pole-vault.

Garnet blinked three eyes at this impossibility. "And this is the one that happened. Huh."

Tourmaline landed down on her feet and instantly burst forward into a dash. Every particle of her being was focused on reaching Peridot. She was Tourmaline and her household was in danger. She dodged to the side and swung the quartz's weapon to bat another of the mounds away as her thoughts were focused into a strange tunnel-vision. It felt like there was a distant heat in her shoulder as her self pulsed with energy there. Tourmaline's free hand grabbed and pushed at cracks and ledges as she scrambled up the rubble pile. She leapt up over the top and gave one last destroying swing with the shovel-like blade at the plant mound that had been wrapping up Peridot.

She reached down to rip the vines off the smaller Gem's face. "We have get out of here! Now!"

Her hand grabbed onto Peridot's, ripping her arm free of the remaining vines as she pulled her to her feet. For once Peridot did not question her and together they sprinted as fast as they could out of the ruins of their fallen home, out across the meadow towards the concealing darkness of the forest beyond. Then they were past the first tree and still running as if it was the only thing that would prevent their shattering.

Tourmaline did not spare a single look behind to see if the fusion, Garnet, was following them. She simply held tight onto Peridot's hand and took a series of sharp turns around tree trunks, relying on the terrain to hide them from any pursuers. For those few moments the only sound was the pounding of their footsteps against the forest floor.

But Peridot's silent compliance could only last for so long. Still running, the little Gem looked up and said, "Hey Tourmaline, how the heck are you carrying that thing anyway?"

"What? I don't..." Then Tourmaline glanced to her other side where her hand grasped a ten foot long bladed weapon easily three times her total weight. She was holding it perfectly level beside her with no effort. Then, in her moment of confusion, gravity suddenly noticed what had been happening and the weapon crashed down to the earth, carrying Tourmaline with it like a feather tied to an anchor.

The pair of fleeing Gems came to an inglorious, tumbling, sliding, painful halt. Tourmaline was face down in the dirt as she heard the dull thud of Peridot rolling into a tree trunk. A quiet "Ow," followed a moment later.

Tourmaline lifted herself out of the fallen leaves and dust. She turned around and sat there on the ground carefully listening for the footsteps of the pursuing fusion or a creeping slither of those horrible plant monsters. All she could hear was a soft rustling of the trees above them and an occasional high-pitched chittering that swooped around somewhere above the leafy crowns. Tourmaline supposed all that was normal for a night on Earth, she had never before had reason to be outside the building after dark. All she could think of right now was that she suddenly felt more exhausted than she had ever been before.

Still, it didn't hurt to be cautious so she whispered to Peridot, "I think we may have gotten away."

"What the heck was that?! You could have shattered us!" Peridot did not seem to share Tourmaline's mindfulness of caution. Then Peridot coughed up a leaf and continued in a mix of petulance and hysteria, "You're supposed to be the one I listen to and stuff. Stop falling over!"

Tourmaline slowly got to her feet. Her hand found its way over to her shoulder and touched her facets. Why was she so unsteady? Reformation was not supposed to take so much energy out of her. Tourmaline had never done it before but she knew that was supposed to be true. In fact, now that she considered it she had not felt nearly this drained before the fusion had showed up. Now she just wanted to stand in place and stare at a blank wall for two days to replenish some energy.

It was very dark out here under the trees. Still, it only took Tourmaline a moment to determine which way they had come from and slowly shuffled her feet along the uneven forest floor for a few paces. The sudden painful pressure of a blade against her ankle soon told her that she had manage to find the weapon. She knelt down and wrapped her fingers around the thick haft. It was incredibly heavy once more. What had happened back there? She had been ready to be captured by monsters, there in the ruin of her purpose. Then Peridot had showed up and Tourmaline had suddenly thought of her and Ruby and...

Tourmaline froze and clapped her hand against her chest. Fear flashed through her matrix. "Ruby!"

Peridot stopped brushing dirt out of her yellow curls. "What about her?"

Tourmaline fell down to her knees and started crawling along, sweeping the ground with her hands. "She was in my vest! But then there was the fight and we were running and, and..." Her mouth stopped working and she continued to scrabble through the dirt and mulch.

"Oh." Peridots could be quick on the uptake when it was required. She turned her head, looking out at the surrounding blackness of the forest floor and the long, jostling path they had run. "Um, I'm sure it's ok. She probably just fell out right now when you tumbled. Not back at the house when you were doing all those flips in the middle of the vine monsters. Er, we'll look."

Suddenly, Tourmaline's eyes which had been straining against the darkness were blinded by the sudden blaze of a red so bright it was almost white. Still on her hands and knees, she spun around in time to see a small body begin to coalesce out of the energy emanating from the floating red Gem.

Peridot blinked. "Oh, hey. I thought I was lying."

Then Ruby's body acquire its final shape and the light winked out as the short Gem dropped to her feet.

Tourmaline cried out in relief, "Ruby!"

Ruby swiveled her head back and forth. "Tourmaline? Why can't I..." She stopped, then screamed. "I'm blind! Ah! I forgot to make eyes!"

