Hello! Before we proceed with the chapter I'd like to answer a review.
Timeline15: Thanks! We've been talking about each of the Gem's personalities in order to perfectly match what they are supposed to be like. Here's hoping we can keep it up, eh?
Anyway's this is the second chapter in the Steven Universe Sequel Fanfic. I hope you all like it! As always, leave a review with your thoughts...
Chapter 2: Getting to Like You
Later that night, every human in Beach City was preparing to turn in for the night. The Gems who now lived there had to be informed beforehand about how humans need to sleep. Some of them were confused while others thought it made some sense. Many could now see how Rose found the planet so fascinating with a population that had so many unique quirks.
While many of the gems were simply content to entertain themselves and/or make smaller progress on the construction that would not disturb the residents of the temple, the main Crystal Gems returned to their respective rooms. As Steven was gearing up for bed, he looked outside and spotted his beloved pet Lion.
This lion was quite peculiar. Despite being relatively domesticated, he still comes and goes as he pleases. At the very least, Steven never got any complaints about his massive pink pet causing any trouble around the neighborhood. What struck him as odd was that Lion once died, but was revived by Rose Quartz using her powers. He started to wonder if that made Lion a gem himself?
Given that his gigantic mane was now a portal to a pocket dimension used by Rose, and now Steven, as a sort of storage space, it made him wonder just how that whole reviving process worked, especially since he accidentally performed it himself on his friend Lars.
Lion, however, simple stared in his general direction. "Lion," Steven said, "You know I don't like it when people stare at me while I sleep." The feline did not avert his gaze.
"Come on, buddy, what is it? Are you hungry?"
Lion simply blinked, as communicative as always.
"You just want to sleep on my face again, don't you?"
Lion blinked again, then simply turned, walking away. Steven then let out a sigh.
"At least he's easy to train!" he giggled to himself as he tucked himself in. Something told him tomorrow would be an interesting day.
Bismuth was hard at work burning the midnight oil in her new room in the temple. The place could be loosely described as a forge/home garage with half-finished weapon designs and blueprints strewn all over the room. Unlike the other rooms, the place was a silver cube that seemed to be just an ordinary, if bland, workshop. What many people did not know, however, was that it functioned as a less-powerful version of Rose's room. The blacksmith even had a lava vent coming in from Garnet's room installed simply by willing it. Bismuth was currently building new parts and materials for the Gems to continue building their homes with. However, there was another side project that she was working on as well.
After seeing Connie's sword, the blade that once belonged to Rose destroyed in the fight against the diamonds, she made it a mission of hers to make a new sword for the girl to use, one that would be sturdier than the last one. On top of that, this one would actually be made for a teenage human and not an alien warrior twice her height.
As she began working on the blade, though, she also began to think of Steven and how impressive his skill with Rose's shield was…
"Bismuth? Are you in there?" said Pearl from the temple door.
"Come in!" she shouted as she was brought back to reality.
"Wow," Pearl said, looking at the new room, "You've really settled in, haven't you?"
"Well, what can I say?" Bismuth said, "You can't keep a good Bismuth down!"
The slender gem chuckled at her intentionally bad pun. "Well, at least now we don't have to travel between that old forge and here."
"Yeah, I wish we had the temple like this back in the old days...But hey, we pounded it out either way! Now what brings you to my shop?"
"I… mostly wanted to apologize."
"What about? That modification for your spear break or something?"
"Oh no! I never have a problem with your work! But… I do have a problem with how I was keeping secrets from you." Pearl looked at the floor in shame.
"You mean about Rose and-"
"Pink Diamond, yes. I felt compelled to tell you all so many times, but I couldn't break my last order from my Diamond…"
"Pearl, I don't blame you for anything. And I know nobody else would be angry towards you either."
"Sapphire sure didn't feel that way…"
"Oh yeah," Bismuth said nervously, "Steven told me about that part… she reacted way worse than I did." The blacksmith remembered how it took her screaming into a lava pool to relieve the shock after Steven dropped the larger-than-life revelation on her, "But hey, like Steven said, it all worked out in the end! We're all back together, the Earth is safe, the Diamonds are friends… and I still can't get used to that."
Pearl chuckled at this. "It is pretty surreal. Who'd have thought that after so much fighting we'd not only win, but we'd finally make peace with Homeworld?"
"Not me, that's for sure! Take it from me, Pearl, you're not the only Gem whose made really stupid moves."
