SCHEEEENG
The glow on the warp pad faded, leaving four gems calmly braced for their landing. Pearl immediately began looking around her in all directions; Garnet might have been doing the same, but it would be impossible to tell. After a pause, the big gem spoke.
"They split up. We'll have to do the same."
Steven looked at each of his three friends in turn. He was wondering who he would be partnered with, but he suspected it would be just like it always seemed to be.
Garnet continued: "Steven and I will head to the north side of the canyon. Pearl, Amethyst, you take the south side. Remember, these creatures are unpredictable and dangerous, so you need to take this seriously.
"You got it, Garnet!" Amethyst shouted and bounded off in the direction Garnet had indicated.
Pearl merely rolled her eyes, before walking off the warp pad and following her.
It had been a long day for the Crystal Gems already. They'd been tracking down a wave of corrupted gem monsters which had recently been causing them problems. Two had already been caught and bubbled, but the other two had escaped via a warp pad. Though he refused to show any outward signs of it, Steven was getting tired. The hunt had lasted since morning, and it was now past midnight.
Gems don't get tired, he thought to himself, and I'm a Gem. I've gotta make sure they can count on me the way I count on them! Another chance to team up with Garnet meant another chance to prove himself, to show that he was a help and not a burden.
Another chance for Steven to team up with Garnet, however, meant another turn for Pearl to team up with Amethyst. And while gems don't get tired, Pearl had begun to tire of Amethyst's attitude.
"C'mon, P! It's one to zero, me, you gotta catch up!" Amethyst had poofed the first of the monsters, and had insisted on keeping score the whole day. Garnet had gotten the second, and that left Pearl scoreless, which the purple gem seemed to take glee in for hours on end.
"Amethyst, this is not a competition. We are on the same side, why can't you just work with me for once?"
"Listen, Pearl. You and I both know why we always seem to be sent out together. And it's not so Steven can get training from Garnet. She doesn't trust either of us alone with Steven, and she certainly doesn't trust either of us alone with her."
Pearl flinched at the blunt reminder of her recent, callous behavior. She started to respond, had a retort halfway formed in her mind, but instead wordlessly flicked on her gem's beam, lighting up the surroundings.
"I think I see tracks in the distance this way. Let's stay close together."
Hours had passed, and Pearl had begun to doubt whether they were still trailing the monster or merely going in circles. She had long since given up on keeping Amethyst close, despite several warnings; she got responses ranging from a sarcastic salute and "Yes, ma'am!" to something just short of vulgarity. The first glimpses of morning twilight appeared, off in the distance, and Pearl muttered to herself, "Now maybe we'll be able to see this monster and get out of here."
"Hey, Pearl!" came a shout from off in the distance. "I think we finally got it!"
Pearl spun to look, and saw Amethyst running towards the two-headed monster.
"Amethyst, wait up! These gems are dangerous to take on alone!"
"Relax, girl, I got this!" With practiced precision, Amethyst pulled a whip from her chest and, leaping towards the corrupted gem, lashed it around the two heads. She then produced another whip with her left hand and used it to strike one head of the monster.
As Pearl caught up to the scene, a forceful kick from the short gem caused a puff of smoke. Amethyst tossed her hair back into its traditional bangs as she turned back to Pearl, whips trailing behind her. "See? No sweat. And now it's Amethyst two,"-she pompously waved two fingers back and forth-"Pearl nada!"
The smoke cleared and Pearl saw something startling: the monster was not gone, but rather just missing the head that Amethyst had destroyed. Its other head and body were still perfectly functional, and with those parts, the monster now roared and unleashed a beam of red light that struck the unsuspecting Amethyst in the back and launched her in the air.
With no time for "I told you so!"'s, Pearl leaped into action, drawing out a spear from her forehead and slashing the body of the beast. She dodged the next blast from the monster's mouth, gracefully leaping out of its way and around to the other side of the enemy. Rapidly, she continued to slice until the monster poofed again, now leaving nothing behind but a gem which Pearl delicately bubbled and sent back to the Temple.
Pearl was not often one to gloat, but sometimes she had to make an exception. "Oh, Amethyst?" she called out in the direction where her teammate had been shot. "I think you miscounted. It's tied."
The other pair was no faster in finding their target. As the night wore on, Steven alternated between stubbornly continuing onward and surrendering to drowsiness. Garnet carried him for increasingly long amounts of time, but as the sun started to rise, Steven insisted he was ready to proceed on his own power again.
An unnatural sound rose in the distance.
"Steven, did you hear that?" Garnet asked in a hush, trying to determine which direction the growl had come from.
"Yeah, Garnet. Look, over there!" Steven responded, pointing towards the rising sun.
The two sprinted towards their finally-discovered foe, Garnet trying not to get too far ahead of Steven. Still, she arrived first, and activated her gauntlets. She exchanged a few quick blows with the monster before it leapt in between the two and struck out at Steven. He quickly unfurled a bubble which protected him from danger, and Garnet was close behind to continue on offense. A right-left combination of punches sent the corrupted gem towards the edge of the plateau on which they stood. Steven relinquished his bubble, hoping to play a part in the battle, to prove his worth as a member of the team. But before he caught up, Garnet laid a devastating blow to the beast's right head.
The monster bounced on the ground once, then part of it puffed away. Garnet quickly turned back to her teammate. "Are you alright, Steven?"
"I'm…", he panted a few times and then saw that the monster behind Garnet was not gone.
