Hi, everybody! In honor of Stevenbomb 4, coming in only TWO DAYS, I have finally started this fanfic LONG in the works. In retrospect I really should have started this during the hiatus. The story sort of branches off from the main plot, taking place before some of the recent episodes. Let's just say for now it's set after Catch and Release because I love Tiny!Peridot! Also, kind of spoiler, I'm bring Lapis and Jasper back. Oops!
Now, let us delve into the prologue.
The time was over 65 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs. The great scaly beasts dominated every part of the planet, but at the peak of the dinosaurs reign, something came that ended it abruptly, and explosively. Something that came from outer space.
The Cretaceous sun was beginning to fall below the horizon in early twilight, turning the sky bright shades of red, orange, and gold. Above, the twinkling stars had already appeared, adding to the already breathtaking beauty of the sunset. At the edge of a lush, green forest, a huge, brownish green creature wandered towards a grove of green ferns, it's great footsteps causing the ground to tremble in its wake. Sharp, russet plates formed twin rows down it's back, and its tail ended in four razor-sharp spikes jutting out sideways. This great beast was a proud male Stegosaurus, and as he approached the grove for an evening feeding, he looked up in wonder at the illuminated sky.
Upon reaching the grove, the Stegosaurus bent his small head down to eat, groaning in pleasure at the ferns' rich, healthy taste. The Stegosaurus then heard more footsteps approaching. He quickly turned around to see what was coming near, brandishing his deadly thagomizer in case it was a predator, especially a monstrous Tyrannosaurus rex. Thankfully, it was not; it was only a pair of fellow herbivores, a Triceratops and an Iguanodon, also come for an evening snack.
The three dinosaurs each found a place to browse, giving each other a wide berth, hoping to avoid any unnecessary confrontation. However, unknown to them, the peaceful herbivores were being stalked. Hidden in the tree cover not 100 yards away from where the three dinosaurs were browsing, another dinosaur watched them. A carnivore. More specifically, a massive Tyrannosaurus rex.
The T. rex had its eyes set straight on the herbivores ahead, intending to make a kill of at least one of them that evening. The huge predator slowly inched closer to its targets. The rex hadn't been able to get a decent meal in days, due to being driven from his territory by a pack of younger, more aggressive Tyrannosaurs. Closer, closer. He aimed for the Iguanodon, figuring it would be the easiest to bring down, and decided to avoid the Stegosaurus and at least be wary of the Triceratops if he could. A single, well-placed thrust from those horns or swing of that tail could end his hunting days forever, not to mention the Triceratops' hide-full of sharp quills. Closer, closer.
The Iguanodon suddenly heard a noise coming from the forest, and quickly jerked his head up to see if a threat was nearby. The T. rex immediately halted in his stealthy advance, careful not to be detected. When the Iguanodon lowered his head to resume his meal of ferns, the T. rex began working his way towards his quarry again. The wind was in his favor, blowing the scent of his prey toward his nose, and his scent away from them. Closer, closer. He was so close to the herbivores now that he could almost hear the beating of their hearts. If all went well, one of those hearts would be silenced permanently this evening.
Suddenly, the Stegosaurus snorted and jerked his head up in alarm. The Triceratops and Iguanodon were alerted as well and looked up from eating. The Stegosaurus had not detected the Tyrannosaurus nearby, however. The Stegosaurus could sense that something was approaching, but he had no idea what it meant. The other dinosaurs, including the rex, could feel it too. Something was coming. Something big. But the dinosaurs, with their relatively small brains and basic way of thinking, could not hope to comprehend it.
The T. rex shook these thoughts from his head. He had the perfect advantage in front of him. It was now or never.
With a thunderous roar that shook the treetops, the Tyrannosaur charged, exploding out of the forest towards the three herbivores.
The Stegosaurus roared in alarm, alerting the others, and quickly turned his bulky form sideways in a defense position. The Triceratops grunted and stood strong and stalwart, his long brow horns pointed at the carnivore. Lastly, the Iguanodon reared up on his hind legs and honked, baring the sharp, dagger-like spikes on his thumbs, the one weapon his kind possessed. If he was to die tonight, he would not run from his fate.
