My Little Universe II

by EquestrianKirin

With my Tanks

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DIDN'T WORK?!" Grogar roared.
The Ram's roars and bellows rattled even the bravest of followers just moments after Bray and Budgerite had returned to him at base. Of course the two would give them news about Garnet returning AND the Yaks becoming potential allies to Equestria, and of course Grogar was NOT pleased with any of it. Bray and Budgerite kept at least a few feet of distance between themselves and the tyrannical killer Ram, shaken right down to their very core.

"I don't know what happened," Budgerite stuttered, "We did what ya said, but SOMEHOW they still got their way! Maybe they knew what we were up to?"

"Or maybe you two didn't try hard enough," Grogar accused, "All you two had to do is ruin the day for them all. THAT'S IT. And you IDIOTS can't even do that right?"

"W-We did, we did, my lord," Bray said, hunkered down like a submissive dog, even crawling like a worm towards him, "We poisoned their cupcakes, we left a record player backstage, I nearly got caught doing -"

"SHUT UP!" Grogar demanded, whacking the mule square across the face.

"I didn't ask for excuses, I asked for results. And THIS is all you got for me?"

"We've … do our best," Bray gulped, still dizzy from the hit until after shaking his head. Not a good enough answer for the Ram apparently, as the king took another step forward, his large hoof nearly stepping on top of the donkey and Gem duo.

"Then your best isn't good enough. Is it?"

"... No," Budgerite and Bray muttered.

"So you two will go back there, won't you."

"Yes sir. …"

"And you will do better."

"Yes sir. …"
Bray and Budgerite had their orders, and Grogar just turned away from them, letting them live for yet another day. With the rest of his higher captains and commanders not too far away, managing to hear the whole ordeal off nearby by Grogar, this got them into thinking a bit about it themselves. And unfortunately for Grogar, there was a bit of questioning between Nichrome, Tempest, and one of the higher-ranking bear guards.

"You know, why're we even bothering so much with these Gems in the first place?" the bear guard wondered, "I mean, we had Tambalon already at their Homeworld, we didn't have to leave."

"That's a good question," agreed Tempest after pondering somewhat on the subject, "And some of these Gems, enemies or not, actually seemed somewhat decent."

"Those decent Gems are responsible for the death of my brother, Tempest!" Nichrome retorted. "Remember that before you run your furry mouth."

"And I'm a captain too, Captain Nichrome," retorted back Tempest, "So remember that before you run yours!"
Before either Nichrome or Tempest could go into another fight, the bear commander spoke up again.

"It's not even about them. We all know why we're here: it's Grogar," the bear pointed out.

"What of him?" Nichrome hissed. The bear would answer the captain, but he didn't have much time to, and speak of the devil decided to come over and see what was up.

"Are you questioning my authority?" Grogar questioned, his voice in a guttural rumble almost. Nichrome spun around fast to see Grogar standing just behind him. Nichrome took a few steps away from him, but Grogar won't let him have his space, making him fall onto his back.

"S-Sir, n-n-n-no never I wouldn't dare!"

"I'm not blind, Nichrome. I heard you. You got concerns, now's the time to tell me. NOW," Grogar ordered. Nichrome's eyes darted around for someone's help, but they weren't going to do anything. Nichrome, both scared of Grogar and mad about what Tempest said, took a breath before talking to him.

"Tempest has doubts about your authority sir, she just started questioning why we're even after - aaack" Grogar pressed his hoof down on Nichrome's neck, squishing it like goo somewhat, "alright, alright! … I said it."

"Why?" Grogar demanded.

"Because … because …"

"Well?"

Nichrome went for broke, "They're responsible for the death of my brother, sir! They've been given good luck, and it's only a matter of time before they succeed. And you haven't done anything to help!"

That last part didn't even mean to come out, but Nichrome didn't stop it from doing so. EVERYONE was thinking it, Nichrome just said it. As for Grogar, he could feel his teeth grind in his jaws, but strangely he didn't decide to cut off Nichrome's head. He already lost one captain after all, he couldn't afford to lose another one right now. He stepped off of Nichrome and turned away, and all that came out was ...

"Out of here," Grogar growled, his voice low and almost trembling.

"Sir?"

"NOW! OR I'LL KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"

That roar was enough to make Nichrome turn tail and make a run away from him. He can afford to just stay away from him for a while longer if it meant surviving. Everyone else in attendance, while unnerved, stayed where they were. None of them would dare come over to him at the state he was in, but Tempest Shadow actually had the bravery to take a few steps towards him where nobody else would.

"All this shouting and running," Tempest said, "It'd be better to actually talk about this instead of letting it brew."

Grogar would jump her for insubordination, but he was already left so confused as it is without thinking of how to kill Tempest right now. Grogar dug his hooves into the dirt at what he was going to say.

"I had him, Tempest. He. Was. Right. There. But that d - … that dra - ..."

"We know, we saw the Dragon coming towards Canterlot before we arrived. We tried to find you and warn you, but seems we were too late to-"

His song finally ended with a giant blast aimed right into the sky above him. The lighting shooting out of Grogar's horns branched out in all directions like branches off a dead tree, skewering the sky as if it too was one of Grogar's targets. Everyone around him didn't want to get struck by any of this lightning, moving back a bit as one of the strikes struck down where "Steven" once was standing. The lightning itself lasted a good twenty seconds straight until Grogar finally calmed down, having a seat and a groan escaping his muzzle.

"You know … that's the first time I sang anything. … Not bad," Grogar commented, after getting it all out.

"Did you get everything out of your system, sir?" Tempest asked.

"For now," Grogar said, though not sounding as angry as he was just moments ago. "... There's still one thing that bothers me about that kid."

Tempest then got an idea. "Can I suggest something then?"

"Depends on what it is, Tempest."

"Then why don't you go and find out. We'll show them all one by one just what power you have with you, my lord. We'll go after each team, take them down one by one. Now, I can't guarantee it'll work out as well, but if it does, you'll have everything you'll ever need by the end of the week."
Grogar was silent for a minute or two.

"... If this does work. Then you'll have your horn by the end of the week. How's that, captain?" Grogar said, his smirk actually appearing on his face on the idea. The strongest motivation Tempest ever had for even being in this army of monsters and beings, and now Tempest could possibly get that goal at last.

"T-Thank you, sir."

"Now don't thank me yet, you still have that plan of yours to do," Grogar stated before turning to the rest of his army, "You all heard her, troops! Vacation's over, it's time to get back to work! Tempest Shadow's gonna be in charge of the plans, so you all lend your ear to her while I'm gone! CLEAR?!"
There was an applause coming from everyone soon after that. For a moment, Tempest actually was surprised at what power Grogar just gave her: the potential power of her horn AND the current power of an entire army behind her. Grogar, after making that announcement, turned and began to go off on his way. He had his own plans to do, and wasn't gonna waste anytime in doing them same as Tempest wasn't wasting anytime in hers.

Only Nichrome really wasn't happy about any of it, keeping behind the crowd so Grogar wouldn't see his scowl. It'd be suicide to try and defy her now though, especially with Grogar already nearly killing him, so all he could do was slink away. He had to do SOMETHING to win Grogar's graces, but what?

With a flash from the Warp Pad, and Flint and Bismuth got themselves to their destination of choice. The Strawberry Battlefield was their best shot in finding Amethyst given what information they got, thanks to Steven's handiwork in notes, so naturally these two would check there first for their purple renegade. The battlefield itself still looked like it wasn't used much since Jasper set up training there though.

"Amethyst! Hessonite!" Flint called. But there wasn't much sign of either of them anywhere they could see. No Tank, no Gems, just fields of strawberries and stray weaponry.

"Nothing here. Bismuth, how're you managing? … Bismuth?" Flint was met with some silence as Bismuth was looking around the Strawberry Battlefield herself. For trying to find Amethyst and a Tank, Bismuth actually looked pretty content as she looked around the whole field with a smile on her face. A bit of satisfaction, maybe.

"Bismuth, did you see them or not?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Flint, wasn't listening. Eh no, nothing over here," Bismuth replied. The blacksmith then started going down a nearby hillside into the fields of fruit and metal, Flint following along not too far behind, still trying to find some sign of Amethyst or Hessonite somewhere in the Battlegrounds. Bismuth eventually spoke again as they stopped over by a left-behind shield.

