Finally, up to 20K words! Thank you all so much for reading thus far! I've also decided to bump the rating up to T+ soon because there's going to be violent scenes/some heavy stuff coming along in coming chapters!
Disclaimer: Rebecca Sugar owns Steven Universe.
Small green hands expertly positioned themselves before the holographic screen presented before them.
When Peridot had dived beneath the control panel to reassemble the fringed wiring, it had only taken a couple hours of tinkering and probing to turn on. She had nearly broken into a panic when the thing first shook to life, hovering a foot off the ground with a very shocked Lapis watching from the truck bed, encasing itself in an undulating bubble of teal light before finally giving out with a degraded pshh.
She was sure she could've saved herself from being carried off in an enemy pod.
It was strange on her tongue; a Homeworld pod: an enemy pod.
But it was a good kind of strange.
Now, with Lapis leaning on the outside of the pod, the little technician was tapping through metaphysical lines of code rebuilt after the pod came to life and browsing catalogues containing old messages for from Homeworld colony or another.
"What're you looking for now?" The ocean gem asked as she rested her cheek on her palm, watching her barn mate work with lazy but cautious eyes.
"Looking for the identification record. It's got to be in here somewhere."
"And you're having trouble because?"
Peridot leaned back in the shaky pilot seat, leaving the display be with an annoyed groan. "The way it landed ruined everything! All the catalogues are in the wrong places, files have stuff clipped out of them, and the video display terminal on the dashboard is unfixable without materials from Homeworld."
She threw her hands to her visor and rubbed her temples. "It's not so much an impossible feat as it is trying my patience."
Lapis blew the air out from her cheeks and slid down the outside of the pod, looking inside at the translucent screen separating her from Peridot. "I'm surprised you had any to begin with," she remarked cheekily. Peridot's cheeks darkened with blue blush as she sucked flippantly at her teeth. She waved an accusing finger at the smiling blue gem. "Only for you. And the Gems."
The taller gem snorted and rose back up. "Sure. Speaking of, it looks like they're coming over."
"What?"
Peridot scrambled out of the cockpit and teetered on the edge of the pod's opening. She followed Lapis' stare over to where she could see the shine of the warp pad disintegrating in the distance.
Lapis' face lit up when she spotted a familiar pudgy human with them.
"Steven!" She called out, waving them-but mostly Steven-over with a contained smile.
"Hi Lapis! Hi Peridot!" Steven called back, jogging ahead of the rest of the Crystal Gems and lobbing himself at the water gem. "I haven't seen you since. . . it's been a while!"
"We video called you a week ago," Peridot corrected from the pod.
"It felt like longer! And, I didn't really see you."
Lapis laughed and ruffled the hair of the boy in her arms. "About time that changed, huh?"
The rest of the group had caught up at that point, greeting Lapis and Peridot with a wave, a polite smile, or a "'sup, barn nerds," in Amethyst's case.
"We've just returned from investigating the perimeter of the site we found it," Pearl explained and motioned to the online pod. "We didn't find anything else."
"Good to see you've got it turned on," Garnet lauded as she bent down to be eye level with the Peridot inside.
"It has the same acoustics as more recent Homeworld technologies, but what it keeps in general piloting it lacks in protection," Peridot cockily revealed as she swept her hand over the control panel.
"Have you found anything notable?"
Pearl padded over, as well, investigating the impromptu work the other technician had done on the vessel. "Or who it may have belonged to?"
"In just a minute, I will." With a waggle of her fingers Peridot resumed work on rifling through the files in the pod's memory drive, mumbling beneath her breath while reciting the commonly applied components to aero-storage.
Pearl stayed with Peridot, dropping helpful comments whenever something of familiarity would pop on-screen. Garnet turned back to Steven and Lapis, the latter crouching as Steven excitedly chattered to her about one thing or another. Amethyst spotted Veggie Head snoozing just outside the barn doors, gasping and rushing over to the vegetable excitedly saying, "here, Pumpkin! C'mere!"
"Aha! Found it!"
A smirk stretched across Peridot's face as she opened an identification folder. She scrolled through auxiliary files until finding the one she was searching for. "Here she is! This pod was assigned to. . . "
Her face twisted from confidence to confusion. "A Quartz soldier?"
Pearl, too, squinted at the interface to double-check the text and crude reference image tucked into the corner of the file display. "It appears so. What kind is she?"
Peridot's lips tightened as she was carried deeper into the personal file. "An aventurine, specifically 1F8 Cut 2ND. That's. . . peculiar. Quartzes are utilized for their strength! Not for piloting courier pods!"