"Yeah, I suppose so," Pearl then looked at one of the areas of the forge and saw some drawings. "Hey, Bismuth?" she asked, "What's this?" She took one of the drawings and saw an image of herself, Garnet, Amethyst, Bismuth, and Steven, standing triumphantly on a podium. All drawn with crayon.
"Oh that?" Bismuth asked, "Steven drew that for me a while ago."
The pale gem could only laugh at the boy's antics. "I can't believe how much he's grown either. Last year I was worried about him getting scrapes on his bike. Now he's gone into space repeatedly and brokered peace with White Diamond. It's all happening so fast…"
"And look on the bright side, now he can live without worrying about any Gems going after him."
"You're right. Thanks, Bismuth. I missed having someone else to talk to."
The next morning Steven woke up, refreshed. After showering, brushing his teeth, and enjoying a hearty breakfast he was looking forward to a day with Connie while the Gem housing project was being done.
As he walked out the door, he turned around and spotted a note taped to it.
"What's this?" he said to himself as he picked up the note and tried to read it. It started out in the language that Gems use, but was crossed out and replaced with English. Go to the woods on the outskirts of Beach City. Brings friends if you must… Signed, "A new Friend."
Steven, having been through his fair share of trouble, immediately showed the note to Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet.
"Welp, here we go again," remarked Amethyst.
"Going on what again?" asked Pearl.
"More crazy adventures, duh! I knew sooner or later we'd get more weirdness around here."
"She's got a point…" added Garnet.
"So, I suppose we have no choice then but to head out," groaned Pearl, "This person already knows where you are so if we refuse, they can just show up here and do who knows what!"
"Should we bring anyone else?" asked Steven.
"Nah, dude, we've got this!" Amethyst said with confidence.
"I'm not sure," Pearl said, "We don't know who or what we'll be dealing with here. For all we know, this could be a ruse to draw Steven out."
"We can have Lapis watching us from above in case anything goes wrong," suggested Garnet, "Otherwise, the three of us together should be enough to handle most threats."
"Plus, I'm not some defenseless kid anymore! I can handle myself…"
As he was backing up his boasts, literally, Steven ended up walking himself right in front of the porch stairs and took a tumble down.
"Steven! Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine...Can I please have an ice-pack?"
"Yeah, he should be fine! There's no stairs in the woods!" joked Amethyst as Pearl pulled out the ice-pack from her gem.
About an hour later, the four main Crystal Gems were in the woods on the trail to meet with their mysterious "new friend." They took Garnet's suggestion and brought Lapis along for some airborne recon, trying to find this unknown person as well. As the grouped neared their destination, she flew down to the others.
"I found someone nearby. He was wearing this big cloak and hood, so I couldn't tell who it was," she reported.
"Thanks Lapis!"
"No prob, Bob."
"It's Steven!"
The two chuckled at their inside joke before she took off again. This time the Gems followed the direction she flew in. With their blue guide, they found their way to a small clearing where the cloaked figure stood.
"Excuse me, are you the one who left that note?" asked Steven.
The unknown figure seemed to smile warmly, then took a step forward. Unfortunately the figure then tripped over. Easily.
"Well...So much for a dramatic entrance," mumbled the cloaked figure with a noticeable British accent on his voice.
"Can we help you?" asked Pearl.
"Yes, you can!" he exclaimed as he righted himself, "I'm on the lookout for Pink Diamond, or well her gem anyway, and this is the last planet it was seen on. And now that I've been here, I can see why! This place is full of so many bizarre sights, like these strange white apparitions in the sky!"
"Uuuhhh… you mean the clouds?" guessed Amethyst.
"Clouds? That's what they're called! They even have charming names, it seems! And what about these little organisms?" He pulled out a shriveled brown mushroom from the inside of his cloak.
"That's a mushroom," answered Garnet.
"Ah," the figure said, "This planet is full of wonders! I can see why Pink Diamond faked her own destruction for all of this. Although I would have been more active with what's happened in the gem war, there there were the conflicts throughout history and-" He paused his fast ramblings when saw the Gems and Steven's faces of confusion.
"How...do you know about that?" asked Pearl, looking halfway between relieved and ready to explode.
"Well, My Diamond told me about it, of course! Can't go looking for a Gem that no longer exists, after all!" The figure took off his cloak and revealed something alarming.
