MOTHER

AN INNOCENT smile spread across Rose's face as she saw Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby and Amethyst standing before her, not noticing Lapis, Peridot, Lion and Steven who were nearby. "Welcome to the latest of my temples!" The pink woman gestured at the building. "I made it more recently and I've finally finished all of them now! What do you think?"

"Rose …" Ruby managed as confusion gripped her.

"It's been such a long time, there's so much I've wanted to discuss." Rose moved up to them.

"What happened? We thought you were dead." Amethyst's brows stitched.

"Yeah, there were even statues of you in the sanctuary of the beach house." Connie said.

"Oh no, I just left for a bit." Rose chuckled.

"It's been nine years." Sapphire stated.

"I know, right? Who would've thought it'd take me this long to finish things up." Rose smiled. "I'd left you guys clues so you could find the temples and help you out, but I guess they were too well hidden – I go overboard sometimes. Man, I wish you'd come sooner; I've been waiting for a while."

"Mom …?" Steven said finally, drawing her attention to him.

"Steven, is that you?" Rose grinned, rushing up to him and embracing him. "Ooh, you've grown so much! I almost didn't recognize you!"

Sapphire watched as the pink woman embrace her son, frowning as thoughts began to run across her mind. "What were you doing here exactly, Rose?"

"Oh, silly me, I forgot to explain." Rose stood up. "I started building the temples long ago because I wanted somewhere I could train and harness my energy more efficiently." She walked across the courtyard. "But as I did my research, I discovered Gaia Energy and repurposed the sanctuaries so I could unearth it globally and absorb it to make myself stronger."

"You did what?" Steven frowned.

"It's not that complex an idea to wrap your head around, Steven." Rose turned to him, looking to the others. "And now that you're here, we can accomplish my plans." She extended her hand. "Join me and receive more power than you ever thought possible."

"You can't be serious." Amethyst frowned.

Shivers went down Sapphire's spine as she took this in. "What is this power for?"

"To rule this planet." Rose said simply. "Humanity needs a protector from Home World and I'm the only one with the power to do so." The warmth in her expression slowly diminished.

"So it is true." Pearl spoke finally. "What I saw in the Black Tower in Beach City … it was the Gaia Energy you unearthed that Home World was after! You caused the invasion!"

"No way …" Peridot said in surprise.

"You destroyed Oval Town." Steven's eyes dilated in horror. "The corrupted animals, the forest, the Oval; it was all your doing."

"Well, sacrifices must be made." Rose's voice became cold. "Animals, humans, they're all the same and if lives must be lost to achieve my goals, then so be it."

"You monster!" Ruby growled.

Rose's eyes squinted as she looked at Ruby then at Sapphire. "Huh, I didn't realize you two were apart now; such a shame that you've now become weaker." She looked to the others. "Now that I think about it, you've all gotten weaker; I don't even think I can use any of you anymore."

"What did you just say?" Amethyst's blood began to boil.

"You're all of no use to me now." Rose moved amongst the Gems. "Garnet, the weapon I've wanted, is now gone and the midget quartz Amethyst has now grown more familiar with humans. You've even allowed a human into your ranks." She frowned as she went past Connie. "Only Steven has ascended and unlocked his cosmic potential; the only reason I had him in the first place."

"Jasper was right about you." Lapis interjected. "You really are a lying snake."

Rose frowned as she heard this, turning her attention to Lapis and Peridot and finally noticing Lion who was nearby. "Hmm, it seems the curse of silence I put on you didn't keep the truth from spilling out, did it, Lion?" She smirked. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"How could you?" Tears welled up in Pearl's eyes. "Why're you doing this?"

"Oh, Pearl, my precious little Pearl; my greatest disappointment." Rose walked up to the woman and held her face. "You were so loyal and hopelessly in love with me that it made you the perfect toy, but I failed to find the potential in you to transform into anything of worth."

Sasuke grew impatient as he listened to all of this, reaching for his sword when he noticed small shards of glass slowly rise from the earth. "No, Pearl."

Pearl's breath quickened as her emotions rushed to the surface, her Sharingan beginning to change the more Rose spoke. "In the end, you were just another play thing; once a slave, always a slave." The pink woman sneered.

Pearl screamed out in rage, releasing a powerful concussive wave that blew Rose and the others several feet back and bended the world around her like glass! Sasuke caught himself in midair and frowned as he saw everything shift and turn like a kaleidoscope, seeing Steven and the Gems floating haplessly in the air. Seeing Pearl at the center of the chaos, the Shinobi opened his Rinnegan and sucked everyone into a wormhole, grabbing Pearl and diving through the gateway!

STEVEN COLLAPSED onto the courtyard of the Temple, groaning and sitting up to see Rose and the Gems recuperating as well. He turned around and saw Sasuke landing on the ground with Pearl in his arms who breathed heavily. "What the hell happened?" Ruby groaned.

