//------------------------------// // Radioactive // Story: Harmony Gems // by Nova Arc //------------------------------// Bismuth sat on the chair in the living room while Amber and Fulgurite sat on the couch. After his… statement, Obsidian had gone into his room and hadn’t come out for the past 30 minutes, which was a really long time, even for an awkward silence. Fulgurite broke the silence. “So…” she started, “what just happened?” “I guess you could say I’ve had it coming for three thousand years,” said Bismuth. “Yeah, but why?” asked Amber. “I mean, is it the diamond? That was enough to set my cannon to full charge.” “The diamond was a good reason, but it wasn’t in this case.” “So, what did you do that was so bad that Obsidian would be carrying a punch around for three millennia?” asked Fulgurite. “Well, I-” Bismuth stopped in mid sentence. “Hold that thought.” “What is it?” asked Amber. “Part of the reason I deserved that punch,” he replied. “Would you mind terribly, but I need absolute silence.” Amber and Fulgurite looked at each other and shrugged, but kept quiet as Bismuth touched one of the spines on his back. “Hello? … Yes, this is Bismuth… That’s a bit… complicated. … Well, yes and no. I found the ship, but the data logs didn’t have what we were looking for… Of course. Awaiting coordinates.” He let go of the spine and turned to face the two confused looking Gems behind him. “So, mind explaining yourself,” Amber said. “Because it just sounded like you were talking to someone. And if your allegiance to Homeworld still stands, there’s no doubt in my mind that that was a Homeworld Gem you were talking to.” Bismuth sighed. “It was. My allegiance to Homeworld is actually the reason Obsidian lashed out.” “Mind explaining a bit more?” “Well, you see, we actually used to be pretty close friends.” “Yeah, I could tell by the way he fist-bumped your face,” Fulgurite said. “Long story short, I had to make a choice.” “You apparently made the wrong one.” “That depends on the angle you look at it from.” 3000 Years Ago… “YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS?!” Obsidian screamed from the ground while Bismuth stood next to the warp pad in the snowy path. Bismuth looked to the ground. “I… wanted to tell you. But-” “But what?” Obsidian interrupted. “You were afraid of falling out with the Diamonds? Or just Yellow Diamond in particular?” “It’s not like that, Obsidian,” Bismuth said. “I learned about the Kindergarten project from a Gem I barely knew anything about. She risked her life to show me what Homeworld did to the worlds they colonized. But you, the Gem I proudly called my friend, said nothing?” Obsidian could not comprehend the pain in Bismuth’s chest as he tried to explain himself. “Obsidian, listen. I-” As he looked up to continue he saw a bright reddish-orange blob fly towards him. He ducked just in time to avoid the ball of magma Obsidian hurled. “I TRUSTED YOU!” Obsidian was in a state of absolute rage, his armor glowed intensely and his eyes turned black, save for his, now, red pupils. “YOU PROMISED TO SHOW ME EVERYTHING!!!” “Why do you think I came out here?” Bismuth said, trying to reason with the berserker. “Homeworld keeps an extra close eye on Bismuths because of the information we possess. I couldn’t just tell you without risking everything!” “So suddenly, the support of the Diamonds is more important than you friendships?” Obsidian asked. “Of course not.” “THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!” “I-” But before he could answer, Obsidian tackled him and knocked him into the snow covered ground. The snow around them melted as Obsidian raised his blade. “Obsidian, I-” “SHUT UP!” Obsidian brought the blade down and buried the sword into the ground next to Bismuth’s right ear. “I never want to see your face ever again,” he said. “If I do, I swear, you’d better pray to the stars that what I learned on Angkor helps me to not utterly destroy everything.” Removing his sword from the ground, Obsidian walked into the blizzard, vanishing into the blanket of white as Bismuth laid in the snow, tears burning his eyes. “I’m… I’m sorry.”   “Wait a minute, you knew about the Kindergartens?” Amber asked. “Very few do, and all of them are kept under close watch,” Bismuth replied. “So what made you change your mind?” asked Fulgurite. “It took me a while to find out where I could talk that Homeworld’s eyes couldn’t reach. Back then, the data matrix in my back was very easily blocked by particular meteorological events, like the storms. The only other place that could earn me some privacy was temples like this one,” he said. “Wait, so how did you just contact the Gem you were talking to?” “Well, for starters, I got an upgrade, so it works at close range, like when we’re on the same planet, but they can’t track me while I’m in here unless I send out a ping. Plus it still doesn’t work with long-range communications, across planets in different galaxies for example.” A sudden realization hit Amber after processing what Bismuth had said. “Wait, there’s another Homeworld Gem here?!” “Two, actually,” he said. “One scientist, one bodyguard… not sure why she needs a bodyguard, but…” “So, two more Homeworld Gems,” Amber repeated. “Pretty sure Obsidian doesn’t want to hear that.” “And I’m pretty sure the Gem is expecting a report soon. But I’ll be sure to forget the part where I met you… or found a temple… or got punched in the face…” As he headed for the warp pad, Tourmaline came out of the kitchen and stopped him. “Just wanted to know,” he said, “would any of those Gems happen to be green?” Bismuth raised an eyebrow. “Um… no. Why do you ask?” “Just checking,” Tourmaline replied. Bismuth waved goodbye as he teleported away, leaving the three Gems in the room alone. “That was an odd and rather specific question, Tour,” Amber noted. “Any reason you decided to ask that?” “Well…” Dawn was still up in his room. “Two new Gems in one day,” he thought. ”But neither of them seem like friends.” Dawn stayed in bed. He figured they Gems were still mad at him and didn’t want to risk them seeing him and getting angry again, especially Obsidian. “Dawn!” The boy jumped at the sound of his name, falling off his bed. He walked out towards the stairs and saw Amber, Tourmaline, and Fulgurite standing on the warp pad. “We’re going out to check on a few things. Remember, you’re grounded.” “How could I forget,” Dawn thought to himself. “But we’re leaving you in charge of the house,” Amber continued. “Well, at least until Obsidian comes back out.” Dawn nodded in compliance. “Good boy. And when we get back, we’re going to have a serious talk about what went down these past few weeks.” Dawn’s heart skipped a beat; part of him believed she was planning on reducing or even removing his punishment, the other part was trying to be a bit more realistic. As they teleported off, Dawn’s mind was considering whether actually talking about what happened would yield better results than just taking the punishment as it was. He walked over to the large windows next to the main door and looked outside. It was sunny outside, but he didn’t feel like leaving the house. Also, it was really hot outside, which was made very clear by the very visible heatwave whose ripples constantly distorted the view. Dawn pulled out his phone to check the temperature. He was surprised to see it was only 26°C outside. Last time he checked, that did not warrant a heatwave that intense. He turned to face the temple door and took cautious steps towards the door. He placed his hand on the black jewel on one point of the star and knocked. “Ob-Obsidian?” he called. It wasn’t out of place for Obsidian’s anger to seep outside the house and even the temple, but Dawn, feeling partly responsible, decided to take a bold, or foolish, depending on the outcome, step. It didn’t take Obsidian long to respond as the door opened with Obsidian standing on the other side. “Are… Are you okay?” Dawn asked. “Stupid question,” he thought, mentally kicking himself. “I’m fine,” Obsidian replied. “Why do you ask?” “Well, after you saw that other Gem you got mad and disappeared again. Did he do something wrong?” Obsidian remained silent for a while, but then sighed. “He did the one thing I couldn’t forgive.” “What?” Obsidian looked Dawn in the eye as he replied, “He called himself my friend, but he kept a very important secret from me.” Dawn’s heart jumped. That sounded frighteningly familiar to him, like something that happened with a certain Night Stone; if he were anyone else, he was sure he would’ve been punched in the face too, or worse. Obsidian bent down and held Dawn’s hands, which the latter had subconsciously planted on his face at the thought. “Don’t worry,” Obsidian said. “It has nothing to do with you.” “But are you feeling better?” “Well, I’m still mad at you for not saying anything about Nox when you first saw her.” “Makes sense.” “But I’m not as mad.” “So why is there a heatwave outside? That usually only happens when you’re really mad.” Obsidian raised an eyebrow before going over to the window. He stepped outside and walked towards the wave. As he felt the ripples, his eyes shot open. He ran back inside and shut the door and windows. “Dawn, stay away from any openings,” he