What should have been a simple life in the desert sand and stars becomes anything but. Haunted by dreams of a life of violence, and seeking answers as to why, Peridot and her friends find themselves caught in an ancient battle between Light and Dark...and find that the cost of being a soldier is higher than they might have ever thought.
Razz: Not a clue. I stay out of politics. So, I'll text you when I've got another fight lined up. ...oh, and Lime?
Peridot: Yeah?
Razz: Next time, don't bring a couple vampires along. You kids make me nervous!
Scarlet: What is Cel into?!
Peridot: I have no idea! he doesn't like to talk about what goes on when he's with his Dad, but I never thought it'd be this--
Raven: Maybe we should tell Miss Caly?
Peridot: Tell her what? That some fight club organizer we shouldn't know told us things that we can't prove? Watcher, I'm going to wring his neck!
Scarlet: There's a reason he didn't tell anyone, though...maybe we shouldn't bring it up.
Raven: And if he needs help? What then?
Peridot: Stupid thing is, he wouldn't let us help him! He'd be all, I can handle myself, you don't need to worry--
Raven: Oh, you mean like you were?
Peridot: That's--
Scarlet: It's exactly the same thing. Feels different on the other foot, huh?
Peridot: ....*sigh* Yeah. I'm sorry, you were right. I just...nothing makes sense anymore. There's this and what Cel's doing and school and--ugh.
Raven: Well, we know now, so we can help out now. And if you want someone to hold him down while you punch him, I'm here every day.
In a dream....or a nightmare...
*bones clattering*
Celestial: --they're back! And there's more of them!
Peridot: But that means--
Celestial: ...Cin and Royal couldn't hold them off. Dammit.
Celestial: We've got to lose them somehow or we'll never make it!
Candle: ...we're not gonna make it at all like this.
Dawn: ...not all of us.
Dawn: We don't have a choice.
Candle; ...fudge. Alright, I'm with you.
Dawn: You five keep going! We'll slow them down here!
Edelweiss: Dawn! Candle! Are you two nuts?!
Candle: Just go, Edie! We'll do what we can!
Peridot: *muffled sob*
Dawn: Cel, take care of her.
Celestial: You know I will. I'm sorry.
Candle: Just go, man. Make him pay for all of this.
Dawn: Hey, when this is over--
Candle: Yeah?
Dawn: You wanna get a pizza or something with me?
Candle: *watery laugh* Sure, but I get to pick the toppings.
Dawn: Oh, that's not fair! You hate pineapple!
Candle: Who puts pineapple on pizza! Man, you are something else!
Dawn: Aw, come on...you love me.
Candle: Yeah, I do.
Dawn: Candle? I love you.
Candle: I love you, too.
The next morning...
Citrine: You barely touched your breakfast...honey are you sure you're feeling alright?
Peridot: Not hungry.
Citrine: Yeah, we noticed that.
Calcite: Per-bear, what's the matter?
Fern: Did Cel not answer you yet?
Peridot: No.
Fern: ....hoookaay, one word answers, this is more than boy trouble. Come on, what's wrong?
Peridot: I don't want to talk about it.
Nova: Peridot...
Fern: Kiddo, if we can do anything--
Peridot: You can't. Just. Drop it, please.
Nova: It was the dreams again, wasn't it?
Fern: Oh, Peri...
Calcite: But...why? Why would those dreams do...this?
Fern: They're changing, aren't they. You're seeing different things now?
Nova: Or...different people?
Peridot: I don't want to talk about it.
Citrine: Honey you can't keep it all bottled up. That just makes it worse.
Peridot: I don't care. I don't want to talk about it.
Calcite: And there's the stubborn. She gets taht from you, Fern.
Fern: Nah, that's on both sides. Peridot, please. If there's anything we can do...
Peridot: There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do.
Fern: You don't know that. I have contacts all over the place.
Nova: And just talking about it--
Peridot: It won't help.
Peridot: ...yeah. I will.
Citrine: We'll...postpone that talk for another day, okay?
Peridot: yeah, sure. Whatever.
Peridot: I'm gonna be late for class.
Calcite: I can take you--
Peridot: I'll just run. See you.
Citrine: ...this is more than just bad dreams. This is something else. It has to be.
Calcite: I don't know...
Citrine: Dad! This can't just be nightmares!
Calcite: I don't think so. After Amber died, I had horrible dreams. It looked a lot like that.
Fern: But no one's died since Ma Saffron. All her friends are fine. Or they were last night!
Peridot: I'm not crazy, right? We all...I mean...that dream...
Raven: it wasn't so clear for me, but...yeah. I think so.
Peridot: Just like with Royal and Cinnamon...*sniff* why are we watching our friends die?
Scarlet: Exam stress?
Raven: Scarlet...