"You know, there's something satisfying about seeing all this," Bismuth said at one point.

"Satisfying?"

"Sure. Look around you: we are both standing on the same ground the Crystal Gems fought their final true battle against Homeworld in the Gem War! Flint, this is history right here, you don't even know."

"Bismuth, we're trying to find Amethyst, not sight-see," Flint reminded.

"I know, but doesn't mean we can't look around some -" Bismuth paused when she looked away from the shield, "No way. That's NOT still here!"

"What, the tank?" Flint asked.

"NO, check this out!" Bismuth said, going over to a rather deeply-covered weapon amongst the lot, this one specifically having a rather dull-looking, yet prominently blue handle. One easy pull from the bushes, and soon Bismuth was holding a Halberd in hand, holding it with pride and standing it on end. It even had the same markings engraved on it, the blade dirty but still sharpen.

"It's a spear," Flint remarked.

"Not just any spear, this is a Pluto tundra Halberd M5! HA! Snowflake's gonna tumble her rocks when she sees this. She used to go ALL OUT with this thing," Bismuth said, very glad to see the weapon still in one piece and, surprisingly, still usable as she did a few practice swings with it.

"Very nice, but can we focus please?" Flint insisted. Bismuth jabbed the sharp end of the halberd into the ground and leaned on it, looking to Flint with a smug look.

"I thought one rock said he's gonna be more loose from now on," Bismuth said.

"I am, really, but not now. And why're you so excited anyway, you've been here tons of times before," Flint pointed out.

"And there's still something I didn't see yet. THIS is thousands of years of my work all over this field, each one used by each Gem showing they mean Bismuth! It's literally memory lane to me."

"OH right, you made all the weapons here," Flint remembered.

"You bet your facet they are! My stars, I just wished I could've seen their best work out in the field," Bismuth said, wondering just how great her handiwork did in their prime. Flint though seemed a little bit puzzled with that comment. In fact, much of Bismuth's talk seemed only a little bit confusing given what they do know now with … well, you-know-who, with you-know-what.

"Uh, Bismuth -"

*rumble*

The ground rumbled ever so softly, and a bit slow at first but as the object grew closer and closer, it started to shake and shutter more and more violently, Bismuth and Flint lucky to stay standing it shook so much. As for what was actually making the Earth shake under their feet, they only needed to look out to the horizon, pass at least a mile or two down the Strawberry Battlefield to see something moving around. Like a large outcrop or hill moving on its own, and no it wasn't one of the floating islands dragging along the ground.

"We found her," Flint answered.
BOY did they find her. Hessonite wasn't joking about giving Amethyst something to use, but the "Tank" she had in mind was beyond was any of them were expecting. Hessonite did tell them a Tank, but the tank that she meant, for one thing, was absolutely massive! It was more akin to a moving base than any normal tank, easily the size of the Beach City Water Tower. The exterior of the vehicle made the sunlight bounce off its crystalline shell. HUGE wheels grinded the ground below the large vehicle, squashing numerous Strawberries and a few of the remaining weapons along the ground (much to Bismuth's dismay).

"HEY! That's our victory you're running over!" Bismuth shouted angrily, but the giant Tank didn't stop. Seeing this, Bismuth immediately acted on it and got right in front of the battle-ready vehicle, getting her strength together and gripping the Tank tight.

"STOP MOVING!" Bismuth groaned, her feet digging into the dirt and her hands digging into the Crystal Tank. Bismuth's strength was just enough to keep the Crystal Tank from moving forward, its wheels still digging into the ground but not moving anywhere any further. Flint knew she was strong, but this was impressive even for her. The Crystal Tank's silver wheels did finally stop moving, giving Bismuth a chance to breathe. The two then heard a hatch open up on the very top of the tank (which by the way was very small in comparison to the tank).

"Alright who's ruining my good time out here?!" shouted a voice from the very top of the Crystal Tank. Bismuth stepped away from the front of said tank as she and Flint looked to the very top just to see someone hop out to look down to them.

"We are, Amethyst!" called Flint, "What're you doing?"

"And why're you dressed up like that? Getting into the old days?" added Bismuth. Amethyst slid down the side of the crystalline Tank, landing down in front of Bismuth and Flint.

"What's wrong with the look? I look cool," Amethyst said, tipping her hat, "Looking like a legit general with this."

"Right. And, uh, the tank?"

"OOHH yeah, check it out!" Amethyst said, jumping up on one of the giant Tank's wheels to better show it to them. Just standing on the wheel made Amethyst easily seem like she was standing on some house roof it was so tall.

"Hessonite gave me my own battle tank!" Amethyst revealed (as if it wasn't obvious already), "Just look at this babe!! A full-sized Stonecruizer 2000 Crystal Tank. I didn't even know that's a thing now!"

"Yes, we can see that," Flint said, "It's what you're doing with that thing that's concerning me."

"I'm giving her a little test drive," Amethyst said, patting the side of the giant tank of hers. "You think I'm just gonna ditch this thing after getting it? OH, you two gotta check this out!"

Eager to show off her new favorite toy, Amethyst hopped up to the top hatch and wasting no time in going right inside of it. After closing up the hatch, Flint and Bismuth saw the giant tank start to come to life again after a few short seconds, but instead of actually moving, the front of the vehicle started to extend near the front, opening up what appeared to be a tank barrel.
It took even less time for the Crystal Tank to fire, sending a huge blast of energy out of its gun, zooming passed Bismuth and Flint and finding its target on a nearby floating island. The island EXPLODED in a huge mess of rock and vines, whatever magical energy keeping it up being blasted completely as the rest of it landed down hard onto the ground.

That could've been them.

After that she showed off another extra trick to this tank: a projection screen emitting from the top of the Tank, showing Amethyst sitting comfortably inside of her rig.

"Awesome right?" called Amethyst. They needed to shake off the shock before they could answer.

"Watch where you're shooting, Amethyst! You'll shatter the whole battlefield," Bismuth said. Hard enough seeing her crush everything with that thing, she didn't need to see it get blasted too. Amethyst could see where she shot, but she didn't seem that worried about it.

"I just shot an island, big B, no biggie. It's not like I never did this before."

"But you never did this before," Flint said.

"Nah man, I got this. Hess talked me through the ropes. Besides, who's gonna cry over a few shots?" Amethyst questioned, leaning back and kicking her legs up on the dash of the control room.

"Do you even know where you are right now? What you're wrecking is the site of the biggest victory the Crystal Gems ever got, and you're going around like it's no big deal! I know how fun it is to have a new weapon believe me, but Amethyst, you got to watch it," Bismuth explained. Amethyst paused briefly, looking as if she was legitimately surprised by this information, but this quickly dropped.

"Come on, it's not THAT bad. I'm planning on moving out of here anyway, so you don't have to see your "battlefield" blown up completely."

Moving out? Now Flint was starting to get concerned.

"Wait, where're you going after this?" Flint asked.

"I'm gonna show the rest of the gang this thing back home. Just think: Amethyst the Battle-ready blaster! It's got a good ring to it -"

"You can't!" Flint suddenly shouted, "You do that and you're going to run over everything. That's not a toy you're using!"

"Geesh, tell me something I don't know. If you don't wanna watch me, that's your business. I'm gonna keep up my test driving," Amethyst said, before cutting the projection screen short. Flint could feel a cold shiver run through his body on the idea of that Tank plowing through Little Homeworld, and before any of them could stop her, the Crystal Tank was already beginning to move forward again.

"NOOO!" Bismuth shouted, but this time it was a little too late to save the weaponry in front of her, as the Crystal Tank plowed through and on its way to who knows where. All that Bismuth saw now was a bunch of crushed metal. Not even the shield looked good to use, bent up and crumbled thanks to the Crystal Tank's wheels.

"I spent days on every single one of these. How can she just DO THAT?!" Bismuth exclaimed, tightening her grip on a broken piece of an axe.

"Forget about the weapons, Bismuth, we got bigger problems," Flint said, seeing the Crystal Tank going off further out of sight. "Come on, we gotta talk some sense into her."

"I'll give her sense alright," Bismuth managed to say, getting up and being forced to abandon the wrecked material to join Flint in running after Amethyst. Despite being a Tank and being so huge, it actually was moving at a decent speed. Flint and Bismuth had to keep running just to make sure they were with the Crystal Tank, and whether or not Amethyst knew they were doing this she wasn't stopping. Occasionally she would blast the Crystal Tank's weaponry, leaving other islands as a bunch of rubble as more were grinded up in the wheels, not to mention a LOT of strawberries being crushed as well.

