Sparkly

Rail

There was an old rail around the top of the abandoned building. Quartz put her hand on it and shoved, and the rusty piece broke off with a loud groaning.

"Seems another one of you was too weak to do their job." Quartz observed.

"This is volunteer work. It's each individual's choice whether they come to these meetings or not." Crystal said tightly.

It was late enough that they could be fairly sure Diamond wasn't coming. And of course Jade no longer showed up, and Amber hadn't even stayed for one session.

"I saw Diamond just yesterday, actually." Amethyst said, smiling her annoying smile.

Quartz was completely fed up with the uppity little girl. She felt an overwhelming desire to punch her in the face. With a lot of magic power behind it, of course.

"Was she doing okay?" Crystal asked, a note of concern in her voice.

Crystal's obsession with being concerned about everyone and everything like she was their weak hearted mother was irritating, though slightly more tolerable than Amethyst's cheery carelessness.

"No, she was dripping blood and guts." Amethyst said.

Crystal stared evenly at her like she was waiting for a child to spill a confession.

Quartz wished Amethyst was dripping blood and guts as well.

"I'm tired of watching you argue about silly things. Who cares if that rude girl is dead. The three of us are enough to defeat any enemy we encounter, so why don't we get going before moss grows on our pretty little toes." Quartz said flatly.

"No. Answer me, Amethyst. When you saw Diamond, how was she doing?" Crystal asked.

"I think." Amethyst said, leaning forward and smiling innocently.

"You think what?" Crystal said, her clenched fists betraying her impatience.

"I think it really bothers you not knowing. Am I telling the truth, or was she perfectly fine?" Amethyst said, grinning.

Crystal closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and Amethyst broke into high, annoying laughter.

Quartz wondered if she could speak directly into Crystal's mind without Amethyst hearing.

"She's fine. I can feel a link to her." Crystal said, her voice clouded with uncertainty like she was worried that Diamond was seriously injured.

Quartz had wanted to kick Diamond into submission quite frequently, but she supposed the blow to their fighting force was concerning.

A large part of her wanted to try to convince Crystal to off Amethyst with Quartz's help, but with an effort she reined it in. They needed as much power as possible to fight the monsters they fought, even if that power came in the form of an insufferable, hyperactive, petty girl.

"Let's go." Crystal said curtly, teleporting them all into a room where masked men held tied hostages at gunpoint.

The Gem Squad acted with no cohesion, not used to hostage situations. Quartz put a hard barrier around the hostages and another one around herself, Crystal made some kind of soft barrier around the hostages- probably to avoid bouncing bullets, and Amethyst-

Amethyst just moved to the side of the room with a barrier around herself.

Leaving defending the hostages to Crystal who was clearly better at it, Quartz ignored the rain of bullets and snapped her fingers.

The men went down easily in a spray of blood and other insides.

"Those were humans!" Crystal said incredulously, her voice close to breaking.

Talking over her, Quartz said,

"You were certainly helpful, Amethyst. I'm beginning to think we don't need you in the group, or even alive. Does anyone need you alive?"

Amethyst seemed not only to not be stressed out, she seemed happy that Crystal and Quartz were. Amethyst smiled widely, the expression on her delicate mouth making her look like a little girl who just received a stuffed toy for her birthday.

"Are you going to attack me, oh great defender of justice?" Amethyst asked.

"You- LOOK AT ME! YOU JUST KILLED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE!" Crystal screamed, her magically enhanced voice echoing through the room.

Quartz looked at her, disgusted at her outburst. Crystal was the leader of the Gem Squad and she was acting like a child.

"And frankly, I don't care. They had hostages. Do you think they were deserving of mercy?" Quartz said rhetorically.

"And yes, Amethyst," she continued icily. "You're insufferable and I don't care that you're helping us. You deserve to die."

In a flash of blue light, Quartz found herself on some random empty piece of farmland.

She realized what this meant- Crystal was discontinuing meetings. Desperately, she clawed at her link to Crystal, but she couldn't find it, let alone trace it.

Quartz screamed in rage, her delicate voice fraying and breaking at the edges.

They could have destroyed so much evil together! Done so much for the world!

And it was broken up by a petty argument.

"I shouldn't have gotten mad at Amethyst." Quartz said, her frayed voice no longer perfect. "But she made it so easy! She deserved it. Crystal should have let me kill her. She should have helped me."

Quartz screamed in rage again.

She'd continue to fight evil by herself, of course. Just because the other magical girls were too cowardly to rise to the duty that great power gave them didn't mean she had to be.