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Smokey Quartz floated around the outer edge of the mountain top temple watching Labrodite like a hawk. The psychopath had brought along a toy, some sort of gauntlet with pieces of gems jammed together in the three stone settings between the knuckles. The gauntlet wasn’t terribly large, only about the size of a steel gauntlet taken from a set of medieval European armor; the metal was polished silver with gold trimming and inlayed patterns. It didn’t seem to do anything, and judging from the settings, it was likely Labrodite’s trough case where she put the pieces of her victims. It angered Smokey to no end, Lbut so long as the little monster did as she was told, she didn’t care. If Labrodite could hold up her end of things and it played out the way Smokey envisioned, then she could wear a dress made out of all the shattered fragments of her victims if she wanted.

For her part, Labrodite was getting antsy, she’d been told to wait here on this mountain for several days while Smokey arranged everything else. She didn’t like taking orders or waiting at some one else’s command, but the time alone offered her distraction less environment she needed to complete her little toy, and once she used it, she’d be sure to kill this ‘Azezulite’ gem, nice and slow. And then when that over bearing quartz came out, she’d break her to. It would be magnificent, because she knew that gem was around here, somewhere, waiting in the wings for the obvious and inevitable betrayal.

Black Azezulite and Spessarite began walking up the mountains stairs to the summit, it was an obvious trap to Azezulite, a large energy reading on top of a mountain with the warp pad located at the base. It had all the hallmarks, Bait, bookable exit, isolated location, not that anywhere on this planet wasn’t ‘isolated’. If she had to guess, this was the work of some random gem without much actual experience laying traps, Rose’s Crystal Gem’s would have used more enticing bait, and Smokey Quartz would develop such an elaborate ruse that it would not become apparent until you it was too late to turn back. The reason Azezulite was climbing the mountain with Spessarite knowing full well it was a trap was because that meant the gem laying the trap was likely worth capturing, as some one minor and unimportant would chose to remain out of the spot light, after all home world didn’t care about every gem that defected with Rose, only the important ones, and if you thought you were important enough to warrant taking proactive measures, well you were probably right. of course, beyond all that it was entirely possible Azezulite had guessed wrong and Smokey had not gone to earth but one of the other possible destinations, in which case she could at least acquire a few worthwhile targets on earth before moving on to another location in her hunt for her actual target.

As Azezulite and Spessarite climbed the mountain Spess looked back to her partner and asked her “You know this is a trap right?” they were about half way up, the point where they could still turn back without much difficulty.

Azezulite nodded “Yes, however it is a trap designed by an amateur, at most I suspect there to be four gems, more likely only one or two. In even the worst case scenario however, Hematite would be enough to ensure our safe retreat”

Spess frowned a little, not liking the level of certainty that Azezulite possessed but she couldn’t argue with her either, she was right, Hematite was a pure combat fusion, something you didn’t see very often, and as much as she didn’t like being part of Hematite, the fusion could probably handle almost any situation.

Upon reaching the mountains summit Spessarite and Azezulite found themselves facing a rather board looking Labrodite who folded up the mirrored panels she brought and stood up from her lawn chair, flexing her hands and cracking her neck “finally you’re here” she said as she looked at the pair of gems “OH COME ON! SPESSARITE!? REALLY!? YOU came to check on the beacon? AND you bring a partner?” she screamed upon seeing Spessarite, whom had not been mentioned by the damn quartz at all. The plan she had agreed to was simple, fight two gems and back them into a corner so that they will fuse, and what’s she find out? one of those two gems was Yellow Diamonds former fucking general, one of the most dangerous gems Lab knew of, so dangerous in fact that she had been sure to always play the prankster and harmless imp around so that she wouldn’t have to worry about fighting her, the other one looked easy enough to deal with, all thin and lanky.

Spessarite looked confused at Labrodite, really? This was the plan? Use the annoying prankster? Spess had been expecting a corruption, some kind of giant monster, Sunstone, or maybe the crystal gems, but Labrodite? She was annoying but hardly dangerous, other than a few illusions she didn’t really have the skills to threaten one gem let alone two. Spess found herself beginning to suspect that whatever plan this Smokey Quartz had cooked up it was a dude. “Lab?” she asked already groaning internally “What the hell are you doing here?”

Labrodite was admitantly terrified for a brief moment, from personal experience she knew that Spessarite could probably beat her. Well, normally Spessarite could probably beat her she reminded herself as she looked at her gauntlet before smiling at the pair of gems “aww, Spessy, I’m just here to have a little fun” Labrodite said as she waved her hands around playfully while casting the first set of illusions “and you know I thought of a great game we could play” the second set were already half way done as she continued her speech “it’s called, ‘who is the most terrifying gem on the mountain’, the rules are simple, the game ends when one or both of you are dead, the survivor, if applicable, ends the game by begging for mercy after seeing what I do to her friend!” with those words Labrodite began to fade away, a psychotic rendition of the cheesier cats smile upon her face. Of course the real Labrodite had stopped talking and walked away from that body ages ago. It was nice of Spess and her friend not to attack her while she was giving the speech, most gems used that time to attack her. Lab was already disappointed in Spess for not taking the opportunity.

Spessarite scanned the battlefield picking up all the tiny details as she pressed herself to the back of Azezulite, each of them drawing their weapons. Spess hadn’t felt this intimidated in a long time, and only eons of military discipline and practice allowed her to wall up and supress her fear, although she could still feel her hands shaking as she held her blade.

“She is attempting to manipulate our emotional states. What you are feeling is not real” Black Azezulite said in her typical monotone, Spess grumbled, easy for the robot to say, she didn’t have emotions to manipulate

“How?” she asked the obvious question, far as she had known, Lab could only do illusions, and fire relatively weak blasts of energy from her hands

“Unknown. This labrodite is demonstrating abnormal behavior and ability’s. There is a high probability she is a ‘One-Off’ similar to sunstone” came the emotionless reply. As an exercise in controlling her emotions on the battel field Spessarite reminded herself of everything she knew regarding ‘One offs’. A one off was, for lack of a better term a mutant, something about their formation and development went wrong, over heated, exposed to too much pressure, blasted by radiation, over cooked, whatever it was in the specific case, the resulting gem was always more powerful than their counter parts, and possessed unique ability’s, powers that were either unheard of, considerably more developed, or possessing multiple ability’s. One-Off’s were often considered the treasured gems of their patron diamonds, and so enjoyed a lot more privileges then the average gem of their class, depending on their ability’s, most were used as weapons, failing that, they were how the diamonds measured themselves against each other.