"Hold on Pearl, just focus on your breathing." Sasuke tried to console the pale woman as she began to hyperventilate, noticing her Sharingan take up another form.

"Did I drink too much beer again?" Amethyst rubbed her head.

"It was Pearl." Sapphire realized.

"Whoa …" Lapis said.

"Hmm, perhaps you may be of use." Rose noted.

"Enough!" Steven exclaimed in rage, catching Rose aback. "Do you know how alone I felt all this time? Seeing everyone at school and in the city with their parents and living happily thinking I never had a mother when you just abandoned me!" He went up to her. "You left me and dad just so you could go on a mad power trip!"

Rose looked at her son condescendingly, trying to speak when a sword pierced her through the chest inches away from her gemstone! "I've had enough of this." Sasuke said as he appeared behind her, leaving a clone with Pearl. "You're going to pay for what you've done to the earth." He drove his blade deeper when Rose collapsed into a pile of dust. "What in the world?"

Rose rushed at the Shinobi from behind with her shield, sending him toppling across the courtyard! Sasuke rolled to his feet, looking up only to meet the steel of the shield again as the Gem sped up to too fast for him to react and smacked him aside, blowing him several meters back into the mountain range in the distance!

"Disgusting human." Rose dismissed her shield and vanished.

"Wait, stop!" Lapis called out when she saw the pink woman reappear at the steps of the Temple.

"Eliminate them while I complete the ritual." Rose said and Jadeite appeared out of a portal beside her alongside Prasiolite, Ametrine, and Aventurine!

"It'll be our pleasure." Jadeite said as she stood amongst her three Sisters.

Rose moved up to the entrance of the Temple, leaving her Generals behind when she heard the hum of an aircraft arrive. She turned and frowned as she saw Jasper and Helio arrive in a large ship, stepping out via the hangar doors. "It seems my assessment was correct." Helio noted as he looked around.

"Jadeite, Prasiolite, Ametrine, Aventurine." Jasper said in shock s as she saw the four. "What happened to you?"

"They gave up their mortal forms in order for me to ascend." Rose stated. "You would ascend as well if you hadn't grown soft and tried to save the weaklings on Home World."

"Rose?" Jasper turned to her and the pink woman went through the doors that closed behind her. "Rose!"

Jasper ran onto the courtyard and stopped as the earth began to shake violently and cracks began to appear in the concrete floor! She looked around and frowned as Gaia tendrils burst out of the ground around the courtyard, spreading out rapidly through the surrounding wasteland!

"She's destroying everything again!" Amethyst cried, summoning her whips.

"Then we need to stop her now." Sapphire coated her arms in ice.

"But we'll need to get past these guys first." Connie drew out her sword.

Sasuke appeared beside Connie, stretching out and loosening up. "Three months without sleep, it'll get to ya." His right eye twitched. "Let's get this done quickly before I pass out from fatigue; I'm losing my reaction time." He cocked his neck. "She does hit hard though."

"Alright, listen up!" Pearl, having composed herself, drew out her sword. "Steven, Jasper, Helio, Sasuke and I will go after Rose and stop her ritual before it destroys Breakfast Kingdom while you guys fight the Sisters and keep them away from us."

"That sounds like a plan." Helio said.

"Okay, move out!"

"Right." Sasuke nodded, opening a portal that sucked him, Jasper, Helio, Steven and Pearl in and vanished!

Lapis, Sapphire, Amethyst and Connie prepared themselves as they stared down the Four Generals, each of them apprehensive as the tendrils grew in number all around the Temple. "It disappoints me to know that this is what becomes of the Crystal Gems after we departed." Aventurine noted.

"Indeed, how pathetic." Ametrine said.

"Don't think this will go like it did the last time we fought." Jadeite frowned.

"We are far more powerful united than when apart." Prasiolite erected large boulders out of the ground around her.

"And so are we." Connie held to her sword.

"I think we're all tired of talking at this point." Amethyst charged fire through her whips.

Leaping forward, Lion let a powerful roar that sent a sonic wave at the Four Generals, forcing them to jump out of the way as it destroyed the ground in its path! The Gems split up as a battle ensued with Amethyst and Connie confronting Prasiolite, and Lapis and Sapphire facing Ametrine, Aventurine and Jadeite all at once.

Peridot and Ruby remained behind as the dust settled, seeing the others engage the enemy. "Well, what do we do now?" Ruby asked.

Peridot looked at the tendrils spreading out and smirked. "I think I have an idea."

STEVEN, PEARL, Jasper, Helio and Sasuke ran down the winding halls of the Temple as the building shook violently and slowly collapsed. Avoiding a falling brick from the ceiling, Pearl looked through the walls with her Sharingan, seeing several small vein-like Gaia tubes running inside the structure.

