#new bix content who else cheered

[bclarke]

[busterkeatonfanfic]

Chapter 22

As Nelly washed her face and braided her hair that night, she could scarcely believe that the weekend was almost over. It had been a happy blur of fishing, bridge lessons, walks in the woods, songs under the stars, and tonight a campfire and a ukulele concert after a dinner of wheat cakes and maple syrup. And of course, not a trivial amount of that time had been passed in bed with Buster. As she’d spent those blissful hours with him, time zipped by without her noticing. 

Buster was humming to himself from the other room and Nelly wondered if the weekend had gone the way he’d expected. She wondered, not the first time, what had he expected. From the way he was behaving, he seemed cheerful and serene, but she wasn’t sure. Men were mysterious. Tomorrow he would go back to his wife and she would return to being a cog in the United Artists machine.

Before leaving the washroom, she brushed her teeth. She was half-tempted to shed her chemise and knickers ahead of bed; they always ended up torn off in the middle of the night anyway.

In the other room, Buster was sitting up in bed with the blankets pulled over his lap and her little red book in his hands, paging through Mistress Nell Gwyn. She felt a flush of embarrassment and regretted not bringing a more serious book along.

“Are you reading it ‘cause the main girl’s called Nelly?” he said, looking up at her.

Her face warmed as she checked the lock to the front door and turned off the floor lamp near the kitchen. “No, I like Marjorie Bowen and I hadn’t read this one yet. The name’s just a coincidence.” And it was, truly. “What do you read?” she said to switch the subject. They’d gotten around to discussing their favorite music (they both liked Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and Paul Whiteman), but not their favorite books. 

Buster looked slightly abashed as she switched off the table lamp by the sofa. “Does Popular Mechanics count?”

“Well, not as far as novels go,” she said, crossing the room and lifting the corner of the sheets on her side of the bed to slide in next to Buster. 

“I read a dime novel once and awhile. Mostly don’t have the time,” said Buster. “But your book—she’s sweet on old King Charlie?”

Nelly took the book from him, amused. “King Charles II,” she corrected. 

“Why d’ya like it?” said Buster. He burrowed deeper into the covers and snuggled against her shoulder like a boy wanting a bedtime story. 

“I like novels based on real things. I get a history lesson and the people from back then feel more real.”

“Did you see my picture The General?” asked Buster.

“Of course,” said Nelly. Her memory of the film wasn’t very strong, but she knew that she had enjoyed it quite a lot and remembered gasping with the rest of the audience at his daring stunts on the train. She seemed to recall that she found him good-looking with his long hair and sober looks, but apparently not so good-looking that she’d felt compelled to write him a mash note or glue his picture into her scrapbook like she had with John Barrymore.

“Now that picture, you see, was based on real facts. And the train was really called the General!” Buster launched into the story of the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862, and Nelly listened with contentment to his animated retelling. He talked all about the production of the picture, having to find narrow-gauge railroad tracks, learning how to operate a steam engine, hiring the National Guard to play soldiers, and playing baseball near the Willamette Valley. “I thought it was my finest picture but the critics all blasted it. Said it was a flop. I haven’t been able to make sense of it. Guess they thought I should leave the serious acting to types like your fellow, John Barrymore.”

“He’s not my fellow, Buster,” Nelly chided. She ran her fingers idly through his dark hair.

“What happened to being his leading lady?” he said, kissing her bare upper arm.  

“Oh, don’t tease me for being romantic when I didn’t know him. I didn’t know what he was really like. Didn’t I tell you? When I was in Tempest, he came right into the ladies room and pissed in the sink right in front of me. And if that wasn’t enough, he picked his nose right in front of me too! He was so drunk he couldn’t tell left from right. I had to help him back to Mr. Taylor.”

Buster laughed. “You’re kidding.”

