Mars had been having a much nicer time after the little jam session that h had done with Candice, and had even learned how to transform by himself through the use of his older memories. At the moment he was curled up in bed with a stray kitten he'd taken in as his own, having transformed into a larger cat to make the little creature more comfortable. He had named the creature Ghost, as it was all he could think of when he found the guy, and since he always had a habit of disappearing from time to time(as well as having a particular affection for Candice) it seemed the most appropriate.

When Candice suddenly left, however, looking very agitated and flustered, Mars found himself feeling very worried for his friend. He was wondering what could have possibly have caused her to run of like that. he considered giving chase, but decided instead that he should trust her. Whatever was happening, it couldn't be that bad, right? Unfortunately, Mars found himself unable to calm himself down, getting up and jumping to the floor of the RV to pace along the floor in frustration. causing Ghost to cry out in protest at his living pillow being moved. After a while, Mars let out a sigh, thinking of only one way to get his mind of Candice right now. Jumping onto the bed, he picked Ghost up by the scruff, than ran out, morphing mid-step into a much larger feline, closer in appearance to a golden-brown tiger with a myriad of colors making up it's stripes.

He rushed through the town, passing all of the decorations that he'd spent the passt week marveling in awe, but right now paid them only a passing glance. Every so often, however, he saw a specter hover at the edges of his vision, the nightmarish reminders of a past that wasn't his never fully leaving his mind. And he was risking another breakdown with his current choice of action, but he felt like he had to do this now while it was in his head, or else he might never do so again.

At least I won't be facing this alone, isn't that right Ghost?

He thought with a mental grin, to which the small feline seemed to respond to with a meow of affirmation.

Soon, Mars found himself at the door of the temple, and found himself somewhat surprised by the fact that Bloodstone was there as well. As he looked upon the man's figure, he found himself starting to shale under the pressure as the voices began to whisper to him again, only for a loud mewl from Ghost shook him out of it. Taking a second to calm his nerves, Mars leaped from his position, high into the sky, over Bloodstone, and landing in the middle of the group. He placed Ghost on the ground, who immediately ran over to Emerald, trying to climb up the green gem's pant leg. Mars simply sat there, not trusting himself to say anything as he looked between Aquamarine and Bloodstone, a faint curiousity capable of being seen from his eyes.

@Akayaofthemoon

@21308

@HaltingBlooper

@Guardian Angel Haruki

@Kronshi

Bloodstone entered the Temple as the gems talked about him right in front of him. "Ok so, one at a time. No, I won't be going away anytime soon. Yes, I do have a lot of nerve... And what do you have against me anyway. And you owe my visit to the two gem-beasts and the Class Three Cluster that is on it's way towards Mohs Town. They're slow-moving and won't be here til dark but the town won't be able to tell the difference between them and the costumes of the humans. We need to intercept them.... and who knows, it might be a good learning experience for the young gems." Bloodstone finished his rant and looked towards Aquamarine and finally realized her appearance. "..... Did Reggie steal my Humanic Disguise Generator and give it to you? You know, one of my Time-Stun Grenades went missing and I thought Chromite misplaced it... I'll have to give him a stern talking to."

Blood started to walk towards Aqua to inspect the disguise when some large feline-like beast jumped from behind him. "At least I thought they were slow-moving! This must be a different one all together! Blood summoned his glaive and prepared to attack the creature whenever it left an opening.

@KronshiEmerald froze up, numb to the animal, the thing that brought the animal, and Bloodstone's reaction to the animal. "What do you have against me anyway?" The words echoed in his mind, and so did the memories, the memories of his first days alive. He stood up, seething with resentment, and proceeded to shout at Bloodstone, "What do we have against you? What do we HAVE AGAINST YOU?! Don't take this the wrong way, or actually, do, I don't care, but almost everything bad that's happened to us happened directly because of YOU! Robots, GIANT EYEBALLS that BLOW US UP, having to learn that we apparently are some sort of reanimated version of shattered Gems, made in some sort of lab by you, THAT'S what we have against you!"

