LIO

30 years before Lio's story begins, a strange scientific Gem, Neptunite, placed a piece of a natural alien core made of pure fire and strength inside of his main science facility on a Sector 2 planet, Dunaria. Through research, Neptunite learned that this core was titled 'the Inferno', and, intrigued, began to experiment with it, eventually creating a pure crystalline heart out of the Inferno's liquidized steam and fire, burying it deep into one of the habitats made for Gems. And then, 30 years later, Sonora Sunset 1LO dug out from the sand of a desert habitat, having been blessed by the Inferno, and unknowingly bearing the crystal heart.

For some odd, unexplained reason, Neptunite harbored a great hatred to 1LO for his absurd powers, though he never learned why. After around a year of tests and the like, 1LO was given to his personal scientist, a Moonstone named Ryu, who started to call 1LO 'Lio'. Two years after Lio's creation, another Gem came out right next to where Lio formed - Selenite 3HS. 3HS had the other half of the eye Gem that Lio had, so they were considered 'siblings'. 3HS stuck close to Lio, her personal scientist eventually dubbing her Ahmes. Both Ahmes and Lio were defective - Lio with his Inferno abilities, and Ahmes being a Golden Selenite, which gave her access to resin manipulation, and gecko traits.

When Lio was 6, Ryu informed him that on his next experiment, which involved him, Ahmes, and two other Gems, every single experiment in the facility would be massacred. Lio, in a panic and unwilling to let innocent Gems die, reacted to this by destroying half of the facility with his powers on the day of the experimentation. Him, Ahmes, and those two other Gems, Meis and Guiera, all escaped together, while behind them, hundreds, if not thousands of experiments were murdered.

After two hours of running, the four young Gemlings found themselves in the heart of Dunaria's main city - Rawio. An Agate with healing expertise, Laguna, found Lio and Ahmes shivering in the cold of Rawio's harsh winter season, taking them back to her house and eventually adopting the two. Lio and Ahmes quickly built trust with Laguna, as not only did she shelter them and feed them, but she taught both of them how to use their powers effectively.

When Lio was 11, however, Laguna's business partner, a Hematite named Quar, asked him to mentor his own little 'sibling', a Pearl named Indi, aged 10. Indi and Lio got along really well, especially because they both had the gift of the Inferno - though, Indi's was acquired from a medical procedure. Soon after, Lio and Indi began hanging out often with Meis and Guiera, and one night, during a party, met a little Selenite about to get attacked for accidentally spilling a drink, and Indi kicked the attacker's ass, whilst Lio helped the Selenite.

The Selenite introduced herself as Faith, aged 9, and she quickly joined the friendgroup. Although, a year later, living became more harsh for the trio of misfits, as a couple of Steels spotted them outside at night. Seeming to recognize Faith, they attacked Lio, Indi, and Faith - unfortunately for them, though, Lio fell into a panic, and bit onto one of the Steels' Gems, snapping it in half. The other Steel, frightened, tried running off, but Indi scorched them alive. While Lio was heavily traumatized by the act he committed, Indi and Faith praised him. The next night, the three had all been hanging out in Quar's house, in the basement, when an entire squad of Neptunite's guards and the like swarmed the area.

Lio at first thought they were there for him, but as it turned out, they wanted Faith, who, surprisingly, was a Gem who survived the massacre way back then. Faith used her ability gifted from the experimentation, one that summoned a large beast, and fought back against the horde of Gems, but was ultimately captured. Lio, in a panic, chased after the van that held Faith, and attacked it with a much-too-strong doseage of fire, causing the vehicle to collapse, and Faith to go flying out from the back, and into the water below, killing her in the end.

Both Lio and Indi were devastated, and shortly after, Quar no longer let Lio mentor the Pearl he had been friends with for two years. Although, this lit a spark of determination within Lio, and at age 13, he went with two friends, an Ajoite titled Cloud, and a Moonstone named Kyra, across the long distance of Dunaria, and back to the newly-rebuilt facility where Neptunite resided, hoping to save the Gems still stuck there. The mission went haywire, however, and Lio was presumably killed in a final scuffle with one of Neptunite's higher-ups, Celestite.

Fortunately, he was alive, but only in a somewhat critical condition on the next planet over, Zenya. When Lio was incapacitated, a large squad of Homeworld Gems from the higher sectors raided Dunaria, saving everybody trapped there, and ultimately ending Neptunite's regime as a corrupt scientist on Dunaria. Lio, though, was taken to Zenya by an Emerald infused with Mercury, Polaris, and treated in Zenya's main city, the Dome, which was a heavily oppressed capitol.

For the next two years, Lio regained his strength and eventually left Zenya discreetly with the help of an Angelite, Ximena (who later also left Zenya), and officially immigrated into Sector 5. At age 15, Lio joined a terraforming group as backup, and enjoying how it felt to be loyal with a job, until the Aquamarine of the group fucked up big-time, causing half of the squad to be shattered, their Agate to be reset, and two of the Peridots to be bleached. Lio, heavily traumatized by this, attempted to experience a new life, eventually leaving terraforming for good.

