Guess who's back? Back again? Lazuli's back! Tell a friend! Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess...Yes, I have returned with another chapter, with many more to come. I have decided to use my summer eisely and fulfill all my writing plans this summer. I promise you will all be well rewarded for all your patience.So yeah, I hope enjoy the latest chapter. Let's go.
Soren Spessartine. The name alone held meanings no one person could know by themself.
It was an original name, not one associated with his gem type or physical characteristics. It almost sounded human in nature, and that alone was a surprise.
Then there was his posture, his composure. He stood straight without any sign of slouching or slumping, like all he knew was how to stand at attention. He wore a uniform not like anything a gem from Homeworld would wear: A charcoal velvet frock coat with silver-pleated buttons that mildly gleamed in the light, matching dark pants of similiar material and jet black steel-toed officer' boots. It was as if he stepped right out of a victorian-era poem and was there to be a dark archangel of sorts. His appearance reinforced his perversiveness by contrasting what clothes he donned. His skin was pale olive and rough looking like a laborer's, his thick apricot locks reaching just past his shoulders, eyes the color of the ocean on a clear day. One would say he was handsome, his confidence adding to this illusion, but his most disturbing feature was his mouth; the way his lips curled into a partly genuine smile seemed unnatural and lethal, like a cobra that knew its prey had no chance of escape. It was the smile only someone deranged could muster. He was, simply put, his own thing entirely.
"Which one of you dullards is the leader?" He asked bluntly, eyeing up the captives that sat huddled together before him. There was the Amethyst who'd been deformed from sitting in the oven too long, who was failing miserably at trying to put on a brave face for the group.
The Pearl that clearly abandoned her privilege of indentured servitude was shaking like a leaf in the wind, tears already running down her cheeks, pulling her body into herself in cautious self-defense. She was already exactly where he wanted her, Soren knew it without needing any further confirmation from her, and she knew that he knew.
The abomination that was the fusion known as Garnet, he was already familiar with, whom he was already aware that she was the leader.. He was debriefed on the subject of the Crystal Gem insurgents before being assigned his mission, but the information he was given for her specifically was interesting as well as a threat to the entire operation; future vision, an ability that existed exclusively among Sapphires, was already a liability for Homeworld, but then combined with the humble might and unpredictable recklessness of a Ruby soldier made the fusion truly a force to be reckoned with. He asked his rhetorical question as a means of testing the crowd and seeing their reaction. How people respond to extreme stress was important to Soren, especially when considering the innumerable variables when regarding a catalclyst like this.
It was also worth noting that the gem in question seemed calm and expressed a silent defiance within herself despite receiving a decent beating from Soren and sitting on her knees beneath him. He would definitely have to purge that lingering bit of resistance from her soon before it spread to the rest of them like an ancient pestilence, but that was a matter for a later time.
What really came as a surprise to Soren however, was the addition of two indigenous land dwellers - humans, as Homeworld's research revealed to him - both of which were clearly within the adolescent stages of their lifespans. The boy was in pain from his somewhat harsh injuries from the Amethyst guards, looking weak and terrified and ready to make a wee wee in his pants. The same went for the girl, who was just as scared, but held a gaze of curiosity as well. She wanted to see how the situation played out, and there was one that no one in that room, Soren himself included, knew how it was to end. It was rather fascinating to watch, Soren thought, but even more so to take part of.
But he had some control. Just enough for him and exactly slightly more than what his captives were capable of.
"I'll ask again," Soren repeated his question with impatience. "Which one of you is the leader?" To his amusement, the Garnet answered.
"We have no leader," she said blankly. "We lead ourselves."
Soren chuckled insensitively. "That's right, you're old leader decided to check out early by having offspring." He stepped over to the two children. The girl was holding the boy and making sure his injuries weren't exasperated. They seemed out of place to Soren, and their business with these rebels would be revealed to him soom enough.
"Did Rose Quartz have a son or a daughter?"
At the name of the former leader of the Crystal Gems, the boy expressed something to Soren unwittingly. Recognition. This boy had a connection to Rose Quartz. Soren doubted that this young, weak child was the legacy of the Crystal Gem rebellion, he was too young and the Crytal Gems would be fools to bring their most important member to face Homeword's armies. To face himself. It was a very tactical mistake and Soren felt they were smarter than that. Regardless, this boy had information on this strange organic hybrid he had heard so much of.
"Hey there," Soren said gently, leaning in. The children both shrunk back from him in fear, their eyes both huge like fog lights. Also noticeable, the boy held the girl back and seemed to slightly push himself in front of her. It was an unconscious action, easily dismissed and hardly visible at all, but Soren caught him in the act. They were close. He would have to exploit their friendship to get the information he wanted.
