A/N:
Story is written in second person from Pearl's perspective
It take pleace during 'Super wantermelon island' after they defeat Malachite.
Please favourite and comment! It means a lot! ^_^
The world is ending
The earth is shaking, knocking you and your friends down to the hard ground. You feel burning,searing pain rushing through your already sore and shaky legs (being Alexandrite in order to fight Malachite took more from you than you'd expected) but it's not like you have the time to care or even wonder if it's as bad as it feels, because everything is being destroyed around you.
The island is cracking two, the ground opening up like a big, pointy teethed mouth that's ready to swallow you all at any minute . The noise that follows as the black hole keeps opening wider and wider blend with the screams of the Watermelon Stevens into an impossibly loud and whiny noise that penetrate your mind and made it impossible to think. Most of all it just made you want to poof before your gem cracked from the pressure of horrible sound.
"Lapis! Jasper! Get them!" Garnet screamed, and despite the loud noise and your own strained mind you heard her, and reacted. Only the reaction was seconds too late and while Amethyst had already grabbed Lapis to ensure her safety, all you could do was pathetically stick your arm out and try to grab onto Jasper's even though you know it's too late.
She disappears into the crack
In a matter of seconds she is gone, and you are stunned. You can't seem to understand that she disappeared into the black hole, and is gone, and it was all your fault. If you had reacted a second earlier she'd had a chance. She could have been saved, even if she didn't deserve it. Because neither did she deserve to disappear and possibly die.
Everything is spinning in your head and your not quite sure what your doing. You and the others are talking to the Watermelon Steven possessed by your Steven and your mentioning the drill and Peridot and the cluster and you tell them to be safe and smile and make it seem like you know what your doing even though you don't even feel like your controlling your own body.
You hope the others doesn't notice
They do
As soon as the Watermelon Steven closes his eyes, Garnet and Amethyst turn around. They look at you and you can see the worry in Amethyst face. They know something is wrong with you and you know that you need to convince them of quite the opposite, because right now is not the time for you to be a worthless Pearl who can't take being fused for more than five seconds and who can't take being fused with more than three other gems (which was already a strain on your worthless gem) and who can't take some shaking. Right now you needed to be big and strong and ready to fight like you were during the war.
But then Rose was there
Now there's only Steven
Involuntarily you think of Steven's devastated face after the first time you poofed and reformed, despite it only taking two weeks, a new personal record for you. He didn't love you that way, but he did love you. There was no Rose to fight for, so Steven had to give you strength and something to fight for now.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm fine!" You tell Amethyst and Garnet, who is still starring. You can see you weren't convincing enough, but out of respect or whatever they still turn and look away.
The earth that was shaking a minute ago has somewhat settled, and so has your mind, so you realise you weren't really lying. You are fien now.
You look around. Your friends are now looking at the Watermelon Stevens, counting them, trying to assert how much they were damaged by the Earthquake. They all knew Steven would ask later, anyway.
You counted thirty Watermelon Stevens before the earth start shaking again and at the same time as your mind start to hurt you remember why you don't have time to count the now fleeing Watermelon Stevens. The world is ending, and Steven is alone with Peridot trying to stop it. The thought of leaving your precious little baby alone with a former-Homeworld allie who almost killed you once (hadn't it been for Garnet, she would have pulverized your gem) make you gag and want throw up even though you don't even eat. You decide you need to get to moving.
But there is no time for you to move voluntarily before the earth decides to make you move involuntarily instead.
The turf of earth that you stand on, being the only one who had not jumped over the crack to the Water Melon Stevens yet, suddenly decides to tilt in a ninety degree angle and before you have the chance to grab on to anything you are sliding down, down to the bottomless, dark crack through which Jasper had fallen because you couldn't catch her.
You didn't want to end up like Jasper, even if it had been you fault, but it doesn't look like your going to have a choice.
"P!" Amethyst scream snap you out of your thoughts, and at the same time you feel her short and sturdy arm with its rough and calloused hand grabbing onto your bony, pointed arm. She grabbing on hard, so hard that it almost hurt, but at this point it's only comforting.
Yet your still falling
"Aren't we supposed to not fall?!" You scream, panic in your voice despite your attempts to hide it. Amethyst on the other hand seems unfazed.
"Probably" she shrugged, before reaching out her hand that wasn't holding on to you and tugging at something around her waist. A hand, to be more exact. "Hey Garnet! We're ready to get out of here!"
"I'm trying to!" Came the strained response from somewhere far above you and Amethyst , and you could clearly hear how Garnet was strained and struggling.
Despite this, after a few moments they did get moving, slowly but steadily, coming closer and closer to the light and further away from the horrible darkness below. you finally started to feel safe again, thinking you soon be up and out of the crack.
But their luck didn't last for long
Garnet had almost been able to get them up and out of the crack in the ground, when a sound like an explosion was heard, loud and scaring you to the extreme. What scared you more, though, was the fact that you were falling again, and it went fast.