Tourmaline could see Ruby's panicked eyes at that very moment. "What? No, Ruby-"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll destroy this body right away!" A smaller red flash accompanied the materialization of a segmented spiked helmet. Ruby plucked it off her head and held it before her in both hands, spike towards her chest. "I'll try to be quick this time. Just let me-"

"Ruby, no!" Tourmaline snatched the helmet weapon. "You have eyes! It's just dark!"

There was a moment of silence as Ruby blinked and processed what she was actually seeing. "Oh, that actually makes sense." In that instant all her panic was gone. She turned around to look at Tourmaline and Peridot. "Hey, what happened? There was a big noise and then a wall fell on me."

That took a little longer to explain, and Peridot had to chip in some effort to help stop Ruby bolting off to charge in a random wrong direction when she heard the base had been attacked. Luckily it only took a few minutes of being trussed up by Tourmaline's ribbon for Ruby to calm down again.

"I'll shatter 'em! All of them!" Well, she was calm for a Ruby.

"No," Tourmaline said. "Rose Quartz has plant monsters all around there, as well as...other things." She could not bring herself to explain the abomination Garnet just yet. "We need to hide out somewhere until the Diamonds can send a recovery team. Somewhere nearby, where we can see their ship flying in."

Peridot spoke from over where she was once more sitting against the tree trunk. "Actually, I have-"

"Hrmm, hrmm." Ruby grunted in thought. "Somewhere safe. Right."

Peridot frowned and raised her hand. "Like I said, I actually met with-"

Tourmaline stood up and looked around. The thick trees and the dark meant that that was not as helpful as she might have hoped. She still felt weak and thinking straight was difficult. "Perhaps just over a rise? Let's try to find where the elevation-"

"I already have a hiding place!" Peridot yelled. "Peridot and I found it! That's where I was taking you!"

Tourmaline and Ruby both blinked at the technician Gem. Tourmaline said, "Oh. That's good." In her own defense she was exceptionally exhausted.

Peridot grumbled to herself. "Yeah, I never lost my body like you guys. But the fight was crazy. Explosions everywhere, and weapons, and lasers! I scrambled away to the trees when no one was looking. But then I watched across the pit and saw Peridot run out of her place too. I figured out where she was heading and met her there. You see, we alway both talked a lot about this cool bunch of rocks we could see from our towers that kind of looks like a castle, so I figured that she would go there. It was a pretty impressive piece of deductive reasoning that allowed me to-"

"Wait," Tourmaline cut into what she recognized as the beginnings of a Peridot period of self congratulations. "You've been communicating with the other household's Peridot? Over the coms?"

"Uh, yeah?" she said with a laugh. "I told you guys all the time about talking with my friend. I mean, you didn't think I was just up there singing to myself and making up stories about..." Peridot saw Tourmaline and Ruby slowly exchange guilty glances. "Oh. You actually thought I was just talking to an imaginary friend. For three hundred years." She hung her head in embarrassment. "All right, you can destroy my body now and just carry me for a while. It's probably for the best."

Ruby shook her head after a moment of intense ernest consideration. "No. Don't you still need to show us where the other one of you is? I don't think we know how to find her without you."

Peridot groaned again and pressed her face down into the dirt. Tourmaline walked over and plucked her up. She dusted off the smaller Gem's hair with a gentle smile. "Good work, Peridot. Organizing this was very clever. You're in charge of leading the way until we get to your type-sister." Peridot perked up at that.

It took a moment for their small group to devise a way to carry Amethyst's weapon. Eventually they settled on Tourmaline and Ruby each taking an end to support on their shoulder, although the height difference between their two types meant that it was not the best solution. With Peridot leading the march, they set out through the dark forest night.

Ruby grunted under her portion of the weight as Tourmaline strained her arms to make sure she was not dumping the lion's share on the shorter Gem. Ruby said, "Yaigh! And you were swinging this heavy thing around at plant monsters? Tourmaline, how the heck?"

Before Tourmaline could say anything Peridot put forth her opinion. "It must have been her unique power activating. I've heard that reformation trauma has a greater chance of kickstarting abilities that didn't show up at initial harvest."

"Cool!" Ruby grinned. "Like super strength?" Then she grunted again as she shifted the hold on her half of the heavy pole-arm. "Wooof! What, did it wear off?"

Once again Tourmaline opened her mouth only to have Peridot fill it with words. "No, I would have felt an empowered strength when she was pulling me all around by the arm. She didn't feel any stronger than normal, but at the same time she was holding that big slab there in one hand. It's weird, I tell you."

A unique power, Tourmaline thought to herself. That could explain the sudden onset of exhaustion that coupled with the weapon suddenly ceasing its cooperation. She had never shown sign of a unique power before. She'd assumed that it was part of her occlusion defects, like her ribbon weapon. Besides, a Tourmaline didn't really need a power. The Sapphires could each control wind or air temperature or electricity but they were very high value Gems who could use their powers in their research. Tourmalines kept a place clean, managed decorations, and kept other common gems from falling into disorder. Shooting lighting or fire, or dashing like a Quartz would not help with that.

Still, a power. Tourmaline was not sure how she felt about that, whatever it might be. Then her fingers gripped tighter on the weapon's haft as its weight dug down into her shoulder. She still had what remained of her household. She would keep them safe, and she would use every means to do so.

The three gems walked on through an alien night filled with monsters.

...