Pearl swung her blade downward and caught Connie by surprise. Luckily Steven managed to get between the two and a loud ring echoed throughout the arena. The gem looked at the two with a surprise before withdrawing.
"Excellent form you two. Though Connie I'd like for you to keep your guard up at all times. Steven may not be fast enough to save you, so you must learn how to survive longer in these situations. I know it's difficult to watch all your sides, but you need to concentrate."
"Yes ma'am." Connie replied as she took a small bow.
"And Steven we need to make your shield more versatile. A good defense is needed, but I've seen your mother make her shield a good offensive tool."
Steven put his hand on his chin before looking at the shield. "So kinda like that guy with the red, white, and blue shield."
Pearl chuckled at his little reference and nodded. "Of course just like that guy. So that'll be all for today I'd like to say-"
"Wait, Pearl!" Steven said.
"Um, yes Steven?" Pearl asked.
"Let's have one more match, but not against the two of us but the one of us!" Steven said. Pearl gave a look of confusion before noticing Connie's smirk on her face. "Wait a match between me and Stevonnie? Are you sure because I heard that you're first experience with that fusion was a bit weird."
Connie stepped up and put down her sword. "But last week, me and Steven formed Stevonnie to fight off those gem monsters. And we managed to hold our own until those two were defeated. I think me and Steven are ready to put our fusion to the test."
Pearl looked at the two with words to discourage the act, but something inside her shivered at the thought of fighting the two fused together. Lion walked next to them and Steven quickly pulled out Rose's sword.
"Please Pearl." Steven begged. Pearl looked at them before shaking her head. "Alright fine, but we're doing this as an exercise. I don't want you two to do fusion during battle without some of form of training from Garnet."
The two smiled widely as the two faced each other. Pearl watched them do small dance moves before Steven spun Connie and the pink glow within consumed them.
Pearl covered her eyes as the light shined brightly and died just as fast. She opened her eyes to find Stevonnie holding up Rose's sword and shield.
They were in position and Pearl felt old nostalgia as she made a dash towards them. Focusing on her gem, Pearl soon had a small squad of holo-Pearls with her. Stevonnie gripped her hilt and charged forward.
"Haa!" The two yelled as several blades made impact with the pink shield. Stevonnie expanded her shield and the holo-Pearls broke down. Two more behind jumped up and aimed their blades downward, only to meet a pink arc of light slicing them in half.
Pearl stood on top one of the columns and felt the closing thing to adrenaline rush through her as her holograms began falling. Flashes of her training sessions with Rose came to her mind and Pearl decided to confront the two.
She leapt down from her position and swung her sword in a silver arc. Silver met pink as sparks flew between the two. Stevonnie rolled backward and they quickly raised their shield as Pearl got into another stance.
They once again clashed with sparks between the two erupting along with the occasional ringing off a sword bouncing of a shield.
Pearl and Rose's sword finally met with each gem pushing against one another. "Not bad." Pearl panted as she felt her position shift back. Then she spun out of the way and kicked Stevonnie right on their back. The fusion rolled across the floor and slid toward the stands.
They got up and flashed a smile at Pearl and picked up their blade. The fusion let their shield fade away as Pearl put down her blade. "That was great! The way you handled the holograms and holding your own against me was amazing. You really know how to wield that blade."
Stevonnie smiled before feeling their fusion weaken and the two kids once again were in play. Steven and Connie were both panting as they felt the after-effects of their fusion. They never pushed themselves that hard with the fusion form.
"Steven." Connie said between breaths.
"Yeah." Steven pushed himself up and found Connie laughing. "What's so funny?"
"We definitely need to do that again! I felt awesome with all that was going on. It feels great to be Stevonnie!" Connie laughed.
Steven followed her example and laughed until the warp pad lit up. The two kids and gem looked up and saw Garnet with Amethyst looking freaked out. "Oh, hello Garnet. Don't worry we just finished our training session."
Garnet raised her hand as she took off her glasses. "We have a problem."
"Oh, what is it Garnet?" Connie asked. "Lapis lost her will to hold onto Malachite. Jasper's coming to Beach City within the next week. Jasper lacks Lapis's control of the water so it'll take her awhile to arrive here." Garnet responded. Pearl covered her mouth in horror as Connie felt her heart stop. Steven had Pearl show Connie the image of Malachite before a training session.
