CHAPTER 8 "DANCE"

Sapphire was the first to enter, to see if the cost is clear. Zircon came in second; Terra came in third and Red last. Dance Planet doesn't look like a planet for dancers to Terra, instead it looked like a dessert, it was dark with bright less stars and it was quiet and empty nobody was their but them, but Terra didn't say anything, she didn't want to be rude.

"Okay we get through this planet and Speed World is right at the other side" whispered Sapphire pointing at the exit, but while she was explaining Red saw something shiny and he sneaked their, and Sapphire didn't notice "we just need to keep it super quiet in here and no matter what we can't turn it on", but suddenly someone turned it on. They hear music, they saw meteors glowing colorfully like earth disco balls, stars shining down like spotlights and in the sky appeared auroras that are musical lines.

"O.M.S. this turned it on" said Red, excitedly showing them what he did, Sapphire glared at him with a silent treatment. "What I'm a handyman it's a big shiny crystal".

(It's true in their planet handyman like shiny things and crystals; it's useful for their makings.)

(Also O.M.S. stands for 'Oh My Stars' in there galaxy.)

The deserts ground appeared colors around them until the ground fell leaving them floating high above lava.

"Not good, not good, definitely not good" Sapphire hesitated.

"What's happening" said Terra confused.

Then a giant brown lady appeared, she was tall as earths skyscrapers.

Her skin color is bronze, her hair is chocolate color and her eyes are russet. She wears cyber yellow long pants and a tube shirt with stripes of dark green and bright green color and high heel sandals of the color of ghost white.

The giant woman welcome them and explained: "Welcome to Dance Planet, follow my moves and you get to move forward, do the wrong moves and you get an X three strikes and you're out."

"Out? What does she mean by out?" Terra asked Sapphire.

"Falling to a pit of lava" answered Sapphire looking below the lava. She faced towards her brother and said "Thanks to you Red face now we're gonna have to dance our way out."

"Which is A-OK with me cause I can shake this planet like an earthquake" added Red, plus he could really go for a dance, including Zircon.

The giant brown lady seems to be the leader of Dance Planet she asked them with excitement "Are you ready to dance!"

Terra's not sure if she can dance but she'll try, but Sapphire was worried:

"This is bad Terra, really bad I can't dance I got no groove" she hesitated.

"Come on everybody can dance" said Terra, of course she knows that.

"Not me okay I'm really ruff" added Sapphire while she was demonstrating, "see... you don't understand" she danced so awkward, Terra, Red and Zircon bended their heads to the left seeing how awkward Sapphire danced.

Finally they've seen enough and said:

"Okay stop" said Terra.

"Stop, stop" repeated Zircon, twice.

"She has to stop" added Red.

"I see now what you are saying" said Terra understanding "just follow her moves" actually that's all the advice she could think of.

The brown leader began the countdown "Ready to dance in 3!"

Sapphire was now really worried "This I can't do!"

"2!"

"Dude..."

"Oh just shut up and..." said Red. He was so excited to dance.

"DANCE!"

The music was on (Jitter Bug) the musical auroras were bouncing and the leader began to dance. Terra, Zircon, Red were following her moves well, Sapphire was trying as hard as she can till she got one X. Red was doing great he was first to move forward, Zircon was good too, she was second to move forward following Red, and Terra wasn't so bad at dancing as well, she was moving forward and having fun, but Sapphire really needs to catch up she was the last one to stay put, she was following the brown lady's moves and looking below her feet at the same time, until she slip. She was holding on to one hand, the others were far ahead and didn't saw because they were busy dancing. Sapphire used all her strength to get back up on the dance till she got a second X, one more and she's a goner, Sapphire was starting to panic. Terra heard the X sound she quickly look back and shouted "SAPPHIRE!" like she was worried for her, but Zircon and Red didn't bother to look back for her they knew she was too independent so they ignored her and continued dancing, now Terra had to make a choice. Sapphire was slipping thankfully Terra somehow managed to control her rock powers and grabbed her hand just in time.