"Little boy," Soren said, his demeanor softening up and almost seeming friendly. "What's your name?"
The boy stirred a bit, his breathing becoming more labored as he spoke.
"My name is -" a weak cough, followed by several more, feigning the concern of the rest of his friends. The girl hugged him tighter.
"My name is Steven. Steven Universe."
Soren flashed a genuinely friendly smile. "Those Amethyst guards can be so barbaric at times, can't they? Did they hurt you?"
Steven didn't answer, Soren chalked it up to being wary of Soren's change in behavior.
"You know, Steven," Soren said, "Homeworld has encountered many different species's of organic creatures. Our databases are the best in this quadrant of the galaxy, and we are excellent at tending to all sorts of wounds and injuries." He bent on one knee and reached out to feel Steven's ribcage. The boy immediately winced and tensed at Soren's touch, displaying just how much pain he was in.
Soren continued, "I can help you. I can order one of our medics to come take a look at you. I want to help you, Steven, I really do. But I need you to help me first. I need you to tell me who you're leader is. We know you have one."
"Garnet already told you," he meekly replied. "We don't have one."
"I see." Soren slowly rose to his feet once more and met the gazes of everyone in the room - the stoic Garnet, the fragile Pearl, the terrified Amethyst, the afflicted Steven and...
The girl.
Of course.
"So you don't have a leader? Huh." Then without warning Soren grabbed the girl by her shoulders. The entire room erupted in screams, the girl included, as Soren ripped her from Steven's arms and dragged her away, an arm pinned over her throat and another around her stomach, locking her firmly in his grip.
"No! NO! LEMME GO!" she cried, straining against Soren's embrace to no avail.
"Connie!" Steven called as he stood reached out to her, but his injuries made him fall back to the ground in a broken heap, leading to the Amethyst and Pearl borh rushing to his aid.
"Try not to move," Pearl instructed before turning back to the scene unfolding before them.
"Let her go!" Garnet demanded, already to her feet and staring the Commander down in fury.
Soren kept on with his game and upped his game then some. While holding the flailing girl he summoned a wickedly sharp dagger - from his secret gem placement, so hidden that no one saw where the weapon came from - and held it against her throat.
"Let her go, she's no threat to you!" Pearl pleaded, holding Steven up along with Amethyst.
"Please! She's my best friend, please don't hurt her!" Steven also begged with tears in his eyes, attempting to make a go for Soren but failing to move through the arms of the gems.
"Don't, buddy," Amethyst said in a low tone riddled with fear and worry. "It'll be okay."
"Do I have everyone's attention now?" Soren asked, his once pleasant friendliness completely dissipated, substituted with a cold, sick look in his eye, lips contorted to a vicious sneer.
Garnet summoned her twin gauntlets, prepared for a fight to protect the girl in his arms. An interesting reaction, wanting to defend this weak earthling.
Why, Soren wondered, what was this girl - it seemed her name was Connie - along with this Steven, doing with the group of rogue imbeciles that were the cause of the sole disgusting blemish in Homeworld's otherwise perfect history? That is the question of the day. Soren's mission to earth was becoming more and more intriguing by the minute.
"I'm going to ask you my question one more time, and more after that, and you will answer every one of them! Unless of course -" Soren pressed the edge of his dagger into Connie's throat, into the spot of almond-colored flesh over her jugular. She winced, her eyes wet with tears and her skin drenched in perspiration, the kind of sweat reeking with fear.
Soren took a quick whif of the sweat beading down her neck, eliciting a grossly horrified shriek from the young girl.
Delicious. Absolutely delicious.
"Steven..." Connie whispered hoarsely.
"Connie..." Steven replied, reaching out in a futile attempt to get to her.
Soren smiled that wicked grin of his. He had them right where he wanted them.
"Now that I have your undivided attention, I'll ask again. Who. Is. Your. Leader?"'
"Yes! We have a leader!" Pearl cried out, rushing closer to Soren and the entangled preteen girl.
"Pearl, no!" Garnet shouted, but her words fell on Pearl's deaf ears.
"Finally, a bit of cooperation, huh?" Soren remarked with an animalistic grin, softening his pressing on Connie's neck.
"It's true! Why wouldn't we have a leader?" Pearl continued in pure desperation.
"Who?" Soren inquired. He had to know. He had to. It was the key to his entire operation.
Her entire operation.
"Who's your leader?" Soren repeated excitedly.
"I am."
The room felt the weight of those words and everything came to a standstill. The eyes of everyone present turned to the speaker, but they didn't come from the Pearl, or the Amethyst, or even the Garnet.