“Gosh, I wish I was. He kept us there all night he was so drunk. They had to build a sort of carousel for Camilla Horn and him to finish their ballroom dance.” Thinking of Tempest, Nelly was reminded of something that had been on her mind since her hours with Buster had begun to draw to a close. “I want to say something serious to you now though.”

Buster, to his credit, didn’t try to make a joke. “What’s that?”

“In the book”—for a second, Nelly lifted the red volume that lay between them—“Nell Gwyn is just an orange seller at the playhouse. One night, King Charles invites her to a tavern with his friends Rochester and Buckingham. He remembers seeing her before and likes her. While they’re eating and drinking, he asks what she means to do with her life and she says that she wants to be an actress. Then she dances for him and he leaves her a pair of silver shoes as a gift because she pays for his food and drink. You think that he’s going to see to it that she becomes an actress, but he doesn’t. He has his own matters to worry about and goes on with his life, but she becomes a successful actress on her own—I’m only halfway through of course—and anyhow that’s how he notices her again. He goes to a play and she’s starring.”

“Oh yeah?” said Buster, obviously not understanding. 

“Well, what I’m saying is I appreciate you putting in a word for me with Mr. Taylor, but if you want to continue seeing me …”

Here she paused. It was a brave thing to say aloud because she didn’t know, not for certain, if Buster did want to see her after he dropped her back off at her apartment tomorrow. It wasn’t just false modesty. For all she knew, he had getaways with girls all the time, a new one for every weekend. His waywardness with women had, after all, been one of the first things she’d heard about him back in River Junction: all a girl had to do to seduce him was walk into his dressing room. 

“I don’t want any more favors and I won’t ask for any. I don’t want to play angles anymore. In fact, I prefer to try it on my own in the future, getting parts that is, just to see if I can, if I’m good enough to make it without help. Like Nell Gwyn was.” She let out a deep breath, afraid of his reaction.

“I think that’s fine,” he said, putting a hand on her jaw and turning her head to his so he could kiss her lips. His expression registered no displeasure. “Only I never talked to Sam Taylor. You did that one on your own. Honest.”

Nelly could hardly believe it.“Really?” she said, scanning his eyes to see if he was being truthful. 

“ ‘Course not. Had nothing to do with me,” he said.

“Oh. Well…” said Nelly, feeling silly.

“I’ll make a note. No angles, no favors. I’ll let you go it alone like your Nell Gwyn.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Tell me what happens next in your book, though.”

Feeling that a weight had been lifted, Nelly went on. “Well, the King sees Nell at a play and as soon as he notices her silver shoes, he remembers who she is.”

“Then what?” said Buster, caressing her hand. 

“I don’t know. Then she becomes his mistress,” Nelly said. She felt embarrassed to admit that she read such books.

“Did he have a queen?”

“Oh yes, Queen Catherine, the one who got the British to start drinking tea, but she doesn’t get much mention in the book. Mrs. Bowen’s more concerned with his mistresses. He had about a dozen. There’s the Countess of Castlemaine and Moll Davis, who’s another actress. Nelly was just one, but she was the most loyal.” She looked down to where Buster was holding her hand in his and rubbing it with a thumb, and wondered what he was thinking about her foolish taste in novels. 

“Will you be my mistress?”

Nelly turned her face to him, stunned. For a moment, she thought it was just one of his many jokes. One look at the beseeching expression on his face told her it wasn’t. Such waves of happiness and consternation struck her then that it was several seconds before she could answer. “Yes,” she said. There could hardly be another answer. And yet even as she consented, she thought of the Countess of Castlemaine, Moll Davis, and the Duchess of Portsmouth.  

“You got this look on your face,” said Buster.

“Do I?” she said, feeling flustered. 

“Yeah. A look that’s telling me you got something on your mind you ain’t telling me.”

Now that they were being so honest, she couldn’t deny him the real answer, even though it was preposterous to ask for faithfulness from a man who was already someone else’s husband.

“Well, are there others?” she said, searching his eyes. 