Some months later, he met Blush, a Pyrope's Pearl with a happy-go-lucky attitude, and the two became fast friends. The two stuck by each other's side for a long time, until Blush's Pyrope had been bleached, leaving Blush in a state of disarray. Lio, by her side, encouraged her to keep going, and things went fine, until Lio was attacked by that same Aquamarine who ruined the terraforming group, leaving him in a critical state once again. This time, however, Laguna found his unconscious body in a Kindergarten, and took him to her clinic, attempting to treat him with the help of her Pearl, Thyma.

Although, Laguna had done some heavily unsavory things while Lio was in his state, and when he was brought back to normal, Blush told him about what Laguna had done - she had burnt down Blush's Pyrope's entire residence of living, and killed various Gems while doing so. Lio, utterly horrified by what his own caretaker had done, distanced himself from her and Thyma, eventually meeting Ximena and Ahmes again.

But things only got worse from there. While out for a walk in the Garden of Light, Lio witnessed an Azurite-Malachite taking in a Rebellious Yooperlite. Although, Lio had thought the fusion was attacking an innocent Gem, and punched the fusion with a fist of fire. The Azurite-Malachite, titled Vaigalias, had assumed that Lio was a Rebel, and the two fought countless times, until two of Neptunite's subordinates, Cavansites 22 and 44, interjected various times to try and kill Lio for the happiness of Neptunite.

This went on until Lio was 17, leaving him with new doses of trauma and the like, only getting worse when he learned that one of the Elite Nine - the Gems who governed most of Homeworld - had kidnapped Blush and corrupted her, causing him to fully break apart due to pure stress, anxiety, and sadness. He had lost the material composing his legs during this, though, and Ximena had set out on a journey to find replacements, eventually finding a cluster of nonliving Pietersite, and attaching two of the pieces she'd collected for him as a replacement. This had unlocked some form of super-speed for Lio, and he began attempting to adjust to the new legs.

Some time passed, and then Lio had found himself in quite the climactic fight against four of Neptunite's Gems - Alto, a Smokey Quartz who had extreme beef with Lio, Danger, a Black Pearl who Lio used to be close with, and the Cavansites. During a certain attack Lio had done, though, Cavansite 22 pierced Lio's torso with her arrows, leaving large holes. He fell into a coma, leaving everybody to think he had died. Later on though, Ximena learned that he was only in a coma, and for a year, she experimented on how to wake Lio back up, eventually finding the crystalline heart within him, and removing it.

When Lio officially turned 19, he awoke from Padparadscha fillings, and began adjusting to life now, having been comatose for a full year. Unfortunately for him, though, Blush had appeared in front of him within a week, almost fully corrupt, and it broke the Sonora Sunset, causing him to break apart yet again. Although, this time, a Moonstone named Medusa had kidnapped him, and held him hostage for a month, until a Chambersite titled Yusei rescued him. Lio was then given a mix of Padparadscha and Turquoise fillings, which successfully kept him wide awake.

During a session where Lio had been training, he came into contact with Iccha, an Indicolite who also had the abilities of the Inferno, and offered him a chance to become loyal yet again, which meant that he would be working under her, and the Sonora Sunset took up this offer, becoming a Loyalist yet again. During the time he was taking to get involved with Loyalist activities, though, he noticed an empty cavity within one of his fillings, and went to Ximena, where he found the crystalline heart and had Ximena confess to everything she had done.

Lio, enraged, demanded that she put the crystal organ back in his chest, and she complied, doing a procedure to place the heart back within his system, which gifted him more strength than he had remembered he had, and shortly after, cut off Ximena in fear that she might pull a stunt like that again.

Sometime after, Lio had been on a solo mission, when his ship crashed on a frozen-over planet. While half-disoriented, he was confronted by the only living Gem inhabiting the planet - a stone-cold, brittle Gem titled Antarcticite, who also bore a crystal heart, which was instead made out of frozen ice and snow. Lio, amazed by Antarc, begged him to practically mentor him for a while, and begrudgingly, Antarc accepted. During this time period, Lio asked Antarc how he could bottle up his emotions so well, and not let them get in the way. This seemed to break Antarc's barriers, and he confessed that he doesn't exactly bottle them up, but rather lets them out through his powers of ice and snow, which had, in turn, froze the planet he was living on.

The two eventually fell in love, and they both realized how they balanced out one another's powers, before officially dating. Lio finally managed to get his transportation fixed, and brought Antarc with him back to Iccha's Lab, and the two successfully became not just work partners, but full-fledged lovers.

Two weeks afterward, Cloudy, one of Lio's coworkers, was found fused with an infamous Rebel, Map, and ended up running off. Both iccha and Lio were devastated, the both of them having respective episodes. During Lio's, though, Danger had been spying on him, and learned that he was somehow alive, going to Neptunite with this news. Thanks to this, Neptunite's faction, and Iccha (along with some of the Elite Nine) have been locked into war, all because of Lio.

• Lio is the only confirmed character who can actively melt Antarcticite's ice.
• Lio was inspired by Promare's 'Lio Fotia', and Lio's V.C is Padparadscha, from Houseki no Kuni, which also inspired some of Lio's form traits.
• Lio's form makes 'clink' noises often, which is because of his form being able to break apart and not poof, being more like an actual, real-life Gem.
• Iccha and Vaigalias are owned by YaBoiDacio here on Toyhouse, Cloudy and the Rebel Yooperlite are owned by DOODLEOOZE/Comet, and Blush is owned by Ashyeria/Guin.
• Lio is the only Gem in Neptunite's entourage who can rival against Neptunite himself.
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