They came from the boy.
Steven.
"I'm the leader of the Crystal Gems." His words were not filled with fear or an act of desperation to protect his comrades, no. They were genuine. They were honest.
"You've found me." To Soren's surprise the boy rose, albeit slowly and cautiously, to his feet, resisting against the pain of his injuries but still struggling with a task as simple as standing. Nevertheless he stood, and his fear left for a moment. In its place, defiance and determination, a wordless call to arms against Soren, against this whole operation of Homeworld's. He wanted to fight. He wanted to stand against Soren.
"You asked for our leader, well here I am." Steven continued his oratory. "My name is Steven Quartz Universe, and you aren't friends of Earth, or us. You aren't welcome here, and you need to leave. Now."
Soren pursed his lips. "You dare speak to me in that tone? Do you know who-"
"It doesn't matter who you are or why you're here," he kept on. "Earth doesn't belong to Homeworld. Our sworn duty is to protect our home, and our friends, and we intend to do so."
Then Soren watched as something truly astonishing happened. He watched as the boy was engulfed in a blindening pink light that lit the entire interior of the tent, then it was gone in an instant and there he stood with...
No.
A pink shield around his right arm.
It's him.
With a spiraling vine pattern. A rose in the center.
So this is the infamous gem hybrid after all. Remarkable. He's revealed himself to me.
"Now!" Steven suddenly shouted, throwing Soren off guard and completely susceptible to their improvised attack.
First, Connie bit into his arm, causing a scream from him and forcing him to release his grip on her. Then as she ducked and rolled to the ground, the permafusion launched her rocket-proppeled gauntlets at him, quite literally blowing him out of the tent in a smouldering heap and sending him into a patrol of unsuspecting Quartz soldiers.
"Aaagh!" Soren grunted in anger and pain, scrambling to his feet and untangling himself from these inferile soldier oafs and dusting off his coat before issuing orders.
"Defensive positions!" He barked, his voice echoing on the rocky walls of the Kindergarten, carrying his words throughout the camp. "Establish a perimeter around that canopy!"
The soldiers did as he wished, soldiers donning plasma rifles spread out in two groups - a semicircle of troops surrounding the supply tent housing the rebels, another group forming a firing line aside Soren himself - and all the rest of the gem soldiers nearby who heard the commotion stood by idly, waiting to witness the situation play out. It was the only real entertainment for them, the rare skirmish, so Soren let them watch. It was going to be a rather interesting spectacle.
"What are our orders, Commander?" A Quart infantryman asked, her gun pointed to the tent. "Shall we open fire?" Her gem was embedded in the middle of her forehead. An odd place for a quartz, but it helped with recognition for most others who knew her.
Soren glanced over and knew who it was. "Not yet, Private 2TY. Let's see how this plays out. We have a special case on our hands. Tell the others to hold their fire."
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" 2TY releyed to the rest of the armed soldiers at the ready. "STANDBY FOR THE COMMANDER'S SIGNAL!"
Soren took note of the Private's well behavior and execution of his orders. They all followed orders of course, whether out of fear or respect mattered little to Soren, but this specific private's acts seemed geniune. He would keep an eye on her, she had potential.
He planned on using his little power over these dregs to the fullest.
"Crystal Gems!" Soren announced candidly. "You are surrounded, there's no way out. Do yourselves a favor and surrender! I will not ask again."
No response. Instead, the once captured band of misfits simply stepped out of the tent, arms in hand - the Amethyst, her whip, the Garnet, her gauntlets, the Pearl, her spear, the girl Connie, a sword (where it came from, Soren had no clue) - and Steven Quartz Universe himself, shield in hand, standing at the ready, meeting Soren's gaze across the space between them.
"We will not yield," the Garnet announced in defiance. "This planet is under the protection of the Crystal Gems, and we will defend this planet against any threat that comes. Including you."
"Tell em, G!" The Amethyst called out proudly, raising her whip in the air.
"You can't possibly defeat us!" Pearl added, aiming the tip of her spear directly at Soren.
"The Earth is our domain, we know the land better than any of your charts or data readings could ever know."
Soren frowned at their declarations on the outside, but internally he was beaming with happiness. They really thought they had a chance against him. That was deeply amusing to him. In their arrogance, they failed to notice that we wasn't like other gems Homeworld had to offer, other threats they had thrown the rebels' way.
They had no idea what he was.
Sorem said, "Well then..." he got in his defensive stance - looking similiar to how a martial arts master stands before he duels - and motioned for them to come at him with everything they had.
"...Let's get started then, shall we?"