said. “Huh? What’s going on?” Dawn asked, confused. Obsidian didn’t answer. Instead, he summoned a black communication orb with orange lines and said, “Call Amber.” The lines pulsed for a while, but then Amber’s face appeared on the surface. “Yo. What’s-” “We have a serious problem,” he said. “More serious than the Gem that attacked you and Tourmaline?” “The two are related,” he said. “Get back here ASAP!” “Alright, alright! Keep your chestplate on. We’ll be right there.” He cut the call and sent the orb away. Dawn was still confused. “Obsidian? What’s going on? If you didn’t cause the heatwave, who did? Another Gem?” “Yes,” Obsidian replied. Just then, three Gems warped back into the temple. “Amber, I need you to run a scan of the area in front of the temple.” “Huh? Why?” Amber asked. “We may have a radiation problem.” Everyone looked at Obsidian. “Wait, what?” Amber asked, confused. “I think our little… guest left us with a ‘farewell’ present that we may not like nor want to keep around.” Although skeptic, the ring around one of Amber’s wrists glowed and projected a conical screen with a meter and some statistics. She went over to the window, opened it slightly, and pointed her fist out. The meter went from blue to green to yellow… to orange… to red… to blinking red… to flashing “DANGER” in bright bold letters. Amber brought her hand back inside and closed the window, unusually calm. “So let me get this straight: we have a nuclear Gem on the loose in an inhabited area.” As she breathed in, everyone in the room grabbed on to something that was bolted to the ground or attached to some secure part of the house. Amber’s frustrated screams were less like screams and more like an angry dragon who chipped its scale on a cliffside while throwing a tantrum after waking up to see all it’s treasure had been stolen. The force of the scream sent a ripple through the room and knocked everyone off their feet for about ten seconds. Once she stopped though and everyone hit the ground, Fulgurite walked over to her and said, “Deep breaths, Amby.” “This is bad. This is very, very bad,” Amber said. “I thought Gems were immune to radiation,” said Tourmaline. “We are, but no organic lifeform we’ve encountered so far on this planet is,” Obsidian said. “Oh…” “Okay, new priority,” Amber said as she tapped some buttons on the screen. “Track down whoever this Gem is and get him to fix this mess. Fulgurite, I’ll leave that to you and Obsidian. Apparently, this Gem is a good fighter if he could fling Obsidian.” Obsidian glared at Tourmaline, who was trying to hold in his grin. “We need to find him so he can deal with this.” “Wait, can’t you just absorb the radiation?” asked Fulgurite. “Yes, but then I’d become irradiated,” Amber replied. “I take on the most prominent properties of whatever I absorb, remember?” “Oh.” “If this Gem can project radiation, he must be able to absorb it.” “And if he can’t?” Obsidian asked as he and Fulgurite headed toward the warp pad. “We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it,” Amber said. “But’s let’s hope such a bridge doesn’t exist.” “I believe the saying is cross, not burn,” Tourmaline said smugly, earning him a glare that literally began burning into his shoulder. “Owowowowow!” Amber tossed one of her rings over to Fulgurite. “It’s set to track anything emitting a similar radiation signature. Don’t break it.” Fulgurite grinned. “When have I ever-” She stopped upon seeing Amber’s raised eyebrow. “Don’t say a word, slimeball,” she growled as Amber grinned. Fulgurite and Obsidian warped into what appeared to be a snowy path. The trees had shed their leaves and had frosted over from the cold. In the distance, they could see a very familiar crystalline castle. “Don’t tell me…” Obsidian started. “Nope,” Fulgurite said, bending down. She traced the footprints as they seemed to move away from the nearby city. It wasn’t hard, seeing as the prints were so hot, they melted the snow before it could settle, leaving small puddles instead. “Looks like he was headed back south.” “Wait, like he was going back to the temple?” Obsidian asked. “Well, he’s determined, I’ll give him that.” Tracing the footsteps, they saw a cave coming up ahead. Except it wasn’t a cave. Obsidian may not have recognized it, but Fulgurite had seen structures like these on some of the colonies she had the privilege of seeing. “What is this?” asked Obsidian. “He went into a cave?” “That’s not a cave,” said Fulgurite. “It’s a warp center.” “Wait, what?” Obsidian said in disbelief. “That’s impossible. Warp centers were made to connect planets. Why would there be one in the middle of a frozen