By then the rest of the Gems had crowded around the pod to investigate the green gem's findings.
Steven propped his arms on the ledge of the opening, staring widely up at the glittering screen. The way Peridot moved her hands skillfully across its nonexistent surface, it reminded him of how she would rummage through her things with her old limb enhancers!
"Whoa!" he murmured when an image of the Quartz assigned to the gem pod was scrolled over. "She kind of looks like Amethyst!"
Amethyst came up beside the boy, eyebrows creasing with distaste as she regarded the profile. "Not really. Just look at her face! And her clothes. If anything, she looks way more like Jasper." Steven quickly nudged the purple gem in the abdomen, pointing with his eyes at how Lapis' visage seemed to demote. "Sorry, but it's true."
"Quartz similarities aside," Pearl directed, tired of the conversation going off on a tangent. "What was her original mission?"
"Hmm. Well, she wasn't a messenger, for once, which her biography states," Peridot clarified. "She was on orders from her manager to take this pod from their larger vessel and head into this star system, the Milky Way. If the video capsule in the control panel was active, I'd be able to find that ship's location in the star maps. But," she admitted with an annoyed grunt, "this is the best we can do for the today."
"That's all very well, Peridot, but what was she sent here for?" Garnet prompted. There were other Gem colonies, though far and few in between, scattered across their galaxy, yet so archaic they would no longer be of significant use to Homeworld.
As she continued down the page she opened her lips to relay the information, but when she slowly clamped them and narrowed her eyes they knew something was wrong.
"It doesn't say."
"What do you mean it doesn't say?" Pearl interjected, placing her hands crossly on her hips. "It's protocol for all vessels to carry in their archives the purpose of their mission! Or at least, it was then," she elaborated with an agitated peek at Garnet over the hood.
"Then this vessel isn't following protocol," the green gem pointed out snappily. "Or, it's an underhanded trip."
"Can I see the screen?"
"Be my guest."
Peridot clambered out of the cockpit to leave room for the taller white gem to squeeze in. How in the name of all the stars in the sky a Quartz fit in there was beyond Peridot. Unless they were constantly shape-shifting, it would have been one unfitting ride across space.
She plopped onto the ground and stood beside Garnet with a frown. "I also found a compartment beneath the floor of the helm. It was empty, but there was no reason for it to have been there. Other TG-18 spacecraft don't have it. They're not meant for transporting things."
The fusion's jaw ticked. "Show me."
Peridot led Garnet over to the other side of the capsule, leaning in and pressing some unseen mechanism just beside Pearl. With a hiss a box-shaped compartment was revealed, emptied of whatever contents it once held.
There were little symbols carved into the slot that radiated a gentle white whenever Peridot's fingers drew too close to the compartment's walls.
"It's got these weird symbols all over the inside-"
"Let me guess," Pearl cut in warily, "it looks like Gem, but you can't read it?"
The smaller technician's eyes broadened beneath her yellow visor. "Yes. How did you know?"
The two older Crystal Gems shared a distressed glance. "I found a strange item while scavenging the crash site the night we left the pod with you and Lapis," said Garnet. "It, too, was covered in symbols like that. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they are the same markings."
"Garnet said it had this strange effect on her," Pearl added quietly as to not alarm Lapis, Steven, or Amethyst. "It had the some effect on me, as well, though I didn't get nearly as close as she did. I want to think that this is some sick manner of gem warding magic."
Peridot's nose scrunched pensively, lifting her hand to her chin before snapping her fingers decisively. "If you bring me the object, I can run a simple diagnostic with the pod. There's a high chance whatever it is that you found, Garnet, would be in the systems if it had any deliberate purpose to the Quartz' mission."
Garnet stared at Peridot a moment, features exceptionally unreadable as Pearl looked on to the fusion for guidance. "I can bring you the item, though it must remain inside of its bubble," she decided.
"But it'll be difficult-if not impossible!- to get a clear read with a bubble in the way!"
"I know. But this item is dangerous. Naked contact with its surface left me rattled, and I don't want to let it immerse you in the same way it did me," Garnet pressed, steadfast. "We do need to know what it is. But we mustn't risk ourselves in trying to find it out."
Peridot looked ready to argue, but an austere look down from Garnet doused the flames threatening to billow out in her frustration. "Fine," she sniffed, sending Pearl inside the pilot seat a trusting squint. "Could you pull up the object analysis apparatus?"
"Yes, of course." Pearl hesitated a moment, studying the panels laid out before her before activating said device.
