DISCLAIMER: I totally don't own Steven Universe. I do however own this Pop-Tart that I'm currently eating.
Long chapters are awesome.
~~~OOO~~~ -David-
"You need to go to sleep. I still have to talk to the other gems."
'I want to go to sleep, but she's staring at me.' You look back into the corner of the ceiling, and sure enough, the little green gem is looking at you from the rafters again.
"That little gem? It's a worker class gem. Don't worry about it. It looks like an advanced version of the olivine class gems I used to— Never mind." You decide to try something. You look up at the gem that's still hiding in the rafters.
You call out to the gem. "Can you come down for a second? I wanna talk to you."
The gem stays still for a second, then slowly makes her way down towards you. As she's coming towards you, you look down from the loft. The other gems haven't arrived yet. You turn back around. The little gem is now mere feet away, shaking? You look at it— her, and realize that the glare she was giving you from the rafter wasn't a glare from anger, it was a glare from fear. The poor thing was terrified, but why? You stand up and walk over to the small gem, and while she doesn't move away, she seems to be trying her hardest to shrink into herself. As you reach out to touch her, you hear her say something, in a voice much too small to be her normal voice.
"Pl—Please, D—Don't hurt me." Your hand stops, and you look at the gem.
"What?"
'She thinks I'm gonna hurt her?'
"No, she thinks I'm going to hurt her." Oh.
"Please. I'm so s—sorry for betraying homeworld. Forgive me, please. I don't want to be cr—acked or sh—attered." She starts sobbing and lets herself fall to the floor.
"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. What's wrong?"
"It's you, isn't it? I—I've seen your gem in the history t—tomes."
You're unsure of what to do so you bend down and grab her wrists. She yelps and flinches, but stays where she is, and you lift her up to her feet. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. You're gonna be fine."
You give her a hug. She takes a few seconds to process this information, and then relaxes in your grip. After a few seconds she starts chuckling. She's still crying, but she's laughing even harder now.
Oh god, you broke her.
"Are you okay now?" She just smiles and shakes her head.
"It's funny you know. Before I came to earth, I never got hugged, or told that I was worth anything… Look at me now, my life's upside down. I mean for the love of homeworld, I'm being hugged by a frackin' D—"
The warp pad chimes, and the noise makes small gem jump away. You look at her and asked her if she was still okay. She nodded. You asked her if her name was Olivine. She looks at you for a second, then bursts into laughter again.
"Haha, that's a new one. An original Olivine? Nah, I'm not that old, but Olivine is close, because I am from the Olivine family. I'm a Peridot class gem, but I guess you wouldn't know that considering you supposedly died in the w—" Her words are cut off when a gauntleted hand clamps down over her mouth.
Garnet looks at you and Peridot and says, "That's enough of that topic." then proceeds to let Peridot drop to the floor. She turns to you. "Are you almost ready to go to bed? We still need to talk to White Quartz."
Peridot looks confused. "White Quartz? Don't you mean—" She began.
"I mean White Quartz." Garnet said as she turned to Peridot. "And that is what you'll refer to her as for the time being."
You look to Peridot. "If you want, you can stay here and talk to my gem after I go to sleep. The other gems are going to talk to her, and you might learn something cool about me."
"Uh, sure. I mean if it's all right with, um, Garnet." She looks at Garnet pleadingly.
"Fine." Garnet walks towards the stairs before turning back to face you. "It's bedtime for you though."
You turn to Peridot. "Well, guess it's bedtime for me. See you later Peri."
"Heh, that's a new one too. See you soon, White Quartz."
"My name's Daniel, call me that if you want."
"Oh, okay, good night… Daniel."
You're left alone to your thoughts.
"Are you ready for this?"
Well… Mostly alone. You start listening to White Quartz, and she fills you in on what's gonna happen. All you have to do is sleep, and she'll take care of the rest. You get ready to respond, and an evil idea enters your head. You smirk.
'Don't worry about it, it sounds so easy…'
"I swear to whatever god this planet worships, if you say what I think your going to say—"
'I could probably do it in my sleep.'
Your eye starts itching again.
~~~OOO~~~ -Peridot-
You're sitting in the bathroom when you hear a knock on the door. Must be Steven. You open the door and are about to ask him why he still feels the need to knock, when you see that it, in fact, isn't Steven. It's the Big Clod. You remember that you had to talk to the new "Quartz" that is, apparently, living here now. She crosses her arms.
"Time to go."
"Go where?" You hadn't actually thought the Crystal Clods were seriously going to let you come with them.
