De Facto: Part XIX.

“Right! Left! Pivot — parry!”

Sweat poured down Zircon’s face, her loose curls sticking to her bare neck and cheeks. Every time Raspberry’s voice cracked out, Zircon scrambled to respond with her hands tight around her pole and her legs burning from strain. Every once in a while, her gaze would flick left, where a thin ghost mirrored her actions — the aqua pearl, her gauzy shawl still whirling freely around her even as she swung her cheap, dainty sword.

Or it would have been a mirror, if Zircon was actually good.

The combat drills took place deep in the transport station, in a great warehouse filled with rusting transports and crumbling storage units. The peridots had gotten one spotlight working and set the blinding white beam to shine down on a vacant platform. The spotlight circle, about forty feet in diameter, was the “training ring”. Everyone not assigned to the ring sat just outside in the darkness, watching the victims inside the light. In this case, Blue Zircon and the pearl.

Like an agate, Raspberry Quartz stood at the very edge of the ring, her wild white hair casting a deep shadow across her face. Her arms were folded under a dark red officer’s capelet. In a dark corner in the back of her mind, Zircon couldn’t help but brood on the clear power imbalance — while Raspberry wore the capelet, she had ordered Zircon to take off her vest, cravat, and headscarf “for better mobility”.

“Can’t mobilize what’s clumsy to begin with,” Zircon grumbled to herself.

She was missing half of Raspberry’s orders, and she could feel the quartz’s glare drilling into her form. At long last the orders stopped. “Return,” Raspberry said, striding up to them. As always, the pearl was first.

“Pearl, you did well. As for improvement — it may seem counterintuitive, but I want you to loosen your sword-hand grip in slashing movements. I’d rather have a gentle, precise cut than an angry, inaccurate one.”

“Yes, Raspberry.”

“If you want to strangle something, don’t take it out on the sword. Save it until you meet You-Know-Who again.”

A grotesque grin crept up the pearl’s face. “Of course.”

“Good. You may rest for now. Zircon, return to ready stance. I want to see your Sequence 2 again. Ready!”

Gaping, Zircon watched the pearl stride proudly out of the spotlight, her slim hips swaying. “Wh — aren’t you going to tell me what I can improve?” Zircon protested, gesturing vaguely towards the pearl. Raspberry returned to her place at the edge of the ring, next to where Cranberry Tourmaline sat silently on a crate.

“Sure. Everything,” said Raspberry tersely. “Begin Sequence 2, again! Right! Left! Pivot — parry!”

Like someone tied by strings, Zircon jerked back into the patterned movements. Her teeth ground together. She knew her execution was clumsy, but she couldn’t control it; she felt more like a puppet than a warrior. No control or precision. All gangly limbs and no force. She knew she should be focusing on doing her best, rather than wallowing in self pity, but the best was somewhere she couldn’t reach. This was all she could do. Even a PEARL was better than her! At least SHE had a —

“Return,” Raspberry ordered in the middle of a movement. Startled, Zircon stumbled, but suddenly caught by Raspberry’s large hands on her thin shoulders. The unamused quartz lifted her clean off the ground before putting her back on her feet. Her finger jabbed into Zircon’s chest.

“You need to focus,” she said.

Despite the pressure on her chest just below her gem, Zircon glared right back. “Oh, and do tell, focus on what? This piece of junk you gave me for a weapon?” She gestured to the rusted metal pole, which looked like it had been pulled off a machine. “You gave the PEARL a sword!”

“Pearl knows how to not hit herself,” replied Raspberry. “YOU have two bruises on your forehead from your own ‘piece of junk’. Now return to position. Prepare for Sequence 1.”

Again, she returned to her place next to Cranberry, and Zircon accidentally locked eyes with the tourmaline. Her cheeks swelled with heat. It seemed like every time she was around Cranberry, Zircon was drenched in grime and sweat, jacketless and vulnerable. Making an absolute buffoon out of herself.

“This is humiliating,” Zircon muttered, hoping Raspberry wouldn’t hear. No such luck.

“Nobody’s looking at you,” Raspberry told her.

It was only sort of true. There was Cranberry. Aqua Pearl, while polishing her sword, glared up intermittently. Most of the other gems conversed among themselves, not even facing the ring. Ruby faced Zircon, but she was still very much blind. The exceptions were the peridots.

“We’re looking,” yelled Peridot 5XI. “It’s hilarious.”

“They’re looking,” Zircon agreed pointedly. “So is my former rival.”

Zircon turned around to look at Yellow, who was sitting behind her on the sidelines and smirking. “Hmm? Oh no, don’t worry. I’m watching something far more interesting.”

Raspberry glared at the peridots and Yellow Zircon. “Go salvage for parts or something.”

“Please,” added Cranberry.

