Used to be abused - Steven Universe

Chapter 11 - Dipping Deep (1/4)

Howlite and I were aggravated. We held each other with a grip that shook as we were trembled.
"Did you hear that?", the raspy voice   shouted as the marching sounds of a fleet of gems continued in the background.
"Check the perimeter, go! Go! Go!", another voice hollered, but, she sounded different from the one before.

"They must be looking for us..", Howlite dismayed. I looked at her displaying a confident look, "well we aren't going to get caught, we're going to escape no matter what! Even if it means that we have to put up a fight.",
She nodded to my remark.

'Thump'... something heavy was suddenly placed on top of the compartment. We could tell that it weighed more than it sounded as the not so rigid ceilings of this compartment began to creak and bend out of shape to the pressure. The silhouette of a pair of legs which belonged to the gem standing in front of us walked away. It was suddenly quiet outside.

The sounds of gems conversing began to fade off and the marches of the fleet started to become less. I maneuvered my body over from Howlite's gown and peeped out through the curtains. The guards were distracted. They were chasing after something, or some other gem, into the distance.
I plopped my body out from the cramped space and stretched before pulling Howlite out as well. The only problem was... she was stuck.
"Uhh Pearl..", she looked down to her puffy gown cramming her way out.
"Oh come on, if you can get yourself in there in the first place, then you shouldn't have a problem...", I grasped onto both of her hands, "...getting...",
and pulled her with all my might, "...out!... rrrggghh..", I struggled.

The taps of a pair of heels suddenly echoed to our direction, not long after, a shadow appeared right by the side on one of the many spacecrafts. With wide eyes, I loosened my grip on Howlite and began shoving her back in using all the force I had, but it was no use.
A pair of white heels stepped into the light as a tall, antiquated Holly Blue Agate strode her way across to our direction. She didn't see us as her eyes were shut.
I strained my brows as I incongruously looked around in a mist of panic.

Her hands met behind her as her blue attire waved in the slight wind. Persistently keeping a poised and formal balance in each step she strode.
In the corner of my vision, I darted my hand onto a piece of metal resting on top of the compartment, grasped onto it and pulled it against my body.
"What's that for?", Howlite asked without getting a response.
I ran to the back of a ship and held the metal close to my body.
"Pearl!", Howlite shouted in a whisper.

The Agate took another step and paused. Hey eyes landed onto a gowned gem that her foot had stumbled upon.
"What the..", she muttered before falling down and fainting.
'Tang'
I swung the metal over the Agate from behind her head.
"Pearl!", Howlite exclaimed, accidentally shouting.
We both shared the same expression.
The guards noticed the attention she caused and were now on their way to us.

Grabbing hold of Howlite's hands once again, I tried and tried to pull her out but each second I took in trying, the marches became louder. "Oh no! What do you we do?!", Howlite panicked.
I took a glance at the compartment, swung the metal upwards and crashed it against the surface of the compartment, breaking it into pieces.
Howlite's gown was now poofed up and freed.
"That works...", she said before getting up and dusting herself in a hassle.

We ran across an array of crates, each accompanied with a small spacecraft beside it. My eyes wavered and scanned the whole area but I couldn't find Tourmaline and Zircon. "Oh where could they be?", I asked giving Howlite a worried look.

She paused for a moment and stood with her head facing down. "Howlite?", I looked back at her but she didn't give any response. Her gem glowed, her finger tips emitted an aura and her eye was plain white. The ground beneath us began to shake and a second later, the tiles were lifted in to the air.
Howlite raised her hand, signifying her control towards the tiles. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had seen a Lapis Lazuli manipulate water, but a gem that could manipulate structures, blew me away. She brought her hand and made a throwing gesture to our back direction. The tiles flew to the direction where she intended and crashed onto a bunch of guards.
"Aaaahhh!!", they all screamed in agony.

Howlite raised more of the tiles and repeatedly threw them towards all directions where more guards came for us. "Hraagh! Hruh, Hraaaagh!!", she shouted to her actions in rage.
Sooner, the number of guards who were running after us began to increase and they were surrounding us from all over.
Howlite's pace of throwing became slower and slower as sweat trickled down her blatantly exhausted face.
"Uhh, Pearl, what do we do? There are too many of them!",
I was still processing a plan in my head but I soon got interrupted by a voice among the guards.

"Stand down, we have you surrounded!", the voice of an Agate shouted. But it wasn't just any Agate. It was the one who I had just knocked out.
She walked out into the open from the crowd and made her way looking as perfect as she ever was.
Howlite turned and gasped. She dropped the tiles she was raising and looked at the Agate in a purely terrified way.
A stroke of memory flashed before my eyes, of when I had a flashback of Howlite in some sort of power unit and an Agate. It clicked in me that the Agate in that memory was the same Agate that was confronting us.

Holly Blue Agate came up and spoke, "Ahh, what do we have here? The renegade Pearl and.....", her eyes dropped to a wry seeing Howlite.
".. a treason committing Power source? Hah, this is too good! How the stars did Homeworld couldn't manage such a pointless duo? Haha..", she chuckled to the pathetic set of gems standing before her.
"H-holly Blue? How are you here? How are you still alive? I saw your gem get shattered during "the incident"! Th- this, isn't real... you're not real... none of this is happening!", Howlite freaked out seeming as if she was devastated and despaired.

"Howlite!.. are you okay? Please, snap out of it!", I urged as I shook her shoulders. She shrugged my hands off as tears fell from her eye.