Prologue: Forever Lost to Passing Time
One of the hottest days of the summer was coming to a close as the sun lowered itself to dusk. The soft waves crashing against the shore of Beach City were almost silent to the ancient Crystal Temple where the Crystal Gems inside were about to call it a day. The temple was made of stone and took the appearance of a mountain from the back, but a beautiful woman with eight arms and a mask upon her head along with a lighthouse. Patches of moss and vines about it. Its inhabitants were made of stones as well, except one which stayed in the beach house attached to the temple, right by its naval. Inside there was a boy sitting in front of a television with a gem lying on the bed behind him. The television was the only thing making noise other than the waves outside. The boy's name was Steven, a half-human, half-gem hybrid. Steven had thick black hair and eyes, and an ear-to-ear smile most the time. However, he had a somber look on his face, this was due to the show he was watching: The Crying Breakfast Friends. He wore a coral T-shirt with a yellow five pointed star on it, denim jeans and the same coral-colored sandals. What laid under the shirt was one of the most important things to the gems, the gemstones. Steven's placed where his naval should be, but the gems placement was different for everyone. The gem behind him was Amethyst, a lilac skinned gem with light lavender, beautiful long hair with her bangs covering her left eye. Her eyes are violet, and they don't seem to be focused on the show at all, but rather outside, watching the sky change color. Amethyst rubs her fingers over her black tunic which covers her gem, right above her heart, and dark mauve leggings with black star cutouts on her knees as she finishes eating an empty chip bag. She looked over at the TV to see a spoon crying and a papaya crossing its arms and looking away from the spoon.
"So… what's going on?" Amethyst dared to ask, not out of interest but more out of boredom. Steven didn't respond for a moment then looked back and said,
"Papaya is upset with Spoon." Steven started, but the warp pad light up, something had activated it. Garnet walked out of her room to find the beach house filled with light. Garnet was a fusion of two gems, Sapphire and Ruby, because of this she had two gems. Sapphire's gem on her right, and Ruby's on her left. She was the tallest of the Crystal Gems and the leader, the futuristic triangular orange tinted shades blocked the light from the warp pad, and also hid her third eye. Her skin is a cerise tone, and wears a bodysuit with maroon ovular shoulder pads, and her legs being different colors; the left half being maroon and the right being blue-violet. The chest piece has a five pointed star as well, the base being magenta and the outline being a soft pink. Her heliotrope hair is strange, but appealing as it's an afro, but almost sculpted to be a square shape.
"Pearl! Get in here!" Garnet called out. Moments later, Pearl exited her room from the temple to the beach house and found herself with one question. Pearl is a slender gem who wears a bright teal tunic with a turquoise satin sash ribbon around her waist. She wears short yellow-orange leggings, soft pink socks, and narrow ballet flats that match her tunic. She has a soft pale-white complexion with slight hints of blue in skin tone. Her hair is pale peach, and styled into a pixie-cut. She has dazzling sky-blue eyes, and a pointy nose. Her gem is placed on her forehead, the pearl on her head was almost always rough to show it was a natural pearl.
"Peridot?!" she looked over at Garnet for answers, Pearl thought Peridot was attempting to break into the temple. A silhouette appeared, it was a women, or a girl. With the outline revealed, it was in no way possible to be Peridot. Garnet gave a light huff at the thought of someone else using the warp pad.
"Not likely." Garnet muttered, Steven ran from the television to see what was going on, Amethyst followed but rather slowly.
"Hey," Steven started, thinking someone was leaving. "Where are you—Wow!" he looked at the warp pad to see the same silhouette as everyone else. He knew only three other people could use the warp pad were already standing around it, so he only had two words to say. "New person! New person! New person!" he called out; the light stopped, and the color came to the silhouette of this new gem. The gem was about as tall as Pearl, as most of their height came from their legs, but her skin was a bit more yellow, or more like an off-white. She had a triangular body shape where Pearl's was a rectangle, Garnet's an hourglass, and Amethyst being a diamond. Her feet were tiny, a size five at most, she wore brown knee-high Converse™ shoes without laces but laid snug against her legs. The material for her shoes, gloves, which came up to her elbow then point off in two directions, headband, which didn't hold back her hair that well, and the turtleneck collar on her shirt. It appeared to be thick and firm like Kevlar.
