Steven's serious mission
Chapter 10: Reassurance
Water flowed down the highway opposite to them from the hole in the wall, the outside waterfall began to lose strength.
The Gems began to walk forward but the hybrid boy walking with them had something on his mind and sighed.
"Guys, I" he began.
Pearl and Amethyst looked at him with concern and confusion.
"Steven." Interrupted Garnet.
"I know you feel like we are invincible and powerful while you are weak and fragile but you need to know that is not true." Said Garnet seeing the future conflict.
Steven looked at the fusion listening to every word. It didn't really ease his mind that he couldn't finish his sentence but he knew she knew.
"We have been close to death many times as well." Said Garnet looking towards the other Gems.
"Y-yeah" said Amethyst figuring out what was going on.
"I've been poofed so many times I can't even remember my first look." Said Amethyst with a little exaggerative lie.
Steven looked downcast in thought.
"Remember when you were little and I had long sleeves?" said Amethyst walking towards Steven.
Steven nodded looking up at Amethyst.
"Well, before your house was finished I had a little accident and that's when I got my old look." She said.
"But now a few accidents later I got these swanky duds!" said Amethyst with a smile showing off her black clothes and greyish-violet pants with dark stars.
"I remember" said Steven solemnly.
"T-that's right! And remember when I was almost sliced in half by that axe?" said Pearl putting her hand on her Gem.
"And then you saved me." Added Pearl.
Steven perked up.
"We can die too Steven, and even though there isn't as much that can kill us we can still die at any moment." Said Pearl.
"Steven, remember when we used to leave you behind?" said Garnet.
Steven looked up and nodded.
"Steven, there was always a chance that when we stepped on that warp pad we would never come back." Said Garnet bending down towards Steven and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Steven's eyes widened as he went through his memories, he always waited for the Gems to come home, he never considered that one day….they never would.
"That's why we need to protect each other." Said Garnet as the Gems looked at her.
"We need to protect each other in order to complete missions if we didn't we would have all died. Just like you saved Pearl and we saved you." Said Garnet.
Steven blushed.
"As long as we love each other and protect each other we will survive." Said Garnet smiling clenching her fist.
"Yeah, we'll protect you as long as you protect us!" said Amethyst not thinking about what she was saying, "Its like you scratch my back I'll scratch yours." She added.
Garnet and Pearl didn't like what she was implying and glared at her.
"E-except out of love!" said Amethyst with a smile," Its like I scratch your back because I love you and you don't have to do anything for me, I mean… I'll stop now…." Said Amethyst trying to recover but crashing and burning.
"I think I get it." Said Steven with a smile.
"You aren't weak Steven, we are. And we can only be strong-" Said pearl before being interrupted.
"Together" said Garnet with a big smile.
"Group hug!" Yelled Amethyst as they hugged together.
A piece dislodged from the roof and was going to fall on them.
Steven's gem glowed and he summoned a massive shield protecting them.
Steven smiled at the Gems and they smiled back.
"That's it!" said Amethyst.
"Now what were you going to say?" asked Garnet with a smile.
"Nothing!" said Steven happily.
"Hey, what's that song you sung for us when you were little?" asked Amethyst trying to liven up the mood.
Steven and the other Gems looked at her with curiosity before Garnet began to smile.
"Y'know. I think it had something to do with pizza." said Amethyst remembering.
"Oh, that song." Said Steven blushing from the memory but smiling too.
"I-if your evil and you're on the rise." Sang Steven quietly feeling like his cheeks were on fire.
"You can count on" continued Garnet with a smile.
"The four of us taking you down!" sung Pearl harmoniously.
"cuz we're good and evil never beats us! We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas" said Amethyst hungrily.
"We" sung Garnet.
"Are the Crystal!" sung Amethyst and Pearl in unison looking at Steven.
Steven took the hint.
"Gems!" he yelled jumping up.
"We'll always save the day!" they sung in unison.
"And if you think we cant!" sung Steven.
"We'll always find a way!" they sung.
"That's why the people!" sung Garnet.
"Of the world!" they sung in unison.
"Believe in!" sung Garnet.
"Garnet." She sung.
"Amethyst!" sung Amethyst
"And Pearl!" Sung Pearl.
"And Steven!" yelled Steven.
They laughed.
"You ready to beat up that green nerd!" asked Amethyst.
"I guess so." Said Steven standing up as they walked towards the door his sandals still felt squishy and it was kind of uncomfortable.
They walked.
"How did you take control of your shield anyways." Asked Amethyst breaking the natural silence.
"I guess, I think of protecting you guys, or my dad, or Connie and It just happens." Said Steven.