Pearl reached the south edge of the cliff just in time to watch the end of the encounter. When she saw the puff of smoke rise, she turned back towards the land and called for Amethyst. With the last monster captured and all four gems together, they could all finally go back home to the Temple. Pearl breathed a sigh of relief when Amethyst yelled back a response, and could be seen in the distance trudging up the hill towards the canyon's edge.
Pearl turned back to get the attention of Garnet and Steven. But rather than either of them, she saw half of a gem monster, the one Garnet thought she had just knocked out. In horror, Pearl realized she'd made the same mistake Amethyst had. Pearl tried to shout, but it seemed nothing came out.
"Garnetwatchout!" Steven yelled, getting up and reaching for his gem in one motion. A red bolt of light fired from the monster's mouth–the one that remained–and as Steven's shield began to glow, he tried to push Garnet aside. Garnet was stunned by the warning, never considering the possibility that the monster had survived the attack.
She turned and saw the blast. Saw Steven jump in front of her with his shield still forming. Saw the shield intercept the beam. But with Steven's shield not fully powered, the blast wasn't absorbed or returned, but glanced off at an angle. Garnet had just enough time to process that the beam was no longer headed straight for her right hand before she realized it wouldn't miss her completely.
Steven screamed as the blast caught Garnet in the chest, sending her flying hundreds of feet backwards. The boy held his shield, only now fully formed, and turned back towards the monster. Unsure of what he could do, but wanting to do something, he charged towards the monster, only to have it step out of the way. Exhausted from the day's work, frustrated by his inability to protect Garnet, distracted by a glimpse of something unexpected in the distance, Steven lost his footing, and skidded on the ground towards the edge of the cliff. And over it.
"Amethyst, GET UP HERE!" Pearl found her voice after Garnet was hit. She realized the fight wasn't over, and they needed to get across the cliff. She turned back around to see Steven charge the beast. "Steven, be careful. STEVEN!"
As Steven stumbled off the edge, Pearl had a flashback to the Strawberry Battlefield, the last time she had seen the boy fall out of reach. As she shook her head to clear the image, she was relieved to see a ledge and overjoyed to see Steven, bubble formed to cushion the blow, land on the ledge. He would be alright, but he was out of range to be any help in dismissing the last of the corrupted monsters.
"Steven, stay there. We'll come get you!"
Pearl's frequent shouts for Amethyst had done little to encourage her to hurry up, but as soon as the purple gem heard Pearl's concerned call to Steven, she was there in an instant.
"Amethyst, we need to get across to the other side."
"That's too far for my whip to make it. Can't you just chuck your spear at 'im?"
"And if I miss? We need to come up with something quick, something sure to work at long-range. Come on, Amethyst, we need to work together on this!"
As if to illustrate the urgency, the monster roared across the divide towards the two of them, then turned back to where Garnet lay, stunned and struggling to keep her combined form from splitting under the stress.
Amethyst looked at Pearl with a gleam in her eye. "Work together, eh?"
Pearl showed a glimmer of understanding as Amethyst grabbed her by the hand and spun her like a top. Amethyst herself then started to gyrate to a beat that wasn't audible, but which both of them began to feel in their gems. Pearl stood on one toe, and pulled her arms in to spin faster. Grinning, Amethyst reached for Pearl and flipped her upside down. As Pearl crossed horizontal, and her gem passed chest height, both of their stones began to glow, giving off a light that surrounded their two bodies.
Across the canyon, Steven went starry-eyed. After months–no, more than a year–of waiting, he was finally seeing it, the Giant Woman he'd wanted to see, being formed right in front of him. He no longer felt tired or injured, only excited.
As the glow began to fade, Opal stepped out. "Hello, Steven," she said in a low voice. Pulling out Pearl's spear and Amethyst's whip, she fused them together into a huge bow, and took aim across the span. The spear-as-arrow shot over the divide, and split into several pieces, each of which found a home in the skin of the red monster standing imposingly over Garnet. The corrupted gem burst into a plume of smoke, this time all of it.
Opal leapt across the canyon, landing on the ledge which housed Steven. The child hugged Opal's leg, the only part he could reach. "Giant woman!"
"Did you miss me?"
"Of course I did! You've got the bow! And that hair! And…" He continued to list all the things he loved about Opal as the fusion grabbed him in one arm and used the other three to somersault up to the top of the cliff. When she placed Steven down, his attention turned to Garnet, woozily getting up.
"Garnet! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Steven." Garnet shook herself out, making sure she was in full working condition. Opal separated, and her two component gems walked over towards Steven and Garnet.
Pearl spoke with the tone of someone who knew she had won an argument the whole time, "Well, my spear defeated the last monster, Amethyst. So it's two to one. I guess that means I win."
"What? That doesn't count! My whip was the bow, so you don't get to hog all the credit for yourself."
"When a bow without an arrow accomplishes anything, you be sure to let me know."
Garnet looked at the two bickering gems, then at Steven, then at the gem which lay, still glistening in the morning sun, a short distance away. Garnet walked over to the gem, produced a red bubble around it and cleared her throat to draw attention.
"Pearl, you didn't defeat the last monster. Amethyst, you didn't either. Opal did. But it doesn't matter."
Amethyst looked off to the side, embarrassed. Pearl spoke up, sheepishly. "That's a, uh, very good point. We're a team and–"
Garnet waved her off with her free hand.
"It doesn't matter because I bubbled her." She flicked her wrist and the bubble disappeared. "That's two for me. Garnet wins."