Tales Of Connections

Chapter 3: time killer.

Another month had passed, and yet, the group hadn't had much to do. There hadn't been any displaced, or anything really to keep them occupied. Onyx was sitting in her room, looking out at the city that lay far, far below her. Aqua knocked on the door, and Onyx told her to come in. "hey, how are you holding up?" Aqua asked, sitting down on Onyx's bed. Onyx turned around for a moment, before looking back out at the city. "I dunno, I'm just wondering what everybody's doing back home. With Ava being kicked out, there's kinda not much I can do to really contact them." Onyx was homesick, Aqua could tell as much. As much as Onyx was trying to force herself to be happy in Crystalopolis, she just couldn't. "I know, and I promise we'll figure something out."

"No, we won't."

"What?"

"Let's say I start back up Diamond's old dimensional cracker, what's the chance I'd even be able to make it work, and even if I did, what's stopping the guardians from just dropping me off back here." onyx stated, Aqua didn't know how to respond. She sat there for a moment, and then Onyx just sped over and hugged her. "I just, don't know what I'm going to do. I'm never going to get to see my sister, or best friends ever again." she let out a few tears before trying to wipe the tears away. "Sorry, I just..."

"Hey, it's OK. Don't apologise for having emotions. I only spent a few months in midtown and I miss part of that small-town life." Aqua responded, ruffling Onyx's hair, which wasn't in a ponytail for the first time in months. Onyx sighed. "Do you mind just giving me a few hours? I think I need a nap." Aqua smiled at the request, and she got up to leave the room. "Take your time. It seems we now have an abundance of it." She closed the door on her way out, and Onyx lay down in her bed, she grabbed her own hair and pulled on it momentarily before closing her eyes, she was frustrated at herself, all that time in midtown, now she couldn't get back. She found herself drifting off, and she found herself waking up back in the shallow lake, a place that she still knew nothing about, other than hearing voices in the distance. Onyx refused to get up. "If you're going to kill me, just get it over with." She said, exhausted, yet knowing she could probably handle whatever came her way. The voices then began shouting. Onyx immediately shot up and curled her hands into fists. The voices were all shouting vague warnings. "Perfect, exactly what I need, more mystery-mongering. Can somebody just give me a dam answer to what the hell is going on?" Figures then began forming in the distance, yet before they could fully form, onyx was suddenly awoken by Pearl, who was shaking her, with her air crossbow on her other arm, aimed at her leg, she had shot onyx in the leg. "What the heck did you do that for?" She demanded to know, loud crashing coming from overhead. "I forgive you, what the heck is going on?"

"It's cosmos." Onyx immediately grabbed Pearl by the arm and began racing towards the crashing and noises. Upon entering the throne room she found Ruby was already passed out on the ground, aqua was leaning against the wall, still doing what she could to fight back, manipulating the moisture in the air into different chains and spikes, trying to slow him down, and granite was standing in front of pyrite, trying to defend him. "I'll ask one last time, where is the new connected?" He raised his first, his hands being encased in the same cosmic energy onyx used to power herself up, A giant spike where constricted from the energy surrounding his fist, he began to swing his punch, only for it to stop before making contact, his hand was encased in a grey glow. Cosmos turned around and smiled. "So, you're the new connected, huh? I expected more."

"I thought you were..."

"Trapped at the edge of time, well I was until somebody showed up and helped me out. You might know him, his name is Diamond Zirconia." Onyx's eyes immediately changed from showing confidence, to immediate anger. "Where is he?"

"He's safe, for now, or is he?" Onyx just pulled out her sword and Cosmos grabbed it and snapped it. Digging some of the blade into Onyx's leg. Aqua pulled Cosmos back with a water chain, "get out of here." she yelled at Onyx.

"No way, I'm not ditching you guys."

"He's after you, get out of here, and he may back off." onyx tried to take a step forward, wincing as she did so. She looked at the trio fighting for her, and she turned around. "What are you doing?" Pearl asked. "I'm getting out of here," she said as she got ready to run, Pearl grabbing her by the arm.

"We're going with you. You're in no state to fight. You shouldn't even be running like that." Pearl said, pyrite backing her up.

"Does he even have any fighting skills?"

"I'm not leaving him here. Now let's go."

Onyx just nodded and began running. She was wincing with each step, limping as she ran, but it was just 5 flights of stairs, the other two in a gravity bubble protecting them as she ran, as she reached the lab, she crashed into the lab, the other two flying to the wall, pyrite holding his arm. "I think it's sprained." pyrite stated as Onyx pulled herself back up and walked up to the portal, the machine still exploded. Destroyed.

cosmos had leapt down, ready to try and grab onto her, but Ruby had managed to wake up enough to leap down after him, he had flames come out the soles of his shoes, launching them towards the ground, cosmos got back up, and slammed him into the ground, over and over again. Meanwhile Onyx had managed to take a deep breath and finally stand up straight. "Now what?" Pearl asked looking over at Onyx, her eyes glowing pitch black and she extended her hands, a small tear opening. A rip in reality, she stuck her hands into it and she began to rip it open, the other two watching, Pearl frantically looking back and forth. As Onyx struggled, she began to slip, she was in pain as she managed to finally open up the portal she saw her home bunker on the other side, and she stepped through, pearl and pyrite with her. As she stepped through she saw the crowd of people, and Gwen ran up to her and gave her a massive hug. "what happened?" she asked, onyx's eyes lighting up for a moment. Before she began to talk.

Meanwhile, back at the citadel, cosmos managed to make his way up to the room Onyx should've been in, and he slammed the wall, Aqua and Granite then ran in, and began to try and chain him down. "Where did she go?"

"Why would we tell you?" Aqua asked, running out of steam. Cosmos grabbed her in one hand and formed an idea. "She has a particular fondness for you, doesn't she? That's good. I can use that." he said with a smirk, Granite ran out of earth to throw around, leading him to try punching cosmos, this just led to him being thrown down the same stairwell Ruby was unconscious. "Look, I'm willing to make a compromise here, i'm looking for some very specific crystals, and you will help me find them, and help me get that Onyx back here, or else I collapse this tower, destroy this dimension and move on." Aqua continued to try and fight back.