The boy, Steven Quartz, nodded in agreement. "Crystal Gems... Attack!"
They let out a chorus of batrle cries and rushed at Soren.
"Sir?" 2TY asked uneasily, releasing the safety on her rifle. "Our orders?"
"Hold your fire." He shot her a look of confidence. "You've seen what I can do. This won't last too long."
2TY formed a weak smile. "I understand what you mean. Happy hunting, sir."
He gave her a respective nod and turned back to the charging rebs and rushed at them as well, releasing his own battle cry at them.
Five minutes.
That's how long the fight lasted. That's how long it took for Soren to defeat the Crystal Gems.
And he only fought for three of those minutes.
The Garnet reached him first. She used the momentum from her sprint and put all that potential energy into a gauntlet that promptly made contact with Soren's gut. It knocked the wind out of him and sent him sliding across the ground.
He grunted and attempted to stand, but before getting to his feet, Steven held his shield above his head for the Amethyst to jump on and for him to launch her high into the air. In mid-flight, Amethyst lashed out with her whip, coiling it around Soren's waist and yanking him into the air likewise.
He was airbourne now. Soren flew through the air as the Amethyst, now falling, dropped an elbow into his chest, sending them both to the ground in a loud crash, leaving a good sized crater in the ground.
Onlookers watched as the Commander quickly recovered and threw Amethyst off him and hopped out of the freshly created hole before being double teamed by the Pearl with her spear and the human girl with her sword. While Soren did his best to sidestep their attacks, he took a few nicks from the girl and several glancing blows from the Pearl, particularly on his arms and his ribs.
Soren fell to the ground, just barely landing on his feet in time to be struck by Steven's pink shield, pushing him back once more. The shield bounced back to the boy in question and went back over his forearm. Steven eyed Soren once more, somehow ignoring and moving past his recent injuries.
The Commander coughed up blood, a thick, deep maroon substance he was all too familiar with, and wiped it from his chin. He felt the stuff oozing out of other wounds covering his body, the pain somewhat dulles from the adrenaline coursing through his veins, but at the back of his mind he knew was pretty seriously hurt.
The onlooking Quartz and Amethyst soldiers viewed the battle in silence, most of them overcome with unease and concern for their commanding officer. They wanted to interfere, to put an end to this seemingly unnecessary violence. A handful of blaster bolts from their plasma rifles would put this fight to rest, but they held still.
"Hey 2TY," one of them asked in concern for the situation. "Should we help the Commander? He's getting hurt prettt badly..."
The private in question, who had served under Soren's authority for previous operations and conflicts and had witnesses first-hand what feats he was capable of, shook her head. "He hasn't shown his true colors yet. Let him have his fun."
Soren checked on his physical injuries for the first time while the Crystal Gems were closing in for another attack, circling around him, quickly dashing any ideas for an escape.
He didn't plan on running.
What else do they have under their sleeves?
"Is that all you Crystal degenerates have?" He said through heavy breaths. Getting beating as much as he had was making him a bit winded admittedly. He pointed to Pearl.
"You there," He called. "Fight me!"
The gem in question obliged, dashing at him with a viper's swiftness. She made a wide slash with her spear that Soren nearly fell victim to, but was hit with a quick jab from the knob at the dull end of her spear that followed afterwards. Soren stepped back and gripped his gut, where most of the punishment was being directed, and was expecting another swing from Pearl.
What he wasn't expecting was the tip of her spear forming a glowing ball of white energy and blasting at him. His eyes lit up in surprise as the deadly sphere landed a direct hit in his chest, leading to a mini explosion that sent him once more across the space they battled in.
"How's that for a fight?" Pearl declared with a cocky smirk, holding her spear above her head in celebration.
"Nice one, Pearl!" Connie praised in awe, throwing a fist in the air.
Soren rose for the umpteenth time this fight, and he realized how much damage he had sustained was getting too much for his body to withstand.
They won't touch me again. I'll make sure to that.
Soren put on an arrogant smile - a genuine smile - and laughed.
"You celebrate that? That was nothing." He dusted his jacket, now smoldering and riddled with burns and holes, particularly around his torso, and let out a spiteful snicker.
"What, you mean to tell me that the Crystal Gems, infamous rogue gems that held ground against the strongest intergalactic empire the galaxy has ever seen, fights with the most basic of attacks? You can't even defeat me, and I haven't even fought back yet."
That riled them up, namely the Amethyst. "Oh, so we're not tough enough for you now? Okay, let's see you take this."
She dropped to the ground and rolled into a vicious spin dash - a notable attack from the days of the era one Amethysts of the empire - and barreled right towards him.
Come on. Come at me.