The T. rex lunged and snapped his jaws at the Iguanodon, who hastily dodged and swung his arm at the carnivore, grazing his snout and drawing a streak of crimson blood. The T. rex growled and lunged again, but was rammed by the Triceratops. The rex hastily regained his balance and charged the Trike, who grunted and did the same. Swiftly evading the Triceratops' horns, the T. rex clamped his jaws onto its frill, and the Triceratops groaned in pain.
The saw the Stegosaurus swing his tail, and released the Triceratops, rearing back seconds before the deadly spiked tail slashed the air where he'd been standing. The Stegosaurus snorted and pounded his foot against the ground to intimidate the theropod, but the T. rex roared and warily circled the three herbivores. The Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Iguanodon herded together as the huge beast glared at them, snarling.
Suddenly, the T. rex darted forward in a mock charge, dispersing the frantic herbivores for but a second. But a second was all he needed. The rex charged and managed to land a bite on the Iguanodon's back, and it honked and bellowed in pain, thrashing wildly as the rex's teeth were plunged into his hide.
Before the rex could land the killing blow, a huge force slammed into him, and thorn-like quills pierced his side, making him let go of the Iguanodon. The T. rex collapsed to the ground and the Triceratops snorted triumphantly. The rex growled in anger, and swiftly ducked his head as the Stegosaurus' tail nearly tore out his eye. The plated dinosaur snarled, as did the T. rex, pushing himself back to his feet using his small arms(which were remarkably strong, BTW).
The rex roared, then the Iguanodon charged and rammed the T. rex in the side, and slashed at him with his thumb spikes before the rex could retaliate. The Iguanodon slammed the rex again with his shoulder, and the T. rex lunged to snap at the Iguanodon's head, when he was rammed again by the Stegosaurus, disorienting him.
The rex hastily regained control and snapped at the fleeing Iguanodon, then turned back and lunged at the Stegosaurus, hitting his enormous head into the herbivore's much smaller one. The Stego lost his balance and crashed to the ground, but before the rex could tear open his stomach, the Triceratops rammed the T. rex again, knocking his head back and forcing the rex to step off to stay balanced. The Stegosaurus struggled to get back up, and grunted at the predator beside the Triceratops and the Iguanodon.
Growling in rage, the T. rex stood up, facing down the three powerful herbivores, and all four roared at the top of their lungs, before an earsplitting screech pierced the air, and something streaked across the sky in a blaze of fire, crashing with ground-shaking impact not far from where the dinosaurs were standing.
From the explosion, a red shard shot towards the dinosaurs faster than a bullet, landing squarely between the T. rex's eyes, the force of the impact throwing the six-ton dinosaur into the air with a screaming roar of agony. The rex crashed into the dirt 20 yards away, knocked unconscious with the shard embedded in his skull.
The Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Iguanodon first stared on in awe at what they'd just seen, before slowly turning to the strange crash site. After looking at one another first in uncertainty, the Stegosaurus was the first to approach the smoking crater. Reluctantly, the Triceratops and Iguanodon soon followed, wary of what might come out of the crater.
The dinosaurs soon reached the edge of the crater, and as the smoke cleared, shapes began to appear. The crater was filled with jagged, shattered pieces of some kind of green object, made of shiny, polished stone. Many of the broken parts were on fire, but this fire was a sickly green, rather than the red and orange tongues of flame the dinosaurs knew.
The smoke cleared further, and now the dinosaurs could clearly see, in the center of the crater, four strange figures lay, like nothing the dinosaurs had ever seen before.
The Stegosaurus carefully slid down the crater edge, wanting to get a closer look at these odd creatures that fell from the sky. They all were much, much smaller than the dinosaurs, and they had no tails. They all had strangely-shaped forelimbs, with five fingers but no claws; they must've been bipeds, then. From the odd creatures' heads hung manes of what looked like a much longer version of the fur that covered the small mammals that darted about under the dinosaurs' feet, so the creatures must've been mammals. They had no feathers or scales, so they weren't dinosaurs, that much the Stegosaurus was sure of.