"If she wasn't already Rejuvenated, I'd give her a LOT more talk after this," Bismuth said, though she was still getting upset with Amethyst for acting so careless.

"Do you know how to get in there?"

"The same way Amethyst got in there - right at the top."

"Of course it is. Come on, let's go!"
Running alongside the whole vehicle, Flint was the first one to try and get to the top of the giant Crystal Tank, jumping up onto the top of one of the Tank's grinding wheels. With all the strawberry juice though, Flint found himself more trying to balance on top of the moving wheel rather than climbing, slipping on the red liquid seconds after getting on. Bismuth played it smart and just climbed up from the sides instead of using the wheels for leverage, her pickaxe hands digging into the sides of it. Flint tried to get his footing, and he would've fallen under the wheels if Bismuth didn't grab him and pulled him up first.
A good save. Bismuth threw him upward to a more flattened area of the giant Tank, giving them a moment to regather themselves.

"We know you can hear us in that moving boulder, Amethyst! Get outta that thing, or we'll show ya how much we mean business!" Bismuth shouted. Flint actually looked surprised.

"She didn't say "Bismuth" that time," he breathed. You KNOW she ain't playing nice if she wasn't cracking jokes now. Amethyst though wasn't gonna take kindly to these two messing with her fun.

"You ain't my boss! I'm my own boss!" Amethyst shouted, presumably through some speakers from inside the Crystal Tank. The barrel of the Crystal Tank's largest gun suddenly started to spin around, the barrel striking Bismuth square in the stomach. The Blacksmith was alright, but the hit swung her right off of the Crystal Tank, sending her into a strawberry patch. Bismuth shook off the strawberry juice from her hair, bringing out both hands as axe blades. But while Bismuth flew off of the Crystal Tank, as Amethyst checked where she went …

"That'll show ya. … Wait. Wasn't there two of them?" Amethyst wondered.

Then the hatch suddenly opened up on it's own! Amethyst found herself freaking out after seeing that, even moreso when she felt something grab her by the hair and pull her out of the Crystal Tank like a scene from some ghost film. Amethyst yelped, holding onto her head and suddenly she got her whip out and started to just go to town on whatever got a hold of her. This of course made the Tank stop moving.

"BRING IT, INVISIBO! BRING IT!" Amethyst shouted, kicking and punching.

"Stop flailing, Amethyst," said Flint. Amazing how quick a camo cloak can be active, and now that he got hold of Amethyst he felt at least the Crystal Tank was under some form of control. The Crystal Tank may have stopped moving, and Amethyst stopped, but this didn't last too long …

*BAM!*
It only took a maximum of three seconds for what occurred next. One moment Flint was standing on top of the Crystal Tank with Amethyst in hand, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, his head in a Strawberry, and something standing on top of him. Flint looked right upward, straight up the end of a particular French Rapier. And the Gem that got this whole thing started in the first place was, once again, standing on top of him.

"Flint," said Hessonite.

"Hessonite," Flint managed to say before Hessonite got off of him. Bismuth only now got back to her own feet and readied to get back into the game, but Hessonite was already aware of her, throwing her Rapier like a spear and stopping Bismuth at her feet.

"You the one that gave Amethyst that boulder?" Bismuth asked up front.

"Boulder?" Hessonite questioned, "THAT, my dear, is the state-of-the-art Stonecruizer 2000 Crystal Tank. I thought you of all Gems would know that."
Before this conversation could continue, they began to hear a bit of coughing off nearby, as Amethyst pulled herself out of the ground too, spitting out some dirt and cold leaves, not to mention some strawberry seeds. The lunge was quick, but not as calculative as Hessonite would like as the Gem Admiral helped Amethyst to her feet.

"Where'd you even get that? We didn't recall you using the Warp," Flint questioned.

"A Gem has her ways. Now what I want to know is why you're jumping in on Amethyst's trial run? If you all wanted a turn with it, all you had to do is ask," Hessonite questioned.

"Yeah, what's with you?" Amethyst asked, shaking off some gunk from her hair.

"Look I get you wanna have fun, but look at what you're doing!" Bismuth said, as she pulled out a destroyed spear from the bottom of the Tank's wheel "LOOK at all these weapons you just wrecked! You think these come cheap?"

"So touchy," Hessonite remarked, "These weapons hadn't been used in thousands of years. They're just laying around, growing all … rusty!"

"So what if they are, that means you get to just crumble them up? They still got some fight in them!" growled Bismuth. Bismuth even grabbed a large battle axe nearby, showing it off to Hessonite. It still looked somewhat old, but that was just fine to Bismuth.

"HA! Now tell me any axe that's still looking sharp after thousands of years! I bet I can still cut up a good warship with this baby," Bismuth said confidently, swinging it around a bit, and even managing to get a clean cut on some bushes, leaving a very fine (albeit angled) cut.

… Only for Hessonite to slice it to pieces. She barely broke a sweat, her Rapier hardly even remotely dirty, as the Battle Axe now laid in heaps on the ground.

"HEY!!!"

"It's just an axe, Bismuth, what's the big deal?" Amethyst said, angry still over what they were trying to do. Hessonite gave Amethyst a pat on the head.

"Let's not blame her too much, Amethyst. She probably made these weapons herself, and is just a bit ticked that no one likes her work anymore."

"You're right: I did make all these weapons! Each and every one, and I KNOW they're still as good now as they were back fighting YOU!" Bismuth made clear. It was hard to tell if this was pride talking out of Bismuth or legit anger at how little they care about the war anymore, but regardless Hessonite and Amethyst were just getting bugged if anything.

"They could use some extra work then."

NOW she did it.

"What did you say?" Bismuth questioned, looking ready to explode at this point. Hessonite found it amusing that Bismuth thought she could best her in a fight, tossing her cape back with a smirk.

"And work on some polishing too. These weapons won't suit any Quartz at all in this state."

"You're asking for it!" Bismuth had enough of this. Wrecking a historical landmark of the Gem War, wrecking her weapons, and now mocking her right in her face - it was more than she could take! However, a fight was going to have to wait, and Amethyst finally got herself in between.

"ALRIGHT ALREADY!" Amethyst shouted, "If you're gonna go all psycho about it, I'll stop wrecking the place! Will that make you people happy?"

"Not until I hear an apology," Bismuth said, glaring at Hessonite. Hessonite cleared her throat and ...

"I'm sorry."

… Well that was quick.

"O-Oh. W-Well good! Just quit wrecking the history in this place, ok?" Bismuth huffed, really blind-sided by the very quick apology.

"We'll find a new training area tomorrow. This place is overgrown anyway with all of these … "strawberries". They're leaving stains all over Amethyst's priceless Tank," Hessonite remarked, making sure she wasn't standing in some of the juices left behind by the fruit. That was probably the best Bismuth was going to get with her, so for the sake of it she didn't push it more than she had to.

"Well ain't that a problem," Bismuth commented. After that was calmed down though, Flint had one more question to ask her.

"Hessonite, one more thing. Amethyst mentioned something about "showing off" her Crystal Tank to Little Homeworld. We can't have that Tank that close to the public."

Hessonite was starting to get a bit huffy herself.

"I can't do this, I can't do that. What can I do?" Hessonite questioned.

"You can train with the Crystal Tank, just not anywhere where it can hurt anyone," Flint concluded. Hessonite thought that the Strawberry Battlefield seemed appropriate, but apparently that wasn't gonna be happening thanks to Bismuth. That didn't mean there wasn't a loop hole in Flint's proposal, to which Hessonite easily found after a quick thought or two.

"Very well, if you're so insistent about it. On one condition."

"OH NO, We're not falling for that, you're already ticking me off!" Bismuth made perfectly clear. Hessonite ignored that and just went on her talk anyway.

"We're in the middle of our trial run here. If you don't mind, the least you can possibly do is let her finish her run here. Have some decency," Hessonite said.

"Why you -"

"Deal. Go on Amethyst," Flint cut in. Bismuth froze when she heard that. Seemed Flint had his own idea here, and Hessonite would rather take his word over Bismuth's. Once that was taken care of, Amethyst looked back up to the giant Tank.

