I can't believe I still remembered where my house was. It's been such a long time. As I turned on the lights, lots of people burst out of... everywhere and shouted, "Welcome Home Ruby!"
"Thanks, guys!" I said, beaming with joy. Then in the middle of all the excitement, old friends started crowding around me.
"Welcome back, Rubes," Tanzanite greeted.
"Yeah, long time no see," Zircon added.
"Okay, guys. I think we should give Ruby a little space," Andy, or, Andalusite butted in.
"Yeah, what she said," Peanut, or, Peanut Wood agreed.
"Hey, can you blame us? We haven't seen Ruby in forever!" Calcite exclaimed.
"Alright, softies. You can stop hugging me," I said.
"Hey, watch your mouth. We may not have seen each other for a while, but that doesn't mean we've grown soft." Piet, or, Pietersite joked. We all laughed.
"Hey, Preh, get over here!" I said to Prehnite, letting her into the group hug.
"You too, Carnelian," I said.
"Okay, I think there's definitely not enough room for the rest of us," Charoite joked. I paused as my eye caught on my best friend that I've known for what seems like light years.
"Hey, Rubes, what you lookin' at?" Beryl asked.
"Hey, dude," I said to Bloodstone, doing a handshake that we haven't done since we first came out of the ground.
"Sphene, Spinel, you two still on that project?" I asked.
"What project?" They both asked in unison.
"A project you said would take you a million years to complete," I laughed.
"I can't believe you still remember when we over-exaggerated that. That of all things," Spinel laughed.
"Anyone know where Aqua is?" I asked.
"She's training... again," Onyx sighed.
"Yeah. She's been training to get ready to beat you by the time you came back here," Emerald and Citrine joked.
"Well then, I have some bad news for her," I joked.
"I can't believe you guys would do this for me," I thanked.
"Hey, after that dreadful mission you had to suffer through, it was the least we could do," Rut said.
"Yeah," Everyone agreed in unison.
"So, how was your mission?" Onyx asked.
"Well... let's just say it was... absolutely... DREADFUL!" I exclaimed.
"How?" Spinel asked.
"Well, there's this gem. You know, the one I was forced to fuse with. She has feelings for me. And you all know me, I don't. Keeping my cover was tough. I had to stay fused with that creep for the whole time except our lame anniversary!" I said with frustration.
"Ouch, man, that must be horrible," Carnelian said.
"Man, for a gem that has future-vision, she should've known this was coming," Beryl mocked.
"Yeah, what an idiot!" Zircon laughed.

After a few hours of mocking the rebels, Piet asked, "So, where's the blue freak?"
"Oh yeah, she's in my back pocket," I said. I grabbed the gem out of my pocket and showed it to everyone.
"Let's shatter her," Andy said with anticipation.
"Sadly, I can't do that. The Diamonds want me to hand deliver her personally to them," I sighed with disappointment.
"Why?" Peanut asked.
"Apparently they want to do something special to this gem," I explained.
"Why haven't you given it to them yet?" Calcite asked.
"They said that they wanted me to present this mistake to them tomorrow before the first moon comes out," I explained.
"Dang, that's early," Tanzanite said. Then a bright blue color started to fill my hand.
"Uh oh, she's starting to reform again!" I shouted. Everyone got into their defense stance and summoned their weapons. The first thing I saw was Sapphire's hideous Cyclops eye.
"Woah, dude, you weren't kidding. That gem is ugly!" Onyx mocked. Everyone laughed at her. Sapphire started to freeze the room.
"Ew! What a freak!" Calcite shrieked, swinging at all of the ice that came in her 'personal bubble' with her axe. Sapphire tried to run out of the room but Sphene and Bloodstone were blocking the front door while Pietersite and Prehnite were blocking the back entrance. Fear filled her eye as we surrounded her. Tanzanite, Onyx, Beryl, and Zircon were holding her down for me while the others were either guarding a door or being back up protection. A dark grin crossed my face. As I summoned my gauntlet, there was a knock at the door.
"You four make sure this one doesn't get into trouble. I'll be right back," I ordered, walking over to the door.
"Open it up," I said.
"So, the rumors were true..." A familiar face said. My eyes lit up in complete joy.
"Aqua!" I shouted with glee. She ran into my open arms as we toppled backwards into the house. She kissed me about 20 times before getting off of me, leaving a few blue lipstick marks.
"Aww..." Someone swooned. I looked over.
"This welcome party just gets better and better!" I rejoiced. I looked over to see Amber, Azurite, Morganite, Ammolite, Apatite, and Scapolite. All of them jumped on me with 'I missed you a lot' eyes. Then I heard someone clear their throat.
"Hmm?" I asked. Onyx hinted that I need to figure out what to do with Sapphire.
"Hey, Ruby! I have great news for you!" Scapolite exclaimed.
"What?" I asked.
"You got promoted to head general of the whole Ruby army! And don't get confused with the head general of a Ruby squadron or a Sentry. I'm talking about all the Rubies that exists to this very day!" Scapolite explained, giving me a pat on the back.
"This day just keeps getting better and better!" I shouted in excitement. Then Onyx cleared her throat again.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. We kinda have a situation here." I apologized, walking up to Sapphire.
"Who's she?" Aqua asked with a jealous tone in her voice.
"The person I had to..." I shuddered, "fuse with." I continued. Aqua's face tensed up, trying not to shatter Sapphire without my consent.
"Should we poof her or what?" Tanzanite asked.
"Poof her. We can't risk doing anything stupid," I ordered. She nodded and injected her sickle into Sapphire's back, poofing her. Sapphire's gem made a clinking sound as it fell onto the floor.
"Now that that's done, what was the hardest part of your mission?" Scapolite asked as I tucked the blue gem back into my pocket.
"Well, when we went to this motel thing... I think it's some sort of miniature rental shelter? Anyways, I had to get mad when another rebel tried to fuse with us for no reason. It was extremely hard because I had to find a way to be mad at something I don't care about," I explained.
"I would never have been able to do that! This is why you're in charge of our gang!" Peanut complimented.
"Peanut's right. You've been able to trick those rebels for more than 10 thousand years in a row!" Prehnite added.
"Okay, okay, you guys can stop buttering me up," I laughed.
"We're just glad to have you back, Rubes," Rut added. We all hugged. Then there was a crashing sound.
"Huh? What was that?" I asked. We all rushed towards the sound.