The Triceratops and the Iguanodon soon followed into the crater, and began sniffing the strange creatures, trying to figure out what they were. One was short and thickly-built, with light bluish-green skin, and a light blue and darker green hide. Another was taller but very skinny, with primarily dark blue skin color. The dark blue one lay beside a much larger, thickly-built dark red creature, the biggest of the four. The Stegosaurus inspected the fourth one; it had dark skin and was fairly big compared to the others, though not as muscular as the red one. It had long, flowing golden hair, and it wore some kind of loose, dark-yellow garment. Carefully, the Stegosaurus flipped the gold-haired creature onto its back, and noticed that it had a large, topaz-colored gemstone embedded in its chest.
The Stegosaurus looked down at the strange, yet oddly captivating being, when it suddenly moved, and the Stegosaurus froze as it opened its eyes and stared directly at him.
For several moments everything was silent, when out of nowhere a voice shrieked,
"Topaz! Look out!" And before he could turn his head, the Stegosaurus was hit square in the jaw by a tremendous blow, knocking him away from the yellow-haired creature and nearly toppling over. The Stegosaurus groaned at the ache in his skull, trying to shake it off, and looked up to see the short, bluish-green creature glaring at him from beside the gold-haired one. She had short, green hair and her eyes were covered by a clear substance. Solid water was the only thing that came to the Stego's mind. Her right hand was heavily armored, and she was brandishing it like a weapon. How on earth could something hardly a tenth of his size possibly deal such a blow!?
"Are you okay, Topaz? That thing didn't hurt you, did it?" The bluish-green creature said to the gold-haired one, apparently named Topaz, as the armor on her hand vanished, revealing a turquoise gemstone on the back of it.
"I'm fine, Turquoise." Topaz replied, standing up. The Stegosaurus wisely moved away from the two gem-creatures, for fear of being hit again. The other two gem-creatures were awakening as well. First was the thin dark blue one. She had a lighter blue hide with a loose part that hung down from her waist, covering the back of her legs, and she had very dark blue hair with pigtails hanging down and framing her face. The Triceratops thought she was quite elegant-looking. Lastly was the large, red Gem; she had long, voluminous red hair tied up in a large ponytail, and her hide was darker red with black about the legs and waist. The blue one had two dark blue gem on her elbows, and the red one's gem was on her forehead.
"Is everyone alright?" Topaz called to the others.
"I think we're ok." The red one replied, rubbing her aching head. She then turned to see the Triceratops sniffing her. "Hey! Cut that out!" She then punched the Trike on the beak, making him growl and move away. It was a hard punch, at least for the Triceratops. Suddenly, the red Gem's stance faltered, and her form seemed to be momentarily shifting, if it was possible.
"Onyx!" The lanky blue Gem cried. "Your Gem is cracked!" The red Gem, evidently called Onyx, looked up at the ovular Gem on her forehead; sure enough, there was a large shard missing, cracked down the middle. The Iguanodon noticed this too, and looked back at the still unconscious T. rex, the steaming shard lodged between his eyes.
"Relax, Azurite." Onyx reassured the smaller Gem. "I'll be fine. It's just a crack; you don't have to worry about me all the time."
"But what if something happens to you?" The blue Gem, Azurite argued, clearly stressed out. "I-I don't know what I'd do!" The red Gem, Onyx, delicately took Azurite's small hand in her much bigger one, and gave her a soft smile.
"Nothing's going to happen to me. I'll make sure of that." At this moment of tenderness Azurite blushed aquamarine.
The Stegosaurus was intrigued by how these two Gems acted around one another. It seemed akin to that of a mated pair. The Stego had trouble pondering this, since it didn't appear either of them were male, but then again, who was he to judge?
"Wait!" Turquoise said, getting both the Gems' and the dinosaurs' attention. "Where's Serpentine?" The other three Gems hastily looked around for whoever Serpentine was, but found nothing.
"Oh no." Topaz whimpered. "Please…" The Gems seemed to be in great distress, and the dinosaurs had little idea what to do. They didn't see any other Gems nearby, and thought if they should help. Then Onyx turned to them, a scowl on her face.