"Sweetness. You rock, Hess!" Amethyst said.

"Oh! Oh, think nothing of it," Hessonite said "modestly", as the geeked Amethyst went straight back up and back into her tank for some more fun for the day. She had one day, might as well make the best of it. Hessonite went off on her way, disappearing before Bismuth could get her. Bismuth and Flint both heard the Crystal Tank start to move again.

"Why're you letting them go? I COULD'VE STOPPED THEM!" Bismuth shouted.

"Hey, easy! We're here to make sure she doesn't cause trouble, so that's what -"

"YOU'RE doin!" Bismuth cut in, "I will NOT watch her go around and just walk all over this place like it's some sandbox!"

"Don't do this, Bismuth, you're in over your head!" Flint said, starting to worry. But Bismuth was not going to take this sitting down, her hammers ready to fight.

"Oh I'm doin it. Now you either help me, or get outta my way, I'm saving what Battlefield's left -" Bismuth was cut short when Flint swung his leg out and actually made the blacksmith trip over her feet, her slamming onto the ground before she could even take a step.

"BISMUTH, it's just some tools, it's just a field!" Flint insisted.

"WHAT?! You're talking like that too? This is a historical battleground for the Crystal Gems -"

"No it's not! It's just a field of Strawberries that HAPPEN to mark the end of a war that didn't need to happen, remember?!" Flint reminded. Bismuth tried to think of a rebuttal, but wasn't that dense to see that Flint had his own priorities in place too. HIS worry was about who, not what. Bismuth eventually got back to her feet, wiping off some of the snow off of her chest.

"If you don't wanna help, then fine, but I'm going to get what I can before she turn it all into granite," Bismuth decided, going on her way to catch up with the Crystal Tank. All Flint could do was stand there, honestly feeling a bit uneasy himself and not just about Amethyst's giant Tank. After all, he thought the Gem War was all behind them now …

Throughout the rest of the day, it was mainly a waiting game for Flint as he waited for Bismuth and Amethyst to be finished. Bismuth kept herself busy throughout the day, but rather than fight off Amethyst's advances she was keeping her focus on getting all of the weapons out of the Crystal Tank's way, salvaging whatever was left and keeping it in a nearby pile, which itself by day's end was easily the height of a car. Well, counting the smaller weapons only that is. Hessonite and Amethyst kept themselves busy too, namely Amethyst testing out the tank on whatever she pleased as Hessonite gave her some pointers time and again along with some targets for her to practice on.
By the time sunset came around was when Bismuth took a break from following the Crystal Tank around, not as mad as earlier mainly just because of what she managed to get out of the tank's way.

"There. That's uh one, two, three - thirty seven pieces saved. Not bad for one day," Bismuth said, though it was mostly to herself. Flint simply gave a *hmm* to her, staring off out in the field of the winter strawberry patches. Bismuth took a moment to relax herself, though there was a bit of a quiet moment between Flint and Bismuth. He couldn't see any sign of where Amethyst was at this point, but with all the time going by with him doing so little whatever damage she had done was … done.

"How's the view? You've been staring out all day," Bismuth asked, breaking the ice.

"It's fine …" Flint replied. Silence hung in the air again. Bismuth knew why, looking back to the weapon pile she'd been working on all day. Time to be the bigger Gem.

"Hey. Sorry you had to see that earlier. Things kinda got away from me," Bismuth said. Flint somehow knew it would get to this point.

"Don't worry about it, really. It's over, it happened, no one got hurt. It's fine," Flint replied, again making it short. Again silence in the air. Well Bismuth said what she needed to say, at least for the moment, so she started walking away again.

"Right … I'm just going to get some more weapons then," Bismuth said. Flint stayed quiet, hearing the blacksmith continue off to get some more things. It wasn't very long until Flint found himself alone again.

Then his eyes went over to the weapon pile. At first the pile didn't bother him, but the more he looked at it, the more he began to feel curious. Not like he had anything better to do, plus Bismuth got quite the collection gathered up anyway so odds were something was bound to intrigue Flint.
After Bismuth was completely gone, he went over towards the pile. Hands behind his back, he began to scope out what was in the pile like someone would check a statue or piece of art: casual, but observant all the same. A dozen shields, some swords of varying types, a spear or two, and other assortment of weapons salvaged and saved from the looming titan of a Tank. He looked it from the front, along the sides, and checked out the back, basically going around in a circle at least once to get the full extent of the pile. He seen them all before …

All but one.

"What's this?" Flint wondered. One of these weapons did not look like a medieval device like the swords, spears and such he was checking out. It stuck out just enough to show it was different, but hidden just enough in there that it took some investigating. It took a few tugs to get the device out of the pile, it turning out to be something a bit more modern than he expected. It was twice as long as his typical Gem pistol he would use, appearing like a crossbow in a way.
Flint took his time with this piece of work, holding it and examining the details on it. It had the standard details for a Crossbow, a shade of seagreen along the main body of the Crossbow, with the actual bow almost looking like just a "attachment" to the device, sort of like how Bismuth made attachments to Garnet's gauntlet gloves or Pearl's Spear to make a trident.

"Is it the bow itself that's the attachment?" Flint wondered. For the heck if it, he started posing with the weapon, as if ready to fire it, really trying to get the feel of it. It took a few try-out poses to get the handle on it, Flint just about ready to actually shoot the thing and see how well it can work.

"See you found one of my crossbows."

Flint jumped hearing Bismuth's voice again, the blacksmith strolling back with another shield of hers, though luckily it wasn't enough to make Flint drop the Crossbow.

"It's actually pretty interesting. White had a few of these too when training us, but I never got the chance to use one. It looks surprisingly new too," Flint remarked, eyeing down the crossbow for a bit, as if focusing on a target. Bismuth smirked.

"Yeah, I try to keep up with the later stuff at the time," Bismuth explained, Flint giving her the crossbow back as she held it for a minute, "... You know, I still remembered when she first tried it."

"She? Who's she?"

"We had this Citrine on our side, and she wanted so bad for something that more like Earth, something authentic you know. So I got a few stones together, some metals, and next thing I knew, Citrine's shooting arrows all across the field. Heh. She was so psyched she was to first tried this, you have no idea."
Flint took a second to thought about how she would act. Probably all starry eyed like Steven used to do, but who could really say other than Bismuth how she actually reacted. Bismuth looked over to the weapon pile again, this time with a soft smile. Flint then spotted something else from the pile, pulling it out to show Bismuth.

"What story is behind this shield?" Flint then asked. Bismuth then saw a rather impressive looking shield that, while matching the shape of Pink Diamond's rounded out shield, had its own kind of markings along the rimming and was a more dullish blue. Plus there was a bit of an odd shape to it, as if it was dented or something.

"Oh yeah! You're not holding just a shield there. Here, let's see if it still works," Bismuth said. Flint, curious in his usual way, gave it to Bismuth to see what it can do. Bismuth held the so-called shield in her hand for a bit, rallying her arm up, and then tossed it like a frisbee as hard as she could. Flint expected it to just fly off in the distance, but then after a bit, it actually began to turn somewhat, and soon, it began to fly right on back and right into Bismuth's hands.

"HAHA! What do ya know! It still flies back," Bismuth said with a grin.

"So it's not a shield then," Flint concluded.

"Eh, it's a mix of both: you can expand it to block of blasts -" she held a part of it and stretched it out to make the signature round shape. "- or you can keep it angled and fly it at anything you want. Man, ol' Crazy Lace always had trouble with this babe."
Bismuth chuckled on the memory. A bit hard to forget how many times Crazy Lace (whoever that was) would throw it out, just for it to whiplash back and knock someone on her side as much as the enemy side. It actually was kinda funny, even if it was problematic. Flint was pretty impressed with it himself, though Bismuth did give off a sigh, remembering how little Hessonite appreciated this stuff and, to an extent, what Flint said earlier.

"That's actually pretty nice. Both a weapon and a protection - that two for one. And you made it yourself?"

"It took me dozens of tries to make it work. No one even asked for this, I just wanted to make something special that none of my homeworld Bis's did. I've been meaning to show em this, see what they think," Bismuth explained, shaping the device back into a shield. Eventually though, as Bismuth looked out to the field once more, her smile began to slowly seep away back to a sort of small frown.

"... You know, you're not all wrong."