Spessarite growled, Lab had been a combat one off, and she had missed it, worse, in hindsight, all the evidence was there; a Labrodite was a scientist not a noble, and even if she were a noble, why would a diamond send a courtier to the battlefield? A lot of things started falling into place for Spessarite, like what must have happened to Labrodites old squad, the one that got wiped out by one of Rose’s squads, a squad no one ever found. Labrodite had gone rouge, killed her team, maybe even used rose’s team to do the dirty work and then just cleaned up all the loose ends. With all the chaos, and the deserters on both sides, no one would notice one wandering Labrodite claiming her squad was wiped out and she just hid out of fear. As all these realizations began piling onto each other one after the other Spessarite lost her cool and began swinging her sword around in wide arcs.

Azezulite scanne the battlefield, her eyes noticing all the tiny discrepancies, the entire field was an illusion, specifically it was an illusion of the actual temple, after firing a test shot and noticing that there was no damage Az knew how this Labrodite was going to deal with them. She created a complex illusion of the field, hid any and all damage they caused, hid the mist and fog caused by the clouds at this altitude, hid the dust, hid everything that could reveal her, and since neither she nor Spessarite could see the battlefield proper they would not be able to account for changes in the terrain caused by their fighting, and if the dimensions of the plateau were off from what the illusion said they were, it would be very easy for them to be tripped up, or thrown off the mountain by an invisible foe. This of course did not take into account the other unknown ability’s this labrodite possessed or what that gauntlet on her hand did. The purpose of the energy reading was clear now however. This labrodite wasn’t trying to lure Az here specifically, she was trying to lure anyone in so that she could field test her new invention. How very like a typical labrodite.

Labrodite smirked, Spess was enraged. Her temper had always been her weak point, the damn Azezulite wasn’t playing along but she’d been told to expect that. ‘you can’t intimidate someone who doesn’t experience emotions’ she’d been warned. Ok, emotionless gem, it was new, but time to test out the features of her gauntlet. Labrodite funneled energy into the device, and the gems began to glow as she re-appeared smirking “Aww, poor baby, I’m over here Spazy” she chided, Spessarite took the bait and swung at Lab’s neck, only for the gem to grab her sword in one hand stopping it dead. “Enhanced strength, check.” in an instant she was behind Spessarite punching her in the back and kicking her in the side sending her flying to stone fence that suronded the arena like plateau. “Enhanced speed, check”. Since there were two opponents and no reason to hold back it was time to use the more interesting features of her new toy, Labrodite first created a shield, then a sword “Ability to create the weapons of fallen gems, check” she called out. Azezulite wasted little time in firing on where she perceived Labrodite to be, who blocked the explosive cannon shots easily enough with her stolen shield. Labrodite couldn’t be happier with how well her gauntlet was working, it’d be fun to kill these two now, but she hadn’t seen any trace of Smokey Quartz, so she held back waiting for them to fuse so she could gage how effectively she could use the combined ability’s and weapons of her victims against an actual fusion. The real benchmark for power.

Spess circled around and tried to strike Labrodtie from behind, only for her to vanish again and comment “See, Spess, as a tactician and strategist, I’d think you would know, the most dangerous person on the battlefield isn’t the gem with a big sword or gun. It’s the mage. Specifically, it’s the one that casts illusions” a fist struck Spess in the check sending her flying again. “Ohhh I am LOVING this.” Lab gloated, all the strength of a combat gem, possibly, and probably, more, she’d need to do some tests to find out.

Azezulite analyzed the situation. This labdordite’s abilities were problematic on their own, the gauntlet provided her a massive force multiplier equivalent to that of actual fusion. It was a remarkable invention, one she would have to acquire and send back to home world, even if Smokey Quartz was not on earth, that device had made the mistake a worthwhile venture. Unfortunately it was obvious that Labrodite was toying with them. If she wanted victory fusion was the only option, which suited Azezulite just fine, Fusion was a weapon after all. Turning to Spessarite she darted to her partner and began dancing around her body, Spessarite recognized the movements and extended her hand taking Black Azezulites and moving in tandem with her, a perverse hybrid of the waltz and a pole dance took place as their body’s transformed into light and merged.

The light grew to the size and shape of a normal fusion with four arms, a black under suit appearing first, then a head with greyish peach flesh and four closed eyes, before any of them opened a second eruption of light came forth clothing the body in angled interlocking geometric plates that left only the joints exposed, which were in turn covered up by mesh of tiny hexagonal plates, as the light dimmed the armor was revealed to be polished black metal, long platinum blond hair exploding out the back of the helmet. The fusion instantly summoned up its weapons, two swords and two arm cannons each of which was merged with one of the great swords in its hands, hands that then sank into the control surfaces of the weapon arms. “Hematite: Online. Ready for combat operations. Target: Labrodite. Objective: Neutralize. Engaging Anti-fusion Adaptive Combat Protocols” the almost robotic combat fusion said.

Labrodite whistled. Now this was going to be interesting. “Time to try out the ability’s” she smirked as she activated her first power and created two doppelgangers, each armed with a sword and shield but no gauntlet. The trio of Labrodites then charged at the giant war machine.

Spessarite found herself exactly where she expected to find herself. Inside the shared mindscape of Hematite, to her right a giant tower and a flat featureless barren plan, to her left, an expansive wasteland covered in white sand and ruins. Having carefully studied the manual Pink Pearl had delivered, Spess headed into the wastes, straight for the castle reviewing the plan again in her mind which was quickly clearing of it’s former fog. ‘to regain your missing faculty’s, focus on a goal’ had been the first instruction ‘simply killing or imprisoning Black Azezulite will not free White Azezulite. She must be freed from whatever captivity she is in first’ had been the second instruction.