desert?” “I don’t know. Why does Homeworld do anything these days?” Fulgurite said, shrugging off the question and proceeding inside. The walls of the cave were unusually smooth and shiny, although the age showed through the many cracks along the surface. Soon, they came to a fork in the path: three different caves leading to who-knows-where. Fulgurite held up the ring Amber gave her and looked at each path through it. All of them except the one to the right, which looked green, were blue. “Gotcha!” Obsidian summoned his swords, ready to engage the enemy if necessary, which he considered as a strong likelihood. As they approached the end of the cave, they heard loud thrashing and breaking sounds. “Well, someone isn’t too happy with what they found,” said Fulgurite, the locks of her hair starting to stand on end. “I’ll get his attention, you grab him.” With that, she darted in, a trail of lightning following her. Zipping into the room, she tackled a surprised, lean green Gem as he raised his hand to smash another warp pad. The force of the tackle sent him crashing into the wall. The moment her hit the ground, hot mounds of magma wrapped themselves around his hands and feet and froze, keeping him in place. His eyes traced the trail back to the blades on Obsidian’s hands. “I hate asking the same thing twice,” Obsidian said, “but I’m going to anyway: who are you?” The green Gem grinned. “Ain’t none o’ your business, bub.” From his gem, he fired a green beam at the floor, completely obliterating the ground beneath them, but freeing him from Obsidian’s trap. But as he ran, Fulgurite wrapped locks of her hair around him like tentacles, holding him in place. “Don’t make me hurt you,” she said. “I should be saying that,” the Gem said as his body began to glow. “Ow.. ow… OWOWOWOWOW!!!” Fulgurite yelped as her hair began to smoke. “Knock it off!” She tensed up and an electric shock trailed along her hair and electrified the Gem, bringing him to his knees. “Jeez! Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” “If you’re taking me,” he said, “I ain’t going down without a- HNNNG!” The Gems stopped suddenly, his eyes shot open in shock as he looked down at the black blade protruding from his chest. Fulgurite looked equally surprised as the Gem popped in an explosion of green smoke. Once the cloud cleared, what was left was a hexagonal green Gem sitting on the floor. “What… WHAT THE KARAT, OBSIDIAN?!” Fulgurite was somewhere between angry and shocked as she looked between the gemstone and Obsidian as he walked towards it. “What the heck was that?!” “That just made our job easier,” Obsidian said as he bubbled the Gem and sent it to the temple. “Wha- I- He- … Oh, forget it.” Fulgurite and Obsidian warped back into the house and met Tourmaline watching TV alone. Well, less watching, more like randomly and lazily flipping through channels. “You’re back,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Did you find him?” “Yes,” Obsidian said. “He’s in the temple.” “What? How did he get… oh…” It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Obsidian meant and Tourmaline was way ahead of him. “Lemme guess, you had to ask him something twice?” Before Obsidian could answer, the temple door opened and Amber came out. “Oh. That didn’t take long,” she said, looking around. “Um… where is he?” “In the temple,” said Obsidian. “He’s in… WHAT?! I thought the mission was to capture him so he can get rid of the radiation.” “Well, we caught him,” said Obsidian. “Now we go down, get him, and convince him to get rid of the radiation.” Amber just glared at him. “Did you even bother to think that he’d be a lot more reluctant to help someone who just popped him and bubbled him?” “There is more than one way to convince him to help.” Amber was speechless and looked at Fulgurite, who shrugged and tossed her ring to her. Amber shook herself out of her daze and caught the ring. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” she said as the ring settled in its place, hovering around her wrist. “Luckily, I just finished plan B.” “Which is?” asked an interested Fulgurite. Amber reached into her hair and pulled out a pitch black rod with white lines etched along its length. “I actually almost forgot: carbon rods! All I needed to do was make some adjustments to one and transfer the energy I absorb to the rod,” she said, smacking her forehead with her palm. “But we still need to get rid of the rod.” “I say we should toss it into the ocean,” said Tourmaline. “Sure. And kill all the sea life. Great plan. We’ll just bubble it and keep it locked up,” Amber said. “Ful, I’m going to need you