Let the Games Begin

Chapter 22

"Opal? Opal!" Fern's voice rang across the clearing.

"Mm? Here?" Opal said drowsily, exhausted after her fight with Mort. Mort's body lay limply on the ground, Opal's blunt knife still stuck in his chest.

"Opal!" Cried Fern, flinging herself to Opal. "You're hurt! Why are you here? We were so worried! And-" Fern stops as she sees her father's dead body. "D-Dad? Di-Did you kill him, Opal?" Fern asked shakily, facing Opal.

"I'm sorry," Opal whispered, ashamed. "He was trying to kill me."

"And you killed him..." Fern trailed off, her gaze on the dead body.

"I'm sorry... Are the others here?" Opal asked, keen on changing the subject.

"Yeah....... Thomas! I found her!" Fern yells dejectedly, her eyes on the floor.

"Opal!" Thomas exclaims and hugs her tightly. "Where were you?!"

"OPAL!" The Gem Keepers yell, also joining in on the group hug.

"Um. I-I met Mort." Opal stuttered, overwhelmed.

"You're hurt!" shrieks Garnet, hurrying to get bandages. Heh. He's like a fatherly figure of the Gem Keepers.

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT DEAD BODY OVER THERE?!" screams Pearl.

"Oh. Mort," Opal muttered.

"MORT?! YOU FOUGHT MORT?! AND WON?!" asks Citrine in amazement.

"Wait- You know Mort?" asks Opal, confused. Peridot patted her shoulder in reassurement. He smiled and started to say something but Apatite cut him off.

"No, Peridot. We will tell her. She is our leader. She should know everything." Apatite claims. Apatite turned to Opal with a serious expression. "Remember when Peridot wouldn't answer your question about Lord Obsidian's descendant?" Opal nodded. The question nagged in her mind since then. "Well. I guess I should start from the beginning of the story. Lord Obsidian was actually the first leader, not The Great Opal. He was the first leader because he was the first God of Gem. He actually held power over every gem, not only the obsidian. He had a crown where all his powers came from. He liked to cause chaos and destruction. He was hated by the people on Earth. But they were scared of him. He was called the Dark Lord. However, one day, The Great Opal was born from the sky. The Dark Lord loved her instantly and raised her from a little baby to a full-grown woman. He taught her the dark arts of killing and she became as skilled as her father in fighting. Some say she was too well taught, and that is how she won against her father. The Dark Lord was showing The Great Opal how to cause chaos when something in The Great Opal snapped. That thing that snapped was, as some people claim, childishness. Now The Great Opal saw the world through fair eyes, seeing the unfair world. She demanded The Dark Lord to stop this, but he refused. So for a while, she fled to Earth and lived among us. While she was there, she fell in love with a simple fisherman's boy, Thomas." Opal looked at Thomas when Citrine said that. "One day, the Dark Lord missed his daughter too much and demanded her back. The Great Opal came back but with Thomas at her side. The Dark Lord was disgusted by her choice and tried to kill Thomas. That is when the battle started. The Great Opal versus the Dark Lord. They said that the battle was horrible. But in the end, The Great Opal stabbed her father with a knife with a poisonous tip. When the Dark Lord died, The Great Opal grieved and mourned her father for a whole year. Then, she took his crown, which had all his power in it, and shattered it with a hammer. From the hammer came twenty little gems of all colors. The Great Opal took one and chose nineteen other people to give immortality and one of these gems. One of them still worshipped the Dark Lord though. He chose the obsidian gem and started to secretly cause chaos on Earth. However, The Great Opal found out and banished him from Heaven. The Gem Keepers cast him to Earth. However, he took the obsidian gem with him and legend is that his descendants still roamed the Earth, causing chaos."

"Until last year, the Dark Lord's descendants were just a myth. Then, he came for us. He said his name was Mort. And that he's the descendant of the Dark Lord." Apatite interrupted, his gaze downcast and terrified.

"Ah ha! YOU ARE CORRECT, PEASANTS!" Peridot thundered. "BUT YOU MISSED ONE THING. I, YOUR FAITHFUL GEM KEEPER, SUPPORT MORT." Peridot's beady eyes traveled across the room of terrified Gem Keepers until they rested on Opal. "YOU HAVE KILLED HIM. I SHALL KILL YOU NOW." Peridot started to lunge towards Opal but Opal was faster. Opal brandished her knife and kicked Peridot in the stomach.

"You will not hurt any of my people." Opal thundered, her voice as loud as Peridot's, but more demanding. Peridot seemed mad, spit bubbling in one side of his mouth, his pupils dilated, and screaming for vengeance. Opal sighed. Judging by his stance and how he holds his knife, he's not an excellent fighter. He knows it too. "You know that you'll lose the battle. Give up. Now." And so Peridot scattered away, cowering to the depths of the shadows.

"All hail The Fearless Opal!" Fern shouted. Everyone shouted. Maybe I can make a difference in this world. After all, anything is possible.