All is black.
There is a numbness in her form. Then a tingling, and then she simply is. A solid weight of something forged from muscle and bones and light. Then comes a familiar weight on her ear and suddenly sparks of electricity are jumping from neuron to neuron and Light saturated blood begins to flow, her heart starts to pulse, lungs flex in and out, pulling in oxyden this body hasn't really needed in eons.
Then comes the awareness that her lids are covering her eyes and that a bright light exists beyond them. A pair of pupils twitch behind lids.
The brain then fully kickstarts and her body convulses at the sudden intake of data and memories so vast that she has to take a moment to let them fully process and settle.
With this data that is both brand new and painfully old comes a sense of weriness and despair.
She had done this before.
She didn't belong here.
She was human.
She also wasn't.
Sensitive new ears picked up the hum of a power core with practiced ease. She had worked on them far too many times to mistake the sound for anything else.
A part of her wants to stay like this, senses semi cut off, completely and blissfully ignorent of when and where she was.
But They are waiting for her. They don't remember of course. They never remember. Only she remembers.
She wishes she didn't. She wishes so desperately and selfishly that she could just stop! That the blood in her veins would still and she could go Beyond.
This could not be however. She had a purpose to fulfill. She had to protect Them and in order to do that she had to wake.up
Eyelids forced themselves open. Pupils contracted at the sudden barrage of light. Were she less experienced as this, the Beginning, she would have flinched but instead she focused on the false gem on her ear and with a small click it grew warm and her eyes adjusted automatically to the light.
She was a prisoner this time. She'd never been a prisoner of the Empire before. Her ability read code better than any peridot and re-wire a ship without breaking a sweat had always made the Empire consider her useful, if not lower than even a pearl.
She remembered Apricity's warning: This path will be far more difficult than the others. Your life will not be your own.
There is a cold silver cuff on her wrist, the empire's insignia etched into it. A tracker. These were only ever given to humans who went rogue. A common enough occurrence back in her day. The zoo had been young then, and humans were harvested from earth nearly every other cycle. Caring for the organic beings had not yet been perfected down to a science.
Well, back in my first day. She thought wryly.
The cuffs bit into her wrists. The irritation triggering false data needed to survive in this life.
Footsteps aproached. She looked past the barrier meant to hold her at the short figure beyond.
Soft curls and dark eyes. Even after five lifetimes she had to bite the inside of her cheek to avoid calling out his name in joy.
He did not know her. She was not his big sister in all but blood. Blank eyes stared at her without recognition.
He did not know her. He did not love her.
A sharp pang struck her heart at the thought, though she should have been accustomed to this by now.
"Hello."
A plan and a cover formed in her mind in the span of a second or two.
"They captured you. I saw them. But you escaped?"
He nodded.
"I can get you out too!"
"We don't have time for this!"
Another pang struck her heart as she registered the voice. A small red gem entered her view. This triggered a spark in her memory and suddenly she knew!
She knew where, or rather when she was.
"We have to find Sapphire!" The short red gem insisted, taking his sleeve and tugging it in the direction of a sound she had not heard before. It was singing and the singer could only be yet another gem who would not know her in this life.
The boy jerked free of the red gem's grip and moved towards her cell.
"Just give me a second."
He stuck his arm into the barrier. Thick yellow veins barraged his bloodstream, attempting to destry a physical form that was not there.
He was lucky to be a natural born half gem. Had she attempted to cross the barrier her blood, saturated with light as it was would have burned and boiled in her veins.
His situation did not seem to be that much more comfortable however so she hastily crawled out of the makeshift barrier.
The boy helped her to her feet and she stretched her brand new/ancient limbs in relief. Small spaces weren't exactly her favorite thing.
"I'm Steven by the way." The boy added as the red gem continued to lead him away.
I know. I know and I love you so much it hurts, my beautiful little brother. "Thanks...Steven." She says as if his name were an unusual one. As if the gem on her ear were real and not merely a prosthetic forged by her own hands. After five Time lines, lying had become effortless.
Ruby, ever the impatient one, growls and resumes tugging Steven in the direction of her love's voice.
She remembers all to well the near magnetic draw those two have and grabs Ruby and Steven, holding them under her arms.
"Hey! What are you-" Ruby's protest is cut off by her 'captor' taking off in a dead sprint down the halls. Where her feet should have met solid ground in order to propell herself, she instead stops her limbs a few inches above the ground. Blue energy pulses under her feet as though they had met an invisible barrier, causing her to run about a foot above the ground.