“Other what?” said Buster, cocking his head a little. “Mistresses? No.” He squeezed her hand. “Now I ain’t going to lie, I’ve had steadies before, not what you’d call mistresses exactly, but cross my heart I haven’t been with a girl in months. Are you asking if I’ll be true to you?”

Nelly looked away. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, but reminded herself she was trying to be honest. “I suppose I am and it’s the silliest thing to ask. I know you’re married. I’m not asking you to… Well, I guess I don’t know what I’m asking. Maybe I’m a little jealous, not about your wife, but about other girls because I—I like you already.” She looked back at him, fearing his reaction, but he was only regarding her in the same interested way he had when she’d relayed the plot of her book. “Please don’t take what I’m saying the wrong way, I know it seems like I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth,” she said hurriedly. “And I don’t expect you to keep me either like King Charles keeps Nelly, with satin and pearls and houses. Oh, I’m sorry for making this such a muddle. All I should have said was yes. I just want to be pals like we’ve been this weekend. I know it’s not right to ask.”

“ ‘Course we’ll stay pals,” said Buster. “And I promise no satin and pearls. I can still buy you dinner, can’t I?” 

Nelly laughed, her spirits feeling lighter. “Of course you can. I just don’t want to be a kept woman, okay? You can still do all the normal stuff a fellow would.”

Buster’s hand found its way down the front of her chemise and she pulled in a sharp breath as he rolled his finger lightly around the perimeter of her nipple. “Like this?”

She nodded, her eyes closing as his thumb joined the finger and pinched with gentle pressure. Her mind went back to the sight of him between her legs in the forest, his dark messy hair that he’d stopped slicking down with Brilliantine during the course of the weekend, and she groaned at the memory. She rolled onto her side, Buster’s hand still busy at her breast, and slid her hand beneath the brim of his pajama trousers.

“You’re not wearing any underwear,” she said, grasping the warm, silky length of him. 

Buster shifted onto his side. “Yeah, you’ve been teaching me something about efficiency.” He gave a wince of pleasure as she began to move her hand up and down. He withdrew his hand from her chemise and put it in her knickers, and she felt as warm as she had in the sun on Saturday as his fingers began their clever work.

They exchanged pleasures like that for a couple minutes before Buster began tugging her chemise over her head. She unbuttoned his pajama shirt as he played with her breasts. It would be a terribly long time before she was ever bored by the way he tensed his stomach when she touched him, making all the muscles stand out like they were sculpted in marble. She pressed her breasts against her chest as she pulled his pajama shirt the rest of the way off of him, and Buster began wrestling her knickers down. When they were all the way undressed, both still lying on their sides, Nelly put her leg over him.

“Let’s try it without,” she whispered, as Buster kissed her neck and ear. It was a crazy thing to ask, but she was beyond thinking straight. 

“What, without a thin?” he said with surprise. 

“I think it’d be okay. If you pull out before--” She blushed. “I want to see how it feels without it.”

Buster kissed her forehead once, twice, three times in obvious gratitude. “Alright.” 

Nelly shifted herself lower and guided him into her with a hand. For a few moments, Buster was perfectly still. Nelly breathed deeply, feeling him without a barrier for the first time and jubilant with the sensation, as well as the weight of his proposal. A mistress. 

He made love to her more slowly than he had on previous occasions, pausing for long stretches to kiss her, then grasping her backside to push himself deeper. Eventually, the slow pace sent her into such a frenzy that she took control of the rhythm. He caught on and went faster. When every muscle on him stood out again as if sculpted, she knew he was close. 

“Don’t forget to pull out,” she said, seeking his eyes. 

“I won’t,” he said breathlessly. He gave such a fierce, pleasurable thrust that she keened, and that caused him to withdraw suddenly and rock himself against her stomach until he came with a shuddering groan. 