"Oh, look it's Pearl #2… What are you doing here Ivory?" Amethyst squinted her eyes, then rubbed them not entirely sure she was seeing what she was.
"Amethyst?" the new gem spoke quietly, if the world was any louder, the others wouldn't have been able to hear her.
"Ivory?" Pearl crossed her arms, unsure of this new gem… and of her being called: Pearl Number Two.
"Amethyst…" Garnet glared at Amethyst, Garnet wanted information since Amethyst clearly knew this person.
"Garnet?!" This new gem, Ivory, stepped off the warp pad to get away from Garnet. Garnet could definitely come off as intimidating. Pearl approached the new gem, with no other intent than to simply see how the other would react, as the two seemed to be very similar.
"Pearl!" Amethyst warned the taller gem to be cautious of herself; Pearl poked the new gem… her skin felt hard at first but them felt softer as she poked a bit deeper.
"Steven!" Steven jumped up by Pearl to catch the attention of Ivory, his eyes were light up with the idea of a new gem—a new friend.
"Steven?" Ivory looked down at Steven, Ivory was still tall to Steven but shorter than Pearl and Garnet. The room grew quiet as no one knew what to say then everyone spoke at once.
"How do you know Amethyst?" Steven asked.
"How did you get in?" Garnet added.
"Who are you?" Pearl wanted to start from the very beginning.
"Why are you here?" Amethyst groaned, not really much of a question, more like she was trying to sound hostile enough to get Ivory out of here.
"Where's Rose?" Ivory asked, her voice being muted by everyone else's. All the questions started and ended in sync, the room grew silent again. "I thought Rose would be here." She muttered. Pearl put her hand to her forehead and shook her head.
"You don't… know?" Pearl stood up straight and looked at the intruding gem.
"D-Don't tell me… she got d-damaged…!" Ivory held her hands up to her face, her eyes wide with the idea of losing someone like Rose, it was hard to tell if she knew Rose well or not, but it didn't matter to Pearl. Pearl could tell Ivory cared about Rose in some way, so she should tell her the truth.
"Rose fell in love with a human." Garnet stated bluntly.
"What?!" Ivory dropped her hands to her sides.
"She had a son." Garnet continued.
"B-But that means she…"
"Ivory, meet Steven." Pearl gestured to the boy beside her. He smiled brightly despite most of the room not knowing who this "Ivory" was. Garnet watched as the two began talking, meanwhile Pearl pulled Amethyst away from the others.
"What's going on? How do you know her? How did she know where to come?" Pearl tapped her foot impatiently.
"I thought that parasite was destroyed." Amethyst looked at Ivory from afar. Ivory tended to be quiet as Steven asked her a million questions, she answered the majority that she could.
"Parasite? You're saying she's from Kindergarten?" Pearl whispered to Amethyst. Amethyst nodded, remembering what kind of person she was there. Amethyst's whip appeared in her hands, but vanished soon after. Her heart must've been in a different place.
"She was… strange there." Amethyst could recall how she interacted with other gems, and how she worked, or the little work she did.
"Hey, where's your gem?" Steven asked, which broke the two across the room out of their conversation. Ivory thought for a moment, knowing full well where her gem was but had a hard time speaking up.
"It's here." She held the back of her neck, she tended to speak brusquely. Pearl couldn't tell if she was talking that way because she felt awkward, or because she was confused, or that's simply how she was, or some other fourth thing.
"Can I see it?!" Steven asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement to see another gem. Ivory had her hair tied up in a ponytail, it had lots of curls and was piled up, it looked almost tangled but it was rather sleek to show it wasn't, even the brown headband on her head could show she was not one to be messy. She had a small smile, she must've been very shy… didn't seem like one to be a parasite, a similar case to Amethyst.