"Aww shucks guy!" said Amethyst giving him a noogie.
They reached the door and found a crack going across it as the building shaking explosion of Garnet's successful escape attempt cracked the door.
Garnet summoned her gauntlets and kept punching the door.
The door suddenly exploded, Peridot jumped with a yelp and turned to look at the hostile invaders.
"Hi!" said Steven in greeting, naturally not holding any kind of grudge and knowing none of this was really Peridot's fault she was just scared and she had no part in the water.
Peridot looked at them with a face full of fear and confusion sunlight glinted off her Gem as she stepped back, sunlight reflected off the white crystals in the computer and at varying brightness of five of the ten outer edges and the top half of the decagon center of the dirty Goshenite Gem powering the Beacon.
"How did you escape?! That pile was sealed!" yelled Peridot in confusion.
Garnet got mad, a part of her knew that Peridot had no part in the water and that she wouldn't know why Steven was wet but the other part wanted to beat her up for the scare they had.
Peridot saw Garnet's face turn into anger and her armored fists tense up.
Peridot activated her arm cannon.
"St-stay back! I'm warning you!" yelled Peridot with fear in her voice aiming at the cerise fusion.
Garnet ran at the green Gem and Pearl and Amethyst summoned their respective weapons following.
Steven watched.
Peridot's eyes widened and she quickly inputted commands on the computer console and whirring was heard.
There were two smaller antennas surrounding the larger, which magically appeared after the commands were sent.
"You're too late!" Yelled Peridot as embedded lights in the antenna activated and glowed white.
The left and right smaller antennas shot currents of white energy into the central antenna, which conducted to the central antenna all the way up.
The area around the tip was distorted as the fabric of space and time was warped a bright beam of light came from the tip and became invisible to those on the ground as it was accelerated beyond the speed of light only the beginning of the beam was still visible and shined brightly looking like a beacon that could be seen for miles and to those in space, light years.
Peridot laughed evilly before stopping abruptly and dodging a hard punch from Garnet with wide-eyed fear on her face
Peridot ran away from the angry fusion as Pearl took another direction to meet up with her.
Pearl threw her spear at her.
Peridot saw the spear and used her tractor beam to grab the spear and threw it back at her with a spin before running from Garnet some more with a yelp.
Pearl ducked.
"Amethyst!" yelled Pearl.
"Wut?" said Amethyst before seeing the spear and ducking, however she did not duck fast enough and her hair was sliced and became short, and square edged.
Her long stands of hair separated and fell like rain.
"My hair!" Yelled Amethyst.
She held a pile of the stands before they disappeared in purple smoke.
She regenerated it but didn't quite remember how she styled it because well, she didn't so it came out even messier than normal.
"AINT NOBODY MESS WITH MY HAIR!" Yelled Amethyst angrily.
Amethyst chased after Peridot.
Amethyst threw her whip and it tied around Peridot's legs.
Peridot fell on her face.
Garnet punched hard at her but she rolled away causing her to miss.
Peridot managed to get up and hop away.
She grabbed the hand on her leg and pressed a button disconnecting it and reconnecting it on her arm.
She untied herself and activated her propeller.
Steven saw this and quickly ran up to her and hugged her chest causing her to fall back down on her back from the unexpected attack.
Peridot blushed slightly she had never been hugged it kinda felt nice….But it was an attack! And as a result she got on the defensive.
"Is it trying to crush me? Why is it so warm and wet? Is it going to burn me?" she thought as she grabbed him and tried to push him off.
The Gems charged for her and Peridot pulled herself backwards with one hand and her feet, crawling backwards while still trying to get Steven off.
"Get off of me!" said Peridot as she pushed Steven's head which hurt a lot, because of her metal appendages.
Steven let go to grab his aching head.
Steven was almost pushed off but grabbed on to her left metal leg but began to slip since he touched his hair which was still wet.
He stopped slipping when she grabbed her foot.
The Gems got closer.
"LET ME GO!" Sobbed Peridot with tears in her eyes.
Steven looked up and was surprised, she was crying…
Suddenly Peridot used her foot-less leg to strike Steven in the forehead. hard.
Steven made an exclamation of pain and flew into a mossy, broken wall.
Before the back of his head could hit the wall resulting in a skull-shattering fatal impact, his bubble activated and his head hit the bubble in a softer impact and the bubble bounced off the wall and fell on the ground, Steven was spread out on the back of the bubble before falling on his stomach on the bubble's floor.
The bubble popped, Steven was out, cold.
The Gems looked at Steven, Garnet and Amethyst looked at Peridot feeling only fury, while Pearl ran towards Steven worried as always.