As she found the castle again Spessarite threw open the ruined doors and marched forwards ignoring everything around her. None of it was important, and all of it would flood her with emotions and memory’s that weren’t entirely her own. Focus was key. In the ruined throne room she found her goal. Frozen crystal fire engulfing a gem in the throes of emotional turmoil, her mind and heart torn apart by the choice she had been forced to make. Spessarite summoned up her sword in the mindscape, and slammed her blade into the crystals which shattered like glass ‘whatever bindings hold White Azezulite will appear indestructible. To her, they are. To you, they will be as glass’ she recited from the manual. Azezulite fell to the ground, unconscious, trembling, naked, and still crying. Spessarite took off her cloak and wrapped it around the quivering gem. For a moment she wondered where the cloak had come from, she never wore one before, but then she reminded herself, she wanted one to wrap the gem up in, and here, her desires became reality. The mindscape of a fusion played by different rules. Will was all that mattered. Picking White Azezulite up Spessarite marched out of the wasteland towards the tower a look of pure determination on her face. The upcoming battle would be the hardest part. White Az couldn’t help, she was free but her will was shattered when she created Black Azezulite. The only way she’d get control was for someone else to take command of the fusion and reset the mindscape. Spess was still a bit fuzzy on that part, but so far, everything else had been accurate.

Labrodite smirked as her doppelgangers fought Hematite to a standstill, each of the three was now using a unique set of weapons created through fusing some of the weapons that Labrodite had access to. They couldn’t summon them up on their own, but the real Lab was able to summon up the weapons, combine them, and then toss them to her clones. One of her clones was using a spiked flail on an exceptionaly long chain, the result of combining a mace with a chain. The other was using a war hammer made from a pair of gauntlets and a spear. Labrodite herself hung back and handled fire support with a bow she had created. It really was amazing how versatile a pearl’s spear was, long pointy sticks made amazing weapon bases for combination. Of course the superior numbers didn’t seem to be doing much to stop Hematite, when the clones eventually broke through the shield and did some damage she started swinging around those two giant energy blades of hers having abandoned the use of the rail gun for close quarters combat. Labrodite smirked as an idea poped into her head. This was one ability and a bunch of weapons, why limit herself? Searching through the mental catalog of powers she had at her disposal she smiled as she though up some fun ability’s to toss into the mix. The Warhammer using clone extended a hand to the ground and tore up pieces of the mountain dressing herself in stone armor. The flail using clone bulked up, becoming more muscular as lighting raced across her flesh, while the real Labrodite holding her bow was covered in a heat aura, her arrows igniting as she fired them “Storm, Earth and Fire. Heed my call” she thundered.

Hematite analyzed the new additions to her enemy’s arsenal. It did not impact her battle performance or the outcome of the conflict. “Additional ability’s detected. Alterations to combat effectiveness: negligible. Zero impact on tactical assessment” She retained a 78.88% chance of victory.

Labrodite growled. That bitch was goading her! Fine. She wanted a fight; she’d get one, time to really pull out all the stops with the gauntlet.

Inside the mindscape Spessarite scaled the tower cradling White Azezulite the entire time. Once she reached the top she was again greeted by her copper clad clone. ‘You must remain in control of your faculties, any version of yourself you see is yours to command, not Black Azezulite. So long as you remember this they will obey’ “Kneel” she commanded, and her emotionless clone did as instructed ‘Absorb any doppelgangers of yourself you find, they contain other facets of yourself, and without them you cannot fight at your best’ Extending a hand she reached out and touched her clone’s forehead, the clone disappeared and Spessarite felt complete again.

Black Azezulite did not pay Spessarite any real attention as she addressed her “I am pre-ocupied dealing with our enemy, whatever your illogical concerns are this time, please hold them until after I have eliminated the threat”

Spess scowled. This was far from the first time they had fused; she had needed to convince Black Azezulite to fuse at every chance they got for ‘practice’ and ‘to work on our team work’. That had mostly been a lie, Spess was practicing control in the mindscape, this level of self-awareness didn’t come easy, and learning to control the mindscape was a counterintuitive process. It was all about will, and belief. “Sorry Az, but not this time”

Black Azezulite turned around and took stock of Spessarite, and the wrapped up form of White Azezulite. “Ah. I see” this was honestly far from the first time someone she regularly fused with found her other half and decide that something needed to be done. It was a shame as this was one of the best fusions she had discovered, it’s lose would be unfortunate. Without any further warning or ceremony she opened fire on Spessarite.

Labrodite smiled as she began throwing on ability after ability. The gauntlet was drawing more power now, but that was fine, it was heating up to, but that was to be expected with such heavy use. Her clones were starting to look a little ragged though, their forms were changing, being a bit less humanoid, one was hunching over with stringy hair coming down her scalp, her jaw elongated and distended becoming more feral, the other was getting larger and more muscular, her features becoming more exaggerated. Well, time for new clones! She dismissed them both, only they didn’t disappear. So she tried removing their powers only they kept them. She cancelled out the weapons, and the weapons stayed. The gauntlet on her hand continued to glow and heat and draw more power as her clones fought. Labrodite squirmed. The thing was out of control, it had to many powers to draw from and the command to stop was being lost in the mix with her other selves and all the powers she’d already activated. Clenching her teeth she personally took to the fray now firing her own bolts of magical energy. It wasn’t going well. Before long Labrodite could feel the gauntlets intense power-drain really affecting her. She’d need to do something soon if she didn’t want to get poofed by her own invention.

Inside the mindscape Spessarite was controlling the battlefield. When Black Az fired a shot at her, she batted it away harmlessly. When Black Az summoned up a wall, Spess made it melt into a puddle. Divided as she was, Black Azezulite’s will wasn’t as strong as it appeared. She was logical, calculating, and efficient. It created a terrifying image, and that image kept her partners in check in a fusion, but, once you knew the actual rules of a fusion mindscape, suddenly Black Az wasn’t nearly as powerful or freighting. Unable to halt and barely able to slow Spessarite Black Azezulite lost more and more ground until Spess closed the final distance and grabbed her, then she began to beat her, punch after punch to the face and torso, kneeing her, kicking her, but always keeping her in hand so that she could not escape. ‘Killing Black Azezulite is meaningless. You must strip her of her will to fight. Otherwise she could reassume control of White Azezulite without warning in the future.’ It made sense. This was all in the head, you couldn’t kill a part of yourself let alone someone else, you had to make that part of you learn it’s place through self-control and discipline. Which in this case meant beating the ever loving shit out of it for as long as it took.

