Thomas Clemons- Degran's Arrival Story

Degran's Arrival

Throughout gem history there were rumors of elite warriors sent to the more hostile planets that homeworld wanted under their control. These soldiers were so concealed that any tale of them is believed to only be legend, there's no evidence, no witnesses, nothing to bring any real truth to the stories told by many elder gems. After a few decades of such folk tales many of the younger bred gems started seeing them as stories made up to simply make exploration missions more exciting.

One day a librarian gem, one of the newer generation, started inspected the building to make sure no one was on the premises so she could close up the building. After doing so she began to walk around and make sure all files and physical logs were back in their original places, but one, there was a white label, no name, no file number, nothing, almost as if it was freshly made and didn't even belong... As she opened it up, what she saw almost didn't seem real. It was a military case file, it contained a picture of a gem, their characteristics and occupation. She closed the file without even taking in any of the information, and greatly considered if she even should. Should she report it? Destroy it? She wasn't exactly sure if there were any consequences for reading it considering she found it on her jobs property. "Ah what the hell", she said to herself as curiosity over ran her, as she opened the file once again, she caught herself staring at the picture, it was a male? How could this be? He had green eyes, and a look of anger so strong it could kill alone. Before she could read anymore she heard a noise behind her and with unnatural speed she closed the file and turned around, and to her surprise, she saw nothing. She continued looking around "Anyone there?" she asked the eerily quiet building. In response there was another noise that made the inexperienced gem screech and fall to the floor dropping the file as well, looking around in shock she began hearing, knocking? No, footsteps, getting louder with every thud. She couldn't decide whether to run for the door or to the office and call for help, but she realized she had no time for either as she looked over to a far off table and felt a chill run through her body...

"Umm, excuse me, w-w-we are c-c-closed", the librarian stuttered in fear. There was a figure sitting at the table, wearing a cloak, the only thing she could see were green eyes staring back at her in silence. She was so scared she couldn't even process her thoughts, "What was this gem doing and what was there intent?" she began thinking to herself. She eventually arose to her feet and spoke again "Hello? Are you okay?" she asked, this time the gem responded, but not with words, they lifted their hand and in it was the file she was reading. She looked to the floor quickly and was in shock to see the file wasn't anywhere in sight, as she looked up the stranger sat the folder on the table and slid it forward, as if asking her to come read it, after what seemed like an eternity of small and timid steps she made it to the table and carefully opened the folder, she looked at all the characteristics information and noticed most of it was blacked out, as if it wasn't meant to be read, it was meant to be discarded.. She almost retreated to her gem out of fear when the stranger spoke "I need to get off Homeworld, and I think you can help me." The stranger said. As the librarian could only stare in shock….

ON EARTH

It's a sunny day with a few clouds in Beach City, Steven and Amethyst are enjoying some breakfast Garnet whipped up, while Pearl was on the beach sparring with her holo-self. It's almost unusual there has been no gem occurrence requiring their attention today, they don't think much of it but being a day off. Pearl finishes up her training and heads inside and out of anxiety to test her skill asked Garnet if there was a mission of any sort that needed to be handled. Garnet pointed to the sink where Steven and Amethyst had finished stacking the last of their food stained morning trophies. Pearl gave a droll stare at the enormous amount of dishes that she had just been tasked with cleaning, but she was a little relieved when Steven offered to help as he always did, he was just so kind hearted and helpful. Pearl began running the water and Steven grabbed the soap, while Garnet went and sat on the couch trying to see if there was anything that they would be needed for, she sensed something, but it didn't seem close. In fact it was something in far reaches of space, but she figured she probably was just thinking too hard and decided to take a break on the visions. Steven and Pearl had just finished with all the dishes, when Connie came knocking on the screen door.

Steven had walked up the stairs to his "room" with Connie close behind while Pearl made her way over to the temple door and entered her room. As the door closed shut Garnet decided to do another sweep of the globe to check if there were any Gem related disturbances. She once again found nothing wrong, but something out of place, she tried to focus in on what the source was, but like last time it was something out of their reach, except it was nowhere near as far as it was last time. A comet? Asteroid? Something was coming, but she couldn't help feel that this wasn't a natural object headed towards them. She tried to shake the feeling off and decided to get some fresh air, it was a nice day might as well enjoy it…

ON HOMEWORLD

Sitting in an interrogation room on a base not far from where she works, the scared librarian Gem awaits her questioning, not realizing the kind of trouble being in one these rooms actually meant, she tried to keep her composure at all costs, at least those were her thoughts before another Gem suddenly came into the room, swinging the door with so much force she could've she felt the vibration from the collision. The Gem was large and orange with long white hair, "Surely a Gem warrior." the librarian thought.

"I have questions, you have answers, I don't have a lot time and even less patience so don't lie to me. What's your name and occupation?" Demanded the soldier.

"My name is Topaz, I'm the newest Archive Manager for the Engineering Corps." Said Topaz.

"The Gem that spoke to you is a fugitive to Homeworld, and you can be tried as an accomplice for providing the ship. Only your full cooperation can get you out of that situation. Where is that ship headed?" asked the soldier.