Amethyst and Garnet ran towards Peridot.
Peridot screamed.
"It was an accident!" she pleaded.
Garnet punched the computer's keyboard hard and it exploded, white crystals flying and stone like material everywhere.
The beacon shut down, the two other antennas dematerialized, the holographic screens fizzled out.
"No!" yelled Peridot before running away from the pair.
Pearl ran towards the unconscious boy and fell on her knees picking him up and shaking him.
"Steven! Steven! Open your eyes!" Said Pearl frantically.
She checked his pulse, he was alive and stroked his hair checking for blood from the impact or if his head sustained any damage luckily he was fine.
But she noticed Steven's forehead suddenly turn red and begin to swell.
Steven groaned, his eyes opening slowly.
"Steven, are you ok?" She asked.
Steven groaned again.
"My head hurts a little…" he said grabbing his head
He reached for his forehead and touched it slightly and quickly drew his hand back and winced it hurt a lot.
"Steven, do you know who we are? Say your ABCs!" said Pearl worried.
"Yeah. Um.. A B C D-" began Steven before being interrupted.
"How many fingers am I holding!" said Pearl holding up two fingers.
"Two." Said Steven.
"Oh thank goodness, you are alright." Said Pearl.
"Get away from me!" said Peridot while the Gems attacked her.
She remembered the reason they were attacking her.
"Why do you care about this planet! Its disgusting!" said Peridot scraping the remains of a bug she just crushed off her foot.
Pearl got mad.
"Stay here Steven." Said Pearl summoning her spear.
"You're wrong! Its beautiful!" Said Pearl joining them.
"Beautiful? its disgusting chemistry!" said Peridot before running away.
Peridot jumped up and activated her propellers and began to fly away through the antenna's hole.
Garnet aimed her fists and shot her gauntlets at Peridot.
Peridot yelped and used her tractor beam to spin and return the gauntlets, temporarily losing stability in flight.
Despite his condition Steven quickly ran and summoned a large shield, hands in front of him, gem glowing, which gonged as the gauntlets exploded on it.
Steven looked back and the Gems smiled at him.
The shield dematerialized and Steven suddenly fell.
Pearl quickly caught him.
"Steven? What's wrong!" said Pearl looking down at him.
Steven opened his eyes and looked at Pearl.
"I- Im just so…exhausted I need to lay down for a sec'." said Steven tiredly.
"Yes, Steven rest." Said Pearl realizing how taxing the shield is to his energy and the fact that he hasn't eaten lunch today.
Peridot used the distraction to her advantage flying off into the opening.
"Peridot!" yelled Garnet clenching her fists as the other gems looked up at her.
"Bye bye! Clods!" yelled Peridot.
Amethyst whipped in Peridot's direction but couldn't reach to tie her up.
Peridot laughed maniacally.
She flew out of the hole.
She just kept laughing as she got farther and farther from the opening in the river.
The morning sun reflected off the river and its tributaries as she flew over the golden-looking rivers.
Suddenly her laughing turned into uncontrollable sobbing as she landed behind a large boulder near a bend in the river.
"This is it, Its over for me! I'm going to die here! Alone! Helpless! What does Yellow Diamond care! She can get another Peridot!" she sobbed burying her head into her arms and realizing why Yellow Diamond hasn't sent help.
"I mean, she can just assume the Cluster is doing well! Who knows if she even cared!" sobbed Peridot.
"Any day now. It'll hatch." said Peridot rocking back and forth hitting her head against the mossy boulder.
"Nothing, no chance of survival…." Said Peridot wide-eyed.
Peridot suddenly remembered something Lapis told them during the interrogation.
"The Steven! That's it! It healed Lazuli's Gem! It can fix the Galaxy warp! I can still live!" said Peridot laughing.
"But how can I get to them…..I cant warp they'll detect me! I cant fly they'll see me…" said Peridot.
"Well, better start walking.." said Peridot miserably as she pulled up a map to the Temple warp pad.
"Hopefully these plants won't start spraying more water on me…" said Peridot not understanding rain and too miserable to have noticed the thunder.
Back at the beacon Peridot escaped once again.
"UGH! This is sooooo annoying she's like a villain in one of Steven's cartoons! Always getting away!" said Amethyst dematerializing her whip.
Garnet dematerialized her gauntlets, still looking up.
Steven got up much to the surprise of Pearl.
"Are you feeling alright?" asked Pearl.
"Yeah I just needed a little break" said Steven.
"Hey, my head-ache's gone!" said Steven happily.
He felt his forehead and his happiness turned into pain his forehead was still swollen.