Labrodite was genuinely terrified now. She’d tried everything to get the gauntlet to stop, and she was down to her last resort. She overloaded it with as much of her own power as she could, and it worked, the gems inside the gauntlet sparked, heated up more, fused together and then exploded as tiny molten gem seeds. She was left panting but her powers were returning, without any gems in the gauntlet to feed, it was really just a big battery now. Smiling as a few ideas on how to use the stripped down gauntlet came to mind Lab started to scowl. Hematite had stopped moving.

The armored giant remained motionless before Labrodite for several seconds which seemed to stretch on for eternity. To Lab it seemed likely that the fusion had realized that Lab had just lost her trump card, but she felt a growing power from it somehow….. And then the body started to glow, but not in that ending fusion glow, this was different, brighter. The helmet around Hematite’s head exploded, the mouth guard shattering, the armor lighting up and remolding itself. Within moments the giants armor reshaped, gone were the sharp angular lines of interlocking plates, now, there were the smooth curves of gently swept armor plates that did more to hug and retain the life like qualities of the gem beneath, the armor was still advanced and futuristic in ascetic, and each plate still fit together with its naebours perfectly like pieces of a puzzle, but now each of those pieces seemed softer. As the light faded away the armor took on a irradiant rainbow pattern that shifted in the light, the helmet had reshaped itself to fit tighter on the head, but was smoother and more natural, the mouth was uncovered revealing soft flesh, lips and a gentle smile. The platinum blond hair that cascaded out the back was now joined by a cloak of shifting ethereal light, like an aurar, with silver light trimming. The weapons also remained the same, but now they were sleeker, lacking in the sharp angels and appearing to be of far superior construction.

Labrodite wasn’t sure what she had just witnessed, a fusion that could transform? That was new. Her gauntlet was busted, and she really didn’t care to find out what this thing was capable of. Without much thinking in the mater she turned herself invisible and lepta from the edge of the mountain using her powers to slow and cushion the fall as she made her way down as fast as she could.

Rainbow Hematite opened her eyes and looked about, as she did so, the dark visor glowed with light, then retracted into the armor to reveal her four eyes looking around the ruined mountain top temple. “I know you are here Smokey Quartz” she said in a far less robotic voice.

Smokey condensed herself from the cloud vapors she had been hiding in as Rainbow Hematite split into two beings, Spessarite who was expected, and a now restored White Azezulite. The new Azezulite wore white cloths in contrast to her other self, long white jacket that flared out to the sides as the tail split, ending in sharp points at her knees, the jacket had an elliptical cut to it as the fabric ran up to her waist and then back down to points just off to the sides of her knees, the closed jacket was buttoned up at the center of her chest, creating the large V that stretched down to her knees, the top mirroring the V to reveal her gemstone which was located over her left breast in place of her heart. She wore a soft expression of endless patience and kindness, as she walked towards Smokey “Si….. Smokey” she said nervously.

Smokey looked down at her and smiled “It’s alright Az. I know, I really screwed up this time, and I don’t deserve to be called your sister”

Azezulite grabbed Smokey by her trench coat as she buried her head in the chest of the taller gem and began crying. Smokey stroked her hair and tried to reassure her through the muffled tears. But then White Azezulite did something Smokey had been utterly unprepared for. She looked up at her and told her “You weren’t wrong. I was. I am so sorry” she said, catching Smokey off guard and freezing her in place as she elaborated “You were right. the whole time you were right! I needed to pick a side, I should never have tried to stay neutral. I just couldn’t bear the thought of fighting so I tried to take the cowards way out. I tried to pretend I wasn’t involved that I could just sit on the side lines” she lowered her head and cried harder into Smokey’s chest “But that was all a lie, I was doing more harm to everyone by doing nothing. And then, when I finally had to admit you were right…. I couldn’t deal with the thought of harming another gem……it was so horrible, and I couldn’t handle it so I tried to lock up all my emotions to do the right thing by being completely reasonable about it, like you always did but…..” Azezulite broke down into another long weeping fit “I couldn’t do it right. I screwed up, and I made myself into that monster because I was such a failure of a gem” a look of profound terror and realization covered Smokey’s face as she absorbed what she had heard. Her body continued to comfort and console White Azezulite, holding her close, stroking her hair along her back, whispering that it was all okay now. But Smokey’s mind had been shattered along with her heart, the existential terror etched into her face.

It was only by some small mercy that White Azezulite never looked up at smokey as she turned around still crying “i….. I need to be alone. I can’t be trusted around other gems. I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again. Please just….. just give me some time” she managed to get out before running down the mountain ignoring the frozen Smokey Quartz behind her. Spessarite watching the exchange and seeing Smokey’s features slowly made her way out, not wanting to get involved in clearly very personal and intimate matters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smokey Quartz had returned to her island and locked herself in her study. She lay at her desk, her face covered by her messy hair, all around her mementos of her failures. Small silver canisters with names carefully etched in each of them. Scarlet. Amythist Alpha, Amythis Beta, Blood Stone, a collection of Agate’s consisting of Fire, Ellensburg, Moonlight, Sage, Moss, and Dendritic, there were dozens of containers all around her, each one containing the remnants of a fallen gem, a gem Smokey had cared for and loved, a gem that had died because of her. Mixed in with the gem canisters were a few photos of her departed friends and herself as Silver Diamond. “You really fucked it up this time Silver.” She bemoaned. Smokey remained in the room, the door locked as she wept for her sister, and the lives she had ruined. No small number of the gems present had been ended by Black Azezulite, and Smokey had accepted responsibility for that, she had been prepared to be hated, blamed, and attacked by her sister, to be called a monster for turning her into a monster, but never, not in her worst nightmares did she think Az would consider herself the one to blame. A few times she had heard Rose knock on the door and try to come in, but Smokey ignored it. Rose deserved someone better than her.