She stroked his cheekbone when he was finished. His eyes had closed and his breathing was deep and satisfied. Buster Keaton’s mistress. She was so filled with the thought that she felt barely any guilt when she thought of his wife. It was, after all, easy to justify. He was not intimate with her; she had realized that when he mentioned that he slept alone. She had never forgotten his statement the night of his party either, that the marriage was headed for divorce. But there she cut off her thoughts. She was getting far too ahead of herself. It was enough that they had gotten on like a house on fire and that Buster was holding her in his arms now, smelling like sweat and cigarettes and himself. 

“Buster,” she said. She could tell he was starting to fall asleep.

“Mmmph,” said Buster. 

“We should set an alarm for tomorrow. My tram leaves at 6:45 and I’ve got to be at work around 7:30. We should get up at four so we have time to pack and so I can get ready.”

Buster rolled onto his back and cupped the crown of his head in his hands. “Don’t worry about the tram, I’ll drop you off.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want to get you into any trouble. If anyone sees us, they’ll talk,” she said. 

Buster opened one eye and lifted his eyebrow. “Let ‘em talk,” he said.

“Okay,” said Nelly, not quite knowing what to make of this attitude. 

Nell Gwyn had been no secret to King Charles II’s subjects, but somehow Nelly thought that Buster Keaton’s public would be less tolerant if he got into the habit of parading around a mistress. Nonetheless, she didn’t argue with him. As she cleaned his seed off of her in the washroom, she didn’t have a thought except for how happy she was when she was around him.

Note: Just a PSA that this is fiction and not an endorsement of the pull-out method (although Planned Parenthood notes that it is 96% effective if used correctly 100% of the time). Obviously it doesn't prevent STDs. You should always use protection with a new partner. ;)

[fanofawesomethings]

The Stone Obelisk

(Disclaimer: This story is a work of fan fiction. Any elements, characters, worlds are borrowed and belong to their owners.

This story is another commission in continuation of Bixbite’s OC characters. Part 1,     Part 2   

“So Iris and I snuck into the hull of the ship. I wanted to go back up and wait until we arrived but she kept going on and on and on about this new planet she once saw while under her old commander. She started messing with the coordinates and when Plume showed up she said ‘You two better not be up to no good again’. I’m sure if she was out she’d say it in her voice.”

“Let me guess: you two were up to no good again,” Bixbite giggled.

Onyx smirked, hiding the energy building up inside her as she told the story of her past. “Well I didn’t have any intention of messing around, but Iris had her Gem set on messing around. She changed the ship’s coordinates and we ended on some forsaken planet that was full of water. Nothing but water and some little spots of land.”

“Were you surprised?” Bixbite asked the bubble containing the poofed Plume Gem.

“Heck yeah she was, right, Plume? She made us stand outside the ship and punch asteroids out of our way until we got to our real destination. But after we stayed on the water planet for a while.”

Bixbite clapped at the end of the story. The bubbled Plume couldn’t clap for herself, Bixbite dribbled the bubble like a basketball while her other hand clapped one-handed. Onyx dropped herself on her favorite rock formation, the one she pummeled, with her bare fists of course, into a makeshift chair a while back; somehow she didn’t find the unbelievably solid seat uncomfortable at all. It was the fourth story Onyx finished.

“You were right, Bix, telling these stories did make me feel better. Sorry I never told you it was Iris, Plume, she made me keep a secret.”

“Iris sounds like my kind of Gem.”

“Sh-She has her flaws. Sometimes it takes her a while to know what the rest of us are talking.” A hint of defensiveness outlined Onyx’s voice.

Earlier, Bixbite saw Onyx looking at the bubbled Plume Gem, with longing expression in her eyes. She feared Onyx wouldn’t cheer up in this went on so she thought the best way to take her mind off Plume was to tell stories, but the planned nearly backfired on her when all of Onyx’s stories involved Plume, but they were happy stories that had the opposite effect on Onyx. She saw Onyx brightened after the last story; her chest was pumping as if she had just raced around the mountain, again, and her smile was wider than ever.