"I don't what you things are," She growled angrily, stepping towards the herbivores. "But you'd better not have hurt Serpentine, or so help me-" The Stegosaurus then grunted, interrupting Onyx's threat. He had gone off to search for this Serpentine, and returned carrying a dark green, rectangular gemstone in his mouth, which he'd found under some wreckage.
The Gems stood frozen as the dinosaur approached, offering the gemstone. Topaz came forward, the others stepping out of her path. The Stegosaurus grunted and delicately dropped the gem into Topaz's outstretched hands. It was mostly dark green, but a film of black appeared to be invading the greenness.
Not caring about the dinosaur standing in front of them, the other Gems hurriedly surrounded Topaz, staring with worried glances at the rectangular stone.
"Is she ok?" Turquoise asked, worry in her tone.
"What's wrong with her Gem?" Azurite asked, even more concerned. Topaz stared, wide-eyed at the Gem in her hands.
"I...I don't...know." She muttered. The Stegosaurus groaned, not knowing why but concerned for the Gems. The Triceratops and Iguanodon came up beside him, looking down at the small Gem. The Gems looked up at the three dinosaurs, and only now did they seem to realize they were in the company of huge alien creatures.
"What are those things?" Turquoise wondered aloud, staying close to Topaz. The Stegosaurus slowly approached the Gems, dipped his head, and uttered a deep rumble, a dinosaur custom that meant he was a friend, not an enemy. The Gems, however, didn't seem to understand the peaceful gesture, and continued to stare.
"I doesn't matter what these creatures are," Topaz announced to the others. "What matters now is that we find out where we are, and if we're safe." Suddenly, another scream filled the sky. The Iguanodon looked up, and honked in distress. The dinosaurs and Gems looked up to see another, much bigger flying object descend from the sky straight towards their location.
The dinosaurs cried out in fear and confusion, but the Gems seemed to know what was coming, and stood to face it. The dinosaurs and Gems stood frozen as a huge Gem ship, bigger than even a titanosaur, landed before them.
The dinosaurs backed away, and were well contemplating running for their lives, but for some reason they didn't want to leave the Gems. They watched as a panel slid up at the ship's front, an eerie white light emanating from the opening. Footsteps signaled the arrival of another Gem from within, and then a ramp deployed from the ship opening to the ground. The dinosaurs backed off more, but the Gems stood resilient, not afraid. Topaz clutched Serpentine's gem in her hand, staring down the Gem who stepped down the ramp in front of them.
"Topaz, Azurite, Red Onyx, Turquoise, Serpentine." The tall, muscular yellow Gem said coldly. The dinosaurs guessed from her attire that she was very high-ranking. "The five of you stand guilty of treachery, insubordination, and rebellion against the Diamond Authority. If you surrender now, they may consider sparing you."
"Why don't you come over here and make us, Citrine!" Red Onyx(or just Onyx, as Azurite called her) replied. This Citrine was of similar build to Red Onyx, but was yellowish orange with a burnt orange outfit, a yellow diamond insignia decorating the chest, as well as an auburn cape. She had short, orange hair, and her gem was placed on her palm. She didn't look nearly as trusting as the Gems the dinosaurs had met.
"Citrine," Topaz announced. "What Homeworld is doing is wrong. Even if you destroy us, others will take our place inevitably. Not you, nor the Diamonds can destroy what is right. We will never surrender to the likes of you." Citrine displayed little if any reaction to this bold statement, she merely huffed like a fly was bugging her.
"Very well then." Citrine spat at them. "Enjoy being shattered." Suddenly, dozens of huge soldier Gems exited the ship behind Citrine, all Black Onyxes, Red Onyx observed, scowling. "Be sure to contain them once they're poofed." Citrine ordered, completely calm. The soldier Gems charged, brandishing their weapons, and the five rebellious Gems did the same; Topaz drew a spiked mace on a whip-like chain, which she swung with amazing accuracy. Turquoise summoned armored gauntlets on both her hands, cracking her knuckles. Azurite pulled a pair of sabers from her Gems and took a fighting stance, and lastly Red Onyx, who couldn't summon her weapon due to her Gem being cracked, stood tough with her huge fists tensed. Then the fight began. Holding Serpentine's gem tightly, Topaz led her Gems in likely their last stand.