"How so?" Flint questioned.

"About this place. I get it: since Rose wasn't rose, it makes what this place means kind of different. I know Rose isn't who she said she was, and that the "victory" here isn't what I thought, but … it still means a lot to me, you know? There's so much here, so many stories, memories. Even if it started out as just some lie by Pink Diamond, it's still something. … Guess I'm the only one who still thinks it's something worth remembering," Bismuth explained. Flint looked out to the field one more time, thinking about what Bismuth just said before he turned to her himself.

"Well I admit I probably won't ever understand what it's like to be here while you were around. But I can see how much it means to you though. Sorry I didn't get that sooner," Flint said.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner. Well, in a way that makes sense that is," Bismuth said. Flint smiled to her, both sides glad things calmed down a bit now. One thought did go through Flint's head though.

"Uh, hey. I know this is a bit off topic, but -"

"Amethyst? Come on. We knew you were gonna ask about that," Bismuth said knowingly. Flint cleared his throat, finding himself clamming up. But Bismuth went and answered for him anyway, in a better mood.

"She's off down in the valley over there. She said she was gonna take a power nap in her powerful Tank before heading out tomorrow," Bismuth explained, pointing out in the same direction. Even with the dim light of the setting sun he could still make out the small shine coming off of the Crystal Tank from the Warp Pad where they were.

"She's sleeping in the Tank?" Flint asked. "I know Hessonite gave it to her and all, but I didn't think she'd be that attached to it."

"You should've seen how she how she looked when I enhanced her whip," Bismuth said. It might not be the craziest reaction, but Amethyst still had that impressed look in her eyes all the same. Bismuth could still just recall how much fun that was about. Flint sighed, and actually sat down on the edge of the Warp Pad, his eyes looking up towards the sky. This eventually got him laying down.

There was a lot here to be had …

…

"AUGH, dang it, I forgot."

Bismuth turned over to him, Flint standing up and standing on the Warp Pad.

"What's your rubble now?" Bismuth asked.

"I was supposed to meet up with Jade back at Little Homeworld, she's probably wondering where the heck I am. Checking in on the quartzes, you know how it is," Flint remembered, though he wished he didn't have to especially at this point in time. Bismuth got up too.

"Hold on, you never said you had other things to do. What about Amethyst?"

"What can I say, I'm sorry. Can you just handle her while I'm gone? Make sure she doesn't do anything destructive. You know how to handle her better than I could do," Flint asked. Bismuth wasn't sure what to say about this. WAY off in the distance, both Bismuth and Flint began to hear a very distant *boom* coming from the direction of the Crystal Tank. Either she was done with her power nap or just set it off by mistake. Either way the shot got another island off in the distance.

"Alright, you go. I'd better go check that," Bismuth decided.

"Yeah, you do that," Flint replied.

Getting off of the Warp Pad, Bismuth allowed Flint off on his way and sure enough, the hybrid Gem got the Warp Pad beaming him away back to Little Homeworld. At least they could say they got what they needed to say out beforehand, otherwise it probably wouldn't end so well. With Flint gone, Bismuth started off on her way back towards the Crystal Tank. It was gonna be a long night she could probably tell.
Tonight though, there was a few more reasons why it was gonna be a more difficult night, and that reason began to slither out into the open once the coast was made clear. He had to wait until Bismuth was more than far enough away, peering out from just behind the Warp Pad's o so small shadow and wall.

Out came Nichrome. The alien was lucky he wasn't caught by either Gems for how long he was there, but with them both gone he could finally move. He took a few stretches of his legs and body, getting some kinks out from compacting himself down for so long. He too heard the very distant noise of the Crystal Tank.

"A Crystal Tank? Ohohohoho, Grogar will HAVE to honor me when I make this work," Nichrome thought deviously.

He's going home with a Crystal Tank, one way or another.

At least Hessonite seemed happy about this.

Standing off nearby during the late hours of the evening, just minutes away from moonrise, Hessonite took her time to keep an eye on Amethyst and the Crystal Tank. Call it staying vigilant, or just seeing how good of an idea she thought of, either way Hessonite wasn't heading back so soon even if it would mean leaving "her" Colony unattended for the night. She did know Amethyst was probably passed out inside the thing, seeing how the Crystal Tank hadn't moved in easily an hour and a half by now.

"You should give yourself some credit, Hessonite," Hess told herself, "Who else but you would think that an overcooked Amethyst would be this good at proper Tank controls? And she's having so much fun too in there, blasting away at everything. The other Diamonds would be impressed with you, no doubt about it."

As she stood there, she started to look around the battlefield herself. Aside from the tracks left by the Tank, it really did look untouched for the most part. At least as untouched as a field of strawberries would look like. Despite Bismuth's constant work in making sure all the weapons weren't destroyed, some were still left scattered here and there.

"What does that Bismuth see in all of this anyway? The Gem War's been over, and based around a lie. So what's there to even get from here anymore?" Hessonite questioned, walking over towards a fairly small dagger hidden amongst a bush. Hessonite held it, even tossed it in her hand, though she didn't look all too impressed with it. Especially with her specialized sword she already had as a Gem weapon.

"Look at this poor thing. Small, thin, beyond ancient. Why would they have weapons made for them when they have their own Gem weapons already -"
Hessonite suddenly stopped herself when a feeling started to come over her. Someone was nearby, and coming in but who it was remained to be said as Hessonite turned around to try and locate who was there. Not much sight at first, but Hessonite could take a pretty good guess. After figuring out her target, she actually kept her body turned away, adjusting her steps until she felt just right … before throwing her sword backwards, and in the air.

Bismuth jumped out in the open when the sword nearly got her behind her chunk of rock.

"Some advice: don't sneak up on a War Admiral," Hessonite simply said, though she did sound a bit smug with that statement as Bismuth got herself together again.

"Can't be sneaking if you weren't - be careful with that!" Bismuth said, seeing Hessonite holding the dagger in hand, and Bismuth actually managing to take it from her. Hessonite stepped back, feeling invaded after she did that.

"My, I wasn't planning to destroy it," Hessonite huffed.

"This means a lot to me, so I'm keeping it with me. This is one of the first daggers I've made in the Gem War, made up of the strongest stuff there is."

"So I noticed," Hessonite remarked, mainly on how old it looked. Even if a few thousand years didn't look that long to the typical Gem, weapons don't age as well obviously. But while Bismuth was here, she might as well ask.

"You know, I've been watching you scurry around and get your toys all day long. What is it you actually see in these old relics?" Hessonite asked, being legitimate this time as it was bugging her for hours now. That didn't mean it wasn't insulting.

"You can call it whatever you'd like, but these "old relics" got their stories with them, and I'm NOT letting it just get thrown away. Besides, you stab anything with this it's gonna melt it," Bismuth explained.

"And Homeworld has destabilizers that can disintegrate forms and even alter them. What's your point?" Hessonite inquired, not too impressed by the statement. Bismuth groaned.

"Does it always have to come down to how efficient it is to you?"

"Of course it does, otherwise why have them. I may have used them during the Gem War once or twice, but THIS era doesn't need them anymore. There's a Crystal Tank RIGHT THERE," Hessonite explained, bringing Bismuth's attention towards the huge Tank that could probably crumble the dagger into dust if it wanted to.

"You know something, I thought that too. But you can bet your Facet that there's more to it than that -" Bismuth then got "the hand" from Hessonite.

"Please don't start again, I've had my fill over your five other talks today. Why don't you think about this will you: the past has passed, and only is there the future. … So stop freaking out over these rusted bits."

"Well I know one too: people who don't learn from history are just gonna repeat it," Bismuth retorted, hearing this once before from a particular book-enthused Alicorn. Hessonite rolled her eyes.

"Sounds ridiculous. EVERYTHING eventually gets replaced by something new and better -"

"Including you?" Bismuth remarked. Hessonite felt the sting this time and spun around fast to face Bismuth with an angry look.

"OH, how dare you!" Hessonite snapped. Bismuth started to feel a bit cheeky with Hess now, actually finding a kink in her otherwise impenetrable armor.

"HA! NOW who's touchy?" said Bismuth. Hessonite quickly corrected herself.

"There's a difference between a perfectly cut Garnet AND some rusted out tool! Then again how would you know the difference?"

NOW Bismuth got angry.

"You really gonna start with me? Because I will if you wanna start!"