At hearing this, Spinel decided it was finally time to speak up, hoping to diffuse the situation. She stepped forward and said "Emerald, please calm down. Have you already forgotten that without him, there's a good chance we wouldn't still have Aquamarine? We should at least hear him out." Spinel spoke so softly that one who didn't know better would have no idea that she'd just spoken about the most traumatic event of her life.

Ghost, fell off of Emerald at his sudden outburst, giving a small hiss at the green creature before scampering over to the quieter grey one, attempting to climb up the folds of he dress,only to fall to the ground in a clumsy fashion, letting out a mewl of discomfort, before shaking it's head and trying again. Meanwhile, Mars made no move to react to Bloodstone's actions, giving him a look of disinterest and uncaring, before gesturing with it's paw, drawing some attention to the gem in the inside of it's wrist, before going back to specataing the conversation.

@21308

@Kronshi

@Akayaofthemoon

"Spinel is right, everyone just needs to calm down. Emerald, we all know your dislike for Bloodstone and no one blames you for it but he has something important to say and it could help us protect the town and ourselves. I also believe he was speaking to Carnelian on why she dislikes him since we have made it clear what he did to cause everyone else's feelings." she spoke softly before turning to focus on Bloodstone and walking forward to gently push his weapon away from pointing at Mars. A corrupted gem would not be carrying the small adorable animal that was not wondering to different people in the room.

"Please, I ask that you don't point weapons in here. First, I have not seen Reggie since a week ago when he was waiting for Eve outside of Soda's door. Two, he would have no reason to give me whatever device you are speaking of and this look was in fact done by myself. Now, if they are moving as you said they are...we will pretend like nothing is wrong so as to not cause panic or suspicion. Humans will react badly if we tell them the danger on the way. We will continue with our plans to dress up and some with stay in town to defend or be on standby while the rest set a perimeter around town. Blood, do you have any way for all of us to stay connected while we are apart? That way we all know where to go when they are spotted." Aquamarine said to Blood before she smiled softly at the large cat that was still watching them."It is nice to see you again Mars. I wasn't sure if I ever would..."

Bloodstone was slightly confused by the corrupted gem's gesture but once Aqua pushed his weapon away it clicked in his head. "Thank you for calming everyone down Aqua, you were always good at that. I'm also quite surprised that you have remembered so much about the battle tactics I taught you. Now as for the communication systems, I have some old ear-pieces but they're kind of glitchy and may static out in necessary times but they certainly are better than nothing." Blood began to think out tactics and leaned on his glaive while he did so.

"So I think it is obvious who should attack the creatures first and who should stay back to defend. Me and Aqua will charge the beasts and try and take them down without having any harm come to the young ones or the town. If things begin to look bad, we retreat and regroup with those in town to handle the beasts to the best of our abilities. We will discuss placement of everyone of it comes down to that, besides this way the young ones can enjoy the holiday until necessary. Now Aqua, you can keep the corrupted gems for.... whatever it is you and the other rebels did with them and I'll take back the cluster for research. Agreed?" Bloodstone stated as he looked towards Aquamarine then towards the entire group present, making sure they could agree to his plans.

Zircon had almost forgotten that this day was supposed to be some sort of holiday, involving some act of dress-up or whatnot. What had made her almost forget was most likely distractions from her own thoughts. Zircon had originally planned to wear a full-on outfit, but the whole costume concept in general seemed somewhat complicated to her. In terms of either deciding which one or finding the right one, that is. So she decided just to be a little simple. Slowly exiting her room, Zircon had on one of those circular straw hats that samurai would wear. She had also heard around much earlier that holding a single piece of straw in the mouth would add a nice touch to it, since that would some samurai have or at least according to what they thought. Zircon was sure holding a straw in her mouth alright, but...technically not. To Zircon's currently unknowing misunderstanding...it was more like a bendy straw. Anyways, and however, Zircon's hat would tip forward in front of her face just about to fall off until Zircon would catch it and put it back on top of her head. Although, this would repeat as Zircon slowly walked out of her room making her agitation form and slowly rise. It wasn't until a few steps were taken until Zircon stopped in her tracks and froze with her one hand keeping her straw hat on her head. She had to look around the room as her agitation paused. Right on the day of a holiday, Bloodstone was there. That's what caught her attention the most, and as if someone were pouring a glass of water for her the agitation rose for a couple more seconds. And he was talking about...tactics? That seemed to be what Zircon was half-listening about. From looking around at the people in the room Zircon could already tell that there was some form of fit she had missed, and she probably just missed on what exactly was going on. Something, was obviously going on. "This... This is just very ironic timing, isn't it?" Zircon somewhat mumbled with the bendy straw in her mouth and used her half-sarcastic tone. Although, she was actually tempted to go full-on sarcastic, but half-sarcastic might have been more appropriate for whatever situation this may be and for what she will find out about it.

