Aaand here we are! All back and ready with the next instalment of the uh... AB series. Yeah. Let's just call it that. I hope that the wait will be worth it for you guys. I started writing this in January and I'm about 30,000 words in now. As per usual, the first chapter is shorter than normal, and it's only Peridot's 3rd peson POV, but the rest will pass 3000 words.
Personally, I think this is where things really start to pick up, and we begin diverging from the cannon of the show waaay more than the last story. This is also where the story starts to get darker. However, Steven will finally start to get along well with the CGs in this part too, which I know you have all really been waiting for.
This is just the first, announcement chapter, so that people will stop thinking I'm dead and/or bothering me. My February schedule is busy up until the 17th (My birthday nudge-nudge wink-wink.) because I'm switching semesters, a mourning period for Gravity Falls, writing exams, and doing DECA business. Which is why I originally said March for this story's start. However, since I'm managing things pretty well so far, I think I'm ready to start this after the month is over.
But, without anymore from me, here is, the first chapter.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe.
Peridot had calculated where exactly the ship had landed. The task wasn't that difficult, seeing as she knew where the ship had been orbiting when the power cut out. Peridot had not expected it to fall over their landing site though. That area was the base of the Crystal Gems. It was also where the Steven's tracking device still was. The other gems must have taken the Steven, Jasper, and Lapis Lazuli prisoner again. This would make her new mission infinitely more difficult. With what little technology she had left, there might be no way to fight the savages that remained on the planet. If the Crystal Gems truly did have the Steven, then she would have no choice but to come in to contact with them.
There wasn't much time left before the entire planet was done for. As much as she would have liked to ask for resources, she did not have that kind of time. The kindergarten projects were finished, done for. Now she needed to focus all her attention on retrieving the Steven and getting them off the planet as soon as possible. Because it had been so easy to find the Crystal Gem's hide out, it did not take her long to find the Steven. They were holed away in some miserable, puny, human civilization. Their fortress was clearly visible in the rock face of a cliff.
The statue looked like it was carved straight out of the rock face. It depicted a hideous fusion between four gems. It had monstrous hair, more eyes than was normal for a gem fusion, and sharp fangs. Peridot wondered why something so obscene as a fusion between different gems was permitted. But she supposed that the dominant species of the planet were too mindless to notice or care.
The cycle of days on the planet were shorter than ones back home. She had already been informed seven days on Earth was a single day on Homeworld, but she had not realized how short each of these days were. It was good for regulating herself though. During the light period, she would take her breaks and work on simpler things. During the time when it was dark, she could return to the Crystal Gem's lair to keep an eye out for the Steven.
That night, Peridot had flown to the top of the hill to perform her usual check on the gems. There was a small structure near the edge, that contained a flashing beacon. When turned on, the beacon stretched out towards the ocean. There was also a tiny garden at the top of the hill. There were plants with white flowers and red berries growing inside a circle of stones. There were also different, taller flowers that grew on bushes. They were horribly fragrant in the warm summer air. Peridot would have loved nothing more than to crush the flowers, but they had thorns. She had no choice but to leave them be.
By looking down over the cliff, she could see a local warp pad, and the beach. From her view of the area, the beach was tinted a strange luminescent green colour. She could see the gems, walking around the beach and picking up more of the green. There were piles of it everywhere, that they continued to build up. This was the remains of the ship. They had harvested it for their own purposes. Stealing Homeworld property really.
Peridot wrinkled her nose and made herself focus on searching for the Steven. She had made multiple counts of the gems, and only saw three. There was a fusion, a pearl, and an oddly small amethyst. There was no sign of Lapis Lazuli, Jasper, or the Steven. This was logical, because she knew that the Crystal Gems would not make their prisoners do the work for them.
Peridot had hoped they might be out in the open, but she knew that was highly unlikely. It truly seemed like she would have to get closer to the Crystal Gem's base. However, there was nothing more she could do for the night. Sneaking in to their base would take a very cunning plan, one that she would need to spend more time on.
Peridot got to her feet, and raised one of her arms into the air. Her fingers left their positions and slowly started to rotate. They had built up speed, and she could feel her toes lifting off the ground. Within a few moments, her feet were lifting off. Then, she was airborne. Peridot winced and held on to her arm. She always felt as if she would slip out of her limb enhancers as she flew.