This, Steven decided, was the strangest form of flying he had ever experienced.
She made a tight turn around the bend of a hallway, pushing off of the wall to prevent from running smack into another. She new this ship like the back of her hand. In one or two lifetimes she had built this ship herself. In another she had been it's pilot.
Hall B cell 4. Waiting, face stoic as ever, hands clasped singing at softly but in a way that carried was yet another old friend.
She set Ruby and Steven down. Steven freed the blue addition to their party who immediately caught sight of her other half.
"Ruby!" She cried in relief.
"Sapphire!"
Their reunion was heartbreakingly sweet. The urg to hug them both was battled down with ease that only came from five lives worth of practice. Oh how she had missed them. She missed everyone. Her time spent Limbo had felt like eons. Eons and Eons spent preparing for her next Timeline in solitude, the only thing driving her was the knowledge of her purpose.
Protect them.
Fight for them.
Die for them.
Again and again and again. Until all the Timelines are secure. Only then will she finally be able to rest in the Beyond.
The two gems hug and kiss and suddenly they are glowing and flying and merging into a single being.
"Garnet?" Steven is of course, confused. Unlike the original timeline where he had known the two eternally in love beings and the third, amazing individual they created all his life, in this Timeline and many others he was ingorant until this fixed point in time.
Fixed for now. One day she would be strong enough to eradicate this moment completely. She would keep them all safe from danger by keeping the danger from happening in the first place.
Garnet greeted Steven looking only a little disappointed that her plans for his birthday were spoiled.
The fusion then turned to her in confusion, no doubt wondering why she was not visible in her future vision despite having met her just now and seeing that she clearly existed.
I'm sorry Garnet. Some things aren't safe for you to know.
Suddenly the diamonds engraved on her cuffs flashed brightly. The trackers had gone off and her captors now knew she was on the move.
"Shit!" She slammed her wrists into the wall with such a tremendous amount of force that the cuffs shattered.
It was in vain however. Alarms had gone off and warning lights flashed ominously.
Loud thuds sounded nearby. Jasper was no doubt looking for her now.
Garnet urged Steven to go and find the others, giving him a vision of their locations before cracking her knuckles and facing the large quartz soldier with a slightly deranged grin. No doubt she was looking forward to tearing her to shreds. Jasper always did have a special talent for ticking people off.
She followed Steven to where Pearl and Amethyst were kept. Pearl immediately moved as close as she dared to the entrance.
"Steven!"
"Way to go little man! We are bustin OUT 'o here!"
Steven moved to form an entrance but she tapped him on the shoulder.
"May I suggest an alternative?" Without waiting for a response she slammed her fist into the control panel for the cells. The panel cracked and spurted electricity. The cell barriers glitched and failed.
"That works too I guess." Steven muttered appreciatively before being being tackled by Pearl.
"Oh Steven are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"Pearl...can't...breathe"
Pearl was a little different in this Timeline. Everyone was. Some people were gone. Lacy, she noticed, was nowhere to be found. She had not been around this time to pull her under the cover of Roses shield just before the final strike.
She would need to find her. Unless she was...No. That wasn't an option.
"We need to move." She spoke curtly, well aware that if she changed too much they could very well die.
As if on cue the whole ship lurched.
"This way!" She ordered, taking off in the direction of the cockpit.
"Steven who is that?" She hears Amethyst ask.
I'm your best friend Ames. We grew up together.
"I don't know but she was a prisoner just like us. I couldn't just leave her!"
Oh Steven. You're too sweet for your own good.
If there were one good thing out of all of this that she had to pick about her fate, it would be watching him grow up all over again. She wishes she could start at the beginning. From the moment he is born and watch as he learns to walk and talk and love unconditionally. Her selfish wishes are hardly priority though. She knows better by now.
Peridot is in the pilot's chair. She knocks her out and tosses her to Amethyst to deal with. She loves Dott, really she does but this cold, calculating gem before her isn't the sweet, enthusiastic, knowledge hungry gem she knows and loves. She has yet to grow and change as she knows she can.
Soon. She promises herself. Soon.
Pearl takes over the pilot's seat and begins rerouting the ship back to earth and She lets her. Now is not the time to show off. Instead she focuses on readying herself for the inevitable crash.
More quakes and crashes sound and she waits helplessly in a corner for Garnet to arrive with baited breath. She can't go looking for her and it kills her.