"It seems Gaia Energy powers the Temples." Pearl said.

"It figures, huh?" Jasper frowned. "Explains why she built so many far off from each other even though you guys set up base in Beach City."

"Well, with all of it in here, it's hard to tell where Rose is." Pearl frowned.

"This just shows how truly adept she is at controlling the energy." Sasuke stated. "We've come across many such Temples in the past, but failed to enter or sense anything here."

"And who is 'we' anyway?" Steven asked.

"Scanners are detecting Rose a few feet west of here." Helio said, cutting off Sasuke.

"Okay, let's –," Pearl tried to speak when a large energy tube burst through the wall, forcing her to block it with her katana!

"You two continue without us!" Helio said as he enlarged his right arm and caught another photon vine! "We'll keep these at bay!"

Steven ducked as an energy tendril cut horizontally through the hallway and he leapt up, pinning it against the ceiling. "Come on, let's go!" He called out to Sasuke and Jasper.

"Stay safe, alright." Jasper said to Helio who gave her a nod and she ran on with Sasuke, being followed by Steven who flew after them.

ELSEWHERE IN the temple, Peridot and Ruby walked through a hall, shuddering as tremors violently shook the walls! "Whatever your plan is, we'd better do it quickly before we get buried here." Ruby stared at the sand that trickled from the ceiling.

Peridot worked on a holographic projection from her gauntlet and scanned the walls, stopping as she found what she was looking for. "Here it is!"

Ruby turned to the wall in question and was puzzled by the magic inscriptions and imagery that seemed to be of Buddhist and Druid descent, raising her brow. "So … what is this?"

"The key to figuring out how to stop Rose!" Peridot read the imagery. "I've studied a lot of religious and satanic rituals practiced by Terrans and many of them are delicate and can be ruined by the slightest alteration, and I believe Rose is performing one based on mixed Terran practices." She looked closely. "And it seems you're just perfect for the job!"

"How?"

"I'm not exactly sure what the ritual is yet, but it relies heavily on nature and plant life, which is why the temple remained untouched early on when the forest decayed." Peridot said. "It seems fire would destabilize the ceremony and cause it to collapse – and you have plenty of that!" She smiled. "Let's ruin her plans."

CONNIE RODE on Lion's back as the animal ran through a maze of jagged rocks Prasiolite summoned from the earth outside the Temple, the green woman becoming aggravated at their deftness and raising two large boulders into the air geokinetically! The girl reacted quickly and fired two Gaia-coated arrows at the rocks with her bow, causing the rocks to crack!

Wrapping one of the boulders with her whip, Amethyst spun in midair and chucked the rock at Prasiolite who summoned a gigantic mass of jagged, tearing through the rock like butter! Amethyst fell to the ground from the impact and the green gem smashed her to the ground with a large rock hand, drawing blood!

"You've grown weak like the humans!" Prasiolite frowned. "Careless and lacking tact; you'll never defeat me this way!"

"And you act a lot like a gem!" Connie took aim with her bow, "Easily distracted."

Lion let out a sonic roar, flinging Prasiolite several meters back, and Connie shot her in the chest, pinning her onto one of her own rocks! Prasiolite's rock hand collapsed and Amethyst got to her feet, dusting herself off as Connie and Lion came to her side.

"Let's show her how 'weak' humans really are." Connie said.

"With pleasure." Amethyst wiped the blood off her lip and lunged at Prasiolite at blistering speeds. "Clothesline!" Amethyst cried as she struck Prasiolite across the neck with her forearm, smashing her through the rocks and spinning her around! "Spinning Suplex!" She hoisted her into the air and crashed down onto the ground, breaking it apart and sending out a wave that rocked both Connie and Lion! "I've missed this!"

AT THE Temple courtyard, Sapphire flew back as Ametrine fired a radioactive blast at her from her palm, burning through the concrete! Lapis collided with Aventurine using water whips as the enemy gem attacked with massive thorn bushes she manipulated, getting sucker punched by Jadeite who leapt out of a portal behind her and knocked her down!

Skidding to a stop, Lapis and Sapphire assessed their opponents as they spread out and cornered them. "Guess they're more powerful than we thought."

"It seems so." Sapphire said, her expression falling. "Lapis, I'm sorry about what happened on Home World; I didn't mean to get you involved."

"No, no, I understand." Lapis replied. "Bystanders died, but it wasn't your fault; it was out of your control." She turned to the blue woman who smiled in relief. "So, you wanna stop holding back on them?"

Sapphire sighed. "I was expecting more of a challenge."

"Yeah, me too." Lapis shrugged. "But it is how it is."

"What are you two blubbering about?" Jadeite raised her brow when a shard of ice struck her shoulder! "What the?"