"I said you could come listen. Don't make me regret that decision." She starts walking off.
"Hey, Garnet," You call out. "Why was he being so… nice to me? I thought he would shatter me when I saw the gem he possessed but… He seems almost as nice as Steven." She seems to pause for a moment at that, thinking it over. She turns back to you.
"I don't know. She is nothing like we remember her being. I'm not sure what happened but… she changed somehow. Be grateful you didn't meet her a few millennia ago." You nod at her statement. You truly are glad she wasn't as cruel as the history tomes portrayed her. "And stop referring to them as her. They're two different people." She turns and walks off towards the loft where the new guest was sleeping. Better get going too.
~~~OOO~~~ "White Quartz"
Heavy footsteps come up the stairs, followed by smaller, faster footsteps. Time to meet them I suppose. You take a moment to make sure he's dreaming, and another to see exactly what he's dreaming about. He's on the cruise ship again. You change the dream to something… safer. He's on the beach now. Much better. You turn your attention back to the outside world, and slowly take over his body.
You're face down on the floor. You place his hands on either side of his chest and push off of the floor. As you get up, you hear the one that was called garnet start talking. "You're supposed to be asleep." Your gem swivels in the boys socket to look at her. His other eye sits closed. She stiffens up at the sight. "So it's you then." She says. It wasn't a question. You smile slightly.
"Hello Garnet. Yes, it is me. I would've answered all your questions then, but I couldn't risk either of the boys hearing anything they shouldn't have. Is Steven here?" You ask, walking downstairs and sitting Daniel's body down on the couch.
"No, we decided that he should stay the night at Greg's place." She said with a smirk, as if expecting you to be upset at this development. You lace his hands behind his head.
"Good." The small smirk disappears and you can almost see her eyebrow rising behind her visor.
"Why are you pretending to be worried about Steven? If you think that you—" She starts, but you cut her off with a raise of his hand.
"I understand she isn't coming back, but I truly care about the boy. She was almost like a mother to me, even though she was my sister. I feel… a need to watch over Steven as she watched over me. There is no ruse. That part of the conversation stays between us three, but we should wait for the other gems before continuing."
Garnet looks like she wants you to continue, but agrees nonetheless. You look over at the small Peridot that you befriended earlier, and frown when she looks away, afraid again. You call her over.
"Peridot, please approach me." You look at the peridot for a reaction, and as expected, she kept her head down and stiffly walked towards you. "Look at me please." She looks up, and you lock eyes with her. "Are you still afraid of me?"
She slowly nods her head, and speaks. "Daniel told me that he wasn't going to hurt me, and I believe him, but… you're not Daniel, are you?"
"Indeed I'm not. I assume you know my name?"
She nods, "White Quartz."
You smirk at that. "My true name, if you please."
"White…" She starts, looking to Garnet for permission to continue, which Garnet provides through a nod of her head. "Your name is… White Diamond. Youngest sister of the Diamond Authority. Shattered in the great war over Earth." You nod at that. It was mostly true.
"Almost true, with a few exceptions. Last I remembered, It was called the Diamond Monarchy, and I didn't die in the war, although I came close. But still, close enough." Peridot nods at your words, absorbing this new information. "You remember how Daniel promised he wouldn't hurt you?" Another nod. "He was speaking for both of us at the time. His promise that no harm will come to you extends to me as well."
At this time the other gems arrived. Pearl and the quartz, Amethyst, arrived from their rooms and started walking towards the couch. Pearl spoke up.
"What's he doing still awake, we need to talk to her not h—"
"Hello Pearl. How have you been? It's been a while." You swivel your gem to look at her now.
"Oh."
"Hey girl what's up?" Amethyst hops over to the couch and sits down. "You're the gem chilling out inside Daniel's noggin, right?"
"...Yes. I am. You are Amethyst, correct?"
"Yep, That's me!"
"Okay… they told you who I am, right?" Her smile falters a bit, "Yeah, I thought so. So why are you being so nice to me then?"
"Look, The gems told me what happened with the war, and… I don't know, I guess I can't see you like that. You apparently saved the kid, even if it was to save yourself, and you haven't attacked us yet. Besides, the war happened before I popped out of the ground, so… Hey, no hard feelings."
"Thank you." You turn so that you're facing them all. "I imagine you're waiting for my story of how I wound up inside Daniel." They don't respond so you continue. "The story goes back all the way to the end of the war." You don't continue until you're sure that that information has sunk in.