"I'll try to find a way to link that to the compartment," the green gem promised as Pearl climbed out of the pod. "And we'll see what we can do about getting a reading through the. . . bubble issue."
"Haha! Hey! Garnet, Peridot, Pearl! Look!"
All three gems were ripped out of their business by Steven's excited call. The boy was standing on a dolphin created from water that elegantly swooped through the air, watched from the ground by Lapis and Amethyst. The ocean gem flicked her wrist and small fishes emerged from the underbelly of the dolphin, swimming up and swirling playfully around Steven before dropping into the dolphin's back.
Peridot would have sourly remarked that now was no time for capering about, but for what felt like the umpteenth time that day she willed down her temper when she saw Lapis' smiling face.
"Ooh, Steven, be careful!" Pearl stammered, whisking away to hurriedly join the others.
Peridot shifted her attention back to Garnet, hoping she felt the same about the situation. Instead, she found Garnet peering down at her with a virtually imperceptible smile as she fixed her visor. She felt an embarrassed heat boil into her cheeks.
"I'll bring you the bubble after we return Steven to the Temple. I'd like to stay and see what comes up," the large gem disclosed.
"That can be arranged. For now. . ." Peridot ran a hand through her yellowish shock of hair as she regarded Steven as the dolphin deposited him gracefully on the edge of she and Lapis' smaller-than-average lake before diving in. She wished the pressure in her chest would alleviate.
Garnet rested her right hand on the technician's shoulder. "Don't work yourself too hard. There's no shame in needing a break. You know that."
Peridot huffed as she considered Garnet's words. Sure enough, the Crystal Gems-well, mostly Steven-had taught her when they were creating the drill that it was okay to rest. Not everything needed to be completed straightaway and as absolute as possible like it had been on Homeworld.
"Yeah. Wow, thanks."
"No problem."
The two ended up walking back over to the rest of the group. Steven ran up and threw his arms around Peridot after detaching himself from Lapis. "I'll see you again soon, okay?" He pledged. "I've gotta head back to the house now, though."
The group bid their farewells before taking off to the warp pad. Lapis and Steven followed them there, waving them off as bright light engulfed them and transported them back home.
When the barn gems returned to the barn Veggie Head galloped up to them, though when he came within range he slowed and gave the pod an anxious stare.
Lapis snorted quietly and reached down to wrap her arms around their pumpkin. "Even he's creeped out by that thing."
Peridot glanced up at Lapis with a scrunched nose. "It's not creepy. . ." she admitted weakly.
"It's just not supposed to be here," the blue gem finished for her with a wry smile.
"What did Pearl and Garnet tell you?" She asked as she stepped through the doors of the barn, waiting for Peridot to skip in after her before continuing in to collapse back onto a pile of hay they'd initially dug out for meep morp but never used.
Peridot paused near the doors to the barn a moment. The thought crossed her mind that she should be continuing work on the pod and connecting the analyzing apparatus to the chamber. However, Garnet's words still rung clearly in her ears.
"About an item they found where it crashed," she said as she crashed down beside Lapis, lying back on the straw. "They think it's connected to the strange compartment I showed you."
Her barn mate's face wrinkled with thought as she flipped onto her side, setting Veggie Head between them as he needily panted for more attention.
"Do you think it's important?" Lapis asked.
"It must be," Peridot murmured and rested her hand between his eyes as she shifted onto her side. "Or else Homeworld wouldn't have included it at all."
Something she remembered made her gasp. "Oh! Garnet is going to be returning later with the item, and wants to stay and watch it be analyzed. Is that all right with you, Lapis?"
Lapis shrugged indifferently. "I was going to hang around in the barn until sunrise anyway."
Relief washed over the smaller gem. "Okay, thanks. I just wanted to check that you were okay with it!"
Lapis huffed bemusedly. "Nerd."
Peridot frowned, but it softened when she saw Lapis' sympathetic expression. "That was random."
"That's what Amethyst called us. I don't know what it means."
"Me neither."
The television hummed ambiguously in front of Steven, displaying some monotonous news reporter droning on about the weather conditions along the state's coastline.
Steven had resorted to listening to the news since coming back from the barn. He was sad to leave Peridot and Lapis again so soon, but if there was even a chance he could learn something, anything about the "meteors", he was gonna jump at the chance to let the Gems in on it. All of them!
But so far, his efforts were unrewarded. The only thing remotely interesting on the news that night was how a man from Keystone had biked halfway across the country and was now pedaling through Delmarva's capitol.
