The next day, 1:02 PM
The Crystal Gems had decided to talk about Garnet's prophecy and what it was predicting. Sitting on the arrangement of couches in the living room, the aliens and human/alien hybrid tried to figure out what would happen next.
"The first part of the prophecy said that old foes would be liberated," Pearl was saying. "Lapis and Jasper's fusion took control and freed herself."
"Yeah, but Peridot and Lapis redeemed themselves, and that's also part of the prophecy, P," Amethyst said. "So two parts have been fulfilled."
"Not quite," Garnet interjected. "When I issued it, I saw that the number of our enemies that had changed sides was more than just two."
Silence.
There was a loud BOOM! outside.
"That sounded like the source wasn't too far away," Peridot said. "We should investigate it."
"Good idea. It could be another monster," Garnet said.
All the Gems (Steven included) went outside to check it out, forgetting to close the door behind them.
Meanwhile, the source of the noise made itself quite apparent: a large ship, resembling Peridot's old hand-shaped ship, had landed. However, this ship was black, its fingers shaped into claws. Obsidian stepped out of the ship, her boots crunching the sand beneath them.
"The Diamond Authority has sent a sentry!" Obsidian heard someone say. She turned around to see Ronaldo Fryman holding up a smartphone. "I now have proof that they want to hollow out the Earth and - WAUGH!"
Obsidian had picked him up. Despite them being the same height, Obsidian was far stronger, holding him by the neck with one hand.
"They are called the Diamond Triad, cretin," she growled. "And our mission is not to hollow out your planet - our mission is to conquer it and use it as a creation place for more Gems. An act that will deplete this miserable world of all its life and leave it a barren rock."
"Can't...breathe..."
Obsidian dropped him. He landed on his back, bruising multiple parts of him. He got up and ran away.
"Now, where are those rebels?..." She spotted them.
The Crystal Gems saw her, too. "General Obsidian," Pearl said, stopping in her tracks.
"Who's she?" Steven asked.
"A general from the war," Garnet said. "Feared by many for her ruthlessness and desire to complete what she started."
"Yellow Diamond sent me here to deal with you," Obsidian said, "but she never told me it would be this easy." She pulled out a remote control and pressed a button. Her ship fired a small bundle into the air from its ring finger. Once in midair, the bundle began to expand, until it had become a forty-foot version of one of Peridot's robonoids, with six legs rather than four. It was also obviously designed to have a higher durability, for it bore an arrangement of spikes covering its body. Raising one of its legs, it tried to crush Amethyst, who was rescued by one of Lion's portals at the last minute.
"We need to fuse," Pearl said as Amethyst came out the other side of the portal. "We need Alexandrite."
Garnet and Amethyst nodded. The two Gems and the fusion did a synchronized dance, transforming into a thirty-six-foot fusion with six arms, reddish-purple skin, and neon teal hair.
"Let's do this," Alexandrite said, flexing four of her arms.
"A fusion is no match for a battle robonoid," Obsidian snarled. The robonoid kicked Alexandrite into the temple with two of its legs. The fusion passed out from the impact.
Inside the temple, a spherical, pale green gem floated in the air, contained in a pink bubble, floating alongside several other bubbled gems. When Alexandrite hit the temple, the force was so great the bubble popped, sending the spherical gem rolling out into the living room of Steven's home.
A flash of light, and the Centipeetle mother popped out, appearing as she did the last time she regenerated. Immediately noticing that her Chaaaaps-brand potato chips were absent, the little creature began to fret. Luckily, the bubble containing the bag rolled out to where she was standing.
Letting out a happy squeak, the Centipeetle mother ruptured the bubble and gorged herself on the remaining chips in the bag. Satisfied, she trotted out into the living room. She heard a crash outside and squeezed her body through the door. She saw Steven trying to dodge the leg of a massive robot.
Angered that someone would try to hurt him, she let out an angry squeak and scampered down the stairs, intent on helping Steven.
"Peridot, we need to fuse," Lapis said.
"Why? You saw what that thing did to Alexandrite," Peridot said, motioning to the still-unconscious fusion.
"When I was Malachite I was very hard to beat. Imagine how powerful I would be if I was fused to someone I actually like."
"Okay..."
The Gems began to dance. Or, at least, Lapis did. Peridot tried to, but couldn't. Lapis snickered. Peridot looked at her. "What?"
"You are such a dork," Lapis said, glomping Peridot.
They fused.
Where they once stood was a sixteen-foot fusion. Teal in color, with four arms and four eyes. Her bangs were shaped into a point, and she wore a pair of goggles over her eyes.
