"No.. None of you understand" Peridot stuttered. She watched as the crystal gems surrounded her, all with questioning glances. Everyone was there. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Steven and even Lapis was staring at her.
"Are you okay Peridot?" asked Steven, voice filled with worry. "It's alright. In the battlefield, we'll protect you from those-"
"That's not the point!" Peridot exclaimed. "That's not the point. I'm not like you Era 1 gems with your magical like properties. With your tangible weapons or your powerful element manipulation abilities"
Peridot felt.. insecure. For the first time, she didn't feel like the superior being. After the previous fight against all those corrupted gems, she realized how… how useless she is. She feels insignificant, worthless, devastated by her actions and at that moment she can only feel loath towards herself.
"But you can control metal, just like how I can move around water" Lapis tried to counter.
"Yeah, I have my metal-bending abilities but I'm not even fully proficient with it yet!" Peridot's eyes started becoming watery from the overwhelming feeling. "I'm not even close to your level of control!"
"I'm a modern world gem. I was not born with powers, and I was made for the technological concerns of Homeworld. I don't need magic, as long as I have my tech." Peridot broke her eye contact from the gems, and stared off to the door leading outside.
"I had my tech and that was all I needed to survive." She muttered as she looked down to her palms. She closed her fists as tears started to stroll down her cheeks. "I had my tech but..."
Amethyst stared at Peridot, than to her own palms. She was, after all, the one who threw Peridot's Limb Enhancers down to the bottom of the Ocean.
"Now, without my tech I'm nothing. I can't fight, I can't plan, I can't even fully comprehend the technology that is right in front of me!" Peridot sobbed, "No wonder Homeworld no longer wanted me. To them, I'm probably as good as a corrupted gem. Hell, maybe even more so since at least corrupted gems can still fight!"
"To homeworld, I'm nothing but a nuisance…. And I'm probably am for you guys too.." and with that Peridot ran off, out from the door and towards the beach.
With only a second delay, Steven was the first to come back from the shock of what his gemworld friend had said and immediately ran off to her,"Peridot! Wait!"
"Go away Steven. I don't want you near me by a close proximity of 20 centimeters"
"Peridot..." Steven could only stare at Peridot, who's staring off to the ocean, legs curled and arms wrapped around them.
"Peridot, you're not…" Steven said trying to think and empathize with what Peridot is currently feeling, "You're not useless."
"Yes I am! In every battle, I did nothing. All I can do is stare at the monster and have everyone else protect me from them! The only way of self defense that us Peridots have is through out Limb Enhancers, and that is the only way I can efficiently fight off any enemies that may come for me." Peridot fumed, "But without it, I can't even run away safely"
Steven than decided to walk up next to her, and sat down right by her side. "You're not 'nothing' Peridot. You are your own gem." Steven mumbled.
"You are not a nuisance towards me or any of the other gems. You helped Lapis overcome her fear of fusion and helped her to come out of her shell to socialize with the other gems." Steven remarked.
"It felt like an obligation of all the terrible actions I have done towards her."
"You helped us find out about the cluster, helped us build the Drill and helped us save the Earth"
"In the beginning, it was just to save myself"
"You did the final blow towards Jasper when she was corrupted"
"That fusion of you and Amethyst, Smokey Quartz did all the damage. Plus, you wanted to save her before she got fully corrupted"
"But you saved me before I was crushed by her"
"Amethyst would of saved you anyway.."
"Peridot… You are not 'nothing' and you are definitely not a 'nuisance'. To me you are family. Like Lapis, and Pearl and Amethyst and Garnet. Without you, this family would not feel complete." Steven spoke with tears in his eyes as he looked up to Peridot.
After that, all that could be heard was silence. Steven just stared up to the light blue glow of the moon and the waves of the ocean. But as time moved on slowly, he can hear the quiet sobs coming out of Peridot.
Then, Peridot spoke, "It's just not fair Steven. I just feel useless towards the other gems. I feel... inferior. Ever time I think back to what happened, I just feel inadequate. I can't fight and Pearl is just as proficient with machinery as I am. I don't feel special like how I used to."
"It's okay Peridot. Sometimes, I also feel worried." Steven stated, "I feel worry that I won't come into the expectations of the crystal gems… that I won't be as good as my mom"
At that Peridot's eye widened, "Steven… But, you are as good, if not better than your mom. It's obvious that you have exceeded all expectations from the other gems towards you!"
