*-eep* *Beep*
Steven's fist slammed down on the snooze button of his Cookie Kat themed alarm clock.
"Meh, five more minutes Kat. Just wanna sleep *yawn* forever."
He lay on his bed, eyes closed and motionless, partially waiting to fall back asleep partially waiting to wake up. Suddenly the smell of bacon wafted past his nose and he made up his mind. Wiping the crust out of his eyes Steven groggily sat up and looked across the studio style beach side apartment. The gems were in the kitchen area making breakfast.
"Yo, Steve man." Amethyst shouted. "You awake yet? We've been waiting for you to get up for hours dude."
"Amethyst!" Pearl scolded. "We should let Steven sleep for however long he needs to. Being half human means that his body's energy consumption is incredibly inefficient. They need this...this sleep thing to recharge their forms or else they'll die."
"Nah, I'm awake." Steven said as he hopped off his bed and gathered his clothes to change into.
As he walked past the kitchen area to get to the bathroom Garnet, who had been manning the stove top, looked over at Steven. "If you're going to the bathroom to change you'd better hurry. If Amethyst gets her hands on another batch of these pancakes I am done for today."
*pft* "Whatever." Amethyst said. "The last 3 or 4 batches smelled really good. I couldn't help myself, plus you made them to be eaten so technically I was just helping your precious little pancakes fulfill their purpose."
"Well you could try and steal this batch too." Garnet said materializing her weapons. "But helping these pancakes fulfill their purpose will cost you."
"Y-yeah sure thing." Amethyst said backing down.
"Also, Steven." Garnet called to him just as he reached the bathroom door. "Don't forget, the second you finish your breakfast we need to head over to the barn. Peridot has been calling the house every ten minutes since we got back and she sounds excited about…something. I'm not sure what it is but whatever it might be I am sick of hearing "Can't you come over yet?" over and over again. So hurry up and let's try to get this out of the way as soon as possible, okay?"
Steven nodded in the affirmative.
000
Steven shivered in the cool morning air his breath coming in clouds. He and the other gems were standing in the back of the barn looking up at a hulking, octagonal shape covered in an even larger tarp. Peridot had practically dragged them out of the van and to the back, her excitement building with each step and now they waited with baited breath for her big reveal.
"Gems and…uh, Steven." Peridot said walking in front of the tarp. She climbed up and stood on an over turned cart she had set up for herself. "Ever since I joined your team so long ago one question has undoubtedly been on your mind: "How could we have ever lived without the great Peridot?" She paused, almost as if she was waiting for a response. When she got none she continued on. "Err, yes. That's right. You couldn't have survived without me because without me you wouldn't have this." She enumerated her point by yanking as hard as she could on the massive tarp. However, it was too big and heavy for her tiny arms so only part of her machine was unveiled, the other half still remained hidden beneath the tarp.
At first glance nobody knew what to say. They just stared at the contraption and it stared back. The middle center consisted of a large, circular computer bay with eight tubes shooting off from the sides. It looked like a giant metallic octopus that Peridot had beached and dragged back to the barn. A large monitor flickered behind her.
"Boo!" Amethyst yelled "You just took Greg's junk from the barn and glued it together. Even I've done that before. This isn't so great."
"I'm going to have to side with Amethyst on this one Peridot." Pearl said. "It is certainly…large. But what exactly does it do?"
Peridot huffed. It would seem the day her genius received the recognition it deserved humanity would become the dominate species in the universe i.e. not likely to happen.
Taking a moment to calm down and compose herself she sucked a deep breath in and slowly exhaled. "This my "friends" is the key to our collective survival. After my, uh, moment of rashness it would seem the diamond authority wishes me dead and will undoubtedly be coming here to ensure the demise of the great Peridot."
Even Steven had to cringe at Peridot's speech. Maybe later he and the green gem would need to have a talk about how not everything revolved around her.