He was laid backwards, head positioned at the foot of his bed while his feet drummed thoughtlessly at his pillow. He really didn't mind that they would smell a little like feet later. He always had that air freshener bottle he kept tucked away in his drawer, just for whenever Pearl would come up to see that he really had cleaned his room whenever she told him to.
The boy stretched with a small grunt, narrowing his eyes at the article. Already discourse was breaking out among the comment section, some keener folk insisting it was alien invasion while the more realistic of peoples were giving the wilier lot stern flicks on the nose.
Because alien invasion was such a ridiculous notion.
Sometimes, it felt like it was only the residents of Beach City who knew and acknowledged extraterrestrial lifeforms.
With a dissatisfied sigh Steven closed the browser app, swiping blankly through his home screens until his eyes zoned in on the green messenger app.
"Oh!" He gasped lightly. "I didn't even know I had an unread message. . "
He promptly opened up the app, his frame of mind brightening considerably upon seeing his most recent contact.
Connie: Look at this seagull I saw today! It kind of reminded me of you.
Below the message was a slightly blurred image of a seagull with the plumage around his head fluffed out. It had a few dark flecks wrapped around the fluff, making it look like it almost had an honest head of hair. It also had a bit of french fry stuck in its beak.
Steven: why did it remind you of me?
Connie: Look at its head! It's got little black curls like you! And the french fry steals the deal.
The boy squinted at the picture again; the seagull in question looked angry from being spied on by nosy young girls. Steven laughed as he typed out a reply.
Steven: it looks upset that you were taking pictures! did you ask its permission?
Connie: It's a seagull, Steven!
Steven: And you know that they're really sensitive! did you forget what happened at the boardwalk?
Connie: How could I? You basically reenacted at least six different soap opera deaths in one take.
Steven: four actually. it's an acquired skill from being with the gems all the time
His sly chuckles were interrupted by an alarming noise emitting from the box in front of him. Startled, he powered down his cell and gave the T.V. a mutinous look. "Gotta catch a boy at his most vulnerable, don'tcha?" Chided the boy, waggling his finger like the machine would listen and tone it down.
Steven childishly poked his tongue out at the T.V. before looking back to his vibrating phone. A new message from Connie.
And then another. And another.
The pudgy boy tilted his head curiously as he swept the screen to life and read through them.
Connie: Steven, turn on your TV!
Connie: Hey, are you there? It's only been like a minute!
Connie: Is this because I didn't ask the seagull permission?
Connie: Check the TV! Something's happening!
Fumbling to send a response to quell Connie's frantic messages, he began to type.
Steven: It's already on! Whats
Steven spared a glance up in the middle of tapping his message out to the television in front of him, wondering what on Earth Connie was so determined he see.
, that wasn't normal.
A crimson banner now panned across the lower half of the screen, emboldened by the large white text riding on it.
"News Alert: Strange Phenomenon Across Asian South".
The newswoman maundered away from Delmarva and instead told a story on how, not even thirty minutes prior, scientists were baffled by odd happenings across the Himalayas.
Steven set down his phone in thought before crawling out of bed and over to the T.V. Hadn't they just searched a huge portion of that place?
Live footage was played, and whether it was a shaky hand controlling the camera or some windblown wooden electric pole, he couldn't tell. But luscious forests rolled out in front of him, appearing dark and barren without a full moon to light it. At first it seemed derogative.
"What's so strange about forests? I mean, all the weeds and stuff can get a little crazy sometimes, but is that enough to make it onto the news?"
He frowned at the screen.
"Wait. What's that?"
Among the shade-dipped hollows in the canopies, white light flashed. It was instantaneous and bold, sparking to life for two seconds and jolting about like a bonfire before plunging the grove back into darkness.
It had been far enough to leave the sight a mystery, but close enough to give Steven an idea of what was happening.
Actually, it wasn't even an idea. All he knew was that there were strange things going on, and he and the Gems had missed them in their scouting of the mountains earlier.
"What if there were more?" He whispered quietly, turning to stare at the closed Temple door. "I-I should grab the Gems. They're gonna wanna hear about this."
With one last look at the glowing box the boy practically threw himself down the flight of stairs into the living space below.
"Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl!" He called, hoping someone would hear him from within the Temple. He even flailed his arms over his head like it would help hail them out of their quarters. "Come out! There's something on the T.V. you're really gonna wanna see!"
Within the next seven seconds, both Pearl and Amethyst had flown out of their rooms.
"What?" Asked Pearl as she marched over, towering over Steven with wide, worried eyes. "What's going on with your television?"