Begrudgingly, the three troublemakers slunk into the warehouse, lighting their gems to see. Raspberry clapped her hands for Zircon’s attention and folded her arms.

“This time,” Raspberry told her, “I will intervene. You will not have warning except this: I will attack with a simple overhead swing with the flat of my blade. Be ready to break form and parry or I WILL hit you.”

“Great,” Zircon forced between her teeth.

“Ready — back! Parry! Parry! Thrust! Back!”

Just as she’d been taught an hour ago, Zircon slid her gloved hands down her pole into a wide grip, her front hand closer to her chest and back hand near her hip. Then she lunged into the sequence — or tried.

Raspberry was speeding up. If Zircon was late, the next order would be given, then changed at the last second, making Zircon slip and scramble to complete it. Then she was MORE late. Her face reddened more, from rage as much as shame. Soon, her train of thought dissolved into a jumbled string of curse words. Frack...schist….filthy muddy clod of a —

WHOOSH!

She hadn’t seen it coming. But suddenly, her body froze and her eyes homed in on a glimmer of silver just above her nose...and the quartz’s scowl right behind it.

While Zircon had been slogging through formations, Raspberry had drawn her weapon and swung down. The flat of the blade hovered an inch above Zircon’s forehead. It was a saxe knife — heavy, two feet long, glimmering in the harsh light.

Then she stepped back and threw the knife to the ground, where it clattered and vanished in a shower of sparks.

“Raspberry…” Cranberry Tourmaline warned, standing up.

“I’ve seen enough,” Raspberry snapped. “We need to talk. The rest of you, review your sequences or make yourself useful.”

Before Zircon could protest, Raspberry grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the spotlight. There was no protest then on. Raspberry’s hand could have circled Zircon’s whole waist. They ed Cranberry Tourmaline and Zircon tried to meet her eyes, hoping for a sympathetic look, but all she got was a disappointed frown. “That’s your problem now,” she seemed to say.

Raspberry took Zircon away from the crowd and behind a rusted piece of machinery, where it was dark and blue. As soon as Raspberry’s grip relaxed, Zircon wrenched her arm away and stood up straight. Her wounded pride flared hot in her chest — she could NOT let herself be talked down to. Almost spontaneously , her vest and cravat appeared over her chest, then her scarf on her head. The sweat was still there and her hands trembled from fatigue. But at least she had her ego.

“What’s your problem?” Raspberry hissed.

“I’m not doing that,” said Zircon, pulling her monocle out of her gem and setting it elegantly on her nose. She knew it was a petty fight, but she couldn’t think of anything except this. All she wanted was for Raspberry to get out of her hair. “You know perfectly well that I can’t fight. You’re making a fool of me.”

Raspberry’s eyes narrowed. “l’m afraid you’ve been doing that yourself. You’re not trying.”

“Says who?”

“Says YOU. If you were working so hard, you wouldn’t have the energy to put on that damn scarf thing.”

Schist. Zircon was now glad for the darkness, because her face had turned a deep blue. As she waited for a reply that wouldn’t come, Raspberry leaned against a concrete column, ran her hand through her hair, and sighed.

“Look,” she said, “you DO understand why we’re doing this. We’re training you to fight because you don’t have a weapon, and you don’t know how to use the ones you’re given. If you wanna make it off this planet, you gotta get with the program. Homeworld won’t sit down and talk it out with you.”

“Yes. I get that. I wasn’t made yesterday.”

“The Diamond’s special agents aren’t going to wait ‘til you’re ready. If you can’t focus while I’m holding your polished little hand, you won’t last five seconds out there. Am I clear?”

She didn’t sound mad anymore. Just apathetic, like she didn’t even care, like she had all the permission to fling her power around whenever she pleased. That’s what made Zircon’s gem go hot. She knew Raspberry was right. But she was crabby and fatigued and she didn’t like being told what to do and most of all she didn’t want to be the one to give in. And something snapped.

Her movements sharp, her hands shaking, Zircon gripped the pole in her hands and threw it to the ground between herself and Raspberry. The quartz flinched back, her hands jerking towards her face.

“I’m done,” Zircon snarled. “And I’m sorry I can’t fight like a — like some brainless chunk of granite.”

The insult dripped out like a leaky faucet, losing strength as it came. In of comebacks, it wasn’t one of Zircon’s best. She was even about to push forward, covering up the poor ending with something even sharper — until she saw Raspberry’s face. Her eyes were wide, her expression tense but frozen. As if taken off guard. For a second, she even looked like she wanted to cry.

Then Raspberry stormed away, her hands clenched into fists. “Good riddance,” she growled. For a minute afterwards Zircon stood still, staring at the place where Raspberry had been.

And for the first time, Zircon wondered what she had said.

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