"S-Sure, please be careful th-though." Ivory knelt down and turned her back to Steven and pulled her length of hair away from the collar blocking her neck, then lowered the collar to show a very detailed jasmine flower of some kind in a circle.
"Wow…" Steven's eyes light up again as if it was the first time seeing a gem.
"You can touch it if you'd like." She was rather trusting of a stranger. Steven poked it, it was hard but the engraving in it were strangely, much softer. Amethyst felt her gem placed upon her heart, it was cold… why was it cold? Pearl was a bit insecure at the moment too, and rubbed her forehead. The pearl was smooth, it was usually rough, what a strange difference. It seemed minuscule but Pearl was one to over-think things.
"Steven, can you come here for a moment?" Garnet asked in her normal voice, which always sounded deep.
"Yea! Be right back!" Steven said to Ivory before running off over to Garnet. Pearl was the first to approach Ivory, Pearl wasn't acting as herself. As she greeted the gem, her mind had not decided on a tone to go for to introduce herself. Pearl blinked, with her mouth half-open, her mind went completely blank.
"I, uh… I'm Ivory, I mean...! Amethyst. My name is—" Pearl started, but it was no use. She couldn't get her thoughts together, despite usually being level-headed and smart. Ivory simply smiled at her stuttering, not to be rude, just thinking it was funny to see someone like Pearl so flustered. Amethyst was laughing in the back as well. The cyan blush rose to Pearl's face in an intense manner.
"Pearl, that's your name." Ivory stated, in a bit of questioning tone. "Right?"
"Th-That's my name, yes. How did you know?"
"Everyone kind of called out their names just now." Ivory gave another small smile. "U-Um… do you guys need any help or sh-should I just go?" she asked hesitantly, she stood up and put a hand on the back of her head, tracing her delicate fingers through the messy ponytail.
"Oh, gosh… you're so pretty." Pearl swooned at the cute gem in front of her. Ivory looked at Pearl in shock, and put her hands over her mouth and her cream skin turned a bright gold, that must've been her blushing.
"Pearl!" Amethyst scolded her, this sort of thing was usually the other way around… but Amethyst didn't really embarrass herself like that.
"Thank you?" Ivory replied, she wasn't used to compliments. "I-I'm sorry, I've been away f-from civilization for a very long time." She stated, trying to use enough words to be polite but she wasn't used to raising her voice loud enough to the point where someone could actually hear her.
"Then you have to check this out!" Steven chimed in. He looked at Garnet to be sure their conversation was finished and he was going to another room, then proceeded to grab Ivory and pull her to the ladder, then let her go to climb up. He turned the TV back on, his show was still running. Ivory stood still at the bottom of the ladder, not daring to enter the loft. Steven climbed back down the ladder, slower as to be careful, and tugged on her hand. "Hey, it's over here. Come on." He smiled, Ivory looked at him then at Amethyst, who nodded to her, then looked down at Steven and followed him up the ladder, reluctantly.
"What is this?" Ivory asked to see something that looked like a papaya crying.
"The Crying Breakfast Friends." Steven replied, getting right back into the show but looked back at Ivory occasionally to see how she was responding to the program.
"It's just one of Steven's weird shows." Amethyst groaned the plopped herself right next to Steven on bed.
"Isn't ivory from animals, not the ground… like a mineral." Pearl chuckled nervously.
"I don't understand." Garnet muttered while pushing up her futuristic triangular shades.
"What?" Ivory looked over at Garnet, she seemed a bit jumpy around Garnet. "I-I was forged remains in the ground… I think." Ivory wasn't fully aware as to how she was formed, but she did know that she was found through a fossil.
"How did you get here exactly?" Amethyst rolled onto her back. "I thought you fell into that dark pit all those years ago."
