Sparkly

Cheer

Leilah felt cheerier than usual that night. Sadie and Derek had made some comments about her, but Jaziah and even sometimes Milana had discouraged it.

She didn't feel like visiting somewhere really dangerous or scary that night.

As she sat on her soft bed in her fluffy pajamas in the slightly chilly air, she thought about somewhere she'd like to go. Somewhere bright and pretty like a treasure hoard. Maybe a bit cozy.

She was glad she could float dirt off her in Diamond's form. It meant she didn't need to change out of her pajamas and she'd be just as clean when she got back.

She sent her gem into the air, the red glow of the shards cutting bright auras of light in the darkness.

She teleported, floating in the air over the ground because she didn't feel like standing.

Leilah found herself in a cave with long, glowing crystals in a variety of gentle shades hanging from the ceiling.

There was a purple haired demon facing away from Leilah and toward a beautiful pool, staring into its depths.

Leilah's heart lurched.

She didn't sense any hostility from the demon, but these things ate people and the Gem Squad had met some with some kind of scary powers.

The magical girls were usually way more powerful than them, but Leilah hadn't really trusted her own powers since her shield had broken under Amber's sword.

"Friend of yours?" a low voice from a tunnel Leilah hadn't noticed asked.

She hung in the air, frozen, as the demon at the pool turned around and noticed her and the demon who'd just arrived.

The purple haired demon's bright red eyes widened.

"You're the grumpy one!" they said.

"Um, what?" Leilah said, wanting to teleport away but curious.

There was a charged pause.

"I've seen you on the TV. Us demons do love our TV." purple hair said.

"Oh... you mean in the Gem Squad." Leilah said.

She hadn't known there were that many clips of the magical girls talking out there.

She supposed it was pretty accurate to say she was the grumpy one, though- she hadn't known how to be polite when Quartz was always yelling about murdering everything, Crystal was arguing with her, and Amethyst was siding against whoever seemed more riled up. Actually she usually just sided against everybody. While Quartz seemed more angry, Amethyst just seemed to want to make everyone else mad.

Maybe it was a good thing Leilah couldn't go back.

"You haven't been on the TV lately." purple hair said. "Decided you got your fill of blowing up demons?" they asked, sounding more condescending than threatened.

"I mean... um..." Leilah looked at them awkwardly.

Should she apologize? An apology wouldn't really work here, would it? The Gem Squad and she herself had killed a lot of demons.

Purple hair watched her squirm, a smirk that revealed the edge of sharp teeth settled on their face.

"I think I'm done killing demons. Unless they attack me or something." Leilah said, not sure what purple hair was feeling.

"That's a relief." the other demon commented.

"Ah, such a pity. Quartz and Crystal simply hated having you around." purple hair said.

The tone of their voice was incredibly familiar, as was the sentiment they expressed.

"...Amethyst?" Leilah asked, not quite believing her intuition.

"I'm sure she loved having you around." the demon said, unphased.

Then again, if they were Amethyst, would they react?

"What's your name?" Leilah asked, wanting more information about this strange, incredibly familiar demon.

None of the other demons she'd met had talked like this. Nobody she'd met had quite this aura except Amethyst.

"I'm Neris. And how about you?" the demon asked, smiling wider in a display of perfectly sharp teeth.

Leilah shuddered and teleported away.

It took her a moment to realize she hadn't teleported to her bedroom but to a wide lake in the wilderness somewhere in the mid afternoon.

Even though she could float any dirt off her, she dove into the water, landing on the mud floor with her clothing floating weightlessly around her.

Her eyes didn't sting under the water and she didn't need to breathe. It was an incredible feeling, as if she were some life form other than a human.

She imagined a shark swimming up with sharp teeth like Neris'.

She shot out of the water before realizing that sharks didn't swim in lakes.

Floating the water and dirt off her and teleporting back to her own soft bed, Leilah resolved to get some sleep.