Ah, and she was back to routine. No response, no reaction. Lars almost shouted at her, but he bit back his words as he heard a creak. Frantically, he instinctively pushed his arms out to stabilize himself, but it was no use midair. As he reached for something, anything, he nearly lost his grip on the destabilizer. The moment snapped him back to focus, and he quickly tightened both his hands into fists.
The ship was moving. And Lars instantly knew he was out of the loop on something. Zircon had a plan, and she wasn’t letting it slip. He wouldn’t get her to break by his normal means. She wasn’t Emerald. She was a Zircon. A lawyer gem. If she was anything like a lawyer back on Earth, she wouldn’t easily let information slip. She knew how to keep her mouth shut. No, Lars had been going about the situation completely wrong.
Teasing her wasn’t the solution. Reasoning was.
If he could just convince her that he’d given up, that he would tell her anything, he could take the moment to learn and examine. Perhaps he’d end up digging himself into another hole, but it had to be better than whatever she was planning to do with him now.
As Lars floated further and further into the following room, he watched silently as his body rotated to where he was once again facing Zircon. If he tried to reason now, it would be too obvious. No, it would be clear he was just trying to worm his way out of the situation, there would be no reason for her to believe anything he said. And besides, she wouldn’t believe him with his fist still around her destabilizer—-
Lars glanced down to the gem weapon in his hand before looking back up at Zircon. She was summoning screens. He could tell by the concentration on her face that she was readying something. She was preparing a trump card. He didn’t need to hit, he just had to disrupt that concentration. Get the destabilizer out of his hands, make him seem vulnerable. Ruin her plans, flip the script. It was killing two birds with one stone.
Lars took a deep breath and launched the weapon at Zircon.
{ There- There it is. The moment she had been watching for like a hawk. The split second she’d been needing to proceed. The rogue was right where she wanted him. The exact location that was necessary before she would move. With a confident, almost mocking grin, the Starlite Zircon throws down one of the many screens summoned down to her feet, pushing off and soaring off towards the door in the zero-gravitational atmosphere. }
{ She’s almost there. The lawyer can feel it. She’s mere seconds, mere inches away from sending this lanky life form into space. Success is just within her grasp. It’s then that her mind seems to kick into a growing state of adrenaline and suspense. “You’ve done it,” It insists, “You’ve won. This is it; you’re holding victory in your hands.” The thought of triumph through her plans seems to bring an exquisitely smug glimmer to her eye. However, it doesn’t last as long as she hoped it would. }
{ Just as quickly as success had been offered to her, it’s taken away in the form of a gem destabilizer being chucked in her direction. She doesn’t catch sight of it until it’s too late. Her peripherals locate an object containing immense electricity heading in her direction, her cocky smile almost instantaneously dropping. This mishap has broken her focus at the worst of times. }
{ Her hand slips across the door controls by mistake as she frantically attempts to do something about the destabilizer before it hits her. Oh, just her luck. Just as things appear to be looking up, one little component has to go and mess it all up. Everything that happens next happens too quickly for her to process. }
{ She tugs the screen with the transmission to her pilot up in front of her form in a crude attempt to block and push back the gem weapon that’s been chucked at her. Just in time. There’s a loud, sickening crack as the holographic slate just barely manages to save her poor fragile form from the tips of the destabilizer; the screen now had a large yellow crack in the center and the sharp ends of the weapon lodged into it, causing it to fizzle and crumble away. Destabilized. Gone. }
{ With that out of the way, she grabs the destabilizer by the hilt and points it accusingly towards the Captain floating near her. She’s begun to shout. }
~{ “ WHAT IN THE EVERLIVING LENGTHS AND DEPTHS OF THE COSMOS DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING-?! “ }~
{ She doesn’t get to finish that thought before a familiar clicking and unhatching sound creaks out from the hatch of the door behind her, snapping her rudely back to the current situation at hand. }
{ She hit the door controls in her frantic movements to stop the weapon from hitting herself. Now, not only is the human in the range of the door, but she is as well. In the brief panic and realization, her body goes numb and her mind goes still. She can’t think. She can’t speak. She’s frozen, frozen in place like some sort of ice statue. There’s no longer a single trace, nor speck of pride left to the eye in her expression; such emotions have been dwindled down into nothing. Now? Now, the attorney was feeling something completely different. Fear. Unbridled, pure, absolute horror. She’d messed up. She’d made a huge mistake. }
{ Truly, she was correct in telling herself not too long ago that fateful statement, that single claim; she truly is the unluckiest Zircon in the galaxy. No Zircon she knew, besides herself, ever experienced the troubles she had to face. No Zircon had been sent to defend a case that was basically the equivalent of a death sentence. No Zircon knew what it was like to be in space on a ship that only had one of themselves and a Peridot as its only defense.No Zircon was aware of what it felt like to be found and sought out by these space rogues, nor would they ever encounter a human that was so determined to win no matter what the costs. No Zircon would ever know how it feels to have everything ripped from you in a single moment. }
{ . . . Zircon’s gem has grown cold. }