Wisely, the Stegosaurus roared and hastily ran from the ensuing battle, the Triceratops and Iguanodon quickly turned tail and followed, equally afraid. The Stegosaurus looked back; he didn't want to leave the Gems in a clearly outnumbered fight, nor did the other two, but they knew they stood little chance against the otherworldly strength the Gems had displayed on them.
Only now did the Tyrannosaurus finally regain consciousness. But as he did, Red Onyx stumbled on the battlefield.
"Onyx!" Azurite cried, clashing swords with another enemy. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Red Onyx struggled to stand, shaking the sudden indescribable feeling in her gem from her mind. She had to focus.
Just as Red Onyx did, the T. rex had a faint feeling in his head. Or was it in his head? As he shakily stood up, the rex looked between his eyes, seeing the shard from Red Onyx's gem lodged into his skin. However, he didn't look at it with confusion. He knew what it was. In fact, he knew quite a bit more now than before. The shard embedding itself in his skull had massively jarred his brain, in more ways than one.
The rex looked out, seeing the battle. Topaz, Turquoise, Azurite, and Red Onyx were losing. The rex roared and charged into a run, thundering straight towards the Gems.
The Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Iguanodon stopped dead in their tracks when the saw the T. rex charging right at them. The roared and readied to defend themselves, but the rex shoved past them, completely ignoring them as prey and focusing on the Gems ahead. The herbivores shared equal looks of confusion.
Topaz swung her mace, battering Gem after Gem in a show of true warrior savagery. She and the other stayed in a tight circle, fighting their attackers as one. But even all together they were no match for this many experienced soldiers. They needed a miracle.
Red Onyx punched an Onyx square in the Gem, just stopping Azurite from undoubtedly being poofed. She forced herself to focus on landing blow after blow on every enemy she saw, but something was making her falter that she couldn't force herself through. She was about to go down, when a thunderous roar silenced the battlefield. Every Gem, even Citrine, turned to see a gigantic, razor-fanged reptile charging boldly onto the scene.
"What in Yellow Diamond…" The T. rex leaped into the air and came crashing down on the soldier Gems, poofing several under his weight alone. The Onyx soldiers charged at him, weapons bared, but the rex roared and grabbed Gem after Gem in his massive jaws and threw them like ragdolls, tripping more to the ground where he crushed them underfoot.
Topaz, Azurite, Turquoise, and Red Onyx watched in awe as the T. rex easily took out nearly every soldier, standing protectively in front of them and roaring full-throated at Citrine. The Onyx soldiers, knowing they could never defeat such a behemoth, retreated back to the ship as the theropod roared victoriously.
"What are you clods doing?!" Citrine yelled angrily at her 'soldiers'.
"Commander, that...that thing is too powerful to fight!" One Onyx answered her.
"I don't think Yellow Diamond would be so accepting of that explanation." Citrine spat, her words laced with venom. "Now, I order you to get back out there, and take those damn rebels prisoner! Do I make myself clear?!" After hearing this, the Onyxes wasted no time in regrouping and attacking again. The T. rex roared tauntingly at them.
Though the rex fought fearsomely, the soldier Gems, not willing to face Yellow Diamond with the story that they were defeated by a mere organic being, attacked just as so. The T. rex roared and snapped his jaws, only for the Gems to evade his attacks at the last moment. They knew what to expect now. The rex howled in pain as a blade sliced his thigh, fresh blood pouring from the wound. The rex turned to retaliate, but another Gem cut open his side. Suddenly, he rex lost his footing and toppled over, hitting the ground with a huge thud.
In moments the other Gems were on him. He thrashed and snapped wildly, trying to shake them off long enough to stand back up, but to no avail. He was overwhelmed, when suddenly, the Onyx standing atop his head was entangled by a gold chain, and yanked off the rex and into the air. The T. rex looked to see Topaz leap in front of him, swinging her mace. The T. rex had protected her and her friends, and she was going to return the favor. The other three Gems, though they weren't as sure about this as their leader, joined Topaz's side in front of the dinosaur, valiantly clashing with the enemy Gems.
From her place on the ship, Citrine watched with a scowl as the rebel Gems fight alongside the dinosaur, crippling her soldiers like they were weak Pearls!