"The T.V.! There was this emergency alert, and there's some crazy stuff going on in the mountains we searched today!"
"Are you kidding me?" Amethyst chafed. "We searched likeall over there!"
"That's what I thought, too!" Steven agreed. "But- come on, you gotta look!"
Steven led the other gems up the stairs to the loft, showing them the T.V. as another flash of light overtook the jungle. "See! There's flashy lights going on all over the place!"
Pearl knelt with a hand pressed to her lips with discomposure. Amethyst joined her, though she was much more vocal on the affair.
"What?" She balked. "Flashy lights? Are you sure it's just not some. . . weird jungle clan of wild photographers out tryin' to-"
She was cut off by the sound of scuffling by the cameraman, followed by what the three assumed to be foreign curses as he yelped and began sprinting.
"What's he running from?" Steven timidly asked, looking at Pearl for any kind of answer.
"Oh, dude. . . "
Amethyst's offhanded gasp drew his eyes back to the television and he soon found he couldn't detach them. The cameraman had stopped running, and seemed to be quickly chanting some sort of mantra to himself, void of breath.
A muffled shrieking sound that made even Steven's lungs hitch seemed to kickstart another running spree. For a few seconds all that was heard and seen was the wild munching of hard soles on grass, rugged breathing, and the camera swinging erratically in the man's palm.
But soon another wail rose up and the camera was quickly abandoned, lens angled on a dark, shadowy path illuminated by only a pitiful amount of starlight.
When the fleeing human's footfalls died down, heavier, more brutal ones rose.
A beast roughly the size of a horse burst through the shadowed vegetation. It was too dark to discern any other physical features other than its dark, smoke-coloured skin as it messily stumbled across the rocky path.
"It's a corrupted gem!" Steven gaped. "We totally missed them!"
"But- that's impossible!" Pearl pressed. "We searched so much of that place and came up with nothing!"
Amethyst pressed her hand to her temple in exasperation. "Maybe we just didn't search well enough."
"We've never missed anything as big as a whole gem monster before, Amethyst!" Snapped the other gem before she collected herself and began to make her way away from Steven's television set. "Garnet needs to be told."
"Pearl, wait! It's doing something!" Steven pointed at the screen, where the monster was now stumbling closer to the camera. One could see its gem placed on its shoulder, surrounded by shivering scales that glinted dangerously in the half-light.
When it came of close enough range, they could see its body shifting, spines quivering and seeming to grow right before their very eyes.
It suddenly let out a thunderous bellow of mutinous rage before bringing down a massive clawed foot down on the camera, cutting off the footage with a sickening crunch.
The news studio suddenly showed back on screen, showing a shocked crew. The three in front of the TV were equally as bewildered.
"It- it looked like it was in so much pain," Steven murmured shakily. Pearl seemed like she was about to be ill, while Amethyst looked unsteadily away and focused on something other than the stuttering newswoman on screen.
"Turn it off, Steven. Please, get to bed," Pearl tersely ordered, holding her hand up when the boy opened his mouth to argue. "I know that you want to help it. But it's been a long day for you, and you need to sleep."
The boy finally gave in after a few minutes of worried contending. He went off to the restroom to perform his nightly ritual, leaving Pearl and Amethyst to walk down into the house with equally uneasy body language.
"It wasn't right, P," Amethyst hissed to Pearl as she stepped onto the warp pad. "That monster. Something was up with it."
"Of course there was. It's a corrupted gem. None of them are in their right mind."
"That's not what I mean!" The stout gem huffed. "It reminded me of Jasper."
Pearl frowned as she paused igniting the warp, fingers clenching together at the mention of the brutish Quartz' name. "What about it made you think of her?"
"The way it moved. Or, uh, the way its. . . spikes did," Amethyst tried, raising her arms and making arbitrary hand movements like it would help her but the thought into words. "When we fought Jasper in the beta Kindergarten, she looked just like that before we poofed her."
Pearl's lips tightened crookedly as she pondered the small gem's words, mulling over them in her mind while regarding Amethyst from the corner of her eyes to make sure it was truthful.
Nothing in Amethyst's uncharacteristically sober expression let her have benefit of the doubt.
"So you're saying that. . . "
Amethyst met her haunted blue eyes as she spoke next.
"It was corrupted recently."
A.N., I procrastinated on this way too much. But being at home for two days straight has left me restless and unable to sit down and do something for more than twenty minutes at a time, oops. nyahehee, I do love me some semi-cliffhangers.
Adios, and seeya next chapter.