The stories came to Onyx a lot faster than they usually did. She remembered the farthest things with the clearest clarity. She could tell the story of when she was first created if she wanted to. And it made her content telling them again because it gave her the chance to relive those moments. But Onyx realized why Bixbite suggested the idea. Since they poofed and bubbled the new Gem, all Onyx did was stare at Plume floating inside the charcoal bubble. Even now seeing it filled her with sadness, yet she still returned to it no matter because at the same time it made her content. A fragment of her past fit, the size of an apple that fit in the palm of her hands. No matter how much it hurt her to see it, remembering what monster they fought that nearly shattered her, Onyx was determined to never let it out of her sight.  

The look of longing began to grab hold of Onyx and Bixbite panicked.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” Bixbite raised her hand over her head hopping up and down bursting with energy. “Can I go next?”

“Wait, hold on, Bix, I need to see if anyone else wants to go first,” teased Onyx. She looked around the small cave for another else, purposely keeping her eyes off Bixbite who pouted her cheeks big. Of course there was no one else there but the three Gems, one of which wasn’t completely capable of telling a story. Onyx laughed and gestured her to go right ahead.

“I met someone new yesterday!” She began.

Instantly it grabbed Onyx’s attention. “S-Someone new? Was it another Gem!?”

Bixbite took Onyx’s excitement of the topic seriously. “No, I don’t think so. I mean it looked like me, but it didn’t have stumps.”

“Stumps?”

Bixbite pushed up her breasts to show Onyx what she meant, and Onyx blushed because she didn’t expect it.

“And it didn’t have a Gem.”

“Oh, that was a human.” Onyx didn’t hide the disappointment dropped her voice in enthusiasm.

“A hyooman?”

“Humans are the things that live on this planet. According to Plume they lived here before Homeworld starting colonizing. But they aren’t half as strong as us, or as intelligent.”

“Well I met one and it was friendly. It said it was here to explore. And it even told me he saw someone who looked like me!”

“Like you? Another Bixbite?”

           “I know! I couldn’t believe it either! Can you imagine another Bixbite somewhere out there in the world.” Bixbite sighed thinking of it fondly. “Maybe I’ll meet her someday, if she ever comes to the cave.”

           “What no, we have to look for her. Maybe she can tell us where my squad Gems are. Maybe she has a way to contact Homeworld,” Onyx suggested, feeling uncharacteristically hopeful.

           “B-B-But we can’t leave the cave. What if those Sharp Nails come to take it back? And besides…” Bixbite caressed the lumpy limestone walls of her cave. The sharp bumps scarped her hand and she felt the echo in her Gem. “I’ve never left the mountain since I came to Earth.”

           “Bix, this could be our only chance to find another Gem who isn’t…We have to take it.”

           “But what if it turns out this other me is just a hoomen that looks like me?”

           “We have to take that chance.”

           Bixbite didn’t have an argument to counter with, and she wracked her mind to come up with on the spot to use.

           “What if something bad happens like last time?” Bixbite inquired.

           “Whatever happens I’ll be there to protect you!” Onyx proclaimed, loudly. Bixbite blushed, along with Onyx, as the cave repeated the statement for a long moment. By the fifth time Onyx had enough of feeling embarrassed and simply ignored it. “No matter what happens I’ll be there to protect you. I lost my friends and I couldn’t handle it if I lost you too.”

           Bixbite felt a little secure about leaving the cave, she wouldn’t be opposed to the idea any more. But leaving her mountain for the first time wasn’t the only thing keeping Bixbite from agreeing.

           “Onyx, I want you to find your friends but I don’t want you to get sad if this turns out to be nothing. I don’t like seeing you sad.”

           Onyx didn’t say anything back because she too had that fear. “I promise I won’t get sad if it’s nothing. I promise.”

