As the sun rose and morning began, its light flooding the yard with rosy reds, gems arose from their beds and were preparing themselves for today’s duties, when suddenly a loud shattering crash echoed through the ginormous halls of the school.
That sound was what woke up Yellow Obsidian, who rushed out of his pajamas and into his uniform, dashed outside with his sword by his side, only to see his students toppled over each other, cracks webbed all over them.
“It’s only been five minutes since the sun rose and you’re already breaking apart! What happened?!” Yellow Obsidian demanded.
“Well, we were originally going to do some combat training, but Green Diamond forgot that we’re fragile compared to him, so here we are,” Onyx muttered, gesturing to a sheepish Green Diamond with his stump of an arm.
Yellow Obsidian muttered to himself about how he could have gotten more sleep had this not happened, but went ahead anyways to get the powder and resin from the infirmary. Green Diamond, still feeling guilty for breaking the others, moved to pick up everybody else’s shards, only to be stopped by Sapphire who had untangled himself from Fire Opal.
“If you’re going to handle us, at least remember to put on gloves this time!” Sapphire scolded him, pouting mostly because Green was reaching for his severed hand.
Green sighed, and instead headed inside the school to do as Sapphire asked, but not without replying back. “You also forgot to put yours on, so don’t put all the blame on me!”
A few minutes after Green Diamond came back with gloves and had placed almost everyone’s shards into spare bowls, Yellow Obsidian returned with the powder and resin, and gestured for the four of them to gather around him.
Which they did, although with shame evident on their faces.
While piecing them back together, a question came to be, so while he was gluing back on Fire Opal’s legs, he popped the question:
“Fire, have you seen your sister Blue Opal today? I haven’t seen her by the pond while getting the resin and powder.”
Fire Opal shrugged as best as he could, what with his left shoulder missing a huge chunk. “She told me that she was going to the ocean instead for her morning soak. I wouldn’t be surprised if she came back powderless this afternoon.”
This shocked Yellow. although he was quick to change into anger.
“... Has she forgotten what I said about her going under there by herself??”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As always, the ocean was a beauty to behold.
The morning sun’s generous beams shone gloriously as it illuminated the sandy terrain, decorated with corals and sea grass in such a way that made the ocean so much more lively than that small island she lived on with the others.
Blue Opal sighed happily as she watched little bubbles drift past. This wonderful little paradise’s loveliness was so wonderful, it almost made her forget that were it not for her and the wild jellyfish, it was also…
But still, she was happy, and in her mind came many fun activities to do in place of the usual patrol schedules the school so strictly abided to. Deciding that she had wandered off far enough, she plopped down on the sand, little clouds floating off as she made contact, and she sighed happily as she thought of watching the sky underwater.
“Ah, isn’t this the life? I’d probably be happy for the rest of my life if I decided to become an underwater hermit…” Blue Opal dreamily murmured to herself.
“That may not be as nice as you think it is.”
Hearing somebody else’s voice in such a (usually) empty place surprised her, and she sat up to see Obsidian standing over her with his arms crossed and an equally cross expression on his face. Feeling awkward, she did her best innocent smile, as if that would help.
“Oh, uh… Hey, Obsidian! What’re you doing here?”
At that, Obsidian’s face twisted into a terrifying grin, which was enough to squeeze a horrified yelp out of Opal as she tried to scramble away. Seeing such a normally elegant gem squawk and flap about made him laugh and drop the scary act.
“Don’t worry! If I was planning on anything malicious, I would have kidnapped you the first time we met.”
“That doesn’t really help, coming from a gem who randomly emerged from the ocean one day!!” Opal shot back, still feeling a little on edge from the scare.
Obsidian brushed away the spontaneous comment. “I’m only here because my brother told me you were missing, and knowing what little information I have of you, it was only safe to assume you’d be here of all places. How many times have we told you to not come here alone?”
Smiling gently, he reached out a hand towards Blue Opal. “Come on, let’s go back to the others. They’re waiting for you.”
Blue Opal pouted at his hand. She wanted to speak her mind, to refuse his offer and run off deeper into the ocean’s mysterious depths. But a small of her knew that it was pointless to argue with a gem who was clearly her elder by over two thousand years. And anyways, she’d probably shatter from the pressure if she went further.
