Terrence rushed in, his face scrunched up in anger. Sahara was sitting on her bed with Ella, Oma and Amethyst. Garnet was tending to her shoulder.

“Who did this to you?” said Terrence. Phila hung off of Terrance’s shoulders. After three hours, the love potion has still not worn off. Terrance decided to ignore her and carry on with his life. Sahara laughed.

“Calm down! Dian accidentally electrocuted me. It wasn't a murder attempt. Speaking of Dian, where is she?”

“Bad news,” said Phila, breaking out of her lovey state for a minute. “They found her bracelet and her hair in our dorm.”

“Her hair?” asked Amethyst, who had not been informed of this.

“They chopped it all off. All 5 feet of it,” said Phila, returning to her lovey state.

“That’s terrible!” said Oma. “Dian loves her hair! Whoever did this obviously wanted to deface her. But at least we know she’s not dead.”

“How do you suppose?” asked Ella.

“They wouldn’t have cut her hair for nothing,” said Oma.

They wanted information from her. Clearly its torture. She knows something they wanted.” said Sahara.

“There’s also two other things that could have happened. Either she was kidnapped, or she cut her own hair and committed suicide. She would have left the hair as a remembrance of herself.” said Oma.

“No! She can’t have!” cried out Sahara. “If I wasn’t agitating her, there wouldn’t have been this incident.” Terrance traced his finger on the spiral that had burned into Sahara’s shoulder, much like the spiraling scars on Frida’s hands. Sahara looked turned and noticed it.

“Garnet, will this scar?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so. Most injuries inflicted by powers scar, which is why Oma’s face….” Garnet stopped herself short as she continued to clean up to back room.

“Oma’s face what?” demanded Sahara. “You guys are hiding a lot here and you aren't telling us. Spill it. All of it, now.”

“Okay,” said Oma. “But this is the only time you will see my face.” Oma brushed the red, cascading hair out of her face to reveal jarring three degree burns spiking out. She shook her head as her bangs fell over it. They did a good job of hiding the scars, since no one really looked Oma.

“What happened?” asked Sahara self consciously rubbing her scar.

“I set myself on fire when I was really young,” whispered Oma, hiding her face. “The flames wouldn’t go out. I lay there burning in my room until my parents came home from work. I have been here since I was four years old.”

“Why?” said Terrence

“I didn’t know any better,” whispered Oma. “Both my parents had fire powers, but theirs didn’t come until they were eight. I can’t remember why exactly I burst into flames; I think it was something about Dora the Explorer not answering me right away.” She took a few steps back and sat down on a chair. Sahara noticed it wasn’t just her face that was burned. Oma’s black sleeves came a little short, revealing a burn on her arm. She quickly noticed Sahara staring and covered it up.

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“I prefer not to talk about my powers,” mumbled Oma. “Please.”

“It’s fine. But I don’t understand how Dian’s powers overrode the bracelet. Its impossible that she’s that powerful and the bracelets are supposed to stop this from happening.” said Sahara. Garnet, Oma and Amethyst game each other uneasy looks.

“What?” asked Sahara her eyes flashing with anger.

“You know how Oma works at the library,” started Garnet. “Well, she’s been tapping into our bracelets in her free time. Phila’s and your bracelets are deactivated, but Ella’s is almost done. But we’re not the only people with deactivated bracelets. Oma was friends with Chad, once…”

“Do you guys have any idea how dangerous this is?” said Terrence outraged. “We have the bracelets for a reason! Sahara could have died!”

“We have a reason too, just hear us out,” said Amethyst. “We’ve been resisting the school. They shouldn’t control us.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Ella. “I haven’t actually tried recently, but I believe you when you say my bracelet is almost broken.”

“Broken only because you made them this way,” said Sahara.

“Don’t you think we deserve to have our full powers?” asked Garnet. “I mean, I get of having to wear my bracelet because I need to be able to help people. But don’t you think we should be able to live normally?”

“What do you mean, normally? We’re freaks,” said Sahara “They’re to help us. And what resistance were you talking about anyways?”

“A resistance formed by us,” said Amethyst. “Oma, Dian and Chad started it when they were 7. But then the next year Chad got moved to the Psychic section of the building so they lost contact with him. Eventually I came and joined. Garnet’s been in since last year, and we were hoping you would join us also.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Terrence. Sahara sat silently in thought. Ella screamed as a tail brushed her hand. Oma rushed over.

“Stop it, you’re going to hurt him,” said Oma, picking up the bearded dragon Ella had flicked to the floor. Everyone broke the hostility and looked at her.

“What? It’s just Fireball,” said Oma as Fireball spit a little flame to the floor. “He’s mostly harmless.”

“Wait, animals have powers too? I’m so confused,” said Sahara. “And mostly harmless?”

“He was my childhood pet, altered by my parents. They sent him here a couple days after they sent me here,” said Oma, stroking Fireball’s back. “Sach hates him.”

“Is Fireball part of your resistance?” asked Terrence. Oma was blinking in some sort of code with Fireball.

“No, but he knows where Dian went,” said Oma, putting Fireball on the floor and following him. “I sent him out as soon as I heard the news.”

“Come on, let’s follow her,” said Amethyst. “Fireball is never wrong. Animal instinct is extremely powerful.” Fireball lead the group down the hallway, and past Sach, who spit at him, and all the way down to Airlock 7.

“It’s been welded shut!” said Amethyst. “It’s a mixed compound that has a relatively high melting point... I’m not sure I’m going to be able to melt it.” Suddenly, metal bars popped up around them as they crumpled to the ground. An electric charge went through the cage, causing them to fall.

“What’s happening?” asked Sahara, struggling to sit up.

“Allow me to explain,” said Professor Kali, walking to the cage with Madame Myalo. “I overheard you talking about how you hacked your bracelets. I was going to go get Madame Myalo, but I knew there was a chance your entire group would be gone. So I put Dian’s hair in the other room so your lizard would lead you here.” Madame Myalo walked up and down, looking at the students.

“I can’t believe you would choose to do something like this. To break your bracelets? Shame on you,” said Madame Myalo, zapping Amethyst with a taser for trying to melt the bars. “And Oma, we have always been here for you. This has been your home since you were a little girl. Why do you defy us?” Oma looked down at the ground.

“Put them in the cellars. I’ll do a thorough interrogation tomorrow.”