Scarlet: You know I cope with humor. ...Peri?
Peridot: ...Cel still won't answer his phone. Neither will Dawn or Candle.
Peridot: And neither of you two...I mean...it wasn't clear to you both? What you saw?
Raven: No. Just flashes. Images. Like pictures.
Scarlet: I heard more than I saw, but even then it wasn't much. Skeletons, shouting, running...
Raven: I looked through Dad's books again--there's still nothing about what we've seen or that place we keep going back to. And it's not like searching "stone corridor" on simgle brings up anything useful.
Scarlet: Have you asked Auntie?
Peridot: Ma took extra hours and Mom's been busy with her caseload...so no, I haven't.
Peridot: None of this makes sense to me...Mom's looking to robberies that could lead to a magical ritual, we're all dreaming of our friends dying or worse...none of it makes sense!
Scarlet: No, but obsessing over it won't help either.
Raven: Hang on. Magical ritual?
Peridot: Mom's been tracking robberies, and supposedly the stuff that's been stolen can be used in some sort of ritual neither Ma or Miss Caly recognized.
Raven: Oh, great! Just what we needed.
Peridot: And it's huge--her caseboard's been full for years, so we're talking like, dozens if not hundreds of robberies. Whatever this is is big.
Scarlet: And not our problem. ...Right?
Raven: ...I dunno...the timing's kinda weird. And then there's that feeling we all got.
Scarlet: The other shoe about to drop. D'you really think it's related.
Peridot: It has to be. There's no such thing as a coincidence, right?
Raven: No, but--
Golden: You two are ridiculous!
Raven: The fudge--oh.
Peridot: When did they....
Blaze: This is new, right? I'm not just missing things?
Ember: Oh, you missed a lot!
Summer: but missing both of them being so head over heels? Can't be.
Flame: Oh, it's true!
Golden: And it's ridiclous! Running out of the house before the sun was even up, come on.
Golden: Like you two aren't attached at the hip already!
Ember: Ah, let 'em be. It's sweet.
Summer: It's weird! Where'd this even come from?!
Candle: You still owe me a pizza.
Dawn: *watery laugh* Do I get to pick the toppings this time?
Raven: when did that happen?
Peridot: ...I have no idea.
Scarlet: Me either. But good for them.
Later....
Peridot: Hello? Anyone home?
Calypso: Back here!
Calpyso: Well look who it is! I swear you look more like your Moms every day.
Peridot: Ha, thanks. How've you been? Working long hours like Ma?
Calypso: Long hours? Oh, I have, but I haven't seen Fern at the gym in days!
Peridot: ...what?
Calypso: She didn't tell you? She took some time off, said she needed to go hunt something down.
Peridot: ...no, she didn't. Weird...
Calypso: Eh, she's always been a little strange, your Ma. So, what brings you to my doorstep?
Calypso: I'm looking for Cel, actually. You switched days with his dad, right? D'you know when they'll be back?
Calypso: Should be back tomorrow, actually. Frosted said he had something to do up in the old family property on the Ridge and he needed Cel's hands. What was I supposed to do, sit on him?
Peridot: ha, if only that worked. But it does explain why he didn't answer his texts...
Calypso: Oh, yeah, the Ridge is lousy for cellphone reception. I can tell him you were looking for him when he gets back?
Peridot: I'd really appreciate that--
*both cough*
Peridot: Uh, is that supposed to do that?!
Calypso: Nope!
Calypso: And Cel wonders why I eat so much fast food. Blugh.
Peridot: You're welcome to come for dinner anytime, Miss Caly. You and Cel and practically family already!
Calypso: That's mighty sweet of you, darling.
Calypso: And I might just take you up on that tonight...
Peridot: *laugh* I'll go tell Grampop to set another place. See you soon?
Peridot: Oh, very, very soon....good grief, Abyss, you think you could bake some fruit by now...
Peridot: Oh, Grampop! We need to set another place at the table for Miss Caly, she...Grampop?
Nova: Come with me. We need to talk.
Peridot: Um...okay?
Peridot: Where're we going?
Nova: Someplace we can talk!
Nova: This'll do. It's not as grand as that cave, but it's warmer today.
Peridot: Yeah. ...What do you want to talk about?
Nova: Oh, nothing much. Just what you've been sneaking out of the house at midnight to do.
Peridot: Erk--you know about that?!
Peridot: ...it's nothing you need to worry about.
Nova: Ah--wrong. You wouldn't sneak out if you thought we wouldn't worry. What are you into, Peri?
Peridot: ....
Nova: Peridot Spring Crystal, what are you doing? This is more than just nightmares and teenager troubles, young lady, and you will tell me the truth. What is going on?!
Peridot: The truth? I'm the only one looking for the truth!
Nova: And what truth is that, exactly?