From where he stood, how far she stood and how fast she was moving, Soren did the math in his head. There was a ninety eight point seven percent chance she was going to plow into him.
Wait. Soren didn't move.
She was almost upon him.
Wait. Soren waited.
She was right on top of him.
Gotcha.
She never hit him. Instead of running down the beaten Commander, Amethyst suddenly veered of slightly to the left - completely bypassing Soren.
Amethyst, being unable to just stop of her own accord (she was going to fast to just put down the breaks) simply crashed into one of the cavern walls, forcing Quartz soldiers to jump out of the way to avoid collision, and adding another humanoid-shaped crater amongst others previously made by new Amethyst soldiers centuries prior.
Meanwhile the other Crystal Gems looked confused. Each of them looked at each other for answers, and when none were given, they dismissed it, maybe just chalking up to a simple mistake on their friend's part.
The new addition to the Kindergarten walls recovered from her impact into the rock and poked her head out, looking absolutely bewildered.
"Wait...what?"
Soren grinned. "Not as much of a sureshot as you thought, huh?"
Amethyst growled in anger. "Well if I don't do it right the first time, I always get it the second time around!" She dashed again.
Ninety nine point two percent this time. She should've gotten him this time. She didn't.
This time she didn't simply miss Soren like before. Instead she quite literallt tripped on her own two feet and came to a slow, demoralizing slid to his feet.
"Ugh..." she groaned.
"Oh stars," Pearl sighed, rubbing her temples in disappointment. "Amethyst, just why?"
Steven asked, "What's wrong with her? Is she okay?"
"She's fine," she answered with a hint of frustration. "Amethyst is just...she can be a bit overconfident. She gets ahead of herself at times."
The Garnet was less vocal about her concern, but she did take action. She ran at Soren with her fists cocked back, ready to strike.
"Good try," Soren disrespectfully commented to the battered gem beneath him. He heard the taller, much more serious of a threat running from behind him. He made no immediate reaction, no - he simply manifested his dagger from earlier from his secret gem - not even the Amethyst, who watched him take it out, had not seen where it came from - seemingly out of thin air, at least to her - and waited for the fusion to be in range. The odds were stacked in Garnet's favor ninety nine to one.
Then they weren't.
Not today, fusion.
At the end right before contact, Soren sidestepped with impossibly speed and slashed at her.
"Arrh!" Garnet yelled as she stumbled away, clutching her face, now baring a nasty cut across the center of her face and slicing through her mirrored shades, falling to the ground in to pieces before dissipating into nothing.
"Garnet!" The human children and the Pearl cried out to their hurt friend.
Connie called Soren out. "You'll pay for that!" She charged him, sword in hand.
"Connie, wait!" Steven called, but ran with her anyway, looking to shield bash their enemy. The Pearl sprinted off as well, leaping into the air and coming up with a downward lunge for landing upon Soren.
Ninety nine point nine percent. The closest thing to absolution most ever get in their lives.
It mattered not. Soren didn't defy the odds. He was the odds.
The three were upon him. Soren dodged Steven's shield bash and brought the butt of his dagger down on the back of his neck and elbowed him to the ground.
He stepped aside of Pearl's spear and grabbed her ankle, slamming her into the dirt with her own momentum.
Connie got it the worse. As she slashed upwards at him, going for his face, Soren stepped back. In an instant, the dagger in his hands disappeared and was replaced by a wickedly jagged scimitar, which he used to parry another speedy hack from Connie and push her back. He then followed with his own attack. Without giving Connie a second to regroup, he drove the entirety of his blade through her torso.
In four seconds, all three of his attackers were beaten.
Connie froze. Looked down at the hilt of the sword buried in her chest, the only part of the sword visible to her. Looked up at nothing in particular in disbelief and crippling fear. Sputtered blood from her lips, more dripping from her chin. Much more gushing from the wound where the blade still stuck, soaking her clothes, turning her baby blue shirt a deep crimson.
Soren sighed in satisfaction. Twisted the blade within her. A sharp gasp fleeing from her red lips.
Rising the blade and the girl to the sky, putting the carnage on display for all to see.
Including...
"Oh no..." Amethyst whispered softly.
A gasp from Garnet.
A soft plead from Pearl. "Connie...?"
"CONNIE!" Steven shrieked to the heavens above. His reaction was by far the worst.
Steven, Pearl and Amethyst joined Garnet on their feet and gaped at horror before them.
Soren's mouth was curled into a snake's grin. He established who's rules they were playing by. How the fight was going to go. What were they expecting?