He was a Gem. He was around the same height as Pearl and was around the same build as well. While their faces were identical down to the same pointed nose, his outfit was the complete opposite. He was dressed in what appeared to be all-black evening wear with white stripes running every which way all over him as if he had been assaulted by a gang of angry paint rollers. His hair, also stark black, was very high on his head with a few strands hanging over his forehead. A solid black gem could be seen on the base of his neck. It looked like…
"Wait…" Steven said, "Are you… a Pearl?"
"That's right! I am Black Pearl, the current best, albeit only, servant to the magnanimous Black Diamond! He's very interested in finding the whereabouts of Pink Diamond's heir so he sent me to look for her, I mean, him. It was rather easy to find you from orbit, given the massive eight-armed stone temple, which I must say has some exquisite architecture! Truly, whatever Bismuth designed that deserves several promotions! Anywho, I hope I have contacted the right person? Otherwise, could you tell me about any other massive stone temples on this planet? And maybe more about those mushrooms!? I-"
"Wait! Wait-Wait-Wait-Wait!" Pearl yelled, now looking like she would definitely explode, "Did you say, Black Diamond?!"
"Oh, right" the Black Pearl said as his expression changed, "You wouldn't know about that… Well I'm supposed to find Pink's 'Next of Kin' as it were. Do you know of a… What was the name… Oh yes! A 'Steven Universe'!"
The four of them, plus an extremely confused Lapis Lazuli, looked at this strange Pearl and wondered just what the heck was going on.
Steven was the first to speak, "You… you're looking for me?"
"That depends. Are you Steven Universe, or are there more of you?"
"Uh, no that's me." He lifted up his shirt to reveal his gemstone. Black Pearl gasped at the sight and ogling it on his hands and knees.
"Oh my word, it's true! Pink Diamond really did disguise herself as that Rose Quartz by altering her Gem's orientation on her form! How incredibly fascinating!"
"Um, thanks?" Steven blushed, not sure what to do with that kind of phrase.
"Anyway," the Black Pearl said with enthusiasm, "You all must the rest of the Crystal Gems who raised him since birth! If you would just follow me!" He then happily walked off in a direction, managing to not trip over his own feet this time.
Steven was about to follow him, but was stopped by Lapis.
"Whoa, guys, what's going on? What's this about some new Diamond?" she asked, even more confused than the rest of them, "Did that happen while I was in that mirror?"
"No," Pearl said, "There are no other Diamonds, just his mother, Blue, Yellow, and White."
"Than what the heck is this guy talking about? He's obviously a Gem!"
"Who knows, but we won't get answers unless we go along with him," replied Garnet, "Go back to the temple and tell the others we'll be away for a little bit. We'll make sure nothing bad happens to Steven while he's gone."
Lapis nodded and flew away towards home. The four then nodded to each other and followed the Black Pearl down a path until they came across a solid-black spaceship just barely smaller than the body part-shaped ships often used by the Diamonds.. The Black Pearl approached the ship and said, "My Diamond, I have found Steven Universe! … And by lesser extent some of the Crystal Gems."
The others could not hear the other side of the call, but it was clear that this must have been the supposed Black Diamond.
"Psst, hey Pearl, what do we do if this is just some crazy Gem who wants to fly us into the sun?" whispered Amethyst.
"Then I will commandeer his ship, fling him into space, and let Peridot reverse-engineer this. She's been bugging me for something to tinker with…"
"Well then!" cheered Black Pearl after hanging up, "Right this way, don't want to keep My Diamond waiting, after all!" A door opened up into the ship. The three cautiously stepped inside.
The interior of the ship seemed to be similar to Pink Diamond's own leg-ship, only the area was in various shades of gray and black. The only noticeable color in the area was an insignia on the wall that looked like an edited version of the Diamond Authority's sigil. They eventually got to a large door. The Black Pearl then placed his hand into it and he looked on ahead. He then turned to the others, "Right this way. My Diamond is looking forward to seeing you!" He then headed inside with the Crystal Gems in tow.
Inside was a large hexagonal room with a black in the floor and ceiling along with panels that gradually transitioned to a light gray towards the middle of the walls. The whole area was lit with a neutral light. In the middle was a large black palanquin, the typical mobile throne used by the Diamonds, decorated only with light gray curtains. Sitting inside was an unknown figure, fully obscured... save for a black gemstone located at the base of its neck. And judging from its shape it was clear that it was a Diamond.