"A turquoise," Obsidian groaned. "They made a turquoise."
Something bit her leg. She looked down to see the Centipeetle mother chomping down on Obsidian's shin, growling.
"Insolent creature," Obsidian snarled, prying the corrupted Gem off her leg. Looking for a place to get rid of it, she eyed Steven trying to wake up Alexandrite.
"Come on, guys! I need you to get up!" Steven said. He turned around to see Obsidian lift the Centipeetle mother into the air. Obsidian threw the monster at Steven; the corrupted Gem landed in Steven's mouth, knocking him over.
The Centipeetle mother got up, pulling herself out of Steven's mouth, noticing the saliva on her tail.
Healing saliva.
The Centipeetle mother retreated into her gem. Alexandrite lifted her head to see the gem rise into the air, glowing. The gem spun around, changing shape, until it resembled Amethyst's gem, only pale green and with a heptagonal facet. A flash of light, and a humanoid shape came out.
The Gem was female, with light green skin and almost-white, short and unruly hair. She wore a brown shirt with maroon shoulder pads that angled upwards, black pants, and sneakers. Her gem was located on her chest.
"Man, I was sick of being a monster and all that stuff," the Gem said.
"Guess my healing powers are back," Steven said. "Who are you?"
"The name's Diopside, kid. Member of the Crystal Gems, and for the last two thousand years, mutant myriapod."
"Diopside..." Alexandrite said weakly. "Good to see you again."
The robonoid began to advance. "Hold that thought," Diopside said. With a movement of her hand, a pillar of rock shot up from the ground, launching the robonoid into the air. It landed on its feet, though it stumbled.
"Turquoise! Summon your weapon!" Alexandrite commanded.
The smaller fusion obeyed. She summoned Peridot's javelin and a chain from Lapis' gem, merging them into a net.
"I didn't know you had that," Turquoise said in Peridot's voice.
"There's a lot you don't know about me," Turquoise said, this time in Lapis' voice.
"Can we just focus?!" Turquoise snapped, this time in her own voice. She threw the net over one of the robonoid's legs, tripping it. It got up again and turned to face her. Turquoise manipulated a current of water up out of the ocean, a current bristling with electricity. She shoved it into the robonoid, short-circuiting it.
Alexandrite got up. Her visor fell off, revealing all six of her eyes. Summoning her weapon, a massive bolas, she flung it at the robonoid. The bolas tied the stumbling robonoid's legs together, bringing it down. Diopside pulled a rock from the ground with a flick of her wrist and dropped it on where its head would be, officially deactivating it.
They cheered at their victory, the fusions defusing (except for Garnet, obviously). Obsidian, meanwhile, saw her chance to do what she had come to do: destroy them. Or at least, one of them.
She picked up Steven by his shirt. The other Gems noticed. "Steven!" Lapis exclaimed.
"You're too late," Obsidian said, creating an impenetrable black bubble, twenty feet wide and ten feet high.
Inside the bubble, Obsidian summoned a black dagger from her gem. "End of the line for you, hybrid," she seethed, moving the dagger to Steven's neck, intent on slitting his throat.
A roar came from behind her. She turned to see that Lion was also in the bubble. The creature stood up on his hind legs.
A rose quartz gemstone emerged on his stomach, taking the place of his navel.
Lion erupted into a flash of light, pinning Obsidian to the wall of the bubble, which soon came down. With the bubble gone, all could see Lion changing shape, becoming more and more humanoid. The light dissolved, and where Lion once was...Rose was in his place.
And she was angrier than even when the Crystal Gems had seen her angry.
"LEAVE MY SON ALONE!" Rose roared. Obsidian got up, only to be knocked on the head by Rose's shield. Hard.
Obsidian was reduced to her gem. Rose summoned her sword and lifted it over her head, ready to shatter the black rock.
"Wait! Mom! If you do that, you'll be no better than the bad guys," Steven interjected.
Rose calmed down. "You're right, Steven. One must not reduce themselves to the low standards of the evil." She put her sword away and bubbled Obsidian's gem. She sent it back to the temple.
All the other Crystal Gems gaped at the sight.
"Rose!" Pearl exclaimed. Rose turned around to see her friends, alongside two Gems she did not recognize, but could tell they were also Crystal Gems.
Rose smiled. "My friends," she said, enveloping them in a giant hug.
"I can't believe you were Lion the whole time," Garnet said.
"Steven knew."
"She made me not tell you so you wouldn't worry," Steven offered as an explanation.
"We're just glad she's back," Amethyst said.
"She left?" Diopside asked.
"It's a long story."