"I got you" she said while pulling her up.

"Look just feel the music express yourself" explained Terra, she decided to dance together with her.

"Through death dance?" said Sapphire confused, she never thought about that, maybe she was so caught up of her work for years that she forgot what was it like to have fun, especially with friends. Sapphire did what Terra told her and she was getting the hang of it, Terra cheered for her:

"Yeah you got it, go girl, now you gotta throw some sauce on that dance taco Woo Hoo!"

They were moving forward together, Sapphire was smiling and laughing of relief.

"Ha, ha I'm doing it! I'm totally killing this dance" Sapphire said joyfully while smiling a Terra and Terra smiled back at her "You got it" she said proudly.

Red and Zircon were dancing to victory with some fancy footwork and made it to the spotlight, they succeeded and were lifted on top with the other dancers, only Sapphire and Terra were left, they were on to the next part.

"Great job, you two are moving onto free dance, impress us with your moves to move forward" said the brown leader. Sapphire was not very excited about it but Terra was.

"More dancing" complained Sapphire while Terra was asking for her hand. She spin her, Sapphire felt a little dizzy Terra looked at her while she fixed her headband then when she heard the next music (Feel this moment) she felt something flashed her eyes and without knowing what she's doing she began to dance.

Terra danced freestyle, Earth's style. It was like for the first time she felt so alive, almost like she's having a flashback. Sapphire watched her as she danced freely "You're flashing it Terra! Flow!" she said, cheering for her. She knew that somehow Terra is having a flashback.

All the people in Dance Planet were free to dance their moves. Zircon and Red saw Terra's moves and they were impressed.

"Nice shake it Terra you won't break it" said Red with excitement. But he spoke to soon.

The giant brown leader noticed the strange creamy colored persons moves and decided to put everyone on hold. "Wait a minute, I've never seen that dance in my planet before, what's it called?" she said, while bending to Terra so she can hear her clearly.

They all listen carefully for her answer. Terra was thinking what to call it, it had to have a meaning in their galaxy.

"Uh... the cluster... shine" she answered.

There was a pause, the brown leader put her hands on her hips and gave her a silent look, it looks like she was about to say something about ' The Cluster Shine'.

"I... LOVE IT! WOOO! " she yelled with joy, everybody in the planet cheered and applauded. Terra was shock "What you do?" she looked around at everybody, then straight at Sapphire. Sapphire smiled at Terra proudly, Terra smiled back at her. The brown leader made a short announcement "EVERYBODY DO THE CLUSTER SHINE!" she insisted.

Sapphire and Terra were glad they danced 'The Cluster Shine' together, everybody in Dance Planet danced the 'The Cluster Shine' including Zircon and Red. Terra and Sapphire danced together, it's been so long that Sapphire had real fun with a friend, she never felt so alive, but she was having so much that when she twirled her headband came off and flew towards Terra. When Terra got her headband she couldn't believe her eyes 'Sapphire has a wand and long hair' she thought in her mind, she saw her waving her wand around while twirling her long hair while she was still dancing. When Sapphire faced towards Terra she saw her holding her headband. Sapphire was so shocked to see she's holding her wand and her hair revealed that she turned black and grey and the color matched her long hair (not the wand). Terra recognized something, she remembered a 'wanted poster' from when she was in Galactica, Sapphire was Darkfire (except the wand, it look like she use to be a Lady Royal?) all the people in Dance Planet stared at her, Zircon and Red knew she was Darkfire but they never knew she was a Lady Royal they were shocked!

"Wow your 'The Criminal' and a 'Lady Royal' at the same time" Terra said shocked "you never got off the Universe-" she returned her headband.

"Welcome new dancers!" said the brown leader pointing at the new folks.