"Fire gem turrets!" She ordered to several technician Gems behind her. "Aim for the monster!"
The T. rex suddenly heard something over the noise of the fight. He looked towards the ship to see six large turrets emerge from the hull, with yellow crystals in the center, charging up with orange energy. His eyes widened in fear.
The T. rex leaped out of the way just in time as a bolt of orange energy blasted the ground where he'd been standing. The six turrets fired at him and the rebels on Citrine's order, who was bent on capturing them, and killing the rex.
The rex was nearly knocked off his feet as another explosion went off behind him. He roared at Citrine, but then saw a turret aiming directly at Red Onyx. The T. rex roared a warning, but she didn't hear him. The turret fired, and the rex roared in distress. Red Onyx turned moments before the blast hit her, and then she was gone in a huge blur as the blast hit the ground.
Red Onyx opened her eyes, to see the ground below her. Her gem wasn't shattered, she hadn't poofed, she hadn't even been hit by the energy blast. She was securely in the T. rex's mouth. The T. rex gently put her down, and the Gem and the Dinosaur looked into each other's eyes. Red Onyx saw the shard in the rex's forehead, the shard from her gem. For a brief, hazy moment, the rex swore he was looking up at himself, and Red Onyx could swear she was looking down at herself.
Suddenly, another turret fired at them, the explosion, knocking them both off their feet. Azurite was quickly by Red Onyx's side, ignoring the enemies around her as Topaz and Turquoise held them at bay. The four Gems got a shock as the T. rex stood over them protectively, bellowing thunderously at Citrine. Citrine then unleashed another barrage of laser blasts, and the remaining Onyx soldiers quickly retreated. The T. rex roared, his eyes and the shard in his head starting to glow. The same happened to Red Onyx's gem, to the others' bewilderment.
White light energy enveloped the rex's entire head, forming a reddish-pink, armored mask the shape of a robust Tyrannosaurus rex skull with huge metal teeth, and some armor anchoring it.
Every Gem in the area was silent. Even Citrine wore an expression of unbelievable shock. From a safe distance, even the Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Iguanodon's mouths were agape at what they saw.
The silence of the moment was broken when the T. rex roared so loud Citrine was almost shaken off her feet. Looking out the red visors over his eyes, the T. rex targeted the laser turret, charging straight for them.
"Fire!" Citrine ordered after snapping back to reality. The turrets all aimed at the dinosaur and fired, but the blasts hit harmlessly against his mask. The rex advanced on a turret and leaped into the air, clamped his real jaws onto the metal before crushing it with his armor jaws, and ripped it clean out of its mount, crunching it to splinters in his armored jaws.
Citrine turned back to the rebels, who were beaten and unprotected.
"Soldiers! Get the rebels!" She cried. Obeying, the remaining Onyx soldiers charged towards Topaz, Azurite, Turquoise and Red Onyx. The T. rex roared and was about to charge to the Gems' aid, but the turrets began firing at him again. The turrets had to be taken out, but the Gems needed help. He couldn't do this alone.
The T. rex roared an echoing cry over the battlefield, calling to the only ones who could help them now; the Stegosaurus, the Triceratops, and the Iguanodon. The three herbivores were hesitant to answer the call, knowing they'd be putting themselves in mortal danger, and why on earth would they trust a T. rex? But the Stegosaurus looked out and saw Topaz's desperate face looking to him.
Encouraged like a reborn phoenix, the Stegosaurus belted out the most fearsome war cry ever uttered by dinosaur kind, and thundered on to the battlefield, galloping like a warrior beast of legend. With such inspiration as that, it was only moments later that the Triceratops bellowed and followed the Stego, the Iguanodon hot on his heels.
Topaz and her Gems stood in a formation, ready to face their enemies to the last blow. Suddenly, three huge shapes thundered past them and ran the Onyx soldiers head on, smashing through them like they were a flimsy fern bed.
The Stegosaurus swung his tail, the Triceratops thrust his horns, and the Iguanodon stomped and tail-slapped every Gem they saw, forming a wall of spikes, horns and body mass in front of the good Gems, who were surprised to say the least.