"To a far off planet, Earth... Yes that was the name..." answered Topaz timidly. Fugitive? Accomplice? This is not good, I'm going to be executed for treason because of this, thought Topaz.

After a few moments of an intimidating stare, the orange gem spoke.

"Ok you're free to go, you don't speak of this place, or what's going on to anyone, follow those rules and you'll face no further threat. You do, and you'll see me again real soon." Said the soldier as she walked out of the room.

Topaz sat for a moment, not wanting to risk running into the gem again. After a while she stood and headed for door, head rattling and trying to calm down after that, she continued down the hallway she had come through and walked out of the establishment as if nothing ever happened. She couldn't help but laugh to herself about the whole thing, just overly happy she didn't face further repercussions, as she continued walking home.

Jasper (For those that don't know the orange Gem) headed for her ship to begin hunting her target. She knew it wasn't going to be easy, she herself couldn't even believe this Gem existed, she thought all those stories and legends were false, myths created for a little entertainment, how wrong she was..

EARTH

Steven and Connie are on beach talking about a medieval book they read together, Pearl is in her room practicing her sword combat skills, Amethyst asleep on the couch from boredom. Meanwhile, Garnet is giving another attempt in trying to see what this object is, it is still too far for her to get a clear view of what it could be. Even worse, a sunny day started becoming cloudy abnormally fast, Steven and Connie came inside as it started raining, and then the thunder and lightning followed.

"How did a storm develop so quickly?" Connie asked.

"Something's not right..." Garnet responded

After a few minutes the storm didn't get any worse but the occurrence was still unknown. Steven and Connie were continuing their conversation from earlier while Garnet searched for answers, she closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could on the object, this time, she got an entirely different result.

She saw darkness, just pitch black, eerie darkness, after what seemed like hours she saw a light. It became brighter and brighter until it eventually became blinding, after a split second she was in the temple, on the couch where she was before she entered her vision. But nothing was how it should be, it was sunny outside, she could hear water splashing on the beach, the gulls in the distance, it was almost relaxing... Almost. Where were Steven and Connie? Amethyst was next to me on couch asleep, and where is she? This was clearly not real, but a vision she got sucked into. She stood up and approached the screen door and looked outside, not single soul was in sight, not even the gulls she heard only mere seconds ago. She figured she'd head to her room to see if everything was the same there, as soon she as she turned around she summoned her gauntlets and took a fighting stance…

In front of the temple door was a figure, cloaked and silent. Under hood she could make out green, glowing eyes.

"Who are you?!" Garnet yelled.

The stranger remained quiet, instead lifted his hand into the air, and suddenly the wooden beam above Garnet came down. She barely dodged it and quickly took her stance again. But the stranger was gone. Garnet continued looking around to locate the enemy in her home, for a while she thought it was fake, but the large wooden beam at her feet reminded her this definitely wasn't just her imagination. After a few more minutes she put her gauntlets away and walked outside, looking around she found one thing to be true, wherever she was there was only her and this stranger, didn't know who it was or what they wanted, or why she was even here. She thought about her room again, and decided to make that her next destination, she turned around for the door and there the stranger was, before Garnet could realize what was happening she was levitating, the stranger made a pushing motion and without even making contact Garnet flew over the railing and started tumbling in the sand. She quickly got to her feet and summoned her gauntlets, the stranger jumped down from the deck and stared.

"Who are you?!" Garnet yelled again.

The stranger remained quiet, his right hand began to raise to the side, and something was in it. A weapon, as Garnet examined it, it was a sword, almost all black, except for the edge of the blade, it was a bright green, matching the eyes of the wielder. It was a rather exotic weapon.

"What do you want?" Garnet asked

She predicted she might be doing more fighting than talking. The stranger took a small step forward and with incredible speed dashed forward, it was unfortunately too fast for Garnet to react too. The stranger had her by the throat and was lifting her off the ground, she swung a fist with all her might connecting perfectly with their head but they barely even flinched at it.

"Why are you doing this?!" Garnet yelled in her struggle.

The stranger raised their blade just above their hand, at her throat, she could feel the sharp edge at her neck. He held it there, but nothing happened.

"I'll see you soon." The stranger said.

Garnet looked into their eyes and found herself no longer within a grasp, no sword at her throat, but falling. Spiraling down into a green abyss, nothing to grab, nothing to stop her from falling, the green turned to black, she no longer knew if she was falling or floating through an empty space, she closed her eyes tight, she tried to focus on home, on her friends, on Steven…

When she opened her eyes she could see everyone sitting over her, she was laying on the floor, the vision must have affected her in real time. It was dark out, she knew she had been out for a while.

"Garnet can you hear us?" Pearl asked.

"Garnet talk to us, what's wrong?" Steven yelled.

Garnet couldn't get words together, she was still stuck on what she had seen, she feared that person in her vision, had something to do with that object in space. As she tried to get her head back on straight, she stood up and walked over to the couch.

"What happened?" Amethyst asked.

"I saw... Something." Garnet finally got out.

"Saw what? What was it?" Steven blurted out.

"It was a person, they were wearing a cloak, I couldn't see anything but their bright green eyes, and, they almost seemed like a Gem of some sort." Garnet said.