There was no time for Terra to ask questions, they turn to see who are the new folks while Sapphire was fixing her hair and hiding her wand. It was Hex's hexbots, Terra and Sapphire gasped.

"We gotta go" said Sapphire in a rush voice.

"But they're evil robots can they even dance?" asked Terra, not seeming to worry, but she spoke to soon, the hexbots activated some kind of dance protocol they were busting some moves.

"you had to ask" said Sapphire.

Terra shrugged her shoulders and smiled awkwardly. While the robots were dancing to get them they started blasting at them, Terra and Sapphire had to dance faster, they were having a dance get away. While they were dancing to escape the rocks that everybody were dancing on started to turn black and the music was fading.

"Hex must be erasing the planet!" Sapphire protested, she knew this was one of Hex's evil games. The people in Dance Planet begin to fled away including the brown leader but Zircon and Red were still dancing, they didn't notice the planet is being erased. Luckily Sapphire and Terra made it to the exit and the bots were far behind, some fell from the falling disco meteors.

"Zirc, Red come on lets go!" Terra called to them in a hurry, which they are.

Zircon and Red stopped dancing and saw the planet collapsing, they quickly jump at rocks that were still standing towards the exit where Sapphire and Terra were waiting for them. They jumped as fast as they can, the rocks were crumbling so fast they had to jump a far to Sapphire and Terra. They lifted their whole body in the air till they couldn't make it, luckily Terra manage to grab them, Sapphire helped Terra to pull them up. Zircon and Red were thankful to Terra, they were about to escape when suddenly a hexbot dragged Red down with him, Zircon was anguished Terra and Sapphire pulled her out of Dance Planet leaving Red behind. When they made it out alive they saw the planet being sucked inside a black hole, suddenly a planet was moving towards them. Terra was screaming she thought it was going to crush them but actually it was taking the spot of a planet that's been destroyed, Sapphire stopped Terra's screaming.

"Wait where's Red?" asked Terra, hoping she didn't saw what happened. Sapphire looked at Terra and Zircon with a sad face and explained "Hex erased the planet to the Black Hole, and it took Red right along with it."

"Wait erased, Red is in a black hole" said Terra.

"He wanted to dance but I knew it was a bad idea, I'm so sorry" said Sapphire turning towards Speed World and ignoring the whole thing. Zircon protested "We have to get him out of there!"

"We can do that?" said Terra confused, she knew that no one can get out of a black hole.

"Zircon Speed World is right here that's our ticket to The White, and The Black Hole is in the other side of the Galaxy we don't know how many hexbots are out there, I'm sorry" exclaimed Sapphire with an apology but she didn't look like she was truly sorry for her brother.

"No wait we can't go with out Red and I don't care how far away it is, we have a motto 'no friend or family left behind' remember, come on Terra."

Terra agreed to save Red, Sapphire tried to stop them. "You guys..."

"That's your brother down there, you're not just gonna leave him to be erased" said Terra; interfered Sapphire's sentence. Zircon was shocked, she stood their quietly and just listened and watched. Sapphire was stunned, she looked down at her feet and answered something she couldn't answer before. "I always just thought... you gotta forget the bad sad stuff and move on" she said while facing towards Terra and Zircon.

"Well how easy it is to forget the bad sad stuff if the memory will just come back to you?" Terra asked.

Sapphire was hit she immediately admit defeat. "Wow okay."

"I'm sorry this is... this is my memory loss I just can't remember anything this is why I need to get rememoried" said Terra with a down face. Sapphire cheered her up by sharing some of her knowledge she kept secret "Well just because someone has amnesia doesn't mean you've lost yourself" she said walking towards her.

"Wait really"

Sapphire smiled at Terra and said "You know I think I know a shortcut, we can use the musical asteroids in 'Astrodify' lets get Red before his dead."

Zircon was surprised that her former best friend finally blossomed, guess Terra's questions will have to wait.

"Come on!" Sapphire leaded the way.