Sparkly

Silence

Torian woke up in a silence that seemed out of place for his house. He tried to get up, but his hands and feet were restrained.

He gasped and snapped into awareness.

There was a ceiling with rafters and lights. Torian turned his head, noticing that his neck also had a collar around it, though looser.

On either side of him he could just make out stacks of boxes.

It looked like a warehouse.

Torian was sure he'd fallen asleep in his own bedroom. Freaked out and slightly panicked, he tried to transform into Jade.

A wave of cold discomfort filled him, coming from the restraints around his limbs and neck.

Someone had captured him because he was Jade. What did they want from him, were they planning to experiment on him or something?

Torian struggled, but the restraints around his limbs felt like room temperature rock.

"You're awake! That's so nice." a high, screechy voice said.

A face popped into his field of view.

It was a girl with long green hair and bright red eyes. Her mouth was open in a grin that revealed sharp teeth, and horns jutted out of her head.

Torian felt a shock of fear run through him. He'd always found the demons the Gem Squad fought particularly unsettling. It had been an unpleasant surprise to learn that creatures like that had lived among humans all along, he'd just been unaware.

"What do you want from me?" he said, trying to look as though he wasn't shaking in his boots.

"Your power, of course!" she said, smiling.

Torian felt something sharp on the side of his face. It was one of the demon's claws, he realized.

"Unless you don't want to, of course." she said threateningly.

"I've tried to give it to people. I don't know how." Torian said.

He honestly would have given it to the demon if he could. He didn't want to be tortured, and the Gem Squad could deal with an evil magical girl.

"Start by telling me everything you know about this power." The demon said.

Torian went through the story.

"This gem randomly appeared on my chest one day when I was walking to school. I realized I could transform into Jade, and soon afterward I saw Crystal in a dream."

Torian was aware that he could be putting her in danger by revealing the connection between her and the rest of the Gem Squad, but he didn't care. The other magical girls would deal with it- Quartz would definitely fight a demon.

"A gem appeared on your chest?" the demon asked, poking his chest and looking surprised to feel the gem.

She pulled his shirt up and examined the bright green gem embedded in his skin.

She scratched at it with her claws, but they slid smoothly off. Then she stuck them into the skin beside it, trying to dig it out. Torian screamed in pain.

"I lost you around that last corner for a while there. What have you been up to?" a slightly raspy, androgynous voice said from a few paces away.

"Who are you?" the demon girl asked, pulling her bloody claws up in a defensive posture.

"Just a random passerby who was watching Torian. I knew someone would try to kidnap him now that his identity is out."

"Why would you try to defend him? You're not some kind of do-gooder weirdo, are you?" the demon girl asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.

"He's amusing. I'm curious about what he'll do next with his power." the other voice said, as if Torian were some kind of interesting specimen.

"So much that you'll fight me? You're just some random demon. What makes you think you're stronger than me?" the voice asked.

The androdynous voice tched.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Oh well. Actually, I'm not just a random demon."

There was a flash of purple light,

"Actually, I'm Amethyst," Amethyst's voice said.

The demon girl gasped, and with a flash of purple light a spray of blood drenched Torian. He wanted to wipe it off his mouth, but his hands were bound.

Amethyst began undoing his restraints. As soon as one of his hands was free he tried to wipe the blood off his mouth, but it stuck.

When only the ring around his other hand was left, Amethyst paused.

"You won't tell anyone that I'm a demon, won't you? As a favor to this demon who saved you just now." she said.

Torian nodded quickly, just wanting to get out of there.

Amethyst undid the last shackle and Torian immediately transformed into Jade, floating the blood off of himself.

He wanted to go home, but he wasn't even safe there. How long would it be before someone decided to take his family hostage to get at him?

He had to convince them to let him warp them away to start a new life somewhere.

Without another thought of Amethyst, he teleported back home.