Time resumes at a point about 15 seconds before Last had his meltdown.
"So, are we done here?" Last asked. Garnet nodded.
"Yes, we're done."
Last's wings folded themselves in close to his back.
"Good, now then let's..." Last didn't get to finish that sentence as he fell to his knees in what seemed like pain. Steven rushed to him.
"I thought I could go unsensed just a little longer, I thought they might not notice me coming in."
"Who noticed you?" Garnet said in an extremely serious tone.
Last's image seemed to flicker for half a second, "They are the others like me, they all fell before me, I was the last to fall. (There's the answer to the question of why his name is Last.) I just want to feel, feel something besides the Void that I spent eternity in. I thought I could hide my presense from their senses, but it feels like they didn't lose their powers either. They're coming, get me inside. This will not end well."
Garnet immediately pulled Last onto her back and rushed to the house. As they rushed to the house the sky darkened quickly and grew stormy.
"Steven." Last said in a quiet voice. He weakly raised a hand. "Lend me some of your strength."
Steven grasped Last's hand as his eyes flickered to white for a moment as Steven began to feel weak. Last's grip strengthened as he pulled Steven up into Garnet's arms.
"Thank you, now I can at least hide you from them."
Last leapt from Garnet's arms and bolted up into the beach house beconing the others in after him. He shut the door and began to press his hands to the door frame. As he pulled them from the door frame, a large amount of odd symbols burned themselves into it. He repeated the process of the windows as well.
"Garnet." Last said as he opened the door. "These wards should at the very least block them from seeing all of you, but I ask that you take care of Steven, he's more important than can be imagined." With that Last walked out the door and shut it behind him.
Last looked up at the sky and watched as a faint shimmer circled the beach and a lightining bolt hit the beach.
"You've always had to be dramatic when it came to your entrances haven't you, Gabriel?"
Out of the small cloud of sand that the bolt kicked up the figure of something that appeared human came into view.
"Didn't think you paid enough attention to know that I have a new name."
"I always watch, now what are you doing here?"
"Ooo come on lossen up, I can't visit the last one of us to fall to the mortal plane?"
"Not where we are concerned, it's never just a visit."
Gabriel's expression dropped from that of happiness to completely serious.
"Where's your anchor? Must be incredibly strong to keep you grounded here, that or they weigh as much as this planet."
"Not quite enough actually." Last said pulling up a sleeve to reveal the runes on his arms.
"Well, falling AND tattoos. In the same day no less, maybe you really have pulled that stick out of your ass."
"(growls slightly) Not funny, and why did you think it was necessary to put that much energy into braking my masking wards?"
"Well, for starters, if I didn't pull almost all your energy out from under you, you would have shoot off-world before I came within a light-year of this place."
"Clever, that's so unlike you, you've been learning since you've been here."
Gabriel smilled a very sly smile, "Speaking of learning, I learned a trick around your little ward that is supposed to keep me from knowing where your anchor is. All I had to do was stretch my senses all over this little town until I found a spot where I picked up nothing, and the only place around here where I sense nothing (laughs a little under his breath) is in the house behind you."
Last was shocked, he didn't even hide it.
"Well, before I start trying to throw you off this plane of existence, give me ONE reason why I should trust you enough to not do so."
Gabriel's smile faded abruptly. "I'm desperate, my anchor is going to die soon and I need a new one, and I don't want one that will be gone in a couple of decades. I've been looking for an anchor that could last as long as us, then I felt you on my radar for the smallest fraction of a second, I thought I had imagined it, but I held out hope that it was you.
You are one of the strongest of us, so you would need someone that could ride the whirlwind. So I followed that wisp of air here, hoping to find someone like that, but all there is on this hunk of rock are humans." Takes a deep breath. "And the sweet smell of magic, that's new. But I'll, ask once, only once. Before we both do something we'll regret. What, on this ROCK, did you anchor yourself to."
Last sighed slowly and walked slowly to the door.
"My anchor is an impossible child." Last opened the door watching Steven tumble out onto the porch, since he had been listening from the other side.
Shock filled Gabriels face. "Noo, you found an impossible child, a child born against all the laws of creation? Wait, noo, there's something else, he's half gem? He smells like stone and blood. You realize that.."
"Yes, I do and I didn't find him. He found me, in the cold and the dark."
Last neiled down to Steven. "Where did the others go?"
"They went to find Pearl in the Temple."
"What! Little Miss Ego is in there too? What else do you have in that house? A philophers sto..."
Last turned his head back towards Gabriel with a warning glare as he slowly walked towards the two of them.
"She used the other method to fall, she isn't awake to who she was before, but I'm sure two of us here will cause something to surface in her mind."
Gabriel was almost all the way up the stairs but his path was blocked by Last.
"Swear, in the name of the 14 original entities, that your intentions are pure, and that you will, to the best of your ability, behave."
Gabriel swore to the conditions that Last had outlined and Last stood aside but grabbed Gabriel's shoulder before he walked all the way past.
"It is still Steven's choice, you don't get to scare a 'yes' out of him."
Gabriel looked at Steven. "Have you been listening from the start?" Steven nodded.
"Then this will be simple enough, will you allow me to anchor myself onto you?"
Steven pondered for a minute, weighing the options he had. His immediate thought was to say no, but then again Gabriel had not done anything wrong since he appeared, and saying no would probably result in a large fight between Last and Gabriel and quite possibly the destruction of the city.
Steven raised up a hand towards Gabriel. Gabriel smiled and slowly raised his own hand, savoring the moment. When their hands connected nothing happened for a moment, then the quiet sound of chains breaking somewhere far away and then a jolt of energy passed between Gabriel and Steven.
"I'm curious," Steven said to the both of them, "why a hand-shake?"
They both looked at each other for a moment and answered in unison. "Universal sign of agreement."
"So," Last said to Gabriel, "Do you think anyone else detected me?"
"You weren't exactly sile.." Gabriel was cut short by Pearl coming out of nowhere.
"Steven!" Pearl screamed as she pulled two spears and drove one into Last's chest and the other into Gabriel's.
Gabriel grunted slightly and Last looked down at the spear.
"That freaking hurt!" They both exclaimed in some very rightous anger.
Last pulled the spear from his chest and broke it over his knee. There was a small trickle of blood for a moment before the wound sealed with a few arcs of red energy, but there it was, hot red blood.
The same thing happened to Gabriel after he had pulled the spear, he bleed for a moment and the wound sealed but with no red sparks.
Gabriel took a step towards Pearl with a dark look in his eyes but was stopped by Last.
"Easy, we don't need her trying to kill us again later, let it go."
Gabriel gave a long arctic cold stare at Pearl, the kind that makes people wet themselves out of fear.
"Fine."
Last calmed slightly and looked for Steven. He was hiding behind the couch.
"Steven, are you ok, you look scared as Hell, trust me when I say that, I've been there."
Steven turned to Last and hugged him crying slightly. "Your not dead!"
Last laughed as if it was hillarious. "It's gonna take a lot more than a spear through the chest to take me out, a lot more."
Last pulled Steven up and over the couch and sat him down.
"That's enough excitement for one day, end of chapter."