"Fools." His words seemed like bombs in the dead silence. "All of you. For defying me, for trying to stop what we came here to do." He looked from the remaining Crystal Gems to the skewered girl bleeding out on his scimitar.
"But you," he said, "are the biggest fool of them all. Who are you to side with these traitors? To fight their battles as if they were your own? Do you know who we are, why we do what we do?"
Bringing the blade closer to him, now he was face to face with his latest victim. He could see every little twitch of her flesh, every single tear slide down her cheeks, every inch of fear plastered on her face. She had seconds left, a minute if she was lucky, and he wanted to be the last thing she ever saw as she faded.
"That's your biggest failure, your fatal flaw," he continued without missing a beat. "You don't know who you're fighting, therefore you don't know why you're fighting. You weren't there at the first war for this shell of a planet, so you can't possibly know what your Crystal Gems fight for. You're an ignorant, mortal fool blindly following the ideas of others. You want to be a fool..."
He let the sword down. She slid off the sword with a gutwrenching sklit! and fell to the ground as a bloody, still mess.
"...So die a fool."
"You murderous brute!" The Pearl lunged at her, but he literally grabbed her spear before it could plunge into him and snapped it into, the remains vanishing soon after. He then slashed horizontally at her waist, cutting her light form of a body in half and poofing her, sending her straight to her gem. It fell to the ground with a soft thud.
"Stop!" The stoic Garnet shouted and dashed into Soren, actually landing a hit and sending them both flying, but then something further happened. Soren took the Garnet by her wrists and flew - literally flew like Superman high into the air and disappeared from the sights of all those presently viewing the skirmish.
Steven took this opportunity to rush to the aide of his dying friend and droped to his knees at her side. Behind him, Amethyst silently recovered Pearl's gem from the ground and returned it home in a rose colored bubble.
"Connie..." he said breathlessly, feverishly inspecting her injuries. "You're going to be okay. I'm gonna heal you." His words sounded less and less true when he saw how much blood there was.
"Amethyst, help me get her shirt off." They took fistfuls of Connie's shirt and pulled in opposite directions, ripping her shirt down the middle and exposing her bleeding stomach and white blood soaked training bra.
"There's so much..." Steven said helpessly, running his hands along her belly, searching. "I don't...I can't find it...oh god..."
Connie let out a few weak coughs, her breathing becoming less and less. They needed to act fast. Faster.
"It's right here, Steven!" Amethyst said urgently, directing his hands to where the blood was still ebbing out of Connie.
Steven had no hesitation in licking his hands, cringing at the taste of copper and iron...of her...in his mouth and rubbing the stab wound furiously.
"Is it working?" Amethyst inquired. "Oh God, what if it doesn't work?"
"It's going to work," Steven said quickly. "It's going to. It has to."
"But Steven-"
"IT HAS TO!" Steven screamed, dousing her stomach in another layer of saliva. "I CAN'T LOSE HER! I WON'T! I CAN SAVE HER!"
It's going to.
It wasn't his conscience that spoke to him, but he heard it in his head.
But what if...
Steven. It will. I promise.
He didn't question it.
"St..." Connie forced out.
It got their attention. While Steven rubbed, the young girl met his gaze. The light was almost gone. They seemed distracted, as if she couldn't see him.
"Ste...ven."
"I'm here, Connie." He took one of her hands in comfort, Amethyst, the other.
"J-j..." she stuttered, it was so hard for her, and it broke him to hear her struggle.
She held his hand tightly in her own, then flashed him the faintest of smiles she could muster.
"J-jam...buds."
Her bloodied chest gradually slowed, then stopped rising altogether. Her tear-filled eyes glazed over.
Her hand went limp. Silently dropped. from Steven's to the ground. And fell still.
In the air, Soren managed to get ahold of Garnet's throat, constricting his hands in a vicious death grip. Garnet struggled so hard against him but couldn't get loose, and Soren was holding her beneath himself as he flew them both straight down towards the Earth.
The impact rocked the entirety of the Kindergarten, forcing many Quartzes to their knees. Private 2TY remained on her feet and whistled at the crater they left behind, the third one formed so far.
"Wooo, that's gotta hurt," she commented in regards to the fusion Soren had just flattened.
Speak of the devil, he came from the impact site with a gem in each hand. The Garnet was no more.
Soren came over to where the Amethyst and Steven sat around the lifeless corpse of the girl he just killed.
"Pity," he said as he approached. "She was so young. She would've fit in just fine with the new world Homeworld was going to build from the ashes of this one."
"You..." Steven said in disbelief. "You...she...you-"
"Yes, I did. If you give up now-" As Soren expected, Steven summoned his shield and swung at him. It was such a pitiful attempt of an attack that Soren just pushed him to the ground with next to no effort.