"Um…" Ivory used her right hand to rub the side of her left arm, she acted like she was an eight-year old who was getting interrogated by her parents. A shiver ran down her spine, her shaking was visible for the moment she did then she sighed and tried to think of what happened. "There was a lion at the bottom, and you-know-who was there too. I fell into the lion's mane, it saved me." It didn't make a lot of sense, but it seemed like it caught her.
"Rose?" Pearl guessed, Ivory nodded reluctantly. "I was with Rose throughout the war, how did I not meet you then?" Ivory didn't respond, it sounded rhetorical. "How long were you with her?" Pearl continued. Ivory shook her head and mouthed something.
"Not long." Amethyst answered for her. "I met with Rose later, maybe an hour or two after she fell."
"I'm sorry I didn't stay." Ivory muttered, Amethyst thought Ivory had died all those years ago.
"Maybe you should've stayed down there." Amethyst groaned. "Maybe I should've too." She added quietly with a sigh, no one could hear that last part. Ivory sat silently now after the last hostile remark. After several minutes of silence she stood up and said.
"I should go, I came to thank Rose, but… she's not here." Ivory jumped off the ledge, not bothering with the ladder and started walking to the warp pad.
"W-Wait!" Pearl was curious about Ivory, Garnet was analyzing the situation, possibly trying to use her future vision to see what was going to happen in the long term. Garnet smiled and let events unfold. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"No where specific, I… wanted to thank Rose for healing me all those years ago. I guess it'd be better to find somewhere else to be." Ivory smiled and looked down, it seemed she didn't have anywhere to be, and she didn't know where to go.
"Why don't I come with you? Just for a-a little while, being by yourself can b-be scary, and confusing. B-Besides, I would like to know more a-about you." Pearl continued. "I know a nice place, and f-first comes to worst, you c-can stay here!" Pearl said.
"Woah, woah ,woah… She can't stay here." Amethyst started.
"I see no threat with her." Garnet said while Steven stared at Ivory, making a gold blush rise to the new gem's cheeks.
"Can she pleeeeeeeease stay?" Steven begged, but before anyone could answer, Ivory voiced her own opinion, addressing the person who suggested it.
"I don't want to intrude Pearl, but I would like to talk with you." Ivory agreed.
"Alright! U-Um… Garnet, Amethyst, Steven. I'll be back later." Pearl smiled and ran over the warp pad, having a wide smile. She seemed very excited, Pearl looked like she was trembling with exhilaration. The ray of light carried the two gems away.
"She shouldn't be on Earth at all." Amethyst groaned and rolled over again. Garnet was quiet, Steven looked at Garnet to see if he should say anything, she shook her head so Steven remained silent.
"Perhaps you should stay close Pearl." Garnet suggested.
"I suppose that would be the smart thing to do." She chuckled. "Ivory, have you ever been to a beach?"
"What's that?" Ivory said curiously, Pearl smiled.
"That's a no." she grabbed Ivory's arm and pulled her out of the beach house and onto the shoreline.
"It's beautiful out here…" Were the last words that came out Ivory's mouth that the ones inside heard.
/Maybe I'm taking on too much, but I started watching Steven Universe a few weeks ago and now I'm obsessed with it. So, what better way than reading stories about it on FanFiction? Then, I got to the phase of writing it... So here it is. ^-^
I hope it's well-written and not too much. Thanks for reading!
Edit/Side note: Ivory is an organic gem, but not a gem stone as it's not a mineral from rock. Organic gems include: Pearl, Jet, Ammolite, Coral, Amber and Ivory. Shell is also considered a gem under certain circumstances. However Ivory was most popular in the 18th century, it had been prized for thousands of years but as of modern times, international restrictions have been set to protect ivory-bearing animals such as the elephant, wild boar, hippopotamus, warthog, sperm whale, walrus, seal lion, and narwhal. It also can be taken from fossils, which include dinosaurs. Imitation ivory is highly encouraged, as the use of doom palm seeds and tagua nuts are used to imitate the gem. I started research on gems before I started writing this. I wouldn't have titled this story "Ivory" if I wasn't sure this was considered a gem internationally.