All of this kills her just a little bit on the inside.
This will always be the hardest part. Making first contact, building the foundation for a temple of lies she will have to perfect to survive. Looking them in the eyes and pretending she doesn't know a thing about them.
They can't know. She reminds herself. They can't know. They couldn't handle this sort of information. You're alone. You're on your own.
Garnet arrives and everything falls apart. literally and figuratively. The gems curl up together in a hug, convinced that this is the end and she has to choke down the impulse to join them.
They don't you. She remembers. They have no memory of you. You don't exist.
And her heart breaks again, just a little, because she hates this part. She hates living and dying again and again, looking into their eyes and seeing nothing more than blank confusion. At least she knows they will love her again with time. And she will always love them.
Always.
The air heats up as they near the surface and Steven forms a bubble around his family.
She curls into a ball and does the same.
Then they collide with the earth and everything goes black.
sssssssssssssssssssss
The world is so quiet it hurts. The silence is pressing in on her. Her limbs have gone stiff. Where is she? Everything is black.
Gravity is not her friend. One moment she feels as if she is balancing on her neck, the next, the pressure moves to her knees, her ankles, her face.
All at once the pressure stops and she relaxes, though the silence is still defening and her muscles are still stiff from the fetel position she can sense that she is in.
BANG*
*BANG*
* BANG*
"ugh..."
Her eyes fly open at the sudden noise. Shapes and colors swim as her optic nerves struggle to recalibrate themselves.
Her ears, far too used to the silence, are ringing at the cacophony of noise.
The figures surrounding her sharpen and she can clearly see Steven, Amethyst and Garnet banging and yelling at the milky white bubble she is curled in.
Hazy memories of her rebirth and the ship crashing return to her along with a less than pleasant headache she is struggling to think through.
She needs to get out, that much is clear.
Uncurling from her fetal position, she pushes weakly at the walls of her protective bubble. The bubble bends slightly at her will but doesn't break.
The gems, noticing her attemps to escape from the bubble, back away to give her space.
Huffing slightly, she pushes harder, and the bubble does break this time. She falls to the ground, gritty sand rustles under her head and the sound of the tide reaches her ears.
A soft, warm hand grabs her by the elbow and gently pulls her into a sitting position.
Soft dark eyes look into her pale grey ones with concern.
Steven...
"Are...are you okay? We found you under a bunch of rubble in your bubble and Garnet wasn't sure if you were hurt or not."
She looks around. Her vision is still hazy around the edges, but she can see the flaming remains of the ship around them, the wary forms of the Crystal gems, uncertain of what to make of her, and the temple in the distance, just as beautiful as she remembers. Though without Luna's influence it looks a little strange, smaller, it's features a little rounder.
She returns her focus to Steven's worried face. oh how I missed you.
"I-I think I'm okay...I can't..." She blushes, the white light saturated in her blood making it look a good deal paler than an ordinary human's.
She pushes her hair, a powdery white with locks of blue/grey and an impossibly pale pink, away from her left ear so that they can see the smooth grey/white gem embedded there, far too large to be an ordinary earring, but still a tad small for a gem.
She presses her fingers gently against it, checking for cracks.
"Does it look...?"
"I don't see any cracks." He assures her quickly. She relaxes, letting her hair fall back over her gem.
Pearl clears her throat. "I believe we should head inside. Steven and Amethyst will be needing a few hours sleep before we work on clearing out all this rubble."
Amethyst whipped her head in Pearl's direction, face disbelieving. "You're seriously gonna let-"
"I've accepted it's a lost cause at this point" The pale gem confirms dryly.
Steven helps her to her feet. Her uniform, a standard one for pilot's, was scuffed and worn but thankfully not as torn and burnt as her new/old companions.
How odd that my appearance says pilot, but my new memories say rogue human.
Steven tugged on her sleeve to catch her attention.
"I almost forgot! What's your name?" The other gems looked at her expectantly, just as curious, if not more, about her as the young halfling.
Screw this lifetimes memories. My second life will fit better for this anyways.
"I'm supposed to be Moonstone." Her voice is quieter than she remembers it ever being. Gentle and articulate. How odd.
"But please,"
She looks them all in the eye for a moment before her eyes flick to the temple.
It was good to be home.
"Call me Lilly."
sssssssssssssssssssss
And cue the dramatic music!
Bein honest with you guys I'm feelin real pumped about this one!
Hands up if your exited for steven universe to come out of hiatus!
I know I am
-Blue
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