Arguing as they were, this unfortunately to them gave one sneaky little shadow a good time to make his move.
Having followed her since earlier back at the Warp Pad, Nichrome began to silently slink and "slither" along the floor of the battlefield. With both of the toughest Gems there distracted more with eachother. He even flattened his body so he looked more like a snake, and snuck around just as well as one as he slipped along the foliage and the occasional weaponry towards the colossal Crystal Tank before him. He just managed to get himself to the giant wheel of the Crystal Tank when -

"HEY, can you two bicker somewhere else?!" called a voice from the very top of the Crystal Tank, Nichrome quickly got out of sight as Bismuth and Hessonite looked up to Amethyst, who by now was getting annoyed with their yelling.

"Amethyst? Mind coming down for a moment?" Hessonite asked.

"Do I have to?" Amethyst groaned.

"True Amethyst's don't question orders," Hessonite made clear.

"FINE," Amethyst said. So, with the order given to her, Amethyst got herself out of the Crystal Tank to see what was up. Amethyst slid down the side of the Crystal Tank, and landed over nearby Hessonite and Bismuth. Nichrome couldn't believe the set up, but he wasn't gonna let this pass up.

"What's up?"

"Would you mind telling this Bismuth what you know about the "Gem War"?" Hessonite said.

"Hold on, what's this got to do with anything?" Bismuth questioned, though still somewhat ticked. Amethyst though just went and said it anyway.

"I mean, what do I know? It's not like I've ever seen it," Amethyst said, not caring much at all about it now. Bismuth knew Amethyst wasn't a Gem know about it regardless of her memory, but it still felt off hearing just how little it mattered to her.

"So should it matter to you what happens to this place then?" Hessonite then asked. Amethyst sighed roughly.

"I SAID I'm leaving here tomorrow, so you can keep your strawberries," Amethyst said, unamused. Not the best answer Amethyst could give.

"I can't believe you! The Amethyst I know wouldn't act like such a clod about this!"

"HEY, it's not MY fault I've never been there," Amethyst retorted, "and didn't you hear me? I SAID I'm leaving tomorrow! Sidenote: the heck do you mean by "the Amethyst you know"? I've never seen you before you messed with my Tank this morning!"

Bismuth actually forgot Amethyst didn't have her memory.

"Oh man, I forgot. Amethyst, you got to remember something about this place. Didn't pink - er, "Rose" tell you what this place is about?"

"No," Amethyst bluntly answered. How long did it take for Rose to tell her about the war? Then again, Pink Diamond never told her about what she really was, and got her bubbled in Lion's mane for it anyway.

"Man, this is worse than I thought. Think, something gotta make her click, but what?" Bismuth thought, trying to figure something out. But before she could figure out what, Hessonite spoke up again with sword in hand.

"There you go. Obviously even one of the Crystal Gems aren't spazzing out, so why don't you just head on back home?" Hessonite suggested, feeling that she won yet another argument. Suddenly something clicked.

"That's it. Hey Amethyst, you have a weapon I can see for a sec," Bismuth said.

"Huh? Eh, sure?" Amethyst asked. Well, a true Amethyst didn't disobey orders, so reluctantly she showed Bismuth her whip. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the whip didn't have those spiked balls on it as it had before. This did throw Bismuth for a loop on what to do next, but the blacksmith had her own little plan B. Actions speak louder than words, as one knows, and Bismuth took action and gave the whip a look over.

"Wow, look at this. Not many Amethysts get a weapon as good as this," Bismuth said.

"... Uh … thank you?" Amethyst asked, confused. Hessonite just observed off nearby, to see where this will go. Bismuth then started looking around the battlefield for a short bit. She only wished she was back at her Forge, this would be easier, but she couldn't drag Amethyst away from Hessonite to make this work. So, she investigated the nearby weapons, and started doing … something.

"Ok, you saw it, can I have it back?" Amethyst asked, hand extended and ready to have her whip back. Bismuth gave it back to her, but the whip had something different about it.

"There you are. Now you can REALLY do some damage," Bismuth said.

It wasn't spiked balls as before, but it was the best Bismuth could do on short notice. Amethyst saw the tips of her whip did indeed get enhanced some what, this time though Bismuth had to make a sacrifice out of a few blades to tie the ends onto the whip. …

"Okay first you yell at me, then you question me, now you're giving me something - what's the game?"

It didn't work. Well it was worth a shot.

Too bad they didn't have time for anything else …

*rumble*

Bismuth, Hessonite, and Amethyst turned back over towards the giant Crystal Tank, the ominous rumbling and movement of the device making them all wonder what was going on. No one was inside the Crystal Tank, right? Everyone was outside it, it shouldn't be moving by itself! Right in front of them, the Crystal Tank began to activate its guns, turning the largest one directly at the Gems that dwarfed it ever so.

"SCATTER!" Bismuth shouted. This time there was no argument, and all three jumped out of the way, just before the Crystal Tank fired point blank at the ground, exploding a huge chunk of the earth in a blast of strawberry bushes, rock, snow and roots all over the place. The shot had so much force it even made the Tank itself jolt back!

"Since when did it have an auto-pilot?!" Amethyst asked.

"It shouldn't! Who has the nerve to take control of my tank?!" Hessonite demanded, sword drawn and at the ready for whatever assailant was inside that thing. They all got their answer soon enough, as a projection screen showed exactly what alien from Grogar's Army managed to take control, him giggling devilishly.

"YOU!" Bismuth snarled, her hammers at the ready now.

"Isn't this so sweet of you to show me one of your toys," Nichrome mocked with a snickering grin, "I might not be keen on gem tech, but I do have to say, this is really nice."

"Get out of there, you'll wreck something!" Hessonite demanded. All that did was make Nichrome laugh.

"And go back to my king with nothing? Besides, wasn't that exactly what your stout Amethyst was doing with it all day? Unless you want to O, I don't know, SURRENDER TO ME! then I'll let your battlefield free," Nichrome pointed out, Amethyst growling a little for having her Tank swiped away from her.

"Why don't you crawl out of there and say that to my hammer? You'll get just as lucky that way," Bismuth said, her hammers slamming together. Nichrome didn't bother to even open the hatch.

"OH, you all think you're in charge? Which one of us is in the control room?" Nichrome said smugly.

"You don't even know how to use it!" Hessonite said, illy impressed.

"Oh no?"
With a few more sinister laughs, the projection screen disappeared, and the Crystal Tank began to grow active again on them. The main Gun turned again, charging up for another blast. They could actually the laughing Nichrome was making inside the Crystal Tank just before he just went all psycho Tank mode. The turret holding the main gun suddenly started spinning fast, the main gun now spinning 360s, shooting rapid fire blasts everywhere and anywhere it aimed! Accuracy wasn't all that good, but the power in each blast was enough to make Bismuth, Amethyst, and Hessonite move back, debris and earth flying everywhere around them! One of the Tank's blasts was aimed directly at them!

"Holy - get behind me!" Bismuth said, scrambling to get her hands into a large shield. The blast struck her in a direct hit, Bismuth being skidded back easily thirty feet in just one blast in the explosion. STARS did that hurt her hands, Bismuth shaking both hands loose to get the stinging out of them. The shock of the blast wrecked some more of the area around her, lucky to still be standing with the other two safe behind her.

"HA! You call that a serve?! That barely filled me up," Bismuth mocked.

Bad move.

"You want the main course, eh? WELL HERE IT IS!" Nichrome said through the speakers, before charging up the Crystal Tank again, this time adjusting the power from a full frontal hit to a rapid-fire barrage. Bismuth got out the shield again, but while these weren't as strong as the initial blast, they still had their hit on her. She could only hold it up for so long before a blast finally forced Amethyst and Bismuth off of their feet, only Hessonite being fast enough to jump aside.

"That's it, I'm getting my tank back!" Amethyst said, pulling out her Gem whip and making a sudden attack on the Crystal Tank.

"Amethyst, hold up!" Bismuth called. Amethyst jumped up and got her whip aimed for the hull of the Tank, going to town as much as she could. She might as well just spit at the thing, because her whips (even with the attachments Bismuth gave her) were doing jack. She did try a more thoughtful move and just managed to wrap her whip around the main gun of the Crystal Tank, pulling as hard as she could.