"The war had just ended, with a resounding loss on our part. There were still some skirmishes taking place, mostly by some stubborn Jasper field commanders, but for the most part the treaty had been signed and we were abiding by it. We were to no longer come to earth, and in return, our sister had to stay here, on earth, in exile." Peridot raised her hand.
"Yes Peridot?" You looked at her.
"The history tomes didn't mention a sister. They only told us of Blue, White and Ye—" Her voice peters off as she notices the other gems staring at her. Garnet looks at you and says "She doesn't need to know."
This… was unexpected. They don't even want anybody to remember their leader's true name? No. You won't stand for this. She deserved better. "I'm telling her. Peridot, sit here please." You motion towards the couch cushion next to yours. Peridot walks up and sits on the couch next to you. "Peridot, do you know the name of the gem who used to lead the Crystal Gems?" Peridot nods.
"Her name was Rose Quartz, right?" You nod at her answer.
"Her name was Rose Quartz, yes, but a long time ago she was known by a different na—"
"STOP!" You look at Pearl. She had tears in her eyes. "Stop, please. I can't hear you call her that. None of us can. It's not her real name to us. The gem you're talking about didn't exist." You freeze up and look around. Amethyst was looking away and you could barely see Garnet's hand shaking. You realized that they were all afraid. They were all afraid that you would say something that would shatter the memories they had of the only gem that ever loved and protected them. But you can't allow them to say your sister didn't exist. You need to fix this.
"Look, Crystal Gems… I'm sorry." They look at you. "I know you know her as Rose Quartz, but you have to remember that even though she was your leader, she was my sister. She was the kindest sister out of all of us. She loved me unconditionally and I—I never told her how much she meant to me." You feel something hitting his laps. You look down and realize that tears were hitting his legs. "On the day you lost your leader, I lost my sister." You look up, and the gems are all looking at you. Your eyes lock onto Pearl.
"And I knew my sister as Pink Diamond, so don't you DARE that say my sister never existed."
~~~OOO~~~ -Pearl-
It hurts, having your own feelings used against you. Especially when you know that the person doing it is in the right. Rose was your leader. Rose was the only gem who you ever loved. Rose was the most perfect person in the universe… Rose was White Diamond's sister… White Diamond Loved Pink Diamond even more than you loved Rose…
And you just told White Diamond that Pink Diamond Never even existed in the first place.
"I'm… Sorry. I never knew how much Ro—Pink Diamond meant to you. I guess— I guess I really am a defective pearl. After all, would a normal pearl tell someone that her master never existed?" You pause for a moment. "But… she never really was my master, or at least she didn't consider herself my master. She told me so herself. She— Rose told me she considered me a companion, and that I was my own free gem. I miss her so much, and I don't want to lose her memories. I loved her so much."
You're shaking at what you just said. You just called her Pink Diamond for the first time in millennia.
~~~OOO~~~ -White Quartz-
"You don't have to lose her memories. She loved you as Rose Quartz, and she loved you as Pink Diamond. You need to come to terms with the fact that they were one and the same." The words are out of your mouth before you even realize what you were saying. You're starting to realize that these gems weren't simply the remains of your sister's army. These gems were your sister's closest friends.
"Look, I'm going to continue with the story, but not until you're ready to listen to more. I'm tired, and I cant keep up controlling his body. He will regain control soon, and I want him in bed when he does, okay?" The Gems start nodding, too drained to argue with you. You turn to Peridot. "Before I leave, I need your help with something. You are an engineering gem, from what it seems, correct?"
"Yes Ma'am, I am an Olivine family technician gem. Peridot class. Best in my field." Peridot seemed… enthused to say the least, to tell you about her job. Ah well. She's probably just happy someone's taken an interest in her life.
"Do you know anything about robotics?" Peridot goes silent. She starts shaking again. You're about to reach out and grab her shoulder when you see the stupidly huge, half drunken smile on her face. Oh no… you broke her. Again.
Peridot jumps off the couch and runs out of the room. You hear a loud noise coming from the restroom. She walks out a few seconds later with a few round robots following her. "Robotics is my specialty!"
"...Didn't we confiscate all your flask robonoids?" Peridot blanches at the sound of Garnet's voice.
"Steven… may… have told me where you had them..." This was getting out of hand.
"Look" You say, getting everyone focused back on you "I can't stay in control much longer here, so I'll keep it short. I need you to make me a prosthetic limb."
Your gaze is met by 4 simultaneous confused looks and one simultaneous bout of "What?"