"Yes, I am sure you are surprised. The form of communication through the ear-pieces is better than nothing as you stated but we will have to be extra on guard just in case the communication gives out. Check in every now and than would be the most reliable method to make sure." Aquamarine replied before letting Blood go over strategy. The plan did seem pretty solid, though she wasn't sure how ready she was to be alone with Blood. It seemed all they did was clash when they got close but maybe this could be a turning point in trying to be civil. She should be willing to at least give him a chance since people changed over time. There wasn't much hope but if there was even a small glimmer of hope than she couldn't resist. "Cluster? I have no clue to what you are speaking of but I don't see much of an issue with that since it would be unfair that after a warning that you get nothing from the deal. The strategy seems sound unless someone has any objections to it....I just... Please...don't make me regret agreeing to anything.." Aqua answered, the last part only being spoken because he had asked for something unknown to her.

Carnelian listened quietly to the discussion between the gems. She was going to answer Bloodstone's question that was directed at her, but Emerald already answered it. After listening carefully to the discussion, and Aquamarine asked for objections. She stood up and stated "I have some objections," She narrowed her gaze at Bloodstone and she told him, "You showed Aquamarine and I that you couldn't be trusted last time, why should we trust you now? Also, why do you want this cluster? Is it the same reason you wanted that obnoxious green gem with the bad taste in appearance?"



Candice reached the area in the desert where she was able to spot the anomalies her general had mentioned. She managed to hide behind a large rock and pull out one of her weapons. She aimed her gun at the gem of one of the monsters, and with a calm exhale, she fired. She looked through the scope on her weapon to see if she had managed to hit her mark or not, and how effective bullets would be against the gem. It was do or die here. She would either live through this fight and be able to deter the monsters from reaching town, or she would die a painful death. She knew her chances of living through this fight were slim, but she's been in situations just as bad as this, and managed to survive and tell the tale.

It had been quite some time since Chromite had heard anything from Soapstone, so she decided to go into his room to check on him. When she arrived, he was nowhere to be found. "Soapstone?" she called out. It occurred to her that he wasn't anywhere on the ship the last time she'd made her rounds either. Didn't she hear him saying at one point that he was considering taking the warp pad to homeworld after Bloodstone said that was a possibility? Apparently he had done just that.

Chromite decided that she would wait until Bloodstone returned to report this news to him, it wasn't as if this was something he'd think she was lying about. Unusually for her, Chromite checked the ship's scanners. Bloodstone had seemed strangely panicked about something he'd seen on them earlier, and Chromite felt that it was part of her duty to know what. She picked up four readings coming from a desert near the town, one of them was consistent with the biomarkers of a human, and the others were quite clearly gem monsters, and formidable ones at that. "I rather doubt the commander would appreciate me letting them go unrestrained, and what is that human thinking?"

Chromite took the warp pad to the nearest available location relative to the desert and got there as quickly as she could, to see that what she'd gotten from the readings was accurate, a lone human had decided to take on three monsters with nothing more than a human pistol. She approached her and said, half sarcastically, "If you were planning taking the stealth route, maybe you should have reconsidered using such a loud weapon."