Nichrome got the main turret to spin again, sending Amethyst spinning like crazy in the air until she lost her grip on her whip, Amethyst crash-landing down onto the ground further away, Bismuth catching her mid air to break her fall, and landing hard onto the ground herself.

"You ok?" Bismuth asked, sitting up.

"I'm alive," Amethyst said, though she was face first in the ground.

"Not for long!" Nichrome announced, one more blast for the road.

… Now it was Hessonite's turn. She moved just fast enough to get in between the shot and the two Gems, and her sword in a single swing, sliced the shot in two! It was almost slow motion when that happened, the blast from the Crystal Tank being split in one clean cut, both sides slamming into the countryside further away. The smoke clearing revealed Hessonite standing there, her cape whipping in the wind for a bit before settling down onto her back. All Hessonite did was give her opponent a smirk and a knowing look.

"AWESOME, CHIEF!" Amethyst beamed, amazed. Even Bismuth was a bit impressed with it, her sword not even remotely damaged from a shot like that.
But that wasn't going to be left alone for too long, and Nichrome quickly made another shot at them, this time Hessonite bolting to the other two and moving them out of the way, another part of the land exploding where they were just standing onto a crater. Once the smoke cleared this time, Nichrome found no one out in the open, unaware that the three Gems took cover over by a chunk of ground.

"Before this goes further, I'm just going to assume this isn't the first time you two met," Hessonite questioned, namely to Bismuth not Amethyst.

"He's messed with my friends before, and NOT in a good way. He thought poisoning my friend was gonna be a laugh," Bismuth explained, vaguely hearing Amethyst try to attack the Crystal Tank again, just to get launched back. Patience in this part of Amethyst's memory was not well-thought out apparently.

"Grrr, first he steals my tank. NOW he's making fun of me!" Hessonite growled. If there's one thing she did NOT like is being shown up, especially by some random alien!

"If he gets out of here with that thing, he's gonna destroy everything. We gotta get him out of there before he gets bored with us," Bismuth concluded. They saw Amethyst try one more time to get Nichrome to stop, pulling downward instead of to the side. The Crystal Tank's main gun swung upward this time, pulling Amethyst off of the ground just to swing back down, clocking the purple Gem before sending her crashing to the floor.

"Seriously, let me have my tank back! This isn't fun anymore," Amethyst demanded.

"Really Amethyst? I didn't mean to "overcook" my performance. Or are you just "short-tempered" my defective friend," Nichrome "joked", laughing.

"I]Shut up, you're not even clever!" Amethyst said, angry about the comment about her status as a defect. She got out two whips and tried once again, but this time the Crystal Tank didn't even give her a chance and started moving forward towards her, a stray whip getting caught in the grinding wheels. No that didn't stop the Crystal Tank, only making it "swallow" up her whip into its gears, the Crystal Tank almost on top of her!

"Is a truce out of the question?" Hessonite asked.

"Looks like I have no choice," Bismuth replied.

...

"BACK UP, NICK!" Bismuth shouted, slamming a set of spike hands directly into the grinding wheel, so much force it immediately made the wheel stop turning. The Crystal Tank still kept trying to move forward, but it found itself turning on a dime instead, Bismuth using all her strength just to keep the wheel from turning. Nichrome tried to add on more power, putting speed to maximum, but Bismuth still was not budging.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Nichrome hollered.

"Amethyst, move!" Bismuth said to Amethyst. The purple Gem shook off the surprise, and had no real option but to try and run out of the way. While she got out of the way of one wheel, the second wheel still spun in its circle, and Amethyst had to dive out of the way of that just before it could crush her underneath it too.

"There you are. this should keep you out of trouble over here, Amethyst," Hessonite instructed, more casual than she should be about the situation. Amethyst brushed herself off.

"Don't leave me out, man! I can still tank that Tank," Amethyst insisted.

"Don't worry. I never leave unfinished business behind," Hessonite said, drawing out her sword in full.

Before Amethyst could say anything else, Hessonite went off towards the Crystal Tank in a good bounding motion. A good time to join in on the struggle too, because Bismuth just released the wheel and rolled out of the way before Nichrome could crush her underneath the Crystal Tank's weight. Nichrome needed to back up to aim the main gun at Bismuth, but Hessonite was already at the fight by the time he actually got to it, Hessonite jumping off of Bismuth's head before landing on her own Tank. Nichrome tried to aim the tank to shoot Hessonite, but her blinding speed was too much for the alien to actually make a connection.

"Got a problem, Nick?" Bismuth mocked, as she started to take the opportunity to climb up as well. Nichrome inside the Tank was struggling to find out where either of them are, but the only one he could see was Amethyst, running to catch up to them.

"You two may be out of the way, but who's going to protect the defect?" Nichrome remarked, before charging up the actual main gun again. Amethyst stopped seeing it aiming at her.

"Don't you even!" Hessonite shouted, jumping up and whacking the side of the main gun with both legs at once. The momentum was powerful enough to make the main turret spin slightly, shooting off into the distance and exploding part of the Battlefield again. This was a full blast, making the Crystal Tank actually lean slightly before landing back on all its wheels. Bismuth then got an idea. It was a gamble, but it'll be the fastest way to get Nichrome out of the behemoth.

"Not a bad idea, Hess," Bismuth said, before getting the idea of hers working. But she didn't need to be on the actual Crystal Tank to make this work, and actually jumped off to get some distance. Hessonite looked over to see this going on, but wasn't sure what the Blacksmith was up to. Until she got talking.

"HEY NICHROME! If you're looking for a target, why not start with me?! I'll stand still for ya, I promise!" Bismuth called, good and loud for Nichrome to hear her. However, he didn't fire at first, instead deciding to talk and mock.

"HA! What idiot do you take me for? I'm not gullible like you," Nichrome questioned.

"Alright don't sweat it, if you can't shoot me that's cool! I'm no expert on using a Tank, but you're sucking at it anyway! A pebble can dodge you, buddy!"

"WHAT?! YOU COCKY LITTLE -" Nichrome, not taking that sitting down, started to move the main gun to aim directly at Bismuth. Bismuth didn't move, didn't run, but just stood there and allowed Nichrome to aim it directly at her.

"What is that boulder doing?!" Hessonite thought. Amethyst wasn't sure what was going on either, but they all were seeing that the main gun was slowly charging up. The hue began to brighten more and more with the energy charging inside of the darkened black interior of the gun. FULL MAXIMUM POWER. Bismuth was not going to survive this blast at blank range. As for Bismuth, she only had one thing left to do. Standing there, she got out a hammer arm …

And hammered the main gun into the ground.

Then it fired.

*BOOM*

Mistakes were made, and Nichrome made the biggest one. The force of that blast annihilated the ground it was shoved into, chunks the size of cars flying miles into the sky or just disintegrated altogether. So much force was put in that shot, so much sheer power, the Crystal Tank itself couldn't even take it, being forced back. The momentum leaned the Crystal Tank towards its side, a wall of crystalline machine leaning one way, and THIS TIME there was no recovery. Gravity forced the titanic Crystal Tank completely over, the Earth shuttering as tons on tons of machine collapsed onto the fields below it. Dust shot out like an explosion, any and all plant matter crushed in mere seconds, all Gems with a brain forced to run out of the way otherwise be crushed.
Their reward for such a crazy plan: a tipped over Tank. It was NOT going to get up on its own, and Nichrome's run was more than done now.

Speaking of which …

"ooohhhhh …" groaning from the spin, Nichrome FINALLY managed to get the hatch open (somehow), and pulled himself out of the control room with a few pulls of his own body. So much for bringing that Tank back to Grogar, NO WAY was he going to get it flipped back over now. It took him seconds to see that he lost.
And seconds later to realize he was stuck in the open with no power anymore.

"That was fun. Guess it's our turn, right?" asked Bismuth. Right behind him. Nichrome immediately tried to run for it, but Hessonite wasn't going to give this alien any chances, and even after going for twenty feet, Nichrome skidded to a stop with Hessonite in his way. Nichrome tried bolting different ways, but Hessonite's speed kept her in front of him no matter which direction he tried to bolt. Nichrome only got an opening near the next hill, only to run into Amethyst who already had her whip out.

"Hey.~"

"AAHH!" Nichrome yelped, tumbling back down the same hill.

"It's over, Nichrome. And you lose," Bismuth said.