to suck the radiation into a cyclone to make sure I get all of it.” “On it,” Fulgurite said as she bolted outside. Amber stood in the middle of the radiation shimmer and gave Fulgurite the go-ahead. The yellow blur picked up speed until she practically became a yellow ring of lightning around Amber. Amber stretched out her hand and a thin, barely visible stream of gamma rays began to flow into her hand. First her hand began to glow with a faint green aura, and eventually, her whole body gave off a green stream. She gripped the carbon rod with both hands and transferred the energy into the rod, which began to glow and give off the heatwave as well. Once the transfer was done, Amber bubbled the rod and sent it into the temple. Fulgurite skidded to a halt, her body shimmering with electricity from the charge she had built up. Fulgurite took a deep breath. “How I love the smell of radiation-free air in the morning.” “It’s late afternoon,” Tourmaline pointed out, smugly. “You’re a late afternoon.” “So, what should we do about the other Gem?” “I say we leave him where he is,” said Obsidian. “Clearly we don’t need him anymore and he’s too dangerous to just be left to walk around.” “What? We can’t just lock him up,” said Amber. “Why not? He attacked Tourmaline and me, irradiated the area and put several lives at risk, and I’m pretty sure that if any Equestrians found out, we’d be in some serious trouble.” “Well it’s not like he’s a corrupt Gem or some Homeworld assassin,” Amber said. “And if he’s a sleeper agent?” “When was the last time Homeworld ever used sleeper agents?” “I don’t know. You tell me.” Amber twitched, showing Obsidian he had struck a nerve. “If you won’t make the tough decisions, I will. I don’t care if it makes me the villain, I’m doing this for our own good. If you want a radioactive Gem running around on a planet full of organic life that barely knows the difference between the sea and the sky,” he continued, walking towards Amber, “be my guest. But you’re going to have to take him from me.” Now, he stood right in front of Amber. Standing a head taller, he literally had to look down to make eye contact. Amber stared back. A part of her was very willing to accept his challenge. But instead, she groaned and waved him off. “Fine. Do what you like,” she said. “But he and everything related to him that happens is your responsibility. So when this all blows up in your face, don’t come crying to me to bail you out.” With that, Amber walked away towards the house, followed by the rest of the Gems, and finally Obsidian. “Insane, every last one of them,” he muttered. Late that night, Dawn came downstairs and saw Amber looking out the window at the starry night sky. Her goggles were down and were analyzing the star patterns and trying to identify what constellations were out; she usually did this to clear her head. “Amber?” The Gem turned, a bit surprised to see him still awake. “Oh, hello, Dawn,” she said. “Couldn’t sleep?” “No,” he replied. “Bad dreams?” “Not really. I just… feel bad.” Amber sighed. “Come here,” she said, motioning him to sit next to her, which he did. “So, why didn’t you tell us about Nox?” Dawn squirmed in his seat. “Well… I… Um…” “Dawn, tell me the truth.” “Well… I knew you’d be mad at me for going deep into the Everfree Forest since you told me not to.” “But you did anyway,” Amber interjected. “Well, I couldn’t just leave my friends to go there on their own,” he said in defense. “It wouldn’t have felt right.” Amber smiled. “Sometimes we mean well, but what we do may have unforeseen consequences.” Dawn tilted his head in confusion. “I mean we plan to do good things, but end up doing something wrong along the way.” “Oh.” “You wanted to have fun with your friends, and I’m perfectly fine with that. But it brought you very close to danger. But most importantly, you should have told us.” “Would you have not grounded me if I did?” Dawn asked innocently. “Oh, no. You’d still be grounded, big time,” Amber said. “What?!” “You went into the depths of the Everfree where all the dangerous, mystical creatures live and where we specifically told you not to go. Did you really think you were going to get off without some kind of warning?” Dawn thought about it for a moment. “I guess you have a point. Are you still mad at me?” Amber sighed. “I was never mad, just really, really, really worried.” “I’m… sorry.” “I know,” Amber said, hugging him. “We all make mistakes. Just promise me,” she added as she looked at him, “next time anything this big happens, you tell us immediately, okay?” Dawn nodded. “So… does this mean-” “Nope. You’re still grounded.” “Dangit!”