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Smokey Quartz floated around the outer edge of the mountain top temple watching Labrodite like a hawk. The psychopath had brought along a toy, some sort of gauntlet with pieces of gems jammed together in the three stone settings between the knuckles. The gauntlet wasn’t terribly large, only about the size of a steel gauntlet taken from a set of medieval European armor; the metal was polished silver with gold trimming and inlayed patterns. It didn’t seem to do anything, and judging from the settings, it was likely Labrodite’s trough case where she put the pieces of her victims. It angered Smokey to no end, Lbut so long as the little monster did as she was told, she didn’t care. If Labrodite could hold up her end of things and it played out the way Smokey envisioned, then she could wear a dress made out of all the shattered fragments of her victims if she wanted.

For her part, Labrodite was getting antsy, she’d been told to wait here on this mountain for several days while Smokey arranged everything else. She didn’t like taking orders or waiting at some one else’s command, but the time alone offered her distraction less environment she needed to complete her little toy, and once she used it, she’d be sure to kill this ‘Azezulite’ gem, nice and slow. And then when that over bearing quartz came out, she’d break her to. It would be magnificent, because she knew that gem was around here, somewhere, waiting in the wings for the obvious and inevitable betrayal.

Black Azezulite and Spessarite began walking up the mountains stairs to the summit, it was an obvious trap to Azezulite, a large energy reading on top of a mountain with the warp pad located at the base. It had all the hallmarks, Bait, bookable exit, isolated location, not that anywhere on this planet wasn’t ‘isolated’. If she had to guess, this was the work of some random gem without much actual experience laying traps, Rose’s Crystal Gem’s would have used more enticing bait, and Smokey Quartz would develop such an elaborate ruse that it would not become apparent until you it was too late to turn back. The reason Azezulite was climbing the mountain with Spessarite knowing full well it was a trap was because that meant the gem laying the trap was likely worth capturing, as some one minor and unimportant would chose to remain out of the spot light, after all home world didn’t care about every gem that defected with Rose, only the important ones, and if you thought you were important enough to warrant taking proactive measures, well you were probably right. of course, beyond all that it was entirely possible Azezulite had guessed wrong and Smokey had not gone to earth but one of the other possible destinations, in which case she could at least acquire a few worthwhile targets on earth before moving on to another location in her hunt for her actual target.

As Azezulite and Spessarite climbed the mountain Spess looked back to her partner and asked her “You know this is a trap right?” they were about half way up, the point where they could still turn back without much difficulty.

Azezulite nodded “Yes, however it is a trap designed by an amateur, at most I suspect there to be four gems, more likely only one or two. In even the worst case scenario however, Hematite would be enough to ensure our safe retreat”

Spess frowned a little, not liking the level of certainty that Azezulite possessed but she couldn’t argue with her either, she was right, Hematite was a pure combat fusion, something you didn’t see very often, and as much as she didn’t like being part of Hematite, the fusion could probably handle almost any situation.

Upon reaching the mountains summit Spessarite and Azezulite found themselves facing a rather board looking Labrodite who folded up the mirrored panels she brought and stood up from her lawn chair, flexing her hands and cracking her neck “finally you’re here” she said as she looked at the pair of gems “OH COME ON! SPESSARITE!? REALLY!? YOU came to check on the beacon? AND you bring a partner?” she screamed upon seeing Spessarite, whom had not been mentioned by the damn quartz at all. The plan she had agreed to was simple, fight two gems and back them into a corner so that they will fuse, and what’s she find out? one of those two gems was Yellow Diamonds former fucking general, one of the most dangerous gems Lab knew of, so dangerous in fact that she had been sure to always play the prankster and harmless imp around so that she wouldn’t have to worry about fighting her, the other one looked easy enough to deal with, all thin and lanky.

Spessarite looked confused at Labrodite, really? This was the plan? Use the annoying prankster? Spess had been expecting a corruption, some kind of giant monster, Sunstone, or maybe the crystal gems, but Labrodite? She was annoying but hardly dangerous, other than a few illusions she didn’t really have the skills to threaten one gem let alone two. Spess found herself beginning to suspect that whatever plan this Smokey Quartz had cooked up it was a dude. “Lab?” she asked already groaning internally “What the hell are you doing here?”

Labrodite was admitantly terrified for a brief moment, from personal experience she knew that Spessarite could probably beat her. Well, normally Spessarite could probably beat her she reminded herself as she looked at her gauntlet before smiling at the pair of gems “aww, Spessy, I’m just here to have a little fun” Labrodite said as she waved her hands around playfully while casting the first set of illusions “and you know I thought of a great game we could play” the second set were already half way done as she continued her speech “it’s called, ‘who is the most terrifying gem on the mountain’, the rules are simple, the game ends when one or both of you are dead, the survivor, if applicable, ends the game by begging for mercy after seeing what I do to her friend!” with those words Labrodite began to fade away, a psychotic rendition of the cheesier cats smile upon her face. Of course the real Labrodite had stopped talking and walked away from that body ages ago. It was nice of Spess and her friend not to attack her while she was giving the speech, most gems used that time to attack her. Lab was already disappointed in Spess for not taking the opportunity.

Spessarite scanned the battlefield picking up all the tiny details as she pressed herself to the back of Azezulite, each of them drawing their weapons. Spess hadn’t felt this intimidated in a long time, and only eons of military discipline and practice allowed her to wall up and supress her fear, although she could still feel her hands shaking as she held her blade.

“She is attempting to manipulate our emotional states. What you are feeling is not real” Black Azezulite said in her typical monotone, Spess grumbled, easy for the robot to say, she didn’t have emotions to manipulate

“How?” she asked the obvious question, far as she had known, Lab could only do illusions, and fire relatively weak blasts of energy from her hands

“Unknown. This labrodite is demonstrating abnormal behavior and ability’s. There is a high probability she is a ‘One-Off’ similar to sunstone” came the emotionless reply. As an exercise in controlling her emotions on the battel field Spessarite reminded herself of everything she knew regarding ‘One offs’. A one off was, for lack of a better term a mutant, something about their formation and development went wrong, over heated, exposed to too much pressure, blasted by radiation, over cooked, whatever it was in the specific case, the resulting gem was always more powerful than their counter parts, and possessed unique ability’s, powers that were either unheard of, considerably more developed, or possessing multiple ability’s. One-Off’s were often considered the treasured gems of their patron diamonds, and so enjoyed a lot more privileges then the average gem of their class, depending on their ability’s, most were used as weapons, failing that, they were how the diamonds measured themselves against each other.