So she took his offer, and trudged back to the beach where a panicking Yellow was waiting for her. As soon as he heard her wet footsteps, he broke out of the pacing mutter he had worked into and ran to Blue Opal.
“This has been the third. Time. This. Week!” He scolded as he came closer.
“I’m sorry, Yellow,” Opal tried, “but can’t I enjoy something so wonderful? Especially if it’s literally surrounding us! It’s pure torture thinking about something so tantalyzingly close! You’re going to kill me like this!”
“And what’s killing me right now is your brother and his friends in a half shattered pile!” Yellow shot back, pointing at the school.
She sighed. This early? “Whose fault is it this time? Fire, or Sapphire?”
He made a face that he rarely showed to anyone, which was when she knew something else was at hand.
“... Okay, well, that’s new.” Blue Opal said, mostly to herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A hike, a quick drying and powdering of herself, and another lecture later, she approached the newly reassembled Fire Opal and promptly splashed him with water she got from the pool.
“Hey! What was that for??” Fire exclaimed, soaked thoroughly with water that was washing off the powder he had just applied.
“Don’t think that I forgot you needed your usual soaking, so be glad that you’re not going to crack on me while we’re out on patrol,” Blue smirked back. “Because if you were planning on cracking in the middle of a sunspot attack, I’ll leave you for the Lunarians to capture.”
Hearing talk about patrol, Sapphire tossed a powdering brush back into its pot after touching up himself, and tugged Blue Opal by the wrist. “Hey, speaking of that, wanna come with me instead?”
Blue Opal raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you partnered up with Onyx already?”
“Well, yeah, but Onyx isn’t really someone I’d want to be stuck with, and I think we could both use some variety!”
She shook her head. “Nah, I think I’m better off babysitting Fire for today. Being with you two will probably give me a headache.”
“Hey!” Fire protested, wiping himself dry with a spare towel.
Sapphire pouted, but decided to give up when Fire shot him a glare. “Alright, fine. I had other plans today anyways.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Go ahead, Blue, I’m just going to go check on something,” Fire Opal said, stopping at the entrance of the school.
Blue Opal frowned, stopping in her tracks, “Are you really going to do it?”
Blue sighed, but went on ahead anyways. “Fine, but you better not trip on a stone and crack on the way!”
“Yeah, yeah,” he rolled his eyes as his sister ran off. As soon as she was gone, he headed for the armory a few turns ahead, where everyone else was waiting for him.
He could feel them watching him as he selected the best weapon, and took it off its rack. He then held it out.
“You know the drill, everyone. We’re going to need to keep a closer eye on Green if we’re going to keep Obsidian from going psycho on us.”
Everyone grumbled, but they all knew that this was important. They all knew what Obsidian had said about a fight coming, and they all knew how attached he was to Green Diamond. If anything were to happen to him, Obsidian would become even more unhinged than he was before his arrival, and nobody wanted an up-close example of it.
Just as the silence was becoming uncomfortable, Green Diamond stepped forward and reached for the sheathed sword. “I should take it.”
“And what good will that do?” Fire Opal said, “You’re the youngest of us all.”
Green gave him a firm stare, one of such determination that he couldn’t help but feel impressed.
“I know I am, but if you’d just give me a chance, I might be able to protect myself.”
“Might,” he stressed.
“But I’m tired of being protected by everyone without the chance to do something myself. I don’t want to be in the background anymore. I want to help.”
“... Fine,” Fire sighed, pressing the sword into Green Diamond’s hands, “But you better be careful.”
Green Diamond nodded, his hands firmly gripping the sheathed weapon.
With that settled, they all headed for the Cape of Void, nabbing Blue Opal on the way who was sitting on a boulder, waiting for them.
Standing on the cliff was Yellow Obsidian, his sword firmly planted onto the ground. His hair and clothes fluttered dramatically as they approached him.
He opened his mouth to greet them, only to be pierced by a Lunarian arrow.
They all could only watch in shock as he fell to the ground, the arrow still lodged in his chest.
“Guys, look up!” Onyx yelled, whipping out his sword like he had done so many times before, and they all readied themselves as a sunspot spread its inky tendrils through the sky.
Ten spokes. A powerful Lunarian barrage was about to rain down on them.
“Obsidian was right,” Fire Opal said, “This is going to be a big fight.”
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