Peridot: Mom's attack! I'm the only one still looking for the ones who did it!
Nova: That was five years ago! It doesn't matter anymore.
Peridot: yes it does! Someone was gunning for Mom and her case is getting bigger and it's all connected and--
Peridot: --and I'm the only one looking from this angle!
Nova: Because we already checked it. Peri, Virtue looked into it upside down and sideways after it happened. It's not connected.
Peridot: The fudge it's not! Someone hired those thugs to beat Mom up, or--or worse, because she got too close to something! We need to know who!
Nova: And if they find you sniffing around instead?
Peridot: That doesn't matter!
Nova: Excuse me--of course it matters! Your safety matters just as much as Citrine's and you can't throw yourself into danger like this! Not at least without telling us first...
Peridot: ...you'd have all stopped me.
Nova: Of course we would have!
Nova: You're sixteen--it's not your job to solve these kinds of problems!
Peridot: No one else is doing it.
Nova: mostly because no one else needs to! It was a one time thing, it's over, let it go.
Peridot: ....
Nova: Peridot...
Peridot: It is not over. Don't you get it? Whoever hired them, whoever's been stealing that stuff for whatever ritual Ma and Miss Caly think is going to happen...it's all connected and it has to be stopped!
Nova: Sure. But that's not your job, either.
Peridot: Yes it is!
Nova: Why. Explain to me why stopping some unknown ritual is the job of a sixteen year old girl.
Peridot: Because no one else will!
Peridot: No one else can! No one else has put this together, just me! And if I try to tell anyone they're not going to believe me! You don't!
Nova: ...
Peridot: See?! How could I tell anyone?! No, I have to do this myself!
Nova: but why? Answer me that?
Peridot: ...
Nova: You can't, can you. You don't have a reason.
Peridot: ...no, I don't. I just have a feeling. A really, really, really bad feeling that if this isn't stopped everything will be destroyed! I cannot let that happen!
Nova: So why haven't you said anything? You know we can help--
Peridot: Who would believe me?! It doesn't matter that Ma's a Hunter, even she'd need proof and I don't have any yet, so this has to do!
Nova: ...and you decided to take it on alone.
Peridot: It has to be me! I'm the only one who can do this!
Nova: Why? Tell me that--why does it have to be you and only you?
Peridot: Because this is how it's always been! This is how--
Nova: It is not like that and you know it! Your friends have been there since you were in diapers. You have them and you have us!
Nova: You do not have to handle this, or anything, by yourself!
Peridot: Yes I do!
Nova: WHY!?
Peridot: BECAUSE THE LAST TIME SOMEONE HELPED ME THEY DIED!
Nova: --what are you even talking about?
Nova: No one has died, Peri, not since your Grandmothers--
Peridot: No! Cinnamon, and Royal, and Dawn and Candle--they all stayed behind to help and they died and they--
Nova: They're fine!
Peridot: They're not! They died and they only did that to buy me time and--
Nova: ...the dreams. You're talking about your dreams. They're not just dreams.
Peridot: *startled noise* What?
Nova: You're not dreaming. You're seeing other realities.
Peridot: ...Grampop you lost me. Other realities?
Nova: A different universe. One where things have happened very, very differently.
Peridot: *tired sigh* Grampop...you can just tell me I'm crazy. I know.
Nova: No. You're not. Well, you are but not about this.
Nova: The science behind it is complicated, but the theory is that every decision ever made spins off a new reality. One where the flowers you planted are white instead of pink, or vice versa. A decision someone else made could have spun out into a thousand new realities, and one of those...
Peridot: Is what we're all seeing in our dreams.
Nova: All? Oh. Oh, Peri...
Peridot: The nine of us. We've always felt like we met somewhere else, somewhere before...could that be why? A-and the feeling, too?
Nova: It could be. It's all I can think of.
Nova: But do you know what that means?
Peridot: ...No. What?
Nova: It means that what you saw can't come to be in this reality. Those decisions were already made. You have a chance to make different ones, and get a different outcome. Your friends won't die. You don't have to do this alone.
Peridot: ...Grampop, I...
Nova: Come here. Watcher, Peri...I'm so sorry. You never should have had to feel you had to do this alone.
Peridot: I just...*sniff* I just want everyone to be okay...
Later...
Nova: We're back!
Peridot: We missed dinner didn't we.
Citrine: Oh, by a long while. Did you eat out, or...
Nova: Yep. Clover set us up and we had a long talk about things.
Citrine: Oh, good. Is everything okay or...
Peridot: *yawn* I'm going to bed. G'night.
Citrine: O-oh. Goodnight, sweetie.
*door opens, closes*
Citrine: okay spill. What is going on with her?
Nova: Ah, well...I've been sworn to secrecy.
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