"When the boy and I met, he was missing a few… pieces. Two to be exact. Some small organ on the inside of his body, and his… arm." You let the constructed arm vanish, revealing that his arm was non existant. His torso simply… ended at the shoulder. "I've been keeping an arm materialized for him at all times. But it's getting taxing on my strength. He needs a new limb, and soon. I'm asking you to make me one," You point to Peridot. "because I would rather him have a homeworld quality prosthetic than a human quality hook. Can you do this for me?" Peridot nods, then thinks about it for a minute.
"I'll need my limb enhancers, but I can do it."
Limb enhancers? "What are limb enhancers?"
"You need to go to bed." I wave Garnet's advice off.
"I'll be fine. Releasing the construct freed up some energy. I have a few more minutes to spare." I turn back to Peridot. "What do your limb enhancers look like?"
Peridot quickly describes what they look like, and you find that your task of retrieving them has become a lot easier. "I've seen those things before. We'll go tomorrow night to retrieve them, okay?"
"Uh, you've seen them before? Where?" She asks. You look over your shoulder at her as you're walking up the stairs with a smile.
"The underwater fusion who helped Daniel and I has them."
You turn back to the stairs, ignoring all the shocked stares you knew were being directed at the back of your head. Ideas were being formed in the back of your head, and glimpses of outcomes passed your vision in a blur. Even as you laid back and closed your eyes, you still couldn't stop smiling. After all you had a plan.
And, as you know, things always go according to plan.
~~~OOO~~~ -Daniel-
You wake up with your arm missing.
Great.
You almost panic, but manage to hold it down, remembering back to the hospital incident. You didn't want a repeat of that. You look around, but you don't see any blood. You do however smell something tasty coming from downstairs.
...Screw it, You'll have a breakdown later, Right now you need to eat.
You go downstairs. It appears that Steven still isn't back yet. You can see Garnet on the couch, Amethyst sitting on the counter, and Pearl cooking something on the stove. You clear your throat. Garnet looks up.
"Um, Morning." You walk over to Garnet. "Can you help me out real quick? I seem to have a problem with my arm, and I'm kinda stumped on what to do here." You hear Amethyst's laughter coming from behind you. "So yeah, bad puns aside, where'd my arm go?" Garnet looks at you for a second before replying.
"You're taking this awfully well."
"Trust me, I'm freaking out pretty bad here. I'm just keeping it inside in case Steven decides to come home anytime soon."
"He's not."
"Thanks." Garnet stands up and grabs your shoulder. "What are yo—"
…
Yep. Unconscious again. You wake up on the couch next to Garnet. Pearl is cooking again and Amethyst is waving something in front of your face. You gag just a little at the smell. Amethyst hides whatever she woke you up with and looks at you. You give her a weak thumbs up and she rolls her eyes and goes back to the counter. You look at Garnet.
"Less than a minute."
…
"Thanks."
"If you're feeling up to it there's some food over here." Pearl calls from the kitchen. "It's still warm."
You get up off the couch and walk over to the counter. You are trying to figure out how to get on the tall stool, when you feel hot breath on the back of your neck and suddenly get lifted onto the seat. You turn around and see the lion sitting on his haunches behind you. You reach over and rub the big cat between his ears, and he responds by rubbing his head back into your palm. You look over at Pearl.
"Thanks for the food. Uh, did you learn anything interesting about me last night?" You asked. Pearl gave a small shrug. Uh oh. The "Something bad happened" alarm is going off. "She didn't say anything bad to you guys, did she?" Pearl turns around with a(n obviously forced) smile.
"Oh no, no. She didn't say anything much. She's almost as much in the dark about all this as you are. It's fine! She certainly didn't say anything bad about us."
You find yourself having a hard time believing that. "Well… I'm not accusing you of lying, but on the off chance that she did say anything hurtful and you just can't remember right now, I really am sorry." You hop off the stool and go to sit back down on the couch, leaving pearl smiling softly behind your back.
You feel a small pressure inside your head, and suddenly White Quartz is back.
"Oh, you woke up before me."
'Care to explain why my arm's missing?'
"I got tired of keeping it formed. It was using up too much energy. It's only for a few days, until Peridot builds you your new arm."
'Peridot's building me a new arm? How long should it take?'
"I have no clue."
Great. You might as well get up now. You turn to Garnet. "Where's Peridot? White Quartz told me she was going to build me a new arm."
Garnet points towards the bathroom then reaches under the couch and pulls out a football helmet. "You're gonna need this." She tosses it to you.