"So to that end." Peridot continued. "I have built this machine. Painstakingly assembled from this earth junk and parts from my escape pod. It will be able to destroy yellow diamond and any gem dumb enough to get caught in the net it can cast over a 2 mile radius. Pretty neat, huh?"
Everyone stood there stunned.
Huh Steven thought Maybe some of that smugness was actually earned.
Garnet was the first to speak. "Peridot, can this thing really do what you said? I mean, kill a diamond?" She had seen a diamond enter the field of battle only once but that was enough. It was hard to believe anything could destroy one.
"Yup." Said Peridot, smugness practically dripping off of her. "It can do all that and a whole lot more. Now let's give it its first test run. Everybody stand back!"
Peridot began pressing buttons and adjusting switched like a mad scientist at play. Steven and the gems backed away, far away.
"And that should do it." Peridot said rushing over to join them. "If this test run goes well it'll mean we have a fighting chance against yellow diamond and her…"
*BANG*
Black smoke poured from the machine as bits and pieces began to fall off.
"Uh, so it's not supposed to do that is it?" Amethyst said as a fire erupted from the center of Peridot's weapon.
Peridot was panicking. "I-it's okay, it's okay. The capacitor was probably just a little worn down is all. I can still fix this."
Peridot wormed her way past Garnet and Pearl and sprinted towards the flaming machine as it coughed up clouds of thick black smoke. When she got to the weapon she unscrewed the front panel and threw it aside. By now the smoke was choking, Peridot could barely see anything in front of her as she fumbled around looking for the break in her system.
"No, not here. No, this is it either."
The machine gave out a loud groan signaling it was well past its limits.
"Peridot!" Garnet shouted. "Forget about the weapon! Leave it, we need to go right now."
Peridot waved her off. "Forget it! It took me so long to make this thing I'm not leaving it." Her hand brushed up against the capacitor. "Ah ha! Found you, you little-"
*BANG*
The machine exploded in a ball of smoke and fire that reach far up into the clouds raining debris all over Beach City. The shock wave from the explosion knocked Steven and the rest of the gems to the ground as a hail of shrapnel and fire flew over them shredding and burning everything in its path.
000
When Steven came to the only thing he could see was empty blackness all around him. Ah! I've gone blind! were his first thoughts until something heavy fell away and a small shaft of light peaked through the gloom. So not blind just buried he thought before carefully shifting broken beams and chunks of earth in an effort to dig himself out. Clearing away the last of the rubble he stood up and coughed. A curtain of dust hung in the air distorting everything and obscuring his view as shapes of broken wood and twisted metal loomed in the distance. The whole area had been turned into a war zone.
"G-Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl!" Steven called out to the abyss. "Is anyone there?"
He took a step forward and immediately fell flat on his face. He turned to look at his leg and noticed a chunk of metal the size of his finger jutting out of his leg just below the kneecap. Wincing he yanked it out and watched as warm blood soaked his torn pant leg. Not good he thought really not good.
He stumbled to his feet and kept moving, dragging his wounded leg behind him. "Garnet! Are you there?" His voice was barely a whisper as the blood loss was already taking its toll on him.
He continued through the hellscape for as long as he could. Past flaming scrapes of wood that had once been the barn. At one point he crawled under a bridge of twisted metal that looked like it could fall at any second. Please don't crush me he silently prayed as he inched himself under the low laying bridge. On the other side he found a clearing and collapsed for the second time.
"W-why did this have to happen?"
It had been only hours before that he and the gems were happily sharing breakfast together. Laughing and talking about what they would be doing after their visit to the barn. Pearl was going to re-arrange her room. Amethyst wanted Steven to come with her and check out the new wrestling tournament that night and Garnet…well, Garnet was still a mystery to him.
Then his mind turned to Peridot and her speech. The gem's voice filled his head with self-satisfied tones.