Spessarite growled, Lab had been a combat one off, and she had missed it, worse, in hindsight, all the evidence was there; a Labrodite was a scientist not a noble, and even if she were a noble, why would a diamond send a courtier to the battlefield? A lot of things started falling into place for Spessarite, like what must have happened to Labrodites old squad, the one that got wiped out by one of Rose’s squads, a squad no one ever found. Labrodite had gone rouge, killed her team, maybe even used rose’s team to do the dirty work and then just cleaned up all the loose ends. With all the chaos, and the deserters on both sides, no one would notice one wandering Labrodite claiming her squad was wiped out and she just hid out of fear. As all these realizations began piling onto each other one after the other Spessarite lost her cool and began swinging her sword around in wide arcs.

Azezulite scanne the battlefield, her eyes noticing all the tiny discrepancies, the entire field was an illusion, specifically it was an illusion of the actual temple, after firing a test shot and noticing that there was no damage Az knew how this Labrodite was going to deal with them. She created a complex illusion of the field, hid any and all damage they caused, hid the mist and fog caused by the clouds at this altitude, hid the dust, hid everything that could reveal her, and since neither she nor Spessarite could see the battlefield proper they would not be able to account for changes in the terrain caused by their fighting, and if the dimensions of the plateau were off from what the illusion said they were, it would be very easy for them to be tripped up, or thrown off the mountain by an invisible foe. This of course did not take into account the other unknown ability’s this labrodite possessed or what that gauntlet on her hand did. The purpose of the energy reading was clear now however. This labrodite wasn’t trying to lure Az here specifically, she was trying to lure anyone in so that she could field test her new invention. How very like a typical labrodite.

Labrodite smirked, Spess was enraged. Her temper had always been her weak point, the damn Azezulite wasn’t playing along but she’d been told to expect that. ‘you can’t intimidate someone who doesn’t experience emotions’ she’d been warned. Ok, emotionless gem, it was new, but time to test out the features of her gauntlet. Labrodite funneled energy into the device, and the gems began to glow as she re-appeared smirking “Aww, poor baby, I’m over here Spazy” she chided, Spessarite took the bait and swung at Lab’s neck, only for the gem to grab her sword in one hand stopping it dead. “Enhanced strength, check.” in an instant she was behind Spessarite punching her in the back and kicking her in the side sending her flying to stone fence that suronded the arena like plateau. “Enhanced speed, check”. Since there were two opponents and no reason to hold back it was time to use the more interesting features of her new toy, Labrodite first created a shield, then a sword “Ability to create the weapons of fallen gems, check” she called out. Azezulite wasted little time in firing on where she perceived Labrodite to be, who blocked the explosive cannon shots easily enough with her stolen shield. Labrodite couldn’t be happier with how well her gauntlet was working, it’d be fun to kill these two now, but she hadn’t seen any trace of Smokey Quartz, so she held back waiting for them to fuse so she could gage how effectively she could use the combined ability’s and weapons of her victims against an actual fusion. The real benchmark for power.

Spess circled around and tried to strike Labrodtie from behind, only for her to vanish again and comment “See, Spess, as a tactician and strategist, I’d think you would know, the most dangerous person on the battlefield isn’t the gem with a big sword or gun. It’s the mage. Specifically, it’s the one that casts illusions” a fist struck Spess in the check sending her flying again. “Ohhh I am LOVING this.” Lab gloated, all the strength of a combat gem, possibly, and probably, more, she’d need to do some tests to find out.

Azezulite analyzed the situation. This labdordite’s abilities were problematic on their own, the gauntlet provided her a massive force multiplier equivalent to that of actual fusion. It was a remarkable invention, one she would have to acquire and send back to home world, even if Smokey Quartz was not on earth, that device had made the mistake a worthwhile venture. Unfortunately it was obvious that Labrodite was toying with them. If she wanted victory fusion was the only option, which suited Azezulite just fine, Fusion was a weapon after all. Turning to Spessarite she darted to her partner and began dancing around her body, Spessarite recognized the movements and extended her hand taking Black Azezulites and moving in tandem with her, a perverse hybrid of the waltz and a pole dance took place as their body’s transformed into light and merged.

The light grew to the size and shape of a normal fusion with four arms, a black under suit appearing first, then a head with greyish peach flesh and four closed eyes, before any of them opened a second eruption of light came forth clothing the body in angled interlocking geometric plates that left only the joints exposed, which were in turn covered up by mesh of tiny hexagonal plates, as the light dimmed the armor was revealed to be polished black metal, long platinum blond hair exploding out the back of the helmet. The fusion instantly summoned up its weapons, two swords and two arm cannons each of which was merged with one of the great swords in its hands, hands that then sank into the control surfaces of the weapon arms. “Hematite: Online. Ready for combat operations. Target: Labrodite. Objective: Neutralize. Engaging Anti-fusion Adaptive Combat Protocols” the almost robotic combat fusion said.

Labrodite whistled. Now this was going to be interesting. “Time to try out the ability’s” she smirked as she activated her first power and created two doppelgangers, each armed with a sword and shield but no gauntlet. The trio of Labrodites then charged at the giant war machine.

Spessarite found herself exactly where she expected to find herself. Inside the shared mindscape of Hematite, to her right a giant tower and a flat featureless barren plan, to her left, an expansive wasteland covered in white sand and ruins. Having carefully studied the manual Pink Pearl had delivered, Spess headed into the wastes, straight for the castle reviewing the plan again in her mind which was quickly clearing of it’s former fog. ‘to regain your missing faculty’s, focus on a goal’ had been the first instruction ‘simply killing or imprisoning Black Azezulite will not free White Azezulite. She must be freed from whatever captivity she is in first’ had been the second instruction.

