Chapter 216 - Alone

"By the way, what happened to my pet? Is he okay?" Petunia asked which made the air around them even tenser.

"What? I'm just asking… and I'm not hoping he's okay by the way. I just wonder what got into his head and why he even thought of that stupid plan that drastically failed. Or maybe he had accomplices? What do you think?" Petunia said which made Fily suddenly spill the feelings she had been keeping to herself since earlier.

"I also wonder who made that stupid plan of his that we immediately prevented from happening anyway," Fily said sarcastically, making the rest of them stare at her as if she knew something that they don't, "he obviously had help from outside but even after contacting my mom for help, I couldn't find out where it came from," she immediately added after reading their faces.

"Our security's really outdated," Lei said.

"You bet it is," Fily added and then went serious when she felt something weird in the air around them.

"You can also feel that?" Petunia said and stood back to back with Fily just like what the rest of them instinctively did after feeling something similar to an earthquake, only it was in the air and not in the ground.

"Watch out!" Petunia shouted and immediately jumped to push Lei off the way after seeing a very tiny glimpse of light, similar to a wormhole that suddenly popped out beside him..

"Gem!" Petunia heard Von shout and saw him running after Gem's unconscious body that came out from the tiny wormhole and almost fell on the roof where Lei was supposed to be standing on earlier.

Von was able to catch Gem in time and secure her head from bumping hard onto the roof with his super-speed and even flew away with her just so he could make sure she's in a really safe place which was preferably away from the roofs.

"Come on," Venedette said while offering her arms to the rest of them left there so she could carry them down to where Von went with Gem but Lei refused to ride with her and quickly ran away in ninja style while Petunia already flew away without saying anything with the help of her purple dress which left Fily the only one that Venedette had to carry with her along the way.

"Gem?! Gem wake up!!" Von said worriedly while checking Gem's pulse and breathing.

"She's still breathing," Von said to Petunia who just landed beside him with relief before stepping aside to let Petunia take a look with her expertise.

"Let's try this," Petunia said and poured a bottle of healing potion into Gem's mouth while scanning her body for further injuries, but thankfully there was none.

"She just passed out, thank goodness nothing bad happened to her," Petunia said while shaking Gem's shoulders slightly to wake her up from her sleep.

"Is she okay?" Venedette and Fily said the moment they landed which was then followed by Lei's silent arrival beside them.

"She's just unconscious, hopefully, nothing bad happened to her inside that dimension," Petunia said and stepped aside to give space for Venedette and Fily.

"Oh my gosh, you worried us, little Gem! I shouldn't have told you to deal with those sacks of Foeruses and just moved them out myself, I'm so sorry," Venedette said and hugged Gem who was slowly gaining her consciousness back.

"Gem! What happened to you! Do you know how worried we were when we found out that you were stuck in Solitude? What even happened to you?!" Fily said and held Gem's hands while Venedette was still hugging her.

"Guys… I'm back… I thought I'm going to be stuck in Solitude forever… Is this real?" Gem said and held Fily's hands tightly, seemingly examining if this was real and not just in her head, but when she felt the warmth in both Fily's hands and Venedette's embrace, she became fairly sure that it was not a dream at all.

"Yes, you're back, you're finally back here with us now," Venedette said while crying silently behind Gem's embrace.

"I knew she would be back, we were just worried for nothing. Did you fall asleep in Solitude or something?" Von said even though he was really relieved that she was alright.

"No… I- uhh… I don't actually remember what happened. Wait, let me recall… I think I saw someone there… or at least I felt like there was someone there, someone invisible… and they all started running away when the gemstone glowed like crazy… I'm sorry everything's just really a blur. I'm sorry for making you worry," Gem said while shaking her head as if there was some blockage there that was preventing her mind from remembering what happened.

"There was someone there? Someone invisible? Are you sure?" Fily asked, confirming the words that she just heard from Gem which might be useful for her researches in the future.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know what I saw… It's like my head is being bombarded with a high-pitched noise whenever I try to recall- ahhh!" Gem said while pushing her temples which Venedette quickly stopped her from doing so.

"Shh, it's okay. You should rest for now."

"Right, you should rest first. I'll just go and figure things out on my own," Fily said, a little disappointed to herself about the way she tried getting answers from Gem while disregarding her situation.

"How about your system? Did you tell them to bring you out or did you just willingly stay there for that long?" Petunia said, a little bit suspicious about how Gem was acting and a little bit concerned about her system.

"Actually that's the other thing that happened… I couldn't contact any of my systems back there… As if they were just gone, really gone," Gem said, feeling better now when remembering normal stuff instead of those invisible things that she felt lurking around her back then.

"How about the place? Did it crumble like how mom described it to us?" Von asked.

"Crumbled? What do you mean crumbled?" Gem said with confusion and looked at Venedette, trying to ask for an explanation.

"It's nothing, stop asking her questions guys, and go to your rooms now. We've had a long day today and I think it's time for us to rest, of course after having our dinner. But if you like I'll just ask the maids to deliver the foot into your rooms so you won't have to worry about resting right after. Go ahead now, I don't want to repeat myself twice," Venedette said while helping Gem stand up which made Von and the others pout and make disappointed noises.

"You should also go ahead and rest now, I'm sure you'll need it, especially after what happened to you back there," Venedette said and smiled at Gem who immediately felt secure and better with Venedette's words.

"Wait! What about my question? What happened to my pet? Von?" Petunia said while fading away into the hallways along with the others.

"Do you want me to bring you there?" Venedette said when she noticed Gem only being silent.

"No thanks… I think I got this," Gem said with a smile and turned around with a serious face while attempting to contact either one of her systems that just suddenly disappeared on her back there.

"Are you sure? You know you can ask me for help anytime, right?!" Venedette said with concern to Gem who just waved to her goodbye.

"Please work, Mr. Gemini? Lady? Where are you? What happened to me? What happened to Solitude? Did I perhaps break it?" Gem thought to herself nervously while trying her best to keep her legs awake after sleeping inside Solitude.

She was not even sure if she slept in Solitude or if something else entirely happened that she just couldn't remember.

"I'm really getting scared now… Please answer me, Mr. Gemini, Lady… help me. I feel so alone and unsafe without you," she said, whispering to the necklace as if they were just sleeping there.

"I thought I knew Solitude more than anyone else, but after the thing that happened today, I'm not so sure about that anymore. How am I going to go back there now if Mr. Gemini and Lady are gone? And how can I continue my training without you two?" Gem muttered while laying in her bed and staring at the ceiling.

"Should I tell the rest of the members about this or should I just keep it to myself? I don't want them to replace you, Mr. Gemini and Lady… Please respond to me now so I can know that you're still there," Gem pleaded and closed her eyes, prompting the beads of tears that she was stopping from falling earlier to fall down her cheeks as she buried her face to her pillow.

"I feel so alone," she whispered and cried herself to sleep without even eating the dinner that the maids brought to her room.