"Hey dirtwad!" Amethyst spat, reaching to her gem to grab her whip, but Soren punched her at break-neck speeds in the fast, sending her skidding away.
He stood over Steven now. Reached to his mouth and opened up, and Steven saw his gem - in his tongue of all places - and pulled out his sword.
"I gave you a choice between life and death, and you made the choice." He plunged the sword in Steven's chest and left it there.
"No!" the Amethyst blurted and tried running to her friend, but the surrounding Quartzes seized her and kept her from interfering.
"Your shield," he said to the boy, noe going through the same end as his friend. "Humans don't have powers like that by themselves." He leaned in closer.
"You're a coward. Shapeshifting yourself to look like a human child to hide your gem and save yourself?" He pushed the blade in deeper, making the boy roar in pain.
"Stop holding on," Soren ordered. "Retreat already."
Steven was losing a lot of blood, but his physical form remained unchanged.
Soren was losing his patience. "Oh blast it, you miserable maggot."
He reached down and tore open Steven's shirt, revealing his gem to him.
"There she is. Hi, Rose Quartz!" Soren waved childishly. "Could be a dear and take your son back?"
Not waiting for an answer to his rhetorical question, he reached out to pry out the gem himself when he made contact with his skin.
Soren immediately pulled his hand back, like he had just burned himself. After a second of hesitation he touched Steven's skin again.
It felt different. He knew the difference between projections of physical light comprising the forms of all gems, and true, living flesh.
Steven should've been the former.
He's a hybrid.
He had no option to his existence, no say in his creation. He was the bi-product of someone experimenting between sentient gemkind and organic life
Soren froze. It never even occured to him.
Oh stars.
He's like me.
"Oh my," he whispered, then repeated in a greater volume. "Oh my."
He took the grip of his sword and yanked it out of the boy's chest, a painful grunt making itself hurt from the wounded hybrid. Soren knelt
"You don't know why you fight either. Do you?" His words were soft. Sympathetic, and this time, genuine.
Steven coughed, his only response was his labored breathing. Soon.
Soren felt something stir in him. A memory conjured itself into his mind, one he worked so hard to delete.
Suddenly he wasn't sitting over a dying child in the cold, dead Kindergarten, surrounded by dozens of his own detatchment of loyal soldiers. He was somewhere else...
...Lying on his back on a cold, metal floor, in a pool of his own maroon blood. He wouldn't die, she would let that happen.
Holly Blue exhaled in ecstacy. "I needed that." She held her gem's natural whip in one hand, the physical curverd knife in the other. Both were dripping dark liquid to the floor.
"How was it Soren?" She asked, dissipating her whip and setting down the knife on a floating tray nearby. "Was it fun like all the other times?"
Soren couldn't hear her, he was distracted from the pain, aimlessly staring at the grated ceiling above. When he didn't respond, Holly Blue stepped over and stomped on his shattered rib cage. He screamed in renewed agony. More blood squirted from his body. His vision blurred.
"I said, how was it?" she hissed.
Soren choked on his own spit and goop before mustering a barely audible response.
"It-it was lovely," he said submissively.
"I knew you would think so," Holly Blue knowingly quipped. She took a communicator from the same tray as the knife and activated it.
"Medical team to my quarters. Now." she turned it off and set it back down.
A second later the diamond-shaped door slid open and a crew of two medic Rubies with carrying cases rushed in and over to Soren.
"Only necessary procedures," Holly Blue ordered. "Keep him alive, but don't give him anything for the pain."
"Yes, Holly Blue," the Rubies dutifully replied. One of them, an identification tag on their chest read A15, took out a pouch of green powder and emptied its contents on and around Soren's wounds. The powder immediately thickened his blood and clotted up his veins, effectivity stopping the bleeding. The other medic, labeled as A16, got a needle twined with a skinny but rather thick metal thread and got to work stitching him up.
He grimaced at the tedious and drawn out work of the Rubies. He would rather bleed out, but Holly Blue would have no one else to play with.
A few minutes of agonizing stitchwork and clotted arteries, the medics were finished patching him up and his condition had been stabilized. They each took an arm and brought him to his feet.
"Can you stand on your own?" A15 asked.
He didn't answer. He stood and ripped his arms from their grasp in an angered huff.
"Rude," A16 muttered under her breath before addressing Holly Blue. "Will you be needing our services, my Agate?"
"No thank you. You're dismissed."
The Rubies flashed their diamond salutes to her respectively and made a hasty retreat from her quarters, leaving tormentor alone with the tormented.