Sapphire ascended into the air, gathering storm clouds in the sky and releasing a white aura over her body! The three Generals became tense as the heavens darkened and out of the clouds came large jagged balls of hail that rained down, forcing them to try to evade the volley of projectiles! Aventurine jumped back from an ice shard when her cheek suddenly slit open, catching her off guard!

The three gems froze as drops of water floated in the air around them, drawing their attention to Lapis who slowly created a razor sharp mist over the entire courtyard! "Let's finish this."

ROSE CLENCHED her fist over a small bowl, draining out blood from a slit on her palm enough to fill the vessel. Sealing the wound, the Gem moved to the center of the large round room where nine bowls filled with her blood sat on the circumference of a magical wheel etched into the floors design. Veins of Gaia energy ran through the walls, leading to the end of the hall where a gigantic statue of a woman's head sat with its mouth stretched wide open.

She smiled as the magic markings in the room came alight when the door behind her exploded into pieces as Jasper punched her way through, followed by Steven and Sasuke. "What is all this?" Jasper looked at the room.

"Jasper, you're here." Rose turned to her. "I didn't think you'd want to see me at all honestly."

Jasper's anger wilted as she gazed upon her sister at the center of the ritual room, her mind flooding with confusion and grief. "What did you do to the Sisters?"

"I told you, they ascended."

"They were our friends!" Jasper yelled, shaking her head in horror. "This isn't you; you'd never do something like this, not to family."

"You have to stop this now." Steven said. "Please, we can figure out a way to fix this."

"We all have to make sacrifices." Rose held her arms out, absorbing the energy from the vines around her. "Because of that, I have become more, more than you worthless mortal clods would ever understand. I will become God!"

A deep green aura exploded out of Jasper as she yelled out in rage and she summoned her helmet over her gemstone, speeding across the room and colliding with Rose who blocked with her forearm, causing the entire room to tremble! Steven and Sasuke came at Rose from both sides, Steven with his shield and Sasuke with his sword and Rose blocked them all!

Steven raised his brow and jerked back in surprise as Rose manifested two extra ethereal arms and held both him and Sasuke back telekinetically! The pink gem smacked Jasper aside with a shield she summoned and repelled Steven and Sasuke when Sasuke froze in midair, confusing her. "Amaterasu!" The Shinobi opened his Mangekyou Sharingan, causing the Gem's face to erupt in black flames!

Rose writhed in pain as she burned and Sasuke skidded on the ground, raising his hand. "Bansho-Teni!" He cried out, sucking her into his grip telekinetically and smashing her into the floor! "Shinra-Tensei!" He lifted the woman and blasted her toward Jasper!

Jasper collided with Rose in midair and punched her to the floor, absorbing the kinetic energy from Sasuke's attack, and releasing it in a blast of orange energy that burned the entire room! Rose spat out blood and Jasper pinned her down by her neck, conjuring a photon sword that she raised high into the air! She swung down for the final strike when she stopped in place as she saw her injured sister before her.

She breathed heavily and relinquished her aura from the room, dismissing the sword she created. "I can't kill you." She realized. "You're my sister."

"Then you're weak like all the rest." Rose frowned at her.

"Rose, you have to stop this, it's not too late." Jasper said. "You can stop the ritual and we can figure things out from there."

Rose remained silent, seemingly considering her words, when a smirk spread on her lips. "You know, you always frightened me back on Home World with how ferocious you'd get, but I guess altruism and the prospect of motherhood has made you weak."

"Rose, I –," Jasper tried to speak when Rose stabbed her with a sword!

"Jasper!" Steven cried out.

Jasper grunted as Rose pushed the blade further in, grabbing the orange gem's helmet and shattering it in her grasp, cracking her gemstone as well! The pink woman tossed Jasper aside and got to her feet, frowning as Steven quickly flew to Jasper's side. She moved toward Steven when she saw Sasuke drawing out his sword.

"Enough!" Rose raised her arm, manacling him telepathically and thrusting him through a wall!

"Jasper, hold on!" Steven spread a bubble over the woman as she wheezed and bled out on the floor, frowning as she saw Rose come up to her.

"Let her die, Steven, she's nothing to us." Rose said.

"She's your sister!"

"And that doesn't matter anymore." Rose held out her hand. "Join me, Steven; you and I can protect humanity more than the Gems ever could."

"I'll never join you." Steven frowned.

Rose sighed. "Where'd we go wrong with you?" She shook her head. "At least your father understands my cause."

"What're you talking about?" Steven rose to his feet.

Rose waved her arm, opening a portal beside her that let out a stasis pod that held Greg inside! "Say 'hello' to our son, Gregory."

If you like this book so far, check out our Gravity Falls books, that we're still writing, which share the same universe as this series. If not, check out any of the other books we've done.

Thanks for reading!