As she found the castle again Spessarite threw open the ruined doors and marched forwards ignoring everything around her. None of it was important, and all of it would flood her with emotions and memory’s that weren’t entirely her own. Focus was key. In the ruined throne room she found her goal. Frozen crystal fire engulfing a gem in the throes of emotional turmoil, her mind and heart torn apart by the choice she had been forced to make. Spessarite summoned up her sword in the mindscape, and slammed her blade into the crystals which shattered like glass ‘whatever bindings hold White Azezulite will appear indestructible. To her, they are. To you, they will be as glass’ she recited from the manual. Azezulite fell to the ground, unconscious, trembling, naked, and still crying. Spessarite took off her cloak and wrapped it around the quivering gem. For a moment she wondered where the cloak had come from, she never wore one before, but then she reminded herself, she wanted one to wrap the gem up in, and here, her desires became reality. The mindscape of a fusion played by different rules. Will was all that mattered. Picking White Azezulite up Spessarite marched out of the wasteland towards the tower a look of pure determination on her face. The upcoming battle would be the hardest part. White Az couldn’t help, she was free but her will was shattered when she created Black Azezulite. The only way she’d get control was for someone else to take command of the fusion and reset the mindscape. Spess was still a bit fuzzy on that part, but so far, everything else had been accurate.

Labrodite smirked as her doppelgangers fought Hematite to a standstill, each of the three was now using a unique set of weapons created through fusing some of the weapons that Labrodite had access to. They couldn’t summon them up on their own, but the real Lab was able to summon up the weapons, combine them, and then toss them to her clones. One of her clones was using a spiked flail on an exceptionaly long chain, the result of combining a mace with a chain. The other was using a war hammer made from a pair of gauntlets and a spear. Labrodite herself hung back and handled fire support with a bow she had created. It really was amazing how versatile a pearl’s spear was, long pointy sticks made amazing weapon bases for combination. Of course the superior numbers didn’t seem to be doing much to stop Hematite, when the clones eventually broke through the shield and did some damage she started swinging around those two giant energy blades of hers having abandoned the use of the rail gun for close quarters combat. Labrodite smirked as an idea poped into her head. This was one ability and a bunch of weapons, why limit herself? Searching through the mental catalog of powers she had at her disposal she smiled as she though up some fun ability’s to toss into the mix. The Warhammer using clone extended a hand to the ground and tore up pieces of the mountain dressing herself in stone armor. The flail using clone bulked up, becoming more muscular as lighting raced across her flesh, while the real Labrodite holding her bow was covered in a heat aura, her arrows igniting as she fired them “Storm, Earth and Fire. Heed my call” she thundered.

Hematite analyzed the new additions to her enemy’s arsenal. It did not impact her battle performance or the outcome of the conflict. “Additional ability’s detected. Alterations to combat effectiveness: negligible. Zero impact on tactical assessment” She retained a 78.88% chance of victory.

Labrodite growled. That bitch was goading her! Fine. She wanted a fight; she’d get one, time to really pull out all the stops with the gauntlet.

Inside the mindscape Spessarite scaled the tower cradling White Azezulite the entire time. Once she reached the top she was again greeted by her copper clad clone. ‘You must remain in control of your faculties, any version of yourself you see is yours to command, not Black Azezulite. So long as you remember this they will obey’ “Kneel” she commanded, and her emotionless clone did as instructed ‘Absorb any doppelgangers of yourself you find, they contain other facets of yourself, and without them you cannot fight at your best’ Extending a hand she reached out and touched her clone’s forehead, the clone disappeared and Spessarite felt complete again.

Black Azezulite did not pay Spessarite any real attention as she addressed her “I am pre-ocupied dealing with our enemy, whatever your illogical concerns are this time, please hold them until after I have eliminated the threat”

Spess scowled. This was far from the first time they had fused; she had needed to convince Black Azezulite to fuse at every chance they got for ‘practice’ and ‘to work on our team work’. That had mostly been a lie, Spess was practicing control in the mindscape, this level of self-awareness didn’t come easy, and learning to control the mindscape was a counterintuitive process. It was all about will, and belief. “Sorry Az, but not this time”

Black Azezulite turned around and took stock of Spessarite, and the wrapped up form of White Azezulite. “Ah. I see” this was honestly far from the first time someone she regularly fused with found her other half and decide that something needed to be done. It was a shame as this was one of the best fusions she had discovered, it’s lose would be unfortunate. Without any further warning or ceremony she opened fire on Spessarite.

Labrodite smiled as she began throwing on ability after ability. The gauntlet was drawing more power now, but that was fine, it was heating up to, but that was to be expected with such heavy use. Her clones were starting to look a little ragged though, their forms were changing, being a bit less humanoid, one was hunching over with stringy hair coming down her scalp, her jaw elongated and distended becoming more feral, the other was getting larger and more muscular, her features becoming more exaggerated. Well, time for new clones! She dismissed them both, only they didn’t disappear. So she tried removing their powers only they kept them. She cancelled out the weapons, and the weapons stayed. The gauntlet on her hand continued to glow and heat and draw more power as her clones fought. Labrodite squirmed. The thing was out of control, it had to many powers to draw from and the command to stop was being lost in the mix with her other selves and all the powers she’d already activated. Clenching her teeth she personally took to the fray now firing her own bolts of magical energy. It wasn’t going well. Before long Labrodite could feel the gauntlets intense power-drain really affecting her. She’d need to do something soon if she didn’t want to get poofed by her own invention.

Inside the mindscape Spessarite was controlling the battlefield. When Black Az fired a shot at her, she batted it away harmlessly. When Black Az summoned up a wall, Spess made it melt into a puddle. Divided as she was, Black Azezulite’s will wasn’t as strong as it appeared. She was logical, calculating, and efficient. It created a terrifying image, and that image kept her partners in check in a fusion, but, once you knew the actual rules of a fusion mindscape, suddenly Black Az wasn’t nearly as powerful or freighting. Unable to halt and barely able to slow Spessarite Black Azezulite lost more and more ground until Spess closed the final distance and grabbed her, then she began to beat her, punch after punch to the face and torso, kneeing her, kicking her, but always keeping her in hand so that she could not escape. ‘Killing Black Azezulite is meaningless. You must strip her of her will to fight. Otherwise she could reassume control of White Azezulite without warning in the future.’ It made sense. This was all in the head, you couldn’t kill a part of yourself let alone someone else, you had to make that part of you learn it’s place through self-control and discipline. Which in this case meant beating the ever loving shit out of it for as long as it took.

