"Normally, one has to make a deal with the devil to bring someone back from the dead. I don't have the time or virgins for that, so this is something much worse." – Captain Gloom, 2017
"Log date: 8 23 2. This is Peridot. I am currently on the beach outside of Beach City, walking towards Steven's house. Within the last three hours, there have been several reports of screams and destruction emanating from the site. All attempts to warp to the temple have been met with failure, so I decided to travel on foot to investing-"
"Who are you talking to?" A voice asked from Peridot's finger screen.
"Lapis, please, I'm doing a log!"
"Oh, right." Lapis replied. Peridot heard her laugh a little. She could be really annoying sometimes.
"Lapis refused to join me on this investigation, saying it's 'probably nothing' and 'the Crystal Gems will have it under control'. I beg to differ. As the leader of the Crystal Gems: Beta squad, or 'Crystal Temps' as Connie and Lapis call it, I must react to all threats appropriately."
"Right, well. You'll be the one explaining to the Crystal Gems why you burst through their door in the middle of the night. I am not in the mood for that."
"But I'm the only one here! I'd be the one telling them either way!" Peridot said, realising that yelling may not be the best thing to do when sneaking. She formed her finger screen back into fingers, and crouched down, pressed her back against the cliff face. "It feels good to have my limb enhancers back."
Lapis had retrieved Peridot's limb enhancers a few days ago, as a thank you gift for putting up with her while she recovered from the whole Malachite ordeal. It took Peridot a day to think about if she wanted to use them again, and another day to figure out how to use them. Now she was back at mastery level, and it felt good. She primed her right arm into blaster form, and slowly moved forward. Even in this level of darkness it was easy to spot the little house, at the end of the beach, surrounded by the statue of a massive fusion.
"It has been approximately an hour since the human 'Connie' was deployed to investigate. She hasn't reported in at all during that time. I'm worried about her." Peridot said, fear dripped from her final few word as she looked at the house. It was dark, there were no lights, and the door was broken right off its hinges, now flat on the ground at the bottom of the wooden stairs. Peridot observed the door, tried to figure out what happened. The door seemed to have been hit with some tremendous force, which almost cracked it in two. Before she could climb the stairs, Peridot flinched. There was blood on the bottom step, not much, but still. A human had been hurt here. Peridot climbed the stairs till she reached the top, and froze. There was more blood, trailing into the house. The window next to the door was smashed out, and from the gap in the doorway, Peridot could see a small arm, protruding from the darkness. Connie.
"Lapis, are you still there?" Peridot asked, panic in her voice.
"Yea, I'm still here. What's gotten you so scared?"
"Contact the Maheswarans, tell them to get here as quickly as possible. Connie's injured."
"On it. See what state she's in so I can tell her mother what level of care she needs." There was a change in Lapis's voice. She had sounded calm before, but now she sounded alert, focused, and just a hint of panicked. Peridot moved to Connie's limp body, using her fingers as tools to check her vitals. There was no response from any of them, no matter what test she tried. It seems she'd been dead for at least half an hour. She had cuts and bruises, like she had been thrown around the room a lot before she finally expired.
"Lapis."
"Yea?"
"Connie….. she's gone."
"Oh no... Is there nothing you can do? Humans can't be that hard to restart."
"This isn't a computer, Lapis! I don't know anything about human anatomy. But Connie's mother does. Maybe she can bring her back."
"Yea, she probably can, humans can do that." Peridot could hear it in Lapis's voice. She knew. She knew that Connie was dead and there was nothing to be done about it, they had to keep going on with this investigation to make sure the rest of the Crystal Gems were ok. Peridot looked up from Connie's body, and surveyed the area. Everything was trashed in here, like a massive fight had gone down. Foods and liquids were all over the ground near the kitchen. All the furniture had been reduced to splinters. At the other end of the house, the warp pad was cracked severely. No wonder they couldn't warp to it. The door to the temple was wide open, and that's where it stood. It was only there for a moment, so Peridot didn't get a good enough look, but she knew that it, whatever it was, was tall.
"Lapis, I'm going to move into the temple. I won't be able to communicate with you while I'm there."
"What? No! Wait for me, I'll be there in a few minutes!"
"Lapis, I can't wait. Steven could be in trouble in there. He's done so much for us, I have to go in there and make sure he's not hurt. I won't go in too far, don't worry." Peridot was panicking. She knew it would be best to wait for Lapis, but every second that passed was another second that Steven could have died because she didn't get to him in time.
"Fine. Not too far, ok? I don't want anything bad to happen to you, ok?"
"Ok. Moving out." Peridot ended the transmission, and moved closer. She could see now that there were marks on the door, like clawed hands had pulled the door open. Through it was Amethyst's room, garbage everywhere. Peridot nudged forwards, little by little, trying to be as tactical and stealthy as possible. She failed at this when she stepped on a paint can and fell over into a pile of Amethyst's belongings, making the tower of trash fall, right on top of her. She sighed, and began to get as much of it off her as she could, when a scream made her freeze. It wasn't animalistic, it wasn't one of a corrupted gem, which had been Peridot's theory until this point. It sounded like a gem, or a human. It was a scream of utter sadness and harrowing fear. It was the sound of a Ruby screaming.