"You," Holly Blue started, "are not utilizing your full potential, Soren." A hoverchair whizzed into the room from outside and sat idly behind her, where she promptly took a seat. Soren sluggishly sat down on the floor, nearly in his own blood pool, keeping caution to not disturb his injuries and cause him any further pain. It made little diffence.
"I think you've forgotten what we're trying to accomplish with you," she continued. "Have you lost sight of the work we've been doing?"
Soren hated it when she went on her rants about "his potential".
She proceeded through his silence. "Soren, listen to me." She sighed. "Homeworld isn't the same galatic superpower it was a few centuries ago. We're working with what little resources we have domestically and through our colonies across the galaxy, but it isn't enough for certain fields of importance. In short, we're suffering a shortage of good gems. Good soldiers."
He absent-mindedly scratched at one of several stab wounds on his abdomen. It almost pierced his stomach like last time. She wouldn't let him die then, either.
"We're more vunerable now more than ever before. Consider all of the star systems we've conquered and colonized over the eons. For every one of them, Homeworld had to push out thousands of gems to properly and effectvely take the planets as out hands; Rubies and Jaspers to escort and protect officers and guests, Bismuthes and Topazes to build structures and machinery for use in making the lands more hospitable for us, you know, the bare necessities.
It takes a lot out of Homeworld's resources and eventually we had to ration them out to make more of the gems we needed to expand our already vast empire."
Why did she keep saying "we?"
Soren was alone.
"In short, we're spread too thin, and our Era II workers and soldiers weren't being made as strong and resilient as they used to be, and Homeworld isn't the only ones who know it."
He didn't care, but he had no one else to talk to. "Who else knows?"
"Enemies of Homeworld." She seemed pleased with being asked his question. "And some unruly planets under our occupation."
He rubbed his back and his fingers met lashes in the skin made from a barbed flail. "What are the Diamonds going to do about these planets?"
Holly Blue scoffed. "Not enough. I've pushed for these unstable planets to be deescalated, or ever better, completely wiped off our star maps, for years, but they've deemed the issue as non-essential for the time being. They won't do anything until they have a full scale rebellion on their hands."
In an attempt to get more on her good side, Soren smacked his lips in disapproval. "Like that'll happen. Who's stupid enough to wage war on us?"
Us. It felt so disgusting sliding up his gullet and leaping out his mouth.
"Like I said, we do have enemies." Holly shuddered in disturbance. "Rather powerful ones too..."
She looked off to the other side of the room, not seeing anything but instead being lost in thought at whatever troubled her mind.
Soren made a point to remember this conversation, one of hundreds he was forced to endure, because of her troubled expression. He had never seen her look that way before then or since. For someone who was scared, miserable and constantly being tortured and experimented on as her owb personal lab rat, she never saw much weakness in her. But this wasn't just concern scrawled on her face.
Just like that, it was gone. She was back to her egotistical self. "That's where you come in, Soren. You're not a gem. You're not some irrelevant organic species, you're both. Something we've never seen before. Something entirely new.""No," Soren said curtly. "I'm the only one who survived your other experiments."
Holly Blue put on a painfully forced smile. "My point exactly. They died because they weren't strong enough, they weren't like you." She reached and took his hand in hers, moving a little too fast for Soren's comfort and making him flinch.
"Imagine reaching your full potential, learning how to control your powers, then imagine an entire army of soldiers as poweful as you. None would dare oppose us, and anyone who did would be crushed under the might of Homeworld's armies." She sounded brainwashed, fanatical as she spoke. Then her tone softened up a bit, and now she actually seemed caring, like a mother consoling her child on how there's no reason to be afraid of the dark.
"Don't you see, my child? You're the key to Homeworld's eternal empire. You're the answer."
She proceeded to reach into a pocket in her uniform and took out a silver coin. One side had a head, the head of White Diamond, supreme leader of Homeworld, the other side, a pair of pink legs, symbolizing the late Pink diamond.
"Since you aren't ready to dodge knife yet," she said bitterly, "Let's practice a little more. Heads or legs?"
"Heads." He felt unsure of it this time.
She flipped it into the air, it pinged against the metal floor. Heads.
"That could just be a coincidence. Let's do legs this time."
Another flip. Soren reached deep inside himself with uncertainty, but just a little less.
Another ping! and it was legs.
Holly Blue gave him a pleased smile. "Very good, but I may need a little more convincing on your part. Call it in the air."
Flip.
"Heads." He saw it clear in his mind now. He felt it deep within his bones.
Ping!
They leaned forward, and on the side of the coin facing the sky was the unmistakeable face of White Diamond staring back at them.
Yeah. I did that. Lazuli out.