The T. rex tore another turret off the ship, roaring in triumph. Citrine was losing her patience. Where in the name of Diamond did these aliens get the audacity and power to put up an actual fight against her?! Growling under her breath, Citrine said,
"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" She then discarded her cape and charged the T. rex, who roared and did the same. What the theropod didn't expect was that he would receive a full-on punch to the lower jaw that literally threw him into the air for a few moments.
The Gems and dinosaurs all gaped at what they'd just seen. The rex stood up, snarling in rage. He roared at Citrine and charged again, only for her to leap out of the way at the last moment, and come crashing down with a blazing spin attack on the rex's spine.
The T. rex fell with a groan, his armor mask disappearing. Citrine laughed coldly to herself, only to be silenced by an enraged roar from the throat of a charging Stegosaurus.
Expecting the plated beast to bite at her, Citrine veered to the left, only for the Stego to thrust his hips forward and swung his tail straight at Citrine, throwing her in the air where she collided with the ship, forming a considerable dent in the hull.
Snarling in rage at being bested in combat, Citrine glared hatefully at both the rebel Gems and the dinosaurs, before raising her arm and speaking into her wrist communicator.
"Fire all weapons and destroy them." The Gems and dinosaurs stared in terror as at least a dozen more turrets and laser cannons appeared from the ship's hull, aiming straight at them and charging up for a single, decimating blast.
Acting on instinct, the three herbivores honked in fear and ran for their lives, the T. rex chasing after them, trying to get them to come back and save the Gems. Topaz and her companions just stood there, their weapons vanishing. They all knew they couldn't run, so they huddled together to face their fate, Red Onyx holding Azurite tightly in her arms. The T. rex stopped to look behind at them, and roared for them to run, but they did not listen. Topaz gripped Serpentine's gem in her hand, looking at it one last time, before throwing it far away as hard as she could to save the little Gem.
The T. rex roared a resounding NO!, as the weapons fired all at once. Topaz, Turquoise, Azurite, and Red Onyx embraced one another, closing their eyes tightly.
The explosion was enough to blow the T. rex into the air for the second time, as well as the other three dinosaurs. Debris shot past them, and the Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Iguanodon screamed out in pain as four burning gem shards embedded themselves in the dinosaurs' tail, forehead, and hands, respectively.
When the smoke cleared, the dinosaurs, now all with gem shards lodged in their skin, struggled to push themselves off the ground. The Stegosaurus was first. He turned his burning tail around to look at it, seeing the shard of Topaz's gem between his first pair of tail spikes. Next was the Triceratops, who awoke to find the dark blue shard from Azurite's gem fixed between his brow horns. Last to stand was the Iguanodon, who looked to see two of Turquoise's shards embedded on the fronts of his hands.
As the three herbivores shakily got up, they saw the T. rex approach them. But the herbivores did not react in fear; they greeted the rex, as if they had been old friends, and each looked upon the shards on the others' body. Knowing what had happened, the four dinosaurs growled in sorrow.
Looking upon the crater where the rebels formerly stood, Citrine chuckled darkly, climbing back up the ramp into the ship. "Lieutenant," She said. "Commence takeoff. Set a course back to Homeworld."
"Yes, Commander." The other Gem obeyed.
Their heads hung low in sadness, the four dinosaurs turned to the sound of the ship taking off. Their eyes narrowing in rage, the Triceratops, Iguanodon, and T. rex roared monstrously and charged towards it. The Stegosaurus roared for them to stop, but his calls fell on deaf ears.
Onboard the ship, one of the pilot Gems noticed something was wrong.
"Uh...commander?" She said meekly.
"What is it?" Citrine replied flatly.
"It seems firing all the ship's main weapon at once has overworked the reactor core beyond repair."
"What does that mean?" Citrine was a soldier, not and engineer.
"To put it short," the smaller Gem said, her voice cracking. "The central power core is destabilizing and within moments will go into full meltdown!" Citrine's eyes widened at this revelation. A core meltdown meant the reactor would collapse and explode, and there was no telling how much damage would result!
"ACTIVATE ESCAPE PODS!" Citrine ordered to every Gem in the bridge. "NOW!"