Garnet turned her attention to the Gem imbedded into the round base of the Antenna.
Steven looked at it.
"It's like Lapis" said Steven.
"We should save her!" said Steven suddenly.
"You don't know that. It could still be corrupted." Said Garnet.
"We need to get it anyways" said Amethyst.
At that encouragement Steven jumped on the Gem and began to pull at its sides.
"Steven! We can handle this!" said Garnet.
"Pop" "Body thud"
Steven pulled out the Gem and fell on his back, dropping it.
The antenna suddenly cracked and began to fall apart.
It collapsed and fell in, its base breaking apart and turning into small pieces which turned into smaller pieces and turned into brown dust which few everywhere, eventually the entire thing just turned to dust and all that was left was the broken computer terminal and a hole where the base once was and a pointless opening outside.
The Gem was exactly the same on both sides, each side separated by a white ring.
The Gem began to glow white.
Steven got up looking starry-eyed.
Garnet readied her Gauntlets and the other Gem watched.
A body formed, feminine humanoid in shape the Gem was skinny, with a full torso, and grew long hair, which was styled perfectly straight.
The light fell on all fours, hair drooping.
Steven was excited he thought this Gem would be a new friend to help he walked over and extended his hand at the still bright, grey-ish white form around coming from a Gem placed at the heart similar to Amethyst.
"Steven! Get away from that Gem!" Yelled Garnet as the Gem suddenly screeched and reached up changing into a monstrous form.
The Gems summoned their weapons.
It's skinny form became muscular its hair became spiky, it grew two more arms, its face became alligator like, it grew a tail!
The corrupted Gem fell on its new feet and gained its new form, Grey fuzz on its body, hair turned a spiky mane of Goshenite crystal, large, expressive grey eyes with pupils, a thin tail with a large diamond cut Goshenite crystal on its end, white crystal claws, Grey fuzzy paws, 6 legs, and Alligator like snout and teeth.
The Thing opened its eyes and looked around its surroundings at first it was confused and scared, it felt drained of energy but slowly regaining it, it saw….Gems! With weapons! A…Human? Reaching over to it's face suddenly frozen with fear.
It got mad, it was being threatened and roared.
"Steven!" Yelled Pearl!
The monster roared it's Gem glowed and everything was suddenly bathed in bright white light.
Steven was temporarily blinded his eye cells overloaded beyond belief.
The Gems were blinded as long as the light was still active.
The light diminished and the Monster pounced on Garnet.
Pearl looked for Steven and saw him wiping his eyes and stumbling around trying to feel for something.
"My eyes! I can't see!" yelled Steven.
"Steven!" yelled Pearl.
"Pearl?!, Where-" said Steven before bumping into a wall and forced to sit down on the ground.
Pearl ran to Steven.
"Steven, this mission is horrible you've never been in this much danger!" said Pearl examining his eyes.
His eyes were closed she opened them and his pupils went as small as they could go and his eyes looked in one location she waved her hand in front of him and nothing.
"Steven! Just stay here and don't move!" said Pearl as she went to help the other Gems.
"Kay." Said Steven still wiping his eyes and blinking, trying to see.
Garnet threw the monster off her and it crashed into a wall leaving its imprint.
It charged towards her again and Amethyst grabbed its right hind leg with her whip, stopping it, it flashed light once again and though blinded, Amethyst kept her grip on the whip.
Pearl fired blasts at it promoting screeching as its crystal mane broke into pieces.
The thing looked at them, livid.
It used all its strength to move forward dragging Amethyst along with it, it clawed at Garnet but she dodged every time and only scratched the walls.
Pearl threw her spear at it and it impaled the Gem on its side.
It Roared in pain, eyes wide.
A massive explosion of white smoke followed by the clink of a Gem was seen.
Garnet grabbed the Gem and bubbled it away to the temple.
Steven kept wiping his eyes and began to slowly regain his vision.
"Mission complete." Said Garnet.
"All right!" said Amethyst.
"Thank goodness." Said Pearl.
"We completed two missions as well, finding the Gem and attempting to capture Peridot." Continued Garnet.
Pearl went to Steven.
"Can you see?" asked Pearl.
"Kinda." Replied Steven.
"Give it some time." Said Garnet.
"Luckily, there is no chance homeworld saw this, it wasn't in position homeworld can only be contacted at mid-night when the system and Earth are aligned. " said Garnet.
"This will only make some primitive race in a few hundred years scratch their heads over why this star suddenly became brighter." She added.
"Good" said Pearl.
The danger is over. Relief fills the air, the mission may be over but repercussions will ripple throughout the coming days. This story is not over.