"Amethyst!" You called out, pressing your body closer to hers as you wonder if hitting the bottom would be enough to crush your gem, or just harm it. Considering speed, you guessed for the former.
"G must have defused!" Amethyst shouted, edging closer to, but not really being in sync with you, who seemed to be falling faster than her, and therefore ending up pressing her gem against yours (you briefly considered if it was intentional, because the contact was comforting, but it seemed unlike Amethyst).
Amethyst must have noticed you were starting to shake, too, because she put her legs around your waist and hugged your head closer to her chest. From her gem you could feel a warmth emanating, moving into your own gem and comforting you more than mere physical contact ever could. As you pressed yourself closer together, both of you seeking comfort from the other as you fell towards a certain doom, you could suddenly feel a third conscious appearing at the edge of your understanding. Opal. Glancing up to see how far you had fallen, you suddenly realised she might be the answer. Fusing again would be straining for both your gems, of course, and worst case scenario you would poof afterwards. But what would happen if you reached the bottom, however, might be far more damaging.
You make a decision
Opening up your mind towards Amethyst and Opal, you flush as your gem glow suggestively and then flush even more as Amethyst's gem lit up in response and you could feel Opal closing in and embracing the both of you. You had never suggested fusing like this before, and you hoped Amethyst wouldn't make a big thing of it. Hoped. She probably would make a big thing of it anyway.
Yet you are still smiling when your desperate attempt at fusing finally succeed and your bodies quickly melt away, coming together and building something entirely new that is really not new at all and feel just as familiar as being you does. If being Sardonyx bring you confidence and self-respect, then Opal would bring you peace and happiness, and in some ways you thought It felt better being Opal than Sardonyx, but then you regretted it because they're so very different and it's unfair to compare.
The only problem with being Opal is that you forget why you were ever apart, and why you came together. It feels too good and you never want to be yourself again.
The problems with being Opal is that separating hurt.
But for once you - or Opal more exact - don't have time to think about what will come though, because all there is in your head is the fact that you need to stop falling. That you need to get up and out and survive
For Steven
Extending your arms well past their normal length ( a rather handy trick in certain situations), you finally manage to get a hold of the hard edge of the cliff. It's uncomfortable, holding onto it, and you feel the rock digging into your hand and fingers as you try to lift up your own weight to the edge.
It's not easy but it have to work, because neither of you three can bear that thought of leaving Steven. Can bare the thought of what happens to Steven if you leave him.
Finally, you get up, and you land in the grass, sweaty, panting and so immensely tired that you don't even think about defusing before it happens by itself
Your Amethyst and Pearl again
It doesn't hurt luke it usually do. It just feels right, like you got what you needed, neither kess bore more. For the first time in forever you feel content.
But your still worried for Steven...and Garnet
Garnet is laying a few meters away, seemingly unharmed in every way. In fact, the only thing wrong us that she isn't Garnet anymore, she is Sapphire and Ruby, red and blue, ice and fire. She is two parts that's not attached anymore, because they tried too hard when they were together.
The two of them seem okay though
You slowly edge closer to them, checking their gems and their physical forms without them even waking up (which she was grateful for) and you feel relieved when you're sure they are absolutely okay.
Now all you need to do is waking them up
Amethyst has already regained her energy and is sitting a little bit away, looking at you and Sapphire and Ruby and waiting for you to wake them up.
You sight
"Ruby...Sapphire...wake up" You wince at how pathetic it sound, but it work, because they start to stir and slowly open their eyes.
"Pearl…" Sapphire stated.
"...What happened?" Ruby finish.
Even when they're apart they can tell what the other is thinking, and they can complete each other's sentences. You supposed that was what long periods of peaceful fusing did to you…
You don't even dare to think about when you and Amethyst were like that once
"You defused while you were trying to get me and Amethyst out of the crack" You explained softly, Amethyst coming up to them from what was left of the beach and waving her hand in a greeting.
"You formed Opal to survive, didn't you? " Sapphire asked sternly, the serious tone matching her facial expression perfectly as she waved at Amethyst. You didn't even need to ask to know she had seen it in her future vision.
"Yes" You said timidly as Amethyst janked you down on the ground so she could sit with her arm over your shoulders. "We didn't have choice"
"Well that decides it" Sapphire said, standing up and addressing Ruby. "Are you ready to fuse? We need to get home before Steven and Peridot return and they just reached the cluster. "
"Always ready baby!" Ruby said excitedly, getting up on her feet and grabbing Sapphire so they could begin their spinning dance that was them fusing together. You always found it so very beautiful to watch, and wondered if the nature of the dance affected the nature of the fusion.
After a minute of spinning, the white glow appeared and Ruby and Sapphire was quickly once more replaced by Garnet, looking exactly the same as she had before diffusing.
"Don't tell Peridot and Steven this ever happened. It won't be good." She said seriously, and you and Amethyst agreed, because even if you wanted to protest you didn't have the energy, and
And as such, you started walking, walking the long way home to Steven and Peridot, praying there'd still be an earth left when you got there.