Journey for the Gem

Journey for the Gem- Chapter 18

*~* JADE'S THOUGHTS

Beeping filled the room. Jade struggled against the thing taped over her nose and down her arms. He tied me up, Jade thought. Then she opened her eyes.

People stood around her. White was everywhere: coating the ceiling, plastering the walls, on the lumpy pillows and bed she was laying on, everything. Bright lights blinded her. And the tubes that Jade thought was tied rope were actually connected to an IV.

Jade groaned as she realized that this was a hospital. Then she groaned as she tried to shift.

Her ribs ached badly, and her head felt like melted lead. Her injured leg was better than last time, and she could feel a brace on her knee to her ankle.

"Jade!"

Ruby, Opal, and Jasper's voices filled the dingy faded room. Jade tried to sit up, but immediately lay back down.

"You okay? Do you want the nurse?" Opal asked. Yup, that was Opal.

"I'm fine. How are you all here? Guys, I saw you all die," Jade said, her breath hitching as she turned to the group.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure how that happened. Did you cream Set?" Ruby asked, avoiding the subject cleverly.

^_^ RUBY'S THOUGHTS

Ruby internally shuddered as she thought about what had happened.

FLASHBACK TO WHEN RUBY DIED

Ruby snuck around the cave, wincing at every loud scuff of the foot and every muffled sneeze. She didn't understand why, but she felt that both she and Jade needed to be quiet. Suddenly, Ruby's foot slipped out from under her as a rope trap closed around it. Two seconds later, she was hanging, suspended in the air, upside down. Just wonderful.

"Jade!" Ruby called, getting a cold feeling in the middle of her chest. Something bad was about to happen.

Jade sprinted to where Ruby was and sighed when she saw her upside down.

"I found out what Keres meant by "snare"," Ruby said, her voice sounding small to her. She was beginning to feel faint, though she didn't know why. Her head began to spin, and black spots danced before her eyes. Ruby barely noticed Jade cutting the trap rope and her body fell onto Jade's. Jade caught her, and Ruby leaned onto her slightly before untangling herself from Jade's grasp.

"Gosh, thanks Jade, I thought-" Ruby's words died on her lips as she suddenly felt an arrow shoot into her back, piercing through her insides. Red-hot pain flashed through her whole body, then grew until it felt like Ruby was being eaten alive by a growing fire. Suddenly all that pain went completely numb. The cold numbness spread throughout her whole body, though Ruby could still hear Jade speaking to her, and still feel blood pooling around her body, but just was out of her body, hovering over the scene in the clouds.

"Ruby," a voice spoke to her, foggy through all the clouds.

Ruby turned wordlessly as she saw Ra standing before her.

He smiled at her kindly. "Ruby, you are dying down on the earth. I know that, I can see you, how you are growing weaker. Please, sleep on this cloud. It will restore you. This is meant to be. Just lay down, that's it. Here are some thoughts of one man that I think you need to hear, Ruby."

Ruby laid down, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. As she shut her eyes, she dreamt about Onyx, watching herself die on the monitor, crying, and thinking that she was the love of his life. But it was just a dream. Certainly. Of course. Ridiculous... Onyx couldn't love her, even if she sort of had feelings for him. Impossible. Sleep then pulled even harder onto her spirit, and Ruby smiled, allowing herself to be sucked into a deep black portal of sleep, knowing that she would be able to come back alive and well by Ra's will.