"Yeah, and you have exceeded our expectation when you called Yellow Diamond a clod!" Steven giggled.
"Please don't remind me of that..." Peridot mumbled.
"But seriously! You were amazing back then! I really thought you were going to turn your back towards us"
"Yeah, I was pretty amazing wasn't I?" as a smile started to grow on Peridot's face and as her face started to heat up from the compliment.
Steven and Peridot just looked at each other than stared. After a couple of seconds, the two started to laugh hysterically.
"Did you see the look on her face when I said that?"
"Yeah, it was so funny! Her face looked so ugly!"
"At the time, I felt so threatened, but not that I look back… yeah! Her face did look very ugly!"
A few minutes later, when the laughter started to weary down, Peridot gleamed "Maybe I was just acting silly. I'm still intelligent, and I can still create many machinery!"
"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Steven gleamed as he finally brightened up Peridot's mood.
Then Peridot stood up. She held up her hand, and pulled Steven up as well, "Come on now. The others must be worried sick about us. We should get inside now."
"We're back!" Steven chimed when they went back inside the temple.
When Steven and Peridot went through the door, however, they saw as the crystal gems were all standing by the kitchen table muttering to themselves.
"Umm.. guys?"
"Oh! Steven, Peridot, you're back!" Pearl said as she looked towards the two.
"Pearl? Is there something wrong?" Now that Steven had a closer inspection towards everyone, he noticed that they all seem to be wet. Their clothes and hair, with the exception of Lapis, were all drenched in water.
Then, Amethyst walked up to Steven and Peridot, "Peridot? I'm so, so sorry that I threw your Limb Enhancers into the bottom of the ocean"
Peridot only looked up to her. "It's alright Amethyst, I was a jerk back then so it is entirely justifiable that you went off and-"
"No Peridot, it's not" Amethyst cut her off.
Garnet then spoke, "What Amethyst is trying to say is that we apologize for throwing away your technology that we went to take it"
"Whaa? No, it's alright, you don't have to do such an acti-" but then she felt something heavy on her arm. Peridot looked up to see Lapis standing right in front of her.
"We went off to the Galaxy Warp to find your enhancers, the most you could do is accept it." Lapis stated with a monotone, but somewhat of a compassion filled voice.
"Wow, thanks guys… I.. I have nothing to say." Peridot stared at all the gems in the area. She then stared at her Limb Enhancers that is currently resting on her arms.
But then, she glanced at Steven, who's just beaming right at her. She then looked back at the time she stayed on Earth. The entire time, while she was building the drill with the crystal gems and the entirety of time she had been living with Lapis is the Barn she was without the limb enhancers.
Then, finally, Peridot cleared her throat and spoke, "I am.. glad for all the time it took for you gems to help find my enhancers… but now, these," Peridot directed to the machines, "no longer define who I am and what I am supposed to do"
She looked up everyone, and grinned, "My actions and what I do to all of you guys now define who I am as a person and as a gem."
Peridot then, once again, stared at her Limb Enhancers, "Do not be mistaken, I will use these… but only during the times where I need it. After all, I've gone to know all of you and you all have gone to know of me of what I am now"
She then felt arms wrapped around her. Startled from the action, she dropped the enhancers and looked to see it was Steven that was hugging her. She then felt heat rising up to her face again, and exclaimed "Steven? What the clod are you-"
She then felt another pair of arms wrapped around her and saw that it was Lapis'. She saw Amethyst walking up towards her, with Pearl and Garnet walking towards her as well.
"Guys, come on, there is no need to do this Human ritual where we wrap our arms around another person.." Then, she felt the crushing feeling of everyone hugging her spontaneously.
"Remember Peridot, we're a family. All of us, including you" Steven beamed, with a large grin on his face.
"Yeah… thanks Steven." Peridot said, with her eyes starting to water up. "Thanks.. everyone"
Hey guys, this is my first fanfic that I posted on this site. This story was inspired by a Pearlidot comic by a user named pasdedorite on Tumblr (But this story doesn't have any specific shipping). Since this is my first fanfic, I would appreciate any constructive criticism. Thank you all for reading!