The hug had went on for longer than anticipated, but Sodalite didn't care. She was getting closure for her mistakes in the past, and she felt as if she were being cleansed. In the moment, she held onto Evenkite a little tighter than normal, their bodies starting to glow before fading back to normal. Afterwards, in which Evenkite didn't seem to notice as far as Sodalite knew, she inevitably had to let go of her friend.

She looked down at Evenkite with tenderness in her eyes. She wanted to say so much, wanted to start breaking down to rebuild herself completely, but she couldn't. She didn't want anyone, much less Evenkite, to see her in such a state. Her gaze hardened ever so slightly. What good would breaking down actually be? It wouldn't bring anything new to the table, and she already felt so much better than before.

"I... You can stay as long as you want, I'm going to head out now." Sodalite smiled cautiously, watching Evenkite scan her books and take some that interested her out of their places. "Just put them back where you found them when you're done with them!" She shouted as she neared the door, watching as the gears of her library turned to open the door. She loved that sound, the turning of gears and the clanking of metal. It was a wondrous sound to her.

She walked out. The world looked so different than when she entered her room, and wondered what had happened. She had a question for Aqua, if she could find her, and needed to explain to everyone what Evenkite was fine now.

---

"Should... should we go talk to them?" In the distance, a figure whispered to someone beside them.

"We have everything under control! We don't need any help from anyone else, Hess." The other voice was much hastier than the first, but matched the quiet tone that the first figure used.
"Okay, okay." The first, now known as Hess, raised her hands in defense. "I'm just saying, it's weird to watch people for as long as we have, and these are the first non kindergarten gems we've met in... in a while. They could help us, Pyrite, you know that."

Pyrite grumbled to herself. She had to admit when her partner was right, even if it hurt her pride. "Curse you, Hessonite." Her tone was angry, but Hess knew when she wasn't being serious, and this was one of those times.
"Come on." Hess pulled on Pyrite's gloved hand. "Let's to talk to them."

"No, no." Pyrite struggled to stay still, forcibly being dragged by the yellow skinned figure. "NO."
"Hello!" Hessonite called out, waving her free hand around. "My name is Hessonite, and this is Pyrite!"

Mars looked between the two, confused by the some of the words being thrown around. What was this 'cluster'? Why did they have to fight it, and other gems from the sound of it. Before he could voice these questions, however, two gems seemed to came out of nowhere and announce themselves to the group. Mars simply looked at them with his head tilted to the side.

Ghost, on the other hand, had been busy nomming on Spinel's head for the duration of the conversation until these new gems appeared. Curious about these new beings, he leaped from his spot on the small gems head and shimmied on over to the newcomers, batting at Hessonite's hair for a moment before rubbing against the yellow gem's leg, letting out a soft, mewling purr.

"Look, there's no time for me to explain the clusters. We need to get moving before things get hectic. So unless someone has a problem with the plan as opposed to me, I'm going to fetch the earpieces." As Bloodstone began to leave he noticed two new gems walk in, Oh great, more gems to hate me. I give up. Have fun with Aqua, and then he left the temple.

Blood walked out to the forest and warped to his ship, quickly grabbed a huge supply of earpieces. There, now just to take these to Aqua and head out to the desert. Maybe I should grab Chromite? Wait, where is she..... or Soapstone? Bloodstone rushed over to his servers and quickly picked up on the situation. He rushed back to the temple and dropped the box of earpieces on the temple floor. "Here's the earpieces, handle what you need to do here and quickly catch up with me, and take this tracker so you don't lose me. Now I need to go, Chromite's already on site and I'm pretty sure that human girl... What's here name?.. Cambice or something like that... She's there too." Bloodstone handed Aquamarine his tracker and raced out of there. Please be okay Chromite. I can't lose you too.

Candice quickly took out the empty bullet cartridge just as Chromite appeared, and she looked to her when she spoke up. She narrowed her eyes at the gem, recognizing her as one of Bloodstone's lackeys. She retorted as she pulled out a grenade (one of many other hidden weapons on her person), and pulled out a pin, coldly and with some bitter sarcasm of her own, "Well, it's a good thing that's not exactly what I am aiming for," She threw the grenade at the coming cluster and corrupted gem monsters, and ducked before the grenade exploded after landing near or on the targeted enemies. The sound of the explosion was nothing new to her ears as she reloaded her gun again, and she fired at the gem monsters and cluster once again. If they got too close, she moved away and dodged their attacks as necessary (even pulling Chromite out of the way if the gem was too slow).



