The air was silent, a silence that couldn't be compared to any other of its kind. The only place where the silence would be comparable would be the that of the Kindergartens on the planet below. But even in those Kindergartens, the wind could be heard flowing through the canyons and trenches that were made to facilitate the injectors.
The Earth could be seen far below, in its primeval glory, and the faint glow of the atmosphere could be seen. Small amounts of light where the Empire had set up their operations could be seen as well, even small blips of light in the middle east where humanity had been starting to develop more complex civilization.
Hundreds, if not thousands of gem ships could be seen ascending through and out of the atmosphere of the planet, fleeing tor their own safety due to what was about to happen. Whoever would be left behind would be completely obliterated, but their sacrifices would not be in vain. After all, this direct attack on Earth would destroy once lowly rebellion once and for all. A way to make recompense for what was supposedly the biggest embarrassment in the history of the local cluster.
But in the end, that might not matter. Pink Diamond couldn't be brought back, but her murderer would be finally brought to justice. At first, it would have been preferred to just capture Rose Quartz and bring her back to homeworld for trial, but with how large her rebellion had grown, that was now impossible.
Rose Quartz and her "Crystal Gems" had to be destroyed, here and now.
Both Yellow, and Blue Diamond held their hands out, their Aura flowing out of their gems and around their light constructs for bodies, and a moment later White did so as well. The Aura was beginning to concentrate in their hands, and it combined into a glowing ball of multi-colored light, white yellow and blue. It got bigger and bigger, and was soon released, as a blinding ball of light, that would briefly outshine the Sun itself, and everything went white.
A boy woke up gasping in his loft bed, hitting his head on the ceiling less than two feet above his head, the strange crystalline deformity on his forehead leaving another mark on the ceiling.
"Ow..." He had placed his hand on his forehead, trying to soothe the dull pain on his forehead. He glanced at the digital clock he had on his wall, trying to find what time it was. 4:21AM. He sighed, and proceeded to climb down the ladder on his loft.
"I need a drink..." It didn't take him very long to get to the kitchen, but just after he got his water, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. A faint glimmer of light from the window, coming from outside. Strange... wasn't there a new moon tonight? There shouldn't be any light outside if that's the case!
He went to get a closer look, but when he saw the source of the light outside, he didn't even gasp. It was her, the lady with one eye. She gave off a small amount of light, which had a similar intensity to the light that the Moon gave off when it was full.
She seemed creepy, but for one reason or another, he wasn't scared of her. Perhaps it was the feeling that he had for one reason or another, had met her before, or the fact that he had seen her outside for as long as he could remember. Something about her just seemed... mystical.
An almost otherworldly feeling emanated from her, one he was also familiar with somehow, but not sure how. He was about to place his hand on the window when he heardfootsteps behind him, and the sound of the light switched being flicked.
"Elio?" A womans voice asked. He turned around to see Lusamine in her robe, bags under her eyes.
"Oh, mother!" Elio said, turning around.
"I was just getting a drink, and... I noticed the one eyed lady outside again!" He said, pointing to the window.
"The one eyed lady?" Lusamine asked.
"Elio... don't tell me you're hallucinating again."
"I wasn't though! She was even giving off light!"
"She's not there... take a closer look, will you?"
They both looked back to the window, to find it was almost pitch black outside again. The trees seemed even darker, with the only thing that wasn't black being the faint stars above the treeline.
"Wait... she was literally just there! Where'd she-" Lusamine placed a finger on his lips to shush him mid-sentence.
"Sshh... don't you see? We are perfectly fine. No one is out in the forest watching you nor me." She proceeded to grab his wrists, and had began to squeeze so tightly it started to hurt. "I'm getting very tired of these hallucinations of yours... I did not raise you like this."
"Let go of me!! I swear she was out there!!"
What sounded like a low growl came from her throat, and out of anger, Elio was punched in the face, HARD. The impact sent him stumbling back a few feet.
"ELIO WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN-" She went silent, upon seeing the area that she had hit turning a shade of red.
"Mother... I-"
"You see what happens when you lie!?"
Elio had staggered against the wall, terrified with tears in his eyes. "I'll show you!!" Lusamine had gone in for another punch, but Elio had dipped out of the way and was booking it for the door. His fight or flight instincts had kicked in, and he chose flight. He couldn't fight his own mother, or at least who he thought was his mother, even if she had just tried to beat him. She already did this to an before, but not to this extent. He wouldn't leave her when she did this, he had nowhere else to go.
But now he had no choice, it's either only have a concussion, or be beaten to a pulp. He chose the former, as he burst out the door. He ran out into the cold October night, as Lusamines wails and screams struck his heart, but he couldn't go back. It was too late for that now.
"Get back here you damn Unicorn! I swear when I get my hands on you, I'll-" Her voice faded away as he got further away from the house. The wind chill on his face made the conditions outside feel even worse, not to mention the sounds of the wind howling between the branches of the barren trees.
His legs had felt like jelly after a few minutes, though he forced himself to keep running, but just when it seemed like his legs would give out on him...he ran into something.
He ran into something, and fell onto his butt, but when he saw what, or who he ran into his eyes widened.
It was her. The one eyed lady, standing before him. As Elio had named her, she only appeared to have one eye, but the other looked... cracked? Her face seemed to have a crack in it, like the porcelain dolls Lusamine collected, but it spread to her hair? She looked nothing like him or Lusamine, nor any other human he had seen. She was pitch white, and her hair was grey, and her clothes were different tones of grey and black. On her stomach, there was even some kind of... stone? It was a white oval shaped stone on her stomach, about the length of a thumb.
"It's you... why are you here??"
She didn't answer, but offered him her hand, giving a small smile. Lusamine could be heard in the distance, and without much choice, Elio took her hand.
A grey bubble formed around the duo, and the temperature around them immediately raised to a more comfortable level.
For the first time in his 16 years of life, Elio for the first time... felt free.
Chapters end.
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