"So...You are Pink Diamond's 'heir'?" asked the throned figure in an impossibly deep voice.
"Y-Yeah, that's me…" stammered Steven.
The being then stepped off his throne and out of the black palanquin. They saw his neutral gray skin with a face that resembled a shockingly youthful man. "You're a bit shorter than I thought you'd be," This shocked Steven as not only was his voice now less deep, even normal by human standards, but he spoke with a different tone altogether, one more casual.
As he stood upright, however, his status as a Diamond was made more clear by the fact that he was as gigantic as White Diamond was, making the other Crystal Gems feel like insects by comparison. Unlike her, however, his appearance was rather downplayed with an entirely black suit save for a few splashes of color. A white handkerchief that stood out like mad was kept in his coat pocket. The bright red flower that was kept along with it made it stand out even further. He wore two colored cufflinks on both his wrists, yellow for the left and blue for the right. On one of his fingers was a bright pink signet ring. He also had the same uncanny eyes as the other Diamonds, only his irises were a deep gray to go with the black, diamond shaped pupils.
"My apologies for that introduction, My Pearl has a tendency to fiddle with systems he shouldn't be around."
"But your voice sounds so coool like that!" exclaimed Black Pearl from the other room.
"I swear something went wrong when I made him, but then again, he's quite talented and capable despite being an Off-Color," Black said to the group. He then looked at Steven again, "Steven Universe, you don't know what an honor it is to meet you face to face."
"Thanks!" Steven replied, happy to see that this meeting with a Diamond was going much better than his introduction to White, "So...Who are you?"
"Well, as stated before, I am Black Diamond and I'm quite used to people not recognizing me. I've been… absent from Homeworld for the longest time."
"What happened? Those sticks-in-the-mud get you down?" sneered Amethyst.
"In a crude manner, you could say that. I had other ideas on how to manage Gem-kind's existence, but I failed to convince the others. So after an… incident, I left," Black Diamond paused before continuing with two other words, "Self-Exile… I guess they weren't keen on new ideas since… Well that doesn't matter anymore."
Steven was confused by that last bit in his conversation, but Pearl spoke up, "And you expect us to believe all of this? I've never heard of a Black Diamond before."
"Ah," Black said, "The unowned Pearl, assigned to Pink after she got too attached to her own Pearl in White's Eyes."
"H-h-how…?" squirmed Pearl as she blushed harder than she had in years.
"I've been keeping tabs on Homeworld, of course, since my exile began. While I further explored the cosmos for new resources to benefit Gems, I also kept my watch on White and how she has, pardon my bluntness, royally screwed up over the ages."
"You're not wrong…" mumbled Garnet.
"So, okay, you know everything, but why did you want to see me?" asked Steven.
"I've been looking for you since I require your assistance. I'm frankly amazed you could actually get White to change her ways and see reason with Pink's… departure. There is a grave threat on the horizon and I was looking for you to persuade White to lend me her aid in my cause. As much as it pains me to resume working with someone like her, the situation is too dire for me to resolve it alone. Besides… you changed her a bit, so maybe she could be.."
"My Diamond! We have a situation!" called Black Pearl from outside.
"Pearl, for the last time, the sky is supposed to be blue," groaned the Diamond, "The atmosphere of this world has a high concentration of water vapor and-"
"No, not that, I've gotten used to that! Our sensors just detected all three of the Diamonds heading towards the planet in their personal vessels! What should we do?"
"What?" Steven said.
"Really?" Black said, "Hm… They must have found out about her at this point…"
"Ooh, a mystery Gem! Tell us more!" exclaimed Amethyst.
"All in good time. But for now, Pearl, take our ship and land in the approximate area of White's projected landing zone. It's time for a long-overdue reunion."
"Wait, what!?" Black Pearl was shocked, "With White?! Right now?! Oh, but I have so many things to prepare! I need to have the meeting spot decorated, perhaps with some of those lovely mushrooms I spotted before, and the itinerary must be made to account for the level of debate, and of course, there will be their Pearls to account for, so I…"
"Wow, he's as nuts as you are…" chuckled Amethyst as Pearl's expense, "Looks like he's your perfect match!"
"I BEG YOUR PARDON?" shouted Pearl, looking about ready to die from embarrassment as her black colored counterpart kept rambling. However, as soon as he saw an intimidating gaze from his Diamond, the personal servant stopped speaking immediately, instead, meekly saying, "Y-Yes my Diamond…"