Carnelian crossed her arms at Bloodstone's already hasty answer, and she said nothing in response to his answer. She looked to the two newcomer gems, and her expression softened. She greeted them as she walked up to them, "Why, hello Dahlings! I am Carnelian," Her expression grew grim as she continued, "I apologize, but this isn't exactly the best time...I'm afraid we have an issue of our own on our hands as of now,"
She looked to see that Bloodstone had returned and at the mention of the human girl, Candice (who Carnelian figured was the girl she saw before) her eyebrows rose. She looked to Mars, and she asked, "Dahling, isn't Candice your dear friend?" She then grabbed an earpiece and said "We better hurry then,"

Chromite produced her shield and adopted a wide, stable stance, ready to block any incoming attacks. "I recommend looking out for your own safety rather than mine, human. Feel free to stand behind me if that suits you. This was not the first time Chromite had been in a difficult situation, and she was confident that any attacks would stagger her at worst.

Mars was already gone before Carnelian had even gotten the chance to finish her sentence, blazing across the ground with a determined burn in his eyes.He didn't know what these corrupted gems or Cluster where, but he felt the echoes of danger that Tiger had associated with them and was not going to just sit by and let Candice face such a threat alone. He felt sad for leaving Ghost alone, but he felt like he could trust the others to watch him. Right now, he had to get to Candice.

Aqua felt a quick jab of sadness at Bloodstone's statement about more gems to hate him. She certainly didn't hate him and some of the others didn't seem to feel that way. It was more leery of him for obvious reasons. Either way, now wasn't the time for that as she focused on what needed to be done. She grabbed hold of the earpiece, placing it in her ear before heading to jet out of the Temple only stopping for a split second. "I am really sorry for the not so warm welcome but danger is on the way. Please stay until our return. We really both would like to meet and talk to you two. It is always nice to see more of our own, please excuse us and the other gems I am sure would be happy to give you earpieces if you would like to help with watching over the town." Aquamarine spoke quickly, flashing a soft smile at the end before rushing out. She used the tracker, picking up speed to reach the others and hoping the the human Candice and Chromite were alright.

---

"That should be the last one."

A smile lit up her face as she handed the box over to the man inside the back of the truck.
"Is that really all we have? Huh...we really need to be a bit more pack rat-ish if this is all we have." He chuckled with his voice filled with mirth and merriment.

"Or maybe we should have rented a smaller truck." Maeve giggled as her father jumped out, locking up the back so none of their possessions would come tumbling out. It was strange to most to be moving on such a holiday where everyone feared the crazies might come out to play but it didn't bother the pair. They had never been what others would call normal as her father knew more than most humans and Maeve...well as far as they knew, she was the only one like her. It was sad not being able to share that with anyone. At least she wasn't alone and she knew that her dad would always be there for her.

"Are you sure you want to come? You are all grown up now and you hardly need to hang around me..."

"Hey, you know you'd be bored without me. Besides, I've heard some pretty interesting stuff about this place you chose." She smiled.

Alastair Burne gave a warm smile to his only daughter at her reply. He knew that she would need spread her wings and leave him eventually but he was deep down relieved that she hadn't left him just yet. Sure, she had a place of her own but she always stayed close by. Maybe she was just as afraid of being alone as he was or maybe she feared what others would do if they found out what she really was. Maeve's mother sure had been afraid of that. Afraid of what any humans might do if they found she was not like the rest. Star had become one of his closest friends and when she had said she had to leave, he demanded to know why. Why did she have to go?

She had told him everything then.Trusting in him what she couldn't with any other. Star Sunstone...a Gem...an alien to this planet...a fighter against Earth...had trusted him a human with her life and begged he tell no one before letting her go. Alastair hadn't let her go though...he had joined her. They ran away together, his heart moved by her and it was probably in that moment...looking into those reddish brown eyes glistening with tears that he fell and hard.