The T. rex roared in hatred and leaped at the ship, his jaws snapping just inches from the hull. He found he could jump much higher now, nearly 100 feet in one bound. The Triceratops and Iguanodon cried out in anger at the Gems inside the ship beside him. The Stegosaurus hurried arrived on the scene, and grunted to the others, trying to get them to stop. The T. rex roared back, arguing that the Gems inside deserved what was coming to them.
The two dinosaurs would have continued arguing, when the Triceratops grunted, alerting them of several dozen pods shooting out from the ship's hull into the sky. The dinosaurs roared threateningly, telling the Homeworld Gems to never come back.
Suddenly, the ship began to fall back to earth, green fires bursting from the hull. The Stegosaurus roared for the dinosaurs to run, and they all took off, much faster than they'd ever gone before. They knew the ship's reactor was destabilizing, and the had to get away or gets be destroyed, along with everything else.
The dinosaurs were less than a half mile away when the ship finally exploded into a massive burst of green energy so bright it could be seen over the sea. Anything close to the explosion was instantly vaporized, and the shockwave caused entire ripples to form on the crust of the earth itself.
The four dinosaurs were blown into the sky, and as a wave of green energy enveloped the entire landscape, their bodies vaporized, leaving only the gem shards.
The wave of destruction spread across the entire world, destroying all in its path, including the dinosaurs.
The Stegosaurus had no idea where he was. From what he could see, he was surrounded by topaz-yellow light all around. He knew he had poofed, and was recovering in his gem. His gem? Not entirely.
The Stegosaurus then saw a figure appear. It was Topaz, the Gem who'd died, and whose shard he now carried on his tail. She looked at him, and he looked at her. Both knew that they were now one being.
The topaz shard began to glow and rise into the air. White energy came from it, briefly taking the form of Topaz before expanding into that of a Stegosaurus.
The Stegosaurus landed on the ground elegantly. He noticed that now, instead of brownish-green, his skin was a bright shade of topaz, with amber markings down his back and legs and golden plates. After looking over his new form, the Stegosaurus look out at the devastation around him.
Everything...was...gone.
Just, gone. The trees, the forests, the mountains, the dinosaurs, even the clouds, all of it, gone. Gone, as if erased from existence entirely. The Stegosaurus didn't know where he had landed, or how much time had passed since he entered his shard, but everything in the world he had known had been obliterated.
Head bent in sorrow, his eyes filling with tears, the Stegosaurus roared into the sky, and echoing roar that mourned for the dinosaurs, and the beautiful world that had been killed. He also mourned for the Triceratops, the Iguanodon, and the T. rex, who surely were killed in the apocalypse as well.
The Stegosaurus turned to walk away, only to hear a call from across the devastated land. The Stegosaurus turned to see a large figure running across the ashen ground towards him. He heard more calls, and looked to see two more figures approaching from the other sides. The Stegosaurus called out to them, knowing it was his fellow dinosaurs with shards on their bodies.
The four dinosaurs groaned in relief when they were at last reunited. The Stegosaurus noticed that, just like him, they had changed in appearance after reforming; the Tyrannosaurus was now bright red, with a lighter shade marking his underside and lower jaw. The Triceratops was now dark blue, with a lighter shade covering his legs and underbelly and aqua streaks down his quill-covered hide. The Iguanodon was now dark turquoise-green with lighter turquoise marking his stomach, feet and lower forearms, and his eyes were now covered by a clear visor, much like Turquoise had had.
The dinosaurs(sorry, DinoGems) looked around, seeing nothing but death in their former home. Serpentine's gem had likely not survived the destruction.
The four DinoGems looked at one another. Once they had been simple dinosaurs, but now, with the shards of Topaz, Azurite, Turquoise, and Red Onyx on their bodies, they had become one with the Gems themselves. They were now Topazorn, Azuron, Turquasar, and Onyxcor.
Topazorn in the lead, the DinoGems, last of the dinosaurs, strode off into the new dawn, intending to see the world through as it healed.
And so ends the prologue. Way longer than I first intended, I swear. The early draft was also extremely different events-wise too. Now that we have our new characters in, next chapter we skip ahead to modern day Beach City, with Steven and the Crystal Gems! Stay tuned!