           “Okay.” Bixbite finally said and Onyx’s face lit up. “Let’s go.”

           “Great!” Onyx grabbed Bixbite’s hand and pulled her out, but not before grabbing the bubble Plume Gem before they left the cave. Bixbite didn’t expect to leave straight away.

           Outside the sun was just barely poking the top of its head over the horizon. The clouds above were still as if painted on the sky, their bright orange colors fading into purple slabs. Stars began to form pictures around the milky moon when Onyx and Bixbite left the forest. By then Onyx let Bixbite walk on her own, even though it was difficult for Bixbite to keep up with the power walking Onyx.  

The forest Bixbite always thought went on forever ended. Even from the tip of the mountain the forest stretched beyond her sight. When they last tree stood behind them, Bixbite couldn’t help but feel homesick already. She could swear she could see her cave from there.

Stepping out into the unfamiliar land the first thing the two encountered was a strange black platform neither of them could recognize: a street. To their left the road would take them into a tunnel that didn’t seem appealing to the two has never seen one before. And to their right the road dipped and rose on top of rolling hills towards the horizon with no visible landmarks in sight.

“Wait…where are we going?” Onyx finally asked—herself for the most part.

“I don’t know,” said Bixbite.

“Didn’t the human tell you where it saw the other Gem?”

“No.”

“Then what the heck did we leave the cave for!?” Onyx grabbed her head and shook it violently. “What was I thinking? I never act that rash. But I was so excited about finding my squad! How could I be so stupid!?”

“I-It’s okay, Onyx, it did give me this.”

Bixbite reached into her hair, where she puts all her little trinkets, tying them on with the excess strands, and pulled out a yellow box. It was small, fitting in her small hands, with a gray screen and a bright white button at the bottom. Onyx, who held the strange device upside down, examined it like a curious animal. She was cautious to press the obvious button.

“What did the human say you should do with it?”

“It said all I have to do is push this little thing and it could see me again.” Bixbite pressed the button unconsciously.

The small screen flashed green and two red X’s appeared. One was stationary while the other was moving a little far away from the first X.

“Is this some sort of tracker?” Onyx asked.

“Tracker?”

“It’s how Homeworld ships find the planets we go to. Since this mark isn’t moving it’s probably us. So…what does this other mark mean?”

“The hoomen had one just like this one. Maybe that’s them.”

“Great, all we have to do is catch up to it.” Bixbite and Plume were suddenly hoisted off the ground and thrown on Onyx’s back. The black Gem’s back provided ample room for Bixbite. “Hold on, you two.”

The moon and the stars were awfully closer when Onyx leapt high up into the air while carrying Bixbite and Plume’s Gem. One jump after another, Onyx reached heights of thirty feet in the air, propelling them a good distance from the previous jump, and leaving craters in the ground with every jump and landing. Bixbite hung on to both the bubbled Gem and herself on the bumpy journey. Although each shake threatened to throw her off, causing her to hold tighter, Bixbite couldn’t help feel enamored touching the solid muscles on Onyx’s back and safe being carried by her strong friend. As she rested her cheeks on Onyx, Bixbite felt as though she never left the cave.

Meanwhile Onyx watched the screen more than she watched the road in front of her. Not that it made any different to her jumps or her landings. Along the way she managed to turn a section of a wooden fence outside a wheat field into woodchips. She saw herself get closer to the blinking X, which moved comparably a lot slower than Onyx. She looked up from the screen when they were close enough and she spotted a figure walking just up ahead. Onyx broke the ground with the last leap that sent them to heights they hadn’t reached before.

The human, a man, was walking alongside the road wearing a backpack crammed full of jittering things. In the stillness and the lateness of the night, the man yawned. He certainly wasn’t expecting a meteor to come from the skies and strike the ground in front of him. The force of the Onyx’s landing threw him to the ground.

“Is this it?” Onyx asked.