"Waitwaitwait, I-I was just following orders," Nichrome said, "It's Tempest Shadow you should be upset with, not me! SHE came up with the idea! You wouldn't get mad at someone just following orders, would you?"

The two were NOT buying into that.

"... Yeah I would," Bismuth said, getting out her hammer hand, and her other hand grabbing hold of him. Nichrome tried breaking free, but Bismuth wasn't letting this rat get away from her. Her grip was tight and strong, making Nichrome gag a little bit.

"Wait. WAIT!" Nichrome managed to say.

"For what?! For you to try and shatter us again?" Bismuth demanded. Nichrome tried to think of something to say, but then his eyes looked to the Gem nearby. It's worth a shot.

"Look around you," Nichrome managed to say, "You lost your battlefield, you lost your tank, AND you still don't have your Amethyst back. Think all that's gonna be fixed when I'm dead, huh?" Nichrome questioned. Bismuth felt this start to sting her, and suddenly "killing him" didn't sound as good as she thought it would.

"Him too?" Amethyst thought.

"Just get out of here," Bismuth groaned, before dropping him. That didn't mean she was done with him though, still holding him by the head.

"Oh dear," Nichrome gulped. That was all he had time to think before Bismuth raised her hammer arm, and clocked him like a swinging mallet. Nichrome could only scream after being struck, flying far off and out of sight, blasting off to who knows where. One could probably hear that *bling* in the sky when he completely disappeared.

What was worse: Nichrome was absolutely right.

"That takes care of that. A bit … sloppy, but it works," Hessonite said.

"Did I almost hear a compliment in there? I'll take it," Bismuth said casually. Making light of the situation, but Bismuth honestly felt rather terrible with everything. Nichrome was beaten, and none of them got shattered or whatever, though that can't be the same thing said for … everything else. The Crystal Tank was out of commission, and the Strawberry Battlefield was A MESS! Craters left open everywhere, debris all over the place, it hardly looked like a true "strawberry field" anymore. Each crater had some hint of black smoke coming up from them thanks to the heat.

"Well … there goes the final battle of the Gem War," Bismuth sighed gravely.

"You Ok, Bismuth?" Amethyst asked curiously. Bismuth looked down to Amethyst, not seeing as much concern as it was curious. She did look angry just a moment ago, and suddenly she looked worn out. Seeing Amethyst like this though proved Nichrome's point that her true friend wasn't completely back yet. If only the original Crystal Gems were back in strength, this would make things a lot easier. But since when has it ever?

"I think I'm good for tonight. I'm just gonna go," Bismuth said. However, one Gem Admiral though got in Bismuth's way, arms crossed as if expecting something out of her.

"Bismuth? Aren't you forgetting something? Namely behind you?" Hessonite questioned, pointing behind Bismuth towards the capsized Crystal Tank, which by now was steaming a little bit itself from the power it had unleashed onto the field. The Crystal Tank was not going to be going anywhere on its own, and Hessonite and Amethyst weren't just going to leave it there as apart of the field if any of them could help it.

"Can I help with this?" Amethyst asked.

"Oh, uh yeah sure. Come here for a sec," Bismuth simply answered.

This was gonna take a bit.

Bismuth left Amethyst and Hessonite alone for the rest of the night, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with any of them, at least for the night. What could she saw she accomplished for the day anyway? Well one thing she clearly didn't do was more than evident all around her in the many holes and tracks left by the Crystal Tank.

"What a disaster of a day," Bismuth groaned, "We don't have Amethyst, and the battlefield's wrecked. Good job, Bismuth, you got nothing out of it … I blew it."

Bismuth could only blame herself, but then her eyes looked to the Warp Pad.

"... And my weapons are gone! Where'd they go?" Bismuth gasped. Her entire pile, the same pile she worked on all day, and there was absolutely nothing there. No shields, no swords, not even any daggers or spiked balls! Nichrome couldn't have stolen it all, she was just fighting him, Hessonite wouldn't do it, she didn't think any of them were any good. For a moment she was freaking out, but given everything else today … well, what would be the point anymore? Bismuth just gave a sigh.

"Forget it. It's not like anyone cares anyway," Bismuth concluded. No one seemed to worry much about it anymore, so why should she? With that thought in mind, and literally NOTHING to show for her effort today, she just got back on the Warp Pad and went right off back towards home.

Maybe some time in her new Forge would get her mind off of things …
Bismuth still looked a bit down when she got from the Strawberry Battlefield back to Little Homeworld. The winter night didn't show that many workers for the moment, leaving it somewhat quiet. No Gems working on building Little Homeworld, no visiting Humans or Ponies, just her and the snow. That's what it seemed like. But then Bismuth opened her eyes and looked over to the Forge in Little Homeworld.
All of the weapons were outside, right next to it. At least, some of them were. Naturally, Bismuth started to wonder what was going on, walking off the Warp Pad and towards the pile of Battlefield weapons, many of which she pointed out right away as being weapons she talked about earlier that day.

"Guess Flint brought them back here," Bismuth figured. Something was up, but she didn't know the full extent of what happened until after she walked inside the Forge. Looking in with no lights basically left it completely dark, so nothing fancy yet. Bismuth simply flicked the light switch - it really just released some lava - before taking a few steps into the Forge.

Then she started noticing something.

Yesterday, the new Forge was somewhat empty inside with only the main essentials in her materials, Anvil, and some areas of lava flow. Nothing too much beyond that outside of a few fancy patterns on the floor. But as the lava flowing began to fill in the lines along the wall and eventually the small waterfall over in the back of the Forge, the orange light of the heated lava started to reveal something a little more for the blacksmith.
Along the walls, swords and shields began to reveal themselves hung up along the walls, each one of them cleaned up of rust and dirt and looking both authentic, and new at the same time. In the back where the lava paths met for the waterfall, Bismuth saw a display of two swords and a Gem War flag spread along the back just above the lava in all their glory. The whole Forge was decorated in the same weapons fought in the Gem War!

"What the?"

"Surprise!"

Coming in from the entrance of the Forge came in the ones responsible, coming in from the winter cold into the warmth of the Forge. Tonight's workers turned out to be much of the Mane Six coming in to see her, along with a number of Gems as well. Including one fusion.

"You like your surprise, Bis?" asked a happy Pinkie Pie.

"Guys, hey!" said Bismuth, "And Garnet, you're back too! … You are, are you?"

"We're back to stay," Garnet said with a smile, showing both rings on her fingers. "Now how do you like the surprise?"
Bismuth took a moment more to see everything around her.

"I … don't know what to say. You all did this for me?"

"Sure we did," said Rarity, "We heard how you wanted to keep the history of the Strawberry Battlefield alive, so we all decided to help and bring some of it back here."

"We all pitched in too," Spinel said, "I helped put up some of the heavier stuff with Garnet over here."

"We helped clean some of them up too, so they look nice," added Fluttershy.

"Huh. Thanks guys."

"Don't thank us," said Garnet, "If you wanna thank anyone, thank the person who thought up the idea."

Well it got interesting now. Bismuth looked around to the ground, trying to figure out who that exactly would be.

"Nope," said Rainbow Dash.

"Wish I did," said Spinel.

"Not me," said Pinkie.

"You're getting warmer," said Rarity.

The answer was standing over by the door, leaning against the doorframe. Bismuth had at least some idea, but this was still a bit of a surprise as she saw Flint look to her.

"So this is your idea, Flint?"

"Well, I know you really liked what all of these weapons mean, and they do mean a lot to you. Especially after hearing all those stories, so … I thought why not bring some of it back here in your Forge? What better place for a weapon to be than with the Gem who made it, right?" Flint explained modestly. Bismuth was quiet again, but then after a bit she started to smile.

"And, uh, one more question. It's nothing to do with Amethyst."

"What's up, Flint?" Bismuth asked. Flint walked over to her.

"I did suggest this other idea, but I didn't want to start it without asking first. You said something about history being important right? So I also thought of maybe making a museum in town? I mean, all of these weapons have some sort of story to them, and I did hear how something like that kinda, you know, tells their stories. We found a building down the road, but I just wanted to ask if that's okay with you first."

Bismuth couldn't help herself.

"Alright Come here you," Bismuth said, getting an arm around Flint and hugging him, playfully fluffing his hair as her own means of saying thank you. Flint found himself smiling too.

"So that's a yes?" Flint then asked.

"Of course!"