Steven looked down at the ground as the news sunk in. His hand clenched tightly as he felt both fear, sadness, and rage. Fear for Malachite's return. Sadness for possibly losing his friend to Jasper. And unrequited rage for Jasper's return and what she had to do to Lapis for it.
"We'll be ready for Malachite!" Steven proclaimed.
"Steven?" Everyone questioned as he started to pace back and forth. "We have Mom's light cannons to help us and we could try to do...something! I'm not going to let Jasper come over and wreck our home!"
Garnet went over and patted him on the head. "Calm down Steven. We have more than enough time till Malachite arrives, but right now all we can do is prepare. Afterall we have an idea of what we're up against."
Steven swallowed and nodded as Garnet went over to Connie. "Connie, how are you feeling about becoming more used to Stevonnie?"
"Wait, what?" Garnet put on her glasses and kneeled down to Connie's level. "I mean how do you feel about becoming a fusion for our battle with Malachite. Out of all our fusions, besides me, Stevonnie is the most stable and most prominent in battle. And besides most futures I see where you two are not fused results in one of you dying."
"Garnet!" Pearl exclaimed as Connie's face paled. "Sorry, but out the many number of futures I can see either Connie or Steven dies by Malachite's hand. The most probable future is where they control Stevonnie. She's on par with us by Connie's swordsmanship and Steven's better control of his shield. If this works they can be the turning factor in our battle."
Steven noticed Connie's still pale face as he saw her grip his mother's hilt rather tightly. Before he could his mouth Connie turned to him. "Steven, do you want to do this? I mean I'm fine with it if you are."
"Yeah I'm fine with. If we beat Malachite then we can save Lapis!" Steven said. "Right! We're ready Garnet."
Garnet smiled at the pair and glanced at Pearl and Amethyst. The two sat down at the stands as Garnet got into teaching mode. "Now let's begin on how long you can take last as Stevonnie."
Unknown Location
"This is Peridot. While still stranded upon abandoned Gem Colony: planet Earth my activities have been fruitful. But without any of the warp pads working and the small amount of gem materials to work on I fear my stay will last longer." Suddenly the ground shook as Peridot saw the cliffs around her collapse.
"What?! Are those clods here!?" Peridot wondered as her equipment detected two gem signatures. She put energy to her fingers and then took off into the sky.
'Those clods won't get me this time!' Peridot chuckled at her escape until a giant hand of water rose above her. "WHAT?!"
Peridot felt herself submerged into the icy cold depths. Those she didn't need to breathe, Peridot felt her midsection burn. The salt was leaking into her equipment and shorting them out. Before she could do anything the water left her on the ground in a cave, coughing badly as she pushed water out of her mouth.
The gem quickly got up and formed her energy cannon. The slight glow of the energy cannon hummed gently as Peridot moved slowly. "Alright show yourself you clods!"
"Who are calling a clod, Peridot?" Peridot froze at the two voices and found herself facing a green and blue tinted arm. Her arm moved up as the light moved up the torso.
The technician felt herself tremble in fear as the worst possible situation happened. Finally the light shined upon the four eyes aimed right at her. One stared at her with Jasper's cold unforgiving eyes as the bottom ones were closed.
"Oh my." Peridot whispered as she saw Malachite staring right at her with a psychotic grin plastered on her face. She leaned down to Peridot, but the green gem stumbled back and tripped on a rock. This made her accidentally fire her shot right at Malachite's face.
A bright light emulated from the attack and Peridot wondered if that work. To her not so much surprise, Malachite still stood above her and looked angrier.
"I'm going to let you live from that you useless drone, but first you're going to help me raze the Crystal Gems! I want you to disable any tech they may have." Peridot looked like she was going to run, but a wall of water rose behind her. "If you don't your life will beee-" Malachite paused as her eyes twitched violently. Peridot backed up until Malachite opened her begging bottom eyes.
"Peridot, warn the Crystal Gems! Jasper's just going to get rid of you after you're done. Listen they'll help beat Malachite. You need to let them know about our weakne-Let go you parasite! Ignore that message or I'll crush your gem!"
'This so confused! Lapis, Jasper whatever they are is just scary. And warn the clods; they wouldn't need to know how to handle someone of this magnitude!' Peridot thought as she panicked.
"Now let's go started. If you do anything to betray me." Malachite stepped on a rock and pressed against it. Peridot watched it crumble underneath their weight and swallowed nervously.