“Yep, that’s the hoomen I talked to,” said Bixbite, excited. She jumped down and shook the man’s hand. “Hello again.”

Bixbite shook a limp hand because the man was paralyzed by the shock. The crater beneath Onyx was deeper than the others before it and all he could was see the distance between him and the rocks crushed by the falling Gem.

The man was thin, stretched out almost like his body was rubber. His face was covered with hair while the top of his head wasn’t, but he covered his bald head with a wool beanie. When he regained his breath, and his heart started slowing down, he finally saw Bixbite standing over him.

“Is something wrong?” Bixbite asked.

“Wha…? I…uh…n-nah…nothing’s wrong, I’m cool,” said the man. He stood back up, dusting his flannel shirt and torn pants and adjusting his beanie. His eyebrows jumped to his attempt at flattery towards Bixbite. “So you found me after all, gorgeous. I knew you would.”

“Yes, your cute little box really helped us out.”

“You’re a bit earlier than I expected. My place is a couple miles down the road, figured you’d come to be me after I had a chance to gussy up. But if you don’t mind it, I don’t.”

“Don’t mind what?”

           He chuckled which made his long beard hair swing. “That’s what I like about you, babe: your sense of humor. You know I’ve never been with a Gem before, but first time for everything, right?”

           By then Onyx had enough, feeling she was being ignored. And moreover she found herself getting annoyed with how the man jiggled his bushy eyebrows at Bixbite and how he talked to her. She stepped in between them, planting her foot hard on the ground and breaking the dirt beneath it; Onyx made sure to show him the muscles on her arms before the rest of her.

           “Human, tell us where the other Gem you saw is, now,” commanded Onyx in her deepest and stern voice.

           “Whoa, big woman. Is…she…with you?” He asked Bixbite.

           “Yep, me and Onyx are together,” she answered, not really knowing what the man actually meant.

           “Adang, so you go that way, huh? I can respect that, sucks for me though. The name’s Jason, by the way, and yeah I saw another Gem before. A real looker too, loved that square hair. And those sunglasses, geez, they were my fixation too. Anyway she was looking at this thing over there.” He pointed to the horizon on the other side of the wheat field. Squinting their eyes, the two Gems could barely see something peaking out in the distance, a structure.

           “I see it!” Bixbite jumped.

           “What is it though?” Onyx questioned, eyeing Jason suspiciously.

           “Who knows, probably some Gem stuff.  To me it looks like an upside down pyramid. Guess you Gems don’t know art.”

           “A pyramid? That’s new to me,” Onyx pondered, recalling what little she knew about Gem architecture. “But it doesn’t matter, let’s go.”

           “Thank you, hoomen,” Bixbite waved as she straddled on Onyx again.

           “It’s Jason.”

           “What is?” She asked.

           Onyx jumped halfway across the wheat fields, the second jump cleared them over it. Bixbite didn’t realize she kept the tracking box; Jason clicked his on and saw how fast the blinking X moved, jumping at speeds he never imagined he’d see on the little screen. He was sort of glad he didn’t pursue Bixbite.

           With the speed of Onyx’s weight plunging to earth quickly, and without any time to catch her breath, she carried them to the Gem structure after a couple of minutes. She landed in the shadow of a pyramid stuck to the ground by the tip. Strange carvings ran all over the walls and centered around the door which bore a diamond insignia on it. Onyx touched the diamond and remembered Homeworld.

           “It’s Homeworld alright, but I’ve never seen something like this before.”

           “What do you mean?”

           “Back on Homeworld, Bismuths make all the structures. They make designs based on our Diamonds, but this isn’t something they made.”

           Bixbite touched the emblem too and felt her Gem pull her body closer towards it. Her right hand burned as the Gem glowed. She saw something in that split second. Water. Sand. A beach? And then a house. Before Bixbite had a chance to comprehend what she was seeing she woke up to see Onyx holding her shoulders and shouting at her.