"A Gem?" The others all asked in unison.

Garnet began explaining that she was searching for anything around the globe that needed their attention when the vision started, as she was telling the story the other kept looking at each other, not knowing how to react to such events.

"A sword and he didn't use it against you at all?" Pearl asked.

"No, after he placed it at my throat, that's when he spoke, then I fell and ended back in reality." Garnet explained.

"So whatever this object is in space could be the cause of this nightmare you went through." Pearl stated.

"I'd rather not try and look for it in a vision again, that was rather disturbing." Garnet said.

"No, we wouldn't want you to go through that again. All we can do for now is wait in the meantime, right?" asked Steven.

"Seems like it." Pearl agreed.

As everyone went their separate ways, Pearl stayed to keep an eye on Garnet, Amethyst went to her room for a while. Steven and Connie went to Greg Universe's car wash for her parents to pick her up, as they were walking across the beach Connie began to star gaze, Steven couldn't help but join her, as the thousands of dots were just a sight to see.

"It's so peaceful." Connie stated.

"It is, they're so beautiful." Steven said, averting his gaze her.

Steven didn't realize he was staring, to him she was even more beautiful than the stars themselves. He felt his face run hot when she turned and saw him gazing at her, she stared back, only she was slowly leaning closer. They both closed their eyes, and leaned closer and closer…

BOOM!

They both looked at the beach where there was now a house sized object on fire, and sitting in a large crater on the shoreline.

"Is that... A ship?" Steven asked.

"I think so…" Connie asked.

Steven looked towards the temple where the three Gem warriors were already running break neck speed to examine the scene, the ship was half way in the water, and was mostly ablaze, the Gems could only stare at the sight, knowing exactly what it was, and where it was from. Steven and Connie finally made it to the scene.

"That look scares me." Steven said.

"What look?" Pearl asked.

"That nervous look you all have, what is this thing?" Steven asked.

"It appears to be a star fighter, from homeworld. And someone had to be piloting it." Garnet said raising her fist, determined to change the outcome of her vision.

Lion made his way to the others, Steven quickly retrieved Rose's sword from his mane and handed it to Connie, then summoning his shield.

Looking at the cockpit where their enemy was supposedly sitting, it was filled with smoke, nothing could be seen. Until it opened, a large cloud of smoke was released and a figure began to come from it, stepping over the debris and down onto the beach.

"Just like the vision..." Garnet said in a low tone. Unknowing that Pearl heard it.

"We are the Crystal Gems! We demand to know who you are!" Pearl shouted.

"Steven, make sure everyone gets as far away from the beach as possible." Garnet instructed.

Steven nodded and hopped on Lion's back, Connie did the same and they were off. The cloaked being was now standing straight in front of them, watching them. All they could see were glowing green eyes staring back at them from under the hood.

"Who are you?!" Pearl yelled again.

"You won't get an answer, if it's like the vision they will stay silent." Garnet explained.

"Then I guess we beat it out of them." Amethyst suggested.

"Amethyst, NO!" Garnet exclaimed, but it was too late.

Using her Spin Dash move Amethyst flew towards the being only to be caught by her neck in their hand.

"LET HER GO!" Pearl screamed at the top her lungs and dashing forward at their foe.

Garnet found herself frozen, for the first time not knowing what to do. Pearl twirled her spear between her fingers and angled to attack but found herself no longer being on the ground…

"Pearl..." Garnet whispered.

Pearl was levitating in the air, the being had a telekinesis ability just like in the vision. But her friends weren't in the vision, what did that mean…? There was no time to think about it, her friends were in danger and she needed to act. She ran towards the being, immediately having Pearl thrown at her, too fast for Garnet to react they collide and fly back from the force of the throw. Amethyst summons a whip and makes an effort wrap the being's foot but it gets caught before it could reach its destination, the stranger pulled the whip from her hands and launches her toward her friends knocking them back to the ground.

"This isn't going well." Amethyst choked out, in pain from being thrown.

The being lifts a hand, and summons a green ball of energy, looks up towards the Gems for a moment, before he threw it as if it were a baseball right at them. A loud explosion is heard, and smoke clouds cover the impact, the being waits to confirm if the targets were destroyed. To his shock they were not, there was a very large pink circle with a star in the center.

"A shield? The being thought.

The small boy was standing behind it with hands against it, almost holding it up, it broke down into a smaller version of its former glory and seemed to be latched to his arm. Seemed about time to show them what a real weapon looked like.

As in Garnet's vision the stranger brandished a black Katana with a light green edge to it, they all stared dumbfounded at the blade and hurried to get into a battle stance. The stranger did the same, placing both hands on the hilt of the blade, and centered it with their foes. This time Garnet would test a theory, everything in her vision has proven true, now she was ready to play a dangerous game.

Garnet watched the stranger's feet, as soon as they took a small step she knew what was coming, they would dash forward with unbelievable speed and strength. And just as planned, the stranger took a preparation step and Garnet moved her gauntlets to block and within the blink of an eye the strangers sword clanged and she knew it had worked. But then she thought to herself… Now what?