He continued to teach her about the world she was stuck in and slowly showed how much he cared for her. Maeve was a proof of their love and proof on how much Star had changed over her time with him.

"Dad, hello?! Dad?" Maeve said, waving a hand before his face in attempts to bring him back to the real world. He blinked a couple of times, slightly startled as he was now looking into green eyes so much like his own only Maeve had a way to look at someone and seem as though she was looking straight into your soul with those expressive eyes that now showed worry. "I lost you there for awhile, you alright?"

"Yeah, just drifting through memories." He said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You're missing her."

"Every day but I wouldn't change the outcome for the world and neither would she."

"I wish I had gotten to meet her, if only once."

"I know sundrop. I know." Alastair replied petting her wild wavy red hair before putting a hand on her cheek, careful not uncover her make up covered freckles. "Shall we get going? I've got rocks to look at and you have a town to explore."

"Mohs Town here we come." Maeve grinned and held out her hand. "Now fork it over."

"I think you should drive the truck."

"The truck is in your name, I'm not allowed to drive it. Hand over the keys dad. You act like I am a horrible driver."

"I trust you...I just...please be careful...don't...you know how I feel about my van."

"I swear if I wasn't your daughter and that if I hadn't seen the many pictures of you and mom...I would believe you were married to that hunk of junk."

"Don't say that about Galinda! Shhhhh, she didn't mean it...she loves you too..."

"I promise the old gal will get there in one piece." She sighed, rolling her eyes a bit at the grown man with his cheek to the side of the van and petting it lovingly.

"All the greats have a van." he exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. You have told me many times. Now keys." Maeve said, a raised eyebrow as he pitifully handed over the keys like a child having its favorite toy taken away. She shook her head, hoping into Galinda as he father started the truck as well as their start to a new adventure. She had heard that this town had strange happenings going on but nothing was told to what strange meant. Maeve had had hope in Gravity Falls when they spoke of weirdness and though strange as it was...she hadn't found what she was looking for which is why they hadn't stayed long enough to fully unpack since it was a move for her. She wanted to find more like her mother. She wanted to learn more about herself and only they would have the answers. Maeve hoped that her mother hadn't truly been the only one.

Both of the new gems paused, looking at Bloodstone as he spoke to them. Carnelian's words were distant. Even the kitten that had tried to get Hessonite's attention was ignored in favor of the thoughts of Bloodtone. They could hardly head what she was saying, but they finally registered her words once Bloodstone left the group. Whatever was happening around them, they weren't quite sure, but they did know that a high ranking Homeworld gem was just in front of them. They knew who he was, and what he was doing, but they did not act fast enough to stop him from leaving.

Hessonite pulled Pyrite along to the other gems. They didn't recognize Aquamarine, but she seemed to have knowledge that the others didn't possess. Her appearance didn't seem Homeworld, but that wasn't going to stop Hessonite from approaching them.
"Hi!" Hess chirped. "Was that Bloodstone?"
"Stop!" Pyrite tried to pull in the other direction. "They don't need to know our business! We can just try and go after him, no middle gem!"

The spy rolled her eyes at the alien's retort to her aid as she called upon her shield. Candice retorted as she got behind the shield to avoid one attack, "You know, a simple 'Thank you' would have sufficed," After waiting for a lapse in the monsters' attacks, she took her chance to fire back with her weapons, and she took cover behind another rock. She heard the bluetooth phone on her ear ring, and she tapped it, figuring it was from her superiors, "What?!"

"Candice! They're heading your way! The aliens you were observing! And one of them, a dark one with red and yellow streaks, is heading towards you at a fast pace!"

Candice hissed a swear under her breath after hearing the voice, realizing the one he was talking about was Mars. Who the hell told him?! She didn't want Mars in danger! She was going to have to find out later. She took her chance to fire at the monsters' again when she had the chance, now even more determined to finish this battle before Mars gets here.