Soon the Crystal Gem's base was behind her. Peridot kept above the cover of the clouds, not wanting to be spotted by any of the humans on the ground. The clouds here were made from a harmless mixture of dihydrogen monoxide and a few weak acids. Nothing that could harm her. From above, the clouds appeared to be solid. But when she approached each one, they seemed like nothing more than a dense mist, that swirled around her. As she flew, she was enveloped in the soft blue-grey of the clouds.
The world below her was invisible through the opaque layer of clouds. Peridot found it easier to relax here. It almost felt like there was solid ground beneath her gravity connectors. The higher she climbed, the less clouds there were. A slight chill became present in the air. A wind picked up soon afterwards, rocking her from side to side. Peridot clutched on to her limb enhancer more tightly than ever, not wanting to be tossed around by the breeze.
She stared up at the sky, keeping her eyes to the stars. She could not see much of the Homeworld from the pathetic rock she was stuck on. It was little more than a tiny smudge of white in the sky. Peridot could not wait to get off this place and rerun back home. If she had never opened that restricted file, she wouldn't be here to begin with. But, she had gotten involved in the whole Steven-conspiracy, and it looked like she would not be out of it any time soon. She could understand why they were being sent to retrieve the Steven, and she was now tasked with finding him.
He was a priceless scientific miracle that would shape the future of the Homeworld. All her knowledge of kindergartening told her that it shouldn't be possible for him to exist, or still be alive at this point. Any kind of half-gem would have a real body, and not the mere illusions that the rest maintained. If the Steven went back to his gem (Which had happened multiple times during his training and testing.) He should not be able to reform. But he had. That was the power of the Homeworld scientists though. They had broken the rules of gem-life itself to create something powerful. A super-weapon...
As she continued to her destination, Peridot realized that she would climb a little higher in the air, before sinking back down again. The clouds remained at the same height above her feet, but she could not climb any higher in the air as she flew. Slowly, she started to realize how high in the air she really was. There was not enough substance to give her lift at this point. She has flown so high into the sky that she was closer to space than the ground.
Peridot wished she could continue to fly away, out of the planet's atmosphere and back home. But that was not possible. She aimed herself downwards and slowed the speed of her propeller. She drifted back towards Earth once again. She went through the layer of clouds, and was soon getting close to her base of operations. It looked more like home to her than anything on the pathetic pebble of a planet did. The lack of horrible native wildlife and sharp plants made it ideal.
Yes, the kindergarten was a perfect place to remain until she was finished with the planet. There was a warp pad close by, and plenty of places for her to hide away in. Peridot had chosen the control room of facet five for her temporary residence. She had moved her escape pod into the room and had it hooked up to the main computer. Most of the area was destroyed, no thanks to the fusion, but she had managed to tidy up and repair a good deal.
A sigh of relief escaped her when her feet finally touched the ground again. Peridot flexed her fingers and rubbed her wrists. Small quantities of ice had formed on them during her flight. As she returned to the warm climate on the ground, it melted. She took the newly repaired elevator back down to her base of operations. The ride down was slightly bumpy. The platform would shudder and freeze up, only to resume with a quick jolt. It did the job, and she made it down to the bottom level without much trouble.
Peridot gave another sigh. This time out of exhaustion. She had been working around the clock to find the Steven, and an alternate way off the planet if she did fail. The galaxy warp was busted, and she had no way to fix it. Building a ship would be near impossible with no resources. Peridot did not know what she would do if she was left to die on the miserable mud puddle. She didn't want to find out either.
Out of habit, she turned on the computer, and accessed the information on the Steven. A grid map of the planet appeared, and a monitor with his human vitals showed up next to it. His breathing, heartbeat, and brain activity were all normal. His little dot on the map remained stationary. Peridot wished that he would move. Go somewhere far away from the base of the Crystal Gems, to the other side of the globe. But he had not moved from the small civilization by the ocean.
She turned off the computer, and stared upwards at the ceiling. It was hard to see in the light of the computer monitor, but the once smooth surface was starting to become lumpy. It looked like water damage seeping through, but that was not the case. The same thing was happening with the floor. Little cylindrical prisms were growing upwards like bizarre, smooth stalagmites. None of them had grown more than a few centimetres above the ground. But it was happening. The signs were showing now, and it wouldn't be too long until the entire planet went out with a bang.
Peridot shuddered, and looked away from the bumps. She needed to get back to working on a way to rescue the Steven.