           “Bix! Bix! Wake up, please! What’s wrong!?”

           The sound returned to Bixbite’s ears as she realized where she saw. Her vision cleared.

           “Onyx? What—happened?”

           “Oh thank goodness. Please don’t keep doing this to me, you’re killing me here. You just fell down, what happened, are you okay?”

           “I saw…something...My Gem.”

           The diamond on the door started to glow. The door slid open revealing the darkness inside. Bixbite and Onyx were hesitant to go through, the dark abyss was not inviting. Onyx was the first to step in, keeping Bixbite behind her as they entered. The door slammed shut behind them and the inside was illuminated almost immediately.

           The room was large. Beneath their feet a strange pattern ran diagonally, lines crossing each other and whenever they collided they formed a small diamond before returning to their almost random path. Above their heads a mural played out a scene both Gems were familiar with. War, the Gem War. Two sides, both depicted large Gems holding weapons, and in between them was a single Gem, one with bushy, large hair holding a diamond in her hand. Bixbite couldn’t take her eyes off the Gem in the middle, for a feeling of nostalgia overcame her and kept her still on that spot.

           “Who is that?” Bixbite asked pointing to the Gem in the middle.

           “Probably Rose Quartz, the leader of the Rebellion, the one who started the War,” answered Onyx, angered by the sight.

           “No.” Bixbite didn’t know what possessed her to disagree with Onyx, but she felt compelled to do so. “That isn’t Rose Quartz.”

           “What? How do you know?”

           “I don’t know, something just keeps telling me that that isn’t Rose Quartz.”

           “Why would it be anyone other than Rose Quartz? Whatever. It looks like that human lied to us about seeing a Gem. There’s nothing here!” Onyx shouted at the emptiness so her voice would echo through the tunnels on the walls opposite them. They waited a little for a response but nothing came.

           Bixbite went around the room. She took her eyes off the Gem in the center and wondered on some of the other sights. The plethora of diamonds certainly got old to her so she eyed some of the other drawings. There were little markings up and down the walls, leading her down one of the tunnels. Onyx, seeing Bixbite walk away, stayed closely behind. They went down the tunnel until they were in another room, one without a mural but with a stone obelisk resting at the center.

           It stood taller than both of them, nearly touching the roof with its sharp point. Scrawled on its surface were markings, Gem writing. Of course Bixbite didn’t know how to read it and Onyx never learned how to, seeing as though a warrior Gem never needed to know how to read or write; she only learned enough to identify some words. While Onyx ventured into the room to get a better look at the unsettling, lone obelisk, Bixbite stayed behind. Something held her back. The markings. Something about them screamed at her, scaring her, terrifying her not to get anywhere close to it. She felt as the words were coated with anger and she could feel it driving needles in her stomach. Her Gem stung. She lurched back.

           “All…on…leave…song…change,” read Onyx. She turned back to Bixbite and saw that she was gone. Her chest dropped; Onyx raced out of the tunnel and found Bixbite holding herself against the wall. “Bix, what’s wrong now?”

           “I…I want to leave…now….please,” Bixbite panted.

           “Why? What is it?”

           “PLEASE ONYX!” She screamed. Bixbite started to cry and it almost made Onyx cry too.

           “Okay.”

           Onyx took Bixbite’s hand and held her close to her as they walked out. Bixbite never looked back. She closed her eyes on Onyx’s back as they started away. It was the first time Bixbite slept since meeting Onyx. To get out of the structure, Onyx pressed a hidden button against the wall near the entrance.

           As they jumped away, putting the pyramid far away in the back of their minds, they were obvious to what happened when they left. The door slammed shut again, but this time the diamond glowed. It started to blink. A noise followed. Beep. A door on the flat top of the pyramid opened and a flare was shot up to the skies, so far up that neither Bixbite nor Onyx saw it. Amongst the stars, far above the clouds, the flare exploded, signaling something.