Suddenly his vision began to swim as the whole world seemed to lurch forward stretching everything as if it were all photoshopped. "No!" He shouted fighting for consciousness. But something fought back and again the world lurched forward taking Steven along for the ride. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hold on. Somewhere deep inside of him he could feel a tingling sensation forming around his stomach. Opening his eyes he found that his gem was giving off a bright pink aura just as the last of his strength left him.
Alright fine he thought as his head hit the cold earth you win, I give up.
000
When Steven came to his first thought was that he was floating. Everything just seemed so…so light. As if someone had shut off the gravity. Looking down he realized he was in fact standing, still firmly tethered to terra firma. The longer he spent looking at his feet the more he realized someone was talking.
"This my "friends" is the key to our collective survival. After my, uh, moment of rashness it would seem the diamond authority wishes me dead and will undoubtedly be coming here to ensure the demise of the great Peridot."
Steven's jaw nearly fell to the ground. Peridot was speaking and she was completely unscathed. Steven had never been more happy to see the little green monster in his life.
"So to that end." Peridot continued. "I have built this machine. Painstakingly assembled from this earth junk and parts from my escape pod. It will be able to destroy yellow diamond and any gem dumb enough to get caught in the net it can cast over a 2 mile radius.. Pretty neat, huh?"
Looking around he could see Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet right where they had been only moments ago. They were staring at Peridot with looks of awe and disbelief.
Wait a minute. Steven realized something. Everything is fine. There's no fire, no dust cloud, no debris and this speech…didn't Peridot already give us this speech?
Sure enough Peridot was going through the exact same motions she had only moments before the explosion right down to that smug look of satisfaction that crossed her face when she turned and said "Yup. It can do all that and a whole lot more. Now let's give it its first test run. Everybody stand back!"
I know what comes next Steven thought I need to stop this.
"Wait" He shouted. "Peridot stop! You can't turn on that machine."
The green gem turned towards him with a look of surprise and annoyance.
"W-why not? Don't you understand? This is our ultimate weapon against Yellow Diamond. Once the cluster has been dealt with she'll surely come for this planet and us and, more importantly, me!"
Uh oh. Steven thought. What was the name of that part she was so worried about. The compressor, the compactor…oh wait!
"Uh, Peridot." Steven began. "M-maybe you should just double check the capacitor before you start up that machine again."
"And what would you know about my capacitor Steven?" Peridot said. Her gaze was beginning to burn into soul.
"Uh, you know, maybe it's like worn or not good or something." He finished lamely.
"What!?" Peridot shrieked. "Are you implying that I, who was born specifically to build these great inventions, would use sub-par equipment to create my ultimate weapon?!"
"C-could you just check…please."
"Fine." Peridot sighed. "If it will put your tiny human mind at ease I'll check." she said as she unscrewed the front panel of the machine and began to dig around.
"Well?" Steven asked.
When Peridot turned around to face the other gems Steven had to suppress a laugh at the dark shade of green her face had become.
"I uh." She began. "I may or may not have found something that would require me to possibly look for a new capacitor." She mumbled to her feet, not being able to meet Steven's gaze.
"So what you're saying." Amethyst laughed. "Is that Steven was right and we just came all the way out here to stare at this pile of junk?"
"It's not Junk!" Peridot shot back. "I just need to find a new capacitor is all. On…on a planet that doesn't make them because the technology doesn't exit and would lack the materials necessary even if it did." Her shoulders began to slump as the realization that Amethyst was right hit her. "Oh, man. I just spent weeks gluing together Greg's junk and all for nothing." She said as she buried her face in her hands.
"It's alright." Garnet said walking over to her to provide comfort. "We'll work together and build ourselves a new weapon of ultimate death. Would that make you feel better?"
Peridot nodded. "Yeah, yeah it would."
Steven stood by the wayside taking it all in. The explosion, it hadn't been a dream. It was real, it had happened and yet somehow he had also stopped it from happening. He looked up at the machine that both had and had not ended his life.
"D-did I just reverse time?"