You put on the helmet and open the bathroom door. A piece of crystal flies at your head and cracks the helmet. Garnet gives you a thumbs up. "You can take it off now." You give her a thumbs up and walk inside. Peridot is working on something on the floor. It looks like she's fixing a robot. Cool. You sit down next to her and ask her if she needs help.
"No, It's okay Daniel, I am merely trying to fix enough robonoids to help us retrieve my limb enhancers." Okay then. You see her start stuffing some strange compound inside one of the robonoids. (is that c4?!) You excuse yourself from the room, but right before you leave Peridot calls you back.
"So, I met the gem that's inside your eye. She seems… nice." She pulls out a tub of (thankfully) a different putty from a hamper. "Take off your shirt please? I need to take measurements for the prosthetic." She smears the putty over your chest where the arm should have connected to the shoulder. You can feel the putty hardening before she grabs it and pops it off the side of your chest. "Thanks for holding still."
You look at her again. "You know, you look a lot different from yesterday, you know." She turns to face you.
"How so?" You shrug your shoulders at that.
"You seem more confident. You look a lot nicer when you're not crying on the floor. I'm sorry if I scared you last night Peridot." She shrugs.
"It's my fault. I overreacted. That's all."
You look at her. "Peridot, I don't like it." She starts looking confused.
"Don't like what Daniel?"
"I don't want people to fear me." You say. "I mean sure, I can sometimes be a bit of an ass, but I would much rather be friends."
Peridot walks up to you and ruffles your hair, which is a strange sight to see considering she's shorter than you. "Enough with the sucrose human, seriously. Between you and Steven, I'll be a puddle of mush before the month's up. Go play with the fusion or something. I gotta draw up plans for your new arm." You turn, and as you're walking out of the room, you hear her laughing. Guess you made a good second impression.
"You could always go take her advice you know. Go play with the fusion."
You shake your head. Garnet doesn't seem much for playing.
"You just haven't given her the chance. Besides, I'm not talking about her. We DO know another fusion. I was talking to the underwater fusion this morning, while I was unresponsive. I asked her to come over and play nice so we could retrieve the limb enhancers. She's sleeping under the pier right now. I have a plan thal will make EVERYBODY happy. I already got the fusion to agree to play nice with the Crystal Gems, now we're gonna get the gems to play nice with the fusion… and I know just how to do it."
~~~OOO~~~ -Steven-
You're sitting in the "It's a wash!" operator's booth, bored out of your mind. You're helping out at the carwash to pass the time until you can go home. You're spinning around in the spinny-seat when you see Daniel walking towards the pier through the window. His shirt was pinned up on the lefthand side. You turn to dad. He saw it too.
"Go check up on your br—buddy. I can handle the wash on my own for the rest of the day. Here." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled up handful of bills. "Take this for uh, services rendered." You look at the money. It's two tens and… A ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL?
You push the money back into his hand. Curse your good nature.
"Dad, I think you overpaid me. By a lot." Greg pulls the money out of your hands and counts again. He hands the cash back.
"Nope, I'm pretty sure that's what I meant to give you, kiddo. Go have fun, and remember, I love you so mu—Gllkk" He can't say anything else with how tight you're squeezing him. You pull out of the hug.
"I love you too dad, maybe I'll get something nice for Daniel. Bye!" You're out the door and running after Daniel before he can say anything else.
"Hey Daniel! Wait up!" You shout. He turns around. "Where're you going off to? I saw you walk by the ca—." You gasp. His arm was missing. He looks surprised to see you, then smiles.
"Don't worry about it. I was..." He paused for a moment "shapeshifting and my arm disappeared. It'll be back soon." You nod understandingly. Shapeshifting sucks.
"So, where are you heading? Dad let me get off work to hang out with you."
"I was heading off to the pier, I was gonna meet an old friend of White Quartz's there." Steven gasps.
"A new friend?! Can I come with you guys too?! I wanna meet your new friend too!" He pauses for a moment, then responds.
"She says it might be dangerous, and that we thought we'd be going alone. She wants to know if you're sure you want to come."
"I love meeting new people! Of course I wanna come!" He starts chuckling.
"Okay, okay, just stay behind me when we get there." Yes! One more cart to add to the Steven Universe Friendship Train!
"So where do we meet this new friend of ours?"
"She says that she's resting under the pier. Let's go."
Awesome! You get to hang out with your best bro, AND make a new friend? There's no way this day could turn sour!
~~~OOO~~~
Daniel, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! (and props to you for only fainting for a few seconds when you realized you had lost your arm.)
Long chapters are fun to write, but they feel so strange to write at the same time. Thanks for reading!