Labrodite was genuinely terrified now. She’d tried everything to get the gauntlet to stop, and she was down to her last resort. She overloaded it with as much of her own power as she could, and it worked, the gems inside the gauntlet sparked, heated up more, fused together and then exploded as tiny molten gem seeds. She was left panting but her powers were returning, without any gems in the gauntlet to feed, it was really just a big battery now. Smiling as a few ideas on how to use the stripped down gauntlet came to mind Lab started to scowl. Hematite had stopped moving.

The armored giant remained motionless before Labrodite for several seconds which seemed to stretch on for eternity. To Lab it seemed likely that the fusion had realized that Lab had just lost her trump card, but she felt a growing power from it somehow….. And then the body started to glow, but not in that ending fusion glow, this was different, brighter. The helmet around Hematite’s head exploded, the mouth guard shattering, the armor lighting up and remolding itself. Within moments the giants armor reshaped, gone were the sharp angular lines of interlocking plates, now, there were the smooth curves of gently swept armor plates that did more to hug and retain the life like qualities of the gem beneath, the armor was still advanced and futuristic in ascetic, and each plate still fit together with its naebours perfectly like pieces of a puzzle, but now each of those pieces seemed softer. As the light faded away the armor took on a irradiant rainbow pattern that shifted in the light, the helmet had reshaped itself to fit tighter on the head, but was smoother and more natural, the mouth was uncovered revealing soft flesh, lips and a gentle smile. The platinum blond hair that cascaded out the back was now joined by a cloak of shifting ethereal light, like an aurar, with silver light trimming. The weapons also remained the same, but now they were sleeker, lacking in the sharp angels and appearing to be of far superior construction.

Labrodite wasn’t sure what she had just witnessed, a fusion that could transform? That was new. Her gauntlet was busted, and she really didn’t care to find out what this thing was capable of. Without much thinking in the mater she turned herself invisible and lepta from the edge of the mountain using her powers to slow and cushion the fall as she made her way down as fast as she could.

Rainbow Hematite opened her eyes and looked about, as she did so, the dark visor glowed with light, then retracted into the armor to reveal her four eyes looking around the ruined mountain top temple. “I know you are here Smokey Quartz” she said in a far less robotic voice.

Smokey condensed herself from the cloud vapors she had been hiding in as Rainbow Hematite split into two beings, Spessarite who was expected, and a now restored White Azezulite. The new Azezulite wore white cloths in contrast to her other self, long white jacket that flared out to the sides as the tail split, ending in sharp points at her knees, the jacket had an elliptical cut to it as the fabric ran up to her waist and then back down to points just off to the sides of her knees, the closed jacket was buttoned up at the center of her chest, creating the large V that stretched down to her knees, the top mirroring the V to reveal her gemstone which was located over her left breast in place of her heart. She wore a soft expression of endless patience and kindness, as she walked towards Smokey “Si….. Smokey” she said nervously.

Smokey looked down at her and smiled “It’s alright Az. I know, I really screwed up this time, and I don’t deserve to be called your sister”

Azezulite grabbed Smokey by her trench coat as she buried her head in the chest of the taller gem and began crying. Smokey stroked her hair and tried to reassure her through the muffled tears. But then White Azezulite did something Smokey had been utterly unprepared for. She looked up at her and told her “You weren’t wrong. I was. I am so sorry” she said, catching Smokey off guard and freezing her in place as she elaborated “You were right. the whole time you were right! I needed to pick a side, I should never have tried to stay neutral. I just couldn’t bear the thought of fighting so I tried to take the cowards way out. I tried to pretend I wasn’t involved that I could just sit on the side lines” she lowered her head and cried harder into Smokey’s chest “But that was all a lie, I was doing more harm to everyone by doing nothing. And then, when I finally had to admit you were right…. I couldn’t deal with the thought of harming another gem……it was so horrible, and I couldn’t handle it so I tried to lock up all my emotions to do the right thing by being completely reasonable about it, like you always did but…..” Azezulite broke down into another long weeping fit “I couldn’t do it right. I screwed up, and I made myself into that monster because I was such a failure of a gem” a look of profound terror and realization covered Smokey’s face as she absorbed what she had heard. Her body continued to comfort and console White Azezulite, holding her close, stroking her hair along her back, whispering that it was all okay now. But Smokey’s mind had been shattered along with her heart, the existential terror etched into her face.

It was only by some small mercy that White Azezulite never looked up at smokey as she turned around still crying “i….. I need to be alone. I can’t be trusted around other gems. I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again. Please just….. just give me some time” she managed to get out before running down the mountain ignoring the frozen Smokey Quartz behind her. Spessarite watching the exchange and seeing Smokey’s features slowly made her way out, not wanting to get involved in clearly very personal and intimate matters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smokey Quartz had returned to her island and locked herself in her study. She lay at her desk, her face covered by her messy hair, all around her mementos of her failures. Small silver canisters with names carefully etched in each of them. Scarlet. Amythist Alpha, Amythis Beta, Blood Stone, a collection of Agate’s consisting of Fire, Ellensburg, Moonlight, Sage, Moss, and Dendritic, there were dozens of containers all around her, each one containing the remnants of a fallen gem, a gem Smokey had cared for and loved, a gem that had died because of her. Mixed in with the gem canisters were a few photos of her departed friends and herself as Silver Diamond. “You really fucked it up this time Silver.” She bemoaned. Smokey remained in the room, the door locked as she wept for her sister, and the lives she had ruined. No small number of the gems present had been ended by Black Azezulite, and Smokey had accepted responsibility for that, she had been prepared to be hated, blamed, and attacked by her sister, to be called a monster for turning her into a monster, but never, not in her worst nightmares did she think Az would consider herself the one to blame. A few times she had heard Rose knock on the door and try to come in, but Smokey ignored it. Rose deserved someone better than her.